In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

I just couldn't get in to Rebecca Serle's The Dinner List, so I was a bit skeptical when I heard about her new book In Five Years. The premise, however, was intriguing enough to pique my interest. Dannie is a super Type-A corporate lawyer with a very firm five year plan: get a job at her dream firm in New York City, marry her boyfriend, buy the perfect apartment. Just as everything looks as if it is going according to plan, Dannie has a vision, a premonition of her life five years in the future and it doesn't look at all like what she expected. Thrown off by what she knows wasn't a dream, she has a hard time committing to her future and then hopes to find a way to make it not come true at all. Dannie's best friend Bella is her pure opposite- carefree and full of spontaneity. They are there for one another through everything.

I loved this book so much that I read most of it in a single afternoon. I will warn you it is a bit of a tear jerker, but if you've been here for a while you know that is a fairly low bar for me. I'm a giant crybaby. This is exactly my favorite kind of love story. I really want to tell you more, but I don't want to ruin it. Read it yourself and I think you'll understand. I hope you love it, too.

*This Advanced Reader Copy was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for and honest review.*

My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd

Heather Lloyd's My Name is Venus Black follows the titular character Venus through a most difficult and traumatic experience. Accused of a cold-blooded crime at the extraordinarily tender age of thirteen, Venus is separated from her autistic younger brother Leo and sent to a juvenile detention center far away. When Leo goes missing a few days later, Venus is frantic to get out and look for him. Abandoned by her mother who has put all the blame for everything on her daughter's shoulders, Venus has to put her head down and serve her time. When she is finally released, all she can think of doing is starting over with a new name to escape the media attention, and searching for Leo.

This book deals with some heavy topics, but it a very gentle way. The crime is described only enough to make the point, the circumstances leading up to the crime are also awful, but handled in such a way as to communicate the fact without dwelling on it. Even Leo's "mental disability" (this book is set in the early 1980s before common use of the term autism) is observed with love and understanding, even when the characters don't fully understand. I'm not sure I would give this book to a very young teen, but an older one should have no problem with the topics. The characters are wonderfully written and those who are meant to be likable are very likable. I found myself invested in them. Venus is strong and stubborn and a little hardened from her life, but we also see her soften when the time is right.

I really liked this book and I think you will, too.

*This Advanced Reader Copy was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for and honest review.*

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

I was in need of a silly, distracting thriller and I thought The Wives by Tarryn Fisher might fit the bill. Thursday is a woman in a most unusual relationship. She is married to a man who is married to two other women. She doesn't know them. This isn't a religious thing. They don't all live together in a compound out in the middle of nowhere. Thursday is just in love with her husband and the fact that he is also married to two other women isn't enough to change that. What does start to change some things is when she lets her curiosity get the better of her. And we all know what that did to the cat...

This was a super fast read that keeps the pages turning. It is such an unusual situation that you just can't look away. And then it gets crazier and crazier. I can't say this book was great, but it was pretty good. I was bothered that Thursday had several moments where she was just plain crass and it didn't seem to fit very well. It was almost as if the author had thrown it in because she thought that was what women in thrillers were supposed to say, ala Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train. I'd say if you need something to distract you from the real world (who doesn't right now) or to read on the beach, this would be a good fit.

*This Advanced Reader Copy was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for and honest review.*

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

For years I've meant to read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, but it wasn't until my own daughter read it and insisted that I do the same that I was finally able to get to it. As an aside, if your kid tells you to read a book, do it. It's so much fun to tell them what part you're reading and have them get excited for what is coming up.

The Graveyard Book begins with the murder of an entire family except for one little toddler boy who wanders out the front door and through the gates of a graveyard. The ghosts that reside there take him in and name him Nobody Owens, Bod for short, and give him the freedom of the graveyard. He learns and grows, he is cared for and loved, but the man who killed his family is still looking to finish the job. Bod's safety is only within the walls of the cemetary, but life is only outside them.

This book is beautifully written, magical and just dark enough to add interest, but not too scary for younger readers. I really, really liked it and I'm so glad I finally read it. The only book to ever win both the Newberry Medal and the Carnegie Medal, this book, as the back cover says, is a modern classic. I think it is one of those books that even kids who think they don't like to read will love. It may just convince them the world of literature has something to offer them, too.

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

I have not always been a Jodi Picoult fan. I read My Sister's Keeper years ago and then another one or two of her books before I decided that they all kind of felt like a cheap pull on emotion without enough substance to make the tears worth it. I have since just avoided her books. When I was given an opportunity to read A Spark of Light, I was hesitant but the synopsis was intriguing enough for me to give Picoult another chance.

Hugh is hostage negotiator called out to an active shooting at the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi. When he discovers his own fifteen-year-old daughter and her aunt are inside, he should hand his post over to someone without a conflict of interest. Instead he continues in his duties, determined to get her out alive. Inside, the shooter is George, a father heartbroken by the abortion his daughter sought at the Center, who seeks revenge for what he calls a murder factory.

Perhaps you have strong feelings one way or the other about the legality and moral correctness of abortion and perhaps you fear this book is meant to persuade you to a particular viewpoint, but not so. At least from my perspective, this book is fairly balanced and doesn't shy away from details or condemn any of the decisions made by the characters, excepting only those of the violent shooter. This is a book that will make you think about where you stand. One of my favorite things about reading fiction is the opportunity to experience someone else's life from their unique point of view. We may think we know what someone should do, the decisions they should make, but there is a whole story behind them we don't know. When we get to read that story, we learn to have more empathy for the people around us.

Laws are black and white. The lives of women are a thousand shades of gray.

The only thing I didn't love about this book was the way the story was told. It was backwards. The book begins at the end and then moves back in time in one hour increments. This is a great way to get to understand each person's backstory and motivations, but I kept wanting to know what would happen to them all at the end. We learn a little, but for me it was not enough. I appreciate what Picoult was trying to do, but for me it didn't work. Otherwise, this was a book I really enjoyed and found compelling. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

*This Advanced Reader Copy was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for and honest review.*