Category Archives: Book Opinion

Better off Friends

Posted on by
Reply

https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386372465l/18222542.jpg

Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Publisher: Point
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Source: Purchased

Goodreads:  WHEN HARRY MET SALLY . . . for teens, from romantic comedy star Elizabeth Eulberg.

For Macallan and Levi, it was friends at first sight. Everyone says guys and girls can’t be just friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share tons of inside jokes, their families are super close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan’s friends. They are platonic and happy that way.

Eventually they realize they’re best friends — which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t keep getting in each other’s way. Guys won’t ask Macallan out because they think she’s with Levi, and Levi spends too much time joking around with Macallan, and maybe not enough time with his date. They can’t help but wonder . . . are they more than friends or are they better off without making it even more complicated?

From romantic comedy superstar Elizabeth Eulberg comes a fresh, fun examination of a question for the ages: Can guys and girls ever really be just friends? Or are they always one fight away from not speaking again — and one kiss away from true love?

Ope’s Opinion: I really like YA books and I like when it isn’t instant love, but this one was really drawn out for me.

The characters were likable, but wishy-washy with their feelings.  I understand protecting a friendship you don’t want to loose, that is important.  They just kept going back and forth, as to who was available and who would admit deeper feelings.

I did like that the physical part of the relationships in this book was very basic – kept to kissing.  It was nice to see a relationship that wasn’t all about the physical aspects.  They did know each other and enjoyed similar things.

20c59-3chairs

Worth the Wait

Posted on by
Reply

Worth the Wait (St. James, #1)

Author: Jamie Beck
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Source:  BEA

Goodreads: Thirteen years ago, Vivi LeBrun was sketching a rooster and eating Oreos when she first met—and fell for—her friend’s brother, David St. James. Since then, her love for David has only intensified thanks to years of friendship with his family, who rescued her from a lonely, tumultuous childhood. As she travels to Block Island to vacation with the St. James siblings, Vivi daydreams about reuniting with David, hoping he’ll finally see her as his soul mate.

After his mother’s death, David distanced himself from his siblings, determined to hide a devastating family secret. Now, he’s brought a new girlfriend along to his homecoming—one who’s pushing for a serious commitment. The last thing he needs on his growing list of problems is his budding attraction to Vivi.

With tensions running high, David’s behavior triggers a series of events that might cost him the love he’s always taken for granted and Vivi the only real family she’s ever known.

Ope’s Opinion:  This story was intense from the beginning to the end.  All the characters had tense relationships with each other.  I wish the females had been a bit stronger in their relationships.  They seem to just take whatever the men in their lives were willing to give.

The details in the intimate scenes were too explicit for my taste.

Also,  I felt like the “f” word was placed in there after the story was written.  It did not add anything to the story and was actually kind of distracting.

The ending is predictable – which is not always a bad thing.  I just wish Vivi had more of a backbone.

20c59-3chairs

The Changing Season

Posted on by
2

the changing season

Published:  February 17, 2015
Publisher: The Story Plant

Goodreads:  This was supposed to be a simple summer for Billy; one more lazy expanse of time before college began. He’d fill the hours playing with Jimmy – his canine best buddy – going camping and doing all the things he promised Jimmy they’d do before Billy left.

But that was before the accident that shook the entire town.

It was before the summer job that turned into something so much more than a way to get a paycheck.

And it was before Vicki.

This summer was destined to be many things to Billy, things he didn’t truly understand until now. But it was definitely not going to be simple.

An enormously touching, richly textured, deeply moving novel of new adulthood, THE CHANGING SEASON is an experience to savor.

Ope’s Opinion:  Great book!  It took a little while to get started, but worth the time to keep reading.   If you have someone in your life who will be graduating from high school this spring – this would be an awesome gift. 

The relationships in this book felt real. The heart ache and decisions were some we all face.

Steven Manchester has been an author I have read often.  This is one of my favorites of his.

Rating:  4

This Just In…

Posted on by
Reply

From Amazon

somewhere

Published:  March 1, 2016
Publisher: Washington Square Press

Goodreads: What happens when two sisters who were torn apart when their young mother abandoned them—and grew up in tragically different circumstances—reunite thirty-five years later to find her? For readers who love Jodi Picoult, acclaimed author Amy Hatvany fearlessly explores complex family issues in her gripping, provocative new novel.

Natalie Clark knew never to ask her sensitive adoptive mother questions about her past. She doesn’t even know her birth mother’s name—only that the young woman signed parental rights over to the state when Natalie was a baby. Now Natalie’s own daughter must complete a family tree project for school, and Natalie is determined to unearth the truth about her roots.

Brooke Walker doesn’t have a family. At least, that’s what she tells herself after being separated from her mother and her little sister at age four. Having grown up in a state facility and countless foster homes, Brooke survives the only way she knows how, by relying on herself. So when she discovers she’s pregnant, Brooke faces a heart-wrenching decision: give up her baby or raise the child completely on her own. Scared and confused, she feels lost until a surprise encounter gives her hope for the future.

How do our early experiences—the subtle and the traumatic—define us as adults? How do we build relationships when we’ve been deprived of real connection? Critically acclaimed author Amy Hatvany considers controversial and complicated questions about childhood through the lens of her finely crafted characters in this astute novel about mending wounds by diving into the truth of what first tore us apart.

Amy Hatvany is such a great author I couldn’t wait to buy her latest book!

Left for Dead

Posted on by
Reply

Left for Dead (Ali Reynolds, #7)

Author:  J.A. Jance
Publisher: Touchstone
Genre: Mystery
Source:  Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

Goodreads: When violence from the drug wars with the Mexican cartels crosses the border into Arizona, and an old friend is murdered, Ali Reynolds steps in to investigate in New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance’s fast-paced mystery.

When Santa Cruz county deputy sheriff Jose Reyes, one of Ali Reynolds’s classmates from the Arizona Police Academy, is gunned down and left to die, he is at first assumed to be an innocent victim of the drug wars escalating across the border. But the crime scene investigation shows there’s much more to it than that, and soon he and his pregnant wife, Teresa, are both under suspicion.

Ali owes Reyes a debt of gratitude for the help he gave her years earlier. When she’s summoned to his bedside at Mercy Medical Center in Tucson, it’s impossible for Ali to turn away. Upon arriving at the hospital, Ali finds her good friend, Sister Anselm, is there as well, working as a patient advocate on behalf of another seriously injured victim, an unidentified border crosser who was raped and savagely beaten.

As more bodies begin to pile up, Ali becomes determined to seek justice, even when it becomes impossible to know where the danger is coming from. Fast-paced, tension-filled, and intriguingly complex, Left for Dead is J.A. Jance at her riveting best.

Ope’s Opinion: This book:
– started slow
– has so many characters I needed a score card!
– in depth description ( some times too many gruesome details )
– some good twists along the way
– ending wrapped everything up and felt satisfying

Rating: 3

For Keeps

Posted on by
1

for keeps

Author: Natasha Friend
Publisher: Speak
Genre: Young Adult
Source: Purchased

Goodreads: For sixteen years, Josie Gardner and her mom, Kate, have been a team. It’s been the Gardner Girls against the world, and that’s how Josie likes it. Until one day, they find out that Paul Tucci, Kate’s high school boyfriend-the father Josie has never met-is back in town. Josie’s mom suddenly turns back into the heartbroken teenager she was when Paul moved away. Meanwhile, Josie’s on the verge of having her first real boyfriend. And when Josie learns some surprising truths about Paul Tucci and the past, she begins questioning what she thought she knew, and finds out what happens when a girl gets the guy she always wanted and the dad she never knew she needed.

Ope’s Opinion: I really enjoyed this  book.  I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys reading Sarah Dessen.

The story had some really interesting twist to it that I did not see coming.  The characters were realistic, fun to read about and reacted to situations the way I would expect them to.  The mother- daughter relationship was one I could relate to.  I have two daughters that I enjoyed raising.

I enjoyed Liv and Josie’s friendship.  It was nice to have Liv’s two dads as a little comic relief when things seemed to be a little stressful for Josie or Liv.  It was also great to see the support between the two families of these friends.

After reading this book I looked up Natasha Friend’s other books and I am interested in reading another one by her.

Rating: 4

Me Before You

Posted on by
3

me before you

Publication Date: December 31, 2012
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books/ Viking

Goodreads: Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time.

Ope’s Opinion:  I just finished this book!  Yes, I cried.   It was very intense. I want to see the movie. 

Some people are saying this is just a tear jerker book, but it is so much more then that.  It makes you think about the quality of life and do you have the right to choose to end a life.

I think this would make a good book club book.  The characters all have flaws worth discussing.  Their decisions could be up for debate also.

More Jojo Moyes books are in my future.

Rating: 5 – This book is so good it will be passed on and on and on…..

The View from Prince Street

Posted on by
1

prince street

Author: Mary Ellen Taylor
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Source: Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

Goodreads:  The author of The Union Street Bakery and At the Corner of King Street returns to Alexandria, Virginia, with a heartfelt tale of reconnection.

Rae McDonald was fifteen when a car accident took her sister’s life and threw her own into reckless turmoil. When she got pregnant a year later, she found a loving couple to adopt the child. Since then, she’s buried her grief and guilt under a heart of stone.

Lisa Smyth survived the fateful crash, but never told the truth about what happened. And when a family obligation draws her back to Alexandria, the weight of Lisa’s guilt grows heavier by the day.

As both women confront a past refusing to be forgotten, long-buried artifacts are discovered by the Shire Architectural Salvage Company that point to a shared history between families.  Now, Rae and Lisa must finally ask themselves if denying the past is worth sacrificing the future.

Ope’s Opinion:  If you like history infused with a story – this book is for you.  Living close to Alexandria made this story feel like I was walking the streets that are familiar to me.  

This story showed how the past really effects every part of Rae’s and Lisa’s lives.  Because of one accident a lot of other decisions were made that brought them to the present.  The way Mary Ellen Taylor weaves the past into the present story, it all came together.

I have read several of Taylor’s books and I am ready to read more.   

Rating:  4

Outside the Line

Posted on by
Reply

Author: Amy Hatvany
Publisher: Washington Square Press              outside
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source: Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

 

 

 

Goodreads:  When Eden was ten years old she found her father, David, bleeding out on the bathroom floor. The suicide attempt led to her parents’ divorce, and David all but vanished from Eden’s life. Since childhood, she has heard from him only rarely, just enough to know he’s been living on the streets and struggling with mental illness. But lately, there has been no word at all.

Now in her thirties, Eden decides to go look for her father, so she can forgive him at last, and finally move forward. When her search uncovers other painful truths—not only the secrets her mother has kept from her, but also the agonizing question of whether David, after all these years, even wants to be found—Eden is forced to decide just how far she’ll go in the name of love.

Ope’s Opinion:  For me this was an emotional book to read.  I just wanted to give Eden the father she always dreamed of and thought her dad could be.  She just didn’t want to give up the idea that he could be all she wanted him to be.  

I liked how Amy Hatvany made her dad just accepted himself as he was.  He didn’t want anyone to save him or fix him.  That made it hard on the rest of the family, but it was a very different perspective of mental illness then I have ever read.

There are so many great Amy Hatvany books.  This was just hard for me to read.

Rating: 4

 

And Then She was Gone

Posted on by
2

Author: Rosalind Noonan
Publisher: Kensington               gone
Genre: Mystery
Source:  Purchased

 

 

Goodreads:  Eleven-year-old Lauren O’Neil vanished one sunny afternoon as she walked home from school. Six years later, her parents Rachel and Dan still tirelessly scour their Oregon hometown and beyond, always believing Lauren will be found. Then one day, the call comes. Lauren has been rescued from a secluded farm mere miles away, and her abductor has confessed. Yet her return is nothing like Rachel imagined. Though the revelations about what Lauren endured are shocking, most heartbreaking of all is to see the bright-eyed, assertive daughter she knew transformed into a wary, polite stranger. Lauren’s first instinct is to flee. For years she’s been told her parents forgot her; now she doubts the pieces of her life can ever fit together again. But Rachel refuses to lose her a second time. Little by little they must relearn what it means to be a family, trusting that their bond is strong enough to guide them back to each other.

Ope’s Opinion:  Well, Rosalind Noonan did it again.  She wrote a book on a subject  (kidnapping)  you are familiar with and took you on a different journey.  Instead of the story being about the kidnap, it was about after it happened.  I really enjoyed the different perspective.

It is hard to let you know all the reasons you should read this book without giving away too much.  Some parts were a little predictable, but still very enjoyable read.

I have read Noonan’s book before and I will read as long she keeps writing!

Rating: 4