Party of Five

The movie was better

Ok, knowing that the book was written by a 15 yr old, my review can't be too harsh, but I did not like Elle in the book. She is the one that pushed things with Noah and then he took the blame. When the reveal occurred, all of a sudden she refuses to talk to Noah or answer his calls and hides when he's looking for her, and then Noah is the one apologizing for how he treated her. I never once read where she was mistreated. The flow was off in the book. Conversation stilted, situations that built and then fizzled into nothing, settings and scenery and characters undeveloped. I read a lot of YA and this book was just ok, I wanted more...but it was written by a 15 yr old and that's more than I've done in life.

To know that it was sold to Netflix and turned into a movie, I'm proud of this author I never met. The movie was better because it added the cute factor that was missing in the book. Loved the best friend's rules in the movie. Just a little more panache overall.

This book was much much slower than The Girl on the Train, and with the large cast of characters and alternating view points any momentum gained in a chapter is quickly lost with a new view point, making the reading a chore to get through. I liked the premise, found the storyline interesting, but found the execution sluggish. I had a hard time figuring out who did what being that all the characters had reason to feel guilty. There were no likeable characters at all, and with that being the case, there was no one to relate to in order to hook me into the story and make me feel connected, or make me sympathetic, or even make me that interested in getting to the end. That said, it was a mystery if not an out and out thriller, so I'll go with 3.5 stars.

The Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are countries that fell off the map in 1941 when the Soviet Union invaded and deported anti Soviet people to Siberia to work camps. These people weren't freed until 1954 and went home to nothing and the reputation of a criminal. These counties didn't show back up on a map until 1991, when they gained their independence. That's modern history! You don't think about it that often, but WW2 wasn't limited to Hitler's invasions.

This book follows 15 yr old Linda, her 10 year old brother Jonas, and her parents as they're separated and shipped off to unknown lands, eventually ending up in Siberia.

It was a pretty heavy book for a scholastic book fair book. It was well told, not just a child's story by any means. Several realistic and terribly sad situations were told, and tears are a given. A book everyone should read. Should be required reading along side The Diary of Anne Frank. My daughter has been after me for four years to read this book and I'm so glad I finally did.

A beautiful and tragic blend of history and fiction

Basically told as three stories in one, it is a beautiful blend of past, present, and an allegorical fictional tale that interweaves between the two. Each story was interesting in its own right. The beginning was a little slow, but when Minka begins to tell her story it picks up the pace so much quicker. It's an important story to keep telling, lest we all forget, and it does it in a natural way, not showy and gratuitous in its retelling. Previous to this, Nineteen Minutes was my favorite Jodi Picoult book, but The Storyteller effortlessly exceeds anything she's previously written.

Five stars

Three women with nothing in common except being kindergarten moms. They each have their story, and they each have a part to play in the events that unfold. I didn't guess who did it until it was happening and I couldn't overlook it. One person was going to die, and one person was going to be the killer. The question was who, the why is the answer. I loved this story. It started out a little slow, but once it picked up it was impossible to put down. So many truths to see. So many ways women are hurt, taken advantage of, left with secrets and lies, left to hold the brunt of responsibility, shame, regret, remorse. Left to find the beauty that remains. A story of friendship and survival. A great read.

Immature characters

Cute beginning. Could see how easy it would be to start a texting relationship. But all of the characters, especially Dani, come across very immature. Turned a cute story to an annoying story.

This book was a miss for me. My 9 yr old daughter knows how much I love reading and love collecting books, so when for Christmas I took her to Dollar Tree to buy gifts for everyone on her list, and she ended up buying and wrapping this gift for me, I knew I had to read it - and tell her I loved it - because it was given in love. However, in this audience, I can say that this book was 228 pages of pointless reading. The synopsis is one of the most misleading pieces of drivel I have ever read.

It is six separate short stories, though I use "short story" loosely because as chapters they are very long and slow to read. The author thought that she was writing a story about 6 separate characters that all interweave into showing how people come in and out of your life for a purpose, but I didn't get that.

First is John as a child growing up with an alcoholic father and throughout the chapter, he is growing into a mean and verbally abusive teenager.

The second and third chapter is about Anna, a girl who likes to ride horses and has a crush on a boy in school. She has an alcoholic father who is very mean and it isn't until later in the third chapter you realize this is John from Chapter 1. How he got someone to marry him is lost on me, because there was nothing redeeming in his character.

Then we meet Caitlin, who is new to college and has a week-long affair with a boy and then has an abortion without ever telling him. Later on, you find out her college roommate is Anne (not to be confused with Anna - because Lord knows all of the characters aren't confusing enough the author needed to throw in an Anne/Anna spin). Anne goes abroad her Junior year and meets a boy who falls in love with her. Low and behold it is the same boy that Caitlin met Freshman year. Anne also gets pregnant and has an abortion without telling him.

Then we meet Peter, who is the boy in question, and he is in NY getting over his broken heart from Anne, when he meets Anna, from chapters 2 & 3. But then Anne comes back to tell Peter that her mom is dying and her mom wants to see him again. There is no love triangle. Anne and Anna become friendly. There is no drama whatsoever. Anne's mother dies and she goes by the wayside.

Then we meet Carolyn at 31, who's the sister of Anne though when Anne's mother was dying everyone called her Cici so you don't know it's her sister until later. She has premature twin babies who are born too early and die and she and her husband are on the verge of divorce but just maybe they'll work it out. You never find out if they do.

Then we meed Lindsey who works at an animal shelter euthanizing the animals. She pretty much hates all people. But Anna and Peter come in with their sons to have their dead dog cremated. This is how you find out Anna and Peter (not Anne and Peter) get married and have kids. See, no drama with Anne. Anna's mom died the very same way Anne's did. Now Anna's father is dead too. She's having a panic attack but thinks she's dying so they call a paramedic and we, the reader, find out he had an affair with his dead best friend's wife but it made him love his own wife more so it's ok. Anna is not dying. She just needs to breathe. The End.

If you read all that and went "what the f***" don't worry, I did too the entire time I was reading the book. All of the stories are told in the third person with a dry monotone tone of voice. It's all told so clinically, and yet with crass language. Everyone wants to have sex, is having sex, is having an abortion because of sex, or has stopped having sex. The f-word to describe sex is thrown about so cavalierly that it is off-putting. Example because I don't care enough for verbatim "Caitlin knows (the boy whose name I can't remember) has a girlfriend, but it's ok to f*** him anyway because she has nothing better to do and he is kind of cute. " "Anne didn't want to marry Peter, and she didn't want to have his baby, but this is what she get's for wanting a good f***."

I mean, really? Am I supposed to care about these characters? Nothing is told from their point of view. Reading this story is like having your neighbor tell you a three-hour story about her acquaintance's best friend, someone she has never met that you have REALLY never met, but you hear all about her life story and the story of her family members in great detail. You walk away with no additional care for these people than when you went in, and you just lost three hours of your life for nothing. That was this story. It was a creative writing class assignment gone wrong. I never ever give bad reviews, but with this one, I am clearly the odd man out because there are a ton of 4 & 5-star reviews, but for me... I can see why this book was on a Dollar Tree shelf 3 years after publication. Save yourself. Don't waste your time. As for my 9 yr old, all she'll ever hear was that this was the greatest book ever!

P.S. I won't apologize for the spoilers because if you know what's going to happen - newsflash! NOTHING!! - then maybe it will have helped you decide not to bother.

“A woman filled with light makes everything she touches brighter.”

This book takes an original approach to the retelling of the relationship between Lucy and Gabe. What lends this story a unique feel is the way Jill Santopolo tells it through the eyes of Lucy, from the start of their relationship at Columbia University on 9/11 to their current relationship 14 year relationship. It’s written as if Lucy is talking directly to the one man that will always own a piece of her heart, the man her mind and heart always seem to gravitate back to.

Not everyone will fully understand every decision Lucy makes along the way. Some choices are taken from her, like the choices Gabe makes early on. Some she makes are wishful thinking, hoping that everything will turn out the way it should in the end. Some are selfish, and some are selfless. Each choice begs the question if you can only really truly love one person with an all consuming passion. Was it because Gabe was her first love, or her only love? And what does that mean for Darren? Each of the characters are flawed in ways that are entirely relatable, and perhaps no one can ever be 100% happy.

This story is candid, raw, unapologetic, beautiful storytelling at its finest, making it impossible to put down until the very last page.

Part history part mystery

Starts slow but ends well. Picks up about the 30% mark. Ended on a high point. Rill was one tough girl.

Simon is a quirky, semi cool, weird, kind of popular within his group kid who has a secret. He's not holding on to the secret for the reasons most kids do. He's not really scared people will not accept him. It's more so that his life has been the same for 16 years and when the secret is out, so much will change, and he's not quite sure if he's willing to change or if people around him are willing to change. But then he has an incentive to let the secret out. And then there a person threatening to release the secret before he can, which creates even more incentive. And before Simon knows it, change is happening regardless, to him, to his friends, and to others around him.

It's a great example of high school life when you're friend with people in all the different cliques. The soccer star is friends with the theater kids is friends with the nerds. There is so much support in the book that it is great for the characters but maybe not realistic to true life.

I think this book will make a better movie. The ending is super cute and adorable, but the rest of the book was trying too hard to be cute and failed in my opinion. The emails are basic and I felt more could have been done with them. The dialogue was kind of boring in the emails and I wanted more personality to shine through. There was limited character development, everyone was kind of one-note. It almost felt like the book became popular because of subject and not necessarily due to talent. The ending with Martin felt unfinished. So positives and negatives in the book which make it a solid three for me, but again I think the movie version will be so much better. Very YA if that matters to you, which it doesn't at all matter to me. I actually loved that YA innocent wide eyed optimistic aspect about it.

A story of love and absolution

This was a tough story to read. The need to know what happened propels the story along at an even pace. A character that you're not sure you like you end up understanding and feeling so sad for. If nothing else is gleaned you know her love and loss was real. This reads and feels like true events, sticking with you after long after the story is over, her burdens lifted and given to you, the reader, to sort through on your own. Very well written.

Quietly beautiful, just like Archer

This book has been recommended time and time again on various reading lists and Facebook groups and I finally have gotten around to reading it. Now I don't know what took me so long.

Bree has just come in to town to escape a very tragic past when she comes face to face with town recluse Archer. Archer has spent his life avoiding the townspeople, recovering and avoiding reminders of his own tragic past.

This story is an original. A hero without a voice. The pace is steady, the tone is soft, the writing is lyrical, the subject is interesting. It's a beautiful story with a shocker of an ending. The author got me there for a second. But the ending was just as it should be.

More than I expected

After reading the synopsis, I thought this would be a quick and sexy romp of a story, but it is so much more than that. Starts off light hearted. Hunter and Natalia meet at their mutual best friends' wedding. Hunter overhears Nat's plan and offers to be a much better replacement. This leads to several interactions, Hunter courting or wooing Natalia hardcore over several months and across the country, and a story that is deep and serious in nature by the end. There's a reason Hunter can't commit, and Natalia may be the only person that can find out that reason.

Good ending

This book started slow and dragged in some areas. The main character, Peyton, is a 6' 3/4" girl having a hard time fitting in. She makes a bet with a mean girl that she can find a guy taller than her to date. She tries several but the one she really wants is taken, until he isn't, so then she makes her move, but then she doesn't tell him about the bet, so you can see where this is going. She was a dry character in the beginning, very boring, whiny, depressing to read. My interest in her picks up as Jay draws her out of her shell. I can relate to her secret, having a mother with a similar illness, but I can't fathom why she would leave her father in the dark about the living conditions. I also did understand her need for money, but I didn't understand why she'd make a bet with such a mean-spirited person as Tori, especially after the first bet was placed, or why she didn't cancel the bet when Tori cheated. Tori is described by several reviewers as "cool" and they wanted her to have a bigger involvement in the story, but I just saw Tori as mean. The end was a little too perfect, but all the best stories have a HEA and this was no different. If you can get through the slow bits in the beginning, you'll enjoy the book by the end.

I enjoyed book one but book two was even better. I could relate to Sara's hurt and caution. Max was super sweet, super Alpha, and very sexy. The voyeurism was a different take. I kind of loved it. This story had a little more heart and soul than book one. I feel like I got to understand the characters better. The only thing that would have made it better was for Sara and Max to have a run in with Andy. But it was more realistic without it.

Meet cute was adorably awkward, though I found it a little odd that a 33-year-old woman and a 28 yr old man would be dressed as Harry Potter characters. Liked the beginning. Loved it when they finally gave in and the action started. The prank war was funny. Overall a great book.