Courting Miss Lancaster

Courting Miss Lancaster by Sarah M. Eden

'Courting Miss Lancaster' is the sequel to 'Seeking Persephone'.  I was given this book and read it without knowing there was a volume preceding it.  I did not find that I needed the previous volume to understand this one.

Harry Windover has fallen for Athena Lancaster.  Poor Harry can never be thought of as an eligible match for her though because he is nearly penniless.  To make Harry's suffering even worse, Harry's best friend is Athena's guardian, and he asks Harry's assistance in finding Athena a suitable gentleman.  Harry decides to show Athena what she doesn't want in a suitor.  Gentlemen with alarming characteristics are introduced and quickly turned away.  With every debacle, Athena needs Harry's comfort more.  What she doesn't understand is that love isn't always like a lightening bolt, sometimes it grows quietly.

Clean, sweet romance!  Even though there must be some...misunderstanding.....to wrench your heart and make you cringe in agony, it's not so bad that you start to hate the story.  Fun, super fast read.  I think I am convinced to find its predecessor and read it too.

Rating 3.5  Sweet, cute, fun, cuddly if necessary......just like you think it would be.
Rating G Pretty darn clean.

The Lace Reader

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Towner has just returned to Salem, Mass. after fifteen years of estrangement from the place and her family.  She left after the suicide of her twin and returned when her stepgrandmother went missing.  Towner comes from a long line of lace readers, which is something like being a psychic.

The setting was beautiful.  The theory had a lot going for it.  The love interest a cop (yum).  I don't think that Barry pulled it off though.  It took many times of starting and at least 100 pages to get into the book.  Not a whole lot of lace reading going on despite the title.  Towner seemed many times like she was 50 instead of 32.  By the end I was disappointed that I had finally come to feel for the character.  I felt something like betrayal........the character was infact not the character I had come to know.  I needed to reread the book, and not in a good way.

Rating 2.5  There were some good parts in there.

Rating PG 13 Sexual abuse (alluded to), alcohol and drug abuse, child/spousal abuse, suicide.

I Capture The Castle

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith

Cassandra is seventeen and living in a run down castle. Her once famous father leased the castle with the money from his one and only published book. Her lovely sister Rose is moody and depressed with no positive outlook for marriage. Her witty and bright little brother Thomas is still in school. Stephen is the maid's son, left with the family after her death. Stephen deeply loves Cassandra.....she does not return the love. Cassandra's stepmother Topaz is eccentric and breathtaking. And her father, suffering from writer's block is holed up in a bitterly cold room doing crosswords.

The new owners of the castle turn up. Simon and Neil Cotton and their mother. All American, they soon fall in love with the English countryside and Cassandra's famous father. Rose hopes this is her chance to change the family's financial situation. She immediately tries to capture the heart of Simon. The Cotton family is wealthy and friendly. They seem a perfect match for the monetarily and socially challenged Mortmain family.

Cassandra desires herself to be a writer. The book is her journal. From first glance of the Cotton boys until the bitter and surprising end of the Mortmain's relationship with them....Cassandra details it all in sweet with sweet and witty writing.

Rating 4 I loved the writing style and how Cassandra would build up to what she felt was an exciting turn of events. She was also very introspective and truthful about herself.
Rating G Clean.....although I thing the English use of 'making love' really meant something much less drastic.

Ready or Not

Ready or Not by Meg Cabot

This is the follow up novel to American Girl. Sam is still dating the First Son and being a teen ambassador. This time Sam's conundrum is whether or not to have sex with boyfriend David. She is also publicly supporting the Presidents new Family agenda. The agenda includes ratting out young girls to their parents if they are seeking contraception. Sam mistakenly announces that she has said yes to sex during a televised town meeting held at her high school. Although Sam has not agreed to be sexual with David, everyone including their families think she has.

Sam is called a slut at school. The popular girls try to ostracize her. Sam's popular sister Lucy stands up for her. Many others in the school join in and Sam finds that she has more friends than she thought.

Sam has been invited to Camp David with the First Family for Thanksgiving. She thinks that David has invited her in order to have sex with her for the first time. She decides that she is not ready. She then finds that David truly invited her just to invite her and had no other plans. Let down and a bit angry she then decides she is ready for sex and 'jumps his bones'. She feels that she has come to the realization that sex did not change their relationship. She also learns that her popular sister, although having had a steady boyfriend for a long time......has not had sex.

I was a bit surprised to have this book revolving so much around the choice to be sexually active as a teen. While I am semi glad that someone as broached this subject, I was not thrilled with the outcome. Sorry Sam, but sex changes everything. Also as a book geared toward young teens I was not at all happy about other sexual tips garnered in this read.

Rating 2 I did have fun reading it, but I didn't like the message to the target audience. I know that is a totally personal opinion.......... but that's the whole point of posting.

Rating PG 13 contraception, sex, sexual acts, language

All American Girl

All American Girl by Meg Cabot

Samantha Madison is a fifteen year old girl, attending a prep school in D.C. She is an all black wearing, art loving, one friended, Gwen Stefani obsessing, popularity hater. Despite all of that she is quite likable. When her German grades drop and her parents find out it is because she spends her time drawing pictures of famous guys and selling them to popular girls, they enroll her in art classes. They feel like she needs a creative outlet, but Sam feels like it is a punishment.
Sam's sister Lucy is a cheerleader at the same prep school. Her boyfriend Jack is a trench coat wearing artsy guy. Sam is secretly in love with Jack. Jack cautions Sam not to let the art classes strip her of her creativity.

Sam attends her first art class. She meets David. David seems oddly familiar, but Sam can't place him. She draws her first picture, which she is sure is better than everyon else in the class. When the instructor critiques at the end of class, Sam is upset to learn that she did not follow the directions given, which were to draw what she saw. Sam drew what she knew instead and she can't figure out the difference. Taking Jack's advice and feeling angry and embarrassed, Sam decides to further buck the system and skip the next class. She ends up in a music store for the entire time. As she leaves to catch her ride home, Sam notices a weird man from the music store. Just then, a presidential motorcade arrives. The president steps out and heads for a nearby bakery. The weird guy from the music store whips out a gun and fires. Sam jumps on his back and takes him down. He breaks her arm in the fall. Sam has saved the president's life.

As Samantha recovers from her injury, she meets the president and his family. David from art class is the president's son. Lucy takes the opportunity she has been waiting for and gives Sam a makeover for her press conference. Sam instantly becomes popular. She and her sole friend Catherine are invited to a party given by Sam's former friend and recent enemy. Catherine is desperate to go and invite a 'boy'. She has been seriously sheltered by her parents and teased for the clothes they make her wear. Catherine begs Sam to give her the chance to fit in. Sam agrees purely for Catherine's sake. Sam decides to invite David to the party. She wants to be friends, but she is also using David to wake Jack up to what he is missing.

David and Jack get in a fight about art. It becomes clear to David that Sam likes Jack. Despite Sam being a teen ambassador to the U.N. and attending a dinner with the president's family, Sam and David can't overcome their opposite feelings.

Sam is put in charge of an art competition for the U.N. The pictures are to depict what the artist sees out of their window. Jack feels like he is a shoe in with Sam as the judge. Sam finds another picture that she loves, but the president and press secretary feel is controversial. Sam begins to understand what her art instructor meant when she said draw what you see and not what you know.

Sam attends more art lessons in hopes of befriending David again. While there her art improves greatly and she learns to really 'see'. She finds that Jack might not know what he is talking about.

Finally Sam realizes that she loves David, not Jack. She gives a news interview about the art contest and her feelings about whom the real winner should be. At the end she professes her feelings for David. Soon they are together. Sam begins to realize there are more important ways to make a statement about life than by dying all of your clothes black.

Fun, clean story! I liked watching Sam evolve. She also really changes her relationship with her sister. Lucy sticks up for her by breaking up with Jack when Sam and Jack fight over the winner of the art contest. I loved seeing the importance of family relationships brought out. I also really liked that even though there were differing backgrounds and social groups, they were played down and we were able to see that they don't matter as much as we give them credit for.

Rating. 3.75. Fun book, entertaining.
Rating PG attempted murder, injury, clean romance.

Sarah

Sarah by Orson Scott Card

Although I am sure there was much poetic license taken, this is the story of Sarah, wife of the great prophet Abraham. The story begins with Sarai (Sarah's first given name before it was changed by God) as a ten year old girl. She lives with her father, a king without a country. Abram (Abraham) comes to secure a bride price for Sarai's sister Qira, for his brother Lot. Abram and Sarai meet. He tells her he will return in less than ten years to marry her. She sees that he is a truthful man that worships the one true God and that the priesthood of that God is his birthright.
Abram does return. He marries Sarai and takes her off to the desert where he has many herds. There is a severe drought and they move from well to well in order to care for their herds. In the mean time Sarai becomes a great woman in a great house hold. Abram studies the stars, copies the scriptures and writes his own writings. Sarai remains barren throughout their first years of marriage despite God's promise to Abram that he will be the father of a great nation.
The drought drives Abram and Sarai into Egypt. Abram is met by the men of Pharaoh. Abram is told by God not to divulge that Sarai is his wife. He instead introduces her as his sister Milcah. They are taken to different places in Egypt and are kept separate for a year. Pharaoh wants to marry Milcah so his children will have the blood of the priesthood. If he knew she was Sarai and the wife of Abram he will kill Abram and marry Sarai because he is a princess of Ur. Sarai is given Hagar as her handmaid, a gift from Pharaoh to lessen the blow of being held hostage. Abram teaches Pharaoh of God and Sarai warns Pharaoh of an uprising by his highest advisor. Abram and Sarai are allowed to leave Egypt. They finally tell Pharaoh Sarai's true identity after he makes promises in front of his men that Abram and his household will come to no harm. They return to the desert.
Lot and Qira are living in Sodom. The city life is not for Lot but Qira loves it. Sodom and its surrounding cities are wicked. Abram gives Lot some of his herds so that he can move out to the desert. Qira comes very begrudgingly. She makes the camp of Abram miserable. Lot decides to split his herds from Abram and spend some time back in the city to make Qira happy.
There is war in Sodom and her sister cities. Abram takes some of his men to take back the prisoners of war, Lot included. Abram and his men triumph. The prisoners are set free. Sarai goes to Abram. She learns from God that she is to give Hagar to Abram that he may have a son. She can do this because she owns Hagar and so Hagar will stand in for Sarai's body.
Hagar becomes pregnant. It is miserable for Sarai but she handles it like a queen. Hagar shows her true colors and becomes a pain in the rear. Ishmael is born of Hagar. Abram loves him.
Years later Abram and Sarai are aging. Abram prophesies the destruction of Sodom and surrounding areas by meteorites. He also prophesies that Sarai will bear him a son that will build up a great nation. God changes the name of Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah.
Sodom is destroyed just as Lot escapes. Qira turns back to get her jewels and gowns and is turned into a pillar of salt..........or basically zapped by the fire from Heaven.
Sarah becomes pregnant at an advanced age. Isaac is born. Ishmael and Hagar mistreat him. Ishmael is given his herds and they are turned out of Abraham's camp in order to preserve the life of Isaac. Isaac grows into a young man and he and Abraham go out to visit wells and check herds. Abraham seems distraught.......the book ends before we find out why?????
Obviously Card and we can only know so much about Abraham and Sarah. The rest he has studied a great deal to assume. I do not take this book as truth only speculation therefore I am not bothered by anything in the book. I enjoyed it immensely. I liked getting to know Sarah as a person and how she may have felt and reacted to the situations we learn about in some vagueness from The Bible.
Rating 4 This is my second reading so I should probably give it a higher score. Tiny but necessary bits were a little dry........the political and land issues. Still worth the read.
Rating G

Goldengrove

Goldengrove by Francine Prose

What first attracted me to this book was that it was A) on the new release shelf, and B) the cover is beautiful. Yes, I do judge books by their cover.
The book begins with Nico (13 yrs.) and Margaret (17 yrs.) in their boat on the lake just out their door. Nico and Margaret are close. Nico adores Margaret. Everyone adores Margaret. We learn in a short time what everyone adores her for, including her boyfriend Aaron. After Margaret does a great rendition of a song she likes to sing, she dives into the water never to be seen alive again. She died of long QT syndrome (cardiac disorder).
The rest of the book deals with the grief of Nico, her parents and Aaron. Their lives are torn apart. They have serious anger, drug abuse, they try everything they can to get away from their pain. Nico and Aaron begin spending time together. They feel like they can help each other get through the seering pain they feel over Margaret. As it would be with any thirteen year old spending time with a seventeen year old, things eventually get out of control.
There were parts of the book that struck me as very real. The way the family members dealt with their grief seemed very plausable and painful. Nico obsessed about death and health issues. Her father became engrosed in writing a book about the end of the world. Her mother basically blackmailed the pediatrician that didn't diagnose Margaret, for pain killers. And Aaron stopped doing anything that reminded him of Margaret.
The book is being related by Nico. This is were I didn't feel like it was realistic. I had to keep reminding myself that she was only thirteen, not seventeen or older. Even though you find out at the end of the book that she is really telling it from a grown up perspective..........it still didn't fly with me. I thought a more interesting perspective may have been from Aaron's point of view if Prose was going to write with an older frame of mind.

Rating 3.5 Beautiful, painful......timeline sometimes confusing but I will atribute that to grief. If Nico were at least 17 I would probably give this a higher rating.
Rating PG 13 F word a couple of times. Talking about sex, but not descriptive.