June Book Review

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@Barrie Summy

It's time for more book reviews.  This month I will be reviewing two books that I enjoyed in the last month.  The first is our gracious host's latest book, The Disappearance of Emily H.  This book was reviewed last month by Sarah Laurence here.  I had already pre-ordered the book and was excited about reading it but Sarah gave a great review that only upped my anticipation of receiving the book.

The story is about Raine, who can read people's memories through sparkles.  She describes it this way "Some people come from a family with loads of money.  Some ace math without trying.  Some never get zits.  Reading sparkles is my thing, my little talent."

 

Her mother's talent is getting involved with loser boyfriends and then relocating with Raine when they don't work out.  And that is why Raine is a new student at Yielding.  Because she has moved around so much, Raine has learned to adapt rather quickly.  She can spot the popular kids, the nerds, the mean kids easily and she has learned how to deal with them and stay under the radar.

 

Raine has met the mean girls in her new school but they don't bother her much, that is until she stands up against them when she sees them bullying another new student, Shirlee.  Once she does that she has a target on her own back for the mean girls.

 

Raine uses her talent of reading memories to put a stop to the bullying of Shirlee and herself in a very unique way, while also helping to solve the mystery of what happened to Emily H.

 

One of the many things I like about Barrie's books (characters, story, etc.) is that they tell a story that is good for any age.  Disney movies used to be movies that you could take your small child to, as well as your elderly grandparent and everyone would enjoy it and no one would be uncomfortable by any of its content.  That's how I view Barrie's books, people of all ages can enjoy them and no one need be embarrassed by the content.  I recommend this book highly.

 

The second book I'm reviewing is Queen of the Trailer Park, A Rosie Maldonne Mystery by Alice Quinn.  I came across this book quite by accident.  You see amazon offers its prime service for free for a month every year or two and I take them up on it fairly regularly but this past year I forgot to cancel it before they charged me for it.  It's my understanding that you can still cancel if you haven't had anything shipped but I decided to keep it, see how I liked it.  Then I started getting all these emails about kindle books.  I'm not a fan of reading ebooks so I would delete the emails without seeing what they were about.  Turns out that you get one free ebook a month with your prime membership and I just realized it at the end of May and decided to check this book out from it.

 

It's a story about Rosie and her life.  She doesn't have money, she lives in a trailer and she's raising three kids, one of which isn't hers.  Then one day her friend and her friend's child go missing and she starts trying to figure out what happens.  The police question her and follow her.  She meets an eccentric man who takes her under his wing.  And she follows clues to try to find her friend and her child.

 

This was a quirky, fun book that I read in one day (which is highly unusual for me these days).  There were some things in the book that I had difficulty suspending disbelief for but it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the book and its story.  There were some passages what didn't flow as well as they could but I considered that this book was translated from French and felt that was likely a contributing factor.  But again, it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book.

 

This was the first in a series of Rosie Maldonne stories by Alice Quinn and I plan on checking out more in the series.  So thank you amazon for offering it to me . . . I can recommend it as a fun, light read (despite that it being a mystery).  :)

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