Book Talk Tuesday: The Perfect Summer

The Perfect Summer by Luanne Rice is a wonderful book about the exact opposite of what the title promises. Bay McCabe  loves her life and her family. It's the longest day of the year, a day she loves and savors each summer. Her hopes and expectations for the coming months are dashed when her husband forgets to pick up their youngest daughter from softball practice.
Life changes for Bay and her three children when Sean doesn't come home at all that night. Then the bank officers where he works, the police, and the FBI come around asking questions about accounts Sean managed.
Daniel Connolly was Bay's first love when she was fifteen. They spent a summer hanging out and working together. Life moved on and Bay settled into her life with Sean. Until Sean disappeared and one of the last people he talked to was Dan, now working as a boat builder.
I've enjoyed Luanne Rice's books in the past. I loved The Geometry of Sisters and Follow the Stars Home. This was another good one.
Some snobs may dismiss Luanne's novels as too light or populist, but that's the kind of stuff I like. It takes me out of my life and gives me a glimpse of another's journey through love and loss. This one made me think about what would my perfect summer look like. And at the end of the season, would I look back with joy, peace, and contentment or anguish, doubt, and longing?

Book Talk Tuesday: One Was A Soldier

I'm a big Julia Spencer-Fleming fan. When we took a trip to upstate New York in 2011, I felt very comfortable there, like I'd been there before. The lake. The farms. The dairies. The village. The brick storefronts. It took me a while to realize it felt so familiar because I had been there before, thanks to Julia and her Reverend Clare novels. Julia did such a great job making the setting of Millers Kill come alive on the page that it was a short hop to thinking I’d been there when I saw it for real.

In the latest book, Clare is back from a stint as a National Guard chopper pilot in Iraq. She’s drinking too much, self-medicating too much, and having nightmares. She’s not alone. She joins a support group for other returning vets and gets drawn into their stories. The double leg amputee. The married woman whose battlefield affair follows her home. The doctor who can’t remember which patient he just saw and what he prescribed. The cop with anger management issues.

The ending of this one is a shocker and it's already two years old. I can't wait for the next installment. Please, Julia, hurry up and write!

Book Talk Tuesday: Field of Darkness

Book Talk Tuesday: Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read

I've been looking forward to this one for a long while.
I used to lurk on several mystery writer email loops and Cornelia Read's comments were always pithy, witty, and spot on.

Field of Darkness is Read's debut novel, but it reads like it's from an accomplished pro, which of course it is. She has three more books in addition to this one.

Madeline Dare comes from money so old it was coined on the Mayflower. Except she no longer has access to it. She's happily married but unhappily living in upstate New York and working as the lifestyle reporter for the local paper.

In a dinner conversation with her in-laws, a long-unsolved murder is mentioned and piques Maddie's interest. Her father-in-law shows her his connection to the case: a set of dog-tags he found at the scene. Dog-tags with the name of her favorite Oyster Bay cousin.

The case won't let go of Maddie and she begins to investigate just enough to prove her cousin's innocence. But by then, she's roused dogs that weren't just sleeping, they were tranquilized and now they're hungry and angry.

Field of Darkness was just what I expected from Cornelia Read. Clever, tight, and a rollicking good read. Just enough humor to keep it from being depressingly dark. Enough suspense to keep me turning the pages long into the night.

I'll add Read's other books to my towering stack of To-Be-Reads.

Book Talk Tuesday: Full Disclosure

Ann Silver is a “cop’s cop.” She’s the officer called in to consult on the hard to solve cases throughout the mid-West. Paul Falcon is a top FBI agent. They meet when Ann works a case and uncovers evidence on one of Paul’s longtime aggravations: a female assassin who’s eluded capture for a decade.

Ann brings the evidence to Paul and they discover they have many friends in common. Paul is intrigued by Ann and pursues a relationship with her. She isn’t as sure as he is, but she allows them a friendship to see where it leads.

Meanwhile, two other cases consume their time and attention. Then their interests and their cases intersect.

I’ve been a rabid Dee Henderson fan since I picked up my first O’Malley book. I devour them all. I was so looking forward to this one. So perhaps it’s my own fault. I gave it an impossibly high bar to reach. It’s probably not the books nor the author’s fault that for me, this one didn’t quite measure up.

It’s well written. But it just felt flat to me. Part of it is the character of Ann Silver. She’s too perfect. The woman has no flaws. She’s a hotshot consultant. Everyone LOVES her and gushes about how fabulous she is. She’s an ace pilot with friends at every airport in the country. Sure, she’s a lousy cook and she has nightmares. Maybe it’s just me, but I had a hard time feeling anything for her.

Paul is nearly as perfect. Adopted into an already large family, he wears the inherited mantle of eldest son well. He’s intrigued when he meets Ann and questions his friends and family members to learn what makes her tick. He moves their relationship along as calculatingly as if he were spreading a noose for someone on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

As many friends and family member as Ann and Paul had in common, someone would have introduced them long before Ann flew into Chicago to tell Paul a story.

I’ll read more by Dee Henderson, but I’ll be sure to hold the bar a little lower. That way I won’t be disappointed again.

Technorati Tags: Book Review,Book Talk Tuesday,Dee Henderson,Full Disclosure

Book Talk Tuesday: Still Life

A friend recommended Louise Penny’s series set in Quebec. Still Life is the first and it was cheap on Kindle so I splurged and bought it and read it on a recent car trip. 
I enjoyed it.
Inspector Armand Gamache is called to a village in rural Montreal where an inoffensive retired teacher has been found dead. At first it appears Jane Neal died from a hunting accident but why didn’t the hunter report it? Clara Morrow, Jane’s best friend, is distraught and her husband feels helpless. As the Inspector spends time in Three Pines and gets to know the residents, he sees there is much more to the village than it appears on the surface.
The book is well written, although Penny breaks one of the of the hard and fast “rules” of writing. We’re in multiple points of view throughout the book, often in two or three different heads in the same scene. This doesn’t typically bother me, but I know some readers hate that and I did find it jarring a few times and had to look back to be sure when I thought I’d been in someone else’s head in the previous paragraph.
I’m so backed up with books waiting to be read that I probably won’t seek out the next in the series, but if it were offered to me, I’d put it on my stack.

Technorati Tags: Book Review,BookTalk Tuesday,Louise Penny,Still Life

Book Talk Tuesday: A Quilt For Jenna

I'm a little tired of Amish fiction so I opened A Quilt for Jenna with just a bit of trepidation.

I was immediately captivated by Jerusha's pain and her need to quilt and flee her life and her grief. I loved the book! Another reviewer said, “Amish + Quilts = reader’s delight!”

I concur.

Jerusha and Reuben fell in love but Reuben wasn’t an Amish man in good standing with the community. Then he went off to fight in World War II. He came home a changed man, determined to live by the Ordung, and return to his Amish roots. He and Jerusha marry and are happy.

A few years later, Jerush and Reuben lose their only child, Jenna. Neither Reuben nor Jerusha can find their way back to the other. Reuben blames himself forJenna’s death. So does Jerusha. Reuben has left their Amish community. Jerusha has stitched a wonderful quilt that is to be her ticket out of Apple Creek.

On Thanksgiving weekend 1950, a horrific storm blew through Ohio, capturing Jerusha and her quilt in its fury. A little girl in the back seat of another car is abandoned and left to die. The two find each other and take refuge from the storm.

Patrick Craig is equally as good at both the male and female points of view. The battle scenes at Guadalcanal are as painstakingly crafted as Jerusha's quilting scenes.

I liked how the backstory of what happened during World War II was interwoven with the 1950's events.

Mr. Craig accomplished what I thought was impossible: weaving a compelling Amish/quilting story into a wonderful tale of love, loss, and redemption.
I'll definitely read the next one in the Apple Creek Dreams series!

Book Talk Tuesday: Becoming Fearless

I’ve sensed a theme forming for 2013. I keep crossing paths with books and speakers addressing the subject of Fear.

Becoming Fearless: My Ongoing Journey of Learning to Trust God crossed my path several months ago and I downloaded it to my Kindle. I finally read it and can see that indeed fear does keep me in my comfort zone.

Michelle Aguilar won the sixth season of The Biggest Loser. We watch the show and I remember Michelle in a general way but had forgotten many of her particulars until I read her book. She and mother were estranged but had reunited to be teammates on the show.

In Becoming Fearless Michelle tells the rest of the story. Why she and her mother had become distant and how Michelle masked that pain with food and her smile.

Michelle quoted her trainer Jillian Michaels: “Feel the fear. And do it anyway.” I heard Jillian herself say it on the February 11th episode of The Biggest Loser.

She has an compelling story that is told with honesty. I heartily recommend it, especially to anyone feeling held in place by fear.

Technorati Tags: Fearless,Becoming Fearless,Michelle Aguilar,Book Review,Book Talk Tuesday

Book Talk Tuesday: Heiress

I’ve reviewed other Susan May Warren books here so it’s no secret I’m a big fan.

 Heiress is the first of her Daughters of Fortune series. Heiress starts at the end of the 19th century and focuses on two sisters, Esme and Jinx. As the eldest, Esme is forced into betrothal to save her family’s social standing and give their finances an influx of cash. But Esme longs to write hard hitting journalism pieces, like her inspiration Nellie Bly. When her newspaper publisher father finds out she’s been writing anonymous pieces for his own paper, he orders the wedding be moved up to the next night.

Jinx longs for the time she’ll be the Price daughter attending the balls and dancing with the bachelors. When Esme runs away, Jinx, smitten with her sister’s fiance’, offers herself as the bride.

Each daughter gets what she wanted and so much more. And so much less.

Heiress kept me turning the pages. I enjoyed the look at the turn of the last century mores and societal strictures. But more than that I was caught up in the story and the characters. Esme and Jinx both seemed like real women. Their parents’ backstory was doled out as needed and did much to illuminate the events of the story.

I’ll look for the next in the series, Baroness.

Technorati Tags: Heiress,Susan May Warren,Book review

Book Talk Tuesday: The Next Best Thing

I was a little surprised to get a call last week from the library saying the book I had requested was ready to be picked up. I couldn’t remember requesting anything, but figured maybe I’d been sleep browsing.

I was still more surprised when I saw Jennifer Weiner’s The Next Best Thing waiting with my name on it.

I’ve heard of Weiner but hadn’t read anything by her yet. So she’s been on my “Get-around-to-her-one-of-these-days” list for a long time. I know I saw her on the Today show a few months ago talking about her latest book with Harlan Coben, whom I love. I presume that combined with reading a few reviews convinced me to request this.

I’m glad I did.

It’s not inspirational fiction. But it’s not as gratuitous as it could have been. Upfront warning: There were two parts I skimmed over.

The voice is lively and likeable. The characters are not the usual Hollywood archetypes even though they work there.

Ruthie Saunders lost her parents in a car accident that also left her scarred and needing years of plastic surgery. Now all grown up, she and her grandma move to LA to tackle the world of television writing.

The book takes Ruthie and her new show through pilot season on to the network’s fall schedule.

Weiner has worked in Hollywood and her insider knowledge makes Ruthie particularly sharp in her observations. She acknowledges her own failings in standing up to the network for her vision and her show, and debates what constitutes the greater good.

Ruthie’s scars are visible but Weiner shows us that others have wounds just as deep and painful, though hidden.

My criticism is extremely picky. As a native Californian, I know you don’t drive from Massachusetts to California and see Yosemite on the way. Particularly if your last night before arriving in LA is spent in Las Vegas. Maybe Weiner meant Yellowstone.

And Ruthie references an online journal that published her short story and she says she was paid in contributor copies. Now I’ve been published online and in magazines. I’ve been paid in contributor copies. But only for print magazines. I don’t see how an online journal can send contributor copies.

Both of those are teeny tiny points that prove what a petty person I really am, so there you go.

Over all, I enjoyed The Next Best Thing a lot and will move Weiner higher up on my “When-I-get-around-to-it” list.

Technorati Tags: Book Talk Tuesday,Book Review,The Next Best Thing,Jennifer Weiner,Hollywood novel

Book Talk Tuesday: Love Inspired Suspense

I’ve just read several Love Inspired Suspense novels back to back. They range from really good to just okay. Unfortunately I read them in reverse order of quality, starting with the best.

In no particular order here are brief reviews:

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Maggie Bennett and Reese Kirkpatrick are caught in a bank robbery. Reese is a new deputy in town and is able to save Maggie when the robbers plan to take her and her baby daughter hostage. The robbers seem more intent on harming Maggie though then getting away with the robbery loot. They stay in town and harass her. Reese is drawn to the strong widow with the baby and vows to keep them safe.

This was a good one! I believed the setup, although my credulity was stretched a bit by the end. Overall, it was good and I would pick up others in this series. The small mountain town sounds charming and I could see it and want to spend time there.

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Maggie Somers is shocked when Zach Collier (a Montague to her Capulet family) turns up in her burglarized grandfather’s home just after the funeral. Zach is convinced her grandfather was murdered, just like his was two weeks ago. When younger, the two men shared possession of maps and a journal that promised Aztec treasure. They fought over a woman and Zach’s grandfather won the woman and the map. Maggie’s got the journal. Now someone is after both elements and have already killed in their quest. It goes against Maggie’s grain to trust a Collier, but it’s the only way to find her grandfather’s murderer.

I enjoyed Buried Secrets. It had good action and I believed the attraction between Maggie and Zach. I did have a problem with the plot point that a Spanish priest, hundreds of years ago, would write an English word into his Spanish journal as a clue. That quibble aside, it was a good read. If you like Indiana Jones, Romancing the Stone, or Victoria Pitts-Caine’s Alvarado Gold, you’ll enjoy Buried Secrets.

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Gabby Rogillio is a night DJ in Mystique, Mississippi. Just   before the station owner’s planned announcement that he sold the station, he’s knocked unconscious and another employee is dead with the gun near the unconscious owner. Gabby is convinced Robert Ellison, the former owner, is innocent. The new owner, Clark McKay, agrees and they join forces to find out the truth. Both Gabby and Clark receive threats to back off their quest while they fight their growing attraction.

This one was my least favorite. Maybe because I’m not from the South, I didn’t find the quirks and idioms charming, just tiresome. Maggie’s thoughts about other characters that are meant to be witty and flip just came across as mean to me.

The inner conflict that kept Gabby and Clark apart wasn’t strong enough for me. I get loving a house but him buying it when he didn’t even know she existed, much less planned on buying it herself, just isn’t enough to convince me Gabby wouldn’t be able to shrug off her disappointment. Surely there are other charming antebellum houses in town. Gabby also had a bad experience with a man in the past and that convinces her that all businessmen are up to no good. That just doesn’t make emotional logic sense to me. She’s smart enough to see that one jerk doesn’t mean all men are jerks.

There is the basis of a great story here, but the potential wasn’t quite realized.

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Andrea Hampton hurries to the small town in the heart of Amish country where her grandmother and sister have been preparing to open the family home as a Bed & Breakfast inn. Andrea’s sister was in an accident and is hospitalized. Andrea can’t abandon the only family she has left so she takes a few weeks off from her job to help get the inn ready.

Cal Burke gave up a high powered job to become a furniture craftsman. He rents part of Andrea’s grandmother’s barn as a shop and apartment. He’s drawn to Andrea’s spunk and courage but sees that she’s determined to get back to the city and lifestyle he’ll never return to.

Accidents continue to plague the inn and Andrea and Cal join forces to figure out who’s trying to sink the inn before it can float.

I enjoyed this one. I got the inner conflict that kept Andrea and Cal apart. The suspense was well done with just enough red herrings between the real clues to keep me not 100% sure that I knew who the bad guy/girl was. (I was right – but I wasn’t sure – just the way I like it!)

This is the first in a series about Andrea’s family. I’d read the others. I recommend it!

Technorati Tags: Book Talk Tuesday,Book reviews,Love Inspired Suspense,Dead Air,Danger on the Mountain,Buried Secrets,Hide in Plain Sight

Book Talk Tuesday: You Don’t Know Me

I’ve mentioned Susan May Warren and her books here before. I just finished her latest and it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s definitely going on my “Best of 2012” list.

Annalise Decker has lived in Deep Haven, Minnesota for twenty years. She’s built a perfect life. An adoring husband who’s running for mayor. Three accomplished children. A loving mother-in-law.

Too bad it’s all based on a lie.

Annalise is really Deidre O’Reilly and she’s in the Witness Security Program.

Her ordered life comes crashing down when the drug lord she testified against is released on parole and comes looking for her, intent on vengeance.

Nathan Decker has his own secrets he’s keeping from Annalise.

I loved these characters. Susie Warren knows each character from the inside out and has layered them with real and complex emotions. The plot moves briskly and kept me turning pages.

Characters and their emotional logic is big to me. When faced with huge moments, each character acted totally true to him/herself and their situation and feelings.

This one is a winner and I highly recommend it!

Technorati Tags: Book reviews,You don't know me,Susan May Warren,Book Talk Tuesday

Book Talk Tuesday: Just Breathe

I’ve been reading Susan Wiggs for about a year now but hadn’t yet caught Just Breathe.

After requesting it at the library, I finally had my hands on it.

Sarah Moon is a freelance cartoonist whose cartoon strip seems to echo her real life. Sarah’s husband is recently recovered from cancer. Their lives were so consumed by his illness that they forgot how to be themselves, how to be married, and how to be a couple.

Sarah moves back to her hometown in northern California but soon discovers she’s pregnant.

I enjoyed this one a lot. Sarah vividly remembers what it was like to be an outcast in high school. Her art combined with her unflinchingly honest take on high school life made her feel odd and like an outcast. She’s surprised when she reconnects to a few of her former classmates and learns that who you were as a teenager is not necessarily indicative of who you become as an adult.

I recommend this one and give it a thumbs up!

Technorati Tags: Susan Wiggs,book review,Just breathe,Book talk tuesday

Book Talk Tuesday

 

One of my favorite mystery series is Earlene Fowler’s Benni Harper. Each book is named for a quilt pattern.

I just finished the most recent.

If you’re unfamiliar with Earlene and Benni, allow me to introduce you.

Benni Harper Ortiz lives in a fictional San Luis Obispo, California called San Celina. If you know the central coast, you know the setting.

Benni is the curator for the local art museum.

In book one, she’s a still grieving widow who gets drawn into a mystery. Gabe Ortiz, the new police chief in town, doesn’t like her poking in her nose . At the end of book two, she marries him.

There are wonderful secondary characters such as Benni’s father, her grandmother Dove, and Dove’s husband. Benni has a best friend, Elvia, who’s married to Benni’s cousin.

Technorati Tags: Book Review,Spider Web,Earlene Fowler,Quilting

In Spider Web a few years have gone by since the beginning of the series. Benni now goes by Benni Ortiz. A sniper is taking potshots at local policemen. Gabe’s PTSD is triggered by the shootings. A stranger is town is asking Benni a lot of personal questions about her life and her marriage.

It all adds up to another great Benni Harper Ortiz book.

Earlene has also written two stand alone books. The Saddlemaker’s Wife and Love Mercy.

A new Earlene Fowler book typically comes out each spring. Spider Web was 2011’s offering. I can’t see a release date for Earlene’s next book, but on Facebook she mentioned researching her next book, a sequel to The Saddlemaker’s Wife which was set in Bishop, California.

I enjoyed both the stand alones, but I really love Benni Harper Ortiz and her adventures.

If you’re new to Earlene’s books, the Benni Harper series is best read in order, starting with Fool’s Puzzle.