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Lauren Mechling is the author of “Dream Girl” and “Dream Life” which I recently reviewed.
Greetings and salutations, book lovers! I’m Claire Voyante, the main character of Dream Life, Lauren Mechling’s rip-roaring detective novel (and no, it is not immodest to say that about a book you didn’t write but in which you star—I checked in one of my grandmother Kiki’s etiquette books).
Dream Life is all about what happened after I found out my best friend Becca had just joined a super-exclusive, centuries-old secret society called the Blue Moons. I figured out how to wiggle my way into the club, and, of course, much drama ensued. I warmly invite you to check Dream Life out—it’s available at a bookstore or Internet site near you.
When Dream Girl, the first book in the series, came out, my creator Lauren fielded questions from bloggers and journalists. Lauren is currently underground working on a secret project so I offered to step in and relief pitch. I’m taking a page from Ann Landers’s book and writing an advice column. The questions came from fans of the series. The answers came from the heart.
(Warning: I don’t have a degree in psychotherapy–use at your own risk!)
Dear Claire,
I’m having body issues. And no, I’m not one of those girls who thinks she’s fat. It’s that my arms are so long. I swear to God, sometimes I look in the mirror and I see a girl who might as well be a spider monkey. I’ve tried everything—stretching and swimming and wearing a shrug with too-long sleeves, which I like to think gives the illusion of normal-length arms. But none of it seems to work. Any tips?
Signed,
The Girl Who Reminds Herself Of A Spider Monkey, Medford, Mass.
Dear TGWRHOASM,
I’m going to overlook that you’ve come to me (a shorty to the millionth degree) for advice on dealing with being funny-shaped. I think I can be of some help.
First of all, you have a problem that you don’t even know about: the shrug. Shrugs are my least favorite piece of apparel. What is the point of two sleeves connected by a band that you wear around our upper back? I promise you: there is not a shrug on earth that will do you any favors. Off with it.
Now that you’ve tossed your shrug out, what to do? Nothing. Long arms are like long legs, only easier for other people to admire. You, my dear, are a fetching, long-limbed supermodel-in-the-making. Work it.
Okay, that wasn’t totally true, we HAVE had internet this week, but we have purposely had it off most of the day, 11 am to 8 pm. We’re trying to get our condo ready to sell and there is a lot of work to do on it. We figured that if the internet wasn’t available to us if we’re home during the day or when we get home from work, we’d get more work done. It is actually working really well, and I almost want to keep it up. Without so much of time on Twitter and futzing around the internet, I have been using ALL of my time more efficiently, both online and off. Daniel and I have got some really great playing time in, I’ve made dinner, as well as cooking myself breakfast and lunch, I have all my reviews scheduled for next week, and I got in a ton of reading. Here’s what I finished this week:
Don’t tell my husband, since he came up with it, but I think this ‘no internet from 11 to 8′ was really a great idea.
Dr. Faraday’s mother used to work at Hundreds Hall and he has always been fascinated with it, whenever she would take him there. His fascination persists, even as he has broken through his working-class ancestry to become a doctor. When he is called out to Hundreds when the maid is sick, it all comes screaming back to him. Eventually he manages to make himself all but indispensable at the house, and strange things begin to happen. First Roderick, the young World War II veteran begins acting strangely and becomes convinced there is a malevolent force in the house, then there is a tragedy involving the dog belonging to Caroline, Roderick’s sister. Things continue to get stranger and stranger, and skeptical, scientific Dr. Faraday finds himself in the middle of it without really knowing what to think.
Let me just start by saying this book was really, really great. There were a few parts that were a bit slow, particularly towards the beginning, but Waters succeeded in wrapping me completely in her story. I actually listened to the audio version of this book, narrated by Simon Vance, and it was just fantastic. Here are a few of the things I really appreciated about “The Little Stranger:”
The atmosphere: this was a totally spooky Gothic novel. Waters managed to create an atmosphere that creeped me out without going overboard or having to tell me that things should be scary.
Class issues: the intense struggles over class that happened in Britain post-WWII were woven very deftly into Waters’ narrative. This really made the book feel authentic in its time period. I actually frequently found myself in wonderment that this book was written recently, not 50 years ago because of how thoroughly I believed in the setting.
The ending (obviously don’t read this point if you don’t want to know!): Waters’ ending was totally ambiguous, but in a very satisfying way. We do know what happened to all the characters, just not exactly how or why, which leaves much open to the reader for interpretation. I do have my own theories about what happened, but I won’t post them here when they could potentially spoil it for someone else.
I would definitely recommend this book as great Gothic literary fiction. Now I want to read more of Waters’ work!
This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
My baby, Daniel, really liked this book. He attacked it when I wasn’t looking, chewed off a corner (and swallowed it!). He then kept trying to lunge at it throughout the time I was reading it.
And really, it sounded like something I would love too. Latvian anarchists in England in 1910? A famous incident in which the group clashes with police, ending in deaths? I mean, come on! You’ve got historical fiction, learning about a group I don’t know much about, and the event itself even happened? Dramatic, educational, right up my alley!
Unfortunately, the book really just didn’t end up playing out the right way for me. The beginning was quite promising, focusing on Rivka and her father’s humiliation by Russian soldiers, after which he attempts revenge, she gets caught in the middle of it, and has to flee to England.
Not long after that, though, the whole thing sort of fell apart for me. There were too many characters to keep track of easily, and that process was complicated by the fact they all fell somewhat flat for me. Because I really couldn’t get into any of their heads and understand their motivations, I was not myself motivated to remember who was who. I also found the action somewhat hard to follow at some points.
This book was not without strengths, however. The author had clearly done a great deal of research and really knows his subject. With the large cast of characters involved and their varying political leanings, this is no small feat. I’m sure not everyone would be as put off by the prose as I was either. Actually, as I thought about it more, I realized that the form reminded me somewhat of that in “Devil in the White City.” The difference for me is that “Devil in the White City” is classified as history and so I consider it rather engaging for the genre, but “A Storm in the Blood” is classified as fiction and thus seems to me to be dry for the genre.
The book would perhaps have been better if conceived as a work of history instead of historical fiction, but it certainly has a lot to teach those interested in the time period and topic. For those with little curiosity about the subject matter, though, I would recommend skipping this one.
This review was done with a book received from Erica at Harper Collins.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
Okay, so the main character in this book is sort of like Nancy Drew. Except she’s a very modern girl who lives in New York City and goes to this brainiac school. And wears the designer hand-me-downs she gets from her aging socialite grandmother who lives in the Waldorf. Oh, and she’s clairvoyant. And her name is Claire Voyante.
I know, I know, a psychic named Claire Voyante? Ridiculous. But, her parents are sort of ridiculous, Claire’s New York-born mom trying to almost out-French Claire’s French father. Claire doesn’t actually know she has psychic powers until she turns 15 and her black and white dreams begin to help her protect those she cares about from trouble, in particular her new friend Becca. Becca has a certain knack for attracting trouble, as a condiments heiress.
So I was totally hesitant when Lauren approached me to review her books. On one hand, I knew I’d seen her name before, attached to some sort of positive sentiment (although I wasn’t sure where). On the other hand, another reviewer mentioned “Gossip Girls” in a quote that is on her website and that’s not really my thing. Last time I decided to branch out and try a book compared to “Gossip Girls” – The Luxe – it didn’t really work out for me, and I came away disappointed. Lauren told me, though, that she promised not to be offended if I didn’t like them and I found the premise pretty interesting, so I decided to give them a go.
Reading the books was totally the right choice. I found Claire completely charming and quirky. Yes, there were socialites involved, but they were aging socialites, not catty, promiscuous teenagers. Instead I found a smart, witty girl who was determined to do what she could to make sure her friends came to no harm.
P.S. Lauren will be back on Monday in a guest post, to tell you a little more about Claire!
Buy this book from:
Powells* Dream Girl
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound* Dream Girl Amazon* Dream Girl | Dream Life (note: Dream Life is only available through Amazon)
This review was done with a book received from the publisher by request of the author.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades — with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.
This is the first Lehane I have read, although I did see the movie of “Mystic River.” I had the impression that his books were sort of bleak, which never really appealed to me. I really only picked this up because Jen picked it for her That’s How I Blog show. In fact, the first time I picked it up, I put it down after 40 pages or so because it wasn’t grabbing me. Then Jen tweeted about how amazing the ending of the book was, so I decided to give it another go.
I’m not really sure at what point I started to enjoy “Shutter Island;” at one point I was basically making myself read it so I could join in with the discussion, the next thing I knew I didn’t want to put it down. I really never came to like the main character much, but he was compelling, and the story was even more so. It was at times a bit crude, but a fantastically pieced together psychological thriller. I would really like to listen to the audio version of this book, so I could try to piece together all the clues that Lehane scattered about to what would happen in the end.
This review was done with a book from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
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Lisa
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