I Will Ruin You

Finished July 22

I Will Ruin You by Linwood Barclay

This novel has lots of twist and turn that will keep you guessing. High school English teacher Richard Boyle looks out his classroom window one day and sees a man with what looks like explosives strapped to him approaching the school. He leaves the classroom abruptly, telling his students briefly to alert authorities and protect themselves and runs to try to intercept the man. He is able to avert a major tragedy, but recognizes that there is still a tragedy, and a motivation that the former student had to act the way he did. 

Unbeknownst to him, his appearance on the news triggers another situation, as he is approached by a man who tries to blackmail him based on supposed acts he did years before. 

As one would expect, this has a big impact on Richard, both in terms of thinking of ways to avert the situation or deal with it, and in terms of what this new accusation might say in terms of the actions of the first man in terms of validation. 

Richard's wife Bonnie, a principal at an elementary school is also dealing with a tragedy, the loss of the mother of one of her students. Bonnie's sister Marta, a police officer was involved with the case of the mother's death, and her investigations lead her towards a drug ring. 

As the two cases begin to connect, all involved will find themselves trying to protect those they care about as well as finding the truth. 

This is a novel that took a while to get me hooked, but that did engage me, both with the intriguing plot, and with the characters. 

Keep Me Posted

Finished July 21

Keep Me Posted by Lisa Beazley

This novel is about a woman in New York City, Cassie, who begins a physical correspondence with her older sister Sid, who lives in Singapore. It begins as a thoughtful way for the two to keep in touch, as they live very different lives. Sid was inspired by old letters she found when visiting her grandparents and issued a challenge to her sister to reconnect through physical letters.

Sid had a child when she was quite young, River, and he is now an adult, taking a gap year before he goes on to further education. She has remarried a man who leads a busy life as an international businessman, and they have a young child Lulu. 

Cassie is married to Leo, and has twin toddlers, Quinn and Joey. They live in a small apartment in New York City. Cassie is vaguely dissatisfied with her life. She finds the apartment confining, and even though she and her sons go out often, the hassles of getting around are tiresome. 

The letter writing experiment goes well, and Cassie decides to keep copies of them online in a private blog, just for her to look back on. When a technical glitch makes the blog public, Cassie isn't aware until she realizes that they've gone viral and become the center of a social media discussion. Some of what they've written is very personal, and Cassie has to try to stem the leak, and find ways to tell the two people most important to her, Leo and Sid. 

I enjoyed the sisters relationship, and how they managed to keep the connection despite the distance between them. I also found it interesting to see how they dealt with the leak and made it part of the conversation in a wider, more inclusive way. 

Every Other Weekend

Finished July 20

Every Other Weekend by Zulema Renee Summerfield

This debut novel is set in 1988 and told from the point of view of an imaginative young girl, Nenny, who is eight and has lots of worries and ideas. Nenny's parents are divorced, and her mother has remarried a man who is also divorced. She has an older brother, Bubbles, and a younger brother, Tiny. Her mom's new husband, Rick, has two children, Charles, who is in the same grade as Nenny, and Kat, who is sixteen. 

The story is structured around the two houses that Nenny lives in. The first is the one with her mom and Rick, The second is the one with her dad. There some chapters different fears that Nenny has, and how those fears appear to her. 

As Nenny observes the life in her family and at school, she shows how things change, and how people react to changes. Some changes are minor and others are very large and difficult. I appreciated her views on these and how the changes also influenced her inner fears. 

This was a quick read, but also one that felt reflective. 

I enjoyed this novel,  

Summer Romance

Finished July 16

Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan

This romance novel is delightful and heartwarming with touches of humour. The central character is Ali Morris, a woman who is struggling. Two years ago, Ali's mom Nancy died. She'd raised Ali mostly on her own, and after having children and moving back to her home town, Ali had relied on her a lot. One year ago, Ali's husband Pete told her he wanted a divorce and left. Ali has a professional organizing business that she runs part-time wherever she can fit it in, but her own home is a mess. 

Pete and Ali have a civilized separation. He takes their daughters, Iris (5th grade) and Greer (6th grade), for their sports practices and games, and for ice cream after, accompanied by their son, Cliffy (kindergarten). When he calls to say that after a year's separation, it's time to make things final with a divorce, things somehow become a little better for Ali. 

Ali's kids called her mom Fancy, a take-off on her given name, not because she wore designer clothes or had upscale tastes, but because she did things on a whim, things that were easy and fun, a passing fancy. 

Ali's best friend Frannie also lives in town, and runs her parents deli along with her husband Marco. Frannie's parents live in a big house downtown, run an inn that is also downtown, and are very quirky. They dress up in costumes for any reason at all, and are very involved in the community. 

After school lets out the kids are at day camp on weekdays, and Ali starts to work on her to-do list and move on with her life. She takes off her wedding ring, puts on something other than sweatpants, and takes their dog Ferris to the dog park. There, Ferris approaches a man and pees on him, and soon after Ali finds herself flirting with him. The man, Ethan, begins to make regular appearances in her life, and Ali slowly finds that she has a lot to think about. 

As she reevaluates her dying marriage in the course of the divorce, she finds that she's not been holding her husband accountable for a long time, and she has only herself to blame for that. She begins to make small changes in her life, and decides that a summer romance is just the thing, and Ethan is just the right guy. 

I really liked pretty much all the characters in the book, except Pete, and I found the book had a lightness to it despite some very serious plot points. I couldn't put it down, and found myself reading the whole book in one day. An excellent, and satisfying read. 

Sometimes the Wolf

Finished July 16

Sometimes the Wolf by Urban Waite

This dark novel is set in the northwest U.S., and centers around deputy sheriff Bobby Drake. Twelve years previous to the events in the novel, Bobby's father Patrick had been sheriff. Bobby had been away at university. Bobby's mother had been ill, and Patrick had taken to some illegal acts for money. He was caught and convicted, and is now coming out of jail. 

Bobby has agreed, reluctantly, to take his father in for a short time until he gets on his feet. Bobby's wife Sheri is agreeable to it as well. They will give him the room they had prepared for another purpose, which has a single bed in it. 

Bobby has been working with the local wildlife office with a situation involving a local wolf. The wolf has had some interactions with local farmers and has been blamed for some without solid proof, and the wildlife officer Ellie is planning to capture and tag the wolf so that they can track it and be aware of its whereabouts. 

Patrick seems a little wary once out, thinking that other cars are following them, or that people are watching them, and Bobby has put it down as part of the experience of getting out of prison, and not being used to the freedom and open space that now exists for him. 

Bobby also holds a lot of resentment towards his father. He quit university, came home, sold some of the land to save the house, and now lives in that house with his own wife, and works for his father's old deputy, who is now sheriff. 

Soon after his release, men from his past do appear in Patrick's life, and Bobby and Sheri are at risk. The federal agent who has been on Patrick's case from the beginning has also reappeared, and his presence raises other questions. 

This is a dark story, of fathers and sons, of guilt and the weight of it on those close to us, and of revenge. It is a fast-paced story with lots of action and suspense. 

Sorry, Bro

Finished July 13

Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni

In San Francisco, Nareh Bedrossian is focused on her career as a journalist, working six days a week and hoping her boss gives her a chance at a story beyond the human interest stories she's been given up to now. She lives with her mother and grandmother and her Armenian heritage is very much a part of her life, despite her father's efforts to Americanize their family. Her long-term boyfriend Trevor is also a hard worker, and when he springs a proposal on her in a busy bar surrounded by drunken tech sector workers, she is struck dumb. He is off to business meetings overseas for a few weeks, so she has some time to really analyze how she feels and what she should do now.

She tells her mother about her uncertainty, and her mother, finally emerging from the deep grief she has over Nareh's father's death, pushes her into looking for love within her own culture. Explore Armenia, a big cultural event that happens every three years, is beginning, and Nareh's mom has her sign up for numerous events to meet eligible men. Her mom also does research through her many connections and comes up with a list of possibilities for her. 

Nareh does find herself captivated by someone she meets at her very first event, but that person is Erebuni, a woman. Nareh has identified as bisexual for years, but since she's been with Trevor for years, her attraction to Erebuni is unexpected and a little scary. She is scared that her feelings won't be reciprocated, that her family won't accept her relationship, and that she isn't herself ready to be out of the closet. 

All of these things combine to force Nareh into making a choice. 

I found the Armenian aspect of this book to be overwhelming, with many terms not explained. I think it would be helpful if the author had a list of these terms with definitions at the back of the book. Still, her Armenian identity becomes such a big part of her life, personally and professionally, that it just felt somewhat unrealistic. I've read other romance books that exist in cultural groups, and haven't encountered this much culture overkill. 

An okay read, but I had to force my way through parts of it. 

The Book of Dreams

Finished July 12

The Book of Dreams by Nina George

This novel was a definite page-turner for me. It in hard to pin down exactly what type of novel it is in terms of genre. It definitely has elements of magic realism in it, but also some coming of age elements, a touch of mystery, and romance. It is a novel that had me feeling a lot of different emotions as well. 

The story follows four people and we are allowed into the thoughts of three of them. The book begins with Henri Skinner, a journalist who grew famous as a war reporter and then moved into more biographical work, telling the stories of people from all corners of the world. 

In one particularly dangerous situation in Sudan, he used his body to protect the female photographer who was in the same vehicle as he was. In the aftermath, she took a photo the reverberates over time, and the two came together to create a child, Sam. 

Sam is now almost fourteen, but his mother has discouraged contact with Henri, but Sam invites him to a Father-Son day at his school. Henri is on his way there, when he stops on a bridge to look at the river and witnesses, with three other people, a young girl falling off a boat. Henri jumps in to save her, and brings her to shore, but is then in an accident, and ends up unconscious in the hospital. 

Sam begins to visit him there, hoping he will survive and they will get to know each other. Along with Sam, in visiting Henri is Eddie Tomlin, a former lover of Henri that he has named as the person to determine medical issues if he isn't able to. She is forced to revisit their relationship and the deep love she has for Henri. 

Sam also discovers a twelve-year-old girl, Madelyn Zeidler, a dancer who is a patient in the same neurological care area as Henri, and once he knows how she came to be there, he tries his best to help her find her way back to life. 

Sam is a synesthete, and his abilities allow him to connect to people's emotions and presence in unique ways, making him a considerate and thoughtful observer and participant in people's lives. 

We get to see Eddie's memories of her time with Henri, and we also get to see Henri's memories of his life, from his work, to his childhood traumas, to his longing for a connection with his son. While in a coma, Henri experiences different versions of his life, struggling to choose which one is real, and showing us feelings that he never expressed to those he cared for. 

We also see how Sam is managing his life to make room for his father and Madelyn, and how he feels an outsider in his own family. 

Along the way are doctors and nurses, each with their individual characteristics, round out the story in interesting ways. 

I really loved this book, and I found it released some of the feelings I had been carrying with me recently. 

In the afterward, the author talks about how this book is the third book in her writing that has been shaped by her experiences of death and dying, mourning and surviving. I found this quite interesting.