4 out of 5 stars (+.5 star bonus for the audiobook!) Great story, but with one critical plot point I just could not buy. Goodreads.com: Black Cake, by Charmaine Wilkerson Do yourself a favor and listen to Black Cake on audiobook. Narrators Lynnette R. Freeman and Simone Mcintyre do an incredible job with the musical, deeply emotional … Continue reading Review: Black Cake
4.5 out of 5 stars Goodreads.com: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid When Hollywood legend Evelyn Hugo sits down to tell her life story, she wants one thing made clear: "I am not a good person." But through learning the intimate details of her life on- and off-screen, the reader eagerly … Continue reading Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
2 out of 5 stars 3-star story wasted on 1-star writing. Goodreads.com: The Inheritance Games (#1), The Hawthorne Legacy (#2), The Final Gambit (#3), by Jennifer Lynn Barnes Please do not listen to the audiobooks for this series. Narration exacerbates the poor writing and creates additional problems of its own. Clearly, no one heeded their … Continue reading Review: The Inheritance Games trilogy
2.5 out of 5 stars A locked door mystery with one good reveal, and ten too many twists. Goodreads.com: The Paris Apartment, by Lucy Foley Escaping a rough situation in England, ne'er-do-well bartender Jess makes an impromptu trip to stay with her brother Ben in Paris. But when she gets there, Ben is missing. As … Continue reading Review: The Paris Apartment
3 out of 5 stars Two halves of what should have been different books subtract from each other, instead of adding up. Goodreads.com: Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke Don't get me wrong. I understood Piranesi just fine, once Susanna Clarke chose to make that possible. Up until that point, I was interested, if not quite intrigued. … Continue reading Review: Piranesi
2.5 out of 5 stars At least it wasn't The Goldfinch, I guess. Goodreads.com: Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge #1), by Elizabeth Strout I've read (and loved!) Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction before: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and others. But the adoration for Olive Kitteridge, I do not … Continue reading Review: Olive Kitteridge
4 out of 5 stars Haunting and beautifully bleak, Circe shows us that female empowerment isn't just for humans. Goodreads.com: Circe, by Madeline Miller The Gods of Ancient Greece are not good. They are cruel and cold. Immortality is a gift and also a curse - how can anything have value if nothing can ever … Continue reading Review: Circe
5 out of 5 stars Transporting, inspiring, and nearly indescribable, Shantaram is all at once simple and profound, action-packed and ultimately peaceful. Goodreads.com: Shantaram (Shantaram #1), by Gregory David Roberts Shantaram is so vast a novel that I feel unqualified to express the experience it gave me. It's a thinly veiled biography, too wild and … Continue reading Review: Shantaram
2.5 out of 5 stars This series started strong, fell apart at the end. Goodreads.com: TRUEL1F3, by Jay Kristoff (Lifelike #3) I really like everything I've read by Jay Kristoff. His work with Amie Kaufmann is great, and the LIFEL1K3 series had an incredible start (LIFEL1K3 and DEV1AT3, both 4 stars). Sadly when it came … Continue reading Review: TRUEL1F3
3.5 out of 5 stars Is this book really good? Or really bad? It depends on how you feel about "the plot" at its heart. Goodreads.com: The Plot, by Jean Hanff Korelitz Jacob Finch Bonner is a Writer. Or, more accurately, he wrote one thing of some significance and is now paralyzed by the fear … Continue reading Review: The Plot
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