Dark Water - Laura McNeal

 
Dark Water
By Laura McNeal

The thing that initially caught my attention about Dark Water was the reference to avocado groves. I have a lot of family in Southern California and an in-law who grew up on land that contained over 200 avocado trees when her parents bought it. Combine that with what I have heard about McNeal’s writing and I was extremely curious about this book.

Since I knew this story was about a girl who meets a boy who works in the groves, I was prepared for some high school girl romantic pangs, what I wasn’t expecting was how deeply real this story would turn out to be. The book is about a girl named Pearl and the path her life takes during a time when many things were changing for her. There are a few mentions of a fire throughout the book but most of the story is about Pearl and Amiel, the boy catches her eye with his circus tricks.

Although the fire only takes up a small amount of the actual book, the intensity and reality of it transformed the story into something extremely powerful. That part of the story had the force of someone who had lived through something similar and this confirmed in the Author’s Note.

This is a story full of truth and pain. It is about the stupid decisions and infatuations that make being a teenager exciting but also the consequences of those decisions and the heartbreak that everyone experiences at some point of their life in one form or another.

**Source: Amazon Vine

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Thank you Amy from Passages to the Past for hosting this month's Mailbox Monday blog tour.

Check out the blog and post all the new books you acquired last week.

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives: A Novel  by Lola Shoneyin (from publisher for review)

From Amazon:

When Baba Segi awoke with a bellyache for the sixth day in a row, he knew it was time to do something drastic about his fourth wife's childlessness.

Meet Baba Segi . . .

A plump, vain, and prosperous middle-aged man of robust appetites, Baba Segi is the patriarch of a large household that includes a quartet of wives and seven children. But his desire to possess more just might be his undoing.

And his wives . . .

Iya Segi—the bride of Baba Segi's youth, a powerful, vindictive woman who will stop at nothing to protect her favored position as ruler of her husband's home.

Iya Tope—Baba Segi's second wife, a shy, timid woman whose decency and lust for life are overshadowed by fear.

Iya Femi—the third wife, a scheming woman with crimson lips and expensive tastes who is determined to attain all that she desires, no matter what the cost.

Bolanle—Babi Segi's fourth and youngest wife, an educated woman wise to life's misfortunes who inspires jealousy in her fellow wives . . . and who harbors a secret that will expose shocking truths about them all. 

The Peach Keeper - Sarah Addison Allen

 
The Peach Keeper

By Sarah Addison Allen

Do you have OCDs about certain books? I totally do! For example: Sarah Addison Allen must be read while sitting in the sun, preferably in the spring. So that is what I did a few days ago when we were lucky enough to have a beautiful spring day. I made it through a good amount of the book before I lost the sun and it was just too chilly outside to continue. I was going to finish it the following day when I could enjoy it in the sun but even after it got dark I couldn’t put this book down.

How is it that one author never fails to make you want to live in her story, to envy the characters and want to travel to the places and yet when I close the book I don’t feel depressed that I don’t have that life, I feel more hopeful about my own! I loved this book.

I love how her books are so impacted by food (there is even a chef from one of Allen’s previous books that makes a short appearance). I love the various scents that bring out different memories as well as so many emotions. I love the friendships. This book had an eerie feel to it that I don’t remember in her previous books and I really loved that! It fit perfectly into the story but didn’t stop the book from having a light ending.

I will admit that even with all this love, there were a few parts that weren’t my favorite. I am torn by the perfect way everything wraps up. Part of me thinks come one mix it up a little bit but the other part tells that part to shut up because it wouldn’t be the delightful story it is if it didn’t end that way. So, prepare yourself for an eye role and maybe an “oh my god of course” and then enjoy the rest of the journey.

**Source: ARC from Amazon Vine

The Emerald Atlas - John Stephens

The Emerald Atlas
By John Stephens

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I opened this book. I was excited because I felt there was a good vibe from it but was also concerned that it would feel too similar to other books. Although there were moments when I thought “hey this reminds me of…” it only happened early on in the book. If there were moments later on that should have triggered that reaction I didn’t notice it because I was too wrapped up in the story.

The Emerald Atlas was about the adventure three siblings mistakenly fall into. I loved the relationship between the three siblings, they had one of those “I can beat you up because we are related but if someone else tries, they will have to go through me first.” Kate is the oldest and steps into the parental role after they lose their parents. Michael is the cute nerdy kid who has knowledge that turns out to come in handy for the kids. Emma is the youngest of the three and I love her as the comic relief. She is cute and spunky and I couldn’t help but laugh at some of her remarks.

When I started the book, I was instantly excited and obsessed with it. My hopes were high but as the story progressed I found the energy that it opened with had died off and I started to become uninterested but just as I was becoming concerned, the story leveled out and the remainder was a constant pleasure. This is the first book in a series and I am excited to see what comes next.

**Source: ARC from publisher

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden - Helen Grant

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden
By Helen Grant


You know those books you read that totally surprise you, the ones that are just like SHABLAM in your face! Well, this was one of those. It started as a book about a girl named Pia and her life in Germany. It was about her growing up and dealing with school kid drama (the drama that every kid deals with but exaggerated to an entertaining degree). When a girl goes missing the story shifts to focus on how it affects Pia and those close to her. Through all this, tales are woven into the story about the town she lives in. As the focus turns more to the mystery of the missing girl it happened in a very natural way and was therefore much more real.

I have to tell you I started reading this on a warm day sitting out in the sun and it felt very cheery and light, then I was in my house later after the sun had gone down and the story got a bit dark. I was all alone and started totally freaking myself out because the book got creepy in a wonderfully delightful way and at the end I even caught myself reading with my eyes frozen in wide “holy crap” Os (and this was happening while I was in the bath…not the most relaxing bath I ever took but I literally couldn’t put the book down). This is where I tell you that I did something I have never done before in a book…I jumped ahead! I was on my lunch break and I had no idea I was getting to the apex of the story because (like I said) I had no idea it was going to be such a mysterious story and I just had to know…

I glanced at each page for the next couple of chapters until I found the answer I was looking for. I’m so ashamed! But I don’t regret it. I think it was more intense when I went back and actually read those pages knowing what I knew…

This book was not what I was expecting…it was better.

**Source: ARC via LibraryThing

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Thank you Amy from Passages to the Past for hosting this month's Mailbox Monday blog tour.

Check out the blog and post all the new books you acquired last week.

 Born Under a Million Shadows by Andrea Busfield (constest win from Stephanie D. at Misfit Salon)

From publisher's website:

A moving tale of the triumph of the human spirit amidst heartbreaking tragedy, told through the eyes of a charming, impish, and wickedly observant Afghan boy

The Taliban have withdrawn from Kabul’s streets, but the long shadows of their regime remain. In his short life, eleven-year-old Fawad has known more grief than most: his father and brother have been killed, his sister has been abducted, and Fawad and his mother, Mariya, must rely on the charity of parsimonious relatives to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence.

Ever the optimist, Fawad hopes for a better life, and his dream is realized when Mariya finds a position as a housekeeper for a charismatic Western woman, Georgie, and her two foreign friends. The world of aid workers and journalists is a new one for Fawad, and living with the trio offers endless curiosities—including Georgie’s destructive relationship with the powerful Afghan warlord Haji Khan, whose exploits are legendary. Fawad grows resentful and worried, until he comes to learn that love can move a man to act in surprisingly good ways. But life, especially in Kabul, is never without peril, and the next calamity Fawad must face is so devastating that it threatens to destroy the one thing he thought he could never lose: his love for his country.

A big-hearted novel infused with crackling wit, Andrea Busfield’s brilliant debut captures the hope and humanity of the Afghan people and the foreigners who live among them.

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (contest win from Amy at Passages to the Past)

From author's website:

Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha’s Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure.


The narrator of Caleb’s Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island’s glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative, secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia’s minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the island’s strongest pawaaw, against whose ritual magic he must test his own beliefs.

One of his projects becomes the education of Caleb, and a year later, Caleb is in Cambridge, studying Latin and Greek among the colonial elite. Bethia, also in Cambridge at the behest of her imperious elder brother, finds herself enmeshed in Caleb’s fate as he crosses between cultures.

Like Brooks’s beloved narrator Anna in Year of Wonders, Bethia proves an emotionally irresistible guide to the wilds of Martha’s Vineyard and the intimate spaces of the human heart. Evocative and utterly absorbing, Caleb’s Crossing further establishes Brooks’s place as one of our most acclaimed novelists.

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go
By Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go is the only book that I have read by Ishiguro but I am totally going to change that. If I had to pick my favorite thing about the book, I think it would be how real the characters and their circumstances are.

The story is focused around Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy and how their friendships evolve and change in the strange and mysterious circumstances they live in. Although Kathy and Ruth are friends, Ruth can be a bit of a bitch but their relationship reminded me of growing up. The ups and downs of their friendship held the key to my connection because it was so perfectly realistic.

The story unfolds in a unique way, with Kathy telling the story in chunks of time. This could have been confusing or annoying but it was done so well it just makes you not want to put the book down because you have to know what is going to happen next. It is a bit like the way I tell my husband a story (only mine aren’t as engaging). I’ll be telling him something and then realize that to make the story more interesting he needs to know something else that happened years before and that will lead to something else that happened last week. I don’t know how Ishiguro manages to make it work but I loved it.

The entire story builds up to a dramatic end where the things you are guessing are confirmed or explained and the part that leaves you hanging is that if this were a true story this is exactly how I could imagine it all going down.

**Source: Library copy