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Newlyweds Jack and Grace Angel have what looks like the perfect marriage.  Their luxurious Spring Eaton home is one of the finest in Surrey.  Wealthy, successful, and beautiful, they're the perfect couple.  Except that their gleaming facade is a gilded lie.  Jack is a sadistic psychopath, Grace his terrified prisoner.  Desperate to save her sister—a 17-year-old with Down Syndrome—from Jack's clutches, Grace must find a way to break free.  But, how can she escape her personal Fort Knox?  Will anyone believe her incredible claims about her refined lawyer husband?  How can she save her sister when she can't even protect herself?

Behind Closed Doors, a debut novel by B.A. Paris, has been touted as "2016's Answer to Gone Girl" (Women's Health), a chilling psychological thriller that is "Amazing!", "Brilliant!", and "Unputdownable!"  I agree that it's compelling; I had to keep reading just to find out how it would end.  But amazing and brilliant?  Meh.  Not only does the plot lack depth and complexity, but it also gets a little absurd.  Far-fetched.  I prefer my psychological thrillers to take a subtler approach, surprising me with clever twists.  Behind Closed Doors does not do this.  The story is engrossing, there's no denying that.  It's just not very original or satisfying overall.  For me, it didn't live up to the hype it's been receiving.  Not at all.  Bummer, that.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for brief, mild language (no F-bombs); violence, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of Behind Closed Doors from the generous folks at St. Martin's Press.  Thank you!

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After her mother dies, 32-year-old Samantha receives a box filled with the dead woman's keepsakes.  Sam is stunned to find, among them, evidence that her mother's childhood was much different than her mother ever let on.  In fact, a young Violet White was placed on an orphan train in 1900.  Stunned by this news, Sam longs to know her mother's real story.

In alternating chapters, the dead woman's tale is told.  It's a sad one, a story of poverty and abandonment sent against a grimy New York City background.  As Sam contrasts her own rocky relationship with motherhood with her mother's experience, she comes to understand some truths about herself and her family.

It's difficult to describe Mercy Train by Rae Meadows because it's a very episodic novel, without a lot of connectivity between elements.  Except for the orphan children, the characters are not very sympathetic.  I didn't feel connected to any of them, which made the whole story seem distant.  Perhaps this was done on purpose to reinforce the book's disconnection theme?  If so, it's not a storytelling device I enjoy.  The book also ended oddly, not pulling things together in a satisfying way.  All of this combined with the overall depressing nature of the novel just made it a difficult read for me.  I find the subject of orphan trains fascinating, but Mercy Train simply did not do it justice.  In the end, I found the book a depressing slog.  Ah, well.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline; We Rode the Orphan Trains by Andrea Warren; and a little of Wanderville by Wendy McClure)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a dozen or so F-bombs plus milder expletives), violence, and mature subject matter 

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

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Mercy Wong wants more than the life of poverty and prejudice she's living in San Francisco's Chinatown.  The 15-year-old longs to be a great businesswoman with enough money to elevate her family above its lowly station.  She has the smarts for it as well as the ambition.  But this is 1906 and Chinese people are not exactly welcome in California's hallowed halls of learning.  It will take more than intelligence to get Mercy where she wants to be.

With a lot of pluck (and a little bribery), she lands herself a place at a posh boarding school for wealthy white girls.  Pretending to be an exotic heiress, she tries desperately to keep her real identity a secret from her snooty classmates.  When disaster strikes San Francisco, Mercy sees her bright future crumbling before her eyes.  In a city now dominated by chaos and catastrophe, how will a penniless Chinese girl survive?  As Mercy launches a desperate search for her missing family, she'll find the one person who is truly lost—herself.

Under a Painted Sky—Stacey Lee's debut novel—impressed me with its compelling mixture of history, adventure and romance as well as its engaging prose and appealing characters.  Because I enjoyed her freshman endeavor so much, I eagerly picked up Lee's sophomore effort.  And I was not disappointed.  Not at all.  Once again, Lee has created a plucky Chinese-American heroine whose courage and compassion make her both likable and admirable.  The novel's plot moves forward at a fast clip, making it as engrossing as it is entertaining.  Although the story focuses more on relationships between the characters than on the great earthquake, it's still an exciting tale that's also vivid, fun, and hopeful.  Having thoroughly enjoyed both of Lee's novels, I'm eagerly awaiting her newest, The Secret of a Heart Note, which comes out in a few weeks.  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Dear America: A City Tossed and Broken by Judy Blundell; The Fire Horse Girl by Kay Honeyman; and a little of Nancy Herriman's Old San Francisco mystery novels [No Comfort for the Lost; No Pity for the Dead])

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), violence, and mild sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

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For 19 years, Annie Bell has lived on a farm in the Oklahoma Panhandle with her husband and children.  Of a practical nature, she does what needs to be done.  Foolish notions—like abandoning their failing farm—have no place inside her head.  Instead, she must do what she always does: keep going.  This is becoming increasingly difficult as drought cracks the earth beneath her feet, the farm disintegrates before her eyes, and worry for her starving children and fanatical husband worry her heart.  Annie's neighbors are deserting Mulehead in droves.  Should the Bells follow?

As dust storms continue to swirl around the Bells, each member of the family—rational Annie, visionary Samuel, restless Birdie, and sickly Fred—will have his/her own challenges to face.  With drought strangling their hope, it will take every ounce of determination they possess just to survive.  In a bleak, devastating time and place, what will happen to one ordinary Dust Bowl family?  

A "cheery Dust Bowl story" is an oxymoron, of course, but I Will Send Rain by Rae Meadows was even more depressing than I thought it would be.  The setting is so vivid that the reader can feel the characters' heartbreaking despair as well as their desperate hope.  Plot wise, the story doesn't go much of anywhere, making the tale seem extra long and dull.  That, along with its bleak, unflinching tone made this novel a difficult read for me.  I cared about the characters, but the book was so sad and depressing that I couldn't wait to finish it.    

(Readalikes:  Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a few F-bombs, plus milder expletives), sexual content, blood/gore, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find