The Eclectic Reader: January 2014

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publication Date: 31st December 2012 (1st published Jan 2012)
Pages: 367/16hrs 37mins
Book Source: Own eBook & audio
Narrators: Jo Hall, Anna Bentinck, Steve Crossley, Alex Tregear, Owen Lindsay, Andrew Wincott

Synopsis: Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

My Thoughts:

My first read of 2014 and my first Jojo Moyes but it definitely won't be my last. I've got The Girl You Left Behind waiting patiently on my bookshelf and The One Plus One coming up for review ... can't wait.

Jojo Moyes is a talented writer, she tackles an emotive issue with ballsiness and sensitivity but I just didn't have the emotional reaction I was expecting to and that's saying something because I'm a big sook. Yes, I was moved, as anyone with a pulse would be, but for me, Me Before You didn't have the same tear-your-heart-out emotional impact as say Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger, now that's a story that had me sobbing, wrung out and it has stayed with me since reading it in 2010.

I already have firm beliefs about a person's right to die so whilst I appreciate the ethical and moral questions raised for Will's loved ones, it didn't leave me questioning my own. I think we afford our beloved fur babies more dignity and less suffering than we do people. My mother died an agonising death from melanoma (if I could have given her a different leaving I would have) and having nursed many people with incurable diseases and quadriplegics with devastating co-morbid conditions, I felt Jojo Moyes covered the impact of quadriplegia on Will's physical and psychological state with well researched insight.

The round-the-clock care necessary for previously active and independent Will broke my heart, I'm just glad that Lou brought some light and joy into his life but it would have been nice to see Will choose his words with some of the respect or sensitivity he expected from his loved ones.

It's a life story ... about choices and our need to judge what's right for others; those left behind and their right to feel what they feel, those finding purpose and fulfillment whilst living with debilitating and incurable illnesses and those like Will ... Best before : 19 March 2007.

Connect with Jojo Moyes

Monday, January 27, 2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

A weekly event hosted by Sheila from Book Journey to discuss your reading week ~ the books you've read and those you plan on reading in the coming week. I love this meme, it helps me stay on track ... well, most of the time. Thanks Sheila!

What a fun filled week with my birthday mid-week and a lovely family dinner and then the weekend away. We had pretty dreadful weather over the Australia Day long weekend but it made for some spectacular sky photos.

Another busy week ahead but I'll tell you all about it next week.

#bookblogwalkers update #4: Felicia's Book Blog Walkers ~ Well I've had a brilliant week as far as getting heart healthy goes ... thanks to a weekend away, long walks on the beach and 2 gym sessions on the treadmill (don't have one at home but maybe something to think about investing in?) Great for me as I was getting bored with my same old walk with Bella. I did try a new neighbourhood walk but it was hot, treeless and downright ugly. Not even my audiobook made it more appealing lol.

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Giveaway:
Quick, quick last day to throw your hat in the ring for THE WILD GIRL by Kate Forsyth or THE HUSBAND'S SECRET by Liane Moriarty at my stop on the Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop hosted by Book'd Out. Enter here. Ends Tue 28th. International!

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Reviews & Posts: (click on title)

HEARTBEAT by Elizabeth Scott

BELIEVE by Erin McCarthy (True Believers #3) ~ review by Karen

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Finished last week:

THE JANUARY WISH by Juliet Madison (Tarrin's Bay #1)

THE WHITE PRINCESS by Philippa Gregory (Cousin's War #5)

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This Week's Reading List:

SOMEONE LIKE YOU by Victoria Purman ~ page 110

DESERVING DEATH by Katherine Howell (Ella Marconi #7)

FEBRUARY OR FOREVER by Juliet Madison (Tarrin's Bay #2)

EVENING STARS by Susan Mallery (Blackberry Island #3)

THE SUMMER QUEEN by Elizabeth Chadwick (audiobook) ~ chapter 10

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Reviews Coming:

ME BEFORE YOU by Jojo Moyes ~ review Tue

ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell ~ review Thurs

ME SINCE YOU by Laura Wiess ~ a favourite :)

Saturday, January 25, 2014

2014 Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop ~ Love an Aussie Author

To celebrate Australia Day (26th Jan) Oi Oi Oi! and my birthday this week I'm participating in the Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop hosted by Shelleyrae @ BOOK'D OUT.

Australian literature is a treasure-trove of class; inspiring authors, stories to make your heart race or stop or break, novels to make you laugh, cry, swoon, scream and beg for more.

PS. If you just can't get enough of our Australian authors click on the road sign on the left hand side bar of my blog (hard to miss) and you can browse the Australian author titles I've read.

So to share my Love an Aussie Author love I'm offering giveaways for books from these wonderful Australian authors ~

THE WILD GIRL by Kate Forsyth

International Giveaway

(you must be in Book Depository delivery area)

Synopsis: Dortchen Wild fell in love with Wilhelm Grimm the first time she saw him.

Growing up in the small German kingdom of Hessen-Cassel in early Nineteenth century, Dortchen Wild is irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the young and handsome fairy tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm.

It is a time of War, tyranny and terror. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hessen-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, the Grimm brothers decide to save old tales that had once been told by the firesides of houses grand and small all over the land.

Dortchen knows many beautiful old stories, such as 'Hansel and Gretel', 'The Frog King' and 'Six Swans'. As she tells them to Wilhelm, their love blossoms. Yet the Grimm family is desperately poor, and Dortchen's father has other plans for his daughter. Marriage is an impossible dream.

Dortchen can only hope that happy endings are not just the stuff of fairy tales.

This was a 2013 favourite, see my review ~ "haunting, breathtaking, evocative ... The Wild Girl is a gift of storytelling about storytelling."

Connect with Kate:

THE HUSBAND'S SECRET by Liane Moriarty

International Giveaway

(you must be in Book Depository delivery area)

Synopsis: From the author of the critically acclaimed What Alice Forgot comes a breakout new novel about the secrets husbands and wives keep from each other.

"My Darling Cecilia

If you're reading this, then I've died . . ."

Imagine your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret - something so terrible it would destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others too. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive . . .

Cecilia Fitzpatrick achieved it all - she's an incredibly successful business woman, a pillar of her small community and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia - or each other - but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband's devastating secret.

The Husband's Secret was another 2013 favourite ... See my review "Funny, poignant, shocking, heartbreaking"

Connect with Liane Moriarty

ENTRY DETAILS:

Just leave a comment telling me which book you'd like to win or throw your hat in the ring for both!

EXTRA ENTRIES:

+2 tweet giveaway and leave a link

+2 comment on the reviews (links above) and let me know

Entries close midnight 28th January and winners will be announced on my blog. Good luck everyone.

Don't forget to check out the other participants on the hop and enter their fabulous giveaways via Book'd Out.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Review: Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

Genre: YA Contemporary
Publication Date: 28th February 2014
Pages: 304
Book Source: Harlequin Teen & NetGalley

Synopsis: Life. Death. And...Love?

Emma would give anything to talk to her mother one last time. Tell her about her slipping grades, her anger with her stepfather, and the boy with the bad reputation who might be the only one Emma can be herself with.

But Emma can't tell her mother anything. Because her mother is brain-dead and being kept alive by machines for the baby growing inside her.

Meeting bad-boy Caleb Harrison wouldn't have interested Old Emma. But New Emma-the one who exists in a fog of grief, who no longer cares about school, whose only social outlet is her best friend Olivia-New Emma is startled by the connection she and Caleb forge.

Feeling her own heart beat again wakes Emma from the grief that has grayed her existence. Is there hope for life after death-and maybe, for love?

My Thoughts:

I'm a huge Elizabeth Scott fan and I liked Heartbeat but it didn't have the heart-crushing, punch-in-the-guts impact of Living Dead Girl. I just really connect with Ms Scott's writing and her gift of putting into words what is so often thought but not often said.

Emma was so choked on hate and hurt she was pretty unlikeable, I understood why, but it didn't stop me from wanting to smack her a time or two for her selfish, hurtful behaviour. But you know what, grief isn't pretty. It's natural to want to blame and when your loved ones are drowning in the same deep well of pain, it's difficult to consider someone else ... both Emma and her stepfather Dan were guilty of this.

On the up side Emma has a treasure of a best friend in Olivia and her relationship with her stepfather is loving and secure ... they just needed time to come through the storm.

Caleb's story really touched me, even sadder than Emma's, if that's possible. Their mutual pain and grief providing a connection they probably wouldn't have found otherwise. With Emma adjusting her judgmental attitude, mutual understanding blossoms into romance, but it takes a back seat to the central plot, much to my relief.

Yes it's repetitive but even that felt in keeping, imagine not being able to truly grieve your mother, seeing her daily, holding her hand, wanting it to be over, not wanting it to end, filling up on hope, while you know there is none.

Whilst not my favourite Elizabeth Scott, still one I'd recommend .. complex issues addressed with insight, honesty and compassion.

Cover: meh

Connect with Elizabeth Scott

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Review: Believe by Erin McCarthy

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Series: True Believers #3
Publication Date: 21st January 2014
Pages: 232
Book Source: Penguin Group & NetGalley

Synopsis: Robin used to be a party girl… until she got black out drunk and woke up in bed with her best friend's boyfriend. Now she's faced with being THAT girl, and couldn't be more disgusted with herself. She can't even tell her friends the reason for her sudden sobriety and she avoids everyone until she meets Phoenix—quiet, tattooed, and different in every way that's good and oh, so bad…

Phoenix is two days out of jail when he meets Robin at his cousin's house, and he knows that he has no business talking to her, but he's drawn to her quiet demeanor, sweet smile, and artistic talent. She doesn't care that he's done time, or that he only has five bucks to his name, and she supports his goal to be a tattoo artist.

But Phoenix knows Robin has a secret, and that it's a naïve dream to believe that his record won't catch up with them at some point. Though neither is prepared for the explosive result when the past collides with the present…

Karen's Thoughts:

I loved Erin McCarthy’s contemporary Fast Track series and am happy to report that I’m enjoying her foray into New Adult.

I like reading about two people from very different backgrounds or social standings managing to overcome the hurdles and make their relationship work. Phoenix is a bit rough around the edges, but after hearing about his childhood, it's not surprising. He has an absent father and a mother who is a drug addict. Phoenix has basically had to fend for himself his whole life. He has just been released from jail after serving a short sentence for assaulting his mother’s boyfriend. His mother’s boyfriend deserved the beating I can tell you.

There is an instant attraction between Phoenix and Robin and I enjoyed ‘watching’ their interactions with each other. I believed in their chemistry. The storyline moves very quickly, but I still felt the growth of their relationship was believable.

I really liked Phoenix, with everything he’s been through, he’s doing his best to rise above it all and I love reading about someone who overcomes hurdles to make something of themselves.

“I’m alive, I’ve got my freedom, a job, two bucks in my pocket, and a beautiful woman who sees something in me. What else could I need?”

I feel like this series is getting better and better. I've read mixed reviews for Believe, but I really enjoyed it from beginning to end. I agree with some reader’s comments but I also feel that in this day and age, the events presented were plausible. There were a few little things in this book that I had issue with or would have preferred resolved in a different way but it didn't really affect my enjoyment of the story.

Guest review by Karen

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