If You Left; Ashley Prentice Norton

If You Left; Ashley Prentice Norton

Mariner Books - 2016

If You Left is the story of a marriage, a marriage that begins with promise until mental illness surfaces.  Oliver and Althea Willows seem to have a good marriage, at least to some outsiders. They live in Manhattan and have a summer home at the beach but, Althea has suffered from mental illness, bipolar disorder, for most of their marriage.  Throughout each suicide attempt, and hospitalization, her husband has been her rock.  Despite her illness, Oliver wants to have a child but, Althea's daily cocktail of mood meds would likely affect a fetus.  Although Althea isn't sure she could handle motherhood, she wants to please her husband so they decide to adopt a child.

Clem (Clementine) enters their lives and as Althea suspected, mothering does not come naturally to her and she finds the role extremely difficult. Oliver thinks she needs to bond with their daughter so suggests that the two of them spend the summer at their beach house.  Things don't go exactly as planned as Clem has already learned to amuse herself.   Mother and daughter's relationship remains strained, causing more difficulties in an already shaky marriage.

Without saying too much more, I'll just say that at times both of these adults made me mad. I felt sorry for the daughter they adopted.  The author did a great job revealing what living with manic depression might be like and the toll it takes on a relationship.  I must say I wasn't a fan of the writing style, First, there weren't any chapters and the story sometimes felt like one long conversation, yet quotation marks weren't used. In addition, the POV changed quiet a bit.

Overall, I think this story had a lot of potential but, left me a bit disappointed.

3.5/5 starts

(review copy)

First Chapter First Paragraph - Tuesday Intros; End of Watch; Stephen King

Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where I share the first paragraph sometimes two, of a book that I'm reading or plan to read soon.  

End of Watch; Stephen King

(Book 3 of the Mr. Mercedes Trilogy)

(Scribner - 2016)

April 10, 2009

Martine Stover

"It's always darkest before the dawn.

This elderly chestnut occurred to Rob Martin as the ambulance he drove rolled slowly along Upper Marlborough Street toward home base, which was Firehouse 3.  It seemed to him that whoever thought that one up really got hold of something, because it was darker than a woodchuck's asshole this morning, and dawn wasn't far away."

What do you think -- keep reading or pass? 
(Feel free to join in this week by posting your intro below?

Where did the Weekend Go? and New Books!

Yesterday was a long tiring day as we headed to New York City for Father's Day (just for the day). My husband's sons live in Manhattan and Philadelphia so they invited us to the city for brunch.  It was a fun day with perfect weather but, it made for a very long 12 hour day. I hope you all had a nice weekend as well.

The publishers were very generous last week, several new books arrived in my mailbox.  They all look really good but, I am especially looking forward to the new Allen Esken's book, The Heavens May Fall. (I've read his first two books, The Life We Bury and The Guise of Another. I  enjoyed them both.

• The Couple Next Door; Shari Lapena (Pamela Dorman Books)
• In the Darkroom; Susan Faludi (Metropolitan Books)
• The Heavens May Fall; Allen Eskens (Seventh Street Books)
• Jonathan Unleashed; Meg Rosoff (Viking)
• Return; Aaron Becker (Candlewick)
• Tuesday Nights in 1980; Molly Prentiss (Gallery/Scout Press)
• An Abbreviated Life: A Memoir; Ariel Leve (Harper)

New Books for June that caught my eye

A few June releases that I hope to read.

(descriptions below)

A grand hotel in the center of 1920s Berlin serves as a microcosm of the modern world in Vicki Baum’s celebrated novel, a Weimar-era best seller that retains all its verve and luster today. Among the guests of the hotel is Doctor Otternschlag, a World War I veteran whose face has been sliced in half by a shell. Day after day he emerges to read the paper in the lobby, discreetly inquiring at the desk if the letter he’s been awaiting for years has arrived. Then there is Grusinskaya, a great ballerina now fighting a losing battle not so much against age as against her fear of it, who may or may not be made for Gaigern, a sleek professional thief. Herr Preysing also checks in, the director of a family firm that isn’t as flourishing as it appears, who would never imagine that Kringelein, his underling, a timorous petty clerk he’s bullied for years, has also come to Berlin, determined to live at last now that he’s received a medical death sentence. All these characters and more, with all their secrets and aspirations, come together and come alive in the pages of Baum’s delicious and disturbing masterpiece.





Kate Battista feels stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, she’s always in trouble at work – her pre-school charges adore her, but their parents don’t always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner.  

Dr. Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There’s only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr, all would be lost.

When Dr. Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he’s relying – as usual – on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he’s really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two men’s touchingly ludicrous campaign to bring her around?




Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged—a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence.
 
Emma Cline’s remarkable debut novel is gorgeously written and spellbinding, with razor-sharp precision and startling psychological insight. The Girls is a brilliant work of fiction.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - If You Left; Ashley Prentice Norton

Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where I share the first paragraph sometimes two, of a book that I'm reading or plan to read soon.  

If You Left; Ashley Prentice Norton

Mariner Books - 2016

Intro

"IT MUST HAVE been the first or second week of October by then, or maybe even the third, she didn't know and hadn't really cared.  But on that day, time --or, rather, timing--suddenly mattered.  Oliver had left only ten minutes earlier to drop Clem at school, but not before kissing Althea on the head and gently pulling the bedroom door closed, thinking she was still asleep.  Afterward, he was going to a breakfast meeting at the W Hotel for Spectacle, the company he had started right out of graduate school and that now made millions selling eight-hundred-dollar sunglasses.  But Oliver often forgot something and he could easily return to the loft and catch her.  She decided to wait another five minutes, which, for her, was an eternity."

What do you think -- keep reading or pass? 
(Feel free to join in this week by posting your intro below?

The Stranger; Harlan Coben

The Stranger; Harlan Coben

Brilliance Audio - 2015

(George Newborn - narrator)

We listened to this audio book on a recent road trip and, although we've enjoyed this author in the past, this thriller left us really disappointed after the first few hours.

Adam Price is a family man from New Jersey with an attractive wife and two teenaged sons.  Adam's life has been happy. One day a "stranger" approaches him and whispers a few words in his ear indicating that his wife Corrine might have faked her pregnancy.  Who is this "stranger" and what is his motive for dropping this bombshell? Could what he's been told be true?  

Adam does a little digging and finds some troubling concealed business expenses of Corrines that need explaining.  When he confronts his wife, his happy life soon begins to spiral out of control.

The story then veers off with other people getting similar visits from the "stranger". They are also told defamatory things about a loved one.  This departure from the original story caused our interest to wane. In addition, the narrative droned on and on with insignificant fillers about the Prices teenaged sons -- info about their sports gear, practices, homework, the fact they took too many showers, what types of pizza and junk food they liked and on and on.

It almost felt like Coben didn't write this novel himself, his thrillers are generally very good. Perhaps if the story was focused just on the Price family and the motives behind the "stranger" it might have been more enjoyable.  The ending was disappointing as well. The narrator, George Newborn was good but not great so I'm sorry to say we just can't recommend this one.

1.5/5 stars

(library audio)

The Woman in Cabin 10; Ruth Ware

The Woman in Cabin 10; Ruth Ware

Scout Press- Simon & Schuster

July 2016

Lo Blacklock is a journalist for Velocity, a travel magazine.  She's been given the work opportunity of a lifetime, a week on the Aurora, a luxury cruise ship.  Lo thinks that this assignment may be just what she needs to calm her nerves, as a few days earlier her London flat was broken into while she was at home.  Although she never got a good look at the masked crook and she wasn't physically harmed, emotionally she's a wreck and has been unable to sleep.

She boards the ship, destination Norway, but smooth sailing and calm nerves are not to be. Lo's first evening aboard she sleep deprived and spends a few hours dining with the small intimate group and drinking a bit too much.  Then she returns to her cabin she thinks she has witnessed the woman in the cabin next to hers (Cabin 10) being tossed overboard. She's pretty sure it was the woman whom she had borrowed mascara from earlier in the evening.

When Lo reports what she's seen to the crew member in charge, no one believes her. She is told that all the passengers are accounted for, and that cabin 10 is unoccupied. Determined to prove she's not going mad, Lo begins asking questions, perhaps too many questions for her own good.

The Woman in Cabin 10 is one of those mysteries that hooked me early on and kept me eagerly turning the pages.  The story is not perfect but, the characters are interesting and diverse and the setting awesome for the way this story played out. The sometimes paranoid protagonist, who at times had more guts than brains helped to make this a fun summer read.

4/5 stars

(review copy)