Review | What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Author: Liane Moriarty
Published: May 2010 (January 2009)
Publisher: PanMacmillan Australia
Pages: 487
Format: Paperback
Genre: Romance, Women's Fiction
Rating: ★★★★☆

[Show Synopsis]
Synopsis
Alice is twenty-nine. She is whimsical, optimistic and adores sleep, chocolate, her ramshackle new house and her wonderful husband Nick. What's more, she's looking forward to the birth of the 'Sultana' - her first baby.

But now Alice has slipped and hit her head in her step-aerobics class and everyone's telling her she's misplaced the last ten years of her life.

In fact, it would seem that Alice is actually thirty-nine and now she loves schedules, expensive lingerie, caffeine and manicures. She has three children and the honeymoon is well and truly over for her and Nick. In fact, he looks at her like she's his worst enemy. What's more, her beloved sister Elisabeth isn't speaking to her either. And who is this 'Gina' everyone is so carefully trying not to mention?

Alice isn't sure that she likes life ten years on. Every photo is another memory she doesn't have and nothing makes sense. Just how much can happen in a decade? Has she really lost her lovely husband forever?

Review
Not exactly an original idea. Girl has family troubles, she falls down, gets amnesia, and forgets all about any family problems, but it was a pretty good book. It didn't end anything like I expected it to though.

I liked younger Alice more. She was more carefree, maybe a little too much though, and actually listened to her kids instead of assuming she knew everything. Younger Alice kind of reminds me more of my mom. I always felt sorry for the kids who had parents like older Alice.

Review | The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

Author: Jojo Moyes
Published: June 26, 2012 (first published 2010)
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 416
Format: Paperback
Genre: Drama, Historical, Romance, Women's Fiction 
Rating: ★★★★☆

[Show Synopsis]
Synopsis
(from Goodreads)
A Brief Encounter for our time, The Last Letter from Your Lover is a sophisticated, spellbinding double love story that spans decades and thrillingly evokes a bygone era. In 1960, Jennifer Stirling wakes in the hospital and remembers nothing—not the car accident that put her there, not her wealthy husband, not even her own name. Searching for clues, she finds an impassioned letter, signed simply "B," from a man for whom she seemed willing to risk everything. In 2003, journalist Ellie Haworth stumbles upon the letter and becomes obsessed with learning the unknown lovers’ fate—hoping it will inspire her own happy ending. Remarkably moving, this is a novel for romantics of every age.

Review
Yet another book that I wouldn't have picked up on my own that I can thank Ladies & Lit book club for. The first half of the book takes place in the 1960s. As you are reading (I can't stress this enough), pay attention to dates. The titles of each chapter tell when the chapter is occurring. They jump back and forth from before and after a car accident. I was really confused during the first few chapters since I wasn't aware of this.

I felt really sorry for Jennifer. Her husband wanted the old fashion trophy housewife--dumb, quiet, breeding, and pretty. If Jennifer acted even slightly intellectual, he quickly told her to mind business she actually knew about and that was up to her standards--like the house and home. The way he treated her drove me crazy. What made me even madder is that she just took it meekly. I know that's how women were treated and reacted back then. It just made me even happier that I was born toward the end of the 20th century.

Review | The Light Between Oceans

Author: M.L. Stedman
Published: April 9, 2012
Publisher: Scribner
Pages: 343
Genres: Drama, Historical Fiction, Romance, Women's Fiction
Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis
(from Goodreads)
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.