Secrets She Left Behind

 Fiction by Diane Chamberlain 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book is the sequel to Before the Storm, although the cover doesn't identify it as such. DEFINITELY read that book first, because this one gives away the ending to that one.

In this story, seventeen-year-old Keith Weston is still struggling to recover from multiple injuries caused by a church fire over a year ago. Then his mother disappears on the same day the person responsible for the fire is released from prison.

This was a very exciting story with some surprises.

The Bad Weather Friend

 Fiction by Dean Koontz

https://www.amazon.com

This story begins with a mysterious package, sent from Florida to California, from an old man to a young one. When 23-year-old Benny Catspaw receives the package, it's identified as a "blessing that will transform your life," coming from an uncle he never realized he had. The uncle's message tells him, cryptically, "There is no reason to be afraid, though there may seem to be...."

Then some strange things start to happen!

This was an interesting a fun story. It's less creepy than one expects from Dean Koontz but still weird.

I also read recently by this author: The Big Dark Sky

The Secret Life of Sunflowers

 Fiction by Marta Molnar

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story is about Johanna Bogner, the nineteenth-century Dutch woman who married Theo Van Gogh. Apparently she was the one who made sure Vincent Van Gogh's paintings weren't lost to the world. It's fairly common knowledge that Van Gogh's works went unappreciated during his lifetime; Johanna and Theo inherited the (ostensibly worthless) lot of them after Vincent's death. Then Theo himself died and left his wife with the paintings, along with a baby to raise and almost no money. It's amazing that she believed in the paintings' worth enough to expend time and energy getting them displayed.

The story is told through the vehicle of a modern woman called Emery who inherits Johanna's diary. I was very interested in learning about the history in this book, but found the modern part ( a straight romance) less compelling. Still, this was a good novel.

Before the Storm

 Fiction by Diane Chamberlain

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Andy Lockwood is fifteen years old, but he seems younger. This is because he has developmental delays from FASD (fetal alcohol syndrome disorder.) But he still wants to fit in and be a normal teenager; that's why he goes to a youth lock-in at the local church. Then the church catches on fire, and Andy's unusual way of thinking helps him find a way out of the building and help save some of the other kids. Things turn dark, however, when it's discovered that the fire was deliberately set, and Andy is accused of arson.

This was a really good book with great characters. There were several surprises in store as well.

I also read recently by this author: Fire and Rain

After Anna

 Fiction by Lisa Scottoline

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this book, Dr. Noah Alderman is on trial for the murder of his stepdaughter Anna. There seems to be an awful lot of evidence against him, but he maintains his innocence. Then the story goes back in time a bit to explain what happened before.  

So the first 300 pages went that way: a chapter about the progression of the trial and then a chapter about the backstory: how Anna had unexpectedly come to live with her mother and Noah and had immediately begun stirring up trouble.

The whole setup gave me a bad case of Oh-No-I-Can’t-Look Syndrome**, because Noah and his wife were making glaring mistakes in dealing with Anna’s manipulative tactics. Anna was obviously aiming to set Noah up as the bad guy, and everyone played right into her hands. Still, it didn’t make sense that she’d ended up murdered. 

That is, it didn’t make sense until we got to the twist. After that, the story got really interesting! (finally) I just don’t know why it took us 300 pages to get to the twist; the whole book is less than 400. 

So this was a good book at the end, if you can get through the (long) beginning.

I also read recently by this author: What Happened to the Bennetts

** Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome

(See The Southern Book Club... by Grady Hendrix)

That's when you know a main character is making a major error in judgement that's going to have huge and terrible consequences.

Local Gone Missing

 Fiction by Fiona Barton

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In the small seaside town of Ebbing, locals resent the influx of new-money transplants and city weekenders. Then there's an outdoor music festival that results in a couple of near-deaths for teenagers of local families, and right after that a man called Charlie Perry disappears.

Detective Inspector Elise King is on a medical leave, but she quickly begins to investigate. She finds that Charlie was known and liked by locals and weekenders alike, as far as everyone says. But it becomes more and more apparent that someone wanted him gone...

I also recently read by this author: The Child

The Forgotten Girls

Subtitled: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America

Nonfiction by Monica Potts

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

According to some recent data, the "least educated" of white Americans, particularly women and especially in rural areas, have experienced a significant drop in life expectancy. This author, a reporter, decided to try to investigate the reason why the simple lack of a high school degree could possibly cut off years of living for these people.

Monica Potts grew up in a rural town in the Ozarks, but escaped to the city as an adult. She decided to go back to her hometown of Clinton, Arkansas, to research the lives of people there. This book is the result.

Monica spends much of the book telling the story of Darci, her friend from childhood who stayed in Clinton, and how lack of education and trouble with drug abuse ruined Darci’s life. Monica contrasts her own “successful” life (good career, stable relationships, financial security) with Darci’s “failure” (abusive relationships, jail time, kids in state custody).

Darci’s story is what makes the book interesting (the rest is speculation and pontificating) but it also doesn’t really make the point the author wants to make, in my opinion. (Also it’s a bit smug on Monica’s part.) The author wants to say that Darci could have been “saved”simply by getting more education and leaving the area. 

But people’s lives are so much more complex than that! There are a myriad of factors involved in Darci’s “failed” life, which I have to point out ISN’T OVER! I kept expecting Darci to die at the end of the book, the way Monica talked about her, but she didn’t! (Ooops! Spoiler!) The poor girl wasn’t even forty years old when the story ended, and who in the world is qualified to deem anyone’s entire life a failure, for that matter! 

But I digress. This book was interesting to read, (and obviously invoked quite an emotional reaction from me!) but it didn’t really make much of a case for the life-saving properties of a diploma.

The Fragile Threads of Power

 Fiction by V.E. Schwab

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I recently read a book by this author that I really liked (see below) and so when this book was featured on the "BRAND NEW" area in the library I snapped it up.

This book, however, I didn't enjoy. In the prologue, the author introduced FOUR (count them!) separate character storylines and dropped them after a couple of pages. Then, the main body of the story began with ANOTHER character storyline and seemed to stick with it. (I had liked a couple of the other ones better, but oh well.)

I told myself to forget all that other stuff. This part would be the real story and it would make sense. But I kept getting confused; the author repeatedly referenced unexplained things in the past. Sometimes the story would flash back to another time but only very briefly. I couldn't get interested because I was still unclear about what was actually happening. I DEFINITELY felt that "This here is a sequel and you are missing some major backstory" kind of feeling. When I still felt lost after a hundred pages I gave up. I'm labeling this book DNF (did not finish) and returning it to the library.

Out of curiosity I checked the information online about the book. Although it is not listed as a sequel, it IS one. There was a series of THREE other books before this, in which I assume things were explained? Maybe I will go back and read those, because it seems like they are necessary in understanding this one.

In the past I have never posted anything about books I did not finish, but I've decided to start now, logging them in their own category. I will not give the DNF's a thumb rating because that seems unfair, but really I guess a DNF is the ultimate thumbs-down...

I also read by this author: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

The Deep Deep Snow

 Fiction by Brain Freeman

https://www.amazon.com

Shelby Lake is a deputy in a small Midwestern town and her father is the sheriff. Nothing much usually happens there, so when ten-year-old Jeremiah is missing one summer afternoon, everyone figures he'll turn up. But he just doesn't...

It's winter, and ten years later, when a small clue to Jeremiah's whereabouts is found, far out in the snow-buried woods. What really happened to him?

This was a good story with great characters. 

I also read by this author: I Remember You

The Rule of One

Fiction by Ashley and Leslie Saunders

https://www.audible.com

In the dystopian world of this novel, every American couple may have only one child, and every citizen is microchipped and carefully monitored by the government. In the state of Texas, Darren Goodwin is head of the Family Planning Division, overseeing compliance with the "rule of one." But no one would guess that Darren himself is in defiance of that rule; he has identical twin daughters masquerading as a single girl.

Mira and Ava Goodwin are almost eighteen, and they have been pretending to be only one person their entire lives. But what happens if they get caught? (You know they will. Where else could the story go?)

This was an exciting story to begin with, and I liked the characters. The novel suffered, however, from some annoying plot contrivances that I found hard to swallow. Most notably, near the end, the author(s) had the main characters behave in ridiculously uncharacteristic ways that made everything complicated, for no reason except to rev up the suspense. ( I can't explain specifically without spoilers but it's basically I-Can-No-Longer-Suspend-My-Disbelief-Syndrome++) 

Anyways, I did want to know what happened at the end, so I kept listening. I think I would have liked this story better in a regular book so I could skip the parts I found over-the-top unbelievable.

++I-Can-No-Longer-Suspend-My-Disbelief-Syndrome: 

(See Dangerous Habits by Susan Hunter)

This is when the plot twists push the boundaries of believability too far, (such as a long-lost-identical twin showing up at the last minute to take the blame when it had never before been mentioned that the person has a twin) or too often (such as three or four coincidences lining up to reveal the final twist.) You just want to yell out, "Oh, Bulls***!"

Relative Justice

 Fiction by Robert Whitlow

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story is about a small family law firm that gets involved in a potentially big patent lawsuit. 

I characterized it as as a "legal thriller" but it's much more slow-paced than an actual thriller novel. Still, it was a good story and I really liked the characters.

I also read by this author: A Time to Stand

How to Walk Away

 Fiction by Katherine Center

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Margaret Jacobson is pretty sure that her boyfriend Chip is going to propose to her, and she knows she'll say yes. Not only that, she's just finished business school and landed her dream job--well, not officially, but they've said it's as good as hers. She's on top of the world, figuratively speaking.

Well, if the story is beginning this way, we know there's a fall coming, don't we? And Margaret has a literal fall, in the form of a airplane crash. Will she lose everything?

This book was good, in a mostly-no-surprises way The characters were great! I like this author's style.

I also read recently by this author: The Things You Save in a Fire

The Winemaker's Wife

 Fiction by Kristin Harmel

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1940 Ines and Celine are young wives in the Champagne region of France, where their husbands work together growing grapes and bottling the famous sparkling wine. But the area has just recovered from the devastation of the Great War, and now the Germans are advancing in the direction of France once again...

In 2019 Liv is blindsided by her husband's sudden demand for a divorce, and she is left nearly penniless. Then her French grandmother comes to whisk her away to Paris. Can Liv start over in France? And what will she learn about the history of her family while she's there?

This story is told in both times. It is similar to another story I read by this author (see below) and is better and more believable than that one. Still, I'd say it was good but not great.

I also read by this author: The Sweetness of Forgetting

Romantic Comedy

 Fiction by Curtis Sittenfeld

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Remember in 2018 when Ariana Grande started dating Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson and then they got engaged and then they broke up? And the whole thing was all in practically the same month? Well, apparently it inspired this book.

Curtis Sittenfeld looked at that situation and noted that we can often see a super-hot GIRL start going out with a funny-but-not-attractive GUY, but you never see the roles reversed. Would a super-hot MALE guest on SNL suddenly fall in love with a regular-looking FEMALE writer or cast member? Sure! Well, in fiction, anyways...

This is a really good straight romance with a lot of humor and good characters.

I also read by this author: American Wife

Girlfriend on Mars

 Fiction by Deborah Willis

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I can't decide whether to categorize this novel as "futuristic" or "contemporary." Basically it's something that really could happen now, but I think it's set in the future. I labeled it both ways, because it's kind of futuristically contemporary.

Okay, maybe that's not important.

Here's the idea: There's a bazillionaire who wants to colonize Mars, so he's funding a mission to send two humans there to live FOREVER. Seriously, they can't come back; the mission is to dump them there with (ostensibly) all the supplies they need to survive. They are supposed make a colony and set things up all nice, and then they send back reports of how fabulous it all is on the Red Planet so the next group of colonists can come join them. You know, in the future. Whenever that's feasible.

So how to get someone to want to volunteer for this quasi-suicide mission? Well, you make it a competition of course! And hey, let's offset some of the cost and monetize the whole thing by making it a reality show! It's going to be called... wait for it... Mars Now!

Enter our protagonist Amber Kivinen, a 32-year-old Canadian who (allegedly) sells home-grown cannabis with her boyfriend Kevin. She might look like a loser on paper, but she's got enough charm and ambition to go all the way! Maybe. At least she's one of the 24 international finalists.

This story follows Amber and Kevin, as she tries to win a ridiculous TV popularity contest in front of billions of people on the Mars Now! show, and he sits at home on the couch growing (and smoking) weed.

This story was both hysterically funny and super sad. I really loved it!