The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty

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Ellen O’Farrell is a hypnotherapist with an at home office inside her inherited beach front house.   She uses her training of hypnotism to assist people with their relationships, habits, and hang ups.  Ellen herself has never had a serious relationship… at least not until she met Patrick.

Patrick is everything she liked in a man.  He was attractive, fit, held a good job and the fact that he had a son from a marriage where his wife died of cancer was not a deal breaker.  Ellen found herself falling for Patrick until one day he told her they needed to talk.

The dreaded talk.

When Patrick explained that an ex girlfriend stalked him, Ellen, always the therapist, found this to be a bit intriguing.  What Ellen did not understand was that this woman followed Patrick everywhere… refusing to let go… and you would just be surprised at where she shows up…

and…

that it turns out, Ellen already knows her.

 

 

 

It is no secret that I enjoy Liane Moriarty’s books.  It has been a little over a year since I discovered this author, and I guess in a way… I have stalked her books.

The Hypnotist’s Love Story is engaging.  With a twisted theme of a stalker it was a little different from anything I had read before.  I enjoyed the alternating chapters between Ellen and Patrick… and then the stalker’s chapters.  How the stalker justified her actions are a bit hilarious.  It is like she knows she is crazy to do what she does, but then twists it to (in her mind) completely innocent.  “Oh, I just happened to be here at the same time as you!”

I did enjoy this book on audio.  Tamara Lovatt Smith was excellent.  She managed all the characters flawlessly.  I felt the book went on a bit longer than it needed to.  At the point that I felt the story was complete, it goes on.  By that point I was satisfied with the book and would have been happy for it to end.  The rest was like bonus material, it was ok, but I was ready to be done.

 

 

  • Audible Audio Edition
  • Listening Length: 13 hours and 6 minutes
  • Program Type: Audiobook
  • Version: Unabridged
  • Publisher: Penguin Audio
  • Audible.com Release Date: June 14, 2012

 

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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Hey there!  Welcome to It’s Monday, What Are You Reading!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Fair warning… this meme tends to add to your reading list! 😉

It has been a good week and weekend, we went to a wedding, we celebrated my hubby’s birthday, we hung out with friends, I was stung by bees…..

And here is what I posted:

 

I cut my hair.  A LOT.

 

Banned book Week Is Coming!  Join me for giveaways and fun!

 

Provence 1970 by Luke Barr

 

Win a This Is Where I Leave You Movie Package!  Sign up now!!!

 

Bookies thoughts on That Night by Chevy Stevens

 

Diary Of A Mad Woman by Joan Rivers

 

This Is Where I Leave You by Johnathan Tropper (read it before the movie comes out!)

 

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan  (books about books!)

 

 

Not a bad posting week!  I had audio and book time… AWESOME!   And now for this week I am planning:

 

For My Ears

 

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Australian triplets Lyn, Cat, and Gemma Kettle are about to turn thirty-three and one is pregnant, one has just had her life turned upside down, and one is only just keeping hers from skidding off the fast lane. Meanwhile, their divorced parents have been behaving very oddly indeed.

In this family comedy by Liane Moriarty, we follow the three Kettle sisters through their tumultuous thirty-third year — as they deal with sibling rivalry and secrets, revelations and relationships, unfaithful husbands and unthinkable decisions, and the fabulous, frustrating life of forever being part of a trio.

 

It’s Moriarty!

 

 

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Liz Daniels has every reason to be happy about setting off on a rare family vacation, leaving behind her remote home in the Adirondack Mountains for a while. Instead, she feels uneasy. Her children, eight-year-old Reid and six-year-old Ally, have met their paternal grandparents only a handful of times. But Liz’s husband, Paul, has decided that, despite a strained relationship with his mother and father, they should visit the farm in western New York where he spent his childhood.

On their way to the farm, the family stops at a hotel for the night. In the morning, when Liz goes to check on her sleeping children, all her anxiety comes roaring back: Ally and Reed are nowhere to be found. Blind panic slides into ice-cold terror as the hours tick by without anyone finding a trace of the kids. Soon, Paul and Liz are being interviewed by police, an Amber Alert is issued, and detectives are called in.

Frantic worry and helplessness threaten to overtake Liz’s mind—but in a sudden, gut-wrenching instant she realizes that it was no stranger who slipped into the hotel room that night. Someone she trusted completely has betrayed her. Though she knows that Ally and Reid are safe, Liz will stop at nothing to find them and get them back. From her guarded in-laws’ unwelcoming farmhouse to the deep woods of her own hometown, Liz follows the threads of a terrible secret to uncover a hidden world created from dreams and haunted by nightmares.

 

 

For My Eyes

 

Honestly… not sure.

 

That is my plan – what is yours?  Add your It’s Monday What Are You Reading post link below where it says click here.  I would love to pop over and see what you are up to!

 

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Morning Meanderings… The Gone Girl Debate Continues

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Sunday already!  I have been mowing my lawn yesterday and picking apples today… listening to Liane Moriarty’s Three Wishes on audio.  It feels like fall here in Minnesota… walking the dogs this morning it is a nippy 43 degrees.  Brisk!

Books that came in the mail this week:

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The Counterfeit Lady by Kate Parker (a win!)

 

Driving Lessons by Zoe Fishman

 

The Scrivener’s Tale by Fiona McIntosh

 

The Case Against The Supreme Court by Erwin Chemerinsky

 

Yup.. no audio.  Is that weird?  LOL… pretty sure there will be some this week 🙂

 

As for the Gone Girl topic… did you read the book?  Are you planning on seeing the movie?  In July of 2012 I read the book and it moved me to write a spoiler page for it so I could talk more about my thoughts on it.  Since the rumors of the movie began, that Spoiler Page post receives hundreds of hits a day and people still are giving there opinions on the book, the ending, etc…  I love seeing a book fuel that much discussion. 🙂  In fact that page is probably the first time in recent days, that I had to tell a commenter to clean up their act – and I think that is the first time I have even done that on any post I have written.  The controversy continues….

I for one, am curious about the movie as I usually am when books I have read become movies.  I may not always love the movie version, but I like the contrast and seeing what vision they come up with.. good, bad, or ugly.  🙂

 

Share with me your thoughts on Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn!  Would love to talk Gone Girl!

 

 

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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Hey there!  Welcome to It’s Monday, What Are You Reading!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Fair warning… this meme tends to add to your reading list! 😉

It has been a pretty busy week following last weekends event and then away at the cabin until Monday.  However our plans to return to the cabin this weekend fell through and honestly I have been basking in hanging around the house and laying low while I rejuvenate. The fact that we went no where this weekend I think actually worked in our favor.  I caught up on house projects and Al has caught up in the office and we have been spending our evenings watching movies and grilling good food.  I am really thrilled to have a bonus relax day this week.

As for the blog… here is what I have posted:

 

Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green

Shadows in The Vineyard by Maximillion Potter

Cherry Cola Book Club by Ashton Lee

Wine and Words event recap

The Girls of August by Anne Rivers Siddons

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty (if you have not read Moriarty yet you are missing out!)

 

I have spent a lot of time in the “Honey House” this past week bottling honey and as I am usually alone while doing this I listen to audio, thus the large audio book contribution this week… 7 hours of audio a day makes for fast audio listening. 🙂

 

As for what I am currently working on:

 

For My Ears:

 

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“I’ve been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she has her dry cleaning done, where she works. I don’t know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she’s scared. But I will.”

Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn’t show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia’s life.

Colin’s job was to abduct Mia as part of a wild extortion plot and deliver her to his employers. But the plan takes an unexpected turn when Colin suddenly decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota, evading the police and his deadly superiors. Mia’s mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them, but no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family’s world to shatter.

 

 

 

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Provence, 1970 is about a singular historic moment. In the winter of that year, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today’s tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters—some of which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew. In Provence, 1970, he captures this seminal season, set against a stunning backdrop in cinematic scope—complete with gossip, drama, and contemporary relevance.

 

 

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Working one-on-one with Tiger-mothered, burned-out kids, Anne “the application whisperer” can make Harvard a reality. Early Decision follows five students over one autumn as Anne helps them craft their college essays, cram for the SATs, and perfect the Common Application. It seems their entire future is on the line—and it is. Though not because of Princeton and Yale. It’s because the process, warped as it is by money, connections, competition, and parental mania, threatens to crush their independence just as adulthood begins.

Whether you want to get in or just get out, with wit and heart, Early Decision explodes the secrets of the college admissions race.

 

 

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The Barter is a ghost story and a love story, a riveting emotional tale that also explores motherhood and work and feminism. Set in Texas, in present day, and at the turn of the twentieth century, the novel follows two young mothers at the turning point of their lives.

Bridget has given up her career as an attorney to raise her daughter, joining a cadre of stay-at-home mothers seeking fulfillment in a quiet suburb. But for Bridget, some crucial part of the exchange is absent: Something she loves and needs. And now a terrifying presence has entered her home; only nobody but Bridget can feel it.

On a farm in 1902, a young city bride takes a farmer husband. The marriage bed will become both crucible and anvil as Rebecca first allows, then negates, the powerful erotic connection between them. She turns her back on John to give all her love to their child. Much will occur in this cold house, none of it good.

 

I suspect that is more than enough to keep my busy this week!  SO what are you reading?  I feel like I have not visited much these past few weeks so I am eager to get a peek!  Please add your It’s Monday! post to the link below where it says click here:

 

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Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

For those of you who read mainly children and middle grade books, please also feel free to add your link here:

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