ON A NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS by Andrea Yaryura Clark

 

 

Publisher: Grand Central
Date Published: March 1, 2022
ISBN#  978-1538720295
Historical Fiction
Reviewed by Gina (myreviewbooks@aol.com)
Obtained via publisher
4 Hearts

Paloma Larrea has led what some would call a charmed life.  As the adored only child of her wealthy and well-placed parents, Santiago and Lila she has wanted for nothing. When Santiago is appointed United Nations ambassador to Argentina she is thrilled to accompany her parents to their home country.  At first thrilled, Paloma is soon bemused when a woman named Grace approaches her parents at a party and makes a cryptic comment and her parents act as if they do not know this woman who purports to be a friend from long ago. Once she arrives in her parents’ home country Paloma begins to try to learn more of not only Argentina’s, but also her parents’ history. What she begins to learn is that behind the beauty of the country is a dark and dangerous past—a past her father was part of. And soon Paloma finds herself questioning her history and those questions begin to endanger her own life.

 

ON A NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS is not a book I would have normally picked up to read. It was sent to me by Grand Central, a publisher who has so many books and authors I enjoy so I decided to give it a try.  I am so glad I did. 

 

Clark tells not one, but two compelling stories --- Valentina’s in the 1970’s during Argentina’s “Dirty War” and Paloma’s in the late 1990’s. Two creative and brave women joined through an unimaginable connection yet one that will take Paloma down a path she would never have expected.  Parts of Valentina’s story were hard to take and I imagine Clark had some emotional moments while telling her story. Clark describes what was done to women thought subversives during the “Dirty War” with honesty and compassion. 

 

Each character, even the minor ones, is well drawn for the reader.  Clark’s depictions of the different locations brought them to life in vivid detail.

 

The story is told in alternating time periods – flipping back and forth with each chapter between Valentina and Paloma’s stories.  I personally find the constant flipping back and forth distracting and can make a story unreadable if you have to stop mid-way through a chapter for some reason.  To deal with that I read the chapters of the older period first and then go back and read the more modern ones.  That said, once I started ON A NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS I had a hard time putting it down because I just had to know how Valentina and Paloma’s stories ended.  I for one hope Clark is already penning her next story and I don’t have to wait long to read it.

 

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

                                                                           

THE LILAC HOUSE by Barbara Josselsohn

Publisher:      ‎ Bookouture
Published:      March 10, 2020
ISBN:      ‎ 978-1838881580
Genre:     Women’s Fiction
Format:     Print from Publisher
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

 FOUR HEARTS

Not long after their marriage Greg and Anna Harris bought Lilac House in Lake Summers, New York. They fell in love with the house and the town and spent every summer in the quaint, welcoming town. When their children, Zac and Evie came along they too came to love the house. It became a refuge and a place to recharge. And then everything came crashing down—determined to return home in the middle of a horrendous storm Greg died. Anna now has to deal with the aftermath of his death—two children trying to pull their lives together, selling the house and moving on. There is hope for her in the person of her Aunt Hope.

 

Hope had already moved to Lake Summers and has opened a dance studio and store. Anna is thrilled with Lilac Pointe, Hope’s shop and her plans. But there are secrets behind the plans…secrets from Greg and Hope. In an attempt to help Hope increase revenue to the store she goes to the city hall and there she meets Aidan Lawrence. Aidan not only offers some wonderful suggestions, there is an attraction between the two. As they become closer to each other it becomes clear that Aidan too has secrets, secrets that could harm more than one person. Revealing secrets can help or hurt those affected by them. And sometimes revealing them takes great courage. Do Anna, Aidan and Hope have the courage to change their lives?

 

I’m not usually a fan of women’s fiction. Generally I find it depressing to begin with and it goes downhill from there.  Barbara Josselsohn’s THE LILAC HOUSE has its share of sad and depressing moment, but it is an amazing book with the story she tells.  I was entranced by her descriptions of Hope’s dance studio and how she and Anna lived through their dancing. I’ve long enjoyed watching ballet, but after reading THE LILAC HOUSE the movements, the meanings of the steps, take on a new dimension. n for

 

I liked how not only Anna and Aidan consider the needs of those around them as their relationship begins, but also Hope and Koen’s. The characters are fully fleshed out—they have a range of emotions and at times the reader can relate to each one. She also takes on the issues around mental illness…how it can affect the person and those around him. She does it with compassion and understanding and then goes a step further and shows how we can, as a community stand behind someone who is.

 

I missed her debut, The Last Dreamer, but will be catching up with that and continuing with this wonderful series.  THE LILAC HOUSE is a wonderful read – one not only for adults, but perfect for young adults and even pre-teens to enjoy.

 

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

HER THREE LIVES by Cate Holahan

Publisher:      Grand Central
Published:      April 20, 2021
ISBN:      978-1538736340
Genre:     Suspense
Format:     Print from Publisher
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

FOUR HEARTS

 

                                                                    

Life was perfect, or at least near enough….on the surface.  Jade and Greg met and fell in love. Their careers fit nicely with each other – he an architect and she an influencer who specializes in interior design with a Carribean flair.  Well, it’s almost perfect.

 Greg and his first wife Leah had already split, but their children are less than welcoming to Jade who they see as an interloper who is only after their father’s, and hence their, money.  They routinely go out of the way to point out how much older Greg is than Jade and how she seemed to suddenly get pregnant which hastened their decision to marry.  Things turn decidedly ugly when two men break into the home shared by Greg and Jade, nearly killing him and beating her so badly she loses their baby.  The attack leaves Greg with a traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress that causes him to make some questionable decisions.  While he heals physically he spends his days watching the myriad cameras he’s placed in and around their home.  And he begins to watch Jade, tracking her movements, questioning where she goes and what she does.  When threatening notes turn up in their mailbox Jade realizes that a past she left behind man be coming after her. Afraid to tell Greg because of his own precarious health as well as to save her relationship she begins to track down the suspect on her own. With his paranoia growing Greg begins to question the woman he intended to marry and just what her motives were—did she target him as a rich man to marry and kill for his money, or does she really love him?

I hadn’t read Cate Holahan before but when I saw the blurb for HER THREE LIVES I was totally intrigued.  Her tag line and blurb refers to her public life, her private life and her secret life. Don’t we all have those three lives.  There is the us open to anyone who cares. We have a private life that those closest to us…or some on social media become privy to and then there is a part of us no one knows about. Maybe they’ll learn that secret part of ourselves when we die, but there is that part of us that not even our closest love ones know about. If they find out, there can be shock at what is revealed. 

Holahan takes those three lives and adds not only a mixed race couple, but a multi-generational one into the mix. That adds some delicious elements leading the characters, as well as the readers, to question just what was the real reason behind the home invasion that cost Jade and Greg their baby and close to his life and sanity.  I found myself absorbed in Jade’s life, her thought processes and as her history was unveiled wondering how she was going to handle it.  I felt bad for Greg with his traumatic brain injury, but after awhile I lost sympathy for him when he continued to defer to his children over Jade. I didn’t see him trying to include them in the family he was building with Jade.  He seemed disconnected from them and had little grief over his lost child.

 

I wondered a few times if the version I received was a draft because Jade was at different times referred to as Greg’s fiancé and his wife.  He was always her boyfriend or fiancé.  Either it was a draft or the editor was asleep when reading those parts. 

 

Too often lately I see authors having a mix-race couple in a book in what appears to be an attempt to be more inclusive but does nothing to move the story along.  Holahan’s use of not only two races but two cultures as well as the age difference are key parts of what drives the story and were really well done. 

 

Since I enjoyed HER THREE LIVES so much I’ve ordered her back list.  What’s not to like about some really good reads!

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

 

 

 

THE SIREN by Katherine St. John

Publisher:      Grand Central
Published:      May 4, 2021
ISBN:      978-1538733684
Genre:     Suspense
Format:     Print from Publisher
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

FOUR -1/2 HEARTS

 

                                                                    

Cole Power and Stella Rivers are together again! Not in “real” life but soon to be on the screen.  The couple were a dynamic Hollywood tale—meeting on screen, falling in love and marrying only to have their marriage end after Stella crashed in the ways only a Hollywood star can crash—in a very public disaster.  Now, with Cole’s son from his first wife, Jackson, grown and a director, he has asked Stella to reunite with him on screen.  For Jackson’s debut film they have chosen The Siren, the story of a film star and the emotional tale of her love. When the cast and crew arrive on St. Genesiuis to film there are some surprises—the actress originally hired to play the replacement nanny has suddenly been replaced by Instagram influencer Madison and Stella has a new personal assistant who seems a tad too perfect. Things start moving along rather nicely. Filming is on schedule and the cast and crew work well together. But then cracks start showing…despite NDAs Madison insists on streaming virtually all day every day to her fans. Stella is supposed to be clean and sober but needs daily doses of myriad pills. As perfect as Felicity seems, she has secrets, secrets that could not only bring down the film itself, but the lives of everyone on the island. Taylor, the producer is desperate to ensure The Siren’s success after being fired by her father for a scandal at his studio.  And Jackson knows what really happened the night Stella and Cole tried to bury. 

 

And it seems nature will have something to say about all the secrets and deceptions being played as a hurricane hurtles toward St. Genesiuis.  Can Stella, Cole, Jackson, Felicity and the other survive the storms within and without?

 

I enjoyed Katherine St. John’s debut, LION’S DEN so much as soon as I saw her latest release, THE SIREN I had to read it. I dove in as soon as it arrived and had a hard time putting it down. After two late nights and ignoring phone calls I finished it because while I had to know how it ended, I didn’t want to miss one delicious word.

 

The story starts off almost a women’s fiction with just a tiny touch of chik lit. It quickly moves into a page turning suspense you just can’t put down.

 

Told from the points of view of the three main female characters—Stella, Felicity and Taylor—the story takes you into their pasts. Interspersed are Instagram, blog and news item posts mainly about Stella. St. John creates characters that you find yourself involved with. Each character is unique—there is no confusing one with another.  I hurt for Felicity when her past was revealed and then for Stella. I disliked Madison from her first appearance and got to dislike her more and more as the story went on.  She had no redeemable qualities and I would have liked to have seen a worse ending for her.

 

The island setting is perfect for the story.  Not quite a “closed room” mystery but close enough when one character as well as the pending hurricane create their own closed room.  While the conflicts in the story are mainly character driven with changing loyalties both between them and the reader, the atmosphere created by the hurricane adds a whole other dimension.

 

The only part I didn’t care for, which is why this is a 4-1/2 rather than 5 heart review is I’m not a fan of first person present tense.  To me it reads like a non-English speaking grammar school student’s first attempt at an essay. It just pulls me out of a story.  Fortunately this story only has a few chapters with that voice and I was able to get the gist of that character’s role by skimming.

 

 

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.