All The Way Home

All the Way Home by Ann Tatlock
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall the story (stories) were decent. It felt like two books, almost like it could have been a series, but it was a two part book. The first half of the book took place with the two main characters as children living in southern California leading up to and during WWII. Sunny is a second generation Japanese American who has an incredibly loving and supportive family who feel they are as American as anyone else. Augie comes from a broken family and quickly comes to love Sunny's family when they quickly become best friends.

World War II erupts and Sunny's family is forced to leave their lives behind to live in Japanese internment camps. Augie is devastated as she had become so much a part of Sunny's family, she even thinks of herself as Japanese at heart.

Augie and Sunny's family lose contact and Auguie thinks they have abandoned her and is devastated by what she sees as betrayal.

Fast forward twenty something years and Sunny, now Helen, finds Augie and invites her to her home to write a magazine article about anti-civil rights Mississippi. Augie is shocked to learn that the invitation to Mississippi is from her childhood best friend; there is a weird twist there I won't spoil.

Augie is there to write a story about a school that prepares African Americans to register to vote. She meets a really great guy...blah blah blah, he turns out to be something completely different than she thought...blah, blah, blah...the KKK are everywhere, they are bad, horrible people. I do not mean to demean what happened there, it's disgusting, but the story dragged on too much for me to read every fine detail.

The second part started out good, but then I just lost interest. It could have been shortened substantially. I skimmed over many pages just trying to get to the end quickly.

Great basis for a story, just not as interesting as I think it could have been. And have I mentioned how much I HATE reading accents? It is one of the more annoying parts of this book.

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Swim

Swim by Jennifer Weiner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Um, okay. Short? Yes. Good enough to draw me into reading, The Next Best Thing? Uh, maybe. Not in a rush though.

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The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm pretty conflicted on how much I liked this book (Three or four stars?). It was beautifully written, no question about it. A very talented author with an incredible imagination! However I think it just comes down to the fact that it wasn't as thrilling as I felt it could be. I think perhaps the ending didn't quite sit right with me either. It seemed like we were taken through so many years and got to know so many characters so well, that I felt a bit let down how it came to an end.

This was a slow read for me. I found I could easily set the book aside when the chapter changed time periods. In a way I appreciated that because I could think on it a little bit, but also a wee bit annoying.

I do like the concept of the book, I liked the magic and use of alchemy, I just wasn't as impressed by the story itself as it appears others were.

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Love Will Find You in Snowball, Arkansas

Love Finds You in Snowball, Arkansas by Sandra D. Bricker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was cute yet very predictable. The main character was a bit shallow but adorable. Quick, easy read.

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Rapture (Fallen #4)

Rapture by Lauren Kate
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't what to rate this, 3 or 4. I was both happy and disappointed with it all at the same time. I'm sad to see the end, but it was getting, I don't know, long, I guess. It was pretty obvious what Luce was through most of the series and what was going to tip the scales. I liked the ending though, that was pretty decent...I wouldn't even mind if there was another book with that ending.

I think it's pretty obvious that Cam will be getting a series. Lauren Kate left that wide open. I would read it, I liked him! Speaking of Cam, I was confused by his place towards the end. It didn't seem to fit into this story, but it very well could be that it was meant to be for his story.

I think the whole heaven presentation was...well...different. No one knows exactly what heaven looks like, everyone has their ideas whether it be from the Bible, from fairy tales, whatever, but I'm not sure I wholly liked her depiction. Not bad, just not how I pictured it.

Rating the series on a whole, I'm still confused. I really liked the first two books, felt let down by the third, and felt just "okay" about this last one. I should just let it go, but sometimes it's hard to! :-)

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The Great Escape

The Great Escape by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I like SEP, I've loved some of her other books, but this one just read oddly to me. I hated the nicknames for the two main characters. I didn't like how utterly banana's Lucy Jorik went after she ran away. It was a bit too much and silly. I liked the Bree, Toby, and Mike story. That was a good supporting story. I didn't like how the book ended, not the final ending, but how Lucy got Panda to come see her at her parents house. The interaction with Lucy, Panda and her parents was plain weird.

I think it's great that SEP talked about PTSD, but it didn't really fit well though. It could have been better if it was wound in the story more. Not just in-your-face nah-nah-nah. It's a sensitive topic but I don't think she did it justice. If you want a good story about PTSD, read Home Front by Kristin Hannah. I had a hard time reading that book but she touched on the topic better than SEP did.

So yes, silly, a bit confusing, and drawn out would be my thoughts on this book. And not bad, just not great.

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Live Wire (Myron Bolitar #10)

Live Wire by Harlan Coben
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I haven't read a Harlan Coben book in a long time. I'm not big into murder mystery but I had remembering liking his books a long while ago.

When I randomly picked up this book from the library I hadn't realized this is a long, ongoing series. There were some incidents that happened in previous books that I had to guess on, but for the most part it was a great stand alone book.



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Love, Come to Me

Love, Come to Me by Lisa Kleypas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of Lisa Kleypas' first novels, originally published in 1988. While it's an enjoyable enough story, it doesn't have the grab and pull that her newer books have. Lisa said she was in her early 20's when she wrote this book and in some ways you can tell. With this book, the jealously and insecurity one feels in their younger years is apparent. I just found it frustrating...like lay off the dramatics a bit! :)

Even in her early twenties she is an amazing writer, she just was a bit less polished than she is now.

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The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2)

The Calling by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I pretty much have the same to say about this book as I did the first one except I'm not feeling it as much. Seriously, nearly every creature that has been in a fantasy or paranormal young adult book in the last few years is mentioned in The Calling. Hmm, maybe they haven't mentioned vampires yet, but I would not be surprised if that would pop up in the next book.

I don't mean to discount the authors originality, there certainly is a creative element that stands out from the others that makes me like it. But I will say that when the third book in the trilogy comes out next year, I'm going to be hard pressed to remember the first two clearly.

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A Rogue By Any Other Name (The Rules of Scoundrels, #1)

A Rogue By Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

More like 3.5 stars.

If I had to pick two words that were overused in this book it would be, "more" and "adventure". How many times can you hear a word before it loses it's meaning?

This book had it's good parts, it's predictable parts, and a few eye rolling parts. Overall, it was a good book but I don't know if I will read the next book in the series. I don't often care for books where the female character keeps thinking she is not worthy, she is not beautiful enough, "why me" attitude? It's fine to a degree, but sometimes a book can overplay that weakness in a woman and it takes away from the story as a whole. I've read books who have played that pity-me-violin-tune way more than this book but thought I would point it out anyway.

I would still recommend this as a light read to those who enjoy historical romances.



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Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1)

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hmmm. Not overly impressed by this book. I'm a big fan of young adult science fiction/dystopia, but this one, I dunno, maybe a little too much cheese factor for me. It was also a little bit predictable which seemed perhaps a little too juvenile. I'm being picky, but I just can't put my finger on exactly why it wasn't a hit with me.

The story follows Cinder, a cyborg (part human, part robot) who lives with her step-mother and step-sisters in New Beijing. Yes, very much like Cinderella except in the future and she likes one of the step-sisters. Anyway, there is a plague that is killing scores of people around the world. In order to find a cure, the government has started a draft for the cyborgs to be guinea pigs to find the cure for the disease. Cinder pushes her step-mother too far and her step-mother volunteers Cinder to be a plague-curing-subject. Cinder of course doesn't want to but when her sister contracts the plague, Cinder realizes it is her duty to help her sister anyway she can.

Cinder discovers many secrets within the empire and that the Lunar queen (yes, as in the moon) wants to marry the emperor so that she can rule the world. Cinder befriends the emperor who does not know of Cinders real identity. He likes her but Cinder knows that this is a match that cannot be made. Meanwhile, many people are searching for the long lost niece of the Lunar queen who is the rightful heir to the Lunar throne but of course the queen wants to find her first and eliminate her. It just all sounds so corny to me. I don't know how better to describe the book, to make it sound more appealing. It is a little cheesy.

This was a book that didn't hold my interest throughout all of it. I could go a day or two without picking it up. But to it's credit, there were also pages that I flew through trying to figure out what was next.

It is good enough that I will read the other books in the series when they come out...but that is along ways away.

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Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy

Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, hmm. I suppose I listened to Jacqueline Kennedy's oral history out of sheer curiosity. I had read Mimi Alford's Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath and became a little curious as to what Jackie Kennedy had to say after the death of her husband.

This audio recording stretched from March 1964, four months after JFK's assassination, to June 1964. There are seven conversations in total.

She came across as a doting wife who supported her husband in whatever venture or thought he had. She made it seem that his every thought was her thought, they agreed on nearly everything, he was such a good husband and truly cared about her. Historical recollections of others tells a completely different story. Perhaps he did love her, perhaps not. I'm sure he loved her beauty and poise and her rich background, but being married, I'm not convinced that JFK, whom I think was a scoundrel, liked being married. It was a political front I think.

I think a lot less of JFK, not that I had anything really to judge him on before. I think Jacqueline Kennedy worked with what she had but I think her eyes truly opened up in the years after his and Bobbie's deaths. They were political machines who had dirty agendas that were hidden from the unassuming public.

Going back to Jackie Kennedy's oral history, there was a lot of information that bored me. I hadn't heard of many, many of the people she and Mr. Schlessinger discussed nor did I really care. It was a gossip session of, "what did Jack think of so and so, or this or that". There were a few juicy bits and the one that I was most surprised by was her candid dislike of Martin Luther King Jr. She thought he was a horrible man because he often had orgy's. She thought him a fraud, phony. I had never heard that before! I find it ironic she thought him lowly for that, yet her husband had more romps than a rabbit in heat.

I can't imagine having these conversation so quickly after her husbands death. There is no doubt she was mortified and devastated by his death but there had to a great strength to be able to talk at that point of time. She never did discuss that horrific day or anything really leading up to it. No thoughts about it. I imagine it would be too soon for that.

In the recording you can hear the kids, their TV in the background, planes flying over head, her continuous lighting up and smoking and even the clinking of ice cubes in glass. I wonder what was in there? A stiff drink perhaps? I would need one!

Overall, I suppose I'm glad I listened to her oral history because I do like the subject. Did I come away feeling smarter and able to feel as though I knew Jackie Kennedy? Nope. Would I recommend this read to anyone. Not really. I think you'd have to be a real history nut or be looking for some gossip about the Kennedy white house years. I'm a little of both.

It makes me a little sad that Jackie Kennedy nearly completely withdrew from the public eye after JFK and Bobbie's death. I can't blame her though, but my curiousity is itching to know what she thinks of JFK looking back in the years before her death in 1994.

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Forever and a Day

Forever and a Day by Delilah Marvelle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought the first half of the book was okay, the third quarter of the book was fantastic but it was so rushed in the last quarter. The third quarter (and I do apologize for breaking this up like a football game) explained so much history and saw the beginnings of change in the main female characters future that you got really excited for what was to come. I really thought in the fourth quarter that this book was certainly going to be a series, but it wasn't. It ended much too quickly and wrapped up too neatly. For once I would have like to seen a book go into a series.

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The Red Siren

The Red Siren by M.L. Tyndall

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not my favorite by Ms. Tyndall. I know this is so shallow, but I couldn't help but judge this book by it's cover. I did not like it at all, it was an utter turn-off. It's not how I would picture the main character in the book at all.

I found the whole she-pirate theme a bit unbelievable. It didn't mesh right. I did like the male heroine, but not her. I'm not sure if I'll continue on in this series because her sisters were no more appealing than she was.

I'm not giving up on Ms. Tyndall, she's a wonderful author and I have loved her other books I have read. Very spiritual and uplifting for sure!

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Crossed (Matched #2)

Crossed by Ally Condie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It just didn't feel like a great follow up to Matched. Matched was cool and thrilling from start to finish and while it felt similar to other books I've read, it had it's own sci-fi spin. Most of this book lacked depth. It was poetic but not necessarily in a good way. I didn't feel like I understood what the characters looked like or truly felt. It wasn't until the second half of the book that I started to understand the characters and their purpose. Thankfully the second half of the book felt like something was finally happening!

After reading it, I'm left with more questions and I'm excited to see it all come together in the next book.

I wish I could remember more of what happened in Matched because I struggled a bit with all that occured between Xander and Cassia, Cassia and Ky. Did I miss any signs of what Xander really was?

I still feel like I don't fully understand what the Farmers are, who the Society is, who started the Rising? Perhaps I could call the Farmers hippies or maybe even Freemen? I wish I could understand more about the start up of the Society. Who really runs it? How long has it been around? How many Rebels actually are planted in the Society? And who the heck is the Enemy???

I'm really hoping all of these burning questions are answered in the FINAL book of this trilogy. And man-oh-man I sure hope she does end this series as stated with a third book. Nothing ruins a series like adding more books to a trilogy.

And for my own recollection... Cassia is in the Outer provinces and meets Indie at the work camp. Cassia sneaks onto an air ship to go to the villages to try to find Ky but ends up a decoy. When she gets there she realizes this is the same camp that Ky was at. She learns that he has escaped with two others. With Indie and another boy who knows the direction they went, they escape at night toward the Carvings. The boy goes his own way and dies. Ky is with Vick and Eli. Vick was the unofficial leader at the camp/village, but he died when someone? dropped poison into the river he was fishing at. Vick was a citizen who Contracted with an Anomaly and was reclassified and was made work as a decoy. Ky and Eli (who is the youngest and Ky feels protective of him) start to head out but then they see Cassia in the distance. They are reunited. Cassia learns that Ky wants nothing to do with the Rising. He wants to be a Farmer. He saw that his father was part of the rising and saw that it only kills people. Indie figures out that Ky has other reasons for not wanting to join the Rising. She figures out that Xander is also part of the rising and if Cassia were to figure out that her original match, and life long best friend were part of the Rising, that Cassia might realize she is meant to be with Xander after all, and not Ky. Cassia does not know this but knows that there is some secret about Xander but that he will have to be the one to tell her. Cassia and Indie are dead set on joining the Rising when it comes time to decide to rebel or join the Farmers. Eli, and the Farmer they came across, Hunter, head to join the escaped Farmers while Cassia and Indie head towards the Rising. Ky is torn but realizes he needs to be with Cassia. He would do anything for her. Cassia and Indie make it to the Rising first. Cassia is basically made to go back to the Society as a spy for the Rising. Ky is to be a pilot for an air ship in Camas. They do not get to say goodbye but both know where the other is. Ky is excited about Camas, though sad that he is apart from Cassia again, because it's where he believes the girl Vick loved, Laney, lives. He hopes to meet Laney? I'm not sure where Indie was sent, but Ky thinks that Indie will somehow bail on the Rising too. Hopefully the next book can resolve so many of the questions I have! I am truly excited for it.

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Heaven is for Real

Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book very quickly but with that being said, it still felt long. It's an amazing and inspiring story but the way it was told was drawn out. I'm not sure who the story was more about, Colton or his parents. Perhaps both? Obviously this was written by his dad (with the help of a "real" author) from what he heard and understood from Colton and his experience in Heaven.

I have to admit I was a little skeptical about whether to believe if this was a farce or not, but by the end, I was convinced that Colton absolutely did have a supernatural experience. The fact that had me convinced was Colton saying every picture he'd seen of Jesus wasn't quite right until his father found a picture a little girl had drawn after she said she met Jesus. When Colton saw that picture, he said, "that's right". That was goose bump inducing. And it's an absolutely amazing picture.

I also have read the children's illustrated version; my six year old daughter thought it was great. I'd give that version a 4, but since that version is not listed on Goodreads, I can't rate it separately!

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The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie

The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another book that I really could have liked more but something continued to bug me off and on through the book. I get Lord Ian Mackenzie was declared mad, he was a genius but incapable of feeling. Clearly in these times he would be called autistic. It was just a little confusing that the book kept saying Ian had no feelings and he didn't understand laughter, love, sadness but he was easily angered. And boy oh boy did this dude liked nookie! I don't quite understand what drew him to Beth in the first place, except she was like a prize to be had but I don't think that's what the author intended. Again, which is it, love or lust?

I do look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series. I have a strong feeling they will be better than this book.

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Passion (Fallen #3)

Passion by Lauren Kate

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn't like this book as much as the other two in the series. The little gargoyle guy was strange and I didn't like that he was in the story at all. I realize that the author had to go back in time to explain the past lives, it just wasn't the best method in my honest opinion. I think Luce could have traveled through time and learned about her past self with Daniel another way, it could have been better. Once I got towards the last quarter of the book it got a little better because things finally started coming together. The book just felt disconnected from it's series. I have high hopes for the next book though, the FINAL book.

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Telling Yourself the Truth....

Telling Yourself the Truth by William Backus

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Here and there it helped, not every chapter pertained to the issues I have/had, but it is helpful somewhat. Sometimes you need a book that says, "pull your head out of your bum" in a nice gentle manner and that's what this book does. A lot of it, to me, was obvious advice but nevertheless I still enjoyed reading it. Each chapter can stand alone so it's not a problem to pick and choose.


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Maid for the Billionaire

Maid for the Billionaire by Ruth Cardello

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It started off well. An angry billionaire heads home to Boston to deal with the death of the father he hated. He enters his Brownstone that he never goes to and sees the maid. Though she is not really the maid, she is filling in for her sister who is sick. The angry billionaire lusts after the stand-in maid and the maid says, "ew creep, get off me" but secretly she is seriously attracted to him.

Angry billionaire offers to pay her to stay with him she says, "ew creep, no". He finds her anyway and asks her to come to China to comfort him while he signs off on the biggest contract of his life. Stand-in maid says, "okay". He realizes that she is good for him but won't admit that's it's not just physically. She knows she'll get hurt but can't help the feelings she has.

Once the deal is signed in China, with stand-in maid's help, things go downhill, in my opinion, from there.

It wrapped up too neatly and everyone was happy and it just was not good towards the end. Because I liked the premise of the story, I will give it a three. Could have been a four if the ending hadn't been swathed in so much pretty pink ribbons, unicorns and sparkles.

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