Lucky Caller

By: Emma Mills
Published Year: 2020
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
Pages: 336

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): When Nina decides to take a radio broadcasting class her senior year, she expects it to be a walk in the park. Instead, it’s a complete disaster.

The members of Nina's haphazardly formed radio team have approximately nothing in common. And to maximize the awkwardness her group includes Jamie, a childhood friend she'd hoped to basically avoid for the rest of her life.

The show is a mess, internet rumors threaten to bring the wrath of two fandoms down on their heads, and to top it all off Nina's family is on the brink of some major upheaval.

Everything feels like it's spiraling out of control―but maybe control is overrated?

First Impressions

I love Mills. I have read all of her novels and greatly enjoyed each one. While I have liked some more than others, I have never been disappointed by one of her books. I will say, I am a little disappointed in the cover of this book. It’s not that it’s not cute, but I liked how unique Mills’ previous covers were but that I knew it was a Mills book just by looking at it.

What I thought

This book was a lot of fun from beginning to end, which is exactly what I’ve come to expect from Mills.

Nina is taking a radio broadcasting class and gets grouped with Jamie, her childhood friend who she has drifted apart from since an 8th grade incident. They start to rebuild their friendship over their 90s themed radio show and attempts to make it more popular.

The funny thing is that while trying to give you guys a little summary I realized that there really isn’t much that happens in this book. But it definitely doesn’t feel like that as you’re reading it. Nina is a fun character to read as she’s comfortable with herself and a bit sarcastic. Her two sisters are also fun and I enjoyed their banter and relationship. Jamie is, of course, totally sweet, and even Nina’s mom and her soon to be stepdad Dan are great.

It’s a very character driven novel and is propelled forward by their relationships and interactions. There is a conflict that occurs with Nina and trying to get her radio host dad to come talk on her high school radio show, but it’s not the focus of the novel.

The interesting thing about the relationship development with Jamie and Nina is that it is built through flashbacks. It’s not always completely clear when they’re happening but I enjoyed them.

This was a fun quick read that put a smile on my face. It’s hard to review because there’s not a lot to it when I break it down, but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. If you’re looking for a cute YA book with fun characters and solid writing, I would recommend checking this one out. It’s not going to be a standout of Mills’ for me, but it was solid.

The Honey-Don't List

By: Christina Lauren
Published Year: 2020
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages: 320

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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 of this book.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Carey Douglas has worked for home remodeling and design gurus Melissa and Rusty Tripp for nearly a decade. A country girl at heart, Carey started in their first store at sixteen, and—more than anyone would suspect—has helped them build an empire. With a new show and a book about to launch, the Tripps are on the verge of superstardom. There’s only one problem: America’s favorite couple can’t stand each other.

James McCann, MIT graduate and engineering genius, was originally hired as a structural engineer, but the job isn’t all he thought it’d be. The last straw? Both he and Carey must go on book tour with the Tripps and keep the wheels from falling off the proverbial bus.

Unfortunately, neither of them is in any position to quit. Carey needs health insurance, and James has been promised the role of a lifetime if he can just keep the couple on track for a few more weeks. While road-tripping with the Tripps up the West Coast, Carey and James vow to work together to keep their bosses’ secrets hidden, and their own jobs secure. But if they stop playing along—and start playing for keeps—they may have the chance to build something beautiful together…

From the “hilariously zany and heartfelt” (Booklist) Christina Lauren comes a romantic comedy that proves if it’s broke, you might as well fix it.

First Impressions

I mean… do I even need to tell you my first impression at this point? It’s a Christina Lauren book. It was added to my to-read list before even reading the summary.

What I thought

While this wasn’t my favorite of their books, it was still a lot of fun.

Carey and James work together for two of the biggest home decorators in the US. Think Chip and Joanna Gaines big. But Melissa and Rusty Tripp’s relationship is not everything it appears to be. They have just written a book on how to have a successful marriage but there is falling apart. Carey has been working for them for 10 years, whereas James is new. They end up forming an unexpected bond when they are forced to babysit the Tripps on their book tour.

The interesting thing about this book is that it has a similar feel to a Liane Moriarty book. It starts with Carey and James being interviewed by the police regarding some event that happened. They then go back to the beginning to talk about how they ended up at this event but it is still interspersed with flash forwards to present day.

While I liked Carey, I felt like this format didn’t work for me to build a romance. I also wasn’t crazy about James and I don’t know if that’s due to the writing style, or if it was just James. I do like this book better than Twice in a Blue Moon, but it didn’t have that Christina Lauren spark that I loved in Josh & Hazel or The Unhoneymooners.

It’s not that it’s bad by any means. I enjoyed the book a lot and flew through it. I think I just automatically compare it to their other books and it falls a little short. It’s a little bit more serious than their previous novels.

I did like that Carey had a lot of layers to her story. I found her relationship with Melissa Tripp to almost be more interesting than the one that developed with James. The history that they had and the dysfunction that it led to was interesting and I would have gladly delved into it more. The relationship between James and Carey seemed like one of convenience and while James was nice enough, he was very vanilla.

While this isn’t one of my favorite Christina Lauren novels, it is still a solid three star read. If you’re looking for a silly or light hearted romance, I would recommend some of their other books, but if you want something with a little bit more weight to it, then you should check this one out. The writing and the characters are still solid and I will definitely continue to read and enjoy all of their books.

Darling Rose Gold

By: Stephanie Wrobel
Published Year: 2020
Publisher: Berkley
Pages:

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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 of this book.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): For the first eighteen years of her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital. Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers and offering shoulders to cry on, but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold.

Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar.

After serving five years in prison, Patty gets out with nowhere to go and begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes.

Patty insists all she wants is to reconcile their differences. She says she's forgiven Rose Gold for turning her in and testifying against her. But Rose Gold knows her mother. Patty Watts always settles a score.

Unfortunately for Patty, Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling...

And she's waited such a long time for her mother to come home.

First Impressions

The cover is a very pretty color and grabbed my eye. Then you look closer and it’s creepy. I’ve watched a lot of true crime shows and documentaries, so when I read the summary it reminded me of Mommy Dead and Dearest, which piqued my interest further.

What I thought

This book left me feeling so gross.

Rose Gold Watts grew up thinking that she was deathly ill. When she turned 16, she realized that her mother had been poisoning her to make her think that she was sick all along. Patty Watts has been in prison for 5 years, but when she gets out, Rose Gold picks her up and takes her home. Will they be able to put their past behind them? Or will old patterns repeat themselves?

The HBO documentary, Mommy Dead and Dearest, tells the story of a girl who was poisoned by her mother her entire life and made to believe that she was terribly sick but with no diagnosis of everything. She was wheelchair bound, lost her hair, and had a feeding tube. When she was a teenager, she accessed the internet and became suspicious that her mom was poisoning her after talking to her online boyfriend. She plots with her boyfriend to kill her mother, is successful in doing so, and went to prison.

I’m more than a little curious as to how this book has been allowed to be written considering how close it is to the real life story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. I mean, even with the Rose reference with the name. The only real difference in this book versus the real story is that Patty is alive and Rose Gold gets revenge via other means that aren’t murder.

The story is a little confusing in that the chapters are written not only in alternating perspective, but in alternating timelines. Patty’s chapters are told from present day, whereas Rose Gold’s chapters start a year or so after Patty goes to prison. It adds to the disorientation of what is real and what is a mind game.

I think that the writing is good. The story moved along well and I was interested to see where it was going. There are some parts that seem like they don’t follow the same track and divert unnecessarily, but it always came back.

This book left me feeling so uncomfortable that I couldn’t rate it higher. They are both terrible people and I’m definitely not a “two wrongs make a right” type of person, so a lot of this book didn’t sit well with me. I think people who liked the Mommy Dead and Dearest documentary will enjoy this book. I’m curious to see what Wrobel writes next, because I did like her style.

Book Club March 2020 - The Girls at 17 Swann Street

This month was another book that I had read previously. Luckily, it was one i had read only a year ago, so I remembered it a lot more than the previous one. Enjoy this re-post of this review.

By: Yara Zgheib
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 384

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

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): The chocolate went first, then the cheese, the fries, the ice cream. The bread was more difficult, but if she could just lose a little more weight, perhaps she would make the soloists’ list. Perhaps if she were lighter, danced better, tried harder, she would be good enough. Perhaps if she just ran for one more mile, lost just one more pound.

Anna Roux was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri. There, alone with her biggest fears – imperfection, failure, loneliness – she spirals down anorexia and depression till she weighs a mere eighty-eight pounds. Forced to seek treatment, she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, a peach pink house where pale, fragile women with life-threatening eating disorders live. Women like Emm, the veteran; quiet Valerie; Julia, always hungry. Together, they must fight their diseases and face six meals a day.

Yara Zgheib's poetic and poignant debut novel is a haunting, intimate journey of a young woman's struggle to reclaim her life. Every bite causes anxiety. Every flavor induces guilt. And every step Anna takes toward recovery will require strength, endurance, and the support of the girls at 17 Swann Street. 

First Impressions

The cover doesn’t do much for me but the summary grabbed my attention. I am (was?) a dancer so anything that involves dancers will always get a look from me.

What I thought

This was such an interesting read and I wish that I had read it as a book club read because I want to discuss this with other people.

Anna has been admitted to 17 Swann Street, a recovery home for women with eating disorders. Anna’s husband Matthias admitted her after he found her passed out in their bathroom. Anna used to be a dancer until she got injured. She and Matthias moved from France to Saint Louis for a job, and that it when her eating disorder really started to take a hold.

The chapters alternate between Anna’s life at 17 Swann Street, her health reports, and her life before anorexia took hold. The interesting, and slightly irritating thing about this book is the unique formatting. The paragraphs are double spaced (similar to the formatting of my blog) and there are no quotation marks. Instead, spoken words are italicized. But this is still a little confusing because the past chapters are all italicized. I liked that the italics made it seem as though the whole book was told from the inside Anna’s head. It gave it a more intimate feel for sure. However, it also made it difficult at times to follow who was speaking.

I haven’t read many books about eating disorders, but I felt that this one handled it wonderfully. It was honest and gave insight in a way that I haven’t read before. There were a lot of ups and downs and I liked the balance of Anna’s present struggles with her past ones. I did expect to see her work through a few more of her issues than she did, but I still enjoyed following her progress.

I also enjoyed the dynamics of all of the girls in 17 Swann Street. To see the way that eating disorders impacts a variety of lives in a variety of ways was insightful. I think that discussing the factors that caused each girl’s life to take the path that it did would be interesting. I will definitely have to pass this book on to some of my friends so we can discuss it.

Regardless of the formatting issues that I could never quite get used to, this story was one I couldn’t put down. I enjoyed watching Anna’s journey and I want to pass this book onto other people. I know that it was very different from The Book of Essie, it had a similar feel to me. If you have read that book and liked it, I would recommend checking this one out.

The Antidote for Everything

By: Kimmery Martin
Published Year: 2020
Publisher: Berkley
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 of this book.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Georgia Brown’s profession as a urologist requires her to interact with plenty of naked men, but her romantic prospects have fizzled. The most important person in her life is her friend Jonah Tsukada, a funny, empathetic family medicine doctor who works at the same hospital in Charleston, South Carolina and who has become as close as family to her.

Just after Georgia leaves the country for a medical conference, Jonah shares startling news. The hospital is instructing doctors to stop providing medical care for transgender patients. Jonah, a gay man, is the first to be fired when he refuses to abandon his patients. Stunned by the predicament of her closest friend, Georgia’s natural instinct is to fight alongside him. But when her attempts to address the situation result in incalculable harm, both Georgia and Jonah find themselves facing the loss of much more than their careers.

First Impressions

Martin’s book covers are just gorgeous. The colors and the designs jump out at you and make you want to display them in your home. What I love about this cover is that once you read the summery you learn that it’s about gay and transgender patients and the cover features what is often call the Little Boy flower. I loved the little design hint at what the book was going to be about. Wonderful first impression.

What I thought

Martin does it again! A smartly written book with a whole ton of heart.

Georgia is urologist in Charleston. She works with her gay best friend Jonah who is a general practitioner. When the hospital and clinic decide to release Jonah’s patients on the ground that they are transgender, he challenges the hospital and gets fired himself. This story deals with the injustice of the healthcare system and the option to turn away patients as well as how Georgia and Jonah deal with how it impacts their lives.

One of my favorite things about Martin’s books is that she is an ER doctor and you can tell that from her writing. That doesn’t mean it’s dry, but that it’s smart. Her doctors know what they’re doing and know what they’re talking about. Everything has a level of intelligence that makes me as a reader more invested because the characters are so believable in their careers. Georgia is a strong and intelligent female doctor in a specialty dominated by men. While she may have faults in the way she handles her personal life, she is good at her job.

One unexpected element that I greatly enjoyed was a secondary love story. Was it necessary? No. Did it end up being one of my favorite parts of the book? Yes. It definitely added a lightness to break up the seriousness of the other plot points.

Speaking of the other plot points, this book touches on some sensitive yet very important topics. Now, I am a straight, white, female, so I can’t fully speak to how well Martin handles these topics or writes a gay character, but in my opinion she does a wonderful job. Jonah is so great and I adore the relationship between him and Georgia. The book also made me just angry enough that I am mad about the topic but not so angry that I couldn’t read the story. I think this book sends a strong message and a lot of people should read it.

I loved this book. I think this should be a top book club pick for 2020. There are a lot of solid discussion points balanced with well-written relationships and fun moments. The characters are all likeable which makes the story more enjoyable and easy to read. I never once felt like I was being preached at and I didn’t experience any reader fatigue. I love Martin’s writing. I would probably give this a 4.5/5 stars, if only because I don’t know if I would re-read this book. I will, however, be passing it on to a lot of people!

The Sun Down Motel

By: Simone St James
Published Year: 2020
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 336

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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 of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn't right at the Sun Down, and before long she's determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…

First Impressions

I haven’t read a good thriller in a while and this cover screamed spooky. This is the exact type of book I would pick up around Halloween and makes a solid first impression.

What I thought

This book was just like reading a true crime podcast.

Carly’s Aunt Viv disappeared in 1982. After her mom dies, Carly decides to go to the last place her aunt was seen, Fell, New York, to see if she can find answers. In 1982, Viv ran away to Fell, New York. She worked the night shift at the Sun Down Motel, until one night she disappeared.

The story is told in alternating perspectives from Carly in 2017 and Viv in 1982. It is interesting because there are multiple mysteries going on. It kept me interested because with so much going on, it was hard to figure out exactly what was going to happen. I did prefer Carly’s chapters to Viv’s, but I think that’s because Viv’s were more dangerous and made me more anxious.

St. James said that when writing this book she was inspired by true crime podcasts and that is very obvious wen reading this story. Viv is like the original amateur detective in 1982, trying to find out who killed multiple girls in the town of Fell. The one thing that’s a bit odd is how a girl who has no connection to the town or any of the girls who have gone missing gets so involved in figuring out what is going on. But I guess some peoples personalities just lend them to that and once you get sucked in, you’re in.

Carly’s connection makes a little bit more sense, since she’s looking for her aunt. The one funny thing is, either Carly and her aunt are amazing detectives, or the Fell PD is terrible. Not one, but two young 20 year old women manage to solve the murders of 3 women while the police department could not.

The sign of a good thriller is whether or not it keeps me interested from beginning to end. This book did that. I was curious to find out what happened to Viv as well as the other girls of Fell. There are definitely parts of the book that are hard to read. Murder and young women is not an easy topic. The writing is solid and the pacing is well done. It was a solid read and definitely pulled me back out of a reading fatigue I was starting to slide back into.

I would probably rate this one a solid 3.5 stars. I enjoyed it from beginning to end, but there was some sort of spark missing that makes me hesitate to give it 4 stars. If you like true crime, I would highly recommend checking this book out. It kept me interested and I wasn’t able to guess what was going to happen until right before it happened. There is a lot that goes one and all of it was entertaining.

Book Club February 2020- Such a Fun Age

By: Kiley Reid
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: G.P Putnam and Sons
Pages: 320

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living showing other women how to do the same. A mother to two small girls, she started out as a blogger and has quickly built herself into a confidence-driven brand. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night. Seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, a security guard at their local high-end supermarket accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make it right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family,” the complicated reality of being a grown up, and the consequences of doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

What I thought

And we’re back with another Reese’s book club pick! Our book club has a habit of accidentally picking books from her book club list and typically end up really enjoying them, so even though the summary didn’t greatly appeal to me I was still looking forward to reading it.

Emira is a babysitter for Alix Chamberlain’s two girls. She is black and the girls she cares for are white and rich. One night, Alix calls for Emira to come in and watch their eldest girl in an emergency situation. Emira was at a party with her friends, so she does not show up in work appropriate attire. When she brings Briar to the local grocery store for a distraction, a customer ends up questioning her connection to the child and brings in security. In amongst all that, Emira is a 26 year old who is working two part time jobs with no idea as to what she wants to do with her life.

The writing of this book was really good. I felt like it was well easy to read and for the most part kept me interested. My issue was that I got book fatigue about halfway through. It felt like the story wasn’t really going anywhere and I didn’t know what I was still reading. The summary of the book made it seem like the incident in the grocery store was going to be central to the book, but in reality it only comes up at the beginning and the end. This is more of a story about a young woman finding herself.

There were times that I liked Emira, which helped with reading the book, but other times when she just irritated the heck out of me. I know that I’m older than 26, but I found myself reading it and wondering “was I really that immature just 5 years ago?” And Alix is just, the worst, especially because she doesn’t realize that she’s the worst. Add in Kelley, the guy that Emira dates, and you just have a merry band of terrible people.

The positive side is that their terribleness sheds light on a lot of social situations. There are a lot of interesting conversations about racism and I can see how this book would connect with a lot of people. In the end, it’s not that I disliked the book, it just wore on me after a while.

What Book Club Thought

This was such a good book for a book club discussion. There were so many interesting points to talk about. Stephanie brought up that the author shared that one of her points that she wanted to make when writing this book was to make the reader feel uncomfortable. I don’t know if I would say that I necessarily felt uncomfortable when reading the book, but I could see how a lot of these situations would make a reader uncomfortable and that is what made this book so much fun to discuss. Of the book club members, I was definitely the least enthusiastic about the book, but we all had similar perspectives on what happened, what we thought of the characters, and even how we would’ve acted in some of the situations. I’m glad that I read this as a book club book and not just on my own.

Ninth House

By: Leigh Bardugo
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: Flatiron
Pages: 459

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

First Impressions

This was one of the most hyped books of 2019. I had hear a lot about Bardugo in regards to her previous novels, Smoke and Bone and Six of Crows, but I had read neither series. Both of those were YA novels and this was going to be her first Adult novel. It definitely caught my eye because of the hype and the summary about secret societies at Yale got to me too. I don’t know if I would’ve picked it up base on the cover alone. I probably would have since it is a bit creepy, but maybe only around Halloween.

What I thought

Oh… my… wow. This book was great.

Alex is drafted by a secret society at Yale after she is found almost dead at a murder scene in LA. The Lethe house is meant to keep an eye on the other 8 houses while they perform their rituals and use magic. But what makes Alex special is that she is able to see ghosts, or Greys, without any need for a potion or magic. During her first semester at Yale while studying the rules of the societies, her mentor Darlington disappears and there is a murder that occurs, leaving Alex to try to solve both mysteries in a world completely new to her.

I often get nervous about books that have this much hype surrounding them. There’s no way that they can live up to it! Ninth House also received the reward for Goodreads Choice Adult Fantasy 2019. I was a little wary because I didn’t know whether Bardugo’s fan base was to be trusted, but this book blew my expectations out of the water.

I don’t know if you have noticed through reading my blog, but I have been in a bit of a reading slump. I haven’t had many books lately that make me really want to read over watching TV and when I do read, I’m disappointed by the time I finish. This is the first book in a long time that I found myself wanting to pick up every spare minute I had to read more. If I had 5 extra minutes, I was slipping in a few pages.

The beginning is a bit slow and confusing. You get dropped right into the end of the story and then it moves backwards for a little bit, so it took me a little while to get oriented. Once I gained my footing in the world, I was hooked. This book is such a perfect combination of murder mystery and fantasy. I’m not a huge fantasy fan, but I loved this one because it’s just enough magic to make the real world fanstastical, but it seems like it could actually be happening. It’s not a completely new world, just a twist on the one you know.

The characters were so well written as well. I connected with each of them and I am so excited that this book has a sequel. I want more Alex. I want more Darlington. I want more Dawes. Like I said, I haven’t felt this way about a book in a while, so it’s almost hard for me to review a book I liked this much as I’m out of practice. I will warn that it is a darker novel and has some very graphic moments. It is not for the faint of heart but it’s not done in a tasteless way.

Reading this book was like eating a good home cooked meal after only eating fast food for a long time. I finally feel satiated but it has also reawakened my appetite for reading. If you enjoy murder mysteries and also like fantasy, this book will be perfect for you. Even if you’re not 100% sure how you feel about fantasy, I would still recommend giving this one a try. It will be like dipping your toe into the world of fantasy, because it’s mostly just magic and the paranormal. There aren’t different worlds with an entirely new vocabulary you have to learn, just a few bits here and there. I cannot wait for the next book to come out and you can bet that I will definitely be going back to check out Bardugo’s YA novels.