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The husband’s Secret – Liane Moriarty
This is one of the two Liane Moriarty books I purchased recently at Barnes and Noble. I had never read her stories before, so I was taking a chance buying two.
It certainly did not disappoint, but I have to say, it took several chapters into the story before I really felt a vested interest in the characters and what was going on with them. I think the thing I disliked the most is that each chapter focused on one family, of many that were intertwined. And it rotated as such. Chapter 1 was about family A, chapter 2 was family B, and chapter 3 was family C. Then chapter 4 went back to family A, and the entire story was plotted out in this manner.
Cecilia discovers a letter her husband wrote with instructions to only be opened upon his death. It took her a few chapters to get there, but she did indeed read it. What that letter contained was something that affected more than just her husband and herself. Cecilia does not know if she can bear the weight of carrying this secret.
Tess and Will have the marriage everyone admires, and she is comfortable in her life. Until she gets told something that damages the life she thought she had.
Rachel cannot let go of the fact that whomever murdered her 17 year-old daughter, so many years ago, has never been caught. She finds what she feels is evidence enough to convict the person she has suspected for the past 28 years.
As the characters deal with their own families and issues, the story comes together in a way you do not expect, and you will not want to put this one down until you have it finished!
Have you read this already?
What did you think of it?
You can read more about Liane and her stories here: Liane Moriarty Website
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We Were Not All Meant To Be Writers…
…because if it was not for us readers, you would all be working for nothing!
And that is just my way of saying Thank You to all of the authors who have been so kind to share the stories, the triumphs, the heartbreaks, and the challenges; all with me. Me being someone who wanted nothing more than to read what they had to write.
I look forward to another horrible Winter in West Michigan, with lots of coffee, Earl Grey tea, and great books to keep me comfy!
Write on my friends; write on!
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What Am I Reading?
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Go Set A Watchman – Harper Lee
I want to tell you I loved it; but I can’t. I am not ready to tell you I hated it, either. I tried my best to ignore all of the spoilers and media-hype as I was reading this story, and I think I was fairly successful.
But; life goes on as it always goes on, and I was well beyond distracted with work, daughters, school-things, editing, and oh, yeah: I have not been feeling well for 6+ days now.
So, I will absolutely cut Ms. Harper Lee some slack here. But I do feel that even in my most focused state of mind, I would have found this a bit difficult to read.
When I first started it, it was like a breath of fresh air: someone who wrote because they had to, and it all came natural and nothing sounded forced. But then the point-of-view was changing faster than my teenage daughters change their clothes, or minds, or attitudes; truth-be-told.
At this point I am looking forward to hearing what you thought of it. One passage that I absolutely have to share:
‘Why doesn’t their flesh creep? How can they devoutly believe everything they hear in church and then say the things they do and listen to the things they hear without throwing up? I thought I was a Christian but I’m not. I’m something else and I don’t know what. Everything I have ever taken for right or wrong these people have taught me – these same, these very people. So it’s me, it’s not them. Something has happened to me.’ (Ms. Jean Louise Finch, pg 167, Go Set a Watchman).
Did you love it, or did you hate it?
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In The Unlikely Event – Judy Blume
I think it has been about 20 years since I have read a book by Judy Blume. As always, she did not disappoint. I will be honest and say it took a few chapters before I really began having a vested interest in the characters and plot, but once I got to that point, it was difficult to put it down.
This is a fictional story, with the main action of the story revolving around real events that happened in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where Mrs. Blume grew up. There were 3 airplane crashes within a span of 58 days during the 1951-1952 school year, and Judy was an 8th grade student at the junior high school when these crashes took place.
She easily pulls together a story that spans 35 years, and many characters are introduced that play a significant role from beginning to end. The main characters are Miri, Henry, Natalie, Mason, Rusty, Irene, and Corinne, just to mention a few. Okay; just to mention several.
There is drama, suspense, romance, fighting, and all of the struggles that boys and girls go through as they become adults. No spoilers as usual, but it is definitely a story worth investing a few days of reading on.
Have you read it already? Let me know what you thought!
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The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon – Stephen King
I was told by a few of you that I would love this book, and you were right! This was definitely along the lines of classic Stephen King, and it has set me on a new mission: to read all of the older Stephen King books that are seldom talked about and I have somehow not yet managed to read.
As a side note; I still like “From a Buick 8” the best. I am going to have to pay close attention the next time I read it, which will be soon, to see if I can figure out what exactly it is about that one story in particular that makes me like it so much!
Trisha McFarland goes from being a normal 9 year old girl, with an irritating older brother, and parents who just divorced, to suddenly fighting for her life when she gets lost in the woods. Having a 10 year old daughter myself, I was often wondering what she would do and how she would handle each new situation that Trisha encountered as she walked for miles, trying to find her way out of the woods.
The one thing that saves Trisha’s sanity, at least for the most part, is listening to the Boston Red Sox on her Walkman, and telling herself that when Tom Gordon gets the save, it means she will get saved. This is classic Stephen King all over the place, but how much of it is in Trisha’s scared, starved, exhausted mind, and how much of it is really out there in the woods, watching her?
If you like Stephen King, you will enjoy this story. At less than 300 pages it is a quick read, and the only thing I did not like about it was that the chapters were so very long! I like to try to stop reading at the end of a chapter, but sometimes I just couldn’t because they were so long. I would have to put it down about halfway through a chapter, and then skim through the page before when I picked it up to refresh myself on what was happening since I was in the middle of something big going on in the story line.
I have already started Stephen King’s new story, Finders Keepers, but this one will be a bit longer of a read. I am still trying to get my blog in top-notch working order so I can attach my store, and I do have to go back to work tomorrow!
May your Sunday be full of great stories!
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Desperate Chioces – Jeanette Cooper
This is a fantastic book! A quick read, full of suspense, romance, and intrigue. As a note, there is quite a bit of violence against women going on in this book, please be advised before you read.
Rochelle met a wonderful man who she married, and learned about his abusive side after the fact. He is a major king pin in the drug world, and she is a hostage in her home.
It seems predictable at points, and when Michael starts acting like a total ass, it got a bit hard to not skim over. but keep going, it is worth the read. One woman learns what is important, learns a lot about herself, and just may find her happy ending!
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I’m Doing It; I Am Leaving A Bad Book Review…
Second Chances (Sequel to Over You) – Christine Kersey
I really wanted to like this book as much as I loved the first story, “Over You”. This story picked right up where the first book left off, literally a couple of days later. That made for a nice transition, but then the story became irritating. Or at least Jessica became irritating.
I have never heard one character in a story whine and complain as much as she was doing right from the beginning of “Second Chances”. And I have 4 daughters, so that is really saying something! Maybe it wouldn’t have been so off-putting if that was how she behaved in the first story, but it was not. Not even close.
She loves Kyle; she doesn’t trust Kyle. Maybe she should keep Alex waiting in the wings in case if things with Kyle don’t work out? She loves Kyle so much; she cannot trust Kyle. I know I am repeating myself here, but this is literally how every single chapter seemed to go. In one paragraph, she was so in love with Kyle and would do anything to keep him. The very next paragraph had her whining because she was so jealous of his former girlfriend. And it seemed like every paragraph of every chapter went back and forth like this.
It is like watching a tennis match when you don’t like tennis, don’t understand it, and could not care less who may win. I was beginning to not care who would end up with Kyle. Or how this story was going to end, for that matter.
Other than that, the saving grace of the story was the mystery that was sprinkled in concerning Jessica being threatened. Was it Kyle’s former girlfriend? Maybe it was her former boyfriend Alex? Or it could be the son of the man who was sent to prison for trying to kill her at the end of “Over You”. Some disturbing events quickly changed into odd and scary things happening to and around Jessica.
Unfortunately this part of the story also takes a perilous turn towards the ridiculous. I know I do not normally drop so many spoilers into a book review, but honestly, I am just trying to make sure you do not make the same mistake I made and buy this book.
Someone breaks into Jessica’s home in the middle of the night, holds a knife to her throat and threatens to kill her family if she does not go to the detective and tell them she lied about Mr. Harrington trying to kill her and Kyle. Oh, and tell the detective that it was actually Kyle who attacked Mr. Harrington, because he thought Jessica and he were having an affair.
And then he gets her to promise she will do this, and he leaves her home. And she goes to the police station the next day and tells them she may have been mistaken in what happened, etc. etc. etc and I cannot even go on with this.
Trust me; it is much worse if you read it for yourself. So just please don’t.
But in the end, they all live happily ever after.
Now, with all of that being said, I am not giving up on this author yet. There is also a new book coming out about Kyle’s ex-girlfriend and her young daughter. I may give this story a try, if it only costs me a couple of dollars. I really do have a vested interest in these characters, because the first story was written that well. The fact that Jessica was like a completely different person in character, thoughts, and actions in the second book made it very hard for me to read it. I kept asking myself what in the world happened to the Jessica from the first book.
Ah, well. It was only a few hours of my life that I will never get back.
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To Kill a Mockingbird T-Shirt; Quote!
I have a t-shirt forthcoming from Teespring, and I will show it to you as soon as it arrives 🙂 Which leads me to the reason I received an email about the T-shirt above, and I am sure I will continue receiving these emails until I figure out how to get myself removed from their mailing list. With that being said, I love “To Kill a Mockingbird“, and I adore this quote from Atticus Finch. The t-shirt I am waiting for is also based on “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Teespring is a site where you can design and have your t-shirts made. You can check them out here: http://teespring.com/
booksandopinions.com 