Splintered Souls By Erica Lucke Dean

Splintered Souls

By Erica Lucke Dean

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Published September 22, 2015 by Red Adept Publishing, LLC

When Ava Flynn walks away from a scholarship to Georgetown and moves into her grandmother’s abandoned summer home in coastal Maine, she steps into the center of a centuries-old curse. On her first night, she notices a mysterious leather-clad stranger looking up at her third-story window. For weeks, everywhere she goes, Ava catches more glimpses of him, but she can never get close enough to find out who he is. 

Over three hundred years ago, Lady Catherine Fairchild risked everything to protect her unborn child, sending a ripple through time that would change Ava’s future. As the mystery unravels, the horrifying consequences of Lady Catherine’s choices drag Ava deeper into a world she never knew existed, trapping her in a conflict that’s been raging since before she was born. A winner-take-all battle for her soul.

My Thoughts…

Wow… this is the first book in the Twin Flames series by Erica Lucke Dean and I already am in need of book 2.    Ava, Maddox, and Laith are amazing characters.   They are all teenagers and are trying to live their lives as college students.   Unfortunately the curse (or blessing) is making that difficult.  

I loved watching the relationships between Ava and the boys.   Erica kept me guessing on which twin is the good guy and which is the bad.  At this point I am not sure that either of them are good.  They both have their own agendas and are not shy about what they want in the end.    I do want to believe that they both just want the best for Ava, I am hoping that they are not as evil as they could be.    

While the time traveling part could be tough to grasp for some, I loved it.     I loved the idea that the twins are from a century long long ago and are still trying to find their soul mate.    The idea that a soul mate even exists is wonderful.  I truly believe that I have found mine.      I would love more history, more of what they experiences in those other times.  

If you love teenage romance check this book out.    I cannot wait for more of Ava’s story.    

Book Links

Amazon   |   Goodreads

Author Bio:

After walking away from her career as a business banker to pursue writing full-time, Erica Lucke Dean moved from the hustle and bustle of the big city to a small tourist town in the North Georgia Mountains, where she lives in a 90-year-old haunted farmhouse with her workaholic husband, her 180lb lap dog, and at least one ghost. When she’s not writing or tending to her collection of crazy chickens and diabolical ducks, she’s either reading bad fan fiction or singing karaoke in the local pub. Much like the main character in her newest book, To Katie With Love, Erica is a magnet for disaster, and has been known to trip on air while walking across flat surfaces. How she’s managed to survive this long is one of life’s great mysteries.

Links:

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1WfQyFU

Red Adept Page: http://bit.ly/RAPSplinSouls 

Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1Jvxoq4

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericaluckedean

As of December 1, 2009, According to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC),  product reviewers on blogs must disclose whether they received products for free or received payment for their review.

 The books I review on this site ( A Soccer Mom's Book Blog) are sent to us by publishers, authors or downloaded from Netgalley. .This is a very common practice.  I never take payments for these reviews and all the reviews on this site are our own thoughts and feelings and are not influenced.

Another Woman’s Daughter by Fiona Sussman

Published October 6, 2015 by Berkley

Celia Mphephu knows her place in the world. A black servant working in the white suburbs of 1960s Johannesburg, she’s all too aware of her limitations. Nonetheless, she has found herself a comfortable corner: She has a job, can support her faraway family, and is raising her youngest child, Miriam.

But as racial tensions explode, Celia’s world shifts. Her employers decide to flee the political turmoil and move to England—and they ask to adopt Miriam and take her with them. Devastated at the prospect of losing her only daughter, yet unable to deny her child a safer and more promising future, Celia agrees, forever defining both their futures.

As Celia fights against the shattering violence of her time, Miriam battles the quiet racism of England, struggling to find her place in a land to which she doesn’t belong—until the call of her heritage inexorably draws her back to Africa to discover the truth behind her mother’s choices and uncover a heartbreaking secret from long ago…

My Thoughts…

Africa during the apartheid is not an easy era nor is it an era I am overly familiar with.    Yet, I could picture myself living in the house with the maids and servants.    With the discrimination so prevalent in that part of the world that is has become the everyday norm.    I could picture the everyday life of Celia and that of her masters.    Yet, I could not picture sending away your daughter to live in a world you know so little about and that is so far away.    That is what Celia does.   I understood that she did it for the better of Miriam.   So that she could be safe and not have to live in the world Celia does.  

While I think Michael and Rita had Miriam’s best interests at heart, I feel like they ripped her life apart and were incredibly selfish.   They wanted what they couldn’t have, a daughter, and took advantage of a situation to get it.    Then Rita was horrible.    I could not help but dislike that lady.   As a madam, as a mom, and as a wife there was nothing good in her.      Michael on the other hand tried.   He wanted to be a good dad, master, and husband but did not have the right tools to accomplish it all.   I think by the end of the story he realized that he had things that had to be done and said to make up for the mistakes he made.   

The person I felt most for was Celia.   I cannot imagine the life she was forced to live.   Not the working part, everyone should have a job.    The part of sending her children away once they reach a certain age to live with their grandmother, the fact that her husband and her could not see each other due to their jobs and it seemed that her husband was a deadbeat anyways, and the fact that she knew that she could not give her children the type of life they deserved.      I know that it was the era, the timeframe, the way of life, but it was still hard to read.   I wanted to make a difference, to show her that someone really did care.  

This is a great story that brings to light the hardships that the colored people in South Africa had to live through.    While it is fiction there has to be truth in it.      It is not an easy story to tell or hear about yet it was so enthralling that I read it in one sitting not able to put it down.    I recommend getting a copy of Another Woman’s Daughter as soon as you can.   

Book Links

Amazon   |   Barnes and Noble   |   Goodreads

Exiled: A Lunar Falls Novella by Lashell Collins

Published October 18, 2015

Shame and dishonor are all that Zach Mason knows now. Exiled from his pack for one incredibly stupid decision – conspiracy to overthrow the GrandAlpha – he now lives a solitary existence, desperately longing for a life he can no longer have. But when the winds of fate blow him into the path of the beautiful and alluring Sarah Masters, someone he never expected to see again let alone take as his mate, Zach begins to wonder if maybe home is wherever the heart is. At any rate, he knows that he'll follow her anywhere. Even back to the home he was exiled from upon the threat of death.

The song says you can always go home, but Sarah Masters knows better. Sometimes home is simply not an option anymore, not when the only things there for you are humiliation and disgrace. But the longer she stays away the more homesick she gets, and when Zach Mason shows up in the last place she ever expected him to be, reminding her what love really looks like, Sarah knows that home is exactly where she needs to go in order to make things right. Even though her cousin, the GrandAlpha over the five packs, has vowed to kill her new mate if he ever sees him again.

My Thoughts…

I am invested in the Lunar Falls Pack.   The other books in this series included the stories of my friends.     When I picked up this novella I was unsure how I would like a short story about people who I look forward to reading more about, but I LOVED this novella.    It reminded me of how grand the GrandAlpha, Gabe, is.   It reminded me how loving the families are.   It reminded me how wolves are pack animals, not loners.    

Zach did his pack wrong.   Sarah was devastated that her father and her brother both did the pack wrong.   This of course brought them together, although it was not intentional.      The heat was burning hot, the attraction was immediate, and their coming together was exactly perfect.     

This is definitely a book that you need to read the rest of the series before picking it up.   There is a need to understand the rules and the why’s of the pack.     But it is so worth it.   This entire series is wonderful. 

Book Links

Amazon   |   Amazon UK

We Had A Job To Do: World War II Through The Eyes of Those Who Served by Theresa Anzaldua & GIVEAWAY

Published June 23, 2015

This heartfelt tribute to World War II veterans is history that reads like fiction.

Follow a soldier who fought in Patton’s Third Army and who landed on Omaha Beach at 9 a.m. on D-Day; a female Army Air Forces nurse who made helping veterans her life’s work; a fighter pilot who flew with the African-American unit known as the Tuskegee Airmen and who was on one of the teams that won the first Top Gun meet after the war; a guard in a top-secret intelligence base outside of Washington, D.C. where top German weapons scientists were interrogated; a female aircraft mechanic who served in the Navy and is still active in veterans affairs seventy years later; a gunner on a B-17 heavy bomber who was shot down and spent fourteen months in German prison camps; an airman in General Curtis LeMay’s 20th Air Force, the unit that dropped the atomic bombs, and more.

Get to know some of the patriots who served in World War II.

My Thoughts…

I have always been interested in World War II.  It is the era of my grandparents and my grandfather was part of D-Day.   This is a great story.   The first hand stories told by the people who experienced it came across as more fiction than non-fiction.   What I mean by that is that you are not just reading a book of facts.   There are stories, true stories, but stories all the same that read like a fiction book.    As I finished each chapter I looked back at what that chapter was about and was amazed at all that I had learned.     I am sure that it was hard for many of these soldiers to share the horrors, the defeats, and the successes that they had while fighting for our country yet because they did more people will be educated as to what happen in World War II.   

Each chapter is another person’s story.   While each chapter does not hinge on the chapter before it or the chapter following the flow of the story was magnificent.    It was easy to think okay, 1 more chapter and then end of reading 3 or 4 more.    Some of the locations were repeated but the stories were never repeated.     I really enjoyed how at the end of the book each person’s story was tied up.   You learned what became of the soldier and what awards they were given.   

If you are a history buff or just want more knowledge of WWII this is definitely the book for you.   I recommend it. 

Buy the book:    Amazon

Author's Bio:

The author is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, B.A. (English Literature and Philosophy) and M.A. (Philosophy) and Harvard Law School, J.D. Her mother served in World War II in the U.S. Army, her father served in the U.S. Navy, her maternal uncle served in the war in the British Marines Commandos and fought in Normandy on D-Day, and another maternal uncle was killed in a training accident in Texas while serving in the U.S. Army. Her grandfather was wounded fighting for Britain in World War I.

Connect with the author:   Website    Facebook

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Promo Post of Passenger from Greece by Norma Jennings

Jamaican Author Norma Jennings

Explores International Romance and Mystery

 in New Caribbean Novel, Passenger from Greece

Plantation, FL – Jamaican author Norma Jennings announces the release of her latest romantic mystery novel, Passenger from Greece (ISBN 9780990574675). A cross-genre work of fiction that combines exotic locations and international romance, Passenger from Greece touches on the important political and criminal issues of drug trafficking in the Caribbean islands and the serious economic issues in Greece that fuel this trade.

                Passenger from Greece explores the controversial and menacing issue of cocaine seizures and illicit drug trafficking in a classic tale of criminal behavior, love, and lust. The novel’s main character, Olivia Reid, is a young, feisty, yet innocent international flight attendant from the islands, who embarks on a dangerous adventure and a seductive affair that spans the Caribbean, New York City, and Crete. Eventually, as the flames of desire that consume Olivia are fanned by deception, lust and greed, she painfully finds her way back to her ancestral home.

While the book is at its core a cautionary tale about love-gone-wrong, it also touches on deception at the deepest family level. Passenger from Greece explores how familial relationships, flawed characters, secrets, and lies can destroy lives and create deeply felt wounds that go straight to the heart.

                “I read about the rising tide of illegal drug cartels moving their products from more developed countries to the United States, while using the Caribbean as a conduit,” said Jennings. “My home is Jamaica, and I’m a former flight attendant, so I began to think about how I could use my personal background to spotlight issues surrounding the illicit drug trade, while also drawing in readers with a captivating story.”

Norma Jennings is an ex-international flight attendant and current corporate executive with a passion for writing. Now residing in Florida, she was born and raised in the Caribbean and has traveled and explored many countries, including those featured in Passenger from Greece. From an exotic multi-ethnic background of black, white, and East Indian descent, Jennings credits her strong and dynamic mother and grandmother, and a remarkably intelligent and adventurous father, as her main influences. Jennings earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Angelo State University and graduated from the Management Development Program at Harvard Graduate School. She has authored a previous novel, Daughter of the Caribbean, and is currently working on a historical romance set in Jamaica. Jennings has three grown children, and enjoys dual citizenship in both Jamaica and the United States. She visits her grandmother’s Caribbean home, Twickenham, as often as she can.

For more information on the author or Passenger from Greece, please visit www.3LPublishing.com.

Book Links

Amazon   |   Goodreads

Frequently Asked Questions

 1. Can you tell us a little bit about the storyline for Passenger from Greece?

A classic tale of love, lust, and criminal behavior, Passenger from Greece tells the story of Olivia Reid, a feisty, resourceful international flight attendant who falls in love with a handsome Greek olive oil tycoon. Olivia gets caught up in a seductive affair that spans the Caribbean, New York City, Crete, and ocean voyages on a yacht called The Adonis.

2. The book opens with a movie-worthy crash. What did you base these opening scenes on?

I was a flight attendant, and some of my dear colleagues were involved in a plane crash (a mere scheduling conflict kept me off that flight). I went back to them and asked them for descriptions of feelings, thoughts, and misery of crashing into a swamp, which really happened. They described the terror of first experiencing an aircraft crash, followed by the horror of being trapped in a swamp until rescue. So, when I set up a story about international romance and mystery, I thought, what would be more captivating than to introduce the characters to each other in such an intense and terrifying situation?

3. International drug trafficking is central to the plot. What compelled you to write about this topic?

I had finished writing my first novel, Daughter of the Caribbean, and I was looking for another great story. I read about the Caribbean drug trafficking issues affecting my beloved Jamaica, where my family has an old sugarcane plantation called Twickenham. The headline-grabbing issues made me think about my next novel, which I wanted to be an international mystery. I also like to explore cultural issues and personal relationships about families and love, so I created a conflict that would impact two families in two different countries, each located in different parts of the world.

4. The book addresses family relationships, infidelity, and mother/father influences. Why did you weave in these themes?

Motivations. I wanted to create flawed characters whose motives and desires were rooted in their familial relationships: a daughter’s desire to please her mother, a son’s desire to please his mother, and a grandmother betrayed by her spouse. I asked myself: What lessons could be learned? What understandings reached? How could I write relatable situations that would draw in readers? Based on the core foundation of any person’s experience, one always comes back to his/her family beliefs, morals, and values.

5. How are drug trafficking and cultural issues central to the plotlines and themes in your novels? 

The illicit drug trade is affecting my native homeland, Jamaica. I wanted to also dispel prejudice and ideas about Jamaicans and other Caribbean islanders. My books always deal with cultural differences though depictions of my own childhood experiences growing up at Twickenham with my grandmother, Sedith, who’s featured in both of my books. She was our family’s matriarch and had a tremendous influence on her children and grandchildren. I brought the stories she told and the lessons I learned in my own life to the pages of Passenger from Greece.

6. Are you working on a new novel and, if so, what can you tell us about it?

I’ve made good progress on a third book, which is an action-packed historical fiction novel about the brutal colonization of Jamaica by the British, and the barbaric guerilla warfare staged by the Maroons (runaway slaves) against the planters. Raw sexual moments between planter and mulatto slave mistresses, and a sizzling romance between a rescued concubine and a young guerilla chief are weaved into the novel, as it chronicles how ferocious and unrelenting resistance by Maroon men and women led to the abolition of slavery on the island, and ultimately to the country’s independence.

Chance Harbor by Holly Robinson

Published October 6, 2015 by NAL

Catherine and Zoe are sisters, but even their mother, Eve, admits her daughters are nothing alike. Catherine is calm and responsible. Zoe is passionate and rebellious.  Nobody is surprised when Zoe gets pregnant, drops out of college, and spirals into drug addiction.

One night Catherine gets a call from Zoe’s terrified daughter, Willow, saying her mother has abandoned her in a bus station and disappeared. Eve blames herself, while Catherine, unable to have children, is delighted to raise Willow as her own.

Now, five years later, Eve is grieving her husband’s death and making reluctant plans to sell the family’s beloved summer home on Prince Edward Island. But a series of unexpected revelations will upend the family and rock three generations of women.

My Thoughts…

Who says sisters have to be best friends?     Zoe and Catherine are definitely not best friends, they are not even friends.    Yet, they have a relationship.    Catherine and her husband are the legal guardians of Zoe’s daughter.     The dynamics in this family is unique.     Catherine was closest to her father.   Zoe was her mother’s favorite.     Within this family, with every member of this family, there are secrets.    Deep secrets, scary secrets, and very personal secrets.      I love how Holly Robinson did not just lay it all out there.   She let each character develop at their own pace and reveal their lives in their own ways.     Some of the developing was done with the assistance of others; some was done on their own.    But all of it made each character unique, relatable, and someone I grew to care for.   

I was immediate pulled into this story.   I loved the settings of Canada and Prince Edward Island.    The fact that it was small town and everyone knew everyone else made it perfect.     I could picture the wallpaper in the house, how the yard looked, and what the view was from the backyard.     The feel of the sand in my toes, even the cold water splashing around my ankles made this story so real.     As I read the words, the scenes played in my mind like a movie.     This does not always happen, but when it does you know you have a winner of a story.   

This is my second Holly Robinson book.   She has now become an author I look forward to more from and would never hesitate to recommend.    Check out Chance Harbor.  

Book Links

Amazon   |   Barnes and Noble   |   Goodreads

SURPRISE COVER REVEAL & GIVEAWAY

☆*´¨`☽.*´( ☆ 

  SURPRISE COVER REVEAL & GIVEAWAY

´`★.¸¸,. •°´

It was a lie that brought them together, and a lie that will tear them apart.  Will the truth be enough to save their love?

Find out when Liar, Liar releases in December, 2015

$100 gift card giveaway: bit.ly/LiarLiarCRGiveaway

BLURB☆*´¨`☽.*´

( ☆

´`★.¸¸,. •°´

 . . . Liar, Liar

 Makenna Banks is a 28-year-old, independent, professional woman who spends her days seeking the truth for her clients.  She is tenacious and fuelled by events in her past, determined to bring hidden secrets into the light.

. . . Pants On Fire

 Thrust into a life he didn’t imagine for himself, but unable to escape it, Benny Duncan immerses himself in his job to avoid his home life.  With his future mapped out for him from birth by a pair of controlling parents, more concerned about their social stature, than the happiness of their only son, he always knew he was destined for this life.  It doesn’t mean he likes it, though. 

 . . . Nose As Long

 In her search for the truth, Makenna has to put herself in sometimes-dangerous positions, going above and beyond for her clients.  But what happens when a situation is not all it seems?  What happens when love is thrown into the mix?

 . . . As A Telephone Wire.

 To do her job properly, Makenna has to get involved, but not too involved.  It’s a fine line that she has managed to never cross.  Until now.  Until him.  Benny Duncan will turn her inside out, changing the world as she knows it.  She maybe powerful in all other aspects of her life, but Makenna is powerless against the biggest factor of all; true love.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25729619-liar-liar

Those Children Are Ours by David Burnett & GIVEAWAY

NEWLY RELEASED...
Jennie Bateman screamed at her daughters, cursed at her husband, packed a bag, and walked away. Twelve years later, she petitions the family court for visitation with her daughters, Alexis and Christa.

Her attorney tells Jennie that, ordinarily, she could not imagine that some type of visitation would not be granted. But, she warns, the situation is hardly ordinary. True, Jennie suffered from a bipolar disorder when she began to drink heavily, abandoned her family, and moved in with another man. True, she has turned her life around: leaving her boyfriend, returning to school, entering therapy, taking medication, finding a job, and joining a church.

But she pressed no claim for her children when her husband divorced her, and she has made no attempt to contact them in any way since then. Her daughters, now sixteen and fourteen, live four hundred miles away. They have busy lives that do not include her, lives that will be totally disrupted by the visitation that she requests. Their father is engaged to be married to a woman who has taken the role of their mother for a decade. Alexis remembers nothing good about Jennie. Christa recalls nothing at all.

Conflict ensues as soon as Jennie’s petition is served: her former husband does not want to share his children with the woman who deserted him; her children have no interest in knowing the mother who abandoned them, and her father insists that she is being timid and ought to demand full custody, not simply visitation.

As court convenes, Jennie’s past is dredged up− the desertion, the men, her drinking, her mental health − and paraded before the judge. Her claim to be a different person, now, is attacked. The judge hesitates to grant Jennie’s request, but reluctantly agrees to order three trial visits.

If persuading the judge to let her see her children was difficult, convincing them to allow her to be a part of their lives seems to be almost impossible. What happens as she finally begins to connect with her daughters places them all in grave danger and threatens her life, itself.

My Thoughts…

I never saw how this book would end.   Maybe it is weird that I am starting by talking about the ending but that is the part of the book that sticks with me the most.    I was shocked, in fear, and in awe of how Jennie, Emma, and Thomas managed to work together to save their daughters.   You have to read the rest of the book to get to the end, but it is so worth it.   

Jennie…  I despised her.   How could a mother leave her two young daughters and her amazing husband like that?    How could she possibly think that they should let her back into their lives?     Then I met the rest of her family.   Most of them seemed kinda normal.    Like my sister and brother, like my aunts and uncles and I thought okay, maybe she does deserve a second chance.    I am still torn, does she?   Did she do all she could?    Is twelve years too long to repair the wounds and make bonds with her children?      There are so many questions that go with reading Those Children are Ours.   David Burnett does an amazing job of not playing favorites and of telling the truth of the whole story.    

This story was heart wrenching.   It should the difference a good mother can make to a child and how an amazing father can make an upside down world seem to be okay.    It also shows how it takes a community to raise children.    While these girls did not have a mother, they did have teachers, friends, and other family members to step in and shoulder the weight when it was needed.       

I feel like I was focused on Jennie, the mother, more than the rest of the characters due to the fact that I am a mother myself.    I could not put Those Children are Ours down.   Every word, page, paragraph was wonderful.   This is not an easy read or subject and it was handle with the grace and care that it deserved.   I definitely recommend checking it out.   

Available to buy from....

Amazon.com   Amazon.co.uk   Barnes and Noble   Printed Books

About the author
David Burnett lives in Columbia South Carolina, with his wife and their blue-eyed cat, Bonnie. The Reunion, his first novel, is set in nearby Charleston.

David enjoys traveling, photography, baking bread, and the Carolina beaches. He has photographed subjects as varied as prehistoric ruins on the islands of Scotland, star trails, sea gulls, a Native American powwow, and his grandson, Jack. David and his wife have traveled widely in the United States and the United Kingdom. During one trip to Scotland, they visited Crathes Castle, the ancestral home of the Burnett family near Aberdeen. In The Reunion, Michael's journey through England and Scotland allows him to sketch many places they have visited.

David has graduate degrees in psychology and education and previously was Director of Research for the South Carolina Department of Education. He and his wife have two daughters.

Find the author on the following sites...

Website   Blog   Facebook   Twitter   Goodreads   Amazon 

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As of December 1, 2009, According to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC),  product reviewers on blogs must disclose whether they received products for free or received payment for their review.

 The books I review on this site ( A Soccer Mom's Book Blog) are sent to us by publishers, authors or downloaded from Netgalley. .This is a very common practice.  I never take payments for these reviews and all the reviews on this site are our own thoughts and feelings and are not influenced.

Double Review of Me Before You and After You by Jojo Moyes

Published December 31, 2012 by Pamela Dorman Books/Viking

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time. 

My Thoughts…

This is a two part review.    Me Before You is the first book in the Me Before You series by Jojo Moyes.    I have yet to read the second part, but it is definitely next on my list to read.   I have just finished Me Before You and I could not put it down.     Jojo Moyes has always tugged at my heart and written books that keep me hooked from the very first page and this book is no different.     I started and just kept reading and reading and turning pages until I hit the last page.   I then just sat there, thinking about what I had read, wondering what would happen next, and hoping for more of a great story.   We shall see when I start the next book how I feel. 

Me Before You is a story of hope, of building new relationship, and of testing what you feel is right.   Lou must work through all of this.    She leads a rather normal and hum-drum life.    She works, has a steady boyfriend, and lives each day as she lived the day before.    Then she meets Will.    He is a paraplegic who Lou ends up working for.    As they spend their days together, their friendship grows.   But these two are so good for each other.   They each push the other outside of their comfort zones.   They both want the other to continue living life and growing in their lives.   

I did not cry but I did have tears.   I wanted to cheer but I just quietly smiled.    I wished I could change some of the outcomes but I accept that what happened is what was meant to be.     This is an amazing story.  I cannot wait to see what Jojo Moyes has in store for Lou and Will in the next chapter of this story.     

Me Before You Book Links

Amazon   |   Goodreads   |   Barnes and Noble

 

Here is the second part of my review….

After You by Jojo Moyes (Me Before You #2)

Published September 29, 2015 by Penguin

How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

After You is quintessential Jojo Moyes—a novel that will make you laugh, cry, and rejoice at being back in the world she creates. Here she does what few novelists can do—revisits beloved characters and takes them to places neither they nor we ever expected.

My Thoughts...

I definitely recommend reading these books in order.   I was lucky enough to get them both at the same time.    Jojo Moyes did not waste words or pages giving the history of Will and Lou.    Therefore if you read them out of order you may not totally understand why Lou is acting as she is, why Will is no longer in the picture, or why the surprise is a surprise.       There are many series that you can read out of order or that are standalone books but this is not such a series.     

The surprise is the part of the story that hit home with me the most.   I am familiar with that surprise.    I can relate to Lou’s frustration yet am proud of how she stepped in, took control, and took care of it.     She did not have to; she had no responsibility to do that.    It shows how upstanding and true to Will she really was.    

I devoured Me Before You.   After You is the story of Lou’s life without Will in it.    I enjoyed how Lou struggled with moving on with her life.   She did not just forget about Will.   She held onto their friendship and relationship with him for a long time unwilling to move on.      I liked that she went to a Moving On support group and made friends there even though she did not think it would help her.     I loved that she such a unique job and that she had a horrible boss.     As the story goes on you could feel Lou grow up.   She started to stand up for herself, stand up to others she felt were doing her wrong, and do what she wanted not what others thought she should do.     

I highly recommend checking out this series.   Read them in order.    See how Will and Lou affect each other’s lives, see how they made each other better, and devour the books.   

After You Book Links

Amazon   |   Goodreads   |   Barnes and Noble 

Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase by Louise Walters

Published February 27, 2014 by Hodder and Stoughton

ABOUT THE BOOK: Part historical novel, part modern cautionary tale, MRS. SINCLAIR’S SUITCASE weaves the stories of stoic Dorothea, an unhappy World War II-era British housewife circa 1940, and her present day granddaughter Roberta, a lonely bookstore clerk whose life in 2010 is seemingly stalled.  When Roberta stumbles upon an old letter inside her centenarian grandmother’s battered suitcasefrom Jan Pietrykowski, her grandfather, to her grandmother, Dorothy, she’s baffled by its contents.  Dated the year after her grandfather supposedly died, it calls into question everything Roberta ever knew about her family history.  As she digs into the mystery, Roberta uncovers a secret so momentous it sends shockwaves for generations to come.  Who was Mrs. D. Sinclair, the name found labeled inside the old valise?  What was her connection to Dorothea Pietrykowski?  And why did Dorothea lie about the details of Jan Pietrykowski’s death?  War looms large in Louise Walters’s story, delivering an utterly original account of love, betrayal, and family secrets, that lingers in memory long after the final page is turned.

My Thoughts…

Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase is the story of two incredible women.    Dorthea’s story is set during WWII.   Roberta’s is more current.     The two stories weave around each other almost coming together but taking their own sweet time intertwining.    I guessed at how these two amazing ladies would come together, but it was not until later in the book that I finally figured it out.   

The timeframe of Dorthea’s life is my favorite.    I love the 40’s and everything WWII related.   I find it interesting to see how the world went on living with such a huge war going on.    It is also intriguing to me to see how those who are not “in the war” are coping and living.   Of course, Dorthea’s story is my favorite.   I loved how she mothered the girls, I ached for the lost babies, and I wished for a happy ending for her.  

Roberta’s story was more of a mystery.   I felt like she had unfinished history to discover and was uncovering it piece by piece.     With each letter, picture, or card she found in a book at the book store where she works more is revealed about her father, mother, and grandmother.     I was intrigued.    I made guesses as to what she would find out when the entire story was shared.    As she went about her life I ached for her loneliness.   I wanted her to find out her history, but I also felt she needed to be able to move forward.   She needed to accept her life and come to terms with her family.   She also needed to open herself up to find friends and make relationships.   

The first part of the book is a little slow.   Not painfully slow, it is perfectly slow.    The speed gives the reader the chance to really get to know and understand the characters.    Once you hit half-way the book takes off and the clues come flying as to what will happen with the rest of the story.   

I definitely recommend checking out Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase. 

Book Links

Amazon   |   Barnes and Noble   |   Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Louise Walters lives in Northamptonshire with her husband Ian and their five children. She has written poetry as well as fiction, in between raising five children and earning an Honors degree in Literature over a twelve-year stretch. Louise also worked in a second-hand bookshop where, among the well-worn pages, she found a host of forgotten treasures, an experience which inspired Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase.

Fantastic praise for MRS. SINCLAIR’S SUITCASE:

“Musty books, unrequited love, and old family secrets combine to create a crackling multigenerational saga infused with passion, pathos, and evocative WWII-era historical detail. Plenty of book-club and cinematic potential in this irresistible page-turner.” —Booklist

"A breathtaking, beautifully crafted tale of loves that survive secrets." —Kirkus Reviews

"A solid debut . . . [that] may appeal to those who have also liked bookishly romantic stories such as Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society or Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry." —Library Journal

“A moving reminder that history is not just a pageant of world-shaking events, but a weave of individual lives that are often as inspiring as they are tragic.” —David R. Gillham, author of the New York Times–bestseller City of Women

“A riveting debut with an impeccably researched past and charismatic present-day voices. Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase is like opening a literary treasure chest, full of sharp-edged gems glittering with all the beauty and heartache of humanity. You’re sure to carry this story with you wherever you go. I know I will.” —Sarah McCoy, author of the New York Times and international bestseller The Baker’s Daughter and The Mapmaker’s Children

“Vivid and seductive, the tale begins in a blazing crash in World War II and twists through a tangle of mysterious circumstances, misunderstandings, and repressed desires. Irresistible . . .” —Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman, authors of the national bestseller Freud’s Mistress

“Louise Walters has crafted a heartbreaking story of love and all its faces.” —Jessica Brockmole, author of Letters from Sky