Maybe This Time

Maybe This Time
by Jennifer Crusie

Jennifer Crusie is another Chic Lit author that I enjoy.  I saw this book at a Big Lots, or one of those overstock type stores, marked way down and couldn't resist buying it without even reading jacket. It turned out to be a fun read, but certainly not what I was expecting from Crusie.

Maybe This Time is a ghost story.  It is Chic Lit, too, but definitely revolves around the ghosts.

I wasn't expecting that.

For a large sum of money Andie agrees to care for the orphaned charges of her ex-husband.  An arrangement meant to last only 30 days in another part of the state.  She arrives at the crusty old mansion the children live in to be received by a bossy housekeeper and two young children, all of whom seem to want to make her life miserable. Determined to earn the large sum money offered her for caring for the children she wins them over but still has not convinced them to move from the castle.

Twists and turns abound as a disbeliever becomes attuned to her sensitivity of the spirit world.  Some twists are the usual ones you expect pretty much from the beginning of the book and others surprise you.  And there are the ones that make you laugh out loud.

I give Ms. Crusie a rating of 4 of 5 shots for another fun read.

The Chaperone

The Chaperone
Laura Moriarty

Set in the early days of silent movies, the story follows a married woman, Cora Carlisle, who impulsively decides to hire herself out as a chaperone for a quite bold young woman who wants to study dance in New York.  Cora's charge, Louise Brooks, is destined to become a silent film star in just a few years.  While she is a handful and already worldly beyond her years, Cora does her best to keep her in line and out of trouble while at the same time pursuing her own reasons for going to New York City.

I found this to be a well told story uncovering Cora's past as she looked for answers to her heritage in New York.  While trying to control her charge and keep her reputation intact she finds time to uncover the secrets of her own past, although not finding the satisfaction she was hoping for in the answers.

When Cora returns to Kansas, where the two began their journey, the author more or less speeds through the rest of the story.  We learn more about her handsome successful husband and the life they lead and their twin sons' lives as adults.  There are more twists and turns, but I felt like I was reading a somewhat detailed epilogue requiring as many pages as the chaperone story. 

I was interested to discover that Louise Brooks was a real person/silent film star. I don't know how much, if any of her story is accurate but since she did live and perform in silent movies I am labeling this book as historical fiction.  The relationship between Cora and Louise wasn't as big of a part or as significant to the book as I expected it to be based on the title. 

I give The Chaperone 4 of 5 shots as a good story about a woman of those times.

Lost Lake

Lost Lake
by Sarah Addison Allen

Let me start by saying that Sarah Addison Allen is one of my favorite authors.  I discovered her while working at Barnes & Noble in Utah and since reading her first book have always looked forward to everything she's published.

What draws me back to S.A.A. time and again?  Her magic.  Everything she writes has a hint of magic in it.  Not slap you in the face magic, but a subtle magic that I always look forward to.

What will you find at Lost Lake?  An alligator, Cypress knees, a mute French cook, a floozy, a nightly lakeside barbecue, an odd assortment of guests, a lost soul redeemed, a new love sparked, a past love reignited, vengeance, an unexpected opportunity, a new life and second chance.  Or just maybe your own sanity.

Never a major resort, Lost Lake has been run for many years by a couple who's own love story was magical.  But only Eby Prim, one half of that couple, still lives and the resort has been overshadowed by water parks and theme parks. The resort is tired and a bit neglected and the time has come to sell.  The few faithful guests who return to Lost Lake each year decide to make this last summer their best.

Kate Pheris finds herself agreeing to move into her mother-in-law's home a year after her husband has died.  While packing for the move she discovers a letter from her great aunt Eby that was never delivered to her years before. Impulsively she makes the long drive to Lost Lake with her daughter and she decides to stay a while, remembering fondly the summer weeks she spent there when 12 years old.

Sarah Addison Allen reveals the truths and secrets of each guest and employee staying at the resort, intertwining their pasts with their present.  The residents of the small nearby town have their own stories that tie them to Lost Lake and the land it occupies.  And with a little magic Sarah brings all the stories together in a completely engaging way.  Some secrets revealed are heartbreaking and turn out to have been not so secret at all.  But this small town community watches after it's own in the best way it can and makes Kate's impulsive trip her fate, the act that ultimately decides her future.

I give Lost Lake five of five shots.  I continue to adore Sarah and her characters.

A Nantucket Christmas

A Nantucket Christmas
By Nancy Thayer

I received A Nantucket Christmas as a Goodreads win.  It was an enjoyable story and I usually like to read at least one Christmas story during the holidays.  This was my choice.

The story centers around an older couple retired and living in Nantucket.  It's Christmas time, the off season in island terms, when tourists are nowhere to be seen and the town belongs once again to the locals.

It's their first Christmas together and Nicole finds herself "competing" with her new husband's past brought about by his daughter's vision of her parent's once "perfect" marriage, "perfect" life, and her efforts to bring them back together.  I'm not entirely sure I wanted to buy into this premise as the daughter was an adult herself with a husband, child and another baby on the way.  Was it really plausible that she would want to break up her father and his new wife?

As in most romance novels, the story plays out with some drama and  touch & go moments but comes to an expected happy ending.  It was a satisfying holiday tale meeting my need for wintry romance.  I only hope all the trickery by the daughter was due to pregnancy hormones and she is more reasonable in "real life."

I give A Nantucket Christmas four of five shots.  A sweet story.

Me Before You

Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes

This novel is one my daughter insisted I read.  I am happy she did. I actually finished it back on December 8th, but you know how the holiday seasons are...

The story starts with an ordinary girl needing a new job when her steady job comes to an end with the closing of a cafe.  She takes a temporary job as a companion to a quadriplegic man.  A job that she finds distasteful, not because of his disability but because of his nasty attitude toward everything.

While I just referred to Louisa as "ordinary" I found her to be even "less" than ordinary.  She seemed to be a girl with no dreams, no ambition and existing as part of a relationship that seemed to have no foundation or affection.  I felt she wanted to just blend into the background and not be noticed.

Will, on the other hand, may be forgiven, or perhaps understood, for his nasty attitude because the accident that caused him to become a quadriplegic took so much from him.  Having grown up as a rich and privileged child he was used to living his life in the fast lane. Being confined to a mechanical chair was hardly how he viewed his future.

The mixture of Louisa and Will is difficult. Will has a male nurse who appears to be the only person he tolerates in his life, making his disdain for Louisa even more apparent. She reconsiders her position as his companion and she wants to quit. But she stays on, often against her better judgement, torn between avoiding Will or trying to engage him in his own life.

As the story develops so do the characters as we begin to peel away the layers they have wrapped protectively around themselves.  Louisa looks for ways to help Will enjoy life, while Will is determined that life is not worth living.  Louisa becomes desperate to prove Will wrong any way she can.

This was a well told story with some serious tissue alerts.  My daughter asked me about the title when I finished it.  I hadn't noticed until she asked that it could be read two ways.  Me Before You, as in 'who I was before I met you' or Me Before You as in 'putting myself first before you.'  It became an interesting question and one I still ponder a little.  There is still the question, who is the 'Me' and who is the 'You?'

I give Me Before You five shots of five.  I look forward to reading more by Jojo Moyes.
 

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini

I really had no expectations of this book as I hadn't taken the time to learn what it was about.  I knew it was a best seller and it's been on my 'to-read' for about four years now.  I did purchase the movie not too long ago and sat down to watch it with my mother-in-law who was living with us at the time.  She had suffered a stroke and was unable to read the subtitles so we turned it off very early in.

That's what I knew about the story before I started.

Basically nothing.

I was drawn into the story almost immediately upon starting the book.  I tried to analyze why I was.  The story was about Amir, a privileged little boy in Afghanistan who was very insecure about his father's love.  His best friend was the uneducated son of his father's servant. As he was raised playing with Hassan, the servant's son, his father was also raised playing with Ali, his now faithful servant. Although Hassan is a servant himself, he adores Amir and would do anything for him. Indeed, Amir's cowardice presents many opportunities for Hassan to prove his loyalty.  Even so, Amir's insecurities cause him to bully Hassan almost mercilessly.

I asked myself again, what is so riveting about this tale that calls me back to the book each time I set it down?  Obviously, it's the author's voice and how well he tells the story before he even reveals the very meat of it. 

The story starts prior to the time of Russia invading Afghanistan and spans to the early 2000s. Sadly,  I'm not a student of history and therefore wasn't very well informed regarding all the changes of the Russians being thrown out by the Taliban and the quick end of the Afghanistan jubilation as they realized the Taliban was as bad or worse than the Russians. Amir and his father are smuggled out of Afghanistan after the Russians arrive and eventually migrate to America.  Their lives are very different in America, no longer of the privileged class, but his father was a well known man in Afghanistan and still very respected in his new American/Afghanistan community.

Early in the 2000s Amir returns to Afghanistan and finds a world very different from the one he left 25 years earlier.  No spoilers, but he at once finds himself face to face with the past he has tried hard to forget and finally must make amends with.

The Kite Runner is an amazing story full of unexpected twists and turns.  Heroes die and villains live, but there is always a feeling of hope.

I give The Kite Runner 5 of 5 shots.

The Book Thief

The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak

Third on my 20 book challenge, this selection is exactly why I created my challenge.  I know I have added a lot of really fine books to my list and then proceeded to ignore them based on what I've come across or what's caught my eye since.  Who knows how long I may have continued to evade being captured by this book, or maybe miss it entirely. 

I love this book.  It should not be overlooked or missed.  If you also have it on your shelf, pull it out now and put where you can guarantee you will choose it to read next.  You won't be sorry. 

The Book Thief is a war story, centering around Liesel, who is the book thief, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The narrator of the story is Death, which sounds pretty morbid, but actually was done very well.  Death had just the right amount of sensitivity and disdain and never overshadowed the story.  The author discusses his decision to write from Death's perspective and the challenge.  I think he did it very well.

The story begins when Liesel is about eight.  Her mother is taking her and her brother to stay with foster parents.  Her brother dies on the train and Liesel begins life with her foster family on her own. Although one foster parent is more nurturing than the other, they both clearly love and care for her. Times are bad in Germany and they are a poor family.

When Liesel comes to the family she has in her possession a book that she found/stole when burying her brother.  She does not know how to read and enters her new school far behind the other children her age. Eventually, her foster father helps her learn to read and together they read her stolen book, The Gravediggers Guide.

The story progresses over a few years.  Liesel's reading and love of books enables her to help people in ways she is not even aware of. Life in Nazi Germany is not easy, even for the Germans. To avoid any spoilers, I will end my recap of the actual story with that. 

I appreciated this story in part for the struggles it portrays for the German population at this time.  One did not have to be a Jew to find life difficult and dangerous in Germany.  Starting with a little girl who has lost her parents for reasons she doesn't know or understand and her brother's death.  She lives with a family who is poor and struggling day to day. And the utmost care must be taken at all times to stay on the 'right' side of the Nazi party or pay a price.  Just being the 'person you are' can put one in great danger.

I give The Book Thief five shots of five - and a Tissue Alert.