Book Review: Pastors' Wives by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

I received a copy of this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  I enjoyed it, a lot more than I thought I would.  The story is told from 3 points of view and this is an effective way to move the story along.  I feel there is something to be admired in each woman without watering her personality down too much.
Ruthie is the wife of a man called to be a pastor at a time when her own faith in God is failing.  The two move from New Jersey down to Atlanta for him to become the Associate Pastor at a "megachurch."  She is an honest and complex character, one I felt would be overlooked in an average "chick lit" or "beach read" type book.  She is a born and raised Catholic, and while she attends her husband's new church each week and doesn't hesitate to work there without pay, she also never feels fully embraced by it either.
Candace is the wife of the Pastor of the megachurch, one who is not paid but nonetheless spends every minute just as immersed in the life of the church as her husband.  She was my favorite character--I love female characters who know how to get things done while maintaining a ladylike demeanor.  (I'm from the South, and to me, Candace is a classic Southern Lady.)  But I also love her relationship with God, how much time she spends in prayer herself, and how she is brave enough to go where the Holy Spirit guides. 
Ginger is the 3rd woman in the story, and she is married to Candace's son.  With 2 children under the age of 5 and an absentee husband who is off saving the world, she 's left alone to make it through the day as best she can.  Candace is an overbearing presence to her, as many mother-in-laws are, and Ginger has reason to fear: her past is not what everyone believes, it's much dirtier, and living the lie each day is the real challenge she is facing.  While I found the choices she makes to be hard to believe, they're also valid, well-thought-out and add a surprise twist to the story I didn't see coming.
I highly recommend this book to readers who love women's fiction but need something new to make them excited about the genre again.  I also think fans of Christian lit will enjoy the book; as I said, Candace's faith is a shining example of what we can all aspire to have as our own. 4 stars out of 5

Book Review: Spin by Catherine McKenzie

I received Spin from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program and I'm so glad I did!  I've been in a reading rut lately: it feels like all I ever read is YA or Paranormal Romance.  I tend to stay away from bestsellers, and the people who usually recommend books to me have been as busy as I have with the holidays and simply Life in general.  Also, if I have to choose to spend money on books or art supplies--I have plenty of books, so art supplies are where my attention has been directed.

The basic storyline of Spin: A Novel by Catherine McKenzie is that Kate is a journalist trying to get her dream job with a music magazine called The Line.  She finally gets an interview which happens to fall on her birthday.  To celebrate, she joins her friends the night before the interview and what starts out as "one drink, then I'll go home" ends up with her showing up at the interview looking as badly hungover as she is.  Needless to say, Katie will not be the best new writer at The Line.

One of the editors at The Line who witnessed Katie's hungover interviews is also the editor of a gossip magazine.  One of America's favorite young movie stars, Amber--The Girl Next Door--just entered rehab, and Katie is the perfect undercover spy for a tell-all feature by going to the same rehab center as Amber.  If Katie can pull this off, she'll get her dream job at The Line after all.

What begins as a job assignment soon turns into a serious reality check--instead of faking an addiction to get the undercover exposé of a movie star stripped bare in rehab, Kate sees how her own drinking has become out-of-control.  Against her own will, she's feeling all kinds of emotions she never expected and finds herself experiencing the 12 steps of her own.

I enjoyed this book immensely.  It's already an International Bestseller, and I think America will fall in love with Kate's story as well when it's published next month.  The story can become a little slow at times, but never so much that I had to switch to another book and come back to finish Spin later.  It took me about 2 days to read the whole book, although I did stay up late last night to finish it.

I love Kate's conversations with her conscious and I sympathize with her unwilling self-awareness.  I found Kate's unique way of naming the other characters in the story, (The Producer, The Banker, Mr. Fortune 500, etc. - even her target Amber is TGND) to be brilliant!  It's much easier to remember the characters this way.

I've saved my favorite thing about Spin until the end of my review: the story does not end at Kate's release from her 30 days of rehab.  I honestly assumed the book would end with Kate's decision to write the tell-all article for the gossip magazine or her refusal to hurt her new friend this way.  Instead, the story kept going, and Kate's (and Amber's) stories show what life is like after rehab.

I like the movie 28 Days, but it pretty much ends with Sandra Bullock's release from rehab.  Spin is an excellent novel that provides the satisfaction of knowing how the characters try to fit the lessons from the 12 steps into their real lives.

A solid 4 stars out of 5!

The Fallen 1 by ThomasE. Sniegoski

The Fallen 1: The Fallen and Leviathan by Thomas E. Sniegoski is actually 2 books in one, and I've only finished the first book.  I have to say though, I absolutely LOVE the characters in this book.  The interaction between Aaron and his dog Gabriel make this book!  Also, let me make this clear: this is not a teenage love story of doomed lovers, so it cannot be compared to the glut of teenage supernatural romance books flooding the genre.

Aaron is a typical kid until his 18th birthday.  Things happen, I don't want to ruin that part for you....  Understand that Aaron is part angel, and one of his angel powers is that he can understand ANY language; not just  Portuguese or Italian, he understands all animals too.  Anyway, Gabriel is hit by a car, and another of Aaron's powers is to heal, and he is able to save his dog--but Gabe is more connected to Aaron now, he can share dreams, he speaks in full sentences, his intellect is amazing. 

I've greatly enjoyed The Fallen 1 so far, so I'm trying to keep going and finish Leviathan soon; however, I've gotten an ARC to review for the LibraryThing Early reviewers group called Tempest: A Novel (Tempest - Trilogy) by Julie Crossthat I really want to start, and I'm reading The Magnolia League by Katie Crouch which has the perfect amount of "creep" factor that I enjoy without being really scared.  (Another book called 7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando scared the ever-loving crap out of me back in July 2010, and I've tried to stay away from books that are that scary since then!)

So, all things considered, I do recommend The Fallen 1--and I'm giving it a rating of 4 stars out of 5.  The pacing is a bit slow at times, and while some story-lines are obvious, others are very loose threads at the moment, which almost feel like distractions rather than set-ups. I'm excited to see where the story goes, and that makes it a good book!