The Memory of Us by Camille Di Maio

Description

Julianne Westcott was living the kind of life that other Protestant girls in prewar Liverpool could only dream about: old money, silk ball gowns, and prominent young men lining up to escort her. But when she learns of a blind-and-deaf brother, institutionalized since birth, the illusion of her perfect life and family shatters around her.
While visiting her brother in secret, Julianne meets and befriends Kyle McCarthy, an Irish Catholic groundskeeper studying to become a priest. Caught between her family’s expectations, Kyle’s devotion to the Church, and the intense new feelings that the forbidden courtship has awakened in her, Julianne must make a choice: uphold the life she’s always known or follow the difficult path toward love.
But as war ripples through the world and the Blitz decimates England, a tragic accident forces Julianne to leave everything behind and forge a new life built on lies she’s told to protect the ones she loves. Now, after twenty years of hiding from her past, the truth finds her—will she be brave enough to face it?

Julianne is a beautiful girl from a wealthy family and appears to have it all. However he parents have been keeping a secret from her, and she in turn has kept secrets from them. They are not aware that she has discovered that she is a twin, or that they abandoned her brother to an institution at birth, never to see him again. They are also not aware that she visits her brother at the institution. Nor are they aware that Julianne has met and fallen in love with a young man that they would never approve of.
This was a beautiful work of historical fiction that begins before World War II and spans decades. It is a bittersweet story of a young woman finding the love of her life and the choices she is willing to make for those she loves. I had so much empathy for Julianne that at times I had tears in my eyes. I don't know when a book has last taken me on such an emotional roller coaster. I would rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

I received an advance copy for review

But You Scared Me the Most: And Other Short Stories by John Manderino

Description
This collection of twenty-six dark but often humorous short stories features a pantheon of disturbed and disturbing characters, human and otherwise. Many of the stories are modern takes on classic monsters crafted with twisted plots. For example, “Wolfman and Janice” is about a werewolf  who is doing the best he can under very trying circumstances, especially when confronted with eating his elderly neighbor’s cat. There’s an adolescent vampire-wannabe who is suffering badly: in love for the first time. “Frankenstein and His Mother” is a terrifying story of a grown man who wears a Frankenstein mask and lives with his mother watching TV and eating corn chips all day while being afraid of work.  “Dracula’s Daughter” turns a pretentious hippie into an honest ghost. And Bigfoot—lonely, sexually frustrated—tells all. Other stories feature characters who seem perfectly normal until they're alone. Phil, for instance, is never so happy as when he’s with his inflatable girlfriend Vanessa—until she tells him the devastating truth about himself. Elderly Ellen is running out of patience with her dead husband George, who’s turned prankish. “Bob and Todd” tells the story of a hitchhiking ride gone bad that will have readers squirming in their seats. More than just standard monster stories, the tales in But You Scared Me the Most reveal much more about human nature and will appeal to a wide range of fans of smart, funny short fiction.

This was a quick read, I believe just over 200 pages. I was able to finish it all in one night. It's hard to review each story individually without giving too much away but I will say the description was quite accurate and there is much humor in these odd ball characters. If you like short stories and dark humor I'm sure you will find something enjoyable in these pages. Some are disturbing, others thought provoking, and a few I must admit just didn't make a lot of sense to me. Several were quite good. My favorites were Too Old  To Trick Or Treat Too Young To Die, Otto and the Avenging Angel, Wolfman and Janice, Bigfoot Tells All, Self Portrait With Wine, The Mummy, and A Matter of Character, which was a bit longer than some of the rest.  I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars.

I received an advance copy for review

How To Date Dead Guys (Under The Blood Moon #1) by Ann M. Noser

Description

College sophomore Emma Roberts remembers her mother’s sage advice: “don’t sleep around, don’t burp in public, and don’t tell anyone you see ghosts.” But when cute Mike Carlson drowns in the campus river under her watch, Emma’s sheltered life shatters.

Blamed for Mike’s death and haunted by nightmares, Emma turns to witchcraft and a mysterious Book of Shadows to bring him back. Under a Blood Moon, she lights candles, draws a pentacle on the campus bridge, and casts a spell. The invoked river rages up against her, but she escapes its fury. As she stumbles back to the dorm, a stranger drags himself from the water and follows her home. And he isn’t the only one…

Instead of raising Mike, Emma assists the others she stole back from the dead—a pre-med student who jumped off the bridge, a young man determined to solve his own murder, and a frat boy Emma can’t stand…at first. More comfortable with the dead than the living, Emma delves deeper into the seductive Book of Shadows. Her powers grow, but witchcraft may not be enough to protect her against the vengeful river and the killers that feed it their victims.

Inspired by the controversial Smiley Face Murders, HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS will appeal to the secret powers hidden deep within each of us.

***Note: classified as New Adult due to the college-aged main character, but material is appropriate for those in 10th grade and up.***

Emma is a painfully shy college student, living in the dorms with no real friends. She has acquaintances but nobody that she is really close to. She believes that she is "boring"  or at least as boring as you can be while having the ability to see dead people!

When she blames herself for the death of a boy she has a crush on, she is willing to give her own life to bring him back. Not knowing how to use her new found abilities causes things to go a bit haywire but as it turns out maybe things work out the way they are meant to.

This was a delightful book and I am glad to see it is the first of a series because I will definitely be looking for more! This was part fun, part spooky ghost-whisperer-type adventure and I loved it.

 Though it is categorized as young adult I know plenty of 40somethings, myself included who can enjoy a good story without the typical vulgarity and explicit sex that would be found in books geared towards an older audience. 5 out of 5 stars from me.

I received an advance copy for review

Sex in the Museum: My Unlikely Career at New York's Most Provocative Museum by Sarah Forbes

 

 

Sarah Forbes was in graduate school when she stumbled upon a museum dedicated to . . . sex. The anthropology student hesitated when her boyfriend suggested she apply for a job, but apply she did, and it wasn’t long before a part-time position at New York’s MUSEUM OF SEX lead to a gig as the museum's curator. That was over twelve years ago. Now Sarah—a married mother of two—proudly sports her title as Curator of Sex.

In SEX IN THE MUSEUM, Sarah invites readers to travel from suburban garages where men and women build sex machines, to factories that make sex toys, to labyrinthine archives of erotica collectors. Escorting us in to the hidden world of sex, illuminating the never-talked-about communities and eccentricities of our sexual subcultures, and telling her own personal story of a decade at The Museum of Sex, Sarah asks readers to grapple with the same questions she did: when it comes to sex, what is good, bad, deviant, normal? Do such terms even apply? If everyone has sexual secrets, is it possible to really know another person and be known by them? And importantly, in our hyper-sexualized world, is it still possible to fall in love?  

This was a fascinating and enlightening memoir. Well written and highly informative even if you think you know all there is to know I guarantee you will be surprised by at least a few of the facts found in these pages. I grew up in an age where talk shows were more than just celebrity gossip and  tests for paternity, so I was probably 16 the first time I saw a chubby man waddle onto a tv stage to proclaim he was leaving his wife because he found a woman willing to change his diapers and breast feed him. I suppose I am saying that to make it clear that I have not led a sheltered life and I am quite aware that for any repulsive thing you can think of somewhere there is a person who is as turned on by it as you are disgusted by it. Yet I had never heard these rumors about Cleopatra, nor did I know there were animals that participate in necrophilia. I've learned a multitude  of new words such as sploshing and merkin and am now aware of which creature has a penis on it's head!
Aside from the informative and entertaining aspects of the history of sex the author also shares with us a bit of her own life, which was quite interesting as well. Although this is not usually the type of book I reach for I must say it was quite well done. 5 of 5 stars from me.

I received an advance copy for review