Last week's books

I had another great week of summer reading!

I squeezed in three books.

The first: Sister, by Rosamund Lipton

This is a British thriller about a woman who returns home to London to take care of her sister's things after said sister's alleged suicide. However, all signs point point to something fishy, and the book revolves around the NYC sister's battle to get police, doctors, and neighbors to believe that her sister was murdered. Very, very creepy! I gasped out loud several times for sure. This was Rosamund Lupton's first book, and I am hoping for another soon!


The second: Dreams of Joy, by Lisa See

This is the sequel to Shanghai Girls, which is one of my favorite books. I was surprised to see this book come out, because I didn't even know See was writing a sequel! I am always a little wary of sequels when I really enjoyed the first book, but this did not disappoint. This book is from the point of view of Joy, the daughter character from the first book. It takes place during the 1950s in rural China. Joy has run away to aid her Chinese relatives in the Great Leap Forward, working in communes, contributing to the population boom, and risking her life in multiple was. This book was so well-written and rivals its predecessor. I love reading about different cultures/countries, especially during significant historical periods, so this one fit the bill for sure.

The third: Angel Falls, by Kristin Hannah

Summer guilty pleasure reading at its finest. :-) This was another Kristin Hannah book that I hadn't read. This is the first of her novels I've come across that didn't feature a female protagonist or a sister/sister or best friend relationship. It was refreshing to hear this story from a male's point of view. It is the story of a woman who falls off a horse, suffering major injuries and ending up in a coma. Nothing can rouse her from her coma except the mention of her first (estranged) husband's name. The story of their enigmatic relationship is revealed through various family members' anecdotes, the woman's thoughts, and flashbacks. When the woman wakes up, she has lost most of her memory, so the book morphs into the story of her choosing between two men and two very different lives.  This was a very fast, easy book, and a good little love story. :-)