Book Review: Dragonflies and Dinosaurs

Author:  Kate Austin
Title: Dragonflies and Dinosaurs
Publisher: Harlequin Next
Publish Date: April 2007
Buy: AmazonBook Blurb: Kate Austin makes a captivating debut in this luminous tale of an unconventional road trip... and one woman's metamorphosis.
At forty-two and given to the occasional panic attack, Randy Roman is taking a leave of absence from her life. After twenty years of working at a bank -- no husband, no kids -- she's hitting the road with her young nephews Mickey and Eric, and Dexter, a precocious dog they pick up along the way. With each passing mile of prairie, farmland and raspberry field, Randy feels the thrill of freedom....
Their destination is Cranberry Portage, a quaint lakeside town her mother loved and Randy can barely remember. But a surprise awaits them at journey's end. Call it fate, karma, or the chance for renewal, it will give Randy the courage to take a risk that will change.
 
Review: Usually when I read one of the books from the now defunct Next series, I wonder why Harlequin discontinued that line. I'm glad that this book wasn't my first impression of the series. In a few words, it was dull, depressing and slow.
 
This book took me nearly 2 weeks to read and it was only 300 pages long. 
 
I just couldn't get into the characters at all. Randy was too self absorbed and everyone else seemed to float lightly on through the book, including her nephews Eric and Mickey who were with her on the trip across the country. The only hightlight was the dog Dexter, who really deserved more time in the book.
 
The book was more than halfway over before Tom was introduced. It is hard to believe that he was going to play any part in Randy's life, let alone be someone that might be instrumental in making her stay in her old hometown of Cranberry Portage.
 
What I truly didn't understand was Susan's desire to send her son's away while she was undergoing cancer treatment. I can grasp not wanting them to see you your worst, but sending them across the country with your sister who is going to spread your mother's ashes...well...it was just weird.
 
I wanted something more. Even as Randy started to understand  herself and her mother better, I couldn't connect with her. This definitely was one book I regret picking up. It just didn't work out well for me.
 
Rating: 2 flowers
 
 

 

Book Review: Falling Out Of Bed

Author:Mary Schramski
Title: Falling Out Of Bed
Publisher: Harlequin Next
Publish Date May 2006
Buy: Amazon
Blurb: Melinda had never questioned her perfect life. Why should she? Her husband's successful, she's not working for the first time in years and their only daughter is in college. Her father--a workaholic, perfectionist, runner and health nut to boot--is happy and healthy too. — Or so Melinda thought until her father quite literally falls out o... more »f bed. Suddenly her formerly robust parent is in jeopardy, and their roles are reversed. Melinda's life changes in the blink of an eye.

But with changes, unexpected blessings come her way, too. Because as she and her father bond, Melinda realizes she's been sleeping through life--and starts discovering what really matters.

Review: This book was beautiful and yet very depressing. It also goes to show that Mary Schramski is a wonderful writer. She gives her readers a wonderful story of a daughter who is caring for a once fit father, who now has prostate cancer that has spread.

Perhaps Melinda is a little bit too much in denial to be believed throughout the better part of the book, but that doesn't take away the message of the story, which is to live life to its fullest.

Her father was a work-a-holic who divorced Melinda's mom when she was about twelve. He has always been the picture of health, and that really is what keeps Melinda in denial.

This book really gives the reader a clear impression of what it like to have a loved one suffering from cancer. It may be a little sugar coated, but it is all there. You have hope, depression, denial, fear, frustration and a myriad of other feelings. What I felt was really driven home in this book was how people cope with illness. Many of Stanley's friends deserted him as his illness progressed.

There's even a touch of the spiritual to the book, bring a bit of religion, into Melinda's life again. It is nicely done too.

The only thing that didn't quite sit right with me, was how together Melinda was, as well as her husband, David. Thoughout Stanley's illness they didn't have much conflict, and even the conflict that Melinda had with Jan, Stanley's second ex, it didn't really explode as it really ought to have when tensions were the way they were.

Still this story is a wonderful family drama. Your eyes won't be dry at the last page.

Rating: 4 flowers

Book Review: The Me I Used To Be

Author: Jennifer Archer
Title: The Me I Used To Be
Publisher: Harlequin Next
Publish Date: Oct 2005
Buy:Amazon
Blurb: That Was Then

Me, Allyson Cole. Age sixteen. Living in the world of endless summers, of going wherever you wanted. And yes, my parents may have worried that I was riding into trouble -- but I was young and in love, and growing up was something I had to do....

And This Is Now

Me, again. Allyson Cole. This time, age fifty-one. I have everything I always wanted -- almost. I don't have him...and I don't have me. Now's the time to find what I lost. To do that, I have to hit the road, and find the father of my child. And start a journey I never could have anticipated....

Review: Jennifer Archer paints a vivid picture of a mother who gave up a child for adoption and how it comes back to haunt her in a good way.

The characters in The Me I Used To Be are very complex and very human. But aren't all people that way. Allyson goes to Woodstock with her bad boy boyfriend and when it is over she's left alone and then later finds out she's pregnant.

Flash forward 30 some years and a teenage boy shows up telling her he's her grandson and that the daughter she gave up has died of cancer.

Wow!

Pass the Kleenex!

Through this meeting, we watch Allyson finally grow up and come to terms with her past. She makes peace with the man/boy she loved first and finds herself able to commit to the man she loves now.

It may be a lot to pack into about 290 pages, but Jennifer Archer does it well and she even inserts some humor as well. Life isn't all about the serious stuff. It was hard not to laugh when Allyson and Nick are climbing over a fence at the carnival to get away from a Pitbull and to get in to the carnival for free. And then there was the fight with the biker over a dog, that landed them in jail for a few hours. It was moments like that really leave you smiling.

There are a lot of moments when you will cry while reading this. Daughter Sarah's journals will definitely do that, but all in all this is a beautiful book about a second chance to make things right.

Rating: 5 flowers

Book Review: The Unspoken Years

Author: Lynne Hugo
Title: The Unspoken Years
Publisher: Harlequin Next
Publish Date: May 1, 2006
Rating: 3 Stars
Book Blurb: "She was always crazy. Looking back, I see no doubt about it. It was a deceptive craziness, though, sometimes luminous and joyful. Even when it was, my brother and I knew it was important not to relax...."

Sometimes things -- no matter how hard a woman tries -- can't be fixed.

Ruth -- from childhood to young womanhood -- struggled to come to terms with her mother's often incomprehensible ways, sure that if she were good enough, tried hard enough, she would be able to save her mother from hurt and keep her family intact. If love were powerful enough, it could bring reason to the unreasonable, couldn't it?

Evan -- the man who convinced Ruth she needed more, if only she'd reach for it. But he never expected that his love for Ruth would be something she had to pay so dearly for.

Elizabeth -- "mother" -- the keeper of secrets.

Review: The Harlequin Next line was a lot like chicklit only for more mature readers. The Unspoken Years is more complex than chicklit. It is more than a story about a relationship. It is a story about a family and mental illness.

It was extremely well written, but there were just things about it that didn't click with me. I couldn't quite fathom a daughter (Ruthie) that would rather deal with the burden of a parent (Elizabeth) that had severe mental illness, then try to seek help for her, when she professed to want her to get well.

Not to mention all the crazy stuff that happened from the time she was a young girl until she was in college.

One of the questions for discussion in the back of the book dealt with Ruthie's grandmother, who no matter how you look at it, Elizabeth killed, and Ruth helped. Yes, it would be considered a mercy killing, but it was still a killing. Elizabeth in all her crazyness knew exactly what she was doing and wanted to do it.

I would have loved to have had more background on Ruth's mother, something that better explained her madness. It is implied that there might have been some incest, but nothing is painted clearly.

Then there was the guidance counselor who did his best to try to get Roger and Ruth away from their mother, but getting them into good colleges, but uh, why not try to get the lady committed?

The mom's behavior affected everyone, so it would seem logical for the writer to give us more than the tiny bit of background that she did. Worse still at the end, she gives us the impressions she left on her music students.

As the story went on, I found myself really hating Ruth, because she was such an enabler, and because when faced with someone who really loved her, she became selfish, foolish and a whole lot of other things ending in ish.

I understood her need to make peace with her mother when she got married without telling her, but ARGH there was so much to it that made me want to slap her.

Then there's Evan, the brother of her roommate's boyfriend. He's a great guy and she really lets her enabling behavior and guilt almost spoil their relationship.

Maybe it was just me, but as well as this book was written, it frustrated me. I couldn't stand to see all the character suffer like they did.