I have wanted to read A Window Opens by Elizabeth Egan for a long time. It has cropped up in book list for 2015 over and over. Alice Pearse looks like she has the perfect life – lawyer husband, three children, part-time job at a magazine reviewing books – until her husband tells her he hasn’t made partner and quit. Alice is forced to look for a “real” job and finds work at Scroll, a company designed to upend the book world. I read that this is a veiled look at Egan’s own history, but I can’t confirm that. Either way, it was an enjoyable and light read. Perfect for the beach and quick.

I was so lucky to find an Advance Reader’s Copy of The Opposite of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson at one of my favorite bookstores, The Island Bookstore. I had wanted to read it, since I really liked her previous book, Someone Else’s Love Story, and was excited to pick it up and get started. Paula is a divorce attorney with a transient past and siblings she didn’t even know she had. This story teases out alongside flashbacks to her foster home past. I had trouble getting into this one and struggled a bit, thinking I wouldn’t see it though. And, while I continued to slog through, wanted to abandon ship multiple times in favor of other books on my nightstand, I did finish it. However, I’m afraid I can’t recommend this one, even though it did get more interesting at the end.

I got into A Small Indiscretion right away. The continuous changing of time and place were hard to follow at first, but once it got going, I just wanted to fit all the puzzle pieces together. The basic premise has a woman writing a letter to her son about her life and the choices she has made. It was a good story and was full of surprises. It held up all the way through and I enjoyed reading it very much.

I haven’t read an Alice Hoffman for a while. I really liked her books for a long time and then I got tired of the fantasy element. The Marriage of Opposites read more like an Isabelle Allende to me than an Alice Hoffman. It took me a little while to get into it, but once I did, I very much enjoyed the middle of the story. It slowed down again, though, at the end, and I struggled to finish. It took too long to realize that it was the story of Camille Pissarro and by then, I was more interested in his mother’s life, which was in the background. Overall, I can’t recommend this one.

Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg is told like joined short stories. It’s not the kind of book I typically like. And, each new story made me really have to concentrate to figure out how the new person tied into the story. As you read along, however loose ends get tied up. June is the only survivor in an accident that happens the night before her daughter’s wedding. We learn all the parts that brought us to this point as we read the book. I ended up enjoying it and I really liked the tone of the book.

I wanted to like Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders by Julianna Baggott, but I just didn’t. The premise was good: a famous author who was presumed to have written a missing seventh book in a series and her family story, but the execution was too ramble-y. I only really enjoyed the last 30 pages. Looking for a great next read. Any advice, readers?

A friend loaned me Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff and I was immediately sucked in. But the characters, at the end of the day, fell flat for me and I just wasn’t interested in what happened to them. While the friend had said that the second half was better than the first, I just struggled to get through this one. I clearly missed what NPR and others felt made this such a good read.

I thought I would go to see the movie before having time to read The Martian by Andy Weir, but the book appeared in my library check out list and I was able to read it first. The Martian was written in a spare style, which I felt nicely captured the feeling Mark would have had being stranded alone on Mars and writing a log about it. I liked that the book bounced back and forth from Earth to Mars and I was completely caught up in the story. It could have been meatier, I suppose, but I really enjoyed reading it and look forward to seeing what they did with the movie.

The Last September was a recommendation from my favorite blog, Everyday I Write the Book. Like Gayle, I had some issues with the main character and her actions at the end of the book. The story, in a nutshell, is about a murder and the falling apart of a marriage. It was a heartbreaking book in many ways, but overall, I found myself too irritated with some of the characters and some of the plot lines to fully give myself over to it. And, to me, the last 50 pages were a disappointment. It was a letdown especially after an interesting and intriguing start.

The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs is a short, spare novel that is a quick and enjoyable read, but nothing astonishing. The premise, though, of a woman who heads out of town unexpectedly with her teenage daughter to right a wrong done to her in high school by her former best friend, is one that will resonate with anyone who had a slight in high school that they have never forgotten. You cheer for Caroline, while at the same time, realize truths about that time in everyone’s lives. It won’t take too long to read this one, should you choose to pick it up.