Book Review, Fiction, Magical Realism

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪.5
Genre: Fiction

Cassandra, our neurodivergent main character, has always needed things to be done in a certain way and tends to struggle to understand other people’s perspectives. When she unexpectedly discovers that she has the ability to go back in time, she uses it to her advantage to learn more about the people and experiences around her and play out scenarios in a way that she’s happier with. Most notably, she attempts to keep her job and her boyfriend, both of which she loses at the beginning of the book.

The premise of this story was so intriguing to me. I love magical realism and have enjoyed a lot of similar types of books. Unfortunately, the way time travel was used in this book was a) incredibly repetitive and b) undefined to a point where it was confusing what the rules of this new ‘ability’ were.

I really enjoyed the way that Cassandra (sometimes) learned and grew from her power, but often she was just hitting rewind willy nilly to her heart’s content when she said something slightly wrong. I also didn’t particularly appreciate how much effort she spent trying to change herself for a man and using her powers to keep herself in situations that clearly did not serve her. I found it to be incredibly frustrating.

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Book Review, Fiction, Magical Realism

Once and Again by Rebecca Serle ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪.5
Genre: Fiction/Magical Realism

I am SUCH a big Rebecca Serle fan and it physically pains me to write a not glowing review of one of her books, but man did Once and Again make me mad. Lauren learns as a teenager that every woman in her family is granted the ability to turn back time once in their life. Her mother used this gift to prevent a deadly car accident from killing Lauren’s dad and Lauren has spent her life wondering when she will need to use hers. Conceptually, I loved it. It made for interesting dynamics between Lauren and her mom and grandma and I appreciated the explorationof the mental toll the gift took on each of them.

I found Lauren’s decision making absolutely horrible. I could not stand the choices she made and the way she handled the aftermath of those choices that she was in complete control of. It made the *very cool* concept lose a lot of its power for me.

The split setting between the Malibu beach and New York City was wonderfully written and I could picture Lauren’s life in each place so well. Serle absolutely made the settings come alive which was a huge redeeming factor for me.

Something felt lacking with the intercharacter relationships. I felt like I did not know Lauren’s husband or her childhood sweetheart well enough to really feel invested in them. I felt the same way with her mother and grandmother. There were a couple chapters from their perspectives, but it was so little in the grand scheme of the book that they felt misplaced to me.

TONS of potential here and I largely could not stop reading, but ultimately I couldn’t look past the weakness of the relationships and the main character’s choices, which steered the narrative.

Thank you to the publisher for my ARC!

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Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Semi-Well Adjusted Despite Literally Everything by Alyson Stoner ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Memoir

What a powerful memoir. In Semi-Well Adjusted Despite Literally Everything, Alyson Stoner recollects their experience growing up in the limelight of Hollywood. From the time they were six, they were attending auditions and competing endlessly for roles that so often seemed just out of reach.

Alyson’s voice throughout this narrative especially stood out to me. They tell their story in such a straightforward way, which made it really impactful to see how they’d normalized very not-normal things they experienced during their unusual childhood and adolescence.

From being promised roles that never came to fruition to battling an eating disorder, to weighing the merit of kidnapping threats, Alyson illustrates their strength and perseverance over and over again.

In addition to the pressures of being on set and on screen, they also found themselves deeply involved with a religious community only to later realize that the beliefs of that community made it hard for Alyson to actually be true to who they are.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Alyson, and highly recommend it.

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Book Review, Fiction

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction

I’ve seen this book around forever and I don’t know why it took me so long to pick it up. Now that I’ve finished it, I keep kind of getting it mixed up with I Hope This Finds You Well, which I read earlier this year and is also primarily a workplace focused story about someone who doesn’t quite fit in with her colleagues around her.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine did an exceptional job at getting inside of Eleanor’s head and showing the reader how she came to the conclusions she did and why other people might find her thought processes odd. She strikes up an unexpected friendship with the IT guy at work, Raymond, and it was really heartwarming to watch them open up to each other. I really appreciated seeing her realize that maybe the things she believed about herself and her future were not all true.

Eleanor has frequent phone calls with her ‘Mummy’ and we slowly learn about the abuse she suffered as a child. There was a lot more to this part of the story than I was expecting and it helps to inform Eleanor’s actions in the present-day narrative.

This was a surprising and unusual book where not all that much happens plot-wise, but the main character is interesting enough that I stayed invested and a whole lot happens in terms of her growth.

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Book Review, Fiction

Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction

It’s hard to write a review of Finding Grace without giving away a major twist in the book – but don’t worry, it happens very early on. The story is told from the perspective of Honor, who has a daughter named Chloe, and a husband, Tom, but longs for another child. She is so close to getting what she wants until suddenly, the unthinkable happens and the entire story is flipped on its head.

The rest of the book is kind of a weird twisted, suspenseful romance. I was so shocked by the initial twist in this book and completely sucked in by Tom’s compulsive behavior. This was the kind of book where you feel utterly sickened by characters’ actions, so much so that you can’t look away.

I will say, toward the end of the book I was completely fed up with Tom and felt like his behavior had gone off the tracks to the point where it wasn’t really enjoyable to read about. But overall, a suspenseful and unexpected story start to finish.

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Buy Finding Grace at an indie bookstore near you|
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Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Maine Characters by Hannah Orenstein ~ Book Review

Morgan


My Rating: 🍪🍪.5
Genre: Romance

The first time I tried to read this book I couldn’t get into it at all, but I decided to revisit it during the summer since it has a lake house setting. Marginally helpful. Vivian’s dad never told her she had a half sister, so after he dies, she is shocked to find Lucy at her dad’s lake house. The two of them are forced to grapple not only with the grief of losing their father, but also the reality of coexisting.

I really enjoyed the Maine setting and the descriptions of life on the lake. It was atmospheric and realistic and fun to hear about during the summer, particularly since I live in New England. That was the main (get it) redeeming quality of the book for me. Both sisters were incredibly annoying. There was too much emphasis on one being really not well-off and the other being an uppity city girl. I did not care about their romances whatsoever A. because they were making bad choices and B. because I did not care about them.

People keep comparing this one to The Parent Trap and I personally find that insulting.

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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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Buy The Matchmaker at an indie bookstore near you
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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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