Review: The Husband's Secret

To start off with, the reason I read this book. It's due 100% completely to my intense love for What Alice Forgot and wanting to read every single Liane Moriarty book I can get my hands on. (Fun fact! Liane Moriarty is YA author Jaclyn Morarty's sister.)

So anyway. This book. I liked it. I was seriously invested in it. The epilogue was amazing. But as a whole the story wasn't as great as I was hoping for it to be. I don't quite know how to explain it -- partly I think that some of the characters who were really important to the story (most notably Cecilia's husband, John-Paul) didn't feel real to me. I just didn't care about them all that much; I wanted to know how the story itself ended, but I wasn't hugely invested in the characters. Which, after What Alice Forgot, was disappointing.

But let's get to the actual STORY, shall we? Cecilia Fitzpatrick, ultra-organized mother of three and wife to the golden John-Paul Fitzpatrick, finds a letter from her husband -- to be opened in the event of his death. Overcome with curiosity, Cecilia reads the letter (If she didn't, there would be no story, right?) and finds out the secret her husband is hiding. 

Meanwhile, Tess O'Leary has moved back in with her mother while dealing with the fallout from discovering that her husband and cousin/best friend have fallen in love with each other. And then there's Rachel, whose anger and grief over her daughter's death decades ago impacts every aspect of her life. Somehow, of course, you know that all three of these stories are going to come together in the end. I'm not a hundred percent on board with the way these three women's stories finally came together, but it was definitely interesting. 

Alright so. I don't know how to not be spoilery with this review. But I'm going to try! I'm going to succeed! 

The story itself is really something. I was impatient to find out what was going to happen, but I don't know how earned or true various events in the last third of the book felt. Weirdly, I wanted a lot more from Tess' weird love triangle with her husband and cousin, which was probably the least important part of the book. But I liked Tess; I wanted more from her. I also liked Cecilia. And I have to say this... I hate to say it, but I have to be honest... I did not like Rachel. She felt petty and angry and... I mean, her daughter was MURDERED and that murder was NEVER SOLVED. And I can't imagine that, I have no idea how to even begin to feel what that would feel like. So I hate that I didn't like her, but I didn't. Even pushing her decision at the end of the book aside, she was so oblivious to the feelings of those around her (her completely ignoring her son's grief, for instance) and so mean to her daughter-in-law. She just completely rubbed me the wrong way.

I know this is a crap review. It's hard to talk about this book without talking about the contents of John-Paul's letter, and the ending, and so many more really really interesting-but-spoilery things. I did love the idea that our lives can spiral out in so many different directions that we will never know, as was really brought home in the incredible epilogue, which I think I mentioned earlier.

Balancing Acts & A Call for Great Chick-Lit

I seem to be on a never-ending quest to find awesome, solidly cute and entertaining adult novels. Chick-lit*, for lack of a better term. I want the book equivalent of a really good romantic comedy; 13 Going on 30 or The Proposal in book form. Honestly, I want the feel of a romantic comedy, but the book doesn't even have to be a romance.

So I found Balancing Acts at a used bookstore. Four college friends meet back up at a 10-year quasi-reunion and reconnect over a six-week yoga class. Cue dream-chasing, unexpected romances, and Big Life Moments. I had such hopes for this one!

Sadly, those hopes were not met. Though the premise of the book was catchy enough, the characters and relationships fell flat for me, with the notable exception of single-mom Naomi, who was the bright light of the book. These four women are remarkably similar to one another - all of the same socio-economic class, working in related fields, most of them with creative dreams they'd put off only to rediscover them throughout the course of the book. Their romances are predictably... predictable, and the friendship that grows between the four of them never felt organic enough to really draw me in.

The odd thing here, in light of everything I've said, is that I actually enjoyed the book. It was entertaining enough, and I was invested enough in these characters stories that I kept with it. I wanted more from the ending, especially Naomi's storyline, but this book was reliably okay. 

But it wasn't the rom-com, chick-lit gem I keep searching for, and I have to ask, for those of you who read more adult than YA: can you recommend some great chick-lit to me?

*Okay, yeah, I know that "chick-lit" is supposed to be not so much a term anymore. But I honestly don't know how else to best describe the type of book I'm looking for. If you know what it's called, let me know!

Tuesday Ten: Authors

This week's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is favorite authors in a specific genre; so here are my top ten non-YA fiction authors. But really I don't read so many adult books, so there are only four authors on this list.

1. Liane Moriarty, author of What Alice Forgot. (Okay, I've only read one of her books, but I absolutely loved the writing style and really want to read more of her work.)
2. Jodi Picoult. I know her books are super-sad all the time and horribly traumatic, but I sort of can't stop reading them.
3. Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays With Morrie. More sad books, but great, oddly life-affirming sad books.
4. Ally Carter, author of Cheating at Solitaire. Okay, I know Carter is known mostly for her YA books, but her two adult novels (Cheating at Solitaire and Learning to Play Gin) are so great; they're among my favorites.

Sisterhood Everlasting and Series Thoughts

Reading Sisterhood Everlasting, the "fifth" book in the series that begun with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, was a bit of a surreal, strange experience for me. Like many YA readers in their 20s, I read the Traveling Pants series as a teenager and was deeply, deeply invested in the lives of Lena, Tibby, Carmen, and Bridget. They were and are such well-written characters, so complex and intricately developed, that it was almost impossible to not be swept away in their lives and struggles.

I loved that series. Loved it. There was no way for me to not read the fifth book, the grown-up book, the one that can exist as a stand-alone if you haven't read the other four. But reading it there was something wrong. These girls had gone through so much, and now they were going through even more. And it was, to a certain extent, more of the same. The issues and struggles the girls went through were similar to, if not the same as, ones they'd battled in the series.

It made me think that as much as I love these characters and as interested as I was to know where they ended up, maybe it's okay to leave them in the past. Because another book means more troubles, more drama, and to a certain extent it has to be contrived, doesn't it? In order to keep the same style/voice/mood/whatever of the series? With this series, I felt like it sort of did.

And I thought of what Gayle Forman has said in response to reader requests for a third Mia and Adam book. It's brilliant and right on the nose. I really encourage you to read this post, by Gayle Forman (especially the fifth, sixth, and seventh questions) because it says so much about stories and series that's really smart. She's talking specifically about If I Stay and Where She Went, but I think it applies so well to many contemporary series and stories.

Review: Sisterhood Everlasting

SISTERHOOD EVERLASTING
Ann Brashares
Random House

Picking up ten years after the end of the fourth book, Forever in Blue, this all-grown-up extension of the series introduces us to the 29-year-old versions of the Septembers. Carmen is living in New York and has scored a recurring role on a crime show; she's engaged to and living with a man whom everyone else finds insufferable. Lena lives alone and teaches art classes; she has almost no friends and is essentially a recluse. Bridget lives with Eric in San Francisco and works various odd jobs; any hint of commitment or stability sends her running away from her life. Tibby and Brian have lived in Australia for two years and she hasn't had a lot of contact with the other three until she sends them plane tickets for a Sisterhood reunion in Santorini, Greece. What the girls discover there and the ways it changes their lives, shakes them out of their routines, changes the Sisterhood in extreme ways.

It's hard to review this one without a few major spoilers, but I intend to do just that because it really is best to go into this book a bit blindly (unlike the way I did it). Sisterhood Everlasting is an emotional book not only because of the characters and events contained within it, but also because, as the jacket flap of the book says, the friendship between these girls "became a touchstone for a generation." That's true, and because of that an unbiased, impersonal review is nearly impossible. I started reading the first of this series in junior high and the intense friendship the girls shared was hard not to get caught up in. Brashares has a way of writing her characters as real, complete people with strengths and weaknesses and mistakes all their own. I always connected most closely to Tibby and Lena and the relationship of the four girls was immensely personal to me. As with all fiction that I read, I related and connected the Sisterhood to my real life and the people I most cared about.

When I found out that Ann Brashares had written a fifth sisterhood book, one meant for the adult instead of YA market/demographic, I couldn't leave it unread. I liked how Forever in Blue ended, but there was no way I could let the continued lives of these girls go on without me. And, I think, this is probably how a lot of readers feel about it.

My thoughts on the book itself are conflicted. I love these characters and I will never not love them, but between the YA series and this new book (which works as a stand-alone though it definitely loses much of its context) something went wrong. Their lives did not end up, at 29, at all the way I would have expected and sadly it felt contrived. None of the girls are married, none of them have children, and the issues they're dealing with at 29 seemed the same as the issues they'd dealt with as teenagers. It was as if much of the progress they'd made individually (and together) since The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was lost or simply erased in order to make way for this new book, and that rubbed me the wrong way. Though it makes some sense for them to be struggling because Sisterhood Everlasting really is about the girls entering adulthood, it was still a bit much. The issues you have at 29, even if you're still growing up, are not the same ones that you would have had at 16 and this book forgot that.

I wanted, and expected, grown-up versions of Carmen, Tibby, Lena, and Bee. I wanted to know about the lives they'd forged for themselves -- successes and failures and careers and families. What was Bee doing and did she have children? How had Lena found happiness for herself and was she any closer to her sister? Were Tibby and Brian still together? Did Carmen have a daughter, a husband, a family? But no, these girls are stuck somewhere between the past and the present and the future, unmoored and floating. Bridget is, at one point in the story, homeless. She still runs away from what she needs. Lena is reclusive, living alone and guarding herself from happiness for fear of getting hurt. Tibby hasn't spoken to her best friends in years. Only Carmen, whose fiance I didn't hate nearly as much as the girls did, has some of her life together. But even she has distanced herself from her family, her friends, and who she truly is. There were so many moments in this book when I wanted to yell at the self-sabotaging characters, to snap them to reality. To have the lives they deserved and should have had instead of the lives they ended up with.

That said, there were elements of this book that absolutely, positively were amazing. The immense love between the Sisterhood is not always at the forefront, but when it is the emotions, characters, and relationships are arresting. They're beautiful. Ann Brashares' writing is straight-forward and without frills but somehow this makes certain moments and certain emotions hit even harder. This is a tear-jerker of a novel. Even if some (much?) of it feels contrived and the characters don't feel as authentic as I'd like, there are more than a few moments of startling honesty and raw, honest emotion and actions that help to make up for the book's flaws. Additionally, while I've always always haaated the Lena and Kostos relationship, this book goes a long way towards redeeming it in my eyes. Explaining just why would spoil parts of this book, so suffice it to say that I have always, always wanted Lena to be happy.

So did I like this book? Yes. Yes, but I had, as you can tell, some pretty big issues with it. It broke my heart and there's definitely a large part of me that thinks it was an unnecessary addition to the Traveling Pants story and series; I would have preferred to imagine their adult lives the way I think they would have gone. But, since the book was written and published, there was no way I could pass it up. I don't really want to recommend it or not recommend it because for previous readers of the original series the characters and their stories are so personal that reading or not reading Sisterhood Everlasting is really a decision you have to make for yourself.