The Kari AnnAlysis

Archive for the ‘Book Review’ Category

Marni fell in love the summer when she was 17. Brian Webster AKA Webb was the man of her dreams and her first love. But that love was short lived when Webb and Marni’s brother got into a tragic accident that killed her brother and tore Marni and Webb apart. Marni’s family blamed Webb for the accident and forbade her from seeing him. At the time, she was young, under 18 and couldn’t make her own decisions without losing what family she had left.

Now it’s 14 years later. Marni is a high powered exec who is starting a new magazine and has been chosen to be the face of the first issue’s cover. The best photographer in the business was hired and it just so happens to be Webb… err Brian Webster now.

It’s hard to forget your first love, and when it seems that Brian has never let go, Marni is put back in the same position she was years ago, making the decision between her family and a man she loves.

Delinsky was spot on with the emotion and feelings throughout this book. Every single emotion each family member and Marni and Webb felt, was portrayed so well, I felt them all too.

I felt so much for Marni. We all know how it felt with that first love, how exciting and how you just couldn’t get enough of that other person. And to have that tragically taken from you, and that not being  the only loss, it’s hard to imagine. Of course it would make it easier not having a choice because your family made that choice for you. Then to be face to face again, a decade later, and those feelings be burning so deep – there was so much tension and built up passion. It was gripping. And don’t worry – that tension was worked out.

Now this was one of those books that when I was listening to it at red lights, I had to turn it down a little. It got a little steamy and I get a tad embarrassed

This book is mighty predictable as a love story, but there are some stories that are so good and you want the best for everyone involved, you hope they work out as predicted.

I give First, Best and Only 4 bookmarks.

Released: September 2001
Author Website 

At 82, Olivia Morrow knows that her time on Earth is coming to an end. For her entire life, she has lived with a secret and doesn’t want to take it to her grave. Olivia’s deceased cousin Catherine was a saint. No really, she’s being considered for the beatification process for her work she did with children. What the Catholic Church doesn’t know about Catherine is that at 17, she gave birth to a little boy.

Olivia has followed the blood line and knows who the descendant to this family, who happens to be very wealthy, is. Monica deserves to be the rightful heir of the Gannon family fortune. There are only a handful of people who know about this secret and all of them have the Gannon money in mind and there is nothing they won’t do to keep that secret hidden.

I really need to get better at writing reviews, or at least some notes soon thereafter so I don’t have to go back and read other reviews and try to remember what I liked and didn’t like about this book.

One thing that I do know is that I feel like every review I do of a Mary Higgins Clark book is always the same. I always say there are a lot of characters, I’m always confused at first, but it always comes together at the end.

I am always amazed at Clark’s story lines though. They are so intricate and there are several story lines these books follow that weave them into the web of a masterpiece. She always has female leads that just can’t seem to take no for an answer and never give up until they get what they want. It always puts them in danger, but that never stops them.

I do love the idea of a family secret in this book and how Monica’s father searched for years for his family and had a hunch, but never got to the bottom of it. At first it didn’t matter much to Monica, then once she starts, she’s in the same boat her father was.

There is also the hint of religion and miracles in this book. For those who are religious, we know that miracles can happen, and do happen at the times we need them most. In this book, Dr. Monica goes by the facts and test results, but still finds herself questioning miracles and is faced with one that there’s no other explanation.

I give The Shadow of Your Smile 3 bookmarks.

Released: April 13, 2010
Author Website  

From Goodreads.com:
From an early age, Sam Spiegel single-mindedly pursued an entrepreneurial path that prepared him to transform a small-time ad agency into a regional powerhouse with national ambitions. A couple decades later, Sam had achieved almost everything he ever dreamed possible as the ad agency’s rainmaker, fountainhead, and unflappable pursuer of success.

One final goal remained: To consolidate his gains by attracting an international advertising conglomerate and cash out. That’s when the nation is hit with the most unthinkable tragedy, and Sam begins to take stock of his own life, finding that he is growing weary of the relentless hunt. Unsatisfied in his marriage and embroiled in a mind-boggling professional crisis, everything Sam had achieved is put at risk.

I finished this book more than a week ago and still, the day my review is to be posted, am not 100% sure how I feel about it. So, I’ll work out my feelings in my post and hopefully writing it all out will help me decide.

The book I read before this one was a memoir. And although The Minefields is fiction, I think it’s the closest fiction book to reality that I’ve ever read. Most of the time when I am reading fiction, I know I am reading fiction. With this book, I kept forgetting. The reality line was very blurry in this book, so I kudos Steven Eisner for writing something that could very well be reality.

The unfortunate part of this reality is that I just didn’t love the story. I tend to gravitate toward girly books or brutal murder-mysteries, which I understand are on the complete opposite spectrum. That’s why I always try to be open to books that fall out of those categories. I like throwing in ones that I wouldn’t normally read and try to keep my reading list versatile. The Minefields follows a man through his career in an ad agency. I figured since I was in a media field it would interest me, because who knows where my career may lead one day, but it didn’t grab me.

What I did like about the book was while it was very business and work oriented, there was a love story woven into the pages. That’s the girl in me right? Not being able to focus on the work part and finding myself hoping that the love aspect will make a bigger apperance as I turn the pages.

Lucky for you, if my review was a little too on the girly side for you, I am part of a book tour where a new review is posted every month. Click here to check out the tour page and you can click on the daily excerpt to read that blogger’s review.

And make sure you stop back by here tomorrow for an excerpt from The Minefields and a Q&A with Steven.

I give The Minefields 3 bookmarks. I honestly don’t have anything negative to say about the book, it just didn’t grab me!

ISBN: 978-1937836023
Release: January 25, 2012
Author Website 

From Goodreads.com:

Caitlyn is a telepath in a world where having any Paranormal power is illegal. Caitlyn is on the run from government troopers, who can enslave, torture, or even kill her, or make her hunt other Paranormals. When Caitlyn settles down in a city, she falls for Alex, a Normal (someone without Paranormal powers), which is dangerous because he can turn her in. And she discovers renegade Paranormals who want to destroy all Normals. Caitlyn must decide whether she’s going to stay in hiding to protect herself, or take a stand to save the world.

Wow! This book is powerful! It was so much more than I expected. I wanted to read it because I’m in love with dystopian books right now. I love that authors can jump out of the box and create worlds that are so far from reality, but seem to close and believable.Anyone can make up a fictional story, but not everyone can come up with something so fresh and make it seem real.

I caught myself several times while reading this book thinking off into space about several topics. I thought a lot about what my paranormal power would be if I could have one. I am kind of learning towards being a telepath, but I don’t know if I could handle all the chatter in my head all the time. I have to have peace and quiet. I also don’t know how I would feel about listening to other’s thoughts about me. I would probably be the one who would bust myself out because I would say something when I heard something nasty (who would say something nasty about me??). But I also caught myself thinking about the pain and suffering in this book. While racism is still prevalent and not forgotten in Hunted, the discrimination against paranormals is so strong, it’s terrifying. I often thought about how I would be if I were in this book. Say I wasn’t a paranormal, would I be a hater or a supporter of this group? They did not choose to be this way, but the group pressure to hate is so strong, I’m not sure if I would be strong enough to fight it and form my own opinions. Or if I did, I doubt I would be able to vocalize them. Unfortunately, I think I am the kind of person that makes our world fall when it comes to discrimination.

Past the dystopian theme, this book is deep. When you first pick it up and start reading, you are gripped by the emotion and suspense, but the more you read, the more drawn you are Cheryl pulled deep into her soul to write this and based it on abuse she faced in her life. Caitlyn faces abuse nearly everywhere she turns in so many different forms. If she’s caught, she goes to the government where she will be tortured. If she doesn’t side with the renegades, she may be outed. She has to put up such a mask with all of her friends so they don’t find out and freak out about her talent. But she is also tortured at home, in a different way. She constantly has to stay on her toes, taking care of her mom, always watching, listening, waiting. Ever since her father died, Caitlyn has become more of a mom than her mother is. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s quite a bit to put on the plate of a teenager. Caitlyn finds herself in the middle of a brewing war and pushing harder and stronger than she ever thought she could, against the last person on the Earth she ever thought she’d have to battle.

I felt like this book had so many underlying themes, they all kind of pulled me in different directions. The abuse theme was brought up time and time again and stuck thick in my mind, but there are also hints of manipulation, the importance of friendship, the bond of family, suspense, discrimination and persecution. The list goes on and on.

Rainfield did a wonderful job of bringing hard, painful topics to life in a story that left you on the edge of your seat, hoping for the fairy tale ending, all the while you know that fairy tales don’t exist in such a dark world.

I really liked this book and cannot wait until the next one comes out (Oops, I may have dropped the ball…). I have much more coming up with Cheryl tomorrow, including some book news for the future.

I give Hunted 4 bookmarks.

ISBN: 978-1934813621
Release Date: December 15, 2001 (1st Edition)
Author Website

I am going to forego the normal summary then thoughts format on this book and combine them all together.

I found out about Fly Away Home by Maggie Myklebust through Twitter. Her daughter Michelle, whom I met online and we quickly became Internet buddies mentioned that I should read it, so I immediately agreed before I really knew what I was getting myself into (imagine that).

Maggie ended up sending me a digital copy of her book and I downloaded it and got started. It took me a little while to realize this was Maggie’s memoir. I haven’t read a lot of memoirs in my time, I always go for fiction, but let me tell you, Maggie’s story is as close to fiction as you can be. There were times when I was reading the book that I caught myself saying, “This all really happened in her life?”.

Maggie grew up in Jersey, her family came to the US from Norway. After three kids and an unhealthy marriage, Maggie packs up and heads back to her family’s roots in Norway, where she reestablishes her relationship with her teenage crush and things start to look up. Maggie has two more kids and becomes a step mom and becomes a world traveler. She and her husband move back to the US for a few years, then move back to Europe. Her kids grow up and are scattered across two countries. What a life she has lived.

There were times in Maggie’s book where I related and said, “Amen sister.” There were times in her book where my heart broke for her and her children. But most of all, I have so much admiration and respect for Maggie. She has been through several and I mean several tough times in her life, through an abusive relationship, to health issues and she battled through. She is the epitome of never giving up. Now, Maggie says herself there were days and weeks and months she wanted to, but she still fought through and is such an inspiration. And I was so impressed with her will and courage. I knew she had family in Norway and spent time threre in her youth, but not many people can just up and leave a life and start a new one and she did it several times, in several different countries.

One of the things that I loved about this book is that Maggie went to a seminar on writing one day and came back with the idea that she would write her life story and guess what? She did and this is it. Being an (unpublished) author, I had mad respect for her for getting it all down and going with it. Everyone who dreams of being in this business knows the tireless hours that our writing haunts us and stories have to be told. I can’t even imagine writing my personal stories.

Another thing I love (stick with me, there are several) is my connection in this book. As I said, I met Michelle online and throughout this book, I felt like I learned so much about her and know her better now that I know where she came from and know her family’s story.

And finally, my last love point with this book is that Maggie Myklebust wrote from the heart. My biggest fear when writing my life story would be that I make people mad. I have the worst guilty conscience. If I have a feeling that I was rude to my parents or short with them, I end up calling them back, sobbing, apologizing. Not that Maggie bashed anyone in her book, but there were very honest moments about her father and her first husband and she was honest about her son’s autism. These are all very tough moments to write about she did it all very respectably and heartfelt.

I think it’s hard to rate nonfiction books because you can’t judge someone’s real life story like you can a fictional story, but let me say this, you need to read Fly Away Home. It is a wonderful account of a life and story that deserves to be told and read.