The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

You read the title and you think this book is gonna be about sex, and you're partly right. This isn't Fifty Shades sex though. Sorry, but if that is what you are looking for you won't get it with this book. I ask that you don't let that stop you from reading this book though as it is worth the read. The main character is a young girl named Moth (so named by her absentee father), she lives in the tenements in New York City with her Gypsy mother. One evening she is awaken by her mother and whisked a lady, she finds herself serving a very cruel master. Upon her escape Moth finds that her Mother has moved on and she is on her own, what's a girl to do? Moth finds herself recruited into a brothel, where she has many difficult decisions to make about her life.
The biggest flaw in the writing of this book were the little "tidbits" that the author added, it was distracting and made the story line seem disjointed. Some of the "tidbits" actually contain useful information that pertain to the story line and others are superfluous to the point they were annoying. Luckily the "tidbits" are in bold print so they are easy to over look ( I read this on my Kindle so I have no idea how this appears in an actual book).
I enjoyed reading this book, read it in less than day. I found Moth to be an interesting character, not just that she has a super cool name. Moth isn't the only fascinating character, we are introduced to a female doctor in 1871. I wish there had been a bit more character development and more background on Dr. Sadie.
The Virgin Cure is only Ms. McKay's second novel, not too shabby. Am I going to immediately run out and buy her first novel? No. I will, however, add her first book The Birth House to my book list and see if I can loan it from the library on my kindle. I am trying to figure out what category I would put this book: one I would buy or one I would only loan. I do not feel that this book falls into the category of  "OMG you HAVE to read this book!" but it also isn't in the "well that was a waste of a day that I'll never get back again". A good beach read, I will say that. I'm pleased that I read it but it doesn't fall into my re-read category so for me this is a loaner book but I don't think anyone should pass this one up.
 

Gillian Flynn, all her works thus far

Normally I would only write a review of one book but I feel compelled to lump all three of Flynn's books together, why you ask? It is due in large part to her latest book, Gone Girl which has gotten the most notoriety. Gone Girl has made it on to reading lists for books clubs everywhere (it is one of the new "it" books), there is nothing wrong with this I actually think that Flynn is a talented author. I enjoyed reading all three novels: Sharp Objects, Dark Places, and Gone Girl.

In Sharp Objects we meet Camille who is a Chicago reporter, she has returned to her small home town to cover the story of a possible serial killer. By returning home, Camille must now face her demons that caused her to cut in her past and now cause her to drink. Ms. Flynn does an incredible job of slowly peeling back the layers and showering us with the complexity of her characters. Page after page embroils you deeper into the depths and just when you think the dysfunction can't become any worse, surprise it does. I am floored by the fact that this is Ms. Flynn's first novel. Bravo!

Dark Places gives us Libby Day who witnessed the murder of her family when she was just 7 years old and with her testimony her brother went to prison for the crime. Twenty-five years later, money running low Libby agrees to help a group called the Kill Club for money. The Kill Club is convinced that her brother Ben is innocent and they would like Libby's help with their evidence. Libby convinced of his guilt agrees, could she have been wrong all these years? The story is told in flashback format, successfully. Yet again Ms. Flynn does an amazing job creating characters with depth and she does an astounding job of slowly pulling those layers aside for us to see. Ben and Libby are fascinating people to watch develop through the story (you may want to throttle them both but that is part and parcel of becoming involved in a good book which is a kudos to the author). All I could think was that if her first and second books were this good the third book must be the bomb.

Gone Girl starts out with so much potential. Nick comes home on their 5th Wedding Anniversary to discover his wife, Amy, is missing and it looks like someone has taken her. It isn't long before police start looking at Nick for murdering Amy. Clues start piling up against him, he was cheating, there were financial problems, and worst of all Amy was pregnant and they were overheard arguing about it. The best thing I can say about the novel is that plot line has plenty of twists that would probably keep some people guessing (depends on how much you read or how much tv you watch to be honest). I was very disappointed in the ending, it felt somewhat lackluster to me. The depth of her characters that was present in her first two books was sorely lacking in this one. There was no character development at all, it felt very one dimensional. It wasn't a terrible read but it wasn't up to her standard. I could see this making an excellent movie as it's written, just not a great book. That being said I am looking forward to any forthcoming book by Ms. Flynn, two out three ain't shabby at all....