The Vacationers: A Story About The Holiday I Never Want to Be On

Ok so I believed the hype and dove in (pun kinda intended) to THE SUMMER BOOK of 2014: The Vacationers by Emma Straub. And I am probably in the minority when I say this but, I just wasn't feeling it.

The book is literally about a dysfunctional American family that goes on vacation to the idyllic Spanish island of Mallorca. Said family are the Post's: Fran (mom who may possibly care more about food/cooking than everything else), Jim (father, recently fired from his lifelong career at a men's magazine because of an affair with an intern), Bobby (Fran & Jim's oldest child who behaves like someone 10 years his junior) and Stella (Fran & Jim's daughter who seems to be the most stable member of the clan, recent high school graduation about to fly the coop for college life). Along for the vacation are family friends Charles & Lawrence (married couple who spend most of 2 weeks hoping that their adoption in the states goes through) and Carmen (Bobby's much older girlfriend/personal trainer). A few minor characters included a Spanish virginity-taking tutor, a retired hunky tennis pro, a Harley driving pediatrician and the even more self-obsessed (really? is that possible?) owner of the home who rents it to the Posts for their quasi-doomed holiday, none of which really do much to elevate the plot to anything that would keep the reader compelled to finish the book.

This book is essentially about all of them and how their secrets come out and either redeem them or ruin them. There is no real plot. The characters are self-obsessed and don't really do anything noteworthy except exist. There are marital problems. Money problems. Career problems. Friend problems.  It's as if the book is a suspended glimpse of how people interact with one another when forced to by proximity via vacation house in foreign country. (Side note: the descriptions of Mallorca were very enchanting)

I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't. It felt like I kept waiting for something to happen, and it never really did.

photo courtesy of: Penguin group

Until You're Mine: The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Meets Every SingleEpisode of Law & Order SVU

The job of a nanny is notoriously double-edged: she must be fully trustworthy yet at the same time manage to not blur the delicate line between parent and hired caregiver. In the novel, Until You're Mine by Samantha Hayes, mom-to-be Claudia searches out the perfect nanny to help around the home after her baby daughter arrives. As the wife of a Navy husband, Claudia spends the majority of her time flip-flopping between her career as a social worker and primary caregiver for the twin boys she's become defacto mother to following the death of their birth mother. Having had a history of stillbirths and miscarriages, she is in a fragile medical state that makes the assistance of a nanny even more useful. Enter Zoe, the seemingly perfect nanny-candidate. The twins love her and she has all the necessary qualifications, but she also has a secret. (Cue the mysterious music)

To make matters worse, there has been a serious of attacks on pregnant women and their unborn children in the area. Claudia's increasingly vulnerability make her suspicious of Zoe and that's when the story really takes off at roller-coaster speed.

A suspenseful novel with a twist that I never saw coming. Hayes did a good job of misdirecting the reader and it makes for a fun and entertaining psychological thriller. Pack this one in your beach bag!

courtesy of Random House

Reasons My Kid is Crying: The Perfect Book to Kick Back with After anEspecially Trying Day of Parenting

Hey parents, do you frequently visit hilarious parenting blogs? Then chances are good you are familiar with the blog, Reasons My Son is Crying. (No? I'll wait while you go check out the site. Really, you must. It's a gem!)

The blog, and subsequently the book, is the brainchild of Greg Pembroke who decided in the midst of one of his 3-year-old son's tantrums, to start documenting the reasons behind the outbursts. Needless to say hilarity, as well as an instant web-following of parents, ensued.

Reasons My Kid is Crying is dubbed as "Part Diary, Part Therapy, Completely Hilarious" and is everything a time-starved parent looks for in a book: concise, funny and reassuring. It is presented in the same style as the blog: a photo of a toddler sobbing alongside a caption describing what caused the meltdown. My favorites include: "He met Bill Murray", "His Aunt wouldn't let him play with the ax" and "I wouldn't let him crawl into a 400 degree oven". I mean who hasn't been there??!!

This is the kind of book that you sit down on the couch and read with your spouse after you put the kids to bed. It is a solid reminder to parents that everyone's child will occasionally act like this and that the best way to get through it is to laugh (and ok, sometimes take pictures and document your kids' absolutely illogical but nonetheless pricelessly entertaining explanations for their tantrums).

Makes a great gift for a new parent or someone whose child is about to enter the everything-they-told-you-and-more-is-true realm of the terrible twos.

Blogger note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. This review is entirely based on my opinion and contains my honest evaluation.

photo courtesy of: http://crownpublishing.com/

Book Review: CONSTELLATION OF BOYS BY KERRY COHEN

This review also appears on Amazon & Goodreads.

**

5.0 out of 5 stars

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5.0 out of 5 stars

Must Read for the Loose Girl in All of Us April 26, 2014

By sleepdeprivedandstarryeyed

Format:Kindle Edition|Kayla is a little of each of us. She is the Everygirl, who eventually morphs into the Everywoman. In A CONSTELLATION OF BOYS by Kerry Cohen, Kayla Gray connects the boys of her life from age eight onward. Her brother's friend, the boy at the gas station, her missing-in-action father, the boy at the summer beach house, boys from the mall, boys from school, boys from the skate park, older boys who were friends of her brother, men her mother has relationships with. The boys were fleeting moments in her life, much like the passing of a lone shooting star, once they passed over her, were never to be heard from again. The connections she craved from boys, most notably mirrors her mother’s own relationships with men, eventually becomes her unraveling.

Told in short vignettes about each boy’s effect on her life, however minor or major, A CONSTELLATION OF BOYS is simply a glimpse into a young girl’s mind specifically as it relates to boys. How boys are all-consuming, how boys have an ability to be confident about their place in the world from a young age and how girls have to forge out their own place while withstanding the emotional roller coaster highs and lows of want and desire. How boys have it so easy, they “owned the world” and how girls subject themselves to boys’ whims in the most intense ways just to grasp at the possibility of connection. How boys become a drug. The underlying parallel between boys as heavenly bodies. The euphoria attached to be wanted can be addicting. Thus, how easily we all become loose girls.

A great, quick read for adults and teens alike. Kerry Cohen has definitely done it again with being able to speak for all of the loose girls of the world.