Book Review: Seven Days

You might recognize this author because I reviewed The Last Lie last January I gave that one 4 stars and absolutely loved it. It's safe to say I wasn't disappointed this time either.

Seven Days - Alex Lake

A race against time to save her child…

In seven days, Maggie’s son, Max, turns three. But she’s not planning a party or buying presents or updating his baby book. She’s dreading it. Because in her world, third birthdays are the days on which the unthinkable happens… she loses her child.

For the last twelve years Maggie has been imprisoned in a basement. Abducted aged fifteen, she gave birth to two sons before Max, and on their third birthdays her captor came and took them from her.

She cannot let it happen again. But she has no idea how to stop it. And the clock is ticking…

Alright, I have to tell you that not only did I fly through this book over the course of two days, but this felt like the longest seven days of my life. The story takes place over the last seven days before Maggie's son, Max, turns three. The third birthday is significant because her other two boys were taken from her when they turned three and she knows the same will happen to Max unless she can figure out a way to save them both. She has no idea where she even is and she doesn't know what is just beyond the door she hasn't been allowed to go through in 12 years, but she's determined to save Max even if she can't save herself.

I had so many questions throughout this book and I was initially fairly frustrated because even though Maggie was abducted as a teen, she was kind of stupid. I mean, the manner in which she was abducted is startling and terrifying but also not super creative and we all tell kids to not talk to strangers in cars. Ever. I mean, come on. Her life inside this.... box (because that's basically what this is) is so isolating and it's clear from the get go that she wasn't dealing without someone without mental illness.

The book alternates between present day and flashbacks to when she was abducted, snapshots of past things from the last 12 years, we get the point of view of other characters, and it sets the book up to go quickly. Once you start reading this it is hard to put down because you just want to know- is she going to get out? Can she save Max? I can't tell you what happens but honest to god I thought I was going to have a panic attack the last 50 pages or so because I had to know what was going on.

It was stressful.

I have to tell you this is absolutely a 5 star read for me because even some of the things that made me roll my eyes or things that made me question something, the fact that I couldn't put it down sold me on this. I absolutely loved this one in all of its creepy glory.

   

A big thank you to HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours for having me on this tour and sending me an ARC of Seven Days! This post contains affiliate links. 

Organization Brainstorm

I am struggling hard with clutter and things that aren't neat and orderly. Unfortunately it's not like I can just put things away and suddenly problem solved. My office/library/craft room is rather small; therefore my solutions for optimizing space are limited. My other issue is this is an everything room. I store all of my books here, my desk with our bills/filing is in here, and then all of my craft stuff is in here.

It's really hard to come up with a plan that lets me do all of this plus enjoy being in here.

So here's where I'm at as of this week:

You can see my desk and my shelf of some books. I typically keep book box books (lower right side) and my review books (lower left side) here. The top shelf is all of my Linda Howard books, and the middle shelf are books from authors I have a few books from.

To the left is my scrapbook desk. It was here when we moved here and this room actually used to be a bedroom for the wife because her knees were bad and she couldn't get up the stairs to where the bedrooms were. So she did her crafting/resting in here. The area I'm using as a scrapbook desk used to be where she had a TV and other equipment (there are outlets in the cabinet and holes drilled to hide cords). Honestly, it's a cool little space. I once asked if I could just make that entire wall deep like that but Matt said a chimney or something runs behind where I have my shelves.

💡 Matt's idea is to get rid of one of the doors and make that an open area to put my legs and put the printer in the remaining cabinet since I don't use it a ton and put my laminator in there. Lower the table top down so it's on top of the cabinet and move my computer/desk stuff there. We can move the shelving as needed (or add another one) and I can keep review books there and then other desk things. 

The books on this shelf are mostly romance/things the kids really can't read. I'd like to get ride of the white storage cubes I have under there since the cabinet is broken, and the large drawers are heavy. It's not really working for me anymore.

On the one large wall I have that doesn't go the whole length because on the ride side (where the picture cuts off) is a closet that is space under the stairs, so it isn't huge but it does hold a few things I need not a lot, but enough that running to the basement would be a pain. The paper storage isn't working for me because I have a lot more categories of paper than shelves, so I have to figure out a new way.

While I love my shelves, not having sides is kind of becoming an issue for me. That and I'm basically out of room. So... obviously that's an issue.

I've been trolling Pinterest for craft room/library ideas but, as it turns out, there aren't a whole bunch of ideas out there. My dream would be to have a big table area for the middle of my room so that the kids could do stuff there too, or I could spread out to do things. Or if I had a large project going, I wouldn't have to clean it up to have dinner because I'm working on the dining room table.

Source: jennifermaker.com

I saw this table on Pinterest and she made her own large table using some shelving and drawers from IKEA and that was really pretty cool. I asked Matt and he says he would be willing to put something like this together for me. Which led me to the IKEA website this weekend. The nearest one to me is a little over two hours away so I could make a trip there, and we probably will because I need to see things in person to really understand their size.

This is listed as 78 3/4 inches by 93 1/4 inches and that would take up my entire big wall... but would it fit all of my books?? I don't know. If it did then I could get another shelf for that wall next to my would be desk and store more books there.

These drawers look like they would fit larger/wider things and Matt says I wouldn't have to use the wheels, or I could put legs on it if I wanted it taller.

I thought a couple of these would be cool. So maybe two of these and one of the Kallax shelves turned side ways?

I don't know. My goal this month is to get rid of what I truly don't use or need in my craft stuff and then look at what I'm keeping and decide what it would fit best in. But by the end of the year this room is going to be far more functional. That's the plan.

Do you have a crafty space with great storage ideas? SHARE THEM WITH ME. I'm kind of desperate and I'm not as creative as I used to be. I need help. Ha!

Book Review: Savor Me

I came across this book after signing up for Aly Martinez's email list on her website, by signing up you receive two free novellas from her. I'm all about a free book, so as soon as I got this I decided to read it. I'll review the other one maybe next week for you.

Savor Me - Aly Martinez

I lost my virginity at age thirteen. I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no. I wasn't raped or molested. Nothing horrible happened to me. I don't have a daddy complex, or a shit life that I need to be rescued from. I just happen to like boys...a lot. I like them all. Tall, short, skinny, buff, light hair, or dark, I don't discriminate.

I realized early on that one man wasn't enough for me. It's a simple mathematical fact. Why have one man when you can have two? Any more than two gets complicated. Hell, half the time even two gets complicated. But it’s worth it. Sometimes every woman has to make an exception though, two crappy losers or one smoking hot man.

The night I laid eyes on Hunter Coy, I made my choice. At least until he introduced me to Mason Wynn.

By know you should know that romance is my favorite genre but I'm kind of picky with what I like. I'm not particularly a fan of LGBTQ+ romance only because it isn't something I'm into. M/M romance doesn't do it for me, it's not what I'm attracted to. When I started this book I didn't totally love Lacey and the idea that this could go the way of a threesome with M/M wasn't totally my thing and to be honest, I wasn't sure if I'd even stick with it. I think the fact it was only 92 pages is what kept me there because I knew this was only an hour of reading or so.

Thankfully, despite there only being 92 pages there was some story to this aside from sex. Sure, there are sex scenes in this and that's the primary purpose of this book, but the relationship between Mason and Lacey is kind of great. In fact, I really liked Hunter in the beginning and by the end.... meh. Mason is definitely where it's at.

Overall? I kind of loved this. It's a little cheesy, it's a little over the top with Lacey's hyper sexuality, but Mason and his story line sells the entire book for me and for him alone I'm giving this one 4 stars. If this was only Hunter and Lacey, I don't think I'd even bother with it but that Mason.... he's a good one.

This post contains affiliate links. 

Book Review: Release

It's a new year with new reading goals, and I completely smashed my goal of 110 books last year! I ended up reading 125, so I set my 2020 Goodreads goal to 125 for this year so cross your fingers. Of course, if I find books as good as this one, I will have no problem flying through them!

Release - Aly Martinez

Growing up, Ramsey Stewart branded my soul in ways time could never heal.

At twelve, he asked me to be his girlfriend.

At thirteen, he gave me my first kiss.

By sixteen, we’d fallen in love, planned a future together, and had our eyes set on the horizon.

Love never fails, right?

But for Ramsey, it did.

Love failed him.

I failed him.

The entire world failed him.

At seventeen, Ramsey was convicted of killing the boy who assaulted me.

Move on, he wrote in his first and only letter from prison.

Start a new life, he urged.

I don’t love you anymore, he lied.

There was no such thing as giving up on Ramsey. Love may have been our curse, but he was mine—then, now, and forever.

So here I am, twelve long years later, waiting for a man I don't even know to emerge from between the chain link gates. 

Alright, so it's been awhile since I've read something from Aly Martinez was The Fall Up and that feels like forever ago. I really liked that one and sadly, nobody got me any of any Christmas since then even though they've been on my list, but that's a whole other post.

Today though, let's talk about her newest book Release. As soon as I saw this come up for review I immediately jumped at the opportunity because the premise is everything I want: a good girl trying to fix a (presumably) bad boy. I mean, that's my FAVORITE trope so I can't pass it up!

I love how the chapters switch between Thea and Ramsey, but also the past and the present, which sounds confusing but I promise you it isn't. We meet Thea the day her mom dies of cancer, which is when she meets Ramsey when he accidentally breaks her leg. He begins a friendship with her and she isn't having it (which is why I love her even more because she's the girl who isn't particularly nice to him but I love him because he's persistent even when she's at her worst). Over the years they become best friends, then they become first loves, and when things get hot and heavy, their lives are turned up and down.

Twelve years later, Ramsey is leaving prison and Thea is there to greet him. Not getting the greeting she hoped for, things look pretty damn bleak for them and I felt terrible for Ramsey. The majority of the book is his readjustment into civilian life and struggling with wanting Thea but also believing the best thing is for her to get over him and get on with her life. She can't do that because she loves him, for better or for worse, and she's determined to play his own game to win him back.

OK. A lot happens in this book and if I had to tell you something I wish were better.... I wish there was more to the ending. We have a kind of "almost bad news" run in for Ramsey kind of towards the end and I really wanted, and expected, there to be another one that was more serious, so it felt like the ultimate "dun, dun, dun" moment. I mean, Ramsey going to jail, that's big. The other piece of the puzzle from that fateful night, that's big, too. I just wanted something bigger. Ultimate justice, I guess. Without that it almost felt like a rushed ending and that's a bummer, but I loved the epilogue.

Things I loved? Thea and Ramsey. It's almost unheard of that I love both main characters but I really did in this book. Maybe it's their screwed up childhoods, their bond that helped them get through it. Sure, it almost became a co-dependency thing but Thea pulls it through and proves that's not what this relationship is for her, and I totally love it. I even liked Nora (Ramsey's sister) and if there isn't a sequel for Nora, I'm going to be so disappointed. Hell, let's just do a series for all of the victims, can we? I just really feel this needs actual justice and some karma to come back at the crappy villain's family. Something.

Anyways. Loved it. If you're in the mood for a romance with a solid relationship at the bottom of it? You should really check this one out. Its a fast read and I think you're going to really enjoy it. I'm giving this a 4.5 rounded up to a 5. I feel hesitant on doing that because sometimes I feel like I'm too easy but then also too hard and I can't win with ratings, but truly.... this is one I'm going to remember and hope to see sequels to later on.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A huge thank you to Aly Martinez and Social Butterfly PR for having me on this tour and for providing an ARC for review. As always, all opinions are my own and this post may contain affiliate links.

Book Stack Sunday

I'm going to try a new thing and show you some bookish goodies each week that I got in the mail since I don't always get to it on Instagram.

I forgot to put my December Bookworm Box on hold so it came and I was really excited about it!

The book this month was Irresistible by Melanie Harlow, but even better is that it's the first book in a series! So often I get book two or beyond and I'm stuck ordering everything before it because I hate jumping into a series like that. So this one looks promising. We also got a free e-book, which I can now read because I got an iPad for Christmas! I've already read a couple of books on it and it is SO much better than reading them on my phone. Ha! I also got a book light! I've been meaning to buy one of these for years and I always forget until I'm trying to read at night, so it's pretty cool and I'll have to try it out soon.

We are on a hard core budget now so I think I will be suspending my Bookworm Box subscription for awhile, and that bums me out.

Let's see, what else?

Oh! The week between Christmas and New Years Eve was pretty exciting for mail, I received five books that I'm reviewing. I already finished Seven Days, but the other ones are coming soon. It's an interesting mix. Maybe next week I'll show you my review shelf so you can see what's coming up.

Book Review: Twisted Course

I'm still frustrated with this. I have literally no intro.

Twisted Course - Aly Martinez

This is the alternate version of the other two books, Changing Course and Stolen Course, both of which you should read BEFORE you read this one. Which I did not do. I would have done that had I known this piece of information and I maybe wouldn't have disliked this one so much. The only reason I read this is it was a freebie for signing up for Aly Martinez's newsletter and it's a short novella and those are fun.

In this book we have Caleb who immediately finds himself at the scene of the accident that kills Sarah. His fiance, Manda, was a passenger who is seemingly (physically) OK. Of course the death of her best friend sends her spiraling into depression and their relationship really struggles. Caleb doesn't know how to help her and he finds Manda turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms, so he suggests group therapy for grief. That ends up being the nail in the coffin for them which you're almost grateful for because you could have seen that coming from the first few pages.

I didn't realize this was a "what happens if Sarah died instead of Manda" book so when I get to the end and I'm left with a cliffhanger?! To say I was pissed is an under statement. Now I understand I'm supposed to be able to pick up Stolen Course and kind of go from there but to be honest with you, I'm really torn on whether I want to even do that. I'm generally not a fan of alternative story lines and steer clear of them, I'm not even a fan of a story told in another character's point of view, so had I known that's what this was, I wouldn't have read it. Unlike most novellas where it's a complete story arc in less pages, this isn't that at all. Not only do we have the ending cliffhanger, we have the weird "what actually happened during this accident" just left out there with no more discussion, and there is all of this weird angst between characters for which there is no explanation and I'm assuming you would have that if you had read Changing Course but of course I don't know.

Overall it was really promising until that ending and the realization of what this was. I don't know if I want to read the duet now because honestly this would just confuse me at this point. I'm giving this 2 stars because the story was OK, it's the ending that ruined it for me.

Book Review: The Birthday List

Several months ago in my Bookworm Box I got the second book in this series, Letters to Molly, and you know I have a thing for a series, so I took a chance and ordered this one to read first. I am SO grateful that I did because this book features a lot of Molly and a small intro to what happened to her and her husband, so I'm going to go into that book excited to know how that all shakes out. So without further ado....

The Birthday List - Devney Perry

Happily married to her college sweetheart, Poppy lived a blessed life with the husband of her dreams. Then everything changed. She is no longer a wife. She is no longer the envy of her single friends. Now, people look at her with pity as they whisper a single word behind her back.

Widow.

Years after her husband's tragic death, years of pain and sorrow and wishing for the life she'll never get back, Poppy decides to finish Jamie's birthday list. She'll do the things he wanted to most. Because maybe, just maybe, if she can complete his list, she can start to live again.

Poppy expects going through the birthday list will be hard. She expects it to hurt. But what she doesn't expect is Cole. Could the man who delivered the news of her husband's death and shattered her heart be the one to help her put it back together again? 

I hate that this book took me so long to read once I started it but it definitely isn't because it wasn't captivating, it really was. This one falls into my "fun reads" category and I had so many review books that I only had small snippets of time to read this one but finally, FINALLY I finished it and I loved it.

In this one we have Poppy, who is starting up a new restaurant as part of her late husband's birthday list. He was a victim of violent crime and Poppy has spent several years mourning but decides one day to work on Jamie's birthday list, a list of things he wanted to do before certain birthdays. The book is her getting through those in an effort to heal but also her falling in love with Cole. Cole happens to be the officer who came to tell her that Jamie died and when he sees Poppy come into the station to see if there is any progress on  Jamie's case, he decides to take a chance. What starts as a friendship quickly becomes clear there is more there and we get to see that blossom.

Things I liked about this book: first off, I loved the birthday list itself, it's fun and something we should all do, actually. I loved Poppy's idea of completing the birthday list as a way to give Jamie's life closure but also heal herself to move on. I loved Cole a LOT and I though he was such a great guy and I really loved how he was supportive of her throughout and it pays off for them, even though it got a little dicey towards the end.

Things I didn't love.... I'm not sure? Well, I didn't love Jamie's parents and thought they were absolute assholes to Poppy. It's one thing to grieve your child but quite another to drop someone completely who meant so much to you at one time, too. I felt terrible for her and I can understand that hurt she felt.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It didn't have intense "romance" scenes in it, but the story itself was just really sweet and the upward arc of coming out of a well of grief. Truly a good story, I can't wait to read the next book featuring her friend/ex-sister-in-law Molly. I'm going to give this one a 4.5 star.... rounded up to 5 because this is one I'll read again. And keep.

   

I do have the second book in this series, Letters to Molly, so stayed tuned for that review. As always, this post contains affiliate links.