Book Review: Leaving Before It’s Over by Jean Reynolds Page

Tuesday 31 August, 2010 By 6 Comments


Title: Leaving Before It’s Over
Author: Jean Reynolds Page
Publisher: Avon A
Publication Date: August 10, 2010
Paperback: 398 pages
ISBN: 978-0061876929
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

From the author of The Space Between Before and After comes a compelling novel that explores the true meaning of family.

When Roy Vines married his wife, Rosalind, he traded his family and his inheritance for love—a painful choice that has blessed them with years of joy nestled in rural North Carolina with their beautiful daughters, sixteen-year-old Lola and little Janie Ray.

But their happiness is threatened when Rosalind suddenly falls ill. Desperate to get her the help she needs, Roy does the one thing he swore he’d never do—turn to his heartless and bitter identical twin brother, Mont, for help.

The price is steep—and includes opening their home to a teenage boy who believes Roy is the father who abandoned him. As bad blood threatens to destroy her family, Rosalind must make a difficult choice. Should she walk away—like Roy once did—for love, or try to mend wounds that may never be healed? And will the pain of choosing be more than her heart can bear?

My Review:

Family, secrets, and choices, Leaving Before It’s Over by Jean Reynolds Page explores the complex dynamics that make up the Vines family. Lola and Janie Ray Vines grew up believing their father’s parents were dead, and had no idea they had an Uncle Montgomery until the summer their mother Rosalind became ill and money was desperately needed. Roy Vines hitched his way to Gray’s Hollow to beg money from his parents and strikes a deal with his parents and his twin brother Montgomery. He will have financial assistance only if he takes 17-year-old Lucas to live with him. Roy does not know how he will explain this to Rosalind or his girls, especially when it is more complicated than it appears. Roy believes Lucas is Montgomery’s son, but his father and Montgomery are adamant that Lucas is the product of his first marriage, unfortunately Sherry is no longer alive to tell her side of the story. Confused? So are the members of the Vines family. Leaving Before It’s Over is filled with family love, adversity, misunderstandings, mistrusts, loyalty and love. The story is told through various members of the Vines family, which turns out to be an excellent choice allowing the complex emotions of the family members to shine through. Page writes a complicated family drama and clearly details how each family member deals with the dramas as they unfold. Leaving Before It’s Over makes for a quick read and anyone interested in family dynamics or likes a good drama may find Leaving Before It’s Over to be the perfect pick for an afternoon of reading.

About the Author:

Jean Reynolds Page is the author of The Last Summer of Her Other Life, The Space Between Before and After, A Blessed Event, and Accidental Happiness. She grew up in North Carolina and graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was a dance critic for more than ten years before turning full-time to fiction in 2001. In addition to North Carolina, she has lived in New York, Boston, Dallas, and Seattle. She and her family recently moved to Madison, Wisconsin.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of Leaving Before It’s Over by Jean Reynolds Page from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Teaser Tuesdays- I Curse The River of Time

Monday 30 August, 2010 By 31 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

“On this occasion she sat down, alone, at a table for two and ate in silence and concentrated on her book over coffee after her meal, and when her cup was empty she tucked the book under her arm and stood up.  The very moment her body left the chair, she felt so exhausted she thought she would collapse there and then and never stand up again.”

~Page 11-12, I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson

Please check back for my review.

What are you reading?
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Book Review: The Miracles of Prato by Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz

Monday 30 August, 2010 By 8 Comments


Title: The Miracles of Prato
Authors: Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Publication Date: February 2, 2010
Paperback: 400 pages
ISBN: 978-0061558351
Genre: Historical Fiction

From the Publisher:

Italy, 1456. The Renaissance is in glorious bloom. A Carmelite monk, the great artist Fra Filippo Lippi acts as chaplain to the nuns of the Convent Santa Margherita. It is here that he encounters the greatest temptation of his life, beautiful Lucrezia Buti, who has been driven to holy orders more by poverty than piety. In Lucrezia’s flawless face Lippi sees the inspiration for countless Madonnas and he brings the young woman to his studio to serve as his model. But as painter and muse are united in an exhilarating whirl of artistic discovery, a passionate love develops, one that threatens to destroy them both even as it fuels some of Lippi’s greatest work.

My Review:

Twenty-two years ago I sat in a darkened auditorium taking Art History of the Renaissance to meet a college requirement, never thinking I would ever use the knowledge beyond that semester. I truly should have paid more attention to the lectures. The Miracles of Prato by Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz is a beautifully artistic tale of Fra Filippo Lippi, an ordained Carmelite monk and famous painter, and his immediate infatuation with Lucrezia Buti’s beauty. A story of fact intermixed with fiction; the authors take the reader deep inside the Renaissance period, the art and the powerful families of the time and especially the Medici and into the Convent Santa Margherita where they weave together a tale of what might have occurred between Fra Filippo and young Lucrezia. Albanese and Morowitz have managed to capture the essence of not only the Renaissance period (thankfully I did pay far greater attention in history classes) and life in a convent, but also added in elements of mystery, corruption, secrecy, and forbidden love. The prose takes on an artistic flair as the words, feeling, and thoughts flow across the pages and blend together in a near perfect harmony. The Miracles of Prato captures the reader from the prologue and has the reader hooked by the time the Buti sisters Spinetta and Lucrezia arrive at the Convent Santa Margherita upon the death of their father. The story is told in stunning and rich detail, the characters are finely crafted and easy to relate to, and the storyline is delicately yet expertly woven with a blend of historical fact, historical rumour, and fiction, making The Miracles of Prato a brilliantly engaging book. I especially was fascinated by the descriptions of various herbs and their uses in medicine, cooking, dyeing and silks, things the reader will learn from Sister Pureza, who ends up being one of my favorite characters. I cannot praise The Miracles of Prato enough and highly recommend it to readers as well as book discussion groups.

About the Authors:

Laurie Albanese is the author of the novel Lynelle by the Sea and the memoir Blue Suburbia, which was named a Book Sense Best Book of the Year and was an Entertainment Weekly Editor’s Choice selection.

Laura Morowitz is a professor of art history and coauthor of Consuming the Past: The Medieval Revival in Fin-de-Siècle France. They both live in New Jersey with their families.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of The Miracles of Prato by Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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It’s Monday What Are Your Reading?

Sunday 29 August, 2010 By 26 Comments

It’s Monday What Are you Reading is the perfect way for me to begin my week and allows me to focus on what needs to be read and to see what I have or have not accomplished the previous week. I also enjoy discovering new books by visiting other participants blogs.

I am working on slowly my pace down, wish me luck!

I Read and Reviewed (click the title to be taken to the review):

Visit next Monday to see if I managed to accomplish my reading goals.

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The Sunday Salon: (TSS 8/29)

Sunday 29 August, 2010 By 5 Comments
The Sunday Salon.com

Life: August has been an intensely emotional month and I am hoping as the month comes to a close, things begin to settle down.  I prefer a more mundane existence in hopes of achieving this I have been reading about different academic departments at the Universities and Colleges my son is applying to.  to add to my joy (sarcasm) I have been proof-reading numerous college entrance essays and I have learned my oldest does not handle criticism well.

Family Update: School resumed last week and I have been trying to adjust my sleep schedule and my day schedule around.  When the boys were young I looked forward to the peace and quiet the school hours afforded me, now I am more saddened, my teens will be leaving the nest all too soon and I find I long for our summer days.  My sons are doing very well and amongst the three of them they are learning four languages, two are cross country runners and one has the first theatre production of the season opening in three weeks.  DH is up for full professor, so his days are filled with research, teaching and publishing.  Needless to say, there are very few dull moments around our home.

Saturday Night: Terry came over and we watched movies.  All of us needed down time and the much needed a break was perfectly timed and lovely.

Book News: I signed up for the Dewey’s Read-a-Thon which beings 9 October 2010.  Have you signed up?

Read and Reviewed: I managed to read and review 11 books which only totaled 3,296 pages.   I truly had hoped to get more accomplished, but it was a hectic week.

Do not want to wait until Monday to see the entire list? All my reviews are up and as usual I love comments.

Today I will be reading: I shall continue with The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy Translated by Cathy Porter. This is another tome, which I cannot wait to slowly devour. I am certain I shall be sharing bits of the novel with readers throughout the coming weeks.

Happy Reading and please feel free to leave comments or suggestions.

Visit the The Sunday Salon.

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Book Review: White Heat by Brenda Novak

Saturday 28 August, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Title: White Heat
Author: Brenda Novak
Publisher: Mira
Publication Date: July 27, 2010
Paperback: 400 pages
ISBN: 978-0778327950
Genre: Suspense

From the Publisher:

A dangerous cult has recently taken over the desert ghost town of Paradise, Arizona. Members worship at the feet—and in the bed—of its charismatic leader, Ethan Wycliff, and obey his orders blindly. They’ve already tried to murder one woman and they’re implicated in the disappearance of another.

Nate Ferrentino, who works for private security contractor Department 6, has been assigned to infiltrate this group. It’s a challenge he welcomes—until he learns that colleague Rachel Jessop will be going undercover with him. Thanks to their shared history, he’d much rather go alone….

The problem is, only married couples can participate in cult rituals. So, like it or not—and they don’t—Rachel and Nate must pretend to be husband and wife.

There’s no choice. Because if Wycliff isn’t exposed, if he isn’t stopped, more people will die. And Rachel might be one of them.

My Review:

Undercover agents and a charismatic Ivy League cult leader blend to make White Heat by Brenda Novak, a thrillingly suspenseful first novel in Novak’s new “Heat” trilogy.   Novak’s trilogy is being sold in three consecutive months which is rather a delightful change from the typical  long waits between books.  Body Heat will be released in September and the last novel in the trilogy, Killer Heat, will be released in October.  White Heat takes place in Paradise, Arizona, where a dangerous cult run by Ivy League graduate Ethan Wycliff has already grown to 200 plus members.  Nate Ferrentino and Rachel Jessop, both part of Department 6, a private security agency, must go undercover as a married couple to infiltrate the cult, unfortunately the history between Ferrentino and Jessop make this a very difficult assignment for them.  Novak pens a masterful book, filled with complex emotions and a suspenseful plot.   Wycliff’s characters are well thought out, strong, and resilient and while the book moves at a slower pace than other suspense novels I have read, this by no means a dull book; rather it is an intense read.   I thoroughly enjoyed reading White Heat and look forward to reading Body Heat in September and Killer Heat in October.  I highly recommend White Heat, Brenda Novak’s first book in the Heat trilogy to anyone who enjoys an excellent suspense novel.

To learn about the author please visit the author’s website.

I received a complimentary copy of White Heat by Brenda Novak from Big Honcho Media to review. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

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Book Review: Untraceable by Laura Griffin

Saturday 28 August, 2010 By 4 Comments

Title: Untraceable
Author: Laura Griffin
Publisher: Pocket
Publication Date: November 24, 2009
Paperback: 400 pages
ISBN: 978-1439149195
Genre: Romance Mystery, Suspense

From the Publisher:

ALEX LOVELL MAKES PEOPLE DISAPPEAR.
TURNS OUT, SHE’S NOT THE ONLY ONE.

Private investigator Alexandra Lovell uses computer skills and cunning to help clients drop off the radar and begin new lives in safety. Melanie Bess, desperate to escape her abusive cop husband, was one of those clients. But when Melanie vanishes for real, Alex fears the worst, and sets out to discover what happened. Using every resource she can get her hands on — including an elite team of forensic scientists known as the Tracers, and a jaded, sexy Austin PD detective — Alex embarks on a mission to uncover the truth.

As far as homicide cop Nathan Deveraux is concerned, no body means no case. But as much as he wants to believe that Alex’s hunch about Melanie’s murder is wrong, his instincts — and their visceral attraction — won’t let him walk away. As a grim picture of what really happened begins to emerge, Nathan realizes this investigation runs deeper than they could ever have guessed. And each step nearer the truth puts Alex in danger of being the next to disappear….

My Review:

Untraceable by Laura Griffin is the second novel I have read by Griffin but it is the first in her Tracer series.  Do check out my review of Griffin’s second book, Unspeakable, which is just as brilliantly captivating as her thrilling first novel in the series, Untraceable.  Her novels read well as stand alone novels, yet I believe her books to be so mesmerizing as to compel the reader to want to continue with the series.  I could not put this book down; it truly is that captivating a mystery. In Untraceable, the reader meets Alex Lovell, a private investigator who has a specialty at making people disappear, in this instance, Melanie Bass, who was fleeing from an abusive husband.  Suddenly Alex is being asked information about Melanie and is unable to locate her. Alex fears the worst and seeks out the help of Austin Police Detective Nathan Devereaux, her friend, Troy Stockton, who introduces Alex to the Tracers, and an elite forensics unit located in the Delphi Center.  Griffin writes a brilliant mystery taking the characters from Austin, Texas to the French Quarter in New Orleans and back again to Texas. Griffin’s characters are feisty, strong, intelligent and extremely likeable, which makes the mystery all that more difficult to solve.  Griffin adds a dose of romance throughout the novel, which adds a wonderful touch to the story line (and I am not usually a fan of romance novels).  I read the novel from cover to cover, without stopping and I am still impressed with some of the plot twists Griffin added along the way.  I eagerly await her third book in the Tracer series, Unforgivable, which is due out in December.  I highly recommend Untraceable to anyone looking for a suspense-filled mystery.

About the Author:

LAURA GRIFFIN started her career in journalism before venturing into the world of romantic suspense with her novels for Pocket Books. Her work has been nominated for numerous awards, including a 2010 RITA (Whisper of Warning) and a 2009 RT Reviewers Choice Award (Untraceable). Her debut novel, One Last Breath, won the Booksellers Best Award for romantic suspense. Laura currently lives in Austin. Visit her website for more information.

I received a complimentary copy of Untraceable by Laura Griffin from Simon & Schuster to review. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

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Three Book Reviews: Louder Than Words: Three Teen Authored Memoirs

Friday 27 August, 2010 By 8 Comments

When I was presented with the opportunity to review one or all three memoirs written by teens, I could not resist not reviewing all three. Each tells a deeply personal tale of trial, adversity, seeking help, and acceptance. It is my belief that the Louder Than Words Books will be able to reach out to parents and teens alike and help to identify problems and for teens to realise they are not alone. May this series offer hope for those who identify with Alexis, Rae, or Hannah and may this series help those who are friends and family to teens struggling with these issues.

Rather than individual ratings, the series as a whole is a must read:

Title: Alexis: My True Story of Being Seduced By an Online Predator
Author: Alexis Singer
Publisher: HCI Teens
Publication Date: August 2, 2010
Paperback: 168 pages
ISBN: 978-0757315299
Genre: Memoir

From the Publisher:

In six words, an instant message changed Alexis forever.

After a rocky junior year of high school, Alexis Singer was lonely, stressed out, and vulnerable–the ideal target for an older man with bad intentions. When a message popped up on her computer screen one night from a message board acquaintance, she could never have known that by responding she was making a choice that would change her forever.

By posing as a friend and confidant, the man gave Alexis the attention she desperately craved and weaseled his way into her life in an unimaginable way. Within weeks, Alexis was sucked into an emotionally dependent relationship, engaging in cybersex and sending him explicit photos of herself. Somewhere along the way, she lost who she was and put her dreams for the future, relationships with friends and family, and psychological well-being on the line.

‘Not much about that first online conversation we had sticks out in my head except for his surprising interest in me. I probably would have forgotten about it if it weren’t for that. I would have dismissed him as just another creep.’

My Review:

Alexis: My True Story of Being Seduced by an Online Predator by Alexis Singer is part of the Louder Than Words book series and is an eye-opening memoir for parents of teens and a valuable lesson for teens to read.  Alexis, now a sophomore in college writes candidly about how easily she was seduced into an online relationship with a predator, how she had seen the television shows, knew the warning signs, yet she still fell for it.  All the warning signs were present, yet being a teen going through an emotional time, he pretended to offer her what she craved, love and attention.  I enjoyed reading Alexis and felt it would be appropriate for teens to read.  As a parent I was appalled and surprised her parents were as laid back as they were about the events.  The ending still made me feel dreadfully sorry for Alexis and if I could have added one thing to the book it would have been information or hotline numbers for teens to utilize.  All in all, Alexis opens herself up in hopes of preventing some other teen from following in her path.

About the Author:

Alexis Singer attended the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts as a writer and is currently a sophomore at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA, studying political science and women’s studies. She is nineteen years old.

Title: Rae: My True Story of Fear, Anxiety, and Social Phobia
Author: Chelsea Rae Swiggett
Publisher: HCI Teens
Publication Date: August 2, 2010
Paperback: 168 pages
ISBN: 978-0757315275
Genre: Memoir

From the Publisher:

Rae is beyond socially awkward.

Since she was a little girl, Rae Swiggett knew something was different about her. The sound of planes flying overhead could spark a panic attack. Being called on in class was enough to push her over the edge. She feared the unknown, life, death, people . . . even fear itself.

By the time she reached ninth grade, Rae was muddling through life in relative silence, convinced everyone was mocking her, judging her, picking her apart, bit by little bit. Rae knew she couldn’t keep going on this way. She knew something had to give.

‘It’s a game of catch-22 I constantly play with myself. If I keep acting normal, I hope one day I will be, but every time I try, I just let myself down. I’m so entirely sick of this game.’

My Review:

Rae: My True Story of Fear, Anxiety, and Social Phobia by Chelsea Rae Swiggett is part of the Louder Than Words book series and chronicles the life of Chelsea’s phobias throughout middle school and high school.  Written in a non-linear manner, Chelsea explains to the reader what it was like for her living with fears and phobias and finally seeing a therapist.  My concern with this book was two-fold; why was her obsession with weight loss never addressed and why did no one notice she was not eating and losing so much weight?  As a parent of teens, I saw so many warning signs and could not help wondering why no one noticed.  As someone with panic attacks and agoraphobia I wondered why, when Chelsea went to the therapist, she was not in behavioral therapy, and was rather shocked when the therapist recommended her being isolated further.  I hope through Chelsea’s story teens will feel less isolated and more apt to seek help immediately.  I applaud Chelsea for having the strength and the courage to seek help and hope she continues with therapy to resolve her issues not only with death and dying but also with her sense of self, body image and her issues with food.

About the Author:

Chelsea Rae Swiggett is eighteen years old and will soon be heading to college to major in English and immerse herself even further into the world of books and writing. She currently serves on the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board. Visit her blog at http://thepageflipper.blogspot.com/.

Title: Hannah: My True Story of Drugs, Cutting, and Mental Illness
Author: Hannah Westberg
Publisher: HCI Teens
Publication Date: August 2, 2010
Paperback: 168 pages
ISBN: 978-0757315282
Genre: Memoir

From the Publisher:

Hannah is a girl interrupted.

For Hannah Westberg, life has been one big emotional roller coaster. As a girl, her mother was in and out of mental hospitals, so when it was her turn to visit the psych ward following a suicide attempt the summer after eighth grade, she had an idea of what she was in for. But that was only the beginning of Hannah’s journey.

Over the next five years, Hannah has engaged in dangerous behaviors–from pill popping and excessive dieting to cutting–and paid a high price. Her depression, self-harm, and suicidal tendencies have landed her in rehab and therapy and with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. But though she may have a label for her mental illness and tools for coping, for Hannah, life is still something she takes one day at a time.

‘The psych ward is where you go to get from fragile to shattered. It’s like taking your car to get washed and getting your windshield broken in the process.’

My Review:

Hannah: My True Story of Drugs, Cutting, and Mental Illness by Hannah Westberg is the most difficult of the Louder Than Words books to read, as the issues are varied.  If I were judging the books, I would say Hannah was my favourite due to her not once complaining that things were the fault of others even when she had every right.  She owns up to her illnesses even when her mother is in and out of psychiatric hospitals, her father suffers from severe depression and when her step-mother does not appear to know how to deal with any of it and Hannah muddles her way through, even offering the reader tips on relaxing.  Of the three books, Hannah is the most explicit and if a person is cutting, trying to commit suicide, has eating disorders and/or has been in psychiatric facilities and rehab all before turning 18, I do think a few words or phrases are the least of one’s concern.  Hannah speaks openly and honestly about her life.  The book is segmented by the events that happened to her, so she occasionally will flashback.  I did not find this bothersome or confusing in the least, I felt her writing style was quite ingenious and hope she continues to write.

About the Author:

Hannah Westberg is eighteen years old. She earned her GED and plans to enroll in Portland Community College’s drug and alcohol counselor certification program. When she’s not babysitting, she is probably volunteering for political and charity organizations, as well as participating in flash mobs.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copies of Alexis by Alexis Singer, Rae by Chelsea Rae Swiggett, and Hannah by Hannah Westberg from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the books. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned books.

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Book Review: What We Have by Amy Boesky

Thursday 26 August, 2010 By 8 Comments

Title: What We Have
Author: Amy Boesky
Publisher: Gotham
Publication Date: August 5, 2010
Paperback: 336 pages
ISBN: 978-1592405510
Genre: Memoir

From the Publisher:

At thirty-two, Amy Boesky thought she had it all figured out: a wonderful new man in her life, a great job, and the (nearly) perfect home. For once, she was almost able to shake the terrible fear that had gripped her for as long as she could remember. Women in her family had always died young-from cancer-and she and her sisters had grown up in time’s shadow. It colored every choice they made and was beginning to come to a head now that each of them approached thirty-five-the deadline their doctors prescribed for having preventive surgery with the hope they could thwart their family’s medical curse. But Amy didn’t want to dwell on that now. She wanted to plan for a new baby, live her life. And with the appreciation for life’s smallest pleasures, she did just that. In What We Have, Amy shares a deeply transformative year in her family’s life and invites readers to join in their joy, laughter, and grief.

In a true story as compelling as the best in women’s fiction, written with the sagacity of Joan Didion and the elegance of Amy Bloom, Amy Boesky’s journey celebrates the promise of a full life, even in the face of uncertainty.

My Review:

Beautifully written with a mix of heartbreak and joy, What We Have by Amy Boesky is a deeply moving memoir of family dynamics.  Amy Boesky tells her story as a daughter, a wife, a sister, a mother and of course as herself, a type “A minus” personality, whose life has been structured with special focus on time, considering the women in her family rarely live past the age of fifty.  While not a memoir of ovarian cancer, the very essence of who Amy is stems around the women of the family, a family with a predisposition to ovarian cancer.   Boesky writes a fluid story, written in two parts, much like the hands of a clock, balanced, while throughout the book Boesky masterfully blends in the history of language, medicine and especially of time, to illustrate her emotions throughout the book.  What We Have is a deeply moving narrative of strong women who made me both laugh and cry, and for whom I felt deeply, for Amy, her sisters Julie and Sara, and her mother Elaine, and for their husbands and their children.  Written in an exquisite tone, Amy shares with the reader her struggles and her family’s joys and sorrows, the bond that brings them so close together and yet is so deadly, all the while begging the question: can we recapture lost time, history, things gone before us or do we rely solely on memory and living in the moment?  Perhaps there is no correct answer for this, poets write about this topic frequently and it is a topic Boesky broaches throughout her book.   I highly recommend What We Have to any reader, especially those who do not care for memoirs as this book is not a typical memoir.

About the Author:

A graduate of Oxford and Harvard, Amy Boesky is an associate professor of English at Boston College. She was one of the principal ghostwriters for the bestselling young adult series “Sweet Valley High”. She lives in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, with her husband and their two daughters.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of What We Have by Amy Boesky from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book.   Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: The Last War by Ana Menendez

Wednesday 25 August, 2010 By 9 Comments

Title: The Last War
Author: Ana Menendez
Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 Reprint edition
Publication Date: June 29, 2010
Paperback: 256 pages
ISBN: 978-0061724770
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

Photojournalist Flash chases conflicts around the globe with her war correspondent husband, Brando. Now Brando is in Iraq awaiting her arrival, but instead of racing to join him, Flash idles in Istanbul, vaguely aware that her marriage is faltering. Her malaise is compounded by the arrival of a mysterious letter revealing Brando’s infidelity—and by the sudden appearance of Alexandra, a fierce and captivating colleague who shared dangerous days with the couple in Afghanistan. As Flash spirals deeper into regret, anger, and indecision, she wonders if she and Brando were ever really happy—as she’s forced to confront long-buried secrets and hard truths about her world, her marriage, her husband, and herself.

My Review:

Beautifully written, spellbinding, and astonishingly detailed, The Last War by Ana Menendez is a compelling literary novel. Menendez takes the reader on an introspective journey through the last ten years of her life, taking the reader back to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and where she currently resides in Istanbul.  Margarita Anastasia Morales, known as Flash, is a photographer who has been traveling around the world with her journalist husband, Brando Price Phillips. The couple currently resides in Istanbul where Flash is still awaiting the proper paperwork to join Brando in Iraq to cover the war.  While waiting for the appropriate paperwork, a mysterious letter arrives making Flash question the last ten years of her life with Brando.  Menendez smoothly takes the reader through Flash’s memories, covering various wars in numerous cities around the world, and with fluid and vivid imagery, it is not difficult for the reader to experience the sights through Flash’s memory.  I truly enjoyed this beautifully rich, detailed and deeply introspective novel of love, war and identity.  I would not hesitate to recommend The Last War to anyone and believe that The Last War, with the inter-relationships between Alexandra, Flash, Brando and Nadia, would make for an exceptional discussion group pick.

About the Author:

Ana Menendez, the daughter of Cuban exiles, was born in Los Angeles. She is the author of three books of fiction: the novel Loving Che; the short story collection In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, which was a 2001 New York Times Notable book of the year and the title story of which won a Pushcart Prize; and her second novel, The Last War, which was published in May 2009 by HarperCollins.

Since 1991, Menendez has worked as a journalist in the United States and abroad, and has spent the last three years as a prize-winning columnist for The Miami Herald. As a reporter, she has written about Cuba, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and India, where she was based for three years. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Republic, The New York Times, and Gourmet magazine, and has been included in several anthologies, including, Cubanisimo!, edited by Cristina Garcia; and American Food Writing, a Library of America anthology edited by Molly O’Neill.

Menendez has a BA in English from Florida International University and an MFA from New York University. She is currently teaching at The American University in Cairo, Egypt, as a 2008–09 Fulbright Scholar.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of The Last War by Ana Menendez from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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