The Stormchasers by Jenna Blum

This was a delightful read. Karena and Charles are twins who follow diverging paths, yet are linked by an uncanny second sense and a love with bonds that are unshakable if rather fragile at times. Karena follows the path of a relative normality with speed bumps along the way, but a stable and fulfilling career are hers while Charles her handsome bipolar twin struggles with a condition that he finds hard to accept and harder still to treat,a Stormchaser by nature, he makes it his life and manages to avoid contact with Karena for many years until unforeseen circumstances and a phone call set Karena of on his tail with a band of professional Stormchasers.
Blum weaves her tale with a warmth and reality and a use of words that sprinkle a kind of magic over the story, she knows her topic and paints a picture that is so vivid you can feel the winds howling, calling, twisting and enveloping you.The realism of her characters is a delight and adds such vitality to the story, you find yourself wrapped in them and you can`t stop reading because you want to go along on their journey.
A love story with twists and turns, winding roads and an unforgettable ending. This is Jessica Blum's second novel,I have her first on the way, I would recommend that you pick up a copy, especially down here in NZ it will make a great read on a wintry weekend! I would love to go on a Stormchase myself and I think you'll want to after reading this.

the girls by Lori Lansens

The story of conjoined twins Ruby and Rose Darlen this book takes of like a rocket and never really stops as you journey through two rather amazing lives. They spend their whole lives together in a small town. They grow, they hurt, they love, they hate, they have adventures, a pregnancy, death, loss, laughter, a great intelligence and a love of life that although splintered and fragmented in places leaves you reeling.
This book opens your eyes wide to the pain and the finger pointing that difference brings yet you are never left with a feeling of bitterness, and you want to shout and holler at their success's and cry over the failures and the some what cruel hand that fate deals them, their sense of humour is magnificent and rather wicked, lots of laugh out loud moments.
Lori Lansens paints her characters in vivid shades of prose, sparser for some than others, but never less than colourful and with a very rare depth and empathy for what really makes people tick, the way life plays out and how the media often informs our lives in unexpected ways, how it shapes our interests and often takes a very simple like or dislike and makes it life changing.
In even her most difficult and hard to like characters a humanity peeks through often in the most unlikely ways.It is never more true than in this book that wisdom is a wonderful gift and when you turn the last page you know that really love wins out in the end.