For May I didn’t read as much as what I wanted to but overall it was a pretty well rounded month!
I ended up completing:
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo – ⭐️4/5 stars
Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan – ⭐️2/5 stars
Well Matched by Jen DeLuca – ⭐️3/5 stars
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston – ⭐️2/5 stars
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough – ⭐️4/5 stars
*BEWARE OF SPOILERS*
Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone. When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.
Louise I enjoyed as a character. Her perspective being the other woman in a marriage was interesting to read from especially since she’s quite relatable. Some of the decisions she makes like continuing her friendship with Adele were not the greatest but I can see why she would want to.
Adele I honestly thought was inconsequential at first. I figured this was just mainly focus on David’s infidelity’s and finding out that he was actually behind the fire that killed her parents. I definitely didn’t think she would progress into the sociopathic character she was portrayed to be in the end. I was very much intrigued and entertained by the way she played Louise and orchestrated everything, to say I was shocked would be an understatement.
David is a tricky one. I can understand the predicament he has found himself in being stuck in this marriage with Adele but if he would of just come clean from the start like he wanted to none of this would of happened. I think he is just as culpable as Adele and I feel like there should of been some ramifications for being an accessory. He is still a cheater at the end of the day and there was nothing really about the man that appealed to me. I don’t understand why Adele and Louise are both so enamored by him, we only ever see him drunk and crazed most of the time.
The overall pacing was very well done. Though not a lot happens for about 3/4 of this book I still felt compelled to continue reading and figure out what Adele was going to do next and what was this secret she was holding over David’s head. I liked the supernatural element, it gave the book a little excitement, especially after Louise figured it out.
⭐️4/5 stars That last twist at the end was mind blowing!!
I did this tag around this time last year and thought why not revisit and do some predictions for 2022!
All of these prompts are your predictions for your…
Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett
House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas
Gods & Monsters by Shelby Mahurin – This series has steadily gone downhill for me
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie – I have a feeling I might love some of these characters
Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson
All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman
It’s Top Ten Tuesday time again! This week the prompt is just a quote freebie, I am not the kind of reader that annotates my books or highlights my favourite quotes or anything like that. So I decided for this week I am going to look back through the 40 or so books I have read so far this year and pick out ten that have my favourite first lines!
My favourite opening lines so far in 2022 are:
All’s Well by Mona Awad
“I’m lying on the floor watching, against my will, a bad actress in a drug commercial tell me about her fake pain”
Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller
“I prefer metal to people, which is why the forge is my safe space.”
Daughter of the Siren Queen by Tricia Levenseller
The sound of my knife slitting across a throat feels much too loud in the darkness
Queen of Volts by Amanda Foody
“It was early morning when Harvey Gabbiano dug the grave.”
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
“Salt water and blood taste the same.”
The Monarchs by Danielle Morgan & Danielle Paige
“Long-dead eyes blink open in the crypt.”
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
“My throat tickles.”
Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark
“You ever seen a Klan march?”
Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica
“There’s a smudge of lipstick on the collar of his shirt.”
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
“My sweater was new, stinging red and ugly.”
Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and a puritanical administration at Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny. But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes.
Chloe as a character is definitely interesting and she felt very authentic. Sometimes when I’m reading contemporary books the characters either read too young or old but I feel like Casey McQuiston got all of these characters pretty spot on. I liked the fact that Chloe rebels against the rigid rules and regulations at her school. At first I was confused as to why Chloe was so adamant in figuring out what happened to Shara and why she just had to follow her clues. I felt like there was no motivating factors for her to continue chasing after Shara when it was obvious she was just messing with them and sending them on this wild goose chase.
I didn’t like Shara’s character at all honestly. From what we find out about her throughout the course of the book she has always capitalized off her position as the principal’s daughter and uses and manipulates everyone around her for her own gain. Her quest she sets out for Chloe, Smith and Rory again really showcase how much of a bad person she is and I didn’t really like how she is supposed to be redeemed at the end. We don’t get to see her have conversations with Smith and Rory about how she used them and vice versa, we’re just supposed to accept that they are all good and dying each other’s hair. She just wasn’t really held accountable for anything and that annoyed me.
Overall I just didn’t understand what the purpose of the book was. It was centered around Shara however we don’t even meet her until almost three quarters of the way through. We see everything through Chloe’s perspective and she doesn’t have the nicest things to say about her and then I’m expected to believe that it was actually love she was feeling. Shara very nearly sabotaged Chloe’s whole academic career because she actually liked her too much? Just doesn’t make sense to me.
I understand that these are teenagers and maybe the way they feel isn’t supposed to make sense and this book was just supposed to be about accepting who you are and coming to terms with your feelings and growing from that, but I came out of it not feeling miffed. The other characters were entertaining and distinctive for the most part. The Rory and Smith subplot was adorable and I really enjoyed seeing them come together!
⭐️2/5 stars I can understand the appeal, wasn’t for me though…
amyleighreads.com 