The Notebook

 

Title: The Notebook  Author: Nicholas Sparks  Pages: 214 (Audible)   Genre: Fiction Romance

    Noah met Allie one summer in his small town and they fell madly in love. When the summer ended she went years thinking he forgot about her and he did the same after writing letters and getting no response. After years of not speaking, Allie sees an article in the paper about him 3 weeks until she is married to another man. Allie then goes on her own mission to go see Noah and see how life is for him where they remember that summer and rekindle that love from that summer many years ago. You learn all this as they are now old people in assisted living care and Noah reads a notebook of their love story everyday to fight her memory loss. It really is a book that teaches you love does conquer all. 

    Nicholas Sparks is fabulous on his writing and keeping you rooting for the love to conquer whatever gets in the way. It is a wonderful book that teaches you that you can fight for what you love and despite everything in your way you can win. Nicholas reminds us that love is a very strong force that can make us or break us. 

The Silent Daughter

 

Title: The Silent Daughter  Author: Kirsty Ferguson   Pages: 336 (audible)  Genre: Mystery

    Dani was always abused by her sister growing up and it took years to get her out of that situation, She got to marry her high school sweetheart and raise her family. One fateful night her house catches on fire and she watches her family burn as she is stuck outside, helpless. Picking up the scraps of her life she is taking care of her eldest daughter who doesn't speak to her at all, who escaped the fire. As she tries to piece it all together pieces of her past come into play and she finds out details that were in the darkest crevasses of her mind. Can she really survive all this?

    As the story progressed I made a guess on who set the fire and let me tell you I changed my answer a couple times and I was still WAY off. I enjoyed this story and having it unfold. It was not what I expected at all. Kirsty kept me on the edge of my seat but its really hard to get into a story when you are a Mom and need to take care of everything as well. 

Sisters One, Two, Three

 Title: Sisters One, Two, Three  Author: Nancy Star  Pages: 354 Genre: Fiction/Mystery

Ginger is a very worried Mother, but not just about her child she worries about everything and doesn't know how to stop. As an adult she takes care of her Mother and tries to have a relationship with her 17 year old daughter which is hanging by a thread. The tighter she held on her daughter the more her daughter slipped through her fingers. As a last attempt to connect they take a family trip to see some colleges when the secret comes out for her daughter to hear that she doesn't just have one aunt, she has 2 aunts and an uncle. This story is about the canyon a secret can make and what it can do to those we love. Ginger loses her daughter for her to "find herself" and finds out her youngest sister Callie is alive and well when they haven't spoken in 25 years the death of their Mother brings the sisters together and to remember the brother they have lost long ago. 

I really enjoyed this book. I literally couldn't put it down. Maybe it has something to do with I am in a similar circumstance (other then the secrets) and I related to the sisters one way or another about what happened. When people we love die its sometimes hard to talk about them without someone getting upset. So we learn to just bite our tongues and not speak of the difficult matter. However eventually everything comes to light. 

Conceal Don't Feel

 

Title: Conceal Don't Feel Author: Jen Calonita Pages: 312 Genre: Ficton

    What if there was a version of Frozen that Elsa didn't know Anna? Elsa grows up in the castle and is being courted by Hans while Anna is in a small village as a baker's kid. When the King and Queen are lost at sea Elsa is devastated and ends up finding a letter written from the Queen to her to explain the powers she is struggling with and also finds out she has a sister out there. She goes out to try and find this sister and along this amazingly hard journey she finds out the closer she gets to Anna, the more danger Anna is in. Anna will freeze if she is near Elsa and doesn't remember Elsa on her own. Luckily most fairy tales end with a "happily ever after".

    There is a lot of this book that goes with the movie that our sweet daughters are so obsessed with. I did enjoy it, I remember thinking how weird it was to imagine Hans and Elsa together instead of Hans going after Anna. Lovely images filled my head as I read it. It is a book I would recommend older kids or teens to read if they enjoyed it. I'm sure my 13 year old niece will enjoy it along with my 10 year old daughters. 

    

Ruthless

Title: Ruthless  Author:  Carolyn Lee Adams  Pages: 248  Genre: suspense/thriller

Ruth Carver is a self driven teenager who takes the weight of the world on her shoulders. With this weight she doesn't let anyone close. One day she finds herself in the bed of a truck and not sure how, with a turn of events she finds out she has been kidnapped and needs to find a way out of this mess. As she fights obstacles trying to get back to safety she realizes that she has been taking her loved ones for granted.. now only if she could get home to tell them...

It starts off with a self involved teenager and it was hard for me to get into but as she starts fighting the obstacles and her character changes I enjoyed it more and more. By the half way point I hated putting it down.

Brisingr

Title: Brisingr  Author: Christopher Paolini  Pages: 748  Genre: Fantasy

Eragon is needing to fulfill promises and he starts off by helping his cousin save the love of his life. Then he has to travel all the way to the dwarves town and help sway the vote for the new king in the favor of the Varden whom is fighting the Empire to free all the people so no one is slaves. After he helps with Dwarves he has to go and learn as much as he can about being a dragon rider and get some history of whom he really is by the elves. After all that he has to go back to the Varden as promised and go back to the war to try and save as many lives as possible. 

This book is war or history of the dragons and of course Eragon himself. Without history who are we? He had to learn a lot in this part of the story and myself along the way. It did take me a while to read it was hard to keep my attention at times. It is well written just dry at some points and it was hard to focus on. It wasn't my favorite in the series by far but Christopher has always been a great author in my opinion. 

Dark Places

Title: Dark Places  Author: Gillian Flynn  Pages: 538  Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Libby is a young girl that is home when her whole family is killed. Her brother is blamed and sent to prison. 25 years pass since that day and she gets a letter from "The Kill Club" to come and be involved. This is where people start planting seeds that her brother Ben is innocent. They pay her some money to go back and talk about the past with some key people. She unveils the truth and her life is in danger again. Barely escaping she gets to tell the truth of what happened that night and maybe save her brother. 

I enjoyed this book more then I thought I would. I think Libby was written like a real person. We all want to feel like when we are hit with tragedy that we will rise above, but do we really? Sometimes even getting out of bed is a feat on its own. The story progressed well as you got flashbacks on how that day unfolded and how it all happened from Ben, Patty (the Mom) and of course Libby. 

Emotional and Sexual Intimacy in Marriage: How to Connect or Reconnect With Your Spouse, Grow Together, and Strengthen Your Marriage

Title: Emotional and Sexual Intimacy in Marriage  Author: Marcus and Ashley Kusi  Pages:  162  Genre: Self Help

~I was asked to review this book~

Marcus and Ashley have made another book about how to strengthen your relationship. There is so much in this book. It talks about the finer details on how to expand and grow as yourself and with your spouse and some tips on how to do so! The fact that Marcus opens up and tell us the readers that he had to learn about "being a man" and that it doesn't mean that guys never cry, quite the opposite. A man that is in-tune with his feelings can typically get the girls easier since we women can connect deeper with them. It is nice to read a book about how to repair or just make your marriage better from people that have been there and its not just from one point of view it is from both of them and I think that makes this valuable! There isn't just great insite in the book there are links to their site www.ourpeacefulfamily.com to help you with steps along the way to help you become the couple you want to be. There are also questions in the book you can answer with your spouse so it isn't just a sit down and read there are questions you can answer and get to know each other and your goals as a couple more thoroughly.
Although it is packed with a ton of information that we know sometimes we forget its the simple day to day things that make our marriage and our relationships in general work. You want to tell your best friend everything so why not do the same with the spouse. Even if they are two separate people.
One of my favorite chapters was the one about spiritual intimacy. I think its one of the things my husband and I struggle with the most and I have never thought that there are ways around not sharing the same beliefs and sharing with your kids. It's about the core learning and feelings not all the extra stuff. One of the things that makes the books from Marcus and Ashley unique is that they add their own personal stories to it as well so its not just "this is how you fix it" they add their own personal touch that they have gone through it and they want others to not have to. Although it is apart of being a couple.

Cinder & Ella

Title: Cinder & Ella  By: Kelly Oram  Pages: 254  Genre: Young Adult

Ella was your typical teenager, she was raised by just her Mom and on her birthday the worst happens...a car accident that leaves her damanged; emotionally and phyically along with her Mom dead. She has to go out to L.A. to live with her Dad who abandonded her years before and his picture perfect family. Alone in the world she is lost, until she reaches out to an old internet friend that starts fixing her life bit by bit. What  happens when that amazing best friend turns into the world's latest bad boy heart throb?

I don't have the chance to just sit and read. If I do I last 15 minutes before something happens. I started this and read this all in one sitting and I adored it! I was so sad when this book ended. There is such depth and understanding from Ella and from "Cinder". The divided family, the not knowing the whole story, the friends we can be real with, bullying, self-esteem issues along with confessing your real feelings for someone and how utterly terrifying that is, its all crammed into this book. I recommend this book to EVERYONE!!

Shifters Forever: Protection

Title: Shifters Forever Protection  By: Elle Thorne  Pages: 186  Genre: Erotica

Chelsea is trying to keep her nose clean and her head down in this small sleepy town, but its hard to do with two guys pining over you. One is a big name in the town for real estate and has the ego to go with it, the other is whom Chelsea is pining over. She has set up dates with both but Jeff (real estate agent) goes first and drugs her, but Chelsea is strong and fights off the drug long enough to get out of the situation alone...but ends up in the forest, at night..in the snow. Her knight on his white horse comes along (although he's just in bear form) and safes the day and learns more secrets along the way about the girl of his dreams. They have a steamy start once she realizes she isn't stepping on anyone's toes. 

I enjoyed this book it was a quick read once I was able to actually sit down and read it. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. The character progress wasn't really there but it only happens in a short time for the most part so its hard to develop too much on them.

WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT!!!

What Waits in the Woods

Title: What Waits in the Woods  Author: Kieran Scott  Pages: 273  Genre: suspense

Callie has never been camping but at 16 if you don't do what your friends do, you are  a wimp, so camping she goes with her friends and boyfriend. Things start happening that puts everyone on edge, first and foremost they get on the wrong trail and meet up with a stranger who happens to have a cabin nearby...or does he? There are also small tidbits of journal from the killer along the way that helped move it in their mind as well. 

I am not one to typically do the suspense/horror books but in light of Halloween I thought I would give it a try. I read half the book in one evening. It is very well written and kept me at the edge of my seat. If you aren't fond of camping this is definitely a book I would recommend or its going to change it so you don't want to go camping ever again. Happy camping!

A Discovery of Witches

Title; A Discovery of Witches  Author: Deborah Harkness  Pages: 579  Genre: Fantasy

Diana wasn't your typical witch (if she was would their be a book?) She lost her parents at a young age and didn't want anything to do with magic even though her Aunt tried to get her to. It's not until she is an adult working at a college in England where the twists start. She gets a manuscript that changes everything and to top it off a Vampire is watching her. The vampire Matthew turns into a great ally and friend to keep Diana safe from the new foes that come around because she brought out this manuscript that has the beginning of time of how the creatures were created. From this all of Diana's powers start letting themselves be known and there are a ton of creatures she has to face alone and with Matthew to survive.

I absolutely loved this book. It was recommended to me by a friend and I hated being an adult and having work and kids and responsibilities where I had to put the book down. It got my attention pretty early on and caught my attention more and more as the story was reaching its climax. Deborah did a wonderful job of the story, characters and imagery. I really hope I can find the second book soon so I can continue this story to see what happens next! 

After Disasters

Title: After Disasters  Author: Viet Dinh  Pages: 266  Genre: Fiction

4 gentlemen run towards the disaster that happen and go to help those less fortunate when a natural disaster happens. 

I was not a fan of this book. The images came to life and it made you feel like you were there but to me it jumped from point of view to point of view and it jumbled in my head how it was going and how I got there. It was a wonderful idea and out of my normal books but this isn't one I don't think I can recommend.