The Book of Speculation by Erica Swyler

by:  Erica Swyler
published by:  St. Martin's Press
publish date:  June 23, 2015

Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone on the Long Island Sound in his family home, a house perched on the edge of a cliff that is slowly crumbling into the sea. His parents are long dead, his mother having drowned in the water his house overlooks.One day, Simon receives a mysterious book from an antiquarian bookseller; it has been sent to him because it is inscribed with the name Verona Bonn, Simon's grandmother. Simon must unlock the mysteries of the book, and decode his family history, before fate deals its next deadly hand. 

The Book of Speculation was one of those book that I kept wanting to read, but I could never find the right time to get started.  Finally, I got a chance to read it and it was a lovely story.

Simon Watson lives in his family home.  It's falling down and in need of major repairs that he cannot afford on his librarian salary.  His sister is out somewhere in the world as a member of the circus.  One day he gets a mysterious book in the mail and he learns the secrets of the women in his life.  All the women in his family die on the same day of the year.  It's quickly approaching and he needs to warn his sister before she suffers the same fate.

Readers of Water for Elephants and The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane will enjoy this book.  All the books have the same mystical qualities.  The story is rooted in real life, but there are elements of magic sprinkled throughout.  

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

by:  Katarina Bivald
published by:  Sourcebooks Landmark
publish date:  January 19, 2016

Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds that Amy's funeral has just ended. Luckily, the townspeople are happy to look after their bewildered tourist—even if they don't understand her peculiar need for books. Marooned in a farm town that's almost beyond repair, Sara starts a bookstore in honor of her friend's memory. 

All she wants is to share the books she loves with the citizens of Broken Wheel and to convince them that reading is one of the great joys of life. But she makes some unconventional choices that could force a lot of secrets into the open and change things for everyone in town.
Right off the bat, I love the cover of this book.  Just that will make me at least pick it up.  The blue and yellow are so pretty!  The font is beautiful and the white looks really good against the blue.  Whoever designed it did a fantastic job.  

I loved this book.  Sara is a quiet lady from Sweden who has never done anything, until she saves up her money to travel to Iowa to visit her pen pal.  However, when she gets there, she finds out Amy has just died.  Instead of going back home, she decides to stay, and live in Amy's house.  The townspeople insist because that's what Amy would have wanted.  When Sara runs out of things to do, she decides to open a bookstore in Amy's honor.  However, this little thing gets this sleepy little town riled up in ways no one would have ever expected.  

This book is such a fun read.  I will definitely be recommending this one to anyone who asks.  I think it will be a big hit this summer for all the beach readers.  The book clubs will love it too.  Any book lover will love all the literary references throughout the book.  Go check it out, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The Admissions by Meg Mitchell Moore

by:  Meg Mitchell Moore
published by:  Doubleday
publish date:  August 18, 2015

The Hawthorne family has it all. Great jobs, a beautiful house in one of the most affluent areas of northern California, and three charming kids with perfectly straight teeth. And then comes their eldest daughter's senior year of high school . . .
     Firstborn Angela Hawthorne is a straight-A student and star athlete, with extracurricular activities coming out of her ears and a college application that's not going to write itself. She's set her sights on Harvard, her father's alma mater, and like a dog with a chew toy, Angela won't let up until she's basking in crimson-colored glory. Except her class rank as valedictorian is under attack, she's suddenly losing her edge at cross-country, and she can't help but daydream about the cute baseball player in English class. Of course Angela knows the time put into her schoolgirl crush would be better spent coming up with a subject for her term paper—which, along with her college essay and community service hours has a rapidly approaching deadline. 

This book was really good.  It probably shines a light on many middle/upper class families in the United States.

The Admissions is told from multiple viewpoints of all the Hawthorne family members.  Nora is a successful real estate agent, but she has just found out one of her deals could go into litigation and cost her everything.  Gabe, her husband, is a successful businessman and expects his daughter to go to Harvard because that's where he went.  However, he has a new intern that is threatening to bring down his entire world.  Angela is a type A student that has to win at everything.  Everything hinges on her getting in to Harvard.  Younger daughters Cecily and Maya are just trying to not get lost in the shuffle.

This is a book I'd definitely recommend.  Readers of contemporary fiction will definitely love this story.  Meg Mitchell Moore has a good understanding of what so many American families are going through.

Black River by S.M. Hulse

by:  S.M. Hulse
published by:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
publish date:  January 20, 2014

When Wes Carver returns to Black River, he carries two things in the cab of his truck: his wife’s ashes and a letter from the prison parole board. The convict who held him hostage during a riot, twenty years ago, is being considered for release.Wes has been away from Black River ever since the riot. He grew up in this small Montana town, encircled by mountains, and, like his father before him and most of the men there, he made his living as a Corrections Officer. A talented, natural fiddler, he found solace and joy in his music. But during that riot Bobby Williams changed everything for Wes — undermining his faith and taking away his ability to play.

I fell in love with this book.  It toyed with my emotions and then smashed my heart on the ground.  I couldn't believe that one smallish book could be packed with such a powerful story.

Wes's wife has just died from cancer.  As she's breathing her final breaths she only has one request, that her husband play his fiddle.  He can't do that because 20 years earlier when he was a Corrections Officer a convict held him hostage during a prison riot for nearly 40 hours and broke 9 of his fingers.   After she dies he has to go back to their hometown where he hasn't been in many years after a falling out with his stepson.  He has to spread her ashes and decide if he's going to testify at Bobby Williams parole hearing.  The homecoming is rife with turmoil for both Wes and his stepson, two men who aren't adept at letting go of the past.

This book was so good.  I highly encourage everyone to read it.  The first chapter or two was a little iffy for me because the writing style was a little unusual, but it was worth it.  The story is amazing.  It's sad and depressing, but in the end Wes turns out to be such a memorable character.  Love, love, loved it!!

The Bees by Laline Paull

by:  Laline Paull
published by:  Ecco
publish date:  May 6, 2014

Flora 717 is a sanitation worker, a member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive where work and sacrifice are the highest virtues and worship of the beloved Queen the only religion. But Flora is not like other bees. With circumstances threatening the hive's survival, her curiosity is regarded as a dangerous flaw but her courage and strength are an asset. She is allowed to feed the newborns in the royal nursery and then to become a forager, flying alone and free to collect pollen. She also finds her way into the Queen's inner sanctum, where she discovers mysteries about the hive that are both profound and ominous.

I found this book to be fairly disturbing.  Firstly, it made me really wary of bees in general.  They're supposed to be smart, what if they really are functioning on a level like in this book?  That would just freak me right out.  Secondly, the parallels that this book drew between the behavior of bees and the behaviors of human cults was eye opening.  Whether or not that was the intent, it definitely did that for me.

Flora is a brutish, ugly sanitation bee, but something is seen in her that sets her apart from her sanitation workers.  Not only can Flora talk, but she can also make nectar, so she is sent to work in the nursery.  Her size and strength eventually gets her a job collecting pollen.  This puts her in the outside world, learning of other hives and the dangers of predators and changing of seasons.  She also learns of the secrets of her own hive and how deadly they just might be for her.

The Bees was a bizarre look into the world of bees and perhaps our own human world.  I would recommend this book to readers that like a good conspiracy theory.  The Bees is an interesting debut from Laline Paull, I'm curious to see where she goes from here.

The Painter by Peter Heller

by:  Peter Heller
published by:  Knopf
publish date:  May 6, 2014

Jim Stegner has seen his share of violence and loss. Years ago he shot a man in a bar. His marriage disintegrated. He grieved the one thing he loved. In the wake of tragedy, Jim, a well-known expressionist painter, abandoned the art scene of Santa Fe to start fresh in the valleys of rural Colorado. Now he spends his days painting and fly-fishing, trying to find a way to live with the dark impulses that sometimes overtake him. He works with a lovely model. His paintings fetch excellent prices. But one afternoon, on a dirt road, Jim comes across a man beating a small horse, and a brutal encounter rips his quiet life wide open. Fleeing Colorado, chased by men set on retribution, Jim returns to New Mexico, tormented by his own relentless conscience.

I absolutely loved The Dog Stars, so I was really excited to read The Painter.  This book turned out to be fantastic as well.   While The Dog Stars had this vague sense of hopefulness underlying all the darkness and despair, The Painter was like churning in a sea of anger and revenge.   It is an intense book.

The story starts with Jim moving to Colorado to start over after overcoming alcoholism in the wake of his divorce and the death of his daughter.  When he kills a man, his life starts to unravel, it sets off a chain of events that Jim would have never imagined.  From Colorado to Santa Fe, from mountain streams to art galleries, Jim is dodging the law and poachers dead set on revenge.  

Peter Heller would have to be a really interesting person.  The covers of his books are understated and not very exciting, but then the stories inside are so wild and violent.  I can't wait to read what he come out with next!

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikery by Gabrielle Zevin

by:  Gabrielle Zevin
published by:  Algonquin Books
publish date:  April 1, 2014

A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island. And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It's a small package, but large in weight. It's that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew.

This book was absolutely wonderful.  It had such a magical quality about it.  It reminded me a lot of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.  It had that same sort of lyrical beauty to the writing.

A.J.'s life is in a downward spiral.  Everything is going wrong.  Then a baby is left in his store with a note asking him to please take care of her.  A.J. is the last person that anyone would expect to adopt the girl, but he does.  Once he adopts the girl A.J.'s life changes in completely unexpected ways.

This was one of the best books I've read this year.  I completely loved everything about it.  The audiobook is read by Scott Brick and he does a fabulous job with it.  This is probably weird but I think adult Harry Potter fans would probably really like this book.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

by:  Donna Tartt
published by:  Little, Brown and Company
publish date:  October 22, 2013

It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.

So I'm tardy to the party on this one.  Who hasn't read it?  Yeah, when I saw how long it was, I didn't want to read it...and usually when there's a ton of hype about a book and everyone loves it, I usually hate it.  I thought it was just ok.  I didn't see what was so absolutely wonderful about it.  I felt like it was a YA book instead of this great literary novel, then I read this article in Vogue about how all these literary critics are dismayed about the future of literature for the exact same reason.  Everyone loves The Goldfinch and is hailing as this great piece of literature when it is essentially a rather insignificant YA book, I was like thank you!  However, I digress...

For the most part, I found the story to be engaging.  I liked Theo and I wanted him to do well.  However, the book was SO long.  At times the author got so bogged down in the language and forgot about just telling the story.  Yes, it is important to be poetic in the way the story is told, but this was a really long book and it got frustrating and boring at times.  There were big chunks of the book that I didn't understand why they had to be told in such detail, like the bus ride from Las Vegas to New York.

In the end, my feelings are just kinda "eh" overall.  Will I be recommending it to anyone?  probably not.  Everyone has already heard of it.  I think I'm kinda mad at myself for once again getting suckered into the hype.  It always freakin happens.  Don't let me do it people!

Goat Mountain by David Vann

by:   David Vann
published by:  Harper
publish date:  September 10, 2013

In the fall of 1978, on a 640-acre family ranch on Goat Mountain in Northern California, an eleven-year-old boy joins his grandfather, his father, and his father’s best friend on the family’s annual deer hunt.  When the men arrive at the gate to their land, the father discovers a poacher and sights him through the scope of his gun. He offers his son a look-a simple act that will explode in tragedy, transforming these men and this family, forcing them to question themselves and everything they thought they knew.

I listened to the audiobook for David Vann's Caribou Island and thought it was ok.  Not fantastic, but just ok.  So, I almost gave this one a pass, thank goodness I didn't.  This book was awesome!  In a blow-your-mind, did-that-just-really-happen kinda way, it was unbelievable!

I hate to say anything about the plot because that would totally give away what happens.  Needless to say, it was one of those "what the what?!?" moments.  The story is told from the viewpoint of the child, though now much older.  His inability to understand right from wrong was scary.  Initially, my thoughts were it was because he didn't have a mother growing up and his father just didn't know how to raise him.  However, I don't think that's the case.  The grandfather was just as frightening and cold hearted as the boy was so it must have been a genetic thing.

Goat Mountain was dark and disturbing.  David Vann seriously impressed me with this book.  He's now on my must read list.  I wholeheartedly recommend this one.  If you haven't read David Vann before, start with this book!

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

by:   Joshua Ferris
published by:  Little Brown and Company
publish date:  May 13, 2014

Paul O'Rourke is a man made of contradictions: he loves the world, but doesn't know how to live in it. He's a Luddite addicted to his iPhone, a dentist with a nicotine habit, a rabid Red Sox fan devastated by their victories, and an atheist not quite willing to let go of God. 

Then someone begins to impersonate Paul online, and he watches in horror as a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account are created in his name. What begins as an outrageous violation of his privacy soon becomes something more soul-frightening: the possibility that the online "Paul" might be a better version of the real thing. 

I really had a lot of trouble with this book.  I liked certain aspects of it.  So I'll start with that.  I thought the concept was fun in dark and twisty way.  A faceless online tormentor slowly making Dr. Paul crazy by giving him a nice website and Facebook page.  That's kind of funny.  I liked the characters.  I liked that the doctor had odd relationships with all his staff.  The conversations that Paul had with himself about why we go about daily routines of small talk were hilarious.

The whole religious aspect of this book was somewhat lost on me.   I didn't particularly care for some of the comments about Jews feeling more comfortable around Jew Haters than Jew Lovers because they knew their feelings were more sincere.  I was kinda sitting there like "uhhhh.....wow! Way to perpetuate the intolerance!"  Anyway, that sort of stuff just grated on my nerves.

So, I'm kinda wishy washy on this book.  I started off really excited about it and then it just sort of when blah about half way through.  Parts of it were really funny, but then obviously parts bothered me.  So I'm not going to be singing from the rooftops about this one.

The Kept by James Scott

by:  James Scott
published by:  Harper
publish date:  January 7, 2014

In the winter of 1897, a trio of killers descends upon an isolated farm in upstate New York. Midwife Elspeth Howell returns home to the carnage: her husband, and four of her children, murdered. Before she can discover her remaining son Caleb, alive and hiding in the kitchen pantry, another shot rings out over the snow-covered valley. Twelve-year-old Caleb must tend to his mother until she recovers enough for them to take to the frozen wilderness in search of the men responsible.

This was one of the most surprising books I've read so far this year.  I can't believe this isn't the book that everyone is talking about.  It's easily my favorite this year.   It has everything in it: murder, kidnapping, revenge, cross-dressing.  It was a crazy amazing book.

Elspeth Howell is a midwife.  She leaves her family for many months at a time for work.  As she is returning from one of these trips she finds her entire family, except for one son, slaughtered.  As she is searching for him she, too, is shot.  Her 12 year old son Caleb comes out of his hiding spot in the pantry to care for her.  Once she is well, the 2 of them set out to find the murderers.  Caleb, does a lot of growing up in a short period of time, and comes to some harsh realizations about who his mother really is.  

I definitely recommend this book to fans of historical fiction.  Any mystery fan would really like this book though, it was very well written.  The Kept was an impressive debut.

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh

by:   Laura McHugh
published by:  Spiegel and Grau
publish date:  March 11, 2014

The Dane family's roots tangle deep in the Ozark Mountain town of Henbane, but that doesn't keep sixteen-year-old Lucy Dane from being treated like an outsider. Folks still whisper about her mother, a bewitching young stranger who inspired local myths when she vanished years ago. When one of Lucy's few friends, slow-minded Cheri, is found murdered, Lucy feels haunted by the two lost girls-the mother she never knew and the friend she couldn't protect. Everything changes when Lucy stumbles across Cheri's necklace in an abandoned trailer and finds herself drawn into a search for answers. 

Yesterday on my post about Wiley Cash's This Dark Road to Mercy I talked about books that blur the line between Adult Literature and YA.  This is another one of these books.  It'll be found in the Adult section of the bookstore, but the young age of the characters will make it accessible to YA readers.  Again, this is one of the books that I think will help YA readers transition in to Adult Literature without it being too scary. 

The Weight of Blood tells the story of the Dane family in a small Ozark town.  Sixteen year old Lucy Dane is just beginning to learn the dark side of her family history.  When her friend Cheri goes missing no one is very interested, but when her body shows up, it becomes the talk of the small town.  Lucy begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together and find out that Cheri's death may be closely related to her own mother's  disappearance 15 years earlier.  

I thought this was a great book.  It was a very well written first novel by Laura McHugh.  I'm excited to read more from her in the future.

This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash

by:  Wiley Cash
published by:  William Morrow
publish date:  January 28, 2014

When their mother dies unexpectedly, twelve-year-old Easter and her six-year-old sister Ruby are shuffled into the foster care system in Gastonia, North Carolina, a town not far from the Appalachian mountains. But just as they settle into their new life, their errant father, Wade, an ex-minor league baseball player whom they haven't seen in years, suddenly appears and wants to spend more time with them. Unfortunately, Wade has signed away legal rights to his daughters, and the only way he can get Easter and Ruby back is to steal them away in the middle of the night.

I read Wiley Cash's A Land More Kind Than Home and really liked it so I was very interested in reading This Dark Road to Mercy.  I would like to give thanks to whoever titles these books.  Thank you for making them interesting and apart from the crowd.  

One thing I particularly liked about this book is that it doesn't necessarily fall into the adult literature genre.  I suppose if one went to a bookstore, that's where it would be, but the nature of the characters allow it to be accessible to YA readers as well.  These kinds of book are important to younger adults that may have grown out of YA and are looking to transition into adult reading.  

In This Dark Road to Mercy, Wade kidnaps his daughters from foster care.  After stumbling upon money from a bank robbery, he is suffering from the belief that he has everything that he needs to restart his family.  However, Wade has been so far removed from his daughters that he doesn't know how to take care of them.  The bank robbers want their money back, and everyone is trying to recover the kidnapped girls.  

While the setting remains somewhat the same, this book was very different from Wiley Cash's first book.  I appreciated that.  I don't like when writers get pigeonholed right away.  I think Wiley Cash is now firmly on the "must-read" list.  Hopefully, it won't be too long until the next book comes out.

The Affairs of Others by Amy Grace Loyd

by:  Amy Grace Loyd
published by:  Picador
publish date:  August 13, 2013

Five years after her young husband’s death, Celia Cassill has moved from one Brooklyn neighborhood to another, but she has not moved on. The owner of a small apartment building, she has chosen her tenants for their ability to respect one another’s privacy. 

When Celia's husband dies it leaves her a widow at a young age.  She uses the insurance money to purchase a small apartment building and carefully remodels the building with loving care.  She chooses her new tenants with the same care, so that her life is comfortable and effortless.  All this changes when one of her tenants goes on a sabbatical and sublets his apartment to a desperate, broken friend named Hope.  This event seems to lead to all the other tenants lives changing as well and Celia's well ordered life starts to spiral out of control.

The first thing that struck me about this book was the dark, sexual nature of this book.   The Affairs of Others dealt with dom/sub sexual relationships gone wrong.  This was not a 50 Shades of Gray book but more like when both parties are a little crazy and neither of them want to play by the rules.  Hope is recently divorced and her coping mechanism is her crazy dom boyfriend.  Celia is listening to all this unfolding from her apartment downstairs and doesn't know what to do about it, but is also attracted to her tenant, while wanting to save her.  Throw in the fact that Celia is also attracted to Hope's adult son, and it gets even more weird.  So this was a sex heavy book, and a lot of it was devious and twisted.  That I was not expecting from this book.

This is Amy Grace Loyd's first book.  It was well written.  The story was interesting and I liked the characters.  But I kept having all these questions come up in my mind, how could Celia afford her lifestyle?  How much was the insurance settlement to let her live like that?  How could the old guy afford to live there?  How could Hope for that matter?  Anyway, I kept questioning things like that throughout the book, but I guess that's why it's fiction.  

What I Had Before I Had You by Sarah Cornwell

by:   Sarah Cornwell
published by:  Harper
publish date:  January 7, 2014

Olivia was only fifteen the summer she left her hometown of Ocean Vista. Two decades later, on a visit with her children, her nine-year-old son Daniel, recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder, disappears. Olivia's search for him sparks tender and painful memories of her past--of her fiercely loving and secretive mother, Myla, an erratic and beautiful psychic, and the discovery of heartbreaking secrets that shattered her world.

What I Had tells Olivia's story in alternating view points of the past and the present.  Presently, she has returned to her childhood home of Ocean Vista after she ran away at age 15.  After a heartbreaking divorce, she's returning with her two children, the youngest one inheriting the terrible mental disorder that plagued Olivia and her mother.  Upon arriving in Ocean Vista, Daniel has a meltdown and runs away forcing Olivia to start reliving her childhood and seeing it with the understanding of living with bipolar disorder.

When I started this book, I really didn't know it was going to be about bipolar disorder, I thought it was going to be more of a generalized coming of age story.  However, I really liked the bipolar aspect of it.  I thought it was an interesting change of pace.  It seems like Asperger's and Autism are the afflictions of choice to write about these days.  I liked that the characters weren't necessarily villified or made to seem weak by their illness.

This is an adult story, but considering the age of Olivia throughout most of the book it might appeal to some of the New Adult readers.  Particularly some of those looking to branch into some more mature reading.  What I Had Before I Had You was fantastic debut from Sarah Cornwell.

Review & Giveaway:The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh

Giveaway Details: Want to win a paperback copy of the Fever Tree?  Just fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter. (US only please) Good Luck!

Author: Jennifer McVeigh
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Date of publication: April 2013
With a perceptive and penetrating narrative, McVeigh unspools the story of Frances Irvine, a young Englishwoman forced by hopeless circumstance to immigrate to the Cape in pursuit of a reluctant marriage. There she discovers a strange new world where greed and colonial exploitation are bringing vast wealth to some and dire misery to countless others. As she struggles to find her place in this inhospitable land, Frances tethers her fate to two very different men: one serious and idealistic, the other charming and ambitious. When a smallpox epidemic threatens the financial dynasty of the most powerful Englishman in South Africa, Frances will be cast into a vortex of dangerous consequences—and find an unexpected, purposeful path.

A sweeping novel of romance and South African history that has been compared to Gone with the Wind, The Thorn Birds, and Out of Africa, THE FEVER TREE is an epic, heart wrenching tale not to be missed.

Let me start by saying that The Fever Tree is a beautifully written book.  The way the author describes the African landscape was wonderful.  I did feel like I was a part of the story.  She also does a wonderful job of giving us a glimpse into life at the time and the struggles the people went through trying to make it.  

Having said that, I didn't like the book as much as I was hoping I would. In a way, I was a little bored and I found myself putting the book down a lot.  I ended up skimming parts of the book that dragged.   I had a hard time connection with the characters.  I didn't like either of the men involved in the "love triangle".  In my opinion neither of them was honest with Frances and neither really deserved her. While she did make some incredibly dumb moves, I kind of felt bad for her and her situation.  I think it is unfair to ask a woman who is used to money and privilege to all of a sudden give that up with no prior warning.

I do think that the book is one that every reader should try for themselves.  I have seen some great reviews, so I encourage others to give it a try.  It just wasn't for me. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

About the Author:

Jennifer McVeigh, who has herself traveled to remote areas of Southern and East Africa, also drew on firsthand accounts of life in colonial South Africa, as well as nineteenth century guidebooks and women’s magazines, in order to infuse Frances Irvine’s experiences with arresting verisimilitude.  You can find her on the web at www.jennifermcveigh.com.   

Now available in Trade Paperback, THE FEVER TREE by Jennifer McVeigh (Berkley Trade Paperback Reprint; 978-0-425-26491-1; February 4, 2014; $16)!  When it was first released in hardcover last year, Oprah.com raved, “Debut author Jennifer McVeigh has created a fully realized sensory tour of 19th-century South Africa: You feel the grit of each dust storm, taste the mealie Frances chokes down, hear the cicadas scraping through the heat-parched air along with Frances' plaintive piano playing.”  McVeigh’s charmed story of loss and love has also been featured in Good Housekeeping, Women’s World, USA Today,  Washington Post, The Guardian, Daily Mail, and more.

Perfect by Rachel Joyce

Author: Rachel Joyce
Publisher: Random House
Date of publication: January 2014

On a foggy spring morning in 1972, twelve-year-old Byron Hemming and his mother are driving to school in the English countryside. On the way, in a life-changing two seconds, an accident occurs. Or does it? Byron is sure it happened, but his mother, sitting right next to him in the car, has no reaction to it. Over the course of the days and weeks that follow, Byron embarks on a journey to discover what really happened-or didn't-that fateful morning when everything changed. It is a journey that will take him-a loveable and cloistered twelve-year-old boy with a loveable and cloistered twelve-year-old boy's perspective on life-into the murkier, more difficult realities of the adult world, where adults lie, fathers and mothers fight without words, and even unwilling boys must become men. 

Perfect is the second really heavy book that I have read so far this year.   I really had to sit on this one for a bit before writing this review.  I often gauge how much I liked a book by how I felt at the end. When I read the last page of this book, I really felt kind of down with a smidgen of hope. I think I can ultimately say that I liked the story.  It was well written and very compelling.   Just don't go into this book expecting a light fun read. 

For me, the book is a commentary on how one's perceptions of events can change the course of multiple lives.  Especially when those events are viewed through the innocence of childhood.  Although, after reading the book, I have to wonder if some of the things wouldn't have happened on their own anyway given how unhappy most of the adult characters seemed to be.

The story alternates between Byron's story in 1972 and Jim's story now.  It took a while before it was clear how the two stories fit together.  While it ties together nicely in the end, I found the waffling between the past and present to be kind of disjointed for me and kept throwing me off the rhythm of the story.  I can also say that I was convince that story was going to go one way, but it ended up going in a completely different direction. That was a nice surprise.

About the author:

Rachel Joyce is the author of the international bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. She is also the award-winning writer of more than twenty plays for BBC Radio 4. She started writing after a twenty-year acting career, in which she performed leading roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company and won multiple awards. Rachel Joyce lives with her family on a Gloucestershire farm.

Connect with Rachel on her website,racheljoycebooks.com, or on Facebook.

Rachel Joyce’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, December 16th:  Great Imaginations

Tuesday, December 17th:  She Treads Softly

Wednesday, December 18th:  A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall

Thursday, December 19th:  Lit and Life

Friday, December 20th:  BookNAround

Monday, December 23rd:  Bibliotica

Monday, December 23rd:  Books Speak Volumes

Thursday, December 26th:  The Feminist Texican [Reads]

Friday, December 27th:  Peeking Between the Pages

Monday, December 30th:  Sara’s Organized Chaos

Monday, January 6th:  The Blog of Litwits

Monday, January 6th:  Books and Movies

Tuesday, January 7th:  The Scarlet Letter

Wednesday, January 8th:  Snowdrop Dreams of Books

Thursday, January 9th:  A Bookish Affair

Tuesday, January 14th:  Caribousmom

Wednesday, January 15th:  A Novel Review

Thursday, January 16th:  From the TBR Pile

Monday, January 20th:  Bibliophiliac

Tuesday, January 21st:  5  Minutes for Books

Tuesday, January 21st:  Books a la Mode

Wednesday, January 22nd:  No More Grumpy Bookseller

Thursday, January 23rd:  A Bookworm’s World

Friday, January 24th:  My Bookshelf

Monday, January 27th:  The Daily Mayo

Tuesday, January 28th:  Cold Read

Wednesday, January 29th:  Not in Jersey

The In-Between Hour by Barbara Claypole White

Author: Barbara Claypole White
Publisher: Mira (Harlequin)
Date of publication: January 2014

Bestselling author Will Shepard is caught in the twilight of grief, after his young son dies in a car accident. But when his father's aging mind erases the memory, Will rewrites the truth. The story he spins brings unexpected relief…until he's forced to return to rural North Carolina, trapping himself in a lie.

Holistic veterinarian Hannah Linden is a healer who opens her heart to strays but can only watch, powerless, as her grown son struggles with inner demons. When she rents her guest cottage to Will and his dad, she finds solace in trying to mend their broken world, even while her own shatters.

As their lives connect and collide, Will and Hannah become each other's only hope—if they can find their way into a new story, one that begins with love.

The In-Between Hour is a beautifully written book the pulled me right in from the first page.  I should warn, that this is a pretty intense book.  Every character in this book has major issues, so it's not what I would consider a light read.  Will is dealing with the grief over the loss of his son as well as the loss of his dad in a way.  Jacob, his dad, is dealing with memory loss (they never say that it's Alzheimer's, but it's like that).  Hannah is grieving for her son Galen who is battling depression and has lost the will to live.  Pretty messed up bunch, right?  But what they find together on a mountain is love and home.

I enjoyed this book.  I found myself tearing up at times. My heart really hurt for Will over the loss of his son.  Bu,t I also felt badly that he couldn't grieve properly.  By having to keep his son "alive" for his father, Will isn't able to move on in the process.  After a while, that would catch up with anyone.  I also felt for Hannah.  I don't think any mother likes to see their child struggle. 

The story is told from the view points of all of the characters.  The ones I enjoyed the most were Jacob's thoughts.  Even though his mind is muddled, he seemed to always see the truth in what was going on around him.  He really is the most honest of everyone.  The love story between Hannah and Will is subtle and, I thought, pretty secondary to the story.  They find a friendship first before they realize they are in love and that made their ending much sweeter.  

This is a book I definitely recommend.  It's one that made me think about things in my own life and will stay with me for a while.  It's the first book I have read by this author.  I look forward to trying out her first book and seeing what she comes up with in the future!

About the author:

Barbara Claypole White writes and gardens in the forests of North Carolina. English born and educated, The Unfinished Garden, Barbara’s debut novel, won the 2013 Golden Quill for Best First Book. The In-Between Hour is her second novel.

she’s married to an internationally-acclaimed academic. Their son, an award-winning poet / musician, attends college in the Midwest. His battles with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have inspired her to write love stories about damaged people.

Connect with Barbara on her website www.barbaraclaypolewhite, Facebook, or Twitter @bclaypolewhite.

Barbara’s Tour Stops

Tuesday, December 31st: bookchickdi
Thursday, January 2nd: Bibliotica
Monday, January 6th: cupcake’s book cupboard
Tuesday, January 7th: Kritters Ramblings
Wednesday, January 8th: Tina’s Book Reviews
Thursday, January 9th: Chronicles …
Tuesday, January 14th: Becca Rowan
Wednesday, January 15th: From the TBR Pile
Friday, January 17th: Peeking Between the Pages
Friday, January 17th: Not in Jersey
Monday, January 20th: Staircase Wit
Tuesday, January 21st: Sweet Tea and Lollipops
Wednesday, January 22nd: Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews
Friday, January 24th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
Monday, January 27th: As I turn the pages
Tuesday, January 28th: Book Journey
Wednesday, January 29th: Found Between the Covers
Thursday, January 30th: Good Girl Gone Redneck

Review & Giveaway: The Returned by Jason Mott

 Giveaway Details:  Want to win a copy?  Just fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter. (US & Canada only)  The  winner will be chosen on 9/3/2013. Good luck!

Author: Jason Mott
Publisher: Mira (Harlequin)
Date of publication: August 2013

Harold and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. In their old age they've settled comfortably into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time ... Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep—flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old.

All over the world people's loved ones are returning from beyond. No one knows how or why this is happening, whether it's a miracle or a sign of the end. Not even Harold and Lucille can agree on whether the boy is real or a wondrous imitation, but one thing they know for sure: he's their son. As chaos erupts around the globe, the newly reunited Hargrave family finds itself at the center of a community on the brink of collapse, forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a conflict that threatens to unravel the very meaning of what it is to be human.

The Returned is a beautifully written debut novel by Jason Mott.  It's an interesting look into what would happen if the dead started coming back.  This isn't your typical zombie story.  The people don't want to eat you.  They just appear one day having no idea how they got there or what happened to them after they died.  Most people come back in far away places.  The Returned focuses on the impact of  the phenomenon and how it affects one town and one family.  Sprinkled throughout the book are hints as to how the rest of the world is dealing as well.

For Harold and Lucille, they find that the return of their 8 year old son (who died in 1966) isn't all its cracked up to be.  They both have very different initial reactions.  Lucille is thrilled, but Harold is wary and doesn't believe it is his son.  Despite this, Harold chooses to stay with Jacob when he is put into the containment camp. The scenes in the containment camp reminded me of the horror stories we heard about the shelters during Hurricane Katrina. Being over run with people, no space, running water, or sanitary conditions. Not a situation I would wish on anyone.  I don't want to give too much away, because it would spoil the story. For me the ending was very bittersweet. 

The unique thing about the book is that no one ever figures out how or why the people came back. At least, the reader is never told. For me, that wasn't really the point of the book.  The book is more about deciding if you would want that second chance. If you got it, what would you do with it?  Sometimes, I think about having one more day with a lost loved one.  But, would that ultimately cause me more grief once they left me again? I think this is going to be one of those books that will stick with me for a long time to come.  I definitely recommend trying it out.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Did you know that the book is being turned into a series for TV?  It is called Resurrection. How cool is that to have your debut made into a TV show?  Check out the trailer below:


About the author:

Jason Mott lives in southeastern North Carolina. He has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from

the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His poetry and fiction has appeared in various journals such as Prick of the Spindle, The Thomas Wolfe Review, The Kakalak Anthology of Carolina Poets, Measure and Chautauqua. He was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize award and Entertainment Weekly listed him as one of their 10 “New Hollywood: Next Wave” people to watch.

He is the author of two poetry collections: We Call This Thing Between Us Love and “…hide behind me…” The Returned is his first novel.

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