Forgotten – Catherine McKenzie – blog tour

Emma Tupper is a dedicated lawyer with a bright future. But when she takes a month-long leave of absence to go on an African vacation, she ends up facing unexpected consequences. After she falls ill and spends six months trapped in a remote village thanks to a devastating earthquake, Emma returns home to discover that her friends, boyfriend, and colleagues thought she was dead and that her life has moved on without her.

As she struggles to recreate her old life, throwing herself into solving a big case for a client and trying to reclaim her beloved apartment from the handsome photographer who’s taken over her lease, everyone around her thinks she should take the opportunity to change. But is she willing to sacrifice the job, relationships and everything else she worked so hard to build?

*Sigh* Don’t you love when you have an author that you just know is going to wow you? Over the past couple of years Catherine McKenzie has become one of my go-to authors. I wait impatiently for her to have a new book out, then do what I have to do to get a hold of an ARC. Then I devour it in one sitting, hug it to my chest happily and begin the whole process over. Seriously.

Forgotten is a bit different than Catherine’s first two books. While it once again deals with a woman who finds herself in an unusual predicament, I found it a lot darker and more serious than Spin and Arranged. But I still loved it to bits. Despite the different overall tone it still had the snappy dialogue, great characterization and gut-wrenching scenes that I’ve come to expect from Catherine.

I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s a subplot that pops up about half way through the book that I thought was a wonderful addition to the main plot. It added another layer to Emma and really  helped her character to grow. And that’s what’s really at the heart of this story: growing. I think it’s great that Emma comes back all ready to take over her life again. But is that really the life she wants? And if so, will that life still be there for her? It’s these questions, and the way that Catherine approaches them, that makes this such a great read.

Oh, and the handsome photographer ain’t too shabby, either. :0)

A Certain Grace – Binnie Brennan

In the tradition of short story writers Alice Munro and Carol Shields, Binnie Brennan examines the minutiae of ordinary life. During a tipsy night out escaping the frustrations of daily routines, two middle-aged school teachers try their luck at scoring a joint. A long-haul trucker drives an injured butterfly to its breeding ground in Florida, giving them both a much-needed migration. And while struggling with the death of her ex-husband, a single mother questions her place in her family’s lives. A Certain Grace is richly told in spare prose and woven with vignettes of a much-loved grandfather’s life. 

Binnie Brennan’s pitch-perfect stories chart with a musician’s precision the beats between tenderness and cruelty, between innocence and understanding, in the gulf between what we long for and what is. Centred on the rifts between partner and partner, parents and children, acquaintances and strangers, they hover on the cusp of loss and the quiet deliverance of words themselves, to pinpoint the moment, brimming with possibility, when everything changes. 

— Carol Bruneau, author of Glass Voices

I met Binnie last September and bought her first collection, Harbour View, from her at Word on the Street. I pretty much bought it because Binnie is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met and I love supporting local authors.  And if you’ve read my review of Harbour View, then you know I fell in love with Binnie’s writing and imagination. So I was a happy little booknerd when Quattro Books sent me her latest book, A Certain Grace.

The stories in A Certain Grace are wonderful little snippets of people and of life, in general. I think my favorite thing about this collection is that most of the stories don’t end. Well, they obviously end, but there isn’t a lot of closure. Things aren’t wrapped up all nice and neat.  They are truly snippets. Kinda like going to a cafe by yourself and eavesdropping in on the tables around you. You get some beginnings, some middles and maybe some ends, but usually not all three. And that’s how Binnie’s stories are. And it made me happy, guys. So happy. I loved that I didn’t know how things ended. I could imagine what happened next, play around with endings on my own. I find that I often gravitate towards this writing style. I know it ticks some people off, but for me it’s wonderful.

Something else that’s wonderful is the Five Miniatures at the end of the collection. I loved the tone and voice of these mini stories and they were written in such a personal manner that they seem like diary entries or memories.

A Certain Grace was just a lovely collection of short stories. I enjoyed them all.

Emily for Real – Sylvia Gunnery

If it’s just him, I cut a clean diagonal right across the middle, letting one half fall dead on the bed and throwing the other half on top of the pile. If it’s a picture of him with me, I carefully slice him off, and for some reason I save the piece with me in it. After a while, there’s a pile of Brian corpses lying there staring at nothing, and the pages of my album are all patched up with slices and triangles and scraps of pictures of me.

In every one of these sliced-up pictures, I look stranded.

Seventeen-year-old Emily’s world crumbles when her boy friend dumps her, and when she thinks her life can’t possibly get any worse, a series of secrets are revealed that threaten to tear her beloved family apart. Emily’s heart has been broken into a hundred pieces and she feels like there is no one to turn to, until an unexpected friendship blossoms with a troubled classmate named Leo. Sometimes moody but always supportive, Leo is Emily’s rock in an ocean of confusion and disbelief.

But Leo doesn’t have an easy life either. He struggles to be both mother and father to his little sister while his mom battles her alcohol addiction. His deadbeat dad darts in and out of the picture, and Leo would rather he stay away, permanently. The two friends lean on each other, and in the end discover the inner strength to face whatever life throws at them.

I don’t think I can quite capture my love for the relationship between Emily and Leo. I found it absolutely refreshing to read about a friendship between a boy and girl that stays just that: a friendship. When I was a teen, most of my best friends were boys, so I really identified with it. It was so realistic and honest and I just loved it. I also loved how they were both pretty messed up and damaged and didn’t really like each other at first, but slowly became close and trusted each other.

While I loved their relationship, I was a bit overwhelmed with Emily’s family secrets. The revelations, to me, seemed a bit forced and really came at a pretty fast pace. I realize that it’s possible for family stuff to go down that way, but I just felt that it was a bit rushed. But despite this, I really loved Emily for Real and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA contemp with strong themes of friendship.

Thanks to Pajama Press for the review copy.

Real Mermaids Don’t Hold Their Breath – Helene Boudreau

Normal is Never Coming Back

Jade is totally confused. As in, “will this be a leg-day or a tail-day?” kind of confused. Even worse, it’s been forever since her first kiss with Luke and now—nothing. Not even a text message.

Sigh.

But Jade doesn’t have time to figure out the weirdness of boys and how to use her shiny new tail. (Seriously, being a mermaid should come with a handbook.) She has to come up with a plan to get her missing mermaid mom back on dry land.

The only problem is…Jade is afraid of the ocean. But even aqua-phobic mer-girls have to take the plunge sometime…

I don’t know about you, but when I read the first book in a series and absofreakinglutely love it, I’m always nervous reading the second book. What if I don’t like it? What if it isn’t as addicting as the first book? What if it totally sucks? This was so not the case with Real Mermaids Don’t Hold Their Breath. It was as funny, charming, addicting and well written as the first book. I fell in love with it from the first page and continued loving it until it was over. Then I hugged my ARC whispering to the book gods “Please bring me the next book SOON”.

I just love Jade. She’s so cute and awkward and smart and dorky that I just want to put her in my pocket and take her home. Boudreau writes her in a such a way that Jade never becomes a caricature of herself, even when she’s at her goofiest. That’s a fine line to walk and it’s done beautifully. She’s one of my favorite YA characters.

I also love the tone of Real Mermaids Don’t Hold Their Breath. It was light and airy and funny and snarky and just wonderful. The pacing was also top-notch. Boudreau kept things moving, but not at a breakneck speed. It was a super balance of action, mystery and character development.

*Slight spoiler, but a good one*

THERE’S NO LOVE TRIANGLE!!!!!!!!!! For this alone I could fly out to Boudreau’s home and hug her. Or bring her cookies if she’s not the touchy-feely type. While love triangles done right are super, it was refreshing to have some romance-y stuff in a YA book and not have more than two people involved. Cuz in real life? Most teens are lucky to have one love interest.

*End of spoiler*

I really could go on and on and on and on about how much love I have for this book and for Boudreau’s writing and how happy this series makes me. But I want you to experience it for yourself. So if you haven’t read Boudreau’s Real Mermaids books, please do. Your book-loving heart will be all the happier for it.

Thanks an unbelievable amount to the folks at Source Books for the review copy.

Pure – Julianna Baggott

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it’s his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

I have to be honest: for the first couple of chapters, I really wasn’t feeling this book. Could have been my mood, could have been the writing, could have been the characters, could have been the pull of the tides, I dunno. But I almost put it down a couple of times. But something – some nugget – kept me going. And I’m very glad that I did. Because by chapter three I was in love with this book.

It’s a bit hard to talk about what I liked about Pure without giving some of the story away, and I HATE spoiling things for other readers. So I’ll try to skirt around some of the surprises and secrets while still letting you know why you may want to give this book a go.

Okay, first Pressia’s world. The fusing that is mentioned in the book blurb? So cool and gross and disturbing and disgusting and brilliant. I want Pure to be made into a movie just so I can see the fusing come to life. But really, I don’t need to see it in a movie because Baggott describes it so well and vividly that I felt, quite often, that I COULD see it. (Which may be why it took me a couple of chapters to like the book, maybe. She’s quite graphic in her descriptions right off the bat, and I think it took me a while to feel comfortable with it).

After the brokenness of Pressia’s world, when we’re first introduced to where Partridge lives, The Dome, its order and starkness are obvious. I loved how even though The Dome is supposed to be the better option of the two, it quickly becomes evident that all is not as it appears.

Pure is told from several different view points. It took me a bit to understand why some of the secondary characters were getting their own chapters. But trust me, it all fits together. And a couple of those secondary characters ended up being my favorite parts of the book.

Pure took a bit of time to grow on me, but once I warmed up to it, I warmed up to it completely. I think this is a dystopian that will appeal  to a lot of people.

Thanks bunches to the folks at Hachette Canada for the review copy.

All These Things I’ve Done – Gabrielle Zevin

In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city’s most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.’s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidently poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she’s to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight–at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family.

Okay, I don’t think I could handle it if chocolate were banned. I mean, seriously. The coffee I could do without (though I’m sure the hubs would be a joy to live with) but chocolate? No freaking way.

This book had such a unique premise that I was really hoping to fall hopelessly in love with it. But I didn’t. I didn’t hate it but I had an issue and for me it’s a big one. The pacing in All These Things I’ve Done?  It was way, way off for me.

Okay, so, I LOVED the parts about her mafia family and the chocolate poisoning and such. But sandwiched in between was the romancey stuff. It just seemed like in the middle of the book there was a shift from the mystery of the poisoning to the smoochy part and then back to the mystery again. I found it jarring and quite noticeable. I would have much preferred if the mafia stuff stayed the main focus and the romance part was woven in better.  It’s not that I didn’t like the romance stuff, it’s just that it kinda stopped everything else that was happening. And yes, I realize that when teens fall in love (or anyone for that matter) that pretty much everything else is at a stand-still for a while.  I just found it jarring, is all.

But still, I did enjoy the book and really loved the prohibition throwback and the tone of the book.  Even though it made me crave chocolate like nobody’s business.

Hemlock – Kathleen Peacock

Mackenzie and Amy were best friends. Until Amy was brutally murdered.

Since then, Mac’s life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac’s hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy’s killer:

A white werewolf.

Lupine syndrome—also known as the werewolf virus—is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.

Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy’s murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy’s boy-friend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.

It’s, you see, I just, this book… gah!!!!!!! I have so much flipping LOVE for this book that I’m a bit of a blabbering mess trying to write this review. Even more so than normal. If I could, I’d give each of you a copy of Hemlock, a day where you don’t have to do anything, some great tea, chocolate and a cozy blanket and tell you TO READ IT. And you would. In one fell swoop. Because when I sat down to read Hemlock, I did nothing else until I was finished. But this is a review blog and I’m not a millionaire, so let me try to explain why I have so much love for this book. But first I have to thank the folks at HarperCollins Canada for the review copy. And for not serving me with a peace bond. I kinda pestered them for the last six months about getting my grubbies on an ARC of Hemlock.

Lately I’ve been very meh about paranormal YA books. I think I had just read so many of them that I kind of burnt out on the genre. They were all blurring together and I was having a hard time differentiating one from another. Then Hemlock landed on my door and it pretty much kicked me in the ass. It made me excited about the genre again.

Kathleen’s writing style is just beautiful. It’s detailed without going overboard, flowery where it needs to be, straightforward in other parts. From the first page her writing flows and just keeps flowing until the last word. Which, in my opinion, came way too fast.

The story was tight and had just enough twists and turns to keep me happy without making it seem like they were just put in willy-nilly to make things more dramatic. There were a couple “HOLY HELL!” moments and they were absolutely delicious. I mean I was all like, “WHA?? OMG!!!!”.

Mac is just a great, well rounded character. Actually, they all are. And the Trackers? EVIL. But fascinating. Yups. There’s just something about a burly group of psychotics with access to weaponry that adds a super WTF element to a book. Would it make me sadistic if I said I think they may have been my favorite part of Hemlock?

There’s also some romance, but it’s not all mushy-gooshy. I actually really liked it. It was real and it added to the story, rather than being a separate element. It didn’t feel like it was just shoved in because the book needed some romance, you know?

So yeah, in case you couldn’t guess, I absolutely LOVED Hemlock. It’s one of my favorite reads so far this year (if not THE favorite read) and I know it will be one of my go-to books for when I want to read something awesome. And I cannot wait until the second book comes out. Wonder if Kathleen needs a beta reader……..

Puppy Love – Frauke Scheunemann

Hercules is a dachshund, who was rescued from the animal shelter by the sweet and loving Caroline. Life for this little dog would be perfect if it weren’t for Caroline’s new boyfriend, Thomas. Hercules and his new friend, Mr. Beck — a tomcat and a good judge of human nature — devise a shrewd plot to get rid of Thomas and to find a new companion for Caroline. 

But when things don’t work out with the men that make the dachshund’s short list — no matter how many romantic moonlight strolls he gets her to take with them — it comes down to just one man they both might agree on . . .

Okay, before I start my review I want you all to take a moment and sigh in happy bliss over the uber-cuteness of this book cover. You’ll notice I’ve made it larger than I usually do and there’s a reason for that. Besides my Rowlfie, I think this is the damn cutest Daschund I have ever seen! Look at those eyes! Those ears! *sigh* Okay, now that we’ve all had our fill of adorableness, on to my review.

Puppy Love was one of the sweetest, cutest books I’ve read in a long time. I mean, come on, it’s written from the view point of a PUPPY. How could it not be cute? But while it was cute, it didn’t cross the line to cheesy. It was a nice read and I found myself smiling through most of it.

I loved the idea of Hercules, with the help of Mr. Beck,  trying to find his mistress a mate. And let me tell you, after reading Puppy Love, I find myself taking a much closer look at what my own animals do and I often wonder what there motives are. (While I’m pretty sure most of their action are motivated towards getting people food, you never know.)

Despite the fact that this story is told by Hercules, it was a believable story and had the same tone and feel as some of my favorite chick flicks. I could totally see things going down the way they did and not once did I go “Sheesh, really? I don’t think so!” I was absorbed in the story from the opening sentence and I stay engaged right through until the end.

Puppy Love is a translation, but I never once felt that the wording was awkward, as can sometimes happen with works in translation. I also don’t think that anything was lost. All of the characters were believable and the story flowed nicely. So a big yay! to Shelley Frisch, the translator. She did a beautiful job.

This is just a super cute, fun read. And it made me realize that I need more books like Puppy Love in my life.

Thanks so much to the peeps at House of Anansi for the review copy.

Domestic Violets – Matthew Norman

Tom Violet always thought that by the time he turned thirty-five, he’d have everything going for him. Fame. Fortune. A beautiful wife. A satisfying career as a successful novelist. A happy dog to greet him at the end of the day.

The reality, though, is far different. He’s got a wife, but their problems are bigger than he can even imagine. And he’s written a novel, but the manuscript he’s slaved over for years is currently hidden in his desk drawer while his father, an actual famous writer, just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His career, such that it is, involves mind-numbing corporate buzzwords, his pretentious archnemesis Gregory, and a hopeless, completely inappropriate crush on his favorite coworker. Oh . . . and his dog, according to the vet, is suffering from acute anxiety.

Tom’s life is crushing his soul, but he’s decided to do something about it. (Really.)Domestic Violets is the brilliant and beguiling story of a man finally taking control of his own happiness—even if it means making a complete idiot of himself along the way.

So, Domestic Violets had possibly one of the most wonderful opening scenes I have ever read. It was honest and awkward and funny and awkward. Did I mention awkward? Yeah, I won’t tell you what it’s about because I don’t want to spoil it for you, but it was pretty amazing. In an awkward way.

The rest of the book was also filled with wonderfully awkward moment that were just REAL, you know? Cuz my life? Yeah, full of the awkward. Just ask my husband. Or my mom. Or anyone that knows me.  Awkward could be my middle name. So I could identify, maybe not with the exact awkwardness Tom Violet was going through, but the fact that things in his life were somewhat messy.

Tom was such a great character, flaws and all. I loved his voice and the fact that most of the time he came off as funny without being pretentious. Sometimes that’s hard to do, and it’s a nod to Norman’s talent.

Tom’s relationship with all of the secondary characters were essential to the main story and very well fleshed out, but I think it’s his interactions with his arch-nemesis Gregory that I loved the most. I mean, most of us have, at some point, had a Gregory in our lives. And Tom’s reaction to Gregory, what he says and does, well, it’s AWESOME. Most of us only dream of dishing out the miserableness. But Tom? He’s a dick to Gregory and he knows it. Loved it.

I also loved Tom’s dad. He’s such a douche and a drunk and a sleaze but I loved him.

Ah, I loved the whole book. I mean, LOVED it. I was surprised by how much I was drawn into Tom’s life. The story was big and brash and crude and -here comes that word again – awkward. But the writing was gorgeous and the telling was true.

Thank so much to Catherine McKenize for suggesting I give Domestic Violets a go and HarperCollins Canada for the review copy.

When She Woke – Hillary Jordan

In the mid–21st century, a young woman in Texas awakens to a nightmare: her skin has been genetically altered, turned bright red as punishment for the crime of having an abortion.

Inspired by The Scarlet Letter, When She Woke depicts an American dystopia where terrorist attacks, natural disasters and a pandemic causing infertility have swung the country to the far right, and convicted criminals are “chromed” according to the nature of their crime and then released. A stigmatized woman in a hostile and frightening world, Hannah Payne must seek a path northward to safety. Her perilous journey becomes one of self-discovery and transfiguration as she realizes that faith, love and sexuality are not just political. They’re personal.

What an amazing, heartfelt, gorgeous read. When She Woke grabbed me from the beginning and I was a goner. I know this is a retelling of The Scarlet Letter (which I have never read) but it reminded me of Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Not necessarily the actually story, but the tone and the telling, both of which I loved.

I loved watching Hannah grow into her own person, questioning everything that she was raised to believe. It was definitely not a smooth journey to self-discovery, but is it ever? I also enjoyed that every person that she came in contact with, whether good or bad, had an affect on her.

There’s a lot of religion in When She Woke. A lot. And as a very non-religious person, I thought this was going to be a problem for me. But it wasn’t. It was just another aspect of the story that made the book work. (Note: it wasn’t a pushy religious book. But because the right is an EXTREME right, religion factors in big time.)

I had heard great things about When She Woke before I picked it up (Actually my mom bought it for me – she’s totally a book enabler) so I was a bit worried that it might not live up to the hype. But, oh, it did. I have a strong feeling that if I had read this in December it would have made last year’s best of list.

*Side note* I read While She Woke a while back, before all the scary stuff in the States regarding women and reproductive rights hit the fan. I think that if I were to reread it now, I would it find it a much scarier, darker read.