Weekly Reading Thread: April 12 through 18

I forgot to post last week, so I have a few that I finished.

Dear Evan Hanson 4 stars This was selected for my book club.  I have not seen the musical so not sure how that affected my rating, but I thought it was great.  I had no prior knowledge going in so it was just pure enjoyment.
In Five Years 4 stars. I liked this, but there is a topic (which I think would be a spoiler to add) that hits a little to close to home for me right now. If I would have known going in, I probably would have delayed reading this book.
Waiting for Tom Hanks 3 stars. I think someone who reviewed this said "Easy, Cheesy and a little Breezy!". That pretty much sums it up.
The Bromance Book Club I didn't even post this on my Goodreads as it's my "brown bag" genre that I like to keep hidden But I think dewryce mentioned on another thread that she liked sports romances so suggesting this to her if she has not read. But it was a fun read!
Valentine 4.5 stars decided to read this as it a Jenna Bush Hager bookclub pick and I feel like some of my favorites books have been from her lately (as opposed to Reese Witherspoon which has had more misses than hits). This is a very heavy character driven story which some people find slow, but I was totally into it. It just slightly missed the mark, not sure I liked the last chapter and I felt so strongly about some characters I wished it had been more focused on them. And I will say the audio narration is just fantastic on this.
You Are Not Alone 2 stars This was a dud. I liked the last two by this author, but this was just ugh. There were places that the author had to spoon feed you explanations. If you have to spoon-feed me a description of how you tricked someone, then perhaps your writing was too weak for me to come to the conclusion. Ugh!

Starting a longer, heavier book tomorrow and that will be the only for me for the week.

Reading After Anna and it's good!

I think I've read four since I last posted.

First up was You are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Peckkanen. This was an odd story and while I liked the book, I didn't love it. 3.5

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. This is my favorite book I've read this year. So intriguing. It was fascinating to go inside Vanessa's mind and see how she viewed her relationship with her teacher. Solid 5.

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle. It took me a little bit to get into this book but once I did, I really liked it. 4 stars.

And finally, You and Me and Us by Alison Hammer. Alison is one of my good friends and this is her debut novel, published this past Tuesday. "The heartbreaking, yet hopeful, story of a mother and daughter struggling to be a family without the one person who holds them together." If you like books that make you cry, this is for you. I couldn't believe my friend could write something that could bring out so much emotion, but she did. We were on vacation together 3 years ago, and she was out on the balcony working on it. SO proud of her. 5 stars.

I read History is All You Left Me Pretty deep, but interesting.

When Griffin's first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he's been imagining for himself has gone far off course.

To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin's downward spiral continues. He's losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he's been keeping are tearing him apart.

I finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

What a wonderful love story set in Seattle bewteen Henry and Keiko with the Japanese internment camps as the background. The two timelines added a great dimension to this. Loved this one! 5/5 stars and one of my favorite reads of the year.

I'm almost done with The Devil and the River by RJ Ellory.

Ellory is hands down, my favorite thriller author. I have read nearly everything he's written. But this is incredibly gory and creepy. I'm a bit disappointed. I won't pass final judgment until I read the last page, though.

Lisa

I started the week with Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore. A time travel book. Oona is about to turn 19 yo on New Year's Eve in 1982, but at midnight - she jumps into herself at a different age...and the same thing happens every year after that. 
You need to be able to suspend belief at the how/why aspect of time travel, and just go along for the ride with the story.
I really enjoyed this, I got caught up in what age Oona would be next and was surprised at a couple of twists in the story.
4 stars.

Then I got my Goodreads email and found it it's "mystery & thriller month" and one of the links was to:
48 Mystery and Thriller Recommendations by Trope
and there were some highly rated books on there that I haven't read (I have read 18 of them), so I thought I'd make that my reading theme for the rest of the month (anyone care to to join me?)

The first one that caught my eye was No Exit by Taylor Adams (who I'd never heard of before).
A college girl is on her way home because her mother is dying, she ends up snowed in at a rest stop with 4 other people. She is trying to get phone reception so she goes outside...and thinks she sees someone locked up in one of the other cars.
From there on out I found it a very intense thriller! I got caught up in this totally and it was a crazy ride with a kick ass heroine and ended up binge-reading it in 2 days. I listened to the audiobook and I can recommend that.
Definitely a good book to get lose yourself in. 4 stars on GR, but would give it 4.5 if I could.

Next one from the list is  Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough, I haven't read anything bu this author before and am about 25% through and it's got my attention.

After that will be When I Was You by Minka Kent and Farthing by Jo Walton also looks interesting.

Three for me the past two weeks.  Like others, can't seem to concentrate.  

THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN (2016) BY LISA JEWEL  :  4 STARS
Description:  Imagine that you live in a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people's houses.  You've known your neighbors for years and trust them implicitly.  At a midsummer night party, something goes wrong.
Review: Previous books by this author, Then She Was Gone, Watching You, The Family Upstairs and I Found You all received 4 stars also.  Lisa Jewell is probably my most consistent author.  She never lets you down.  This was a solid mystery of the personal connections within a small communal neighborhood.  Ms. Jewell draws you in so quickly that I felt I was immediately part of the neighborhood.  There was even a slight twist at the end.

THREE FOR A GIRL (Elizabeth Fielding Bk 3 of 3) BY SARAH DENZIL  :  4 STARS
Description:  A production company wants to make a movie about Isabel Fielding's life, but Leah, one of Isabel's victims, knows this is a huge mistake.  Final book in the trilogy.
Review:  You definitely need to read the first two books to fully understand this one.  I would have liked more of a refresher of the characters at the beginning.  I just kept reading hoping the story lines would start coming back to me and they did !  Lots of fast-paced action.  As the story progresses, I was happy to see all the characters get what was due them.  I thought the ending was perfect.

DEVOTED BY DEAN KOONTZ  :  3 STARS
Description:  Woody Bookman hasn't spoken a word in his 11 years of life.  Not when his father died in a freak accident; not when his mother Megan tells him she loves him.  Woody believes a monstrous evil was behind his father's death and now threatens him and his mom.  A uniquely gifted dog with a heart as golden as his breed, Kipp is devoted beyond reason to people.  Kipp knows he needs to find this boy before its too late.  
Review:  I haven't read a Koontz book in a very long time; since his early years.  Once I heard his new one was bringing back the gifted Golden Retriever, I had to read it.  I loved how the different characters were being brought together.  Creepy parts that made me want to scream out a warning.  Also touching parts, because of the dog, that hit home.  I thought there were too many characters overall who threw off the pace of the book.  By 80% I just wanted to know the ending and jump to it I did !

I listened to about 3 hours of The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow and gave up. It wasn't drawing me in, so I decided not to spend any more time on it.

Then I spent last week painting my basement, so I listened to a bunch of podcasts. Of those, I can recommend 22 Hours: An American Nightmare and Dirty John. The others were somewhat forgettable.

Now I've started The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It is not at all what I expected and I'm officially hooked .

I read the first of the Outlander books and am now reading The Worst Hard Time about the Dust Bowl. I like to throw in the odd nonfiction book into the mix to keep my Goodreads followers guessing.

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Ann Fowler. A teen romance and a fight over a historic oak tree lead to tragedy in a quiet, suburban neighborhood. It’s hard for me to say I enjoyed this one, as it really just made me so sad. Plus, there is a character in the book who made me angry every time he appeared on the page. I thought it was well written and engaging, though. 

Long Bright River by Liz Moore. The opioid crisis, two estranged sisters, and a string of unsolved murders in Philadelphia. I can’t say enough good things about this book. I absolutely loved it and didn’t want it to end. I thought it was so poignant and well-written. Definitely a top book of 2020 for me. 

I finished THIS TENDER LAND by William Kent Krueger. It was well done and engaging. It is highly reviewed and rated and i can see why. It’s about a group of 4 kids who escape from a school for native children after WWI. It’s their adventures to get where they’re going. I thought the start was slightly slow but it picked up and I loved the ending.

Now I’m reading EVERYBODY’S SON and I’m quite into it. It’s easy to read and the characters / story are well done. It’s by Thrity Umrigar (she wrote THE SPACE BETWEEN US and THE SECRETS BETWEEN US - both great books).

This is for book club and while the other books had an Indian focus this book is about a couple from an affluent neighborhood who foster a child from the projects so takes place in America.

I'm trying to get back "in" to reading, lol. I'm using the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge to guide me. I've finished two books thus far.

Last week I read Modelland by Tyra Banks. It's an older book (YA novel from 2011) and is legit bananas! The first few chapters were a bit hard to get through as the writing is bonkers. Once I got used to the rhythm of it, it was a quick enough read. It's a book that is so bad, it's good, but only like 3 stars good. Because it's bananas!

I'm finishing Now Then and Every When by Rysa Walker It is like two or three stories in one. It helps if you have read any of the other Chronos/Timebound series, but isn't completely necessary. I've enjoyed it, although sometimes having multiple stories going on is confusing.

Next up is Not the Girl You Marry by Andie J. Christopher for my book club. We are meeting via Zoom next Sunday, so I will need to read it this week.

I also just checked out The Institute by Stephen King so it will be next