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

Deadline by Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown is becoming one of my favorite authors.  I was actually introduced to her through my monster-in-law, Cindy.  After reading one of her books I started my usual process of reading every book by the author, and really enjoyed a lot of them.  She's always good for a strong story line with one or two great twists, and is always a quick read.  Deadline is one of her newest books.

Dawson Scott is a journalist who has covered war, and is suffering from PTSD.  He's known to go after his stories with whatever he has, and do what he needs to in order to get the scoop.  Gary Headly is a FBI agent, who has spent his career chasing Carl Wingert.  Carl and Flora were outlaws that eluded the FBI on many occasions and eventually disappeared.  All of this is connected when a DNA sample comes back that's a partial match for Carl, in a murder case down south.  It turns out a murder victim was the son of Carl, Jeffrey Wesson.  Jeffrey's wife Amelia Nolan is a witness in the case.  Dawson goes down to cover the trial, and ends up integrating his life with Amelia's.  Amelia is staying at a beach house with her two sons, and gets the feeling that she is being followed by someone other than Dawson.  I can't say much more without giving away part of the story, but somehow all this relates and comes together at the end.

One thing I like about Brown's books is they are always predictable, but still good.  You know there is going to be a twist so you're looking for it and if you know her style you can put together a few good guesses.  There's always a love story between the main male and female characters that's steamy enough to be interesting.  You know the good guy will always win.  They're great reads.

Basically if you like a good mystery for a fun relaxed read, this book or any of Sandra Brown's books are going to be great.  Enjoy!

<3, jacq

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson

Everyone knows James Patterson for Alex Cross, Women's Murder Club series, and Michael Bennett.  It was only a matter of time before he came out with a new character.  Meet the Angel family.  A family obsessed with perfection in their children, downplaying their emotions, and maintaining the perfect image.

The Angel kids wake up one morning to find their parents murdered.  The police are called to investigate, and immediately the children are suspects.  The family lives in the famous Dakota building, and security is very tight.  The idea that the children were in the apartment and didn't hear the gruesome murder is already suspicious, but throw on the fact that the children were taught to repress their emotions and they look incredibly guilty.  None of the children seem sad, and they're all matter of fact about the situation.  Tandy, the daughter, is the main character in the book and tells us about her siblings and other people that had ties with their family.  We learn about the mother's job as a hedge fund manager and a pending lawsuit, the father's job running a large pharma company, and how all of that plays into their family life.

Alex Cross, with the WMC coming in a close second, is still my favorite of Patterson's characters.  Probably because most of those books seem to be written by just Patterson, and I think meshing two styles in a book is hard.  I wasn't too impressed with this book when I was reading it, but there was just enough to keep me going.  The ending was very sudden, and completely unexpected!  As someone who often guesses the ending to murder mysteries, I love it when the author can surprise me.  So that moved the book up on my list.

It wasn't until I was reading the setup for the second book in the series that I began to understand.  Like the first book in most series, it's done to set up the characters.  The story line is there, and it's good, but since the story line normally ends in that book the author knows the characters are what bring you back.  In looking at the first book in THAT light, I like it a lot more.  The characters are very interesting, ranging from a young boy that's great at art to the oldest brother who is a Heisman trophy winner and professional athlete.  All with issues stemming from their parents.  Those characters I will enjoy reading about.  And hopefully, since the character set ups are done, the next story line is much more interesting.

<3, jacq

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

LOVED this trilogy.  Such a solid ending too.  If you've read the first two books, the third is almost its own story, it's much different than the first two in terms of setting and characters.  It's also very revealing.

At the end of Insurgent, a video is played that is of Tris' distant relative, telling the people that once there is a high number of Divergents in the population, it's time for them to leave the city and come out into the world.  This is a huge shock, because to these people Chicago is their world, and they had no idea it was part of something bigger.  As it turns out, they were part of an experiment.  There had been a Purity War waged between people that were genetically pure and genetically damaged.  Those that were genetically damaged (fit in the sectors of Dauntless, Candor, etc) were viewed as lesser people.  They were placed into quarantine until their breeding removed those strains and there were Divergent people (fit into all categories, aren't missing certain parts of their genetics).  That quarantine became their world.  Now Tris and her friends are outside the walls waging a new war, trying to prove that there is no such thing as genetically damaged.  Just differences in people.

I can't give away the ending, but it left me with mixed feelings.  I loved the story, and the ending fit the story and made a lot of sense after I thought it over.  But the first reaction was shock and disbelief, which in hindsight, is the sign of a well written book.  I'm sad this trilogy is over because I enjoyed reading it, but the good news is all three books are out!  So if you haven't read the series you can start and not have to wait for the next book to be released.  Waiting between the 2nd and 3rd was pure anxiety, thanks to the cliff hanger in Insurgent.  This was recommended to me as a trilogy similar to The Hunger Games, and I would have to agree.  The strong female lead with the dystopian setting was very reminiscent of The Hunger Games, but it was different enough to keep my attention.  Great series!  The Divergent movie (shot in Chicago of course) comes out on 3.21.2014.  Another reason to start the books!

Side note, I was in Charleston for a friend's wedding over the weekend of Nov 9th, and that is the same weekend as Yallfest in Charleston.  Where all the bookstores host different YA authors.  There are almost 60 authors, book signings everywhere, different events.....basically a book lovers dream.  I didn't have a chance to attend because we were there for the wedding, but on Sunday sitting in the airport, I happen to sit a row away from Veronica Roth and Marie Lu.  AMAZING.  I totally creeped in on their conversation and heard them talk about the different characters and the way they wrote the books.  Kyle was slightly embarrassed while I nerded out, but whatever.  Best day of my life.

<3, jacq

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

I saw this on a list of books to read in your 20s, and I've been trying to read every book on that list.  This came up for checkout on KC Library and I read all their reviews.  They were awful!  Everyone hated the book, characters, writing style, etc.  So I almost didn't check it out.  But I did, and I LOVED it.

The book centers around three girls that just graduated and are navigating life in their twenties.  Isabella seems to be talked about the most, and Lauren and Mary are the other two characters.  They all live in NYC and are young working women, navigating life and love in the city.  They are at the age where they attend a lot of weddings and bridal showers, and are in the dating scene themselves.  Mary is the first to get married and have kids, and Isabella and Lauren help her with the changes.  Isabella is dating Harrison for most of the story, and Lauren starts seeing a guy names Mark seriously at the end.

There's really no plot or storyline to discuss.  It's simply about three girls dealing with life.  Each chapter centers around a mini story or event with one of the girls so you get insight into what their point of view is.  I think for me the best part of the story is seeing how these three stick with each other through college and to their thirties, despite life changes happening all the time.  They also talk just like friends would in real life, making the whole book so completely relatable.  I'm not a 20 something single living in NYC, but I have friends that are and this whole book is so accurate.  People didn't like this book in reviews because of the lack of storyline, and that was what made it to realistic for me.  The talks of dating, trying to find good guys in the city, dealing with low paying jobs, looking for small apartments that will cost you a fortune, and watching all your friends getting married and wondering if you are behind the curve.

**Spoiler alert - The ending was great.  There was no huge event, the girls didn't go off and get married, no super happy ending.  It simply ended.  Then you realize, reading through the book, how much the girls have grown throughout.  Their problems have changed, the bar scene days are over, and they are beginning to really settle down.  It made me realize how the book is really about just growing into your own, which is what the characters do.  And there is no ending in life, only the next chapter.  The girls ended their young, wild, searching days and are entering their adult, calm, settled days.  So to those that felt gypped by the ending, you obviously didn't understand where the author was going.  Or the beauty of a simple story that doesn't need all the crazy ups and downs that are so fictional, but reflects on a normal life.

If you are a 20 something I highly recommend you read this book.  It's entertaining, funny, and just so realistic you will want to befriend these girls.  As soon as I finished, I called a girlfriend and setup a dinner date this week, because the book reminds you of how important those people are in your life.  I may have my man, but I will always need my girls.

<3, jacq