A Gaggle of Book Reviews

I was excited to receive The Law of Three: A Sarah Martin Mystery, a new young adult novel by Caroline Rennie Pattison. I have always enjoyed mysteries, and amassed a large collection of Trixie Belden mysteries as a kid I was loathe to give up. I nostalgically read all the Encyclopedia Brown books to my daughters, and one or two Nancy Drews. As I was reading them, though, I noticed that so much was out of date: the expectations of girls/young women, the freedoms allowed children, technology, and the language used in the stories. I had to stop periodically and edit or explain the content of the book. I was looking for a mystery aimed at the tween/young adult age that was current.

I found a wonderful modern-day mystery in The Law of Three. Sarah Martin is our strong-willed, lively narrator and the daughter of a police detective in the small town of Muskoka, Ontario. She’s a newcomer (her family moved to the town in her first book – The Whole, Entire, Complete Truth: A Sarah Martin Mystery), and is still trying to find her place in the high school. She has a slightly older brother, some new friends, and is learning who everyone is in town and in her classes. Pattison writes characters who sound just like real teenagers, without making you squirm at your own memories of that age. As an added bonus, the parents aren’t perfect or stereotyped either!

Mysteries told in the first person have an added dose of realism, it feels as if we are observing what’s happening, and picking up the clues beside our 9th grade detective. Pattison has written the book so it is read as entries from Sarah’s detective journal, complete with dates and locations! The storyline of The Law of Three starts when Sarah has to pick up some dropped books in the hall, a girl trips over her, and then threatens her. Sarah soon finds out that Garnet Hopper (as well as her brother Byron and her parents) are the focus of a myriad of rumors – did Garnet drown another teenager two years ago? What is the secret about their family: Do they curse people? Are they in the Mafia? Witness protection plan? Devil-worshippers? Sarah wants to find out, and starts using her detective skills to learn the truth.

As Sarah tries to find out what is going on with the Hopper family, she unexpectedly makes a new friend, has her current friends turn their backs on her (for a short time), finds out about the Wiccan religion, and tries to help locate a missing teenager. The themes in The Law of Three are more timely than in older mysteries – religious tolerance and the world of runaways and abductions are very different now. I was very impressed at how well-researched the novel was, and the way that Pattison shares that information with the reader without it sounding dry; we read Sarah’s notes after she’s researched something, complete with her thoughts on the topics.
Pattison has created a really unique character in Sarah: she jumps to conclusions, but also looks up everything online, and she has a passion for discovering the truth. I really enjoyed the character of Sarah, while she has her faults, she is a very strong girl, and one who pushes against peer pressure. The secondary characters are also very well-rounded, with each one having unique traits. Additionally, while Sarah’s father is a police detective, he doesn’t share confidential information about cases with her, and he has a very realistic feel. I kept giggling at the antics of Sarah’s mother’s new pet – a pot-bellied pig named Amber, a choice that sets her mom apart from any other mom I’ve read in this genre!

The Law of Three was hard to put down and incredibly engrossing (I finished it in a day), plus it had a mystery that kept me thinking until the end of the story. Residents of small towns are often distrustful of someone who is different, and that feeling is magnified for the Hoppers. So much of the novel felt real, and perhaps some of that is because Pattison lives in the real Muskoka, Ontario. She has a wonderful touch writing teenagers that sound like real teenagers, not like TV characters or bland stereotypes – everyone has a depth to them. The world inside Muskoka high school also rings true, from cliques to Sarah’s problems understanding Geography.

It takes a deft writer to make a book feel real and enticing, and Pattison has accomplished that in The Law of Three. I recommend it for the 10-15 age range, with the note that there is some discussion of kissing and crushes. If you have boys, don’t automatically rule this out – several of the important characters are boys, and the main character is a very strong girl, The Law of Three should appeal to both genders. This is a book that’s going on my shelf for my girls; it’s not being loaned out!

This book was received from the publisher for review

• I recently finished reading The Ruby Kingdom – Passage to Mythrin to my daughters. Here is an update to that review:

Addendum: When we finished the series, the girls thought that Book 2 becoming available in May for BG’s birthday was perfect. They also said that it was the best book I had read to them – even better than Harry Potter! They now want to become shape-shifters when they grow up…

• I worked in conjunction with Felicia Sullivan of Writers Revealed to interview Carol Muske-Dukes. Carol is the author of Channeling Mark Twain: A Novel, which I reviewed here. My interview, conducted via email, is now available.

As much as I dislike the cold of winter, I am very happy that so many great paranormal authors had new releases in late-December and January – a great way to encourage folks to spend book store gift certificates quickly! The plus side to winter is that you can curl up under the covers with a book and pretend you’re hibernating. So go find a blanket and ignore the world while you read Any Way You Want It and Sucker Bet!

I have loved escaping to the worlds created by both of these authors. I am focusing on the new releases, but I highly recommend you check out the other books by Erin McCarthy and Kathy Love – they are all fun, engaging novels that will help you forget your problems (or pain) for a little while. Winter is a wonderful time to escape into a romance (especially great vampire romances!) enjoying the heat from the book! Sucker Bet and Any Way You Want It have been connected by a New Orleans group named The Impalers – what a great name for a vampire band!

Any Way You Want It is the newest novel by Kathy Love. Kathy has written two wonderful series, but this is an unrelated new book (and maybe a new series?) about a recently jilted woman from Washington DC and a lampir from New Orleans. Maggie works researching and authenticating pieces of classical music, and has pushed fun aside after her recent breakup. Her friends bring her to New Orleans, where an old composition fosters a link between her and Ren, a singer in a Bourbon St. band called The Impalers. Ren had been a court musician and composer in the 1700s, and now he’s a lampir – a vampire who feeds off energy rather than blood. He has been cursed by his mother, and exists in a world of singing cover songs and having one-night stands, afraid of love.

Kathy switches perspective frequently between Maggie and Ren, which fleshes out both characters, and leaves us with a little smile that we know more than they do. While we know that this novel is a romance, Kathy seems to take her cue from the characters, and lets them move slowly in the beginning. As they alternate between pushing away and pulling towards each other, you learn what is in their hearts and heads, and can feel the build up of emotions.

One of the things I liked best about her Young Brothers series was how truly unique each character was – no stereotype vampires, and the secondary characters aren’t cardboard cutouts, either. The characters in Any Way You Want It continue in that vein, and right now I could easily imagine walking into a club on Bourbon Street and watching The Impalers play, complete with Ren singing the wrong line because Maggie distracted him. Maggie and Ren develop as interesting people, and the unexpected similarities in their lives draws them together.

Kathy’s abilities to write steamy love scenes are very impressive – these words will absolutely keep you warm this winter! However, these are more than just sex, there’s the sensual and truly romantic involved, too. Kathy has also done a beautiful job of writing how sensual and loving little gestures can be, and explores how you can make someone feel safe after they’ve been hurt. I hadn’t read anything previously about the lampir, so I hope she will write further novels exploring them. I also want to learn more about the rest of the band…

Sucker Bet, by Erin McCarthy is the newest release in her Vegas Vampires series. Glenna is the sister of the Vampire Nation’s president, and ex-wife to the Vice President. She has appeared as a secondary character in the earlier novels, and I came into the story thinking of her as a gentle, protected woman who at the same time seemed older than the other vampires. This mix of naïvité and maturity fascinated me, and I’m so glad to see her as the heroine of her own novel.

Gwenna is trying to learn more about the people on a Vampire Slayers email list, and as a result ends up at a crime scene where police detective Nick is working. They both feel a connection, but deaths and exes keep them apart at first. As their lives move closer and closer to each other, Erin gives us glimpses into both of their heads, smoothly switching perspectives. Nick’s personality pops from the page, and his first impressions of Gwenna are very funny. In fact, I am happy to pick up one of Erin’s books, because I know that in addition to the romance there will be plenty of laughs!

The other characters from the Vegas Vampires series are also involved in the storyline, and well-written supportive characters helps the novel keep you engrossed. The Impalers that also appear in Any Way You Want It show up for a few concerts, and through a friend of Gwenna’s we meet the bassist, Dave. Gwenna’s mix of boldness and shyness make for a really interesting combination when she gets drunk at an Impalers concert with her sister-in-law and a friend – especially since she’s supposed to be gathering information for an investigation with Nick!

Erin McCarthy brings us through a developing romance, a jealous ex-husband, a murder investigation, and the world of vampires, and does it with fabulous characters who catch your interest from the beginning. This book kept me up well past my bedtime – I couldn’t put it down! While I think that the Sucker Bet is a great read on its own, it will be an even better if you read the first three books of the Vegas Vampires series.

If you like romances or vampires, or if you just want a few hours to escape the mundane world into a fun read with great characters, go pick up Sucker Bet and Any Way You Want It. Grab a fleece blanket and a cozy spot and enjoy the winter the right way – inside with books! You should also visit The Impalers‘ website, and read the free serial about lead guitarist Drake!

This book was read as part of the MotherTalk Book Club and Salon, fostering great discussions with readers

The Middle Place talks about that time in your life where you are both someone’s child and someone’s parent. Author Kelly Corrigan is specifically talking about that time when you are new to parenting and you still feel a strong identity to “home” being where your parents live, and instinctively calling your parents to get their approval. As we start The Middle Place, Kelly is living on the west coast with her husband and two young daughters, while her parents live on the east coast. Kelly has just started into the world of balancing being a loving, attentive daughter and a loving, attentive mother.

Kelly weaves a beautiful story about her love for her family through conversations, emails, thoughts, and flashbacks to her childhood. While she has a very close relationship with her mother and two older brothers, she is very attached to her father, George. Greenie (or any of her father’s many nicknames) is an exuberant, gregarious, and optimistic man who loves his youngest child (and only daughter) very much. There’s a sweetness in the father-daughter relationship that lacks the strain inherent in mother-daughter relationships. Just as I think awwww when I see my daughters with my husband, I felt Kelly’s strong love for her father throughout the book. In fact, as soon as I finished it, I called my dad and my step-dad to tell them I loved them.

While all of us deal with being in The Middle Place when we start having children, not everyone experiences the crisis Kelly and her family went through. Kelly was diagnosed with breast cancer, and then a short time later her father was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Kelly’s family had rallied around her, flying out to California to help her and to care for her young daughters Claire and Georgia. However, because of her own treatments, she can’t fly back to the east coast to rally around her father as he goes through similar cancer treatments. George and Kelly have so many deep connections, and while phone conversations helped, you could still feel her sadness over not being physically present.

I’ve known several people with breast cancer, and known even more dealing with other forms of cancer, including my grandmother and her husband. Reading The Middle Place really showed me the emotional and physical cost of the cancer treatments, but in a personal way, not dry and clinical. Kelly’s writing evoked laughter and tears as I read about fun times in her childhood juxtaposed with her reactions to chemo and radiation. While I knew intellectually that it was possible for me to get breast cancer, I felt very removed from the possibility. It wasn’t until I read The Middle Place that it really clicked for me. I could really relate to an author who was my age, with young daughters, brown hair, and glasses, plus a father who really enjoys life and nicknames! This isn’t a memoir that will scare you, though – it was actually quite comforting that Kelly, who admits to being “not stoic”, could deal with everything that was thrown at her. If she can manage to juggle everything, we can probably handle a couple of balls in the air, too.

Kelly has written a memoir that will live in your heart. It feels like I’ve known her family forever, and I kept wanting to scream, “me too!” about all the 1970s and 1980s memories. However, my brother never bought a snake! While my chronic illness isn’t cancer, I have been laid low for 2 years, and I could also understand when Kelly wanted to do things but couldn’t, and hated disappointing her daughters, husband, and parents. The Middle Place is written so beautifully, it intermingles the serious with the silly and the painful with the playful. Cancer is serious business, but Kelly reminds us that no one can be serious constantly.

I am becoming a big fan of memoirs, and this one is fabulous. The Middle Place is engrossing, engaging, and Kelly Corrigan and her family really leap off the page. I really enjoyed her tone, when she was positive and when she was not, it all felt very honest. This isn’t just a memoir about breast cancer, it’s also a tribute to a wonderful family and a beautiful father-daughter relationship. I highly recommend reading The Middle Place, and then taking your dad out for coffee!

This book was read as part of the MotherTalk Book Club and Salon, fostering great discussions with readers
The front cover of Persian Girls: A Memoir by Nahib Rachlin has a quote from a Boston Globe reviewer saying that the “memoir reads like a novel”, which I felt was very accurate. Nahib has provided us with a peek into her world, spanning over fifty years, and immersing us in the culture of Iran and her family.
Nahib pulls us quickly into her world, showing us her split childhood – life with her adopted mother for her first 9 years, and then life with her birth family. Nahib’s birth mother, Mohtaram, was very fertile, she agreed to give a child to her sister, Maryam. It was when Nahib turned 9 that she was considered “of age”, able to legally marry, and that is when her father came to get her. When her father took her from her adopted mother, Nahib lost an attentive mother, she gained a sister and confidante.

Nahib’s relationship with her older sister Pari is incredibly moving. Both girls loved American movies and the idea of new freedoms for women. I look at my daughters, and hope for them to continue their close relationship – one like what Nahib and Pari had. There were many times as I was reading Persian Girls that I wished I was reading a novel, and that the author could guarantee me a happy ending for everyone involved. The relationship between Nahib and Pari was so intense, and yet fraught with obstacles. Their middle sister, Manijeh, was their mother’s favorite, and the obvious favoritism made for a lot of rivalry between them. As time passes, and physical distances between them increase, the bonds between them change and strengthen.

The Iranian Government and its changing laws cast a shadow over the lives of Nahib and her family. Every choice they make has to take the laws and social mores into account. Nahib’s brothers go to college in the US, which is seen as a very modern thing to do. However, her two older sisters are married traditionally – in arranged marriages. While all families worry about appearances, in Nahib’s father seemed to worry even more than usual. His job as a lawyer seemed tied to how his family is perceived, and he must balance the traditional and the modern.

Parts of Persian Girls feel like a mystery, and one that cannot be solved. Without an omniscient narrator, we only know what Nahib has experienced or discovered. I wish I could see into the heads of many of the characters, but there is an intimate feeling reading one person’s memories, one person’s truth.

Nahib states at one point in Persian Girls that she feels like she doesn’t belong in either culture. I know that feeling is common among many ex-patriots, but I have to wonder if the problems in US-Iranian relationships made her transition more difficult. I found myself identifying so much with Nahid, finding many universal truths within her words, no matter your background.

I highly recommend Persian Girls to anyone who enjoys memoirs and non-fiction, as well as to anyone who enjoys women’s fiction or literary fiction – it really is a memoir that reads like a novel. It pulls you in, with vivid imagery of Nahid Rachlin’s world. Watch out, though, once you start it you won’t be able to put it down easily! I look forward to reading Nahid Rachlin’s other books.

I have three young daughters, all of whom have strong opinions on favorite colors, clothing choices, and book choices as well. I started my parenting journey thinking that we wouldn’t have any pink in the house. I quickly gave up that battle as soon as my daughter was old enough to make her opinions known! Two books, Priscilla and the Pink Planet and Purplicious ask if there can be too much pink, and come up with some interesting ideas.

Priscilla and the Pink Planet is the first book in the Priscilla series by siblings Nathaniel and Jocelyn Hobbie. Priscilla lives on a planet that is completely pink – from the sky to the grass. While she likes pink, she gets fed up with the lack of other colors, so she goes in search of any other color. After much exploring she finds a beautiful multi-colored butterfly, and follows it. As Priscilla watches, the butterfly is caught by the Queen, who keeps all the animals who aren’t pink underground. Priscilla needs to find a creative way to convince the Queen to allow other colors above ground.

The rhyming text written by Nathaniel Hobbie in Priscilla and the Pink Planet is fun and light, but uses a wide range of words, not talking down to the audience. Priscilla comes across as a brave and creative character, and you definitely want to read the rest of the Priscilla series! Jocelyn Hobbie’s illustrations show an incredible range of shades within the color pink – each part of the planet is different. The illustrations remind me a bit of Dr. Seuss, but with a unique touch. Priscilla and the Pink Planet is a great read for anyone who likes pink, or just likes a good story about an adventurous girl!

Purplicious is a story by sisters Victoria Kahn and Elizabeth Kahn that is actually more about the color pink than purple. Pinkalicious is a girl who loves the color pink. However, the other girls in her school have decided that “pink is passé”, and that “All the girls like black now”. At first, Pinkalicious is self-confident, but as the week goes on and none of her friends will play with her because of her favorite color, she becomes very sad, and starts to question herself. Over the weekend, her mother suggests that there might be other girls who like the color pink, but that’s not enough to get Pinkalicious out of her blues. When she returns to school on Monday, she discovers that pink has power.

Sisters Victoria and Elizabeth Kahn have written a wonderful story in Purplicious that really touches on how girls can behave in the 6-9 age range. Pinkalicious even writes in her journal about “mean girls”, and the teasing in the schoolyard rings true. The conversations between the characters feels real, though sad at times. The illustrations by Victoria Kahn show wonderful variations of the color pink, and the the emotions really pop out at you through the images. Purplicious is a great story for lovers of pink and for kids who have been dealing with teasing.

Our family (with a few devotees of the color pink) really enjoyed both Purplicious and Priscilla and the Pink Planet – enough that the girls had them on their wish list after checking them out from the library several times.  We also liked the independent nature of both Priscilla and Pinkalicious – a wonderful trait.  They were thrilled to get them as presents recently, and we’ve been reading them a lot!

The Crazy School, by Cornelia Read is a novel and a mystery centering on the world inside a residential school for troubled teens, one that comes with very troubled staff as well. It isn’t often that my previous careers get pulled into my book reviews. However, my previous job working as a teacher in a residential school for children with emotional and behavioral disorders gave me a touchstone for the world in The Crazy School. There are many differences between The Crazy School and where I was teaching on many levels – it’s private rather than state-funded, it has teenagers rather than youngsters, and the discipline is very different. However, having experienced the world of teaching children with these problems helped pull me into the novel quickly.

Our narrator in The Crazy School is Madeline, a woman who was pulled to the Berkshires (aka Western Massachusetts) for her husband’s work, but then the job disappeared. She starts teaching at the Santangelo Academy – a private school that is used as a “last chance” for teens with emotional disorders and wealthy parents. Madeline is disturbed by the rigid discipline as well as the required therapy for teachers in addition to therapy for students. She is a bit of an outsider – the most recent hire as well as the only one who lives off-campus, in an apartment with her husband.

When you teach troubled children, you often end up with attachments to certain kids, and want to protect them. Madeline has a few students she really likes, and when one of them puts his hand through a window, she ends up wanting to protect him, but stifled by the rigid structure of the school. Madeline begins to question the structure as well as the founder, and finds herself deeply involved in the inner workings of the school and the mysteries that surround it.

In The Crazy School, Cornelia Read has created a large cast of characters, all of whom have life breathed into them. Madeline has so many different sides, she truly feels real. There are mysterious airs around many of the teachers, and given the diagnoses and medications given to the students, do we know what they are really thinking? Madeline has made a few friends she thinks are like-minded within the cadre of teachers, but are they all friends, or are some of them spying on them as they find hiding places to drink caffeine and smoke a cigarette? As we delve into the depths of the mysteries surrounding Santangelo Academy, we are investigating a horrible event involving the students as well as the backgrounds of the staff. There are twists and turns in this novel that left me completely surprised – but as I looked back, I could see the subtle hints that lead to the answers Madeline has found.

I found The Crazy School to be a truly unique book. I really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it. It’s a mystery, and yet it is not a traditional mystery. It’s a novel about a boarding school, but it’s a very unusual boarding school. The characters are well-developed, and yet they still hide secrets from us. If you don’t usually read mysteries, but are attracted to Literary fiction or Women’s Fiction, you should definitely try The Crazy School!

This novel was received from the publisher for review.