book club

Hi Ladies! It has been a couple of weeks since my last Book Club link-up. I just wasn't into a book for a good week+ then I didn't finish another book til last weekend...so here is what I have been reading over the last couple of weeks:

A Place of Secrets Rachel Hore

The night before it all begins, Jude has the dream again… Can dreams be passed down through families? As a child Jude suffered a recurrent nightmare: running through a dark forest, crying for her mother. Now her six-year-old niece, Summer, is having the same dream, and Jude is frightened for her. A successful auctioneer, Jude is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband. When she’s asked to value a collection of scientific instruments and manuscripts belonging to Anthony Wickham, a lonely 18th century astronomer, she leaps at the chance to escape London for the untamed beauty of Norfolk, where she grew up. As Jude untangles Wickham’s tragic story, she discovers threatening links to the present. What have Summer’s nightmares to do with Starbrough folly, the eerie crumbling tower in the forest from which Wickham and his adopted daughter Esther once viewed the night sky? With the help of Euan, a local naturalist, Jude searches for answers in the wild, haunting splendour of the Norfolk woods. Dare she leave behind the sadness in her own life, and learn to love again?
(thanks to her website)

This is the book that took me over a week to finish,it never really captured by attention nor made me want to keep reading. It was rather dull and way too long. I ended up skimming towards the ending. A twist I didn't really see coming though but rather a bit random. I wasn't a fan of this book,but it had such an exciting synopsis and now I don't know if I want to read anymore be her since I wasn't too thrilled by this book. I give it a C (it would be a D but the characters weren't too terrible plus it was set in England).

The House at Tyneford Natasha Solomon

In the spring of 1938 Elise Landau arrives at Tyneford, the great house on the bay. A bright young thing from Vienna forced to become a parlour-maid, she knows nothing about England, except that she won`t like it. As servants polish silver and serve drinks on the lawn, Elise wears her mother`s pearls beneath her uniform, and causes outrage by dancing with a boy called Kit. But war is coming and the world is changing. And Elise must change with it.

At Tyneford she learns that you can be more than one person.
And that you can love more than once.

(thanks to her website)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book,it was just like watching an episode of Downton Abbey! Such a picturesque setting,plot, problems and characters. A bit annoying to keep track of the years as they progressed,but nothing that took too much away from the overall story. After I read this I was just okay with the ending,it made sense to me but now I really like the ending. It was actually how I thought it would turn out when I first started reading the book.

Someday,Someday,Maybe Lauren Graham

From Lauren Graham, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, comes a witty, charming, and hilariously relatable debut novel about a struggling young actress trying to get ahead―and keep it together―in New York City.
It’s January 1995, and Franny Banks has just six months left of the three-year deadline she set for herself when she came to New York, dreaming of Broadway and doing “important” work. But all she has to show for her efforts so far is a part in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters, and a gig waiting tables at a comedy club. Her roommates―her best friend Jane, and Dan, an aspiring sci-fi writer―are supportive, yet Franny knows a two-person fan club doesn’t exactly count as success. Everyone tells her she needs a backup plan, and though she can almost picture moving back home and settling down with her perfectly nice ex-boyfriend, she’s not ready to give up on her goal of having a career like her idols Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep. Not just yet. But while she dreams of filling their shoes, in the meantime, she’d happily settle for a speaking part in almost anything—and finding a hair product combination that works.
Everything is riding on the upcoming showcase for her acting class, where she’ll finally have a chance to perform for people who could actually hire her. And she can’t let herself be distracted by James Franklin, a notorious flirt and the most successful actor in her class, even though he’s suddenly started paying attention. Meanwhile, her bank account is rapidly dwindling, her father wants her to come home, and her agent doesn’t return her calls. But for some reason, she keeps believing that she just might get what she came for.
Someday, Someday, Maybe is a story about hopes and dreams, being young in a city, and wanting something deeply, madly, desperately. It’s about finding love, finding yourself, and perhaps most difficult of all in New York City, finding an acting job.
(thanks,amazon)

I adore Lauren Graham as an actress and I was surprised (in a good way) to learn about this first novel of hers. She majored in English in college, so at least in my eyes she has some experience/knowledge of writing (unlike other starts that just write books for the heck of it...you know what I mean). This was s fun and fast read, I couldn't put it down and read it in one day. It really had me laughing out loud and it was a neat story to follow,not just about becoming an actress but about following your dreams! It reminded me a bit of Kristan Higgins' novels. I give it a solid A.

Northern Lights Nora Roberts

Lunacy, Alaska, was Nate Burke’s last chance. As a Baltimore cop, he’d watched his partner die on the street—and the guilt still haunts him. With nowhere else to go, he accepts the job as Chief of Police in this tiny, remote Alaskan town. But just as he wonders whether this has been all a big mistake, an unexpected kiss on New Year’s Eve under the brilliant Northern Lights of the Alaska sky lifts his spirit and convinces him to stay just a little longer.
(thanks to her website)

A rather long book but enjoyable,interesting characters that seem like people you would know. I loved the different setting of a small town in Alaska! I wasn't a huge fan of Meg, she seemed too much like a guy at times;but I suppose it is realistic. I thought I had it figured out then the ending switched it up for me. I liked this book, I give it a B.

******
Happy Reading!