Kim Wilkins’ Unclaimed Heart is a YA historical romance with an unusual setting and the kind of emotional conflict I usually love in historical fiction: a young woman constrained by the expectations of society and seeking more from life than her father/family, and society, are willing to give her. Sadly, I didn’t enjoy Unclaimed Heart as much as I hoped to, largely because Wilkins did not convince me of Constance and Alexandre’s love for each other to the extent that the storyline demands. (I realize that this is basically the same thing I said about Nancy Werlin’s Impossible, and I don’t think I’m the best judge of Unclaimed Heart because it was reminiscent in many ways to one of my favorite romance novels ever, Candice Proctor’s Whispers of Heaven. So, something to keep in mind if you think Unclaimed Heart sounds intriguing.)
Constance Blackchurch has long been curious about her mother, who has been missing for the last sixteen years. Overhearing a conversation between her father and her aunt, Constance learns of rumors that her mother may be living in Ceylon. And so Constance decides to stow away on her father’s ship, hoping for a reunion with her mother.
Alexandre Sans-Nom is a pearl diver, bought by Gilbert De Locke as a child, searching for a way to escape his servitude. Constance knows she should avoid Alexandre, but she is drawn to him despite their class difference, and when they fall in love, what chance do they have of remaining together?
Unclaimed Heart features several subplots besides the romance, namely the disappearance of Constance’s mother and the conflicts between De Locke and Constance’s father, and De Locke and Alexandre. But these things didn’t capture my attention. We’re told so much about all the characters and their backstories so early on that it lessened the tension. It made things less suspenseful, even a bit anticlimactic, because there was little mystery to the main characters. Wilkins tells us so much about the characters’ motivations and their histories almost from the first time they are introduced, and the foreshadowing is sometimes so heavyhanded, that the conflicts later in the story came as no surprise.
The focal point of the novel was then the romantic relationship between Constance and Alexandre, and however sympathetic readers might find their plights, their relationship just wasn’t compelling enough to carry the story on its own. Did I want them to get their HEA? Well, I suppose so. I read the novel straight through in one sitting. And I certainly wasn’t upset by their implied HEA, not saying, “No, no, you need to find someone else,” to Constance, or Alexandre, as I read. Wilkins made me believe in Constance and Alexandre’s attraction to each other, but not necessarily in their love. This might be enough for some readers, but it wasn’t enough to make Unclaimed Heart completely satisfying for me.
Unclaimed Heart will be published on July 9. It has also been reviewed by The Compulsive Reader.
This past Saturday I went to help out with the annual Friends of the Library Booksale. There was a great variety of stuff there. I’m always amazed at the amount of stuff there is at the booksale.
62nd Annual Booksale
McKinley High School Cafeteria
1039 South King Street
Honolulu, Hawai`i 96814
June 19 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Members’ Preview Sale
June 20 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Opening Day
June 21 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
June 22 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
June 23 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
June 24 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
June 25 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
June 26 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
June 27 9 a.m.-9 p.m. all books 50% off
June 28 9 a.m.-1 p.m. all books 50 cents
All proceeds benefit Hawaii’s fifty-one public libraries.
Here are some of the cool incentives I got for this year’s Summer Reading Program. In the back are Godzilla Babies action figures in the box and skeleton keycaps. In the foreground are zombie and alien finger puppets.
I found these incentives at Archie McPhee (www.mcphee.com) for roughly 99 cents each. You may recognize Archie McPhee as the distributor of the librarian action figure.
Other incentives I’ve been giving away include: mini-highlighters, rulers, protractors, nutri-grain bars, doritos, books, mechanical pencils, erasers, pizza hut coupons, and a bunch of other odd ends.
Every year I have a debate as to what I’m going to get for incentives for the teens. I vacillate between practical items and toys. This year these toys were competing against a 3-ring binder. The binder although useful doesn’t have the same visual appeal as these trinkets. I’m hoping my decision is well received by the teens participating in this year’s summer reading program.
than to publicly say book reviews will be coming by a certain date. Because what happens? You read a book that you just fall in love with and review it first, then the rest of the week gets too hectic (nothing bad, just really busy) for you to have time to write reviews of the two books you said you’d review.
All this is a long way of saying, the reviews will be coming, but, um, not right now.
Two years ago, Rowan’s older brother died. Jack, who could light up the room. Jack, whom everybody loved. Jack, who “looked after me and made me laugh and told me I was cool and taught me things nobody but your big brother can.” And nothing has been the same since.
Now Rowan is fifteen, living with her mother and six-year-old sister after her father moves out. Her mother has been lost in a depressed, medicated daze for the past two years and it’s been up to Rowan to singlehandedly care for Stroma and to keep their home life a secret from their father. But when an unknown boy holds a photo negative out to Rowan, telling her he’s sure it’s hers because he saw her drop it, everything begins to change.
You can see similarities in Broken Soup to Jenny Valentine’s previous novel, Me, the Missing, and the Dead. Both are about the aftermath of loss, beginning with an incident—call it coincidence or chance or fate—that sets the present story in motion, written in a similar, low-key style. But the book Broken Soup really reminds me of is Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.
The similarities are thematic and in my emotional reaction to the books, not their structure. Like Jellicoe Road, Broken Soup is a book about loss and grief, family and friendship and love, coming to terms with the past and forging new relationships in the present that will affect the future. It’s told in a simpler, more accessible, not to mention shorter, form. And, as such, I thought Broken Soup lacked some of the magic I felt reading Jellicoe Road, particularly in the gradual realizations of how things fit together and fell into place.
But Broken Soup is a wonderful, beautifully written gem of a book on its own. And I loved it. I loved Rowan’s narration, with these tiny details, almost throwaway remarks, that make her situation even more heartrending.
[Stroma] asked me to draw a unicorn, and even though it looked more like a rhinoceros and should have gone in the garbage, she colored it pink out of loyalty and called it Sparkle. (p. 4)
And how Valentine portrays Jack, in such a way that you can feel how much Rowan and everyone else loved Jack, but he’s not idealized in her narration (except by their mother). Rowan remembers the flaws as well as the good times. Also wonderful is how Valentine brings to life the relationships between the characters, from the ruins of Rowan’s life with her parents to the tentative connections between Rowan and Bee, and Rowan and Harper, to, most of all, the bond between Rowan and Stroma.
I took Stroma with me to the shop. And all the time I was putting stuff into the basket and working out what we could afford, and saying no to marshmallows, but yes to chocolate biscuits, and planning what we’d have for supper and then breakfast. I didn’t have time to lose it. I didn’t have time to lie down in the corner shop and scream and beat the floor until my hands bled. I didn’t have time to miss Jack. Stroma kept on chattering away and getting excited over novelty spaghetti shapes and finding the joy in every little thing, and it occurred to me even then that she was probably looking after me, too. (p. 18-19)
Okay, I’ll stop quoting now before I quote the entire book. I did think Stroma a very precocious kid, particularly later in the book, but she broke my heart in the best possible way, and for this reason, her precociousness didn’t bother me. I also thought that one revelation in particular was rather predictable (Patti of Oops…Wrong Cookie disagrees), but it ultimately didn’t affect how I felt about Broken Soup.
Regardless of how you feel about Jellicoe Road, I hope you’ll give Broken Soup a try because I highly, highly, highly recommend it. If you liked Jellicoe, I think you’ll like Broken Soup. If you didn’t like Jellicoe, Broken Soup is a great alternative. And if it all sounds too depressing, there is still humor and resilience and hope in the story.
Broken Soup was also reviewed at Chicklish, Wondrous Reads, and by Kelly. And Patti’s second take on the book.
Another 48 Hour Book Challenge Update
I read somewhere, though of course I don’t remember where, a person saying they always skip the first book in a mystery series because the first book is about introducing the detective and setting the tone for the rest of the series. I, on the other hand, am a stickler for reading mystery series in order (you know, assuming they’re all still available and in English), but I have to agree with this unknown person where Michael Walters’ first two mysteries set in Mongolia are concerned. I didn’t finish the first book in the series, The Shadow Walker. I think I got about halfway through it, then gave up. I still decided to give book 2, The Adversary by Michael Walters, a try, mostly because how many other mysteries set in Mongolia are there? And also because I wondered if that person was right about mystery series, at least in this case.
In short, I liked The Adversary a lot more than I did The Shadow Walker. The narrative is more wide ranging than most other series I read, which often features a limited POV, mainly following the detective and maybe a victim or killer or two. In The Adversary, the narrative follows a number of characters, and though they ultimately are relevant to the plot, it did make me impatient at times.
The two most important characters, on the detecting side, are Doripalam, head of the Serious Crimes Team, and his former mentor, Nergui, who now has a more powerful position in the government. (They were introduced in The Shadow Walker, and I really don’t think it’s necessary to have read that book prior to reading The Adversary.) For years, they have been trying to take down Muunokhoi, a wealthy, powerful, and superficially upstanding member of society, but who’s actually a crime lord. Muunokhoi is finally about to go on trial, and when the case collapses, Nergui and Doripalam attempt to find more evidence they can use against him. But, since most of the police officers are corrupt, who can they trust?
The second book was Gayle Forman’s If I Stay, and *sob* yeah, it really is as good as everyone says it is. It is not overly melodramatic or sentimental—I mean, when a book is narrated by a girl who is critically injured in a car accident, I don’t know how there can not be at least a little bit of melodrama and sentimentality involved, but I think the writing was rather restrained, considering this—and this is a big reason why it worked for me. In some ways, it’s like the opposite of Before I Die, not that I found Before I Die melodramatic or sentimental. But that book is about a girl trying to make the most of the time she has left before she dies, and the other is about a girl remembering the best times in her life before she chooses whether to stay or go. They’re both good books, and in particular, I think fans of one will like the other.
Blogging time: 34 minutes
Next: Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender (I hope I enjoy it!) and Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen.
Let’s see, 2 hours 4 minutes + 1 hour 59 minutes + 2 hours 40 minutes = 6 hours 43 minutes of reading so far. I’m going to try to squeeze in one more book before going to sleep, then we’ll see how much reading I can do tomorrow later today.
So in the last 2 hours and 40 minutes, I finished one book and started, but didn’t finish, two others.
I finished Torn to Pieces by Margot McDonnell, mostly to find out how the plot was resolved. The narrative was odd, in that the first half of the book is a retelling of the past two months of Anne’s life, in which her mother acts strangely, then disappears. Well, to clarify, this fact isn’t odd; what struck me is that there’s a lot of foreshadowing and foreboding phrases in this part of the book, yet the story lacked tension. I felt no urgency. The second half of the narrative describes what happens after we reach the point at which the book began. (Does that make sense? I’m getting tired and I’m not sure how coherent I am.) As a character, Anne takes action to try to discover what happened to her mother, but, I don’t know, maybe she was a little too detached as a narrator? I never really cared about her, nevermind her relationships with the two new guys at school. I ultimately finished the book due to the plot, not characterizations or prose or voice.
The two DNFs were The Night I Disappeared by Julie Reece Deaver (I just could not get past all the expository dialogue in the early chapters, and jumped to the ending so I could find out what the cover copy meant about “Jamie’s paralyzing fear and…tangle of long-forgotten, horrifying secrets in her past”) and Radiant Darkness by Emily Whitman (the contemporary voice was jarring at first, and there seemed to be a lot more telling than showing. I stuck with it for a long time because it’s a retelling of the myth of Persephone and Hades, then finally put it down. I’m disappointed, because I had been looking forward to it.).
Blogging time: 34 minutes.
Next: I’m not sure. Should I try another retelling, Alex Flinn’s A Kiss in Time, or try The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley instead? Or continue reading and listening to Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates, because when I listened to the audiobook earlier this year (great production, I have to say), I had a hard time concentrating on all the quotes, so now that I finally was able to borrow the print book, I’ve been reading along with the audiobook.
48 Hour Book Challenge Update #2
Finished: Swim the Fly by Don Calame. Matt and his two best friends, Cooper and Sean, set a random goal for themselves every summer. In the past, they’ve done things like 1,000 golf balls. This summer, the goal is to see a naked girl. In person. Between this goal and Matt’s crush on his new swim club teammate, there is ample room for embarrassment and laughs.
Quick reaction: I didn’t find it as hysterical as the flap copy promised, but it was pretty funny in a wince-inducing, how-many-more-embarrassing-situations-can-this-kid-find-himself-in? way. Which was partly my problem with the book. Matt’s a sympathetic enough narrator, but seriously, how can one guy, who hadn’t gotten himself into a similar number of mortifying situations in the past, experience this much stuff in one summer? If this was a movie and Ben Stiller could play a fifteen-year-old guy, he’d be Matt, and I think this describes the book pretty well.
It’s a fast read with short chapters, light but with enough substance that a key event in the ending slightly disappointed me because I didn’t think it was necessary to the story. As for the humor, I wouldn’t say it’s raunchy, but a lot of the humor does involve bodily functions. My disappointment aside, this would be a great book for teen guys and some girls, but it’s not for those with delicate sensibilities. If you don’t like American Pie or Ben Stiller movies, this isn’t the book for you. If you like American Pie and Ben Stiller movies, what are you waiting for?
Blogging/tweeting time: 28 minutes.
