Finished: The Match (Coben) Another great page-turner by one of my favorites, Harlan Coben. :-) The protagonist of this story is Wilde, who we met in The Boy in the Woods. Wilde is 40ish now, he's not really sure, because he was left in the woods as a child to fend for himself. Only by befriending another little boy, David, whose family owned a house at the edge of the woods, was he brought into society, where David's mother, Hesther Crimstein became like a surrogate mother to him. He still had no memory of how he was left in the woods, still preferred living in his reclusive abode in the woods, and still remained close to Hesther, David's son, Matthew and David's widow, Laila. In this story, Wilde has decided to input his DNA into "one of those sites" to see if he gets a match. He's finally ready to see if he's got a mother and/or father out there, and to learn what exactly happened to make them leave him in the woods. Hester Crimstein is a brilliant attorney, and also a mainstay in several of the Coben novels. She's quite prominent in both of the Wilde books, there for advice, and there when Wilde's search takes a mysterious turn as he gets a hit for a possible parent, and at the same time, a hit for a possible half-sibling. When he reaches out to the possible parent (a father), he sets some frantic wheels in motion because it turns out his father is in the Witness Protection Program. By the time Wilde reaches back out to the potential half-sibling, Peter, he has gone missing. A complicated mystery ensues involving DNA matches, reality tv shows, a secret online vigilante society, and three murders (and counting). In the end, we do finally learn what happened to Wilde as a child, but there are some ends left dangling and a couple of unanswered questions. I'm really hoping there is a Wilde book #3. 

 Finished: To Paradise (Yanagihara) This 700 page novel is basically three books in one, somehow interwoven, but at the same time not at all. As you get to know the characters in each section, you see that the same names and surnames are used over and over, as is the same house in Washington Square, though most of the same-named people are not related at all, at least as far as the reader knows. The first section begins in 1893 America where the country is divided after the Civil War into the Free States, the Colonies, the West and the North. New York is part of the Free States where black people are not welcome to live, but are aided in their journeys to get to safe places. However, in the Free States, homosexuals are free to live and marry, and as a matter of fact, it's more common than different sex marriages. We meet the first Nathaniel in 1893, Nathaniel Bingham, a rich banker and founding member of the Free States who is determined to find a marriage match for his grandson, David, who is homosexual like his two siblings, but has never been as socially adept as they have been. David is underwhelmed by his grandfather's choice for him, a man twenty years his senior named Charles Griffith, from a fine family. When David decides he's in love with Edward, the very poor music instructor at one of their family foundations, he shocks both his grandfather and Charles when he decides to run off with Edward to The West...to paradise. In the second section, the year is 1993 and we are introduced to David, a paralegal at a law firm who is in a relationship with a very senior partner in the law firm, Charles Griffith. The AIDS epidemic is thriving in America and takes a few of Charles and David's friends as David questions whether he should tell Charles about his father, the true heir to the Hawaiian kingdom who had deserted his title when Hawaii decided to become it's own nation. We leave David pondering this question while the second part of this second section turns into a long letter written to David by his dying father (also a David). In it, his father explains about his life and how he let a friend he's known since childhood, Edward, run roughshod over his life and move them to a parcel of land in Hawaii that belonged to the lost kingdom, leaving his mother, David's grandmother to raise the younger David. Long disgusted with his father, David moved to the States and hadn't seen his father in years. At the end of the letter, as the bedridden father imagines he's up and walking in a garden each night, we assume that he has drifted away to death as his last words are that he'll see his son soon as he travels to see him....to paradise. The third section of the book is by far the largest part of the book and begins in 2093 in New York, which is no longer called New York, in a world that has been inundated by plagues and pandemics and has turned into a totalitarian dictatorship run by the state. There are scientists constantly trying to identify new diseases, while at the same time trying to develop cures for them. Charles Griffith is one such scientist who years ago moved his young family, husband Nathaniel and young son David, from Hawaii, where they were all happy, to New York where they lived in Section 8, while Charles became more and more entangled with the state. This section goes back and forth from 2043 where Charles is writing letters about his life to a dear friend in New Britain, and 2093 where Charles's granddaughter is married and living with her husband, Edward, in a marriage arranged by Charles . We learn how Charles and Nathaniel's marriage deteriorates as Nathaniel grows unhappy and David becomes an unhappy, rebellious teenager. David's rebellion goes farther than that...he becomes one of the insurgents who believes the State is lying about the need for all of their liberties to be so limited, and that they are thrusting pandemics on people purposefully to try and control them. David and Charles become estranged, but when David takes up with a female insurgent, she gives birth to Charles' granddaughter who is basically left to be raised by Charles and Nathaniel after David is executed for being an insurgent and the baby's mother, being less than maternal, signs over her rights. Before dying, David names his daughter Charlie. Charlie is a bright, precocious, inquisitive, beautiful child until the pandemic of 2070 where she is felled by the illness that kills most everyone it touches. She is given a controversial medicine that cures her, but leaves her with pockmarks, the loss of hair (which grows back very limp), a personality with very little affect and much slower cognitive reasoning. After Nathaniel dies, several years after their divorce, Charles and Charlie move into the house Nathaniel inherited on Washington Square. (Yes, the same house.)  In Charles' letters we see how he dedicates his life to caring for Charlie and teaching her how to live in society, while continuing to work for the state. As he gets older and realizes he won't be alive for all of Charlie's life, he makes it a mission to arrange a marriage for her where she will be taken care of at all costs. The man who agrees to marry Charlie, Edward, is a homosexual who is in love with a man, but by this time in the country's history, homosexual marriages are not allowed and relationships can be dangerous. It's interesting to see the world through Charlie's eyes in 2093 and then back through Charles' eyes in the years leading up to the end of the story. Charles is executed by insurgents who briefly take over the state not long after Charlie is married. But, in his last letter to his friend in New Britain, Charles pleads with his friend to please get Charlie out of America if he can, to a free life in New Britain. As Charlie's story comes to an end, after her husband has just passed away, a boat comes to get her and she realizes she is going to start her new life with the help of her beloved grandfather's trusted friend. She's going...to paradise. It was a long, but very good read. I loved A Little Life by Yanagihara, and this book was as compelling, but in different ways. Here is the blurb on Amazon that probably explains things better and more concisely than I just did. :-) 

"In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him—and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances.

 
These three sections are joined in an enthralling and ingenious symphony, as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it can’t exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness.
 
To Paradise is a fin de siecle novel of marvelous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius.  The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love—partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow citizens—and the pain that ensues when we cannot."

 Finished: No Exit (Adams) A definite page-turner about Darby, a young college student, who gets caught in a snowstorm while driving to see her dying mother. She barely makes it into the remote Colorado rest stop when the more immediate terror begins. There are only four other people stuck at the rest stop as well, and when she goes outside to try and find a cell phone signal, she spies a young child, trapped in a dog crate in the back of a van. One of the four people inside has most likely a kidnapped the child, but which one? And, who can she trust after she figures out who is driving the van? Snowed in with no cell service, Darby must figure out a way to save both the child and herself while trying to outsmart a very deranged person. The book has already been made into a television movie, so I'm not going to give any spoilers. It was a terrifying book, with several unexpected twists! :-)

 Finished: The Overnight Guest (Gudenkauf) A pretty good page-turner about a triple homicide that happened on a farm twenty years earlier, leaving twelve year old Josie without her parents or brother. The story is told in the present day time and in the twenty years past time...and is also told by a third viewpoint, that of a little girl who is apparently being held captive with her mother in a basement and has been all her life. There are lots of twists and turns, while the current day crime author, Wylie, who is staying at the remote farm cabin where it all went down, is trying to finish her latest book. With a huge snow storm hitting, Wylie heads out to load up her firewood and finds a small child nearly frozen to death in the snow and takes him into the cabin to warm him up. When he wakes up, he is terribly uncommunicative and frightened and some of the twists start falling into place, but not necessarily how you think they will. :-) 

Finished: Black Cake (Wilkerson) One of those books that I truly enjoyed, whose characters I want to sit with awhile, so I'm going to be very lazy and paste the Amazon blurb here. I will say that I really loved the friendship of Covey and Bunny as they grew up on their Caribbean island, learning to long distance swim and always having each other's backs. I love that the book is really Covey's story, but we also get enough of Bunny's, Byron's, Benny's and Marble's stories to grow attached and, more importantly, attach them all together. And, of course, I'd love to taste that black cake!! :-) 

From Amazon:

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child, challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage, and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names, can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch. 

 Finished: The White Ship (Spencer) Historical non-fiction telling of the tragic sinking of the White Ship, the ship in King Henry I's royal fleet that was carrying his only legitimate son and heir to the throne, seventeen year old William, when it crashed into a rock soon after setting sail from Normandy heading back home to England, killing everyone aboard except a butcher. The story begins with William's grandfather, William the Conqueror and his successful conquest of the English crown. Having four sons among his children, Henry was the fourth son with little chance of becoming king. We read the complicated history of all the sons and the deaths and wars that finally lead to Henry's chance to grab the throne and become King Henry I. King Henry has one daughter and one son with his wife (and at least twenty illegitimate children). After suffering the trials of being one of four brothers battling for the same lands and crown all his life, he decides one legitimate son and heir is plenty, and does not press his wife to have more children. Henry prepares his son to become the king and has already announced William as the heir to the throne when the tragedy strikes. After a successful campaign in Normandy, Henry and all his noblemen and knights, along with much of the younger generation of those nobleman, peers of William's, prepare to set sail back home to England. King Henry goes ahead on the first ship, while many of his faithful noblemen and almost all of that younger generation, board a different ship, the White Ship, a few hours later in the dark. The crash is harrowing, and as told by the the surviving butcher, William was spirited off in a lifeboat by his guards, and was headed to shore when he insisted they turn back for one of his step-sisters who was screaming for his help. When the boat turned back, it was quickly overtaken by panicking people trying to climb aboard and capsized with all aboard perishing. King Henry goes into a terrible grief, but also realizes the precarious situation the future of his crown is in. Henry's wife, Matilda of Scotland, had died two years prior, so Henry marries as quickly as possible to try and produce another male heir. His attempts prove to be futile. In the last years of his life he takes oaths from all his trusted nobleman that they will support his next choice for the throne, his daughter, also called Matilda. When King Henry finally does die, the years following his death 1135-1153 become known as the Anarchy, as Matilda goes to war with Henry's nephew, Stephen of Blois, for the thrown. After years of bloody war, Stephen's unimpressive turn as king, and Matilda's various unsuccessful rallies for the thrown, a peace pact is finally reached between Stephen and Matilda assuring that Matilda's son, Henry, will become Stephen's official heir to the thrown, his own son having already died. So, with the crowning of King Henry II, the book comes to a close as the House of the Plantagenets is ushered into England. It's a very well told story if you like the historical telling of England's royal history by the piecing together of accounts from many witnesses and historians from the time. :-)

 Finished: His and Hers (Feeney) A page-turning whodunnit told in alternating chapters from the viewpoint of Anna, a reporter who lives in London and has been subbing for the anchor at her BBC station for the last two years, and the viewpoint of Jack, a detective who has gone back to his small hometown in England after a divorce two years prior. Oh, and Anna is Jack's ex-wife. They were happily married with a three month old daughter when they lost her to a tragic "cot death" while Anna's mother was babysitting. Their marriage could not survive the tragedy. When a woman is murdered in Jack's hometown, which, of course, turns out to also be Anna's hometown the story turns into a wild ride as we hear everything from their two viewpoints and as they both at one point or another become suspects. When another woman turns up dead, we begin to hear about the history between all the characters going back to high school, and it's a doozy. Oh, did I tell you that in the midst of the His and Hers chapters we also have chapters from the killer's viewpoint? We just don't know who that killer is until the very end! So many twists and turns in this book. I loved it and will say no more about it to avoid spoilers. :-) 

 Finished: The Mercies (Hargrave) A very good, chilling story based on real life events off the small coastal town of Vardo in the northernmost territory of Norway known as Finnmark. In 1617 a sudden, deadly storm breaks out on the seas, just outside the harbor of Vardo, killing all 40 of the men who lived in the town. Every woman in Vardo loses a husband, father, son or betrothed as the merciless storm takes them all down. Twenty year old Maren watches in shock, along with the other towns-women, as her father, her brother and her betrothed all go down with their boats. The women barely know what to do with their grief, much less how to survive in this world where the men had always provided the food and shelter. One brave woman, Kirsten, rallies the other women and tells them they must take over the duties of the men if they want to eat, to survive. Though the district has sent a male clergyman to guide them, he is very passive and doesn't believe the women should go out in fish, but depend on God's will for survival. Several of the women, Maren included, go with Kirsten as they catch fish enough for the town on their first outing, and continue to provide food for everyone...even those women who believe that by doing so they are close to performing sorcery. There is a divided belief in the town: those who believe in God and religiously attend the kirke (church), and those who believe more in the natural spirits of nature, for example, calling upon runes to bring a safe wind for their fishermen. Maren's sister-in-law, Dinna, is one of those women. She is from a group of people known as the Sami, and she is looked down upon by the other women as unholy. She has lost her husband, Maren's brother, in the storm and has just given birth to his son. She is a strong woman, but in despair without her husband. Still, she refuses to attend the kirke or to bond with the other women of the town. The women have begun to have a rhythm of survival and self-reliance when a commissioner is assigned to their town. He is to come and be the voice of reason and law. His name is Absalom Cornet and he brings with him a young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who he has just recently married and barely knows. Ursa is ripped from the only home she's ever known, and from her very ill sister and widowed father because her father thinks this will be a good marriage for her, and specifically, because he thinks it will bring the highborn family some much needed financial assistance since his own inadequate business dealings have left them nearly broke. As actually happened in the 1600's in Norway, Commissioner Cornet is really being sent to Vardo on a witch hunt. King Christian IV, having not much influence in the worldwide politics, set his sights on "cleaning up" his own country, starting with what he considered to be the untamed territory of Finnmark in the north. As the commissioner begins to wield his religious influence and power, the town's women further divide with the religious zealots reduced to actually accusing neighbors they have known all their lives of witchcraft. Maren and Kirsten are already close friends, but Maren worries for Kirsten's safety, and that of her sister-in-law, as the noose tightens around the necks of  "those who are named" by others. Ursa befriends Maren and they strike up a very deep bond, one that neither of them saw coming. They are comforted by each other and protective of each other. When Ursa tells Maren that Dinna has been "named" to her husband, Maren rushes to warn Dinna, and she escapes in the night with her young son just hours before Absalom and his men come for her. That doesn't slow him down, though. His next stop is Kirsten's house. :-( Maren insists on going to speak on behalf of Kirsten, but Ursa begs her not to, saying there is nothing that can stop the mob now and if she speaks on her behalf, she will endanger herself. It's an awful time of terror and disbelief for everyone in the town, to have not only lost their families, but to now be losing all control of their own lives. The book is so well written and the characters so vivid. I was emotionally attached to Kirsten and Maren and Ursa, and I was in horror of the women who had the ear of the commissioner and turned on the other women so easily. The book has a tragic ending as Kirsten and another woman are burned alive. Maren and Ursa have finally discovered a love they never knew could exist in each other, but then Maren is "named" and must flee the town. Before she can flee, Absalom realizes what is between his wife and Maren and, enraged, he storms to Maren's house and begins to drown Maren in a tub. Ursa hits him over the head (more the once lol) with a stone rolling pin and kills him! Ursa begs to go with Maren, but she convinces her to go home and report her husband missing the next morning. When they finally find him dead at Maren's, she will be long gone and will assume that Maren killed him. Ursa, now a widow, would be free to go home to her father and sister as she has truly always wanted. Though they have found love with each other, Ursa and Maren will be separated, but safe to live on. 

 Finished: These Silent Woods (Grant) For eight years a father and daughter have lived alone in a remote cabin in the Appalachian Mountains. Cooper takes his daughter there when she's just an infant after his wife dies and her parents, an influential judge and his wealthy wife, try to take Finch away from him by invoking the PTSD he has struggled with since ending his 4th tour in Afghanistan. Cooper realizes that his inlaws will win and he will lose his daughter, so he takes drastic, illegal measures which then requires him to hide away with Finch for as long as he can. The only person who knows where Cooper and Finch are is Cooper's best friend and Army mate, Jake, who owns the cabin, and whose life Cooper saved in Afghanistan. Jake comes once a year and delivers groceries and supplies so that Cooper and Finch don't have to go into town to the store and risk being recognized. In addition, a mysterious, crusty man, Scotland, who lives nearby in the wilderness also knows that Cooper and Finch are there. Scotland always shows up so quietly that Cooper never sees him coming, but Scotland lets Cooper know that he knows what he's running from with clippings from the newspaper. However, Scotland adores Finch and so would really do whatever he can to protect them both, not expose them. Finch is smart as a whip and reads all the books in the cabin. She's an excellent little outdoors-woman, and an passionate animal lover. She and Cooper also have a signal and a plan for hiding in case any strangers drive up to the cabin. When Jake fails to arrive promptly on December 14, his designated annual date to come, Cooper fears the worst...that Jake has finally succumbed to the horrific injuries he suffered in Afghanistan. When Jake's sister, Marie, arrives with instructions from Jake to please fill the supply list and take it to the cabin, Cooper's and Finch's fears are realized. They are devastated at the loss of their friend, and quickly grow attached to Marie, and she to them. When an actual tragedy occurs with a teenager from the town and her body is discovered in the woods too close to the cabin, everything turns upside down. Soon the authorities are scouring the woods to figure out what happened to her. The prose in the book is beautifully written as we learn more and more about each character the further the story goes. We flashback to Cooper's time in Afghanistan when Jake is nearly mortally wounded but Cooper saves his life. Cooper feels terribly guilty and when the PTSD sets in once he's back home and he draws a gun in a diner, when he thinks he sees to "bad guys" come in the door, the town who has hailed him as a hero since he's been home, is now afraid of him. When Cindy, the girl he feels is way above his station, actually loves him back and they begin to live together when she becomes pregnant and her aforementioned parents won't accept the relationship, Cooper is the happiest he's ever been. Tragically, when Finch is 4 months old, Cindy grabs his arm when he's driving one day so he'll avoid a deer that has run into the road, and the car rolls, killing Cindy. Marie, is a lonely soul who discovers that her husband of several years has cheated on her, so they are newly divorced when she meets Cooper and Finch. She's not quite ready for another relationship, but as things turn dire with the search for the town girl, she and Cooper bond even closer and do end up together. And, we find out that Scotland, who Cooper is suspicious of for the eight years he knows them, is such a loner because he lost his own wife and daughter in a car accident when he was driving. He makes a huge sacrifice at the end of the story so Cooper and Finch can be safely together without having to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives. I kept waiting for some huge revelation because the book was touted as a thriller, but what it really was was the story of four broken people and an amazing little girl, all trying to make the best of their lives given the hands they were dealt. 

 Finished: Labyrinth (Mosse) In 2005, during an archaeological in the Pyrenees Mountains in France, a volunteer named Alice uncovers a hidden cave which contains a mysterious labyrinth, two graves, an ancient ring, and a pouch that is thought to have contained one of the three sacred books (The Book of Words, The Book of Numbers, and The Book of Potions). The startling discovery leads Alice on a dangerous adventure where she meets all the descendants of the people who have been looking for the books for centuries. Some want them for good, and some want them for nefarious reasons. The books, when used together, hold hieroglyphic codes that will apparently lead to the Holy Grail. Alice is also haunted by vivid dreams that take her back to another place and time where she is almost reliving the experiences of another person. In 1209, seventeen year old Alais, the daughter of the right hand man of the viscount of the same area in France, is on an adventure of her own. The Crusades have begun. The "host", army, created by the Catholic priests and the wealthy landowners, has been created to rid the world of all the religious heretics. As the wars move closer to her town, Carcassonne, Alais is told by her father of the three books, their importance, and how he is one of five official keepers of the books. He's got the Book of Words in his possession and he knows who safeguards the other two. He fears the books will be lost in the wars so Alais volunteers to be the next generation of guardians for The Book of Words. The story goes back and forth between current day and the 1200's as both Alice and Alais, obviously distant relatives, take their dangerous journeys to either find and protect (in present day) or hide and protect (centuries ago) the books. In the end, we find out who wins the ultimate battle of the good guys or the bad guys, who the skeletons in the cave belonged to, and the location of the missing book from the cave. A really good book given to me by my son for Christmas. He knows how to pick a good story for me! :-)