Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

Thriller
My Rating: 🍪

While Nora was growing up, the basement door to her dad’s workshop was always locked. Now, he is serving a lifetime in prison for the murders he committed in that very basement. When several of Nora’s surgical patients wind up killed in the same manner as her dad’s victims, it turns her life upside down.

I struggled a lot with this one because I found Nora so naive and annoying. Her thoughts moved in very repetitive circles and the red herrings she kept falling for were pretty obvious. The repetition made it hard for me to get invested enough to want to know what was really going on.

I like thrillers that have a shocking ending that *makes sense* in hindsight and I wished there had been more hints along the way leading up to the ending of this one. Overall, it was a miss for me.

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Buy The Locked Door at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Romance

The Roommate by Rosie Danan ~ Book Review

Morgan

Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪

I feel like The Roommate was trying to be edgy and just not delivering. The protagonist, Clara, is from a high society east coast family and we meet her as she’s moving across the country to room with her childhood friend who she’s been in love with forever. Instead, she ends up rooming with Josh, a porn star. What would her upper crust family say if they could see her now?!

I found Clara immensely unlikable. She was obsessed with her family image and it seemed like she kept harping on the same few details about herself over and over. Her ‘flaws’ were mentioned so many times and I wished that space has been used to further the action in the story.

There was not enough of a lead up to the romance for me, and I didn’t feel like there was a deep connection between Clara and Josh. It felt very surface level and yet they spoke about it as if it was much more.

I’ll give this book credit for having a story arc that I haven’t quite seen before, but the pacing was off to the point that it was almost a DNF.

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The Roommate on Goodreads
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Book Review, Fiction, Historical Fiction

The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner ~ Book review

Morgan

Historical Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

The London Séance Society takes place in 1870s Europe and focuses on the spiritualists who abounded at the time. Lenna Wickes agrees to take up an apprenticeship with renowned spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire in an effort to get clarity about her sister’s death. The two are summoned to investigate the death of one of the members of the London Séance Society and soon find themselves questioning what to believe.

I felt totally immersed in the setting of this story, as expected from a Sarah Penner book. Both the location and the time period were depicted in a way that made me innately understand how the story took place within their context. It was atmospheric and totally drew me in.

Lenna’s skepticism made her an interesting narrator and I was eager to uncover with her what parts of the spiritualism she was learning about were real and how it all tied into her sister’s death. The second narrator, Mr. Morley of the London Séance Society was less compelling and I found his sections a bit dry.

As intriguing as I found the premise of this story, it felt more drawn out than it needed to be. If it had been tightened up a bit, I think I would have been more intrigued, but I was growing kind of tired of the mystery as it went on.

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Buy The London Séance Society at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Never Lie by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

I really love thrillers with big old houses that act as their own character and Never Lie was just such a book. Tricia and her husband attend an open house at a remote mansion only to get snowed in during a storm. The house belonged to the late Adrienne Hale, a psychiatrist who disappeared years prior. As the storm rages outside, Tricia begins to explore and discovers a series of cassette tapes that Dr. Hale used to record sessions with patients.

I knew from the get-go that everything was not as it seemed in this story. The ‘being locked in a creepy house during a storm’ thing was kind of cliche and I’ve read a lot of similar thrillers, so I knew the chances of me being blown away weren’t super high. The first half of the book was pretty slow. It was a lot of hearing creepy sounds and then nothing happening. What kept it interesting were the interspersed recordings of Dr. Hale’s sessions. I was intrigued to figure out how they would fit into the present.

I definitely did not see the big twist(s) coming and I was pleasantly shocked, but the ending was just okay and didn’t live up the the thrill that I think the twists could have provided.

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Book Review, Romance

Love Buzz by Neely Tubati-Alexander ~ Book Review

Morgan

Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

When Serena meets Julian while at a bachelorette party in New Orleans, they have an instantaneous chemistry that she has never before experienced. Her singular fixation on finding him sends her carefully curated plans for her life completely off course and makes her question what she truly wants from her life.

This book focuses a lot on self-discovery and the societally-imposed pressure that comes with nearing thirty. Serena’s confusion about what she really wants from life and her struggle with people-pleasing were relatable and made her a really appealing main character. The secondary characters who surrounded her were detailed and well-written also and I enjoyed learning about her support system.

The endless quest to find Julian made the story drag and feel a bit repetitive to me, not to mention unbelievable. I liked that it was the spark that started Serena on a journey of self-discovery, but I wish it had either been less of a focus or leaned in and been more of a romance.

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Buy Love Buzz at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Nonfiction

The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee ~ Book Review

Morgan

Nonfiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

In The Sum of Us, McGhee paints a portrait of the zero-sum mentality as it pertains to racism. Through interviews across America, she shows how harmful the mindset that one race, or person, benefiting innately harms someone else is to everyone as a whole. McGhee utilizes real-life examples of people’s perceptions and historical incidents to show how the zero-sum game has played out across the country and what benefits could have been gained from a more communal mindset.

McGhee is clearly an expert in her field and her insights on the detriments of racism to the economy were stark. She paints a hopeful picture of how working as a community to address harmful laws and policies would get us much further in terms of positive economic changes for the masses. I wished there were a few more concrete examples of how her recommendations could be implemented, but I guess the focus of the book was more so on recognizing the problem and its impacts.

Overall, this was an eye-opening book that covers the historical and modern-day implications of the zero-sum game, as it pertains to racism, on the American economy.

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Buy The Sum of Us at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune ~ Book Review

Morgan

Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

I COULD NOT WAIT to read Meet Me at the Lake but unfortunately, I found it underwhelming. Fern and Will met once for an unforgettable 24 hours in their early twenties and planned to meet up again one year later at Fern’s mom’s lakeside resort. Will never showed up, and Fern has wondered why for ten years. When he appears back in her life, seemingly completely different than before, there’s a lot to answer for.

The book jumps back and forth between the present day at the resort and the past, focusing on Will and Fern’s day together in the city. I enjoyed the setting of the resort, it brought back some of the magic of Every Summer After through the beautiful descriptions. Fern is reeling from the loss of her mom, and there’s a sadness that permeates her entire present-day narrative.

The sections in the past were not so compelling to me. I didn’t really get the whole instant incredible connection between Will and Fern that was supposed to drive the entire story. It made it hard for me to really feel invested in their relationship.

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Buy Meet Me at the Lake at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction

The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

Ahh this book was so good!! To be back in Nantucket with Elin Hilderbrand and a new story is always such a joy. Hollis and her husband argue one morning before he leaves for a trip and when he dies in a car accident hours later, Hollis is left with more questions than answers. Months later, as she continues to process her loss, she organizes a five-star weekend with four friends from different parts of her life. Although they’ve never all spent time together before, Hollis hopes the camaraderie and support will help her to feel whole.

Hollis is a food blogger so you already know the descriptions of food and hosting details are spectacular. As always, Hilderbrand did not disappoint with creating an atmosphere you can practically feel coming to life around you.

The five “stars,” plus Hollis’s daughter are all dealing with a different kind of life event, either publicly or privately. They were all very distinct experiences and I found it really compelling to get to see inside each of their heads and to understand how they chose to deal with what they were going through. Although the amount of people to keep track of got a little confusing at times, by the end I was invested in each individual one.

There were definitely some things I didn’t see coming and the amount of drama combined with the bougie Nantucket summer vibes made this book hard to put down.

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Buy The Five-Star Weekend at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, thriller

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins ~ Book Review

Morgan

Mystery
My Rating: 🍪🍪.5

Emily and her ex-best friend (who is now a successful self-help guru) head to an Italian villa for a friendship rekindling. The villa they stay at was the scene of the murder of Pierce Sheldon in the ‘70s. As Emily explores, she starts to believe there was more to the story of the villa’s past than the public has been led to believe. The more she digs in though, the more her friend Chess begins acting like perhaps she was not so sincere in her intentions for inviting Emily on the trip.

This narrative bounces back and forth between Emily and Chess’s timeline and the ‘70s, following a group of four staying at the villa leading up to the murder. I found the characters in the past hard to keep track of and their stories were not very compelling to me. No one was detailed enough for me to feel empathetic to their experiences.

There’s a twist in the present day narrative near the end that seemed completely random. I didn’t feel like there was enough backstory to see if coming, so it just felt dropped in as a plot device.

Although I love the use of a building as almost a central character to the story, and I appreciated the mystery and hunting for clues, there wasn’t much else that worked for me in this one.

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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

The Housemaid is a pretty standard domestic thriller, but man did it suck me in. Millie, recently out of prison, is desperate to find employment and thinks she hit the jackpot when Nina Winchester hires her as a live-in housemaid. Although her attic room that has a lock on the outside is a littttle concerning, Millie’s just thankful to not be living in her car anymore. Soon, Nina’s unpredictable cruelty begins to weigh on Millie.

This was the kind of thriller where I knew things were not as they seemed, but I was always one step behind. I had a general sense that the relationships within the household were being influenced by something I was in the dark about and I couldn’t stop reading until I knew more. There’s a perspective shift from Millie to Nina partway through the book that I was not expecting but loved. Getting the opposite perspective put the first half of the book wonderfully into perspective.

Ultimately, the ending of this book really sealed the deal for me. Even though we did get some different points of view throughout, the ending showed just how much calculation and manipulation were going on behind the scenes and it was so satisfying. I will definitely be reading more Freida McFadden!

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