Nathan_G

This is an interesting story about a plant shop owner. After having her own bad experiences with boys and men, she listens to and helps other women in bad, possibly abusive situations. This, while always friendly and ready to assist a customer or simply provide plant advice.

It is interesting seeing things from her perspective, and how she accomplishes her goals. In several ways, unfortunately, the story seemed incomplete. After a detective becomes fixated on her and looking for evidence of any wrong-doing, the story seems to end without resolving this.

For those who like time travel stories, Time Travel for Beginners is a worthy addition to the genre. Imagine that time travel to the past can be performed with no effect on the present, and that this is all done in a low key fashion in a walk-in store. There is plenty of personal drama with parenting, romance, and sibling rivalry. Lots of self-doubt and wondering whether one can trust one's own memories.

There are a number of characters, and at times things seem confusing and contradictory, but it ultimately makes sense.

The Insomniacs is a combination of mystery, romance, and thriller.

A group of three sleepless New Yorkers find each other on an online message board and agree to meet up in the middle of the night at a 24-hour diner. They soon all become good friends even though they are all strangers to each other. The waitress at the diner is adopted into their group, and now there are four.

All are at quite different stages of their lives and in different living situations. Despite knowing little about each other, soon they are involved in each other's daily lives, with one accepting an offer to stay in a guest room in the other's palatial-sized apartment.

All proceeds amicably until one receives a warning to "RUN", and another turns up dead from a hit-and-run accident on the same night. While all are aghast at this turn of events, the one receiving the warning has apparently vanished, and maybe the accident was not one?

This was a very enjoyable read, allowing one to be drawn into the tired world of the insomniac characters.

The main character, Greer, is the daughter of the current owner of a very popular summer camp who recently passed away. The camp it self was founded by her grandfather. She seemed very impulsive and easily susceptible to persuasion (though she may disagree) and it was often hard to predict what she was going to do next.

It was a bit confusing to me as to who was who for a while. I felt we were left without introductions to several of the characters.

The story is told via a present day visit to the camp, which is the backdrop for the whole story, and many flashbacks to another fateful visit 5 years earlier. While this works, for the most part, one of the major secrets that we are left wondering about through most of the book, it turned out she knew the whole time but as the reader we don't learn of until one of the last flashbacks.

As a whole, the book was entertaining, though it seemed a bit long, and there were some inconsistencies.

I received an advance reader copy through BookBrowse.

This was a very unusual, but enjoyable, book to read. It is about a situation which is sort of a combination of personal dilemmas, spirituality, romance (with an LGBT slant), mystery, and a life-threatening monster.

After Jo receives a call from a long out of touch college friend who lives on a small island off of Maine for help regarding a possible problem with a jellyfish (her specialty), her world is turned upside down when she travels to the island.

During all that happens, Jo is frequently experiencing memories and guilt regarding her good friend Aldo, who perished during a scuba diving outing with her less than a year earlier, for which she blames herself. Aldo was also a jellyfish expert, but in a different line of work. She often would like to consult with him and considers what he would do if he were in this situation.

Jo's first problem is to find and see the possible jellyfish, but after doing so, there is no turning back, and she acquires many more problems.

The Secret Lives of Murderer's Wives was an enjoyable read. There are certainly some twists and turns, though I think I had a small inkling about the outcome in advance. While it was difficult for me to tell the main characters apart for a bit, they are clearly distinct individuals.

Beverly, while raising kids, seems to be quite prone to wild imaginings and periods of self blame and doubt (in a way that almost made me cringe). Elsie is undervalued in her position at a newspaper, treated like a secretary. Margot works in a clothing store, just
trying to make ends meet.

They meet regularly together as friends, and then try to guess at things regarding a bunch of unconnected murders taking place nearby.