The Dog Year
Dr. Lucy Peterman was not built for a messy life. A well-respected surgeon whose patients rely on her warmth, compassion, and fierce support, Lucy has always worked hard and trusted in the system. She’s not the sort of person who ends up in a twelve-step program after being caught stealing supplies from her hospital.
But that was Lucy before the accident—before her husband and unborn baby were ripped away from her in an instant, before her future felt like a broken promise. Caught red-handed in a senseless act that kept her demons at bay, she’s faced with a choice: get some help or lose her medical license.
Now she’s reluctantly sharing her deepest fears with a bunch of strangers, avoiding her loneliness by befriending a troubled girl, pinning her hopes on her husband’s last gift, and getting involved with a rugged cop from her past. It’s only when she is adopted by a stray mutt and moves her group to the dog park that she begins to truly bond with the ragtag dog-loving addicts—and discovers that a chaotic, unplanned life might be the sweetest of all . . .
MY REVIEW:
Books affect us in all sorts of ways...some make us happy, others make us think, while others make us feel...The Dog Year made me feel. Life is not perfect, we are not perfect. There are things that happen that change us, make us do things we would not otherwise do. We are human after all, right? This is a book about loss, grief, moving and and coping the best we can. There is something for everyone in this novel...4 stars!
Books affect us in all sorts of ways...some make us happy, others make us think, while others make us feel...The Dog Year made me feel. Life is not perfect, we are not perfect. There are things that happen that change us, make us do things we would not otherwise do. We are human after all, right? This is a book about loss, grief, moving and and coping the best we can. There is something for everyone in this novel...4 stars!
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The Winter Sea
by Di Morrissey
Escaping an unhappy marriage and an unsatisfactory job, Cassie Holloway moves to the little Australian coastal town of Whitby Point. There she meets the Aquino family, whose fishing business was founded by their ancestor, Giuseppe, an Italian immigrant, some ninety years before. Life for Cassie on the south west coast is sweet as she sets up a successful restaurant and falls in love with Giuseppe's great grandson Michael. But when the family patriarch dies, a devastating family secret is revealed which threatens to destroy her dreams. Cassie's future happiness now rests with her quest for the truth.
MY REVIEW:
It has been a while since I read a book like this one...it is complex, spans throughout time and it filled with history. The story is detailed with intriguing characters and is set in very interesting locations. This is one of those books that you either connect with or you don't. I did enjoy this novel and find the cover to be quite beautiful. 3.5 stars
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The Truth About Suzie
Childhood neighbors Suzie and Cecily lost touch when Suzie moved away after fifth grade. Through social media, they rekindle their offbeat friendship when they find they are simultaneously fighting cancer.
But Cecily has just learned from a reality television show that Suzie has died—of complications due to alcohol and drug abuse. Did Suzie really have cancer at all? Or was she, as the Dr. Dick show makes it appear, a compulsive liar and an alcoholic living in denial to the end?
Their relationship, and the truth about Suzie, is revealed through Facebook updates, emails and prose. Technology is both a story-telling device and an accomplice, facilitating the relationships and complicating them.
The Truth About Suzie explores the threads that hold us together and asks the reader what makes a relationship real. Does the virtual mirror of social media distort us, or do we distort it to reflect what pleases us about ourselves and hide what doesn't?
MY REVIEW:
I LOVED this book. It was such a great novel. I am still thinking about it. It is serious and funny and original and such a great debut! It is about so many things, but it does so in such a way that is causes the reader to connect to the character...to be present in the story. I really liked this book...4.5 stars
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The Fragile World
From the author of publishing sensation The Mourning Hours comes a powerful new novel that explores every parent's worst nightmare.
The Kaufmans have always considered themselves a normal, happy family. Curtis is a physics teacher at a local high school. His wife, Kathleen, restores furniture for upscale boutiques. Daniel is away at college on a prestigious music scholarship, and twelve-year-old Olivia is a happy-go-lucky kid whose biggest concern is passing her next math test.
And then comes the middle-of-the-night phone call that changes everything.Daniel has been killed in what the police are calling a freak accident, and the remaining Kaufmans are left to flounder in their grief. The anguish of Daniel's death is isolating, and it's not long before this once perfect family find themselves falling apart. As time passes and the wound refuses to heal, Curtis becomes obsessed with the idea of revenge, a growing mania that leads him to pack up his life and his anxious teenage daughter and set out on a collision course to right a wrong.
An emotionally charged novel, The Fragile World is a journey through America's heartland and a family's brightest and darkest moments, exploring the devastating pain of losing a child and the beauty of finding healing in unexpected ways.
"A heart-stopping series of events drives The Fragile World…. The result is a gripping read, but one that delivers, by the book's end, a beautiful reminder of the resilience of love." —Karen Brown, author of The Longings of Wayward Girls
MY REVIEW:
Emotional. A great read that mixes consequences, guilt, heartbreak and family dysfunction into a compelling novel. There is so much emotion packed in this novel. You are certain to feel a wide range of emotions. Your heart will break too, bu then you are on other journey...one that is hopeful and honest and inspiring. What a ride this novel is....4 stars.
Emotional. A great read that mixes consequences, guilt, heartbreak and family dysfunction into a compelling novel. There is so much emotion packed in this novel. You are certain to feel a wide range of emotions. Your heart will break too, bu then you are on other journey...one that is hopeful and honest and inspiring. What a ride this novel is....4 stars.
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The Perfect Mother
by Nina Darnton
When an American exchange student is accused of murder, her mother will stop at nothing to save her.
A midnight phone call shatters Jennifer Lewis’s carefully orchestrated life. Her daughter, Emma, who’s studying abroad in Spain, has been arrested after the brutal murder of another student. Jennifer rushes to her side, certain the arrest is a terrible mistake and determined to do whatever is necessary to bring Emma home. But as she begins to investigate the crime, she starts to wonder whether she ever really knew her daughter. The police charge Emma, and the press leaps on the story, exaggerating every sordid detail. One by one, Emma’s defense team, her father, and finally even Jennifer begin to have doubts.
A novel of harrowing emotional suspense, The Perfect Mother probes the dark side of parenthood and the complicated bond between mothers and daughters.
MY REVIEW:
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HIGHLIGHT:
Both of Me
Elias Phinn has always been considered stupid, but that may be because no one knows his vacant exterior holds a gifted mind. A mind that has learned to focus on his created world of Warilia, through which Elias distills everything he sees in order to cope with the excruciating, actual world around him. But with each passing year, the detailed sketches and notebooks describing Warilia have not only taken over Elias's time, they have become a world he must slip into in order to get through each day. Clara Tobias has been running from her own reality, leaving behind her fragile mother and two siblings in order to have the whirlwind life of travel and adventure she always wanted. She justifies she put in her time caring for others, and that the rest of her life is hers to use as she pleases. Even if guilt won't leave her alone.
On a flight out of New York---Elias heading home for the summer, Clara on another trip to Somewhere---the two end up side by side. And when their carry-ons are mistakenly switched, Clara opens her bag to discover the histories of Warilia while Elias finds photographs and journals he uses to flesh out the mysterious girl who sat beside him, whom he sees as the beautiful daughter of a Warilian diplomat, making her and her mother an integral part of his entire world.
When Clara arrives at the Phinn's boarding house for her luggage, she begs Elias to show her Warilia---and he does, taking her to locations that to him are not ordinary landscapes and buildings but epic mountains and massive skyscrapers. But as Clara finds herself further drawn to this intriguing boy, word comes her mother has died. When Elias becomes unable to deal with the death of his diplomat, he and Clara leave on a mission Elias claims will preserve Warilia forever. Though in the end it could be the one thing that allows Clara to piece her own world together.
On a flight out of New York---Elias heading home for the summer, Clara on another trip to Somewhere---the two end up side by side. And when their carry-ons are mistakenly switched, Clara opens her bag to discover the histories of Warilia while Elias finds photographs and journals he uses to flesh out the mysterious girl who sat beside him, whom he sees as the beautiful daughter of a Warilian diplomat, making her and her mother an integral part of his entire world.
When Clara arrives at the Phinn's boarding house for her luggage, she begs Elias to show her Warilia---and he does, taking her to locations that to him are not ordinary landscapes and buildings but epic mountains and massive skyscrapers. But as Clara finds herself further drawn to this intriguing boy, word comes her mother has died. When Elias becomes unable to deal with the death of his diplomat, he and Clara leave on a mission Elias claims will preserve Warilia forever. Though in the end it could be the one thing that allows Clara to piece her own world together.
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HIGHLIGHT:
The After House
Remy Galway and her daughter Olivia are rebuilding their life after a failed marriage in a 300 year old cottage in historic Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Little do they know, another occupant is lurking in the haven of their own home. Will the After House be their shelter or their tomb?
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Emily, AKA Mrs. Mommy Booknerd