2014 Reading List


My first book of the year! It was pretty long - over 500 pages - so it took me a little longer than I would have liked. It was quite a detailed fictional story of a woman's life. Alma Whittaker was a fascinating character and lived in an interesting family. I was totally drawn in by her and her father. I liked that the story had a few twists that I didn't expect. Good story, good characters. (January)


This is the third Bridget Jones book from Helen Fielding. I've read the first two and seen (and own) the movies. Bridget is that classic character that you sort of hate because she is so clueless, but you kind of love her and even relate to her a bit. In this story, Bridget is still searching for a man but it's complicated by the fact that she's older now and has children. (The children's father is not in the picture, but I won't tell you anything else.) I spent most of the book wanting to not like her but feeling happy when she was happy and sad when she was sad. If I had a friend like Bridget, I would be very exasperated by her. Still, it was fun to read and I'm glad I did. (January)


Have you ever dreamed of leaving your regular life behind and moving to a foreign country? This author, Karen Wheeler, leaves her life in London and moves to a rural village in France. She buys a house and renovates it, makes new friends and pines for love. I thought Under the Tuscan Sun was more charming and made me want to go to Tuscany much more than this book made me want to visit France, but I still enjoyed reading the book. The drama of the relationships with the British ex-pats was entertaining. (January)


I have read several books by Adriama Trigiani. This one was not my favorite. I think it's the third book about the main character, Valentine, but I didn't know that until I was already into the book. Maybe I would like it better if I read the other books so I knew the history, but maybe not. I found Valentine to be self-centered and not very nice to her husband, who seemed like a good guy. (February)


This book was offered for a reduced price by Barnes & Noble and I wanted to get it, but I let it pass me by. I was happy when I saw it sitting quietly on the new releases table at the library. I was a little afraid that I wouldn't care for the main character - it seems to be a theme for me in the last few books I read, but I didn't have that problem with this book. I liked Shandi. I liked all the characters and I liked the story. It went a couple of places I wasn't expecting and I liked that. I loved the ending. (February)


Jane Eyre is one of the books that was included in a collection of classic novels that I bought on my Nook when I first got the device. I was looking for a new ebook to read and I opened the collection and it was on Jane Eyre, so that's what I read. I'm pretty sure I read this book before, but it must have been a long time ago because I did not remember it at all. I'm glad I was reading it on my Nook because there is a lot of interesting vocabulary words that I did not know. I was hitting the "look up" key a lot. Interestingly, T is also reading Jane Eyre right now in his English class. He says he doesn't mind it. I thought it was good. I like Jane. I like that she always does what she thinks is right and that she speaks her mind. Like I said before, I thought some of the writing was a bit difficult to get through, not quite as accessible as Jane Austen, and darker than Jane Austen also. I am happy to read some of the classics! (February)


I found this book in the library on the Reader's Choice table. I picked it up because who can resist a book with a delicious-looking cupcake on the cover? Not me. Plus I like books about cooking and love. And I liked this book. The main character, Hannah, was likable and the story was fun. (February)


This book was on my Nook. I've been doubling up on books lately. I've been reading one regular paper book and an ebook. I like to read on my Nook at night because it has a light so I can turn off my bedside light and read if MT is asleep so it doesn't disturb him. He does the same for me. I got this book from Barnes & Noble for a couple of bucks. What appealed to me about it was that it was a modern take on Pride and Prejudice. Well sort of. It was about this family with four daughters and one of them is going to be on a reality TV show. The mom is super-annoying, just like in the Jane Austen book, and two sisters are annoying and two sisters are cool. The reality TV part is pretty dumb. I didn't really care for the book. I wanted to like it, but it fell kind of flat for me. (March)


I got this book for Christmas. I thought it sounded interesting and I liked the cover. It took me a minute to get into this book. It's told from two points of view: Josephine, the house girl, in 1852, and Lina, a lawyer in current time. There's art, there's a law case, there's some history, there's some family drama...there's a lot going on but it all comes together. Even though I thought it started out slow, when I got to 100 pages, I was hooked and I sped through the rest of it. It was pretty good. (March)


This was the perfect book for me. I loved the way Amy and Leo developed a friendship and fell in love. Then there was the conflict of his being a prince and her being an ordinary citizen. There were fun supporting characters (Jo) and annoying characters (Sophia) and a missing sister and a partying brother. I loved every minute of it. I could totally see it as a movie. I own in on my Nook; I might read it again over the summer because it was so cute and fun. (March)


It's Reader's Choice time again at the library and this is one of their selections. I liked this book. It took me a little time to keep the Supremes straight - there was Odette, Clarice and Barbara Jean. Each of them had their own story but their friendship was what held the story together. The parts about Odette were written in first person, but the other two were not, so you knew their story but didn't hear it from their voice. The ending was a little strange, but it was enjoyable. (March)


Nora Roberts are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. She wrote a trilogy that I read and I really liked it. Each of the books was pretty much the same, and it was totally all right with me. Dark Witch is the first book in another trilogy and it follows the same formula and I liked it, too! This series follows three cousins in ireland who are witches. This book focused on Iona, an Irish-American who has just moved to Ireland to meet her cousins. Iona gets a job that she loves and finds a man that she loves. There's a bad guy who is an evil spirit that manifests as fog or a wolf or a guy and Iona and her cousins and her lover and some friends join their powers together to try to vanquish the evil guy. It sounds goofy, but I liked the characters and the love story and the witches. I'll read the second book. I think it just came out. I told you: guilty pleasure. (March)


I saw the list of 20 Skinny Rules on Pinterest and I was intrigued, so I found the book at the library. Even though I don't know if I have buy-in with all 20 rules, it was interesting to read the science and details behind the rules. The book also included a bunch of recipes; I may try some of them. (April)


I really like Amy Tan's books. I have read several of her novels and I love the way she takes me right into her stories. This novel follows Violet through her life in Shanghai starting in the early 1900s. It was interesting and sad, too. As I was reading through the story, I liked the way Amy Tan mirrored the mother and daughter's lives. It was a long book, nearly 600 pages, which explains why it took me so long to read it, I guess. It was worth the time. (May)


Lately I've been reading two books at a time, one on my Nook and one a traditional book. The ebooks usually just get read in bed at night and sometimes at lunchtime in the office. Command Authority is an ebook and I've been reading it for awhile. It's long, nearly 600 pages, so it took some time. It was cool, though! A major storyline was that Russia was trying to invade the Ukraine and had successfully moved into the Crimea, so it reflected today's headlines. Other than that, fiction, and really entertaining fiction. Jack Ryan is no the President of the United States, and his son, Jack Jr., is kind of following in his CIA footsteps. I was thoroughly entertained by this story. I like Tom Clancy's writing style. I think this was Clancy's final novel. I haven't read all of his Jack Ryan books, but I might. I'm pretty sure we have them all here at the house. The thing is that they are so big, you can't really read them lying down because if you happen to doze off, you could give yourself a black eye! (May)


Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors. I certainly haven't read all of her books, but I have liked all of her books that I have read. This one was no exception. The story is told from three points of view: Coralie, Eddie and a narrator. The story takes place in New York City in the late 1800s to early 1900s and fire is a key theme to the story. I kept wondering when Coralie and Eddie would finally meet. They saw each other here and there throughout the story, but they didn't actually meet until about two thirds of the way through the book. Still, it was worth the wait. At the start of the book, I couldn't figure out how in the world Hoffman would bring the two characters together because they were so different, but she's an amazing writer and she brought it all together, of course. (May)


Yes, I have read this book before (last year maybe?) and I totally loved it. I decided to read it again because the film version is coming out early next month. I wanted the book to be fresh in my mind before I see the movie. I will see the movie even though 1) I don't know if it could possibly be as good as the book and 2) it will surely be a tear-fest and I know that already but I can't stop myself.  The second time through was even better than the first. I still read it very quickly, but I liked it more because I already knew what was going to happen so I could really appreciate the love story of Augustus and Hazel Grace. I caught some things that had more impact on me this second time also. Oh John Green. Grand work. Grand! (May)


I like Elin Hilderbrand's books. I think all of her books that I have read take place on Nantucket or nearby. The way she describes the place kind of makes me want to go there! This book takes place over a weekend and everyone gets together for a wedding. There are lots of characters and Hilderbrand does a good job of telling the back-stories of the main characters and getting you totally involved in what is going on.  What I came away with is that everyone has their own drama and yet life moves on. I enjoyed this book. It was over way to fast. What happens with Margot and Griff? Do Finn and Scott stay together or does Finn try to get back with Nick? Do Autumn and H.W. ever talk again after 3pm? Is Doug gonna be ok? Sequel please! (May)


This book is about a lady named Sabine who was in love with a man named Parsifal. He was the magician, she was the assistant. After Parsifal dies, Sabine is very sad and lonely, until Parsifal's family from Nebraska enters her life. The thing is that Parsifal told her that his family, from Connecticut, was dead. Sabine learns about the family she never knew her husband had after his death. I liked the book. I liked Sabine even though I couldn't really relate to her. The Nebraska family was pretty interesting, too. I like the way Patchett writes. I have read several of her books. They are not light and fluffy reading, but they are interesting. (May)


This is my second time with this book. I read it three or four years ago before the movie came out. I liked it more this time. Maybe it was because I knew that Darcy was basically horrible and selfish most of the time that that Rachel and Dex are meant for each other. I don't know. I just know I picked it up yesterday and finished it today and I loved it the whole way through. Lots better than the movie, and I liked the movie! (May)


I don't read a lot of non-fiction books. I guess I just prefer to read about made-up people. Real life people and situations is just too, well, real, I guess. That being said, I bought this book several years ago at a Barnes and Noble Buy 2 Get One Free sale or something. I had heard about the movie, and I had read another book by the author, so I picked it up. I'm not sure what made me choose this book from the pile by my bed, but I did. It's the story of a young man who graduates from college, donates his trust fund to charity and strikes out on the road heading west and eventually north to Alaska. He works here and there, has a grand adventure, makes friends wherever he goes and eventually ends up starving to death in the wilds of Alaska. There were a few things that bothered me about the story, but the main thing had to be the fact that he left his mom and dad without telling them where he was going and he didn't contact them for two years and then he died. As a parent, that just killed me. I felt terrible for his mom. He was young and selfish and ultimately didn't make good choices and it cost him his life. (June)


This book mostly just pissed me off.  I read the whole thing, hoping for some redemption, but there was none and I was just annoyed with it. The story is about a girl named Jemima and she is overweight. No, she's fat. She's more than fat, she is obese. She has four chins. When she sits on the bus, she takes up a seat and a half. When she climbs a flight of stairs, she is completely breathless. In a typical day, she has a huge bowl of cereal for breakfast, then two bacon sandwiches on her way to work, then something else at morning break and then a salad for lunch, but it's covered with creamy dressing, then she has an afternoon snack that usually involves cake and she eats two candy bars on the way home from work and has take-out food for dinner and finishes the day with cookies and candy or whatever she has stashed in her bedroom. Of course she has no friends because who would want to be friends with such a fat girl? But she's really funny and a nice person and has a beautiful face, which everyone would see if she just lost weight.

We get all this background on how ginormous Jemima is, then the author tells us that she weighs 217 lbs. That's when I got angry. I weigh a bit more than that and although I do have an extra chin, I don't have four of them. I do not take up more than one seat on a bus or a plane or a restaurant or a movie theater. I can, in fact, climb a flight of stairs without losing my breath. And I have friends who do not seem to mind too much that I am bigger than them. Yes, I have my times of self-doubt/loathing/unhappiness but it doesn't rule my entire life and never has. I was just completely annoyed with the author, Jane Green, that she didn't bother to do any research about this topic. Oh! And Jemima is two inches taller than I am!

Well, Jemima decided to go ahead and lose some weight. Good for her. She joins a gym and gets a trainer and the trainer puts her on an exercise regimen and gives her a healthy diet to follow. Jemima becomes obsessed with working out and eats very little and in about three months time, she has dropped 80 lbs. Now that she is much smaller, she gets a friend who takes her to the hairdresser and she becomes blond and they buy new clothes and men stare at her appreciatively. Then Jemima jumps on a plane to Los Angeles where she hooks up with this dude she's been talking to on the internet and he is a total "California hunk" and they have lots of sex but something feels off and it's because the dude is in love with his overweight assistant at the gym he owns. OY!

Then Jemima meets up with the guy she really loves but who could never have loved her in her previous body but now he can't get over how beautiful and desirable she is. He didn't even recognize her when they met up in LA. But because she is now thin and fabulous, all the men want her and she gets her dream guy and become comfortable enough with herself to get up to a size 10 and live happily ever after.

So sorry. I should have said Spoiler Alert. But really, do not bother with this piece of drivel. Not only is the fat-hating really, really despicable, but the unhealthy weight loss and implication that if you lose weight you will find love and happiness is downright deplorable. Badly done, Jane Green. I don't know if I will have it in me to read any of your other books. This one really put me off. (June)


I was not as passionate about this book as the previous one. :o) One of the characters in the book was the location itself, Provence in France. I liked the descriptions of the countryside and the village. The story kind of hopped back and forth between present day and the past. Sometimes it took me a couple of pages to figure out what time period I was in because there was so much place description. Overall, it was just all right for me. (June)


I took a little trip to Smutville with this book and I pretty much enjoyed every minute of it. Sometimes you just need a little mind-candy and this book fit the bill perfectly. It's a story about a beautiful but insecure woman in her early twenties who happens to be a virgin. She and her two gay friends decide to go on vacation to the Maldives where she meets a gorgeous wealthy man who is completely smitten with her. He's kind of a creepy possessive type, but she seems to dig it. She doesn't remain a virgin for long; they have plenty of sex while at the island resort. Apparently it's the first book in a series because to say the story ended with a cliff-hanger ending is an understatement. If it's cheap or free, I'll read the second book. (June)


Sycamore Row is the second book to feature Jake Brigance. (You may remember him from the book A Time to Kill.) It was a typical John Grisham book with lots of twists and characters and a good enough story and some courtroom action. (July)

Laura Hillenbrand wrote the book Seabiscuit which I really enjoyed. I knew she had written another book, but I didn't know much about it until early July when I heard a guy talking about the book on the radio. This is a strange story: I was listening to The Dan Patrick Show (a sports talk radio program), but Dan was on vacation, so Mike Heller was filling in for him. Mike was totally excited because he was going to interview Laura Hillenbrand and they were going to talk about Unbroken. He said it was one of the best books he has ever read and he was thrilled to speak to the author about it. His enthusiasm and the terrific interview with Hillenbrand made me almost desperate to read the book. I wasn't disappointed. I would say it's probably one of the best books I've read all year. I almost couldn't put it down. It's the true story of Louis Zamperini. The guy had an incredible life. He was an Olympic athlete, he survived a plane crash and spent 47 days adrift on a life raft in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. He was captured by the Japanese when the raft washed up on a Japanese-occupied island and held as a prisoner of war for several years. When he was freed, he returned to the States and struggled with post-traumatic stress syndrome, but finally found peace and lived a long life. I talked the book up so much that MT read it as soon as we got back from vacation. He loved it too. The book is being made into a movie that will come out at Christmas. I saw a preview recently and I got tears in my eyes. I can't wait for the movie! Read this book, people! It's awesome! (July)


After Unbroken, I couldn't decide what to read, so I went with an author that I like, Emily Giffin. Usually her books are about a topic that makes me uncomfortable, but this one didn't. Sure, the main character had a big secret that came out into the open and caused her some discomfort, but I didn't have an issue with it. I liked the story and the characters and I wouldn't mind reading a sequel to see how it all plays out. (July)


I chose this book while sitting in the Cancun airport after finishing Where We Belong. I wanted something easy and light for the flight home, and this book fit that bill perfectly. It's about a girl, Hollie, who isn't having a great time in her life. Her job sucks, her boyfriend is nice but not ideal and she just wants to make a change. She goes to a resort in Canada and craziness ensues. Hollie is a bit of a nut and she causes things to happen that probably wouldn't really happen in real life, but it was a fun piece of mind candy for the flight home. (July)

This book is a young adult novel about a 16 year old girl who goes on vacation with her family to the Hamptons to stay with her aunt, uncles and cousins. She and her cousin were always close when they were younger, but now that they are teenagers, there's a different vibe to the summer beach house. Our heroine, Mia, meets a boy and falls in love, but things happen and not every story has a happy ending, right? (August)

We can safely say that this book is a "beach read". These three girls have been friends since high school and they each have their category: there's the beautiful one, the smart one and the wild child. Since college they have remained friends although each has gone their own way. They reunite for a weekend on the Jersey shore at the beach house where they spent their youthful summers. Each of them has an issue that they are working on and they get through it together. The book is light and easy and generally all right. (August)


There were a lot of characters in this book and I was a bit confused about their relationships to each other for awhile. I did catch on, but by then I wasn't all that invested in any of them anyway. Some of the characters were super-annoying and the others weren't interesting enough to make up for the annoying ones. I gave it two stars on Goodreads - it was ok. (August)


This book is the continuation of the story of Vianne and Anouk from Chocolat. This book took me some time to read, not because I didn't like it, but because I started it before our vacation in July and I didn't take it with me, then it took me a little time to get back to it when we got home. This story was told from three points of view. At the beginning, it was easy to tell each of their voices apart, but it got more blurry as the story progressed, which I thought was pretty brilliant since the author was showing how alike the three of them were. It was cool. (August)


OK, I just finished this book tonight, and I usually don't like to write about a book right after I finish it, because I like to think about it a little. But I know that I will still feel the same about this one tomorrow as I do right now. I loved it. It was so sweet and touching. I totally fell in love with both Eleanor and Park. Pick this book up and remember what it felt like to fall in love for the first time, especially if you were a slightly awkward teenager. I did not fall in love like this, but it's how I imagined it should be. Read it!!! (August)


I rediscovered the ebook feature on the library website and came across this Barbara O'Neal book. My mom recently read an O'Neal book, so I wanted to read the book my mom read. It wasn't available, but this one was, so I thought, "What the heck?" It is about a female chef who gets an opportunity to become an executive chef at a new restaurant in Aspen, Colorado. The chef, Elena, has lots of personal baggage and of course, is the rare executive chef in a man-dominated kitchen. There's romance and recipes and fun characters and a good story.  I liked it! (September)

 My mom has read a couple of books by Ellen Sussman and this was one of them. Mom liked it, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was all right. (September)

 I have enjoyed every book from Sarah Addison Allen and this one was no exception. There's a bit of magic in each story along with likable characters and the feeling that I do not want the book to end. (September)


The concept of this book seemed intriguing, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's a take on the Peter Pan story in which Neverland is a place where kids who die go before they go to the "After". In this story, a little kid is poisoned and he goes to Neverland where he hangs out with other Lost Boys and Peter Pan until his parents are able to sort of let go and move on with their lives. The story is told in three parts: Claire, the grieving mother; Preston, the little boy; and Wendy - you know, Wendy. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but it sort of worked.  (September)

I can't remember why this book hit my radar. Yes, it won the Pulitzer Prize  and was on many top ten best book lists. I'm sure that had something to do with it. Maybe it was the cool cover - you know I often judge my books by their covers. I finally got this book from the library as an ebook. I really didn't know what to expect because I don't like to find out too much about a story before I read it. The Goldfinch is very interesting. The story is told by Theo who basically tells us about his life, but not all the way. Theo is involved in a horrible tragedy at a young age in which his mother is killed. I found it strange the way he and the people he lives with dealt with the tragedy and it sets up Theo's life from there. And through it all is the painting, The Goldfinch, itself.  You go through a lot of pages without hearing about it, but it's always there in the background, making you feel kind of uncomfortable. That's mostly how I felt while reading this book: uncomfortable, but I couldn't stop reading and thinking about it. In fact, I finished the book several days ago but I've been thinking about it a lot and I couldn't decide if I really liked it or really didn't like it. In the end, I went with liked it a lot. I'm glad I read it. (October)


This is the newest book from Jojo Moyes who wrote one of my favorite books that I read last year, Me Before You. Moyes has such an easy style and she creates nice characters and tells a good story. I read this book in three days - I just couldn't wait to see how Tanzie, Nicky, Jess, Ed and Norman were doing. Last night, after the basketball game, I crawled into bed and planned to read a few pages, but then I only had 30 pages left, then 20, then 15 and so I decided just to finish it, even though I was kind of crying and really tired. It was worth it, though because it is a good book. (October)


I have had this book on my to-read list for awhile. I like the cover and I was interested in the story of the Lindbergh's. I didn't know much about Charles other than he was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic. I didn't know anything about his wife. The story is told by Anne, and it tells about meeting Charles and going flying with him and her surprise when he asked her to marry him. It goes through their early married years when she becomes a talented flyer herself. It tells the story of the kidnapping of their firstborn child and how they, and Anne in particular, dealt with that tragedy and how that experience shaped how they related to their other children. I was pretty fascinated by this book, enough that I Googled more information about Anne and also about the kidnapping. I'm sorry to say that I thought Charles was sort of a douche. I realize that times were very different back in the 30s and 40s and the wife was meant to be more subservient, but Charles wasn't very nice to Anne a lot of the time and then he just wasn't there at all. Pretty interesting read. (October)

Shadow Spell is the second book in the Cousins O'Dwyer series by Nora Roberts. I read the first book in the series last year and it was all right, and so was this second book. There's nothing thought provoking or mind bending about these stories. They are just pure mind candy and I like that every now and again. The characters are good and the story is decent and I like to read it in my head with an Irish accent. (October)

This is the second book I've read by Liane Moriarty. This book, like the previous one I read, takes place in Australia, so that was fun. Their seasons are opposite from ours, so part of the story takes place at Easter which is the start of fall there (start of spring here). Trippy!  Anyway, this book was about three different families and it didn't seem like there would be a connection, but there was and it was pretty well done. It was a bit of a whodunit and chick lit all mixed together. The part I didn't much care for was at the end when there was some kind of parallel universe thing where the narrator tells about what would have happened to a character if what actually happened to the character hadn't happened. I don't much care for that, but overall, it was fine. (November)

I read most of this book while sitting in the Sacramento airport and I was glad I had such a fantastic book to entertain me. The story is about Sarah Grimke and Handful. Handful is a slave who was given to Sarah on the occasion of Sarah's 11th birthday. Sarah was part of a wealthy family in Charleston, South Carolina, but Sarah was against having slaves and tried to free Handful. Sarah's family rejected the attempt to free Handful, but Sarah rejected slavery all her life and became a famous/infamous abolitionist during her time (early to mid 1800s). The story is told alternately from Sarah's POV and Handful's POV. I really enjoyed the characters and the story. Sarah was a fascinating person. I didn't realize she was a real person until toward the end of the book and in reading the author's notes. Handful is a fictional character, but she is so well written that you would swear she lived. This is the third book by this author that I have read, and I think she's an amazing writer. I really, really enjoyed The Invention of Wings.  (November)

I became interested in reading this book when I saw that it was a movie starring Reese Witherspoon. I wanted to read it before the film came out, so I was glad to get it and I finished it this morning.  Wild is a non-fiction book about a woman, Cheryl, whose mother died when they were both too young. Cheryl was 22, her mother 45. Cheryl was devastated by her mother's death and did some pretty self-destructive things before she decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). The trail apparently starts in Mexico and ends somewhere in Canada, but Cheryl didn't hike quite that far. She started in the Mojave Desert of California and ended up on the Washington/Oregon border. At first I was annoyed with Cheryl. Although she bought a bunch of hiking gear, she didn't seem very physically or mentally prepared for the monumental hike. But as she kept on the trail, my feelings about her started to change and I came to admire her and the determination she showed in sticking to her plan to hike the PCT. It's not something I would ever want to do at all, but I enjoyed the story. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie next weekend. (November)

This is probably the third book I have read by Syrie James. The other two were also about Jane Austen. James writes historical fiction about Jane Austen. In this story, Jane is 15 and meets a boy that she falls in love with. James writes in the Austen style and I enjoy it. This story was teenagers doing stuff in the 1700s in England and falling in love. It was fun and sweet and I liked it. (December)


At 120 pages, I think this is more like a novella than a full novel. It was a quick, pleasant, easy read with nice-enough characters and a simmering romance. There are three books in the Friday Harbor series by Lisa Kleypas. I think I started with the second book, which I read last year. It was pleasant, so I went ahead and got books one and three. This book was the first one, I believe. The stories have the same characters (brothers and their girlfriends) and it's ok to go out of order. If you're looking for a nice little story to pass an afternoon or two, read these. (December)


This book was a Nook Daily Find that I got for a couple of bucks from Barnes and Noble. The story is about a young couple, Elsie and Ben, who fall in love and get married within six months of meeting each other and then something terrible happens and forever is interrupted. The story is told in chapters alternating between Elsie and Ben as they fall in love and the aftermath of the interruption. I am usually quite a crier in stories like these, but I didn't cry too much in this one. Not that it isn't sweet and sad or that I didn't care for the characters. It just didn't tear me up like I thought it might, and I think that made me like it even more. Good story, good characters, good writing. (December)

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