Finished: Atlas the Story of Pa Salt (Riley & Whitaker) This is the final book in the Seven Sisters series, all written by Lucinda Riley. Pa Salt is the man who had adopted six of the sisters and raised them in safety, all while continuing to search the world for the 7th "missing sister". Each of Riley's books was dedicated to one of the sisters and what her actual heritage was. Pa Salt left the girls letters after he passed away (never having found the 7th and missing sister). The sisters all got together in the previous book of the series, The Missing Sister, to find Merry, their missing sister...and they succeeded! Atlas, the final book of the series, was partially written by Lucinda Riley, and finished by her son, Harry Whitaker, after Lucinda Riley passed away before it was finished. The book was a lovely wrap up to all their stories! We meet Atlas as a young boy in Russia! He suffers a trauma when his father must leave the struggling family in the freezing climate to put food on the table, and then his step-mother dies. His step-brother thinks that Atlas killed his mother and causes Atlas to flee for his life...and continue running for the rest of his life! We then get the life story of Atlas, as person after person, or family after family, takes him in or saves his life. He travels the world, and as he does so, we watch him grow up and eventually be thrown into each circumstance that leads to him adopting his six daughters. He also experiences true love with Elle, and after her seemingly voluntary exit from their relationship, he learns that she was pregnant with the 7th sister...actually his first and only biological child. I'm not going to give away any more spoilers. It's a very good ending to the series and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Finished: Small Things Like These (Keegan). I finished this short book while I waited for The Iron Flame to be available. I'd heard so much about it, and it truly didn't disappoint. Keegan writes beautiful prose that takes you right to what the character is thinking or seeing or feeling. I don't have the wherewithal right now to write my own update, but I did really appreciate this book! Here is the Amazon blurb:  

"It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church. 

Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers."

 

 Finished: The Iron Flame (Yarros). I finished the sequel to The Fourth Wing yesterday and I'm still reeling a bit from the ending! I've come to love most of the characters, and their relationships to each other. Violet and Xaden, the designated heroine and hero of the story, of course are now a couple in love who will do anything to keep the other safe. Violet has honed her lightening-wielding signet, which she developed in the first book, after bonding with TWO dragons, Tairn and Andarna. Xaden is one of the very best dragon riders and warriors, and he also has one too many secrets from Violet. He's got a secret mission going and he won't tell her about it....mainly because there are dragon riders who have memory reading abilities and he's afraid they'll see what he's up to with the secret resistance that is rebuilding by reading Violet's memories. He's also terrified of what Violet will think of a few of his secrets. Working closely with her presumed dead brother, who is very much alive, and her warrior sister, Violet, Xaden, and both of their teams put their entire energy into trying to figure out how to put power in the "wards", the magical protective barriers that can be raised around cities, by figuring out how the original ones were created, and just what the dragons have to do with it. I love that Violet finally confided in her best friend, Rhi, and their other close friends, Ridoc and Sawyer, the only four left from their wing of the first-years. It also makes it nerve-wracking to read the various battles and dangerous situations when each one of them, or their dragons, could perish at any time. It's another page-turning, really good book, as we watch all these relationships develop, watch the three Sorrengail siblings rebond after six years, and witness Violet and Xaden falling deeper in love. Is there anything that can tear them apart? You betcha. :-( Here's hoping there really are three more books to come! 

 Finished: The Fourth Wing (Yarros) This is such a good book! From the minute that 20 year old Violet Sorrengail steps into the prestigious, yet cutthroat Basgiath War College, the odds are highly against her. She's trained for years to enter the scribe academy, like her father before her. However, she is forced instead to go to the dragon riding academy like her brother and sister before her. Violet is smart as a whip, but small, frail and easily injured all her young life. Her warrior older sister tries to talk the general out of forcing violet in this direction, but the general is cold-hearted and stands by her decision to send Violet for the toughest challenge of all...to survive the dragon riding academy AND to then have a dragon actually select her to be its rider. Yes, the dragons get to choose, and often times burn to a crisp those potential riders who are too weak or not worthy. It's a terrifying process! Added to Violet's troubles is the "wing leader" she is assigned under, Xaden Riorsan. Xaden is a third year student, and the strongest and most respected in the school. He also happens to be the young man who killed Violet's brother in war....and, whose own father was killed during that same war by Violet's mother. Oh, did I mention that Violet's mother IS the cold-hearted general and head of the Basgiath War College?? There is a clear target planted on Violet's back, not just from the looming threat of Xaden, but from the threats of every other son or daughter of the people who rose up against the kingdom to break free. Xaden and the rest of the children had to watch as their parents were executed, and then they had to pledge to serve the kingdom loyally as dragon riders...if they survived the grueling process. There are lots of twists and turns as we see exactly how tough and smart Violet is, where everyone's loyalties lie, and just who is there to actually protect Violet instead of trying to murder her. This was a very entertaining read and hard to put down!! Of course, it ends on a great cliffhanger, but the sequel is out this coming week!!! I can't wait to read it next. :-) 

  Finished: Lessons in Chemistry (Garmus) I don't know why it took me so long to read this book, but I'm so glad I finally did. It really resonated with me and I enjoyed it so much. Elizabeth Zott is a brilliant chemist who works in a lab as a tech, because due to tragic circumstances, she was unable to complete the college education she needed to earn the title of chemist. Calvin Evans is a brilliant, Nobel prize nominated chemist who works in the same lab, but has his own space as he was the most sought after university graduate in the country when he was applying for jobs. Oh, did I mention that it's the 1950's and Elizabeth faces every male-dominated scenario you can imagine in the workplace? Though Calvin and Elizabeth clash over "stolen" test tubes at first, they quickly bond over their shared love of all things chemistry, and of proving their shared theory about abiogenesis, which states that life arose from simplistic, non-life forms. After several years, and lots of spoilers about their story which I won't share here, Elizabeth no longer works at the lab, but hosts a cooking show on television. Everything she cooks and all the choices she makes while cooking have a scientific reason, which she explains to all the housewives across America who are watching her show, soaking up her every word. She speaks to them like they are more intelligent than most people think they are, especially the men of the 1950's, and encourages them to "change the status quo" with the respect she shows them. There is so much rich story between Elizabeth and Calvin and 6:30 and rowing and their "chemistry", that I grew to love both characters. Both have risen about heartbreaking childhoods, stories which are integral to the entire book. It's definitely a book that deserves the accolades it received.  Love, love, LOVED it! :-)

 Finished: Good Bad Girls (Feeney) Another good page-turner by Alice Feeney! She keeps you guessing until the end about all the relationships in the story. Twenty years after a baby is stolen out of its baby carriage at a grocery store, we meet a set of characters who we know must somehow be involved in some way with that baby. We meet a girl who could be the baby, who's the same age. Her name is Patience. She has run away from home and works in a care facility for the elderly. One of the elderly people that she meets and really grows attached to is 80-year old Edith. Edith has all her marbles, but her grown children have placed her in the care home after tricking her into signing away the deed to her home. Her daughter Clio is a lonely person, who used to have a husband and child, but lost them both. She still lives in the same house where she lived with them. We also meet Frankie, who's in her late 30's, lives alone on a house boat, and runs the local prison library. Her daughter has run away a year earlier, and she's desperate to find her. When there is a murder at the care home, everything shifts into high gear as all four of the women we've met become suspects. The story then unfolds all its twists and turns, revealing how everyone is related to (or not) everyone else. :-)  

 Finished: They Both Die At The End (Silvera) It took me a long time to read this book because we've got so much going on in real life. I even said at one point that it wasn't compelling enough to keep me turning the pages. However, I ended up being so wrong. In this book, set in what seems like current times, there is an entity called Death-Cast that calls you on the day before you are going to die. Once Death-Cast calls, there is nothing that can be done to stop your death. It merely gives you  24 hours to live your last day to the fullest. In this story, Death-Cast calls two teenage boys who don't know each other, 18 year old Mateo and 17 year old Rufus. Mateo is a really good, kind-hearted soul who is being raised by his single dad. His mother died giving birth to him. Matteo spends most of his time inside their apartment playing video games when he's not at school. His father is currently in the hospital in a coma, so Matteo is beside himself when he gets the call from Death-Cast. Rufus is a troubled soul who lost his mother, father and sister a few years earlier when Death-Cast called them all on the same day, but didn't call Rufus. He had to watch in horror as they died, and then spend the remainder of his youth in foster care. He has a set of friends from foster care who he now considers family. Death-Cast calls Rufus on the same day that he beats up his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend....who is not a nice guy. Both Rufus and Matteo sign up for the Last Friend application which is something that gives those who have been called by Death-Cast a last friend to spend their "End Day". Though total opposites, they decide to go for it and spend their last day together. Rufus encourages Matteo to get out and have some experiences that he doesn't normally have. Matteo asks Rufus to go with him to visit his father and Rufus also encourages him to see his best friend, Lydia, face to face to let her know what has happened. Matteo encourages Rufus to break through the tough guy facade and tell him his feelings, and about what happened to his family. They end up becoming very close throughout the day and have one of the best days either has had in their young lives. I didn't like the idea at first, and particularly not in relation to a couple of people who are so young, but it's such a good story. It definitely encourages you to live each day to the fullest every day of your life. 

 Finished: The Whispers (Audrain) A good page-turner by the same author who wrote The Push, which was quite a thriller. It explores the lives of four neighborhood couples who live next to each other whose outer appearances in no way match their inner turmoils. One couple is childless and has been through several devastating miscarriages, having a profound impact on their relationship. One couple is married with one child with a stay-at-home mom who everyone else sees as perfect, but who sees herself as anything but. One couple is the "older" couple on the block who most of the younger couples just dash past on their way here or there. They have no idea that they once had a son who passed away at a young age, and the torment that mother goes through. One couple is married with three children, with a working-outside-the-home mother, who actually hates being a mother and loses her temper and patience with her kids quite often with words that greatly impact her ten year old son, Xavier. When Xavier falls from his upstairs bedroom window in the middle of the night and lies in what looks like an unrecoverable coma, all the actions and histories of the neighbors come to light, including an adulteress relationship among two of the friends. Was it an accident? Did he try to commit suicide? Did his mother lose her temper and push him? A really good lesson in that saying "you never know what someone is going through", even if things looks perfect and shiny on the outside. The very ending is satisfying, but not before the few likable characters go through horrendous heartbreak. 

 Finished: A Long Petal of the Sea (Allende) A very good book, but not a page-turner. Instead, it's a nice, slow read about two people, Roser and Victor, who, though they are not in love, are connected in an inseparable way. Together they must flee Spain in the 1930's when civil war erupts in their beloved homeland. The book uses the poetry of Chilean Noble laureate, Pablo Nerudo, at the beginning of each chapter to highlight the many experiences that Roser and Victor face through the years, as well as the social and political climate in Chile, the country they adopt as their new home after escaping. I'm thankful to my dear friend Nancy Shearer who gave me this book for my birthday! :-)  I'm including the Amazon summary below because I like it and it may give you more insight. 

"In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.

Together with two thousand other refugees, Roser and Victor embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.” As unlikely partners, the couple embraces exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, they face trial after trial, but they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they might go home. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.

A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers."

 Finished: Homecoming by Kate Morton. A pretty good new book by Morton. I've read her books in the past and she sticks with the same formula of going in between the past and the present and usually has a very "surprise" connection between two of the characters. In Homecoming, Jess is a journalist who was raised by her grandmother, Nora, in Australia. After college she set out to London to pursue her career. Her mother, Polly, is alive, but left her when she was young, thinking it was best for her to be raised by her grandmother. (Mostly because Nora drilled into Polly's head that Jess would hate moving when Polly moved out, and that Polly had zero confidence and was a weak mother.) Now, Nora is very ill in Australia and both women set out to see her. Jess arrives first and her grandmother starts saying things in delirium about her past...don't let him take her from me....the journal...etc. Then the story unfolds as we see the history of Nora, her brother and his wife Isabel, and their four children, and the tragedy that unfolded when their youngest child was an infant. It's pretty easy to figure out in this one that Nora is not the good, moral person that Jess has always thought she was. And, her mother is not an uncaring deserter. We hear the viewpoints of all three ladies, plus Isabel, as the story unfolds. A pretty good book, but took me forever to read because of real life getting in the way, and because it just didn't grab me and hold me down like so many books do. :-) 

 Finished: I Will Find You (Coben) A great new book by Harlan Coben, my favorite thriller/mystery author! It's the story of David Burroughs who is in prison for murdering his three year old son, Matthew, five years earlier. When his ex-sister-in-law brings a picture to the prison and insists that he needs to look at it, he sees what she sees. It's Matthew, alive and well! He just knows, and so does she. David is in extreme danger in prison, as the people who set him up and concocted the elaborate scheme that took his son away from him, want him dead. Until this moment, David had not cared what happened to him. His marriage was over, not to mention his entire world shattered, at the death of Matthew. Once David sees the picture, and believes that Matthew is still alive and was taken from he and his ex-wife, he concocts a plan to get out of prison, and begins confronting people from the past to try and find his son. It's another page-turner, with several twists and turns. I love Harlan Coben's voice of each character, and how he always manages to bring in at least one character from one of his previous books! He's a great story teller and I just wish that I didn't read his books so fast. :-) 

 Finished: The Caine Mutiny (Wouk) Pulitzer Prize winning book that follows the life of Ensign Willie Keith, a wealthy young man who gets assigned to a run down mine sweeping destroyer during World War II. We see the ship through his eyes, and watch as Willie does things we agree with and don't agree with, all the while coming into his own aboard the ship. When a new captain is placed on board not long after Willie arrives, none of the crew knows what a nightmare they are in for. The executive officer of the boat, Steve Maryk, has his hands full being responsible for all the men, being an example to Willie, and being 2nd in command to Captain Queeg, the new captain. As it turns out, Queeg is basically a coward who would rather berate men for the tiniest little details (i.e., shirttails untucked, etc.) rather than get anywhere near actual gun fire. Many incidences occur aboard The Caine which are a result of his incompetence, but he always blames the reasons on the crew to his higher ups. At a critical point in the South Pacific, the ship is hit by a typhoon, and with his irrational behavior, and after weeks of watching the captain deteriorate mentally, Maryk relieves the captain of his duties via an emergency navy rule. Maryk calmly saves the ship that was about to capsize, and when the crew returns to home base, Maryk is court marshalled and stands trial, with Willie named as his accomplice. I've had this book on my list to read for awhile, but was always a bit daunted by its 500+ page length. I'm so, so glad I finally read it! Wouk is such a good writer and develops each character to a tee. His descriptive prose takes you right to each location as well. If you've seen the movie, it really doesn't do the book justice...but it's a pretty good condensed version. :-) 

 Finished: The Last Party (Mackintosh) A very good whoddunit! Luxury condos for the wealthy have been built on the shores of remote Lake Mirror....on the exact border of Wales and England. The wealthy man responsible for the building is Rhys Lloyd, a local Welsh "boy" who left his hometown village and made it as a famous opera singer. Using the land inherited from his family, Lloyd comes back to Lake Mirror with his wife and teenage twin daughters after his career begins to wane. His land, in the years before, had been settled to be officially in England...so he's one of the wealthy people who comes to build and live at the upper, upper crust neighborhood, The Shore. The town members of Cwm Coed, who live and work and raise children across the lake in Wales, are not happy. Not only is the view of the landscape drastically changed, but the difference between the wealthy "summer home" owners and townspeople, who barely make ends meet, is tremendous. When the first handful of lake front homes is complete, the wealthy owners start moving in. We meet all kinds of interesting characters, both home owners and townsfolk. Rhys Lloyd and his wife, Yasmine, throw a New Year's Eve party and, along side their wealthy neighbors, the entire town is invited to come. By the end of the night, Lloyd is dead! His body washes up on shore at the annual New Year's Day dip in the lake. The Detective Constable in charge on the Welsh side is Ffion Morgan, a thirty year old divorcee who lives with her mother Cwm Coed. She's outdoorsy, very truthful and holds a painful past close. The Detective Constable on the English side is Leo Brady, also a divorcee and father of a young son, who has just relocated from London to the area. DC Brady has problems of his own, as his ex-wife is holding a secret over his head to keep him from seeing his son as the custody arrangement states. He's more the meek type and is surprised by the outspokenness of DC Morgan when he meets  her. Neither one is happy being saddled with the other as a partner, but they must work together to figure out what happened. It gets particularly dicey when Leo begins to discover that Ffion has secrets that may be directly involved with the evening in question...and she has lied to him about it. You can't help but like both characters and root for them to at least become friends and lean on each other. Eventually Ffion's secret, and how it relates to Rhys Lloyd, does come to light just in time to throw them together into another tricky situation. All The Shore neighbors are suspects, as well as many of the townspeople, even  Ffion with her motive. The story does a good job of weaving together all the characters and their stories and why, as it turns out, nearly each and every person who knew him despised Lloyd, and with good reason. I was hoping by the end of the book that Ffion and Leo might work together again on another case, and was just happy to read that this is apparently book #1 of the DC Morgan series! Can't wait for more. :-) 

 Finished: I Have Some Questions For You (Makkai) I was so anxious to read the new book by Rebecca Makkai since I LOVED her The Great Believers! This one did not disappoint. :-) It wasn't as meaningful to me as TGB, but was a nice mystery with very developed characters. Bodie Kane is a successful crime blogger and film professor who is 20 years past her boarding school days in New Hampshire. She's put her painful childhood and teenage years from boarding school behind her, but it all comes rushing back when she's invited back to Granby as a visiting film professor for two weeks. Her students have been given the assignment to create their own documentary podcasts, and one student has chosen a tragedy from Bodie's senior year at Granby that opens up all the old wounds, and most importantly, some nagging doubts. In her senior year, Bodie's roommate, Thalia, had been murdered and the athletic trainer was still spending his life in prison for it. But, did they get the right man? The student's documentary is about Omar, the athletic trainer, and how he was imprisoned unfairly and is an innocent man who should get a retrial. The entire book is narrated to one specific teacher from Bodie's years who had a physical relationship with Thalia. Bodie has convinced herself that it was this teacher and not Omar who killed Thalia. As we get deeper into the story, we see that not only did that teacher have motive and opportunity, but so did a few of the students....Thalia's hotheaded boyfriend, her jealous girlfriends, her rejected suitors, etc. The mystery is cracked at the end with a surprise, but not off the rails, twist. A good read and very well written! 

 

Finished: Exiles (Harper) I’ve read all of Harper’s books and really enjoy her writing! Aaron Falk is a character that has been developed from the first book. He always solves the mystery, but along the way we also see his own personal relationships, past mistakes, loves, etc. Can’t wait for (hopefully) more! Again, being lazy and using Amazon blurb. J

“Federal Investigator Aaron Falk is on his way to a small town deep in Southern Australian wine country for the christening of an old friend's baby. But mystery follows him, even on vacation.

This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Kim Gillespie's disappearance. One year ago, at a busy town festival on a warm spring night, Kim safely tucked her sleeping baby into her stroller, then vanished into the crowd. No one has seen her since. When Kim's older daughter makes a plea for anyone with information about her missing mom to come forward, Falk and his old buddy Raco can't leave the case alone.

As Falk soaks up life in the lush valley, he is welcomed into the tight-knit circle of Kim’s friends and loved ones. But the group may be more fractured than it seems. Between Falk’s closest friend, the missing mother, and a woman he’s drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge. What would make a mother abandon her child? What happened to Kim Gillespie?”

 Finished: A Town Called Solace (Lawson) I'm going to be super lazy and just use the Amazon blurb. A pretty good book, but I wanted to love it more than I did. I liked all the relationships that developed between various characters, like Clara and Liam, and Elizabeth and Liam much earlier. Both sets of parents in the story left alot to be desired. 

"A Town Called Solace, the brilliant and emotionally radiant new novel from Mary Lawson, her first in nearly a decade, opens on a family in crisis. Sixteen-year-old Rose is missing. Angry and rebellious, she had a row with her mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Left behind is seven-year-old Clara, Rose’s adoring little sister. Isolated by her parents’ efforts to protect her from the truth, Clara is bewildered and distraught. Her sole comfort is Moses, the cat next door, whom she is looking after for his elderly owner, Mrs. Orchard, who went into hospital weeks ago and has still not returned. 

Enter Liam Kane, mid-thirties, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, who moves into Mrs. Orchard’s house - where, in Clara’s view, he emphatically does not belong. Within a matter of hours he receives a visit from the police. It seems he is suspected of a crime.

At the end of her life, Elizabeth Orchard is also thinking about a crime, one committed thirty years previously that had tragic consequences for two families, and in particular for one small child. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies. 

Told through three distinct, compelling points of view, the novel cuts back and forth among these unforgettable characters to uncover the layers of grief, remorse, and love that connect them. A Town Called Solace is a masterful, suspenseful, darkly funny and deeply humane novel by one of our great storytellers."

 Finished: Just the Nicest Couple (Kubica) A pretty good book...one that picks up a bit more during the last half. It is told in alternating viewpoints by Christian and Nina. Christian is happily married to Lily, and they are expecting their first child after several first trimester miscarriages. He comes home one night to find Lily in a state of panic and finally gets her to tell him what is wrong. Lily teaches high school math and has a good friend there, Nina. Nina is five or six years older than Lily and took her under her wing when Lily began teaching, and they became fast friends. Nina is married to neurosurgeon, Jake. Jake is a bit full of himself and loves living the high life that his salary provides. He and Nina are pretty happy in their marriage until Nina has to start spending weekends with her mom, who has been diagnosed with macular degeneration. Jake is very childish about not getting all of Nina's time, so their marriage has been a bit rocky lately. Lily finally tells Christian that when she went for a walk on the trail in the park that day, she ran into Jake, who convinced her to go down a more remote trail with him to see some deer. Once there, Jake put the moves on Lily and got out of control angry when she told him no. He grabbed her and pushed her down and Lily picked up a rock and bashed him in the head...more than once. She's afraid she might have killed him. Meanwhile, Nina can't believe that Jake has not come home after their fight the night before. More importantly, he hasn't shown up at his work for his patients and surgeries. Christian has Lily take him to the exact spot where everything happened, and there is so much blood, but no body. As Christian panics and moves to erase any evidence of Lily being in the park, weird things start happening at Nina's house. Weird because Christian has snuck in looking for Jake's car key to move his car, which is parked at the park. Nina's mother thinks, with her poor vision, that Jake has returned home briefly when he runs out the door. Nina, who has filed a missing person's report with the police, tells them it's not necessary any more. She still just can't figure out how Jake could have disappeared and not want to see her. Certainly things hadn't been THAT bad. The story unfolds and we find out what really happened in the woods between Lily and Jake, what happened to Jake, and who did it! My guess was right. It's always the one you least suspect. :-) Pretty good book, but not one that kept me up late reading. 

 Finished: One True Loves (Jenkins Reid) Not my favorite Taylor Jenkins Reid book, especially after starting with Malibu Rising and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and then the amazing, Daisy Jones and the Six. Anyway, this one was written earlier and is a solid book, just not one of my favs. :-) It's the story of a woman, Emma, who has moved back home to the small hometown in the northeast, after the death of her husband of one year, Jesse. Jesse was the absolute love of her life...her one true love. They met in high school, realized they were kindred spirits, and then traveled the world together for ten years before finally tying the knot. When Jesse accepts a work assignment right before their first anniversary, Emma asks him not to go, but he says no worries, he'll be back in a flash. Of course, his helicopter goes down over the ocean and his body is never found. The pilot's and co-pilot's bodies are both found. Emma is devastated and refuses to believe Jesse is gone. Her sister finally convinces her that Jesse isn't coming back. Emma breaks down then, and returns home to work at the family bookstore...the one she didn't want to take over as an adult...the one she ran away from. Emma deals with her grief day by day and finally starts going about the town...and working at the book store! She reconnects with another boy from high school, Sam. Sam had always been in love with Emma and was heartbroken himself when she suddenly fell for Jesse. Of course, Emma had no idea how he felt, as they were just the best of friends. Sam is now back in town and teaching music, what he always wanted to do. After gradually dating, and then moving in together, they finally get engaged. Emma loves Sam and loves that he knows her so well. He has become her true love as well. The wedding is only a couple of months away when Emma gets a phone call from a number she doesn't recognize....it's Jesse. He's alive! He's been stranded on an obscure island and trying everything he can to get back to his wife, to his Emma. And, from there the book goes as you'd expect. Emma becomes torn between Sam, who knows the person she is now and loves her for it...and Jesse, who is in love with the girl he left behind who would never have moved back home. Who does Emma end up picking? Of course, you've got to read to find out. :-) 

 Finished: Five Survive (Jackson) A good thriller about six students headed south for spring break in an RV. Four are high school seniors and friends. Two are college students, the big brother of one of the girls and his girlfriend, going along as chaperons. They get lost on a small road with no cell service, looking for the place they are supposed to meet their other friends. It's not long before they are being terrorized by a sniper with a high-powered rifle. The sniper shoots out all the tires and the gas tank of the RV, stranding the kids with no way to leave. He leaves them a walkie talkie and tells them if any of them try to leave, he will kill them on the spot. Then he taunts them, telling them, one of you has a secret and I want to know what it is. When I do, the rest of you are free to go unharmed. He says he'll give them some time to talk it out and figure out who has the secret. A night of accusations, suspicions, guilt and confessions ensues as each of them wonders if their own secret is what the sniper is talking about. When they finally figure out that one of them must be working with the sniper for him to know the things he does, things escalate quickly, and then tragedy strikes. I'm not going to give anything away. The book was slightly slow at first, but then really picks up the pace and was hard to put down trying to put all the pieces together. A good read! :-)

 Finished: Babel (Kuang). The entire title is Babel: On the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution. To understand what that means, you really have to read the whole 560 page book! :-) The book is good! I started it during the holidays and it officially becomes my first read book of 2023. It's good, and complicated, and tragic, but also very timely, to me at least. In 1828 a ten year old boy is dying of cholera in Canton. Most of his entire family, and his English born tutor who has been with him for years, are already dead and his mother lays dying beside him. After his mother dies, an English man appears and holds a bar of silver over him that instantly makes him feel funny inside, but ends up healing him. The man is Professor Lovell and he is the man who sent the English tutor to the family so the boy would grow up speaking fluent English, as well as his native Cantonese. (He is also the man who hung around in China for two weeks waiting for the mother to die before he went in and saved the boy.) Professor Lovell insists that the boy come up with an English name and say goodbye to his Chinese name. Having been provided with all kinds of books during his childhood, the boy decides on the name Robin Swift. Professor Lovell takes Robin back to London where he spends the next several years having him trained in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese. The goal? For Robin to be accepted into Oxford University's Royal Institute of Translation...called by all who know it, Babel. Babel is the most important translation center in the world, and England wants to keep it that way. Babel is also the center of the mysterious magic of silver! With the silver bars, translators enchant the silver bars with translations of words from different languages that have enough of a connection to evoke the results they want. The silver can enhance most things...make carts go faster, make music pitch perfect, make buildings sturdier, heal a sick person,etc. They can also be used as weapons of war. In England, they are used by the ultra rich for frivolous things like automatically opening and closing curtains, or making a room appear brighter. While the poor die of diseases that could possibly be cured, or starve from  hunger, the rich enjoy these unnecessary pleasures. What Professor Lovell and his cohorts do is shameless. They "sponsor" children from other countries whose languages they need to master in order to turn around and have dominance over those very countries. The children are so struck by either the loss of their families or by their "luck" at being singled out by a sponsor, that they go along semi-willingly, not knowing that the end result will actually be damaging to their native countries when they are eventually asked to attend important meetings with those countries and translate for the English men who are there to take every advantage they can. It's really just despicable. As Robin grows up in Professor Lovell's household, he is rarely offered true encouragement or caring from the professor, and often physically abused if he strays from his studies. By the time he is seventeen and ready for the Institute of Translation, he is accepted at Oxford and all his expenses and clothing are paid for. However, Oxford is still Oxford and is attended mostly by the elite white children of the rich in England. Being half Chinese and half English (having never met his father, this is his assumption), Robin can blend in somewhat, but most of the students don't accept him. Thankfully in his first week there, before classes even start, Robin meets his roommate, Ramy, a boy from India who has been sponsored by an English man that his family works for. They instantly bond and become best friends. Together they run into Letty and Victoire....two girls! Girls at Oxford is unheard of at the time, so they must dress like and pretend to be boys. Victoire is from France, but Jamaican born. She is the least accepted of the four students because of her black skin. Letty is from a rich white family in England whose son, who all their hopes and dreams were pinned on to attend Oxford, were dashed when he was killed by his own careless actions. Wanting to prove to her father that a girl can be just as smart, she learns all kinds of languages and passes the entry exam to both Oxford and Babel. Though she's not of a foreign nationality, she is a female, so the four of them are completely alone, but with each other, at Oxford. Just the four of them have been brought in this year for the Institute of Translation, so as long as they try and avoid the regular Oxford students, they should be ok. They form an incredible bond, which is why it makes what happens as the years progress and the book hits it's climax, heartbreaking. In addition to meeting Ramy the first week he is at school, Robin also meets a boy that looks strikingly like himself named Griffin. Griffin is a former student of the Institute of Translation who was also sponsored by Professor Lovell, but is now working for a secret society called the Hermes Society. The Hermes Society is all about stealing as much silver as they can from the institute and using it for good and for the poor, and keeping it out of the hands of the rich. Most of them are former students of Babel who realized exactly what was going on and how they were being used. By the time they are fourth year students and actually learning to work with the silver, we realize exactly how involved or not involved in Hermes each of the four friends are, and the tragic results of the revolution they are about to participate in. A long book, but it kept me reading each time I picked it up!