"Stay" by Allie Larkin

"Stay" by Allie Larkin
320 pages
Published June 2010 by Penguin Group
Source: the publisher and Pump Up Your Books Promotions

Savannah Leone is at a crossroads in her life.  Three years after her mother died of cancer, she is still trying to find a way to live with her grief.  And six years after literally falling head over heels in love with Peter Clarke on her first day of college, Savannah, "Van," is now standing up as the maid of honor at his wedding to her best friend, Janie.  So after the wedding, Van does what any of us would do in this situation - she anesthetizes herself with Kool-Aid and vodka and, inspired by a Rin-Tin-Tin marathon, she orders a German Shepherd puppy.  From Slovakia.  When the puppy arrives, Van finds she's gotten more than she bargained for; her puppy weighs in a 35-lbs already and only understands commands in Slovakian. 

When Van can't get "Joe" to stop tearing through her condominium, she assumes something must be wrong with him so she takes him to the vet.  Who, as it turns out, is one very attractive young vet who is more than willing to help Van learn how to care and train "Joe."

When Peter and Janie get back from their honeymoon, things get complicated.  Peter isn't sure he's cut out to be married and he misses his best friend.  Van isn't sure how she feels about Peter any more and her relationship with Janie is rocky.  When vet Alex catches Van trying to host a party she'd rather not be hosting for the newlyweds when she told him that she was sick, he turns his back on Van.  Finally Van decides it's time to grow up and make some changes.

"You were just overthinking it,"Alex said.  "Sometimes, you need to to let go to get everything to work."

As I so often do in books like this, I had a hard time buying into the instant relationship between Van and Alex.  I know these things have to be a bit rushed for the sake of the length of the book but it just never feels believable to me.  The shenanigans that ensued once Joe arrived were predictable and there were, perhaps, a few too many supporting characters, leaving some of them caricatures.

 I picked up this book expecting light fun but inside of thirty pages Larkin surprised me with the depth of the story.  Van's relationship with her mother and her grief over her mother's death are very touching.  Van's mother worked for Janie's mother, Diane, and Diane is having just as much trouble coming to grips with life without her best friend.  The interplay between Diane and Van is very well written.  Larkin's writing reminds me a lot of Katherine Center's and if you've been following this blog for very long, you know how much I enjoy her sense of humor.

Publisher's Weekly called "Stay" a "cute story, nicely told."  I'd have to say I agree; "Stay" is chick-lit with depth.

The Hypnotist (Reincarnationist Series #3 by M. J. Rose

The Hypnotist (Reincarnationist Series #3) by M.J. Rose
416 pages
Published May 2010 by Mira
Source: the publisher and Pump Up Your Book Promotions

Lucian Glass, a special agent with the FBI's Art Crimes Team, is haunted by the murder of his fiancee twenty years ago and obsessed with bring Malachai Samuels to justice.  Samuels is a man equally obsessed with obtaining mysterious Memory Tools which he believes will allow him to discover this past lives, something he is desperate to do before his father dies.  Farid Taghinia, an Iranian diplomat has an obsession of his own--his country wants a 4th century statue of the Greek god, Hypnos, god of sleep, returned to them and Taghinia will stop at nothing to make that happen.  The Iranian government is not alone in wanting the statue, currently in possessed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Darius Shabaz, highly successful movie director, threatens to destroy five prized paintings in an attempt to blackmail the museum into trading the statue for the paintings.

Samuels works for an organization called the Phoenix Foundation, an organization started by his great-uncle and dedicated to proving that reincarnation is real.  In order to get into the Foundation, Glass goes undercover and begins going in for therapy to help him figure out why he is waking up every morning needing to sketch faces of women his has never met but is sure he recognizes.  Although Glass tries to fight the hypnosis his therapist is using, he finds himself hypnotized and discovering that he has lived past lives directly related to the statue and the Memory Tools.

The case of the paintings being held hostage also brings Glass back into contact with the father of his murdered love, Andre Jacobs and her cousin.  It turns out that the first painting destroyed was a work that was stolen from Jacobs framing shop the night that his daughter was murdered.  Jacobs believes that his daughter's soul went into the body of his niece while she lay in a coma following a car accident that killed her family.  Seeing that painting show up again after twenty years and knowing that finding the man that destroyed it may lead to finding the killer of his love, gives Glass even more motivation to solve the case.

A lot of characters, a lot of plot lines, and a lot of shifts in setting make this story a bit of a trick to keep up with and the reader is well into the book before everything starts to come together and the pace really picks up.  I started taking notes, which helped me keep track of everything but eventually I just gave up and allowed myself to get caught up in the action. The writing is not great and the sheer number of  characters make it difficult to flesh out all of them.  But Rose does a fine job of keeping things moving even as she takes the reader from place to place and back and forth into history.

Although this is the third book in the Reincarnationist series, in reading the book I never felt like I was missing out on something by not having read the previous books.  The art aspect of this book was what drew me to it; the reincarnation theme was something I knew I would have to force myself to go along with.  I rarely read this type of book and I did have to make myself suspend disbelief but it ended up being a nice change of pace.  Thanks to Dorothy of Pump Up Your Book Promotions for offering me the chance to review this book.

Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook

Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook
256 pages
Published June 2010 by Hyperion
Source: the publisher and Pump Up Your Book Promotions

Meet Jill, single mother of ten-year-old Anastasia, who teaches a cooking class one day a week at a senior center, does consulting work, and also works for "Great Girlfriend Getaways" as the webmaster and eight-hour-a-day phone answerer (yes, I know that's not a word!). Jill's been on her own since Anastasia's father disappeared to join the Peace Corp, leaving Jill destitute. It's not so much that she likes things they way they are now but Jill's gotten used to them. Then one day, at the end of her cooking class, Seth, Anastasia's father, appears in the doorway. Seven years later.

"There are seven types of intelligence and seven habits for highly effective people. Hollywood has Seventh Heaven and The Seven Year Itch. There's even a New Age notion that every seven years you shed your skin and become a completely new person, sort of a seven year switch."

Jill wants nothing to do with him but knows that Anastasia, or Asia as her father calls her, has more and more been wanting a father. So Jill allows Seth back into their lives and Seth and Asia hit it off so well that soon both of them are imagining what life might be like if they were all a family again. But Jill isn't so wild about the idea. She knows that if Seth were even five minutes late getting home, she'd be worried that he had left them again. And there's the matter of Billy, a guy she's doing some consulting work for who she also happens to have just started dating.

When the chance to be the group leader for a trip to Costa Rica comes along, Jill jumps at the chance to get away from it all and that may be just what she needs. Meanwhile, Seth is left behind to care for his daughter--and that may be just what he needs as well.

Claire Cook is also the author of "Must Love Dogs." I admit I haven't read that but I love the movie starring Diane Lane and John Cusack. I figured that anyone who wrote the book for that must write books that I would enjoy so I jumped at the chance to read this. And it was just the thing to get me back on track. It's fun, light, and a quick read with the predictable love triangle, quirky friend and struggle to balance it all. But Cook made it all work for me. The characters are fun and, for the most part, believable and you can't help but cheer for Jill even though you aren't really sure which way you're hoping things will turn out.

Here's what other authors are saying about the book:
With wit and tenderness, Claire Cook sweeps us into the life of Jill Murray, a feisty single mom trying to stitch together a future after being abandoned by her husband. This is a delightful story of love, loss, and the surprising events that healed her heart. I cheered for Jill the entire way. (Beth Hoffman, author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt)

A perfect beach read. Claire Cook once again demonstrates that she's a master in creating funny, warm, relatable characters you root for from the very first page. (Allison Winn Scotch, New York Times bestselling author of The One That I Want and Time of My Life)

Thanks to Dorothy and Pump Up Your Book Promotions for including me on this tour!

**Be sure to check out this giveaway on Claire's site!**

Go to http://ClaireCook.com to win a beach bag filled with all 7 of my novels, plus a beach towel!!

My Sister's Voice by Mary Carter

My Sister's Voice by Mary Carter
352 pages
Published June 2010 by Kensington Publishing
Source: the publisher and Pump Up Your Book Promotions

Twenty-eight year old Lacey Gears is finally exactly where she wants to be--she has a terrific boyfriend, a fulfilling artistic career and a large group of friends in the Deaf community. Then one day she finds a letter in her mail that reads:

"You have a twin sister. Her name is Monica."

The letter directs Lacey to a poster on the window of a bookstore. Lacey isn't sure what to think--she wavers between wondering if someone is playing a joke on her and wondering if this might actually be real. Lacey grew up in a foster home, never knowing anything about her biological roots but her first reaction upon seeing her likeness on the poster is that someone has stolen her image from the computer. Determined to get to the truth, Lacey begins plotting ways to ambush the phony in a very public way.

Monica Bowman is on tour with her self-help book, doing weekend workshops when she is approached to do an interview. Unbeknownst to Monica, the "journalist" is actually Mike, the artist that Lacey share space with who's been talked into trying to get information on Monica. Mike is sure the minute he sees Monica that she is, in fact, Lacey's twin but doesn't say anything about it to Monica. When Monica goes to spend a weekend with her parents and Aunt Grace, she finds out that she did have a sister, but her parents tell her that the sister died as a baby.

When Lacey finally shows up at one of Monica's workshops, the two find that they have an immediate bond. Lacey isn't ready to let a sister into her life; Monica is desperate to hold on to this sister that she has just found.

The idea of twins separated and then reunited years later intrigued me and books about the relationship between sisters are always of interest to me so I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, almost immediately realized that I was going to have problems with it.

Early on, Carter does a lot of brand name dropping which I always hate in a story. I'm sure it's done to give an instant visualization of a thing but I'd really rather you described it to me--if it even needs to be described. It's probably sufficient for me to know that Lacey rides a motorcycle; I didn't feel like I needed to know exactly what model and color she rides.

Then there were things that happened throughout the book that I just was not able to buy into. When Lacey finds the flyer in the bookstore window, she immediately believes that the author has stolen her image. But the author is supposed to be coming to the bookstore for a reading--how would it not become immediately obvious that the image on her book was not real? And the fact that Mike is immediately attracted to Monica is a little odd--he's known Lacey for a long while and doesn't seem to be attracted to her despite them being identical twins.

Carter clearly knows a lot about the Deaf community; she is a graduate of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and a certified sign language interpreter. I'm all for learning while I read but whole passages here felt like lessons rather than part of the natural flow of the story. That said, I had no idea that there were "deaf idioms" or that every country has it's own sign language.

About now you're probably thinking there was nothing I liked about this book. Not true. I really did enjoy watching the sisters try to develop a relationship, particularly as they feel into the same roles that they had played as toddlers. Carter did a terrific job of making me feel Lacey's pain as she relived her life in the foster home, being raised by an unpredictable alcoholic, and her pain and anger as she dealt with the fact that her parents had gotten rid of her.

And Carter can write vivid descriptions:

"Lacey entered a small mudroom. It was crammed with coats, and shoes, and boots, and caps, yet there was a clear order to the chaos. A stacked washer and dryer combo sat to her left. The dryer was on; the flipping clothes looked like children jumping up and down in a bouncy hut. A sleeve waved at her, and she couldn't help but wave back. She started laughing then slapped her hand over her mouth, remembering hearing people could actually hear."

And I've got to admit that Carter got me--I had no idea what was going to happen in the last fifty pages. I'm generally not the easy to surprise so I give Carter big props for pulling that off.

Book clubs would find a lot in this book to discuss. Beyond the relationship between Monica and Lacey, there's also the question about what exactly makes someone a sister. Of course, because of Lacey being Deaf, and the girls' relationships with their boyfriends, there would be a lot to discuss about communication between people.

Thanks to Dorothy and Pump Up Your Book Promotions for including me in this tour!

The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
288 pages
Published by Random House
Source: the publisher and Pump Up Your Book

Emily Benedict has come to Mullaby, North Carolina, following her mother's death, to live with a grandfather she has never met, in a town her mother has never told her anything about. But Emily quickly learns that her mother growing up was not the same woman Emily knew. In fact, she seems to have been the town pariah--a spoiled little rich girl who went out of her way to torment others. Her grandfather is a giant, there are strange lights that skip across the yard at night, and the wallpaper in her mother's old bedroom changes patterns. When Emily meets young Win Coffey and Julia Winterson, a woman who was one of the victims of her mother's nastiness, she begins to learn more and more about the Mullaby lights and why the people of Mullaby hate her mother so much. Grandpa Vance isn't much of a talker, but Emily gets him to start telling her exactly what happened so many years ago. Maybe she will be able to fit in; maybe she and Win will overcome his family's strong objections to their growing friendship.

Julia, meanwhile, is wrestling with her own demons. She's come back to Mullaby for a couple of years to wrap up her father's estate but she's also trying to avoid her former stepmother Beverly and Sawyer Alexander, a man with whom she had a one night stand almost 20 years ago in high school. Her hatred of Sawyer has kept her going for all of these years. But when he finally does reappear in her life, her high school feelings for him come flooding back and he's doing his best to overcome her defenses. I most enjoyed Julia's part of the story and watching her overcome and come to terms with her past.

The book relays on the action to move it along and I think I would have liked that more without the magic that is such a big part of the story. If you're a fan of Allen's, though, you're looking for that in a book and you won't be disappointed. I felt that a lot of the characters were stereotypes but readers who've posted reviews on Barnes & Noble's site don't agree with me.

I found some descriptive phrases a little jarring. At one point Allen writes that a "smell was intense and delicious, like being in an oven." A smell is like being in an oven? But overall, this was an quick, enjoyable read that didn't require much thought and which I knew, early on, could be counted on to end happily.

Family Plots: Love, Death and Tax Evasion by Mary Patrick Kavanaugh

Family Plots: Love, Death and Tax Evasion by Mary Patrick Kavanaugh
300 pages
Published October 2008 by iUniverse Inc.
Source: Pump Up Your Book Promotion

Mary is in debt up to her eyes, has a 3-yr-old daughter and her boyfriend has just admitted to infidelity. When the 1989 San Francisco earthquake hits, it starts Mary on a new path to try to put her life in order. She gives up alcohol and cigarettes, begins to put her finanaces in order and begins a job search. She also makes contact with her old boss, Dan, and soon the two are in a relationship. Mary's daughter, Rachel, loves Dan and he offers Mary everything she's been looking for in a man. The problem is that Dan, a criminal attorney, seems to have a lot of legal problems of his own and a lot of shady associates. Despite all of this, Mary and Dan move in together and even get married (well, sort of). Dan also has an interesting family and a past that Mary can't help digging into, unearthing family secrets along the way. Family plots doesn't just refer to the cemetary plot that Dan's parents are so fond of.

You'll notice that on the front of this book, there's a gold medallion, the kind used to indicate an award has been given to the book. Ms. Kavanaugh herself, in a preview to the type of wit you will find in the book, has added this award. It says "Awarded Sixteen Rejections from Prominent NYC Publishers 2008." "Family Plots" is autobiographical and Ms. Kavanaugh pulls no punches, not even when that punch will land squarely on her own jaw. Periodically I would think to myself, "This is too much. No way does this much go wrong in one person's life." Then I'd remember that, in fact, it had. This book is equal parts love story and suspense novel.

Ms. Kavanaugh's own disjointed family life growing up convinced her that the most important thing she needed as an adult was a stable family home life. Apparently that meant she was willing to put up with someone that was clearly committing criminal acts, who lied to her repeatedly and who was adamant that things be done his way. I had a hard time believing that any woman would put up with Dan; clearly there was a side to him that made it all worth while, but I didn't see enough of it in this book to make me understand. I did get a kick out of the things that clearly showed the age difference between Mary and Dan. Dan, for example, still had a stereo system in the early 1990's that had an 8-track player and he loved Neil Diamond and ABBA.

Nevertheless, as I read on, I became fond of the characters and cheered for Mary as she became more and more the person that she had set out to become. And I could relate to much of what she went through (none of the stuff with Dan's financial life, thank heavens!). When she's still raising Rachel by herself and Rachel has a complete meltdown, I could completely empathize with Mary's frustration. Mary's relationships with her own family, and Dan's, are relationships that all of us can understand and relate to. Although, I'm very glad I didn't have these actual people as my relatives!

For another review, see Kay's review at Kay's Bookshelf. And to learn more about the book and what Mary's up to now, head over to her site at My Dream Is Dead, BUT I'M NOT. Thanks to Dorothy at Pump Up Your Book Promotion for including me in the book tour for "Family Plots."

Night of Flames by Douglas W. Jacobson

Night of Flames by Douglas W. Jacobson
384 pages
Published October 2008 by McBooks Press

Thanks to Dorothy, at Pump Up Your Book Promotions, for providing this book to me for review.

This book opens on the first night of the German invasion of Poland on most closely follows the lives of Anna, a university professor, and Jan, her husband and a major in the Polish cavalry through World War II. Jacobson introduces the reader to a vast cast of characters including Anna's father, her friend, Irene, and Irene's son, Justyn.

From the opening pages, Anna is running for her life after the building she is sleeping in is bombed in the opening throes of the invasion. Then when her father is sent to a death camp, Anna fears that his possible ties to the resistance will put her in danger so she, Irene and Justyn make their way out of Poland and into Belgian. There Anna becomes involved in the resistance movement.

Jan spends the first days of the invasion, on the other hand, waiting for something to happen, as the Polish army sits waiting for instructions. Soon enough, he is seeing more than enough action. Eventually he ends up with the British forces, making forays back into Poland. Through all of the war, Jan and Anna have no idea what has happened to each other.

More plot driven that character driven, Jacobson still is able to get the reader to care what happens to his characters, although they are not fully fleshed out. To be fair, we only see the characters in the context of the war and it would have been difficult to add more depth, given the number of characters and the scope of the novel.

"Night of Flames" is Jacobson's first novel. It is well-researched and his passion for the subject it evident. Throughout, Jacobson shifts chapters between Anna and Jan, a device which I general like in a book with tension and this book is no exception. Jacobson does a wonderful job of showing the stress of war and, without being too graphic, the horrors of war. From the opening pages, when Warsaw is first bombed, this book does not let the reader go. This book was a real learning experience for me but I would also recommend it to any one who is interested in World War II.

To read an interview with Mr. Jacobson, visit Beyond The Books, where he reveals that this book was rejected 30 to 40 times before it was finally accepted by McBooks Press but that he feels that this is a great publisher for the book because they specialize in action-oriented historical fiction.