March | 2012 |

Monthly Archives: March 2012

March 1, 2012 · 9:28 pm

Book review: Far from Here by Nicole Baart

This book starts out with a horrifying event: Danica (Dani) Greene’s husband Etsell vanishes without a trace while in Alaska. He’s a pilot, and he was up there helping out one of his fellow pilots for three weeks. Danica has no idea if he’s alive or dead. He’s just… missing. While she’s dealing with this tragedy, a mystery appears in the form of a woman, Sam, who claims to have known and spent time with Etsell during the short time that he was in Alaska. Her secret deepens as the plot progresses, leaving the reader wondering how much of what she’s saying is the truth, and what really happened to Etsell on the day of his disappearance.

Far from Here by Nicole Baart is well written, and each character is vibrant. Everyone who appears has a purpose, a back story, and realistic flaws, making all of them three-dimensional. Although Dani was married young, and is less than 30 years old when these events take place, she is mature for her age and deals with everything in the best manner than she can. The ending is left ambiguous and open to interpretation, and all that matters is that she finds happiness again. I won’t say any more than that — you have to read it youself to find out what happens.

Far from Here is in bookstores now, and can be found on Simon & Schuster’s website here.

(Disclaimer: a copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher, Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. My opinions are my own, and I wasn’t encouraged or compensated in any way to say that I liked the book – I really did enjoy it! For more information, please click on my disclosure policy above.)

Book review: The Darlings by Cristina Alger

This book answers an interesting question: what happens when you find out that one-third of the business that your hedge fund deals with has been under the control of a ponzi schemer like Bernie Madoff? While it’s hard to imagine what I would do in that situation, it’s another to read about how the family that owns the hedge fund dealt with the crisis. (Spoiler: there are a few underhanded dealings and some subterfuge involved.)

The Darlings by Cristina Alger is written from several points of view: primarily that of Merrill formerly-Darling, whose father owns Delphic Capital, the hedge fund in question; her husband Paul, who works as a lawyer for Delphic; and her father, Carter, who owns the fund. There a number of smaller players involved, like Merrill’s sister Lily and her husband, Adrian; Duncan who is the editor in chief of Press Magazine; and Alexa and David, both of whom work for the SEC. That only touches on a few of the many characters that weave and dance their way through this intricately written book. In fact, there are so many characters that I had to make up a flow chart to keep track of them all! Thankfully, by the end of the book, everything pulls together nicely and the relationships between all of the characters become clear.

The book starts out with the suicide of Morty Reiss, owner of RCM. Once its made clear that RCM was really a ponzi scheme, and that Delphic Capital was about to go down in flames and SEC fines for dealing with them, the plot really took off. The entire book takes place over a Thanksgiving weekend, with Morty jumping off a bridge the day before the holiday, and the main SEC negotiations taking place the following Monday. What started out to be family drama ended up as a thriller, with so many twists and turns I couldn’t wait to see who wound up on top. I won’t spoil the ending for you; I’ll just say that you’ll be surprised.

If you want to buy a copy of this awesome book (which I recommend doing) it’s available now through booksellers everywhere, including Amazon.com.

(Disclaimer: a copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher. This review is completely unbiased – I really did love the book! For further details, please check out my disclosure policy.)