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Finding Our Forever (Silver Springs, #1)
Finding Our Forever (Silver Springs, #1)
Brenda Novak | 2017 | Contemporary, Romance
8
9.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Cora has just moved to the town of Silver Springs California, hoping to start a new life with a new job teaching art. She's teaching a a school for troubled boys called, New Horizons and Cora is really drawn to its founder Aiyana. Besides the teaching job, Cora has other reasons to be in Silver Springs. Will she be able to find the answers she is looking for, or will the decisions she makes along the way hinder her ability to discover the truth about herself?

While I have many Brenda Novak books on my Kindle, this is the first of her titles that I have actually read. I was drawn to this book initially because of its setting of Silver Springs, the town I live in is called Silver Spring. I was even more drawn to the book by the characters because I have members of my immediate family with similar names to the characters in the book.

Cora Kelly was adopted 28 years ago. Since that time she has been on a quest to find her mother and find out why. She loves her adoptive parents wholeheartedly, but still has a desire to know where she comes from. Her birth mother was at a reasonable age to keep a child, 21, so what were the circumstances that made her decide that adoption was the best idea, especially since in her investigation she finds out that her birth mother has adopted several children over the years.

This was a very compelling story. It drew me in immediately and I couldn't put it down. I read it in just a few hours over a couple of days. I can't imagine what it would be like to not know your birth parents. And then searching your whole life to find them, with a closed adoption. In Cora's quest to find all this information, she falls in love and faces conflict with her adoptive parents. It's a great story for everyone who likes a little romance in their lives.
  
The Wastelands - Dark Tower III
The Wastelands - Dark Tower III
Stephen King | 1991 | Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Thriller
8
8.6 (27 Ratings)
Book Rating
Writing, characters, plot (0 more)
Cliffhanger (0 more)
A good entry in the series
Contains spoilers, click to show
I’ll start with an admission - I love these books so much I have a dark tower tattoo. The Wastelands was the first book in the series I read. I found the book in the library at school and took it home with me. Anyway I’m just rereading the series and thought I’d post some thoughts.

So, the book itself. Roland, Susannah & Eddie have started their quest towards the tower in MidWorld but Roland, their dinh (leader) is slowly going insane due to the paradox he created by saving Jake in New York (see book 2 The Drawing of the Three).

Safe to say during the book perils are faced, sanity is restored, Jake joins the quest and there’s a deadly train.

Ok so what I like - the plot moves along nice and swiftly. I never got bored reading this. Stephen King has occasions where I loathe his style (Gerald’s Game as an example) but this moves along quickly and flows really well. I like the characters, they’re all fully formed people and not just plot devices. They take actions because of who they are not just because the plot needs them to. The world King has created is absorbing, interesting and I always wanted to know more.

The bad - that cliffhanger. Blaine is a pain. I read this a few years before Wizard and Glass came out and I was raging about the cliffhanger. There’s zero resolution. It’s not so bad now you can move straight on but at the time I was really annoyed. Also, I’m not a big fan of the illustrations just because they don’t match the pictures in my head. Have to admit I’m never a fan of illustrations though, I think imagination is much more powerful.

Anyway, I do recommend it. I love these books. It’s maybe not the best jumping on point (though it got me when I first found it) but it is an excellent book.
  
Yellow-Billed Magpie
Yellow-Billed Magpie
Nancy Schoellkopf | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I enjoyed this book about Yellow-Billed Magpies. Nancy does a wonderful job writing the plot and the story. I enjoyed every part of it. I loved that there were an autism and other disabilities as part of the story as well.
 
You get a bit of a spiritual in the story as well. We learn about Magpies somewhat in the book. We also go on a quest with Samantha O’Malley. We meet Craig and her old lover. She goes back to her teaching career.

What discoveries will Samantha and Craig find by working together and with her students? Nancy writing is done well. I have not been into a book that felt so real. I feel the book show us what it likes somewhat of our world. Is our world what we think or is it an illusion? I start to wonder this and if we are just experiencing it as humans.