The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebeckah Crane

4 Stars

“Have you lost your mind?”

“That’s why I’m here, right?”

Before we begin, let me just admit that every time I review a YA book I totally feel a little bit like . . . .



That being said, Imma still read ‘em. Now let’s get on with the show.

There’s bound to be some comparisons to John Green here due to the fact that it features a cast of teenagers who are all a bit . . . . .



If that’s a dealbreaker for you, then do yourself a favor and stay away. However, if you are of a certain age you will not only realize that characters like this existed waaaaay before Mr. Green began writing books, but also that when the ensemble features a bulimic, a cutter, a depressed teenager, a self-diagnosed manic-depressive-bipolar-anorexic disaster who some days thinks she’s a boy locked in a girl’s body, a compulsive liar, a potential future schizophrenic and the girl who just "got signed up by her parents" you may end up with some serious déjà vu in the best kind of way . . . . .



The setting is Camp Padua – a summer camp for at-risk teens – and the story focuses on the fact that . . . .



With the end result that . . . . .



I’m sure some readers will take issue with the fact that these children are able to solve a lot of their own problems without medical supervision and that that is not realistic and dangerous and #triggggggggggggered. To those people I say . . . .



Seriously. I just want to enjoy things sometimes. And this one??????

“Do you think the prom queen and the criminal stay together when they go back to school on Monday?”

“I hope so.”

“I hope so too.”



ARC provided by NetGalley (THREE YEARS ago – JFC I suck!) in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

What Happens in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand

3 Stars

When we last met up with the Steele family they had all returned to the United States to recuperate from the shock of dealing with (a) a dead husband/father, (b) a McMansion in St. John no one knew about, (c) a love child (samesies with the no one knew about her part), and (d) various potential romances. In book two it’s pretty much a given there’s going to be a bunch of other crap pop up that wasn’t disclosed in #1. It’s also a given that these folks are headed back to island life ASAP or else there wouldn’t even be the need for a continuation of the story.

If you are familiar with me you know I spend about 95% of my time on Goodreads talking about how I don’t read past the first book in a series. And yet here I am finished with #2 here and anxiously awaiting #3. What can I say?????



In my defense I will say I probably would have never picked up Winter In Paradise if I knew it was going to be a series (and a cliffhangery type of one to boot – GRRRR). But what’s done is done and when I saw this release on the new and notable shelf on a day where it was 30 degrees rather than the near 70 degrees it was supposed to be I said . . . . .



And today it’s snowing . . . . .



Don’t even come at me when I decorate for Christmas this weekend. If it can fucking ice storm before Halloween I can Clark Griswald the crap out of the interior of my own house before Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I’m new to the Elin Hilderbrand Kool-Aid drinkers club, but I assume this is pretty much her typical fare (only set on a different island than her older stuff). This is also pretty typical book two content. These are always what I call the “filler” books. You need additional info to move the story along, but there’s not a whole lot of real action until book three. It also would not work at all as a standalone, but it was a great way to escape reality and didn’t require a lot of thinking on my part which is always a plus. Bring on #3.

Until It Fades by K.A. Tucker

3 Stars

Last week I was poking around on my Currently Reading list to shame myself a bit regarding the amount of reviews I am perpetually behind when I noticed this selection that I marked back in May . . . and then never actually read . . . . .



^It me. I am the stupid of which Barry speaks.

Since it was a Friday (a day I tend to read fluffier selections in order to kickstart the weekend), I figured there was no time better to rectify the situation and cued it up on the ol’ Kindle. I remembered absolutely zero about what this was supposed to be about, but I seriously LOVED everything about The Simple Wild and just assumed I would have an okay time. That’s 100% what happened to, because this was a boy-meets-girl story right up my alley.

You see, Catherine was just a small town girl – living in a lonely world. Wait, while accurate, plagiarism probably isn’t the way to go here. The leading lady this time around was a young single mother who used to be the talk of the town due to a history with her high school art teacher. Thanks to kindness of a bighearted stranger, Catherine has been able to put her past on the backburner for the past few years while working at the local diner . . . .



A fateful encounter turns our local waitress into a hero when she pulls a man out of a fiery car wreck. Not just any man either, but sure-to-bring-home-the-Stanley-Cup Philly fave Brett Madden . . . .



And just like in Speed relationships that start under intense circumstances leads to . . . .



Obviously this isn’t a real lifechanger of a book. But sometimes?????



ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley!

The Nanny by Gilly MacMillan

2.5 Stars

When you spend your entire life making comments like this . . . .



Not everything ends up being a winner. My mediocre reaction to this one can probably be blamed on the fact that I have read quite a few stories revolving around . . . .



And, unfortunately, when it comes to stories of caretakers who just up and went “poof” in the night, I kinda liked The Au Pair better.

This book was perfectly fine - it just didn’t blow me away. The premise is as I said before – Jocelyn’s beloved Nanny Hannah left one night never to be heard from again. When Jo finds herself in a financial pickle after being widowed, she has to move back in to the family estate with own daughter. Human remains are discovered in a lake on the property and Jo immediately thinks it must be Hannah. Until Hannah shows up at the same door she apparently walked out of 30 years ago.

The Nanny takes this sort of approach when it comes to storytelling . . . .



Apparently every idea was one that stuck to the wall. Not only was there the . . . .



With a potential for . . . .



As well as . . . . .



But there was also a bit of . . . .



(And lemme just tell you – this ain’t no Goldfinch, kids)

All in all this was an okay way to spend a couple of hours, but I won’t remember anything about it in the long run.

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

4 Stars

Hey looky there. A book with a bunch of houses on the cover. I never request those *wink emoji* (If you’re new here please note – I request allllllll of these.) I have no idea why I didn’t review this one in a timely fashion because I really dug it.

The story this time around centers around Amy. Amy lives a cookie-cutter life in a cookie-cutter neighborhood where the biggest excitement is the monthly book club and probably shit like BUNKO. Don’t know what that is????



When new neighbor Roux shows up, she tries to spice Moms Night Out up a bit by playing a new game – Never Have I Ever. In case you aren’t familiar with that one either, it’s where someone makes a generally saucy sort of non-confession confession like “Never Have I Ever Had Buttsex” and then all the squares are like . . . .



But all of the sluts I’d want to hang out with are like . . . .



And also . . . . .



And depending on how much they actually lived B.C. (that’s “before children”) maybe a little . . . .



When Amy shoots down participating in the new-and-improved frivolities because she'd rather stick to the plan of talking about the latest Reese Witherspoon selection, Roux confronts her to inform her she already knows Amy’s dirty secrets and that if she wants them kept under wraps she better cooperate.

Here’s the part that got me hooked. Rather than being some mealy-mouthed wimp (or, even more redonkulous, murdering the new neighbor), Amy is like . . . .



And Roux is like . . . . .



So much fun.

Not to mention the ending. Let’s just leave it at it’s not going to be for everyone, but for me I say . . . .

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel

4.5 Stars

“Once upon a time, they said, a wicked mother gave birth to a daughter. The daughter appeared to be very sick and had all sorts of things wrong with her. She had a feeding tube, her hair fell out in clumps, and she was so weak, she needed a wheelchair to get around. For eighteen years, no doctor could figure out what was wrong with her.”
I had no idea how much buzz there was about this book on the intertubes until I received a copy. I really didn’t have any intention of reading it so soon since it doesn’t come out until Spring, but it started popping up all over the place and I was afraid I would get spoiled and then have to troll inform whoever ruined my good time that . . . . .



That being said, I’m going to stick to the basics here.

The only thing that ever mattered to Patty Watts was being a good mother. Especially due to the fact that her daughter Rose Gold? Well . . . .



Unfortunately the Department of Family Services as well as the criminal court system didn’t quite see things that way and Petty has spent the last five years . . . .



But now she’s out and it’s time to rebuild her relationship with her darling daughter. After all, that’s what mothers do . . . .

“We mothers give up everything for our children, until they decide they don’t want our everything anymore.”

In case you aren’t familiar with my wheelhouse, it goes a lil’ summin’ like this . . . .



I’m pretty sure the entire time I was reading this (which was literally an afternoon because I could not stop once I started) I probably looked like this . . . .



Oh how I dig the domestic thriller.

And the comparison to Gillian Flynn?????



That’s a change from nearly every other blurb in the history of blurbing. If you like unreliable narrators, trashy docudramas about things like Munchausen by Proxy, and getting totally sucked in to a family you’d never want to be a part of in real life I suggest you put this on the TBR so you don’t forget to pick it up come March.

ARC received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

*quotes subject to change*

The Birds by Daphne Du Marier

3 Stars

I can’t believe I only discovered a few years ago how many of Hitchcock’s films started off as books/stories. In the case of The Birds “inspired by” may be more fitting. The basics are the same: A peaceful hamlet near the sea full of farming folk – and a bunch of birds who decide to get murdery all of a sudden. This short truly is short (no matter what the various editions on GR tell you) and focuses on one family while they try to remain alive throughout the bizarre attack. It’s open-ended so all of you who aren’t satisfied with that type of tale should probably steer clear.

Things that are missing that make this a rare occurrence where the (5 Star) film is actually better than the print version? Jessica Tandy. Tippi Hedron’s green suit that remains pressed and fresh despite her wearing it for days on end (not to mention her perfectly coifed hair and unchipped manicure). Dan Fawcett’s poked out eyeballs. And last, but certainly creepiest . . . .

♪♫♪I married my wife in the month of June,
Risseldy rosseldy, now, now, now,
I brought her home by the light of the moon,
Risseldy rosseldy, heyjohnny dosselty,
Nickety nackety, rustical quality,
Willickey wallackey now, now, now.♪♫♪

Whenever that part of the movie comes on I feel like I should check the fence line for a billion crows gathering to kill me.

The Rumor by Lesley Kara

2.5 Stars

I read this about 15,000 weeks ago and never wrote a review because my momma always taught me . . . . .



Seriously, though, if I actually had something bad to say y’all know I’d be barfing out all over the place. This just didn’t cause much of a reaction. It takes a brave soul to roll the dice and name drop “if you like Liane Moriarty” and it doesn’t always work out. The story here was about a rumor of a potential child killer moving into a small town and all the mommies getting in a tizzy about it. It was perfectly mediocre. I will say I have notes on the Kindle regarding the big reveal raising my hinky meter due to the ages of people maybe not lining up for it to work for me without questioning things, so you could maybe take that into consideration? Or not. After all, the only reason I requested this book in the first place was because I thought I was asking for . . . .



Yep . . . .

 

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

4 Stars

To begin with, allow me to see your . . . .



And raise you “so do all these dang neighbors and families and couples” in today’s book titles. You’d think they lived next door to a creeper like me who just wants to peep them but never actually meet them!

Second, I requested this book because it had a house on the cover. The version I received had hemlock or some shit instead, but trust that the house cover auto-request truly is a sickness that I have to fight tooth and nail to avoid. Bonus when I discovered it was by Lisa Jewell who I have really enjoyed in the past. But that’s all I knew. I just assumed it was going to be some “ drunken unreliable narrator on a train in a window who may or may not be gone” type of storyline. When it turned out to be . . . . .



Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll . . . . .



The story here is presented by siblings Lucy and Henry and “the baby” Libby. Libby has just turned 25 and inherited what is known as The Chelsea House (basically code name for mansion) due to no one else on the trust coming forward in time to claim their share. The remainder of the story tells the family history, the house’s history and all of the goings on that occurred between the now and the back then when the parents and another man were found . . . . .



If you are looking for a lot of action and plot twists, this might not work for you. But if you enjoy slow rollers and family secrets it might be just what the doctor ordered. You’ll probably find the big reveal to be pretty obvious if you are an avid thriller reader, but it didn’t make me any less entertained while I was reading. Lisa Jewell has become a go-to-gal for me. I’ll happily auto request anything she puts out at this point – even if there isn’t a house on the cover ; )

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley!