Julie's Review: What Alice Forgot

Author: Liane Moriarty
Series: None
Publication Date:June 2, 2011
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Pages: 443
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  Crime
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Marriage is complicated and Ms. Moriarty highlights this in this delightful novel
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: What would happen if you were visited by your younger self, and got a chance for a do-over? Alice Love is twenty-nine years old, madly in love with her husband, and pregnant with their first child. So imagine her surprise when, after a fall, she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! she HATES the gym!) and discovers that she's actually thirty-nine, has three children, and is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. A knock on the head has misplaced ten years of her life, and Alice isn't sure she likes who she's become. It turns out, though, that forgetting might be the most memorable thing that has ever happened to Alice. ~ Goodreads.com

Review: One thing that I love about Ms. Moriarty's books is that while they might be set in Austraila, they can occur anywhere. I often forget that they are set down-under until there's some slang I'm not familiar with or she mentions it. What Alice Forgot is fresh take on amnesia. I avoided reading it when it came out because it seemed to be the trend at the time. I'm both sorry and happy I did put it off because well now it stands out.

Alice Love is an intriguing character. I loved that it was as simple amnesia tale and that she had forgotten 10 years of her life and all of what came with that. Poor Alice thought she was 29 years old and newly pregnant, only to find that in fact, she was 39, not pregnant but had 3 children. While you know that amnesia is serious, you immediately know that Alice will eventually get her memory back.

As a reader, I wanted to know what caused Alice to change from a seemingly flighty person to a no-hold bar mom and woman. Do we all change that much in 10 years? Do those life experiences shape us? Can we change? What if we don't recall those experiences? How do we go back to being who we were when everyone around us thinks of us or treats us differently?

While there are funny parts to the story, there is defintiely some serious issues going on in the book. Most of them relate to Alice's sister, Elisabeth. It's pretty apparent that Alice isn't the only one to have changed in 10 years, which would totally be the case. It's interesting to see Alice try to figure these relationships or lack of relationships out. At times it's comical and at times it's sad. Alice never gives up trying though.

There are some things that were left unresolved and I really would have liked to have known, but I won't tell you what they were in case you are going to pick up the book. I think what the novel pointed out to me was that most marriage fail because it just gets plain old hard. After a while you quit trying and become consumed with other things. No one is really at fault and then again both parties are at fault.

There is no big GOTCHA moment in the novel and I think that's what I liked best. This is the third Liane Moriarty novel I've read and I can honestly say that her writing has only gotten better with her more recent novels and that's saying a lot because this one was strong.

 Google+

Julie's Review: Big Little Lies

Author: Liane Moriarty
Series: None
Publication Date: July 29th, 2014
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books
Pages: 480
Obtained: Amazon Vine
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Pretty much perfection
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary: A murder… . . . a tragic accident… . . . or just parents behaving badly? What’s indisputable is that someone is dead. But who did what? Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads... Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?). Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay. New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all. Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive. ~amazon.com

Review: Drop what you are reading and pick up Big Little Lies immediately. Seriously, you won't regret it. This was an amazing read in every single way. The characters are rich, the plot is thick with mystery and multi-layered, the style is a new twist on a traditional way of storytelling. Ms. Moriarty had me hooked from page one and it just kept going deeper and deeper into my skin. I couldn't wait to pick this book up when I had to set it down because life called.

Each one of the main characters were fantastic and different from each other. I loved Madeleine. She was feisty, loyal and someone I would want to be befriend immediately. Jane is quiet and a bit shy, unsure of herself. It was fun to see her come into her own and break out of her shell. Then there is Celeste, beautiful but befuddled Celeste. Celeste always seems out of sorts. She's always in her own little world; some would call her a bit spacey. There is so much more to Celeste than meets the eye and it is the aspect of this novel that will stick with me the longest. I love how the three of them bond and help each other out because let's face it at Pirree there is a Mommy Mafia. Women are just such bitches and always gossiping about one another. Does Ms. Moriarty take it to another level to prove a point, why yes she does and the point is taken. It isn't about working moms vs. stay at home moms, it should be about being moms. It should also be about the children but instead it is the adults acting like children. Petty arguments, vicious rumors/gossip that gets out of control.

I loved how each chapter started off with other people's viewpoints about what happened on that night and also their thoughts about what led up to it. It almost leads you astray as you start the chapter because you go in thinking one thing and then the truth is revealed. It makes you think about how you judge people based on the little pieces you might know about them. We don't always know the full picture.

The suspense about what happened on Trivia Night was the hook but I also fell in love with the characters. So much of the experience of this novel is that you can see aspect of it happening in your own daily life, which is what makes it relatable.

Big Little Lies is one of those books that I will continue to think about long after I've finished it. Ms. Moriarty's writing just keeps getting better and for me, this one is her best so far.


Google+

Julie's Review: The Husband's Secret

Summary: At the heart of The Husbands Secret is a letter that's not meant to be read...My darling Cecilia, if you're reading this, then I've died. . . .
Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .
Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—shes an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husbands secret.Acclaimed author Liane Moriarty has written a gripping, thought-provoking novel about how well it is really possible to know our spouses—and, ultimately, ourselves. ~powells.com

Review: The secret in The Husband's Secret gets revealed a little less than halfway through the book so it isn't the main focus of the book. The focus of the book is the fallout from the secret. How does it affect his wife, Cecelia? Their marriage? Their children? It's hard to write a review without revealing the secret but I'm going to try.

I wasn't sure what to expect going in. I thought the premise sounded good and figured it wasn't going to go the standard, "I cheated on you" confession. What is shattered is Cecelia's view of her husband and her marriage. Did she ever know him? Does this confession change how she views him? What about how she views other people? I wasn't sure what to think of her. She seemed too put together for me in the beginning. Did she show her true colors through crisis? I think so.We are also introduced to Tess who is sure that she's got social anxiety. Her marriage is in a crisis so she moves home to take care of her mum who just broke her ankle. She thought she was happy and the situation causes her to look at herself and examine if she really is.
Next is Rachel, who lost her daughter when she was on the cusp of adulthood. Rachel is depressed and with the anniversary of her daughter's death it has been intensified. How all of these stories intersect is interesting and what really holds the novel together.

We slowly get pieces of each woman's character revealed and while your opinion might change over the course of the novel, one thing is for sure is that in the end all of their lives will be changed forever. 

The Husband's Secret examines life behind closed doors and how we perceive our own lives and those of others. It is an examination of the secrets we all hold from each other. How bravery can come from unexpected and tragic events and make us stronger/better people.

Final Take: 4.25/5





 Google+

Julie's Review: The Hypnotist's Love Story

Summary: From the author of critically acclaimed What Alice Forgot comes a wonderfully fun, insightful novel about the crazy things we do for love. ~penguin.com  

Review: I've been sitting on The Hypnotist's Love Story for a few months and it's not because I didn't want to read it but because I had a few other pressing novels. The premise of the book sounded interesting and while overall it didn't disappoint, the characters did. At first I found Ellen sweet and naive, even though she's in her mid-thirties. By the end of the book I found her annoying and saccharine. I found it hard to believe that a woman would be o.k. with another woman invading her space and her relationship. Even if Ellen was intrigued by Saskia at first, I would have bet overtime she would have tired of it, but she really never did. I found this to be unrealistic. I found Ellen herself to be doing some things out of character after falling in love with Patrick. The things she did bothered me more than Saskia stalking him. Although it does come back to bite her at certain points in the novel.

I found Patrick to be annoying. For most of the book I believed that even having a stalker annoyed him that he actually gained pleasure from it as well. I thought he liked the attention and that is why he didn't ever go to the police. It wasn't until towards the end of the book that we found out why he let the stalking carry on for so long. It was interesting to hear his reasoning even if I didn't believe it.

 The most interesting and well-written character was Saskia. As Patrick's ex-girlfriend and stalker, she was the most flushed out. You didn't agree with her tactics but you almost understood why she was so consumed with not letting go. You wanted her to get the help she so obviously needed. She just wanted to be loved and to love. In some relationships there is always one person who cares more and loves more, in Patrick and Saskia's it was her.

I found the practice of hypnotherapy to be intriguing and one of the best things I came away with from the book is that the power of the mind is extremely strong. The power to influence people can be tapped into. I liked that it was central to the novel. If Ellen hadn't been a hypnotherapist I definitely don't think the story would have worked as well.

I know that quite a few people loved this book but I didn't. I didn't dislike it but it's not one I'll be  recommending to people. I will be checking out Ms. Moriarty's other novels because I did appreciate the way she told this story. I imagine her other novels are written/told in a similar way.  

Final Take: 3/5