Mad About: Marian Keyes (Week #1--This Charming Man)

 One of the reasons I've become mad about Marian Keyes is that she has the ability to take the most serious of issues & turn it into a story infused with a great deal of humor and warmth, i.e. Rachel's Holiday & Anybody Out There (both of which I'll tackle this month!). I enjoy laughing (and, I'll admit, a sniffle here and there) during these tales yet still walking away from them with something to think about...

Not so much with <-- this one.

The first week of Marian's Madness doesn't exactly start off on a high note with This Charming Man--

• Issue: Domestic Abuse
• Main Character: From perspective from of four women--- 1) Lola--a stylist; 2)Grace-- a journalist; 3) Marnie-- Grace's alcoholic sister, 4) Alicia--the fiancee of Paddy de Courcy, the center of this story.

Hands down, this book is the darkest of all of Keyes' fiction works. She takes no steps to tread lightly and, while the humor can be found here and there, is isn't prevalent. The love interests here aren't the main issue. The issue is how these women are changed by their experience with domestic abuse.

It's not my favorite Marian Keyes' book. Not at all. Lola's language is short & choppy, also written in the style of text message; this goes for everyone with whom she interacts. It's a bit difficult and slightly annoying as the book focuses a great deal on Lola's point of view.  I believe it serves Keyes' purpose because it does make Lola seem a bit flighty, making her the perfect foil to Grace, who is an ambitious journalist interested in nothing more than getting her story.

Marnie's plight is somewhat frightening. Her experience with de Courcy has fueled her alcoholism and her addicition is scary, to the point of blacking out and waking up beaten up and injured. Her journey is a tough one to read. Oh, and Paddy de Courcy? UGLY. I don't think there's a better way to describe this man. His behavior towards each woman is slowly revealed by flashbacks at the beginning of each chapter and it's gruesome.

This book was much grittier than I expected and rightfully so. Domestic abuse isn't a light-hearted issue. Keyes' tackles it well, however, while still providing us with a silver lining. This book is not the story of victims; it's the story of women finding the strength within themselves to deal with what life has handed them & for that I say well done. While I did say it's not my favorite of Marian Keyes' book, it is the most thought-provoking and I did enjoy it.

LitSnit Grade: A

Next week: A vlog (eek!) on Keyes' Walsh Family Series...

Review — Vesper by Jeff Sampson

 Okay, so here's the thing about this week's Villette-Read-a-Long:  I'm behind.  Like chapters behind (they're LONG this week).  I know, I know I'm terrible.  I promise I'll post my Week Three thoughts this weekend when I've caught up.  In the meantime, have a review!

Summary (via Goodreads):  Emily Webb is a geek. And she’s happy that way. Content hiding under hoodies and curling up to watch old horror flicks, she’s never been the kind of girl who sneaks out for midnight parties. And she’s definitely not the kind of girl who starts fights or flirts with other girls’ boyfriends. Until one night Emily finds herself doing exactly that . . . the same night one of her classmates—also named Emily—is found mysteriously murdered.

The thing is, Emily doesn’t know why she’s doing any of this. By day, she’s the same old boring Emily, but by night, she turns into a thrill seeker. With every nightfall, Emily gets wilder until it’s no longer just her personality that changes. Her body can do things it never could before: Emily is now strong, fast, and utterly fearless. 

And soon Emily realizes that she’s not just coming out of her shell . . . there’s something much bigger going on. Is she bewitched by the soul of the other, murdered Emily? Or is Emily Webb becoming something else entirely— something not human?

As Emily hunts for answers, she finds out that she’s not the only one this is happening to—some of her classmates are changing as well. Who is turning these teens into monsters—and how many people will they kill to get what they want?

Review: I feel like it's a rare YA book that keeps me guessing throughout the entire book, even more rare to not undermine the entire mystery with some cliched or obvious ending, so I was pleasantly surprised when Vesper managed an interesting mystery without making me roll my eyes when I got to the last page.

Vesper is hard to talk about because I'm wary of giving away any thing about the overall mystery.  Suffice it to say that just when I thought I knew what was going on, I was thrown in a completely new direction.  There were hints as to what was going on with Emily and the other kids in her town, but everything is so vague and clouded in mystery that I really couldn't take any one "explanation" as fact until the final reveal.  I will say that I thought Emily jumped to her suspicions about her "powers" a little to readily.  If I was suddenly acting like my sluttier evil twin come nightfall I don't know if I would jump to the conclusions she did.  In the end it made sense, but as she was in the library trying to figure out what was going on with her I found her choice of material a leap.  (See?  This is way hard to comment on without giving everything away!)

I really loved Emily in all of her sci-fi geeky-ness.  She'd totally be a girl I'd be best friends with in high school.  Heck, I think I was her in high school.  I could have dealt with about 40% less "I'm such a geek/have I told you that I'm a geek/really, I'm a HUGE geek, just look at all my Buffy paraphernalia."  I felt at a certain point like, okay I get it!  Stop beating a dead horse!  You're a geek.  Congrats. 

Interspersed with Emily trying to figure out just what the hell is happening to her are mini-chapters of her being questioned by a scientist what we assume is a few months in the future.  More than just creating a creepy Fringe vibe, these chapters really allow you to see how Emily evolves in future books.  She's pretty flippant and sarcastic and it only made me love her more for embracing her inner badass.  Even more, there's a logical explanation for why Emily's personality takes such a massive shift, when the other kids aren't suddenly making out with the local deputy and stealing cars.

My only big complaint, other than Emily's sudden logic jump about her condition, was the reveal of her love interest.  I felt like he wasn't established enough as a character to the point I went "who??" and had to go back to previous chapters to figure out who he was. The mystery might have been dragged out slightly too long because the action felt a little hurried and I would have liked to see more of Emily dealing with the revelation of what she is.

I hesitate to say anything else for fear of spoiling you guys, but, let me just say that I cannot freaking wait until the next Deviants book.  Jeff Sampson has a gift for keeping the reader guessing and has created a spooky, compelling series.  I'm excited to see what the deal is with some of the other kids in Emily's town.  There are hints of other powers going on and I'm eager to see what else is in store for these kids.

Lit Snit Verdict: B+

*I received an ARC of this book through Around the World ARC tours

WoW - Some long waits

This Waiting on Wednesday* I'm dedicating to all a few titles we've been waiting on FOREVER for a conclusion, a few series with years since the last release.

Earth's Children Series

Book 1, The Clan of the Cavebear, was published in 1980, and it's been nine years since the second-to-last book was published in 2002. Earth's Children's final book will be released ... drumroll please ... on March 29, 2011

I haven't read any of the Earth's Children books (though I know people who have), so I was hestitant to read more than the summary of the first book. But I do know that it takes place in the ice age (how many books can you say that about?), and features a girl named Ayla who we meet in the first book. At five years old, she is orphaned by an earthquake and taken in by a tribe who call themselves the Clan of the Cavebear.

The Night World Series

Books 1 through 9 of this 10-book series were released within a span of a few years ('96-'98), each story featuring a new set of characters all leading up to a great battle between good and evil promised to the reader for the final book in the series.

The final book, Strange Fate, will be release on April 6 2010... July 6 2010... April 26 2011... July 26 2011... July 10 2012(???)

I read these books when they first came out and loved them. The rules of the Night World are clear: 1) Never allow humans to gain knowledge of the Night World's existence and, 2) Never fall in love with one of them. Of course, these stories were all about what happens when the rules get broken, when Night Worlders (vampires, witches and the occasional werewolf) start finding their soulmates in humans.

While the title and plot of the final book has been public knowledge for years, I'm begining to wonder if this last book will ever come out ... and if it does, if I'll still care. The over-arching plot of the series centered around the millennium, but the world survived Y2K unscathed and might now find a world-ending-in-2000 story unimpressive.

Hopefully Strange Fate will be published while there still interested readers left!

A Song of Ice and Fire Series (A Game of Thrones)

This is another series on my to-read list. It began with A Game of Thrones released in '96. Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros, a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime.

Now a show based on the series will start up in April. It's been 6 years since the last book came out, but fans will have to wait until December of next year for A Dance with Dragons to be released (unless maybe the popularity of the show bumps up the release date...?)


What about you? Which series have you waited the longest for its conclusion? What are you still waiting for?

*Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Review — Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley

Summary (via Goodreads): Meet Corrinne. She's living every girl's dream in New York City—shopping sprees at Barneys, open access to the best clubs and parties, and her own horse at the country club. Her perfect life is perfectly on track. At least it was. . . .

When Corrinne's father is laid off, her world suddenly falls apart. Instead of heading to boarding school, she's stripped of her credit cards and shipped off to the boonies of Texas to live with her grandparents. On her own in a big public school and forced to take a job shoveling manure, Corrinne is determined to get back to the life she's supposed to be living. She doesn't care who she stomps on in the process. But when Corrinne makes an unlikely friend and discovers a total hottie at work, she begins to wonder if her life B.R.—before the recession—was as perfect as it seemed.

Review: While I live in New York City, I’ve always kind of thought of myself as a country girl (okay, country-ish girl.  I’ve worked on a farm, showed horses in the county fair, slept on a bale of hay, but will still freak out if I see any kind of bug) and happen to love those “fish out of water” stories where a city girl is thrown into country life, so I was pretty excited to hear about Where I Belong.  When I first read the synopsis I thought Gossip Girl meets Friday Night Lights.  Blair Waldorf meets Tim Riggins?  Yes, please!

I was a little nervous when the first page was a letter “from” Corrinne basically telling the reader to stick with the story even if you find her incredibly annoying and vapid (which I did).  When the main character’s telling you to just keep reading even if you hate her it makes you think twice about even turning the page, but Corrinne does grow on you.  Somewhere in the middle of the story I forgot that she was exactly the kind of self-entitled, Upper East Side rich girl that I want to smack on the subway when she takes up the last seat in the car for her tiny, quivering dog.  It’s a subtle transition and before you know it you’re actually kind of rooting for Corrinne and empathizing with her.

Broken Spoke, Texas is slightly stereotypical, but it encapsulated small town life pretty well.  The townsfolk’s names though?  No.  Just no.  I could deal with Jenny Jo, Corrinne’s mom’s name.  But Kitsy?  Bubby?  I just cannot take a guy seriously as a romantic possibility with the name Bubby.  I’m sorry.  I just felt like it was laying the “folksy charm” a bit too much.  And I liked Bubby, I did.  Kitsy, too.  They just had very unfortunate names for such down-to-earth characters. 

While I think Heasley created a great setting in Broken Spoke and succeeded in the difficult task of making a spoiled socialite likable, the dialogue was a little clunky.  Corrinne and her best friend both had strange sayings I’ve never heard any New Yorker actually utter, like “aren’t you a Forthcoming Frances/Overreacting Ophelia/Scaredy Cat Susie.”  It just felt out of character and weird.  Same with uses of words like “whack.”  I thought that word died in the 90s.  Maybe I just hoped it did…

Heasley could have also easily turned this into a straight romance YA, but she kept Corrinne’s relationship with Bubby on the back burner in favor of her relationship with her mother, Kitsy and her best friend from NYC (whose name is escaping me…).  It was much more about Corrinne’s journey than falling in love for the first time.  Things aren’t tied up neatly at the end, but it works.  Like I said, you care more than Corrinne has changed than you do about any kind of concrete resolution.  Though, maybe I’m just a terrible cynic, Kitsy’s dreams of moving to NYC and becoming a makeup artist made me a bit sad because, with all she has stacked up against her, I wondered if she wouldn’t end up as she predicted in a candid moment to Corrinne (married right out of high school with kids soon after) or, worse, like her mother.  Heasley barely touched on the socioeconomic struggles of small town life, but it did make you think.

Overall, Where I Belong isn’t exactly Friday Night Lights (but what is?), but it’s cute, fun and made me itch for a trip outside of the city.  More YA needs to be set in small country towns and, more importantly, do it well.  Heasley had right balance of realism and a bit of idealized nostalgia.

Lit Snit Verdit: B

*I received this book from Around the World ARC tours

Happy Sunday! New Monthly (Weekend?) Feature!

See? I read, I read!

Ooh, hi guys! Long time, no post, right?

Oy. My apologies.

Back in November, I complained about struggling to find the time to read. You were all lovely enough to chime in on how you find the time to read, and these suggestions worked. I made the time...I took Meg's suggestion and started to read a bit before bed. I adapted to my LitSnit cohort Erin's technique and read while on the train. My lunch breaks became prime reading time when taken, per Aelia's advice.

Needless to say, I got a lot of reading done. I just never got a lot of writing or REVIEWING done.Arg.

So, as the weekend LitSnit poster, I've decided to start a monthly weekend series (catchy name to be announced) focusing on one particular author or series. Gives me a chance to cover the TONS of books I got to read, as well as learn more about the people I've grown to like! It will also, hopefully, give me the chance to learn about your likes and dislikes of them as well.

Marian Keyes

Our March (well, late February/March) author is none other than Marian Keyes. Now, I know she hasn't excatly had anything published recently (The Brightest Star in the Sky being her last new book, I believe) but last summer, I had the pleasure of reading Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married and loved it to the point of ordering several other books by her (both fiction and non-fiction), particularly falling in love with the Walsh sister series...so I'm really excited.

Do you have any favorite Marian Keyes books? Also, do you have any authors you'd recommend? Let me know!