Reached by Ally Condie

Reached by Ally Condie
Published by Dutton Juvenile, an imprint of Penguin

I’ve felt progressively less excited with this trilogy as the books have gone on, and all I can say about this final installment is that I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad I read it, to see how things turned out for Cassia and Ky and Xander, but I’m more glad it’s done. This sounds horrible, I know, but I just grew bored with the whole thing and I found this third book to be much too long for what it accomplished.

One thing I did like about Reached, and I believe I felt this way about the earlier two books as well, is the excellent writing. Condie really does write beautifully, and the book is full of philosophical questions about life, freedom, the inherent right we have to choice as human beings, and all kinds of other important things. The way she infuses poetry and other historically important writings throughout these books is really smart and gives this series a bit more substance than your typical dystopian novel.

I do like how Condie chose to end this series but I just felt that the book was overall too long and I got bored while reading it. The resolution was good, though, so I don’t know. I think if you liked the first two books you should probably finish the thing. I just wasn’t thrilled with the second book and wasn’t overwhelmed with love for Reached, either.

Did you read this series? Thoughts?

The Expats by Chris Pavone

The Expats by Chris Pavone
Published by Crown, an imprint of Random House

Kate Moore quit her (secret, even from her husband) gig as CIA agent when her husband’s job gave them the opportunity to move to Luxembourg for a year. And even though Kate’s life in Luxembourg consists of play dates, coffee with other expat moms, and weekend trips to beautiful cities in Europe, she can’t detach herself fully from her spy roots. She is distrustful of everyone, and she begins to think that the American couple she and her husband have become close with are not who they say they are, so she starts to investigate them. What she finds causes her to turn her suspicions on her own husband, and the more she learns the more she realizes she isn’t the only one who’s been keeping secrets all these years.

The Expats was another book club pick that I wouldn’t have chosen to read on my own, and yet another time when I remembered to be thankful for my book clubs. I was highly entertained by this novel and truly had a difficult time putting it down. The twists and turns Pavone takes the reader on start right from the beginning and don’t end until the final page is turned. The book is really plot-driven, which I loved, but the characters are still developed enough to make me interested in them. A winning combination, at least to me.

It’s difficult for me to say too much about this book because SO much of it is about the plot, and to say anything specific about the plot would spoil what makes the novel so great. I definitely wasn’t expecting everything that happened, and what I loved about it is that Pavone truly made the novel an adventure to read. My mind was spinning while reading, trying to stay a step ahead of Kate and figure out what she was trying desperately to figure out, but I just couldn’t get there. It was only at the very end, when everything comes together, when Kate finally learns the truth, that I also had the ah-ha moment Pavone handed to me. And there’s even one last thing, a secret that Kate has been keeping from the reader, that hit me like a smack in the face when it was revealed. It was a great moment and an excellent ending.

I don’t know what else to say other than The Expats was pure entertainment for me. I truly enjoyed it and it was exactly the type of novel I needed when I read it. If you’re looking for an, exciting, twisty book chock-full of plot, look no further than The Expats.

Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield

Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield
Published by MIRA, an imprint of Harlequin
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Lucy Takeda is fourteen years old when, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she and her mother are forced to leave their home, friends, and possessions and taken to the Manzanar prison camp. Separated from the one family member they have there, Lucy’s aunt, she and her mother are forced to make a new “life” in awful, unthinkable conditions. Thirty years later, Lucy’s daughter, Patty, learns of a local man who has been killed in his own home, and discovers that the police have narrowed in on her mother as a possible suspect. Patty’s concern for her mother leads her to doing some research on the man who was killed, and she discovers a connection to the prison camp she knows her mother lived in as a child but never, ever talks about. As the murder investigation continues, Lucy finally begins to open up to Patty about the horrors she suffered as a child, and Patty learns more about the horrific decisions Lucy’s mother, Miyako, was forced to make while at Manzanar.

Garden of Stones is an incredibly moving novel that will be an emotional read for even the most heartless of readers. This story of atrocities committed at a Japanese-American internment camp is incredibly difficult to read, but at the same time it’s an important read. As Americans, it’s crucial that we understand our history and the choices that we made as a country in the past so that we can make sure never to repeat them. And in Garden of Stones, Littlefield brings these atrocities to life in a way that makes the truth of what happened to Japanese-Americans during World War Two as real as possible.

Littlefield’s characters practically jump off the page in this novel, they are that authentic. I was heartbroken, breathless, and almost in tears as I read about how Lucy and her mother Miyako had to suffer the most horrific of conditions simply because they were of Japanese descent. I felt so deeply for these characters and for what they were going through, and as the book tips towards a shocking climax, I couldn’t put it down and leave these characters. I had to stick with them and find out how everything would turn out for them.

The interesting thing about Garden of Stones is that it’s apparent from the very onset that there are many secrets that Lucy is keeping from her daughter, and the reader can guess at them throughout the novel, but nothing prepares the reader for the shocking truth. The story is told in alternating chapters between past and present, so Lucy’s past is revealed at an incredibly slow pace, and this just adds to the feeling of tension and build-up in the novel.

There’s so many great things about Garden of Stones, I’ve barely skimmed the surface with this review. It’s a historical fiction novel about a dark time in American history. It’s a story with great characters that have to make difficult choices while facing impossible situations. It has a thriller feeling to it because there’s so much mystery surrounding what happened at the camp to Lucy and her mother. It’s good on so many levels, and I highly recommend reading it.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Published by St. Martin’s Griffin, an imprint of Macmillan
Review copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley

The year is 1986 when we meet Eleanor and Park, two misfit high school students who find in one another everything missing in each of their lives. This is a story of an unlikely pair, of first love, of two teenagers trying to figure things out, of two teenagers that believe to the core of their souls that everything will be okay in the world as long as they have each other.

This is perhaps one of the most adorable love stories I have ever read. These kids are so out of place at their school, they each have stuff going on at home that is heartbreaking, yet what they find in one another is the unconditional love each is so desperate for. My heart was full to bursting as I read the story of how their barely-friendship turned into the kind of all-consuming love we all long for and hope to find.

Eleanor & Park is more complex and layered than your typical love story. Eleanor and Park deal with bullying, issues at home (including abuse), racism, and more. They are two kids who have to grow up over the course of the novel, both in love and in life. But what’s so beautiful is that they do this growing up together, as a couple, but also as individuals. It’s brilliant to read and by the end of the book, I was in tears and in awe at these two amazing kids. I loved them.

Eleanor & Park is such a winning combination of a great story, excellent and true characters, and pure heart that I couldn’t put this book down. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend this fantastic novel.

Indiscretion by Charles Dubow

Indiscretion by Charles Dubow
Published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins
Review copy received at SIBA and for a TLC Book Tour

Harry and Madeline Winslow have the perfect life – they’ve been blessed with money, talent, and beauty, have the best group of friends, a handsome young son, and a wonderful marriage. One weekend at their second home in the Hamptons, they meet Claire, a young twenty-something who is dating an acquaintance of theirs, and are charmed by her instantly. Maddy and Claire become friends, but soon Claire’s relationship to their family threatens to destroy everything Harry and Maddy have held so dear.

This book has received some major buzz, and when I first heard about it at SIBA I was immediately interested. I’m here to tell you that this thing is unputdownable. It’s the kind of book that grips you and won’t let you go until you have raced through to the final page. It’s actually very difficult for me to review – I just want to tell you to stop reading my thoughts and pick up the book instead. But I’ll go ahead and give you just a little more insight as to what exactly made Indiscretion so fantastic for me.

First of all, the characters practically jump off the page. I felt like I was a part of this world, a part of Harry and Maddy’s orbit, and I wanted to spend as much time with them as I possibly could. I was so charmed by the two of them, and could completely understand why Claire felt a deep desire to be a part of their world. And Walter – Maddy’s best friend, the guy who narrates the book and tells the reader this story – well, his character is genius to me. It was voyeuristic and strange in the best possible way to have this guy tell me the story of his best friends and how their lives unraveled in such a disastrous way.

There is this horrible ominous feeling throughout the entire book that is just incredible. You know something is going to go terribly wrong, these people can’t possibly have a happy ending, yet you just don’t know what’s coming or when. There was a point at which it all became crystal clear to me and I had to put the book down and take a few deep breaths before picking it back up and reading what I predicted would happen but hoped wouldn’t – like a car crash, I couldn’t look away but desperately wanted to.

I don’t know what else to say. I loved Indiscretion so much and I do think you should pick it up. I honestly do see it being a Gone Girl type of read that has tons of hype, everyone reads it, but people either love or hate it. I’m definitely interested to see what some other people think but I, for one, thought Indiscretion was excellent.

This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
Published by St. Martin’s Griffin, an imprint of Macmillan

Sloane Price is a teenager when the end of the world begins. She escapes the masses of dead bodies, brought back to life and aching to bite anything still living, with five other students barricaded inside the high school. But Sloane’s life ended months ago when her sister left, leaving her to survive their father’s abuse alone. Now she’s struggling to find a reason to live, and although she’s living through the apocalypse with five people who are hopeful for their survival, she must decide if she can find a reason to stick around. With everything in her life gone, Sloane has to figure out if there’s anything left worth holding onto.

I have to admit that I’m not sure zombie stories are really my thing. I have liked some of them (such as The Forrest of Hands and Teeth series), but others I’ve had difficulty with and even given up on (Warm Bodies comes to mind – couldn’t get through it). This Is Not a Test falls somewhere in the middle. While I liked Sloane and felt deeply for her, I was more concerned with the human aspects of this novel than the zombies. Because it was more about the six of them still hanging onto their lives, I overall enjoyed it, but I do think it was my least favorite Courtney Summers novel due to the zombie stuff.

I empathized with Sloane right away, though. She had an incredibly traumatic life before the apocalypse, and basically everyone in her life who was supposed to protect her had either abused her or abandoned her. So she was pretty indifferent to being alive, and at one point she put herself in harm’s way with the intent to get bitten, with the intent to die. I definitely felt that she was the strongest part of the book, for me, as reading her struggle to decide whether to live or die felt very authentic to me, in the midst of a zombie story. What she was going through was not a normal situation, but she reacted to it based on everything she’d already been through in her life.

While I was interested in the dynamics between the group of six teens, for me this book was mostly Sloane’s story, more about her personal struggle than how she related to the rest of the group. Obviously they played a huge part in the story, but to me they were each a minor character in this story about Sloane’s conquering her internal demons, and therefore I didn’t much connect to any of them.

Summers has no fear in this book! She was not afraid to make Bad Things happen to her characters, and I applaud her for that. I also really liked her stark, cold writing style, a style that I’m almost always on board with but also one that really worked well with the subject matter of the book.

I listened to the audio of This Is Not a Test, narrated by Stephanie Cannon, which was just okay for me. Cannon has a hint of an English accent and I found that to be a little strange. I felt she did a good job with the narration, but I was really distracted by her voice.

I don’t have a ton of experience with zombie books, and I do fear sometimes that they aren’t for me. That being said, I did enjoy This Is Not a Test, due to Summers’ excellent writing and the main character, Sloane, who completely won me over. I would recommend this one for fans of zombie books and YA fiction.

The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley

The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley
Published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins
Review copy provided by the publisher in conjunction with TLC Book Tours

Matt and Elle, best friends since childhood, are now in their thirties, happily married and trying to conceive a child. But when Elle suffers a fatal accident that leaves her brain-dead, it is discovered that she’s carrying a child, and Matt must decide whether to let her go or allow modern medicine to keep her alive in hopes that she can bring the baby to term. Matt knows that Elle’s biggest fear, something that terrified her and kept her up at night, was the idea of being kept alive by machines. But he also knows that she wanted so desperately to have a child, and that she would have done anything in the world to protect her unborn child. So he must make a difficult decision, one that will land him in court, battling against his own mother for his own child’s life.

This story starts off with a major tragedy and right from the start, the reader can see that it will be an emotional roller coaster. And The Promise of Stardust is definitely that – I couldn’t put the book down, but at the same time my emotions were all over the place while reading it. I went from loving Matt’s mom to hating her, from feeling sorry to Matt to being angry with him, and most of all I felt such deep sadness for this entire family.

The Promise of Stardust is interesting in that it goes back and forth in time, giving the reader a complete picture of Matt and Elle’s love story in parallel to what’s going on with her accident in the present. What I liked about this is that even though Elle’s not much of a character in the present, the reader still really gets to know her throughout the novel. As a result, I completely understood why Matt felt the way he did about the choices he was making AND I completely understood why his mom felt the way she did. It was confusing and almost impossible and I was just a spectator in the whole situation. Ultimately, I was left feeling that Matt was in the right, that he was doing what he knew his wife would have wanted, but I cannot imagine being in that situation and having to make that decision myself.

This book would make a great book club pick because there’s plenty in here to discuss. I would definitely recommend it for that reason. However, The Promise of Stardust reminded me a LOT of Jodi Picoult’s novels, and I know there are many out there who don’t enjoy that style of book, so be warned if you’re in that camp. I did like it, I finished it rather quickly, and was basically captivated the entire time, so I would definitely recommend giving it a try if you enjoy these kinds of books (as I do). Recommended!

An Uncommon Education

An Uncommon Education by Elizabeth Percer
Published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins
Review copy provided by the publisher

Naomi Feinstein spends much of her childhood dreaming of becoming a doctor, and even the devastating event of her best friend’s moving away when she is young cannot deter her from that dream. When she’s accepted into Wellesley, she is sure she’ll find her place in the world. Wellesley, unfortunately, is not the perfection she imagined it would be, and Naomi finds herself just as alone as ever, except this time she’s in a sea of girls who seem to have everything together. When she receives an invitation in her second year to join the Shakespeare Society, it finally feels like things in her life are falling into place. But secret societies are rife with scandals, and Naomi finds herself smack dab in the middle of a huge one – and she’s forced to make choices about loyalty, friendship, and about putting herself first.

I had high hopes for An Uncommon Education. And actually I was really enjoying this novel in the beginning. I loved the relationship between Naomi and her childhood friend Teddy. I was captivated by their chaste best-friendship and interested to see what Percer would do with this relationship once they grew up. Unfortunately, when Naomi is around twelve years old, Teddy’s mother moves him away and he’s not spoken of until the very end of the book. This was a huge disappointment to me, as it was only in the moments Naomi was with Teddy that I connected to her at all. So I was left feeling frustrated and annoyed that my favorite aspect of the novel was cut so short.

Overall, I just didn’t connect to the novel like I’d hoped I would. I wanted to like Naomi, but I found her prickly and just couldn’t get to know her fully. I didn’t get as into the Shakespeare Society element of the book as I had expected I would, and when a tragedy happened towards the end of the novel, I didn’t feel as sad as one would expect. I liked the concept though, and there were parts of the novel I did really like (most notably, Naomi’s childhood). Also I found the writing to be excellent.

I’m torn on this one because while there were elements about it I liked, the overall experience was less than stellar. I’ve seen some pretty favorable reviews, though, so don’t just take my word for it. If you like this kind of story it might work better for you than it did for me.

Margaret from Maine by Joseph Monninger

Margaret from Maine by Joseph Moninger
Published by Plume, an imprint of Penguin
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Margaret Kennedy’s husband, Thomas, is a war veteran who was injured in Iraq and will never be the person he once was. In fact, he’s basically in a vegetative state and the doctors don’t believe he will ever get better. Margaret still finds joy in her life, though, working on the farm her father-in-law owns and taking care of her young son, Gordon. When the President signs a bill in support of wounded veterans, Margaret is invited to the capital for the gala that follows. Charlie King, a Foreign Service officer, volunteers to escort her to the event, and when Margaret accepts his offer she has no idea what she’s getting herself into. Before she knows it, she’s head over heels in love with Charlie and faced with an awful decision to make.

I tried really hard to like this book. Honestly, I put my best effort into it. Unfortunately, I found myself loathing the time I spent with it, and even though I did finish the thing, I can’t come even close to recommending it. I’ll try to explain why without being too harsh and relatively quickly. Here we go.

First of all, the entire premise is incredibly unrealistic. I get the love at first sight thing but this was insanely quick. Margaret and Charlie knew each other for all of ten minutes before they were completely in love and in my opinion that just doesn’t happen. I get that a lot of romance novels have that crazy fast-paced thing happening but this was WAY fast.

Also, the writing felt clunky and awkward, the dialogue was just weird, and I had a difficult time really getting into the feel of the book and connecting to any of the characters. The novel is set in the present day but the way it was written gave it a much older feel (1950′s is what I was thinking while reading it).

The book tries to say big, important things about war in general, about whether the current war or any war is worth the countless lives lost, and also about the care we give to our wounded veterans, but ultimately I felt like it simply tried to say those things and didn’t make the points clearly or forcefully enough to really say much at all. Also, the ending was sort of good. But besides that, there was so much I didn’t like about Margaret from Maine that I can’t recommend it. Unless you REALLY like romance and are willing to overlook everything else. In that case, by all means! Enjoy.

Overall, even though I tried to like this book, it’s so not my cup of tea.

Out of The Easy by Ruta Sepetys

Out of The Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Published by Philomel, an imprint of Penguin
Review copy received at SIBA

Josie Moraine is an ordinary girl growing up in New Orleans in the 1950′s. Except that she’s anything but ordinary – her mother is a prostitute, she lives alone in an apartment at the bookshop where she works (has since she’s twelve, and she’s seventeen now), and even though she comes from sordid roots, Josie has desperate dreams of getting out of the Quarter and going to college at Smith. Josie concocts a plan to get the letter of recommendation she needs to get into college, but just as things begin to fall into place for her, the demons of her mother’s choices come back to haunt her and she becomes trapped in an impossible situation.

If you read Sepetys’ haunting, morbidly beautiful novel Between Shades of Gray, please understand that Out of The Easy is about as different from her first novel as possible. I say that because it’s important to understand that Sepetys is truly talented – she can write about the most opposite of topics and pull each book off incredibly successfully. Out of The Easy is no Between Shades of Gray, but it’s a beautiful novel in its own right, one that I really loved.

I completely fell in love with Josie within the first ten pages of this novel. She reminded me so much of myself – bookish, from not the best of backgrounds, determined to make something of her life – although I’m not nearly as tough as she is! So maybe she reminded me of a better version of myself. But I admired her strength, her tenacity, her determination to create a better life for herself than the one that was expected of her. I loved the fact that life kept throwing her curve balls, and while she was tempted to stray from her planned course of action, she never really fell victim to her circumstances. Instead, she kept her head held high and forged ahead, choosing to do the right thing rather than the easy thing every single time.

Out of The Easy is action-packed but in a quieter way, if that makes sense. There’s a lot that happens over the course of the novel, but it’s not exactly fast-paced. It’s more like spaced out over the course of the book evenly, sort of how real life is (if your real life consists of your mom being a prostitute accused of murder, that is). The pace of the novel kept me turning pages compulsively, but not so anxiously that I missed anything.

I truly enjoyed Out of The Easy and highly recommend it. Sepetys is just as good as I hoped she would be in her second novel, and this book has so many elements within it for a reader to love. Highly recommended!