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The House Girl
By Tara Conklin
William Morrow & Company, Paperback, 9780062207517, November 2013, 372pp.

The Short of It:

A promising premise that fell flat for me pretty early on.

The Rest of It:

From Goodreads:

The House Girl, the historical fiction debut by Tara Conklin, is an unforgettable story of love, history, and a search for justice, set in modern-day New York and 1852 Virginia.

Weaving together the story of an escaped slave in the pre Civil War South and a determined junior lawyer, The House Girl follows Lina Sparrow as she looks for an appropriate lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking compensation for families of slaves. In her research, she learns about Lu Anne Bell, a renowned prewar artist whose famous works might have actually been painted by her slave, Josephine.

This was a book club pick. As a whole, it was well-liked and we had a really good discussion but it just didn’t work for me. I preferred Josephine’s story which took place in 1852 to Lina’s present day story. Lina’s voice didn’t ring true. It seemed a tad forced and too perfect. The story is told by Lina and Josephine through alternating chapters so half of the time I was interested and the other half, not so much.

I did enjoy how the story revolved around art and found that story thread to be very interesting but it wasn’t enough to make me love this one. I think as a debut novel, this book was pretty well-received so my feelings about it are most definitely in the minority.

Have you read it?

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

The Fireman
By Joe Hill
William Morrow & Company, Hardcover, 9780062200631, May 2016, 768pp.

The Short of It:

Find a cool, shady spot, grab a cold drink, and kick back because The Fireman is the hot read of the summer.

The Rest of It:

Draco Incendia Trychophyton is a plague which causes people to spontaneously combust. As people across the country become infected with “Dragonscale”, the hospitals in each big city try their best to contain it but there is no cure.

Harper Grayson, a nurse who took special care not to become infected, finds herself covered in “scale” and when her husband Jakob finds out, he doesn’t react the way she expects him to. Instead, she ends up with a group of people who have come together for survival. This group has figured out a way to live with the scale. Led by an unlikely hero in a bright yellow coat and fireman’s hat, they create a world where survival is possible.

I love read-alongs and this book was perfect to read as a group. It’s long (700+ pages) but I read it in under a week and never once felt its length. It’s got plenty of good storytelling, lots of action and some likable characters for you to cheer for. There is also one really bad seed. There’s one in every bunch.

What stood out:

Lots of name dropping and pop culture references
Hill is Stephen King’s son and I felt it in the writing (a plus!)
Reads like a movie and Fox has taken it on for development.
Definitely not horror even though it’s marketed that way.
We all felt that it should have been called, The Nurse.
Despicable characters are great fun to bash on Twitter.

I received a review copy of this book so imagine my surprise when another blogger pointed out material that was not in my review copy. Yes!! A slightly different ending given the additional material she provided. So if you have the review copy, seek out a finished copy so you can read that very last bit.

I was hoping for a good chunkster to read this summer and this was it. It’s a lot of fun and reading it with a group just made it that much better. I highly recommend it.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher via Edelweiss.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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