Review: 99 Days of Laney Maguire by Rachel Bateman

Summary
Laney can't wait to spend the summer at her father's lake resort. It's a place where time stands still and nothing ever changes-the perfect thing for Laney after the year she just had. But when she gets there, she discovers the lodge isn't quite as unchanging as she once thought.Some of the differences are good, like Rory's new look; some are bad, like whatever secret Karissa is keeping. And then some things are just confusing, like Weston.

Weston, her mysterious new co-worker, who is the cause of so many of the changes Laney hates. She wants to despise him, but she can't deny the attraction she feels, nor the desire she has to be around the one person who didn't know her before the summer-the one person she doesn't have to pretend for.

Review
From the beautiful cover to the first page, I knew this book was going to be something special and worth reading. I haven't read a book in a while that genuinely grabs you so instantaneously. As you turn the first page, not only does Laney begin her journey but the reader does as well together until the last page.

So, the story begins with Laney heading out to her father's resort for the summer. Grateful to get away from her mother and her "whatever you call him" sort of situation, she finds comfort knowing that at least for the 3 months she could put things behind her to the comfort of spending time with her dad. Even though she only met him a few years ago, there is something about his resort that puts her at ease not to mention spending the summer with her two best friends, Rory and Karissa. Even though on the surface things seemed familiar, this summer would not be the same. 

After reuniting with her friends, she notices a new face, Weston. As they get to know each other, wooed by his good looks and accent, she is completely smitten by him whether she wants to admit it or not. She finds herself thinking of him more than she wants. The more their attraction grows, the harder it becomes to fight what just seems right. Everytime she is around him, it just feels right but so wrong. The more her heart pushes towards him, the more her head struggled pulling her away with the gripping reminder of the day she wish never happened. Haunted unable to hide the scars that she tries to keep hidden, will she be able to finally to break free to let him in?

No matter how great Laney feels about seeing her friends, there was an undeniable difference underlying their familiar facade. Their lives have changed. As the days pass reuniting and enjoying each other's company like any other summer, the closeness that they once shared and the unique characteristics that made them magnetic, seemed different. Trying to figure their way through, noticeable changes begin to surface. Uncovered secrets begin to reveal. Changes in behavior and a break in patterns causes tension that bring up built resentment that have been hidden since they last saw each other. This past year brought some dramatic changes to their lives. When Karissa tried to reach out to her best friend, she wasn't there when she needed her the most. Not that Laney didn't want to be there but something that happened in own her life caused her to shut down and do something that has haunted her ever since. Can these two friends find their way through their painful experiences...

Well, that is just a little bit to get your started but I guarantee you there is more that is worth diving into. This book was one of those books that really absorb you every part of you. From the first page, there is an inviting voice that carries through the book as if you are spending the summer with Laney. As the title suggests, 99 Days of Laney Maguire, each day was captured separately, which made you as a reader follow along as if you were right alongside her. There was this curious anticipation to keep flipping the page because it was one of those stories that you just fall in love with. 

I always say the best authors are the ones who read a lot because they are the ones who are able to capture and define genuine characters and human relationships. Rachel is such a wonderful storyteller who really brings to life these characters in a way that humanizes them and makes them more tangible to the reader. These characters are so defined and you really get them. Even though these characters were young, there was a depth to them through their experiences that made you want to connect with them. You share their journey together through friendship, love and family. It also dealt with a couple of sensitive issues that I felt were handled in a way that translated well to the reader. Overall, I think you will really enjoy this story for its entirety. If you are looking for a book that you really can you sink into, add this to your reading list.

Review by Michelle Bowles

Book Information
Publisher: Metamorphosis Books
Publication date: 10/22/2013
Pages: 322

Review: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Summary
“Allyson Healey’s life is exactly like her suitcase, packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem, a free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: twenty-four hours that will transform Allyson’s life. 

A book about love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the “accidents” of fate, Just One Dayshows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost . . . and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.”

Review
This book gave me a lot to think about yet anytime you write about time and love, you are going to have a lot to think about. Just One Day is about making the most of the time you have with the one you love at that moment because it is always uncertain how much time you truly have. Also, Just One Day is about how love stains us (of course I think imprint is a better word), leaving a mark upon us, that cannot be removed. Although overall, I would say Just One Day is about making time for love today and not waiting for the right opportunity for it to happen or anything for that matter. “Time is fluid” and so should we be. 

“To be, or not to be” is the questioned poised within the first sentence of this novel. Our leading lady, Allyson Healey has deduced that the question from Shakespeare’s Hamlet may not be posing “to be” but rather should have posed “how to be.” That maybe Allyson was supposed “to be” doing something else besides burning in the hot sun with her best friend Melanie, waiting to see the play Hamlet, which she has already seen. And as if sent from above, a shadow looms over her that turns out to a boy. He tells her (and Melanie) of a group called Guerilla Will who are doing Shakespeare and it will be outside and not confined. Performed the way Shakespeare had intended. Intrigued, Allyson decides “not to be” herself and take a chance to be more adventurous. Thus she breaks her good girl routine and sneaks off to see Guerilla Will.

Having had her adventure, it’s time for her and Melanie to leave the Teen Tour! and head off to England to spend the rest of their summer with Melanie’s relatives. Yet on the train to London, Allyson runs into the boy from Guerilla Will and ironically enough his name is Willem. The two hit it off swimmingly, sparks flying everywhere and Allyson never wants it to end. Thus find the train pulls into London, Willem suggest that she actually go to Paris and throw her plans away and he will take her. It just for one day but it is one day she may never have an opportunity to live again and so they head to Paris. 

They get to Paris and it is not quite what she expected but it is still a wonderful place to be in. And it is even nicer with Willem. Until she runs into one of his exes but can Allyson be jealous, she just met him. However, Willem stills seem to charm his way into Allyson’s heart despite the tons of girls they meet along the way. Willem gets her to be free and to stop just “being” and actually begin “how to be.” Even if it is one day, Willem has stained her and Allyson knows she has stained him and they spend one incredible day as well as one incredible night together. Yet in the morning when she wakes up, she is alone and Willem is gone. 

After that summer, school has started and Allyson in a Pre-med major trying to please her parents but she is in such a state of depression, all she does is sleep and lock herself away from life. Her grades are suffering and she is totally miserable. Will she ever get over Willem or is she fated to remain in this heartbroken state? Of course this is the least of her worries. 

Her parents find out about her grades, but still not about her trip to Paris. And now they are watching her every move and Allyson has to lie harder about who she was that day with Willem and who she wants to be now. Not the perfect, Happy College Kid daughter her parents want but the daughter free to actually be happy. Even if Allyson doesn’t know how. And to make matters worse, there is a rift growing between her and Melanie, between the Allyson she is expected to be and the Melanie that has been reinvented, and Allyson doesn’t think she can fix. And she could use a friend right now. 

So on top of getting over Willem, Allyson has to please her parents and remain the same for her best friend and fight who it is she wants to be. Can she continue the charade with her mom and dad; can she, or even does she want to repair her friendship with Melanie; and can she truly be who she wants to be and does she even know who that person is?

See, as I stated, a lot to think about but some very soul searching questions to be considered. And maybe I am changing my tune about the purpose of this novel. Maybe Just One Day isn’t just about time and love but also self discovering. Okay, so I’m adding a theme, which is also on the summary of the book but I hate to write so much summary into the message of the book. It feels like cheating. 

As I was saying, Just One Day is a thought provoking, self discovery novel that begs the questions of: Who are you? Or rather, who do you want to be and “how to be” that person? Also, Just One Day is about time and how it is flowing and it is not structured or rigid; that you must seize the moment because the moment could be gone in the blink of eye. And this book is also about love and how when someone touches you in your heart, they are there to stay and cannot be removed, no matter what.

Reviewed by Camia Rhodes

Book Information
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date: 8/20/2013
Pages: 400

Review: Effed Up by Russ Woody

Summary
He’s a pretty good guy, Robert. Reasonably honest, compassionate, dependable—okay, maybe he’s a little too sarcastic, but all in all, he’s a decent human being. Which is exactly how his fucked-up family takes advantage of him, and why, since college, he’s strived to avoid them.

With the surprising death of his father, however, he finds himself being drawn back into the horrifying familial abyss. At its core is Robert’s mother Helen: she’s the glue that binds them—or rather, the sucking tar pit that entraps them? After her husband’s death, Helen embraces the role of “martyred widow” with the fervor of Mary Todd Lincoln. Robert’s older sister is Darlene—a born-again Christian with a successful husband, two perfect children and an addiction to alcohol, pills and extramarital sex. She believes Robert judges her, and she resents him deeply for it. His brother Lenny, on the other hand, resents Robert because he has a steady income. Ten years Robert’s senior, Lenny is still trying to live out the rock ‘n’ roll dream with his dying band, Pink Lloyd. Plagued by an enormous lack of talent, thinning hair and a hanging gut, at 45, Lenny is wildly bitter about life.

Though his mother is vastly unimpressed with Robert and uncertain what he does exactly for a living, she’s smart enough to realize that he is her only reliable offspring. And she works his sense of humanity like a maestro. To Robert’s perennial chagrin, his mother adores his older brother Lenny, while she remains blithely unaware that he’s a colossal failure. At the same time, she casually lobs damaging asides at her emotionally teetering daughter with the abandon of a troubled kid plucking wings off a fly. But, when all is said and done, Robert knows that beneath the darkness of his mother’s disparaging and stinging remarks… well, there’s a darker side.

Things begin to change for Robert when he meets Amy, the beautiful sister of his gay, overweight, paraplegic neighbor. Amy is an astonishingly independent woman who captures his heart, and makes him realize that he doesn't have to remain the victim of a destructive family. Meanwhile, Robert’s getting to know and care about his sister’s 10-year-old son Danny. During which, he sees that Danny’s childhood is similar to his own—that Robert’s sister is another version of his mother. These revelations—in the midst of his family’s jaw-dropping acts of selfishness—lead Robert to make the most crucial decision of his life.

Review
No one chooses the family that they are born into, but when you see one such as in this book, you wish you had the ability to do so. Completely lives up to the title, it is politically incorrect at times yet you laugh from crying, really takes dysfunctional to a whole new level.  A definite page turner, Russ Woody gives the reader a story that will not only make you laugh from disbelief but also make you grateful for the one that you have.

Told by the perspective of Robert Nirth, you really grow to feel the guy.  He’s the one who seems to be there when things are tough but isn’t really appreciated. A likable character, trying to make it through life, gets brought back into the drama that constantly cycles with his family. Afraid that history might repeat itself, he tries his hardest to separate himself and try to break the influences that keep creeping back into life. 

The main source of his frustration is definitely Helen, his mother, who probably is the root of his problems with women. Runner up to mommy dearest, she seems to constantly center her life on her own needs and wants with no consideration to the feelings of others. Definitely someone that you wish her mouth could be zipped shut, says things that make her so unlikable most of which is insensitive and offensive. 

As you get to know his father, Paul, you feel for him. You know the type who is married to someone who just accepts the doomsday package of this is what marriage is supposed to be like. He just sort has dealt with things without a fight. This was the type of life he lived. His life just seemed empty without an identity. When tragedy struck, it was then that Robert realized how empty his father’s life was. On a search to get to know who he really was, he not only learned about whom he was, how much he adorned and loved him but also gave him a different perspective other than what he had been led to believe. 

Then we have his siblings. Lenny, a wannabe rockstar whose band is a knock off seems too old to be living a life that is going nowhere. Despite being perfect in the eyes of his mother, little does she know the contempt he has as he plots and schemes to find ways to get her money. Then there is Darlene, which really is the apple that didn’t fall to far from the tree. It seems like instead of the cycle being broken, she continued it with her own family. Funny how much she despises her mother, but if she looked into the mirror, there would be a carbon copy. 

There is so much more that you take away from reading this book that I don’t want to spoil for you. Overall, I thought it was a really good story that really makes you think about your family when you read one like this. You really appreciate yours if you have a good one. The characters were definitely interesting making this quite the interesting read. Just to let you know, there are some moments that the characters say things that might offend here or there if you are sensitive to language but otherwise, I think you will enjoy this book. 

Reviewed by Michelle Bowles

Book Information
Publisher: NY Creative Publishing 
Publication date: 12/17/2013
Pages: 183 pages

The "Poor Me" Manual: Perfecting Self Pity - My Own Story by Hunter Lewis

Summary
This book begins with the following author's note:"One crisp sunny morning I was surprised to find a package left at my front door containing this book in manuscript form. Its author included a note saying that his last name was Lewis, that he had seen a book of mine, and that he had decided to adopt my name as his own. In addition, he expected me to publish his (our) book and that the cover should be "nice." I have tried to do as requested."

What follows this note is a rollicking fictional memoir that takes us through the ups and downs of the mysterious author's life. And what a life it is, full to the brim with every imaginable kind of neurotic behavior.

There is method to this madness. In earlier books, including the best-selling A Question of Values and its sequel The Beguiling Serpent, Lewis developed a unique theory of the emotions. The " Poor Me" Manual further develops the theory and brings it to vivid life.

This is fun reading. You will often laugh out loud. But you will also learn a great deal about the emotions and about which emotional strategies work and which don't.

This book would be a great gift for anybody, but especially the teenager in your life.

Review
Not that you should judge a book by its cover, but I had certain expectations of what I thought it would be like. I’m not saying that I didn't like the book but it wasn't what I expected. The impression that I got going into the book was that it was going to be this satirical, tongue and type of a listed themed book. Instead, it was something different.

The book had a great start. Before you dive into the book, the author lets the reader know that a manuscript came as a package one day. Enclosed was a note from a mysterious author explaining that he saw a book of his and adopted his name with the expectation to be published. I thought that was a fascinating idea that sort of grabs the interest of the reader wandering who and what this mysterious author was about.

The book is themed by color years and broken down by phases. He briefly explains during each themed year what was going on and how he was feeling. Each phase seemed to represent a type of personality role.  For whatever phase it was, that defined the role of the type of person he was with a scenario and their consequences. It seems like this person experienced just about every behavior and personality type. I will say within those scenarios it was funny here or there because you cannot believe how or why someone will be that way. 

Overall, it was interesting in the context of what the author was intending on doing but I think for many readers it may leave them uncertain of the direction of the book. Whether you decide this is a book that interests you, I will leave that decision up to you.

Reviewed by Michelle Bowles 

Book Information
Publisher: Axios Press
Publication date: 3/7/2014
Pages: 65

Review: Christmas at Copper Mountain by Jane Porter

Summary
Since the loss of her family in a plane crash, Harley Diekerhoff has led a quiet life and keeps to herself. Taking the temporary job at the Copper Mountain Ranch as widower Brock Sheenan’s housekeeper seems perfect for her. But her calm cocoon is invaded with the arrival of Brock’s pre-teen twins, Mack and Molly who’ve never experienced a proper Christmas and before she knows it, Harley’s determined to make their holiday perfect. 

Annoyed at first by Harley’s interference, Brock is secretly pleased she’s changed Mack and Molly’s world. It doesn’t hurt that he finds Harley incredibly attractive, fierce, smart and passionate. It’s also an added bonus that she’s not afraid to challenge him and get his blood heated! But when sparks fly and the attractions sizzles between them, Harley’s not so sure she can handle something permanent with this dark, taciturn cowboy who doesn’t know how to let her in. But Brock is determined to hold on to her and praying for a Christmas miracle…

Review
Have you ever had one of the moments that seemed so surreal that fate marked your destiny? Well, if you are open to the possibility that there is a plan for our lives and what is meant to be will happen when it is supposed to, than the right time will come on schedule. Well, that time came for two people in this heart pulling novella that will make your heart swoon while grabbing for the Kleenex. 

Life for Harley Diekerhoff has been full of solitude since the loss of her husband and children in a terrible accident. Not wanting to spend the holiday around her family, she sought out a temporary job for a couple of months in a place that seemed unfamiliar home. She didn’t want to think or wasn’t going to let the past absorb her in this place where she could completely escape. Taking a job as a housekeeper was the perfect thing to keep her mind focused and considering the beautiful winter surroundings of Montana, it was the perfect escape to make peaceful new memories. 

Her boss, Brock Sheenan, is all too familiar with loss. Spending his days here in on here ranch has brought comfort and healing to a life of what was.  Things started to change when Harley arrived on the ranch. There was something that couldn’t be explained but was a welcomed surprised for his life and his workers. Not expecting her to be so beautiful, there was something special about her that made her seemed like she belonged there. Even though Harley was only there for a short time, her presence was making an unexpected impression. Feeling at home and more comfortable than she had been, Harley was finally enjoying some happiness until one day everything came crashing down. This led her to make a decision that might cost her more than she anticipated.

When Brock’s two children unexpectantly arrived one evening, it brought back everything that Harley was trying to not think about. Trying to work through her pain, spending time with his kids was a blessing and a curse simultaneously. Determined to make the best out the situation, the kids told her how much they wished for but never experienced a real Christmas. Determined to make it as wonderful as possible, that wasn’t the only the only wish that was in the hopes of becoming true.

This was one of those books that your mind just simmers through to the end. It was cozy, warm and just had the right pace to keep you interested. Everything about this book makes you feel so good that you didn’t want to put it down. It’s one of those stories that make you believe the impossible, especially if you have ever experience loss and never thought you could love again. Harley and Brock stories individually really make you fall in love with them.

What I love is how the author told the story in a way that didn’t give you too much and when it came down to their story, there was a tenderness to it that connected to the reader. They made you feel for them. This is not just a warm story for the holidays but that anyone can appreciate and read anytime.

Harley is the type that just like almost every woman I know. When you experience loss or tragedy, all you want to do is throw yourself into whatever will take your mind away. She has a tough exterior that on the outside is in control but inside is soft and compassionate whose got such a big heart. Brock, is one of those big, strong men that just make you swoon. Not Magic Mike but that rugged, dreamy take charge sort of guy that you just want to melt right into his arms. He has overtime retreated inward but deep down in that closed heart there is this compassionate guy that would give himself to any woman who would take the chance.  

This novella has all the sweetest you could want for the holidays. It’s a story about hope, miracles, love and finding that path that will make your heart open and smile. Make sure you grab a box of Kleenex because this is definitely going to make you tear up. This is definitely one to add to your reading list.

Review by Michelle Bowles

Publisher: The Tule Publishing Group
Publication date: 11/29/13
Pages: 119 pages

Review: Compromise Cake: Lessons Learned from my Mother's Recipe Box by Nancy Spiller

Summary
When Nancy Spiller discovered her late mother’s teaching credential buried in the midst of a long abandoned recipe box, she felt compelled to investigate the lingering mysteries of this troubled woman. Marguerite Lenore Soult had taught for only one year before marrying, having four children and a life surrendered to mental illness, divorce and social withdrawal. Spiller realized that she had probably been her mother’s best and only student in the kitchen they had shared.Compromise Cake explores Spiller’s life in the suburbs of Northern California in the 1960s, learning to cook by her challenging mother’s side, as remembered through the recipe box’s mid-century and heirloom offerings. It touches on lineage, and industrial changes; it is a meditation on men, women, marriage, community and the nature of compromise.

What emerges is a portrait of a woman whose own desires for a career were tragically stifled by the conventional pressures to be a wife and mother, but found expression through her daughter, an author, artist and teacher. This is a memoir that weds Spiller’s story to the universal of all mothers and daughters, and what, as they say, is baked into the cake.

Review
No matter who you are, everyone has a story. For the ones whose voices seem silent, it usually takes the end of their life for their story to be told. For so many mothers and daughters, the kitchen has been the blank canvas which the greatest masterpieces have been created. Memories made, traditions passed along, and lessons of life sifted together to form the perfect ingredients. Through such a beautiful memoir, Nancy Spiller takes the reader on a journey through her mother’s old recipe box to recreate the memories of their lives and ones created through their lineages that will inspire nostalgia for so many who have shared the same connection.

What was so special about this book was that from the beginning, you are invited in the kitchen for this shared journey. It is all too often that once a loved one passes that we come upon something that intrigues us about their life to learn more or drifts our mind to remember when. For so many like her mother who represent a time when the pressures of being a wife and mother dominated their own desires, it was the kitchen where they poured their hearts into. As for so many, the recipe box was much more than just a box with recipes in it. It represented the special moments no matter what life was like beyond those four walls the greatest memories and the best lessons our life were learned. 

Whether this book represents her life or yours, the sentimental nostalgia is interchangeable. It’s books like this that make you want to go back in time and remember the familiar aromas of the simple but special times that brought the best out of life.  This book not only was just filled with her story but we learned about the times that it represented as well as experiencing with her recreate those recipes as if her mother was beside her. Each chapter featured a dish that gave the reader new ingredients of her life that were made. The recipes that made the box weren't just her mother’s but other relatives and friends that were part of their journey as well. Since I consider myself somewhat of a foodie, I greatly appreciated the recipes and their origins. It gave a special touch to the book as well as some new additions to my recipe collection. I would add this book to your list. I think you will enjoy reading.

Reviewed by Michelle Bowles

Book Information
Publisher: Counterpoint Press
Publication date: 11/12/2013
Pages: 160