June 29, 2017

Who We Were Before by Leah Mercer

Synopsis:

Zoe knows that it wasn’t really her fault. Of course it wasn’t. But if she’d just grasped harder, run faster, lunged quicker, she might have saved him. And Edward doesn’t really blame her, though his bitter words at the time still haunt her, and he can no more take them back than she can halt the car that killed their son.

Two years on, every day is a tragedy. Edward knows they should take healing steps together, but he’s tired of being shut out. For Zoe, it just seems easier to let grief lead the way.

A weekend in Paris might be their last hope for reconciliation, but mischance sees them separated before they’ve even left Gare du Nord. Lost and alone, Edward and Zoe must try to find their way back to each other—and find their way back to the people they were before. But is that even possible?

I will classify this book as frustratingly intriguing. It is told in the POV of two different people and you kind of want to smack both of them at different times. Then you have to remember that they are both suffering from an inconceivable loss, and you start to understand them a little more.

At the beginning, the story was a lot more frustrating, but as the characters get a little more in depth, you start rooting for both of them and the book becomes a lot better.

Who We Were Before was really well written in my mind. It jumped from character to character, time period to time period, yet you are still able to keep up really well. The use of different time periods and different POVs creates more depth for the characters than you would get without it.  Zoe and Edward are both, somehow, really likable characters. Yes, I know I said earlier that you want to smack them. Tough love?

You meet Zoe as a spaced out, grieving mother who wants nothing to do with the life she leads due to the loss of her son. She is stuck inside of her own mind, and no one is going to break her out. You get a taste of who she was before and who she could be through the flashback chapters. It gives her an added charm that is very necessary due to the lost soul she has become.
You meet Edward as a man who is fed up with his wife and who she has become. He wants the woman that he married back, but doesn’t try to understand where she has gone. Instead he turns away from her and into the arms of someone else. . . almost.

You want them to find each other and get their love back, but they are both hiding so many secrets, you have to wonder if they can ever get it back.

I got this book very cheap on Amazon, it may have been one of the free KindleFirst books, but I can’t recall. I will say, I am glad that I took a chance on it. I enjoyed reading it late at night while lying in bed. It was a nice way to unwind from the day and get lost in someone else’s story. It moved a long nicely and never really became boring. It took me awhile to get through, but that is because I would only read a little at a time before bed. If you get lost in it, you could easily knock it out in one day.

If you are looking for your next weekend or afternoon read, I would highly recommend this one. It is quick, easy, and an overall nice book. Give it a shot.

3.5/5 stars


Memorable Quotes:

“They look about mid-twenties, still young enough to believe nothing can go wrong, I wonder what they think of Edward and me?”

“Love your son. Have a huge, gaping hole in your life, a kick in the stomach each morning you wake up, and a pain that leaves you struggling to breathe. That’s how you get like that. Like us.”

“If I could, I’d stay here in this spot, with her, forever.”

“The yarn was connected to my heart, entwining emotions into every row.”


“The metro rattles into a station, and together we watch the doors open and close as passengers get off and more get on. The rhythm of life, I think absently. One minute the people you love are there, the next they’re gone.”

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June 20, 2017

16th Seduction by James Patterson

Synopsis:
Fifteen months ago, Detective Lindsay Boxer's life was perfect--she had a beautiful child and a doting husband, Joe, who helped her catch a criminal who'd brazenly detonated a bomb in downtown San Francisco, killing twenty-five people. But Joe wasn't everything that Lindsay thought he was, and she's still reeling from his betrayal as a wave of mysterious, and possibly unnatural, heart attacks claims seemingly unrelated victims across San Francisco. As if that weren't enough, the bomber she and Joe captured is about to go on trial, and his defense raises damning questions about Lindsay and Joe's investigation. Not knowing whom to trust, and struggling to accept the truth about the man she thought she knew, Lindsay must connect the dots of a deadly conspiracy before a brilliant criminal puts her on trial.
Okay, first of all, I am not really sure where the title for this novel came from. None of the story lines were very seductive.
Second of all, there was talk of a terrorist group, but they also weren’t even mentioned all that much. I understand why, it was more focused on Connor Grant, the Stealth Killer, and J. I thought back on it once I finished the novel and realized I hadn’t heard a whole lot about them. With the way the book ended, it is open to being explored more in the next book.
So, the huge explosion, it almost seems like such a small part of the storyline, even though that is what the whole book is based around. The larger pieces were Connor Grant himself and Lindsay.
There was a brief appearance by the Stealth Killer, but that seemed like a random subplot. I thought it was really interesting, and it really could have had its own book, but it was treated almost as a book shot inside of this larger novel.
Overall, it was a Women’s Murder Club book, and it was nice to have them back. The main storyline was tied up, sort of, but it seems like all of the other ones were just left floating around in the ether.

3.5/5 Stars


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