Reviews: SUCH A QUIET PLACE & FOR YOUR OWN GOOD
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Apologies for my absence around the blogosphere the past few days. My son is dealing with some health issues so my blogging and blog hopping has slacked a bit while I’ve been caring for him. I’m also slightly behind on my reviews, so these two books are actually already out in the world even though I had them as ARCs. I’m still happy to share my thoughts on them with you though as they were both pretty solid mystery/thriller reads.
Such a Quiet Place Goodreads Author: Megan Miranda
Publication Date: July 13, 2021
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Hollow’s Edge used to be the perfect neighborhood, a quiet serene little paradise with a tight-knit community and where nothing bad ever happened. That is, until two of its residents, Brandon and Fiona Truett, were murdered, and a third resident, Ruby Fletcher, was convicted of their murders and sent to prison. The loss of their neighbors is painful for most of the residents, as is living with the guilt that many of them testified against Ruby and sent her to prison. With the shadow of those murders and the still-empty Truett house hanging over it, Hollow’s Edge has become a place no one wants to live. Tanking home values, however, have made it nearly impossible to sell their homes, so the residents are trapped. Being stuck in Hollow’s Edge is bad enough, but it takes an even worse turn when Ruby gets out of jail and returns to the neighborhood after her conviction is overturned. Why has she come back? Is she truly just looking to start over or does she have revenge on her mind?
That’s the basic premise of Megan Miranda’s latest thriller, Such a Quiet Place, and it’s a riveting one. I was glued to the pages from start to finish, trying to figure out what exactly Ruby’s motivation was for returning to the scene of the crime. She has maintained her innocence throughout so it seems odd for her to return to the place where so many people betrayed her. The story is a bit of a slow burn in terms of the suspense and the mystery, a little too slow for my liking at times, but I really enjoyed watching all of the paranoid neighbors trying to figure out what Ruby was up to and if she was out to get them. Not only that but it starts to become clear that Hollow’s Edge was never really the idyllic setting its residents made it out to be. Seems like everyone has at least a secret or two that they’re trying desperately to keep buried.
Ruby’s interactions with her former roommate, Harper Nash, were especially fascinating to me. When she returns to the neighborhood, Ruby shows up on Harper’s doorstep as if she expects to pick up where they left off before the murders. She tells Harper she has nowhere to go and Harper feels sorry for her and lets her move back in. Ruby practically takes over the place, eating Harper’s food, wearing her clothes, borrowing her car without asking, etc. It’s almost like she’s trying to push Harper as far as she can push her, even as she professes gratitude to Harper for letting her stay there. Harper starts to become as paranoid as the rest of the neighbors in thinking that Ruby is just biding her time before she makes someone pay for ruining her life.
I don’t want to give anything away about Ruby’s true motives, but I’ll just say that the story has plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing and it really gets wild starting with the neighborhood’s big Fourth of July bash. If you enjoy a slow burn mystery, with lots of secrets, lies and drama, you’ll have fun reading Such a Quiet Place. 3.5 STARS.
For Your Own Good Goodreads
Author: Samantha Downing
Publication Date: July 20, 2021
Publisher: Berkley
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
I was drawn to Samantha Downing’s latest thriller For Your Own Good because it’s set in a private school and because its synopsis promises lots of dark and twisty goodness to keep me on the edge of my seat. This book really delivers too, especially if you enjoy a little dark comedy mixed in with your murder mysteries. I was not only entertained from start to finish, but I also couldn’t have begun to predict the wild and unexpected ending even if I had tried.
Belmont Academy is a prestigious private school. Wealthy parents send their children here in hopes of best preparing them for an Ivy League education. These parents try to bully teachers into giving their children better grades, and while many teachers cave in, not Teacher of the Year, Teddy Crutcher. Teddy thinks he knows what’s best for everyone and sometimes he feels the need to teach an entitled student a lesson, bring them down a peg or two. Sometimes he extends those lessons to fellow teachers who annoy him too.
All Teddy really wants is for everyone to be their best and he wants everyone to just stay out of his way while he works to achieve his goal. Things start to get especially frustrating for Teddy when a parent unexpectedly dies at a school function and everyone at school is on edge once the death is ruled a homicide. Teddy is annoyed by this distraction since in his mind, big deal, people die every day, and he’s especially frustrated because a student he actually likes is arrested for the murder. Teddy decides that since he knows best, he needs to fix things.
It’s actually Teddy’s “fixing” of things that hilariously drive this dark and twisty tale because, even though he clearly thinks he’s a genius, the more Teddy tries to “fix” things, the worse things get. Then as if things aren’t bad enough for Teddy because of his failed “fixings”, a former student he decided to teach a lesson to has come back to town and is looking to take Teddy down.
What really made this a great read for me was Teddy, not because he was a likeable character by any stretch, but on the contrary, because I loved to hate him. He’s arrogant and obnoxious, but so delightfully diabolical with the lessons and punishments he doles out. I found him to be such a fantastic character and I enjoyed his over-the-top antics and all the twists and turns he added to the story.
I don’t want to give anything away with respect to the murder or any of the additional fallout from Teddy’s endless schemes, but if you’re looking for a read that is suspenseful, dark and twisty, yet also quite funny, be sure to check out For Your Own Good. It’s a wild ride! 4 STARS.
Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Books I Read in One Sitting
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is 10 Books I Read in One Sitting. I tend to be a pretty fast reader anyway, but even so, it typically takes me at least 2 or 3 sittings to read most books. That said, there have been a few standouts over the years that once I started reading, I just couldn’t put them down until I had finished. Sometimes it’s a riveting thriller, sometimes it’s a heartwrenching drama, and other times it’s just an especially swoony romance.
10 Books I Read in One Sitting
1. RAZORBLADE TEARS by S.A. Cosby – a heart wrenching yet also suspenseful and action-packed drama about two fathers on a quest to find their sons’ killer. Couldn’t put it down.
2. THE NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah – WWII historical fiction that tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each choosing their own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France. Full of suspense and heartbreak, but also resilience and courage, this book left me a sobbing mess by the end.
3. ILLUMINAE by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman – Illuminae has it all – it’s a thriller, an action-packed sci-fi adventure, and it’s even got a romance. All of that, coupled with incredibly unique formatting made Illuminae a one-sitting read for me.
4. PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir – There’s just something about Andy Weir’s brand of sci-fi with its lovable characters trying to survive in space that really appeals to me. His first book, The Martian, was also a book I devoured in one sitting.
5. THE FOREST OF VANISHING STARS by Kristin Harmel – This story of a young woman helping Jewish refugees hide from the Nazis in the forests of Poland pushed Harmel into the auto-buy category for me. Her storytelling, coupled with this being inspired by actual events, made for a read I could not put down. Her previous book, The Book of Lost Names, was also one I read in one sitting.
6. DAISY JONES & THE SIX by Taylor Jenkins Reid – An intensely realistic drama about the rise of an iconic rock band. This book and its characters captivated me to the extent that I Googled them to see if they were a real band.
7. UNSUB by Meg Gardiner – Super creepy thriller. Enough said.
8. A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Maas – Rhysand’s sexiness, combined with the allure of the Night Court, made this a one-sitting read.
9. THE SIMPLE WILD by K.A. Tucker – The romance between Calla and Jonah is EVERYTHING. I was actually annoyed at how fast I flew through this book because I really wanted to savor it, lol.
10. THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins – A riveting dystopian nightmare. Couldn’t put it down until I knew who would live and who would die.
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Question: What books have you read in one sitting? Have you read any of these?
Romance Reviews: Isn’t It Bromantic? & It Happened One Summer
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. It was a quiet one here, filled with lots of quality reading time. Today I’m sharing my thoughts one two fun romance novels, one of which, Isn’t It Bromantic? was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. Check out my reviews and let me know if you’re planning to read either of these. 🙂
Isn't It Bromantic? (Bromance Book Club, #4) Goodreads Author: Lyssa Kay Adams
Publication Date: July 20, 2021
Publisher: Berkley
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know I’m pretty obsessed with Lyssa Kay Adams contemporary romance series, Bromance Book Club, and that the latest installment Isn’t It Bromantic? is one of my most anticipated reads of 2021.
Isn’t It Bromantic? finally gives us a story featuring Vlad, aka “The Russian,” the adorable but gaseous Russian professional hockey player. Vlad is a fan favorite, and he’s definitely my favorite character so expectations were high. I didn’t think it was possible to love Vlad more than I already did, but this book proved me wrong. For a beast of a hockey player, Vlad is actually the softest of soft boys and quite possibly the biggest romantic on the planet. Women love him, animals love him, and his Bromance Book Club brothers love him. The man even writes his own romance novels!
Vlad being such a romantic makes it all the more sad that he has spent the last 6 years in a marriage of convenience with Elena, a fellow Russian and his childhood best friend. My heart truly broke for Vlad in the opening scenes of the novel when he confesses to Elena that he’s in love with her and wants a real relationship with her, and she snubs him and tells him she’s moving back to Russia. I have to admit that this at first made me feel pretty hostile toward Elena, but once it’s revealed why she’s acting the way she does, I felt more sympathetic toward her and really wanted her and Vlad to work things out since it was pretty clear her feelings for Vlad run way deeper than she’s letting on.
I don’t want to say much else since it’s best to watch the drama of Vlad and Elena’s relationship unfold for yourself, but suffice it to say that if you’ve enjoyed the hilarious shenanigans of the Bromance Cook Club boys in the past, you’re sure to enjoy yourself this time around too. There’s also a fun new cast of secondary characters, including a sassy group of widows who call themselves the Loners and who are very protective of Vlad and the mysterious Cheese Man, who feeds Vlad’s cheese addiction.
Four books in and I’m still loving the Bromance Book Club series so much. They’re fun, sexy, and quick reads, perfect for devouring over a weekend or a day at the beach. Here’s hoping that there will be a fifth book in the series! 4.5 STARS
It Happened One Summer Goodreads
Author: Tessa Bailey
Publication Date: July 13, 2021
Publisher: Avon
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
When I saw Tessa Bailey’s latest novel, It Happened One Summer, described as a Schitt’s Creek-inspired rom-com, it immediately landed on my must-read list. Schitt’s Creek is one of my favorite television series so I’ll admit that I was a little nervous about the comparison since it creates high expectations in the humor department for me, but I’m thrilled to report that It Happened One Summer really delivers. The Schitt’s Creek-inspired part of the story involves Piper Bellinger, a Hollywood party girl and influencer, who takes her partying one step too far and lands herself in jail. Piper’s mother and stepfather are beyond furious at her behavior and decide to cut her off from their money and send her to live in a fishing town in the Pacific Northwest. She’ll be living in an apartment above a bar that her father used to own and will have to fend for herself for three months. The hope is that Piper will learn there’s more to life than parties, fashion, money, and getting likes on Instagram.
The characters in It Happened One Summer are what really made me fall in love with this story. I honestly really wanted to dislike Piper when we first meet her, just because she comes off as such a flake, but she wormed her way into my heart almost immediately. There’s so much more to her than first meets the eye. She’s got a huge heart, she’s a lot stronger than she thinks she is but at the same time, she has a vulnerable side as well, particularly when it comes to her own sense of self worth. I felt so much sympathy for her when she talked about how alone she feels in Hollywood, even when she’s in the middle of a crowd. The more I got to know Piper, the more I wanted her to find happiness in this little fishing town so that she wouldn’t return to the toxic Hollywood environment.
As much as I adored Piper’s character, I loved Brendan, the sea captain, even more. He’s big, burly, and gruff, but like with Piper, there’s so much more to him than first meets the eye. He might be a grizzly bear on the outside, but he’s soft like a teddy bear on the inside. Brendan’s wife Desiree died seven years ago and he now devotes most of his time to helping his father-in-law keeping Desiree’s memory alive. In essence, Brendan himself has stopped living. That is, until he meets Piper and the sparks fly. From the moment the two of them meet, it’s clear they are each exactly what the other needs and I was hardcore rooting for them to get together. I don’t want to give anything away about how their relationship progresses, but I was fully invested in every page, every scene of it, even the inevitable angsty, dramatic moments of their journey.
It Happened One Summer is a sexy, flirty, romance that will leave you feeling swoony, but at the same time, it’s a hilarious read that will have you laughing out loud page after page. It’s truly just a delightful read! 4.5 STARS