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Author: ondbookshelf

Blogging my way through my extensive to be read pile of books.

About ondbookshelf

Blogging my way through my extensive to be read pile of books.

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Published on 3 Comments on Before We Were Yours
Before We Were Yours Book Cover Before We Were Yours
Lisa Wingate
Fiction
Ballantine Books
June 6, 2017
Advanced Reader Copy
352
Publisher via She Reads

"Memphis, Tennessee, 1936. The five Foss children find their lives changed forever when their parents leave them alone on the family shantyboat one stormy night. Rill Foss, just twelve years old, must protect her four younger siblings as they are wrenched from their home on the Mississippi and thrown into the care of the infamous Georgia Tann, director of the Tennessee Children's Home Society. South Carolina, Present Day. Avery Stafford has lived a charmed life. Loving daughter to her father, a U.S. Senator, she has a promising career as an assistant D.A. in Baltimore and is engaged to her best friend. But when Avery comes home to help her father weather a health crisis and a political attack, a chance encounter with a stranger leaves her deeply shaken. Avery's decision to learn more about the woman's life will take her on a journey through her family's long-hidden history"--

My review:

I have read a few of Lisa Wingate's early books, but for some reason it has been a while since I've picked one up. This was a reminder that I need to keep Ms. Wingate on my radar. I really enjoyed this book. From the historical perspective of the horrible workings of the Tennessee Children's Home Society, to the present day tale of one of its survivors, and the woman who tries to tie all the loose ends together. Definitely not a tale for the faint of heart, this novel packs a punch with regards to the treatment of children, but it's an important glimpse into history. The writing was fluid, and even though the books does go back and forth between characters and time, it was not confusing or hard to follow. I was definitely invested in the characters, particularly May, who I so wanted to find closure for. The ending did find that closure partially, but I was impressed that Wingate did not go to the extreme of tying everything up with a big bow, which I think would have made the story less believable.

This is a wonderful slice of American history not normally written about, with well developed characters and a smooth writing style. I'll be on the lookout for more upcoming reads by Lisa Wingate, and perhaps delving into that backlist of books already published.

This book was a summer reads pick of the She Reads blog network. Click this link to find out more about them and to see the other books and follow along with upcoming reviews.

Published on Leave a comment on Touch
Touch Book Cover Touch
Courtney Maum
Fiction
G. P. Putnam's Sons
May 30, 2017
E-book
320
Publisher via Penguin First to Read

Sloane Jacobsen is the most powerful trend forecaster in the world (she was the foreseer of the swipe ), and global fashion, lifestyle, and tech companies pay to hear her opinions about the future. Her recent forecasts on the family are unwavering: the world is over-populated, and with unemployment, college costs, and food prices all on the rise, having children is an extravagant indulgence.

So it s no surprise when the tech giant Mammoth hires Sloane to lead their groundbreaking annual conference, celebrating the voluntarily childless. But not far into her contract, Sloane begins to sense the undeniable signs of a movement against electronics that will see people embracing compassion, empathy, and in-personism again. She s struggling with the fact that her predictions are hopelessly out of sync with her employer's mission and that her closest personal relationship is with her self-driving car when her partner, the French neo-sensualist Roman Bellard, reveals that he is about to publish an op-ed on the death of penetrative sex a post-sexual treatise that instantly goes viral. Despite the risks to her professional reputation, Sloane is nevertheless convinced that her instincts are the right ones, and goes on a quest to defend real life human interaction, while finally allowing in the love and connectedness she's long been denying herself.

My review:

This is one of those books that I fear is going to be abandoned by some readers before getting to the good parts. I had to get to about page 70 (pretty far for a lot of people) before I started really tuning into the story. I love the premise for this, with the author taking a good look at the impact technology has in consuming our lives, and the main protagonist (a trend forecaster) pulling for a time where humans revert back to interactions involving touch. There was an interesting flip side to the argument, given by none other than her long time boyfriend (who walks around everywhere in a fully enclosed Zentai suit!). And then there was my favorite character in the entire book....the personality behind Sloane's driverless car! The book is well written, although some of the characters could have been a bit more fleshed out to make the story more interesting, particularly at the beginning. I really liked the dynamics with Sloane's family, which are sort of inserted when needed, but then left dangling. In the end, I felt that all the characters remained true to who they were, and I was satisfied with the conclusion.

A good book once you get into the meat of the story, but for me that took about a quarter of the way in. And.....I need an Anastasia in my life!

This book was given to me to read and review through the Penguin First to Read program. Click this link to learn more about the program.

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Published on 1 Comment on A Bridge Across the Ocean
A Bridge Across the Ocean Book Cover A Bridge Across the Ocean
Susan Meissner
Fiction
Penguin
March 14, 2017
Paperback
384
Own copy, and publisher via SheReads

Wartime intrigue spans the lives of three women--past and present--in the latest novel from the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life. February, 1946. World War Two is over, but the recovery from the most intimate of its horrors has only just begun for Annaliese Lange, a German ballerina desperate to escape her past, and Simone Deveraux, the wronged daughter of a French R�sistance spy. Now the two women are joining hundreds of other European war brides aboard the renowned RMS Queen Mary to cross the Atlantic and be reunited with their American husbands. Their new lives in the United States brightly beckon until their tightly-held secrets are laid bare in their shared stateroom. When the voyage ends at New York Harbor, only one of them will disembark... Present day. Facing a crossroads in her own life, Brette Caslake visits the famously haunted Queen Mary at the request of an old friend. What she finds will set her on a course to solve a seventy-year-old tragedy that will draw her into the heartaches and triumphs of the courageous war brides--and will ultimately lead her to reconsider what she has to sacrifice to achieve her own deepest longings.

My review:

Susan Meissner is one of my go to authors. I will purchase and read any book she writes because I adore her writing style! And it doesn't hurt that the covers of her books are always gorgeous! I anxiously awaited this new book, knowing nothing about it except that it had to do with the Queen Mary and some war brides crossing on the ship. It didn't matter to me, I was going to read it anyway, because it was a Meissner book. Imagine my surprise when I hunkered down to read it and discovered part of the plot involved ghosts. WHAT? I have a complete aversion to books having to do with anything not real (as in, in the flesh real). No vampires, fairies, extra-terrestrial, ghosts, etc. I even think long and hard if the word magical realism exists anywhere in the synopsis! With that long intro, suffice it to say that it is a HUGE credit to Meissner that not only did I finish this book, but I actually enjoyed it! There is something so mesmerizing about the back and forth stories in her writing, and the way the words flow off the page. I always feel like I am completely immersed in the story. Her characters are well developed, her historical information is well researched, and I always learn new things while reading. Even though I wasn't enamored with the ghost story part, I loved the story of the war brides making their way to America to be reunited with their soldiers they met and married during WWII.

A wonderful novel (even if you have an aversion to ghosts). Beautiful writing, memorable characters, and interesting history, are what make Susan Meisnner one of my favorites! I can't wait for what she comes up with next......but please don't have it involve aliens ok? 🙂

This book was picked by She Reads as one of their summer reads. To learn more about them click the link.

 

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Published on 1 Comment on The Book of Summer
The Book of Summer Book Cover The Book of Summer
Michelle Gable
Fiction
Thomas Dunne Books
May 9, 2017
Hardcover
416
Publisher

Physician Bess Codman has returned to her family's Nantucket compound, Cliff House, for the first time in four years. Her great-grandparents built Cliff House almost a century before, but due to erosion, the once-grand home will soon fall into the sea. Though she s purposefully avoided the island, Bess must now pack up the house and deal with her mother, a notorious town rabble-rouser, who refuses to leave.

The Book of Summer unravels the power and secrets of Cliff House as told through the voices of Ruby Packard, a bright-eyed and idealistic newlywed on the eve of WWII, the home's definitive guestbook, and Bess herself. Bess's grandmother always said it was a house of women, and by the very last day of the very last summer at Cliff House, Bess will understand the truth of her grandmother s words in ways she never contemplated.

My review:

3.5 stars

First off I would be remiss if I didn't comment on this gorgeous cover! Simple, yet beautiful. As for the inner contents of the book, I generally enjoyed it. I was much more invested in the current time story of Bess trying to get her mother to move out of their 99 year old Nantucket cottage before it plummets into the sea. Since I visit the beaches in SC frequently, I am well aware of the effects of beach erosion. It's a real thing all along the eastern coastline, and I was fascinated with the geo-tube idea. I thought the character of Cissy was very well written, and I enjoyed her drama of saving her house. And her whopper of a secret comes out of nowhere, and is quite surprising! The relationship between mother and daughter was very typical, and I totally got on board with Bess' frustrations. Along with dealing with her mother's woes, Bess herself is at a crossroads in her life, with an old beau showing up to complicate things. Some of the story also revolves around journal type entries into a "Book of Summer" that has been at the Cliff House residence for the entirety of its existence. From here we are taken back to the stories of the past, and learn about some of the secrets the old house has kept. What I wasn't as enamored of were the chapters taking us back to Cissy's mother during and after WWII. It may have been that I've read several books lately having WWII as a subject, so I'm possibly just a bit burned out. The story was interesting, I just found myself wanting to get back to the fate of the house on the dunes.

A totally satisfying read that will make a perfect beach book. Wonderful mother-daughter story with a peek back at Nantucket life in the 1940's, and some romance thrown in to sweeten the read.

This book has been chosen by the She Reads blog network as one of its summer reads. Check the link for more info on She Reads. Thank you to St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book. As always, my opinions are my own.

Published on Leave a comment on Month in Review: Incoming vs. Outgoing April 2017

I'm starting a new monthly feature to keep track of my incoming vs. outgoing reads. I'd like to start decreasing my to be read pile of books, and I think this may help me be a bit more accountable to the actual numbers. I'm not trying to drastically reduce the numbers, but I'm hoping to at least read more each month than I acquire.

Here is how I fared in my debut month. If you want to see my ratings and links to those books that I reviewed, please visit my goodreads page here.

Incoming books: 18 (16 purchased, 2 sent via publisher)

Outgoing: 20 (12 books, 8 audiobooks)

Final result +2 (I had two more books coming off the tbr than I put on). I'm totally happy with that.......baby steps 🙂

Hope you had a good reading month, now on to May!

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Published on 2 Comments on Beartown
Beartown Book Cover Beartown
Fredrik Backman
Fiction
Atria Books
May 2, 2017
E-book
336
NetGalley

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here, comes a poignant, charming novel about a forgotten town fractured by scandal, and the amateur hockey team that might just change everything. Winning a junior ice hockey championship might not mean a lot to the average person, but it means everything to the residents of Beartown, a community slowly being eaten alive by unemployment and the surrounding wilderness. A victory like this would draw national attention to the ailing town: it could attract government funding and an influx of talented athletes who would choose Beartown over the big nearby cities. A victory like this would certainly mean everything to Amat, a short, scrawny teenager who is treated like an outcast everywhere but on the ice; to Kevin, a star player just on the cusp of securing his golden future in the NHL; and to Peter, their dedicated general manager whose own professional hockey career ended in tragedy. At first, it seems like the team might have a shot at fulfilling the dreams of their entire town. But one night at a drunken celebration following a key win, something happens between Kevin and the general manager’s daughter—and the next day everything seems to have changed. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected. With so much riding on the success of the team, the line between loyalty and betrayal becomes difficult to discern. At last, it falls to one young man to find the courage to speak the truth that it seems no one else wants to hear. Fredrik Backman knows that we are forever shaped by the places we call home, and in this emotionally powerful, sweetly insightful story, he explores what can happen when we carry the heavy weight of other people's dreams on our shoulders.

My review:

I've been a big fan of Mr. Backman since reading his novel A Man Called Ove. This is my fourth of his novels that I've read, and it was fantastic! I don't know if anything will ever top Ove (there's just something about that curmudgeon that I'll never forget), but this came pretty darn close. I loved reading about the various characters in this small town, where the only thing that exists is the love of hockey. While I don't think you have to be a sports fan to enjoy this book, it certainly adds that extra element of "love for the game" that we sports fans can relate to. While the second half of the book deals mostly with a pretty heavy subject, it was the characters that drove this story for me (I loved Benji to the moon and back!). I found myself completely engrossed in their lives, and rooting for them right along with the hockey team. Backman has such a wonderful way of creating scenes and drawing you in, that you feel like you are there in the story. I appreciate the fact that his resolutions to each character's story were not all rainbows and roses, this is a much more realistic look at life with its ups and downs.

An absolutely marvelous look at small town life with wonderfully crafted characters. I just loved it!

Published on Leave a comment on I Found You
I Found You Book Cover I Found You
Lisa Jewell
Fiction
Atria Books
April 25, 2017
Advanced Reader Copy
352
Publisher via BookReporter.com

A young bride, a lonely single mother, and an amnesiac man of dubious origin lie at the heart of New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell’s next suspenseful drama that will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty and Paula Hawkins.

In a windswept British seaside town, single mom Alice Lake finds a man sitting on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, and no idea how he got there. Against her better judgment, she invites him inside.

Meanwhile, in a suburb of London, twenty-one-year-old Lily Monrose has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. Then the police tell her that her husband never existed.

Twenty-three years earlier, Gray and Kirsty are teenagers on a summer holiday with their parents. Their annual trip to the quaint seaside town is passing by uneventfully, until an enigmatic young man starts paying extra attention to Kirsty. Something about him makes Gray uncomfortable—and it’s not just that he’s playing the role of protective older brother.

Two decades of secrets, a missing husband, and a man with no memory are at the heart of this brilliant new novel, filled with the “beautiful writing, believable characters, pacey narrative, and dark secrets” (London Daily Mail) that make Lisa Jewell so beloved by audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

My review:

One of my favorite books is The House We Grew Up In by this author. While this book is very different from that one, I still got the same feeling from Jewell's writing. Her words seem to flow across the page (not too many, not too few), and her characters are always well developed. This book is a mystery/thriller, and had me from the first chapter trying to figure out the identity of the man with amnesia. Was he the same man that never came home to his new wife one night? What relationship did he have with the alternating story set over a dozen years earlier? There are lots of twists and turns along the way, but the main focus for me was on the characters, and how they developed and grew along the way. Each was looking for something other than the obvious, and in the end I felt that they found it, and themselves. The only niggling point I could make was that I found some of the actions of the mothers in the book to be a bit unsettling, although that doesn't mean that it's not what others would do or think. I'm fairly certain that this author can write a winner in many different genre's, and I'm excited to continue exploring her works.

A riveting page-turner that will have you trying to figure things out, while at the same time getting a wonderful array of characters to watch grow into themselves.

 

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Published on 6 Comments on Slightly South of Simple
Slightly South of Simple Book Cover Slightly South of Simple
Peachtree Bluff
Kristy Woodson Harvey
Fiction
Gallery Books
April 25, 2017
Advanced Reader Copy
400
Author

Caroline Murphy swore she’d never set foot back in the small Southern town of Peachtree Bluff; she was a New York girl born and bred and the worst day of her life was when, in the wake of her father’s death, her mother selfishly forced her to move—during her senior year of high school, no less—back to that hick-infested rat trap where she'd spent her childhood summers. But now that her marriage to a New York high society heir has fallen apart in a very public, very embarrassing fashion, a pregnant Caroline decides to escape the gossipmongers with her nine-year-old daughter and head home to her mother, Ansley.

Ansley has always put her three daughters first, especially when she found out that her late husband, despite what he had always promised, left her with next to nothing. Now the proud owner of a charming waterfront design business and finally standing on her own two feet, Ansley welcomes Caroline and her brood back with open arms. But when her second daughter Sloane, whose military husband is overseas, and youngest daughter and successful actress Emerson join the fray, Ansley begins to feel like the piece of herself she had finally found might be slipping from her grasp. Even more discomfiting, when someone from her past reappears in Ansley's life, the secret she’s harbored from her daughters their entire lives might finally be forced into the open.

Exploring the powerful bonds between sisters and mothers and daughters, this engaging novel is filled with Southern charm, emotional drama, and plenty of heart.

My review:

4.5 stars

Before I even begin to review the content, take a look at this gorgeous cover. Ms. Harvey has the most beautiful summer beach read covers of any author I know! As a side note, I saw the cover of her debut novel Dear Carolina and fell so in love with it that I researched the book. I was thrilled to find out that Kristy is from my state, and the rest is history. I have read and reviewed all of her works, this being the third novel she has written, and the first in a trilogy (Peachtree Bluff). Now on to my review.........

I loved this book!! It has all the southern charm and quick wittiness that make it a treasure. Even though the humor was one of my favorite parts of the book, this was in no way the main focus. Ms. Harvey was brilliant at exploring serious topics while interjecting banter at just the right moments to diffuse the situation. While the book is about a mother and her three daughters, who all come home to visit at the same time, this book focuses primarily on daughter Caroline. I cannot say enough about how much I adored this character! To sum her up in a nutshell, she may be a bit *itchy, but she knows it and she OWNS it. During the course of the book, she does undergo an attitude adjustment with regards to many aspects of her life, but I felt that it was not so dramatic as to be unbelievable. I can only hope that she will stay true to herself in the final two installments of the trilogy, because I adored her pluckiness. Along with Caroline, this book focuses a lot on the mother Ansley, who was also very well crafted. While I figured out her secret fairly early on, I felt it didn't spoil the way the story played out. There is also a solid introduction to the two remaining daughters, who I'm certain we will probably be hearing more from in the books to come (selfishly I'm just hoping there is more Caroline!).

The perfect summer beach read! What a charming  family story, with just the right amount of wit and candor. I can't wait to see what happens next!

 

Published on Leave a comment on One Perfect Lie
One Perfect Lie Book Cover One Perfect Lie
Lisa Scottoline
Fiction
St. Martin's Press
April 11, 2017
Hardcover
384
Publisher

One Perfect Lie is an emotional thriller and a suburban crime story that will keep you guessing until you turn the very last page. On the surface, it tells the tale of the struggling single mother of a high-school pitcher, a shy kid so athletically talented that he’s being recruited for a full-ride scholarship to a Division I college, with a future in major-league baseball. But the mother fears that she’s losing her grip on her son because he’s being lured down a darker path by one of his teammates, a secretly disturbed young man from an affluent family, whose excellent grades and fun-loving manner conceal his violent criminal plans. Add a handsome stranger who comes to town and infiltrates the high school, posing as a teacher but with a hidden agenda all his own. The mix becomes combustible when a beloved faculty member turns up dead as a suicide, in circumstances equally consistent with murder. Only then is the true identity of the fake teacher revealed, and the single mother finds herself engaged in a battle for the future, the soul, and the very life of her only son. One Perfect Lie is a riveting and suspenseful family drama, and by the time you close the book, you will realize that nothing was as it seemed at the beginning.

My review:

3.5 stars

You can always count on Ms. Scottoline to craft an unputdownable novel, and she doesn't disappoint with this new one. The pacing was perfect, with a great cast of characters, and a plot that keeps you guessing. What you think you're seeing at the beginning, is definitely not what you'll get by the end! I loved the sports team aspect of this one, and I really immersed myself into the lives of all these families. You will find yourself changing loyalties as the story goes on, which made for an interesting plot twist. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, which I felt was a bit over the top in the rescue department. I also thought that the reasons why certain people were involved in the horrific plan were not as fleshed out as they could have been. I still really enjoyed this one, it just left me scratching my head a bit more than I might have liked.

Another great addition to the novels of Lisa Scottline. Pick this one up if you want something that will pique your interest until the very last page. This one is a great read, especially if you like a little baseball on the side.

 

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Published on 2 Comments on Almost Missed You
Almost Missed You Book Cover Almost Missed You
Jessica Strawser
Fiction
St. Martin's Press
March 28, 2017
Hardcover
320
Publisher

Violet and Finn were “meant to be,” said everyone, always. They ended up together by the hands of fate aligning things just so. Three years into their marriage, they have a wonderful little boy, and as the three of them embark on their first vacation as a family, Violet can’t help thinking that she can’t believe her luck. Life is good. So no one is more surprised than she when Finn leaves her at the beach—just packs up the hotel room and disappears. And takes their son with him. Violet is suddenly in her own worst nightmare, and faced with the knowledge that the man she’s shared her life with, she never really knew at all. Caitlin and Finn have been best friends since way back when, but when Finn shows up on Caitlin’s doorstep with the son he’s wanted for kidnapping, demands that she hide them from the authorities, and threatens to reveal a secret that could destroy her own family if she doesn’t, Caitlin faces an impossible choice. Told through alternating viewpoints of Violet, Finn and Caitlin, Jessica Strawser's Almost Missed You is a powerful story of a mother’s love, a husband’s betrayal, connections that maybe should have been missed, secrets that perhaps shouldn’t have been kept, and spaces between what’s meant to be and what might have been.

My review:

This book was an absolute 5 star review for me up until the very last chapter when I wanted to fling it across the room! I haven't had this visceral of a reaction to a book since I read Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult (that one was problematic for me all the way through, whereas this one was only the last chapter). This book had everything going for it, a fast paced plot, engaging characters, secrets and lies, friendships put to the test, a kidnapping, and a recurring theme of missed connections. You name it, it was all here to pull you in and keep you glued to the pages (I read this book in 24 hours!). The writing was engaging, and the style with the back and forth from the three main characters worked really well. Everything was hunky-dory for me until I reached the end, and my "oh good, this is all going to end the way I hoped" didn't happen. Of course I can't go into the details of why I HATED (yes, I'm yelling!) the end so much without ruining the story, but suffice it to say there was more than just one reason, not just what you think was the obvious one. Why oh why was she such a wuss in the end? I better leave it at that!

A fantastic book, but make up your own end and skip the last chapter if you have any sense! I'm kidding, but if you've read this and want to discuss, message me on social media. I can't wait to see what this author comes up with next, I will definitely be reading it. I know I'm in the minority with how I reacted to the end, so I'm excited to see what 's next for Ms. Strawser.

This book was chosen by the SheReads blog network as one of its spring picks. Click on this link to learn more about them.