Literary Criticism
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Review: The Dante Chamber (The Dante Club #2) by Matthew Pearl
To say that Matthew Pearl likes literature is an understatement. Many of his books are literary related in some way or another, making them really intriguing to me. My first experience with Pearl was with the book THE LAST BOOKANEER which was a wonderful read, but more importantly it was different. I have also had THE DANTE CLUB on my radar for the better part of six years, so when this one came up for review I was stoked. So why haven’t I read THE DANTE CLUB you ask…..I have no idea. Maybe it’s because it’s been on my TBR list for so long that I’ve forgotten about it as…
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Review: Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians #1) by Kevin Kwan
Like many people, I’ve seen the preview for the upcoming film Crazy Rich Asians and let’s be honest, it looks really good–at least I think so anyway. It’s definitely on my summer movie list at any rate. I was thrilled to see that the movie was also based on a book and I was super excited to read it. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to buy it but I put it on my library queue and waiting a surprising number of weeks to get it—seems like everyone else had the same idea as me. When it came in I rushed to pick it up because clearly it was a…
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Review: Something In The Water by Catherine Steadman
When this book came across my desk for review, the first thing that caught my eye was that the author was also an actress, most notably an actress in Downton Abbey. I’m always intrigued by people with dual talents. Being an actress is difficult enough but then you add author in the mix and it seems almost impossible so when I see things like this that aren’t memoirs or autobiographies etc, I am always curious to see how the author’s talents translate from big screen to pages. SOMETHING IN THE WATER stood out besides the fact that Steadman is an actress though…..it’s set in Bora Bora. I was instantly intrigued.…
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Review: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
This book was everywhere last year. It was first published in June of 2017 and it’s been every where ever since. All over my social media, on all my friends ‘to read’ or ‘favorite’ shelfs, and at my local library as a librarian favorite. It sounded like something that would be right up my alley, but for some reason it just didn’t scream ‘read me’ even though I had it sitting in my Kindle library for months. Part of me was worried about the hype and another part of me just wasn’t into reading a war time friendship story as I prefer war time romances generally. However, this last month…
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Review: The Fleur de Sel Murders: A Brittany Mystery (Kommissar Dupin #3) by Jean-Luc Bannalec
I am always open to reading quirky books. Don’t get me wrong, I love traditional story telling with traditional themes and relatable stories but I also tend to gravitate toward strange or unusual books that are off the beaten path. Sometimes that works out and other times it doesn’t. It’s 50/50 for me….either weird works or it doesn’t. This mystery series sounded quirky. I debated about reviewing it but ultimately decided on picking it up. How does one make the ‘sea salt industry’ look glamorous and intriguing to the average reader? Even with a mystery? I was up for the challenge and dug right in. The old salt farmers have…
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Review: Black Amber by Phyllis A. Whitney
Phyllis Whitney is an author who has been on my radar since I was old enough to read and appreciate romantic suspense books…..so basically since like thirteen or fourteen. So for over 20 years I’ve been trying to motivate myself enough to read one of her books. I mean she’s written tons and tons and tons of books so she must be doing something right. So why haven’t I picked up her books? I honestly have worried that they would be ‘dated’. I mean, Victoria Holt (my all time favorite romantic suspense writer), wrote books that were very clearly meant to be historical fiction. They were always set in the…
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Review: The Girl I Used to Be by Mary Torjussen
I was introduced to Mary Torjussen last year when I read GONE WITHOUT A TRACE. While there were a few things that didn’t work for me in that book, I was impressed enough by her writing that when THE GIRL I USED TO BE came up, I was willing to review her latest thriller. She doesn’t write series books and for that I am thankful. Don’t get me wrong I love series however sometimes it’s nice to have a full story and resolution in just one book. As a reader it helps me get closure and I personally hate when authors or publishers milk a series just for the sake…
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Review: The New Neighbors by Simon Lelic
I am a total true crime junkie. Whenever I am home sick or just wanting to waste a day watching mindless TV, my go to station is ID Discovery. I absolutely love watching true crime. My favorites though are always the ones about seemingly normal families and people. I think I watched Nightmare Next Door like every day that I was pregnant and home on bed rest…..by the end of three months I was certain that my neighbors were all serial killers. So it’s safe to say that I love the whole suburban killer next door idea so when this book made it’s way into my mailbox, I was totally…
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Review: The Family Gathering (Sullivan’s Crossing #3) by Robyn Carr
This year I have tried to read a little more fluffy contempo romances. I’ve sometimes felt that I get pigeon holed into reviewing just historical fiction—don’t get me wrong, historical fiction is my jam but sometimes I need a break and could go for something a little more modern and different just to keep things interesting. Romances never seem to get old for me and I think a lot of women would agree. It doesn’t matter how cliche or repetitive the romance might seem–theres just something about love and having everything turn out in the end that just makes me happy and gives me hope that romance is still alive…
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Review: The Elizas by Sara Shepard
If I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t really know what grabbed me about this book but something just did. When the pitch came through I wasn’t entirely sure this was something that I was interested in reading. Maybe it was the colorful cover or maybe it was the idea of a false memory. I don’t know but something made me think this was something that I would be interested in. Sara Shepard wrote the wildly popular Pretty Little Liars series so maybe that was what made me excited. I mean her books are popular right? She must be doing something right, so I agreed to read. This is Shepard’s first…