🟣 :::READING THREAD::: Week of May 5th

I read The Queen Of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate.
I won this copy from Goodreads.
This is a fictional novel about actress Hattie McDaniel who played Mammy in Gone With The Wind.
I found it fascinating but also a bit disappointing with how the author chose to portray certain Hollywood characters.
There is also a lot of truth along with the fictional aspects in the book.

I just finished Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez.  She is my favorite romance author and she hit it out of the park with this one in my opinion.  I love her characters and her books make me laugh and cry.  I think I am going to read an older Elin Hilderbrand book next called Here's To Us because I could read it for free through the library.  My book club is this week and I am excited to see what is chosen next.  

I read this last month. It's the sequel to The Searcher which is a good read if you haven't read that yet. 

I read one book last week: The Vacation Rental: A Novel by Katie Sise. 4/5

Here's the synopsis:

When Georgia rents her country home for the month of August, it’s off to the relaxing Connecticut shore for her; her husband, Tom; and their young daughter. It’s just what they need to ease family tensions and reconnect. All that’s left to do is leave behind their house keys—to a stranger.

For Anna, Georgia and Tom’s house in the cool woodlands is a dream break from the oppressive heat of a New York City summer—and from an increasingly ill-fated relationship with her lover. A month apart and Anna can clear her head and reassess her future. She’s found the perfect place to do it.

As the weeks wear on, Georgia and Anna discover that the pleasures of escape are as difficult to trust in as the comforts of home. And neither one can shake the feeling that something is about to go terribly wrong.

I agree, I love her books.  I just finished Yours Truly by her and I laughed and cried.  4 stars.  The audiobook for the first book in this series, Part of Your World, is on sale at Chirp right now for $4.99 and I just bought it.  I didn't realize I was reading it out of order but I don't think it matters.  

I finished The Women. I wasn’t as wowed by it as I thought I would be. Perhaps it was a little bit oversold? Nonetheless I enjoyed it and gave it a four out of five on Goodreads, rounded up.

I am about 2/3 of the way through Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I’m enjoying the quirkiness of her character and the way it is gradually revealing her true story. Good book.

I was also a big fan of The River We Remember The Great Carpezio. I have another of his on Audible, Ordinary Grace. It’s been sitting there a while! Has anyone read it?

Thank you!

Well that’s good to know! Thanks. 😊

I'm in Georgia for my son's grad school graduation (woo-hoo! this is the kid who almost didn't graduate from high school)... So anyway, I picked two fluffy easy-to-read books...

The One by John Marrs. Sort-of science fictiony about a gene that's discovered that matches only one other person's same gene. So if those two are matched then they are *the* perfect match for each other. It was an easy read, and pretty interesting. I joined a psychological thrillers Facebook group (I think someone in this thread mentioned it) which is where I heard about John Marrs. I'll definitely read more of his.

Where He Can't Find You by Darcy Coates. I've never read anything by Coates, so I spent the most of the first half of the book trying to decide if we were talking about a serial killer or an actual monster. Then I googled to find out that Darcy Coates writes "horror thrillers". Some spooky scenes and definitely not one for me to read when I was alone in the house. lol. But it was fine for a house that contained five adults, one teen, two dogs, and four cats.   haha It was okay. -- For some reason my library, and the three other libraries that I have ecards to, do not have most of Coates' books for Kindle so I won't be able to read anything else. I don't really like horror though, so that's just fine.  

gottapeanow recommended the Facebook Group “Psychological Thriller Readers” to me 2022-23; it’s been so long now.  I’ve found so many great recommendations there.  As you know, it’s a very active group on Facebook.  

I think John Marrs is a great author.  Here are the books I’ve read by him and what I rated them…. Previous 8/9 books by this author for me were all 4or5 stars. One exception was Keep It In The Family (‘22 - 2 Stars). The Stranger in Her House (‘24 - 5 Stars), The Marriage Act (‘23 - 4 Stars), The Minders (‘22 - 4 Stars), When You Disappeared ('17 - Read '20 - 4 Stars), The Good Samaritan ('18 - Read '20 - 4 Stars), What Lies Between Us ('20 - 5 Stars), The One ('18 - Read '20 - 5 Stars) and The Passengers ('19 - 5 Stars).

Disappointing read and an awesome read in one week.  I guess that balances out !



GOOD HALF GONE (‘24 - 2 STARS) BY TARRYN FISHER
DESCRIPTION : Iris Walsh saw her twin sister, Piper, get kidnapped—so why does no one believe her? Iris narrowly escaped her pretty, popular twin sister’s fate as a teen: kidnapped, trafficked and long gone before the cops agreed to investigate. With no evidence to go on but a few scattered memories, the case quickly goes cold. Now an adult, Iris wants one thing—proof. And if the police still won’t help, she’ll just have to find it her own way; by interning at the isolated Shoal Island Hospital for the criminally insane, where secrets lurk in the shadows and are kept under lock and key. But Iris soon realizes that something even more sinister is simmering beneath the surface of the Shoal, and that the patients aren’t the only ones being observed…

REVIEW :

First 2 books by this author for me were The Wrong Family (‘20 - 4 Stars) and
The Wives (‘19 - Read ‘20 - 4 Stars).

I was looking forward to this book but it was flat for me. I didn’t connect with any characters. The “current” chapters at the hospital were a lot better than the look-back chapters which were just so choppy. At 70% I couldn’t take the boredom any more. So slow and was just dragging along. I will try her next book since I did love her first two.



DARLING GIRLS (‘24 - 5 STARS) BY SALLY HEPWORTH
DESCRIPTION : From the outside, Alicia, Jessica and Norah might seem like ordinary women you'd meet on the street any day of the week. Sure, Jessica has a little OCD and Norah has some anger issues. And Alicia has low self-esteem that manifests itself in surprising ways. But these three have a bond that no one can fully understand. It's a bond that takes them back decades, to when they were girls, and they lived on a farm with a foster mother named Miss Fairchild. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild, and they thought they were free. But the reach of someone with such power is long, and even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When bones are discovered buried under the farmhouse of their childhood, they are called in by the police to tell what they know. Against their will, they are brought back to the past, and to Miss Fairchild herself. DARLING GIRLS asks the questions: what are we capable of when in a desperate place? How much can we hide the demons inside us? And can the past ever truly be buried?

REVIEW :

Previous books by this author were The Soulmate (‘23 - 3 Stars), The Younger Wife (‘22 - 4 Stars), The Good Sister (‘21 - 5 Stars), The Mother-in-law (‘19 - 4 Stars) and The Family Next Door (‘18 - 4 Stars).

The author is great at getting you interested in the characters right away. For anyone that child abuse is a trigger, you should definitely skip this one. Quite a few times in the book something was mentioned almost as an afterthought that made me go “oh no” or “a oh”; simple sentences that could be easily missed. I loved how the whole story unfolded; very original. Even though there was child abuse, I loved how the 3 main characters bonded together forever and worked through their awful beginnings. I went with 5 Stars because of the never-ending connection of the main characters, even though they were so different. I definitely loved these girls and would love to see another book with them.



Happy Reading !

A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan
Set in Paris, dual timeline 1870 & 1946.
Alternatively narrated by Lisette and her great-granddaughter Micheline who both run bakeries in order to survive during troubled times.
Both stories are engaging and I learnt quite a bit about Paris' history. The book also contains some classic French recipes.
4 stars

Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose
Set in modern day USA.
Revolves around 3 estranged (and dysfunctional) siblings who come together after their mother dies. While they are cleaning out her house, they find some old home movies and decide to play one of them and reminisce, at the end of the tape there's a section that catches her mother and father with the with dead body of their 10yo neighbour who went missing when they were all children. Their father also left that same year and they've never heard from him again.
As they try to discover the truth of what they saw in the film...all the old family secrets are gradually revealed.
This is a new release I've been waiting for and it didn't disappoint! First book by the author for me,.
A few twists, and I wasn't able to guess the killer. Definitely recommended.
4.5 stars but rounded down to 4 for GR. 

Looking forward to reading this one.  


I’ve read three others by this author : You Shouldn’t Have Come Here (‘23 - 3 Stars), The Perfect Marriage (‘20 - Read ‘22 - 4 Stars) and One of Us is Dead (‘22 - Read ‘23 - 4 Stars).  

Lol...that's exactly what this one was like! lol...guess that's her formula? "Where He Can't Find You" was creepy in parts but I spent much of the book thinking "why are you running around the dark woods when there's a killer loose?"