by Mary Alice Monroe

This was a good beach read kind of book, however for me it has the potential to become forgettable within a few months. The writing was fine, but felt a little formulaic. Each book (in the trilogy) will focus on one of the half sisters, and the one chosen for this book was my least favorite (at least from the descriptions we gleaned about the other sisters in this first book). I could not relate to Carson, even though we were given facts that supposedly contributed to her not having a clue about her life in her mid thirties. I felt that she was always looking for a bail out for her life mistakes. I did love the grandmother, who I'm sure will be a focus in each of the books in the series, so I'm looking forward to more interactions with her. I liked the beach setting, but could have enjoyed even more by way of making me feel like I was enmeshed in the beach culture.

Overall this book was a good, not great read. I am anxious to read the other two parts in the trilogy, and if I enjoy those characters more, I will feel that this first book was necessary to set up the others.

by Laura Dave

There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide…

Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.

But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change their lives forever.

Georgia does what she’s always done: she returns to the family vineyard, expecting the comfort of her long-married parents, and her brothers, and everything familiar. But it turns out her fiancé is not the only one who’s been keeping secrets…

Bestselling author Laura Dave has been dubbed “a wry observer of modern love” (USA TODAY), a “decadent storyteller” (Marie Claire), and “compulsively readable” (Woman’s Day). Set in the lush backdrop of Sonoma’s wine country, Eight Hundred Grapes is a heartbreaking, funny, and deeply evocative novel about love, marriage, family, wine, and the treacherous terrain in which they all intersect.

This book piqued my interest when I found out it takes place at a wine vineyard, a subject I know next to nothing about. Just the fact that the title refers to the number of grapes it takes to make a good bottle of wine, and the clever cover drew me in. While I admit that the information about the way the grapes are grown, the year long process to get the grapes ready for harvest, the things that need to be added to the soil as well as the fermenting process was fascinating, this was also a darn good family story! You just never know what is going on behind the surface until you start poking around. As much as this family love each other, there were several very tense and tenuous moments throughout. While I wasn't entirely happy with the resolution to all of the issues, this was a thoroughly satisfying read. Great writing throughout, made me want to keep flipping pages to find out how everything would work out for this family.

Pour yourself a glass of wine and curl up with this very interesting and inviting story!

This book is part of the BookSparks summer reading challenge. Follow the link for more information, and a list of this summer's books.

by Susie Orman Schnall

Another solid book about attempting to "have it all". I found this to be a very enjoyable read. The writing flowed well, and the characters were well fleshed out, I particularly enjoyed Lucy. I could empathize with all the main characters even when they did something that I may not have liked or agreed with. The subject was one that will never get old (and probably never have a true solution), the concept of juggling career, motherhood, relationship, and me time. Even though it did seem like a book I've read before, I still really liked it, and would recommend it as a great light read. I read this while attending Book Expo America, where I could only manage to read a few pages at a time, and it was very easy to pick up right where I left off.

A cute, light, character driven story that should be pleasing to most of my readers, particularly good for summer vacation read.

This book is part of the BookSparks summer reading challenge. Visit the website to learn more about the books chosen, and join in!

by Jane Green

With Family Pictures, New York Times bestseller Jane Green delivers a riveting novel about two women whose lives intersect when a shocking secret is revealed

From the author of Another Piece of My Heart comes the gripping story of two women who live on opposite coasts but whose lives are connected in ways they never could have imagined.  Both women are wives and mothers to children who are about to leave the nest for school.  They're both in their forties and have husbands who travel more than either of them would like.  They are both feeling an emptiness neither had expected.  But when a shocking secret is exposed, their lives are blown apart.  As dark truths from the past reveal themselves, will these two women be able to learn to forgive, for the sake of their children, if not for themselves?

I've read several novels by Jane Green and I always enjoy them, some more than others. This one is told by two women (with occasional chapters from their respective daughters), during roughly a two year time period. I definitely liked one of the women more, but the other one evolved more throughout the course of the book. There was also a concurrent storyline about anorexia happening to one of the daughters, adding even more strain to an already volatile situation. The story had a good flow to it and the characters were well done. I did find the transformation of one of the women a bit hard to believe, and the way the secret was revealed was pretty non-plausible, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the story that much. In typical Jane Green fashion, the ending is all tidy and nice, but sometimes that is what I want from a book, and why I pick up books by this author.

I listened to this book on audio. It was narrated by Amy Quint. At first I wasn't sure if I liked her voice since the last two audios I've had were done by very soft spoken narrators. I got used to it fairly quickly, and ended up being fine with her narration.

A good saga of two families in crisis, and their way of coping and growing from it. Well worth a read.

by Jen Lancaster

Jen’s still a little rough around the edges. Suffice it to say, she’s no Martha Stewart. And that is exactly why Jen is going to Martha up and live her life according to the advice of America’s overachieving older sister—the woman who turns lemons into lavender-infused lemonade.

By immersing herself in Martha’s media empire, Jen will embark on a yearlong quest to take herself, her house, her husband (and maybe even her pets) to the next level—from closet organization to craft making, from party planning to kitchen prep.

Maybe Jen can go four days without giving herself food poisoning if she follows Martha’s dictates on proper storage....Maybe she can grow closer to her girlfriends by taking up their boring-ass hobbies like knitting and sewing.…Maybe she can finally rid her workout clothes of meatball stains by using Martha’s laundry tips.… Maybe she can create a more meaningful anniversary celebration than just getting drunk in the pool with her husband....again. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll discover that the key to happiness does, in fact, lie in Martha’s perfectly arranged cupboards and artfully displayed charcuterie platters.

Or maybe not.

Oh my goodness, this is my first book by Jen Lancaster, and it will definitely not be my last! It's also another memoir, not a genre I typically pick up. That will change after I seek out all of Jen's other titles. This book was hilarious, but at the same time contained lessons about life, and a sweet tribute to a beloved pet. Jen gets herself in all sorts of situations while she's trying to live a year following the teachings of Martha Stewart. Her husband Fletch, himself a very funny guy without even trying, has to redirect and rescue her efforts on many occasions throughout the book. I could relate to many of the scenarios, especially since whenever my husband and I attempt any household improvement, it always takes on a life of its own 🙂 I flew through this book since I couldn't wait to find out what kind of project/calamity was going to occur next. There is no life altering advice within the pages, but it is sheer delight from an entertainment standpoint.

My advice for you when you read this book is to do it within the confines of your house, unless you want to attract attention while you laugh until you cry! I'm off to find more from Jen Lancaster.

by Kamy Wicoff

When I decided to read this book (as part of the BookSparks summer reading challenge), I had some major reservations. It's about time travel, not a favorite subject of mine. Lo and behold.....I liked it! Sure it has a time travel aspect in it, and a kind of sketchy scientific explanation for it, but beyond all that it is a wonderful story about a woman who needs to be in two or three places at once. We can all relate to that right? I loved the character of Jennifer, and I thought that she, and the characters surrounding her, were well crafted by the author. Beyond the scope of the physical and mental challenges of the time travel, there was a great story about mothering, friendship, exposing corruption at the workplace, and even a sweet love story. Great pacing in this, it had me on the edge of my seat a few times, and then sitting back and savoring Jennifer's life at others.

If you can get beyond the time travel, this is a wonderful story that would be a perfect summer read. Head on over to the BookSparks page to see the other titles coming up this summer.

I'm giving away an extra copy of Wishful Thinking that I received. Enter via the Rafflecopter below to be eligible to win (US only please).

by Nick Hornby

I enjoyed this story of the life of an actress in the making. Growing up with the I Love Lucy show probably contributed to my understanding of young Barbara and her quest to be the next Lucy. I liked the inside look that the reader was given to the television industry. While clearly Barbara (Sophie) was a favorite character, the others were fairly well developed. Despite a few places where I felt the plot kind of dragged a bit, the writing moved along through the years with these characters. There were a few funny moments within the story, but not as many as I was expecting. This didn't affect my overall enjoyment, I just had the impression going in that it would be funnier (hence the title).

Overall a good read, but probably not one that I will remember much about in years to come. It was worth a read if you grew up in the time period of the Lucy show, or if you like stories about tv or film industry.

by Robin Antalek

From the author of The Summer We Fell Apart, an evocative and emotionally resonant coming-of-age novel involving three friends that explores what it means to be happy, what it means to grow up, and how difficult it is to do both togetherThe summer he’s fifteen, Sam enjoys, for a few secret months, the unexpected attention of Suzie Epstein. For reasons Sam doesn’t entirely understand, he and Suzie keep their budding relationship hidden from their close knit group of friends. But as the summer ends, Sam’s world unexpectedly shatters twice: Suzie’s parents are moving to a new city to save their marriage, and his own mother has suddenly left the house, leaving Sam’s father alone to raise two sons.

Watching as her parents’ marital troubles escalate, Suzie takes on the responsibility of raising her two younger brothers and plans an early escape to college and independence. Though she thinks of Sam, she deeply misses her closest friend Bella, but makes no attempt to reconnect, embarrassed by the destructive wake of her parents as they left the only place Suzie called home. Years later, a chance meeting with Sam’s older brother will reunite her with both Sam and Bella - and force her to confront her past and her friends.

After losing Suzie, Bella finds her first real love in Sam. But Sam’s inability to commit to her or even his own future eventually drives them apart. In contrast, Bella’s old friend Suzie—and Sam’s older brother, Michael—seem to have worked it all out, leaving Bella to wonder where she went wrong.

Spanning over a decade, told in alternating voices, The Grown Ups explores the indelible bonds between friends and family and the challenges that threaten to divide them.

I think a lot of people will really enjoy this book, sadly I'm just not one of them. Most of the time I'm annoyed by comparisons between books ("if you like said book then you will like this one"). In this case if they had told me it was similar to The Interestings I most likely would have passed, since I did not like that book at all! My problem with this book, like a lot of books I read with 20 somethings in them, is that I have zero interest in the characters. I'm tired of their bad behavior, bad decisions, whining, and sense of entitlement. Maybe it's a generational thing, I'm so far removed from this time that I just don't remember it? The book takes us through more than a decade in these people's lives, with each chapter representing another year. I felt that this also distanced me from the characters since you skipped major parts of their lives when thrown back in a year later. There were some bright spots in the book that did keep me reading. It was well written, my not connecting with the characters was more a me thing. I did want to read to the end to find out how it all played out. I do think the author had a good pulse on these kids even if I didn't like their antics.

Bottom line, if you enjoy coming of age stories of the twenty something generation, I think you will enjoy this book. I would still read another work by this author, I would just be more choosy of the subject matter.

This book is part of the BookSparks summer reading challenge. Click the link for info if you want to join in!

by Jill Mansell

This is not my first book by Mansell so I pretty much knew what I would be getting. A light-hearted typical chick lit book that you can count on to provide instant entertainment. There are plenty of laughs when the characters get caught in awkward social situations, some sweet romance (in this case from more than one coupling), and a happy ever after ending. Just what I expect from a novel like this. There are even a few twists thrown in that keep the story flowing and interesting. I liked all the characters, particularly some of the secondary characters appearing in various plots throughout the book. Great writing that keeps you flipping the pages, and a setting that sounds beautiful.

A great beach type read, predictable but yet if you enjoy this type of novel once in a while, you will be taken away for a few hours of escape and fun.

by Alice Eve Cohen

Thirty years after her death, Alice Eve Cohen’s mother appears to her, seemingly in the flesh, and continues to do so during the hardest year Alice has had to face: the year her youngest daughter needs a harrowing surgery, her eldest daughter decides to reunite with her birth mother, and Alice herself receives a daunting diagnosis. As it turns out, it’s entirely possible for the people we’ve lost to come back to us when we need them the most.

Although letting her mother back into her life is not an easy thing, Alice approaches it with humor, intelligence, and honesty. What she learns is that she must revisit her childhood and allow herself to be a daughter once more in order to take care of her own girls. Understanding and forgiving her mother’s parenting transgressions leads her to accept her own and to realize that she doesn’t have to be perfect to be a good mother.

This was sort of an odd book for me, but yet it was enjoyable. First off it is a memoir, which is not my normal genre although I'm trying to read a few books this year that are out of my comfort zone. Secondly it deals with the idea of apparitions, which is just "way out there" for me. Once I got over both of those things, I found myself really liking the story, there were many parallels to my life. I could relate to the loss of her mother when she was young as my mom passed away when I was in my 30's. While my relationship with my mother was wonderful, I've read enough books where it wasn't, to understand the angst the author experienced. One of my daughters had to have major back surgery as a teenager, and my girls are adopted. All of these play a role in this book. I appreciated the writing style and found it very easy to read and care about the family. The year in the title is also a play on words since it's not only talking about the author's year, but the last year of her mother's life. It was an interesting take on storytelling that I found pleasing.

I'm participating in the BookSparks summer reading challenge, and this was the first book for the week of May 4th. Check the link if you want to find out the rest of the books in the list, looks like some good picks.

Overall a short, sweet book that reads really well. If I could get over my issues with "people appearing from the dead", I would have likely rated it higher.