Category: Book Reviews

Hello Fellow Readers!

I just finished reading the book The Banker’s Wife by Cristina Alger!

Annabel’s seemingly perfect life in Geneva is shattered when her banker husband Matthew’s plane crashes in the Alps. When Annabel finds clues that his death may not be all it seems, she puts herself in the crosshairs of powerful enemies and questions whether she really knew her husband at all.

Meanwhile, journalist Marina is investigating Swiss United, the bank where Matthew worked. But when she uncovers evidence of a shocking global financial scandal that implicates someone close to home, she is forced to make an impossible choice.

OHHHH…this was an unexpected fun read for my first book of 2019! The Banker’s Wife is told from three different points of view: Annabelle, Mariana and Zoe. Each are trying to figure out exactly what is happening in  the corrupt bank Swiss United. People have been killed, are missing and are being followed.  There are some twists and turns which I always love and found myself wondering what was the truth with Miss Zoe!  Some may feel the wrap up was a little too tidy (me), but others will prefer it that way. I was okay with it. It ended on a positive note and I even have a feeling that the characters will have a sequel in the future!

4.5 out of 5 stars

 

Hello, Fellow Readers!

If you have read Beartown by Fredrik Backman, then
Us Against You, the squeal, is a must read.

As one reviewer wrote:
Beartown was one of my favorite books of recent years so I had high hopes for the sequal. Fredrick Backman brings the people to life, as well as the entire community. The themes and angst are expertly interwoven through the story.

I couldn’t agree more. I took my time while reading this book to savor everything that was happening in the story. I thought Beartown wrapped up nicely, but the events that took place in that story, still have consequences and effects people deeply. And it is lot easier to believe a simple lie then the complicated truth.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Yes, you need to read Beartown first, but you won’t be disappointed.

Hello, Fellow Readers!

I just finished the book Vox by Christina Dalcher.

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial—this can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

This is just the beginning.

Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard.

But this is not the end. For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

I picked this book  up at the library because I was intrigued by the premise with everything going on in America right now. I was reading it during the Kavanaugh hearings and I was actually spooked at times by the similarities in a fiction book and events in real life. In the book, Americans kept saying, “It won’t happen in American. It can’t happen America.” But it did.  The first third of the book had me hooked and emotional. I couldn’t put it down. I was behind the main character 100%. The first tow thirds of the book I would give 5 stars.

The last third of the book was a big disappointment. It was as if the author forgot about the heroine and was back to men saving they day. The author also made it seem as if a man isn’t all masculine, beat ’em up, drag out fight for you, they aren’t worth it. Jean’s husband finds out a terrible truth and basically says, “OK.” That was it, he was fine. Also, her son disappears and Jean is OK  and doesn’t have any emotions/issues about her son leaving.  When it comes to the men in her family, the main character could care less.

So the last third of this book was so blah and out of touch with the first part of the book, I am giving this book a 2.5 overall. That’s how yuck the last part was to read.

 

Welcome Back, Fellow Readers!

I have been reading, but noticed I am not up on sharing what I have read! I did just finish this book though,

Mercy Seat
by ElizabethWinthrop

GoodReads:
As the sun begins to set over Louisiana one October day in 1943, a young black man faces the final hours of his life: at midnight, eighteen-year-old Willie Jones will be executed by electric chair for raping a white girl – a crime some believe he did not commit.

In a tale taut with tension, events unfold hour by hour from the perspectives of nine people involved. They include Willie himself, who knows what really happened, and his father, desperately trying to reach the town jail to see his son one last time; the prosecuting lawyer, haunted by being forced to seek the death penalty against his convictions, and his wife, who believes Willie to be innocent; the priest who has become a friend to Willie; and a mother whose only son is fighting in the Pacific, bent on befriending her black neighbors in defiance of her husband.

In this exceptionally powerful novel, Elizabeth Winthrop explores matters of justice, racism and the death penalty in a fresh, subtle and profoundly affecting way. Her kaleidoscopic narrative allows us to inhabit the lives of her characters and see them for what they are – complex individuals, making fateful choices we might not condone, but can understand.

This book is so good in so many different ways. At times I got so mad at some of the characters and at other times I was crushed by what was happening.  I must say, it is a story about the night Willie is going to be executed. It does not focus on the crime itself or what really happened. To write such a moving story and for me to be ok not to find out all that the truth about what happened to the girl, tells how well this book is written.

I would give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Welcome Fellow Readers!

I Just finished the book, The Book of Essie
by Meghan Maclean Wier.

Esther Ann Hicks–Essie–is the youngest child on Six for Hicks, a reality television phenomenon. She’s grown up in the spotlight, both idolized and despised for her family’s fire-and-brimstone brand of faith. When Essie’s mother, Celia, discovers that Essie is pregnant, she arranges an emergency meeting with the show’s producers: Do they sneak Essie out of the country for an abortion? Do they pass the child off as Celia’s? Or do they try to arrange a marriage–and a ratings-blockbuster wedding?

Meanwhile, Essie is quietly pairing herself up with Roarke Richards, a senior at her school with a secret of his own to protect and whose family is on it’s wit’s end financially.  The newly formed couple attempt to sell their fabricated love story to the media–through exclusive interviews with an infamously conservative reporter named Liberty Bell.

I loved this book, though the subject matter that comes to light is tough to read at times. My favorite characters are Essie an Roarke, and the relationship that grows between the two. It’s a love that’s different from what most of us expect between two people, but it is love nonetheless.  This book is about love, bravery, being the person for yourself when others have failed you and trust…and much more.

I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5.

Welcome Back, Fellow Readers!

I just finished the book
Ghosted by Rosie Walsh

Sarah falls in love with Eddie over seven perfect days that they spend together, before he has to leave on a vacation. He promises to call her and that he will see her when he gets back, and Sarah knows that she has finally found The One.

Until he doesn’t call. Or return her messages. He has disappeared entirely, and Sarah is determined to understand why. She starts receiving text messages warning her off. Someone starts following her. Her friends think she’s losing her mind.

So I must say, I didn’t love this book, then I did, then I didn’t, then I did. I really couldn’t put my finger on it, until I read other reviews and thought “THAT’S IT!”

The beginning is a love story between Eddie and Sarah, then Eddie disappears and Sarah can’t stop looking for him. (Why??) The first half drags on a bit…I kept thinking, “Sarah. Give it up! He’s just not that into you!” But she keeps looking…(eye roll)

I must say, the second half of the book is really good. There are a couple of twists that I guarantee you won’t see coming which make up for the first half of the book.

So the first half of the book would get 3 stars, but the end part would get a strong 4 stars!

 

Hello, My Fellow Readers!

I just finished the book
The Haunting of Hill House
by Shirley Jackson

 Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

Oh Golly…this is an old story (first published in 1959), but so creepy! It takes a bit for the story to get going due to the four characters getting to know each other and the author taking us through those conversations.  I must admit at times I got confused to what was going on, but I think that is exactly what the Jackson wanted you to feel while reading…not sure who is joking, being serious and what is a genuine feeling.   I would have to say, the house is another character in the story due to having its own agenda. Unfortunately, the last third of the book stalls out. There’s a lot of talk, but not much happens and then it is wrapped up.

I wanted to give this book higher than 3 stars, it started out as a 4 and slowly went down hill and “talked” me out of more stars.

I am giving this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Hello!

I just finished the book by Ruth Ware,
The Death of Mrs. Westaway.

The novel opens on, well, a dark and stormy night as a lone young woman scurries her way homeward along a deserted seaside promenade. Harriet “Hal” Westaway is 21 years old. She never knew her father’s identity, and ever since the hit-and-run death of her mother three years ago, Hal has been eking out a living reading tarot cards in a seedy resort town on the English Channel.

When she arrives home, she has two letters: One is a threat from a loan shark she naively borrowed money from months ago. The other is from a solicitor’s firm in Cornwall, informing Hal of the death of her maternal grandmother and summoning Hal to a reading of the will. The tantalizing phrase “substantial size of the estate” catches Hal’s eye. The only problem is, Hal knows that her mother’s mother died decades ago; the lawyer must have her confused with another Harriet Westaway.

Hal is a person of integrity, but she’s also desperate. Hal decides to board a train for Cornwall and pass herself off as the missing Westaway granddaughter. If she’s exposed as a fraud, she’ll be packed off to prison, so Hal steels herself to pull off the ultimate con game.

This book is a thriller and mystery, but not in the typical sense. It’s a story with many different layers and will keep you guessing who is really who and who is a good person and who is a player and who is being played. There’s not an intense scene where you wonder how a character will “get out” of a situation, but an unfolding story about a family with secrets. A really good story that will keep your attention.

I give this one 4 out of 5 stars.

Welcome Back!

Several people have asked about how do I keep track of the book that I read and thought I’d share that with you today.

As you know, I write mini-reviews on the blog about books I have read  so I take advantage of that by copying the reviews and placing them in a 4×4 mini album.

I have a “form” set up in word so I copy and paste a picture of the book in one box and the review in another box.

I include the title, how I found this book to read and the date I finished at the top of the page. I do not include the author due to it being on the picture.

I then have a mini description of what the book is about (how quickly I forget!), my thoughts about the book and my star rating.

The book nerd in me loves to look back at the books I’ve read for the year.  At the end of June, I will have read 15 books, so I’m on track to read 30 books this year. Yay, me! 🙂

 

Hello!

I just finished reading the book,
The Woman in the Window
by A.J.

Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.

Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.

I was hesitant to read this book because I thought it was going to be a lot like the movie “Rear Window.” The only thing similar is the main character watches at her neighbors out her window due to her not being able to go outside because of a terrible, horrible event that occurred in her past. One night she witnesses something happening in a neighbor’s house that changes what she thinks is real, made up or just imagined.  Just when I thought I had it figured out…I didn’t. Great twists and love how it all comes together in the end.

I couldn’t put this book down and read it in three days.

I would give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars