Category: Review

Review: This Is How It Always Is

This Is How It Always IsTitle: This Is How It Always Is

Author: Laurie Frankel

Genre: Fiction

Publication Date: January 24, 2017

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars)

“So these kids just get to pick who they are?” Frank searched for an apt metaphor and finally settled on, “It’s like a video game.”

“No, it’s like a fairy tale,” said Penn. Rosie rolled her eyes at him. “Maybe you look like a filthy scullery maid, but inside, you’re really a princess, and if you’re good, you find the right grave to cry on or the right lamp to rub, and you become a princess on the outside too.”

This Is How It Always Is is, without a doubt, one of the most emotional and important books I’ve ever read, and it’s going to resonate with me for a long, long time.

At its core, this is a story about family, about learning to embrace and celebrate change, and about fairy tales and how happily ever after might not exist … but that’s okay because it isn’t a happy ending you should be striving for, but a happy now.

There’s something instantly recognizable in the hectic Walsh-Adams family. The anecdotal nature of the storyline makes it easy to find something to connect with, whether it’s the challenges of parenthood or the endless frenzy of a bunch of siblings. Aspiring novelist Penn and resourceful doctor Rosie already bring diverse personalities to the table as parents, and the chaos of having four boys in the household creates an loving environment equal parts open and unpredictable. There’s surly Roo, precocious Ben, and the wild twins Orion and Rigel. And then, of course, there’s Claude.

When Claude begins to express his desire to grow up to be a girl, it’s refreshing how willingly his family embraces the idea and allows him to become Poppy. But the safe haven of their household can’t blanket the entire world, and closed minds and brushes with violence prompt the family to relocate to more liberal Seattle. Suddenly, the promise of a fresh start and the question of whose business is Poppy’s history anyways has the Walsh-Adams unintentionally keeping a secret that feels weightier and riskier with every year that passes. Until suddenly it’s not a secret anymore.

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Review: Two Girls Down

Title: Two Girls Down

Author: Louisa Luna

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction

Publication Date: January 9, 2018

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

Two Girls Down is a fun, page-turning read littered with twists, turns, and red herrings that will keep you guessing all the way till the end.

When Jamie Brandt’s two daughters disappear from a mall parking lot, bounty hunter Alice Vega teams up with ex-cop Max Caplan on the case. Together, they work with and against local law enforcement and the Feds to peel back the layers of the Brandt family and the Denville community – and there’s definitely plenty to unearth.

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Review: UNSUB (UNSUB #1)

Unsub

Title: UNSUB

Author: Meg Gardiner

Series: UNSUB, #1

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction

Publication Date: June 27, 2017

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 stars)

She looked at the darkening sky, the lights sparkling on the distant Berkeley Hills. There were seven million lives around her. And a ghost was loose among them, hunting.

It’s a rare occurrence that I fall in love with a thriller as immediately as I did with UNSUB, but I learned within the first few chapters that the hype over the past year has not been overrated. UNSUB is dark and wild and twisty and terrifying, and I loved every. Single. Moment.

When the unsub (AKA the Prophet) began his sadistic killing spree, the Bay Area was shrouded in death and terror for months on end. Caitlin Hendrix’s childhood was marked by his reign more than most – her father couldn’t help but bring the horrors home as one of the lead investigators on the case. And then, just as suddenly as it all began, the Prophet disappeared into the wind, seeming to take her father’s sanity with him.

Twenty years later, Caitlin has become a narcotics detective, following in her father’s footsteps yet at the same time trying to break free of his shadow. But when two bodies are discovered in a corn field bearing the nightmarish signature she’s far too well acquainted with, Caitlin knows there’s no one better suited to finding the answers that have eluded the police for decades. She was born for this.

The Prophet has her number, though, and the stakes get personal – quick. In a heart-pounding race against the clock, Caitlin must unravel the brain of a brilliant psychopath before history repeats itself and the darkness drags her down, too.

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