Evelyn, After by Victoria Helen Stone

I could not tear myself away from Victoria Helen Stone's Evelyn, After. Evelyn is a forty-one-year-old wife and the mother of a son just months from high school graduation. Her life is fine. She is heavily involved with the PTO and works part-time in the school office. She lives in a beautiful home and is married to a successful psychiatrist. So she has to take a sleeping pill every night. Lots of people do that. It doesn't mean she is unhappy with her life. At least not until she discovers how wrong her life has gone. Late one night, Evelyn's phone rings, startling her from her prescription-induced slumber. It's her husband, frantic for her help to pull his BMW out of a ditch. When she arrives, he isn't alone, and the other passenger is a very attractive patient of his. This could ruin her husband's career and destroy their family. How will Evelyn know how to come to terms with her knew world? Will she overcome, or will she take everyone down with her?

This book echoes many concerns of the average wife and mother. Are we appreciated? Does what we do matter? Below are just a few lines that ring that bell so clearly.

No wonder her husband had wanted someone else. She'd been such a wife. A dull, boring mother of his child.

Her work was cleaning and washing and planning and ticking boxes for people who only noticed that work when you failed to do it.

The reality was that she'd had to lure them close to her with scraps of food.

She needed someone to see her.

Who made her life easier while she was busy being easy for everyone else?

No one. There'd been no need. She'd never asked.

Aside from being a fascinating commentary on the life of a modern housewife, this book was also a riveting mystery. What really happened out on that dark, rural road late that night? Where had Evelyn's husband really been and with whom? Evelyn is a great character. My feelings for her ranged from pity to pride to disappointment and around and around. I love a character with enough depth to not evoke just one emotion from me as the reader. I really liked this book and I think you will, too. Can we talk about it when you finish?

Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser

Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser is set in a lovely Ohio suburban neighborhood, the kind of place to which you move when you're looking for somewhere safe to live. It features a group of six women, the kind of women you would hope for as friends in this new, safe neighborhood. And it focuses on the sudden disappearance of one of these women and her two children. Kristin is the friendly, involved parent at the local preschool who is always happy to head up school projects and parties. Everyone knows and loves her. When she vanishes without a trace, everyone wants to know how it happened. First they turn to Claire, Kristin's next door neighbor and closest friend. Claire is worried about Kristin, but doesn't know how this terrible thing could have happened.

What didn't she see?

The last night they all are together, they gather around Claire's backyard firepit, get a little loose-lipped from all the wine, and start to share more than they planned. Was something said that prompted Kristin's disappearance? How much is too much to share with your neighbors? Once Kristin is gone, it changes the dynamics of the group, but can the pull together and protect one another?

This book is a fun mystery with a girlfriend side to it that I really liked. I always appreciate a good book about women and their relationships. It mostly focused on Claire and, the newest to the neighborhood, Izzy, but I would have loved to know more about the other women in the book, Randi, Rhoda, and Natalie. I enjoyed reading this book and it was perfect after the last, longer, heavier book I read. It was fast, fun, and it kept my attention to the end. Add it to your list.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I have had Life After Life by Kate Atkinson on my shelf for ages and I was finally able to find the time to read it. It follows the life, or lives, rather, of Ursula Todd. She is born on a snowy night in 1910 and due to complications of her birth, she dies almost immediately due to the umbilical cord being tied around her neck. Then it is that same snowy night in 1910 and she is born again, but the doctor is able to remove the cord from her neck and she lives. We watch as Ursula lives many different lives where each ending takes her back to the beginning. Ursula is plagued by overwhelming moments of deja vu and flashes of foreboding throughout her life that the reader knows are moments when she has previously died. Each time she learns a little more, gets a little further along.

This book is fascinating to read, if a bit complex. The storylines are intricately woven through time. This is certainly not something you can read with half your attention and I wouldn't recommend taking long breaks between sessions because you may forget where, and when, you are. For me, this book was very difficult to put down. Though it felt a little slow at the start, once I got going and understood the storyline, I was ravenous with reading it. How would Ursula avoid each death in the following life? Or would she?

This book asks the question:

What if we had a chance to do it again and again until we finally did get it right?

What if we did?