Review: The Fault In Our Stars By: John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hazel Grace Lancaster has been battling cancer for the past few years, it has become almost a part of her - the chemo puffed face, the oxygen tank she wheels about, the group she has to go to.. even her favorite book is about a girl who has cancer but decides to fight for another disease. It is in group that she meets the very handsome, Augustus Waters. Augustus, who once played basketball until cancer took his leg - Augustus, who seems to like her and get closer to her unlike anyone else.
This is a book about life - all that life contains - love, pain, betrayal, humor, death. There is nothing held back from the reader falling for these characters (including the secondary), and nothing held back from the author about the real rawness of life.
This is the book that will have you laugh and cry, that will break your heart and give you hope.

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Review: The Doodle Revolution By: Sunni Brown

The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently by Sunni Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

******* This is a First Reads, Thank You Goodreads *******

The way we think sometimes can lose sight of what we hold creatively - this book, filled with insight, breakdown, and plenty of exercises challenges that.
When looking at a problem and seeing only the same solution, what if you took it creatively, unlocking the potential within yourself, your brain, within your doodles - this book helps you re train your thinking, your problem solving, your techniques. I felt myself challenged at times but knew that if I pushed through I would gain a very important lesson for my "toolbox" that I could carry not just into a professional life, but my personal life. I think that is what makes this book so great, the challenge, the lessons, the fact that it asks the reader to step out and re train the brain and then the skills are there, lessons learned in a fun way.


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Review: Dark Places By: Gillian Flynn

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Money and attention has run out for Libby Day, the survivor of the Kinnakee Kansas Farmhouse Murders, other than her brother, Ben - the one who is in jail for killing her mother and two sisters. That was so many years ago, people have forgotten - except a small underground group that studies and questions the case and the testimony the she, a small 7 year old, gave that put her brother as the killer.
Reluctant but needing money, Libby agrees to revisit that night, to re think everything she thought she knew, all the people she once thought she knew - to go to that dark place. Each person leads to another, as each stone uncovers another, and new light shines upon an old memory, is it possible that Ben is innocent or even more guilty than ever thought.
Oh, my, I did not put this one down. Chapters that bounce back and forth between present day and 1985, between Libby Day and those of the characters of the past - all woven to create a powerful story that leaves your heart pounding and mind racing. A definite must read.

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Review: Landry Park By: Bethany Hagen

Landry Park by Bethany Hagen
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

A dystopian United States that is run by the Gentry and served by the Rootless. A different world fueled by energy nuclear type energy charges created by Jacob Landry. Since then a special group, the Uprisen, a few of the founding Gentry, have been making all the decisions for the Country (the man behind the curtain type of idea). There is also a law in place about the firstborn holding the inheritance of the land and title, the necessity to marry, and to produce heirs.
Madeline Landry, descendent of Jacob, heir to Landry Park, is suffering from PLRGS (Poor Little Rich Girl Syndrome). Oh, If you could only find something likeable about her or her friends or the men that surround her - or her dilemma, to help the poor that repulse her or to go to the University like she always dreamed but she to marry to do so.
The author thinly disguises I think her political and environmental stance in a fictional teen book that lacks substance. I really wanted to like this, it was marketed like crazy, the blurb was interesting, but even the ending was disappointing. What was supposed to be the climatic event was a letdown for all the buildup (or attempted buildup). If you want to try to check this book out, do so from the library.

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Review: The Deepest Secret By: Carla Buckley

The Deepest Secret by Carla Buckley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You never know what happens behind closed doors or the secrets deep within the ones that live under the same roof.
One moment, that's all it takes, less than a second, and Eve Lattimore finds herself carrying the deepest secret of all. When tragedy strikes the small cul de sac in suburban Columbus, soon everyone's secrets become revealed little by little, some have more to hide.
Eve's son, Tyler, has a rare genetic disorder, XP, that makes him fatally sensitive to light. A windowless life that becomes alive as soon as the sun sets, with a hobby in photography, Tyler becomes privy to the most private moments and interactions of his neighbors, especially their secrets.
Complex characters and dynamics fill the pages, all having the reader often asking about who they think they know next door, or what would they do. You will not put this book down. This is a perfect book for a book club.

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Review: Lost Lake By: Sarah Addison Allen

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Those Morris women, they seemed to be cursed. Most of them at least. Wanting to marry money and marrying for love the poorest man they ever came across, except Eby – she was lucky to fall in love with a rich man, George. The Morris women also seemed cursed to lose themselves when their husbands die, neglecting everything and everyone, even their own children, except Eby .. and her great niece Kate, who just woke up after a year of mourning.
Welcome to Lost Lake in Suley, Georgia. A little cabin park Eby and her late husband George bought years ago. Years have passed, families stopped coming, and an offer to buy is on the table. Thinking that this would be a quiet summer to say goodbye flew out of Eby’s mind when Kate showed up widowed and with her 8 year old daughter,Devin in tow.
Lost Lake holds court to a woman who has no voicebox and sees the ghost of her lover who killed himself fifty years ago and never left her side, a retired literature professor who believes that endings change when you reread books, a podiatrist who finds solace in the quiet, a woman who collected husbands like a hunter and had the help of magic to catch them, and an alligator that holds mystical secrets. Misfits and free spirits, broken hearts and new loves all find their way down the gravel road to a place that heals, reveals, and gives magic in a world where you once thought there was no more left.


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Review: How To Fall In Love By: Cecelia Ahern

How to Fall in Love by Cecelia Ahern
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Christine Rose found herself talking Adam Basil off a bridge and making a promise to show him a life worth living by his 35th birthday – 2 weeks away. Christine knows she can’t fail this, even though she has just left her husband, she already had witnessed an attempted suicide the night before, and everything seems quite messy, Adam is her priority.
The human frailty of each character brings a depth of understanding and compassion. There is the wonderful humor that only Ahern delivers in her wonderful style, excellent secondary characters and plot development. The optimism Christine attempts to bring into Adam’s life as the dark cloud hovers over hers, brings a certain enlightenment to the reader of the wonders of life and creating those moments to treasure and value.
I love Ms. Ahern’s books. Within the pages I know I will be transported into a story that will not only bring tears, laughter, but also bring a sense of hope. Yes, her books can be categorized as ‘chick lit’ but there is a deeper depth, a story of growth, of hope, of the impossible becoming – and I don’t know about you, but my soul needs stories like these.


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