The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge...a Review

 Sometimes you feel that you need something different and lately I have been experiencing just that in my reading tastes.   Usually I like crime, mystery/thrillers and suspense novels.  As a grandmother I try to read some books that my 10, 11, and 12 year old grandsons enjoy.   That's how I met young Harry Potter and how I fell in love with that series.   When I learned that The Little White Horse was J.K. Rowlings favorite childhood book, I absolutely had to read it.

   However, the wierdest thing happened when I picked up a copy and started to read, I went straight to sleep...every time.   I really had a hard time with the length of the chapters and Ms Goudge's lengthy, albeit charming narrative.  I could see that it was going to be a happy story and I did want to sink my teeth into it.  About halfway through, it happened and I read when I could not fall asleep.

  Maria Merriweather is our principal character and she has been brought up as befits a fine young lady.   She has lost her father and her home and travels with her governess, Miss Heliotrope, and her dog, Wiggins, to her cousin’s estate, Moonacre Manor.   This was truly a delightful fairytale, and Maria had a strong heritage of wrongs that needed to be righted and all hoped that she was the one who would right the wrongs and rid the area of Them.   During her adventures at Moonacre Manor, she makes many friends in both the people and the animals..  To meet those folks, and know who Them is, do read the story.   It is charming, sweet and I think I will read it again to my grand daughter when she is a little older.  It turned out to be a very pleasant surprise and as would befit a fairytale, ends with a happily ever after.

Down the Darkest Road by Tami Hoag...a Review

This was one of the darkest books I’ve read in quite some time.   Sometimes I wonder about my fascination with this type of book and t.v. show.   I must be very depraved myself to read  and watch this stuff.   The book centers around the Lawton family, Lance and Lauren, the parents, and two daughters, Leslie and Leah, aged four years apart.   That in itself was confusing trying to keep straight who we were reading about.   When Leslie turned a rebellious sixteen, she was abducted by a pervert.   Two years later her father, Lance committed suicide by staging a car accident.   Lauren, the mother, all but forgot about her younger daughter, Leah, when she became obsessed with trying to obtain justice for her missing, probably deceased daughter, Leslie.    The bad guy was extremely methodical and careful and clever; the officials were never able to pin anything on him in Leslie’s disappearance.   However, Lauren knew he had done it and she was determined to seek vengeance/justice.   And the saddest part was, who could not relate to how she felt?  Life certainly had treated her dirty.   I didn’t like how she wallowed in her bitterness and how she more or less couldn’t appreciate the fact she still had one daughter left…a daughter that needed her mother.    It was a depressing story, and an ugly tale of perversion, really spelling it out.  I am not sure the ending really salvaged the story for me.

Lethal by Sandra Brown...a Review

Honor Gillette and her four year old daughter, Emily, live in Tambour, Louisianna.  It is a quiet and peaceful town where every one knows everyone and their business.   It is protected by the local police department and the Sheriff's office, but all is not as it seems.  One fine morning all Hell breaks loose with the murder of seven employees of the local trucking company and one alledged murderer on the run, a disgruntled employee, one Lee Coburn.   When he is found injured in Honor's yard, Honor's world goes bezerk.   She and her daughter are held captive, their home ransacked, and eventually they are kidnapped by the alledged murderer.  All of the corruption stemming from the trucking company, is spear headed by the BookKeeper who finds Coburn's involvement disconcerting and he is targeted for disposal.   But not only is Coburn in trouble with the BookKeeper, so are Honor and Emily and anyone they trust.    It's a winding twisting tale of murder and deception.    Some would go to any measure to protect their empires.  Honor would go to that same measure to protect her daughter, and Lee Coburn, wants to finish what he starts.
  It took awhile to get into this book, but once I found the hook, it had me and from then on, it was hard to put down.   A good read and I love a good mystery!  

Keeper of the Light by Diane Chamberlain...a Review

Wow….what a novel this was!!!!!   I could not put it down and stayed up way past my bedtime…Lol.   This was possibly the best book I have read in awhile.   Or at the very least was right up my alley.   Mz Chamberlain’s writing is new to me, but she will be ranked among my favorite authors.   Her writing was captivating, her storyline well developed and implemented and her characters as real as they could be.   Each had their redeeming qualities and each their weaknesses as well. The novel exposes human frailty and the repercussions our choices have upon not only ourselves but those that we love and those that love us.  We  meet Annie O'Neill the night she dies, as she was brought into the ER, a victim of a gunshot wound.  Her treating physician is Dr. Olivia Simon, the woman whose marriage crumbles with the passing of Annie O'Neill.   Olivia will go on to seek whatever she can find…what did Annie have that Olivia could not offer her husband?   Paul Macelli, Olivia’s husband, will abandon his marriage to grieve in anonymity and build his shrine to Annie.    Dr Alec O’Neill will mourn the death of his wife and his marriage only to find he knew very little about her in reality, and Mary Poor, the Keeper of the Light turns out to also be the Keeper of Annie’s deep and dark secrets.   She is the only one who can save these three people from Annie’s misplaced influence on their futures.  There are many twists and turns in reaching the ultimate revelations and as a reader one can empathize with each character and their reactions to the truth.  But the greatest sorrow is in Annie’s truth and how she suffered through it.  An Excellent read!!

A Beautiful Thought

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes...a Review

My friend, Pam, recommended this book for our March book read.   She had read it in high school, I had not.   I think she must have read it for psychology class and I must ask her about that.   Anyway, the book is written from Charlie Gordon’s POV.   Charlie was the eldest son of Matt and Rose Gordon and had one  younger sister, Norma.   Charlie suffered from mental retardation which was totally misunderstood at the time of this story.  That is why his dad took him to his Uncle Herman’s to get him out of the house and away from Norma and some imaginary fear that Rose had about Charlie hurting Norma.   Charlie was 32 yrs old and working at a bakery  and he longed to be smart/normal.    He became involved in a University study about the brain.    The study also involved a white mouse named Algernon.   Algernon had undergone brain surgery which resulted in a very smart mouse.   Charlie became the first person to undergo the same surgery and he became a genius.   Overall, it is a sad story as the effects were only temporary.  But Charlie has a lot to say about all that he learned on his rise and fall from genius.  My recurrent thought was be careful what you wish for; it might just happen.   There are a lot of subjects that are brought front and center regarding how we treat one another, how we perceive the disabled, and what truly is important in ones life.    Well worth the read.    This is one that will stay with you awhile.

EMBRACE by Jessica Shirvington--a review

Well, I am certainly glad I am not locked into one category of reading.   I decided I was going to investigate YA reading with  angel themes.   I was not one bit disappointed with this selection.  Violet Eden was turning seventeen and at that age you came of age if you were a Grigori.    For Violet, who had limited close friends/family, her entire life changed at seventeen.   People were not who they seemed and apparently neither was she.   She was Grigori, half angel/half human, and if Grigori, then also a protector of the human race.  She has the freedom of choice to reject being a Grigori or to embrace.   And with everyone thinking they have a say in this decision, did she really have the freedom to choose?   Follow her journey and find out for yourself.   The book is well thought out with a lot of action and some otherworldly red hot romance as well!  I am already anxious for September 1 release of book #2 ENTICE.   And yes, I was up all night to finish it.