The Rest of Her Life

 Fiction by Laura Moriarty

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this book, 18-year-old Kara accidentally hits a pedestrian on her way home from the last day of her senior year of high school. The victim, a girl named Bethany who is two years behind Kara at the same school, is killed instantly. Also instantly, Kara's life is forever changed.

The story is told from the perspective of Kara's mother Leigh, and the focus is on the relationships in the family, and the relationships between the family and the small town they live in. It's a very good character story that gives the reader a lot to think about.

I also read by this author: The Chaperone

Margo's Got Money Troubles

 Fiction by Rufi Thorpe

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

There is a movie out right now based on this book and I saw the trailer. It seemed to be about a young woman (Margo, obviously) struggling to take care of her new baby on her own. The only "support" she has is her mother, who insists that the baby (her grandchild!) hates her and won't stop crying, so she absolutely cannot babysit at all. Margo loses her job, and her roommates are moving out which doubles her rent... hence the aforementioned money troubles.

I don't know about the movie but the book is really good. The titular character Margo writes in an interesting mix of first and third person. The characters were well written and completely believable. I enjoyed this book a lot and will likely look for more by this author.

Same as it Ever Was

 Fiction by Claire Lombardo

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Julia Ames is a woman in her fifties who is pretty sure she mostly has her life together. Her relationship with her husband Mark is loving and stable, her grown son Ben is slightly distant but quite successful, and she's relatively close to her high-energy, emotional teenaged daughter Alma. She feels she can at least say she's done better with her children than her own toxic single mother, from whom she is estranged.

But then she sees Helen in the grocery store, and is immediately catapulted back in time to when she was a clinically depressed young mother of an intense little toddler. Helen had been a friend and lifeline back then, but somehow things had gone horribly wrong. Julia and Helen haven't spoken in almost eighteen years. 

The story is told in two timelines: First, the current Julia manages her almost empty nest, and decides whether to try once again to reconnect with her mother. Second, the reader is taken back in time to see what really happened with Helen, and how it has affected Julia's life.

This was a really thought-provoking book, and the author does a great job of exploring the ups and downs of parenting, especially the endless never-enough-ness-feeling of motherhood. I loved the characters and the book was extremely well written, but it was also kind of depressing. I didn't like the ending.

The Need

 Fiction by Helen Phillips

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Molly is a mother of two young children and a paleobotanist, and she's having trouble juggling both roles but still mostly managing. Then her husband has to go away for a week and she hears an intruder in the house one evening. Or is she imagining it?

The beginning of this story was good and grabbed my attention. I was sometimes not sure what was real and what was not. The plot was interesting but also very strange. I did not like the ending at all, but the whole thing was certainly thought-provoking. It would be fun to discuss in a book club.

The Chain

 Fiction by Adrian McKinty

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Thirteen-year-old Kylie is waiting for the school bus when she's abducted at gunpoint. Her mother Rachel receives a ransom call, but the kidnappers don't just want money for Kylie's return. They also want Rachel to join The Chain and kidnap another person's child...

This was a super exciting thriller with several surprises!

I also read by this author: The Island

A Mouthful of Air

 Fiction by Amy Koppelman

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of his story, Julie Davis is a pretty young mother of an almost-one-year-old son. She's going about her day in 1997 New York City, trying to tell herself that everything is okay. The problem is, she's just recently emerged from a private mental hospital after a serious suicide attempt a month ago, and she is really REALLY not okay. Her mental state will not improve when she visits the gynecologist the next day and discovers she is pregnant again.

This novel is an affecting and believable portrait of a woman suffering from severe depression. It's hard to read. There was a movie starring Amanda Seyfried, and I would imagine that watching her beautiful face experiencing this much emotional pain would be particularly sad.

It's well written but way too despondently bleak. And the ending is not happy either...

Sandwich

 Fiction by Catherine Newman

http://barnesandnoble.com

In this story a family goes to Cape Cod for week in the summer, as they have done every summer for more than twenty years. There are two grown children and two elderly grandparents. Nothing much happens over the course of the week, but the point is the relationships.

This is an emotional novel from the point of view of an empty-nest mother, which is a perspective I can definitely relate to. I liked the book, and much of it resonated with me. I did kind of wish there was more plot.

I also read by this author:  We All Want Impossible Things

( I KNOW I've read this book, as I recognize both the cover art and the synopsis, but there is no entry for it in this blog. I must have forgotten to log it; how irritating of me! )

The Farm

 Fiction by Joanne Ramos

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Mae Wu is an ambitious young woman who runs a special enterprise called Golden Oaks Farm that caters to the Very Rich. Golden Oaks is a home for surrogate mothers, but it's an elite one. The women who carry the privileged fetuses for the wealthy clients, called the Hosts, stay on the farm from implantation until birth, and they are taken care of and carefully monitored for the entire nine months. Mae meticulously manages every aspect of the farm, from sourcing the Hosts to keeping the Clients happy.

Jane and Reagan are Hosts at Golden Oaks, each carrying a baby for an unknown Client in order to receive a big bonus after giving birth. But Jane and Reagan are very different people; one is a struggling immigrant mother who does domestic work, and the other is a recent college graduate who wants to pursue an art career without her parents' support. The two of them are befriended by Lisa, a returning Host who knows her way around the farm and isn't above bending the rules.

This was a really interesting book with good characters. The reviews I read weren't overwhelmingly positive, however, and I think that is because readers were expecting the story to be something it isn't. It's not The Handmaid's Tale by any means.

This book is NOT a dystopian novel; it's a realistic one. These characters live in the world that we live in, where the gap between the very rich and very poor exists, but also where almost everyone falls somewhere in between. I really liked this story and it gives the reader a lot to think about.

Room for Another: A Courageous Adoption Story

 Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Diane M. Dresback

https://www.amazon.com

This is the author's own adoption story, told from the perspective of her birth mother. It's a nice story, but a little overly sentimental.

I also read --free!-- from Amazon Prime Kindle: A Little Pinprick

No Ordinary Life

 Fiction by Suzanne Redfearn. 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this story, Faye is a mother of three who has run out of options in Yakima, Washington. Her husband Sean disappeared over six months ago, her son is in serious need of counseling, and she has no reserves left. Faye moves in with her mother in Los Angeles, and fortunes change drastically. 

This was a really good story! I loved the characters, especially Faye. Everything I’ve read by this author is great!

I also read by this author: Where Butterflies Wander

The Hidden Child

 Fiction by Louise Ferrier

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1928 Edward and Eleanor Hamilton are living a good life in England. Eleanor is a lady of good breeding and Edward is a scholar, specializing in research on the current eugenics movement. They have a four-year old daughter called Mabel and another baby on the way. Both believe that society would be well protected by laws that prevent "lower orders" of people from increasing in number, and forcing deficient individuals to be institutionalized. After all, poor Eleanor's own mother was killed by a criminal degenerate! 

But when little Mabel begins exhibiting disturbing symptoms of epilepsy, Eleanor starts to re-examine this line of thought. Is Mabel's life really worth less because she faces a medical challenge? Edward's plan is to quickly put Mabel away in a care home and forget about her; he both fears political repercussions and is genuinely baffled as to how to help his daughter. But Eleanor can't bear that...can she?

This was a thought-provoking story --who knew that it wasn't just the Nazis espousing these ideas?!-- but it was upsetting to read. It was well-written but I had trouble with it. I will say the author came up with a decent resolution at the end.