Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica ~ Book Review

Morgan

Park Row
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: May 18, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

Local Woman Missing starts off with a bang, first introducing Shelby just before she goes missing, and then opening up a second storyline told by a girl being held captive in a basement. Her narrative was horrifying but impossible to look away from. I expected that these two points of view would carry on through the book, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, we learn that Meredith, another woman from the neighborhood, has gone missing with her daughter Delilah.

I loved how this story bounced between past and present, slowly revealing more and more details about the missing women and their relationships. Meredith’s job as a doula and the way that her professional life was mixed in was especially interesting. This thriller was definitely fast-paced.

The motivations behind what actually happened were…very unbelievable. I’m always pumped for a jarring, shocking twist in a thriller like this, and unfortunately I did not get this at all. Instead I got a flop that left me frustrated and confused about character motivations. Also, the way the police played into the ending had me rolling my eyes.

Although the vast majority of this book was really well done, there were key pieces that did not deliver.

Buy Local Woman Missing at an indie bookstore near you
Local Woman Missing on Goodreads
Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci ~ Book Review

Morgan

Gallery Books
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: October 5, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

If you’re planning to read Taste, I highly recommend listening to the audiobook. Having Stanley Tucci himself narrate his life to me made the listening experience all the more enjoyable. The book focuses, obviously, on the influential food that Tucci has cooked, eaten, and experienced throughout his life. The narrative is peppered (pun intended) with humor and excessive self-aware name-dropping that make it colloquial and amusing.

It was really interesting to learn more about Tucci’s life, from growing up in an Italian American family all the way to cooking during pandemic quarantine. He also details his recent battle with cancer and how that affected his relationship with food. This memoir is much less about Tucci’s professional life, and more so about the personal.

There are a lottt of descriptions of food, and recipes in this book, and sometimes it overwhelmed the narrative a bit (especially since listening to a recipe read out on audiobook isn’t the most thrilling). I greatly enjoyed the insight in between and left every listening session hungry.

Taste: My Life Through Food on Goodreads
Buy Taste at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle ~ Book Review

Morgan

William Morrow
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: October 20, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

Iris and Summer, identical twins, are in a race against time to produce an heir in order to inherit millions of dollars left by their father. Iris constantly thinks about the money, particularly after her divorce when she sees her hopes slipping away. Summer, however, is in no rush. She chose to marry for love and seems dedicated to doing things on her own timeline.

When Summer calls on Iris to help her with a family emergency in Thailand, Iris finds herself romanticizing her sister’s life and what might happen if she slipped into her place.

The premise of this thriller was fantastic. With the two girls trapped alone on a yacht together for much of the story, I had no idea how it would progress. After this section of the narrative though, the story got pretty slow for me. I felt like there was the most gradual leadup to the ending that had trouble holding my interest.

I really liked seeing the truth behind Summer’s character slowly get uncovered and the final reveal definitely surprised me. That being said, I wish there had been some sort of clues before the very end that would have possibly allowed me to guess what had happened.

Buy The Girl in the Mirror at an indie bookstore near you
The Girl in the Mirror on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

One Night on the Island by Josie Silver ~ Book Review

Morgan

Ballantine Books
Genre: Romance
Release Date: February 15, 2022
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

The premise of One Night on the Island was so wonderfully quirky and unique. Cleo is a dating columnist, and for her 30th birthday, she’s given the assignment of going to a remote island to ‘marry herself.’ When she arrives however, she finds there’s been a mix-up with her lodging and she’s forced to share the small cottage with a photographer named Mac, who’s escaped from Boston to face his own set of demons. Initiate forced proximity romance.

Salvation Island was such a perfectly atmospheric setting. From the seaside hill where women occasionally go to scream, to the charmingly nosy cast of locals, I fell in love with this Irish island. The stark, rural location perfectly framed Cleo and Mac’s inner turmoils and outer thawing as they slowly got to know each other and the motivations that drew them to the same place.

Cleo and Mac were both detailed and realistic and the difficulties they were dealing with made me feel like I understood them. Salvation Island was a temporary stopover for both of them, a pause as they figured out how to forge onward with their lives. I was holding my breath to see what would happen with the two of them when that pause ended.

Although I found parts of the story slow, and I found the number of characters a bit hard to keep track of, I loved the realness and messiness of the romance, and above all, I loved the ambience it took place within.

Buy One Night on the Island at an indie bookstore near you
One Night on the Island on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Horror

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward ~ Book Review

Morgan

Viper
Genre: Horror
Release Date: March 18, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

I only realized this book was classified as horror once I started reading, and came across a very graphic description of dead birds a few pages in. I’m not a huge fan of horror, but the story of Ted, his daughter Lauren, and his cat Olivia intrigued me. From the start, it was obvious that Ted’s mental state was not quite right, and it was hard to know what to believe. The author did an exceptional job of diving inside Ted’s mind and describing things as he saw and understood them.

This book was extremely dark and twisted and the details are not for the faint of heart. I pieced together little parts of what was going on, but definitely did not have the full picture and found the story unlike anything I’ve ever read.

The narrations were so distinct and the descriptions so explicit that I found myself fully immersed in this uncomfortable and unsettling narrative until the very end.

Buy The Last House on Needless Street at an indie bookstore near you
The Last House on Needless Street on Goodreads

Book Review, Nonfiction

The Comfort Book by Matt Haig ~ Book Review

Morgan

Penguin Life
Genre: Nonfiction
Release Date: July 6, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

I’ve never put as many sticky notes in a book as I did with The Comfort Book. Many of Matt Haig’s insights come from a place of deep pain and hopelessness, but the glimmers of positivity or at least calm that he was able to outline were deeply moving. The book is laid out in a series of mini essays, stories, and notes that focus on finding the way through times of pain or discouragement.

I loved the simplicity of many of these pages. Haig reminds the reader again and again that sometimes finding joy in the smallest things, like sitting down to eat a pear, is enough for one day. Each excerpt was a full and complete thought, but none was longer than a few pages.

The format made it easy for me to pick this book up during small bouts of free time throughout the day, and no matter how short they may be, I always felt that I got something out of it.

As brief as his musings may be, Haig has a wonderful gift of being able to shift my perspective and make me feel comforted and not alone.

Buy The Comfort Book at an indie bookstore near you
The Comfort Book on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle ~ Book Review

Morgan

Atria
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: March 1, 2022 (Thank you NetGalley for my eARC!)
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

The setting in One Italian Summer is everything. Rebecca Serle paints a tactile description of Positano Italy. I could practically feel the summer heat as Katy, the main character, climbed the historic steps to look out over the town and the sea beyond. Katy was supposed to take the trip with her mom, who spent her own solo summer there when she was young. Desperately needing an escape to gather her thoughts, Katy goes alone after her mom dies. Shortly after she arrives on the Italian seaside, however, Katy finds herself face to face with a young version of her mom.

I was completely enchanted by Positano – the history and beauty of it, the people Katy meets there, and the atmosphere. I loved exploring with Katy and seeing her begin to appreciate the beauty around her, even as her grief simmers just under the surface. Objectively, this was a beautiful story.

My expectations were really, really high going into this one, and unfortunately I did feel a bit let down. I was fine with suspending reality as Katy befriends the young version of her mom, but the ending felt unfinished. I was confused about what Katy had really taken away from this experience, and ended the book feeling like there were loose ends.

Buy One Italian Summer at an indie bookstore near you
One Italian Summer on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: October 9, 2018
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

When a man and a woman are killed in a helicopter crash off a Caribbean island, their loved ones are forced to grapple with what the truth behind their clandestine relationship and what it means for their future. Irene Steele finds herself reeling from the lies her husband was keeping from her. When her sons arrive on the island, they quickly meet and are both enchanted by Ayers, the best friend of their father’s mistress.

In true Elin Hilderbrand fashion, Winter in Paradise is full of never ending drama. The relationships she introduces are complicated and layered with secrets. The setting provided wonderful escapism filled with picturesque tropical outings and adventures.

I felt like the grief that should have permeated this book wasn’t really present. No one seemed quite as upset about the deaths of their loved ones as I would have expected. It seemed weird that the characters were able to focus on pursuing romance and galavanting around the island instead of the deaths that brought them together.

I happily consumed the drama and the tropical beaches in the pages of this book, but I don’t think I liked it enough to read the rest of the series.

Buy Winter in Paradise at an indie bookstore near you
Winter in Paradise on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

The Arc by Tory Henwood Hoen ~ Book Review

Morgan

St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Romance
Release Date: February 8, 2022
My Rating: 🍪🍪.5

After complaining loudly about the lack of eligible single men in New York City, Ursula is approached by a representative from the Arc, an elite matchmaking service that promises success. To start off, I do not like the idea of feeling the need to spend ~$40,000 to find your perfect match. It made me immediately dislike Ursula.

Ursula soon finds herself happily dating Rafael. With the Arc’s guarantee of matching you with the right person, they jump into their relationship quickly. I loved all their cute little relationship quirks, which made them feel like a very real couple.

At the first sign of discontent, things took a sudden turn that felt incredibly unrealistic to me. After that, there was very little that actually happened. There was a lot of focus on Ursula’s work and Rafael’s lack of trust, but it I didn’t find any of it very compelling.

The very ending actually redeemed this book for me somewhat. It was clever and unexpected, but ultimately wasn’t enough for me to be excited about the overall story.

Buy The Arc at an indie bookstore near you
The Arc on Goodreads

Book Review, thriller

The Push by Ashley Audrain ~ Book Review

Morgan

Pamela Dorman Books
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: January 5, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪

When Blythe’s daughter Violet is born, she tries her hardest to be the best mother possible. Violet, however, seems to actively hate her mom, choosing her dad, Fox, over her at every chance and refusing to connect with Blythe. Blythe increasingly comes to believe that there’s something wrong with Violet.

I found this story incredibly predictable and repetitive. So much of it is just Blythe being scared of what Violet is going to do, that it’s no surprise when Violet does act in accordance with Blythe’s fears. The friendship Blythe cultivates with another woman in the later half of the book seemed random and unbelievable and there was nothing intriguing enough to really keep me invested.

I’m honestly not sure what compelled me to finish this book, other than wanting to know how it would end. Although the premise was intriguing and Blythes’ fear of her daughter was written well, there was nothing surprising or especially ‘thrilling’ that would make me recommend The Push.

Buy The Push at an indie bookstore near you
The Push on Goodreads