Sweet Life -- Mia King

In Sweet Life, Marissa thinks she has it all. She has a great job, a smart daughter who is involved in all sorts of activities, a supportive best friend, and a good (if not perfect) marriage. Marissa's husband is suddenly transfered from New York City to Hawaii to manage a luxury hotel. This means giving up her job, and uprooting the entire family from bustling NY to the laid back "big island" of Hawaii.

You can imagine the generic chick lit events that happen: she doesn't adjust well to being an at home mom; their house is a bit more of a fixer-upper than they anticipated; her husband needs a break from the marriage. What will she do? How will she come through?

This book is a chick-lit romance. It was pretty predictable. That does not mean that I didn't enjoy reading it. It is well written and beautifully descriptive of Hawaii. It has a nice message of women working together. At first I was a bit put off by Marissa's reactions to the coffee barista and the sling wearing, long term breast feeding mom (hey, I was one of those!). But that was just to show how uptight she was, and how far she could come.

This book surprised me with a pro-Homeschooling message. As Marissa's daughter starts to take horseback riding lessons (which she likes much more than the upscale dance lessons she took in NY), she becomes friends with a girl who is homeschooled. The daughter soon wants to be taught at home as well. After gathering information and visiting the other homeschool family, Marissa ends up homeschooling her daughter. As a homeschooler myself, I was impressed.

So, Sweet Life won't change your life, but it will make you want to see the lava flows on the island of Hawaii. Find it at your library, or throw it in your cart when buying Christmas gifts on Amazon this month. It would be a great read for your Christmas break.

Shanghai Girls: A Novel --By Lisa See

As I was walking through the library, I saw Shanghai Girls on an end-cap. It had been on my "Amazon Recommends" list for a while so I decided to pick it up. I was excited to read this book, as I have not had the opportunity to read much about Chinese culture.

Shanghai Girls is the story of Pearl and May, and begins in pre-World War 2 Shanghai. May and Pearl are "beautiful girls": attractive women who appear in painted ads and calender pictures. These women are to be strong and healthy-- walking advertisements for happiness and prosperity in China. They are modern girls, shunning old fashioned Chinese traditions, attending college, and earning their own money. They have every intention of finding true love and marrying the man of their dreams.

Pearl and May's world is shattered when their father announces that he has lost all of his money, and that the girls have been sold into arranged marriages. Pearl and May are to move to America to be with their husbands. As they are preparing to escape, Japan bombs Shanghai. They are forced to flee the city and travel to Hong Kong. The road to Hong Kong is filled with war time atrocities, but somehow they make it and book passage on a ship bound for America.

The America that they find is not a land of opportunity for Chinese immigrants. Pearl and May have a long wait on Angel Island, where Chinese people are treated as lower class citizens. Customs agents are trained to seek out irregularities in immigrants' stories and send them back home. When they finally find their husbands in LosAngeles, Pearl and May find a world where Chinese are looked down upon and not allowed to own property.

Through WW2, and the anti-communist era the follows, the women try to find a balance the old and new worlds. Pearl finds strength in her mother's traditional Chinese customs as she raises her family. May embraces Hollywood, and tries to find ways to continue being a "beautiful girl."

I am not sure how I feel about the book. I didn't like how it ended, because it didn't. I purposefully saved what I thought to be the end of the book for a time when I could give it my full attention, only to find that there was no more story, only acknowledgments and blank pages. Is this for artistic purposes? Is a sequel planned? The prose itself was uneven. Parts of the book are lyrical and wonderful to read, while in other segments I found myself skimming over entire paragraphs. It was informative: the prejudices faced by early 20th century Chinese immigrants; the plights of the "paper sons" and their wives, here illegally, striving for a better life; the fear of being sent back to dangerous early communist China just because you bought the wrong newspaper or got into a feud with a neighbor who then reported you to the authorities.

In the end, I think I recommend reading Shanghai Girls. But not now, in the (hopefully) festive holiday season. Save it for a dreary January day when you are all snowed in.

Grave Secret - Charlaine Harris

Harper Connelly is another character from the mind of Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse books. Harper was struck by lightning as a teen, leaving her with a unique gift: the ability to relive the last living moments of the dead. This gift can comfort loved ones of the deceased, mystify skeptics, and solve mysteries surrounding deaths. She and her step-brother/boyfriend, Tolliver, travel the country "reading" the dead for people who pay for their services. Grave Secret is the 4th book in the series, and I have read each. Harper, like most of Ms Harris' heroines, is a character that you look forward to reading more about.

The latest in the Harper Connelly series starts shortly after the third book, An Ice Cold Grave ends. Tolliver and Harper are traveling through Texarkana on their way to Dallas to visit family. They stop for a job commissioned by rich ranch owner Lizzie Joyce, who is intrigued by Harper's ability. The Joyce family, however, did not expect Harper to uncover secrets about their patriarch and his caregiver. It seems that the grandfather's death wasn't entirely natural, and the caregiver did not die of appendicitis as the family believed. These discoveries lead to a search for a missing baby who may be an heir to the family fortune.

At the same time, Tolliver's father is released from prison, which brings back memories of the past, including parental drug abuse and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Harper's sister. Tolliver's dad wants to reestablish contact with his family, including the Harper and Tolliver's young half sisters, and it is suspected that he may have ulterior motives.

The book is suspenseful and fast paced, characteristic of all Charlaine Harris novels. I recommend this book, and indeed the entire Harper Connelly series. I do wonder, however, if there will be more Harper books, as in Grave Secret, many issues were resolved, and ends were tied. If this is the end (unlike in the Shakespeare series) I will be satisfied. But I would enjoy reading more about Harper and Tolliver.

Tapped Out and Pointe and Shoot --By Natalie M. Roberts

Tapped Out and Pointe and Shoot are romantic murder mysteries by Natalie M. Roberts. They are books 2 and 3 in the Jenny T. Partridge Dance Mystery series. I have not read book 1, Tutu Deadly, as it is not available in my library system, and it is only available on Amazon as a used book and in the $30 large print addition.

I have a weakness for chick-lit murder mysteries, and I read a bunch of them. I will go to the library, find 4 books in a series, and check out all 4, reading them consecutively. They are a good way to cleanse the mind after reading things that are a bit, umm...... deeper. In reading so many of these books, I find a tendency for these books to go down hill after the first one or two: the heroine gets eccentric to an unusual degree; inherently wealthy and handsome cop/detective boyfriends (could a boyfriend ever be a poor, average looking guy?) start being flighty.... And I get tired of them, but feel the need to finish the book and usually the series.

That being said, both of the Jenny T. Partridge books were pretty good. Jenny is relatable and a likable, if ditsy, lead character. Jenny is a thirty something dance instructor with an up and coming studio. She has a hard time making ends meet and taming her curly red hair. Tate, her boyfriend, is cool, and of course, a cop. As in most novels of this type, the romance seems a bit forced, and though you want them to end up together, you're not sure why they like each other so much. My favorite supporting player is Sal, the Mormon, Samoan, hip-hop dance teacher.

I like the fact that the books were set in the dance world. I have taken years of dance classes and have a good idea of what the "Psycho Dance Moms" are like. The plots of both of these books involve murders and dance competitions and if you have ever been involved in the world of theater, dance, and stage moms, this does not seem so far fetched. I enjoyed the continuum of the books and the fact that it seems like Natalie Roberts planned for the entire story line instead of just spitting out one book after another. Jenny's love life and the story arc about a mysterious Hummer SUV span all three books. Both books were fun to read and fast paced, and both kept me guessing who done it up until the end.

The biggest recommendation I can give for these books is that when I finished Pointe and Shoot, I wanted to read more about Jenny and Tate and the wacky dance world that Jenny lives in. I went to my computer and looked on Natalie M. Roberts' website to see if there was a forth book. So far, there isn't. And if Ms Roberts happens to read this, please write one, as I look forward to reading it.

A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris

Let me start by stating that I LOVE reading Charlaine Harris books. I have read all of her novels. I cried when Aurora Teagarden lost her husband. I wish there were more books to the Lily Bard series. I find Harper Connelly quite intriguing. But Sookie Stackhouse has always been my favorite.

I discovered Sookie several years ago when I found the first book in the Southern Vampire series, Dead Until Dark. I tore through that book and was happy to find that 2 more had been published. Since then I have had to wait (patiently) for the release of each following book. I was excited when I saw that a new one was coming out, and I put myself in the queue for A Touch of Dead at my public library.

The first thing I need to tell you about A Touch of Dead, is that it is NOT the next book in the Southern Vampire series. This book is a collection of previously published short stories. I do not generally enjoy short stories, so I had not read any of the books that contained these pieces. I am sure that there are a bunch of Charlaine Harris devotees who had already read the stories and were mighty disappointed with this book. So, if you have read Bite or Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, you probably just want to skip this book and wait for book 10 in the series.

The first story in the book is "Fairy Dust." This was the story I enjoyed the most. Claudette, triplet to Claudine and Claude, has just been murdered and it is up to Sookie to find out which human killed her, and how. "Fairy Dust" contains the wit and sass that we love from Ms Harris. It is a good read, and those of us familiar with the Southern Vampire fairy community will enjoy finding out exactly what happened to Claudette.

The next story is "Dracula Night." Eh. It's ok. It involves Eric and Pam and yet another bartender at Fangtasia. I didn't really enjoy it and it doesn't give any insight to the characters.

"One Word Answer" tells the story of how Sookie learned of her cousin Hadley's death. It is in this story that she meets Mr Cataliades and the Queen of Louisiana. It was an interesting read, I hadn't realized that we didn't learn how Hadley had died in the series. I suppose that is the benefit to putting a year between books. This story has some action and favorite characters Bill and Bubba. You gotta like a story that involves "the king."

The last two stories are "Lucky" and "Gift Wrap." I read them. That's about all I can say. "Lucky" was especially uninteresting.

I don't know if Charlaine Harris doesn't write particularly well in short story form , or if I was just expecting more from stories about Sookie. If you are a True Blood fan, please don't read this as your introduction to the Sookie books. Start with book 1 and read the books in order. You will enjoy them. I think you'll like Sookie better in the books than you do on the show. And maybe you won't even get mad at me when I say I'm on Team Eric (book 4, Dead to the World).

About Me.....

Hello, my name is Raechelle, and I am obsessed with reading. I read all the time. I read blogs and websites. I read magazines and books. When I have free time and have forgotten to bring a book with me, I read things on my iPhone. I LOVE to read.

Books are my favorite (though pop culture blogs can keep me engrossed as well). I will read just about any work of fiction. For some time I was an Amazon junkie. That was until I realized that a three book a week habit was getting a bit expensive to continue. Now I take the Amazon recommendations and cross reference them with books the local library system has to offer. Don't get me wrong, I still buy a bunch of books, I just try to keep it limited to reference books and books for my kids. And though Amazon recommendations are very accurate (some of my recent favorites have been The Help and Water for Elephants), there is nothing that can compare to walking through row upon row of shelves filled with books, waiting for inspiration to jump out at you.

Now, I know that all avid readers fancy themselves to be book reviewers. This blog isn't meant to be a review, so much as it is to be a book report for me. It will help me remember which series I have read, who they are by, and if I liked the book.

So please enjoy my musings about the things I have read.