[Book Review] The Diagnosis of Love by Maggie Leffler

Found another favorite author!

Introducing....

Taken from http://maggieleffler.com/

Maggie Leffler!

What a beautiful lady she is! I expect all authors to look like a nerd or a haggard old lady of sorts. Guess that stereotype does not apply on Maggie!

While I was reading through the first few pages, I goes "This is got to be an American author" AND I'M RIGHT! American books are more lighthearted and easy to read. I see the touch of American dreams throughout the entire novel, not a bad thing to say the least.

Maggie Leffler is the author of two novels published by Bantam Books, THE DIAGNOSIS OF LOVE and THE GOODBYE COUSINS. A native of Columbia, Maryland, Leffler graduated from University of Delaware with a major in English, a minor in biology and was team captain of women's cross-country, indoor and outdoor track. She was the recipient of a Wilmington Trust scholar athlete scholarship and part of a North Atlantic Conference championship-winning women's cross-country team. She volunteered with Americorps before attending St. George's University School of Medicine.

After completing her residency in family practice, she became a board certified family physician. Her essay, The Other Side of the Stethoscope, appeared in the inaugural issue of The Examined Life Journal of University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. In 2011, she received a Presidential Citation for Outstanding Alumni from University of Delaware. She lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and sons. Maggie Leffler is currently at work on her third novel.

I felt in love with her debut novel - The Diagnosis of Love, published in 2007. Got it from the library and straight away I knew this is a gem as I flipped randomly through the books for snippets of what it has to offer.

Look pretty worn out - a good thing for a novel I must say.

Synopsis taken from Amazon:
This charming and accomplished novel chronicles a young doctor’s journey to heal her own heart–in a tale that will resonate with every woman who has ever tried to make a new start.

Dr. Holly Campbell is trying to outrun the symptoms of her life: her grief over her mother’s recent death, her chronic missteps at love, and, most of all, the doubts she’s had about her career since she started resenting her patients for being sick. So answering an ad for a residency program in rural England seems like the perfect escape.

By leaving home, Holly is following in her mother’s footsteps. But while her mother fled to medical school on Grenada, Holly has come to an odd little English hospital–where fate intervenes. For Holly no sooner learns that practicing medicine in England is like driving on the wrong side of the road than her twin brother’s runaway fiancée shows up on her doorstep, her grade-school crush turns up in her dormitory, and her mother’s old lover appears at lunch. How can Holly cure their ailments if she can’t even diagnose her own? Filled with the heartbreaking and healing powers of love, The Diagnosis of Love is the witty, warm, perceptive tale of a young doctor colliding with the past–and choosing her own future.

It looks like something that will make me tear - a real sobbing story of a young practitioner trying to search for her aim in life. It did make me tear once. I remembered once I was trying hard now to let a hot tear fall out of my eyes though to be honest I can't quite remember what make me so touched.

Thankfully there are more witty episodes in the book than heartbreaking ones! The lead in the book - Holly Campbell is so funny that every now and then I wish I can scan and upload the book on Facebook so that I can share this jewel of a book with my friends online! Good thing I did not do that, it will most likely put me on the wrong side of the law.

Here's an extract that I love:

"That's what they're called here," Ed said, and then nods. "A neighbor left a message that firemen were shooting his home with water."
 "Was it on fire?" I asked, horrified.
"No. They just...felt like practicing,"Ed says slowly...

And that's where I lost it.

It's the clever humor of Maggie that kept me enthralled.

Oh, and look what I found in the acknowledgement page:

"Who made every sky seem like something worth fishing"

How can she make it sound more magical? The way she played with words is almost a gift. I would had awarded her a Nobel if it is ever up to me.

Another thing I like about the book is the various medical quotes at the beginning of each chapter. It looks something like this:

Whether this is the work of the publisher or the author is unclear to me, but whoever that did this...KUDOS to you!

More often that not, these quotes are applicable in not just the surgical theater but life itself. Many of them send me deep in thought, which is a good thing cause I seldom like to work my brain lest the slightest movement cause it to be fried.

Verdict: 5/5
Go get it! What are you waiting for?

P.S. I am off to get her second book "The Goodbye Cousins" which came out in 2009. I am four years too late!

[Book Review] The Truth About You by Melissa Hill

Borrowed this book on a whim and never had I been more grateful for my impulse acting up.

This is the synopsis I've taken from "GoodReads.com":
One morning in the small town of Lakeview, Ella Harris finds a cardboard box on the doorstop of her cafe. At first she thinks it's her usual muffin delivery but is shocked to find that the box actually contains a newborn baby. But what kind of mother would abandon a defenceless baby like that, and why? Could it have been newly single Nina who, after being rejected by the father of her unborn child, has no choice but to return to Lakeview to stay with her estranged (and slightly peculiar) dad? Or was it Lakeview-born Hollywood actress Eva Seymour, who on the eve of her triumphant return home from LA, has a completely ill-advised fling with a handsome co-star. A baby is certain to ruin her hard-fought-for career. Or perhaps it's happily married Jess who, as the only non-mum amongst her friends, finds herself increasingly left out. Terrified that she will lose them altogether, she embarks on becoming a mother too. But is she really rushing into something she really knows nothing about?

I must admit. Doesn't sounds like much of a story when I first read the synopsis. It seems like there would be 3 different stories and many good authors are unable to weave the stories in a way that wouldn't confuse their readers. There's a nagging voice inside of me however, telling me to give this book a chance and that I will never regret it.

And I didn't!

Melissa Hill simply knocked the socks of me! It's been a week since I returned this book to the library and almost a month since I've borrowed it and the feeling of an exhilarating and satisfying read never left me!

There's so many twist and turns and I can still remember vividly : "I had the same suspicions! I though Jess was lying about the pregnancy all along!"

One thing I love about Melissa is that she didn't use bed scenes to attract readers, making the novel suitable for ages 12 onwards in my opinion. I detest novels with tons of bed scenes that often makes me doubt whether I am reading adult explicit novels or otherwise. Granted I am way overdue the minimum age to read adult explicit novels but that doesn't mean I would want to run into everywhere I go! It's books like <Fifty Shades of Grey> that makes me skip library for about 2 years when I used to borrow 20 books every week.

Melissa Hill  however is a master who led her readers on a rollercoaster ride skillfully with her writing and I can't act like some clever snob and said, " I knew this would be the ending!" or "I knew this all along!". Like a slave, I am helpless to her cunning use of words. There are many twist and turns in this novel and there's simply NO TIME to put down the book. I CAN'T. There's just no way to sleep peacefully until I finish the 412 pages, in one go.

Melissa you this CLEVER BITCH.

Photo taken from her official website : http://www.melissahill.ie/#

To Melissa:
I am simply going to hunt down the rest of your books now, especially <SOMETHING FROM TIFFANY'S>. And you better start writing more, 11 books just ain't enough!