Book Review: "A Kiss in Time" by Alex Flinn

{This book is from the author of "Beastly" which has now been made into a movie.} Alex Flinn takes a genre of fairy tales and is giving them a modern day twist. In "A Kiss in Time" she takes the well known story of Sleeping Beauty and turns it into the story of princess Talia who has laid asleep for 300 years only to be awakened by 16 year old American tourist Jack who was sent on a European summer tour by his parents. When Jack and his friend Travis break away from the rest of their tour group to try and have a day at the beach, they get lost and discover the slumbering and well hidden kingdom of Ephrasia where everyone seems to be peacefully asleep and no amount of their yelling and noise can wake them. While exploring the castle,  Jack happens upon the stunning sleeping princess and cannot resist giving her one kiss before leaving. Upon waking princess Talia, chaos ensues as the rest of the kingdom awakes after 300 years as well. Who is this peasant boy who broke the curse? The stipulation was that it must be from her one true love. After a rebellious Talia convinces Jack to help her escape her unhappy existence in her kingdom he takes her back home to Florida where she is thrust into the world of cell phones, TV, modern teenage drama, and a wicked witch who just won't leave her alone. She has to find out if Jack is really her one true love before it is too late.

The story alternates back and forth each chapter between Jack and Talia's point of view. There is no denying this is written for the young adult crowd, that became apparent from the very first chapter. I think it could have been written a little bit better and captivated more of an older audience as well. It is was a quick, easy, and fun read however but did not really engage me as much as I'd hoped since I had heard good things about the authors other books. It is recommended for ages 12 and up, but there are a few references to things like "jell-o shots" and "making out" type things that might be better left for someone a little bit older. That was kind of the puzzling contrast to me was some of the more mature content, but the writing was a little dumbed down for the audience, especially since children these days are accustomed to more challenging vocabulary and plot lines that come from books like "Harry Potter". It does however have a typical fairy tale happy ending and has some good themes of finding yourself  and the person you really want to be, and trying harder to have better relationships with your family. I have been trying to find some younger reader type fiction books that my daughter Kendle would enjoy, and unfortunately I don't think this one passed the test. All in all, it was just alright for me. I am still interested to try out another of her books and give the author one more shot.

Overall Rating:

2 1/2 out of 5 Bookmarks

 

Book Review: "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" By Jamie Ford

Synopsis:

In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.

This was such a sweet, sweet story. It must be a coincidence that the last two books I'm reviewing have both been intertwined with World War II although they are both from completely different parts of the war. I thought the author took a really interesting angle with showing a young Chinese American boy who falls in love with a young Japanese American girl in a time in our country's history where Japanese were seen as the enemy. Henry's father who is rigid and strict and very patriotically Chinese (they were allies with the United States during the war) makes him wear an "I am Chinese" button wherever he goes so that he is not mistaken for being Japanese and taken away to an internment camp or be subject to harassment and problems at his all white school where he is "scholarshipping".  He forces him to only speak English and not his native Cantonese. Little does his father know that the children at school still want nothing to do with him, except for Keiko who also works in the kitchen during lunch time with Henry. They form a fast friendship and learn to navigate the bullying by their classmates together. I loved the descriptions of 1940's Seattle Chinatown and Japantown, the feel of Seattle during that time, and the jazz music that was alive and thriving and which was a shared joy for Henry and Keiko. The story is told in retrospect from an older Henry who still holds a very dear spot in his heart for the young Keiko he had to say goodbye to all of those years ago when her family was taken away first to an internment camp at the fair grounds in Puyallup, WA and then later to one in Idaho. The author touches on cultures, loyalties, politics, language, heritage, and what it means to live out your own dreams and also how sometimes down the road in life we end up acting like our parents whether we realize it or not.

I'm a big fan of historical fiction and when it inspires me to learn more about the issues and hardships of that time. It is sad to look back on that time in our country's history and think about all of the citizens that were rounded up and forced to leave their homes and belongings and relocate forcibly to another place even when the majority of them were American born citizens. After the war was over, they did not have much to come back to and they were forced to start new lives elsewhere many times. It made me think a lot about my own heritage. This was just such a beautiful book, not really sad at all, just bittersweet like the title says. The innocent love and friendship of Henry and Keiko was a breath of fresh air in modern literature and one I will think about for a long time. This is not a book to rush through, take your time and enjoy it. There are parts that can seem a little slow, but overall it all came together to tell a wonderful story.

Overall Rating:

4 out of 5 bookmarks



Book Review: "The Winter Garden" by Kristen Hannah

Synopsis:

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time—and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya’s life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother’s life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.

When I first started reading this book I had no idea where the story was going and it took me a chapter or two to really get into. Once I realized where the story was going and got swept back in time to World War II and the devastated Russian city of Leningrad, I found myself totally fascinated about this story of daughters really having no clue who their mother truly was, and the type of unimaginable circumstances she had lived through. Death, starvation, despair, but ultimately a chance at another life far far away in America. Their mother Anya can only manage to tell her experiences by means of a fairytale format where she can pretend those things happened to someone else. Because the sisters promised their father by his last dying wish that they would make their mother tell them the entire story, it forces them to spend more time with their mother and learn to look past her seemingly cold and uncaring exterior to what was really just a way of coping with her prior life. It also begins to form a stronger bond between the sisters who have lived apart for many years. Again, I love a good story within a story so I found it had a lot of different depths - mother/daughter relationships, sibling relationships, marital relationships, it all comes together in the end after the two sisters convince their mother to join them on an Alaskan cruise where they can finally all find closure to what's been troubling them most in their lives. This book was both funny and sad and inspired me even more to share my life experiences with my own children - good and bad. It was especially touching to read about the cycle of care giving between mothers and daughters. It also describes lots and lots of wonderfully yummy sounding Russian cuisine which has interested me to find out more about that as well.

**On a side note, the historical events intertwined into the story are actually true and very sad.  I myself was not very familiar with the siege of Leningrad, which is considered the most lethal siege in World History, and all that that entailed. It inspired me to research and educate myself on that particular part of World War II, and I was fascinated that such a horrific battle is not very well known about in the larger spectrum of the war. It you are unfamiliar with it as well, I encourage you that it is definitely worth learning about.  Here is a brief breakdown --

The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation by the German Army Group North and the Finnish Defence Forces to capture Leningrad in the Eastern Front theatre of the Second World War. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last land connection to the city was severed. Although the Soviets managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the total lifting took place on 27 January 1944, 872 days after it began. It was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history and one of the most costly in terms of casualties. The city was cut off from food, communication, and constantly bombed.

The two-and-a-half year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city. On Hitler's express orders, most of the palaces of the Tsars, such as the Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, Ropsha, Strelna, Gatchina, and other historic landmarks located outside the city's defensive perimeter were looted and then destroyed, with many art collections transported to Nazi Germany. A number of factories, schools, hospitals and other civil infrastructure were destroyed by air raids and long range artillery bombardment.

The 872 days of the siege caused unparalleled famine in the Leningrad region through disruption of utilities, water, energy and food supplies. This resulted in the deaths of up to 1,500,000 soldiers and civilians and the evacuation of 1,400,000 more, mainly women and children, many of whom died during evacuation due to starvation and bombardment. Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery alone in Leningrad holds half a million civilian victims of the siege. Economic destruction and human losses in Leningrad on both sides exceeded those of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Moscow, or the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The siege of Leningrad is the most lethal siege in world history, and some historians speak of the siege operations in terms of genocide, as a "racially motivated starvation policy" that became an integral part of the unprecedented German war of extermination against populations of the Soviet Union generally.

Civilians in the city suffered from extreme starvation, especially in winter of 1941–1942. For example, from November 1941 to February 1942 the only food available to the citizen was 125 grams of bread, which by 50–60 per cent consisted of sawdust and other inedible admixtures, and distributed with ration cards. For about 2 weeks at the beginning of January 1942 even this food was available only for workers and military personnel. In conditions of extreme temperatures (down to −30 °С) and city transport being out of service a few kilometers to the food distributing kiosks were insurmountable obstacles for many citizens. In January–February 1942 about 700–10,000 citizens died every day, most of them from hunger. People often died on the streets, and citizens shortly became accustomed to the look of death.

Reports of cannibalism appeared in the winter of 1941-1942, after all birds, rats and pets were eaten by survivors.  Hungry gangs attacked and ate defenseless people. Leningrad police even formed a special unit to combat cannibalism.


As horrible as all of this sounds, the book still managed to have a spirit of overcoming life's hardest obstacles as only women can do. We have families and children to take care of and life marches on whether we want it to or not. We can not stand idle, we are called to action when our families and loved ones need us and sometimes we have to make harder choices than we could have ever imagined. I absolutely loved the ending to this book and I plan on reading more from this author.

Overall Rating:

4 out of 5 bookmarks

Book Review: "Juliet" By Anne Fortier

Everyone is familiar with Shakespeare's epic drama "Romeo and Juliet", where two feuding families, the Montague's and the Capulet's  are corrupted by rivalry, power, and tragedy in Verona Italy. But what if instead of two families there were actually three, and what if the real story took place in the lovely and magical Siena where young Giulietta Tolomei met a young hero named Romeo Marescotti.

Six centuries after the most famous love story of all time,  25 year-old Julie Jacobs receives a key after the passing of her beloved aunt who raised her and her twin sister. This key was once carried by her mother on the day she herself died and opens a safety deposit box in Siena, Italy. Feeling betrayed that all that was left to her in her aunt's will was this key while her sister inherited the entire estate, Julie sets out for Italy to discover what importance lies in the safe keeping of the box that is hidden away in a bank in Sienna. What she finds will change her life forever and connect her to the troubled past of her ancestor Giulietta Tolomei who was smuggled into Siena after her parents were murdered, whereupon she would meet young Romeo who instantly falls in love with her and vows that they will be married. The events that would follow their ill-fated love would cause much grief and destruction for medieval Siena which in turn inspired many poets and artists and finally Shakespeare's most famous tragedy.

Now in present day Siena, hunting a long hidden treasure, Julie begins to feel like the past and present are starting to intertwine. Meeting old relatives and crossing paths with the descendants of the other families, she begins to understand that the notorious curse -- "A plague on both your houses!" was taken very seriously by the families and may still be at work.  The more she researches and learns about the history of Siena, the personal vendetta's, the family rivalries, and the curses and superstitions surrounding the tale of their tragedy, the more danger she realizes that she could be in and that the story is still unfinished. Julie learns that her fate has always been tied to Romeo and Giulietta, literature's most famous star-crossed lovers.

This was a beautiful and totally captivating story. From the historical references and the archeology and landscape, to the lovely descriptions of present day Siena, I just could not put this book down. The author Anne Fortier packed in almost everything I love in a good book - mystery, intrigue, clues, long lost letters, genealogy, local historical data, romance, danger, and lots of twists and turns. I can honestly say, I did not know how the story was going to unfold and that was really refreshing. I do not like to be able to figure out the end of the book in the first few chapters. There are so many traditions in these ancient countries and cities that we do not have here in the United States, and it was fascinating to read about the family pride and symbols that adorned many houses and parts of the city in the story and to imagine the way of life and the politics that were involved in just trying to get married and join families together. And sometimes you find that history truly does repeat itself.

This is a perfect book to read with Valentine's Day approaching, but you might have to clear your schedule if you can't seem to put it down. If you can't reserve it at the library, I think it is worth buying. As for myself, I think it is safe to say I will never look at the story of Romeo and Juliet the same way again.

Overall rating:

4 1/2 out of 5 bookmarks