Above by Isla Morley

by:  Isla Morley
published by:  Gallery Books
publish date:  March 14, 2014

Blythe Hallowell is sixteen when she is abducted by a survivalist and locked away in an aban­doned missile silo in Eudora, Kansas. At first, she focuses frantically on finding a way out, until the harrowing truth of her new existence settles in—the crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness of a captor who believes he is saving her from the end of the world, and the persistent temptation to give up. But nothing prepares Blythe for the burden of raising a child in confinement. Deter­mined to give the boy everything she has lost, she pushes aside the truth about a world he may never see for a myth that just might give mean­ing to their lives below ground. Years later, their lives are ambushed by an event at once promis­ing and devastating. As Blythe’s dream of going home hangs in the balance, she faces the ultimate choice—between survival and freedom.

This was one of those books I was a little bit confused about.  I wasn't really sure which category this book belonged in.  I wasn't sure if it was a YA book or an adult book with a teenaged main character.  Normally, that sort of thing really wouldn't matter.  However, in this case, I feel like it does.  If this is a YA book than it is really really pushing the boundaries in my opinion.  

Blythe is kidnapped and hidden away in an underground bunker by a survivalist.  She's kept there for like 17 years.  In that time, another child is brought to her, one that ultimately dies.  She is raped repeatedly in an effort to get her pregnant.  She does eventually become pregnant.  She does have a child in this bunker.  Thankfully, this child grows up to be relatively normal, and that plays a pivotal role in the story later on.  

Hopefully, this is an adult novel and considering that it's published by Gallery Books, I'm guessing maybe it is.  Maybe this is one of those "New Adult" middle ground kind of things.  I just felt that the scenes in this book were a little too graphic for younger readers.  Otherwise, it was a really intense story and I was really captivated by Blythe and her will to live and thrive under the circumstances.  It's one of those stories that really sticks with you long after you finish reading it.

The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich

by:  Roberta Rich
published by:  Gallery Books
publish date:  February 14, 2012

Hannah Levi is renowned throughout Venice for her gift at coaxing reluctant babies from their mothers—a gift aided by the secret “birthing spoons” she designed. But when a count implores her to attend to his wife, who has been laboring for days to give birth to their firstborn son, Hannah is torn. A Papal edict forbids Jews from rendering medical treatment to Christians, but the payment he offers is enough to ransom her beloved husband, Isaac, who has been captured at sea. Can Hannah refuse her duty to a suffering woman? Hannah’s choice entangles her in a treacherous family rivalry that endangers the baby and threatens her voyage to Malta, where Isaac, believing her dead in the plague, is preparing to buy his passage to a new life.

I'm never disappointed by Gallery Books.  I've found that they are consistently well written quality stories.  Midwife of Venice was another great addition to the collection.

Hannah's husband is kidnapped while at sea, so she's alone when a high ranking Christian government official comes to her seeking aid for his laboring wife.  Ignoring the pleas of her Rabbi to adhere to the laws, she agrees to help his wife in exchange for the ransom money needed to rescue her husband.  Once the baby is born, Hannah is under threat of arrest for treating Christians and practicing witchcraft for using her birthing spoons, and she's protecting the baby she helped deliver from family members intent on doing it harm.  She turns to her sister who left the Jewish Ghetto to become a courtesan and they disguise themselves as plague victims to evade arrest.

The Midwife of Venice would be a great Mother's Day gift.  Don't forget that's coming up soon!  It was a fantastic read about a really interesting time in history.  It's a perfect gift for the reader moms!

Blog Tour: The Yoga Club

by:  Cooper Lawrence
published by:  Gallery Books
publish date:  January 10, 2012

In the bestselling tradition of Paula Froelich and Candace Bushnell comes a dishy novel about the secrets of the rich and privileged, featuring four yoga friends who stumble upon a murder at a tony Greenwich, Connecticut party—and have to solve the crime or be implicated themselves.

When Coco Guthrie and three other Greenwich locals appear at THE Halloween party of the season, they’re chagrined to discover that they’ve all come in the same costume—Sarah PalinPalins return to the party, swearing each other to secrecy, but when each of them receives a mysterious warning the next day, it becomes clear that they were spotted—and are in serious trouble.Now the unlikely foursome must work together to uncover the truth behind the murder—and where can four people from different social circles mingle unnoticed? At an early morning yoga class, of course! Each member of the 8:30 Yoga Club is hiding secrets of her own, but they soon discover that good friends can protect you from even the nastiest of scandals.

I'm going to admit from the beginning I didn't finish this book.  I ran out of time before I had to post this, but I do intend to finish it.  The Yoga Club is an amusing book.  Cooper Lawrence can write humor well.  Olivia and her echolalia was cracking me up.

I kind of assumed this book would be a cozy mystery...like the tea house mysteries or the needlework mysteries.  Not so much.  This book is filled with all kinds of taboo sex and over the top characters.  These are the ultra rich in their playground, so topics of conversation and dialogue are definitely not what you'd find in the cozy genre.

This book would be a good beach read, a good cozy up by the fire on a cold weekend read.  It's a light-hearted fun kind of book.  Not a serious, heavy story.  If you're looking for the yoga though, it's few and far between, they just all happen to be in the same class. 

Blog Tour: The World As We Know It

by:  Joseph Monninger
published by:  Gallery Books
publish date:  July 7, 2011

A lifetime of friendship begins the day brothers Ed and Allard save Sarah from drowning in an icy river near their rural New Hampshire home. Though their paths diverge through the years, the connection between the three endures until a heartbreaking tragedy in the remote mountains of Wyoming forces Sarah and Allard to confront the unthinkable. In their grief, they find themselves on separate journeys that test the enduring bonds of their relationship and time’s unremitting power to heal. Poignant and transformative, The World as We Know It is subtle and heartrending—a love story of friendship, nature, and the surprising twists that can alter our destinies forever.

Grab the tissues for this one.  Some of the events are expected.  It says so in the synopsis, that there's heartbreaking tragedy.  The ending was a sweet little surprise that I didn't really expect.

Animal rights plays a big part in this book, and at times I felt like it was overshadowing the story.  I found that a little strange especially after I read the little Q & A with the author at the end because it didn't seem like he had strong feelings on animal rights.   For example, what was the purpose of the blind horse Billy in the story?  Was he supposed to be some kind of representation of Allard and his healing process? 

I did really enjoy this book.  I almost always love Gallery Tour Picks.  This book would be a perfect choice for a snowy day in front of the fire.

Blog Tour: Left Neglected

by:  Lisa Genova

published by:  Gallery Books

Sarah Nickerson, like any other working mom, is busy trying to have it all. One morning while racing to work and distracted by her cell phone, she looks away from the road for one second too long. In that blink of an eye, all the rapidly moving parts of her over-scheduled life come to a screeching halt. After a brain injury steals her awareness of everything on her left side, Sarah must retrain her mind to perceive the world as a whole. In so doing, she also learns how to pay attention to the people and parts of her life that matter most.

Sarah Nickerson isn't like any other working mom.  Sarah is an overachiever.  She works like 80 hours a week and has a nanny and has to multi-task from 5 am to 11 pm to make it through her day.  She has a high profile job that is front and center of her life.  It isn't until she gets into a car accident because of that multi-tasking that her life changes drastically.

As a mom, I had a hard time with Sarah.  Yes, I wanted to praise her as a woman, but as a mom I wanted to slap her up side the head.  After she got in the accident and she suffers from a brain injury and a condition known as Left Neglect she got her priorities straight.  I found the concept of Left Neglect to be fascinating.  There was one point when she was frustrated with her husband and she had him describe the whole room to him so he did and then she asked him to describe the other half and he's like there is no other half, I think it help him and the reader understand what it was like.

Overall I thought this was a good book.  At times I thought it got a little slow, but in the end it was worth it.

Creep

by:  Jennifer Hillier

published by:  Gallery Books

publish date:  July 5, 2011

Dr. Sheila Tao is a professor of psychology. An expert in human behavior. And when she began an affair with sexy, charming graduate student Ethan Wolfe, she knew she was playing with fire. Consumed by lust when they were together, riddled with guilt when they weren’t, she knows the three-month fling with her teaching assistant has to end. After all, she’s finally engaged to a kind and loving investment banker who adores her, and she’s taking control of her life. But when she attempts to end the affair, Ethan Wolfe won’t let her walk away.

Ethan has plans for Sheila, plans that involve posting a sex video that would surely get her fired and destroy her prestigious career. Plans to make her pay for rejecting him. And as she attempts to counter his every threatening move without her colleagues or her fiancé discovering her most intimate secrets, a shattering crime rocks Puget Sound State University: a female student, a star athlete, is found stabbed to death.

Someone is raising the stakes of violence, sex, and blackmail . . . and before she knows it, Sheila is caught in a terrifying cat-and-mouse game with the lover she couldn’t resist—who is now the monster who won’t let her go.

This is the debut book by Jennifer Hillier and I was impressed.  Once I started, I couldn't stop.  I read through the entire thing cover to cover in one evening.  The title certainly fit the bill.  Ethan was a creep, the tone of the book was creepy, even Sheila herself was a little bit creepy at times.

From the very beginning I was very sympathetic towards Sheila.  I'm sure some readers might not like her, but I did.  Ethan was the perfect sociopath.  He manipulated Sheila so smoothly, but she was able to hold her own against him when she had to. 

This book has a lot of twist and turns and big surprises.  It was a great read.  I'd definitely recommend it!

Blog Tour: The Orphan Sister

by:  Gwendolen Gross
published by:  Gallery Books
publish date:  July 5, 2011

Clementine Lord is not an orphan. She just feels like one sometimes. One of triplets, a quirk of nature left her the odd one out. Odette and Olivia are identical; Clementine is a singleton. Biologically speaking, she came from her own egg. Practically speaking, she never quite left it. Then Clementine’s father—a pediatric neurologist who is an expert on children’s brains, but clueless when it comes to his own daughters—disappears, and his choices, both past and present, force the family dynamics to change at last. As the three sisters struggle to make sense of it, their mother must emerge from the greenhouse and leave the flowers that have long been the focus of her warmth and nurturing.

For Clementine, the next step means retracing the winding route that led her to this very moment: to understand her father’s betrayal, the tragedy of her first lost love, her family’s divisions, and her best friend Eli’s sudden romantic interest. Most of all, she may finally have found the voice with which to share the inside story of being the odd sister out. . . .

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.  The beginning was kind of slow and I was starting to wonder if I was going to make it through the book or not.  By time I got to the middle, the story was picking up and I was getting into the characters.  When the end came around, I was boohooing and I was really sad that the book was finished.

I have twin daughters and I was really fascinated by triplet aspect of this book.  Mine are only 7, so I don't think they really understood the questions I kept pestering them with while I was reading this book.  The "Party Trick" sounded fun, and hearing each other talk inside their heads was really beautiful.  It added an interesting dynamic to the story.  My only little criticism here would be that Odette and Olivia's names were so similar that I had trouble keeping them separate in my head.

Overall, a good solid contemporary fiction, chick-lit, type story.  I'd definitely recommend it.  It had reading group questions in the back, so it would be a good choice for your next pick for your book club.

Lipstick in Afghanistan

by:  Roberta Gately

published by:  Gallery Books

Gripped by haunting magazine images of starving refugees, Elsa has dreamed of becoming a nurse since she was a teenager, of leaving her humble working-class Boston neighborhood to help people whose lives are far more difficult than her own. No one in her family has ever escaped poverty, but Elsa has a secret weapon: a tube of lipstick she found in her older sister’s bureau. Wearing it never fails to raise her spirits and bolster her confidence. With lipstick on, she can do anything—even travel alone to war-torn Afghanistan in the wake of September 11.

Violent nights as an emergency room nurse in Boston did not prepare Elsa for the devastation she witnesses at the small medical clinic she runs in Bamiyan. As she struggles to prove herself in the male-dominated culture, a tube of lipstick she finds in the aftermath of a tragic bus bombing leads her to a life-changing friendship with Parween, a young woman who has lost her adored young husband to the Taliban’s treachery. In Parween, Elsa finds a kindred spirit, fiery, generous, and determined to fight back against the restrictions that plague the women of her small country.


Together, they risk their lives to rebel against the Taliban and bring opportunity to the people of their village. But when they must stand up and fight for their own survival, Elsa discovers her only hope is to unveil the warrior within.

I was really interested in reading this book.  I loved The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.  I didn't love this book as much.  It had a great premise and I liked the idea of the story.  However, for me, the writing just wasn't the best. 

I felt like a lot of the scenes were very abrupt.  I found myself reading with an eyebrow raised a lot of the time.  I didn't believe what was going on.  Not that it was outrageous, but that I didn't feel like was going on was "real".   I couldn't get any emotion connection going on with the main character and I didn't particularly like her.  It's hard to get into a book when you don't like the MC.

I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this book, because like I said the story has a great premise.  It's a quick easy read.   Go check it out and see if you feel the same way about it.  It might be a great book for a book club.  I'm sure there would be quite a lot to debate about it. 

Winter Bloom

by:  Tara Heavey

published by:  Gallery Books

In the heart of bustling modern Dublin is a littered, overgrown garden of tangled weeds and a stagnant, hidden pond. Belonging to an iron-willed elderly lady named Mrs. Prendergast, who is rumored to have murdered and buried her husband there, the garden draws Eva Madigan, a young mother struggling to move on from the pain of her past. Eva is joined by Emily, a beautiful but withdrawn college dropout; Uri, an old-world immigrant; Seth, his all-too-handsome son; and occasionally even Mrs. Prendergast herself. But what drives Eva to transform the neglected urban wilderness? What makes the others want to help her? Even as Mrs. Prendergast puts the land up for sale, the thorny lives of all the gardeners are revealed and slowly start to untangle. Overgrown secrets are dug up and shared. Choices are made; a little pruning is in order. Now Eva is about to discover that every garden is a story of growth toward a final harvest. . . .

I so adored this book.  I wanted to gather up the characters and bring them home with me and let them make a garden in my backyard.  I wanted to let snarky Mrs. Prendergast make tea and fancy food for me and let Emily tell me her secrets.  I wanted my kids to know Uri and understand what he went through.  The book ended though and I was really sad.

This is definitely one of those books I could recommend to anyone.  There was a little language and a little sex.  A few situations might make some sensitive people a little uncomfortable.  It was a good book though.  Just a good book!  I would highly recommend it for book clubs.  I'm sure there's a wealth of conversation topics covered in this one book.

The Love Goddess' Cooking School

by:  Melissa Senate
published by:  Gallery Books

Holly Maguire's grandmother was the Love Goddess of Blue Crab Island, Maine–a Milanese fortune teller who could predict the right man for you, and whose Italian cooking was rumored to save marriages. Holly has been waiting years for her unlikely fortune: her true love will like sa cordula, an unappetizing old-world delicacy. But Holly can't make a decent marinara sauce, let alone sa cordula. Maybe that's why the man she hopes to marry breaks her heart. So when Holly inherits Camilla's Cucinotta, she's determined to forget about fortunes and love and become an Italian cooking teacher worthy of her grandmother's legacy.


But Holly's four students are seeking much more than how to make Camilla's chicken alla Milanese. Simon, a single father, hopes to cook his way back into his daughter's heart. Juliet, Holly's childhood friend, hides a painful secret. Tamara, a serial dater, can't find the love she longs for. And twelve-year-old Mia thinks learning to cook will stop her dad from marrying his phony lasagna-queen girlfriend.

As the class gathers each week, adding Camilla's essential ingredients of wishes and memories into every pot and pan, unexpected friendships and romances are formed–and tested. Especially when Holly falls hard for Liam . . . and learns a thing or two about finding her own recipe for happiness.

I received this book as part of a blog tour from Gallery Books.  I'm so glad I did.  I adored this book.  It was such a sweet story.  It made me want to cook, something, anything!

This is the second story that I've read recently that takes place on a New England island and it's really making me want to go visit one.  The scenery this time of year must be awesome! 

I'd definitely recommend this book for a light sweet read.  It also has some of the recipes talked about in the back of the book which I thought was a great addition.  I've included this book in my giveaway that ends in a few days.  See the post below for more information.

Blue Nude

by:  Elizabeth Rosner

Published by:  Gallery Books

Born in the shadow of post-war Germany, Danzig is a once prominent painter who now teaches at an art institute in San Francisco. But while Danzig shares wisdom and technique with students, his own canvasses remain empty, for reasons he doesn’t understand. One day, he and his class begin sketching a new model, a young woman named Merav, the Israeli-born granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Danzig is immediately taken with her exceptional beauty, sensing that she may be the muse he has been missing. Challenged by Danzig’s German accent, Merav must decide how to overcome her fears. Before they can create anything new together, both artist and model are forced to examine the history that they carry.

Blue Nude recounts the events that bring Danzig and Merav together, including their disparate upbringings, their respective creative awakenings, and their similarly painful, often catastrophic, love lives. Using words to paint the landscapes of body and soul, Rosner conveys the art of survival, the complexity of history, the form of exile, the shape of desire, and the color of intimacy, all the while underscoring the lasting impact of the Holocaust on post-war generations in a literary yet accessible way.

First off, I will NEVER ever ever read a book in my house with the word NUDE on the cover again until my kids grow up.  My 6 year old, looked at it and screeched "NUDE? You're reading a NUDE book?"  I sat there trying to calmly explain to her that it wasn't a nude book that it was about an artist and a model.  Her screeching and of course, the word nude drew the attention of the other two who came in to laugh at Mama reading the nude book.  Kids!

Other than that, it was a beautifully written book.  It was sad and haunting and you felt so bad for the characters.  It was written in a style that I was a bit unused to.  There were no quotation marks around the dialogue, so at first I found that a little odd, but then I realized it was less distracting.  Everything just flowed. 

I didn't really like Danzig much personally, I thought he was rude and arrogant, but I guess he grew into that personality because of his accomplishment.  He felt like he deserved whatever he wanted and that annoyed me.  I didn't like the way he treated the women around him, his models, his students, etc.

I did find this book quite interesting.  I had never really thought too much about what it takes to be an artists' model, apparently it's a lot more than just taking off your clothes and standing there.  The relationship of artist to model can be so very complex.

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review which I have provided.  I was in no other way compensated.**