The Rumor (audio)

Madeline King and Grace Pancik are best friends and the envy of Nantucket for their perfect marriages, their beautiful kids, their Sunday night double dates with their devoted husbands. But this summer, something's changed, and if there's anything Nantucket likes better than cocktails on the beach at sunset, it's a good rumor.

And rumor has it...

...that Madeline, a novelist, is battling writer's block, with a deadline looming, bills piling up, and blank pages driving her to desperation--and a desperately bad decision;

...that Grace, hard at work to transform her backyard into a garden paradise, has been collaborating a bit more closely that necessary with her ruggedly handsome landscape architect;

...that Grace's husband, successful island real estate developer "Fast Eddie" Pancik, has embarked on quite an unusual side project;

...that the storybook romance between Madeline's son, Brick, and Grace's daughter Allegra is on the rocks, heading for disaster.

As the gossip escalates, and they face the possible loss of the happy lives they've worked so hard to create, Grace and Madeline try mightily to set the record straight--but the truth might be even worse than rumor has it.

This is one of those stories that everyone can relate to as having been a victim of or participating in gossip and its fallout.   The story is told in multiple voices that added dimension and a different take on the "rumors".  I liked Madeline and her family right from the beginning.  Grace need a smack, but I rooting for her husband to get things worked out.   Another great summer read  from this author.  Wonderfully narrated by Kathleen McInerney.

*Thanks to Mitch and Hachette Audio for this review copy*

The Competition

THE COMPETITION

A Rachel Knight Novel

by Marcia Clark

There’s no denying that Clark is a brilliant storyteller who works readers the way an expert trial lawyer works a jury. THE COMPETITION, her most assured novel in the Rachel Knight series, is a powerful testament to the fact that Clark is at the top of her game.

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. A Columbine-style massacre in a crowded high school has left the community shocked to its core. Two students are identified as the killers. Both are dead, believed to have committed a mutual suicide.

But in the aftermath, as LA Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight and Detective Bailey Keller dig deeper, they realize that the pieces don’t fit together. Did the shooters really kill themselves, or are they still on the loose? When someone starts dropping clues that another horrific crime is in the works, Rachel and Bailey desperately scramble to identify their suspects before it’s too late.

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This is book 4 in the Rachel Knight series.  It stands alone well, but do yourself a favor and read the previous books.  The book gets off to a chilling start that ramps up as Rachel and Bailey investigate.  Each piece of evidence they uncover gets them closer to the truth, but the perpetrator seems to be a few steps ahead of them. Page turning suspense with a couple of twists that keeps you riveted. The relationship between Rachel, Bailey and friends provides relief from the intense subject matter.  

Marcia Clark is a former Los Angeles deputy district attorney who was the lead prosecutor on the O. J. Simpson murder case. She co wrote a bestselling nonfiction book about the trial, Without a Doubt, and is a frequent commentator on legal issues in high-profile trials for CNN/HLN, MSNBC, NBC, and ABC. Clark has published two short stories and three previous novels that feature Los Angeles Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight: Guilt by Association, Guilt by Degrees, and Killer Ambition. 

This complimentary review copy was received thankfully from Helen and Little Brown and Co. and in no way influenced my review of this book. These are my personal thoughts and reactions to the reading of the book.

Life After Life

 

"What if you had the chance to do it again and again, until you finally got it right? Would you do it?"

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can --will she?

This is a clever, addictive and brilliantly written book.  It takes a couple of chapters to get the flow and feel of the book, but once I figured it out, I could not put it down and stayed up way too late a couple of nights to get through this chunkster.  Ursula is a great character, easy to like and root for, and just when you think things can't get worse, they change.  The many other characters are just as interesting.  Totally loved the way the author ended this book.  Well worth investing the time in this tome.  

Author: Kate Atkinson
Published: April 2013
Pages: 527
Genre: Fiction/Historical
Source:  Regan Arthur Books (Little, Brown and Co.)
Finished: 3/26/13



This complimentary review copy was received thankfully from Miriam Parker, Little Brown and Co. and in no way influenced my review of this book. These are my personal thoughts and reactions to the reading of the book.

Summerland

A warm June evening, a local tradition: the students of Nantucket High have gathered for a bonfire on the beach. But what begins as a graduation night celebration ends in tragedy after a horrible car crash leaves the driver of the car, Penny Alistair, dead, and her twin brother in a coma. The other passengers, Penny's boyfriend Jake and her friend Demeter, are physically unhurt - but the emotional damage is overwhelming, and questions linger about what happened before Penny took the wheel.

For Zoe, the twin's mother, the unthinkable awaits; life without her daughter, and an agonizing recovery for the son who had been a star athlete with infinite prospects Free-spirited Zoe has been as much friend as mother to her children, but now she has to face devastating truths about them, and about her own role in all that happened.

As summer unfolds, Zoe and the other parents ask whether their efforts to protect their children from life's realities have only left them more vulnerable.  Startling truths are revealed about the survivors and their parents - secrets kept, promises broken, hearts betrayed.

Elin does such a great job of multiple character POVs.  Each POV flows seamlessly as the story unfolds. Every parent's nightmare -  that middle of  the night call - propels the story forward.  How each person deals with the aftermath of the accident had me glued to the pages for an entire afternoon. A perfect summer read!

Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting for her five previous novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.

Elin's Facebook Page

Little Brown and Company has generously allowed me to host a giveaway for 3 hardback copies of Summerland.  Only residents of the U.S. or Canada are eligible to win. No P.O. Boxes, please.  Fill out the form to be entered.  Three winners will be randomly drawn on June 27th.

This complimentary review copy was received thankfully from Anna Balasi and Little Brown & Comany and in no way influenced my review of this book. These are my personal thoughts and reactions to the reading of the book.