WOW! April was a great month for book reads for me! I hope you’ll considering checking out one of the following:

Pieces of it All by Tracy Krimmer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It was part romance, part coming of age, part bittersweet. Beth was a naive virginal high school graduate. She had her life before her, choices endless. Along came Harvey a recovering alcoholic living with his abusive and alcoholic father. Immediately the reader feels the connection between the two. The chemistry is palpable. Harvey, while not what Beth’s parents or friends want for her, seems to be a dream come true for Beth. At first, it looks like everything is going to work out hunky dory for our lovely Beth and her new beau.
But Harvey has not escaped his past. It’s impossible to do when he’s still searching aimlessly for his absent mother and living with a man who spurned so many painful memories of his youth. The portrayal of Harvey and his father (and their relationship) was so spot on that it was almost like watching the interactions in real life.
While the begin of the novel was a little slow paced (I was convinced that it was going to be one of those sappy romances that the girl saves the boy from his sordid path of failure), the mysterious elements picked up around halfway, making it quite the page turner as I was anxious to know exactly what had happened in Harvey’s past. When Beth finally realizes what Harvey really is, she flees like any smart girl would. Even so, as deplorable as he acted, it was difficult to totally despise Harvey…I found myself hoping he would see the error of his ways and he could be saved. But unfortunately, sometimes we need to hit absolute rock bottom before we can claw our way to the top, as Harvey learns in the end.
Very pleased with the way this novel ended. It was extremely realistic and I look forward to more from Tracy Krimmer in the future.

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First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a little slow going in the beginning so it took me awhile to get through it. Plus it’s been nearly a decade since I read Garden Spells (has it really been that long???), so I had to tug at my memory to recall the Waverley family. And I’m not a big fan of “magic”. (Yet I continue to pick up Sarah Addison Allen novels, go figure) Still, once I got past the half way mark, I couldn’t put it down. It was so cute and sweet and innocent. And yea, I could have told you the end by the second chapter, but the beauty in this novel was the journey, not the end result.

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The Murderer’s Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think I may need to a few days to process this book before I can write a review. I don’t think I’ve ever been so emotionally stunned by a book as I was “The Murderers Daughters”. At times, I actually felt like I was Lulu or Merry; felt their pain and their angst and their guilt. This was a very “real” novel, causing very upsetting emotions to rise to the surface. The relationship between the two sisters was so realistic, I thought at times as if I knew them personally. Bravo to Ms. Meyers. I will definitely pick up any of her future novels.

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Second Chances by Connie Stephany

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars. I really liked the concept of this book, jilted bride, childhood crush coming back into her life. At first the characters seemed very lively and realistic. I found myself flipping through the pages,meaning to know what happened with Adam and Abby, why the wedding hadn’t taken place. I enjoyed the story and the romance blooming. Although, I think about three quarters of the way through, the book started to feel rushed, the dialogue got stilted and the scenes were not as descriptive as the beginning. I wished the author spent a little more time on developing the romance as she had done in the beginning. I did find the teaser for “Book two” quite interesting though and look forward to it.

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Every Five Minutes by Bronwyn Elsmore

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I finished this in less than a day and I still have tears in my eyes. This book was not like anything I’ve ever read; snippets of the author thinking about the man she loves over the course of the day. Throughout the course of the novel, we learn about the woman and her past and how the man came into her life and healed her. I agree with everyone else’s assessment that this is NOT a romance…if you’re looking for romance, skip this. This is a real love story where neither party was perfect but they figured out how to love each other anyway. While the ending was exactly what I thought from page one, it was unexpected how closely it resonated with me.

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Charlotte’s Restrained, The Accidental Stalker by Celia Kennedy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Charlotte works for a demanding boss who runs her ragged. She finds herself on vacation with some good friends, looking for a much needed week of R & R. She would love to meet her favorite movie star who is also vacationing in the same spot, but when she does, through a hilarious turn of events, things get a littlest sticky and she ends up with a restraining order against her. Charlotte seemed adorable and I could relate to her dire need to wear painful shoes so she would be taller. Although she seemed to drink an awful lot and perhaps needed some sort of intervention from her friends except they were all busy drinking way too much too. I enjoyed the relationship between Liam and Charlotte and I think I would have liked Charlotte’s relationships with her friends if there were less of them (it got difficult keeping track of all her friends and their personalities). While the descriptions were very colorful and helped me paint the scenes, the transitions between scenes were a little choppy at times. The writing itself was fresh and comical. Overall, a new and interesting twist on a romance (with unexpected results). I can’t wait to read the next in the series.

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One Red Thread by Ernie Wood

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars. I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. This book took me an extraordinary long time to read, not because it wasn’t well written, simply because it was a difficult novel to grasp. The first several chapters flowed slowly, but jumped around in a sort of jumbled manner; different narrators, disjointed thinking, stories and actions that seemed completely unrelated…it seemed that the author was going somewhere but he hadn’t bothered to inform the reader of where the journey was headed. And that’s ok…I just found it hard to concentrate because of this. And then, here comes the time travel aspect of the novel, completely out of the blue and with absolutely no explanation of WHY it happened. And then the time travel itself occurred in an unexplainable, herky jerky sort of fashion. Once it became clearer how the event in the story were connected (by one red thread), it flowed easier for me and I found it more enjoyable. Although, certain aspects never made sense. Was this time travel ability a phenomenon that everyone in the town had? Where did it come from? And why was Libby able to “stay” and “interact” when nobody else seemed to necessarily do that?
I felt this could have been a phenomenal book, but I was let down by the “please suspend your belief of all that you know to be true” mentality, and the lack of explanation. And finally, the end was quite the let down…made the novel seem almost pointless. However, I must give credit where credit is due. The author’s descriptions and language certainly made the scene and actions easy to visualize. The plot (once I deciphered it) was interesting and held me captive…the delivery however, needed to be a little tighter and less confusing.

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Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this book from a Goodreads Giveaway about six months ago. My only regret is that this book sat around the house for all that time without me having read it.
This book is as perfect a book as I have ever read. I felt like I was on a roller coater of emotion, going through Emmy’s fear, pain and heartbreak alongside her. This book is about choices and how our choices are our own and we cannot blame anyone else for our decisions. Yet, one can’t help but wonder how differently the story would have been had just one character made a different choice. But I guess that’s what fate is, right?

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