Love in the Time of Cholera

I'm a sucker for a love story. A love story that spans fifty-three years, seven months and eleven days and nights? Be still my beating heart.

Love in the Time of Cholera is beautiful. In the beginning, I had a hard time keeping track of the characters (mainly because a) I suck at keeping names straight anyway and b) I was only reading bits at a time on the train in the morning). Soon though, it became hard to put down. I wouldn't mind the Boy being a bit late to pick me up from the train station at the end of the day on his way home, just because I could get in a few more pages of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza.

Gabriel García Márquez is a beautiful writer and provides visuals that make you feel like you're there with the characters. Márquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude is on my booklist still, and I'll be picking it up sooner rather than later.

Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet

Patterson co-writes this book with Charbonnet as he returns to writing a new romance novel. In an interview, Patterson described this book as a "fairy-tale for grown-ups." I was somewhat skeptical of the premise, basically a woman falls in love with her imaginary friend, and wondered how in the world he could even write such a book.

The plot begins as young Jane is having dessert with her imaginary friend, Michael in a New York hotel. Jane's mother, a highly successful Broadway producer, is very strict while Jane's father is essentially non-existent. Michael is her very best friend. On Jane's ninth birthday, Michael must leave Jane as that is just what he must do. He tells Jane that she will eventually forget him as all the children he's worked with eventually do but, Jane never does. Next, we find Jane all grown-up, working for her mother, and fresh from having huge success with a stage play based on her childhood relationship with Michael. At the same time, Michael arrives in New York for vacation before he receives his next assignment. By chance, the two find each other again but can they ever really be together?

The entire story is so far-fetched, sappy, and definitely a "fairy-tale" but I actually really enjoyed reading this one. I think it is simply because of the fast pace in which Patterson writes that makes me want to keep turning the pages. I just have to see what happens next. Good read and possibly a good beach read for the summer.

Something Borrowed

Before I start my review, I just wanted to welcome our brand-spanking new reviewers, Amber, Lauren, and Elisabeth. Thanks for taking an interest ladies! Your reviews have been awesome!

Okay ... about the book.

This book was written by Emily Giffin and I believe this is her first novel. I read this book a couple of years ago and I found it was something I could relate to, not because I was sleeping with my best friend's fiancé (like that would ever happen), but because of the age-group of the ladies this book focused on. These women are turning thirty, in the prime of their lives, have great careers and great friends and are living life the way it is meant to be lived: to the fullest.

Of course with every friendship you have the under dog (Rachel) and the alpha dog (Darcy). Darcy is the "look at me!" girl while Rachel is the girl who stands in Darcy's shadow. She is the type of girl who will bite her tongue when it comes to Darcy's antics, because, well that's what best friends do, right?

Darcy is pretty dependent on Rachel. Rachel is ambitious. She's a NYC lawyer and Darcy isn't anything really. Darcy followed Rachel to NY and, considering she didn't really have any work background, managed to snag a glamorous job which paid amazing dollars. But then again, Darcy is the kind of girl that doesn't really have to work to get what she wants. Yes ... she's THAT pretty.

Long story short, Rachel hooks up Darcy with this guy she went to law school with named Dex. At first Dex didn't really show an interest in Darcy (much to her shock) because he kinda sorta liked Rachel. Since Rachel wasn't really confident, she dismissed his feelings because he couldn't possibly want someone like her. Dex and Darcy began to date and wound up getting engaged, with Rachel appointed to maid-of-honour status. On the night of Darcy's surprise 30th birthday party, Darcy goes home pissed drunk and Dex and Rachel end up sleeping together.

This is where it gets interesting. They vow to keep that as a one night thing but the problem is that they can't stop thinking about each other and it continues on to be something ... more. And it's a weird dynamic because Darcy is important to the both of them. This affair comes to a head when Rachel can't stand the lies and being the other woman when she feels she should be THE woman. She tells Dex that he either needs to call off the wedding or they can't continue what they're doing (duh). Strangely enough? I was totally rooting for Dexter and Rachel. Even though they were having an affair. Trust me if you read this book, you would be too.

I loved this book. It was so well written and not hard to read at all. I loved how Emily wrote the story ... her style was awesome. Read this book. It's such a fun read (and it has a sequel!) and it took me about a day to finish it. And I re-read this book. That's how much I liked it (but truth be told, I only re-read the steamy parts).

Twilight

It's been a really, really long time that I've bought a book and read it from cover to cover in about 2 days (and this book is over 500 pages). This book brought me back to my old ways of getting lost in a story very quickly. From the first page of the first chapter, I was immersed immediately into the lives of these unknowns.

I must've passed by this book everytime I visited my bookstore a hundred or so times. And everytime I passed it, I would stop, pick it up, and put it back down. For some reason, I picked it up yesterday and decided I'd get it. My only regret is that I didn't buy the other two books that followed it as well.

This story is about vampires who live among humans. The concept of vampires has always fascinated me for as long as I can remember. I particularly am drawn to stories of vampires who have human characteristics about them. The ones who are able to quell their desires to drink human blood. The ones who fall in love and have relationships. Vampires are always perceived to be monsters, so when I read the back cover of this book, I knew that this was more than just vampires who sucked blood. I'm just a sucker for a love story I suppose.

This story is about a 17 year old vampire, (although he's more like 108 years old), Edward, who falls in love with a girl named Isabella (Bella for short). She is new to the town of Forks, Washington and has moved to live with her dad while her mom can travel freely with her new husband (who is looking to be signed to a minor league baseball team and isn't exactly stationed in one particular town). At first Edward tries to avoid her because he genuinely fears for her safety (he is afraid that he will give into temptation and drink her), but he takes precautions so that he can be with her. And she is utterly and completely intoxicated with him and, her learning what he is makes her feelings for him grow even stronger. His family is accepting of his love for her and go to great lengths to save her from a possible savage death by another vampire who tries to kill her. By the end of the book, Bella wishes to be transformed into a vampire so that she can spend eternity with Edward but he refuses to subject her to that. But, there are two other books that follow so who knows what will happen.

This is the author's (Stephenie Meyer) first book and I have to say that she did a really good job in getting the reader involved in the lives of these characters right off the bat. I couldn't put the book down. The love story she created was so forbidden, yet so beautiful and sacred at the same time. She created Edward to have such amazing human qualities that it was no wonder Bella could fall for him so easily ... I could not blame her one bit.

Well you can bet that I will be buying book two and three of this series. It was that captivating.

(Eclipse - the third book - was reviewed by Pam.)