Month: January 2012

Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light by Amy Thomas

Posted January 30, 2012 by Jana in Adult Non-Fiction, Book Review / 7 Comments

Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light by Amy ThomasParis, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas
Published by Sourcebooks on February 1, 2012
Genres: Memoir, Non-Fiction
Pages: 280
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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Part love letter to New York, part love letter to Paris, and total devotion to all things sweet. Paris, My Sweet is a personal and moveable feast that’s a treasure map for anyone who loves fresh cupcakes and fine chocolate, New York and Paris, and life in general. It’s about how the search for happiness can be as fleeting as a sliver of cheesecake and about how the life you’re meant to live doesn’t always taste like the one you envisioned. Organized into a baker’s dozen of delicacies (and the adventures they inspired) that will tempt readers’ appetites, Paris, My Sweet is something to savor.

The idea of this memoir is pretty adorable. I love Paris, I love New York, and I love desserts! I envy that Amy Thomas got to fly off to live in Paris for two years, doing advertising for Louis Vuitton and sampling all the amazing pastries and breads, not to mention the culture itself. The pages of this book are crammed full of bakeries and other foodish places in both Paris and New York. She makes a lot of recommendations for those who plan to travel to either location. Many times I felt like I was reading a menu with really detailed, yummy dessert descriptions. Do not read this on an empty stomach, or if you’re on a diet. The author even had me craving desserts I’m allergic to!

She also talks a lot about the history of various bakeries and dessert creations. Like the original chocolate chip cookie was a mistake. Someone accidentally dropped a chocolate bar in their cookie dough, and decided to go with the flow. A star was born. There’s lots of cool tidbits of information that I enjoyed reading about. I learned quite a bit.

Of course, she adds in personal stories from her past, as well as her time in Paris. My favorite one is when her parents fly to Paris to visit her. She describes all the touristy stuff there is to do, and she made me want to visit even more. She takes them to this one tearoom called Angelina’s, that sells the best hot chocolate in the world. She compares it to melted truffles. YUM. Coco Chanel used to have her 5:00 tea there everyday, and Audrey Hepburn popped in frequently. I looked this place up online, and it is GORGEOUS (and majorly expensive). I need to go!

There were a few things that caused me to drop my rating of this book. I loved the idea, but the execution could have been stronger. I don’t speak or read French, and there is a TON of French in this book with no translations! She has a conversation with a woman who runs a bakery, and it was entirely in French. I could kind of make out what the general idea of the conversation was, but I had no idea what they were saying. She also used a lot of French phrases in the middle of her English sentences. It took away from my enjoyment, because I kept getting frustrated that I was missing something important. I just wish a parenthetical translation were there, or a footnote. Something. The author also writes really long, flowery sentences (sometimes the size of a lengthy paragraph) that are extremely wordy lists of stuff. She does this a lot (sometimes 2-3 times per page), and it gets kind of tiring. Here are a few examples:

  • “For months, I had been positively gushing about life in Paris: how charming the square-shaped trees were and how exquisite the ironwork; how graceful the seventeenth-century hotel particuliers (that’s French, not a typo) and enviable the French women’s legs; how sweet the strawberries and how divine the wine.”
  • “My visions of canal-side picnics in August were cruelly dashed, to say nothing of the chocolate eclairs heavy with custard, the buttery brioches that begged to be pinched and devoured, and raspberry tarts with their plump berries perfectly fanned out across precious beds of creme patissiere and moist pate sablee crusts that would have to go untasted while I was at the office.”
  • “But the prixe-fixe menu was also quite a value, considering it was really four courses once you factored in the biggest, most ridiculously decadent cheese course that came with it… or six courses, when you counted the two amusesebouches that began the meal… or eight courses with the two side dishes served alongside our entrees… or fourteen courses with the dishes of complimentary gelees, caramels, chocolates, lemon cakes, and petits fours that came in addition to our dessert course.”

Finally, she’s a complainer. She complains a lot about being single, and how all of her friends are pairing off. She complains about Paris, her job, her lack of friends, how her jeans are tighter than they used to be (which they should be with everything she eats! Haha), her lack of French skills, and how she misses New York. But then she goes back to visit NYC, and mopes and complains about how it’s not upscale enough for her anymore. And THEN she goes back to Paris and complains that she misses New York. I understand that it’s hard uprooting your life and moving to a foreign city. And I can totally understand why she felt like this. But filling her memoir with complaints didn’t make much sense to me. She spent a lot of the book sporting the “the grass is always greener on the other side” mentality, and I got tired of it. She was giddy about food. Food solved all of her problems. I wish she’d expressed more of her happiness in other areas of life.

Overall, this was a moderately enjoyable read. The author has a few coming of age moments, and you can tell she learned a lot about herself during her time abroad. I appreciated her human side, but wished for a little more depth. She either talked at great length about food or her hardships. I enjoyed reading about the food, but I got sick of it towards the latter part of the book (it started to feel about as exciting as a cookbook without the recipes). Maybe Paris, My Sweet should be read in small doses, along with another book. I might have appreciated it more that way. If you love New York and Paris, this book will take you there. And if you love torturing your dieting self with amazing sounding pastries, this is the book for you! At least reading about calories doesn’t plaster them to your hips, right? I’ve created a Dessert Bucket List now, thanks to Amy Thomas. :)


Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry (Book Review)

Posted January 28, 2012 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 5 Comments

Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry (Book Review)Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry
Series: Troy Chance #1
Published by Broadway Books on February 22, 2011
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Mail)
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“If I’d blinked, I would have missed it. But I didn’t, and I saw something fall from the rear deck of the opposite ferry: a small, wide-eyed human face, in one tiny frozen moment, as it plummeted toward the water.”

When she witnesses a small child tumbling from a ferry into Lake Champlain, Troy Chance dives in without thinking. Harrowing moments later, she bobs to the surface, pulling a terrified little boy with her. As the ferry disappears into the distance, she begins a bone-chilling swim nearly a mile to shore with a tiny passenger on her back.

Surprisingly, he speaks only French. He’ll acknowledge that his name is Paul; otherwise, he’s resolutely mute.

Troy assumes that Paul’s frantic parents will be in touch with the police or the press. But what follows is a shocking and deafening silence. And Troy, a freelance writer, finds herself as fiercely determined to protect Paul as she is to find out what happened to him. What she uncovers will take her into a world of wealth and privilege and heedless self-indulgence—a world in which the murder of a child is not unthinkable. She’ll need skill and courage to survive and protect her charge and herself.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to read a good mystery. The first author I ever loved was Mary Higgins-Clark. Her mysteries made me fall in love with the genre, and I’ve been seeking out good ones ever since. When this book popped up in an e-mail to The Broke and The Bookish, I jumped at the chance to read it. It sounded so intriguing, and exciting. Picture this… you’re on a ferry, it’s crispy cold outside, and in the distance you see a bundle thrown off the back of another ferry at the exact moment you pass it. It could have been trash, right? Or a hoodie that blew off the deck. But no, you just can’t shake the feeling that it is so much worse than that. Without thinking you, not even a very good swimmer, jump into the frigid Lake Champlain and make a beeline for the diminishing ripples in the water where the mysterious bundle hit moments before. As you frantically search the murky waters around you, your eyes meet the eyes of a scared, drowning little boy. You grab him, swim a grueling one-mile swim, hoping to avoid the hypothermia creeping into your very bones, and pull him to the rocky shore. He’s not breathing, so you try to remember the CPR lesson you had a LONG time ago. You succeed. He’s breathing. As his eyes open, he looks at you, lets out a little sigh, rests his sleepy head on your arm, and murmurs, “Merci.”

This is what happens to small town newspaper journalist, Troy, on the way to visit her boyfriend. She scoops the little French-speaking guy up, runs to her car, warms him up, and tries to push away the fact that someone tried to murder this little boy. Using her very limited education in French, she learns from him that his name is Paul, he’s 6, he was kidnapped, and they killed his mom. Rather than turning him over to the police, she assumes the role of temporary mother and takes him home with her. As she learns more about him, she begins to search for his father, investigate the horrible kidnapping on her own, and finds a special place in her heart for him. The more searching she does, the more dangerous her simple life in Lake Placid becomes. She can’t let go, though. She has to know that Paul is safe, and she will do anything in her power to ensure he is.

OH MAN, right? I was hooked from the first line, “If I’d blinked, I would have missed it.” It totally sucked me in, and I read the entire thing on the way home from vacation. I really do love long car rides sometimes. No obligations but reading. The story was so unique. A six-year-old is not usually the most important character in a book, but Paul was definitely the star. He is incredibly sweet, impeccably well behaved, and cute as a button. I fell in love with this little guy, so I can totally understand why Troy did too. And yes, her name is Troy. It threw me for a while, but then I got used to it.

I really like Troy. She lives in Lake Placid with several men that rent rooms from her during high season. She’s one of the guys, but in a feminine way. They respect her, and she’s kind of like a mom to them even though they’re about her age. She has a brother who is a police officer in Florida, and she calls on him when she needs help. I loved reading about the process she went through to dig out information. She’s smart, brave, daring, fearless, and very likeable. I enjoyed reading her story (especially her bond with Paul, his dad, and their housekeeper), and she’s a great heroine who doesn’t whine when life gets tough.

The guys she lives with are hilarious. They act like stereotypical college athletes. Troy can’t keep food in the house, they have all kinds of funny things to say, and they really are just big softies. I really liked them. They were concerned about Troy, and were always willing to help her if she needed them.

The story was gripping, to say the least. The mystery was not a fast-paced as some I’ve read, but that actually made the story more believable to me. Troy ran into some snags, everyone was in some danger… but just enough to make it real. Some mysteries seem a bit too far-fetched to be taken seriously. This story could have happened. I am SO excited for the next book! Go buy this one. You’ll love it.


Seduction by Brenda Joyce (Book Review)

Posted January 26, 2012 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 3 Comments

Seduction by Brenda Joyce (Book Review)Seduction by Brenda Joyce
Series: The Spymaster's Men #1
Published by Harlequin on January 31, 2012
Genres: Historical Romance, Romance
Pages: 384
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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Dominic Paget, the earl of Bedford, will do anything to resume spying upon Britain's enemies. Badly wounded, he is put will in the care of a beautiful gentlewoman, Julianne Greystone, only to discover that her sympathies lie with his enemies. Yet he can't help but seduce the woman who saved his life—hoping she never learns of his betrayal.

Julianne is captivated by the wounded stranger she believes is a revolutionary hero. Until she discovers the truth…her "hero" is the privileged earl of Bedford. Devastated and determined to forget him, Julianne travels to London. But when she finds herself in danger, it is Bedford who comes to the rescue. Now Julianne must navigate the intrigues of a perilous city, the wild yearnings of her own heart and the explosion of their passion….

I pride myself on being a pretty versatile reader. I’ve been reading a lot of dark YA dystopians and paranormals lately, so I took a few days to read some lighter romances like Dreaming of Mr. Darcy, and now Seduction. I love my YAs, but sometimes I just need something completely different. Historical romances are another love of mine, so when I saw this on NetGalley, I was excited and intrigued. I love spy stuff and England and France and deception! I was expecting to really enjoy this. Sadly, it fell short for me. And with that, here are my thoughts (I’ve bolded the most important points, just in case you’re a skimmer!):

1. The romance took a back seat to the extremely political discussions and explanations in this book. At 30% of the way through, I knew very little about the characters, but had received a very thorough history lesson on the French Revolution, the Tories, the Jacobins… the battles… the sympathizers and the different thought processes from everyone involved. I started to space and skim through large chunks. I love history, but not this much! I wanted a romance, and there were parts that felt like I was reading a textbook rather than a novel. I felt like the framework of the story took forever to be put into place. It really took away from the romance, which felt like an afterthought. Historical fiction? Yes. Historical romance? Not really.

2. With all that being said, her story was very well researched. I understand that the author wanted her readers to receive all the background information to really understand the story. However, the reader is bombarded with so much! Too much to be enjoyable.

3. I didn’t connect with/like any of the characters. Julianne made the stupidest decisions, and was unbelievably naive and spineless. I like romance novels that have strong women. Yes, she had strong opinions, but she was so naive and clammy that I had a hard time believing they were her own thoughts, and not something she had read in a pamphlet. And she kept getting into trouble! Dom was just annoying. He spent so much time with his nose in the air that he didn’t even see what was going on. He totally lacked common sense. The supporting characters aren’t really worth mentioning. Julianne had two brothers, but they were so similar and hardly ever spoken of, that I had a hard time differentiating between the two of them. Julianne had a maid/servant while staying at Dom’s house that I liked, but I think it was only because she didn’t bug me.

4. Too. Much. Drama. Everyone threw tantrums. Dom deceived Julianne, and she was so mad that she pouted forever! Julianne deceived Dom, and he got so mad he refused to look at her. Can’t we be more adult here, and talk about this? They were on opposing sides of a war. Feelings are bound to be hurt. All of this pouting and cold shoulder business caused pointless misunderstandings. Julianne ends up getting into trouble because of her radical ways, and spends less than 24 hours in a jail cell. She won’t eat. When she gets out, she’s so weak and traumatized that she has to spend a week in bed. Seriously? That’s a pretty wimpy reaction. I kept wishing she’d suck it up.

5. About 3/4 of the way through, things pick up a little. At this point we’ve been given all the info on the French Revolution, so the focus settles on Dom and Julianne and deception. It was a bit more enjoyable, but I felt it was too little too late. There was not enough time to recover, which was disappointing. So much time was spent on historic details and politics that time ran out before I could connect enough with the characters or the story to care how things ended.

6. For so much frustration and confusion, the ending gets wrapped up in a perfect little bow way too quickly to be believable. I was actually worried that things would be continued in the next book (which I won’t be reading), we had so little time left. After all this time of being mad and annoyed and hurt and brooding and pouty, everyone just falls into place and life is perfect. This doesn’t happen! People go from hate to love in the blink of an eye! I’m really glad their story ended with this book, because I would have been frustrated if I had plowed through this one, only to still not be finished.

I’ve read a lot of historical romance. Like I said, it has always been one of my favorite genres. I would not classify this as a romance, though. Julianne and Dominic’s story was so weak, that it just annoyed me. Honestly, I didn’t care if they sorted out their battles. I didn’t like either of them, or their families. Everything took a backseat to the history lesson, which was really pretty boring. I skipped entire pages of history with no dialogue or happenings. It was just history. Now, I have nothing against history. It’s just not what I wanted to be reading when I picked up a romance. I will applaud Ms. Joyce for her impeccable research. It was obvious that she spent a ton of time reading up on the French Revolution and the spymasters. If you like historical fiction, I can see that you might like this. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.


Top Ten Books that Take me Somewhere

Posted January 24, 2012 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 15 Comments

 

Hey guys! I love traveling. LOVE it. And it’s during months like these that I get the travel bug. January is tough. It’s cold, we’ve got holiday hangovers, and the days are short and dark. It makes me want to go somewhere fun! So for this week’s freebie TTT, I’ve chosen to tell you about my favorite books set in places I’d love to escape to right now (or books with travelers I envy).

By Love or By Sea by Rachel Rager
This book takes place in a quaint little seaside town. It’s a very sweet, clean romance that I just loved. I want to visit this place.

Kiss and Tell by Suzanne Brockman
Here, we get to visit this adorable town in Florida called Sunrise Key. Picture flower boxes, white and blue-striped awnings, and picket fences. Everyone knows everyone. I want to find a bed and breakfast and live there for a little while!

Royal Target by Traci Hunter Ambramson
The heroine is a CIA agent, who goes to Venezuela on assignment and meets Prince Garrett. They hit it off, and her mission is terminated as she receives new orders to go to Meridia (a city on the coast of Italy) to pretend to be his fiancee as part of their security plan. Meridia sounds amazing, and Venezuela would be a wonderful place to visit as well!

My Heart Stood Still by Lynn Kurland 
Here, we get to go to an old castle in on the English moors. An American man falls in love with a Scottish woman from the past. It’s a gorgeous story, and the scenery sounds amazing.

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
The bulk of this takes place in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. PLEASE let me go! I love the Met, and I could definitely use a trip there right now.

Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter
The characters in this story go on the Jane Austen tour of England! I’d love to go on that trip.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
A “race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe”. I’ll take it!

Carrie Goes off the Map by Phillippa Ashley
The heroine goes on a road trip through the English countryside with a really sexy guy… I want to do that!

Caribbean Cruising by Rachel Hawthorne
Now, I didn’t like this book very much, but it takes place on cruise ships and there’s nothing I love more than reading on the sun-drenched deck of a ship floating around the Caribbean!

Sailing to Capri by Elizabeth Adler
This takes place on a yacht set for Capri, Italy! Can you tell I love water and Europe?

So! Which books have you read that involve traveling, or just awesome places? And be sure to link me to your Top Ten Tuesday posts! I want to see what you came up with. :) Thanks for stopping by!


Dreaming of Mr. Darcy by Victoria Connelly (Book Review)

Posted January 23, 2012 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 5 Comments

Dreaming of Mr. Darcy by Victoria Connelly (Book Review)Dreaming of Mr. Darcy by Victoria Connelly
Series: Austen Addicts #2
Also in this series: Mr. Darcy Forever
Published by Sourcebooks on January 1, 2012
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 280
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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Fledging illustrator and Darcy fanatic Kay Ashton settles in the seaside town of Lyme to finish her book, The Illustrated Darcy, when a film company arrives to make a new adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Kay is soon falling for the handsome bad boy actor playing Captain Wentworth, but it's the quiet screenwriter Adam Craig who has more in common with her beloved Mr. Darcy. Though still healing from a broken heart, Adam finds himself unexpectedly in love with Kay. But it will take more than good intentions to convince her that her real happy ending is with him.

(While this is book #2 in a series, I contacted the author and she said each novel is a standalone, and they can be read out of order.)

I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. I loved the little town of Lyme. It sounds breathtaking, and I have always thought it would be fun to own a B&B by the sea. Kay’s sounds very cute and old-fashioned, with lots of character and charm. I liked the two actresses, Sophie and Gemma. They are very sweet and caring, and end up being great friends to Kay. I like Adam a lot, and think he’s a saint for putting up with Kay’s antics. He’s hopelessly in love with her, while she is trying to set him up with someone else (like Emma Woodhouse would). She’s completely clueless! The smartest person in this book is Adam’s eccentric Nana, who tells it like it is. She totally knows what’s going on, and is perfectly willing to voice her opinions. I liked her!

I had a hard time with the insta-love. Everyone falls in love with everyone really fast! With Adam, it’s love at first sight. He falls for Kay, the girl with the “toffee-colored hair” before he even knows her name. (By the way, you’ll get really tired of the phrase “toffee-colored hair”. It is used a LOT in this book.) Kay falls in love with Oli (the male lead in the movie) really fast. She’s planning their wedding and naming their children, and he hasn’t even kissed her yet. He hasn’t even told her he likes her yet! Gemma’s love interest takes a little more time, but again it’s love at first sight for him and love at first realization that he loves her for her. This is just not realistic! These characters are not junior high schoolers who think they are in love because they’ve never felt it before! And why is everyone so clueless? Kay is clueless about everything, Adam is spineless and won’t tell Kay that he likes her and not the girl she’s trying to match him with, Gemma is clueless and can’t figure out why a guy is being nice to her. People are not this dumb! Really, it felt like high school and all the he-said-she-said drama. These people are too old for this. I think this is the reason that I didn’t really connect with any of them. I just kept wanting to smack them.

Kay has conversations with herself, which are just weird to me. I don’t sit and actually have a conversation with myself, especially out loud. I guess I just don’t like it when characters have conversations with themselves, because I had the same complaint with Midnight in Austenland. Also… the title led me to believe I was going to be reading a Pride and Prejudice spin-off. This book is all centered around Persuasion, though, so you’ll be hearing much more about Captain Wentworth than Mr. Darcy. I’m not complaining or anything, and I really enjoyed reading about the romantic story of Persuasion. I just thought it was worth mentioning for those who are on the look-out for P&P retellings or spin-offs. This isn’t one.

My favorite part was when two characters get completely drenched in a downpour and have to make due with borrowed clothes. The guy has no pants, a bright yellow raincoat, and a t-shirt. The girl is wearing granny clothes that are too big. That was funny. And I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Cobb and the surrounding area. I’ve always really wanted to go to England, so any book that describes it to me is a book I appreciate. I really liked the idea of the novel as well. There were just a few parts that kept me from liking it as much as I could have, and expected to.

I’m glad I read Dreaming of Mr. Darcy. I was really excited for it, and it was a nice change from all the dark dystopias I’ve been reading lately. I just had higher expectations. Like all romances, everyone ends up with who you want/expect them to. I still plan to read the other stories in this series, and hope to connect with them more. :)