September 7, 2022

August 2022 Books.

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden -- 4 stars -- If you like Dexter or true crime, you'll like this. Very hard to put down. 

One by One by Freida McFadden -- 3 stars -- This was slightly ridiculous and a bit over the top in a Lifetime movie kinda way. Didn't love all of it but McFadden has a way of making you turn the page. Passed the time just fine. I mentioned on IG that it was like a Liane Moriarity type of story. 

The Good Samaritan by John Marrs -- 5 stars -- This will be one of my favorites this year. It was a WILD ride. Seriously could not stop thinking about it. The end got a bit out of control, but he is SUCH a good writer. Highly recommend. All the trigger warnings but I feel like everything is a trigger warning these days so take that for what it's worth. 

Want to Know a Secret? by Freida McFadden -- 3 stars -- A page-turner. Switched POVs about halfway way through, so that was a nice surprise. I didn't like the end because it was a little far-fetched, but it was a good story. 

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin -- 2 stars -- I didn't hate all of it. I took issue with a lot though. I definitely skimmed the last 1/3 because it wasn't *that* great that I cared to finish. I said on Instagram that there was just nothing likable about it. Sadie was awful, Sam was hard to read about and also kind of awful. It was incredibly depressing and not in a good way. Like, some books can be depressing and still convey something meaningful. Not this one. The only redeeming factor was that I found the building of games to be pretty interesting. Clearly this took some research and it's a shame all of that was ruined with crapbag characters. 

The Night Shift by Alex Finlay -- 3 stars --This was an interesting story. I completely hated a book by the same author a year or so ago, so if I'd remembered that this was that same writer, I probably never would've picked it up. This absolutely reminded me of the Yogurt Shop Murders in Austin back in 1991. I really think the author grabbed a bit of that story and spun some fiction. Not a bad investment of my time though. 

The Ex by Freida McFadden -- 3 stars -- This was good but the timeline was quite confusing. As in, you know things are non-linear but you don't know how or why or when things are occurring. It doesn't start to come together until the end. It's very much like she followed a manual on How To Write Multiple Unreliable Narrators At The Same Time. 

The Perfect Son by Freida McFadden -- 3 stars -- The main character was quite dumb. The story was good enough. I actually didn't see the twist coming. There's definitely a twist. 

The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose -- 3 stars -- I hated the first chapter. I started to get into it when it switched to the husband's POV. The end kinda lost me. It was decent writing so I may seek out another of her books. Totally worth the read if you have Kindle Unlimited. 

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell -- 4 stars -- There were moments I felt like giving this 5 stars. The end really started to lose me though. I couldn't figure out how I felt about Sophie either. There were a few too many oddball characters for me to happily keep track of, but I really liked Kim's POV. What I do appreciate about Lisa Jewell's books is that she practically turns the setting into its own character, so I spend a lot of time lost in visualization when I read her books. She's great at showing and not just telling. 

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson -- Not for me -- I'm not going to give this a star rating but I read enough to count it toward my yearly book goal. Quite disappointing. Apparently, it's a take on And Then There Were None but I don't like Agatha Christie, so I don't care about that. Actually the one character that, to me, had an interesting story was killed off pretty quickly. Basically, there's nine people and they're killed off one at a time. As many mentioned on Goodreads, the best part of someone dying is you no longer had to follow their POV. It began with nine POVs plus POVs of FBI agents/investigators. It gave me a headache. Peter Swanson's older books are so much better. 

Books I started a but didn't finish: 

Book Lovers by Emily Henry -- I couldn't do it. I'm sorry. The sister bothered me. She was superfluous and annoying. I really, really liked the prologue and thought I might be able to keep going but then it turned into the pregnant-sister-show.

An Honest Lie by Tarryn Fisher -- I read like 10% and felt nothing for these characters. I didn't care at all. The Wives was a favorite of mine so this was a disappointment.

The Love of my Life by Rosie Walsh -- I wanted to like this but I really didn't like Ghosted and by the time this came in from the library holds, I had lost interest in wanting to read it. The premise initially interested me, but then I read like two sentences and that was it. 

Currently reading The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth. 

If you have to pick ONE book from the list above, read The Good Samaritan. It's on Kindle Unlimited! 

1 comment:

  1. I'm going to get The Good Samaritan - thanks for the recommendation!

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