Review: The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton 

by Elizabeth L. Silver

Publisher: Crown 

Pages: 320 

Format: eARC 

Buy the Book: Amazon  

Goodreads:  Six months before her execution date, Noa is visited on Pennsylvania's death row by a high-powered attorney named Marlene Dixon who initiates a clemency petition on her behalf. Marlene also happens to be the mother of Noa's victim, Sarah, and ten years earlier, she helped cement Noa's fate on the witness stand. What unfolds is the haunting account of Noa P. Singleton, an insular, acerbic thirty-five-year-old woman who agrees to entertain this last-minute appeal because Marlene has unexpectedly reversed her belief in the death penalty.

Marlene wants to know why her daughter died, and she scours Noa's past to reveal the bright loner who took Sarah's life. Haunting those involved is the fact that the motive was never revealed, but Noa doesn't want to fight for her life, and she is only slowly persuaded to tell what happened that day. A character-driven story about two women whose lives are inextricably linked through the law, through shared sentiments of guilt, and through irreversible mistakes, Noa and Marlene's motivations become increasingly nebulous, and in the end they must accept that they are in fact a blurred spectrum of good and evil.


Kritters Thoughts:  A morbid central plot, but presented in an interesting way with the person on death row telling the story popping in to the past and back to the present to catch the reader up on all the important details.  Noa P. Singleton is awaiting her execution day and it has been set, but out of the blue comes the mother of her victim claiming to help her get clemency and this is where the real story begins.

This book definitely took a turn that I couldn't predict and although it added some drama to the story, I am not sure I loved it.  I did love how the facts as to why she was incarcerated were presented to the reader - it was great to get the real story piece by piece and not all at once at the end.  With letters from the victim's mother to her daughter included throughout the book, the reader is given a lot of her intentions and story.  While most of the story is told in Noa's voice and she easily moves to the past to tell stories about herself long before the crime and then leading up to the event - I thought that it was kind of generic that she had a bad family history.  Why do all criminals claim a past abuse that may influence their future decisions?  

A different book to include in the mystery genre where the victim is known and already met their demise, but the how and why are the heart of the story.  I would definitely recommend this book, although it is definitely very different.

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

Ebook 2013 Challenge: 41 out of 50

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.

Review: Skinny Bitch in Love by Kim Barnouin

Skinny Bitch in Love by Kim Barnouin

Publisher: Gallery Books 

Pages: 320 

Format: ARC 

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Clementine Cooper is a born vegan, com­mitted in every way to the healthy lifestyle she was raised with on her father’s organic farm. But how bad could a little butter be? Bad enough to get the ambitious and talented sous chef fired when an influential food critic discovers dairy in Clem’s butternut squash ravioli with garlic sage sauce. Though she was sabotaged by a backstab­bing coworker, Clem finds herself unceremo­niously blackballed from every vegan kitchen in L.A.

Like any vegan chef worth her salt, however, Clem knows how to turn lemons into delicious, cruelty-free lemonade cupcakes. She launches the Skinny Bitch Cooking School in hopes of soon opening her own café in an empty space near her apartment. But on the first day of class, sexy millionaire restaurateur Zach Jeffries puts a fork in her idea with his own plans for the space—a steakhouse. Clem is livid. For a carnivore, Zach is more complicated than she anticipated. He’s also a very good kisser. But could dating one of the most eligible bachelors in the city—and a meat-eater—be as bad for Clem as high-fructose corn syrup? Shouldn’t she fall instead for a man who seems to be her perfect match in every way—like Alexander Orr, a very cute, very sweet vegan chef?

Clem thought she was open-minded, but as she confronts the challenges of budding entrepre­neurship, old rivals, ex-boyfriends, and tempting suitors, she begins to wonder if she can ever say “I love you” to a man who hates tofu.


Kritters Thoughts:  Have you heard of Skinny Bitch cookbooks and things?  Before your read this book, stop and go check them out and then proceed to this fiction outtake on the Skinny Bitch lifestyle.  Clementine is a vegan chef who from the beginning finds herself unemployed after an unfortunate kitchen mishap, so she has to find a new path to work towards opening her own restaurant.

Clem was a great heroine - determined, driven and real.  She had ups and downs.  Her family was involved in her life and not just in the background and she had true friends who had issues of their owns.  It was great to have a main female character that felt so real.  It didn't take long for me to root for Clementine and want her to achieve her dream on her own.

My one small hiccup was the back and forth between Clem and her potential love was a little much, but I love that the characters recognized it; made it a little bit better.

This would be the perfect book to throw in the beach bag this summer!  A light read where the characters are easy to love and the story flows.

Rating: perfect beach read

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Gallery Books.  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 Registry by Shannon Stoker

The Registry by Shannon Stoker

Publisher: William Morrow 

Pages: 336 

Format: eARC 

Buy the Book: Amazon  

Goodreads:  The Registry saved the country from collapse. But stability has come at a price. In this patriotic new America, girls are raised to be brides, sold at auction to the highest bidder. Boys are raised to be soldiers, trained by the state to fight to their death.

Nearly eighteen, beautiful Mia Morrissey excitedly awaits the beginning of her auction year. But a warning from her married older sister raises dangerous thoughts. Now, instead of going up on the block, Mia is going to escape to Mexico—and the promise of freedom.

All Mia wants is to control her own destiny—a brave and daring choice that will transform her into an enemy of the state, pursued by powerful government agents, ruthless bounty hunters, and a cunning man determined to own her . . . a man who will stop at nothing to get her back.

Kritters Thoughts:  What if at the young age of 18, you as a young woman are put on a list with a price attached to your head and your parents will profit from the marriage?  Along with this, the United States is no longer in tact, so there is a whole new world and if you want to escape this fate, you must go to Canada or Mexico and they aren't too friendly to immigrants.  This is definitely an interesting take on dystopian and I loved how Shannon Stoker turned things upside down, it made me think about what the future could be.

With a little violence and very little romance, I think this book would be perfect YA read to enable a young reader to think about what our country would be without the order that is currently in place.  I absolutely loved hearing the story from multiple perspectives, Mia, Grant, and Andrew all gave the reader a different view of what the country had become and how it had affected each gender in a completely different way.

The book was definitely left hanging and I am assuming that this is the first in a series/trilogoy or something.  I would definitely be interested in finding out where these characters end up and if life outside is as good as it is dreamed to be.

Rating: perfect YA read

Ebook 2013 Challenge: 40 out of 50

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?

It is is truly sad, but I think the list below is what I have read in over two weeks.  Definitely not a ton of reading occurring at our house, but excited to say that the library is complete!  So maybe some more reading will happen.  AND every room has been painted, so with base molding going down, the big repair projects are close to done!!

Pictures and video of the library will happen next Saturday!

A meme hosted by Sheila at BookJourney. 

Finished this past week:

Skinny Bitch in Love by Kim Barnouin
Stargazey Nights by Shelley Noble
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
Where in the Om Am I? by Sara DiVello
Stargazey Point by Shelley Noble

Currently Reading:

Next on the TBR pile:

Across My Doorstop

The doorstop video:

The update on the library:

For Review:
Accidents Happen by Louise Millar  (Goodreads  Amazon)
Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye  (Goodreads  Amazon)
The Lemon Orchard by Luanne Rice  (Goodreads  Amazon)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman  (Goodreads  Amazon)
The Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow  (Goodreads  Amazon)
Point Doom by Dan Fante  (Goodreads  Amazon)
The Wife, the Maid and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhorn  (Goodreads  Amazon)
The Wonder Bread Summer by Jessica Anya Blau  (Goodreads  Amazon)
Women From the Ankle Down by Rachelle Bergstein  (Goodreads  Amazon)
You Cannoli Die Once by Shelley Costa  (Goodreads  Amazon)
The Virgin Cure by Amy McKay  (Goodreads  Amazon)

Winnings:
The Glass Wives by Amy Sue Nathan  (Goodreads  Amazon)
The Life List by Lori Nelson Spielman  (Goodreads  Amazon)

From bookclub:
Spring Fever by Mary Kay Andrews  (Goodreads  Amazon)
Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand  (Goodreads  Amazon)
And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry  (Goodreads  Amazon)
The Time Between by Karen White  (Goodreads  Amazon)

From mom:
Always Watching by Chevy Stevens  (Goodreads  Amazon)

Purchased:
The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster  (Goodreads  Amazon)

Review: Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt

Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Pages: 384 

Format: eARC 

Buy the Book: Amazon  

Goodreads:  In 1956, when divorced working-mom Ava Lark rents a house with her twelve-year-old son, Lewis, in a Boston suburb, the neighborhood is less than welcoming. Lewis yearns for his absent father, befriending the only other fatherless kids: Jimmy and Rose. One afternoon, Jimmy goes missing. The neighborhood in the era of the Cold War, bomb scares, and paranoia seizes the opportunity to further ostracize Ava and her son. Lewis never recovers from the disappearance of his childhood friend. By the time he reaches his twenties, he s living a directionless life, a failure in love, estranged from his mother. Rose is now a schoolteacher in another city, watching over children as she was never able to watch over her own brother. Ava is building a new life for herself in a new decade. When the mystery of Jimmy s disappearance is unexpectedly solved, all three must try to reclaim what they have lost.


Kritters Thoughts:  Set in 1956 with a central character that is living life definitely against the grain in the current time - a divorced single mom who is in the workforce and trying to raise her son in suburbia.  One would say this could be historical fiction and I may agree because it is definitely not completely contemporary, but I enjoyed reading a story where I could imagine a woman getting heat for her lifestyle, it could compare to current social issues in the news.  Her son's best friend goes missing and the story takes off after that!  

From the start I loved all of the characters and was rooting for them all.  I wanted Rose to open up to Lewis about her feelings, I wanted Ava to feel satisfaction on the job and as a single mom, and I wanted Lewis to find happiness in his abilities as a student.  Because I was rooting for them, this book read so quickly!  When these three characters dispersed (promise not a spoiler), I loved how the author kept the reader up to date on each one.  It was done so seamlessly.   

Although I really enjoyed this book, the last 50 pages dragged just a little.  I also wish the conclusion had been a little better defined, but beyond these two things, this book was really good.  It is my first Caroline Leavitt book, and most certainly not my last!

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

Ebook 2013 Challenge: 39 out of 50

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.

Review: Where in the OM Am I? by Sara DiVello

Where in the OM Am I?

by Sara DiVello

Publisher: Worcester Square Press

Pages: 250 

Format: eARC 

Buy the Book: Amazon  

Goodreads:  Sara has invested years dutifully climbing the corporate ladder to become head of PR at a major financial services company, but can’t shake the feeling she’s not where she belongs. When her latest boss, a wine-guzzling, drama-loving diva, finally drives her to the brink, Sara seeks sanctuary in yoga-teacher training…only to encounter an entirely different assortment of craziness and calamity. 

Along the way, Sara confronts the harsh reality of working in a male-dominated industry, the challenges of being a corporate interloper in the yoga community, and the complexity of interactions between women in both realms. As epic mishaps beget personal revelations, Sara digs deep for the courage to forge a new life for herself.


Kritters Thoughts:  A memoir that had all the makings of a great fiction story - a woman in her late 20s is trying to figure out what really matters and moment after moment her corporate job is just not working.  At the same time her years of yoga were very amateur and she is prompted to take a next step in her learning and try out a teaching class.  This is where I thought the book would become way too yoga and to over the top for me, but I loved that she had an honest experience with a few highs and some definite lows.  The parallels between the drama in the yoga class and her corporate world made me, who is definitely a happy corporate gal, feel less guilty about not being a yoga gal.

I would definitely recommend this to all sorts of readers, those who are definitely yoga gals, but then those of us who aren't.  It shed new light on how I need to find something or continue to do something that only benefits me that is apart from the other things that I need to do for my family, my job, the house or the dog.   

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

Ebook 2013 Challenge:  44 out of 50

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