The Memory Thief by Emily Colin

The Memory Thief by Emily Colin
Published by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House
Review copy received at SIBA

One devastating night, Maddie Kimble receives the news she’s been dreading ever since she met her husband, Aidan – his adventurous, thrill-seeking ways have finally caught up to him and he was killed in an avalanche while climbing Mount McKinley. Maddie is left alone to care for their young son, Gabe, and the only person who can even begin to understand what she’s feeling is Aidan’s best friend, J.C. – who also happens to have been in love with Maddie for years. Hundreds of miles away, Nicholas Sullivan, upon waking up in a hospital bed, learns he’s just barely survived a motorcycle crash. With no memories of his life accessible to him, he strangely begins taking on new habits and behaviors, as well as dreaming about a woman and young child he’s never met before. As Maddie’s and Nicholas’s worlds collide, their lives will both be changed in dramatic, unexpected ways.

I’ve had this one languishing on my shelves since I received it in September at SIBA, so the fact that Emily Colin will be at the UCF Book Festival THIS weekend was the exact kick in the pants I needed to read it.

So, I feel compelled to mention this right off the bat – there is a bit of a supernatural thing going on in this book. You kind of can’t let the stuff that is not actually possible get in your way of enjoying the book. You just have to go with it and let Colin take you on this beautiful journey. Which she does – but you need to suspend your disbelief for a while to go there.

That being said, I found The Memory Thief to be a wonderful novel with so much to love. Maddie tugged at my heartstrings and oh my gosh, Gabe! What an adorable, insightful child he was. The reader gets to know Aidan only through Maddie’s memories, so I can’t say that I got to know him very well, but I must admit that I liked J.C. quite a bit more than the Aidan Maddie presented to the reader. This of course made it much easier for me to appreciate the fact that J.C. is also in love with Maddie, but I’m sure that was a move on the author’s part to get the reader to feel more sympathy for Maddie and J.C.’s situation. Which I definitely did.

At its heart, this is a love story. It’s a story of Maddie and Aidan’s love, but it is also the story of how Maddie found love after his death. It’s a love story fraught with complications, so it definitely is more interesting than your typical romance, but I was pulled into the book most often by the romantic aspects of it. And I rooted for Maddie to find the peace and happiness she truly deserved the whole time I was reading the book – to the point where I wanted to stand up and cheer when things went the way I was banking on them going!

So. The supernatural stuff was difficult for me to swallow, but once I got past it (in my mind, not in the book), I was able to really enjoy this beautifully crafted story Emily Colin has put together. If you like women’s fiction, or romance, or a combination of the two, I’d highly recommend trying out The Memory Thief.

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.

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.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Published by Pamela Dorman Books, an imprint of Penguin
Review copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley

Louisa Clark is a regular girl with a predictable life. She lives with her parents, her sister and her nephew, and she’s been dating her boyfriend Patrick for years. Her family is not well-off, though, and her parents have always depended on her income to help with household expenses, so when she is offered a high-paying job working for Will Traynor, wheelchair-bound after a horrible accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down, she jumps at the opportunity. Will is moody and rude, but Louisa refuses to take his bait and instead treats him like she would any other person, which lowers his defenses until they become almost like friends. When Louisa learns that he’s harboring a shocking secret, she makes it her life’s mission to teach Will the most important lesson any person can ever learn.

I’m not sure what to say about Me Before You that will convince you to read it. It’s a love story, sort of, but also it’s not a love story. It’s a story about someone who is living against all odds and is resilient  but also it’s not, because this guy is so depressed and angry about his accident that he’s not really living at all. It’s a story about an ordinary girl who does an extraordinary thing. It’s a story about how two people with absolutely nothing in common, who would have never even met one another in their “regular” lives became like family to one another, and as it turns out they have quite a bit in common, including the fact that they just might be in love with each other.

How about this? I SOBBED while reading this book. Cried like I almost never do. As Oprah says, this book unleashed in me “the ugly cry”. Me Before You shattered me, devastated me, just about killed me. But oh my goodness is this an amazing read, one that you have to check out.

I can’t possibly be eloquent about how much I loved this book, so I’ll stop here. Just read it.

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
Published by Harlequin Teen
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

From the publisher:

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.

But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Pushing the Limits is a fun YA romance with deeper themes running throughout. There’s no question that these two characters, Echo and Noah, are damaged. They are teens who have been through more than most teens should have to experience, so when they find each other there’s an instant connection. While Echo runs with a more popular crowd than Noah, her friends have all but abandoned her after the trauma she suffered, and it’s clear that they are not interested in trying to understand her emotional pain. So Noah – who is dealing with serious issues of his own – becomes a soft place for Echo to fall. And cue the kissing …

But really, the romance between the two of them is cute. I’d venture to say it’s even hot(ish). They are two people who desperately need to connect, and when they do, it’s sweet and sexy at the same time. Plus, they form a true friendship that runs deeper than their physical connection – they truly rely on one another for emotional support and help with their individual issues.

I liked this one. Bloggers are raving about it, so I have to admit I didn’t feel as strongly about some people, but I got lost in the story and definitely felt for the characters. Recommended for fans of YA romance!

Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James

Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James
Published by Vintage, an imprint of Random House

I wasn’t even going to talk about this book on the blog. I’m almost embarrassed about the fact that I broke down and read it. I decided to read it on vacation when I was having an impossible time concentrating on the book I planned to read (The Shadow of the Wind, which turned out to be excellent, and which I’ll be talking about next week). I’ve told just about everyone I know that I refuse to read this trilogy, but I finally decided I should at least try to read the thing before continuing to criticize everything about it.

So I read it. In about a day and a half. I have to admit, it’s a quick read. Maybe that’s the appeal? I don’t know, but what I do know is that looking back I feel like I wasted my time on a poorly-written, badly characterized, and entirely too repetitive book.

Now I really don’t care about the sex scenes. BDSM isn’t my thing, so I can’t say I was turned on by all the spanking and other, ahem, interesting things that Christian is into, but these things don’t bother me. What did bother me, however, was the truly awful writing. I highly doubt it is necessary to describe in excruciating detail every single thought that floats through Anastasia’s head, or every single time Christian tells her to stop biting her lip, or every single second of their relationship – what he did, how it made her feel, how she reacted, etc., etc., etc. Too much. Way, way too much.

And also, Christian’s BDSM preferences aside, the guy is a complete and total creep. Maybe there are some women out there who like to be controlled, who like to be told what to do and when to do it, who to see and especially who not to see, but I am definitely not one of those women. If I had a daughter and she wanted to be with a guy like this I would have to beg her to stay far, far away from him. And again, not at all because of the sex – whatever, if that’s what he likes okay fine, if he can find someone who’s willing to comply. It’s the creepiness, the almost-stalking, the demanding, all of that. Yuck.

So no, I didn’t like the book. Admittedly, I couldn’t put it down. Which is hilarious because I was making fun of it the entire time I was reading, telling my mom how ridiculous I thought it was and how much of an ass Christian was, and how if I read the words “oh, my” one more time I would throw the book into the pool, but there you have it – I flew through the book. Like I was saying, maybe its ease of access is part of the appeal? Or maybe it’s the fairy tale like fantasy of having a guy with unlimited money and the ability to “take care of” you? I don’t know. I don’t really get it, and I won’t be finishing the rest of the trilogy.

Did you read Fifty Shades? What did you think?

Ordinary World by Elisa Lorello

Ordinary World by Elisa Lorello
Published by AmazonEncore
Review copy provided by the publicist

Andi Cutrone is six years into her blissful marriage to her husband Sam, is a published author, and a tenured professor at Northampton University – basically, she has everything she ever wanted. All that is shattered when a horrific car accident takes Sam’s life, sending Andi into a world of pain and depression unlike anything she’s ever known. On the advice of a friend, about six months after Sam’s death, Andi travels to Italy to take some time for herself and attempt to regroup and heal from her loss. While in Italy, she reconnects with an old friend, Devin, the guy who inspired her years ago and helped her become the woman she is today. Their renewed friendship lifts Andi up, and she starts to believe that maybe she will be happy once again.

A few months ago, I read and loved Faking It [my review], the first novel by Elisa Lorello, so I was thrilled when I discovered she wrote this follow-up novel. For the most part, Ordinary World lived up to my expectations – and I did have rather high ones, since I loved the first book so much – but I have to admit that I did like the first novel a bit better than this one.

What I loved about Ordinary World is that Andi is the same Andi I’ve come to know and love from the first book – the exact type of character the reader can’t help but like. In this novel, she goes on yet another personal growth journey, this time it’s to find herself again after her husband’s death. In the beginning of the novel, her depression is palpable, her sadness is so clear on the page, and my heart just broke for her. I cannot imagine losing my husband – it’s something I avoid thinking about at all costs – but I am sure that if something that unspeakably horrible ever happened to me, it would be next to impossible for me to “get over it”. There’s just too much pain and grief there, and Lorello wrote that part of the book extremely well. I could feel Andi’s grief along with her, and I just hoped so much for her to find hope and happiness once again.

While Andi is the same old Andi from the first book, Devin has changed quite a bit. He’s grown up a lot, he’s matured, he’s made some decisions about what he wants out of life and what is truly important, and I have to admit that I had a difficult time adjusting to this new (and improved) Devin/David. Once I got used to him, though, I was happy to see his progression and I rooted for him and Andi to figure things out and finally make it work as a couple. There was a lot of push/pull with the two of them throughout this book and while that made for some sexual/romantic tension, it got a little annoying after a while. These are two adults who just had the most difficult time admitting their feelings for one another. I didn’t quite get that – I wanted to scream at both of them. But I was happy with the resolution of the novel and admittedly, it was fun reading along while they slowly found their way there.

Ordinary World, like its predecessor, Faking It, is chick lit with a lot of depth. These books are perfect for when you are looking for something light but still want to feel emotionally connected to the characters and the story. I liked Ordinary World as a sequel, I think it wrapped up things nicely for Andi Cutrone, but I would definitely recommend reading these two books in order. So make sure you go back and read Faking It first!

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Title:  The Time Traveler’s Wife

Author:  Audrey Niffenegger

Release date:  May 27, 2004

Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Pages:  546

Genre:  Adult fiction

Source:  Personal copy

I first read The Time Traveler’s Wife about six years ago, when it was first published, and ever since then I have counted it among my favorite books.  I was a little nervous to reread it, because I know that at twenty years old, I was a much different person than I am now, and perhaps my enjoyment of it might have diminished with the years in between.  I needn’t have worried because the novel was everything I remembered it to be, and I loved it just as much, if not more than, I did the first time I read it!

If you are unfamiliar with the plot of this novel (hard to imagine anyone would be, but just in case…), the story centers around Clare and Henry.  Henry is a time traveler – although his time traveling is completely involuntary, sort of like a genetic disorder.  One minute he’ll be in his normal life, the next minute he will be sucked into the events of twenty years ago, for example.  And when he’s back in time, he’s completely a whole person – the people there can see him, talk to him, touch him, etc.  Anyway, Clare meets Henry for the first time when she is a kid – he time travels into her backyard – and in Henry’s present, he and Clare are married.  So Clare effectively knows Henry her entire life, and she knows from a young age that she is going to marry him.  Henry meets Clare for the first time in his present at age twenty-six.  It sounds confusing, but Niffenegger makes it flow really well, so it’s not confusing at all when you’re reading about it.

This novel really is the ultimate love story.  It is a tale of epic love, of love that knows no bounds, of love that literally never dies, of two people destined to be together regardless of the hell they have to go though (individually and as a couple) to make that happen.  The way their love changes and grows over time and goes from innocent first-time love to a mature and stable marriage is a joy to read about.

Having read this novel twice now, I feel that I KNOW these characters.  I feel like they are a part of my life, like we were friends once or something.  This will give you a good idea of how well they are written, about how realistic Henry and Clare are in this story.  Because their story felt so real to me, I must admit that I bawled like a baby for the last 100 pages of the novel.  I haven’t cried like that while reading a book in a long time.  This book just does that to me.

Anyway, I still love this book.  If you haven’t read it yet, please do.  Whether you love or hate it, I want to know your feelings and why!  Because seriously, folks, this is one amazing novel.  Please read it for yourself to find out why.

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

Title:  Redeeming Love

Author:  Francine Rivers

Release date:  October 1991

Publisher:  Multnomah Books

Pages:  480

Genre:  Christian fiction, historical romance

Source:  Borrowed from a friend

The year is 1850, the place is California during the gold rush.  Angel is the most desired prostitute in her brothel, but having been sold into prostitution as a young child, she is a broken woman who distrusts all men, and believes that every person has an ulterior motive when they do something nice for her.  Michael Hosea is a simple farmer whose strong devotion to God allows him to receive a message from Him telling Michael he must marry Angel.  Obedient as he is, he finds her, tells her of his plans, and takes her from the brothel where she’s lived for fifteen years back to his home.  As Angel begins to love Michael as he loves her, memories of her awful past come back in waves to haunt her.  She must learn to trust Michael, and his God, if she is to find happiness and security in her own life and within herself.

I’ve been meaning to read more Christian fiction for some time now, so when a friend from church placed this in my hands on the eve of my trip to California recently and told me to read it on the plane, I complied despite the fact that I typically don’t read romance novels.  While I had some issues with the novel, overall Redeeming Love was a great story and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to pick it up.

Let’s start with what I didn’t like as much.  First, it took me much longer than I would have liked to get into the story.  Normally if this is the case, I’ll put the book down after 50-100 pages and give up.  But since I had told a friend I would read it, and I wanted to discuss it with her no matter what my reaction was, I plugged along.  I’m happy that I did, of course, but for me too many pages went by before I cared about these characters.  Perhaps they could have been written in such a way as to make me like them from the beginning.  I also had a little bit of a problem with the writing in the book.  I just felt that it wasn’t anything special, that there were some awkward phrasing and some stilted conversations that could have been smoother.  These are just minor complaints, really, but in the beginning of the novel they really caused me to think twice about picking it up at all.

Now the good stuff.  I definitely ended up liking Angel, I liked her a lot actually, even though she frustrated me to no end.  I felt for her in a big way, she had been completely abandoned by both her father and mother at a young age, and forced to do things no child should ever know about, much less have to do to survive.  It was no wonder she had a difficult time trusting Michael and believing in God.  At the same time, I couldn’t help being annoyed by her when she kept running away from the security Michael was trying to provide for her.  I understand that she couldn’t believe in him, but couldn’t she at least stick it out for a few months and see what would happen?  All these times of her running away and distrusting made the end that much more powerful though, so it was worth it for me as a reader.  I liked Michael too, he is pretty much the definition of a devout Christian.  Whatever God told him to do, he did.  It’s kind of insane to imagine someone marrying a prostitute who they’ve never met and subsequently falling in love with her, all in the name of God’s will, but Redeeming Love made the concept completely believable.

I read that Redeeming Love was Rivers’ first book after becoming a Christian, and I feel like her questions and insecurities about God were probably mirrored in Angel’s.  This gave the book an authentic feel that would probably have been difficult to see otherwise.  All Christians have questions and fears (at least everyone I know does), but Angel’s were way beyond the norm, just because of how she’d been treated in her life up until the point where she met Michael Hosea.  So it was completely understandable for her to question everything he told her about God, for her to be uncomfortable in church, for her to not believe that God cares for her particularly, etc.  It made the novel feel very real and honest to me.

If you’re a fan of romance, or a Christian, or both, I’d highly recommend this novel.  It’s very God-centered, so if you’re not into that, I would recommend the book but with some hesitations that you may not love it.  All in all, though, the ending of the book is satisfying enough for any reader and the characters are deep enough for everyone to enjoy and relate to them.  Redeeming Love is a solid Christian fiction novel that I’m happy to say I really enjoyed.

Review: Breathing

Title:  Breathing

Author:  Cheryl Renee Herbsman

Published:  April 16, 2009

Page Count:  272

ISBN:  978-0670011230

My Rating:  3/5

Savannah would be happy to spend the summer in her coastal Carolina town working at the library and lying in a hammock reading her beloved romance novels. But then she meets Jackson. Once they lock eyes, she’s convinced he’s the one—her true love, her soul mate, a boy different from all the rest. And at first it looks like Savannah is right. Jackson abides by her mama’s strict rules, and stays by her side during a hospitalization for severe asthma, which Savannah becomes convinced is only improving because Jackson is there. But when he’s called away to help his family—and seems uncertain about returning—Savannah has to learn to breathe on her own, both literally and figuratively. 

With Breathing, Cheryl Renee Herbsman has written a sweet little YA romance that a lot of teens will surely enjoy.  Many teens have been through a similar situation to Savannah’s – you have this new relationship that you feel is just perfect, and suddenly life throws a few obstacles at you and the relationship becomes much harder to manage than you ever expected.  I think this element to the story is the most “real”; those of us who are adults can look back on our teen years and remember our first loves, it’s easy to recall how every little thing seemed to stand in the way of spending time with that person, and how parents, friends, and other commitments paled in comparison to the passion and devotion you feel for that special someone.  It goes without saying that in these early relationships, all you want to do is spend time together regardless of what else is going on.  Looking back and remembering my personal experiences with teenage love was definitely my favorite thing about Breathing.  As an adult it an be easy to forget how all-consuming our teenage relationships were, but Breathing brought those feelings back to light with Savannah and Jackson’s relationship.

For me, however, besides this element to the story, Breathing was just okay.  It wasn’t bad, not by any means, but I didn’t feel too connected to any of the characters, and didn’t find myself needing to know what happened to them.  Like I said above, I enjoyed reading about Savannah and Jackson, but in the beginning of the book I had a hard time believing in their relationship.  They met one day and were in love the next, or at least that’s how I read it.  Once I got past that, I did like the two of them together, but I would have liked there to be more of a build-up in regards to their meeting, falling in love, etc.  

I liked how the story turned out, but it was slightly predictable.  I felt like Savannah did become a stronger person, more mature, but really that happened only in the last few pages.  I would have liked to see more of a gradual transformation of her personality; I would have liked to see her learn and grow from her relationships with Jackson, her mother, and even her brother.  

Breathing was a decent YA read with a sweet story and I do think many teens will like this book.  I just don’t see it being compared to, say, anything by Sarah Dessen or Elizabeth Scott anytime soon.

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