Book Review & Giveaway – THE BOOKISH LIFE OF NINA HILL by Abbi Waxman
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman 
Published by Berkley Books on July 9, 2019
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance
Pages: 352
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Today I am taking part in the blog tour to promote Abbi Waxman’s new novel The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. Thanks so much to Lauren Horvoth at Berkley Publishing for the invitation. I can’t wait to share my thoughts on this gem of a book with my visitors!
THE BOOKISH LIFE OF NINA HILL Review
Abbi Waxman’s The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was one of my most anticipated reads of 2019 and I’m thrilled to tell you that it’s everything I hoped it would be and more! As a booklover and an introvert, it’s by far one of the most relatable books I’ve ever read and the protagonist Nina Hill is a treasure. I could easily fangirl about my love for this book all day, but instead let me just share some highlights. If you like what you hear, be sure to scroll down and enter my giveaway for a finished copy of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill:
Nina Hill is of course my absolute favorite part of the book. She’s a huge book lover as well as extremely introverted. I mean, this girl is unapologetically books over people all day long and I love her for it. Almost as strong as her love of books though is her love of organization and planning. She likes to be in firm control of every aspect of her life and is the queen of planners. She also freely admits that fellow control freak, Monica Gellar from the sitcom Friends, is one of her personal heroines. She’s also incredibly socially awkward and is most comfortable with just a few treasured friends in her life. Growing up an only child, it was very easy for Nina to keep her world small and cozy, with plenty of time to keep her nose happily stuck in books.
Waxman does a fantastic job creating the character of Nina, that so many book lovers and introverts will find immensely relatable. I know I wanted to be friends with Nina from the opening pages of the story. She’s adorably quirky and sounds like my kind of person. I also felt tremendous sympathy for Nina when she learns that the father she never knew has died, not so much because of the death itself, but because he apparently had several ex-wives, a whole slew of children, grandchildren, etc. and all of them want a piece of Nina. Couple her new extended family with a cute guy from trivia night who wants to ask her out, and it’s suddenly a very uncomfortable environment for Nina to find herself in. After all, this is a girl who pencils in Nothing on her calendar and once Nothing is penciled in, that’s exactly what Nina wants to do.
In addition to Nina, Waxman has also filled The Bookish Life of Nina Hill with a fantastic cast of secondary characters. Her coworkers at the bookstore where she works, her trivia teammates, her nephew Peter and her siblings Archie and Millie are all just so much fun to read about, especially as Nina awkwardly interacts with each of them. The thoughts that go through her head sometimes are truly just laugh out loud, as are many of the things she actually says. I also adored her budding relationship with rival trivia player, Tom. They’re so cute and awkward together and every interaction just had me grinning from ear to ear, especially as their teammates try to not so subtly play matchmaker. Oh and I can’t forget Phil, Nina’s cat. I swear that cat has some of the best lines in the entire book (all in Nina’s head of course).
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill just really captured my heart on so many levels. I loved that Nina was so easy to relate to and that I could see so much of myself in her, and I also loved that the book had so many layers to it. It’s a book about the importance of family and friends, and it’s a book about finding love even when you don’t think you have room for it in your life. If you’re looking for a book that will leave you with a smile on your face, I highly recommend The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.
SYNOPSIS:
The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.
When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They’re all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She’ll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It’s a disaster! And as if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn’t he realize what a terrible idea that is?
Nina considers her options.
- Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likesher hair.)
- Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
- Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)
It’s time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn’t convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It’s going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.
GIVEAWAY!
U.S. only, no giveaway accounts, Giveaway ends on 7/15/2019, and I will contact the winner via email to get their mailing address to forward to the publisher.
About Abbi Waxman
Abbi Waxman was born in England in 1970, the oldest child of two copywriters who never should have been together in the first place. Once her father ran off to buy cigarettes and never came back, her mother began a highly successful career writing crime fiction. She encouraged Abbi and her sister Emily to read anything and everything they could pull down from the shelves, and they did. Naturally lazy and disinclined to dress up, Abbi went into advertising, working as a copywriter and then a creative director at various advertising agencies in London and New York. Clients ranged from big and traditional, (AT&T, Chase Manhattan Bank, IBM, American Express, Unilever, Mercedes-Benz) to big and morally corrupt (R. J. Reynolds) to big and larcenous (Enron). Eventually she quit advertising, had three kids and started writing books, TV shows and screenplays, largely in order to get a moment’s peace.
Abbi lives in Los Angeles with her husband, three kids, three dogs, three cats, a gecko, two mice and six chickens. Every one of these additions made sense at the time, it’s only in retrospect that it seems foolhardy.
Review: LOCK EVERY DOOR by Riley Sager
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager Also by this author: Final Girls, The Last Time I Lied
Published by Dutton on July 2, 2019
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 384
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
LOCK EVERY DOOR Review
Set in New York City, Riley Sager’s latest thriller Lock Every Door follows Jules Larsen, a young woman who has had a major run of bad luck. She recently lost her job, discovered her live-in boyfriend was cheating on her, and has subsequently ended up sleeping on her best friend’s couch. Jules desperately needs her luck to change so that she can get back on her feet financially, and when she sees an ad on Craigslist seeking apartment sitters at the iconic Bartholomew building near Central Park, she applies immediately and can’t believe her good luck when she is hired. The rules are a little intense: Jules is not allowed to have visitors, she must sleep in the apartment every night, and she is only allowed to speak to other residents if they speak to her first, but the $1,000 a week paycheck makes it well worth it for Jules.
Jules almost immediately befriends another apartment sitter named Ingrid. Ingrid confides in Jules that strange things happen in the Bartholomew and that she doesn’t feel safe there. Soon after this conversation, Ingrid goes missing. Jules is told that Ingrid abruptly quit in the middle of the night and moved out, but Jules is suspicious and starts digging, trying to figure out what really happened. When Jules learns that Ingrid isn’t the first apartment sitter to go missing, she starts to think that her dream job might actually be more of a nightmare.
I really liked Jules right away and so was constantly torn between wanting her to stick around and figure out what’s going on at the Bartholomew and wanting her to hurry up and get the heck out of there before something happened to her.
The creepy atmosphere Sager creates was also a huge draw for me. The Bartholomew itself has a dark, almost Gothic feel to it, with its gargoyles on the exterior and its wallpaper that appears to change from flowers to watchful eyes if stared at too long. Its physical appearance combined with its mysterious and rumored dark past truly made it feel like something out of a horror story and had my skin crawling as I read.
Another big draw for me was the way Sager weaves together his story through the use of a combination of flashbacks and chapters set in the present to show where Jules is and then to backtrack and show how she got to that point. That technique created so much tension and suspense. That coupled with numerous plot twists, had me just flying through the pages. The plot twists were a wild ride too, culminating in a reveal that was even more disturbing than I could have possibly anticipated.
Riley Sager is quickly becoming my go-to author whenever I’m in the mood for a thriller that will keep me on the edge of my seat. As much as I enjoyed both Final Girls and The Last Time I Lied though, Sager’s latest, Lock Every Door, is by far, my favorite of his books yet. It has everything I love in a thriller – a protagonist that is likeable and easy to root for, lots of tension and suspense, plenty of plot twists to keep me guessing, and an atmosphere that draws me in and creeps me out all at the same time. If you’re into thrillers, I highly recommend giving Sager’s books a try.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen’s new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.
As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story … until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.
Searching for the truth about Ingrid’s disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew’s dark past and into the secrets kept within its walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building’s hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.
About Riley Sager
Riley Sager is the award-winning pseudonym of a former journalist, editor and graphic designer who previously published mysteries under his real name.
Now a full-time author, Riley’s first thriller, FINAL GIRLS, became a national and international bestseller and was called “the first great thriller of 2017” by Stephen King. Translation rights have been sold in more than two dozen countries and a film version is being developed by Universal Pictures.
Riley’s second book, THE LAST TIME I LIED, was published in 2018 and became an instant New York Times bestseller. It was inspired by the classic novel and film “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and one horrible week Riley spent at summer camp when he was ten. A television adaptation is being developed by Amazon Studios.
His next book, LOCK EVERY DOOR, inspired by a lifelong fascination with the grand apartment buildings on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, will be published in July.
A native of Pennsylvania, Riley now lives in Princeton, New Jersey. When he’s not writing, he enjoys reading, cooking and going to the movies as much as possible. His favorite film is “Rear Window.” Or maybe “Jaws.” But probably, if he’s being honest, “Mary Poppins.”
Top Ten Tuesday – A Trip Down Memory Lane to Revisit Favorite Books from My Childhood
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 Favorite Childhood Books. This topic was somewhat challenging, but only because I did a similar one a couple of years ago where I shared favorites like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Chronicles of Narnia, Winnie the Pooh, etc. and didn’t want to just share the same books all over again. I do always enjoy trips down memory lane like this though, especially in this case because it’s fun to see how eclectic my reading tastes were even way back when.
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Top Ten Favorite Books from My Childhood
The Poky Little Puppy was always my favorite Little Golden Book,
but I had a whole shelf of these growing up that I read over and over until the covers started ripping off.
2, THE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE SERIES
This was another set of books that just brought me so much joy.
I remember re-reading them often, trying to see how many different versions of the story I could come up with.
Such a fun series! I loved these books when I was a kid and also loved sharing them with my son
once he was old enough to enjoy the antics of that silly little monkey.
4, ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET by Judy Blume
Judy Blume was a staple of my childhood reading. I think I shared some of the Fudge books the last time I did a list like this,
but I also loved this book especially as I got closer to the preteen years.
5, THE CAT ATE MY GYMSUIT by Paula Danziger
I always loved the protagonist Marcy in this book. When I was a kid, I found her very relatable.
6. LITTLE HOUSE COLLECTION by Laura Ingalls Wilder
I was completely obsessed with the Little House on the Prairie books when I was a kid. I loved Laura and her family, especially Pa.
7. BEEZUS AND RAMONA by Beverly Cleary
My love for books that feature siblings, especially sisters, dates all the way back to when I first read the Beezus and Ramona books.
Beverly Cleary is one of the main authors who gave me my love of books and it all started right here.
8. ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS by Scott O’Dell
The dolphins always drew me to this story, but what I loved about it in the long run was that it was a survival story.
I think this was the first one I ever read and I’m still drawn to survival stories today.
9. CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG by Norman Bridwell
I’m pretty sure my love of large breed dogs comes from the Clifford series. I remember getting excited every time the book fair would come to my elementary school
because it meant there was a new Clifford book for me to read. I loved reading these with my son too and watching the TV show with him when he was a toddler.
10. SWEET VALLEY HIGH SERIES by Francine Pascal
As a preteen and even into my early teen years, I was obsessed with these books. I could not read them fast enough.
I remember reading them as a middle schooler and wanting to be like Elizabeth when I got to high school. Heck, these were such fun, if I saw a copy of one of these lying around somewhere today, I’d still probably pick it up and read it, lol.
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What are some of your favorite childhood reads? Do we share any favorites?