The Man Who Loved Too Much: Archipelago

This is the story of Billy Green. When he was just turning four, his father tried to throw him in the trash. He was a smart kid but that just seemed to create enemies.

His mom did everything to protect him. But this was Detroit, armpit of the wasteland! Catholic school didn’t help much, except the time he got his first kiss from an atheist nun. Home life was dismal. Was his father capable of anything but drinking beer and farting? And what was with that neighbor who made puppets and tried to molest Billy? Golly! Detroit was sucking the life out of him. At such a young age!

Then adolescence swirled around him. Like water in a toilet bowl. High school was a B movie. Only without a plot. So finally he did something about it. Billy ran away… to college. Cornell University. That was a good move for sure! He studied hard, lost his virginity, met the love of his life. Things were definitely looking up! What could possibly go wrong? Isn’t that what we always ask?

*May Contain Spoilers*

I finished reading John Rachel's novel, The Man Who Loved Too Much: Archipelago , a couple of days ago and have been struggling to put my opinion on character strength into words. The entire novel is undoubtedly about Billy Green, from infancy to sophomore year in college. The writing style is unique and fresh. But somewhere the book has an itch that I can't seem to scratch. 

Billy Green is a singularity. He was raised by an over-attendant mother and an alcoholic father. He should have been a spoiled brat or a resentful rebel but he grew up to be neither. Readers witness his growth into a deep thinker who's honest, loyal, confused by love, and a genuinely good character. The way that Rachel shares Billy's entire story, instead of a snippet of time with references to his past, lets the reader connect more with his character. 

However, the main plot seems to be the love story between Billy and Natalie, which doesn't start until his college years. Though the relationship with his father is an interesting novel aspect, as is the reaction to his mother fighting cancer. But, again, that doesn't start until his college years. I enjoyed Billy's character, and his adventure into the beginnings of adulthood, but I think I would have enjoyed the novel more if the focus was on the struggle of evolving relationships as the character comes of age. It seemed like the first parts of the novel, which revealed a near pedophile incident and a chaste first kiss with a nun, were just long-winded introductions to the main story line. 

It's tough to weigh character connection and in-depth descriptions against the overall intrigue of the story when also trying to assign a rating to a book. John Rachel's novel was well-written, with only a few mistakes here and there. It was funny, witty, and shocking at times. But most importantly, I cared about Billy and sincerely wanted him to end up with someone good. Not sure if that's Natalie, as she seems a little flighty and secretive (Pam = step mother?), but as a reader I want Billy to have a happy ending. And I think most readers will feel the same way, which shows a definitive bond between reader and character.

Rating: 2.5/5 Cups

The Fault in Our Stars

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

*May Contain Spoilers*

John Green writes a horribly wonderful story about life, love, and cancer, with disappointment and reality on the side, in his novel, The Fault in Our Stars. Hazel's parents believe that she is depressed and they force her to go to group therapy sessions. She completely hates group therapy until Augustus Waters shows up, an osteosarcoma survivor. Thinking that Hazel looks just like Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta, he invites her to watch her doppelganger movie. And thus, the story of faulty fated love begins. 

Hazel is the girl I'd imagine a friend with terminal cancer to act like. She's blunt, witty, honest, intelligent, demanding, and full of spirit. What she shares with her readers is edgy and open, a diary spray-painted on downtown buildings. The connection readers feel with Hazel beings with sympathy. As she describes her illness and the waves of honesty swell and crash upon the reader, that sympathy turns to understanding and, in eventually, empathy. With Hazel's blunt force trauma of words, readers get it. They can grasp what they may have never experienced. Throughout the novel, which is just over 300 pages, readers see all sides of living with illness. There are situational examples of fear, hope, love, joy, depression, jealousy, despair, surprise, and preparation.

The Fault in Our Stars focuses on Hazel and Augustus, depicting how they help each other to live a forever in a limited infinite. When Hazel shares her favorite book with Augustus, he has the same reaction she does: how can an author write a book without an ending? Luckily, Augustus has saved his wish so the two teens can fly to Amsterdam, where the author lives, and ask him what exactly happened to the characters after the last sentence was cut off and the story ended. 

The Fault in Our Stars was a miracle of misery, it had me laughing out loud and quietly crying in a subsequent nature. The only, dare I say, problem I had with the novel was the dialogue. I felt like the terminology and use of the English language was too old for Hazel and Augustus. Certainly not very often, but a few times, I had trouble imagining that a girl of sixteen, or a boy of seventeen, would have such advanced conversations. But, now that I've said that, I loved the way they spoke. I wish everyone spoke with such honesty and a highly developed vocabulary. It helped the quotes from T.S. Eliot et al fit right in. 

Rating: 4.5/5 Cups

The Probability of Miracles

Dry, sarcastic, sixteen-year-old Cam Cooper has spent the last seven years in and out hospitals. The last thing she wants to do in the short life she has left is move 1,500 miles away to Promise, Maine - a place known for the miraculous events that occur there. But it's undeniable that strange things happen in Promise: everlasting sunsets; purple dandelions; flamingoes in the frigid Atlantic; an elusive boy named Asher; and finally, a mysterious envelope containing a list of things for Cam to do before she dies. As Cam checks each item off the list, she finally learns to believe - in love, in herself, and even in miracles.

A debut novel from an immensely talented new writer, The Probability of Miracles crackles with wit, romance and humor and will leave readers laughing and crying with each turn of the page.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Wendy Wunder shares the story of a girl who learns to hope with her novel, The Probability of Miracles. When the doctor's tell Cam that western medicine has done all it can for her, without any relief, her family takes her to a place where unbelievable things are known to happen as a final effort to save Cam's life.

Cam is an angsty, sarcastic, faithless, and hopeless teenager who is dying. But before she passes, she is determined to finish her Flamingo List, a younger version of the "bucket list." Readers spend the summer with Cam as she falls in love, loses her virginity, and gains a new perspective on life while experimenting with some not so serious shoplifting. Readers will connect with Cam based on their own desires of life. They witness a young girl with limitless potential try to help those around her before she dies. 

The plot follows Cam as she and her family move from Florida to Maine, in hopes of a miracle. A miracle Cam doesn't believe in. Though the real miracle is that she gets to spend this last summer as a normal teenager. The novel is incredibly moving and sad though triumphant and hopeful. Highly recommended. 

Rating: 4/5 Cups

I'm Not Her

Tess is the exact opposite of her beautiful, athletic sister. And that’s okay. Kristina is the sporty one, Tess is the smart one, and they each have their place. Until Kristina is diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly Tess is the center of the popular crowd, everyone eager for updates. There are senior boys flirting with her. Yet the smiles of her picture-perfect family are cracking and her sister could be dying. Now Tess has to fill a new role: the strong one. Because if she doesn’t hold it together, who will?

*May Contain Spoilers*

Janet Gurtler writes a novel brimming with intensity from the first word of I'm Not Her. Tess loves to hate her sister. She's everything a daughter should be, and everything Tess isn't. When Kristina finds out that she has a cancerous tumor growing in her leg and it may result in death or amputation, the world Tess is used to fitting into is destroyed. 

Tess is an incredibly strong character in this novel. It's almost like the ending cycle of her evolution. She emerges from her shell with more bravery and courage than she could ever hope for. Readers will connect with her based on the openness in which she shares her emotions. They'll also relate to the bigger picture of the novel: she's faced with a life-altering situation and must adapt. I love the sarcastic nature of Tess along with her blunt honesty. It's refreshing to have a character that tells it how it is. Not to say she isn't awkward at times, or that I liked her at every point in the novel, but I did relate to her.

The plot of the novel follows Kristina's diagnosis with bone cancer up to what happens after treatment. Looking through the eyes of Tess, the book grows in emotional intensity as the plot climaxes and ends with a heartbreaking death, of a character you don't expect. I enjoyed reading this book. I really did. It was passionate, honest, and consuming. But it was also incredibly depressing. After every reading session my entire mood had changed. I felt like this was happening to me. Maybe it's because I become absorbed in what I'm reading, or the author is just that good at conveying emotion. Either way, though I recommend this novel, it isn't for everyone. Know your emotional limits and if this book is too much for them, then honor that.

Rating: 2.5/5 Cups

Always There

In this fresh, poignant novel, Always There, Shelby Lynn LeeMaster grapples with her recent “orphaned” life and how to let down her guard to fully experience true love, allowing it in to her heart without fear. The mother, Betheny LeeMaster, struggles with dying before she could teach and guide her children into adulthood. The daughter cannot break from her own fears, while the mother cannot forgive herself for leaving her children too soon. The different narrators, the mother in Heaven and the daughter on Earth, tell their stories in alternating chapters. Can the two women reconcile their fears and remorse before it’s too late, and Shelby loses the one man she’s destined to be with?

*May Contain Spoilers*

Carol  Ann Albright-Eastman shares the afterlife with the living in her novel, Always There. As a mother worries about how her children turned out after she died from cancer, her daughter struggles with the fear and pain of being, and dying, alone. 

Bethany died from colon cancer when her youngest daughter was twenty. She spends the afterlife with her husband, who died before she did, and sisters. Readers will connect with this character based on her title, Mother. She wonders and worries that she didn't have enough time to prepare her children for the adult world before the cancer killed her. Readers will use this to build a relationship with Bethany, connecting with the universal fear of what happens when we aren't there to help the most important people in our lives.

Shelby was the youngest of Bethany's three children. Saying goodbye to both of her parents before she turned twenty-one took it's toll on her quirky and fun personality. Now she lives in fear. She's so afraid that her life may be stolen by cancer - the death sentence that took her Aunts as well as her mom - that she refuses to let anyone in. Readers will form a bond with Shelby based on her fears. It's too easy to shut yourself off from the world when death looms on the horizon. Especially when alone seems like the safest place from worry and pain. 

Readers will quickly form strong bonds with each of these main characters and they will only strengthen as the plot advances. The story line focuses on Shelby and how close she comes to losing everything that matters - including her destiny, Chance. As Shelby struggles to open up to love, the last Aunt of the family passes away and joins Bethany in the afterlife. When Bethany learns of her daughter's emotional conflict, she tries to find a way to help her. Highly recommended novel! 

Rating: 4.5/5 Cups

Always There

Twelve Months

Don DiMarco has a very good life – a family he loves, a comfortable lifestyle, passions and interests that keep him amused. He also thought he had time, but that turned out not to be the case. Faced with news that might have immediately felled most, Don now wonders if he has time enough.

Time enough to show his wife the romance he didn’t always lavish on her. Time enough to live out his most ambitious fantasies. Time enough to close the circle on some of his most aching unresolved relationships. Summoning an inner strength he barely realized he possessed, Don sets off to prove that twelve months is time enough to live a life in full.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Twelve Months by Steven Manchester is nothing short of pure inspiration. It follows the last months that Don has after being diagnosed with cancer. A time when he comes to realize that he has never really lived his life. Readers will follow his journey to the end, as Don becomes more determined to pass on without any regrets. 

I was weary about this book at first, worried that it would be a story of chemo-therapy and battling cancer, complete with me using an entire box of tissues and feeling mildly depressed after the last page. But, it wasn't that at all. It was an extraordinary tale where one man chooses to live instead of be overwhelmed with death.

Don's character is the perfect epitome of everyone's favorite grandfather. He's loving, wise, giving, and wants his family to know how much love he has for them before it's too late. Readers will become his family as they read through his story of completing his life goals. 

The main bulk of the novel revolves around Don's list of things he has always wanted to do. His bucket list, so to speak. As he tries to complete his list, Don learns more and lives more of his life than he ever has. It truly is an inspiration. If a man dying from cancer can still live his life to the fullest, then what does that say about the rest of us? 

As he makes peace with his past, and moves forward in love and life, Don becomes a role-model to the reader. Showing us that our time on earth may be short, but that we can do with it whatever we choose. 

I highly recommend this book to everyone and anyone. It will burn the will to live into your soul. But you may want to keep a box of tissues near by, just in case. 

rating: 5/5 cups

Steven Manchester is the author of Pressed Pennies, The Unexpected Storm: The Gulf War Legacy andJacob Evans, as well as several books under the pseudonym, Steven Herberts. His work has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CBS’s The Early Show, CNN’s American Morning and BET’s Nightly News. Recently, three of Steven’s short stories were selected “101 Best” for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. When not spending time with his beautiful wife, Paula, or his four children, this Massachusetts author is promoting his works or writing.

note of source: from author for review

Teaser Tuesday (22)

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!

Twelve Months (p.80)
 - Steven Manchester

"Sometimes it doesn't take much to experience perfection, I thought. The simple things may actually be the greatest of all."


Should Be Reading @ Wordpress

Note of quote: This teaser is from a pre-release PDF copy. 

The Last Good Man

"Gorgeous, famous Savannah Stephens is back, and no one in her hometown, Sunbonnet, Wyoming, really knows why. Especially not Clay Keogh, the good-hearted rancher who has loved her from afar since they were kids. Savannah's young daughter looks just like Savannah's first love: local bad boy Kole Kills Crow, Clay's half-brother.

Has Savannah come home to start a new relationship with Kole?Whatever her secrets, it's clear that she's deeply troubled and needs a shoulder to lean on. Clay is there for her, and she soon realizes that he's a very special man. But until she can bring herself to share the painful truth about her fall from stardom, the emotional distance between her and Clay may separate them forever."

*May Contain Spoilers*

Kathleen Eagle tells a love story that will last a life time in her novel, The Last Good Man. The character connection throughout the entire novel is simply amazing. Eagle describes the characters and their motives in such a way that readers couldn't not connect with them. 

Savannah was once a famous model, but now she's returned to her hometown without much to say to anyone. After fighting breast cancer and surviving, Savannah has a hard time accepting that she's alive. Savannah was face to face with death and she won, thanks to her radical decisions and no-nonsense attitude toward beating cancer. 

But now, she doesn't know how to live without being afraid of death. Eagle writes Savannah's story in such a deep and believable way that readers will completely understand why she's having such a difficult time dealing with her survival. 

The Last Good Man is a love story, but it's also more than that. It's about trying to find a reason to live, to love, and to keep going when you're surrounded with nothing but obstacles. It also focuses on how the people around you can help if only you'd let them. 

The supporting cast of characters include Savannah's daughter, Clay (childhood friend/hero), Aunt Billie, and a few others who pop in later in the novel. The supporting characters all play a role in helping Savannah find her life again. Eagle shows the reader that without help from others around you, it's easy to lose the hope and faith that life requires. 

The Last Good Man 

on Amazon

rating: 4/5 cups

Internal Chaos and Expectations

The past is a common theme in novels. It's a novel in itself, the history of who we are. Heartfire by Karen Rose Smith centers around Tessa and Max, two people who let their past step in the way of their future. Their fear of rejection and the threat of giving up who they are forces the love they have for each other to become unstable.

Tessa was left by her mother when she was young. Thrown into the world of foster homes, she never felt she really belonged anywhere. A relatable thought between her and some readers. After chasing news across the world as a foreign correspondent, she knows where she wants to belong - with Max, but will she give up her life of traveling to finally put down some roots?

Max's wife died of cancer when their son, Ryan, was just a little boy. When Ryan's godmother, Tessa, comes back to town for his birthday, old feelings are rekindled between Max and Tessa. Tessa's the whirlwind where his wife was the calm and he'll have to accept that Tessa isn't Leslie.

This novel was a little slow at certain parts but after connecting with the characters during the first few chapters, I couldn't put it down. Smith writes her characters with all of their flaws put onto the table, flaws the characters themselves don't even know about. The expectations that the characters put on each other was an idea that usually goes unnoticed but Smith was focused on the details. The internal chaos of each character was almost enough to make me want to scream at the words on the pages.

Tessa's sense of adventure and fear of settling down are aspects of her character that readers can really relate to. The question between career and family appears a few times and forces the reader to question what they would do in the same situation. The answer seems easy at first, but on second thought it's much harder. Smith does an excellent job in Heartfire by showing the reader that there are different perspectives to be seen and compromises to be made in every situation.

Heartfire on Amazon

rating: 4/5 cups

A Path to New Discoveries

Losing someone important in your life is always a hard obstacle to overcome. A cloud of mourning hangs constantly above your head and your life becomes shrouded in a dense fog.

Especially when it's your mother. I haven't personally experienced this, but it's (sadly) something that inevitably happens. This makes Claire, the main character of Delivered With Love by Sherry Kyle, easy to relate to. In the opening chapter, Claire's attending her mother's funeral. After a long battle with cancer, her mother dies and Claire is left feeling lost, confused, and broken.

When Claire finds a love letter that was written to her mother years ago that is signed only with an initial, she is drawn to finding out who wrote it. She searches for a new connection with her mother, a connection with a sense of closure that will finally allow her to accept that her mother has passed on.

With an unreliable VW bug and a map that leads the way to Santa Cruz, a place the letter mentions, Claire finds herself on a path to new discoveries.