Book Review Thursday - 6/27

It's that time again!

The History of Us by Leah Stewart was a book that I found on the library site. Stewart was a new to me author, but the book was based in Cincinnati so I thought I would give it a try.

Eloise is on her way to teach a class at Harvard when she gets a call that her sister and brother-in-law have been killed and Eloise has just inherited their 3 kids. Eloise is forced to quit Harvard and move home to Cincinnati. Then, the novel jumps forward 20 years and Eloise is still in Cincinnati living in the same house with the kids and spending a lot of time thinking about what might have been if she had stayed in Boston.

While trying to push the 20 something year old kids into their own lives and out of the nest, the kids all decide that they want the house that they have lived in. The problem is that the house is owned by Eloise's mother even though Eloise has spent all of her money on upkeep and taxes. The grandmother promised Eloise that she would give her the house to sell once the kids were out of it.

After I finished the book, it was certainly a disappoint in that it just sort of ended and I didn't feel like anything was really resolved or that there was a point to the story. There was a lot of talk about Cincinnati and parts of the city and common attitudes of people here and it was used to explain why Eloise hated living here and also why one of the kids loved it. Overall, this book ended up being one of the ones that I consider a waste of time to have read it.

Three Sisters by Susan Mallery is about a woman who is jilted at the altar who decides to buy a house on an island and move away from her life. The house is one of 3 on the island that are called the Three Sisters and are Queen Anne style houses. Andi intends to renovate the entire house to live on the second and third floors and open a pediatric office on the first. Boston is one of Andi's neighbors and is an artist who is married to her high school sweetheart and they lost their son less than a year before. Deanna is the other neighbor with a slew of daughters and OCD. As Andi fights to find herself and new friends, Deanna, Boston and Andi become like 3 sisters themselves.

This was a lovely summer read. It was interesting to hear a bit about island life and see how Andi started interacting with Deanna's daughters and other islanders. And listening to the description of the house renovations made me start thinking about what I could do to my house this summer. :)

Anyone reading anything good?