I’m going to do my best to keep this portion of the review without spoilers (though I make no promises when answering “Is It Ends With Us based on a true story?” below). The novel is expertly crafted in telling the story of the main character Lily Bloom, a 23-year-old spirited young woman living in Read more
It’s hard to believe that both The Last of the Moons Girls and The Keeper of Happy Endings were published just over a year apart. Seriously, how do writers do it?! I do know some authors can churn out multiple books a year. That’s usually only certain genres though and the results are often… less Read more
With over 75,000 reviews on Goodreads, Crave has definitely been read by a lot of people. I’m unsure how it got its 4-star rating though when it seems like at a quick glance, every review is virtually panning the book. Some call it a poor man’s Twilight, others say the comparison is an insult to Read more
The Swimmers is 192 pages long. That’s it. 192 pages of lists, factoids, and snippets of the day of a group of swimmers who frequent a recreational pool. The story (if you can even call it that) emerges slowly as you hear a woman named Alice mentioned from time to time. As one of the Read more
It’s easy to see how this domestic thriller became an instant New York Times bestseller. The sheer skill involved in keeping the reader guessing so often had me really applauding the novel’s writers. Maybe it’s the fact that authors Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen can play off each other and collaborate that gives them an Read more
For me, this overall really good novel comes down to this: the inner workings of Frances, the protagonist of this novel, feel bitingly real. The way this observant young woman’s cool exterior hides a pretty constant lack of confidence makes it feels like you know her. Or at least, have often thought like her. With Read more
Lex Gracie is Girl A, the “Girl who escaped.” Author Abigail Dean lets us know from the first chapter that whatever else you read in the rest of the book, Lex gets out of the “House of Horrors.” Horrible crimes are punished, children survive, they grow up and live their lives. It’s that assurance that Read more
The novel These Tangled Vines offers a glimpse into the kind of “hit by lightning” moments where things in life change so drastically you are left reeling. This is exactly what happens to our heroine, Fiona. Years after her mother’s death, she learns more about the mystery of her mother. Thanks to her late mother’s Read more
Published during the height of the #MeToo movement, Anatomy of a Scandal feels like it could easily have been ripped from the headlines where a rising politician is suddenly on trial for assault of an employee. The book follows his wife, Sophie Whitehouse, and the lawyer prosecuting him, barrister Kate Woodcroft. Their conflicting ideas about Read more
Meet Eleanor Oliphant. One reason it definitely is hard to like Eleanor is just how uncompromising she is. Gail Honeyman writes her as an emotionally stunted person who struggles with social interactions. Because of the way she was raised, she has almost no empathy for other people. The plot does make clear a lot of Read more