Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme created by Renee @ It’s Book Talk. This meme lets you share old favorites published over a year ago or books that you just never got to! My list of those is miles long. If you’re interested in participating, too, check out her post this week!
Tag: books
Review: As Bright as Heaven
Title: As Bright as Heaven
Author: Susan Meissner
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Date: February 6, 2018
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars)
In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters–Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa–a chance at a better life.
But just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without–and what they are willing to do about it.
As Bright as Heaven is the compelling story of a mother and her daughters who find themselves in a harsh world, not of their making, which will either crush their resolve to survive or purify it.
Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Quotes
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
I’m excited to be participating! A handful of these are go-to’s of mine, but others are recent ones I’ve fallen in love with. I envy those of you that can pull a Top Ten off the top of your head!
Review: Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2)
Title: Force of Nature
Author: Jane Harper
Series: Aaron Falk, #2
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction
Publication Date: February 6, 2018
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)
Five women go on a hike. Only four return. Jane Harper, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dry, asks: How well do you really know the people you work with?
When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path.
But one of the women doesn’t come out of the woods. And each of her companions tells a slightly different story about what happened.
Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker. In an investigation that takes him deep into isolated forest, Falk discovers secrets lurking in the mountains, and a tangled web of personal and professional friendship, suspicion, and betrayal among the hikers. But did that lead to murder?
Looking Ahead – This Month’s TBR List
Okay, real talk, how is the start of spring coming up this month? Is anyone else in awe that we’re already 3 months into 2018?
The lovely Tina over at Reading Between the Pages is hosting this fun meme to share your month’s reading goals. To meet some new bloggers and maybe some new titles, go check it out!
Review: The French Girl
Title: The French Girl
Author: Lexie Elliott
Genre: Mystery, Fiction
Publication Date: February 20, 2018
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars)
They were six university students from Oxford–friends and sometimes more than friends–spending an idyllic week together in a French farmhouse. It was supposed to be the perfect summer getaway–until they met Severine, the girl next door.
For Kate Channing, Severine was an unwelcome presence, her inscrutable beauty undermining the close-knit group’s loyalties amid the already simmering tensions. And after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can’t forgive, and there are some people you can’t forget, like Severine, who was never seen again.
Now, a decade later, the case is reopened when Severine’s body is found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she’s worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful she will be forever bound to the woman whose presence still haunts her, Kate finds herself buried under layers of deception with no one to set her free.
Continue reading “Review: The French Girl”
Monthly Wrap-Up: February 2018
As yet another month draws to a close, I’m looking back and reflecting on what I got accomplished. Today marks two weeks that I’ve been blogging, and I’m so grateful for all of you that have come along to join me for this crazy ride!
I’m hoping to get in the habit of doing a monthly wrap-up to summarize the books I read, updates on any challenges I’m participating in, and any other exciting tidbits I can think to provide. So, without further ado …
What I Read
This month, I tackled 12 books and had a lot of fun!
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.
Review: UNSUB (UNSUB #1)
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.
The Traveling Inkwell 