White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin Group Putnam for a copy of this book to review.

Two sisters, Hana and Emi, are living in Korea during the second World War. They spend days at the beach with their mother, a haenyeo, learning to dive for food in the sea. One day while they’re at the beach a Japanese soldier comes and takes Hana away. Decades later, near the end of her life, Emi still has not been able to find the sister she lost that day.

This historical fiction tale is told in alternating points of view – Hana in the 1940’s and Emi in the 2010’s. Heartbreaking, yet important, readers are going to encounter some tough subject matter. The subject of sex slavery during WWII is the main focus.

This was hard to put down. The chapters are sometimes long, sometimes sweeping, but always engaging.

View all my reviews

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Thank you to BookishFirst and Atria Books for providing me with a copy of this book for review.

Anatomy of a Scandal takes a deep look into the marriage of a prominent politician and his wife. Originally meeting in college, the couple face a scandal together two decades later. This courtroom drama has a couple of surprises along the way and is told from several points of view

This book was not one I enjoyed but I think a lot of other readers will like this for the reasons I did not. I am an American reader and this book takes place within the British government. This is a subject that I’m not familiar with. I felt lost at times and am sure I missed various references because of cultural differences. The government and court system are prominent in this book and I wish I had a better grasp of how they worked.

It took me a while to get through this book. There are several story lines that come together nicely but I was through the first half of the book before I started to see how the story could come together.

Trigger warning: rape


View all my reviews

The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. My honest opinion follows.

Mary Pickford and Frances Marion were the "It Girls" of Hollywood a century ago. Staring in silent movies they helped build and shape the industry that is so familiar today but so fresh and uncharted when they began their work in southern California so long ago.

This historical fiction tale follows the intertwined lives of Mary and Frances - one a beloved starlet, the other a notorious writer. They were best friends, women who came from nothing and built a fortune. They grow into adulthood together, reach fame together, and struggle to maintain their friendship. This sweeping story may seem to jump from point to point at times but the lives of Mary and Frances were fully lived and not easy to encompass in one book. Readers shouldn't expect full biographies but rather an E! True Hollywood Story type of overview.

This book may be about two women who were in their prime a hundred years ago but all they endured will seem current and relative still today. Scandals in Hollywood are taking over today's headlines, and this story shows the treatment of women in the movie industry is nothing new. Fans of historical fiction, movie history, or strong female characters won't want to miss this book.

View all my reviews

The Company of Demons by Michael Jordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to Greenleaf Book Group and BookishFirst for a copy of this book. Below is my honest opinion.

This debut novel from Michael Jordan was very hard to put down. The short, fast-paced chapters kept the story moving. And there was so much story!

In this book John Coleman is a lawyer who has a past interlaced with a serial killer - one who his father had tried (and failed) to apprehend. John is an anti-hero, a cheater and alcoholic who is hard to like at times, but still one that the reader will want to pull for.

Events in the middle of this book are normally what you find at the end of other books, but this story contains many layers. If you're looking for surprising twists you won't necessarily find that here. Some parts are predictable but that doesn't make this any less an exciting book to read. The ending left me wondering if there will perhaps be a sequel in the future.

View all my reviews

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a hit before it has even been released. You'll want to check it out if you're a fan of plots twists, suspenseful reads, and thrillers.

Vanessa is troubled. She's divorced from Richard. She drinks too much. She's having trouble at work. But what really happened in their marriage? Vanessa is young, beautiful, and getting ready to marry Richard. But Richard is odd - he's so generous but controlling. Loving but aloof.

This book contains a surprise that I didn't see coming at all. I haven't found a twist like this since reading Gone Girl. The two books are similar in that they are twisted and about domestic relationships - but that's where the similarities end. I had hoped for some more turns and staggering reveals (greedy, I know) but this was still a great book to read. Be prepared for reading about troubled marriage - not always a pleasant thing to read about.

View all my reviews

The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This was a book that was hard to put down. It starts off gory and a bit shocking and doesn't let up too much. Told in alternating chapters our narrator, Eddie, takes us from present day events (2016) back to his childhood in 1986. Is the Eddie reliable? Telling the truth? You'll have to read to find out.

There are a lot of questions that came up while I was reading. Who is the girl who is killed? Who killed Eddie's friend? Who drew all of the (creepy) chalk men? Everything is answered eventually, but there is a twist revealed at the end that may not be totally surprising to every reader.

I enjoyed this story while I read it, but it's not one that will stick with me for a long time. This is a debut novel from CJ Tudor, and I hope to see what other books she produces.

View all my reviews

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank you to Penguin Random House and BookishFirst for a copy of this book. Below is my honest opinion.

This story starts off strong as four young siblings meet a psychic who tells each of them the date of their deaths. These impressionable young people each handle the news differently. This story follows their lives and how the psychic's predictions shaped them and their relationships.

The story really begins in the 1970s as two of the siblings move across the country to San Francisco. Simon, a young gay man, finally begins to live freely. His sister Klara, always supportive of Simon, works to fulfill her dream of becoming a magician. Meanwhile, the less free-spirited Daniel and Varya struggle to understand why their younger siblings won't come home.

This book is about four people who are vastly different even though they're siblings. I liked some of the siblings better than others (Simon) but thought some of the events that happened in the lives of others (Daniel) seemed out of place. I had been anticipating this book quite a bit before starting it, and I believe I over-hyped it to myself. It was still a book to enjoy and get lost in but not one that I would read again.


View all my reviews

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anna suffers from agoraphobia. She cannot leave her house and spends much of her time peering through her windows, watching her neighbors. She has few visitors - a therapist or two will stop by - but even her husband and daughter are not with her. Anna exists in a very isolated, small world.

When new neighbors arrive Anna becomes absorbed in their lives. She watches closely and sees something horrific, something that the police don't believe, something the neighbors deny. So is it hallucinations Anna's suffering from? Is it the medication she takes? Trying to determine what is real and what isn't in this book is an adventure.

Readers shouldn't be intimidated by the 400 plus pages. This read goes quickly and is difficult to put down. Anna's agoraphobia is interesting to read about. There are lots of twists and surprises along the way. I wasn't able to predict the ending but enjoyed trying to puzzle it out.

The only thing that kept this from being a five star read was the amount of drinking done by the main character. I've seen this done in many other books recently - and then I'm left with an unreliable narrator. I need something different. It worked in this story but I just didn't want to read about an overly medicated woman again.

View all my reviews