In Sickness and In Health/ Ben Mattlin/ 238 pgs

Egads! My second non-fiction book of the year and it's only March. This is very unusual for me:-) The subtitle for this book is: Love, Disability, and a Quest to Understand the Perils and Pleasures of Interabled Romance and it takes a look at couples (either married or long-term commitment) where one of the partners has a disability and the other does not. This book is not personally relevant to me, except that it did give me more insight into what my parents are facing as they grow older, with my stepdad becoming less able to care for himself and more reliant on my mom. The book is written in a very engaging and forthright style by Ben Mattlin, who has spinal muscular atrophy. Ben has never walked and has always been dependent on others (family members and paid help). He's been married for 26 years. He weaves stories of his own marriage throughout the book but each chapter is spent on a different couple that Ben has interviewed. It's a fascinating and informative read.

The Valquez Bride / Melanie Milburne / 185 pages

Teddy Marlstone is a children's book illustrator who still suffers a limp from a broken hip when she was 10 years old.  She has lived in Marlstone Manor all her life, but finds out that she must marry within a month in order to keep the manor out of her cousin's hands due to the conditions in her father's will.  Worst of all - her father chose the groom - the gorgeous Alejandro Valquez, notorious Argentinian playboy.  Will they suffer the required marriage of 6 months to inherit their property or find the love of a lifetime?


The characters have a little depth to them, though the author tends to tell everything they're thinking rather than imply it through their words and actions.  The overall plot has been done before in books and movies.  This is a typical romance; a quick, fun read.

The Story of Beautiful Girl/Rachel Simon/346 pages

When two people show up on her doorstep in the middle of the night, Martha, a retired schoolteacher and widow, lets them in and helps them even though she lives alone. The young woman doesn't speak and soon it becomes clear that the somewhat older African American man is deaf. What also becomes apparent is that the young woman has just given birth. When the authorities start banging on Martha's door just a little later, Homan, the man, slips out the back while they take Lynnie back to the School for Incurable and Feebleminded. Apparently unaware that there is a baby, the authorities take Lynnie and continue to search for Homan. The two words Lynnie whispers to Martha before she's taken away is "hide her."

Thus starts the journey of three people and an infant. Martha takes the baby and leaves her house to keep anyone from questioning her about the sudden appearance of a baby to a widow who never raised a child of her own. Homan tries to find a way to elude the authorities wherever he is and still find a way back to Lynnie, the one he calls "Beautiful Girl" in his own sign language dialect. Lynnie tries to survive and not tell anyone of her baby because she fears for her baby's future.

This was my book club's selection for July. Overall, we all enjoyed it and loved the ending. It does start a bit slow, but picks up quickly.

Girl, Stolen/April Henry/211 pages

Cheyenne Wilder has been kidnapped. When a young thug tries to steal a car to impress his dad, things go from bad to worse when he finds a girl wrapped up in a blanket in the backseat. Griffin never meant to hurt anyone, he just wants to impress his dad with a big fancy SUV that he steals from a mall parking lot. From the very beginning of the story, we realize that Griffin is a good kid that has been raised by a terrible father. The major twist in the story is that the main character, Cheyenne, is blind.  She fights back the whole story and  we have to admire her strength and intelligence. The author does a pretty good job at making the story realistic and suspenseful. This is a quick read for middle and high school students. The  main character does fear that she might be raped by her captors but nothing happens and it is a very small storyline in the book. For younger readers, might not be appropriate or parents could use as a chance to talk  about being in scary situations with strangers.