Book Critic
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Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
I am late to the party with this one. I bought this book when it first came out and it literally sat on my shelf for years. Many times I almost gave it away because I figured I would probably never read it. It was once of those books that looked good at the time and had a great cover but the title was long and just sounded weird. Yet I bought it anyway. Then the Netflix movie came out and everyone was raving about this book all over my social medial platforms. It was once again everywhere and everyone wanted to read it so I decided to jump on…
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Review: The Boy at the Door by Alex Dahl
Scandinavian people truly have their own unique style especially when it comes to books. If Ikea is any indicator, when I pick up a Scandinavian book, the first thing I expect is for it to have some degree of detachment and a slightly stark, cold feel. When I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, that’s exactly what I got. Since that’s the only exposure I’ve had to Scandinavian lit more or less, when I picked this one up, I expected to have a similar experience. Cecilia Wilborg has it all–a loving husband, two beautiful daughters and a gorgeous home in the affluent Norwegian town of Sandefjord. And she works…
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Review: The Impossible Girl by Lydia Kang
This was a book that I was excited about when I got the pitch and then I kind of forgot about it until closer to the review date. I wasn’t entirely excited to read it when the time came to start it, but that slight was rectified almost immediately when I started this one. This book had a little bit of everything, romance, mystery, fantasy, and history. I loved this one almost from the first word! It made an excellent early fall/Halloween read. Manhattan, 1850. Born out of wedlock to a wealthy socialite and a nameless immigrant, Cora Lee can mingle with the rich just as easily as she can…
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Review: Another Woman’s Husband by Gill Paul
This book kept hoping up randomly as an advertisement on Goodreads. At first I kind of ignored it but then I stared seeing people talking about it on Twitter and Instagram The next thing I know, I am picking it up at the library to read. Clearly the title indicates that this book is probably going to contain a little love triangle of sorts, but it’s so much more than that. This was an exceptional read and I was thrilled to crack it open each night. 1911: When fifteen-year-old Mary Kirk meets Wallis Warfield at summer camp, she’s immediately captivated by her fearless, brazen, and self-assured personality. And Wallis has…
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Review: The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani
One of the things that caught my eye with this book was the beautiful cover. I love the white flower against the red backdrop and the little gold/yellow details and accents. I also loved that this book was set in India. There is something about India that seems so beautiful and exotic and I just loved that this book was going to incorporate that rich culture. The summary sounded interesting but it was really the promise of something new and different culturally, that drew me into this story. Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in…
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Review: Vox by Christina Dalcher
This book came across my desk for review and I immediately knew that I wanted to read it. It’s been compared to The Handmaid’s Tale, which is a tall order, so I was eager to read this one and see what all the fuss was about. I read The Handmaid’s Tale in college and wasn’t really a fan. I am not a huge Atwood fan and just didn’t love it in that way that I had hoped. Now flash forward a number of years and suddenly The Handmaid’s Tale has taken on an almost cult following. The political climate and the Hulu adaptation of the book, have made it more…
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Review: The Guilty Dead (Monkeewrench #9) by P.J. Tracy
Lately I’ve been picking up a lot of books mid series. Sometimes it’s worked out and sometimes it hasn’t. It’s not that I like picking up books mid series, I hate missing out on all the action, but what I love about book blogging is that sometimes I get approached to read a book and even though it’s mid series, I find a new series or character that I love and want to read more of. That’s why I decided to pick up this book when it came across my desk for review. Sure it’s nine books into a series, but who knows maybe this would be a new series…
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Review: Sons of Blackbird Mountain (Blackbird Mountain #1) by Joanne Bischof
One of the main reasons that I decided to review this book was that it sounded different. Set in the Appalachian Mountains with a family just arrived from Norway. From the description of the book, it was clear that this was going to be a book with some historical romance but with some strong Christian themes as well. I am not put off by Christian fiction as long as it doesn’t get preachy. Over the years I’ve been really lucky with the Christian fiction books that I’ve read and they haven’t been too heavy handed. I am not familiar with this author so I felt like I was kind of…
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Review: Women of the Dunes by Sarah Maine
Sometimes a book comes along and it’s like it was written just for you. I have been a huge Sarah Maine fan since reading Bhalla Strand, which is now known as The House Between Tides. When I saw that this one was out, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to read it earlier, so I checked it out from my library and brought it with me to Seattle for vacation. Her books are always so atmospheric and have this kind of dark romantic prose so I figured it would be an exciting vacation read. Libby Snow has always felt the pull of Ullanessm a lush…
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Review: Spies of the Midnight Sun: A True Story of WWII Heroes (World War Two Series Book 3) by Samuel Marquis
It’s not very often that I read nonfiction or just plain history books. A book really needs to stand out for me or be in my specialized interest area, for me to review it. I have a Masters in History so reading history nonfiction is something I did for a long time and while I like it, I still have flashbacks about college papers and thesis critiques. So that’s what I thought I was getting into with this book….nonfiction. Dry, scholarly, researched history. I mean, it has ‘true story’ written right in the title—and I just assumed that it would be an informative book, but devoid of personal stories—which I…