The Scent of Rain and Lightning

The Scent of Rain and Lightning, by Nancy Pickard

Jody Linder is famous in small town Rose, KS because when she was three years old, during a bad Kansas storm, her father was murdered, and her mother mysteriously disappeared.  But then 23 years after the incident, the main arrested and sent to prison is released, raising a whole bunch of new questions about what really happened that night.

There was a lot I liked about this.  Thunderstorms in Kansas kind of have their own special magic.  Maybe it's that way in all of the Midwest?  I don't know.  I am familiar with Kansas storms, so I liked that part of this book.

The ranch parts were interesting, which I know a little bit about (very, very little) just because of a friend of mine who's father does that sort of thing.

The original story was great.  After we got through the back story into the "present" it sort of got hard.  Jody was not likeable.  The entire Linder families single minded obsession with Billy being the murderer just made them all appear stupid and ... not racist (cause race isn't a factor) but elitest?  The author wanted us to think they were good people because "oh look they hired troubled youth out at their ranch but poor Billy couldn't be saved," but I just didn't buy it.  The author also took it a bit far.  Billy was such a bad seed he was almost a cartoon character.

It did not help that the reader knew Billy hadn't done it from very early on.

I think my public defender (in Kansas courts no less) friends should read this book.  They'd be appalled. Actually maybe they shouldn't read it, as it is sort of appalling how the rich family in the small town railroaded the poor, lower class guy with no family and he spent 23 years in jail because they were CERTAIN he was guilty.

The ending wasn't satisfactory.  I wanted some sort of vindication for Billy, but again, the cartoon character comes into play and he was just really guilty, just not of the particular crime he was accused of.

I gave this three stars on good reads, because it was interesting.  But not four because there were problems.

Fallen

Fallen, by Lauren Kate

Lucinda Price is sent to a reformatory school after a suspicious fire kills a boy in her class.  Here she meets a bunch of crazy people, including two boys, Cam and Daniel.  Cam is instantly nice to her and Daniel is a jerk.  Of course she likes Daniel best.

But the school kids are all dysfunctional and have wierd secrets.  And Luce has dreams about wings and flying and bright lights and sees scary shadows during the day, coming to get her.  Come to find out the secrets involve fallen angels, a 100 years battle between good and evil, and an old rule that angels can't fall in love with humans; ever.  Lest the powers that be get mad and the human dies.

So, as with all things YA lately, this is a triology (mayhap a series?  I think there are four?).  And that always makes the first book feel like a preface chapter, versuses a stand alone book.  Word to publishers: please quit taking books that only need one and turning them into three.  You artificially lengthen them and we, the readers, know it.

That being said, Fallen was good.  Not Harry Potter good, or even Twilight good, but good.  I didn't care for the way the author spelled the peoples names (how would you pronounce Arriane? Or even Luce?  Is that Luc-y?  Or Luce as in Loose?).  But the plot was inventive.  The common criticism I've read is that nothing happens until the final two chapters.  Sort of true.  Nothing is resolved.  In fact, I have more questions at the end of the book than I did in the middle.  Is Cam a good guy?  Or a bad guy?

But, like I said, it's a triology.  Torment is already out, and Passion comes out in June.  If I can get them from the library (how I read Fallen) I'll continue.  If not ...

The Help

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

It's 1962 in Jackson, MS.  Skeeter Phelan came home from Ole Miss trying to  be a writer, and a woman in NYC advises her to find a good idea.  Skeeter decides to write a novel about the black maids that raise white children in Jackson, and what happens to those children and those women after that caregiver relationship ends.  And how the maids are treated by the white women who pay them.

This book was really good.  I enjoyed reading about Aibileen and how she cares for the babies and Minny was hillarious and heartbreaking.

This time period is always hard for me to read about, as it just seems so foreign.  Like another planet.  Not the same country that I live in just 50 years earlier.  The segregation, the racism, the crazy Junior League women who think they run the world.  Oh wait those women still exist.

I tease but it was hard to read.  Worth reading, but hard to read.  I've recommended it to the bookclub I'm in.

My only complaint would be the ending, though I'm not sure why.  I found myself turning another page, looking for the rest.  I don't know what would have made me happy.  But it was so sad and heartbreaking.  I really felt for the characters.

Something Blue

Something Blue, by Emily Giffin

Darcy Rhone thought she had it all figured out: the more beautiful the girl, the more charmed her life. Never mind substance. Never mind playing by the rules. Never mind karma. But Darcy's neat, perfect world turns upside down when her best friend, Rachel, the plain-Jane good girl, steals her fiance, while Darcy finds herself completely alone for the first time in her life with a baby on the way.

Darcy tries to recover, fleeing to her childhood friend living in London and resorting to her tried-and-true methods for getting what she wants. But as she attempts to recreate her glamorous life on a new continent, Darcy finds that her rules no longer apply.


It is only then that Darcy can begin her journey toward self-awareness, forgiveness, and motherhood. Something Blue is a novel about one womans surprising discoveries about the true meaning of friendship, love, and happily-ever-after. It's a novel for anyone who has ever, even secretly, wondered if the last thing you want is really the one thing you need.  FROM GOODREADS.
 
I read Something Borrowed for a book club in December and just finished this second one yesterday.  I enjoyed this one much more than I did the first.  And I think that's because I could root for the characters in this story, and in the first one I kind of thought they all stunk.
 
Darcy's transformation was believable, and her romance was too.  I liked it bunches.  The pregnancy stuff was interesting to me too, but I think that's just because I can relate to that stage of life.
 
Definitely a good beachy read or if you want something fun and feel-goody.  You have to read the first one though, because this does not stand alone.

ReReads: The Host and Breaking Dawn

So my book club choose The Host for the book to read for the February meeting.  I had read it two years ago (see linked review) but I wanted to reread it so I could talk intelligently about it, and with details.  I just finished it again today.

But before I read that one, I reread Breaking Dawn, because it was available for download to my iphone from the public library, and I've needed an Edward fix.

I have to say, I enjoyed Breaking Dawn a lot more the second time.  I could still do without just about everything after she turns into a vampire.  Actually, I can pinpoint it better than that.  Everything after Irina sees the baby in the forest.  Everything after that is crap.

But the 500 pages before that were enjoyable.

The Host, I enjoyed less the second time around.  I remembered LOOOVING it so I think I had no where to go but down.  I still liked it.  But the simplicity of it really bothered me.  Meyer took such the lazy way out with the science of the medicine, specifically.  It really bothered me.  "Smooth?"  Really?  "No Pain?"  Really?  And even when decribing other planets, she kept saying over and over again, "the word for it in this language is, chases bears by river, but it has a much prettier name in their language."  Being able to say that is sort of a cop out, isn't it?

Still ... I enjoyed it again.  Would recommend it again.  The wierd love quaderangle is fun.

Matched

Matched, by Ally Condie

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.  - From GoodReads

This is probably the best book I've read in a while.  At least since November.  The society was fascinating but also, scarily realistic.  I could easily see how some of the things we're even doing today evolve into the programs talked about in this book.  (Which is of course, I think, how the author gets there herself).

Cassia was really likeable, and I grew with her.  From her blind acceptance of this is how things her, to the point in which she goes, "hey this isn't fair," to her desire to resist.  It all flowed beautifully.  The relationships were just very well written.

And best of those, the love story was believable and I saw it develop organically.  It made SENSE given the scenarios the teenagers were in.  That was so refreshing.  Most YA novels these days, girl sees guy and WHAM - instantly just loves him.

This book was not like that.

Also, I know the summary sort of eludes to a love triangle.  But it was not like that.  Cassia did not start out loving Ky, she knew she was Matched with Xander.  She wanted to start her life with Xander, she was excited about that.  But as her friendship with Ky grows, she starts to realize that Xander was never HER choice, someone had choosen him for her, from the very beginning.  She doesn't really have a "I love him, no I love him" dialogue (which I appreciated).  The only conflict (I thought) is between her desire to maintain the status quo, and find her independence.

My other favorite part ... that learning to write is the turning point.  Throughout history, it seems to me that writing, books, learning are the first things that people start to demand when they want to be free.  It was cool.  I don't even know how to explain what I'm thinking here.

This book makes me think about banning books and burning books.  Governments that control people are always burning books, keeping people ignorant.  You can not be free and keep people from books.  Any books.  I also found it intriguing that the Society picked 100 books, 100 poems, 100 paintings, 100 songs ... and that was all there was.  So sad.

As with all books these days, this is part of a trilogy (why make money on one when you can make money on three - rolls eyes).  The second one comes out in the Fall.  I don't know how I'm going to stand it.

Because I HAVE to find out what happens next.  Seriously.

The Matchmakers

The Matchmakers, Jennifer Colgan

This was free via Amazon for the Kindle, which is super fun.  It got good reviews so I said sure, why not.  Something to read while rocking Grady.

Our story is, Calliope is a Faerie who's been punished for ... something.  Anyway, her punishment is that she has to match three people in true love before the Oak Moon or she will lose love forever.  Freya, the Faerie Queen, tells her she has to have Nick (human) help her or he will lose love forever too.  Why, I never quite worked out.  But, there it is.

Parts of the writing were a bit rough and elementary.  And I'm noticing that these freebies or (independent works) are not as well edited as the glossier, main stream tomes.  Which is okay, I can move past most of them.  And this book by far was better edited than some I've skimmed through.

It was a sweet story and, aside from one scene, surprisingly chaste.  Which I appreciated.  You never know what you're going to get.  I'd look for other work by this lady.  At the moment she's not my favorite ... but the price is right and it was entertaining and it didn't hurt to get through it.