Chasing Rainbows

Chasing Rainbows
By Kathleen Long

Every now and then a book comes along that just captures your heart.  The book, Chasing Rainbows by Kathleen Long is one of those books.  I absolutely loved this book.  It was not so much about the suspense of what may or may not happen, but of the connection I felt with the characters.  In fact, I think it only took me about a day to read this book on my Kindle.

Seeing early on in the book that the main character Bernie had experienced some major losses in her life, I could really relate.  There were three big ones that hit her in the course of a few years.  Yes, it is a fictional book, but when we get hit with that much loss in our lives, it is hard for anyone to keep going.

Throughout this book, Chasing Rainbows, the main character showed us her good side, bad side and all the difficulties she endured as she navigated through these moments of loss, grief, and heartache.  The author managed to keep the book upbeat, and at times I found myself laughing at some of the dialogue.  It was comical moments that just helped make the character more alive.

A Family Affair

A Family Affair
By Mary Campisi

My eyes kind of rolled a few times when I was reading this book.  Thinking about all the secrets in "A Family Affair" and knowing that while this was fiction, part of it hits close to real life experience.  Okay, the story may play out different in this book than my own experiences, but the secrets these people held while knowing the secrets were alive, made my eyes roll a few times.

I'll have to say this was an excellent book.  At times, I had a little difficulty in following everything, but if I kept reading, all of it would come together.  At no time when I was reading the book, could I have guessed the ending would have come about in the way that it did.  No, I'm not going to give anything away and spoil your experience of reading this book.  The author, Mary Campisi did an excellent job of holding the suspense until the end of the book.

Just because you think you know people in life, it doesn't mean you always do.  We often tend to put one persona of ourselves out to the world, while holding the truth very close to ourselves.  This book highlights this in a very dramatic way.  Again, "A Family Affair" is a work of fiction, but in many ways, the plot is most likely more true to real life, than we may want to believe.

Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise

Charlotte Figg Takes
Over Paradise
By Joyce Magnin

Everyone has secrets!  Secrets are everywhere.  Yet, in the case of Charlotte Figg, she learned quickly just how many secrets people hold in their every day life.  While this is a fictional story, it really isn't too far from the truth.  As with most people though, we often don't see what is right before our eyes until something knocks us off of our pedestal.

For Charlotte Figg, the main character in this book, life had always held its own secrets for her that she hid away in the dark corners of her own life.  It was not until her husband died that her life began to change.  There were those who were surprised at how she up and left the life she had always known and embarked upon a life that was so familiar.  It was almost like Charlotte was led to paradise.

Through all of her unimaginable moments at paradise, Charlotte was met with circumstances that she would never have dreamed she would encounter.  She was introduced to people that seemed strange at first, but yet they quickly became her true friends and people she could count upon.  However, it was through opening up her own life and stepping out into her own fears and uncertainties that she made connections with the residents of paradise.

Red Baker

Red Baker
By Robert Ward

I have mixed emotions about this book because in many ways I really enjoyed it and in other ways I'm perplexed by it.  One thing I will quickly say is that a little bit of the language could have been toned down.  It is definitely not a book for a young child to read, not that they would be reading it anyway.  While it is a fascinating book that I was so intrigued by, I'm not sure it is as good as a couple of previous books I have read. 

Some of the story line seemed to meander a little and I would find myself wondering where it was going.  Then at other times it would come together and I could see how the various underlying plots were developing and coming together.  All in all, it was a book that held my attention, but maybe didn't completely captivate me.  I'm glad I read it and would offer it up as a good book to read.

Through the book though, I felt it easy to identify with the various main characters as they were laid off from their job and had very few skills to fall back on.  It was somewhat sad to see how they struggled with all of this in life, some fairing better than others.  I could fully understand how the male characters felt when they could not find sufficient work and how difficult that becomes in life.

1929 Book One By ML Gardner

1929 (Book One)
By ML Gardner

Every now and then a book comes along that you just can't believe how great it is.  This is not a book that I normally would have picked up and read, but I am so glad I did.  Even though I can only read book one of 1929 by M.L. Gardner, I find myself longing to read the future volumes.

This book was such a pleasure to read that I could barely put it down.  Every time I tried to stop and take a rest, my mind raced with desire to know what happened next.  At every twist and turn, I found myself wondering what would happen next and how the characters of the story would make it.  Even though the book is written as fiction, it all seems so real, believable, and as if I was there living right along side each of these characters.

The story hits me because I see people with money as having life together with no problems and not a care in the world.  Yet, as I read books like this and others, I"m beginning to wonder if that is as true as the story lines would appear.  In this case, the wealth was taken away in the matter of a few hours in the stock market crash of 1929 and their life was not the same from there on out.  In fact, the main characters went from having people take care of their every need, to figuring out how to survive.

Love Finds You In Wildrose ND

Love Finds You
InWildrose, ND
Tracey Bateman

I wasn't too sure about this book when I started reading it because I thought maybe it was more of a romance novel then I prefer to read.  However, it did not take too long after starting to read this book that I found it was much more than that.  The book grabbed my attention from the moment I started reading it and it held it until I was finished.  In fact, I think it only took me about a day and a half to read this book.  I could not put it down.

Tragedy struck very early in the book and I felt a tug at my heart strings as the events unfolded.  The author of this book was very good at making me feel like I was right there watching everything that Rosemary (the main character) was doing, thinking, feeling and living.  I felt her pain as the tragedy unfolded and could only help but wonder how I would have reacted in this same situation.  Although it is a work of fiction, I felt as if the events were so real that it was more reality than fiction.

Sleeping Tigers

Sleeping Tigers
By Holly Robinsonon
On Amazon

A funny thing happened when I found this book.  Remember Holly Robinson Peete that was on the Apprentice and went up against Bret Michaels in the finale?  Of course, Bret Michaels won, but this review isn't about the Apprentice.  Instead, when I saw this book by Holly Robinson, I mistakenly thought it was Holly Robinson Peete from the Apprentice.  Okay, my mistake and I"m sure others have done the same thing.

Anyway, I figured that I would read this book anyway.  It sounded interesting enough because it was written around a character that had to deal with life after cancer.  Because I have a close friend going through something like this, I thought it would be a good read and maybe offer some insight as well into cancer.

As I started to read this book, I found that there were some strong dynamics taking place with the characters.  In fact, some of the story line really hit home for me with some of my own past experiences.  At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to read something as close to my own personal life as this book was taking me, but then I figured, I would go for it!  I am glad I did.

About Don's Reading List And Reviews

What Is This Blog About?
This blog is about the books that I have enjoyed reading and a little review on each one.  It is so hard finding the good books to read and when you pay good money for one, you don't want it to be a dud.  So, I thought I'd share the ones that I'm reading.

While this blog may evolve slowly over time depending upon how many books I read, I will keep adding to it as I can.  Sometimes I read a lot of books at once and other times I slow down.  There are times I read books to learn from which are always slower, and then times where I just want to sit down with a fiction book that I enjoy.

The one thing you will find is that when I write, I am very honest about how I view the book.  I am not here to be just a billboard for books, but to share my honest opinion of how the book touched me or didn't.  Most likely there will be things I write that authors and other readers don't agree with and that is perfectly fine.  I'll always try to state it in a respectful way.


Comments
As far as comments go, please feel free to leave legitimate comments.  I would like to hear your own feedback and reviews on these books.

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