Category: Uncategorized

Book Review, Fiction, Uncategorized

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Dreamers Novel Flatlay

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
Random House
Release Date: January 15, 2019
Genre: Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

I whipped through this book much faster than I anticipated. From the first few chapters, I was thoroughly intrigued. The plot is like nothing I had ever read before, a sort of dystopian tale that didn’t hit you over the head with typical genre tropes. The story opens by depicting the beginning of a strange illness in a college dorm. Mei, a freshman, is the character the reader is connected with most right off the bat. Her roommate is the first to fall ill with the sleeping sickness, which is just that — individuals fall asleep and simply don’t wake up.

As the story progresses, we are introduced to more and more characters, and come to understand their background and how they may have been, or may be exposed. There’s a set of young sisters, whose father has been preparing them for the apocalypse for their whole lives– with the basement stocked full of all the supplies the girls end up needing when he falls ill. There’s a young couple with a brand new baby, a nurse with a toddler at home, and always, Mei and Matthew, who escape the quarantine their entire dorm floor is put into, and set about helping transport the sick to the hospital. Slowly, one by one, almost every single character falls asleep.  

What I enjoyed most about this book was the abundance of characters. Walker did an incredible job making each little family or friend unit believable, unique, and interesting and with each one, I was left waiting for the other shoe to drop. Who would fall sick, and when? I also appreciated that there wasn’t a lot of medical focus within these pages. Although there are plenty of scenes at, or focused on the hospital, the story doesn’t get caught up in details of what the doctors or nurses are thinking about the sickness, or what they’re doing to look for a cure.

The Dreamers at an angle

I can definitely see how this story could be polarizing. Despite my general enjoyment, and the speed at which I finished it, it was a slow burn plot-wise. In fact, there’s really not much that happens. You get to know characters, and then slowly see how the sickness makes its way to them. There aren’t any real plot twists or surprises, and I was left thinking something along the lines of what was the point of reading that? But at the same time, I did like it. Overall, if you’re looking for something fast-paced and plot-driven, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for more of a character driven narrative that’s a little different, Dreamers is definitely worth a try.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
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Book Review, Fiction, Uncategorized

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens ~ Book Review

Morgan

Crawdads book with cookies

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Release Date: August 14, 2018
Genre: Literary Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

I finally get the hype about this book! ‘Coming of age’ stories usually aren’t my thing, and after skimming the back of my copy I was pretty sure that’s what I was in for, but man was I pleasantly surprised. Owens’ beautifully descriptive prose and characteristic writing style sucked me in from the beginning. The way the setting was constructed was impeccable, I could intricately picture the marsh, and felt like I was experiencing and appreciating it through the main character, Kya.

The book truly covers the entire life of Kya, an unbelievable impressive feat for under 400 pages. She begins as a very young girl, watching her mother, and subsequently each of her older siblings walk out on her, away from her drunk and abusive father. Her ignorance and lack of understanding of what she is experiencing comes through so clearly in Owens’ writing. I truly felt Kya’s struggle and determination as she tries to catch mussels and smoke fish to make a few cents to feed herself. She befriends Jumpin’ and Mabel, who run a little store she can boat to, and take her under their wing, while making sure not to bruise her pride. They accept her meager offerings, and keep her dressed and fed. Although the story primarily focuses on Kya, these two characters truly captured my heart.

As Kya grows up, we witness incredible growth, as she first learns how to take care of herself, and then is taught to read and write by a boy named Tate who lives nearby. Kya and Tate’s relationship quickly grows beyond that of a student and teacher, and they ‘date’ (in an untraditional manner) until he goes away to college to study Marine Biology. Once Tate leaves, Kya becomes involved with Chase, who never really seems to have her best interest at heart, and strings her along for years until she discovers that he is engaged to someone else in town.

The second half of the book takes a sharp turn, as Chase is found dead at the bottom of the local fire tower, and Kya is put on trial for his murder. Although very different from the lyrical marsh life that fills the first half of this story, I found this plot twist no less enjoyable. We witness Kya’s intense discomfort in the public eye, and her struggle to survive away from her home.

The end of this tale sees Kya reunited with Tate back in the marsh. Although the majority of the book was like a calming boat ride, the ending was a bit of a surprise, which was refreshing and obviously unexpected. The way Owens was able to weave mystery and suspense into the second half of this book without if feeling jarring or out of place was very well received, and I will definitely be recommending this book for a long time to come. I was so engrossed in this book that I didn’t even have time to bake, although I did stop by Panera to snag a couple of their chocolate chip cookies.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
Buy Where the Crawdads Sing on Amazon
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare ~ Book Review

Morgan

Call Me Evie book

Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Release Date: March 5, 2019
Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

What a page turner. This book flip flops back and forth between past and present, or rather ominously, ‘Before’ and ‘After.’ During the earlier segments, Kate is living her life as a relatively normal high school student, dealing with catty friendships and her first real relationship. She lives alone with her overly protective (too the point of it being unacceptable) father since her mother died when she was very young. (I definitely enjoyed these parts of the story more than those set in the present). The ‘After’ segments chronicle Kate’s life as she is trapped in a cabin with a man named Jim who forces her to go by Evie and pretend he is her uncle. He explains to her that they can’t go home because the police are waiting to arrest her there.

Over the course of the book, the reader gets insight into what happened back at Kate’s home, but is left largely in the dark. We learn that there was a scandal surrounding Kate’s boyfriend Thom, who leaked their sex tape, and there was also some sort of inappropriate relationship between Kate and her friend Willow’s father. We get to see the slow and very natural seeming progression of Kate and Thom’s relationship as well as the fallout between Kate and Willow, spurred by jealousy between the new threesome. The depiction of teenage life and discontent was very well played out throughout this narrative.

In the ‘After’ sections of the story, it slowly becomes clear that Thom has been killed, and Kate is convinced that it was Jim’s doing, although her memory of the night is impaired and confused. She finds notes she left for herself in a book in her room with warnings not to trust Jim, but she cannot seem to trust herself either. (Side note, what was up with that book? I was waiting for an explanation of when she wrote those notes and what they referred to but just… never got it…). Jim asks her repeatedly to explain to him what she remembers about the night of the ‘incident’, but it is hard to tell if he is intentionally manipulating her memories as she suspects.

Chocolate cookies with Call Me Evie

During Kate’s time trapped in the cabin, she makes a few friends around town who she desperately tries to convince that Jim is trapping her. With her word against him however, he is always able to frame things to make her look unstable. I was constantly flip flopping back and forth with wondering who should be believed.

The last third or so of this book had me completely sucked in. I had no idea who to trust, and couldn’t predict how the story would end. The final plot twists were very well integrated, and unexpected. Overall, it was a very original plot, and a thoroughly enjoyable thriller. There were a few pieces that felt unfinished, like the relationship between Kate and Willow’s dad (It seemed like suddenly everyone knew about their interactions, but there was no real explanation as to how), but for the most part this was a great read! (Also great– this batch of Death By Chocolate Chip Cookies with mini mint Dove bars folded inside!)

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Buy Call Me Evie on Amazon
Call Me Evie on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Uncategorized

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton ~ Book Review

Morgan

Next Year in Havana with Cookies

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
Berkley
Release Date: February 6, 2018
Genre: Historical Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

Next Year in Havana is one of those books I picked up purely because I was seeing it all over the place and I needed to know why. Book FOMO, if you will. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I do generally enjoy historical fiction, but the political components of this book made it harder for me to get into. The story switches back and forth between two different points of view. The first, set in 1958, is that of Elisa Perez, who lives with her sisters, largely sheltered from the political unrest in Cuba because of her family’s wealth. The second, is Elisa’s granddaughter, Marisol, who travels to Havana in 2017 to scatter her grandmother’s ashes, although she is not legally allowed to do so. As a journalist, she is able to play her trip off as an opportunity to write an article.

While in Cuba, Marisol meets Luis, the grandson of a close friend of her late grandmother. He acts as her tour guide, and helps her begin to understand an insider’s perspective on the political history and present-day state of the country. Marisol struggles to see his point of view entirely, but feels herself emotionally drawn to him. This romance seemed unbelievable to me, too much too fast, and definitely took away from my enjoyment of the book.

Elisa’s storyline chronicles her love affair with a young revolutionary, as she and her sisters are forced to leave their home and face the reality that their lives will never be the same. I think that Elisa’s part of this story was more interesting to me, but I felt as if I got to know her much less than Marisol.

The descriptions and overall writing style were quite lovely, and the overall takeaway was nice, but for some reason this one just didn’t live up to the hype for me. Some of my disappointment was fixed by devouring a plate of these Death By Chocolate Chip Cookies that I added mega M&Ms to for some extra flair.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Buy Next Year in Havana on Amazon
Next Year in Havana on Goodreads

Book Review, Nonfiction, Uncategorized

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte ~ Book Review

Morgan

Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs with Cookies

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte
William Morrow
Release date: April 24, 2018
Genre: Nonfiction (Science, History)
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

I’ve always been intrigued by dinosaurs, and liked them in a vague “I like dinosaurs,” kind of way, so when I saw this book starting to pop up all over the place, I figured it was time to actually learn something about them. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs chronicles exactly what you would expect from the title, opening on a young, dinosaur-less earth, and taking the reader through the Dawn of the Dinosaurs all the way to their demise. Needless to say, it’s a dense book. There’s a lot of science between the covers, and a lot of names I skimmed because I was too lazy to try to sound out the unfamiliar scientific language.

I definitely learned a lot through this book. The first segment that really captured my interest was the discussion of dinosauromorphs, the cat-sized, but otherwise pretty much identical precursors to the dinosaurs. The book also spoke a lot about the changing geography and climate on earth. When the dinosaurs first began to rise up, they existed in a hot and humid Pangea, surrounded by a single ocean, Panthalassa. By the end of the Triassic period, we learn that Pangea began to split up, inducing violent volcanoes that destroyed many species. This is when the dinosaurs were able to become dominant. During the Triassic period, there were fairly few dinosaurs, and they were living right along with the dinosauromorphs. I had never before given much thought to the fact that there were other, non-dinosaur creatures chilling alongside dinosaurs.

Besides providing a general timeline of the reign of the dinos, Brusatte also speaks to the anatomy of different types of the creatures. He helps to explain how sauropods were able to grow to such unbelievable size, sprinkling his own research experiences and those of others throughout to help explain how we have come to know this information. In fact, the entire book is filled with personal anecdotes and historical discoveries of various paleontologists. I didn’t enjoy these sections of the book quite as much as the rest of it, but if you’re interested in some background on great paleontological discoveries through the ages, there’s a lot of information in there for you.

There is also quite a bit of focus on the Tyrannosaurs, and how T.Rex got its footing as the King of dinosaurs. Additionally, I finally got an answer as to what those teensy arms are doing on such a giant beast. So as not to spoil anything, I’ll let you read the book yourself to get the answer.

If you have any interest in dinosaurs or prehistoric earth, I would definitely recommend checking out this read! I took the liberty of skimming through a few sections that were less intriguing to me, but regardless, I learned a tremendous amount. I would also recommend whipping up a batch of these Death by Chocolate Chip Cookies to snack on while you read.

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs on Goodreads
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

The Other Woman by Sandie Jones ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Other Woman Book

The Other Woman by Sandie Jones
Minotaur Books
Release Date: August 21, 2018
Genre Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪

I was reading the majority of this book for the ending. The reviews on the back of my copy promised a crazy, unexpected twist, and that was honestly all that kept me going. The beginning of the story seemed like a very clichéd domestic thriller, including all the most overused tropes of the genre, and I found myself literally rolling my eyes as Emily falls into a whirlwind romance and then discovers that her fiancé’s mother appears to be on an absurd rampage to break the two up. Assured by previous readers that the ending would shock me, I trekked along. This in and of itself is enough for me not to recommend this story. Even if the second half of a thriller changes everything you think while reading the first half, both need to be able to stand alone as interesting and intriguing narratives.

None of the characters in this story were especially likeable. Emily is naive and passive, her boyfriend to fiancé-to-husband, Adam, is controlling, his brother James seems to be inexplicably besotted with Emily, although we never really get a clear answer about his actions at the end. As for Pammie, Adam’s mother, she is, as is to be expected, absolutely awful. This seemed incredibly overdone to me. To the point where I almost put the book down for good several times. That being said, it was pretty clear that the ‘twist’ at the end was going to have to do with her not being as bad as she came across. I was intrigued to see how Jones would explain all of Pammie’s actions to conclude the narrative. Unfortunately, the ending fell flat for me. It was predictable at almost every turn, and I didn’t understand why Pammie had to approach everything in such a twisted manner. It becomes clear that she is afraid of what Adam is capable of, and was only trying to protect Emily through the entire plot, but we don’t get a good sense of how scared she is. Why wouldn’t she just try to explain Adam’s violent history to Emily? It was unclear to me how that type of intervention might have gone over.

Congo Bars with The Other Woman

The very ending frustrated me as well. There were definitely abusive aspects to Adam and Emily’s relationship leading up to this point, but when he blatantly admits that he was never, ever faithful to Emily, I didn’t buy it. If this was the case, we needed more hints throughout the first part of the story that their whirlwind romance was not all it seemed to be. As is, it seemed like a random detail thrown in to try to make him seem like the worst person ever at the very end of the story. To quell my frustration about how this book ended up, I ate a whole lot of these Congo Bars. Made with all brown sugar, these are a deliciously chewy variation on traditional blondies. Instead of the baking melts suggested in the recipe, I threw in some Mega M&Ms that I picked up in a clearance Valentine’s Day candy clearout. If you’re able to find some Mega M&Ms, I highly recommend tossing them into this recipe!

My Rating: 🍪🍪
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce ~ Book Review

Morgan

Blood Orange book with donut

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce
Wildfire
Release Date: February 21, 2019
Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

I finished Blood Orange a couple of days ago and I’ve put off writing my review because I’m still not sure how I feel about it. This book definitely sucked me in. The story follows Alison as she is assigned her first murder trial to defend. Alison is clearly career driven and motivated by success in her job, but she struggles to balance her family life. The narrative opens on Alison during a night out after work, during which she gets blackout drunk, and expresses her infatuation with her coworker, Patrick, with whom she’s having a violent affair. She is woken up in her office the next morning by her young daughter Tilly, and her husband Carl.

Despite Alison’s abhorrent behavior, I still found myself siding with her over Carl, who seemed too good to be true. It was pretty clear to me from the beginning that he had some secrets that were going to come to light. The trial Alison is set to defend, is that of a woman who is accused of stabbing her husband to death. Alison speaks to the accused woman several times and learns about the abusive relationship she was entangled with, causing Alison to reevaluate parts of her own marriage.

Tyce has an incredible ability to describe vile situations with intense detail. There were so many scenes in this book that made me physically uncomfortable or disgusted. This isn’t a bad thing, it speaks to the author’s ability is a writer, but it took me a little longer to get through because I couldn’t stomach large amounts of the story at a time.

There are a lot of interwoven parts of Alison’s life that are incorporated into the narrative. Between her attempt to rebuild a relationship with her husband, who is appalled by her drinking, her obsession with staying in Patrick’s life, her love for her daughter, and her career goals, the book never got boring. I definitely had a sense of where parts of the book were going, but other sections, like Patrick’s arc, caught me completely off guard. Despite the darkness that permeates the pages of this story, Tyce kept me interested enough to see this book through to the end. I found the very ending a little random… it didn’t seem fully complete to me, and I’m not a huge fan of crime drama type stories in general, but that’s no reflection of this particular book. Overall, I would hesitate to recommend this book just because parts of it are so gruesome, but there are absolutely readers out there who would enjoy and appreciate it.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

Freefall by Jessica Barry ~ Book Review

Morgan

Freefall and blondies from above

Freefall by Jessica Barry
Harper
Release Date: January 8, 2019
Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Freefall took a little while to suck me in. It starts with a depiction of a plane crash with one survivor, Ally, who is clearly on the run from someone. The chapters alternate between her point of view, and that of her mother, Maggie. Mother and daughter have not seen each other for several years, due to a falling out following the death of Ally’s father. We witness Maggie’s reaction to the news that her daughter has been presumed dead following the crash of a private plane owned by her fiancé, Ben, whom Maggie did not know existed.

Interspersed with Ally’s current narrative, we also get flashbacks into the past few years that her mother missed out on, during which she worked as a waitress at a seedy bar, and became involved in prostitution as a means to make ends meet. When she met Ben, the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, he took her under his wing and began to provide for her in entirety, allowing her to quit her job and spend her days roaming their huge new house and waiting for him to come home. Their relationship was pretty typical of a domestic thriller, with Ben critiquing Ally’s body, buying expensive dresses he knew were too small for her so she would feel pressured to lose weight, and holding his financial security over her head. Their relationship felt a little clichéd for this genre, but it wasn’t a huge focal point of the plot.

For me, the story really picked up when we begin to get insight into Ben’s company, and their highest selling drug, an antidepressant for postpartum depression. We learn that they seem to have been bribing the FDA, and altering the results of their trials to downplay the serious psychosis that is a major side effect for a significant percentage of users. This driving force behind the plot and Ally’s disappearance is what made this book so hard for me to put down. It was a plotline that I had not seen before in this type of novel, and I was constantly trying to guess who was involved and how much each character knew.

Blondies with Freefall in background

The introduction of Tony, an older man who befriends Maggie, was especially interesting, and the way his character tied into the entire investigation at the end had me completely shocked. The role of Ben’s company in the plane crash, and Ally’s motivation to get back home to her mother after so many years kept me glued to the plot.

Despite a general enjoyment of this novel once it got going, Ally’s backstory seemed forced and unnecessary to me, and her relationship with Ben seemed to rely a little too heavily on details that have been used over and over again in similar stories. Nonetheless, the two very differing perspectives and stories of Ally and her mother kept the read interesting until the end and I would absolutely recommend this book, especially with a batch of these thick and chewy blondies.

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