We Could Be Beautiful by Swan Huntley

We Could Be Beautiful by Swan Huntley is about the over-privileged life of Catherine West, an independently wealthy 43 yr. old woman in New York, who lives off of a monthly deposit of 80k from her deceased father. Rough life, huh? In order to make herself appear useful, she owns a small handmade greeting card shop, that too, was financed by her mother. The shop is just doing so-so, but Catherine seems to enjoy the diversion of having a faux business of sorts. Her life is seemingly a string of massages, pedicures and extreme amounts of shopping. She lives in a gorgeous home which she fills with very expensive art and hangs out with her housekeeper Lucia. All is going along fairly well in her life and then she meets William, a man who appears to be just the right person for her, calm, successful and caring. Unbeknownst to Catherine, William has a bit of a past that ties in dreadfully to her own life. Slowly she lifts the veil on William's life story, enabling her to see her true reality. It's not pretty of course, and involves infidelity, lies and cover ups with a lot of money changing hands over the years. I enjoyed the writing and the characters, who are over the top wealthy; Catherine's sister Caroline has several nannies for just three children, and sometimes found the level of wealth distracting. But the wealth element provided the backdrop for the basis of the story, and what just one person will do to retain and gain wealth through master manipulation and lies. I would recommend this book, if only to see how the other one percent lives in New York City. I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

The Never Open Desert Diner by James Anderson

This book revolves around characterization and atmosphere. The truck driver Ben is the most integral character in the book and is quiet, moral man who happens to need money. There are other characters that come into play, Ben's ex's pregnant daughter Ginny, Claire, the cello player who is often naked, Walt, the owner of the diner that for some reason is never open, and let's not forget some guy who carries a cross through the desert. It seems that this book was trying real hard to be another Twin Peaks, and just missed it somehow. I think the book was well written, and the individual characters were well drawn. However, I didn't feel compelled to keep reading this book, it felt like a bit of a stretch with all of the quirky people. Maybe trying a little too hard. I didn't love this book, the desert setting was a mirror to the lack of action and lack of intensity in this novel. Blogging for Books kindly provided me a free copy of this book for an honest review.