"The Rain Watcher" by Tatiana de Rosnay

"The Rain Watcher" centers around the gathering of the Malegarde family in Paris for the weekend celebration of the family patriarch, Paul. They arrive during torrential rains and the beginning of massive flooding in the city. Both children, Linden and Tilia, are a bit taken aback when they see their father; he does not look well and has aged considerably. The celebration soon turns awry after Paul suffers a stroke during his 70^th birthday dinner.

The flooding serves as a backdrop for family drama and secrets revealed. As the waters rise and Paris deteriorates, so does the Malegarde family along with Paul’s health.

The plot that stood out to me, though, was Linden’s relationship with his Father, Paul. They both have secrets to share. They both hide behind things to protect themselves… Linden with his old Leica camera and Paul with his trees. 

Linden is jealous of the trees and the part that they play in Paul’s life… how important they are to him. A few lines from the book referencing trees really spoke to me… but I also saw them as how we as a society often feel about elderly people… “The tragedy is that people have lost interest in trees. They take them for granted. People don’t respect trees like they used to” and “No one really understand how slowly trees grow and how old they become” just as Paul’s children did not truly see their father aging.

In the end, we find out why the lime trees were so important in Paul’s life and why he dedicated his life to preserving all trees. We learn the family secrets and how they will affect this family going forward.

My only issue with the book was that it got a bit slow in the middle. I have been to Paris, but don’t know the names of the streets or areas, so that part seemed a bit hard to read and to go slowly. However, someone who was familiar with these areas might not agree.

While not my favorite de Rosnay book (it would be hard to the take the place of Sarah’s Key in my heart) it is still very worthy of a read.

#TheRainWatcher #TatianadeRosnay #NetGalley

Publication Date: October 30, 2018

Genre: Fiction

Cover: Perfect

Rating: 3 stars

Source:  I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book

"When the Lights Go Out" by Mary Kubica

Spoiler alert!

Flashback to 1986. I was 18 years old; sitting in my dorm room eagerly awaiting the Dallas season finale with my roommate. Way back when entire seasons didn’t drop on the same day. Back before binge watching whole seasons in a weekend was a thing. Back when you talked about the season finale all summer long.

And ding dang it… Bobby Ewing steps out of that shower. What the heck? How can that be? We all saw him die! Really? The entire last season nothing but a freakin’ dream. You could hear the shock and dismay up and down the hallway as we watched with our doors open.

Fast forward 32 years. I feel almost as cheated. Even if you are under 40 and did not watch with the rest of the world, you are probably familiar with the way that producers tried to bring back an actor that had quit the show and subsequently been killed off and buried.

The title should have been a huge clue. What happens “when the lights go out”? I thought it would be a bit more interesting than going to sleep and having a scary dream. Read the book synopsis (I won't regurgitate it here); it is so intriguing.

The book was great until the twist reveal. It was well-written and engaging moving between 1996/1997 and 18 years later, to tell this story of mother and daughter. 

In the end, I gave it three stars. I mean, it was a surprise and diversion from her other books. And after all, she gave Jessie what everyone eventually craves at some point in their lives: a few more minutes with someone they love. Something even Pamela Ewing got!

#WhenTheLightsGoOut #NetGalley

Publication Date: September 4, 2018

Genre:  Thriller, Suspense, Mystery

Cover: OK

Rating: 3 stars

Source:  I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book!

"The Girl Who Lived" by Christopher Greyson

The Girl Who Lived by Christopher Greyson

Warning: spoiler alert!

Small towns. It’s great when you are in a bind and because everyone knows you they help out. However, when everyone knows your history, it’s not so great. That’s how “The Girl Who Lived” plays out. Even before Faith returns to her hometown, everyone knows. Everyone she runs into knows her past and exactly who she is. She is the girl who lived. The girl who survived a horrific crime when four others didn’t.

I wish I could say I was a fan of this book, but I just wasn’t. The premise was great and I was very interested after reading the synopsis. However, it mostly just annoyed me.

First, the resolution of the story had so many twists and turns, I felt like I was on a tilt-a-whirl that was out of control. I enjoy a novel with lots of twists and turns that all click into place at the end, but not just for the sake of confusing the reader. That is how this book felt to me.

Second, I find it hard to believe that Beverly lived believing that Faith and her father were a “mistake” her entire life and never felt it.  I would think that would have been hard for Beverly to hide and that Faith would have felt that and the book would have been full of examples of Beverly loving Kim, Faith’s sister, more and treating her better.

Third, I find it hard to believe that Beverly did not enact revenge against Hunter and Woods for killing her “precious” Kim too, which was never part of the plan. Kim was her baby with the man she truly loved.

Additionally, the spouse/parent is always the first suspect. Did nothing turn up during the initial investigation to point the finger at Beverly? It seems like Faith’s father was found guilty far too easily and that no one, including Kim, thought that two people might be involved in the initial murder. The police did not investigate enough to find out that Kim’s father did not have Fabry disease and could not be Kim’s father.

I did love Mrs. Henderson’s character. Was she crazy, physic, or communicating with her dead son? What the heck was going on with her? I liked how that part of the story played out.

Publication Date: November 4, 2017

Genre:  Thriller, suspense, mystery, crime, conspiracy

Cover:  OK

“The Dream Keeper's Daughter” by Emily Colin

What would you do if your best friend/boyfriend walked away from you and disappeared? How would you react? What if you were a senior in college and pregnant? Would you fall apart or hitch up your pants, trudge on and make a life for yourself and your child? What if your mother had disappeared in the same way seven years earlier?

This is exactly what happens in “The Dream Keeper's Daughter” by Emily Colin. It is the tale of two young lovers and how the disappearance of Max, Isabel’s boyfriend, affected her life and the life of her child.

I liked the way the author switched from Max and Isabel’s point of view for different chapters. I especially enjoyed reading Max’s chapters after he followed his six-times-over grandfather through the woods and back to Barbados in 1816 just before a slave rebellion.

I was a bit disappointed by the two sex scenes and some of the language toward the end of the book. A bit gratuitous. The bickering back and forth between Isabel and Ryan also got on my nerves. I wanted to scream at them, “just walk away and let each other go!”

The author does tackle some tricky subjects: slavery, kidnapping, etc. I would have loved to read more about Finn and her abilities. It was a good book, but not great.

Release Publication Date:  July 25, 2017
Genre:  Time travel, romance, suspense
Cover: Meh.  I am assuming the young girl on the cover is Finn. In the book, she has black hair whereas the girl on the cover is blonde.
Source: I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book!
Rating: 3.5 stars

"Secrets of Southern Girls" by Haley Harrigan

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

As a Southern girl, I wish I could say that I liked this book, but I just cannot. I loved the cover from the moment I saw it. It was so beautiful with the shades of purple and the two girls on the front that reminded me of my sister and me. I was also intrigued by the change in the color of the font. I wanted to find out just what secrets these Southern girls had.

I do think this story has potential; perhaps it’s just not quite ready for publication yet. Give it a good rewrite and it could be a decent story. I did like how the author told the past through Reba’s diary which held the key to figuring out the secrets of everyone (not just the girls).
Frist, the book seemed to drag. I thought I would never get to the end. Also, I really disliked Jules from the beginning. She picks up men for one night stands. Her only intention is to use them. When in High School, she was a party girl and drank quite heavily. She would drag her best friend to bars even though they are both under age even though she knows her friend does not want to go. She did not seem to appreciate her Aunt who raised her and was mean to her odd cousin Toby. After moving away, she pushed away the perfect man and did not even want her child when it was born.  And maybe she didn’t kill Reba in the end, but she didn’t get help (and neither did Toby).

Moving on to Reba. She has everyone convinced that she is this perfect, angelic teenager. However, she hops into bed pretty quickly with August and then Toby even though both she and Jules dislike him, know he is a druggie and think he is weird. Then she lies to her family, best friend and boyfriend while continuing to sleep with both boys.

I also found it hard to believe that this good girl turned bad wrote down all of this in a diary that she carried around openly at school where anyone could have grabbed it and read it. When I was a teenager, I would never have been stupid enough to write these things down. If I did, I would have had that thing written in code or under lock and key.

Supposedly, family friend Nell has everyone’s best interests at heart. However, she has kept this diary that contains the answers, for years. She claims to “take care” of Toby now, but he is clearly tormented by Reba’s memory. This comes out in his artwork.

Everyone in this book is just so darn miserable.  None of the characters can move on (except Jules’ Aunt Molly). It just left me feeling sad, especially for Jules' daughter, Beck. In the end, I gave “Secrets of Southern Girls” three stars. If half stars were possible, I would have given it 2 ½. It did have a bit of a twist at the end and has potential with a rewrite, otherwise I would have given it two. In the end, I think August and Jules deserved each other.

"Bridesmaids Revisited" by Dorothy Cannell

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I wish that I could say that I really liked “Bridesmaids Revisited” by Ellie Haskell, but I just cannot. I did give it three stars, but would have given 2.5 if half stars were an option. I was intrigued by the synopsis and couldn’t wait to get started on the story.

Ellie Haskell has just sent her husband and children on holiday when she is summoned by three elderly ladies (the bridesmaids) to the rectory where her grandmother lived many years ago for a séance as her grandmother has something she wants to tell her.

To begin, I found Mrs. Malloy (Ellie’s housekeeper) to be terribly irritating. Occasionally, the story did not seem to make sense. For example, too many murders in the past that did not seem to be looked into by authorities. No one noticed a young girl pining for another other than her beau/husband? Not one person in the town recognized a twin (she was disgused)? I did finish the book, but it was at times painful.

This is the first book by Dorothy Cannell that I have read. Perhaps if I had not picked up the series at Book #9, I would have felt a bit more invested and enjoyed the story more. However, the story did stand alone and I did not feel like there were bits that I was missing because I had not read the first 8 books in the series. If you enjoy the other books in the series, then you might enjoy this one. Again, this is my first book by this author and I doubt I will pick up another.

"House of Silence" by Sarah Barthel

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

If we could give half stars, I would have rated this book 3.5. "House of Silence" by Sarah Barthel has a great cover and interesting synopsis. Set in Oak Park, Illinois in 1875, Isabelle Larkin is the daughter of a wealthy family whose mother is more concerned with social status than the fate of her daughter. Isabelle's best friend Lucy is in a similar situation as her family believes her beau, that she intends to marry, is beneath her.

Isabelle is engaged to Gregory Gallagher who appears to be the "perfect" man. He is handsome, from a prominent family and has lofty political ambitions. However, he is not who he appears to be as Isabelle hears him arguing with a servant at their engagement party and then sees him commit a terrible crime.

She attempts to convince her mother of his duplicity, but when her efforts at honesty don't work, she fakes a mental breakdown in which she cannot speak. She is shortly sent to Bellevue sanitarium where she befriends Mary Todd Lincoln. The setting and introduction of Mary Todd Lincoln are two of the things that intrigued me enough to read this book.

While at the sanitarium, she investigates Gregory and she and her best friend finally find out the truth.

"House of Silence" would be a great beach/car read. The first part of the book drags a bit. The book would have been more interesting if there were more details of daily life in the sanitarium at that time and more of Mrs. Lincoln, her condition and background.