book No. 29: How A Woman Becomes A Lake

 Actually, I finished 3 books last week. It was a bit more than my usual reading. 

I love to write about the book "How A Woman Becomes Lake" by Marjorie Celona. 

Leo took his sons on New Year's eve to the Square point. It was a heavy snow day. The lake was frozen. It was bone-chilling cold. 

Vera was walking her dog there and found Leo's older son standing in the snow. She called the police to report seeing the child. 

Later officer Lewis cote found Vera's car and her dog. But Vera was nowhere to be found.

Leo and the kids tell the police they never saw the woman first. Are they telling the truth?

Danny is so lost after Vera is gone. Lewis later finds out the truth. 

We can feel the melancholy in the narration. Life is not what we really see on the outside. The mind plays a lot of games on how we are treated by our parents. Some people can overcome the trauma. some cannot. 

With the story, we understand how Vera's death affects the characters. How their life turned around because of Vera. Even the dog Scout has to live with the loss of her and the new living conditions. 

Highly recommend this book to you. 

Book no. 28, "The Jetsetters"

 The book, "The Jet Setters" by Amanda Eyre Ward is the 28th book after I started recording the books I read. 

Charlotte attended Minnie's funeral. Now, she is lonely. Her grown children are away from them. 

Lee is supposed to be an actress. Regan is supposed to be happy with her kids and husband. Cord is supposed to be a successful venture capitalist trying hard to find the woman of his dreams. Charlotte herself is supposed to be a very religious Catholic, church-going lady. 

In reality, Lee is deep in debt, without work and dumped by her boyfriend. Regan wants to get a divorce from her husband. She is depressed too. Cord is a struggling alcohol addict and gay. Charlotte herself is hiding her desire to find a man and to have sex. 

Lee was traumatised by finding their dad hanged himself in her bathroom. Under the strict orders of Charlotte, she keeps this a secret. The images of the dead man hanging in her bathroom are haunting her life. 

Regan is keeping the infidelities of her husband from her mom and siblings. Cord is in love with a man whom he wants to marry. But, he cannot tell his family the truth about his sexuality or his addiction. Lee is hiding her depression and her failures in life. 

When Charlotte won the "jet setters" cruise, she invites her children to join her. Charlotte herself is reluctant to open up to the truth. She wanted to make it looks like everything is fine on the outside. 

The truth about all of their lives is unfolding in the Mediterranean cruise ship. 

The novel takes us through the messiness of love and life. 

Book No:27, "The Good, The Bad, AND The Dumped

 

Posy she was over the moon when Matt proposed to her on top of the mountain.   She loved the ring he chose for her. 

She got confused and worried when her sister Fleur, her best friend Leah and her mom were not happy about her and Matt.

She started searching for her exes online and decided to find out why she got dumped by them. 

When Matt found out about Posy going after the exes, he decided to call off the engagement. 

This made her even more determined to find out why her relationships are all come to a disaster. 

Finally, she figured out the biggest lies of all were in her own family.

The ending is good, with Matt and Posy finding out that they love each other. 

I don't like the way Posy was acting stupid in the beginning. 

Yeah, it is a novel. So just go with the story, right?

Have you tried any of Jenny Colgan books yet? 

 

Common Tropes in Books

 I am trying to participate in Book Blog Hop.  The prompt becomes the heading for the blog post.

Tropes means a figure of speech, a common or over used theme, etc. 

With books, trope is the commonly used theme. Thinking about my last book, The Friendship List I think, the trop is friendship turning to love. another one is people connected to the characters are the match makers. 

Falling in love and happily ever after can also be seen there.

The Hunting Party uses the group of friends and the new comer to the group becoming the villain. It leads to the good and evil theme. But, till the end we cannot figure out who is the villain. The psychological obsession is also  identified here. 

Love to know what you think about the common tropes in books 

Book Blogger Hop

The Friendship List: Book #26

 

After finishing the "Witch Elm", I was looking for the next read. Susan Mallery's book "The Friendship List" piqued my curiosity to know how Ellen and Unity did with the list.  

The story happens in a small town. Two close friends stuck at their lives and wanted to move on. Ellen got a baby when she was still in high school. Being a single mom was very hard with parents' strict rules. She was able to become a teacher by working hard. Her life was devoted to her child. There was no room for dating or finding a life partner. Unity married her high school sweetheart. Stuart got killed on duty three years before. She moved back to her husband's childhood home and stuck with the memories of Stuart. Both of them are young and it is time to move on. The women decided to challenge each other with a list of adventures. 

It is an easy romantic comedy. 

Reading is fun!