Reading Lately

I haven't done a book post since July and while I did not manage to read a ton over the summer with all the travelling I am trying to make up for lost time.

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Synopsis - On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

Thoughts - I enjoyed this one. You have to keep in mind these are high schoolers with high schooler problems but I liked most of the characters, they were all fully developed and I didn't guess the end so that is a plus. I know that Netflix has made a TV show based on the books but I doubt I will watch it. There is also a book two that follows one of the main characters sibling but I don't know if I will be picking it up. 

Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter

Synopsis - Investigating the killing of a prisoner during a riot inside a state penitentiary, GBI investigator Will Trent is confronted with disturbing information. One of the inmates claims that he is innocent of a brutal attack for which he has always been the prime suspect. The man insists that he was framed by a corrupt law enforcement team led by Jeffrey Tolliver and that the real culprit is still out there—a serial killer who has systematically been preying on women across the state for years. If Will reopens the investigation and implicates the dead police officer with a hero’s reputation of wrongdoing, the opportunistic convict is willing to provide the information GBI needs about the riot murder.
Only days ago, another young woman was viciously murdered in a state park in northern Georgia. Is it a fluke, or could there be a serial killer on the loose?
As Will Trent digs into both crimes it becomes clear that he must solve the cold case in order to find the answer. Yet nearly a decade has passed—time for memories to fade, witnesses to vanish, evidence to disappear, and lies to become truth. But Will can’t crack either mystery without the help of the one person he doesn’t want involved: his girlfriend and Jeffrey Tolliver’s widow, medical examiner Sara Linton.

Thoughts - This is my 9th Karin Slaughter - Will Trent book and I love them. The crimes are always stuck churningly awful.. but the story is fast paced, the ending is not predictable and I like all the characters. 

 

What Could Be Saved by Liese O'Halloran Schwarz

Synopsis - Washington, DC, 2019: Laura Preston is a reclusive artist at odds with her older sister Bea as their elegant, formidable mother slowly slides into dementia. When a stranger contacts Laura claiming to be her brother who disappeared forty years earlier when the family lived in Bangkok, Laura ignores Bea’s warnings of a scam and flies to Thailand to see if it can be true. But meeting him in person leads to more questions than answers.
Bangkok, 1972: Genevieve and Robert Preston live in a beautiful house behind a high wall, raising their three children with the help of a cadre of servants. In these exotic surroundings, Genevieve strives to create a semblance of the life they would have had at home in the US—ballet and riding classes for the children, impeccable dinner parties, a meticulously kept home. But in truth, Robert works for American intelligence, Genevieve finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with her husband’s boss, and their serene household is vulnerable to unseen dangers of a rapidly changing world and a country they don’t really understand.

Thoughts - So I am on the fence about this one. I found the 1972 storyline much more interesting. A diplomat and family living in Thailand was fascinating. But that was it. The present day storyline was much less interesting. There was a horrible little reveal in the end but I don't know. Until I didn't get to the end I felt like what is the point of this whole story. 

The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Synopsis - A lot has changed in years since Ambrosia Wellington graduated from college, and she’s worked hard to create a new life for herself. But then an invitation to her ten-year reunion arrives in the mail, along with an anonymous note that reads, “We need to talk about what we did that night.”
It seems that the secrets of Ambrosia’s past—and the people she thought she’d left there—aren’t as buried as she believed. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did or who she did it with: larger-than-life Sloane “Sully” Sullivan, Amb’s former best friend, who could make anyone do anything.
At the reunion, Amb and Sully receive increasingly menacing messages, and it becomes clear that they’re being pursued by someone who wants more than just the truth of what happened that first semester. This person wants revenge for what they did and the damage they caused—the extent of which Amb is only now fully understanding. And it was all because of the game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else and the girl who paid the price.

Thoughts - This was awful. I mean I read the book and there was a twist end and everything but the girls  here are anything but nice. It paints a picture of just how mean spirited to down right evil women can be, especially to each other. It gave me a Euphoria (I have only seen one episode but it made me so sad to see the teens of the current generation so wasted and jaded) Hopefully that is not really the reality but that is how I felt reading this. Sad. And not in a good way. 

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Synopsis - Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.
Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.
The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth. Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there. And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.
By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Thoughts - I thoroughly enjoyed this one. This was the second book I read by the talented TJR and she has done it again. Well done. 

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Synopsis - As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding... six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

Thoughts - I really enjoyed this one as well. It was utterly predictable but it was still super cute. And even though I knew exactly what was going to happen I still couldn't stop smiling as I read all the crazy rom com scenarios played out throughout the book. 

Billy Summers by Stephen King

Synopsis - Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?
How about everything...     

Thoughts - I must admit, this was my first time reading Stephen King. He is known for his horror and while I can stomach the gruesome murders described by Karin Slaughter I can not do the eerie jump scare filled horror. So I have always stayed away from Mr. King's work. I won this book via giveaway I think and well it's been sitting on my bookshelf for months so I finally decided to give it a try. Now here's the funny part.. this book was not horror. It wasn't even a thriller really. It turned out to be a character study of sorts. It was not at all what I had expected or was in the mindset for. So I struggled with this one. I kept on waiting for something horrific or thrilling to happen. I ended up borrowing the audiobook of it just to get through it faster. It was my first time trying an audiobook and it was the perfect type of book to try it on. I could have never finished reading it otherwise. So unfortunately this one is going to be a hard pass for me. It had some good moments but not enough to make it worth it. 

What are you reading right now? 

The kids have a few days off for election day (voted early) and teacher's convention so we are off on another adventure. Follow on Instagram to find out where. 

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