If You Liked That, Read This!

If you liked...

and...

...read this!

If you liked Kate Morton's The House at Riverton (review here) or The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig (review here), you'll likely enjoy The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes.

Let's be real, this novel belongs in a whole category of women's fiction with these same elements, so if you're a fan of this general formula, then I'd recommend this novel for you. We're talking dual perspectives from past and present, family secrets, and female protagonists. Other novels that come to mind include The Seven Sisters (review here) and A Bridge Across the Ocean (review here). I just recently picked up The Girl You Left Behind for the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club and found that contains the same elements as some of my favorite historical fiction picks. The Girl You Left Behind mainly follows two women: Liv, a grieving widow in present day London, and Sophie, a woman living in northern France during the first World War. What links them is a painting of Sophie, which after 85 years has made its way into Liv's home. Years later, Liv finds herself involved in a high-tension art restitution case, which compels her to dig deep into the history of both the painting and the life of its subject. I didn't find Liv's character as likable as I had hoped, but overall the book was interesting and had a twist that surprised me and left me feeling satisfied with the story. I gave it four out of five stars and would even recommend it as a spring/summer read when you're looking for something interesting and easy to follow.

Review: Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase

{on Goodreads}

Clearly I have a thing for characters who are fellow bibliophiles. In the case of Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase, that character is Roberta, and maybe it's a shared love of books, or maybe it was just Louise Walter's outstanding writing, but I found her to be entirely endearing. I think Roberta can best be described as "bookish." She works in a bookshop, lives a quiet life, and is generally unassuming. She loves collecting the letters and notes that she finds in used books, and she uses them to daydream about the lives of the people who leave their books behind. 

One day, her father gifts her an antique suitcase that once belonged to her grandmother. In it, she finds a letter from her late grandfather. There's something strange about it though, as the letter was dated after her grandfather had died in the war. Roberta is baffled, and the mystery leads us into the second narrative in this story, that of Dorothea, Roberta's grandmother. Dorothea is unhappily married to a brutish man and forced to support herself during the war, which leads her to a fateful meeting with a charming soldier named Jan. Told through the past/present narrative frame (a style that I'm partial to), this book drew me in and kept me guessing as to the characters' secrets and keeping my fingers crossed for their happy endings. I loved the characters, I loved how easily the narrative flowed between Dorothea and Roberta, and I especially loved that the story was peppered with some of the notes and letters that Roberta stumbled across during her time in the bookshop. At times the story was heartbroken, but after finishing I felt a sense of peace. Recommended for fans of Kate Morton and Katherine Reay, and certainly a great pick for a women's book club!

Bottom-Line Rating: 5/5

Title: Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase

Author: Louise Walter

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2014

Price: $13 from B&N

ISBN:1444777424 

Format: Hardcover

Source: Public Library

Review: The Brontë Plot

{On Goodreads}

If you're a frequent reader of Top Shelf Text you know that I'm partial to books about books. I had seen press for The Brontë Plot and even though I haven't read more than one of the infamous Brontë works, I knew instantly that it was a book that I'd want to read. 

I loved the premise: Lucy is a dealer in rare books, working for a prolific interior designer. She loves his mentorship and the life that she's built, but she's been dishonest in building his book business, a trait she thinks comes from her con-man (and perpetually absent) father. In the beginning of the story, Lucy meets James, a handsome and wealthy customer who buys one of her rare books. Their flirtation grows into a serious relationship, until the day that James confronts Lucy with her fraudulent deeds. Their relationship has fallen apart when James's grandmother, Helen, invites Lucy on an unusual sort of "business" trip. She whisks Lucy off to London as her buyer and invites Lucy to witness her last great adventure, on which she hopes to make amends for her own guilty secrets. As the two women venture through London, Lucy works to make amends for her own mistakes. 

The story is at times, frustrating -- particularly because Lucy seems to slip so easily into that corrupt frame of mind. For me, it felt like the wall that she put up for the other characters actually prevented me (the reader) from accessing her full character. It's for that reason alone that I can only give the book four stars. That being said, I think Reay created a real, flawed, human character here and I appreciated that the relationships were built slowly enough to be realistic. I also loved Helen's character -- the wise old woman who's unafraid to face the end of her time -- and I felt genuinely heartened after finishing the book. Reay's written two others, both based on Austen's works, and I look forward to reading those in 2016. I'd recommend this one for bookclubs especially, because I think it's a great book for discussions about living a full life and opening up yourself to others. 

Bottom-Line Rating: 4/5

Title: The Brontë Plot

Author: Katherine Reay

Publisher: Thomas Nelson, 2015

Price: $12 on Amazon

ISBN: 1401689752

Format: Paperback

Source: Public Library

Update: Books I've Read in 2014 {May & June}

In putting together this list, I'm already getting a sneak peak of how my 2014 reading challenge will pan out. It's interesting to see how many books I read during breaks versus exam time at school. The number of books I read each month fluctuates, but in the end I really hope to achieve my goal of 60 books this year. Below you'll find my most recent reads from May and June. My favorites from this list? Wildflower Hill and The Goldfinch.

Here's a little guideline for how I decide (out of 5) the number of stars to give a book:

5 stars: Amazing. Perfect. Enthralling. Highly recommend it!

4 stars: It isn't a masterpiece, but I sure liked it!

3 stars: I wouldn't re-read it, but still liked it.

2 stars: Not at the top of my list. Maybe skip this one.(...Or don't! You never know what you may like).

1 star: It probably took considerable effort for me not to throw this at a wall. Who knows, maybe I did throw it at the wall. 

{on Goodreads}
4 Stars
(A great pick for summer reading!)

Read My Review
3 Stars

Read My Review
5 Stars

Read My Review

2 Stars

{on Goodreads}
4 Stars