WWW Wednesday (3/19)

Today I'm hopping on the WWW Wednesday bus. What is WWW Wednesday? Well I'm glad you asked! It was started over at Should Be Reading, and every Wednesday three questions will be asked:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish?
• What do you think you'll read next?

Simple. Easy. Something new. Yay!

 

What are you currently reading? 

So far I can't say I'm all that impressed with this one.. I'm hoping it gets  better or else I can see my first DNF of the year.

What did you recently finish?

This one really was great! Can't wait to post my review on it.

What do you think you'll read next?

The summary to this one sounded promising. It's by a new (to me) author, so I'm hoping it's as intriguing the synopsis led me to believe.

Review: The Righteous and the Wicked

Title: The Righteous and the Wicked
Author: April Emerson
Publication Date: April 10, 2014
Source: NetGalley
Summary (from Goodreads): Small moments can seem insignificant until they change the course of a life forever. The sound of a bulldozer. A chance meeting at a gas station. A gust of wind through a chime. Benign events become something more when viewed through the lens of fate.

Emma Santori is a prisoner of tragic memories. Locked in a spiral of depression, she leads a desolate and empty life, trapped in her decrepit home. Rooted in routine, she’s numb and vacant. As a lonely Catholic school teacher, her only joy comes from her young students. One Saturday morning, her isolation is infiltrated by a mysterious architect building a home beside hers.

That man is Eric Wilder and he’s keeping a secret—a secret that’s destroying his life. Filled with guilt and self-loathing, he’s forced to move often. He chooses the small northeastern town of Pine Lake as his latest refuge, and hopes to make a successful attempt at starting his life over. As always, he’s unable to make that happen.

That all changes when he meets Emma.

She finds herself drawn to Eric when she accidentally bumps into him, but Eric’s unfazed by their first meeting. When a gust of wind brings these two people together once again, Emma discovers Eric’s secret. She’s forced to battle between her Catholic faith and her desire for this stranger.

Their attraction is intense and they soon discover they’re each lonely and longing for what the other has to offer. As their friendship blossoms, Emma realizes her passion and lust for Eric are the remedy to her depression. Eric discovers his feelings for Emma are the only antidote to his secret burden.

They begin an erotic journey, which leads these beautifully broken people to discover that love can be both righteous and wicked.

I’m not sure where to start with this review. It was the title that caught my attention, and then the cover and the summary sealed the deal. I had to read this book. And now as I sit here trying to put my feelings about it into words I just feel…confused.

The story was good—great even. I liked the characters; I especially liked how dark Eric could be. I could have lived without all the religious stuff, but I get that it needed to be in the story because of Emma and how she views the world. I just do not for the life of me understand Catholic beliefs—but that’s something totally different and something I am not getting into.

It was the writing style that threw me. While the author is a great story teller and weaves a tale that will definitely pull you in, I just felt like the way it was written was…choppy? That’s really the only word I can think of that describes it. Bits and pieces are thorn at you, it was like we are just given flashes and the story is never fully told. It read almost like diary entries… I don’t know how to put into words! It just didn’t flow right for me, I guess.

If it wasn’t for such interesting characters and great writing (yes, let’s make that clear: I loved the writing just not the style) I probably would have given up on this one because the flow of the book just threw me. Maybe it would have been better if each chapter had been dedicated to one POV at a time instead of jumping around…

Anyway, I loved the idea behind the story, the bad boy and the good little Catholic girl. I loved how they balanced each other out. He was so lost in his darkness and she was so lost in her sorrow. They were both broken, each needing what the other had to offer. Eric brought out a side of Emma she never knew existed and really needed to get in touch with, and Emma tamed the beast that haunted Eric for as long as he could remember. The balance between these characters was amazing.

I did think it was odd though, given that Emma was trying to help Eric overcome his addiction, that she would encourage him to flirt with the Carnival Whore because it sexually benefited her (Emma). Yes, it gave Eric some kind of clarity that he was looking for when it came to women and sex, but she was supposed to help him abstain from the darkness that was eating him, not ask him to indulge in it. It was not only counterproductive but also almost cruel on her part.

I just don’t know how to feel about this book. I liked it, but at the same time the writing style unnerved me. But if asked, I would recommend you read it. It really is a great story—if you can get passed the choppiness of it.

                        

Review: A 3rd Time to Die

Title: A 3rd Time to Die
Author: George. A Bernstein
Publication Date: June 6, 2013
Source: Author
Summary (from Goodreads): Two souls struggle to fulfill their destinies together. Twice, in the 17th and 19th Centuries, just as they discover the magic of their love, their lives are snuffed out by brutal murder. Reborn for the third time in the 21st Century, they discover each other again… and their killer is once again stalking them!

ASHLEY EASTON rescues a badly abused horse and decides to return to show jumping, the passion of her youth. The animal gives her unquestioned love, something she no longer receives from her husband, KEITH. But when Ashley begins to compete, she is terrified as the course seemingly morphs into an old forest, the jumps transformed into real walls, fences and streams. Her thoughts spill through her head in elegant French, a language she barely knows, as she attacks the fences with a fearless abandon uncharacteristic for her, winning every event.

CRAIG THORNTON is fed up with the rampant promiscuity of his society wife, TONI. An expert horseman, he attends a jumping show, seeing Ashley compete with Injun. After several missed attempts, they meet and become fast friends, their love of horses a mutual bond.

Trying to sort out her troubled marriage and to address a strange terror swamping her whenever she’s intimate, Ashley seeks psychotherapy with DR. FELDMAN. Resorting to hypnotic regression, they are stunned to find her in past lives, first in the 17th Century as the French countess who fills her head while jumping Injun, and then in Philadelphia as the daughter of a shipping tycoon. Each life is fulfilled by the wonder of passionate romance, quickly terminated by their gristly murder!

The doctor assures her these are pure figments of her subconscious, but he is shaken, realizing the truth. He somehow sees their slaughter through his own eyes! And he suspects their killer is here again, in this time!

As Ashley’s and Craig’s marriages disintegrate beyond repair, they suddenly discover much more than just friendship. It’s as if they’ve loved each other forever.
How wonderful to be in love with your best friend!

The lovers struggle to free themselves from broken marriages and find happiness in this lifetime, unaware there is again someone, nearby, intent on fulfilling an ancient legacy of death.

Will this be a 3rd time to die?

I love the idea of past lives and reincarnation. Not sure I believe it, but the thought that I was once someone else 300 years ago is very intriguing.

Ashley Easton is a wife, mother and competitive jumper. But she has also been Victoria, a French Countess in the late 1600’s. And Morgana, an heiress to a shipping business in 1850. Her life has tragically ended twice in 300 years, both times in the same exact way.

Unknown to her, her past and present lives all involve the same people. She marries the same man, has an affair with the same lover, and dies at the hands of the same psycho path— along with her lover Craig Thornton.

Craig was once a Duke and later a lawyer in his past lives. In the present he is a successful business man, in a loveless marriage to a tramp. And then, like all the previous years before, he runs into Ashley—the woman he is destined for in every life.

Ashely and Craig bond over their love of horses and become close friends. It’s not until later when Ashely starts therapy and discovers her past lives that she realizes she and Craig have history…a history that has ended very badly for both of them. Will the same bloody end  meet them for a third time, or will Ashely and Craig finally get to live out their happily ever after?

I liked the book. It has an interesting plot, the writing was good and I found the characters engaging. I did think there was more repetitiveness in it than necessary, especially when it came to telling and retelling their regression sessions. I had major issues with the relationship between Toni and her brother. Ick. I was surprised by who the murder was revealed to be, though. It turned out to be a good twist.

This book is mysterious, entertaining and features a paranormal element that isn't used enough, in my opinion which makes it unique. Definitely something to check out for sure!