pages: 304 (7 hrs audio book)
isbn: 9781508223719
heard: 6/12-13/2017
rating; meh. i can see why its hyped but i didn't care for it.
book: 23 of 29 for 2017
SYNOPSIS
There are three beautiful blond Babcock sisters: gorgeous and foul-mouthed Adrienne, observant and shy Vanessa, and the youngest and best-loved, Marie. Their mother is ill with leukemia and the girls spend a lot of time with her at a Mexican clinic across the border from their San Diego home so she can receive alternative treatments.
Vanessa is the middle child, a talented pianist who is trying to hold her family together despite the painful loss that they all know is inevitable. As she and her sisters navigate first loves and college dreams, they are completely unaware that an illness far more insidious than cancer poisons their home. Their world is about to shatter under the weight of an incomprehensible betrayal…
MY THOUGHTS
'nother audio book for me.
.....while my goodreads goal is 29 (one for every bday), I'm secretly aiming at 52. one for ever week.
if i keep up with audio books, i think I'll be able to surpass it! (but secretly because I'm weird, i consider that cheating. sooo...idk.)
annnyyywaaaay!!!!
sorry about that.
i saw this cover and read the synopsis and i was in! sorta.
i had it on my wish list so i decided to give it a go.
and uhm...it was okay.
it wasn't stirring any emotion in me.
then chapter 9 happened and HOLY SHIT!!!!!
finally!, some action.
and from there on it was mmmm, okay to OMG action to eh...to oooh girl just to end in meh.
but i think this is mostly my fault because once i found out what happened in chapter 9, i was expecting it to go that way instead of just focusing on Vanessa.
it wasn't a bad book. it just didn't make me feel anything.
i wasn't glad that i heard it. i wasn't glad to have this crossed off. it just didn't do anything. (but it did make me glad that i didn't buy the nook book even if it was on sale for $.99 so, there's that.)
there's romance and cancer and mental illness but overall, i feel that it was all smashed in together. 2 out of the 3 subjects together would have been okay but all 3 and then the add on of Vanessa's gift for playing the piano was too much. (plus her sister Adrienne's artistic talent and Marie's....whatever you want to call that.)
i feel like had she made this book longer, maybe we could have gotten a better story; it could have been concluded better.
EVERYTHING THAT WAS BROUGHT UP IN THE BOOK SHOULD HAVE HAD ITS OWN CONCLUSION!
then, there was that whole situation with Marie.
WHAT THE FUCK!?
they address it by sending her to a private catholic school and even then, that was only after she got kicked out basically so they never really handled that.
the dad was missing most of the book until chapter 9 and even then, everything still fell on Vanessa.
i just feel like, no.
and then, Adrienne?
please.
i cuss more than her in my dreams.
i expected to REALLY like her but she just rubbed me the wrong way.
she was just a bitch. and while i understand that the situation she was in would break someone, she was just a bitch.
and i hated that whole deal with Zach and then Jeff.
you know what?
i didn't like it because it had too many subplots. none of the stories ended properly to justify the new beginnings they had.
too many loose ends.
overall, its a no for me. (sad face emoji)
jump over for spoilers.
thanks for reading.
#lesreads on IG
their mother doesn't have Leukemia, she has Munchausen Syndrome.
basically, she's mentally ill.
because she was a nurse, because she had a bunch of her father's old doctor paperwork, because she's the only one that could speak Spanish and because her husband didn't check on shit, she could continue living that life.
it isn't until they have (let's call them...because i honestly can't remember their names) Barb & Caleb move in with them to help them with the house chores and because they could use the living space since Caleb really is recovering from cancer so the proximity helps them out, that Barb finds out that their mother, lets call her Linda because i forgot her name as well, is basically a liar.
it would explain a lot of it.
i disliked this book so much i don't even want to write it out.
...but let me break it down for you.
DAD
-isn't ever involved in any of the trips to TJ because he's always constantly working.
-wasn't there when his wife had a miscarriage which now that he thinks about it, he doubt there ever was one.
-doesn't deal with Marie basically tagging up her body with bible verses.
-doesn't deal with Marie leaving written letters at every students desk detailing something about i forgot what but i could see why the teacher would be bothered by her actions.
-commits his wife to a mental institute but tells Vanessa that basically she is dead so he can buy up time.
-after he commits her, he basically treats her like a criminal and while i can understand why he's trying to get restraining orders against her, i hated that he still wanted Vanessa to man down the house.
-the whole fucking story is about Vanessa going to school for music and he's telling her no.
i mean she goes but still, "No Nessa, you cant go because even though you're 16 and you should be a kid, your sisters need you and i don't want to deal with it and let you do you." fuck you dude.
-never fucking disciplines Adrienne when she's acting like a spoiled brat.
VANESSA
-piano prodigy.
-mom's "favorite" daughter cause she basically did anything that she wanted her to do.
-falls in love with Caleb 2 seconds after meeting him and taking him on a walk on the beach in Tj where he almost passes out .
-seems to be the more grown up of the girls. (honestly, if i had to rank them: Nessa first (she's the middle child), Marie second (she's the last child) and Adrienne third (she's the first).
-the whole book is basically based on her.
ADRIENNE
-can draw like no ones business
-curses like no ones business (doesn't curse that much honestly. mostly says asshole)
-breaks up with Zack because he told 2 other girls that were her friends about her mom. and while i completely understand that that's not his business to tell, i don't think he meant any ill will. the whole entire time he catered to her and she was just a bitch.
and then 2 minutes later, she's with this Jeff dude and a whole new crew of people who even though she met 2 minutes ago, she's already the boss of.
-seems to handle the whole mom situation the worst. i would say she was the least closest to their mom and she haaaated going to TJ with her mom but she takes it as a personal attack that her mother would do this to her. (which again, i understand but she feels like its all her instead of their family.)
-hated Vanessa for a cool minute because she decided to move schools like she wasn't about to graduate in 2 minutes and leave her anyway.
MARIE
-basically worships Joan of Arc.
-i don't know but her whole plot line of the whole, i wouldn't call it Jesus-y stuff, but whatever the fuck that was, really bothered me. kinda reminded me of Arthurs kid from Station Eleven. and no one really said shit. they were just like okay, let's make you shirts.
what the fuck man.
i mean, aside from that, i think she was pretty stable.
MOTHER
-has...that thing above.
-claimed that she had bad history with doctors which i guess is why her husband never questions anything.
-had her dad's medical paperwork so she could prescribe her own meds (did, i mean, how, if that happens...if you have that kind of paperwork but said doctor passes away, what is the protocol then? i mean its known no? i don't know, you know what i mean)
-paid Lupe to be her assistant and would tell her what to do. which is why she flipped the fuck out when the other doctor tried taking her blood sample.
-honestly, everything was manipulated so well, the book should have been solely based on her. that would have been a better read for me.
....
then the only thing with Barb and Caleb...
how the hell is she living in SD taking him to TJ just to go back home to Seattle to come back to SD after her husband decides to leave her for good.
i mean, i know its a story, but dafuq? doesn't he need stability? i mean....and what about her work? how is she affording all this?
i don't know.
fuck this book.
thanks!
but if you read this book and liked it, please tell me why!
i'd love to hear your side of the story.
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