The Guest Book is a sweeping saga of three generations of the very rich Milton family from the 1930s to present day. It's the story of not only how money and privilege isolate a family from the rest of the world but the way it affects their feelings about other races and religions. Each generation feeds their views and their secrets into the next until no one is really sure what is true about the family history.

The novel begins in 1935 with Ogden and Kitty Milton and their three children. They are living a very privileged life and when a tragedy happens in the family, Ogden buys an island and a grand house in Maine to help the family become whole again. The family spends their summers on the island, entertaining all of their rich friends whose lives are reflections of their own. This all begins to break down in the next generation when the 3 Milton children grow up and realize that they want different things out of life and their values are different than their parents. Moss doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps in business but wants to write music, much to his parent's dismay. One daughter marries the man who is just like her dad but the other daughter falls in love with a Jewish man which was totally not done in their upper class lives. By the next generation, the money has run out and the grandchildren have to decide if they afford to keep the island and all of their memories. Will this decision also help uncover some of the secrets from the previous two generations that have affected their lives so much?

This book is a well written look at past mistakes and betrayals that ripple throughout generations., It examines not just a privileged American family, but a privileged America.

Thanks to BookBrowse for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

"The past doesn't go away, but there's no need to dredge it up, you can try to let it rest, hold your peace. The one thing I've learned from life is survival."

I was aware of the women who tasted food for Hitler to make sure he wasn't poisoned from reading The Taster by VS Alexander earlier this year. What makes this version of the story even more interesting is that it's based on a real person - Margot Wölk. She was Hitler's last living food taster. She had never told anyone about her experience until she was 96 and decided to tell her story. She died later the same year that she first told her story. You can read more about her and read her story if you goggle her name.

In 1943, Rosa moved to the town where her husband's parents live. Her mother has just died in a bombing in Berlin and she hasn't seen her husband since he joined the army the year before. Instead of the quiet life that she is yearning for, the SS arrive at the door and tell her that will become one of the tasters of Hitler's food. They were very worried that the Allies would try to poison Hitler so they forced a group of women to eat his food before he did. If the tasters didn't die of poison, then the food was safe for him. The ten women in the group become friends and enemies as the stress becomes unbearable.

This is a horrific story of women being forced into possible death with every bite of food that they ate. The stress of this time affected Margot for the rest of her life.

Thanks to BookBrowse for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

We have all read about the males of the Kennedy family - Joe, Jack, Bobby and Teddy and many books have been written about them and their father. Very few books have been written about the females of the family and I knew very little about them. 'The Kennedy Debutante' is about Kathleen Kennedy - nicknamed Kick. She is the fourth child in the family, right after Joe, Jack and Rosemary. It's an in depth look at her life beginning in England when her father becomes the American ambassador. As the story begins, she is being presented into society at the beginning of her debutante season in 1938. As she becomes part of the social season in London, she makes friends with the elite young people in London and gets very close to Billy Hartington, the future Duke of Devonshire and a devout Protestant. Her strict Catholicism (as well as that of her devout mother, Rose) keeps them from taking their feelings to the next level. When WWII breaks out and the Kennedy family returns to the States, Kick has to make a decision over whether her love for Billy or the beliefs of her family are the most important to her future.

This book was a wonderful look at an member of the Kennedy family that had not been written about much in the past. Along with Kick's story, there is a lot about the rest of the family, the way the parents doted on the boys and the dad included Joe and Jack in his decision making, the problems with Rosemary, plus a tidbits about all of the other kids in the family. For a family with so many words written about them over the years, this was a refreshing look at them that was full of new information for most readers.

I highly recommend this book and predict that it will be on of the popular MUST READS of the fall.

Thanks to BookBrowse for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

This is a beautifully written, thought provoking look at a mother and a daughter and their acceptance of each other as the mother is losing her memory to early on-set Alzheimer's. To be honest, I almost didn't read this book because I just lost my mom and I knew it would be difficult to read about losing your mom but instead this book made me more thankful for my mom because we had no great secrets and I always knew that she was a person separate from being my mom. This novel is the journey of the main character learning to love and accept her mom and to realize that he mom always put her daughter first in her life. A beautiful story!

We all have dreams of that perfect Christmas at home with our families and it never seems to happen. Imagine being in quarantine for seven days at Christas with your immediate family that you usually try to avoid at the holidays. That's just what happens in this wonderful novel about a family - who all have secrets from the others - being forced to spend seven days together.

Olivia is the oldest daughter. She is a doctor just returned from fighting an epidemic in Africa. She is serious and always questioning all of the extravagance of her family's life in England compared to the poverty she sees in Africa. Her younger sister, Phoebe, is a flighty daddy's girl who just wants to party and plan her wedding. Their Dad is a columnist who writes scathing restaurant reviews and Emma, the mom, is thrilled to have her family together for the holidays even though she has a major health secret that she plans to reveal after the quarantine. Then someone unknown to all of them joins them in their quarantine and secrets are revealed.

This is a lovely story about a family in crisis. Though it deals with some serious subjects, there is also a lot to laugh about. The characters are well written with all of their goodness and flaws on display. I loved this family and I loved this novel - put it on your tbr lists, you don't want to miss it.

It may sound strange to say that a book about a single mother dying of cancer is a fantastic book, but let me tell you that it really is. Our Short History is the first book that I've read by this author and I plan to go back and read her previous books after reading this one. Many thanks to BookBrowse for a copy of this book for a review. (All opinions are my own.)

Karen is a successful political consultant in NYC with a young son when she finds out that she has stage IV ovarian cancer. When she got pregnant with her son, the father broke up with her and she never told him about the baby. When her son is six, he asks to meet his father. Up until this time, they had been a family of two and Karen is very apprehensive about bringing his father into her son's life. However father and son bond very quickly and despite Karen's anger over including the dad into her son's life, she realizes that time is running out for her. Will she be able to learn to share her son with his father or will she continue to try to keep them apart?

The novel is written as a book that Karen is writing for her son to read when he is grown to explain the life that they had together. I liked the style the novel was written in as she told the story of her life to her son and also added little comments about how to be good person in his life. I thought she was an extremely fantastic and well written character and the anger that she held against her ex boyfriend, her cancer and life in general is definitely justified. This is a fantastic book -- warning - keep Kleenex close at hand!

The Girl Before is an exciting, psychological thriller that keeps you turning pages until the end. Two women, at different times, are looking for an apartment and One Folgate Street looks like a dream come true..except for the pages and pages of requirements that they have to agree to. They both decide that they MUST live there and this is the story of what went on in the house.

What I Liked about this book:
-The plot was full of twists and turns and kept you eagerly reading to see what was going to happen next.
-The story is told in alternating chapters by the two women. Emma is the past resident of the house and Jane is the current resident. It was a great way to present the story.
-The ending was a real surprise but it was plausible - I realized that I had missed some clues along the way.

What I didn't Like
- There was too much unneeded sex.
-I am so tired of book titles with the word GIRLS in them when the characters are actually WOMEN.

Overall, I thought it was a great read and I definitely enjoyed it.

Karolina's Twins is a book about the Holocaust. Even though there is a modern day story line going on too, the primary story is about what happened to Lena Woodward in Poland before and during the dark days of WWII. At the start of the book, she approaches a lawyer and investigator to help her find the twins of her best friend from home. She had promised Karolina that she would find the babies after the war but had waited over 70 years to start looking for them. Even though they all feel that it may be impossible to find the babies after so many years, Catherine and Liam listen to the horrific story of her life and try to help her.

The book is very dark, as are all books about this time period, but there are also some bright spots in the modern story line. I found the characters interesting, especially Lena and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It's one that you won't want to put down until the end.

My only complaint is that there is no mention in the blurbs for this book that it is part of a series. There are a lot of references to previous cases that Catherine and Liam worked on and it would have been nice to have read those books previous to this one. I plan to go back and read them now.

This would be a very good book for book clubs because there is a lot of information contained in the book that would generate some good discussion.

Thanks to BookBrowse for a copy of this book for a fair and honest review.

This is my first book by Ann Leary and after reading it, I plan to read her older books. I loved her characters - my favorites were Joan and Charlotte but all of the characters added to the story line. Joan and her two daughters were definitely quirky and that made the novel even more interesting and in parts very humorous.


When Whit Whitman died, he left his estate to his two begins to show cracks when Spin brings home his fiancee. Add in a caretaker who is having an affair with Charlotte and a thief in the neighborhood who breaks into houses to clean them and you have all the elements needed for a great read that you don't want to put down until the last page is read. Great story!

I will start off this review where I usually end my reviews -- this is a great book and you need to read it! The author does a fantastic job with her main characters and with a story line that keeps you guessing until the very end. I thought that I had it figured out about 3/4 of the way through but I was way off. Its a page turner that is part mystery, part love story with some laughs in between.

The main characters are Annie, a recent college graduate, just engaged to Eric who is deployed to the Middle East and doesn't seem to know quite what to do with her life; her Mom Laurel, a very straight laced lawyer who also teaches horse back riding to handicapped students and Gladys Spencer-Churchill who may or may not be the Duchess of Marlborough. The story takes place in the early 70s, in 2001 and in the late 1800s. As difficult as it may sound to weave those time periods and women together, the author does a fantastic job of doing just that in a very entertaining way. The main setting of the book is not Paris as the title would have you believe but a run down estate in England but Paris plays a very large role in the ultimate outcome of the story. There is so much more that I could say about this novel but I don't want to give anything away so I will just say again - its a terrific book and you're going to love it!

Normally when I read a book and am not engaged by page 50, I quit reading. I was not enjoying this book - I didn't like the way the story was told by the unnamed narrator. I am REALLY glad that I gave this book a few more pages because once I found out who the narrator really was, things all started to fall into place. This was the intriguing story about trying to erase people's memories so that they don't remember a traumatic event - in this case it was Jenny who had been brutally raped. Her mother wanted the drugs used on her so that she would forget the rape and go on with her life. Her father wasn't convinced that they should do this but he deferred to his wife. So the drug is administered and Jenny loses her memory of the rape but even though the memory is erased, the feeling caused by the rape are never totally gone. This is Jenny's store but so much more. I thought that this book was a real page turner and once I got into it, I couldn't put it down.
(Note- be aware that there are some brutal rape scenes in this book.)
(Note - this book was provided by BookBrowse for a fair and impartial review)

The title of the book is good advice to the reader - don't trust what Jerry tells you because you don't know if it's real or if it's his early onset Alzeheimer's twisting his memories. Is he remembering scenes from his books or did he really commit the crimes? The book is a bit confusing at first but once you get into it, it's a fantastic ride to the end. I thought that the author did a fantastic job of keeping up with all the threads of the story. I know that some people won't like the ending but I thought it went along with the rest of the book - any other ending would have seemed wrong. It's a great book and I want to read more of this author's books

When I won this book, I checked and found out that it was the second book in a series so I ordered and read Edge of Normal first - which I loved. I was prepared to enjoy What Doesn't Kill her and I wasn't disappointed. I could barely put it down once I started it. It kept me up late reading one night and thinking about it another night. I thought that the author wrote a fantastic thriller and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. She has been added to my list of authors that I watch for their upcoming releases. Fantastic read.

This novel was made up of two stories - the first story was the coming of age story of Elijah, the nephew of Poxl West who hero worshiped him in the beginning of the book. It is also the story of Poxl - a Czechoslovakian who fled to Amsterdam and then to London during World War II. He left people that he loved behind every time he left one place and fled to another city. As the novel begins, he has written a book about his exploits as an RAF bomber pilot during WWII. The novel is told from both perspectives but for both the old man and the young boy it is the story of learning how to love and accept other people. I thought that the novel was very well written and that it gave a very different side of world war II than other books that I have read about this time period. I would recommend it for book clubs.

Gone with the Wind was the first adult book that I read when I was young and it remains one of the few books that I re- read every few years. I was excited to find out about this book and the potential opportunity to learn more about Mammy, one of the key characters in GWTW. Wow was I disappointed. I thought that this book was poorly written and the characters were very one dimensional. I don't know much more about Mammy now than I did before except that her real name was Ruth. I truly think that authors should quit trying to add on to earlier novels - they should just leave those characters alone. Major disappointment!

This novel is the story of a marriage and a family in trouble. The husband has severe anger management problems and the wife has learned to compensate by not upsetting him and by taking a few pills when needed to get through her days. His anger causes a car accident that results in catastrophic brain injury to her. The accident bring the family dysfunction out of the shadows of their lives and shows how Ben's anger not only affected Maddy but also their three children. The novel is well told and the characters are very well developed. I felt like I knew them and I laughed and cried with them. This is the first book that I've read by this author and I plan to read her previous books based on my enjoyment of this book.

I think that this would be a great book for a book club to read and discuss. There are so many areas that could be discussed - the parent's reactions to the accidents, the children's reactions, and ultimately how Ben and Maddy handle their lives after the accident.

This book opens with what appears to be a happy family having an Easter egg hunt. As the novel progresses, the reader sees the family fall apart after a horrible tragedy occurs on another Easter Sunday. The family ends up with the mother as a hoarder, the father in a strange relationship, one daughter who is very uptight, one who refuses to grow up and a son who disappears into the drug world. Any more information than that would give away too much of the story. The story line moves ahead by skipping back and forth from the past to the present and alternating family members but it is not difficult to follow the action. I found the story very very sad but very compelling. It was hard to put down because I cared about the characters and wanted to find out who they all survived their tumultuous lives and I really wanted to know if they found their way back to being a family again. This is a wonderful novel - well written with well defined characters. I would highly recommend it.

This was a very intriguing book about family secrets. As the story unfolds we find that not only Eve was keeping secrets in the Lattimore family - all of them had secrets. Its the story of a family with a special needs son who gets most of the family attention, to the detriment of the rest of the family. Some parts of the story were unbelievable but overall this was a great novel that kept you reading until the end.

I definitely enjoyed this book and found it very interesting, I especially enjoyed the mystery about the murder of the 16 year old girl but thought the book lost some of its steam with the terrorist plot. I live in a small town in the south where everyone is related and enjoyed the descriptions of the people in Ackers Gap, I plan to go back and read the first book in the series and then read this one again. I would recommend this book!

I have read all of the books in the Kate Burkholder series and enjoyed them all. I think that HER LAST BREATH was the best book yet! The story was interesting and the ending was a real surprise. As a former Amish person and now chief of police in the same town where she is now shunned by the Amish, she is a very conflicted character - which also makes her more real and interesting. Fantastic book!