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Finders Keepers
By Stephen King
Scribner Book Company, Hardcover, 9781501100079, June 2015, 448pp.

*No Spoilers*

The Short of It:

This is the second installment of the Bill Hodges trilogy and it’s pretty good.

The Rest of It:

When I heard that Mr. Mercedes was not a stand-alone novel, and was in fact, book one of a trilogy, I groaned a little. I am not a fan of trilogies as a rule. But, it’s King and you know how I love a good King story. Plus, all that Constant Reader stuff. So I went in with high hopes.

Luckily for me, it’s a keeper. Pun intended.

This story focuses on some of the characters from the previous book, like Bill Hodges, ex-cop/private detective and the people he’s come to know as family but King also introduces a new baddie by the name of Morris Bellamy. Bellamy is obsessed with one particular author and ends up committing some horrible crimes to protect what’s his.

What he does not anticipate is anyone getting in his way. Pete Saubers, high school kid and lover of books unwittingly places himself between Bellamy and Bellamy’s obsession and it creates a very dangerous situation. As a favor to one of his closest friends, Hodges steps in to help.

What I like about this one is that the story is pretty simple, the characters are well-developed and there was none of that sucker-punch stuff I experienced while reading Mr. Mercedes. As the suspense builds, the pace picks up and King takes you along for the ride. I could sense that King enjoyed writing this one and I enjoyed reading it.

As with most trilogies, when you come upon those final pages you hold your breath to see how you will be left hanging, and with this one, I can clearly see where he will be going with book three. At least, I think so.

This book was entertaining, the pacing was good and although I took a long break from it to finish another book, I was easily able to jump right back into it when I picked it up again.

If you haven’t read Mr. Mercedes yet, start with that and then pick this one up. The last book in the trilogy, End of Watch is scheduled to make its appearance June 7, 2016!

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Boston Girl
By Anita Diamant
Scribner Book Company, Paperback, 9781439199367, August 2015, 336pp.

The Short of It:

This is a story about a young Jewish woman, trying to make a life for herself in Boston during a time when women were just beginning to forge careers for themselves.

The Rest of It:

Addie Baum lives with her family in Boston. As Jewish immigrants, her parents have trouble assimilating to the world around them and prefer to live with the “old ways” and beliefs that they’ve known all their lives. With three daughters, they believe that to be truly successful in life, they must marry well and marry young.

This doesn’t bode well for the Baum girls. Particularly Addie or her troubled older sister. As the three girls make their way through life, we are introduced to a host of supporting characters. All of them interesting but perhaps not all necessary to the story.

Let’s talk about the story a little. I found it to be well told but not terribly exciting. Oddly enough, I managed to read it in just a couple of sittings. It flowed well but it’s really all about Addie’s coming of age which as you can imagine, has some highs and lows. I liked the family dynamic and felt that the author portrayed an immigrant family well.

It wasn’t immediately obvious to me that Addie was telling her story to her grand-daughter until the final pages. I don’t usually care for devices like this but it seemed to work well here.

I haven’t read any stories about immigrant families in a long time so this was a nice change of pace. This was a book club pick but I had a family emergency and was not able to attend the meeting so I have no idea how the discussion went. I imagine it went well. Seems like potentially there would be plenty to discuss but I did feel as if the author was a little light-handed with some of the topics.

If I had to compare this book to Diamant’s other book (The Red Tent), I’d have to say that I enjoyed this one quite a bit more.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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