Review: Seven Days of Us (by Francesca Hornak)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

When I first read the premise for this story, about a dysfunctional family quarantined together for seven days over the Christmas holiday, it sounded like it would be an interesting tale, albeit not a very original one.  The Birch family must undergo a quarantine after the eldest daughter Olivia, a doctor, returns from a stint treating the deadly Haag virus in Liberia.  Each member of the family has a different attitude toward the quarantine:  the father Andrew, a restaurant critic for known for his sarcasm and dry wit, is accepting of the quarantine but unsure what to expect due to his rocky relationship with Olivia, a daughter he was never close with and hardly ever spoke to;  the mother Emma, who hails from one of Britain's elite families, is the penultimate "loving wife and mother" and is delighted to have her eldest daughter back for her to dote on; Phoebe is the youngest sister, a woman in her twenties, engaged to be married, yet constantly acts like a defiant teen, self-centered, self-absorbed,  and fiercely reliant on her parents to "take care of her" – having been the "only daughter" for so long due to Olivia rarely ever coming home, Phoebe resents her older sister for upending her life through having to go through this quarantine.  All of them harbor secrets that they don't want other members of their family to find out and they go to great lengths to keep those secrets hidden, but this will prove to be a difficult task given that the family will have to spend the next seven days together in isolation, virtually cutoff from the outside world.  Aside from the Birches, there are two other major characters who factor into the story – Phoebe's fiancé George, whom we find out from the getgo is essentially a jerk, and Andrew's long-lost son Jesse, a filmmaker from Los Angeles who takes the chance of traveling to Britain on a whim in the hopes of finally meeting his birth father.  When both of these characters unexpectedly "crash" the Birches' quarantine, the result is chaos and drama, with one surprise after another threatening to turn this already dysfunctional family's lives upside down.

I would characterize this book as an "okay" read – it was entertaining and the story was engaging enough that I found myself wanting to turn the pages quickly so I could find out what happens to this family, even though, to be quite honest, I didn't really like any of the characters all that much (except for maybe Jesse, whom I found least annoying and maybe even borderline endearing).  With that said though, I do appreciate that the author made the characters realistic, with each one having their flaws and personality quirks and making mistakes, not unlike people we may know in real life.  The main issue I had with the book (hence the 3.5 rating) was in the predictability of the plot as well as the overabundance of "coincidences" which made the story overall a little less believable for me.  There were a few situations that I felt were too contrived and some plot points that didn't really make sense, which detracted from the story a bit, for me at least.  I also wasn't emotionally invested in any of the characters (probably because I disliked most of them), which made it hard for me to feel anything for the characters, even with some of the serious issues they go through.  I actually felt a bit like an outsider looking in on this family and the various situations they were going through.  Perhaps this is where the writing could have been tightened up a bit – like maybe make the situations less repetitive or add a little more depth to the story and the characters.  It's kind of hard to explain – I really wanted to care about these characters, this family, but couldn't really get into it for some reason.  One of the things I did like though was that each chapter was short and also narrated alternately by each of the characters, which made it a quick read while still being able to get a glimpse of each character's perspective.

Overall, this book was compulsively readable and entertaining, but a bit lacking in depth.  There were quite a few very "serious" issues the book touched upon, but none of it dealt with in a heavy-handed manner, which I guess could be good or bad depending on the person reading the book.  I personally preferred a little more depth but that's just me.  This was still a relatively good book though -- a quick, light read that was engaging and even a bit fun at times, despite its dramatic undertones.

Received advance reader's copy from Berkley New York via Edelweiss

Review: A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China (by Kevin Peraino)

 My Rating: 3 stars

I struggled a bit with rating this book, mainly because this book turned out to be very different from what I expected.  I'm quite selective when it comes to non-fiction books, since I know it generally takes more effort on my part to concentrate and focus on what I'm reading due to life's many distractions.   When I see a non-fiction book on a subject that piques my interest, I pick it up hoping that the information will be presented in a way that is engaging and insightful. I'm a bit of a history fanatic and love learning new things, so I tend to gravitate toward books that have a historical element to them.  While this book definitely covered the history aspect well, the part that made it difficult for me to get into was its heavy focus on politics.  I've always viewed politics as a complicated game with constantly-changing rules and a playbook so complex that only those players well-versed in its language have a decent shot at success.  I'm not one of those players and never will be.  I know enough about the basics to help me get through life, but that's about it – most politics go way above my head and to be honest, I'm fine with that, as I have no interest whatsoever trying to understand it.  It's no surprise then that I try to stay away from books that are heavy on politics and this is why Kevin Peraino's A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China didn't really work for me.

The book recounts the one year timespan from when Harry Truman starts his second term as President of the U.S. in 1948 to the rise of infamous Communist dictator Mao Zedong and his establishment of the People's Republic of China in October 1949.  Historically, the author covered quite a bit of ground, starting from the end of the Second World War and its effect on the various countries that were involved (specifically the countries that formed the Axis and Allied Powers during the war), running through some of the major events that occurred during that time and the various players involved.  There was also a bit of back history about China, the rise of Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek and the Soong family, Mao Zedong's early years and his role during the war, the Japanese occupation of China and its aftermath, etc.  – it also touched on some of the cultural differences between China and the U.S. and the basis for these differences from history….this first third or so of the book that dealt with history and culture I absolutely enjoyed.  However, after that, the book started to focus more on the American side of things – more specifically, the intricacies of American politics and development of foreign policy during the Truman administration, details about the political players and strategists who shaped the U.S. policy toward China and the rest of the Pacific, the roles that Europe and also Russia played, etc. – this is where the book started losing me and after I dozed off a few times while reading, I decided to skim my way through the rest of it.

I ended up rating this book 3 stars because it was actually very well-written and well-researched, plus the history and culture parts were really good, it's just that I didn't care for the minutiae with the politics, which unfortunately was majority of the book. For someone like me who is not into politics, I found this book a bit too tedious and way too long (my version came in at a little under 300 pages, with nearly 100 pages of notes/references in the back). Overall, this is a good book that I'm sure those who are into politics will find fascinating and also will learn a lot from it (in fact, our current leader in the big white house (and his staff too) should probably read this book so he understands the history behind our relationship with China and why he can't say the stuff that he has about China and Taiwan the past couple months and not expect to ruffle some feathers – as an added bonus, there's some stuff about North Korea in here too!).

Received advance reader's copy from Crown Publishing via Penguin First to Read program.

Review: Don't Let Go (by Harlan Coben)

My Rating: 4 stars

I don’t read a whole lot of police procedural books and I had actually never heard of Harlan Coben before – however I had heard some good things about this book from a few Goodreads friends and the summary sounded interesting so when I saw it available for download on Edelweiss, I decided to try this book out.  I’m glad I did so because this one ended up being a really good book that was immensely readable and entertaining.

Napoleon Dumas (“Nap” for short) is no ordinary police detective.  Sure, he’s got good instincts and a keen eye for detail and he absolutely excels at what he does – that is, investigating cases.  But he is also a vigilante of sorts, a guy who is not afraid to put his career and reputation at risk in the name of justice.  The first time we meet Nap, he is beating up some guy named Trey, hitting him repeatedly with a baseball bat, eventually breaking his leg and landing him in the hospital.  We find out a few chapters later why Nap beat up this random guy he had no connection with and it turns out to be for a “noble” cause, but still, as a cop, it isn’t something he should be doing. But Nap doesn’t really care, as he knows that the beating can’t be traced back to him, since he covered his tracks well, plus the punk he beat up wouldn’t want to make a big stink out of it anyway for fear of incriminating himself.  Ever since his twin brother Leo’s tragic death during their senior year in high school 15 years ago, Nap has been an emotional wreck, exacerbated by the fact that his girlfriend Maura, the love of his life, also disappeared around the same time.  From the day the cops found Leo and his girlfriend Diana lying dead on the railroad tracks, apparently run over by a train, Nap refused to believe that the deaths were merely an “accident,” the tragic result of two reckless teenagers stoked up on alcohol and drugs doing something careless.  For 15 years, Nap is relentless in his search for the true reason why his brother died and also why his own girlfriend ran away.  When a fellow cop with a connection to Nap and his brother’s past is gunned down in another district, Nap is pulled into the investigation and finally has a chance to find out the truth – but at what expense?

This book drew me in from the opening scene and I found it difficult to stop reading.  From the beginning, it was already obvious that Nap would be an interesting character, an anti-hero of sorts -- he was unconventional, irreverent, and had no qualms about blurring the lines between right and wrong, a guy with more faults than anyone cared to count…yet you couldn’t bring yourself to dislike him.  I actually liked Nap from the beginning, despite his many flaws, and was rooting for him the entire time that I was immersed in his story.  I also liked Nap’s sarcastic sense of humor, which had me giggling at times, especially during the scenes when he would face off against an adversary.   The rest of the characters were also well-drawn, supported by a story with substance and the right amount of mystery and intrigue to keep readers engaged.  Coben definitely knows how to write a good crime thriller, as there was a fair amount of twists and turns in this one but nothing too over the top.  Even though I was able to figure out the “whodunnit” piece relatively early, that did not affect my enjoyment of this book at all -- perhaps I am just weird, but when it comes to thrillers and suspense novels, I try to take the “going along for the ride” approach and not get too caught up in trying to figure out the plot or getting too ahead of myself. 

One of the things that made this book different from other crime novels is the emotional element, which Coben did a great job of working into the plot.  This was a story that packed an emotional punch, but wasn’t overdone to the point of overshadowing the plot.  There’s a certain balance that needs to be had between the characters, plot, the writing, the suspense elements, the emotional pull, etc.  when it comes to books in the thriller / suspense genre and not all writers are able to bring all the elements together in a way that still allows the overall story to flow naturally – Coben was able to do this and do it well!  Seeing how much I enjoyed this book, no doubt that I will be reading more of this author’s works sometime in the near future.  Oh and even though I am not a fan of book series, I absolutely wouldn’t mind seeing more of Nap in the future if Coben decides at some point to turn this stand-alone novel into a series. 

Received ARC from Dutton / Penguin Publishing Group via Edelweiss.