February Book Review!

So excited for my second monthly book review this year!  I am linking up with Narci over at Grace and Love Blog for her monthly Carpool Book Club.  Be sure to check out her blog for all her picks too!!

This month we had a long road trip and spent the week at the beach. I got to read a lot! Yay!! Here is a little recap of what I read. I linked up each book to Amazon, so you can just add them to your cart if you want a copy at your bedside!

one

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult. Now a few years ago (aka before kids) I read a lot more and this was always one of my favorite authors to grab a book from. This was the story of a girl who lost her mother when she was 3. It was unclear whether her mom was dead or had run away and she enlists the help of a has been psychic and a former police detective to help her uncover the truth. The book was never quite what it seemed and did a lot of flipping back and forth between characters. I liked it... but didn't love it. Side note... the setting was that of an elephant sanctuary and it gave some pretty neat facts and insights about elephants. I found that part fascinating!

two

Train like a Mother: How to get across any finish line, and not lose your family, job, or sanity. I grabbed this book, as I am in my second month of marathon training. If you are a runner or thinking about running, this is a really light and fun read! It recommends how to eat and train for races from 5k up to a full marathon. But the best part are the little snippets of real life running as a mom.... like running with a stroller.... how to fit in time to run.... and running with a body that is not quite the same after child birth! I laughed out loud a few times reading this one!

three

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams. This book was raved about by a few other bloggers I follow and I have had it on my list. I read Tiny Little Thing by the same author last month and loved it. This was the story of two girls what grew up together and went to college together in the 1930's. They had not seen each other in awhile, until they meet up again while summering in Rhode Island. It is there that we see how their relationship was a bit twisted and pieces of their past tie them together in ways you might not expect. I loved this book!

four

The Storied Life of AJ Fikried by Gabrielle Zevin. My dad is an avid reader and gave this one to me...said it was a quick, easy light read. It was a cute story of a man that owns a bookstore on a summer island. He is kind of a grumpy guy, but life changes when a new sales rep for a publishing company comes into his life. His life takes an even more dramatic turn when he loses something very valuable and something even more valuable arrives at his book shop.  It was as my dad promised... a quick, light read with a cute story!

five

The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard. This book caught my eye at the library and the description on the back cover sounded great. So I grabbed it and really didn't love it.... anyone else read this one? It is the story of two girls born on the same day in a small town. They grow up in very different families and the book follows their life through adulthood. I had two issues with the book... the first being that I just could not connect to the characters. I can usually envision book characters in my mind, but this one I just couldn't get there. The second was the "secret' in the story was pretty predictable to me and I just wanted it to come out already. It did not keep me in suspense, I was more annoyed that I had to wait until the end for it to be revealed. And even when it was, it was kind of anti-climatic. So chime in if you have read this one... I just was not feeling it!

I have a few more days of vacation left.... and a few more book reads I am finishing up! I will be sure to recap those next month. 

See you tomorrow for Friday Favorites....there's always room for one more at our family table.

xoxo

Genevieve