I don't generally like thrillers and this was definitely not a book for me, so I shouldn't be too harsh about it.
It was a2,5 middle-of-the-road stars
I don't generally like thrillers and this was definitely not a book for me, so I shouldn't be too harsh about it.
It was an OK read, but with very bland writing and characters and a cliched storyline. There was nothing here that hadn't been written about before and written much better, I guess.
Bottom line: if a thriller isn't Orphan X, I probably shouldn't read it....more
Mark Twain's views on who wrote Shakespeare's plays and poems:
- it wasn't Shakespeare - it could have been Francis Bacon,
BUT anyway, who cares when I aMark Twain's views on who wrote Shakespeare's plays and poems:
- it wasn't Shakespeare - it could have been Francis Bacon,
BUT anyway, who cares when I am Mark Twain and have so much more intriguing things to say about myself (and I think he really meant this. He took himself rather seriously). :D ...more
I am just not up to getting at it with a shovel to try and dig up the interesting bits that really count, but are bPutting this book on hiatus at 25%.
I am just not up to getting at it with a shovel to try and dig up the interesting bits that really count, but are buried mercilessly under tons of totally unnecessary details.
Which is a bummer, because I wanted to like it so much and felt so enthusiastic about the topic, but I think the author fell into the TMI trap and kept digging deeper and deeper as she went and at this point I lost the will to follow....more
This is the first TJR book I found really interesting and very enjoyable. So, compared to the lacklustre Evelyn Hugo & the bland Malibu Rising, this iThis is the first TJR book I found really interesting and very enjoyable. So, compared to the lacklustre Evelyn Hugo & the bland Malibu Rising, this is a solid 4 stars. :)...more
One of the few reads I leave without rating on purpose.
I actually found it terrible (terribly banal, clichéd and nauseatingly sweet) and yet I knew IOne of the few reads I leave without rating on purpose.
I actually found it terrible (terribly banal, clichéd and nauseatingly sweet) and yet I knew I should have stepped back and kept a little distance from this as one of Louisa May Alcott's juvenilia, where she (subserviently) copied the style, characterisation and plot of mediocre works that nevertheless payed well.
Buddy-read with Ange without whom I would not have finished the book....more
Can't say I find TJR's writing very evocative of the 80s (or the 50s for that matter), although the whole story resembled an 80s soap-opera: 2,5 stars
Can't say I find TJR's writing very evocative of the 80s (or the 50s for that matter), although the whole story resembled an 80s soap-opera: it was OK-ish, but much too superficial & contrived. Could not connect or care about the characters in the slightest
An OK read, but for me it does not stand out in any way among the hundreds of similar books of its kind.
As with Evelyn Hugo, TJR's story and writing reminds me of Penny Vincenzi, but PV did it so much better....more
Hmm. This was an interesting book to read. There were some strong, positive aspects to it, but towards the end it became rushed and muddled and it didHmm. This was an interesting book to read. There were some strong, positive aspects to it, but towards the end it became rushed and muddled and it didn't really have a proper ending, just a blunt & crude CUT which left me unsatisfied.
This has been my first ever story (novella) by author Kelly Harms & I really liked it. There is drama and emotions, but also lots of humour and insighThis has been my first ever story (novella) by author Kelly Harms & I really liked it. There is drama and emotions, but also lots of humour and insight of character to balance it. And there's an imperfect, but realistic and satisfying happy ending (or new beginning).
If I want to be very strict, I would rate it 3,5 stars. Had I simply read it, instead of listening, it would be 3 only, but the story was very much enhanced by the listening experience. Narrator Lauren Fortgang did a superb job, because in all honesty, the MC Sophie, was not at all likeable, but with her voicing Sophie, I only started to realise this somewhere around the middle of the story, which is no mean feat. It would have been more obvious from the page.
The story, told entirely from Sophie's POV, covers 4 years and 3 thanksgiving dinners. We start in 2016 while restaurant-owner Sophie is preparing Bruce the turkey (named after her latest ex) and waiting for her family -her 2 older brothers and their wives- to turn up for the meal. Sophie is a spiky introvert, addicted to her work & devoted to her family. Her brother Pete and his wife, Keiko are expecting their first child. Her best friend, Anette, is married to her younger-older brother Charlie. It's kinda happy families all round, until the bad new explodes: Anette's terminally ill and only has some months to live.
2 years later, another thanksgiving meal is being prepared, with Turkey Rick in the oven this time. And another bomb is about to hit Sophie's world: Charlie is bringing a girlfriend to the sacred family event & Sophie finds it very hard to cope, especially on arrival of Emily with 2 terrible kids in tow. Emily is the complete opposite of Anette, a mess in every sense of the word, with mortgages & an agressive ex and does not seem to suit Charlie, a professor of biochemistry, in the least. So the dinner is anything but a success, from Sophie's POV at least, even though she has a handsome & caring guy around her, however, she hardly notices him.
With the excellent narration, it's only at this point when you start to realise how self-absorbed & judgemental Sophie actually is. While on one hand, you can understand that the loss of her best friend hit her really hard and feel for her (even agree that Emily is just NOT THE THING!), on the other, her perfect selfishness and unawareness about anything else than her own thoughts and feelings, just makes you want to shake & shout at her to wake up.
Things come to a climax at the third Thanksgiving meal, which takes place in Emily's and Charlie's house, to Sophie's utter revulsion and at 1 point you think that a disaster will truly strike this time, but the tension and conflicts are lead to their proper channel, Sophie thankfully starts realising her mistakes and is offered many things to be thankful for in the end....more