“Am destroying all equipment and communications. Tanks are in sight. I have nothing left to fight with. I'm taking to woods. I cannot wait for you.” -“Am destroying all equipment and communications. Tanks are in sight. I have nothing left to fight with. I'm taking to woods. I cannot wait for you.” -The last transmission from Pepe San Román, Commander of Brigade 2506, the ground forces in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
I have always been more familiar with the Cuban Missile Crisis than I was with its opening volley, the Bay of Pigs Invasion. This happened before I was born, but not so long before that it didn’t create ripples in my young life.
My grandparents had a nuclear bunker in their yard in the woods in rural Indiana. I used to think that was so weird, albeit an epic hide-and-seek spot, until I aged and understood how close that bunker came to being used stateside in the 1960s. The nuclear standoff between the USSR and the USA during the Cuban Missile Crisis came to be after a real head-scratcher of a plan that was authorized at the beginning of JFK’s presidency.
This book, Besieged Beachhead: The Cold War Battle for Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, concentrates on the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), and it does so in a way that presents multiple sides. In doing so, it allows the reader to draw their conclusions on where the blame for this debacle of an invasion lies.
Fidel Castro came into power in Cuba after the overthrow of Batista in the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The CIA started covert planning to overthrow Castro within a year, and part of that planning involved estimating force levels available to Castro to repel an invasion. The truth in numbers was just shy of 50,000 strong in 1960, which was double what the CIA believed they had. Remember, there were no drones or detailed satellite images to examine back then, but it’s still a pretty major league discrepancy.
Kennedy started his presidency with a game plan already on the table, which strikes me as the worst first day at work I have heard of. “Hello American people, I am here to be the new President and lead us to brighter days!” “Oh, hey, Eisenhower already signed off on masterminding an invasion of Cuba to overthrow Castro. We have to finish that before we can move onto the whole brighter days thing.”
On April 12, 1961, Kennedy spoke at a press conference saying that there was no way in hell the United States would have any involvement in Cuba; then he must have whispered, “Physically,” to himself because only an hour later the final meeting was held on Operation Zapata. This was the plan by the United States to support the invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs by planning it and financing it, but not physically sending in the American military to fight it.
So, who DID fight it? That is where this book comes in. Cuban exiles fought for their country, in many cases, leaving a secure life behind in the United States to go back to where they had fled from to stand up for their people left behind. The Cuban population they believed would rise and stand with them did not materialize, and when things went south, they were cut loose by the United States leadership to meet their fate.
The information on the invasion that is contained in this book is broken down by spans of hours, in a battle that only lasted three days, and because of that, the information is plentiful and thick. For anyone who wasn’t well versed in this battle before, it can almost be a little overwhelming. There is a representation of both sides of the conflict that could only come from exhaustive research for a very long period.
Amid the nearly catastrophic standoff between the United States and the USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the story of the men who fought at the Bay of Pigs was greatly overshadowed. Much of this information wasn’t declassified until later, so anyone who lived through this probably came away with the same disbelief I had reading about it now. This is a real WTF event in a long line of them in history.
It has also caused me to analyze what I thought I knew about JFK, because this showed a side of him I found to be inexperienced and possess questionable decision-making skills. I called my own personal Oracle to ask what their opinion of Kennedy is after actually living through these events (Hi Dad!!). and he said this:
“Between the Bay of Pigs invasion, which we didn’t know declassified information about until much later, the Cuban Missile Crisis that had us all doing nuclear blast drills in school, and the fact that the majority of the guys I graduated high school with were shipped off to Vietnam, I am not a JFK guy.”
I enjoyed this book, and if you have any interest in learning about this invasion in detail, this is a great source of information. Thanks NetGalley and Stackpole Books for the great read in return for an unbiased review....more
“The lack of such aids to navigation on both the Canadian and American coasts and the absence of life-saving infrastructure together helped guarantee “The lack of such aids to navigation on both the Canadian and American coasts and the absence of life-saving infrastructure together helped guarantee that 136 passengers and crew on the vessel-including every woman and child on board-would perish in the wreck.”
Ship of Lost Souls: The Tragic Wreck of the Steamship Valencia by Rod Scher is a detailed account of the sinking of the SS Valencia in 1906 off the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. It isn’t a well-known event for many reasons. One of the most obvious is that the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and the subsequent fire that ravaged the city for days, took over the headlines.
A grave error in calculation during thick fog led Valencia to hit a reef in water shallower than the captain, Oscar Johnson, was aware they were heading into. What happened next is the thing nightmares are made of. Namely, the freezing turbulent water, a steep rocky shoreline on an island with few inhabitants, and the eventual rescue ships that decided they could not approach closely enough to rescue the poor souls who were clinging to a disintegrating ship. 130+ people would die during this tragedy, including every woman and child aboard, even though they were within sight of the shore.
There were no John Jacob Astor’s, Guggenheim’s, or Molly Brown’s on board this ship. The Valencia was neither a luxury liner nor the passengers fabulously wealthy. Unlike the people on better-known sinkings, there was no time for poignant goodbyes, or bands playing final melodies. From the second Valencia ran into the reef off of Vancouver Island, it was doomed, and chaos reigned.
We know some of what happened to those still on board the ship, but the personal stories are scarce. There was a young bride-to-be who was traveling with her fiancé and mother to Seattle to be married and start a new life. Instead, all three would die on the Valencia. They could have been among the poor souls who strapped themselves into the rigging to try and stay afloat with the ship as long as possible.
This book is impressive in its scope and depth of research. Extensively investigated and cited, it provides a treasure trove of information about this event compiled in one place. Even the quantity and quality of the pictures used were extremely engaging.
As a lover of history, one of the things that means the most to me personally are those stories told that would otherwise be forgotten by the world because they were left untold. This book allows all of us to learn about this tragedy, and to give a voice to those who would have otherwise just disappeared into the sea to be forgotten by our history books.
I would have left out many of the parentheticals because they became distracting and conflicted with the flow of information, but that is a small gripe.
Thanks to NetGalley and Globe Pequot/Lyons Press for allowing me to read this book for an unbiased review.
William Tecumseh Sherman is a complicated historical figure, and many people have already made up their minds about how they feel about his massively William Tecumseh Sherman is a complicated historical figure, and many people have already made up their minds about how they feel about his massively destructive March to the Sea through Georgia and South Carolina in the late Fall of 1864, but his importance within the scope of the Civil War in the United States is always worth examining further. At least it is if you were first in line for your Geek Badge, which I was.
Sherman's March comes down to the balance between morality and strategic military tactics. This topic has, unfortunately, stayed relevant throughout the decades as we are still seeing civilians around the world being killed indiscriminately in the name of winning a conflict. The United States and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Palestine, are just a few examples.
Sherman adopted a scorched earth policy on his campaign through Georgia and South Carolina after beginning the trek by burning huge swaths of Atlanta. He was doing something that was a maverick move for the time, leaving behind his supply lines to go deep into enemy territory without support. This meant all supplies would need to be gathered along the way, mostly from civilians, and those civilians were primarily women, children, and the elderly.
Sherman wanted to end this war and gave the order to leave nothing behind that could aid the Confederacy. This meant that supplies beyond what the Union troops could consume or carry would be destroyed. It quickly became apparent that supplies were not the only thing taken or destroyed, as town after town saw homes and businesses burned.
It was Sherman himself who once said, “War is hell,” and he proved that on his march. The author, Burke Davis, does a great job of documenting the campaign while remaining impartial. The supporting resources in this book are pretty amazing, and firsthand accounts that I had never read before were especially riveting. The only downside to that is that in places the information gets so thick that it is easy to get bogged down in an avalanche of remembrances.
Unlike many books about the Civil War that contain battlefield maps, this book only has one map in the very beginning and it isn’t detailed. For anyone who doesn’t have the towns and cities of Georgia and the Carolinas memorized, this campaign could be hard to follow. What is easy to follow is the destruction that is repeated in town after town. Government buildings burned, civilian homes and crops burned, railways destroyed, livestock slaughtered, domestic pets killed, and even the ropes in civilian wells used for retrieving water were cut.
Burke does an excellent job of laying out facts through the first-person accounts of what those people witnessed and endured. Burke also leaves it open to the reader's interpretation as to whether those same people got what they deserved based on their place of residence and a need to bring the South to its knees.
This book does not dwell much on Sherman’s contributions to the war before his infamous march. He saw heavy action in the Western Theater, especially at Forts Donelson and Henry, and the Battle of Shiloh, which were all Union victories (the first day at Shiloh notwithstanding) that led to the eventual capture of Vicksburg and the complete control of the Mississippi River. Burke instead concentrates solely on Sherman’s March and lets us decide how that falls into the bigger picture of his legacy.
One negative about this book is the recreation of dialogue from the slaves the Union troops encountered along the way. The attempt to phonetically sound out the words of African Americans is distracting, and very off-putting, and should have been left out.
Beyond that, a solid read. 3.5 stars rounded up. ...more
“…to those who entered the meat grinder itself, the war was a netherworld of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounte“…to those who entered the meat grinder itself, the war was a netherworld of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning; life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in the abyss of Peleliu had eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all.” - Eugene Sledge
I took a short hiatus from nonfiction history books after a recent mentally brutal last few semesters of my trip back to college as an adult. This book, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene (“Sledgehammer”) Sledge, is one that I promised I would come back to and give a proper read.
Sledge served as a 60 mm mortarman with the K Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, and saw action at the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa in the Pacific Theater in WWII. My Grandfather rode a glider into Normandy just before D-Day with the 101st Airborne, and thus my attention for most of my life was concentrated on the European front of the war. It wasn’t until I wrote a paper arguing against the tactical necessity of taking the island of Peleliu that I took a deep dive into the sheer carnage of the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific.
This memoir doesn’t pull punches on the sights, smells, sounds, and suffering, of the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa. This was fighting between the entrenched Japanese, versus US Marines and Army which saw the 1st Marine Division ALONE taking 6,500 casualties on Peleliu. Fighting in many cases became hand to hand, face to face.
The heat, small island battlefields, lack of resources for forward troops (such as, you know, water), and the decomposing bodies of both enemies and friends, made those islands hell on earth as they pushed onto the beaches, into those rocky passes, and continued the slow deadly slog toward an airstrip that the men knew they must take to get the bloody hell out of that place.
I spent decades living among Marines at Camp Lejeune, and you don’t spend time among their proud culture without becoming very well versed in these epic battles of old with names like the Frozen Chosin, Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima. Peleliu and Okinawa are right up there with those fights, and the notes taken by Sledge are a blessing to the world so that we can bear witness to the utter devastation of war.
In 2024, the first fixed-wing military aircraft, a KC-130 tanker, landed on that same airstrip that has been rehabilitated by the Marine Corps. The USMC has named the runway, “Sledge,” after Eugene Sledge. I consider this book a must-read account of war at some of the most desperate and brutal fighting beyond what most can comprehend.
The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus is a book I had never heard of, and I only picked it up because it wa“The best families are made of broken people.”
The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus is a book I had never heard of, and I only picked it up because it was on a “suggested reads” shelf at the library. I have never been a fan of the circus, and I am terrified of clowns, so the haunting theme seemed to be the trifecta in what I thought would be a creepy book.
I looked up the author and realized that she had won a Christy Award. I had no idea what that was, so I looked that up too. It is an award for Christian authors, and I was thrown because I didn’t know that this is a Christian book. Sure, there are some mentions of God and praying, but it was just a part of the characters portrayed. Then I started wondering why it even mattered enough for me to waste some of my few remaining brain cells thinking about it.
I was about halfway in and realized that although the story had started a little slow, it was growing on me, and I was invested in the outcome. Yes, I still doubted my affection for Chandler and how much I vibed with her. I was a single mom for many years and had some scary health hurdles in the past, so Chandler should be my spirit animal. It took some time though. Pippa, on the other hand, my heart bled for immediately.
I can tell you that I loved this book, and I will add other works by Jaime Jo Wright to my list and hope that they are just as good as this one. I have seen this book critiqued on the merit of being a Christian work, and I can’t speak to that. What I can speak to is that this was a great story.
It was sometimes sad, frustrating, creepy, inspiring, and creative, and by the 75% read mark, I still didn’t know how it was going to end. I only knew that if Lily died I would riot.
Was the ending totally believable? No, on various levels. Were all side plots satisfactorily explained? Not really. But in terms of a solid story that successfully navigates the time jump style of writing, I enjoyed it despite some minor quibbles.
I am thankful for that Suggested Reads table at my local library because I would likely never have read this book otherwise. Thank you, local library, you know you're fire!
Side notes:
If water is spraying across your house, turn it off at the valve. There were two grown women in this book, who had been on their own for years, yet they did not know this. Either that was a little unrealistic, or I have had abysmal luck with plumbing throughout my life.
Also, waking up in the morning to find a person you barely know feeding your kid and making coffee in your kitchen, after using the key they were given to do some plumbing work (see above), is NOT romantic. It is creepy. Full stop.
Last but not least, I have never been a fan of imitating dialects in a way that is distracting. Denny in this book is a lifelong small-town Wisconsin man, yet he says things like, “Didn’t figure. You’re a cute-‘un but ain’t no biker chick.” I have spent quality time in Wisconsin in various regions and I have never heard anyone there speak like that. It is an odd choice of dialect for Denny.
Craven Manor opens with our main character, Daniel, living with his cousin, Kyle. Daniel had lived on the streets before his cousin took him in, so liCraven Manor opens with our main character, Daniel, living with his cousin, Kyle. Daniel had lived on the streets before his cousin took him in, so life has been rough for him as of late. Just as Cousin Kyle is starting to show what a true jerk he is, Daniel has a bit of good fortune in the form of an anonymous letter offering him a groundskeeper job at Craven Manor.
The property in need of care does not have an address. Instead, directions are given to Daniel like they give directions around where I live: “Take a left by the old rusted car, then go a hop, skip, and a jump until you see the tree split by lightning in ’04, then head northeast until you see a mossy rock next to a dirt path. You can’t miss it!”
Daniel arrives to find a decayed mansion, extremely creepy watchful crows, no human in sight, and another letter outlining his mission if he chooses to accept it. Namely, be in before midnight, close your curtains, and if something knocks in the middle of the night, don’t answer it. Oh, and stay OUT of the tower. Daniel takes the job because his alternative is being back on the streets, or with his truly awful cousin.
Craven Manor is atmospheric and dark. The gothic mansion and its decayed contents look like the owners left suddenly hundreds of years ago and their remnants of life are a time capsule. Rotting furniture, clothes, and food are the décor. The description of the house and grounds made me want to find this place and explore it myself.
Daniel is a frustrating guy because everything he does is the opposite of what a rational person would do. I wanted to reach through the book and shake this guy more than once. That being said, he is also kind and puts others before himself. He even cares about attempting to feed a cat who is too skinny, which supports my belief that if you really want to know the heart of a person, watch how they treat animals when no one is looking.
Darcy Coates does an excellent job of weaving a consistently creepy tale and it kept me guessing as to where this story was headed. Leading to the climax, it toes the line toward cheesy in a couple of places, but it never stops being fun. Most of all, it did what a good fiction story should do, it entertained me and took my mind into a completely different reality for a bit....more
“Once upon a time – for that is how all stories should begin – there was a boy who lost his mother.”
I went into this book without any former experienc“Once upon a time – for that is how all stories should begin – there was a boy who lost his mother.”
I went into this book without any former experience with this author, and I had no idea what this book would be about. A condensed version of what happened next in my mind was:
Wow, this has total The Never Ending Story vibes. I was once a girl convinced she would marry Atreyu someday and then ride around forever on our Dog Dragon. I even busted out with a song while feeding my cats their treats. “Turn around, tell me what you seeeee…” They were not impressed.
Then it became apparent this is way darker than the Never Ending Story, the quicksand versus horse, and guardian sentinels who incinerate humans with their eyes notwithstanding. I would likely not hand this book to a child under a certain age, and the age depends on your level of Helicopter Parent.
There is death, war, and a Crooked Man who is seriously twisted. No one is safe in this world.
All of that said, I LOVED this book. I loved it precisely because it is dark, yet still a story of a child transitioning into dreaded adulthood. Many of us didn’t have a fairytale childhood. Maybe we lost someone we love to cancer, like our protagonist, David, did in this tale. Or maybe it was abuse, poverty, bullies, divorce, or whatever darkness young kids see and experience these days that shape their lives.
It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows for so, so, so many. This is a book for them. The kids who wished they could grow up singing along with the Wiggles (are they still a thing?), but instead of that, maybe they grew up too fast for reasons totally outside of their control.
Certain places in this tale are more lighthearted as Daniel journeys through a world he doesn’t understand. The inhabitants he meets in some cases are just like the fairy tale characters of old but reimagined. Like the Upside Down World of Fairytales. The dwarves who live with the nightmare Snow White were particularly hysterically funny.
The ending of this tale was so satisfying, poignant, and when I closed this book after I was finished reading I actually sat silently for a bit and reflected on all that I had just read. I cried a little, and I smiled a little, and I thanked the universe, and the author, John Connolly, for producing a tale that took me to another world and reminded me of why I love to read.
I have reviewed many Riley Sager books in a row (I swear I am not review stalking you, Mr. Sager! lol) but that is because I have been reading some ofI have reviewed many Riley Sager books in a row (I swear I am not review stalking you, Mr. Sager! lol) but that is because I have been reading some of them back to back. That is a compliment because he writes engaging books that have me binge-reading, even if some are more miss than hit with me.
This book, The Only One Left, is one of my favorites so far. Similar to the backdrop of Sager's Home Before Dark, the creepy house in this story is my favorite character. The thought of being in a house literally crumbling off a cliff, leaning so distinctly it causes me to slide down my bed, is horrifying. I have a little vertigo here and there, and I am not a fan of heights in general, and now I can add slippery slope mansions to that list.
I figured out the twist in this one about halfway through but that was okay because I couldn't figure out how the story would end up there. I had the A and the C but didn't figure out the B. That part of the ending was a good one and actually very poignant in many ways.
There is one part of the ending that I found to be a little cringe but I can't give it away without spoiling it. If we could do half stars I would give this 4.5 just because of one factor of the ending I found a little weird. All in all though, it deserves the 5 stars more than the 4, so that is where I am at.
I love a creepy old house story and Baneberry Hall did not disappoint. Parts of the book, however, did disappoint but weren't enough to make me not enI love a creepy old house story and Baneberry Hall did not disappoint. Parts of the book, however, did disappoint but weren't enough to make me not enjoy the story overall.
I did not feel like I got to know Maggie very well, but I have also felt that way with a couple of other female leads in Sager's books. Also, I wasn't wild about the ending for various reasons I won't spoil here, but in general it felt like too many endings were thrown at me all at once.
All in all, this was a solid read but it got slow in the middle and parts were a little eyeroll. An example would be the ABC conversations with the bells. These are very minor gripes though.
Home Before Dark has a great Hill House vibe that I enjoyed, and the question of whether Baneberry Hall is haunted by spirits or humans kept me guessing. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a creepy read with twists and turns. ...more
My hot and cold relationship with Riley Sager continues, but I expected less from this book than I ended up getting out of it.
First of all, I graduatMy hot and cold relationship with Riley Sager continues, but I expected less from this book than I ended up getting out of it.
First of all, I graduated high school in the 90s, so the era of this book took place during my wild years. (Sorry again, Mom.) However, even in my most carefree days in the early 90s, I would never, ever, hitchhike or catch a ride with a total stranger on an ordinary day, and with a serial killer on the loose? Negative, Ghost Rider.
Just about every decision Charlie made was the opposite of what any rational person would make. I also wasn't a fan of the movies in her head part of the story, which was a major part, but it didn't change what I did love about this story which was the fast paced tense atmosphere. I literally could not put this book down.
Bottom line, is this my favorite Sager book? No. Is it unrealistic, even infuriating at times? Yes. But I liked it far better than some Sager books that I was told I would love (I am looking at YOU, Final Girls) and it was a good old fashioned game of cat and mouse. This was a page turner for me.
The ending really went off the rails which is why I would have come in at 3.5 stars but I am rounding up to 4 because I now have Come as You Are by Nirvana stuck in my head on repeat, and that is not such a bad thing....more
Some Choose Darkness is the first in a series featuring Rory, a crime scene reconstructionist on the autism spectrum. This book is written with short Some Choose Darkness is the first in a series featuring Rory, a crime scene reconstructionist on the autism spectrum. This book is written with short chapters that move through the past and present. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the knitting together of the storyline from different character perspectives.
It is a breath of fresh air to have a main character who is a woman in a world of mostly male counterparts professionally, yet the story never devolved as so many often do, with a side story about potential romance. Instead, Rory is in a loving friends-with-benefits relationship with Lane Phillips, a former FBI profiler, who is listed as the second name in this book series. Lane seems to have little to do in this first book other than drive Rory to a couple of locations where she might need his support.
The main story is driven by Rory and her uncanny knack for reading a crime scene and connecting with victims who need her voice. Rory is not warm and fuzzy. She doesn’t like to be touched or show emotion, she has social anxiety, a history of panic attacks, and is a functional alcoholic from what I can tell. Seriously, Rory. Don’t drink and drive!
The Thief is the killer who is the dark backdrop to this story. He is a sicko, and his perverted desires are pretty disturbing, especially because many chapters are told from his perspective. This guy fell from the coconut tree and hit all of them on his way down, for sure.
I only have one minor gripe, and that is the repetition of the name of Rory’s drink of choice, Dark Lord. If you want a cool drinking game, take a shot every time this book uses the words “Dark Lord” and you will be three sheets to the wind by page 195. One bright spot was on page 200, there is a typo that read, Dark Lard, and that made me chuckle. Seriously though, it was repeated so many times it was annoying. I am also including the words combat boots and beanie hat to that repetition fail.
Otherwise, I loved this story, and I will be picking up more from this author in the future. 4.5 rounded up to 5. ...more
I am loving my journey through the books by Sally Hepworth. This one, The Younger Wife, is not one of my favorites, but still is a good read. I would I am loving my journey through the books by Sally Hepworth. This one, The Younger Wife, is not one of my favorites, but still is a good read. I would not classify this as a thriller, or even really a mystery, instead, it is a family drama with some weighty subject matter.
Hepworth can weave a story that grabs my attention from the very beginning. This story is no exception as it begins at the wedding of the “younger wife,” named Heather, and Stephen, who is a successful surgeon with an “older wife,” Pam, who is still alive and suffering from dementia.
Things get a little crazy at the wedding and we then journey back in time to find out what is happening and how in the heck we got there.
Told from the perspectives of Stephen’s adult daughters, Tully and Rachel, and also his fiancé, Heather, each woman is dealing with emotional trauma from their past, and dealing with it in very different ways. Rachel by not allowing any chance of romance in her life, Tully has a case of sticky fingers, and Heather has a troubled relationship with alcohol.
I will admit that I didn’t feel connected to any of them as much as I had hoped. What I did feel was the kindred spirit of a woman reading about heavy topics that are affecting these women and getting that slow build in my chest that screamed… one of you just go OFF. Bring the thunder!
I don’t want to spoil anything, so I am tap dancing around this subject, but when you tackle issues as deep as the issues tackled here, it needs to be handled in not only a sensitive way, which Hepworth does a great job at, but also in a way that gives the subject the decisive closure it deserves.
I did not care for the ending which seemed a little vague and ambiguous. I just needed a little more validation for what these women suffered. Instead, the gaslighting took center stage and the validation felt like far less than it deserved.
Even though this book isn’t at the top of my list of Hepworth’s works, it is still a solid read and one that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a deep dive into a dysfunctional family and their drama, heartache, and (kinda, sorta?) redemption.
After recently finishing my first book by Sally Hepworth, Darling Girls, I immediately picked up this one to continue my journey through her books andAfter recently finishing my first book by Sally Hepworth, Darling Girls, I immediately picked up this one to continue my journey through her books and I was not disappointed.
This book is an interesting dichotomy, in that none of the characters were deeply explored so I didn't feel like I knew them well, yet, I was also invested in a few of them beyond what I expected by the end. Oddly, the two I cared about the most were not who I expected to be, Max and Amanda.
I can relate to Pippa on so many levels because of experiences in my own life. I truly thank the author for being so graceful in her portrayal of mental illness and the ripple effects it creates in so many lives beyond just the person suffering from it. I found many of the situations (and realizations) that Pippa lived through to be realistic in her conflict between love/dependence/being an enabler/total denial.
That being said, Max and Amanda stole the show for me and I did NOT see that coming until about 70% of the way through. Both characters are the same in terms of not being explored deeply, but both also live and love in a slow burn that is very emotionally poignant. I got a little misty toward the end, not gonna lie.
I would not categorize this as a thriller, albeit it is a mystery. It is more of a deep dive into loyalty and marriage, and how far a person will go for someone they love. This book is not plagued with the editing issues that existed in Darling Girls so The Soulmate is a solid five stars from me....more
Where to begin... I will start here: I despised everyone in this book by the end. Amber is a total waste of humanity, and let's just say that the peopWhere to begin... I will start here: I despised everyone in this book by the end. Amber is a total waste of humanity, and let's just say that the people in her orbit end up being not much better. I was kind of hoping this would turn into a murder mystery like Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, but alas, these horrible people just keep on keepin' on.
Bottom line, I found myself skimming this book in places because it just didn't hold my interest for long....more
This book, Lock Every Door by Riley Sager, was solid enough for about the first 85% of the book before it went off the rails a little for me.
This is This book, Lock Every Door by Riley Sager, was solid enough for about the first 85% of the book before it went off the rails a little for me.
This is yet another book by Sager where the female lead is not very deep or fleshed out. Some things in her past, the cheating ex, and the missing sister were thrown in for no good reason because neither managed to show us who Jules IS and help us get to know her and why we should care about what happens to her.
By the time I got to the end of the book, in all honesty, I kind of was hoping she would disappear just because she was tugging on my eye-roll response. Nearly every decision the average person would have made, she went in the opposite direction.
She had a close friend who cared deeply for her and was offering her a place to stay for free, yet she chose to continue to live in the creepy building, with creepy people, things that slither around at night downstairs, and people who vanish on the regular who do the same job she does? Uh, okay.
What I enjoyed: The Bartholomew itself. This was the most in depth character of the whole book. The Bartholomew and its gilded halls and vivid history were intriguing and reminded me of other hotels throughout the world with sordid events in their past, and maybe a ghost or two haunting their halls. Like the Cecil Hotel in L.A., which witnessed the tragic disappearance of Alisa Lam, and also hosted at least two serial killers in the past, the tumult that existed in years prior can sometimes permeate the present. The Bartholomew was my favorite character in the book by a mile.
What I did not enjoy: Sager has a pattern of not writing female leads very deeply or believably, so I am left to wonder why he has so many female leads when maybe he should crack his knuckles and try his hand at a male lead.
Bottom line: I enjoyed this more than Final Girls by Sager, but not as much as Only One Left. It was a solid book overall but the ending was a miss for me. Points for being so out there that I didn't guess it, but it was just too unrealistic on so many levels.
I had never read a Sally Hepworth book before, so it was a treat to experience a book by a new (to me) author with no preconceived notions or expectatI had never read a Sally Hepworth book before, so it was a treat to experience a book by a new (to me) author with no preconceived notions or expectations. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, Darling Girls. It wasn't a grip-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller but a slow burn that kept my attention from beginning to end.
Three girls who grew up in foster care together live and love as sisters. Each of them has challenges because of the turmoil of their childhood. Norah has an explosive temper that leads to her seemingly assaulting, well, assaulting a lot of people actually. Jessica is addicted to benzos and holds her adoring husband at arm's length. Alicia has commitment and attachment issues.
I have known people raised in foster care and found the portrayal here very poignant and realistic. There are some points in the book that are so stark in their reality, that it could be a difficult read in places for anyone who grew up in foster care and experienced the things Norah describes going through before coming to Wild Meadows. She informs her sisters that, "things could be worse," than the nutjob that is Miss Fairchild.
What I truly enjoyed was the banter between the sisters, especially Norah, who is both tough as nails, and also hysterically funny in her sarcasm.
What I did not enjoy was the amount of spelling and grammatical errors throughout. Whoever edited this book was asleep at the switch.
The ending was great, a slight twist that I didn't see coming. I also found that I was invested in these girls, mostly Norah, and their future happiness. This is an engaging book and I look forward to reading more by this author. ...more
I have enjoyed some of the other books by Riley Sager, so I decided to go back in time and read an earlier work of his. I wanted to love Final Girls bI have enjoyed some of the other books by Riley Sager, so I decided to go back in time and read an earlier work of his. I wanted to love Final Girls because the premise, a trio of lone survivors of horrific murders, was outstanding. Instead, I had to force myself to read this at times to finish it.
The characters here were not fleshed out enough for me, so much so that I didn't care about ANY of them. Quincy was annoying, and I found myself not rooting for her even though I should have been rooting for her given what she had lived through. Sam, same thing. Although, truth be told, in the end, I liked Sam more than Quincy, which says a lot.
The side characters were even less memorable. Quincy's boyfriend, whose name I cannot even remember even though I only finished this book three weeks ago, was a blank space. Coop, beyond being told how banging cut his body is, was another blank space. I mean, the conversations between Quincy and Coop were painful to plod through.
I had two scenarios in mind for the ending. I was right on one of them, so I wasn't surprised.
I am thankful that I had read more recent releases from Riley Sager because if I had read this one first it might have made me hesitate to try another one. I wavered between two and three stars, but in all honesty, I went with two because of the utter lack of character development....more
I can’t say for sure when I first read The Stand: Complete and Uncut, although I would guess it was in the early 90s. I recently went back and reread I can’t say for sure when I first read The Stand: Complete and Uncut, although I would guess it was in the early 90s. I recently went back and reread this, once again going with the uncut version.
There are certain things in the uncut edition that I could live without ever reading again (looking at you, The Kid), and other things I would feel left a hole in the story if I didn’t read them again. For example, the very beginning showing how the virus was unleashed by the split second decision of an ordinary man trying to save his family.
This is quite a massive undertaking at 1153 pages. I did find myself skimming through The Kid and Trashcan Man because… ugh. They are both annoying and their relationship seems to be nothing more than King going off on some tangent. I go off on enough of my own tangents, so it leaves me little time to read someone else’s. Where was I? Oh, that’s right, 1153 pages.
This book is Stephen King at his very best. I was a Constant Reader during the days of Salem’s Lot, Carrie, The Shining, and It. Then came the days of a few releases that were just meh and I drifted away from his work.
The Stand, however, is really in a league of its own. At least the first half of it.
Therein lies my conundrum with a rating on this book. The first half is as close to perfect as King has ever been. His description and portrayal of a pandemic ending the human race almost completely is so real and so expertly crafted that it does feel like exactly what would happen in the event of the meltdown of humanity. It is a riveting read for sure, especially after the Covid experience.
The second half goes off into Good versus Evil, God versus Satan, and even a little Democracy versus Totalitarianism. For me, the latter half of the book isn’t nearly as good as the first. Even so, parts of the second half are also fascinating in the portrayal of the attempt to rebuild. What would human survivors in a post-apocalyptic world do? Likely look for other survivors and try to build another society. Not me though, I am an introvert.
All in all, factoring in the second half made me want to drop this to a 4, but I can’t because the first part of this book is in a league of its own, so 5/5 it is....more
This is a tough review to write. I was about halfway through this book when I was told that it is very similar to another book that was written beforeThis is a tough review to write. I was about halfway through this book when I was told that it is very similar to another book that was written before this one by a few years. I truly enjoyed the majority of this book, but before I wrote a review, I decided to also read the prior work and see if it changed my opinion of this one.
I won't mention the title of the other book because there is a major plot twist involved, so if you've read that one, you'll know the major reveal in this one. The twist is ultimately the same with just a variation on the motives of Millie versus the female protagonist from the other book.
There are too many spoiler alert pitfalls I could fall into, so I will stick to just the value of what I read here in The Housemaid. While I wasn't a huge fan of Millie toward the end, I did find her musings to be so funny I laughed many times. Nina was so off the charts nutty that I knew there had to be a reason, and there was.
The writing here was solid, the twist totally caught me off guard, and I would have given this 5 stars if not for the similarity to a prior book that I just can't deny so I am deducting one. Otherwise, a solid read.
Total side note, but someone please teach Millie the existence of Google translate on her fancy smartphone so she can converse in Italian. I mean, come ON....more
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