review: the madwoman upstairs by catherine lowell

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The Madwoman Upstairs is Catherine Lowell’s excellent modernization of Jane Eyre with a few other novels from the Brontë sisters added for good measure. Although the Jane Eyre inspiration is clear, Lowell creates a heroine wholly her own in Samantha Whipple, the only living heir to the Brontë estate. Upon arriving at Oxford to study English literature, Samantha learns her room is in a tower that’s included on a tour of the university. That others have semi-frequent access to her room is quite convenient as it means Samantha has few clues once someone starts anonymously leaving her deceased father’s Brontë books in her room. Therein lies the mystery, but The Madwoman Upstairs wouldn’t be complete without the slightly inappropriate romance Samantha indulges in with her tutor (professor in American terms). All the elements come together marvelously as Samantha discovers her father’s past and forges a life of her own even as a fellow student exposes her Brontë connection.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Touchstone.

review: the girl from home by adam mitzner

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Jonathan had a superficially good life in New York City with a beautiful wife and a job managing other people’s money. In order to maintain his image though, Jonathan makes a decision he knows is wrong thinking he can stall for a few months. He can’t. The downfall of his career coincides with his father’s health taking a turn for the worse, so Jonathan moves back to his childhood home and attends the high school reunion he never intended to go to. It is another fateful decision for this is where Jonathan connects with the woman who was the most popular girl in school. She, of course, married the star of the football team, but her husband is abusive and has threatened her life if she ever tries to leave. In a tightly woven plot, Adam Mitzner lays out how Jonathan and Jackie fall in love and then try to work out their respective legal problems after Jackie’s husband ends up dead. Despite a lack of sympathetic characters, The Girl from Home’s smart, nonlinear narrative makes it a compelling read.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publicist, FSB Associates.

review: funeral hotdish by jana bommersbach

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Using actual events (which, wow, taught me a lot about the city I’m now living in!) as a backdrop, Funeral Hotdish finds newspaper reporter Joya Bonner pursuing a story about a Mafia hitman for her career in Phoenix while also aiding her family and friends in her small North Dakota hometown after drug overdoses put a boy in a coma and a girl in a casket. Much to Joya’s surprise, the overdoses are connected to the story she’s investigating. Jana Bommersbach creates plausible yet compelling situations (which seem to at least partly draw upon her own experiences as a journalist in Phoenix) for Joya and the other characters. Bommersbach’s descriptive writing makes the scenes vivid and powerful.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publicist, MM Book Publicity.

review: cats in paris by won-sun jang

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With coloring books for adults taking off in popularity, it seemed like something fun to try out and a coloring book with the title Cats in Paris seemed absolutely perfect. While the coloring book definitely delivers on cats, it is a bit lacking in Paris cityscapes. The few that do specifically look to be Paris are very intricately done which proved a bit daunting—I feared ruining Won-Sun Jang’s beautiful drawings. The paper is fairly thick, but I’m not sure markers could be used without bleeding through the page (I used colored pencils). My biggest disappointment with Cats in Paris was that the pages are meant to stay within the book—no perforated edges, printed on both sides of the page, and some of the designs run into the binding. It was tremendously fun to color like a kid while watching TV or listening to a podcast though.
4/5
Review copy provided by Blogging for Books.

review: living like a runaway by lita ford

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As one might imagine, Lita Ford has quite the story to tell. From her days in The Runaways to her solo career, Ford has experienced many of the stereotypes of a rock star's life. In relating tales from the early days, Ford shines. The first few years of her rock career were filled with exciting times as well as rivalries and discrimination as a female musician. Unfortunately, the tone changes significantly as Ford begins relating her romantic relationships. Although Ford paints herself as a strong woman, her romantic entanglements are frequently with abusive men. Ford's bitterness about the father of her children (from whom she is estranged which she claims stems from their father's brainwashing of them) oozes from the pages. Despite saying she will not go into the details out of respect for her children, the hostility she harbors is all too apparent and difficult to understand without the details.
3/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Dey Street Books.

review: the killing jar by jennifer bosworth

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Kenna lives a fairly isolated life with her very ill twin sister and their mother. Despite the isolation, Kenna does have a sort of boyfriend, but she fears getting too close to him because of a scary incident that happened when she was a child. Kenna killed a boy with her mysterious powers. After a night out with Blake, Kenna returns home to discover the father of the boy she killed has brutally attacked her mother and sister and is now after her. In the aftermath of that attack, Kenna’s mother realizes she can no longer hide the truth from Kenna and takes her to the commune where Kenna’s grandmother lives. While there Kenna learns about her powers and starts to question her mother’s motives, but then Jennifer Bosworth wisely inserts a twist that leaves Kenna with even more questions.

The Killing Jar initially seemed to be a fairly standard tale of a teen discovering paranormal powers and struggling to still be a typical teen, but Bosworth changed things up about halfway through. Although the twist still aligns with known mythology, it raises the stakes so that Kenna’s choices are more compelling. The one downside here is that the paranormal elements aren’t explained. Even when Kenna is learning about her powers, the origin is never revealed.

About the audiobook: Jennifer Bosworth’s second novel is narrated by Saskia Maarleveld. Although Maarleveld’s voice is excellent and she changed tone to distinguish between characters, there were times when it was difficult to tell if Kenna said something out loud or if it was part of her thought process (Kenna has extensive inner monologues). Dreamscape Media released The Killing Jar in January 2016 and runs 8.5 hours.
4/5
Review copy provided by Audiobook Jukebox.

review: no grey areas by joseph gagliano

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College basketball fans are likely familiar with the point-shaving scandal that rocked Arizona State University in the 1990s, but one of the members of the scheme had not shared his story until now. During his second stint in federal prison (this time for falsifying loan documents), Joesph Gagliano decided to write about his part in the scandal as well as what led to him being convicted of another crime years later. While the story is incredibly interesting, the writing is fairly simplistic and could have used an editor. It’s also clear that Gagliano skips significant details as, for example, there’s no explanation about the breakup of his marriage or the split between him and girlfriend Tracy. While the ending of No Grey Areas indicates Gagliano likes to think of himself as redeemed from his past bad acts, the tone of his writing leads one to believe he still doesn’t feel he should have had to do any prison time even though his own descriptions of the events clearly detail his criminal actions.
3/5
Review copy provided by the publicist, The Cadence Group.