Book Review: "Diva (The Flappers, #3)"

I know I should have read this series in sequence, but I just couldn't help myself -- I was so in love with the cover of this one that I read it first. ;) (I'm going to backtrack and read the other two though.) Anyhow, Diva, the third book in Jillian Larkin's The Flapper series, is a perfectly marvelous romance/drama/mystery about the 1920's, right in the height of the same era as The Great Gatsby. The author certainly did her homework in terms of fashion, slang, popular locations, you name it... I was absolutely thrilled to see this. The book is really about three miniature stories all in one book, all intertwined and running parallel to each other. Each chapter is labeled with which woman it involves, so once you realize that, the book is far easier to follow. I don't know how much I can truly say here about the plot without giving it all away, so I'm going to just leave that part a mystery for you to find out if you should choose to read it. ;) Anyway, I absolutely adored this book and I'm rating it 5 stars!

Book Review: "Accidents of Nature"

When you hear mention of a book with a premise of severely handicapped teenagers going to summer camp, you must assume that the book is going to treat these individuals as some sort of freak show, and that the story will be a very depressing one.

Except, of course, when the author is one of them.

This story takes place in 1970, when handicapped individuals were more or less cast out of society as though they were lepers. But these kids converge year after year at Camp Courage; a state-funded summer camp for disabled teens. Some of them have severe handicaps -- cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, muscular dystrophy, amputees, parapalegics, quadrapaledgics, etc... Some, the 'walkie-talkies', appear normal outwardly, but suffer from things like asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, mental illness, etc. All are welcomed as equals to the camp. and nobody feels out of place, as everyone is here for similar reasons.

More astoundingly though is just how vividly colorful the personalities of each of these characters is. People often dismiss the disabled as not being all there and not really having feelings, lives, hopes, aspirations, dreams, life goals, crushes, you name it...but this story touches on all of that and portrays them as the real people that they are. The real live, breathing, flesh and blood people. And it's with this, and seeing that they're not a bunch of sad individuals but rather, teenagers like anybody else who o the best they can with the hand they've been dealt, that serves as somewhat of a jolting wake-up call.

I personally was very sucked in by this story on many levels and really enjoyed it. I'm rating it a 5 out of 5 stars. :)

Book Review: "The Memory Keeper's Daughter"

It's not often that a  book can come into your life whose story, practically from the very first chapter til the last page, will rip your heart out, stomp all over it, utterly destroy you....but yet, you can't put the book down...

This. This is that book.

From the moment you open this book, you're plunged into a world of drama. It starts in the early 60's with a newlywed couple, doctor David Henry and his wife, Norah, expecting the birth of their first child. Norah goes into labor in the middle of a blizzard, and they barely make it to the clinic in time. The doctor who would have delivered the child got into a car accident on the way to the clinic, so David is left to deliver his own child...or rather, children. Unbeknownst to the couple, Norah had been carrying twins. The first, a boy -- Paul -- had been born perfect in just about every possible way. The second, a little girl named Phoebe, is born with Down's syndrome, which was practically a death sentence in those days. Having had the attending nurse act as an anesthesiologist, Norah had been knocked out for the birth and unaware she'd even given birth to twins until after the fact. She never saw the daughter, as David sent Phoebe off with the nurse, Caroline, to send her to an institution. However, as fate would have it, Caroline sees the horrible conditions of the institution and refuses to leave the child in such a place, as she has no doubt in her mind it would destroy her. Acting against the doctor's wishes, she takes the child to raise as her own.

Without giving away the entire plot, there is much drama from both sides: Caroline with the rigors of trying to raise a child that's not only not her own but is severely handicapped, David having to keep this secret with him for his entire life, never telling another soul that Phoebe had been given away but instead letting the world believe the infant had died at birth. The guilt consumes him; the grief consumes Norah, and the pressure of both placed on Paul end up causing him to lash out and rebel. There's so many twists and turns this story takes over the quarter of a decade that it spans over, it's unbelievable. This is easily one of the best books I have ever read in my life. There is no 'everybody wins' happy ending; there's a form of resolution, but not the type everyone would have expected here.

This book will grip at your heartstrings, twist them tight, swing your emotions around, and do it all over again, from start to finish. I highly recommend this book almost higher than any book I've ever recommended in my life. A huge, HUGE 5 star review!