2009 ARC Reading Challenge

Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan incorporates a couple of my favorite things into a novel – time travel, Ireland, and a connection to dogs as you can see by the very cute and adorable one on the cover of the novel. In Now & Then we are transported back to 1844 Ireland and it’s a great journey.

At the beginning of Now & Then we meet Anna, in her thirties and recently divorced. Anna has had a rough time of it wanting a child and only having miscarriages. On top of it all she finds out her brother has been in a serious car accident and is in a coma and her sixteen year old nephew Joseph is in jail. She’s the one who has to go pick him up and she’s none too happy about it. He’s been nothing but trouble since he grew up and he used to be such a sweet kid but there is a history of fathers abusing son’s in Anna’s family and her brother hasn’t taken much of a different route than their father had.

Anna picks Joseph up and tells him about his dad. He’s shocked and upset and is blaming himself. She takes him back to her place so they can sleep the night and head to the hospital in the morning. During the night Joseph has a dream and gets up and starts going through Anna’s suitcase (which had been packed from a trip she had just taken to Ireland in which a mysterious woman had given her something to take back with her). Anna hears him so she gets out of bed and sees him and figures he must be trying to steal from her. She goes to grab this mysterious object she had gotten in Ireland and all of a sudden they both find themselves tumbling through time via water – they feel as though they are drowning – they are on their way to Ireland 1844.

When Anna awakens it is by the ocean with a severely injured leg. Her clothes are torn away, she is freezing and completely confused. Finally someone finds her and they take her home. When she wakes up there she has no idea where Joseph is but knows she has to find him. The family that has taken her in is wonderful though but they are very poor. They don’t have a lot to share but in Glennis, the mother of the family, she finds a soul sister and they become fast friends.

On the other hand, Joseph wakes up and finds himself laid out on a table with voices all around. Joseph has been lucky enough to land in the area of Ireland where the privileged reside. The woman who has been caring for him, Diedre, is a woman who has the sight. She can run her hands on people and know what’s ailing them and how to fix it. Her daughter Taleen is no different although just coming into the ‘sight’. She is in love with Joseph as soon as she sees him laid out on the table and Joseph is no different – he never realized he could feel this way about someone.

From this point Now & Then takes us through the hardships and triumphs that Anna and Joseph experience in Ireland of the past. Joseph finds a life he never had while in America and he likes it. He likes being in love as well. Anna, who has been struggling with believing in love again may just find it where she least expects it. Along the way the dog Madigan works his way into the story and everyone’s hearts in a magical way. Now & Then is full of wonderful characters and has a magical feel to it. You feel drawn into this story and the people within it. It’s a story of hope, love and the healing that comes with facing the past (in an unforgettable way) and working towards a better future for all!

Now & Then is a great story. I absolutely loved the time travel and being that it was to Ireland in 1844 made it even better for me. From reading a few novels this past year dealing with Ireland, a few of the places and incidents going on were familiar to me and I enjoyed that. This is a novel I would recommend to everyone but especially those of us who loved Galway Bay and Outlander.

Now & Then can be purchased here in the US and here in Canada. Be sure to visit Jacqueline Sheehan’s website as well and take a look at her past works. I’ve not read any of her previous work but I intend to and I really look forward to what she brings to us next.

My Thanks…to Stephanie with Harper Collins for my review copy of Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan.

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After You by Julie Buxbaum is a novel that will tug at your heart and have you wondering how well you really know the people closest to you. It is a novel full of tragedy, drama, hope and how trying to find yourself in the midst of chaos is sometimes one of the hardest things to do.

On a tree lined street in Notting Hill, Ellie Lerner’s best friend Lucy is murdered. Not only is she brutally murdered but it happens right in front of her eight-year-old daughter Sophie. Ellie and Lucy have been best friends since they were young girls so of course, upon hearing the news, Ellie drops everything -her job, her husband, her life in Boston – to go to London and try to put back together a family devastated by Lucy’s death. Lucy’s husband Greg has withdrawn into himself and loses himself in the bottle more than once; he can barely even look at his daughter without being reminded of Lucy and little Sophie has simply quit talking.

Ellie is at a loss as to what to do for Sophie so she turns to the story The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett that she loved as a girl and still does as an adult. Every night they lay together in bed and read a chapter and slowly Sophie begins to open up and talk again. Healing will be slow; it’s hard enough to lose your mother but even worse in a way like this. Ellie just can’t bring herself to leave Sophie and go home to the US and her husband.

Needless to say Ellie’s husband Phillip is losing patience with her. He feels she’s been there long enough and needs to come home to her own life. To be honest, I was really put out by him and his attitude in this situation. For me, I also felt that Sophie’s needs were really important and while I wouldn’t say she should stay forever, a few months certainly wasn’t out of the question especially as there wasn’t any other family to help out. Ultimately Ellie would have to make a choice – stay with Sophie or go back to her life and try to pick up the pieces of her marriage.

While in London, Ellie starts facing some of the things that have been wearing her down like the loss of her own child who was stillborn and the steady downturn of her marriage afterwords. Being a stand-in mother to Sophie appeals to Ellie and her mothering instinct. In a way I think this experience of parenting Sophie started Ellie on the way to healing herself; it made her face and deal with her feelings of losing her child. On top of everything else, Ellie begins to learn startling truths about Lucy; things she didn’t know. She’s hurt and confused; she and Lucy have always shared everything since they were girls. Why had Lucy started being so secretive? What else had she kept from Ellie? Did she ever really know her best friend; the one person in the world that she thought she knew everything about? Ellie has to make some hard decisions about what she really wants from her life – does she want to start over?, go back to her husband?; and then again sometimes decisions are made for us by other means…

Julie Buxbaum really draws you in with both her beautiful writing style and her characters. I felt a connection to Ellie from the beginning of the novel and that’s what kept me turning the pages to learn more. I literally read this book in a few days; every time I put it down, I wanted to get right back to it and keep reading. It really makes you question some things – like how well do you really know the people closest to you? I know we all think we do but just maybe there are secrets lurking in the background. I think that this book would make an excellent book club pick as well. There are just so many issues talked about from loss, grief, marriage, children – it would definitely keep a book club busy.

One other thing I have to say is that I loved the references to books and reading throughout the novel. As an avid book lover this really appealed to me. Here is one of my favorite quotes…

• ‘Exploring the shelf, seeing all the hours of entertainment right there to get lost in, a siren call to burrow our heads into another world, comforts me. I can tell, in that way that kindred spirits are able to recognize each other, that Sophie feels it too. She may be only eight, and yet I can tell she’s already a real reader, a habit or an addiction or a crutch, depending on which way you look at it, that will carry her through the rest of her life.’ (pg 35)

As you can tell I really enjoyed After You. It appealed to me on so many levels but I think the biggest was an emotional level. After You left an impression on me and it’s a book I won’t soon forget. Pop over and visit Julie Buxbaum’s website and if you just can’t wait to read this book you can purchase it here in the US and here in Canada.

Be sure to drop in tomorrow as I’ll have a guest post from Julie Buxbaum to share with you all and it’s a good one!

My Thanks…
To Julie Buxbaum for sending me my copy of After You.

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Michelle Moran has done it again! She has once again brilliantly woven fact with great story telling in Cleopatra’s Daughter. In Cleopatra’s Daughter we learn about the history of Marc Antony and Cleopatra as told by their children. I really enjoyed this novel as I didn’t know much about Marc Antony and Cleopatra beyond being the greatest love story ever so it was very interesting for me to read more about their lives and that of their children lives after their deaths.

The story begins with Marc Antony dying and Cleopatra taking her own life and leaving their three children behind in Egypt. They are taken, in chains, to Rome by Octavian, their enemy. Only two of the children survive the trip – the twins Selene and Alexander. Upon arriving there they have no idea what to expect. They think they’ll either end up being slaves or put to death but luckily enough for them Octavia, Octavian’s sister, takes them under her wing. Octavia is a truly wonderful woman and she treated the twins as she would her own.

The story is told from the point of view of Selene who at the time that they are taken to Rome is eleven years old, almost twelve. She’s a very talented artist and loves architecture. Selene was a very mature eleven years old but Michelle Moran addresses this in the back of the book. Children back in this time, children who were privileged, were very well educated and spent all their time surrounded by adults consequently putting them much beyond their years.

Selene is a very likable character. She’s got a mind of her own and knows what she wants and what she doesn’t. What she doesn’t want is to be married off to some old man. Instead she wants to build things and ends up being lucky enough to work with a skilled builder. I loved her spunk as well as her feisty attitude. When it came to slavery or the homeless children, Selene was extremely passionate. Over the years she grew to be a wonderful woman as well, still believing in the same things and trying to do her best to help where she could.

Alexander on the other hand loves to just live life and enjoy it. He loves betting on the races and going to the theatre. He doesn’t have much interest in learning or making himself useful to Octavian so that he isn’t put to death at fifteen or married off to some old woman. However as the story progresses secrets about Alexander come out that threaten to change his life forever.

This novel by Michelle Moran is full of a host of great characters – many to like and many to hate. Her vivid descriptions of Rome and the way of life in this time period is amazing – as usual Michelle has done her research well. We are drawn in by her descriptions of how on one hand Rome can be beautiful and on the other it can be horrific. She relates some of the more known Roman trials where slaves are really not given a chance at any kind of justice. It is truly amazing how much time and energy Michelle puts into her novels and it shows in a big way. It’s what makes her books impossible to put down!

I have been a huge fan of Michelle’s since I read Nefertiti and then The Heretic Queen; both of which are also huge favorites of mine. Cleopatra’s Daughter is another that will hold a special spot on the keeper shelf of my bookcase. It is exactly what I’ve come to expect from Michelle Moran – pure reading pleasure! I can’t wait for her next novel called Masks of the Revolution where she will be captivating us with the French Revolution.

Be sure to visit Michelle’s website and take a look around. You can buy Cleopatra’s Daughter here in the US and here in Canada.

My Thanks…
To Michelle Moran for my wonderful copy of Cleopatra’s Daughter.

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I’ll just start right off by stating that I loved Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs! There it’s out there and now I can continue to gush about it. I’m such a fan of The Friday Night Knitting Club Series and Knit the Season was again a story that took me back and made me feel as though I was in the comfort of old friends. Best of all, this one was centered around the Christmas season which made it even more special!

Knit the Season begins a year after the end of Knit Two and finds Dakota maturing in even more ways and becoming more like her mother all the time. Dakota is in college to become a pastry chef which has been her dream since young when she used to bake for the ladies in The Friday Night Knitting Club. She is going to incorporate her talents as a pastry chef and owning the knitting shop, Walker & Daughter, into a knitting cafe.

This novel also gives Dakota the opportunity to spend the Christmas holidays with her Gran, her dad, her grandparents and Catherine in Scotland. What a great opportunity as Dakota loves her Gran and Gran is 97 years old; there may not be too many Christmas’ left to share together like this. From this holiday season with Gran and her family, Dakota comes away with so much more than just memories of the holiday. She comes away with many memories of her mother Georgia when she was younger, things that Dakota never knew before that bring her even closer to her mother.

I loved that Georgia was so woven into the story in this novel. We learned more about her and her past that all led up to the beginnings of The Friday Night Knitting Club and Walker & Daughter. It was wonderful to visit with all the other ladies again like Anita who is getting remarried, Darwin and her twins, KC being her normal self and making me laugh, Peri who is struggling with her own wants and that of her obligation to Dakota and we can’t forget Catherine. In this novel she really makes some changes to her life and it’s lovely to see her evolving into such an amazing woman.

As always this novel had me laughing and crying and even for me as the reader, reliving wonderful memories of all these ladies over the years of reading this series. I care about all the ladies especially Dakota which isn’t much different from all the ladies in the knitting club who drew so tightly around Dakota when Georgia died. They are a wonderful, warm and caring group of women who have developed such a beautiful and close knit friendship. As a knitter myself I love the whole aspect of knitting being what brought these women together in the first place and has continued to hold them together as they still regularly meet up.

Knit the Season can definitely stand alone if you’re in the mood for a great holiday read. However I do recommend reading The Friday Night Knitting Club and Knit Two as well simply because if you don’t you will miss out on the wonderful history of these women and all that has gone on before. As with all these stories there are some recipes and knitting patterns in the back. When I open up one of Kate’s books I always excitedly turn to the back to see what she has there and I wasn’t disappointed this time.

Knit the Season along with The Friday Night Knitting Club and Knit Two would make really great book club choices. There are so many elements to these novels worth discussing and even better if you have knitters in your group. As well Kate is always open to discussing her novels with book clubs. Last year we had her visit our book club online to discuss Knit Two and it was just fantastic to get her perspective along with our own on her novel. All in all I don’t think you’d be disappointed at all picking Knit the Season for your book club pick for December or if you’re just looking for a great read.

Changes are definitely brewing for all the members of The Friday Night Knitting Club. I wonder what this will mean for them? I can tell you one thing for sure – I can’t wait for the next book to see what Kate has in store for all the ladies next! Make sure to pop by tomorrow as I had the opportunity to ask Kate a few questions and she will be here to share her thoughts on those questions.

You can read the first chapter of Knit the Season here and you can buy the book here in the US and here in Canada. Knit the Season releases today! Be sure to pop over and visit Kate Jacobs website as well!

My Thanks…
To the publisher for my review copy of Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs.

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