Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Jojo Moyes is a UK author that's stayed under the radar for the most part in the US.  Which is a shame, because she is truly incredible.  Every story she writes pulls at your heart (think a mature Nicholas Sparks) and makes you really think about love and life.

Louisa Clark is a 26 year old woman who lives at home with her parents, works at a bakery, and has been dating her boyfriend Patrick for 7 years.  She leads an overall very ordinary life.  Her family is having a hard time financially and she provides for them, making her paycheck very important.  Her dad has been out of work, her mom is a homemaker, her Grandad lives with them, and her sister Katrina with her son Thomas also live there.  One day she finds out the owner of her bakery is closing his doors and moving to Australia, putting her out of a job.  She looks for work and gets hired as a caretaker for Will Traynor, a quadriplegic who is confined to a wheelchair.  Her work contract is for 6 months, and she essentially just keeps him company as Nathan, another caretaker, handles all of his medical needs.  Will is deeply drawn into himself and very depressed, and she works hard to get him out of his shell.  The story follows them as their very different lives start to become completely intertwined.

I can't say much about the story without giving it away, but I will say about 50% of the way through everything changes.  The reader (and Louisa) find out a piece of information that changes everything, and from that point on it's almost impossible to put down.  The book itself is intended for more mature audiences, as it deals with a lot of tough issues.  Suicide, love, family, and the search for happiness drives this entire book.  It does have a love story that pulls you in, but unlike Nicholas Sparks it's not a PG type story.  I would venture to say, however, that I prefer Jojo Moyes to Nicholas Sparks (I know, blasphemy).  Her writing is just incredible, and she keeps you guessing until LITERALLY the very last page.  I highly recommend this book, it's the BEST book I've read in months.

<3, jacq

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This book has received a LOT of attention from movie buffs and readers alike.  It was top of the New York Time's Bestseller list for weeks and was turned into a movie very quickly.  I was recommended the story by multiple friends, and I've always been interested in Holocaust books, so I checked it out from the library immediately.

The story is about a girl named Liesel, who is adopted by a family outside of Munich, Germany during WWII.  Her Papa is a painter that plays the accordion, and her Mama does washing for the wealthier people in town.  Liesel had stolen a book before she got to their house, and her Papa starts to teach her to read.  Meanwhile, the son of an old friend shows up at their door.  He is a Jew, and he needs a place to hide.  Liesel is busy with school and the Young Hitler club that all children are required to be a part of.  Her best friend is her next door neighbor, Rudy.  He is constantly trying to get her to kiss him, and is famous for painting himself black and running through the town as Jesse Owens.  Death follows them as they make their way through WWII.

The first thing to catch you off guard about the story is the narrator.  The entire story is narrated by Death.  Not only does this give an ominous air to the entire book, but allows you to see things through a completely different perspective.  He is often busy and goes to war zones to collect souls, but he has taken an interest in the book thief (Liesel) and follows her around as well.  He also says things that catch you off guard when talking about people, like "I came for his soul just a few months later" or "I wouldn't collect her soul for years."  At one point in reading the book, you know the fate of many of the characters and you're just waiting for it to happen.  It really pulls you in and makes it hard to stop reading.

I think the movie is going to be great.  The story was great.  One thing that people may not like is the honesty of the story.  This takes place during war time in Germany, so it's not your typical happy ending, everyone gets their way type book.   It's fiction, but the fate of the characters and the lives they lead lend a very non fiction feel to the whole story.  It's not hard to imagine real streets in Germany following the same plot as this story.  While that may deter some people, it certainly adds to the story and keeps your attention.

<3, jacq

Keeper of the Bride by Tess Gerritsen

I've always been a big Tess Gerritsen fan.  This is a book from her early days in her transition to mystery.  She previously wrote romance, and you can see that in her early mystery books.

The story starts with Nina at a church.  It's her wedding day, and she's all dressed to walk down the aisle.  Everything goes wrong though when she is handed a note from her fiance saying "Sorry, I need some time to think."  Naturally she's a mess when she realizes she's been left at the alter.  Everyone leaves and the priest is taking her home when the church explodes.  Sam, the detective from the bomb squad, is the lead investigator.  It doesn't take them long to realize that the bomb was meant to kill Nina, and she's in danger.  Her family isn't much help due to all the strained relations between them, so it falls to Sam to keep her safe.  At the same time, he's trying to figure out who wants her dead, and why these bombs have an identical signature to earlier crimes.

Once the story started it moved at a fast pace, and there were plot twists every few pages.  It definitely keeps the reader interested.  There are really 2 story lines to this book.  The first and more prevalent romantic story line is between Nina and Sam.  Nina starts to fall for Sam, but he pushes her away since he's afraid she just has "white knight" syndrome.  The second story line involves the bombings.  The bomb signature matches that of a previous bomber that's assumed dead.  The detectives work on trying to find out if there's an apprentice, and what the identical bombs mean for Nina.

The book was the high action you expect from Tess Gerritsen, but it definitely had a touch more romance than her more recent books.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, I actually thought it brought more to the story.  But if you're reading this expecting a Rizzoli & Isles type book, you'll be left wanting.  If you are a Sandra Brown fan on the other hand, this is right up your alley.

<3, jacq

Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson

This book was recommended to me by my friend Danielle, and we always have similar reading tastes.  Then I heard it was being made into a movie this year so I had to read it!

Christine wakes up every morning not remembering where she is.  She was in a traumatic accident and her memory no longer works properly.  Sometimes she wakes up as a teenager, sometimes she wakes up as an adult.  She doesn't remember her husband Ben anymore, so he spends every morning explaining the situation to her.  But she can't store any memories so the slate is wiped clean every night.  She discovers a journal she's been writing in at the request of a neuro doctor, and one morning she finds a horrifying note.  All it says is "Don't trust Ben" in her journal, in her handwriting.  She journals every day and tries to get to the bottom of this note, what she meant, and why she should be scared of the man that's taking care of her.

I can see why this book is being made into a movie.  Great plot, plenty of twists, and very suspenseful.  The book moved slowly in some parts which was frustrating, but since the movie tends to shorten the book anyway I think it could be a great adaptation.  In the book, Christine works with Dr. Nash (against Ben's approval) while Ben is at work.  They work on memories, dreams she has, how to help her brain retain memories.  Reading from Christine's point of view is fascinating, because everything is new to her.  Cell phones, television, really any source of modern technology.  Basically, a large child is left every day at home while Ben goes to work.  The premise of the story was great.

Also, the way the story is told was interesting.  In Part 1, Christine wakes up and discovers she's older than she remembers, and can't remember the man next to her in bed.  We learn of the memory lapse, and the accident.  Ben says it's their anniversary and they're going away that weekend, so she needs to pack while she's at work.  Once he leaves, she discovers her journal.  Part 2 is Christine reading the journal.  That's where 80% of the story lies, going through the events of the journal and all the memories/interactions she's had.  Part 3 is Ben coming home and them leaving to go on their anniversary trip.  While you're reading part 2 it's hard to remember (ironically) that this is from a journal and it's not real time.  So when part 3 comes and you realize this reading all took place in one day and they are about to leave, it's a jolt back to the present.  Overall a great book, I highly recommend you read it before the movie comes out!!

<3, jacq

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

This book was recommended to me by a LOT of people, so I was pretty excited to read it.  People even compared it to "Gone Girl" which was, in my opinion, amazing.

The Silent Wife is the story of Jodi and Todd.  They've been together 20 years but they're not married.  She is a part time psychologist and he is a real estate developer, and they live a high end life style in Chicago.  He is a serial cheater, while she lives in denial.  She knows he's cheating, but she rationalizes it away and believes that they will always be together.  Meanwhile, the way he talks about her, he loves her and she really could be his one true love, but he is addicted to the passion/lust of new relationships.  Well, he ends up getting his mistress, Natasha, pregnant.  Which is a problem because 1 - Natasha wants him to marry her and 2 - she is the daughter of his best friend Dean.  Todd decides to leave Jodi, but tells himself it's for the better.  Meanwhile, Jodi is being evicted (since they were never married and Todd owns the condo) but tells herself he will come to his sense.  It's all a crazy, twisted love story.

I've got to be honest, I don't understand the hype of this book.  It's interesting in that Todd really doesn't see what he's doing wrong, and Jodi really does live in denial of everything that's happening to her, but I felt like much of the story was just slow.  Basically Todd obsessing about women and Jodi telling herself nothing will change.  I felt like the story was leading up to the end, which was interesting.  The last 15% of the book moved quickly and pulled me in, but it was a struggle to get there.  I can't say much without giving the ending away, but Jodi ends the story still being in denial.  She's obviously mental.

The book's redeeming quality was the way it was written.  In order to really get us into the characters, it was written from his/her points of view.  Certain chapters were dedicated to Jodi, while certain chapters were dedicated to Todd.  I liked this because it gave you better access into the characters minds, and you could sit back and compare them along side each other after you read about the same incident from their opposing viewpoints.  I wouldn't go as far as to say I didn't like the book, but it's not one I'll be recommending to others.

<3, jacq

Confessions: The Private School Murders by James Patterson

This is the second book in the Confessions series starring the Angel family.  To me this book was a lot more interesting than the first, and picked up where the first left off.  With the oldest Angel, Matthew, on trial for the murder of his girlfriend Tamara Gee.

The Angel family is back in the spotlight as Matthew goes on trial for Tamara's murder.  He was drunk and can't honestly remember whether or not he did it, and the prosecution is using his anger as their main argument.  Tamara had recently gone on television and stated that she was pregnant and the baby belonged to Malcolm Angel, Matthew's father, with whom she was having an affair.  Matthew was of course angry, but the prosecution believes he was angry enough to kill.  Meanwhile, girls that attend private schools are being murdered.  Angel and her friend CP are trying to solve the case, and being girls that attend private schools themselves, not get murdered in the process.  On top of that, there are weird, dangerous creatures showing up in the Dakota (the building where they live) and their Uncle Peter has sent a man named Jacob to watch over them and live with them.  Throw on top off that the fact that Angel is beginning to remember the past that her parents put her in treatment to block, and realizes that before her parents intervened, she was in love.

My complaint with the first book was that Patterson was spending so much time on character development that there was hardly a story.  In this book however, there were multiple stories, all of which were interesting and suspenseful.  I now appreciate the first book more because even though the story wasn't as strong, the character setup was and that played into this novel very well.  Normally I don't like stories with too many plot lines (see my post on Inferno by Dan Brown), but in this book they all tied together nicely and I enjoyed it.  Also, knowing the characters and their constant need for perfection, expect nothing less than for them to have 100 things going on at once.  I also really liked the ending, it finally made some peace for the Angel family while setting up what could be the third book.  I hope Patterson writes the next novel soon!

<3, jacq

Touch & Go by Lisa Gardner

Lisa Gardner is one of my favorite authors.  Her books always pull me in and move really quickly, so you read 450 pages and don't even realize how long it's been.  This one involves a wealthy family, kidnapping, drug abuse, corporate scandal, and a lot of suspense.

The Denbe family has been abducted.  Justin Denbe, the father, owns Denbe Construction which is a $100 million dollar company.  Their family is very wealthy and lives in a nice area of Boston.  The kidnappers took all 3 family members, Justin, his wife Libby, and his daughter Ashlyn.  The police, FBI, and a private investigator hired by Denbe Construction are all on the case.  The family was is taken by 3 captors, and held at a prison that Denbe built but never went operational in the middle of the woods.  They have kidnapping insurance, so the FBI is waiting for the ransom call.  Meanwhile the family is dealing with the 3 captors who are obviously professionals.  In digging into the family, they find that the husband has been cheating and the wife is addicted to pain killers.  So the family isn't as perfect as it seems.  Add into that the problems the company is facing (Justin hasn't pulled a salary in 16 months) and the list of people there that could benefit from Justin's death and it all starts to get interesting.  There is also embezzlement going on within the company, and the authorities are trying to determine whether that's a separate or related incident.

I can't say much more without giving things away, but there is a lot that makes this story interesting.  Gardner always has multiple twists, and spreads them throughout the book.  It keeps the reading going because as soon as you think you have something figured out, a plot twist occurs and you're sucked back into the story to try to determine what's going on.  At the heart of the story is the Denbe family.  The mother has been abusing pain killers since she learned of the affair, the father feels guilty and is trying to repair the family, and the daughter is feeling ignored and has the typical 15 year old teen angst.  So while you are reading about the FBI trying to solve the crime, you're also rooting for this family to get their lives back together.  The fact that the story had an emotional pull as well as suspense made it even better.  I highly recommend it, as well as any other Lisa Gardner book!

<3, jacq