CONFESSION

TITLE: CONFESSION

AUTHOR: SELENA KITT

Pages: 226

Date: 29/04/2013

Grade: 4.5

Details: No. 2 Under Mr. Nolan’s Bed

            Received from author

Own / Kindle

The Blurb:

"With the mouth, confession is made into salvation..." ~ Romans 10:10.

The shocking discovery best friends Leah and Erica have made under Mr. Nolan's bed has them down the wicked path of temptation, both girls veering far from the narrow path dictated by their strict Catholic upbringing, and their sexual transgressions have had unintended consequences.

Erica finds her life turned upside down when Leah falls for Erica's father, but just as Erica is beginning to accept their love for each other, Leah disappears. Bewildered and abandoned, Erica and Mr. Nolan are faced with sadness and confusion at their loss, but while Mr. Nolan spirals into mourning, Erica is determined to find her friend.

Erica can't possibly know why Leah has vanished, but when she enlists the help of Father Michael, her search and the real reason for Leah's disappearance intersect to uncover a multitude of shocking confessions and a secret that will shake not only the foundation of their faith, but the entire institution of the Catholic Church itself.

This was a very good book. Not at all what I expected, but very good indeed. Usually when you read a trilogy, the first book is a pretty good indication of what all three books are going to be like and about. This trilogy is a bit different. Don’t get me wrong; there is no doubt that this is the second part of the same story. There is continuity both in story-line and in character development. However, whereas the first book was a highly erotic description of sexual discovery, be it with a somewhat controversial story-line, this second book is far less erotic. The sexual scenes found in this book are fewer in number, not really all that erotic and far mostly far more shocking and controversial than those in “Temptation”. It is difficult to say a lot about exactly what is happening in this book without giving away too much of the story. What I can say is that there was a lot in this book to break my heart and make me angry. And most of my anger was due to the fact that everything described here was so believable that I had to turn to Google to find what part of the story was based on fact and which parts were purely fictional.

It is impossible to read this book and not think about the recent scandals involving the Catholic Church here in Ireland. It isn’t too long ago that the reports on the treatment of women in the “Magdalene Laundries” were published. With Leah having been sent to Magdalene House, the parallels are strong. Very strong indeed, because wouldn’t you know it, Magdalene House also contains a laundry where the girls who can’t knit or sew are put to work. Though why I thought that those places might have been uniquely Irish is beyond me. After all, the Roman Catholic Church is a worldwide organization and as such its institutions would be too.

I have to compliment Selena Kitt on the way in which she made the journeys of both Leah and Erica realistic and convincing. Separated from each other they discover the same secrets. Alone they have to go through their own personal hells, struggle with questions, secrets and devastating events. Two very young women find themselves in the clutches of a powerful institution determined to have them do as ordered, regardless of what their personal wishes might be. My only, minor, objection is that there was one secret Erica, clever as she is, should and could have figured out earlier.

I’m glad I already have the third book, "Grace", in my possession. The title of that book gives me some indication of what the book will be about, but I have no idea what sort of book to expect. Will there be a return to the erotica of the first book, is the story about to turn into a full blown thriller, could it be a combination of those two or something else again? I like it when an author keeps me guessing, and Miss Kitt certainly does that.

TEMPTATION

TITLE: TEMPTATION

AUTHOR: SELENA KITT

Pages: 160

Date: 01/04/2013

Grade: 4.5

Details: No. 1 Under Mr. Nolan’s Bed

             Received from the author

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

"Lead us not into temptation..." ~Matthew 6:13

What happens when you fall in love with your best friend's father?

Leah is a good, Catholic girl, and she and Erica have been best friends since their first communion. Sure, Erica's father is handsome and charming, but Leah spends so much time at the Nolan's--just Erica and her famous, photographer father now, since Erica's mother died--that she's practically part of the family.

Both girls have led privileged, sheltered lives and are on the "good girl" track at St. Mary Magdalene's Preparatory College, Leah pursuing her love of dance and Erica sating her endless curiosity as editor of the newspaper. Neither of them could have ever imagined that one fateful discovery will not only push the boundaries of their strict, repressive upbringing, but the bonds of their friendship as well.

Leah certainly never could have imagined finding herself torn between her best friend and her best friend's father. Sure, Leah's mother had always talked about Mr. Nolan as "a catch," but Leah herself had never thought of him as anything other than just Erica's dad--until the girls discover something darkly erotic under Mr. Nolan's bed, a deep, shameful secret that will not only lead them into temptation, but will deliver them into a far greater revelation than any of them could ever have imagined.”

Set in the 1950’s this is a wonderful and imaginative story of sexual awakening and forbidden love. And, as awakenings go, this is a rather abrupt one. It takes young Leah little or no time to change from an inexperienced innocent into a wanton sex vixen. What starts of as guiltily exploring unknown pleasures soon turns into actively pursuing and creating every opportunity to be intimate with the man she has fallen in love and in lust with.

The sexual tension spills off the page. The writing is so good that you can feel the excitement yourself while reading. It is almost as if, with Leah, you are discovering your own sexuality all over again. I can’t speak for anybody else, but it brought some delightful memories back to me. In fact, I think I enjoyed those early scenes, when the whole sexual experience is still completely new to Leah more than the later ones.

This is definitely an erotic story rather than a romance with erotic overtones. The scenes are well written, descriptive and very easy to visualise. In fact, the whole book is well written. The story is told from Leah’s point of view and it is especially easy to get a good picture of her character. The one thing I did question in this story is the confidence with which Leah interprets Mr. Nolan’s thoughts and feelings. It just doesn’t seem realistic that she would have such a well developed intuition or insight into his emotions. Not only do I not quite believe an inexperienced 18 year old would be so insightful, I have a hard time believing anybody could.

I actually went so far as to google the average age people start college at, and that turns out to be 17 or 18. The fact that these girls seem younger than that is due to the story being set in 1953 when young people were supposed to stay innocent longer – I would love to say when the world was a more innocent place but I don’t think that would be true -. The fact that the two girls in this story are as young as they are and that Leah falls for and gets intimate with her friend’s father may be a step too far for some readers. Just as I’m sure that some people will take offence at some descriptions relating to the Catholic Church and the two priests in the book. I didn’t feel offended or embarrassed at anything described in this book, but I have been told that I’m a bit more liberal than a lot of people around me.

This book is a re-written version of both “Under Mr. Nolan’s Bed” and “Plaid Skirt Confessions”. Since I’ve read neither of those two earlier stories I can’t say how they compare to this one. What I can say is that I enjoyed this book so much that I’m delighted that I already have a copy of the sequel on my Kindle. I’m not entirely sure where this story may be going next but I do know that I’m going to enjoy finding out.

THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE

TITLE: THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE

AUTHOR: MAGGIE O’FARRELL

Pages: 374

Date: 27/02/2013

Grade: 3.5

Details: Reading Group book for

            Dialogues Through Literature

Library

From the back of the book:

“Fresh out of university and in disgrace, Lexie Sinclair is waiting for life to begin. When the sophisticated Innes Kent turns up on her doorstep in rural Devon, she realises she can wait no longer, and leaves for London. There, Lexie carves out a new life for herself at the heart of bohemian 1950’s Soho, with Innes by her side.

In the present, Ted and Elina no longer recognize their lives after the arrival of their first child. Elina, an artist, wonders if she will ever paint again, while Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood – memories that don’t tally with his parents’ version of events.

As Ted’s search for answers gathers momentum, so a portrait is revealed of two women separated by fifty years, but linked by their passionate refusal to settle for ordinary lives.”

What to say about this book? I was a bit disappointed by it. The blurb seemed to promise more than the book actually delivered. Yes it is a story set at two different times (the 1950’s and the present) and yes they are connected, but not in the way the blurb suggests. I didn’t see a lot of similarities between Elina and Lexie other than that they live their lives according to their own agenda. As for the connection between the two stories, I had that figured out long before the details were revealed in the story, which took some of the intended tension away.

I find myself getting increasingly annoyed with the blurbs that come with books. I realize that they are meant to make a book sound as enticing as possible in a limited amount of words, but is that really an excuse for suggesting story-lines that aren’t really there? In this case it is Ted’s search which is mentioned in the blurb but doesn’t really take place in the story. While Ted is aware that some things aren’t quite right with his memories, he isn’t actively looking for answers. And when he does stumble across the reason for his doubts it is by accident, and not the result of his “search”.

I did appreciate the realistic picture of motherhood this book gave. While there is no doubt that both Elina and Lexie love their sons with all their hearts, the story does show the insecurities, frustrations and complications that accompany motherhood. Having said that, Elina’s part of the story seemed to be about little else except the way in which she was adjusting to her new status, and that got a bit boring after a while. And I have a problem believing that it would have been easier for Lexie to adjust to motherhood, in her circumstances and during the 1960’s, than it was for Elina in the present.

Well written and easy to read I still found that the story in this book didn’t completely captivate me. I enjoyed reading it but wasn’t really interested in the characters or what was happening to them. It felt as if I was observing the story as it unfolded as through a mist, as if there was a barrier between me and it. This was especially true for the contemporary part of the story. I completely failed to connect with Ted and Elina. Lexie’s story was far more interesting, probably because her story covers a much longer period and had a lot more happening in it.

This is by no means a bad book and I’m sure there will be lots of readers for whom this book works perfectly well. It just wasn’t the book for me at this time. And considering that this book won the Costa Award, I’m perfectly willing to accept that this is the result of either my taste or my mood rather than the qualities of this book.

SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES

TITLE: SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES

AUTHOR: ALAN BRADLEY

Pages: 378

Date: 23/02/2013

Grade: 4.5

Details: no. 5 Flavia de Luce

            Received from Random House

            Through NetGalley

Own / Kindle

The official blurb:

“Eleven-year-old amateur detective and ardent chemist Flavia de Luce is used to digging up clues, whether they’re found among the potions in her laboratory or between the pages of her insufferable sisters’ diaries. What she is not accustomed to is digging up bodies. Upon the five-hundredth anniversary of St. Tancred’s death, the English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey is busily preparing to open its patron saint’s tomb. Nobody is more excited to peek inside the crypt than Flavia, yet what she finds will halt the proceedings dead in their tracks: the body of Mr. Collicutt, the church organist, his face grotesquely and inexplicably masked. Who held a vendetta against Mr. Collicutt, and why would they hide him in such a sacred resting place? The irrepressible Flavia decides to find out. And what she unearths will prove there’s never such thing as an open-and-shut case.”

This is the fifth book featuring the precocious Flavia de Luce and she is as clever, curious, bold and infuriating as ever. Always among the first to witness anything that happens in the little town of Bishop’s Lacey it is hardly surprising that Flavia is among those present when the tomb of St. Tancred is opened despite objections from the Bishop and the local magistrate. And she is as surprised as everybody else when the body of Mr. Collicutt, the church organist who has been missing for six weeks, is discovered with, rather shockingly, a gas-mask on his face. Never one to curb her curiosity and always eager to outsmart Inspector Hewitt, Flavia embarks on yet another of her investigations. Accompanied by her trusted bike “Gladys”, our young investigator travels Bishop’s Lacey and its surrounding areas talking to anybody who might be able to throw some light on the mystery of why the organist would have been murdered and left in such an obscure place. Over the course of her investigation Flavia doesn’t only uncover clues about the reasons behind the murder though. She also has a close encounter with her mother’s (Harriet’s) past; an encounter that will put a stop to her sisters’ powers to hurt her once and for all.

But there is more happening in Flavia’s life. It seems that her father has at last lost his battle against the creditors and that they may lose their home “Buckshaw”. And while Flavia’s sisters are suddenly less horrible towards her than they have been in the past, the girl finds herself inclined to think kinder thoughts about them too. In fact, Flavia doesn’t quite understand her own emotions and reactions anymore. Everything that appeared to be emotionally straight-forward in the past is suddenly new and surprising to her and she has no idea what may be at the root of that change.

This is a wonderful series of mystery books. Flavia is as endearing a protagonist as she can be infuriating. While the idea of a twelve year old girl not only investigating but also solving murders is charming, the girl herself comes across as a bit too smart, too insightful, for her age at times. Having said that, her smarts appear to be limited to science and murder; when it comes to human emotions, her own and those of others, she is exactly as you would expect to see in one so young. And this makes for a wonderful and at times funny combination.

I liked the setting of this book; Rural England in the 1950’s makes for a charming place and also helps to explain why a young girl is able to freely travel her surroundings without worried parents and neighbours trying to stop her. In many ways this book reminds me a bit of Agatha Christie stories; the county setting, where everybody knows each other; the charming but rather clueless priest; and, of course, the unlikely but very successful investigator, be it that Miss Marple and Flavia are on different extremes of the age scale. The fact that Mrs. Christie’s books are mentioned in this story therefore put a big smile on my face.

Another thing I love in these books is the near perfect balance between the excitement of solving the mystery and the details of Flavia’s turbulent life. Flavia may have a child’s ability to more or less ignore the bigger problems brewing around her, she can’t help being affected by them and suffering under her inability to do anything useful to help. I like the way we see Flavia grow up over the course of these books and although I hope we won’t be confronted by too much teenage angst in books to come it will be fun to see how she and the people around her fare in future stories.

And talking about future stories; this book ends on a rather massive cliff-hanger and I can’t wait to find out what exactly that last line of the book means for Flavia and her family.

This is a wonderfully plotted and very engaging mystery featuring an original and fascinating main character; a book I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys well written cozy mysteries.