Dream A Little Dream - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Rating: 4

Pages: 400

Challenges: Audio, Support your Local Library, Romance, Book Awards (RITA), 20 in 2009

Synopsis

Rachel Stone is left with a young son Edward when her Evangelist husband is caught lying to his congregation about the "good deeds" he is doing. He decides to ditch his life and his wife with $5 million to boot! In desperation, Rachel decides to return to Salvation, NC, where the towns people think (thanks to her husband) that Rachel is the reason for the good preacher's demise. Needless to say she is not much liked.

Rachel has determined that her husband's millions have to be in Salvation and has returned to find it. After some pleading and desperation she starts working at a drive-in where she finds love with the owner...and finds her faith.

Review

I enjoy the "Bonner" books from Phillips. Although I enjoyed What I Did for Love much better. See my review here. Rachel has more guts and determination than most people and she endured more than anyone should have to. The way her husband paraded her around reminded me of Tammy Faye Baker - I wonder if that was Phillip's inspiration for the book. A very good read!!

Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

Rating: 3 out of 5 horses (average)

Pages: 432

Challenges: New Author, Audio, Support your Local Library, Dewey Recommended, Numbers, Book Awards, 20 in 2009

Synopsis (and picture from BN.com)

Margaret Lea works in her father's antiquarian bookshop where her fascination for the biographies of the long-dead has led her to write them herself. She gets a letter from one of the most famous authors of the day, the mysterious Vida Winter, whose popularity as a writer has been in no way diminished by her reclusiveness. Until now, Vida has toyed with journalists who interview her, creating outlandish life histories for herself - all of them invention. Now she is old and ailing, and at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her letter to Margaret is a summons.

Somewhat anxiously, the equally reclusive Margaret travels to Yorkshire to meet her subject - and Vida starts to recount her tale. It is one of Gothic strangeness featuring the March family; the fascinating, devious and wilful Isabelle and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline.

Margaret is captivated by the power of Vida's storytelling. But as a biographer she deals in fact not fiction, and she doesn't entirely trust Vida's account. She goes to check up on the family, visiting their old home and piecing together their story in her own way. What she discovers on her journey to the truth is for Margaret a chilling and transforming experience.

Review

I was disappointed in this book. I think that it is possible it was all the great reviews it has gotten, but also that I read it over a period of time. I think I might have enjoyed it more if I read it faster and would have kept the characters straight. Although the end of the book did surprise me which was nice.

Getting Rid Of Matthew - Jane Fallon

Rating: 2

Pages: 336

Challenges: New Author, Audio, Library, Book Awards, 20 in 2009

Synopsis (from BN.com)

A sparkling, sophisticated, witty story about what happens when he finally leaves his wife for you . . . and you realize you don't want him after all.
For once this isn't a novel about the heroine getting the guy. It's about getting rid of the guy, and in the process, finding herself.

Helen is nearly forty, and has, for far too long, had an affair with Matthew, a high-powered, much older, attractive, married man who was once, of course, her boss. After years of being disappointed by missed dates, out-of-the-way restaurants where there's no chance of them being caught, broken promises, and hushed phone calls, at last Helen realizes enough is enough-it's time to dump Matthew and get on with her life.

This, of course, is the exact moment when Matthew decides to leave his wife for her. He appears on her doorstep, announcing, "I've done it! I've left her! I'm yours!" and proceeds to move in. Helen then discovers how much she can't bear him. But she can't just throw him out-after all, she's been begging him to do exactly this for years. The only thing to do, she decides, is to convince his wife, Sophie, to take him back.

So after a "chance" meeting in the park, Helen befriends Sophie and hears all about her lying, cheating husband. But then, the unexpected happens-Helen really starts to like Sophie, and thinks she's way too good for a selfish bore like Matthew. And then there's the other small problem of Matthew's handsome, charming son . . .

Jane Fallon turns the conventional love story on its head in this irresistibly delicious, ironic debut for every woman who has ever realized, "Be careful what you wish for."

Review

This book was a Book Sense Pick and although I typically think the Book Sense picks are pretty good I was very disappointed in this one. I thought it was predictable and I kept wondering why does Helen or even Sophie want Matthew? He is a guy who is a serial cheater and can't have one woman at a time. He is pompous and a bore who only cares about himself. Helen stayed in a 4 year relationship with this man and only after he moved in (because he was worried he was loosing her) did she realize she wanted to break up with him. Then the book was all about her living 2 lives and trying to get rid of him. I wouldn't recommend this book.

Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron

Rating: 3 out of 5 horses

Pages: 160

Genre: Young Adult

Challenges: New Author, Audio, Library, Dewey Recommended, Young Adult, Award Winner

Synopsis (from BN.com)

Lucky, age ten, can't wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has.

It's all Brigitte's fault -- for wanting to go back to France. Guardians are supposed to stay put and look after girls in their care! Instead Lucky is sure that she'll be abandoned to some orphanage in Los Angeles where her beloved dog, HMS Beagle, won't be allowed. She'll have to lose her friends Miles, who lives on cookies, and Lincoln, future U.S. president (maybe) and member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. Just as bad, she'll have to give up eavesdropping on twelve-step anonymous programs where the interesting talk is all about Higher Powers. Lucky needs her own -- and quick.

But she hadn't planned on a dust storm.
Or needing to lug the world's heaviest survival-kit backpack into the desert.

Review

I thought this book was cute, but thought it was a little slow until the last few chapters. It was a quick read!