The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

 Let me just start off by saying I loved this book! The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab is a lovely read that takes the reader through three hundred years! The author has reported that this book took her ten years to write and after reading it is obvious why.  The novel spans over three hundred years.  It goes back and forth in time, from whatever time Addie was living in, to her time in New York in 2014. The chapters are well-titled so that the reader always knows what year it is. It appears to be thoroughly researched as it goes through the different time periods.  And by the end, it breaks your heart.

Addie was living in a small village in France in 1714 when she is expected to marry a man she does not love. At the last minute, before the wedding begins, Addie ran away, deep into the forest, where she mistakenly called upon the "old gods" to help her.  And there appeared a man that she had always sketched on paper for herself, but had never seen before...the man she believed was meant for her. This "man" made a deal with her. She could live forever, but never be remembered by anyone, nor could she speak her name.  And so began the next three hundred years of Addie's life.

Throughout the three hundred years, Addie would be visited by "Luc" (as she had named the old god) wanting her to surrender to him.  Addie would never agree. 

In 2014, Addie was living in New York City, where she wandered into a bookstore one day and there she met Henry, who remembered her. And eventually, she has to face the decision of her life.

"I remember you."

Beautiful book. 

The Midnight Library

 The Midnight Library by Mark Haig has gotten a lot of reviews and the reviews seem to be from either people who loved the book or readers that thought it was just a nice read.  I fall into the latter. It was an okay read.

It is a story of a woman, Nora Seed, who was not content nor happy with the life she was living. When she found herself in the Midnight Library with the older woman who had been the librarian when Nora was young, she learned that there were many books about the numerous lives she could choose for herself.

So the story goes through Nora picking and living various lives, trying to find the perfect life for her. It was interesting but didn't really move me. 

The Guest List

My reading has been quite sporadic this month.  I had a knee replacement in the middle of this month and thought that I would then have plenty of time for reading. Sadly, that didn't happen. I found it hard to focus on a book. I tried to read two books and gave up on them, but that took away five nights of reading that felt wasted!

You have probably come across references to The Guest List by Lucy Foley. I waited two months to get it from the library! I had/have mixed reactions to the book.  First of all, I thought that it was about discovering who had murdered who. So that threw me off the book for a bit, but I stuck with it.

The story is about a wedding that is happening on an island off of Ireland.  It is a several day event.  The main male characters were schoolmates of the groom.  The female characters were a more diverse group: the bride's sister, the wife of one of the bride's old friends, and the wedding planner who also owned (with her husband) the venue spot and did the catering.

As you can probably imagine, with a group like that, much was happening.  Lots of old secrets revealed, along with some unspoken regrets and grievances.

The author did a wonderful job with character development.  It was easy for the reader to know each character in depth. I really appreciated that each chapter that was narrated by one of the characters had not only the person's name as the title, but also told who the character was in the story. And she did a nice job wrapping the story up at the end.

I have been thinking about the book since I finished it a few days ago.  It's a good read!