The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin

Disclaimer: I was given a chance to preview this book in its infancy by the author, who lives in my town, but whom I did not meet until right before publication.  Several changes were made after I read it, so there was a new element of surprise included.  Still, I am a bit partial to the story....




Y'all.

This is good stuff.  (And the prettiest cover, like EVER.)  Get your bookclubs together and read this one - and then have a really really good and honest conversation about friendship.  About loyalty.  About how far you'd go to protect, or hurt, the people you love the most.

Zadie and Emma are polar opposites - one is outgoing and cute and perky (and smart and disorganized), the other is tall and gorgeous and coldhearted and brilliantly together.  Right?

Not so much.

As best friends go, these two have been through it.  You have a friend like that, don't you?  If you do, you are lucky.  Yet Zadie and Emma make it through medical school, residencies, tragedies, rotations, flirtations, boyfriends, husbands, kids, jobs, etc etc etc.  Until: until the past comes roaring back.  And there are two sides to every story, right?  Unless one of you thinks there was only one truth, and that YOUR truth is the same as hers.

Not so much.

I love how the chapters from Zadie's perspective are hilarious and quick and kind of all over the place - just like Zadie.  I laughed out loud at how she tries so hard to get to work on time but then her verbose toddler says something funny or her twins remind her of the game today or her daughter rolls her eyes - been there done that (but I don't have twins, thank the good Lord).  She's got some wit, that Zadie. And I loved how Emma's chapters are immediately calmer, introspective, organized and factual.  Just like Emma.  You know pretty quickly which voice you are reading.

Yes, this book is chock full of medical jargon.  Our esteemed author, is after all, an ER doctor.  But this book is also chock full of the daily disasters a toddler can create, because our esteemed author is also a mother.  And this book is chock full of heart, because...well, because our esteemed author CAN WRITE.  And to write about the particular bond of a deep female friendship is brave.  And hard. And fulfilling, and painful and .....REAL.

Do you have a girlfriend like that?  Someone you'd do anything for or with?  Someone who knows all your secrets and you know theirs?  Who knows every little thing about you?

Think again.  Because when the betrayal comes, you'll have to decide whether the secrets you keep for each other and the love and trust you shared are bigger than the not knowing.  Whether forgiveness is possible, and whether it is worth it.  Martin gives us a very brave and real ending here after the big reveal, and I LOVED it.  I cannot wait to discuss this with my book club - and we live in Charlotte where the book is set so we will have some fun with this - but I am also going to bring extra tissues because I can see having a really deep dig at the open heart surgery Martin performs here on the anatomy of friendship.  It'll get you, ladies.  But once you close, that scar will be a beautiful reminder of the strength you had to heal.

Scalpel.

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Fascinating...

I had some big problems with this book, but was also spellbound.  I listened to it on Audible, and there was a different narrator for each chapter that was told from a different character's viewpoint - I liked that actually. Emma is a single mom to two teenage boys, one of whom has Asperger's Syndrome, is obsessed with forensic science and is accused of murder.  Their lawyer Oliver decides to plead insanity, using the Asperger traits to explain why Jacob could not have understood what he was doing when he rearranged the crime scene like they do in the Crimebuster's show he watches every day at 4:30.  I have read other reviews that criticize Picoult's  overuse of Asperger traits - Jacob apparently has every single marker - and there is a mention of the immunizations he received as a toddler that supposedly changed his behavior.  So just be ready for that side.

But you cannot deny that Picoult did a tremendous amount of research here.  She touches on how Jacob sees and navigates the world.  She delves into how his younger brother Theo feels like he doesn't matter, because his mom focuses only on Jacob's (many, many) needs.  She digresses in Jacob's character into the factoids that he obsesses over, the cases he knows about, the Crimebuster episodes he likes best - to the point of distraction for this listener.  She goes deep into Emma's feelings of love for her son but curiousity about what her like could have been like, and her deep devotion to bringing Jacob back into high functionality.

However,  did no one think to ask Jacob what REALLY happened the day Jess Ogilvy died?    Seriously?  Maybe he did kill his tutor, maybe he didn't.  All Jacob wants to do is follow the rules, the House Rules, and tell the truth.  He is not capable of lying due to his Asperger's.  So why doesn't anyone just ask him a simple question:  What happened when you got to Jess' house, Jacob?  I realize his lawyer won't ask him, and his mom is taking the stand, so maybe she shouldn't ask him either.  But they jump into a trial without even knowing what happened - they just assume he killed her "accidentally" and build a defense based on insanity due to a mental condition. (There is a lot of assuming going on here actually.....) And (spoiler) once he does take the stand, he is never cross-examined.  WHAT?  I am not a lawyer, but this left a gaping hole for me - that prosecutor surely would have said, "Jacob, did you kill Jess??" and then we would have known what you can see coming from the get go.  "I didn't mean to hurt her."  Literally.....  everything is literal....

But overall, I could not stop listening.  I wanted to get in my car and drive around the block to see what would happen next.  So if you can get beyond the gaping holes, this was an interesting story.  A bit of an abrupt ending, but loved the reference to My Sister's Keeper near the end - look out for a title chapter reference....  wink!!!