Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty Book Review

 

This is the first book I have read by Ms. Moriarty. I enjoyed it! While there are some triggering subjects contained within these pages (domestic violence and bullying), there is also an underlying theme of friendship and a hint of romance.

Jane has just moved to Pirriwee with her son, Ziggy, and has enrolled him in kindergarten. Jane is one of those women who isn’t quite sure of herself and prefers to fade into the background. She finds herself becoming friends with Madeline and Celeste, Madeline not being afraid to speak her mind and Celeste seeming to have more on her mind than anyone knows.

Madeline is married to Ed, a laidback easygoing gentleman. Madeline’s ex-husband is Nathan who is now married to Bonnie, the hippie chick. Nathan and Madeline have a daughter, Abigail. Madeline and Ed have two children, Fred and Chloe.

Celeste is married to Perry. They have twin boys, Max and Josh. Behind the closed doors of their home, there was a darker secret that no one knew about.

Renata’s little girl is Amabella. Amabella plays a significant role in the telling of this tale.

There are other characters intermixed in this tale who all add to the story. There is a bit of humor interlaced between the chapters tying everything together about what happened on “the trivia night,” yet the subjects contained within these pages are taken seriously. These subjects are also written in such a way as to be not too heavy, with the focus of the story being what happened on “the trivia night.” I also appreciated the snippets from the police investigation, but the reader is not immersed in tedious details.

I found this to be a fun yet serious read. I look forward to reading more from Ms. Moriarty.

When I Was You by Minka Kent Book Review

 

Brienne, Kate, Niall, Sam, the main characters.

Enid, the nosy neighbor. Every story needs one.

Brian, the annoying co-worker.

What a tangled web that Ms. Kent has woven with these four main characters. This story is told in two voices, those of Brienne and Niall. Brienne suffered a brutal attack a few months ago that left her scared of being alone. Enter Niall, the man who answered her roommate ad. Having Niall in her house, the one her grandmother left to her, made Brienne feel safer, made her feel not as ‘crazy.’ One day, Brienne went snooping through Niall’s room because what did she really know about him? Turns out doing so led her down a path that she least expected. 

This is an entertaining tale of cat-and-mouse, but who is the cat and who is the mouse? Some may even say this tale is a bit twisted with the connection between two of the characters that only one knew about. Ms. Kent continues to be one of my go-to authors and I am never disappointed.

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover Book Review

 

I was fortunate enough to win this book through a Facebook giveaway hosted by Kim Law. This is also the first book I have read by Ms. Hoover.

I found this book to be a compelling read and after reading Ms. Hoover’s message in the back, I understand why. Ms. Hoover has not just written a made-up story, she based this story on fact, on what she saw as a child growing up. I applaud that. Her experience makes this a very believable story and, on a personal note, coming from a mentally/emotionally abusive experience, I found myself relating to Lily. I am also putting a trigger warning on this book regarding domestic violence. If you have experienced that you may find this a hard book to read.

There are also some underlying messages within these pages. There is a childhood friendship that became everlasting, even though time and distance separated them. There is healing. There is forgiveness. There are new friendships developed. There is a deeper understanding from a daughter’s perspective as to what her mom went through and why she stayed. More importantly, there is the message of breaking the cycle that we sometimes find ourselves in.

It is very easy to say what you would do if you were in certain situations. The thing is, we really don’t know what we would do. As an outsider looking in, it is easy to make judgment calls. As the person in the situation, we can’t see it until we reach our limit. We don’t consciously know what our limits are until we reach them, then we know what to do. It’s like some lightbulb goes off, like we finally reach our ‘naked truth’ and then we can walk away.

For everyone who has found the strength to leave an abusive relationship, I commend you. Through this book, Ms. Hoover has proven that you have value and more importantly that you are seen and heard. Well done, Ms. Hoover, well done.

The Secrets of Cedar Farm by Carissa Ann Lynch Blog Tour

 

Title: The Secrets of Cedar Farm

Author: Carissa Ann Lynch

Series: Standalone

Genre: Psychological Thriller 

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/TSoCFTBR

BookBub: https://bit.ly/TSoCFBB

One-Click: mybook.to/CedarFarm

BLURB:

Behind every family is a story.

But some stories are darker than others.

Norah Campbell was an addict. The loss of her fiancé drove her to despair; she lost custody of her daughter, Gemma, and control of her life.

Now Norah is in recovery and she wants Gemma back. But to do so she must move in with her eccentric aunt and uncle, and they refuse to give up control without a fight. When strange occurrences keep happening at the farm and Norah makes a gruesome discovery, she soon realises she’s living with a monster.

As her mental health spirals out of control and she is tempted to relapse, she begins to wonder if she is also a monster.

This is a novel about addiction and recovery, and the strength of a mother who must fight in order to save herself and her child.

AUTHOR INFO:

Besides my family, my greatest love in life is books. Reading them, writing them, holding them, smelling them…well, you get the idea. I’ve always loved to read, and some of my earliest childhood memories are me, tucked away in my room, lost in a good book. I received a five dollar allowance each week, and I always — always — spent it on books. My love affair with writing started early, but it mostly involved journaling and writing silly poems. Several years ago, I didn’t have a book to read so I decided on a whim to write my own story, something I’d like to read. It turned out to be harder than I thought, but from that point on I was hooked. My first and second books were released by Sarah Book Publishing: This Is Not About Love and Grayson’s Ridge. I’m a total genre-hopper. Basically, I like to write what I like to read: a little bit of everything! I reside in Floyds Knobs, Indiana with my husband, three children, and massive collection of books. I have a degree in psychology and worked as a counselor.

AUTHOR LINKS:

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/CarissaAnnLynchauthor

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/carissaannlynch_thrillers/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/carissaannlynch

BOOKBUB: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/carissa-ann-lynch

TIKTOK: https://bit.ly/3IJgVAv

AMAZON: https://amzn.to/3H6YgOW

GOODREADS: https://bit.ly/3H4nqxn

TOUR HOSTED BY #HEAPR

What Lies Between Us by John Marrs Book Review

 

This is certainly my kind of read. Very twisted, sort of dark. A mother and daughter having a troubled relationship, with only the mother really knowing the underlying cause. A daughter thinking her mother is wrong and doing something that is pretty unthinkable by keeping her mother held captive in her own home. There are not very many characters throughout this tale of darkness, but there is just the right amount to be sure the reader keeps all their roles straight. Nina, the daughter, does have a job at the local library and presents to the world a normal personality, but when she gets home … Maggie, her mother, supposedly did what she did to “protect” her daughter, what mother wouldn’t? Enter the unveiling of the deepest secrets imaginable. A very good read indeed!

The Wrong Girl by Hank Phillippi Ryan Book Review

 

I was lucky enough to receive a gifted copy from Ms. Ryan and am providing a review.

This is a tale that will keep you turning the pages. It is all based on the premise of something hinky going on at an adoption agency which only comes to light when Tuck thinks she’s been reunited with the wrong mother. She tells her friend Jane this who honestly doesn’t believe her as she has her own set of problems to deal with. As time goes on and Tuck keeps being insistent about this, Jane, as a reporter, can’t help but get involved. The final piece to this puzzle is unraveled when one of the workers at the adoption agency starts finding nuggets of information left behind by her predecessor. This little mouse of a woman, Ella, holds all the secrets. This one is definitely worth a second read to discover all of the nuances that were missed the first time around.

The Thinnest Air by Minka Kent Book Review

 

I love me some Minka Kent! Seriously, if you haven’t tried any of her books, I highly encourage you to do so. In this tale, Meredith seemingly has everything she could ever want, to include a husband who adores her. Until she goes missing. Her sister, Greer, gets involved and does not stop until she finds some answers. Greer is the sort of person who doesn’t let her emotions show, due to their upbringing and being a mother figure to Meredith. Greer also has an on again/off again boyfriend in Harris. As it turns out, Meredith hadn’t been telling Greer everything, and only when she’s missing does Greer discover that Meredith had a stalker a few years ago. She doesn’t discover this until Detective Ronan tells her about it. Greer also discovered that Meredith and Ronan had a little more than a cop/victim relationship. The question is – what happened to Meredith?

I sure didn’t figure out who the bad guy was in this read and it kept me turning the pages for this very reason. One of the reasons I enjoy Ms. Kent’s writing is because she intertwines her stories and drops hints to lead you down one path, only to surprise you by leading you down another one, then she adds yet another bend in the path. Give her a try! I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

The Deposit Slip by Todd M. Johnson Book Review

 

One thing I enjoy about being a reader is discovering new authors. Mr. Johnson is a new author to me, a lawyer by profession, and took a relatively dull subject and turned it into a story. The whole premise is based on Erin Larson having to go through her late father’s safety deposit box after his unfortunate accident and finding a deposit slip from Ashley State Bank in a staggering amount. Curious to her as she had no idea her father had this much money … we are talking ten million plus. Of course, upon finding this deposit slip and taking it to the bank, they claimed to know nothing and that the slip was a fake. Enter Jared … he only happened upon this case because his mentor from Paisley, the law firm Jared started at where he met Clay who had also moved on from Paisley, referred it to him. Jared, having just come off a big case he lost, was quite hesitant … but there is the ever-present lure of money, yet it became more to him than that. Of course, his assistant, Jessie, was none too happy with him and almost threw her hands up and abandoned him altogether.

There are a lot of backstories contained within these pages. The relationship between Jared and his father that they were both forced to deal with. The relationship between Jessie and Jared (I suspect there will be more of these two in coming books). The lawyers at Paisley thinking Jared didn’t stand a chance and would give up … being that Jared had no money and they were a big law firm, Whittier and Stanford. Mrs. Huddleston. Joe Creedy. The Legion Hall and its members. All of these characters combined bring this story together, each of them playing their own roles to help Jared in this case. Definitely a different sort of read for me, but overall entertaining.

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