reading challenge












WELCOME BOOK LOVERS


Thanks for stopping by. My name is Cyndi and each week, myself and my two best book friends forever Ann and Karen jointly blog together on Book Club Thursday (BCT). To learn all about BCT please click here

If you're a regular reader, you are going to see some fresh changes to each of our BCT blogs for 2017. We are very excited and hope you will participate in our events. 


This week we have: 





Our Reading Challenge weeks let each of us read any book that matches a "challenge" from one of out lists.

I chose a book from this list: 


TRICKY

Read a book published before 2010
Read a book with a wedding
Read a book published in the month (not year) you were born
Working Girls  
Read a book set in your home state
Read a book that includes nature on the cover
Read a book with a cover that you really don’t like (ugly)
Read a book you once gave up on
Read a book with a clever title
Read a book that takes place in Winter
Read a book that includes a Holiday
Read a book set in/around New Orleans
Read a book with a “Food” word in the title
Read a book that includes a food item on the cover
Read a book with a seasonal word in the title


Challenge in RED
Completed in orange 








One summer day on the beach in Florida, two extraordinary things happen to Maeve Donnelly. First, she is kissed by Daniel, the boy of her dreams. Then, she is bitten by a blacktip shark.
 
Eighteen years later, Maeve has thrown herself into her work as a world-traveling marine biologist discovering more about the minds of misunderstood sharks. But when Maeve returns home to the legendarily charming and eccentric Hotel of the Muses where she was raised by her grandmother, she finds more than just the blood orange sunsets and key lime pies she’s missed waiting for her.
 
While Maeve has always been fearless in the water, on land she is indecisive. A chance meeting on the beach with a plucky, irresistible little girl who is just as fascinated by the ocean as Maeve was growing up leaves her at a crossroads: Should she re-kindle her romance with Daniel, the first love she left behind when she dove into her work? Or indulge in a new romance with her colleague, Nicholas, who turns up in her hometown to investigate an illegal shark-finning operation?   
 
Set against the intoxicating backdrop of palm trees, calypso bands, and perfect ocean views, The Shark Club is a story of the mysterious passions of one woman’s life: her first love and new love; the sea and sharks that inhabit it.


Calling The Shark Club just a book is like saying the Taj Mahal is just a building. 

I won't ruin why I think the title is clever but it is. 

Fair warning: I may gush a bit much here in my review but I am a total fan girl of this book. I both wanted to consume The Shark Club in one sitting and savor it slowly. 

It went on my radar a few months ago after being featured (early) in several different book sites as a book to watch out for.  The title and cover drew me in even before I knew what the book was about and once I read the blurb, I was hooked. 

I can think of only a handful of books that have moved me as deeply as The Shark Club. It's not an easy feat for an author to engage all of a reader's senses but Ms. Kidd Taylor manages it and then some. The Shark Club also has an amazing (primary)setting: Hotel of the Muses- if only it actually existed! 

Although the novel is told  from Maeve's view (1st person), I felt like I knew all the major characters. And I have to say that Hazel stole the show (impossible wish here but I'd LOVE her book someday ❤❤ ).

I enjoyed the love stories here (and I don't just mean the romantic type, although there is pinch of that here). There are beginnings and ending here in The Shark Club and the book will break your heart just bit, but that's okay; the best books always do. 

In my opinion there's also a bit of commentary in the book wrapped in a light but serious natured mystery, but it doesn't overshadow the novel. I learned about sharks and now have a different view of them (not that my original view was ever negative). Also,  I am personally horrified that not only does shark finning exist but that somehow I didn't know about it before reading this novel.

Additionally, the optimist in me appreciated the open ending which was bittersweet and realistic. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts if you have read this book!

I have a spoiler point just below so stop reading if you don't want to read it (scroll down a bit) but  before that: 




SPOILER

In regards to Maeve and Daniel. 

Maybe I feel the way I do because of who I am and pretty much always have been, plus I'm lucky enough to have a spouse that feels the same way concerning the point(s) I am about to make. 

When you love someone they shouldn't ever ask you to give up something that is your heart, soul/ reason for living as Daniel does with Maeve.  When people love each other they accept that part of the other person, maybe share in it, or embrace it (Daniel never quite did). Maybe it's part of why they love the other person so much. By the same token sometimes when you love someone you can give up that part of yourself (without the person needing to ask) because of your love for them.  

In case you are wondering, I'm team Maeve concerning my point(s).























June 29th: Joint Review of Race the Darkness by Abbie Roads


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