The Orchardist

Author: Amanda Coplin
Goodreads Rating: 3.73
Pages: 426
Format: Finished Copy for TLC Blog Tour

Set in the untamed American West, a highly original and haunting debut novel about a makeshift family whose dramatic lives are shaped by violence, love, and an indelible connection to the land"The Orchardist is like one of its characters: 'an egg encased in iron'-an elemental story filled with the perfection of the natural world. Nearly everybody in the book compels your admiration, either for their courage or for the heavy work they do, all the time and without complaint, even when wicked men are hunting them. Transfixing. I love this book straight through."-Salvatore Scibona, author of National Book Award Finalist The End
You belong to the earth, and the earth is hard.
At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, a solitary orchardist named Talmadge carefully tends the grove of fruit trees he has cultivated for nearly half a century. A gentle, solitary man, he finds solace and purpose in the sweetness of the apples, apricots, and plums he grows, and in the quiet, beating heart of the land-the valley of yellow grass bordering a deep canyon that has been his home since he was nine years old. Everything he is and has known is tied to this patch of earth. It is where his widowed mother is buried, taken by illness when he was just thirteen, and where his only companion, his beloved teenaged sister Elsbeth, mysteriously disappeared. It is where the horse wranglers-native men, mostly Nez Perce-pass through each spring with their wild herds, setting up camp in the flowering meadows between the trees.
One day, while in town to sell his fruit at the market, two girls, barefoot and dirty, steal some apples. Later, they appear on his homestead, cautious yet curious about the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, Jane and her sister Della take up on Talmadage's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Yet just as the girls begin to trust him, brutal men with guns arrive in the orchard, and the shattering tragedy that follows sets Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect them, putting himself between the girls and the world, but to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.
Writing with breathtaking precision and empathy, Amanda Coplin has crafted an astonishing debut novel about a man who disrupts the lonely harmony of an ordered life when he opens his heart and lets the world in. Transcribing America as it once was before railways and roads connected its corners, she weaves a tapestry of solitary souls who come together in the wake of unspeakable cruelty and misfortune, bound by their search to discover the place they belong. At once intimate and epic, evocative and atmospheric, filled with haunting characters both vivid and true to life, and told in a distinctive narrative voice, The Orchardist marks the beginning of a stellar literary career.

Dinner With a Vampire

Author: Abigail Gibbs
Goodreads Rating: 3.93
Pages: 549
Format: Finished Copy for a Blog Tour

The sexiest romance you’ll read this year…
One moment can change your life forever...
For Violet Lee, a chance encounter on a darkened street draws her into a world beyond her wildest imaginings, a timeless place of vast elegance and immeasurable wealth – of beautiful mansions and lavish parties – where a decadent group of friends live for pleasure alone. A place from which there is no escape...no matter how hard Violet tries.
Yet all the riches in the world can’t mask the darkness that lies beneath the gilded surface, embodied in the charismatic but dangerous Kaspar Varn.
Violet and Kaspar surrender to a passion that transcends their separate worlds – but it’s a passion that comes at a price...

No Mark Upon Her

Author: Deborah Crombie
Goodreads Rating: 4.10
Pages: 369
Format: Finished copy for a blog  tour

New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie makes her mark with this absorbing, finely hued tale of suspense--a deeply atmospheric and twisting mystery full of deadly secrets, salacious lies, and unexpected betrayals involving the mysterious drowning of a Met detective--an accomplished rower--on the Thames.

When a K9 search-and-rescue team discovers a woman's body tangled up with debris in the river, Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid finds himself heading an investigation fraught with complications. The victim, Rebecca Meredith, was a talented but difficult woman with many admirers--and just as many enemies. An Olympic contender on the verge of a controversial comeback, she was also a high-ranking detective with the Met--a fact that raises a host of political and ethical issues in an already sensitive case.

To further complicate the situation, a separate investigation, led by Detective Inspector Gemma James, Kincaid's wife, soon reveals a disturbing--and possibly related--series of crimes, widening the field of suspects. But when someone tries to kill the search-and-rescue team member who found Rebecca's body, the case becomes even more complex and dangerous, involving powerful interests with tentacles that reach deep into the heart of the Met itself.

Surrounded by enemies with friendly faces, pressured to find answers quickly while protecting the Yard at all costs, his career and reputation on the line, Kincaid must race to catch the killer before more innocent lives are lost--including his own.

A Desire Path Spotlight

Author: Jan Shapin
Goodreads Rating: 3.00
Pages: 264

What makes women fall for men who are tied to political causes? “It’s called a desire path,” she said, indicating a trace of beaten earth that disappeared into the woods. “A landscaping term my mother used. Not ‘shortcut’ — that implies convenience. Desire is rarely a convenience.” Set in the Depression and WWIIs aftermath, A Desire Path traces a love affair between Ilse, a New England housewife, and Andy, an itinerant union organizer who has grown disillusioned by the infighting in the nation’s capital. Ilse’s husband, Leo, a powerful Washington lawyer, retaliates by destroying Andy’s livelihood. Still in love with him, AnnaMae, a journalist friend of Andy’s, returns from Moscow to tend an increasingly senile father only to confront the horrific past that first prompted her escape to the Soviet Union. Over the years Ilse witnesses Anna Mae’s flailing adherence to Communist doctrine, even as she comes to see her own marriage as so much empty dogma. She rediscovers her love for Andy and the tension builds as she attempts to break free of Leo’s domination.

This spotlight was brought to you by TLC Book Tours.

Lasso the Stars

Author: L. L. Nielson
Goodreads Rating: 4.33
Pages: 257
Format: Finished Copy from Publisher for TLC Blog Tour

Dina's life is nearing its end. But for Dina, the end is really just the beginning. For months, she's been fighting terminal cancer. She's finally resigned herself to preparing for the end. Her last few weeks are going to be with her sisters, sharing the happy memories of a life well spent.

Princess Elizabeth's Spy (Maggie Hope #2)

Author: Susan Elia MacNeal
Goodreads Rating: 4.15
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Pages: 384
Reviewed By: Nicole

As World War II sweeps the continent and England steels itself against German attack, Maggie Hope, former secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, completes her training to become a spy for MI-5. Spirited, strong-willed, and possessing one of the sharpest minds in government for mathematics and code-breaking, she fully expects to be sent abroad to gather intelligence for the British front. Instead, to her great disappointment, she is dispatched to go undercover at Windsor Castle, where she will tutor the young Princess Elizabeth in math. Yet castle life quickly proves more dangerous—and deadly—than Maggie ever expected. The upstairs-downstairs world at Windsor is thrown into disarray by a shocking murder, which draws Maggie into a vast conspiracy that places the entire royal family in peril. And as she races to save England from a most disturbing fate, Maggie realizes that a quick wit is her best defense, and that the smallest clues can unravel the biggest secrets, even within her own family.

The Weight of Heaven

Author: Thirty Umrigar
Goodreads Rating: 3.71
My Rating: 4.25 Stars
Pages: 365
Reviewed By: Nicole

I got this book from Harper Perennial for the blog tour hosted by TLC Book Tours. This was another one of those books that was outside my comfort zone for books.

Goodreads Synopses:

Filled with satisfyingly real characters and glowing with local color, "The Weight of Heaven" is a rare glimpse of a family and a country struggling under pressures beyond their control.

A Simple Thing

Author: Kathleen McCleary
Goodreads Rating: 4.30
My Rating: 3.25
Pages: 297
Reviewed by: Nicole

I got this book from HarperCollins as part of the blog tour hosted by TLC Blog Tours.

Goodreads Synopses:

When Susannah Delaney discovers her young son is being bullied and her adolescent daughter is spinning out of control, she moves them to remote, rustic Sounder Island to live for a year. A simple island existence--with no computers or electricity and only a one-room schoolhouse--is just what her over scheduled East Coast kids need to learn what's really important in life. But the move threatens her marriage to the man she's loved since childhood, and her very sense of self.

For Betty Pavalak, who moved to Sounder to save her own troubled marriage, the island has been a haven for fifty years. But Betty also knows the guilt of living with choices made long ago and actions that cannot be undone. The unlikely friendship between Susannah and Betty ignites a journey of self-discovery for both women and brings them both home to what they love most. "A Simple Thing" moves beyond friendship, children, and marriages to look deeply into what it means to love and forgive--yourself.
I didn't hate this book, but there were parts of this book that made me want to pull out my hair. Those things of course, were things that were supposed to get a reaction out of a person, and so it was only fitting that I did have these reactions. For starters I wanted to kill Katie, the insolent teenager, through the entire book, at least until she became a real person at the end and not a spiteful child.

I felt for Susannah as she tried to protect her children, but her husband Mark was right when he said that she was running away and not just trying to protect her children. That actually really frustrated me about Susannah, because it was understandable that she had a lot of emotional baggage that got explained later in the book, but that is no reason to take your children out of school and move to another part of the country.

I enjoyed Betty's story, sad as it was, it showed that every situation is what you make of it. I totally hated her husband, but she made it work being on the island. I also loved learning about how she made it to the island. There didn't seem to be very much of a relationship between Betty and Susannah except for a few conversations, but I guess thats all it takes?

I guess back to why Katie made me so mad. Besides being a 14 year old, and just hating everyone, she was just an awful person, yes she was remorseful, but only when she seemed to get caught. The way that she spoke to her mother too, I mean, I know I wasn't a great teenager, but she was insufferable. I would probably have CPS called on me because I would hit my child if they called me a bitch (or I would be locked in my room crying about how much of a failure of a parent I was and how my kid hates me)(also, I know I'm a terrible person for saying that, but sometimes teenagers, myself included, need some sense knocked into them), either way, bad things.

I felt like the ending was a little bit abrupt, like McCleary realized she found a great ending, but then left a few things unresolved, so she jammed them in. It was hard not to feel that way when the rest of the book was very carefully constructed. Overall, it was a good book, it evoked a lot of strong emotions, but those emotions (which could go either way) didn't lead me to love the book like a lot of people did. It was well written, so go and enter my giveaway!

Flight From Berlin

Author: David John
Goodreads Rating: 4.02
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pages: 384
Reviewed by: Nicole


I go this book as part of TLC Tours. I felt that it as a very fitting read since one of my girlfriends just ventured to Germany and the Olympics are right around the corner. What better way to celebrate than by reading a book about a pretty controversial Olympic Games. 


Goodreads Synopses:


A cynical English reporter and a beautiful, headstrong, American Olympic hopeful are caught in a lethal game of international espionage during the 1936 Berlin Olympics in Flight from Berlin, a riveting debut thriller from breakout novelist David John. Combining the suspense and atmosphere of Alan Furst’s spy novels with the exciting narrative drive of Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon adventures, John delivers an unforgettable masterwork of thrilling suspense set against the backdrop of one of the most monumental summers in history—a contest of champions, including the remarkable Jessie Owen, that captivated the world as the specter of Nazi Germany continued its rise to threaten the globe.

Never Tell (Ellie Hatcher # 4)

Author: Alafair Burke
Goodreads Rating: 3.84
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pages: 3
Reviewed by: Nicole


I got this book from HarperCollins as part of a TLC Tour. I picked this book because it's been awhile since I had a good cop drama book. I hadn't realize that it as in the middle of series, but that didn't change how I enjoyed the book. 


Goodreads Synopses:


Sixteen-year-old Julia Whitmire appeared to have everything: a famous father, a luxurious Manhattan townhouse, a coveted spot at the elite Casden prep school. When she is found dead in her bathtub, a handwritten suicide note left on her bed, her parents insists that their daughter would never take her own life.

But Julia’s enviable life was more complicated than it seemed. The pressure to excel at Casden was enormous. Abuse of prescription anti-depressants and drugs for attention-deficit hyperactivity ran rampant among students; an unlabeled bottle of pills in Julia’s purse suggests she had succumbed to the trend. And a search of Julia’s computer reveals that in the days leading up to her death, she was engaged in a dangerous game of cyberbullying against an unlikely victim.

NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced the case is a suicide, but she knows from personal experience that a loving family can be the last to accept the truth. When the Whitmires use their power to force a criminal investigation, Ellie’s resistance causes trouble for her both at work and in her personal life.

As she is pressured to pursue a case she doesn’t believe in, she is pulled into Julia’s inner circle—an eclectic mix of overly precocious teenagers from Manhattan’s most privileged families as well as street kids she met in Greenwich Village. But when the target of Julia’s harassment continues to receive death threats, Ellie is forced to acknowledge that Julia may have learned the hard way that some secrets should never be told.

State of Wonder

Author: Ann Patchett
Goodreads Rating: 3.85
My Rating: 3.75
Pages: 358
Reviewed by: Nicole


I received this book directly from HarperCollins for participating in the blog tour for this book sponsored by TLC Tours. The subject matter is not something that I would ordinarily pick up. I'm not a science person, and the Amazon doesn't interest me (too many scary bugs). That being said I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to give this book a chance because I really enjoyed it.


Goodreads synopses:

"Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett's fiction."--New York Times Book Review

Award-winning, "New York Times" bestselling author Ann Patchett returns with a provocative and assured novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest. Infusing the narrative with the same ingenuity and emotional urgency that pervaded her acclaimed previous novels "Bel Canto," "Taft," " Run," "The Magician's Assistant," and "The Patron Saint of Liars," Patchett delivers an enthrallingly innovative tale of aspiration, exploration, and attachment in "State of Wonder"--a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love.

My review is after the jump!