the nature of grief

We Own the Sky by Luke Allnut
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: Luke Allnut practically wrote my review for me in his letter to Readers at the beginning of the galley: "I have tried to be honest about how people respond to tragedy.  our thoughts are often dark; our actions unsavory.  But I also wanted to show just how resilient people are.  And that kindness sometimes comes from surprising places.  Hope and love and compassion, above all.  I hope that's what you'll get from the novel, as well."  He's done exactly what he set out to do, with grace and imagination.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

who does that?!

Stay With Me by Sandra Rodriguez Barron

Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: I have never seen an advance copy of a book so rife with typos. I understand that it's an "uncorrected proof" but this book looked like it had never even been in the same room as an editor. I tried not to let that get in the way of the story however, as I assume that the typos, at the very least, will be corrected before the book is actually published. If not, perhaps Harper would like to hire me as a proofreader.

Even trying to overlook the glaring mistakes in the text, I had a hard time with this book. I did find myself pulled into the story at some points, but overall I found this book to be trite (especially some of the dialogue) and poorly thought-out. The characters are flat and behave inconsistently and unrealistically. Add to that an ending that was far too neat, and this book was very disappointing.

FTC disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.