Review: What Matters Most

Title: What Matters Most

Author: Bette Lee Crosby

Series: N/A

Publisher: Bent Pine Publishing

Published: April 20, 3013

Format: Print Copy

Pages: 287

Dates Read: July 30-August 3 2017

Source: Received from the author in
exchange for an honest review

Add on Goodreads
 My Rating: 2 Stars

Synopsis:

Louise Palmer is a settled-down person. A woman who wants nothing more than to remain in the same house until the day she dies. When her husband, Clay, announces an intention to quit his job and move to Florida, her life is thrown into a turmoil of mixed emotions and strained loyalties. Torn between Clay’s desire for “the good life” and the lifelong friendships of her quilting club, Louise struggles with what to do…until her best friend hatches a scheme to thwart the move.


Before she discovers the truth of what matters most, a marriage will be tested, family relationships will fall apart and the friendships Louise tried to hold onto will change dramatically.

Melissa's Musings

The premise of this one caught me up. And then, sadly, let me down.

At the beginning of the story I felt I could learn to like the characters, but found myself wishing that there were more backstory. As the story progresses, there are a few holes in things that are just too much for me.

Like how Louise and Clay can move to another state without having a real, in depth conversation about it. Clay announces his intentions, Louise tries to hatch a scheme to get out of it. It doesn't work, and she slowly, (so slowly) resigns herself to life in Florida.

I don't like Louise as a character much at all. She's passive agressive, and whines entirely too much. She had this quirk of believing that double initials make a person lucky. Which, if I had liked her, I would have thought was a nice character quality. But, as that got repeated throughout the story, it got old, and annoying, and was eventually proved wrong by the events of the story itself.

I do like some of the more minor characters though. They add fun, liveliness, and even a little drama to the story. And, I did like the comaraderie between the characters. It was pleasant to read how the people of Tall Pines were kind  and welcoming to Louise and Clay.

I hoped this story might redeem itself at the end, but the resolution was too quick and tidy. I would have liked to see more exploration of the back half of this story rather than all the exposition on Louise's adjustment to life in Florida. I also found the cover of this book confusing once I finished the story. The main character is an older woman with grown children and so the young woman on the front cover doesn't really go with the plot.

I've read other books by this author and enjoyed them, so I'll consider trying another book by her in the future.

Have you ever had to make an interstate move like Louise? How did you adjust?

Review: The Man With the Green Suitcase

Title: The Man With the Green Suitcase

Author: Dee Doanes

Publisher: Wld Enterprises

Published: July 30, 2012

Format: Kindle

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 328 pages

Source: Received from the author

in exchange for an honest review

Read: December 31, 2012-January 2, 2013 

In  A Few Words: Unusual 

My Rating: 2 Stars

Goodreads: Add This To Your TBR Shelf

Goodreads Synopsis: What does... 

A prostitute, 

A corrupt businessman,and 

A disfigured young woman 

Have in common with a mysterious, old homeless man who carries a green suitcase? 

The old man comes into people’s lives because it is important for them to experience the visions that he is somehow able to show them—visions that even he doesn’t understand. But whoever he connects with will go through a transformation that will change the course of their life, for better or worse. The old man has no memory of who he is or even what the suitcase holds. But one day he will find out all about his own secret and dark past… 

This story is magical realism, realistic with paranormal elements, a mystery that needs to be solved, and a man and woman who will finally realize that they were meant to come into each other’s lives and remain forever

Melissa's Musings:

The overall concept of this book is really interesting. There's a homeless man who wanders the streets, stopping by a local shelter to get food and a shower, once a week. While there he's connected with several different people, some good, some bad, and he shares visions with them. This man doesn't remember who he is or his past and is pretty much a loner, all he knows is that he must pass on the visions to the people they are intended for.

 The interesting thing about this is the way the visions come about. When he is with someone and needs to pass along one of these visions, the energy builds up inside him, and the wrinkles on his face start to change. The energy buildup shines through the man as light. 

Of course this special ability makes people want to be around him even more, but he tends to shut people out and do his own thing. There are lots of other characters, but I don't want to talk much about them because I'll give away major plot points if I do. The main focus is on the man with the green suitcase and it's his visions that tie all of the characters in the book together. All of his visions do come true, in one form or another.

As interesting as this part of the plot is, I feel that the writing could have been a lot more polished to help pull the reader into the story more. The writing is somewhat stilted in places. It also feels like the descriptions are somewhat cluttered. I find it odd to be saying that there are too many details given, but that's what this felt like. It just feels like the author is trying too hard to set up the scene for the reader, and that leads the cluttered descriptions and halts the flow. Instead of flowing naturally, these overly descriptive passages feel clunky.

There are a few other weak spots in the structure that pull you away from the reading as well. The book switches tenses often, even in the middle of paragraphs. There are also a lot of instances of repetitive phrasing throughout the story, sometimes one right after the other. There's a section where the story alternates between Valerie and Gerald and they mirror phrases almost exactly, one right after the other. Sometimes this can work, but it didn't quite work here. The alternations with headings, in the middle of chapters was also unsettling. I think that if the story had simply been told from their perspective for the whole chapter it would have been better than alternating between them in the same chapter. 

Also, in a lot of sections there are sequences that I think are meant to be told as flashbacks which are all italicized. A few of these interspersed throughout the story would have been okay, but there are several and they are quite distracting.

One element of the book that I really enjoyed was the aspect of volunteerism. The author did a good job of really making it so that you can understand how life as a homeless person can be. It was nice to see characters who really enjoyed volunteering and helping others. There is also a character with mental illness in the story and while there was some description of that, it would have been nice to see that issue touched on a bit more thoroughly, in order to be able to better relate to Valerie's character.

The ending itself made no sense to me. The book was so focused on the man with the green suitcase and his power, that the buildup to his back story and his whole reason for being the way he was felt rushed, and it wasn't revealed until the very end, so I didn't have as strong feelings for him as I might have had I learned more about him sooner. The ending fell flat for me, due to lack of character development. 

The story is described as magical realism, and I feel that it was too focused on the magical part to really connect to it.

Review: Life Got in the Way

Title:  Life Got in the Way

Author: Deborah J. Davis

Publisher: Self Published

Published: June 11, 2012

Format: Paperback

Genre: Women's Fiction

Pages: 336

Source: Received from the author

in exchange for an honest review

Read: December 29-30 2012

In A Few Words: Nice story, but hard to connect to characters

My Rating: 2 stars

Goodreads: Add to your to-read shelf

Synopsis From the Back Cover:

Life Got in the Way  is the story of two women, Jackie Colson and Dana Talbert, who meet during their freshman year at Wilberforce University and become lifelong friends. Both are bright optimistic students with high expectations of future success. They naively think that the road will be relatively simple and neither is prepared for what life brings them. Little do they know that so many things will be out of their control.

Jackie Colson,  orphaned at birth and raised by her grandmother, is determined to become a partner in a law firm before she's forty. Dana Talbert had a perfect life plan until an unexpected and determined boyfriend got in the way. We journey with them as they face major life issues; marriage, divorce, infidelity, illness and aging. Throughout all their challenges the one thing that remains constant is their bond of friendship. In Life Got in the Way Deborah Davis explores the changing roles of women as they move from the seventies to the present facing changing goals, aspirations, and expectations and the realization that they can do it all, but at what cost.

Melissa's Musings:

 The first few chapters are of the present day, of situations going on that set the pace for the rest of the story, so you can see where it is these women ended up, but the real story starts with Jackie and Diana's graduations. They are just about to graduate from high school and go off to bigger and better things. The friendship between Dana and Jackie is constant throughout the book. It's very simple, and sweet, and mirrors how friendships are so close when you're young and change (not necessarily in a bad way) as you get older and life gets in the way. These two women go through a lot together, which is true of any long lasting friendship. 

The book starts in the present, then jumps backwards to the past and then progresses toward the present again. This is a nice way to tell a story, and connects the characters well. I really appreciate that the author stuck to the first few chapters being in the present day and then going into the past and continuing chronologically rather than jumping back and forth between past and present because that can sometimes be confusing

As pleasant as the friendship is between Diana and Jackie, we never really get to see the two women interact fully and completely. This might sound like an odd statement, but I do have a reason for saying it. The reason we don't get to see them interact completely is because rather than the book being told from one of their perspectives, or even both, the entire book is narrated. Not by another character, but it's just written in a full  narrative style. The style lead to me feeling that the whole book was a "tell".

In writing you're often told that it's better to "show not tell." Showing allows you to fully develop characters, setting, plot etc. In this books' case, the telling style was nice at first, but I was really hoping that as the book went on, there would be more interaction between the characters, and that one or both of their perspectives would take over the style. The style of writing left the characters feeling flat, and under developed. It also made them very difficult to connect with or feel for. 

In all honestly, I started to feel bored with their situations. Some of the events, while they would have been shocking if told from the characters point of view, such as Jackie's discovering her husbands' infidelity, just felt blah. It was like, "Okay...and?" I didn't really have much of a reaction. These situations also resolved themselves very easily without much conflict.

One good thing about the narrative style is that it does make for an easy read. 

I did appreciate the cover and it's connection to the book. One of the characters in the book, Gran, makes a comment about friends coming and going, and how some stay in your circle for a long time, and others are only in your life for a short time. The cover feels like it represents these circles of friendship. It also could be a symbol of the way that life can sometimes be confusing, and how people can sometimes get diverted from their dreams, or feel like they're just going through a maze and will never find their way out, but how different life choices can eventually lead to what you're looking for.

In order to enjoy this book I'd say that you really have to enjoy narratives rather than character driven books.

Have any of you read this? If so what did you think? How long has your longest friendship lasted?

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling.

Title: The Casual Vacancy

Author: J.K. Rowling

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Published: September 27, 2012

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 503

Source:  Library

Read: November 1-4, 2012

In A Few Words: Disappointing and Depressing

My Rating: 2 Stars

Goodreads: Add this to your TBR Shelf

Goodreads Synopsis:

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

Melissa's Musings:

I want to preface this review by saying, I love J.K. Rowling. Really, I do. But, I most certainly did not love this book.

When I first saw the cover for this book I thought, "That's it? What a boring, bland cover."

Now, it makes perfect sense. A boring cover to go with a bland book. I'm usually a quick reader, but I truly struggled in making my way through this book. I had to coach myself through each hundred pages. I strongly considered calling it "DNF" at one point, but I soldiered on. I can't honestly say that I'm happy I finished it. 

The first fifty pages is interesting, because we're all trying to figure out what's going to happen to the town now that Barry Fairbrother is dead. There are a lot of unkind, even vindictive  thoughts at his death, which initially, are intriguing. What these thoughts end up being are a precursor to all the pettiness and jealousy that the townspeople have for one another. After that initial 50 pages, it feels like the rest of the book just descends into pettiness and jealousy with teenage angst thrown in.

There are a lot of different issues thrown into this book, and sometimes it feels like it's just too much altogether. There's the politics of course, but then there are subjects like rape, incest, drug use, suicide, cutting, adoption, relationship issues, drinking, etc, the list goes on. It almost felt like Rowling was trying to cram every negative subject that she couldn't talk about in the world of Harry Potter into this book. 

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There's also a lot of swearing in the book. I have absolutely no problem with swearing in adult novels. Even in Young Adult novels, mild-moderate swearing is fine with me. I've read a few reviews where readers have a problem with the fact that there's any swearing at all, which I don't really understand given that this is an adult book. The swearing itself doesn't bother me, but it again feels like Rowling was just trying too hard. There's a lot of it, to the point of bordering on slightly excessive, and it just feels unnecessary in some spots.

There are also too many characters in this novel. There are too many relationships to navigate through. My guess is that Rowling was trying to underscore the point that everyone, especially in small towns is connected, and that something like a death can have a ripple effect and affect many people in a variety of different ways. I completely understand that. I don't feel it was necessary to use quite so many characters/families to make this point.

One character that I did feel drawn to, in a way, was Fats. He has this idea of being his genuine, true self, no matter what that means. I found this to be an odd concept, for a teenager that is. The teen years, and into one's 20's  are meant for finding out who you truly want to be and who you really are, and it appears that Fats has done that. It is explained that he has spent a lot of time inside his own head, getting to know himself and the layers of his own personality. He doesn't completely follow through with this personal ideology of his throughout the book, but for the most part, he sticks to it. It's nice to see someone taking charge of themselves and their actions, especially a character as young as he is.

As I mentioned before, the first 50 pages of the book are great. But then as you slog through the rest, it's just depressing, vindictive, and somewhat boring. I didn't feel anything emotional at the end of the book. I won't spoil what happens, but lets just say it leaves you feeling somewhat depressed. It left me thinking "What was the point of even reading this?"

The only thing that saved this book from getting a 1 star rating was the quality of the writing. As usual, Rowling is able to compose intense, descriptive passages. For example:

"Disgust rose in Samantha like vomit. She wanted to seize the overwarm cluttered room and mash it between her hands, until the royal china, and the gas fire, and the gilt-framed pictures of Miles broke into jagged pieces; then, with the wizened and painted Maureen trapped and squalling inside the wreckage, she wanted to heave it, like a celestial shot-putter, away into the sunset. The crushed lounge and the doomed crone inside it, soared in her imagination through the heavens, plunging into the limitless ocean, leaving Samantha alone in the endless stillness of the universe." (Rowling, pg. 275)

 I could see that in my mind, as I read it. Unfortunately, the writing wasn't quite enough to make me truly  like this book.

I'll admit, there had to have been some expectations that filtered into my reading of this novel. I don't think there couldn't have been. But, overall, this just falls flat on it's own, J.K Rowling or not. Maybe if she had published other adult works between the Harry Potter books her readers would be more used to this serious side of her, and understand her adult works a bit more. Since the Harry Potter world was her sole focus for so long, though, I think it may be slightly too difficult for us as readers to disentangle ourselves and look at a book that contrasts so starkly with HP. It might have also helped to not have your very first book center on something as serious as politics.

Overall, I would say that this book is very well written, if boring. I would recommend checking it out from the library or borrowing it from a friend rather than buying it, though.

Scrambled by Kathryn Elizabeth Jones

Title: Scrambled (A Susan Sleuth Mystery)

Author:  Kathryn Elizabeth Jones

Publisher: Createspace

Published: August 22, 2012

Format:  Paperback

Pages: 250

Source: Received from the author 

in exchange for an honest review

Read: November 8 2012

In A Few Words: Unusual, egg-centric

My Rating: 2 Stars

Goodreads: Add This Book to Your TBR Shelf

Synopsis*:

What happens to an unhappy woman who leaves her husband only to discover that she may have just made a terrible mistake? So horrible, her choice threatens to end her very life?

Susan believes that the grass is greener on the other side. Not that her current life is bad, necessarily; it's just boring and lifeless, kind of like the old matted rug on her dining room floor. Susan thinks her marriage has just grown - well, old. Her husband, Bob, has gained tremendous weight and continues to gain, and his health suffers. She must work at a job she hates full-time to provide the little sustenance they have. He, on the other hand, works very little (because of his health) and prefers spending his days watching television or surfing the Internet. Besides, there's her problem of not getting pregnant that can't help but contribute to his unhappiness.

Can Susan continue to live her life at the hotel knowing that she might be killed herself or imprisoned for life? Will she be able to find the real murderer with the help of the eccentric Ms. Martha Boaz? *Synopsis from Amazon

Melissa's Musings:

A few months ago Kathryn stopped by my blog to talk about What Your Reading Genre Says About You. I learned quite a bit about my own reading preferences from her post. Recently I read her book, Scrambled.  Here are my thoughts on it.

I have to start out by saying that I don't read cozy mysteries all that often. I actually can't remember the last time I read one before this one. Maybe it's because I don't read them all that often, but this one didn't exactly blow me away.

The book starts out by having us learn that Susan is unhappy at home, with an inattentive husband who really likes to eat junk food. One day she just up and leaves her job and her husband and starts a new life.

I was actually frustrated from the start because I didn't really know why she was leaving. Yes she was unhappy with her life and her husband, but we don't really get to see much of their interaction together to get a real feel for the environment and her dislike for him because the book starts out immediately with her leaving.

I was also a little frustrated because it didn't really make sense that she could just up and start over with no resources. She tried to change her identity too, by giving  herself a new name, but that doesn't work completely because she slips up when talking to one of the tenants of the hotel where she lives and cleans rooms.

There's a death in the story and Jenny/Susan seems hesitant as to whether or not it's murder. Not a bad thing to question, but it seemed like she was unsure of herself a lot and the questioning the underlying story itself which made me question the story as a whole. Susan/Jenny is  a nice enough character. Likeable, a decent person, a little too gullible maybe. But, she flip flops a lot. She can't decide whether she still loves her husband, and when she finds that someone else likes her (won't say who to prevent spoilers) she goes back and forth with him too. He's willing to be patient but she sees him as a nuisance or someone who's only a friend. She doesn't really tell him so until a lot later in the book though. I suppose I was just hoping to see her grow stronger as a character throughout. She does, to a point, but I think I was hoping for more. The strongest, most decisive action she takes is leaving her husband.

The eggs. 

Oh my goodness, the eggs. At first the mentions of Susan/Jenny eating eggs when stressed or sad was a cute touch. Then it turned into a bit of an obsession. She is constantly eating eggs. Or making omelets. Or egg casserole. There are exactly three instances where Susan/Jenny doesn't eat eggs. One when she's making a frozen dinner of a chicken leg, one where she's eating a steak and having a raspberry vanilla soda, and one where she's eating "something that looks like a burrito." The rest of the time it's all about the eggs. I almost wish I had counted the scenes where there are eggs so I could compare the numbers.  I understand that there's a deeper metaphor behind them, but I think that the mentions could have been pared down to a handful and it would have been fine.

At the same time, I do like that there is a recipe included at the back of the book. And at the end, Susan was hopeful and eager to start making her own baked goods. Add food details and you've got my interest, what can I say?

The mystery of the book does keep you on your toes at points, but at other times it can just be too confusing. I think that some of Susan/Jenny's debating about if there were a murder contributed to that confusion. I do have to say that although I thought I had it all figured out close to the beginning of the story, I didn't know for sure who did it until the end.

 There are really good details about all the characters, so it's very easy to see them in your mind as you read. And these are quite the mixed up bunch of characters if I ever saw one. I definitely wanted to know more about these characters.

In terms of dialogue and formatting and pace, the story is a quick read. It's paced really  nicely and there are only one or two sections where it drags slightly. I have to say that I found the dialogue to be a bit stiff in places, with phrases like "the murderer of my son" and things like that. Also, in the last chapter or so of the book there are several words and phrases spread over a section of pages that are italicized. As I was reading initially I thought these were for emphasis, but as  I continued to read it seemed to me just to be a formatting issue, so that was a tiny bit distracting.

Overall, this was an okay story, it just wasn't for me. I'd definitely recommend that readers who are more familiar with cozy mysteries give it a try though.

Dream Magic: Awakenings by Dawn Harshaw Didn't Put Me In A Dream-Like State

Title: Dream Magic: Awakenings

Author: Dawn Harshaw

Publisher: Self Published 

Published: February 3, 2012

Format: Kindle

Pages: 160 

Source: Received from the author

in exchange for an honest review

Read: October 6-8 2012

In A Few Words: Too stiff and serious to be dreamy

My Rating:  2 Stars

Goodreads:Add to Your TBR Shelf

Goodreads Synopsis:

Eric, a young boy, has enough of nightmares ruining his dreams. Determined to grow stronger, he tackles magical disciplines one at a time - be it flying, blade magic, or telepathy - and stares down his fears. But, will he survive the battles and the trial of nightmare mastery? And at what cost?

"Dream Magic: Awakenings" reaches for deep metaphysical concepts and uses introspective experiences to offer an immersive feeling of MAGIC

Melissa's Musings:

The concept of this book is really excellent. The thought of kids going into a dream land and learning how to work through their dreams is a great idea. Unfortunately, the execution of the concept didn't quite work out for me. The reason that I was drawn toward reading this book and accepted the review request was because the author described it as "Harry Potter-esque" so of course I was intrigued.

And believe me, there is a lot of magic in this book. And it's explained in a great amount of detail. This was another awesome point of the book for me, because I love lots of detail and as much information as possible. But, this is also one of the book's drawbacks in that it feels bogged down in all of this magical information and it makes the story seem stiff. It feels like Eric and the other characters are simply going through the motions and slowly working their way through all of the kinds of magic. While it tries to be fun, with anecdotes etc, it just feels forced. The story didn't flow in a natural way.

The metaphysical components are deeply embedded in all aspects of this book. Each chapter explores different metaphysical concepts in great detail. These concepts are so intertwined within the book that they stifle some of the creativity, which is why I think there was a problem with the flow. As a reader I got bogged down in the metaphysical concepts and so it felt to me like the adventure with the kids was just sort of thrown in as an afterthought to help buffer the heaviness of the philosophical parts. It's due to this heaviness that I don't really feel that this fits categorically as a YA book. Yes, the main characters are of ages that classify them as adults, but the concepts that are explored in this book, in the depth that they are explained do not fit within YA literature.

Plus, as a reader you don't really get too much of a chance to connect with the characters on a more personal level. You start out in the dream world and don't learn anything about their outside lives, or what causes them to be having and fighting their nightmares in the first place. So, right off the bat you go into the story feeling somewhat detached from them. I felt that I couldn't ever really form a bond with any of them. Their personalities seem stiff at times too, so it seems as if they are even somewhat detached from their own story, or at least too prim and proper to be taken seriously as real kids. There are a few curse words thrown in to try and lighten this up. It works a little bit, but not quite enough.

As a warning for those who are particularly sensitive, the last 20 pages or so are a bit gruesome.

In terms of the climax, it felt like there wasn't one. The main characters have now gone through all the types of magic. Then they go through a test and fight off their own personal demons. I did like this part because it ties in well with the concept of working through your subconscious issues within your dreams.  But then they go off to fight the monsters. And then it just ends. It feels like this story isn't properly wrapped up.

Even though this book didn't quite appeal to me, it may work for you. Especially if you're looking for something highly philosophical.

A Lovely, Indecent Departure by Steven Lee Gilbert

Title:  A Lovely, Indecent Departure

Author: Steven Lee Gilbert

Publisher: Self Published

Published:  March 23, 2012

Format: Paperback

Pages: 284

Source: Received from the author 

in exchange for an honest review

Read:  September 5-9th 2012

In A Few Words:  Confusing, flat, 

My Rating: 2 Stars

Goodreads: Add This to Your TBR shelf

Goodreads Synopsis. A Lovely, Indecent Departure is the riveting and emotionally-charged debut from a promising new voice in literary thrillers, and a captivating story about a mother’s love and desperation set amidst the heart wrenching landscape of child custody. 

Anna Miller wants only one thing, her son, and she will do anything to keep him. When a district court awards custody of Oliver to his father, she abducts the five year old and flees to Italy where with her family’s help they disappear into the fabric of her native homeland. Told in prose that is both stripped-down and overpowering, Gilbert shapes the everyday conflict of child custody into a stunning search for sense of worth. Standing in the young woman’s way is Evan Meade, the boy’s guileful and mean-spirited father, who hires a private investigator when the efforts of the embattled local sheriff, Monroe Rossi, fail to track them down. But as the investigation draws them all closer to Anna, Evan’s true nature betrays itself and the question of what’s in the child’s best interest becomes not so clear anymore.

Objectively detailed, in a voice that refuses to intrude on the minds of its characters, A Lovely, Indecent Departure, captures in stark detail a world in which modern archetypes are turned upside down and shows what an extraordinary splash Steven Lee Gilbert has made with his first novel

Melissa's Musings:

I'm not really sure quite where to start with A Lovely, Indecent Departure. I wanted to like it, I really did. Unfortunately it just did not work for me at all.

The major problem that I had with this book was that there are no quotation marks around any of the dialogue. None. I know that probably seems like a petty, insignificant thing to have a problem with, but it truly did make a difference in how I read this book. Of course it's easy to tell when people are talking just by the nature of the words, but the quotes make it easier to differentiate, and faster to read. Without them, it's like reading page after page of prose, and it all tends to run together after a while.

Along that same line, some of the sections of the text are in Italian. This wasn't as major a problem for me because most of the time it was indirectly translatable, where you could tell what's being said. Plus, I took 4 years of Spanish in high school, and the two languages are similar enough for me to have gotten most of it. Still, there were certain sections where I missed what was being said entirely and it wasn't translated, so that was a little rough too.

For the most part, the story is decent. I did really feel for Anna and understood why she wanted to take Oliver away. Mainly, it was because Evan was a major A-hole. He is abusive, controlling and in some ways deadly. I won't give away any plot spoilers with him, but lets just say that it's easy not to like him. I would have liked to have known more about Anna and Evan's relationship and why they got together in the first place, or what she saw in him. These things are mentioned in brief snippets, but more background would have created a more urgent situation for why she had to abduct Oliver to Italy. I also would have liked to see more of the story from Olivers' perspective. There were just a few lines here and there and then a chapter at the end. I understood that the story is mainly focused on the adults, but I think Oliver's is a key perspective that was missed in the story.

There's a cute little romance between the sheriff and the town librarian, so that's a nice change of pace from the seriousness, but Monroe's character fell flat for me. I didn't understand what his real role was, because it seems like he wasn't doing much at all and just trying to avoid the situation of Oliver's kidnap altogether. Of course, since the FBI was involved I suppose there wasn't much he could really do, which makes me wonder why his character is so central. I think that his character's chapters could  have been replaced by chapters from the perspective of  Carl Demski, the FBI agent on the case and the story may have worked better.

I have to say that the scenes and parts of the book that describe Italy are really well done. There are a lot of cultural references and descriptions (as well as the use of Italian) that put the reader into the story, so that you almost believe you are in Italy while you're reading. This was a very nice touch.

Overall, the story was nice, but it just didn't suck me in like I was hoping it would. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to learn a bit more about Italy.

*I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.*

My Love by Joanne Clancy

Title: My Love

Author: Joanne Clancy

Publisher: Cupid's Arrow Publishing

Published:February 12, 2012

Format: Kindle/e-book

Pages: 95

Source: Received from author in exchange

for an honest review

Read: August 18 2012

In A Few Words: Nice concepts, slightly repetitive
My  Rating:  2 Stars

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Goodreads Synopsis:

 Is there such a thing as love at first sight? Can love be measured?

My Love by Joanne Clancy is a collection of essays about life, love and dating. 

The book discusses different definitions of love, from coming to terms with the reality of love to the importance of giving and generosity and thoughts on the death of a loved one.

The book has ideas on how to woo a woman and how to make a man fall in love. The importance of humour in a dating relationship and how to work on a happy balance while dating is also discussed. 

There is a section on first date tips and internet dating. 

The last part of the book deals with how to realise when a relationship is over and when it is time to move on with your life. There are some helpful tips on how to start over and how to prepare for dating by dating yourself.

My Love is a beautiful collection of love and life experiences

Melissa's Musings:

The overall concept of this book is really nice. It's full of tips for internet dating, first dates, relationships, etc. I see what the author was trying to do with this book, it just didn't work well for me. 

One of the major issues of this book for me was the sequencing. I felt that a lot of the essays were out of place, they just didn't flow together well. I know that essays are generally supposed to be treated as separate entities, but with the subject matter, a lot of the essays seemed to overlap, but they didn't do so in a way that was really cohesive. With a little bit of swapping, I feel that the flow could be improved, which would really enhance the book overall.

In one particular essay, titled "Giving and Generosity" there was a lot of scripture and quotes from the Bible. I found nothing wrong with the content or the quotes themselves, just the frequency of them. In this particular essay scripture was quoted every one or two paragraphs, and as someone who doesn't have that much experience with them this was a little off-putting. I also felt that the frequency of these quotes detracted from the underlying message of this essay.

I did enjoy the fact that this is full of nice ideas for how to improve your relationship, as well few particularly poignant poems that remind the reader that they shouldn't take love for granted. It's passages like these that I wish there were more of because they really stop to make you think.

A lot of the content in this book is common sense, but it is nice to have the reminder of these activities and ideas. 

Along with the thought of a lot of the ideas in the book being common sense, there was an element of repetition that bothered me as I was reading. There were a lot of ideas that were repeated throughout the essays, in exactly the same wording. One in particular stands out because it was mentioned no less than 5 times:

"I''ve had one or two first dates in my time..." or some slight variation thereof.

By the last time of seeing this line I was saying out loud "We know that already! So have most of those of us who are reading this book!"

One great section that I really liked was towards the end where the author is describing potential places for a date in London. She notes several restaurants whose cuisine sounds delicious. And she also makes note of a lot of other places to go go for dates such as some of Britain's public gardens and other more well known attractions.

I had also hoped that there would be more of the author's personal experiences mixed in. I find it easier to connect with books like this if there are personal anecdotes and I feel that may be part of the reason that this book didn't work as well for me.

Overall,  this is a nice book that with a bit of polishing could really be wonderful. I'd recommend it to someone looking for some basic tips on first dates.