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13, rue Thérèse: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)This beautifully written and illustrated book is a magical tale woven around a box of artifacts owned by the author. They tell the story of Louise Brunet, a woman who lived in the early part of the 20th century, as imagined by Trevor Stratton, an American academic working in present day Paris.
Trevor discovers a mysterious box of letters and mementoes in his office that was secretly left there by his secretary. He becomes enchanted by the objects; old love letters, notes, faded photos, pieces of music even a pair of gloves. As he examines each of them he begins to write about their significance in a series of letters to someone identified only as `Sir' and in doing so creates the story of Louise. At the same time Trevor is becoming more aware of his secretary and the role she plays in his discovering the objects.
Louise is not what I would consider a typical woman of the 1920's. Her thoughts, desires and actions are more consistent with those of someone living today. But then I would remind myself that I was experiencing Trevor's fantasy of Louise's life. Childless and married to a man of her father's choosing, Louise suffered heartbreak when the love of her life was killed in The Great War. While she loves her husband, he is not the man of her dreams. She wants a child. She wants passion. She has neither.
Louise is an intriguing and complex woman; she also has a naughty streak. Thinking about a pair of lace gloves she is wearing while in church causes her mind to wander off on an imagined sexual fantasy. Another time she makes a false confession to shock a priest. She has a desire to sleep with her new neighbor and writes him anonymous letters while at the same time she invites him and his wife to dinner.
Throughout the pages the book is illustrated with color photos of the actual objects which were the inspiration for the novel. Each of the photos are also displayed on an interactive website which can be reached through links in the book, a wonderful enhancement to the story. This is a book that must be seen to be appreciated. Go take a look at that gorgeous site; you will not be disappointed; you will be intrigued.
Love story, romance and fantasy, this is a clever and captivating story that is at times both sexy and adult. It is a puzzle that keeps you wondering until the very end when all the pieces ultimately fall into place. An enjoyable read.

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A Very Private Gentleman: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)If Martin Booth's new novel A VERY PRIVATE GENTLEMAN is a bestseller, expect Italy to become a highly popular tourist destination. His narrator, an international criminal, spends the novel alternately enticing you to join him high in the Italian Apennines and cautiously warning you from trying to find him.
The novel's setting, a small, unnamed, rural Italian village, is exquisite and exquisitely rendered. Booth takes time to describe precisely and poetically the old wine shop run by a maniacal dwarf and an obedient giant, the ancient apothecary whose floorboards have absorbed centuries of spills, and the historic piazzas that inspire nothing but nonchalance in the townspeople who visit them every day.
Clarke, which is not the narrator's real name but an alias, poses as a painter of butterflies, a Nabokovian occupation that allows for such eccentricities as long absences, erratic behavior, and no set schedule. So he often lounges and partakes of local delicacies --- the wine, the home-smoked prosciutto, his two mistresses, all of which he describes in tantalizing detail --- while he practices his true calling. Clarke's real profession is much more sinister than painting insects, although equally artistic. He doesn't reveal it until almost 100 pages in, but hints, "I am the salesman of death ... I do not cause it. I merely arrange for its delivery. I am death's booking-clerk, death's bellhop."
Despite his obsession with privacy and death, Clarke is an endlessly entertaining narrator, and his insights into the international underworld and the human condition are intriguing. "Everyone is a terrorist," he observes. "Everyone carries a gun in his heart. Most do not fire simply because they have no cause to pursue."
Booth's rendering of his narrator's voice is remarkable, both for its consistency and for its intricacy. Not only does Clarke keep his guard up through the novel's course, he also manages to convey a great deal about his antihero without him realizing it. Clarke admits his deception to the reader: "The names are changed, the places changed, the people changed. There are a thousand Piazzas di S. Teresa, ten thousand alleys that have no names ... You will not find me."
But Clarke seems unaware of his own self-deception: while he is astute and witty, he can also occasionally be self-important and even boorish in justifying his very private lifestyle. And he studiously avoids cultivating any lasting human connections while wondering how to make his mark on the world, never realizing that to do one is to ensure the other. But his shortcomings become the book's strengths, for as he contemplates life and death in Italy, his flaws --- and his own ignorance of them --- reveal his surprising depth and complex humanity.
Booth makes A VERY PRIVATE GENTLEMAN more than just a postcard from Italy; the setting has direct thematic relevance to the story. History is not just a recurring motif, but a character in itself, an antagonist who constantly reminds Clarke of his encroaching mortality. What better place to set such a face-off than in the seat of Western history, the land where the Knights Templar roamed, where abandoned castles and churches litter the terrain. Even the view from his window captures eras past: "What I can see, with my pair of compact pocket Yashica binoculars, are five thousand years of history laid out before me as if it were a tapestry upon a cathedral wall, an altar-cloth to the god of time spread over the world."
Ultimately, even the passage of time becomes a delicacy in A VERY PRIVATE GENTLEMAN. With a watchmaker's precision, Booth has written a suspenseful and intricate tale, one that is as inviting as it is cautionary.
--- Reviewed by Stephen M. Deusner

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An Invisible Sign of My Own: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)From the moment I started the beginnings of this book, I found it absoultely irresistible. In fact, I found it very complicated to even put it down. I read through it in most of one sitting, even denying myself the simplicity of water.
Aimee Bender gives us a wonderfilled, poetic story about Mona Gray. A woman, turned 20, obsessed with numbers and good luck. This incredible story reaches far into the reader, taking a life of it's own deep inside, even though far from insouciant.
A must read for Plath lovers, as parts of the novel remind me of Esther Greenwood (The Bell Jar), and in reality, these two could have been best of friends, or better yet...worst enemies.
Bender turns obsession and compulsion into a moving story of a woman that knows too much...and too little.

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Jane Austen Ruined My Life Review

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(More customer reviews)Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo is a surprisingly fast and fun read, and I found myself unable to put it down at times. The plot revolves around wishful thinking: WHAT IF Jane Austen's sister Cassandra saved more of her letters than we know about? What if the missing correspondence is being kept somewhere, protected from the public?
This knowledge has English professor and devoted Jane Austen scholar Emma Grant salivating. Her academic reputation is in tatters after her husband and his teaching assistant (and his paramour) accuse her of plagiarism. Newly divorced and denied tenure, Dr. Grant travels to London hot on the trail of the rumored missing letters. There, she meets up with Mrs. Gwendolyn Parrot, a Formidable, who tantalizingly allows Emma to read a copied snippet of Jane's missing letters. Scholar that she is, Emma immediately recognizes Jane's handwriting and the (seeming) authenticity of the fragment. To be certain, she would have to read a copy of the original.
After extracting a promise of secrecy from Emma, Mrs. Parrot sends her on a series of tasks, in which Emma visits Steventon, Chawton Cottage, Bath -- well, you get the drift -- all the places that Jane Austen either lived in or traveled to. Emma's motives for going through all this trouble are the possibility of handling the actual letters and researching them. Her resulting book would salvage her academic reputation. Traveling with Emma is an old flame who, coincidentally, is staying in the same flat as Emma. Does he know of her secret or is he truly as interested in her as he claims? His presence adds to the mystery and suspense of the plot. The book is a fast read and I found it completely satisfying until the very end. While the Emma finds her own definition of a happy ending (which, I will concede, made logical sense), I wanted to scream out "No!" and rewrite that ending. You see, romantic that I am, I do believe that people can have their cake and eat it too.
Beth Pattillo's latest novel reads less like a Jane Austen sequel and more like a The Da Vinci Code offspring. Consequently it will appeal to a broader audience than most Austenesque books. Having said that, the plot is not wholly original . There are echoes of Syrie James's The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen and Lori Smith's A Walk With Jane Austen in this novel. The author, whose writing style is elegant and spare, has written eight other popular books, including the award winning Heavens to Betsy.

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Of Wolves and Men Review

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(More customer reviews)Its rare that a study like this one is both entertaining and informative, but Mr. Lopez's book is precisely that. We are led through the ages peering at the strenuous relations of humanity and wolf-kind, from primal man's envy of this accomplished, loyal hunter, through his hateful denial of their ties, and finally to its present day nebulous dual attitude of reconciliation and euthanasia. It can best be summed up in the chapters referring to the attitudes of the ancient Greeks -especially the Arcadians, who first emulated the wolf, then hated and feared him as a sheepkiller, and then looked on him with pity and sadness and guilt. I also found the descriptions of wolves in Norse literature indicative of the strange envy/hatred/fear man seems to hold for this creature. Meanwhile the wolf lopes on through all of this, steadfast and unchanging - wanting no part in man's world, content with its own. There is much to be learned from wolves, and this book goes a long way in teaching it. In the closing chapters everything ties together in a manner that it is pretty amazing and eye-opening, even going so far as to point to the inherent relationship between a cosmic disaster and the decline of wolves. Maybe that came of sounding crackpot, but I'm not the author - read him for yourself. Its a great buy, and will stay with you for a long time to come.

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The Fates Will Find Their Way: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)How often, in this day and age, does an author find a completely original way to tell a story? Avid reader that I am, I'll tell you: Not very often. And how often, after reading a novel in a single sitting, do write an immediate review? Not very often. And how often does a debut novel--any novel--affect me this powerfully? Not very often.
This is my immediate reaction to The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard. It is, and is not, the story of the disappearance of sixteen-year-old Nora Lindell. More accurately, it is the story of the vacuum left in Nora's wake, and of how that vacuum is filled. The tale is told in reflection by the men who were the neighborhood boys that Nora left behind, and it is told entirely in the first person plural. If you're wondering how that sounds, it sounds like this:
"It seemed we had all finally stopped looking for her, asking about her. It was a sickness, a leftover from a youth too long protracted. Of course we still thought about her. Late at night, lying awake, especially in early autumn, when we could fall asleep for a few weeks with the bedroom windows open, the curtains pulled halfway, a breeze coming in and the occasional stray dry leaf, we still allowed ourselves the vague and unfair comparisons between what our wives were and what she might have been. At least we were able to acknowledge the futility of the fantasies, even if we still couldn't control them."
This novel is a collection of those boys' fantasies, the fleshed out conjectures based upon shreds of evidence presented by impeachable sources. And, in the sharing of these speculative outcomes for Nora Lindell, we learn the true outcomes of the close-knit group that she left behind--from the immediate aftermath of her disappearance, through the decades that follow. And we see how Nora's absence shaped each of their lives.
Nora's friends are a true community, kids who grew up together and stayed local. They have a shared history. And time has transmuted Nora Lindell's fate from mystery to mythology. Their tale is told in a collective voice, and yet, individuals stand out. Paul Epstein, Jack Boyd, Winston Rutherford, Chuck Goodhue, Stu Zblowski, Drew Price, Marty Metcalfe, Trey Stephens, and Danny Hatchet all have their own stories that unfold along with their theories of what happened to Nora.
Even with the unusual voice, I found this book fully emotionally engaging. Reading it, I couldn't help but reflect on my own past, my relationships, stories I've heard, and so forth. This novel is plot-driven, literary, experimental, spare, and absolutely beautiful. One week into the new year, I'm confident that I've just read one of the top books of 2011.

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Shark Dialogues Review

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(More customer reviews)Written by a woman of Hawaiian descent who clearly loves her people, this family saga is the story of Hawaii itself. The central character is the matriarch Pono, whose life includes harsh realities and surreal myths. Her long and passionate love for her husband Duke has caused her great joy, but the situations they had to face together have required strength and courage.
Pono's four adult granddaughters, each born of a different mixed blood heritage and who now live in various parts of the world, come back to Hawaii to visit, forcing them all to come to terms backgrounds.
Their stories are all revealed though flashbacks, going all the way back through seven generations, mixing history with myth in a wonderful array of unforgettable characters. I'll never forget the story of life in a leper colony, or of life on a plantation. I'll long remember the mythical quality of the sea and its ability to both nourish and destroy. There's life and death and passion and joy. There's war and peace and destruction by both human greed and natural forces.
At 480 pages, this is a book to sink into and look forward to reading at the end of the day. A book that brings the story of Hawaii alive to the reader and a fresh retelling of truths and legends

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The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)A heartbreaking but ultimately triumphant work of incredible genius. There were times, while reading this book that I could simply not bear to go any further. I was filled with rage at the writer who could allow his own 'son', so to speak, be made to endure such incredible cruelty and violence. I guess I just went on because it would have felt like not completing the book would have been almost like abandoning this child. Edgar is brave, lovable, loyal and heroic without having the slightest clue that he is anything of the sort. Read this book. It's one of those where you can't wait to find out what happens at the end, while simultaneously rationing your reading so the book doesn't end too soon. This is definitely a book you will find yourself recommending to everyone you know who reads at all - a book that has the ability to make you cry and laugh out loud often on the same page.

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Atlas of Remote Islands Review

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(More customer reviews)That impossible-to-please friend, that cranky relative, that coffee table begging for something more interesting than last Sunday's New York Times Magazine --- worry about them no more.

Here is your holiday gift, your birthday present, your living room's conversation-igniter.

And no worries that "Atlas of Remote Islands (Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot on and Never Will)" will be showing up on legions of gift lists. [To buy "Atlas of Remote Islands" from Amazon, click here.] Though published by Penguin, the biggest recognition the book has received to date is the German Book Office's October Book of the Month. The author, Judith Schalansky, is a German designer and novelist whose last book was "Fraktur Mon Amour, a study of the Nazis' favorite typeface.

Schalansky got interested in maps and atlases for the most personal of reasons. She was born in East Berlin; when she was 10, East and West Germany merged, "and the country I was born in disappeared from the map." With that, she lost interest in political maps and became fascinated with the basic building blocks of Earth's land masses : physical topography.

Fascinating stuff.

You doubt me?

Consider: Schalansky sees a finger traveling across a map as "an erotic gesture."

Consider: Schalansky disdains any island you can easily get to. The more remote the destination, the more enthusiastic she is for it. Like Peter I Island in the Antarctic --- until the late 1990s, fewer people had visited it than had set foot on the moon.

Consider: Schalansky believes "the most terrible events have the greatest potential to tell a story" --- and "islands make the perfect setting for them." Thus, the line at the start of the book: "Paradise is an island. So is hell."

The result? Fifty islands. The world's loneliest places, in lovely two-page spreads, with geographical information and curious histories on the left, and, on the right, a map of the hapless land mass set on a deceptively peaceful blue background.

Start in the Far North, at Lonely Island, where the average annual temperature is -16 degrees. In the Indian Ocean, on Diego Garcia, is a secretive British military base with a golf course where 500 families once lived. A hundred twenty million crabs begin life on Christmas Island; millions of penguins inhabit Macquarie Island. France tested its hydrogen bomb on Fangataufa, after which no one was allowed to set foot on it for six years. On Pukapuka, there is no word for "virgin." The Banabas hang their dead from their huts until the flesh disappears; they store the bones under their houses.

And, to give you a sense of Schalansky's lovely, ironic style as a writer:

St. Kilda, United Kingdom
There are sixteen cottages, three houses and one church in the only village on St. Kilda. The island's future is written in its graveyard. Its children are all born in good health, but most stop feeding during their fourth, fifth or sixth night. On the seventh day, their palates tighten and their throats constrict, so it becomes impossible to get them to swallow anything. Their muscles twitch and their jaws hang loose. Their eyes grow staring and they yawn a great deal; their mouth stretch in mocking grimaces. Between the seventh and ninth day, two-thirds of the newborn babies die, boys outnumbering girls. Some die sooner, some later: one dies on the fourth day, another not till the twenty-first.

Amsterdam Island, France
Everyone who stays on Amsterdam for longer than a year is examined by a medical officer from the south of France to check that he is coping with the long period of restriction of movement and the confined, purely masculine environment. No woman has visited longer than two days. At night, the men gather in the small video room in Great Skua to watch one of the porn films from their personal collection. Each man sits in a row on his own. The loudspeakers emit grunts and groans, and the air is heavy with the musky scent of the bull seals.

Are these stories true? The author is cagey:

That's why the question whether these stories are `true' is misleading. Every detail stems from factual sources...however I was the discoverer of the sources, researching them through ancient and rare books, and I have transformed the texts and appropriated them as sailors appropriate the lands they discover.

Transformed? Well, why not --- it's not like you're booking a ticket to visit any of these places. Just the opposite. Reading in your favorite chair, sipping a cuppa, you can conclude there's no place like home.

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So Long, See You Tomorrow Review

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(More customer reviews)This is my favorite book, by my favorite author. I could read it again and again have! It is his most cleanly drawn and tightly written work. Not a word more or less would perfect it. The story continues the exploration begun in "They Came Like Swallows", following the life of a sensitive middle child after the death of his mother during the great influenza epidemic of 1918. It questions the meaning of friendship, of love and consequences of passion. The child, who certainly seems to possess something of Maxwell himself, traces even into old age, the true meaning of relationships he formed at this period of his life. The end of the book is truly haunting and will stay with you for years. It speaks volumes about how the words that are unspoken in life are sometimes much more important than those that are spoken. How as we grow old, we remember all the things that we could have, should have said....Maxwell is truly one of our finest writers, underappreciated due in large part to his elegant restraint. His prose is as austere as it is powerful. It is truly an unforgettable novel.

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In this magically evocative novel, William Maxwell explores the enigmatic gravity of the past, which compels us to keep explaining it even as it makes liars out of us every time we try.On a winter morning in the 1920s, a shot rings out on a farm in rural Illinois.A man named Lloyd Wilson has been killed.And the tenuous friendship between two lonely teenagers—one privileged yet neglected, the other a troubled farm boy—has been shattered.Fifty years later, one of those boys—now a grown man—tries to reconstruct the events that led up to the murder.In doing so, he is inevitably drawn back to his lost friend Cletus, who has the misfortune of being the son of Wilson's killer and who in the months before witnessed things that Maxwell's narrator can only guess at.Out of memory and imagination, the surmises of children and the destructive passions of their parents, Maxwell creates a luminous American classic of youth and loss.

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Vaclav & Lena: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)Vaclav & Lena is set in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Both characters are Russian émigrés - children 10 and 9 years old. Vaclav has a fair grasp of the English language but is keen to master it. His mother Rasia is loving and kind, determined to make a better life for her son. Lena's life is much different - she has no support at the place she calls home, often has nothing to eat, does poorly in school and tries to blend into the woodwork in an effort to hide. Rasia does her best to mother her as well.
Vaclav and Lena share a love of magic and dream of the day when Vaclav will be a famous magician and Lena will be his stunning assistant. When Lena disappears from his life under never discussed circumstances, Vaclav is heartbroken. Until the day seven years later when their paths cross again....
Vaclav is such an earnest, eager, spirited child. He sees the positive in everything around him. He dreams of the future. The barriers placed in his way do not stop him or deter him. This character touched me so much and literally brought tears to my eyes.
"Rasia looks at Vaclav, holding these dollar bills, smiling his goofy smile. Most people do not really mean their smiles, most of the time. For most people, their smiles are a lie, a trick, or a promise. Vaclav's smile is just a smile, and he always means it."
Two years ago I worked in a very small library. Every day we were open, a young boy, his sister, mother and baby brother came in after school. They were recent immigrants from an Eastern bloc country. The oldest boy had attended school in his home country, his language carried an accent and mangled syntax, he was awkward socially, but tried so hard to fit in. It broke my heart to see him rebuffed by the other children. I can only imagine what his mother felt. She and her husband had chosen to seek a better life for their children.
Rasia's love for Vaclav...
"As she watched him walk out into the big American crowd, under the big American roller coaster, she felt the world spinning wildly away from her, and she sat and cried because she was happy and sad that he did not look back, because of how much she loved his little body, and his awkward, cowlicky head and that tiny rib cage, and the way that he knew, already, to take a girl's hand if she was afraid."
Tanner has perfectly captured what I observed. The dialogue, feelings, emotions, situations and settings all evoke and capture the experience of a new citizen from a child's and parent's view.
But there is much more to the story - it is a tale of tenacity, love and hope. Vaclav & Lena is a rich, poignant narrative that will capture you from first page to last. Loved it! I look forward to reading what Tanner writes next.

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Vaclav and Lena seem destined for each other. They meet as children in an ESL class in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Vaclav is precocious and verbal. Lena, struggling with English, takes comfort in the safety of his adoration, his noisy, loving home, and the care of Rasia, his big-hearted mother. Vaclav imagines their story unfolding like a fairy tale, or the perfect illusion from his treasured Magician's Almanac, but among the many truths to be discovered in Haley Tanner's wondrous debut is that happily ever after is never a foregone conclusion.One day, Lena does not show up for school. She has disappeared from Vaclav and his family's lives as if by a cruel magic trick. For the next seven years, Vaclav says goodnight to Lena without fail, wondering if she is doing the same somewhere. On the eve of Lena's seventeenth birthday he finds out.Haley Tanner has the originality and verve of a born storyteller, and the boldness to imagine a world in which love can overcome the most difficult circumstances. In Vaclav & Lena she has created two unforgettable young protagonists who evoke the joy, the confusion, and the passion of having a profound, everlasting connection with someone else.

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The Year We Left Home: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)An extremely intriguing tale of a family in the small town of Granada, Iowa during thirty years of their lives. It's a fine story with much humor, striking details and pity for some of the characters.

The tale starts in 1973 at the wedding of the oldest daughter in the Erickson clan. As they all are celebrating this event the troubles that will plague the family for three decades is beginning. The bride, Anita wants to marry a local guy and raise a family in the town she grew up in. The next child in line, Ryan, watches his sister marry and is already planning his escape from the town he has grown to despise. At the wedding, Ryan runs into his cousin, Chip, who is a Vietnam veteran. A very mixed up individual who is about to show Ryan the attraction and the dangers of freedom. There is another son, Blake, still in school and not altogether interested in anything at the moment. Last, but definitely not least, the youngest daughter, Torrie, also dreaming of putting the hometown in her rear view mirror as she speeds out of town. Unfortunately, the path she chooses will lead to tragedy that will alter many plans. I didn't mention Mom and Dad. These are regular folks that work hard and take care of their family as best they can.

This story moves from 1973 to 2003, from the farms of Iowa to Chicago and a short time in Italy. It takes us through the horror of the Vietnam War, the crisis facing the farms and the economic highs and lows when there were many foreclosures on homes in the midwest when the large farms had to shut down. This wonderful story follows the Erickson family through thick and thin, wealth and poverty, victories and failures as they work their way through life with all it's ups and downs and try to find a place for themselves in a changing world.

This novel was a real page turner and there is so much the reader will recognize in their own lives and will commiserate with this family. The "Pursuit of Happiness" takes on a whole new meaning. The author gives us a three decade long epic of an ordinary American family who lived their lives quietly and hopefully and went through all the trials and tribulations that face us all on a daily basis.
I was very impressed with this book and recommend it to all readers.

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The Family Fang: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)
It's such a pleasure when a book catches you totally by surprise....and you're delighted. I had absolutely no idea what to anticipate when THE FAMILY FANG arrived - the title reminded me of the Muensters. Well, yes, the Fangs are certainly an outre family but the plot is nothing short of inventive, spellbinding, and amazing.
Caleb and Camille Fang are performance or conceptual artists who use their two children, Annie and Buster, otherwise known as Child A and Child B, as integral parts of their pieces (think of Buster donning a sparkly gown and wig to win a beauty contest or throwing himself on the floor of a mall and shoving giant handfuls of jelly beans into his mouth when his mother's coat reveals the sweet bounty she has just shoplifted. Or, consider Annie plucking a guitar string and singing along with Buster in pitiful voices as they sit on the street beside a guitar case with a sign in it reading, "Our dog needs an operation. Please help us save him."
To the senior Fangs their art is everything regardless of the toll it may be taking on their children. But eventually the children do grow up and leave home. Each tries to create a life and career for themselves, but are unable to make it work. Left with one choice - to return to their parents' home, Annie and Buster do just that. It begins again with the elder Fangs trying to create performances using their children. But then, quite suddenly, Caleb and Camille vanish at a roadside rest stop. Has something dire happened to them or this just another work of art?
Kevin Wilson has fashioned a wise, witty, fantastic novel, delving into familial relationships, and how actions or non-actions may affect each generation.
- Gail Cooke

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Then Came You: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)I'd be lying if I said that I love everything Jennifer Weiner has written. While I consider myself quite a fan, I have found my enthusiasm for her work waning a bit with her last few books. I desperately needed a Weiner novel to redeem my faith in her as an author. When I was offered a review copy of Then Came You I was both thrilled and hesitant. I wanted to love one of her books again but was afraid I would be disappointed. Disappointed, I was not!
Then Came You was absolutely fabulous! Written like a Jodi Picoult novel with different narrative voices or points of view, Then Came You tells the story of four women, with little in common, who become hopeless entangled with each other through a surprising common bond: a child. With infertility and science at the core of this novel, Then Came You is surprisingly emotional. How each of the four women come together to play a role in the life of this child is both beautiful and heartbreaking.
Weiner crafted a very well-written story. The characters came across as very honest and genuine. The plot of the novel, while it could have easily become bogged down by the mundane or unimportant, flowed crisply and really kept me engaged. I couldn't put this novel down because I was so invested in the characters and the plot. Weiner also evoked much emotion from me. I laughed aloud at portions of this book. I also cried.
Then Came You was an amazing read. One that I thought about long after I read the final page. I highly recommend this novel.

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Jules Strauss is a Princeton senior with a full scholarship, acquaintances instead of friends, and a family she's ashamed to invite to Parents' Weekend. With the income she'll receive from donating her "pedigree" eggs, she believes she can save her father from addiction.
Annie Barrow married her high school sweetheart and became the mother to two boys. After years of staying at home and struggling to support four people on her husband's salary, she thinks she's found a way to recover a sense of purpose and bring in some extra cash.

India Bishop, thirty-eight (really forty-three), has changed everything about herself: her name, her face, her past. In New York City, she falls for a wealthy older man, Marcus Croft, and decides a baby will ensure a happy ending. When her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to technology, and Annie and Jules, to help make her dreams come true.

But each of their plans is thrown into disarray when Marcus' daughter Bettina, intent on protecting her father, becomes convinced that his new wife is not what she seems…

With startling tenderness and laugh-out-loud humor, Jennifer Weiner once again takes readers into the heart of women's lives in an unforgettable, timely tale that interweaves themes of class and entitlement, surrogacy and donorship, the rights of a parent and the measure of motherhood.

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