Book Review: Night Swim by Jessica Keener & Giveaway

Just what constitutes a perfect family? Is it having both a mother and father? Is it belonging to the country club and having lots of money? In Night Swim, debut novelist Jessica Keener gives us an in-depth look into a so called ‘perfect family and what sometimes lurks behind the facade?

To the outside world sixteen-year-old Sarah Kunitz’s life looks pretty good. Her parents live pretty high with parties, expensive cars and even a live-in maid to take care of the chores and help with Sarah and her three brothers. Looks can be deceiving though and much of the time the kids sit nervous and waiting for the next blowup from their father who likes to have complete order and control of his household. Sarah’s mother, who blames her children and arthritis for making her give up a career playing the violin handles things by popping as many pills as she can manage and always having a drink at hand.

When Sarah’s mother dies in a car accident the lives of the Kunitz family are forever changed. Yet for Sarah she has felt her mother slipping away for a long time, trying to leave them. She had finally succeeded. Her father, already more concerned with himself than his kids, begins to see a younger lady friend who had been friends to both of her parents at one time. None of the kids are happy with this but Sarah especially so. This woman can’t take the place of her mother and Sarah is angry with her father for starting to see someone so soon after her mother’s death.

Drifting along Sarah, anxious to grow up and having no guidance to steer her otherwise delves into a few relationships with boys. Sarah, normally a level headed girl, doesn’t foresee the all of the consequences of jumping into relationships that she really isn’t quite ready to handle and ultimately she is faced with decisions that a girl of her age shouldn’t have to make.

Night Swim is a beautifully written novel and one I enjoyed. There are many passages that are worth reading over and over just for the beauty of the sentence itself. Sarah, even being in the midst of her confusing teenage years, is an easy girl to like and you find yourself very invested in her life and future. You find yourself feeling her pain over the loss of her mother and then her struggle to find herself in a world that doesn’t make much sense to her anymore. Night Swim is a coming of age story but even more than that it is a story of a broken people trying to find a way to heal and move on.

I read Night Swim by Jessica Keener for her book tour with TLC Book Tours. You can pop into the other tour stops and see the thoughts of others on this novel. Be sure to check out Jessica’s website and you can find her on Facebook and Twitter as well. Your own copy of Night Swim can be purchased here in the US and here in Canada.

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

I have one copy of Night Swim by Jessica Keener to share with my readers. To enter…

• For 1 entry simply leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
• For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do, thank you, and please let me know so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
• For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway and spread the word.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, March 10/12.  Good luck to all!

Source:  Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and Fiction Studio Books.  No compensation was received for this review and all opinions are my own.

Book Review: Sonoma Rose by Jennifer Chiaverini & Giveaway

Sonoma Rose by Jennifer Chiaverini is a story that takes place in the Prohibition-era which was back in the 1920-1930′s when times were tough. Rosa starts out as a young girl in love but people change and life changes and her life takes a path decidedly different from what she had wanted as that young girl who believed in love and happily ever after. Sonoma Rose is a story of survival, hope, but most of all love.

Rosa and Lars are in love but as time goes on Rosa sees that Lars has a serious problem with alchohol and after being disappointed and let down by him several times she begins to date John who her parents approve of. When she finds out she is pregnant and Lars is nothing but a drunk she agrees to marry John without ever telling him the truth. Secrets have a way of coming out and eventually John realizes when the baby is born early but clearly full term that it isn’t his child. However he still remains with Rosa and takes care of her child because that is what the church says he has to do.

Over the years Rosa has eight children but only four are living. Her children keep passing away from a wasting disease except for two of them and both of those children happen to belong to Lars. When John who has been extremely volatile for a good many years of their marriage learns of yet another betrayal on Rosa’s part he goes crazy and beats her even more serverely than usual. If not for her friend Elizabeth being there he likely would have killed her. Rosa takes off with her children to the mesa where she knows John won’t venture and she stays in a cave with them until Lars shows up to rescue them and take them away from John forever. She knows to keep her children safe she can never go back to him.

Rosa’s first stop is to try and find help for her two sick children and she finds a leading specialist willing to help her. With his help both Lars and Rosa find work and a home on a vineyard. Lars being a farmer blends right in as does Rosa. With the ban on producing any alcohol though life is tough on people making their living off making wine unless of course they are bootleggers and when those bootleggers are being watched then things get really bad. As time goes on Lars and Rosa, with the children, build a new life but is the past ever far behind? Can Rosa ever really escape John?

This is the first of Jennifer’s books that I have read but it won’t be the last. I really liked Sonoma Rose and although some parts dragged a bit for me, for the most part I just really enjoyed the story being told and all the historical detail really enriched this novel for me as well. I felt emotionally invested in the lives of Lars, Rosa, and the kids and I was anxious and hopeful that their lives would turn out for the best and that they would all thrive together. I would recommend this book for those who like stories that take place in the 1930′s and especially people who love stories about vineyards as there is a lot of talk about them. Sonoma Rose is one of those comfy stories that will leave you feeling satisfied and happy.

I read Sonoma Rose by Jennifer Chiaverini for her book tour with TLC Book Tours. As mine is the first stop on the tour be sure to pop in to all the other tour stops coming up to see what they all thought of the book as well. You can find Jennifer on her website, Facebook, and Twitter. You can pre-order your own copy of Sonoma Rose here in the US and here in Canada.

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

I have one copy of Sonoma Rose by Jennifer Chiaverini to share with my readers.  To enter…

• For 1 entry simply leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
• For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do, thank you, and please let me know so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
• For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway and spread the word.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, March 3/12.  Good luck to all!

Source:  Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and Dutton Adult via NetGalley.  No compensation was received for this review and all opinions are solely my own.

Book Review: This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman is a very relevant story as it highlights the dangers and aftermath of what happens when young people send explicit material either over the internet or through texting. It is often devastating to everyone involved and the toll it takes on an individual has lasting effects throughout their lives.

The Bergamot family is normal by any standard. They had once lived in a small town and loved it but Richard was offered a prestigious position with a University in New York and they felt that it was something that would benefit their family as a whole if he accepted. Life is much different in New York for Liz and for the most part she really feels out of her element. The kids now attend private schools, Richard is always working, and Liz, instead of having a career, is basically just caring for her family.

Things start out simply enough one evening when Liz and Coco are both attending a sleepover at a hotel with some other moms and their daughters and her son Jake is off to a party with his friends. It’s only recently when he turned fifteen and a half that he was even allowed to go out and take the subway with his friends. Jake and his buddies have a bit much to drink and end up at a party with some kids from school. Jake has had a crush on one of the girls but she is with a boy and off limits. There is Daisy though who is hanging all over him and while alcohol is taking over a bit he still realizes she is much too young for him at only thirteen. Later, at home, he receives an extremely sexually explicit video from Daisy and without stopping to think for even one second he forwards it to his best friend. From there the video went viral and nothing was ever the same for Jake and his family again.

What this novel really concentrates on is how this affects the family in the aftermath of the video going viral and everyone learning of it. Jake is of course suspended and it’s right around final exams and now they are all worried if he’ll get into a good college. Some people are on their side and others aren’t. Liz and Richard’s marriage gets even rockier as Liz blames moving to this elite area on all of their problems. Coco, their six year old adopted daughter gets a little lost in the shuffle until Liz finds her imitating the video that she just happened to see on her mother’s computer. Liz realizes she has to get herself and her kids back to a more stable life even if Richard doesn’t agree. She says at one point that she just can’t manage this beautiful life anymore. It’s too much for her while Richard only believes they should keep striving for more money and power.

I enjoyed This Beautiful Life. I didn’t connect with any of the characters – well maybe Liz a bit in that I really felt sorry for her. She didn’t feel she belonged in her community and then she was just so lost after the whole video incident. I think what the novel was missing most for me was an emotional connection and yet I was interested in the story being told.  The novel itself is sexually explicit in parts and very raw but also exceptionally well written. I wouldn’t recommend it to those who shy away from novels with bad language or sex but for those who enjoy thought provoking reads I’d say This Beautiful Life is one of them.  I also have to say that this cover really fits the novel – life is just like these cards; you can build it up to perfect but it can fall just as easily.  I have to amend this because I had  the hardcover picture up – so it’s the hardcover that’s like the house of cards just in case anyone is wondering why it’s different now.

I read This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman for her book tour with TLC Book Tours. You can check out other tour stops here and you can purchase your own copy of This Beautiful Life here in the US and here in Canada.

Source:  Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and the publisher.  No compensation was received for this review and all opinions are entirely my own.

Book Review: The Ruins of Us by Keija Parssinen

The Ruins of Us by Keija Parssinen is a novel of many things – family, love, and discontent. Rosalie is American born but spent her childhood in Saudi Arabia. Even at a young age she developed a love for the country and always knew she wanted to go back after going to college in America. Meeting Abdullah in America and then falling in love, marrying, and building a life in Saudi Arabia was exactly what she had always wanted and for more than twenty years she was happy and fulfilled. That is until she discovered that her husband had taken a second wife and even more than that, he had been hiding it for two years.

This discovery totally uproots her life in so many ways. Everything she knew and believed in when it came to her life and love with Abdullah now seemed so wrong and she couldn’t fathom ever feeling and knowing that love again. For the most part Abdullah believes in living more of a modern life. He doesn’t hold his wife or children strictly to the customs that had once plagued the country. They have the freedom to live their lives quite normally. None of the rest of his family – his brothers – believe in taking second wives. Abdullah is the first to do so and in this he refuses to change his mind. He is entitled, according to the law, to have another wife and that is how he goes about justifying what he’s done to Rosalie. Rosalie refuses to have much to do with him and tells him he has ruined their family forever.

On the sidelines are their children Mariam and Faisal. Mariam is pretty level headed although, even at fourteen, she believes strongly in equality for women. Faisal though is a young boy about to take a path that can lead him nowhere good. Faisal is growing ever resentful of his family’s lifestyle. He believes they don’t spend the amount of time in prayer that they should and that the women in the family are allowed more freedom than they should have. In short, they do not follow the customs in which he is becoming more and more obsessed with. This is what will ultimately lead Faisal to do the unthinkable to his family. Will they survive? Will love ever again blossom where it has died?

I enjoyed The Ruins of Us. I am always interested in novels that deal in any way with other cultures. The culture in a country like Saudi Arabia fascinates me simply because of the customs they live by. Granted many live much freer lives now than in the past but the old customs are still alive. I do know I wouldn’t want to be a woman living there. To not even be able to look at a man without someone thinking something was going on or always having to watch what I say would likely kill me. I liked the characters well enough although I can’t really say I connected to any of them on any great level and that’s probably because this lifestyle – even the freer one that Rosalie led – is still too constrictive to me. Ultimately this novel really shows us what happens when one takes the commitment to a certain way of life a little too far and breaks the bonds of family and love.

I read The Ruins of Us by Keija Parssinen for her book tour with TLC Book Tours. You can find the author on her website, Facebook, and Twitter. Be sure to pop in and see what others thought of the book here. You can purchase your own copy of The Ruins of Us by Keija Parssinen here in the US and here in Canada.

Source: Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and the Publisher via NetGalley.  No compensation was received for this review and all opinions are solely my own.