Something terrible happened in the woods on that day so long ago. Was it what the children said happened … or something else? The man who sometimes lived in the ramshackle cabin the children discovered when exploring, whom they called Chicken George after the character in Roots, ended up dead. Didn’t he?

And now those children are grown, with children of their own. They’re all approaching middle age and their parents are elderly or dead. Gordon “Go-Go” Halloran is also dead. After two years of sobriety, he was on his way to an AA meeting. But he turned his father’s old Buick in the opposite direction and ended up in a local bar … and off the wagon. When they ejected him, he drove the car straight into an embankment at ninety miles per hour. Did he do it deliberately? Or was he just playing chicken the way kids sometimes do, despite the fact that he was far too old to be doing so, and lost control of the car?

Gwen has returned home to care for her ailing father who refuses to abandon his custom Baltimore home. It is a convenient excuse to distance herself from her failing marriage. She is deeply troubled by Go-Go’s death and when she attends his funeral, she is reunited with his older brothers, Sean and Tom. Absent is Mickey, now a flight attendant who calls herself McKey. The five of them were close and inseparable for that brief period of time before everything went wrong in the woods. They were like the five points of a star, separate but connected, and divisible into smaller points of light, as well. But in the aftermath of Go-Go’s death, each of them — Sean, Tom, Gwen and Mickey — wonders if the secret they share is the reason for their troubled lives … and if someone within their circle is trying to destroy each of them.

Review:

Author Laura Lippman

In successive sections of the book, Lippman focuses on each individual character — as they were then and, in the case of those still living, as they are now. The Hallorans, Doris and Tim, lived in a modest middle-class tract home that was always a mess. Tim had trouble maintaining a job. Sean was the adored, perceived-as-perfect son, while Tom was the wise-cracking lummox, and little Go-Go the troubled baby that Doris protected from his father’s rage and perpetual disappointment. It was Go-Go who was dubbed the victim that day so long ago — the reason that Tim, along with Gwen’s father, Clem, and Mickey’s faux stepfather, Rick, ventured into the woods to intercede after they heard about what had happened. All sworn to silence, Clem, now eighty-eight years old and in failing health, wonders if the other two men held their tongues and still struggles to comprehend what exactly he saw that day.

Meanwhile, Sean has gone on to corporate success and marriage to passive-aggressive Vivian, who despises every minute she must spend with Doris and encourages Sean to visit his mother alone. Meanwhile, Tim is happily married to Arlene and the father of three daughters who essentially ignore him in the manner reserved exclusively for teenage girls who dabble in wild behavior. A prosecutor, he has versed himself in the legal intricacies of the secret they all harbor and understands that the truth, if revealed, could still bring dire consequences. Mickey, aka McKey, distanced herself from the four others when her mother broke up with Rick, moved in with Larry, and moved out of the neighborhood. In the ensuing years, she has remained distant from her waitress mother and half-brother, earning a living as a flight attendance and scrupulously using men only as a means to an end. She knows she is beautiful and desirable, but she has no interest or ability to enter into a committed relationship.

Finally, Gwen finds herself spending time back in the childhood home she loves as much as her father. Her own life has mirrored her parents’ relationship in several critical aspects. She is married to the older Karl, a self-absorbed celebrity physician whose disinterest in her activities makes her feel invisible and insignificant. But Karl is devoted to their five-year-old adopted daughter, Annabelle, as is she, and refuses to consider a divorce. She is hiding a secret about their relationship and her role in its downfall and, as she cares for her injured father, she comes to understand more about her own parents’ marriage, appreciating that it was not as perfect as it appeared to her in her younger years. Determined to understand why Go-Go died, her journalistic instincts compel her to explore whether his death was accidental or suicide, as well as the extent to which that day so long ago contributed to make Go-Go’s life one beset by sadness, failed marriages, and his battle with booze — a battle that, ironically, he was winning until the night he went into the bar instead of to the meeting. What prompted Go-Go to make that fatal choice? When Gwen discovers that someone from their past had contacted Go-Go, she begins to understand the stress that prompted him to resume drinking.

In typical Lippman fashion, the story unfolds at a steady, measured pace. Each character is fascinating, but it is the myriad ways in which their lives intersect or continue in isolation that propel the story forward. Always, there is the mystery of that night in the background, serving as momentum for each characters’ actions. When the shocking secret is finally revealed, the fallout provides a satisfying conclusion, but questions linger, making the book an excellent choice for book club discussion. Lippman describes The Most Dangerous Thing as the “most autobiographical novel” she has written “in strict geographical terms. For many years now, I have been circling the unusual neighborhood in which I grew up, determined to write about it, but wanting to wait for the right time and story.” The Most Dangerous Thing is indeed that ideal tale and the locale is itself an additional character, adding depth and nuance to a story that arguably could not have played out against any other backdrop. She also employs an inventive storytelling technique that she admits has “delighted some readers, confounded others, and irritated a few.” Some of the chapters are told in the first-person plural, leading readers to wonder which character is speaking? It is confusing, to be sure, but also highly effective. She refuses to reveal her reasons for structuring the story in that manner, instead preferring that readers draw their own conclusions.

Lippman is simply a master storyteller, injecting subtle hints and clues that can easily be overlooked by careless readers, all of which point to the climactic conclusion. The Most Dangerous Thing is a most engaging tale about innocence, friendship, and the power of dramatic events to impact one’s future in far-reaching, surprising ways. I highly recommend it.

Reading Challenges:
2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
2012 Free Reads Challenge
2012 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2012

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of The Most Dangerous Thing free of charge from the author in conjunction with TLC Book Tours review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Enter to Win a Copy of The Most Dangerous Thing

Author Laura Lippman has generously provided one copy of The Most Dangerous Thing to be awarded to a Colloquium reader! Enter utilizing the Rafflecopter widget. (Note: The book can only be mailed to a U.S. or Canadian street address — not a P.O. box.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entries will be accepted until Thursday, May 24, 2012, at 12:01 a.m.

On the Same Topic:

• Book Review and Giveaway: Whole Latte Life
• Book Review and Giveaway: Afterwards
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Song Remains the Same
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Good Father
• Book Review: The Iguana Tree

Topics: 2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge, 2012 Free Reads Challenge, 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge, 2012 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge, Book Giveaways, Book Reviews, Laura Lippman, Spring Reading Thing 2012, The Most Dangerous Thing, TLC Book Tours

Jenna Chamberland last saw her mother healthy as she left for college. By the time she made her first trip back home, her mother was dying. Responsibility to care for their mother fell to Jenna’s sister, Sophie, with whom Jenna has had a strained relationship ever since.

Jenna and Gabe were happily married for several years, she a successful novelist and he a thriving architect, before they decided to become parents. Since becoming a mother, Jenna has known what it is like to truly love and be devoted to another human being. Her little daughter, Mia, is everything to her. In fact, when Mia was three years old, Jenna decided that she wanted another child, even though, at the age of forty-three, she knew it might be difficult. In actuality, it was impossible because that is when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

For the next three years, Jenna fought the disease with every ounce of energy she could muster. She hired Ginny, a widow with grown children, to care for Mia while she underwent chemotherapy and radiation, commuting from Port Angeles into Seattle to be treated by the best physicians available.

Tragically, the cancer has refused to go into remission and Jenna’s doctors recommend that she discontinue treatment in favor of enjoying the few remaining months of her life. They estimate that her symptoms will become debilitating in about six months or so. Determined to resume caring for Mia full-time for as long as she is able, Jenna accedes and throws herself into making the most of the time remaining. She and Gabe custom-built their beautiful home where Jenna is determined that Mia continue to feel safe, loved, and sheltered after her death in order to ease the burden of growing up without a mother.

Taking a cue from another woman in the support group she attends, Jenna determines to record a series of messages for Mia that she can play at specific points in her life. Deeming them Milestone Tapes, Jenna wants Mia to be able to hear her mother’s voice and thoughts when and if her father decides to remarry, as well as when Mia falls in love and gets her heart broken for the first time, marries, becomes a mother herself, etc.

Jenna is indeed prescient: nine years after her death, sixteen-year-old Mia could definitely benefit from having the counsel of her mother. Sadly, Jenna cannot be there to comfort and advise her, but Mia does have the tapes …

Review:

Reading the work of a first-time novelist is always an exciting risk. New author Ashley Mackler-Paternostro has arrived on the literary scene with little fanfare, no degree from a prestigious university, and no previous writing credits. Rather, her humble biography describes her as a “hairstylist by trade” with a lifelong love for writing and reading … and a dream. Her dream has come to fruition with the publication of The Milestone Tapes.

The Milestone Tapes was a work of love. A tribute to my mother; a breast cancer survivor, a story of what if, a personal and very private exercise in healing my soul.… I have to dedicate this moment where I’m stuck with awe to my Mom, for without her enthusiastic cheerleading and honest feedback there would be none of this. She taught me humor, grace, hope and love … all things you’ll find hidden within the pages of The Milestone Tapes.

The protagonist, Jenna Chamberland, is a highly successful, motivated woman with whom female readers can readily identify. She was lucky enough to marry a man with whom she has remained in love for twenty years and she put off becoming a mother until the age of thirty-seven, partly because of her own ambitions, as well as because she and Gabe were happy and content with their life as it was. However, as many career women will confirm, motherhood is a transforming experience. Because she and Gabe were secure both in their relationship and monetarily, they were able to build their dream house, establishing an idyllic setting into which to welcome Mia. Jenna immersed herself completely in raising her daughter, and had just decided that she definitely wanted to bear a second child when tragedy struck: breast cancer.

The character of Jenna is realistic, authentic, exasperating at times, and thoroughly believable. Her tenacity bears witness to her devotion to her child and determination to live for Mia’s sake. Jenna knows the pain of losing one’s mother too soon, and her relationship with her sister has suffered mightily because of the fact that Jenna had already left for college when their mother was diagnosed with cancer. Jenna will be anything — literally — not to leave her child motherless. Mackler-Paternostro devotes a substantial portion of the book to detailing Jenna’s battle and its raw emotional truth frequently makes for difficult, yet compelling, reading. It is clear that Mackler-Paternostro has witnessed such a struggle first-hand and she imbues her story with the complicated feelings that Jenna, as well as those who love her, experience. Particularly wrenching is the pain Jenna’s illness brings to Gabe, who must come to grips with the fact that he is going to lose the love of his life and must soldier on to raise his daughter alone.

The second portion of the story picks up nine years after Jenna’s death when Mia is sixteen years old. Ginny has stayed on and served as a surrogate mother to Mia, while Gabe has poured himself into his work, commuting to Seattle on a weekly basis in order to further his own career and allow Mia to remain in the home he and Jenna lovingly built. It was extremely important to Jenna that Mia’s life not be disrupted following her death and Gabe has honored her wishes.

Mia awakens each day to the sound of Jenna’s voice, keeping the tape recorder by her bed so that she can hear her mother tell her “good morning” before she rises. She relies completely on Ginny and adores her father, even though he has been an absent father much of the time due to his long commute and professional demands. Recently, Gabe has been spending more and more time in Seattle and Mia suspects that there is more keeping him there at night than his work … When Mia’s suspicions are confirmed, the remaining tapes are presented to her, along with instructions from her mother to listen to the tapes only at the specifically appointed times in order that they will truly resonate by coinciding with milestone events in Mia’s life. Although tempted to listen to them all, Mia complies and is glad that she does. Mia is as believable as Jenna — a good, but not perfect kid who has survived the greatest loss a child can know with her self-esteem intact. She has been sheltered and spoiled a bit, but Mia appreciates her blessings and would happily trade them all if she could only have one conversation with her mother in person, rather than have to rely upon the tapes as a means of connecting with her mother. As with the character of Jenna, Mackler-Paternostro strikes all the right notes in constructing Mia. Could it be because the author so closely identifies with the character?

Overall, The Milestone Tapes is a touching, if not entirely original story about mothers and daughters, and the myriad ways in which the unique mother-daughter bond survives and can even flourish long after death has parted them. The book is far from perfect: the pace drags significantly at several junctures, the narrative is repetitive and, because of that, too long. The story would have benefited from judicious editing in order to cure those defects, along with some continuity issues. However, it is clear that Mackler-Paternostro drew upon her own experiences and emotional scars in order to craft the tale and The Milestone Tapes attests to her promise as a novelist. It will indeed be interesting to read her sophomore effort. I hope that she lives up to the potential demonstrated in The Milestone Tapes.

Reading Challenges:
2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
2012 Free Reads Challenge
2012 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2012

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of The Milestone Tapes free of charge from the author in conjunction with the Pump Up Your Book review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Enter to Win a Copy of The Milestone Tapes

Ashley Mackler-Paternostro has provided one copy of The Milestone Tapes to be awarded to a Colloquium reader! Submit your entry utilizing the Rafflecopter widget. Note: The book can only be mailed to a U.S. or Canadian street address (not a P.O. box).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entries will be accepted until Monday, May 21, 2012, at 12:01 a.m.

Click here to enter the author’s Kindle Gift Basket Giveaway, featuring a Kindle and many other goodies directly related to The Milestone Tapes!

On the Same Topic:

• Book Review and Giveaway: The Most Dangerous Thing
• Book Review and Giveaway: Whole Latte Life
• Book Review and Giveaway: Dark is the Sky
• Book Review and Giveaway: Girl Unmoored
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Good Father

Topics: 2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge, 2012 Free Reads Challenge, 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge, 2012 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge, Ashley Mackler-Paternostro, Pump Up Your Book, Spring Reading Thing 2012, The Milestone Tapes

Synopsis:

Everyone has had a moment — or several — when they contemplated running away from home: just turning one’s back on everyone and everything, and disappearing for a while or even forever. But then the dream ends, reality intrudes, and we carry on, honoring our commitments to ourselves and those people who matter to us. We acknowledged that our life isn’t really horrible, focus on our blessings and formulate a plan to work through whatever was troubling us.

Not Sarah Beth Riley. She actually did it, except she didn’t depart from her home. She waited until she was in New York City with her best friend, Rachel, sitting down to lunch. Pretending to go to the ladies’ room, she arranged for the maitre d’ to deliver a note to Rachel ten minutes after her departure.

Devastated, confused, and sick with worry, Rachel finds herself alone in New York City instead of celebrating their fortieth birthdays, as she and Sarah Beth had planned. Worse, Sarah Beth beseeched her to refrain from contacting Tom, her husband of twenty years, who is at home with their three children, Jennifer, Katherine, and little Owen.

As Rachel stumbles about in a daze, she seeks assistance from NYPD officer, Michael, who urges her to report Sarah Beth’s disappearance to the authorities, but emphasizes that since Sarah Beth authored the note indicating that she left the restaurant voluntarily, foul play will not be suspected and no investigation commenced, at least for awhile. Michael reassures Rachel, urging her to carry on with the birthday celebration on her own. Perhaps Sarah Beth will decide to meet her at one of their scheduled destinations.

Sarah Beth places the life she has built on the line, in desperate need of time alone to think, reflect, and decide what she wants her future to look like, because she knows only one thing for sure: she is neither happy nor fulfilled. But will the risk pay off? How will her act of walking away from her life, even temporarily, impact her relationships with those she loves?

Review:

Author Joanne DeMaio

Meanwhile, Rachel is both furious and frightened. After all, Sarah Beth’s stunt is completely out of character, although once Rachel considers the recent past, she realizes that there were signs of Sarah Beth’s unhappiness. Still … nobody just abandons their best friend during a celebratory weekend that has been planned for ages. Worse, Rachel’s loyalty and dedication are severely tested when Sarah Beth asks that she not contact Tom, Sarah Beth’s attorney husband — which was Rachel’s first instinct, of course. Rachel wonders whether she can honor that request and, if so, for how long. Sarah Beth promises that she will return, but Rachel is not sure if she can or should believe that.

That unbelievable circumstance leads Rachel to Michael, a handsome forty-four-year-old native New Yorker who is patrolling Manhattan atop his trusted mare, Maggie. Michael is instantly beguiled by Rachel and goes far beyond the call of duty to calm and assist her, finding himself increasingly drawn to her as the hours pass and Sarah Beth remains missing.

From the outset, Rachel is the more likable of the two lead female characters. Widowed a year earlier when her husband, Carl, suffered a massive heart attack, Rachel has survived the loss and resumed living, something that Sarah Beth seems incapable of accomplishing. Rachel is extremely close to her only daughter, Ashley, who is about to head off to college. Although it has been difficult for Rachel because she and Carl had a strong marriage, she has become a substitute fifth-grade teacher and continued sketching as a hobby. She is talented and grounded, unlike Sarah Beth who, DeMaio reveals, is still reeling from the sudden loss of her mother as a result of a brain aneurysm.

Many readers will initially find Sarah Beth self-centered and self-indulgent. What kind of friend leaves someone they care about sitting in a restaurant and disappears? DeMaio skillfully reveals, with the action alternating in subsequent chapters between Rachel’s experiences and those of Sarah Beth, a woman on the verge of emotional collapse. Sarah Beth is not unkind, but she is overwhelmed by the demands of her husband, — theirs is a thoroughly conventional, traditional marriage — the needs of her two daughters, and the unplanned pregnancy that left her and Tom beginning to parent all over again with little Owen when she was thirty-eight years old and thought she was done with all that entails. Worse, she and her mother had planned to open an antiques store when Sarah Beth turned forty, but Owen’s birth and her mother’s death derailed that dream. Sarah Beth is mired in the routines and obligations of domesticity. In the throes of an emotional meltdown, she has begun sending emails to her dead mother, professing her confusion, grief, and sense of helplessness. DeMaio’s compassionate, nonjudgmental portrayal of Sarah Beth gradually humanizes her and turns her into an empathetic character. Aspects of Sarah Beth’s distress are highly relatable, including her questioning what her life might have been like had she chosen differently when she was young and accepted her French boyfriend’s invitation to live with him in Europe, pursuing a life filled with art and adventure.

Michael has endured his own troubles and is grappling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, as well as the aftermath of divorce and the challenges of parenting a teenage daughter. Both he and his relationship with Rachel are endearing and their story has an air of authenticity that elevates the story through DeMaio inclusion of a likable and strong male character who is also coping with loss and grief. Tom is equally compelling, particularly because he is earnest and well-meaning, but thoroughly confused by his wife’s behavior. He gradually evolves from making demands and issuing ultimatums out of fear and frustration to understanding the depth of Sarah Beth’s despair, proving that he truly loves and is committed to her as he battles to hold his family together.

Although Whole Latte Life strains credulity at the outset, DeMaio wins readers over with believable dialogue and even pacing. As Rachel and Sarah Beth’s friendship hangs in the balance, so do the women’s relationships with the men in their lives. The two women have always been able to talk about anything, but Sarah Beth’s behavior threatens their strong bond and, to DeMaio’s credit, she does not subject their friendship to a quick fix. By making the women work to regain their strong friendship, DeMaio lends further credence to her story about the search for meaning in one’s life, grief’s capacity to cripple one who is vulnerable, and the inherent need to feel connected to and appreciated by those with whom we spend our lives. It is a story worth reading when in a “what if …?” mood because DeMaio competently demonstrates how a chance meeting, a turn of events, an unexpected circumstance can change the course of one’s life in remarkable fashion, as well as how many blessings are gained through adversity. Whole Latte Life is a promising debut that bodes well for DeMaio’s future as an author of the kinds of tales about the resiliency and importance of female friendships that women, in particular, find relevant and poignant.

Reading Challenges:
2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
2012 Free Reads Challenge
2012 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2012

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one electronic copy of Whole Latte Life free of charge from the author in conjunction with the Mary DeMaio PR review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Enter to Win a Copy of Whole Latte Life

Author Joanne DeMaio has generously provided one copy of Whole Latte Life to be awarded to a Colloquium reader! Enter utilizing the Rafflecopter widget. (Note: The book can only be mailed to a U.S. or Canadian street address — not a P.O. box.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entries will be accepted until Thursday, May 17, 2012, at 12:01 a.m.

On the Same Topic:

• Book Review and Giveaway: The Most Dangerous Thing
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Good Father
• Book Review and Giveaway: Afterwards
• Book Review and Giveaway: A Grand Murder
• Book Review and Giveaway: Unbroken

Topics: 2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge, 2012 Free Reads Challenge, 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge, 2012 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge, Book Giveaways, Book Reviews, Joanne DeMaio, Mary DeMaio PR, Saturday Review of Books, Spring Reading Thing 2012, Whole Latte Life

Synopsis:

Apron Bramhall is a thirteen-year-old seventh grader for whom life has been extremely difficult lately. Her mother died just six months ago from cancer and Margie, the Brazilian nurses’ aid who cared for her mother, has taken up permanent residence in Apron’s home. Her father, a Latin professor, wants Apron to get along with Margie, but Apron can only bear to call her “M.” Her father doesn’t seem to notice that M. was apparently born with a perpetually mean expression on her face and despises Apron. She is also a slob, even though Apron’s father is compulsively neat, and seems determined to kill The Boss, Apron’s guinea pig.

Apron attends a local production of Jesus Christ Superstar with her best friend, Rennie, and Rennie’s family. She is instantly enamored with the actor portraying Jesus — he seems as close to authentic as Apron can imagine. And Apron is quite surprised when she realizes that he is the nephew of her neighbor. He and his partner, Chad, are the owners of a local floral shop, Scent Appeal, and before long Apron befriends them both, helping out in the shop when they discover that she has a true flair for creating floral arrangements.

But Apron’s life becomes even more complicated when her father’s relationship with M. takes a serious turn. She also realizes that Chad is extremely ill. Although no one explains his condition to her, she assumes that, like her mother, he has cancer. Sadly, it is 1985 and an AIDS diagnosis is tantamount to the beginning of the end. It also brings stigma, prejudice, and hate crimes to Portland, Maine, unpleasant things that Apron has never seen first-hand before.

The summer separating seventh and eighth grades proves to be life-changing for Apron and the point in her life when she learns what love really means to her.

Review:

Author Jennifer Gooch Hummer

Apron Bramhall is one of those characters who spring to life in readers’ minds and invade their hearts from the outset, taking up residence there in the first few pages and lingering long after the last page has been read, the book shelved. She is completely endearing because of her sheer humanness. Her adolescence is painful — isn’t everyone’s? — and made more so by the profound loss she has recently suffered. An only child, she demands that her father leave her mother’s closet untouched because it is the only remaining place in the house where she can still detect her mother’s unique scent. She also wears her mother’s hospital identification bracelet on her own wrist. Meanwhile, her father has too-quickly moved into a relationship with the evil M. and while he loves Apron, he seems oblivious to his only child’s needs.

Girl Unmoored is about friendship. Deep, loyal friendship. The kind that supersedes family. The kind that keeps you anchored when everything else is falling apart. The kind that can save you.
~ Author Jennifer Gooch Hummer

Apron is convinced that she is ugly, with her flaming red hair and perpetual klutziness. Her best and only real friend, Rennie, seems determined to sidle up to the most popular girl in school, leaving Apron behind, and the boy Apron has a crush on does not notice her. In short, nothing is really going Apron’s way until her path collides — literally — with Mike and Chad’s. Apron has never known a gay person before, and Mike and Chad need help managing both their floral shop and Chad’s rapidly deteriorating medical condition. They forge an unlikely, but touching bond that proves to be life-altering for all of them.

Hummer effortlessly transports readers back to 1985, the year that AIDS invaded the average American’s vernacular — and fears, when only the wealthy elite carried cell phones the size of small suitcases, the Internet did not yet exist, Madonna dominated radio airtime, and colleges still offered Latin courses. Although it wasn’t that long ago, Hummer gently reminds readers that the world was a very different place. The manner in which the AIDS virus is transmitted was not yet understood and President Ronald Reagan’s political stance did nothing to advance either research into a cure or social justice for members of the gay and lesbian community. Scent Appeal is targeted by violent bigots and Apron’s father hesitates to allow her to spend time with Mike and Chad when he learns of Chad’s illness. Apron is forced to grow up quickly.

The friendship that blossoms between Apron, Mike, and Chad is charming, believable, and thoroughly heart-rending. Apron’s troubled relationship with her new would-be stepmother also strikes an authentic chord because of Hummer’s deft and often subtle handling of Apron’s complex emotions vis a vis the malevolent M.‘s presence in her home and her hapless father’s life. Hummer keeps the action moving and the story never becomes maudlin or saccharine-sweet because it is frequently hilarious, in addition to deeply touching. Apron’s eccentric Grandma Bramhall could be the star of a novel devoted to her own quirky adventures, but there are plenty of other supporting characters to keep Girl Unmoored moving forward to its satisfying, if not entirely surprising, conclusion.

Apron learns what it means to be saved and to save someone else through friendship. She also comes to understand that friendships don’t have to endure for long periods of time in order to be profoundly influential to our development, as well as memorable. Most of all, she learns, because of all that she experiences during that milestone summer, what love is really all about. Girl Unmoored is a perfectly balanced novel: a combination of light-hearted fun, bordering on slapstick at times, within a poignant and deeply relatable coming-of-age story. It is a thoroughly impressive debut work.

Reading Challenges:
2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
2012 Free Reads Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2012

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one electronic copy of Girl Unmoored free of charge from the author in conjunction with the Sparkpoint Studio review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Enter to Win a Copy of Girl Unmoored

Author Jennifer Gooch Hummer has generously provided one copy of Girl Unmoored to be awarded to a Colloquium reader! Enter utilizing the Rafflecopter widget. (Note: The book can only be mailed to a U.S. or Canadian street address — not a P.O. box.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entries will be accepted until Monday, May 14, 2012, at 12:01 a.m.

On the Same Topic:

• Book Review and Giveaway: Whole Latte Life
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Good Father
• Book Review and Giveaway: Afterwards
• Book Review and Giveaway: A Grand Murder
• Book Review and Giveaway: Unbroken

Topics: 2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge, 2012 Free Reads Challenge, 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge, Book Giveaways, Book Review, Girl Unmoored, Jennifer Gooch Hummer, Saturday Review of Books, Sparkpoint Studio, Spring Reading Thing 2012

Synopsis:

Travis Brown thinks that things can’t possibly get any worse for him and his four-year-old daughter, Bella. He’s about to find out how wrong he is.

Travis has lived his entire life in Carolina Beach and can’t imagine life anywhere but by the shore. He has also never lived on his own. After taking custody of newborn Bella, he remained in his mother’s home. She cared for Bella while he worked construction jobs, having given up his dream of one day being a marine biologist in order to care for his little girl. But jobs became harder and harder to find when the economy soured and now Travis has lost both his mother and his home. He is desperate to find work so that he can provide for and protect Bella. And, of course, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Meanwhile, Erin has moved out of the home she shared with Mike for more than a decade. Six months after losing their only child, four-year-old Carolyn, in a freakish accident, the chasm between Erin and Mike couldn’t be wider. She has been unable to continue her career as a pharmacist and has not set foot in Carolyn’s room since her death, but she will not allow Mike to change a thing and was highly disturbed by his suggestion that they donate all of Carolyn’s things and put a treadmill in the room. Mike dealt with his grief by staying busy, finally finishing all of the home improvement projects he had put off for years and intensifying his professional dedication to developing interactive video games designed to solve real-world problems.

And then there’s Robin, a young woman who has been given two chances for a new start — a heart transplant literally saved her life and the powerful Hendricks family of Beaumont embraced her with a job running their bed and breakfast inn, as well as an introduction into Beaumont society. Soon she will be the wife of Dale Hendricks, son of the current mayor who is on-track to become his father’s successor. No one, not even Dale, knows about Robin’s past. If they find out, she will abandon her and she will have nothing. But she cannot ignore their reaction when Alissa, Dale’s seventeen-year-old sister, becomes pregnant. Observing and supporting Alissa through the pregnancy, childbirth, and difficult early days as a mother dredges up painful memories for Robin and causes her to reevaluate her own choices.

As the lives of Travis, Erin, and Robin intersect and intertwine, each will be tested and forced to decide what matters most to them. As for Travis, he just wants to be a good father to Bella, but how can he accomplish that, given the odds?

Review:

Author Diane Chamberlain

Once again, Chamberlain brings her characters vividly to life by providing them with complicated histories and even more complex emotions. Travis Brown is a young single father who fought and won the right to raise his daughter rather than see her adopted. He agreed to never have further contact with Robin, believing that was her wish and respecting her dire medical condition. In the intervening four years, Travis has devoted himself completely to being the best possible father he can, abandoning his dream of a college education in favor of nonspecialized construction jobs that put food on the table, relying on his mother to assist by providing child care. Travis has never lived on his own apart from his mother, but when he loses her, as well as their home, one tragic afternoon, he must chart a new course — quickly. America’s struggling economy has eliminated most construction jobs and Travis grows increasingly desperate to find any means to provide for little Bella. When his neighbor boasts that she can get him a job in Raleigh that will pay well, he reluctantly heads north. Travis is naive and disappointment awaits, but Bella’s hunger pains can only be quelled one way and he needs money for food. So he agrees to engage in dangerous, illegal behavior just once in order to earn enough money to tide them over until he can, hopefully, land a job. That decision will change the course of his life, as well as Bella’s, not to mention Robin’s and Erin’s.

It’s hard to predict what someone would do in [Travis’] situation, which was precisely what inspired me to write the book. I wanted to put a good man in those dire straits and see how he’d react.
~ Author Diane Chamberlain

Travis is believable, his struggle heartbreaking. He is an earnest young man, trying to make the best of unimaginable circumstances. His devotion to his daughter has never wavered, but he, like so many other Americans, is completely unequipped to deal with the hardships that befall him. As he struggles to find answers, precious Bella invades readers’ hearts with her little pink purse and stuffed lamb that she carries everywhere.

Erin is equally empathetic, her grief authentic. Chamberlain’s background as a social worker prepared her to construct a character barely surviving each day as she undergoes therapy in an attempt to deal with the loss of her only child and the subsequent unraveling of her marriage. As the story opens, Erin has literally run away from home. She moves into a sparsely-furnished apartment, leaving her husband Mike in the home they shared with Carolyn. She is despondent, inconsolable, and unable to stop reliving the night Carolyn died. Mike complains that she “ruminates” on their loss in an unending quest to find answers to questions that have no answer. No one can turn back the clock or say why a little girl was the victim of such a nightmarish accident. The only respite Erin finds is when she interacts with a group of other grieving parents via an online forum. She bristles and is hurt by Mike’s attempts to move their lives forward, feeling that he does not truly grieve Carolyn, rather than recognizing that his grief merely manifests itself differently. To go on with her own life feels like she is abandoning Carolyn and her memory. When Erin is introduced to Travis and Bella at JumpStart, the coffee shop she frequents every morning with her iPad, she is suddenly forced to confront her feelings and the status of her life with Mike.

Lastly, Robin is a young woman with secrets she hopes will never be discovered by Dale and his family. She has become popular, recognized everywhere she goes in Beaumont as Dale’s beautiful young fiancee, and forged a secure future for herself. Forced to remain docile and nonconfrontational by her heart condition, Robin learned not to oppose her father’s wishes and even though she successfully underwent a heart transplant and is now healthy, she has continued her pattern of passive behavior with Dale, who is eleven years her senior. She believes that she loves Dale and is looking forward to their society wedding, but Alissa’s pregnancy stirs emotions in Robin that she has never recognized, acknowledged or worked through. After all, she spent much of her own pregnancy in a near-comatose state, hovering near death until the baby could be delivered by Cesarean section and a donor heart located. She never saw her baby, never bonded with her, and never objected when her father insisted that she be put up for adoption. Like Travis, she was duped by her father, who is now deceased. In addition to learning the truth about his actions, she discovers character traits in Dale that reveal he is very much like his father and bring her love and commitment to him into doubt, even as she finally deals with her long-buried feelings. Robin becomes empowered and finds her own voice. What will she choose now that she knows and embraces the truth?

As Travis finds himself and Bella in danger, Erin and, eventually, Robin are also dragged into the crisis. Chamberlain expertly lays the foundation for what becomes a pulse-pounding adventure. By then readers are thoroughly invested in the characters’ futures, recognizing them as well-intended, but innately flawed and too-often misguided. The dialogue is crisp and the pace accelerates at perfectly-timed intervals as all of the characters’ secrets are eventually revealed.

At its core, The Good Father is an exploration of what that term means. Travis, Erin, and Robin discern what sacrifices they are willing to make as they discover their own capacity to forgive and embrace their futures. The Good Father is a thoroughly satisfying story. I highly recommend it.

Reading Challenges:
2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
2012 Free Reads Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2012

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of The Good Father free of charge from the author in conjunction with the Media Muscle review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Scavenger Hunt / Excerpt

View the Q & A with Author Diane Chamberlain to read yesterday’s excerpt. Click here to see the full list of participants in the scavenger hunt and read all of the excerpts!

Enter to Win a Copy of The Good Father

Author Diane Chamberlain has generously provided one copy of The Good Father to be awarded to a Colloquium reader! Enter utilizing the Rafflecopter widget. (Note: The book can only be mailed to a U.S. or Canadian street address — not a P.O. box.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entries will be accepted until Thursday, May 10, 2012, at 12:01 a.m.

On the Same Topic:

• Book Review and Giveaway: Afterwards
• Book Review and Giveaway: Whole Latte Life
• Book Review and Giveaway: A Grand Murder
• Book Review and Giveaway: Unbroken
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Most Dangerous Thing

Topics: 2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge, 2012 Free Reads Challenge, 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge, Book Giveaways, Book Review Party Wednesday, Book Reviews, Diane Chamberlain, Media Muscle, Saturday Review of Books, Spring Reading Thing 2012, The Good Father

Grace is at her son, Adam’s, school for sports day. Nearly all of the children are outdoors when suddenly the building erupts in fire. As Grace looks around for her seventeen-year-old daughter, Jenny, she realizes that she is still inside where she has been serving as a student assistant in the medical room, situated on the top floor. Seeing that eight-year-old Adam is outside being comforted by Jenny’s classmate, Rowena, Grace raises into the burning building to find Jenny.

Suddenly, Grace finds she outside her body, watching events unfold in the hospital to which she and Jenny have been transported. Re-entering her body is effortless, but she cannot open her eyes, move her limbs or communicate, so she floats back out of it to observe what is transpiring. As her beloved husband of nineteen years, Mike, arrives and is advised that Grace is comatose after having suffered severe brain trauma, she is joined by Jenny. With second degree burns and smoke inhalation injuries, Jenny is also moving freely outside her body. The two of them can move about both within and beyond the hospital walls, but no one can see or communicate with them.

Grace and Jenny watch as Mike and his determined police detective sister, Sarah, deal with the grim prognoses delivered by Grace and Jenny’s treating physicians. Worse, when they learn that the fire was the work of an arsonist, Grace and Jenny are able to seamlessly follow and eavesdrop on not only Mike and Sarah, but the various suspects and their families. As time is running out to save Grace and Jenny’s lives, Sarah risks her own career and livelihood to solve the mystery of who would want to see the school destroyed — and Jenny dead. Can she learn the truth and will the information matter if neither Grace nor Jenny can be spared?

Review:

Author Rosamund Lupton

Grace became pregnant with Jenny while a university student, but happily married Mike, and has been a part-time art reviewer since. There is a nagging regret that she never fulfilled her professional ambition to be an artist, but it is fleeting when she measures it against her greatest accomplishments: her beautiful children and successful marriage. Adam is their miracle child, carried to term after three previous miscarriages, and he is truly good-hearted, doted on by his parents and beautiful big sister. Although Jenny is bright, Grace is bothered by her unwillingness to fully apply herself to her studies while dowdy Rowena steals all of the academic glory, excelling in every subject and is on-track to study science at Oxford. Jenny was stalked for a time via email, and personally-delivered messages and unwanted “gifts,” but the anonymous predator has not made any further contact in four months — or so Grace believes. When the fire is ruled arson, the question of who would want to harm Jenny looms large in light of the fact that her stalker was never identified and prosecuted.

Jenny is a typical teenage girl, more focused on her boyfriend than her schoolwork and irritated by her mother’s nagging. She is popular, save for the stalker, and would do anything for her precious little brother. More than anything, Jenny wants a chance to live her life, so Grace tries to shield her from the dire truth about her physical condition as the two of them invisibly navigate the hospital, observing the goings-on and waiting for their outcomes to see if they want to re-inhabit their damaged bodies. Of course, they cannot communicate with the living — they can only watch and hope that they somehow stumble upon the same truths that Grace and Jenny are discovering in the course of their surreptitious travels.

Mike, a television journalist, is devoted to his family, but suffers the typical guilt associated with finding his wife and daughter in critical condition and his young son traumatized by the whole ordeal. His anger and feelings of failure for not preventing the calamities fuel him to begin investigating the case himself. Joined by his tough and wise older sister, Sarah, who has been placed on compassionate leave by the police force that employs her, they focus their attention on a teacher, beloved by the student body, who was recently fired following a playground accident. Blamed for improperly supervising the children, Mike knows that one of the youngsters was a recalcitrant bully who terrorized Adam and suspects that he may have contributed to the incident. But he also believes the teacher may have been Jenny’s stalker and urges the police to focus their investigative efforts upon him. His concerns are echoed by Rowena’s mother, Maisie, who has recently expressed strongly negative feelings about the former teacher that left Grace somewhat baffled. Could there be reasons for her best friend’s vitriol that she never considered until now?

Afterwards moves at a quick, steady pace as the companion mysteries concerning the stalker and arsonist’s identities and motives are unraveled. Does Grace know Jenny — or any of her friends and family — as well as she thinks she does? And what family secrets has Maisie, seemingly so open, emotionally honest, unflinchingly supportive, been keeping from her good friend? As Grace narratives the action to Mike, she remembers so many aspects of their family life — average moments that she now realizes she may never get to experience again. Her storytelling is actually a love letter to the man she has loved for so many years. Grace is a sympathetic everywoman with whom readers can readily empathize, just as Mike is an average father doing the best he possibly can to navigate the devastating circumstances into which he and his family are suddenly thrust. The result is a highly effective, emotionally satisfying story that will inspire readers to examine their own relationships with family and close friends, as well as their thoughts about whether or not life continues afterwards and, if so, in what form. Afterwards receives my enthusiastic recommendation for fans of both mysteries and family dramas.

Reading Challenges:
2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
2012 Free Reads Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2012

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one electronic copy of Afterwards free of charge from the author in conjunction with TLC Book Tours review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Enter to Win a Copy of Afterwards

Author Rosamund Lupton has generously provided one copy of Afterwards to be awarded to a Colloquium reader! Enter utilizing the Rafflecopter widget. (Note: The book can only be mailed to a U.S. or Canadian street address — not a P.O. box.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entries will be accepted until Monday, May 7, 2012, at 12:01 a.m.

On the Same Topic:

• Book Review and Giveaway: The Good Father
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Most Dangerous Thing
• Book Review and Giveaway: Whole Latte Life
• Book Review and Giveaway: A Grand Murder
• Book Review and Giveaway: Unbroken

Topics: 2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge, 2012 Free Reads Challenge, 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge, Afterwards, Book Giveaways, Book Review Party Wednesday, Book Reviews, Rosamund Lupton, Saturday Review of Books, Spring Reading Thing 2012, TLC Book Tours

Héctor has longed dreamed of a better life for himself, his wife Lilia, and their infant daughter, Alejandra. He has been making plans for some time to cross the border that divides their native Mexican and the United States with the help of a coyote. While Lilia understands and supports Héctor’s dream, she is somewhat conflicted about it, not just because of its inherent danger — she also feels loyalty to Cucita, the grandmother who raised her after the death of her mother, and her homeland. She knows no life beyond their village of Puerto Isadore, situated not far from the beautiful resorts that lure tourists to the Mexican beaches.

Leaving Lilia and Alejandra behind, Héctor embarks on a treacherous journey, promising that he will send word when he arrives in their new home. As Lilia anxiously awaits confirmation of Héctor’s safety, she encounters Emanuel, a childhood friend who still has strong feelings for her. As the days drag on and Lilia’s faith in Héctor’s dream waivers, she is tempted by Emanuel professions of love and loyalty. Eventually, Emanuel offers to arrange for Lilia and Alejandra to follow Héctor, rather than wait for him to earn enough money to arrange for their safe transport to his side. Against Héctor’s wishes, Lilia accepts Emanuel’s offer and begins a risky journey that will change all of their lives forever.

Review:

Author Michel Stone

Twenty-year-old Lilia is a beautiful young mother, devoted to her husband, six-month-old daughter, and the grandmother who single-handedly raised her. Her mother’s best friend, Rosa, like her grandmother, does not think much of Héctor’s obsession with a new life in the U.S. and discourages Lilia from following him, even to the point of trying to make Lilia believe that Héctor has perished when some time passes before Lilia hears from him. Lilia’s mother died giving birth to her and she never knew her father, so she is unaware of the family history that fuels Rosa’s bitter outlook. Lilia knows only that she and Alejandra belong with Héctor and when Emanuel stirs feelings in her, she becomes frightened and feels even more alone, determined that she and Alejandra — who sleeps with Héctor’s shirt tucked into her basket so that she will not forget her father’s scent — must join Héctor as soon as possible, rather than wait the year or more it could take him to earn enough money to secure their safe passage.

Stubborn and determined, Lilia accepts Emanuel’s offer and embarks upon the journey with his uncle, a coyote, completely oblivious to the perilous nature of the trip or the evils that can befall an innocent young mother and her child. Completely at the mercy of those into whose hands she has thrust her own and Alejandra’s fate, Lilia has no choice but to follow their commands and submit to their wills, blinding trusting that she and Alejandra will soon be reunited with Héctor.

Lilia does not appreciate the conditions under which Héctor successfully traveled first to Texas and then on to South Carolina, while others in his party were not as lucky. Héctor is unwilling to submit Lilia and Alejandra to the same harrowing, life-threatening trip he survived, but his warnings to Lilia fall on deaf ears. With the death of Cucita, Lilia is alone, lonely, and impatient, despite Héctor’s report of finding good friends, steady work, and a comfortable home in the United States. Alongside Miguel, a fellow immigrant, Héctor is offered shelter by Pablo, Miguel’s cousin, and his family, and immediately lands a job on a tree farm with a compassionate and generous couple, Lucas and Elizabeth. If only Lilia will be patient, Héctor will be able to provide for her and their daughter.

Stone brings a depth of understanding and compassion to her characters, each of whom is simultaneously heroic and foolish in their own right. Héctor is a proud, strong young man who dreams only of the life about which he has heard is possible in the United States and wants nothing but to provide for himself and his family. That dream has fueled him for years and compels him to endure unspeakable hardships that destroy less determined and steel-willed men. As for Lilia, she is equally proud and once she determines that she will follow her husband, nothing — not even common sense — will stop her. She has no idea what dangers lurk along the way to South Carolina and by the time she realizes that she should have heeded Héctor’s warnings, it is too late.

From that point on, Stone’s story takes one heartbreaking turn after another and readers, by then long-invested in her characters’ well-being, will be unable to stop reading until they learn the fate of the young family. As in real life, answers are hard to come by and Stone’s tale is rooted in the stark realities of the drama that unfolds within The Iguana Tree’s pages. She unrelentingly takes readers along on Héctor and Lilia’s journey with no promise of a happy ending. Rather, as their lives fall apart and they become increasingly distant from each other and the love they both once clung to, the value of and toll extracted by Héctor’s dream becomes evident through Stone’s straight-forward, unembellished writing style. Her sparse narrative style adds to the story’s emotional power.

The Iguana Tree is both a timely and timeless tale of bravery and human folly, focused ambition and just plain stubborn determination. It is deeply compelling, imbued with characters who are as identifiable as they are foreign to readers who manage to grab hold of readers’ hearts and psyches and refuse to relinquish their grip long after their story has concluded. It is a notable first work of fiction that will leave readers clamoring for more from such a promising novelist. I highly recommend The Iguana Tree.

Reading Challenges:
2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
2012 Free Reads Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2012

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one electronic copy of The Iguana Tree free of charge from the author in conjunction with TLC Book Tours review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

On the Same Topic:

• Book Review and Giveaway: The Most Dangerous Thing
• Book Review and Giveaway: Afterwards
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Song Remains the Same
• Book Review and Giveaway: Whole Latte Life
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Good Father

Topics: 2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge, 2012 Free Reads Challenge, 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge, Book Reviews, Michel Stone, Spring Reading Thing 2012, The Iguana Tree, TLC Book Tours

Synopsis:

Catherine O’Brien and her partner, Louise, are homicide detectives with the St. Paul, Minnesota police department. As the story begins, Nathan Stanley has been found murdered on the front porch of his opulent home. He just happens to one of the chief of police’s friends, so Catherine and Louise are directed to solve the crime and make an arrest within the next two days. That means that they will undoubtedly be working around-the-clock, placing additional strain upon Catherine’s already-rocky marriage to Gavin, a contractor. Catherine and Gavin’s love for each other is not in question, but Gavin would like to spend time with his workaholic wife every once in a while.

The detectives begin their investigation at Stanley and Forster, interviewing the victim’s partner. But soon they have a daunting list of Stanley’s known enemies, another murder to solve, and a list of suspects that include Stanley’s ex-wife, his mistress’s husband, a couple of his trusted employees, and even their own boss, the chief of police! An unusual murder weapon and fibers from something every Minnesotan needs — a pair of Alpaca wool mittens — send them scurrying for additional clues. But can they find the killers in the time allotted them by the chief without having to arrest him? Can Catherine’s marriage to Gavin survive yet another separation? And will she come home safely at the conclusion of this investigation?

Review

Author Stacy Verdick Case

A Grand Hotel introduces readers to Case’s Cagney and Lacey-esque pair of detectives. One is stylish, the other perpetually spills food on the front of her clothing, causing her husband to remark that if she doesn’t have stains on her blouse, she couldn’t have eaten. One never has a hair out of place, while the other scrounges for a rubber ponytail holder just to tame her. One is a crazy, but very lucky driver, while the other holds on for dear life. They trade barbs about just about everything, including Catherine’s love of all things Star Trek, while Louise accidentally reveals that she is Highlander enthusiast. Their charmingly antagonistic repartee is the highlight of the book.

Equally beguiling is Catherine and Gavin’s relationship. They are plainly crazy about each other, despite the pressures of Catherine’s nonstop, dangerous career and refusal to take a vacation with Gavin. He is long-suffering, to be sure, especially in light of Catherine’s track record for work-related injuries, but construction work holds its own dangers, as Catherine reminds him when he pressures her to consider a desk job with the force.

While Case’s leading characters sparkle, the book would be more satisfying if the characters were more fully developed and additional details concerning their histories revealed. The same can be said about the group of supporting players comprised of the murder victims, their employees, and the women with whom they are entangled, all of whom could engender more interest and concern from readers if more were known about them. Case injects some innovative elements into a tried-and-true plot, even though omitted or inaccurate details pertaining to law enforcement and crime scene procedures will rankle mystery aficionados and purists.

Case keeps the action moving and A Grand Murder is a quick read, enjoyable for its witty dialogue and likable protagonist. Overall, it constitutes a promising beginning to Case’s fiction-writing career and spurs hope that the second installment in the series will be an even stronger effort.

Reading Challenges:
2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
2012 Free Reads Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2012

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one electronic copy of A Grand Murder free of charge from the author in conjunction with the Partners in Crime review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Enter to Win a Copy of A Grand Murder

Author Stacy Verdick Case has generously provided one copy of A Grand Murder to be awarded to a Colloquium reader! Enter utilizing the Rafflecopter widget. (Note: The book can only be mailed to a U.S. or Canadian street address — not a P.O. box.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entries will be accepted until Monday, April 30, 2012, at 12:01 a.m.

On the Same Topic:

• Book Review and Giveaway: Whole Latte Life
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Good Father
• Book Review and Giveaway: Afterwards
• Book Review and Giveaway: Unbroken
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Most Dangerous Thing

Topics: 2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge, 2012 Free Reads Challenge, 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge, A Grand Murder, Book Giveaways, Book Reviews, Partners in Crime Tours, Saturday Review of Books, Spring Reading Thing 2012, Stacy Verdick Case

Synopsis:

Gordon Meyers has neither seen nor spoken with Glenna Rising for thirty years. They met in 1968 and lived together for the better part of two years before breaking up. Gordon served in Vietnam and returned home to launch a successful consulting firm. In the ensuing years he has traveled the world, been married and divorced once, and raised a son, Alex, now twenty-five, that he adores.

Glenna was a medical student when Gordon interviewed her for a newspaper article he was writing about the raging battle for abortion reform in New York. The daughter of a physician, Glenna shared a house with fellow future doctors Biff and Robin. It was a crazy, turbulent time and Glenna was smart, beautiful, and sexually free. Gordon was instantly mesmerized by her.

Countless nights alone in nondescript hotel rooms around the globe have left Gordon wondering what became of his dreams, ambitions, and most of all, the future he once believed he shared with Glenna. He has never stopped thinking about her and has learned that she is a practicing pediatrician in Manhattan. When snow grounds the flight Gordon was supposed to take to spend the holidays with his sister, he opts to drive instead … and take the opportunity to pay a surprise visit to his old flame. Gordon has a very specific reason for reconnecting with Glenna on this particular day.

After Glenna gets over the shock of Gordon’s presence in her office waiting room, the two of them go out to have a drink and catch up. Is it possible to go back and pick up the pieces of a lost love so many years later, overcoming the hurt and anger that destroyed the relationship? Can the passion that drew them together when they were so young be rekindled at this stage of their lives? Is that what Gordon really wants? Or is he looking for something else?

Review:

Author Peter Golden

Gordon Meyers is floundering when he meets Glenna Rising, a medical student who not only skipped a year of high school, but graduated from college in three years and is ranked number seven in her medical school class at a time when women were still far-outnumbered by men. Gordon is in his fifth year of study at Brooklyn College — it’s a wonder he hasn’t been academically disqualified due to his poor grades — and is really only hanging in there to avoid the draft. His father was a decorated World War II veteran and his mother cannot bear the thought of waiting for her only son to come home from Vietnam the way she anxiously awaited his father’s return. Gordon wants to write fiction, but when his uncle makes a connection for him with a local newspaper he accepts the chance to author an article on the fight to legalize abortion — he will earn twenty dollars and see it published if it is any good.

Gordon ends up interviewing Glenna for the article and he is immediately taken in by her beauty, brains, and flirtatiousness. Glenna is interested, but whether Gordon will be anything more than a conquest is not clear at the outset. As the story proceeds, Glenna’s troubled family history is revealed, giving readers a context for her complex emotions — not that being a woman coming of age in the late 1960’s and entering a male-dominated, highly stressful profession wasn’t, in and of itself, sufficient. From the outset, Glenna is a more difficult character to love than Gordon and readers who do not remember the 60’s — particularly women’s struggles for equality, recognition, and justice — may have a harder time relating to and empathizing with her than those of us who vividly recall those days.

First love rarely comes along with the knowledge that you can lose that love. So when people meet and fall in love, and they’re so deeply connected, it doesn’t seem to cross their minds that this is going to end. And I think when it ends, people are never the same again. They’ll have other people that they will love — probably in a much more adult way — but they’ll always know that this is fragile. You can’t tell a young person, “You know this isn’t going to be forever.” It doesn’t even register. That’s because they have no experience of that profound loss.
~ Author Peter Gordon

The story is conveyed via Gordon’s first-person narrative and entirely from his perspective, with the action shifting between the present and his recitation of past events. He frankly describes the passionate, uninhibited life he shared with Glenna and, most importantly, the strong connection he felt to her from the moment he met her. Although Gordon instantly felt as though he had known Glenna his entire life, she repeatedly tells him that he doesn’t really see her, which perplexes and frustrates Gordon. That notion is reinforced by her less attractive, ice cream-eating, overall-wearing roommate, Robin, an active member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) with whom Gordon ends up trekking to Woodstock in 1969. Tension in the house is also created by Biff, the Brooks Brothers-wearing, trust fund baby who also shares the residence with them. Biff has long desired Glenna himself and offers his own snarky commentary at every opportunity.

Gordon and Glenna’s breakup is sufficiently dramatic to keep them apart for decades, during which each of them becomes successful, financially comfortable, and loves again. But no other love measures up or fulfills in the same way and, as the story opens, Gordon is driven to at last find answers to the questions that have haunted him through the years. Golden skillfully guides his characters through their first meeting in thirty years with a tone and tenor that is tentative and believable. Can they work through their lingering hurt and move past long-held resentments to resume their relationship? Do either of them truly want to try starting over now that they have been reunited and are getting to know who each has become in the ensuing years? In Golden’s skilled hands, the characters’ journeys feel authentic and readers, who have been endeared to them by that point through the book’s earlier revelations of their history, will want only the best for both of them.

Critics are drawing the inevitable comparisons of Comeback Love to the work of Nicholas Sparks, perhaps the best-known male writer of romantic fiction. But that comparison is not only inaccurate, in my opinion, but also does a disservice to Golden. Comeback Love contains a depth of emotion and understanding of the complexities of human motivations that propels it beyond Sparks’ achievements, making comparisons to works like Jean Davies Okimoto’s Walter’s Muse more apt. I highly recommend Comeback Love to readers who crave romantic fiction about and for mature adults, and look forward to reading more from Golden.

Reading Challenges:
2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
2012 Free Reads Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2012

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one electronic copy of Comeback Love free of charge from the author in conjunction with the Crazy Book Tours review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Enter to Win an Autographed Copy of Comeback Love

I will be bestowing one autographed copy of Comeback Love upon a lucky Colloquium reader! Enter utilizing the Rafflecopter widget. (Note: The book can only be mailed to a U.S. or Canadian street address — not a P.O. box.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entries will be accepted until Monday, April 30, 2012, at 12:01 a.m.

On the Same Topic:

• Book Review and Giveaway: Whole Latte Life
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Good Father
• Book Review and Giveaway: Afterwards
• Book Review and Giveaway: A Grand Murder
• Book Review and Giveaway: Unbroken

Topics: 2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge, 2012 Free Reads Challenge, 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge, Book Reviews, Comeback Love, Crazy Book Tours, Peter Golden, Saturday Review of Books, Spring Reading Thing 2012

Synopsis:

Charlotte Malone is having second thoughts about her upcoming wedding to Tim Rose, but she’s not exactly sure why. She escapes to a familiar hideaway, Red Mountain, the site of the Ludlow Estate, where she and her mother, Phoebe, used to picnic, enjoying each other’s company and dreaming the afternoon away together. Tragically, Phoebe was killed in a motor vehicle accident when Charlotte was a mere ten years old and, given that she has never known her father’s identity, Charlotte has been pretty much alone in the world ever since. Taken in and raised by her mother’s good friend, Gert, who is now also deceased, Charlotte has established herself as a successful and highly sought-after wedding stylist/consultant, assisted at Malone & Co. by her good friend, Dixie. Tim proposed to Charlotte just two months after they met and began dating, and Charlotte is eager to become a member of his large, close-knit family. But with her own wedding just two months away, Charlotte has yet to select her own gown, address the invitations or attend to other pressing details. Why?

There is an auction taking place at the Ludlow Estate and before she realizes what’s happening, Charlotte has spent a thousand dollars on a beat-up old trunk with the lock welded shut that supposedly contains a hundred-year-old wedding dress. The odd auctioneer wearing the iridescent purple shirt was peculiarly determined that Charlotte uy the trunk. Even more bizarre is the notation on the receipt he hands her: “Redeemed.” Confused by her own behavior, Charlotte correctly predicts that the purchase will be a point of contention between her and Tim, who is angered by her having spent so much money without consulting him, especially on an item that may well prove to be worthless.

But once Charlotte manages to get the trunk open, she discovers an exquisite gown in pristine condition that appears never to have been worn. How is it possible that a dress could be that old without showing any sign of decay? The gown is hand-sewn with gold thread and seems to radiate its own light. The style defies description, but is timeless, with the initials “T.H.” are initialed inside. Also in the trunk is a beautiful sachet containing a set of dog tags.

Who created the beautiful dress and did the bride for whom it was designed ever wear it? Who placed the dog tags in the sachet and what happened to that soldier? How did the dress end up in the trunk and who welded it shut?

So many mysteries … Charlotte is determined to solve them all and find out if the dress was truly destined for her, as well as whether Tim is the man she is meant to give her heart to while wearing it.

Review:

Author Rachel Hauck

Charlotte is a survivor who has made her own way in the world, save for the $100,000 anonymous gift that allowed her to renovate and remodel her bridal salon, taking the business to a new level of success. But the dreams, planning, and, most importantly, innate gift of being able to select the one unique gown that each of her clients is destined to wear on the most important day of her life are all Charlotte’s own. She loves Tim and her attraction to him is unquestioned, so she is stymied by her indecisiveness when it comes to completing preparations for her own big day. It soon becomes clear, however, that Tim shares her misgivings and Charlotte winds up heartbroken, but determined to regroup and carry on.

When Charlotte discovers the stunning, magical dress in the old trunk, she is equally determined to learn its history and why the strange auctioneer who periodically turns up in her shop so adamantly insists that the dress belongs to her.

Charlotte’s current-day story is juxtaposed against that of Emily Canton, a twenty-two-year-old college graduate living in 1912 Birmingham. She is stunned when Daniel Ludlow abandons his professional baseball career and returns home, eager to marry her and launch his new career as a teacher. In the five months Daniel was away, Emily did not hear from him and began dating Philip Saltonstall, a debonair member of the wealthy and powerful Saltonstall family. She accepts Philip’s proposal, mindful that her marriage will elevate not only her own social standing, but that of her entire family, as well as undoubtedly improve business for the local bank her father founded and operates.

Daniel soon brings Emily troubling news about Philip’s behavior, some of which Emily herself witnesses. Emily has never known Daniel to lie, but still … he does want to marry her, so could he be motivated to discredit Philip in order to win Emily’s hand for himself? Emily is spirited, opinionated, and brave, daring to venture into the “colored” section of Birmingham to have Taffy Hall, a talented African-American designer and seamstress, construct her wedding dress, despite the vehement protests of her family and Philip. The dress Taffy creates for Emily makes her feel loved, while the stiffly formal, uninspired gown sewn by Mrs. Caruthers prohibits her from breathing and moving freely. Which dress should Emily choose for her most special day? Is Philip truly a cad who is merely using Emily to secure his inheritance and social position, or is Daniel wrong about Philip’s character? Should Emily listen to her heart or her family?

Charlotte’s journey leads her to Hillary and solves the mystery of both the dog tags contained in the sachet and the welded lock. Hillary’s story is also one of heartbreak born of loss and anger. A Saltonstall descendant, she has long carried her pain with her silently and absent resolution. Hillary becomes a mother-figure to Charlotte, filling in large pieces of the puzzle and joining the younger woman’s search for answers. Along the way, Hillary is able to find peace for herself as she bonds with and helps Charlotte.

Finally, there is Mary Grace, now ninety-four years old and married an astonishing seventy-two years to her preacher husband, Thomas. She too becomes an integral part of Charlotte’s life and provides additional information about the dress. Thomas and Mary Grace are an inspiring example of all that marriage can be when one find’s a true life partner and help Charlotte understand not only what “till death do us part” means, but how rich that commitment can make a life that is lived in love. Charlotte realizes that she wants nothing more than the kind of love Thomas and Mary Grace have. But is that what Tim offers her?

Lastly, there is Tim, an upstanding, honorable, but confused man of thirty-two who, like so many men, has so far not been ready to fully grow up. Also like many men who have tender hearts, Tim is not adept at cutting his ties with a former girlfriend, Kim, who arrives on scene and complicates his already strained relationship with Charlotte. Despite being somewhat hapless at managing his love life effectively, Tim is a man of faith whose heart is true. When he finally figures out what he really wants and knows he is ready to pursue his dream, he knows he has to prove himself to Charlotte. Is he up to the task?

The Wedding Dress is a completely charming and fanciful tale inhabited by well-meaning and endearing characters, along with a villain or two. Hauck effortlessly alternates the action and focus between 2012 and 1912 Birmingham, Alabama, and events taking place in the lives of her main characters. At the center of the story about one’s search for identity, destiny, and treasures of the heart stands the dress — an allegory for faith which, like the gown, withstands the pressures and ravages of time, perfectly fits all who inhabit it, brings radiance to one’s life, and is a thing of beauty observable by everyone we encounter. Hauck’s characters and their struggles are authentic, despite the fantasy aspects of the piece, and the ending, if predictable, is thoroughly satisfying. Overall, The Wedding Dress is a delightfully whimsical, well-crafted story of love lost, love found, and four brides who are united by destiny and common beliefs. Readers who love romance will not want to miss this latest work from Rachel Hauck!

Reading Challenges:
2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
2012 Free Reads Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2012

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of The Wedding Dress free of charge from the author in conjunction with the Litfuse Publicity Group’s review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Author Rachel Hauck will be hosting a Facebook Chat Party on Thursday, April 19, 2012, beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST, during which she will be awarding a “True Beauty” $200 Visa, as well as copies of The Wedding Dress, a book club package and other prizes to attendees! Click here to RSVP!

On the Same Topic:

• Book Review: By the Light of the Silvery Moon
• Book Review: Beauty for Ashes
• Book Review: Sixty Acres and a Bride
• Book Review and Giveaway: The Most Dangerous Thing
• Book Review and Giveaway: Whole Latte Life

Topics: 2012 50 Books in a Year Reading Challenge, 2012 Free Reads Challenge, 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge, Book Reviews, Litfuse Publicity, Rachel Hauck, Spring Reading Thing 2012, The Wedding Dress