Here's to Us by Elin Hilderbrand

Title: Here's to Us
Classification: Adult Fiction
Genre: Women's Fiction/Chick Lit/Realistic Fiction
Format: Hardcover; 416 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition (June 14, 2016)
ISBN-10: 0316375144
ISBN-13: 978-0316375146
Author's Website: http://www.elinhilderbrand.net/
Notes: I received an ARC at BEA.

Popular Television Chef Deacon Thorpe

Found Dead at 53

Nantucket, Massachusetts--Deacon Thorpe, 53, chef-owner of the Board Room, in midtown Manhattan, and host of the popular Food Network program Pitchfork, died of a heart attack at his summer cottage Thursday evening, according to Nantucket police chief Edward Kapenash.

Thorpe arrived on Nantucket Island on Thursday morning ferry, officials at the Steamship Authority confirmed. He was found by island resident JP Clarke on Friday morning...

~~~~

Deacon Thorpe was a revered celebrity chef on the late night TV cooking show 'Day to Night to Day with Deacon' and later on the daytime cooking show 'Pitchfork'. Most would say he'd made a success of his life. He'd loved three women, had three beautiful and smart kids, but died alone feeling like a failure. This is the story of his rise and fall from fame as seen through his own eyes and the eyes of those who loved him most.

'Everything comes to an end--the days ends, the summer ends, an era ends'

I will start this review off by saying this was not my favorite story. It sums up all the things that are wrong with today's society. We've gotten used to disposable things and somewhere along the line marriage has entered into the mix. There are people who don't respect the union of marriage and could care less if children get hurt when those ties are broken and this story touches upon that. Deacon Thorpe was a rather selfish person who put himself first. He fooled himself into thinking of himself as a good guy because he occasionally did the right thing. When it comes to the big things in life, however, he failed and failed brilliantly.

Some would say Deacon's father's desertion followed by his mother's are what shaped him into the man that he became, but that's.only partially true, What we do with our own life is ultimately left up to us. We have the choice to do what's right or fool ourselves into thinking what we do doesn't affect others and they'll be all right. Deacon prided himself on telling his children that his father "didn't want me, but I want you." quite frequently. While words are lovely, he ultimately wasn't all that different from his own father. While he didn't fully abandoned his son, upon his death the following statement summed up his relationship with his son. "Hayes had loved his father, but he and Deacon had been more like casual, easygoing friends, and really, that was only later in life," If I was to assign a song to Deacon Thorpe it would be 'You Came in Like a Wrecking Ball' by Miley Cyrus.

While I disliked the story, it was well written which is what kept me reading until the end. The way the author showed how the actions of one individual can effect the lives of so many others and have a trickle down effect was right on the money. The animosity and cattiness of the three wives who find themselves in the impossible position of being under the same roof while planning the funeral could have been comedic, but the author chose to make the situation something more hefty, awkward, and dysfunctional. Eventually the three made peace with one another as best they could, under the circumstances, for the sake of their children, but this was a rather depressing read. It went from bad to worse to awkward.

So why the title, 'Here's to Us?" Well it's used a couple of times in toasts in the book. Once by Buck, Deacon's best friend, and a second time by Deacon's wives. Of the two the toasts made, to me Buck's seemed the one more appropriate one for the title:
"Here's to us, two selfish bastards." 

I'm giving this one a 1 out of 5 roses. It was well written but was like watching a train wreck. I just couldn't seem to look away.  It's the first book I've read by this Ms. Hildebrand, but because so many of her fans were shouting her accolades while I was standing in line at BEA waiting to get a copy of this one, I'll give her books another try. This novel just wasn't to my liking. I like happy stories, or at least ones with happy endings, and this was a far cry from that. I'm foregoing the romance rating scale in this one because, frankly, there was no real romance in this one. It was just the story of a very dysfunctional family after the death of the person who connected everyone together. In a way, this could be called a cautionary tale about how the grass isn't always greener on the other side--That sometimes what you really want you already have. You just have to open your eyes to see it.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Title: The Girl on the Train
Classification: Realistic Fiction
Genre: Murder /Mystery;Contemporary;Thriller
Format: Hardcover; 336 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Books (2015)
ISBN-10: 1594633665
ISBN-13: 978-1594633669
Author's Website: http://paulahawkinsbooks.com/
Notes: I bought this one.




Every work day morning, Rachel  takes the 8:04 train into London. When the train allows it, she watches a couple she doesn't know, but whom she's created her own story for. She's named them Jess and Jason and has filled in some the missing pieces while idealizing them in her mind as the perfect happy couple. That is until one day she sees something which prompts her to go talk to Jess and confront her.

'Buckinghamshire Police are becoming increasingly concerned for the welfare of a missing twenty-nine-year-old woman, Megan Hipwell, of Blenheim Road, Witney. Mrs. Hipwell was last seen by her husband, Scott Hipwell, on Saturday night when she left the couple’s home to visit a friend at around seven o’clock. Her disappearance is “completely out of character,” Mr. Hipwell said. Mrs. Hipwell was wearing jeans and a red T-shirt. She is five foot four, slim, with blond hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information regarding Mrs. Hipwell is requested to contact Buckinghamshire Police.'

The actual name of the girl Rachel dubbed as Jess is Megan Hipwell and she went missing the night Rachel went to see her.

'I know it sounds unlikely. What could I have done? Gone to Blenheim Road, attacked Megan Hipwell, disposed of her body somewhere and then forgotten all about it? It sounds ridiculous. It is ridiculous. But I know something happened on Saturday. I knew it when I looked into that dark tunnel under the railway line, my blood turning to ice water in my veins.'

Rachel has a drinking problem and somewhere in the jumbled drunken memories of her mind she may hold the key to what happened to Megan Hipwell. She knows she was on her way to see her. She knows she got off the train. After that there are only scattered bits and pieces of memories and feelings. Can she puzzle it all together? Will she regret it once she does?

“I don’t remember things,” I said. “I black out and I can’t remember where I’ve been or what I’ve done. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve done or said terrible things, and I can’t remember. And if . . . if someone tells me something I’ve done, it doesn’t even feel like me. It doesn’t feel like it was me who was doing that thing. And it’s so hard to feel responsible for something you don’t remember. So I never feel bad enough. I feel bad, but the thing that I’ve done—it’s removed from me. It’s like it doesn’t belong to me.”

This was a mental roller coaster of a thrill ride. Rachel is an emotional train wreck who should really be going to AA(Alcoholics Anonymous). She's basically hit rock bottom and needs to pull herself up out of the bottomless pit she's managed to sink herself into, and when Megan Hipwell disappears, she uses it as the lifeline she needs to do so. It gives her a purpose and helps her to see just how far she's fallen. It also makes her realize she's not the only one who has problems. Life isn't fair and people who don't deserve it have bad things happen to them. She's not alone.

The book is written from three points of view--- Rachel's, Megan's, and Anna's. Rachel is at a pivotal crossroads in her life. We, the reader, enter into the picture at an informational juncture where her past and future are discovered simultaneously while seemingly going in two opposite directions in the story line. We learn about Rachel's past beginning with the present working backwards. We learn about the future going forward from the present.

Whether intentional or accidental I thought the use of the train in this book was sheer genius and I love how the author did this. Trains often times in literature represent a journey--a time of self discovery and/or a period of transformation to somewhere or something new. I feel the train ride symbolizes her life. You can take a train to many places and once you reach a hub you can go back to where you came from or travel on to somewhere new. I feel that appropriately represents where we find Rachel. She has to decide where her life will take her and she can go in many directions. Rachel is presently at a place where she can choose to stay where she is reliving the past and never really getting anywhere or she can travel forward into an uncertain future.

The perspectives of Megan and Anna are used to give us clues/bread crumbs as to what happened to Megan and a little insight as to what happened to Rachel in the past. Anna is Rachel's ex-husbands new wife. The neighborhood Megan lived in was the one Rachel lived in with her husband. That is probably the real reason she became so obsessed with Megan and Jason. They reminded her of the way her life used to be. It also provided her a convenient distraction from seeing the old house she used to live in (that you can see from the tracks) that her ex and his new wife now live in. I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to have to pass that every day on your commute into London. I must warn you if you've recently gone through a breakup or divorce, this may not be the book for you. There are some heavy emotions that get tossed around, and if you're not in a good place emotionally, you may not want to venture into this one. I guarantee it will wake those emotions.

Overall, I gave this one 4 1/2 out of 5 roses. While I figured out the twist before the end, I loved all the twists and turns, the highly emotional ride, and finding out if my suspicions were correct. I can easily see why this one would become a movie. I look forward to seeing it in a theater.

Panic (Panic #1) by Lauren Oliver

Title: Panic
Classification: Young Adult
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Contemporary
Series: Panic
Format: Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition edition (March 4, 2014)
ISBN-10: 0062014552
ISBN-13: 978-0062014559
Author's Website:  http://www.laurenoliverbooks.com/
Notes: I love the author's writing style, so I bought this one. 




Every year the town of Carp, New York runs an illegal game similar to Fear Factor with a get rich quick prize attached. The game is only open to that year's seniors and for some it is their only chance of escaping the poverty stricken town.

"No one knows who invented Panic, or when it first began. 

There are different theories. Some blame the shutting of the paper factory,which overnight placed 40 percent of the adult population of Carp, New York , on unemployment. (...) None of these stories is correct, however. Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere; because it was summer and there was nothing else to do.

The rules are simple. The day after graduation is Opening Jump, and the game goes all through the summer. After the final challenge, the winner takes the pot."

The only problem is that not everyone will come out of the games alive because this year the take is the largest ever. In the midst of the competition, two friends will enter hoping to change their circumstances. With alliances forged and broken, will their friendship survive the heat of the competition? More importantly, will they come out of the competition alive? With so much at stake, there is one thing you can bet on, not everyone will play fair and situations already dangerous will turn deadly. 

The last competitor standing will be the one to show no fear. Would you have what it takes to win?

This story had so much untapped potential, and while it was entertaining and I liked it, it could have been so much more. From the very beginning we know there are secrets about the game that only a handful of people know. The judges who remain anonymous throughout the competition also gain a substantial amount of wealth, and stories circulate of those who have escaped their fate by doing so. Greed, revenge, and hope are just some of the things which drive the competitors.

Heather never meant to enter the competition, but when her boyfriend dumps her just as she's about to tell him she loves him, she recklessly decides to risk it all and enter the competition. Her best friend, Nat, had already decided to enter and isn't too keen on having her best friend as competition. They end up making a pact that if either wins, they'll share the winnings with the other and they'll both escape.

Soon the two find themselves teaming up with Dodge who's motivation for entering is revenge. Dodge has a crush on Nat, and she uses that to her advantage luring him into a similar arrangement to the one she made with Heather. She's hoping to up her odds of coming out of the competition with something padding her pocket.

As the game progresses. the competition gets more intense as more and more competitors are eliminated and those still in the game begin to show just how far their willing to go to win. Unscrupulous behavior rears its ugly head, but I felt Ms. Oliver could have kicked this up a notch. Perhaps because it's a young adult novel, she just didn't want to go there? Additionally, some of the tasks assigned weren't what I would have expected and seemed to be more aimed at angering certain residents in the small town than testing a person's fearlessness. It made me wonder who was in charge of the overall competition and challenges and what was their motivation?

Overall, I gave this one 3 out of 5 roses. It was a book about friendship, trust, loyalty, greed, revenge, (in other words human nature)  and how we handle the fear and disappointments life throws our way. It's about growing up and realizing what's really important. I can see how some would compare this one to The Hunger Games, There are some definite similarities, but The Hunger Games way out classes this one in complexity and suspense. As for making this one into a movie? I think Hollywood may be on to something--the premise for the book was awesome. I do, however, highly recommend rewriting parts and making the story more gritty, developing the characters more, and making the contestants a tad more ruthless. I believe this is only the second book that I've ever said that about because usually I don't want Hollywood touching any part of a story. By the way, if you hadn't heard, Universal Pictures bought the movie rights to this one. We'll have to wait and see if it actually makes it to the big screen.