Natalie Miller is the top aid of one of New York’s women senators. She’s devoted all of her time and energy to her career. Then she learns that she has breast cancer, and she’s forced to devoting all her time and energy to her survival. She takes a look at the decisions she’s made throughout her life and puts all of her energy into finding her past loves of her life so she can determine what went wrong. It turns out that she is the one to blame—she consistently chooses her job and her career over love and her own personal happiness. Natalie’s therapist suggests that she use a journal to channel her pain into, rather than falling into a state of depression. She learns how to embrace life and live it at its fullest. This book was amazing. The journal entries allow the reader to witness the evolution Natalie goes through during this self-discovery. Rather than being a downer, this book was incredibly uplifting. It realistically portrayed the frightening truth behind cancer and its victims but still provided hope.

Ashley Rhodes survived 9 years and a total of 19 foster parents. “Three Little Words” describes the many cases of abuse Ashley experienced in the near decade that she spent in the foster care system.

Ashley and her brother, Luke, were removed from their mother’s custody when Ashley was just three years old. Her mother is sent to jail and rehab. Ashley was forced to live with a family overrun with children, and a foster mom that forced the children to drink hot sauce when they misbehaved and beat them with spoons until marks covered their bodies.

She witnessed cases where children who were already broken were further shattered into shells of human beings. Her half-brother, Luke, was one of these children. The odds were against her in a system that still has problems. Yet she not only survived, she flourished. She excelled in school and wrote several award winning essays about her adoption day.

Throughout her experience in the foster system she attempted to reach out to authorities about the atrocities that she and her foster siblings faced. Each time she was ignored; she was simply an unruly child seeking attention. After she was adopted, Ashley went on to become an advocate for the foster care system and her voice was finally heard.

It was uplifting to read a tale about the foster care system that actually had a happy ending. Too many times we read about kids lost in the system, or ones that are forever dealing with the issues that comes with being moved from one family to another.

One of the most powerful parts of the book is the three little words alluded to in the title. They aren’t “I Love You” as many would expect, but “I guess so” which is what Rhodes said to a judge on the day of her adoption.

“Three Little Words” is definitely a book that I would recommend to anyone currently in the foster care system. There is a light at the end of the deep, dark tunnel. There is hope.

Peony in Love is an amazing tale of love that spans both the world of the living and the dead.

Peony Chen falls in love with a famous opera, The Peony Pavillion. This opera has reportedly been the death of several other young women, a death caused by lovesickness.

Set in the 17th century, the book also details the struggle that women writers were forced to go through, many being forced to be published posthumously and/or anonymously.

Peony in Love is a powerful book that must be read by women of all ages.

Sarah Ladens is struggling to keep her family intact after the death of her husband. Her oldest son, Nate, has been getting in trouble at school and her youngest, Danny is barely getting by.
Sarah learns that her best friend is charged with a horrendous crime against her son, a classmate of Danny’s, as well as several other young children in this small, close-knit town. Sarah must determine who to believe–the scathing evidence the police has found, or her best friend.

And caught in the middle is Jordan, Danny’s classmate. Jordan has never known what it feels like to really be loved. Now, without parents, he’s destined to become part of the foster care system. The Ladens step up and offer to foster him.

After a long and difficult struggle, the Ladens, once again a family of four all begins to heal.

The Kindness of Strangers is powerful and full of emotion. Katrina Kittle deals with a sensitive topic that is often buried. The emotion that each of the characters experience is genuine and believable. The reader feels that they are part of the story, a member of the community that is forced to deal with this horrendous crime. .

Jamilet is a beautiful young woman from a small town in Mexico. Throughout her life she has been shunned by local townspeople because of a horrible birthmark that taints her back and part of her legs.She flees to Los Angeles illegally in order to seek treatment for her birthmark and begins working at a local mental institution. Her patient is an elderly man named Antonio, a difficult and angry man from Spain. Antonio insists that his true name is Señor Peregrino. Antonio steals Jamilet’s illegal immigration documents and promises to return them upon the condition that she listens to his story. Jamilet agrees, and thus begins an unbreakable bond.

Antonio’s story details his pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago in Spain with his friend Tomas prior to joining the priesthood. The young men meet two young women: Rosa, a beautiful but destitute woman and Jenny, a plain but wealthy woman. Both Antonio and Tomas instantly fall in love with Rosa. Antonio and Rosa promise to get married once they reach Santiago. Upon arrival, Antonio learns from Jenny that Rosa has instead married Tomas. Antonio marries Jenny, but doesn’t learn the truth about Rosa until years later. He is so pained by the revelation that he isolates himself in his room at the institution.

Inspired by Antonio’s story, Jamilet learns that her mark does not define her as a person. Beauty is more than skin deep. She breaks herself free of the shell that has been preventing her from opening up and allowing herself to love.
The ending of the story was a bit sudden; several aspects were left hanging, but this doesn’t detract from the powerful storytelling.

A year of waiting was well worth it!

San Francisco Detective Lindsay Boxer and her friends in the Women’s Murder Club join up once again to help solve a case of arsons in a series of wealthy neighborhoods. Several innocent people are murdered and the only evidence left behind is a book with a latin inscription at each of the crime scenes.

At the same time, Lindsay is working on a case of a missing former governor’s son. He was last seen entering the house of a known prostitute. A tip is discovered, but ultimately falls through leaving Lindsay, her partner Rich Conklin, and good friend and member of the Women’s Murder Club, ADA Yuki Castellano desperately scrambling for more leads.

In true Patterson style, 7th Heaven is full of twists, turns, and surprises.

Imagine being locked up in a mental institution for 60 years. Forgotten by your family. No visitors, no connection to the outside world. This was the life of Esme Lennox.

Iris Lockhart is Esme’s great niece. She is contacted when Esme, now deemed harmless, is released by the institution. But is she harmless?

Throughout the book, the author takes the reader back in time, revisiting Esme’s past through flashbacks and first person accounts through the eyes of Esme and her sister Kitty.

The flashbacks and change and narration is distracting at first, but it does aid in the telling of the story.

The author, Maggie O’Farrell, states that two of the books that influenced her life and her career were Jane Eyre and The Yellow Wallpaper, two works that revolve around a woman’s spiral into mental illness. It is evident in reading The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox how influental these works were.

Marnie Matlaind returns to her Lowcountry birthplace after being gone for a decade to help in the healing of her traumatized nine-year old nephew she’s never met.

At her return, Marnie is forced to face the demons of her childhood, the drowning death of her mother, and the Maitland curse that has haunted her family for generations.

White uses first person narrative with each of the four main characters. This allows the reader to see different angles of the story. The characters are quite real and believable, as is the anguish that each feels due to the mental instability that seems to have been passed down through the Maitland family.

A suprising ending answers several unknowns and brings an amazing and powerful conclusion to this family drama.

Dr. Ephraim Carroll comes to the University Of Pennsylvania Medical School to study under the renowned Dr. William Osler. He is soon pulled into an investigation of a chain of murders that seemed to be tied to the doctors of the medical school. The murders introduce Ephraim to both the high society and underbelly of Philadelphia. Ephraim must decide what is more important, the life of one man, or the well-being of thousands.

I reviewed this amazing book several months ago, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was asked to review it again by a different publishing group.

Alice Winston’s older sister moves away and leaves her to face the brunt of her family’s dysfunction. Money is tight and Alice’s father decides to allow the local “privileged” residents to board their horses at their ranch. Throughout the book, Alice departs on a powerful, oftentimes painful journey to adulthood. She must face the realization that people can be dishonest and cruel, herself included.

I am astonished that this is Kyle’s first work. It is truly amazing. A must read!