The Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron

A special thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada and Doubleday Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Being a Canadian, I always like to read and review Canadian authors.  I read Cameron's The Bear for a book club selection, I didn't love it, but I was eager to give her another chance.  

An interesting premise—Cameron juxtaposes the last Neanderthal family against a parallel modern-day storyline.  Initially I was unsure, Neanderthals?  After finishing The Last Neanderthal, I'm glad that I requested something that normally I wouldn't be attracted to.  

40,000 years in the past, the last Neanderthals are fighting for survival after a hard-fought winter.  Their numbers are low, but Girl is coming of age and her family are determined to make the trek to the annual meeting place in hopes of securing her a mate to carry on their species.  The small family's existence is further threatened by the elements and nature and Girl is left to care for Runt, a small foundling of unknown descent.  Once again, Girl and Runt must face the winter and risk their survival.

In modern-day France, we meet archaeologist Rosamund Gale who has just learned that she is pregnant and worried about the repercussions of having a baby.  The site that Rose is working at contains the remains of a female Neanderthal that appears to be embracing a Homo Sapiens male—were they lovers?  This startling discovery has scientists reevaluating what they believed were our origins.  With a race against impending motherhood, Rose does not want to give up her work after making incredible strides in a male-dominated field of study.  She often has to defend her position simply because she is a woman.  Rose begins to feel an incredible amount of pressure as the project in jeopardy of losing funding, and she has just learned that she is the sole bread winner after her partner Simon loses his teaching position.  

Rose and Girl are linked through time by their pregnancies and experiences of what it means to be a woman, a mother, and to survive.

Primal, raw, and unique, this was an interesting read.

Everybody's Son: A Novel by Thrity Umrigar

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Harper for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thrity Umrigar is a beautiful writer who capitalizes on human emotion in her latest novel about two families that couldn't be more different.

During a terrible heatwave in 1991, ten-year-old Anton has been locked in his mother's apartment in the projects.  After being by himself for seven days without any air-conditioning, or fan, with the windows nailed shut, and no electricity, Anton breaks a window and climbs out.  He is bleeding from a wound in his leg when the police find him.  All-the-while, his mother, Juanita is discovered unconscious and half-naked in a crack house less than three blocks away.  When she comes to, she immediately asks for her "baby boy" insisting she only left for a quick hit, but that her drug dealer kept her high while repeatedly raping her.  Anton is placed with child services when his mother is sent to jail.

David Coleman is the son of a US senator and a white Harvard-educated judge.  After the death of his only high-school-aged son, Coleman is desperate for a home with a child again.  David and his wife, Delores, foster Anton and quickly grow attached to the bright boy.  Despite Anton's mother's existence, Coleman uses his power, connections, and white privilege to keep his foster son.

Anton follows in his adoptive father's footsteps and seems to have a knack for politics that is complimented by his charm. On the cusp of greatness, Anton learns the truth about his mother and the lengths Coleman went to to keep him as his very own.  He begins to question who he really is—he is nobody's son, yet everybody's son.

Umrigar explores class, race, power, privilege, and morals in this emotional heart-wrenching story that will stay with the reader long after it is finished.

Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

A special thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Strout is simply a gift. Her writing is breathtaking, gorgeous, and heartbreaking. Written in tandem with My Name Is Lucy Barton, Strout draws on the small-town characters that Lucy and her mother talked about—we are given insight into their lives and learn how their stories are woven together in this work of fiction that reads more like a novel than a compilation of stories.

In My Name Is Lucy Barton, the work speaks to the reader on a different level in that it was more about the nuances and what was left unsaid. This book is more character driven, examining the human condition, stories of love, loss, and hope.

In a word, brilliant!

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ELIZABETH STROUT is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge; the #1 New York Times bestseller My Name Is Lucy Barton; The Burgess Boys, and New York Times bestsellers; Anything is Possible and Abide with Me. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in England. Her short stories have been published in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker and O: The Oprah Magazine.

Strout lives in New York City.

The Breakdown by B. A. Paris

After reading Paris' debut Behind Closed Doors, I couldn't wait to get my hands on The Breakdown. A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Driving home in the rain, Cass decides to take a shortcut through the woods against her husband Matthew's wishes that she stick to the main roads. She is surprised to see another car on the road in such poor weather. She pulls in front of the car, but is too scared to get out thinking this may be a trap set to entice her out of her own vehicle. When the female driver does not approach, Cass figures help is on the way and drives off.

The next day, Cass hears on the news that the driver she passed was murdered. She is incredibly distraught and guilt-ridden thinking she could've done something. The guilt begins to eat away at her, especially after she learns the identity of the woman, and she was someone that Cass recently met. Her emotional state is smothering. On top of this, she is growing increasingly paranoid and forgetful—she is certain that she is suffering from early onset dementia, the same condition that her mother had—and therefore is not credible. She is convinced the murderer knows her identity and is responsible for the silent phone calls she has been receiving. But with her family history of dementia, and her mental state, who is going to believe her?

Paris brings nothing new to the realm of the suspense/thriller genre, in fact, there was nothing really that was overly shocking by way of plot twists, and Cass' inner dialogue was often repetitive. So why read this book? It is a page-turner and hooks you plain and simple. The novel is perfectly timed and flawlessly executed. Given the main character's paranoia and hysteria, the denouement could have been obvious and trite, but it wasn't because of the way she developed her unreliable narrator—this was the perfect angle from which to tell the story.

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B. A. PARIS is the internationally bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors. She has worked both in finance and as a teacher and has five daughters.

Paris grew up in England, but has spend most of her adult life in France.