Rooms

From Goodreads:

 The New York Times bestselling author of Before I Fall and the Delirium trilogy makes her brilliant adult debut with this mesmerizing story in the tradition of The Lovely Bones, Her Fearful Symmetry, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane—a tale of family, ghosts, secrets, and mystery, in which the lives of the living and the dead intersect in shocking, surprising, and moving ways

Wealthy Richard Walker has just died, leaving behind his country house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His estranged family—bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton, and unforgiving daughter Minna—have arrived for their inheritance.

But the Walkers are not alone. Prim Alice and the cynical Sandra, long dead former residents bound to the house, linger within its claustrophobic walls. Jostling for space, memory, and supremacy, they observe the family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house itself—in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming of a light bulb.

The living and dead are each haunted by painful truths that will soon surface with explosive force. When a new ghost appears, and Trenton begins to communicate with her, the spirit and human worlds collide—with cataclysmic results.

Elegantly constructed and brilliantly paced, Rooms is an enticing and imaginative ghost story and a searing family drama that is as haunting as it is resonant.

From Me:

Wasn't my favorite.

It was just okay.

It was confusing for me... I couldn't keep track of who was alive, who was dead/ghosts  and who was just dead/dead.

And I didn't like any of the characters.  I couldn't connect with one of them.

They were all depressing.

This could be just me, as I know the author has a huge YA following.

2 stars from me.

We read this for our Library Book Club.

The consensus was this...

6 people present

1 would recommend it

4 would recommend with reservations

1 would not recommend it 

I fell into the middle---

I wouldn't tell anyone not to read it, but just that it wasn't that good. 

For me.

 

Riding Lessons

From Goodreads:

As a world-class equestrian and Olympic contender, Annemarie Zimmer lived for the thrill of flight atop a strong, graceful animal. Then, at eighteen, a tragic accident destroyed her riding career and Harry, the beautiful horse she cherished. Now, twenty years later, Annemarie is coming home to her dying father's New Hampshire horse farm. Jobless and abandoned, she is bringing her troubled teenage daughter to this place of pain and memory, where ghosts of an unresolved youth still haunt the fields and stables—and where hope lives in the eyes of the handsome, gentle veterinarian Annemarie loved as a girl . . . and in the seductive allure of a trainer with a magic touch. 

But everything will change yet again with one glimpse of a white striped gelding startlingly similar to the one Annemarie lost in another lifetime. And an obsession is born that could shatter her fragile world.

From Me:

Sara Gruen is a gifted writer. She does a great job with the story, her words kept me interested and the narrator (this was an audio book for me), Maggi-Med Reed,  was amazing.  Her voice had me mesmerized. 

The only trouble, for me,  was that I didn't like the main character.  She really was self-centered and selfish, and she had a temper and got mad-- really mad-- at inappropriate places (in my humble opinion).  I tried to like her --- but I just couldn't.

What kept me reading,  you ask?

I liked the setting, the story and the someone who was reading it to me.

2 stars from me. 

It was okay.