Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah

Rating: 5

Pages: 496

Challenges: Pub Challenge, Summer Thing

Synopsis (from bn.com)
In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer's end they've become TullyandKate. Inseparable.

So begins Kristin Hannah's magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.

From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness.

Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn't know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she'll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she'll envy her famous best friend. . . .

For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they've survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.

Review

This book was great!! I really felt for the characters and it may be because I am very hormonal but I cried and cried through this book! The author sets up sections by starting with a song for the era, which brings back songs that I haven't heard in a long time.

If you like books about women's relationships you will like this book!! I would highly recommend it! I will read more books about this author.

Pathetic July Totals

Since today is August 1 I thought I would post my book totals for July....ready...hang on to your hats! 3 - yes 3. Now to my defense I am about to finish book 4 and am 1/3 of the way through the Host which is 600+ pages. But yes July was only 3 books, but 1124 pages which is decent.

I do have a good reason! I am expecting a baby! Feb 23 is my due date and I can't seem to get enough sleep, so my normal reading time is now sleeping time. I don't remember being this tired with my first - I must have blocked that out! Although I do remember the nausea very well. So far it has been better this time and I vowed to take meds this time! I lost weight with my first in the first 4 months because every other day I was loosing my meal.

Also work has been crazy...but who wants to hear about that? Not me!

Now it is August 1 so we'll see how it goes this month! I figure I am ahead of the game since I am about to finish 1 and 200 pages into another!

Gods In Alabama - Joshilyn Jackson

Rating:4 Tell a Friend over a Derby Pie (ääää)

Pages: 320

Challenges: Summer Thing

Review (from BN.com)

When Arlene Fleet headed off to college in Chicago, she made three promises to God: She would never again lie, never fornicate outside of marriage, and never, ever go back to her tiny hometown of Possett, Alabama (the "fourth rack of Hell"). All God had to do in exchange was to make sure the body of high school quarterback Jim Beverly was never found. Ten years later, Arlene has kept her promises, but an old schoolmate has recently turned up asking questions. And now Arlene’s African American beau has given her a tough ultimatum: introduce him to her family, or he’s gone. As she prepares to confront guilt, discrimination, and a decade of deception, Arlene is about to discover just how far she will go to find redemption--and love.

Review

If you like books on relationships you will love this book! It's not your average relationship book. There is a love interest but that isn't the interesting relationship. There is also a mystery - what happened 10 years ago to drive Arlene away and why has she made a deal with God...and is the mystery really what she thinks it is? This is one of those books that is hard to put down. I enjoyed this one much better than The Girl Who Went Swimming.

There's No Place Like Here - Cecelia Ahern

Rating: 2 Drink more Mint Juleps before reading (åå)
Pages: 340
Challenges: Chick Lit, Summer Reading Thing


Synopsis (from BN.com)
Lost and found People disappear every day, some because they choose to leave their old lives behind, and some for more unpleasant reasons. Things, too, disappear: mittens and cell phones, wallets and luggage. In every case, someone is left behind; someone is left to wonder what happened.

Ever since her classmate Jenny-May vanished when they were ten years old, Sandy Shortt has been obsessed with finding things. Now grown, Sandy's obsession has become a calling, with her own agency devoted to locating missing persons. But with every failed case, Sandy is plagued with questions: Where do missing people go? Are they alive or dead? Did they intend to disappear, or did they suffer some cruel fate? As these questions threaten to consume her, Sandy suddenly finds that she, herself, has disappeared, and that she has found all the answers she's always searched for in a magical place where all lost things and people go.

A romance that explores the meaning of loss and love, There's No Place Like Here is Cecelia Ahern's most satisfying, most inspired, most entrancing novel yet.

Review
I did not like this book at all. I thought it was slow and at some points very confusing whose perspective the story was being told from (I listened to it on CD). I didn't like the story concept that there is this black hole - a mysterious world where missing things/people go. For some reason Sandy found herself here. They don't explain how or why and then mysteriously leaves with no explanation of how and why. Just weird. This is classified as Chick Lit, but it's not what my impression of Chick Lit is. Has anyone else read this? What do you think?

I have PS I Love you in a challenge and I am hoping that it is better!

Harvesting the Heart - Jodi Picoult

Rating: 2 Drink more Mint Juleps before reading (åå)
Pages: 464
Challenges: Summer Reading Thing, Reading Full Circle Challenge

Synopsis (from BN.com)
Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who left when she was five. Now, having left her father behind in Chicago for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, she finds herself with a child of her own. But her mother's absence, and shameful memories of her past, make her doubt both her maternal ability and her sense of self worth.


Review
I really like Jodi Picoult books but I struggled with this one. I had a hard time with first I cannot believe that a child who was abandoned would abandoned her own. OK she just left for a while, but when she left she didn't have any intent on coming back. Second, she seemed to have very little anger against her mother for leaving her. I just really struggled with Paige and didn't believe she would react the way that she did. Also I struggled with her as a mother leaving her child. So needless to say I struggled a lot with this book but FINALLY finished it. If you are interested in Picoult I would start with Salem Falls and skip this one!

Love Walked In - Marisa De Los Santos

Rating: 4 Tell a Friend over a Derby pie (ääää)

Pages: 307

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Challenge: Summer Thing, tl;dr

Synopsis
A tribute to classic film and true romance, Love Walked In tells the story of two women – one older, one younger – and the unexpected ways in which their lives are forever changed by chance.

For thirty-one-year old Cornelia Brown, life is a series of movie moments, and "Jimmy Stewart is always and indisputably the best man in the world, unless Cary Grant should happen to show up." So imagine Cornelia's delight when her very own Cary Grant walks through the door of the hip Philadelphia café she manages. Handsome and debonair, Martin Grace sweeps Cornelia off her feet, becoming Cary Grant to Cornelia's Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable to her Joan Crawford. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, eleven-year-old Clare Hobbes must learn to fend for herself after her increasingly unstable mother has a breakdown and disappears. With no one to turn to, Clare seeks out her estranged father, and when the two of them show up at Cornelia's café, the lives of Cornelia and Clare are changed in drastic and unexpected ways. A cinematic and heartfelt debut that pays homage to the classic Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story, Love Walked In is sure to win over critics and readers of contemporary fiction.

Review

I liked this book a lot, but struggled with the end. I thought the end was out of character for Cornelia and what she had shown her personality to mean. I loved the story and how a chance encounter wound their lives together. This is my first book by Marisa De Los Santos and I plan on reading more.

Sugar Queen - Sarah Addison Allen

Rating: 4 Tell a Friend over a Derby pie (ääää)

Pages: 267

Challenges: Summer Thing (swap), Pub Challenge

Synopsis (from BN.com)
Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets—and secret passions—are about to change her life forever.Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother…

Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey’s clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she’s going to change Josey’s life—because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding.

Before long, Josey bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear whenever she needs them, and—most amazing of all—has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush.

As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time—even for her. It seems that Della Lee’s work is done, and it’s time for her to move on. But the truth about where she’s going, why she showed up in the first place—and what Chloe has to do with it all—is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey’s fast-changing life.Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love—and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.

Review -

I really liked this book. I liked that the chapters were named after Candy! Here are some quotes that I liked:

This is about a new maid (Helena) who spoke very little English that was hired
to help Margaret after a hip replacement (including bathing which this quote is
about). “But Helena could never quite grasp what was required of
her. She would sit on the lowered toilet lid, her eyes adverted, anxiously
wringing her hands while Margaret sat in the tub and played charade to get her
to understand soap.(7)”


“Della Lee, you’re living in my closet, you’re blackmailing me over candy, and you are currently wearing 16 articles of clothing. It’s amazing to me that you think I have problems. You need to form a plan for yourself (60).”

“’Why do you buy books you don’t even read?’ our daughter asks us. That’s like asking someone who lives alone why they bought a cat. For company of course. (180)”

This book made me laugh out loud during many times! Chloe has books that just appear when she needs him – bad break up with a boyfriend a book on forgiveness appears. I think if I was to die before my daughter was an adult this is what I would want to do…send her books on whatever I thought she needed to learn or should read for enjoyment. And the books relentlessly follow Chloe around until she reads them…doesn’t that just sound like a mother?!

I did have one problem with this book and that is the cover. The book main character is a "thick" girl. The girl on the cover certainly is not. It is possible that it is a different character by why wouldn't they put the main character on the cover...things that make you go hmm...