Review: The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore

Publisher: Kensington

Pages: 384

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease.

At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate.

Kritters Thoughts:  Who knew that leprosy was not just in the Bible?  Based on a real leprosy community in Louisiana with fictional characters, this book did for me what I love historical fiction to do - makes me want to dive deep into google and learn all the things about something/someone that I knew nothing about.  

Mirielle West is the wife of a film star and after a few medical mishaps, she is diagnosed with leprosy and is shipped off to a community where many patients have been living for different lengths of time with the hope of a cure so they can return home.  Mirielle West has quite the character journey and I enjoyed watching her grow and evolve along with the other patients that were in the community.  

This is my second Amanda Skenandore book and I hope to catch up on the backlist and anticipate the future books.  I loved how she built the characters and the surrounding and the ride she took us on! 

Rating:

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: The Fields by Erin Young

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Pages: 352

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Some things don't stay buried.

It starts with a body, a young woman found dead—torn to bits—in an Iowa cornfield on one of the few family farms still managing to compete with the giants of Big Ag. This is the heart of the Corn Belt, where drones spray crops from above and corn is perfected in labs to grow faster, better. When Sergeant Riley Fisher, newly promoted to head of investigations for the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office, arrives on the scene, an already horrific crime becomes personal when she discovers the victim was a childhood friend, connected to a traumatic event in her own past.

Fisher's investigation grows complicated as more victims are found, each murder more harrowing than the last. The crime spree grabs headlines and becomes a factor in the reelection campaign of the governor, a friend of Riley's father. Suddenly, this sleepy part of farm country is at the center of a media storm and Riley isn't sure who she can trust anymore.

Kritters Thoughts:  Whenever I am in a reading slump, I usually gravitate to mysteries as the pacing can get me back into my reading game.  The pacing of this book was great, from page to page and chapter to chapter, I wanted to see where this would all end up.  But the thing that didn't completely work for me, was the amount of storylines trying to maintain in one book.  I felt as though the author was piling and piling on and at a certain point it seemed too much.  

A young woman is found dead in a corn field and not just any corn field but one that is fighting the formation of big agricultural companies and trying to keep farming small, so they already have enough drama on their hands before a dead body is found.  This is the first murder of a few that happen in the book and slowly but surely the reader finds out how everything is connected.  Following a young investigator Riley Fisher, the reader is taken on a ride to solve all of the things.  

The first in a series of two that follow Riley Fisher as she investigates crimes in her home town and I did enjoy her as a character so hope to read the second one and see if the plot gets a little more pulled together in a sequel.  

Rating:

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: A Fatal Inheritance by Lawrence Ingrassia

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Pages: 320

Format: audiobook

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Weaving his own moving family story with a sweeping history of cancer research, Lawrence Ingrassia delivers an intimate, gripping tale that sits at the intersection of memoir and medical thriller Ingrassia lost his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew to cancer—different cancers developing at different points throughout their lives. And while highly unusual, his family is not the only one to wonder whether their heartbreak is the result of unbelievable bad luck, or if there might be another explanation. Through meticulous research and riveting storytelling, Ingrassia takes us from the 1960s—when Dr. Frederick Pei Li and Dr. Joseph Fraumeni Jr. first met, not yet knowing that they would help make a groundbreaking discovery that would affect cancer patients for decades to come—to present day, as Ingrassia and countless others continue to unpack and build upon Li and Fraumeni’s initial discoveries, and to understand what this means for their families. In the face of seemingly unbearable loss, Ingrassia holds onto hope. He urges us to “fight like Charlie,” his nephew who battled cancer his entire life starting with a rare tumor in his cheek at the age of two—and to look toward the future, as gene sequencing, screening protocols, CRISPR gene editing, and other developing technologies may continue to extend lifespans and perhaps, one day, even offer cures.

Kritters Thoughts:  I will always enjoy taking in non fiction via audio.  This book accompanied me on many trips to the grocery store and hours cleaning my sweet home.  

Lawrence Ingrassia is not only a journalist, but a subject matter in his book.  He comes from a family that has been greatly impacted by cancer and through telling his family's story he is able to share how cancer research slowly came about to find that there is some hereditary nature and some testing for genes to predict if a patient is more prone to developing cancer then others.  

There were so many moments when I was reading this book that I kept remembering that this research was happening during my lifetime and I was so disappointed at the many lives that were affected by the slow progress of research.  AND those many people that didn't know about the preventative tests that could have given them information where they could have made different decisions with their lives.  When we are in a time where information is swirling 24/7 at the highest speed, to know that there is medical information not getting into the hands that need it, was sad to read about.  

After finishing this book, it made me want to look and find more non fiction medical books to dive into.  

I read the audiobook version of this one and the narrator was great.  He shared the story with feeling and compassion in providing very difficult stories of these families who have been so gravely impacted by cancer.  

Rating:

Audiobook Challenge 2024: 3 out of 24

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: The Idea of Love by Patti Callahan Henry

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Pages: 256

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  As we like to say in the south: "Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story."

Ella's life has been completely upended. She's young, beautiful, and deeply in love—until her husband dies in a tragic sailing accident while trying to save her. Or so she'll have everyone believe. Screenwriter Hunter needs a hit, but crippling writers' block and a serious lack of motivation are getting him nowhere. He's on the look-out for a love story. It doesn't matter who it belongs to.

When Hunter and Ella meet in Watersend, South Carolina, it feels like the perfect match, something close to fate. In Ella, Hunter finds the perfect love story, full of longing and sacrifice. It's the stuff of epic films. In Hunter, Ella finds possibility. It's an opportunity to live out a fantasy – the life she wishes she had because hers is too painful. And more real. Besides. what's a little white lie between strangers?

But one lie leads to another, and soon Hunter and Ella find themselves caught in a web of deceit. As they try to untangle their lies and reclaim their own lives, they feel something stronger is keeping them together. And so they wonder: can two people come together for all the wrong reasons and still make it right?

Kritters Thoughts:  A Patti Callahan Henry romance story has full characters in a great setting and realistic ups and downs.  Ella has just had her world turned upside down by a man and doesn't know how to put her feet on the ground and then she bumps into Hunter.  Hunter has come to this small town in South Carolina to work on his next project, but upon meeting Ella he doesn't want to tell her the truth about his project, so he lies.  BUT Ella is lying also.  

I loved these characters.  Ella and Hunter were fantastic characters AND the supporting were characters were just as great.  Patti Callahan Henry really creates these characters that you want to get to know and want to see how their arc will go.  With the reader knowing all the things, you can watch as these two discover the truth and see how they react - and I loved it!  

Even though you know with a romance that we will end happily ever after, I still enjoyed the journey of this book.  For the romance genre, if the journey isn't worth it then the story is just ok.    

This book made me want to get all caught up on Patti Callahan Henry's backlist.  

Rating:

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.

July

source

A busy month of plans, not many quiet moments of reading.  I had lots of fun plans this month and it was full of new experiences, but not many times where I could curl up with a book.  A quieter August is on deck!   

1. A Fatal Inheritance by Lawrence Ingrassia

2. The Lincoln Deception by David O Stewart

3. The Fields by Erin Young

Total pages read, clicked and flipped:  934

Where Have I Been Reading?:

Iowa