Single Wife by Nina Solomon

Single Wife by Nina Solomon

Grace Brookman's husband Laz has just dissappeared.  He left one day and never came home.  It wasn't the first time but it is the first time he'd been gone this long.

Grace spends her days pretending not only to herself but to their loved ones that Laz is just busy and making excuses for him being absent.

Eventually her lies and cover ups catch up to her and she can no longer hide Laz's absence.  She also finds out about a secret life that Laz has been hiding from her.

So dear reader, does Laz returned to his loving and lonely wife?  And if so, do they live happily ever after.  Pick up this funny and entertaining book to find out.  

My review is that the story line is lacking in character but it is very well written which is why I was able to finish it.  I know.  Not a lot to go on but hey, it's your call.

Life After Death/ Damien Echols

Life After Death/ Damien Echols

Damien Echols is one of the West Memphis Three, three teenagers who were tried and convicted of the  murders of three eight year old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993.  Prosecutors alleged that the killings were part of satanic rituals and that Damien was the leader of the group.  Damien was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley Jr. was sentenced to life plus two 20-year terms, and Jason Baldwin was sentenced to life imprisonment.  

The three spent nearly 20 years in prison before new dna evidence emerged neither matching the victims or the defendants and the West Memphis Three were offered a plea deal allowing them to be released.  

I cannot say wether or not I believe Damien's claims to innocence but the book was very interesting and kept my attention throughout.  I do recommend it as a good read.

Buried Memories: The Katie Beers Story by Katherine Beers

Buried Memories:  The Katie Beers Story by Katherine Beers

Katie Beers was born into an unfortunate life in a broken home to a mother without the life skills to raise her properly, protect her from harm, or even provide her with basic needs. 

Soon Katie finds herself living with her "Godparents" Linda and Sal Inghilleri.  The sexual abuse by Sal Inghilleri began when Katie was only two years old and escalated as she got older.  Linda, who was disabled and in a wheelchair, was also abusive, making Katie do all the chores and errands at a very very young age.  

Then, on December 28, 1992, two days before her tenth birthday, Katie is kidnapped by a family friend, John Esposito, and hidden away in a coffin sized bunker underneath Esposito's garage.  He kept her there for 16 days, raping and molesting her and providing her with only the basic needs to survive. 

Finally, Esposito turns himself in to authorities and Katie is found.  She was adopted by her foster family and went on to college, married, and has children.  Katie has adapted well to life after her ordeal but her scars are far from healed. 

Anchored In Love : An Intimate Portrait of June Carter Cash by John Carter Cash

Anchored in love : An Intimate Portrait of June Carter Cash by John Carter Cash

This is a deep look into the heart and soul of not only, the late, June Carter Cash but of the entire Cash and Carter families and their lives, loves, struggles and fame.

June Carter Cash was born into a musical family in the hills of Virginia and soon began to travel and perform with the Carter Family as a young girl.

She marries and has two children, divorces and marries again.  This time to John R. Cash or Johnny as we have all come to know him.  They are a Brady bunch of sorts as John comes to the marriage with several girls as well and then they have a baby boy, John Carter Cash who is the author of this book.

John Carter has many tales to tell of life in a celebrity family.  Of their addictions and travels and success in the country music industry.

I enjoyed this book very much as I have long been enamored with the whole Carter clan and the Man in Black himself.  Great book John Carter!!

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks and The Choice

While I'm not normally a sappy romantic, I have recently finished two books by Nicholas Sparks, The Choice and The Best of Me. 

When choosing books, I usually look for a good writer rather than a good story because I feel like a good writer can write any story and make it good.  Mr. Sparks is just such a writer as every book I have read by him has me on the edge wanting more and I always have this feeling of wanting to hurry up and find out what happens next.  

In The Choice, each of the main characters must make a choice.  One must choose between two men and the other must choose whether or not to pull the feeding tube on a coma patient.

In The Best of Me, high school sweethearts are reunited but their destiny is uncertain and, I must say, totally unpredictable.   This one is reminiscent of The Notebook.  

Like I mentioned before, I'm not usually into romance type novels but these are very well written and also very suspenseful.  And both will keep you up late at night trying to find out what will happen next.    I enjoyed them very much and I highly recommend anything by Nicholas Sparks.  All of his books are National Best Sellers and three of them have been made into motion pictures.

Both were published by Grand Central Publishing.

Gerald's Game by Stephen King

Gerald's Game by Stephen King

First let me say, I did NOT finish this book.  I got one third of the way through and I just couldn't finish  it.  Too much head noise for me.  

The book is a psychological thriller about a couple who have been married for 20 years and have taken a romantic trip to their remote lake house in Maine.  During a kinky sex episode, the wife is handcuffed to the bed against her will and accidentally kills her husband.  She is now alone with her thoughts and fears and her husband is dead.  Page after page we read how she feels, hear the voices inside her head, and I guess we are supposed to be scared but I was anything but.  Unless of course you count the mangy hound that came in and started feeding on the the dead husband.   I was actually bored throughout the few chapters I did read because of the monotonous details of thought and pain and misery.  And if that isn't bad enough, I didn't even like the woman.  

Way over the top!!

But if that is your thing, then you might enjoy it.  By all means, go for it.  

I want to add that this is the first book by Mr. King that I didn't enjoy.  He is the author of one of my all time favorites, The Green Mile. 

Published in 1993 by Signet.

The Deepest Waters by Dan Walsh

The Deepest Waters by Dan Walsh

Newlyweds, John and Laura Foster have set sail on their honeymoon on the SS Vandervere from San Francisco to New York in 1857.  Somewhere near the Carolinas, they are overtaken by a hurricane and the ship begins to sink.  Fortunately, the women and children are rescued by a smaller ship but the men are forced to stay behind.  Some of the men find objects to use a life preservers or rafts but others drown and go down when the ship sinks to the deepest depths of the sea.  

Laura travels with the other survivors on the smaller ship in deep despair as she believes her new husband to be drowned and her future uncertain as John's family in New York doesn't even know about her.  

Meanwhile, John and hundreds of other men are floating in the sea for days on end with no water or food.  

I don't want to give away too much so if you want to know how each of them fair, then you'll have to read the book for yourself. This is the second book I have read by Dan Walsh.  The first being, The Reunion which I have also reviewed and loved.   I thoroughly enjoyed the Deepest Waters and I must say that Mr. Walsh has a unique and wonderful style of writing all his own.  I said this before but I believe he writes a story as if he is telling it to a friend which I most enjoy.  I haven't encountered this style before from any authors I have read. There is a Christian flair to the story along with love, hope, faith, and courage above all.

Published in April 2011 by Revell Publishers, The Deepest Waters is an 2012 ACFW Carol Awards Finalist and was based on the true story of the steamship SS Central America.  

Dear America: I Walk in Dread, The Diary of Deliverance Trembley Witness to the Salem Witch Trials by Lisa Rowe Fraustino

Dear America:  I Walk in Dread, The Diary of Deliverance Trembley Witness to the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1691 by Lisa Rowe Fraustino

The story unfolds through the eyes and voice of twelve year old Deliverance Trembley, an orphan in Salem Village, Massachusetts in 1691.  Deliverance, or Liv as we come to know her, lives with her seventeen year old sister, Mem, in the house of her uncle who has left them to go on a whaling expedition with instructions that they are not to tell anyone in the village that he is away.  

During his absence, Mem becomes ill and Liv must care for her as well as do all of the chores.  The girls try to attend church when they can.  One Sunday they learn that four girls from their church have become possessed and claim that some of the good ladies of Salem Village are witches and have cursed them and damned them to the devil.  Liv is friends with one of the accused but doesn't believe the good Christian woman she knows could possibly be a witch nor does she believe in witches.  

Soon, the town becomes privy to the fact the uncle has been away and threaten to take action for the orphans.  Fortunately, their brother Benjamin, who has been in the militia returns and saves the girls from an uncertain future.  

Meanwhile, the accused witches are tried and eventually convicted.

While Liv and her sister are fictional characters, most of the other characters are real and the events portrayed in the story are real and given to the best of the writers research and knowledge.

While, I hardly ever read children's books or young adult fiction, I loved this book!  I read the whole thing in one night. Ms. Fraustino really did her homework and gave us an historical ride through the times and lives of the people during the Salem Witch Trials.  I can't wait to read more of the books in her Dear America series!  

Published in 2011 by Scholastic Books.