July Books, Part Two

The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper. Typically I love a medical memoir. However, this one really fell flat for me. The author is a black woman who has had some rough times in her past, which were alluded to, but not explored in any depth. She got through college, medical school, and her residency and has had a number of jobs working at various hospitals, mainly working in emergency medicine. Her personal life has been disappointing to her, and during the time she was writing this memoir she was attempting to heal from her past experiences, so there was quite a lot of introspection. A good medical memoir, for me, will have lots of patient anecdotes and you would think an emergency room doctor would have plenty of those to share. The book, however, had a complaining tone and not nearly enough stories of her life in the ER. It was more about the failures of the healthcare system, hospital administration, and her disappointments with her colleagues and patients. Dr. Harper felt she was treated unfairly most of the time due to racial inequality, which may have been true, but wasn't what I was wanting from this book. Two stars.

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn.  I am a big fan of Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia Grey books and was excited that she had started a new series featuring Veronica Speedwell. Veronica Speedwell is a lady adventurer/lepidopterist in Victorian times. Her butterfly collecting takes her all over the world where she has numerous romantic dalliances with exotic foreign men, brazenly flouting Victorian custom. Veronica is a Victorian day feminist and meets her match when she becomes acquainted with Revelstoke Templeton-Vane, better known as Stoker. Stoker is a very down on his luck son of a viscount and exotic adventurer. He and Veronica have many qualities in common, the most obvious being that they are both rebels, adventurers, and rather unlikable. The main complaint that I have read in other reviews is that the main characters are so disagreeable. I found their quibbling banter entertaining and thought their backstories explained their unconventional and feisty temperaments. There is a mystery involved in the story, with malicious bad guys inexplicably stalking Veronica. It turns out she has relatives in high places who wish her out of the way. It was a rollicking story and I look forward to reading more in the series.  It's only $2.99 on Amazon for Kindle, why not give it a try?  Four stars.

The Sun Sister by Lucinda Riley.  I absolutely adore this series. Electra is the sixth adopted sister in the d'Apliese family. She is of African descent and is working in Manhattan as a supermodel. At first, I found the character to be selfish and annoying but was drawn into the story of her substance abuse and recovery. The author touches on so many themes: addiction, religious tolerance, race relations, war, infidelity, out of wedlock pregnancy. The narration goes between the past (1940's Kenya) and present (2008 Manhattan). Electra ultimately explores her Kenyan roots and finds new meaning in her present-day life. The story did drag on quite a bit more than necessary, and some of the issues the book brought up were wrapped up too quickly. The ending was extremely rushed, and felt slapped on abruptly as if the editor said "Ok, enough already Lucinda, let's bring this to a close". I am still giving it five stars because in spite of its length I didn't want the book to end and am completely committed to the series. 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Extremely creepy. In the best possible way. I have read other Shirley Jackson stories (The Haunting of Hill House and The Lottery are her best known) but somehow missed this one. I picked it up and read it over a couple of days. Merricat and her sister Constance live in their elegant but deteriorating family home with their disabled Uncle Julian. Something dreadful has happened to their mother, father, brother, and aunt in an incident that involved arsenic poisoning at their dinner table. Constance had been accused of committing the deed but was acquitted of the charges. The townsfolk hate them and bully Merricat when she has to go into town for supplies. One day a sinister cousin Charles arrives at the door and things definitely begin to heat up. The book is very atmospheric and through the characters' observations, the reader draws conclusions about what actually happened. It was a fast unsettling read, and I recommend it for anyone who likes a good creepy tale. Four stars.

The Last Flight by Julie Clark. Loved this suspenseful thriller. Two very different women are both wishing they could escape from their present lives and start over. Claire is an abused wife of a man who has political aspirations and is very much in the public eye. Eva has made some bad decisions and has gotten involved in the manufacture and selling of drugs. Both women want desperately to get out of their present situations and start fresh. They meet up randomly at the airport and decide spontaneously to swap identities. I was turning the pages as fast as I could to find out what happened next. It kept my attention every minute and I really did not want to put it down.  Four and a half stars.

All Adults Here by Emma Straub. This was just ok for me. I finished it but considered dnf-ing it at several points. I think the author tackled too many big issues: infidelity, single parenthood, online pedophilia, transgender issues, bullying, parenting difficult children, same-sex romance (between two grandmothers),  and just about every other social issue you can think of. The book is described as a family saga, but honestly, it seemed like the author was trying to pack every controversial social issue she could come up with into one single family. Very contrived. Two stars.

Hopefully, you enjoyed these reviews and have added some books to your list to read and to avoid.  Keep in mind that these are just my opinions.  I encourage you to read other reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and make up your own mind.