These are two impulse Kindle buys I just read.  Since You’ve Been Gone is about a young woman whose fiancé is killed on her wedding day, on a road leading away from the church with a “baby” gift in his car.  Olivia deals with her grief by investigating where Wyatt was going on their wedding day.

The entire investigation piece did not make much sense to me at all.  I don’t want to discuss details and have spoilers, just let’s say that Olivia and others were much more of a hinderance in getting to the truth of the matter than a help.  Anyone with an ounce of common sense could have straightened this whole mess out much sooner.

My other issue with the book and this might be my own fault, I didn’t realize this was Christian fiction.  I don’t generally read Christian fiction, but I have read a few that I have enjoyed.  This was so heavy-handed with the preachiness that I really found it distracting from the story.   Not a book that worked for me.

Lift and Separate is the story of Marcy and Harvey the owners of Bountiful, a lingerie company.  They have been married for 33 years and have 3 grown children.  Harvey decides to leave Marcy for a younger woman.  The book follows Marcy as she struggles through the separation.    Themes explored in the book include infidelity, divorce,  loss of a parent, caregiving, and second acts in life.   Marcy is a great character, who evolves as the book progresses.  Candy, Jon and Dana round out the cast as great supporting characters providing interesting subplots and humor.  This is a quick read with humor and compassion.

Three women’s fiction reads, the type of books that are my delicious guilty pleasures. I delight in being outraged along with the heroines and then celebrating their rebirth into a new better post divorce/break up life.

My Perfect Life at Cornish Cottage features the husband, Lysander, having his mid-life crisis and deciding that trading in his slightly used wife Sophie for a much younger souped up model is the way to go.  Sophie falls apart at first, but with aid from a surprising source she finds her feet and a new career.  There are lots of mummy mafia at the school gates types here and quite a bit of humor.  Overall, a heartwarming look at living through divorce with children and coming out the other side,not just intact but thriving.

The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart is a break up story, rather than divorce. Abi hasn’t made it down the altar yet, although she thought Joseph would be the one.  Abi finds Joseph’s bucket list and begins a quest to woo him back by completing items on it and posting about them.  What could prove they are more compatible than that?  Along the way she meets new people and challenges herself in ways she had never imagined.   Who will Abi be when Joseph takes notice of her adventures?  Advertised as a “laugh out loud” romance, I didn’t really find it uproariously funny,  but I did find it quite romantic and an interesting examination of how people are often quite willing to marry or stay with partners that they really don’t know at all.

My Husband’s Wife was the book that had me raging on behalf of Rosie,   the most.  Don’t get me wrong it is a romance and has the required HEA, however the path to get there is fraught with bad friends and worse choices.  There is also a sideplot that deals with growing up motherless and the effects that can have on people.  I don’t want to say too much to spoil anything for other readers but I would say that I found many of the indivdual situations and reactions in this book the most realistic from my own experiences.  Out of the three books, I enjoyed this the most perhaps because it seemed less fanciful in some ways, more rooted in reality.

  I just finished Colorless and I probably still have more questions than answers, however I really enjoyed the book.  The title character or “colorless” one is Tsukuru Tazaki, he is the only  one of a group of friends, who does not have a color in his name.  An event occurs splintering the group and the impact of this effects Tsukuru for years afterwards, until he meets Sara, who  gently insists that he seeks out the root of his emotional detachment.

There is a lot to explore here from the meaning behind the “colors” of the characters – white, black, red,blue and grey, to the metaphor of the trains and trains stations,  to Tsukuru’s disturbing and erotic dreams.  There are points in which the line between reality and fantasy are blurred leaving the reader questioning what has actually happened.  I don’t want to give any spoilers so that is all I will say about that.

The main take away from the book seems to be to live in the present and not the past.  Don’t be afraid to grow and change, you can’t be stagnant and stay in one place (at the station).  You have to get on the train.

  This was a library read.  The charming story of a widower who discovers that his wife of 40 years was not who he thought she was.  Arthur Pepper discovers a charm bracelet with some unusual charms when he is gathering up his deceased wife’s belonging’s for charity.  The charms lead him on an adventure to discover exactly who Miriam was before she became Mrs. Arthur Pepper. Through the journey Arthur deals with his grief, builds new friendships, and mends his relationships with his children.  The book addresses topics such as privacy, secrets within a marriage, forgiveness, and grief but not in a  depressing or heavy-handed way.  This is a lighthearted journey, even though not all the truths Arthur discovers about Miriam are pleasant.  An enjoyable quick read, in the vein of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and  The Man Who Stepped Out of the Window and Disappeared. 

These were both library reads.  Serving Crazy with Curry is a book about Devi, an Asian Indian young woman who attempts suicide and is saved by chance.  The effects of Devi’s suicide attempt ripple through her family and each member deals with it in their own way depending upon their  circumstances.  Devi’s path to recovery begins in her mother’s kitchen as she starts to cook and prepare meals unlike the food her family has eaten before.  There was a lot to enjoy about this book in the cooking sequences and Devi’s thoughts about recovering, however the big “secret” behind Devi’s suicide attempt became obvious rather early on and is not something I sympathize with.  I also did not find her sister’s reaction to the reveal realistic at all.

Britt-Marie Was Here is a charming slice of life story with a fanciful feel.  Britt-Marie is looking for a job after years as a homemaker and lands a job at a soon to be closed rec center in a run down town.  The move here changes her in ways she can’t begin to imagine  and she is not sure if she will enjoy those changes.  The people of Borg, welcome Britt-Marie with open arms and soccer balls and things will never be the same again, for Britt-Marie or for Borg.

The character of Britt-Marie is really interesting.  She begins as the typical grumpy old lady, very set in her ways.  Her experiences in Borg change her and that leads naturally to the ending the book has.    This is a well written book, with  great characters, an interesting original storyline and a great ending.

  This is book 13 in a series I have not heard of written by an author unfamiliar to me.  It was at a library book sale and I decided to take a chance on it.  The murder involves a villain known as the Toddler, who commits a crime witnessed by a traveller woman.  This sets in motion the rest of the events in the book.  Peter McGarr is the Chief Superintendent investigating the crimes here, which are both brutal and unusual.  The nature of the travellers’ distrust of the police and the Toddler’s far reaching power makes for a difficult investigation with many twists and turns before reaching the conclusion.

A very dark, somewhat depressing police procedural.  I won’t judge it very harshly, simply because I didn’t read the earlier books and don’t know the character’s back story and may be missing important details by reading this one as a stand alone.

This is the third in Inspector Luke Thanet’s police procedural series.  Inspector Thanet has a very dogged approach to solving crime.  He methodically goes through the clues, the suspects and witnesses, the alibis, and the motives until he comes up with his final theory of the crime.  In this case, a local country doctor has committed suicide, or has he?  His young beautiful wife, an actress and celebrity in her own right doesn’t believe it is suicide.  His son and housekeeper don’t believe it either.  It is up to Inspector Thanet to sort through the clues and uncover the truth.  At the same time, he is dealing with issues in his home life with his wife Joan and his family in a subplot that allow the reader to see a very human side of the Inspector.

A relatively short, clean (as far as language, no gore, no graphic violence or sex) police procedural that is well written with an engaging Inspector as the main protagonist.  I haven’t read others in the series, I just picked this up at a library sale on impulse.  If I come across other books by Dorothy Simpson, I would give another one I try.

  This was an impulse buy from my local used book store.  A murder takes place in the House of Lord and the Chief Inspector assisted by Phillip North, Conservative MP, try to solve the murder.  The case ends up involving Nazis, war crimes, Russian spies, wives (or not), a victim who may or may not be who everyone thought he was, drug addiction, suicide,  fraud and lawsuits, in essence a little bit of everything and the kitchen sink.  I actually had to keep checking on the dates, because it had a very “cold war” feel to it, however it is actually taking place in the 90s.  The book was published in 1994 and there are references to events in the 80s in the novel.

The author has written other books about MI5 and non-fiction spy and espionage works.  He is known as an expert in the intelligence field.   He previously worked as a police officer and was a conservative party MP.  He uses this insider’s view to give intimate details of the workings of parliament to his readers and this is really, in my mind ,the best part of the book.  The mystery is intricate and well laid out by I enjoyed all the background detail he provided.  An interesting political murder mystery read.

  This is the 1st in the Family Skeleton series. I will admit to having some deep reservations about reading this, I mean come on, a skeleton named Sid, as one of the main characters?  It seemed like it would be a little silly.  Well, I started and finished it last night and I really liked it!.  The sleuth is Georgia Thackery, an adjunct professor, who just moved home to her parents’ house while they are out of the country on sabbatical.  Sid has been in the family since Georgia’s childhood.  Georgia now has a teen daughter, who she brings home with her and together, the three of them make for a  delightful family.  Georgia is an intelligent, strong-willed, independent sleuth.  Sid is smart and witty and the relationship between them is both touching and comic.  The first case involves solving Sid’s murder as he starts to recover some memories from his life before he came to the Thackery household.

A great cozy read and I will definitely  read more in the series.

  This is the 6th book in the series, but I have only read books 3, 4 and 5 due to the order that they were translated into English.  I really like the characters,  Inspectors Erlendur, Elinborg and Sigurdur Oli form a formidable team.  The murder case here takes them back to the cold war and soviet spies, communist East Germany, and left-wing student groups.  There are also glimpses into Erlendur’s personal life through his relationships especially with Marion and Eva Lind.

The historical elements and the modern mystery are smoothly intertwined to make for a story that has good pacing and flows.    The characters are fully fleshed out and engaging with all their very human flaws.  I have enjoyed all the books in this series so far and look forward to reading more!