The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor

This was recommended by a long-time friend's mother who is especially interested in Ireland (because they're Irish) and the Titanic. This was a fascinating perspective of the Titanic disaster of 1912. It follows an Irish teenage girl named Maggie Murphy and a group of fellow travelers from her parish as they embark on the Titanic headed for America. She is one of only 2 survivors of her companions. The story is told partially from Maggie's time from both her and a couple others' perspectives, and Maggie's great-granddaughter's point of view.

The story of the Titanic has been told and retold countless times. It is a tragedy that has captured the attention of generations. The Girl Who Came Home was told in a fresh and heartfelt way. I connected with Maggie and her great-granddaughter. I was so concerned with who was going to survive and so heartbroken that most did not. It is truly a tragic story and this book will make you experience some of the emotions felt by the world as they experienced the sinking of that great ship.

If you enjoy historical fiction you will love this book. It was a little slow in parts, but perhaps that's just because I knew the climax I was waiting for. Good read!

4 out of 5 stars

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I have been neglecting this blog. I've started a new one that will hopefully result in a little extra bling (fingers crossed!) but I will try to keep this one updated with the books I read on the side.

I read The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, probably 6 months ago or more, so the specific details are fuzzy. The main character is a ward of the state who has gone from foster home to foster home until turning 18. Unable and unwilling to get a job, she spends her nights sleeping in a local park across the street from a flower shop. Her one true passion is flowers and the hidden language they possess. After convincing the shop owner of her knowledge and skill, she gets a job doing what she loves and eventually opens up her own business. Things seem to be going well, but she is unable to get over the demons of her past. Can she learn to love when she has never felt loved by anyone in her life?

Good story, interesting to learn about flowers. I got irritated with the main character because she kept making choices that I felt were either irresponsible or totally contrary to her overall well-being. But I enjoyed the book and would recommend it!

4 out of 5 stars

The Selection series 1-3 by Kiera Cass

I had really, really high hopes for this series. My sister-in-law raved about how she couldn't put them down and just loved them. So I waited a couple years until the trilogy was complete, and then I found out she's working on another partner trilogy. Ugh. I checked out The Selection and The Elite to read on an 8 hour road trip followed by a week of camping, and even with their faults, they were good picks for the occasion. These books are essentially the Bachelor reality show plus royalty plus a dystopian society. Our protagonist is America, a class 5 citizen near the bottom of the ladder. Classes are ranked from 1, royalty, to 8, the homeless. The prince is looking for a bride so they throw a competition where a few dozen girls are picked from all over the country and all different classes to come to the palace to try and win the prince's heart.

My main problem with these books is their lack of content. Everything that happens in the 3 installments could have easily been consolidated into 1 story. There are 3 main conflicts in the story: 1-America holds on to feelings she used to have for her old boyfriend Aspen, who in/conveniently shows up at the palace to work as a guard, making it impossible for America to forget and move on.
2-America has a very hard time deciding how much she likes Prince Maxom, who happens to be an awesome guy, and she keeps flip flopping back and forth between wanting to go back to her old life with Aspen or become royalty with Maxom.
3-There is significant civil unrest and two different groups of rebels repeatedly attack the palace.
The first two conflicts in the stories I find highly annoying. America takes advantage of 2 good guys and leads them on for way too long. I just wanted to smack her upside the head to put some sense in her! So annoying. The third conflict with the rebels was the only thing that I felt gave the story some substance. The author could have developed this far more than she did, but instead focused on America's feelings about boys. I think she missed out on an opportunity to write a compelling story, rather than a fluff-filled teeny-bopper one.

Overall I did mostly enjoy the read, but I was also constantly annoyed at the lack of substance. Perhaps it's just my personality and taste preference; I don't watch the Bachelor and haven't much enjoyed the bits that I have seen; but I do enjoy dystopian stories and princess stories. I had hopes that this would be a truly awesome series. Sadly, it fell short.

3 out of 5

The Sweetheart Deal by Polly Dugan

I recently got to take a solo trip to my home town in California for the wedding of an old friend. The most exciting part about this trip was the solo part--no kids! No husband either, so that was a bummer, but it was nice to be able to just focus on myself and do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. Plus I did a bunch of stuff all weekend that my husband would have no desire to do, like visit all my old schools and drive past my old house and neighborhoods and visit old friends. He'd have been bored to tears. In any case, one thing I was most excited about was my flight. Being alone, I would be able to read in the airport and on the plane and actually be able to focus on my book. I wanted the perfect book for a mom's weekend away. I chose The Sweetheart Deal by Polly Dugan.

This is a partial description listed on Amazon: Leo has long joked that, in the event of his death, he wants his best friend Garrett, a lifelong bachelor, to marry his wife, Audrey. One drunken night, he goes so far as to make Garrett promise to do so. Then, twelve years later, Leo, a veteran firefighter, dies in a skiing accident.

This little blurb sums up the book fairly well. Sounds like there's tons of potential, right?? I figured this would be the perfect story of re-falling-in-love for me to read on my weekend alone. Unfortunately, the book happens exactly how you might think it would happen after reading the short book description. There was exactly zero surprise or sense of thrill because it was so, so predictable. In theory, the idea for this story is great. I was really excited to read this book, but ultimately it was a disappointment. It might be a good read if you are looking for something easy to read by the side of the pool on vacation, just don't expect a whole lot.

2.5 out of 5 stars

The Diary of Mattie Spenser by Sandra Dallas

This was our book club choice for May and I mostly enjoyed it. It is very similar to These Is My Words but not as good, in my opinion. It didn't have enough likable characters, and there was an insane amount of horrific things that happened. Mattie is a girl who believes she will never marry, and then one day a very handsome young man she has had a crush on for years asks her to marry him. The catch is that he has bought land in the Colorado territory and the wagon trek across the plains can be perilous. The other catch is that he asks her because she is a strong, practically-minded woman and he thinks she can endure the hard life that will be required to live in indian country. Plus the woman he really wanted to marry turned him down. She accepts, they make it across the plains, and build a home miles away from any neighbors and the nearest town.

I liked Mattie, but it annoyed me how ignorant she was when things got bad with her husband. She put her blinders on and ignored all the signs. She had good neighbors and a decent support system of good men she could pick from, but instead keeps going back to her worthless, cheating, jerk of a husband. The husband made me mad; I think he had good intentions in the beginning, but he continually took advantage of his wife's goodness and forgiving nature. The fact that this was a fictional story kind of annoyed me too; because it is fiction, the author could have chosen for more joy to be present in the story. I know horrific things happened to the early western settlers, but I'm a little skeptical by the sheer amount of awfulness that happened to basically everyone in Mattie's life. And the author could also have manufactured a satisfying ending. The journal ends before there is any sense of resolution. There is an epilogue told by Mattie's great-granddaughter that suggests her husband turned things around and they lived a long and happy life together. I think the ending was a huge cop-out. The author had the opportunity for a great redeeming story, a chance to show the husband's journey and change of heart, but instead gives us that information in a couple paragraphs. So disappointing. I definitely like These Is My Words better; similar setting, way better characters and more fulfilling.

It was a good read; I was interested the whole time, wanting to know what happened next. Mattie's voice is easy to read and pretty entertaining. There was plenty of action (arguably too much, somewhat unrealistic) so I was never bored. But there were too many despicable main characters. There were 2-3 that I really loved, but things didn't work out the way I wanted them to with them in the end.

2.5 out of 5 stars

Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

I've been on a bit of a writing hiatus; not reading; no, never reading. Only writing. I'm not the hugest fan of writing but I never take much of a break from reading! Firefight, by Brandon Sanderson, is the second installment in the Reckoners series. As a general rule I don't read books until the series is complete because I very much hate waiting for the next part of the story. I'm not a patient enough person for that. But my sister-in-law, whose taste in literature closely resembles mine, read the first one (Steelheart) and implored me to do the same. It only took a few pages before I was hopelessly hooked, and now I wait over a year for each book like a sucker. But really, these books are totally worth it. They are an awesome blend of fantasy, super-powers, the conflict between good and evil, and there's just enough of a love story to keep my inner girl happy. Oftentimes, the second installment of a trilogy (and I do believe this is meant to be a trilogy, but I could be wrong) ends up being somewhat of a dud, but Firefight is just as exciting as Steelheart. I loved it. You should go read them both, even though you'll have to wait until March 2016 its conclusion. But trust me, you won't regret it!

4.5 out of 5 stars

Emma by Jane Austen

I tried to read this book about 8 years ago, just as I was finishing up my last semester of college, and I couldn't get through it. I think my brain was fried and couldn't handle any kind of intellectual literature. Now that I've been a mom for almost 4 years, my brain is still fried, but in a different way. At this stage in my life, reading some Jane Austen was like drinking a cool glass of water on a dry, hot day. I reveled in the language and enjoyed immersing myself in the English gentry of the early 1800's.

Emma is a delightful story. I've always loved the movie and was delighted to find the the book very closely follows the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow adaptation. It is a story of a young woman who successfully set up her governess with a man in town and becomes determined to play matchmaker for those around her, particularly her friend Harriet. Unfortunately, she's not very good at what she does and continually misreads the people and situations in which she finds herself, resulting in some comedic blunders.

If you enjoy Jane Austen and other similar authors and have not yet read Emma, do yourself a favor and read it! It is wonderful. It takes a little patience; I definitely had to skim some parts (aka, any time Miss Bates started talking), but I am so happy I finally read this one. It's been on my mental to-read list for years.

4.5 out of 5