Title: The Comfort of Lies

Author: Randy Susan Meyers. She is the author of a previous novel, The Murderer’s Daughters.

Genre: Commercial Fiction, Chick Lit (but more on the serious side)

Readers: Prosecutor Rochelle, consultant Alila, project manager Andrea,  and stay-at-home Mom Megan V.

Summary: Five years ago, Tia fell into obsessive love with a man she could never have. Married, and the father of two boys, Nathan was unavailable in every way. When she became pregnant, he disappeared, and she gave up her baby for adoption.

Five years ago, Caroline, a dedicated pathologist, reluctantly adopted a baby to please her husband. She prayed her misgivings would disappear; instead, she’s questioning whether she’s cut out for the role of wife and mother.

Five years ago, Juliette considered her life ideal: she had a solid marriage, two beautiful young sons, and a thriving business. Then she discovered Nathan’s affair. He promised he’d never stray again, and she trusted him.

Riveting and arresting, The Comfort of Lies explores the collateral damage of infidelity and the dark, private struggles many of us experience but rarely reveal.

Rochelle

I picked up this book looking forward to some light but still thought provoking reading, and I was not disappointed. While the women each seemed to represent a different stereotype: Tia, the naive younger woman hoping Nathan will leave his family for her; Juliette, Nathan’s wife who stays with him (but struggles emotionally) after the infidelity because she loves him and their life together; and Caroline, the adoptive mother of Tia and Nathan’s child, who never wanted to be a mother and is upsetting her husband at her lack of motherly instinct. While Meyers humanizes these women as a way of humanizing the stereotypes, she doesn’t delve deep enough into examining the stereotypes. This book would be an excellent starting point to a book club conversation about these women, their choices, and what could be motivating their behavior.

Not surprisingly, Caroline is my favorite character because she remains true to herself and doesn’t lose herself in the stressful family situations, unlike Juliette and Tia who are both easily unhinged by Nathan’s actions and their emotions towards him, readily forgoing their own needs in favor of keeping him. While I can easily choose my favorite character, the women are all engaging enough to draw you in to their chapters and their narratives, and to sympathize (maybe even empathize) with at least elements of their struggles. Even the men, Nathan and Caroline’s husband Peter, are excellent, dynamic characters. The relatability of the characters and the story-line both lend to a quick, engaging read that is refreshingly deeper than the average chick lit.

Grade: A-

Read also: The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Alila

Randy Susan Meyers has created a story around three complex and interesting women, whose lives occupy different worlds until they discover they all share a connection to a five year old girl. A great premise for complications, deceptions, and betrayals. And there were many of these in the backstory- but very few as the story progressed.

So, although the characters were engaging, the story ultimately was not that compelling. By the end of the book, I was frustrated that not one of these characters truly suffered or behaved outrageously. Each woman had the potential to be challenged to her core by the events in the story. But Meyers didn’t push any one of them far enough. It would have been more believable and more involving if at least one of them had had to claw their way back from the depths- or had gone over the edge and been lost- or had at least made a really bad choice in the end.

But none of that happened, and so the book turned out to be nothing more than an easy read. There were a few detours on the way to happiness, but no wrong turns or agonizing decisions, no moral ambiguities or interesting dilemmas, nothing to ponder by the end of the book. Just forgettably “Happily Ever After”.

Grade: B

Read Also: A better examination of how modern women struggle when faced with difficult circumstances can be found in any Anita Shreve or Ann Patchett novel. And for a fascinating examination of how a husband and wife deal with a lie about a child, I highly recommend The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.

Andrea

I found this book very intriguing.  It tells the complicated tale of the ties between three women and one little girl who are put in a difficult situation.  The chapters switch between narrators and it really helps to give a lot of insight into three different sides of the same story.  Because of that, I was really invested in the characters and interested to see how it would all come together.  It’s not a traditional story or style, but I liked it.

Grade:  A-

Megan V.

Randy Susan Meyers does an excellent job of examining the false sense of security and comfort we receive from the lies we not only tell others, but ultimately ourselves. While the three women in the book are initially connected by the infidelity of one man, in the end they are more subtly connected by the shared experience of wearing false veneers for the sake of others and themselves.
Meyers tells her story from the perspective of three different women in a seamless manner. She is able to change narration at each chapter break without giving a disjointed feeling.

I found The Comfort of Lies to be a compelling and thought provoking read; an excellent book club selection.

Grade: A

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Title: The River of No Return

Author: Bee Ridgway. This is her first novel.

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Romance

Readers: Editor Kristina, retiree Nancy and stay-at-home moms A Military Mommy, Colleen B. and Shawna.

Summary: “You are now a member of the Guild. There is no return.” Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonic battlefield, Nick Falcott, soldier and aristocrat, wakes up in a hospital bed in modern London. The Guild, an entity that controls time travel, showers him with life’s advantages. But Nick yearns for home and for one brown-eyed girl, lost now down the centuries. Then the Guild asks him to break its own rule. It needs Nick to go back to 1815 to fight the Guild’s enemies and to find something called the Talisman.

In 1815, Julia Percy mourns the death of her beloved grandfather, an earl who could play with time. On his deathbed he whispers in her ear: “Pretend!” Pretend what? When Nick returns home as if from the dead, older than he should be and battle scarred, Julia begins to suspect that her very life depends upon the secrets Grandfather never told her. Soon enough Julia and Nick are caught up in an adventure that stretches up and down the river of time. As their knowledge of the Guild and their feelings for each other grow, the fate of the future itself is hanging in the balance.

Kristina

I had a feeling I would be a sucker for Bee Ridgeway’s debut novel, The River of No Return, as soon as I read the book summary. And with all of my favorite elements – time travel, romance, historical fiction, secret societies, and a whole lot of mystery, I was totally right. If it sounds like that’s a lot to mix up all in one book, you would also be right. But the amazing and wonderful thing about The River of No Return is that it doesn’t feel overwhelming, rushed, or forced.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s an undertaking. It’s on the long side, there is a lot crammed in, and I foresee some people complaining about certain elements of the story. But I loved it. The writing is fantastic and the author’s version of time travel felt (as much as possible) natural. The characters are endearing, the romance doesn’t feel forced or annoying, and it will keep you turning pages as fast as you can. I also really enjoyed the way Ridgeway linked the past to the present and forced readers to think of that relationship a little differently.

I can’t say enough positive things about The River of No Return. Based on the book’s ending there will be (at least I hope!) a sequel coming and I can’t wait.

Grade: A+

Read also: The Time Traveler’s Wife, Outlander, The Da Vinci Code, A Discovery of Witches

Nancy

The River of No Return is a time travel novel that combines romance, intrigue and mystery. Nick Davenant is a cheese farmer in Vermont in 2013. His journey as an aristocrat in England in the early 1800′s to Vermont lays the groundwork for the mystery of the “Guild” that controls his time travels. Sent back to 1815 he discovers his true love, Julia Percy who has grown up not knowing that she too possesses the power to jump. Another group, the Ofan are also competing to influence the past, present and future. The “river” meanders through history and links the time travelers from past to present.

Bee Ridgway has an exceptional talent for taking all of the pieces of the story and weaving them together to create a “can’t put this down” novel. I enjoyed every page and will certainly look for this author in the future.

Grade: A

A Military Mommy

The River of No Return is a combination romance, thriller, and historical fiction. Although I found the first two chapters difficult to get in to, once I got past that part I found it hard to put down. The plot was intriguing, the characters were richly developed, and overall I really enjoyed the book. This is definitely a book that makes you want to curl up in a cozy nook with a hot cup of tea while you read it.

If you enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife or period romances then I think you’ll enjoy this book. The one part I didn’t like about the book was the ending. There was no closure and the it seemed as if the book ended in the middle of a chapter. I actually reread the last few pages several times thinking I was missing something. I am hoping the author is leaving things open for a sequel because I would definitely read that. For the abrupt ending this book doesn’t receive an A grade.

Grade: B

Colleen B.

I love to read.  I love the concept of time travel.  Put those two together and you can bet I’m going to love it.  And I did.  It was a true page turner if there ever was one.  Ridgway has an uncanny ability to pull you into the book and to make you want to be a part of it – live in it.  Once you think you have a hold of the plot, she moves you in a completely different direction then you thought it would go.  The characters are very likable and she has done a fantastic job with creating and bringing them to life.

I would recommend reading about the first 50-75 pages in one sitting when you start out because you get a big dose on the storyline and how time travel is explained.  You will want to be as focused as possible as to not miss anything!

I absolutely adored this book and I can not wait to see what Ridgway has in store for us next because this novel defiantly needs a sequel!

Grade: A

Shawna

When Nick seems to “die” on a battlefield in 1815, then wakes up in a modern hospital he is told he is now a member of a secret Guild of Time Travelers. There is only one catch- they can never travel back to their “home time”. When the Guild searches Nick out years later to ask him to do just that, his life takes a mysterious and possibly deadly twist.

While reading The River of No Return, I can’t help feeling like I have jumped into the middle of a series without realizing it. There are some things that could have been explained a little better. I am really hoping that the author plans on writing a sequel, where the book left off seems to leave you assuming there will be and if there isn’t, it will be disappointing.

I think that overall, Ridgeway did a great job with her first book. It was a fun read and great love story, with a magical twist.

Grade: B

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Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman

Title: Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World

Author: Matthew Goodman

Genre: Nonfiction

Readers: Consultant Alila, publishing professional Gigi, stay-at-home mom Megan V. and homemaker-slash-writer Nan.

Summary: On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young female reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by train—was a young journalist from The Cosmopolitan magazine, Elizabeth Bisland. Each woman was determined to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg and circle the globe in less than eighty days. The dramatic race that ensued would span twenty-eight thousand miles, captivate the nation, and change both competitors’ lives forever.

Alila  Bio

Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland both pushed the envelope for what woman were permitted to do in the strictly male world of journalism in the late 1880s. They were famous in their day, for their reporting as well as for their race around the world, but are almost forgotten now. Matthew Goodman has tried to remedy that by writing an exhaustive description of both the race and the time period in which they lived. He also briefly outlines the events of the rest of their lives. Unfortunately the story often gets lost beneath the wealth of detail Goodman includes. At times I lost track of Nellie and Elizabeth and felt like I was reading a history tome about life in the last decades of the Victorian era.

I recommend this book to anyone in the mood for a comprehensive analysis of each woman’s trip around the world- or a look at urban life during this period.

Grade: B+

Read Also:  For a more compelling story about New York in the late 1880s, I would recommend a historical novel (with appearances by lots of characters drawn from real life) by Caleb Carr, particularly The Alienist.

Gigi  Bio

This was great! It is a really engaging nonfiction book following two very interesting women. That alone would be enough for me to recommend it but the author goes further and uses the structure of the race and the movement around the globe to give you all sorts of interesting information: the importance of trains to how we keep time, the impact the telegraph had on the world, bits of British information, etc. You get a fascinating look at what it was like to be a woman at the end of the nineteenth century and a journalist. I particularly liked the descriptions of New York and San Francisco in 1889. At each stop along the way, Matthew Goodman gives you both Nellie and Elizabeth’s opinions and impressions of where they are and the things they see. It was amusing to see how much they differed.

The writing is fast-paced and not pedantic, in keeping with the story of a race. Because the women are moving in opposite directions, it’s difficult to get a feeling for who is going to win but I ended up really caring about the outcome–I was good and didn’t look it up on the internet before I finished. I definitely recommend this (although I really do hate the cover). It would also be a great gift.

Grade: A

Megan V.  Bio

In Eighty Days, Matthew Goodman aquatints his readers with the story of Elizabeth Bisland and Nellie Bly’s race to circumnavigate the world. Goodman does an excellent job of painting a picture of what life was like in America during the late 1800s, not only in terms of the struggles and roadblocks women faced in their pursuit of equality with men in the workplace, but of the state of the country post Civil War, and the enormous advances in technology that occurred at that time. The reader is given a wealth of detail about each woman and her surroundings, which enables the reader to feel part of the story, instead of reading like a history book.

I enjoyed learning about Bly and Bisland, and a piece of history I had never heard before. I was caught up in their race and the different approach each woman took to not only venturing on their trip, but in their journalist work.

While Goodman’s Eighty Days is an enjoyable read, it is one that requires time and attention.

Grade: A-

Nan  Bio

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Title: The Uninvited

Author: Liz Jensen. She is the author of several novels, including War Crimes for the Home, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize.

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Readers: Lawyer Cait, stay at home mom Colleen B., event planner Kathy,  copy editor Lori and victim advocate MJ.

Summary: A seven-year-old girl puts a nail gun to her grandmother’s neck and fires. An isolated incident, say the experts. The experts are wrong. Across the world, children are killing their families. Is violence contagious? As chilling murders by children grip the country, anthropologist Hesketh Lock has his own mystery to solve: a bizarre scandal in the Taiwan timber industry.

Hesketh has never been good at relationships: Asperger’s Syndrome has seen to that. But he does have a talent for spotting behavioral patterns and an outsider’s fascination with group dynamics. Nothing obvious connects Hesketh’s Asian case with the atrocities back home. Or with the increasingly odd behavior of his beloved stepson, Freddy. But when Hesketh’s Taiwan contact dies shockingly and more acts of sabotage and child violence sweep the globe, he is forced to acknowledge possibilities that defy the rational principles on which he has staked his life, his career, and, most devastatingly of all, his role as a father.

Cait  Bio

I am not usually a fan of dark and creepy books, but the hint of environmental apocalypse in the blurb for The Uninvited intrigued me. About 5 pages in, I was glad that I had started reading on a Saturday morning, with a few uninterrupted hours free to tear through the gripping novel. I thought Jensen wrote the inner life of her corporate-consultant-with-Aspergers protagonist quite well (though it would be really interesting to read a review from someone with Aspergers). The build up of the mystery was also well done, and the resolution, though spare, was satisfying. Readers who enjoy well-written mysteries that are a bit creepy but not nightmare-inducing will enjoy this fast read.

Grade: A

Colleen B.  Bio

The first time I picked this book up to read I didn’t like it. I read about 30 pages and had to put it down. I was wary about even picking it back up, but I did – and I’m glad. The second time worked for me although it took me about 75 pages or more to get into it.

This book is narrated by Hesketh Lock whom has Aspergers. The way he tells the story is quite choppy and random as you would expect from a person who has Aspergers. Once you get used to that specific style of writing – it works.

Hesketh is helping figure out what is happening in an apocalyptic style dystopia. It had a very “children of the corn”-esk feeling to it. Children murdering adults – shudder! I loved that Jensen had me guessing what was going to happen at each turn of the page. Unfortunately, the ending was a huge disappointment for me. For as intense as the story was, I was expecting some grandiose ended and I didn’t get it. It fell flat.

Grade: C

Kathy  Bio

I always lean toward fiction, especially magical realism, and that was exactly what I got from The Uninvited. I read quite a few mystery novels – From Mary Higgins Clark as a middle schooler to Gillian Flynn most recently I’ve always loved a good mystery. I found The Uninvited much the same. I enjoyed the narrator’s voice – a slightly detached character that can’t make sense of the emotion at play but unequivocally loves his stepson. I also enjoyed a book that looks at the apocalypse as it’s happening, something that just isn’t done in fiction today. I think a lot of writers get stuck on the apocalypse so they write for two worlds – the now and the post-apocalyptic, Jensen wrote of the in-between. She covered the apocalypse as it happened – which I loved. I found her skill to be in the telling of world collapse and I just couldn’t put it down.

Grade: B

Lori  Bio

My genre of choice is usually historical fiction, because I like to be put in a situation that I’ve never been in and will likely never get to be in; I like to get a taste of another world. So while The Uninvited was most definitely not a work of historical fiction, it gripped me from the very beginning. It put me in a different world: inside the mind of an incredibly intelligent man on the autism spectrum–a place that I will never get to experience firsthand.

The Uninvited is quick read, fast-paced and unpredictable. It has a set of unique characters in a situation that is possibly far-fetched, but, like any good dystopian novel, a bit too close to the truth for comfort. Hesketh Locke is finely drawn and lovable, even though he, himself, feels separate from other people. For most readers, he will not be a relatable character, and his feelings and motivations will seem quite foreign to most readers, which I found particularly fascinating. He’s the narrator, I get to see the horrifying events unfold only through his eyes, and he sees things through the lens of his Aspergers.

My one criticism of the book was the ending. It fell flat for me, and was extremely unsatisfying, like it was all build up, climax, then no denouement.

Grade: B+

MJ  Bio

I was very excited about reading this book, just reading the jacket cover gave my goose bumps. The idea of a global conspiracy that only a man with Asperger’s Syndrome recognizes was beyond intriguing to me, luckily the book did not disappoint. I admit I was worried how the author would treat a character with Asperger’s Syndrome.  Because of my job I have worked with individuals with the Syndrome and know that the world is not always kind to them. Liz Jensen does a great job of incorporating the personality traits of Asperger’s into the narrative. It helped create an instant connection to the main character Hasketh and has you siding with him through out the book.  As you are following Hasketh through his journey trying to figure out what is behind the bizarre and increasing crimes committed by children you are blindsided by tragic events and just as you think you have it all figured, a nice out of the blue twist leaves you wondering what did I just read. If you are a fan of suspense or conspiracy theories this book is a must read.

Grade: A+

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Title: The Best of Us

Author: Sarah Pekkanen. She is the author of several previous novels including The Opposite of Me, Skipping a Beat and These Girls.

Genre: Commercial Fiction, Chick Lit

Readers: Nonprofit director Kimberly, librarian Erin, lawyer Abby R. and stay-at-home moms Sarah L. and Katie.

Summary: Following a once-in-a-lifetime invitation, a group of old college friends leap at the chance to bring their husbands for a week’s vacation at a private villa in Jamaica to celebrate a former classmates’ thirty-fifth birthday.

All four women are desperate for a break and this seems like a perfect opportunity. Tina is drowning under the demands of mothering four young children. Allie needs to escape from the shattering news about an illness that runs in her family. Savannah is carrying the secret of her husband’s infidelity. And, finally, there’s Pauline, who spares no expense to throw her husband an unforgettable birthday celebration, hoping it will gloss over the cracks that have already formed in their new marriage.

The week begins idyllically, filled with languorous days and late nights of drinking and laughter. But as a hurricane approaches the island, turmoil builds, forcing each woman to re-evaluate everything she’s known about the others—and herself.

Kimberly  Bio

If you’re heading someplace tropical, where a beach bag and sunglasses are a must, The Best of Us is worth packing in your suitcase. It’s an entertaining book that I can picture enjoying with my toes resting on warm sand and my fingers reaching out for a pina colada. The novel is a classic one—friends go on a vacation together and drama ensues—but with a modern telling. The Best of Us is told through the viewpoints of the four female characters, and their personal dilemmas parallel one another: each is challenged by life circumstances and each faces issues with trust, forgiveness, love, and satisfaction, told against the backdrop of marriage problems, health concerns, and the stress of parenting. Perhaps, because the female voices are so well-developed, I found myself (surprisingly) wondering what the male characters thought. This easy read is a likely a book you would leave behind when your tropical vacation is over—or even better, it’s one you might pass along to a friend.

Grade: B

Erin  Bio

Pekkanen’s fourth novel is like that first bite of a fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookie – it just feels like home. Following in the footsteps of her three other novels, the writing, the depth of characters and the story do not let the reader down. She paves her own path in women’s literature and continues to make a name for herself alongside other noted authors in the field, like Jennifer Weiner and Emily Giffin.

This story follows the lives of four couples as they reunite in Jamaica to celebrate their college friend’s 35^th birthday. Throughout the novel we learn that their marriages are not what they seem; that the women struggle with things including fertility, health, self-esteem, and acceptance. The men, too, have their own issues with money, infidelity, and acceptance.

Pekkanen delicately guides us to the conclusion that no marriage and no person is perfect- and that is okay.

This novel is both heartwarming and heartbreaking in its depiction of what it means to be married, a woman, a daughter, a mother, and a friend.

Grade: A

Abby R.  Bio

As a chick lit fan — and a Sarah Pekkanen fan in particular — I had a decent idea of what to expect from The Best of Us before I even started reading. Pekkanen always does a fantastic job of creating incredibly relatable female characters and portraying their lives (and, most often, their struggles) in an interesting and satisfying way … and “The Best of Us” was no exception. I’m not sure that it would turn any non-chick lit fans into converts, but it’s definitely a really solid read if you’re already a fan of the genre. Given the tropical setting, I think this would make a fantastic beach/summer vacation read, though I also appreciated the mental escape to Jamaica during the middle of a particularly chilly New England winter!

My only gripe with The Best of Us is that I thought the characters and story were interesting enough as a slow burn without what felt like a very manufactured dramatic event forcing the characters’ issues to a head (a sentence that would make infinitely more sense if I included a spoiler, but will hopefully make sense once you’ve read the book). I would have enjoyed seeing the characters come to grips with their emotions and relationship drama just as much without it. That said, even with the fairly cliched drama, I thought this was a great book, and I’m looking forward to reading Pekkanen’s next!

Grade: A-

Read also: Skipping a Beat, These Girls (both by Pekkanen)

Sarah L.  Bio

I was expecting a light, carefree read when I picked up The Best of Us. There were definitely elements of light and carefree–Jamaica, beautiful vacation villa, lots of alcohol–but Pekkanen handles some really weighty issues in this book as well. Each of the four mid-thirties female characters who tell the story are struggling with extremely difficult issues. I enjoyed Pekkanen’s storytelling and I really related to the characters. They were very real in the way they acted and the mistakes they made. The most compelling issues addressed were honesty between spouses, the difficulties and joys of motherhood, betrayal, and forgiveness. The men in the book weren’t as easy to relate to or as likable, though I think their wives read them pretty well and explain their behaviors. The best part of The Best of Us was seeing the characters change over the course of the book. It left me feeling satisfied and hopeful that people can change, and quickly too.

Grade: B+

Katie  Bio

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Is it great literature?  Definitely not. But those of us who enjoy “chick lit” aren’t necessarily looking for that.  The story of 3 old college friends and their husbands invited for a luxurious week in Jamaica to celebrate the birthday of another friend was immediately absorbing.  I really enjoyed the portrayals of 4 different marriages, at different stages with different issues, as well as the suspense regarding which couples might split up or re-form.  I have to say I also really enjoyed the descriptions of the vacation itself, as I will probably never have the chance to take such a high-end trip, and it was fun to live vicariously through the characters as they enjoy their surroundings.   An exotic locale, relatable characters, a little sex, a big storm and some suspense made for a fun read, perfect for the beach this summer.

Grade:  B+

Read Also: Anything by Jennifer Weiner

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Title: Escape Theory

Author: Margaux Froley. This is her first novel.

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery

Readers: Professor Michal, librarian Mary Liz, project manager Andrea, teacher Julie S. and daycare teacher EMarie.

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Devon Mackintosh has always felt like an outsider at Keaton, the prestigious California boarding school perched above the Pacific. As long as she’s not fitting in, Devon figures she might as well pad her application to Stanford’s psych program. So junior year, she decides to become a peer counselor, a de facto therapist for students in crisis. At first, it seems like it will be an easy fly-on-the-wall gig, but her expectations are turned upside down when Jason Hutchins (a.k.a. “Hutch”), one of the Keaton’s most popular students, commits suicide.

Devon dives into her new role providing support for Hutch’s friends, but she’s haunted by her own attachment to him. The two shared an extraordinary night during their first week freshman year; it was the only time at Keaton when she felt like someone else really understood her.  As the secrets and confessions pile up in her sessions, Devon comes to a startling conclusion: Hutch couldn’t have taken his own life. Bound by her oath of confidentiality—and tortured by her unrequited love—Devon embarks on a solitary mission to get to the bottom of Hutch’s death, and the stakes are higher than she ever could have imagined.

Michal  Bio

I’m a big fan of young-adult lit and was so excited to read Escape Theory. Unfortunately, I didn’t love it. The plot seemed somewhat contrived: main character, Devon, is the only student to volunteer for a pilot peer counseling program and becomes involved with the investigation of the apparent suicide of the school’s Golden Boy (who Devon has had a few special moments with over the year). The constant jumping back and forth in time was choppy and there were some plot holes that went unfilled. The entire story was too complicated to be tied up with a pretty bow by the end, yet somehow it was, albeit without any satisfaction. I also don’t know what life would be like in a private, pricey boarding school but again, the whole scenario seemed contrived and unrealistic. Another annoyance: Devon and her friend insulted each other with bizarre play on words with English literature and movies (“Drew Barry-whore” or “All Quiet on the Western Slut”) which I think was meant to be clever but was really not. By the end, I still felt no real connection to the characters, nor was really interested in finding out the solution to the mystery. I definitely finished feeling disappointed.

Grade: C

Mary Liz  Bio

Escape Theory left me wishing for something more and while I didn’t love this book it did have redeeming qualities. The story and characters were detailed and interesting enough to compel you to continue tagging along with Devon, the main character, while she slowly put the pieces of a mystery together. By interspersing bits of Devon’s memories of Hutch, the boy whose death the story revolves around, Margaux Froley kept the pace from dragging and grabbed the reader’s attention at the right moments. Unfortunately, after all the time the story invested in unearthing hidden secrets the ending arrived suddenly and without satisfaction. Young adult readers may enjoy this as an easy mystery read but the story was not successful as a crossover title.

Grade: C+

Read Instead: If you are interested in a Young Adult book that revolves around a mystery and takes place in a school setting I would highly recommend On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. It beautifully accomplishes what Escape Theory attempts to do, but does not.

Andrea  Bio

I found this book a little too boring for my taste.  Sure, it had some elements of mystery and intrigue, but there was WAY too much giveaway early on in the book and it left me unsurprised when it all came to a head.  I realize I’m an adult woman reading YA fiction, but the resolution is so blatantly obvious that it’s almost an insult to the actual YA crowd.

I liked the format of the book, the structure and the flashbacks all worked very well and it was a fast read.  However, the main character, Devon (a modern-day Nancy Drew wannabe), seemed entirely too naive for someone who is supposed to be so smart.  Every minute and seemingly unimportant plot twist threw her for a loop and sent the storyline off on a tangent.

If there weren’t so much drug use and promiscuity going on in the book, I would recommend it for younger YA readers, as intellect isn’t a requirement to follow the storyline.  It isn’t by any means graphic, but the references are frequent.

This book seems to be the first in a series.  It will probably have a decent following of readers, but it definitely doesn’t live in the same atmosphere as some of the more popular YA series.

Grade:  C

Julie S.  Bio

Escape Theory follows senior Devon Macintosh as she leads a peer counseling program in which she is assigned to meet with those closest to Hutch, a classmate who recently died. Devon has a clear conflict of interest as she seems to be in love with him, despite the fact that they only really spent one day together. She refuses to believe that he killed himself and sets off trying to prove it was murder. The book is fairly entertaining, albeit slow in places. It is also fairly unrealistic, but does provide a good bit of escapism. As an adult, I didn’t find myself particularly interested in the story line, but I can see how teenagers would really enjoy it.

Grade: B-

EMarie  Bio

While this book begins with deep emotion and struggle for the characters, it quickly fizzles into a under-motivated murder mystery. The narrator is relatable and believable; however, in a book that is supposed to run on emotion, she seems to ignore hers. As a reader I found this book to be a good read for something to do, but there was nothing notable about it. I did not find parts to love or to hate. While I did want the narrator to solve the mystery, there was nothing really to motivate me to read the book. As I was reading I felt I could easily skip to the end and not miss much, if anything. Now that I have finished, I could have skipped to the end and have the read be just as good.

Grade: C  Not good, but not bad either. (A shrug and a “meh”.)

Read Instead: For mystery, I particularly enjoyed the Young Sherlock Holmes series by Andrew Lane, these books are for young readers and are good reads.

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Title: The Explorer

Author: James Smythe. He has published some previous novels through independent presses.

Genre: Science-Fiction

Readers: Administrative coordinator Cyn,  and lawyers Cait, Elizabeth H. and Rochelle. (Lawyers and sci-fi, who knew?)

Summary: When journalist Cormac Easton is selected to document the first manned mission into deep space, he dreams of securing his place in history as one of humanity’s great explorers.

But in space, nothing goes according to plan.

The crew wake from hypersleep to discover their captain dead in his allegedly fail-proof safety pod. They mourn, and Cormac sends a beautifully written eulogy back to Earth. The word from ground control is unequivocal: no matter what happens, the mission must continue.

But as the body count begins to rise, Cormac finds himself alone and spiralling towards his own inevitable death … unless he can do something to stop it.

Cyn  Bio

With an isolated first person protagonist, author Smythe has his work cut out for him. It’s hard to stick with a character when there’s relatively little action and a whole lot of internal monologue, but he makes it work by inserting interpersonal drama and the elements of the central mystery in dribs and drabs. Very quickly upon starting the book, the reader learns that our narrator is alone on a spaceship, all his fellows dead. He introduces each former member of the crew and then tells us how that person died, all but one, that is. The dead crew is the first big hook in the story, with the question of what happened to the crew member whose end remains untold acting as a smaller bit of bait to keep the reader engaged. Although it’s relatively easy to disengage from a story when there’s little action or story movement on a page-by-page basis, it’s also hard to disengage when you find yourself thinking “But how…? What about…?” Ultimately it is that deliberate, piecemeal approach toward giving us clues to the central mystery that makes The Explorer work.

It’s not a perfect book and I’m not sure if I’ll read it a second time. But I enjoyed the first read and would recommend it to others.

Grade: B+

Read Also: For great time travel tales, try The Door Into Summer or Time Enough for Love, by Robert Heinlein, or a couple of his top-notch short stories: “All You Zombies-” and By His Bootstraps. For a richly told story with an isolated narrator, try Richard Matheson’s wonderful I Am Legend.

Rochelle  Bio

This science fiction (time travel!) book starts strong – by the second paragraph I was invested in the book. The way the words flowed so realistically reflected a dying mans urgent final words, infused with the desire to articulate his life’s meaning before it ended.

For example: “There’s always hope, at least that’s what they say. As soon as I worked out that there wasn’t ever going to be that chance for reconciliation? It became something else. I wasn’t missing her anymore: it was despair, maybe, or another word for when you fall apart, when you can’t cope, when it all crumbles.”

To avoid making it sound like this book is all emotional drama (which it has little of), the book has moments that are pretty macabre, so it is not for those with weak stomachs. (Note: if you read Twilight, and couldn’t stomach the birthing scene, you won’t be able to get through the deaths in this book). Also, the graphic and gruesome descriptions often times came out of nowhere, so you don’t even have time to brace yourself for them. For example, the narrator would begin a paragraph introducing us to a character, and end the paragraph describing their death in explicit detail.

After we introduce all the characters, their complexities and how they relate to one another, we move to the time loop, and at that point the book is a little less polished. We start reliving scenarios we’ve already lived in detail, which makes the book start to drag a bit. It might maintain the suspense from the first half of the book if more nuance and perspective was added from this re-watching of the past. The ending also seems a bit rushed, after having relived the entire sequence in the ship, learned jarring details about the narrators past, the story didn’t loop back adequately to resolve the issues. Anti-climactic ending aside, though, this book was worth the read for the character development and the writing!

Grade: B-

Cait  Bio

On the one hand, the prose in this story is written well. On the other hand, everything else about it aggravated me or made me sad. Everything from the layout of the story, to the dialogue, to the pacing, shouted “easily adaptable to screenplay form.” I can easily see The Explorer as indie awards bait, the kind of film that gets raves for the intense acting performances.

As for the plot, maybe I’m just at a point in my life where I’m not into dark books, but I learned quickly that The Explorer is not good bedtime fare, and every time I stopped reading it left me feeling vaguely depressed. I grew up on Ray Bradbury, who never met a protagonist he couldn’t torture in one way or another, but bleak science fiction without heart can be hard to take. And I’m usually exhorting authors to take their time, but for a quick read this one felt painfully interminable. I can’t say that I enjoyed any part of the reading experience, but I will give Smythe credit for good prose, and one accomplishment: he made exploration seem like such a bad idea that it would have given Magellan agoraphobia.

Elizabeth H.  Bio

What an interesting, odd dirty space novel — very reminiscent of Alien in some ways. We quickly learn our hero, an imbedded journalist of sorts is the only one left alive on a space mission. The questions: how did everyone else die? Why? What’s the true nature of their mission?

If I’m being a tease, I’m sorry. Anything more than that and we’re in spoilers.

I started it at midnight and finished at 2 AM. If this wasn’t written with a mind to be turned into a film, I’d be very surprised. I had thought it would be a one trick pony, but there are some nice twists.

It’s rare I comment on an author’s bio, but my god, he comes off like a conceited jerk. Read the novel anyway.

Rounding down my grade because 1) it’s a very short book, 2) narrator’s voice was grating at times, and 3) it veers into misogyny.

Grade: C+

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Title: Once Upon a Flock: Life with My Soulful Chickens

Author: Lauren Scheuer. She has illustrated several childrens books. She is also the author of the popular blog, Scratch and Peck.

Genre: Memoir

Readers: Reading teacher Emry, event planner Kathy, accountant Gina aka Slappy, policy wonk BakingSuit and publishing professional Gigi.

Summary: When longtime illustrator and lover of power tools Lauren Scheuer was looking for a project, she got the idea to raise backyard chickens. Her husband and teenage daughter looked on incredulously as coop sketches and chicken-raising books filled their New England home. But when the chicks arrived, the whole family fell in love with the bundles of fluff and the wild adventures began. Once Upon a Flock: Life with My Soulful Chickens stars Scheuer’s backyard chickens—with their big personalities, friendships, rivalries, and secrets—and the flock’s guardian, Marky the terrier. The flock includes Hatsy, the little dynamo; Lil’White, the deranged and twisted Buff Orpington; Pigeon, the fixer-upper chicken; and Lucy, the special-needs hen who bonds with Lauren and becomes a fast friend.

Emry  Bio

As a fellow backyard chicken enthusiast, I was excited to receive my copy of Once Upon a Flock. I began reading it immediately and was amused by the abundant illustrations throughout the book. They’re whimsical and sweet, and a good reflection of the book’s tone. This is a fun read; it isn’t literature, but it’s not trying to be. The author’s passion and affection for her small flock of hens was endearing and inspiring. While there are many fun and humorous parts of this book, there are also a few sad moments, which is to be expected in chicken-raising. Overall, I found this to be an accurate portrayal of an increasingly popular hobby, but more than that, it’s a sweet story. Once Upon a Flock would make a great gift for any backyard chicken enthusiast, or anyone looking for a fun, lighthearted read.

Grade: A

Kathy  Bio

My mom has always had an animal problem. Growing up we had dogs, stray cats, and in high school my mom entered chicken territory. Her chickens all had names and personalities. She was deeply attached to all of them (about 18) and came to love them and nurse them all by hand at one point or another. Once Upon a Flock really brought this version of my mom back to me – it was like reading a book about my childhood all over again. Comforted chickens cheeping away in the house and a specially designed coop to keep predators out and chickens in, I could see it all happening in my parents yard. This was such a wonderful little jaunt into backyard farming in general, yes it’s just chickens now but you can totally see the author using that as a jumping point for other adoptions – goats, sheep, maybe even a calf. I loved that it was a mixed book with illustrations and text for brightness and engagement. I would love to see a kid read this, my kid brother would get a kick out of it for sure.

Grade: B+

Read Also: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver would be a great follow-up for older readers.

Gina aka Slappy  Bio

Every once in a while I like to clear my head with a book that’s easy and quick to read. Once Upon a Flock arrived at the perfect time. I read the entire thing this past weekend. It’s so darn cute! The illustrations and pictures perfectly compliment the story. I went from feeling “oh my goodness …. that’s adorable” to “oh my goodness … that’s so sad.” Yes, a book about chickens made me cry. So glad I signed up to read this one! I highly recommend it.

Grade: A

BakingSuit  Bio

This well written with just enough illustrations to make you smile book told a sweet story of avian friendship and the love an owner never expected to feel. I especially loved how this was a great balance of nature and feelings weaving the facts of what was into Scheuer’s thoughts. This book was an adorable, heart felt, feel good read. Yes there were a few sad parts, but it left me feeling warm inside.

I know a young man who is having difficulty bridging the gap between science based books and fiction books. Although not fiction, I think this might provide a good start for him.

Grade: A

Gigi  Bio

I totally enjoyed Once Upon a Flock. I’d been reading a series of books that were quite serious in nature and I needed an emotional break and turned to this. It was exactly what I needed! It is a super fast read written in a very pleasant tone of voice. The author’s rationale for getting chickens (because she wanted to have more going on in her yard but mainly because building a coop would give her a project for her power tools) made me laugh because that is basically how I would end up embarking on a huge project: start with something small and watch it snowball.

If you are thinking about getting chickens (or just interested in them in any way), I would get this book. It is not a how-to book but it paints a very good picture of what your life will be like. They take so much work! I came away caring very much about these particular chickens–they have such adorable individual personalities–but also with a firm awareness of the fact that I do not have the time or energy to try it on my own. This is the perfect way to live vicariously.

As the author is also an illustrator, there are a number of really cute illustrations and photographs of her chickens.  I ended up caring about them even more because I could see them grow. Unfortunately, because I was reading on my Kindle 3G, everything was in black and white. I imagine they are much better in color but it’s something to think about if you are looking to buy your own copy.

Grade: A

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Title: Dreams and Shadows

Author: C. Robert Cargill. He spent years as a film writer on the web and is the co-screenwriter for the recent horror film Sinister.

Genre: Fantasy

Readers: Bookseller Pam, professors Michal and JoLee, victim advocate MJ and Gigi in publishing.

Summary: There is another world than our own—one no closer than a kiss and one no further than our nightmares—where all the stuff of which dreams are made is real and magic is just a step away. But once you see that world, you will never be the same.

Dreams and Shadows takes us beyond this veil. Once bold explorers and youthful denizens of this magical realm, Ewan is now an Austin musician who just met his dream girl, and Colby, meanwhile, cannot escape the consequences of an innocent wish. But while Ewan and Colby left the Limestone Kingdom as children, it has never forgotten them. And in a world where angels relax on rooftops, whiskey-swilling genies argue metaphysics with foul-mouthed wizards, and monsters in the shadows feed on fear, you can never outrun your fate.

Pam  Bio

I love fantasy and horror, but stories about the fairy world usually don’t cut it for me. This one wasn’t much different, although there were many aspects that I did enjoy. The comparisons to Lev Grossman are very apt – Dreams and Shadows does for fairies what The Magicians did for Harry Potter. It grounds the fantastical in our world, creating strife where the two cross over. Since I don’t know fairy lore as well as I do Hogwarts, though, I felt I didn’t always have a firm grasp on what was happening.

I really enjoyed Cargill’s writing, and I’ll be interested to see what he comes up with in the future. This is certainly better than most first novels, but it falls a bit flat within the genre.

Grade: C

Michal  Bio

I’m definitely a fan of Neil Gaiman, have heard many wonderful things about Lev Grossman, and am intrigued by fantastical creatures (I love the TV shows Supernatural and Being Human for that exact reason) so I was eagerly anticipating reading Dreams and Shadows. I have to admit, the beginning was a little rough. The story jumped from character to character and I had a bit of a hard time following, plus I was unfamiliar with some of the creatures discussed. But power through, readers! Suspend your belief with this fantastical creatures swearing up a storm and speaking crudely and make sure you read the chapters explaining the characteristics about each creature because about a quarter of the way through the book, something clicked and I went from being thoroughly confused to needing to know what was going to happen!!!! It was like the pieces of the puzzle were coming together and I just had to keep going to see the completed picture. The pacing was just right for me that just as I felt like things were making sense, the focus would shift elsewhere and I would have to keep going to keep discovering more.

The writing was also extremely graphic at times but also extremely descriptive without being “in your face”. I could picture the scenes in my mind but also was giving license to leave a little to the imagination. I also liked how you could never figure out what was going to happen- Cargill kept me on my toes and never let me as a reader get complacent and think I knew what would happen. By the end, though, I was so connected to many of the characters that the end was pretty emotional. The last chapter had an interesting twist on usual fairy tales, which I appreciated, so keep on reading, just so you can make it there.

If you like Neil Gaiman (American Gods, The Sandman, etc.) or fantasy stories with legendary creatures, then definitely give this one a try.

Grade: B+

JoLee  Bio

I love a good urban fantasy, so I really wanted to like Dreams and Shadows, but I just didn’t. The book follows two boys, Ewan and Colby. Both become entangled in fairy affairs. The narration alternates with excerpts from several books on fairies and other supernatural creatures. The excerpts do serve a purpose in the story, but they also break up the narration. The story also toggles between Ewan’s and Colby’s perspective. Alternating between characters can be a good thing. It can raise the suspense in a novel because the reader wants to get back to the character they left behind. Half of the story takes place while the characters are boys. Then we jump forward in time and Ewan and Colby are 21 and living in Austin. There are too many breaks in the narration in this book. Dreams and Shadows starts out strong. I read the first few pages and thought, “I’m going to love this book,” but the love didn’t last long. The characters are not particularly loveable, and the love story doesn’t inspire much devotion. There are a couple of good moments (like The Hunt), but not enough to make up for the rest of the book.

Grade: C-

Read Instead:
If you want another book with a leanan sidhe read Maggie Stiefvater’s Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie
If you want a really good urban fantasy read Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys
If you want a book about wizards and fairies (and a alternate history to boot) read Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

MJ  Bio

This is book was not for me while I do love a good fairy tale this book is not your typical Tinkerbell romp. There was no happily ever after and you don’t even get a naughty fairy sex scene. Instead you get a seedy nasty tale dealing exclusively with the dark side of life.  Full of greedy selfish and mean spirited creatures that leave you questions humanity and wondering if the author is trying to make a point about the human race.  There are no characters to really like save Colby but even he slips and falls towards the end. The one redeeming thing about the book is the descriptive world that C. Robert Cargill has created, that alone keep me reading to the bitter, seriously it was bitter, end. I will admit that any 15 year old boy would enjoy the ending assuming you can get them to read that far.

Grade: C-

Read instead: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Gigi  Bio

I just did not want to finish this. I kept looking at the percentage completed at the bottom of my Kindle and willing it to be higher. There is definitely a good idea at the bottom of it but I think the author needs to tighten the story up a lot and pick fewer characters to develop further. We get the point of view and motivation of pretty much everyone mentioned in the story in a way that felt like an adjective-heavy English class exercise but then the dialogue between the major characters is stilted and flat.

In the middle of Chapter 9, I went and reread the description of the book and realized that that wasn’t even the book I was reading. I wanted to read that book. It also meant that I had about another 100 pages of development in order to get there. Or there was going to be a major break and “10 years later”. I’m fine with either way,  if I thought that the story would feel more “real” once I was there. The author just wants to include so much in his world that nothing has any depth and he has to intersperse chapters of faked textbook explanations of certain creatures or events. Imagine if J.K. Rowling had written the entire Harry Potter series as one book: so much texture would be lost OR she could have worked out a cool way to do it in, say, the last year at Hogwarts. This book has that problem; the author didn’t opt to take the space or time to develop the world and all the creatures in it in an engaging way nor did he go for conciseness and work out his plot in a riveting way. If he had gone 300 pages and the story in the description or if he had gone multi-volume, textured opus, I would have read either happily.

Grade: C-

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 Thanks to Harper Voyager for providing our readers with access to this novel before publication.

Title: The Gods of Heavenly Punishment

Author: Jennifer Cody Epstein. She is the author of a previous novel, The Painter from Shanghai.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Readers: Stay at home mom Shawna, retiree Nancy, attorney Elizabeth H. and librarian Mary Liz.

Summary: In this evocative and thrilling epic novel, fifteen-year-old Yoshi Kobayashi, child of Japan’s New Empire, daughter of an ardent expansionist and a mother with a haunting past, is on her way home on a March night when American bombers shower her city with napalm—an attack that leaves one hundred thousand dead within hours and half the city in ashen ruins. In the days that follow, Yoshi’s old life will blur beyond recognition, leading her to a new world marked by destruction and shaped by those considered the enemy: Cam, a downed bomber pilot taken prisoner by the Imperial Japanese Army; Anton, a gifted architect who helped modernize Tokyo’s prewar skyline but is now charged with destroying it; and Billy, an Occupation soldier who arrives in the blackened city with a dark secret of his own. Directly or indirectly, each will shape Yoshi’s journey as she seeks safety, love, and redemption.

Shawna  Bio

This book starts off kind of slow, but once it takes off you won’t want to let it go. I love reading books (both fiction and non-fiction) about people who lived through disasters and reading their first-hand account of the event. This book did not disappoint. The author’s way of describing things and pulling you into the book is wonderful. During the scenes where Epstein is writing about the bombings of Tokyo, my heart was breaking but at the same time, I coundn’t put the book down.

At the same time, the book flashes to a time during the war, but on the homefront. The author tells of a young woman with a young child, hoping and praying her soldier will come back to her yet at the same time is hurting and afraid he will not.

This book pulls at all of your heartstrings and just keeps plucking. I was almost relieved when I finished this book, the emotional pull it had was phenomenol.

The only thing I would suggest differently about this book is to maybe change the way the reader learns of certain events. My drive to read this book slowed way down in the beginning after learning some terrible news, there wasn’t the push to keep reading to find out what happened to one certain character who I thought would be a much bigger part of the book.

Grade: A-

Nancy  Bio

This was a love-hate book for me.  The story moved very fast and I finished the book quickly.  After reading the back cover about a young woman’s journey through the 1945 firebombing of Tokyo, I expected the story to begin there.  However,   more than half of the book was  background stories  of the main characters and  their lives which led up to the bombing in 1945.  Some of the characters were interesting but their storylines were pretty ordinary.  Then the bombs and quickly the  rest of the book  connected all of the characters into a tidy package.  It was like rushing to the end and I wanted more.

Grade: B-

Elizabeth H.  Bio

The Gods of Heavenly Punishment is a lovely novel that I read over the course of a few hours.

I feel compelled to add that it broke my heart. It isn’t a criticism, but a testimony to the skill with which Ms. Epstein captured the horrors of this theater of war. If you aren’t familiar with the Doolittle Raids, the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, or the American bombing of Tokyo, there may be parts that are difficult to read.

(If you are familiar with these things, it’s still hard to read, but at least you will not be surprised by the atrocities.)

The advance press and blurb tout this as a novel about Yoshi, a Japanese girl during the firebombing of Japan, so what I expected was Black Rain, lite. That’s true for a very small part of the book. In reality, it is an ensemble piece featuring a number of primarily American viewpoint characters whose lives intertwine slightly, and the novel ranges in time from the 1930s through the early 1960s.

So it’s a little disingenuous to claim it’s about her (it also caused me a bit of confusion since the novel didn’t start off with Yoshi; as a viewpoint character, she doesn’t even emerge until late in the book). I found all of the characters interesting, but because we spent so little time with any one of them, I never felt truly attached. I found myself wishing that either the novel had been longer, to allow for more time with each character, or that some of them were cut or merged. I see this as the novel’s main weakness, and it’s the reason I would deduct a star.

From an editorial point of view, I wanted to mark out the ample adverbs, particularly in the beginning of the novel and more particularly in dialogue tags. However, as I read on, I was so engrossed in the story that I stopped caring about these.

Grade: B+

Mary Liz  Bio

If you love well drawn characters who feel like people you have know all your life, then the epic novel The Gods of Heavenly Punishment is a book that you should not miss. The stories of each of the characters are fascinating and keep you wanting to read more but it is when these stories get pieced together and the larger picture is revealed that the novel becomes truly outstanding. Jennifer Cody Epstein’s book shows us how our decisions can have far reaching effects and just how connected our lives really are.

Grade: A+

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