Review: Rainshadow Road

Title: Rainshadow Road
Author: Lisa Kleypas
Length: 308 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffen
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Chick-Lit
Source: Goodreads Giveaway
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Lucy Marinn is a glass artist living in mystical, beautiful, Friday Harbor, Washington, with a boyfriend, Kevin, who she believes is her soul mate. She has always had a magical side - a gift that finds its way into the breathtaking glasswork she creates - and she struggles to keep it contained. But when Lucy is blindsided by the most bitter kind of betrayal, she questions many of her choices. Her boyfriend leaves her and his new lover is none other than Lucy's own sister. Lucy's bitterness over this devastation is multiplied buy the fact that she has constantly made the wrong choices in her romantic life.

Meanwhile, facing the severe disapproval of Lucy's family, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, a local vineyard owner on the San Juan Island, to "romance" Lucy so that she can more easily move on. But when Sam and Lucy begin to feel real sparks between them, Lucy must ask herself if she can easily risk her heart again.

As Lucy questions her beliefs about love, loyalty, and old patterns, mistakes, and new beginnings, she explores the possibility that some things in life - even after are being broken - can be re-made into something beautiful. And that is the only by discovering who you really are that you can find the one who truly deserves you.

My Thoughts: This was a fun book! An easy read, beautiful setting, a little magic, a heart-melting hero, and a happy ending. What more do you need? The backgrounds of both main characters were a little extreme but not necessarily implausible, though they did make the characters a little hard to relate to at times. There were a lot of quirky side characters and you could pick out the budding romance for the second book in this trilogy, which I will happily read! The one thing I would have really liked to see more of was the magic. I do not feel like this aspect was fully developed.


If your looking for a nice summer read, go ahead and add Rainshadow Road to your list!

Review: The Cranes Dance

Title: The Cranes Dance
Author: Meg Howrey
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage Books
Genre: Fiction
Source: Vintage Books
My Rating:
Synopsis: (from Goodreads):  I threw my neck out in the middle of Swan Lake last night.
So begins the tale of Kate Crane, a soloist in a celebrated New York City ballet company who is struggling to keep her place in a very demanding world. At every turn she is haunted by her close relationship with her younger sister, Gwen, a fellow company dancer whose career quickly surpassed Kate’s, but who has recently suffered a breakdown and returned home.

Alone for the first time in her life, Kate is anxious and full of guilt about the role she may have played in her sister’s collapse.  As we follow her on an insider tour of rehearsals, performances, and partners onstage and off, she confronts the tangle of love, jealousy, pride, and obsession that are beginning to fracture her own sanity. Funny, dark, intimate, and unflinchingly honest, The Cranes Dance is a book that pulls back the curtains to reveal the private lives of dancers and explores the complicated bond between sisters.

My Thoughts: **3 1/2 ** I found this book to be incredibly interesting. It's like a behind the scenes look at a ballet company and one dancer's life. Fascinating! Kate Crane is a very reliable, likeable narrator. I felt her pain, drive, guilt. I liked that we followed Kate through both the ups and downs. This is not a book that glorifies ballet or ballet dancers. It is a real look at what it takes to be a ballerina.


For those of you who crave a little extra drama you will not be disappointed in Gwen's appearances in The Cranes Dance. I feel like that story line is one better left explored on your own.


As an extra bonus, as I hang my head in shame, I now know the story line of Swan Lake. I have never seen Swan Lake but am now looking forward to an opportunity to arise for me to do so.


If you are interested in performing arts, family dynamics, and enjoy a compelling read I would suggest picking up The Cranes Dance. If you do, I would love to know what you thought of it!

Review: Shelter

Title: Shelter
Author: Frances Greenslade
Length: 376 pages
Publisher: Free Press
Genre: Fiction
Source: Publisher
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): For sisters Maggie and Jenny growing up in the Pacific mountains in the early 1970s, life felt nearly perfect. Seasons in their tiny rustic home were peppered with wilderness hikes, building shelters from pine boughs and telling stories by the fire with their doting father and beautiful, adventurous mother. But at night, Maggie—a born worrier—would count the freckles on her father’s weathered arms, listening for the peal of her mother’s laughter in the kitchen, and never stop praying to keep them all safe from harm. Then her worst fears come true: Not long after Maggie’s tenth birthday, their father is killed in a logging accident, and a few months later, their mother abruptly drops the girls at a neighbor’s house, promising to return. She never does. With deep compassion and sparkling prose, Frances Greenslade’s mesmerizing debut takes us inside the devastation and extraordinary strength of these two girls as they are propelled from the quiet, natural freedom in which they were raised to a world they can’t begin to fathom. Even as the sisters struggle to understand how their mother could abandon them, they keep alive the hope that she is fighting her way back to the daughters who adore her and who need her so desperately. Heartbreaking and lushly imagined, Shelter celebrates the love between two sisters and the complicated bonds of family. It is an exquisitely written ode to sisters, mothers, daughters, and to a woman’s responsibility to herself and those she loves.

My Thoughts:I would say that the title Shelter appropriately sums up what this book is about. It's the search for physical shelter, monetary shelter, emotional shelter. Maggie, Jennie, their mother, and many of the other characters are all searching for it in different ways. Will they find it? You have to read the book to find out.

This book was beautiful in many ways but I found myself having a hard time with the narrative coming from a preteen girl. It just never rang quite true to me. The story it self never became a completely cohesive work for me. I still think that the book has interesting things to say. I especially liked the peek into the life of a logger and the interactions we see with the Indian community in the area. The beautiful friendship between Maggie and Vern is a heart melting coming of age tale.

I'm left with the feeling that I missed something in my reading of this story. A link, an event, a remark that tied it all together. I didn't find it but the book, was still worth the read. Many of the sub-stories made for good stories. I would love to hear others' thought after they've read it.

Review: Temptation

Title: Temptation
Author: Douglas Kennedy
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Atria
Genre: Fiction
Source: Publisher
My rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): From the New York Times bestselling author of Leaving the World comes the brilliant, breathtaking story about a Hollywood screenwriter whose “overnight success” brings about his biggest downfall. Like all screenwriters in Tinsel Town, David Armitage wants to be rich and famous. Finally, after eleven years of disappointment and failure, big-time luck comes his way when one of his scripts is bought for television, making him the new toast of Hollywood as the creator of a smash hit series. Suddenly a major power player, Armitage begins to reinvent himself at breakneck speed, quitting his day job, trading in his Reagan-era Volvo for a Porsche, and leaving his wife and daughter for a sleek, young producer. Enter multibillionaire film buff Philip Fleck, who proposes an unsavory collaboration to the screenwriter. Armitage takes the bait and suddenly finds himself entering a decidedly Faustian pact—and unknowingly hopping an express ride to the lower depths of the Hollywood jungle.

My Thoughts: Douglas Kennedy takes his readers on a roller coaster ride in Temptation. It comes complete with ups, downs, twists, and surprise turns. Temptation was an easy read but I found that I never knew what to expect next and that kept me turning the pages.  The ending came as a surprise but not an unwelcome one.


As a character I found Armitage to be shallow, selfish, weak, and over the top. These are traits that are usually not good in a character but I think they work here, and he does eventually redeem himself. 


Don't let the cover fool you. This is not a book about sex. It is about control and the lack of it, fame and the cost of it, money and the effects of it.


There was one character where I felt the bad language was a bit much. I know what Kennedy was trying to do with it but I found it a bit off-putting. On the other hand, I absolutely loved the character of Alison, Armitage's agent. She also had some off colored language but it did not seem as out of place.


This was an enjoyable read and more like  3 1/2 , but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I would suggest giving it a try yourself if it sounds at all interesting to you. Temptation was an interesting peak into Hollywood and it's players.

Review: The Folded Earth

Title: The Folded Earth
Author: Anuradha Roy
Length: 288 pages
Publisher: Free Press
Genre:Literary Fiction
Source: Free Press
My rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): An evocative and deeply moving tale of a young woman making a new life for herself amid the foothills of the Himalaya. Desperate to leave a private tragedy behind, Maya abandons herself to the rhythms of the little village, where people coexist peacefully with nature. But all is not as it seems, and she soon learns that no refuge is remote enough to keep out the modern world. When power-hungry politicians threaten her beloved mountain community, Maya finds herself caught between the life she left behind and the new home she is determined to protect.
Elegiac, witty, and profound by turns, and with a tender love story at its core, The Folded Earth brims with the same genius and love of language that made An Atlas of Impossible Longing an international success and confirms Anuradha Roy as a major new literary talent.

My Review:  I'd first like to direct you to the beautiful cover! Doesn't that cover just draw you in? Make you feel as if something beautiful is waiting within? An awesome cover has me from the word go.

I found this book to be both beautiful, engaging, and frustrating all at the same time. The book is broken up into two parts. Part One just seemed to lay the groundwork for Part Two. Part One was very hard for me to get involved in. Part Two was very engaging. I fell in love with many of the local village characters. I was anxiously waiting to see how Charu's story turned out and whether Veer was really the jerk I thought him to be. The writing made you feel as if you were there with the characters. I came to feel as if I knew Ranikhet, the village where this story was set. I actually found myself wanting more from many of the main characters. This story ended too abruptly, it left me with unanswered questions even though the story lines were all completed.


If you enjoy a well written story, read this for the feeling of village life in India, the quirky characters, the beauty of the mountains. Anuradna Roy showed me a place I'd never been before.

Review: Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected--A Memoir

Title: Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected--A Memoir
Author: Kelle Hampton
Length: 288
Publisher: William Monroe
Genre: Non-fiction, Memoir
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Synopsis: (from Goodreads): The author of the popular blog Enjoying the Small Things recounts the first year of life with her daughter Nella, born with Down syndrome-a celebration of the beauty found in the unexpected, the strength of a mother's love, and, the gift of experiencing life in a wondrous new way

Love me. Love me. I'm not what you expected, but oh, please love me.
That was the most defining moment of my life. That was the beginning of my story.

When photographer Kelle Hampton learned she was pregnant with her second child, she and her husband, Brett, were ecstatic. Her pregnancy went smoothly and the ultrasounds showed a beautiful, healthy, high-kicking baby girl.

But when her new daughter was placed in her arms in the delivery room, Kelle knew instantly that something was wrong. Nella looked different than her two-year-old sister Lainey had at birth. As she watched friends and family celebrate with champagne toasts and endless photographs, a terrified Kelle was certain that Nella had Down syndrome-a fear her pediatrician soon confirmed. Yet gradually Kelle's fear and pain were vanquished by joy, as she embraced the realization that she had been chosen to experience an extraordinary and special gift. 

Bloom takes readers on a wondrous journey through Nella's first year of life-a gripping, hilarious, and intensely poignant trip of transformation in which a mother learns that perfection comes in all different shapes. It is a story about embracing life and really living it, of being fearless and accepting difference, of going beyond constricting definitions of beauty, and of the awesome power of perspective. As Hampton writes, "There is us. Our Family. We will embrace this beauty and make something of it. We will hold our precious gift and know that we are lucky."

My Review: I stumbled across Nella's birth story on day on the web. I didn't start following the blog but the story really stuck with me. It did so for a few reasons. First it was a moving story. Second I know how a medical diagnosis can rock your world, though in my case it was MY diagnosis. Third, I remembered the feelings I had when G had an increased possibility of having DS. I was really excited when I heard Kelle Hampton was going to have a book coming out. I even pre-ordered it!

Bloom was delivered on it's release date and I delved right in! Unfortunately I found myself not connecting with the book, with the story, but almost annoyed.  

 I guess I should start with the book itself. It is bigger and heavier than a normal hardcover.  It seems like it is trying to double as a photography book and there are a lot of pictures in it. I found the layout of the pictures to be odd.  they would just randomly be on the side of a page, then the bottom, then on both. It was distracting and I didn't find that more than 50%, if that, helped to really supplement the story. I know why they were included but they just didn't work for me.  

As far as the story goes Kelle just felt over the top to me. I couldn't relate to her. I found myself getting frustrated with her. Her writing was over descriptive and felt very self-indulgent. 

With all of the above said I don't think that is my place to judge her story. I can comment on the layout of the book and the actual writing, but in the end the story belongs to her. It is her life, her daughter, her grief, and her hope, not mine.  I admire her openness, the courage that it must have taken to write and share some of the things in this book. I love where she ended up in the end.  Kelle might have taken the long way around but she ended in a good place. Acceptance and love for Nella, and the rest of her family, an understanding of what might be ahead of them, and the willingness to deal with those problems as they come up while living and loving life one day at a time. Oh, and Nella is simply adorable!!


If you are interested in this book, read it, digest it, and feel for yourself. Just because it didn't turn out to be for me doesn't mean that it won't be just what you need. 


I wish Kelle, Nella, and the rest of the Hampton family all the best as they continue their journey!

 

Review: Bel Canto

Title: Bel Canto
Author: Ann Patchett
Length: 318 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Genre: Literary fiction
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Somewhere in South America at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening until a band of terrorists breaks in, taking the entire party hostage.
But what begins as a life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different. Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped.
Ann Patchett has written a novel that is as lyrical and profound as it is unforgettable. Bel Canto is a virtuoso performance by one of our best and most important writers.

My Review: This is one that I would like to give 2 1/2 to, one day I'll have to figure out how to do this. :)  The writing was beautiful and initially the subject matter; opera, political unrest, psychology of/reaction to being taken hostage, and the relationship of terrorist and hostage was very interesting.  Unfortunately, after about halfway through, I found that the story skipped long periods of time, without accounting for them, while simultaneously dragging on. The ending was abrupt and surreal while the epilogue, the true end to the story, didn't feel right to me. I definitely feel like it was worth the read, though and I look forward to reading another of Ann Patchett's books.

Review: Sarah's Key

Title: Sarah's Key
Author: Tatiana de Rosnay
Length: 378 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Fiction/Historical fiction
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads):
A young girl.
A fateful key.
A woman searching for the truth…
Experience the novel that has touched millions.
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten-year-old girl, is taken with her parents by the French police as they go door to door arresting Jewish families in the middle of the night. Desperate to protect her younger brother, Sarah locks him in a bedroom cupboard—their secret hiding place—and promises to come back for him as soon as they are released.
Sixty Years Later: Sarah’s story intertwines with that of Julia Jarmond, an American journalist investigating the roundup. In her research, Julia stumbles onto a trail of secrets that link her to Sarah, and to questions about her own future.                                                                                                       
With more than five million copies in print and over two years on the New York Times bestseller list, Sarah’s Key has made its way into the hearts and minds of readers everywhere. Now, with this beautiful new hardcover edition, the gift of powerful storytelling can be shared with the ones you love.

My Review:  I bought this book based on some good reviews and my current like of  WWII historical fiction.  This book was well written and engaging, at least for the first 2/3rds of the story.

I loved the chapters which described Sarah's experiences.  They were riveting, emotional, and horrifying all at the same time. I had not previously been aware of this incident in France during WWII and was glad to read it's history.  I became involved with this character.  Each time her story was paused I waited for it to be Sarah's turn again.  Unfortunately Sarah's story ended too soon and then we are left with just Julia's.

I never really liked Julia's character but also didn't dislike her, at least in the beginning.  I was able to follow along, patiently, with the parallel stories, waiting for them to intersect.  I could understand both her professional and personal reasons for pursuing Sarah's story. However, at some point, her continued pursuit goes beyond reasonable and becomes completely selfish.  It was at this point that issues with her character in the beginning of the book could no longer be overlooked, because the underlying story was so good, but combined with her selfishness and made her completely unlikable in my eyes. I'm afraid if I say much more it will fall into the spoiler realm so I'll leave it here.

If this had been Sarah's story alone this book would've been great.

Review: Prague Fatale (Bernard Gunther #8)

Title: Prague Fatale (Bernard Gunther #8)
Author: Philip Kerr
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: A Marian Wood Book/Putnam
Genre: Historical fiction, Mystery, Political thriller
Source: ARC from Goodreads Giveaway
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): September 1941: Reinhard Heydrich is hosting a gathering to celebrate his appointment as Reichsprotector of Czechoslovakia. He has chosen his guests with care. All are high-ranking Party members and each is a suspect in a crime as yet to be committed: the murder of Heydrich himself.
     Indeed, a murder does occur, but the victim is a young adjutant on Heydrich’s staff, found dead in his room, the door and windows bolted from the inside. Anticipating foul play, Heydrich had already ordered Bernie Gunther to Prague. After more than a decade in Berlin's Kripo, Bernie had jumped ship as the Nazis came to power, setting himself up as a private detective. But Heydrich, who managed to subsume Kripo into his own SS operations, has forced Bernie back to police work. Now, searching for the killer, Gunther must pick through the lives of some of the Reich’s most odious officials.
     A perfect locked-room mystery. But because Philip Kerr is a master of the sleight of hand, Prague Fatale is also a tense political thriller: a complex tale of spies, partisan terrorists, vicious infighting, and a turncoat traitor situated in the upper reaches of the Third Reich.

My Review: I'll start off by saying that I enjoyed this book. If possible I would actually give it 2.5 instead of 2. I have not read any previous Bernie Gunther novels but did not feel as if I had to to read this book. There was obviously some history I was missing between Heydrich and Gunther, but it did not really detract from the story. 

The mystery was an interesting one with some good twists and turns.  There is also a side romance involving Gunther and a woman named Arianne.  However that is all it was, a side story.  I didn't feel that it added much to the story though it did serve as a means to help tie up some loose ends.


This story kept me interested but not "on the edge of my chair" interested. I also felt that the story was a little uneven in it's pace. With that said I would definitely say that this book was worth my time and I would be willing to try reading something else by Philip Kerr. 

Review: Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle

Title: Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
Author: The Countess of Carnarvon
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Genre: Historical non-fiction, Biography
Source: Goodreads Giveaway
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real-life inspiration for the hit PBS show Downton Abbey, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon and the basis of the fictional character Lady Cora Crawley.  Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war.

Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon's ancestral home.  Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman.

This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.

My Review: If you are looking for Downton Abbey in book form than this is not the book for you. I had a hard time with that at first. I was looking for the same feel of the Downton Abbey television series.  I wanted the stories of both those living in the castle and those whose job it is to keep it running smoothly.  There is obviously some of that in this book but as it is not a fictional story written for drama, it can not be the same.

It's well written and a good history. There are lots of interesting pieces of information and connections. I found both Lady Almina and her husband, the 5th Count of Carnarvon, very compelling subjects. The Count in particular played a large part in a wonderful, historical find of that time period.  This story is not solely about Lady Almina and Highclere castle which I felt actually added something to the book. 
  
However, I think I frequently got side tracked by the many names thrown out there not pertinent to the story. Names that were obviously important names in that time in English history, but since they were often not more than a mention it did as much, if not more, to distract from the book than it did to add to it. If you are interested in this time in English history I am sure you will enjoy this book.