Book Review: The Time of Our Lives

By Sara Steven

Luca is used to being the ‘single one’ at weddings – it happens, when all your other friends are engaged, married or taken. But when she bumps into Tom, her friend from university who broke her heart into a million pieces, she finds herself wondering what could have been.

It’s ten years later, surely she should be over that Tom by now? So why is he looking even more gorgeous than ever – and why doesn’t he seem to be able to keep his eyes off her either?

And as the champagne flows and old secrets resurface, Luca realises that perhaps the time to take a chance on love and life is…now? (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads)

The Time of Our Lives reminded me of the TV show Friends. Luca’s friends have been in her life for over a decade, and they were all roommates, back in the day. We get to see where Luca is now in her life, with plenty of flashbacks that lend into those glory days where they were all young twenty-somethings, with loads of chaotic debaucheries and silly situations. The characters are so likable, all supporting Luca, who was well known as the one who held the glue together in her group. But time changes everything, which is well portrayed within her friendships in the present time.

I liked Luca. Female protagonists who find themselves falling back in love with a man from their past aren’t often written as strong and independent. I got the impression that Luca knows who she is and, no matter what Tom or any other man (and believe me, she finds herself in one doozy of a situation with more than one) throws at her, she’s going to be fine. The fact that Tom rattles her like he does, really showcased how deeply she felt for him, back then, and now.

Tom finds himself in some really awkward situations with former relationships, and in dealing with his feelings for Luca. This plays out in an almost pseudo love triangle, and adds a lot more tension between Tom and Luca. I got the impression that, while he’s a really nice guy, Tom needs to be a lot more assertive in what, and who, he wants out of life. It was this constant shift that helped in giving the reader the want to see these two together, yet we weren’t sure if we wanted that, too. It was a nice way to constantly shift perspectives.

Although The Time of Our Lives offers up romance, and the relationship between Luca and Tom could really draw the reader in, what had me the most hooked are the relationships Luca has with her friends, her former roommates. That Friends-like element that offered comedy, and an emotional depth to this story. While I shifted perspective on whether I wanted to see Luca end up with Tom, I had no doubts on how I wanted Luca’s friendships to end up. I wanted their friendships to last a lifetime! Overall, this was a fun, five-star read!

Thanks to Portia MacIntosh for the book in exchange for an honest review.

More by Portia MacIntosh:

Book Review: Too Close

By Jami Deise

The worst thing imaginable is the death of a child. The most monstrous crime imaginable is a parent who kills her own children. When a child is killed, it’s more often at the hands of a father, stepfather, or mother’s boyfriend. A woman who deliberately hurts her baby is almost beyond imagining. The cases are so rare that when a Susan Smith or a Casey Anthony occurs, the nation is transfixed.

In Too Close, author Natalie Daniels’s debut, British wife and mother Connie has been institutionalized with dissociative amnesia after driving into a river with her daughter and her daughter’s best friend in the back seat. Forensic psychiatrist Emma has been tasked with trying to make her remember how and why she committed the crime. Written from both women’s first-person points of view, and moving between past and present, Too Close attempts to show that the wrong set of circumstances can push anyone too far.

Too Close is an admirable debut and a mesmerizing book. I was as captivated as Emma was by Connie, wondering what would push this happy suburban mom – the British press called her the “Yummy Monster,” a take on the British slang “Yummy Mummy” – to commit the most unforgivable of crimes. Connie begins her story by describing her relationship with Ness, her best friend and neighbor. At first, it seems like Ness, who’s married to another woman, is going to become obsessed with Connie (she quickly adopts Connie’s haircut and perfume) and that the book would become a Tangerine-type thriller. But “too close” also describes Connie and Emma’s relationship, as Emma’s own back story and relationship issues begin to color her treatment of Connie.

Connie’s characterization is uneven – as can be expected for a psychiatric patient – in ways that I found off-putting as a reviewer. At times, her confrontations with Emma reminded me of Clarice and Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, only Connie is the one who has the preternatural insight into Emma’s life. At other times, Connie comforts Emma as Emma’s life spirals downward. While Emma’s vulnerabilities made me sympathize with the psychiatrist, I was also impatient for an unbiased look at Connie’s actions.

And while I was happy that Connie’s story didn’t evolve into the cliché about a person being driven mad due to unrequited gay tendencies, I felt the outcome was even more cliched. True, Daniels’s careful character work makes the cliché she falls back on very specific to the people involved, but at the same time, I was disappointed. I wanted a solution more complex than what the author provided.

Then again, Susan Smith supposedly killed her children because her new boyfriend didn’t want to be tied down with small kids. Perhaps it’s the banality of evil that is the most monstrous part of stories like these.

Thanks to HarperCollins for the book in exchange for an honest review.

Liza Palmer is somebody to us....plus a book giveaway

Photo by Edwin Santiago

Today we welcome Liza Palmer to the CLC stage. Her latest novel, The Nobodies, publishes next week. It sounds really interesting and we're excited to check it out. Her answers to our interview questions were a lot of fun, so we hope you will enjoy reading them. Thanks to Flatiron, we have one copy of The Nobodies to give away!

Liza Palmer is the internationally bestselling author of Conversations with the Fat Girl and several other novels. An Emmy-nominated writer, she lives in Los Angeles and works for BuzzFeed. Like Joan in The Nobodies, she never went to college. Visit Liza at her website and on Twitter and Instagram.

“Liza Palmer's voice is fresh, exciting, and necessary. She's a must-read author.”
―Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones & the Six

Wunderkind journalist Joan Dixon took an internship at the Los Angeles Times straight out of high school and never looked back. That is, until the newspaper business collapsed, leaving her to patch together soulless freelance gigs and live with her parents. Desperate to get back on her feet, Joan takes a job as a junior copywriter at the tech startup Bloom, where her bosses are all a decade younger and snacks and cans of fizzy water flow freely. But once a journalist, always a journalist. As Joan starts to poke beneath Bloom’s bright surface, she realizes that she may have accidentally stumbled onto the scoop of her lifetime. Is it worth risking everything for the sake of the story?


What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
Oh man.. I have a teeeensy bit of an issue taking compliments. I tend to get so embarrassed? That I go into this black out fugue state when it’s happening - which works out well because then I can wake up at and obsess about how weird I was in that moment (instead of, you know, absorbing to the compliment.) BUT… I like that people think my writing sounds real. That people act like that and talk like that. That they see themselves in my characters. It’s the highest praise.

How is Joan similar to or different from you?
Joan and I are quite similar…. In that we both failed and then both had some* (*way too much) time to think about said failure. That feeling of being so aware of yourself as you try something new and are, to your horror, actually quite bad at it (reasonably bad at it as you are… in fact, NEW to it – aargh, but why aren’t you perfect!?) It all happened to me as I started at BuzzFeed back in 2015. I’m endlessly grateful to those who patiently shepherded me – and Joan – through it all.

If The Nobodies was made into a movie, who would you cast in the lead roles?
For Joan… I’m obsessed with Natasha Rothwell right now. Emily Blunt maybe? She’s a delight. I mean, if Phoebe Waller-Bridge got anywhere near this I’d die… and YES, somehow we’d work in a hot priest FOR SCIENCE.

What do you enjoy most about the fall?
Literally everything. I love fall THE MOST – the smell of fireplaces in the air (I just sighed so loud)… tea just tastes better. Everything. Literally everything.

What is the last book you read that you would recommend?
I just finished Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends and I loved it. I also just finished Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine… and man… that’s another good one. I read that on a train from England to France and it was the perfect companion. I also? Listened to Brené Brown’s, Dare to Lead and think everyone – especially women – needs to read it. It’s so good and she’s a national treasure.

What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?
My mom and I spend our Saturdays having lunch and then driving around looking at the houses that are being renovated. While doing so, we saw a peacock - as you do – see, Pasadena has peacocks just roaming free as well as wild parrots, but that’s a whole other story. So mom says, “They just have to be on their own once in awhile.” And she said it so seriously – like this peacock was on some thoughtful vision quest or a rumspringa. Well, once I said that the peacock was on a rumspringa – we almost wet our pants.

Thanks to Liza for visiting with us and to Flatiron for sharing her book with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends September 10th at midnight EST.

Spotlight: The Sea of Japan

Today we are featuring The Sea of Japan by Keita Nagano. It sounds very interesting and we hope you will add it to your bookshelf this fall!

Follow Lindsey in her journey for love, survival, and friendship in a small fishing town in Japan.

When thirty-year-old Lindsey, an English teacher in Japan who’s been assigned to a tiny fishing town, is saved from drowning by a local young fisherman, she’s drawn into a battle with a neighboring town that has high stakes for everyone—especially her.

As their efforts to save their town backfire, Hime gets closer to falling apart—putting Lindsey’s friends, her budding relationship with Ichiro, and her career in jeopardy. To save Hime, Lindsey realizes she’ll have to become a true American fisherwoman and fight for her new home with everything she has.

Keita Nagano is an award-winning Japanese author who has lived almost equally in Nevada and Tokyo—more than twenty years in each place—and reflects the difference of the two cultures in his novels. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Keio University in Japan, as well as an MBA in global business and Ph.D. in management from Walden University in Minnesota. The pursuit of the authentic American experience is his hobby: he has been to all fifty states, all thirty major league ballparks, and the top sixty big cities in America. He has published seventeen business nonfiction and eight fiction books in Japan. In 2013, he received a Nikkei (Japanese Wall Street Journal) Award for Contemporary Novel for his missing-child thriller, Kamikakushi. He is also an official weekly columnist for Forbes Japan. Nagano lives in Henderson, Nevada, with his wife and Welsh corgi, and their teenage daughter is currently studying in Tennessee.

Visit Keita online:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

Spotlight and Giveaway: The Sisters of Summit Avenue

Today we're pleased to feature The Sisters of Summit Avenue by Lynn Cullen. It publishes on September 10th from Gallery, who has THREE copies for some lucky readers!

Ruth has been single-handedly raising four young daughters and running her family’s Indiana farm for eight long years, ever since her husband, John, fell into a comatose state, infected by the infamous “sleeping sickness” devastating families across the country. If only she could trade places with her older sister, June, who is the envy of everyone she meets: blonde and beautiful, married to a wealthy doctor, living in a mansion in St. Paul. And June has a coveted job, too, as one of “the Bettys,” the perky recipe developers who populate General Mills’ famous Betty Crocker test kitchens. But these gilded trappings hide sorrows: she has borne no children. And the man she used to love more than anything belongs to Ruth.

When the two sisters reluctantly reunite after a long estrangement, June’s bitterness about her sister’s betrayal sets into motion a confrontation that’s been years in the making. And their mother, Dorothy, who’s brought the two of them together, has her own dark secrets, which might blow up the fragile peace she hopes to restore between her daughters.

An emotional journey of redemption, inner strength, and the ties that bind families together, for better or worse, The Sisters of Summit Avenue is a heartfelt love letter to mothers, daughters, and sisters everywhere.

Photo by Parker Clayton Smith

Lynn Cullen grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and is the bestselling author of The Sisters of Summit Avenue, Twain’s End, and Mrs. Poe, which was named an NPR 2013 Great Read and an Indie Next List selection. She lives in Atlanta.

Visit Lynn online:
Website * Facebook * Instagram



How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends September 8th at midnight EST.

What's in the mail

Melissa A:
Delicious Disasters by/from Isabella Louise Anderson (e-book)
No Time to Say Goodbye by Kate Hewitt from Bookouture (e-book via NetGalley)
Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella from Dial Press (e-book via NetGalley)
A Million Dreams by Dani Atkins from Head of Zeus (e-book via NetGalley)

Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain from St. Martin's Press
The Sisters of Summit Avenue by Lynn Cullen from Gallery
Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales from St. Martin's Press (e-book via NetGalley)
Love on Lexington Avenue by Lauren Layne from Gallery

Sara:
Honeymoon for One by Frankie Collins from Boldwood (e-book)
Relatively Happy by/from Whitney Dineen (e-book)
The Little Bookshop on the Seine by/from Rebecca Raisin (e-book via NetGalley)
Escape to Giddywell Grange by Kim Nash from Rachel's Random Resources (e-book via NetGalley)
Right for Me by Cindy Dorminy from RedAdept (e-book)

Book Review: Love and Other Battles

1969: Free-spirited hippie Jess James has no intention of falling for a soldier ... but perhaps some things are not in our power to stop.

1989: Jess's daughter, Jamie, dreams of a simple life - marriage, children, stability - then she meets a struggling musician and suddenly the future becomes wilder and complex.

2017: When Jamie's daughter, CJ, brings home trouble in the form of the coolest boy at school, the worlds of these three women turn upside down ... and the past returns to haunt them.

Spanning the trauma of the Vietnam War to the bright lights of Nashville, the epidemic of teenage self-harm to the tragedy of incurable illness, Love and Other Battles is the heart-wrenching story of three generations of Australian women, who learn that true love is not always where you seek it. (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads.)

Sara Steven:

I loved the way that each woman’s story within Love and Other Battles blends into one another, so that we’re able to learn more about each character. Those varying perspectives also allowed the opportunity to see the dynamics between mother and daughter, particularly when dealing with chaotic and trying situations. I appreciate that Tess Woods writes about the tough stuff, the subject matter that at times can even be viewed as controversial. That brave approach offers up another way to approach subject matters that we might not be as comfortable with.

I couldn’t help but feel for the varying romantic relationships depicted here; Jess and the deep, often self-sacrificing love she has for her husband, Jamie and the walls she has put up in order to protect herself from potentially feeling anything, and CJ with her newfound romance. I think there are times when the scenarios in stories don’t match up for the characters in the story, like with CJ and the experiences she has with the new boy from school. But, the way it’s described in this story and the way CJ lets us know, reminded me of what it was like to be a teenager again, with all the pressures and self-professed expectations that go along with that. It was real and very, very honest. The same thing could be said for all three women.

There is a big twist for Love and Other Battles, and even though I saw it coming, it didn’t lessen the shock value for me. I wanted to see how it would be portrayed, and I think it was done perfectly. Really, the whole book was perfection, a worthy five-star read!

Melissa Amster:

I read most of this novel in the span of one day. I just couldn't put it down. When I had to pause for real life, I wanted to get back to it as soon as possible, as I was worried for the characters.

Love and Other Battles is a powerful story about relationships between significant others and between family members. It deals with current issues, as well as some from previous eras that still make sense for this day and age. Fans of the hit television series This is Us will enjoy this novel, as it has a similar feel and not just because of the Vietnam parts. There's a lot of jumping back and forth between times and we get to see the characters from 1969 and 1989 as they age and change over time. All three main characters were put into tough situations and it was interesting to see how they weathered their storms, both for themselves and for each other. Some parts I did not see coming left me reeling when they hit me all of a sudden. I went through a book hangover that lasted from Saturday night until Wednesday morning, during which time I wasn't ready to start a new book.

Tess Woods continues to impress me with her thoughtful and sensitive writing style and I miss her characters so much afterward. (I still think about characters from her previous novels and I no doubt will continue to think of the ones from Love far into the future.) I already am clamoring to read whatever she writes next. I only wish there had been a soundtrack with CJ's songs to accompany this novel. (Like what Jodi Picoult did for Sing You Home.)

Movie casting suggestions:
Jess (1969): Katherine Langford
Jamie (1989): Daisy Ridley
Jess (2017/18): Stockard Channing
Jamie (2017/18): Saffron Burrows
CJ: Lara Robinson
Finn: Cole Sprouse
Simon: Mark Deklin
Frank (1969): Lincoln Younes

Thanks to Tess Woods for the book in exchange for an honest review.

More by Tess Woods: