Leave Me: My Review

Leave Me

About the Book:

Every woman who has ever fantasized about driving past her exit on the highway instead of going home to make dinner, and every woman who has ever dreamed of boarding a train to a place where no one needs constant attention--meet Maribeth Klein. A harried working mother who’s so busy taking care of her husband and twins, she doesn’t even realize she’s had a heart attack.

Son by Lois Lowry: My Review

Son

About the Book:

They called her Water Claire. When she washed up on their shore, no one knew that she came from a society where emotions and colors didn’t exist. That she had become a Vessel at age thirteen. That she had carried a Product at age fourteen. That it had been stolen from her body. Claire had a son. But what became of him she never knew. What was his name? Was he even alive? She was supposed to forget him, but that was impossible. Now Claire will stop at nothing to find her child, even if it means making an unimaginable sacrifice.

Son thrusts readers once again into the chilling world of the Newbery Medal winning book, The Giver,　as well as Gathering Blue and Messenger where a new hero emerges. In this thrilling series finale, the startling and long-awaited conclusion to Lois Lowry’s epic tale culminates in a final clash between good and evil.

My Comments:

SPOILER ALERT

I found this one surfing through my library's Overdrive portfolio.  I had read the others in the series so I decided to read this.

For those not familiar with the series, it starts with The Giver, which is set in the future, after a catastrophic war.  The characters live in a technologically advanced community that has given up emotion and individual freedom.  No one suffers pain or want, and everything is decided for everyone.  Two of the characters in The Giver were Jonas and Gabe.  Jonas was chosen to be the only person in the community who was told of its history, and Gabe was a baby who could not conform--and we learn that in that community non-conformity was a capital crime, even if the "criminal" was an infant.  

Son is the story of Gabe's mother--the woman who gave birth to him.  Certain young women were chosen to be birth mothers--it was their job for a few years to carry three "products" to maturity.  Once those products were born, they were raised in a community nursery for a year or so and then given to couples (the governement decided who coupled) to raise to maturity.  

Gabe's mother had problems with the birth and was declared ineligible for future childbearing, but the powers that be forgot to tell her to take her hormone (and feeling) blocking pills and she seeks out her son.  She learns that he is no longer in the community and goes looking for him.

One of the characters is "Trademaster" who had caused disruption in the community featured in another book two of this series.  Basically, he would grant people's wishes, but in return would talk something valuable from them, and in doing so caused misery and dissention.  In Son he grants Claire's wish to see her son, but takes her youth. 

At the end of the book Gabe confronts Trademaster and finds him to be pure evil, not human at all, and destroys him. I found that to be a throught-provoking conclusion.  Gabe started life in a community where no one had to trade--everyone was the same, all choices were made, suffering was absent. By destroying Trademaster, did he destroy evil?  Is it possible to destroy evil without destroying choice?  

While there were parts of the book that dragged, overall I enjoyed it and give it a B. 

Finding Our Forever: My Review

Finding Our Forever

About the Book:

New York Times bestselling author Brenda Novak welcomes readers to the town of Silver Springs, where surprises wait around every corner! 

The search for her birth mother brought Cora Kelly to the New Horizons Boys Ranch. Getting a job there was easy enough, but confiding in Aiyana, the ranch's owner, that she's really her daughter? Cora's not sure she can do that, not unless she's confident the news will be welcomed. And once she gets to know Elijah Turner—Aiyana's adopted son and ranch manager—that decision becomes even more difficult. 

Although Elijah can't deny his deep attraction to Cora, he's always struggled with trust. Anyone with his past would, and there's something about the ranch's newest employee that isn't exactly as it seems. But if the feelings she awakes in his guarded heart are any indication, she might be just what he's long been waiting for.

My Comments:

Somehow I missed this one when it came out, though I've read other books in the series.  Luckily I've recently become a fan of my library's Overdrive account where I can check out Kindle ebooks and audiobooks.  

The main story in this book is the romance between Cora, a young woman who was given up for adoption as an infant, and Elijah, a man abused as a small child and later adopted by the woman who turns out to be Cora's birth mother.  Cora feels like a part of herself is missing and wonders if that is why she cannot seem to give herself completely to someone else.  Eli is so afraid of being hurt that he knows he closes himself off to others.

Besides the story of Cora and Elijah, this is the story of Cora and Aiyana.  When the story begins, Cora knows Aiyana is her birth mom--the detective had recently given her that information.  Cora decides to get to know her birth mom without letting her birth mom know who she is--that way, if having her reveal herself would cause problems, she could just leave without doing so.  She'd have her questions answered and wouldn't disrupt Aiyana's life.  I really liked that attitude--all too often books about adoptees who find their adoptive parents show people who burst into other people's lives with the attitude of "its my right and its what I want to do" without considering that their might be a reason their birth mother chose a closed adoption, or chose not to search for them after doing so became legally easier.  

The book has several steamy scenes, but if they aren't your thing, they are easy to skim and don't really add anything to the story.  

I enjoyed this book and I'm glad my library had a copy.  Grade:  B.

Five Days Left: My Review

Five Days Left

About the Book:

Mara Nichols is a successful lawyer, devoted wife, and adoptive mother who has received a life-shattering diagnosis. Scott Coffman, a middle school teacher, has been fostering an eight-year-old boy while the boy’s mother serves a jail sentence. Scott and Mara both have five days left until they must say good-bye to the ones they love the most.

Through their stories, Julie Lawson Timmer explores the individual limits of human endurance and the power of relationships, and shows that sometimes loving someone means holding on, and sometimes it means letting go.  

My Comments:

I just finished this book with tears rolling down my face.  I truly enjoyed it and think it would make an awesome book club selection because of all the possible discussion topics.  

Those who read this blog regularly know that I hold rather conservative traditional beliefs about about sex, sexuality and marriage.  You also know that I regularly read and enjoy romance novels whose characters (characters I like, and cheer for) have very different beliefs, and act on them.  As a Catholic I believe in the sanctity of human life from birth until natural death.  Mara, as noted above, in an attorney, a wife and a mother.  She suffers from Huntington's Disease, a progressive, genetic disease that results in the destruction of brain cells and the loss of control of the body. Mara has decided that she is not going to put herself or her family through the late stages of the disease; she is going to take her own life in five more days.  Is she being heroic, or selfish?  Is her choice going to deprive her family of the opportunity to love  her and to be loved by her, or is it a way to give them freedom?  Is this choice the free choice of a woman who has always been independent and goal oriented, or is it a symptom of a brain-damaging disease?  These are the questions that ran through my mind as I read this book.  

Mara's story contrasts with that of her online friend, Scott.  Scott teaches and coaches at an inner city school in Detroit.  While Mara is planning death, Scott is affirming life.  While Mara seeks to eliminate pain through death, Scott opens himself to the pain that comes with loving a child he knows is his only for a short time. While Mara sees her death as a way to save her family from suffering she knows will come, Scott encourages  (even guilts) his wife into embracing the challenge of raising a child whose mother is in prison and who has many of the problems one would expect in such a situation.  If Scot has any flaw, it is that he is too perfect, or that he is too concerned with those outside his family, at the expense of his wife and marriage.  I could see a book club discussing Scott's relationship with his wife and whether he should have asked some of the things of her that he did.  

The thread that ties Mara and Scott together is that they both participate in an online forum for foster and adoptive parents (Mara adopted her daughter).  Periodically we read their exchanges and both find strength in being able to say things to people they know, but don't, about how they are feeling. Have you ever participated long-term in an online forum, message board, facebook group etc.?  There are some of you who read and comment here whose blogs I read and who I feel I know, at least in some ways, since we've been doing this for years.  Are online relationships real, or do they keep people from engaging with those people who are a part of everyday life?  Neither Mara nor Scott seem to be lacking in friends or the support of family, yet they both use screen names and stay up late to talk to strangers.  What is it that draws people to online groups?  Yes, book clubs could find a lot to talk about after reading Five Days Left.

Mara is specifically described as a woman without faith.  Interestingly, she asks her friend to take her daughter to church at some point in the future.  Scott's faith or lack thereof is not discussed though his actions speak of self-sacrificing love.

I learned about this book when Kathleen Basi invited me to the Women's Fiction Cafe, a facebook group, and I was lucky enough to find it in my local library.  Grade:  A.  

Review: Sunset Bridge

Name Your

About the Book:

Former socialite Tracy Deloche has nothing to her name but five ramshackle beach cottages and the unlikely friendships she's formed with her tenants. Wanda, wise waitress turned popular pie-shop owner. Janya, the young Indian wife whose arranged marriage surprises her every day. Alice, a widow raising her complex tween-age granddaughter. And Maggie, Wanda's daughter, a former Miami cop with a love life as complicated as Tracy's own.

The new man in Tracy's life hasn't mentioned love or commitment— and Tracy has just discovered she's pregnant. Janya longs to be a mother—and suddenly has two young siblings in her care. Maggie helps out at Wanda's Wonderful Pies…but is the kitchen big enough for both Gray women? And Alice may lose her beloved granddaughter to someone no one expected….

As a tropical storm brews, the wind carries surprises and secrets over the bridge to Happiness Key. Now, more than ever, five friends will discover just how much they need one another.

My Comments:

I enjoyed this heartwarming conclusion to the story of these women who have become good friends.  I will say that the climax scene was highly unlikely but other than that, I could believe the story and identify with teh characters, particularly those whose independence was causing them trouble in life. 

I got this one at the library and recommend it.  While we are told characters were intimate, we do not get to watch.  Grade:  B+

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor

Christmas Eve At Friday Harbor

About the Book:

One rain-slicked night, six-year-old Holly lost the only parent she knew, her beloved mother Victoria. And since that night, she has never again spoken a word.

The last thing Mark Nolan needs is a six-year-old girl in his life. But he soon realizes that he will do everything he can to make her life whole again. His sister’s will gives him the instructions: There’s no other choice but you. Just start by loving her. The rest will follow.

Maggie Collins doesn’t dare believe in love again, after losing her husband of one year. But she does believe in the magic of imagination. As the owner of a toy shop, she lives what she loves. And when she meets Holly Nolan, she sees a little girl in desperate need of a little magic.

Three lonely people. Three lives at the crossroads. Three people who are about to discover that Christmas is the time of year when anything is possible, and when wishes have a way of finding the path home…

My Comments:

So, Holly ends up in an institution, Mark becomes a playboy and Maggie adopts 32 cats to live in her toy shop since she has vowed never to speak to a man again in her life....of course not, it's a romance novel, how do you think it turns out?  Actually this was more predictable than most, and like many Christmas romances, it was short--just over 200 pages and they were a very easy 200 pages to read.  Though many Lisa Kleypas novels are quite steamy, this one has only one intimate scene and while we are in the room with them, the descriptions are more flowery than anatomical.  

Mark has two brothers and I look forward to reading about them in their books as soon as my library is able to get them to me.  I got this one from the library as well. Grade:  B.