Happy Thanksgiving!

source

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. 
I hope this is the start of a great holiday season for you and your family!

Review: Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai

Butterfly Yellow

by Thanhha Lai

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 304

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  In the final days of the Việt Nam War, Hằng takes her little brother, Linh, to the airport, determined to find a way to safety in America. In a split second, Linh is ripped from her arms—and Hằng is left behind in the war-torn country.

Six years later, Hằng has made the brutal journey from Việt Nam and is now in Texas as a refugee. She doesn’t know how she will find the little brother who was taken from her until she meets LeeRoy, a city boy with big rodeo dreams, who decides to help her.

Hằng is overjoyed when she reunites with Linh. But when she realizes he doesn’t remember her, their family, or Việt Nam, her heart is crushed. Though the distance between them feels greater than ever, Hằng has come so far that she will do anything to bridge the gap.

Kritters Thoughts:  I love to read out of my usual genres every so often to stretch my reading muscles and this one was out of my usual and I enjoyed it.  

Hang can't forget that day 6 years ago when her brother and herself were bound a journey and instead they were separated and she has spent 6 years trying to figure out how to get him back.  Finally she is on a journey herself and hopes to reconnect with him and restart the relationship that they had, but her hopes may be misplaced and she may have to find a new normal.  

For me the book was great, but there was one thing that kept the book from reading smoothly for me.  There were bits of the book where Hang spoke in half Vietnamese and half English and although LeeRoy was able to translate it, I didn't feel as though it was all translated and would have loved the English to be in a different font, so I knew what she was saying, I didn't always catch it.  I wouldn't take it out by any means, it gave some authenticity to the book, but I needed some translation help!  

I am glad I read this one, it was great to read a book out of my usual element and I challenge you to pick this one up and read a great immigrant story.


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Wunderkind PR.  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.

It's Monday, What are you Reading?

With Christmas books on the agenda, I got a lot of reading done this week.  Most of these are short and sweet!

A meme hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. 

Finished this past week:

One Day in December by Josie Silver
Meg and Jo by Virginia Kantra
The Christmas Wedding Ring by Susan Mallery
Catching Christmas by Terri Blackstock
Jackie O On the Couch by Alma Bond
Hope at Christmas by Nancy Naigle

Currently Reading:

Good Girls Lie by JT Ellison

Next on the TBR pile:

Meet Me On Love Lane by Nina Bocci

Review: Coming Home for Christmas by Raeanne Thayne

Coming Home for Christmas

by Raeanne Thayne

Publisher: HQN Books

Pages: 384

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Hearts are lighter and wishes burn a little brighter at Christmas…

Elizabeth Hamilton has been lost. Trapped in a tangle of postpartum depression and grief after the death of her beloved parents, she couldn’t quite see the way back to her husband and their two beautiful kids…until a car accident stole away her memories and changed her life. And when she finally remembered the sound of little Cassie’s laugh, the baby powder smell of Bridger and the feel of her husband’s hand in hers, Elizabeth worried that they’d moved on without her. That she’d missed too much. That perhaps she wasn’t the right mother for her kids or wife for Luke, no matter how much she loved them.

But now, seven years later, Luke finds her in a nearby town and brings Elizabeth back home to the family she loves, just in time for Christmas. And being reunited with Luke and her children is better than anything Elizabeth could have imagined. As they all trim the tree and bake cookies, making new holiday memories, Elizabeth and Luke are drawn ever closer. Can the hurt of the past seven years be healed over the course of one Christmas season and bring the Hamiltons the gift of a new beginning?

Kritters Thoughts:  Elizabeth Hamilton left her family years ago and through an interesting turn of events has stayed away.  With rumors swirling her husband Luke must find her and get her to clear the air, so him and the kids can continue the life they built.  

I am enjoying this series, each book builds on the previous and the characters are just spot on.  I love that each book in the series has a connection to the previous with characters waltzing in and out of the storylines, but each book has a different main character.  

For me this book felt a little too dramatic and made me roll my eyes once or twice at the storyline.  The plot just seemed a little too soap operay in parts and of course it is fiction, but a few moments just seemed a little extra!  I tend to like my romance to have a bit of drama, but not to the soap opera level.  

I would say this is a good read if you have been reading the series and it is nice to see there character's journey, but you may have to suspend disbelief just a bit in this one.  


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Little Bird Publicity.  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.

Review: November Road by Lou Berney

November Road

by Lou Berney

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 320

Format: book

Buy the Book: HarperCollins

Goodreads:  Frank Guidry’s luck has finally run out.

A loyal street lieutenant to New Orleans’ mob boss Carlos Marcello, Guidry has learned that everybody is expendable. But now it’s his turn—he knows too much about the crime of the century: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Within hours of JFK’s murder, everyone with ties to Marcello is turning up dead, and Guidry suspects he’s next: he was in Dallas on an errand for the boss less than two weeks before the president was shot. With few good options, Guidry hits the road to Las Vegas, to see an old associate—a dangerous man who hates Marcello enough to help Guidry vanish.

Guidry knows that the first rule of running is "don’t stop," but when he sees a beautiful housewife on the side of the road with a broken-down car, two little daughters and a dog in the back seat, he sees the perfect disguise to cover his tracks from the hit men on his tail. Posing as an insurance man, Guidry offers to help Charlotte reach her destination, California. If she accompanies him to Vegas, he can help her get a new car.

For her, it’s more than a car— it’s an escape. She’s on the run too, from a stifling existence in small-town Oklahoma and a kindly husband who’s a hopeless drunk.

It’s an American story: two strangers meet to share the open road west, a dream, a hope—and find each other on the way.

Charlotte sees that he’s strong and kind; Guidry discovers that she’s smart and funny. He learns that’s she determined to give herself and her kids a new life; she can’t know that he’s desperate to leave his old one behind.

Another rule—fugitives shouldn’t fall in love, especially with each other. A road isn’t just a road, it’s a trail, and Guidry’s ruthless and relentless hunters are closing in on him. But now Guidry doesn’t want to just survive, he wants to really live, maybe for the first time.

Everyone’s expendable, or they should be, but now Guidry just can’t throw away the woman he’s come to love.

And it might get them both killed.


Kritters Thoughts: This book was on my to do list and in my pursuit of a historical fiction book not set during World War II for a book club I host, this one came up.  Without reading too much into the book, I thought it was deep into the conspiracy of JFK's assassination and I am here to say no, it is in the outer works of it, but not as close as I would have liked!

If you are a fan of road trip books, then this one is right up your alley.  A road trip set in 1963 which gives it some interesting color without cell phones and google searches made the book more entertaining than if it occurred this November.  I liked the road trip married with the mafia hunting down one of the road trippers making it a fun pursuit across the country.  The cat and mouse kept me on my edge of my toes and reading where I read this book in just two sittings.

The characters in this book were just great to follow on this journey.  I am so glad that I cared deeply for all of them because that made the story that much better.  I was rooting for Charlotte and her two girls to find happiness however that ended up - with Frank or without.  Knowing the moment in time and how big this was for Charlotte to make such a bold move that defies her husband's wishes, just made me fist pumping for her!

I wish the book had a much closer connection to the assassination, but having it in the backdrop at least set it in a grounded sense of time.  I would suggest this book to a reader who may avoid historical fiction, but like the road trip book.


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  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.

It's Monday, What are you Reading?

With Christmas books on the agenda, the reading time has been nice to get me into the holiday season.

A meme hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. 

Finished this past week:

Christmas From the Heart by Sheila Roberts
A Wedding in December by Sarah Morgan
Tis the Season by Robyn Carr
The Rancher's Christmas Song by Robyn Carr
November Road by Lou Berney

Currently Reading:

One Day in December by Josie Silver

Next on the TBR pile:

The Christmas Wedding Ring by Susan Mallery

Review: The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan

The Great Pretender

by Susannah Cahalan

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Pages: 400

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  For centuries, doctors have struggled to define mental illness-how do you diagnose it, how do you treat it, how do you even know what it is? In search of an answer, in the 1970s a Stanford psychologist named David Rosenhan and seven other people -- sane, normal, well-adjusted members of society -- went undercover into asylums around America to test the legitimacy of psychiatry's labels. Forced to remain inside until they'd "proven" themselves sane, all eight emerged with alarming diagnoses and even more troubling stories of their treatment. Rosenhan's watershed study broke open the field of psychiatry, closing down institutions and changing mental health diagnosis forever.

But, as Cahalan's explosive new research shows, very little in this saga is exactly as it seems. What really happened behind those closed asylum doors, and what does it mean for our understanding of mental illness today?


Kritters Thoughts:  The second book written by Susannah Cahalan and I was such a fan girl after the first that I was first in line at BookExpo to get a signed copy of this one!

This book is different from the first, but seems like a cousin and a perfect pairing.  After Susannah went through her episode and diagnosis that was expertly laid out in her first book Brain on Fire, she took this deep dive into psychiatry and thus this book was born.  Cahalan does a ton of research on a big name in psychiatry - David Rosenhan and his study that he did sending in "sane" people into an asylum to test doctors and nurses and the system.

What a journey this book was.  I am a novice when it comes to psychiatry and its checkered past, so this book was almost part textbook while I learned the ups and downs of institutions and diagnosing of patients.  At first I was hopeful that we had come a long way, but in the end I realized that as a society we are more accepting of mental illness as a true illness, but we haven't come close to making sure that our drugs and therapies are really helping patients.  

While I don't have anyone real close who has been impacted by mental illness, I found this book to be so fascinating and heartbreaking all at the same time.  I hope that Cahalan can write another book that takes us forward in this field and provides hope that we are treating patients as they need to be.  

This was another fantastic book by this author and I maintain my fan girl status!  


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BookExpo.  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.

Review: A Year and Six Seconds by Isabel Gillies

A Year and Six Seconds

by Isabel Gillies

Publisher: Hyperion

Pages: 256

Format: audiobook

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  "A Year and Six Seconds" is the true story of "New York Times"-bestselling memoirist Gillies's vibrant yet bumbling efforts to pick herself up after her husband leaves her for another woman--and then of how she stumbles upon true love.


Kritters Thoughts:  Isabel Gillies has lived a life and she has written a few books to tell stories.  In this book she takes the reader through her separation, divorce and a big move for her and her two young boys to New York City to her parents' apartment.  There were moments were this book was hard to read because this is a hard moment in her life, but it was easy to read because the reader knows that she will end up in a good place.   

It was so interesting to hear her journey and one woman's experience through divorce and having two young kids to bring on that journey.  To get a real personal inside look into how all of the life changes happening at once and how she responds to it was really interesting to read.   

I listened to this story/her story and although it isn't narrated by the author I stuck with it and enjoyed it.  This is the type of story that I enjoy most on audio, so I am glad that I read it in this way.  I want to read more books like this in this way!  


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  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.

Review: Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

Ask Again, Yes

by Mary Beth Keane

Publisher: Scribner

Pages: 390

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  A profoundly moving novel about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the bond between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness.

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, two rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne—sets the stage for the explosive events to come.

Kritters Thoughts:  When I went into this book, I was ready and prepared for a great novel about the affects of the police career on family and friends.  I was excited about the notion of this book as I was hoping for a book that would hit close to home that I could relate to.  This book was less about that and more about the families at the heart of the drama.  With forgiveness, hope and second chances, this book was quite the roller coaster of a ride.

Peter and Kate are two kids who from the beginning were doomed.  With parents with conflicting issues, they should have been pulled apart, but from the beginning they kept finding themselves in each other's lives.  The reader goes on quite the journey with these two and it was enjoyable to read their ups and downs.  

After reading this book, I went to a book club to discuss it and it was a great chat.  The first thing we debated which I didn't even think about was - "who is the villain?"  There were a few in this book and it was interesting to see where we all came from and who we thought was the victim and the villain.  

If you like to read those books that center around family drama, then this should be the next one you pick up.  This one walked the close line about having just the right amount of drama, it wasn't soap opera level - but close!


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BookExpo.  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.

It's Monday, What are you Reading?

With a few short and sweet Christmas books on the to do list, the reading this week was great!

A meme hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. 

Finished this past week:

Christmas in Vermont by Anita Hughes
The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street by Karen White
Christmas Angels by Nancy Naigle
A Year and Six Seconds by Isabel Gillies
Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai

Currently Reading:

Christmas from the Heart by Sheila Roberts

Next on the TBR pile:

A Wedding in December by Sarah Morgan

Review: An Equal Justice by Chad Zunker

An Equal Justice

by Chad Zunker

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Pages: 217

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Inside a prestigious law firm, a rookie lawyer is pulled into a dark maze of lies and violence.

An ambitious Stanford graduate, David Adams has begun a fast-track career at Austin’s most prestigious law firm. It’s a personal victory for the rising superstar—a satisfying reversal from his impoverished and despairing childhood. Now he has the life he’s always wanted: an extravagant salary, a high-rise condo, a luxury SUV, and no limit to how far he can go in the eyes of the top partners.

But after the shocking suicide of a fellow associate—one who, in his final hours, offered David an ominous warning—he feels the pull of powerful forces behind the corporation’s enviable trappings. The suicide leads unexpectedly to David’s discovery of a secret enclave of the city’s homeless, where he can’t help but feel an affinity to these outcast souls. Nor can he ignore the feeling that they hold the key to the truth behind a dark conspiracy.

When one of his new street friends is murdered, David’s clear doubts about his employer start shifting into a dark reality. Now torn between two worlds, David must surrender all that he’s achieved to fight for a larger cause of justice—and become his firm’s most dangerous acquisition.

Kritters Thoughts:  The first in a series that centers around a rookie lawyer who moves to the big city of Austin and enters the workforce in a large competitive law firm and in his first week, another lawyer is found dead supposedly from suicide and before dying he gives David Adams some crazy advice.  David gets swept into a mystery and must use his new law school skills to investigate and get to the bottom of something.

With the first three chapters giving the reader glimpses, it takes a few chapters to get your bearings and understand who is what and how they could all be connected.  As a reader of the mystery/thriller genre, I have come to realize that when I find out the ending and I feel as though I got it too soon, I am disappointed and that happened in this book.  I could predict the ending early and I was bummed about it!  

Even though I knew the ending pretty early, I still enjoyed the book and mostly because I thought it felt it was unique.  The way the characters were linked was interesting and made for a good story.  I appreciated that you could see where David's unique past connected him to the mystery in this book, those where great moments.  

I would be intrigued to try book two in this series and see if there is some maturing from book one to the next and to see if the mystery has a little more hidden within it.   


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Ebook 2019 Challenge: 48 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Little Bird Publicity.  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.

Review: The Curious Heart of Alisa Rae by Stephanie Butland

The Curious Heart of Alisa Rae

by Stephanie Butland

Publisher: St Martin's Press

Pages: 416

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Ailsa Rae is learning how to live.
She's only a few months past the heart transplant that - just in time - saved her life. Life should be a joyful adventure. But . . .

Her relationship with her mother is at breaking point.
She knows she needs to find her father.
She's missed so much that her friends have left her behind.
She's felt so helpless for so long that she's let polls on her blog make her decisions for her. And now she barely knows where to start on her own.

And then there's Lennox. Her best friend and one time lover. He was sick too. He didn't make it. And now she's supposed to face all of this without him.

But her new heart is a bold heart.

She just needs to learn to listen to it . . . 


Kritters Thoughts:  Alisa Rae has lived a life that felt stunted from the beginning.  Born with a heart defect that kept her from doing many things that her peers were able to do.  At a certain point her heart wasn't able to basically keep her alive and she went on the transplant list, her miracle heart arrives and this story begins - life after a transplant.  

Told through typical story both in the present and parts that were from a year ago and through blog posts, this story was so entertaining.  I loved how all three of the parts were woven together, it was just put together so well!  The peaks into the year before gave the reader a glimpse of life before the transplant and time in the hospital and gave some context to the current storyline and Alisa Rae's feelings and how she became the person she is in the current storyline.

Speaking of characters, Alisa Rae was just great to follow on a journey.  She was sweet but had flaws and I felt as though portrayed the ups and downs and true feelings of someone that is healing from a long term illness.  I loved how she felt guilty for sadness or anger even as she was only living due to someone else's death, the way the author did this was just spot on.  

Even if you don't tend to read books that are set outside of the US, don't miss this one.  I know some readers who avoid books set in England, read this one, the story is universal.  


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2019 Challenge: 47 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from St Martin's Press.  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.

October - as the weather changes

source

With my corporate event ending in late September, I was excited for more personal time in October for relaxing and reading! There were a few late baseball watching nights that kept me from reading, but my team took home the championship - GO NATS!

1. Outspoken by Veronica Reuckert
2. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
3. The Lost Castle by Kristy Cambron
4. Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
5. The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
6. Castle on the Rise by Kristy Cambron
7. Swimming for Sunlight by Allie Larkin
8. The Painted Castle by Kristy Cambron
9. The Curious Heart of Alisa Rae by Stephanie Butland
10. An Equal Justice by Chad Zunker

Total pages read, clicked and flipped:  3,571

Where having I been Reading?:

Kentucky
France
New York
Korea
Ireland
Florida
England (2)
Austin, TX