Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois

This is the story of a young college student, Lily, studying in Buenos Aires who is arrested for the murder of her roommate. The book says it's 'loosely' based on the Amanda Knox real life story, but I do think it's more than loosely based. At any rate, I found it a really interesting psychological drama. I wasn't sure until the end how it would play out, so I couldn't put it down.

Rather than just a simple murder mystery, this book delves into the characters in a much more in depth way. It examines the 'truth' from all sorts of points of view, leaving the readers to find they actually kind of believe all of them at various times. Or maybe disbelieve. The characters are portrayed  with both good and bad characteristics that we can sympathize and empathize with on the one hand and feel disdain for on the other. Some of the characters are very unusual, such as the boyfriend, Sebastion, others act entitled, some had lives colored by tragedy, but all were fascinating.

Jennifer duBois has also written A Partial History of Lost Causes which I haven't read yet, but now feel I must.

Accused by Lisa Scottoline

This is another of Lisa Scottoline's Rosato and Associate's novels. Bennie Rosato is the senior partner of her law firm, and her associate, Mary DiNunzio, has just been made a partner. This story is about a case of Mary's. The firm is hired by a young 13 year old girl to free a man who she feels has been wrongly imprisoned for the murder of her sister 6 years ago. The girl's parents strongly oppose the girls actions and do everything they can to get Mary off the case. But Mary is determined to see it through. Along the way Mary deals with issues in her own life as well as handling the case on by herself.

It's a good story, interlaced with bits of humor particularly involving Mary's Italian family and their old friends. I enjoyed reading about how Mary tried to solve the case and I liked that I hadn't anticipated the outcome. There's not a lot of interaction among the women of the Rosato firm in this book as there has been in past Rosato books, but Mary was still a believable character with doubts about both how she deals with the case and about whether she should marry her boyfriend, Anthony. I thought Anthony seemed a little unreal, but maybe I'd learn more about him in other Rosato novels. I've read and enjoyed a couple others in the past, but don't remember his character.

At any rate, this was an enjoyable, quick read, a fun mystery without much of the gore that's often found in other murder mysteries.

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

I loved this book! What a wonderful story. I've always liked reading war stories, not so much ones about how the war was fought, but rather personal stories about how the wars affected the life of an individual, and this book is a very personal story. It's the story of two young women who both fought desperately for what they loved the most.  It begins in 1916 during WWI and the German occupation of France. There we meet Sophie, whose husband painted a beautiful portrait of her which she hung in her home, an inn. When her husband was missing in the war, the painting was a comforting reminder of him, even after the Germans took over her village and forced her to cook for them. She does what she can to make things a little easier for her family and fellow villagers, but ultimately makes a great sacrifice in the hopes of being reunited with her missing husband.

Almost 100 years later, the portrait is given to a young English woman, Liv, as a wedding gift from her husband. He dies a few short years later and the painting gives Liv comfort as it had Sophie years before. However, the painting becomes embroiled in a controversy over who is its true owner, and Liv risks everything to keep it.

The story weaves back and forth between Sophie's story and Liv's in an easy to follow way. The descriptions of life during the occupation were so vividly written, I became tied up in them almost the way Liv did in the book as she researched the provenance of the painting. The story is heartbreaking in many ways but also hopeful and satisfying in many other ways.

Jojo Moyes has also written Me Before You and The Last Letter from Your Lover. They are both on my must read list now.

(I just have to add that I really dislike the cover....I don't think it suits the story at all.)

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

I haven't read any of Moriarty's books before, but after reading this one, I will definitely read her others. It's the story of 3 women whose lives intersect after one of them finds a letter from her husband to be read after his death. She reads the letter while he is till alive and this sets off a series of events that cause her to rethink her whole marriage and it greatly impacts the lives of the other women.

The author made the characters seem multi-dimensional and thus very real in spite of the extraordinary situations they find themselves in. They all face moral dilemmas, and it's interesting to read how they handle that. One main theme that is repeated throughout the story is what a parent will do to protect his or her children.

This was a great read. I couldn't put it down. I don't think I would have reacted the same way the characters did, but it was fascinating to read about them.