Marcie

When Kate's mother, Marcie, dies mysteriously she is forever tormented by the many questions surrounding her mother's death. In Marcie's absence Kate clings to her mother's husbands, searching for solace.


As family secrets are revealed Kate works to build her own life and family, but the mystery of her mother's death sidetracks her until she finally gets the answer she's always hoped for.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Marcie, by Carly Duncan, shares the emotional aftermath of one mother's mysterious death from the viewpoint of her daughter, Kate. The story is told on a timeline that jumps from past to present, creating a timeline of struggle and Kate's attempt at understanding her mother.

Kate is an independent young woman. She's never had anyone to rely on, as all of her family members were emotionally and physically unavailable. All but her brother, that is. With a family history of being ignored or kept at a distance, the death of her mother doesn't sit well with Kate. She wishes for another chance for both herself and her mother. As she grows into a woman, becomes a wife, and starts a family of her own, Kate tries to understand her mother through memories, a forgotten journal, and the stories from other family members. Readers will connect with Kate's desires and her attempt to rekindle strained relationships. 

The plot of the novel follows both Marcie's death and Kate's struggle. Each chapter gives the reader bits of information so that they may draw their own conclusions. The end of the novel was a bit abrupt, with the cause of Marcie's death revealed. However, the question of why is left partly unanswered. Duncan writes of a medical complication with Marcie, but readers never find out what the complication was. In a way, Duncan leaves the readers in the exact same spot as Kate, wondering if she'll ever know the whole truth. 

Rating: 3/5 Cups

WWW Wednesday (72)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

         

01. Currently Reading:
Marcie by Carly Duncan. When a young woman's mother dies, she struggles to accept the past and present.

02. Recently Finished:
Strong Enough to Love by Victoria Dahl. A romance novella that brings a man from the past into the main character's present.

03. Reading Next:
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson. The second novel in the series. Finally found a used copy in the local book store. Cannot wait to start this one!

Strong Enough to Love

Photographer Eve Hill was completely comfortable being single. Or at the very least, she was completely resigned to it. There was only one man who made every nerve in her body and brain light up when he walked into a room. But Brian Stewart had always been off limits. Hell, she'd never even kissed him!

For Brian, returning to Jackson Hole feels like coming home. But that has nothing to do with the town. It's Eve drawing him back. Eve and the chance to finally see if they have something or if it's all been in his imagination.

Eve doesn't think she can open her heart to Brian again after getting hurt so badly before, though her body still wants him. She offers Brian one night to fulfill their long-denied fantasies, and that's it. No love or promises, just a chance to get their attraction out of their systems. But can one night really be enough?

*May Contain Spoilers*

Victoria Dahl gives readers a steamy novella with Strong Enough to Love. The main character, Eve, remembers how much strength it took to simply survive when Brian left Jackson Hole. And now, it's time to try again. But how much more damage can her scarred heart take?

Eve is a very likeable character. Dahl keeps her simple and understanding. She's a woman who followed her dream of rekindling her photography career and owns her own studio, doing something that she loves and that she excels at. Readers will connect with her based on her emotions and the struggles in her relationship. She fell in love with a man who was unattainable. Eve was completely heartbroken and learned to move on. Now she has another chance and readers will relate with ease. 

The plot of the novella follows a perfect story arc. Eve's learning to open up when Brian suddenly returns to Jackson Hole. And trouble soon follows. Trouble with staying apart, that is. Strong Enough to Love is perfect for a quick, easy, romantic read that really delivers. Though, there are certain scenes that get pretty intense, excluding young readers from the desired audience. 

Rating: 3/5 Cups

 

Teaser Tuesday (85)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Marcie (p.1)

   - Carly Duncan

A call in the middle of the night can never bear good news. In fact, the sound of each ring sends a chill through me.

Divergent

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Veronica Roth takes readers to a futuristic world where separation of people, based on character traits, keeps the population safe in her book, Divergent. But things are about to change. An unexpected war is coming, as a certain group plans to betray the others. Within this main plot, a young girl is planning her future: which includes leaving her home behind and finding out what her true character is. 

Beatrice was raised to be selfless but has always struggled. She's a courageous and brave girl with a dynamic personality. She was raised to be quiet and to serve, to put others before herself, but she wants to speak, to act, and to be free. Readers will connect with Beatrice based on her desire to find herself and stand strong as an independent person. She craves the chance to live without strict rules and regulations. When she chooses to switch to a group that she believes will give her that chance, Beatrice has no idea that she's going to play a key role in the war that's coming. The war that begins in this first book of Roth's series. 

The plot of Divergent follows Beatrice through her choice to switch from Abnegation to Dauntless and through the initiation process to become a true member. It's a terrifying and thrilling experience that readers share with Beatrice as she jumps off of buildings, leaps from trains, learns to shoot and kill, all while competing with the other initiates. Because when it comes to the Dauntless not everyone becomes a member. And the ones who don't either die or become an outcast of society. Divergent is an intense novel that traps readers in a brewing war and a deadly competition making it an unsettling read that is nearly impossible to put down. 

Rating: 4.5/5 Cups

WWW Wednesday (71)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

      

01. Currently Reading:
Divergent by Veronica Roth. Gripping novel so far that reminds me of The Hunger Games trilogy.

02. Recently Finished:
Dark Chatter by Andrew Branch. Interesting satire that I'm not sure I understood. Had problems connecting with the main character but enjoyed the humor.

03. Reading Next:
Marcie by Carly Duncan. After her mother's death, Kate looks for relief and understanding. Looking forward to what promises to be an emotionally intense novel.

Dark Chatter

Quicklime Petterson is still kicking around campus two years after commencement. But as the post-college daze is petering out, an offer comes in: pen a porn script for the policeman who just busted him, get his charges dropped. With no time to workshop, the erstwhile English major pounds out an introspective, Oedipal flesh-flick entitled "Conceptual Tart." The project attracts a tween star in search of an edgy role, and media frenzy ensues. As the would-be one-off deal threatens to become a vocation, Quicklime attempts to find the honest career he meant to start after college, amidst growing renown as a pornographer.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Andrew Branch creates a pornographic satire with his novel, Dark Chatter. The main character, half sperm donation heir and half hired hand, is Peter who re-names himself Quicklime creating an air of mystery around his personality. 

Peter is a drug using, undecided college grad with a calculated quick wit. His lack of seriousness and his aim to use shoddy pick-up lines lands him in trouble with only one way out: to be the hired writer of a porno. The porno, which is shared with the reader, is a disturbingly unbelievable snippet of script that somehow takes off when it is purposely leaked. Peter has so many various, seemingly unconnected traits, that readers will be able to connect with him on at least one level. A college graduate without a job in their chosen field. An unaccepted family member who can't live up to their forced potential. 

The plot of the novel is a confusing heap of random situations which takes Peter from a messy roommate to his father's mansion to Dubai where he falls in love and back again. The writing style of Dark Chatter is almost too satirical to me, but I understand where certain lovers of the genre would greatly enjoy this comic attempt. 

Rating: 2/5 Cups

Teaser Tuesday (84)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I have two teasers this week! :D Just because I couldn't pick between them.




Dark Chatter (Kindle Loc. 956-57)
    - Andrew Branch

Peter did sleep eventually, knowing he would. It was his understanding of Newton that if a man lies down, an apple or a nap'll fall on him.









Divergent (p. 27)
    - Veronica Roth

It has a gray band and a glass face. If I tilt it right, I can almost see my reflection over the hands.

A House in the Sky: A Memoir

As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress in Calgary, Alberta, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia—“the most dangerous place on earth.” On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road.
 
Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic, receives “wife lessons” from one of her captors, and risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert, she survives on memory—every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity—and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark, being tortured.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Prepare to be held hostage in a country waging a war still current enough to feel the aftershock with Amanda Lindhout in her memoir, A House in the Sky, written with Sara Corbett. The raw writing style and honesty with which Amanda tells her story is both haunting and beautiful. 

Amanda shares her story with readers from the beginning, when traveling the world was just a dream. She worked to save enough money to fund a trip abroad for several weeks. After the first stint, Amanda discovered her love of the world and her desire to see it all. To ensure she could keep traveling she began working as a photojournalist. Through the memoir, readers watch Amanda change from a free, loving, adventurous woman into a mistreated captive who retreats into her own mind to escape the torture she experiences. Readers will connect with her open spirit and endless curiosity in the beginning of the memoir so easily that after she is taken hostage by Somalian renegades, it's as if readers are trapped along with her. 

The story that Amanda tells will haunt readers. Everything that Amanda lived and survived through is absolutely amazing and horribly astounding. The strength she had when she was living in absolute darkness, the hope that bloomed when she and Nigel (her close friend who was kidnapped with her) discovered a way to escape, and the beautiful world she focused on to help her keep breathing is heartbreaking and hard to understand. A House in the Sky is a poignant and terrifying memoir of one woman's courage to survive. I think though it may not be accessible genre-wise to every reader, it's definitely a book worth reading, and experiencing. 

Rating: 5/5 Cups

WWW Wednesday (70)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

          

01. Currently Reading:
A House in the Sky: A Memoir by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett. This memoir focuses around Amanda's love for traveling and her kidnapping as a photojournalist.

02. Recently Finished:
One Big Beautiful Thing by Marie Flanigan. Wonderful novel about facing your future after life has ruined your past.

03. Reading Next:
Dark Chatter by Andrew Branch. Never reviewed a book like this one. A novel that follows a college graduate as he finds himself accidentally working in the porn industry. This could be hilarious, or this could be terrible. We shall see.

Teaser Tuesday (83)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!




A House in the Sky: A Memoir
   - Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett

One of the best things you can believe about the world is that there is always, no matter what, someone worth longing for.

One Big Beautiful Thing

Artist Kate Abernethy is trying to put her life back together after the death of her boyfriend. At first, moving back in with her mother seems like a good way to sort out her finances and re-evaluate her life-instead it proves to be a minefield of doubt and recrimination. Floundering, she pushes herself to take new opportunities so she can rebuild her life and have a second chance at happiness.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Marie Flanigan follows one woman's struggle to survive in her novel, One Big Beautiful Thing. Kate is in her mid-twenties who has experienced an overwhelming amount of grief. She's lived through an unplanned teenage pregnancy, a failed engagement, the judgment of being a tattooed artist, and the death of a man she loved. 

Kate's role as main character brings focus to this novel of chaos and strife. She's a blooming painter who dreams of moving on after the death of Robert, her first serious boyfriend after college. She's bright, inventive, creative, and full of life. Though, she has trouble facing her future. Kate often runs from confrontation, using avoidance as a key tactic in her survival. Readers will connect with her through understanding. Facing one's own future is difficult enough without the haunting of a rough past. Kate is an interesting character with definite flaws that make her more real for the reader. Through the arc of her evolution into a stronger woman, readers will be touched by her change in perspective. 

The plot of the novel is simply following Kate's progression after Robert's death. Yet, the book holds so much more than that. Readers don't only see a change in Kate, but also in her mother and the main love interest. The supporting cast aren't static characters, adding more depth to this novel and making it one of ample caliber. One Big Beautiful Thing is a book that lifts not only spirits, but hopes within the readers as well. 

Rating: 3.5/5 Cups

WWW Wednesday (69)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

          

01. Currently Reading:
One Big Beautiful Thing by Marie Flanigan. A book about a woman whose significant other died in a drowning accident and how she struggles to move on with her life.

02. Recently Finished:
Ever Near by Melissa MacVicar. The opening novel in a series about a young teenager who can see ghosts and spirits.

03. Reading Next:
A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett. This book is a memoir that tells of a writer caught between countries.