Top Ten

By: Katie Cutugno
Published Year: 2017
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 320

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Ryan McCullough and Gabby Hart are the unlikeliest of friends. Introverted, anxious Gabby would rather do literally anything than go to a party. Ryan is a star hockey player who can get any girl he wants—and does, frequently. But against all odds, they became not only friends, but each other’s favorite person. Now, as they face high school graduation, they can’t help but take a moment to reminisce and, in their signature tradition, make a top ten list—counting down the top ten moments of their friendship: 

10. Where to begin? Maybe the night we met.
9. Then there was our awkward phase.
8. When you were in love with me but never told me…
7. Those five months we stopped talking were the hardest of my life.
6. Through terrible fights…
5. And emotional makeups.
4. You were there for me when I got my heart broken.
3. …but at times, you were also the one breaking it.
2. Above all, you helped me make sense of the world.
1. Now, as we head off to college—how am I possibly going to live without you?

First Impressions

I recently went into the library for the first time in forever. Our library has a drive thru, so I typically place books I want on hold and pick it up there. Otherwise, I go inside for one book and walk out with like 7. When walking around this time, I spotted Top Ten by Katie Cutugno. I really liked Fireworks, so I immediately grabbed this one off the shelf.

What I thought

Gabby and Ryan have been best friends since freshman year. It is now the night of their high school graduation and they decide to talk about their top 10 moments of high school.

The book is broken up by each top ten moment. The moments are not in any order which can be a bit confusing. For example, I think number 9 is the first time they hang out, but then you find out that they had met previously. No information is given about that until I think number 3. And there are also times where, let’s say, number 8 is Spring of Junior year, and then number 7 is fall of Junior year. It can be a bit confusing to follow.

Gabby and Ryan’s friendship is a bit different. He is a varsity hockey player as a freshman, and she is an anxious loner (with one close friend). But for some reason, their friendship works. At the beginning, Ryan and Gabby hook up on graduation night. Not knowing anything about their past, I was rooting for them. But as their past got revealed, I just got a bit annoyed with them.

I didn’t quite understand why a lot of their top moments were top moments. To me, it shared a lot of bad moments from their friendships. While I’m sure they had great ones, otherwise they wouldn’t have been best friends, most moments involved them fighting, or not talking or misunderstanding each other. It made it a bit difficult to root for them to be together.

I think that Cutugno’s writing saved this story a bit. She did write it in a way that kept me intrigued and involved in their relationship/friendship, even if I didn’t like them much.

Unfortunately, I think this is my least favorite book of Cutugno’s. I liked the idea behind it and her writing was still enjoyable, but the story itself didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t much care for Gabby or Ryan and felt their friendship was a bit dysfunctional. The ending also felt like it came a bit abruptly. My friends and I always comment with endings like this by asking if the author had a page limit that they had to wrap up by, and this definitely felt like it. It’s not a bad book, but just not one of my favorites.

Book Club February 2018

By: Ayobami Adebayo
Published Year: 2017
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Pages: 260

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Yejide and Akin have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage--after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures--Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time--until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin's second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant, which, finally, she does, but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine. An electrifying novel of enormous emotional power, Stay With Measks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.

What I thought

This book was my pick and I found it last year. In fact, I found it right before my last book club choice and almost switched to this one.

Yejide and Akin have been married for 4 years. They have been trying to have a baby, but she has not been getting pregnant. Then one day, Akin’s family shows up at his door with a second wife. This story follows Yejide and Akin through the ups and downs of their marriage as well as the ups and downs of the Nigerian culture and life.

I picked this book for a few reasons. The first was that the drama of a married couple being given a second wife to have a child just sounded too good to pass up. The second reason was that I had never read a book written by a Nigerian author, with Nigerian characters, that takes place in Nigeria. It was a bit outside my comfort zone, but the storyline itself was enough within my comfort zone that I thought it would be a good choice.

I think the best way to describe this book is exactly as I stated above. Outside my comfort zone. A lot of the cultural aspects made it difficult to connect with the characters, which I didn’t expect. I enjoyed reading about how they handled situations, but some of it was so foreign to me. In the end, I don’t think I ended up liking any of the characters and that was hard.

The book is told in 4 parts. It starts in 2008 with Yejide on her way to Akin’s father’s funeral. It then jumps back to the 1980s where a second wife is being presented to Yejide. From that point on, the parts of their marriage and relationship are filled in. At the beginning of each new part, it starts off in 2008 and then flashes back to the 1980s. Most of the book, at least at the beginning, is told from Yejide’s perspective with a few chapters here and there from Akin’s.

I don’t want to say much because a lot of this story relies on the slow reveal of information. There were a lot of pieces that I didn’t expect that definitely made the story what it was. I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this format. I liked that pieces of information were revealed over time and not all at once, but there were parts where I was definitely confused and felt like I should know what was going on but didn’t because that piece had not been revealed yet.

Overall, I’m glad that I read it and I did enjoy it. It was definitely a different experience. I don’t know if I would read it again, and I don’t think it would be a book that immediately comes to mind for a recommendation. But, if someone specifically asked me about it I would recommend it for sure.

What Book Club Thought

It seemed like we were all pretty much on the same page with this one. We all expected this book to be completely different than it ended up being. It took a lot of turns that were unexpected and because of those, we were all a bit unsure how we felt about it. There were a few of us who liked it more than others, but none of us were in love with it. I was also glad to see that I was not the only one who found these characters so unlikeable. The difference in culture and the seeming insanity of the events led to a good discussion. It was interesting to see that this book wasn’t as polarizing as I thought it would be. I thought that there were going to be members that came in saying “this was the worst book I have ever read” but they didn’t! There was some discussion about it being a little hard to get through at times, but we’ve definitely had books that people have liked less.

I’m glad I picked this as a book club read, because it was fun to discuss it after reading.

Killer Choice

By: Tom Hunt
Published Year: 2018
Publisher: Berkley Books
Pages: 352

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): His wife is sick.
He needs $200,000 to save her.
A mysterious man offers to give him the money with just one catch: He has to murder someone to get it.

Gary Foster’s life is finally heading in the right direction. After years of trying, his wife, Beth, is pregnant, and he recently opened a business with his brother. But one phone call changes everything.... 

After collapsing suddenly, Beth has been rushed to the hospital. Tests reveal a devastating diagnosis: an inoperable brain tumor. Their only hope is an expensive experimental treatment available abroad, with a cost that’s out of their reach. And Beth’s time is running out.... 

Then a strange man approaches Gary and offers the money he needs, on one condition: that he kill someone, no questions asked. End one life to save another.

In this nail-biting debut novel of domestic suspense, one man makes a choice that forces him to confront the darkest reaches of his soul and betray those closest to him. As he’s swept up in a nightmare of escalating violence, he must question his own morality—and determine just how far he’s willing to go to save the woman he loves.

First Impressions

The cover did not appeal to me at all, and honestly, the summary didn’t either. I almost passed on reviewing this book, but some part of me went “give it a chance. Maybe you’ll be surprised!” Basically, the first impression on this book was not good.

What I thought

Full disclosure, I got through about 65% of this book, felt I couldn’t continue, and skipped to the final 10%. Also, as a warning there will be spoilers ahead so that I can talk honestly about what I disliked.

Gary and his wife have been married for almost 20 years. After years of trying, they are finally pregnant. But their lives are changed when she is diagnosed with a brain tumor. When traditional treatment doesn’t work, they apply to an experimental trial and find out that it will cost them $200,000 to take part. One day, a stranger calls and offers Gary the $200,000 with one catch. He must kill someone else.

Initially, my reaction was ugh, no. But then I thought about it and I thought that the psychological part of it could be really interesting. Then the book started and it alternated between Gary’s perspective and a drug dealing ex-con, Otto. Turns out that HE is the one who wants Gary to commit murder. He wants him to (spoiler) murder a bad cop. But! And this is the big but, it’s not for any righteous reason. It’s because he has gotten himself into a situation where he owes too many people money. He only has enough money to pay one of the people, and if he doesn’t pay both his life is in danger. So he decides to take advantage of an extremely emotionally vulnerable man, by offering him $200,000 to get him out of a situation he got himself into.

Surprise surprise, when Gary does murder the bad cop, Otto doesn’t give him the money. Now, I don’t mind psychological thrillers, but the level of a drug dealer who was dealing with his own issues is not my thing. I actually almost put the book down at 17% because I knew it wouldn’t be my thing. I think part of the hard part of reading about this was that you do get so much from Otto’s perspective and you get to see how terrible of a person he is.

I just honestly couldn’t deal with a lot of it. I could tell it was starting to get too violent and too convoluted for me.

The saving grace of this novel, and the reason I even made it to 65%, was the writing. It was easy to read and I honestly had no issues with the writing. I would easily pick up another book by Hunt if the synopsis piqued my interest. It was honestly just the story that I couldn’t handle. It was not my thing at all.

Obviously the writing got me a little bit, because even though I didn’t want to read the rest of the book, I wanted to see how it ended. The good (and maybe bad?) thing was that when I read the ending I was left with a feeling of “I definitely made the right decision.”

While this book was not my thing at all, the writing was decent. I’m glad that I gave it a chance, even if I couldn’t finish it. This might be the first review book that I haven’t finished, but it just was not my thing. I think that if this review sounds interesting to you then you will enjoy the book. However, it is not one that I would recommend.

The Hating Game

By: Sally Thorne
Published Year: 2016
Pages: 387
Publisher: William Morrow

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 

Nemesis (n.) 
1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome;
2) A person’s undoing;
3) Joshua Templeman.

Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.

Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job…But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.

First Impressions

I love this cover! I think I added it to my TBR without reading the summary. Then this past summer it started popping up all over the place on everyone’s reading lists. So many people were raving about it that it bumped it a little higher on my TBR list. Plus I’m a sucker for relationships that start as hatred and turn into love.

What I thought

This book was really cute!

Lucy has been working with Josh for a while now. They are assistants to co-CEOs and work across from each other. And according to Lucy, they’re mortal enemies. They don’t talk to each other than to insult one another and they constantly play games to one up the other. When a new promotion is offered that only one of the will receive, their relationship starts to change.

This book was a bit more like a romance novel than I initially expected. I’m totally ok with that, but I thought it was going to have a contemporary feel to it and it was a bit racier than that.

In all honesty, I didn’t like Lucy much, loved Josh, but felt like he definitely does not exist in the real world. Lucy was annoying and I felt like so many of her behaviors were childish and unacceptable. From the beginning I could understand why this guy would hate her. She reads into everything and is wrong pretty much 100% of the time. Over the course of the book, she grew on me, but I was a little worried at the beginning that I wouldn’t be able to continue because of how much I disliked her character. In fact, she grew on me so much that a few days after finishing the book, I realized that I missed her and Joshua and their relationship.

The relationship between Joshua and Lucy was fun. I really enjoyed their banter. They had some funny moments that I appreciated. I also really appreciated that their relationship didn’t fall into some cliché romance novel tropes. For example, Lucy dates a guy named Danny at the beginning of the book (meaning like, goes on a date or two), and I got nervous that he was going to somehow come back and ruin the relationship but he didn’t. It was such a relief to read a romance book in which the conflict was just the characters and not additional outside forces that are ridiculous. There are enough issues that one can come up with without including unnecessary outside influences.

While I don’t think I am in love with this book as a lot of the book community seems to be, it was a very enjoyable fluff novel. I am definitely looking forward to more of Thorne’s books. She is similar in style to Susan Elizabeth Phillips who is my favorite romance novelist. I like that there is more to the story than just the sex scenes. There were some character issues that I had, but luckily it did get better as the book went on. If you like hate to love romances you will enjoy this book. I would also recommend it to people who need a light, fluffy, fun, and humorous book.

The Season

By: Jonah Lisa Dyer & Stephen Dyer
Published Year: 2017
Publisher: Viking Children's
Pages: 346

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Megan McKnight is a soccer star with Olympic dreams, but she’s not a girly girl. So when her Southern belle mother secretly enters her in the 2016 Dallas debutante season, she’s furious—and has no idea what she’s in for. When Megan’s attitude gets her on probation with the mother hen of the debs, she’s got a month to prove she can ballroom dance, display impeccable manners, and curtsey like a proper Texas lady or she’ll get the boot and disgrace her family. The perk of being a debutante, of course, is going to parties, and it’s at one of these lavish affairs where Megan gets swept off her feet by the debonair and down-to-earth Hank Waterhouse. If only she didn’t have to contend with a backstabbing blonde and her handsome but surly billionaire boyfriend, Megan thinks, being a deb might not be so bad after all. But that’s before she humiliates herself in front of a room full of ten-year-olds, becomes embroiled in a media-frenzy scandal, and gets punched in the face by another girl.

The season has officially begun…but the drama is just getting started

First Impressions

I think this book first caught my eye as a part of the Debut Author Challenge. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for books that involve soccer. Plus the addition of a debutante ball definitely caught my eye. The cover made a good first impression and definitely made me want to pick it up so it did its job.

What I thought

Megan and her twin sister Julia are signed up for the debutant ball by their mom. While Julia is excited and ready to go, Megan is less than looking forward to it. She is a college soccer player whose last thing on her mind is dressing up and acting like a lady. But when she finds out that their parents are struggling to keep the ranch, she agrees to participate in the ball per her father’s request.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the story. I liked getting to know Megan and Julia. Megan is a bit feisty but she is passionate about soccer. It was fun to see the contrast between her and her sister as well as the difficulty she has with the first debutant tea.

That’s about where I started to have some issues with the book. I’ve read a lot of romance novels and watched a lot of Hallmark movies, so maybe that’s why I had issues with this book, but it was frustratingly predictable. Right before the first tea, Megan meets a cute stranger. However, that stranger already has a girlfriend. She then meets a different guy at a different ball who she immediately falls for. But stranger number 1, doesn’t like Megan’s new guy because there’s a “history”. Now, I really hoped that Megan’s new guy, Hank, wouldn’t turn out to be evil, but (semi-spoiler) he does.

Also over time, I started to dislike Megan. She was quick to anger and definitely irrational. The development just wasn’t there for me. For example, she didn’t trust Andrew (stranger 1) at all for no reason other than he was rich. She also didn’t like one of the other debutantes for completely superficial reasons, and then changed her mind based on the party she threw. Megan turns our to be pretty shallow and self-centered and hard to like and root for.

There’s another storyline with Julia and her ex-boyfriend that I felt was seriously underdeveloped. It brought about an interesting plot point later in the book, but it was out of nowhere. I felt like some of the lack of development almost cheapened the seriousness of the issue.

There were a lot of bright spots in this story that I did enjoy. I liked the debutant moments and parts of watching Megan grow. But overall, I think the writing was lacking. The characters were underdeveloped and the whole story was predictable.  I do think that if Hallmark made teen movies this would be one they’d pick up. It could make a cute movie with a bit of fixing up. It’s a cute book and I would never not recommend it, it just has some tweaks that need to be worked out.

By Your Side

By: Kasie West
Published Year: 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 346

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): When Autumn Collins finds herself accidentally locked in the library for an entire weekend, she doesn’t think things could get any worse. But that’s before she realizes that Dax Miller is locked in with her. Autumn doesn’t know much about Dax except that he’s trouble. Between the rumors about the fight he was in (and that brief stint in juvie that followed it) and his reputation as a loner, he’s not exactly the ideal person to be stuck with. Still, she just keeps reminding herself that it is only a matter of time before Jeff, her almost-boyfriend, realizes he left her in the library and comes to rescue her.

Only he doesn’t come. No one does.

Instead it becomes clear that Autumn is going to have to spend the next couple of days living off vending-machine food and making conversation with a boy who clearly wants nothing to do with her. Except there is more to Dax than meets the eye. As he and Autumn first grudgingly, and then not so grudgingly, open up to each other, Autumn is struck by their surprising connection. But can their feelings for each other survive once the weekend is over and Autumn’s old life, and old love interest, threaten to pull her from Dax’s side?

First Impressions

Something about the font of West’s books really catches my eye. The summary about two people being caught in a library for a weekend just made me more interested in this particular story! Definitely a 10/10 on first impressions.

What I thought

Not what I expected, but still enjoyable. I finished it in a little over a day, so I think that speaks for itself.

After a late night at the library with her friends working on homework, Autumn runs back inside to use the bathroom before heading to her friend’s cabin for the weekend. While she’s in the bathroom, the lights shut off and the library is shut down. All doors are locked, her overnight back with her cellphone is in the backseat of her friend’s car, and everyone seems to think that she was in a different car so they don’t realize that she’s not with them. Luckily, she’s not alone. Bad boy Dax is trapped in the library with her.

I absolutely loved the portion of the story that dealt with them in the library for the weekend. It was fun to see how two strangers deal with having little to no resources at their disposal and how they’re going to entertain themselves. I also liked the difficulty of their relationship and that Dax wasn’t easily won over. Interestingly, Autumn also has an anxiety disorder and she is without her medication for the weekend (its’s MLK weekend so the library is closed Saturday-Monday).

It was a bit difficult to accept that her friends and family just haven’t come to look for her over the course of a few days, but if you just ignore the improbability of it, there is a plausible explanation in store. I won’t tell you what it is so that you can be as surprised as I was, but it’s definitely an unexpected twist!

There is also a bit of a love triangle aspect to this story. Autumn has a crush on her friend Jeff and they’ve been flirting for months. Before she got locked in the library, she thought that that weekend was going to be the one where they finally got together. Of course, things change after being locked in the library with Dax.

Every character is enjoyable in this story. I wish some of the friendships could’ve been more fleshed out, but the important ones were detailed enough to connect with. This book also dealt with a lot of issues and I think it could connect with a lot of people. Not only does it discuss Autumn’s anxieties, but Dax is a foster child with a troubled past. A few of the other issues are ones that I don’t want to give away!

While this may not be a groundbreaking story, it is enjoyable and well written. Autumn, Dax, Jeff, and even Autumn’s brother were a delight to read. It was easy to get through and I wanted to know what happened to each and every character. I also appreciated that while there were moment that could’ve gotten very melodramatic, they stayed within a relatively realistic realm of drama.

By the Book

By: Julia Sonneborn
Published Year: 2018
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages: 384

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): An English professor struggling for tenure discovers that her ex-fiancé has just become the president of her college—and her new boss—in this whip-smart modern retelling of Jane Austen’s classic Persuasion.

Anne Corey is about to get schooled.

An English professor in California, she’s determined to score a position on the coveted tenure track at her college. All she’s got to do is get a book deal, snag a promotion, and boom! She’s in. But then Adam Martinez—her first love and ex-fiancé—shows up as the college’s new president.

Anne should be able to keep herself distracted. After all, she’s got a book to write, an aging father to take care of, and a new romance developing with the college’s insanely hot writer-in-residence. But no matter where she turns, there’s Adam, as smart and sexy as ever. As the school year advances and her long-buried feelings begin to resurface, Anne begins to wonder whether she just might get a second chance at love.

Funny, smart, and full of heart, this modern ode to Jane Austen’s classic explores what happens when we run into the demons of our past...and when they turn out not to be so bad, after all.

First Impressions

I am a sucker for red doors! The cover calls my name. And honestly, having the word “book” in a title will catch my eye too. I also loved seeing that it was a Jane Austen retelling, even though I have never read Persuasion. This book made such a great first impression that I included it on my list of books I was most looking forward to in 2018!

What I thought

Anne is a 32 year old college English professor working towards qualifying for tenure by getting her first book published. When Fairfax gets a new President, it ends up being Anne’s ex-fiance, Adam Martinez. She hasn’t seen/talked to him in 13 years. At the same time, famous author Richard (something) has received a temporary job at Fairfax and has caught the attention of Anne.

I’m a little stuck on how to review this book. Let’s start with what I liked. I liked Anne and how she was working towards getting her first book published. She is a solid character even though she has her own insecurities. Her father has never supported her being an English professor and her sister has always looked down on her choices as well. However, this never changed her mind and she is a great teacher who loves her job. She is a bit insecure in her writing and is nervous about getting her book published, but it’s written in such a normal way that it’s not annoying at all. I can’t imagine sending off something that I worked hours on and put my whole heart into day after day and continuing to receive rejections. I think she handles it really well.

I also liked her relationship with Larry. I loved every scene that they were in together. I liked that they supported each other in their professions as well as their love lives, but that they were still honest with each other.

Now to what I didn’t like. Richard was so obviously not going to turn out to be a good guy. I don’t know if this is partially because of the Austen aspect of the story, but from the beginning I just knew that Anne was going to end up with him, he was going to turn out not to be who he says he is in some way, and she would get her heart broken. It was a bit annoying to read their scenes together as a result, since you knew they weren’t going to end up together.

I also didn’t like how little Adam and Anne interacted. I get that they were in love in college, to the point that they were engaged, but it’s been 13 years and they have interacted maybe 3 times before (spoiler alert) ending up back together. It was so unsatisfying! There was no build up, no reintroduction. Just, now Anne is with Rick, now she’s with Adam. Again, I get that this may stay true to Austen’s Persuasion, but as a retelling I would’ve appreciated a little more liberty being taken with this love story.

This is an easy and enjoyable book to read. I finished it in a day. I liked Sonneborn’s writing and will gladly keep an eye out for more books by her in the future. I wouldn’t read it again which is why it’s more of a 3 than 4 star book for me. The ending just left me unsatisfied and that’s my biggest issue with it. If you like Persuasion or Jane Austen retellings, I’d recommend checking this book out!

2018 Uppercase Reading Challenge

In the past, I have taken part of the Debut Author Challenge. I do love that challenge, but I’ve found that it is often difficult for me to keep up with. I’m not crazy about buying books that I haven’t read previously and often the library doesn’t have a lot of the debut books I want to read, so that has made it harder. If you aren’t aware of that challenge, it involves reading one book a month by a debut author. I’ve found some great books through this challenge, and I think I will try to informally take part. However, after two years in which I only managed about 6 months of this challenge I’m taking a break.

When I was on twitter, the Uppercase Reading Challenge popped up. Uppercase is a subscription book box service. I don’t personally use it, but I do follow their account. I saw their challenge graphic and decided that I’m going to give it a try this year!

I like that there are 10 challenges and they’re not timed. It takes a little bit of the pressure off and in fact, I will have already checked off two of these challenges by the end of January!

I think every 3 months I will do an update on how my challenge progress is going. I’m sure here will be times where I knock off multiple ones in a month, and other times where I won’t even touch one. I also like this this is similar to the PopSugar book challenge but not nearly as overwhelming.

Well… that’s about it! Just wanted to update you guys so, wise me luck!