47. The Bookstore Family by Alice Hoffman - a short story

listened on Audible

42 pgs.

copyright
Adult contemporary fiction
Finished 10/28
Goodreads rating: 4.22
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Paris and an island off the coast of Maine, contemporary

My comments:   Depressing short story about a young woman who has spent five years in France since leaving the small Maine island that she grew up on and loved until she returns home because her mother is dying.

Goodreads synopsis:  New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman takes her sweet bookshop series to Paris with an emotional short story about chasing your dreams—and finding your passion where you least expect it.

Growing up, Violet was so busy helping others realize their dreams, she found little time to pursue her own. But five years ago, she took the chance of a lifetime, leaving the family bookshop on Brinkley’s Island, Maine, to attend culinary school in Paris. Now she’s working her dream job as a pâtissiere in an upscale Parisian restaurant—yet all she can think about is home.

Feeling unmoored, Violet finds herself still searching for something…Connection? Maybe. She hasn’t made any real friends in the city. Inspiration? Possibly. Her desserts are lovely, but they’re definitely lacking something.

After her aunt Isabel urges her to keep on looking, Violet finally gets a taste of what she’s been missing in the café at the Museum of Romantic Life. But just as life begins to come into focus, she’s abruptly called home to Maine. Like her aunt before her, Violet soon learns that family could hold the key to discovering what she truly needs.

101. Part-Time Lover by Lauren Blakely

read on my iPhone
2018, self published?
308 pgs.
Contemporary Romance
Finished 12*26*18
Goodreads rating:  4.03 - 2825 ratings
My rating: 3.5 (sizzle 4/4)
Setting: contemporary Paris & Copenhagen, but mostly indoors, lol....

First line/s:  "I'll say this about Christian - he made one hell of a first impression."

My comments:  It's cool to find a book that's just plain fun to read.  I've started to enjoy the romances I've chosen lately, a genre I've always fled, the ones that you know exactly how they're going to end but are fun and sassy and eye-rolling and sexy along the way.  This is the second marriage of convenience novel I've read recently and it was a great way to completely forget my own life for a bit and revel in someone else's.  And I love that it takes place in Paris and Copenhagen!

Goodreads synopsis:  A sexy new standalone romance from #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Lauren Blakely!
          I’ll say this about Christian — he made one hell of a first impression.
When I first saw the strapping man, he was doing handstands naked on a dock along the canal. His crown jewels were far more entertaining than anything else I’d seen on the boat tour, so I did what any curious woman would do — I took his photo. I might have looked at the shot a few dozen times. Little did I know I’d meet him again, a year later, at a secret garden bar in the heart of the city, where I’d learn that his mind and his mouth were even more captivating. But given the way my heart had been trampled, I wanted only a simple deal — No strings. No expectations. 
Our arrangement worked well enough until the day I needed a lot more from him…

***
Let me just say, this whole part-time lover thing was her idea. I’d have gone all-in from the start, but hey, when a gorgeous, brilliant woman invites you into her bed, and only her bed…well, I said yes.
But then, one hysterical phone call from my brother later, begging me to find myself a wife so grandfather’s business stays in the family, and I need a promotion with Elise. Turns out a full-time husband suits her needs too, and a temporary marriage of convenience ought to do the trick, until we can simply untie the knot…

As long as no one finds out…
As long as no one gets hurt…
As long as no one falls in love…

But our ending was one I never saw coming

MOVIE - Paris Can Wait

PG (1:32)

Limited release 5/12/17

Viewed 6/17 at Carlisle Theater
IMBd: 6/10

RT Critic:  48   Audience:  46
Critic's Consensus:  None

Cag:  3 liked it, but that's all

Directed by Eleanor Coppola

Sony Pictures Classics

Diane Lane, Alec Baldwin

My comments:  Other than getting to travel a little bit through France and enjoying Diane Lane's performance, this movie didn't do much for me.  I wasn't turned on even the tiniest bit by the French guy who ended up sweeping her off her feet, which made what might have been a good ending a bit blah.....

RT/ IMDb Summary:  When her director husband is occupied with work in Paris, an American woman takes a jaunt with his business associate, a charming Gallic rogue who is happy to squire her on a tour of some of the finest meals in Provence. The first feature directed by Eleanor Coppola, wife of Francis and director of the "Apocalypse Now" documentary "Hearts of Darkness".

Sepulchre - Kate Mosse

Audio read by Donada Peters

16 discs - I made it through 6 of them

2008 Penguin Audio

560 pgs. - I read 205

Adult - Switched back and forth between 1891 and the present

Historical Fiction & CRF

Goodreads Rating: 3.68

My Rating: 1 (Didn't like it)

Acquired through PBS

Set in France - Paris and the countryside

My comments: I listened attentively to the first six cds.  Since it takes place in France, the reader did a wonderful job using French accents, and I enjoyed her reading.  But the story dragged.  Switching back and forth in time, there are two protagonists.  The 1891 protagonist, Leonie - is a spoiled idiot.  The 2000 protagonist isn't too irritating (yet), but her primary interest - Claude Debussy - is of no interest to me. Ten more discs to go?  Sorry, life's not long enough.....

Goodreads:  In 1891, young Léonie Vernier and her brother Anatole arrive in the beautiful town of Rennes-les-Bains, in southwest France. They've come at the invitation of their widowed aunt, whose mountain estate, Domain de la Cade, is famous in the region. But it soon becomes clear that their aunt Isolde-and the Domain-are not what Léonie had imagined. The villagers claim that Isolde's late husband died after summoning a demon from the old Visigoth sepulchre high on the mountainside. A book from the Domain's cavernous library describes the strange tarot pack that mysteriously disappeared following the uncle's death. But while Léonie delves deeper into the ancient mysteries of the Domain, a different evil stalks her family-one which may explain why Léonie and Anatole were invited to the sinister Domain in the first place.
          More than a century later, Meredith Martin, an American graduate student, arrives in France to study the life of Claude Debussy, the nineteenth century French composer. In Rennesles- Bains, Meredith checks into a grand old hotel-the Domain de la Cade. Something about the hotel feels eerily familiar, and strange dreams and visions begin to haunt Meredith's waking hours. A chance encounter leads her to a pack of tarot cards painted by Léonie Vernier, which may hold the key to this twenty-first century American's fate . . . just as they did to the fate of Léonie Vernier more than a century earlier.

38. The Last Little Blue Envelope - Maureen Johnson

Sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes
for: YA
Harper Teen, 2011
HC $16.99
282 pgs.
Rating:  5

What's not to like about a teenager that gets to travel through Europe with plenty of money and on her own?  I loved the descriptions of the cities that Ginny traveled through....London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris.....I loved the wacky adventure that she encountered and the message that by not freaking out, things WORK out.  I loved the mystery of where the story....and her relationships with the other characters....was going to end.  That's what good stories do.  Keep you guessing, keep you interested, teach you a little along the way, and make you think.

Ginny has returned to London from New Jersey to complete the tasks that her dead aunt had set out for her before her death. But this time there is a mysterious, very tall, young man accompanying her, along with Keith, the "love interest" from 13 Little Blue Envelopes.  Oliver is an interesting, multi-faceted character that added greatly to the story.  And Ginny's infatuation with Keith, and her liking for Ellis, are real.  They are palpable, these feelings, as well as those for her dead aunt and her Uncle Richard.  I have purposely left plot details hazy, because I totally enjoyed not having a clue about what was happening or what was about to happen.  It was a good story, totally captivating the 18-year-old adventurer in me --- it's the sort of story that I'd love be part of myself, whether as an 18 year old, a 38 year old, or a 58 year old.

MOVIE - Midnight in Paris

Charming and delightful!
Released 6-10-11
PG-13 (1:34)
6/18/11 at El Con by myself (Saturday afternoon, packed theater)
RT:  92  cag:  98 (my highest rating in recent memory)
Director & Writer:  Woody Allen

Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates & a series of great actors doing quick spots as famous writers and artists that lived in Paris in the 1920s and 1890s.

Owen Wilson was PERFECT in the role of Gil, a Hollywood screenwriter who wants to finish his first novel and be considered a serious writer.  His fiancee, Inez (McAdams), is not enamored of the idea.  She feels he should stick with the known.  They are vacationing in Paris with Inez's parents, who are there on business.  Neither Inez or her parents really care for Paris.  Gil loves it. 

When I went in to the movie I really didn't have a clue what it was going to be about.  I loved that I didn't have a clue...it was so delightful finding out what was going to happen.  I usually loved previews, but I'm SO glad I didn't see one for this!  So if you haven't seen the movie, perhaps you might choose to not read on. 

When the young couple meet up with another couple, one that Inez knows and likes and Gil doesn't care for,Gil's idyllic Paris vacation takes a nosedive.  The pretentious, "pedantic" Paul drives Gil crazy. So he wanders off alone...and at the strike of midnight is claimed by a group of people driving a 1920's car.  He is soon meeting Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, Dali,  Cole Porter, and Gertrude Stein, played wonderfully by Kathy Bates.  I just loved it!

There are many references to writers, artists, and playwrights of the 20's.  I was happy to know who almost all of them were, but there was one guy I still need to look into.

Yearning for another time.  Nostalgia.  Learning to live  your own life in your own time.  Finally understanding your time, your life, you goals, what will bring you happiness.  Good story.

50. Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay

Audio read by Polly Stone (who did a beautiful job with the French accents)
BBC Audiobooks America, 2008
(book published in 2007)
8 unabridged cds
10 hours
293 pages
Rating: 3

The last cd started skipping, so I read the last tenth of the book.

The story is told from two points-of-view. Sarah Starzynski, an 11-year old girl who, in June of 1942, is rounded up with other Jewish families in Paris and taken to the Vel' d'Hiv, then to a camp that is the prelude to Auschwitz; and Julia Jarmand, an American journalist living in Paris who is investigating the horrible crimes committed during the roundup to Vel' d'Hiv. She discovers a close tie to the tragedy when she finds that her husband's family has lived in Sarah's apartment since that fateful time in 1942 and she begins searching for more information, particularly Sarah's fate.

This is a tragic Holocaust story. I like the way it shows clearly how crimes of the past have their own repurcussions in the present and future. The whole story about Sarah is well written, poignant, meaningful. But the contemporary part didn't sit completely well with me. Julia's charming, narcisistic husband, Bertrand, for one. And we're to believe that after fifteen years of marriage, she is told confidential information by her father-in-law, whom she has never particularly gotten along with? And then there's a pregnancy....some of this part of the story seemed unreal to me. Reactions. Feelings. Some were too intense and some were missing. Maybe its the way the story was read...though I thoroughly enjoyed the narrator's rendition. There was just too much about Julia and her family that was "off" or missing or something.....

30. The Van Alen Legacy - Melissa de la Cruz

#4 Blue Bloods series
(after Blue Bloods, Masquerade, and Revelations)
Disney/Hyperion, 2009
$16.99
Young Adult
369 pages
(the cover is misleading - I thought it was Schuyler, but it's Mimi)

This fourth installment has its highs and lows, goods and bads, just as the previous threee did. This one is told in short chapters from three points-of-view - Schuyler, Bliss, and Mimi. Mimi has become softer, more likeable, some of the snooty hard edges are gone. They start to reappear at the end, and I think that's a good thing.

Spoilers to follow:
A year has passed since the end of Revelations. Many are not what they appear to be, souls are hiding within other bodies - Lucifer, who is also Bliss' father, is hiding within her. But she's trying to outwit him when he "leaves" her. Schuyler is running from the coven because they do not believe she had nothing to do with her grandfather, Lawrence's death. She and Oliver spend three or four days in a different city in the world before taking off to another. Mimi and Jack have each joined a different Venator team - and she is falling for the handsome Silver-Blood-now-on-the-Blue-Blood's-side Kingsley Martin. Schuyler is still pining for Jack but cannot leave Ollie. And poor Bliss...she's one messed up young lady with so many dark souls lurking inside her.

A good question: When every important person in NYC goes to St. John the Divine for the "bonding" of Mimi and Jack...who are BROTHER and SISTER in the eyes of the Red Bloods.....and she's in an unbelievable wedding gown, so this is apparently a fancy wedding....what does the rest of the Red Blood world think? This is never explained, although de la Cruz tries to explain how things appear to Red Bloods in other places throughout the series. Maybe I missed it.

A fast read with some good adventure in middle. It will be interesting what twists and turns de la Cruz inserts into the next installment.

16. The 39 Clues #1 - Maze of Bones - Rick Riordan

Audio read by David Pittu
Scholastic Audio Books, 2008
4 unabridged cds
5 hrs. 11 min.
220 pages
Rating: mmmmm.....2

The kids tell me that the stories get better after this first one. Plus after hearing Peter Lerangis speak, I'd like to read the 3rd installment, which he wrote. But this was sooooo far-fetched...... I know it's supposed to be, but.....

I began reading this book three times. Got quite a ways in all three times, but it just didn't hold my interest. I didn't care. Two good people, one heck-of-a-lot of really bad people. People that will happily kill and maim. Cruel, sneering relatives! It's just a little too much for me. Trust no one. Right.

Amy and Dan Cahill live in a tiny Boston apartment with their au pair, visiting their grandmother, Grace Cahill, on her huge estate, every weekend. Their parents were killed in a fire when about six years before. Now 10 and 14, they are very saddened when Grace dies of cancer. But at her funeral appear hundreds of relatives, which Grace claim are all part of the Cahill family, the most powerful in the world. After her will is read, the heirs can decide to take one million bucks or follow 39 clues to become the most powerful people in the world. There can be only one winner. In total, 7 teams take on the challenge. Six teams are cutthroat, cruel....except for Amy and Dan, of course.

The first clue is related to Benjamin Franklin. They all travel to Philadelphia, then Paris, looking for the next clue. The plot becomes really absurd, and the things these two children are able to figure out are not believable. Oh well. It's an interesting idea, publishing ten books, written by different authors, all heading in the same direction, with online extras and prizes for the kids that participate. And we DO learn a bit about Ben Franklin and Paris.

And the reader of this audio book? He used many voices, trying to give each of the characters personality. He did a great greasy, slimy version for each, but his accents didn't do it for me. It also seemed he had an effeminate touch for some of the males, which was a bit disconcerting. All in all, not a great 5 hours 11 minutes of listening pleasure.

My question/s....how many of the books am I willing to suffer through? And has the sale of each additional book in the series kept up with the hype of the first? Hmmm.....