Sunday Post, Showcase Sunday and Stacking the Shelves.....November 30, 2014

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, and Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

All three are blog roundups giving you a chance to share what your weekly book haul!

I'm sitting here finishing this post with a touch of sadness.  It's the last day of our four day Thanksgiving break and I have thoroughly relaxed and enjoyed myself.  I've got a vacation coming up, and the Christmas Break is right around the corner, so I shouldn't complain, but boo to Monday!


Thank you to Edelweiss....

The Mermaid's Child by Jo Baker....Malin has always felt different. The fact that, according to her

father, her absent mother was actually a mermaid only makes matters worse. When Malin’s father dies, leaving her alone in the world, her choice is clear: stay, and never feel at home, or leave and go in search of the fantastical inheritance she is certain awaits her. Apprenticed to a series of strange and wonderful characters, Malin embarks on a picaresque journey that crosses oceans and continents—from the high seas to desert plains, from slavery to the circus—and leads to a discovery that is the last thing Malin ever could have expected. Beautifully written and hauntingly strange, The Mermaid’s Child is a remarkable piece of storytelling, and an utterly unique work of fantasy.

I am intrigued by this premise.  I can't wait to get started.

The Cake House by Latifah Salom....Rosaura Douglas’s father committed suicide—or at least that’s what they are telling her. Now she is forced to live in a house she calls “the Cake House”—a garish pink edifice in the wealthy part of town. It’s the house where her father died, and owned by her mysterious new stepfather, Claude. But when her father’s ghost appears and warns Rosie not to trust Claude, Rosie begins to notice cracks in her new family’s carefully constructed facade. Her mother, Dahlia, is obviously uncomfortable in her new marriage; her stepbrother, Alex, is friendly one second, distant the next; and Claude’s business is drawing scrutiny from the police. As her father’s ghost becomes increasingly violent—and the secrets haunting the halls of The Cake House thicken—Rosie wonders who, if anyone, is worth trusting.

I think this looks so good, but it looks like it's going to be an intense read.


Hush, Hush by Laura Lippman....Now the mother of a toddler, Tess Monagahan is short on time,

patience, and energy. But with orthodontia and college tuition looming, she takes on a case outside of her comfort zone with her new partner, retired Baltimore P.D. homicide detective Sandy Sanchez. They’ve been hired to assess the security needs of a very rich, very beautiful, and very imperious woman named Melisandre, who has returned to Baltimore to reunite with her estranged daughters—and wants to capture the reunion on film for posterity.

It’s a gutsy and controversial move by a woman who relinquished her custody rights a decade ago. Especially when her youngest daughter died in her care—in what was determined to be an episode of post-partum psychosis. Or was it? Tess tries to ignore the discomfort she feels around Melisandre. But it’s difficult, especially after Melisandre becomes a prime suspect in a murder—and Tess realizes she has her own, very judgmental stalker. 

I love Laura Lippman, and I can't wait to start this new Tess Monagahan!


I Bought.....
Murder at Honeysuckle Hotel....It's summertime in Honeysuckle, and everyone is lazing in the shade

with a tall glass of lemonade. Everyone except Raelynn Pendleton. She's stuck working at the local store to make the rent while her no-good ex-husband lives it up with a floozy.

When she inherits a Victorian house, Raelynn jumps at the chance to turn her life around. How can she afford the upkeep on such a huge place? Simple. She'll run it as a hotel. Problem is, she has no experience and the décor dates back to the Dark Ages. She'll have to use her secret talent for turning junk into treasure or she'll never snag an overnight guest.

But before the new Honeysuckle Hotel even opens for business, Raelynn discovers the body of a young woman in the garden. As a newcomer in town, Raelynn is blamed for the murder. She's fired from her job, which could mean she'll lose the house. The only way to save Honeysuckle Hotel is to find the real killer - with or without the sexy Sheriff Kent Klein. 

I've read a Rose Pressey book before, and I enjoyed it, so I thought this was a great chance when it was on sale for 99 cents!

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty.....Sophie Honeywell always wondered if Thomas Gordon

was the one she let get away. He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie's house on Scribbly Gum Island -- home of the famously unsolved MunroBabymystery.
Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it's about time she started making her own decisions.


I love Liane Moriarty.  I have Little Lies packed in my suitcase for my trip to Hawaii this week!


Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.... In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a

teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. 

But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. 

Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

I think I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't read this yet.  But I never read or saw Seabiscuit either.

 Perfect Girl by Michelle Gorman.....Cinderella meets Falling Down in this wickedly funny tale about having it all

Carol is perfect… at least that’s what everyone thinks. In reality she’s sinking fast – her family treats her like their personal assistant and her boyfriend is so busy with work that he’s got her single-handedly running their relationship. Not that her job is any easier. As the only woman on the bank’s trading floor she spends twelve-hour days trying not to get sworn at or felt up by colleagues who put the "W" in banker*.

How long can she go on pleasing everyone else before she snaps and loses it all?  

This looks so good.  Who amongst us hasn't wondered if we are going to snap some days???

Five Fires by Laura Lippman

What They Say....Everyone in small-town Belleville is talking about a series of mysterious

fires disrupting the typically tranquil summer. The authorities attribute them to heat lightning, but some Belleville residents are not so sure…
 
High-school student Beth, like everyone else in Belleville, has been following the fires – she has plenty of time between her monotonous day job at the deli and solitary nights at home while her mom works late. The fires aren’t the only unusual occurrence – Beth’s old friend Tara, who left town the year before after a scandal, returns with no real explanation. Circumstances only get stranger when Beth unwittingly discovers clues as to what – or who – is the cause of the fires.


What I Say....I love Laura Lippman, so I was happy to get an ARC of this novella.  The thing was I didn't realize it was a novella, so I was pretty disappointed when it came to such a quick end.

I've often wondered about the people who you see in People magazine defending their town's accused rapists, what makes them so willing to defend someone in print.  In this short story, you get to see the fallout of that defense.  What is really sad is that the people who shouldn't have gotten away with their crime are the only one who escape unscathed.

This was a great short story - I just wish it had been a full length novel.

Up and In by Deborah Disney

What They Say....Maria and Joe have saved every available penny to give their daughters Kate and Sarah the best education possible, which to them means attending the most exclusive girls school in the state. But when Kate befriends the spoilt and moody Mirabella, Maria finds herself thrust into a high society of champagne-swilling mother-istas she hasn't budgeted for. Saturday morning netball is no longer a fun mother-daughter outing, but a minefield of social politics.

While the increasingly neurotic Maria struggles to negotiate the school mum hierarchy, Joe quietly battles a midlife crisis and Kate attempts to grow up as gracefully as possible (without having her life ruined by embarrassing parents).

What I Say....Ugh.  I've known women like the bea's.  They are the moms that can make a little girl's sporting event feel like you've taken a time machine back to junior high school.  Only now they have sharper weapons, and when you feel like your children are being hurt, you become even more sensitive.

Take Maria, for example.  She spends the first chapter poring over a group email, scouring every response looking for an insult, despairing that the other mother's don't sign x (the electronic kiss indicates your social standing) after their name when communicating with her, and trying to read between the lines as to who is friend or foe (hint, they are almost all foes). 

Let me preface this by saying that I don't like to get into the Mommy wars, I think stay at home moms have it rough and I think working moms have it rough.  They have so much in common, but they also face different challenges.

However, having been in both roles, I can say that this book definitely brought back some bad memories of my time at home.  I think when you are at home all day, you just have more time to get emotionally invested in these types of relationships (a strong parallel to office relationships and the politics that happen in the workplace).

Once you are working full time and trying to keep up with the kid's activiites and home life, you really don't notice these type of women anymore, their barbs either go right over your head, or you find yourself snapping back because you don't really care what they think, because can't they see how TIRED you are?????  I did find it interesting that the only character that stayed neutral and friendly with everyone, was Nicole, the hairdresser who worked full time.

Okay, I got off topic, but I think it's the mark of really good book that it made me think through the issues that all mommies face.

I liked Maria and her funny family, but by mid-book, I was getting really irritated with her for being so wishy-washy.  She hated the way the bea's treated her daughter, but she kept hanging around, setting herself up for more poor treatment.  But she didn't hang around as a syncophant, she wouldn't kiss up to Bea, but she wouldn't stand up for herself either.  I wanted to shake her and tell her to either grow a pair, and tell them to get lost or just buy the damn hair ties!  Take your daughter out of that snobby school and stop signing up for every after school activity that these beyotches take their kids to, or plaster a big fake smile on her face and play the game.

But Maria was half in and half out throughout the book.  Her husband is telling her that he is miserable in his job, and unhappy with the direction of his future, and her only thought is that if he quits his job, how will they pay for Riverton?  At that point, it seemed like Maria was the only one who cared about the school, it certainly wasn't doing anything for the rest of the family.

At the end, you see a few of the bea's get their comeuppance, but even then, Maria continues her pattern of one foot in, one foot out.  She wracks her brain to think of the perfect text to send to the woman who's life is falling apart, the same woman who has done nothing but try to make her own life miserable.

That was my only real complaint - I wanted Maria to get her head on straight and teach her kids what really matters.  But even though she could do that when they were alone, she wasn't able to do it in front of the snobs, where the lesson would have really stuck.

Thank you, Net Galley and Harper Collins, for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.  This was a 4/5 star read.

Happy Thanksgiving from Me!

Happy, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a day filled with family, food and books!

A Fairy Tale by Shanna Swendson

A Fairy Tale by Shanna Swendson

 What They Say....Once upon a time, a girl named Sophie Drake danced with the fairies in the woods behind her grandparents' Louisiana home. But she closed the door to the fairy world and turned her back on the Fae when they tried to steal her little sister Emily. Fourteen years later, Sophie heads to New York City on a desperate mission. Emily, now an up-and-coming Broadway actress, has gone missing. Only Sophie suspects the Fae.

Now Sophie has her work cut out for her. Emily's abduction is part of a larger plot involving the missing Queen of the fairy realm. An upstart fairy is making a bid to assume control of the entire Realm, unite the fairies, and become master over the human world. To free her sister, Sophie must derail this power scheme and find the true Queen of the Realm.

That's a lot for a small-town ballet teacher to tackle, but with the unlikely aid of her sometimes flighty sister, a pair of elderly shopkeepers with a secret, a supremely lazy (but surprisingly knowledgeable) bulldog, and a wounded police detective searching for his own missing person, she just might prevail--if she can force herself to confront her own past and face her true nature.

What I Say.... This was a fun read.  I always say that I don't really like fantasy, but then I read books like this and I realize that I actually do enjoy fantasy.

I just need it to be fantasy that feels somewhat rooted in reality.  This book was the perfect blend of the two.  Emily is an actress in New York, who lives above an injured NYPD officer.  When she goes missing after a performance, her sister Sophie comes to New York to find her. 

Part of what kept me hooked was the way the story crossed between the Fairy Realm and New York. I enjoyed the way the different characters moved between worlds.

The climax of the book felt like an Indiana Jones type adventure, and the end didn't tie up with a "happily ever after", but it ended with me waiting for the sequel!