Lies My Girlfriend Told Me - Julie Anne Peters

Angst. I have a love hate relationship with teen angst. I felt a lot of it in my teens and resented adults who didn't "understand" and now I'm an adult and just think teens should get over it already and hate myself for it. So while the angst expressed in Lies My Girlfriend Told Me made me roll my eyes at the teen characters several times, I also couldn't figure out why the parents were sometimes being real douches.

In the story, Alix wakes up on a Saturday ready to head off snowboarding with her girlfriend, only to be told by her mom that said girlfriend, Swanee, suffered a cardiac arrest while running and has died. Alix is devastated. This was her first real girlfriend, her first love. And she was planning to "go all the way" with Swanee this weekend. Begin eye roll at exclamations of never loving again and wishing she had died with Swanee. Give major eye roll to Mom who doesn't seem to understand that her daughter is genuinely grieving, even if the relationship did only last six weeks.

Well after the weird funeral service put on by Swanee's eccentric but "cool" parents, Alix finds Swan's cell phone in her room and on this cell phone are a lot of texts from "L.T." expressing love and asking where Swan has been. Ruh-roh. Turns out Swan kind of sucked. Watching Alix come to terms with this was probably the most interesting part of the book. Because at first, Alix leads L.T. on in an effort to find out who she is and who she was to Swan.

Turns out, Swanee Durbin gave a fake name (Swanelle Delaney) to another girl in a town not far away complete with a fake facebook account. But this part of the book was a little bit of a stretch for me. LT or Leonna Torres as we come to find out, is an extremely hot cheer leader and has no idea that Swan has died. Oh she saw a report on the news about Swanee Durbin, but even after not hearing from Swan for an entire week, didn't think it could possibly be the same person. Even though Swan won the high school track state championship the year before.

Did I mention Alix and Leonna meet later in the book at a track tournament where Leonna is cheering for her high school and Alix's is competing, meaning wouldn't have Leonna met Swan at some kind of even before? I know I'm reading too much into this part because we're supposed to be focused on the fact that Alix and Leonna fall in LOVE. And then Alix has to admit that she was the one who was texting her as Swan when Leonna didn't know Swan was dead.

Look, I'm happy these two ladies found love in the end. Swan sucked and they deserved it. But the narrative was a little too convenient. As introspective as Alix is, she never quite gets the lesson as deep as you expect. Swanee's parents never made her do laundry or start dinner. Ah gentle reader, this is why Swan sucked. Swanee's parents are in a poly-amorous marriage and this is why she slept around. And yes, I want to be more like Alix's parents even while realizing they are held up as a foil to Swan's parents to explain her suckage. It's probably a little unfair to people in open marriages to assume that is why they raise spoiled unfaithful children.

Anyway, this was a well constructed teen romance with a small mystery with maybe just the right amount of angst on both sides.

3.5/5

The Friend Zone - Abby Jimenez

It took me about two days to read this book, mostly because I stayed up until 2 a.m. one night (this was not a smart decision but I have no regrets). But one thing The Friend Zone does really well is pacing. The book moves very fast and each chapter leaves the reader wanting to follow the action.

I feel like I'm the last person on Bookstagram to read this one, so perhaps a synopsis is not needed, but essentially Kristen is a woman struggling with uterine fibroids when she meets the best man for her friend's future wedding, Josh. He's a hot fireman who's relocated to California after a bad break up with a woman who did not want children.

Their chemistry is undeniable after a small fender bender meet cute. As their feelings for each other grow, Kristen remains resolute to confine Josh to the Friend Zone. She's aware he wants a large family, and he's not aware she can't have children. So as she continues to push him away, he's very confused. As with any good love struggle, I kept thinking if they just had an honest conversation things would resolve themselves.

Jimenez deals well in this debut novel with making the characters more than just an empty collection of attributes, although I wasn't sure this was going to be the case after hearing Josh refer to Kristen as "a unicorn" and "the cool girl." These types of descriptions kind of make my eyes roll because it sets up unrealistic standards for women. Necessarily, Kristen is "cool" because "she's not like other women." And it's not just enough that she's "cool" because she is also very very attractive apparently without trying. But then Josh is kind of slapped with a hot fireman label as well. And really the characters are likeable because they don't necessarily stick to those roles so the repeated call back to those tropes is unnecessary. Their dialogue is hilarious and again their chemistry is undeniable so I stuck with them when normally, this would have been a no-go.

Jimenez does a wonderful job of building the will-they, won't-they suspense in the book and takes the story out of traditional rom-com with a side story about Kristen and Josh's best friends Sloan and Brandon that well, that sets up the author's next book. As much as I enjoyed this book as sort of a guilty pleasure read, there are some things that keep it from getting four stars. For a first novel it shows a lot of promise and I think Jimenez has a strong career ahead of her as she learns to shed even more of the tropes that detracted from the strong writing in this book.

3/5 Stars. 

Since We Fell - Dennis Lehane

Since We Fell was such an uneven book it has to come out at 2 Stars. I'm not sure where to start on this, and maybe Lehane was not either. The first 40% of the book is the backstory of Rachel Childs, daughter of an overbearing mother who was a psychologist and a famous author. Having never married she wrote a best-selling marriage advice book. Okay sure Lehane, I'll suspend reality for a while here. Rachel spends 80% of that early section of the book lamenting over her inability to know the identity of her father, a man her mother hid for some reason that is explained, but I don't recall. She even hires a private detective named Brian Delacroix (I listened to this one, I never know how to spell names). She is an investigative reporting and becomes a TV news reporter. She goes to Haiti and witnesses unspeakable horror. She has a panic attack and nervous breakdown, gets divorced, and becomes a shut-in. 

So I'm thinking, okay this book is what, a think piece on the semi-annoying character Rachel. Then Rachel reconnects with Brian, gets married to him and remains a shut in based on her anxiety, except when she goes out with Brian or whatever. It's all really unclear. They are married for about four years when one day she sees him on the street in Boston when he's supposed to be in London. She confronts him, kind of, and is satisfied he was really in London, except when she's not. So all these things start happening that make her suspicious he's living a double life. Despite her anxiety she rents a car and follows him to a small Rhode Island town and sees him with a pregnant woman. Then the story takes this wide turn and becomes a thriller with contract killers and some kind of scam and oh yeah you have to suspend your belief in basically everything to go on with the rest of this book. 

Possibly the most irritating parts is when Rachel is following Brian around trying to determine if he's been lying to her. You get to hear pages and pages and pages of internal monologue about all Rachel's thoughts and feelings, with misplaced flashbacks and frustrating self-doubt. I just didn't need this much Rachel. This book just was way too long.

Some people I know and like rated this book much higher than me. Perhaps the narrator missed the mark here. Every male character sounded the same. It was annoying. 

2 Stars. 

A Secret Kept - Tatiana De Rosnay

I read Tatiana de Rosnay's first book, Sarah's Key a couple of years ago (before I had a blog) and really liked it. This sophomore follow up didn't live up to the first books expectations. A Secret Kept starts with Antoine and Melanie Rey going for a long weekend to the seaside French town they vacationed to as children with their parents. Both are going through a mid-life crisis of sorts. 

Antoine is recently divorced from his wife Astrid and is struggling with part-time parenting of his three children - two of whom are full throttling through puberty. Melanie is coming off a long term relationship with a man who swore he would never get married just to up and impregnate and marry a woman 15 years his junior within weeks of the breakup. They both need some time and space away from Paris.

However, on the drive home Melanie wrecks the car and nearly dies after attempting to tell Antoine some long held family secret. The secret however, is hardly worth the build up and the letters from the past used to hint and then reveal the secret are easily the worst contrived writing in the book. I honestly thought the rest of the prose was well done but the letters were the hardest part to get through. 

So the great family mystery doesn't really seem much of a mystery and all the characters who have a stake in the mystery just up and die or are already dead so there's no real effect of learning the secret. So many people died in the second half of this book I thought maybe George RR Martin was ghostwriting. 

The book probably would have been better if it didn't try to pass itself off as a mystery and instead was a straightforward character examination of a man in a mid-life crisis. Antoine was the most well flushed out character and I actually enjoyed his journey. The characters also make some non-conventional choices which I enjoyed, even if it did leave the ending a bit unfulfilling.

3/5 Stars. 

At the Water's Edge - Sarah Gruen

Thank goodness for clear-headed Scots, or this book would have been a real mess. Maddie, her husband Ellis, and their friend Hank decide to travel to Drumnadrochit, a small town on the shores of Loch Ness, during the middle of WWII to capture evidence of "The Monster." See, both Hank and Ellis are 4F, unfit for service in the war due to flat footedness and color blindness, respectively. Two otherwise able bodied men about town, Ellis and Hank are increasingly uncomfortable with the judgments they get from others. 

This all comes to a head on New Year's Eve, when Ellis, Hank and Maddie get so drunk at a party that they misbehave and Ellis claims his father's spotting of the Loch Ness Monster many years before was a sham. This is apparently a family sore spot, as his father claims to have photographic evidence of his sighting, but later journalists claimed the photos were a hoax. Word about this gets back to Ellis' parents, with whom he and Maddie live, and his father decides to cut Ellis off and kick him and his wife out of the house. 

I should mention at this point that Ellis has nowhere to go with his wife because HE'S A HORRIBLE PERSON. Seriously, the guy is THE WORST. It's obvious from very early on in the book. So Hank and Ellis book passage for the three of them across the ocean amid u-boat sinkings and all so Ellis can prove there is a monster and redeem his father and family's honor. The arrive at an Inn and act like completely spoiled brats because during a war there isn't anything better to eat for breakfast than porridge. 

There's a bunch of whining on the part of Maddie as she has no idea how she'll survive if Ellis leaves her at the Inn on her own. But eventually, she becomes more likeable by whining less and the two women, Anna and Meg, that work at the Inn befriend her. They teach Maddie how to do her own hair, and basically be a decent human being, all the while HORRIBLE Ellis and slightly less horrible Hank run around completely oblivious. 

But you know what's not oblivious, Ellis has a real thing for Hank. And when it turns out that Ellis got to marry Maddie due to the result of a coin toss, it's not all that surprising that the arrangement suited Ellis, who barely shows interest in his wife, and would rather spend time with Hank. No one else seems to say this, but at some point it becomes clear that everyone finally gets it. And at that point, I had a Dixie Chicks moment and knew that "Ellis had to die." I mean, it gets to the point that the only solution is for Ellis to die. 

The rest of the story leading up to will he or won't he die is a bit predictable. But the stakes are raised for our Maddie and the owner of the Inn, a war hero named Angus who broods in the background smolderingly. 

I think I'd say this book was 3.5 stars, but it gets 4 because Maddie finally became a likeable character about 40% of the way through the book.

4/5 Stars. 

The Arsonist - Sue Miller

I'm actually pretty torn on how to review this book. On the one hand, Sue Miller stories are a master class in character examination. On the other, the book was a bit slow and plodding and ultimately a little boring. 

The Arsonist follows the life of Frankie Rowley, who returns to her parents retirement home, a place she spent summer vacations as a child, in Pomeroy, NH (again, I'm sorry if these spellings are incorrect, I listened to the audio version of this book). Frankie is coming off another stint as an aid worker in Kenya and she's feeling a little lost, a little forlorn at what seems like the repetitive love and life cycles of "temporizing" in Africa.

She arrives in Pomeroy to find her father mentally deteriorating due to Alzheimer's or perhaps Lewy Body disease. Her mother, Sylvia, is dealing with her own feelings of unfulfillment as she contemplates a retirement life taking care of a man who she never quite loved enough. There's a lot of deep character stuff going on in this book. Whether we can shake who we are, find fulfillment, that kind of thing. Typical stuff that Sue Miller does better than basically any other author I've ever read. 

In the background, fires are being set at the houses of Pomeroy's summer residents. The fires begin to fuel fear and mistrust in the town. This is all covered in the local paper by Bud Jacobs, a man who left Washington DC to escape the big city stories and who's aim was to settle into small town life in Pomeroy. 

Bud eventually falls for Frankie and their romance is complicated by her being unsure about what she wants to do with the rest of her life. The arson does little more than set a backdrop to the characters lives, and to focus the book in time by giving events to move the story forward. 

In all, Sue Miller does such a great job delving into the motivations and lives of Frankie, Bud and Sylvia that you end the book really understanding who they are and why they do the things they do. But there is also a faint unfulfilled longing for change or progress to be made by the characters that really sets in motion the ultimate lesson that people don't change, they make decisions based on their personalities and backgrounds, and sometimes they make good decisions, sometimes bad, but they are fundamentally who they are. And what they do with their lives is entirely up to them. 

While the ending doesn't feel fully satisfying, it does feel overwhelmingly real. And that is what I have come to expect from Sue Miller (you can read my review of another Sue Miller book here). So in that respect, she didn't disappoint.

4/5 Stars. 

Me Before You - JoJo Moyes

All hail Audible and it's ability to make running long distances be not so unpleasant. This one took a long time to finish only because an unfortunate incident involving a New York subway stair last month resulted in an avulsion fracture to the ankle, extended physical therapy, and a six week hiatus from running. 

So this book was a bit of a slog, but I've finally finished it. If you are an adult with a Facebook account, and eyeballs, you've probably seen something regarding this book and its recent movie adaptation. (The trailer actually looks pretty good). There was something a bit off-putting about what I thought was a emotional sabotage to the book, which is probably why I gave it three stars, despite liking it a bit more.

The story follows Louisa Clarke, a 26 year old cafe worker who loses her job and ends up taking a 6-month assignment as a caregiver to quadriplegic Will Trainor. Will used to be a powerful business man, athlete, risk taker, but was hit by a motorcycle while walking to work and now suffers from almost complete paralysis of his four limbs. He's a bit of a jerk, but that has mostly to do with his circumstances.

Over the course of a few weeks, Louisa and Will begin an uneasy and then comfortable friendship, after which Louisa learns that Will has decided to end his life at the end of her six-month working engagement. Louisa first quits, but then decides she will take the time to show Will what his life could be like and how full it could be.

I'll leave it to you to decide (or read) if Louisa is successful or not. There is a sequel to the book called "After You" if that is any indication. Of course I cried a little during the book, and I really thought about the issues of determining how and where we live our lives. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the choices the characters make, but I understand their grief in the process. 

All in all a good read. As a side note, I'm quite enjoying all these Audible versions of books by English authors (The Lake House, The Girl on the Train) as the accents are entertaining.

3.5/5 Stars.

Finding Fraser - K.C. Dyer

This was a fun book turned on a goofy premise. The story follows Emma, a 29 year old woman who is (understandably) a bit obsessed with one James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser of the Outlander series (and now TV show - seriously, look up Sam Heughan and I dare you not to drool, see below and you're welcome). Emma, having had no luck in love or life is in need of a serious life shake up and decides to sell all her worldly possessions and head to Scotland to find her very own Jamie.

Since Emma has very little money and a vast lack of world experience, surprising given her living in Chicago (see I'm totally biased, I think people from Chicago have to have the world travel thing figured out), she is going to do the trip on the cheap. Emma came across as a bit naive throughout the story, although she does have enough self awareness to admit to this after the fact.

I would be more annoyed with Emma's "need to find a man to complete myself and save me" attitude if she didn't vocalize the fact that women needed to be stronger characters in their own story. In the end, this is what Emma becomes, a stronger protagonist in her own story. I like the backdrop of using the Outlander books as a foothold for the blog turned novel concept, which is not actually a blog turned novel.


The book is fun and entertaining and a good summer read. I listened to this one on audible though and I have to say the narrator's accents were a bit forced and stereotypical. Let's just say one of the commenters on Emma's blog is Japanese and well.......the butchered English in the fake accent and what I can assume is the attempt at English as a Second Language syntax are a tad on the offensive side.

I love that Diana Gabaldon was pleased with this Outlander inspired work, since I've read before that she dreads and disapproves of fan-fiction. This isn't fan fiction in the strictest sense, so if Herself gives it a pass, all to the better.

This book was a solid 3/5 Stars.

Circling the Sun - Paula McLain

I received a free copy of this book. Could it be because I loved McLain's Paris Wife so much I named my daughter after the main character? Maybe. 

Where to start with Circling the Sun? I'd never heard of Beryl Markham prior to reading the description on Goodreads. I had read, however, Out of Africa, which although the author was originally penned as "Isak Dinesen," this person was later revealed to be Karen Blixen.

While Blixen appears heavily in Circling the Sun, Beryl Markham is absent from Out of Africa. It's an interesting aspect of memoir and the things Karen Blixen chose to remember. By historical accounts, Beryl and Karen were in love with the same man, Denys Finch Hatton, a safari hunter, pilot and basically all around gorgeous human being. To say they were involved in a love triangle would be inaccurate and inadequate at the same time. Both women loved Finch Hatton fiercely, and he, in turn, seemed to be faithful and in love with both women.

Wasn't she gorgeous?

 
The circles in which Beryl moved in Kenya are fascinating and the social decorum required within are dizzying.

Beryl grew up abandoned by her mother and parented by a distracted father. Wild and stubborn, Beryl found her own way until her father's bankruptcy when she was 17 led her into a hastily agreed to marriage with an almost complete stranger.

Unhappy playing wife in her marriage, Beryl sought out an opportunity to be independent and became the first certified female horse trainer. Over the years of her young adulthood she is constantly thrown down in poverty and disgrace only to come back fiercer than ever and more dedicated to being her own woman. She was not afraid to go after what she desired. Her affair with Finch Hatton led to her interest in flying, and even though a crash would take her lover from her, right on the cusp of their rekindled romance, she continued to fly and became the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic (East to West).

McLain's writing is, as expected, spot on. She weaves Beryl's story into the backdrop of Kenya so well it's obvious that Beryl and Africa were inseparable - almost as if Africa is a characteristic of Beryl's personality, like being strong willed, or even having blonde hair. The book left me wanting to know more about Beryl. The book ends following Beryl's solo flight, but she's only in her early thirties as this point.

Beryl went on to write her own memoir - West with the Night (which I will be reading tout suite - you can now read that review here). Despite it getting rave reviews, it was not a hit like Out of Africa. When it was discovered by someone looking through Ernest Hemingway's letters in the 1980s, and ultimately entered into republication, Beryl was living in poverty in Kenya, in her 80s. She was able to live the rest of her life in relative comfort thanks to the success of this second printing.

What a fascinating person and life. I refuse to believe the second half of her life wasn't just as interesting as the first part which is included in Circling the Sun. I wish I knew more about her and the fate of her family.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a little slow in parts and took a while to turn some plot corners and therefore gets a 4 star rather than a 5 star rating, but I'll definitely be recommending this to basically everyone.

4/5 Stars.

Mint Juleps and Justice - Nancy Naigle

Setting aside the basic believability of certain aspects of the story (rapist/murderer) released on parole after eight years in jail (also eight years after the crime), the writing, dialogue and unlikable characters make this book practically unreadable. I'm not sure what's going on with its ridiculously high rating on Goodreads.

The reactions of the characters to certain events didn't really fit and the jerky writing left me sometimes wondering what was going on. In the end I was kind of rooting for one of the main characters to die just to give the story some edge.

The two unlikable protagonists involve themselves in a protracted will they or won't they that instead of me rooting for them to get together, left me rooting for them to be offed by the serial killer or the woman's crazy ex husband stalker. Yep, that's right, that portion of the story inexplicably takes up the first 3/4 of the book. 

If you are a fan of the books the supermarket puts in the checkout line I guess you won't mind this one.

0/5 Stars. Yes it's that bad.