Review: Before We Were Yours

Title Before We Were Yours
By Lisa Wingate
Genre Adult Fiction
Format Audiobook
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong. (From Goodreads)

First Sentence

I take a breath, scoot to the edge of the seat, and straighten my jacket as the limo rolls to a stop on the boiling-hot asphalt.

I put the Goodreads synopsis on my review so you could see why I thought I was getting something completely different when I started this book. 

I expected it to feel like a historical fiction where you feel slightly distanced from the characters and like you might be tested on facts later. What I got was a rich and vivid look into the lives of a fictional family whose life was ripped apart by a real historical event. 

I guess what I'm saying is it read much more like a southern family drama than a historical fiction. Which, for me, was a good thing. I was riveted by page one and was wholly invested in the characters the whole way through. 

Great writing, gripping plot, memorable characters...what more can I say? I really liked it. My only beef with the book was the convenient way no one would reveal secrets that kept the plot moving. Not my favorite plot device. But don't let that deter you. This one is worth the read.     

Review: The Orphan Keeper

Title The Orphan Keeper
By Camron Wright
Genre Adult Fiction
Format Print
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Kidnapped as a young boy and thrown in an orphanage, Chellamutha tries to explain he's not an orphan but no one will listen. Adopted by a family in America he slowly adjusts to his new life. Years later memories come back and won't leave him alone prodding him to return to India and search for the family he can barely remember.

First Sentence 
The City of Erode was like a thousand others that dotted the vast landscape of India.


Another book club book. Based on the true story this one tells the story of a young boy. From his days in India to his life in America and a journey back to India to find the family he's nearly forgotten.

I did not expect to like this one. It sounded OK but also very much like the story the movie Lion was based on. However, I ended up enjoying it. The writing wasn't my favorite but the story moved along quickly and before I knew it, I was flying through pages wanting to see how everything turned out.

While I flew through the pages, I wasn't too fond of the writing, some of the characters fell flat and the story often felt rushed. So in the end this was a three star read for me. I liked it but didn't love it. 

Review: The Woman In Cabin 10

Title The Woman In Cabin 10
By Ruth Ware
Genre Psychological Thriller, Mystery
Format Audiobook
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Lo Blacklock, a writer for a travel magazine, is going on the maiden voyage of the prestigious cruise ship the Aurora. With a recent break in at her home and her relationship with her boyfriend on the rocks Lo is finding her insomnia unbearable but lack of sleep or not she's sure of what she hears and sees one night on the cruise. A scream and a splash and something that looks like blood smeared on the balcony next to hers. Sure that something awful has happened to the woman in the cabin next to hers, Lo starts investigating but no one believes. As she starts to dig deeper the threats start coming but Lo can't give up on trying to find the woman in cabin 10.

First Sentence
The first inkling that something was wrong was waking in darkness to find the cat pawing at my face.

  This is my first Ruth Ware book and a friend of mine was horribly disappointed in it so I was reluctant to pick it up. But, as often happens, I needed an audiobook to listen to and it was available so here we are.

I actually ended up really liking the book. Mostly, I think, because the main character, while a bit naive, was likable: A rare thing in these psychological thrillers.

I also really liked the story. I wanted to know what was going on and who Lo could trust. The present day to past timeline added to the intensity as well.

I felt like I was reading an Agatha Christie book a little because you have this cast of characters isolated from the world and someone has gone missing. But where an Agatha Christie novel would have a investigator on board and everyone scared of everyone else this one was just a magazine writer against the whole company. No one else believed her and there was no record of anyone missing on board.

Anyway, it made for a fun read and I enjoyed it. I'm eager to try Ware's other books now.

Review: A Simple Favor

Title A Simple Favor
By Darcey Bell
Genre Adult Psychological Thriller
Format ebook
Rating ⭐️

Synopsis
Stephanie is delighted to have made a friend like Emily, She's elegant, sophisticated and seems to have it all with the perfect job and husband. So Stephanie is shocked when Emily goes missing. As the search begins for her friend, Stephanie will learn more than she bargained for about her, so called, best friend.

First Sentence
Hi moms!




I know it is no longer polite or politically correct to bash a book as bad as I'm about to but this book deserves it so get ready.

I first learned of this book because I saw a preview for the movie which looked silly but fun and I suspected it was based on a book. Of course it was, so I put the book on hold on Overdrive. Then I started seeing all the negative reviews of the book around and decided I wasn't going to read it. But I'd forgotten I put it on hold and it came in and well, I'm an idiot and glutton for punishment, apparently, because I decided to read it.

And what's worse is when it got stupider and stupider, I KEPT reading. Why?!

Most of these psychological thrillers have unlikable characters. Have you noticed? So the fact that this one was full of them was not a surprise or a deal breaker for me. What made me seethe with rage was the complete pointlessness of this one.

*Spoilers*

Emily claims she loves her son. Yeah. Right. Who would put their child through the trauma of making them believe you were dead? Really? I don't buy it. Plus she claims she wants to spend more time with him but runs away in hiding and becomes far more obsessed with her revenge and plans than with her son.  Then she shows herself to her son because, "She can't stay away" Therefore traumatizing him further because he thought she was dead then sees shes alive then when he tells people she's alive they call him a liar and suggest he needs therapy! Who does this to a six year old?!! Not someone that loves them!

Then, there's the whole insurance policy scam. That's why she pretended to be dead; to collect insurance money. When that starts to look like it won't pan out she goes nuts, kills the insurance agent, for no good reason that I could see, and then changes her story to get rid of her husband, get a divorce and lives happily with her son...but still spend all her time working so she STILL never sees her son. *face palm*

So basically she really doesn't know what she wants and accomplishes nothing but throwing her husband under the bus, allowing the only person she really loved to kill herself and traumatizing her son.

And then there's Stephanie. She was the stupidest character to walk the pages of a book since...Bella. I just didn't buy that she was that naive and malleable. Not when she had the secret she did and kept it all hush hush as well as she did...until she met Emily, that is.

*End of Spoilers*

The book was mess. There was no point and the characters were unbelievable and didn't act like actual people would. Not even psychotic people.

I was blown away that someone would read this monstrosity and think, "This would make a great movie". Just no.

However, I saw the movie (Glutton for punishment) and saw that someone obviously hated the book as much as I did but saw its potential and "fixed" it. I thought the movie was pretty stupid too but at least it had a point and ended much better then the book.

Which makes me wonder...why the hell didn't the author end the book like the movie? Did she actually think she'd written a great story here? Who the hell told her that? I'd be humiliated to have this story tied to my name in any shape or form. Yuck!

Review: Witches of East End

Title Witches of East End (The Beauchamp Family #1)
By Melissa de la cruz
Genre Adult Paranormal/Supernatural
Format Audiobook
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
The three Beauchamp women--Joanna and her daughters Freya and Ingrid--live in North Hampton, out on the tip of Long Island. For centuries, all three women have been forced to suppress their abilities. But then Freya, who is about to get married to the wealthy and mysterious Bran Gardiner, finds that her increasingly complicated romantic life makes it more difficult than ever to hide her secret. Soon Ingrid and Joanna confront similar dilemmas, and the Beauchamp women realize they can no longer conceal their true selves. (From Goodreads)

First Sentence

Freya Beauchamp swirled the champagne in her glass so that the bubbles at the top of the lip burst one by one until there were none left. 

This book has been sitting on my shelf forever! While looking for an audiobook to listen to while working, I decided to finally read it. 

It's so hard to review a book you give three stars to. Am I right? I feel like I'm saying I didn't like it and that's just not true. Three stars is a nice, solid, rating. No, I didn't LOVE the book and, no, it's not a new favorite but I liked it. It had a great story, fun, likable characters and was very readable. I enjoyed it and am eagerly looking forward to jump into the sequels. 

That said, I don't have much else to talk about. That's why I hate three star reviews. If you want me to point out why it's not four or five stars I can. Let's just go ahead and do that to take up a bit more space, shall we? 

It's not a five star because that's reserved for books I adore! Books that I'll definitely be reading again. It's not a four star read because there was nothing horribly memorable and I'm pretty sure it'll be one of those series I enjoy and then promptly forget about. I was also bothered a tiny bit by the writing. Notice that first sentence? It's just needlessly wordy. Right? 

And there you have it. my three star review of a fun new world and characters I want more of.   

Review: Baby Teeth

Title Baby Teeth
By Zoje Stage
Genre Adult, Fiction
Format Audio book
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Life was supposed to be good for Suzette now. She has her crohn's under control and is married to a wonderful man. Her seven year old daughter, Hannah, however, doesn't speak, has been kicked out of every school she was enrolled in and is growing increasingly more violent. In her father's eyes, Hannah is the perfect angel but Suzette is starting to feel like Hannah would prefer her out of the picture. Permanently.

First Sentence
Maybe the machine could see the words she never spoke.


I've been eyeing this one for a long time. For some reason I'm fascinated with stories of psychotic children. I think I was expecting a disturbing horror like book and while I found this one incredibly disturbing, I think the author was going for a more serious issue-y book???

I'm not sure. All I know is I couldn't put it down. I was disturbingly fascinated from the get go.

There were a lot of plot holes in this one. I highly doubt the father would be THAT blind to how psychotic his daughter was and there was no way Suzette wouldn't have thought to record her daughter's behavior. I feel like those things were left out just to keep the story going. So, yeah, like I said, holes.

Still, the book was a page turner and all in all I enjoyed it. It was very disturbing and I kept shaking my head and muttering, "what the hell is wrong with this kid" but I couldn't look away.

Review: Bring Me Back

Title Bring Me Back
By B.A. Paris
Genre Adult, Psychological Thriller, Suspense
Format Ebook
Rating ⭐️

Synopsis
Finn and Layla were in love and Finn was about ready to propose. On a road trip he stops at a rest station and leaves Layla sleeping in the car while he uses the restroom. When he comes back, Layla is gone. That's the story he tells the police, but it's not the whole truth. Years later Finn's grief and Layla's sister Ellen's grief have brought the two together. But when they get engaged everything starts falling apart. Item's from Ellen's childhood with Layla start to show up and an old neighbor claims to have seen Layla. Could Layla be back? What does she want? Is she seeking revenge?

First Sentence
We were on our way back from skiing in Megeve.



I really loved Paris' other two books, Behind Closed Doors and The Breakdown so I was eager for this one. However, instead of buying it I borrowed it from the library and, boy, am I glad I did. Spending a  single dime on this would have been as bad as spending all that time reading it.

I kept seeing disappointed reviews so I should have known but I still had my hopes up. This book was one big mess! It honestly felt like Paris grabbed an old rejected manuscript from ages ago and polished it up a bit and her publishers published it now that she's made a name for herself.

It was awful. The twist wasn't surprising at all and completely unbelievable, the characters were all flat and uninteresting and the plot was boring and repetitive and made me lose interest 50 pages in.

Please, please, please don't let this one deter you from her others, though, they were both very good. This one should have been left at the bottom of her rejected manuscripts pile.

Oh well. Every author  usually has a book or two that disappoints us. I intend to read anything else she publishes so it wasn't a complete loss.

Review: Moonlight Over Manhattan

Title Moonlight Over Manhattan
By Sarah Morgan
Genre Adult, Romance
Format Audiobook
Rating ⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Determined to conquer a lifetime of shyness, Harriet Knight challenges herself to do one thing a day in December that scares her, including celebrating Christmas without her family. But when dog walker Harriet meets her newest client, exuberant spaniel Madi, she adds an extra challenge to her list--dealing with Madi's temporary dog sitter, gruff doctor Ethan Black, and their very unexpected chemistry. (From Goodreads)

First Sentence

This wasn't how a date was supposed to end.

This one was recommended to me and it sounded rather cute so I decided to give it a read. 

And, well, it reminded me why I avoid romances. Now don't get me wrong, I like a good romance in a book but a ROMANCE book??? Not so much. And this book was the perfect example of WHY I don't like romance books. 

They start out really cute. Girl meets boy, sparks fly, silly yet seemingly insurmountable issue pops up and then, well, it becomes one big, fat, cheesy, cliche. 

There's just nothing new here. It's the same old story with the cute, naive girl and the handsome brooding guy. 

And even the steamy scenes were lukewarm at best. Sigh. I was just unimpressed. This isn't my genre though, so don't take my review too seriously. Other people love Morgan's books.  

Review: Our Souls at Night

Title Our Souls at Night
By Kent Haruf
Genre Adult, Fiction
Format Audio book
Rating ⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Empty-nesters and widow Addie and widower Louis have made an arrangement to spend the nights together and keep each other company. They talk about all sorts of things and it helps them sleep but in a small town people will talk.

First Sentence
And then there was the day when Addie Moore made a call on Louis Waters.  




First of all I can not read this title with out thinking of this Spongebob episode and adding the inflection.

IBurned My Hand Spongebob GIF from Iburnedmyhand GIFs

Now that you have the correct way to say the title down let's move on to the story.

This is a short story and a very sad one at that. We have two people who have reached their "twilight" years. Their spouses and children are gone and they're puttering about alone and lonely. So they decided to spend the nights together. Of course, in a small town people start talking and assuming there's some sort of love affair going on and take in upon themselves to judge the hell out of them.

Seriously! What the hell is wrong with us? Why do we feel the need to judge people? Argh! This book just made me mad and depressed.

If it only showing us how badly we judge then I might have accepted and liked it but there was no happy ending, no escape from the judging; the uptight, judgmental people won. I was just so sad.

Review: All We Ever Wanted

Title All We Ever Wanted
By Emily Giffin
Genre Adult Fiction Chick-lit
Format ebook
Rating ⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
A photo snapped in a drunken state at a party and four lives are changed forever. Nina can't believe her son would risk his privileged life and recent acceptance in to Princeton but things aren't looking good. Tom Volpe is trying his best as a single father but when a promiscuous photo of his daughter Lyla goes viral he'll do anything to protect her.


First Sentence
It started out as a typical Saturday night.


I was so excited for a new book from Giffin and even more excited when my hold for it came in sooner than expected. Sadly, I'm like ninety percent positive this wasn't written by Giffin. Maybe I'm wrong but the writing was off and the story was all over the place.

It starts out introducing a pretty popular issue and I was thinking, "Um, OK. I guess Giffin is going to give us her thoughts on the #MeToo movement. Should be interesting since this isn't her normal thing" but then, no, it kind of lost steam and turned into her usual chick-lit.

I was so confused! It kept me reading but I'm not sure if that's because it had her usual addictiveness style or if I just wanted to know what the heck was going on. And the writing was all off! It was all tell no show and I don't recall her previous books being that bad.

In the end, all I can say was this book was one hot mess. It was all over the place and I had no idea if that's what the author was going for or if she wasn't sure what she was going for either.

Super disappointed.

Review: Bird Box

Title Bird Box
By Josh Malerman
Genre Adult Suspense Thriller Horror
Format Audio book
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Malorie and her two small children need to make a perilous journey; rowing a boat on the river for twenty miles...completely blind. Five years ago something was unleashed on the world. When you see it you go mad and become violent and eventually kill yourself. Alternating between the past and the present, Bird Box tells the terrifying story of a horror you cannot see. 

First Sentence
Malorie stands in the kitchen, thinking.



A million thanks to Jen at BookDen for drawing this book to my attention. This book! Guys, this book! Just thinking about it makes me nauseated and tense all over again.

Can you even imagine a horror you cannot see? You know it's out there, you know if you see it you'll go mad and become violent and then kill yourself, and you don't know what it is. There's no way I would have been able to keep my eyes shut. I would have been too terrified of the unknown.

Add in a women, alone except for two four year-olds, rowing blind down a river being followed by something and you'd be as sick as I was.

This book was so freaking intense! And it wasn't just the intensity I loved. I felt for the characters and was rooting for them. The creepy characters were just the right amount of creepy and knowing that others were at their breaking point was almost too suspenseful.

Seriously! I think I'll be pushing this book on everyone I know.

With the current popularity of The Quiet Place which had a sort of similar feel, I don't know how people haven't read this one. It was much more intense for me. Being quiet is one thing but being stalked by something you can't look at; feeling it right beside you and. Not. Being. Able. To. Open. Your. Eyes. And. Look??? I just can't!

Read this book!!!! 

Review: The Undomestic Goddess

Title The Undomestic Goddess
By Sophie Kinsella
Genre Romance Chick-lit
Format ebook
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Samantha has worked hard her whole life to get where she's at: A high powered attorney at the most prestigious law firm in London. When she makes a horrible mistake that costs her company fifty million pounds she flees in a blind panic. Suddenly in a small town she's never heard of she get mistaken for a housekeeper applicant and decides to go with it. It's the perfect place to hide. But Samantha know's nothing about cleaning or cooking and some things you can't hide from forever.

First Sentence
Would you consider yourself stressed?

Another book club book. I might have picked this one up on my own, though. Kinsella is a hit or miss with me. I find her books hard to put down or at least intriguing enough to keep me turning pages but I usually find them a little too long and tedious and quite a bit too silly to be believable.

This one started off great. It was unbelievable but I was laughing along and enjoying the ride. The story was fun and brings up a lot of fun topics of discussion; that will be nice since it's a book club pick, but the silliness started to get too silly and it just went on for too long.

My biggest issue with this one was the MC. I didn't like Samantha's wishy-washy attitude. She kept going back and forth on her decisions and I felt like that was a slap in the face to the point this books sort of tried to be making about women's equality etc.

However, I mostly enjoyed the ride and I liked the end message of the story. That bumped it up from it's tediousness to a three star read.

Review: A Grown Up Kind of Pretty

Title A Grown Up Kind of Pretty
By Joshilyn Jackson
Genre Adult Fiction
Format Audio book
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Three generation of women. A small grave unearthed. A secret that could tear them apart. A love that will hold them together.



First Sentence
My daughter, Liza, put her heart in a silver box and buried it under the willow tree in our backyard.




I thought this was the first Jackson novel I've read but I guess I read one years ago and wasn't that impressed. I'm glad I didn't remember that or I might have passed this one up and that would have been a shame.

A Grown Up Kind of Pretty is one of those types of stories I love. It reminded me a bit of a Sarah Addison Allen book without the magic realism in it. A Southern setting, a generational secret and incredibly strong, vibrant, unforgettable characters.

The characters are almost what make this story. They're all so vivid and real and likable...or unlikable in some cases. But the plot is strong too. I couldn't stop listening, I needed to know what was going to happen.

The writing was great too. Basically this book had everything I look for in a book. The only fault with it was I couldn't quite get behind Liza. Her choices and attitude bugged but she wasn't the only character and there were others to love and I did.   

Review: The Broken Girls

Title The Broken Girls
By Simone St. James
Genre Adult Suspense Horror
Format ebook
Rating ⭐️

Synopsis
Alternating between the past and the present, The Broken Girls tells the story of a run down boarding school and the secrets it holds. Fiona has reason to hate the abandoned and derelict boarding school Idlewild. Her sister was found murdered and dumped on the grounds 20 years ago. But the old school has a history long before the tragedy that's haunted Fiona for years and she's about to learn all about it.

First Sentence 
The shrill of the cell phone jerked Fiona awake in the driver's seat. 

Oi! I've seen this one popping up all over the place; people raving, and praising it. So of course I had to get my hands on it. Peer pressure and all that. And once again,  I found myself feeling like the little child in The Emperor's New Clothes; wondering what the hell everyone was talking about! There's nothing special here!

Ugh! I kept stopping mid sentence in this book to look up again who published it because I was so sure it was self published. It had to be. It was so painfully bad. The conveniences were too many to count! I found myself rolling my eyes so hard and often I got a headache.

Why? Why did I keep reading? I guess I wanted to know how it would end and if it could redeem it's self but when the MC ended up with the man who's father tried to kill her...Yeah, no. I just couldn't get behind this one. At all.

Review: Optimist's Guide To Letting Go

Title The Optimist's Guide To Letting Go
By Amy E. Reichert
Genre Adult Fiction
Format Audio book
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Gina's an optimist at heart but losing her husband and dealing with her increasingly angst filled daughter isn't making it easy. To make it worse her perfectionist mother has just had a stroke and a secret she's been keeping from Gina is coming out.

First Sentence
1. Throw away Xmas cards.





I've only read one Reichert book before and found it quite cute so when I saw her latest available on audio book I snatched it.

Can I just say how much I love the cover of this book?!  Not only is it pleasing and adorable but it's actually relevant to the story! Isn't it great when that happens? No? Hmmm, maybe it's just me. Anyway, the story is as cute and pleasing as the cover.

The character's are what make this one so great. Jumping between Gina, her daughter May and her mother, Lorraine it tells a great story that pulled me in and had wanting more.

Besides making me crave grilled cheese and brownies I had zero complaints. I wasn't in love with the book but I found it a solid read with memorable characters and a interesting plot. The perfect beach read.

Review: The Perfect Nanny

Title The Perfect Nanny
By Leila Slimani
Genre Adult fiction
Format ebook
Rating ⭐️

Synopsis
Louise seems like the perfect nanny. She's loving, organized and goes above and beyond. Cleaning the apartment and cooking for the family. She stays late and comes early and is becoming quite invaluable. But Louise begins to unravel. Strange little habits she has hint of what is to come and goes to show you can never really know a person.

First Sentence 
The baby is dead.



This one sounded like a train wreck of a story. Something morbid and depressing that you just can't quite get enough of. I was exited to get my hands on it. Sadly, it wasn't for me.

I don't know if it was the translation (it was originally written in French) or the way the author didn't seem to want you to care about a single character but it just didn't work for me.

The whole story kept you cold and removed and I had a hard time caring about the horrors I was reading about.

It was also just overly depressing and I kind of wished I'd just skipped it. There's nothing worse than not liking a book and it not even have riled you up enough to hate it. I was just....meh.

Review: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Title Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
By Gail Honeyman
Genre Adult Fiction
Format ebook
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Eleanor is completely fine. She has a nice, normal job in accounting, a modest apartment, and a perfectly ordinary routine. OK, she's a little weird and her coworkers make fun of her and she doesn't have any friends but so what? She's just met the love of her life. He just doesn't know it yet. As we learn more about Eleanor we begin to understand that maybe she isn't fine after all and that you should never judge a person you don't know.

First Sentence
When people ask me what I do-taxi drivers, dental hygienists-I tell them I work in an office.

I don't know why I decided to read this book. I don't think I ever even read what it was about. I just heard both good and bad things and was just inexplicably drawn to it.

I adored it. It was engaging and hard to put down. I had no real idea what to expect and I as I learned more and more about Eleanor my heart broke a little. She was so quirky and weird and if she existed in real life I bet I would have judged her too; imperfect human that I am and that makes me sad.

I think that's why I adored Raymond so much. He just accepted her as she was and offered no judgment at all. He was a great character.

In a world so full of the "I'm right, you're wrong" mentality and all the hate bursting from social media and the news it was delightful to read about how a little kindness can go a long way and be reminded not to judge.

I really loved this book and would highly recommend it. 

Review: The Resurrection of Joan Ashby

Title The Resurrection of Joan Ashby
By Cherise Wolas
Genre Adult Fiction
Format ebook
Rating ⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
A best selling author at the age of twenty one, Joan Ashby has a plan. Don't fall in love and get married and don't have children. Of course life never goes as plans and love and children come into her life taking over and Joan's writing is put on the back burner. Will Joan ever write again? When a horrible truth comes out about her first child Joan must relearn who she is and was to find happiness and fulfillment again.

First Sentence 
Joan Ashby was frank with Martin Manning right from the start: "There are two things you should know about me.

I have absolutely know idea why I bought this one last year on a Kindle Daily Deal. Maybe someone was talking about it? (If that's you, raise your hand) Maybe I just thought it sounded interesting. I'm not sure and I'm not sure what made me pick it up when I did but here we are.

This one was a longer book at 550 pages and yet I was quite glued to it. The author did a wonderful job of making me want to follow Joan through her normal, rather boring, day to day life. Of course, things did pick up and get interesting when you learn about her oldest son and what he did but then it kind of fell back into a quiet, unassuming pace that still managed to keep me interested.

I think it helped, that I related to Joan. Not that I'm a great writer and I don't have children but I sometimes get that trapped feeling and it helped me empathize with her. I wanted to see her find herself again and find peace.

What I did NOT like about the story was endless pieces of Joan's writing that was scattered plentifully throughout the book. Joan's "amazing" writing was anything but, in my opinion, and made me want to tear my hair out. I found it incomprehensible and tedious and way, way, WAY too abundant. Seriously! Without all that dribble the book would have been much shorter and much better. I even thought that maybe the writing was supposed to be tied into the story and that it was symbolic but it was far too indecipherable to tell. By the end I was just skipping it all together.

  Horrible story excerpts aside, it was a slower but interesting story that I think a lot of women could relate to and appreciate.

Review: Young Jane Young

Title Young Jane Young
By Gabrielle Zevin
Genre Adult fiction
Format Audiobook
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Aviva Grossman had a bright future ahead of her when she started interning for her congressman. When she makes the mistake of having a love affair with her boss and blogging about it the truth comes out and she takes the fall. Ridiculed and condemned for life she has no other choice to move far away from her home, change her name and try to start her life and career over and give her daughter a better life. But when she decides to run for public office will the truth come out again? And when her daughter finds out will she still be respected and loved as a mother?

First Sentence
My dear friend Roz Horowitz met her new husband online dating, and Roz is three years older and fifty pounds heavier than I am, and people have said that she is generally not as well preserved, so I thought I would try it even though I avoid going on line too much.

 I've never read a Zevin book and while this wouldn't normally be my first choice among all her books it was available on audiobook so I gave it a go.

Zevin is one hell of a writer. I loved her style and the voices of all the characters were endearing. I'm very excited to read more by her.

The plot of this one, however, was a little weird for me. I felt like we were really only getting a brief look into these character's lives rather than a start to finish story. There wasn't much closure or resolution; particularly with Aviva's daughter and her new opinion of her mother. Maybe I missed something?

Issues aside, I loved Zevin's writing so much that I ended up liking, if not loving, this one and am eager to try her other books now.

Review: My Sister's Bones

Title My Sister's Bones
By Nuala Ellwood
Genre Adult suspense
Format ebook
Rating ⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Kate never wanted to return to her hometown. The place holds nothing but bad memories but when her mother dies she has to return to her old home, her alcoholic sister and the memories. On the first night of her stay in her old home she hears a horrible scream and sees a little boy in the neighbors yard but the neighbor claims to have no children. Is Kate losing her mind or is something much more sinister going on?

First Sentence
"Would you like me to repeat the question?"

These books are really gaining in popularity: Suspenseful mysteries with an unreliable narrator. I couldn't resist this one and it was available on Overdrive so I dove right in.

I was going through a bit of a non reading mood and I couldn't tell if it was that or if the beginning was really that slow because I had a hard time getting into it. There were tons of typos too and I was under the impression this was published by a traditional publisher but it felt more self published and messy.

Still, I started to get into it about half way through and while I saw one big twist coming, I didn't see the other. I like when these books catch me by surprise.

While I didn't find this one as great as I wanted to, I found it entertaining enough but I doubt I'll be checking anything else out by this author.