Book: The Longings Of Wayward Girls by Karen Brown

The Longings Of Waywards Girls will be published on July 2, 2013 by Atria Books|Expected Number Of Pages: 357

Series: None

Genre: Adult Fiction

Goodreads|Karen Brown On Twitter

The Longings Of Wayward Girls is an e-ARC from netgalley.com in exchanged for a fair and honest review

Goodreads Summary: It’s an idyllic New England summer, and Sadie is a precocious only child on the edge of adolescence. It seems like July and August will pass lazily by, just as they have every year before. But one day, Sadie and her best friend play a seemingly harmless prank on a neighborhood girl. Soon after, that same little girl disappears from a backyard barbecue—and she is never seen again. Twenty years pass, and Sadie is still living in the same quiet suburb. She’s married to a good man, has two beautiful children, and seems to have put her past behind her. But when a boy from her old neighborhood returns to town, the nightmares of that summer will begin to resurface, and its unsolved mysteries will finally become clear.

I’m just not sure what to think about The Longings Of Wayward Girls.  There are 3 different stories going on- the newspaper articles about the disappearance of Laura Loomis, the summer of 1979, and the present time, which is 2003 in this book.

I’m not completely sure why the articles about Laura Loomis were included, because her story was told through the articles, and wasn’t really mentioned throughout the book.  Except for a few mentions of the family and a few mentions of people mistaking Sadie for Laura because they look similar.

The book alternates between past and present, and that didn’t work for me.  Just as I was getting used to one story, it was time for the other one.  I didn’t find either one very compelling, and it was hard to stay interested in both stories.  Plus, there’s the disappearance of Francie, set during the summer, and I was waiting for a possible connection between the two disappearances, which never happened.  We learn what happens to Francie and what happened “that summer” but I don’t think we ever learn what happened to Laura.  Which makes her disappearance and the articles really random.

I couldn’t care about Sadie.  I wanted to, but a lot of the choices she made throughout her life made it hard to like her.  I’m not entirely sure we WERE supposed to like her, because it’s entirely possible we weren’t supposed to.  Either way, there was just no connection with her.  Sadie felt pretty wooden and I’m not sure if it’s because she was dealing with depression after having a miscarriage or dealing with what happened in her childhood.

Final Thoughts:

The Longings Of Warward Girls didn’t work for me.  It was hard to care about Sadie and dealing with what was going on.  I also wish Laura’s story had more of a role in the book.  The Longings Of Wayward Girls gets 1 star.

Book: Wild Children by Richard Roberts

Published December 2012 by Curiosity Quills|Pages: 346

E-book from NetGalley

Series: None

Genre: Adult Fantasy

Goodreads|Richard Roberts’ Blog

Summary: Bad children are punished. Be bad, a child is told, and you’ll be turned into an animal, marked with your crime.
 
The Wild Children are forever young, but that, too, can be a curse.

Five children each tell a different story of what they became:

– One learns that wrong can be right, and her curse may be a blessing.
– Another is so Wild he must learn the simplest lesson, to love someone else.
– An eight year old girl must face fear and doubt as she dies of old age.
– Love and strangeness hit the lives of two brothers in the form of a beautiful flaming bird.
– Finally, the oldest child learns that what is right can be horribly wrong.

Together they tell a sixth story, of a Wild Girl who can’t speak for herself, and doesn’t seem Wild at all.

For most of Wild Children, I wasn’t sure what to think but after finishing it, I ended up really liking it!  It’s definitely different from anything else I’ve read, and in a good way!

It’s told by several wild children, and I was glad that the story was pretty fluid.  While there are 6 different stories going on, they worked really well together, and it was nice seeing the main story told from 5 different perspectives.  What’s interesting is that Wild Children alternates between the narrators but not in a way I was expecting.  While I’ve read books where each chapter is narrated by someone different, the characters who narrate Wild Children get their own section.  Each character has their own story that stands on its own pretty well but come together to tell the story of a sixth Wild Child.  While the whole of their story finishes with their section, they do make appearances throughout the book.  It took some time getting used to, but after finishing, I can’t see it being told any other way.

The premise for Wild Children is also different, and I really liked the idea of becoming a Wild Child.  It’s another great thing about this book, and I definitely haven’t read anything like it before.  There were times when I felt like there was a lot going on.  I’m not going to get all deep or anything, since I was just taking everything in.  I think Wild Children is a book that has a lot to it, and needs more than one or two reads to fully appreciate the work Richards put into the book.

I also liked the setting and overall feel of the book.  While I’m not completely sure of the time period- because Wild Children is fantasy- there’s something medieval-esque about the book.  Definitely gothic and not set in a recent time period.  Either way, there’s something…dark…about Wild Children.  I’ll admit, I wasn’t really looking at themes or metaphors or any social commentary Roberts could be making.  It’s not something I tend to think about when I’m reading, but I think there’s enough to think about in Wild Children that you could do so if that’s what you really want to do.

Final Thoughts:

Wild Children is definitely unique, and it’s one of the most unique books I’ve read.  What’s interesting about Wild Children is that it’s a book where I wasn’t sure if I liked it or if it was just okay while I was reading it…but something I really liked when I finished because I saw how five different stories came together to tell one story.  I didn’t love it, but it’s still a book that I really like.  Wild Children gets 4 stars.

Book: Ink by Amanda Sun

Ink will be published on June 25, 2013 by HarlequinTeen|Expected Number Of Pages: 377

Series: Paper Gods #1

Genre: YA Paranormal

Goodreads|Amanda Sun On Twitter

Ink is an e-ARC from netgalley.com, which has not influenced my review in any way

Goodreads Summary: I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look.

Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of a girl lying on a bench.

A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness.

And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine.

On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.

Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they’ll both be targets.

Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.

Ink…I truly have mixed feelings about Ink.

I love that Ink is set in Japan.  I love that Katie is living in Japan with her aunt while she’s waiting to find out if she’ll be able to live with her grandparents.  I love that she’s been there long enough that she understands the culture and is making progress with learning Japanese.  I love the focus on Japanese mythology and how the Kami are the focus of the book.

However, the thing I love about Ink are also the things I don’t like.  It’s all very confusing, and it’s why I have mixed feelings.  The fact that it’s set in Japan and focuses on Japanese mythology is refreshing.  It’s nice to see mythology that’s not Greek.  It’s nice that Katie has picked up on Japanese, and that there is a word of Japanese here and there.  It really makes me feel like I’m in Japan, and right in the middle of things.  I wasn’t expecting that, and there were a couple times when I had to google something because I wasn’t sure what something meant.  For the most part, I was able to figure out a word or two, based on what was going on, but it wasn’t until the end when I realized there was a glossary!  Which is actually nice, but given I read Ink on my computer, I didn’t actually catch that.  Still, it was nice to have it there.

There were a few sketches throughout book, and they were beautiful!  Unfortunately, the first picture didn’t want to load on my Nook, so I ended up reading it on my laptop.  In the end, it wasn’t a big deal, but it’s entirely possible that me not liking the book as much as I was expecting might be because I was distracted by other things.

I didn’t pay too much attention to the characters.  Katie has some special connection to the Kami, but we don’t learn what it is yet.  I did like that she wasn’t Kami but had a connection, and I liked seeing Katie try to figure out what was going on with Tomo.  It really was nice to learn about the Kami and to learn a little bit more about Japanese mythology.

Final Thoughts:

I loved that this mythology re-telling focused on Japanese mythology and how I felt like I really was in Japan, going through a typical day for Katie.  I really did like that Katie’s life was pretty ordinary, even though she and people she knew had connections to Japanese gods.  I found myself getting a little distracted by the random Japanese throughout the novel and by the really pretty sketches throughout the book, and I’m not completely sure I gave Ink the attention it deserves.  Still, it was really refreshing and unique in comparison to a lot of the other paranormal/mythology re-tellings I’ve read, so Ink gets 3 stars.  

Book: The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley

Published June 2013 by Atria Books|Pages: 418

Series: None

Genre: Adult Fiction

Goodreads|Lucinda Riley

The Lavender Garden is an e-book from netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review

Goodreads Summary: An aristocratic French family, a legendary château, and buried secrets with the power to destroy two generations torn between duty and desire.

La Côte d’Azur, 1998: In the sun-dappled south of France, Emilie de la Martinières, the last of her gilded line, inherits her childhood home, a magnificent château and vineyard. With the property comes a mountain of debt—and almost as many questions…

Paris, 1944: A bright, young British office clerk, Constance Carruthers, is sent undercover to Paris to be part of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive during the climax of the Nazi occupation. Separated from her contacts in the Resistance, she soon stumbles into the heart of a prominent family who regularly entertain elite members of the German military even as they plot to liberate France. But in a city rife with collaborators and rebels, Constance’s most difficult decision may be determining whom to trust with her heart.

As Emilie discovers what really happened to her family during the war and finds a connection to Constance much closer than she suspects, the château itself may provide the clues that unlock the mysteries of her past, present, and future. Here is a dazzling novel of intrigue and passion from one of the world’s most beloved storytellers.

I’m sort of hesitant about books that have a dual-time thing going on, because I almost always find the past a lot more interesting than the present.  For most of the book, The Lavender Garden was no exception to this.

So, Paris towards the end of the war.  I absolutely loved Constance’s story and how her role in MI5 changed.  I loved seeing her connection to an important family in Paris, and the sacrifices she made and the relationships she formed while in Paris.  I couldn’t wait to read more of Constance’s story, the ending of which broke my heart.  I felt like Constance could have been a real person, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she represented quite a few real life people.

As for Emilie’s story, it wasn’t until Constance’s story was finished that I actually cared about Emilie’s story.  For the most part, I didn’t like Emilie’s story.  It was strange, because I loved Constance’s story and so strongly disliked Emilie’s story.  I get why Emilie acted the way she did, and why she distanced herself from the life her mother had.  But I didn’t find her likable and she was hard to relate to at first.  And her marriage to Sebastian…totally didn’t like their relationship.  At all.  There was something off about their relationship from the beginning, and it was a little too insta-love-ish for me.  Granted, Emilie was feeling pretty vulnerable and overwhelmed when she met him, which would explain why they got married so fast.  All in all, Emilie’s story was a little too hard to believe.

There was a point where I did start to like Emilie’s story, and that was when she finally learned about Constance and how she helped her now-deceased aunt.  I liked seeing Emilie learn that her cousin was the woman who looked after her and her family’s home for so long.  It was amazing to see how much Emilie’s story mirrored Constance’s story and I liked seeing how everything connected.

Final Thoughts:

I LOVED Constance’s story, but didn’t find Emilie’s story compelling until we got to the end of Constance’s story.  Constance’s story and the ending were great enough to make me really like it, but it’s a little sad that I didn’t connect with Emilie in any way until the end.  The Lavender Garden gets 4 stars.

Book: True Vines by Diana Strinati Baur

Published October 2012 by Gemelli Press LLC|Pages: 247

Series: None

Genre: Adult Fiction

Goodreads|Diana Baur On Twitter

True Vines is an e-ARC from netgalley.com, which has not influenced my review in any way

Goodreads Summary: When the Italian countryside simply won’t leave your heart…

After the sudden death of her Italian winemaker husband, Meryl Michelli flees to her small hometown in Pennsylvania, looking to slam the door on heartache and trudge forward. But it’s never that simple, especially when old family ties have been strained by years of geographic and emotional distance. 

A chance encounter with a childhood friend brings back a betrayal she could never put to rest, and readjusting to life in the States in upper mid-life wears her thin in ways she never could have imagined. Just when Meryl feels she can’t go on, Providence steps in and gives her permission to completely fall apart. Only then can she finally manage to grieve both her magnanimous, flawed Francesco and the unforgettable country she left behind.

True Vines traverses the manicured rows of northern Italy’s majestic wine country and the winding path of Pennsylvania’s Delaware River as Meryl seeks to reconcile her past and her present. Several people on each side of the Atlantic guide her as she relives her own stories: a spirited sister-in-law, a petulant physician, a strong-willed landlady, a good-guy boss, a determined mother-in-law, an amazing flood survivor, a Senegalese English student, a young co-worker. Each recollection and encounter deepens Meryl’s insight into how to make peace with her new reality.

Saying goodbye to one existence allows Meryl to swing the door open to another as she weaves a new, uniquely beautiful tapestry that transports her to exactly the place in this short, sacred life she is meant to be.

When I started reading True Vines, I thought it was okay.  By the end, I totally loved it, and even started crying at one point!

I loved seeing Meryl grieve and realize that Italy will always be a part of her.  I liked seeing her life in Italy, her life before moving and picking up the pieces back in the U.S.  The characters, especially Meryl, were so interesting and full of life, and I couldn’t wait to see how their stories would unfold.  Speaking of stories unfolding, I really liked how Baur wove the different stories together.  Initially, I wasn’t sure about Meryl’s time in the U.S., in past and present time, with her life in Italy.  But it really came together in the end, and I can’t imagine True Vines being told any other way.

There really is an interesting cast of characters, and I really liked seeing how they were really important in Meryl’s journey.  There’s something really heart-warming about True Vines, and after reading it, I totally want to go to Italy…and maybe just do some general traveling.  I know romance wasn’t a big element of the book, but I didn’t find either one particularly compelling and I didn’t feel like there was a big connection between Meryl and her husband or her boss at the coffee place.

There’s so much going on in True Vines, and I loved how Baur handled everything.  Something about True Vines rang true and felt so real and authentic.  I think it’ll stay with me for quite some time, and the progress Meryl made was so dang touching by the end.  Seriously, I shed quite a few tears.  It was super-touching.

Final Thoughts:

I absolutely loved True Vines and Meryl’s journey.  There’s an interesting assortment of characters, and Italy is such a great setting.  True Vines gets 5 stars.

Book: Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld

Sisterland will be published by Random House on June 25, 2013|Expected Number Of Pages: 352

Series: None

Genre: Adult Fiction- Chick Lit

Goodreads|Curtis Sittenfeld’s Website

I received Sisterland as an e-ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

Goodreads Summary: From an early age, Kate and her identical twin sister, Violet, knew that they were unlike everyone else. Kate and Vi were born with peculiar “senses”—innate psychic abilities concerning future events and other people’s secrets. Though Vi embraced her visions, Kate did her best to hide them.

Now, years later, their different paths have led them both back to their hometown of St. Louis. Vi has pursued an eccentric career as a psychic medium, while Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. But when a minor earthquake hits in the middle of the night, the normal life Kate has always wished for begins to shift. After Vi goes on television to share a premonition that another, more devastating earthquake will soon hit the St. Louis area, Kate is mortified. Equally troubling, however, is her fear that Vi may be right. As the date of the predicted earthquake quickly approaches, Kate is forced to reconcile her fraught relationship with her sister and to face truths about herself she’s long tried to deny.

Funny, haunting, and thought-provoking, Sisterland is a beautifully written novel of the obligation we have toward others, and the responsibility we take for ourselves. With her deep empathy, keen wisdom, and unerring talent for finding the extraordinary moments in our everyday lives, Curtis Sittenfeld is one of the most exceptional voices in literary fiction today.

Sisterland…it was an okay read.  Sisterland is another book that I wanted to like, but didn’t.

I didn’t find either sister particularly compelling.  That combined with me not being sure what the story was supposed to be about led to Sisterland being okay.

Every chapter starts off with the present, and that led to Kate’s past, which focuses on her relationship with her sister and Kate hiding her abilities.  I get that Kate’s past relationship with her sister has a HUGE impact on her relationship with her sister in the present, and that I, as the reader, needed to know Kate’s past in order to understand Kate in present time, but it was also something I didn’t like.  I found myself get bored reading about Kate’s life before Violet’s prediction.  And since a lot of the book focused on Kate, it was hard to like Violet because we only saw her through Kate’s eyes.  It was also hard to like Kate.  Kate is definitely a character who is very real and intricate, but for me, Kate was a little too complex.  I found that Kate’s constant worrying and anxiety was really irritating and by the end of the book, I was really tired of it.

I think my major issue with Kate is because of the random, out-of-the-blue affair she has with one of her best friends towards the end of the book.  It didn’t seem like either of them.  It felt really forced, and while you could make the argument that not all earthquakes are literal (or something along those lines), I’m not completely sure what the point of it was.  Was it something that was going to happen anyway, or was it something set in motion by Kate’s insistent that the earthquake was going to happen on a specific date while also refusing to leave St. Louis when the earthquake was going to hit?

I thought there was too much going on.  There’s flashbacks, and present time, and all sorts of other issues throughout the book, and it was hard to care when there was so much to think about and focus on.

Final Thoughts:

Sisterland was okay.  I felt like Sisterland got bogged down in the past, and I didn’t find the characters particularly compelling.  It’s definitely a good book for a book club, because there is quite a bit you could discuss, but unfortunately, Sisterland didn’t do anything for me.  Sisterland gets 2 stars.