I don't know where I had heard of this book or who recommended it, but I'm glad that I was able to find them fairly cheap on Amazon last week. I downloaded all four of the books that were available for the Kindle and started reading. :-)
I just finished the first book of a series called A Modern Witch by Deborah Geary. The writing style and story type very much reminded me of Debbie Macomber with some paranormal twists, and the book was all very sweet and happy. I read two of Debbie Macomber's series, and they all were pretty much the same - what I call the rainbow and puppy dog type of style. It's not the usual kind of book that I like to read, but I'll read the rest of the books I downloaded for two reasons: I paid a buck 99 for each one, plus I'm curious to see how she takes the rest of this story. Is she going to continue with the focus on the same characters, or will she jump around like in the Macomber books?
I had a little bit of trouble really getting into this book for a few reasons. The characters were really shallow - I hardly knew anything about them and I had a hard time wanting to read this book. As the story went on the characters started to come alive a little bit, but it's hard to read a book that has a bunch of puppets for the first 1/3 of the story. Okay, I'm being mean here and I know it. But as I get older, I guess I get meaner, and in my old age, I have no problem telling it like it is - at least in my own warped mind. :-)
There is one specific part that I found myself rolling my eyes because it lacked so much... our main character in this book, Lauren, meets her trainer who also happens to be a world known photographer - Jennie. Jennie is showing off pictures of her three newborn grand babies and all I know about these pictures is that the babies are 'adorable'. Okay, so what made them adorable? What were they doing? What did they look like? Even a couple extra lines of description could have made this almost insignificant part of the book a little more interesting. She certainly took the time to describe one of the photos that was on the book on the coffee table that Jennie had taken. Why couldn't this be applied a little more to this part of the book or the rest?
I think this has become one of my issues with some of the books that I've been reading lately. I want to know the characters and like them. When I don't know anything about them, but the books progression has them going through a fun and cute story, it's not enough for me to really want to read more by this author. I want to know what makes some of these characters tick. I got to know Lauren's best friend, Nat, a little more in this manner than we did for many of the other characters. I know that Nat grew up as an only child with parents that were a bit cold. I also know that Nat had a secret longing to have a large and loving family - something that she didn't feel that she had with her own parents. I find out later in the book that her parents are indeed the cold hearted jerks who had never taken the time to look at the business that their daughter built or see the life that she made for herself with much success.
I know that Lauren also grew up as an only child and her parents had moved away from Chicago to retire in Florida. But other than being a bit lonely and having the dream of having siblings, I really don't find out much more about her. Maybe this is one of those feel good stories that I need to give a bit of time in order to have the characters really come out. I've read plenty of books that are like this - and i really haven't written about them much in the past because there isn't much I could have said. Well, I know what to say now and I think I'm saying it right... if not, just blame it on my mindless rambling. :-) I'm not a writer, so half of the stuff I ramble on about may be total rubbish to a more educated reader than me. But I know know what I like to read... :-)
Okay, enough about the characters and how this part of this writer's talents needs a little more help (only in my own, uneducated, humble opinion), but story was pretty good. This writer has an amazing skill to keep the story going nice and smooth. I don't like jumpy stories very much, and this didn't really have any of that. The progression was logical with nice transitions. I liked how the ending of each chapter had that perfect "i can put the book down for the night" transition, then the beginning of the next picked up right where I needed it. I don't know how else to word this... but it made sense to me at the time i was writing it. :-)
I also liked how the conflict in the story was so minimal compared so some of the books that I tend to read. I'm trying to expand my reading 'horizons' where death and destruction are not the normal course of the story, so give a girl a break if I can't embrace this type of style that easily or quickly. :-) One of the little things that really stood out in this story that I am looking forward to in the next books is the playful banter between the characters. I liked now Nell lost multiple bets for who knows how much dark chocolate and ice cream on how Lauren and Net were going to make Jamie do certain things (sorry, you'll have to read the book to find out what they were). The connection that Lauren and Aervyn was really cute and I liked how poor Jamie was the victim of their practical jokes as well. Jamie, being the good sport that he was, took it all in stride but played his own little jokes as well. I don't see this kind of playfulness in some of the books I usually read - well, there is playfulness, but not in this same manner. This kind of playfulness can only be written this this genre of book. :-) I'm not being specific here on purpose... You'll just have to read the book to know what I mean. :-)
Overall, I can understand why the popularity of this book series has grown and is passed along - through blogs like this one, or on social media networks like I'm about to do when I post the link on my Facebook page. Even though I do not think Debbie Macomber is the best writer, and I'm pretty sure I'm done with that author for now, she has a huge following that keeps growing. I have a feeling that this writer is going to have the same - if she doesn't already. I looked up to see how many other books she has under her belt and she is a pretty established writer - and because this is not one of my usual types of books, I'm not surprised that I had never heard of her before. Well, I've heard of her now, so the next step for me is to get started on book number two and see how well that one turns out. :-)
Happy reading,
Pinka
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
What to do when you're not feeling well?
I haven't been feeling well for the past couple of days and other than watching a bit of TV (which I don't really do that much anyway) and sleeping, I've been reading. I just finished the book Clair-obscure by Billie Hinton. This was a really interesting book and made me think of the messed up characters from Fifty Shades of Grey without all of the sex. There is sex implicated in the book, but not with the detail that you get from Fifty Shades. You still have the messed up characters, starting with our main character, Clair.
This writer has a unique writing style that I've not been comfortable with in other books. She writes in the present tense but it's kind of choppy, but in a strange way that worked for this book. I've started The Road and one other book that I can't seem to find the title of, and I just couldn't get into them. This book had an interesting story - at least interesting enough to make me want to keep reading despite the writing style.
So we start with Clair, a constant victim - a child neglected by her mom, who always did everything she could to get her approval and most of all, her love. She's a victim of divorce after her father decides to leave her mom because he finally admitted that he was gay. She was a victim of rape from a date she had in high school after the Spring Dance. Her date was not only drunk, but he was also driving her around in his inebriated state. So, all we know about Clair is that she is poor, little Clair that is constantly depressed and liked to write letters to dead writers - but just not any writer... Virginia Wolf who was the writer that is known for not only her work, but for killing herself.
There is a bit of hope with Clair with she meets Finn... and oh boy, Finn is one messed up person. He's a med student that has some serious issues. He makes Fifty Shades look normal! Okay, Christian can never really be 'normal', but he and Finn can sure compete against each other on who's more messed up. :-)
So you get messed up Clair and messed up Finn and you start getting a really interesting story. Clair ends up moving in with Finn but their relationship doesn't progress like she expected it to. Clair has her own room. Finn locks his bedroom door every night and every time he leaves to work at the hospital. Finn doesn't even kiss Clair until she's been living with him for a few months.
In her desperation for acceptance and what she thinks is love, she goes out and has a one night stand with an off duty police officer that liked to have sex with his gun next to them. Then she meets Raoul (interesting spelling) who not only saves her from her own depression, but ends up saving her from Finn.
The best part of the book is the fairy tail ending... no, it doesn't say if Clair ever moves in or gets married to Raoul, but she does finally get into therapy and moved out on her own to become her own person and learns to not have to depend on someone else for company. She stops writing to Virginia Wolf and gets out of that depression. Not quite fairy tail, but a good, logical ending for someone with problems like she had.
If only this book were displayed next to the Fifty Shades of Grey books in the book store with "now this is how the stories should end" over the Clair-obscure book. I just saw that there is a second book to this series on the writer's Amazon page. I'll have to check that one out. I may not download it right away, but I will seriously think about it.
Happy Reading,
Pinka
This writer has a unique writing style that I've not been comfortable with in other books. She writes in the present tense but it's kind of choppy, but in a strange way that worked for this book. I've started The Road and one other book that I can't seem to find the title of, and I just couldn't get into them. This book had an interesting story - at least interesting enough to make me want to keep reading despite the writing style.
So we start with Clair, a constant victim - a child neglected by her mom, who always did everything she could to get her approval and most of all, her love. She's a victim of divorce after her father decides to leave her mom because he finally admitted that he was gay. She was a victim of rape from a date she had in high school after the Spring Dance. Her date was not only drunk, but he was also driving her around in his inebriated state. So, all we know about Clair is that she is poor, little Clair that is constantly depressed and liked to write letters to dead writers - but just not any writer... Virginia Wolf who was the writer that is known for not only her work, but for killing herself.
There is a bit of hope with Clair with she meets Finn... and oh boy, Finn is one messed up person. He's a med student that has some serious issues. He makes Fifty Shades look normal! Okay, Christian can never really be 'normal', but he and Finn can sure compete against each other on who's more messed up. :-)
So you get messed up Clair and messed up Finn and you start getting a really interesting story. Clair ends up moving in with Finn but their relationship doesn't progress like she expected it to. Clair has her own room. Finn locks his bedroom door every night and every time he leaves to work at the hospital. Finn doesn't even kiss Clair until she's been living with him for a few months.
In her desperation for acceptance and what she thinks is love, she goes out and has a one night stand with an off duty police officer that liked to have sex with his gun next to them. Then she meets Raoul (interesting spelling) who not only saves her from her own depression, but ends up saving her from Finn.
The best part of the book is the fairy tail ending... no, it doesn't say if Clair ever moves in or gets married to Raoul, but she does finally get into therapy and moved out on her own to become her own person and learns to not have to depend on someone else for company. She stops writing to Virginia Wolf and gets out of that depression. Not quite fairy tail, but a good, logical ending for someone with problems like she had.
If only this book were displayed next to the Fifty Shades of Grey books in the book store with "now this is how the stories should end" over the Clair-obscure book. I just saw that there is a second book to this series on the writer's Amazon page. I'll have to check that one out. I may not download it right away, but I will seriously think about it.
Happy Reading,
Pinka
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Feel good book. :-)
Yes, I've been reading more crap that good stuff lately and I think I finally found a winner in the stack. I really enjoyed this last book because it was really cute and adorable with babies, men who didn't know what the heck they were doing, best friends that didn't know what she was doing either but didn't break down like the guys... I'm glad that the book didn't have super cheesy pegacats or eye rolling ridiculousness like that, but this book was still up there in the cute factor.
The book I just finished reading was called Drew in Blue by J.M. Kelley. We have our main character, Drew, who finds himself thrown in instant daddy-hood by a two night stand 'girlfriend' who decided that she couldn't be a mom. She just shows up one night and deposits a two month (or was he 4 months? either way, he was a teeny little guy) old baby on Drews lap and takes off. Since Drew's own childhood was spent in foster care after the death of his own mother, he couldn't think of putting this baby through the same kind of thing. So, he tried his hardest to become a father.
His best friend, Kris, is the one and only person he knows he can depend on to help him since all of his other 'friends' kind of disappeared after little Nick showed up. Since Drew and Kris had been best friends since they were 8, it kind of made sense that they had feelings for each other - but it took something like 28 years for them to finally admit to each other that they were in love (even though they were already acting like an old married couple for the past 20 years). :-) :-)
The baby adventures that Drew has with his baby Nick are really adorable. I think anyone who has had the pleasure of being around a newborn and having to be their main caretaker can see the humor in explosive diapers, constant drooling, projectile spit ups, and toothless grins. What makes this story so sweet is they way that Drew falls in love with his son. He didn't have the pleasure of falling in love with his son while he was still in the belly and actually walked away from his son the day he was born. But making sure his son didn't grow up the same way he did made Drew determined to become a father - and even though it took him a while, he actually did. Just because someone knows how to take care of a baby doesn't make them the parent (even if they are genetically a mother or father). What makes a parent a parent is the way they fall in love with their baby. The diaper changing is just something you do, not this awful, stinky chore (okay, sometimes it can be) that makes you want to ship your child to someone else.
As I read this book, I felt myself falling in love with the characters. The development of all characters, even the baby, was awesome. Every single one of them had their little quirks that makes certain writers stand out so much more than others. It's these little quirks and imperfections that make characters so much more real. :-) One example was the way the writer described of the Drew's temporary girlfriends that as a teenager in high school was a little heavy. She lost all kinds of weight and really watched what she ate in order to maintain it. So, she had to habit of taking her time rearranging her food, picking stuff off that she couldn't or wouldn't eat and putting the stuff she would eat back to where she would eat it at even intervals. She did this with her salad topping as well as the toppings on a pizza. It is this endearing quality of writing that I love! This is the kind of stuff that the last two books were missing. I'm sure that the writers of the last two books i read could take some lessons from this writer. :-)
I just looked up the writer on Amazon and it looks like this was her first book. I'm glad that she did so well with it and can see why she won so many awards with this book. It was an awesome debut book and this is the reason that I like to read some of these free offered books from Amazon. I've gotten to the point where I hardly read established authors that much. I love to find these hidden gems with newer authors! I see that the writer will have a new book next year and look forward to reading that one when it comes out. :-) :-)
Happy reading!
Pinka
The book I just finished reading was called Drew in Blue by J.M. Kelley. We have our main character, Drew, who finds himself thrown in instant daddy-hood by a two night stand 'girlfriend' who decided that she couldn't be a mom. She just shows up one night and deposits a two month (or was he 4 months? either way, he was a teeny little guy) old baby on Drews lap and takes off. Since Drew's own childhood was spent in foster care after the death of his own mother, he couldn't think of putting this baby through the same kind of thing. So, he tried his hardest to become a father.
His best friend, Kris, is the one and only person he knows he can depend on to help him since all of his other 'friends' kind of disappeared after little Nick showed up. Since Drew and Kris had been best friends since they were 8, it kind of made sense that they had feelings for each other - but it took something like 28 years for them to finally admit to each other that they were in love (even though they were already acting like an old married couple for the past 20 years). :-) :-)
The baby adventures that Drew has with his baby Nick are really adorable. I think anyone who has had the pleasure of being around a newborn and having to be their main caretaker can see the humor in explosive diapers, constant drooling, projectile spit ups, and toothless grins. What makes this story so sweet is they way that Drew falls in love with his son. He didn't have the pleasure of falling in love with his son while he was still in the belly and actually walked away from his son the day he was born. But making sure his son didn't grow up the same way he did made Drew determined to become a father - and even though it took him a while, he actually did. Just because someone knows how to take care of a baby doesn't make them the parent (even if they are genetically a mother or father). What makes a parent a parent is the way they fall in love with their baby. The diaper changing is just something you do, not this awful, stinky chore (okay, sometimes it can be) that makes you want to ship your child to someone else.
As I read this book, I felt myself falling in love with the characters. The development of all characters, even the baby, was awesome. Every single one of them had their little quirks that makes certain writers stand out so much more than others. It's these little quirks and imperfections that make characters so much more real. :-) One example was the way the writer described of the Drew's temporary girlfriends that as a teenager in high school was a little heavy. She lost all kinds of weight and really watched what she ate in order to maintain it. So, she had to habit of taking her time rearranging her food, picking stuff off that she couldn't or wouldn't eat and putting the stuff she would eat back to where she would eat it at even intervals. She did this with her salad topping as well as the toppings on a pizza. It is this endearing quality of writing that I love! This is the kind of stuff that the last two books were missing. I'm sure that the writers of the last two books i read could take some lessons from this writer. :-)
I just looked up the writer on Amazon and it looks like this was her first book. I'm glad that she did so well with it and can see why she won so many awards with this book. It was an awesome debut book and this is the reason that I like to read some of these free offered books from Amazon. I've gotten to the point where I hardly read established authors that much. I love to find these hidden gems with newer authors! I see that the writer will have a new book next year and look forward to reading that one when it comes out. :-) :-)
Happy reading!
Pinka
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