Book Review, Romance

Meant to be Mine by Hannah Orenstein ~ Book Review

Morgan

Atria Books
Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

I loved the concept behind Meant to be Mine. Edie’s Grandma has successfully predicted the date that all her family members will meet the love of their life. When Edie finds herself sitting next to a handsome stranger on her match day, she knows it’s meant to be. When cracks begin to form in the relationship, Edie finds herself lost and confused, trying to figure out how her reality fits in with her expectations of fate.

Edie’s family was so wonderfully crafted. From her lovable Grandma to her sister and parents, they formed a warm and wonderful support system for Edie and I loved the representation of Judaism in everyday life. I also really appreciated that Edie was successful and confident in herself. So many romance novels have a down-on-her-luck protagonist, but Edie was already killing it as a stylist and I loved that for her.

I guessed where the narrative would ultimately end up, but nonetheless, I had a wonderful time getting there with Edie and her gang and there was one twist that I wasn’t expecting and that added a lot to both the story and Edie’s perception of her life.

Overall, Meant to be Mine was an immersive and bittersweet exploration of Edie’s reckoning with her perceptions of how she always thought her life would go.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Meant to be Mine at an indie bookstore near you
Meant to be Mine on Goodreads

Book Review, Nonfiction

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy ~ Book Review

Morgan

Simon & Schuster
Memoir
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

This book was so hard to read, but I could not stop. Jennette is an incredibly talented writer and the way she details her childhood makes it feel like everything is happening to her in the present. She unflinchingly details the abuse she underwent from her mother, and how at the time, she fully believed her mother was acting in Jennette’s own best interest. This included forcing Jennette to become a child actress, teaching her disordered eating, and showering her until she was a teenager.

The way that Jennette paints her own childhood views of her mom were so heartbreaking. She would do everything in her power to please her mom with no concept of anything being wrong with their relationship.

Although this memoir is told through the lens of someone who was a successful child actor, it is really a personal and reflective narrative of Jennette’s specific struggles. It is not a tell-all about the industry, but it does show how Jennette’s life was so heavily and negatively impacted by being part of the industry.

Jennette’s struggles with eating disorders and addiction were especially impactful. Although she invokes dry humor into her stories wonderfully, the pain of the experiences she shares will stick with me for a long time.

At the end of the memoir, Jennette talks about finally getting help through therapy. I do wish there had been a little more about how she’s doing now, to help provide some hope for those struggling with anything she discussed and to show how she has (hopefully!) grown and healed.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy I’m Glad My Mom Died at an indie bookstore near you
I’m Glad My Mom Died on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

The Beach Trap by Ali Brady ~ Book Review

Morgan

Berkley Books
Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Going into The Beach Trap I was expecting major Parent Trap vibes, given that it started with two best friends at camp who find out they have the same dad (also I just realized the name is modeled after it too). Blake and Kat however, have a falling out upon the discovery, and don’t see each other again until they are each told that they’ve jointly inherited their dad’s beach house following his death. The women begrudgingly reunite and decide to renovate the dilapidated house before putting it on the market and out of their minds.

Apparently summertime romance/house renovation is a min-genre in itself, and I have to say I’m here for it. I loved hearing about the décor choices and redesigns and the way the two women’s personalities went into their approach to the project.

Kat and Blake had very different personalities and life trajectories and their characters were well developed and believable. Each woman found herself dabbling with a summer romance, of course, but their relationship with each other was much more central and made more of an impact on me.

I liked that this was able to be a romance and beachy kind of read while also exploring the complexities of different types of familial relationships. It had a little of everything and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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

Book Review, mystery

The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda ~ Book Review

Morgan

Scribner
Mystery
My Rating: 🍪🍪

I loved the setting of The Last to Vanish. It took place at The Passage Inn in the town of Cutter’s Pass, most notably known for outdoor recreation and its access to the Appalachian Trail. It’s also, however, known for a string of unsolved disappearances of hikers over the years. The descriptions of the inn and the natural surroundings were wonderfully depicted and I could perfectly visualize the story unfolding.

The protagonist, Abby has managed the inn for ten years. She begins to feel increasingly troubled by the disappearances when the brother of the most recent man to go missing shows up to investigate. Abby begins to suspect that her neighbors and coworkers are not being honest about what they know.

There were so many characters in this book that I couldn’t keep track of them. No one had a stark enough personality to orient me to who was saying and doing what and it made it very confusing to try to stay invested in the mystery. It also felt to me like not much happened for the majority of the storyline, and the twists at the end were extremely anticlimactic. 

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

Book Review, mystery, thriller

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager ~ Book Review

Morgan

Dutton
Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪.5

If you watched The Woman Across the Street from the Girl in the Window,  a Netflix show satirizing the thriller genre, the premise of The House Across the Lake will feel a little on the nose. Casey’s life has gone off the rails. Following the drowning of her husband at their lake house, she starts drinking heavily, causing her acting career to go off the rails and her to flee back to the lake house for privacy. Out of curiosity, she begins spying on the couple across the lake and begins to believe that something sinister is at play.

Sager created a rich setting with the lake community and Casey’s big empty house. The story is shadowed by the fading news of several nearby disappearances that keep Casey constantly on edge. Her excessive drinking makes her a classic unreliable narrator, and I enjoyed trying to untangle what was real and what she was extrapolating, as well as which of her neighbors could be trusted.

I was really into this book until about two-thirds of the way in when it took a kind of supernatural twist that I was not feeling. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t like ghost-y stuff in thrillers. If I couldn’t theoretically have guessed the twist before it happened, it’s not my kind of read. Despite how enthralled I was with the beginning of this book, the twist really lost me.

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

Book Review, Romance

Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score ~ Book Review

Morgan

That’s What She Said Publishing
Romance
My Rating: 🍪

Things We Never Got Over is SUCH a bookstagram darling and I am so confused about it. I’m keeping my review short because this book gets a single star for me and I don’t want to rage on about it for too long because I’m somehow in the very tiny minority.

This book is like 700 pages long, but somehow…nothing happens?! There’s an inane amount of time spent on Naomi being naive and helpless (and so addicted to caffeine that coffee was brought up on every other page) as she tries to track down her ‘evil twin’ sister and runs into grumpy, personality-less Knox. There was no build-up to their romance, which is a huge pet-peeve of mine. I want to *feel* the chemistry before they’re suddenly in love.

The big action at the end of the book was laughable and so at odds with everything else that I believed nothing.

The small-town setting was well-done, and I really liked Naomi’s sister’s daughter and her relationship with everyone who helped take care of her. Knox and Naomi had some cute moments, but I disliked them both so much that was kind of negated. Big pass for me.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Things We Never Got Over at an indie bookstore near you
Things We Never Got Over on Goodreads

Book Review, mystery

The Maid by Nita Prose ~ Book Review

Morgan

Ballantine Books
Mystery
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

The Maid has one of the most interesting narrators I’ve ever encountered. Prose does an insanely good job at getting readers inside the head of Molly the maid, who has difficulty socializing and understanding the intentions and true meanings of other people’s words. The way she is written helps the reader to perfectly understand the way that Molly misinterprets things and really made me empathize with her.

When Molly finds one of the guests at the hotel she cleans dead, she is taken in for questioning by the police and quickly becomes a person of interest. Molly interacts with both colleagues and guests at the hotel, and filtered through the lens of Molly, the reader learns there’s something deeply sinister happening at the hotel.

This was definitely a slow burn with a focus on characters rather than action, but the settings and relationships were described in such intricate detail that the story never felt boring.

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

Book Review, thriller

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney ~ Book Review

Morgan

Flatiron Books
Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

I saw so many glowing reviews of Rock Paper Scissors before I read it, but I was honestly pretty bored through most of it. Adam and Amelia are on a weekend getaway to Scotland, hopeful that it will help to rebuild their crumbling marriage. When they arrive though, sinister events slowly unfold, leaving them stranded together in increasingly suspicious circumstances.

This thriller was extremely atmospheric, primarily taking place in an old converted church in the middle of nowhere during a snowstorm. The setting alone introduced tension and heightened the rising concern Adam and Amelia felt toward the strange and inexplicable things going on around them. A lot of the creepy details thrown into the narrative were, however, never explained, which really bothered me. It left a lot of loose ends that needed to be wrapped into the conclusion in order for me to fully buy what was going on.

Adam suffers from face blindness which, to me, felt too much like a plot device and didn’t seem to be implemented realistically.

I was very intrigued to find out what was going on in this narrative, which also included somewhat strange anniversary letters to Adam. The format definitely helped me whip through this book, but given the random red herrings and plot device-y feel, I can’t say I would recommend it. 

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Rock Paper Scissors at an indie bookstore near you
Rock Paper Scissors on Goodreads

Book Review, Romance, YA

When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord ~ Book Review

Morgan

Wednesday Books
YA Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

When You Get the Chance is a very sweet, musical theater heavy story. Millie Price dreams of starring on Broadway, and she’s just landed a spot in a program that just might get her there. All that stands in her way is her dad and the looming summer ahead. When she comes across an old journal of her dad’s from college, she realizes her other dream, of finding her mom, might be closer than she realized. Enter a Mamma Mia retelling from stage left.

I really appreciated Millie’s relationship with her shy dad. They had such a sweet and believable relationship, and it was clear that her father had done everything he could to give her the world.

The adventures Millie had running around NYC gave me The Devil Wears Prada vibes. The details of the hustle and craziness of the city made it come to life, which was especially heightened by the fact that I happened to be visiting the city while I was reading.

This story had a really wonderful message, and I loved seeing the growth of Millie’s character as she came to realize what was really most important in her life and became more aware of everything she already had. Romance was definitely part of the storyline, but Millie’s relationships with her family and herself were really at the heart of it for me.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
When You Get the Chance on Goodreads
Buy When You Get the Chance at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer ~ Book Review

Morgan

Forever
Romance
My Rating: 🍪

Oof, this should have been a DNF. Honestly, the meet-cute in In a New York Minute was cute and I liked the set-up as Franny as the down-on-her-luck protagonist who’s worst day goes viral on social media. I was excited when she was brought back together with Hayes, the man who gave her his suit jacket when her dress ripped open on the subway. After that though, the story fell flat for me.

I don’t want to go into too much depth because this was clearly not for me. The writing style insisted upon itself – forcing details on the reader by just telling us things instead of showing us through the main characters.

The side plots were underdeveloped and made me not care about them, and I felt not chemistry between the two main characters. Hayes in particular had no discernible personality.

Anyway, please go read some other reviews of this book if you’re thinking of reading it. I’ve already forgotten any other relevant details about it.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy In a New York Minute at an indie bookstore near you
In a New York Minute on Goodreads