Book Review, Fiction, mystery

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Mystery
Berkley
Release Date: March 15, 2022
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

After suffering her own abduction as a child, Shea Collins has turned to true crime blogging, throwing herself in head first following her divorce. Her latest focus is an interview with the elusive Beth Greer, a local woman who was acquitted after being held as a suspect in the murder of two men. Known as the ‘Lady Killer’ the murders have since gone unsolved for decades.

The narrative is split between Beth and Shea’s perspectives and they both bring the reader incrementally closer and closer to identifying the Lady Killer. The story also brings in elements of the paranormal, which I was not expecting. The ghost-y aspect was veryy creepy and  kept me from reading this too late at night. I’m generally not really a fan of this kind of mystery with paranormal activity, so this definitely took away from my enjoyment of the story.

Shea’s character was really compelling and I liked how her past experiences were used to inform her present actions. I felt like Beth wasn’t explored in as much depth and I had some trouble following her logic.

For whatever reason, I just wasn’t really gripped by this mystery. I didn’t feel like suspending reality to wholly embrace the paranormal plotline which made me care less about the ultimate ending. I had high hopes for this story, but ended up disappointed.

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Book Review, Fiction, mystery

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley ~ Book Review

Morgan

William Morrow
Mystery
Release Date: February 22, 2022
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

I love a thriller with a creepy, atmospheric, anthropomorphic setting. When Jess arrives to visit her brother Ben at his new apartment, that’s exactly what she finds in his building. What she doesn’t find is Ben. Jess begins to question the other residents, trying to ascertain what could have happened between her last phone message from Ben and his disappearance.

There were a lot of characters, each of whom narrated different chapters, and it was hard for me to keep track of them all. Getting so many points of view also made the story move really slowly, since we saw how every character perceived the same events.

I will say that the sinister activities at the heart of this story were very unique compared to the numerous other thrillers I’ve read, but I would definitely classify this as more of a ‘mystery’ than a thriller (there’s a very distinct difference in my mind between the two).

The setting and character motivations of The Paris Apartment were interesting, but I wished things moved faster.

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Book Review, Fiction, Romance, Uncategorized

November 9 by Colleen Hoover ~ Book Review

Morgan

Atria Books
Romance
Release Date: November 10, 2015
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

I do not expect plot twists from romance books like the one in November 9. I think my draw literally dropped along with the main character Fallon, as she realized that her unconventional, meet-for-one-day-a-year romance with Ben might not be all that she thought it was.

Let me back up. Ben and Fallon meet the day before she moves across the country, when he overhears a conversation between her and her dad and pretends to be her boyfriend. Despite their bizarre beginning, the two have instant chemistry. They decide that they will meet back up one year later. They share no contact information and simply put their trust in this near-stranger. The yearly meet-ups ultimately become the inspiration for the novel Ben has long been trying to write.

I was so tense reading this book waiting to see what would get in the way of this love story. Naturally, there are other relationships and extraneous events that make the annual reunions sometimes difficult, but I loved the moments in between the chaos when Ben and Fallon could just be together.

Colleen Hoover is the queen of putting characters in heart-wrenching situations and this was no exception. The positions that each of our main characters were forced to work through were so hard to consider, but I had hope that their quirky love story would persist. This one was definitely a CoHo favorite for me.

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Buy November 9 at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, mystery, Romance

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover ~ Book Review

Morgan

Atria Books
YA Romance
Release Date: December 17, 2012
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Sky has begged her mom to let her stop home-schooling for years. When she finally caves, Sky finds herself preparing to go to public high school for the first time just as her best friend is leaving for a semester overseas. I loved how resilient Sky was in the face of this change and the quirky relationship she had with her best friend/neighbor.

When Sky is noticed by Dean Holder, of the bad boy reputation, she struggles to understand how the boy she’s getting to know could be so at odds with the rumors swirling around him.

I loved the depiction of high school and the friendships Sky forms. Hoover does an incredible job of capturing the mindset and the experiences of a teenager. I didn’t realize this book was YA when I picked it up, and I definitely think some of the extreme overreactions that I had trouble with were just a product of the genre.

I felt the chemistry between Dean and Sky right away, but I also was pleasantly surprised that there was a vein of mystery running through the romance. I had no idea what the connections could be between all the characters and I couldn’t read fast enough to figure everything out.

This book has some dark and very disturbing themes that I was not prepared for, but the way that Sky’s past tied everything together made for a thought-provoking and intense story.

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Buy Hopeless at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Nonfiction

Cultish by Amanda Montell ~ Book Review

Morgan

Harper Wave
Nonfiction
Release Date: June 15, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

I’d seen Cultish all over the place before picking it up and had a general sense that it was about cults of all kinds, including brands that were on the verge of being cult-like. The real focus of the book is the language used in cults, referred to by the author as ‘Cultish.’ Montell highlights the ways that cult leaders speak to and teach those around them in order to encourage them to internalize ways of thinking and believe certain things about themselves.

The chapters range from covering intense cults with mass suicides, to multi-level marketing schemes, to organizations like Soul Cycle, and draws parallels between the ways that leaders of these different groups speak to members.

I liked hearing about the ways that people were sucked into these groups, and especially the insight from past members and the ways that they thought about their time in cults. I think I just wanted a little bit more about how cults get into people’s heads and why certain people are more susceptible to them than others. The organization also felt a little jarring to me. I feel like adding in more examples would have made the transitions less jumpy.

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Book Review, Fiction

The People We Keep by Allison Larkin ~ Book Review

Morgan

Gallery Books
Fiction
Release Date: August 3, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

I feel conflicted about The People We Keep. The narrative follows April, who lives largely alone in an immobile motorhome while her dad moves in with his new girlfriend. One day, April decides she’s had enough, takes her neighbor’s car, and drives away. April ends up in Ithaca, NY, and being a little bit familiar with the area, I found the descriptions of the area really fun to read.

April finds a job at a local cafe and works there while living out of her car. The difficulty and confusion she experienced around how to trust was heartbreaking, but the small group of quirky friends who took her in were so wonderful to read about. During this section of the book, I couldn’t stop reading, and loved seeing April learn to let people in.

The book took a sudden turn after this, which saw April once again on the road. From there, the story never recaptured the initial magic it had for me. April tended to define her life by men, which diminished her character for me. I understand that the point may have been that events in Ithaca were catalysts for pushing her back into her old confusion and mistrust, but that didn’t seem fully developed.

The ending of the book, particularly her random reconnection with an ex, felt rushed with a lot of seemingly unconnected events crammed in. I wish this story had built off of April’s time in Ithaca, rather than having her character lose so much again and again.

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Buy The People We Keep at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey ~ Book Review

Morgan

Crown Publishing Group
Memoir
Release Date: October 20, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

What a joy Greenlights was to listen to. Narrated by Matthew McConaughey himself, the audiobook version of this memoir was infused with expressive inflection and made his reminiscing and musing really come to life.

I didn’t have any insight into McConaughey’s life before reading this, and it was a wild ride. I truly never knew what was going to come next in this narrative, so much so, that at times it felt like I was listening to a work of fiction.

I love how unapologetic McConaughey is in his honesty and willingness to expose his experiences to the masses. From getting arrested while playing the bongos naked to only eating ketchup with lettuce in an attempt to be a vegetarian, the range of this memoir was extensive and never boring.

Central to all his stories is the idea of catching ‘Greenlights’ — moments that catapult you forward in life’s successes. This was a fun and interesting thread that tied the memoir together and painted a comprehensive picture of what has gotten Matthew McConaughey to where he is today.

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Buy Greenlights at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fantasy, Fantsy

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas ~ Book Review

Morgan

Bloomsbury Publishing
YA Fantasy
Release Date: May 3, 2016
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

What struck me most about A Court of Mist and Fury was Feyre’s growth over the slow-burning narrative arc. The strength she grows as she becomes more comfortable and understanding of her new reality was incredible to watch. While the men started out with the most power, I loved watching her take her power back and take ownership of it.

The decision Feyre makes near the beginning of the book felt kind of rushed and not fully explored to me, but it opened the door for her return to Rhysand, which is where the story really took shape. Although I found it a little hard to keep track of all the new characters, their support and acceptance of Feyre was commendable and I liked the way they banded together to try to figure out the underlying mysteries of their world.

This definitely felt more slow moving to me than A Court of Thorns and Roses, but I liked the characters a lot and the action really picked up toward the end. While I was reading I wasn’t sure if I’d feel compelled to pick up the next book in the series, but I can’t stop thinking about the cliffhanger of an ending.

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Book Review, mystery, thriller

Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough ~ Book Review

Morgan

William Morrow & Company (Thank you to the publisher for my copy!)
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: April 12, 2022
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

As Emma approaches her fortieth birthday, she becomes increasingly paranoid that it will trigger a psychotic break like it did for her mother. The changes begin with insomnia, and as Emma paces around her house unable to sleep, she increasingly draws parallels between her actions and those she remembers of her mother just before things went downhill and Emma and her sister had to be put into foster care.

I knew there must be more going on than Emma really just losing touch with reality as she got closer to her fortieth birthday, but I had no idea what was at play. What I loved about the big twist in this book is that there were hints along the way that someone could have noticed, but I totally glossed over. I think it’s so cool when a thriller is able to shock me, but the ending wasn’t so outlandish that it came out of nowhere.

There was an element of this book that definitely required a suspension of reality, which I was not expecting, but I found it to be an incredibly interesting layer to the story that seemed like a fresh take on this kind of a thriller.

My one negative comment is that there were certain details of the story that were repeated over and over again, but I was mostly able to look past this because of the intrigue to figure out what was going on.

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Book Review, mystery, thriller

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins ~ Book Review

Morgan

St. Martin’s Press
Thriller
Release Date: January 4, 2022
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

Lux and her boyfriend Nico are living in Hawaii trying to save up enough money to repair his boat, The Susannah. When Brittany and Amma offer Nico a generous sum to take them to remote Meroe island, Lux is excited to join their adventure. When the group arrives, they find that there’s a couple already there, the glamorous and friendly Jake and Eliza. Meroe island has a dark history and although the group of strangers hits it off initially, the sudden appearance of another visitor throws things off balance.

Lux followed Nico to Hawaii after only knowing each other for a short time, and more she begins to question the motives of everyone around her, the less she realizes she really knows about him.

The flashbacks we receive about Amma and Brittany’s history makes it clear that there is more to their friendship than meets the eye, and more to their trip to Meroe than they are letting on.

I truly trusted no one in this story, and the setting of an empty tropical island was the perfect mix of picturesque paradise and isolated nightmare. I couldn’t read fast enough through most of this book, waiting for all the pieces to come together.

This was a five star book for me until the end. There was a plot twist that seemed to leave a huge gaping hole in the plot that I could not find a way to see past. Ultimately, the way everything was explained seemed unbelievable to me and the ending left me deeply unsatisfied.

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Buy Reckless Girls at an indie bookstore near you
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