It's Monday, What are you Reading?

A fantastic reading week!  It is great to start out the year this strong, I am waiting for a crazy week for my reading to go downhill - but not yet!
A meme hosted by Sheila at BookJourney. 

Finished this past week:

The Last Breath by Kimberly Belle
Halfway in Between by Steena Holmes
The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek
The Wedding Dare by Steena Holmes
The Lonely Hearts Club by Brenda Janowitz
The Orphan Sky by Ella Leya
Last Words by Rich Zahradnik
Dirty Rushy by Taylor Bell

Currently Reading:

The Wonders by Paddy O'Reilly

Next on the TBR pile:

Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm

Review: Perdita by Hilary Scharper

Perdita

by Hilary Scharper

Publisher: Touchstone

Pages: 425

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Will love let her go?

After a love affair that ends in tragedy, Garth Hellyer throws himself into his work for the Longevity Project, interviewing the oldest living people on the planet. But nothing has prepared him for Marged Brice, who claims to be a stunningly youthful 134. Marged says she wants to die, but can’t, held back by the presence of someone she calls Perdita.

Garth, despite his skepticism, is intrigued by Marged’s story, and agrees to read “her” journals of life in the late 1890s. Soon he’s enthralled by Marged’s story of love, loss, and myth in the tempestuous wilderness of the Bruce Peninsula. He enlists the help of his childhood friend Clare to help him make sense of the mystery.

As Garth and Clare unravel the truth of Marged and Perdita, they discover together just what love can mean when it never dies.


Kritters Thoughts:  Two stories are wrapped into one to make this book - 1. A professor, Garth, who is doing a longevity project and interviewing people who are living long and getting their stories, 2. Marged Brice who claims to be a 134 year old woman who isn't dying due to mysterious things; these two stories collide and make this interesting tale.  

I liked one part of the story more than the other and it was almost obvious from the beginning that I had a hard time reading the diary entries which were Marged's stories from the past.  I absolutely fell in love with Garth and his storyline; while I appreciated the not so subtle tie ins between the stories, I felt like Marged's diary entries were beyond wordie and just too much.  I think if there had been fewer entries and they had been more concise I would have liked it a little better, but I still would prefer Garth's story.

In the end, I am not sure that I caught everything in the story and I don't completely love that feeling.  I still felt like some of the things were still left unanswered.  My lack of Greek mythology may have kept me from completely getting it.


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

Ebook 2015 Challenge: 4 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from SourceBooks.  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: Gooseberry Island by Steven Manchester

Gooseberry Island

by Steven Manchester

Publisher: The Story Plant

Pages: 300

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  They met at the worst possible moment...or maybe it was just in time. David McClain was about to go to war and Lindsey Wood was there at his going-away party, capturing his heart when falling for a woman was the last thing on his mind. While David was serving his country, he stayed in close contact with Lindsey. But war changes a person, and when he came home very little had the same meaning that it had before – including the romance that had sustained him. Was love truly unconquerable, or would it prove to be just another battlefield casualty?


Kritters Thoughts:  David is headed off on a year long tour to Afghanistan and has yet to meet "the one." Right before his going away party, Lindsey Wood stumbles into his life and a year long correspondence begins.  

To start a relationship with a year long correspondence is the ultimate love story!  Minus my issue below, this book felt real and I appreciated Steven Manchester's focus on PTSD and especially the interesting look at Lindsey's dad from Vietnam war and David with the current war in Afghanistan.  I liked that Manchester put both characters in this story to show the different side effects of PTSD.  

The one big thing I would say about this book is I just wish there had been more time for David at war.  I felt like he came back with PTSD and I didn't get enough time of him at war to warrant full sympathy and I didn't feel like he was gone for a full year.  That is the one negative thing that I might would change about this one.  I am still a Steven Manchester fan and will read everything he writes!


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

Ebook 2015 Challenge: 2 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from the author.  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: Halfway in Between

Halfway in Between

by Steena Holmes and Elena Aitken

Publisher: SistaReads Books

Pages: 116

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Life hasn’t been easy for Melissa Tait —but then, how could it be since she's been living a lie for the past ten years. A lie that has completely changed her daughter’s life and affected Parker Tait, her brother-in-law in ways neither of them imagined. As the only one in town who shares her secret, it was natural for Melissa to lean on him. After all—he’s family.

When Nikki Landon decided to say in her hometown of Halfway, Montana, things with her new boyfriend Parker Tait naturally became more serious. In fact, things might be getting t a lot more serious between them if it wasn’t for one thing—his all too involved sister-in-law getting in the way.

But there’s more to their relationship that anyone is admitting and when Parker finally comes clean with the truth, Melissa’s carefully constructed deception begins to crumble. 

Secrets in a small town have a way of getting out, and if Melissa and Nikki aren’t careful, this is one secret that could destroy everything, including what they both want more than anything—to be with the one they love.


Kritters Thoughts:  The second in a series that continues the story of one of the main characters from the first book, but also focuses on a new character and her story.  Melissa and Nikki both grew up in Halfway and have known each other for a long time, but they weren't in the same circles in high school.  Now that Nikki is dating Melissa's brother in law they are going to have to learn to "live" with each other.

Both Nikki and Melissa narrate the story in alternating chapters, so the reader gets the story from both women's points of view.  The most frustrating thing was that neither character took a pause and noticed how similar their lives were and how much they could help each other - I wanted to kick both of them!  Even with the frustration, I loved returning to this small town and reading more of Nikki and meeting Melissa.

I hope there is more from this series and maybe even another one with a little more length!

Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2015 Challenge: 7 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from the author.  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: Lost and Found in Prague

Lost and Found in Prague

by Kelly Jones

Publisher: Berkley Trade

Pages: 352

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, aspiring journalist Dana Pierson joined the hordes of young people traveling to Eastern Europe to be a part of history. There, she and her best friend were swept up in the excitement of the revolution. Twenty years later, Dana returns to the city of her youthful rebellion to reconnect with her old confidant, who never left the city. But the visit that was reserved for healing intimacies and giddy reminiscences is marred by a strange death in one of Prague’s most famous churches—and an even more peculiar mystery surrounding it…

In a city where the past is never far from the present, Dana must work with a conflicted Italian priest and a world-weary Czech investigator to unlock dark secrets hidden in Prague’s twisted streets. But the key to solving the puzzle may lie in memories of Dana’s long-ago visit, even as she is forced to face the reality of a more recent loss… 


Kritters Thoughts:  A book that follows a character - journalist Dana Pierson back to Prague 20 years after the Berlin wall has come down and she is returning to visit a friend who never left.  A few murders have occurred and they are all linked, but it takes awhile to find out how they are all connected.  

Dana joins up with an Italian priest and together they adventure to get to the bottom of the murders and find out how they are all connected and why.  I absolutely loved the pairing and thought they bounced off each other very well.  Their pairing kept me going when I wasn't sure about this one.  

I think the reason that this book just didn't do it for me was the length of time it took to find out how all the murders were connected and such.  I wished more for this book and maybe started it with higher expectations than I should have.


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

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Penguin Random House.  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: City of Liars and Thieves

City of Liars and Thieves

by Eve Karlin

Publisher: Alibi

Pages: 266

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  It is high time to tell the truth. Time for justice. . . . How she was murdered and why she haunts me. It is not only Elma’s story, it’s mine.
 
On the bustling docks of the Hudson River, Catherine Ring waits with her husband and children for the ship carrying her cousin, Elma Sands. Their Greenwich Street boardinghouse becomes a haven for Elma, who has at last escaped the stifling confines of her small hometown and the shameful circumstances of her birth. But in the summer of 1799, Manhattan remains a teeming cesspool of stagnant swamps and polluted rivers. The city is desperate for clean water as fires wreak devastation and the death toll from yellow fever surges.
 
Political tensions are rising, too. It’s an election year, and Alexander Hamilton is hungry for power. So is his rival, Aaron Burr, who has announced the formation of the Manhattan Water Company. But their private struggle becomes very public when the body of Elma Sands is found at the bottom of a city well built by Burr’s company.
 
Resolved to see justice done, Catherine becomes both witness and avenger. She soon finds, however, that the shocking truth behind this trial has nothing to do with guilt or innocence.


Kritters Thoughts:   A historical fiction perfectly combines some truth and some fiction.  In New York in 1799, the young country of America was still trying to find its way in the political sense and money and politics were starting to intermingle.  At the same time a young woman moves into her cousin's home to escape the ridicule of her hometown and start new and fresh.  She (Elma) gets mixed up with the politics and money of New York and it doesn't end well.

I loved reading about the beginnings of politics and money and how that not only affects the politicians but citizens also.  To see the beginnings of wheeling and dealing was great and to even see how the Electoral College began and could be influenced was so entertaining.  I love when I learn something in a fiction book, but I don't even know it because the plot line is still enjoyable.  

My only disappointment was that I thought it was advertised that this book was centered around the dueling of Burr and Hamilton and I felt like it wasn't really there.  They were in the book, but I thought the dueling wasn't really there.  If I hadn't felt like it was going to be in it, I wouldn't have been so disappointed.

If you are new or have been a historical fiction fan for awhile, this is one that I definitely recommend, but I would warn that going in, you aren't getting as much Burr and Hamilton as maybe you wish you would!


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2015 Challenge: 1 out of 100

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: A Sister to Honor by Lucy Ferriss

A Sister to Honor

by Lucy Ferriss

Publisher: Berkley Trade

Pages: 400

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Afia Satar is studious, modest, and devout. The young daughter of a landholding family in northern Pakistan, Afia has enrolled in an American college with the dream of returning to her country as a doctor. But when a photo surfaces online of Afia holding hands with an American boy, she is suddenly no longer safe—even from the family that cherishes her.
 
Rising sports star Shahid Satar has been entrusted by his family to watch over Afia in this strange New England landscape. He has sworn to protect his beloved sister from the dangerous customs of America, from its loose morals and easy virtue. Shahid was the one who convinced their parents to allow her to come to the United States. He never imagined he’d be ordered to cleanse the stain of her shame...

Kritters Thoughts:  A daughter and sister leaves the comfort and safety of her home to go to America to get an education in hopes to return and make her hometown a better place as a female doctor.  She brings with her the customs of her home and tries to keep them while living in a completely different culture.  At the same time her brother is at a university close and is trying to live within both cultures and having a hard time with it all.

Through some interesting twists and turns their home life intersects with their new lives in America and it was explosive.  I don't know a ton about Pakistan customs, but as a reader you don't need to know much as you get the idea of how things work through the dialogue of the characters.  It was crazy to think that this was a contemporary book and that just maybe these customs and ideals are still lived by currently and seeing them up against an American culture made me really think.  

If you love books with cultural emphasis, then this one is right up your alley.  Also, if you love honest stories that really make you think about the way we live, then you should pick this one up!  


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 Penguin Random House.  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.

Bout of Books 12.0 Wrap Up

With a few evenings with activities and my first week back at work, I was ambitious, but hopeful!  It helped that I had a quiet weekend at home with the husband working the entire weekend and two pups who wanted nothing more than to cuddle up under blankets!

Total book count: 6 finished!
Total page count:  2,182!!

Day 1- Monday, January 5 Total 275 pages
Perdita by Hilary Scharper  (read 275 pages)

Day 2- Tuesday, January 6 Total 167 pages

Perdita by Hilary Scharper (finished, read 167 pages)

Day 3- Wednesday, January 7 Total 59 pages
The Art of Stealing by Sandi Perry (read 59 pages)

Day 4- Thursday, January 8 Total 257 pages
The Art of Stealing by Sandi Perry (finished, read 257 pages)

Day 5- Friday, January 9 Total 336 pages
Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman (finished, read 336 pages)

Day 6- Saturday, January 10 Total 418 pages
Cane and Abe by James Grippando (finished, read 368 pages)
House of Broken by Sonja Yoerg (read 50 pages)

Day 7- Sunday, January 11  Total 670 pages
House of Broken by Sonja Yoerg (finished, read 286 pages)
The Last Breath by Kimberly Belle  (finished, read 384 pages)

It's Monday, What are you Reading?

What a good Bout of Books week!  I definitely made a point to read more than diddle on the internet and it was a good week.

A meme hosted by Sheila at BookJourney. 

Finished this past week:

How Do You Know? by Meredith Schorr
Perdita by Hilary Scharper
The Art of Stealing by Sandi Perry
Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman
Cane and Abe by James Grippando
House Broken by Sonja Yoerg

Currently Reading:

The Last Breath by Kimberly Belle

Next on the TBR pile:

The Grown Ups by Robin Atalek

Review: After the War is Over by Jennifer Robson

After the War is Over

by Jennifer Robson

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 384

Format: ARC 

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  After four years as a military nurse, Charlotte Brown is ready to leave behind the devastation of the Great War. The daughter of a vicar, she has always been determined to dedicate her life to helping others. Moving to busy Liverpool, she throws herself into her work with those most in need, only tearing herself away for the lively dinners she enjoys with the women at her boardinghouse.

Just as Charlotte begins to settle into her new circumstances, two messages arrive that will change her life. One is from a radical young newspaper editor who offers her a chance to speak out for those who cannot. The other pulls her back to her past, and to a man she has tried, and failed, to forget.

Edward Neville-Ashford, her former employer and the brother of Charlotte's dearest friend, is now the new Earl of Cumberland—and a shadow of the man he once was. Yet under his battle wounds and haunted eyes Charlotte sees glimpses of the charming boy who long ago claimed her foolish heart. She wants to help him, but dare she risk her future for a man who can never be hers?

As Britain seethes with unrest and postwar euphoria fattens into bitter disappointment, Charlotte must confront long-held insecurities to find her true voice . . . and the courage to decide if the life she has created is the one she truly wants.


Kritters Thoughts:  A companion to Jennifer Robson's previous book Somewhere in France where characters from that book play a part, but this book focuses on Charlotte Brown and her and England's life after the war is over.  

I absolutely loved that Lady Elizabeth was still in the book and the reader was given a glimpse of how her and Charlotte Brown met and how their friendship formed.  I loved that the spots in the past were spattered throughout the book and it was easily marked to allow for the reader to seamlessly glide in and out of the past.

Maybe I am reading too far into the book, but I loved reading the unrest of England compared to the unrest of Charlotte Brown and how the country was recovering from the war and having issues with the soldiers coming home with bumps and bruises and how hard Charlotte Brown was having re-entering into her life that she had before the war.  It reminded me of college days as college students return home from summer but home is just a little off from how they left and so are the students and nothing fits as it used to.

These books are companions, so essentially you could read them out of order, but I would still suggest you pick up Somewhere in France and check it out - especially if you have read this one and liked it.


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

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: Windy City Blues by Marc Krulewitch

Windy City Blues

by Marc Krulewitch

Publisher: Alibi

Pages: 254

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Jules Landau feels right at home in the ethnic stew of the Windy City, where he’s indebted to the hopes and schemes of his criminal ancestors. Street-smart and college-educated, Jules wants nothing more than to go straight and atone for his family’s past. But when he investigates a horrific killing, Jules uncovers a hidden world of lucrative corruption.
 
Jack Gelashvili had his head bashed in and no one knows why. The most obvious answer is that he was a parking cop, a universally loathed job—especially in Chicago. Turns out there’s a lot of money to be made on expired meters, and when Jules starts making noise, he starts making enemies—from the head of a media empire to the mastermind of a prostitution ring. When rumors of bloodthirsty Mob connections arise, Jack’s gorgeous cousin Tamar objects, and Jules is increasingly swayed by the logic and charms of the sexy baker. Following this beautiful woman into the cloistered world of Georgian immigrants, Jules brings his hunches, his family connections, and his gun. But he’s just one man against a pack of criminals with a million reasons to shoot first.


Kritters Thoughts:  Jules Landau is back and is called into another murder investigation against the advisement of his father.  This investigation gives him a new view of Chicago and maybe not the prettiest side of the city!  With parking officers, billionaires, money and prostitution the amount of work that went into this investigation was quite large.

I have only visited Chicago a few times, but both times that I finished Marc Krulewitch's books I have wanted to make a return trip to see the things he describes in his books.  I could feel the grittiness of the city and the neighborhoods that Jules Landau ends up in.  I loved also seeing the business buildings and the relationship between the working class and the banking folk.  

The amount of characters and their interconnectedness in this book was insanely confusing and at times I had a hard time keeping up with Jules.  Thankfully he repeated his findings to other characters and that helped me get the story.  

The second in a series, but this is one of those series that you don't have to read them in a row as each book is mostly self contained and each book is a new investigation that will be solved within. 


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

Ebook 2014 Challenge: 73 out of 100

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: Before I Go by Colleen Oakley

Before I Go

by Colleen Oakley

Publisher: Gallery Books

Pages: 320

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Twenty-seven-year-old Daisy already beat breast cancer three years ago. How can this be happening to her again?

On the eve of what was supposed to be a triumphant “Cancerversary” with her husband Jack to celebrate three years of being cancer-free, Daisy suffers a devastating blow: her doctor tells her that the cancer is back, but this time it’s an aggressive stage four diagnosis. She may have as few as four months left to live. Death is a frightening prospect—but not because she’s afraid for herself. She’s terrified of what will happen to her brilliant but otherwise charmingly helpless husband when she’s no longer there to take care of him. It’s this fear that keeps her up at night, until she stumbles on the solution: she has to find him another wife.

With a singular determination, Daisy scouts local parks and coffee shops and online dating sites looking for Jack’s perfect match. But the further she gets on her quest, the more she questions the sanity of her plan. As the thought of her husband with another woman becomes all too real, Daisy’s forced to decide what’s more important in the short amount of time she has left: her husband’s happiness—or her own?

Kritters Thoughts:  As told above in the synopsis, Daisy has been living cancer free for a few years and isn't prepared for the news that the doctor will give that gives her a time limit on her life.  After taking the news in she realizes that her dying would leave her husband alone and she believes that he will be in desperate need of a new companion - so she is on a mission.  

The premise of the story got me and I was intrigued as to how a woman could face death while trying to find her spouse happiness after she is gone.  Although I found the story to drag a little and Daisy's complaints were getting repetitive, I still read the book quickly and wanted desperately to find out how it would end. 

I will admit to having tears and not pretty tears through the end of this book.  I am so thankful as to how the author ended the book and how it wrapped up.

From the synopsis I knew this would be a hard read, but was hoping that it would be rewarding and yes it was!  


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 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.