Celeste - Virginia Andrews

Celeste included many of the same ingredients used to cook up all novels by Virginia Andrews; a crazy and or long lost parent/guardian and sexual/physical/mental abuse. How there is still demand for work by Andrews, I don't know. When Virginia Andrews died 25 years ago her death her family hired a ghost writer to continue publishing novels under her name. I'm sure many people will agree when I say enough is enough.

The plot for Celeste goes a little like this:

Celeste and her twin brother Noble live with their mother who is a little loopy. She believes in spirits and lives to please them. When Noble dies, Celeste's mother cuts her hair and makes her dress in boys clothes to try and keep Noble alive (shocking!). Celeste is so eager to please her mother that she plays along. That is until a boy moves into the house next door and finds out everything. This encounter has devastating consequences (of course).

Andrews dribbled on about the characters yet they still had no depth. Nothing that happened in the novel came as a surprise because I've read it all before. It was utter rubbish. I remember the enjoyment (and guilt) I used to get out of reading V C Andrews trash and thought it was exactly what I needed to get me through my husbands hospital stay, but I was wrong.

Celeste isn't even worth the time it took me to type this. But for all who may pick it up off the shelf and contemplate reading it, you have been warned.

And for all those who are interested, my husband is still pretty unwell but he's getting better. The doctors have found out what was wrong with him and have done everything they can to fix it. He is in the best possible place. I know that he reads my blog and when he's up to checking his emails again I want him to know that I love him.

Sam I Am

The Time of My Life - Cecelia Ahern

Seeing as I'm going to have a bit of spare time over the next week or two, I went to Dymocks and purchased a supply of books to see me through my husbands extended hospital stay (unfortunately some of them were Virginia Andrews, but I need something so trashy that it makes me smile). I'll read where I can and try reviewing them to keep my mind off of things. 

I'll start with a book I read over Christmas that I wasn't going to review until I got home from 4 weeks away. I don't know when we'll be home now, so I may as well get started. 

I started reading Cecelia Ahern when her novels became popular maybe 5 or 6 years ago. The first few were great (P.S I Love You, If You Could See Me Now, Where Rainbows End) but when I got to A Place Called Here I stopped reading. It was BAD. It's been years since I read anything she has written and when I was in Target (picking up very last minute Christmas presents) I noticed The Time of My Life and thought: it's time for a second chance. 

If you don't mind, I'll use blurb from the publisher (Harper Collins) for this one as I read it about 2 weeks ago.

'Lying on Lucy Silchester′s carpet one day when she returns from work is a gold envelope. Inside is an invitation - to a meeting with Life. Her life. It turns out she′s been ignoring it and it needs to meet with her face to face.

It sounds peculiar, but Lucy′s heard of this before. Anyway, she can′t make the date: she′s much too

busy despising her job, lying to her friends and avoiding her family.

It turns out that Lucy′s life isn′t what it seems. Some of the choices she′s made - and stories she′s told - aren′t what they seem either. From the moment she meets the man who introduces himself as her life, some of these stubborn half-truths are going to be revealed in all their glory - unless Lucy learns to tell the truth about what really matters to her.

From a big family dinner to an extraordinary work crisis, from chasing after a long-lost boyfriend to learning what home really is, Lucy Silchester has an appointment with her life - and she′s going to have to keep it.

Touching, warm, funny and poignant, Cecelia Ahern′s new novel explores what happens when you ignore your life.'

I'll be blunt and say the first few chapters almost made me throw it in the trash. I was filled with

disappointment. But I persisted and it paid off. I was so surprised. It wasn't a knock out, but it was very funny, thought provoking and pretty well written. The main character Lucy was very believable and it was hard not to like her.

After P.S I Love You and Where Rainbows End, Cecelia took her novels in a bit of a different direction and wrote stories that were a bit out there. If You Could See Me Now was the first of her books following this direction and she pulled it off. A Place Called Here is where I called it quits. But it seems she's got her groove back. I suppose I can't judge too much because I haven't read all of the books she's written, but these are my observations from what I have read. I may go back and try the others again. 

I would definitely recommend reading The Time of My Life. It was well worth it, and I'll be reading more of her work from now on. 

I have to shuffle my hubby back to the ward now for his night time tablets, so I'll leave it there. 

Until next time...

Sam I Am 

Heartbreak

My husband is in hospital. We don't know what's wrong yet and while I waited this morning to be let in to see him, I quickly typed this. It's not a poem or a story. It's just words. It made me feel better. I haven't edited it. It just came out and if there are errors, I apologise. It just doesn't seem to matter.

Heartbreak.

How do I sit beside my husband and watch him suffer? How do I take the pain away?

I watch his face screw up in agony and a knot of worry grows in my stomach. For an hour or so each day it seems like he’s getting better, but then it comes back and I’m devastated all over again.  What am I supposed to think when the doctors only give the worst-case scenario? Why don’t they give other suggestions to placate the doubt and anguish? It may not be true, but it may help him sleep at night.

In times like these I cant help but imagine your life without him. There aren’t words to describe what that feels like. Half of me would be taken away and I’d be left wandering, lost and lonely, for the rest of my life. I feel heartbroken and empty just thinking about it.

While he’s here I will not leave him. I am staying as close as I can. I stay in a room by myself on the 13^th floor of the hospital and I sleep on his side of the bed. Stupidly, it makes me feel closer to him when I can’t be by his side.

My best friend and husband lays in agony and I don’t know how to make him feel better. I want so badly to talk to him and tell him what I’m feeling, but I don’t want to make it worse. I feel like I haven’t taken a breath in 5 days. My heart has stopped and until I hear that he’s going to be ok, it won’t start beating again.