Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Popular Books That Lived Up to the Hype
/38 Comments/by SuzanneTop 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 Popular Books That Lived Up to the Hype. Hyped books are always tricky. All of that hype is so exciting and has readers just dying to get their hands on a copy of what sounds like a sure fire fabulous read. But sometimes all of that excitement builds up to unrealistically high expectations and we end up feeling underwhelmed by that super-hyped book. Sometimes it actually leads me to put off reading a book because I’m just so uncertain about whether or not my expectations have become way too high for me to actually enjoy the read. If I’m feeling that way, I usually back off and wait for the hype to die down a bit before I give it a go. That said, however, there are still plenty of hyped books that not only met my expectations, but actually far exceeded them. Below are ten books that really lived up to the hype for me…
10 Popular Books That Lived Up to the Hype
* * * * *
1. TO KILL A KINGDOM by Alexandra Christo
* * * * *
2. THE CRUEL PRINCE by Holly Black
* * * * *
3. SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo
* * * * *
4. A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by V.E. Schwab (the entire series honestly – loved it!)
* * * * *
5. NEVERNIGHT by Jay Kristoff
* * * * *
6. THE GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO VICE AND VIRTUE by Mackenzi Lee
* * * * *
7. THE HARRY POTTER SERIES by J.K. Rowling
* * * * *
8. STRANGE THE DREAMER by Laini Taylor
* * * * *
9. THE LUNAR CHRONICLES by Marissa Meyer
* * * * *
10. SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA by Becky Albertalli
* * * * *
Question: What are some books that lived up to the hype for you?
Review: BELIEVE ME by J.P. Delaney
/12 Comments/by SuzanneAlso by this author: The Girl Before, The Perfect Wife
Published by Ballantine Books on July 24, 2018
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 352
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
J.P. Delaney is back with another riveting psychological thriller that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Believe Me follows Claire Wright, a young British woman living in America who aspires to be an actor. When we meet Claire, she is struggling financially. She doesn’t have a green card which makes it difficult to find legitimate employment. She ends up working on the sly for a team of divorce lawyers, where she uses her acting talents to entrap cheating husbands and obtain video evidence for their wives.
Everything changes in Claire’s life, however, when one of the wives she is trying to obtain evidence of cheating for turns up dead. Believing that the woman’s husband is the murderer and that his wife might not be his only target, law enforcement officers approach Claire about using her talents to try to lure the husband into a confession. With the promise of a green card and a lot of cash dangled in front of her, Claire agrees.
Claire is a brilliant actor, but will she be able to help law enforcement catch the killer or will she end up in over her head? All I can say is buckle up and prepare for a wild ride!
Believe Me is one of those novels that I feel like I can’t say much about because I don’t want to give anything away, so I’m just going to mention a couple of quick highlights that I really enjoyed.
It probably seems weird to start off talking about the structure of a novel, but I have to admit this was my favorite part about Believe Me. The main character Claire, who as I’ve mentioned is an aspiring actor, often goes through life imaging incidents in her life as if they are scenes from a script. Since we are watching the events of the story unfold from Claire’s perspective, Delaney actually weaves together a tale that is mostly straight narrative, but which occasionally has little bits of script incorporated in as well to mimic how Claire imagines certain scenes playing out, complete with stage directions and dialogue she has scripted out in her head. At first, I worried that the script bits might seem a little gimmicky, but in the end, they really worked well for me.
Aside from the unique structure, I also enjoyed that the plot was filled with suspenseful twists and turns that kept me guessing from start to finish. The twists were such that it oftentimes made it hard to distinguish between what was real and what was fake in terms of Claire’s role in the murder investigation as well as what exactly was going on with the husband. I tried to predict what direction the story was taking a few times along the way but was so wrong each time that I finally decided to just settle in and enjoy the wild ride Delaney was taking me on. The fact that his writing flows so smoothly makes it easy to do that and just trust that the ride is going to be worth it in the end.
The main issue I had with Believe Me was that I just never really felt a connection to Claire. Because she played so many different roles throughout the course of the novel, I never felt like I knew who the real Claire was. Whenever she said something about herself, I took it with a grain of salt because I was never convinced she was being honest. While that kind of personality was helpful in terms of maintaining the novel’s premise of not knowing what was real and what was fake, it left me feeling very detached from Claire. Even when she was potentially in danger, I found that I didn’t really care. I wanted to know what was going to happen, of course, but it wasn’t a case where I was worried for her well being at all. If I had been able to better connect with Claire, this would have easily been a 4 star read for me.
There’s so much more I would love to say about Believe Me, but because I don’t want to spoil the mystery, I’m just going to say that I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys riveting psychological thrillers and to fans of Delaney’s last book, The Girl Before. If you enjoyed that one, I think you would also enjoy Believe Me.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
In this twisty psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before, an actress plays both sides of a murder investigation.
A struggling actor, a Brit in America without a green card, Claire needs work and money to survive. Then she gets both. But nothing like she expected.
Claire agrees to become a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. Hired to entrap straying husbands, she must catch them on tape with their seductive propositions. The rules? Never hit on the mark directly. Make it clear you’re available, but he has to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not coercion. The innocent have nothing to hide.
Then the game changes.
When the wife of one of Claire’s targets is violently murdered, the cops are sure the husband is to blame. Desperate to catch him before he kills again, they enlist Claire to lure him into a confession.
Claire can do this. She’s brilliant at assuming a voice and an identity. For a woman who’s mastered the art of manipulation, how difficult could it be to tempt a killer into a trap? But who is the decoy…and who is the prey?
About J.P. Delaney
J. P. Delaney is the pseudonym of a writer who has previously published best-selling fiction under another name. .
Weekly Recap #63: Week of 7/22 – 7/28
/28 Comments/by Suzanne
It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
This was a very good writing week for me. I was 6 reviews behind at the beginning of last week but managed to get five written this week so I’m not feeling nearly as bad about backlogged reviews as I had been. Of course I also finished reading two more books so I still need to write 3 to be fully caught up but such is the life of a book blogger, right? LOL!
I hate when this happens, but I am a few days behind on blog comments and visits. I’m fully placing the blame for that on Mother Nature. After the rainiest summer I can remember in recent memory, we finally had three days of sun in a row so I’ve been outside as much as possible trying to work on those home improvement projects we started weeks ago and haven’t had enough dry weather to complete. We’re so desperate to get those projects wrapped up that I even spent part of my Saturday night helping my husband start hanging our newly painted shutters. We hung shutters until about 9pm when I finally had to quit because it was too dark and because the mosquitoes were eating me alive. We still have two sets to paint but the end of that project is finally in sight!
In other blog-related news, I actually set up an Instagram account for my blog this week. Now that I’ve set it up, I of course have cold feet about posting anything but we’ll see how that goes. I may just end up using it to follow other book bloggers and like their pics.
Not too much else is really going on. We’ve already started back-to-school shopping, which has my son a little crabby. The county we live in voted to change the school calendar, starting with the upcoming school year. We have historically gone back to school after Labor Day in September but this year because of the calendar change, the kids lose three weeks of their summer break and go back to school on August 13. It will be nice in the spring because they’ll end up getting out before Memorial Day, but my son is mad as hell about losing so much of his summer break this year. I’m sure he’ll get over it as soon as he’s back with his friends, etc., but right now, it’s like living with a grumpy old bear every time someone even mentions the word “school.” Fun times!
I think that’s it for me. I hope everyone else has a great week! 🙂
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [22 Jul] Weekly Recap #62: Week of 7/15 – 7/21
- [23 Jul] A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin ★★★½
- [23 Jul] Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo ★★★★
- [24 Jul] Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Books That Take Me Back to the Innocence of My Youth
- [25 Jul] Can’t Wait Wednesday – SUMMER BIRD BLUE by Akemi Dawn Bowman
- [27 Jul] Save the Date by Morgan Matson ★★★★½
- [27 Jul] Not the Girls You're Looking For by Aminah Mae Safi ★★★½
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM
Source: inkygirl.com