Double Review: Never Tear Us Apart / Never Let You Go by Monica Murphy

Monica Murphy dropped two novels in 2016 with her new adult series Never Tear Us Apart.  The first book is titled the same of the series, and is followed by Never Let You Go.  It is a dark, gripping tale of two young adults struggling to find themselves -- and love -- in the wake of a devastating tragedy.

Never Tear Us Apart - Book 1
Perfect for readers of Colleen Hoover, Jay Crownover, and K. A. Tucker, the first novel in this darkly sexy contemporary series from bestselling author Monica Murphy kicks off an emotionally powerful two-part tale of forbidden love.

A long time ago, when I was fifteen and a completely different person, I saved a girl’s life. I spent only a handful of hours with her, but somehow, we connected—and I’ve never been the same. No one understands what we went through. No one knows what it’s like to be us. We survived, yet I don’t feel like I’m really living—until now. Eight years later, I find her. I want to make her mine. I need to make her mine.  But she’ll hate me forever when she finds out who I really am.
@Goodreads - @Amazon


Never Let You Go - Book 2
The second novel in this darkly sexy contemporary series from bestselling author Monica Murphy wraps up an emotionally powerful two-part tale of forbidden love.

The truth hurts, they say—and my pain cuts deep. While I was falling for Ethan, he was deceiving me the entire time. He held a huge secret, protected by his lies. When I discovered what he was hiding, the truth shook my world, threatening to ruin us forever. Ruin me. But I soon realized that what we share can’t be destroyed.

The connection between us is too strong. It always has been. I can’t deny him any longer. And I can’t deny my truth: I’m in love with Ethan.

I don’t want to let him go.

While we’re trying our best to make this relationship work, other forces are fighting against us. My family, who wants to keep me safe. The media obsessed with my tragic past. The public that feeds off of it. Even Ethan’s father—the man who nearly destroyed me all those years ago. He’s doing his best to finish the job.

Despite my love for Ethan, the doubts creep in, clouding my mind. Is he worth the pain? Will our love survive, or will we have no choice but to end it—end us—once and for all?
@Goodreads - @Amazon

This is the story of a twelve year old girl that was kidnapped from a local amusement park by a man that brutally raped and tortured her for three days, and the fifteen year old boy that saved her... the kidnapper's very own son.  Told in the dual perspective of Katie and Will (now Ethan), both past and present, Never Tear Us Apart is a strong beginning to the series.

Eight years after the highly publicized kidnapping, torture, and rape of Katie, Ethan finds the girl he saved.  The girl he rescued from his monster of a father who also abused him throughout his life both and physically and emotionally.  The man that was a confirmed killer of two other teenage girls he also abducted and raped.

Katie is a shell of a person; utterly destroyed, and believable as a victim of something no living creature should ever have to endure. Scared, but desperate to get her life back, she finds herself at the amusement park where she was abducted eight years prior, where she meets Ethan. She then forms a bond with him that she has never had with another man, understandably.

But she does not know that he is the boy that saved her.

Overall, four stars.  Fast-paced, believable, dark enough to interest my even my incredibly black soul, and most importantly, the two characters had their own unique voices.  The end was a bit... clean and tidy (too much for my taste), but overall, a very decent read.

Never Let You Go picks up where Never Tear Us Apart left off.  Still told in the dual perspective of both Katie and Ethan/Will, and still with flashbacks to the incident 8 years ago.  Except this time, the flashbacks add nothing; the story was already told.  In fact, there's issues with the flashbacks; in the first novel, Katie stopped talking to Will after the incident because her mother insisted on it, but in the second novel, Will was the one to cut ties with Katie.  So I guess the flashbacks did provide something -- plot holes.

The second novel, although readable, simply dragged.  The ending was bad, Will annoyed me so much I started thinking he was a slight creeper (not great to think when reading a romance novel).  In my opinion, this entire novel could have been summed up in a few chapters and added to the end of Never Let You Go, which should have been a standalone.  Two stars.

 

(Combined rating of both books in the Never Tear Us Apart series)

Review: It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Uh-oh; Colleen Hoover (lovingly known by the blogging community as simply 'CoHo') has a new novel out that guarantees to make you cry and be depressed and think about things you normally wouldn't... like every other Colleen Hoover book.  Worst book introduction ever? Maybe. But this is CoHo, guys; you know what to expect.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

@ Goodreads - @ Amazon

The good:  Colleen Hoover, y'all! (Note: this is the first time in my life I've ever even thought the word 'y'all', let alone used it in a sentence)
The bad:  Insta-love, love triangle :(

This one is hard for me to review for two pretty significant reasons:

1. Colleen Hoover, y'all! (Make that number two; I'm on a roll here)  Honestly, I feel that if anyone other than CoHo wrote this, I would have given it a higher rating.  So please, keep that in mind. 
2. I can't really say much about the novel without giving the entire thing away.  Unfortunately, the "reveal" (which comes at approximately halfway through the book), is the entire book.  

Every review I read on Goodreads was gushing with praise, and of course, completely lacking in detail.  If I had zero problems with the novel, my review would undoubtedly follow suit.  Unfortunately, I had some problems with it, and in order for me to discuss them, I have to talk about the novel a little bit.

BEWARE: Major Spoilers!

Review: Dumplin' (Dumplin' #1) by Julie Murphy

Dumplin' (Dumplin' #1) by Julie Murphy is a young-adult standalone series novel featuring a beloved self-proclaimed fat girl named Willowdean, with a deep and profound love for Dolly Parton (not a typo); it is a novel about accepting oneself, and making the most out of life, no matter your circumstances.

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked…until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine—Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.

@ Goodreads - @ Amazon

The good:  Unconventional (read: overweight) heroine
The bad:  Love triangle, weak, shallow characters, slow moving plot

Before I tear into this like a piece of bloody meat and have the entire internet (or the four of you that still read this blog, in any event) thinking that I am some kind of fat person hater, I feel like I should explain my mindset and why I didn't connect with this novel on any level despite spending the vast majority of my life as fat, if not fatter, than the heroine in this novel.

So, briefly:  I got fat at the age of six which I could blame on a psychological event, but for the purpose of this review the whys are quite irrelevant.  After years of not really caring much about what I looked like, I was diagnosed with Diabetes type 2 at the age of 30.  I found that losing weight as a morbidly obese diabetic was not just difficult, but pretty much damn near impossible.  I underwent weight loss surgery (Roux-en-Y gastric bypass) in January of 2015.  My Diabetes type 2 was cured immediately post-op; I've lost 168.8 pounds to date.  I went from a size 22 to a size 4.  From 300 pounds to 130 pounds.

Now, back to the novel.
Read on for spoilers...

Willowdean,"lovingly" called Dumplin' by her former beauty queen mother, is a fat Dolly Parton loving fanatic.  She's not necessarily proud to be fat, but she's not exactly ashamed of it, either.  So basically... girl is fat. Girl has no desire to lose weight, but is unhappy with her body and constantly deludes herself about it. Girl likes guy. Guy likes girl, but girl sees herself as too fat to allow him to get close to her. The end.

Very contradictory main character. She's proud of her body / she doesn't like to be touched because she's embarrassed by it. She doesn't care what people think of her because she's fat / she cares what people think of her if she were to date a really hot guy that she really likes. ???????????????

Oh wait -- did I mention that "Dumplin'" had a morbidly obese aunt that died in her 30's of a heart attack? Yet even then all of her concerns about her weight are aesthetic. It would have been really easy for the author to have had the main character decide to lose weight to get healthy like her deceased aunt would have wanted -- tell me she wouldn't have! (and hey! looking better is a perk, too!), but no!  

Willowdean's aunt's weight held her back her entire life, right up to her untimely death on the couch.  Where she effectively ate herself to death.  So what does Willowdean do?  Signs up and participates in a beauty pageant.  Because she found out that her deceased aunt wanted to enroll some twenty years prior, but didn't because she was fat. 

So yeah... Girl is going to kick herself in the fucking ass when she gets diabetes type 2 at the age of 30 because she was so "content" with being fat her entire life. Positive body image bullshit would be fine, in theory, if being obese wasn't extremely fucking unhealthy. But it is extremely unhealthy.  Love your body regardless of what it looks like, absolutely, but if you are overweight, try to lose some weight for your health.  Not for society.  For YOU.  

Willowdean's desire to actively not lose weight really doesn't make sense, because despite convincing herself that she is okay with her body, she really isn't.  She holds herself back because of her weight.  So the overall message of the book to love yourself is a huge fucking miss here.   If she really did love herself, and didn't hold herself back at all, my review would have been different.  But, deep down inside, I felt that Willowdean didn't like herself, purposely held herself back because of what society might think, and still didn't give a fuck about losing weight.  It's like the author is telling every overweight teenage girl to stick with being fat, and to just accept mediocrity and loneliness.

In summary, aside from my bias, Dumplin' was still not very great. Nothing really happened. Slow-moving "plot" (I use that term loosely), with lackluster characters.

Review: You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

You Were Here by Cori McCarthy is a new young adult coming of age novel, featuring a quirky and cute heroine, and an impossibly irresistible -- but usually silent -- book boyfriend.  Set largely where yours truly grew up, I couldn't help but fall in love with it.  I'm biased; whatever.

Grief turned Jaycee into a daredevil, but can she dare to deal with her past?

On the anniversary of her daredevil brother's death, Jaycee attempts to break into Jake's favorite hideout—the petrifying ruins of an insane asylum. Joined by four classmates, each with their own brand of dysfunction, Jaycee discovers a map detailing her brother's exploration and the unfinished dares he left behind.

As a tribute to Jake, Jaycee vows to complete the dares, no matter how terrifying or dangerous. What she doesn't bargain on is her eccentric band of friends who challenge her to do the unthinkable: reveal the parts of herself that she buried with her brother.

@ Goodreads - @Amazon

So yeah.  LOVED. IT.
Please note: This title was provided to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review, courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher. 

Let me back up -- I strongly disliked You Were Here at first. I hated the main character right off the bat what with her ridiculous death wish, and her shallow, shitty "friends". However, a New Year resolution of mine forced me to press on, and give it a chance without abandoning it around the 25% mark, and boy, am I glad I did.  The main character -- and her shitty friends -- ended up being not quite so awful, after all. 

I'm pretty sure I'm in love with Ryan Mikivikious (Mik) and his selective mutism (which, I should add, annoyed me greatly in the earlier chapters, and later consumed me with a hunger for this motherfucker to speak. When he did, my life felt complete.) 

Also -- this was big for me -- the setting for the last quarter of the novel was my old stomping grounds: NE Ohio, specifically the abandoned Randall Park mall (which I've frequented), and the defunct amusement park, Geauga Lake, which I frequented a lot throughout my childhood, and well into adulthood. The rides they discuss, I've ridden. The nostalgia was strong with this novel. 

Fans of emotional YA reads are going to gobble this one up; those that have been to Geauga Lake are going to love it. 

For more on Geauga Lake, and its current state of neglect, click here (2:14 YouTube video, news broadcast from 2013)

For a drone flyover of Geauga Lake from 2014, click here (4:38 YouTube video) 

Review: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is a new young-adult novel about mental illnesses, family, love, and surviving in the aftermath of great emotional trauma.  Recommended for fans of Rainbow Rowell, John Green, and Gayle Forman, All the Bright Places is sure to pull at your heart strings. Soon to be a major-motion picture starring Elle Fanning!

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.

Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.

@Amazon - @Goodreads

I don’t know how it is possible to love a book that I am so incredibly mad at, but it has happened.  This is a book that will most-likely make you as angry as it made me, and probably very sad.   This is a book that will stay with you for a very long time if you have ever had suicidal thoughts, or experienced the loss of someone who has taken their own life.  

Meet Violet.  Brilliant.  Beautiful.  Damaged.  Less than a year ago, she was in a fatal car accident; her older sister, Eleanor, was killed.  Violet wants nothing more than to leave small-town Indiana for college and get on with her life.

Meet Finch.  Brilliant.  Bat-shit crazy, with a family history of domestic abuse.  Suicidal.  Known as “Freak” at school.  He meets Violet one day at school on the bell tower, and talks her off the ledge.  Over the course of the school year, they become friends and eventually more.  Yes, another damaged girl + damaged boy love story, but one that is incredibly well-written and relatable.  

The novel is told in the dual perspectives of Finch and Violet, concentrating slightly more on Finch, a 17 year old boy with what seems to be a death wish.  It is clear that Finch has an undiagnosed mental illness, and desperately needs help, but his family merely accepts him the way he is.

Finch is a complex character that is both lovable and infuriating.  And let’s be honest:  a little annoying.  His actions throughout the novel are selfish at times, and heroic at others.   Part of me hates him, while another part of me understands him at his core.  

I will not say much about the ending, except that it is tragic yet beautiful; haunting, yet inspiring, and will not be forgotten easily.

Folks, if you or someone you know someone is suffering from a mental illness and may be suicidal, please get them help.  And if you are suicidal, please think about the people you will most assuredly leave behind with guilt, regret, and questions that will forever be unanswered before you choose to end your life.    

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

1 (800) 273-8255

Publication Date: January 6, 2015

Review: Never Never (Never Never #1) by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

Never Never is the first novella in a new collab series by the extremely popular Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher.

Best friends since they could walk.

 In love since the age of fourteen.

Complete strangers since this morning.

He'll do anything to remember. She'll do anything to forget.




@Goodreads - @Amazon

This novel is told in the dual perspective of the two main characters, both of whom lost their memory at the same exact time without suffering any kind of injury or illness.  They just "woke up" one day at school, not knowing a single detail about themselves, such as where they lived, what their names are, or anything at all relevant to themselves.  But they remember all the latest technology and can use it efficiently.

As I type this out, I find myself thinking that the three-star rating I gave this novella is a bit generous.  It's a bit... far-fetched.   To put it mildly.

 Instead of telling a family member or, I don't know, a DOCTOR, about their memory loss, they instead do absolutely nothing, looking to each other to try to fill in the gaps about their lives. As this happens, Silas, the boyfriend, starts falling in love with Charlie all over again, who was cheating on him before the memory loss incident took place. Oh, but he was cheating on her, too, with the school guidance counselor. Two assholes. Now, two assholes with no memories. There is a twist at the end that interested me, but frankly made no sense at all, followed up a cliffhanger ending that answers almost nothing. So why the three stars?  Despite its flaws (the central one being the completely unexplained medical mystery memory loss, which is... pretty significant), it was a fast read.  I gobbled it up, and when I finished, I wanted more.   So what if it is the novella equivalent of a crappy daytime soap opera.  I liked it, despite... everything.  Somehow.

Publication Date: January 7, 2015

Review: I Was Here by Gayle Forman -- NEW RELEASE

For fans of Gayle Forman's If I Stay (now a major-motion picture), I Was Here tells the story of two best friends; one that committed suicide, and one that was left behind to pick up the pieces of her life. Grab your tissues!

Cody and Meg were inseparable.
 Two peas in a pod.
 Until . . . they weren’t anymore.

 When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question. I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss.                                       @Amazon @Goodreads

I have to say, I absolutely love stories like this, so this review may seem a bit biased.  I have had a friend commit suicide, and while we weren't best friends... well, let's just say that I can relate to the main character of this story completely.

Meg was a girl that had it all.  Looks, brains, a close-knit family, and a full scholarship to her dream school in Seattle.  Cody, in contrast, didn't have much: a part-time mother, no father, little money, and hardly any future prospects.  One morning while checking her e-mail, Cody's entire world was changed; she had received a suicide note from Meg, who penned one last e-mail to her friends and family before drinking poison in an anonymous motel room.

Cody then makes it her mission to find out why her best friend committed suicide, all the while suffering through her own anguish -- why didn't she know?  Could she have done anything?  Why?

The answer is both surprising and unsurprising.  The novel, on a whole, is both inspiring and depressing.  Forman pulls at the heartstrings, and makes you really think about if your best friend were to commit suicide.  And hopefully, she will make you think of what would happen to those you love if you, yourself, were to commit suicide.  Don't do it!

Highly recommended to those of you that like a thought-provoking, emotional read.

Publication Date: January 27, 2015

Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Now a major motion picture, If I Stay by Gayle Forman is the haunting tale of a young woman faced with an impossible decision.

On a day that started like any other, Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. In an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left. It is the most important decision she'll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.

@Goodreads - @Amazon

First and foremost, ignore that little statement USA Today made on the cover stating that this will appeal to fans of Twilight.  Not that it won't (it very well might), but a statement like that might make the reader think that this novel is comparable to Twilight.  It is not.  If anything, I'd compare this novel to The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, as it is written in an out-of-body perspective.  

The novel opens with a horrific, fatal car crash.  Mia, the protagonist, finds herself outside of her body, which is badly injured and lying in a ditch, thrown from the car -- brain contusions, broken bones, internal injuries, you name it.  She finds the bodies of her parents first, dead and horribly mangled.  Her little brother, Teddy, is missing from the scene, likely thrown from the car as well.  She watches as emergency medical workers clear the scene and transport her body to a local trauma center.  

Throughout the mayhem, Mia has a series of flashbacks about her life leading up to the crash.  The reader meets her family, her best friend, Kim, and her boyfriend, Adam.  Mia is an accomplished classical cellist on the road to Juilliard, with the most amazing, loving family imaginable.  Her parents are (I feel like an idiot for saying this) "hip", open-minded, tattooed, and just cool.  Her little brother, Teddy, is adorably sweet and funny.  Adam, her boyfriend, is hot and in a band.  

In between flashbacks, Mia watches over her friends and family in the hospital, also noting her progress.  She is in a coma, in critical condition.  She has grievous injuries, including some that happened post-accident, during her emergency surgery.  Mia learns from the way hospital personnel act towards her body that she may actually have a choice as to if she lives or dies.  

This was a really good, poignant novel, but I do have a few problems with it.  Firstly, it was a bit on the short side, weighing in at only a little more than 200 pages.  (Note: The Kindle version of this novel ends at 79%, which was a bit of a disappointment, because the end is naturally abrupt on its own.) Anyway, because the novel was so short, the characterization suffered a bit, and the love story between Mia and Adam felt a bit forced.   I did not believe in their love.  I did believe in Mia's immediate family, however.  I felt the loss of her parents and brother profoundly.  I felt the love from her extended family, as they visited her in the hospital after the accident.  But I did not feel anything for Adam, and I believe I was supposed to.   However, I'm old and jaded, and I know a love like theirs can turn sour on a dime.  They're teenagers.  He's in a band.  If Mia died, Adam would be getting laid on the regular in two weeks.  Meh.

This novel makes you think what you would do in Mia's situation.  I won't tell you if Mia decides to stay or go, but if I were Mia, I think I would have let go.  

(Actual rating 3.5)

Review: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Currently a New York Times bestselling novelist, Liane Moriarty, author of The Husband's Secret, spins a new tale about secrets, lies, friendship, and schoolyard scandals.

Sometimes it’s the little lies that turn out to be the most lethal. . . .
A murder… . . . a tragic accident… . . . or just parents behaving badly?
What’s indisputable is that someone is dead. But who did what?

Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads: Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?)

Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay. New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.

Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.
@Goodreads - @Amazon

A murder.  Maybe.  The blurb says there might have been a murder.  Or maybe an accident?  Does someone die?  Who dies?

Well, I'm not going to tell you who dies, or if it was a murder, an accident, or just parents behaving badly.  But I will tell you that you won't know who dies until, well, they die.  At the very end of the novel.

The book opens with something happening at an elementary school.  We have no idea what happened, only that something did, and we only know that is was something major because the blurb tells us that someone dies.  It's very unclear what happens in the beginning; we are told there is a scuffle of sorts witnessed by an elderly lady with a cat named Marie Antoniette (let them eat cake) in the very beginning.  Then the novel takes us back six months and introduces us to entirely new characters.  Bye, old lady.  Hello, three 30-something ladies.

The author tells us just enough to pique our curiosity early on.  One of the characters may have a psychotic monster child.  Another may be a victim of domestic abuse.  But the question still remains -- WHO DIES?  (And should we care?)

The novel is well-written, with relatable, although slightly clichéd characters, but it's the schoolyard scandal (read: kindergarten politics) that killed it for me.  I lost interest about halfway through the novel, but pressed on, because, well -- WHO DIES?

The ending is actually very good -- there are some twists that you will probably see coming, but the slow build-up was worth it.  I gobbled up the last quarter of the novel greedily; once it got good, it was very good.  

This book will be well received by women ages 25-45 with elementary school children.

Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

From acclaimed author Rainbow Rowell comes Landline, a new novel about an estranged couple and the magic phone that reconnects them at a critical point in their relationship.  Rainbow Rowell is famous for her earlier young adult fiction, Fangirl and the greatly beloved Eleanor & Park.

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.

Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts . . .

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened? @Goodreads - @Amazon

Pros: Cute cover!
Cons: Everything else.

It's not that Landline was a bad read; it just wasn't great. I went into this thinking that it was going to another epic, soul-punching romance like Eleanor & Park. It wasn't. The idea of the novel was cute -- a magical telephone that connects an unhappily married couple -- but the execution left much to be desired. First and foremost, the protagonist's name: Georgie McCool. That name mcsucks. It fits the cheesy theme of the novel, however.

Georgie herself did nothing for me, nor did any other character in the book. Neal, the husband, a short, fat guy, really did nothing for me, and I found myself rooting against their marriage. In the flashbacks prior to when Neal and Georgie married, when they were supposedly in love, they had no chemistry. Their relationship just never felt right.

Georgie and Neal have kids, but they are hardly worth mentioning. Neal is a stay-at-home dad while Georgie writes for TV sitcoms -- think Liz Lemon, but without the personality. Throughout the duration of the novel, the children are with Neal visiting relatives for Christmas, and Georgie hardly ever gives them a thought.

So blah blah blah, Georgie finds a magic phone that allows her present day self to talk to Neal before they got married, when they were in a big fight. Blah blah blah, Georgie has to make a decision: Now that she knows her marriage is shit, should she break up with Neal in the past so that they never get married?!

....No mother would ever consider a choice like that if she was given the option. Neal wasn't abusive physically or emotionally; he was unhappy because Georgie worked insane hours, never got time off, and he had to raise the kids pretty much exclusively. Georgie, on the other hand, was content aside from the fact that she knew Neal was unhappy. So for her to give any thought to breaking up with Neal in the past and thus not having kids with him is far-fetched and ridiculous.

I realize this novel is about a magic phone, which is far-fetched and ridiculous in itself, but that should have been the only thing far-fetched and ridiculous in the novel.  That way the reader could connect to it somehow, someway.  In theory.

The majority of my issues with this novel were due to Georgie and her utter lack of emotion towards her children.  It wasn't realistic, and really makes me think that Rainbow Rowell has never had children, because she does not appear to understand the type of bond a mother has with her child.  Not even close.  Because of this, I felt that Landline read more like a young adult novel, because young adults would be less apt to be bothered over the lack of a mother-child bond than say... a woman that has had a child.

Do Georgie and Neal end up staying together?  Who cares.  Read Eleanor & Park instead. @Amazon.com

Review: Suffer the Children by Craig DiLouie

Suffer the Children by Craig DiLouie is an adult novel that promises a fresh take on the apocalypse genre where children are dying, and then rising from their graves shortly thereafter, hungry only for blood.  It is marketed as horror novel that aims to pose the question: how far would YOU go for your children?

(Hi, everyone!  I'm back, finally.  I spent the last month busy with moving (packing and unpacking) in addition to work, of course.   We now have a fenced in yard for our dogs!  I'm so happy!)

 From an acclaimed horror writer, a chilling tale of blood-hungry children who rise from the dead in this innovative spin on apocalyptic vampire fiction.

Suffer the Children presents a terrifying tale of apocalyptic fiction, as readers are introduced to Herod's Syndrome, a devastating illness that suddenly and swiftly kills all young children across the globe. Soon, they return from the grave…and ask for blood. And with blood, they stop being dead. They continue to remain the children they once were...but only for a short time, as they need more blood to live. The average human body holds ten pints of blood, so the inevitable question for parents everywhere becomes: How far would you go to 

bring your child back?   

@Goodreads

There was just so much I did not like about Suffer the Children.  I think part of the reason I pushed through it was due to the utter ridiculousness of the plot;  I had to see where that train was going to take me.  It took me fucking nowhere, that's where it took me.

So there's some disease that affects only children.  It sweeps the globe within a matter of hours, and causes all children in any given area to just immediately drop dead.  At the same time.  In unison.  Because that's how viruses work.  That is problem number one, and it's a big one.  That's just stupid.  I understand that the author didn't want to go into this aspect of the plot, but go just explain the death of every child under puberty on the planet in like one page is just not acceptable.  

The story is told in the perspective of several different characters that are all connected in some way, over the span of a few months.  The premise is as I described; all children die at exactly the same time, defying everything we know about science, and then rise from their graves a few days later, only to go into a waking sleep.  It's quickly discovered that the children are hungry for blood, and parents all over the world begin bleeding themselves to feed their children.  Once fed, any decomposition is immediately gone, and the children are their happy old selves.  But their children only stay awake for 1 hour per pint of blood.  Exactly one hour, down to the minute.  Science.  Then they die again, decompose, cycle repeat.  After a short time, parents are weak and bled out.  They need to find a blood source to sustain their children, if only for just a little each day.  BUT HOW?!

Now I know this entire story is extremely far-fetched, so you may be wondering why I question the science in a vampire book.  Well, simply put, when said vampire book has non-existent characterization, overall lack of anything happening at all, and with very little of the horror promised (aside from some ridiculous decisions the  parents in this nonsense faced), you tend to be a little picky. Would a more complex plot describing the slower and believable death of all children have made the novel better?  Probably not, but it would have made it a lot less ridiculous.  At least to me.

Slow throughout, with a slightly faster-paced ending, I unfortunately was not impressed at all with Suffer the Children; actual rating 1.5 stars.  

Please note:  This title was provided to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review, courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher.  

Expected date of publication: May 20, 2014

Review: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

There are simply... no words I can use to describe Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma.  At least none that would do the novel any kind of justice.  It tackles a subject matter that is extremely difficult to read about, and even more so to talk about:  incest.

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister.

Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.         @Goodreads

I actually finished this book well over a week ago, but could not bring myself to write a review on it.  What can I say?  How can I review a book that affected me so profoundly?  I just couldn't.  I still can't.  And honestly, the less the reader knows going in to the novel, the better.

“I think I’m going to die from happiness. I think I’m going to die from pain.” 

So, yeah, incest.  I was a bit worried about that delicate subject when I first came across this novel.  It sickened me.  I did not want to read it.  But I did, anyway, and I'm so glad; Forbidden sucked me in, and spit me out.

Am I okay with incest now?  No.  But I believe in Lochan and Maya's love.  Although taboo, yes, it was beautiful, and it was pure.  And yes, I rooted for them, I did.

This is not a book for everyone.  If you do not like reading about star-crossed lovers, you will not like this novel.  If you require a happy ending, do not read this novel.  And lastly, if you require to have coherent thoughts about a novel, skip this.  This book, if nothing else, will make you feel, and it will make you hurt.  You may not be able to articulate your feelings into words, much like me, but they are there nonetheless.  And even if you hate this novel, which you very well may, it will stay with you.  Highly recommended, and now one of my all-time favorites.

Review: In Bed with a Highlander (McCabe Trilogy #1) by Maya Banks

In Bed with a Highlander (McCabe Trilogy #1) by Maya Banks is a Scottish Highlander historical romance novel, very reminiscent of earlier works done by Julie Garwood.  While a quick, rainy day read, In Bed with a Highlander does not add anything new to the genre.

Maya Banks' beguiling new trilogy features three unforgettable brothers risking everything to save their clan and their legacy—and to surrender their hearts to love.

Ewan McCabe, the eldest, is a warrior determined to vanquish his enemy. Now, with the time ripe for battle, his men are ready and Ewan is poised to take back what is his—until a blue-eyed, raven-haired temptress is thrust upon him. Mairin may be the salvation of Ewan's clan, but for a man who dreams only of revenge, matters of the heart are strange territory to conquer.

The illegitimate daughter of the king, Mairin possesses prized property that has made her a pawn—and wary of love. Her worst fears are realized when she is rescued from peril only to be forced into marriage by her charismatic and commanding savior, Ewan McCabe. But her attraction to her ruggedly powerful new husband makes her crave his surprisingly tender touch; her body comes alive under his sensual mastery. And as war draws near, Mairin's strength, spirit, and passion challenge Ewan to conquer his demons—and embrace a love that means more than revenge and land.    @Goodreads

It's been years since I've read any of Julie Garwood's historical novels, so I unfortunately cannot do a side-by-side comparison.  What I can say, though, is that if I didn't know who had written In Bed with a Highlander, I would have thought Julie Garwood had, maybe when she was sick with the flu, or experiencing writer's block or something.

Bottom line is this:  If you have not read any of Julie Garwood's Scottish historical romances, stop, and read those, instead.  If you have read Julie Garwood's Scottish historical romances, stop, and re-read those instead.  While the writing styles are indeed similar, Julie Garwood mastered the genre that Maya Banks is tentatively stepping in to.

If you do not know much about Scottish history, of clans, lairds, highlanders, and lowlanders, you're not going to learn much here. Going in to this book, the author seems to have expected everyone to have at least a basic understanding of medieval Scotland.  In truth, the "historical" aspect of the novel is lacking.

What's not lacking is instant love.  Aye, both characters fall in love very quickly, after an instant, powerful attraction.  And the end... was just not great.

Review: Prisoner of My Desire by Johanna Lindsey

Prisoner of My Desire by Johanna Lindsey is a staple in the historical romance genre; originally published back in 1991, it has not lost any of its steam, and is still regarded to be one of the best of its kind.  Warning:  It is quite rapey.

CAPTIVE OF LOVE

Spirited Rowena Belleme must produce an heir--or incur the dangerous wrath of a ruthless stepbrother, who stands to forfeit his ill-gotten wealth. And the magnificent Warrick deChaville is the perfect choice to sire her child--though it means imprisoning the handsome knight...and forcing him to bend to her amorous whims.

SLAVE OF PASSION

Vowing to resist but betrayed by his own virility, noble Warrick is intoxicated by Rowena's sapphire eyes and voluptuous beauty. Yet all the while he plans a fitting revenge--eagerly awaiting the time when his sensuous captor becomes his helpless captive ... and is made to suffer the same rapturous torment and exquisite ecstasy that he himself has endured.
@Goodreads

In my teenage years, I absolutely loved historical romances.  I've read everything the masters in the genre, like Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, and Jude Deveraux, have published.  I have never read anything by Johanna Lindsey, though, and even though I am not really into historical romances as I once was, the rape warning was what had me wanting to read this.

In an overly complicated series of events that I skimmed through (the beginning was a bit slow, to say the least), Lady Rowena is forced to marry an older man at her step-brother's insistence.  She is to become pregnant with a male heir post haste.  Unfortunately, her husband dies on her wedding night.  Rowena's step-brother then decides to capture a man that resembles her deceased husband somewhat, so she can be impregnated before they release the news of her husband's untimely demise.

Enter Warrick deChaville, a man mistaken for a peasant, that happens to be a knight.  Rowena is forced to "rape" him repeatedly.  After doing so several times, Rowena feels badly, and arranges for her captor to escape.  Escape he does, but he comes back soon to imprison Lady Rowena herself.  She spends time getting raped in retaliation, and made into a servant at Warrick's estate.  Blah blah blah, they fall in love, blah blah blah.

The good:  I feel like a lecherous twat for saying this, but... the rape scenes were hot.  They weren't overly rapey or brutal; they were more of a shameful experience for the rapee, as their body betrays them and longs for the rapist's touch.

The not-so-good:  Who falls in love with their rapist?  Also, the writing was overly wordy, the and beginning was riddled with non-important details, resulting in a very slow read for me.  2.5 stars.  If you're looking for some great historical romances, I'd skip this one, unless you, too, are intrigued by those rape scenes, you weirdo.

Review: Dorothy Must Die (Dorothy Must Die #1) by Danielle Paige

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige is the dark and grisly re-telling of a classic, and the first in a new young adult series. Set in the magical land of Oz, but not the Oz we know; this Oz is devastated and bleak, and looks like a nuclear wasteland.  What happened, you ask?  Dorothy happened.

I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.
But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado—taking you with it—you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still the yellow brick road, though—but even that's crumbling.

What happened?
Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm—and I'm the other girl from Kansas.
I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.
I've been trained to fight.
And I have a mission:
Remove the Tin Woodman's heart.
Steal the Scarecrow's brain.
Take the Lion's courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die!
@Goodreads

I'll be honest; I have never read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, but I'm familiar with the movie.  Very familiar.  Crazily obsessed at a young age, and watched it every day familiar.  Fans of the classic will likely enjoy this novel, but you do not need to be a fan to like this re-telling.  It is dark, sinister, violent, and sad.  The world of L. Frank Baum that Danielle Paige tweaks is powerfully told, completely different, yet somehow eerily familiar.

This story was really good; I rate it at 3.5 stars because, although very rich and imaginative, it dragged in the middle for me.  Gobble up this novel, I did not.  It took me several days longer than normal to read.

The premise of the novel is great; Amy arrives in Oz much like Dorothy originally did in the classic novel -- via a tornado and magic.  However, she does not arrive to the same Oz Dorothy did so many years before.  No, this Oz looks like a wasteland.  The only thing that is the same is the fabled yellow brick road.

Blah blah blah, Amy travels down the road, meeting people along the way, which makes the novel have a very Wizard of Oz feel.  She eventually meets Dorothy (who is a great character in this re-telling, incidentally), who throws her in prison when she learns that Amy came to Oz in the very same way she herself did.  Dorothy feels threatened, and must eliminate anything that stands in her way.

See, when Dorothy came back to Oz, she became corrupted by magic.  Through a series of events, she was able to climb to the top and reign over all the land, hoarding magic and punishing anyone that double-crossed her heinously.  Very fucking heinously.

(The other major characters from the franchise are also in this novel, and they are also rather amazing villains, especially the Tin Woodman.  Again, I cannot stress how vile and terrible the villains are in this novel -- you'll have to read it for yourself.)

Amy eventually escapes from prison with the help of a group of people, the Order, that are united under one goal:  to kill Dorothy, at any cost.

Amy... was flat, for me.  She was what most people would consider a kick-ass heroine, but she reminded me very much of Tris from the Divergent series, who I didn't really like.  If you liked Tris, I really think you'll like Amy.  There is also slowly developing love interest, a boy from the Order she joins, named Nox, who also did nothing for me.  This is the first novel in the series, however, so perhaps I will grow to like both characters in the subsequent books.

Overall, I highly enjoyed Dorothy Must Die except for the problems I detailed; the beginning and end were very good, but the story lulled in the middle when Amy trained with the Order.

Published April 1st 2014 by HarperTeen

Review: The Magpies by Mark Edwards

The Magpies by Mark Edwards is one of those books that I had on my Kindle for months, without really knowing why, but I blame marijuana as the culprit.  It is a psychological thriller featuring a newly married couple and their neighbors from hell.

When Jamie and Kirsty move into their first home together they are full of optimism. The future, in which they plan to get married and start a family, is bright. The other residents of their building seem friendly too: the horror writer and the middle-aged herbalist who live upstairs, and the Newtons, a married couple who welcome them to the building with open arms.

At first, the two couples get on well. But then strange things start to happen. Dead rats are left on their doorstep. They hear disturbing noises, and much worse, in the night. After Jamie's best friend is injured in a horrific accident, Jamie and Kirsty find themselves targeted by a campaign of terror.

As Jamie and Kirsty are driven to the edge of despair, Jamie vows to fight back – but he has no idea what he is really up against…

THE MAGPIES is a terrifying psychological thriller in which the monsters are not vampires or demons but the people we live next door to. It is a nightmare that could happen to anyone.                                                                                                    @Goodreads

Unfortunately, psychological thrillers like this are a dime a dozen, and The Magpies does little to stand apart from other works in the genre. Jamie and Kirsty just moved into the apartment of their dreams, but everything is not as they imagined it would be; they seem to be living under the couple from hell.  Shortly after moving in, pranks start happening:  dead rats on their door step, the fire department being called when there was no fire, pizza being delivered to their house when they did not order it, et cetera.

Then, they start receiving notes from their neighbors, telling them that they have sex too loudly, and even one time enclosing a recording of them having sex that they had apparently taped.  Creepy, yes, but then the creepiness factor kind of sputters out, and nothing of consequence happens for entirely too long.

At the end, Kirsty wants to sell the apartment, but her husband has developed a Jack Torrence-like obsession with staying, regardless of personal cost, and even tries to hire a hit man to teach the neighbors a lesson.  He has a lackluster little show-off against the neighbors, burns the place down, and that's that.  The end.

Overall, not the worst I've read, but nothing that will stand out in my mind in a couple weeks time.  Decent, but not great.  And the sex scenes were just awkward.

Review: Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

Although I am typically not a fan of the new adult genre (no real reason -- my old ass just can't relate), I had read Hopeless by Colleen Hoover, and loved the last half of it.  Maybe Someday wasn't a bad read at all -- in fact, I quite enjoyed it -- but I had some major problems with the plot and characters.

At twenty-two years old, aspiring musician Sydney Blake has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her good friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter cheating on her with Tori—and she is left trying to decide what to do next.

Sydney becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor, Ridge Lawson. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the daily guitar playing he does out on his balcony. She can feel the harmony and vibrations in his music. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either: He seems to have finally found his muse. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one…

@Goodreads

The novel opens right after Sydney finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with her longtime friend and roommate, courtesy of the hot guy she's been watching play guitar from her balcony in the evenings.   She quickly moves in with said hot guitar playing stud and his roommates, because she has nowhere else to go.  (I'm pretty sure I wouldn't move in with strangers under any circumstance, but whatever, I just went with it.)  Ridge is the hot musician, and shock of the century!, he's deaf.  He strikes a deal with Sydney to write lyrics for his band in exchange for free rent, and an attraction quickly blooms.

Then we find out Ridge has a girlfriend already.

Now, I know what you're thinking -- Ridge sounds like a piece of shit.  That's what I thought, too.  But, in Ridge's defense, adultery does happen, and it doesn't necessarily make a person a piece of shit.  At least that's what I tell myself.  Personal story time!: I cheated on, and then immediately left my first husband for my current husband.  My first husband wasn't a perfect guy, though, hardly;  without going into any details, we'll just say that he didn't treat me very well.  I didn't set out to cheat on him, it's just something that happened, and I owned up to it immediately, and that's that.  It was an extremely difficult time for me, and very hard for me to handle in every way imaginable, and keep in mind, my ex-husband wasn't the best.

Ridge's girlfriend in Maybe Someday is pretty much perfect.  Sweet, beautiful, kind, friendly, you name a positive adjective, and she fits it to a tee.

So therein lies the problem. While I enjoyed the romance that developed between Ridge and Sydney, I couldn't stop myself from thinking that Ridge is just a jerk.

I have some very specific reasons that I did not agree with Ridge's decisions... SPOILER ALERT!  Don't read ahead if you are interested in reading this novel for yourself and haven't yet.

Review: The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell is a thoroughly entertaining and hard to put down family drama dealing with mental illness, secrets, lies, and tragedy within one small family.

Meet the Bird family. They live in a honey-colored house in a picture-perfect Cotswolds village, with rambling, unkempt gardens stretching beyond. Pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and tow-headed twins Rory and Rhys all attend the village school and eat home-cooked meals together every night. Their father is a sweet gangly man named Colin, who still looks like a teenager with floppy hair and owlish, round-framed glasses. Their mother is a beautiful hippy named Lorelei, who exists entirely in the moment. And she makes every moment sparkle in her children's lives.

Then one Easter weekend, tragedy comes to call. The event is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass as the children become adults, find new relationships, and develop their own separate lives. Soon it seems as though they've never been a family at all. But then something happens that calls them back to the house they grew up in -- and to what really happened that Easter weekend so many years ago.

Told in gorgeous, insightful prose that delves deeply into the hearts and minds of its characters, The House We Grew Up In is the captivating story of one family's desire to restore long-forgotten peace and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.                                                                               @Goodreads

I'll be honest; although the synopsis sounded okay to me, I chose this book because I needed to take a break from YA Dystopian reads and knock out some of the ARCs I had waiting for me courtesy of Netgalley.  I couldn't have chosen a better novel to ease the transition back to Women's fiction.

Told in the perspective of several characters (each one completely unique and extremely well developed) Lisa Jewell takes us through a journey into the lives of the Bird family, past and present, showing us how they went from happy and content to estranged and in some cases, bitter.

Lorelei, the mother, is a free spirit, a hippie.  She lives in the moment, never dwelling on the past, never even thinking about the past, even when she should.  She copes with her life and the tragedy that befalls it by hoarding.  I'm sure you've seen the reality shows about hoarders, and yes, she is that bad.  Maybe even worse.

The novel opens in present day, with Meg, Lorelei's daughter, arriving in tow with her teenage daughter at her mother's estate, following her death.  The novel weaves back and forth between the present in the past, usually centering around the time of Easter, Lorelei's favorite holiday, and also the day of tragedy in the Bird family -- a tragedy that changes their lives forever.

I am a sucker for a story about a bat-shit crazy mother.  Reading a story about a mother that desperately loves her children, yet still manages to fuck up all of their lives absolutely fascinated me.  My own mother was abusive and cruel.  I found myself wishing Lorelei was my mother early on in the story, and extremely glad she was not by the end.  There is just simply more than one way to destroy your child's life when you're a mother.  The sky is your limit.

I related most with Beth, the daughter of Lorelei's that lived at home until she was about thirty, afraid to leave her mother to her worsening illness, and unsure of what she wants to do with her life throughout the majority of the story.  I myself lived at home until I was around twenty-six, for absolutely no rhyme or reason; my mother was mentally ill, too, in a completely different way.

Beautifully and powerfully told, The House We Grew Up In is a family drama chock full of surprises at every turn, with rich character development and pacing, perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon.  Warning:  You might need some tissues handy when reading this one.

Note:  A copy of this novel was given to me for reviewing purposes courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher, Atria Books.

Expected publication: August 12 2014