Book Review: Hidden by Catherine McKenzie

The Deal: Three lives collide when Jeff Manning decides to walk home from work after having to fire his mentor from the company they both worked for. Jeff is distracted, reflecting about his life when he's blindsided by a car and dies. 

At home, his wife Claire waits for him, and is shocked when police officers come to her door to let her know about the accident.

She now has to comfort their grieving son and deal with the neighbors and with the sudden reappearance of Jeff's older brother whom she used to date back in college, and with the many unresolved feelings she still has about the Manning brothers and the turns her life has taken. 

Miles away and in another city entirely, Tish's world is rocked by the news of Jeff's passing. As far as anyone knows, they have only talked to each other once or twice at company-wide events. But unbeknown to everyone, even their spouses, Tish and Jeff talked every day, several times in fact, sustaining a complex long distance relationship.

My Thoughts: Told in alternating points of view between Tish, Jeff and Claire, Hidden tells a very complicated story that goes back and forth between past and present of these characters and how they related to each other.

Catherine McKenzie is an author that writes unusual stories and I've always enjoyed that about her books, but I'll admit that I had to go on faith a little with Hidden because it took me a while to get into the story.

While Claire, Tish and Jeff's voices were distinctive, I found it hard to connect with any of them, as they often tended to reminisce about the past - how Jeff met both Claire and Tish, the trials of Claire's marriage - and Tish often sounded whiny and... unappreciative of the life she did have (with a husband and kid who loved her).

But as the story unfolded and the layers began to be peeled back, I was intrigued by the links between these people and the choices they had made.

While not my favorite Catherine McKenzie book (That would be Forgotten); Hidden is interesting and made for a good read at the end, though it had a slow start.

Book Review: The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler

Hello my peeps!! I'm doing another free form review this time!!! And on this occasion I'm going to tackle The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler. 

The Bookstore follows the life graduate student Esme Garland, who moved to New York to get her masters studying the artwork of a very obscure painter. In New York, she's pretty happy, she has fallen in love with the city, she likes her apartment and her neighbors; she even has a handsome and rich slightly older boyfriend Mitchell. 

Everything seems to be going perfect... until the day she realizes she's pregnant, and then gets dumped by Mitchell, before she can even really tell him. 

Esme then turns to her refuge and favorite place in the city: a shabby, second hand bookstore called The Owl, where she lands a part-time job to help her make end's meet. 

Okay, so I started this book with a lot of hope, I liked the idea of a book set in and around a bookstore and The Owl sounded like a delightful indie bookstore at that. But I had a lot of trouble getting into it - and I'm not sure I ever did - because Esme's voice is so full of apathy and she makes it sound like one thing is just as good as the next, and like, things just happen to her. 

This made it very hard for me to like her or like her voice, and I got this weird feeling of dread each time I was reading it, like something was dragging me down. It had that sort of mood, even at the beginning when Esme was saying how much she liked living in New York, I never really felt like she was happy. 

Individually, I liked plenty of characters, mostly the people who worked at the Owl, but the book and story just never came alive for me. 

Maybe someone who likes slower paces and is more inclined toward woman's fiction would enjoy it more. If you're looking for something light and fluffy, this aint't it.

The Bookstore comes out August, 2013

 (but not really for me)

Thanks to the Publisher and Edelweiss for the review copy. 

Book Review: Saving Grace by Fiona McCallum

At First Sight: Emily Oliphant thought she was getting a happy ending when she married John, heir to the biggest landowners of the county. But what started with a disappointing wedding night never got better and three years later Emily is a bit of a shell of her former self.

Her days revolve around cooking and cleaning for her husband and doing whatever she can to avoid John's temper and her mother's ever present criticisms.

When John agrees to let her get a dog of her own, Emily feels a little hopeful, particularly after she goes to pick up her new dog from a neighboring farmer and strikes an easy friendship with the farmer's wife, in whom she finds a cheerleader and a kindred spirit.

Between this new friendship and the love she feels for Grace, her border collie puppy, Emily is finding her own strength once more; and when John shoots at Grace, just to amuse himself, Emily decides that enough is enough and leves him.

It's scary being on her own for the first time in years, but with the help of her new friends and the support of her father, Emily starts to create a new life for herself.  

Second Glance: Saving Grace was a bit of a mixed bag of nuts. For the most part I found it very enjoyable, I liked Emily a lot and to me it made sense how one seemingly smallish* thing in the big scheme of things sent her over the edge and made her take action over her own life.

As I said, I really liked Emily and I liked reading about her life and her choices, I liked the rural Australian setting.

I only had two problems with the book: one that it goes around in circles quite a bit, you keep reading and reading about Emily starting her new life and after a while you just want something to happen already! And, second, well the ending is very abrupt! I felt like someone took the last third out of my book because there are these narrative threads - among them the romance- that just end. One page you are thinking, "Oh, finally some romance on the way" and the next is all over. 

Bottom Line: I don't want to make it sound like I didn't like Saving Grace because I totally did, I actually got lost in the narrative pretty easily, which is partially why the ending just snuck on me out of nowhere. It could have also used a little more action and romance, but as women's fiction it was very good.  Saving Grace will be published on April 1st by Harlequin Australia. 

1/2

* Who am I kidding? if someone shot my dog just for fun, even if they didn't harm him, I would beat them bloody!! No one messes with mah (9 year old) puppy!! 

Book Review: The Particularly Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

At First Sight:  On the eve of her 9th birthday, Rose arrived home from school to a lemon-chocolate cake that her mother had baked in practice for Rose's birthday party the next day, and with a bite of that cake, her whole life changed. She discovered she could taste her mother's emotions in the cake, and what she tasted was despair and sadness. From then on, she had to learn to live with the knowledge she gains with each bite about the person who prepared the food.

She tastes her mother's mood shifts, and her father's detachment, and her older brother's clash with the world. As she grows up, she can go back even further back, to the ingredients and the people who process the food. 

This is a knowledge that costs her her innocence and, at times her sanity.

Second Glance: I don't know what I expected from this book, but it wasn't anything I got. I had a few problems with it from the outset, mainly because I was listening to the audio book rather than reading it, and they had the author read the story and, as a result, the narrative was very flat - there was no change in the voices or emotions through out.

And, also, the book goes on and on, stretching for over 10 years, and there is no clear conclusion. I liked Rose at first but I felt little change in her, even with all the years that pass. And, though I felt some compassion for her brother, he was very hard to connect to, just as Rose is after a while. 

Bottom Line: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake has an interesting premise, but it sort goes no where and it's not really enjoyable either.