Book Review, Fiction

Cover Story by Susan Rigetti ~ Book Review

Morgan

William Morrow
Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

Cover Story follows Lora Ricci as she embarks on a summer internship with ELLE magazine. It’s your classic naïve-girl-in-the-big-city storyline, which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the premise, it just wasn’t terribly original. The narrative was broken up by emails and diary entries which was a fun format that made the story fly by.

Lora is taken under the wing of Cat Wolff, a contribution editor who lives at the Plaza Hotel. I’m a sucker for a story set in NYC, and I enjoyed reading about the opulence of Cat’s life, especially through the eyes of Lora. Lora agrees to act as Cat’s ghostwriter, anticipating that this might be her big break.

What bumped this story up to three stars for me was the plot twist at the very end, which had me rethinking the entire book. I love it when stories do that, and certainly wasn’t expecting it from this kind of narrative. That being said, the rest of it felt a little too much like a wannabe knockoff of Anna Delvey.

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Book Review, Romance, YA

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston ~ Book Review

Morgan

St. Martin’s Press
YA Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Thanks to Libro.fm for my audiobook!

What a strange concept for a book. When Shara Wheeler goes missing weeks before high school graduation, Smith, Rory, and Chloe all find themselves banding together to look for her. The three have nothing in common until they realize that leading up to her disappearance, Shara kissed all of them. They soon discover that she has also left cryptic notes for them.

I liked that the notes led them to locations and disclosed information that made them realize they did not know everything about Shara. It was a fun and unexpected way to slowly peel back the layers of a character who largely wasn’t actually in the book.

I found the whole premise of this book confusing. It seemed like Shara and Chloe had very little contact before Shara disappeared besides being competitors for valedictorian. Why then was Chloe suddenly obsessed with finding Shara, to the point of completely neglecting her own best friend? Was Shara truly ‘missing?’ If so, why did no one else in the whole town except these three random high schoolers seem invested in finding her? The lack of clarity around the main plot was hard for me to overlook.

The characters were well developed and the high school environment and surrounding locations were detailed, fun, and interesting, but I struggled to get fully invested in the randomness of the narrative arc.

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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose ~ Book Review

Morgan

Bloodhound Books
Thriller
Release Date: July 13, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪

The Perfect Marriage opens like your classic domestic thriller. Adam has been engaging in an affair, primarily taking place at the lake house he and his wife Sarah own. Sarah is a defense attorney who is typically too busy to join her husband for outings to the lake house. Adam is frustrated and resentful of his wife, and has come to realize that he wants to be with his mistress Kelly. That is, until she’s found dead and he’s suspected of her murder.

The first issue I had with this book was Sarah defending Adam for the murder of his mistress. Excuse me?! In what world would that happen. I had trouble looking past that as the investigation into the crime got under way.

I was, however, intrigued with how the police force and Kelly’s mysterious and possibly violent history would all play into her ultimate murder. For the most part, I couldn’t stop reading. I really was invested in figuring out what had happened to her.

Alas, the ending. I think I rolled my eyes. It was not a twist so much as a convenient fallback that left me disappointed.

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Buy The Perfect Marriage at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson ~ Book Review

Morgan

Ballantine Books
Fiction
Release Date: February 1, 2022
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

Black Cake was a very winding story. Although much of it is a slow-burning character driven exploration of a family, there was an unexpected mystery baked in as well. Siblings Byron and Benny find themselves faced with a letter left behind for them after their mother Eleanor’s death, along with a traditional Caribbean black cake for them to eat together when the time is right. As they delve into the letter, the two begin to realize that there was much more to Eleanor’s life than they ever could have imagined.

Eleanor’s story was intricate, heartbreaking, and compelling. The challenges she was up against were interesting and intricate. Her story pulled me in much more fully than those of Byron and Benny. Although fully grown, the two seemed to lack maturity, and their stories felt shallow, particularly in comparison to the richness of the characters surrounding Eleanor and her life.

There was a lottt that went on in this book to the point where I had some trouble following along and keeping track of characters, and the ending seemed like a rushed effort to tie everything together.

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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter ~ Book Review

Morgan

William Morrow
Thriller
Release Date: July 2, 2015
My Rating: 🍪🍪

Not sure what I just read. I completely get that thrillers often have problematic and/or disturbing narratives and themes, but Pretty Girls was wayyy out there. Central to the story’s narrative arc is the theme of missing girls. One has recently disappeared, making the main character Claire reflect on her sister’s mysterious disappearance when they were both teenagers.

Simultaneously, Claire begins to discover threads of her husband’s life that lead her to believe that he may not be at all the man she thought he was. When she discovers some extremely realistic, horrifying, and violent porn on his computer, she can’t shake the feeling that there’s more going on than a horrific fetish.

The descriptions of the porn in this novel were so incredibly disturbing. This was a pretty central theme, be warned. I felt like far too much time was spent trying to make the reader uncomfortable with these super detailed descriptions and not enough was spent actually trying to tie the different parts of the story together into a thriller that made sense.

The conclusions drawn by the end of the story ultimately felt far-fetched and unbelievable. Besides the descriptions, nothing felt especially shocking in a good way. Instead, the ‘twists’ had me rolling my eyes more than anything else.

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Buy Pretty Girls at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Book Lovers by Emily Henry ~ Book Review

Morgan

Berkley
Romance
Release Date: May 3, 2022
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

Emily Henry’s books are like a warm hug and Book Lovers was no exception. It follows Nora Stephen, a successful literary agent who agrees to join her little sister Libby on a girl’s vacation to the town where one of her favorite books is set. Libby comes prepared with a secret checklist of Hallmark-esque experiences she wants the two to have together, but Nora finds herself distracted by work and by an unexpected run in with Charlie, an editor she’d had unpleasant interactions with in the past.

I loved the contrast between Nora’s cutthroat work persona and the cheesy charming activities Libby tries to force upon her during their vacation. The book that Nora finds herself working on was an entertaining and unexpected addition to the story and I liked the way she and Charlie connected over the content. How could I not fall for two book lovers?

As always, Henry knows how to create a detailed and wonderfully interesting and vivid setting, and how to craft chemistry with a buildup that keeps me glued to the pages. The family history and the way the sisters look out for one another added a lot of depth to the characters and the ending completely made me melt.

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Book Review, Fiction

The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

Little, Brown & Company
Fiction
Release Date: June 14, 2022 (Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC!)
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

Ah, to be back in Elin Hilderbrand’s world! The Hotel Nantucket transported me instantly to sun-soaked Nantucket and the glamour of the newly renovated and incredibly posh Hotel Nantucket. Lizbet Keaton, hired to be the general manager by the mysteries Xavier Darling, who himself has never seen the hotel, scrambles to hire an eclectic mix of employees to get the place up and running. The cast of characters had such wonderful dynamics with one another. Even though there were a lot of them, each was so unique that I never mixed anyone up or felt confusion over who was who.

I was the littlest bit thrown off by the part of the narrative told by a ghost, but I promise it wasn’t too disruptive to the rest of the story – and I’m not one who usually enjoys that kind of suspension of reality in an otherwise realistic story. Although there was not a ton of action in the day to day goings on of the hotel, the secrets and drama of each individual employee grew and complicated over time in a way that made this book hard to put down.

As always, Hilderbrand’s descriptions of everything from room décor to cocktails leapt off the page and illustrated every aspect of the novel. I felt that things were a little rushed and maybe not entirely thought out at the very end of the story, but other than that, I loved every page.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Hotel Nantucket at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, mystery, thriller

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth ~ Book Review

Morgan

St. Martin’s Press
Mystery
Release Date: October 26, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

Heather meets Stephen when she’s hired as an interior decorator for his wife, who has dementia. As her condition deteriorates and she is moved to a care facility, Heather and Stephen soon find themselves romantically involved. Stephen’s two grown daughters Tully and Rachel are shocked when Stephen announces his engagement to Heather, who’s younger than them.

Tully, Rachel, and Heather all narrate the story and have really rich backstories. That being said, the issues they have dealt with including eating disorders, rape, and kleptomania seemed like they were included as personality traits and were glossed over. The seriousness of these issues did not feel addressed enough to me. Instead, they were used over and over for descriptors of the women.

The book includes flashes to a tragedy occurring at Stephen and Heather’s wedding, narrated by an unknown fourth narrator. I enjoyed the way this built suspense and how the rest of the threads of the story all lead to that point.

I was surprised that there wasn’t a twist at the end of this book. To me, it didn’t feel like much of a thriller since what was going on was pretty much explained to us early on. This felt much more character-driven to me than a true thriller. That being said, I did think it was an interesting character exploration, and I liked reading about the narrators and Stephen’s influence on their lives.

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

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant ~ Book Review

Morgan

Minotaur Books
Thriller
Release Date: November 16, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

These Silent Woods is classified as a thriller, but I definitely don’t think that’s quite accurate. I found it to be really character-driven and slow paced, but not in a bad way. Cooper lives with his daughter Finch in a remote cabin in the woods. They have one neighbor, Scotland, and a friend named Jake who brings supplies to them every year.

When Finch sees a girl out hiking in the woods one day, she becomes curious about her. Finch’s isolation causes her to begin to obsess about the girl and her life. Cooper is clearly uncomfortable with Finch’s interest, and it’s clear that something sinister occurred in his past that keeps him hiding out with his daughter.

The secluded setting and the small patch of forest that was Finch and Cooper’s world were so vividly depicted. I felt like I was seeing the cabin and the woods through their eyes. 

I was anticipating there being some sort of explosive and shocking discovery as to what caused Cooper to flee to the woods, but instead, there was a slowly unfolding and heartbreaking account of his history and the hardships he’d fought through to stay with Finch.

These Silent Woods was hauntingly atmospheric and told a unique and captivating story, but I would not classify it as being particularly shocking or thrilling.

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Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey ~ Book Review

Morgan

Avon Books
Romance
Release Date: March 1, 2022
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

I loved It Happened One Summer and was excited for another light, steamy story in the Bellinger Sisters’ universe. I really enjoy the small fishing town of Westport and the tight knit community it fosters, so I was thrilled when Hannah ended up there for work. She decides to crash with Fox Thornton while she’s there, a notorious flirt who she has befriended, largely over text, since her last visit.

The build up of Fox and Hannah’s relationship and their individual concern about ruining their friendship felt realistic to me and kept me on my toes. I couldn’t wait for them to finally get together. I did think there were some very dramatic hot and cold situations, but that feels like more a product of the genre than this specific story.

I really enjoyed getting to delve into Hannah’s work life and her career aspirations and how prominently that played into her storyline and her motivations. This added a lot more to her character and I liked seeing how Fox supported her.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Hook, Line, and Sinker at an indie bookstore near you
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