Malice by Keigo Higashino ~ Book Review

 This review is so behind.  It was my last read of 2017 wrapping up a reading year of  40 books, again short of my ever illusive goal of 50 books.  But I did read some great books, lots (for me) of non-fiction included,  found some great new authors and knocked out a whole pile of books out of my closet.

So on to the review.

The body of a bestselling Japanese author is found in his locked office at his home.  The wife and his best friend both discover him but their alibis seem pretty tight.  Detective Kyochiro Kaga immediately recognizes the best friend as Osamu Nonoguchi whom he used to teach with at a public school.  Osamu left the school to become a full time writer but unlike his friend he writes children's books and is not a best selling author.  As Kaga begins to investigate he finds threads that lead to him believing that the two authors were not friends at all but now he must unravel why Osamu would have killed the author. 

This book is a Japanese translation from a bestselling and popular Japanese whodunit author.  It's a cat and mouse type of mystery story.  I liked the unique approach the author took with the mystery, you know fairly early just who did it but then comes the unraveling of the why.  With layer upon layer, you are drawn into the story because you never really know what is truth and what is made up on the part of the character.  The revealing of the truth is done well as just enough is given to you through the detective's figuring it out that before you know it you are at the end of the story.    It's written in a simple easy going type of style, maybe because of the translation.  Once I got used to the Japanese names and which character was who, the story really picked up it's pace.  And I have to say this was a major cover buy.  Love the cover. 

Rated this a 7.5/10

One Week in December by Holly Chamberlin ~ Book Review

Becca Rowan is a career minded 32 year old from Boston.  She is driven and doesn't have much time for friends or family.  This Christmas, however, she will be joining her family at her childhood home in Maine. But it's not because she wants the togetherness that the holidays bring.  She has a mission in mind and that is to confront her family on what she considers a huge injustice perpetrated on her when she was a 16 year old in shaky circumstances and to reclaim what was hers.  The news will be shocking and will upset the whole family dynamic but she could care less. She is determined to get what she wants. But when she arrives home and meets the neighbor who befriends her she finds herself opening up to someone for the first time in many, many years and her perspective about love and family begin to change.  And now she must make a decision that will affect not just her life but her family's.

I saved this book specifically for a December wintery read.  The story was good and delves into many layers of family dynamics, family decisions, the affect of secrets and the revealing of them, and how perspectives can be skewed over years of hurt.  I have to say that I did have a hard time connecting with any of the characters, however.  I just didn't like them.  Could I too have been skewed in my perspective towards them because I was sick and not feeling well when I read the book?  Were the complicated family dynamics just too deep for my fever muddled brain?  Hmmm, who knows.  But at any rate it was a decent winter read but just not one that really grabbed me and I gave it a 7/10.

Lion by Saroo Brierley

This is the true story of Saroo Brierley who grew up in a very poor family in India.  At the age of 5, he mistakenly boarded a train looking for his older brother and the train left the station.  Saroo was now on his own, not knowing where he came from or where was headed.  Where he ended up was in Calcutta, across the country from his hometown.  Now, at the age of 5 he had to survive on his own.  Twenty five years later, Saroo now an Australian upper middle class young man and very thankful for his upbringing, has never forgotten his Indian family and has always maintained a desire to find out where he had come from.  This is the story of his determined search and the miracle that the invention of Google Earth played in it.

This story was so good.  I could not put it down even though I had seen the highly nominated and award winning movie this year (or was it last year?).  Anyway, the movie was excellent and the book was too.  It boggles the mind that not only did this little five year old survive the ordeal of being separated from his family but that he survived on the streets of Calcutta until he was rescued and sent to an orphanage.  That he ended up adopted to an Australian couple whom he loves but that he determined even at a young age that he wouldn't forget any little detail he could remember is amazing.  How the whole journey of getting lost to the events that helped him to find his family is an absolute miracle.  He shares his story to give others hope to never give up.

I gave it a 10/10 high rating for readability, engagement level, how the story gripped me, did the story make me feel for the person(s) involved.   It checked all the boxes for an amazing true story.

My Secret Sister by Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith

This is the memoir of twin sisters who didn't even know the other existed until they were in their 50's.  Separated at 6 weeks old in post war England,  the two lived lives that couldn't have been more different from each other.

Jenny, the twin who was given up for adoption, was raised as an only child with parents who loved her and doted on her.  Her father, who loved to golf,  introduced to the sport when she was three and both parents supported her as she pursued the competitive side of the sport.  Even after her father passed away, Jenny's mom made sacrifices to make sure that Jenny was able to go on and become a high ranking championship golfer who competed in the LPGA.  Though happy and knowing she was loved, Jenny always felt that something was missing and attributed it to being an only child until she inadvertantly found out she had been adopted.

Helen, was kept by her mom and grew up with a brother George living close to her grandmother and aunts, uncles and cousins.  Though she was surrounded by family, hers was a very lonely childhood as her father was horribly physically abusive towards both her and her mother.  He was king of the household and made sure they knew it every chance he got constantly telling Helen everything was her fault.  And added to that was her mother's psychological abuse  and manipulating that held Helen in it's grips until well after her mother had passed away.  Helen grew up with her parents engaged in a daily battle where her mother would taunt and goad her father to violence that most times ended up with her taking the brunt of consequences.

Though she found out as a teen that she was adopted, Jenny didn't started to look for her birth family until later on in life. When the two sisters connect and they look for answers as to why they were separated they unearth as family legacy of lies and deception.

So many mixed emotions while reading this book.  It was a good story but and oh so hard read.  Helen's abuse was horrendous and I had to stop and pause throughout the book as it was so hard to read about.  That she turned out to be a loving, caring adult is really a miracle.  I was torn reading the story of both girls because the story was laid out in a way that went back and forth between the two as they told of their growing up years.  I'll be honest and say reading Jenny's story was almost difficult in the sense that hers was such an easy life compared to Helen's and almost felt like fluff (insert myself with guilt pangs for feeling that way) and I felt I wanted to rush through it to get back to Helen's story.  Not that I wanted to read about the abuse but I wanted to read that she made it through, that she was able to get away, that she finally was able to leave it behind her.   I did learn a little bit from Helen's story about how someone who is abused and manipulated ends up staying in the situation.  But I found myself almost talking out loud in frustration to the grown up Helen as both she and her husband at the time continued to make decisions that let certain things continue happening without standing up for themselves.  But Jenny's story too, did have some struggles as she dealt with feeling cast aside and rejected by her mother and what she perceived to be a happy family that got rid of her as she had no idea of the abuse that went on in her sister's family.  The last part of the book of course was the best part as Jenny and Helen finally find each other and share their inspirational bond and the strength and faith in God they have to not let bitterness define the rest of their lives.

Because of the frequent abusive situations within Helen's story, I feel that a warning should go with the review of the book for those who would be triggered and/or sensitive to the material.

The Dionnes by Ellie Tesher ~ Book Review

If you are Canadian, you no doubt know about the Dionne quintuplets.  If not, you will still find their story fascinating.  They took their place in Canadian history when they were born in the 1930's to typical French Canadian farmers.    The world's only surviving quintuplets at that time.   Because of the uniqueness and miracle of their birth the unthinkable started to happen.  In order for the to survive, the doctor had the other siblings removed from the house to keep all germs down so the babies would have every chance of survival.  The government stepped in and because of news of their miracle birth and survival spreading across the province, then Canada, then worldwide they built a "hospital" for them across the road from their parents home.  They staffed it with the doctor and numbers of nurses.  Then it got bizarre, as the parents were kept away from them.  The nurses (and nuns who eventually schooled them in the compound) were not allowed to show any affection or interfere with the doctor, they were poked and prodded and tested for research for years by doctors.  They formed a unique bond beyond the normal twins or triplets bond because they only had each other for love.  The government of Ontario saw a chance for a great money making opportunity in them as they saw the world's fascination with them.  The hospital turned into a compound where the sisters were put on display daily for tourists to gawk at.   In the act of supposedly protecting them, they were turned into exhibits that the government sanctioned.  Wrenching control from the parents they were made guardians of  various agencies.  Many from the government to their father to advertisers benefitted from these children.  At first their parents tried to fight what was happening, their babies taken from them, a doctor rigidly controlling their visits,  but soon it became apparent that they were losing the fight for the quintuplets and meanwhile their other children were suffering.   But then the father also saw an opportunity to provide for his other children things like quality education in expensive schools that they would not have been able to have otherwise. 

When they were 9 and no longer bringing in the cash flow, the government turned their world upside down yet again and built a huge furnished house for their family, shut down the compound and forced them to go live with the family who were virtually strangers.  Living in the fortress-like mansion, the sisters were kept isolated and separated from the world due to the father's fear of kidnapping while their other siblings lived normal lives.  Trying to fit in was virtually impossible for everybody.

When they became young women their whole lives had been so abnormal, that they all came away as adults with many issues.  Added to that was that the trust fund that was supposed to take care of them for life was found to be depleted by the very people that were supposed to manage it for them; their father and the trust fund board.  From their fund everything the government was saying they were providing, the sisters were actually paying for.  It was a strange upbringing brought about by a greedy government that interfered in the lives of a family when they saw potential for big dollars.  By taking over, it allowed the exploitation of 5 little children, power struggles between government, the family and appointed care givers.  Media manipulated a public who was in the throes of a depression and fed on their need to have something hopeful and happy to grasp onto.  After two of the siblings passed away they disappeared from the public eye. This particular book looks at the sister's 1990's step back into the spotlight after years avoiding it to fight with the Ontario government to get what should have been rightfully theirs to begin with.

This book is older, published in 1999, but I was curious about their story.  It is heartbreaking, totally unbelievable in today's thinking.  It's a story of greed gone wrong, prejudices and views of the time, a public looking for something good in life to the point they were willing to overlook what was really happening, and a quest for justice. The author not only gave their childhood background, but also through conversations with the 3 surviving sisters looked at the how their adult lives were anything but a fairy tale as all were living in poverty with many issues.  The author of the book, as a journalist, covered their story of pursuing justice and it helped cause a public outcry to force Ontario's government at the time to pay them what was due them.   Very readable, super interesting and because of it's unbelievable happenings, it was hard to put down.  I finished it in a couple of days.

I gave it a 8.5/10

Orchard of Hope by Ann H. Gabhart ~ Book Review

Orchard of Hope is the 2nd book in the Holyhill Series.  It picks up and continues the story of young Jocie Brooks (started in Scent of Lilacs reviewed here).    Lots is changing in the lives of the Brooke family and in the town of Holyhill.  Jocie is starting high school, her sister Tabitha is about to have her baby, her father may just be falling in love with a wonderful lady, Wes has moved into their home while he recuperates from his shattered leg, which Jocie feels totally responsible for). On top of all this a new family has moved into town and bought the farm land from a loving older couple, hoping to turn it into an apple orchard.  But trouble starts when people realize the family is not only black but the Mom was heavily involved in protests in the big city they were from and is not about to back down from a civil rights confrontation.  In fact, she almost seems to invite it.   Not only is the town on pins and needles but so is the church as what is really in the hearts of the people starts to rise to the surface and the close knit town starts to see divides forming.

I loved this second book in the series.  Just like the first book, I loved all the characters.  The introduction of the Hearndon family made the story really take a whole other turn, a good one, as the town and it's individuals must face what is in their own hearts.  The orchard of hope, as the family calls the farm they are turning into an apple orchard, is their father's fresh start from everything happening in the bigger city where they are from.  Jocie's father hires the young boy from the family to help at the newspaper while Wes recovers but as he finds out, not everyone thinks he should have.  While the book takes on racial discrimination it also tackles the subject of guilt and forgiving oneself so that you can move on in life.  Like the first book, this is not abook that jumped from action packed chapter to action packed chapter, though it did have some,  but was beautiful story telling.  I gave it a 10/10

The Truth Teller by Angela Hunt

Lara Godfrey's beloved husband died unexpectedly from a horrible bone cancer not long after they were married.  They had very much wanted children so they took steps when he became ill to make sure that that could happen in case all the cancer treatments interfered with their ability to conceive.  But now Michael is dead and Lara, after thinking long and hard and praying about it decides to go ahead with the procedure that would allow her to get pregnant by Michael's child.  She wants nothing more than to have his baby and have a part of him still with her.  And as it turns out Lara works as a physician assistant at a woman's clinic and the husband of the doctor she works for and is friends with is a genetic scientist.  So Lara asks him to check if Michael's cancer genes would be passed on to any offspring.  Assuring her that he eradicated those genes, the doctor goes ahead with the procedure and Lara finds herself pregnant.  When a local celebrity millionaire in her area, a proclaimed bachelor, announces that he is expecting his first child through a surrogate, he is the talk of the coffee room at Lara's clinic.  But when he starts showing up at the clinic, some start to get a little suspicious and suspect Lara to be that surrogate.  When Lara starts to notice some odd discrepancies in her files, she starts to dig further and makes discoveries that put her and her unborn baby's life in danger.  As she deals with the fact she has been deceived by someone she trusted but she is being used as the surrogate for some experimental child that has consequences not only for her and the baby but possibly for the human race.  At first repulsed, now Lara will do anything to protect the child from the evil that waits to befall him.  Living in hiding, and growing and flourishing under his loving mother's fierce protection, the boy starts to show an unusual gift of sensing when other's are not telling the truth.  Now they are again on the run from those who would silence that gift.

This book was very unique.  It was edge of your seat, fascinating, thought provoking and suspenseful.  It explores very important issues of genetic manipulation, medical ethics and morals and their clash with science and research, the love of a mother, the value of life and children no matter their parentage and how far a mother would go to protect her children.  The book was first published in 1999 and it's messages are still important today, in fact, so much so that the publisher reintroduced in 2006.  What I loved about this story was that though it was based in scientific stuff it never bogged down, and kept it's pace from beginning to end.  It made me more aware about topics I never thought too much about before but it sure got me thinking now.  And of course, with Angela Hunt you get lots of twists and turns keeping you up way past one's bedtime to see what happens.  There is some good discussion questions for reading groups in the back.

I rated this 9.5/10

His Love Endures Forever by Beth Wiseman ~ Book Review

Danielle Kent and Matthew Lapp couldn't be more different. She's a young girl taken in by family friends when her left her. Martha and Arnold have raised Danielle for the last year or so as their own. Having no children of their own, they had no problem taking her under their wing when her alcoholic and abusive mom took off, leaving Danielle behind. Matthew is a young Amish man, from a very devout family. Matthew, though, longs to leave the Amish traditions behind and is making plans to go live with his cousin who has done the same. In Danielle's mind, this was perfect. She wanted nothing to do with God as she felt He wanted nothing to do with her. Matthew was going to leave the order so there would be no pressure on her to conform. But when she finds herself pregnant at 18, her knight in shining armor suddenly develops some rust when he runs away, leaving her to face her pregnancy on her own.

 Levi is Danielle's best friend. Much to Levi's mom's dismay, he and Danielle have a very close friendship and she is always afraid that the "Englisher" will take her son away from God and their way of life. Levi, himself, loves the Amish life and always planned to stay in the area and marry and raise his children in the Amish ways. He's always told his mom they are just friends. But when Danielle finds herself in trouble and feeling all alone, Levi feels God has other plans for them but it would mean giving up everything he's planned for his life.

 This was a sweet, Amish fiction read that had much depth to it from an author I love. Danielle's struggles are ones that a lot of young people find themselves with nowadays. I loved the themes of friendship, trusting God and His plans, having faith to follow God's leading, forgiveness, sacrifice, love and family that ran through this story. Loved the characters and how they worked through their stuff as the story moved on.

Rating:  9/10

Chasing Fireflies by Charles Martin

I am having a hard time doing a small recap on what this story is about.  There was so much depth to this story that it is hard being brief and not giving things away.  As all of this author's stories, it has many layers.   It is about searching for the truth and where one belongs, it's about secrets and lies and truth rising to the surface, abuse, compassion on the lost and hurting no matter where they've been,  it's about brokenness, forgiveness and redemption, it's about life and death and loss and finding one's self, it's about what you do with the life and circumstances you've been dealt and ultimately it is a story of placing value on people no matter where they've been.

The main characters lives are interwoven through the contemporary story line and through a previous history story line of one of the characters.  Chase Walker is a reporter who grew up never knowing his family but raised in a loving foster home where he was eventually adopted.  But the drive to know who his father was and the truth about his abandonment has driven him his whole life, even to the choosing of his profession which he figured give him access to information to help him find answers.  Willie, or "Unc", as he's referred to by Chase, is a man who is compassionate towards children who have had a hard life.  He too has had a hard past with loss and betrayal but it has only made him more of a loving person, even as the town and members of his own family look down on him.  The other main character is a small boy who has suffered horrific abuse.  He is unable to talk but can draw with great skill in order to communicate.  They nickname him Sketch no one, not even the boy himself seems to know his real name.  As Chase and Willie try to unravel the mystery that Sketch is and where he has come from and to whom he belongs, they must both confront their own issues of brokenness, abandonment and pain.

I'll not lie, the prologue and some parts of the story that involved the young boy were absolutely heartbreaking and not easy to read.  Nor was the story line of a secondary female character who is a longtime friend of Chase and niece of Willie.  Her story line is also a painful one.  But the story is one of redemption and of love standing strong in the face of the worst of what life throws at some people.  All the characters are well written and relatable but Willie especially was wonderful.  His southern sayings bought a levity to the story that brought smiles even in the midst of their truth.  As always Charles Martin's words and story telling ability drew me right in.  His phrasing and pacing were right on target and every emotion was drawn out of me, the reader.  This story was sad yet beautiful and filled with hope.

I gave it a 9/10

The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler ~ Book Review

A young woman named Lily Azerov is coming to Canada from a war torn Europe. Her finance, a man whom she has only communicated with through letters, is to pick her up at the Montreal train station. But when Sol lays eyes on Lily, he turns and leaves. His brother Nathan, sees Lily and has compassion on her and decides right then to marry her. As they try to build a life together, Sol starts to regret letting her go. But Lily has some secrets she has brought with her and she finds fitting into the family difficult. Even after she has a baby, she can't quite shake the depression and guilt that has hounded her so she decides to leave without telling anyone.

 As Lily and Nathan's daughter, Ruth, grows she has many questions about the mother she doesn't remember. The only clues she has are a diary and an uncut diamond. But no one seems to have any answers, not even her Dad who has never spoken a negative word against Lily. But as she starts to dig and connect some dots she finds that life intertwines families in more ways than can be seen just from the surface.

 This book was not what I expected but it was a really good read. It was written by a Canadian author, which I didn't know when I picked it up. It was most enjoyable to me because of all the mentions of Canadian cities and places. It even mentioned the river that runs through my city. I also enjoyed the references to the cutting of diamonds and the subtle comparisons of that to life. It's a tale of survival, of starting anew, of how hidden secrets change the direction of lives other than the secret keeper's, of the desire and need to know one's roots, of the ties of family.

 The mystery of Lily is embedded in World War II and moves itself into the Jewish community of Montreal, Canada. It offers the reader the hope that out of devastation, one can still have love and family. It is not a fast paced read but more of a study of character and the events that shape us into who we are.  I gave it a 8.5/10

The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by Catharina Ingelman Sundberg ~ Book Review

Martha Andersson is 79 years old and living at a seniors home in Stockholm. In her mind, things are just going downhill there. The food is getting worse, they are being rationed and are basically locked in...all cost cutting measures the owner feels he needs to establish. With the help of the main nurse who is trying to gain a partnership and a husband, they have gone too far in Martha's estimation. To her, the seniors are being treated as children. So she decides to enlist her four friends from the home to start rebelling against the establishment. Naming themselves the League of Pensioners, they start an uproar by not going to bed when they are supposed to, breaking into the staff kitchen after hours to make themselves better tasting meals, etc. All pretty harmless until they start to devise a plan to fund what they think will be a better retirement plan than living at that home. Even a year or so in prison would be better than their current situation, or so they figure.

 I really enjoyed this hilarious crime caper involving senior citizens. It is translated from a Swedish author and has made the International Bestseller's list. I didn't find anything getting lost in the translation It's a humorous, silly, quirky and yet has a strong underlying message on how we as society view and treat our elderly. Throughout the book I kept imagining my 84 year old mom with her cane and walker attempting the biggest heist of the century and getting away with it. Martha and her gang have never done anything like this in their entire lives, but when they plan stealing rich peoples personal items at a fancy hotel they figure they have it planned down to the minutest detail. What could possibly go wrong? When they don't get quite what they thought they figure they will "kidnap" some priceless paintings from the art gallery and hold them for ransom. Stumping the best of the country's detectives, could things actually turn out as they hope?

 The story is written is such a light, engaging way that you are immediately drawn right into the lives of these seniors.  The main characters are written well and their individual personalities are all developed well even though their are actually about 8 main characters within the story.   I, as the reader,  was drawn to take a liking to every senior character. Even the must have "grumpy old man". And yet within the chaos and crime, there is a real underlying message of the worth and ability of even the most elderly and just because one is aging does not mean they want to be hidden away watching tv all day long. It also causes one to think of the mandates of senior residences and what each owner or foundation sees as important. The bottom line or care of the people who pay to live there. I realize each country runs things differently for it's senior citizens but it really does make one think about our attitudes and views. I found it a real fun read, perfect for summer. I noticed there is a second book continuing the story so I will be getting that for sure.  I gave this a good, solid 9/10.  I thought it could have wrapped up just a little bit sooner but still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Keep Quiet by Lisa Scottoline ~ Book Review

On the surface the Buckman's seem to be the perfect little family.  Jake is a financial planner who's fairly new business is doing well.  After having had a shocking lay off when he was an accountant he is finally back on his feet and moving forward career-wise.  His wife, Pam, is also on a great career path.  She is a appelate judge who loves her job and has just been offered a huge career opportunity.  Their only child, Ryan is in high school and is on track to earning a basketball scholarship with his talent and good grades.  The one thing marring everything is Jake's relationship with his son.  When he started the financial planning business, he devoted all his time to making it successful and his marriage and relationship with his son suffered.  Now after counselling his marriage is doing well but he needs to work out the relationship with Ryan.  At Pam's suggestion he picks Ryan up from the movies so he can have some alone time with him and against his better judgement he allows Ryan to talk him into letting him drive the car.  At 16, Ryan is quite capable but his partial license has time restrictions on it.  But Jake wanting to keep the bonding open, thinks that the road they are on is deserted and therefore safe so after much pleading on Ryan's part he allows Ryan to take the wheel.  Then the unthinkable happens and Jake makes the split second decisions to protect Ryan's future at all costs and convinces Ryan to keep quiet.  But the life altering secret is eating away at both of them and it's events are threatening to blow it all up.  One lie leads to another and before Jake knows it the plan to keep Ryan protected might be the very thing that will destroy them all.

This was a very fast paced story.  The timeline is less than a week but so much happens within that timeline.  There was much to like about this book.  I liked the exploration of the father's role as provider and what happens when that is shattered.  I also liked the exploration of father/son relationships and the idea of how far would a parent go to protect their child.  I also liked the raw portrayal of guilt and shame and panic that Ryan is forced to live with and not reveal.  The story never let up.  That said, though,  other than Ryan, I did not like the characters at all.  Pam's character was what some call a helicopter mom, which in my circles is called a smother mother.  She micromanaged Ryan so much that it was driving me nuts and I had to periodically stop and remind myself that Ryan was actually 16 in the story and not 8.  She was also hypocritical.   I wanted to shake Jake at times as he dug them in further and further and just wouldn't stop even though he could see the weight of the secret was eating Ryan up.   I did like how this author though didn't hold back on the consequences of dishonesty.  Sometimes you see characters rewarded and not really paying consequences for their moral failures but this story did not hold back on that aspect...and I liked that.  For a reading group there would be much discussion opportunity on the various things brought out in this story.

I gave this a 8 out of 10

Review linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

In 1913, a 4 year old girl is found all alone on a dock in Australia by the Hugh, the dockmaster.  All she had was a little white suitcase with some clothes and a book of fairy tales.  When they couldn't find her family, Hugh and his wife Lil, take her in, name her Nellie as loved and raised her as their own daughter, never telling her about her past.  Now she's all grown up, engaged to be married and about to celebrate her 21st birthday.  Lil has passed away, and against Lil's wishes Hugh feels he must tell Nellie the truth.  As her world and her knowledge of who she is is set spinning, Nell breaks her engagement and sets herself on a quest to find who she really is.  With nothing to go on except the book of fairty tales, she heads off to England in pursuit of who the author is.  She never finishes her quest to find answers as her life takes another turn when she has to care for her teenage granddaughter.  But after Nell passes away,  her granddaughter, Cassandra, is surprised to learn Nell has left her a cottage located on the Cornish Coast.  Not knowing anything about this from Nell before hand, Cassandra heads to England to deal with the cottage but finds she too is taken up with the mystery that surrounds her grandmother.

I loved this story.  Though it is a hefty book at 548 pages, I found I couldn't put it down and finished it quite quickly.  A family saga that spans 3 generations the story is told in the narrative of 3 people from the 3 generations:  Eliza, Nell and Cassandra.  It's a maze of a story, kinda like the maze in the garden mentioned in the title, but is worth it to reach the end.  At first nothing seems to do with anything else, but the author brings it all together in lovely detail.  It's a complicated story but I found the author just drew me in with her descriptions and her ability to really make me feel for the main characters.  I mostly had a heart for Eliza whose story was heartbreaking and had me near tears quite a few times.  The mystery of who Nell really is grows as the story progresses and though I had a small inkling of who she was I never would have guessed the circumstances surrounding her beginning years.  Themes of identity, family history, friendship, family, entitlement, grief, loss, love and decisions affecting generations are all woven into the story beautifully.  Though usually as a reader I tend to  skip date/location notes at beginning of chapters for some reason, I would definitely suggest to make sure you take note of these as you read the story.  It really helps to move the story along and keep the timeline straight in one's thoughts as you read.

I gave this story a 10/10 because of the author's ability to draw me right in to all three women's stories and the involvement of my feelings the author was able to bring out.

Linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

Delilah - Treacherous Beauty by Angela Hunt

We all know the basic story Samson and Delilah.  But the bible itself gives a very little background to the infamous woman who brought Samson, the judge and strongman of Israel, down.  In this retelling, Angela Hunt has written the story of a young girl who's mother marries a Philistine business man and takes them from their home in Egypt to his home in Gaza.  Though her stepfather is loving and kind to her mother and herself, Delilah's stepbrother is another story.  Cruel and vindicitive, he takes every opportunity to make Delilah feel unwelcome.  When her stepfather dies suddenly only a few months later, Delilah's life changes for the worst as her stepbrother sells her mother as a slave and turns her into his prisoner, severely abusing her.  But Delilah is determined to make an escape and find her mother and buy her back so they can make their way back to their homeland.  Easier said than done, but an opportunity presents itself and Delilah grabs her chance.  But she must go without her mother as she has nothing.  When some Jewish traders take pity upon her and offer her help she goes with them vowing to someday return for her mother.  In her travels she comes across the legendary Samson, in the years to come knows she must turn to him to help her with her plans.  But she doesn't count on actually falling in love with the strongman and it all comes to a head when she must make a choice between love and ambition and revenge.

I really liked this story of Delilah.  Who has not wondered what was her story was and how she could do such a thing?  Not much historical or biblical fact is found about Delilah other than her betrayal of the mighty Samson.   But what in her past would bring her to a point that would make her go down in history as one of the greatest betrayers of all time?  Angela Hunt has imagined a young foreign girl viciously hurt by the circumstances of her life and trying desperately to put her life back together so when she sees opportunity she takes it.  She has taken the premise that "human nature demands that we rationalize our actions" (author's notes: pg 341) and woven both the motivations of Delilah and Samson through that.   The time of the judges of Israel and Samson's background was interestingly woven into the story and I learned a few things about that time and how women were treated.    The story is told in alternating chapters both from Delilah and from Samson's points of views.  And the same as with the building of the other biblical character's in this series, the author stuck close to the biblical story and to human nature and worked out from there.  Again it is to the reader's advantage to read the author's notes at the back that explain how the story was built.

I gave this third installment in the A Dangerous Beauty Novel series a 9/10.  

Black Ice by Linda Hall

Lenore Featherjohn is the owner of a local bread and breakfast in the town of Fog Point. It's the middle of winter and the town is experiencing a phenomenon that hasn't happened in a long, long time where the water is so frozen that it is breaking and forming statues. As such, she is busy in her B&B what with all the news people here to report on the event. Then one day she finds a young teenager whom no knows dead by her back door. The very back door that leads downstairs where her grown sons live. As she has done all their lives, in an effort to protect them from being accused, Lenore moves the body to a snowbank on the side of the driveway and put the hands in a prayer position. But now the "Snow Angel" is causing a whole slew of other problems as people come to pray and hope that the spot will heal them of their ills. May and Jake, the town's private detectives, get involved when May's name and phone number turn up in the dead girl's pocket. As tensions rise clues seem to point to the local minister's daughter knowing more than she is letting on.

 I picked this up in a used book store not realizing it was part of a series, even though it said series right on the cover. Oh well. But I recognized the name of the author and thought I had read some of her books before at some time. It is an older story story being published in 2007.  I thought I'd read it now because we were in the midst of our own winter, icy time and the mood just seemed perfect. It is a mystery that is filled with lots of suspense which is what kept the pages turning for me but not quite to the point where I was staying up late because I just couldn't put it down. There was a few story lines happening and sometimes it was just difficult to sort out and remember who everybody was. (I think maybe if I'd read the 1st book first that would have helped?) I found the aspect of people flooding to the spot the girl had died to get healed a little too far of a stretch for me. But the actual mystery and how it tied into the epilogue was very interesting. She also delved into the topic of loss of faith through the character of Amy. Amy grew up in a good Christian home, went to Christian schools and university, married a minister, did all the right things but somewhere along the way she had a loss of faith, or maybe she never really did have any but now in the midst of everything happening with her daughter, husband and the mystery girl she is coming face to face with her own crisis. Maybe because this is a series and will further be dealt with in another book, I thought this story line didn't wrap up for me. I'll have to check out the others in the series. I really thought the author did a wonderful job in exploring how some behaviors in people actually are hiding a deep hurt that they themselves don't even know how to define.  An interesting detail is that some of the story is set in a little town here in central Alberta called Barrhead.  I don't think I've come across a book that had an Albertan town as a setting.  Bonus for that!  All said it was an enjoyable read but not one that blew me away.

I gave it a solid 7.5/10

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