Wedding Night

Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At the perfect moment Lottie just knows that her boyfriend is going to finally propose! Setting: fancy, smancy restaurant, corner table overlooking the river, and at the point where Richard has something to ask her, Lottie looks down at her stockings and sees one of them flapping around her ankle. Flouncing off to the ladies room to tear both both stockings from her legs results in Lottie telling all the girls in there that THE moment has arrived - now practically the whole restaurant is holding their breath when Lottie returns back to her table, Richard, and the question. Only to Lottie's tearful embarrassment, the question isn't, "Will you marry me, " but something boring about air miles...

Lottie's sister Fliss knows that every time her sister ends a relationship, impulsive, outrageous things happens...like when Lottie got a tattoo, or an "intimate" piercing, or the expensive membership in a cult. So Fliss knows something horrible is about to happen and will she be able to successfully head it off?

Sophie Kinsella is hilariously funny - I found myself giggling until my sides hurt!

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The Age of Miracles

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was middle school, the age of miracles, the time when kids shot up three inches over the summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove. Julia is eleven, going on twelve and like every California girl in middle school, worries about puberty, boys, homework - but never about if the earth's rotation would slow to a crawl. Soon nights are longer, days shorter, the landscape - scorched, birds fall from the sky and humans begin to feel the loss of equilibrium. Julia's mother becomes a hoarder of emergency supplies and food and her father stays away from home for long periods of time. In the middle of all this fear and upheaval, Julia falls in love.

I agree with a few other reviews that suggest this book would be better billed for a young adult audience - even the cover, to me, screams YA. At some parts the writer gives it a dreamy quality, glossing over the scientific reasons of the slowing and focusing on family and peer relationships. Regardless, it was an interesting book, dystopian in nature - even at the end you're not sure if earth will continue with some kind of life.

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Longing (Bailey Flanigan #3)

Longing by Karen Kingsbury

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I believe I enjoyed this book, number three in the Bailey Flanigan series, more than the second release. Bailey and Brandon Paul's relationship grows stronger and moves forward, whereas Cody - thanks to his friend Cheyenne, discovers something about himself and reconnects with the Flanigan family. It seems to have a faster pace than number two and doesn't just bog down forever in the past relationship of Cody and Bailey. Bailey also finds her stint on Broadway ending, opening doors to new possibilities in Hollywood



This book is an emotional read as Cheyenne's illness worsens, but her faith in God remains strong, stretching Cody's own faith and beliefs. I look forward to the fourth and final book in this series, Loving to be released in the Spring of 2012. As much as I enjoy Kingsbury's books, I believe this series has been stretched a wee bit too long.....



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The Best of Me

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Dawson & Amanda, two-star crossed sweethearts from high school, reunite when Tuck, an old friend to both passes away leaving instructions for them to carry out his funeral wishes.



As teens their love was doomed, opposites from the beginning - Dawson, poor, with only a renegade father and cousins and Amanda, from a wealthy, snobby family. Drawn together, they form an unbroken bond. But, as Amanda nears college, Dawson is wrongly accused of vehicular manslaughter, spending years behind prison bars. Fleeing the area upon release, he works on an oil rig down the coast. When they meet up almost 30 years later for Tuck’s funeral, sparks fly and memories are revived, even though Amanda is married with children. But, in the background still lurking are Dawson’s sadistic family of criminals bent on destroying both he and Amanda.



This review was difficult for me to write. Although I’ve always loved his writing style, I’m ambivalent on this particular Nicholas Spark novel. I can see that things are becoming a bit cliché even for me and it surprised me to see more violent characters thrown into the soup. Most of Spark’s novels are worth a reread, but not this one for me.





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