2015 Fiction Reading List (Books 11-15)

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It's finally time to write about the last five books on my fiction reading list for 2015.  In case you missed them, here are links to Books 1-5 and Books 6-10.  Here are final five books of my list for this year.

My last few times in Barnes & Noble were spent consulting my reading list and looking for e-books through my library to make sure I didn't buy a book that I could get for free.  Basically a whole lot of work to make sure I picked just the right books to buy.  The last time I was in the store, however, I threw my "buying strategies" out the window and just grabbed whatever looked good to me.  One of those books was The Time Between by Karen White.  Here is the summary from Amazon:

Eleanor Murray will always remember her childhood on Edisto Island, where her late father, a local shrimper, shared her passion for music. Now her memories of him are all that tempers the guilt she feels over the accident that put her sister in a wheelchair—and the feelings she harbors for her sister’s husband.

To help support her sister, Eleanor works at a Charleston investment firm during the day, but she escapes into her music, playing piano at a neighborhood bar. Until the night her enigmatic boss walks in and offers her a part-time job caring for his elderly aunt, Helena, back on Edisto. For Eleanor, it’s a chance to revisit the place where she was her happiest—and to share her love of music with grieving Helena, whose sister recently died under mysterious circumstances.

An island lush with sweetgrass and salt marshes, Edisto has been a peaceful refuge for Helena, who escaped with her sister from war-torn Hungary in 1944. The sisters were well-known on the island, where they volunteered in their church and community. But now Eleanor will finally learn the truth about their past: secrets that will help heal her relationship with her own sister—and set Eleanor free....

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The Good Girl by Mary Kubica was one of the first books I bought using my credits at Audible.com.  I just finished listening to it last week while I was on a work trip to Houston.  I thought it was an interesting way to tell the story and really enjoyed it.  Here's what Amazon has to say about the book:


"I've been following her for the past few days. 

I know where she buys her groceries, where she 

works. I don't know the color of her eyes or 

what they look like when she's scared. But I will." 

One night, Mia Dennett enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. At first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life. 

When Colin decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota instead of delivering her to his employers, Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them. But no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter.  

An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, The Good Girl is a propulsive debut that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems. 

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This next book was on my list from last year and I never got around to reading it.  Wool by Hugh Howey is another book I have gotten through Audible.com lately.  However, at over 17 hours long it may take me a while before I start it.  My plan is to listen to it this year though because I don't want to leave it un-read for yet another year.  Here's the summary from Amazon:

For suspense-filled, post-apocalyptic thrillers, Wool is more than a self-published ebook phenomenon―it’s the new standard in classic science fiction.

In a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.

His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.

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I am not even sure how I heard about Tiny Pretty Things, but it sounds like it's a book that I would definitely like.  Here's the summary from Amazon:

Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars in this soapy, drama-packed novel featuring diverse characters who will do anything to be the prima at their elite ballet school.

Gigi, Bette, and June, three top students at an exclusive Manhattan ballet school, have seen their fair share of drama. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance—but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette's desire to escape the shadow of her ballet star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever. When every dancer is both friend and foe, the girls will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best.

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Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is another one of those books that I don't remember hearing about originally.  I may have seen it in a book store or maybe it was recommended to me by my library based on other books I've read.  Either way, I've already bought it and am looking forward to reading it.  Here is the summary from Amazon:

Orphan Train is a gripping story of friendship and second chances from Christina Baker Kline, author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be.

Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse...

As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life – answers that will ultimately free them both.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

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And that's it, the end of my fiction reading list for 2015.  So far this year I have read five books out of the fifteen I have chosen.  I'm currently reading my sixth book from the list, Ensnared.  I own all but two of the books, so at least this year I won't be waiting on copies to become available from the library before I can read them.  

Maybe halfway through the year I will write a review on one or two of my favorite books so far, so stay tuned for those.