In Leah’s Wake – Terri Giuliano Long

Publisher: Laughing Moon Publishing
Released: Feb 28th, 2010
Genre: Adult fiction
Review copy from author

The Tylers have a perfect life—beautiful home, established careers, two sweet and talented daughters. Their eldest daughter, Leah, an exceptional soccer player, is on track for a prestigious. Their youngest, Justine, more responsible than seems possible for her 12 years, just wants her sister’s approval. With Leah nearing the end of high school and Justine a seemingly together kid, the parents are set to enjoy a peaceful life…until everything goes wrong.

As Leah’s parents fight to save their daughter from a world of drugs, sex, and wild parties, their divided approach drives their daughter out of their home and a wedge into their marriage. Meanwhile, twelve-year-old Justine observes her sister’s rebellion from the shadows of their fragmented family—leaving her to question whether anyone loves her and if God even knows she exists.

Can this family survive in Leah’s wake? What happens when love just isn’t enough?

From the author’s website.

This book was one emotional roller coaster of a ride. This family is so fragmented and broken that at times it was awkward to read about. But the good kind of awkward, you know? The kind that most of us can identify with.

I really appreciated the fact that this was a true family drama. The author lets us see things from all perspectives and while there’s a lot of blame from different family members, it’s easy to see that the problems, the issues involve everybody. There really isn’t one person to blame.

With that being said, Leah is at the centre of most of the drama and problems with the family. But I didn’t feel that Leah was written in such a way that I was always thinking “Sheesh, teens!” There were often times that I felt a lot of empathy for Leah, even when she was wandering down a bad path and when she was being, well, obnoxious.  She was a well-rounded character, as were all the characters.

In Leah’s Wake surprised me. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but what I got was a well-told story of relationships and families. I think anyone who enjoys a book where things get messy and the characters aren’t perfect will enjoy it. I did.

Summer Lovin’ Blog Tour -While He was Away – Karen Schreck

One year—he’ll be gone for one year and then we’ll be together again and everything will be back to the way it should be.
The day David left, I felt like my heart was breaking. Sure, any long–distance relationship is tough, but David was going to war—to fight, to protect, to put his life in danger. We can get through this, though. We’ll talk, we’ll email, we won’t let anything come between us.
I can be on army girlfriend for one year. But will my sweet, soulful, funny David be the same person when he comes home? Will I? And what if he doesn’t come home at all…?

I don’t often do this in reviews, but I HAVE to take a second to talk about the cover for While He was Away. I don’t know if it’s the gorgeous pink coloring of the sky, the fact that they’re holding hands or my strong desire to have those wedge shoes, but this cover caught my attention majorly. When the book arrived I was in the middle of reading another book, but kept going over to my desk to glance at it. I just I think it’s amazing.

And the inside of the book was just as fantastic and captivating as the cover. I felt a pretty strong connection to Penna from the beginning and didn’t wander too far from my box of Kleenex throughout the whole book. See, here’s something that some of you might not know: my husband doesn’t live with me full time. He works in another province for two week stints then comes home for six days. So while he isn’t a soldier and doesn’t leave for a year at a time, I could still empathize with what she was going through, all the emotions she was feeling before David left and after. And let me tell you, Schreck nailed that perfectly. PERFECTLY. Hence the Kleenex.

The blurb doesn’t give much away, so I don’t want to either, but I do want to let you guys know that there’s a lot more to this book than just Penna and David’s long-distance relationship. Penna has some serious family shit going down, and while it’s traumatic and stressful, it also helps keep her mind off of David (as much as that’s possible). I loved the layering of Penna’s stories and how everything was connected.

I was expecting a bit of a gooshy, romantic read and I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the novel. I read it in one sitting and was moved by the beauty of the prose and the details of the story. Anyone who is a fan of YA contemp should absolutely run out and buy While He was Away, as should anyone who’s interested in the genre. Actually, all of you should go buy it. It was that good.

Thanks bunches and bunches to Source Books for the review copy.

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.

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.

Half-Blood Blues – Esi Edugyan

Paris, 1940. A brilliant jazz musician, Hiero, is arrested by the Nazis and never heard from again. He is twenty years old. He is a German citizen. And he is black.

Fifty years later, his friend and fellow musician, Sid, must relive that unforgettable time, revealing the friendships, love affairs and treacheries that sealed Hiero’s fate. From the smoky bars of pre-war Berlin to the salons of Paris – where the legendary Louis Armstrong makes an appearance – Sid, with his distinctive and rhythmic German-American slang, leads the reader through a fascinating world alive with passion, music and the spirit of resistance.

I think it’s safe to say this was one of the most hyped Canadian novels of 2011. Nominated for basically every big lit awards, it nabbed itself the Giller Prize and became a hit. And while I usually don’t run out and buy a book because it won an award, I did put Half-Blood Blues on my Christmas list and was lucky enough to receive it.

While I really, really enjoyed it, I didn’t fall in love with the writing or the story. But there were elements that I did love.

I LOVED reading about that time period. I don’t read a lot of fiction set in the past, but I really should. The way that Edugyan described what was going on in 1939/1940 was addictive. The political unrest, the clothing, the jazz scene. It was all beautifully written and made me feel like I was right there. I also loved the way she unfolded the story. The pacing was just dead-on.

I did, however, have some issue with another aspect of the writing. The intermingling of the slang with some “literary” and at times flowery (though beautiful) writing felt a bit off to me and sometimes took me out of the story.

I won’t give anything away, but I think Half-Blood Blues has one of my favorite endings of all time. Seriously. Okay, that’s all I’m saying. Oh, and one more thing: this was a great story and despite some issues with the language, I really liked it.

13 Little Blue Envelopes – Maureen Johnson

Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1,000 and instructions to buy a plane ticket.

In envelope 2 are directions to a specific London flat.

The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist.

Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/ bloke–about–town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous–though utterly romantic–results. But will she ever see him again?

Everything about Ginny will change this summer, and it’s all because of the 13 little blue envelopes.

13 Little Blue Envelopes was just a wonderfully fun book. FUN! I mean, there’s more to it than that, but fun is the first word that comes to mind when I think of 13 Little Blue Envelopes. But under the fun of watching Ginny follow the path of the envelopes there were themes of love, family, accepting and forgiving. And in the end it was all about Ginny find her way and her place in life.

For me, this was like one of those old English tales where the hero or heroine went off on a quest and met up with not only obstacles, but also friendly and interesting characters along the way. The envelopes were in a way like Ginny’s yellow brick road and she had no choice but to follow them.

There were also lessons to be learned, but the reader wasn’t smashed over the head with them. They were there, but they were well placed and interwoven within the story.

I know I’m not being as articulate as I should, but I really liked this book.

Fixing Delilah – Sarah Ockler

Things in Delilah Hannaford’s life have a tendency to fall apart.

She used to be a good student, but she can’t seem to keep it together anymore. Her “boyfriend” isn’t much of a boyfriend. And her mother refuses to discuss the fight that divided their family eight years ago. Falling apart, it seems, is a Hannaford tradition.

Over a summer of new friendships, unexpected romance, and moments that test the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, Delilah must face her family’s painful past. Can even her most shattered relationships be pieced together again?

Rich with emotion, Sarah Ockler delivers a powerful story of family, love, and self-discovery.

If you’ve read my review of Ockler’s Twenty Boy Summer, then you know that I loved that book beyond. So I was super excited to get Fixing Delilah for review from the folks at Little Brown and Company.

I really loved this book. It’s one of those reads that left me sighing in contentment when I finished it. I loved the mix of coming of age, mystery and romance.  Ockler included just the right amount of each so that the book was well-balanced.

This is a book about family, for sure. Delilah and her mom have such a real and dysfunctional relationship that it was heartbreaking. It wasn’t the dysfuction that broke my heart, though. It was those small moments of connection that neither mother nor daughter felt that they could deepen that makes it an emotional – and believable –  relationship. I get tired when there’s issues between kids and parents and it’s all negative. You could see that these two really cared for each other, they had just lost the ability to really show it.

There was a twist towards the end (which I LOVED) but it wasn’t the twist I was expecting (which I loved EVEN MORE). It added a new layer to the story, which was great.

I love Ockler’s writing. She can get sentimental without being too mushy about it and her way of describing relationships and letting us watch them unfold is brilliant. She’s one of my favorite YA contemp authors, for sure.

The Thirteen – Susie Moloney

Haven Woods is suburban heaven, a great place to raise a family. It’s close to the city, quiet, with great schools and its own hospital right up the road. Property values are climbing. The streets are clean, people keep their yards really nicely. It’s fairly pet friendly, though barking dogs are not welcomed. The crime rate is practically non-existent, unless you count the odd human sacrifice, dismemberment, animal attack, demon rape and blood atonement. When Paula Wittmore goes home to Haven Woods to care for a suddenly ailing mother, she brings her daughter and a pile of emotional baggage. She also brings the last chance for twelve of her mother’s closest frenemies, who like to keep their numbers at thirteen. And her daughter, young, innocent, is a worthy gift to the darkness.

A circle of friends will support you through bad times. A circle of witches can drag you through hell.

Ah, what a delish read!

The Thirteen is the perfect combination of mystery, horror, paranormal and chick-lit. I mean, this book was kinda like Desperate Housewives on some major  ’shrooms.  It was fast-paced and juicy and scary and full of Holy shit moments. And it wasn’t a deep book, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. This is the kind of book that you can get 100% wrapped up in, enjoying it simply for what it is: a Hell of a good read.

The whole time I was reading The Thirteen, I was picturing it as a movie. Moloney’s writing really made everything very vivid and the scenes just popped off the pages. The writing was witty and campy and there was just enough ew factor to make me happy. And I loved the whole everything is not what it seems angle. Kinda makes you look at your own neighbors a bit closer.

Thanks to the folks at Random House Canada for the review copy.