Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren ~ Book Review

Morgan

Gallery Books
Genre: Romance
Release Date: April 10, 2018
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

When Macy runs into Elliot, she is pulled back in time to eleven years earlier when the two of them were madly in love. Now engaged to an older man who she agreed to marry months after meeting, Macy feels her life immediately lose stability when she’s faced with Elliot.

The story is told in alternating timelines, introducing the reader to a young Macy and Elliot as they meet and develop feelings for one another. I loved this part of the story. Macy and her dad buy the house next door to Elliot’s as a vacation home and the two of them spend their time in Macy’s closet reading. Their relationship was cute and original — I loved that they always asked each other their favorite words. I was rooting for them as their friendship tenuously blossomed into something more, and was driven to keep reading by the need to know what ultimately went wrong and kept them apart for the next decade.

The present day Macy and Elliot really annoyed me. After seeing Macy one time for a few minutes, Elliot breaks up with his girlfriend and starts subtly hinting that Macy should break off her engagement. Yikes. I didn’t get the same sparks from their reintroduction and the way they approached their relationship felt reckless and selfish toward everyone else in their lives.

The circumstances surrounding Macy and Elliot’s breakup as teenagers and the reason they completely lost touch were heartbreaking and shocking when they finally came to light. This emotional heft would have been a lot more meaningful if their grownup relationship seemed healthier and was something I was excited about.

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Love and Other Words on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney ~ Book Review

Morgan

Ballantine Books
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: August 6, 2019
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Talk about an original thriller! The main character, Abby, is an AI robot created by her ‘husband,’ Scott, to replace the real Abby who mysteriously vanished five years prior. Scott runs a successful AI company in Silicon Valley, and Abby is the culmination of his expertise. As Abby learns and remembers more about her life, her autistic son, and the circumstances surrounding human Abby’s disappearance, she grows suspicious of Scott’s true motivations.

I was a huge fan of Westworld, and this book made me want to rewatch the show immediately. I found the discussions of AI rights and issues around robot sentience so intriguing, and loved the merciless Silicon Valley setting. These factors really set this thriller apart from any I’ve read before. Delaney always comes up with premises that surprise me and keep me on the edge of my toes and The Perfect Wife was no exception.

The book is split in dual timelines so that we see how the real Abby met Scott when she was hired as an artist in residence at his company, and the details of their courtship made me increasingly uncomfortable, coupled with the realization that AI Abby didn’t have the full picture. The narrative took the unpredictable narrator trope and flipped it on its head, since AI Abby was only provided with certain memories.

I never expected the way the story concluded, and I thought the wrap-up was smart and thought-provoking, although I wish it had been slowed down just a little bit. If you’re interested in thrillers, artificial intelligence, or startup culture, I highly recommend The Perfect Wife. 

Buy The Perfect Wife at an indie bookstore near you
The Perfect Wife on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Morgan

Minotaur Books
Genre: Mystery
Release Date: February 2, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Finlay Donovan is Killing It put such a spin on your typical mystery book. Finlay writes crime novels. As she discusses her latest book with her agent, a woman sitting nearby overhears her and mistakenly thinks she’s a contract killer. She leaves a note for Finlay with details about how much she’s willing to pay for Finlay to kill her husband. When Finlay inadvertently accepts the offer, she decides to look into the man she has been asked to kill, just to see what’s so terrible about him.

I loved the combination of the mundane with the mysterious and criminal in this book. Finlay is a single mom trying to grapple with her ex-husband’s new engagement and ensuing custody battle. She goes to Panera, she takes a spin class, she may or may not kill a man.

The lighthearted nature of much of this story flowed smoothly through the less believable parts of it and tied the narrative together. When I say ‘less believable,’ I mostly mean Finlay’s character’s terrible decisions and uncanny ability to be misinterpreted by people again and again. She seemed almost like a caricature, but it worked really well for this story.

My only real qualm is that I would have dialed the crime back just a little bit. Toward the end of the book it felt like more kept piling on unnecessarily. 

Buy Finlay Donovan is Killing It at an indie bookstore near you

Finlay Donovan is Killing It on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, YA

Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp ~ Book Review

Morgan

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Romance
Release Date: April 6, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪.5

Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet is a YA love story that’s loaded with heavy topics and real-life struggles. Pen works for her dad’s restaurant, Nacho’s Tacos, and has always dreamed of opening her own place nearby. Her parents think she’s going to school after work every day, but instead she sits in her car, torn apart over the fact that they don’t support her dream. Xander, an undocumented teenager, comes to work for Nacho’s Tacos and plans to use the money he makes to pay an investigator to locate his dad, who walked out on him when he was little. Pen’s dad is known for employing undocumented people and for helping those in need. I loved this dynamic and the community it created at the restaurant, and the focus on this subject in a YA book.

I enjoyed Pen and Xander’s relationship and banter. The descriptions of their conversations seemed natural and adorable. This book is written with wonderful depictions of food and creates a vibrant, seemingly real community.

Although I appreciated that this story covered heavy topics, it really glossed over Pen’s struggles with her mental health and self-harm. I felt like this deserved a lot more time and unpacking. A lot of the games and conversations between the teenage workers at Nacho’s Tacos felt very repetitive, making much of the book feel slow until the last third, which was overloaded with action. This imbalance made it hard for me to fully become immersed and enjoy this story.

Buy Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet at an indie bookstore near you

Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

Milk Fed by Melissa Broder ~ Book Review

Morgan

Scribner
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: February 2, 2021 (Thank you to Libro.fm for my copy!)
My Rating: 🍪

I think a big part of the reason Milk Fed put me off was because I didn’t realize how erotic it was going to be — you’ve been warned. It’s the story of Rachel, who was taught by her mother to obsess over calorie counting, and now does so religiously on a daily basis. Her days are dictated by what she’s allowed to eat and she panics when put in a situation where she can’t control what she has to eat. I found pieces of this narrative painfully relatable and extremely well written.

Rachel’s therapist suggests she goes on a detox of talking to her mom. Without her mother’s constant obsession over Rachel’s weight, Rachel begins to eat what she wants during her detox, spurred on by Miriam, who works at a frozen yogurt shop that Rachel frequents. As Rachel is drawn into Miriam’s world, she becomes infatuated with indulgence, of food and her wildest sexual fantasies.

This story explores Rachel’s experiences as she lets go of her food rules and restrictions. It explores her sexuality and the difficulties she faces as she gets closer to Miriam. It also touches on religion and Rachel’s reaction to Miriam’s orthodox Jewish family in contrast to Rachel’s own lapsed Judaism. The topics in Milk Fed are important and interesting, but Rachel’s vivid sexual fantasies distracted me a lot from the actual story.

Buy Milk Fed at an indie bookstore near you
Milk Fed on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan ~ Book Review

Morgan

William Morrow
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: September 1, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes follows the rise and fall of the girl band Gloss, detailing their triumphs and the pain that goes on behind the scenes. It centers on Cassidy, who is crushed when she comes in second place in a reality singing show contest she was sure she had in the bag. When the fourth member of Gloss falls ill, Cassidy is called in to take her place and finds herself in a whirlwind of glamour, money, and loss of control over her own life.

This book does a great job of identifying the downsides of fame, from the way the girls are forced to restrict what they eat to the control their management has over them including forcing them to accept the insulting and degrading names their fans come up with.

The narrative cuts back and forth between Gloss’s heyday and the present, years later, when the rest of the girl group finds out Cassidy has killed herself. The two narratives untangle a web of toxicity and secrets that illustrate Cassidy’s deteriorating mental state. 

I enjoyed the details of the girls’ fame and how it impacted them, but I would have appreciated more depth to the characters. I wish I’d had some point of view from the other members of Gloss, which would have added a lot to the story. As told, I liked the general story, but didn’t know enough to fully care about the characters.

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The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré ~ Book Review

Morgan

Dutton Books
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: February 4, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

The Girl with the Louding Voice is written in the voice of Adunni, a Nigerian teenager who wants nothing more than to pursue an education, which was instilled in her by her mother at a young age. When her mother dies, Adunni’s father marries her off, as is common in the village. The rest of the story follows Adunni as she struggles to break through the societal norms holding her back in order to find a way to return to school.

Adunni’s story is both inspiring and heart-wrenching. Without her mother to guide her, she is very much on her own. Since the narrative is told from her point of view, using her broken english, the reader is able to really see her mindset and feel the confusion Adunni experiences because of her lack of education.

I loved the way this book was written through Adunni’s eyes. It made the story stand out and allowed me to literally feel like I was inside a character’s mind in a way I haven’t experienced before. Although much of the hardship Adunni experiences is awful, her persistence and motivation are inspiring and I really enjoyed her and felt for her as a character. I usually struggle with books that don’t have a fast-paced plot, but the depth of the character development and understanding I got through this book really made it work for me. The Girl with the Louding Voice is an extremely powerful and unique read that I highly recommend.

Buy The Girl with the Louding Voice at an indie bookstore near you
The Girl with the Louding Voice on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover ~ Book Review

Morgan

Atria Books
Genre: Romance
Release Date: August 5, 2014
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Ugly Love was far heavier than the fluffy romance I expected. It has a split-timeline narrative, one with Miles as a teenager meeting and falling in love with Rachel, and the other with Tate meeting Miles as an adult. Miles is good friends with Tate’s brother, and she finds herself increasingly physically attracted to Miles the more they spend time with each other.

What struck me initially in this book was the unique beauty of the writing. I haven’t read much Colleen Hoover before and I found her descriptive prose immersive and illustrative. The way she explained feelings and emotions was so striking that I felt like I knew exactly what the characters were experiencing.

As the story goes on, we begin to see that something in Miles’s relationship with Rachel must have gone very, very wrong. Their love is described with an intensity that made me eager to find out what happened. I found Tate’s part of the story slightly less engrossing than Miles’s, but I really liked her as a character and felt like I had a solid sense of who she was.

I found the ending of this book very compelling and loved the way that Hoover tied in the title and the concept of ‘ugly love.’ I will definitely be picking up more of her work in the future.

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Ugly Love on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines by Pamela Terry ~ Book Review

Morgan

Ballantine Books
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: March 16, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines is a family drama that follows Lila and her brother Henry as they return to the town they grew up in following their mother’s sudden and suspicious death. They arrive to find their younger sister Abigail, who lived in their hometown, gone somewhat off the rails and frantic that their mother indicated that she wanted no funeral.

The siblings band together to organize a wake at their house instead of a funeral as they search to discover what led to their mom’s death and why she doesn’t want to be recognized by the community she lived in. The deeper the siblings dig, the more they realize they didn’t know so much about their family at all.

This story has a little taste of a thriller in it combined with familial drama and set against the picturesque backdrop of a Southern muscadine arbor. I enjoyed the relationship between Henry and Lila, and Lila and her friends, but there was nothing especially compelling about the storyline. The writing was beautiful, but I wasn’t fully convinced of the discoveries the siblings made, and I would have liked some more character development from both of them and from their parents (perhaps via flashbacks.)

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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Survivors by Jane Harper ~ Book Review

Morgan

Flatiron Books
Genre: Mystery
Release Date: February 2, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪.5 

The Survivors is a tangled mystery that brings its characters back time and time again to a fatal storm during their teenage years. Kieran Elliott has always felt guilty for the loss of his brother that resulted from the storm, and returning to his hometown with his wife and baby stirs up those feelings all over again, especially when a new fatality occurs. The townspeople are forced to reconsider the past in an attempt to draw parallels to the murder at present.

The setting of this book was especially fitting for the plot. ‘The Survivors’ themselves refer to iron slabs that stick out from the sea — resulting from a shipwreck. They guard the entrance to a series of seaside caves that fill with water as the tide comes in. The eeriness in the depiction and creation of this setting was wonderfully atmospheric and made me distinctly uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, the story itself just didn’t grab me. It was slow for a mystery and I had trouble keeping track of how everyone fit together. There were ‘clues’ along the way that were obvious plot devices and kept me from feeling fully invested in the ultimate reveal of what was going on.

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The Survivors on Goodreads