Read in 2009

So you may have noticed the new sidebar, titled "Read in 2009." This is to keep me accountable for reading more this year, since I was pretty dang awful about it last year. I hadn't intended my first book to be the one I read, since I'd already started a different one. Ah, well.

I doubt I'll do this for every book, but since I keep track of things on GoodReads, I figured I'd post my first review of the year here.


Stranger by Megan Hart

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
What happens when you pick up the latest book by one of your favorite authors, intending to only read a few chapters until you're sleepy, so you can try to get some sleep even though you can't breathe laying down from a cold?



You stay up until 4:30 am to finish it.



There is something so fun and easy about the way Megan Hart writes. Her heroines are so real, so flawed, that I can't help but be drawn in. I also love that her books are all set around Harrisburg, PA, because having gone to college near there, I know the area pretty well. Local references make me grin.



Some SPOILERS be had here.







I love that, in this book, we get to catch up with characters we met in "Dirty." Especially Jack, whose scenes in "Dirty" were, ahem, seriously memorable. I was rooting for him by the end of this story, so I'm glad he got a girl of his own.



The heroine, Grace, isn't quite as emotionally damaged as previous heroines, which was a pleasant change of pace. She was my age, which was awesome, and her pop culture references made me think she could have been any of my high school friends (except for the whole funeral home thing).



And as always, there was a scene near the end that had me in tears. It can really be summed up neatly in a line spoken by Sam, the hero: One must have sorrow to truly appreciate joy.


View all my reviews.