Book Review: Little Broken Things

Little Broken Things

About the Book:

An engrossing and suspenseful novel for fans of Liane Moriarty and Amy Hatvany about an affluent suburban family whose carefully constructed facade starts to come apart with the unexpected arrival of an endangered young girl.

I have something for you. When Quinn Cruz receives that cryptic text message from her older sister Nora, she doesn’t think much of it. They haven’t seen each other in nearly a year and thanks to Nora’s fierce aloofness, their relationship consists mostly of infrequent phone calls and an occasional email or text. But when a haunted Nora shows up at the lake near Quinn's house just hours later, a chain reaction is set into motion that will change both of their lives forever.

Nora’s “something” is more shocking than Quinn could have ever imagined: a little girl, cowering, wide-eyed, and tight-lipped. Nora hands her over to Quinn with instructions to keep her safe, and not to utter a word about the child to anyone, especially not their buttoned-up mother who seems determined to pretend everything is perfect. But before Quinn can ask even one of the million questions swirling around her head, Nora disappears, and Quinn finds herself the unlikely caretaker of a girl introduced simply as Lucy.

While Quinn struggles to honor her sister’s desperate request and care for the lost, scared Lucy, she fears that Nora may have gotten involved in something way over her head—something that will threaten them all. But Quinn’s worries are nothing compared to the firestorm that Nora is facing. It’s a matter of life and death, of family and freedom, and ultimately, about the lengths a woman will go to protect the ones she loves.

My Comments:

I love Nicole Baart's writing.  I love her word choice, the pictures she paints with her writing, the way her writing sounds when read aloud.   Reading what she writes is an absolute joy, and she is one of only a few authors who get that type of accolade from me.  Most of the time, the words are a medium, a way to get the story across--nothing more or less.  I don't notice them unless the writing is, in my opinion, extraordinarily good like Baart's or extraordinarily bad (like many of the free/cheap ebooks on Amazon). 

Unfortunately, as has been the case with some of her other books, I don't like the ending of this story.  It just didn't seem realistic.  Too many things had to happen just the way they did for everyone to get the happily ever after that they got.

One of the characters is a woman in her 50's, and while perhaps our social classes are different, and that accounts for the different lifestyle, I found the things she did and the life she led to be more typical of women in my mother's generation than of women in mine (I'm in my mid-50's). 

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  B.  

Book Review: Sleeping in Eden

Sleeping in Eden: A Novel

About the Book:

She knew what he wrote . . .

One little word that made her feel both cheated and beloved.

One word that changed everything.

MINE.

On a chilly morning in the Northwest Iowa town of Blackhawk, Dr. Lucas Hudson is filling in for the vacationing coroner on a seemingly open-and-shut suicide case. His own life is crumbling around him, but when he unearths the body of a woman buried in the barn floor beneath the hanging corpse, he realizes this terrible discovery could change everything. . . .

Years before Lucas ever set foot in Blackhawk, Meg Painter met Dylan Reid. It was the summer before high school and the two quickly became inseparable. Although Meg’s older neighbor, Jess, was the safe choice, she couldn’t let go of Dylan no matter how hard she tried.

Caught in a web of jealousy and deceit that spiraled out of control, Meg’s choices in the past ultimately collide with Lucas’s discovery in the present, weaving together a taut story of unspoken secrets and the raw, complex passions of innocence lost.

My Comments:

I'm usually a big fan of Nicole Baart's writing, and while I won't say this book disappointed me, I will say it is my least favorite of those I've read.  Baart noted that the book took her over ten years to write; she started it and then life (including other books) got in the way.  Perhaps her writing style has changed through the years; perhaps the story didn't grab me the way her other books did; all I know is that while Sleeping in Eden is a good book, it is not the extraordinary book Baart is capable of writing.  

Sleeping in Eden is a two-threaded book.  One thread, that of Lucas, takes place in the present day.  Lucas is trying to learn who the young woman found in the barn is.  Meg's thread is set ten years ago.  In the end, they come together.  The only question to resolve is how.   

One thing I really liked was Lucas' choice near the end of the book to crawl in bed with his wife and hold her, even though she said she didn't want that.  He made the choice to love her, he made the choice to reach out and risk rejection.  

The book is published by Howard Books which publishes faith-based books.  However, this is not your typical Christian novel.  There are no long prayers, no salvation scene, no calls for conversion.  The people are definitely not too good to be true.  They don't find God and live happily ever after.  Other than dealing with fidelity and love in marriage I can't think of anything particularly Christian about the book.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via Edelweiss.  Grade:  B.

Review: Far from Here

Far from Here: A Novel

About the Book:

Danica Greene has always hated flying, so it was almost laughable that the boy of her dreams was a pilot. She married him anyway and together, she and Etsell settled into a life where love really did seem to conquer all. Danica is firmly rooted on the ground in Blackhawk, the small town in northern Iowa where they grew up, and the wide slashes of sky that stretch endlessly across the prairie seem more than enough for Etsell.  But when the opportunity to spend three weeks in Alaska helping a pilot friend presents itself, Etsell accepts and their idyllic world is turned upside down. It’s his dream, he reveals, and Danica knows that she can’t stand in the way. Ell is on his last flight before heading home when his plane mysteriously vanishes shortly after takeoff, leaving Danica in a free fall. Etsell is gone, but what exactly does gone mean? Is she a widow? An abandoned wife? Or will Etsell find his way home to her? Danica is forced to search for the truth in her marriage and treks to Alaska to grapple with the unanswerable questions about her husband’s mysterious disappearance. But when she learns that Ell wasn’t flying alone and that a woman is missing, too, the bits and pieces of the careful life that she had constructed for them in Iowa take to the wind. A story of love and loss, and ultimately starting over, Far From Here explores the dynamics of intimacy and the potentially devastating consequences of the little white lies we tell the ones we love.

My Comments:

Nicole Baart can write.  Her prose is beautiful, almost poetic. She manages to use a sophisticated vocabulary and yet not create a book that is hard to read.  This is one of those infrequent books where the high quality of the writing itself speaks to me, makes me take notice.  The story is not bad either.

Far from Here is published by Howard Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.  The imprint is described as being for "faith-based" books.  One of the characters is a minister but other than a funeral we don't see him performing as one--and we only hear a short, very generic prayer there.  At one point Danica tells him that he never talks about God, to which he replies "I have...in lots of different ways".  He later mentions that marriage is holy. While there are plenty of people in the book who would be well-served by a religious conversion, none happen.  The book may be considered faith-based, and the Christian virtue of hope is definitely there, but if you are looking for a sermon dressed as a story, you will be disappointed. 

If I had to render one criticism of the book it would be that  I thought the ending was just a little too tidy.  Still, I like happy endings.  I'll give the book an A.  

Thanks to the publisher for  providing a complimentary review copy.