To Love and To Loathe by Martha Waters (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: To Love and To Loathe

Author: Martha Waters

Publication: 6 April 2021

Format: Kindle eBook

Amazon Description

The widowed Diana, Lady Templeton and Jeremy, Marquess of Willingham are infamous among English high society as much for their sharp-tongued bickering as their flirtation. One evening, an argument at a ball turns into a serious wager: Jeremy will marry within the year or Diana will forfeit one hundred pounds. So shortly after, just before a fortnight-long house party at Elderwild, Jeremy’s country estate, Diana is shocked when Jeremy appears at her home with a very different kind of proposition.

After his latest mistress unfavorably criticized his skills in the bedroom, Jeremy is looking for reassurance, so he has gone to the only woman he trusts to be totally truthful. He suggests that they embark on a brief affair while at the house party—Jeremy can receive an honest critique of his bedroom skills and widowed Diana can use the gossip to signal to other gentlemen that she is interested in taking a lover.

Diana thinks taking him up on his counter-proposal can only help her win her wager. With her in the bedroom and Jeremy’s marriage-minded grandmother, the formidable Dowager Marchioness of Willingham, helping to find suitable matches among the eligible ladies at Elderwild, Diana is confident her victory is assured. But while they’re focused on winning wagers, they stand to lose their own hearts.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

Back in September I read the first of Martha Waters' Regency Vows series -- To Have and To Hoax.  My favorite part of it was the secondary characters like Diana and Emily. I just requested a preview copy of Emily's story and realized that I still had not gotten my grubby little hands on Diana's. Amazon gift card to the rescue!

The Amazon description tells pretty much the entire gist of the story so there's really no reason to recap any of that. I was so excited when I started this book as I've enjoyed the snarkiness from both Diana and Jeremy ... but especially from Jeremy's grandmother. She's like a combination of Downton Abbey's Violet Crawley and Bridgerton's Lady Danbury and I adore her.

HOWEVER ...

Remember how I said that I didn't think that I could dislike a heroine more than Violet from the first book?

I was so very disturbingly and disappointingly wrong.

Diana is horribly on so many levels to so many people. I believed at first that she was just shielding herself with her snark. About three quarters of the way through she betrays another character by telling a secret that could, potentially, get them imprisoned or even killed and she's just .... so .... just .... ugh. I had a difficult time trying to find any humor or lightheartedness in anything she said or did from that point on. I kept reading her as a mean and vile bit..... bit too much to take.

I finished it, of course, and I was still rooting for a great big Happily Ever After for Jeremy.....

....with just about anyone else in the world.

I have already requested the third from Atria via NetGalley and I'll read it if I get approved for it. If I don't? I may not bother. I'm more than a little terrified of what is going to be done to destroy my other favorite secondary characters when they become the leads.

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As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

Rambling About.... Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

 

Title: Raven Black

Author: Ann Cleeves

Publication: 24 June 2008

Format: Kindle eBook

Amazon Description

Raven Black begins on New Year's Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion falls on Magnus. Inspector Jimmy Perez enters an investigative maze that leads deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I've been meaning to read Ann Cleeves for a while now. BritBox is one of my favorite streaming services and there are several shows based on her books and the one that I keep wanting to watch most (because Douglas Henshall has had me since Primeval) is Shetland. I know that changes have been made with the adaptation, but I also know that Cleeves is a fan of the show and the changes so I'm still going to give it a shot ... after I read at least the first couple of books in the series. When I saw that this one started on New Year's Eve it was like a sign that I needed to stop delaying and at least get it started in time for this week's Book Beginnings & Friday 56. 

I did more than start it ... I finished it in all of its wonderful glory and a lot sooner than expected so we get a random rambling post today and the Book Beginnings & Friday 56 will be ........ something else.

This is one of those books where even the locale is a character. Of course, that would be Shetland:

In Shetland, when there was no wind it was shocking. People strained their ears and wondered what was missing. 

It's the actual characters, though, that really drew me in from the beginning starting with poor Magnus Tait. Magnus is an older man -- lonely, secluded, and quite probably autistic. We open with him waiting for potential visitors for New Year's even though he hasn't had any in eight years. He was alone aside from his pet raven until two teenage girls surprise him and visit -- Sally Henry and Catherine Ross. 

Not long after, Catherine Ross is found dead and since Magnus was one of the last people who saw her alive, he is immediately suspected -- just as he was eight years ago when eleven year old Catriona Bruce went missing. After all, people fear what they can't understand and not many people ever tried to understand Magnus. Luckily for Magnus, D.I Jimmy Perez is working the investigation and is not quite as convinced as everyone else seems to be.

Perez didn't know if Magnus was a murdered or not. It was too early to say. But the assumption of his colleagues that Tait had killed the girl annoyed him. It was a challenge to his professionalism. It was the sloppy thinking, the laziness which irritated him.... Perez hoped that the team from Inverness would come with open minds. He planned to get at them before they were infected by the Shetland gossip and the locals' distrust of an old man who'd become an outsider.

(Side Note: Perez, the main character of the series, is probably the biggest change I know of between the book and the still-unseen TV show. I'll just keep picturing him as Henshall because that makes my brain happy.)

It all takes place in a small community where pretty much everyone knows everyone ... and yet everyone seems to have secrets so no one really knows much. Or perhaps they do. It's told from the viewpoint of several characters so the reader knows more than most of the players, of course, but even then there are twists and turns and many of them far more twisted than expected. 

I'm definitely a fan and will absolutely be continuing the series and, I would imagine, more of Cleeves. After all, there are at least two others to binge on BritBox besides Shetland.

WWW Wednesday -- 29 December 2021

 

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

My Current Read : 

Title: The Woman Who Came Back to Life

Author: Beth Miller

Publication: 5 January 2022

Format: Kindle eArc via NetGalley

I should have known just from the cover that this was going to be a multiple-Kleenex kind of book.

I also should have known not to venture into such a thing when I'm already more than a bit on the feeble side emotionally .... but I'm doing it anyway .... and I'm almost finished with it, so we'll see if it completely breaks me before I can move on to something light and refreshing like murder.

It's very much a story of what and who to let go of -- or hold on to with all your might. 

It's a tricky conundrum at times -- especially when family is involved. 

It's told by three characters: Pearl, the daughter she gave up for adoption, and the father she was estranged from for thirty years. Pearl's father, Francis, has passed and his bits are all done via journals he had left for Pearl. As it turns out, he wasn't necessarily as estranged as she had thought. They spanned from 1981 to 2018 and were probably my favorite part of the entire book.

It feels like a slow read. Sometimes dreadfully so. Somehow, though, it's also a deceptively quick read. It can feel like it's dragging and going nowhere but then, before you know it, you're almost finished. Maybe it's just me.  

I had no idea what to do with these thoughts, so I employed my usual strategy for dealing with difficult things, and pushed them to the back of my mind, pending a later, unspecified time in which I would have the mental capacity to deal with it.

Recently Finished :

Dunmoor was last week's Tuesday Intros/Teaser Tuesday and the "currently reading" from last week's WWW Wednesday. I finished it Wednesday afternoon and it was even more amazingly eerie by the time I finished. I eagerly await the sequel!

I do so adore Kristen Painter's Nocturne Falls series and this is the first in a spin-off mystery series that I may end up loving even more! It was this past Book Beginnings/Friday56 pick.

My Fine Fellow was yesterday's Tuesday Intros/Teaser Tuesday book and was a fun and pretty fast YA read. I may or may not have binge-watched a lot of Food Network competition shows after it was finished.

What's Next :

I'm really rather determined to knock out the first in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series so I can then feel free to binge the tv series Shetland on BritBox. I already know that there are several changes, but I also know that Cleeves is happy with them so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I actually started the book .... then the Netgalley guilt got to me after a couple of pages .... so I'm planning to dive back in as soon as The Woman Who Came Back to Life is finished.

 

My Fine Fellow by Jennieke Cohen (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

 

Title: My Fine Fellow

Author: Jennieke Cohen

Publication: 11 January 2022

Format: Kindle eArc via NetGalley

Amazon Description

It’s 1830s England, and Culinarians—doyens who consult with society’s elite to create gorgeous food and confections—are the crème de la crème of high society.

Helena Higgins, top of her class at the Royal Academy, has a sharp demeanor and an even sharper palate—and knows stardom awaits her if she can produce greatness in her final year.

Penelope Pickering is going to prove the value of non-European cuisine to all of England. Her contemporaries may scorn her Filipina heritage and her dishes, but with her flawless social graces and culinary talents, Penelope is set to prove them wrong.

Elijah Little has nothing to his name but a truly excellent instinct for flavors. London merchants won’t allow a Jewish boy to own a shop, so he hawks his pasties for a shilling a piece to passersby—but he knows with training he can break into the highest echelon of society.

When Penelope and Helena meet Elijah, a golden opportunity arises: to pull off a project never seen before, and turn Elijah from a street vendor to a gentleman chef.

But Elijah’s transformation will have a greater impact on this trio than they originally realize—and mayhem, unseemly faux pas, and a little romance will all be a part of the delicious recipe.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I quite enjoyed Jennieke Cohen's Dangerous Alliance so I was thrilled when given the chance to read her upcoming My Fine Fellow thanks to HarperTeen and NetGalley. I actually started this last week after finishing the gothic and sometimes quite brutal Dunmoor as I needed something a lot more lighthearted to cleanse the brain palate.... and then decided to go festive for the Christmas Eve post and then got distracted and ... I'm finally finishing My Fine Fellow.  

It's a fun twist on Pygmalion/My Fair Lady. Higgins is Helena rather than Henry. Pickering is Penelope rather than Hugh. Instead of being experts in linguistics, the two girls are finishing up their training to be experts in culinary arts. Instead of turning a cockney flower girl named Eliza Doolittle into a lady, they set out to turn a Jewish street vendor named Elijah into a top chef.

I adore Penelope and Elijah and seeing what prejudices they battled with her being biracial and him being Jewish. I didn't adore the prejudices, of course ... but I quite admired how they were written. Helena, of course, is just as annoying and arrogant as Henry. In fact, she may even be moreso and drove me more than a bit crazy. I'm guessing that was quite purposeful and, therefore, masterfully done.

For the most part it is a fun read, but I made the dreadful mistake of starting it while on an empty stomach. The food descriptions just about killed me by the end of the first chapter. 

Be forewarned -- read this with something nearby to nibble on at the very least. 

Now I'm going to go grab a snack, pull up My Fair Lady on Netflix, and debate the next read. 

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"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.

Miss Frost Solves a Cold Case by Kristen Painter (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: Miss Frost Solves a Cold Case

Author: Kristen Painter

Publication: 8 March 2016

Format: Kindle eBook

Amazon Description

Jayne Frost is a lot of things. Winter elf, Jack Frost’s daughter, Santa Claus’s niece, heir to the Winter Throne and now…private investigator. Sort of.

Needing someone he can trust, her father sends her undercover to Nocturne Falls to find out why employees at the Santa’s Workshop toy store are going missing.

Doing that requires getting to know the town, which leads to interesting encounters with a sexy vampire, an old flame, and an elevator that’s strictly off-limits. The more Jayne finds out, the more questions she has, but the answers lead her deeper into danger.

Will her magic save her? Or will she come up cold?

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

Miss Frost Solves a Cold Case has been sitting on my Kindle Cloud since January .... of 2018. I guess I just needed the perfect time to read it and this has definitely been the perfect time. I had started reading something else and even had the post started for it, but decided that I should at least pretend to be festive. Grabbed a Christmasy rom-com from Kindle Unlimited. And then another. And then said "screw it" because I'm apparently definitely not in a schmaltzy rom-com-y mood. 

Enter Kristen Painter. 

I looked to see if any of my upcoming Nocturne Falls books were Christmas-season-themed. I love Nocturne Falls. Just enough "rom" and just enough "com" without being too much of either. Unfortunately, it looks like I would have to jump around in the series order to get to Christmas again so ... no. But in my recommendations list was the second Miss Frost book -- it being a spin-off series to the original Nocturne Falls and all that. I was confused as to why it was recommending the second and not the first ... until I discovered that I already had the first.

Whoops.

I was immediately pulled in to the story of Jayne Frost. Her father is Jack Frost -- the elven Winter King. Her mother is Santa's sister, Klara. She herself has had some difficulty finding her fit at the North Pole so is sent to investigate some strange disappearances happening at their flagship toy store in Nocturne Falls, Santa's Workshop. She goes undercover as a "normal" winter elf named Lilibeth Holiday rather than the super-magical elven princess that she is.

If you didn't already know, Nocturne Falls is a town in Georgia where Halloween is celebrated 365 days a year. Supernatural beings can be themselves -- werewolves, witches, vampires, and so on -- and human visitors can just think that it's part of the gimmick. The entire town participates but, even so, Santa's Workshop "was one hundred percent Christmas. Right down to the genuine icicles hanging off the eaves and the canopy over the door, and the swirls of frost in the corners of the windows."  The store even smells of pine, snow and peppermint.

It's a new experience for Jayne being away from the North Pole and not having to hide who she is -- well, not entirely. She has a magic bracelet that changes her blue hair to white blond and other physical differences so no one recognizes her as being Jayne. Besides that, she's free to just be an elf .... and to potentially hook up with other elves (like her college ex who doesn't realize that "Lilibeth" is Jayne) .... or vampires. 

I'm personally rooting for the vampire. 

With Jayne. Without Jayne. 

Whatever. 

I'm rooting for the vampire.

You may already know that I have a bit of a thing for the vampires of Nocturne Falls. We can add Greyson Garrett to the list. He made a brief appearance in The Vampire's Fake Fiancée as the stand-in Vampire On Duty and has "a voice that sounds like silk drawn over steel and dusted with the lilt of the Irish." Oh ... added bonus? He's also part Roma (aka gypsy). 

If I was reading a hard copy instead of an ebook there would be drool stains. 

Oh, yeah, and the whole mystery of the disappearing elves is good, too.

It's "rom" and "com" and cozy-level mysterious and festive and wonderful and I definitely give it five great big fluffy snowflakes. You know, instead of stars .... because Christmas Eve and whatnot ....

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As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

WWW Wednesday -- 22 December 2021

 

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

My Current Read : 

I do love a spooky gothic tale and this one definitely is that. Dunmoor House is the heroine's missing husband's childhood home -- "the one he'd so often described as 'a hellish place full of horrors, torment, and nightmares.'" I used it for this week's Tuesday Intros/Teaser Tuesday post and I'm hoping to be done with it later today because I can't wait to see what happens next!

Recently Finished :

I finally finished Lady in Disguise, rambled a bit for this past Book Beginnings/Friday 56 post, and then battled a slump where every book I picked up failed to grab me .... until my current read. I think there ended up being three others tossed aside before I settled on Dunmoor.

What's Next :

I would normally grab Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel for my Christmas read, but I'm not in much of a humorous mood so I'll probably just grab one of the first January books on my Netgalley shelf and hope for the best.

 

If those fail ... or go by quickly ... then I'll finally dive in to the last Hester Fox currently sitting on my nightstand.

Dunmoor by London Clarke (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

 

Title: Dunmoor

Author: London Clarke

Publication: 29 November 2021

Format: Kindle ebook

Amazon Description: 

England, 1818. Lady Helena Winters hasn’t seen her husband in over a year—not since he disappeared without a trace. Torn between seeking a new purpose for her life and longing for her husband to return, Helena travels with her father to Dunmoor House for a fundraising ball. Although the estate was once her husband’s ancestral home, it has recently been purchased by Luke Lennox, a gentleman planning to establish a foundling hospital.

Helena quickly finds herself battling memories of life with her husband and searching for answers to what might have happened to him. Even so, she is drawn to Luke Lennox and his dream of saving and educating children—a passion she shares.

Within Dunmoor’s decaying walls lies a long and sordid history, a legacy of evildoers perpetrating unspeakable acts of wickedness. Now, the corridors echo with voices. Vines grow inside the house, and shadowy figures plague the children at night.

But in the dark forest on the edge of the property, a terrible secret awaits, and what Luke and Helena uncover there will endanger both their lives.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I cannot recall when I first became enamored with gothic literature and films and whatnot. I was probably quite young and I have a strong suspicion that on the film end, at least, WPIX had a lot to do with it thanks to weekend airings of Rebecca and The Ghost and Mrs Muir and such. My mother and grandmother, of course, each had shelves upon shelves of books and I was given free reign to just grab at random. When most of my friends were oohing and aahing over things like The Babysitters Club, I was losing myself in the pages of Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

I was having a severe book slump this weekend. I went through multiple chapters of multiple books and absolutely nothing was clicking for me. I decided it would probably be best if I just went with something more reliable .... and gothic. My first thought, of course, was to grab my next Hester Fox. Unfortunately, I remembered that I was being forced into going to a mandatory holiday social thing at work and carrying around a paperback was probably going to be frowned upon. However, I could carry my phone as everyone else probably would be ... so I went snooping around Netgalley's Read it Now to see if anything would possibly satisfy the urge.

Then I saw Dunmoor. 

Oooooh that cover.

It clicked and I clicked the button before I even read the description. In fact, it wasn't until I started putting this post together that I bothered with silly nonsense like finding out what it's supposed to be about. That cover was enough to get me. It gets even better when the cover gets swiped to the left and the story begins. I still have a bit to go until I'm finished, but as of yet it's eerie and dark and spooky and mysterious with just enough romance to be able to say that it's there.

"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two

of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two
from anywhere in the book currently being read.

Lady in Disguise by Wendy Vella (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: Lady in Disguise

Author: Wendy Vella

Publication: 26 October 2013

Format: Kindle eBook

Amazon Description

Will her secret bring her ruin or love?

Desperate and penniless, Miss Olivia Langley is out of options. To ensure her family's survival she and her sister decide to take a drastic step - they don masks and take to the road as highwaymen. Disaster strikes when, inside the first carriage they rob, they find the one man Olivia had hoped never to see again. Five years ago Lord William Ryder had broken Livvy's heart. Now he has returned and she has a bad feeling that if anyone can succeed at unmasking her deepest secrets, it will be him.

Can a rake reform?

Will knew his return would be greeted with both joy and resentment, but after five years of hard living he was ready to come home and take his place in society. He had never forgotten Olivia no matter how hard he'd tried, and whilst he hadn't imagined she would welcome him with open arms, the hostility and anger she displays are at odds with the woman he once knew. Will is horrified to find she's living a dangerous lie and refuses his help. But now that he’s back, Will is determined to do whatever it takes to protect her, and finally claim her for his own.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

On Wednesday morning I had fully intended to have this done long before now -- in fact, probably later on Wednesday morning. Of course, I had also intended to sleep more than I have .... and to not get hooked on binge-watching the first two seasons of Slasher on Netflix. Serial killers, absurdity, and historical romances are apparently my main Things, what can I say? At least not finishing this has given me a good excuse to use it for this week's Book Beginnings & Friday 56. The Beginnings blip is a bit on the long side, but it's actually shorter than I had originally thought it would be. I have absolutely fallen for Livvy and Will .... and Livvy's sisters and Will's friends .... and I am very excited about continuing the book and the series and whatever else Wendy Vella has to offer.

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As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

WWW Wednesday - 15 December 2021

 

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

My Current Read : 

I realized that I didn't finish the books I had on my Alphabet Soup authors list for T and V ... so I borrowed the V author from next year's plan and grabbed a book from one of her other series : Wendy Vella's Lady in Disguise. The one I got from Kindle Unlimited has a totally different cover but I like this one better as it actually matches the descriptions given of the main characters (go figure). 

Right now I'm only at 15% but I'm pretty sure it'll be done within the next 24 hours ... unless I actually manage to fall asleep and stay asleep when I get out of work in 5 1/2 hours. Even so, the little bar thingie at the bottom of my screen estimates another 3 hours and 15 minutes of reading time left so it may even be done before I get home if people behave themselves and leave me alone in hotel-land tonight. So far I'm enjoying it and I'm quite glad that I stumbled on Wendy Vella. She has a lot of books to add to my TBR and may end up being my designated V for challenge years to come if they continue to be as good as this one has started.

Recently Finished :

I started Jason Pargin's Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits just before vacation and finished it while there and it was absolutely amazing. I was tempted to just dive straight into the sequel but I didn't take it with me and it's on my 2022 Alphabet Soup plan and I don't want to have to try and find another Z title.

After that I tried, and failed, Liz Ireland's Mrs Claus and the Santaland Slayings. Hopefully someone on the hotel's housekeeping staff has better luck than I did with it because I left it behind. 

It was supposed to be my "I" for the 2021 author list but since I didn't finish it I won't count it ... which led me to The Girl in the Tree by Şebnem İşigüzel. I finished it pretty quickly thanks to not sleeping much the past few days -- and a shift of system maintenance and not much else to do but read at work. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but the cover is rather gorgeous.

What's Next :

Since I still need a T author because I scrapped the one on my list, I'm thinking maybe perhaps possibly I'll finally read Christine Trent's Lady of Ashes. It's been on my phone for what feels like ages. Actually, it's been on my phone for longer than I've had this phone since it has been languishing away in my MoonReader. Whatever. I think the other T being a total dud was just the push I needed.

The Girl in the Tree by Şebnem İşigüzel (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

 

Title: The Girl in the Tree

Author: Şebnem İşigüzel (translated by Mark David Wyers)

Publication: 16 April 2020 -- Amazon Crossing

Format: Kindle ebook

Amazon Description: 

A young woman climbs the tallest tree in Istanbul’s centuries-old Gülhane Park, determined to live out the rest of her days there. Perched in an abandoned stork’s nest in a sanctuary of branches and leaves, she tries to make sense of the rising tide of violence in the world below. Torn between the desire to forget all that has happened and the need to remember, her story, and the stories of those around her, begins to unfold.

Then, unexpectedly, comes a soul mate with a shared destiny. A lonely boy working at a nearby hotel looks up and falls in love. The two share stories of the fates of their families, of a changing city, and of their political awakenings in the Gezi Park protests. Together, they navigate their histories of love and loss, set against a backdrop of societal tension leading up to the tragic bombing that marked a turn in Turkey’s democracy—and sent a young girl fleeing into the trees.

Narrated by one of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary fiction—as full of audacious humor and irony as she is of rage and grief—this unsparing and poetic novel of political madness, precarious dreams, and the will to survive brilliantly captures a girl’s road to defiance in a world turned upside down, in which it is only from the treetops that she can find a grip on reality—and the promise of hope.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

There are a lot of conflicting reviews out there about this book. I saw a lot of people who loved it ... and probably just as many who said that they just couldn't get through it. I'm pretty sure the problem isn't with the translation, but with the Girl in the Tree herself. She's the narrator and she has a tendency to ramble ... a lot. Of course, I totally get her. Well, our life experiences are really nothing alike, but I get the whole bit about the rambling and the brain jumping from one topic to another. Besides, the disjointedness of it somehow seemed to add to the story for me, rather than distract. After all, it's being told by a teenage girl who has run away from the angst of life by climbing into a tree where she intends to stay. She's likely to come across as a bit unhinged. I'm still not sure if I'm on the "love it" or "leave it" side of the debate, but I at least think I understand somewhat. Perhaps. Maybe.

"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two

of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two
from anywhere in the book currently being read.