Redemption

From the book cover:
How do you keep going after the one person you always believed you were meant to be with forever gives their heart to someone else? Bryan Roemer never thought he'd have to answer that question; but after losing the woman he loved to another man, he is faced with a new reality. Meeting Mara - exotic, beautiful, sexy - on the flight back to California provided him with a welcome distraction to take his mind off his pain. Still, days are a blur. His nights are spent drowning in memories. At his lowest moment, his friends, Nick Flaherty and Carrie Mayer, summon him back east to photograph their wedding. Reluctantly, he does. Six months have changed Bryan. And when he arrives, the rest of the Circle find that he hasn't come alone. Something dark and sinister has come with him. Something that is determined to keep him at all costs. But waiting there for Bryan is a second chance. one that just might save his life.




My Review:
Redemption is the second novel in LA Kuehlke's Pursuit series. I haven't read the first novel, but that didn't matter as there are plenty of plot catch-ups via conversations about what happened last summer, and the main characters' thoughts and memories.

When I first started reading, I was a bit put off by the angels, demons and circle stuff. From the book's synopsis you don't get any of that, there's only one reference to the circle. I took that to be a circle of friends, which the characters are so it wasn't completely off.

I'm very much in the middle about this novel. It's an interesting, if not a completely original plot - angels and demons among us fighting for our souls trying to destroy us.

I didn't feel anything for any of the characters. They were all a bit too one dimensional for my liking. Bryan the hunky bad boy. Cassidy the beautiful and pure. Nick the happy, go-lucky who loves his cliches. Carrie the beautiful planner. Miranda the beautiful dreamer. And Derek, the hunky super cop.

The premise of the story doesn't add up either. According to Bryan and Miranda (the woman who broke his heart), they were never in a romantic relationship. They were just long time friends, he had feelings for her that she didn't return, instead she fell in love with Derek. That doesn't equal total devastation in my books.At least not enough to travel to the other side of the country and try to forget everything.

From the way this novel ended, I think the third book in the series is going to be about Miranda's little sister Lainey and her fight with demons.

2.5/5

To purchase a copy of this book visit the author's web page on the Outskirts Press website.

The Seven Dials Mystery

As my regular readers know, I’m in the midst of a long term Agatha Christie reading challenge. The Seven Dials Mystery is my 10th Agatha Christie novel, not counting Giant’s Bread (written under the pen name Mary Westmacott) and the short story collection Poirot Investigates.

What I’m finding thus far in my reading challenge is a lot of the plot elements from the various books continue turning up. The Seven Dials Mystery has many of the same characters from The Secret of Chimneys; Lady Eileen (Bundle) Brent is the main character with the bumbling Bill Eversleigh playing the role of a very important supporting character in this mystery-turn-romance novel.

Once again, a guest has been murdered at Chimneys. This time, it’s during a weekend hosted by self-made millionaire Sir Oswald Coote and his wife Lady Coote, who are letting Chimney from Bundle’s father Lord Chatham. At first the murder is ruled death by misadventure. Everyone except for the dead man’s dear friend, Ronny Devereaux, accepts the coroner’s verdict.

A couple days later, Lord Chatham and Bundle are back at Chimney, the Cootes' lease being up. Bundle stumbles upon a letter the dead man was writing to his adopted sister before his death and begins her own investigation. Things really start to heat up when Ronny Devereaux is killed. Bundle goes in search of the Seven Dials secret society and ends up finding her future husband.

The Seven Dials Mystery features a secret society with a mysterious leader similar to The Big Four. And, like almost all of Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries, it features characters masquerading as someone they are not. Despite all of this lack of originality, I really enjoyed this novel. I love the characters Bundle, Lord Chatham, Superintendent Blunt and Bill Eversleigh. I really hope to read about them again.

4/5

Orange July: Month in Review

I’m very pleased with the books that I read for Orange July. All but one made it onto my 5ers list of highly recommended reads.

The one that didn’t make it - Rebecca Wells’ Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood had too much hype. With it having been made into a movie several years ago, I was expecting something way better. The main plot driver (Sidda’s refusal to marry her fiancé because she feels like she doesn’t know how to love because of her mother’s abuse) feels overly contrived. I know that’s a weird thing to say about a fiction but unless I’m reading science fiction or fantasy, I like my novels to have a somewhat realistic plot.

About the Orange Prize

The Orange Prize for Fiction is a prestigious U.K. based award that celebrates full-length works of fiction written in English by female authors.

We Need to Talk About Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin is Lionel Shriver's seventh novel and winner of the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction. We Need to Talk About Kevin was made into a film in 2011.

From the book cover:
Eva never wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startling correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklyn. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so annilistically off the rails.

My Review:
Eva Katchadourian is a strong, plucky woman who loves her husband very much and adores her daughter beyond limits. But she just can't seem to find a way to love her son, Kevin. Or so she believes. I believe otherwise. Eva doesn't like Kevin, but I do believe she loves him despite his unlovable nature and the many ways he has found to torment her and anyone around him who has a passion in their life.

Eva narrates the story through a series of letter to her husband, Franklyn. The reader doesn't find out where Franklyn is or why he's left Eva and taken their daughter, Celia, with him until the last few pages of the novel.

In her letters to Franklyn, Eva examines their relationship before Kevin, examines her pregnancy and every aspect of Kevin's upbringing until the day he commits the mass murders. Even after the murders, Eva continues to visit Kevin in juvenile jail and try to understand him. Throughout the novel, there is an subtle argument going on as to whether behaviour is innate or nurtured. Some of the more shocking passages led to my husband and I have this discussion. He believes behaviour is nurtured, while I believe it's 80% innate and 20% nurtured. After all, Kevin does show some signs of being influenced by his mother - it's all about how those common characteristics are channeled.

I highly recommended this novel.

5/5

White Teeth

This epic novel about two families centres around two unlikely friends: Archibold Jones and Samad Miah Iqbal. The two men meet at the tail end of World War II. Archie is a laid-back English bloke who flips a coin to make most of his decisions. Samad is a intellectual, Muslim immigrant trying to establish himself and build a life for his family in the west.

The 542-page novel opens on New Year's Day 1974, Archie has just separated from his first wife and has decided to end his life by gassing himself in a parked car outside of a halal butcher shop. The butcher comes out and interrupts him stating that he does not have the necessary insurance to cover suicides on the premise. Archie takes this as a sign that he is not meant to die. And thus begins a pattern of comedic and very clever dialogue.

Later that day Archie meets Clara, a 19-year-old Jamaican immigrant desperate to escape a mother and ex-boyfriend who are both fanatic Jehovah Witnesses. A month and a half later (on Valentine's Day) the two get married and a year later, Clara gives birth to Irie. Around the same time, Samad's wife, Alsana, gives birth to identical twin boys - Magid (older by  two minutes) and Millat.

Over the next 18 years, we watch as the two families grow closer as they face minor and major crises.

The story is told via a third-person omnipresent narrative in four major blocks that are then divided into smaller chapters. Each block focuses on one or more main characters, with the other characters assuming background roles.

In the first section titled "Archie 1974, 1945", we learn about the task that Samad gave Archie at the end of the war, on which their long friendship has been built upon. We're left unsure of whether Archie has actually completed the task.

In the second section titled "Samad 1984, 1857", Samad begins an extra-marital affair with his sons' music teacher, Poppy. Repelled by his own immoral behaviour, Samad becomes concerned about his sons' morality and decides to send them back to Bengal to be raised as proper Muslims. The only problem is he can only afford to send one. We also learn about Samad great-grandfather, Mangal Pande, who Samad views as a hero for starting the process of liberating India.

The decision Samad makes about which son to send back to Bengal has repercussions for his family and the Jones, as Irie eventually falls in love with one of the twins.

Zadie Smith is a master of writing dialogue. She uses a lot of colloquial terms so the reader really gets a sense of the multiculturalism of the U.K. over the span of 20 years. Well placed and spot on vernacular adds colour and humour.

Ms. Smith must have spent a great deal of time conducting research because she handles a very diverse range of topics in order to make the various 'experts' that appear throughout the novel believable.

This is my second time reading White Teeth. I got so much from the second reading that I will no doubt read it again in the future. Jammed packed with fanatics, it doesn't just entertain - it also gives the reader a lot to think about.

I'm not sure why it's called White Teeth. Many of the chapters are named after teeth or some kind of dental procedure but they could just as easily have been named after something else.

5/5

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

From the book cover

When Vivi and Siddalee Walker, an unforgettable mother-daughter team, get into a savage fight over a New York Times article that refers to Vivi as a "tap-dancing child abuser," the fallout is felt from Louisiana to New York to Seattle.  Siddalee, a successful theater director with a huge hit on her hands, panics and postpones her upcoming wedding to her lover and friend, Connor McGill. Vivi's intrepid gang of lifelong girlfriends, the Ya-Yas, sashay in and conspire to bring everyone back together.

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Divine Secrets was really hard to get into. It wasn't until around page 100 of the 356-page novel that I really started to enjoy the story. I think this is because I found Sidda's story a bit too staged. It doesn't make sense that she's putting off her wedding to the man of her dreams because all of a sudden she feels like she doesn't know how to love. What does her mom's breakdown thirty years before have to do with her marrying the man of her dreams?

I would have been happy to read about all of the lives and experiences of the Ya-Yas (especially Vivi) coming of age in Louisiana in the 1930s onwards. I really enjoyed all of the flashback sections. It was interesting to see how Vivi's attitude towards the black people in her life develops, shifts and changes throughout her life. I've gained two things from this novel: a desire to visit Louisiana and a desire to read Gone with the Wind.

Rebecca Wells did a wonderful job with the character of Vivi, she really came to life. I understood her motivation and her desires and drivers. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Sidda or the other Ya-Yas. She provided just enough tidbits about the lives of the other Ya-Yas to spark a desire in her readers to know more about these quirky ladies.

3/5

Spinsters

From the book cover

It's 1968. Frannie and Doris, sisters and spinsters, have been taking care of their father for their entire adult lives. When he dies, they hit the road in their Plymouth Valiant to take a much needed vacation. Frannie, the novel's narrator, longs to continue her reclusive life with her sister. But Doris, cut free of responsibility, wants to raise hell and get laid. Their journey through the changing landscape of America - civil rights marches, the deaths of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago - an elegy to a lost time in the United States.
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Spinsters. It's not a word you hear very often now a days. When most people think of spinsters they think about old grey-haired cat ladies; not women in their early to mid-thirties. Dictionary.com defines a spinster as "a woman still unmarried beyond the usual age of marrying." This story is set in 1968, when the average marrying age, for women, is 20.8 years, so according to that time period, Frannie and Doris at 32 and 35 years of age, respectively, are spinsters.

I really enjoyed this novel for several reasons. Pagan Kennedy's characters go beyond the spinster stereotypes. Frannie has known since she was a young girl that she wanted to lead a spinster lifestyle after seeing her mother always frantic trying to take care of a husband and children. Doris is trapped and desperately trying to escape her spinsterhood, she's just never been able to find a man she wants to settle down with.

The character development is amazing. Frannie goes from a prudish, unforgiving and jealous woman to a more relaxed, accepting and understanding person. Doris doesn't change much but she come to appreciate her sister's practicality and even learns to rely on her strengths.

Spinsters made the 1996 Orange Prize Short List.

Spinsters is quick read. I highly recommend it.

5/5