Book of the Week: Spellbound

What's a girl to do when meeting The One means she's cursed to die a horrible death? Indeed. This is the quandry that faces teenager Emma Conner as she starts over at a posh NYC boarding school. Emma's had a hard time of it and moving in with her wealthy aunt seems like a fresh start, even if she finds herself having to navigate the jungle that is Vincent Academy.

Emma seems on track for starting over until she lays eyes on Brendan Salinger, a wonderfully written teen heartthrob hero in my opinion. Brendan is dark, noble, mysterious, and, well, plain hot. Not surprisingly Emma finds she can't resist him, perhaps a bit more surprising is the fact that Brendan seems interested in Emma. At first. Then he starts running hot and cold--the forte of teen boys everywhere.

While all this normal teen stuff is going on Emma is also dealing with other troubling events--like weird dreams and street lamps exploding above her head. These supernatural events and a mysterious locket eventually send Emma and her friend Angelique on a search for their truth, one that directly impacts Emma's would-be relationship with Brendan.

Sure, Spellbound's subject matter isn't exactly new. Past lives, fated lovers, we've seen it all before, but Cara Lynn Shultz's writing was snappy and entertaining. Plus I found both Emma and Brendan rather enjoyable. A nice, light read if you like a little bit of supernatural (no vampires or werewolves, mind you) in your romance.

Book of the Week: One Day

I had never heard about this book, or how its being turned into a movie with Anne Hathaway, until I happened upon it in the store. The cover and description appealed to me so I got it, and I'm really glad I did.

Emma and Dexter are at university together and while she has always had a crush on him, he's never really noticed her. University Emma is bookish and caustic and idealistic. Dexter is your typical irresistible bad boy. Until the night of their graduation in 1988 when things--sort of--change.

After that night the book tells us the story of Em and Dex through the next twenty years, but only by showing us the events of one day (July 15) every year. Sometimes Dex and Em are together, sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're happy and sometimes they're struggling. You know, I guess...life.

While you're never really sure if these two are going to end up together after all, and if they do whether it will feel satisfying, the book really isn't about that. It's about a love and friendship that somehow endures for twenty years even when its not always being properly tended and watered. A real connection between two people who may be total opposites, who may not fit, but have somehow found one another and have--in many ways--grown up together.

Anyway, I don't want to give too much away. I'll just say this book made me laugh (out loud) and cry (M, used to this kind of stuff, just shook his head and patted my leg as I sniffled through the hard parts). And now I'm really interested to see what they'll do with the movie. Have you read this book? What did you think?

Book of the Week: Spoiled

I had heard awhile back that The Fug Girls were coming out with a book and then promptly forgot all about it (that's happening to me a lot lately - ha). Then I was in Wal-Mart and was attracted to the cover of the book Spoiled. As soon as I realized it was the YA novel by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan I was sold. Things have been busy so I haven't had a chance to post about reading it yet, but if you like the Fug Girls' snappy humor and acerbic wit on their site then there's a good chance you'll like Spoiled too.

The premise of the novel is one we've seen before: anonymous small town girl finds out that her biological parent is a Hollywood superstar. The superstar's existing progeny gets jealous and sets out to make said small town girl's Tinseltown life a living hell. This is basically how things start out for Molly Dix when, after her mother's death, she finds out her father is Hollywood heavyweight Brick Berlin. Brick is well meaning, but often distracted and absent, leaving Molly to fend for and deal with her new sister Brooke all by herself.

For me what set this story apart from others like it is the writing style and the humor. Plus both Molly and Brooke are rather interesting characters and I'm looking forward to the continuation of their saga. Have you read Spoiled?

Book of the Week: Priceless

To be honest, when I received a copy of Nicole Richie's latest book, Priceless, to review I had no idea what to expect. In my experience the books of most celebrity authors aren't that compelling, still, I'm always up for a new read. I guess sometimes low expectations can help when reading a book, because I was definitely pleasantly surprised by Richie's second venture.

The novel centres around Charlotte Williams, a beautiful little rich girl who is more heart of gold than soulless spoiled brat. In a ripped straight from the headlines plot twist Charlotte's father is indicted for embezzlement and fraud, leaving Charlotte to face the wrath of his victims (including a crazed stalker) and pick up the pieces of her shattered life. Charlotte, however, doesn't crawl up into a ball and die. Instead she heads to New Orleans and her former nanny so that she can start over.

I'm not saying this is a perfect book. There are plot points that are far fetched, fanciful, and some that are quite predictable, still, Charlotte struck me as an endearing character. You wanted her to do well considering how the deck was stacked against her and I was admittedly interested to find out what man she would end up with. I found Priceless to be an optimistic read about the things that really matter in life that would fit well in any beach bag this summer.

Book of the Week: Swoon

Sin is coming...Prepare to Swoon.

Torn from her native New York City and dumped in the land of cookie-cutter preps, Candice is resigned to accept her posh, dull fate. Nothing ever happens in Swoon, Connecticut...until Dice's perfect, privileged cousin Penelope nearly dies in a fall from an old tree, and her spirit intertwines with that of a ghost. His name? Sinclair Youngblood Powers. His mission? Revenge. And while Pen is oblivious to the possession, Dice is all too aware of Sin. She's intensely drawn to him—but not at all crazy about the havoc he's wreaking. Determined to exorcise the demon, Dice accidentally sets Sin loose, gives him flesh, makes him formidable. Now she must destroy an even more potent—and irresistible—adversary, before the whole town succumbs to Sin's will. Only trouble is, she's in love with him.

In the pantheon of YA novels Nina Malkin's Swoon is decidedly edgier than most of the other books on offer. There's quite a bit of sex and some drugs, not to mention a heaping of revenge, lust and some paranormal creepiness. When perfect blonde Pen gets possessed by Sin, who is intent on avenging his wrongful execution on the descendants of Swoon, things start to get interesting. Without giving too much away, Sin punishes those he believes have wronged him by using his powers to bring out their darkest desires and urge them to act on it.
 
And because this is a YA novel its not surprising that the protagonist, in this case Dice, promptly falls in love with the vengeful spirit that she accidentally makes corporeal. Problem is its kind of hard to figure why Dice loves Sin at all. Sure, you feel sorry about what happened to the guy hundreds of years ago but in the present day he's a pretty nasty piece of work. And while I do get the appeal of a bad boy, Dice seems to be particularly driven by right and wrong so while its not hard to imagine why she's drawn to the sexy Sin, love is a whole different story.
 
On the whole Swoon held my attention and I did like Malkin's style of writing, but there were flaws, mostly in the evolution of the Sin-Dice relationship. If you've read this book I'd love to know what you thought.
 
 

 

Book of the Week: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

I have to agree with a lot of the criticism often levelled at Stieg Larsson and his--in my opinion--engrossing Millennium Series novels. Yes, journalist Larsson infused his stories with a lot of detail. You get pages upon pages of Swedish political history and countless descriptions of a character's day or meals. Admittedly, I skipped over some of it, but I also think that adding in some of the mundane stuff can act like a window into the life of a character that you don't always get to see if the author is cutting right to the action.

Then there is crusading journalist and ladies' man Mikael Blomkvist, who is likely a thinly veiled stand in for Stieg himself, but no matter how many women he beds I found something sympathetic about Blomkvist. I didn't exactly get Blomkvist's new relationship this time around, but overall I found him a sympathetic character. Probably because he at least tries to do the right thing and mostly because he was loyal to Lisbeth Salander throughout the books.

Some have also said that The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, the supposed last in the Millennium trilogy, was kind of slow. And it did seem to plod along in places. I think one of the main reasons was lack of Salander. For the majority of the book Lisbeth is out of commission and the plot stalled in some parts because of it. As soon as Mikael smuggles Lisbeth's Palm into the hospital its like the entire story got a second wind. Lisbeth Salander is one of those raw, unlikely heroines that you can't help but root for and she and her schemes are something I wish there were more of.

Which I guess is why, ultimately, I enjoyed this book. Like the previous two I found myself eagerly turning pages. True, there wasn't as much mystery this time around but I was invested in Lisbeth and needed to know that end turned out okay for her. I also respect the author's attempt to shed light on a common problem -- the violence perpetrated against women, mostly by men. Sure there were some unnecessary subplots (like the whole Erica-SMP thing), but I won't go into specifics so as not to give anything away for those who haven't read it yet. I will say that I think the ending was...appropriate. Now I can't wait to watch the Swedish movie version of the novel. Have you read this book? What did you think?

Book of the Week: The Dead Path

Intriguing. Sinister. Engaging. Seriously creepy. These are just some of the adjectives that come to mind when trying to describe Stephen M. Irwin's The Dead Path. I knew nothing about the book or the first time author when I picked it up, but I would definitely read another Irwin novel if one should come along. This particular story revolves around Nicholas Close who, after a motorcycle accident and the death of his wife, gains the dubious gift of "second sight." What this means is that Nicholas can see ghosts, and not just anywhere. Nicholas sees these ghosts at the place where they died, reenacting their deaths over and over in an endless loop that threatens to drive him mad.

Unable to continue life in England after his wife's death and with his hauntings Nicholas returns to the Australian suburb where he grew up. Immediately you know all is not right in Tallong. The town and the ordinary people who live here are definitely hiding secrets and Nicholas is surprised to find that the dense woods on the outskirts of town have yet to be developed despite his long absence and the property boom that followed.

Those woods have played a big part in Nicholas' life--his childhood friend was murdered there--and when another child goes missing the night of Close's arrival he begins to realize that whatever evil lurked in the woods during his childhood remains. This is a story of the supernatural and the spooky, spiders and shaky sanity, about childhood terrors come to life. This isn't a story about blood or gore and it's to the author's credit that Nicholas Close is one of those anti-heroes (tragic, tortured) that you hope can finally know a day of peace. Definitely an engrossing read.

Oh, and for those of you waiting for a Gossip Girl post I have to apologize. I didn't actually get to watch last night. So I'm hoping to catch up tonight and have a fashion-filled post for you tomorrow.

Book of the Week: Backseat Saints

Ro Grandee is the perfect Texas housewife. She's determined to be nothing like her long-missing mother, the one who left her with only a heap of old novels and her father's fists for company, so Ro keeps quiet and takes her husband's punches like a lady. But Ro wasn't always this way. Underneath her pastel skirts and hidden bruises lies Rose Mae Lolley, teenaged spitfire, Alabama heartbreaker, and a crack shot with a pistol. Rose Mae is resurrected when a gypsy's tarot cards foretell doom for dutiful Ro: her handsome husband is going to kill her. Unless she kills him first.

Armed with only her wit, her pawpy's ancient .45, and her dog Fat Gretel, Rose Mae hightails it out of Texas. In a journey that is by turns harrowing and exhilarating, she uncovers long buried truths about her family and herself, running from the man who will never let her go, on a mission to find the mother who did.

Some of the plot points from Joshilyn Jackson's Backseat Saints are farfetched to say the least, but the underlying themes of abuse, abandonment and the struggle to be true to one's self are all too real. I was taken in by Jackson's words and the sympathetic Rose Mae/Ro/Ivy and until the last page I was on the edge of my seat to find out just how things would end up for Rose Mae. And while some of Ro's decisions are sometimes hard to understand she came across, to me at least, as a character worth rooting for.

Have you read Backseat Saints? What did you think?

Book of the Week: Heart of the Matter

Infidelty seems to be a theme of many of Emily Giffin's novels and Heart of the Matter is no different, however, I think the book can be best characterized as a portrait of a marriage. Stay-at-home mom Tessa struggles with wanting to be there for her young family and her choice to give up a career she loves to facilitate that. The book opens with Tessa and her husband Nick, a handsome and very successful pediatric plastic surgeon, celebrating their wedding anniversary. Before dinner is through Nick's called back to the hospital for an emergency. He forgot to switch his on-call shift. Tessa would recall it as the night everything changed.

But was it? Perhaps the trouble had started much earlier. While quite predictable the book does attempt to delve into the different reasons why marriages falter, why couples fall apart. Tessa struggles with not being the perfect wife and mother, even with more time on her hands, and has to contend with her own mother's dire warnings still ringing in her ears--that soon her husband will get bored of her, that by abandoning her career Tessa will no longer be the woman that Nick fell in love with.

Without giving away too much of the plot (not that it's exactly filled with mystery) Tessa soon finds herself in the exact place her mother warned her about. Alternating Tessa's point of view with that of Valerie Anderson, an often disappointed single mother and lawyer struggling to do right by her son Charlie, Giffin presents a story of "good people caught in untenable circumstances."

Some of the questions this book raises are interesting, like how different people react to a cheating spouse and the different reasons that relationships reach that point, and what happens when good people do bad things (another Giffin staple). When I read or hear stories like this I often wonder what I would do, always coming to the same conclusion. I don't know what I would do...no way to know, I figure, until you've walked that particular path.

Heart of the Matter wasn't a bad book, but it felt like there was something missing, something preventing me from getting lost in the story. It all seemed a bit too pat, too formulaic and didn't have me engrossed like some of Giffin's earlier works such as Something Borrowed (I will admit I'm looking forward to that movie, although I'm not sure how I feel about Hilary Swank as Rachel, and I was happy to see cameos by Dex and Rachel in Heart of the Matter). Despite all this I will say that Giffin does chick lit quite well and always leaves me with something to think about when I've read the last word.

Have you read Heart of the Matter or one of the other Emily Giffin books? What did you think?

Book of the Week: The Eternal Ones

I've been slacking with my book reviews, but I have been reading. Promise. This week I read Kirsten Miller's The Eternal Ones, a young adult novel that focuses on Haven Moore, a girl stuck in a suffocating small town living with her damaged mother and her hell-on-wheels grandmother. Much to religious grandma's horror Haven has visions. Since she was a little girl she's had flashes of an earlier time, of two young lovers named Constance and Ethan. These flashbacks are set in New York and it is no surprise that Haven feels drawn there, and drawn to Ethan, a man she's never met. But for a long time Haven has tried to block her visions to keep from being committed or being accused of being possessed by a demon.

As Haven approaches the end of high school the power of the visions are intensifying and getting impossible to stop. When Haven spots playboy billionaire Iain Morrow on TV the girl literally passes out. Something about Iain is familiar to Haven, and while he doesn't look like Ethan, Haven knows there's a connection. There's something quite romantic about the idea of an undying love and I was drawn to the elements of the story that had to do with reincarnation and the enigmatic Ouroboros Society. It was only at the end of the book that I realized that despite it's initial promise I was left feeling strangely unsatisfied.

SPOILERS BELOW...

For one thing the love between Haven and Iain seemed kind of hollow. Their relationship needed to be the driving force of the book, but it kind of felt like Haven was going through the motions. Sure, Iain is rich and good-looking but he's also controlling, wooden and not that much fun. Half the time it seemed like Haven didn't even really care about him. And the other time it wasn't love that was driving her, it was that other four letter word starting with L--if you know what I mean.

While in New York, and unsure of what the truth or who to trust, Haven is constantly changing her mind and her alliances. While I quite liked the character while she was living in the small town (looking back the time in Snope City, and Haven's best friend Beau, were my fave parts of the novel) Haven quickly became a plot device once she ran off to New York. Haven needed to quibble and forgive, be naive and ask the wrong questions in order for the plot to move forward. I can imagine that not remembering the whole past was confusing for Haven but if she felt such a connection with Iain that she immediately jumped into a relationship with him how could she have not felt more loyalty to him or some sense of his innate goodness? Again, this may have just been a plot device to make Iain appear like he may be the bad guy for the majority of the story (I'll get to the Bad Guy later--don't even get me started). And while I did end up wanting to know the truth and the answers to the mystery at the end I guess I just wasn't very satisfied with the answers I got. Like:

Haven and Iain first fell in love on the island of Crete in the time of Julius Caesar. She was a rich man's adored prisoner wife and he was the servant she ran away with. Ever since then they've kept coming back as different people to find one another again, usually with bad results. And not just because Haven doesn't always remember Iain. There's the added complication of the husband who isn't just some crazed psycho jealous guy, but actually like the Devil or Chaos or something. And while this is the Ultimate Baddie the character wasn't really fleshed out at all in the book and while creepy he wasn't very scary. On the terror scale he was more stalker than Satan.

Which I think brings me to the biggest problem I had with the book. This dude is Satan and yet he's not very charming at all. Somehow he can't get this woman he's adored for a millenia to love him back, probably because she loves someone else. Okay, fine. And he doesn't want to hurt her because he loves her. I'll buy it, although I'll leave the question of whether or not true evil is even capable of love to another day, what really bugs me is that he just let them go. That's right. Iain fakes his death and then he and Haven run off together. And while at the end it's fairly clear that the Bad Man has found them, he doesn't really do anything. I mean, I wouldn't imagine that running away from the Devil is the same as hiding from the law. You can't just change your name, and poof!, he won't be able to find you. On top of that Iain and Haven run off to Rome. Based on their history in the book that is the FIRST place anyone would look for them. I mean, really?! Really?!

I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking this. It wasn't a terrible read but I guess I was just hoping for more. If you've read this book I'd really love to know what you thought.

Book of the Week: Opportunity Rings

Erica Swift, the protagonist of Sherl Steinberg's Opportunity Rings, is a tech-unsaavy woman who runs the marketing department at Rockit Wireless, a cell phone provider. As the book opens Erica's trying her best to balance career with putting the spice back into her marriage. The latter turns out to be an exercise in futility, because her stuffy husband promptly dumps her for his older boss. Erica seems more devastated that the other woman is a cougar rather than the fact that her husband has actually left her (that should tell you something about their relationship).

Erica dates eligible men and when she finally ends up with the right one--not a surprise who this turns out to be--the payoff is rushed. Barely a couple of pages.

Honestly, I didn't love this book. There were some parts that were funny, but there didn't seem to be any meat. I mean, not that chick lit is generally excessively meaty, but I guess the problem is I didn't feel a connection with Erica and her plight. Although I could relate to the tech-unsaavy part. What's the last book you read that you didn't really love?

Book of the Week: The Wilde Women

Paula Wall's The Wilde Women, about the lives of the residents of Five Points, Tennessee, begins on Black Friday in 1929 when Pearl Wilde catches her fiancé doing the nasty with her sister Kat in the family barn. To add insult to injury Kat is wearing Pearl's shoes and the rakish Bourne Cavanagh's response to being caught is a drunken, "Please, darlin'. Give me just one more minute." Needless to say Pearl is both hurt and angry, leaving town on the next train not to be heard of for years except for the monthly postcards she sends her sister from the four corners of the globe. Those postcards are devoured by the town gossips before they even reach Kat's hands and they always contain the one same sentiment, "Kat Wilde, I still hope you burn in Hell!"

"The sisters dove headfirst into this world on fire with life and expectation...Hair black as midnight, eyes blazing blue, they were so bright white hot they hissed when you touched them.

In school they knew the answer before the question was given, broke the hearts of boys they never noticed, were the envy of rich girls who had it all. Could have had any man they wanted. Could have been anything they set their minds to. But like their mother and their mother's mother before them, the Wilde sisters took the path of most resistance. At every crossroads in life, there is always one right choice. Inevitably, Wilde women go left." [p 1]

The talk of small town Five Points since the day their grandmother left rich and adoring Cyril Rudolph at the altar, the Wilde women march to the beat of their own drummer. When Pearl returns home--gorgeous, successful, mysterious--she has plans not only for revenge but for a scandalous new business venture. As the story of Pearl, Kat and whiskey distillery heir Bourne unfolds so do the lives of their friends in neighbours in Five Points, a sad town weighed down by both the Depression and Prohibition.

I grabbed this book in hardcover for $5 after being attracted by the cover, but having never read anything by Paula Wall I didn't know what to expect and truthfully wasn't expecting much. I can say I was more than pleasantly surprised. Sure, the stories contain some cliches, but there were also some laugh-out-loud moments and I found myself drawn to the flawed characters. Wall has a talent for drawing you into her story, whether it is a feud between two sisters, a headstrong rich man trying to land a volatile Wilde woman, a tale of ghosts and curses that stretches back two generations, or the simple disintegration or reigniting of a marriage. I'd recommend this one.

Book of the Week: The Girl Who Played with Fire

I've been meaning to get around to this one for awhile. I really enjoyed the first of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and I was almost hesitant to read the second, The Girl Who Played with Fire, because with these sorts of things the sequels tend to be disappointing. Not so here. Sure, some of the plot points were a bit far fetched, but I think where Larsson excelled was in the nuances and the characters. I can't recall another protagonist in recent years as compelling and complex as Lisbeth Salander, the girl in the title. I almost wrote heroine and then thought better of it, because I can see Salander hating the word even though she seems pretty adept at saving herself

Rooney Mara - the "American" Lisbeth Salander [via]

I won't spoil this one for anyone who hasn't read it yet, but I thought it was interesting that even though Lisbeth is absent from a lot of the direct action in the book her figure continues to loom large over the story. It was also great to find out more about her past and what makes her tick. Some of it is hard to read, but I commend Larsson for weaving social commentary into a great suspense thriller. Can't wait to start The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and to watch the Swedish movie version of Fire--plus I'm looking forward to the American movie adaptation starring 007 Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.

Have you read this one?

What do you think of the Millennium trilogy?

Book of the Week: I Heart Paris

I Heart Paris is the third in a series of books by Lindsey Kelk (I reviewed the second, I Heart Hollywood, here) about Brit ex-pat Angela Clark, a freelancer in New York who writes a blog for the fictional Look magazine. Angela's life seems to be going rather swimmingly after the hijinks that took place in California and in the same week she's asked by her musician boyfriend to go to Paris and picked by Belle magazine (think Vogue) to write a story for them. What more could a girl ask for?

Well, if that girl is Angela Clark, then quite a bit more. Just as Angela touches down in Paris things start to go wrong. There is scheming, lying and backstabbing--and that's just the work stuff. Add to that boyfriend Alex's gorgeous Parisian ex-girlfriend and you have a real recipe for trouble.

I enjoy Lindsey Kelk's books because the author is entertaining and truly funny and I Heart Paris was no different. Some of the passages had been literally laughing out loud (to wit: "Solène might be hotter than me, cooler than me, and have all sorts of sexy French history with my Alex, but I reckoned I could definitely take her in a fight. She was a twig. I was at least a substantial branch. If not an out and out trunk.") Angela Clark is also a pretty lovable, albeit completely klutzy, heroine and her boyfriend is Alex is a pretty great romantic lead as chick lit goes. If you like funny, breezy and entertaining then definitely check out the I Heart series.

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Lindsey's Blog

Stay tuned for my interview with author Lindsey Kelk coming soon!






Thank you to HarperCollinsCanada for the review copy.
 

Book of the Week: Remember Me?

So, full disclosure, I'm not a huge fan of the Shopaholic series even though I did enjoy the movie, mostly because I think Isla Fisher is adorable. I've found that I like Sophie Kinsella's non-Becky Bloomwood books much better than the Shopaholic books that made her famous. Case in point, Remember Me?, a book I've been meaning to read for awhile and ended up finishing in one sitting. It seems a shade more serious than Kinsella's previous novels, but I didn’t mind that as the premise was intriguing to me. To wit, what happens if you wake up one day and you can’t remember your life—not your job or your husband or why exactly you have been nicknamed Dragon Lady? How did this become you and why can’t you feel anything for the gorgeous thing who has pledged to love you until death do you part?

This is the situation that Lexi Smart finds herself in. After waking up from an accident with amnesia she realizes that she’s suddenly a perfectly groomed glamazon who is married to a seemingly perfect man that makes all the nurses swoon. Lexi is rich and successful and can’t even recognize herself or her life. What happened to the girl with the frizzy hair and outspoken friends? After leaving the hospital Lexi receives a Marriage Manual from Mr. Ideal Spouse to let her know everything about them and their life. Except that the life Lexi is supposed to be living doesn’t seem to be one she wants anymore.  And as the novel progresses Lexi finds that she may have had secrets in her life that can't be found in her Manual. In the end I felt satisfied with Remember Me?, the questions it raised and the ending Kinsella provides for Lexi.

Have you read this one? What's your favourite Kinsella book?

Don't forget to enter the Big Tinsel giveaway!

Book of the Week: Shadow Tag

Louise Erdrich's Shadow Tag is a tale about a disintegrating marriage and dysfunctional family, and while it is superbly written I found it a fairly uncomfortable read. Irene is a mother of three, back to work on a doctoral thesis on the painter George Catlin, who is married to Gil, an artist who has gained fame for his portraits of his wife, many of which feature her in explicit and sometimes humiliating poses. "Here is the most telling fact: you wish to possess me," Irene writes in her journal about Gil. "Here is another fact: I loved you and let you think you could." When Irene realizes that Gil is reading her diary she locks up the real one (blue) in a safe deposit box and begins a false journal (red) that she leaves for her husband to read filled lies meant to injure him. So begins this tale of obsession and manipulation.

This was my first Louise Erdrich novel, and while I found it difficult to root for either Gil or Irene--who are slowly destroying their family with deception and alcoholism, violence and exploitation--Erdrich's elegant prose and the back-and-forth narration between the two diaries and the third person makes Shadow Tag an interesting read. In the end, the characters I found myself caring for the most for in this novel--which was named by Oprah as one of her Top 10 Books for Summer 2010--are the three children: rebellious genius Florian, sensitive Riel who is planning to protect her family at any cost, and Stoney, who the novel points out was "born at the beginning of the end." As Irene and Gil careen towards this end I found myself holding my breath as the book revealed just how much damage they were capable of inflicting along the way.

Browse Inside this novel.




Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for the review copy.

Book of the Week: Library of the Dead

An ancient knowledge. A conspiracy of silence. A secret to kill for. On the seventh day of the seventh month, the seventh son of a seventh son is born to ominous prophecy on the Isle of Wight. Centuries later, in 1947, Winston Churchill is called out of retirement to deal with an unprecedented archaeological discovery that threatens to derail postwar reconstruction. Soon afterwards, in Roswell, New Mexico, an alleged UFO sighting heralds the establishment of a secret military complex in Nevada—a base that comes to be known as Area 51.

It is this history that prefaces Glenn Cooper's novel Library of the Dead, which is set in present day New York City where a serial murder is on the loose. The murders have no discernible pattern and the victims nothing in common except that they all received a postcard featuring a coffin predicting their date of death. FBI agent Will Piper is difficult and a drinker and is just passing the days until his retirement when he is called in to work the Doomsday Case, much to his chagrin. Partnered with the idealistic and ambitious Nancy, Piper soon finds himself engrossed in a case with few leads. When Piper does begin to make some tentative progress he finds himself abruptly taken off the case. More determined than ever to solve the crimes Piper goes it alone, facing off not only against the Doomsday Killer, but also shady government operatives who are hiding a secret bigger than the agent could have ever imagined.

The book's narration moves between Piper's modern day investigation and the past events connected to the medieval monastery, slowly unravelling the secret at the heart of the novel. I liked this one because it took awhile to piece together how past events were connected to the modern day killer. The book also raises some interesting questions about fate and free will and Piper, for all his flaws, is a likable protagonist. I'm now looking forward to reading the next installment in the series, Book of Souls, soon.


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Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for the review copy.

Book of the Week: The Good Daughters

The Good Daughters follows the lives of two families who had daughters born in the same hospital, in the same town, on the same day. Told from the alternating points of view of these "birthday sisters," Ruth and Dana, we travel with these two very different women as they navigate love, life and loss. Joyce Maynard's story is well written and easy to read, and I finished it in one sitting. Not that the plot is plainly straightforward. There is a twist here, a secret that changes everything, but it seemed to me that Maynard crafted her story in such a way that the secret wasn't the payoff. Rather, by the time it is revealed, I was invested in Ruth and Dana so the way they reacted to this new truth was more important than the revelation iteself. Moving forward from the 1950s, Maynard draws you into the lives of Ruth and Dana and their very different families, the lives they create for themselves and the way they deal with the secret that changes everything.


Browse Inside here.



Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for the review copy.

Book of the Week: I'd Know You Anywhere

I've come to rely on Laura Lippman for taut, psychological thrillers that are full of emotion and ask the hard questions. The first of her books that I read was What The Dead Know, followed by a succession of any other Lippman book I could manage to get my hands on. Both I'd Know You Anywhere and What The Dead Know centre around kidnapped girls, although I'd say the element of mystery is much more prevalent in the first. Instead, I'd Know You Anywhere is more about the psychological ramifications of being kidnapped--and being allowed to survive.

When Eliza was 15 she stumbled upon Walter digging the grave for one of his victims--strictly wrong place, wrong time--and finds herself kidnapped and held captive by the killer for over a month. In that time Eliza and Walter form a strange bond so much so that, years later, she still feels as if she would know him anywhere. And vice versa. When Walter ostensibly spots a photo of a grown up Eliza--married, a mother, with a new life and identity--in the society section he writes to her to make amends. He also includes four ominous words about seeing her picture: I'd know you anywhere.

One would assume that a grown up Eliza, seemingly well adjusted (despite still sleeping with the windows tightly shut), wouldn't want anything to do with Walter, yet something keeps pulling her back. On the eve of Walter's execution Eliza is not only afraid he will expose her by giving interviews, but also needs to know the answer to the question that plagues her: Why did Walter let her live and kill all of his other victims? As Eliza digs deeper into their shared past more questions emerge, like to what extend was she psychologically manipulated by Walter? Why didn't she escape the times she had a chance and, most importantly, was she an unwitting victim or an accomplice to Walter's crimes? If you're anything like me you'll be on the edge of your seat as Lippman's narrative takes you from past to present in search of the murky truth.

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Thanks to Harper Collins Canada for the review copy.

I hope all of you had a lovely weekend!

The winners have been announced for The Recessionista giveaway and don't forget to enter for your chance to win a Tea Accessories headband. Also, head over to The Alternative Wife if you get a chance--Dawn is giving away a fab Betsey Johnson bow necklace!

Hope you have a great week!

Book of the Week: So Much For That

Shep Knacker is the kind of guy that always does the right thing. He works hard and saves his money, takes care of his family--including his elderly father and ungrateful sister--and he waits. Waits for the day when his savings account will take him to some country in another part of the globe where he can live on a dollar a day like a king. Shep wants to escape the ratrace, wants to live out his retirement with his wife Glynnis (who isn't exactly keen on his "Afterlife" plan) in a sunny paradise where he can be rather than just do. An attractive prospect, but you know what they say about the best laid plans...

Lionel Shriver's book is about freedom, money, illness and the medical system. A lot of So Much For That is grim, and there are some parts that aren't as compelling as others, but as a whole I liked this book because it made me think. What do I really want out of life? Am I getting it? And if not, if we all have to wait for our Afterlife to finally be happy and fulfilled, what if that day never comes?

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Thank you to HaperCollinsCanada for the review copy.

The opinions expressed here are all mine.