Book Review: Dead to Her

How it is only Wednesday, I'll never know. I woke up thinking for sure it was the weekend. But nope! This week is wiping me  out completely.

Dead to Her - Sarah Pinborough

Being the second wife can be murder . . .

“Once a cheat, always a cheat,” they say. Marcie Maddox has worked hard to get where she is after the illicit affair that started her new life a few years ago. But her world of country clubs, yachts and sumptuous houses in Savannah, Georgia, isn’t easy to maintain, no matter how hard she tries. Nor is keeping her husband, Jason, truly interested.

So, when Jason’s boss brings home a hot new wife from his trip to London, the young Mrs William Radford IV isn’t quite the souvenir everyone expected. Sexy, drop-dead gorgeous and black—Keisha quickly usurps Marcie’s place as the beautiful second wife. But when Marcie sees the extra spark in the room when Keisha and Jason are together and their obvious, magnetic attraction, the gloves come off.

Revenge is best served cold, but in the steamy Savannah heat, blood runs so hot that this summer it might just boil over into murder.

If you remember, I reviewed another book by this author called Cross Her Heart, and I didn't totally love it. It was OK but it wasn't great. I was a little hesitant going into this one and unfortunately a lot of the problems I had with Cross Her Heart were present here, too so it's either me with the issue or its just the author's writing style that isn't meshing well with me.

You know I am a big believer that characters in thrillers really all need flaws to keep them suspect and you really can't like them. While both of those things are in this book, it almost goes too far because I really, really, really didn't like any of these characters and I found myself rooting for a terrible end for all of them.

The book is really bizarre, we have Marcie who is the younger, hot second wife of Jason. We have Keisha, who is the new younger, hot wife of William (Jason's boss). Picture the Real Housewives of Literally Any City and that's what this entire circle is. While Marcie isn't exactly besties with any of the women in the circle, the introduction of Keisha threatens not only that, but Marcie's marriage to Jason, who suddenly centers his attention on Keisha. Jason convinces Marcie to befriend her and while they do become friendly, this ends up being bananas. I mean, bizarre. The little twist of southern voodoo in here surprised me and was a breath of energy into this book that I was having a hard time sticking with.

To be honest, this really isn't a thriller, its more like a strange regular ol' fiction with some steamy sex and supernatural stuff thrown in. I can see how fans of Liane Moriarty would enjoy this one, it should be shelved in that area but it really wasn't a thriller. I'm going to give this one 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for Goodreads.

⭐⭐⭐

   

Thank you to William Morrow and TLC Book Tours for having me on this tour and sending me a copy! All thoughts are my own and this post contains affiliate links. 

Book Review: Cross Her Heart

I normally read thrillers in the fall but I've had a couple of good ones come across so I've squeezed them in. Plus, Sarah Pinborough has a new one coming (that I already have) so I thought perhaps I should read this one first so I know what to expect as far as writing style. It definitely kept me on my toes!

Cross Her Heart - Sarah Pinborough

Lisa lives for her daughter Ava, her job and her best friend Marilyn.

But when a handsome client shows an interest in her, Lisa starts daydreaming about sharing her life with him, too. Maybe she’s ready now. Maybe she can trust again. Maybe it's time to let her terrifying secret past go.

But when her daughter rescues a boy from drowning and their pictures are all over the news for everyone to see, Lisa's world explodes.

As she finds everything she has built threatened, and not knowing who she can trust, it's up to Lisa to face her past in order to save what she holds dear.

But someone has been pulling all their strings. And that someone is determined that both Lisa and Ava must suffer.

Because long ago Lisa broke a promise. And some promises aren't meant to be broken.

If you aren't able to dedicate some solid time to this book, you might get lost. The first half of it is terribly slow and Lisa is a pretty unlikable character. I really didn't like her and once everything started to unravel, I liked her even less. I mean, she had some awful stuff happen and I get it but man.... for as paranoid as she was she really wasn't great at hiding herself. I also felt terribly sorry for her daughter because not only does she have an incredibly protective mom but she has a mom who is relatively clueless as to what her daughter is actually doing.

My other issue is that once you get over the half way mark it all starts rolling downhill relatively quickly, and that's when you're going to want to read it in one sitting because it's so whack-a-doodle you'll be confused if you put it down a few times. It's a bizarre story and I didn't think it really warranted the lengths the main character went through. It reminded me of the cheesy thrillers on the Lifetime channel, where you expect Tori Spelling to be murdered or something.

My biggest issue with this was the incredibly slow pace because it made a book that should only have taken me, at most, two days to read stretch into a week and a half. I just had a hard time sticking with it and by the time I got to the end I'm not sure it was worth it? Overall I can only give this one 2 stars because while it wasn't awful, it's not one I would pick up again.

You can find this book, and tons others, on the HarperCollins website, and if you hang out on the page long enough a 20% coupon pops up, so that's always pretty great.

⭐⭐

   

A big thank you to William Morrow Books and TLC Book Tours for having me on this tour and sending me a copy! All thoughts are my own and this post contains affiliate links.

Book Review: The Playground

I only have a few book review posts for the rest of this year but I'm pretty sure they are all going to be good and I'm happy to be leaving 2019 with a bang... at least book wise.

The Playground - Jane Shemilt

Big Little Lies meets Lord of The Flies in this electrifyingly twisty follow-up to Jane Shemilt’s breakout debut The Daughter.

Over the course of a long, hot summer in London, the lives of three very different married couples collide when their children join the same tutoring circle, resulting in illicit relationships, shocking violence, and unimaginable fallout.

There’s Eve, a bougie earth mother with a well-stocked trust fund; she has three little ones, a blue-collar husband and is obsessed with her Instagrammable recipes and lifestyle. And Melissa, a successful interior designer whose casually cruel banker husband is careful not to leave visible bruises; she curates her perfectly thin body so closely she misses everything their teenage daughter is hiding. Then there’s Grace, a young Zimbabwean immigrant, who lives in high-rise housing project with her two children and their English father Martin, an award-winning but chronically broke novelist; she does far more for her family than she should have to.

As the weeks go by, the couples become very close; there are barbecues, garden parties, a holiday at a country villa in Greece. Resentments flare. An affair begins. Unnoticed, the children run wild. The couples are busily watching each other, so distracted and self-absorbed that they forget to watch their children. No one sees the five children at their secret games or realize how much their family dynamics are changing until tragedy strikes.

The story twists and then twists again while the three families desperately search for answers. It’s only as they begin to unravel the truth of what happened over the summer that they realize evil has crept quietly into their world.

But has this knowledge come too late?

I knew going into this that I probably wasn't going to like any of these characters and I was totally right, they are the worst. Why they even had kids is completely beyond me, but I bet we can all name four of five parents that we know that definitely shouldn't have had kids.

Imagine them as these characters because it helps. In fact, we probably know people who could play each role because we know these people. You feel terrible for the kids because they don't always necessarily know how awful parents their own are and they inevitably turn out pretty similar to them and that my friends, is the circle of life. I say often that a good thriller/suspense type book needs to be full of characters we don't like or don't want to root for because we inevitably want to see someone go down for once. The downer for me is that even though this book is a meandering trail of "what the heck is going on".... I knew what happened fairly early on. It didn't ruin the book for me, I just wish there almost was a total twist at the end that blew me and my guess out of the water because I missed something stupid that was actually incredibly critical.

The best part of this book was watching the parents each spiraling to hell in their own way and bringing each other down all the while thinking the kids are left relatively unscathed and OK. MEANWHILE, these kids are wreaking havoc with little to no supervision because their parents are the captains of the hot mess cruise ship. It almost feels like two seriously depraved stories happening at the same time and converging together at the worst possible time. At the end of the book I take away that children are not stupid, children are sneaky, and no matter what WE do as adults, the children are watching.

This book is incredibly hard to put down because debauchery is all over the place but someone is also playing them all and it's so disturbing on so many levels. It's honestly exactly what I needed in between cheerful and optimistic Christmas books and movies. Life is all about balance, my friends. If you want something to keep you hooked and mess with your head a bit, this is your next read.

Although it isn't released until 12/30/19, you can pre-order it now at HarperCollins but also most book retailers, too!

   

Thank you to William Morrow Books and TLC Book Tours for having me on this tour and sending me a copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own; this post contains affiliate links. 

Book Review: If Only I Could Tell You

When this book came in the mail I fell in love with it immediately because this cover is gorgeous, but I didn't remember what it was about. Once I read the blurb I remembered exactly why I wanted this book and I am so glad I was able to be on this tour because this book had me hooked from page one.

If Only I Could Tell You - Hannah Beckerman

Audrey knows that life is filled with ups and downs, but she can’t help feeling like she’s been dealt more than her fair share as she’s watched her family come undone over the years. Her dream as a mother had been for her daughters, Jess and Lily, to be as close as only sisters can be. But now as adults, they no longer speak to each other, and Audrey’s two teenage granddaughters have never met. Even more upsetting is the fact that Audrey has no idea how to fix her family as she wonders if they will ever be whole again.

If only Audrey had known three decades ago that a secret could have the power to split her family in two, but ironically, also keep them linked. And when hostilities threaten to spiral out of control, a devastating choice that was made so many years ago is about to be revealed, testing once and for all Audrey and those she loves.

Is it too late for one broken family to heal and find their way back to each other…?

A beautiful novel of mothers and daughters, the bonds of family, and the secrets that can sometimes divide us yet also bring us together, If Only I Could Tell You will remain on your mind long after the last page is turned.

The quick and dirty of this book is Audrey (Lily and Jess's mom) has cancer. She's very clearly dying, she's refusing treatment and her daughters don't know why and she is gone to live with Jess and her daughter, Mia. Jess hasn't spoke with her sister Lily in years and it isn't just a "I don't like her" thing, it is very clearly an intense hate towards her sister except only Jess knows why and this book is the quest of Audrey putting the past, and whatever issues they have, behind them so when she passes she knows her family, what's left of it, are together.

Have you ever read a book where your heart breaks in every chapter? No? Well you're about to. I know half of you are saying, "I don't like reading books that make me sad!" and I get that, but this book is so important. Little story- when I was 20 I got my first job post college working a program assistant for a senior volunteer program. I knew right away I was going to love it. Within five months my boss came to my desk and told me to come on, grab my jacket and purse, we're going to a funeral.

Taken aback, I didn't know who had passed away and to be honest, I had never been to a funeral before so I wasn't sure what to do. So I grabbed my things and my boss drove us straight to a cemetery and there were two people standing over a patch of dirt. One was a non denominational pastor and one was an older woman who was the across the hall neighbor of the woman in the ground, who was previously a volunteer of ours before I had started. Not one family member was there and I thought it was so strange- who dies alone? Well this woman did. Apparently years ago (like 30+) she had a falling out with her daughter and they stopped talking. She never got to see her grandchildren grow up, or know that she had great grandchildren. After the rather short service we all left and it really bothered me. I felt like we should have called her daughter, or someone, surely someone would have wanted to come, and my boss just looked at me and said, "You're young, but this is a lesson that nothing is worth it." It has stuck with me all of this time and no matter how angry or hurt I am at a family member, I think of that volunteer.

But back to this book. It's really what happens here- an event happens and one daughter isn't sure what she saw but given the events of the rest of the day she puts two and two together and the anger she feels is unprecedented. Because not only are the events that day bad enough, but a few weeks later, there is a second event that she is SURE is tied to the first one so now she's REALLY mad. The book alternates between Jess, Audrey, and Lily's point of view and also has flash backs from the past as the story unravels and you get the big secret and everything starts clicking in place.

If I have to give a critique? I wish the secret came out a lot sooner. I understand why it came when it did but I felt like it could have been bumped up a little so we could get an epilogue. If ever there was a book that should have an epilogue, it's this one. I want a year later. Something. There are like three things that are minor but I would have liked to see them have some kind of conclusion or an idea of how it might end.

You also need to go into this knowing that Jess and Lily aren't great characters. I didn't like Jess off the bat and I felt like she was probably exaggerating the entire thing (and I can't tell you if that's true or not), and Lily was cold but I started liking her and feeling sorry for her a lot sooner than I did Jess. It wasn't until damn near the very end where I was like, "OK- Jess is alright", I don't know what it was necessarily about her I didn't like. Audrey... I really felt bad for Audrey. I liked her straight away and I feel like she was probably like so many women in the 50's and 60's. They grow up with goals only to end up pregnant, getting married, and quickly your life becomes about raising this family- all of your aspirations fade away. It's only until the end of her life that she takes the time to regret some choices. There is a passage on page 141 that really resonated with me personally:

"I had it all worked out: I'd get someone to look after the baby while I was at lectures and I'd study in the evenings and at weekends when Edward wasn't at work. The plan was so clear and simple in my head, yet whenever I thought about actually writing the letter, I felt completely paralyzed. When I look back now, all I can is, What on earth stopped me? Why didn't I at least try? And however many times I ask myself that question, there's only ever one answer I can offer in response. Because I was scared. It's as simple as that."

That hit home. Of all the reasons I never went to a four year college to become a teacher or get an English degree, it was always fear. Getting a four year degree was always the plan, always the dream and I just never did it because I was scared to fail. I didn't think I could do it. It's out of reach now and I'm moved past it, and my new goal is to finish my book and get it published but I feel that same fear creeping up my neck. So when I read that passage I felt like, FINALLY!!! It's an explanation that makes sense and is communicated how I mean it.

I also have to tell you that while my heart broke in different ways, for different characters, the entire way.... the ending. Oh my god the ending. I was at Olivia's dance class reading this and full on sobbing in my car. Sobbing, you guys. It was equal parts happiness and sadness, which makes no sense unless you read this. This book is so great. 5 stars.

You can find this book in the HarperCollins store, which always has deals and coupons. You can also find it at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

   

A gigantic thank you to William Morrow, Hannah Beckerman, and TLC Book Tours for sending me my copy! This post contains affiliate links. 

Book Review: No Judgments

It just dawned on me that this is going to be a series and I am HERE FOR IT.

No Judgments - Meg Cabot

When a massive hurricane severs all power and cell service to Little Bridge Island—as well as its connection to the mainland—twenty-five-year-old Bree Beckham isn’t worried . . . at first. She’s already escaped one storm—her emotionally abusive ex—so a hurricane seems like it will be a piece of cake.

But animal-loving Bree does become alarmed when she realizes how many islanders have been cut off from their beloved pets. Now it’s up to her to save as many of Little Bridge’s cats and dogs as she can . . . but to do so, she’s going to need help—help she has no choice but to accept from her boss’s sexy nephew, Drew Hartwell, the Mermaid Café’s most notorious heartbreaker.

But when Bree starts falling for Drew, just as Little Bridge’s power is restored and her penitent ex shows up, she has to ask herself if her island fling was only a result of the stormy weather, or if it could last during clear skies too.

I have to tell you that this is my first book from Meg Cabot and I absolutely loved this one so much that I have to read more. I have to read the rest of this series as they come out because now I'm hooked.

Here we have Bree (formerly known as Sabrina) who has run from her life in New York City following an incident involving the friend of her boyfriend which is all too common for women, and returned to Little Bridge Island. Just in time for the "hurricane of the century" to shake things up. Having never been through a hurricane like this, she reluctantly accepts helps from the locals to get herself to safety, only she worries the entire time about Drew. Drew is the hottie of the island, freshly broken up and as stubborn as Bree is, he's holed up at his home on the beach that he built himself and he's absolutely certain it will be just fine and hold.

At some point sparks fly and while Drew is all for it, Bree isn't sure she wants to take it any farther than a friendship but is that going to work when they decide to rescue abandoned in the hurricane evacuation process?

So... I loved this. Is it a little bit cheesy? Yes. Do you want to shake Bree and tell her to stop being so incredibly stubborn and just go with it? YES. Is it hard to put down and so much fun to read? Yes, it really is. I couldn't put this down and burned our dinner because I got distracted and neither Matt not the kids were pleased with this. I loved the hurricane, I loved all of the secondary characters we meet along the way, I loved rescuing animals, I loved Drew and how he wasn't super crazy macho but funny and sarcastic, and I love reading a romance that doesn't rely on a big blow up and make up. It definitely has the drama but Bree and Drew are written like normal people and these are issues normal people deal with in a normal way. I know "normal" sounds boring, but it definitely isn't and I really enjoyed this. It was a perfect read to lighten my load following all of the thrillers I've read lately!

Did you know you can buy books directly from HarperCollins? You can! You can find NO JUDGMENTS on there (and tons more, seriously- I can give you a shopping list).

   

The biggest thank you ever to William Morrow Books for sending me this delightful book and TLC Book Tours for having me on this tour. This post does contain affiliate links. If you give this one a shot, let me know what YOU thought!

The Grown Up's

Some days I don't feel like a grown up at all but then having two kids remind me they need lunch money like, three days ago, snaps you right back to reality and you realize that you absolutely are a grown up and you have no idea how you actually got here.

The Grown Up's - Robin Antalek

From the author of The Summer We Fell Apart, an evocative and emotionally resonant coming-of-age novel involving three friends that explores what it means to be happy, what it means to grow up, and how difficult it is to do both together

The summer he’s fifteen, Sam enjoys, for a few secret months, the unexpected attention of Suzie Epstein. For reasons Sam doesn’t entirely understand, he and Suzie keep their budding relationship hidden from their close knit group of friends. But as the summer ends, Sam’s world unexpectedly shatters twice: Suzie’s parents are moving to a new city to save their marriage, and his own mother has suddenly left the house, leaving Sam’s father alone to raise two sons.

Watching as her parents’ marital troubles escalate, Suzie takes on the responsibility of raising her two younger brothers and plans an early escape to college and independence. Though she thinks of Sam, she deeply misses her closest friend Bella, but makes no attempt to reconnect, embarrassed by the destructive wake of her parents as they left the only place Suzie called home. Years later, a chance meeting with Sam’s older brother will reunite her with both Sam and Bella - and force her to confront her past and her friends.

After losing Suzie, Bella finds her first real love in Sam. But Sam’s inability to commit to her or even his own future eventually drives them apart. In contrast, Bella’s old friend Suzie—and Sam’s older brother, Michael—seem to have worked it all out, leaving Bella to wonder where she went wrong.

Spanning over a decade, told in alternating voices, The Grown Ups explores the indelible bonds between friends and family and the challenges that threaten to divide them. 

I loved this book. I really did. Normally there's at least something I didn't like about one of the characters or how it was written when a book spans across so much time and gives you the point of view of several characters. The really great thing is that even though you may not have dedicated points of view of a lot of the characters, Robin Antalek writes so incredibly well that you know these characters. You get it. You get what they feel, why they are doing the things they are doing, and it's like you actually know these people and you've grown up right with them.

The story is mainly about Sam, who after falling into a boyhood lust with Suzie, kind of finds himself adrift in life. Suzie moved away when they were still in high school bu can read more abut not without revealing something kind of catastrophic to a teenage boy. Not only that, Sam's mother abruptly leaves him, his brother, and his father behind and so while reeling from Suzie's departure, he's now dealing with his mother's unexplained escape. Sam's older brother goes to college and Sam... well he kind of makes it. He finds himself in a relationship with Bella, one of Suzie's best friends, and though it's a comfortable, predictable, and non-demanding relationship, it's also not as exciting as what he had with Suzie. Though he'll never know for sure if what he felt for Suzie was reciprocated, he's not sure what to do with any of it. And then when Bella's mom dies, Suzie unexpectedly returns for the funeral.

Easily, one of the best lines out of the book was this:

"They were here now, all of them. Relationships slightly rearranged, but still together. That was more than any of them would have imagined years before. They had watched their parents stumble and vowed never to do the same, only to fail one another in different ways. They experienced love, but they also caused disappointment and sorrow. They felt fear, and they knew loss. They ran away, only to return."

I mean, can't we all relate to that in some way? The great thing about this book is that every single character goes through something that we have all been in. Marriage, divorce, death, financial problems, college woes, feeling unsuccessful and unsure in life, Feeling like a disappointment and confused when your parents don't regard you as such. Watching parents age, and then sometimes die and questioning if you had been good enough of a kid all along, if you should be doing more, but also being afraid to do more because it makes their impending loss from life seem more real. 

I'll be honest, it was a bit of a slow go at first. I thought immediately I was going to hate some of the characters, but then I got hooked. I think it was right after Bella's mom died because I could empathize with how she felt as her mother was dying and then how she felt immediately after. And then, I just fell in love. If you are someone who has life long friends, maybe they come and go in  your life, but you know that no matter what, they'll always be back- this is definitely a book for you. 

You can read more about Robin on her website or on her Facebook page. This review is part of a blog tour and you can see what other bloggers are saying on the TLC Book Tours page. But if you want to skip all that, and just buy the book, you can do that at Amazon, IndieBound, and Barnes & Noble.