Tag Archives: 2024

My Year in Review 2024

Posted on by
Reply

One of my favourite things to do at this time of year is to reflect on the reading year that was, and Jamie aka The Perpetual Page-Turner makes this very easy to do by providing this list of questions.

Number Of Books I Read: 66
Number of Re-Reads: 1
Genre I Read The Most From: literary fiction/YA (not really genres, I know – but in those categories I read a lot of thrillers, mysteries, realistic fic)

My Goodreads Year in Review can be found here.

best-YA-books-2014

1. Best Book You Read In 2024?

All the Colors of the Dark – Chris Whitaker

This is an epic story because it takes place over many years. It is also a story that moves swiftly. There’s a lot of dialogue in this story and so despite its length it almost begs to be read in one sitting. I think Whitaker’s super power is his characters. I loved Saint and Patch, who are revealed to us through their actions and their dialogue. But they are not the only characters to love. There’s Chief Nix, Norma and Sammy, too. I felt like I knew and cared for each and every one of them.

Runner Up: The Serpent King -Jeff Zentner

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

I Did it For You – Amy Engel

Maybe if I hadn’t read The Roanoke Girls or The Familiar Dark first, I would have liked I Did It For You more than I did. I read a lot of thrillers, and this one stacks up just fine against many of them. But I was really hoping for the sucker punch The Familiar Dark offered, or the dark family secret hidden in the depths of The Roanoke Girls. For me, this just didn’t have the same emotional depth as those two books. That said, the last third of the book definitely outpaced the first two thirds and while I suspected one thing, I was surprised by another revelation. So, not a total miss – really not a miss at all, just not as good as I’d hoped.

 3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?  

Tim Johnston’s Distant Sons surprised me when I realized that the two main characters, Sean (Descent) and Dan (The Current) were known to me. I was delighted to spend more time with them. Johnston is a must-read author for me.

 4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

My most recommended books this year have been: The Serpent King, Shiner, Distant Sons. Loads of people are already reading All the Colors of the Dark, so I don’t feel as though I have to talk about that one as much.

5. Favorite new author you discovered in 2024?

Jeff Zenter. I can’t tell you how much I LOVED The Serpent King. I will also be reading everything of Amy Jo Burns I can get my hands on.

6. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

I am not going to pretend to understand anything about the science that happens in this book, but I honestly don’t think that it matters all too much if you do. I really liked this sci fi/thriller hybrid novel.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

I couldn’t put Talking at Night down. It isn’t a thriller, nor is it action-packed. But I read it in two long gulps.

9. Book You Read In 2024 That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

It is unlikely I will re-read anything next year that I read this year. So many books, so little time.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2024?

Here are two of my favourite covers of 2024.

11. Most memorable character of 2024?

It would be impossible not to include the titular character of Demon Copperhead in a list of memorable characters. That said, I would also include Wren Bird from Shiner, all the characters from All the Colors of the Dark, and Dill, Travis and Lydia from The Serpent King.

 12. Most beautifully written book read in 2024?

Hmmm. House of Hollow or Shiner, maybe.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2024?

Lots of food for thought in Demon Copperhead.

 14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2024 to finally read? 

The Serpent King (2016) has been in my classroom library for ages, but when someone on Litsy mentioned they thought I would love it, I moved it up the ladder.

When I think about the qualities of a five star book, I am looking for a great story, great writing, realistic characters. Icing on the cake is a book that makes me laugh – which I did. Sometimes these characters, particularly Lydia, say amusing, quippy things. The needle goes up a notch – don’t ask me why – if a book makes me cry. The Serpent King definitely made me cry.

 15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2024?

“Nothing stops when we’re gone,” Lydia said. “The seasons don’t stop. This river doesn’t stop. Vultures will keep flying in circles. The lives of the people we love won’t stop. Time keeps unspooling. Stories keep getting written.”-  Jeff Zentner, The Serpent King

16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2024?

Shortest: The Realm of Possibility – 210 pages (and it’s a novel in verse to boot)

Longest: All the Colors of the Dark – 608 pages

 17. Book That Shocked You The Most

I was shocked at the writing – and not in a good way – in Jessica Ward’s novel The St. Ambrose School For Girls

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!) (OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)

Patch and Saint – All the Colors of the Dark

Will and Rosie – Talking at Night

Honourable mention to: Marnie and Michael –You Are Here & Emilie and Nick – The Do-Over

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

James and Tully from Mayflies

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2024 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

These are auto buy authors for me.

All the Colors of the Dark. I LOVED We Begin at the End, too.

I also had a lot of fun with How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

And I loved You Are Here by David Nicholls (One Day, Us, Sweet Sorrow)

21. Best Book You Read In 2024 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure/Bookstagram, Etc.:

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2024?

Will from Talking at Night. He was totally my kind of guy.

23. Best 2024 debut you read?

I don’t think I read a 2024 debut.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

Hands down Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

The Do-Over by Lynn Painter is a frothy confection of a novel and although I tend to like my romances more tart than sweet, I couldn’t help but fall in love with Emilie as she tries to find a way out of the time loop she seems stuck in.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2024?

The Serpent King 100% made me cry. I cannot tell you how much I loved the three teens in this book. These characters are so heartbreakingly human that when tragedy strikes, it rips your heart out. I also welled up reading All the Colors of the Dark and Mayflies.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

I am not sure how ‘hidden’ it was, but I really enjoyed Sweet Dream Baby by Sterling Watson. It captures the innocence of youth, and the sharp tang of sexual longing and sets it all to the soundtrack of the music of the period. The book doesn’t go where you expect it to and ends up being quite a bit darker, too. I pulled it off my shelf, where it has been languishing for ages, and it was a pleasant surprise.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

I guess that would have to be The Serpent King and All the Colors of the Dark. But I would also add Mayflies.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2024?

Chasing the Boogeyman is a clever and compelling (fake) true crime book complete with photos, that is also a nostalgic look at coming home again. It is clear that Chizmar is a fan of the genre and he certainly does it justice here. I really enjoyed my read and I would definitely read more by this author.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

I don’t think I read a book this year that made me mad.

book-blogging

1. New favorite book blog/Bookstagram/Youtube channel you discovered in 2023?

I have really enjoyed Night Nerves take on horror fiction this year. I am also a big fan of Canadian content creator, Nick’s Books are Sick. Both are also on Instagram.

2. Favorite post you wrote in 2024?

Although I didn’t love Vampires, Hearts & Other Dead Things, I loved writing about it because I love talking about vampires and this book references lots of my favourites. First of all, she quotes Buffy the Vampire Slayer right out of the gate (crypt?) and anyone who knows me knows that Buffy and I are tight. I like vampires in general; they are my favourite fantasy creature (except for the sparkly ones).

3. Favorite bookish related photo you took in 2024?

Nada.

4. Best bookish event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events,  etc.)?

I wrote a short story that was included in a local anthology, Lost in the Fog, and we had a book launch in November, which was cool. The book is available on Amazon.

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2024?

Any interaction with other readers is lovely.

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

I had a miserable few weeks in April when a close family member’s health declined. I barely read anything for about six weeks, which is why I didn’t make my reading goal. 😦 It was really hard to get any momentum back.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

Corrupt takes the prize again with 766 views. What is it about this post?

This year my blog had almost 60,000 views, with an average of 172 views per day! When I started this blog in 2004, my average views per day was 4. 🙂

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

I am gratified that people are visiting, even if they mostly lurk.

9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

I think I only learned about The Folio Society this year. I don’t own one yet, but I am hoping to start collecting some of my favourite classics beginning in 2025. I also made an account on Fable this year, although I haven’t spent much time there. I haven’t used it very much yet. (I am The Ludic Reader there, too.)

10.  Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Nope.

looking-ahead-books-2015

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2024 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2025?

There are about 500 books I didn’t get to in 2024.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2025 (non-debut)?

My Brilliant Friend is my book club pick for our meeting early in January. I am going to start reading it at the beginning of the new year. It was recommended by a former student with whom I talk about books all the time. He loved it and begged me to read it. Despite its accolades, no one in my book club had read it yet.

3. 2025 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

This look interesting:

Just Want You Here – Meredith Turits (March 11)

From the publisher: An intimate and deeply moving coming-of-age novel about second chances and the inextricable bonds between lovers and friends.

 4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2025?

Nope.

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2025

New year, same answer. Keep on keeping on. Maybe leverage Insta a little better. Or try to be more active on Fable. I dunno.

TOP TWENTY of 2024

20. The Do-Over – Lynn Painter (YA)

A frothy confection of a novel and although I tend to like my romances more tart than sweet, I couldn’t help but fall in love with Emilie as she tries to find a way out of the time loop she seems stuck in.

19. In the Path of Falling Objects – Andrew Smith (YA)

A compelling, brutal, nail-biting story about survival, brothers, and the horrors to be found at war and right here at home.

18. Sweet Dream Baby – Sterling Watson

Captures the innocence of youth, and the sharp tang of sexual longing and sets it all to the soundtrack of the music of the period. The book doesn’t go where you expect it to, and ends up being quite a bit darker, too.

17. Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan

Essentially about one good man’s defiant act, this is a quiet, beautiful novella.

16. The History of Jane Doe – Michael Belanger (YA)

Anyone who has ever experienced life’s trials would certainly recognize themselves in these pages.

15. When I Was Ten – Fiona Cummins

The last half was pretty much unputdownable.

14. House of Hollow – Krystal Sutherland (YA)

A breathless romp through a malevolent fairy tale world, but it is also a mystery and a timeless tale of what sacrifices siblings might be willing to make for each other.

13. True Story – Kate Reed Petty

A horror story, a mystery, a revenge story: it’s well-written and fast-paced and thoughtful and I highly recommend it.

12. Hell Followed With Us -Andrew Joseph White (YA)

While the monsters might be dreamt from White’s very scary imagination, the big ideas- of acceptance, or personal autonomy, of the dangers of blindly following- are anything but fiction.

11. Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver

Demon’s story was generally grim, but he is a memorable character and I was invested in his survival.

0. Mayflies -Andrew O’Hagan

For anyone who has more behind them than ahead of them, this book will certainly speak to the person you were, the memories, and people you shared the journey with.

9. Dark Matter – Blake Crouch

Ah, the road not taken.

8. Girl A– Abigail Dean

Thus, this is a story about the aftermath of trauma as much as it is about the trauma itself.

7. You Are Here – David Nicholls

This book will make you want to plan your own ramble and open yourself up to the possibility of love.

6. Chasing the Boogeyman – Richard Chizmar

A clever and compelling (fake) true crime book complete with photos, that is also a nostalgic look at coming home again.

5. Distant Sons – Tim Johnston

This is a novel about people – some of whom who are just trying to do the right thing. I gasped. I teared up. I loved every second of this book.

4. Midnight is the Darkest Hour – Ashley Winstead

I read this in one sitting. It’s the perfect blend of Southern Gothic and mystery, plus a dash of angsty romance.

3. Shiner – Amy Jo Burns

Shiner is about the way “mountain men steered their own stories, and women were their oars.” It’s about finding your voice and making choices. It is about family. I loved every single second of it.

2. The Serpent King – Jeff Zentner

When I think about the qualities of a five star book, I am looking for a great story, great writing, realistic characters. Icing on the cake is a book that makes me laugh – which I did. The needle goes up a notch – don’t ask me why – if a book makes me cry and this one definitely made me cry.

MY FAVOURITE BOOK OF THE YEAR

All the Colors of the Dark -Chris Whitaker

The fact that I had to stay awake – in fact, couldn’t fall asleep even after I finished – to find out what happened to these people I had fallen in love with should tell you everything you need to know about this book.

Addendum: In December I read Talking at Night by Claire Daverly and it would have most certainly have made my top 20 list, if I had read it before the list was compiled in late November.

Brat: an 80s story – Andrew McCarthy

Posted on by
Reply

Andrew McCarthy was a member – although according to his memoir Brat: an 80s story only peripherally – of the “Brat Pack“, a group of young up-and-coming actors making their way in the 1980s. The moniker comes from a less-than-flattering Rolling Stone article which was initially intended as a bit of press for Emilio Esteves in advance of St. Elmo’s Fire, but was ultimately “a stinging indictment of a group of young, successful actors.” (Judd Nelson, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald)

McCarthy’s membership in this group was reduced to a footnote in the article.

one of the New York-based actors in St. Elmo’s Fire, a costar says “He plays all his roles with too much of the same intensity, I don’t think he’ll make it.”

I was coming of age at the same time as these young actors were. In fact, McCarthy is just one year younger than me…and it is almost impossible to think of this guy being in his 60s. I loved St. Elmo’s Fire and Pretty in Pink (you couldn’t be a person of a certain age the 80s and not love anything John Hughes did).

Brat: an 80s story isn’t a tell-all memoir. It’s an introspective look at a kid from New Jersey who stumbled into acting in high school. The youngest of four boys, McCarthy was introverted and lacked ambition, but he decides, after a fluke part in the school play, that he has discovered something that he actually might be good at.

He heads to NYC and fumbles around, taking classes and drinking himself into oblivion. He lands some great roles and is definitely in some iconic movies, but he eventually shifted to a behind-the-camera rolls and has directed many, many episodes of television – everything from Orange is the New Black to New Amsterdam. He has also written a travel memoir, The Longest Way Home, and the YA novel Just Fly Away.

Although Brat wasn’t particularly juicy, I really enjoyed my read. I knew all the players and I liked how honest McCarthy was about his own shortcomings, idiosyncrasies, and insecurities. He’s self-deprecating and he doesn’t throw anyone under the bus – except maybe himself.

The Woman in Cabin 10 – Ruth Ware

Posted on by
Reply

I just wanted something quick and mindless to read and Ruth Ware’s novel The Woman in Cabin 10 ticked the boxes. Kinda sorta.

Travel writer Laura “Lo’ Blacklock is about to go on a five-day cruise, the inaugural voyage of the Aurora, a “boutique super-luxury cruise liner traveling around the Norwegian fjords” and nothing is going to stop her, not even the fact that she recently woke up in the middle of the night to discover a strange man in her flat.

Lo is certain that she can parlay this experience into a promotion at Velocity, the magazine she writes for. At the very least, she might be in line to take over as editor when hers goes out on maternity leave.

As is often the case with first-person narration, Lo isn’t very reliable. For one thing, she drinks a lot. For another, she takes anxiety medication. And she’s already sleep deprived when she boards, due to the aforementioned home invasion. Still, she is determined to make the most of this opportunity, until the woman in the cabin next door to hers (there are only ten on this ship) goes missing. Lo had only met her briefly when she knocks on her door on day one to borrow mascara. (Who would ask to borrow a stranger’s mascara? Yikes.)

Anyway, after a dinner with far too much alcohol, Lo is woken from a dead sleep.

I don’t know what woke me up – only that I shot into consciousness as if someone had stabbed me in the heart with a syringe of adrenaline. I lay there rigid with fear, my heart thumping at about two hundred beats per minute…

What she thinks she witnesses is someone being thrown overboard; what she thinks she sees is blood on the glass partition that separates her balcony from the balcony of the woman next door. When she relates her story to the ship’s head of security, though, he assures her that no one is staying in cabin ten. For the next 150 pages or so, Lo tries to figure out what she actually saw and who this woman is.

The Woman in Cabin Ten is a locked room mystery that takes way too long to get where it’s going, but it’s easy to read and if you don’t read a ton of this type of story, you’ll probably find it fun.

Look for it on Netflix in the coming months.

Wink Poppy Midnight – April Genevieve Tucholke

Posted on by
Reply

I knew I was going to love Wink Poppy Midnight pretty much from the opening line when Midnight tells us that “The first time I slept with Poppy, I cried.” Midnight isn’t much at sixteen but Poppy, the school’s icy queen bee, tells him

You’re going to be so beautiful at eighteen that girls will melt just looking at you, your long black lashes, your glossy brown hair, your blue blue eyes. But I had you first, and you had me first. And it was a good move, on my part. A brilliant move.”

Thing is, Poppy doesn’t want Midnight, not really. She wants Leaf Bell (yes, everyone in this novel has a weird name.) Poppy fell in love with Leaf “the day he beat the shit out of DeeDee Ruffler.” The fact that Leaf doesn’t want anything to do with Poppy; he “saw right through the pretty, saw straight through it.”

Leaf’s younger sister, the dreamy red-haired Wink lives at a farm across the road from the house Midnight moved into with his antiquarian book-seller father after his mother and half-brother, Alabama, move to Paris so she can write her latest novel. One day, Wink shows up on Midnight’s doorstep and in her odd presence, Midnight feels peaceful because “Wink wasn’t taking stock. She wasn’t trying to figure out if I was sexy, or cool, or funny, or popular. She just stood in front of me and let me keep on being whoever I really was.”

April Genevieve Tucholke’s (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea) YA novel is dreamy and other worldly. These teens inhabit a world outside of the halls of a high school, but their imaginations, petty cruelties and longings will be recognizable. I enjoyed my time with them and loved the way this book was written.

Talking at Night – Claire Daverley

Posted on by
Reply

If I had read Claire Daverley’s debut Talking at Night a little bit earlier, it would have most certainly made my list of the top twenty books I read this year because I LOVED it! I am always talking about how straight-up romances just don’t float my boat, how I need a little pain with my pleasure. This book delivered and then some.

Rosie and Will meet at a bonfire when she is seventeen and he a little older. Although they go to the same school and share some friends, and Will tutors Rosie’s twin, Josh, in further maths (advanced A level math), these two don’t really know each other until Will suddenly finds himself telling Rosie things he’s never said to anyone.

Will and Rosie could not be more different. Will is “detached and standoffish, despite his popularity and a long list of girlfriends.” Rosie is “a virgin, and she is vanilla.” She also suffers from OCD and is far less outgoing than Josh. It is clear, though, that these two are drawn to each other in ways that neither of them quite understand.

When Rosie tries to pre-emptively end things (because things haven’t really even begun, although they both understand that there is something between them), Will tells her that he thinks about her “On my bike. And in the garage. And when I’m cooking, and running, and trying to sleep.” This is new territory for Will.

Watching these two navigate these feelings over the years – because the novel does span decades – is truly a thing of beauty. There are lots of obstacles preventing them from having the HEA that I wanted for them, but that’s the bit I like best. Where’s the story if they meet, fall in love and suddenly have everything they didn’t even know they wanted?

Will has demons and a past. Rosie has a complicated relationship with her mother and subverts her own desires to make others happy. Tragedy looms around the corner which further complicates things. Rosie goes off to university, but Will stays home in Norfolk. And through it all – Will and Rosie pine and hell yes! so did I.

I loved these two characters. I loved the secondary characters. I loved the unexpected bonds that are forged. I loved the way this book is written. I read it in two sittings, turning the last page way past my bedtime.

If I had my Top Twenty list to do over again, this one would definitely be in the Top 3! Although perhaps not objectively the best book ever…it hit all my sweet spots and so it’s 100% a winner in my book, and that’s the beautiful thing about reading – my opinion is the only one that counts.

Adelaide – Genevieve Wheeler

Posted on by
Reply

Adelaide Williams is drunk when she first meets Rory Hughes.

Late that afternoon, tipsy and tanned, she saw him.

He was wearing a scarf and a blue button-down and Adelaide loved him instantly – all brown curls and razor-sharp jawline. Like a young Colin Firth.

She is compelled to waltz right up to him and tell him that he looks “like a Disney prince.“

Nothing comes of that meet cute, but several months later Rory and Adelaide match on a dating app, something she has been using for casual hook ups. She figures that this night will be no different from the string of other nights she’s recently had. It turns out though that meeting Rory again upends her world.

Genevieve Wheeler’s debut Adelaide tracks the titular character’s time in London where she is first finishing her Master’s and then working. Their first date and first kiss lights a fire inside Adelaide and “in her memory, standing on that street corner, the sky was bright. Birds chirping, clouds parted, sun shining. It’s painfully clichéd, but darkness didn’t exist here, not in this little universe Adelaide entered when she first kissed Rory Hughes.”

At twenty-six, Adelaide is navigating young adulthood. She has her roomies, Celeste and Madison, and her stateside best friend, Eloise. Rory, perfect Rory, is – she is sure – her soul mate. Except, you know, he’s not. He’s got a lot of baggage and it turns out he’s not the best boyfriend. It’s one of those “all that glitters is not gold” situations; when he’s with her, it’s impossible not to feel the heady thrall, but he often disappears or breaks plans; he’s emotionally unavailable.

I am not 26, but I sure understood Adelaide. Her relationship with Rory mimicked many of my own twenty-something relationships which required a lot of work on my behalf, a lot of subjugating my own feelings in service to others, mostly because I was always choosing the wrong others. Adelaide’s fumbling wasn’t frustrating to me; it was relatable.

This is a book about loving someone else fiercely, but ultimately learning that the person most deserving of that sort of care and attention is actually yourself.

Loved it.

The Spoon Stealer – Lesley Crewe

Posted on by
Reply

After my first experience with a book by Maritime author Lesley Crewe (Amazing Grace), I would never have willingly chosen to read another book, but The Spoon Stealer was selected for my book club and so my options were to either suck it up and read it or just not bother. I sucked it up.

Emmeline Darling is a senior living alone with her dog, Vera, in England. She joins a memoir writing workshop at her local library and she begins to share her life story with the other ladies in the group, several of whom become her fast friends. Her memoir begins on a summer morning in Nova Scotia in 1894 when Emmeline’s mother was hanging out a line of clothes and Emmeline arrives suddenly, dropping “into a basket full of freshly laundered linen.”

The ladies in the memoir group, with the exception of the workshop leader, become fast friends and continue to meet after the workshop ends because they are so invested in Emmeline’s story. And it’s quite a tale.

Two of Emmeline’s older brothers had gone off to fight in the Great War and when Teddy, her favourite, ends up in hospital in England, Emmeline races to his side. That’s how she comes to spend the majority of her life in England.

As with any life, Emmeline’s is full of joy and heartache. She makes friends along the way; she experiences extreme luck and devastating loss. She is a ‘character’ – stealing hearts and spoons wherever she goes. Oh, and Vera talks – but just to her, of course, because that would be ridiculous, right?

I had an easier time with The Spoon Stealer than I did with Amazing Grace. I’m not sure that this is actually high praise or not because I still had a lot of problems with this one. For one thing, people do not talk the way they do in this book. And relationships aren’t magically repaired after decades of estrangement, which is what happens when Emmeline’s brother, Martin, dies and leaves her the family farm even though they haven’t spoken in years and years (and years). In fact, Emmeline hasn’t spoken to any of her remaining family for ages, but when she returns to Nova Scotia it’s poof! magic. The dialogue between the characters often serves as exposition/character development and, for me at least, it wasn’t believable.

There was at least one eye-rolling character twist and a tug-at-your-heart-strings ending that felt manipulative. And also – talking dog. 😦

I know people love this author, but she just isn’t my cup of tea.

Every Single Lie – Rachel Vincent

Posted on by
Reply

Beckett Bergen’s life is about to get a whole lot more complicated -and it was pretty complicated to begin with. For starters, she just dumped her boyfriend, super-hot-star-baseball player, Jake, because she’s convinced that he’s cheating on her. He insists it’s not true, but there’s definitely something he is not telling her.

Then there’s her complicated home life. Her mom, Julie, is a detective on the teensy police force in their small Tennessee town, and she’s barely at home – meaning that Beckett and her older brother, Penn, are responsible for looking out for their younger sister, Landry, 13. Beckett’s dad died several months ago, and it turns out there’s lots Beckett and her siblings don’t know about the circumstances of his death.

But Rachel Vincent’s YA novel Every Single Lie really kicks off when Beckett makes a shocking discovery in the locker room at her school.

There’s something sticking up out of the open duffel. I step closer, then I stumble to a shocked halt.

It’s a hand. A tiny, tiny little red hand.

And it isn’t moving

This discovery sends shock waves through Beckett’s small town and without really quite knowing how, she finds herself at the center of a lot of attention. Rumours start spreading like wildfire – many of which are spread by an anonymous Twitter account, Crimson Cryer, which asserts that perhaps Beckett is more closely linked to this baby than just being the person who discovers the body.

I really liked Beckett and her tenacity. She is determined to find out who this baby belongs to, even though the rumour mill is making it very difficult, and potentially dangerous, for her to do so. There are lots of clues which lead her to some very surprising places, but this book is more than just a solid page-turning mystery. This is also a book about grief, secrets and the damage social media can do.

The Haven- Amanda Jennings

Posted on by
Reply

Tara has long wanted to get out from under her parents’ expectations. What they want, “conventional achievement. Money. A successful career. A sensible car with comprehensively researched insurance. A well-showered husband and two polite children” is not necessarily what she wants for herself. When she meets Kit and his best friend, Jeremy, at university Tara feels as though she has found her people. In Kit, more specifically, she has found her person.

Life becomes more complicated for Tara and Kit when they discover they are pregnant. Although Kit comes from a lot of money, he doesn’t necessarily get on with them and wants nothing to do with their money which he resents because they’ve done nothing to earn it and they have so much “while people struggle to make ends meet.” Because he doesn’t want to access his trust fund, Kit and Tara and soon baby Skye are living in a grubby bedsit in London. That’s when Jeremy makes a crazy suggestion, partly fueled by the fact that he is convinced the world is going to go nuts when the calendar clicks over to 2000.

Anger, resentment, and dissatisfaction are boulders we lug around. It’s time to cast them off. The establishment hold us in contempt. It imposes rules and we obey like sheep. When we don’t they lock us up. Well, not anymore. I’ve had enough talking and marching. Writing slogans on homemade placards and being ignored. It’s time to start doing. I want to make a difference. Be the change I seek. […]Let’s do something. Build something. Start living properly.

So, Kit accesses his trust fund and buys Winterfell Farm on Bodmin Moor near Cornwall. Soon they have a small community working and living together in harmony.

Until, you know, things aren’t so harmonious anymore.

Amanda Jennings’ novel The Haven is a top heavy book that, while certainly easy enough to read, doesn’t actually go anywhere until the last 50 pages. The cast of characters is small and I did feel like I knew them and cared about them, particularly Tara, Kit and Skye, but not a lot happens in the first 200+ pages – unless you care about people working together to get a rundown farm back on its feet. The introduction of a couple new characters sends some ripples out into the water, but the cultish aspects of the commune come late in the game and aren’t particularly sinister.

This is more a book about a group of people with good intentions who lose their way.

Lock the Doors – Vincent Ralph

Posted on by
Reply

Sixteen-year-old Tom’s mother has had a string of bad luck with men, but now she is married to Jay, who is exactly who he says he is – a nice guy – and they have recently moved into a brand new house. Not everything is perfect. Jay’s daughter, Nia, is also living with them. She’s a year older and clearly hates Tom. And although the house is Tom’s mom’s dream come true, Tom soon makes an odd discovery. It looks like someone had installed locks on the outside of two of the bedroom doors. Weird, right?

At school, Tom is tagged to show new girl, Amy, around and although Tom is slightly awkward and not all that good with the ladies, he and Amy sort of hit it off. Then Tom discovers that Amy used to live in his old house. As bits and pieces of Amy’s life are revealed Tom starts to think that things just don’t add up. But the more he pushes Amy, the stranger things get. When Tom meets Amy’s family, June and Chris and Amy’s younger brother, Will, and makes some new discoveries in his new home, well – it all makes for page-turning fun.

Tom is a clever and likeable character who suffers from OCD.

I’m worse when I’m worried. On good days, I can touch everything once and sleep like a baby. On the worst days, I check everything twenty or thirty times and only make it halfway up the stairs before doing it all again. I know it’s silly, I know it’s irrational. But it’s part of me, and it’s not going anywhere.

It is perhaps partly his OCD that makes Tom so dogged when it comes to figuring out the truth. It might also be, in part, because of the horrors his mother faced prior to meeting Jay. What if Amy is in trouble? Tom can’t imagine not helping her even if it means getting himself into some scrapes.

Of course, it all comes together perhaps a tad too easily in the end, but I had a good time reading and I think teens who like mysteries will really enjoy this one.