Introduction

This year is flying, the fact we’re halfway through it is crazy. What’s more crazy is my book goal is to read 2 books a month but, I’ve only read 7 so far. Which means I roughly read a book a month, even though it took 3 months to read 1 book. Some books were hits while some were a miss for me and know that if it takes you 3 months to finish a book, it’s a miss.

The Favorites (Books worth your time)

Restore Me By J.L. Seegars: Emotional, reflective, and evocative. I loved this book because the main characters, Sloane and Dominic, have this complicated relationship. Sloane is a widow and Dominic is Sloane’s late husband best friend but only these two are aware of the undeniable connection they have. Everyone else in the book know they don’t have best relationship and co-exists when they’re in the same room but no one knows the real reason why their relationship is this way except for Dominic and the reader. Knowing information that characters in the book don’t know gives you a rush of excitement, looking forward to when they find out the information we’ve been knowing since the beginning of the story and how they react. Read this book it you loved From Scratch. Tissues aren’t necessary for this read but I believe some of the same emotions are provoked. And if you’re into SMUT, this book might be for you.

Revive Me Pt 1: The Act By J.L. Seegars: Captivating, immersive, and heartwarming. Here we have Chris and Mallory and they take the readers on a hell of a ride, so buckle in. These two characters have issues of their own but find a way to help each other get through their past traumas. You have two guarded people who just seem to get each other without much being said. Although things start out as an act, an agreement only they know about, they begin to realize how real their feelings are for each other. If you read Restore Me before this book, you’re familiar with the main characters but mostly Mallory. You don’t have to read Restore Me before reading this book because this book takes place years before. This book is one of my favorites and the fact it has 3 parts, part 1 had me wanting more immediately. Read this book if you loved the series Forever.

Revive Me Pt 2: The Affair By J.L. Seegars: Moving, revealing, and gripping. 4 years later we catch up with Mallory and Chris for a good time, not a long time. This book has 240 pages and I was determined to finish this book as quick as possible. You do have to read pt 1 before reading pt 2 and if you read Restore Me before both of these books you are given a different POV about certain events. If you read pt 1 of revive me then you know where we left off and hopefully we all feel the same way about that ending. In this book we get more rawness from Mallory, almost like our sis can’t catch a break. One thing Mallory is sure of is doing things her way on her terms. Chris is discovering more truth to his fucked up family dynamic and once again we’re given just enough to want more. There’s not much I can say without spoiling these books but when I finish Revive Me pt 3, I will be going into detail about this love story. Spoilers and all! Read this book if you loved the movie; Love Jones, right person, wrong time, and One Day, navigating severe grief during a temporary reunion.

The Flops (The Ones You Can Skip)

The Four Winds By Kristen Hannah: I had so much hope for this book, especially after reading The Nightingale and when I was at the book store, I was told I would love this book. Sadly that was far from true and this is the book that took me 3 months to finish. The book started off slow, leaving readers in a setting that didn’t have much going on and could have been covered quickly. I became more interested in the story towards the end because I wanted to know how they overcame the times they were in and the outcome of the fight these people had to put up. I love historical fiction and I do appreciate the research Kristen Hannah put into this book, it’s just not something I’d recommend to other readers.

The Mad Wife By Megan Church: This book was on my BTR list for so long, so when I saw it at Sam’s Club for $11 couldn’t pass it up. I got through this book pretty fast because I was interested in how everything would play out. We started with a good build up and a great plot twist, but after the plot twist I felt we lost the good thing we had going. While I do understand the main point of women being misdiagnosed, I felt the book had become disorganized. The details we were given in the first half didn’t seem to matter in the second half and our attention was directed somewhere completely different. It’s not a book I’d recommend but it’s worth a library check out, not a store purchase.

The Book Chat

Leave a comment below of the best book you’ve read so far this year. If you’ve read any of the books I’ve mentioned above let me know if you agree or disagree with what I said. Lastly, if you’ve decided to read any of the books I’ve mentioned, please let me know how you feel about the books!

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The Review

Let’s start with

The Pros:

• Laurels character development. I like Laurels ability to recognize her self destruction. It might have taken a while for her to realize how she affected other relationships in her life but I’m glad she was able to make peace with it in the end.

• Part Five. This was my favorite part of the book because it’s from Floyd’s perspective and he answered every question I had about him throughout the book.

• Easy read. I was able to continue the book because I wanted answers even though I had most of the answers I needed.

The Cons

• Too predictable! I had known from the start how this book was going to play out. I knew everything but Floyd’s role and that was my main reason for finishing the book.

• I don’t know if it’s good or bad, maybe it’s the way you’re supposed to feel, but I hated Noelle Donnelly! Every single thing about her and never felt bad for her, period!

• I didn’t like how the book was written. I didn’t like how we flipped timelines and characters POV without being told. I didn’t like words being used twice and this happens often, it was redundant. Example: She genuinely, genuinely didn’t care about us.

That’s all I could come up with when it comes to this book. I wanted a different outcome for Ellie, I had hope until halfway through the book even though we presumed the results. This might be a good read for someone in high school but I don’t think I’d recommend this book to anyone. Unless you’re bored and looking for a quick read.

Oh how I thought I was going to rate this book lower than I did! At page 200 I was like “this is too predictable” and became disappointed because I THOUGHT I knew the plot twist. Without the plot twist being what it was I was going to give this book a smooth 7/10 BUT after reading the next 150 pages I easily rated it a 8.5/10.

The Review

It’s important to tell you this book takes place within a week. There’s no chapters, it’s broken down into before and now then it merges timelines at some point. It was helpful until we got to a certain point in the book, it got a little confusing. The main character’s name is Casey and she is fighting some demons, grief and addiction. She’s forced to live at her family’s lake house where it’s quite and lonely so she finds things to do to pass time. This includes drinking and spying on the neighbors across the lake.

We flash back from time to time to figure out how we got to this point with Casey. We learn her husband drowned and died in the lake these houses sit upon, Lake Greene. While sitting on the porch she notices something in the water and ends up saving Cathrine Royce, neighbor and former supermodel, from drowning. On the boat ride back to the house Casey becomes acquainted with Cathrine. Cathrine has a husband, Tom, who’s a tech guy so together this couple has some money.

We all know the saying “more money, more problems” and Casey finds this to be true while using a pair of binoculars to watch the couple in their home across the lake. An action Casey believes is harmless until she becomes addicted to spying on them and as she watches there’s some weird things happening. Reading how Casey watched them was funny but crazy at the same time but I deemed her as an overly nosey neighbor because she had nothing else to entertain her.

One morning Casey is woken up by a woman’s scream she believes is Cathrine. She tries contacting her but isn’t able to reach her which convinces Casey that Tom has done something to his wife. Now we have a missing person and we’re trying to figure out what has happened and where could she be, dead or alive. I was down for the mystery, trying to figure out what happened to Cathrine and what would be the motive to kill her.

Then the book became sinister with twists and turns I didn’t see coming. Yes this book is all about the plot twist. So think about when you’re reading a book trying to figure out what could it possibly be, trying to take in every little detail, thinking you have an idea until you realize you truly have no idea what was coming. Some readers may have picked up on some things but I didn’t. To be honest, when I suspected what the twist was I went back to read the “Now” chapters and was still wrong. The same way I turned the pages to get to the plot twist is the same way I turned the pages after it was revealed because I needed to know what the hell was going on at Lake Greene.

One thing I liked about this book was no question was left unanswered. That’s a big deal to me especially when you’re provided with a lot of detail buttttttt I don’t know if I like the pace of how things played out. We could’ve had less detail in the beginning and more in the end. Some things in the beginning were being over explained when the point was already made. I wanted more detail towards the ends of the book because it felt rushed. I can understand why the author took the route he did but I think it could’ve been written a little differently and have the same shocking plot twist.

I will always emphasize there’s more to be said but I don’t want to spoil the book. I’m open to discuss the book with people who’ve already read it. Maybe there can be a separate review that includes spoilers because with this book I want to discuss what I would’ve done differently.

1. The way the “chapters” were set up. It wasn’t your normal chapter 1, 2, 3. This books was divided by the summer and year (ex: Summer #1 1994), so from the title you already know we have 28 summers to get through. Another way the book was broken down was by decades… this book covers 3 decades which leads me to my next take away!

2. The fact that every year, the author starts with the pop culture of that current year. The first couple years was before I was born and as years went on I was familiar with events that she referenced. I think it’s crazy living through certain events and tragedies but do we really time stamp them, depends on who you’re talking to? Yes, I remember some of these pop culture moments but when you put it the way this author did I’m mind blown by how time has passed and continues to pass with events you’re aware of and some you didn’t even know were happening!

Aside from the storytelling these are the 2 things that stood out to me. Yes, it’s a romance book but a different type of romance. A romance most people only see in movies or read about….. or some people might be able to relate, I’m not here to judge. I rated this book 1000/10 because when I finished I instantly missed the characters and wanted to run to the book store and purchase more books by Elin Hilderbrand.

The Review

Here we have the 2 main characters, Jake and Mallory, but without all the other characters in the book their love story would fall flat. Every character is important in this story, at first you think it’s a minor detail or interaction until you get further in the book. I think that takes a talented writer to incorporate that amount of characters to tell a story of 2 lovers.

A reader would probably assume this book would be all about the romance Mallory and Jake share over 28 summers but it’s so much more than that. Reflecting on what I’ve read, I can say it was more about what they did in the 362 days they didn’t see each other. Navigating careers, their love life outside of each other, friendships and the woes of life. No matter the changes they experienced in those days they knew 3 days out of the year would be the same. The same routine down to the food they ate, the activities they did and the music they listened to.

Mallory is single, Jake is married. Mallory has an older brother named Cooper and Jake is like a “Big Brother” to Cooper (they attended the same college and were in the same fraternity). Soooo in a way I’d deem Cooper as a main character because if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have this story. This might make you think Jake is a horrible husband and Mallory is a homewreker and though I might not agree with their actions, these assumptions aren’t true. Jake and Mallory are far from being the “villains”. We as readers are privy to all sides of the story and it’s more than 2. Of course there’s risks involved but the biggest one is reputation.

This arrangement works for them, it’s their “same time next year”. It’s so much that can be said but I don’t want to spoil this read for anybody. I would love to discuss this book in greater detail, don’t be afraid to reach out if you’ve read this book!

The Review

A broken family, a broken country, and broken hearts. We’re introduced to sisters, Isabella and Vianne, who don’t have the best relationship due to what they experienced during childhood. You have the sister that seems to do all the right things despite what they’ve been through, Vianne, and the sister who’s the rebel, who acts on impulse with nothing to loose, Isabella.

World War II is occurring so Isabella is on a constant journey of fleeing. Feeling like she’s not truly accepted or wanted but safety is the main concern at this point. Isabella wasn’t just going for the okie doke and believing the things their government was telling them during the war. She challenged everything and could be deemed as radical but stood up for what she believed was the right thing to do. Being a woman and beautiful allowed her to get a way with a lot, allowing her to do the unthinkable during a dangerous time. This is a book about love and war but, not your sappy love story. It’s about not feeling worthy of love and doing things that fills that void because no matter how dangerous her actions might be, she feels there’s nobody who cares or loves her enough to care if she’s here or gone.

On the other hand, Vianne experienced a different part of war. The part where she has a family and home to protect, even when a nazi is billeted in her home. She feels if she complies things will just go away with time, life will be back to normal soon. Vianne learns that’s far from the truth, every day gets worse and worse. Even when she feels that her sister’s rebellion is a risk to her family’s safety, Vianne soon changes her outlook on what she needs to do to make it through the war. War changes you, mentally, physically and emotionally no matter the part you play, it’s chips away at you… day by day, season by season, year by year and loss after loss.

I cried reading this book. I cry writing this review because these were real events. Real choices and challenges people had to face, face and will continue to face. The further along I got in the book, the more tears I cried. I had to take breaks but I was determined to finish this story and while the last bit of tears I cried were happy tears, I don’t know if I can tell you it was truly a happy ending.

I want to point out that I believe I read the right books at the right time because I feel when I read certain books, although it’s history, it feels parallel to current situations we are living in or could be.

I want to think I that I learned a lot about WWII/ The Holocaust but I wasn’t aware of these major details and the timeline of these events. I knew what the holocaust was, maybe just the gist… something very surface level. What I didn’t know is where things took place and places being invaded over time, city by city. And we can blame that on not being taught enough information or probably learning about this at a young age not being able to grasp the different layers of this horrific massacre. So after reading this book, historical fiction or not, I know there’s a lot of truth and I’m forever changed.