Hello to All my Followers and Potential Followers,

I’m back home, and getting into the routine of things. While I was away, I thought about new postings on my blog, and I’ve decided to add reviews about anything I’ve dealt with, such as books, writing, life, publishing, etc. Reviews are helpful in making decisions, so I thought posting them here would help.

This post is dedicated to a book review. Over the summer break, I was only able to read one book, Reinventing Claire by Darian Wilk. I’ll admit that I don’t read a lot of chick lit or free eBooks, which is why I had this book downloaded, but I decided to read it since I’m currently writing a women’s fiction/chick lit book and I liked the cover.

Summary:

Reinventing Claire is about a woman who thinks her marriage is forever until her husband, Charlie, decides forever is too long. He leaves her in a cold fashion and remarries her friend as she struggles to figure out what went wrong and how to live life without Charlie. She turns to her sisters, Holly and Samantha, to help her cope with the turn of events, and then she meets up with a man, Mac, who makes her realize that love does exist after divorce. Now she has a choice to make. Does she go back to Charlie, who pursues her and wants her back, or stay with the man she recently fell in love with, and who treats her well?

Review:

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. Before my writing days, I would have given this book a 2, but because I know how much time is put into writing a novel, it gets that extra star.

This book starts off strong. Claire breaks her shoe, loses her job and then her husband asks for a divorce at a restaurant, leaving her crying at the table. In the beginning, the character Claire is funny, but then things start to get repetitious. She is always turning to her sisters for support, which is great, but it seems they are there after she calls, as if they don’t have lives of their own. Claire is annoyingly needy. I thought she was a pushover and unintelligent. Maybe it’s because I like my characters to have some dignity, which doesn’t describe Claire. Another repetition that drove me crazy was that everyone was ‘smirking’. I think that word was on every page.

As I continued to read, I was waiting for Claire to reinvent herself. Instead, she continuously cried to her sisters about Charlie even when a wonderful man, Mac, enters her life. She doesn’t give Mac the respect he deserves, and he allows her to hurt him time and again, which is surprising since he is divorced, too. You would think Mac would be on-guard instead of letting Claire walk all over him while she tries to figure out whether she wants him or Charlie. That’s just a slap in the face.

Darian Wilk has her main character, Claire, rely too much on her sisters instead of bringing the book to a new level and making it about ‘Reinventing Claire’. I wanted to read about Claire’s life without Charlie, such as her job, which is mentioned but not discussed; feelings about children (whether she wants them or not. She was married for a long time to Charlie and they didn’t have children); dealing with Mac’s son’s mother; and her new home. Darian Wilk left out the reinventing part. Majority of the book is about Claire and her sisters, Claire thinking about Charlie, and her confusion about which man she wants. By the end of the book, Claire still doesn’t feel like her new home is home; there isn’t anything mentioned about children even though her new love has a son, and it takes her close to the end of the book to realize she doesn’t want Charlie. If she was reinventing herself, the book would be more about her new life, feelings about home, job, children and some definite anger toward Charlie and how he treated her. How did she get a job working from home? Does she want children, or can she have them? Where is the anger toward the way Charlie treated her in the marriage, when he left her, and his divorce demands? Very little growth is shown.

Along with characters I didn’t like or relate to, I found the dialogue annoying. When writing dialogue, you don’t always have to write, ‘he said’ or ‘she said’, especially when there are only two characters in the scene. Darian Wilk continuously wrote ‘she said/he said’, which were like speed bumps to me. Give the reader some credit. It’s all right to guide the reader at first as to who is talking, but when all dialogue tells you who is speaking, it becomes monotonous.

If you’re looking for a predictable, light romantic chick lit book, then you might enjoy Reinventing Claire by Darian Wilk. In two clicks, you can buy it on Amazon.

Chick Lit and Reinvention,

Bea

Hot Diggity Dog…New Digs!

Well...do ya love it? It was time for me to redecorate my blog. Like we do with homes, I knocked down a few walls and applied a new coat of paint, still keeping with the main color scheme. The left side bar has information about me and my books, and the right side bar has lists and a new thing I’d like to start—Pay It Forward.

I self-published my book and it’s difficult for self-published/indie authors to promote their books. “Pay It Forward” will help all involved. The more the word gets out, the more you profit…or at least receive comments that your book sounds interesting. It might even be added to someone’s TBR list.

Here’s how it will work…if anyone is interested. Send an email to denise@authordenisebaer.com with “Feature” in the subject line requesting to be featured on my blog and then I’ll request the following:

- Book cover (jpg)
- Author Photo (jpg-optional)
- Author Bio (no attachment- in the body of the email)
- Book Genre
- Synopsis
- Paragraph (no more than 150 words) about how you came to write the book, such as where the idea came from or why you wrote it (no attachment-in the body of the email)
- Paragraph (no more than 150 words) about why you decided to Self-Publish or about the Indie Publisher (no attachment-in the body of the email).
- Links to where the book can be purchased
- Links to author website, book trailer, etc.

After the author’s book is featured on my blog, they will be asked to feature an author on their blog with a link to my blog at the bottom of the post or write a review, and then send an email with a direct link to their blog post or review. I will then add it to the “Pay It Forward” list on the right side of my blog…And if the author wants to add the “Pay It Forward” list to their blog and continue on, I’ll send them the list links. We’ll see how this idea pans out.

I hope you enjoy the new digs and make sure to stop on by to read about some new and upcoming writers.

Redecorate and Feature,

Bea

The Murderer’s Daughters

A friend of mine recently made a blog post, Complete, Yet Incomplete, about a book having so many great things about it, yet parts of it failed. She asked her readers several questions, such as how we consider a story a success, or if we didn’t like a book by an author, would we attempt to read that author again?

In The Murderer’s Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers, I can honestly answer with a booming response that this book is a success and I’d definitely read another one of her books. It was the first since The Book Thief where I wanted the end to tie everything up in a little bow, yet even though that didn’t happen I was content (with a smile). The Murderer’s Daughters is beautifully written and executed with emotional depth and truth from two points of views (POV)—Merry and Lulu (the daughters).

This book spans about 30-years of Merry and Lulu’s lives. They struggle with who they are and how to get through life after family abandons them, spending years in an orphanage and then college to be free of other’s help. Each girl has her own demand of life, very different from the other, and each one remembers from the age of loss. “Trying to catch memories of mama felt like trying to hold rain.” (173)

The story begins with Merry (the youngest) and Lulu’s (the oldest) father killing their mother, stabbing Merry and trying to kill himself. From the first page, my throat constricted and I cried for these two girls.

Essentially, Mama regarded me as a miniature hand server:

Grab me a Pepsi, Lulu.

Get the milk for your sister’s cereal.

Go to the store and buy me a pack of Winstons.

Then one day she upped the stakes:

Don’t let Daddy in the apartment.

Each chapter is Merry and Lulu’s POV of how they see the world, their father, and how they cope with life. Lulu, the oldest and practical thinker, tries to bury the past and makes plans to better their lives—it’s her survival mechanism. Merry, the youngest and emotional child, tries to please her father by visiting and relies on her sister’s direction. Many times they are at odds for their feelings toward their daddy. Lulu wants nothing to do with him while Merry feels obligated because daddy has no one else. How they deal with their father is how they deal with life; one wants to be free of the past and the other can’t let go.

The Murderer’s Daughters reveals the struggles and sadness when horror strikes a home. It shows the after effects of how a family has to pick up the pieces and carry on; some unable to glue the pieces together; and some tossing them away. As Merry said, “Did he know that sometimes I hated people so much it burned?” (40)

I highly recommend The Murderer’s Daughters. You won’t be disappointed.

Weather or Not It’s Funneling

 NOAA Photo Library

I’ve recently finished reading The Stormchasers by Jenna Blum, and whether or not you’ve experienced a tornado, this book gives you an understanding of the devastation it brings. Timing plays a role in connecting with a book, and this one twisted with the tornadoes that recently swept across the country. This novel isn’t only about the weather; it’s also about twins struggling with their own identities.

Karena Jorge, a writer for the Minneapolis Ledger feels a hole in her life since separated from her twin, Charles for twenty-years. So it’s no surprise Karena decides to find him after receiving a call from a medical center in Wichita, Kansas. Charles suffered a panic attack, but his sickness is deeper. He is bi-polar, which drove a wedge between the twins. As Charles describes it, “And they tip me off Into the Black. That’s this tarry, oozy place that traps me and holds me while my brain is raked over and over with a comb made of knives…Everything hurts from the inside out. But I can’t move. That’s Into the Black.”

Since she has failed to find him all these years, Karena is determined to this time and joins an adventure of a lifetime—chasing. During her chasing time, she falls in love and finally finds Charles, which reignites their whirlwind relationship. Like tornadoes, Charles spins out of control when he’s Into the Black, and most of the damage hits Karena. Being reunited again forces them to face who they are and the secret they buried years ago.

If you’re looking for a summer read, I recommend The Stormchasers by Jenna Blum.