Mrs Mommy Booknerd's Review Round-Up!!!!

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After I'm Gone

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Most Dangerous Thing, I'd Know You Anywhere, and What the Dead Knowreturns with an addictive story that explores how one man's disappearance echoes through the lives of the five women he left behind—his wife, his daughters, and his mistress

Dead is dead. Missing is gone.

When Felix Brewer meets nineteen-year-old Bernadette "Bambi" Gottschalk at a Valentine's Day dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative—if not all legal—businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July in 1976, Bambi's comfortable world implodes when Felix, facing prison, vanishes.

Though Bambi has no idea where her husband—or his money—might be, she suspects one woman does: his devoted young mistress, Julie. When Julie disappears ten years to the day after Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she's left to join her old lover—until her remains are discovered in a secluded park.

Now, twenty-six years later, Roberto "Sandy" Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for some extra cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web of bitterness, jealousy, resentment, greed, and longing stretching over five decades. And at its center is the man who, though long gone, has never been forgotten by the five women who loved him: the enigmatic Felix Brewer.

Felix Brewer left five women behind. Now there are four. Does at least one of them know the truth?

MRS MOMMY BOOKNERD'S REVIEW:
After I'm Gone was written from several points of view and when done correctly it can really add dimension to the books, After I'm Gone is one of those successful uses of several points of view within one story.  I felt myself relating to each character, whether I agreed with their choices or not, there was something compelling about each of them.  When you bring them together and add mystery, love and twists and turns you have a great read.  This book did not grab me like I hoped it would, maybe it was too much hype surrounding the book, but I did enjoy it.  I rate it 3 stars    

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The Wedding Bees

Sugar Wallace did not believe in love at first sight, but her bees did. . . .

Every spring Sugar Wallace coaxes her sleepy honeybee queen—presently the sixth in a long line of Queen Elizabeths—out of the hive and lets her crawl around a treasured old map. Wherever the queen stops is their next destination, and this year it's New York City.

Sugar sets up her honeybees on the balcony of an East Village walk-up and then––as she's done everywhere since leaving South Carolina––she gets to know her neighbors. She is, after all, a former debutante who believes that manners make the world a better place even if they seem currently lacking in the big city.

Plus, she has a knack for helping people. There's Ruby with her scrapbook of wedding announcements; single mom Lola; reclusive chef Nate; and George, a courtly ex-doorman. They may not know what to make of her bees and her politeness, but they can't deny the magic in her honey.

And then there's Theo, a delightfully kind Scotsman who crosses Sugar's path as soon as she gets into town and is quickly besotted. But love is not on the menu for Sugar. She likes the strong independent woman she's become since leaving the South and there's nothing a charmer like Theo can do to change her mind . . . only her bees can do that.

The Wedding Bees is a novel about finding sweetness where you least expect it and learning to love your way home.

MRS MOMMY BOOKNERD'S REVIEW:
I loved this book.  It has been a long time since I said that a book was completely charming and heartwarming!!!  The Wedding Bees is all that and so much more.  I adored it, just adored it!  The bees are unlike any other characters ever and the sweet spin and contribution to the story is beautiful and original...like I said I loved this book!  With the bees and the other characters this story is a wonderful and sweet story! Great book club read!  4.5 stars!

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You Had Me at Hello

What happens when the one that got away comes back?

Rachel and Ben. Ben and Rachel. It was them against the world. Until it all fell apart.

It’s been a decade since they last spoke, but when Rachel bumps into Ben one rainy day, the years melt away.

From the moment they met they’d been a gang of two; partners in crime and the best of friends. But life has moved on. Ben is married. Rachel is definitely not. In fact, the men in her life make her want to take holy orders…

Yet in that split second, Rachel feels the old friendship return. And along with it, the broken heart she’s never been able to mend.

If you love David Nicholls and Lisa Jewell then this is the book for you. Hilarious, heartbreaking and everything in between, you’ll be hooked from their first ‘hello’.

MRS MOMMY BOOKNERD'S REVIEW:
I want this book to be a movie...it is funny, romantic and had great characters.  There was something about it that drew me in instantly!  What fun it was being inside this book and living out the adventures and missteps along the way!  A fun summer read, 4 stars!

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No Alligator in Sight

In this coming of age novel, Lettie and Bert squeak by in a tiny town on Cape Cod, one parent an alcoholic and the other absent. After a string of bad decisions on Lettie’s part, their father ships them to their barely remembered mother for the summer, where they will learn hard lessons about themselves, their family, and their future by way of the Florida swamp. Throughout Lettie keeps her biting humor flowing, her razor-sharp pen at the ready, and her eye on her quest for a “normal” life.

MRS MOMMY BOOKNERD'S REVIEW:
This is a wonderful coming of age story with some darkness and depth that comes with the genre.  It was well written and fleshed out.  There are the lesson we learn along the way that are displayed and discussed in a new and fresh manner!  3.5 stars!