The Summer Pact by Emily Giffin

 

What was your last summer read?  I finished up The Summer Pact earlier this month for my last summer book read of the year.

The Summer Pact is about four individuals that meet at college and form a lifelong friendship.  One when tragically dies, the others promise to always get together to help each other if any of the three of them are in a time of need.  When Hannah finds her fiancé in bed with another woman, she finds herself in crisis.  When the friends gather together to help out Hannah, will they all make changes to their own lives and move forward?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I have enjoyed Emily Giffin’s books in the past and especially enjoyed Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof.  This one was not as good as her other novels.

·       The story was slow in the middle, and it took me a long time to finish it.

·       This novel is a look at friendship and the lengths we will go to for our friends.  It also delves into grief and how everyone deals with it differently and how friends can help.

·       The story is told through the three point of views of the three friends.  I didn’t feel like I liked or connected with the characters.

·       The romance came very late in the novel and then it seemed to be immediately tied up in the epilogue.   I did not feel the romantic connection between the love interests.

·       I really didn’t like the character Lainey.  She was an actress that acted very immature for a thirty something.  She needed more of a growth story to me.  I also didn’t like how she very obviously was an alcoholic, but her friends did not help her with this problem at all.

·       I thought we would get more of Summer’s story and her untimely death and there would be a bit of a mystery.  It just remained a sad unexplained traumatic death from their college days.

Overall, I was disappointed by The Summer Pact, but I will definitely try another Emily Giffin book.

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley. Thank-you!  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Where We Belong by Emily Giffin

Where We Belong by Emily Giffin was the November book for the FLICKS Book and Movie Club. Sadly, there was a backup of holds on the library system and I did not get it until after Book Club as did half of the other members. Hopefully we’ll be able to have a meaningful discussion in December about it.


I loved this book. Giffin’s work is mostly classified as “chick lit,” and light and fluffy. There was nothing light and fluffy about this novel, which packed an emotional wallop. Marian Caldwell is a 36-year old television producer. She has achieved her dreams and is living the high life, with her one disappointment being that her boyfriend of two years, Peter, has not yet proposed. One day she answers the door only to find 18-year old Kirby Rose, the daughter she gave away at birth. The novel tells the story from both Kirby and Marian’s perspectives. Marian’s story includes how she fell in love with Kirby’s father, but knew that he was not the man that would allow her to achieve her dreams. She made choices, some good, and some terribly bad. The choices have come back to haunt her and with the prodding of Peter, she decides to face them head on.

I really enjoyed the timeline of the book. Marian would be two years older than me (my husband’s age) and I loved her teenage years in the 1990’s. The characters were all vividly drawn and complex. At times I didn’t know whether I loved or hated Marian or her choices. I couldn’t put this book down and thoroughly enjoyed it to the very last page. I highly recommend this book and can’t wait to discuss it.

Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library

Something Blue by Emily Giffin

Something Borrowed was the story of Rachel and how she fell in love with her best friend Darcy’s fiancé, Dex (see my review here). Something Blue is the follow-up novel with Darcy’s side of the story.

SPOILER ALERT (for those who haven’t read Something Borrowed)

Something Blue starts shortly before Something Borrowed has ended. Although Darcy is pregnant with another man’s child, she is more than a little bit angry to find out that Dex is with Rachel after their break-up. The novel tells the story from Darcy’s point of view of her friendship with Rachel, relationship with Dex, and her attraction to Marcus.

Darcy is selfish and self-absorbed, but she doesn’t really seem to realize this or how it affects her relationships. After her obsession with Rachel and Dex affects her relationship with Marcus, she flees to London to visit her friend Ethan. There Ethan is able to finally able to break through to Darcy and to get her to think about life in broader terms than just herself.

SPOILER END

Giffin did a superb job of telling the story through Darcy’s self-centered voice. This is also the one flaw of the novel; Darcy is not as likeable a heroine as Rachel. Darcy is really not overall a bad person, she does genuinely think that she is a good friend to Rachel and really cares for her. But she is so self-obsessed that it’s hard to bear her at times. That being said, I still enjoyed the book and liked that Darcy was able to redeem herself. It was nice for Darcy to have a chance to become more than a one-dimensional “mean girl” and to grow into a nicely rounded character.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and read it quickly. I thought it was a great companion book to Something Borrowed, but I don’t know if it would be a good book on its own if you hadn’t read the first book.

Is anyone going to see Something Borrowed? I’m going with my FLICKS Book and Movie club probably sometime at the beginning of June – I’m excited!

Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

Something Borrowed is “chick lit” at its best, a provoking, humorous, and thoughtful look at a difficult issue. Rachel White is a “perfect” 30-year old that has worked long and hard to make it as lawyer in New York City. On the evening of her 30th birthday, her perfect streak ends and she ends up spending the night with her best friend’s fiancé, Dex.

Rachel realizes that she has loved Dex since they first became friends in Law school, but has never thought she was good enough for him. She instead introduced him to her best friend Darcy. Darcy is beautiful, confident, and has been a loyal best friend since the two were in elementary school. Darcy also usually only thinks of one person, herself, and can sometimes be a very selfish person. Rachel feels herself trapped in the middle and as the wedding approaches; she has to decide whether to chase love or to keep friendship.

I usually get annoyed at “cheating” novels, but this book was so well written and so well rounded I could see things from all of the characters points of views. I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next and I could hardly put it down. I loved this book!

I also enjoyed how the main character was only a few years older than me. Her experiences growing up in the Midwest were very similar to my own, down to the longing for a pair of Guess jeans (I saved up my summer “detassling” money to buy myself some!).

Something Borrowed was the FLICKS Book and Movie Club book for April. I think it may have been a club first and was actually loved by all of us. Good job picking out a book E!

Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library

Maternity Leave Book Review

I keep putting this quick review of the books I read during maternity leave off as I read A LOT of books during maternity leave and keep on reading a lot. I spend a lot of time nursing the baby at odd times and read a book to keep myself awake or for something to do besides watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with my two year old. So here I go . . . . a quick review of my reads.

Slave by Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis. I borrowed this book from my friend Elina. It was an eye-opening true live tale of a young girl torn from her family in Africa and forced into a life of servitude in Africa and also in Great Britian. I was and still am VERY disturbed that slavery still exists in our world today. We need to do something about this as a resident of the world! I recommend this book for everyone to broaden your world view.

Hard Eight, To the Nines, Ten Big Ones, and Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich. I read these four light and fluffy reads over the past couple of months. Stephanie Plum's adventures continue to keep me entertained and laughing. I thought Hard Eight was a bit weak, but loved the other three. I'm getting distressed that I only have three books left in the series to read!


The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir. The Lady Elizabeth is a fantastic historical novel about Queen Elizabeth I. I liked the perspective of the book as it was about her very early years, which are mostly ignored in novels for her later queenly years. A must read if you are a historical fiction fan that loves the Tudor era.


My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell. If you read Cranford, you will notice that there are many characters and tales missing that were in the PBS miniseries. This book contains the missing links. "My Lady Ludlow" and "Doctor Harrison's confessions" contain the missing characters. I enjoyed this book of stories. Gaskell is a great Victorian author who really gets the detail of living in a small country village.


People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. I read this book for my Kewaunee Library June book club pick. It's a great book for fans of The DaVinci Code and books in general. It is the story of a sacred Jewish text that was rescued in Sarajevo during the war in the 1990's. The book restorer finds several "clues" in the book of the journey it has taken over the past 500 years. There are several stories then for each clue and the books journey. It was VERY interesting. I only wish the stories could have been longer. This is one of the best books I have read this year.


The Notebook and The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks. I reread The Notebook for my Mom's Club June book club pick. It's a good book, but I actually think I like the movie better. I feel that it was Sparks' first novel and not as well written as some of his later books. The Wedding is a follow-up to The Notebook and is one of the most romantic books I've ever read. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a romantic tale.

Real People, Real Prescense by Cardinal William Keeler. This book is full of short stories about the Eucharist and how different people in a Catholic community feel about it. I enjoyed it. It gave me a lot to think about and helped me on my faith journey.

Push Not the River and Against a Crimson Sky by James Conroyd Martin. My mother-in-law loaned me these books and I highly enjoyed them. They are a must for those who love historical fiction as I do. The fantastic thing about these books is that they are set in Poland during the late eighteenth century. I know nothing about Poland and it was great to read a book not set in England or France. Push Not the River is based on Lady Anna Maria's diary, which is amazing considering all that she goes through. It is a great book. Against a Crimson Sky is a bit weaker as it is not based on a diary, but on Martin's imaginings of what could have been. He delves too much into the history to the detriment of the story.


The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale. After reading a couple of great reviews of this books, we chose it for our July Kewaunee library book club pick. This doesn't happen often, but the reviews of the book were actually better than the book itself. While the muder mystery was horrifying and interesting to read about, the book too often delved into tedious details that I didn't care about. Maybe I was spoiled by great non-fiction reads such as The Devil in the White City, but this book was not a good read.


Sam's Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson. This novel was my Lakeshore Mom's Club book club pick for July. It is one of Ellen's favorite novels so she chose it. Half of the moms loved it, while the other half hated it. I liked it, but had some details in it that annoyed me. Sam is actually the grandma writing letters to her granddaugher Jennifer about her illicit affair with the man of her dreams. Jennifer reads the letters while Sam is in the hospital and falls in love with her dying friend Brenden. The lovers and haters of this book disagreed about happy vs sad endings. Should an ending be happy if it is unrealistic? Interesting discussion. My bones were the details. The Badger Ferry didn't play movies and have many of it amenties until the 1990's, but riders find these things on the ferry in the 1970's. I loved the Wisconsin setting and the romantic get aways to Copper Harbor Michigan.

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. Another good love story from Sparks. I enjoyed that the novel was about people my age and dealt with change after 9/11. The ending was sad, but good. The overall plot is about a young man that is in the military. Back on leave he falls in love with a young college girl. He makes plans with her for when he gets out of the military, but it all changes after he reenlists after 9/11. It's a good story, but have a box of kleenex hand.

I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle. This comic novel is about a dorky valedictorian's confession of love for popular Beth Cooper and the night of hilarity that follows. It was entertaining, but not the best book I've read. I thougtht the language and sex was a bit much for a young adult novel (I had to read adult novels for that as a teen), so I must be getting old

The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman. This novel is two stories, one is a modern day story of a woman searching for herself and the clues to the mystery of what happened to an English merchant's daughter, Celia, hundreds of years before. Celia was thought to be shipwrecked, but was really kidnapped and taken as part of the Sultan's harem. The second story is about Celia and her love Paul as he searches for her. I loved Celia and Paul's story, but was bored by the modern day scholar. Her love story was not engaging. The ending of Paul and Celia's story was bittersweet and a bit of a let down. Overall an interesting novel, but not the best I've read.

The Dirty Girls Social Club and Dirty Girls on Top by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. I read a good review of Dirty Girls on Top in Entertainment Weekly and figured I would check out the first book it was based on before I read it. The premise is chick lit from a Latina perspective. While I did enjoy the Latina perspective, as chick lit it was mediocre. While I did enjoy The Dirty Girls Social Club, I found Dirty Girls on Top to be a disappointing sequel. Mostly it was because I liked the ending of book 1, but Valdes-Rodriguez felt the need to undo all of the happy endings to start off book two. I found it unbelievable that a wife would go back to a murdering husband, and I couldn't feel sympathy for Usnavys and her cheating on a perfect husband. I'd read book 1, but skip book 2.

Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot. This is the third book in the Queen of Babble series. It is a light hearted chick lit novel about Lizzie Nicols and her trials in NYC. I like her spunk and independence. I really like how she is always able to work for her dreams. On the romantic side though, I must say I was disappointed. What the heck happened with Luke? I don't know - anyone else out there that has read the series and would like to discuss.

In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner. I have read this book previously, but reread it as it is my Mom's Club book club pick for August. Weiner is one of my favorite authors. Her chick lit has a great depth to it. I love the secondary characters and the relationships between sisters. If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it.

In the Company of Secrets and Whispers Along the Rails by Judith Miller. I received these two books from my MIL for my birthday. They are Christian romance novels set in the late 1800's in Pullman, Illinois. I loved the historical aspect of them. The story was very good and kept me interested. I just wish I had the third book so I could see how it ends. Perhaps I'll have to hint around to my MIL that it would make a good Christmas present.

Love the One You're With by Emily Griffin. This novel was about a woman with a perfect husband who suddenly meets up with her long lost love. They had broken up for good reasons, but suddenly she finds herself wondering if she made a mistake. I thought this book was rather slow and it annoyed me as SHE HAD THE PERFECT HUSBAND. It was okay over all - I'd rather read any of Weiner's novels than this book.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. This book was recommended to me by my friend Corinna. Kathy and I decided to pick it for our August Kewaunee Library book club pick. The book had an interesting premise. The author, Barbara Ehrenreich, lived in three different locations across the country and tried to live on a minimum wage job. She had a lot of difficulty, especially in securing a place to live. It was interesting as I had never thought about people living in hotels and whatnot. I thought that Barbara was a bit condecending to people who do work lower wage jobs. She tried to show the hardships they had to face, but she also seemed to think she was better than they were. It should make for a good discussion at our meeting!

Thunder Bay by William Kent Krueger. My MIL loaned me this book. It was a great mystery/love story set in Northern Minnesota and in Thunder Bay, Canada. A retired police officer is asked by a family friend (Henry) to find the son he feels exists that would now be a 70 something year old man. The story of Henry and his lost love Maria Lima takes up the middle of the book and was also wonderful. I really enjoyed this book.

Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson. I have loved the movie Somewhere in Time my entire life, but have never read the book until now. The book is back out in print as Matheson is also the author of I Am Legend. This book is the ultimate in describing a passionate love that can make a man will himself through time to be with his love. I really liked how the book made you question though whether Richard truly traveled through time or whether it was caused by his brain tumor. I like how the movie was set in Mackinac Island rather than the California of the novel. It was a good fantasy novel.

Captain Wentworth's Diary by Amanda Grange. Grange tackled one of my favorite Jane Austen heros, Captain Wentworth. I loved how this book described Anne and Captain Wentworth's first romance prior to the start of Austen's novel. Wentworth was a bit more of a "player" than I would have imagined him to be, but it all changes when he falls in love with Anne. This is a great book for any Jane Austen fan.

Well, I've been working on this "quick" summary for a week and a half now so it's time to post! I kept reading more books which added to me not being able to finish it! :-)