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Category Archives: Robin Gwaro
The Tutor’s Daughter by Julie Klassen
Emma Smallwood has spent her life helping at her father’s school. Now, with enrollment dwindling and her father mourning the passing of her mother, Emma finds herself reaching out to the father of former pupils in order to gain new students to the school. A return letter brings an intriguing offer. Does Emma have the courage to step outside of what she’s known to bring new adventures to her life?
secured payday loans
The Tutor’s Daughter
by Julie Klassen
Bethany House
January 2013
In an effort to bring additional students to her father’s boarding school, Emma writes to the father of former pupils, a baronet, who has remarried and now has two young sons. The response she receives is a surprising one. As his wife is loathe to allow her sons to leave home, Sir Giles Weston offers double the rate for them to come to Ebbington Manor to teach them.
She initially questions the rash decision when she remembers her relationship with the older Weston sons-Phillip and Henry. Phillip she remembers with fondness. He was always kind to her when he was a student. On the other hand, Henry, the elder of the two, made it a point to torment her, as young boys are wont to do.
Emma and her father are met with surprise upon their arrival at the Weston’s home, Sir Giles having forgotten to tell his family that they were coming. This would be only the first of many surprising events that happen while they stay with the Weston’s. Strange happenings at night, a piano forte that seemingly plays itself, and many secrets exist in the Weston household. And in the midst of this, love blossoming from an unlikely place.
Having read another of Klassen’s novels before, I looked forward to reading this one. I, like Klassen, am a fan of Regency Period writing. As such, I enjoy the intent in Klassen’s writing. She really does make an effort to create novels in the fashion of the period, working to stay true to that time.
As for this novel in particular, I did enjoy the read the first time through. That is related entirely to the story. I loved the premise and what she was trying to write, as well as the suspense she worked to create and keep throughout the story. Klassen created a story that kept moving forward for me through most parts. While there were small lulls in the action and story moving forward, they weren’t cumbersome and didn’t impact the overall experience of reading for me.
That being said, Emma Smallwood is not one of my favorite female characters. I very much like the initiative she takes at the start of the novel, in writing to the Westons. However, after that point, she seems to be one who allows the events around them to happen to her, as opposed to actively working to be part of the action. I had higher hopes for her development as a character.
Additionally, regarding format, I really didn’t care for what seemed to be random quotes from other novels. I kept going back to see how those quotes related to the material around them. They seemed to be put into the novel to add credibility to Klassen’s work. Frankly, she doesn’t need it. Her work can stand on its own, and the extra quotes were cumbersome and offputting.
Overall though, I did enjoy the novel and would read it again. Klassen is dedicated to her craft and creating the world around her characters, which is something I can appreciate as a reader. The novel is a quick read and does have some points that are surprising and unexpected. It’s definitely one that’s work a look.
Robin Gwaro is a founding book review blogger at Bookgateway.com and has generously supplied this review. She describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Against The Tide by Elizabeth Camden
After her life is turned upside down as a child, Lydia Pallas battled back and used her incredible intelligence to create a new life for herself. Having gained a position as a translator for the Navy, she focuses on creating stability in her life. All of that will be changed with the acceptance of an offer from Alexander Banebridge.
Against The Tide
by Elizabeth Camden
Bethany House
September 2012
During his childhood, Alexander Banebridge, or Bane as he chooses to be called, was delivered into a life of control and imprisonment by the Professor. The Professor had spent years creating a very elaborate criminal system, dealing specifically in the trade of opium. After escaping the control of the Professor through freedom in Christ, Bane has made it his life’s work to destroy the opium trade.
In order to find the information he needs, Bane enlists Lydia’s help to translate documents. This is the only way that Bane will be able to gain the upper hand in his quest and stop the Professor for good. What follows is a journey through intrigue and political roadblocks, with a little love thrown in for good measure.
When I started the novel, I am not really sure what I was expecting. As the city of Boston is one of my great loves, I picked this book up based on the setting for the novel. Since Camden focuses mainly on story and not scenery, it’s important to note that there are not a great deal of long descriptive passages in the novel. There is also very little in the way of history of the characters. You get glimpses into their pasts, but it is just enough to keep you from wondering why they have ended up as they have. Camden explains their tales in a very straightforward way and focuses on the present tense.
That’s the only small quibble I have with the novel. I am a reader driven by the history and the motivation of characters. I like for this to remain a bit hidden, to be revealed through actions and climatic points in the novel. If you are a reader who likes the information to be given up front and without preamble, then this novel will work well for you.
That being said, I also allow work to stand on its own merit outside of my personal likes as a reader. Camden’s story has enough tension to keep you reading, and the story is fast-paced. There was no point in my reading where I had a desire to skip pages because of dragging story line. Her focus is primarily on driving forward, which is a great aspect to her writing.
Another high point for Camden is that she has created a strong female character in Lydia Pallas. There are few things that will turn me away from a book faster than a female character who withers in the face of adversity. Lydia faces adversity at every turn and refuses to back down from any challenge that Camden creates for her. From childhood through the end of the novel, Lydia has to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds in order to come out on top at the end.
And in the end: she does.
Robin Gwaro is a founding book review blogger at Bookgateway.com and has generously supplied this review. She describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Four girls. One Summer. One pair of pants. That’s where it started.
This is where it ends.
Sisterhood Everlasting
by Ann Brashares
Random House
June 2011
In 2001, Ann Brashares introduced us to Lena, Bridget, Carmen, and Tibby. They were four friends brought together by coincidence. Their mothers were all pregnant together in an exercise class. They were the Septembers, all born within two weeks of one another in the month of September.
Over the course of a decade, we have watched as these four friends have learned, loved, lost, and grown up. They have figured out who they are, both together and apart.
Sisterhood Everlasting brings us forward ten years from when we first met these four friends, and they are closing in on their thirtieth birthdays. Carmen is an actress, living in New York and engaged to be married. Lena is teaching and painting in Rhode Island. Bridget and Eric are in California, where Bridget does…well, I’m not really sure what it is that Bee does now. And Tibby has wandered off to the other side of the world to work a project with Brian in Australia.
It is Tibby who will bring them back together.
I first read the Sisterhood books in my early twenties. Even though they were teens at the time, I really connected to the story of four girls who worked to maintain the wonderful friendships. I liked that Ann Brashares wrote real stories about real girls. Their lives were not perfect. They made stupid mistakes, which is exactly what you are supposed to do when you are young. As they weathered each storm together, I loved these characters more and more. I really was excited to read the final chapter in their stories.
What I got was not at all what I expected. The book has an unexpected twist almost at the start. What unfolds from there is a wonderful story of finding yourself, finding forgiveness, and finding your friends again. Ann Brashares brings the girls full circle and writes a delightful ending to this series.
After the twist, I was prepared to really not like this book. However, I can be unhappy about a part of the book and still enjoy the book overall. What I like about this book is that Brashares doesn’t take the four girls so far away from the ones we have grown to know that they are unrecognizable. They are older, yes, but they are very much the same four girls we met in the first book. They are just older and in some ways wiser.
This is a bittersweet ending for me. It is the same with any series I have enjoyed. I love learning what has happened to my favorite characters and hate knowing that I have reached the end of my journey with them. Thankfully, the ending that Brashares has composed is very satisfying. No loose ends. No feeling like “that’s it?” It is a great ending to a great series.
Robin Gwaro is a founding book review blogger at Bookgateway.com and has generously supplied this review. She describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
The Whipping Club by Deborah Henry
It is 1957. Marian and Ben, an inter-faith (Catholic and Jewish) couple are working to carve a new life out for themselves in Ireland. After a disastrous meeting with Ben’s parents on the day that Marian gets some shocking news, Marian makes a decision that will eventually be her family’s undoing.
The Whipping Club
by Deborah Henry
T.S. Poetry Press
March 2012
Young, scared, and faced with impending motherhood, Marian succumbs to the pressure of her Catholic priest Uncle and enters a maternity home to await the arrival of her child. She tells Ben she is taking an extended trip out of town, never disclosing to him that she is expecting their first child together. She has been told that the maternity home nuns will find a suitable adoptive American family and accepts this as what will happen.
Over a decade later, Marian and Ben have married and have a daughter together. Their life together is far from ideal, as Marian is distant and detached, and Ben is weak and near spineless. Their daughter is crying out for their attention, particularly from Marian.
One day, in the midst of their difficult family life, a nurse from the maternity home shows up with some disturbing news: their son, Adrian, never made it to a new home in America. Instead, he was sent to one of the worst orphanages in Ireland.
The story that follows is one of the plight of thousands of children in 1950′s and 60′s Ireland, as unwed mothers found themselves pressured into entering these homes to await the birth of their children. Eventually, those children would either be adopted out or send to live in orphanages.
Deborah Henry weaves the story of one of these families in The Whipping Club. At times creating sympathy, others anger, sometimes hopeful, and in turn hopeless, Henry keeps the reader riding a roller coaster of emotions. At the beginning of the story, I found that I could understand why a young Marian made the decision she did. She had no parents, was in an unexpected situation, and was being stifled by the social stigma created by the time period.
A decade later, I found that Marian was someone with whom I had difficulty sympathizing at times. Once she learned of Adrian’s fate, she did work to correct the decisions of the past. On the other side of that, there were times when Marian displayed an inability to own those decisions and wanted others to pay penance for them. In that same decade, Ben has become an enabler who is just as spineless as ever.
Mixed in are a collection of others players who seem to be fighting their own demons, their own sins, and their own societal restraints. Every time I thought they were getting to the point where their lives were reaching turning point, Henry throws them another curve ball and they are all back to square one.
In the end, I land on the fence on this one. I kept wanting them all to get their acts together, and it seemed like they never would. Most of the characters, all adults, wanted to blame someone else for the mistakes they had made. There comes a point when you have to own what you have done and take charge. For this novel, it doesn’t come until the novel is almost over. Since I read to escape “real” life, I prefer a little more hope in my fiction. But, that is a personal preference. Henry’s novel is very much true to life, and once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down.
Robin Gwaro is a founding book review blogger at Bookgateway.com and has generously supplied this review. She describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
A Good and Perfect Gift by Amy Julia Becker
Every good and perfect gift is from above… James 1:17
A Good and Perfect Gift
Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny
Amy Julia Becker
Bethany House
September 2011
Every woman traversing her first pregnancy has similar worries. They range from the immediate: What if we don’t get to the hospital on time? What if I can’t handle the pain? To the long term: What if I’m not good enough? Strong enough? What if I do something wrong? What if I don’t teach him/her the right way? To the ones specifically about the baby: How am I going to take care of this little bitty person? I’m going to break him/her. And in the end: Everything will be fine…as long as the baby is healthy.
The birth of Amy Julia Becker’s first child, Penny, brought those questions and more. In the face of an unexpected diagnosis, Amy Julia must both care for a newborn with an unknown future while sorting through her own doubts, fears, and hurts. She does what is to be expected: she wonders if she will be able to care for her daughter, questions what she might have done to “deserve” this, and struggles with maintaining what had always been a strong relationship with God.
What I like about Becker’s condensed memoir is how very honest and transparent she is. Many others of faith I know who have been faced with adversity will simply talk about how they were able to get through it by relying on God. For those of us who might temporarily be lost in our own haze of grief and anger, that response only serves to add guilt to the mix of emotions. We wonder why we can’t mange to make it beyond our own feelings to see God waiting for us on the other side.
Becker details an experience just like that. She talks about how during the early days of her daughter’s life, she struggled with coming to terms of the new “normal” for her family. She expresses those moments of feeling stronger, only to have someone’s words bring her back to the realization that life would now be completely unlike she expected. After she is able to wade through that grief and anger and able to move through some of those doubts, Becker is then able to make her way back to God…who has always been waiting.
This book really spoke to me because of personal experience. After enduring something I never thought would happen, I too had to wade through my own feelings to get to God on the other side. Becker’s story is one that I really could have used in those early days. Days when I had really grown tired of people telling me to rely on God and that it would all “be okay.”
In the end, it was okay. And in the end, I did find my way back. But I had to get there on my own. Reading Becker’s story made me feel a little less guilty for not being there right from the start.
Robin Gwaro is a founding book review blogger at Bookgateway.com and has generously supplied this review. She describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Progeny: The Children of The White Lions by R. T. Kaelin
In a matter of a few minutes, everything Nykalys and Kenders held dear is destroyed by an evil force. In order to save themselves, they must run for their lives and leave all they knew behind, including their parents and their older brother Jak. What follows is the journey Nikalys and Kenders set out on in order to learn the truth of what happened that day.
Progeny
The Children of The White Lions
R.T. Kaelin
Terrene Press
November 2010
After the destruction of their home, Nykalys and Kenders set out on an epic journey. It is imperative they remain hidden, as Kenders has magical capabilities in a world where magic has been outlawed. As search for an answer, they are met with living legends, the likes of which neither sibling has never seen. Creatures that only existed in myth are brought to life, all pitted against one another in a classic battle of good versus evil.
After reading the back cover of Kaelin’s Progeny, I was very anxious to get started! The main story line hits you right from the start, and from there, things get…interesting.
I am going to attempt to avoid the path of other reviews I have read about Progeny that simply rank the book the way they do because it’s “too long.” I’m not comfortable with that blanket assessment of why this book sometimes didn’t work for me. Granted, it is long, but that is simply too generic a reason to score it down in any ranking system.
After the initial destruction, the book takes a downturn for me. It really took me over 100 pages of plugging through to be able to get to a point where the story picked up. I do have to qualify that by letting you know I am very much a story driven reader. It is the progressive motion of a tale that keeps me intrigued. The better the cliffhanger, the more likely I am to breeze through a book. I think the trick here is to understand that the destruction of Nykalys’ and Kenders’ home is NOT the central point of this story. It really is just a catalyst used to start the journey that will lead them to knowledge of their true selves. I entered the book with the idea that the siblings were going to be searching for the one responsible and that this would be a mystery throughout the story. In reality, they are really searching for the WHY of it all, not the WHO (since you learn who did it in the chapter after their home is destroyed).
If you are driven by back story, history, and details, details, details, then you will love Progeny from start to finish. I actually would liken this to The Lord of the Rings in its focus to detail and creation of the world and history that the characters inhabit. I struggled through LOTR as I did Progeny, and I read them the same way: skimming through some of the longer stories and histories to get back to the action. I feel that this book is written with a specific reader in mind. I simply am not that reader.
I will tell you that once I was reading sections that were more action driven, I was riveted. The characters themselves, as well as most of their exchanges, were very well developed. Kaelin weaves a tale about a group of people who are thrown together by fate and destiny. His characters are in turns warm, kind, humorous, sarcastic, and, in the case of those on the evil side, down right frightening. Nundle quickly became one of my favorites. On the opposite side, I am still unsure about the reasoning behind naming the horses and repeating those names over and over. They weren’t talking horses and didn’t really add anything to the story, so that became a minor irritation for me.
I applaud Kaelin’s efforts to build a new world in his first novel. Still, in the end, I fall solidly in the middle. I would love to see where Nikalys and Kenders (and Nundle!) go from here. I am just not sure that I would move it to the top of my to-be-read pile to find out.
Robin Gwaro is a founding book review blogger at Bookgateway.com and has generously supplied this review. She describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
A cancelled day of school leads to an impromptu road trip for Mia and her family. It is the last thing she remembers before “waking up” to see her family spread across the pavement as the result of a car accident. Mia then sees herself, mangled after the accident, and realizes she is now in limbo.
What follows is a series of flashes between the past and the present. Mia, a talented 17-year-old cellist, reminisces about life with her family, her best friend, Kim, and her boyfriend, Adam. Mia’s parents were very liberal, very loving, and very nontraditional. They encouraged Mia and her brother Teddy to follow their dreams, not standing in the way of anything they wanted to try. Kim and Adam helped Mia step out of her comfort zone and try things she might otherwise have avoided.
As she lies in a coma, a result of her injuries due to the accident, Mia must ultimately make the decision to remain with her friends in life or follow her family into death. As the only surviving member of her family, it is not hard to see why this decision would be such a difficult one.
Gayle Forman creates a dilemma for Mia that anyone would find troubling. What would you do if you “awoke” from a terrible tragedy to find yourself alone? Knowing that you will face an uncertain future with no family, would you risk it?
Foreman creates such an astounding dilemma, it is not hard to see why this novel garnered such acclaim. I have to honestly tell you, however, that I do not understand previous book critics’ desire to relate this novel to either The Lovely Bones or Twilight. While the story obviously has a “supernatural” element, as Mia is having an out of body experience, that is really its only tie to The Lovely Bones.
And with no sparkly vampires and an obvious lack of shape-shifting Native Americans, the only reason that this would appeal to readers of Twilight is because both books are in the Young Adult genre.
Forman’s novel would be better related to those of Paige Harbison or Lauren Oliver, minus the “you must get this right to get out of purgatory” idea. If you have to minus, then it is probably best to allow a novel to stand on its own and to give the writer her own applause.
All in all, this was a great novel. Forman creates the tension and leaves Mia with such a troubling choice, you keep wondering which she will choose. It is well thought out and well-written, with the right balance of past and present and shifts between each that do not leave you dizzy.
Be forewarned, there are several instances of harsh language, and some parents might not be thrilled with the informality of the relationship between Mia and her parents. For me, the language is not a major issue and the relationship is clearly one of love, so it doesn’t matter that it isn’t the cookie cutter idea of how parents and children should interact.
I really enjoyed this book, and I had actually gone in search of it because I had received the sequel Where She Went. I read this one first, loved it, and quickly moved on to the next (review forthcoming). It is a quick, thought-provoking read, one that I could certainly read again.
Robin Gwaro is a founding book review blogger at Bookgateway.com and has generously supplied this review. She describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Fury by Elizabeth Miles
Sometimes sorry isn’t enough
Emily cannot wait for the holidays! Even though her best friend will be on a family trip, Em is excited about the prospect of getting a little closer to the boy she’s been eyeing for some time. The only catch? He’s her best friend’s boyfriend, Zach.
Chase lives a lie. He’s from the “wrong side of the tracks,” but he is Ascension High School’s star quarterback. He does everything he can to be the perfect golden boy. But things, like always, are never what they seem. Actions from his past are coming back to haunt him.
The phrase “what goes around, comes around” is the basis for Elizabeth Miles’ tale of three beautiful women who choose those who will find retribution for their past deeds.
In this case, Emily and Chase have been chosen.
With her cautionary tale for teens, Miles seems to be creating work in the trend of Lauren Oliver and Paige Harbison. Miles, like the others, is attempting to teach teens to be nicer, asking them to remember that what they do now could haunt them later.
That is essentially where the similarities end. From nearly the beginning, you sense something a little more sinister in Miles’ story. As I was reading, there were points where I had chills up my spine, a sure sign of that anticipation that keeps me on edge when I am reading. What is also unique about Miles’ book is how she has built reality into her fiction, in that not everyone gets a second chance to get it right. In life, we don’t always get a chance to right our wrongs, so it might be helpful to prevent the wrongs in the first place.
I found I had to keep reading to see where Miles would take me. As the story built, I became wrapped up in the lives of her characters, wanting to quickly find out what happened. However, it’s important to note that this is the first in a trilogy, so quick is not the pace of this novel. There is, as in any first of a series, quite a bit of back story. Since I know a story is going to build, I don’t find this bothersome at all.
Miles has done a great job of starting this series. I can’t wait to see where she heads next!
Robin Gwaro is a founding book review blogger at Bookgateway.com and has generously supplied this review. She describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
The Orphan Sister by Gwendolen Gross
As a triplet, Clementine Lord has always been a part of a set. A quirk of biology left her sisters an identical pair and Clementine the odd one out. When a secret their father has been harboring comes to light, the careful family fabric they have woven begins to unravel. Clementine questions the secrets and the lives that each of her family members have lived.
Gwendolen Gross’s story takes us from Clementine’s past and the relationships she’s had with her sisters, mother, and father. We learn about her greatest love, which was also her greatest loss. As Clementine seeks to make sense of all that has happened, we are taken through her life as she tries to navigate an uncertain world.
I am going to be very honest here. I wanted to like this book, I really did. I had grand hopes for how it started out. In the beginning, I expected Clementine to be very introspective and to be searching to find her answers and find her place. After about 200 pages, she still hadn’t done it. I didn’t feel like she had even gotten started moving on and taking control of her own destiny until around page 271 of 283. There were glimpses earlier that led me to think she would get there sooner.
Sadly, she didn’t.
Gross did a great job of building her story. I just feel that the building continued for far too long. It was like the anticipation that you feel when you are riding a roller coaster. The cart climbs higher and higher. The butterflies build and build, until you reach the summit and begin racing down. This roller coaster never reached that summit. You can only read so much “woe is me” before you look for your main character to begin to heal and move on.
Instead of getting this in the main character, you get it in Odette, one of her sisters. Odette is the one who decides that she will no longer allow their father’s sins to dictate how she will live her own life. She stops focusing her life on what he has done and how they will repair the damage to focusing on her new child and her own family. Odette’s story is one I would like to read, as I prefer female characters who work to get over their struggles and tragedies and move forward. They don’t forget the experiences, but they do work to use those experiences to become stronger.
Clementine would have gotten there. Eventually.
Robin Gwaro is a founding book review blogger at Bookgateway.com and has generously supplied this review. She describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Night Road by Kristin Hannah
After a battle with infertility, infant loss, and finally, a very tumultuous pregnancy, Jude Farraday gave birth to twins Mia and Zach. From that day on, Jude did everything she could to make sure her children were protected. She learned all of their friends, provided a place for them all to be together (under her watchful eye), and involved herself in nearly every aspect of their lives.
On the first day of high school, Mia befriends Lexi Baill, who has recently come to live with her Great Aunt after being shuffled from foster home to foster home most of her childhood. As they grow closer, Jude welcomes Lexi into her family. Eventually, Zach even admits that he has loved Lexi since he met her, and the three grow even closer.
One night. One poor decision. Everything changes, and lives are altered irrevocably.
What follows is a story that could easily be a “Behind The Scenes” look at the wake left behind when a tragedy occurs.
Prior to Night Road, I had not read any of Kristin Hannah’s novels. This is an oversight that I am glad I have rectified. The story that Hannah weaves is so intricate and detailed that you feel as though you have stepped into the lives of her characters. You feel the emotional turmoil; you are invested in how (if at all) repair can happen.
Hannah is most certainly a master at her craft. As her story progresses, you find yourself relating to those on both sides, unable to decide who is “right.” She takes you through the tragedy and the aftermath, leaving it up to you to draw your own conclusions.
If there is one downside to her story, it’s that it didn’t come with a warning label. I highly recommend having a box of tissues on hand for this one. You will certainly need them.
Robin Gwaro describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Wildefire by Karsten Knight
Wildefire
by Karsten Knight
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
July 2011
Ashline Wilde is a goddess.
Not in that “every woman is a goddess” kind of way, but in the “no, a REAL goddess” one.
Adopted as a young child, Ash works to find her place as the only Polynesian student in her high school. Unfortunately, her wayward older sister Eve returns to wreak havoc on the fragile peace that had settled since she ran away.
When the dust settles, Ash finds herself at a private school located in California. Just as she believes she has finally found the path to a new life, strange things begin to happen. One night, after rescuing a fellow student, Ash learns her true nature and the nature of some new friends: they are all gods and goddesses.
Sadly, Ash and her friends do not have very long to understand their gifts before Eve returns to again create trouble.
In Wildefire, Karsten Knight has created a gem. With tons of stories about vampires and werewolves, Knight has chosen to take a different route in this supernatural novel. There aren’t a great many books discussing ancient deities in teenage form out there, so kudos to Knight for taking it on!
To put it simply, this book is fantastic! Knight creates a story that is engaging from start to finish, which can be hard to do in a series opener. The first book in a new series will normally devote a great deal of time to introducing characters, telling backstory, etc. While Knight does some of this, he also lets his story unfold on its own. He seemed to realize that if he’s going to create a series, then he is going to need to keep readers enraptured. We need to be wondering “What’s going to happen next?? Knight does this exquisitely.
That wondering can be a two-edged sword. A writer must both give readers enough to keep us reading but not so much that we have no reason to read anything further. Again, Knight understands and delivers on this balance.
Knight also does something that many writers of YA fiction fail to do. While the majority of his cast of characters are teenagers and that is his target audience, the novel is not completely riddled with melodramatic teen angst. He smoothly interjects the daily battles teenagers face without making it tedious for others outside that age range who might pick it up.
Other than the fact that I will have to wait until 2012 to read the next book, there is nothing about Knight’s novel I didn’t like. It was a quick read that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys supernatural fiction.
Robin Gwaro describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Then Everything Changed by Jeff Greenfield
What if…
At some point in our lives, we will ask ourselves at least one question that starts with those two little words. We question the decisions we make, wondering what might have happened had we made different choices or taken a different path.
But what about fate? Destiny? The moments that were out of our control?
These are the moments that Jeff Greenfield examines in his alternate history, “Then Everything Changed.”
In the book, Greenfield rewrites the history of President-elect John F. Kennedy. In his history, Jackie and Caroline do not wave to JFK on a Sunday morning as he leaves for church. An assassin’s conscience is not impacted by the presence of a wife and child, and JFK is never sworn into office. The country is thrown into a state of mourning and the government is left trying to create a contingency plan. In the end, Lyndon B. Johnson takes the presidency and guides the United States through the Cuban Missile Crisis and into the Vietnam War.
In a second narrative, Robert Kennedy escapes the assassination attempt on his life by a narrow margin and elects to speak to demonstrators, earning him favor with the people of the United States and, eventually, the presidency. RFK attempts to head a country pulled apart by a war not favored by the people (Vietnam) and escalating class and race concerns.
Finally, Greenfield gives Gerald Ford an opportunity to erase a critical error made in a Presidential debate with Jimmy Carter. He then goes on to win the election.
While reading the first two rewrites, I was riveted. There were times when it did drag slightly, but it was not significant enough to keep me away from the book. The tension between LBJ and RFK was palpable. You can tell that there is no love lost between the two leaders, even when Johnson attempts to extend the olive branch after JFK is assassinated. Greenfield is adept at making you feel like it is entirely possible for these events to have happened exactly as he wrote them. You believe that he could have been in the room while meetings occurred, capturing even minute details and delivering them in stark clarity.
As for the third tale, it feels more like fiction than the other two. I didn’t find it quite as dynamic as Greenfield’s first two historical rewrites. It does not feel quite as feasible to me as the previous two do, as it alters much of the history of the time.
All in all, this was a fantastic read. I will be very honest that those who are most enamored with political history may not like this as much as I did. However, my love (and knowledge) of history runs more to Colonial America, so I did enjoy reading Greenfield’s rewrite.
It really does make me wonder how much of our history, and our lives, could have been changed with just a small alteration. One decision, one thought, one moment in time that occurred differently could alter the textbooks our students read every day.
What if…
Robin Gwaro is a founding book review blogger at Bookgateway.com and has generously supplied this review. She describes herself as “a woman just trying to keep it all together. Most days, I have the juggling act down! Others, I have the broom and dustpan handy to clean up the mess. My life is not always easy, it is not always neat, but it is always worth every minute!” Her personal blog is Just Wandering. Not Lost.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
