People Who Knew Me

Emily Morris got her happily-ever-after earlier than most. Married at a young age to a man she loved passionately, she was building the life she always wanted. But when enormous stress threatened her marriage, Emily made some rash decisions. That’s when she fell in love with someone else. That’s when she got pregnant.

Resolved to tell her husband of the affair and to leave him for the father of her child, Emily’s plans are thwarted when the world is suddenly split open on 9/11. It’s amid terrible tragedy that she finds her freedom, as she leaves New York City to start a new life. It’s not easy, but Emily---now Connie Prynne—forges a new happily-ever-after in California. But when a life-threatening diagnosis upends her life, she is forced to rethink her life for the good of her thirteen-year-old daughter.
A riveting debut in which a woman must confront her own past in 

                                                        order to secure the future of her daughter, Kim Hooper's People  

                                                        Who Knew Me asks: “What would you do?”

  

This book was fascinating!  In part because I completely understood why she did what she did and then I was totally clueless as to why she did it.  I would get so frustrated with her at times, but still felt sympathy for other times.  It truly was a study of how much a person can take before they break and to what lengths they will go to survive.  While I personally would not have handled it like she did, I was intrigued by her decisions none the less.  If you enjoy a character driven story with a marriage/family focused plot that reads quickly, this is a great book to pick up starting on May 24th, 2016!

 * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

  

Dewey's 24-hour Readathon Complete

Totals for Dewey's 24-hour Readathon:

 

3 hours 15 minutes total reading time 

308 pages 

1 completed book

 

I was disappointed in my reading choices, so I know I will plan this better next time. I also unfortunately started suffering from a cold or allergies and it just wiped me out. But still happy with my totals considering everything. I enjoyed participating in several of the mini challenges and I won an hourly prize which was really exciting!! Thanks so much to all the volunteers at Dewey’s for such a great day- looking forward to October! #Readathon

Dewey's 24-hour Readathon!

 

I am minutes away from starting in my first ever Dewey's 24-hour Readathon and I can't wait!  Since this is my first time I will probably only be updating here at the end with totals.  I will mainly be posting updates in the File section of the Facebook Group under the file name Whitney's (Must Read Soon) Reading Log or posting under the name Whitney Severns Werling and my twitter account @MustReadSoon.  My TBR is not set in stone, but I did pick a few books so we shall see.  I also need to knock out some NetGalley's I have as well.  I am home alone today with my 2 boys so I know I won't be reading all day, but hoping I can get them excited enough to read some too!See you back here for the wrap-up!

The Midnight Watch

As the Titanic and her passengers sank slowly into the Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg late in the evening of April 14, 1912, a nearby ship looked on. Second Officer Herbert Stone, in charge of the midnight watch on the SS Californian sitting idly a few miles north, saw the distress rockets that the Titanic fired. He alerted the captain, Stanley Lord, who was sleeping in the chartroom below, but Lord did not come to the bridge. Eight rockets were fired during the dark hours of the midnight watch, and eight rockets were ignored. The next morning, the Titanic was at the bottom of the sea and more than 1,500 people were dead. When they learned of the extent of the tragedy, Lord and Stone did everything they could to hide their role in the disaster, but pursued by newspapermen, lawyers, and political leaders in America and England, their terrible secret was eventually revealed. The Midnight Watch is a fictional telling of what may have occurred that night on the SS Californian, and the resulting desperation of Officer Stone and Captain Lord in the aftermath of their inaction.

Told not only from the perspective of the SS Californian crew, but also through the eyes of a family of third-class passengers who perished in the disaster, the narrative is drawn together by Steadman, a tenacious Boston journalist who does not rest until the truth is found. The Midnight Watch is a powerful and dramatic debut novel--the result of many years of research in Liverpool, London, New York, and Boston, and informed by the author's own experiences as a ship's officer and a lawyer.

The Titanic has always been fascinating to me.  So many lost lives, so must potential never realized. So when I was given the opportunity to review this title I was intrigued to read a fictional account based on historical facts.  The author was so well researched that while it read like a fictional novel, it provided so much knowledgeable information.  I feel in love with some "characters" and tried desperately to understand why others didn't respond to the distress signals.  I found myself looking up more information outside of the book just because I wanted to know more!  The only reason I gave this a 4 star rating instead of 5 was at times the characters were hard to differentiate, but this could have easily been because I don't have an in-depth understand of maritime ranks.  I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction based on actual events.  I will be on the lookout for more novels by this author in the future!

* I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *