Monday, February 26, 2018

The English Wife (Lauren Willig)

The English Wife- Lauren Willig
Ok, so this one was my December Book of the Month Club book, and I was pretty excited about it because I had been a big fan of the Secret History of the Pink Carnation series when I was in college. I was glad to see Willig in the line up, because honestly I hadn't thought about her in forever.

This book, however, wasn't exactly my cup of tea. So the premise is, in essence, simple: there's a murder, it turns out that some people aren't who they said they were, chaos ensues as the living try to figure out what the hell was going on this whole time. Then somebody else dies.

Ok, that's a pretty standard one. The writing in this book, for me at least, just wasn't grabbing me. The story moved very slowly, and it really wasn't until the very end that I started to feel that pull to read "just a couple more pages."

With that said: the book is still good. The storyline is interesting, if not completely engaging for me the whole time, but it's a really fun twist on the usual whodunnit  written in a style that to me sounds like a bridge between YA and just straight up adult fiction. The characters were a little two dimensional, but there was some definite shading going on in there for the main ones. (And I feel like there wasn't as much intimate physicality as in the Pink Carnation series, which to me was nice, because when I read a whodunnit I generally am not interested in whodunnwho. GET IT?? Oh man, I make myself laugh.)

I wish I could give you a better review on this one, but unfortunately, life got in the way for so long, it isn't really fresh in my mind anymore and I can't remember the things I wanted to talk about.  Feel free to start a conversation below if you've got thoughts you want to chat about!


And the Academy Award for Best Picture goes to... (oh wait, wrong awards show!)
The Book
🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
🕰️🕰️🕰️

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)
I grew up on Goosebumps and Agatha Christie. I thought the house next door- an abandoned, boarded up, dilapidated old death trap- was haunted (in my defense, my father and brother colluded to encourage this belief) so if I had been shown a world where Miss Peregrine's Home existed, I don't know that I ever would have left it.

And I call it a world because that is exactly what it is. Riggs creates an incredible realm with rules and mythos to learn and live by. Not only does he teach us the ways of the Peculiars, he shows them to us. As a person obsessed with abandoned buildings, abandoned photos, and basically all human things abandoned, this just settled a place in my heart for this book.

According to Riggs, these photos were actually the inspiration for the book. He has a hobby of collecting old photos at flea markets and yard sales, the kind that no one knows who the subject is, or where it was taken. No idea how they even came to own them, but here they are anyway. And then, Riggs creates a story for these orphaned photos. As he did that, he began to weave them together, allowing the children in the photos to meet, to share a life, to have fun and games and stories and nightmares and hold hands and love and hate and become a true memory instead of a forgotten one.

On top of being in love with this book, I am also in love with the movie. If anyone was going to be able to bring to life this story, it was Tim Burton (a-la Big Fish). And oh, what a job he did!  Obviously, read the book first, then watch the movie.  (I, unfortunately, got impatient waiting for the price of the e-book to come down and ended up watching the movie first, but I don't feel like anything was lost for it except for my stringent rule to read the book first.)

I adore this book. I am in love with this book. This book is one of the top five that I would slip inside if I could. I think, truly, that any of us who felt "off", or out of sync with our peers growing up would have loved the idea of a place where what made you odd made you perfect.

Where any of us could help save the day with our own special Peculiarity.

My honest opinion:
The Book
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️

Thursday, February 15, 2018

A Night In With Audrey Hepburn (Lucy Holliday)

A Night In With Audrey Hepburn- Lucy Holliday
There's something you don't know about me.

I. Love. Audrey.
She is what I aspire to be every day (except for my swearing, she will have to just forgive me that.) and who I look to for inspiration.

Now that you know that, I'll also tell you that I LOVE reading young adult stuff. I mean, not all of it, OBVI, some of that shit is stupid and pedantic. But one of my great joys in college was the Georgia Nicholson novels. I laughed so hard that my boyfriend would actually make me leave the room so he could sleep.

Whatever. (He was a dick anyway. Way more than that story implies. But that is neither here nor there.)

So one night I'm browsing through the Kindle store (as if I don't own seventy books that I need to read at this point. DON'T JUDGE.)  Now, I'm beginning to think that Amazon is in cahoots with some sort of spying software because suddenly up popped A Night In With Audrey Hepburn by Lucy Holliday. The cover was cute. The price was under five bucks. And It has AUDREY in it. Done.

It was hilarious. It basically felt like I was reading about a grown up Georgia Nicholson and her strange relationship with an imaginary (or IS SHE imaginary) Audrey Hepburn.

I'm not telling you anything about it because I don't want to ruin the build up. It is such a cute read though, it took me about a day, and it is part of a series so if you like it there's more to look forward to.

And the award goes to...
The Book
🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️

Friday, February 9, 2018

Stillhouse Lake (Rachel Caine)

Stillhouse Lake- Rachel Caine
I honestly don't remember getting this book. I think it was my Kindle First choice at some point, maybe? I dunno. But it sat around in my queue for like, forever. That's a shame, because DAMN is it GOOD!

This was my first read from Rachel Caine, and her style is fantastic. The flow of the story was smooth and kept me wanting to know what the next event was going to be.

The premise is simple: mom and daughter on the run from Daddy Dearest.  I initially thought this was going to be an interesting look at what life is like for the family of a human monster, a serial killer. But instead it was only kind of that. It was (of course, because it's a book so they obviously have to be dramatic) more dramatic than that. This particular monster has far reaching influence and wants his wife to pay for not standing by him.

But THEN things get weird. Similar circumstances to Daddy Dearest's MO start to happen in the new town. And as they become more nervous because of these goings on, their cover story starts to unravel.

This really is one of those books that kept me hooked until the very end. I will warn you, however, that it is part of a series, and ends with a cliff hanger.

So overall:

The Book
🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️