Dysfunctional Family or MC

The Mysterious Half Cat (Judy Bolton #9)

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By Margaret Sutton

“Holy Christmas!” Horace exclaimed way down in his throat. “What do you call that?” “The Half Cat!” gasped Scottie, one had to her heart. Even Judy found herself clutching Arthur’s coat sleeve in that moment of frozen terror… Let’s get out of here,” Horace whispered hoarsely and began helping Scottie through the window…..“Wait a minute!” Judy detained him “I have an idea.”

I had decidedly mixed feelings about this one. At the beginning of the book, Judy is awakened from a horrible nightmare in which Blackberry, her beloved cat, is hit by a car and cut in half! Peter and Arthur appear and Blackberry, still cut in two, gets up and follows them. The top half follows Arthur and the bottom half follows Peter as they head in opposite directions. Although obviously symbolic of Judy’s feelings being torn between the two young men, this image was very disturbing to me and it is one of the recurring themes in the book. An old beggar approaches the front porch where Judy is telling Honey about her dream and Honey buys the old man’s dream book to interpret it. The old man warns her against dreaming of cats, a coincidence which startles Judy. Peter comes by and shows the girls a mysterious coded note which he found in front of Wing Lee’s Chinese laundry. Judy is intrigued.

When the mail comes, Judy is surprised and pleased to receive a letter from an old playmate, Dora ”Scottie” Scott, who had moved to Alaska before the Roulsville flood. Scottie is coming back home with her little sister Carol. She is all alone in the world now and hopes to stay with the Boltons while she searches for lost relatives. Judy is very excited and of course the Bolton family starts making preparations to welcome Scottie and Carol into their home. Remembering that Scottie was always one for adventure and excitement, Judy thinks that maybe the mysterious note might be a good mystery for them to solve together. Judy goes to talk with Wing Lee about the note and he tells her that “spooks” come to his laundry every Wednesday. This is right up Judy’s alley and she hides out in his basement overnight (on a school night no less!) to investigate. She gets locked in and hears strange sounds and someone talking about splitting a cat in half! What?! How can Judy’s dream be connected to an old beggar, and nefarious doings in Wing Lee’s cellar? I, for one, was baffled. Surely Judy does not have psychic dreams?!

In addition to the mystery of the coded note and the “Half Cat”, Scottie and Carol’s troubles take center stage. When Scottie arrives, she is nothing like the girl Judy remembers. She is unpleasant, ungrateful and unappreciative of Judy’s efforts to make her welcome and involve her in adventure. She is also exhausted because she can not let Carol out of her sight. There is something wrong with Carol’s brain which causes her to go into trances or fly into destructive rages. She also seems to be hearing impaired. Poor Scottie has a lot on her plate, but sometimes the interested, curious, and fun-loving Scottie peeks through. Judy powers through Scottie’s sometimes nasty behaviour and sets to work to help her and Carol and solve the mystery of the “half-cat” into the bargain.

One has to appreciate the unusual step of incorporating a child who, these days, would be considered “on the spectrum” or having serious brain damage into a children’s mystery series. But it was disturbing and painful. Margaret never shied away, even in her early books, from addressing controversial topics to her young readers. In fact, Carol’s problems reflect a tragic circumstance in Margaret Sutton’s own life. How Carol’s behavior affects Scottie emotionally is very layered and authentic. The portrayal of the old beggar is also complex with paranoia, guilt, hoarding, the corruption of wealth, and repentance coming into the mix.

How Judy’s dream seemed to be repeated in real life is neatly explained at the end, to my satisfaction and relief. And Judy’s efforts, with the help of the whole gang, result in tying a kind of “half-cat”, the old beggar, and Scottie and Carol together into a hopeful happy ending. The end of the book sees Judy graduating from high school and and anxiously looking towards an uncertain future.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The Paradise Problem

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By Christina Lauren

“Houston, we have a problem(atic man).”

I hate to give this book less than 5 stars. The writing was excellent, it was very funny, the story kept me turning the pages, the heroine and hero were both lovable and admirable, the main bad guy was the evilest of evil and the ones in the middle were layered and somewhat complex. There was more than one cheer-worthy moment and also lots of drama and suspense. But I counted off for TMI in the spice department. I’m not a prude (debatable) and don’t mind some open-door explicitness, but it started to suck up too much air out of the actual story and character development. It started a little past the halfway point and I was liking the story and characters so much that I got impatient with the amount of real estate it took up.

“West” Weston (aka Liam) and Anna Green got married in college just to qualify for affordable married housing. They barely saw each other and after Liam graduated they completely lost touch and haven’t seen each other for almost 5 years. Anna changed her major from Pre-Med to Art but her dream of supporting herself and paying her beloved father’s medical bills with her painting is not even a distant possibility. And she just got unjustly fired from her crap job at the Pico Pick-It-Up. She is at a very low point. So when Liam, whom she almost didn’t even recognize, comes a-knocking at her apartment door with a proposal that will allow her to breathe a little financially, she is all in. This is a girl who thinks $10,000 is “life-changing,” and Liam’s deal will net her over 10 times that amount. He needs her wifely presence by his side at his sister’s extravagant wedding on a private island in Indonesia. A condition of Liam and his siblings’ each inheriting around $100,000,000 each from their late grandfather is that they must be legitimately married for at least 5 years. And according to his mother, his ruthless father is starting to get suspicious that Liam’s marriage to Anna is a sham.

The plot is certainly not original and there were plot holes one could drive a bus through. The most glaring, to me, was how Anna and Liam could possibly think that their marriage-in-name only could not and would not have been easily uncovered years ago. But I was so involved in the story that I didn’t let that bother me (too much). The character of Anna was the key. Boisterous, proudly blue-collar, inappropriate, and hilarious, she must try to bury her authentic self to pretend to be Liam’s perfectly classy blue-blood and loving wife who is at ease with wealth and power. All the while pretending she is a doctor. Liam knows he is in for trouble when she shows up at the airport expensively attired, accessorized, and gorgeous (he gave her a dress allowance) but still sporting her strikingly pink hair. But Anna is smart and motivated to carry the whole deception off. She likes and respects Liam, who is a perfect foil for her. He left the family business for academia to become independent from his dysfunctional family for mysterious reasons. We only know that Liam is a good man with high principles and his father is a fiendish “sludge goblin.” He is constantly having to navigate his father’s manipulations and pressure to rejoin the family firm while still trying to keep in touch with the less offensive members of his troubled family.

Although The Westons certainly look askance at Anna’s unconventional ways she is pretty much accepted by them. Given Anna’s spirit and gumption, they don’t have much choice. The children of the family love her, Liam’s sister is nice and thrilled to finally meet her, and her sister-in-law is almost becoming a friend. And anyone can see the young couple are devoted to each other. Still, there are many dangerous waters to navigate and many traps to avoid. Suspense and tension build, but Liam and Anna have each others’ backs and even though there are some close calls, they are in a fair way to carrying the whole charade off. Except it’s not a charade anymore. Liam and Anna are in love. Then all hell breaks loose. Liam’s father gains the upper hand in his obsession to get Liam back under his thumb and back in the family business. Threats are made, secrets are revealed, and high drama is on every page. As truths come out, we learn there is much more at stake than we thought.

The opposites attract romance was engaging (other than…you know) and the crass and conspicuous consumption of the Weston family was an endless source of entertainment. Liam’s rage-filled narcissistic father kept the tension and drama factor high. I loved that when the inevitable crisis in Anna and Liam’s relationship came it was for good and understandable reasons, not silly foolishness. The side characters, including Anna’s friends and family, were very enjoyable and layered. Justice was served and the comeuppances were beautifully done and very satisfying. I closed the book with a smile on my face and hope for the families in my heart!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The Love of My Afterlife

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By Kirsty Greenwood

Oh god. I think…I think this is actually it? My grand finale. My expiration date. The End. Here lies Delphie Denise Bookham. She died just as she lived: alone, perplexed, wearing something a bit shit.

I really really liked this one. It was charming and very light, with an intriguing premise. And really funny. There were no flies in the ointment to detract from my enjoyment except that the heroine started out unlikable and flawed. She dislikes being around other people and is prickly, passive, and rude. She has chosen to isolate herself from the world as a response to a lot of childhood trauma, and her mother’s continuing neglect and disinterest in her. Once a talented artist, her art supplies are covered in dust. But since the overriding theme of this book is how and why Delphie learns and grows into a better, happier person, and starts connecting to other people, how can I complain? That wouldn’t be fair. And we know she is a good person at heart because of her only human contact (I hesitate to call him a friend), Mr. Yoon, her downstairs neighbor. He is an elderly mute Asian man, whom Delphie has taken upon herself to look after and keep safe.

At the beginning of the book, Delphie chokes on a hamburger and dies. She ends up in the “Evermore” waiting room with her afterlife counselor named Merritt. She is just getting acclimated to the situation when another recently dead man shows up. His name is Jonah and they have an instant connection. In fact, he is one of her 5 earthly soulmates. Delphie is thinking being dead might not be so bad after all when, Oopsie!, he is sent back to Earth. A mistake has been made. But Merritt, a lover and expert in romantic comedies has a deal for Delphie. She will bend the rules and let Delphie return to Earth for 10 days. If she can get Jonah to kiss her within that time, she can stay alive and kicking. Of course, it is easier said than done. Jonah will have no memory of Delphie and she does not even know his last name, only that he lives in London.

To her disgust, Delphie quickly finds out that she can not do this on her own. She needs the help of her workmates and neighbors whom she has been successfully and unapologetically alienating for years. Number one on the list is her downstairs nemesis, the attractive but surly Cooper, who has the necessary computer skills to track down Jonah. Readers familiar with romantic comedy know right away that it is Cooper who is “the one” for Delphie, not Jonah. Confident ladies man Cooper, it turns out, is as ornery and unhappy as Delphie. He’s not enthusiastic about helping her, but he needs a favor. As they search London for Jonah, Delphie slowly sheds her antisocial ways and finds friends. Cooper and Delphie fall in love.

Just yesterday my life involved interacting with as few people as I could get away with….How am I supposed to leave this? This…life. Because what I was living ten days ago wasn’t a life at all. But this? This noise and laughter and mess and fear and…people. Friends. Possible love. I can’t lose this. There are people in this room who wouldn’t want to lose me either. I make a difference to them. I can’t leave. Evermore is too far away. I don’t want to die. Fuck. I want to live.

But to live, she must still get Jonah to kiss her. And that blasted Merritt sometimes seems to be working against her. She must also ensure that Mr. Yoon is not left on his own in case her quest ends in failure. Cooper and Delphie’s journey to their happy ending is both hilarious and touching. As the already quick pace of the book picks up as Delphie’s 10 days comes to an end, it really kept me guessing. And then there is a surprise development that throws a whole new light on many things.

I’ve had another of Kirsty Greenwood’s novels on my TBR list for years. Now that I’ve read this one, I finally have a new author to be excited about. It’s a great feeling.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The Housemaid

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by Freida McFadden

“What did she mean by that? Is Nina more than just an eccentric and demanding boss? Is there something else going on with her?”

This was a fun and fast-paced domestic thriller that seemed shorter than it actually was. It just sped along which was very welcome after the last few books I’ve read. I read it on Audible, narrated by Lauren Allman.

Millie is an ex-con who was imprisoned for reasons unknown. She is also young and beautiful. After being fired for reasons unknown from her last job, she is hired as a live-in housekeeper and nanny for the fabulously wealthy and socially prominent Winchesters. It is well-paid and if her room is a little small, with no working windows, locks on the outside rather than the inside  and deep scratch marks on the door, well, after living in her car, who is she to complain? At first, it seems like a dream job but it’s not long before her sweet and friendly employer, Mrs. “call me Nina” Winchester starts to show a very very dark side. Nina seems to delight in gaslighting Millie, lying to her, setting her up for failure, blaming her for things that were her own fault, and otherwise mentally torturing her. And then there is her 9-year-old daughter, Cecelia, who is a spoiled mean brat and more than a little strange. Think Rhoda in The Bad Seed. But Millie puts up with it because anything is better than destitution and living in her car. Not to mention that Mrs. Winchester has the power to send her back to prison. Millie seems to be utterly in her power. And, you know, sometimes with her unpredictable mood swings, she is quite nice. Thank Goodness for Mr. Winchester, who is kind, handsome, and seems like a port in the storm.

This one has lots of twists and turns, and although I guessed the big twist because it was the only thing that made sense based on some of the behaviors, I enjoyed the ride anyway. It wasn’t deep, complex, or flawlessly planned or plotted. There were ways that Millie could have handled things that would have made her life easier. And some of the ways things were handled at the end to ensure a happy satisfying resolution would make no sense in real life. But I was in it for the thrills, chills, and schadenfreude, not the intellectual exercise. Also, “things” went a little too far for my liking.

But, Yeah. There are two sequels and I am definitely up for the next book in the series.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Forgotten Garden

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by Kate Morton

**Spoilers**

Why did I read this book? Because of all of the great reviews. Because it sounded really good. Because I wanted to try something by this highly touted author. Because the cover was really pretty and the title intriguing (although the picture on my copy had nothing to do with the garden in the story.) Because I wanted to read something a little different and it had been quite a long time that I had read any multi-generational or otherwise sweeping family dramas. It was a genre that I used to enjoy a lot. And because it became available in a timely manner from my library waiting list. After reading about a quarter of the book and realizing that I didn’t particularly like or care about 2 of the 3 main characters, why did I keep reading? No idea. I guess the “big mysteries” kept me going, hoping for a shocking twist, a mind-blowing reveal, and satisfying justice for the evil doers and just reward for the good people.

The two main characters that left me cold were Nell and her granddaughter, Cassandra. Most of Nell’s story takes place in 1975 when she is in her mid-sixties. We learn that she was a delightful child and a lovely young woman whose life took a turn when her beloved father told her she was adopted. He had found her abandoned on the dock where he was port-master in Brisbane Australia, when she was only 4. When no one claimed her, he raised her as his own with his nice but sickly wife and his other children. She is so devastated by this news that her life is forever blighted. Or rather, she chooses to turn her back on her loving family emotionally, dump her adored fiance, and turn into a dried-up old stick, a terrible mother, and full of self-hatred. She has vague memories of being loved and cherished before ending up abandoned on a ship, and of the woman who took her there whom she only remembers as “The Authoress”.

When the old bat dies she leaves a cottage in Cornwall England to her granddaughter Cassandra, whom she raised, along with a fairy tale book. Nell had gone to England in 1975 right before Cassandra had come to live with her and had been on the verge of discovering her origins. She had to go home to Brisbane and was not able to return because her daughter left her granddaughter almost literally on her doorstep for her to raise. After her grandmother dies in 2005, Cassandra decides to go to Cornwall and continue Nell’s quest for the truth. The cottage is on the grounds of a great estate by the sea that Nell had learned her bio parents were heirs to. Cassandra is a lonely young widow whose husband and child were killed 10 years ago in a tragic accident. She is a good sort, but grew to be as dull and boring as she could be. It was not engaging to spend probably about 75% of the book with one unpleasant senior citizen and one almost middle-aged woman without a lick of spirit or humor.

The other main character is Eliza. She is the daughter of Georgiana, the daughter of the owners of Blackhurst, the great estate that Nell’s little cottage is on. Georgiana eloped with a sailor and fled her home from an evil so great that she chose to raise her daughter in a London tenement rather than return home when her husband was killed. Her daughter is a brave, intelligent, creative, and spirited girl who loves to tell stories. Her, I liked. Orphaned, she is tracked down and “rescued” from abject poverty in London to go and live with her mother’s family at Blackhurst. Although she is no longer destitute, her family is menacing and hateful. Nevertheless, she makes friends with Rose, the spoiled daughter of the house, and they are devoted to each other. We learn that Eliza grows up to be “The Authoress” that Nell remembers from her toddlerhood.

Although Nell thinks she has uncovered the mystery of her mother and father, she is still in the dark as to why The Authoress abandoned her on a ship bound for Australia. Of course, the reader suspects, since this is a mystery, that all may not be as it appears. The reader would be right. I had guessed pretty early on what the mystery of Nell’s parentage was, although there was a red herring that threw me off for a minute. We don’t learn until the end why Eliza abandoned Rose on the ship. But when we do, it throws her whole story in the toilet. Or let’s say that it flushed the toilet that her story had already been thrown into. The one truly positive and admirable character of all three main protagonists had already been damaged in my eyes by both her decisions and her slavish and unaccountable devotion to Rose. I felt sorry for Rose, sometimes, but I was very put off by her. She was not a good person. I will say that the antagonists and the evil characters, though cartoonish, were successfully crafted. Rose was very complex.

The theme of this book is not to embroil yourself in the past but to move forward through challenges and the bad things and look forward toward the future.
“You make a life out of what you have, not what you’re missing.”
Nell ruined her life, and made her loved ones victims as well, by letting her knowledge of her abandonment rule her life. What made it worse was the knowledge that so many good people had sacrificed so much because of her. It was a waste. But in her 60s she forsook her search for her past to raise her granddaughter, Cassandra. She finally became a successful worthwhile person because of that. In taking up the search where Nell left off, in Cornwall, Cassandra leaves her grief over her dead husband and child behind and finds friends, a purpose, and a new love. The cautionary tale is provided by Eliza who leaves her child and her future dreams on a ship bound for Australia to revisit her childhood hovel and retrieve a “legacy” hidden there by her long-dead mother. The consequence of that little detour was a severe punishment indeed. So two main characters with whom spending time was tedious, and a tragic and disappointing ending for the good one. I held out hope for this book to the end, and a great ending could have saved it. But it was not to be.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Black Sheep

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by Rachel Harrison

**spoilers**

For some reason, all dogs hated me

I like a good thriller and welcome paranormal elements in a few types of books. But I didn’t quite expect how all of this played out. I knew something was up when the bowl of nacho sauce exploded in the face of a guy who was being a jerk to our heroine. I’ve read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, binged Stranger Things, and have seen Carrie. And any reader knows that, despite appearances, if dogs love you, you are a good person at heart, but if they don’t, there is something seriously wrong with you. But I didn’t expect it to be so full-on. I don’t know why it came as such a surprise (not shock-there is a difference) because the clues were there barely 10% into the book

The dog…went on yapping, clawing, baring its teeth, trying to get to me. Eventually, the girl got up and moved, eyeing me as she did. “He’s never like this,” she muttered to herself as she passed by.

Vesper is smart, funny, and beautiful. Too smart and beautiful to be waitressing in a chain restaurant in New Jersey. We learn that she has been on her own for 5 years because shortly before she reached her 18th birthday, she escaped from a strict and fanatical religious cult. While growing up, she had always been indulged and treated as if she was special despite her indifferent and sometimes cruel mother.  The loving father she adored had left her and the community when she was 11 and she still yearns for him.  She never believed in “The Lord” and felt like an outsider. Yet, outside and free from the cult, she still is an outsider. She does not play well with others. She is lonely and unloved.  So when she receives an invitation to attend the wedding of her childhood best friend who is marrying “the only boy she had ever loved”, she can’t resist returning and attending. She is welcomed back with open arms except by her mother (who is a retired “scream queen” movie star). The reader is introduced to Rosie and Brody, the bride and groom-to-be, who are like a Disney princess and her handsome prince come to life.

I wondered what had caught [Rosie’s] attention. She was peach sweet, would stop to admire a rainbow, marvel at a praying mantis.

Wait, what? A praying mantis?

Anyway, early in the book we learn that the cult that has all the hallmarks of fanatical fundamentalist Christianity is not what we have been led to believe.

“Praise to Him.” “Praise to Him.” Their god. Not mine. Never mine. “Hail Satan!” “Hail Satan!” “Hail Satan,” I muttered, infusing my tone with sarcasm to curb my nerves.

Even though I was not surprised, it was shocking to see it in print. And she learns that her father was not like herself: a rebel who left because he didn’t “believe” like the rest of them, but the head honcho himself whom the rest of the community worships. Satan.

It was him. My father. “Look at you,” he said. “My girl.” “What are you doing here?” “I’m here to see you,” he said. Then he gestured around the room. “And my friends. To join the party.” “Praise be!” someone shouted. “Hail Satan!” “Uh . . .” I looked over my shoulder to my mother, who blinked rapidly, fake lashes aflutter. “Everyone,” he said. “Please, rise. It is so good to see you all. It’s been too long. I . . . have been busy. Very, very, very busy.”

After this big reveal halfway through the novel, I was hoping, like Vesper, that her father and his followers were delusional. The clues in the beginning that she has “powers” she is not aware of and an alien or strange nature that repels dogs (and probably cats if there were any in this book) were “just one of those things.”

I was eager to dismiss it all—I didn’t believe in powers or magic or gods or any of that pixie-dust bullshit. I never had, and I refused to start because of my delusional father. I understood that belief was a slippery slope. If you wanted to believe in something, opened yourself up, suddenly you were seeing signs, assigning meaning, taking coincidences as proof. I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.

But finally, the truth is revealed and is impossible to deny. She is not just in a big drug-induced hallucination. She is Satan’s Spawn. “Lucifer Junior”, “The Harbinger”, The Princess of Hell. The Antichrist. A Reluctant Antichrist, but The Antichrist nonetheless. And her role is to be a sacrificial lamb to initiate the Apocalypse and destroy the world the non-Satanists have ruined (Climate change and inflation, it is clarified) leaving no survivors except Satan’s true followers. But Vesper, with a little help from someone unexpected, fights back.

This book did live up to the hype. It was horrific, irreverent, sharp, and funny. “The Princess Diaries meets Dante’s Inferno”* I loved Vesper and her voice. But the book did not address the elephant in the room. And that is, if Satan really does exist, then so does God. If the book had gone deeper and Vesper had had that revelation and dealt with it, the book could have gotten a higher rating from me.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

*Eric LaRocca, Horror novelist.

Spin

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By Catherine McKenzie

“So, most days you need something to make you feel happy?” I knew it was a trick! “I guess.” “And if you weren’t drinking, would you be unhappy most days?” My eyes wander to the oblong window above Saundra’s head. The sky is gray and cloudy. “I don’t know . . . I really don’t think of myself as unhappy . . .” “Katie, when you’re using alcohol regularly to alter your mood, it’s generally an indication that there’s something that needs to be altered.”

This one started out full of promise and possibilities, and very reminiscent of Rachel’s Holiday, the almost classic Marian Keyes novel. But because I couldn’t help but compare them, it was ultimately disappointing. Rachel’s Holiday was so deep, dark, and hilarious. There were definitely some good things about this one. The premise was a great idea and roped me in right away.

Kate, a talented but struggling writer is in denial about her alcoholism. When she is invited to interview for a position in a respected music review magazine, The Line, she is thrilled. This is her dream job. She is invited by a friend to go out to celebrate this and her upcoming birthday the night before the interview. She puts up a weak resistance knowing she has to be on her game for the interview, but goes out anyway for “just one drink.” She shows up at the interview still drunk from the night before and simultaneously hung over. I’ll draw a veil. But when Amber Shepard a young star and current tabloid fodder enters rehab, they remember Kate. One of The Line’s affiliates is a celebrity gossip rag and they tap her to follow Amber into rehab to get the goods on the young erratic “It Girl.” If she does a good job, The Line will hire her for their magazine.

Written in first person by Kate, it was funny, serious, and well-written. I liked her voice. But the book doesn’t go deep enough. It’s kind of vague about many things. For example, how much does Kate really drink? We know it’s a lot. She randomly tells the doctor she drinks 2 bottles of wine every day which is what she guesses would qualify to get her into Cloudspin Oasis, the rehab facility, but is she lying or telling the truth? Kate is a liar about many things. It would have been effective if we find out that Kate is either lying to the reader, or if the reader is clear about the truth.  We meet a few of the patients but we never get their journeys. They really don’t add anything to the story. Of course, get to know Amber as Kate is successful in befriending her and gaining her trust. Amber is a good character, but Kate is warned not to let her get too close because she is dangerous. That knowledge keeps us suspicious and watchful of Amber, but nothing really plays out.

Amber is famously entangled with Connor Parks, another hot movie actor who plays the Young James Bond in a movie franchise. He follows her to rehab (why?) and it is when he enters the scene, about halfway through, that I started losing interest. It was one inauthenticity too many. First off that would never be allowed.  Things became just so facile and contrived. Connor has a personal assistant who is allowed to enter rehab with him to look after him. What? Wouldn’t happen. He is Kate’s love interest and boring. I just can’t invest in a romance where the guy is an enabler of a bad person and addict just because he is an old-school friend. It conflicts with his character big time. The “why” of their relationship is a mystery and could have been intriguing but ended up to be more unexplored potential.  Kate is able to smuggle in an Apple iTouch to submit copy to the gossip rag and is never caught. Wouldn’t happen. The doctors and therapists are naive and gullible. They seem incapable of holding anyone’s feet to the fire. There is no meaningful therapy that goes on. We never really get to the source of Kate’s addiction. Her friends, both enabling and disapproving, visit her but nothing comes of it. There was some hope when Kate’s eccentric and permissive old hippie parents were introduced. Failing anything interesting happening with her friends, I was hoping for some drama, revelations, and secrets uncovered involving them but it just fizzled as well. It looked like something might come of her relationship with her hostile and jealous sister, but again it came to nothing. We never get to the pain. Once Kate is out of detox which if Kate is anything to go by is no big deal, there are no struggles stemming from being cut off from alcohol and forced sobriety. When she finishes her 30 days and is released there is no real battle to remain sober. She does fall off the wagon once but just climbs back on again and all is well. Easy peasy.

Once out of rehab and sober, Kate does have one problem. How can she betray Amber who she likes and is now her friend? This is what triggers her short relapse. And then Amber finds out. This part of the book, the last 20% or so, where Kate’s dilemma is resolved in a satisfactory way, is pretty good.

I gave the book 3 stars because I kept reading and didn’t end up skipping through to get to the end. It kept my interest, but it just didn’t fulfill the potential that it promised in the beginning. For such a long book, it took too many shortcuts.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Darling Girls

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by Sally Hepworth

I was hovering around 4 stars until the final chapter. I can’t believe that I was surprised by the final reveal. Fooled again. It was the final shocker in a book in which I was successfully misdirected at every turn. How do these authors do it? How do they think of how to trick their readers? Or am I just blind and credulous? I did my best to imagine how the author was going to pull a fast one, but I didn’t guess correctly, did I? I really liked that the ending removed some mixed feelings I had about one of the main characters. So I bumped it up. I can’t quite give it 5 stars. Most thrillers have very disturbing content but this one involved child abuse. Mostly it was psychological and very cruel, and almost started to get repetitive and overdone. I can only take so much dread. But as soon as I thought it had crossed the line, a new distracting factor or surprise was introduced. It was very well-constructed, and there was just enough humor to relieve the tension every so often.

This is a dual timeline book wherein we trace the lives of our three protagonists both as children, in which the 3 “sisters” survive their horrific childhoods, and as adults as we see how their childhoods with their cruel foster mother have damaged them. And every so often we have the therapy sessions of an unknown (at first) person with a psychiatrist who appears to be a little “off”. And I mean the doctor, not the patient. The present-day plot is centered around what happens when the 3 get contacted by a police detective who wants to question the 3 women about some human bones that have been uncovered under the demolished house where the girls grew up.

It started out with a bang. Every time I had to take a break, I couldn’t wait to get back to it. Some books, as much as I enjoy them, don’t have that extra something special: I can put it down and I’m not all that compelled to pick it up again ASAP. All three of the attractive women were very different from each other but utterly devoted to each other. True sisters of the heart. One is kind and good, but insecure and vulnerable and afraid to open herself up to the possibility of a new family. One is funny and tough, but whose anger issues have reached a point that if she assaults a fellow human one more time, she will end up in prison. The last has control issues, OCD, and a drug problem. She has a very successful, even renowned, business and is married to an apparently nice guy. We learn soon enough that one of these women is a lot more damaged than the others. After a lull in the action, the stakes are raised for the 3 girls and their miserable lives with Miss Fairchild a little over halfway through. A few genuine mysteries develop in the past and the present. Meanwhile, in the present, one of the women’s lives is headed for disaster. The reader really starts getting some gasp-worthy shocks and surprises about 2/3 of the way through, and then it never lets up until the very final pages.

I don’t want to give up any spoilers, but can I say that everything ends up great on all fronts except one? In a very satisfactory conclusion, all questions were answered and all loose ends were tied up. It was a great ending. It was my kind of book. I definitely will be seeking out another of Sally Hepworth’s novels.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a free Uncorrected Digital Galley of this book in return for an unbiased review. This book will be published April 23, 2024.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

One Plus One

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

by Jojo Moyes

This is the story of a family who didn’t fit in. A little girl who was a bit geeky and liked maths more than makeup. And a boy who liked makeup and didn’t fit into any tribes.

“I worked it all out in the bath. I’ve been blathering to the kids all these years about how if you look out for people and do the right thing it will all be okay. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Do the right thing. Somehow the universe will see you right. Well, it’s all bullshit, isn’t it? Nobody else thinks that way.”

Needless to say, this was well-written. The plot was engaging and kept me in a state of suspense and anticipation. Truthfully, even dread at a few points. But that was because I really cared about the characters and I knew that all would not go smoothly for them before what I expected to be a happy ending, with good rewarded and bad punished. At a certain point, I thought the worst had happened, and I relaxed and just enjoyed the wonderful characters, the humor, and how they dealt with their challenges. And even though bad things kept happening (contemptible Marty! The Fishers!), I was OK with it, because everything else was so good, and sometimes it’s worse waiting for the bad than actually being in the middle of it. The story is told from the perspectives of the 4 protagonists.

Jess is a bravely optimistic single mother with a strong moral compass and who is always determined to do the right thing.

She seemed to bounce through life like Tigger; the things that would have felled most people didn’t seem to touch her. Or if she did fall, she bounced right back. She fell again, plastered on a smile, dusted herself down and kept going

She has been abandoned by her useless husband Marty who is living with his mother and dealing with depression. She is fine with that and doesn’t bother him for money or the support she is owed because she knows about depression and that he is jobless anyway. She is caring for Nicky, his 17-year-old son with a drug addict mother, and her own child with him, 10-year-old Tanzie. Nicky is somewhat of a misfit of the goth variety and doesn’t fit in at school, or anywhere really except perhaps in his online gaming community. Tanzie is fine socially and at school. We suspect that Nicky is pretty smart, but we know Tanzie is. She has just been offered a scholarship to an elite school in which she will thrive by virtue of her genius for Math. The scholarship will cover 90% of her tuition, and they really want her. Unfortunately, Jess, who works two jobs just to not keep up with basic expenses can’t even afford to pay the 10% difference. The family is desperate for Tanzie to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity both because of what it will mean for her future, and out of fear of the neighborhood school she will have to go to if she can’t get in. Nicky is being cruelly victimized by some of the locals who go there and they already have their eye on Tanzie. There is a lot at stake, but there is hope. Jess learns of a Math Olympiad with a prize of 15,000 pounds for the winner. It will cover Tanzie’s tuition for a year and Jess knows that if she can just get Tanzie to Aberdeen Scotland to compete, victory and the prize money are in the bag.

Meanwhile, we meet Ed, whom Jess cleans house for. He is a tech wizard who has made a fortune with his company. He is socially awkward and somewhat of a geek, although pretty good-looking now that he can afford to be. I love an unconventional hero. He has his own problems having inadvertently got caught up in an insider trading scheme. He is possibly facing prison and the bad publicity when it all comes out threatens to tank his company. He needs to get out of the public eye and get out of town. Through a series of unlikely events, the four join forces to get Tanzie to Scotland to win the 15,000 pound prize.

Their adventures on the road are by turns comical, heart-tugging, suspenseful, and even shocking. I was all in and loved Jess and her little family. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about my feelings for Ed, with whom the kids bond with and with whom Jess falls in love. It was a shame really because in many ways, he was a sympathetic, even admirable, and lovable character at times who grows quite a bit in the course of the novel. But I could not forgive his behavior towards his dying father, his mother, and his sister (another great character). He refuses to visit them, fighting his sister all the way, for over half the book. His excuse is that he is trying to protect them from the impending scandal of his trial. But I didn’t buy this seemingly reasonable excuse. He was just cowardly and embarrassed. It was a relief when he finally saw the light and made things right in that regard.

Because in that one moment, Ed Nicholls saw that he had been more like Marty than he was like Jess. He had been that coward who spent his life running from things rather than facing up to them. And that had to change.

But his mother’s and father’s hearts had already been broken again and again and his sister enraged by his selfishness.
All was forgiven, but for me, it was too little too late. Some things cannot be fixed by an apology. And no sooner than I get over that, he turns on Jess and the kids. Yes, Jess screws up and, for once, does something she knows is wrong. But in the same way that Jean Valjean was wrong to steal a loaf of bread to feed his starving nephew and sister. Despite the fact that it all came right at the end, I just felt so much hostility towards Ed for his attitude and behavior that it almost ruined the book for me. But you know, if Jess is happy, then I’m happy.

Come to think of it, the same thing happened with a main character in the other Jojo Moyes book I read. She made me hate a character only to have a character I loved just forgive them. Does she do that with every book? No matter. The book was saved by the wonderfulness of all of the rest of the characters, the bravest and bestest dog in the world, and “the kindness of strangers.”

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Heiress

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

By Rachel Hawkins

This one started a little slowly for me, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, plus I was worried by the early hints that the two likable protagonists might turn out to be not so likable after all. As it turned out, they do have secrets from each other and the reader that don’t put them in the best light, but even in the face of a few doubts that came and went throughout the novel, even to the very end, I never really stopped rooting for them. Possibly because their antagonists proved to be so vile, but also because Cam seemed like such a good person, and Jules was such a force to be reckoned with in her support of Cam.

It’s hard to review a thriller/mystery the way I usually do because it can’t usually be done without spoilers. I will say that this was very smart and very entertaining. I was really in the palm of the author’s hand once Jules and Cam finally arrived at Ashby House and the action really got going. When I read one of these types of books, part of the enjoyment is trying to guess the reveals and the twists while the author is trying to throw you off and misdirect you. I did guess correctly that two aspects would come back into play as important factors but not in the way I thought they would (but in hindsight, should have guessed.) The reveals were clever and surprising and there weren’t just one, two, or three. There were at least eleven by my count! And they were all “Whoa!” worthy.

I really liked the use of 3 points of view to tell the story. Cam is the adopted son of the late Ruby McTavish, “The Heiress.” He hasn’t been back home in 10 years, since her death. He has turned his back on wealth and privilege (lots of wealth and privilege) to scratch out a living in Colorado as a school teacher. His part of the story is told in the conventional first person. Jules is his wife of 10 years whom he met there. Her perspective is also told in first person, but often breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the reader.
“So, I guess I have some explaining to do, huh? I know, I know. It looks bad….Second act plot twist, your heroine is actually a potential villain.
The third perspective is told in the letters Ruby wrote shortly before her death to someone she refers to as “My darling”. They are confessional. She tells the truth about how her 4 husbands met their demise as well as other secrets, filling the reader in on her back story and motivations. I started to like her. She was frank and funny. Then things changed. The author kept me turning the pages by ending each of these “chapters” on a cliffhanger before going to another narrator or the objective point of view of a clip from an old newspaper or magazine article on the milestones in the lives of the famous and powerful family.

The book barrels to an exciting climax before we get two remaining letters and an epilogue that reveal more secrets and answer more questions. It ends as well as I could expect such a book to end. It was satisfying. This was a clever and entertaining novel that I recommend without reservation to readers who like mysteries or thrillers with strong gothic overtones along the lines of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for an unbiased review. This book will be published January 9, 2024.

Rating: 5 out of 5.