If the Tide Turns

If the Tide Turns by Rachel Rueckert 384 pages  

When Kensington Books asked me to write a blurb for Rachel Rueckert’s debut novel, I jumped at the opportunity. Although I don’t read many romance novels, I do enjoy stories that take place in or near the water. The feel of the salty breeze and the mist stinging your face---that sort of thing. Set during the waning days of the Golden Age of Pirates (1689-1718; who knew there was such a thing?), If the Tide Turns is the “captivating true story of real-life pirate Samuel Bellamy, combining high seas adventure, star-crossed longing, surprisingly timely questions about social justice and freedom, and the emotionally satisfying tale of one strong-willed young woman determined to choose her own path.”

This is the blurb I wrote: “Two lovers, separated by their stations in life, fight their way back to each other’s arms. On land and on the sea, Sam and Maria overcome the hardships of the mid-1700s. Rueckert’s new novel is a tale of daring, courage, aching loneliness and two people willing to face any obstacles to be together.”

 

It’s 1715 in Eastham, Massachusetts. Maria Brown is the beautiful, hard-headed daughter of a wealthy family who has arranged a marriage for her. She doesn’t want any part of the much older (shall we just say old?), also wealthy and abusive John Hallett.

 

Maria has her heart set on a young, orphaned sailor, Sam Bellamy. They met as Sam had been laid-off (yes, laid-off from his previous ship when it docked and no longer needed his services) and searched for another ship. The two are drawn together. Sam to Maria for her beauty and her self-determination. Maria to Sam for his idealistic opinions. The two are smitten with each other. Sam wants to marry her, but her father forbids it, in fact banishing him from their home. Maria, characteristically, vows to wait for him, to wait until he can make his fortune and offer everything her father deems, she should have.

 

Eager for success, Sam becomes involved with a pirate ship. But Sam isn’t your ordinary run-of-the-mill pirate. He is only interested in taking other ships’ bounties, not lives nor ships. His reputation as a “nice” pirate precedes him.

 

Maria leaves home, bent on following him from port to port. It’s a dangerous path she has chosen--- a woman traveling alone.

 

If the Tide Turns has all the aspects of a swashbuckling delightful read as Sam and Maria fight for their love. If the Tide Turns gets 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

True Crime Addict

True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray by James Renner, 278 pages

On February 4th, 2004, Maura Murray left her dorm room in Amherst, Massachusetts for the last time.  She stopped at an ATM to empty out her bank account, then at a liquor store.  Four hours later, a passing motorist found her in her disabled vehicle on New Hampshire Route 112.  She declined his offer of help, claiming to have already called roadside assistance on her cell phone.  He called the police upon returning home, but when they arrived Murray was gone.  She has never been seen again, nor have her remains been located.

The Maura Murray disappearance is almost the ideal unsolved mystery, full of rabbit holes and enough fragmentary evidence to support endless speculation.  Even basic information like where Murray was going - she had searched for hotels in Vermont, but was headed in the wrong direction, her family had vacationed in Bartlett but Route 112 doesn't go there - and why - she had packed up her dorm room, as if she was planning on leaving permanently, but she brought several  textbooks with her, as if she was planning on spending some time on classwork - are unknown.  Meanwhile, complicating details and rumors have gradually trickled out - Murray had left West Point after being caught shoplifting and had subsequently been caught in Amherst using a stolen credit card number, Murray's boyfriend had cheated on her with a classmate and she had cheated on him with a track coach, she had totaled her father's car on her way home from a party a few weeks before her disappearance, a supervisor once found her nearly catatonic at work, a woman who saw Murray's car before police arrived reported that there was a man inside, on an anniversary of her disappearance a man calling himself "112dirtbag" released a YouTube video entitled "Happy Anniversary" which consisted of nothing but him laughing and winking - offering both tantalizing clues and maddening distractions to a remarkably large community of internet sleuths dedicated to finding the truth - or, at least, proving their pet theories.

James Renner's book is less about the unraveling of the mystery of Maura Murray than mapping the rabbit holes, and discovering that the underground realms they lead to can unexpectedly include your own unexpressed fears and pieces of your own buried past.  The title is "True Crime Addict" and not "Finding Maura Murray", the subtitle is not "The Truth Revealed" but "How I Lost Myself..."  This should serve as ample warning that Renner has chosen to write not about Maura Murray but rather himself looking for Maura Murray, indeed, himself as virtually the only person really interested in finding her.  Although this might have been interesting, his narcissism quickly becomes annoying, and his posturing exasperating by the time the book stumbles to its end.

The Rib and Thigh Bones of Desire

 

 The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire by Sandra Hutchison   405 pages

I have to admit that I didn’t pay much attention to the title of this book when I entered the Shelf Awareness newsletter contest; I was more captivated with the story and the cover. I kinda cringed when it arrived in the mail; seemed a little too much erotica for me. But, luckily, the story lived up to, and exceeded, my expectations.

The story opens with David Asken and his family returning from their family vacation at Walt Disney World. David hates to fly, that's obvious with the first sentence: “What was the point of being married, David wondered, if he couldn’t at least have a little company while he was pretending not to be terrified?” They are flying through a thunderstorm. Suddenly the “engines roared and the plane lifted steeply up again…the plane suddenly lurched left.” I was hooked and settled into my chair for a wonderful read.

Chapter Two starts with David’s family’s---wife, Elaine, and daughter, Emily---memorial service. How he escaped, he has no idea. All he knows is that he will never be the same, physically, emotionally, and mentally.

David has been relying on his sister while he was in the hospital. Now that he’s out, he depends a lot on Emily’s babysitter, sixteen-year-old Molly. She has become, basically, his housekeeper.

Molly has her own horrors to survive. Her mother, a celebrated artist, created a work to memorialize Molly’s puberty. It’s a statue made of tampons, logically called Tampon Girl. The mocking is so bad, she’s forced to change schools. Plus her mother is known to have a different man at the house every weekend when Molly goes to her father’s. As the two try to cope with what life has thrown at them, it’s not easy for either. 

The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire is an honest look at grief and coming to grips with their new normal. At first Molly is David’s caretaker and lifeline. But as the story progresses, David becomes Molly’s caretaker and lifeline. In the coming-of-age novel, both protagonists must learn life’s lessons the hard way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, Hutchison’s second novel. While the premise of the novel does become sexual, it’s not gratuitous. The plot never disappointed. I give The Rib and Thigh Bones of Desire five out of five stars…Hutchison is my new favorite author.