The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
Purchased

A dark family saga of three sisters and their mother Annie. Elv, Claire and Meghan Story are very close almost eerie in thoughts and looks, though they are plagued by sadness and tend to live in a make believe world. As children the girls spun fairy tales, even creating their own language but an encounter of sexual abuse sends Elv spiraling into years of drug addiction and painful self-abuse. Tragedy and death befalls the family—heartbreaking and beautiful, an unforgettable story of sorrow and love.

This is by far my favorite from Alice Hoffman; the characters had so much depth and intrigue I found myself unable to put down. I cried a lot reading this, it’s so sad yet told so exquisitely I couldn't help but feel lost in the novel while reading it. The book is a story of loss told through physical, mental and emotional death. I was drawn to Elv the oldest sister, even during her downward spiral and mindless addiction to drugs, the stories within her were fascinating. I am not one for spoilers, but I must share my favorite scene in the book which wont give anything away. When Elv meets Lorry, (the twisted train wreck of a man who sweeps her away) I realized I wasn't even half way through the book and almost did a back flip because now thrown into this family saga was going to be a heart pounding or breaking love story.

The normal setting but the magical events just sucked me in. I loved that Hoffman wove real life family issues throughout the sister’s fairytale world making this novel read almost like a fairytale itself with the beautiful descriptions of Paris and the magic world of faeries and knights.

The Shack by William P. Young
Bought

The Shack follows the story of Mackenzie a man who is healing from the abduction and murder of his daughter Missy, who's body is found in an abandoned Shack. Four years later Mackenzie finds a note inviting him for a weekend meeting at the shack. The note says its from God but Mackenzie believes its the killer come to taunt him, ready to meet this man and having thoughts to kill him he heads out to face his fears and the horror which happened to his beloved Missy in the shack.

 Sunshine by Robin McKinley
-Borrowed From Library

Sunshine is kidnapped by Vampires one night while talking a midnight walk and meets Constantine a vampire while both being held captive in a ballroom.

Then starts a little game between him and Rae who are both chained to walls that involves staring, mind games and temptation. During this ordeal she has a flashback and remembers her grandmother's lessons at the lake about magic gifts and saves herself and the vampire, giving them a unique and disturbing bond..

Sunshine was a very interesting story, I don't think I've read anything like McKinley, she has a taste and spice completely her own. Rae (Sunshine) I liked from page one, I could just see her in that bakery kneading dough baking her cinnamon rolls and going through the mundane of life. Hers seemed simple enough but Rae knew there was something else. Deep down her life wasn't just yummy treats and Monday night movies at moms. Jumping into this world was a lot more creepy and the vampire Constantine was much darker then most vampires Im drawn to. Con for the most part is a background character but he was my favorite in the book, he was pivotal in the story told from Sunshine's perspective.

The book was good in a sense that I liked the whole vampire slayer weird love story, but it was bad in the sense that I got really confused at the end...did anyone else think what in tarnation is going on when they were walking through the tunnels and other worlds and fighting vampires and everything was crazy!! The writing was hard to make sense of during that bizarre chapter of the book. Otherwise the ending left me wanting more. No sequel or continued story's have been planned I guess the author left it in the minds of the readers to wonder what becomes of Constantine and Sunshine.......

A great mix of humor, dark romance, mystery and thrills.

4/5- Adult PNR- Vampires

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Purchased

Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
-Library

Synopsis

When Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe’s daughter, Willow, is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, they are devastated – As the family struggles to make ends meet to cover Willow’s medical expenses, Charlotte thinks she has found an answer. She files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her ob/gyn –who is her best friend and thats just the beginning of this familys crazy drama.

Thoughts: (My First Book Review)
Where do I start with this book....The subject matter was touchy but made you think about things most people don't like to think about. This author has the best talent at making you love or hate her characters and Charlotte is one of the worst ones Ive had the pleasure to read about!!!

She was selfish and at points so confusing to me, I was mad at her and then felt sorry for her. The whole family dynamic was just a big train wreck waiting to happen...you could just see them falling off a cliff as the story unfolded. I could not stand what Charlotte did to her kids, her husband and her best friend. For the most part I really didn't like any of the characters except for Willow (the disabled child) Sean was vague, not a lot of depth to connect to him so I really wasn't concerned with him as much as I was being ticked off at Charlotte! Amelia was over the top, I understand her problems itself are serious but I thought she had to many issues piled on her at one time. Points of this book with all the issues going on had my head spinning thinking "WHAT NOW". Piper seemed strong but them fizzled out as the story progressed and Miran, although I understood where her story was going the dark side of adoption, I just didn't get it. I'm thinking the whole time okay if we are going to explore both sides of the abortion issue why are we making the adopted daughter of horrific events? The verdict...predictable with where the story was going but made no sense that the jury would come to that.


So now we must discuss the ending.... I know Picoult has a tendency for the shocking and the "I did not see that one coming" moment. Now don't get me wrong Jodi is an amazing writer and I thought it was written very well but I HATED (and hate is a strong word for me) the end it left me with a bad taste in my mouth just like Charlotte's weeping desserts!!!


Definitely worth reading and will have your head spinning by the end.
3/5 Stars