Dr. and Mr. = Dr. and Ms.

Henrietta and Eleanor is a new version of Jekyll and Hyde, adapted by Libby Spurrier, who has adapted a lot of books for audio.  I like this.  I like most audible originals.  I have never read the real Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Hyde.  Nor have I even been to Jekyll Island.   I loved this J and H book a lot...but this one just was decent for me anyway. 

When I fell in love

at the ripe age of 42, it was a complete surprise and after reading The One I wonder about the whole possibility of a DNA match!  Or is it a Soul Mate thing?  I like to refer to this as an explanation in my case!  I know that I am every bit in love and head-over-heels giddy today as I was back then.  It might not seem like a long time, but EVERY BIT still giddy and over the moon?  That has to prove something!
But I am off topic!
The One is a good book.  I would have given it a higher rating but man...the author committed my one BIG pet peeve!  He wrote about a couple getting married a Baptist church with a crucifix outside.
Come on, man editors?
It just bugs me!
Warning though...just when you think you know what will happen to these folks, you soon find out you had it ALL wrong!
GREAT book, but man...a crucifix in a Baptist church.  Really?

Prejudice

I had to acknowledge my bias before I read The Diary of a Hounslow Girl.  As I have stated many times, I am NOT a fan of off-putting Briticisms or what I perceive to be arrogance on the part of the British in general.  But this was worth reading despite of all of that, so I am glad that I gave it a chance.  I am so glad that I did.  Ambreen Razia has written a one-woman drama and wow, this is really, really good.  Very insightful and eye-opening and compelling.  No matter where it is set!  Haha!  I mean, I know it's setting is important, it's just that I was able to learn from it and enjoy it even though I am NOT a fan of the UK!  But I am working on it.

I Know This is a Spoiler

but I feel like I have to write it, because it is just so horrible, I wouldn't want anyone to read this book and not be aware of the DEATH OF THE CAT before doing so. Yes, Roger, the beloved cat that we all come to know and love DIES. His death is DESCRIBED! Yes. So if you don't like cats, maybe you will want to read this book.
Although even before I got to the GRAPHIC description of a DEAD and BLOODY, BELOVED CAT, I was losing interest in My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece. I was getting what Bud describes as "book dust" in my eyes every time I picked up the book. It was a short book, but I found it to drag. Up until the DEATH OF ROGER, I thought I would still give the book 4 stars because I was thinking, "well it's an important book and maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind and Sunya is a wonderful character and so is Jamie, really. And his sister is such a fine, fine person..." But then, ROGER WAS KILLED. And I know that the author used ROGER'S DEATH to bring Jamie and his father together, to get Jamie to understand the tremendous grief that his father has felt since the death of his daughter in a terrorist attack in London, to get his father to finally start the healing process...yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. But really?
Don't get me wrong, if over all the book had been amazing, I would have forgiven this. Let's not forget what happened in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.

MTB

Julia believes that there is "the one" out there for her.  And she is pretty sure that Mark, the boy she was in love with as a child, is her MTB (meant to be).  But then she ends up spending 9 days in London with her English class and learns more about herself and her classmates and her MTB.
I just wasn't pulled in by Meant to Be.  It reminded me a lot of A Field Guide for Heartbreakers, not just because they are both about high school students  spending time in Europe, but because the characters in both books were hard to like.  Any of them.  I don't know, this one just didn't do it for me.