Julie's Journal : What I've Been Reading

 A few good reads from the last couple of months....

The Names, by Florence Knapp - This was a really interesting way to tell a story.  Set in Britain, Cora is on the way to register her newborn son's name.  She is trying to decide between three choices.  Her husband Gordan, a well respected doctor who is abusive behind closed doors, wants the child named after himself.  Her daughter, Maia, wants to name the baby Bear so he'll grow up strong and kind.  Cora herself favors the name Julian which means youthful or "sky father".  At this point the story splits and we get to see how the family's lives play out depending on what the baby is named.  Do the children grow up close and loving, or fall apart?  Do Cora and Gordon stay married?  Where is everyone living and what career and family choices do the children make?  How much difference does a name really make?  I couldn't put this unique book down!

The Ghostwriter, by Julie Clark - I was introduced to Julie Clark by someone in our Plot Twist book club who recommended her book Last Flight.  I read it last year and really enjoyed it, so when The Ghostwriter came out I picked it up quickly.  Olivia is a ghostwriter, well known for her portrayals of famous clients.  She changed her name when she became an adult and hides the fact that she is the daughter of a famous horror writer, long suspected of killing his two siblings when they were teenagers.  Now, Olivia is experiencing a career downturn and her father wants to hire her to finish a project.  Elderly and sick, he is finally ready to tell what happened to his brother and sister.  Olivia has to battle his dementia and her distrust of him to try and figure out the truth.  This is a dual timeline novel.  We see both the current time, with Olivia and her father, and the earlier years leading up to the murder of her aunt and uncle.  I enjoyed both stories.  

The Enchanted Greenhouse, by Sarah Durst - This is a companion novel to The Spellshop, but they do not have to be read in order.  Terlu was lonely and broke the law to create a companion, a sentient spider plant.  She is turned in to a statue for her crime and displayed as a warning to anyone else who might think of breaking magical laws.  A few years later, she inexplicably wakes up on a freezing island, populated only by a grumpy gardener and an enormous greenhouse.  She is intrigued by this new world, but discovers that the greenhouse is slowly dying and the gardener doesn't know why.  She begins trying to untangle the greenhouse's secrets, but may have to decide to illegally use magic again.  Is it worth the risk?  This is a cozy fantasy.  The stakes are fairly low, but the characters and world building are a lot of fun.  

The King's Messenger, by Susanna Kearsley - Often, Kearsley's books cover more than one timeline, but this one stays in just one year - 1613.  Andrew Logan is a King's Messenger and he is being sent to arrest a man for the murder of a Prince.  He takes a scribe, and because the scribe's health is failing, he takes the scribe's daughter as well.  Phoebe has never liked Andrew, in part because of the poisonous lies that her beau has fed her about him.  However, on this two week journey, Andrew and Phoebe each discover they were wrong about one another and must work together to overcome several different types of treachery.  This was a quicker read than many of the author's other works and it took me a little while to get into, but once I did I really enjoyed it.