Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

I downloaded this book (unabridged) from iTunes and listened to it during my commute between CT and NYC. It was just what I needed at the end of a long day: a story that brought a smile to my face and even made me laugh out loud a few times. When the final chapters rolled around I played the book on my computer while doing chores around the house, and the narrative was so amusing that even my husband wondered what would happen in the end. The main character, Lexi Smart, is first introduced to us as a woman who longs for love, social status and good looks, but whose desires are foiled by a loser boyfriend, a low paying job and an appearance that has earned her the nickname of “snaggletooth.” Then one day she wakes up in the hospital and discovers that she’s been unconscious for days. Moreover, the year is 2007 - which is significant because she thinks it’s still 2004. (Read the rest of this review...)

Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati

Written as a sequel to James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, the premise of the story and the many positive reviews on Amazon left me expecting great things from this book. However, despite relatively well-rounded characters and an engaging main storyline, the novel also suffered from far too many characters and sub plot lines. There's a reason it took the author 912 pages to draw everything to its conclusion. At the center of it all is Elizabeth Middleton, a 29-year-old spinster school teacher who leaves a comfortable life in England to join her father in the New World. The year is 1792 and her father is a judge in upstate New York who has promised to build her a school where she can teach the local children. Yet as it turns out, Judge Middleton only promised Elizabeth a schoolhouse in order to get her to join him in New York, and what he really wants is to marry her to a wealthy doctor - thereby solving his financial troubles. Elizabeth refuses to comply and ends up falling in love with a frontiersman by the name of Nathaniel Bonner instead. (Read the rest of this review...)