The Reflections of Queen Snow White by David Meredith

Therapy through magic mirror? It worked for this Queen. I fell right into this story and liked it as much as I enjoyed the childhood fairy tale. Snow White, experiencing loneliness and despair searches deep within herself to find the strength, the courage, and the hope she had relied upon in her younger days to carry her through difficult times. Through her introspection we get a look at her life behind the scenes as a child - a darker, grittier version of the childhood story. Her perseverance and fortitude to carry on until the circumstances arose where she met Charming, and eventually married him, were inspiring. Now she is facing the world without her husband and needs to be able to have some sense of happiness, to be able to be a solid presence in her daughter's life - whom is about to be married, and whom Snow White has been neglecting terribly because of her painful resemblance to Charming. Reliving her past with a little help from the mirror makes her realize what she needs has been inside her all the while.
I was given a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

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A Negotiation of Wounds by Michael Stephenson

WARNING - This review contains information about the book you will find out as you read it.


I read the description before agreeing to read the book: "Love and Happiness once dwelled together in homes throughout this world. But now, it seems as if more homes have come to marry the thoughts of Love and Divorce. In A Negotiation Of Wounds, the battle between the two paradigms finds its way into the public eye.
When Amanda Matthews finds her film producer husband Reed Matthews having an affair, she moves swiftly to file for divorce. But when she and her husband attain the services of two cutthroat lawyers in the city of LA, they find themselves pushed farther into a world of deception than they dared go. Now they must wade through the dangerous and often hostile land of divorce, without losing themselves in the process.
A sexy, visceral, fast-paced ride, A Negotiation of Wounds takes you on a journey through fame, pain, rejection, eroticism, self-discovery and love as one couple seeks to severe the ties that bind."

It sounded like interesting reading, the subject matter highly relevant to me, and probably many others who have been through divorce. The premise behind the story was good. I did want to see what happened between the celebrity couple during their divorce, find out if they could save their marriage and how it affected their children. I felt like I was duped a little bit, though, whether by misunderstanding or not. The word eroticism, which I may have even overlooked when reading the description - one little word in the description- doesn't cover it. I was highly uncomfortable reading, and after the first few scenes of Preston and Janet I tried to skip over the remaining scenes between them. Their relationship made me uncomfortable, didn't add or take away anything from the story for me, and the BDSM was not appealing to me. The idea that a man would injure a woman, leave lacerations, bruises, and possible broken bones, who knows what other kinds of injuries to a woman and then wait for her to heal up between rounds of torturous sex isn't something I find pleasurable. Add that to the fact that it was stated Janet saved herself from an abusive marriage only to become involved with Preston and allowed him to injure her in the places of all her old injuries - there was no way I could fathom it.

SPOILER

The book seemed to be centered around Preston more than the family going through the divorce, or PRESTON MICHAEL WINDSOR, as he emphatically required all should address him, every time someone addressed him in the book. Not Preston, not Mr. Windsor - Preston Michael Windsor. I see other reviewers have found him almost charming, or amusing. I didn't like his character. He slept with just about every female character in the book. Slapped with sexual harassment suit by a judge, sent to therapy, then judge sleeps with him and the therapist wants him too? Literally, every woman pants and drools after him, and if he chooses - they sleep with him. He even sleeps with a 70 year old grandmother who wants him to marry her grand daughter - ewww - and his office staff - who aren't bothered by that at all. He just didn't strike a good chord with me. I was close to liking Timothy Daniels, and felt a bit sorry for him, but by the end of the book he changed and I felt the same way about him that his family did. I started to like Amanda because she realized what was happening to her family and let Reed have time with the children, eventually called off the lawyers, and wanted to reconcile because she still loved her husband. That, however, came to a crashing end with her final scene in Preston's office. Can you guess what happened there?

  The book did give a look into what can happen when high profile people team up with high power lawyers to do battle. The couple gets in far over their head with lies and manipulations, each trying to be bigger and more devastating than the last, to eventually win the war. The lengths the lawyers went to win was disturbing. That aspect of the book was interesting.
Over all, it just wasn't for me. Others may find it more enjoyable.
I was given a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

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Rachel's Folly by Monica Bruno

DESCRIPTION FROM AMAZON:

Family therapist Rachel Richards’ life is about to come undone.

She has it all: a successful career, a beautiful house, a loving husband, and a son she adores. To top it off, her best friend is getting married. But who is this mysterious man who calls himself Jack and, more importantly, who is Rachel when she’s with him? After a night of drinking gone awry, Rachel is forced to face a dark part of herself she didn’t know existed. She must find a way to cope—with what she’s done, with the kind of person she might be—or lose her life in the process.

Told from three unique perspectives and set against the backdrop of an Austin, Texas both strange and familiar, Rachel’s Folly is an exploration of profound loss, morality, and the lengths to which we will go to save our loved ones and ourselves . . . from ourselves.


MY REVIEW:

This book had me thinking. I was put off by the affair in the very beginning because I was just introduced to the characters and my first thoughts were Rachel was with her husband/significant other. I was a little confused as to who was who. But, as it played out, the event comes to understanding and the sexual encounter plays a role in the bigger picture. How much would you sacrifice, how much could you lose for a stolen moment, a mistake - something you shouldn't have done but didn't consider the consequences until it was over? Rachel had her own issues from earlier in life that are touched upon - as possible reasons why she did what she did- but why she had the affair was a small part of the bigger mystery - why she would do other things that happened later in the book. I don't want to give away too many details. I enjoyed the story,even though the villain was painted before the end of the book, I felt there was enough mystery and suspicion cast to make me question if there was another culprit waiting to be revealed. It was figuring out the how's and why's that kept me reading.
I was given a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

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