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Title: A Day in December
Author: Josie Silver
Genre: Fiction
Source: Publisher & Audible Purchase
Rating: 5
Synopsis:
Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic… and then her bus drives away.
Certain they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they “reunite” at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It’s Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.
What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.
My Thoughts:
I actually didn’t have high hopes for this one. I started it a few months ago and wasn’t completely drawn in. It seemed a bit like the author was trying to write the new Bridge Jones’ Diary (which is a book and movie series that I absolutely love) so I put it down. Then a friend who’s book taste I admire mentioned that she had really enjoyed it so I thought to give it another try only this time, I opted for the audio version. Are you ready? … I LOVED IT!!
I don’t know if it was the narrators (there are two) or if I was just in a different mindset but I thoroughly enjoyed One Day in December. It’s light-ish read. A romantic comedy, for sure. A little predictable, even. But oh so wonderful. It’s an escape into the lives of two truly human characters. Characters who have flaws and hopes and ups and downs, just like we do. As a romantic comedy, it does have a bit of a predictable ending but I found that the journey to the ending was enjoyable that I didn’t mind.
I’m not sure what the plans are for this book other than having been chosen by Reese Witherspoon for her book club but my guess is that we will see it on the big screen (or perhaps as a limited series) in the future. If this happens, I will definitely be in line to buy my ticket.
Trust me, if you are looking for something light and fun…a book to escape into, then this is your book!
*I received a copy of A Day in December from the publisher via netgalley.com and also purchased an audio version. This review is my honest opinion.
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Title: The Room
Author: Jonas Karlsson
Genre: Fiction
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4
Synopsis:
Bjorn is a compulsive, exacting bureaucrat who discovers a secret room at the government office where he works–a secret room that no one else in his office will acknowledge. When Bjorn is in his room, what his coworkers see is him standing by the wall and staring off into space looking dazed, relaxed, and decidedly creepy. Bjorn’s bizarre behavior eventually leads his coworkers to try to have him fired, but Bjorn will turn the tables on them with help from his secret room.
Author Jonas Karlsson doesn’t leave a word out of place in this brilliant, bizarre, delightful take on how far we will go–in a world ruled by conformity–to live an individual and examined life.
My Thoughts:
Have you ever started a book expecting not to like it? That is exactly how I felt when I received The Room by Jonas Karlsson. I’m not a man and I don’t work in an office environment so I honestly wondered how I would find a connection with beaurocratic Bjorn. What I found was that The Room is so well written and quirky that I honestly really just enjoyed this book. Karlsson writes his story with short (sometimes one to two pages long) chapters and simple concise sentences. I don’t always enjoy this format but it definitely worked for The Room.
*I received a copy of The Room from the publisher via bloggingforbooks.com This review is my honest opinion.
 Whisper Beach by Shelley Noble
-Paperback: 416 pages
-Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (June 16, 2015)
When a group of friends reunite in the idyllic beach town where they grew up, they must reevaluate their loyalty to one another or lose their friendship forever
Twelve years ago, Vanessa “Van” Moran fell in love and lost her virginity, but not to the same boy. She fled Whisper Beach desperate and pregnant, never telling a soul about her secret. Now a professional Manhattan organizer, she must return home for the first time to attend the funeral of her best friend’s husband. Van intends to only stay for a weekend, but her plans fall by the wayside as the troubles of this coastal town draw her in.
Dorie, the owner of the pier’s infamous Blue Crab Restaurant where Van and her friends worked as teenagers, enlists Van’s help to save the nearly bankrupt eatery. While Van throws herself into this new task, the man she once loved reenters her life, willing to pick up where they left off.
As the restaurant begins to thrive and Van reconnects with old friends, trouble comes from an unexpected source and she realizes she must face the decisions of her past or sacrifice this new life she has so carefully built.
For Van, this summer will test the meaning of friendship and trust and how far love can bend before it breaks.
Purchase Links
Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
About Shelley Noble
Shelley Noble is a former professional dancer and choreographer and has worked on a number of films. She lives at the Jersey shore where she loves to visit lighthouses and vintage carousels.†She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America.
Find out more about Shelley at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.
**Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of Whisper Beach.
Title: Burned (Fever #7)
Author: Karen Marie Moning
Genre: Urban Fantasy/NC-17
Source: Purchase
Rating: 3.5
Locate It: Amazon
Synopsis:
It’s easy to walk away from lies. Power is another thing.
MacKayla Lane would do anything to save the home she loves. A gifted sidhe-seer, she’s already fought and defeated the deadly Sinsar Dubh—an ancient book of terrible evil—yet its hold on her has never been stronger.
When the wall that protected humans from the seductive, insatiable Fae was destroyed on Halloween, long-imprisoned immortals ravaged the planet. Now Dublin is a war zone with factions battling for control. As the city heats up and the ice left by the Hoar Frost King melts, tempers flare, passions run red-hot, and dangerous lines get crossed.
Seelie and Unseelie vie for power against nine ancient immortals who have governed Dublin for millennia; a rival band of sidhe-seers invades the city, determined to claim it for their own; Mac’s former protégé and best friend, Dani “Mega” O’Malley, is now her fierce enemy; and even more urgent, Highland druid Christian MacKeltar has been captured by the Crimson Hag and is being driven deeper into Unseelie madness with each passing day. The only one Mac can depend on is the powerful, dangerous immortal Jericho Barrons, but even their fiery bond is tested by betrayal.
It’s a world where staying alive is a constant struggle, the line between good and evil gets blurred, and every alliance comes at a price. In an epic battle against dark forces, Mac must decide who she can trust, and what her survival is ultimately worth.
My Thoughts:
I am a huge fan of the Fever series and pre-ordered Burned as soon as it was available for pre-order. I counted down the days until it was delivered to my kindle and began reading almost immediately (nevermind that it’s taken me months to get around to review it). I love the darkness of this series. I love the characters, I especially love the strong independent female characters.
Burned was supposed to be the second book told through the viewpoint of Dani O’Malley. There was quite a bit of controversy among readers about Dani’s age when Iced came out. KMM said, “trust me”. I trusted her as did many other readers but apparently there was a louder contingency of readers who didn’t trust her and to appease them (although KMM vehemently denies changing the series direction/speed in reaction to the loud voices), she did some quick changes with some fancy writer’s footwork and not only made Mac the main viewpoint but also had Dani age years in the blink of an eye.
For me, it didn’t work. The first half of Burned was weird, slow and sometimes difficult to follow, especially with what I thought were way too many sex scenes. There just wasn’t much of a moving plot line. I was so sad. It took well over half the book for Burned to find it’s Fever pace and become something that I wanted to read.
I’m glad I stayed loyal to KMM and the Fever series because in the end, the last third of the book had me hooked again (and a little mad that just as it was getting good, it ended). Now, I have the long wait until the next book, Feverborn, comes out in 2016.
Title: Neverwhere
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
Source: Whispersync purchase from Amazon (both ebook & audiobook)
Rating: 5
Locate It: Amazon
Synopsis:
nder the streets of London there’s a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.
Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits him down here, beneath his native city: Neverwhere.
My Thoughts:
It took a few pages to realize but I really really loved this book. It took a few pages because this being my second Gaiman novel, I am still getting used to his ideas and style of writing. We jump right in with two parallel stories of a Scottish man named Richard Mayhew and a strange girl named Door in a strange place with a some bad guys possibly trying to kill her.
Door is the type of girl that can open doors where there are no doors and can speak to rats when necessary. Richard is your ordinary businessman engaged to a woman he thinks he loves. The story is strange. The setting is even stranger. But with Gaiman’s writing, it is just spectacular. I don’t know what it is about his writing style and word choice but I absolutely love it.
Neverwhere is another one of those books that I was enjoying so much I didn’t want to be away from it so I ended up buying the audio version as well. That way, when I was unable to sit and read, I could listen to Neil Gaiman reading his own story to me while I washed dishes or drove in my car.
Reading (or listening to) a Neil Gaiman novel is like wading through a dream. Things are never how you expect them. I don’t think he is everyone’s cup of tea but if you don’t mind insane imagery and a bit of darkness, you will love Neverwhere.
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Shelley Noble, author of Whisper Beach, on tour June 2015 | TLC Book Tours - […] Monday, June 29th: Under a Gray Sky […]
Heather J @ TLC Book Tours - Thanks for being a part of the tour.