Summer Reading!!

Yes! It's almost here! IT'S...

This is the time that I can read whatever I want! LOL During the school year, I try to read books that the kids in my school read. My school reads the Maryland Black-Eye Susan Books so I generally like to cover the graphic novels while the librarian reads the chapter books. She can't stand graphic novels. 🙊 I didn't like them either until I volunteered to read them and make up questions last school year for our Jeopardy with the BES books. I decided they weren't too bad after all! I didn't read them this year because we didn't play Jeopardy since the school year ended earlier than usual. There were a few I would like to read though. Also, I volunteered in middle school book club so I had to read a book a month for that and I am a HORRIBLY slow reader. AND I read advance reader copies (ARCs) when I can, but concentrate on them mainly during the school year. Anyway!...now I can read what I want!

My number one goal? To read...To Kill A Mockingbird. NO! I have not read it and please quiet your disdain! Everywhere I turn I see this book. I can't get away from it and I figure that it must be destiny. I bought it last summer to read and didn't get to it. I'll try again this summer. I have the rest of my summer reading list on a page on the above menu.

So what are you reading this summer? Do you like lists? 

The Suffering Tree by Elle Cosimano

The Suffering Tree by Elle Cosimano
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for a honest review.*

Tori’s dad passed away over a year ago and since then the family had lost their home. Thankfully and surprisingly, Tori’s mom was sent notice that the family was to receive property and a house on land in Chaptico, Maryland. With no other choices, the family moved to a very small town in southern Maryland. While out in the cemetery, by the giant dead oak, Tori cut herself and watched as the blood dripped from her arm and into the soil. As the ground shook, a hand reached out of the soil. Nathanial Bishop pulled himself out of the ground, reborn from a curse hundreds of years old. Tori lived on Slaughter land and the Slaughter’s history was long and wrought with secrets that both Tori and Nathaniel are twisted into. It is up to Tori to unravel that history and find out what brought Nathaniel back from the dead and who is trying to stop those secrets from coming back as well.

I am thankful that The Suffering Tree by Elle Cosimano was no disappointment and just as gripping as Nearly Gone. Written from multiple viewpoints, the reader gets dialog from Nathaniel and Emmeline’s time as the story unfolds in present time. Ms. Cosimano does a wonderful job at weaving a long family history involving a powerful land owner and two child indentured servants from England. I feel I must mention that the main character uses self-harm to maintain stress levels. I thought that this was pretty gutsy for a writer to have a main character involved in this, but it worked and it was fitting to the story. It was nice that, in the end, Tori felt like she didn’t have to do that anymore. I also have to mention that I thought it was really cool that the story took place not to far from where I live so seeing familiar cities and counties was pretty neat! Then there’s the end…the end. I truly loved the end and sat for a while afterwards and just let the tears flow. I’ll have this story in the back of mind for a while. I completely recommend The Suffering Tree by Elle Cosimano. Summer is coming and this book deserves to go vacation with you!!!

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