The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand

The Rumor 

by Elin Hilderbrand

From Amazon.com:

A friendship is tested in this irresistible page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand.Nantucket writer Madeline King could not have picked a worse time to have writer's block. Her deadline is looming, her bills are piling up, and inspiration is in short supply. Madeline's best friend Grace, is hard at work transforming her garden into the envy of the island with the help of a ruggedly handsome landscape architect. Before she realizes it, Grace is on the verge of a decision that will irrevocably change her life. Could Grace's crisis be Madeline's salvation? As the gossip escalates, and the summer's explosive events come to a head, Grace and Madeline try desperately to set the record straight--but the truth might be even worse than rumor has it. 

My thoughts:

I am mourning the end of summer, so I needed a beachy read to try to hold onto it  for  a little longer.  I have had this book on my shelf for some time, but I actually decided to listen to the audio book from the library which allowed me to pass along my hardcover copy to  a friend.  

Rumors can be very damaging and it is surprising how much people are willing to believe things they have heard through the grapevine.  In this novel there are multiple rumors, mostly about Madeline, her best friend Grace and their families.  The funny thing is some of the bigger and more juicy stories are happening under the radar as false rumors spread  around the island of Nantucket.  

An author in need of an idea for her next novel, who is worried about an advance she invested, her best friend who is feeling ignored by her husband and daughters as she works on a garden paradise, twin teen aged girls who have drifted apart, a pilot,a realtor, a garden architect and the way people talk about those they think have it all.  This book kept me listening and wanting to find out what would happen next.

I think this would make for a fun book club read, I hate spoilers so I won't add any here, but it would be fun to pull apart how each of the rumors was started and the motivation of the one who started it, along with how the ripples from the rumor spiraled out into the lives of the characters. It helped to see how people felt about the rumors, or if they were even aware of them by having the chapters from different characters points of view.  This added to the story as we actually knew what each of them really thought and felt about things.

Honestly I was a little sad when it ended.  I think I will be trying another book by this author.

I know I started with a blurb from Amazon, but I also need to plug my favorite indie bookstore which is where I do most of my book purchasing.  I love having a bookstore in my community to shop at.  They also have an online store, so you can order books and have them delivered to you.  I hope avid readers already know where their independent bookstores are, but in case you don't have one, i highly recommend Let's Play Books (https://www.letsplaybooks.com/).  I have both ordered online and shopped at the store and I have never been disappointed.

The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

The tree is decorated, the cookies are baked, and the packages are wrapped, but the biggest celebration this Christmas is Gaby Summerhill's wedding. Since her husband died three years ago, Gaby's four children have drifted apart, each consumed by the turbulence of their own lives. They haven't celebrated Christmas together since their father's death, but when Gaby announces that she's getting married—and that the groom will remain a secret until the wedding day—she may finally be able to bring them home for the holidays.

But the wedding isn't Gaby's only surprise—she has one more gift for her children, and it could change all their lives forever. With deeply affecting characters and the emotional twists of a James Patterson thriller, The Christmas Wedding is a fresh look at family and the magic of the season.

My thoughts:

This is the first James Patterson I've read. I have others on my shelf, but somehow they haven't been picked up to be read yet. I found this one when I was looking for a digital audio book from my library. Many people think about reading Christmas book mainly in winter and especially during December, but I enjoy them all year round. Who can't use a little of that Christmas Magic at other times of the year too?

In this novel, Gaby is a widowed mother of four who teaches high school English and runs a farm. She and a group of volunteers hold a regular breakfast for those in need. Of the people who help her, three have proposed marriage and she has decided that she is ready to remarry after the death of her first husband three years ago. The catch is this, she isn't telling anyone, including the groom, who she will be marrying. She sends video messages out to her children telling them bits and pieces and that they are expected to be there.

Gaby's grown children are going through their own problems, Seth is trying to get a novel published while working as a receptionist, Claire and her husband Hank have reached a tough point in their relationship with each other and with their son's behavior, Lizzie's husband has a critical illness and Emily is being worked way too hard in her attempt to make partner at her law firm in New York. Each has been struggling on their own, but coming together makes it hard to keep some of these secrets.

Everyone is trying to finagle out of Gaby who she plans to marry. Will it be Jacob, the rabbi, Tom, her lifelong friend, or Martin, her husband's brother? I had it narrowed down to two of them, but wasn't sure until the wedding which one it would be.

I enjoyed my first Paterson novel so I have a feeling I will be reading more.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780316097390
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
• Publication date: 10/17/2011
• Pages: 288

Meet the Author

More by this Author

• 11th Hour (Women's Murder Club Series #11)
• I, Michael Bennett
• Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross Series #1)
• Guilty Wives
• Kill Alex Cross (Alex Cross Series #18)

James Patterson

James Patterson has had more New York Times bestsellers than any other writer, ever, according to Guinness World Records. Since his first novel won the Edgar Award in 1977, James Patterson's books have sold more than 210 million copies. He is the author of the Alex Cross novels, the most popular detective series of the past twenty-five years, including Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. Mr. Patterson also writes the bestselling Women's Murder Club novels, set in San Francisco, and the top-selling New York detective series of all time, featuring Detective Michael Bennett. He writes fulltime and lives in Florida with his family.

Throwaway by Heather Huffman

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

Jessie Jones is living the life--except for the fact that she earns it by working the streets. She's been under pimp Spence's thumb for fourteen years, and she isn't looking for change. That is, until undercover cop Gabe walks into her life and offers her something she's never had before: a love, a future, a home. But even if Jessie could walk away from Spence, there are darker forces of evil who want her to stay put, or worse, dead.

In this romantic suspense, author Heather Huffman delivers an adventure from the vibrant streets of St. Louis to the caves of the Ozarks as Jessie discovers whether she can love another, whether she can love herself, and whether any of it is enough.

My thoughts:

I've been reading this book on and off on my iPod for quite some time. Last week the story caught me up again and I read the second half in a day. I wasn't sure about the premise at first, I kept thinking about Pretty Woman, but it really didn't follow that story at all.

Jessie was in foster care after being abandoned by her mother. When she aged out she found herself with nothing and nowhere to go and fell into the clutches (sounds suitably evil) of a pimp. She has been working the streets for 15 years and has not even though too far into the future about what she can and will do. She meets a cop by chance who asks her to help him uncover some underground illegal activity where young girls are being sold. Along the way they fall in love, but Jessie is afraid to leave and feels like she should stay to help these girls.

One of the things they do together is take a vacation to the camp where Jesse James hid out years ago. It is the first vacation Jessie can remember ever taking and it makes a real impression on her. I don't want to give anything else away, but it really was an enjoyable story.

What I liked most was how at the end there is a not that Huffman wrote this book to bring attention to the plight of children who age out of the foster care system and what becomes of them if they are let go with no resources to help them.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9781935961246
• Publisher: Libertary Co.
• Publication date: 8/15/2011
• Pages: 226

Meet the Author

Heather Huffman is a full-time author who lives in Missouri with her husband and three children. Her passion is writing fiction with strong female characters who are flawed, relatable and very human.The stories and settings are varied but always intertwine, reminding us of the important truth that our lives are all connected in some fashion. We are more alike than we realize.

A portion of profits from this book go to join the fight to save women and girls from exploitation. Please see details on Heather's website at www.heatherhuffman.com

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

This is the "delightful" (People) New York Times bestseller that's earned raves from Sarah Blake, Helen Simonson, and reviewers everywhere-the story of three sisters who love each other, but just don't happen to like each other very much...

Three sisters have returned to their childhood home, reuniting the eccentric Andreas family. Here, books are a passion (there is no problem a library card can't solve) and TV is something other people watch. Their father-a professor of Shakespeare who speaks almost exclusively in verse-named them after the Bard's heroines. It's a lot to live up to.

The sisters have a hard time communicating with their parents and their lovers, but especially with one another. What can the shy homebody eldest sister, the fast-living middle child, and the bohemian youngest sibling have in common? Only that none has found life to be what was expected; and now, faced with their parents' frailty and their own personal disappointments, not even a book can solve what ails them...

My thoughts:

I loved listening to this book! I know I saw it mentioned on a lot of blogs either earlier this year or late last year and it sounded intriguing so I was excited when I saw it in the list of digital audio books at the library. I listened to it over the course of a few days and really enjoyed it.

Rose, the oldest sister, is so afraid of change that she has stayed close to home and is unwilling to entertain the possibility that there might be more out there for her. Bean has tried to fill herself up with material possessions and has gone as far from home as she can in her ambitions, and Cordy has decided not to be responsible at all and has gone with the flow for years going where the wind takes her and working odd jobs or sleeping with strangers for a place to stay. All three are brought back together under their parent’s roof due in part to their mother's diagnosis of cancer and in part by what is going on in their own lives. The old frustrations are there, Rose and her book marks, Bean and her clothing ensembles, Cordy with her breezy attitude.

I loved the idea of their house. They have books everywhere and pick them up and put them down at random, a house of books sounds heavenly. Their father is a Shakespeare professor who quotes verse often times when he is unsure of how to put something into his own words. Their mother is a homemaker who sometimes decides to cook many course dinners and other times wanders into the garden and forgets all about making dinner at all.

The three sisters fight, come to terms with each other and allow each other to grow and be honest. Bean admits what brought her home, as does Cordy, while Rose entertains the idea that maybe, just maybe, she could leave and it wouldn't all fall apart.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780425244142
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
• Publication date: 2/7/2012
• Pages: 368

Meet the Author

More by this Author

• Una casa llena de palabras
• Prayer
• The Read Pink Weird Sisters
• The Weird Sisters

Eleanor M. Brown

Eleanor Brown's writing has been published in anthologies, magazines, and journals. She holds an M.A. in Literature and works in education in South Florida but will be living in the Denver area, Colorado at pub date.

Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

Sometimes, when you need a change in your life, the tide just happens to pull you in the right direction….

Ellis, Julia, and Dorie. Best friends since Catholic grade school, they now find themselves, in their mid-thirties, at the crossroads of life and love. Ellis, recently fired from a job she gave everything to, is rudderless and now beginning to question the choices she's made over the past decade of her life. Julia—whose caustic wit covers up her wounds--has a man who loves her and is offering her the world, but she can't hide from how deeply insecure she feels about her looks, her brains, her life. And Dorie has just been shockingly betrayed by the man she loved and trusted the most in the world…though this is just the tip of the iceberg of her problems and secrets. A month in North Carolina's Outer Banks is just what they each of them needs.

Ty Bazemore is their landlord, though he's hanging on to the rambling old beach house by a thin thread. After an inauspicious first meeting with Ellis, the two find themselves disturbingly attracted to one another, even as Ty is about to lose everything he's ever cared about.

Maryn Shackleford is a stranger, and a woman on the run. Maryn needs just a few things in life: no questions, a good hiding place, and a new identity. Ellis, Julia, and Dorie can provide what Maryn wants; can they also provide what she needs?

Five people questioning everything they ever thought they knew about life. Five people on a journey that will uncover their secrets and point them on the path to forgiveness. Five people who each need a sea change, and one month in a summer rental that might just give it to them.

One of Library Journal's Best Women’s Fiction Books of 2011

My thoughts:
This was my ipod audio last week that I listened to while running and cleaning.  I have to admit that, prior to borrowing this from the library, I had never heard of Mary Kay Andrews.  At the end of the book there is a short interview between the author and the reader of the book and I was surprised to find out that this is her seventeenth book!  I really enjoyed it so I guess I will have to look for some more of her books soon.

These three best friends impulsively decided tospend a month at the beach together when they are at a funeral for one of their mothers.  Initially one husband and one sister and were supposed to join then, but that didn't happen.  After a bit of a rocky start, including the fact that the home they have rented is in much worse shape than they were led to believe, they settle in to enjoy their time at the beach and with each other.  As becomes clear, they are all at a crossroads of some sort in their own lives which become easier when they are willing to share the load with each other.  Some parts of the book were easy to predict, like the romance between Ellis and Ty and Dorie's invitation to a strange woman to share the home with them, but it was such an enjoyable story that I just didn't care if parts were formulaic.

This is the perfect summer book, especially if you are already on the beach, so you can read about them being at the beach and feel it at the same time! 

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9781429987059
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 6/7/2011
• Sold by: ST MARTINS / MPS
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 400

Meet the Author

More by this Author

• Spring Fever
• Spring Fever
• The Fixer Upper
• Summer Rental

Mary Kay Andrews

Mary Kay Andrews is the New York Times bestselling author of The Fixer Upper, Deep Dish, Blue Christmas, Savannah Breeze, Hissy Fit, Little Bitty Lies, and Savannah Blues. A former journalist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, she lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Overview

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women-mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends-view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

My thoughts:
I don't have any real reason why it took me so long to read this book, it seemed like everyone I knew had read it and loved it.  I borrowed it from a friend months ago and read half of it.  I put it down to read some other things and didn't feel a great pull to pick it back up again, then Sunday morning I started where I had stopped and I just couldn't put it down!  I think sometimes the reader needs to be in the right place for the book and I must not have been before.

I purposely tried to picture the characters on my own without letting the casting for the movie influence my vision of them.  I managed okay except for Minny and Aibileen, I kept remembering all the Oscar buzz so I kept seeing the actors for those two, but the rest of them I managed to imagine all on my own.  I know there was some talk about dissatisfaction with the way Stockett had the maids speak, but I didn't feel like it was an issue.  I recall having a bit of trouble with it at the beginning, but then it just became a voice with an accent in my head.

Skeeter, Minny and Aibileen were very well fleshed out.  Some of the other characters felt more like stereotypes, Hilly the mean girl and queen bee who had to have her way, Elizabeth who was willing to be a follower as long as she could fit in and not feel poor, and Celia, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who can't find a way to make friends.  I felt bad for just about everyone at some point but Hilly, there is just something about a bully that really bothers me.  It would be nice to think that at some point we are able to get away from people like that but they just keep popping up. 

I felt like Stockett did a good job with making you really feel like it was the 1960's.  While I know things aren't perfect now, it is a bit heartening to see what strides have been made with civil rights since then and to think that it took so many people working together to make it so.  Reading the part they were each playing in writing a book about how the maids really felt about the white women and families they worked for, I wondered if I would have been that brave at the time.  Skeeter took big risks right along with Minny and Aibileen and her opinion was not the prevailing one.  It cost her socially in big ways.  It is so much easier to go with the flow than to stand up for what you feel is right.

I was sad to see the book end, even though I was racing along to find out how things were going to turn out.  The characters seemed like real people to me and I was sorry to see them go. 

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780425232200
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
• Publication date: 4/5/2011
• Pages: 544

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Overview from Barnes and Noble:
When Ginny receives thirteen little blue envelopes and instructions to buy a plane ticket to London, she knows something exciting is going to happen. What Ginny doesn't know is that she will have the adventure of her life and it will change her in more ways than one. Life and love are waiting for her across the Atlantic, and the thirteen little blue envelopes are the key to finding them in this funny, romantic, heartbreaking novel.

My thoughts:
This was the second book I read on my kindle.  I loved the premise of this one.  Ginny's aunt has sent her a package with 13 numbered letters that she is supposed to complete in order, only opening the next one when she has completed the previous one.  Her first instruction is to go to a Chinese restaurant below where her aunt used to live to pickup a package then go to the airport with only a backpack as luggage and no kind of technology to fly to London.  Ginny has to navigate foreign countries, foreign languages, and different cultures to complete each task.  Sometimes she meets people who are supposed to help her and sometimes she doesn't, but she grows and also comes to terms with some things about her aunt that she has not wanted to face.  Unfortunately the last letter is lost to her, which I was really disappointed about until I saw that there is another book that will answer what questions are left.  Part of me felt like it was a cop out to write another book, but this one was long enough and she grew enough, so now I just need to add another book to my TBR list!


Details
•Pub. Date: October 2009
•Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
•Sold By: HARPERCOLLINS
•Format:  368pp
•ISBN-13: 9780061973802
•ISBN: 0061973807

Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

Overview from Barnes and Noble When Sookie's brother Jason's eyes start to change, she knows he's about to turn into a were-panther for the first time. But her concern becomes cold fear when a sniper sets his deadly sights on the local changeling population-and Jason's new panther brethren suspect he may be the shooter. Now, Sookie has until the next full moon to find out who's behind the attacks, unless the killer decides to find her first.

My thoughts:
I read this at the beach last week.  It was the third time I've picked it up but somehow I never got around to finishing it.  It was a little weird reading this one at the same time as I am watching season four of True Blood on HBO because in the TV series Jason is not turning into a were-panther.  While the show is based on the books, they really do change a lot of details.

This one had all the elements you expect from the series, Sookie and her feelings for vampires and her ability to hear thoughts, shape shifters in danger from a sniper set on taking them out one by one, werewolves and their pack business and a few fairies thrown in for good measure.

I wonder if the issues with picking a new pack leader will be covered next season on the TV series and if it will be as graphic as it is in the book. I'm going to have to look for book 6 at the library or online because I would like to read the rest of them before they are covered on TV so I can experience them in my own way, not comparing them to what is happening on the screen.

Details
•Pub. Date: April 2006
•Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
•Format: Mass Market Paperback , 320pp
•Series: Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Series #5
•ISBN-13: 9780441013333
•ISBN: 0441013333

"Handle with Care" by Jodi Picoult

This is the third book by Jodi Picoult that I have read. In all three books Picoult deals with a situation within a family that is controversial and hard to view in black and white. For this novel Charlotte and Sean O'Keafe have two daughters, Amelia who is 12 at the start and Willow who is five at the beginning of the novel. Willow has OI or brittle bones and has already suffered sixty some breaks in her short life and in all likelihood will continue to suffer breaks for her whole life. Amelia feels overshadowed and unwanted and develops an eating disorder as well as cutting herself to deal with her emotions. The family has financial problems and as a result of a disastrous vacation to Disney World end up seeing a lawyer and deciding to sue their OB for malpractice stating that if they had known about Willow's condition earlier in the pregnancy they would have terminated it. This decision to sue along with the stress of having a child with special needs tears the family apart.

Pros:
Well written
Tells the story from multiple POV
Deals with subject matter that brings up a lot of issues about society and law and medicine

Cons:
Some of the characters felt like stereotypes
Some of the meetings between characters felt too forced or convenient
Although I guessed what the ending was going to be (not going to spoil it for other readers) the way it happened didn't feel totally genuine

Thoughts on the novel:
One of the main emotions I felt through reading this book was a sense of relief that my own children were not born with this disorder, I don't even want to imagine what it would be like to not be able to hug one of my children without worrying that he or she might break or to have to constantly be on guard for any type of hazard. It gave me a real appreciation of parents who live and care for children with not just brittle bones but many other conditions.

While the story is told from multiple points of view, each of the characters is telling the story to Willow. It isn't until the end of the novel that we get to hear Willow's POV. I liked that each character got a different font for their segments, it was almost like putting a different personality in with the type.

One issue I have with Picoult's novels (the three I've read- The Tenth Circle and My Sister's Keeper as well as this one) is that while she makes the mother human and flawed she also makes her hard to sympathize with. Each of these mothers makes tough decisions, but in caring for one child (in two of the stories) another child is pushed into the background and almost ignored. When Amelia's eating disorder and cutting are finally discovered it isn't because her parents wake up and notice, it is because another person brings it to their attention. She has been crying out for help for months and they finally have to stop and consider her.

Whenever I read about a medical malpractice lawsuit I always wonder if the main purpose is to get money, either because the plaintiff actually needs it due to negligence or simply because he or she thinks they can get it. Would more money really solve all the problems and issues the family or person are having? If he or she had expended that much energy in another direction could a similar result have been achieved? Do all countries have so much of an issue with lawsuits or is this an American thing?

While the story made me think and touched me, I never got as engrossed in it as I usually do in the book that I am reading. I wasn't sure I even cared what happened to this family. Of the three Picoult novels I have read this was not my favorite, but it was still a good read.