Book Review – Page 16

Book Review: “The Last Thing He Told Me” By Laura Dave

This book has been on my TBR for a few months. I received it from my Book of the Month Subscription a little while back and I have been wanting to read it for awhile but to be honest the cover just didn’t pull me in, so it kept getting pushed back. Finally I saw that it was listed on Scribed to listen to for free and I knew I had to dive in!

“Maybe we are all fools, one way or another, when it comes to seeing the totality of the people who love us—the people we try to love.”
Direct quote

About The Book

Author: Laura Dave

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published Date: May 4th 2021

Page Count: 320 Pages

Main Genres: Mystery, Fiction and Thriller

GoodReads Rating: 3.93

“He never understood that I wasn’t scared of someone leaving me. I was scared that the wrong person would stay.”
Direct Quote

Synopsis

Hannah’s life gets thrown for a loop when she receives a note from her husband saying “Protect Her”. Hannah knows she is meant to protect her step daughter Bailey, who has already had a troubled life and most importantly who hates her. Why can’t her husband just tell this to her face, why send a note? Protect her from what?

When her husbands boss gets arrested and the FBI start knocking on her door and her husband is no where to be found she decides to start taking things into her own hands.

Taking her scared step daughter all the way to Texas, they start to unravel a very unsettling truth. Is her husband really who she thought he was?

“This is the terrible thing about a tragedy. It isn’t with you every minute. You forget it, and then you remember it again. And you see it with a stark quality: This is what is required of you now, just to get along.”
Direct Quote

Rating

“This is the thing about good and evil. They aren’t so far apart—and they often start from the same valiant place of wanting something to be different.”
Direct Quote

Review

My favorite part about this book is that the daughters name is Bailey, I mean that is my name just spelt wrong! All jokes aside, I really did enjoy this book!

I went into this, like most books, blind. I hadn’t read a synopsis or very many detailed reviews. I knew it would be a mystery and I also knew it was on the GoodReads choice awards which really got me interested. Without knowing what I was really getting myself into I think the story really surprised me. It took turn’s that I wasn’t expecting and over all made a pretty great reading experience.

I started off not loving the characters, which frustrated me because I struggled to want to listen to the first maybe 30% of the book. But the book quickly picked up and the relationship between the characters really started to blossom and I ultimately made great connections with them. I think the over all character development between Hannah’s and Bailey’s relationship was the most touching part of the book and what really stuck with me even after reading. With that said, I didn’t really care why Owen was in hiding, I was just rooting for Hannah and Bailey to grow closer together.

I loved the audio book! I own the hard copy but wasn’t tempted to pick it up because the lady who voiced this book did such a wonderful job! I really recommend picking this one up on audio if you are on the fence.

QOTD: What book do you find yourself thinking back to the most?

Book Review: “Weather Girl” By Rachel Lynn Solomon

This book is actually one of the books I chose to read for my group buddy read this February. We aren’t having our group discussion until the last week of the month but I sped through this book! I am really excited to share my thoughts and deep dive into my burning questions with my reading group!

It is not too late to join in! If you like my review for this book let me know and we can get you added to our buddy read! I am so excited!

“There’s rainwater in these veins instead of blood.”
Direct quote from page 18.

About The Book

Author: Rachel Lynn Solomon

Published date: January 11th 2022

Publisher: Berkley

Page Count: 352

Main Genres: Romance and Contemporary

GoodReads Rating: 3.90

“The only things I kept from him were for his own good. Although lately, I’ve been wondering how happy I really was with him if I hid that much of myself.”
Direct quote from page 41.

Synopsis

Ari is working her dream job as the weather girl for the local news station and her boss happens to be her childhood hero, Torrance Hale. The only issue is that Torrance isn’t the best mentor, she is way too focused on making her ex husbands life difficult rather than to help Ari grow in her profession. The problem with this is that it creates a hostile work environment.

When a work Christmas party gets out of hand, Ari and her sports reporter co-worker Russell devise a plan to get their bosses back together and to bring happiness and structure back to the news station.

Now that Ari and Russell are working so closely together maybe more than just one relationship can blossom.

“That’s the thing about depression. You can know it’s there, know it’s part of you, but you can go ages without seeing it. It lives with you, an invisible roommate, up until the time you start sinking, and then it sprawls itself across your couch and kicks its feet up on your coffee table and uses up all the hot water. Never pays its half of the rent, either.”
Direct quote from page 287

Rating

“It’s still scary as fuck though.” “Putting your heart out there and not knowing whether the other person will be careful with it.”
Direct quote from page 295

Review

This book was recently released just less than a month ago and it caught my eye on the day it released! I knew I would read this and love it!

I picked this book up and it only took like three sittings to finish. I started it right before my vacation and ended it the day I got back, and no I didn’t read a page while I was in Disneyland… I had no time!

This book lived up to my expectations fully and really entertained me. It was really well written and it was a super cute read. Also it had some decent steamy scenes!

Ari was honestly such a cute character! I loved her little hobbies and how true and honest she is with herself. I really need to purchase some of her jewelry! As for Russell, I loved that he was a realistic father with the dad bod and all. When you read romances things feel way exaggerated with the characters but these two felt like real life people that I could picture.

The author wrote this in such a respectful way when talking about depression. As someone who struggles with anxiety and depression I felt like this book was speaking to me. I fund some of the quotes very relatable which was a nice touch. When I read the blurb before the book the author talked about how she wanted to write this in a respectful way and even added the suicide hotlines in the book if anyone who was struggling needed to talk to someone. I appreciate how honest this book got and how it showed that being open about your depression with the most important people in your life can bring you comfort and peace.

Over all the story was really amazing but I also felt it was slow at sometimes and that is the real reason I am giving this four stars.

If you or anyone you love is struggling with depression please reach out to someone. You are never alone! I am always someone you can come to on a rough day. If you are having suicidal thoughts please reach out to the number listed below. Please know that you matter and someone cares about you. Sending all my love and virtual hugs!

National Suicide Prevention Line: 800-273-8255

QOTD: Would you rather read a book with a male lead who has all the muscles and fancy job or one with a dad bod and a normal life? Does it matter?

Buddy Read

If you would like to join the buddy read this is the schedule if you would like to read at this pace or if you are a fast reader and finish before that is perfectly fine! Here is all the information. Come join us!

Buddy Read

Book Review: “The Maid” By Nita Prose

I went into this book pretty much blind, meaning I did not read the synopsis I just saw it was labeled as a debut mystery book on Book of the Month Club and decided ehh why not. I liked the simplicity of the cover and that it was less than 300 pages which meant it would be a pretty quick read. Lets see what my thoughts were on this book.

“I am your maid. I know so much about you. But when it comes down to it: what is it that you know about me.”
Direct Quote from book

About The Book

Author: Nita Prose

Date Published: January 4th, 2022

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Page Count: 285

Main Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller

GoodReads Rating: 4.05

“I don’t cut corners, I shine them. No fingerprint left to erase, no smear left to clear.”
Direct quote from book

Synopsis

Molly works as a maid at The Regency Grand Hotel. What she lacks in social skills she makes up for with her superior cleaning skills. Molly finds happiness in knowing that she can come into a destroyed room and to leave it as if it had never been touched.

Her simple maid life takes a quick turn downhill when she finds a V.I.P guest dead in their hotel room and she quickly finds out that she is the number one suspect! With very little social skills and hardly any friends she has to figure out how to clear her name.

“Hello, I’m Molly, the Maid. You don’t see me, I’m invisible but I see you and all you leave behind.”
Direct quote from book

Rating

“It’s what’s between the lines, not on them.”
Direct quote from book

Review

This book started off pretty slow for me. I was on page 75 when I contemplated not finishing the book. However, there was less than 300 pages in the book and it felt like a waste to be almost half way done with the book and to quit so I trekked on! To be honest I felt like the ending was worth the read.

I really struggled with the writing in this book for the first half, the story was slow, the conversation boring and I had nothing that pulled me in. The book really started moving about half way through and you will be forced to finish in one sitting!

Like I said before I have seen this book all over bookstagram with a lot of 5 star reviews so I am in the minority here with this unpopular opinion. I typically love mysteries and it isn’t that this book wasn’t good it is just that it wasn’t memorable!

What I did really like about this book is that Molly really grows on you towards the end. I thought her character was really well rounded and put together. I also liked the relationships that grow throughout the book. Well written characters made this book for me.

I think if you like the synopsis for this book then give it a try! But if you are on the fence maybe skip it.

QOTD: What is your favorite mystery novel?

Book Review: “Crescent City” By Sarah J. Maas

This book left me speechless! This is my first official deep dive into a fantasy world beside Harry Potter, However I feel like the wonderful world of Harry Potter is very simple to catch onto. This book had some major world building to follow along with and being my first big dive into fantasy it was hard to keep up at times but I am so glad that I trekked forward and finished this behemoth of a book!

“Through love, all is possible.”
Direct Quote from page 282

About The Book

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Publish Date: March 3rd 2020

Page Count: 803 Pages

Main Genres: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult

GoodReads Rating: 4.45

“There are worse fates than death, you know.”
Direct quote from page 383

Synopsis

As a Half-Fae Half-Human Bryce Quinlan spends her days working at an antique shop and her nights out partying. She is known as the party girl around Lunathion but all it takes is one horrific night to strip the party out of the girl.

Two years after a gruesome murder tore apart Bryce’s life she is recruited to help track down the murders. Fueled by revenge Bryce is determined to find all the missing clues to avenge her friends but as secrets reveal themselves Bryce is forced to question how well she really knew the ones she cared about.

“It sucks that everyone just…moves on, and forgets. They expect me to forget. But I can’t.”
Direct quote from page 556

Rating

Review

All I could say when I finished this book was “Wow!” I don’t think I have ever read a book that tugged so much at my emotions! I laughed, I cried, I threw my book at the wall and my heart fell in love! I tab my books and if you watch my Tiktok video of my thoughts ten minutes after finishing this book, you will see that I used two whole tab sleeves to tab all my emotions into this book!

I haven’t ever read a book that had actually made me cry! This book will tug at your heart and I think that was one reason why I really enjoyed it.

Full disclaimer, this book took me about 60% of the way through to actually pick up the pace and fully understand the world. This book has a ton of world building and characters that you need to understand but once you get it and it clicks then you will fly through this book!

This is my first book over 700 pages that I have read and I finished it in a week and a half and that really impressed me! Even though this was a long book for me and also way out of my reading comfort zone, I still read this book in a week and a half which I think is some kind of record for me! I grant my fast reading speed to the wonderful writing in this book. I feel like if I hated the world building and the characters I probably would have DNF’d this book about 200 pages in, if I am being honest with you. However, I did fall in love with the characters, so much so that I was falling in love right along side Bryce.

I highly recommend this book to everyone out there, especially since the second book will be coming out in just a few short weeks!

QOTD: Have you read this book? If so, What did you rate it and will you be reading the next book?

“That’s the point of it, Bryce. Of life. To live, to love, knowing that it might all vanish tomorrow. It makes everything that much more precious.”
Direct quote from book from page 773

Book Review: “Malibu Rising” by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Five days into January and I have officially finished my first read of the year! I chose this book because of my Reading Challenge for January. The reading prompt for this month was “A GoodReads 2021 Good Choice Award book”. I was really excited to read “Malibu Rising” because of all of the amazing reviews I have read since this book was released. Lets see if this book lived up to all the hype.

“Our family histories are simply stories. They are myths we create about the people who came before us, in order to make sense of ourselves.”
Direct quote from book. Page 31

About The Book

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published Date: June 1st, 2021

Page count: 369 pages

Main Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Contemporary

GoodReads Rating: 4.10

“I’m just saying…. I don’t come from any money at all. But I don’t think what you’re born into says anything about where you’re headed.”
Direct quote from book. Page 38

Synopsis

The Riva family may be famous but that doesn’t mean their life was easy. Four siblings who grew up with an absent father and an alcoholic mother are forced to grow up real quick their mother drowns and their father doesn’t come home.

Nina, the eldest sister of 17 years, drops out of high school to take over the family restaurant and become the sole guardian of her younger three siblings. Money might be tight but nothing can come between their love for one another.

As time goes on her and her siblings make a name for themselves and find a life of riches, fame and love. This brings on the party scene and Nina is known for throwing the coolest parties around and this years party would be one that no one will ever forget!

“It would not be her that broke and bent anymore.”
Direct quote. Page 317

Rating

Review

In all honesty I felt like this book was way over hyped. Maybe I would have given this book a higher rating if I had picked it up without reading any reviews but I did read almost all five star reviews so I went in with high expectations that didn’t get met. Was this a bad book? No, it wasn’t terrible, definitely something people should read sometime in their life but maybe don’t go in with such high expectations.

I thought the beginning was super slow but worth while for the story building. Part two is where the story really picked up and started connecting in places and even got a bit emotional at the end. I just felt like the second half of the book wasn’t great enough to bring up the rating any higher.

One of the biggest problems I had with this book was the amount of characters and people you had to remember between each of the chapters. Each chapter was based on a different characters point of view but it wasn’t always one of the main characters, it was typically some random famous person talking about what they were doing at the party and it didn’t really connect to the main story till the final few chapters. There was too much going on and it got confusing at times.

I personally really struggled with this book which makes me sad because I had heard a lot of great things. I wanted my first book of the year to blow me away and this didn’t quite reach my expectations.

QOTD: What was your first book of the year?

Book Review: “Verity” By Colleen Hoover

This book has been sitting in my Kindle library for over a year now and I have no clue why it took me so long to read this book. I mainly downloaded it because I had seen a lot of people talking about the book when I had first started reading so the idea of reading this book seemed really nice. I feel like I remember reading the first chapter and just not really feeling like it was worth my while, so I essentially just let it collect electronic dust in my kindle. But who does that? Who reads one chapter and then gives up on a book? I do, I have done it with countless books and now because of this single 300 paged book I think I need to reconsider my process.

“Some families are lucky enough to never experience a single tragedy. But then there are those families that seem to have tragedies waiting on the back burner. What can go wrong, goes wrong. And then gets worse.”
Direct quote from book.

About The Book

Author: Colleen Hoover

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Date Published: October 5th, 2021

Page Count: 336

Main Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Romance

GoodReads Rating: 4.37

Synopsis

When famous author Verity Crawford gets in an unfortunate accident rendering her incapable of finishing her series book contract with her publishing company her husbands seeks out Lowen Ashleigh to finish the last three books in the series Verity started. Lowen had just lost her mother, money wasn’t coming in from her previous books and she was about to get evicted from her apartment, so even though she felt uneasy about finishing such a famous authors books she really had no other choice.

In order to get in the headspace of Varity, Lowen has to go through Varity’s home office and sort through piles upon piles of notes from her years of writing. But when she stumbles across a manuscript for an autobiography everything changes. In this manuscript lies everything from innocent sexual fun to the omission of murder. Does she show this to Verity’s husband or let him continue to love a possible psychopath?

“And that’s what love at first sight is. It isn’t really love at first sight until you’ve been with the person long enough for it to become love at first sight.”
Direct quote from book.

Rating

Review

What do I even say about this book? I am still trying to comprehend the ending. Maybe I should have waited a few days before I posted this review to give my mind some time to really think about my feelings for this book but I really wanted to get this out here while it is freshly engraved into my brain.

This book started off kind of slow for me but I gave a few chapters and I was hooked! I didn’t put this book down other than to do my job that I am actually getting paid for but I didn’t really even want to do that. This is the ultimate thriller in my eyes because it had a really good story but also made you question every thought in your brain.

This is the first book that I have read by Colleen Hoover and it definitely won’t be my last! I absolutely adored her writing, I might has well been the main character of the story because I felt everything this girl was feeling, every thought she had I was right there with her. If every book of hers is written like this I will be a life long reader of Collen Hoovers books. Well done!

Over all I highly recommend this book and I think everyone should read this in their lifetime. I know I am very glad I got around to it.

The biggest question I have for you, Are you team manuscript or diary? If you don’t know what I am talking about I need you to stop reading this post and pick up this book because I guarantee you will have a preference! (Maybe also don’t read the next few sentences) For me at first when I finished this book I didn’t know which team I was on and who I believed and maybe I still really don’t know for sure because this book messed with my head so much! But I like to think I am on team manuscript. Verity was just such an amazing writer that she could manipulate anyone who read something she wrote. She knew she could get away with whatever she wanted because of her writing and might I say acting skills. There is no way someone who can write such dark things like that manuscript (About her own children) could actually be ok in the head. I am not sure if this is really my final stance because like I said this book really messes with your head especially the last few chapters.

“No matter which way I look at it, it’s clear that Verity was a master at manipulating the truth. The only question that remains is: Which truth was she manipulating?”
Direct quote from book.