Today I am taking a break from my regularly scheduled Delicious Dish Tuesday to bring to you my 2nd ever Literary Junkies book post. I have so enjoyed being a part of another book club, especially one that is full of bloggers like myself. This month we read
The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon and I am super excited for the Twitter chat tomorrow as this month the author is actually joining us!
During my last Literary Junkies
post I had mentioned that I had started reading
The Confession by Robert Whitlow, so I figure that it is only fitting that I do a book review on it for my 2nd ever Literary Junkies post.
The Confession appealed to me because it was a book where the main character, Holt Douglas is an Assistant D.A. and during most of my legal education I clerked at the Attorney General's Office in Delaware working with the Deputy Attorney Generals prosecuting various adults and juveniles. While I spent my time mostly prosecuting juveniles, Holt spends his days prosecuting all types of criminals.
One day Holt mysteriously finds an old file on his desk related to a case that had been closed many years ago regarding the "suicide" of Rex Meredith. After looking at the bare bones file Holt begins to suspect that it was not a suicide after all and begins looking in to the case. While investigating he engages the help of Trish, a deputy sheriff who has helped him with many cases involving parents who are behind on their child support. With Trish's help the two begin to suspect that more really did happen as when wind of the investigation gets out Trish's boss and some others within the Sheriff's Department ask Trish to keep an eye on Holt and report back to them with developments on his case.
As Holt spends more time with Trish he eventually lets her in on the secret as to why he became an Assistant D.A.... that he had been following the dreams of his best friend who was killed in a car crash. The worst part about the crash was that Holt was driving the car and he was drunk at the time... although he was more sober than Calico... but he was still drunk. When questioned by the police, Holt tells them that Calico was the one driving and Holt is able to move on with his life. While moving on Holt is saddled with the guilt of killing his best friend and wants to do everything in his power to make things right.
Trish can't look at Holt after she learns his secret as her father was killed in a car accident involving a drunk driver and her mother was left paralyzed after the same accident. Trish and Holt both end up turning to God to deal with the pain that they are both going through.
I really enjoyed this book not only because of the legal aspect to it but because it really held my attention. I honestly did not see the end coming and love that the book threw me for a little bit of a loop. I find a lot of mystery books to be pretty predictable, so the fact that this one left me shocked was pretty awesome. I also love that it was a pretty quick and easy read... it was one of those books that I really didn't want to put down.
It warmed my heart that both Trish and eventually Holt had a great relationship with God and used church to help them both through a tough time. I enjoyed getting to see the role that the church played in both of their lives and how they were able to gain strength to do the right thing.
Now on the the Literary Junkies part of the post....
1. What are you reading right now? Tell us about it.
Right now I am reading
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I know I am late getting on the train of reading this book and I am actually reading it for my Chi Omega book club that is meeting this upcoming weekend. I have been really excited to read this as I really want to see the movie, but I am not one to see a movie before I read a book. I have heard mixed reviews on this book and so far am not quite sure how I feel about it. But I will be sure to let you all know how it turned out soon!
2. There are a ton of movies coming out soon that were based off of books. Are there any that you're particularly excited to see?
As crazy as this sounds I am most excited about
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day coming out as a movie. I used to
LOVE that book as a kid and I really can't wait to see how they turned it into a movie!
3. With fall finally here for some of us, are there any books that you're particularly looking forward to reading in the season of big sweaters, blankets and hot chocolate?
Honestly there are so many books that I want to read right now and any of them are perfect for reading in the fall. I love nothing more than enjoying a book with a cup of warm apple cider during the fall. I still really want to read
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and I would also like to read
Outlander by Diana Gabalon as I have recently become obsessed with the TV series and think reading the book would be awesome!
4. We only have 3.5 months left of 2014. Did you participate in any reading challenges? How are you doing?
Unfortunately I didn't get involved in any reading challenges this year as I didn't hear about a few of them until they were already part way over. I am hoping to get more involved next year!
5. What has been the best book you have read so far this year?
I honestly think that
The Book Theif was probably my favorite book that I have read this past year. I had a really hard time getting into it, but once I did I couldn't put it down. I still have yet to see the movie which is the reason why I wanted to read the book, BUT I will get there one of these days.
Have you read anything good recently?
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
