The Troubles in Northern Ireland have been documented in movies and books, in all the neverending grimness of the situation. But in Carole Bellacera’s Border Crossings, we see them through the eyes of a young American woman who gets drawn into the violence because she’s married to an Irishman. 1991 Ireland. We catch a glimpse…
Bittersweet is a middle-aged melodrama that’s about one-third too long. Not that it would have been much better without the additional 100+ pages, but Danielle Steel’s continual repetition of thoughts and actions becomes impossibly frustrating in a book of this length. While the author has moved beyond the twenty-something lovers I remember her writing in…
The Lazarus Child almost can’t be categorized as a book. Sure, it sits between covers and contains writing that, on it’s own, would pack a powerful punch. But the thought that it takes to delve into the story and understand the hearts and minds of the characters makes it, not just a book, but an…
This is an unsettling book for reasons that are difficult to describe. There is no graphic violence, no stalkers or killers, and yet the suspense kept me turning the pages well into the night. The suspense is all in how a family is going to deal with a major crisis and how they will come…
Stop! Before you decide to delve into Alexandra Raife’s Until the Spring, there is something you should know: this is not a straight romance. There is a slight, very slight, romantic element to it, but this is not a romance novel. It has the requisite ending but it’s really a novel about relationships and belonging,…
Whether you like Sullivan’s Island or not depends on how well you like authors like Pat Conroy and Anne Rivers Siddons. If you know their work, this book will be a comfortable read, with familiar themes and settings but with more humor and less emotional gut-wrenching. The prologue to Sullivan’s Island made me think that…
After reading two very average books in a row, I was looking forward to trying Fruitcake. I have to say, for pure entertainment, I was not disappointed. Gabriel Rose lost everything in a moment of rage. Arriving home one night, he walked in on his law partner and wife in bed together with his one-year-old…
I like political mysteries; they make a nice change from courtroom thrillers and straight romance. However, this one was neither exciting nor different, and I found it very run-of-the-mill. Sharon Hays is a hard-working, semi-famous attorney and single mother to Melanie. When Congressman Will John Benedict is accused of murdering the young intern with whom…
Would you know your child if she suddenly reappeared after a thirty-year absence? Would you be willing to go to the ends of the earth to save her, putting your own life at risk in the process? Could you open your heart after it was welded shut in the face of hopelessness and despair? The…
I decided to read White Chocolate because I found the book’s cover interesting. It contained a close-up of the beautiful author, Elizabeth Atkins Bowman, and the synopsis was intriguing: a bi-racial TV journalist must face her past when the white supremacists she helped put behind bars are released and threaten her life. In this case,…
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