She Sins at Midnight by Whitney Dineen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m not a big romance reader, but I do enjoy the humor of chick lit. I felt like this book was almost mocking romance novels while tapping into the pool of romance readers. That’s what made this book work for me, the humor infused throughout. I really liked the parallel between the “novel” the characters were reading and the characters themselves. I loved that Lila had to hide her true identy, or rather, that she felt she had to hide it. Writers feel extremely exposed when we write…that’s our thoughts poured out on paper, opening us up for criticism and embarrassment. Ms. Dinesen captured that feeling with Lila perfectly. The characters in the fake novel Lila wrote were so exaggerated they made me lol in a few places. I liked the characters (especially Lila’s mother…what a trip!), but I started to feel like maybe there were too many of them and we were privy to too many thoughts at once. It felt a little rushed with everyone’s stories needing to be resolved at the end. I think I would have preferred just Lila’s and Melinda’s POV rather than everyone else. A great debut novel…can’t wait till “She Sins at Noon” ;)

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Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow…just wow. This book was so touching and heartfelt…I haven’t read anything quite like it since “The Obituary Writer”. Kline takes history and truly makes it come alive in this emotional tale of an elderly woman and a young girl drawn together in an unlikely way. She weaves their stories together seamlessly; I found this book difficult to put down. I actually found a line in this book where I felt compelled to take out a highlighter and highlight it because it was so poignant. (I didn’t, of course…it was a library book). “Vivian has come back to the idea that the people who matter in our lives stay with us, haunting our most ordinary moments.” That line resonated so much with me that it brought tears to my eyes. On a personal level, I needed to read that, I needed to feel that right now. Without giving too much away, I highly recommend it.

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A Heat Of The Moment Thing by Maggie Le Page
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Loved Becky’s crazy thinking…lighthearted, fun read. Looking forward to The Trouble With Dying!

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Some Luck by Jane Smiley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is more like 3.5 stars, mainly because the first 100 pages were a tedious bore. While the style of writing that I didn’t like remained the same (too much attention to detail, too many characters’ POVs), the story improved tremendously in the last half of the book. I would be interested in reading the sequel only because the children in this story seem a lot more interesting than Rosanna and Walter were.

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The Love of My Life by Louise Douglas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is always difficult when we lose someone so young. Luca died before his 35th birthday, leaving his widow nothing but memories. His family should have been supportive toward his wife, yet, they are cold and unfeeling. Throughout this novel, told from two time frames, we find out why.
I really enjoyed the way this flowed, flipping back and forth between the past and the present. Olivia’s relationship with Marc was predictable, but an important part of facilitating her healing. The only thing I really didn’t like was the book wasn’t as emotional as I thought it would be. I really thought the subject matter would tug at my heart strings more, but it did not.

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What Would Oprah Do? by Erin Emerson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I give this 4.5 stars. You know what I liked best about this book? There was no “guy”. Other than Christian, of course, but he doesn’t count. This book was about a real girl finding herself without a man swooping in and screwing it up or saving the day. All the books I read lately seem to have that undercurrent of “the girl eventually gets the guy and life is grand while they ride off in the sunset” and it’s annoying. I hate reading that. (For the record, I’ve been happily married for 18 years so I’m not bitter or anything). I want to read about real characters who don’t always get what they want…the happy ending isn’t always the way they envisioned it. This is about figuring yourself out BY YOURSELF and not needing a romantic partner to do that.
I loved the premise of letters to Oprah. And I’m sooooo glad Oprah didn’t show up at the end to save her. Although the ending was a tad bit predictable, it was the best scenario for a happy ending while remaining grounded in reality. Oh, and the letters at the end? I nearly peed my pants. ;)

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The Widow’s Walk by Robert Barclay
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars. I seriously need to stop picking up books because I like their covers. Now I like a nice fantasy every now and again…Time And Again was one of my favorite novels. But this book was borderline ridiculous. First off, like many other reviewers, I guessed the end about 50 pages in. Their love story was completely hokey and unbelievable. Garrett’s parents and his relationship with them was also very fake and artificial feeling. Plus, why would either of the conversations that he had with them cause concern? If my children asked me to interpret a dream or had questions about the afterlife, I certainly would not consider that a cause for alarm. His interactions with them were cookie cutter Leave it to Beaverish. Because of this, I really didn’t care for any of these characters. Still, I was interested in how it would pan out. After they met Brooke with her uncanny knowledge and understanding of the situation, I lost interest in the superfluous overwriting and skipped about twenty pages to the end. Bland and predictable.

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Fools Rush In! An April Fools Day Anthology by Celia Kennedy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found that it was a little difficult to rate an anthology as the stories were different. I’m not a big romantic person; I don’t get caught up in mushy love stories, so I wasn’t sure how I would like a whole bunch of stories with romance in them. I was pleasantly surprised. Overall, they were fun, lighthearted and unique. My favorite was “Fool Me Once”. I thought it was an original twist on a tried and true story. I really would have loved if that one was a full length novel. The others seemed perfect as short stories though, especially “Tom Foolery”, which reminded me of “The Devil Wears Prada” with romance. I really enjoyed the scavenger hunt aspect as I am a lover of scavenger hunts. This is perfect for when you are short on time, but want to sample a lot of different writers’ works.

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