More Book Reviews

My book reading continues.  I finished reading Pamela Ribon’s book,  You take if from Here.  I had read her previous book, Going inCircles and enjoyed it, so I picked up this one while we were at the bookstore. 

The book is about a woman who is dying of cancer and asks her best friend to take over her life when she passes.  So, this is a pretty sad topic, but I knew that Pamela Ribon is known for her humor, so I wanted to see where she would go with it.  The book was written as if the main character, Daneille, was writing to the daughter of her best friend, Smidge, who has died.  Very interesting writing technique, as I was reading I would forget that it was a letter, then she would explain something in the present tense, then go back to telling the story in the past.

I would say the majority of the book was not sad, it was funny.  It was about the relationship between two women when something unexcpected, like death, happens.  How do you move on, how do you go forward when Smidge, the more dominate one, is dying.  Her expectations are too high, and how do you deal with that.  Danielle wants to give her everything because she feels guilty, but where do you draw the line?

The book is based in a small town in Lousianna, so this provided for some of the humor.  How people say things, how they treat each other, which is not the same other places.  It makes one long for that kind of community but glad that one doesn’t have it at the same time.  Smidge was the queen bee in this town, it was interesting to see how she manipulated people into getting what she wanted. 

I liked the book, I would recommend reading it. 

I have read the Barbara Bretton, Sugar Maple series of books as well.  I bought the first one, CastingSpells, on my Kobo, after hearing Dawn talk about how much she loved it on her podcast, Wolfe Farms.  This book was excellent, I loved it!  It’s everything I like in a novel, romance, knitting, and magic!  The book is about Chloe Hobbs, the owner of the local knit shop.  She lives in a town that is filled with all sorts of magical people, vampires, witches, fairies, werewolves, the list goes on.  One day, a non-magical policeman comes into town on an investigation, and we can tell that he is going to be the romantic interest of Chloe.  The town has to keep the police man from figuring out their secret, while Chloe has a fight of her own. 

I loved the book so much, I bought the second one right away, then did the same with the third and the short story.  I really recommend this series for anyone who loves magic and knitting! 

I’m now reading the new Richard Castle book, Frozen Heat.  I am a fan of the TV series, Castle, the book is very similar to the show.  In the TV show, a writer, Richard Castle does a ride a long with a detective.  The ride alongs lead to Castle writing a book, Heat Rises, so they turned it into a real book, instead of just a book talked about on the show.  

 I read the previous Castle books over the summer while the show was off.  Because the characters in the book are similar, but not exactly the same as the show, now that Castle is back on TV with new episodes, I’m getting the stories mixed up.  I want to follow Nikki and Rook solving the mystery, so I will finish it quickly and just watch the show by itself from now on. 

I really liked the Desden Files, I bought the second one, Fool Moon, and the 3^rd, Grave Peril,  on my Kobo, and I’m looking forward to reading the 4^th book,  Summer Knight.  I have learned that the titles kind of give a hint to what the book is about, I love knights, so this should be good!