A Little Change of Face by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The premise of this book intrigued me, self proclaimed “swan” transforming into “ugly duckling”. That being said, the way the author went about setting it up seemed to drag on forever and was kind of boring. And very conceited. I was really tired of Scarlett talking about her great body and “spectacular” breasts somewhere around page 5. And the way she was forced into the change by Pam was very disturbing. Like, helllooooooo, Pam acted like she was Scarlett’s agent or something. An actually line in the book when she “goes back” to being beautiful (as if it is that simple): “You didn’t discuss it with me.” Really??? If I was Scarlett I would have popped her in the mouth right then and there.
It also annoyed me that the book was so simplistic and unrealistic…like someone would just change jobs because her “best friend” wanted her to be frumpier. And Sarah’s mother would just let a stranger take her daughter shopping. Um, ok…no. And that they guy who liked her “just the way she was” just happened to be gorgeous and rich. I realize it’s light reading but come on, can we have some basis in reality? It seemed more like a YA novel rather than one about a 39 year old woman. I’m 39….Scarlett was more like a high school kid than one of my contemporaries.
A generally interesting story idea but fell a little flat in execution.

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Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Joshilyn Jackson has quickly become one of my favorite writers…her unique writing style and unexpected twists to the underlying mystery of the novel have been strong selling points for me. I picked up this earlier work of hers, excited about the premise of a deaf/blind woman (being hearing impaired myself). Unfortunately, Between, Georgia didn’t seem to include all of Jackson’s usual writing elements and these characters didn’t have the usual draw to them as they usually do. I really didn’t particularly like Nonny so it’s difficult to get into a book when you’re not a fan of the protagonist. Plus, I felt her relationship with Henry came out of nowhere…there didn’t seem to be any build to it; he was introduced halfway through the book and then it was like, ‘oh yeah, he’s in love with her’.
There really was no mystery or surprising moment in this book which was a huge let down. Jackson’s writing style, which I usually find fresh, seemed lacking and drawn out in this novel. I’m glad that her later novels are MUCH better; she has definitely improved over the years.

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The Bone Bed by Patricia Cornwell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The cover of this novel has the phrase “A Scarpetta Novel” on it. After reading it, I’m certain that phrase is French for “A series that should have ended ten books ago”. When I discovered Patricia Cornwell back in 1999, she had only written a handful of novels at the time, some about Kay Scarpetta, some not. I found myself devouring her works quickly, fascinated by her knowledge of so many subjects and the mystery and detective portion of the novels always connected in the most obscure and unexpected ways.
As I read this, her 20th Kay Scarpetta novel, I wondered what happened to the Patricia Cornwell of yesteryear. I found myself make notes on Goodreads, something I only tend to do when I really dislike a book and I am forcing myself to finish it. I find that writing notes helps me articulate where the writer went astray…not that I am thinking Cornwell is reading MY review, but if she were to read it, she would know where she lost a loyal reader.
About a fourth of the way through the novel, I wrote this: “Ok we get it. You’re really smart and you know a lot about crap the rest of us have no clue about. You’re brilliant. Kay is brilliant. Please stop filling your books with intricate descriptions of helicopters and computers and other things that the rest of us mere mortals cannot comprehend. My eyes are starting to glaze over and I find myself skipping entire pages.”
Yes, I skipped a lot of pages to get to the actual mystery. I thought Kay (and Cornwell) were getting damn preachy about subjects like animal rights. Did we really need twelve pages devoted to a description of a turtle? And Kay sounds very condescending and sanctimonious all the damn time when she’s talking to people who are supposed to be experts in their field but Kay is so quick to butt in with her useless wealth of knowledge.
I felt like the first 200 or so pages were filled with unimportant fluff just to make the novel longer and show us how intelligent the writer actually is. So when I got to the meat of the novel, I wrote this:
“At the same time that she’s over explaining things, I find she has knowledge of events that she has either not shared with readers or she has only touched on briefly. I’m finding this book very confusing and disjointed. I’m also unhappy about the picture she is painting about people with tattoos (they are not to be trusted and will regret their body art). Oh and EVERYONE is hot for her and Benton. Let me tell you sister, unless you look like Cindy Crawford or Heather Locklear, no guys in their thirties are drooling over Kay Scarpetta’s geriatric ass. And God, who has time to make a fresh frittata in the morning after having sex with her husband three times??? (And he doesn’t even stop to take a Viagra because in their sixties, their both SOOOOO hot). I wanna live on Scarpetta’s time because she apparently has twice as long to get stuff done in twenty four hours than any of the rest of us can.”
When I finally finished this God awful book, I was awaiting for it all to make sense. Maybe I was delirious or something at that point in time because the murders STILL seemed random and unrelated! On one hand you have Benton saying this guy is “killing his mother” repeatedly and then only one of the murders actually plays out that way. The other murders seemed completely different and random and pointless. Nothing gave the reader ANY insight into who the killer would be because the investigators didn’t even know and the only reason the murder was caught was because Kay was stupid and got kidnapped AGAIN (I really hope she has kidnapping insurance because this is what, the twentieth time she’s been kidnapped????).
Highly unrealistic and disappointing book. The only reason it’s getting 2 stars from me is because I can’t give it a half a star and it was not the worst book I’ve ever read. Patricia Cornwell, do your fans a favor and read your earlier novels…go back to that formula. If you MUST write another Scarpetta debacle, please kill off Kay, Benton, Marino, and Lucy and start fresh with a less dysfunctional crowd.

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The Good Sister by Drusilla Campbell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is a taboo in this world when it comes to postpartum depression…it’s a hush hush subject, even though a large portion of women suffer from it. It boggles my mind that women lie to their fellow women about the weeks and months and sometimes years that follow having a baby. Maybe they think they will scare them so much that they won’t even have kids. Who knows. In my experience, it’s not all roses and daisies; the thoughts racing through your head while you hear your newborn scream for the umpteenth time in the middle of the night are straight out of a horror movie.
I thought this novel was excellently written…I really felt Simone’s pain and Roxanne’s need to save her sister and Johnny’s helplessness. Even though all the characters did horrible things in this novel (except Roxanne and Merell really), you couldn’t help,but feel for them. While I understand that the flashbacks to the earlier lives of the other women were necessary to the story, I found them confusing and think they could have been limited to Roxanne’s POV and would have been just as effective. I really didn’t understand why Ellen’s dad leaving made her the way see was so it seemed unnecessary.
My favorite quote from the novel was “Dr. Lenox once said that having a sister was what made having a mother bearable”. The novel really showed how true that was…the true nature of damaged mother/daughter relationships and how they can destroy you if you don’t have an anchor and a purpose.

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The End of Always by Randi Davenport
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While this was obviously well written, I found his novel to be very dry and fairly uninteresting. The dialogue was bland and I really didn’t connect with any of the characters. August’s change of character seemed a little too convenient and came out of nowhere. I don’t want to discredit this book because it involved a lot of research and emotion to write, but it definitely was not for me.

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