Book #69 Swimming in the Moon: A Novel by Pamela Schoenewaldt

Set in the early 1900's, Swimming in the Moon is the tale of fourteen year old Lucia and her mother's sudden immigration from Italy to America. Lucia was conceived through rape when her mother, Teresa, was just fourteen herself. Although they live a pretty good life as servants in a villa on the Bay of Naples things go badly when Teresa snaps at the count she serves so severely the mother and daughter are forced to run away and leave Italy altogether.

It is Lucia's idea to leave the only home she has ever know for the promises American offers. Leaving their old identities behind, Lucia and Teresa end up in Cleveland. They try to stay together with Teresa working in a chocolate factory while Lucia tries desperately to earn a high school diploma but Teresa's sudden rage issues soon get in the way of her holding a normal job. There is hope though, Teresa's beautiful voice lands her a spot in a traveling vaudeville show. Teresa takes the job as it is the only way Lucia can stay in school and out of the factories. This move however leaves Lucia all alone in a boarding house. Luckily people love Lucia and she has many supporters and through them Lucia learns of the many horrors of factory working life and soon strives to help her friends and neighbors, fellow immigrants like herself, to be treated justly and humanely. The real conflicts come as Lucia has to find a way to survive the workers strike, a cruel hard winter, disease and her own mother's eventual mental breakdown.

I was completely engrossed in this story. I really like period pieces and immigration stories and thought the scenarios in this book were completely believable. Also the characters are very well written. The author has another book out titled When We Were Strangers and I am very interested to read that one as well.

Book #68 Fall Into Me by Julia London

I won this book through first reads on goodreads.
This book was previously published as American Diva.

Audrey LaRue is a brand new pop star still getting use to her new life. While being commissioned for a private party concert weekend Audrey meets Jack, he is handsome and treats her like a normal person something Audrey sorely needs. Audrey tries to forgot about Jack and focus on her career and her long time boyfriend Lucas. The spark in their relationship has begun to fizzle as Lucas has taken control of Audrey's career and seems more interesting in using her stardom to launch his own music career than in his love for her. Conflict arises as Audrey starts receiving threatening letters and Lucas hires Jack to head Audrey's security team on her up coming two month national tour.

I haven't read the first two books in this series but that wasn't a problem at all. Very easy to jump right in but I think I will pick up the first two books in the series. Honestly at first I thought I wasn't going to like this book, the pop star diva thing isn't my cup of tea generally, but I ended up enjoying it a lot.

I wanted to strangle various characters at various times in the story but that isn't always a bad thing, it adds drama! The love interest side of the story was exciting and the sexual tension/moments were pretty hot. However I was a little disappointed that the suspenseful part (the stalker issue) wasn't very suspenseful. There is no mystery on the identity of the stalker and the whole stalker storyline takes a backseat to the romance/relationship drama. At times I even forgot this conflict even existed.

So if you are looking for a whodunit tale this book is not for you. If you are into romance and sexual tension, Fall Into Me fits the bill.

Children's Books: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

I'm going to try something new here: I have two kids and I read to them almost every night so let's talk about kid's books shall we? I saw this book at our library on a Newberry Medal winners poster so I picked it up to read to my 10 year old.

This is the story of Lucky, age 10. She lives in the Mojave Desert in a small town of just 43 persons called Hard Pan. When she was 8 her mother died and she never knew her father. Upon hearing of the mother's death, Lucky's father asks his ex-wife Brigitte to come over from France to care for Lucky until foster care can be arranged. However it is now two years later and Brigitte is still stuck in Hard Pan acting as Lucky's guardian.  

Lucky has a job in town cleaning up the mess left behind from various twelve-step anonymous group members. She eaves drops on some of the meetings and hears a lot of people mentioning hitting rock bottom and finding their higher power in order to pick themselves back up again. She gets obsessed with trying to figure out exactly what a higher power is and how she can find her own. After various events Lucky becomes certain that Brigitte wants to return to France and that she will end up in an orphanage, being separated from her dog, HMS Beagle, and the only friends she has ever known in the process. This drives Lucky to take drastic measures like running away. She has a well thought out plan that includes her bulging survival kit backpack, but she doesn't plan on the dust storm that occurs while she is navigating the harsh desert landscape.

My daughter and I both loved this book. Lucky is a tough and curious child, she fancies herself as a scientist rather than a princess and I found that to be very refreshing. There were some tough moments in the story, like when Lucky talks about scattering her mother's ashes. That was particularly hard since we had done just that with my mother's ashes this past Mother's Day. I tried to hold it together but failed miserably which lead to my daughter wrapping her arms around me while crying quietly herself (she is a wonderful child). In the end though my daughter wanted to hear more of Lucky and Hard Pan but I told her that was it just one book, however I have discovered there are two more books turning this into "The Hard Pan Trilogy". I haven't told her yet but I have already picked up book #2 Lucky Breaks from the library. 

Quote:
“Because sometimes Lucky wanted to change everything, all the bad things that had happened, and sometimes she wanted everything to stay the same forever.”

Book #61, Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick

The blurs (taken from goodreads):

There are stories where the girl gets her prince, and they live happily ever after. (This is not one of those stories.)

Jenna Lord’s first sixteen years were not exactly a fairytale. Her father is a controlling psycho and her mother is a drunk. She used to count on her older brother—until he shipped off to Afghanistan. And then, of course, there was the time she almost died in a fire.

There are stories where the monster gets the girl, and we all shed tears for his innocent victim. (This is not one of those stories either.)

Mitch Anderson is many things: A dedicated teacher and coach. A caring husband. A man with a certain... magnetism.

And there are stories where it’s hard to be sure who’s a prince and who’s a monster, who is a victim and who should live happily ever after. (These are the most interesting stories of all.)

Drowning Instinct is a novel of pain, deception, desperation, and love against the odds—and the rules.

Wow what a ride. I loved the way this book was written. It starts off with our narrator, sixteen year old Jenna, in the E.R. having just been pulled out of a frozen lake. The story continues from there through Jenna's words on a detective's tape recorder telling the events that led up to this moment during the last four months or so.

**Spoilers**
I feel weird saying this (because you know student/teacher relationships are bad okay) but I really liked Jenna and Mitch together. They were a pretty perfect match. I was kind of disappointed by the Mitch lying/stalking bit at the end. I was hoping he would be a good guy all the way through but honestly the stalking didn't bother me that much. Wait let me explain! Because through the whole book I kept expecting Jenna to go online and try to find info on Mitch and Kathy. I was really surprised that she never did and since Mitch had well.. it put him more on Jenna's level to me rather than an obsessive level. I did not like his lying though, it did not make sense to lie about siblings and such if you planned to be with someone since the truth would come out eventually. Well actually since these lies were told when they barely knew each other maybe Mitch was just being awkward and trying to relate to Jenna to get to know her better. As you can tell I am confused about how I feel about him!

All I know is that I do not see him fully as a bad guy. Mitch and Jenna both are so mentally and emotionally messed up that despite the age difference I see them as equals rather than victim and predator. I will tell you that open endings bug the hell out of me. I really wished we knew what happened to Mitch, if he was telling the truth about his time with Kathy and his reasons for lying to Jenna. Oh! And what happens to Jenna's mom?? Having had an alcoholic mother myself, I really understood Jenna's relationship with her mother.

Quote:  
“Everybody breaks sooner or later, Bob. Anyone can drown. Sometimes you see it. Most often, you
don’t because the body protects and the skin hides, so drowning doesn’t look like drowning and some
people scar so nicely. Take it from an expert.”

Book #60, The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis

The blurb (taken from goodreads):

 "A good girl.
A bad boy.
A fairy tale that's true.
A truth that is no fairy tale.

It begins the day Anna finds the child's doll on the floor of the student lounge. When it's claimed by Abel, the school drug dealer, Anna becomes determined to learn more about this mysterious boy with the military haircut and deep blue eyes. She follows him after school and discovers a secret: Abel is caring for his six-year-old sister, Micha, alone. Anna listens in as he tells her a fairy tale, the story of a little orphan queen pursued by hunters across the oceans for the treasure she carries: her pure, diamond heart.

It's a story with parallels to reality. Social services and Micha's abusive father could take her from Abel if they discover the truth.

Despite friend's warnings, Anna is drawn to Abel and Micha, and falls under the spell of the story of the little queen and her desperate voyage.

But when people Abel has woven into his tale turns up dead, it's Anna whose heart is in danger. Is she in love with a killer? And has she set out on a journey from which there is no return?"

Wow. I loved this book, couldn't put it down. The Storyteller is so beautifully and vividly written that I had no trouble immersing myself in this world. The story takes place in the wintertime and even though it was over 90 degrees here today I wanted to curl up with a hot cup of tea and a blanket reading this book.

I love how Abel explained to Anna (and Micha) about his and Micha's life through storytelling. It reminded me a lot of my favorite movie "The Fall" (staring Lee Pace). If you have not seen it, you must! It is the tale of a stuntman from the silent film era who is hurt and maybe be paralyzed. He is depressed lying around in the hospital when he befriends another patient: a cute little girl with the sweetest accent. She comes around often to hear pieces of an epic story but Roy manages to string sweet Alexandria along promising her more of the story if she brings him strong medications from the medicine room. The film took four years to film and was shot in 28 countries. It is a truly beautiful film.

Back to The Storyteller. This is definitely not a lighthearted read and although I wanted more happiness and found myself questioning what the characters could have done differently to come to a different conclusion, there isn't a thing I would change. Also I feel this is more of an adult book than a YA book, there is some very serious material in here so I highly suggest mature readers only. All in all I really look forward to exploring other works by Antonia Michaelis she is a very talented writer.

Quote:
 “Go away princess. Leave your outlaw alone. You won't change him... go away, Anna, far away, and don't ever come back. The fairy tale doesn't have a happy ending.”