2013 ARC's

The Theory of Opposites by Allison Winn Scotch (Audiobook)

November 14, 2013 by Darlene

I have been reading the novels of Allison Winn Scotch since I started blogging and I have loved them all. Her latest The Theory of Opposites ranks as one of my favorites – I double loved this one! Life is all about choices, owning your choices, and the courage to write your own map of life and then go and live it!

Willa is living a good life. She’s got a good career and a great husband in Shawn to the point that they call themselves ‘Shilla’ because they are so inseparable. Needless to say when Shawn hits her with the news that he’d like to take a two month separation from their marriage she is shocked and devastated. He proposes that they go on with their lives for these two months as though they were single. All I can say to that is one should be careful what they wish for…

At first Willa is lost and only wants Shawn back but between and old boyfriend Theo and her best friend Vanessa, Willa’s outlook is slowing changing. Vanessa gets a job writing for the reality show Dare You! and manages to convince Willa to tackle a few dares of her own. She wants Willa to stop listening to the universe and accepting that things happen for a reason as her father has taught her and take some risks and maybe take a different path or two that could have the power to change her life.

I felt connected to Willa from the first pages of this book. She’s vulnerable and uncertain in her journey in life just like so many of us are. Her husband Shawn needed a kick to his patoot but her brother Ollie was great. He is a yoga instructor to the stars but manages to get himself in hot water with his family trying to get him out of it. Her sister Raina had me laughing more than once as she popped her Xanax and then kept handing one over to Willa. They were just great characters who I really enjoyed spending some time with.

I listened to the audiobook of The Theory of Opposites which is narrated by Christine Traister. I’ve never listened to her before but I wouldn’t hesitate to again. She was fantastic with her different voices and all the emotions she put into each character. Just wonderful!

I loved The Theory of Opposites and would recommend it in a heartbeat to readers who enjoy women’s fiction. As with all of Allison’s novels this one leaves you asking yourself if life really is the old adage of ‘everything happens for a reason’ or is it all about the choices you make and what you do to make things happen for yourself?

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Buy at: Amazon, Amazon Canada, and B&N

Source: Audiobook from my personal library.

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The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell

November 12, 2013 by Darlene

In The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell the opening is sure to grab your attention…

“Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved. “

Marnie and Nelly come from one of the most dysfunctional families I’ve ever read about. Their mom Izzy was a drunk and neglected her girls and their father Gene was a druggie and an awful person. The girls are much better off without the both of them but now there is the problem of staying under the radar so that they aren’t put into foster care. Neither of them wants that. They want to stay together. Burying their parents in the backyard was their only solution. Until their neighbor Lennie begins to get suspicious.

Now Lennie has his own bad reputation in the neighborhood to deal with. He is a gay man but that’s not the issue. The issue is he was caught doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. I was prepared to fully despise this man and yet I couldn’t. He took the girls under his wing and cared for them the best he could. Then there is Vlado who is another man wanting to help them but he’s a drug dealer. Eventually, despite their best efforts to keep everything secret, all the lies come out and they end up at their Gramps house. There are reasons the girl’s mother was how she was and the girls may be in even more danger at his house than anywhere else.

I guess I’m in the middle with this book. The beginning threw me off some but by the middle I found I couldn’t put it down and needed to know how everything would turn out. It is a very dark story which in itself doesn’t bother me nor does the bad language throughout. Maybe it was because I didn’t feel a connection with the girls although I really liked Nelly. She is considered slow and yet for all her slowness she seemed to be the more level headed of the girls and she could be quite amusing amid the darker side of this novel. Ultimately this book held my interest. It is gritty, raw, and real and yet shows the resilience and hope of the human spirit.

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Buy at: Amazon, Amazon Canada, and B&N

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher. No compensation was received for this review and all opinions are my own.

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Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

November 11, 2013 by Darlene

Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson is the She Reads Book Club selection for November. This is my first book, well technically my second by Joshilyn Jackson as I listened to the prequel to this novel My Own Miraculous the other day and it was awesome especially with Jackson narrating it herself. What I will say is how crazy am I to have waited this long to read the work of this amazing writer! Someone Else’s Love Story is a mix of love, destiny, and of learning who you are and what you ultimately want from life.

Shandi makes the decision to move to her father’s condo in Atlanta and finish up college and her father has promised the best schools for her son Nathan – nicknamed Natty. Natty is three years old and he’s a genius. She’s excited at the prospect of a new future until, on the way there, she and Natty find themselves in a store during a robbery. Also in the store is one of the most amazing men Shandi has ever seen who ends up getting shot in the process of trying to protect everyone. Shandi is already imagining a future with William and when he’s laid out on the floor and whispers destiny to her she’s hooked…but did this destiny involve her or someone else?

The one thing the robbery did for Shandi was make her realize that she had to stop being weak and face her own life head on. She still has so many questions about the night Natty was conceived. She tries to take charge of William’s care but his best friend Paula keeps shoving her away, telling her that William could never love her. On the flip side her best friend Walcott has started to act strange. They have been best friends for forever and it’s not like him to be so angry and discouraging of her friendship with William. As we all know though things are never as they seem and that most certainly fits for all these characters. There are a number of things going on in the background of everyone’s lives and it’s just a matter of time before it all explodes in one big emotional heap.

There were a few characters in this novel that I absolutely adored with the first being Natty. Hearing his little three year old self say adult things was the cutest thing and I just felt this need to protect this little guy myself. The men in this novel, both Walcott and William, were awesome. Walcott is the poetry spouting type while William is the big strong man, yet each is attractive in his own way. I liked Shandi but she grated on my nerves a bit although I very much admired that even at a young age she protected her son with everything she had. Then there was Paula, Williams’s best friend who just made me laugh.

Someone Else’s Love Story is full of great characters and a story that really made me think about love stories. It doesn’t have to be a man/woman type of love. There are many others … parent/child, furbabies/parents, the relationship we may have with God and likely many more. It also makes us think about whether love is just destiny or does it all boil down to some scientific explanation? For me, I don’t think so. I still like to believe in destiny and miracles. Someone Else’s Love Story is a great pick for book clubs and for anyone else looking for a charming, heart felt story that has some unexpected twists in it!

Check out other thoughts on the book over at She Reads

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Buy at: Amazon, Amazon Canada, and B&N

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher. No compensation was received for this review and all opinions are my own.

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We Are Water by Wally Lamb (Audiobook)

November 8, 2013 by Darlene

We Are Water is Wally Lamb’s latest masterpiece. I’ve read several of his novels and this one is no different tackling issues that others may not. He writes in such a way that he sucks the reader into the world he’s built and whether good or bad you can’t stop reading. We Are Water is no exception. It is an excellent novel and the audiobook version is amazing. In We Are Water, Wally Lamb has woven a complicated and intricate tale of an American family and the tragedies of the secrets they keep.

Orion Oh, a psychologist, thinks that life is going along quite smoothly until his wife of twenty-seven years tells him she’s leaving him and marrying a woman. Neither he nor their three children, Ariana and her twin Andrew and Marissa, understand what is going on with Anna and Andrew especially does not approve of her relationship with Viveca. To top it off Anna wants to be married in their hometown of Three Rivers in Connecticut. Even though Orion is angry about the whole situation he still loves Anna and wants the best for her.

The wedding and breakup up of their family unearths a lot of emotions for the Oh family. With the book being told from various perspectives we get to see both the past and present of the characters. We see that Anna has suffered great tragedy as a youngster and that it has manifested itself in different ways as an adult. The secrets she has kept – dark, disturbing, and painful – have had a rippling effect on her own family. Consequently her marriage and her children have also suffered. We learn that Orion’s father was not a presence in his life and how it has affected him as well as his anger at himself for not always seeing what was happening in his own home. We see how the children have coped as kids with a sometimes unstable environment and as adults with their mother leaving her marriage for a woman.

This novel explores many issues and some make it difficult to continue reading. Yet these issues make up the reasons for the dysfunction that is surrounding this family. There are other issues tackled as well like gay marriage and homophobia, racial issues, and abuse of children. Again some of these are extremely hard to read about but they tie into the telling of this novel in a huge way. While there are difficult themes in this novel there is also forgiveness, hope, and a love that is enduring through the good times and bad.

I listened to the audiobook of We Are Water which is narrated by some pretty awesome narrators including Wally Lamb who is the voice of Orion and he is a great narrator and perfect for that character. Along with Wally Lamb the other narrators include George Guidall, Maggie-Meg Reed, Tavia Gilbert, Richard Ferrone, Edoardo Ballerini, Cynthia Darlow, and Therese Plummer. This audiobook comes alive in your mind like a movie production and for me it was so well done! We Are Water comes highly recommended!

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Buy at: Amazon, Amazon Canada, and B&N

Source: Audiobook from my own personal library.

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Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Jill Mansell (Audiobook)

November 6, 2013 by Darlene

I have been reading Jill Mansell’s books for a few years now and I adore them! The newest from Sourcebooks is Don’t Want to Miss a Thing and yet again another from Jill Mansell to rave about. Her novels remind me of taking my favorite sweater out of the dryer all warm and cozy and putting it on. I know when I curl up in my favorite spot with her newest offering that I’m in for a comforting treat to the senses and once again she delivered with Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. It was sweet, funny, and even a tiny bit sad but oh so fantastic!

Dexter is a regular ladies man. He enjoys the single life, meeting women, and doing what he wants when he wants. He has no intentions of getting tied down… that is until his sister passes on and he’s left to raise his eight-month-old baby niece Delphi. Needless to say his first thought is to find a good home for her because obviously he isn’t even remotely parent material but as more and more people tell him that his niece is better off without him raising her he becomes determined to do just that. So he gives up his high paying job and moves both he and Delphi out to a small English village and sets up house. It’s rough going since he hasn’t much experience with babies but he’s learning and more than that he’s finding that little Delphi is stealing his heart and he’ll do anything for her. Yet even away from the city and the parties and such Dexter still attracts the attention of women… the problem though is that it isn’t the attention of the one woman that he wants.

I was completely hooked on this book from the very first chapter. Even though Dex was a womanizer in the beginning he has this charming quality that draws you to him and then once he starts with caring for his baby niece – well then he becomes even more attractive. I like that he opened himself up to life and love and grew so much as a person and a man. The other character I really liked was Molly who is an artist and lives next door to Dex and Delphi. When Dex first makes his interest in her known she pretty much turns him down flat but as time goes on she begins to wonder if she made the right decision. The back and forth banter kind of relationship between the two was pretty amusing. Then there is the rest of the village full of quirky and delightful characters. While they may not play a huge role they still fit perfectly in with the story and it wouldn’t be the same without them. As with all of Jill’s books I found myself really caring about these characters and what would happen with them. To me that is always a mark of a really good book.

I listened to the audiobook of Don’t Want to Miss a Thing which is narrated by Clare Corbett who has fast become a favorite narrator of mine. She is utterly fantastic and adds so much to story just in the way she tells it. She really does fabulous voices and I must say my favorite was her Delphi babble. It was awesome and made me smile each and every time I heard it. The audio version is pretty much eleven hours and it flies by so quickly that before you know it you are at the end of yet another amazing novel by a favorite author. Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Jill Mansell is another winner for me and one I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend of course!

Buy at: Sourcebooks, Amazon, Amazon Canada, and B&N

Source: Audiobook from my personal library.

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The Queen of Bad Decisions & Must Love Sandwiches by Janel Gradowski

November 4, 2013 by Darlene

The Queen of Bad Decisions (The Bartonville Series) is a novella and it is the newest offering from author Janel Gradowski and quite an enjoyable way to spend an hour or two while curled up in your favorite chair with a yummy beverage. It’s a great short story about a woman who finally realizes that she has come to the point where her bad decisions outweigh her good ones and it’s time to make a change. Paired with foodie references and a few recipes it makes for good reading indeed!

Daisy is one of those women I think many of us can relate to. She has finally walked out on her useless no good for nothing boyfriend and is at a crossroads in her life. She knows changes need to be made but struggles with how to go about making them. One thing she knows for sure is she can’t live with her parents for long or she’ll have a home but it’ll be in the looney bin.

I really liked Daisy and she is one of those characters that I could see myself being friends with. She loves to cook, but not bake and loves to knit. Even better she gets to work in a book store. I felt a kinship of sorts with her and I think others will too. Do you think Daisy will be able to get her life on track? Well I guess you’ll have to read it and find out because I’m not giving that part away…

Buy at: Amazon, Amazon Canada

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Must Love Sandwiches (The Bartonville Series) by Janel Gradowski comes after The Queen of Bad Decisions even though it was published before it. I really enjoyed getting to visit again with Daisy and meet her best friend Emma. The two live in an artist’s colony and while Daisy is still looking for love Emma has sworn off men. Having discovered she’s more like her mother than she wants to be in terms of not being able to be alone without a man in her life she vows that she’s going to do it this time. On their trips to the lunch trucks Daisy falls for Marshall and Emma meets Brad. She’s determined to hold him at arms length no matter how right for her he seems. Will these two women finally be able to find the love they so crave…

Again I enjoyed Daisy’s character. I really like her and her no nonsense attitude. I also liked Emma. She seems to be vulnerable and uncertain at times because of her past and that endears her to the reader. Most of all I like that these women and their situations seem so real. They seem like the kind of women I could have as friends. Again there are the craft and foodie references along with a few recipes that I always love to see in a book making Must Love Sandwiches a great read.

Buy eBook at: Amazon, Amazon Canada, and B&N

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Both The Queen of Bad Decisions and Must Love Sandwiches are enjoyable reads. What I like is that they are shorter than an average novel so I can fit them in when I feel like something light. Janel also includes some bonus stories at the end of each of these books that she describes as “truffle” length that are little bites that can be read even while you’re on a coffee break. They include people that are mentioned in the longer books which is interesting as it develops these side characters as well.

I also feel I should mention that while I’m a good friend of Janel’s having met her through the blogging world about five years ago this in no way influenced my opinion of her books. If I truly hadn’t enjoyed them I wouldn’t be reviewing them. I’m really proud of her and I can’t wait to read more of The Bartonville series as well as anything else she ventures to write!

Check out Janel’s website for more info on her work!

Source: Review copy of The Queen of Bad Decisions received from the author. I purchased Must Love Sandwiches. No compensation was received for these reviews and all opinions are my own.

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