Battle of Brothers: William and Harry–The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult

Battle of Brothers: William and Harry–The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult by Robert Lacey

Princess Diana raised her sons, William and Harry, to be the closest of brothers. However, they have grown into very different men. Royal historian Robert Lacey examines the boys' relationship over the years, from a childhood where they leaned heavily on each other to their current estrangement. 

386 pages. 

Book Club Reads

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

A story of class and race in suburb America. Valerie clashes with the entitled local celebrity Brad over losing her beloved oak tree. Meanwhile, their children are beginning a forbidden relationship. I loved this one, it kept me interested all the way through. I was rooting for Juniper and Xavier the whole time, and cried a bit by the end of it.

311 pages




Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

Rue is a midwife, healer, and conjurer trying to hold her community together in the aftermath of the Civil War. Meanwhile, she has to deal with a charismatic traveling preacher and keep the secrets of her former plantation owner's daughter. I really liked this one for the rich depiction of root work and spirituality during the period of slavery. Although it was a bit difficult to follow the shifts between pre- and post-Civil War, the story was totally worth it!

400 pages



All Adults Here by Emma Straub

Astrid basically has a three-quarter life crisis when she witnesses an old friend being struck and killed by a school bus. Now she regrets how she raised her children, and decides to open up about her relationship with her hairdresser. This was a good family drama, and I really liked the story of Cecelia and Robin's friendship. If you are looking for a lighthearted, fun read, that isn't completely devoid of wisdom and insight into modern families, this is your book.

356 pages



The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The identical Vignes twins dramatically diverge as adults, with one woman eventually returning to her local black community, and the other secretly passing as white in California, her husband and friends knowing nothing of her past. Yet their story intertwines, across the generations and the decades. This book was really great! I enjoyed the contrast between Stella's life and Jude's in late 1970's LA.

343 pages

Fruits Basket Another Book 3 by Natsuki Takaya

...What do you mean that's the end?
Shiki...you deserve the world.
Drag Shigure. Drag him.
Mutsuki, you are your father. Don't lie and say you're not a shipper.
Hajime. Someone follow him around and tell me everything about him. EVERYTHING.
Sawa. You precious cinnamon roll. Too pure....And yet so mistreated.
Abusive people suck.
192 Pages

Fruits Basket Another Book 2 by Natsuki Takaya

No spoilers for the OG Fruits Basket (well the manga has spoilers, but this review will not). My babies have babies and I have more feelings than all of them combined... well that's unrealistic, but I have a lot of feelings. It doesn't help that Fruits Basket has a reboot and I have feelings about the animation and the angst... *Nervous laughter that melts into crying*

192 pages

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

I love Cyra and how she sees herself, because I understand it so deeply. She is me and I am her. I see myself the way she sees herself, or at least I used to (and I still do sometimes). She is fierce and I love her. I love the chemistry between Akos and Cyra.

Honestly Akos is husband goals... Gentlemen, take notes. I am not kidding. There are passages I want you to repeat back to me.

I didn't expect myself to love this book, and I actually listened to it first in my pile of audiobooks because I wanted to get it out of the way... ha ha. But my heart. I can't even right now. I have so many feelings...And I feel like I can't trust Veronica Roth for reasons which will not be named (as in I'm afraid something is going to happen, not that something has happened--because no spoilers).
I may or may not have texted my Hufflepuff at least twenty text messages detailing my feelings in both word and gif form...

As a side note, Austin Butler's voice is beautiful, and I would marry it.

512 Pages

Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn

Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There's some things about this story that are just lovely, including diversity and the family struggles. There are a few beautiful sentences, and the overall themes are great. I wanted to love it far more than I did.

There's some definitely plot issues, and a few things that happen in the first 30% of the book that just make no sense. It may be my inner-educator popping out on this one, but I had to suspend disbelief to continue onward, and that was almost impossible for me to do. I think it was clear that the author hadn't done enough research, or didn't have enough experience to write on some of the issues in this story, particularly related to parenting an autistic child. For me, the mom being unaware of so much about her son lacked truth and honesty, and since it's contemporary fiction, I struggled with that. She may be an absent parent, but there's no way she could be so clueless. If nothing else, the school would keep her informed about her child, so this whole idea that she's unaware of his struggles (such as the running) really got under my skin.

The writing is pretty decent. There are a few lines that really stuck with me and made me think. However, there are also quite a few spots where the author just really beats the reader over the head with her message, because she doesn't think we are smart enough to get it on our own. But we are. Granted, I'm an adult, but after teaching middle school for 6 years, I can say that my students were also smart and picked up on things. They didn't need or want books that talked down to them. I wish the messages had just been made through the storytelling, instead of being forced on the reader, as that felt inorganic.

Overall, it's a decent story, though the plot continually lags. It has a lot of emotion, which I appreciate, and the character development is mostly decent. I appreciated the attempt at diversity, though I wish things with Chicken had added up better.

This book will likely appeal most to 5th & 6th grade girls. The voice can be a bit too childish at times, but overall it works. I love the cover. I just wish the overall concept made more sense.

Pages: 304

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This story is everything. It's such a rich and honest portrayal of family, and it ripped my heart open and stitched it back together a thousand times.

It's the story of 3 siblings, who all grew up in different homes, under different circumstances, not even knowing the others exist. It's told from 3 POVs that are so different and yet also achingly similar.

I love this one. It hurts in all the right ways, and my only complaint is that I'm an idiot and should have read this book last year, during one of the 9 different times I checked it out and then didn't follow through with reading it. I'm slow on the uptake folks, but I do eventually get there.

Book 4 read in 2018

Pages: 374

Fallen Crest High by Tijan

Fallen Crest High by Tijan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On the drama scale of 0 to 10, this gets a 27. It’s as if a soap opera, had an affair with a telenovela, and all the offspring got sent to high school. That’s what I liked best about this book.

The initial drama sucks you in, and it isn’t until you step back from it that you realize some things are missing here, like character development, plot elements (including a plot, in general), transitions between scenes and dialogue, setting, and realism and believability, which typically exist in a contemporary novel.

You have to suspend disbelief at a pro level for this one. Still, it’s an amusing experience, if you need a change of pace.

The final thing I found difficult is that the story has approximately 237 side characters, when about 15 would have been sufficient. The majority of those side characters aren’t developed past having a name and a side in the drama. Most of them aren't useful to the story, and they just get in the way and waste time.

343 Read in 2018

Pages: 375

---

Fallen Crest Family by Tijan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Book two is the end of the line for me. All of the writing issues that were evident in book one are magnified in book two. And it’s exhausting. I love drama, but I can’t handle the poor story construction any longer.

The plot is missing, as are most plot elements. The only thing that fuels this book is drama, but it all feels like recycled drama at this point. The conflicts are all weak, which in turn equals boring, which is a shame, as this book could actually use some real conflict…not blown up, unrealistic drama, but true conflict, the kind that forces characters to make difficult choices and reveal more of who they are.

There are even more side characters in book 2 who aren’t developed at all. Example: Hey, meet Jeff. We don’t know what Jeff looks like, who he is, why he matters to the story, or even what his personality is. He just suddenly appears out of thin air, as if he has always been there. Then Jeff keeps getting his name randomly mentioned in the scenes that pretty much could go in any order, as it’s all the same thing over and over again: parent drama, sex, party time, sex, teen drama, threats of violence, sex, substance abuse, parental neglect and abuse, drama, sex, party time, repeat ad infinitum.

Also, the main characters don’t show any level of growth. They’re basically the same as they were in book one, so I couldn’t stay interested in following them through the endless cycle of repeat scenarios, ad nauseam. They have the potential to be interesting, layered individuals, but they aren’t. It would be fun to peel away those layers, but it never happens….or it happens at a snail's pace, which isn’t enough to keep me reading. Honestly, everything that happened in book one and two could easily have been condensed to fit in the first half of book one, had this been edited better and rewritten.

There are no transitions between scenes, so one second we are at a party, and then I suddenly realize we are with an entirely different group of people in another location, and I don’t even know how we got there or why that occurred. The setting and world building are almost nonexistent, which would be okay, if the story was easy to follow. It's not. You're going to get whiplash from how it just randomly jumps around as soon as the dialogue cuts off.

Plus, two of the characters basically have the same name, and since I listened on audio, it was the end of book two before I knew it was two different people. I mean, it honestly could have just been one person, as basically both Tate and Kate are just mean girls, so I didn’t lose much from the story by not realizing that Kate was a separate person. She might as well just be Tate.

If you like lots of drama and steam, and you can overlook issues with story construction,you might fare well with this. Both of my book besties really enjoyed it,which makes me the odd woman out. I tried to let it all go, but I just can’t overlook that many issues with the writing. I’ve reached the point where the more I read, the more frustrated I get by it, so I'm calling it quits here and moving on to something better.

If you are looking for an excellent YA romance series with lots of drama, that is extremely well-written, try anything by Katie McGarry. I also enjoyed I'LL MEET YOU THERE by Heather Demetrios.

Book 344 Read in 2018

Pages: 287

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

 
Jim and Bob Burgess have a past. When he was four years old, Bobby killed his father.  Now in their fifties, and far from their native Maine, they are both lawyers in New York City. Jim is a successful corporate attorney, while Bob works for Legal Aid. Jim has always belittled Bob and Bob has always taken it in stride; he idolizes his big brother.

When their nephew is arrested for rolling a pig's head down the length of a Muslim Mosque, they go back to Shirley Falls to help their sister. Suddenly, they are thrown into a family situation that changes their dynamics forever.
                





337 pages

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Summary: "When Lauren and Ryan's marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes. Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren's ideas about monogamy and marriage."

After I Do is another of Taylor Jenkins Reid's amazing books, and I enjoyed it very much. It is not quite as magical as Maybe in Another Life, but its realism spoke to me. Reid is an excellent story-teller. She makes you feel intense emotions and second-guess your entire life with just a few sentences. Her words are simple but very powerful. I can't wait to read more of her work. 

336 pages

The Turner House, By Angela Flournoy

This lovely tale is Ms. Flournoy's debut novel; it is the story of the Turner family -- parents who migrated from the south in the 1940s to Detroit.  They purchased the house on Yarrow Street, in east Detroit and raised their 13 children there.  It is well written, with nicely developed characters and a plot that is driven by the family drama, pathos, and humor. 

352 pages

Nowhere but Here by Katie McGarry

Summary: "When a reluctant visit turns into an extended summer vacation among relatives Emily never knew she had, one thing becomes clear: nothing is what it seems. Not the club, not her secret-keeping father and not Oz, a guy with suck-me-in blue eyes who can help her understand them both."

Nowhere but Here is the first installment in the Thunder Road series, a new series by Katie McGarry. The next installment, Walk the Edge, comes out in March 2016. 



494 pages

Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Summary: Dare You To is the follow-up novel to Pushing the Limits. After meeting Noah, Echo, Isaiah and Beth in Pushing the Limits, Dare You To follows Beth in her new life and her adjustments in her relationship with Isaiah, her uncle Scott, and her drug-addicted mom. Beth continues to try and protect her mom, no matter the cost to herself. Dare You To deals with some pretty heavy stuff: drug use and domestic violence. Her mom's boyfriend beats up both Beth and her mom, and it can be pretty gruesome at times. 

When Beth is forced to leave her mom to live with her estranged uncle, Beth meets Ryan, the all-star pitcher on the school's baseball team. Beth and Ryan begin a fun and antagonizing flirt-mance while they each try to work out their own personal issues. 

Overall, I enjoyed the book, even though it was quite predictable. I hated Beth in Pushing the Limits because she was exceedingly mean to Echo, but her meanness is toned down in this installment, which makes her more tolerable. I liked Ryan quite a bit, and he is my favorite male character in the Pushing the Limits series so far. 

486 pages