Monday, December 29, 2014

Liane Moriarity has written another page turner filled with complexity and undulating undercurrents that crest and wreak havoc on what appears to be a straight laced community filled with interdependent members.  Liana Moriarty has shown herself a master of writing insightful, funny, poignant, and thought-provoking page turners. With BIG LITTLE LIES she proves that she’s at the top of her game. The complexity begins when a single mother and her little boy age 5 become part of the close nit community of Pirriwee.  The little boy new comer is accused of trying to choke another little girl who is strangely tightlipped and reticent after the accusation of made.

Pirriwee Public is a beautiful little beachside primary school where children are taught that ‘sharing is caring.’ So how has the annual School Trivia Night ended in full-blown riot? Sirens are wailing. People are screaming. The principal is mortified.  And one parent is dead. Was it a murder, a tragic accident or just good parents gone bad? As the parents at Pirriwee Public are about to discover, sometimes it’s the little lies that turn out to be the most lethal.  As the reader moves through the back story of each of the characters it becomes evident that what appears to be truth is instead a landscape filled with big little lies.

BIG LITTLE LIES is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, school-yard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

This is a most engaging read that will have current and new fans eager to talk and share their thoughts…and truth; about what is real and what is a lie.

Posted by Karen from Book Flap.  Do pick this one up! 

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Reaching Out To Your Past

Relationships are complicated. Meet Georgie, a sitcom writer who has a chance to create her own show with her writing partner, Seth.  Georgie chooses to spend the holiday season writing a pitch for the show of her dreams instead of traveling to Omaha with her husband Neal and their two young girls.  Neal is not thrilled with the idea of going on his own for the holidays.

Georgie, wracked with guilt over not leaving LA,  tries everything possible to reach her husband during their separation, including calling him in Omaha on her old yellow land line phone from her old childhood bedroom. Miraculously, the land line phone always seems to reach Neal, though it is the Neal during their courtship in college.

Georgie experiences talking with her husband during the week prior to their engagement. She becomes wrapped up these conversations and becomes increasingly disinterested in writing the new show despite the deadline. Her writing partner and best friend Seth tries to keep her focused on their dream of creating their own scripts.

Landline is the creation author Rainbow Rowell, who is known for Eleanor and Park and Fangirl. Pick up Landline and connect to a relationship that is realistic and touching.

Review by Cara

Monday, December 8, 2014


Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth is a totally engrossing tale of consisting of three story lines with the fairy tale Rapunzel at its apex.    Charlotte Rose de la Force is banished from Versailles by Louis the IV, the Sun King.  Her scandalous affairs go beyond even what is fashionable in that time period.   Charlotte is also a French Novelist which was a unique calling during this time period. She bonds with a mysterious older nun Soeur Seraphina who calms and engages her with the glories of her herbal garden.   She also spins a tale about a beautiful young girl with red gold hair locked in a tower.  The story moves to the fate of Margherita whose father steals bitter greens from the garden of Selena who demands the first born child or the father will have his hands chopped off.  In desperation the father promises this since it is seven years away and likely anything can change in that time period.  Of course it does not and Margherita is spirited away soon after her seventh birthday and banished to the tower by Selena.  The novel then moves to the life and times of Charlotte which resulted in her banishment and next to the life of Selena and her mystical gifts and dark talents.  If the reader gets this far into the story it becomes a page turner wherein the outcome of all three powerful women is eager sought.  -The reader is pulled into another world of where magical happenings were regular occurrences and ingenuity the part of Charlotte Rose, Margherita and Selena have the reader cheering each of them onward.   A tale for any who want to be swept away by a tantalizing fairy tale for adults!

Reviewed by Karen