The Last Letter from Your Lover - JoJo Moyes

This book was a creeper... in that it started off well enough but it didn't really gain momentum for me until part two. Then I couldn't stop. I loved the writing, the story of Jennifer, how much like gone with the wind the lovers kept coming back and then losing each other. I loved how time went on and you still weren't quite sure what happened to Anthony but then Moyes throws in the Ellie story and how it all comes to together at the end...i should step back and then redo this review cuz it sucks; it doesn't justify the big old fashioned love story that it deserves but trust me, the last letter from your lover is worth the read even if you think it starts off kind of slow.

The Girl You Left Behind by JoJo Moyes

So. moyes has done it again. Sucked me into something I didn't think I would like. I am not a huge history person but I probably learned more about "war times" in fiction (gone with the wind, anyone?) then sitting in class in high school. But after reading Honeymoon in Paris and being dazzled by the two couples I had to take on this meaty tale. And am so glad I did. We have the Edouard and Sophie Lefevre who live in France and are doing their thing - eating drinking making love being jealous fighting loving...you know, the usual when war breaks out and he's taken away and Sophie goes to live with her sister. Edouard is an artist and is scraping his way in life but he's truly talented and paints his wife and the book centers seemingly around the painting entitled, The Girl You Left Behind---however we all know it's never about the painting. Then alternately a hundred years later we have Olivia "liv" Halston and her husband David who is a brilliant and work obsessed architect. He dies early on and Liv is grieving over him and loves the painting (TGYLB) because he bought it for her when they first got married. So we get invested in the war story, how sophie talks smack to the german soldiers who have taken over her hotel. And we pine for her lost husband hoping they will reunite and we also follow Liv and how she is slowly losing her shit because the house her husband designed and that she lives in is mortgaged to the tilt (or whatever that saying is) and she's of course still very sad 4 years on. Enter Michael Mccafferty who is assigned to find and restore the painting to it's "rightful owner" ---which is made complicated when Liv and michael get it on one drunken evening and well.... it's a pretty damned good story. go one.. if you have haven't read it yet DO IT!!! now for me, off to a rather depressing book about loss and suicide but is also rather good, 5 days left..but for comic relief (thank god for LM Montgomery---the Blue Castle is half way done...love that Valancy.)

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Okay---this book. SO WONDERFULLY GOOD!!! and it's rated G good, which my reptilian brain doesn't seem to assume that the use of "d----d' instead of Damned would = a corny book. But once again i am proved oh so lovingly wrong. I have had Anne of Green Gables on my TBR list for a while now thinking oh when i'm in the mood for something light and childlike I will pick it up but for some reason while looking at another book i finished and seeing that The Blue Castle was associated with it I picked that up. And sucked in to the world of Valancy Stirling. Oh Valancy, to be born into a clan of people who are so belittling and hilariously ridiculous in their predilections and assumptions of what people should be doing and when. Valancy is 29 and living with her widowed mother who keeps an eye on Valancy's every move and keeps her busy lest she get evil ideas like...umm.. i don't know, get a life? There are a whole host of characters in her family that make one dimensional appearances but they are delightful and we learn of valancy's ill view of the world (because if anyone lived in that dreary house with that dreary mother they'd be depressed too) and on top of that she thinks she has a heart problem and has to sneak to the doctor who informs her that she is really sick and will die, most likely within the year!! and thus, this is the catalyst that launches Valancy to make some changes and live her life the way her most favorite author, John Foster writes in the beloved nature books, which is to not be driven by fear. Valancy ignores her mother's usual demands and starts speaking for herself. She is a SPARKPLUG!!! i laughed out loud (literally) at her sarcastic and witty comebacks and had to check the copyright of the book a few times to make sure I was seriously dealing wtih a book published in 1926? So Valancy gets a job and acts on her feelings for a dude she knows that is whispered about in the neighborhood as a guy who has a criminal history and 19 ex wives and all sorts of mental issues. And the name of this romantic interest??? wait for it........ BARNEY SNAITH!!! what??? I know, the worst name ever!!! Who names the hero Snaith? sounds so nasty off the tongue but whatever. They have an uncommon relationship and without spoiling the end.... ummm then i can't really say much else about the book except it was so well written and snappy and was one of those books that reminds me why I am obsessed with reading and what it's all about. Now even though I have a few library books due soon I am reading my old booksale bought copy of anne of green gables and am definitely falling in love with miss Anne Shirley. so glad i wasn't a kid reader who would have already been there done that with these classics.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

To capture the range of human thoughts and emotion that are, as I learn over and over again, universal and timeless is what makes a great book. I loved Anne Shirley and loved how full of life and wonder and how high and low she got, how people could know how she was feeling since her vibrancy was forever shown on her face. She is a strong self-aware person and I am both really mad that i never thought to read this as a kid and very happy to have read it at all, perhaps even being able to appreciate it differently with where I'm at in my life. "There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting." Anne to her bff Diane. I still can't wrap my head around the reading level being for 10 year olds. It is a simple story but there are times where I had to re-read a passage to make sure I got it right. Or maybe I'm on-par with 10 year olds. either way, Lucy Maud Montgomery has created a character, a string of them, that are ornery, sweet, real and funny and sad. I love the chapter headings and the different "scrapes" Anne gets into. I love how the story somewhat reminds me of a Jeeves story, with the incidents being so silly sometimes. I am on to Anne of Avonlea and although I prefer the age of Anne in the first book I will be sure to enjoy her maturing too. and i almost cried with Matthew died. 'Well, well......" sigh.

Walking on Trampolines by Frances Whiting

This was a good-read. Not the most excellent read but still very good. It starts off captivating the reader with our protagonist waking up hungover with the fiance of her best friend. So this caught my attention but it also put me in the frame of mind that I was reading "chick lit" but the book turns into something a little less "chicky" and more of an exploration of Lulu's life. She has a plumber father and depressive mother and she has her first boyfriend josh and best friend annabelle. Annabelle ends up with Josh --this happens early so no spoilers here- but what threw me off was the change of story to Lulu's relationship with her boss, a radio dj. It sort of comes back round to the beginning but to me the story wasn't written as well as it could have been. It was like it could have gone through another draft or so. But it was good enough to keep reading and I do recommend it to people looking for a straight up decent story.

The Fragile World by Paula Treick DeBoard

This got me from the first page, I liked Olivia's voice. It chronicled a family's unravelling after the accidental death of the elder child, a son of Kathleen and Curtis Kauffman. Told from the pov of Olivia and Curtis we see how truly fragile we are when something devastating happens. What i didn't expect that came not too far from the beginning was the intent of Curtis to get revenge on the killer, who didn't seem to be sorry for his truck hitting daniel as he walked across the street. Curtis never came to terms with it and after the separation of Curtis and kathleen, Curtis who has custody of Olivia take a road trip that unbeknownst to Olivia is for her father to find the recently paroled killer and kill him. The ending wasn't expected and i'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but it was well written and I enjoyed it immensely

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Samson

Received through Netgalley yay!! This one was okay. It was more Don Tillman and his unique way of socializing (think autistic or something along those lines) and he's still brilliant and still married to Rosie only now they have a baby on the way and Don isn't dealing with it properly. He is analytical about the pregnancy and Rosie isn't taking it well. She feels that he's uninterested in being a father and is thinking of divorce. Gene, Don's friend has moved in and that bodes none to well with the Mrs. It was an alright story but I just didn't buy into her thinking he's not interested. I slugged through it though because the story was just different and silly enough to keep going but I was disappointed in it compared to the first one. Worth reading but no rush to those Rosie Project fans.