Tag Archives: love story

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Beautiful Ruins

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There’s nothing like a trip to the Italian coast when the temps plummet into winter.

Beautiful Ruins is a lovely, lovely tale—taking the best parts of an intricate tale like The Casual Vacancy and blending it with sweeping, emotionally wrought stories of love, such as in The Light Between Oceans. Were I a single girl in 1962, I just may have fought Amedea for Pasquale’s heart. Oh, Pasquale …

What you need to know before you dive in—the reader is jostled back and forth between 1962 in Italy and “Recently” in the States. Most of the characters figure prominently in one or both eras. There’s …

Michael Deane, a publicity assistant in 1962 and producer of ill-repute in present-day L.A.

Pasquale Tursi, a young hotelier (well, sort of, anyway) in Porto Vergogna (“Port of Shame”), Italy in 1962.

Dee Moray, a young actress on the set of “Cleopatra” in 1962, who morphs into Debra Moore, teacher and theater owner in modern day Pacific Northwest.

Dick and Liz. Duh.

Alvis Bender, The Hotel Adequate View’s only regular American customer and author extraordinaire. Sort of.

Pat Bender, front man for the Reticents and Debra’s son.

Claire Silver, Michael’s frustrated “Should I work for Scientologists?” assistant with a porn-addicted boyfriend, as well as two charity cases on her office doorstep. And that’s where the story begins …

Author Jess Walter takes readers on a journey from one coast to another, beginning with Pasquale and Dee in Italy and ending with … Pasquale and Dee in Italy. But along the way? Love is discovered and abandoned by nearly everyone involved. Whether it’s Pasquale slowly motoring away from Dee, Maria setting Alvis free, Pat’s refusal to take responsibility, Michael’s rejection of the moral high ground, Dick and Liz and Eddie Fisher …

What I most enjoy though is that Walter is able to touch the heart without going all Nicholas Sparks on us. The setting alone—that Italian coastline—is ripe for Sparks’ angst and emotional destruction. But Walter is able to go to the exact same place without the sap, but instead with humor. Pasquale’s attempt at a tennis court on the cliffs, Michael’s self-absorption, Aunt Valeria’s insults, Richard Burton’s booze … the humor is what makes the story human.

This is easily one of the best books I’ve read all year, and extra special in that I would not have discovered it unless someone had recommended it to me. So I’m paying it forward — don’t miss Beautiful Ruins. Excellent. Just excellent.

Beautiful Ruins
Jess Walter

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Heading Out to Wonderful

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Liked A Reliable Wife? So did I. But I liked this better.

Author Robert Goolrick’s sophomore effort, Heading Out to Wonderful, is worth your time on a long, rainy weekend. Or a road trip. Or the doctor’s office. It doesn’t take very many pages before you are completely engrossed in the tale of Charlie Beale, and his journey to Brownsburg, where his life intersects with that of Will and Alma Haislett, their son Sam, and the residents of this tiny town in Virgina in the late 1940s.

Here’s what you need to know—it’s historical fiction, it’s a love story, and it … doesn’t end well. I’m not saying it’s not a good ending—it’s just, well … I don’t want to give it away. Like The Midwife of Hope River, I find love stories like these so much hotter than that “50 Shades” tripe.

“She took off her dark glasses, very slowly, bowing her head to do it, gentle, graceful. She looked up at Will briefly, nodding hello. Then she just stood, and she turned her head slowly to stare at Charlie Beale. Five seconds. Ten, maybe, no more, but it seemed forever.

His hands were on the counter. He felt the urge to do something, to wipe the butcher block, to jingle the change in his pocket, but nobody moved, and he didn’t either …

…But Charlie Beale had heard her name. Sylvan Glass. She went off in his head and his heart like a firecracker on the Fourth of July. Something dazzling. Something stupendous.

Something, finally, that was wholly and mysteriously wonderful.”

Instantaneous, want-to-die-without-her love at first sight. It doesn’t make sense, but it never does. Goolrick is masterful at painting emotions on the page—it’s as if you can reach out and touch the illicit love between Charlie and Sylvan. Their story, and those separately—Sylvan’s desire to escape her destiny and Charlie’s desire to create the perfect family—are indeed wondrous, and sad, and touching. A great escapist read (and by that, I mean you will love Charlie and despair at his descent into madness, but if you were reading this as a true account in the local paper, you’d probably think he was whack and a creepy stalker dude.)

Me? I’m going to go grow a bubblegum tree.

Heading Out to Wonderful
Robert Goolrick

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The Sandcastle Girls

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You know the term “investment piece?”

We hear it a lot in fashion and furniture. Sure, it’s not exactly trendy, and it costs more, but it lasts longer. You’ll use it forever. It’s well-worth the larger financial and/or emotional investment.

That’s “The Sandcastle Girls.”

This book isn’t going to blow up the summer reading charts in the same fashion as the “50 Shades” trilogy or Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl.” But it certainly isn’t any less worthy of accolades. It’s simply a really tough read. It is about a love affair, but it’s not traditionally romantic. Set in the early 1900s in Aleppo, Syria, young Katherine Endicott has traveled from Boston on a goodwill mission to aid victims of the Armenian Genocide. It’s fiction set in fact—while the story of Katherine and her true love, Armen, may not be real, the atrocities around them are—thousands upon thousands of women and children marched hundred of miles through the desert, essentially, to their deaths. Author Chris Bohjalian leaves little to the imagination, making the reading of this book hard on the heart. And that’s really the point, I think. When should reading about a genocide ever be easy?

Still, the tale is touching and the investment Bohjalian makes in each character results in an engaging narrative. Katherine, Nevart, Hartoun and Armen sink into your soul while you read their story. And in typical Bohjalian fashion, the ending includes a twist that leaves you yelling, “Noooooo!” —not something I expected in this novel, but nonetheless, I was left breathless.

From one reader to another—historical fiction set in the Middle East has never been my bag. But Bohjalian is one of my favorite authors, so despite the occasional thoughts of abandoning it (and for no other reason than because its descriptions of the atrocities are really depressing), I kept on—and am glad I did. Bohjalian’s prose never fails me, and in the end, it was a beautiful love story. I’d love to know what other people think of Katherine’s decision in the end.

The Sandcastle Girls
Chris Bohjalian

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Rules of Civility

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I absolutely adore books that include moments I never saw coming.

So is the case of “Rules of Civility.” The story of friends Katya “Katey” Kontent and Evelyn “Evey” Ross, it almost reads like a “Sex and the City” meets “The Great Gatsby.” Kate and Eve are fast friends in late 30s NYC, rooming together at a boardinghouse and living life the best as they can on a little money and a lot of ingenuity. It’s New Year’s Eve when their “Big” comes calling—big time banker Tinker Grey.

Just a week into their friendship, their lives all take a dramatic turn, and the rest of the novel covers the next 12 months and its ups and downs in the lives of all three. Protagonist Katey is such a well-developed character that it came as a shock to me that this was Amor Towles’ first novel. Her heartache and determination leap off the page, and make it impossible to put the book down. Eve is that best friend you wish you did/didn’t have, and Tinker? Well, Tinker is the love of your life that you wait for patiently in the night to come that … I just can’t tell you. You have to read it.

What was I reminded of while reading this book? 1. People are not always what they seem to be. 2. Don’t trust older women. 3. Your heart will never listen to your head when it comes to love.

I tend to go back and forth on period pieces. Some I adore, others I abhor. This was one that, in light of the tragedy that is NYC during the Depression, I found myself mesmerized by. Lush, romantic and fraught with desperation, it was beautiful. The locales play just as important characters as the humans, drawing you into the scene. I want to live at the Beresford.

If you’re looking to escape and know you’re safe to ignore the family for at least a day, then run, don’t walk, to pick this up. A dear friend suggested to me the book would make me want to walk around all day with a martini glass. Yes! Pour yourself one and sit in a bubble bath with this book. You won’t be sorry.

Rules of Civility
Amor Towles

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The Fault in our Stars

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Hmmm …

“The Fault in our Stars” made it to my reading list primarily because I had several good friends tell me how wonderful it was. And it was the book’s legion of fans insisting it should have won the Pulitzer that has me wondering just how good it could be. (My fangirl Pulitzer vote was all about The Art of Fielding.)

So I dived right in and … well, I don’t think one could ever say they “enjoy” a story about people dying from cancer, but, it is a very well-written, moving tale of two teens and their doomed love story. It was … a really great read. Sad, but good.

My initial response at putting the book down was more of a Hmph! than an “Oh my God that was freakin’ awesome!” I was kind of pissed at everyone. Pissed at Hazel, the teenaged protagonist. Pissed at Augustus, her one great love who doesn’t bother to (SPOILER ALERT!!!) … live. Pissed at Hazel’s parents. Pissed in general. But the more I thought about the story, the more I appreciated the tone, because in reality, cancer sucks. It’s not something to savor, to wish you could do all over again. And I especially appreciated the willingness of Augustus to admit that his previous cancer-stricken, now deceased girlfriend, was a bitch on wheels. It takes balls to admit that the martyr isn’t all she was cracked up to be.

I also appreciated the humanity that was the “author” Peter Van Houten. What a dick. But real. Very real. And it all made sense at the end, during his reunion with Hazel. It was the one thing I hadn’t really thought of, whereas with Augustus, I knew as soon as he mentioned a pain that he was a (SPOILER ALERT!!!) … goner.

And finally, I thought Augustus’ eulogy for Hazel really is a beautiful thing. I hope that …well, let’s just say I hope I’m living the best life I can. I think it’s impossible and ridiculous to shoot for a life with no regrets. I regret not buying a Suzy-Q the last time I was at the store. But the book does get you thinking about the mark you’re making. Let’s just hope it’s a good one.

The Fault in our Stars
John Green

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To Be Sung Underwater

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Ah, well.

If you have even the teeniest bone in your body that belongs to a hopeless romantic, THIS is the book you should read. The story of Judith and Willy is the story of anyone who experienced an all-encompassing first love—the kind that lives in your heart long past it makes sense for it to reside there.

Judith Whitman is a wife. A wife, and a mom, and a film editor. While to outsiders she may appear to be living the stuff of dreams, her life isn’t much different from anyone else’s, and Tom McNeal’s writing is such that you feel he could be writing about your friend, your neighbor … you. It’s that real. The story flips between Judith’s youth (where all sorts of raging abandonment issues begin) and her life today (where those raging abandonment issues still exist). It’s her teen summer in Nebraska where the story takes root—where we meet Willy, and love blossoms.

When modern day pressures—a possible philandering husband, nagging teen and stress at work—conspire against Judith, she’s retreats to her youth in a decidedly odd way. The path she chooses leads her back to Nebraska, but not without a few punches to the gut along the way.

I don’t want to give too much away. The book is heartwrenching and wonderful, and so totally worth the read. Willy is my new I Ching of romance, with quotes like these:

“If we were honest about it, our lives are all fiascoes. There really isn’t anything of importance except maybe who gets handed your heart and what they do with it.”

and ..

“Here’s the thing we have to look at and accept. For you, I was just a chapter—a good chapter, maybe, or even your favorite chapter, but still, just a chapter—and for me, you were the book.”

Cuts.to.the.heart!

Whose mind doesn’t wander back? Back to the person that was just love? Not marriage, not kids, not taxes, not a mortgage, not careers? Just love. It’s never realistic, and therein lies Judith’s mistake. But thanks be to her for pursuing it so we can be reminded that sometimes, “What if? ” should stay that way.

To Be Sung Underwater
Tom McNeal