Where she went

Where She Went by Gayle Forman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

****SPOILERS******
When I got to the end of 'If I Stay' I was sorta disappointed. It didn't feel like a real ending to me. I mean, I wanted Mia to wake up & say some words of what happened. It just sort of blank screened...

& then I was excited to hear there was another book. OK - I get to know what happened afterwards
... only to find that her & Adam have broken up! WHAT? This is the guy who was devastated to loose the love of his life in the previous book & we see he's a big time rock star & living with some other big name star?

I wasn't happy going into this book. Seeing how sad Adam was & how he was thrown to the curb for Mia's cello career.

So on a total run in, Adam sees Mia is in town & watches her perform & their encounter to see each other in years happens. As they talk about the past few years & eventually discuss how life has really touched them, that's when I started liking the book.

It did take me awhile to get into it.
I actually skipped ahead a few chapters because it was just making me mad... but then as I was reading, I noticed I missed something & ended up going back & reading everything I missed. & was glad I did.

Now, at the end of it all, I can put this book down happily...enjoying the full circle story of Mia & Adam...

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Finding our way Home

I wanted to read this book as soon as I saw it was about a ballerina. I'm mystified by these dancers.  & reading about Sasha & her injuries that take her away from what she loves just hits me. If you ever have your life path changed, you'd understand.  We see Sasha return home to where she needs help.  Enter Evelyn.  We see that sometimes opposites are drawn to each other in friendship... causing bumpy roads.  But seeing that the bumps can come together to show grace & friendship can make the paths smooth again. 

I thought this was a easy read & I really am looking forward to more books by this author.

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Given this book for review by Blogging for Books

Love the One You're With

Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I hadn't read an Emily Griffin book in the longest time. It felt good to sink in a fun, easy read.

This is a story of Ellen & her perfect marriage. Perfect until she sees an old boyfriend out on the street one day. He comes & meets her at a coffee shop, & the feelings are stirred up again.

Is Ellen happy in her perfect house, with her perfect husband, with her perfect in laws, or is the guy who broke her heart, but still holds a part of, the one she should have ended up with?

I was torn in the book. I hate any kind of cheating story & thankful this didn't get raunchy or distasteful. & I was thrilled with the ending.

I just took this book as a really easy read. Just as I knew Emily Griffin could deliver. Chick-lit at its finest. So while I was rooting for my favorite guy in the story, & I was rooting for Ellen to pick the right path, I took it all in stride of a nice mindless read.

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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was pulled into this book just because flipping through it, there are pictures. Hello! I'm a picture nut. & not just regular pictures, but pictures from long ago... those 'weird' looking pictures that just seem so odd. This author took these pictures & turned them into a story... of peculiar children.

The book follows Jacob who listens to his grandfather tell of his friends from the pictures & the stories of the amazing things these friends could do. Jacob believed them, until he grew up & then just felt his grandfather was good at telling tales.... & then when his grandfather dies in front of him in a very unusual way, Jacob starts to wonder about the things his grandfather told him about his past.

We find Jacob heading to the island where his grandfather grew up in a children's home & coming across the past of his grandfather.

it's a story that has a sci-fi sort of twist, with a little bit of Harry Potter kind of magic.

I really loved the story - loved the excitement of it - loved meeting the peculiar children & learning of their talent. Strength, bees coming out of mouths, invisible, needing lead shoes or a little girl could fly away. I loved that Miss Peregrine "The Bird" was still in charge of these children in their 'loop' & protecting these kids as wights & hollows are after them.

This book has totally set up the series for the adventures of the children & Jacob as he learned he's not so 'normal' after all & got a lot of genes from his grandfather....

I am already heading out to get the next book "The Hollow City" this week... I want to make sure these peculiar children are ok :)

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If I stay

If I Stay by Gayle Forman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So I saw the commercials for the movie & immediately saw it was a book & knew I had to read it.
The story of a young lady, Mia, who is in an accident with her family. She is standing on the side of the road seeing everything that happened, even her own body. She watches as everything goes on around her, as people she loves comes & talks to her, as nurses whisper encouragement in her ears, as her boyfriend Adam does what he can to get in & see her. During the whole book, we get glimpses of Mia's life & her relationship with her parents who seem like the coolest parents ever, her brother Teddy & how her relationship with Adam developed. We also see the talent Mia has & her dreams of going to Julliard & the decisions she would have to make to leave the people she loves behind to pursue her dream. But then, the accident... everything changes. And Mia knows she has the choice to make. To leave & just let her body die.. or to come back to her body & deal with the suffering & pain.

I really did enjoy the book. It was a good, fast, easy read. I was involved in the story of Mia's life & all the stories she has with her parents & especially with Adam.

I really did get choked up as Mia realizes everything she has lost in this accident... & I laughed as we see the wonderful life Mia had with her family & friends... this book totally had me fully invested.

I will say, I was disappointed in the ending though. It felt sort of abrupt to me & didn't give me any sort of closure to it all. But when I see there is another book that follows, then I figure that's where I find my closure... or at least I hope so.

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Let's all be Brave

Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have by Annie F. Downs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I saw this book going around everywhere & was excited to get it. When I started off reading it, I was instantly hooked because I saw the name "Steven Curtis Chapman" being used as Annie talked about a song of his. OK - so we can be instant friends!
Then, it was weird. I think maybe I was expecting something else reading a lot of women's Christian books. This didn't feel like the others.
It took me a few chapters to get the feel of the book, but then I was hooked.
The stories switch up quickly & sometimes connect, sometimes they don't... but I started to love every word written.
I loved how she could have one chapter being "Hold On" & the next "Let it go" & had examples of how God works in both.
I went into this book thinking it'll be a good read but didn't expect to have God speak things on my heart about areas I need to Brave in... that's exactly what happened. I feel the need to start praying about being brave in personal things in my life, & in spiritual things. I now have a fire started in my soul about it all... I think that's the point of this book.
& if we all get a little bit of spark of being Brave? The things that could change...

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Passing Strangers

Passing Strangers by Angela Elwell Hunt
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I am so disappointed to give this an 'ok' - I love Angela Hunt. She's one of my favorite authors & I usually give her 5 stars across the board. Was so excited for her latest book... but I just didn't feel it.

This story is about 3 strangers on a train going across the part of the country & the way they meet. The story then sort of breaks up into each individual person's story & what their background is.

I really liked the first one with a story of a girl who was a famous child star on a reality based TV & as she grew up, she fled from all things famous. When her mother is dying, what does she do. I'm all into this story.

The second story lost me. It was the story of this man who has 2 children & he lost his wife in an accident. He is a lawyer who works way too much & wants others to take care of his children. His trip was basically to leave his kids at his mothers house. Something about this part of the story just bothered me. It seemed stupid, didn't seem real. Aggravated me about how easily this guy was going to leave his kids.

The third story was about a mom who had to leave because her adult daughter was causing issues in their home. This part was OK but I was so exhausted by this book by then, I didn't enjoy it.

In the end, you see how the 3 people are intertwined now as friends, but I was just glad to get it over with honestly. I have another Angela Hunt book on my Kindle to read. Hoping I find my faith back in this author.

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