Summer Beach Read Pick: Luckiest Girl Alive

Luckiest Girl Alive
by Jessica Knoll
Simon & Schuster
2015
352 pages
ISBN: 9781476789637

Deeply engaging and complex, Luckiest Girl Alive is often compared to Gone Girl in the press. I'm not sure why this happens. Is it because both books have a woman who is good at manipulating situations, partners and even herself? Maybe. That being said, Luckiest Girl Alive is not Gone Girl; however, it is the perfect book for your lazy day at the beach under a colorful umbrella. It is reading for entertainment, not for enlightenment. If you expect to seek deep philosophical truths in these pages, you will be disappointed.

Ani is the "typical" single white female in New York. She has clawed her way to the top, starving herself to fit into near perfect model size clothes. She has learned to cover up her modest upbringing and fit in with high society. Ani is an artful manipulator; she has to be. If she's not, her walls come crashing down and she will lose everything: the "perfect" fiancé, the high paying, fancy job, the beautiful apartment, the "friends," the entire façade of her perfectly fake life. If these people really knew her past, they would be horrified.

Ani is a difficult character to love; she is flawed but also mean. Her snarky nastiness comes off as not just a mean girl. She is evil girl, but readers will love that she is the perfect chameleon in a concrete jungle where survival is based on façade.  As the story progresses, I liked Ani more. Human beings are strange individuals and Ani proves that her past DOES indeed have everything to do with her present and her future. Buried secrets are not likely to stay buried forever no matter how much control the person with the secret has.

Ani's fiancé seemed nearly an afterthought. He has little to do with the story other than being a foil. Ani uses people for her own gains and it's difficult not to admire that in a creepily fascinating way. Everyone loves a great villain and Ani has the demeanor of Maleficent and  the chess master scheming of J.R. Ewing.

If you want to get lost in a book, Luckiest Girl Alive is your pick. I couldn't put it down and read it at breakneck pace and handed it over to my best friend. She, in turn, gave it to another friend.
This is a book that once you've read it, you will recommend it to anyone who likes an interesting and entertaining book.

NOT recommended for readers under 17.

Highly, highly recommended for adult readers and book clubs. I have a feeling this book will make the rounds at book clubs around the country.

FCC Required Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

The Sound
by Sarah Alderson
Simon Pulse
2014
308 pages
ISBN: 9781442499331

British  teen Ren Kingston is visiting America as a nanny. Just getting over a break-up with her first boyfriend, Ren decides it's the perfect time for escape. She lands a job as a live in nanny for two small children, baby Braiden and precocious Brodie. Between their day care and summer camp hours, Ren has a lot of "off" time to explore the town and walk the beach of Nantucket. She even learns to drive on the right side of the road (the American side--the British drive on the left side of the road--a custom steeped in history that left your sword arm--your right arm--free to defend yourself against enemies. I don't hear about any incidences of sword fighting motorists run amok, so driving on the left seems nonsensical).

Summers in Nantucket cater to a wealthy crowd of old money and year round town kids. The battle lines are clearly drawn in the sand and Ren tries to walk the fine line between the two warring groups. The trust fund babies stick together and party hard; they have no rules and are seemingly above the law while the town kids are expected to worship them. When Ren meets handsome, mysterious Jeremy, she is intrigued. Then she meets local bad boy Jesse and is warned to stay away from him--he's trouble.

As she is drawn further into the feud between the two boys, a nanny is found murdered. Megan--a friend of Ren's from back home-is worried about Ren's safety. This is the second summer that a young nanny has been murdered, and a serial killer may be on the loose targeting foreign nannies.



Readers will like the gossip-y pace and beach setting. This is the perfect book for a summer beach read with enough mystery and murder to keep things interesting. Ren's voice comes through loud and clear and it is brilliantly British! Her comments about American pop culture, Gossip Girl references, our weird obsession of throwing the word "LIKE" into sentences at least every other word; example: Ren like thinks it's like weird that Americans like the word like so much, ring too true.

Recommended for readers who like a breezy summer read and anyone who loves a British accent that comes alive on the pages.

Grade 9-up. Partying, mature content.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Beach Read Pick: The Other Typist

The Other Typist
by Suzanne Rindell
Amy Einhorn Books
(G.P. Putname's Sons)
2013
354 pages

For an excerpt and more

Utterly fascinating, scintillating, taut, and precise, The Other Typist pays homage to mystery and detective novels of yesteryear with a bit of crime noir drama--shades of Hitchcock's psychological thrillers--and a bit of a nostalgic romp nearly Gatsby-esque in its boistrous bawdyness and shady underbelly of bootleggers and bathtub gin.

It is 1923 in New York and a new age for women in business; Rose works for a New York City police precinct as a typist. It is her job to type up confessions of all sorts. She listens and takes down the words of murderers, rapists, drunks, and other miscreants.  Rose sits with quiet composure, nearly unflappable, as she takes down their confessions. She works under two strong male bosses, the Sargeant, an older, fatherly figure who Rose admires for his character and honestly and the younger Lieutenant Detective, who seems distant and unfriendly.

Rose's world is about to change. Odalie, a new typist, enters her world and nothing is ever the same again. Odalie is young, passionate, beautiful, and full of life. She takes the entire precinct by storm and Rose falls immediately under her spell. Odalie is a force of nature that no one can ignore.Soon, Rose is caught up in a world of bootlegging and hidden speakeasies. She doesn't know what to believe about Odalie's past. There are stories, of course, but Rose chooses to ignore petty gossip. The girls become best friends and roommates  and Rose learns to love life in the fast lane--the furs, the jewels, the gowns, the posh suite, the parties, the affluence--play a siren's song.

Rindell is a skillful and adept master puppeteer whose characters are as fascinating as they are bold. Rose is a clever narrator who never wavers---or does she? Part "Single White Female," part The Great Gatsby, The Other Typist is a literary  tour de force.

The prose of The Other Typist is particularly  exceptional. Readers will be transported to 1923 and through the eyes of Rose, they will experience New York and the Prohibition Era.

Highly, higly recommended for book clubs and fiction readers, high school and up. Adult fiction.

Mature content.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Summer Beach Pick: Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence

Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence
by David Samuel Levinson
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
2013
320 pages

Available June 4, 2013

Wondering what to pack in your beach tote? Sunglasses, sunscreen, a cold drink and this tasty and tempting new adult fiction novel.


Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence has everything you could want in a novel: a twisty, turn-y plot with several torrid secrets about to be exposed, three writers and a few others whose lives and loves are intertwined, secret passions and simmering jealousy, latent contempt, and a career fall from grace, a secret affair, a suicide? or possible murder? and it's written with such finesse, the reader is immediately taken into the tale and completely surrenders to it.

Catherine Strayed is a lonely widow living in a sleepy college town. Her husband Wyatt--a talented writer who enjoyed great acclaim until a scathing review nearly ruined him--died recently  in a car accident. Catherine works at a small bookstore and wonders how she will be able to keep her home on her meager income.

When the critic arrives in town and accepts a teaching position at the local college, Catherine's world is rocked. She never told Wyatt, but before their marriage, she had an affair with Henry--the man who  ruined her husband with his poison pen review. Catherine knows it never was about Wyatt's talent; the review was meant to hurt her. And it did, and it continues to rip her life apart. Not only that, Henry has brought exotic, eccentric, talented, and much younger Antonia Lively with him as his latest protege and romantic conquest.

Antonia appears everywhere. She shows up at the book store and on Catherine's porch. She continues to push her way  into Catherine's life. Catherine fights her friendship at first, but then accepts Antonia just enough for Antonia to gain foothold. There is nothing she won't do to find "pay" dirt that will become her next bestseller. Antonia has tasted success and the good life; she yearns for the attention of the posh New York glitterati and the pompous literati.

Antonia also carries a secret. Her famous book is based on a story her uncle told her, and now he's in town for revenge. Catherine feels drawn to Antonia, and she seems almost a mother figure to her. She takes care of Antonia and keeps her safe.

 The lives of all the characters are twisted through the plot and the narrator finally comes forward in the last pages--that is the beauty of this novel. As readers, we see all the main characters and their actions, yet the narrator is never revealed. The narrator seems a part of the action, yet apart from the action. In the end, we see the narrator has been there all along and it's sublime storytelling.

Levinson portrays the world of writers and publishing through his characters. Antonia says about fiction, "There is no right or wrong when you're writing fiction. There is no truth. It's all lies." Henry is sick of the publishing industry and he lets them have a piece of his mind at Antonia's party, "You used to buy good books...Literature is art. Remember? Literature exists in spite of us...You find 'beauty' in cheap stories told by opportunists, given legitimacy through your complicity. You pay ridiculous sums of money to celebrities and politicians who don't need it. Yet you're stingy with the real writers who can't make ends meet."

Highly, highly recommended for book clubs and lovers of fiction. This is real storytelling and a compelling plot.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.


This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)