June Read: The House on Prytania (a Royal Street novel) by Karen White

 

I don't know who creates the cover art for Karen White's novels; they are beautiful and I've decided I'd like to live in every house on every cover. Just gorgeous!

This was another highly anticipated read for me. I started it on my flight home from vacation, got busy, and just finished it up the last few days. This is the follow up to The Shop on Royal Street, which introduced us to Nola and her move to New Orleans from Charleston. 

Nola is the daughter of Jack and Melanie Trenholm, the two main characters from Ms. White's previous Tradd Street Series. I adored that series for many reasons: the setting of Charleston, the paranormal plots, and the ever evolving relationship between Jack and Melanie. Now Nola is grown up, settling in New Orleans to work in the historic preservation field as a consultant. 

As a second novel in the series, the characters felt much more familiar to me and it was interesting to see relationships evolve. I especially love Nola's roommate and perfect Southern Belle, Jolene. I wish I had half her energy and cooking talent. She is the calm in the middle of chaos. Nola's first romance, Cooper, moves to New Orleans and there's a spark again, and a sense of familiarity between the two which will be interesting to see develop. He's a solid guy who understands Nola and her sense of comfort around him bodes well for a possible romance in the future. 

Nola's biggest problem, of course, is the evil spirit that still haunts her home. She thought they'd sent him onto the light in the first novel, but it appears Antoine Broussard isn't ready to leave, and he wants to protect his awful secrets at any cost. Nola and Beau have to work together to defeat Antoine and figure out why Antoine continues to stay and terrify not only Nola, but others who sense and see his horrible presence. 

Ah, Beau. Nola and Beau. This is my big frustration with this series. Nola and Beau are a hot mess. It's obvious they love each other, but Beau has a girlfriend in spite of his very deep feelings for Nola. I just can't get why they both have to make it so complicated. The tension between the two is not good romantic tension; it's just too darn stressful to enjoy. I feel like any chance of a long lasting romance between them is not going to happen. I'd rather Nola end up with Cooper. I like both Beau and Nola, but especially Nola's decision making (or lack of) can be frustrating. Get out of your own way, Nola!

There are other things that happen in this novel, especially involving Beau's family, which is one of the backbones of this series. Some questions were answered, but of course the ending scene set us up for more to follow in the next book. I'll be waiting  patiently for that!

Do not start this series without reading the Tradd Street series first. You just won't get a lot of the back story for this series and you'll miss so much! Plus, you get to see Nola's story from the beginning, which is very interesting. She's a great character, but her stubbornness can get a bit old. 

Rating: 5/6 for a series continuation that starts right from the end of the first novel. I like that very much. Some character development that was good, some lack of development that was annoying. However, I love Ms. White's paranormal novels and eagerly read each and every one. Fans of contemporary fiction mixed with history and the paranormal will gleefully dive right in. 

Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio. 

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June Read: The House on Prytania (a Royal Street novel) by Karen White

How Lucky by Will Leitch

 

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I saw this last month in my BOTM selections and decided to take a chance. After finishing it, I think this is a novel that is a "word of mouth" kind of novel. It's touching, funny, suspenseful, and has an incredible main character. 

Daniel is twenty-six and lives by himself in Athens, Georgia. He is wheelchair bound with SMA (spinal muscular atrophy); a degenerative neuromuscular disorder. It will kill him at a young age. The fact that he's made it to twenty-six is a testament to his strength, support, and just good luck. 

Daniels spends his days as an online customer service rep for a regional airline. He's limited to just using his left hand to work his iPad, but he makes it work and has adapted as he has slowly lost his ability to speak and the use of his right hand and arms. He's got his friend Travis who visits weekly and helps take care of him and treats him as a normal person; Marjani is his caregiver who comes every morning to get him dressed, fed, and in his chair. He has two helpers who come in the middle of the night to turn him in his bed so he doesn't choke. 

I know. It sounds horrible. But Daniel is not a pity party at all. He's always looking on the bright side, and grateful for everyday he wakes up. 

One morning, Daniel is sitting on his front porch, and observes a young Chinese college student walking along the street. She's been regularly doing this, and Daniel knows her schedule. This one day, a car approaches and stops. She bends down, smiles, then gets in the car. Strange, thought Daniel. 

He was right. Ai-Chin has disappeared, and across the college campus, alarms are raised and search parties are formed. A hotline is set up with the police. No one knows what happened. Except Daniel. 

He enlists Travis' help, but the police are slow to respond, and just being in Daniel's company makes them very uncomfortable. What could Daniel possibly know to help them? 

Daniel persists and posts online--and he gets a response that sends this tale off in another direction. Is he playing with fire? Is he in danger?

The kidnapping is just part of the story. Daniel's life and how he lives it is another. He always says he is lucky. Lucky to have lived. He also says he is lucky because he knows he'll die before he will have to experience losing loved ones, and he won't have to grieve. He'll go first.  Oh, that got me in the heart. He's a funny, thoughtful, smart character. 

I'd recommend this novel for anyone who is looking for disability focused characters and plot. It's also just a good story; one that will keep you engaged as Daniel races to help find Ai-Chin, and puts himself in danger doing so. He's no scaredy cat! 

Rating: 5/6 for a strong central character who sees no limits in his life; a twist at the end, and a loveable cast of characters. 

Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio. 

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How Lucky by Will Leitch

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate

This novel caught my eye when I read the short description on the dust jacket--post Civil War? Yep. Sign me up. I continue to be fascinated with the Civil War and the years after, when quite frankly, the U.S. was still a mess. This novel was even better than I had hoped. 

Dual storylines tell the stories of 1875 Hannie Gossett, former slave and now sharecropper at Goswood Plantation, and 1987 Benny Silva, first year English teacher at an impoverished school in Augustine, Louisiana. The same  place where Hannie's story begins. Little does Benny know it, but she will be instrumental in uncovering Hannie's story, long forgotten under the burden of poverty that haunts Augustine. 

Hannie knows her former master had a mistress, and a daughter: Juneau Jane. His wife knows, too, and is a cruel woman, along with her daughter Lavinia. Juneau Jane secretly travels to the plantation one night to find paperwork that will prove her father has given her land of her own. Lavinia knows about it, and when Juneau Jane can't find the paperwork in the library, Lavinia convinces her to travel to New Orleans to seek out a businessman who will help them find the papers. Unfortunately, Lavinia is up to no good, and Hannie disguises herself in order to drive the wagon that takes the young ladies to New Orleans. Once there, they fall into really big trouble, and it's up to Hannie to save the girls and get them safely out of harm's way. Their journey will take them to Texas in search of William Gossett, who left on a business trip months before and has not been heard of since. Will they find him? Will they safely make it back home? 

In 1987, Benny's struggling to contain her class, and is in despair she'll ever be able to reach her students. On a walk one day, she discovers the grand Goswood plantation house, sitting empty. It's maintained, but no one lives there. She spies a very full library inside and decides those books will help her reach her students. Nathan Gossett is the owner, but wants nothing to do with the home. He's also Benny's landlord, renting her a small home on the edge of the town's cemetery. As Benny explores the library, she digs deeper into the town's past, and the tangled history of slavery, war, and freedom. She also learns more about Nathan's family and the tangled web that keeps him from living at Goswood. 

So how does Hannie's story mesh with Benny's? I can't tell you--you have to read the book! I still can't decide which story was more compelling. Hannie's desire to find her family-all sold off years before, is the main driver of her mission in life. It's also what connects the past to the present, in many surprising ways. 

It took me a bit to get into this novel, but when I finally did wow--such a good story! There's an author note at the end, letting you know how Lisa Wingate came to write about the book of lost friends. It's pretty interesting, and a must read. 

Rating: 5/6. I highly recommend this novel for book clubs, history buffs, and anyone who loves a read packed with drama, plenty of interesting characters, and the enduring love of family. Hannie is one amazing character you won't soon forget. 

Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio. 

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The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate

Arrowood by Laura McHugh

Arden Arrowood returns home to Keokuk, Iowa after her father dies and she inherits the family home, a grand place called Arrowood that holds a whole lot of sadness and unanswered questions.  Arden's twin sisters Violet and Tabitha disappeared from Arrowood's front lawn one September afternoon, 17 years before.  They weren't quite 2 years old, and Arden was 8 years old.  She feels responsible for their disappearance, as she was playing with them outside when she wasn't supposed to be; when her back was turned, they were snatched by someone in a gold car and never seen again.  Their kidnapping became one of the most famous mysteries in Iowa history, and people still whisper about it.  

Arden's life has been difficult.  Her mother and father divorced; her mother is remarried to an evangelist and living in Minnesota.  She still pops pills, drinks and watches HSN. Arden's mother doesn't really want much to do with her daughter.   Arden's father was a wanderer, a con man, and a disappointment to Arden's grandfather, the owner of Arrowood.  Such a disappointment that he forbade his son from living in the family home.  It sat empty for years, until his death.  Now Arden has returned because she has nowhere else to go and is at a crossroads in her life.  

Josh contacts Arden regarding a book he is writing about the Arrowood kidnapping.  He believes he has proof that the man who was accused of kidnapping the twins (but never charged with their disappearance) has been telling the truth all along, that he was innocent.  Could Arden's memories of that day be wrong?  If so, what really happened to the Violet and Tabitha?  Could they still be alive, somewhere?

But Arden's stay in the house is a bit eerie.  Water drips down windows, the giant claw-foot tub in the bathroom leaks.  Sometimes she thinks she feels her sisters around her.  Is it her imagination, or are they messages from beyond?

I enjoyed this novel, but I was hoping for a bit more supernatural spookiness.  Laura McHugh does a very good job of portraying a town haunted by its past, and the destruction that can happen to a family when tragedy visits and leaves unanswered questions.  I felt bad for Arden.  Her life was profoundly changed by the disappearance of her little sisters, and her guilt at not keeping them safe.  You may be surprised by the ending, or not. 

Rating:  6/10 for a good read with a main character who is complex because she's had such a messed up life.  Secondary characters round it all out to bring in that small town feel of secrets, gossip, and hidden passions.  

Available in hardcover and e-book.

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Arrowood by Laura McHugh

The Tulip Eaters by Antoinette van Heugten

This is a novel that revisits the Nazi occupation of Holland during World War 2, and how it effects people 30 years later and a world away.

Move forward to 1980.  Nora de Jong returns home from work as a pediatric surgeon in Houston, Tx,  to find her mother murdered and her baby, Rose, missing.  Her mother has been shot in the head and her hair hacked off.  There is also a dead man lying in the house; someone Nora has never seen before.  The police quickly descend and try to discover just who this man is, and who would want her mother dead.  First and foremost, however, is Rose.  Obviously there were two people involved in this murder; why take Rose?  Nora is frantic to find her daughter and uncover her mother's murderer.

Nora's parents both came from Holland after World War 2, and never talked about their life in Holland, or their families.  Nora discovers  a metal box containing evidence that puts her mother in the dreaded NSB, a Nazi organization Nora's grandfather helped run with a ruthlessness towards Jews living in Amsterdam.  Was Anneke, Nora's mother, really part of this group?  And Nora's father--accused of murder and condemned to death after the war.  What happened?  

Nora quickly realizes the answer to her daughter's disappearance is tied to her parent's past, and she goes to Holland.  Of course, the father of Nora's baby lives in Holland, and he's the only person who can help Nora uncover her family's mysterious past.  

Meanwhile, the kidnapper is a bit of a bumbling person, terribly unsuited for the drama he's been thrust into.  And he has a nasty woman, literally scarred from her experiences in World War 2, bent on revenge and determined to stop Nora from finding her daughter.  

The novel is fast paced, a bit brutal in a few spots, and full of information about  Holland and Amsterdam's occupation by the Nazis during World War 2.  I think the novel being set in 1980 kept the bitter feelings of Nazi survivors  alive and   revenge stewing until it reached a boiling point.  The war wasn't so far away then as it is now in 2013.  Anyone who likes contemporary novels with a bit of a historical mix, anything about World War 2, or just a good novel about a women determined to find her daughter will enjoy this quick read.  

Rating:  7/10 for the historical background of Amsterdam and Holland during Nazi occupation; quick pace, and strong female character.  

Available in paperback and e-book.  Thanks to Harlequin/Mira for a review copy!

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The Tulip Eaters by Antoinette van Heugten