The Summer Place

 

The Summer Place
by Jennifer Weiner

I always enjoy Jennifer Weiner's books and this one didn't disappoint. It's the kind of book that I do keep going back to because I'm just that nosy and need to know what's going to happen.  

Ms. Weiner introduces us to a family that is blended and has the usual issues.  I think Sarah is the main, most followed character of the story.  She has a twin brother, Sam, who is a single dad to his stepson. Sarah is married to Eli who is 10 years older than her and has a young daughter, Ruby, when they wed. Eli's ex is a woman who never wanted nor intended to be a mother. Eli has a "ne'er-do-well" brother. Sarah & Sam's parents are financially well off due to a couple of books Veronica, their mother, wrote prior to their birth. 

The main event is going to be the wedding of Sarah's step daughter to her college boyfriend. It will take place at Sarah's parents' summer home. 

I won't give away all the issues, but everyone has them and some may be unexpected.  I will say that secrets abound in and about this extended family.  As the secrets are revealed to the reader, I completely expected the story to end with a huge blowout at the wedding.  But... I'm not going to say more than that, either it does or it doesn't...

I really enjoyed the way the story was told, each character having a chapter devoted to his or her background and current life and JW braiding them all together revealing "just enough." To be honest, I though I had figured out the main issue early on, however, it wasn't held secret and so wasn't the "A-ha! I got the spoiler!" that I thought I had. 

I did find that the characters were a bit more understanding in one particular instance than I could have imagined them to be. I wonder if I am alone in that thought. I may explain more in the spoilers. 

My rating of The Summer Place is 4 shots of 5. It was a fun book, easy to read and get through - perfect for the summer months! 

SPOILER ALERT!

This is where I recount the story for my own poor memory. Proceed at your own risk! 

Lets begin with all the secrets!  
Eli, Sarah's husband, formerly married to Annette.  When he was with Annette they were footloose and fancy free, traveling the world and working wherever they touched down. Annette wanted to live her life that way and had no interest in marriage.  Then she got pregnant with Ruby. She eventually left both Eli & Ruby, becoming an absent parent rather than a neglectful one.  Eli's secret is that he cheated on Annette and may have another child - who he believes is the boy Ruby is engaged to. 

Sarah, Eli's wife, still has a lingering love for her summer-before-college romance who promised to keep in touch but ended up ghosting her.  During a troubling time in her marriage and right before the wedding she indulges herself with the former love who just happened to pop back into her life. 

Sam, Sarah's brother, is famously shut down at the six month mark of every relationship he's had. When at last he find a woman who loves him beyond the six months and they marry, she is killed in an auto accident and he is left with her son who's father has no interest in raising him. Sam is happy to be Connor's father.  But, unrelated, he is soon questioning his own sexuality. 

Veronica, Sarah & Sam's mother has a sister who thinks it's a great idea to send the adult twins 23 & Me DNA test kits. As a result of this it's revealed to the reader that Veronica had a years long affair with an editor in NYC at the time she was also preparing to marry the man who becomes the twins' father.  She has never known for sure which man fathered the children. 

Ruby realizes right before the wedding that she had expected or at least hoped that someone would call her out on not being ready for marriage.  She flees with her bio mother the night before her wedding. 

Gabe, Ruby's fiancé, hooks up with Sam at a gay bar that night. They haven't met prior to this point and don't realize who they are in relationship to each other.  This is the part that I have a problem with after all is said and done. They start a long relationship and no one is bothered by the fact that Gabe & Ruby were almost married.  I just don't think many families would be that accepting.  I could be wrong... 

I'm sure there is more I haven't covered but this should be enough to help me recall the book should I need to.  

And as an aside, yes, they live happily ever after. 

Songs without Words

Songs Without Words
by Ann Packer

This book took me about six months, maybe longer to read.  It's definitely not a "can't-put-it-down" book.  But I did want to finish it so I can't say I hated it, either. 

The story centers around two women who have been friends since childhood.  Their adult lives are very different from each other, but they have remained friends.  An event in one of their lives stresses the friendship to the point of breaking. 

The story is more of a psychological portrait of the two women and their relationships. I kept waiting for the big bang to come but it never really did.  Even the resolution of the story was captured within the last five (or less) pages and brought the book to a fizzle of an ending. Not my favorite read. 

I give this book a two of five shots rating.  

 

Tempting Fate

Tempting Fate
by Jane Green


Unfortunately I wasn't feeling like blogging when I finished this book and put it off far too long.  When I noticed it on my nightstand the other day I wasn't even sure if I'd read it or not.


Yes, it's true. The memory is getting that bad. 


I headed over to BarnesandNoble.com to read the synopsis and give myself a little help in the memory department.  At this time I won't try to review the book but I can say I did enjoy it.  The story felt believable and had me thinking about mid-life crisis and how easy it could be to have one's head turned.  


I gave it 4 of 5 shots. 

The Hypnotist's Love Story

The Hypnotist's Love Story
by Liane Moriarty

I have a very hard time going into a book store and not making a purchase.  This wouldn't be such a bad affliction if I didn't have a daughter who works in a book store.  Because she works there, I can't just not go there.  You see?

One day when I was running errands with my daughter she needed to stop by work.  Lo & behold, I had to make a purchase so I scanned the shelves to satisfy my need.  I happened upon this book by Liane Moriarty.  I had previously read and loved What Alice Forgot which LM had written so I thought why not?

Liane Moriarty has now joined my list of favorite or "go-to" authors.  Welcome Liane!

I was enjoying this book very much when I went to Goodreads to update my progress.  There I made the mistake of looking at reader reviews.  While many if not most of them were very good, a few gave this book low marks.  What I recall about those marks is people not liking the characters or not finding a climatic event which they felt the book was leading to.

I disagree with both those opinions.

While the book is a love story in which a female stalker quite prominently and sometimes scarily inserts herself, it is ultimately a book about relationships.  It's not a mystery or thriller so don't be looking for someone to be pushed off a cliff, drowned or beaten to death.  As the story is told in two voices, it's easy to see how different one might feel on the inside compared to how she may be viewed from the outside. I found the characters to be very real and dimensional.

The hypnotist is Ellen, a hypnotherapist. She meets and falls in love with Patrick, a widower with a young son.  Patrick dated and lived with Saskia for three years after his wife's death.  Saskia has been stalking Patrick since he broke it off with her three years prior.  An unusual love triangle to say the least. Ellen is more intrigued than frightened by Saskia's obsession with her fiance. She feels her relationship with Patrick is more threatened by his dead wife than his stalker.  Through her voice we see her insecurities and frustrations. Saskia thinks she might actually like Ellen if they had met in other circumstances. Her relationship with Patrick included mothering his son in his earliest years. Through her voice we try to understand her obsession with the man and his son after she is stripped of the roles of partner and mother. 

I think Liane Moriarty did a fine job of exploring relationships fraught with more obstacles than most.  While at one point I thought Ellen and Patrick were definitely on the rocks, she writes a monologue for Patrick that made me want to cheer. 

I give The Hypnotist's Love Story five shots.

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.

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.

Fairytale (Fairies of Rush #1)

Fairytale (Fairies of Rush #1)
by Maggie Shayne

I was going to call it a modern day fairytale, but really it's not, it's a modern day story about fairies.  More specifically, fairy twins who were taken from their magical homeland for their safety.  They became separated when one of them was adopted from an orphanage and the other was not.   They each had a hand made fairy book which told their story. As they grew up one girl held onto it as the truth, while the other eventually began to believe it was a story the nun at the orphanage told to help her cope.

Fast forward to the current time. The sister who knows she is a Fairy (Princess, no less!) decides it's time to find her sister and reclaim their kingdom in their magic homeland. Of course there are evil fairies involved and danger to be faced.

Not to mention the "I-didn't-know-I-really-am-a-fairy" sister may not be 100% convinced it's a good idea.

No spoilers from me.  The rest of the story is the why you want to read the book, right? 

This was a light and airy read with a steamy chic lit romance involved. I did feel there was far more time than necessary spent on gazing into one another's eyes and recounting the lies and secrets that cannot yet be revealed.  Too much of that stuff at the expense of a more intricate story.

All in all I gave it 3 of 5 shots.

Nowhere But Home

Nowhere But Home
by Liza Palmer

My daughter picked out this book for me from work.  My copy was an ARC (advance reader copy) which bookstores are privileged to receive.  I do miss working at the book store.

Nowhere But Home is chic lit and I am a fan of a good chic book.  Starting with oddly named characters, we are introduced to a woman who felt she was always an outcast due to her low social status in the town she grew up in. Despite attending and graduating from college, she felt the need to redefine herself and moved around the country with little success of finding happiness.  She eventually returns home with her tail tucked between her legs, and a chip on her shoulder.

The story is one of finding one's own self worth rather than running from a past that cannot be changed.  Nowhere But Home is a feel-good book, although I have to admit there were times I wanted to grab Queenie and just yell at her.  It seems the good stuff can be right in front of you if you just open your eyes and stop listening to the voices. 

Four of five shots.

What Alice Forgot

What Alice Forgot
by Liane Moriarty

Alice fell off her bike during a spinning class and lost 10 years of her life.  Her memory of the last ten years, that is.  Suddenly she was not only ten years older, she didn't recognize her children, her husband didn't live with her any longer and everything had changed.  She tries to get by without letting on that she doesn't recognize her own life much less the people around her.. 

I love this story.  Imagine being transported ten years into the future and trying to understand why your once perfect life was no longer the fairy tale you've been living.  No explanation seems plausible, do you try to 'fix' it or just go with it?  You still feel passionately about a man who treats you as cool as a stranger and it's incomprehensible that these grown children could possibly belong to you.

It's one of those books that causes me to think about my own life and ask those "what ifs."  I give What Alice Forgot five of five shots. 

 

Then Came You

Then Came You
by Jennifer Weiner

One of the reasons I write a book blog is because I have a very bad memory.  God's honest truth.  I am one of those people who could probably read the same book over and over again and still be surprised by the ending... same with movies.  Sadly, this comes back to haunt me when I fall so far behind in my blogging and can't really remember a book well enough to review it.  Insert heavy sigh here. 

Jennifer Weiner is an author that I really enjoy.  I can't recall much detail of this story, even after revisiting the synopsis at the Barnes & Noble website.  I won't try to bluff my way through a review.  I think the next few posts will simply be me trying to update my record of the books I've read without much commentary. 

But I'll save you searching for the synopsis.  From Barnes & Noble:

AN UNEXPECTED LOVE STORY . . .

Jules Strauss is a Princeton senior on a full scholarship who plans on selling her “pedigree” eggs to help save her father from addiction.

Annie Barrow, a struggling Pennsylvania housewife, thinks that carrying another woman’s child will help her recover a sense of purpose and will bring in some much-needed cash.

India Bishop, thirty-eight (really, forty-three) and recently married to the wealthy Marcus Croft, yearns for a baby for reasons that have more to do with money than with love. When her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to Jules and Annie to make her dreams come true.

But each of their plans is thrown into disarray when Bettina, Marcus’s privileged daughter, becomes suspicious that her new stepmother is not what she seems . . .

Told with Jennifer Weiner’s trademark wit and sharp observations, Then Came You is a hilarious, tender, and timely tale that explores themes of class and entitlement, surrogacy and charity, the rights of a parent and the measure of a mother.

Firefly Lane

Firefly Lane
Kristin Hannah

I read this book some time ago and recently found that I had shared my review on a friend's Facebook page.  My original review was on Visual Bookshelf which was an app that no longer exists.  I'm taking advantage of finding this copy to add it to my book blog where all my reviews are written now days.  Please read on:

(Date of original review unknown)

I immediately had a connection with this book. It starts in the 70's in Washington State with the two main characters just a few years younger than I was at that same time. Their girlhood experiences were similar to mine, in practically the same setting, and in this book we grew up together into the present day.

The story began to pull away from my interest in the adult years. I had problems finding Tully to be a completely believeable character and wanted to slap Kate for her lack of spine. Eventually I did get pulled back into the story as their lives continued to mature.

Despite Tully's ambition and singlemindedness I did find her involvement in Kate's family to be honest and well written. Again, Kate's lack of spine annoyed me in that she never drew a clear line between her daughter and her friend, nor did Tully ever try to understand Kate, but fed into Kate's daughter's teen angst and nourished it.

Finally, this is the 2nd book within a month that dealt with the horror of breast cancer. A subject that is just a little too close to home for me, but in the end a very important part of this story.

I recommend this story. It's good chic-lit and should be ingested with a box of tissues handy.

Over the Moon at the Big Lizard Diner

Over the Moon at the Big Lizard Diner
by Lisa Wingate

As I was catching up on my reviews a few days ago I felt I had more to write about and sure enough, I found another book I had read without taking time to review it.  I think this may be the last of the missing reviews, but I could be wrong.

I've read Lisa Wingate before, Tending Roses, and was just so-so about the book.  But I was willing to give her another try when I saw this book at the Cincinnati Public Library book sale.  I'm glad I did.  It's a light read, chic lit to be sure, with a mystery to be solved.  I love this kind of story that requires little brain power on my part but keeps me entertained.

Lindsey Attwood is a paleontologist and a single mom. She accepts an assignment on a ranch to find out who has stolen some ancient artifacts.  She is soon involved with an outlaw humongous white dog, a horse that hates her and a very attractive rancher. Of course there is romance and misunderstandings to conquer. 

I will be more than happy to read another of Ms. Wingate's novels.  Of course my reading list in the meantime has continued growing and growing so it may be a while before I get to read her again.  

Me & Mr. Darcy

Me & Mr. Darcy
by Alexandra Potter

I have to start this review with a rather embarrassing confession:  I have never read Pride & Prejudice.

There.  I’ve said it.

I’ve seen it in several movie formats and loved it, but as to Jane Austen’s pen & paper story, I am still a Fitzwilliam Darcy virgin.  Scandalous!!

That being said, you may have some reservations about my stating that “Me & Mr. Darcy” is a modern day Pride & Prejudice story centered around or within the Pride and Prejudice story.   It definitely falls into the genre of Chic Lit and is a lot of fun to read, but I think I may have enjoyed it even more if I was one of the many many women who have read Jane’s pen & paper book and fallen hard for Mr. Darcy time & time again.  I have fallen for Darcy, but only once or twice and specifically in the body of Colin Firth.  Sigh.  *Hand waving coolness to face.*

The book starts with Emily finishing up a disastrous date from hell.  (I’ve had worse, myself, but this is about Emily, not me).   She declares she is done with dating and prefers to enclose herself in her job as a bookstore manager, my dream job, right?  Her employee and best friend will have none of that and insists she join her for a post Christmas trip to Mexico for singles.  To avoid going to Mexico, Emily books a Jane Austen tour in England for the same time period and begins her Mr. Darcy adventure. 

Like most Chic Lit, it’s pretty obvious from the git-go who the real love interest will be and the big mystery is how the story gets there.  In M&MD Emily meets the *real* (yet fictional) Mr. Darcy and falls heartily for him, all the while dismissing her *real* (flesh & blood) “Mr. Darcy.”  Ms. Potter writes a good story leading us to question whether Mr. Darcy is truly as wonderful as we’ve believed all these years and keeps us enchanted.  By the time the story comes to its ending I was left to wonder if Jane Austen’s England was truly enchanted & magical or if sleep deprivation was at work.  You think you might know the answer to that question and yet…  some questions cannot be explained away. 

Very fun book to read.  I give it four shots of five. 

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

"Certain Girls" by Jennifer Weiner

I recently referred to Jennifer Weiner as one of my favorite chic lit authors. I think I did her a disservice. Her novels are filled with themes and issues that are certainly of interest to women but they are nowhere as light as chic lit. I find them a bit meatier.

"Certain Girls" is a sequel to "Good in Bed" picking up Cannie's life several years later. She is now happily married and her daughter, Joy, is a young teen. Joy is aware that she was conceived out of wedlock and her father isn't the man she calls her Dad. After "Good in Bed" left off Cannie became a minor celebrity with publication of a novel that was a fictionalized autobiography, written in anger. Joy decides it's time to covertly read the novel her mother wrote years before and takes it as truth.

Certain Girls is written from both Cannie's and Joy's voices. It looks at adolescence from the confused perspective of a child struggling with too many questions, wondering if her mother truly didn't want her, why her birth father disappeared, who her mother really is - the woman in the novel? - and much more. She is a daring and brave young girl with too many misconceptions. It also looks at the bewilderment of a mother who couldn't love her daughter more as she is excluded from a life she wants desperately to protect.

Unlike chic lit, Jennifer Weiner doesn't tie up her novel with a pretty ribbon and give us the perfect ending to a perfect story. The ending is satisfying but as in real life, lacks happily ever after.

Austenland

Austenland
by Shannon Hale

Austenland is chic-lit and a fast & fun read.  Jane, our heroine, is a 30-something single woman obsessed (like many) with Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice.  All her failed relationships never measure up to the incredible Mr. Darcy.

In her distant Aunt's will she is bequeathed a visit to "Austenland," an English resort catering to the bored and rich, offering a bit of fantasy direct from the pages of Jane Austen's books.

What follows is a reality check as Jane realizes that life in the day must have been pretty darn boring for sweet young things who sat and embroidered their days away just waiting for visitors to come by. However, Jane does manage to find some excitement and the game is on.

If you like chic-lit with satisfying endings, this is a book you must pick up. I'd lable it a beach read if it was April instead of nearly October.  But since it is getting colder out, it's a great curl-up-in-front-of-the-fireplace read. 

Anyone But You

"Anyone But You"  

by Jennifer Crusie

Fiction, Paperback, 283 pages

I like this author, but my favorite book by her is still the first one I read, "Bet Me."

"Anyone But You" is fun light reading (chick lit) which I picked up and read on my anniversary get-a-way. A newly divorced 40 year old woman is settling quite happily into her new single life. By way of her new roommate, Fred, an "overweight, middle-aged, a bit smelly and obviously depressed" basset beagle mix, she meets her downstairs neighbor, Alex. Despite their 10 year age difference, she being the elder, they fight their instant attraction to each other and so the story goes….

As with most chic-lit the ending is obvious at the beginning. It offers the usual cast of quirky characters, adds the laughs and twists and allows a few hours break from the real world.

I recommend this for a good relaxing, bubble bath or hot tub read.