Joni Rodgers

The Secret Sisters holds a place among my favorite books. Ms. Rodgers managed to use a different style of writing to evoke each of three women—making each character all the more believable. Each word is so well chosen to evoke mood and emotion. I found myself laughing and near tears as I followed each of these sisters through the recovery from life-stopping tragedies. Even while enjoying one sister’s story I eagerly anticipated reaching the point where I would be able to discover more show more about the other two. Tied together by loss these sisters each seemed to be experience a rebirth of sorts. While only Lily obviously anticipated hers the other two sisters also found renewal. What a wonderful story of hope in the face of unimaginable grief. I highly recommend The Secret Sisters and I look forward to future works by Ms. Rodgers. show less

About surviving cancer. The author was an actress (teaching children theater classes, doing voices on the air, commercials, etc) married and in a loving relationship with two children when cancer struck. She describes the shock of diagnosis, the difficult treatments, the awkwardness of people not knowing what to say, the absolute drain of being so ill for so very long. The strangeness she felt when it seemed to finally be over: she’d made it, she’d survived, but fighting off cancer had show more consumed her life for so many years- nothing felt the same. It deeply affected her family too. How terribly hard it was for them. How confused her young children were about some things (yet totally accepting of others), angry when she was unable to care for them, and so on. All the ups and downs, how they made it through. Especially with her husband. I admit, some of the parts about how cancer treatment affected their love life was told a bit too intimately for my taste! And for such a very long time her relationship with food was affected afterwards. What it’s like to go through this illness and survive it is described in such brutal detail, it can be hard to read- but it’s all lightened by her humor. Jokes everywhere. (Though they didn’t always make me laugh- sometimes I just don't get jokes). Something else took me by surprise- her exploration of faith didn’t bore or exasperate me (my usual reaction). What she said made sense, I respected and appreciated how she worked her way through re-evaluating life, and also explored some alternative ideas and views along the way (once consulting a shaman, another time visiting a naturopath, for example). It’s a very candid, forthright story about one woman’s journey through the black gulf of cancer and out the other side.

more at the show less

I was intrigued by the premise of The Hurricane Lover by Joni Rodgers, billed as a
romantic thriller.

The strength of The Hurricane Lover lies in the setting. Rodgers descriptions of the onset, duration, and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are raw and affecting, particularly as Shay is caught in the flooding. Events are easily visualised given familiarity with the media coverage of the time. Chapters are headed by snippets from weather forecasts and warnings, press releases and emails from show more Michael Brown, who was the undersecretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the time, adding to the sense of realism as the story unfolds.

Unfortunately I felt the main characters were the weakest element of the story. Neither were particularly likeable, and I thought they were strangely one dimensional. Dr. Corbin Thibodeaux, paleoclimatologist and weather risk expert, is a roguish, though needfully intelligent, drunk, and Shay Hoovestahl, a morning show reporter comes, across as spoilt and selfish. Their relationship is messy and dysfunctional, and there was very little in the way of romance through the story, though plenty of lust.

The plot regarding the serial killer, who uses a website devoted to Hurricane tracking as a cover to lure, murder and rob victims, was unique and interesting. However it was slow to start, and overall I was expecting it to have a more central role in the story.

I did enjoy the Hurricane Lover, it just didn’t quite live up to its potential as either a romance or a thriller. show less

This was a quick filler book for in between book club books. It was a free book on my Kindle that I had downloaded ages ago and not gotten around to reading before now.
Recently widowed private detective Shep Hartigate is hired by a pulp fiction writer Smartie Breedlove to find out who's killing the exes of Texas, including Smartie's best friend, Charma Bovet.
This was really good, I love the idea of an author trying to solve a mystery, while writing her next book, and elements of her real show more life leaking into her fantasy life, until the two are parallel.
This was an easy light read, with fun characters, and it poked fun at writers not letting them take themselves too seriously. I would read more in this series, in fact I think I should check now to see if there are more.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com show less