The Printed Page

Title: Decision and Destiny: Colette’s Legacy (2nd book in the Collette trilogy)
Author/website: DeVa Gantt
363 pages
Publisher: Avon
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Fiction/family saga
Would I recommend it: Only if you like long, drawn out family sagas
This is the 2nd book in the Collette trilogy and you really, really shouldn’t read this one w/o having read A Silent Ocean Away: Colette’s Dominion first. This trilogy is actually one very large book broken into three by the publishing house. There is no backtracking nor highlighting characters or story line from the first book so you’ll be lost if you aren’t familiar with what has come before. For me this saga is too drawn out and filled with fluff. Book 1 was 416 pages, book 2 is 363 pages and Amazon is showing book 3 to be 464 pages. Honestly I don’t think we’ve made much progress story wise. And what progress we have made was very easy to figure out from the numerous hints left all over the place by the authors. There’s lots of family drama but not much else to this story. I was bored for a great portion of this one. I doubt I’ll be reading the last book in this trilogy.

A spellbinding saga of a remarkable american family . . .

The beautiful, frail Colette Duvoisin trusted governess Charmaine Ryan with her worries, her dreams, and the care of her beloved children. But now Colette is gone—leaving her three young ones devastated . . . and the house of Duvoisin in turmoil.

To her children’s horror, their father, the enigmatic Frederic Duvoisin, weds his mistress and sister-in-law, Agatha, soon after their mother’s untimely death. A scheming and dangerous adversary, Agatha has no love for her predecessor’s offspring, ruthlessly wielding her newly won power while guarding her own dark secrets. Meanwhile, a rivalry between Colette’s stepsons—suave Paul and cynical John—is reignited, drawing battle lines among family, friends, and servants. When Frederic suddenly emerges from his self-imposed isolation, he touches off a struggle for patriarchal supremacy that threatens to lay the entire Duvoisin empire to waste.

At the center of the storm is innocent Charmaine, who must come to terms with shattering truths about the family she once believed she knew—and decide who among them deserves her admiration, her derision, her devotion . . . and her heart.

Title: The Lace Reader
Author/website: Brunonia Barry
400 pages (DNF @ page 71)
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: July ’08
Genre: Fiction
Would I recommend it: No but then I didn’t finish reading it either
This has been on my Kindle since December of last year when I downloaded it for vacation reading. I’m guessing that’s where I should have left it, unread. I struggled to get to page 71.

Towner Whitney, a dazed young woman descended from a long line of mind readers and fortune tellers, has survived numerous traumas and returned to her hometown of Salem, Mass., to recover. Any tranquility in her life is short-lived when her beloved great-aunt Eva drowns under circumstances suggesting foul play. Towner’s suspicions are taken with a grain of salt given her history of hallucinatory visions and self-harm. The mystery enmeshes local cop John Rafferty, who had left the pressures of big city police work for a quieter life in Salem and now finds himself falling for the enigmatic Towner as he mourns Eva and delves into the history of the eccentric Whitney clan.

Here’s a highlight from Marcia’s Kindle Corner. This book has both print and, of course, Kindle editions. If you want to check out all the books I’m sampling/reading this month be sure and stop by the Corner.

Title: When Lightning Strikes
Author/website: Jenny Carroll (aka Meg Cabot)
File size: 374 KB/Print: 272 pages
Publication date: January ’04
Genre: YA fiction
Would I recommend it: Yes; a fun, entertaining book
Sample size: 1/2 of Ch. 1
Price: $3.99
I rarely read YA fiction, the Harry Potter series being the exception to the rule. Its not at I don’t find it interesting, its that I don’t have much exposure to those authors as there are no tweens/teens in my life. Unbeknownst to me it was penned by a major author using a pseudonym – Meg Cabot writing as Jenny Carroll. It’s the first in a 1-800-Where-R-You series of 5 books. I loved our main character, Jess. She’s a feisty, sassy, no-holds barred kind of girl. She gives as good as she gets and a bit more when the situation calls for a more hands-on approach. Under her prickly outer shell is a true heart of gold. She’s your normal, average high school sophomore whose family is your normal, average neighborhood family. She runs in the middle of the pack – she isn’t trying to be something she’s not, her best friend has some weight issues and she’s just figuring out boys. And that lightning strike gives her a unique ability to locate missing children on the back of milk cartons. Jess has reported the locations of 6 missing children which sets off a chain of events that turn her life, and the lives of those around her, upside down. Not only did I enjoy When Lightning Strikes but I’m looking reading the rest of this fun YA series.

Jessica Mastriani walked two miles home from high school straight into a huge Indiana thunderstorm. And straight into trouble. Not that Jess had never been in trouble before. But this trouble was serious. Because somehow on that long walk home, Jessica acquired an amazing power that can be used for good… or evil.