(Image from Barnes & Noble)

It's been a year since Susannah Gilmore's husband of 20 years died in a bicycle accident and she's still trying to pick up the pieces.  In an effort to start over, the widow moves herself and her two teens from Brooklyn to her family's summer cottage in tiny Eastwood, New Hampshire.  Sixteen-year-old Calista is already boiling over with grief and anger; relocation to the middle of nowhere only makes her more surly.  Her younger brother tries to keep the peace, but the tension in the family never seems to cease, despite their tranquil new surroundings.

When Susannah discovers an intriguing item—a love note addressed to her mother, written in a script that is not her father's—in the house, she finds a needed distraction.  That's not the only thing grabbing her attention, though.  She's researching another puzzling mystery for a novel she's writing, spending more time than she should thinking about handsome Corbin Bailey, and desperately trying to ease her family's heartbreak so they can heal together.  Can Susannah find the answers she's looking for, the peace she's seeking, and the second love she doesn't know she needs?  

The wounded-woman-coming-home-to-heal trope is one I'm always up for, especially when it's done well.  The House on Primrose Pond by Yona Zeldis McDonough fits the first bill, but not necessarily the second.  While the novel has some compelling elements, it's way too long and wordy.  Susannah is a sympathetic heroine, but she's also a selfish, annoying pushover who lets her bratty teenager call all the shots.  I had a hard time respecting her or really caring all that much about her plight.  In the end, then, I found The House on Primrose Pond to be an okay read, nothing more.  

(Readalikes:  A million titles should be coming to mind, but I'm drawing a blank.  Help!)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), innuendo/sexual content, and references to illegal drug use

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

When I mentioned how much I enjoyed reading novels about Amish life, my writer friend Kimberley Griffiths Little recommended Plain Girl by Virginia Sorensen.  Although the book was published in 1957, I'd never heard of it.  A pity, because it tells a sweet, simple story that's deeper than it appears to be at first glance.  It's a short novel, written for a middle grade audience, that asks some intriguing questions about tradition vs. change, faith vs. fear, tolerance vs. judgement, and forgiveness vs. anger.  That might sound too "churchy" for modern MG readers, but really, the lessons Plain Girl teaches are subtle and universal ones about embracing one's own identity and not just accepting other people's differences, but also learning from them.  Like Kimberley, I highly recommend this little gem of a book, which I very much enjoyed.

(Readalikes:  Hm, I've never read another children's book about the Amish, so I'm not sure to what I can compare Plain Girl.  Any ideas?)

Grade:

 If this were a movie, it would be rated:

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of Plain Girl from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

With a new, but solid marriage, a lovely home in a safe, well-maintained neighborhood, and a stable bookkeeping job, life is comfortable for Karen Krupp.  She's not the type to involve herself in any kind of drama, so when she disappears—leaving behind her purse and cell phone—her husband is flummoxed.  He's even more confused when he's summoned to the hospital to find Karen alive but with no memory of where she's been.  According to the police, she was driving in the worst part of town, an area she had no reason to visit, when she crashed into a utility pole.  What was Karen doing there?  She can't remember and Tom Krupp has no idea.  

When a corpse is discovered near the place where Karen had her accident, the police believe it's no coincidence.  As they investigate, they find that everyone—Karen,Tom, and even Karen's purported best friend—are hiding something.  The more Detective Rasbach digs, the more disturbing the case becomes.  Can he figure out what Karen was doing on the night she crashed?  And what, if anything, she had to do with a violent murder?

I'm always up for an intriguing amnesia-based psychological thriller and A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena fits the bill.  Kinda.  While it's engrossing, the story is told in an odd, off-putting way, which distances the reader from the action.  The characters, even Detective Rasbach who is a recurring character in Lapena's novels, are not developed enough to be likable or unlikable.  In addition, the tale is melodramatic and predictable; I wanted more complexity from it.  All this aside, A Stranger in the House is still a compelling page turner.  I just didn't love it and, in the end, didn't find it to be a very satisfying read.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me a little of If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language, violence, mild sexual content, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

After her babysitter cancels at the last minute, Anne Conti reluctantly decides to leave her 6-month-old daughter at home and join her husband, Marco, at a dinner party next door.  Plagued by guilt and anxiety, Anne can't relax, even though she checks on the infant repeatedly.  During one of these drop-ins, the couple make a horrifying discovery—Cora is gone.  Who would kidnap a baby right out of its crib?  And why?  

With no real evidence of a break-in, police suspect the Contis of abducting their own child.  Anne suffers from post-partum depression and Marco's software design business is in trouble.  Did one of them snap under the added pressure of new parenthood?  As Detective Rasbach investigates, he uncovers a whole web of lies weaved between the Contis and their enigmatic next door neighbors, the Stillwells.  No one is telling the entire truth, so what really happened to Cora?  Can Rasbach wade through all the deceit and find out? 

I dig psychological thrillers with intriguing premises, so The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena seemed like a right-up-my-alley kind of novel.  While the story is intriguing enough that I wanted to keep reading, the characters in this story are a total turn-off.  The cast is almost wholly unlikable.  They're a desperate, selfish, cruel, and greedy lot, which made it impossible to care about them.  Add to this irritant a predictable plot and a depressing-as-all-get-out vibe, and The Couple Next Door becomes only a so-so read.  While I definitely wanted to know what happened to the baby, all in all this one didn't do a lot for me.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Our House by Louise Candlish)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language, sexual content, violence, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find