The Pleasing Hour

'The Pleasing Hour' by Lilly King, is the story of how Rosie travels to France to become an Au Pair after she gave birth to a son and immediately handed him to her barren sister who longed for children. She is a postpartum mother without her own child while raising someone elses. The mother of the family is cold and distant, treating Rosie rather rudely. Despite that, she learns to love her new family and begins to emotionally heal.

I am not going to lie to you- this was the most confusing book I have ever read. I am not exactly sure why I stuck with it and read it until the end. I guess I was hoping for a magical moment where the author tied everything in and gave me that "ah-hah!" moment, which never came. There are chapters from the view points of Rosie, Nicole (the French mother), Nicoles mother, and the three children that Rosie looks after. I never could figure out what the underlying theme was. Rosie gets pregnant on purpose her senior year of high school simply because her sister wants a child so badly. When it comes time to hand her son over though, she doesn't want to, and ends up hating her sister for holding him first. And in the end she has an affair with the dad of the family she lives with. Nice. Nicole's mother has an affair with a German soldier and then gets pregnant with Nicole... who is Nicole's father? It never says. Then Nicole's mother kills herself and that's what leads to events leading up to Nicole moving to Paris with her aunt. As for the three childre, we read a chapter on the oldest daughter the night she loses her virginity, the youngest son wants to be priest, and the middle daughter's chapter made no sense whatsoever and didn't add to the story line in the slightest. This book was all over the place and so full of the weirdest, most inappropriate situations that do not need to be put down in the written word. 

When I finished the last word in the last chapter of the book, the only thing I thought was, "How in the hell did this book ever get published?!" Don't read this book. Seriously. It sucks. 

Me Before You

I just finished reading 'Me Before You' by JoJo Moyes. It is the story of a mid-twenties girl named Louisa Clark who has yet to find her place in this world. She doesn't have the luxury of ambition or dreams simply because her family can't afford them. When she gets a job as a caretaker to a very wealthy quadriplegic man, she is nervous that she is not qualified for the job, but desperately needs the money. Will is cranky, spiteful, and seems to be really irritated by Louisa. Eventually Louisa is bound and determined to win Will over and help him see that there is still good in the world and that it's a life worth living.

I wasn't expecting this book to be what it was. I thought maybe it was going to be a cute little love story, somewhat like Pride and Prejudice with a modern day feel to it. I was completely wrong. Do you ever end up loving a book because you also hate it? It's like when Dumblerdore died and I threw the book against the wall, but I actually loved it because it made me feel such deep emotions. This book was like that. It got me to feel very deep emotions. I have a love/hate relationship with it. It was hard to read at the end, and not just because I could barely see through my big fat ugly tears. Sometimes it is kind of nice to get out of my Mormon, conservative, little Utah world and see the viewpoints of others. Although I 100% disagreed with the choices of the main characters, it is one of those books that opened my small little mind to other religions, politics, and people. I think we need more of that in this world. We may not agree. We may not even understand. But we can respect other people's decisions and treat them kindly despite our differences. Don't let me tell you how to feel about this book though. Read it and find out for yourself.

And yes, I still want to see the movie.

The Light Between Oceans

Heart-wrenching. It is the only way I can describe the latest book that I read. 'The Light Between Oceans' by M.L. Stedman is a heart wrenching story of Tom, who is a light house keeper on Janus Island. Janus Island is half a days journey off the coast of Australia with supply ships only coming in every few months. It is a very isolated and lonely place for Tom to bring his new bride Isabel. After two miscarriages and a still birth, Isabel believes that the baby who washes up in a boat is a gift from God. However, there is also a dead man in the boat, and it is Tom's duty as a government employee to report everything that goes on on the island. Isabel pleads with Tom to just give her a little time with the baby, to heal her broken heart. Eventually time goes on and then it is too late, they have fallen in love with baby Lucy, and just can't bare to give her up. Not even when they discover that her birth mother is still alive. Still waiting for news. And still in desperate mourning for her lost husband and little girl.  This is a tale of heart ache, choices, binding love, and forgiveness.

I would highly recommend this book. As a mother, it was very hard for me to take sides in this kind of situation. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Mistakes were made and people are human with human emotions. Half way through the book I just could not figure out how it was all going to end, is a happy ending even possible? You'll just have to find out for yourself. As for me, I can't wait to see the movie. I am bringing a box of tissues.