The Kari AnnAlysis

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  

This week I had the pleasure of reading The Minefields by Steven Eiser and being part of his blog tour (please scroll down to yesterday’s post to read my review).

I am stop #27 on the tour. Today’s excerpt is: “And my role, at that moment, was to ease him into the next. I said, ‘Mom will be arriving with Mikey in a few minutes.’ This time he didn’t bother to approximate a wink or a blink. He was a maestro until the finale, when his first violinist failed to show. My mother and my brother, Mikey—down from New York—didn’t or couldn’t understand the urgency of the moment.”

Also, I love getting into author’s heads and although I didn’t get to ask my “Who would play your characters in a movie?” question, I do have a Q&A with Steven.

Q: If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in the book?
A: Not really. The happy accident is that the end of the book sets up a sequel for which I’m really happy about because there is definitely a Godfather II brewing in my head. I look forward to staying with many of these characters and introducing new ones that will nicely compliment the ensemble.

Q: How much, and what kinds of research went into creating this novel?
A: Since mine is roman a clef in nature… to make it far more interesting my research took the form of dreaming my way through writing it… as a way out of mundane or predictable boxes. My research, for the most part, took the form of imagination.

Q: What are you currently reading?
A: Interestingly, Reading My Father, Alexandra Styron book about her father William Styron. I’m trying to prepare myself for how my book might further screw up my family.

Q: Who is your favorite literary character?
A: I have two and they’re about tied: Bob Slocum from Joseph Heller’s bookSomething Happened. And Swede Levov out of Roth’s American Pastoral. They both keep commiserating with me in my head.

I love the reading question and will definitely be adding that one to my interview list!

To check out more from the tour, click here.

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 

So it’s not completely wordless… I am not good with wordless, but it will be short and sweet. As promised, I got some pictures from the book launch of Fly Away Home by Maggie Myklebust courtesy her daughter Michele (Thanks Michele for uploading!). Oh how I would have loved to be in Amsterdam for this!

If you would like to read my review on Fly Away Home, click here. If you would like to read my interview with Maggie, click here.