Book Review, Fiction, mystery

With a Vengeance by Riley Sager ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪
Genre: Mystery

A locked-door mystery set on a train, With a Vengeance is the story of Anna Matherson getting revenge on those who destroyed her family a decade prior. After successfully luring (almost) all of them onto a train with no stops until its destination, things start to go awry as passengers die off one by one.

This style of mystery has been done so well so many times that this book did not stand a chance. The characters were flat and unlikeable and the narrative got incredibly convoluted, which is almost impressive given that there was only one setting for the whole book. I couldn’t keep track of everyone and they kept going over and over the same possible scenarios.

I enjoyed the fancy old setting and the race against time aspect of the story, but nothing else worked for me.

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Book Review, Fiction

The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Romance

Dabney has successfully predicted the happy relationships of over 40 couples. The only couple she was ever wrong about was herself and Clendenine who left the country decades ago to become a journalist. When he returns unexpectedly, Dabney is forced to revisit her past and figure out what it means for her future.

My favorite part of the book was the storyline surrounding Dabney’s daughter, Agnes, who is engaged to a man who is clearly wrong for her. It’s a heavy plot, but I liked watching her blossom on Nantucket and meet side characters who added a lot to her life and to the overall book.

I found Dabney to be unrealistic and kind of insufferable. She is dealing with a tragedy and I think part of the point of the book was to highlight how it made her act uncharacteristically, but it was hard for me to get on board with.

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Book Review, Fiction

The Island by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Fiction

When Chess abruptly calls off her wedding, her mom, Birdie, summons her sister and her youngest daughter to join them on remote Tuckernuck Island for the summer. Trapped together with no phone service or television, the women alternately turn to and turn on one another.

Because the setting was so singular, there are not a ton of characters in this book which meant we focused deeply on the four women and the few visitors who came over to see them. I enjoyed being stuck on Tuckernuck with them. Hilderbrand allowed me to perfectly visualize their home there and the sprawling beauty of the island.

We get some variety with flashbacks from Chess of her romance gone wrong. These bring us to the city and allow us to slowly see how her relationship unfolded and what led to its dramatic end. I really liked the way these excerpts contrasted with the present-day part of the book.

I found Chess’s younger sister Tate to be pretty annoying. I’m sure we’re supposed to be rooting for her romance to work out, but she was too ‘woe is me’ for me to respect her. None of the romance actually felt that central to the book for me, I cared much more about the familial relationships and found them more compelling (at least out of everything happening in the present-day part of the story).

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Book Review, Fiction

Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction

I’ve been on a big Elin Hilderbrand kick this summer and Summerland is definitely one of her less compelling books for me because I didn’t have anyone to root for. As per her usual, the book is told from alternating viewpoints from a number of characters. The central plot point is a car accident in which Penny drives herself, her twin brother, her boyfriend, and a friend off a cliff and dies. The rest of the story attempts to uncover what might have caused her to do such a thing.

The high schoolers who narrate are just that. They’re young and their choices are irrational and annoying. This makes for good drama, but kind of annoying storytelling. The adults in the book were primarily the parents of the kids and I liked getting to see how the two generations’ perspectives differed and how the parents misinterpreted their kids’ actions, and vice versa. It was interesting to approach a small set of circumstances from these different people, who each added some sort of context. That said, I didn’t find any of the parents particularly memorable.

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Book Review, Fiction, mystery

Heartwood by Amity Gaige ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Mystery

When Valerie goes missing on the Appalachian Trail, Beverly is tasked with tracking her down. The story oscillates between Valerie’s perspective as she writes letters to her mother while she’s lost and Beverly’s as she runs the search. The third perspective comes from Lena, a woman living in a retirement community who begins to believe she knows something about the disappearance hundreds of miles away.

I really enjoyed the structure of this book and particularly the audio version. It includes interviews with people Valerie met along the trail and listening made it seem like sitting in on actual police interviews. I was also so curious to see how Lena fit into Valerie’s story. I liked getting to escape to her bubble at the retirement community and learn about her life there. 

As more details emerge about the circumstances surrounding where and when Valerie went missing, I was gearing up for some sort of crazy twist or reveal. As this was somewhat of a police procedural, I was expecting a big discovery toward the end of the book. Instead, I felt like the ending was pretty random and unsatisfying. Although the story itself was interesting, it all kind of fell flat when there wasn’t something wild or compelling to wrap it all up.

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

Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Romance

If you know my reading preferences at all, you know that I LOVE a fictional world where everything is normal except for one thing. Ashley Poston is one of my favorite authors for this kind of story so I was so excited for Sounds Like Love. Joni, a celebrated songwriter finds herself haunted by a melody after weeks of writer’s block. And she’s not the only one. A musician across the country has the same melody in his head and they soon come to find out that they can also hear each other. So begins a quest to free themselves of the inexplicable connection.

Joni leaves L.A. to visit her hometown in North Carolina. There, her mother is rapidly losing her memory and she struggles with the new reality of her family’s situation. This felt like a bit of an unnecessary layer to me, as the way it was addressed was largely surface-level and repetitive.

I did really enjoy the weird connection between Joni and the mystery man and seeing how it brought them together. I loved the element of both of them desperately trying to find a way out of each other’s heads but then slowly wondering if that actually was what they wanted. The romance was really lovely. Having flirty banter inside their own heads was fun for these two.

Also, I loved that the chapter titles were song lyrics. It was a cool addition and they always matched the storyline so well.

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Buy Sounds Like Love at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Historical Fiction

Homegoing starts out by introducing us to half-sisters Effia and Esi in Ghana in the 18th century. One sister lives in comfort while the other is sold into slavery and sent to America. As the story moves forward, we leave these characters behind and follow their offspring. I kept waiting to circle back to the original two, but instead, Homegoing explores the lives of generations of their descendants. Conceptually, I thought this was such a fascinating choice, but I found that it didn’t make it feel like a completely cohesive story to me.

The writing in this book is beautiful in its agony. It shows the long-lasting impact of warfare in Ghana and the brutality of slavery. It introduces new characters just to rip them away. It is so very ambitious.

I can appreciate what this book was trying to do while also saying that it made it hard for me to connect with the characters. We moved so quickly from person to person and time to time that there was a distinct lack of ability to really dig into who everyone was.

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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Crash by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

Tegan finds herself pregnant after a one night stand and facing the possibility of a life-changing payout if she takes a deal with the father and never breathes a word of his name again. As memories from their night together return, however, she questions whether that’s really the right choice for her and her baby. Hoping for some clarity, she sets out for her brother’s house only to find herself stranded in a blizzard.

The vast majority of this book takes place at the home of the couple who save Tegan from the blizzard. During this time, she’s locked in the basement and the single setting got a little repetitive after a while. We get excerpts from her perspective as well as the man and woman who live in the house. I enjoyed getting to see how each of their motivations were at war with one another.

Like all of Freida McFadden’s books, I finished this one super quickly and found it hard to put down. That said, I also always find her writing repetitive and often predictable. There were some points that were hammered home wayyy too many times.

I listened to the audiobook and it was the perfect immersive way to pass the time on a road trip.

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Book Review, Fiction

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Fiction

Atmosphere opens with a dramatic disaster in space and from there, jumps back in time to show us how our main characters got there. Joan, a physics professor, finds herself selected from thousands of applicants to be one of the first female astronauts. Once at NASA, she meets a cast of characters who come to be her confidants in her cohort during their training.

The astronaut crew was all introduced pretty quickly and quite frankly, I still couldn’t keep them all straight by the end of the book. Only a couple of them were distinct enough for me to really feel that I knew who they were and their place in Joan’s life. Her sister and niece on the other hand, were much more fleshed out. Her relationships with them were a parallel storyline to her time at NASA and one I really appreciated. It added depth to Joan and rounded out her life.

The romance was kind of more central to the book than being an astronaut was, which surprised me a bit. That said, I don’t think I really felt invested in the story until the romance started. I loved seeing Joan’s relationship grow and change as they faced difficulties and prejudices they had to learn how to navigate. It made the lead-up to the impending disaster all the more emotional.

This was a slower burn for me than some of TJR’s other books. I liked the choice of subject matter/setting – it made this stand out from other romance books, and I liked how Joan’s family life was included in addition to the central romance.

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

Slow Burn Summer by Josie Silver ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Romance

When Kate got married, she gave up her dream of acting. Now newly divorced, she reaches out to her old talent agent only to connect with his son, Charlie, who has inherited the business and is looking for someone to act as a stand-in for the author of a new romance novel.

Josie Silver’s writing is always delightful. She creates characters and situations that are funny and quirky and believable and altogether a joy to read about. I loved getting to know Kate and watching the public instantly adore her as she steps out on the job. I could so easily see why she attracted such attention.

The first part of the book focuses on Kate’s acting job and it takes a bit of a turn later on. I definitely preferred the first half of the book, but Kate and the side characters – like her sister and daughter, kept the book fun.

Romance was not a big focus of the story. When the title says slow burn, it means it. That said, I liked seeing the banter and sparks between Charlie as they each navigate life and love post-divorce.

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Buy Slow Burn Summer at an indie bookstore near you
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