Category: Uncategorized

Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Silent Patient

Celadon Books
Release Date: February 5, 2019
Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

The Silent Patient was, simply put, fascinating. It opens with our narrator, Theo Faber, taking on a role as a psychotherapist at a facility called The Grove, that houses dangerous criminals. He is particularly interested in one woman there specifically, Alicia Berenson, and seems to be pursuing this job purely to work with her. Alicia was accused of shooting and killing her husband, and since the crime, six years prior, has refused to speak. From the reader’s point of view, it seems that Theo is oddly obsessed with the idea of ‘fixing’ her, and getting her to speak, despite the fact that no one else at the facility has been able to do so. 

Before the murder of her husband, Alicia was a renowned artist. As part of her therapy, Theo convinces the rest of the staff at The Grove to let her paint (I found it a little unconvincing that this wouldn’t have been done earlier). Alicia immediately takes to painting, and Theo feels confident that he will soon have her speaking as well. In his spare time, Theo essentially stalks a number of Alicia’s friends and family members, interrogating them about Alicia’s mood and actions around the time of the murder. He slowly learns that she was increasingly concerned at the time that there was a man following her, and standing outside her house at night.

There are also excerpts from Theo’s personal life and his increasingly tumultuous relationship with his wife, who he discovers is cheating on him. As we witness their interactions, and his life at home, as well as his obsession with Alicia’s past, it becomes clear that there is something ominous about Theo. He starts to follow his wife every time she leaves the house, hoping to catch her with the man she has been sleeping with. The more disturbed he seemed to become, the more I wondered what his true intentions were in trying to treat Alicia.

I absolutely did not guess the ending of this thriller, but I did start to piece together how a few things were related, which made me ever more excited to learn all the intricacies and details at the end. Although portrayed as a dangerous criminal throughout the entire book, I felt a semblance of pity for Alicia by its conclusion, as I was able to see how misunderstood and out of control of her own actions she had been for so long.

Tagalong Bars with The Silent Patient

The varying storylines within this narrative wove together seamlessly, and allowed for connections to be identified slowly and creatively. I read a lot of domestic thrillers, but this one was able to transcend the usual themes I find running through this sub-genre, and present a wholly original story. 

Along with this book, I devoured these tagalong bars, which were able to almost exactly replicate the taste of the Girl Scout Cookies for which they’re named. One tip in storing these: keep them at room temperature rather than refrigerated, so the shortbread base stays soft and chewy.

Buy The Silent Patient on Amazon
The Silent Patient on Goodreads
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction, Uncategorized

Becoming by Michelle Obama ~ Book Review

Morgan

Becoming book with Venetian Cookies

Crown Publishing Group
Release Date: November 13, 2018
Genre: Autobiography
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

Where do I even begin with this book? To say that the former First Lady is an inspiration would be a vast understatement. Through every facet of her life thus far, Michelle Obama has illustrated incredible drive and commitment to causes and experiences she is passionate about. Becoming walks us through her life, illuminating key events, moments, experiences, and people that have influenced her in some way. Not once does she come across as conceited, or as if she is trying to display her accomplishments, but the impressive nature of them shines through regardless. 

From her childhood, growing up in an extension of her Aunt and Uncle’s home, Michelle was constantly striving for more. She listened to her Aunt’s piano students fumbling through their practices confident that she could do what they were doing, but even better. Upon beginning her own lessons, she tried to excel further in her songbook than was expected of her, resulting in a strict life lesson on following rules. She utilizes the disparity between her Aunt’s battered piano keys, and those of the shiny new recital piano as a beautiful depiction of the way that privilege, or lack thereof, can affect the performance of an individual in different settings and circumstances.

Throughout her autobiography, Michelle offers insight into her non-linear career path, and her internal conflict as she struggled to decide how and when to make changes in her life. Her dedication to pursuing a law degree, and practicing law  only to ultimately realize it was not what she wanted, gave me immense relief. If even Michelle Obama didn’t have her life figured out from the get go, surely I’ll be okay, too. I also thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the development and growth of her relationship with Barack, and the way that his political pursuits affected their family. I had never given much thought to how moving into the White House would cause familial upheaval, especially with young children involved.

The entire section on life in the White House, and the adjustments Michelle had to make was extremely thought provoking. The lack of freedom that came with that sort of lifestyle, from not being able to go out for a casual date night, to not being able to take her daughter on tours of college campuses, showed life as the First Family with an unexpectedly melancholy lens.

The response to the ending, will, I’m sure, have a different effect on different readers, but I found it heart-wrenching and powerful. Every bit of this book fascinated me, and only left me wanting to know more about this incredible woman. I’ve found that the more I like a book, the shorter my review tends to be, and that seems to be a case here yet again. Perhaps it’s because I think that instead of spending more time reading my take on the writing, you should go and read the actual book itself.

(Also pictured, homemade Venetians! It’s a family recipe, but this one looks similar)

Buy Becoming on Amazon
Becoming on Goodreads
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough ~ Book Review

Morgan

Cross Her Heart with Cookies

William Morrow
Release Date: September 4, 2018
Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

Ava is just trying to live a normal teenage life. She goes to swim practice with her three best friends, spends time at parties, and hangs out with her boyfriend, Courtney. Ava has a secret though. She is engaged in an online relationship with an older man she has never met. Whenever she gets the chance to sneak away from her friends, she is messaging him, and praying for the day when they will finally get to be together. Ava’s mom, Lisa, is very protective of her daughter, overbearing, in Ava’s opinion. Lisa constantly texts to check up on her daughter, and is always handing off money to her, as if trying to overcompensate for knowing she is being annoying. When she’s alone, Lisa succumbs to flashbacks and nightmares about a little boy named Daniel who is no longer alive. As the story delves further into the lives of the mother-daughter duo, we see a picture of a normal family unit emerging. Lisa has a successful career, and a best friend named Marilyn, she’s developing feelings for one of her clients, Simon, and considering going out with him. The everyday details of their lives were interesting enough to keep me glued to the pages, and, as the flashbacks to Daniel became more frequent, I knew there was a big twist coming. And boy was there ever. In fact, ‘twisted,’ is exactly the word I would use to describe this plot.

[MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD]
After Ava saves a little boy from drowning, and she and her mom are featured in several newspapers, Lisa’s true identity is leaked. Her name is actually Charlotte, better known as the child killer. She was found guilty for the murder of her two year old brother, Daniel, at age eleven, and once she was released from her sentence, was given a new identity in order to start fresh. Of course, once she is identified, neither she nor Ava are safe as who they are. They are forced to change their appearance, and assume new identities. Ava is unwilling to fully part from her past, mainly because, she had plans to meet the man she’s been speaking with on Facebook. Unbeknownst to her mother, Ava slips away in the night to do just that.

The second half of the book is a wild mixture of present and past. Charlotte escapes in a desperate attempt to find her daughter, and is ultimately able to convince Marilyn and Simon to help her. The flashbacks to Lisa’s childhood are heartbreaking and horrifying. Her mother pays little attention to Charlotte, doting upon Daniel instead, and her mother’s boyfriend Toby is abusive. Eventually, they go so far as to use Charlotte’s body to make a profit for the family. The only person Charlotte has to rely on is Katie, her best friend. She and Katie are full of angst and anger, and both detest their families. They spend their days drinking and taking pills, and planning to run away together. Despite the paralleled evil that seems to run within both of them, Katie’s family is respected and well off, and when Daniel’s death is discovered, she gets away unscathed, despite the reader’s suspicion that she was involved. As the reader, we are unsure until the very end if she was indeed involved in this at all.

In present day, Charlotte is convinced that Katie has somehow infiltrated her and Ava’s life by masquerading as someone they know and trust, and has thus been able to lure Ava away. The ending of the story saw these many loose ends tied up as Charlotte pieces together what has happened, and some additional insight is added from the chapters narrated by “Her.” 

I enjoyed the slow beginning half of this book just as much as the crazy, twisty second half, which speaks to the quality of Pinborough’s writing. Some of the layers of the ending seemed a little farfetched to me (I was dubious of the double identity with Katie) but for the most part, this book was fantastic, if not much, much darker than I initially anticipated. Pictured alongside this book are a batch of Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (which, in my opinion, are very under-appreciated, and delicious). Keep in mind that this recipe does recommend chilling the dough before baking, so the overall process takes some time!

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Buy Cross Her Heart on Amazon
Cross Her Heart on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

The Three Beths by Jeff Abbott ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Three Beth's and PMS BarsThe Three Beths by Jeff Abbott
Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: October 23, 2018
Genre: Thriller 
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Most of the thrillers I read are clear cut domestic thrillers, so although being in line genre-wise with what I read most regularly, The Three Beths had a different feel to it. This book is definitely set up as more of a murder mystery (or, ‘disappearance mystery,’ since there are no bodies to speak of), and the central plot-line revolves around Mariah, as she seeks to figure out what happened to her mother, who vanished without a trace. This is the first Beth we are introduced to: Beth Dunning. Mariah’s father, Craig, has long been suspected of being behind the disappearance, and has largely isolated himself from the outside world as he continues to get threatening phone calls and messages from neighbors who want him out of the area. He disapproves of his daughter’s continued obsession with trying to crack the case, and believes it is preventing her from being able to move on with her life.

One day, Mariah is perusing the website of Chad, who she went to school with. Chad has created a real crime podcast and prefers to go by his pseudonym: Reveal. Reveal’s website has a one-off comment about the disappearance of Mariah’s mom, and another Beth in the area, about six months apart. This is enough for Mariah to feel as if she has some sort of lead, and she meets up with Reveal to discuss the possibility of a connection. From there, we are thrown into the whirlwind of Mariah’s investigation. She meets with Beth’s mom, Sharon, and fiancé, Jake, as well as several friends. She quickly learns that Beth was struggling at work, suspected of embezzlement, and dealing with substance abuse in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. She appeared to be spiraling out of control, and was planning to leave her husband, eventually boarding a flight to Houston never to be seen again. 

From the get go, we know that Sharon is hiding something. She keeps a gun on hand, and is clearly scared of Mariah digging into the life of her and her family. She believes that Jake is behind her daughter’s disappearance, but Mariah is not as quick to jump to conclusions, slowly growing closer to Jake as they talk through Beth’s life leading up to when she went missing. Mariah learns that Beth made a new friend during this time, Lizbeth Gonzales, the third Beth. 

The number of characters and tiny plot details woven into this mystery was staggering. At times, it was a little hard to keep everyone straight, and to follow all the connections being made, but by the end, I was thoroughly invested. There was no way I could have figured out how everything fit together on my own, but I loved seeing the picture get filled in, and making realizations along with Mariah. During Mariah’s intense investigation, her father is dealing with more frequent threatening messages being left in his yard, and even an attempt on his life. This subset of the book seemed pretty random and unnecessary to me, and I think most of that could have been cut (it’s a hefty book as is, so it wouldn’t have felt watered down at all without these extra chapters). This was my first Jeff Abbott read, and although a little confusing at times, I am definitely intrigued in looking into more of his books.

(For the recipe for these bars, see my review of Pieces of Her).

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Buy The Three Beths on Amazon
The Three Beths on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Last Time I Saw You Book

The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine
Harper
Release Date: May 7, 2019
Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪.5

Before getting into the meat of my review, I have a bone to pick with the authors/editors/marketers for this book. This is the second book by the author team that uses the pseudonym Liv Constantine, and after the wild success of their first thriller, they decided to write another. Makes sense, however, what exactly was going through their minds in terms of the title here? Did they think ‘Hey, The Last Mrs. Parrish did well, let’s just reuse half of that title and call it a day?’ Was there really no better option? I’m still not even sure why this title is relevant to the story, but I digress.

The Last Time I Saw You tells the story of Kate English, whose mother is found murdered in her home. We open with Kate attending the funeral, standing by her distraught father’s side, and suddenly seeing Blaire. Kate and Blaire were best friends growing up until they had a falling out following Blaire voicing her disapproval of Kate’s marriage, which kept them apart for the following fifteen years. Blaire quickly reintroduces herself into Kate’s life, and all is forgiven. (This, in and of itself, seemed unbelievable to me). Kate begins to receive threatening text messages from someone we presume to be her mother’s killer, indicating that she will be the next victim. Additionally, the mysterious someone leaves little ‘gifts’ around Kate’s house — dead mutilated animals with nursery rhymes that have been altered to reference Kate’s impending death. This seemed weirdly extreme but also clichéd to me (all in all, not a good combination).

Blaire quickly becomes Kate’s rock through the whole messy ordeal. We get some insight into their childhood, and witness how Lily, Kate’s mother, also acted as a mother figure for Blaire. As Constantine piled on the ‘Blaire-is-an-overly-concerned-friend details,’ I was quite literally rolling my eyes. Her obvious role as the ‘wronged friend seeking revenge’ was clear from page one, and had me extremely frustrated. After being wonderfully shocked by the twists and turns in The Last Mrs. Parrish, I couldn’t understand why the majority of this story was so predictable.

The ending added a bunch of previously unimportant neighbors and family friends who were suddenly involved in the death of Lily, and that plus the revelation about Blaire’s biological versus adoptive family seemed like way too much. I was utterly unimpressed with this book, and finished it merely to make sure I wasn’t somehow missing an incredible twist that would change my mind — I wasn’t. For a much more satisfying experience, I highly recommend baking yourself a batch of these Sea Salt Caramel Chip Chocolate Cookies.

My Rating: 🍪.5
Buy The Last Time I Saw You on Amazon
The Last Time I Saw You on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

The Other Mrs. Miller by Allison Dickson ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Other Mrs. Miller with cookies

G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Release Date: July 16, 2019
Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

The title of this thriller immediately made me think of The Last Mrs. Parrish, and I was definitely getting similar type vibes throughout. It helped that I could see a dark black dividing page right near the middle of my book, so I knew there was going to be some kind of big narrative jump (in hindsight, I think having such an obvious marker was probably a bad call on the part of the publisher, although I did read an ARC, so I suppose that’s still subject to change). In any case, this book pulled me right in, as I was introduced to Phoebe Miller, who spends her days resigned to her home (ah yes, the old reclusive-female-at-home-alone-in-a-thriller trope). Phoebe’s late father Daniel, recently became the center of a sexual assault scandal, and as a result, Phoebe chooses to hide her face for a time, and remain in her home, comfortably surrounded by reminders of the wealth she inherited from her dad. Her relationship with her husband, Wyatt, is clearly strained. Although we don’t get much insight into what their marriage was like when they were happy, they are now sleeping in separate rooms and obviously misaligned in their views about children, and their future.

While Wyatt goes off to work each day, Phoebe looks out her window, voyeur-esque. She notices a blue car stationed outside her house day after day, and becomes increasingly concerned that someone is watching her. That is, until Phoebe notices something across the street that’s more interesting to her: the Napier family, moving in across the street, and specifically, Jake, the hot teenage son of Vicki and Ron. Phoebe, in the throes of a midlife crisis, quickly becomes infatuated with Jake, and makes every excuse to spend time near him. She quickly befriends his mother, and hires him to do odd jobs around her house. Jake, an attractive, uprooted 18 year old, suddenly without any friends and insecure about his plans to go to Stanford at the end of the summer, falls quickly for Phoebe. I didn’t find this totally, completely believable given the frumpy way Phoebe is depicted when the reader is first introduced to her, however, after learning how intensely dysfunctional Jake’s family is, I began to see how the Phoebe’s stability might be appealing to Jake from a mental health standpoint

As Phoebe’s relationships with both Jake, and Vicki grow stronger, Dickson includes alternating chapters titled ‘Interlude’ that are narrated by Nadia, the driver of the car that idles outside Phoebe’s house. Nadia slowly unveils her interest and intent with the Millers, but her real involvement in the story doesn’t come until the second half of the book (remember that black page I told you about?), when she and Wyatt become an unlikely team, as they struggle to convince the Napiers that life at the Miller’s house is fine, after a series of unfortunate incidents. In the interest of not giving away the entire twisted narrative, I will just say that the second half of this book was a whirlwind. The depth of the characters and their issues (think medical malpractice, blackmail, murder, identity theft…) was intense and unexpected, and kept me ripping through pages while frantically yelling at my roommate to pop some frozen cookie dough into the oven for me, because you don’t have time to bake when you’re dealing with the insanity that is the Napier household. The continuation of the ‘Interlude’ chapters in the second half of the book with a different, unknown narrator, kept me guessing until the very end, and the final pages had the classic, good-thriller feel, when you still have no idea how the story will conclude. All in all, a very solid read.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
The Other Mrs. Miller on Goodreads
Buy The Other Mrs. Miller on Amazon

Book Review, Fiction, Uncategorized

The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib ~ Book Review

Morgan

https://cookiesandcups.com/insane-peanut-butter-cup-cake/

The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib
St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: February 5, 2019
Genre: Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

This book was written in a style that I’ve never come across before. The thoughts of the main character, Anna, flowed almost seamlessly through the narrative, allowing the reader to see the paradox between her internal monologue and her external emotions, a poignant and powerful way to illustrate her struggle with anorexia. The subject of the book’s title, a big pink house at 17 Swann Street, is a residential treatment center that Anna is checked into by her husband, Matthias. Anna is introduced to the other girls there, each battling with her own demons, and the rules they have in place to survive as comfortably as they can: they rejoice in their daily walks and the days they get animal crackers, and they share all mail as a group. Anna exchanges notes with the other girls and falls into a quiet camaraderie. Matthias visits her every night, the two of them making light of the juvenile nature of the arrangement, as they ask permission for him to go up to her room. As the two of them recap their days, we see the pain of Anna’s struggle as she depicts each meal she had to eat, and the parallel fight that Matthias battles as he tries to understand why she would not try to eat while she was home, despite his best effort. The disconnect between this couple that was still so in love, but unable to understand each other’s pain, was heartbreaking, and a symptom of eating disorders that is rarely discussed. Amidst the present day narrative, we additionally learn the story of the couple’s past. We see them sharing ice cream cones and wandering the streets of Paris as they get to know each other, we see the little things that come to define their relationship, like Anna always finishing Matthias’s pizza crusts, and we see the two of them moving to America. The juxtaposition of the way they were able to interact in the past, with the trepidation they face in the present was incredibly well illustrated.

The evolution of Anna’s eating disorder is also explored. In her youth, she was a dancer, involved in an emotionally abusive relationship during which she was convinced that she was not thin enough for her profession. After an injury, she was forced to take time off, and once she and her husband move to America, she is unable to find work. As she stays home alone, day in and day out with no one there to monitor her, she stops eating.

Flatlay of cake with book

The way that each of these pieces of Anna’s tale are woven together made for an incredibly compelling read. The story of Anna, her relationships, both with food and with her family, and the cycle of commitment to recovery and subsequent relapse made my heart ache, and my hands keep flipping pages. The level of emotion Zgheib was able to withdraw through her succinct style of writing was impressive and powerful. This is definitely a worthy read, the topic is heavy, but I think that this type of depiction of anorexia is so important for people to understand. It contrasts completely with the enormity of this homemade Funfetti Layer Cake, packed full of rainbow sprinkles, and covered with a rich chocolate frosting (stolen from a separate cake recipe).

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Buy The Girls at 17 Swann Street on Amazon
The Girls at 17 Swann Street on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Uncategorized

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty ~ Book Review

Morgan

Nine Perfect Strangers with Pocky

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
Flatiron Books
Release Date: November 6, 2018
Genre: Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

I’m still utterly shocked that the concept behind this narrative was somehow able to stretch to fit nearly 450 and not feel onerous. The story follows (shocker) Nine Perfect Strangers, who all travel to Tranquillium House, a health retreat run by the green eyed, Amazonian Masha, and her right hand helpers, Yao and Delilah. Each of the individuals, or family units, is there for a different reasons; some are health retreat junkies, while others were persuaded to visit Tranquillium House by friends or family. The main narrator is Frances, a lovable, middle aged writer of romance novels, who is going through a bit of a career slump while fighting a daily battle with menopause. You can’t help but feel for Frances. She’s been divorced twice, has no children (and no interest in them), and is just trying to keep up with the changing world around her. Her biggest concern going into her ‘cleansing’ experience seems to be missing out on her daily glass(es) of wine.

The other visitors at Tranquillium House include the Marconi Family (Napolean, Heather, and their daughter Zoe), Tony, Carmel, Ben and his wife Jessica, and Lars. There are a whole host of difficulties these visitors are trying to reconcile, from grief over the loss of a family member, to body dysmorphia, and marital struggles. Each chapter focuses on a different one of these guests, so, although their retreat begins with several days of complete silence, we get an in-depth understanding of their thoughts and feelings regarding not only the retreat itself, but the fellow participants, and their pasts. In fact, I thought that starting the journey with the characters being unable to speak with one another was a very innovative way to let the reader get to know the minds of these nine strangers.

Then there’s Masha. Masha used to be a high powered corporate worker (I’m not sure we ever find out exactly what she did– for some reason there was a lot of focus on her being somehow involved in toothpaste sales). In any case, she was ‘reborn’ one day after a heart attack when she was legally dead for a period of time. This enlightening experience inspired her to open her own health retreat and begin a personal health journey that included losing weight, quitting smoking, and kicking her habit of eating entire bags of Doritos in one sitting. Masha is all about finding cutting edge processes to help her guests experience transformation to the fullest of their abilities. So much so, that she implements a brand new protocol for these nine guests that includes ‘micro-dosing,’ aka, putting tiny amounts of LSD in their daily smoothies to ‘heighten their mental awareness,’ and then (spoiler alert) giving them ‘magic mushrooms’ and locking them in a yoga studio for several days. Honestly, Masha is the reason this book kind of lost me towards the end. I found all the other characters very interesting, multidimensional, and believable, but she was just weird. Towards the close of the book, we find out more about the trauma in her past, and how that may have shaped her, but at that point it kind of just seemed tacked on to me.

Similar to my notes on the book The Dreamers, this book was enjoyable to me because of the characters. There was not a ton of plot (although there were some weird, far-fetched twists, as mentioned above, that I didn’t think about too much because they definitely lessened my enjoyment of the story). All in all, I did like the concept of this book. It was incredibly unique, and, coming from someone who generally shies away from anything over 400 pages, it definitely didn’t seem as long as it was. I’m not sure I would go so far as to recommend this story, but it was an enjoyable, and very different type of read for me.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Buy Nine Perfect Strangers on Amazon
Nine Perfect Strangers on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Uncategorized

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid ~ Book Review

Morgan

Cookies and 7 Husbands

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Atria Books
Release Date: June 13, 2017
Genre: Historical Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

Man did this book exceed my expectations! Or, more accurately, my lack of expectations. I’d seen glowing reviews floating around linked to this elegant emerald covered story, and in a moment of FOMO, decided I should give it a try. Despite having come out a couple years ago, there was quite a hold for this guy at the library, which I suspect has to do with the sudden explosion of Taylor Jenkins Reid as a result of her most recent novel, Daisy Jones & the Six (which is also on my list).

When I first started The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I was not immediately impressed. The storyline of the narrator, Monique, seemed kind of bland and clichéd. She and her husband had recently split up, she was struggling to make it big in the publishing industry in New York, life is hard, we get it. Her boss Frankie, calls her into her office one day to tell her that Evelyn Hugo, a hugely famous star now getting on in age, has agreed to an exclusive interview with their magazine, Vivant, if, and only if, Monique is assigned to the piece. Monique, a junior writer with no big stories at the magazine under her belt. I was a little exasperated, but also intrigued as to why this woman was chosen so specifically.

From there we meet Evelyn, who refuses to explain her choice of writer to Monique, but does tell her that rather than the fluff piece Vivant was expecting, she wants Monique to write Evelyn’s biography to be published post-mortem. Although immediately concerned for her job security, Monique sees the immense value writing the piece would provide to her, and is able to leverage Evelyn’s need for her in order to give Vivant a little of what they are expecting as well. The majority of the rest of the novel depicts Evelyn’s life, starting as a young Cuban immigrant leaving home to try to make it as an actress in Los Angeles. At first, Evelyn utilizes her good looks and maturing body to get roles, and is eventually rebranded as a blonde bombshell, and begins to book roles based on her own fame.

Evelyn talks Monique through her marriages to each of her seven husbands. In fact, Reid chooses to separate her story into segments for each husband, which I found very effective. Throughout each marriage, a couple people remain constant in Evelyn’s life: Harry, her best friend, who works behind the scenes on many movies with her, and Celia, a fellow actress who we soon learn to be the one true love of Evelyn’s life. In fact, much of the novel focuses on the lack of LGBTQ rights, and the consequences of being outwardly gay in the society Evelyn grew up in. We come to learn that each of her husbands served a purpose, either to appease fans, or act as a cover so she could be with Celia without raising suspicion.

I thoroughly enjoyed the exploration of Evelyn’s life, although there were times when it felt a little bit repetitive with all the marriages and descriptions of them falling apart. Ultimately, though, I was very impressed with Reid’s storytelling abilities, and I was on the edge of my seat to find out where the connection between Evelyn and Monique would fit in. The suspense towards this reveal built up wonderfully towards the end of the novel, and the follow-up to Monique’s shock provided a satisfying ending. I’m excited to jump on the Taylor Jenkins Reid bandwagon, and can’t wait to see what she has in store next.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Buy The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo on Amazon
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris ~ Book Review

Morgan

Behind Closed Doors Flatlay with Cake

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: August 9, 2016
Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪.5

I had a lot of free time when I was reading this book. For that reason, I flew through it, which made me falsely believe, at first, that I loved it. However. After a little internal reflection, I realized that I think I really just kind of missed reading thrillers. I’ve been trying to branch out more in my genre selection this year, so it’s been a minute since I read one of my classic picks (honestly not much more than a minute, but it feels like a long time to me). I recently read my first B.A. Paris book, and although that was a flop for me, I thought I’d give her a second chance. My main issue with this book, was that it felt forced, like the classic tropes of the genre were being hammered into my brain. The perfect husband? Who wants his wife to marry him quickly and then stop working and give up everything she loves? Who manipulates her friends and family until they truly believe she no longer cares about them? This is the story of Grace and Jack. And a thousand other domestic thriller couples.

Despite this somewhat scathing introduction, the story was well written. I was sucked in, and couldn’t wait to see how Grace ultimately triumphed as I knew she would based on the predictability of this plotline. I liked the classic approach to a domestic thriller, and the addition of Grace’s sister, Millie, added an interesting twist. Millie has Down’s Syndrome, and is ultimately the one who Jack is after. He hopes that by pretending to be doting friends to Millie, he and Grace will ultimately obtain custody of her when she turns 18 and he will thus have someone he can wholly control. I’m not sure how you get into such a twisted mindset, but Paris writes it with sickening clarity.

I also appreciated how everything tied together in this book. When we initially meet the couple as they host a dinner party, we know that Grace is acting peculiar, but it’s hard to tell why. Why does everything need to be perfectly cooked? Why does her husband dote over the painting she created that is hung on their wall? Why does she need to finish all the food on her plate? Each detail comes back later, as Grace walks us through the depth of Jack’s abuse, and the ways she has tried to either fight, or acquiesce to him.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Book

Although there wasn’t really much action in this book, I liked the way it slowly built on itself, offering the reader more and more insight into Grace and Jack’s relationship. It is first depicted as the fairytale Grace believe it is, and then we delve deeper and deeper into just how manipulative and terrifying Jack really is.

All in all, I would not recommend this book, but it was a decent thriller. The depth and detail was well written, but it was predictable, and not terribly unique to the genre. Read it if you feel like it, but don’t rush out to buy it. Maybe instead, use your reading time to bake a cake, like this crowd-pleasing Insane Peanut Butter Cup Cake. It may be time intensive, but it will never disappoint.

My Rating: 🍪🍪.5
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