Dear Zoe - Philip Beard
      Debut

#2019AtoZChallenge - Z
#MonthlyMotif - May
#ColorChallenge - White

Imagine suffering your own personal tragedy and grief on Sept. 11,2001. When the entire nation is in shock and grieving over the loss of so many lives, your grief seems to be swept under the rug.  That is what happens to 15 year old Tess when her little sister is killed by a hit-and-run driver.

 A beautiful coming of age story as Tess comes to understand and works through her personal grief.
Heartwarming and touching!!!

Goodreads summery tells it much better::::
Philip Beard’s stunning debut novel is fifteen-year-old Tess DeNunzio’s letter to her sister, Zoe, lost to a hit-and-run driver on a day when it seemed that nothing mattered but the tragedies playing out in New York and Washington. Dear Zoe is a remarkable study of grief, adolescence, and healing with a pitch-perfect narrator who is at once sharp and naïve, world- worried and self-centered, funny and heartbreakingly honest. Tess begins her letter to Zoe as a means of figuring out her own life, her place in the world, but the result is a novel of rare power and grace that tells us much about ours.

   The Wicked Will Rise - Danielle Paige
                     (P Author)

#AtoZChallenge - P

2nd in the "Dorothy Must Die" series where Dorothy Gale is evil & Oz is in trouble.

Amy Gumm must still find Dorothy and kill her, along with the Scarecrow, the Tin man and the Lion. Apparently, she didn't do so well at this task in the first novel.

Anyway, in this book there is some humor & a bit of darkness and we see personal growth in Amy. She doesn't always make the right decisions but she does try to do what she think is right or does she?  Sometimes the power of being wicked is very strong!!!!

Some confusion on who is good, who is bad and a definite cliffhanger at the end.
Reading the first in this series is a must.  I was lost even after reading "Dorothy Must Die" but maybe that was because I read it about 3 years ago!!

Here is the summary on Goodreads::
To make Oz a free land again, Amy Gumm was given a mission: remove the Tin Woodman’s heart, steal the Scarecrow’s brain, take the Lion’s courage, and then Dorothy must die...

But Dorothy still lives. Now the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked has vanished, and mysterious Princess Ozma might be Amy’s only ally. As Amy learns the truth about her mission, she realizes that she’s only just scratched the surface of Oz’s past—and that Kansas, the home she couldn't wait to leave behind, may also be in danger. In a place where the line between good and evil shifts with just a strong gust of wind, who can Amy trust—and who is really Wicked?

                          Ya-Yas in Bloom - Rebecca Wells

#2019AtoZChallenge - "Y"

Goodreads summary :::An emotionally charged addition to Rebecca Wells' much loved previous novels, 'Ya-Yas in Bloom' reveals the roots of the Ya-Yas' friendship in the 1930s and roars through the 60 years of marriage, child-raising, and hair-raising family secrets.

I did not care for this book.  Maybe it has been to long since I met these ladies in the  original Ya-Ya book.  But I did not connect with the characters and the story line seemed to jump around.  It was more about the children of the 4 friends and some about how they all met.

 Anyway,  I supplied the summary from Goodreads  for you all to get an idea what the book was about. 


                               

The Color of Bee Larkham's Murder by Sarah J. Harris

Debut Novel
Color Coded Challenge - A word that implies color

I was SO looking forward to this book, but sadly I was left a bit disappointed.  Part of it may have been my own state of mind (rather stressed at this moment in time), yet after reading some reviews, I wasn't alone in feeling that it was a bit repetitive and drawn out.  The concept is unique, but I had a hard time buying into Jasper's character, especially in the end.

From Goodreads:  Jasper is not ordinary.  In fact, he would say he is extraordinary.... Synaesthesia paints the sounds of his world in a kaleidoscope of colors that no one else can see.  But on Friday, he discovered a new color - the color of murder.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

2019 A to Z Challenge - "V"
2019 May Motif Challenge - One Sitting Reads
Color Coded Challenge - Any other color = Pink

While this is not the first of the Shakespeare retellings being published by Hogarth Shakespeare, it is MY first read of the series.  1. It fit my challenges, 2. It was the 1st one I purchased of the series (though I have picked up all the ones currently published) and 3. I have previously read and seen adaptations of the original Shakespeare work "Taming of the Shrew".

Though to be thorough I did re-read Taming.  This is the purpose, for me, in picking up this retelling series, to re-read or in some cases initially read Shakespeare's works.

I enjoy Anne Tyler's works and for the most part I enjoyed her take on Taming.  What I missed was the comedy (though the book's copy proclaims comedy abounds here).  Shakespeare's plays are categorized as comedy, tragedy and history with his comedies and tragedies usually centered around romance.  The shtick in many of his comedies is characters in disguise and mistaken identity, as well as loads of word play.  I felt Tyler went for basic romance in her version which is what made it just so-so for me.  It was an easy read (I did do it in basically one sitting, well, over the course of one day) and the characters were pretty well developed.  As in the original, there is the father and his 2 daughters (Kate and Bunny), a tutor is thrown in, and the troubled daughter's "love" interest (Pyotr), but that's pretty much where any similarity ends.

While Taming is one of my favorites by the Bard (more for his word play rather than the misogyny), and even though this was not a 5 star retelling for me, I will still read the other Hogarth books and I will continue to read Anne Tyler's original works.

Summary:  Preschool teacher, Kate feels stuck running house and home for her scientist father and uppity younger sister, Bunny.  Plus she's always in trouble at work for her unusual opinions and forthright manner.  Her father, Dr. Battista has other problems.  He is on the verge of a research breakthrough, but his brilliant lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported.  Dr. Battista comes up with an outrageous plan to enable Pyotr to stay in the country, but he relies on Kate to help him.  She is furious - this time he's really asking too much.

Quotes:  "The unsatisfying thing about practicing restraint was that nobody knew you were practicing it."

"You could really feel physically wounded if someone hurt your feelings badly enough."