pages: 290
heard/read: 2/28 to 3/1 2019
rating: i LOVE Shari!!!!
book: 24 in 2019
Love is harder to understand --and predict-- than hate.
It's winter in the Catskills and Mitchell's Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing--maybe even romantic--weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge wood-burning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.
So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity--and all contact with the outside world--the guests settle in and try to make the best of it.
Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead--it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.
Within the snowed-in paradise, something--or someone--is picking off the guests one by one. And there's nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm--and one another.
So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity--and all contact with the outside world--the guests settle in and try to make the best of it.
Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead--it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.
Within the snowed-in paradise, something--or someone--is picking off the guests one by one. And there's nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm--and one another.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
i love Shari!!! always and forever. loved this read.
LONG VERSION
ahhhhhh!!!
i didn't know she was this far into the game. i knew of her second book and that's how i learned about this one. and that there's another one on the way!!!!
definitely picking that one up too!
i was supposed to take this with me when i went to Sky Forest up by Lake Arrowhead.
thank God, i left this at home because i would have had a heart attack (im a HUGE chicken so don't read too much into that). the first night we were there, we didn't have great electricity so the power kept going out. the upstairs rooms were kinda creepy and we couldn't go downstairs unless we went outside in the snow and the dark....everything that this book has. ahh!
this book gave me Bad Times at The El Royale vibes right from the beginning. Just the set up and the idea-ish. i knew it was going to be good.
AND IT WAS!!!!!
i heard this as an audio book but i had the actual book as well, so I'd listen at work getting stuff done and then read along when i got home.
i think this might be my new fave way to get through a book!
so
good!
the premise and everything! ahhh!!
guys!, you know I ALWAYS CHEAT and look for spoilers and i don't care that i know them and the more i know the better but this was the first time where i was suuuuper bummed out that i knew the ending. which is kinda saying a lot because while i do love this story and everything about it was soooo good and now im never staying anywhere in the winter other than my house, the reveal of the who did it was a biiiiiiit anticlimactic. i obvs knew who it was but the reveal left a little bit to be desired. it was one teeeeeeeny tiiiiiiny little mistake that got the killer caught and it wasn't even that knowing killed it but it was just how fast it was discovered who had done it when that piece of evidence was found.
i will say though, knowing the spoilers made me more alert in regards to finding the clues along the way.
there are a lot of characters that you get introduced to so it can be a bit before you get a hold of everyone and who's who. i wrote notes all over Starbucks napkins and stickies because a) you meet a lot of people and b) a lot of their truths come out. i wanted to make sure i had all that down to spoil it later but also to refer back to.
also, because I've been reading more than typing these out, I've been really shitty about information and names and i didn't want to miss anything with this one.
anyway, good read!
i will also be purchasing this book for my collection as soon as i find it out on paperback.
if you like mystery/thrillers, i definitely recommend this one.
its not too long and its a pretty good read.
also, i definitely recommend the audio book. i wasn't TOO crazy about the narrator BUT she did such a good job in giving no one extra emotions that might have given it away that they were the killer. she kept a straight voice through it all and i think that really helped out a lot. i feel like if she had given emotions to characters as she read them, it might have been figured out right away who it was.
and just when you think you know who the killer is at the end....tun, tun, tun......do ya really know?!!!
ahhh!!!
spoilers as always! down below.
thx!
pages: 310
read: 2/18-26/2019
rating: good kids book / read
book: 23 in 2019
“If you didn’t have bad things, you wouldn’t have good things. They would all just be things. Did you ever think about that?”
In one day, four lives weave together in unexpected ways. Virgil Salinas is shy and kind hearted and feels out of place in his crazy-about-sports family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and she loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister, Gen, is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just stop being so different so he can concentrate on basketball.
They aren’t friends, at least not until Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well. This disaster leads Kaori, Gen, and Valencia on an epic quest to find missing Virgil. Through luck, smarts, bravery, and a little help from the universe, a rescue is performed, a bully is put in his place, and friendship blooms.
“That’s the problem. People don’t want to listen to their thoughts, so they fill the world with noise.”
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
man, what are kids made of these days? i know its a kid's read, but I'm glad i read it. i think if you have kids, this is something good to read with them.
LONG VERSION
another amazon win!
I picked this book up purely because of the cover but I ended up loving it.
I'm not sure if it's because I'm older but kids stories man, they kill me.
I love the whole fate theme. I'm a huge believer of fate and karma and timing and coincidence so this story appealed to me.
But I love it not only for that. I love it because Virgil finally finds his voice and that was one of the best things about this book. Sometimes shit has to hit the fan in order for you to find out who you truly are.
So glad I gave this book a read.
I'm not sure if it's because I'm older but kids stories man, they kill me.
I love the whole fate theme. I'm a huge believer of fate and karma and timing and coincidence so this story appealed to me.
But I love it not only for that. I love it because Virgil finally finds his voice and that was one of the best things about this book. Sometimes shit has to hit the fan in order for you to find out who you truly are.
So glad I gave this book a read.
I'd read it in bed close to bedtime so I'd read this as much as i could and then go to sleep happy to have read something with such a good message.
the synopsis gives you the entire gist of the book (duh, les. that's it's job!) so there's not a whole lot more i can say without spoiling it for ya.
all i can say is Virgil definitely has a lot of love to give. and you can tell that Valencia wants more than she leads on. everyone wants a friend. as much as being alone is great, it's still pretty painful to not have anyone at a time of need or just anyone period. i love her character for being so alert. i mean, obvs she has to be. but not only is she SO GOOD, she doesn't let that stop her from being kick ass. having someone with a disability and showing them in a positive light was such a good idea for this story. and i think it's a great thing that it's shown throughout the book continuously.
i loved grandma Lola and the relationship she has with Virgil. i think it's an amazing thing to have an adult talk to you like a human vs a kid who doesn't "know" things. i believe kids know more than we give them credit for. and the author does such a good job showing you that parents aren't always the best even though you know they definitely don't mean you any harm. they're just being parents.
I'm not a huge believer in Astrology mostly cause its not something that I've ever looked into but i liked reading about it in this book and i love that Kaori loves it with all her heart. i love even more that as much as she is right, she is wrong and for the most part her little sister is just as wise even if it's not as it says it is in the stars. i think she did a good job making this subject work both ways.
overall, this was a really cute, good read and it is aimed for younger kids so this is something that would be good for kids to read. just you know, don't let them go near a well. and maybe talk them and teach them to not be little shits to other kids. (:
jump over for spoilers!
thanks for reading!
#lesreads on IG
published: 2019
pages: varies
heard: 2/18/2019
rating: no thanks
book: 15-22 in 2019
(also, not that it matters but when its a group of several books like this, i go into my goodreads account and add the additional X amount of books to my "challenge" cause i technically count these all as 1. they're too small to me to eat up 1 book and get me closer to "my goal" . idk I'm weird!)
SYNOPSIS
read all about em here!MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
WTF!?
LONG VERSION
WTTTFFF!!!???
I don't uh, i don't even know.
once again, amazon reads releases a few short stories and I'm all "okay, let's give it a go!"
these stories are about women and their sexuality and their need to use it to gain some sort of control or power or honestly, i don't even know.
it's been awhile since i heard them and i can still say that i don't care for them and I'm still wtf over a few of them.
I wrote down what each one is basically about but I've decided to leave that all in the spoilers because essentially that's what they are. and i also didn't want to make this an unnecessarily long ass post right upfront.
...let's leave that for books i looooove. or dislike. or i just really have something (a lot) to say on.
i can say that i really didn't care for any of these stories....they didn't do much for me.
BUT Eleanor.
that bitch got me fuuuuucked up.
i just could not get that one 1000 ways to die episode of my head as she was doing what she did.
and just what she did... no...not what im even mentioning on top but that OTHER THING!, like if you want revenge, fine. but don't do what you fucking did. in my head, all i think about is, all the wrongs that could have happened to everyone else because of her actions.
U G H ! ! !
anyway, jump over if you want to know what they're about.
thanks for reading!
pages: 276
heard: 2/14-15/19
rating: possibly my favorite book of 2019
book: 14 in 2019
"sometimes it is impossible to move forward without understanding what happened."
“We’ve been waiting for an hour.” That’s what Audrey says. She states it with a little bit of an edge, her words just bordering on cursive. That’s the thing I think first. Not: Audrey Hepburn is at my birthday dinner, but Audrey Hepburn is annoyed.”
At one point or another, we’ve all been asked to name five people, living or dead, with whom we’d like to have dinner. Why do we choose the people we do? And what if that dinner was to actually happen? These are the questions Rebecca Serle contends with in her utterly captivating novel, THE DINNER LIST, a story imbued with the same delightful magical realism as One Day, and the life-changing romance of Me Before You.
When Sabrina arrives at her thirtieth birthday dinner she finds at the table not just her best friend, but also three significant people from her past, and well, Audrey Hepburn. As the appetizers are served, wine poured, and dinner table conversation begins, it becomes clear that there’s a reason these six people have been gathered together.
Delicious but never indulgent, sweet with just the right amount of bitter, THE DINNER LIST is a romance for our times. Bon appetit.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
YES!!! I LOVE THIS BOOK SO FREAKING MUCH. YES!!!!!
LONG VERSION
this freaking book man!
thank you library audiobook section!!!!
i have been wanting to read this book since it was released. mostly because of the cover and mostly because of the premise but as all, it fell to the back.
luckily, it was available for immediate listen.
AND I AM SO GLAD THAT I GOT AROUND TO IT!!!!!!
i don't know what i was expecting.
i mean, who would you invite to dinner? everyone's been asked this since the beginning of time. and after reading this book, i have to genuinely think about who my 5 would be. tbh, prior to this, i've never really thought about who my 5 would be.
i don't know man, this book was something else.
it gave me more than i thought it was going to.
and to this day, i beat myself up that i didn't physically read this book and instead listed to it. this is one of those books that I NEED TO OWN for my own personal library.
i think im a sucker for sappy love stories where it doesn't work out no matter what you do because i feel like i can say that i've been in the position where maybe "the one" did get away and, so, yea,...bah! *cue Katy Perry*, so they hold a special place for me.
tmi maybe. i'll leave it at that but yea.
tmi maybe. i'll leave it at that but yea.
Sabrina has dinner with Audrey, her best friend Jessica, her father (whom she didn't grow up with) - Robert, her favorite professor Conrad and her ex Tobias.
and at first, i was like *head scratch* okay....odd choice? well, not odd just, i had no idea where this was going.
and it's going good. you delve into her life and how she meets Tobias. how her friendship with jessica is. how her relationship with her father was....and then BOOM!!!!!!
it hits you.
i did not see that twist coming.
i had to stop playing the audio real quick and mentally take in what i had just heard and even write it down to make sure that if i forgot it, i could look down at it and get back to it. but you don't forget something like that.
you can't.
you can't.
and OMG that shit killed me internally.
i felt that.
"the most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said."
the story then takes you into what its about and everyone has their little bits to add to the story to make her realize. and you learn so much about her relationship with everyone at the table.
you get to see how adulthood shapes her relationships (i mean more specifically hers and jessica's in this instance.) how their stubbornness affects their relationship (hers and tobias'). how her father leaving at a young age and then building another family affects her as well.
and then the end.
it was closure.
it's all about closure.
and there's stubbornness but you can see her coming to her senses.
you can see her accepting it for what it is. and she makes her amends where she needs to for peace of mind for all those involved.
honestly, i need to physically read this book because just doing the audio doesn't do it justice. it doesn't do me justice.
i think i'll get a better grip of it. i feel like i'd understand it more.
i think i can see why Audrey was there but i still feel like she slipped from under me.
i think reading this book again will give me even more understanding than what i got from it the first time.
i absolutely loved this book.
and that cover! not even the cover so much but the yellow! i love the yellow. and it's made me realize i need more yellow books in my life.
i will re-read this and ill give it a better "review" next time.
for now, i'll just do the main spoiler.
once i re-read this, i'll take better notes and give a more in-depth spoiler.
thanks for reading!
#lesreads on IG
pages: 334
read: 2/7-12/2019
rating: good second book.
book: 13 in 2019
SYNOPSIS
Nina has always known who she's supposed to be. But is that who she truly is?
Nina Gregory has always been a good daughter. Raised by her father, owner of New York City's glamorous Gregory Hotels, Nina was taught that family, reputation, and legacy are what matter most. And Tim--her devoted boyfriend and best friend since childhood--feels the same. But when Nina's father dies, he leaves behind a secret that shocks Nina to her core.
As her world falls apart, Nina begins to see the men in her life--her father, her boyfriend, and unexpectedly, her boss, Rafael--in a new light. Soon Nina finds herself caught between the world she loves, and a passion that could upend everything.
More Than Words is a heartbreaking and romantic novel about grief, loss, love, and self-discovery, and how we choose which life we are meant to live.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
good read.
LONG VERSION
its been a while since I've read this book. and the entire time since I've been done reading it, all i can keep telling myself is that it does not compare to her first book. and i know that i shouldn't compare because it'll never be the same but....
this was a good read.
and even though i kept telling myself "it's whole new story", i still felt like it was missing a little something. it's missing the umph her first book had for me.
maybe because i saw myself in her first book. maybe because i connected with Lucy more when it comes to love vs Nina who is discovering who she is.
(why the fuck am i comparing myself to these 2 fictional women? especially when i am nowhere near where they are.)
Nina is doing her thing but has to step into her father's shoes once he falls ill. she thought she had more time but it turns out she didn't.
her personal life family wise has just fallen apart because of her father's death.
her personal life relationship wise is falling apart because not only did she lose her boyfriend but she lost her best friend.
her personal life, her life, life is falling apart because she needs to find a middle between who she wants to be vs who she's meant to be vs who she's supposed to be because of her last name.
she's all over the place.
but even then.....she's no Lucy. I don't feel for her like i did with Lucy. (i know. i hate myself for comparing them but its how i feel!)
Nina is trying to figure herself out and then comes across family secrets once its too late to confront her father about them. of the 2, the first one is pretty fucking huge. and i don't think she gave it the "proper" amount of grief, anger, wtf'ness that it deserved. i know if i was ever in her shoes with that secret, it would rock my fucking world.
the second one...well, had she done her research like her father had asked her...well she could have discussed that with him.
All decisions were affected by the time in which they were made. nothing existed in vacuum.maybe Santopolo's intentions weren't to focus on the negative and more on the whole Nina discovering who she is meant to be and if that's the case, then good. she did a good job there.
eventually, after the continuous self doubt, Nina finally figures out who she is meant to be.
at times i found myself yelling at Nina internally because on page as you read the dilemma, you can feel what she wanted to say but it was never the case.
one of my favorite scenes has to be where she is with Tim and she needs release. and she shows him her actual sexual side. she's been with him under a year but sex with him was safe and in this scene she's raw and energized and so sure of herself and she gives him a glimpse of who she is (that wasn't really a spoiler...but sorry) and you start getting glimpses of who she is meant to be.
that was the Nina that I liked. and I'm glad that in the end, that is who she gets to be.
of course, in the end it works out as its meant to....and it is a good story. i know i make it out to seem like its not BUT IT IS. i think all of me is just hung on a beautiful story that i personally think might be hard to recreate or i mean, follow up, come close to (?). but still, if this is what Santopolo is giving us, then i can safely say that I will continue to read as she publishes. she's not someone whose book's i want to miss out on.
Love was complicated. It didn't disappear because someone did something horrible. Something you didn't agree with. It lived there with the disappointment, the disapproval. You had to figure out how to hold both in your heart or you'd lose everyone, everything. (pg 178)
have you read it?
whatcha think?
spoilers as always! down below.
thx!
pages: 354
read: 2/4-6/2019 (i listened to it)
rating: it angered me so i guess it did its job.
book: 12 in 2019
SYNOPSIS
It’s been a year since Billie Flanagan—a Berkeley mom with an enviable life—went on a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness and vanished from the trail. Her body was never found, just a shattered cellphone and a solitary hiking boot. Her husband and teenage daughter have been coping with Billie’s death the best they can: Jonathan drinks as he works on a loving memoir about his marriage; Olive grows remote, from both her father and her friends at the all-girls school she attends.
But then Olive starts having strange visions of her mother, still alive. Jonathan worries about Olive’s emotional stability, until he starts unearthing secrets from Billie’s past that bring into question everything he thought he understood about his wife. Who was the woman he knew as Billie Flanagan?
Together, Olive and Jonathan embark on a quest for the truth—about Billie, but also about themselves, learning, in the process, about all the ways that love can distort what we choose to see. Janelle Brown’s insights into the dynamics of intimate relationships will make you question the stories you tell yourself about the people you love, while her nervy storytelling will keep you guessing until the very last page.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
once this "review" is up, i doubt I'll think about it again. but if you like books that fuck with you, then yea, it's good.
(update: before this was even published i forgot about it. i forgot about it once i was done writing this down,) gah.
LONG VERSION
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
and that's it.
okay no but seriously.
i don't hate it...because it was a free library audio listen. had i paid for it, there probably wouldn't be enough dislike in the world to convey how i feel about this book.
it's not that it wasn't written well. it's not that it wasn't a very well told story it's just that if i could travel back in time and tell myself not to read this book, i would tell myself to skip this book....and maybe this one too.
Billie was just ugh. that bitch! and Harmony. that dumb bitch! and JONATHAN!! dude!!! i know you're hurting and need closure but come on! in your own home, think about your daughter first before you think about getting your dick wet. gah!
i cheated and looked for spoilers and luckily i was able to get some and i think that helped me pay more attention to the story. i think it was helping me piece everything together a bit faster. since i knew what happened at the end, i wanted to find out how it got to that point. had i not been able to find it, i think i would have given up on it.
you know what it is?
this story is supposed to be about finding Billie.
and while you delve into her past and then the search for her and i get that all that needs to be there, there was just too much extra going on. Olive was dealing with her shit and then that whooooole other thing that honestly would have been fine not being in the story! Jonathan was dealing with his shit. harmony was..., harmony was weird because honestly she could have just told Jonathan everything instead of letting him find out and then her being like "Oh, yea!, i knew." she could have saved us all some time. so she was just a bag of dicks. and Natalie (Olive's so called friend) was just a little shit. this "feminist, women do everything" little bitch just turns her back on her friend at an important time in her life instead of practicing what she preaches.
u g h!!!!!
AND BILLIE!!!!!!!!!
uuuuuuuughhhhh Billie.
all it was was that she was having a mid life crisis because Olive turned into a teen.
YES!
kids will love you til they hit 13. then they hate you for a couple of years and then you cant get rid of them! turst me! i know. im 31 and im not trying to leave my momma!!!!
ahhhhhh!
i think this kind of made her revert to her old ways. had she been able to penetrate Olive into what she wanted (for lack of a better phrase) i think she'd still be alive.
Billie is a bitch.
in the allness of it. Billie is just...evil.
is that a bit of a spoiler? meh, maybe. it depends.
baaah!, let me tell you how i really feel! lol.
it's just, too many things going on.
too many little sub stories trying to make their way into the bigger story and it was just too much. I can see how R brings them all together but it was just...why couldn't Billie just be who she was without bringing 45 different people from all over the globe into the story?
over all, if it's free to listen to and you got the time and you're okay knowing that you might dislike it eventually then go for it.
but i wouldn't buy the book...i think that it's saving grace; that i didn't buy it.
BTW, it's been about a month since i heard this and yes, this book still pisses me off. so you know.....know that these feels have had time to be what they are.
dear Billie,
I'm glad you are gone.
dear Jonathan & olive,
move the fuck on. you're both better off.
dear hannah & natalie,
dick.
dear calvin,
you're a dick too.
i hope you get caught.
(buuuut i can understand from a business point of view.)
thx for reading!
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