Tag: Review

The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Dorothy Shauman has been waiting for this day for what seems like forever.  Right around the corner is her 40th Class Reunion, the last for her graduating class and there is nothing that is going to stop her from finally (FINALLY) being brave enough to connect with her high school crush,Pete Decker (football star and prom king) *swoon*.  Dorothy has lost weight and primped and primmed for this day – much to the eye roll of her adult daughter, but to the glee of her two bestest (they really are the best!) friends from those glory day.

“Dorothy has never gone to a high school reunion. She was always married when they had them before, and who wanted to bring THAT to a reunion? Now she is divorced, plus she saw that movie about saying yes to life. She steps closer to the mirror and raises her chin so her turkey neck disappears. She’ll hold her head like this when she walks past Pete Decker. Later, when they’re making out in his car, it will be dark, and she won’t have to be so vigilant. Oh, she hopes they can make out in his car; she’s heard people always make out in cars at high school reunions.”  ~ The Last Time I Saw You, Berg


Pete Decker however is hoping to repair his much damaged marriage by reminding his soon to be ex-wife who he used to be by attending the reunion.  Sure, the damage to their marriage is mainly due to his wandering eye, and yeah sure he recently has been living with his much younger girlfriend…. but she doesn’t make his heart pound like his wife does.

Mary Alice, she just wants to go.  She loved the people she went to school with, even if they did not give her the time of day.  It will be fun to see them.  Maybe.  Well… won’t it?

Lester is very comfortable with who he is and really is not even sure if he can take the time from his busy veterinarian business to attend the reunion at all.  Really there is no love lost between himself and his once classmates… it doesn’t really matter that he stills lives in town and the reunion is merely a short drive away…

Candy just wants to go.  She was the girl who every guy wanted.  Beautiful and blonde, even she has to admit that she has held up pretty well over the years (thank you daily workouts!), but for Candy, this reunion has more meaning to her.  Living a life that from the outside looks pretty great, Candy carries a lot of hurt in her and now with a new diagnosis, really…. this is probably the last time she will see any of her once friends. 

For each attendee, there is a feeling of hope, of anxiety…. some are looking to repair lost friendships, lost loves rekindled, current relationships strengthened, and some just hope to be acknowledged as more than that geeky shy person they were in high school.

*sigh*

Did anyone else just love high school or is it just me?  The excitement of seeing your friends every day, not to mention that cute guy…. ;).  (Oops – I guess I did mention…)  Pep fests, school rallys, weekend sports events, crazy days like – hat day, pajama day…, the adrenaline of being a part of something big…. the final years of school and then freedom to be whoever you were going to be.

Is that just me?

I enjoyed this book very much.  It was a nice continuation to my goal to read all the Berg books in 2011.  Maybe I liked it so much because I have fond memories of high school, memories that still make my heart beat a little faster when I think of all the high energy we had as a class…. as a group, really we were invincible.  And this is not because I was super popular either, I wasn’t.  I was middle ground… actually tending to be a bit shy and quiet unless you were in my close-knit group of friends.  I just loved school….. 😛

The characters that Elizabeth Berg has given life to in this book are real.  I can imagine (thanks to Elizabeth Berg) what a 40th class reunion would probably feel like.  The main characters are 58 years old.  Their bodies are not what they once were no matter how much you tried to maintain your youth.  They are older and they are wiser (well…. not all of them… :D), and to go and put yourself out in front of all the people you knew at that invincible age of 18… well, I can imagine some anxiety in doing so – and Elizabeth Berg captures that well.

There is a point when one of the characters comes upstairs during the reunion and catches herself in the mirror… she is actually surprised to see how old she looks when after seeing all her friends again she felt 18.  That’s an image that will stick with me.  We are as old as we feel…. mirror be damned.

Overall, this was a pleasant read.  It left me with warm feelings of reunions, and memories of my own high school experiences.  I felt it didn’t matter that my own 40th class reunion is a great distance away, I could still put myself right there with a little bit of each character stirring within me…. (well, maybe not Pete…LOL).


The Last Time I Saw You was the book chosen to be read by the Wordshakers On-Line Book Group.  I posted about this in January – generated the excitement from 16 participants besides myself, planned to post and do a group review in late February…. and I totally proceeded to drop the ball. 😳

First off, life became busy again (how does that always happen?), I did not get the review questions sent out as I said I would, fell further and further behind… and honestly I did not get it read myself until the middle of last month.  über embarrassing.  And truly – I am sorry, to those of you who were waiting on me to get cracking… I just lost my focus. 

From the comments I did gather from the reading group, it was overall an enjoyable read. We discussed if we had attended our own reunions and found that again we were mixed – some finding it much more fun than anticipated and others found it just…awkward.  😛  As far as favorite characters, it was interesting that we were all drawn to the gentler softer ones…. the ones that perhaps didn’t seem like much in high school.  We were also drawn to Candy, although the popular girl in school… her life had taken on a whole new meaning. 

A few of the Wordshakers were kind enough to link their reviews here.  If you have read this book,please let me know and I will gladly add you to the group:

Justice Jennifer

Teresa’s Reading Corner *audio review

BOOKFAN

The Friday Friends

The WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include The Last Time I Saw You

Borrowed this one from my local library ♥

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (Audio and Movie Review)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Janie Crawford is a beautiful free-spirited Southern Black girl in the 1930’s.  With her parents long dead, Janie is raised be her grandmother.  At sixteen she is seen kissing the neighbor boy, Johnny Taylor.  Her grandmother, in fear that Janie will wind up being treated like a mule for some man, she arranges for her to be married to Logan Killicks, a man in his 60’s who is looking for a wife to help him take care of his farm.

Janie wants more from life so when opportunity comes literally knocking at her door she runs away with a man she just met and becomes Mrs. Joe Starks.  She soon finds out that to Joe she is a trophy wife and therefore must act as such.  Soon Janie feels trapped again.

And so the story goes on – when something happens to Joe, Janie again finds herself a free woman, but not with finances to back her up.  When a drifter who goes by the name of Tea Cake comes to town Janie finds herself attracted to this mysterious man.  The two eventually become man and wife and their life together really is what makes this book.

Here is yet another read I would probably not have picked up.  When I found it on the sale list at audible.com I thought this may be a good time to try this one and I am so glad I did.   If you have not experienced this book on audio then you are truly missing out.  The rich southern voice of narrator Ruby Dee was a treat to listen too.  Ruby mastered the voices from deep male, to the young voice of Janie.

The book impressed me.  It is a deep love story that I wasn’t anticipating, and maybe that made me appreciate it all the more.  Janie and Tea Cake make some of the modern-day literary couples look dull in comparison.  And all that is from the book…

just wait until you add the movie.

I had timed my finishing of the book with the arrival of the movie from Netflix.  I wasn’t sure what I thought I would find in this movie…but it wasn’t this.  Halli Berry is the perfect person to play Janie.  She is a beautiful woman, just as Janie was described and she was the image of the free-spirited girl that I had read about. 

If I thought the love story was touching in the book… on the screen, seeing the great love between Tea Cake and Janie was heart wrenching – and this from a person who does not read romance!  I was so touched by the their story again… even as fresh as it was in my mind from just hours before ending the book…

I highly recommend both.  Definitely do not miss out on this great novel and movie.

My 2011 WHERE Are You Reading map has been updated to include Their Eyes Were Watching God


I purchased the audio from audible.com

The movie was rented from Netflix

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)50 Comments

It’s Mississippi in the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas “32” Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town. More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they’ve buried and ignored for decades.


I grew up in Minnesota where the Mississippi River flows.  I remember spelling Mississippi in grade school,

“M – I – Crooked letter – Crooked Letter – I – Crooked Letter – Crooked Letter – I – P – P – I.

It’s just the way we rolled back then.  😀

Crooked Letter Crooked Letter was everything I had anticipated it to be.  It was a mystery… but not an over the top creep me out mystery, but a good solid mystery surrounding a small town… a missing girl… and a quiet book-worm of a man who the town has their eye on as he seems a bit… odd. 

Let me say that not every author call pull off a smooth read that pops  from the present to the past, but Tom Franklin does so beautifully.  It was a pleasure to read this in so many ways – not only the story itself, but really there is something to say for a book written well and Tom Franklin hit home with this one. 

I love fully developed characters and books that make it hard for me to put down and that is what I found here.  If you are looking for a wonderfully written mystery this year, I would highly suggest you grab a copy of Crooked Letter Crooked Letter.

Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

Susan, Kate, and Sunny has been best friends for years.  It is fun that their three daughters (Lilly, Mary Kate, and Jess), all the same age, are also best friends.  Lilly, Mary Kate, and Jess are popular, college bound Seniors, from good families. 

They are also all three….

pregnant.

The girls had made a pact – a pregnancy pact.  All feeling ready for motherhood they decide to do what it takes to get pregnant and have their babies all grow up together. 

Susan, Lilly’s mother is also principle of the school.  As word gets out the pressures are heavy on Susan to make good decisions for all involved as the Super Attendant worries about copy cats, and the schools reputation.  The girls do not fit the type of student that would do something like this, blowing statistics of what teens to watch for such behavior in.  It doesn’t help that Susan herself was seventeen when she became pregnant with Lilly, and Susan’s own mother and father had pushed her away, leaving her quite literally alone.

As the three mothers put their heads together on how to move forward – most of the attention stays on Susan.  Being in a small town in Maine makes this sort of scandal very news worthy, and after an editorial in the local paper, the news vans are knocking on Susan’s door.  Lilly had no idea that the decision she made with her friends to become pregnant would snowball into the attacks on her own mother.

All three women, Susan, Kate, and Sunny must come to grips with where they failed as mothers, how the dreams they had for their daughters are disappearing, and scathing small town judgment.


I had high hopes for this read.  The synopsis, was interesting.  How do mothers handle daughters who would make such an outrageous pack?  The fact that Susan was also principal of the school was also interesting… how do you make a fair and smart assessment of what is happening when it involves your own daughter? 

On the pro – I liked the characters.  Susan is a strong intelligent woman.  She had raised Lilly on her own, made a career for herself and a home.  Lilly is sweet and likable, strong personality and supportive of her mom and her dad, who does remain in the picture as a supportive parent and friend to Susan. 

The story line rocks…

BUT

On the con – I wanted to kick Lilly in the pants.  Lilly had clearly not thought out the big picture here and still believed that she would have her baby just before graduation, take the summer to “play mom” and be in college yet in the fall.   She is shocked when her mom is not thrilled for her.  She refers to the baby as “our baby” referring to her mom and herself and maybe I am being harsh – but Susan accepts that immediately, where I am thinking… ummmm…. you made the decision to get pregnant, this was not “our” decision, it was yours. 

I found Susan way to easy on Lilly and there is no lesson here.  I am not saying you don’t stand by your children no matter what, of course you do, but you also talk to them about consequences…

All three girls were extremely immature in such a decision for three girls that were suppose to be on their way and intelligent.  They were doing this on their own with no intentions of telling the “dads” that they were going to be dads, as they really planned on doing this on their own.  This just did not ring true for me.

Gah.  I don’t know…. maybe I am reading too much into this. In the end it is a book about friendship through thick and thin, healing and family ties that bind.  I did like the ending very much.


I  have enjoyed Barbara Delinsky’s writing in the past and I am sure I will enjoy it again in the future.  It is so hard to know what to say about this book as I did keep reading – wanting to know how it was all going to end.

My 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Not My Daughter

I borrowed this audio from my local library

The Island Of Lost Girls by Jennifer Mcmahon

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)25 Comments

When a person dressed up in a rabbit costume coaxed a little girl out of her car and into his, the lone witness, Rhonda, who is on her way to a job interview,  is too stunned to act. As the small rural town mobilizes a search for the missing child, Rhonda, reeling with guilt from her inaction, is reminded of another girl who went missing—her closest friend from childhood, Lizzy. Joyful memories of their youth spent putting on plays and exploring the woods alternate with darker moments: losing the love of her life, Lizzy’s brother, Peter, and the year an increasingly disheveled and moody Lizzy stopped talking to her or anyone else. Past and present merge as Rhonda closes in on the costumed abductor and also on the dark family secrets that tore their perfect childhood apart.

Last week I reviewed Promise Not To Tell, also by this author.  I found The Island Of Lost Girls to have many similarities, both books are around a childhood crime and flashbacks to that time  of childhood – to the present situation. 

Jennifer Mcmahon builds a strong story that much like Promise Not To Tell… kept me guessing.  I found the story line good and the whole dude in a rabbit costume creepy.  There are a few times that the rabbit speaks his thoughts and that was chilling…. I think that really held me as I wanted to know who the rabbit was…. really bad. 

I liked Rhonda, she was a well-developed character and I liked that she helped the investigation after being the sole witness to the crime.  I also enjoyed the unveiling of the two crimes.

All said and done, it was a delicious (if not a wee bit creepy) mystery which really, between the two books in a week, fed that mystery craving I have been having lately. 

Love a good mystery?  Jennifer Mcmahon is an author to watch. 

I received this book for review from TLC Book Tours


ROOM by Emma Donoghue (Revisited by the Bookies Book Club)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

Five-year-old Jack and his Ma live and eat and play and sleep in one room–an 11×11-foot space that is Jack’s world… and Ma’s prison.  Ma was abducted at the age of 19 by Old Nick 7 years ago.  5 years ago, Jack was born.  All Jack knows of the world is in ROOM.  He has never seen sky, grass, a dog, a store….  he knows TABLE, BED, SPOON, RUG, WARDROBE, TV… and everything that has been in the room since he was born.  Jack is very satisfied with what he believes to be a normal life…. but each day brings Ma to another level of how is she going to get free and save her son who does not know he needs saving?

Last September I read and reviewed ROOM.  At the time of that reading I was really impressed with this book.  As time went on, I found the book really stuck with me and that …. made it all the more impressive. 

Last month, my book club the AWESOME Bookies, chose ROOM to be our book club read for May, and last night we had our potluck around the book and discussion.

Much of what we discussed in the book could be considered spoilerish to someone who has not read the book so I am going to make a spoiler page (my second one for ROOM) to allow those who have read the book to go to and see what was discussed.

Now – for those of you who have not read the book, this is my advice for you.  Read it.  I recommend it.  I have heard many of you say that you don’t think you could handle the book, but seriously – the book is pretty tame.  Yes Ma was abducted.  Yes Jack is a result of that abduction.  BUT note this – all that is pre-ROOM.  When ROOM opens, Jack is five and ROOM is told entirely from Jack’s perspective.  Things are not going to get too crazy when a five-year old is telling the story.  And that too is brilliant of Emma Donoghue…. what could have been a harsh hard book is told by hmmm…. let’s say, Ma, is mellowed and innocent as told by Jack. 

The Bookies overall ratings were mixed.  We are on a scale of 1 – 5 (5 the best) and most came in around 4 and 4.5… a few around 3.  Angie and I, who had both read this book before encouraged them to sit on their thoughts of the book for a while.  We both agreed that after reading, we found we even liked it more.

Oh…. and anytime we have a home meeting for Bookies, there is food.  I LOVE planning food around our book reviews… our group is so creative, and here is what we had last night in celebration of ROOM:

People who have read the book will understand this.... I actually didn't get too many groans at book club when i came up with this one. 🙂
Tortilla soup
Pasta was a staple for Ma and Jack
Yummy fruit punch
Wouldnt you ask for this for "Sunday Treat?"
Ahhhh.... this one speaks for itself. 🙂

My original review of ROOM is here

Cloaked by Alex Flinn

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

 “When I seen this bookish adventure for Fairy Tale Fortnight coming up hosted by Misty at The Book Rat and Ashley from Basically Amazing Books, lets just say my “spidey senses”…. were activated…

I had not read any of the “New” fairy tales but have many fond memories of fairy tales as a child…”

Sheila


So you start with a teenage boy named Johnny who works at his mothers shoe repair shop in a pretty sweet hotel in South Beach, Florida.  In years past his relatives were called cobblers, but now… well that just sounds like a dessert. 

Johnny spends his free time hanging out with his BFF Meg and dreaming of designing his own shoe line that will bring in so much moolah that his mom will no longer have to fret over keeping the electricity bill paid up and deciding between food for dinner or the rent on their home. 

Then one day a famous Princess shows up at the hotel and she is too gorgeous for words.  Johnny can not help be drawn to her and in a chance meeting the Princess shares with Johnny a story that is so unreal it has to be true, of her brother the prince being kidnapped and turned into a frog (maybe that is frognapped).  Johnny takes on the role of “rescuer” when the Princess offers him a large sum of cash as well as her hand in marriage if he succeeds in bringing her brother back to his former self.  For Johnny, this could be an answer to all their money issues as well as marrying the Princess?  How is this not a win win?

Yet all is not as easy as the newly appointed frog catcher would think for many evil forces are at hand to stop Johnny on his quest…. such as witches and giants, and six enchanted swans, a talking rat and a talking fox…. and each new character Johnny meets seems to have an agenda of their own and his one task turns into many….

and in the end as Johnny works through all the hoops to get to his dreams… he really has to rethink his dreams and what he really wants is not what he thought at all…


My adventure forward into this fairy tale was interesting.  It was not a “pick up and love it from page one” style read for me.  It took a while for me to warm up to our young Johnny and the wild craziness of talking animals, a magic cape – of course – ALL MAGIC CAPES appeal to me….( seriously, who wouldn’t want one of these!), a crazed killer teen and a witch for a mother, giants, and of course… smoking hot looking shoes…..

yet as I committed myself to experiencing this book, the more I read – the less it felt like a commitment and it became actually fun.  Silly fun yes, but fun all the same.  I enjoyed the beginning of each chapter as it gave a little quote that was from an old fairy tale and then the chapter actually tied in with the quote…. brilliant.  Really brilliant.

As long as the shoemaker lived all went well with him, and all of his undertakings prospered.

~The Elves and The Shoemaker


Author Alex Finn incorporates several lesser known fairy tales in to this book.  they are The Elves and The Shoemaker, The Frog Prince, The Six Swans, The Valiant Tailor, The Salad, The Fisherman and his Wife and The Golden Bird.  I love this idea of fairy tales within a fairy tale and for that I really found this book to be a fun adventure.

 

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Cloaked

I purchased this book from Amazon

The Good Bye Quilt by Susan Wiggs

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

Linda is a quilter and as her only daughter Molly readies for college, Linda is working on the quilting project of her life… a memory quilt for Molly.  This quilt has squares hand stitched in from her first blanket, to her kindergarten skirt, to her prom dress.  If was a memory – Linda has saved it to put pieces of it into the quilt.  Even to the point of having the quilt edged with a ruffle of material from Molly’s grandmothers square dancing dress.

Together Linda and Molly embark on the adventure of driving cross-country together from their home in Wyoming to move Molly states away into her dorm room.  Along for this road trip is the unfinished quilt, that Linda is working on while Molly drives in hopes of having it done in time to be placed on Molly’s dorm bed.  As each new scrap of fabric is removed from the large quilt bag, mother and daughter share the memories of the piece, stitching together their bond as mother and daughter with every bit of love and care that is put into the making of this quilt. 

While Linda has fears for her daughter living so far away she wonders if Molly has these same fears.  As the quilt helps them relive the past, mother and daughter and heading mile by mile into the unknown future.

I have always wanted to make throw size memory quilts. I imagined that I would give them as gifts to friends and family. Three years ago AL bought me a sewing machine just for quilting for Christmas. I have yet to take it out of the box. *sigh*

I really wanted to post this review on Mother’s day as this sweet novel is a perfect read for just such an occasion.  Filled with a mothers love for her child, and a child, now a young woman longing to have the chance to move forward on her own. 

Susan Wigg’s had a brilliant idea when she centered the entire story around a quilt that was made of memories, sticking together not only a masterpiece but a story that pulls at the heart-strings.  As I read on I loved the idea of keeping a scrap of life memories and envisioned what my own would have looked like had I the foresight to save such things. 

The characters were well-developed, the story read as you would expect a mother and teenage daughter relationship to go…. Linda asking the questions that plague her – still wanting to be that protector of her daughter even now… Molly letting out exasperating sighs as she  tries not to hurt her mothers feelings but longs for the right to make her mistakes on her own

Throughout the read, both mother and daughter grow in ways that embrace the story line.  My only complaint is that a piece of the ending becomes easy to guess as it is hinted at way too many times throughout the read to the point that about half way through this audio when it was mentioned I was shouting at the speakers how it was all going to come together.  😛

This would make a lovely gift of book or audio to a daughter or to a mother. 

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include The Goodbye Quilt

I found this at my local library

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Kitty is quite used to men falling all over her.  After all that is the way it has been all her life.  Proposal after proposal is turned down as really, Kitty will know when the right one comes along and she knows her astonishing beauty will give her choice of whatever man she wants.  Yet as the years go by, suddenly Kitty finds the proposals coming less and less, her mother has pretty much given up on Kitty ever getting married – so when the quiet and king Walter Fane finally works up the courage to ask Kitty for her hand, she immediately says yes.

As the newly weds settle into their lives together Kitty finds Walter nothing but dull.  At a party she is introduced to the handsome Charles Townsend, and he is as captured with her and she is of him.  They start an affair, but when Walter discovers the relationship he challenges his wife to either have Charles propose to her and then he will grant her a divorce, or accompany him to an area of China where the cholera epidemic is strong and he has been called in to help. 

What Kitty decides, is the beginning of a woman’s long journey of finding what she is made of and what it is like to truly love.

The original US cover

I am honestly going to say that when I chose this audio from audible.com, I really didn’t know what I would think of.  I am not a romance reader.  I don’t like flighty women characters.   And I struggle with many of the early 20th century books.  I chose this audio because the price was right and the sample narration sounded good.  (plus I am actively making an effort to read some of the older known books for a well-rounded reading life).

Ok…. now that the “details” are out-of-the-way.  Let’s review… shall we?

Kitty was not a likable character.  She was shallow and self-centered.  She liked men fawning over her and really knew no other life.  Walter on the other hand was an incredible character – and had incredible character.  Though quite and socially awkward, he did truly love Kitty and provided her a comfortable home with want of nothing. 

As this book proceeds on to the point where Kitty is left with the decision to either marry Charles or go with Walter, this particular part of the book was quite enjoyable for me.  I loved to see Kitty attempt to do what she thinks is best for herself.  The result of this point of the book is really where the story takes off. 

With great detail I started to see a change in Kitty’s character… almost a “By George, I think she’s got it!” sort of change as Kitty starts to really understand life, and men, and see things in a different. softer light. 

In the end I was impressed with this audio and with the story line.  I am so glad I went against my prejudices I listed above and went ahead with it.  I would suggest this to anyone.  It’s not so much as a romance as it is historical fiction.  Kitty is not so much flighty, as she is uneducated.  As far as the early 20th century read, it did not feel outdated to me, I was able to comprehend the time and the places.  I will be watching the movie which I have just requested from Netflix.

Narrator Kate Reading does an amazing job of capturing the sometimes whiny voice of Kitty, the patient and paced voice of Walter, and the boisterous self-assured voice of Charles. 

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading map has been updated to include The Painted Veil

I purchased this audio off audible.com

Promise Not To Tell by Jennifer McMahon

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)41 Comments

In the fall of 2002, 41-year-old Kate Cypher, a divorced Seattle school nurse, returns to New Hope, the decaying Vermont hippie commune where she grew up, to visit her elderly mother, Jean, who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s. Kate has avoided New Hope since the grizzly, unsolved murder of her fifth-grade friend, Del Griswold, 31 years earlier. Kate fears she betrayed Del, a free-spirited farm girl. Did her betrayal cause Del’s death? Who killed Del? Another local girl is murdered in a similar manner at the time of Kate’s return. Could the killer be loose again? Meanwhile, Jean appears to be possessed with Del’s spirit and may have the answers to these questions. As Kate investigates, she learns stunning truths about many events and people from her youth.

What’s the worst thing you have ever done?

I was drawn to this book for a few reasons.  One….  The obvious one.  The cover.  Look at that.  Who is she?  What has she done?  Is she survivor or victim?  Two… the synopsis about a girl who was called “Potato Girl”, uggghhh…. name calling that rile me up…. this falls into my category of “words are powerful, they can hurt and knock you down just as well as they can lift you up.  Three… The author Jennifer McMahon, I had heard the buzz about her style and her writing and I wanted to give her a try.

While this a good ghost story and mystery wrapped into one, I found it to be more than that.  This book is about a friendship.  A heartbreaking and tragic friendship that caused me pause to read and be reminded once again how our words do affect others.


The beauty of this book was that I thought I knew who did it and I was wrong.  And then I had a back up idea of who did it and well… that wasnt exactly right either…. however….

OOPS!  😉  That’s all you get. 

I enjoyed my first read with Jennifer McMahon and next week I will have the opportunity to explore her again when I read The Island Of Lost Girls for another tour. 

I received this book for review from TLC Book Tours