Book Review: A Song for Julia by Charles Sheehan Miles

Book Title: A Song for Julia
Author: Charles Sheehan-Miles
Publisher: Cincinnatus Press, December 5, 2012
Series: Thompson Sisters
Amazon|Goodreads
Review: ★★★★★

Everyone should have something to rebel against.

Crank Wilson left his South Boston home at sixteen to start a punk band and burn out his rage at the world. Six years later, he’s still at odds with his father, a Boston cop, and doesn’t ever speak to his mother. The only relationship that really matters is with his younger brother, but watching out for Sean can be a full-time job. The one thing Crank wants in life is to be left the hell alone to write his music and drive his band to success.

Julia Thompson left a secret behind in Beijing that exploded into scandal in Washington, DC, threatening her father's career and dominating her family's life. Now, in her senior year at Harvard, she's haunted by a voice from her past and refuses to ever lose control of her emotions again, especially when it comes to a guy. 

When Julia and Crank meet at an anti-war protest in Washington in the fall of 2002, the connection between them is so powerful it threatens to tear everything apart.

Book Review: A Fallow Heart

by Linda Kage

Book Description:

Ten years ago, an oil tycoon’s daughter and a farmer’s son shared a moment neither would ever forget. When she left town in disgrace, a piece of her stayed locked deep within his soul. And like the ground he tended, his emotions lay fallow for years. Cooper Gerhardt’s deeply buried feelings for Jo Ellen Rawlings grew more fertile over time, just waiting for the day she would return to release his deepest desires.

When she strolls back into Tommy Creek, Texas for her ten-year class reunion, Cooper shows her farmboy-style exactly what she missed by leaving. Starting a short-term affair is simply unavoidable. But when the week is over, can either of them let go of the responsibilities and apprehensions keeping them apart? Or will their fallow hearts learn to flourish together?

Book Review: 4/5

“Sometimes a man can be a lot like a farm. He lets his heart lay fallow for a while, and instead of his feelings dying out, they just go dormant, his emotions growing deeper and stronger as time passes. A person only needs to clear away the weeds on the surface to uncover them.”

Usually, I don't really care if a man had his heart broken. BUT - when someone as good, sweet, honest-to-goodness man like Cooper gets his heart broken, my heart gets broken too.

AND I WOULD LOVE TO HATE THE GIRL - but how can I, when Jo Ellen is almost as nice as him?

Oh yes, I'M TORN!

This is a story of a poor sinfully hot farm boy, Cooper falling in love with one of the daughter of the richest man in Tommy Creek, Jo Ellen.

If Cooper was any more kinder, he'd be a saint. I don't know what kind of man can love that unconditionally, and what kind of man can just look his love from afar and not doing anything with his feelings? Oh well, meet Cooper. It's exasperating. Because if I were Jo Ellen, I'd choose him over millions of Travis in this world. He had proven his loyalty and his love when he was there for her at her lowest point. Cooper was willing to sacrifice his life, the future ahead of him for the people he loves. Even after ten years, when his dad got six, he had his business in hiatus and went to work in his father's farm.

HOW CAN JO ELLEN BE SO BLIND?

How can someone so intelligent be so blind with this kind of love? I just want to shake her and tell her: WAKE UP! Wake up before everything will just disappear. Jo Ellen is one of Grady's twin sister. I believe I love Emma Leigh's character more than I liked Jo Ellen. While Emma Leigh was very sociable, friendly and just cool. Jo Ellen was reserved, proper, and a well-mannered lady. These are the main reason why Cooper fell in love with her instead of the other twin. She values commitment, and even though she really didn't like her boyfriend's ways, she stuck to him. Until he left her hanging during the time she needed him most. She was devastated, and it broke her. She decided to go out of town and spend the rest of her senior year in Dallas. She left town, and Cooper broken hearted.

Ten years later - the twins were back in Tommy Creek for a reunion. The moment Cooper and Jo Ellen saw each other for the first time after all those years, chemistry still sizzles between the both of them. But the past keeps chasing the both of them. Can they finally take a risk and find their own happy ending?

Or would they just...

But its not just Cooper and Jo Ellen's story. The surrounding characters have their own stories to share, especially Thad, Cooper's dad whose story surprised me the most. I never could have imagined he could be THAT person when I met him in the earlier pages.

It's nice to be back in Tommy Creek, only years back before The Trouble with Tomboys took place. It was nice to see them young, especially Grady and BJ. I wasn't really sure if it was nice to see Amy alive as well, it was just weird. For those who haven't read the Trouble with Tomboys yet, I suggest you read A Fallow Heart first, although the two can still function as stand alone novels on their own. 

Linda Kage you just made my year. I could not have a better last book to read for 2012 than this one. It made me swoon, laugh, cry - drove me crazy. Thank You!

Favorite Quotes:

• “I was crazy in love with you in high school, and you broke my heart the day you hooked up with someone else our sophomore year. Then you broke it again when you promised me you’d dump him the night we kissed and go out with me instead, because the next morning, you forgot all about me.”
• “Jealousy is an uncontrollable emotion. It attacks all of us. As long as you don’t let it get the best of you, I’m sure you and your envy can live in harmony without anyone getting hurt. So, see? There’s no need to feel bad about it. It makes you normal. Human.” 
• “I’ve found the things I’ve regretted most in my life are the things I wanted to do but never had the courage to try. And I’m beginning to think I don’t want you to become one of my what-if-I’d-only-tried-it regrets.” 
• “Sometimes a man can be a lot like a farm. He lets his heart lay fallow for a while, and instead of his feelings dying out, they just go dormant, his emotions growing deeper and stronger as time passes. A person only needs to clear away the weeds on the surface to uncover them.” 
• “Rational was for people who didn’t have a broken heart.” 
• “When you love, you open yourself up to numerous vulnerabilities and worries and responsibilities you never imagined existed because suddenly there’s someone else in the world who’s more important to you than you are. That’s what makes it so tough.” 
• “You’re a man, darling. There’s something sick and twisted inside you, making you relish girly torture. I don’t understand it myself. Never did.” 
• “If she loves you back, no woman is going to complain about the hour if a man calls her to proclaim his undying love.” 
• “And I don’t want you to love me enough for the both of us. I’d rather carry my own portion, thank you very much. I love you so much it consumes me.” 

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(Disclaimer: Book reviewed was sent to me by the author and I have received no compensation of any kind for the review whether it is positive.)

           

Book Review: Just Remember to Breathe

by Charles Sheehan Miles

Review: 5/5

“When I'm ninety, I want you to tell me that it's my turn to ask you a question, and if that miracle happens, then my question is going to be, 'Do you still love me?' and I hope that answer will still be yes.”

This is a brilliant book that had me awake till the wee hours of the morning during my day off because I couldn't wait to see how it ends.

Thank you Milka for the recommendation - the read and the lack of sleep was totally worth it.

I will begin this review with the question that haunted me in the first chapters of the novel: WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM? Because here I see two people, still crazy in love with each other - but at some point have to let go of each other. Not to mention their separation was not pretty either. So again, what happened to them? What went wrong? Was it the long distance relationship?

Alex Thompson: she's rich, pretty, intelligent and a pre-law student at Columbia University. She has a secret she's not willing to share, and currently nursing her broken heart, trying to move past a break up that shattered her. The last thing she wanted to see was the boy who tore her heart apart.

Dylan Paris: an ex-soldier who just came home of Afghanistan nursing physical and emotional wounds from the war. He was not the same boy before he got deployed. And seeing the girl who made him feel alive and in love just makes thing difficult. The last thing he wanted to do was to involve this girl with his issues. But no matter how hard he tried - he just couldn't stop himself. Because Alex...

“I’d say you’re worth falling in love with twice.”

Alex needs him to tell her everything, or at least anything for her to trust him with her heart once again. Can Dylan tell her without scaring her and have her running away from him? On the other hand, can Alex spill her secret as well? Secrets she had kept from her family and most of the world?

To simply state that I love reading Just Remember to Breathe is an understatement , because at some point of this book - you'll come to a point that you will forget to breathe in anticipation. Will they or will they not make it?

Favorite Quotes:

• “When I'm ninety, I want you to tell me that it's my turn to ask you a question, and if that miracle happens, then my question is going to be, 'Do you still love me?' and I hope that answer will still be yes.”
• “You're crazy, Dylan. Oh, my God, you proposed marriage with index cards? No one else in the world would do that. Yes. Yes, Yes! If you ask me a thousand times, then every single time I'll say yes.” 
• “I can imagine a life without you, but it seems impossible dreary, imperfect, unhappy.” 
• “You don't get to decide what's to big a risk for me. You don't decide what's good for me and what isn't. That's my decision, Dylan. If you care about me so much, then how dare you do this all by yourself? I choose not to destroy my present because of the risk of a future that might or might not happen.You should think about that.” 
• “I wonder if that’s why it was so painful when we split up? Because we’d fallen so hard, so fast. I lost myself in him.” 
• “I’d say you’re worth falling in love with twice.” 
• “Love meant a lot, it meant everything, and it meant nothing.”         

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