Letters to the Lost ~ Reviewed by Elizabeth Barnes

"You can't make your own path with your eyes closed."













Juliet is supposed to be moving on after the death of her mother. That's what everyone around her suspects. But she can't stop visiting her mothers grave or leaving letters for her. Declan is serving his community service sentence mowing lawns at the local cemetery. When he finds a letter at the bottom of a tombstone he doesn't expect the words to hit him deep inside. Writing back was careless but it sparked a written relationship that might just be the thing to hold him together when the rest of his world is about to explode.

I am not a huge fan of books that contain letters, especially when the letters become a love story. But, I found myself loving Juliet and Declans relationship, both face-to-face and written. On the page they can be brutally, and totally honest with each other. But when face-to-face the walls they put up to protect themselves prevent them from seeing beyond the harsh reality and even harsher words they throw at each other.

Romance is not all this novel has to offer. I loved the exploration of family in this book. Supportive family relationships, family who are not as perfect as they seem, family secrets, family tragedy, family heartbreak, family that is founded outside of blood, family found in friendship brotherhood/sisterhood.

Letters to the Lost is a touching romance (a little too cliché at times), about finding hope and safety in starting over.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the copy!

10 Things I Can See From Here ~ Reviewed by Elizabeth Barnes

"Let's pretend. A beach. The sun. Two girls holding hands. The end."











 With her mother on a six month work assignment in Haiti, Maeve, who has OCD and severe anxiety, is staying with her no longer sober father, her very pregnant stepmother, and twin six-year-old brothers in Vancouver. She meets a cute street violin player while she struggles to manage her anxieties.

 Maeve was a great character filled with both positive and negative characteristics. I loved that despite her anxieties, she was able to see the impact of her behavior on others. She cared about her friends and family and knew she wasn't the center of the universe. Her stepmother Claire, was one of my favorite characters. I enjoyed seeing the relationship she had with Maeve. It was based in love, care, and concern. It was not the usual combative stepmother/daughter drama often found in novels.


 "10 Things I Can See From Here" also felt uneven to me. Nearly the entire first half of the book was anxiety after anxiety, and statistics of people dying from this and that. The plot was almost lost in Maeve's anxieties. The stressors in her life increased as she and Salix became closer. Instead of her anxieties increasing, they seemed to decrease. I am always leery of the unintentional message that dating/falling in love is a cure for mental illness. No one seemed to cure Maeve's anxiety by the end of the book, and I also thought the resolution with her father's drinking was too easy.

 I enjoyed Carrie Mac's writing style, and thought she really made the characters come to life. I HIGHLY recommend this book for people interested in mental illness, LGBTQ stories, step families, and substance abuse.

 I give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

 Special thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the copy!

Girl in the Blue Coat ~ Reviewed by Elizabeth Barnes

"When things come to an end in a way you didn't expect, in a way you never could have imagined, do they really come to an end? Does it mean you should keep searching, for better answers, for one's that don't keep you up at night? Or does it mean its time to make peace?" 









Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days finding and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the German army invaded. Her illegal work keeps her family afloat, and Hanneke also likes to think of it as a small act of rebellion against the Nazis. 

On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Jansen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person: a Jewish teenager Mrs. Jansen had been hiding, who has vanished without trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such a dangerous task but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations - where the only way out is through. 

"The Girl in the Blue Coat" is undoubtedly the best fictional account of life during the Nazi occupation during WWII, since "The Book Thief". Its a moving story about bravery, grief, and love in impossible times. 

I would highly reccomend this book for anyone interested in History. 

I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars. 

All Our Wrong Todays ~ Reviewed by Elizabeth Barnes

"It is amazing how much damage one person can do."







Tom Barron is from the world we were supposed to have, a technologically advanced utopia with flying cars and space vacations. He wakes up in the wrong today - our present. His life is surprisingly more fulfilling, but he feels guilty about erasing the lives of millions of people. Should his loyalties be to the people in his original world or the future people who make his new life so much better? Is salvaging his old world even possible? Everyone is skeptical of Tom's story. Could Tom's memories of a Tomorrowland like reality be delusions? How can he prove that his memories are real without advanced technology of his original world?

Like most science fiction, one of the best parts of the book was the constant questions that made you think. Tom draws several parallels between the fantastic aspects of his story and the ordinary lives we lead. Existing in multiple realities is not just something that happens in science fiction. As Tom matures, he sees how everyone is complicated. We all consist of different versions of ourselves, even some versions we'd rather live without. Tom sees that time travel isn't necessary to destroy a world. Tom has to learn that beliefs not backed by action are useless and to possibly never stop being open to different possibilities.

While the technical aspects of this story appealed to me, I had a hard time connecting with the main character. First-person, single point of view made this a very difficult issue to overcome. Tom is my least favorite type of character. He is a narcissistic, self-described loser who these women keep sleeping with. He is completely aware of how annoying and whiny he is, but that does not stop him. Sometimes it was hard to get too annoyed with him, because he'd read my mind every time I would start to have a negative thought.

Throughout the book, I found that there are a lot of messages to learn from. I narrowed it down to the most important messages. The central messages I walked away with were:
1.) There is no such thing as the life you are supposed to lead.
2.) Trying to control your world/life can have disastrous consequences.

I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the copy!