Book Tour Review: The Sun in Your Eyes by Deborah Shapiro

Title: The Sun in Your Eyes
Author: Deborah Shapiro
Genre: general fiction
Series: N/A
Pages: 288
Published: expected June 28 2016
Source: TLC Book Tour for review
Rating: 3/5

A witty and winning new voice comes alive in this infectious road trip adventure with a rock-and-roll twist.  Shapiro’s debut blends the emotional nuance of Elena Ferrante with the potent nostalgia of High Fidelity, in a story of two women—one rich and alluring, the other just another planet in her dazzling orbit—and their fervid and troubled friendship.

From the distance of a few yards, there might be nothing distinctive about Lee Parrish, nothing you could put your finger on, and yet, if she were to walk into a room, you would notice her. And if you were with her, I’d always thought, you could walk into any room.

For quiet, cautious and restless college freshman Vivian Feld real life begins the day she moves in with the enigmatic Lee Parrish—daughter of died-too-young troubadour Jesse Parrish and model-turned-fashion designer Linda West—and her audiophile roommate Andy Elliott.

When a one-night stand fractures Lee and Andy’s intimate rapport, Lee turns to Viv, inviting her into her glamorous fly-by-night world: an intoxicating mix of Hollywood directors, ambitious artists, and first-class everything. It is the beginning of a friendship that will inexorably shape both women as they embark on the rocky road to adulthood.

More than a decade later, Viv is married to Andy and hasn’t heard from Lee in three years. Suddenly, Lee reappears, begging for a favor: she wants Viv to help her find the lost album Jesse was recording before his death.  Holding on to a life-altering secret and ambivalent about her path, Viv allows herself to be pulled into Lee’s world once again.  But the chance to rekindle the magic and mystery of their youth might come with a painful lesson: While the sun dazzles us with its warmth and brilliance, it may also blind us from seeing what we really need.

What begins as a familiar story of two girls falling under each other’s spell evolves into an evocative, and at times irrepressibly funny, study of female friendship in all its glorious intensity and heartbreaking complexity.

This was a twisty and complicated tale of college-age and then adult female friendship, told smartly over different points of time from 1996 to 2016, using various voices involved with both the main characters of Viv and Lee. The Sun in Your Eyes is a shorter novel, coming in at just under three hundred pages total, but Deborah Shapiro is a clever writer. Her approach to writing toxic friendships and tangled histories makes for an engaging and interesting afternoon's read. 

As I said, Shapiro is clever and that extends to how she frames and uses her narrative over the course of the book. She jumps around in time, changes POVs and then rewrites the known history with a new eye. It makes reading The Sun in Your Eyes an unpredictable and inventive experience; you never know where the story is going, or how it will change from paragraph to paragraph or person to person. 

Ostensibly the story is set around Lee finding her dead famous father's missing recordings, but, to be frank, that's the MacGuffin. That's just the push needed to get Lee and Viv reunited after a mysterious break. Because The Sun in Your Eyes is wholeheartedly the complicated story of Viv-and-Lee's friendship and dynamic, but also the story of Viv and Andy, and of Lee and Andy. It's a tangled mess of love and friendship and anger, but it's one that is handled deftly and explored creatively.

Lee's voice is immediately distinguishable from Viv, but that's not the only difference in the two women's presentation and how the express themselves. Lee is reminiscent of the title; she's the sun in your eyes -- bright but blinding if you focus only on it. Viv never really seems to see all of her friend's sides, doesn't really look right at her. Lee remains an elusive and remote element, even when the story is from her perspective. Both women are introspective and spend a lot of time contemplating various stages in life and how it relates to current relationships, but the story is at its best when the two are together. Their banter and interplay is that of two people who know each other intimately, for good or ill.

The Sun in Your Eyes reminded me somewhat of Robin Wasserman's recent Girls on Fire, but perhaps a more nuanced and introspective version. Complicated and clever, this slowly-unfurling story makes for an impressive introduction to Deborah Shapiro. Her writing is smart and original, creative and unique.

Book Tour Review: Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman

Title: Girls on Fire
Author: Robin Wasserman
Genre: general
Series: N/A
Pages: 368
Published: May 17 2016
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 2.75/5

Girls on Fire tells the story of Hannah and Lacey and their obsessive teenage female friendship so passionately violent it bloodies the very sunset its protagonists insist on riding into, together, at any cost. Opening with a suicide whose aftermath brings good girl Hannah together with the town's bad girl, Lacey, the two bring their combined wills to bear on the community in which they live; unconcerned by the mounting discomfort that their lust for chaos and rebellion causes the inhabitants of their parochial small town, they think they are invulnerable.

But Lacey has a secret, about life before her better half, and it's a secret that will change everything...

Mostly known for her darker/horror YA novels like The Waking Dark and The Book of Blood and Shadow, Robin Wasserman has tried her hand at adult lit with her newest, Girls on Fire... and it often feels like the work of a completely different author. Girls on Fire is a brash, loud, angry, chaotic, and jumbled story of Hannah and Lacey, two girls drawn together in a small town during the early 90s. With echoes of a 10-years younger and more Satanic Thelma and Louise, Wasserman's newest book isn't one afraid to go down dark paths. It's got a lot of voice -- be it in Lacey or Dex/Hannah's POV -- and personality, but it also can feel thin at times; too little plot over too many pages, or too much going on with not enough substance.

Dex and Lacey's story is Robin Wasserman's take on an all-consuming, toxic, and blurred-lines female friendship. It's a relationship full of nuance and evolution but it can also feel overwrought and like the author was visibly and not subtly trying to distance herself from her YA roots. Girls on Fire goes for shock value and surprise and it sort-of works, sometimes. I've no issue with sex or other adult themes but this is a book that sometimes crossed from "adult" to "cheesy" when that definitely was not the intention. I've read Wasserman's previous books and found them uniquely and smartly creepy, but found little of that subtlety here. For all that I wasn't entirely keen on how the plot progressed through the book, it's undeniable that Girls on Fire is at least an unpredictable and memorable read. 

My main issue with this book lies with how hard the narrative tries to be compelling and deep and also with how the inciting incident of the novel (Craig's death) is ultimately resolved. Both of these tie into key elements of the resolution so it left me unsatisfied by the ending. The first issue pops up more noticeably in the second half of the book, when all the poor cliches seem to roll out. It's not enough that Lacey has a broken home, no her stepdad is the literal worst, so on and so forth. In trying to make Lacey's homelife and poverty resonate, Wasserman seemingly overcorrected. Secondly, the actual act in which Craig died? Made me laugh, doubletake and then laugh again. I stopped reading the book because it was so jarring, I was taken right out of the story.

The best part of Girls on Fire was the inner life and narration of one half of the book's leading duo: Hannah/Dex. Even moreso than the ringleader Lacey, though each/both may be an unreliable narrator, Hannah has a voice that does seem to connect easily with readers and draw them into the twisted story. Lacey's characterization may have veered towards cliche at times, but Hannah's does not. She is the highlight and the strongest element of Girls on Fire. Even as other characters dominate the story and manipulate each other, Hannah's evolution is riveting and interesting to watch. It wasn't exactly my preferred cup of tea this time, but you can't say that Girls of Fire is boring book or that Robin Wasserman doesn't have a great, twisted imagination.

Book Tour Review: The Secrets of Flight by Maggie Leffler

Title: The Secrets of Flight
Author: Maggie Leffler
Genre: historical fiction
Series: N/A
Pages: 368
Published: May 2016
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 4/5

This captivating, breakout novel—told in alternating viewpoints—brings readers from the skies of World War II to the present day, where a woman is prepared to tell her secrets at last.

Estranged from her family since just after World War II, Mary Browning has spent her entire adult life hiding from her past. Now eighty-seven years old and a widow, she is still haunted by secrets and fading memories of the family she left behind. Her one outlet is the writing group she’s presided over for a decade, though she’s never written a word herself. When a new member walks in—a fifteen-year-old girl who reminds her so much of her beloved sister Sarah—Mary is certain fate delivered Elyse Strickler to her for a reason.

Mary hires the serious-eyed teenager to type her story about a daring female pilot who, during World War II, left home for the sky and gambled everything for her dreams—including her own identity.

As they begin to unravel the web of Mary’s past, Mary and Elyse form an unlikely friendship. Together they discover it’s never too late for second chances and that sometimes forgiveness is all it takes for life to take flight in the most unexpected ways.

Maggie Leffler's newest novel is a rich, evocative, and detailed story; one that ties together the differing lives of an elderly woman with secrets and a15-year old girl with her own struggles, using history and creative writing to bring them together. Set both right after WWII and in more modern times, the plot intertwines and alternates between the solid POVs of Mary and Elyse. Though it doesn't seem like two such characters would have much in common or work as main character counterparts -- with Mary nearing the end of her life, and Elyse just figuring hers out -- this quiet novel makes theirs an impressive partnership.

There's a lot to enjoy over the course of The Secrets of Flight's almost three hundred seventy page length. The beginning stumbles a bit before establishing characters and connections and how they all relate to one another in the story, but finds its feet quickly enough to keep interest from waning before then. Flight and aviation are key themes and ideas that propel both the plot itself and Mary as a person, though far from the only themes or ideas explored. Mary's Jewish and Elyse's half-Jewish ancestry also connect the two, and open the novel to the secondary plotlines that connect both.

The Secrets of Flight is an interesting novel. It's a thoughtfully-crafted story full of long-held secrets, surprising reveals, and well-rendered characters, all of which coalesce into a quick but not forgettable read. The characters, especially Mary, can seem remote and hard to empathize with; this could be the nature of Mary's role -- she has the secrets that need to be revealed -- but it also kept me from emotionally investing in her as I might have otherwise with a less distant narration. Elyse's narration was far more scattered, but she was much more accessible and relateable for a POV.

Spanning decades and alternating between the two distinct voices of Mary and Elyse, The Secrets of Flight is a far-reaching but quietly clever novel. It slowly unfolds to tell the tale of Mary's life and secrets, ones that reap unexpected results, and explores the nuances of Elyse's life that make her such an excellent foil for the older woman. For fans of Kate Morton, The Secrets of Flight has a similar feel and approach to storytelling: careful, layered plotting that builds as the story unwinds.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Book Tour Review: Remembrance by Meg Cabot

Title: Remembrance
Author: Meg Cabot
Genre: supernatural
Series: The Mediator #7
Pages: 388
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 3/5

Fifteen years after the release of the first Mediator novel, #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot returns with a deliciously sexy new entry to a fan-favorite series. Suze Simon—all grown up and engaged to her once-ghostly soulmate—faces a vengeful spirit and an old enemy bent on ending Suze's wedded bliss before it begins.

You can take the boy out of the darkness.

But you can’t take the darkness out of the boy.

All Susannah Simon wants is to make a good impression at her first job since graduating from college (and since becoming engaged to Dr. Jesse de Silva).

But when she’s hired as a guidance counselor at her alma mater, she stumbles across a decade-old murder, and soon ancient history isn’t all that’s coming back to haunt her. Old ghosts as well as new ones are coming out of the woodwork, some to test her, some to vex her, and it isn’t only because she’s a mediator, gifted with second sight.

From a sophomore haunted by the murderous specter of a child, to ghosts of a very different kind—including Paul Slater, Suze’s ex, who shows up to make a bargain Suze is certain must have come from the Devil himself—Suze isn’t sure she’ll make it through the semester, let alone to her wedding night.

Suze is used to striking first and asking questions later. But what happens when ghosts from her past—including one she found nearly impossible to resist—strike first?

What happens when old ghosts come back to haunt you?

If you’re a mediator, you might have to kick a little ass.

It's  been a few years since I marathoned the first six of the Mediator novels, but when I heard Suze Simon was coming back in an adult novel, I was ready to dive into whatever mayhem and paranormal weirdness she had to deal with. Remembrance was, in a lot of ways, a return to form for the sarcastic mediator; there are ghosts and mysteries and lots of sexual tension between Jesse and Suze. However,  I can't say that Remembrance is a perfect novel; the plot is unfortunately flimsy and hinges on one of my least favorite plot devices, and Suze... well, I had issues with her, too, sadly enough. Overall, this wasn't bad but it's definitely a "damn with faint praise" kind of return to my favorite Cabot series.

Suze's voice is as Suze as ever, but with more of an edge now that she's left her teens and is figuring out how to be an adult (hint: lots of wine and cussing. My kinda gal.) However, Suze is often very frustrating throughout this book. She makes dumb decisions for dumb reasons and then doubles down on those decisions when given the opportunity to fix them. It is impossible to protect or help someone when you keep them totally in the dark, especially if they are the person at risk. For that reason the entire "you can take the boy  out of the darkness" plotline fails pretty spectacularly for me as a reader. Failing to communicate as a means to foster plot porgression is a lazy way to create tension between characters. I hate it in YA and I hate it here, too. 

The supernatural plotline holds together much better than its mundane counterpart. Probably because Suze is at her best when she is kicking ass and stomping around in her prized boots. When she wasn't losing her brain over "dealing" with Paul's frankly disgusting "bargain", Suze was much more in the spirit of her teen self. The overall conclusion to Lucia's story felt somewhat pat and easy, but it fit within the story and was handled much better than the Paul plot. Paul remains a one-note villain, easy to hate, easy to forget. The only characters with any real life in this are those of Suze and Jesse. Gina, CeeCee, Debbie, David, etc. all feel pretty one-dimensional, as well. I expected more from Cabot, especially with this beloved crew of friends.

I wanted to love this novel but sadly Remembrance and I are destined to remain just friends. It wasn't a hard read but it just felt so flimsy, and thus so unnecessary. There were moments of humor and a good twist or two to commend it but not enough to leverage more than 3 stars. There were no real emotions while reading the majority of the pages; the closest I got was the final chapters and that was expected because it had six and a half books of buildup to create those feelings. The plotlines that were introduced here were not fully concluded and still manage to feel forgettable and unimaginative. I did like the book for the most part, but it was a wholly average read.

Meg’s Tour Stops

Tuesday, February 2nd: Read-Love-Blog

Wednesday, February 3rd: Curling Up by the Fire

Thursday, February 4th: All Roads Lead to the Kitchen

Friday, February 5th: In Bed with Books

Monday, February 8th: Reading to Distraction

Tuesday, February 9th: Palmer’s Page Turners

Monday, February 15th: Books and Bindings

Tuesday, February 16th: Books That Hook

Wednesday, February 17th: A Chick Who Reads

Thursday, February 18th: Ageless Pages Reviews

Monday, February 22nd: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Tuesday, February 23rd: Sara’s Organized Chaos

Wednesday, February 24th: Gspotsylvania: Ramblings from a Reading Writer Who Rescues Birds and Beasts

Thursday, February 25th: Doing Dewey

Friday, February 26th: Priscilla and Her Books

TBD: I’m Shelf-ish

Book Tour Review: The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle

Title: The Good Liar
Author: Nicholas Searle
Genre: general fiction, mystery
Series: N/A
Pages: 352
Published: February 2016
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 2.5/5

This is a life told back to front.

This is a man who has lied all his life.

Roy is a conman living in a small English town, about to pull off his final con. He is going to meet and woo a beautiful woman and slip away with her life savings. But who is the man behind the con?

What has he had to do to survive a life of lies?

And who has had to pay the price?

Nicholas Searle's The Good Liar has a lot of promise and a lot of potential; for a debut novel it succeeded more than it faltered.  At times, though, it also feels quite cluttered and confusing as a narrative. The first half of the novel really was an uneven experience with the lack of connection and the frequent flashbacks, but the last half helps to rectify the earlier missteps into a more cohesive story.

One thing The Good Liar does really well at is establishing a real sense of suspense and distrust. From the beginning of the book it is obvious there's more to what's going on than what it seems on the surface. It can be a bit frustrating to wait so long and through so much detail before piecing the elements together, and that fact made it hard for me to really care about the characters, whether in the past or in the present.  

I have to admit that the twist was pretty well done, but the end of the novel felt a little short. It wasn't a terrible ending, but it lacked the feeling and resolution the story needed. The Good Liar ends better than it started but it just lacked an emotional core and that made it hard for me to invest. I can appreciate the narrative sleight of hand though; it also does feel like a novel told in reverse.

Book Tour Review: Love May Fail by Matthew Quick

Title: Love May Fail
Author: Matthew Quick
Genre: general fiction
Series: N/A
Pages: 416
Published: June 2015
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 2/5

Portia Kane is having a meltdown. After escaping her ritzy Florida life and her cheating pornographer husband, she finds herself back in South Jersey, a place that remains largely unchanged from the years of her unhappy youth. Lost and alone, looking for the goodness she believes still exists in the world, Portia sets off on a quest to save the one man who always believed in her—and in all of his students: her beloved high school English teacher, Mr. Vernon, who has retired broken and alone after a traumatic classroom incident.

Will a sassy nun, an ex-heroin addict, a metalhead little boy, and her hoarder mother help or hurt Portia’s chances on this quest to resurrect a good man and find renewed hope in the human race? Love May Fail is a story of the great highs and lows of existence: the heartache and daring choices it takes to become the person you know (deep down) you are meant to be. 

So having read The Good Luck of Right Now and enjoyed despite what could be the overly quirky nature of the narrative, I thought I was ready for Matthew Quick's latest adult novel. I was wrong. Love May Fail is like TGLoRN in that in pulls a disparate group of characters together to act out an outlandish plot while supporting the book's central themes.  But it's unlike TGLoRN in that it lacks the charming characters or writing to support the story and engage the audience. I wanted to love Love May Fail but in the end, I didn't end up feeling much about it besides annoyed and disappointed.

It's hard to engage in a novel when my character options are as follows: spoiled, privileged white lady, dead nun, morose ex-teacher with a fascination for Albert Camus (the writer) and Albert Camus (his deceased dog named after, oh I'm sorry, who was actually the reincarnation of Albert Camus-the-writer), and a genial but boring guy named Chuck who has loved the same girl -- despite not seeing her for years at a time -- for 20 years. This book is weird and it's not the kind of weird I could dig, personally. Portia never rises above her inherent privilege and is a mess for the whole book. Chuck is the least interesting POV of the bunch and it's because "nice" was the only characteristic given to him in over 400 pages.

And the length -- those 416 pages? They feel self-indulgent given how little plot exists in Love May Fail. This book is too long and too unfocused. Or perhaps just focused on the wrong aspects because it is also frequently tedious. People drink. Fight. Complain. Drama. More of the same. There are moments when I was caught up in the story -- that's how you know it's Matthew Quick. You fully realize the absurdity of what you're reading but you just don't care because it's so damn readable -- but they aren't as common as you would expect from the author of The Silver Linings Playbook. The humor is there, occasionally, but there's none of the poignancy from Quick's other books to be found.

There are kernels of a good story here, and I could see why, perhaps for a different kind of reader, this is already a good story. For me, it was just average and fairly unmemorable. It certainly wasn't to the standards I've come to expect from the author and the unlikely coincidences coupled with the overwrought characters made this one a hard sell. Love May Fail is unflinching and dark but with the lack of a substantial plot, but it wasn't enough to merit more than 2 stars.

Book Tour Review: The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Title: The Invasion of the Tearling
Author: Erika Johansen
Genre: fantasy, science fiction
Series: The Queen of the Tearling #2
Pages: 515
Published: June 9 2015
Source: received from publishers via TLC Book Tours 
Rating: 5/5

With each passing day, Kelsea Glynn is growing into her new responsibilities as Queen of the Tearling. By stopping the shipments of slaves to the neighboring kingdom of Mortmesne, she crossed the Red Queen, a brutal ruler whose power derives from dark magic, who is sending her fearsome army into the Tearling to take what is hers. And nothing can stop the invasion.

But as the Mort army draws ever closer, Kelsea develops a mysterious connection to a time before the Crossing, and she finds herself relying on a strange and possibly dangerous ally: a woman named Lily, fighting for her life in a world where being female can feel like a crime. The fate of the Tearling —and that of Kelsea’s own soul—may rest with Lily and her story, but Kelsea may not have enough time to find out. 

I was a fan of the first book, but I loved the second. From the first chapter, the author, the characters, the plot don't miss a beat. Everything is magnified here in round two featuring the Tearling and Mortmesne: the stakes, the personalities, the plots, the worldbuilding, the battles. Johansen's debut and introduction to this story was good, but The Invasion of the Tearling is pretty damn great. It's creative and clever, and while the final big twist was a little predictable, it tied in so well with the story and the characters. 

I have to admit, I was a bunch of emotions when finishing this book. Johansen manages to pluck every cord with these characters. Kelsea evolves -- for better or worse; more is revealed about Lazarus aka the Mace; the Fetch hints and alludes and still remains the most intriguing character in the book. Johansen is pretty skilled at crafting flawed, realistic characters. Kelsea isn't always likeable but she's active and determined. The Red Queen is also shown to have new sides that while they don't excuse what she has done or become, make her a little more understandable.

I have to admit  for a while there I wasn't sold on Lily's connection to the main story from book number one and the more standard fantasy characters. It's a different brand of fantasy, whatever subgenre we want to call The Queen of the Tearling series, but it's one that mixes fantasy with contemporary with science fiction/time travel. The magic/science angle is the flimsiest aspect o the book but I overlooked it for how well it fit in with another twist (the resemblance to the painting.) Somehow, Johnansen made it work and I loved how it all came together right at the end.

This is pretty actiontastic at times, but not nearly as much as I expected from a book with a title that has "invasion" right there in it. However, the author is more concerned with the behind the scenes, the preparation, the negotiation that comes before a conflict. And while there is some violence and few skirmishes and battles, the main conflict in the story is between Kelsea and the Red Queen, or Kelsea and herself, or even Kelsea and the ghost of her mother. The invasion and threat that goes along with a hostile force gets the plot of the novel rolling, but it doesn't consist of most of the book's focus.
 
The Invasion of the Tearling was a great followup to The Queen of the Tearling. Hype can be misleading but for this series, it is dead on. If you like genre mashups or are into different types of fantasy, this is not a series to miss. It's clever and fun, moves at a good pace, and keeps interest for hundreds of pages.

Book Tour Review: Mireille by Molly Cochran

Title: Mireille
Author: Molly Cochran
Genre: historical fiction
Series: N/A
Pages: 573
Published: June 9 2015
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 3/5

Near the end of World War II, seventeen-year-old Mireille de Jouarre flees the home of her stepfather, a Nazi collaborator and abusive drunk. She finds shelter with her childhood friend Stefan, and the two fall deeply in love. But as the fighting escalates, Mireille must escape alone to Paris, where she discovers she’s pregnant and lacking a way to provide for her child.

So begins her new life as l’Ange—the Angel. After an unlikely meeting with a wealthy aristocrat in a Parisian hotel—and her acceptance of his solicitation—Mireille becomes the most celebrated poule in all of France, eliciting huge fees and invitations to exclusive parties. At one of these events, Mireille meets Oliver Jordan, an American womanizer and film producer, and is soon launching a promising film career. As her star rises, Mireille is determined to bury her past. But her success isn’t as carefree and glittery as it seems, and when her daughter’s future is threatened, Mireille must make a deadly decision in a desperate attempt to finally choose her own path. 

Sprawling and epic, Molly Cochran's historical fiction novel pivots on the unlikely and lengthy tale of Mireille Orlande de Jouarre. It's dramatic and outlandish, strains credulity and yet somehow, either due to character charisma or through sheer momentum, never strays into "too much" territory. If you liked the dramatic flair and urgency of Jennifer Donnelly's Tea Rose series a few years ago, Mireille is a story much in the same historical vein. Through a few missteps and an engaging plot, Molly Cochran's take on a rags-to-riches story set against some of most dramatic backdrops in history makes for interesting reading.

With her adult novel, Cochran has graduated from her YA roots. Her themes here are darker, her plots less linear and more open to moral ambiguity, her characters more complex. There are a lot of subplots and themes that creep up over the almost six hundred pages of Mireille: Nazism, star crossed love, abuse, prostitution, obsession, teenage pregnancy, control -- to name a few. When I say reading Mireille can strain credulity, I mean this overabundance. With so much going on, so many balls in the air, even with the hundreds of pages Mireille has to work with, not all of it can be pulled o satisfactorily or even injected into the storyline naturally.

Mireille, the main character and nexus that pulls everything together, is capable. Her gifts may verge on the ridiculous (she is the most beautiful, always, no matter what has happened or where she is, etc. etc.) but there is charisma to her as well. You want to root for Mireille as she suffers setback after setback and still just does not give up. Her choices are hard and often not easy, but she's an interesting character and she's unpredictable. She's a survivor, and she demands respect, often on her terms. I can't say I connected with any other character to any degree, or was even as interested in them as I was Mireille (exception: Barbara) which is why I wanted more personality from the secondary cast.

Mireille is a long, detailed, character-driven book, but for the right kind of reader, it is absolutely the right book. If you're drawn to dramatic and exciting plots where women succeed against odds (though not infallibly) Mireille is likely the next book for you. The plot can hinge on either exceedingly lucky or unlikely happenstance, but the merits outweigh the issues for me.

Molly Cochran’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, June 8th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Tuesday, June 9th: Built By Story

Thursday, June 11th: Kahakai Kitchen

Monday, June 15th: Broken Teepee

Tuesday, June 16th: Life is Story

Wednesday, June 17th: 100 Pages a Day

Thursday, June 18th: Book Lovin’ Hippo

Friday, June 19th: Ageless Pages Reviews

Monday, June 22nd: Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Monday, June 22nd: From the TBR Pile

Monday, June 22nd: The World As I See It

Tuesday, June 23rd: A Literary Vacation

Wednesday, June 24th: Bell, Book & Candle

Thursday, June 25th: Savvy Verse & Wit

Friday, June 26th: Thoughts on This ‘n That

Monday, June 29th: The Avid Reader

Tuesday, June 30th: Life By Kristen

Book Tour Review: Love Is Red by Sophie Jaff

Title: Love Is Red
Author: Sophie Jaff
Genre: thriller, mystery, supernatural
Series: Nightsong Trilogy #1
Pages: 384
Published: May 12 2015
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 2.5/5

This electrifying, addictive, and hypnotically beautiful debut spins suspense and literary fantasy into a stunning epic—the first volume in the Night Song Trilogy—ablaze with fear, mystery, and possibility.

Katherine Emerson was born to fulfill a dark prophecy centuries in the making, but she isn’t aware that this future awaits. However, there is one man who knows the truth: A killer stalking the women of New York, a monster the media dubs the “Sickle Man” because of the way he turns his victims into canvasses for his mesmerizing, twisted art.

Unleashed upon Manhattan after lying dormant for centuries, the Sickle Man kills to harvest the precious hues of his victims. As his palette grows, so too does his power. Every death brings him closer to the one color, and the one woman, he must possess at any cost.

While the city hunts the Sickle Man, Katherine must decide what to do about two men who have unexpectedly entered her life: handsome and personable David, and alluring yet aloof Sael. Though she’s becoming increasingly torn between them, how well does she really know them? And why is she suddenly plagued by disturbing visions?

Told from the alternating viewpoints of Katherine and the Sickle Man, Love Is Red is a riveting thriller that unfolds into an intense story of obsession and control, desire and fate. Katherine may not realize it yet, but with this haunting novel—as arrestingly original as Marisha Pessl’s Night Film, Patrick Süskind’s Perfume, and Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls—her moment of awakening is here. And soon she will find herself fighting a battle at the edges of our world, among forces more dangerous than we can possibly imagine.

For me, supernatural thrillers live or die based on a few things: how well-developed the paranormal is within the storyline and the mundane aspects, how obvious or non-obvious the killer is to the audience, how developed the characters are, and how strong the writing is. Love Is Red did a number of things really right for me over the course of those almost 400-pages: the writing occasionally is strong, the mystery killer really is a mystery. But while I enjoyed some of the book, on the whole, I was rather whelmed by it on the whole.

Sophie Jaff is a good writer, and also a creative one. Her unique style and voice lends really well to vivid imagery and creating a lasting impression, as shown here in her debut novel. Her killer-at-large is particularly eloquent at times, using language inventively and almost like an example of synesthesia. While the entire novel wasn't a favorite for me, I did like how the author used language for her characters. It definitely made for a memorable reading experience. There were a few genuinely creepy and unsettling moments in Love Is Red, when Jaff's writing was just perfect and evocative.

I needed more substance for the worldbuilding/supernatural to solidify into something believable for me. The reader is introduced to characters and a story that all seem mundane, but also contains hints to, and finally is revealed to be, supernatural. However, there are a lot of terms and background agendas at work to which the reader is not privy. There's no real explanation or reveal about why all this happens or even what the point is. It's just too open-ended to work for me. I needed more foundation and detail than the novel provided so in the end, it didn't satisfy me when the big finale came around.

The first in a trilogy and a debut besides, Love is Red is being marketed pretty smartly. It is a good fit for fans of Lauren Beukes. Fans of the weird and the creepy will find another author to read with Sophie Jaff and Love is Red. If you're more open-minded about open-endedness and worldbuilding, I can see this being a genuine hit for that audience. 

About Sophie Jeff

A native of South Africa, Sophie Jaff is an alumna of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and a fellow of the Dramatists Guild of America. Her work has been performed at Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, the Duplex, the Gershwin, and Goodspeed Musicals. She lives in New York City.

Find out more about Sophie at her website and connect with her on Facebook.

 

 

 

Sophie’s Tour Stops

Monday, May 11th: My Bookish Ways

Tuesday, May 12th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Wednesday, May 13th: A Bookish Way of Life

Thursday, May 14th: Spiced Latte Reads

Friday, May 15th: Kahakai Kitchen

Wednesday, May 20th: Doing Dewey

 

Monday, May 25th: Booksie’s Blog

Tuesday, May 26th: Ms. Nose in a Book

Wednesday, May 27th: From the TBR Pile

Thursday, May 28th: Ageless Pages Reviews

Monday, June 1st: Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile

Tuesday, June 2nd: Jenny Waldo

Tuesday, June 2nd: Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews

Wednesday, June 3rd: My Shelf Confessions

Thursday, June 4th: A Dream Within a Dream

Monday, June 8th: In Bed with Books

TBD: Bibliophilia, Please

Book Tour Review: Under the Same Blue Sky by Pamela Schoenewaldt

Title: Under the Same Blue Sky
Author: Pamela Schoenewaldt
Genre: historical fiction, general fiction
Series: N/A
Pages: 352
Published: May 5th 2015
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 4/5

From the USA Today bestselling author of When We Were Strangers and Swimming in the Moon comes a lush, exquisitely drawn novel set against the turmoil of the Great War, as a young German-American woman explores the secrets of her past.

A shopkeeper's daughter, Hazel Renner lives in the shadows of the Pittsburgh steel mills. She dreams of adventure, even as her immigrant parents push her toward a staid career. But in 1914, war seizes Europe and all their ambitions crumble. German-Americans are suddenly the enemy, "the Huns." Hazel herself is an outsider in her own home when she learns the truth of her birth.

Desperate for escape, Hazel takes a teaching job in a seemingly tranquil farming community. But the idyll is cracked when she acquires a mysterious healing power--a gift that becomes a curse as the locals' relentless demand for "miracles" leads to tragedy.

Hazel, determined to find answers, traces her own history back to a modern-day castle that could hold the truth about her past. There Hazel befriends the exiled, enigmatic German baron and forges a bond with the young gardener, Tom. But as America is shattered by war and Tom returns battered by shell-shock, Hazel's healing talents alone will not be enough to protect those close to her, or to safeguard her dreams of love and belonging. She must reach inside to discover that sometimes the truth is not so far away, that the simplest of things can lead to the extraordinary.

Filled with rich historical details and intriguing, fully realized characters, Under the Same Blue Sky is the captivating story of one woman's emergence into adulthood amid the tumult of war.

Thoughtful and contemplative are two apt descriptors for Pamela Schoenewaldt's newest historical fiction novel, Under the Same Blue Sky. This is largely the story of Hazel Renner, a first-generation American-born German, and takes place before, during, and after WWI. Hazel grows up with the worldwide tension and the tumult, felt all the way from Europe to her homes in Pittsburgh and elsewhere in the US.

Hazel and her family are "hyphenated Americans," meaning that they are immigrants or directly descended from someone who was. Like other minority and hyphenated groups such Irish-Americans, African-Americans, Native Americans, etc, whom have experienced bigotry and xenophobia in this country, the German émigrés in New York during this time were exposed to harsh prejudice and ill-conceived judgments. Suspicion against "Huns" and "Krauts" are leveled against Hazel and her family due to propaganda and news, and Schoenewaldt shows how that unrelenting rhetoric looks and feels from the other side. This a constant pressure exerts itself on various characters in several affecting and emotional ways.

Under the Same Blue Sky is a solid novel, where characterization is subtle but felt and plot is minimal. For the most part, it's a thoughtful and introspective look at WWI from an unexplored and unlikely point of view. When it concerns itself with those aspects of the plot and storytelling, this worked really well as a novel. With the introduction of Hazel's "gift", I felt the seams of the story start to fray. This is possibly due to how open-ended the author leaves the interpretation of that element. Is this a magical realism novel? Was it a placebo effect?

A strong introduction to this author, Under the Same Blue Sky was a satisfying historical read that left me curious about the author's other works. Hazel's story and perspective feel fresh and new; focusing on WWI rather than WWII was also a smart maneuver that served to keep this book and characters both original and memorable.

Book Tour Review: Miramont's Ghost by Elizabeth Hall

Title: Miramont's Ghost
Author: Elizabeth Hall
Genre: historical fiction, mystery
Series: N/A
Pages: 334
Published: February 1 2015
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 3/5

Miramont Castle, built in 1897 and mysteriously abandoned three years later, is home to many secrets. Only one person knows the truth: Adrienne Beauvier, granddaughter of the Comte de Challembelles and cousin to the man who built the castle.

Clairvoyant from the time she could talk, Adrienne’s visions show her the secrets of those around her. When her visions begin to reveal dark mysteries of her own aristocratic French family, Adrienne is confronted by her formidable Aunt Marie, who is determined to keep the young woman silent at any cost. Marie wrenches Adrienne from her home in France and takes her to America, to Miramont Castle, where she keeps the girl isolated and imprisoned. Surrounded by eerie premonitions, Adrienne is locked in a life-or-death struggle to learn the truth and escape her torment.

Reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, this hauntingly atmospheric tale is inspired by historical research into the real-life Miramont Castle in Manitou Springs, Colorado.

Miramont's Ghost is a nice blend of a historical fiction novel with a somewhat mysterious/supernatural element. It has the dark allure and plot structure reminiscent of Rebecca but Hall crafts a capable and solid story that is rather hard to forget and ultimately, all her own. The loose addition of the supernatural --- Adrienne's visions, etc -- fits well within the frame of the story and also helps to create an added air of atmosphere to Miramont's Ghost.

The POVs of this book are distinct. Adrienne is easily identifiable and differentiated and by the end, the only real voice left in Miramont's Ghost. I wasn't a huge fan of the use of multiple narrators and thought that Adrienne carried the story best and most ably. It helps that Adrienne is the most developed character in the entire novel. She's pretty well-rounded and realistic (if a taaaaad too passive for my tastes), despite the situation she finds herself in. The other characters of the novel tend to be rather one-note, be they villainous or good-natured. I wanted to see more from the secondary cast; it would have strengthened the novel.

There's an even hand for the novel's progression and tension. The pacing moves along smoothly, even though it can feel a bit fast at times. As Adrienne grows and her story becomes ever more dark, it's easy to appreciate Hall's ability for crafting a creepy, unnatural atmosphere. It's a feeling that lingers, even after the close of the novel. The novel only becomes more interesting if you read the afterword and learn that it's a fictional tale based on real events and real people.

Book Tour Review: The Heroes' Welcome by Louisa Young

Title: The Heroes' Welcome
Author: Louisa Young
Genre: general fiction
Series: N/A
Pages: 262
Published: May 2014
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 3.5/5

The Heroes’ Welcome is the incandescent sequel to the bestselling R&J pick My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You. Its evocation of a time deeply wounded by the pain of WW1 will capture and beguile readers fresh to Louisa Young’s wonderful writing, and those previously enthralled by the stories of Nadine and Riley, Rose, Peter and Julia.

LONDON, APRIL 1919.
THE GREAT WAR HAS ENDED.

In a flurry of spring blossom, childhood sweethearts Nadine Waverney and Rilery Purefoy are married. Thos who have survived the war are, in a way, home. But Riley is wounded and disfigured; normality seems incomprehensible, and love unfathomable. Honeymooning in a battered, liberated Europe, they long for a marriage made of love and passion rather than dependence and pity.

At Locke Hill in Kent, Riley’s former CO Major Peter Locke is obsessed by Homer. His hysterical wife, Julia, and the young son they barely know attempt to navigate family life, but are confounded by the ghosts and memories of Peter’s war. Despite all this, there is the glimmer of a real future in the distance: Rose Locke, Peter’s cousin and Riley’s former nurse, finds that independence might be hers for the taking, after all.

For those who fought, those who healed and those who stayed behind, 1919 is a year of accepting realities, holding to hope and reaching after new beginnings.

The Heroes’ Welcome is a brave and brilliant evocation of a time deeply wounded by the pain of war. It is as devastating as it is inspiring.

 "If Peter were to die now, he'd be dying of the wounds. Whatever he died of, whenever he died, if he were to die in fifty years, it would be of wounds. Nothing bigger, greater, worse than that war would ever happen to any of them." -p.103


Though it's the second in an unnamed series by the author, The Heroes' Welcome made for an engrossing and dark read. I have not yet read the book's predecessor, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You, but still easily managed to get caught up with these characters as they go through the fallout of World War I together (and apart). Louisa Young's look at life for soldiers and wives after the Great War is unflinching; occasionally uncomfortable but honest and real. It's an honest look at the past; one with clear parallels to today. It's not always a pretty read, but Young's sparse style works so well for the melancholic subject matter of her second novel. It's hard to put down.

The characters of the story are widely disparate in how they approach the changes they face in their lives during the course of the novel. Each individual grapples with the same main issue - the damage of WWI, be it mental or physical or emotional - in varied ways, with varied amounts of success. Young's storytelling is strong; reading Riley and his wife Nadine struggle to communicate over the most basic of issues engenders sympathy and empathy for the characters. While Peter's struggle is more volatile and emotional, he too is capable of being identifiable to the audience. PTSD is a serious issue and has been, especially after wars and conflicts, for a long, long time. Peter and Riley and Julia and Nadine each come to terms with things with their own, authentic methods.

The Heroes' Welcome is a dark novel from the start and remains so for its shorter length. In a way it reminded me a lot of Revolutionary Road -- same kind of bitterly honest tone, same kind of presenting a diverse POV to the lives of these unlikely people. It's more thoughtful than anything, however. There are no easy answers to be found here, but still remains a rewarding read. There's due to be a final book set with these characters. I think, after the conclusion of The Heroes' Welcome, there is  still plenty of room to further explore the stories of Rose and the others. I look forward to seeing with Young does with the series completion.