During World War II, four women band together working in a shipyard. In addition to learning new skills as electricians, the women also must cope with personal challenges and learn to rely on their friendship.  Virginia is feeling stifled in her role as mother and wife. Jean is torn between an offer of marriage and her dream of college. Helen is mourning the loss of an old flame, and Rosa is learning how to be a wife and a mother, even though her husband is serving overseas. This book wasn’t fantastic, but it was entertaining, and not quite as predictable as I first thought it would be.

I need to re-read some of Snelling’s earlier books. If I’m recalling correctly, her Red River of the North series was excellent, and that was what got me hooked on reading her books. Since then, every book has been a disappointment, and I’m wondering if the Red River series wasn’t as good as I thought.

The Brushstroke Legacy tries to weave together the stories of 2 women. Ragni is a single, burned out career woman, who happens to stumble across the perfect man, and rediscover her long lost painting talent. Nilda was Ragni’s great-grandmother, who struggled to care for her young daughter and find love on the frontier. Somehow, as Ragni cleans out Nilda’s old cabin, Nilda’s story inspires Ragni to greatness. What really happens is that two nauseating plots are combined into one mess with too many ridiculous scenes to count.

I really love Nelson DeMille. I especially love the main character in most of his books–Detective John Corey. He’s cocky, plays by his own rules, usually well-intentioned and frequently makes me laugh out loud.

Wild Fire doesn’t have the suspense of DeMille’s prior book, Night Fall but it was still a great read. Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, are investigating the disappearance of their friend and co-worker, Harry Muller. They of course discover much more than a missing person, and are soon racing against time to save the lives of millions of innocent people. If you enjoy mystery/action books, I definitely recommend DeMille. He writes a great suspenseful story, without taking himself too seriously.

After the disasterous True Believer and its somewhat better sequel, At First Sight, I wasn’t expecting much out of Spark’s latest book. While it was an improvement over his last two books, it certainly didn’t blow me away either. The main character, John, is very bland. He does have an interesting relationship with his father, but other than that, he seems to spend every moment pining away for Suzanne. Suzanne is the perfect girl with few flaws. By the end of the book, I didn’t really care if they got together or not. I will still be a faithful Sparks reader, but the passion is fading.