The Stolen Marriage ~ Diane Chamberlain (earc) review [@StMartinsPress @D_Chamberlain]

The Stolen Marriage
St Martin's Press
October 03, 2017
384 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

From perennial bestseller Diane Chamberlain, a compelling new novel

In 1944, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina, a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows no interest in making love. Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.

The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain, especially after one of the town’s prominent citizens dies in a terrible accident and Tess is blamed. Tess suspects people are talking about her, plotting behind her back, and following her as she walks around town. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not? Feeling alone and adrift, Tess turns to the one person who seems to understand her, a local medium who gives her hope but seems to know more than he’s letting on.

When a sudden polio epidemic strikes the town, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to work at the hospital, finding meaning in nursing the young victims. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle her husband’s mysterious behavior and save her own life?

I don't think I have changed my mind about characters o much (both in frequency and degree) in any other book as I did in The Stolen Marriage. There were characters I thought were innocent and sweet, then they would do or say something and I would realize they were a bit more hardened. Or, characters that seemed horrible would prove they had a heart. I really enjoyed getting such a full picture of the characters, and of their character.

The Stolen Marriage is about a time in American history about which much has been written - both fiction and fact - but includes things that have not been written about so heavily. I knew a tiny bit about polio and approximately when it was such an issue but this novel does a fantastic job putting all of the elements of the time together: the polio epidemics, World War II, issues of race and religion. Seeing everything within the context of the time period (and the North Carolina setting) really made it feel more real and helped you relate to the characters.

I really liked the way Tess's personal beliefs and her views on current, social issues were presented. Not because I always liked what she thought or how she felt about things but because it all seemed a very good representation of where and how she was brought up. I appreciated that the author did not make her someone affected by our hindsight. She was a young, Italian nursing student from Baltimore in the 1940's and the book was better for the fact that she fit within that time period but we also got to see her grow and her world view evolve.

Diane Chamberlain's The Stolen Marriage is an enjoyable historical fiction, about something within the World War II era that doesn't feature so often in fiction: the polo epidemic. The characters seem very true of the time period, they change and grow and everything from their relationships to their secrets play a part in everything coming together.

(Was Tess supposed to make me think of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by the way? Or rid it make anyone else think of her/the book?)








digital copy received from publisher for review

Top Ten Tuesday: Covers [@epicreads @MIRAeditors @DisneyHyperion @stmartinspress]

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week's Ten:

This week the Top 10 has a 'Cover Theme' so I decided to show you:

10 Covers that First* Drew Me to Their Book

*they are some of my favorite covers, but maybe not my top top - these are ten covers that are what first drew me to a book (some of my favorite covers I already knew the author or description or reviews before seeing the cover)

 A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
Goodreads // Review

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

Goodreads // Review

The Weight of Feathers by Heather Gudenkauf

Goodreads // Reviews of Author's Other Books

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

Goodreads // Review

The Ring & The Crown (#1) by Melissa de la Cruz

Goodreads // Review

Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris

Goodreads // Review

These Broken Stars (Starbound #1) by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Goodreads // Review of Starbound #2

Watch the Sky by Kirsten Hubbard

Goodreads // Review 

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson

Goodreads // Review

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Goodreads // Review

Apparently, I am fond of blue (and maybe pink) book covers?

Please leave a comment and let me know what cover themed Top 10 you did and/or what are some books that you first noticed because of their cover?

The Cellar ~ Natasha Preston review [@SourcebooksFire @Wattpad]

The Cellar
Sourcebooks Fire
March 1, 2014
347 pages
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Nothing ever happens in the town of Long Thorpe – that is, until sixteen-year-old Summer Robinson disappears without a trace. No family or police investigation can track her down. Spending months inside the cellar of her kidnapper with several other girls, Summer learns of Colin’s abusive past, and his thoughts of his victims being his family…his perfect, pure flowers. But flowers can’t survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out….

The Cellar by Natasha Preston, first published on Wattpad, is a very enjoyable thriller, mystery. It is also an example of not judging a book by its first few pages. The weakest part of the novel, definitely, was the very beginning. In those first few pages, we do meet Summer, her boyfriend and her family. It's a necessary introduction and one where we get a very good sense of her relationships, but it did not flow very well.

Right after that introduction, though, is when Summer is taken. It is then that the story greatly improves. Her abductor elicits an almost immediate feeling of tension, of something not being quite right - in both Summer and readers.

The alternating view points move the story along quickly. We are able to experience not only what Summer is as she's held captive, but to know what's happening in the lives of other in the story. We know what's transpiring in the search for Summer and we also get glimpses into just who Colin is.

These different narrations give us insight into the full world of The Cellar and also help in amping up the tension and suspense. We can see how desperate her family and boyfriend are to find her, while also getting more of a look at her captor and how he conducts himself. You end up hoping that they will succeed and find her while worrying over just what damage he is capable of inflicting.

There are also little flashbacks with the different characters that give us more background on who they are and a better idea about their interactions. While I did like these little glimpses into the past, they made the timeline more confusing. The 'present' of the story is told using dates within each characters narration; the date (ex July 24) is listed and then '('present'). With the flashbacks, however, a year is given (ex 2005). If you were reading this on Wattpad a few years ago, that would all work. Now, though, it doesn't add up. Either the flashbacks should have said 'x years ago' or the now needed to be 2010.

It was not a big thing but several past bits happened before one that made it clear that the present was not 2014. The scenes I'd already read took on a whole new meaning when they were four less years ago.

The Cellar is full of suspense and mystery. It will keep you anxiously turning the pages until you reach the end.


Rating: 8/10


Other books you might also enjoy: The She Disappeared by April Henry and The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

Save Me ~ Lisa Scottoline (audio) review

Save Me
St Martin's Griffin
February 14, 2012
416 pages
10:57:36 (WMA audio version)
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

Rose is one of the volunteer lunch moms at her daughter Melinda's school on the day it happens. Lunch moms are there to help during lunch time, keep an eye on the kids, but Rose is there to keep an eye on Amanda, the girl who's been teasing Melly for the birthmark on her face. They've already moved once for the bullying Melly's endured and Rose wants to put a stop to it this time.

Rose has been talking to Amanda - after Melly's fled the lunch room following a particular incident - when the school kitchen explodes.

Now, she's faced with a gut wrenching decision, does she go to the bathroom where Melly's is and save her daughter or save the girls she's with right now, the ones bullying her daughter . . . and leave her daughter?


She only has a split-second to make her decision but Rose thinks she's managed to save all of the girls. That's why she's gobsmacked to find out one of the other girls does have injuries - life threatening ones. The girl's family and soon the whole town blame Rose, claiming she chose to save only her own daughter.

With the threat of legal action hanging over her head and now a pariah in her own town, it's up to Rose to find out the truth behind the fire and the explosion, and to clear her name.


Save Me is the third Lisa Scottoline book I've read - well, listened to - following Look Twice and Come Home. While all three have very different plots, they are each about mothers whose children are somehow threatened - at least to start - and they then see just how far they'll really go to save everything. To save their families.

With Save Me I knew, approximately what I was going to get, in terms of the plot - the strong emotion, a mother very devoted to her children, a father who would likely give a lot of push-back, an ending that would not drop a lot of hints that made sense until the ending was revealed (and possibly even then). That's what I wanted, though. There are times that I love to go into books knowing absolutely nothing about what I'm going to get and then, sometimes, I like books where I kind of already know what I'm getting.

I do enjoy that the though the broad strokes of Scottoline's Chick Lit books (vs her legal thriller, Rosato & Associates series which I have yet to read) are so similar, the characters and the story lines make them quite different. (I enjoyed Look Twice more than Come Home but may have enjoyed this one more than either of them.)

All of her Chick Lit books are hailed for their strong female characters and while I can't quite put my finger on why - they do fight hard for their children, they're not meek - I wouldn't think of them if asked for strong female characters. I don't know if they don't seem well developed enough or if it's my own bias and the more melodramatic books and thus characters lead me seeing them otherwise.

Save Me isn't an epic work of literature, no, but it's a good read with good characters. Rose is put in a tough situation - one where it's easy to see her side of things and the side of the other family (if not always the entire town). Scottoline does a great job of revealing enough information as the story goes, about either side so that while Rose stays the protagonist, it's never a one sided story.

The audio version of Save Me is recorded by Cynthia Nixon (from "Sex & the City") who does a graet job and its easy to 'see' her as Rose, the almost 11 hour audio book is very enjoyable. With 89 chapters, there are a lot of breaks, too, so it's easy to keep your place.


Rating: 7/10


Other Books You Might Enjoy: those by Jodi Picoult and those by Diane Chamberlain


Click one of the below images to be taken to
Save Me's Amazon page where you can
 purchase the Audible version - or go here to
search for it on Overdrive you library(ies)

Before the Storm ~ Diane Chamberlain review

Before the Storm

Mira

June 1, 2008

480 Pages

Paperback

Amazon

Laurel Lockwood is protective of her son, Andy; overprotective, even, it could be argued. Many would find that understandable given that fifteen-year-old Andy is 'special' (I'm quoting the back of the book here) and has already been taken from Laurel once for neglect.

It's her protectiveness that makes her wary when her daughter Maggie, a senior in high school, works to convince her to let Andy attend a church lock-in. Still unsure, Laurell finally gives her consent.

Only to regret it when she receives a call later that night that the lock-in has been moved from the youth center to the church and that the church is now on fire.

Before the Storm tells of the fire inside the church from Andy's point-of-view, the rescue, the later acknowledgement of Andy's heroism, and finally the arson investigation, all while telling the tale of Laurell and her late husband's meeting and relationship and how the family came to be how it is.

As was done in The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes*, each chapter in Before the Storm switches between first person narration of different characters and sometimes different years. Even alternatiing between four or so points of view and different time periods, the story was not hard to follow and I think that it actually made the story much better than if it had all been told by one character in one time.

You learn a lot about all of the characters through the 'solving' of this story and I love that the story was told in this way and wasn't just about the fire and the investigation but was more about the characters (but still not forgetting the events).

I think one of the biggest downsides to reading this was that the summary on the back of the book (and everywhere else, too) tells of events/developments that don't happen until well into the book and the story. I understand that it's a point in the plot and stops the summary from being as vague, maybe, as mine is, but it also makes you read more than 100 pages knowing something that's going to happen but hasn't yet-and I hate that.

So, if you avoid reading summaries anywhere (including that of Secrets She Left Behind the sequel to this), I think you're better off :)

It did cover a lot, though, including some more serious subjects without being preachy or school-y and I appreciated that. While it did all fit, sometimes it felt like there was a bit more than needed to be smushed in and it was getting soap opera-like and almost hurting the characters in a way--I know all people (and thus, characters) have flaws but sometimes it felt like they didn't need to be quite as flawed--or not all of them did. (Maybe it was because the book covered so much time, but it still felt that way to me.)

I liked CeeCee Wilkes better mostly because I loved the characters (CeeCee and Jack) but I'm really glad I decided because of it to read this one and have bought Secrets, the sequel already.

8/10

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes - Diane Chamberlain

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes
Mira (January 1, 2008)
528 Pages
$13.95 (paperback)
Amazon


This is an example of a book I bought because I loved the cover...I'd just found Whistling in the Dark which I specifically went to find and was in the C's looking for another book when I saw CeeCee Wilkes (it had a nice 'face-out' placement--I only know it's called that because Hope Tarr told me a while back ;)) Anyway, I'd loved the Whistling cover and CeeCee had another adorable red headed girl on the cover, so....

I didn't even really read the back of the book...and I'm actually rather glad because it tells some things that don't happen until a good while into the book or even the end (but do actually let you have an idea of what the book is about).

If you want to read it like I did, having no idea what it's about (but knowing that I'm assuing you it's a very good book), here's the little subtitle from the cover: 'She lived a lie to keep her daughter' and my rating of B+.

If you'd like to know a little bit more about the book, then....

CeeCee Wilkes is a sixteen year old working in a diner when she meets grad student Tim Gleason. He convinces her to help him kidnap the governor's wife, but when things go terribly wrong, CeeCee is left with a baby and a secret to live for the rest of her life....or so she thinks.

(You can go BN.com and read their summary if you want, but I don't like it since it's rather spoilery)

A lot of reviews compare this book to the authors other books or say whether its similar to her other works or not....but I haven't read anything else by Chamberlain so I can't speak to that.

8/10

Middle America Saturday Night ~ Kane I Fought the Law ~ The Clash Travellin' Soldier ~ Dixie Chicks