Well let's just hope if nothing else, at least that title got ya.
Once upon a time, I read books regularly. Then, I didn't. I have no idea what happened but I can't blame motherhood on this one! One day I just realized I wasn't reading anymore. Sure, I flipped through the occasional magazine or binged a blog here and there but I wasn't reading BOOKS anymore. What once were my safe havens had begun to gather dust in the far corners of my home... and it was weird. Back in those days, I even "reviewed" my reads, so to speak. You can find some here: All Book Discussions. Please ignore any broken links or images!
Well, flash forward to the present month (literally. It's the Present Month, *cymbal crash*) and my desire to read came back with a quickness! One evening I picked up my Kindle Paperwhite, charged it, because, well, it'd been a while, and BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE... she's back! And so are my thoughts. So if you like this sort of thing, keep reading.
tl;dr: I read something sappy about Christmas, a small town murder mystery, a coming-of-age series, a freaking fantastic thriller, some crummy poetry, and I broke it all down into Good/Better/Best/WTF Did I Just Read?
Santa's Secret by Serenity Woods
I began with what I like to call a Fluff Read. I desperately needed to get lost in something romantic with the happiest of happy endings and the fact that this one is Christmas-themed really jingled my bells. It's essentially a Hallmark movie in book form.
You begin by meeting a quiet, but hardworking single mom to a precocious preschooler who has decided to spend Christmas at a Christmas Village in Finland. They meet a man and his daughter, also there for the holiday. (Bonus: the man is an actual Viking. That's pretty badass, no?) From here the author spins a delightful story of falling in love despite major apprehension and a short passage of time. Pure cheddar and it was delicious. The story left me feeling the warm and fuzzies and rather grateful for my own Viking love.
I give this book a Good rating for those reasons, but after I read it I needed something with more substance so I went back to my roots and decided on a crime novel.
Telling Lies: A Sam Mason Mystery by L.A. Dobbs
Set in a small town in New Hampshire, this book follows Sam Mason, Chief of Police, as he investigates the murder of a young entrepreneur visiting the town to camp out with friends. I like a mysterious whodunnit just as much as the next gal and this one did not disappoint. True, it was not filled with incredibly complex twists or turns, but it did keep my attention and I was not able to guess whodunnit too easily. Plus, the police force and the town are riddled with intriguing characters. This is book one in a series that features Chief Mason and the rest of the crew and I feel fairly sure I'll grab book two at some point. I'd like to learn more about them all and see where L.A. Dobbs takes them.
I give this book a Good rating because I think it would appeal more to the masses but still isn't exactly award-winning, either. Sorry, L.A.!
We Were Here -and- Geoducks Are For Lovers by Daisy Prescott
Go ahead. Google what a Geoduck is, if you can handle the image. And don't say I didn't warn you.
These two books were SO. MUCH. FUN. I totally enjoyed them. The first, We Were Here, is set at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in the late 80s. The book follows a group of college kids who have banded together to figure out life, basically. It's a serious coming-of-age novel that kept me fully engaged from page to page. I may not have gotten all of the pop culture references (hello... I was still in diapers in the late 80s) but I laughed out loud a lot anyway.
In addition to the story itself, I liked how the chapters were set up. You learned the perspective of a different person with each one, so you really got a feel for who these kids are and what they love, hate, want, don't want, all of it. I really fell for them. They made me feel good. I related to them, despite the clear generational gap. I didn't want to leave them behind. Thankfully, I didn't have to!
The second book, Geoducks Are For Lovers (the geoduck is their school mascot) picks back up 20 or so years into their futures and let me just tell you... it's fun. It's not often that you can grow up with characters like this, and if I'm being honest, my fave books are the ones that allow me to do just that! In book two, you learn what's happened to the gang two decades after graduation when they get together for a reunion-style weekend. They're all the same, yet different, and when the book was over I mourned the loss. I wanted to be back with them hanging out and laughing.
To me, that's absolutely the mark of a fantastic read and so this series gets the Better rating from me!
(Side bar: there is a third book, so to speak, but it summarized that it follows one particular character only and was intended as its own book - not part of the official series. I haven't read it and probably won't but if you do, let me know! It's called Wanderlust.)
Pretty Girls Dancing by Kylie Brant
Stop everything you are doing right now and go get this book. If you have Amazon Prime, even better. For the next 10 days it is FREE for Prime Members who use Amazon First Reads. I highly doubt you'll regret it. If you do, I'd like to hear whyyyyyy and I'll need you to detail what is wrong with you. Jokes! Kinda!
I DEVOURED this book. Like a shark (hungrryyyyy shark doodoo, doo doo doo doo...). No, seriously. I love love loved it. It was the thrilliest of thrillers lately... and FREE! Did I mention that? (Fair point to make: all of the books I listed today were free for me. But this one was the BEST FREE ONE OKAY.) It had me captivated! I need to tread carefully to avoid spoilers, but I truly can't recall the last book that I read that left me this "WHOA!" in the end. Maybe Gone Girl? That was a doozy. This isn't quite like that one, story-wise, but it left me with the same type of eyebrow raise for sure.
It's the story of missing teen girls, essentially. They're being kidnapped, seemingly at random, and it's up to the Bureau of Criminal Investigations in Saxon Falls to get to the bottom of it before the latest victim turns up confirmed dead. The newest kidnapping brings up ghosts of a past, still unsolved kidnapping. This book also provides multi-perspective narration (I feel like there's an official literary term for that. I'm educated, promise.) and I felt the pain, frustration, fear, sorrow, every single bit of raw emotion displayed by the characters. It was a page-turner of the best kind. Okay, so it was a little heavy maybe for this joyful season but once I got started I could not put it down! I can't wait for someone else to read it and let me know I'm not alone.
For obvious reasons, I gave this one the Best rating. It rocked my socks off.
Okay. Now for the mic drop. No, that's too good. Now time for the head scratch. Now time for the.... WTF DID I JUST READ selection.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
I ... don't know what to say. I wanted to like this book of poetry and prose. It sounded so promising. In fact, one review said, "it touched me deeply." And another said it was "breathtaking. brutal. and beautiful." SO I wanted to love it. I wanted to feel something from it. I wanted to escape to this poet's place of emotion and fight through it with her. Did I?
....No. I mean, not even close. I didn't even finish it, truth be told, and I'm no commitment-phobe. In fact I typically approach things with the tenacity of a shark (maaaaama shark, doodoo, doo doo doo doo... lawd help me...)
It just
missed the mark
for me,
y'all.
It felt like I grabbed excerpts of my journal from freshman year and tried to make it sound artsy and sophisticated, but instead I just sound basic and flat. I'm so sorry, Rupi. I'm sure you're a cool chick with a great story to tell, but Milk and Honey didn't do it for this reader. If you check this one out and feel differently, I'd love to talk about it. Maybe you can tell me what I'm not seeing.
Well there you have it, friends! I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. I hope you'll come back for more!
No comments:
Post a Comment