by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . May 13, 2012 . 1:56PM
I work in a profession where I see the results of the utter devastation that occurs when a life is shattered overnight. Prior to starting my career, I’d carefully considered how people reacted when their lives changed overnight due to death, job loss or infidelity and Monarch Beach by Anita Hughes covers the latter. I received Monarch Beach as a free book from Librarything to read and review and it appeared like just another summer novel where the woman prevails after the man does her wrong, at first glance. After reading it, however, there was more substance to Monarch Beach.
Amanda Blick has what most would consider a rich, fulfilled life. She is an heiress married to a handsome restaurant owner and has a mischievous son. She lives the American Dream in a way that many cannot fathom and in a community that embraces her. While she gave up her career dreams, she was content with the life she had with her husband and her son, Max right up until the day she found her husband in a compromising position with a woman at his job. At the same time, she gets devastating news about her beloved mother, who is her remaining parent. How Amanda chooses to handle the situation is what this novel is about and our glimpse into Amanda’s healing process is intriguing. As Amanda struggles to move forward, we see that she is not as strong as she thinks and that her vulnerabilities lead her into making some decisions, even at the end of the novel, that seem rather dubious. Overall, the plot is excellent and the character is real. Amanda feels like a friend of ours that makes us cringe, makes us cheer, and makes us sigh because we wonder if she will really get it together. Ultimately, the book left me wondering if she would. This isn’t your typical beach read, but it was easy to read and a good book that was well worth my time and entertaining.
by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . April 15, 2012 . 3:01AM
About a month ago, I received a short novel in my mailbox called Make It Stay by Joan Frank. It was an attractive novel with a beautiful teal cover and it was a free copy from Librarythings that was given to me to review. Because the book was so short, I admit that I took forever to get around to reading it because I thought that it would be an easy one sitting reading session that I could quickly complete.
That didn’t happen. When I picked up the book, I found myself struggling to make it through even the first 20 pages of it. Let me explain why.
Make it Stay is a book about a couple who are longtime friends with another couple. The book begins with the wife, Rachel, a curious writer, asking her Scottish husband, Neil, to tell her, yet again, how he met their friends, Mike and Tilda. As Neil weaves the story of how he met Mike and how Mike eventually come to find Tilda and have a child together, Rachel discovers some disturbing information about their friends. After that night, nothing is the same between her and Mike and Tilda as well as her and Neil. The intermix of very different personalities casts all of their relationships into dubious territory and the novel weaves the reader through the ways that they deal with the repercussions of their choices.
The plot sounds straightforward enough, but it is a dialogue heavy book and also contains many flashback sequences, which can be somewhat confusing. While I liked the descriptive details, I found it difficult to want to pick up and read this book and I was never quite satisfied after setting it back down, especially at the end of the novel. I rarely have so little to say about a book, but I just couldn’t get into this one and enjoy it.
by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . April 1, 2012 . 2:30PM
When Goodreads.com sent me a free copy of Far From Here: A Novel, written by Nicole Baart, I was really looking forward to reading it. The premise of the novel is one that is written from the perspective of someone who has been left behind when someone they care about turns into a missing case. Was the person lost or did the person leave and will he return? Will he be found? What caused him to go in the first place and what happened when he did?
As someone who thrives on a good conspiracy theory, I know, I know, I should know better, but I do thrive on them, I couldn’t wait to see what Nicole Baart’s take on what it might be like to be in that uncomfortable position of loving someone and then having them disappear would look like. I tend to live vicariously through my books and would never, ever want to experience this firsthand, but I have frequently wondered about the people that just drop off the face of the earth. Did they choose it? Did something happen to them? Are they still there?
With these questions in mind, I opened up the beautifully illustrated cover of Far From Here and settled down for a good read. Danica and Etsell have been married for the majority of their adult lives. Etsell is a passionate pilot and Danica is his flight-phobic support system. On the surface, their marriage is perfect, even after ten years, and though Danica cannot share Etsell’s dream of flight, they begin to discuss having a family.
Etsell takes a flight job for a friend and will be in Alaska for two weeks flying, which is his dream job. Etsell has always wanted to work there on a permanent basis but Danica is set in her feelings of staying where they have planted roots and avoiding flying at all costs. It is with this dissonance between them that Etsell leaves for his two week business trip.
Danica focuses on his return until her doorbell rings and she gets the news that Etsell has gone missing. The remainder of the book, without giving anything away, is spent determining what has happened to him, if he meant to leave her, and exactly what was happening in their relationship when he left. Ultimately, Danica looks within herself and looks at how you can live with someone for ten years and never really know or understand them or yourself.
Does Danica ever find out what happened to Etsell? Does he return? Did he mean to leave her? Far From Here is a book that kept me entertained and moving through it at a rapid pace. The writing was well done and the characters were dynamic. With every page turn I felt like I needed to know more. I wanted a neatly packaged ending, but we don’t always get them in real life. Many books neglect the secondary characters and this book was an exception. The secondary characters in the novel are those that are used to show us who Danica truly is and they were not just thrown in there to add “filler” to the book. This was a nicely done book and I’d honestly like to see a sequel to it, if for no other reason than to tidy up the ending and to find out what Danica chooses to do from here.
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I work in a profession where I see the results of the utter devastation that occurs when a life is shattered overnight. Prior to starting my career, I’d carefully considered how people reacted when their lives changed overnight due to death, job loss or infidelity and Monarch Beach by Anita Hughes covers the latter. I received Monarch Beach as a free book from Librarything to read and review and it appeared like just another summer novel where the woman prevails after the man does her wrong, at first glance. After reading it, however, there was more substance to Monarch Beach.
Life is like a game. We all have challenges, thoughts, opinions and beliefs. Often, it feels like something out there, life, karma, catty people, or blue shells (for the Kart lovers), seeks to bring us down. Luckily, we always get up. This is where I wear my heart on my sleeve and my foot in my mouth.
