Two Books by June Ahern

The Skye in June

Genre: Adult, Paranormal

Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This was an excellent story. This book brings out just about every emotion you have. Cathy Jimmy and their five girls move to San Francisco after Cathy has another miscarriage and almost dies. Right from the very beginning I didn’t like Jimmy. He came across as selfish and disrespectful. I saw this in the hospital where Cathy was having her seventh child, another girl. The doctor wanted her to stay longer because she had a rough delivery and Jimmy didn’t care. He told her that her place was at home that the kids needed her there. 

I felt like I was in Scotland feeling the tension between the Protestants and the Catholics. The father was very involved in his Catholicism, but I’m not sure the church would have considered him a good Catholic.

You could tell there was tension in the family from the beginning of the book.  It was raised a notch when Cathy names this daughter June going against the wishes of naming her after a saint like she did with all of her other daughters.

June is special. She seems to know things ahead of time. She always knew when Helen was sick..  She also was the one who alerted the adults to Helen's inability to breath.

Once they move to America June is branded as being different.  This causes all kinds of problems with her father.  I thought her father was mean and cruel when he was in Scotland.  Once he got to America I really detested him. He became no longer verbally abusive, but physically abusive to all of the girls.  They all grew to hate him. It was obvious when you heard them talking about how to kill him. 

June doesn’t fit in with the Catholic faith and gets kicked out of the Catholic school.  When she accidentally catches her robe on fire and is severely burned her father has her locked in the psych ward.  Want to know how this affected the family?  Will Cathy finally stand up to her husband?  You must read this book to find out.

City of Redemption
Genre: Adult, Contemporary
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Once again the author has written a story that starts in Scotland and ends in San Francisco.  Liz married at an early age and had a son named Patrick.  She loved to shop, even though her husband had asked her to stop spending so much money.  One day her husband makes her promise she won't go out. She breaks her promise and takes her son shopping. They rush to get home before her husband.  When her son claims he's hungry she sends him to the corner market and rushes to her apartment to hide her purchases.  Her son never returns.  She tells one lie after another which slows down the hunt for her son.

The story switches and Liz in in an American prison.  She had gotten herself mixed up with drugs, the Black Panthers and several other things she should not have gotten herself mixed up in.  This story goes back and forth between the two events.

Unlike the author's other book I reviewed, I had a difficult time getting into this one.  I didn't care for the sexual content and just felt it was a lot more disjointed for me as a reader.  I will say that there is a lot of historical information about that time period that was very accurate.  The author is very good at making you feel like you are where the author is.  This just wasn't a book for me.  I know there re many out there who would like it so I would recommend you try it out.