December Minireviews – Part 2

Posted on January 6, 2021 by Sarah | 2 Comments

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough. Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it! Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up. For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

Onward with more December fluff reads!!

The Christmas Sisters by Sarah Morgan – 4*

While this one was a little more “novel-y” that I usually like, it ended up being one of my favorite reads of the month. At first, I was afraid that it was just going to be super angsty with a bunch of discontented, whiny women who have perfectly nice lives except they spend all of their time complaining about them. But I was pleasantly surprised by this story about three sisters who love one another but have grown apart. As we come to learn more about their childhood and the circumstances that have shaped them, I was completely drawn to the entire family. While yes, this is a feel-good Christmas story, it’s also a really lovely story about forgiveness, family, and realizing that even the people that we love the most have parts of themselves that we don’t know – everyone has something in their life that’s hard, no matter how perfect that life may look from the outside. I really enjoyed this one and will definitely be on the lookout for more books by this author.

Silent Night by Mary Higgins Clark – 3.5*

Just to keep things lively, I picked up this short thriller. Clark does a great job giving motivation to multiple characters, which is what keeps this story from feeling completely ridiculous. It’s a fast read – nothing incredibly ground-breaking, but intense and hard to put down.

Christmas Gifts Collection by Elena Aitken – 3.5*

In my mind, a “stand-alone” book is one that is not part of a series. However, some people use that term to label a book that theoretically can be read independently of the series of which it is a part. So while this collection was billed as a group of stand-alone stories, they were actually all part of a series that centers around a hotel called Castle Lodge. I hate reading books out of order but didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late, so for once I just went along with it. These were perfectly enjoyable stories, although I will say that the last story in the trio was the weakest – supposedly she, as the maid of honor, is helping her best friend plan her best friend’s wedding, but then in end – surprise! It’s her wedding! Except… literally the original bride was the one who was going to get married?? I just ended up feeling annoyed that the original bridesmaid was stealing the beautiful day away from the woman who was supposed to be the bride.

But anyway, they were fine stories, but didn’t make me feel like I wanted to jump in and read the whole series.

Husband Under Construction by Karen Templeton – 2.5*

//published 2011//I didn’t even read the other book in this anthology… I don’t do the ‘surprise baby’ trope lol//

I should have been warned from the title that this wasn’t going to be my kind of book. The problem was that Templeton creates two perfectly likable characters that I totally shipped, and puts them in a no-win situation. Either the female MC is going to have sacrifice her dream job, or the male MC is going to have to leave behind his wonderful, warm-hearted family AND family business to move hours away. I’m sorry, but that just isn’t my idea of a happy ending. Yeah, they end up together, but they do the one where the leave behind Noah’s entire family so they can live where the woman’s new job is – which okay, except literally the female MC goes on and on and on and on about how what she wants to do is have a huge family with lots of kids and spend her time hanging out with them etc etc so – in the epilogue now they have several kids and she’s only working part time here and there. So Noah sacrificed his spot in his family business AND left behind his completely awesome family (and the female MC – sorry, can’t remember her name haha – only has one living relative who also lives in the same town as Noah’s family) so that they could be close to the job that she isn’t even really doing?!?! It felt like a completely stupid way to end the book.

How the Dukes Stole Christmas – 3*

This one had four stories written by different authors – Meet Me in Mayfair by Tessa Dare, The Duke of Christmas Present by Sarah MacLean, Heiress Alone by Sophie Jordan, and Christmas in Central Park by Joanna Shupe. All of them were pretty lame, although Dare’s was probably the best of the bunch. They weren’t horrible as one-off reads, but I already passed this book on because it’s not one I see myself rereading for next year’s Christmas binge.

The Christmas Wish by Nora Roberts – 3.5*

Two stories here – All I Want for Christmas and First Impressions – both of which were pretty standard Roberts fare. I had read the first story before, about twin brothers writing a letter to Santa for a new mother since theirs died several years earlier. It’s pretty adorable and I really liked the two main characters. First Impressions was published in 1984 so it has that 80s edge to it, but was still fun and frolicky even if the male MC is a little over-the-top grumpy.

July Minireviews – Part 2

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Sarah | 3 Comments

For a brief moment in time I was reviewing books in the same month I read them! Ah well, here are some more July reads (in August)….

Green Card by Elizabeth Adams – 4*

//published 2014//

This was a reread for me. It’s vaguely a P&P modern adaptation, but honestly not really. What it really is a marriage of convenience story, and we all know how I feel about those. Even though this one has a few too many sexy times, it’s overall just a fun, happy tale with a likable pair of people at its core. I really enjoyed the slow build to the romance, although at times it felt like the main characters were a little too slow at recognizing what was happening. There is also an almost ridiculously long epilogue – this author has a habit of writing epilogues so long that I don’t understand why she doesn’t just write a sequel, which I would really enjoy.

Anyway, this was a fun one that I’ll probably reread again sometime.

Wedding Bands by Ev Bishop – 3*

//published 2015//

I got the first two books in this series as a free Kindle series a while ago and finally decided to give them a try. I really enjoy stories about people who own/operate hospitality businesses (I’ve always dreamed of having my own little string of cabins in the woods somewhere), but this one wasn’t really about that. Jo is trying to hang on to her (now deceased) uncle’s house so she can turn it into a B&B. Her sister just wants to sell the place and get the money because she doesn’t think the B&B is going to be successful. The sister hires a lawyer, Callum, who turns out is the guy who ruined Jo’s life back when they were seniors in high school. This book was entirely based on the inability of Jo and Callum to communicate at all (literally ONE CONVERSATION fixes all their problems in the end). There’s also this weird thing where this other guy – who happens to be Callum’s best friend – is interested in Jo and keeps basically convincing Jo and Callum that the other one is trash-talking the other, but his motivation is never really made clear, and I kept also thinking – “You & Callum have been ‘best friends’ your whole lives… and you’re trying to screw up his second chance at the love of his life…?????” It also seems like he’s communicating/working with Callum’s ex-wife, but that’s also never made clear. Basically, this wasn’t the worst story I’ve ever read, but it wasn’t particularly well written. I only read the second one because I already owned it and thought I might as well see what happens to Jo’s sister, mostly because I was curious how the author could make the sister so freaking horrible in the first book and then turn her into the heroine in the second!

Hooked by Ev Bishop – 3*

//published 2015//

The second book was slightly better than the first, but honestly not by much. The story was just SO slow… basically nothing happened the entire time except for people wandering around and not really having any conversations with one another. There’s also a character who is getting ready to have a baby, but the dad isn’t in the picture. I was extremely aggravated by how no one actually knew what had happened between the mom and the dad (multiple characters say things like “I don’t know what happened, but that’s their business” so it’s not even like they had conversations with her off page about the situation), yet everyone assumes that the dad is a jerk who doesn’t deserve to have any say about his own child. Towards the end there’s this throw away comment about how the dad is thinking about suing for partial custody and everyone is basically like “wow the nerve of that guy” … ummmm IT’S HIS CHILD?!?!?! I am OVER the anti-dad attitudes so hard. Even if this guy was upset with his girlfriend when he found out she was pregnant (which he may have been since they are both SEVENTEEN?!?!), that still doesn’t mean that he doesn’t deserve the right to ever see his own child??? Whatever. Anyway. It wasn’t even that big of a part of the story, it was just the part that annoyed me the most.

Overall, I found zero of these characters to be likable or interesting, which was a relief in some ways as it meant I didn’t have to bother finishing the series.

Daddy’s Little Girl by Mary Higgins Clark – 4*

//published 2002//

I’m a little late the MHC party, as this is only the second or third book of hers that I’ve read, but they have been consistently engaging and twisty, and I like it. In this one, the story opens when 7-year-old Ellie’s sister (around 16 years old, can’t remember exactly) disappears one night and the next morning is discovered murdered. Ellie feels guilty because she knew about the “secret hangout” where her sister and her sister’s friends would sometimes go to smoke or make out, but didn’t tell her parents until the morning. Would they have discovered her sister before she died if Ellie had told them the night before?

The book then jumps forward in time. Ellie is in her late-20’s now and is an investigative reporter. The man who was convicted of murdering her sister – who was partially convicted because of child-Ellie’s testimony – is being released on parole. He has always claimed he was innocent, and now says he has testimony to prove it, and is going to have the case reopened. Ellie is still convinced of his guilt, and returns to her hometown to do her own research on her sister’s murder. The pacing is excellent here, with many of Ellie’s discoveries muddying the water concerning the accused man’s guilt rather than clearing it. As the reader, I was mostly convinced that he really was the murderer… and then something else would turn up.

While this isn’t particularly a stand-out thriller, it’s still a good one. Ellie is a likable character, and I also enjoyed the fact that this book was virtually devoid of romance. The ending is a little too tidy, but still good. My only real beef is how hard Ellie is on her dad… like yes, he made some mistakes, but you’re an adult now and maybe you should do some investigative reporting into your own biases against him, geezy. Still, I found it hard to put this one down and am excited to continue delving into the large backlog of Clark’s work.

Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters – 3.5*

//published 2019//

Because I’m still reading romcoms when I can find them…

Par for the course, this was an enjoyable one-off but not an instant classic. Evie is incredibly likable, and she definitely carried the book. The concept here is entertaining, and Evie’s staged “meet cutes” in an attempt to prove that meet cutes are a thing were loads of fun (although sometimes slightly ridiculous). Evie’s group of friends were also entertaining, although the one who was getting married was honestly so self-obsessed that it was hard for me to understand why everyone else liked her. There were a few places where the pacing of this story was just off – like when they went to have the hen-do and it was a disaster, and when the rich guy is insisting that he’s in love with Evie. Evie’s boss is also such a jerk that it literally makes no sense that she’s working for him. And when, in the end, I found out why she was still working for him – it honestly made even less sense and kind of made me mad at the whole book.

So, in the end, not a bad read, and if you like romcoms this is a fun one to pick up, but the pacing was just too uneven for me to really love it.

April Minireviews (in May)

Posted on May 6, 2020 by Sarah | 2 Comments

So once again I’m super behind on reviews. Here we are in May, and I have written basically zero April reviews! So even though my memory is a little hazy on some of the ones I read earlier in the month, here we go!

The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs (finished April 7) – 4*

//published 2018//

This is one of the hazy ones. I picked up this book because the subtitle was “A Novel in Clues,” which intrigued me. However, the clues were sadly lacking, and even the mystery wasn’t as engaging as I wanted it to be. It’s definitely more novel-y than thriller-y, and there is a LOT of math in this book. It is really more of a straight novel, looking at a family after the sudden death of the patriarch. There is a bit of suspense, but it is not the driving force of the story. Still, I did overall enjoy the story and the characters, even if this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. There were also a lot of dark themes throughout, which I wasn’t completely prepared for – child abuse, vigilante justice, drug abuse, suicide, etc. In a way, this story was a lot more about the main character coming to grips with her family, both adopted and not, and her place with them, than it was about Isaac’s mysterious equation. While I did give this book 4* for being a read that kept my attention, it wasn’t a book that I wanted to go back and read again. And I still feel a little ripped off about the misleading “novel in clues” bit!

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (finished April 8) – 5*

//published 1909//

Frankly, I’m always going to give every book in this series 5* because I have no objectivity. I’ve read these books since I was a little girl, over and over, and I love every page of them. A while ago some other blog that I follow was reading these books for the first time (I honestly can’t remember which blog this was or I would link to it) and she seemed to feel that there was a real up and down to the series. If I remember correctly, she liked about every other book and felt like the rest were filler content. However, in my own prejudiced way I absolutely love this entry to the series. Here, Anne has set aside her personal ambitions to do the right thing for the people she loves – and comes to find that it was the right thing for her as well. While not preachy, there is an overall reminder throughout the story that sometimes life doesn’t go the way we had planned out, and that’s not always a negative thing.

If I have a criticism of this story, it’s that I would love to have more stories involving Anne’s group of friends. They are such a fun crowd, and it would have been nice to Diana’s romance mature instead of just sort of appearing. Still, this is still a book that I love and thoroughly enjoyed revisiting.

Leave It To Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse (finished April 10) – 5*

//published 1924//

No one can make me feel better about life than Wodehouse. From the opening chapter of “Dark Plottings at Blandings Castle” through the delights of “Sensational Occurrence at a Poetry Reading” and “Almost Entirely About Flower-Pots” (followed by “More on the Flower-Pot Theme”), this book made me laugh out loud on more than on occasion. Yes, Psmith himself can be a bit much, but the overall story is so fun and full of such fun characters and completely absurd situations that I could barely put this one down while I was reading it. It’s another reread that just gets better every time I revisit it.

Moonlight Becomes You by Mary Higgins Clark (finished April 12) – 4*

//published 1996//

Despite the fact that I quite enjoy mystery/thrillers, I’ve read almost nothing by MHC. Recently, I got an entire box of mysteries, including several of her stand-alone titles, and this was the first that I picked up. The first chapter opens with the main character, Maggie, trapped inside of a coffin (SO CREEPY). From there, we go back in time a few weeks to find out how she ended up there. The hook of that opening, knowing that that doom is yet to come, is absolutely fantastic, and the pacing from there is perfect. While I really enjoyed this story a lot, there’s a supposed romantic relationship between Maggie and one of the other characters that felt like the big weak point of the story and was what kept me from giving this more than 4*. A lot of the climax hinges on his desperation to find her, but I couldn’t quite find that believable since we hadn’t really had much interaction between the two of them during the rest of the book. Still, this was a great one-off read that made me quite intrigued to read some more of Clark’s writing. Plus, it randomly took me to Rhode Island for my #ReadtheUSA2020 challenge, which was a great bonus!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (finished April 13) – 4.5*

//published 2013//

If you’re noticing a reread theme in April, you would be correct. When I’m feeling stressed or not really feeling like reading, I go back to revisit old friends. I find books that I’ve loved in the past to be comforting and safe to read. I’ve been wanting to reread Fangirl for quite some time. I had only read it once before and I really liked it, and I was curious as to whether or not I would still enjoy it the second time around. The answer – yes! I may have even enjoyed it more. I’ve read several of Rowell’s books, and genuinely feel like this age of character is her sweet spot. She captures Cath’s insecurities and uncertainties so well, while making Cath be more than just those things. I really love how romance isn’t the driving story here – instead, we also see a lot of family relationships that Cath is trying to learn how to balance as she heads into adulthood. I would absolutely love to have a story during this exact period of time focused on Cath’s twin, Wren, who was also going through a lot of growth and change during this time, although in a completely different way.

One thing that kind of made me roll my eyes a few times was the fact that Cath and her sister have lived in Omaha all their lives and are now going to school in Lincoln, but they act like the other students there are basically a bunch of hicks instead of cool city people like Cath and Wren are. And like… Omaha is NOT that big of a city (I’ve been there), and Omaha and Lincoln are not that far apart, so that felt a little random to me. However, overall this is book is so funny and well-written that I was able to forgive it a few small issues and just roll with what was happening.

August Minireviews

Posted on August 26, 2019 by Sarah | 4 Comments

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss – 4.5*

//published 2003//

I first read this book when it was published, and it’s one of those rare nonfiction books that I find myself returning to every few years. Truss is just so funny. She tells you in the beginning how to tell if you’ll enjoy her book (have you ever felt an overwhelming compulsion to add a missing apostrophe to a sign??) and goes on from there. This isn’t an in-depth study of punctuation, but it is a delightful scamper through the high points of punctuation history and usage. I always especially love the way she compares commas to border collies (gently herding phrases and words where they need to go), and her passion for apostrophes (so simple to use, yet so frequently maligned).

If you are even a bit of a punctuation freak, this is definitely worth a read.

Gentian Hill by Elizabeth Goudge – 4*

//published 1949//

I’m still slowly working my way through all of Goudge’s books. While Gentian Hill is probably my least favorite of her books that I’ve read so far, it was still beautifully written. It’s historical fiction, so it’s a bit different from her other books, and it was rather fun to read a book set during the Napoleonic Wars that focused more on “regular” folk instead of the aristocracy. The language throughout was beautiful as always, and there were many wonderful themes. The main reason I wrestled with this book is because of how young Stella is when Zachary meets her and knows that she is going to be his wife someday. I’ll grant that Zachary is also young(ish), but it still felt weird, even though it wasn’t completely unusual for women to get married in their mid-teens at the time. Still, Goudge handles that all deftly – it never felt like Zachary was a creeper in any way, and I honestly did want them to end up together. I just felt like the whole story would have read better if Stella had been a couple of years older when they met.

Overall, I still did enjoy this book a great deal, even though I didn’t find it to be an instant classic as I have with many of Goudge’s other books.

Gentian Hill was read #10 for #20BooksofSummer.

You Don’t Own Me by Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke – 4*

//published 2018//

This is the latest installment of the Under Suspicion series, which I read last year. The series centers on Laurie, who is the producer for a television show called Under Suspicion. Each episode of the show looks at a cold case, inviting the people involved to tell their part of the story. The concept is that the unsolved aspect of the story means that people close to the victim are still shadowed by the possibility that they could be the murderer. I really enjoyed this series when I read it last year, mainly because Laurie is a great main character, and the authors have done an excellent job with the secondary characters as well. In this book, I was glad to see Laurie’s romantic relationship progress happily. The mystery was solid, although there was a weird secondary thing going on where Laurie was being stalked that felt superfluous to the main thrust of the story.

One of my biggest complaints about this story last year was how the host for Laurie’s show, Ryan, was the only stagnant character in the series. The authors just made him into one giant stereotype and seemed to think that was good enough. Consequently, I was delighted to see actual character growth in Ryan in this installment! Brilliant!

Overall, these are great mysteries, and I’m hopeful that they will continue coming.

The Story of a Whim by Grace Livingston Hill – 3.5*

//published 1903//

Like most of Hill’s stories, this one was pretty predictable, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I will say that I found it funny that I had just recently read Strawberry Girl, set in early 1900’s Florida, and then it turns out that that was the same setting for this book as well!

This was my #11 read for #20BooksofSummer.

Shamed by Linda Castillo – 4*

//published 2019//

Earlier this year I devoured the entire Kate Burkholder series. Set in Ohio’s Amish country, this is a great mystery series. Kate grew up Amish and then left the community and eventually entered law enforcement. When the series starts, Kate is the sheriff of the small town where she grew up, and also a sort of bridge between the Amish and non-Amish (“English”) communities. I really, really like Kate a lot, which is a large part of why this series works for me. Castillo also does a really excellent job in her portrayal of the Amish community, and I love the way that Kate is working through her heritage as well.

This particular installment was solid. A woman is murdered and her granddaughter kidnapped – I loved the way that each chapter started with how many hours the girl had been missing; it really intensified the urgency of a missing child case. Overall, the pacing was solid, although it felt like this book didn’t have as much of Kate’s personal life as some of the others have had, and I rather missed it. All in all, I hope Castillo continues to write these books forever, as I really like them.

Under Suspicion Series // by Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke

Posted on May 16, 2018 by Sarah | 6 Comments

I’ve Got You Under My Skin (2014)
The Cinderella Murder (2014)
All Dressed in White (2015)
The Sleeping Beauty Killer (2016)
Every Breath You Take (2017)

A while back I read The Ex by Alafair Burke. While it wasn’t the best thriller I had ever read, it was solid enough to make me add several of Burke’s other works onto the TBR. However, when I added this series I didn’t realize that Burke was a co-author. Somehow, I had never gotten around to reading any of the famous Mary Higgins Clark’s books, so I was actually pretty intrigued to delve into this series.

The first book was written by Clark on her own, and it sets the premise for the rest of the series. The story opens when Greg, a young doctor, at the park with his three-year-old son, Timmy. A stranger appears and murders Greg – and only Timmy sees his face. Timmy remarkably is able to remember that the man had very blue eyes and also that he said, “Tell your mother she’s next, and then it’s your turn.”

Five years later, no further progress has been made on the Blue-Eyed Killer. Greg’s wife, Laurie, has done her best to move forward with her life, even with the constant threat made by a murderer hanging over her. Her father, Leo, took an early retirement from his job on the police force in order to help Laurie take care of Timmy. Laurie works as a television producer, but her last few ideas haven’t done very well and she knows that her next pitch could be her last.

But it’s a doozy – her idea is to have a sort-of reality show that revisits cold cases. But instead of just talking about them, she wants to pull together all the main players and reenact some of the scenes. She wants her main focus to be on cold cases where the witnesses are also the suspects – where the fact that the case is still open means that multiple people are still under suspicion – which is exactly what she wants to title her new show.

Although her boss is at first reluctant, she manages to hook him with a cold case that received a lot of media attention at the time, and soon production for the first episode of Under Suspicion is underway. Meanwhile, the reader is privy to the fact that Blue Eyes is back on the fringes of Laurie’s life – with definite plans for finishing the job he started five years earlier.

I really enjoyed this series a lot, and gave basically all of these books an easy 4* rating. It felt a little obvious that Clark didn’t originally intend for the first book to be the first in a series – Laurie’s mystery is neatly wrapped up, she’s given a potential love interest for the future, and things overall get tidied – but it works really well as a series nonetheless, with each book being another episode of Under Suspicion. Laurie is a really likable protagonist, and the other characters grew on me as well. I was moderately frustrated with the slow speed of her romance with THE PERFECT GUY, but overall that was also a nice thread running throughout.

It did seem as though the endings were sometimes rushed – I especially felt that way with the first book, where things are tooling along and then suddenly ACTION! DEATH! MURDER! SUICIDE! CHAOS! And then the end. Other than that, though, the pacing was good throughout. The chapters are SUPER short – some of them only a couple of paragraphs long – which I find incredibly addictive.

A new character is introduced in The Sleeping Beauty Killer, and he really brought down my overall enjoyment of that book and the next. Ryan ended up being THE most stereotyped character in the whole series… let’s create a male character who is a caricature of every stereotypical negative male trait ever! It was so annoying, especially since everyone else grows and changes, but Ryan just stays completely stagnant in order to emphasize how EASY it is for men ALL THE TIME, blah blah blah.

But overall these were great thrillers. They had enough twists to keep things interesting, good premises, likable characters (except Ryan), and decent character development over time (except Ryan). The most recent was just published last year, so I’m hopeful that there may be another addition to the series at some point. 4/5 for the Under Suspicion series on the whole.

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