Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin

Young Jane Young is the story of a young girl made some mistakes early on in life.  Some mistakes with a married, older, important man.  When her mistake is revealed she's the one that gets smeared in the media.  He comes out with a long successful career and marriage still intact.  With a bleak future Jane leaves town and builds a new life for herself where no one knows her name or recognizes her.  Fast forward 13 years later when she's got a new life built for herself and a curious daughter about to make it all coming crashing down again.

I really enjoyed all the characters in this story.  They were funny and just my kind of humor.  The book was very fast paced.  I always love a book that writes with different character's perspective.

This is the second book that I have read by Gabrielle Zevin.  Check out my review of her first novel  The Storied Life of A. J Fikry as well.

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Isa, Kate, Thea and Fatima meet when beginning a school year at a residential school in Salten.  They seemed to destined to be best friends when they bond over a lie.  This begins the lying game.  There are rules for the lying game and points rewarded.  It's all fun and games until the lies become life and death.

15 years late the girls are trying to move on with their lives but they are still lying.  When Kate sends a text message saying 'I need you.'  The girls grab trains and come running.

The Lying Game is a story that slowly unravels with details being revealed at a pace to keep readers intrigued.  I felt like I was clenching my jaw at the suspense and tension of this novel.  Ruth Ware is a talented suspenseful storyteller.  She is also the author of The Woman in Cabin 10.

The Ice-Cream Makers by Ernest van der Kwast

Making ice cream is hard work.  There are a lot of long days.  Churn churn churn the ice cream.  It takes a family to run a successful ice cream shop.  Giovanni comes from a long line of ice cream makers.  Imagine then the upset when Giovanni decides he doesn't want to be in the family business.  He wants to travel the world reading poetry.  When Giovanni pops home from is world travels his father makes constant jabs about his 'work'.  His brother won't even speak to him for 12 years until he needs a favour.  A big favour.  

I found The Ice-Cream Makers a bit hard to get into at first.  The book jumps around a bit which caused me to have to go back and re-read paragraphs feeling I had missed a detail.  Every night I read I was craving ice cream and I would love to travel to the village on the cover.  Ernest van der Kwast has left me dreaming of Italy and ice cream.  

The Ice-Cream Makers will be in store August 1st, 2017.

Edit - I've just come back from Italy and I thought of this book often.  There are so many ice cream makers around Italy and it's certainly true that they need to compete for new and competitive flavours.  So yummy!

Bubba Begonia You're Such a Lucky Guy by Gerry O'Brien

A few years ago I visited my local Chapters bookstore to find some books for my young son.  Gerry O'Brien was at the store doing a signing and his Bubba Begonia books looked exactly like what we were after.  Bubba Begonia books are the perfect length for a young reader and they are action packed with so many funny scenes.  

In Bubba Begonia You're Such a Lucky Guy, Bubba believes he's anything but lucky.  His parents have just sat him down for a talk to tell him they are moving his baby brother into his bedroom.  Then maybe he does get lucky when his parents agree to getting him the puppy he's asked for 5,000 times.  But Bubba quickly learns that puppies are a lot of work - and trouble! 

Bubba has a great group of friends that bring a lot of fun to the stories.  The books are also filled with funny little poems that children will love.  Bubba Begonia You're Such a Lucky Guy is book number five in the series and is in stores now.   

The author, Gerry O'Brien, enjoys doing school visits.  I had him out to my school a few years ago and the students loved him!  He really inspired them with his stories.  After Gerry's visit the students spent weeks acting out his books on the playground.

Lyttle Lies: The Pudding Problem by Joe Berger

Sam has been known to tell a tall tale.  He will admit that he has a reputation for telling the truth.  The truth is complicated.  Like an elephant.  It's just too big to deal with.  So Sam chooses not to deal with the truth.  Instead he tells these elaborate stories that mostly get him into trouble.  Mostly everyone knows he's lying but even when faced with the pressure of telling the truth Sam still stretches the tale.

Fortunately though Sam (and the author Joe Berger) are great storytellers.  The Pudding Problem is a fun and enjoyable twisted tale.  Even though Sam is a compulsive liar, he is a likable character.  Most of his lies are harmless except when dealing with big mean Feeney.

I really connected with this story.  When I was in grade 2 someone stole my sandwich at school.  I ate a summer sausage sandwich every day.  Mine was missing from my lunch bag.  But Katie had a summer sausage sandwich in her lunch bag that looked like one my Dad makes me.  I'm inclined to believe that the teacher and principal believed me as I'm not a compulsive liar like Sam - and maybe how little Katie was.  In the end my parents were called and said there was definitely a summer sausage sandwich in my bag.  Anybody else have to deal with a Sam or Katie when they were a kid?  

Lyttle Lies: The Pudding Problem is a nice clean fun story.  I love the lie detector that comes at the back of the book.  I think this would be a real hit with my students and I will definitely purchase this book for my school library.  I think this story has the makings of a great sequel and I'm sure we will see more of Sam.  

This book is in stores now and is recommended for children ages 8-12.

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

When All Our Wrong Todays popped up on my holds list I couldn't remember what had prompted me to put this book on hold at the library.  All Our Wrong Todays is science fiction and I don't read science fiction.  Then I had another thought - I don't even remember putting it on hold so it must be quite a popular books if I had to wait that long.  I thought I may as well try a few chapters.

Whew!  What a read it was!  This novel was a utopian and a dystopian and offered another life in between.  The novel begins in 2016 and Tom Barren is living the life the Jetson's had us envisioning for this year.  His father has been hard at work creating a time travel machine and has assembled the crew for the first trip.  With the mission seeming to be falling apart, Tom takes the time travel trip alone back to 1965.  It doesn't take Tom long to alter the path of the future.  Almost as quickly as he time travels, Tom also falls in love.  This novel has romance too!

The novel is written as a memoir by Tom.  I loved Tom's quote near the end of the novel "As I'm sure you're all too aware, trying to keep this time-travel crap straight in your head is a chore."  Although All Our Wrong Todays is science fiction I assure you that everyone can follow along and really enjoy this novel.

This was Canadian Elan Mastai's debut novel.  I really enjoyed the writing style.  The short chapters kept me moving through this novel quickly.  I still don't know what made me put this book on hold but I'm glad I did.  It was a nice change from my usual reads.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Evelyn Hugo is a self made success.  She suffered a tragic childhood and escaped her home town Hell's Kitchen as soon as she was able to successfully lie about her age.  Here begins husband number one.  Evelyn Hugo is determined to be a star and she will lie, cheat, get married and have sex with whoever she needs to in order to make it in Hollywood.  Fortunately, she is absolutely stunning and that helps her rise to fame.

Monique Grant is reeling from the recent separation from her first husband.  She's working as a journalist for Vivant Magazine.  She did one amazing article that got her a lot of recognition but since the undoing of her marriage she knows she hasn't written anything amazing.  That's why her and her boss are both shocked when after years of silence with the media, Evelyn Hugo agrees to an article, but only with Monique.

Evelyn reveals the untold story of her seven husbands to Monique over the course of several days.  Monique discovers the seven husbands aren't the real story at all.  It's not until the end that Monique uncovers why she's been summoned to write the story.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a beautiful story of love and loss.  The movie stars and glamour of Hollywood make the characters so real you will be checking Netflix for the films.  The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo will be available in stores June 13, 2017.  It is published by Simon and Schuster Canada.