Confessions of a Lingerie Addict by Jennifer Ashley

ISBN:  9780505526366

Publisher:  Dorchester Publishing

Rating:  A

I LOVE challenge reads that make me happy that I finished.  I have had this book on MT TBR probably for a year, but I always looked past it.  Not because it didn’t sound cute, but something just sparked my interest more.  After finishing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, I felt like I needed something a little more fun and Confessions of a Lingerie Addict definitely fit my bill.

New Years Day, Brenda Scott wakes up with MR HOTTIE in her bed, but no recollection of how he got there.  When he wakes up he looks at her and bolts out the door.  Since being dumped by MR RICH and PERFECT, Larry Bryant, Brenda decides she is now sexy at least under her clothes when she walks into a ultra expensive lingerie store and decides to stock her wardrobe.  She feels that the lingerie gives her a secret strength and when MR HOTTIE runs her over, she feels like it’s too good to be true.  But will he still like her when he finds out that the sexy lingerie is not really who she is?

I laughed at Brenda’s insecurities because the author nailed them to a “T”.  There is just something women find mysteriously sexy about beautiful lingerie, we save those special pieces for those special nights.   The fact that Brenda used the lingerie as a way to become bold endeared her to me as a reader and as a woman.  There is always that one way your hair looks, or that one pair of pants, or those one pair of 9 inch heels that makes you feel like you can conquer the world even if it’s only in your head.

I still smiling thinking about this book because it truly made me feel happy to be a girl and to know that I am not alone in my quirkiness.

Patty Jane’s House of Curl by Lorna Landvik

ISBN:  9780804114608

Publisher:  Random House Publishing

Rating:  A

This is the story of Patty Jane and her sister Harriet and the people that become their family along the way.  That is truly the best way to summarize this story.  There are so many intricate moments, and moments that matter that I would have to re-tell the story in order for someone else to understand.

Lorna Landvik invited me into 1950’s Minnesota, into the lives of Patty Jane and Harriet Dobbin.  I fell in love with their sisterly bond immediately as they stole flowers from neighborhood gardens for Patty Jane’s wedding bouquet.   There are moments like this one that linger in my mind, but not all of them are happy memories.  Patty Jane’s life has been ripped apart by alcohol, and she has lost more than her fair share and experienced more pain than she should in her young life.  However, it is what you do to survive those moments that matter and Patty Jane became a strong woman who always thinks of others first.  This is truly a novel that demonstrates strength of character.

While reading this beautiful novel I laughed and I cried which now has more of this authors books on MT TBR.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows

ISBN:  9780385341004

Publisher:  Random House Publishing

Rating:  B+

It is 1946, the year after the German Occupation of the Channel Islands off the coast of England has ended.  Here lies a story of rebirth and change and coping through friendship and books.  There is a quote on the dust jacket of this book that instantly connected me to this book; “I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” How profoundly true this sentiment is, especially to someone who loves books as much as I do.

My only wish is that I felt as amazed by this book as the women who recommended it to me.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it was beautiful and poignant, but as sometimes happens I was left expecting too much.  I try not to read books like this at the height of their popularity because it doesn’t matter, someone’s feelings will always be in the back of my mind and it will influence my interpretation of the book.  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society will remain one of these instances.

Barrows and Schaffer wrote a beautiful story and although for me the characters never reached their full potential there were moments of perfection.  Moments matter especially when a book tugs at your heart strings as this one does, however I wanted all the moments to matter and I am feeling that some moments just didn’t belong.  I will say knowing Guernsey is a real place and they did have to rebuild after the Occupation; that I want to see how far they’ve come which shows how alive the setting became and how important it was the story.

The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi

ISBN:  9780446581271

Publisher:  Grand Central Publishing

Rating:  A for story telling quality, but I can’t grade the reality

This is a true crime novel, one of the world’s biggest unsolved crimes in Italian history is the serial murders of couples as they make love in their cars in olive groves or other secluded areas.

Douglas Preston, co author of the Agent Pendergast novels the first of which is The Relic, wants to write a novel based in Italy and in order to learn the local police procedure he moves to Italy with his family in order to do research for his novel.  What he doesn’t know is that he has rented a house that years ago played a part in one of the serial murders.  Preston is introduced to local crime reporter, Mario Spezi, who will be Preston’s guide into the world of Italian police procedure.  However, what Mario has to offer goes deeper than anything even Preston could imagine as the plot for one of his books.  It is Spezi who tells of the serial murders and Spezi who has spent 20 + years investigating this case a part from the police because he feels they are off in the wrong direction.

The depth of this book is shocking.  I can not even begin to understand the way the Italian police works because they allowed journalists to traipse around the crime scenes and look at the bodies.  I know that I would be like Spezi if I had witnessed what he had seen.  Even now days after finishing this book I can’t seem to find the words to express how disgusted I am at the level of corruption that this case has spurned.  How many false arrests, how many promotions based on those false arrests and the idiots who force the evidence to fit their suspect.

I myself felt dirty as I closed the book knowing that these horrific crimes were still unsolved, but knowing that the crimes are unsolved because of the corruption and lack of dignity of the Italian police makes it that much harder to come clean.