Category: Reviews-Author Sent(2008)

TITLE: For The May Queen
AUTHOR: Kate Evans
PUB DATE: September 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9821150-7-7

I have to say Thank You to Kate for contacting me to ask if I would be interested in reading and reviewing this book and I was. Sorry for the delay in getting my review up. I really enjoyed reading the book.

The book takes place in the 80’s with the main character Norma Roger’s getting ready to start college. This is the first time she has been alone and away from her parents. Within a few hours after her parents leave her with bags at the dorm, Norma wakes up on the floor with three strangers in her underwear the were playing strip poker and all got drunk. From there it goes on a wild and fun ride through the growing pains of womanhood, life and friendship. Its like Sex, Drugs and Rock N’Roll.

The only thing I found confusing was the last chapter. It starts out that Norma is on a plane on her way to her sisters house. She is planning on living with her in San Diego and she will go to school there. Then it jumps ahead ten years later and talks about her life when she meets up with a guy who use to live next door to Norma in the dorm. I guess with no indication of the change I was confused.

Over all it was a great book that I enjoyed reading. I loved Norma and all the things she did. Looking forward to your next book Kate. Kate has a new book coming out in the summer of 2009 called Complementary Colors.

TITLE: Sister Wife
AUTHOR: Shelley Hrdlitschka
PUB DATE: October 2008
ISBN: 978-1-55143-927-3

Thank You to Shelley for sending me this book to read. I love it. I had a hard time putting it down. This is Shelley’s third book. She is a best selling author and lives right here in Canada. This is my first book by Shelley. Looking forward to reading her other two books.

The book is about Three girls who live in Unity. Its a polygamy sect.

Celeste is born and raised in Unity. She is struggling to fit into Unity. She is finding it hard to cope with the fact that once she is 15 years old she will be assigned a older husband and becoming a sister wife. She doesn’t want to do anything that will bring shame upon her family by refusing to marry. Even though she is in love with Jon she won’t rebel. Jon leaves the movement because he was seen kissing Celeste. The prophet then assignes Jon’s father, Martin, to be Celeste’s husband. Will this announcement push Celeste to run away?.

Celeste meets Craig an outsider who has been making Inuksuk, rock sculptures on the beach. Her and Craig begin to get close and when he tells her he is leaving one day, she becomes upset. What will Celeste do?

Nanette is Celeste’s younger sister and she is the ideal sister wife. She longs to be married and to be a sister wife. She has her eyes set on Martin and thinks she would make a perfect wife for him. When she spots Celeste with Jon, she runs right to their father and tells him everything. She thinks she is doing good until the day she finds out that Celeste is going to marry Martin. She is upset and angry. She wonders if Celeste was to leave would she she finally gets to get marry the man she has dreamed about, Martin and have his children?

Taviana is an outsider that was allowed to stay at Unity. She is a girl with a troubled family and past and Jacob brought her back to Unity to help her out. She has adjusted to life in Unity. Then when cops show up Taviana is hidden and when the cops leave the Prophet tells her she must leave at once. They don’t want the cops poking around and disturbing life there.

If Celeste leaves Unity will Jon and her be together again? I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommended it.

TITLE: Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour to The Countries, Factories and People That Make Our Clothes
AUTHOR: Kelsey Timmerman
PUB DATE: Nov 2008
ISBN:978-0-470-37654-6

Thank You to John Wiley & Sons Inc for sending me this book to read and review.

Before reading this book I have to admit I never really thought about where my clothes came from. I just went to the stores and bought them. I only looked at the labels to see how the items were to be washed. After reading Where Am I Wearing, I became more interested. I guess we take things for granted when we buy things that we don’t realize what goes into the making of them and who makes them.

Did you know that in Teva flip flops there is five people making a flip flop? The cutter, a sewer, a gluer, a buffer and a boxer. Teva makes in one day 2,000 to 3,000 pairs.

The book is a first hand account of Kelsey’s travels around the world to various countries to find out where is clothes were made. In the first part he mentions going to Honduras to see where is tshirt was made. He talks about the fact that the workers only get paid $50/month.

Its not until he gets to Bangladesh in search of the workers who made his boxers that the book starts to pick up. He starts to learn about the workers who work in the factories. Its there that he visits his first factory.

He goes to Cambodia in search of the Levi’s factory and then China for his Teva flip flops. Its in China that he manages to get into trouble with the VIP of Global Sourcing of Decker Outfitters. He claims that Kelsey has been using his name saying they are friends to get info. Its in China that he visits a Walmart. A Walmart that is much different from the ones here. Its the 10 largest retailer there and there is about 100 Walmarts in China.

I guess as a buyer of items we never think about the product or what goes into the product. Kelsey tells us that these workers work for next to nothing, live far from their families and perhaps even leaving kids with family so that they can work. They work long hours and do overtime and not get paid for it.

This book was an eye opener for me and it made me realize that these items aren’t mass produced at times and that actual people are making them and working for next to nothing.

Ann from Booklorn mentioned my review in her’s so I thought I would return the favor. Thanks Ann. You can see her review HERE

TITLE: The Ride
AUTHOR: Jane Kennedy Sutton
PUB DATE: Aug 2008
ISBN:978-159507-193-4

Thank you to Jane for sending me THE RIDE to read and review. I have to say that I really enjoyed reading it. It was fast paced, quick to read and suspenseful. A really page turner in my opinion.

Barbie is the main character in The Ride. She is a 40 something wife and mother. She is married to Ken. There is many references to Barbie and Ken in the book which I thought was quite funny. Barbie is very unhappy in the marriage. Ken is demanding, abusive physically, mentally and emotionally. Lately his moods are disturbing and dark. Barbie is worried as she is always on the receiving end of it. I am sure he has always been abusive in the past. As the reader we witness a few of his actions from throwing a cup of coffee at Barbie and it hitting her above her eyebrow to her falling down the stairs and him kicking her.

They have one daughter named Jessica who is estranged from them. Her father kicked her out when he found she was a lesbian. When Ken found out he went in a rage and blamed Barbie.

One day a lawyer contacts Barbie to inform her that her Aunt Pat is dead and that she must come down to his office. We find out that Barbie was raised by her aunt. She suddenly feels guilty for not visiting with her aunt more as the last time she saw her was a year ago.

During the meeting she finds out that she is the sole beneficiary to the estate. Barbie discovers her aunt was a wealthy lady from her home in LA to the condo in Chicago. Barbie is suddenly a wealthy lady and her life is about to change.

On her way home she becomes over whelmed and stops at a bar for a drink. While she is there she meets an attractive man named Michael. He is a charmer and the naive Barbie falls for it. He listens to Barbie’s problems.

Barbie is falling for Michael cause he says all the right things. Barbie decides she can’t stay with Ken when he almost kills her and makes a plan with Michael to leave Ken. She goes to the bank to withdraw a large sum of money. She trusts Michael to hold onto it. When they agree to meet up he never shows and Barbie realizes that he has taken off with the money. She is furious for being so stupid that she decides to kill herself. She is woken up during the night when Ken wants to test ride his ride he was making in the back yard. She manages to get him to wait till the morning. Thinkign this is the time to leave she attempts to but gets caught and is forced to ride the ride for Ken.

What will happen during this ride? Will Ken actually kill her? Will we ever see Michael again? If you want to know the answers then you have to read the book. Pick it up today.

Please note that Jane is going to do an interview with me. Check my blog it will be up soon. Thanks again Jane!

TITLE: Somebody Else’s Daughter
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Brundage
PUB DATE: July 2008

I have to say a big THANK YOU to Elizabeth Brundage for sending me this book to read and review. I really enjoyed it and had a hard time putting it down. This is Elizabeth’s second novel. Its about failing marriages, affairs, love, adoption, drugs, death and murder.

The book starts out with Nate, the drug addicted father and Cat, the even more addicted mother and girlfriend. Cat gives birth to Willa. When she is a few months old they realize that can’t care for her even though they love her. They are both young and addicted to drugs. They decide to give Willa up for private adoption. As one of the conditions to the adoption they drive Willa from San Francisco to Massachusettes. The couple is the Goldings and they are a wealthy couple. Shortly after handing Willa over to them Cat dies of Aids in their driveway.

After handing Willa over and dealing with Cat’s death Nate sits in the car and writes a leter to Willa in hopes that the Goldings will give to her on her 16th birthday.

The book picks up sixteen years later in the same town, Berkshire. All the families are connected to the prep school, Pioneer. Nate who has turned is live around has returned to Berkshire as the new teacher and struggling writer. He discovers Willa is in his writting class.

We discover that the Goldings are a wealthy family who have built their fortune on a secret profession. The head master jack Heath lives a dangerous life. All the characters lives start to come together in this small town and slowly all the secrets are revealed. Some of the secrets are good and some prove to be deadly.

TITLE: Matrimony
AUTHOR: Joshua Henkin
DATE: August 2008

I have to thank Joshua for sending me this book to read and review. I loved the book. Its all about friendship, love, money, ambition, desire and faith.

Matrimony starts us out in Massachuetts in 1986. Julian is going to Graymont College, a small liberal Arts School. In a writting class he meets Carter Heniz. The exact opposite of Julian. Julian is a privileged child and Carter is not. They bond and become best friends.

Carter meets a girl named Pilar. They quickly become a couple. During that time both Julian and Carter would play a game with the freshman yearbook about which one knew the most classmates. Page 47 was dog earred and in the upper right hand corner was Mia Mendelsohn. Mia from Montreal as Julian called her, his crush. Carter speaks to Mia first and tells Julian of this. By chance one day they both end up washing their clothes at the same time. They took and go out. After that they are inseperable.

In their senior year of college Julian, Mia, Carter and Pilar, the only couples still dating since freshman year, all move in together. Mia gets a call from her father saying that Mia’s mother has breast cancer. Gradually the Mia’s mother is getting worse. Mia wants to leave school but her parents tell her to stay. Realizing her mother is dying Mia proposes to Julian. She wants to get married before her mother dies.

Mia and Julian get married and move to Michigan. Mia is studing psychology and Julian is teaching at the university and working on his novel. Carter and Pilar are in California. Julian flies out to Carter’s graduation. Carter is graduating Law School and is thinking of taking the bar exams. Carter and Pilar are separated, he tells Julian.

Secrets are revealed to Julian that he had no idea about. Secrets that changed the lives of Carter, Julian and Mia.

Title: Tomato Girl
Author: Jayne Pupek
Date: July 29, 2008

I have to first say THANK YOU to Jayne for sending me this book to review for my blog. It was very generous of you to do that. I appreciate it.

Secondly, I have to say that this is a GREAT BOOK! I loved it.

For those of you who may not know Jayne’s book Tomato Girl. This was her debut novel. She takes us the reader into the mind and world of a young eleven-year-old girl named Ellie Sanders. Ellie is trying so hard to cling to her childhood while she is living and watching as the adult world crashes around her. She is forced to grow up faster then any child should have to. Tomato Girl is told in Ellie’s point of view.

We discover right away that Ellie’s mom is mentally ill and Ellie is forced to be a care giver to her. Reading the book you can see that Ellie has so much love for her mother even though she finds it hard living with the madness.

Ellie’s mother falls down some basement stairs early on in the book and is in the hospital. Her father brings in a young teen age girl nicked named the Tomato Girl. Tess, the tomato girl, brings fresh vegetables to Ellie’s fathers store. We find out that Ellies father, Rupert and Tess (the tomato girl) are lovers. Rupert brings in Tess to run the household. When Julia comes home things quickly begin to spiral out of control. Ellie is trying to please both her parents but finds it very hard.

Tess is also sick and with all the stress has epileptic seizures. We discover that when Tess was living with her father that he would take advantage of that time and do things to his daughter. She receives a letter from her father telling her he wants her home. Rupert gets furious and decides to handle the situation.

Before we know it Rupert and Tess are leaving and forcing Ellie to take care of her mother. While they are gone the father sends letters and money home to Ellie. Eventually the letters stop but he continues to send money. He never tells Ellie where he is because he is a minor and the law is looking for him.

I really had a hard time putting this book down. I actually managed to read it all in a day. Right from the very beginning you can’t help but fall in love with Ellie. My heart ached for her. Even after reading the book I wonder what has happened to Ellie. A young girl not being able to enjoy her childhood and being forced to grow up quickly.

Jayne is already working on her second novel and I can’t wait to read it when its done. This is a fantastic author and a fantastic book.