Warren Adler - Random Hearts

111. Random Hearts by Warren Adler (1984)
Length: 267 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 20 November 2014
Finished: 23 November 2014
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 10 May 2001
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and Warren Adler is a new author for me.

In a perfect world, people like Edward Davis and Vivien Simpson would never have met. He's a happily married man; an ambitious aide to an important Congressman who loves his wife. She's a happily married woman; a housewife with a young son and a dog who absolutely adores her lawyer husband. They are each living the good life - or so they believe. 

There is absolutely no earthly reason why they should ever meet...

Until a commercial airliner crashes into the Potomac River with eighty-four souls on board. Two of the victims are linked by a clue that at first stuns and baffles, then draws together their surviving spouses; and sends them on a dizzying exploration of their loved ones private lives. The secrets that they uncover about the people that they loved are totally unexpected. 

The explosive discovery leads Edward and Vivien on a journey that ultimately forces them to confront the mysterious and random nature of love - and the transforming power it wields over the men and women caught up in its relentless maelstrom.

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. In my opinion, this was an emotional and very human story. It showed me how the consequences of a single action can ultimately tear apart a person's life - the feelings of hurt and betrayal, anger and confusion that can potentially ruin someone's happiness and contentment with life. 

This was the first book by Warren Adler that I've ever read and I give it an A+! Although Mareena has seen the 1999 movie adaptation of this book - starring Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas - at least once with a friend of hers; she and I have only ever seen portions of the movie together. Maybe the next time it comes on television, we'll watch the entire movie. However, in my personal opinion, the book is better than the movie; so watching the movie isn't all that imperative to me.

A+! - (96-100%)
 
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Colleen McCullough - The Ladies of Missalonghi

110. The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough (1987)
Length: 187 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Started: 14 November 2014
Finished: 18 November 2014
Where did it come from? My friend Noeleen got married in March of 2011, but before the wedding she needed to purge some of her books in the process of merging two households.
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 11 April 2010
Why do I have it? I like historical fiction and Colleen McCullough is a new author for me.

Several years into the twentieth century, in the tiny town of Byron nestled somewhere in the Australian Blue Mountains, a shy spinster, her widowed mother and her crippled aunt live in genteel poverty. For thirty-three-year-old Missy Wright, her mother Drusilla and aunt Octavia, life is difficult living as the poor relations of the Hurlingford family - the most prominent family in Byron. Despite the Wrights being allowed to live at Missalonghi - Drusilla's home through marriage - the women are actually victims of the Hurlingford inheritance policy which allows only the male members of the family to inherit all the wealth. In turn, the men heartlessly abuse and dominate the women in their care.

Plain, painfully thin and doomed to dress always in serviceable brown, Missy has limited funds and suffers from periodic bouts of ill health. Her only consolation is her frequent trips to the privately owned lending library in town, where she indulges in her only vice - reading Gothic romance novels. Missy seems resigned to her fate, facing a dreary future until a distant cousin, a divorcée, arrives from Sydney...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a delightful little story, with a totally unexpected ending, at least for me. I do have a copy of Colleen McCullough's epic saga The Thorn Birds hidden somewhere on my bookshelf, but have never read it. That particular admission probably comes as quite a surprise to many people, but it is the truth: "I have not ever read The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough!"

However, reading The Ladies of Missalonghi is my first foray into Ms. McCullough's work, and it was a relatively quick and easy read for me. Engaging and rather quirky, I give The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough an A!

A! - (90-95%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Karen Robards - The Senator's Wife

109. The Senator's Wife by Karen Robards (1998)
Length: 388 pages
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Started: 11 November 2014
Finished: 14 November 2014
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 11 September 2001
Why do I have it? I like contemporary mysteries and have read and enjoyed The Midnight Hour by the same author in the past.

Ronnie Honneker likes the idea of being Senator Lewis Honneker's wife much more than she actually likes being married to him. She may prefer the status of her marriage: the power, the prestige, the wealth, the comforts and beautiful things that such a marriage provides, but for Ronnie it is also an acutely lonely marriage. For she is the second wife. Married to the Honorable Lewis Honneker, a man twice her age who is wealthy, successful, and revered by the voters in his home state of Mississippi.

What the public doesn't know is that this pillar of the community is actually quite fond of engaging in casual indiscretions. Now he is running for re-election and his lovely young wife is expected to stand beside him. Though she is publicly scorned as the woman who broke up the senator's first marriage, Ronnie does her best to promote her husband's re-election campaign. Yet her husband is not the man she thought he was, and although long accustomed to it, Ronnie despises the strain of the campaign trail - especially the constant facade and total lack of privacy.

The glamorous political life can't make up for the emptiness deep in her heart, a dark space which she fears will never be filled. Until political strategist Tom Quinlan enters the picture. Hired to soften Ronnie's public image, Tom prides himself on his work, never mixing business with pleasure. Solid, quietly handsome, the quintessential southern boy-next-door, he is called in to enhance Senator Honneker's campaign and he takes his job very seriously.

To him, Ronnie is a job. Certainly a challenging one; but remaking Mrs. Honneker's public image is nothing more than a routine assignment to Tom Quinlan. Ronnie Honneker is perhaps one of Tom's most challenging assignments - she is difficult to direct, and can definitely test any man's patience. So why does he find himself unable to stop thinking about her? Her flowing auburn hair, her long, perfectly muscled legs, those inviting chocolate-brown eyes? Tom has never allowed himself to surrender to such feelings...until now. 

Ronnie never expected to find love again; and certainly not with a man like Tom Quinlan. However, as much as she may try, she just can't ignore the desire that Tom ignites in her or the newly-awakened passions that he inflames within her - feelings she'd once thought were gone forever. And she knows that the tempers flaring between them are just a cover for their barely contained passions. Together they discover that love and politics make uneasy bedfellows as they must contend with their developing attraction to each other, a swarm of snooping reporters, and a public which is growing increasingly suspicious of their relationship.

Yet when the senator is found murdered and Ronnie is accused of the crime, only Tom believes she is innocent. Now the two must work together to uncover the senator's sordid secrets; as the Honorable Lewis Honneker died while in the midst of a particularly sticky scandal. But as the stakes rise, they learn that they must watch their backs. And follow their hearts.

While I certainly enjoyed the plot of this story; in my personal opinion, there was an overly heavy focus on the romance of the plot. Whereas I perhaps would have appreciated fewer graphic sexually explicit scenes in the story - I prefer for the romantic scenes to be left up to the reader's imagination more often, I suppose - I really enjoyed the mysterious part of the plot. Overall, I would give The Senator's Wife by Karen Robards a B+! 

I think that I have at least two more of Ms. Robards' books on my bookshelf that I'd be interested in searching out and reading sometime in the future, but for right now it's not imperative to me.  

B+! - (89-94%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Susan Kenney - In Another Country

108. In Another Country by Susan Kenney (1984)
The Boyd Family Series Book 1
Length: 215 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 10 November 2014
Finished: 11 November 2014
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 10 October 2000
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and Susan Kenney is a new author for me.

At the age of twelve, Sara Boyd loses her forty-year-old father. For herself and her younger brother and sister, his death is their first brush with tragedy. This is an event which will stay with them for the rest of their lives, and his loss will ultimately affect all of their future relationships in one way or another.

As an adult, Sara realizes that her father's early death is actually the catalyst for her mother's frequent bouts of madness; and in turn, each of these manic episodes increasingly disturb Sara's own life - unduly straining both her marriage and family. When her husband subsequently becomes seriously ill, Sara draws on her past experiences to find the renewed strength to carry on.

I enjoyed reading this book very much; I found it to be a very poignant, well-told story. This book has been described as six interrelated short stories, but I think it would be far more accurate to describe them as six short vignettes in Sara's life. Each vignette is gut-wrenching in its own way, but doesn't necessarily seem to me to be excessively maudlin. I give this book an A+! and would be very interested to read the sequel, Sailing, if at all possible.

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Bernhard Schlink - The Reader

107. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (2008)
(Originally Published as: Der Vorleser) (1995)
Length: 218 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Started: 6 November 2014
Finished: 10 November 2014
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 20 July 2012
Why do I have it? I like historical fiction and Bernhard Schlink is a new author for me.

Walking home from school one day, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg becomes seriously ill. He is rescued by Hanna Schmitz, a woman twice his age. Hanna, a bus conductor, tends to Michael and then takes him back to his home. Over time, Michael and Hanna form a relationship, and she becomes his lover - then she inexplicably disappears from Michael's life.

When Michael next sees Hanna, he is a young law student, sitting in on a trial in which Hanna is a defendant. She is accused of a hideous crime, but inexplicably refuses to defend herself. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael is at first perplexed by her actions. However, as the trial continues, he gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret which she considers more shameful than murder.

I absolutely loved this book. I was drawn into the plot very quickly; and by about two pages in, I was completely engrossed in the story. This was a translation from the original German, but it was a very well-written, understandable, and easy read for me. In my opinion, the story flowed along easily and I avidly wanted to know what happened next.  

This was an unusual book to begin with - and while I haven't seen the 2008 movie adaption starring Kate Winslett and Ralph Fiennes - I enjoyed the book very much. I give this book an A+!

A+! - (96-100%) 
 
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Bernhard Schlink - The Reader

107. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (1995)
Length: 218 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Started: 6 November 2014
Finished: 10 November 2014
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 20 July 2012
Why do I have it? I like historical fiction and Bernhard Schlink is a new author for me.

Walking home from school one day, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg becomes seriously ill. He is rescued by Hanna Schmitz, a woman twice his age. Hanna, a bus conductor, tends to Michael and then takes him back to his home. Over time, Michael and Hanna form a relationship, and she becomes his lover - then she inexplicably disappears from Michael's life.

When Michael next sees Hanna, he is a young law student, sitting in on a trial in which Hanna is a defendant. She is accused of a hideous crime, but inexplicably refuses to defend herself. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael is at first perplexed by her actions. However, as the trial continues, he gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret which she considers more shameful than murder.

I absolutely loved this book. I was drawn into the plot very quickly; and by about two pages in, I was completely engrossed in the story. This was a translation from the original German, but it was a very well-written, understandable, and easy read for me. In my opinion, the story flowed along easily and I avidly wanted to know what happened next.  

This was an unusual book to begin with - and while I haven't seen the 2008 movie adaption starring Kate Winslett and Ralph Fiennes - I enjoyed the book very much. I give this book an A+!

A+! - (96-100%) 
 
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

LaVyrle Spencer - Small Town Girl

106. Small Town Girl by LaVyrle Spencer (1997)
Length: 364 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 3 November 2014
Finished: 6 November 2014
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 16 August 2014
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.

Eighteen years ago, a young and hopeful Tess McPhail left her tiny hometown of Wintergreen, Missouri, for the bright lights of Nashville and she never once looked back. Now considered to be one of country music's brightest stars, "Mac" McPhail is a millionairess many times over, whose career is her life. At thirty-five years old, Mac has no time for marriage, children, or kinfolk - until her sisters insist that she finally come home to help care for their widowed mother, Mary.

Assuming that staying in Wintergreen for the next month will be merely dreary, Mac is totally unprepared for what awaits her. After almost two decades spent basking in the public's adoration of her, she is suddenly an inconspicuous, almost inconsequential person - insulted by her jealous older sister, enraged by her intractable mother, and ignored by Kenny Kronek, the next-door neighbor she mercilessly taunted all through high school. Now a handsome divorcé who dotes upon his teenage daughter, Casey, Kenny is widely respected in the community. And he seems downright indifferent towards Mac, refusing to even give her the time of day.

Once she discovers Casey is a promising country music talent, Mac assumes the role of singing mentor for the girl. She gradually becomes an integral part of life in Wintergreen, and the feigned indifference between Mac and Kenny soon turns from playful bickering to sudden passion. By month's end, Mac McPhail is a completely changed woman; she has not only grown to treasure the priceless solidarity of family and community, but also opened up her heart to love.

Yet what was possible in the small town of Wintergreen, appears to be nothing more than a naive fantasy back in Nashville. Under Nashville's bright and harsh stage lights - in the realm of super stardom - is there room for caring and commitment; or is a woman who is worshipped by millions destined to always be alone?

While I certainly enjoyed reading this book, the story was somewhat predictable to me in places. I appreciated that it was an easy read, and it was definitely well-written. However, I must admit that this wasn't my absolute favorite book by LaVyrle Spencer. I give this book a B+!

B+! - (89-94%)  

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight