Book Review, Fiction, Magical Realism

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Magical Realism
Read if you liked: The Wishing Game

Zoey arrives at her late-mother’s apartment with the hope that it will help her feel close to her and understand her life more. Upon her arrival at the Dellawisp, she meets a cast of quirky neighbors. When one of them dies in a tragic accident, the neighbors begin to come together and the magic that surrounds the Dellawisp becomes more apparent.

Some of Zoey’s new ‘neighbors’ just so happen to be ghosts and their narration is scattered throughout the story providing insight and perspective to the living characters who they haunt. The whole cast of characters really made this book sparkle. From the secretive estranged sisters, to the shy chef, to the elusive owner of the Dellawisp himself, the group became an unexpected family as they work together to clean out the apartment of the deceased resident in an effort to uncover the secret story she so often mentioned hiding.

The magic of the Dellawisp, which hosts a group of magical birds called dellawisps, was so palpable as was the larger community on Mallow Island. The lore surrounding the island’s famous recluse author was another level of mystery that tied the community together and kept me reading.

I loved the way individual one-on-on resident relationships were explored, each completely different and nuanced. We slowly come to learn the hardships and demons that each person is dealing with and to watch them soften as they open up.

This was a very character-driven story and as such, it felt fairly slow to me and I didn’t find the reveals to be terribly intriguing. That said, it was a very lovely, heartwarming, and unusual tale with a setting that truly came to life in a way that few books are able to achieve. 

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Buy Other Birds at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Heiress By Rachel Hawkins ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller
Read if you liked: Daisy Darker

When Ruby McTavish died, she left her entire fortune and her estate, Ashby House, to her adopted son Camden, who turned down his inheritance and chose to lay low with his wife, Jules. Upon his uncle’s death though, the couple is summoned to Ashby house where the whole family is waiting to discuss the fortune and next steps.

The narration is split into three perspectives, that of Camden, Jules, and the late Ruby. Each voice is so distinct and their points of view and motivations completely different. Weaving them together made for such a layered story. Camden questions his adoption and Ruby’s motivation while Jules feels cautiously optimistic that her luck could change given Camden’s family wealth. Ruby’s voice was probably my favorite. She was sarcastic and witty and her story was startling and surprising at every turn.

There were so many twists in this book but each one made sense and added an exciting element to the story. I loved never knowing who the characters truly were and what was driving their motivations. The story goes as far back as Ruby’s childhood, when she was briefly kidnapped as a girl, and builds from their creating a rich backstory to the present action.

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Buy The Heiress at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Thriller

Ooh this was a twisty one! Evie Porter is living an idyllic American life with her handsome successful boyfriend Ryan, or is she? We quickly come to learn that ‘Evie’ is a fake identity assumed for her job working for the mysterious Mr. Smith. Evie has completed a number of questionable jobs for her employer, but is starting to question how much she can trust him. She’s also starting to quite like her life with Ryan.

This story splits the narrative between past and present, introducing many of the different identities Evie has adopted over the years and the jobs they have been associated with. Not gonna lie, I could not keep track of them all. I think including so many was supposed to paint a clear picture of how her relationship with Mr. Smith evolved over time, but it each vignette seemed so separate that it was hard for me to tie everything together chronologically and cohesively in my mind.

I did enjoy getting to see the true relationships that Evie made throughout the years and how she was able to either get help from them in the future as her cover is threatened, or to manipulate them based on past knowledge and experience. She was smart and crafty and made for a fun protagonist.

Evie is primarily trying to figure out what Mr. Smith’s intent is throughout the book, particularly when she finds herself being set up for a crime that happened in her vicinity during a past job. While she digs into these issues, she also has to figure out what to tell Ryan and how to keep their relationship in tact. There was a lot going on, which made this book go fast.

I definitely didn’t see the ending coming, and it made me rethink much of what I’d been told throughout the book, which I love from a thriller. It was a really satisfying wrap-up to Evie’s character and made her like her even more.

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Buy First Lie Wins at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Nonfiction, Self Help

The Confidence Gap by Russ Harris ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Self help

This book was definitely not what I was expecting, but I also flew through it much faster than anticipated. It made me question my own definition of confidence and what actually makes someone confident. It starts by exploring confidence as a concept and then introduces activities to help achieve a more confident mindset.

The main themes throughout this book are creating a better relationship with fear and anxiety, clarifying and living in your values, learning how to handle negative thoughts and emotions, and implementing ‘confident’ actions, regardless of how you’re actually feeling. 

I found the exercises, particularly around negative thinking and fear, to be very helpful and easy to put into practice. I had never really considered the relationships between negative thoughts, fear, and confidence, but throughout the book it came to make a lot of sense to me that knowing how to effectively handle these negative emotions leaves space for feeling more confidence.

The concepts and exercises used in this book were really interesting and helpful, but also REALLY repetitive. By the end I was skimming because it felt like I was reading the same chapters over and over again. I would absolutely recommend this book, but it could have been about ⅔ as long and still covered all the content it needed to.

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Buy The Confidence Gap at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The New Couple in 5B By Lisa Unger ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller
Read if you liked: Lock Every Door

Rosie and Chad’s lives are forever changed when they inherit a luxury apartment in the esteemed Windermere in New York City from Chad’s late uncle. Initially, Rosie couldn’t be more thrilled at their change of circumstances, but as she learns more and more about the building’s dark past, she begins to suspect there’s something deeply disturbing still happening there.

There have been a lot of thrillers in recent years that focus on a creepy old building that seems to take on a life of its own. In my opinion, those other thrillers approach the premise a lot better than this one. The supernatural elements seemed very plot device-y and thrown in to try to do all the heavy lifting of making the Windermere seem spooky.

I had trouble connecting with the main characters, which made it difficult for me to get invested in their story. That said, the mystery surrounding their neighbors and the constant surveillance in the building intrigued me.

The story is told with alternating timelines and I was holding my breath to see how they tied together. The plotline set in the past is what kept me invested in unraveling the connections between past and present occurrences.

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Buy The New Couple in 5B at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, Science Fiction

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Science Fiction
Read if you liked: A Psalm for the Wild-Built

To be back with Sibling Dex and Mosscap was such a joy. I loved A Psalm for the Wild-Built and truly questioned whether a sequel could give me the same peaceful/warm squishy feelings. In this story, the two are headed into the cities to allow Mosscap to learn more about humanity. Its arrival is heralded with much excitement anywhere it goes, a very new and somewhat overwhelming experience for both of our main characters.

Since this book was more focused on towns and cities, it lost some of the charm of wandering the forests in peace that I so loved in the first book. For about the first half, I was discouraged that this would keep me from fully enjoying the story, but wouldn’t you know it, Sibling Dex and Mosscap felt the exact same was as I did.

This was another philosophical, heartwarming, thoughtful story set in a world that is nuanced and fascinating. I usually find it a slog to read through a bunch of world building, but in this case, I loved uncovering more and it added so much depth to the book.

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Buy A Prayer for the Crown-Shy at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Thriller
Read if you liked: Final Girls

What a chilling read. Bright Young Women is a fictionalized retelling of Ted Bundy’s crimes told in alternating perspectives from two women, Pamela and Tina, who were close with his victims, as well as one of the victims herself, Ruth. It highlights the incompetence of law enforcement of catching and sentencing a serial killer and the vibrance and promise of the women whose lives he cut short.

Although this is largely a story following The Defendant’s crimes and sentencing, it delves deeply into Pamela, Tina, and Ruth’s lives, interests, desires and past trauma. Each one is richly detailed and it was so heartbreaking to see how their lives were altered forever by the actions of The Defendant.

Much of this book aims at highlighting the fact that The Defendant was not smart and attractive as media made out in the real case, he was actually quite dim and it was the lack of accountability in law enforcement that allowed him to continue murdering so many women.

I really appreciated that this was a true-crime style book that centered the victims and didn’t even name the perpetrator. It was a unique way to tell this story and one that I found powerful, although a bit slow for the first half.

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Buy Bright Young Women at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Romance
Read if you liked: One Night on the Island

This book is SCREAMING to be made into a romcom movie. For a living, Laura writes about how different couples met, and her boss is looking for a twist on their usual narratives. On a whim, Laura suggests telling the love story of her late-parents and soon finds herself on a whirlwind trip to the place where they met. When she arrives, she accidentally grabs the wrong suitcase at the airport, the contents of which point to it belonging to the man of her dreams. Laura teams up with grumpy taxi driver Ted, and they begin a twofold journey to relive her parent’s romance and to find the owner of the suitcase.

The premise of this book was so cute and it was executed exactly as you’d expect it to be; packed with warm, genuine small-town characters and self-discovery as Laura’s journey uncovers unexpected truths about her family. The romance was a slow burn, but I lovedd the build-up and Laura’s experience figuring out what she really valued in a partner. 

There were some romcom tropes that felt a little far-fetched to me and one love interest I found super annoying. I think this book did everything it was trying to do, it just wasn’t anything particularly novel or groundbreaking. Overall a sweet story, but not my favorite by Sophie Cousens.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Just Haven’t Met You Yet at an indie bookstore near you
Just Haven’t Met You Yet on Goodreads

Book Review, Romance

You, With a View by Jessica Joyce ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Romance
Read if you liked: Mrs. Nash’s Ashes

After Noelle loses her grandmother, she discovers photos and letters hinting at an old flame her grandmother had and never told her about. Noelle and her grandmother shared all their secrets, or so she thought, and she takes to TikTok for answers about the lost love she never knew about. Noelle is ultimately successful in tracking down Paul, only to discover that he’s the grandfather of her devastatingly handsome high school rival, Theo. Together, the three of them set off to take the road trip Paul never got to take with Noelle’s grandmother.

First of all, posting the info about her grandma without asking her family first felt weird to me, although Noelle seems to have issues telling the truth to people she cares about, so I guess that tracks. That part aside, I loved the premise of this story, Noelle’s unlikely friendship with Paul, and the way he told his story over the course of their travels through the letters he got from Noelle’s grandma.

The actual trip itself was pretty boring. It had so much potential, but it kept focusing on Noelle feeling guilty for not being honest about her life, Theo being in awe of her photography skills, and her going through comments on her TikToks. There wasn’t a whole lot of substance, particularly enough to make the romance feel realistic.

The concept behind this book was incredible and there certain relationships that I really enjoyed. I also love a ‘finding yourself road trip.’ The overall execution though, was lacking for me.

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Buy You, With a View at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, Magical Realism

The Good Part by Sophie Cousens ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Romance/Magical Realism
Read if you liked: The Seven Year Slip

Ooh I loved this book. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: I’m a sucker for a story with a whisper of magical realism. In The Good Part, Lucy is tired of struggling through her days as a defeated-feeling twenty-six year old. When she stops into a little shop to hide from the rain and notices a whimsical wishing machine, she makes a wish to skip ahead to the good part of her life. When she wakes up, Lucy finds that her wish has been granted.

I was definitely stresseddd for Lucy at times as she tries to adjust to her new life in the future and scared that she would really screw things up. There were moments, particularly with her husband, that were heartbreaking as she tries to communicate her reality while also feeling utterly disconnected from the life around her. I was obsessed with the fact that her little son was trying so hard to help her find her time machine. Their relationship was so sweet and I loved its unconventional nature.

Lucy quickly realizes that skipping out on a huge chunk of her life is perhaps not exactly what she wanted for herself. As she grows closer to the new people in her life, she’s forced to decide if she wanted to go back in time and get to live out all those missed years even though there is no guarantee that her actions will lead her back to this exact future.

Spending time with Lucy and her friends and family was such a joy. I loved the support systems around her and seeing everyone’s attempts to help her. The dilemma she has to deal with was especially thought-provoking and made my heart hurt for her in the way only great writing can do.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Good Part at an indie bookstore near you
The Good Part on Goodreads