The Seven Sisters Series, Book One by Lucinda Riley

After hearing multiple friends rave about this series, I decided to give it a try. The premise of the novels is creative.... a wealthy man living in a mansion in Geneva, adopts 6 baby girls over a period of 10 years or so. He finds the babies around the world and brings them home to be raised with the help of a housekeeper. In the first pages of the first book, the man dies and the sisters return to their home. The father has left each of them hints as to their biological backgrounds, and each novel focuses on one of the sisters and her search for her past.

The eldest sister, Maia, learns she is from Brazil. As she uncovers her family history, we also learn more about Maia. Most of this first book tells the story of her great grandmother with very little information about her other relatives. And while her great grandmother led an interesting life, most of it focuses on her love life. This is when I realized this is a romance novel disguised as a historical fiction/mystery book. There were many predictable romantic elements in the book but it did hold my interest throughout. And even at the end, I felt there were many unanswered questions such as how did her father know so much about her past when it appears he found her in an orphanage? Plus, there are many unanswered questions about the father. 

I don't know if I'll read more books from the series. They are easy reading but I'm ready for something else. - June

Some Recommendations from BT!!

Always fun to hear what BT is reading. Here are her latest reviews:

Read "Bright Shiny Morning" by James Frey. Remember his "A Million Little Pieces" fiasco? Anyhoo, it's about LA and between each chapter, he writes a little factoid about it's formation. Fascinating for me. His style is ever evolving I guess you'd say, with a dearth of punctuation. But I do think he's a good writer and I'd recommend this one. Also, just finished "Found"--and "The Half-Life of Remorse" which is quirky.

Also, Mark Twain' "Roughing It" which I wish I'd read long ago. It features his time in the Tahoe area and Virginia City (among other interesting tidbits) I forgot how very funny his prose can be.

The Wild Road Home by Melissa Payne

Nope. Nope. Nope. Too sappy. Too predictable. Too repetitive.  I'm really in a reading funk. The past few books have not worked for me.

This one is about Mack whose wife has dementia. He loves her and goes on ad nauseum about how much he loves her - even though he happens to mention that she cuts her toenails on the living room couch and brushes them on the carpet. Ew. Deal breaker for me. Anyway, Mack decides to fake his death and live off the grid so his life insurance money will go to his wife's care. Oh, she also has cancer. Meanwhile, Brandi who is just 18 and has been living in a juvenile home, returns to her home to pick up her little brother so that he won't have to put up with their mother who is on drugs. She gets a flat tire on a deserted road, Mack comes to help her, and they end up driving all over Wyoming while everything that could possibly go wrong does. And they have no money. 

I just hate it when an author tells the reader the same things over and over. I'm not going to trust book reviews anymore. - June

Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein

You know how your don't want a good book to end? You just love the characters and you look forward to being able to sit down each time to read it? Well, that was NOT this book. I almost gave up on it several times but decided to instead just skim through the last half. It reminded my of Jodi Piccoult... it was well researched and takes on some controversial topics. But also the author maybe felt she had to show off her research by mentioning every detail she learned. And the story was a little predictable. 

It's all about two sisters whose mother was a soccer star until she became pregnant with the first sister. So she raised them to love the sport and instilled in them a passion for winning. She trained with them and they became obsessed with the game. The novel starts when one of the sisters needs a kidney, and the soccer super-star sister must choose between giving her one and quitting soccer, or continuing with her career. Then it jumps back in time with all of the background.

Way too much soccer information and way too much time spent on the training and name-dropping of famous female soccer players. Why did it get such good reviews on GoodReads? I'll never know. Just not my thing. - June

Days You Were Mine by Clare Leslie Hall

After enjoying Broken Country, this novel popped by since it's by the same author. I hoped I'd love it as much as Broken County. And while it has some similarities, the story isn't as compelling. This one is also pretty depressing and deals with loss and overwhelming sadness. But this one is about adoption and how it influences the lives of the adopted child (now an adult), the birth mother, and the adopting mother.

There's a mystery element as the story bounces between the present and the past. Finding out how it was all going to come together is what kept me going. It did become a bit repetitive and slow at times, but it was worth the read. - June

Time of the Child by Niall Williams

I tried. A doctor in a small Irish town in the 1960s. Beautiful prose. A few interesting characters. But just sooooo slow. Couldn't do it. I think eventually a baby appears on his doorstep but since I was 20% into it and no baby had appeared yet, I gave up. - June 

Foster by Clair Keegan

A very short novel but packs in a lot of emotion. This is about a young girl in Ireland who is sent away from her family to live with a couple while her mother gives birth to her newest sibling. The couple fostering her is very kind and loving, and allows her to experience a different type of belonging. The Irish words and terms are a struggle some of the time, but it's a good read. Recommend it.- June

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

I'm on a streak of great books, and I'm loving it! This one was quick, thoughtful, and occasionally sad. The entire book is composed of letters, most written by Sybil, a 70-something woman who lives in Connecticut. (She reminds me of Janit in that she believes the art of letter writing is lost, and she much prefers a written letter to email or phone calls.) Sybil writes to authors, family members, customer service organizations, and more. Reading the letters provides insight into who she was and while she doesn't always make the best decisions, she is wonderfully human, honest, and sometimes flawed. I highly recommend this fabulous book. - June

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

This book has it all.... love, loss, excellent characters, a courtroom scene, steamy sex, major tragedy, and several twists along the way. I thought it was great! There are several threads running at the same time with the author jumping into different times through the novel. Keeping up isn't easy but doable and worth it.

I don't want to say anything because it would only ruin it. Just read it. Unless you are someone who thinks you can't love two people at the same time. - June

My Friends by Fredrick Bachman

I loved Beantown. And Us Against You. And A Man Called Ove. And Anxious People. So I was very excited to read My Friends. It has the same familiar writing style - witty, great character development, friendships among the characters. But there was part of me that was disappointed with this novel. I felt that the banter between the young friends was overdone - forced dialogue trying to be clever and funny every time. And the constant foreshadowing got tired after a while when I wanted to scream - Just get on with it!!

This is the story of friendship between 4 teenagers. They are all nerdy and come from either dysfunctional or abusive homes.  Parts of their stories are truly hard to read. But they find each other and their friendship is magical. One of them is an artist, and we meet him later in his life when his first and most famous painting has been auctioned off. 

The second storyline is Louisa's. She and Ted, one of the original four, travel back to his hometown with the painting. Ted spends most of his time sighing (I wish I'd read this on my Kindle so I could search the number of times he does this) and comes across as pretty weak. But Louisa is feisty and fun and anxious to learn the story of the four friends.

I do recommend this. I just felt it dragged a bit and the humorous dialogue got tired. - June

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

In the 1950's in a small town in Minnesota, a wealthy farmer is found dead by a river. This novel is about finding his killer but also about the people in this town.... the sheriff, the folks who work at the diner, a retired lawyer who moved back to town... many more. Good guys and bad guys. The book deals with racial tension when many of the people in the town point to the Native American as the person who did the killing. Or his Japanese wife who is not welcomed there. It also touches on sexual and physical abuse towards children. Lots going on here....

This was a quick, exciting read and I do recommend it. I don't think it's the best I've read by this author but it's good.  - June

Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

I've been spending lots of time in the car lately so I'm trying to listen to audiobooks more and MSNBC less. That's why I end up downloading books I'd probably never choose to read. And this is one.

This one is about three siblings who gather at their childhood home after their mother dies. Their father has disappeared years earlier. Slowly they discover lots of family secrets and discover the truth about their parents. It held my interest as I drove but probably wouldn't recommend it otherwise. - June