I never got around to reading Tatiana de Rosnay's first novel, Sarah's Key, so I grabbed at the opportunity to read her second novel, A Secret Kept (or actually to hear it on audiobook). I started listening to it the day after I received it, and the way the story unfolded kept me interested and looking for any excuse to squeeze in a few minutes of listening (great motivation to get some housework done!). Antoine Rey is a divorced father of two trying to get over his ex-wife, navigating ennui with his job as an architect and the struggles of parenting teenagers (ACK!). I found him to be slightly wimpy, but as the story progresses, I come to realize that he's not really wimpy, just tired and disappointed with life. A Secret Kept begins ...
Category Archives: Fiction
Stay
Imagine, if you will. You just watched your best friend marry the guy you've been in love with for 7 years. Her mother has paid you off to stay away from him, and you're missing your own deceased mother something fierce. You have had a few too many vodkas with Kool-Aid and are sucked into a Rin Tin Tin marathon. You think, "A dog would love me. A dog wouldn't judge me. I need a dog." What do you do? Go online and order a German Shepherd puppy, of course! And that's just what Van (short for Savannah) Leone does in the new novel Stay, by Allie Larkin. Only when said puppy arrives, it's a 6 month old behemoth who responds to commands in Slovakian, including "search the house. " Yikes! Van, who has ...
Mockingjay
Mockingjay. This is the one word that's been on many, many lips since the third book was announced in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Forget sparkly vampires, this one is all about a dystopian world in which society as we know it has been gone for quite some time, and in its place is a controlling and abusive government called the Capitol which keeps order through horrific measures. *You can count on me to leave out any spoilers for Mockingjay, but if you haven't read the two previous installments of the trilogy, you might want to get thee to a library/bookstore/friend's bookshelf before reading further.* We first met Katniss in The Hunger Games (linked to my review), the teenager from District Twelve whose life of daily struggles changes the instant her younger ...
Her Fearful Symmetry
Once again Niffenegger has done what she did so well in The Time Traveler's Wife. She's created a completely realistic story using supernatural elements that are unexpected and somehow completely believable (from the standpoint of enjoying a novel at least). The story in Her Fearful Symmetry is completely different, but the theme of eternal and undying love (the benefits and detriments of it, to be specific) is strong. Another wonderful feature of this novel is the way it's told. It's told with a 3rd person narrator, but instead of the narrator simply being omniscient, the thoughts of the characters are added in the first person. I'm not sure that I've read a novel that used this device -- or at least not consistently throughout -- and I loved it. Robert is at the bedside of ...
The Bishop
Editor's Note: This is Lisa's last post for us. Thank you Lisa! Keep up with her at Lisa writes….. Astute readers of this site will be familiar with my affection for the Patrick Bowers Files, a series of novels by Steven James. I’ve reviewed The Rook and The Knight and have eagerly awaited The Bishop, the latest installment featuring FBI agent Patrick Bowers. As I’ve stated in earlier reviews, James’ novels are not your grandmother’s Christian fiction. They are thrillers in every sense of the word. In fact, The Bishop takes the intensity to a whole new level. The bad guys are beyond bad; they are evil, disturbingly so. And yet, like The Rook and The Knight, James tells his story apart from gratuitous violence and language. He is not unnecessarily explicit and instead employs good ...
Diamond Ruby
Although historical fiction is my favorite genre, I haven't read much of it lately. Really, I haven't read much fiction at all this summer (not very convenient when you are a regular contributor for a book blog). We've been busy, but I've also been reading a lot more nonfiction titles because of health issues (I do have some great titles related to nutrition to review). A few weeks ago, I was craving a good story. I picked up Diamond Ruby, and I am so glad I did. This debut novel from nonfiction writer Joseph Wallace is a fantastic read, and I highly recommend it. Diamond Ruby is based on the true story of Jackie Mitchell, a young woman ...
The Opposite of Me
For some reason, I've always been fascinated with sibling relationships, especially those of twins. Could all those widely spread stories be true? Are there twins out there who can finish one another's sentences and physically feel the pain experienced by the other? Well, if you asked that of Lindsey, one half of the Rose twin sisters at the center of Sarah Pekkanen's debut novel The Opposite of Me, I'm fairly certain that she would simply laugh in your face. Lindsey and Alex, fraternal twins, hardly have a close sisterly bond. In fact, the distance in their relationship is made of much more than the simple miles between Lindsey's life in New York City and Alex's in Washington, D.C. Told from Lindsey's perspective, there are significantly different roles that she and her sister have ...
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Jennifer Donovan
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