2 a.m. at the Cat's Pajamas

2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino    261 pages

This is one of the times that two things went wrong. First I wanted to read this book based solely on its title. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Second, I kept reading and reading, expecting/hoping that it would get better and end up being a wonderful read. Well, I was wrong on both counts.

According to the book jacket, this is the story of nine-year-old Madeleine who has a great jazz voice and knows it. She practices every day and desperately wants to sing at a jazz club, especially once she learns that her recently departed mother worked at the Cat’s Pajamas.  That I’m not really sure about because it was vaguely alluded to in the story.

The story is also about two other lost souls: Sarina Greene who hope to meet an old high school crush at a dinner party and Lorca, the Cat’s Pajama’s owner learns that if he can’t come with $30,000, the club will shut.

I found the story hard to follow.  All three---Madeleine, Sarina, and Lorca---vie for role as the central character. I was never really able to care about any of them, but I must admit felt more for Madeleine than the others, she’s the reason I kept on reading. I did like that the chapter headings were times and that the story takes place on Christmas Eve Eve. That was well done. The book also lacks tension.

 I give 2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas 2 out of 5 stars.

 I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

China Dolls

China Dolls by Lisa See  400 pages

 The story’s locale is 1938 San Francisco. Three young Chinese-American (or American-Chinese as I prefer since they were born in the USA) young women meet when they try out as dancers (or ponies) for the opening of the city’s glitzy new nightclub, Forbidden City.

Grace Lee is 17 years old. She arrive is the Bay Area with a few precious dollars, a whole lot of talent and a pair of dancing shoes She still bears the bruises from the savage beating her father gave her. She rather starve to death in an unknown town rather than go back home.

Helen Fong lives in Chinatown in her family’s compound. Her entire family, a traditional Chinese family, lives there. She works in her father’s laundry and any money she gets is given to her father for her brother’s education. Her traditional parents

Ruby Tom is a defiant young woman, ready to take on the world, with a secret she isn’t willing to share.

The girls become fast friends. They have two things in common: they want to break the stereotypical roles that their faces force then into and they want to be stars.  This is their story; the story of hard work, discrimination, love, and betrayal over the years of 1938 to 1948. They work the nightclub circuit, fall in love, and learn more about themselves, and the country they call home, than they ever dreamed possible.

The novel is broken into three section based on a quote from Buddha: the sun, the moon, and the truth.  Inside each section, Grace, Helen, and Ruby take turns telling their story. The problem was sometimes, most of the time the voices were indistinguishable. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great read, but since each girl’s story is told in first person, I had to keep looking back to remind myself who was talking. The best part of the novel was the backstory surrounding the nightclub-life.

I give China Dolls four out of five stars.

In The Age Of Love And Chocolate

In The Age Of Love And Chocolate by Gabrielle Zevin      286 pages

Maybe it was because I was sorry to see the series end but when I finished this final book on the trilogy I was left feeling kind of disappointed.  I liked the story all of the way through and I felt like it ended well so I’m not sure what the problem was.  Maybe it was a little predictable or wrapped up too neatly, but that isn’t usually a problem for me.  The story is still all about Anya Ballanchine who is starting a new nightclub that will serve cacao, since it is legal to distribute for medicinal purpose, unlike chocolate, which is not legal at all.  Anya’s business partner, Mr. Delacroix, has cost her a boyfriend, Win, who is Delacroix’s son and doesn’t approve of the partnership.  Anya, in the meantime, is also the guardian of her younger sister, Natty.  Natty has begun acting out, as many teenagers do, and Anya, who is really still a teenager herself, doesn’t know what to do.  Not to mention the fact that her cousin-in-law, Sophie Bitter, who tried to kill her, is still at large.  Anya has a lot on her plate but problems do seem to have a way of working out for Anya, one way or another.  Despite how I felt after finishing, I think that most fans of the series will like this conclusion.  The series is definitely an interesting peek into one possible future of the world.