Hide yo kids and hide yo wives ‘cause Kelly (and the Book Boar) is posting not one but TWO Five Star reviews today! Which leads to the question – whatHide yo kids and hide yo wives ‘cause Kelly (and the Book Boar) is posting not one but TWO Five Star reviews today! Which leads to the question – what makes a five star read for you? For me the perfect rating is purely a result of my enjoyment. Trashy romances, chick lit, thrillers, highbrow literature can all earn the coveted full monty if I feel a connection. And a connection to an often unlikeable character who I have very little in common with? Well, that’s like spotting a unicorn.
All This Could Be Different features a twenty-two year old unnamed until the second portion of the book main character who has recently graduated from college and relocated to Milwaukee for a job as an entry level project consultant at a Fortune 500 company. This new job affords Sneha the luxury of being able to send money to her parents as well as recruit a fellow college pal into the company. The story follows our lead while she tries to navigate her way through “adulting” for the first time, while also living with constant reminders of her father’s deportation and trauma from her past – both while things are going well and when her newly formed world begins to fall apart.
As I said above, I didn’t have much in common with this group of characters, but boy oh boy did I find myself invested in their lives. This one won’t be for everyone, but if you give it a go I hope you have the same result as me . . .
The meaning of refrain is split. Doubled. To refrain means to stop, to hold yourself back from something, keep yourself in check. But a refrain also points us to repetition. A song’s refrain, constantly returned to. What is the thing that is remembered because it is constantly returned to? think of the ballerina on a child’s jewelry box. The refrains of our lives are the moments we revolve around, maybe the moments that were stopped too soon, stopped before we were ready, and so we are frozen, pirouetting in time, always thinking on the possibility that might have been. If only. If only....more
So I wrongread Meant to Be by this author and despite having already read her once I received multiple comments telling me to give her another chance.So I wrongread Meant to Be by this author and despite having already read her once I received multiple comments telling me to give her another chance. Careful what y’all superfans wish for. This one was sitting on the first come/first served shelf when I walked into the library so I figured what the heck. I don’t know if this author just isn’t for me or if romance books in general just aren’t my thing anymore, but yeah I didn’t love it . . .
I’m all for the one-night-stand who turns out to be someone you will have to work with on the daily trope, but I HATE failure to communicate. And yes I’m well aware that’s going to be a theme at the end of 99.99999% of romances, but it still grates. This featured not one but two characters who could not have an adult conversation. From coming clean regarding the feels surrounding the family business and expectations regarding the potential relationship from her to not disclosing the facts regarding current employment and relationship status to the parents from him these two simply weren’t ready for anything other than a quick bang session as far as I’m concerned. And that’s before we even got into the “age gap” issue – where somehow him being in his late 20s (while she’s only 34) is some monumental problem with apparently all 20-somethings simply being f*^%boyzzzzzzz? Nah, son. If this would have been given a good edit and condensed down to around the 250 page mark it may have ended up with a bit higher rating from me, but beating the dead horse regarding all of my aforementioned gripes and grievances for another 150 pages left me exhausted....more
“For fans of Riley Sager with a classic slasher twist comes a chilling thriller following a former horror movie actress who returns to the set of “For fans of Riley Sager with a classic slasher twist comes a chilling thriller following a former horror movie actress who returns to the set of her most famous film…and is soon entangled in a series of terrifying events that resemble the plot of that one cursed movie.”
And this is why I don’t read blurbs. There’s been nothing but Halloween Part 20,000 commercials on my television for the past dang six weeks so I was all in for a “final girl” type of read. The synopsis led me to believe this was going to be a potential Scream 3 situation with real life stabby shenanigans taking place on the set of a horror movie sequel – and during a hurricane to add in some I Still Know What You Did Last Summer vibes to the mix. So meta. What I got instead was a one-way ticket to Dullsville and a day of wasted reading since I don’t know how to do a DNF. Your mileage may very well vary, but I experienced zero chills, zero thrills and almost zero body count (which I knew was going to be a problem right away when the supposed movie was pretty much in theory only with no extras at the ready to whack).
Leah is a submariner who was sent on a routine mission that went wrong. What was supposed to be a short stay ended up with a vessel that lost power anLeah is a submariner who was sent on a routine mission that went wrong. What was supposed to be a short stay ended up with a vessel that lost power and no answers from those in charge of when she would return. Now she’s back . . . but she’s different.
Our Wives Under the Sea had some blast from the past feelings to it . . .
And unfortunately I think I was simply not smart enough to pick up all that was being put down. Was it a metaphor of growing apart in a relationship? Or losing someone to a terminal illness? Or was it a straight up horror just with REALLY good writing?
I think different readers will take away different reactions and much deeper ones than simply did or did not like it. I found myself more invested in Leah’s narrative than Mira’s - I mean come on, not only was she the one who had to go down to the pits of hell of the ocean and then came back changed (assuming you read it like me and didn’t look too much into the potential hidden meaning), but it’s October and I wanted to get creeped out so the sense of impending doom served me well.
The author was wise to keep this one brief so the on-edge anticipation of something bad to come never really went away and as I said before the writing was way above par. 3.5 Stars for me possibly being an ignoramus and not truly “getting it,” but props up for an unusual tale in a sea of a lot of copycats....more
Synopsis: Mallory gets hired as a nanny for darling Damian Teddy, but his doodles go from cute to disturbing in 3.BEWARE THERE’S A REAL SPOILER BELOW.
Synopsis: Mallory gets hired as a nanny for darling Damian Teddy, but his doodles go from cute to disturbing in 3.2 nanoseconds.
Y’all bullshittin’ me with this rating right???? Right? I mean it’s Halloween time and I’m A-okay with just tryin’ to get my get my get my get my creep on, but this one . . . .
I mean right from the jump that these apparently overprotective parents would be looking at the closest halfway house for a new nanny was laughable, but then when the big reveal comes WHY IN THE HELL WOULD THEY EVEN HIRE A NANNY AT ALL?!?!?!?! Like that secret wouldn’t come out with an oversharing five year old.
I’m wasting zero of my time on this. The cover was great, the pictures were great, I can suspend my disbelief with the best of 'em when it comes to horror and whodunnits, and I am one who reads A LOT of disturbing content so I truly appreciate when authors push the envelope, but nope. You ain’t using gender as the big twist. That’s not a trope – that’s offensive. ...more
Per usual I didn’t read a blurb or any reviews before requesting this from the library. The title was good enough for me and the cover made me think iPer usual I didn’t read a blurb or any reviews before requesting this from the library. The title was good enough for me and the cover made me think it was going to be a horror story. I was wrong, but that’s okay because I like a whodunit even more so than the scary stuff.
The story here is about soon-to-be-parents Saffy and Tom who are trying to get their fixer upper up and fixed prior to the birth of their baby. All construction gets put on hold, however, when a couple of dead bodies are dug up in the garden . . . .
Okay now that I’m finished with this I am completely boggled by the 4.18 rating. The only thing I can say about The Couple At Number 9 is . . . .
Talk about Dullsville. And oh my word could it get any more predictable???? Even more than I’m not a blurb reader I’m not an author’s note reader. I accidentally swiped past the last page of the story and saw this was yet another Covid creation. The more I read these lockdown books the more I think authors should have maybe just drank heavily and binged all of the prior Housewives and 90 Day Universe episodes like I did rather than attempting to pen new books. ...more
I don’t know about you, but every time I see a trailer for an upcoming film release I immediately come to Goodreads to check if it was originally a boI don’t know about you, but every time I see a trailer for an upcoming film release I immediately come to Goodreads to check if it was originally a book. Thus was the case with . . .
Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline???? Be still my old Boomer heart!
I snatched a hard copy up from the library post haste and prepared myself for a Hallmark sort of time. And this was sorta Hallmarky with a bit of a later in life/second chance at romance storyline, but no one was more shocked than me that there was so much more to chew on here than I had suspected.
Hildy has been the leading real estate agent in her neck of the woods for quite some time, but the market is flailing and she runs the risk of potentially losing her mortgaged-to-the-hilt house if things don’t pick up soon. It doesn’t help that she’s still paying alimony to her ex-husband as well as pretty much supporting one of her adult daughters. Oh and speaking of, what a fine payback those girls gave to Hildy after she’s been nothing but a pillar of society their entire life . . . AN INTERVENTION???? As I said, blurbs/movie previews are deceiving on The Good House and this is the story of not only Hildy, but also her interactions with pretty much the entire community of Wendover, Massachusetts. I simply gobbled it up. If you are a fan of “chick lit” then cluck cluck kids ‘cause this is one that should not be missed.
I’m giving it all the Stars. What a pleasant surprise this reading experience turned out to be –especially when I went in with very few expectations....more
I blamed my robot heart for not feeling all of the feels along with everyone else who read Summers’ last release Sadie, but made sure I was first in lI blamed my robot heart for not feeling all of the feels along with everyone else who read Summers’ last release Sadie, but made sure I was first in line for this one (despite that awful cover) to attempt some sort of redemption arc on my own behalf. Worked out great too because I really dug this one!
I took a sneaky peak at the blurb after checking this one out from the library and was a little concerned to see it was supposed to be about a couple of teenage girls solving the case of who raped and murdered the sister of one of them. Good news if you’re like me and don’t always love an amateur sleuthing show, these gals did not channel their inner Nancy Drew. Really, this book could have been dubbed . . . .
There weren’t a lot of surprises when it came to the whodunit, but the story itself was pretty fascinating for me and kept me invested the entire time. ...more
It has been a couple of years since I’ve picked up an “end of the world as we know it” type of story. You know, because of REASONS. You kno
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It has been a couple of years since I’ve picked up an “end of the world as we know it” type of story. You know, because of REASONS. You know that house cover was screaming my name from the new and notable shelf and eventually I couldn’t avoid its siren song.
The story here is about a solar flare or some crap - I’m telling you those first few pages were ….
The leading characters are siblings Thom and Aubrey. Thom is a gajillionaire who predicted this catastrophe and has all the resources in the world to get his family to a bunker. Aubrey doesn’t have a pot to piss in, but she’s got gumption and some common sense.
There was certainly room for character development here as you barely brush the surface of both Thom and Aubrey and hardly even get a glimpse of all of the others. That being said, the little I got to know about Aubrey I liked and Thom wasn’t meant to be likeable in the first place. The “supply chain” issues, however, did grate. We live in a country that literally has not been able to get its shit together in major metropolitan cities with water crises but somehow in the apocalypse that’s a system that doesn’t collapse??? And no one boils anything? Just continues to be A-okay coming straight out the tap???? Not to mention pharmacies still are open and there wasn’t an immediate run on dope. LMFAO - okurrrrrrrr. Again we live in a place that has to lock up Sudafed all the time and a-holes take every opportunity to loot - but sure that sounds super legit.
So it’s not realistic (even for a dumbbell who is allergic to science like me), but it is real readable. 3.5 Stars.
Things start off with a bang. Rich dude is found hanging from the balcony (Google the Rebecca Zahau casDang. I am sooooo torn on how to rate this one!
Things start off with a bang. Rich dude is found hanging from the balcony (Google the Rebecca Zahau case – the author totally pulled a ripped from the headlines on this one). At first it looks like your run of the mill suicide, but then evidence is discovered on scene that may point a finger at a woman named Victoria Ford – who will die in one of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Fast forward twenty years to new technology that can take the smallest piece of human remains and pull enough DNA to identify its owner. Journalist Avery Mason is trying to get tenure as the host of American Events and has been assigned the DNA story. But things get a whole lot better for ratings when she finds out the DNA came from the aforementioned suspected murderer and there's a sister still living who insists Victoria was not the culprit.
Just STFU up with that comparison. This ain’t it. And that’s coming from someone who actually enjoyed Verity (I think mainly because it was so different from the sappy, tropey, angsty NA stuff Hoover is best known for).
When I started reading this one I really got a smack in the face about the quality of thrillers I tend to pick up. I mean I am seriously a dumb bunny and there’s not a whole lotta depth in my choices. Twenty Years Later had sooooooo much good stuff – tons of characters in different places doing different things that eventually will all connect but you don’t know how. The dialogue was great. The science was science, but not too science-y (remember me = dumb bunny). I mean it was awesome. But then things started to wrap up and I realized that Charlie Donlea had really pulled the ol’ okie doke on me. Talk about suspending all disbelief! Part of me wants to give it 1 Star because I’m a spiteful heifer, but it was such a page turner I’m giving it 4.
Boy, the knuckledraggers didn’t even have to put any effort into finding this one. Sonora Reyes did all the work for them with this title!
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Boy, the knuckledraggers didn’t even have to put any effort into finding this one. Sonora Reyes did all the work for them with this title!
I read this last week for Banned Books Week and of course failed to review it on time because that is what I do. The story here is about Yami – a teen who, along with her brother, has transferred to a private Catholic school after being outed and ostracized by her former best friend and due to her brother’s inability to stay out of trouble. Her goals for the new year are simple . . . .
1. Find a new best friend. 2. Don’t be gay about it.
Throughout the course of the book you learn about why Yami’s brother was having issues, meet her parents – neither of which are approving of homosexuality and one who was deported, and experience first love. Also included are some helpful doses of facts . . . .
If I’m “living a lie,” then so is every straight person who’s never “come out” to every single person in their life about their sexuality. I shouldn’t have to talk about it if I don’t want to.
Aside from being “too gay” – there’s zero reason why this book would ever be an issue to the crazies. It’s a typical young adult type of story that would easily translate over to Netflix like the trillions of other teenage romance books that have been converted to film in the past. A little meatier dealing with the homophobia aspect, but all in all a feel good type of coming of age story. I’ve stepped back from my YA reading in the past few years and find my complaints to be those of a grown-up that might not even bother the targeted audience. I was interested in knowing more about the mother and father’s relationship – how he got deported – how they managed to maintain a family while being so far removed – etc., but this was Yami’s story and not the parents so that’s my issue and not the book’s. I have plenty of other complaints regarding the mother, but I prefer to leave my reviews spoiler free so I’ll just leave it with she need a good shaking for more than one reason. The characters could have used a lot more dimension, the story was nothing super new and I’m fairly certain real life situations like these wouldn’t get tied up with a big bright bow at the end, but again I’m not a kid so what does my old Boomer ass know?
Now a longlister for The National Book Award. ...more
Things are changing, though, with rate hikes and eviction notices popping up on various doors as gentrification makes its way through this Harlem neighborhood. In a collection of eight interconnected vignettes you’ll meet some of the residents – including single mom Mimi, her son’s daddy Swan, his momma Ms. Dallas and others as they interact and are simply . . .
I’ve said many times before that I’m not real great at short stories, but I’ve determined composite novels or short story cycles are an entirely different experience for me and I really dig ‘em. I have no recollection of how this collection came to be added to my TBR, but I’m glad I didn’t miss out. This sucker was brutally realistic. You won’t like all of the characters – heck there’s a good chance you wont’ like any of them, but flaws and all they are people you won’t soon forget. If you can take a book that feel like a punch right in the gut, I highly recommend this one.
Once again this was a blind item for me. No reading of reviews or blurbs – just Tiffany D. Jackson so yep I’ll read it. Imagine my surprise when I disOnce again this was a blind item for me. No reading of reviews or blurbs – just Tiffany D. Jackson so yep I’ll read it. Imagine my surprise when I discovered this was a Carrie retelling only without the . . . .
I’m not going to spend a lot of time breaking this one down (because at the end of the day it did follow along the Carrie storyline pretty accurately – only with a racial twist). My only real complaint is that not enough time was spent in Maddie’s head where all of the interesting stuff was developing. Oh, and also, can these unnecessary podcast inserts stop being a thing yet? They added zilch to the story.
The Last Housewife is the story of Shay who has just heard the news that she has lost a second friend from college to suicide. Shay is convinced that something is rotten in Denmark and another college pal Jamie feels the same so they decide to do some poking around.
My reaction to this one???? Hmmmmmmm. Once again here’s a narrative that relies on podcast recordings to complete the story. At this point I’m pretty sure I’m not a fan of that device (but to be honest I’m not always real keen on the wibbly wobbly timeline period). The positive this time around is that at least the podcast host had a journalism background which made the investigation a big more legit and a bit less “Nancy Drew” with the two just magically scoring interviews, etc. That being said, the idea that these two (Shay in particular) could just imbed themselves into these sex club scenarios with nary a question asked (or without being recognized by any of the players) was waaaaaay farfetched. I also had the issue of the “ripped from the headlines” feeling the same I had with All Good People Here. Not only was the branding of the sex cult members taken straight out of the Nxivm playbook, but a literal shout-out by name was given near the end of the book. Do authors just assume we readers live in caves with no access to any true crime programming from the past billion years?????
I’m giving this 2 Stars strictly for the page turnability factor....more
No, wait, that’s not right. This is the story of a billionaire (Robbie), a failed author (Wade), an artist turned stay-at-home mom (Blair) and a daytime television talk show producer (Cat) who gather together for one last hurrah on Fenwick Island at Robbie’s request in order for him to tell them all he is dying of pancreatic cancer. Robbie also has intentions of turning all their lives around . . . . but life doesn’t always go according to plans.
At least once a year I grab a book with a synopsis of friends gathering with the hopes that the story will be reminiscent of one of my all-time favorites . . . .
Nearly 100% of the time they are not, I am disappointed, and then I repeat the cycle in a few months. While I’m sure others would be able to make valid arguments of where this story was lacking, I simply cannot or will not. It made me feel everything I was hoping to feel. I wanted to be friends with these people. It made me laugh, it made me cry . . . well, okay I’m still more than a bit robotic and since I knew immediately Robbie was dying I was able to suck the sad right back into my black heart where it belongs . . . but still it made me feel. Nostalgic most of all and that right there, my friends, is worthy of 5 Stars all on its own....more
^^^That right there when paired with this book will probably get me on some FBI watch list, but I’m telling you – WORTH IT! Oh dis was guuuuuuuud.
The Forrester-Quinns are the epitome of white privilege. The top 1% of the one percenters. Even when youngest son Billy is accused of acquaintance rape they don’t feel they have much to fear. After all, they have the money to hire the best of the best and who would ever believe his nutty on-again/off-again girlfriend in this he said she said matter?
I started reading When We Were Bright and Beautiful early Sunday morning before the rest of the family got up. Then I pretty much ignored them when they did finally come zombie-walking down the stairs because I was so caught up. Not only was this an excellent courtroom drama, but it delivered in all of the ways I found My Dark Vanessa to be lacking. If you can enjoy a book with dark subject matter, this one is not to be missed. All the Stars. ...more
I’m showing my age tonight but I remember in the 90s three or four hikers went missing there. All of them young women. It was national news for aboI’m showing my age tonight but I remember in the 90s three or four hikers went missing there. All of them young women. It was national news for about a month and then everyone forgot about it, sort of like that Malaysian airplane that vanished into thin air a couple years back. People got pretty obsessive about it. Had all kinds of crackpot theories. Serial killers. Alien abductions. Lesbian witches. But mostly it just made people cancel their travel plans. One bad summer is all it takes to dislodge a seasonal destination like that.
It’s down to the final four on this season’s The Catch and you know what that means? DESTINATION DATE TIME! Follow along as the ladies vie for the attention of eligible bachelor (and scuzzoid) Jeremy.
This was a fun little palate cleanser that would probably work a lot better for fans of the Bachelor/Bachelorette franchises than it did for me. I wanted less of the T.V. show content and more of the decapitating of the participants. As for Patricia, however? You go girl!
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