Falling Home - Karen White

Falling Home by Karen White

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Lately I have been very choosey about ARCs that I agree to read. I find that it is a very narrow road for me, whether I will like a book or not, and I am not the kind of person who enjoys simply saying "I do not like this book," because someone took the time and energy to create the characters and the story and write it. Inevitably there are people who will like it, it's just in that instant, it wasn't me. This is a horrible way to preface this entry, because this is not what happened with this book. I am so very thankful I decided to say yes to reading this book. Technically, Falling Home isn't exactly a new book. It was first published in 2002, but has been reworked and is being republished November 2, 2010.

Falling Home was one of those books I hated to put down. Fortunately [and unfortunately] I got a stomach bug, stayed home from work and had an entire day to lay around reading it, so it wasn't really a problem.

Cassie is returning home to her small hometown in Georgia after 15 years away, returning to a life she has left behind. A life where her younger sister went off and eloped with her first love, and where the small town hustle and bustle has everyone knowing your business. She is reluctant to go back, but her father has suffered a heart attack and is not expected to make it, his dying wish is to have both of his daughters at home with him. According to Cassie, the only thing waiting for her at Walton is her past. What she does not expect to find is a community, a family, a life that she never knew she was missing, and who welcome her home with open arms.

I absolutely fell in love with this book! The characters are beautiful and fun. I did feel like I was reading the book version of Sweet Home Alabama at first because of the 'big-time girl going back to small-town life' story line, but there is so much more to this story about love and life, and learning from your past mistakes, and moving forward from past hurts. The book had me laughing, and crying and wanting to grab my kids and keep them as close to me as possible.

I loved how Karen White was able to create a picture that I could visualize and made me want it for myself. I could just see the old houses, the porch swings, and hear old porch doors slamming against the frame. I wanted to run in a field and catch lightening bugs, and be wrapped up in this community, even with it's downfalls. There were a few times I was actually wishing I was listening to an audio book, just so I could hear Sam's southern accent, which I imagined to be super sexy when he wanted it to be, and ultra-hick when he wanted it to as well. I would have loved to have been able to hear some of Cassie and Sam's verbal battles.



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A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Gemma Doyle possesses great power that she knows nothing about. After witnessing her mother's dramatic suicide via an out of body experience, Gemma is shipped off to an all-girls finishing school so that she can be educated and trained to be a gentle sophisticated wife. It is there that she meets Ann, Felicity and Pippa; the three girls who become her closest friends and who help in her own exploration of her wonderfully, frightening gift.

Libba Bray did a great job at developing her characters in A Great and Terrible Beauty. The relationship between the four girls is so familiar and true to that age that you feel like they are your friends too, because in reality you either were someone just like them, or knew someone who was. It is these girls and their relationship that made me love this book. Each girl is broken in her own way; Gemma has lost both of her parents, her mother to her mysterious suicide, her father to addiction. Ann is an orphan with no wealth or hope of marrying, Felicity's mother ran off on her father to be with a painter in France, and her father sent her to finishing school never to return or visit. Pippa has a serious illness that marks her as faulty, thus giving her parents the drive to marry her off quickly to the highest bidder before it's too late; no matter how Pippa feels or who the person is. It is through these character flaws and challenges that the girls grow and become unique individuals. This is the story I love.

The story about the girls dabbling in a power they do not understand was a bit weak, in my opinion. It is interesting enough to keep you entertained and wondering 'what next?' After drawing the information and exploration of the power and realms out for several hundred pages, the ending felt very anti-climatic and rushed. I realize there are more books to be read, more story to be told; but I was disappointed with the development and ending of this storyline. I was also disappointed in Kartik's role in this book. He did help the girls a couple of times, but his part in the whole book was much more minor than I had hoped. He mostly just went around saying, "I am Rakshana," and making empty threats. The elaborate dreams of Gemma are interesting enough, but even if there was nothing in their relationship in their book, I had hoped for more of his involvement elsewhere.

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EXCITING - Preorder a Signed copy of Forever

I am very excited for the release of Forever by Maggie Stiefvater....isn't the cover beautiful?! If you haven't read this series...you don't know what your missing!

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Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska by John Green

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was pleasantly surprised by Finding Alaska. For me, it started out very young and teenager-ish, which is probably because…well, it’s a book about a bunch of teenagers, doing very teenage things. For a while I was thinking that I was just listening to a book that was going to be basically just that, teenagers doing teenage things; drinking, smoking, sex, and tormenting each other (yes, all of the above are included in this book). I figured there was going to be some great disaster and a lesson learned and wam-bam, you’ve got a book. The thing is, the book received several great reviews on audible.com that I just couldn’t give up on it. People saying how great a book it was – usually ”people” do know what they are talking about…well at least some of the time.

It took half the book – and then it happened, the great disaster I was talking about before. The thing is, it’s much greater than you wanted or expected. And John Green is a genius, because by this time, you’re laughing and enjoying yourself with these characters, so the blow is not just to the characters, but you feel it too.

So, no, this book is not about a bunch of teenagers, doing teenage-y things, no matter how much of it is included in the book. It’s a book about life. It’s a book about very young people attempting to discover the meaning of life, love, true friendship, having fun, tragedy, depression, and even God. I was so impressed with some of the things that the author included about God, and religion in general, and not just one but several different religions. I am a Christian, and while he was simply skimming the surface of religions and religious beliefs, John Green nailed some things on the head, or at least included things that nailed it on the head. My favorite religious section: the discussion about the lady (I can’t remember names right now – and since this is an audiobook, no book to reference) who wanted to destroy Heaven and Hell because she wanted people to love God not because he could get them into Heaven, keep them out of Hell, but because God is God!

I was reading the reviews on Audible, and many were saying that due to the mature nature of some of the stuff in the book, it probably isn’t for young teenagers. I would have to agree. There are moments when I felt like smoking and drinking and even sex was not glorified exactly, but it seemed normal. And it is, somewhat, but as adults and parents, we should attempt to move and motivate for it not to be normal. On the flip side, the consequences of some of these actions are shown throughout the book.

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Maybe This Time - Jennifer Crusie

Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A book about Andie, a lady in her thirties who is just getting ready to move on with her life, and North - an ultra-busy, work-minded man. Andie and North are madly in love with each other (which is evident even from the very beginning) even though they've married, divorced, and supposedly moved on with their life. Andie meets with North for the first time in ten years with a gesture of closure that turns out to be a moment of new beginnings. This meeting spirals Andie's life into a new direction when he asks her to go and help to get the lives of his "wards" (Alice and Carter) back to some kind of normal. What Andie finds in Southern Ohio is much more than just two grief stricken, problem children.



I have enjoyed Jennifer Crusie's fun characters and witty dialogue in the past, and I was not disappointed with Maybe This Time either. I was laughing out loud quite a bit, between some of Alice's kid moments, and Andie's sarcasm - it's hard not to. This was a fun book with moments of seriousness, though not many. The story line is great and will keep you sucked in. A time or two I thought there were some inconsistencies with the story, but the relationship between North and Andie, the funny interludes, and well...just the whole thing held my attention the entire time.



Highly suggested!



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