Book Review: "Modern Love: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption" edited by Daniel Jones

Boy, did this book hit the spot so perfectly!!

"Because real love, once blossomed, never disappears. It may get lost with a piece of paper, or transform into art, books, or children, or trigger another couple’s union while failing to cement your own. But it’s always there, lying in wait for a ray of sun, pushing through thawing soil, insisting upon its rightful existence in our hearts and on earth."

A column that has appeared in the New York Times since 2004, "Modern Love" is an exploration of love in its many forms—romantic, familial, filial, platonic—and the way it is manifested both positively and negatively.

This book is a collection of those columns. Some hit more common themes—rebuilding after a relationship or marriage ends, the excitement and despair of dating, dealing with parental disapproval, getting a second chance at love.

Others are more unusual—the woman bringing her husband (soon to become her wife) to the first stage of gender reassignment surgery, the woman writing an "ad" of sorts to find her husband a new love after her impending death, the fears of a mother of a teenage boy with autism as he begins seeing girls in a romantic and sexual way.

The columns differ in length, style, tone, and topic, yet there is beautiful emotion in each one. Some made me smile, some made me cry, and some made me wonder just where these writers who shared such a moment of their lives are now. Some are written by well-known people (there's a column by Andrew Rannells he published in his own memoir earlier this year) and some are written by "everyday" people.

I devoured this book in a matter of hours, as it read like fiction. This truly was a special gem I’m so excited I stumbled upon. Perfect for those who love love, or the saps among us.

Book Review: "The Two Lila Bennetts" by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

Given how many books I read, I always love finding one that takes the traditional narrative structure and tweaks it a bit. That's the case with Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke's new thriller, The Two Lila Bennetts, and it's definitely part of the book's appeal.

Lila Bennett is a successful criminal defense attorney. Are some of the clients she defends actually guilty of their crimes? Probably. She doesn't really want to know the answer to that question, but she knows everyone is entitled to a defense, so why shouldn't it be her providing it?

For a lawyer, Lila isn't the most upstanding person. She's definitely made some bad choices, especially in her personal life. She knows she's betrayed some of the people who are closest to her, who've trusted her more than anything, but she can't seem to stop herself. She feels remorse, she really does, but...no one's perfect.

But one night, everything changes—well, sort of. Her life suddenly splits into two. In one life, she is kidnapped, held hostage by someone who knows a lot about her, down to the wine she enjoys a glass or two (or three) of every night. Her captor holds her life in his hands, and demands she atone for her sins, righting her many wrongs. Or else. In the other life, she doesn't get kidnapped, but someone is methodically looking to destroy her, making public all of her misdeeds.

She has to figure out which one of the many people she's hurt and/or betrayed is trying to destroy her, or worse. Will examining her life lead her to be a better person, one who learns from her mistakes, or will she just slip back into her old habits? Does she even want to change? If she does, what does that mean for the life she leaves behind?

One of the strengths of The Two Lila Bennetts lies in the twists and turns that Fenton and Steinke have skillfully crafted, as well as the element of surprise, which explains my briefer-than-usual plot summary. The book alternates chapters between "Free" and "Captured," and the authors ratchet up the tension bit by bit, until you're just dying to figure everything out.

I had never read anything by Fenton and Steinke before, but I really like the way they tell a story, teasing out details little by little. If I struggled with anything, it was that I really didn't like Lila very much, so I had a hard time feeling sympathetic for the ordeals she was going through. But even with an unsympathetic character, the authors made sure I couldn't tear myself away from the book.

This was an addictive thriller that had me racing through to the finish. You'll find yourself hooked on Lila's story, and wondering how it's all going to end. I wouldn't be surprised to see this one wind up as a movie one day!

Book Review: "My Lovely Wife" by Samantha Downing

If you're looking for a heartwarming love story, a tale of two people whose marriage is so full of love and devotion...find another book. This was one crazy, tension-filled, suspenseful book that had me shaking my head and wondering what would come next!

On the surface, they seem like the perfect family. He is a tennis pro at the local country club, she is a successful, high-end real estate agent. They have two teenage kids who play sports, do reasonably well in school, and only give them a bit of backtalk now and again. They eat dinner together every night—no cell phones at the table—and they are totally involved in their children's lives.

But when you've been married for a while, how do you keep the passion burning? How can you keep your spouse from being tempted by the fruit of another? Every couple has their own tricks, their own strategies. Theirs just happens to be a little bit more, umm, unorthodox.

The beauty of this book comes from the surprises that lurk when you least expect them, so I'm keeping my plot summary to a bare minimum. Promotions for My Lovely Wife have described it as a cross between Dexter and Mr. and Mrs. Smith; I found it a little more of the latter (boy, what Brad and Angelina could have done with these roles in their heyday) and not so much of the former. But forget about comparisons, because this is a book all its own.

Samantha Downing has taken a genre that is getting a little tired and predictable at times, and thrown in some "wait, she's not going to do that, is she?" along with more than a few "oh, wows," and sprinkled in a few "holy craps" to boot. I certainly don't want to think that there are people out there like this couple, but given the book's depiction of the media and our crazy world, anything is possible.

What a wild ride this was. My Lovely Wife keeps you flipping those pages because you absolutely must know what happens next, and you cannot get enough of this story and these crazy, amoral characters. I'm sure there are people who won't like this, but it made a believer of me!!

NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "The Light We Lost" by Jill Santopolo

"Love does that. It makes you feel infinite and invincible, like the whole world is open to you, anything is achievable, and each day will be filled with wonder. Maybe it's the act of opening yourself up, letting someone else in—or maybe it's the act of caring so deeply about another person that it expands your heart. I've heard so many people say some version of I never knew how much I could love another human being until...I never knew how much I could love another human being until I met you, Gabe."

Lucy and Gabe meet in their senior year at Columbia University, in a Shakespeare seminar, on September 11, 2001. Being in each other's presence when they learn how the world has changed so radically draws them together in a way they never imagined. As they look out on the destruction of the city, they both vow to live a life that has meaning, instead of pursuing a path that only brings them fortune or fame.

It takes a year for the two of them to meet again, but when they do, their relationship immediately intensifies. They are almost inseparable, each pushing the other to pursue their dreams—Lucy pursues a career in children's television, while Gabe wants to become a photojournalist. Their love burns hot, and they cannot imagine being apart. Yet when the next step in Gabe's career is moving to Iraq to take pictures, he doesn't hesitate, leaving Lucy behind to mourn what might have been, and wonder why she wasn't enough to keep him home.

"You were my comfort and my pain all at once."

Lucy does all she can to pull her life back together, even though she longs for no one but Gabe. But eventually she realizes that although they will always be connected, she needs to move on, and some time later she meets Darren. Darren is a few years older than she is, and offers Lucy more stability than Gabe, although without some of the dynamism. As she grows to love Darren, she knows their relationship will never be the same as her and Gabe's, but is a life of steady love better or worse than a life of brief bouts of burning passion?

While both of their lives move on without the other, Gabe and Lucy still find themselves orbiting around each other from time to time, encounters which provoke passion, pain, betrayal, jealousy, grief and, of course, love. Although Lucy and Darren have a wonderful life and she has a successful career, she cannot help but wonder what might have been. And when she makes a snap decision one day, she has no idea where that will lead—and what it will bring for both of their lives.

The Light We Lost, as you can tell from the image I used at the top of my review, is definitely a tearjerker. But beyond the emotions it provokes, it's an interesting and compelling look at the power of first love, and how it can radically change the course of your life. Sure, it's a little melodramatic, and I don't know if we're given enough evidence of just how intense the bond between Lucy and Gabe is to provoke all that occurs in the story, but you still need to know what happens.

Jill Santopolo knows how to draw you into a story and unravel just enough plot to keep you utterly immersed. The book is told with a lot of foreshadowing, but she never gives away everything. This would be a good movie, and it's definitely a good beach read if you don't mind crying in your lounge chair.

They say you never forget a first love. The Light We Lost surely proves that adage!