Top Ten Tuesday – Books That Made Me Laugh Out Loud
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 Books That Made Me Laugh Out Loud. At first I was going to skip this week’s topic since I know I’ve done at least one post recently about funny books, but then I decided that with this depressing pandemic lingering, you can never have too many recs when it comes to books that will make you laugh these days. Some of the ones I’m sharing are truly LOL funny, while others have some serious moments mixed in with the humor. Guaranteed that they’ll all leave you with a smile on your face though. 🙂
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Books That Made Me Laugh Out Loud
1. IN A HOLIDAZE by Christina Lauren
2. THE WEDDING GAME by Meghan Quinn
3. TAKE A HINT, DANI BROWN by Talia Hibbert
4. THE EX TALK by Rachel Lynn Solomon
5. YOU LUCKY DOG by Julia London
6. BRINGING DOWN THE DUKE by Evie Dunmore
7. MUCH ADO ABOUT YOU by Samantha Young
8. THE DATING PLAN by Sara Desai
9. UNDERCOVER BROMANCE by Lyssa Kay Adams
10. HOW TO FAIL AT FLIRTING by Denise Williams
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Question: Do you enjoy humorous reads? Can you recommend any other funny books I might enjoy?
Reviews: DO NO HARM & THE NIGHT OLIVIA FELL
Another new week means it’s time for more reviews. This weekend was so cold and miserable that all I really did was hibernate and read the entire time. I got into a groove reading Christina McDonald’s domestic suspense novels and have a new release as well as one from her backlist to share today. I’m still working on my goal of reading more of the books I already own, so I was kind of proud of myself for grabbing the older book rather than just reaching for the next ARC, haha. Anyway, back to these books. One thing that really intrigued me about them was that they share a basic theme: How far will a mother go for her children?
Do No Harm Goodreads Author: Christina McDonald
Publication Date: February 16, 2021
Publisher: Gallery Books
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary audio copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Do No Harm is Christina McDonald’s latest novel and if you’re into stories that ask big questions, like how far will a mother go to save her family, then Do No Harm will be a must-read for you. As a mom, I was glued to this book from cover to cover, but I don’t think you need to be a parent to relate to the impossible situation main character, Emma Sweeney, finds herself trapped in.
Emma seems to have it all. She’s a well-respected physician, she’s happily married to the love of her life, and she has a beautiful son named Josh, who she loves with her whole heart. Emma’s seemingly perfect life spins out of control, however, when Josh falls ill and is diagnosed with a rare and often fatal form of leukemia. The only treatment that has thus far shown any signs of success is an experimental one that is only partially covered by insurance and is astronomical in cost. Even on a doctor’s salary, Emma and her husband can’t afford it. There’s no way Emma is just going to sit back and watch her baby die though. She’s willing to risk everything to save him – her job, her marriage, even her own life — so she takes matters into her own hands and starts her own drug ring selling opioids to fund her son’s treatment.
I have to tell you guys that Do No Harm blew me away on so many levels. I was so impressed that McDonald creates in Emma such a complex character that I alternated between wanting her to succeed and save her son and wanting her to be caught and arrested because what she was doing was so morally repugnant. I had tremendous sympathy for Emma because she’s in an impossible situation and I don’t know what I would do if I was in her shoes. I kept asking myself over and over: how far is too far when it comes to saving your kids? Much of the book is told from Emma’s perspective and she is wrestling with that same question and trying to justify it to herself by saying the ends are worth the means. She is especially conflicted since as a doctor, she has taken an oath to do no harm and her actions are clearly violating that oath.
Aside from the moral and ethical issues involved, which added so much depth to the overall story, I was also just fascinated by how adeptly Emma puts together the whole drug ring. Even though I was horrified by what she was doing, I still had to tip my hat to her because she’s a clever lady and she puts together a pretty impressive operation. I was especially impressed by her ability to elude the police, particularly since her own husband is the lead detective investigating opioid-related crimes in the area. Talk about a tense and suspenseful game of cat and mouse when the cop and the criminal live under the same roof!
I don’t want to give away anything else so you’ll just have to pick up a copy of Do No Harm if you want to see how it turns out! 4.5 STARS
The Night Olivia Fell Goodreads Author: Christina McDonald
Publication Date: February 5, 2019
Publisher: Gallery Books
I loved Christina McDonald’s new novel, Do No Harm, so much that I went to my shelves to see if I had other books of hers I hadn’t read yet. I discovered I had a copy of The Night Olivia Fell, dove in and immediately found myself captivated by the opening scene. Abi Knight gets a late-night phone call informing her that her teenage daughter, Olivia, has been in a serious accident and has fallen off a bridge. Abi heads to the hospital right away and, upon her arrival, is given the devastating news that Olivia is brain dead and will not be waking up, but is also pregnant and because of state laws, must be kept on life support until the baby is born. Abi is in utter shock and disbelief. 1) She can’t believe her baby is gone, and 2) she had no idea her baby was pregnant. Upon viewing her daughter’s body, Abi sees angry bruises around Olivia’s wrists. When the police unexpectedly rules Olivia’s death an accident, Abi isn’t having it and sets out to figure out what really happened to Olivia and who’s responsible.
This was such a heartbreaking and emotional read for me. The story is presented in alternating chapters from both Abi and Olivia’s points of view and you could just see how close mom and daughter were. I loved both characters so much and I felt so bad for Abi and couldn’t even imagine what she must be going through. Losing a child that way would be hard enough but add to it the frustration of feeling like the police aren’t doing their jobs and it’s even worse. McDonald really drew me into the story and had me fully invested in Abi’s quest for the truth. I also liked the balance between Abi’s emotional journey as she grieves for her daughter and her steely determination to play detective and do what the police won’t.
I was also a big fan of how the story was presented too. The present-day chapters follow Abi from the moment she learns of Olivia’s death to the moment she finally discovers the truth about what happened that night. Abi’s chapters are alternated with Olivia’s, which start a few months prior to her death and gradually lead up to that night, revealing several potential suspects and motives, along with a number of deliciously dark secrets and lies, along the way. I liked the way the two POVs mirrored each other and I also liked how the author slowly ramped up the suspense and kept me guessing about who was responsible for Olivia’s death all the way to the very end.
The Night Olivia Fell is both a riveting mystery and a tragic, heartbreaking story of loss and grief. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a good story of domestic suspense. 4 STARS.
Reviews: THE INITIAL INSULT & DESTINATION ANYWHERE
Happy Friday! I hope you’ve all had a great week. Mine was pretty good, just swamped at work as our busy season gets fully underway. I still managed to get some reading done this week though, so I have two new ARC reviews to share today. On the surface these are two books that are very different from one another, one with a dark vibe and one with a more uplifting vibe. The theme that they both share, however, is friendship — friendships lost and friendships found.
The Initial Insult (The Initial Insult, #1) Goodreads Author: Mindy McGinnis
Publication Date: February 23, 2021
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary audio copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Even though I haven’t really been in the mood for dark reads lately, I couldn’t resist Mindy McGinnis’ new novel, The Initial Insult. First because I’m a big fan of McGinnis’ writing, and second, because The Initial Insult is a modern day retelling of the classic Edgar Allan Poe short story, The Cask of Amontillado. I love Edgar Allan Poe and The Cask of Amontillado is a favorite of mine, so this was a must read. You don’t have to have read the classic Poe tale to understand and appreciate McGinnis’ version though so don’t let not having read the original deter you. While it somewhat mirrors Poe’s classic tale of revenge, The Initial Insult is at its core a story about a friendship that has fallen apart and all of the residual hurt feelings that still linger between the two former friends.
The Initial Insult follows Tress Montor, whose parents disappeared without a trace seven years ago. The last person to see them alive? Tress’ then best friend, Felicity Turnado. Tress’ life has pretty much fallen apart since her parents disappeared, while Felicity has become the social climbing belle of the ball, so to speak. As their lives have moved in such opposite directions, so has their friendship until they basically become more enemies than friends. It drives Tress crazy that Felicity can offer no insight into what happened to her parents, so she devises a dark and twisted plan to force Felicity to confess everything she remembers about that night because Tress is convinced she has been lying for all of these years. Tress’ plan involves bricks, mortar, manacles, and a party with lots of distractions so that no one will notice she and Felicity have gone missing. Sounds sinister, right? Because it totally is!
I don’t want to give away anything else about the story, but it’s definitely a wild ride and a dark and twisted one at that. I do have to say that I wasn’t a huge fan of either girl, although I did sympathize with them both as we learn more and more about their friendship and about some other secrets they are each hiding. They are both tragic characters in their own way, and Tress is definitely one of the more interesting and complex morally gray characters I’ve come across.
I do want to forewarn anyone who is sensitive when it comes to animals being harmed in books, there is a pretty devastating incident involving a family pet. I hope that’s not a spoiler, but I wish I had known it was coming when I started reading so I could mentally prepare myself for it.
The Initial Insult is a dark and heartbreaking read that ends on a jaw dropping note. I didn’t realize until I got to the end that it’s actually the first book in a duology, so I can’t wait to get my hands on the second book, which is apparently named The Last Laugh. 4 STARS
Destination Anywhere Goodreads Author: Sara Barnard
Publication Date: February 23, 2021
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Sara Barnard writes some of the most relatable stories I’ve ever read. The struggles her characters face are struggles that I almost always identify with and that is definitely the case with her new novel, Destination Anywhere. Destination Anywhere follows Peyton King, a seventeen-year-old college student who has struggled her entire life to make friends. As if having no friends wasn’t bad enough, she was also the target of relentless bullying for most of her school career. Desperate to make friends once she arrives at college, she falls in with the wrong crowd and ends up in a world of trouble. Between that and the fact that she’s miserable at college because her parents are forcing her to study something she’s not interested in, Peyton takes matters into her own hands. She packs a bag and her sketchbook, buys a one-way plane ticket from England to Canada, and sets out to find herself and her own path in life.
Peyton’s journey is presented in present day chapters, alternated with chapters from her past, and I have to say that those past chapters were truly heartbreaking. I felt so bad for her as I was reading the feelings of self-doubt that Peyton expresses as she is rejected by classmate after classmate and then bullied by them on top of it. Those thoughts of “What is wrong with me?” or when she does finally find a potential friend and then overthinking it to the point where she’s trying too hard and makes things awkward. While I always had a core group of friends when I was in school, I was painfully shy and could relate to some of Peyton’s inner monologue.
While those past chapters were somewhat painful to read, however, the present chapters were pretty amazing. I loved watching Peyton’s confidence start to grow as she learned from past mistakes and challenged herself to get out there, pursue her passion, and find like-minded people. I was especially impressed with the way she stands her ground when it comes to her parents. That can be a hard thing to do.
I don’t want to give away any details of Peyton’s journey, but one of the highlights of her trip for me was the friend group she meets when she checks in to the hostel in Canada. It’s a group of young travelers from all around the globe and they practically adopt her as their little sister and make it their mission to ensure she gets the most out of her trip and finds whatever it is she’s looking for. Their mission even turns into a road trip at one point and I’m all about a good road trip, so I especially loved those adventures and of course the gorgeous Canadian scenery.
Destination Anywhere is a lovely and heartwarming story about finding yourself and about finding your people. It’s one of those wonderful reads that engaged all of my emotions. I went from being heartbroken for Peyton to absolutely elated for her, and pretty much everything in between. And don’t even get me started on the ending, which left me crying happy tears. Such an all around satisfying read. 4.5 STARS