Between Here and Forever

Written by Elizabeth Scott

Goodreads Synopsis: Abby accepted that she can't measure up to her beautiful, magnetic sister Tess a long time ago, and knows exactly what she is: second-best. Invisible.
Until the accident.
Now Tess is in a coma, and Abby's life is on hold. It may have been hard living with Tess, but it's nothing compared to living without her.
She's got a plan to bring Tess back though, involving the gorgeous and mysterious Eli, but then Abby learns something about Tess, something that was always there, but that she'd never seen. Abby is about to find out that truth isn't always what you think it is, and that life holds more than she ever thought it could....

My Confession: I was pleasantly surprised by this story. My initial worry was that Abby would turn out painfully one-dimensional, obsessed with her sister and her own perception of inadequacy. But to Scott's credit, she paints a pretty sympathetic picture of a "golden girl," who has everyone wrapped around her finger. Tess, in the snippets we see from Abby's memory, is not a likable person--she's horribly mean and condescending to her younger sister. She's filled with rage while at home with Abby and their parents, but turns on the charm when others are around, causing a warped and false image of Tess' true personality.

Abby does more than live in her sister's shadow--she's swallowed by it. The chip on her shoulder has been earned; she's had painful reminders her entire life that she's not Tess, and never will be. She's been looked-over and picked second one too many times. When she meets Eli, she's so brainwashed into thinking he'll automatically want Tess, she sabotages her own chances at happiness without realizing it. I have to give props to Scott--she really kept the theme consistent, and Abby never wavered in her mentality. Her character was defined and steady, and as much as I wanted to shake her, I felt like she was a real person. As was Eli, a physically beautiful boy with flaws of his own.

Recommendation: The writing was really simplistic and wonderful here. When I closed the back cover, my first thought was of how well-written the entire story had been. Not once did I think Abby was too whiny, or Eli's perfection too improbable. And I never expected Tess' secret to be what it was. It took me off-guard and forced me to revisit the beginning half of the story with new eyes. And that's always a good thing. Unpredictable with growth. All in all, a pretty solid and worthwhile read.

Rating: 4/5

250 pages, published by Simon Pulse (May 24, 2011)

Juliet

Written by Anne Fortier

Goodreads Synopsis: When Julie Jacobs inherits a key to a safety-deposit box in Siena, Italy, she is told that it will lead her to an old family treasure. Soon she is launched on a winding and perilous journey into the history of her ancestor Giulietta, whose legendary love for a young man named Romeo rocked the foundation of medieval Siena. As Julie crosses paths with the descendants of the families immortalized in Shakespeare's unforgettable blood feud, she begins to realize that the notorious curse--"A plague on both your houses!"--is still at work, and she is the next target. It seems that the only one who can save Julie from her fate is Romeo--but Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?


My Confession: I'll admit right off the bat that I'm not Shakespeare's biggest fan. Forced to take a course in his writings my senior year in college, a common refrain that often exited my mouth went a little something like this:

Shakespeare is so overrated.

I mean, who knows if he actually wrote all the plays he's famous for? And Romeo and Juliet ? Don't even get me started. Once I had the image of Leo DiCaprio in my head as the tragic hero, I was done. I hate unhappy endings. Really, really hate them. But I'm a big fan of books that are puzzles, not unlike The DaVinci Code (which one of the critics on the back of this book actually likens Juliet  to). This story screamed mystery and intrigue, and I like when modern-day authors revisit classic stories. I was willing to give this a shot.

Standing Corrected: And, I must admit, I'm so glad I did. This book was so good. I don't know how else to describe it. The twists and turns, the depth of the plot and the characters--this has to be one of the most well-thought-out books I've read in a long time. Not only does Fortier imagine a present-day reincarnation of Romeo and Juliet, but she totally restructures their original romance as well. While paying Shakespeare some heed, she goes her own way with the two lovers' history, telling it from a new perspective and setting everything in the very first place Romeo and Juliet was ever written to have occurred--Siena, not Verona. Her new adaptation is positively mesmerizing, and not just because she hints at it; half the story takes place in the year 1340, telling this new story of Romeo and Juliet (called Giulietta) as if we're right there, in the moment. Then--poof!--back to present-day and a struggling Julie who tries to uncover a dark family secret that seems to still be plaguing the houses of three (not two!) feuding families.

Recommendation: I'm not going to go as far as saying that this story completely changed my mind about Shakespeare. I still don't love the man, but I have a new found appreciation for the longevity of his stories. These characters are absolutely timeless--they've transcended generations and centuries of other romances, and yet, Romeo and Juliet are still iconic. Theirs is still the most famous love story of all time. And it doesn't even end well. I got wrapped up in the magic of this tale once again, thanks to Fortier and her impressive imagination. And, just in case you're wondering whether present-day Julie meets the same fate as her ancestor Giulietta--I'm not going to tell you. Read it and find out. I promise you'll find a perfectly dreamy, thirty-something Romeo who proves a bit wiser than his ancestor.

Oh, and the seven-hundred-plus years of violence, mystery, murder, and secrecy adds a little something extra, too.

Rating: 4.8/5

480 pages, published by Ballantine Books (Aug. 24, 2010)

I'd Know You Anywhere

Written by Laura Lippman

Synopsis: "There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I'd know you anywhere."
Suburban wife and mother Eliza Benedict's peaceful world falls off its axis when a letter arrives from Walter Bowman. In the summer of 1985, when Eliza was fifteen, she was kidnapped by this man and held hostage for almost six weeks. Now he's on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, and Eliza wants nothing to do with him. Walter, however, is unpredictable when ignored--as Eliza knows only too well--and to shelter her children from the nightmare of her past, she'll see him one last time.
But Walter is after something more than forgiveness: he wants Eliza to save his life...and he wants her to remember the truth about that long-ago summer and release the terrible secret she's keeping buried inside.

My Confession: It's been a long time since I read, and really got into, a thriller story. But as soon as I read the basic synopsis of this book, I was hooked. I've always found abduction stories fascinating, perhaps because an author who can create a sympathetic antagonist is special and should be read. But mainly because these types of stories always feel like puzzles, and if I just pay careful enough attention, I can solve it before it's over.

This book didn't quite live up to that expectation. I was really excited to read it. The idea that Eliza had suppressed something horrible that happened during those six weeks and now had to relive it in order to possibly save her abductor--that's pretty powerful stuff. And it would have been, if there'd been a secret at all. There wasn't. If anything, it was a misunderstanding, a matter of semantics. Hardly something that Eliza had purposefully been hiding. My mind had initially jumped to a bunch of crazy conclusions--was she an accomplice? Did she kill that last girl? I was waiting for the promised suspense and "thrilling" conclusion. It just never came.

Slow Burn: There were numerous times where this story moved painfully slow. I liked the idea of jumping from the present time, with Eliza taking care of her children, to the past--1985, to be exact--when Elizabeth was forcibly in the company of Walter Bowman. But it just read like wading through quicksand. It was too slow for a suspense novel. I wasn't waiting in anticipation to see what was going to happen; I already knew what happened, and I guess I was just waiting to see how Lippman was going to write about it. I didn't get chills, didn't feel anxious, and slept like a baby after finishing it.

So, Stephen King--whose bombastic praise is slapped across the cover--I disagree. I don't find this "the best suspense novel of the year." Far from it. If there is praise to be heaped on this book, it comes in the portrayal of the abductor. Walter Bowman is one of the most complex characters I've ever read, and the way I was able to crawl into his head and almost understand what he was doing and why--that's creepy. His carefully planned manipulation of Eliza--creepy. The fact that when he's on death row, and the morality of the death penalty is constantly called into question, I still couldn't make up my mind whether he deserved to die or not--that's unnerving. That's where I wish this book had gone. I wish it had explored further the elements that made my skin crawl. There was too much narrative, too much story, and not enough sweaty-palms fear.

Recommendation: As far as thrillers go, I was nowhere near as uncomfortable as I should have been reading this. In fact, I could put it down, and did numerous times. It just wasn't very magnetic. There wasn't a big conclusion, a gigantic twist that no one saw coming. It all built to this big "secret" that Eliza was hiding, and it turned out there was no secret at all. Too much information was given to the reader, and since the road was blindingly lit and not dark and twisted, I navigated a little too well.

Rating: 2/5

373 pages, published by William Morrow (Sept. 1, 2010)

Evenfall

Written by Liz Michalski

Goodreads Synopsis: In life, Frank could've had any woman he wanted.

In death, he'll try to win back the one that mattered...

Frank Wildermuth always regretted a mistake he made as a teenager: choosing Clara Murphy over her sister Gert. And like a true Murphy woman, Gert got on with her life, never admitting to heartbreak. Not even now, decades later, with Frank dead-dead, that is, but not quite gone. Now, Frank's niece, Andie Murphy, is back in town to settle his estate, and she sees that things have changed in Hartman, Connecticut. Aunt Gert still drives her crazy, but Cort, the wide-eyed farmboy she used to babysit, is all grown up-with a whole new definition for the word "sleepover." Even freakier are the whispers. Either Andie's losing her mind, or something she can't see is calling out to her-something that insists on putting right the past.

My Confession: I loved this book. Really, truly loved it. I hadn't heard about this book in advance, it wasn't recommended to me, and I didn't discover it on Goodreads first. This was a beautiful, spontaneous find during a trip to Borders. I walked up and down the isles, and this book caught my eye. The cover is reminiscent of a classic watercolor painting, and something about it was whimsical and inviting. The back cover, which promised a plotline filled with love lost and a ghost who would stop at nothing to keep the past from repeating itself instantly grabbed me. Bonus points for naming the main character Andrea--even if it was shorted to the offensive "Andie" for the majority of the book. The writing was gorgeous and breathtakingly visual. The attention to detail was painstaking and meticulous. As a writer myself, I know how important the little details are, and Evenfall just nails them. The setting, a rural farm town in Connecticut, was very realistic, the atmosphere of a slow (almost sleepy) lifestyle captured perfectly. The characters were extremely real, from the reluctant, unsure Andrea to the handsome, incredibly sexy Colt, and the time-hardened, regretful Gert. But, that brings me to...

The ghost element: Almost nonexistent. Frank, Andie's uncle and Gert's brother-in-law, appears and narrates parts of the story from beyond the grave. It becomes known that Frank, as a young boy, was madly in love with Gert but married her sister instead. After Gert returns home from serving in the war as a nurse to care for Andie, her reckless brother's newborn child, Frank and Gert are forced to live everyday with their mistake. Now, as a ghost, Frank sees Andie going down the same road, and he wants to keep the past from repeating itself. However, as neat and interesting as this sounds, it doesn't quite play out that way. Frank's narrations act more as a window to the past, instead of connecting that past to the present. His presence is felt during different parts in the book, but feels nowhere near as important as it could have been. The "whispers" that Andie's supposed to hear never really happen. She never recognizes the "humming" she hears as a supernatural presence, let alone her uncle Frank. This particular aspect of the plot had so much promise, and it fell a little short. 

A few other loose ends are left by the end of the book. Now, I'm usually all for an open-ended ending; I've grown to dislike novels that wrap everything up into neat, unrealistic little packages. However, I felt that I was left with a few questions at the end (which I won't reveal for spoiler purposes) that could have been cleared up in a subtle way. Everybody doesn't have to live happily ever after, but abrupt endings (endings at all, especially in a good book) are hard to accept. 

Recommendation: Read this book. Just read it. It's beautifully crafted, and the fact that this is the author's first book is truly impressive. It's a wonderful story about love, regardless of and apart from the supernatural element. 

Rating: 4/5

320 pages, published by Berkley Publishing Group (Feb. 1, 2011)