Posted on by tacklingtbr

The Magic of the Season (Christmas in Silver Falls #2) by Tammy L. Grace

Blog Tour Stop: Kate Rock Book Tours Courtesy of Lone Mountain Press

Thanks so much to the author, Kate Rock Book Tours and Lone Mountain Press for the complimentary advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts, and participation in this blog tour. { partner }

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS :

Will a city girl forced to spend the holidays in her small hometown recapture the magic of the season?

Madison hasn’t visited Silver Falls since she left the snowy mountain winters behind for the beaches of California twenty years ago. In the midst of the annual Christmas festival, an accident forces her to return and manage her mom’s candy business at the Sugar Shop.

Grant hasn’t seen her since she left for college, but he remembers spending summers at the lake with the skinny, plain girl he and everyone used to know as Sugar. The contemporary advertising executive he encounters now is anything but plain. Will Grant’s kindness, the charm of Silver Falls, and the caring community open Sugar’s heart to all she’s been missing?

The best-selling author of A Season for Hope, the tale readers described as the perfect Christmas story, delivers a touching sequel with the second in her Christmas in Silver Falls series in this new festive novella that pairs perfectly with a cup of cocoa in front of a blazing fire.

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW (4 STARS) :

Anyone who knows basically anything about me, or has spoken to me even once, knows that I love the Christmas season and all slightly or fully-cheesy holiday romcoms. Even if you just saw me on the street and someone said “That’s Jennifer, and she loves Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies,” you would probably look at me and say “Yeah, that checks out.” I am the girl that put on my Christmas pajamas as soon as the last trick or treaters had left our porch (I wish I was kidding about that. I did.)

So when this tour came up, I knew that I wanted to be a part of it. Holiday magic? Sweet love story? Easy, quick read novella? Yes please! And I will say that this is a second in a series (mentioned in the description above). I was also given a copy of the first story, A Season for Hope, in order to read it before this tour as well, so I was able to read both! I will include an amazon link for both novellas below, in case you do want to read both stories – but I will not be including the first in this review, as while they are in the same series and they both have the same beautiful setting, they follow two separate characters and therefore are stand-alone stories. Just FYI!

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to this review! This story was so charming! By the time I was a few chapters in, I knew that if possible I would move to Silver Falls in a heartbeat. If you are someone who has seen Gilmore Girls, Silver Falls is like Stars Hollow but a step up still. It is a small town where everyone is willing to step in and help anyone around them who needs it, and where everybody in town knows everybody else, and you can’t walk down the street without someone stopping you to say hello and ask how you are. I love those settings in stories, because I think deep in my soul that is the type of town that I would belong in.

The characters are also so sweet and genuine, and while sometimes they seem sweet enough to give you a cavity, overall they seem like people that you could really meet in a town like this. I do think, though, that our female lead Madison (better known to all as Sugar) is the most realistic and relatable character in this particular novella. I think everyone can relate to trying (and failing) to get rid of a childhood nickname, and being in a time in your life that you want to escape your hometown and go have adventures. But I also love that she is able to come back home and still see the magic in the relationships around her, and getting to see in the long run that she still has that small town magic and love inside of herself as well.

I will say that this probably wouldn’t be a perfect story for everyone for a few specific reasons. Mainly because this is a love story and, as it is a novella rather than a full length novel, the love story is not as long and fully realized as it would be in a different format. The two leads spend a lot of time together throughout the story, so it isn’t a Disney princess love at first sight situation, but you don’t blatantly see them falling in love over the course of ten chapters before the happily ever after. As someone who, again, watches just about one holiday romcom per day in the holiday season, this didn’t necessarily bother me. The two characters knew each other from childhood, so even at the beginning of the novella they knew each other, they weren’t meeting for the first time. And there isn’t anything about them as characters that makes them falling in love quickly seem unrealistic – it is something that can happen in real life too, as long as both of the people involved are open to that possibility. These are two adults, I believe they are both in their thirties, who knew each other from childhood through high school graduation, and I think that if this situation were to happen in the real world, I think that they honestly could fall in love in the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s a romantic time!

All of this to say, if you are bothered by love stories that happen quickly or that you, as the reader, aren’t fully privy to, then this may not be the story for you. But I, myself, thought that the love story was really sweet and fit the format that the story was in, so it didn’t bother me in the slightest.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed both of these stories, and would recommend them to the people around me who are ready to skip right to the holiday season. And as stated above, both are able to stand alone and reading them both in order is not necessary to enjoy the story, I did enjoy both of them quite a bit. So if you’re up for it, then go for it! Read them both! I ended up reading these right as our Texas weather was starting to take a turn for the cooler temperatures, and it really helped me by setting the mood. The description on Goodreads really says it best, and I couldn’t agree more – they pair perfectly with a cup of cocoa in front of a blazing fire!

LINKS TO BUY ON AMAZON :

Christmas in Silver Falls #1 :

Christmas in Silver Falls #2 :

Posted on by tacklingtbr

Against the Rules (Gamer Girls #2) by Laura Heffernan

Blog Tour Stop : Kate Rock Book Tours courtesy of Kensington Books

Thanks so much to the author, Kate Rock Book Tours, NetGalley, and Kensington Books for the complimentary advanced copy of this book in exchange for honest thoughts, and participation in this book tour. { partner }

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS :

RISK EVERYTHING … Holly has taken herself out of the dating game since breaking up with her cheating, thieving ex. She barely notices Marc, who comes into the game store every week, hoping to get her attention. Her friends insist it’s time to take on a new role, to leave Quiet Holly behind and embrace her inner flirt. And on paper, Marc’s great: cute, funny, and a hardcore gamer just like Holly is.

Then there’s Nathan. He’s everything twenty-eight-year-old Holly wants…except he’s also her friend’s father. Absolutely off-limits. But as she and Nathan playtest a new legacy game together, they’re growing closer.

The game is complex and intriguing, and there’s no wat to know how choices will pan out. What seems like a good idea could lead to disaster…or sweet victory. But in gaming, as in love, sometimes you have to roll the dice to take your chance . . .

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW (4 STARS) :

Once again I am writing a review on a second book in a series without having read the first book. Come on, Jennifer, get it together. Right? Right. But, like with my last tour book, the description comes along and it just sounds too fun to pass up, even if I did miss the first part of the story! And once again, I was not disappointed.

Holly is an incredibly fun character, and I really enjoyed getting to spend this time with her. She is nerdy and game-minded, yes, but she is also really smart, and strong-willed, feisty, and she has a fierce love for the people around her. When we first meet her she is in the last few months of reclaiming her life from issues caused by and related to her ex, who is in trouble with the law due to his part in their new business was revealed to be less than upstanding. She’s been having a hard time while trying to get back on her feet, working at her local game shop and having weekly game nights with her friends, and is inspired to start putting herself out there more in the world of dating.

While none of the first few dates go very far, some not even making it through the salad course, I had a really good time getting to read about the dates, especially the really cringe-worthy ones whom she had met online. It felt a little bit like gossiping and sharing bad dating stories with your girlfriends, and let me just say that I was all about it. And while we are on the topic, I loved her whole group of friends at the game nights. They are such a tight knit group, and all getting to share in a mutual love of the game and the competition. Also the game that they are playing throughout the whole story sounds really cool. I am not always a huge gamer myself (I had older brothers, so I can play sometimes, but I grew up mostly watching the games instead), but I wanted to try and join in the game too. Take out? Check. Good friends? Check. Awesome sounding board game? Check. All I’m saying is that I’m upset I don’t get to have game nights anymore.

And yes, we couldn’t talk about this book without talking about the love story. Throughout the story Holly has two main love interests that she focuses on – Marc, who stops by the game shop during her shifts, and sweetly plans dream dates to try and woo our lead; and Nathan, who she has had a crush on for years and gives her enough butterflies to fill her stomach twice over every time they brush hands. He seems perfect (hey, they even already live together) except that he is the father of one of her best friends. Yikes. Her whole internal debate between the two men revolves around how her friend, Gwen, would react if she chose Nathan, worrying she’s breaking some girl-code and that her friend may never forgive her. While I’ve never been in this particular situation I think we’ve all had moments where we worried we might hurt or even lose a friend depending on a choice that we made, and so I found that part of the story really easy to follow and found that I could fairly easily relate to the character. And plus, there’s something about a forbidden romance that just makes it that much more fun to read, right?

Overall this book was really enjoyable, and I wanted to jump right into the middle of this friend group. None of the characters were perfect, which I always think makes for a better and more enjoyable reading experience. And while, yes, the central gaming theme may not be for everybody, I found it different and new and thoroughly entertaining. I will definitely be checking out the next book in the series, Make Your Move, which publishes in December and follows another member of this same group.

This book is publishing tomorrow, October 15, 2019!

LINK TO BUY ON AMAZON :

Posted on by tacklingtbr

Coming Home (Chandler Hill Inn – Book 2) by Judith Keim

Blog Tour Stop : Kate Rock Book Tours courtesy of Wild Quail Publishing

Thanks so much to the author, Kate Rock Book Tours, and Wild Quail Publishing for the complimentary finished copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts, and participation in this blog tour. { partner }

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS :

Camilla “Cami” Chandler comes home from France to take over the Chandler Hill Inn and Winery for her recently-deceased grandmother, Lettie, as she’d always promised. Determined to succeed in this new venture, she finds herself in trouble from the beginning when she discovers most of her grandmother’s estate intended for maintaining the inn’s business expenses was lost in a Ponzi scheme. She forges ahead to provide the best wines in Willamette Valley.

After being ditched by her French boyfriend, she decides that being friends with Drew Farley is the safest way to proceed. He loves grape growing and winemaking as much as she does and isn’t looking for anything beyond friendship.

When a bride planning a wedding at the inn tells Cami that she looks exactly like her best friend, life becomes even more complicated. Never having known even the name of her father, Cami searches for a connection and comes to realize how complicated love and family can be.

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW ( 5 STARS) :

I’ll start by saying, this is book 2 of 3 in the Chandler Hill Inn series from this author, and I was not able to read the first book before diving in to this book. While I do think that I probably would have gotten more out of the story if I had read the first book, at no point did I feel like I was completely missing the necessary background. The beginning of this novel gives all information on the characters, setting, and background that was needed for this particular story, so I definitely wasn’t feeling like I couldn’t enjoy this book without having read the first. But again, I do think I may have gotten more out of it with the rest of the story, so take this whole first paragraph with a grain of salt. Basically, maybe read the first book first, but it also wasn’t necessary for me.

All of that being said, I loved this book. I read this entire book in one day, and I am not a fast reader. I was engrossed in the characters and the setting, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Also the story takes place at an Inn and Winery in Oregon, which I love. Having grown up in Washington, I love reading books or consuming other media that takes place in or near my Pacific Northwest. What can I say? The area has my heart. I wanted to hop on a plane back towards home and stay a weekend at the Chandler Hill Inn.

I also (and this will shock nobody who has read any of my other reviews) really loved the characters and their portion of the story. The “villains” of the book (read: people in the story who are working against our protagonist, not exactly super villains) were overall really believable as actual people, which I think always makes the trials in a story more interesting, rather than some totally unrealistic circumstances. And while I’ve never been put in the situations that they put Cami through in the book, so I haven’t known anyone to go to those particular extremes, I definitely feel like everyone knows these exact types of people having come and gone in their lives.

But overall, the characters were just so lovely (I think I fell in love with her grandpa, Rafe, and I will not apologize for it.) Cami, the female lead, is so strong and so sweetly written. I love a story of a young woman really coming into her own, and being a boss. And Cami does both over the course of this book. I wanted to be her friend, or even just work with her at the Inn. (Why yes, living and working at a beautiful and romantic Inn and Winery just may be a dream of mine, why do you ask? All of the wine.) But I mean it, give me all of the strong female characters in all of the media. I was very invested in her life and her story, and I definitely finished the book wanting to know where she was going to go from there.

I would recommend this book to any of my friends that want a character-driven story and a really fun, quick read. I am so excited that I was given the chance to read this book for the author’s blog tour, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book, Home At Last, which is publishing soon! I may even get myself a copy of the first book to see what I had missed out on!

LINK TO BUY ON AMAZON :

Posted on by tacklingtbr

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

Forge Books – Review: 5 Stars

Oh Karen, Georgia, and the MFM-fam. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered was written by these friends, badass ladies, and co-hosts of the incredibly popular podcast My Favorite Murder. It is, in small part, the true crime craziness that we all know and love from the podcast, but it was mostly stories of the experiences that made them who they are – including their childhoods, family stories, and their starts in the entertainment industry.

First things first, I have never been so glad that I listened to the audio of a book. The audiobook is read by the authors, and it is such a delight! It makes the stories more personal, and the way that they play off of each other at the end of each chapter is just so much fun. Each chapter is more intimate than the last, and it is truly a pleasure to read.

I laughed and cried my way through this entire book, particularly the chapter about f*cking politeness. It’s a saying that they pepper through their podcast episodes frequently so I was no stranger to the idea while listening to the book. But listening to them telling their own stories and their experiences with this particular motto really made me look back at all of the times as a kid, or even as a young adult, so many of us take help from strangers or hold our tongue around people who have no right to be telling us things, all for the sake of being polite or ladylike. Little girls specifically are always told that they need to be nice so that they aren’t “bitchy,” or not to be too “bossy” because then the boys won’t want to be our friends. But people are finally starting to talk about how damaging that can be. Feeling like we have to fill this role of politeness and being ladylike can lead to people putting themselves into situations that they aren’t comfortable with and that could even put them into danger. And I love how much these ladies, and this book, dive into that and show the darker side of it.

Alright, tangent over. I have a little bit of a soap box about that particular topic, okay? And I loved how it was all handled in this book.

Overall I absolutely loved this book. I want to recommend it, and the podcast, to anyone and everyone. Find yourself wanting to talk about true crime in your day to day life? Want to chat about like-minded humans about funny, creepy, or touching stories from the past? Have any funny stories about 80s-90s parents not paying attention, and somehow injuring yourself? MFM is the show for you. It is fun, and honest, and the book only makes it better. Highly recommend listening to the audio, but I will also be buying a physical copy because I want it on my shelf forever.

Now remember to f*ck politeness, always SSDGM, and if you’re ever in a cult, call your dad.

Posted on by tacklingtbr

How Sweet the Bitter Soup: A Memoir by Lori Qian

Blog Tour Stop : Kate Rock Book Tours courtesy of She Writes Press

Thanks so much to the author, Kate Rock Book Tours, and She Writes Press for the complimentary finished copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts, and participation in this blog tour. { partner }

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS :

Her mom was working as a maid. Her dad’s Alzheimer’s was in high gear. And the rent on her parents’ small Chicago apartment had just fone up. AGain. But Lori was holding it all together: helping care for her dad and pat her family’s bills, figuring out how to navigate graduate school and four jobs on top of her family responsibilities, and, somehow, continuing to believe that there was more to life than this.

And there was.

An exciting job teaching at a prestigious school in China. Although the previous month, she had turned down a job offer in Iowa – thinking it was too far away from her family – she felt completely at ease accepting a hob in China. Grasping on to the fierce determination she’d had since childhood, Lori found herself in Guangzhou, China, where she fell in love with the culture and with a man from a tiny town in Hubei province.

What followed was a transformative adventure – one that will inspire readers to use the bitter to make life even sweeter.

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW (4 Stars) :

I always find that memoirs, these types of memoirs in particular, are difficult for me to review. It’s one thing when you pick up a celebrity memoir of someone that you already have fully formed opinions of, and you buy the book because you love the celebrity and just want to learn more about where they come from. I picked up this memoir having read the description above and knowing that I would be on this tour, but going in to this story without any additional knowledge about the author or her story made this a very personal and emotional read.

I really enjoy learning about cultures and experiences that I wouldn’t likely get to experience for myself, and so the fact that this book is truly the story of the author experiencing these other sights and cultures was really interesting and enjoyable for me. It certainly isn’t all a walk in the park for her (the chapter about the trouble they had leading up to their wedding was crushingly difficult to read.) But getting to follow along with her as she first sees and immediately loves the sights, the sounds, and the people all the way on the other side of the world, was really beautiful to get to see.

Overall I know that memoirs aren’t for everyone, and they aren’t even my go to genre by any means, but I would recommend this one to anyone who wants to dip their toes in and fall in love with China vicariously through the author’s story.

Link to Purchase on Amazon :

Posted on by tacklingtbr

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center

St. Martin’s Press – Review: 3 Stars

Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner }

The premise and lead character definitely (and quickly) drew me to this book when I first read the pre-publication synopsis – I love a character driven novel, and when it’s being lead by a strong female character I tend to love it all the more. What can I say? I have a type. So a story about a strong, independent, and badass female firefighter finding love and reuniting with her mother sounded like it would be right up my alley. And for the most part I really enjoyed this book, but it was a near miss from “love” for me.

One of the things that bugged me the most was the thing that I usually eat right up in a book like this – the romance. The love story. Don’t get me wrong, I had quite a few swooning moments with the Rookie. But let’s start there – it is very difficult to fully invest in a romantic connection between two characters where one is almost exclusive referred to as “the Rookie,” even by the person that he is in said relationship with. I’m all for nicknames or pet-names galore, but the fact that he had this joking and mocking nickname before they were even fully acquainted, and she continues to use it after falling in love and even up until (spoiler) the wedding. And that was just a little bit difficult for me to fully buy into.

And then the other part of the relationship that was a bit tough for me was how instantly Cassie fell for the Rookie. While I do prefer stories about the relationships that start slowly (either as friends or rivals) and build over time, I don’t have anything against a “love at first sight” type of love. And in all honesty I don’t have any issues character-wise with the Rookie falling for Cassie at first sight. But everything that we know about Cassie would mean that she shouldn’t have that kind of reaction. She has spent her entire adult and young adult life building up these walls around herself emotionally, and while yes I believe that finding herself falling in love with someone would break those walls down, seeing a man that she finds attractive should not immediately affect her as strongly as it does. The man walks into the room on their first day of work and her heartrate immediately quickens, and she all but goes weak in the knees and swoons. Again, I don’t have an issue with love at first sight, but it doesn’t make sense with who we are meant to believe that this woman is. It just didn’t fit for me.

However, now that I’ve been a bit of a downer, overall I did enjoy this book. I liked the character of Cassie and her drive, and I really enjoyed her relationship with her mom (once she let herself have one). While it was really difficult to read about the people in her life letting her ignore her past, when according to her they “just know,” rather than encouraging her to face it, it was really nice getting to see her get to the point of talking about it and therefore being able to come to terms with it.

Even with the issues that I did have, I enjoyed this book and I’m glad that I got to read it. I would recommend it, but it certainly won’t be one of my favorite books of the year. What it did do was make me laugh at times, make me unwilling to put it down at others, and make me want to call my mom.

Posted on by tacklingtbr

When I Was White: A Memoir by Sarah Valentine

St. Martin’s Press – Review: 3 Stars

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner }

I knew that I was interested in this book early on before publication, because I love getting to learn about different perspectives and read about experiences that I wouldn’t necessarily have in my lifetime. This memoir definitely fit the bill in that respect. This was a really interesting read, although I will say that it isn’t exactly a fun or easy read. Like, I wouldn’t take it to the beach or anything, but I am glad that I got the chance to read it.

That being said, I don’t think that this will end up being my favorite read of the summer. There was a ton of really amazing detail throughout the entire book, about everything – but at times there was a bit more detail than I really needed about certain aspects of the author’s story and it made parts of the book seem a bit long. Things like knowing exactly what stop she used on the subway, and all of the stops that lead up to it, and the entire layout of the shops and city. While I know that where you grow up and where you go to college tend to have a great impact on a person’s story so I definitely don’t mind a bit of that type of background and detail, but it seemed to me that it took up a good chunk of the book and made it a bit of a slow read for me. It’s completely personal preference, but it just made the book drag a bit for me in some parts.

This story, and the author, are definitely at their best when they’re focused on the human interactions – specifically between the author and her mother, as well as the rest of her family. One of the best things about non-fiction, when written in a truthful and realistic tone, is that you get to see the flaws that everybody has. This author and her family are no exception, but her mom is especially fascinating, and the many conversations that take place between she and the author surrounding her true parentage (both before it is really revealed to her as well as after) are incredibly interesting. I loved getting to see behind the curtain a little bit and get a taste of what those difficult conversations would have looked like.

I will say that if you are a reader who prefers happy endings that are tied up in a bow, this may not do it for you. The author is a strong, independent woman who finds herself through the course of finding who she is, and through becoming in touch with the heritage that she wasn’t sure she shared. And in that fact alone, it is a happy ending. But know that there are still many questions that are left unanswered. For instance, despite all of her research and looking, by the end of the story the author has not met her biological father. But maybe along the way her strength showed her that maybe she didn’t need to after all.

This story gave me a very different look into white privilege, biracial identity, and other topics that I wouldn’t have had this insight into on my own. And I would recommend it to anyone else who would like to take a closer look at one of the many stories of identity and change and finding who we are, specifically a story that may be very different than ours. Just know that it may be a bit of a long read, so prepare yourself to wade through some lengthy bits of description. And I’m not kidding, probably not a beach read. Preferably read it while sitting by a fireplace with a blanket and a cup of tea or a glass of wine. Trust me, you’ll want to feel cozy!

Posted on by tacklingtbr

Carnegie Hill by Jonathan Vatner

St. Martin’s Press – Review: 3 Stars

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! All opinions are completely my own. { partner }

Review originally written April 17, 2019, published August 6, 2019.

When I requested the ARC for this book it was completely based off of the description, and I have to start by saying it was not quite what I had been expecting. I think I went into it expecting something along the lines of those wedding themed romantic comedies where it all centers around the heroine being caught between her perfect and loving fiance and her crazy and overbearing parents, but it all works out in the end. What I got instead was the larger scale soap opera that touches on all of the different love stories within the walls of the Chelmsford Arms, and dealing with much more serious subject matter than I had been expecting.

All of that being said, by the end I LOVED the stories and the way that they were told! Each story had a lot of heart, and each showed very different sides of love, and all with a diverse cast of characters. I will say that the chapter lengths were pretty lengthy (the novel is split into three parts with 18 chapters in total, but each totally many more pages than a typical chapter that you would expect), so at times I found that it could be a fairly slow read. But over all I still very much enjoyed it, and I would highly recommend it to any of my friends that want to spend a few days eavesdropping in on the lives of the upper class on up Carnegie Hill.

Posted on by tacklingtbr

A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell

St. Martin’s Press – Review: 5 Stars

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are completely my own. { partner }

Read the synopsis of this book. Even start reading this book. Think you have some ideas about what is going on, and who (if anyone) is telling the truth? Think again.

Get to the point where you only have three chapters left until you get to the end of this book. Think you’ve figured it out at that point, since you’re so close to the end? You’re still wrong. Think again.

This book took me a while to get all the way to the end, because I kept re-reading parts that I had just read, because I was trying to figure out the twists and turns before they happened. I was re-reading trying to instead read between the lines and see what the underlying secrets may have been. And yet I was wrong the entire time, and every time that I thought I had figured it out it turns out not only was I not on the same page but I was in a completely different chapter. This book kept me on my toes the entire time, I loved getting lost in the mystery of it, and my poor fiancé is probably glad that I’m finished with this read so that I can be done bursting out of confusion and trying to talk through it with him.

We get this story from multiple points of view – Caroline Stark, the woman who says she’s under attack; Aiden Callahan, the man who says that he loves her; and then later also from Lieutenant Jess Messina, the woman whose job it is to find out what is really the truth.

I loved getting all three of these perspectives – the first part of the book “Before the Storm” being told by Caroline and Aiden, and then the second part titled “After the Storm” being told to us by Aiden and Jess. One thing that I found really interesting is that Caroline’s side of the story is written in first person, while Aiden’s chapters are written in third person. This immediately, at least in my opinion, makes the reader feel more trusting of Caroline and feel like they are on her side, because she is talking directly to the reader almost like they are just having a conversation, or she is trusting us and letting us in on her secret. Meanwhile the third person perspective from Aiden feels isolating, and like either he or the readers are on the outside looking in, and we’re just hearing it secondhand, which automatically makes it seem like that information is less reliable. I think that this was a really brilliant decision in the writing on the author’s part, and it definitely helped to cause a good deal of my confidence in what parts of the stories I was and was not believing, as well as my confusion when I found out how wrong I was about everything all along.

There is very little that I can go into detail on with this book without having to give a massive spoiler alert, and I want to give everyone the opportunity to think they know what is happening and see if they are as off track as I was, without me spoiling any of the surprises for them.

So I will just say this: I highly, highly recommend this book. I knew that I was picking up a highly reviewed and highly anticipated psychological thriller. What I did not know what that I was probably picking up one of my favorite reads of the month, possibly of the summer. This read was clever, confusing, manipulative, and extremely well written. While yes there were parts that maybe felt a little bit longer than they needed to be, and yes there were a few parts that weren’t my favorite. But when speaking overall, I really loved this read, and am so glad that I got the experience to read it, and will be recommending it to all of my girlfriends who love thrillers and murder shows (you know who you are.)

Posted on by tacklingtbr

Sells Sea Shells by Mara Mer

Mari.Reiza – Review: 3 Stars

Thanks so much to the author for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner }

Sells Sea Shells follows a handsome young man, Ismail, who is an illegal Moroccan immigrant who makes his way by selling goods to rich tourists along the beach. In doing so he strikes a very odd acquaintance with a wealthy Italian man, who offers Ismail a very unusual agreement as a way to get out of his situation. But Ismail is good, and compassionate, and he isn’t sure he will be able to live to his side of this bargain.

I don’t often read novellas, but I’m starting to think that I should sprinkle them in to my reading more often! This was such a quick read, only coming in at about 100 pages, and it felt so nice that I had something that I could sit and read at a comfortable pace and still finish in one sitting.
However, for the short length, there is a lot that author Mara Mer fits in to this story. While reading, there were moments that seemed like she had been planning a full length novel, and so to a certain extent the ending seemed a little bit rushed and borderline unfinished to me. But overall it was a really interesting read. It is a beautifully emotional look into the lives of these immigrants, and looking at the world that we are still living in as it is, it seemed a little bit too non-fiction in a few places. I think that this novella was interesting, intense, and has a level of emotion that depicts the author’s heart hanging from her sleeve.

I would recommend this to my friends who enjoy historical fiction, and may want a quick read from a point of view that they won’t hear from in many other places.