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Honestly, We Meant Well by Grant Ginder

FlatIron Books – Review: 3 stars

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and Flatiron Books for the early review copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions in this review are entirely my own. { partner }

I finished this book a little while ago, and honestly had been waiting around to review it because I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say. Did I like it? Love it even? Or was it just slightly missing something for me? And in all honesty, I’m still not quite sure. So here goes nothing.

It took me a long while to really get into this book when I started reading it. Not because I didn’t like it. Even in the beginning I was enjoying the characters (anyone who has read basically any of my reviews now knows that I am obsessed with character driven stories.) But for some reason that I can’t quite put my fingers on, the first half of the novel took me approximately a forever to get through.
I always enjoy when we get to hear a story from the perspectives of different characters, and when you get to see the situations a couple of different ways. However, this book is told from a total of five characters perspectives, which I think may have ended up being just a few too many voices for me. It made it kind of fun for the parts of the book where each character was off doing their own thing, and each chapter was sort of jumping you to a different part of the island, but for the parts of the book where they were all in the same spot and situation, it wasn’t my favorite. In those parts of the story we didn’t get to jump back in time a few minutes and see how the other character felt or saw what we had just read about, at least not most of the times, instead we stayed in the same moment and switched to another perspective right in the middle. Between this and how many characters there were in general, I just found that I almost didn’t have any long enough stretch of time with any one character to care about most of them or their situations. Also, just since this seems to be a previously unknown pet-peeve of mine, one of our key narrators isn’t introduced as such until halfway through the book. I get why she was an important narrator, and I did end up really enjoying her point of view, and I even get why she wasn’t needed in the first portion of the story. But I stand by it – I really don’t like when there is a new narrator introduced that late to the game. I know it happens, and sometimes can be done well. But these are my opinions, and it’s my review, so I’m sticking to it here.

Now here we get to the part of the review where I get to talk about the parts of the book that I really loved, because I promise you that there were a few. First and foremost, the setting of Greece, and how much the book dove into all of the gorgeous sites and history that come along with it. I wanted to immediately jump on a plane, explore some ancient ruins, have a glass of wine or three, and then jump immediately into some clear blue water! Doesn’t that sound perfect right now? But I digress.
I ended up, overall, enjoying the second half of the book better than the first. Whether this is because I was more invested in the characters by then and therefore the jumping around didn’t quite bug me as much, or if the story had gotten going enough that I was more invested and was more invested to see what happened next. And part of it was definitely how busy and crazy my life was while trying to read this during the first round, so definitely take this with a grain of salt. But compared to the first half, the second half completely flew by for me. The only thing that I would say about the ending is that, once I did get fully invested in the characters and their stories, I think I would have liked to get some more information about the choices that they made after “the end.” What I’m saying is, I could have used a Harry Potter style “10 years later” moment, you know? I’m all for a cliffhanger or open ending in case there’s a possibility of a sequel, or more information at a later date, but I’m not sure whether or not I would read a sequel for this particular tale, so I would have liked to get it tied up a little bit better at the end here.
And the last thing that I loved – there are some really beautiful relationships in this book. Not necessarily the romantic ones, but the friendships and the familial relationships that we see throughout the story. There isn’t too much to say about this part, but I just really loved a lot of them.

Overall, I would recommend this book to my friends. It is a really interesting look into the life of a woman and her family, when their lives are seemingly falling apart around them, but possibly falling together instead. This was a fairly fun read, set in a beautiful place, and had a good amount of interesting characters. While I think I’m ready for infidelity (slight spoiler? You learn early on, I’m going to let it pass) to not be one of the main conflicts in such a high percentage of books that I am reading, but there was enough else happening that it didn’t bug me too much. I would just give my friends that I am recommending it to a small heads up before reading it, in case they’re tired of reading about it too. But if it’s something that you don’t mind reading about, or it’s something that you can look past, I think that this is a great choice for a summer read! So pull up a glass of wine and maybe a lounge chair, and then you are all set.

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New US Giveaway!

Giveaway posted to Instagram on July 28 at 12:00noon

Struggling to finish up with your #SummerTBR? Well allow me to be of assistance! To thank all of my old and new friends and followers, one winner will receive one surprise book from their TBR list, and another goodie or two!

To enter, go on over to my Instagram post (linked below) and follow the following steps :

  • Follow me on Instagram (don’t unfollow, be my friend forever! I’m needy like that, and you’ll be blocked from future giveaways)
  • Like the post, and on it tag some of your bookish friends! (This can be done unlimited times, each in a different comment – one entry per comment)

Extra Entries :

  • Share the Instagram post to your stories for 24 hours and tag me so I can see it!
  • Follow my blog (hey, you’re here! You made it! Woohoo!) and leave a comment on Instagram letting me know that you have1

The winner will be drawn one week from posting, Sunday August 4 at 12:00 noon, and notified later that day!

Giveaway not affiliated with Instagram, etc. Just me!

Link to giveaway post : https://www.instagram.com/p/B0eD9f8AanQ/

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Let’s Talk About: Travels

Ebooks, audiobooks, & reading on the road

Life is full of tons of big changes, busy times, and some times that your brain feels enough like mush that just the thought of reading makes you tired. And sometimes reading just doesn’t, or can’t, realistically happen.

I know what you may be thinking, “No, but Jennifer, you’re a reader like me. Reading is a stress reliever for people like us. The book worms, and the introverts, we always have time to read and it makes us feel better.” Yes, often times that is true. I absolutely love to read, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. And reading, getting lost in these other worlds or learning about my own, it always feels like the right thing to do with my time.

Except for when it doesn’t.

Real talk time. My fiancé and I just moved from Washington State all the way to Texas, road tripping across states and time zones, and the move was intense. It was wonderful and everything that we had been looking for, but in a lot of ways it was also one of the biggest changes and most stressful times so far in my life – the seven day road trip, getting furniture up and down all of the stairs, figuring out how to fly with a cat! (Let me tell you, not the easiest part of the trip.)

So how do you read? And when? While you’re paused on the road and visiting with family? When you’re in the car being co-pilot? Or at the end of the day when you’re dead tired and all you want to do is curl up in a bed, any bed, and get about 2 weeks of sleep?

Sure, sometimes you get 10 minutes to read with sunshine (and adorable reading buddies) while visiting your in-laws. But those 10 minutes are never long enough.

Sometimes the answer is simply this – you don’t. And sometimes that is the exact right answer.

For me, I got very little reading done while we were in transition this last month and a half. I only finished a total of two books in that entire time. And even the two books that I did finish didn’t actually get reviewed until almost a month later. I was feeling like I was slacking, like I wasn’t getting anything done, and like I was wasting the little spare time that I did have.

And then I reminded myself, and my amazing fiancé constantly reminded me, of one important thing – this is what I do for fun. And to relax. When I am stressed, or upset, or don’t like the world around me, I read. And forcing myself to do something that I love when I don’t have the energy or the brain power to enjoy it to it’s fullest, wouldn’t be fair to myself or the books that I brought. And trust me, I brought a lot of books. Like, we’re talking an entire carry on full of books. I wish I was kidding. It was very heavy.

So here is what I did. When I had an hour or so that I knew I could take for myself and relaxing, I read one of my buddy read books on my kindle. Other times, in between albums and podcasts and some naps, we listened to an audiobook while in the car. And we stopped at a lot of Little Free Libraries along the way, when we needed to stop the car and stretch our legs anyway it was a great and bookish excuse to do so. And I got myself to feel alright with the fact that I would only read two books, and not put nearly the dent in my famous TBR list that I thought that I would.

So, for anyone out there, my advice would be this. If you are travelling, or moving, or just spending your time being stressed and busy, remember this – remember why you love to read, and don’t read for any other reasons. Don’t make your stress worse by creating false deadlines for yourself, it’ll make this thing that you love feel like work.

So during your travels research a Little Free Library or two, stock up on those audio books, and give yourself and the books the time that you deserve. And seriously, don’t fill a carry on full of physical books. Just take my word. Your back will thank me later.

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Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson

Harper audio – review: 2.5 stars

Hen and her husband Lloyd move to a beautiful house in the suburbs, and they think that they will finally be able to settle down. Until they accept a dinner invitation from their next door neighbors and are given a tour of the house, where Hen spots a sports trophy that she believes is tied to an unsolved murder case that she had read all about a few years back. She starts to watch her new neighbor, Matthew, from afar, and starts getting terrifyingly closer. But due to her history of psychosis, nobody believes her when she comes forward. How do you outrun and outsmart a killer that seems normal enough to everyone else, and when you’re forced to live right next door?

When I first heard the hype around this book, I was immediately drawn in. A psychological thriller, told from both the perspectives of the killer and the witness, one big game of cat and mouse? Yes please! So I was really excited when one of my book clubs picked it for our June read, and my fiancé and I listened to the audiobook over the course of a long drive.

To follow that lead, I was definitely correct in the number of things that initially really excited me about this book. At no point is this a “Who dunnit” story. As previously stated, Matthew, the story’s killer, is one of our primary narrators, and so as soon as his first chapter starts, we know all about his crimes. In that sense, as someone who loves a murder mystery and detective stories, I really love the idea of this book. Where it got a little bit lost for me, I’m afraid, is in the execution. I did not end up loving this book.

Almost about half way through the book you are introduced, without any warning or lead up, to two new narrators and their perspectives. I am all for getting different points of view in a story, in fact it is one of those things that drew me to the synopsis of this story in the first place, but I didn’t love having others sprung on us after such a large percentage of the book. Now (quite a bit of a spoiler) you find out that one of these two new voices aren’t quite as new as it might seem, but that still leaves one that we don’t hear from until the half way point and only twice in the entirety of the book. Worth noting on this as well, since I had listened to this as an audiobook, there is a mystery second, male narrator that you only hear a few times (the first couple of times you hear from the perspective of Richard, but not for the rest of his chapters after that). Maybe just a personal preference thing, but that definitely caught me off guard and struck me as odd. There were another thing or two here and there in the writing that bugged me a little bit that definitely fall into the same category of just my personal preference (there was one character that could not be mentioned one single time without taking very specific note of his “long, red-ish beard.” This is totally fine if it is spread apart and is something that will come back as important later on, but in my opinion is completely unnecessary if it happens multiple times, all within only a few chapters, and then never brought up again) so most I will just write off as the author’s writing maybe not be my style.

The only thing that I will say truly negatively about the story itself is this – I don’t love how mental health was handled in this story. The character of Hen has a history of psychotic breaks, specifically one in college when she became convinced that another student had attempted murder and that she herself was the next victim. When she first starts to suspect that Matthew is behind the murder, and even once she even witnesses him at the scene of a murder (of the person, I may add, that she told the police beforehand she thought was in danger), nobody believes her because of her past. Not even her husband gives her the benefit of the doubt, or believes her in any way whatsoever until he himself feels threatened by Matthew and then feels like maybe the claims were justified. I understand that in this world that would tend to make people look at her skeptically as a potentially unreliable witness. But after Hen sees Matthew at the scene of a murder, the police sweep her entire testimony aside because of her past and because she was on medications, and instead take the testimony of Matthew’s “witness,” his wife that was passed out drunk in their hotel room all night, but is sure that he probably didn’t leave. I also understand that the author, likely, is using this to show the potential faults in police procedures when relating to people with histories of mental illness – to demonstrate the faults, not just from a lack of compassion. But this specific aspect of the story was very difficult for me to listen to, probably even more so in audio form.

All of that aside, I didn’t hate this book. I stand by the story being really interesting and unique, as well as the very cool way that it is being told. And, while I did have the couple of issues above, I was still enjoying the book and was still grabbed enough by the tension that I was waiting to see what happened next. I was invested in the characters and the situations, and you can definitely tell that Peter Swanson knows his way around a really gripping thriller. Almost all of the issues that I took with this book were superficial and entirely my own personal preference – but that is all right. Not every book can be for every person, or what fun would reading be anyway? I would still recommend this book to a friend if they enjoy character driven thrillers, but it will never be at the top of any of my own lists. Only last thing that I would say to a friend wanting to read it – read it. Don’t go for the audiobook. Just don’t do it. Trust me on this.

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The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

sourcebooks – Review: 4 stars

Evelyn Hardcastle is going to be killed at her parents’ house party. This is the only thing that Aiden Bishop knows absolutely, after waking up one morning with no memory of his life before. He is reliving this same day eight times, and inhabiting the lives of eight different men in the house on that day – and his only chance of escaping the loop is to solve Evelyn’s murder. But with an enemy that he doesn’t fully understand, but who knows all of his next steps before he takes them, the real test may be if he can even live long enough to get on the right track.

Do you like mystery books/movies that with lots of twists and turns? Do you try to guess the end of a movie while you’re watching it, but aren’t necessarily right most of the time? Are you really bad at the game of Clue, but you keep wanting to play it anyway? Because that is exactly how I felt reading this book. Every time I thought that I had outsmarted the author and figured out where the story may be going next, I got the rug pulled out from under me, and one of Aiden’s hosts got some new bit of information that proved how wrong I was.

I thought that this was a really interesting format to tell a story, especially for a Christie-esque murder mystery. As mentioned in the short synopsis, Bishop is living the same 24 hours multiple times from the perspective of different men throughout the house, and all with different relationships to the soon-to-be victim. Any time that one of his hosts falls asleep (or if they die) he wakes up as someone new when they first wake up that day, and can later return to previous hosts once they wake up again. And in doing so, he interacts with his other hosts throughout the day, along with all of the other guests and house staff. One example of this early in the book is when he is living in his first day he is lost and runs to Blackheath, knocks on the door, and yells at a non-responsive butler. Then on his very next day, he wakes up as that same butler who opens the door and is so stunned to see his previous self (not yet knowing the rules of Blackheath) that he doesn’t know how to respond to the man at the door.

This made the storytelling incredibly interesting and engaging, and it got me invested in the mystery incredibly quickly. However, it also made the timeline fairly difficult to follow since you are jumping around between people and times of day. The book is also fairly lengthy, so between the length and the timeline fuzziness it took me quite a while to fully read through this book. But if you are willing to push through it and make sense of it all, I found that it was definitely worth all of the confusion in the end.

By the time I was finished I really loved this book. It took a little bit of stumbling through, but it was engaging and incredibly interesting, and I was not even close to guessing the ending. This book was smart, unique, and tense in all of the best ways. If you like a mystery, this book will definitely deliver for you, and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to fully lost themselves in one.

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Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

St. Martin’s Griffin – Review: 5 stars

Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some.

Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue

All opinions are entirely my own.

As soon as I read the short synopsis of this book pre-publication I knew that I would enjoy it, but I assumed that it would be just a cute and heartwarming rom-com-type of story, including an LGBTQ+ storyline and lead characters – which is something that I definitely appreciate and feel is needed in this day and age. However, what I got was so, so much more. 

While this is in fact a romantic comedy first and foremost, there is so much more to the story and to the characters. And the main ingredient is just this – heart. Bunches of it. All of the characters are really charming, and while our male leads are both incredibly likeable and sweet and I want to double date with them every weekend, I must say that in my personal opinion some of the spunky female characters really stole the show for me, namely the three sister characters that round out the group of young royals, June, Nora, and Beatrice. All three of these young women are exactly the kinds of women that I love to read about – they are incredibly smart and well educated women, who are quick-witted and sassy and not afraid to say exactly what is on their minds. And while I obviously loved the main plot with our two handsome lovebirds, quite a few (if not most) of my favorite scenes throughout the book included some combination of these three and the guys. 
Also, definitely needing a mention when talking about strong female characters, is Alex’s mother, who happens to be the President of the United States. She, like the younger women, is obviously very smart and successful in her chosen field, and finds strength in her family time and puts the job of being a mother as high as the job of POTUS – a trait I love and highly admire in anyone (real or fiction), and I loved that the nation didn’t try to see this as a weakness in her, but they knew that it was a strength too. Without getting too political, it was both amazing and depressing to glimpse this alternate reality of the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election where instead the US walked away with a President that is not only a woman of color, but a mother in a bi-racial family who is equally celebrated for that role. It was amazing to see that maybe one day that can be possible, and for the sake of myself and the rest of nation, I hope it’s soon. 

Now back to our male leads. Both Alex and Henry are fun and charming characters separately, but where they really shine is together. But all of the best relationships are that way, aren’t they? I am a woman in a heterosexual relationship, so I am not a person who has the knowledge, experience, or right to say how representative this story is of these types of relationships in real life. But what I can say is this – I loved the story of their relationship, and their emails back and forth to each other made me melt, and in my opinion it seemed to be written very well and from a place of love and respect. I would read an entire series about these two and the version of the world that they get to live in. 

All of that being said, wow I really loved this book. I would recommend it to any of my friends, and already have on multiple occasions. As I stated, it is full of so much heart that I found it impossible not to laugh and cry and smile along with all of the people who fill its pages. I already plan on rereading it, making my fiancé and all of my friends read it, and watching the movie as soon as it has been made and released.

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Waiting For Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey

Berkley – Review: 5 stars

    • Thanks so much to Berkley and the author for this advanced, gifted copy in exchange for my honest review! All opinions are completely my own.

    I am a girl that loves a rom-com, and I always have been, much to the dismay of some of my friends and exes that wanted to watch just about anything else. Anytime John Cusack is below a window with a boombox, or I hear the words “You had me at ‘hello,'” or just about anything else from this genere of film I laugh and cry and melt in any way you can think of.

    So I relate to our heroine Annie a ton in that way – I grew up with these types of movies, and they provided me with some sort of sweet and hopeful idea of love and romance. So while some of her ways of showing it were a bit silly, I found her very adorable and relatable as a character. Her journey isn’t perfect, either in love or in life, but that made it all the more worth while. And I wanted to jump right into my old yoga pants and slightly inappropriate pizza-themed shirt and watch a movie marathon with she and her best friend Chloe.

    I tend to be drawn towards character driven stories in general as well, as anyone who knows me could tell you, so this story checked a lot of my boxes. Other than our female lead Annie there are a ton of other really fun characters as well, and each is charming and awkward in equal measures in their own ways. No character is put up as the perfect person or a perfect character, although our male lead and Tom Hanks stand in Drew Danforth comes the closest, which I always appreciate. While it can be fun to read about very aspirational people and situations, I tend to think it is way more fun and interesting to read about flawed but kind people, people that in theory you could have grown up down the street from. And while I don’t expect this exact story will happen down the street from me any time soon, I feel like the characters in this book fit nicely into that category.

    Also, talking about this book without talking about all of the classic rom-com cliches would be doing the story and the author a disservice. Now again, I love a good rom-com. Heck. I even love a BAD rom-com. Just ask my fiance. So, personally, I ate them all up in one bite. And this story has them all. The meet-cute (including a definition, for anyone who may be reading and is unfamiliar with the term), the love-triangle, the blind dates, even running through an airport with a motivational song supposedly playing loudly in the background. And since our lead, Annie, is an aspiring screenwriter, we get to see all of these from a very fun perspective – both her hopefullness for true love and her technical eye knowing full well that these are plot devices, and often writing them out in her head before they happen in her life.

    This story was sweet, and charming, and made me laugh multiple times and make my fiance read the passages so that he would know what I was laughing about. This gave me all of the fuzzy feelings and moments that I want out of my favorite movies, and I really enjoyed getting to escape onto this movie set in the middle of Columbus, and getting lost in the hope and silliness of the hopeless romantic. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves these movies, and just wants something fun to read where you know it’ll all end in some sort of a happily ever after.

    Now please excuse me while I go and marathon You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and every other romantic comedy that I can get my hands on. Someone get me a bowl of popcorn and a very large glass of wine!

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    Naturally Tan by Tan France

    St. Martin’s Press – Review: 5 stars

    I love that I have a place that helps keep me grounded. Whenever I’m back home, the thing I just came from feels like a dream. It legit feels like it never happened. Until, of course, I’m out and about and someone I’ve never met before says, “Hey, Tan!”

    Tan France, Naturally Tan

    Book synopsis from Amazon :

    In this heartfelt, funny, and touching memoir, one of the stars of Netflix’s Emmy Award-winning smash-hit Queer Eye reveals how an Englishman raised in a traditionally religious home became a fashion icon—and the first openly gay, South Asian man on television—simply by being Naturally Tan.

    In this heartfelt, funny, touching memoir, Tan France tells his origin story for the first time. With his trademark wit, humor, and radical compassion, Tan reveals what it was like to grow up gay in a traditional South Asian family, as one of the few people of color in South Yorkshire, England. He illuminates his winding journey of coming of age, finding his voice (and style!), and marrying the love of his life—a Mormon cowboy from Salt Lake City.

    From one of the stars of Netflix’s runaway hit show Queer Eye, Naturally Tan is so much more than fashion dos and don’ts—though of course Tan can’t resist steering everyone away from bootcut jeans! Full of candid observations about U.S. and U.K. cultural differences, what he sees when you slide into his DMs, celebrity encounters, and the behind-the-scenes realities of “reality TV,” Naturally Tan gives us Tan’s unique perspective on the happiness to be found in being yourself.

    In Tan’s own words, “The book is meant to spread joy, personal acceptance, and most of all understanding. Each of us is living our own private journey, and the more we know about each other, the healthier and happier the world will be.”

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

    I feel like I should start off by saying that I love Netflix’s Queer Eye to pieces, and Tan is always one of my favorite parts of the episodes. When I got approved for this ARC I legitimately called and bragged to my fiancé because I was so excited and I would get to read it first. So basically, I knew that, unless it was really, truly terrible, I was probably going to love this book. But now that that disclaimer is out of the way. Wow. I really loved this book.

    I don’t tend to read very many memoirs, and so I usually assume that they will be a little bit longer of a read for me because I will be reading it interspersed and in-between my other books that might be a little bit faster paced. And while it did take me about a week to read this, and while yes, I was reading other books at the same time, the pacing wasn’t the cause at all. Tan as a narrator is exactly how I would have pictured based on his personality on the show – he is intelligent, and witty, and has fiery sass and sarcasm dripping out of every chapter. Anyone who knows me personally would tell you that I relate to that and that I eat it up.

    He also doesn’t hold anything back, which I really appreciate. He doesn’t pretend that, fairly sudden, fame doesn’t have its drawbacks and that it isn’t hard for he and his family sometimes. He doesn’t pretend that he had a perfect and easy childhood, or even a perfect and easy adulthood. He tells you like it is about himself, his life, his world, and his deep hatred of crocs. Seriously. If you ever think that you may come in contact with Tan France, HIDE YOUR CROCS! Luckily for me I a) don’t own any crocs (I’m on your side, Tan!), and b) I don’t believe I am likely to be seeing Tan France any time soon, especially not in my closet. Oh well, a girl can dream, can’t she?

    Another thing that I really loved about this that really set it apart from other memoirs that I have read is that it didn’t go directly in chronological order of his life. While yes, for the most part it started with stories from his childhood and ended with stories more centered around his life today and as a member of the Fab 5, it seems obvious that he didn’t feel obligated to stick strictly to that linear story. He freely mentions his husband, Rob, in an early chapter in a “Later I would come to find out” kind of way, or in a late chapter he goes back and touches again on his previous jobs that he had listed and explained away in the third or fourth. In a way, it almost seems like he wrote the book out of order – like he knew what stories he wanted to tell and wrote them out in chunks that made sense together as chapters, and then later switched them around to be roughly in the order that they happened. It made it feel casual, and fun, and just like an easy conversation with a friend. And I adored it.

    Another thing that I thought was so whimsical and fun, and definitely worth noting, was that the chapters were all headed by a garment or accessory that would be important to the stories that he would be telling next. Rather than being numbered or having names like “The Early Years,” these chapters are headed with things like “Leather Jacket,” “Ode to a One Piece,” or even “Slippers” (spoiler, when he had his first date with his now husband, Rob showed up wearing slipper shoes. And the story is so charming.)

    While we are on the subject of Rob, let’s talk a tiny bit about their relationship, because #goals. One thing that I didn’t realize before reading this book was how long they had been in a long-distance relationship before they got married. As someone who is in a long-distance relationship now, let me tell you, they are a whole lot of work and they aren’t always as much fun as they could be, but this is another thing that Tan is completely open and honest about. I so appreciate that he didn’t sweep it under the rug of “But we love each other, so it never had its difficulties.” It did, and it does. But they love each other, and they seem to compliment each other so well, that those difficulties were never bad enough that they couldn’t fix it together. Their story is so sweet, and it was truly a delight to get to read. Also, he mentions that they speak in a strange voice when they are only speaking to each other, and have enough inside jokes that they are always laughing and almost speaking a different language sometimes, and I loved that small peek behind the curtain.

    All in all, I really did love getting to read this book. There are stories in the beginning about how difficult it was growing up and trying to hide who you are so you won’t be bullied (any more so than you already are), and heartbreaking stories about a particularly dark time in his life while running a few too many businesses, but there are also really funny and charming anecdotes about his friends, or Queer Eye, or meeting Jon Bon Jovi and almost FaceTiming his wife. There are so many wonderful things to find in this book, and I recommend it to anyone who might be even remotely interested. I will also, very likely, be buying a physical copy so that my fiancé can finally read it too. I mean, come on, after my bragging about it? I’m not totally heartless, am I?

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    Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

    Scribner books – review: 5 stars

    Thanks so much to NetGalley and Scribner for the advanced review copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are completely my own.

    I started seeing the hype around this book long before it was published, and I knew that I wanted to read it based only on what everyone was saying about it. I had to see what everyone was talking about, right? But since I already knew, rather than being caught on the fence at all, I wanted to try and go in as blind towards the actual plot as I could. So other than a character-driven family and mental health drama, I didn’t really know what to expect going in. But even so, my expectations for this novel were very high, and I was not disappointed.

    At the top of the novel we meet Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, two young men beginning careers in the police force, and their young wives just as they are starting families and settling down. The couples find early on that their lives and futures are tethered together, with the men working together and the families living next door to each other.
    Now, going in not knowing the plot, at this point I imagined that I had met all of our primary players – Francis, his gentle wife Lena, Brian, and his mysterious wife Anne. That would have been a story on its own, but I was then pleasantly interested to find that the novel and story cross generations and focuses as much on these four as it does on two children, one from each family. Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope were best friends their entire childhoods, which is pretty typical with kids close in age and living next door to each other. But when the two are in eighth grade, a long night and a violent event forces the Stanhopes to move away, and the two are torn apart, forbidden by their families to see the other.
    This novel encompasses an entire lifetime, full of choices and relationships, and how the events of 1991 affect them as families and as individuals across decades.

    This novel includes quite a few topics that can be challenging, and that may not be easy for everyone to read – this includes mental health difficulties that lead to violent actions, abandonment, alcoholism, and how injury and sickness (specifically cancer) affect not only the person but their families. I believe that these are topics that are important to be able to talk about, and in my opinion the author does a good job of showing both sides of all of these issues. I want others to be able to have the same experience reading this novel for the first time and experiencing it with fresh eyes, so I’m not going to go too far into this since it would be impossible to do so without spoilers to the plot.

    As I mentioned, this story is obviously very character driven, so I was glad that there were characters that I could relate to and that I felt connected to. One of my favorite characters was the youngest daughter, Kate Gleeson (as I think she is meant to be). Even as a child she is smart and strong, with a sharp and sassy personality and a kind heart. However, all of the characters really had their moments where I wanted to be like them, where they frustrated me, where they broke my heart. But all along the journey I felt like I knew each of these people, and I really love that in a novel.

    All in all, I really did love this novel. It took me almost an entire week to read for one reason or another, but in hindsight I’m glad, because this is not a story that you want to rush through, but rather one to really sink your teeth into and let yourself feel everything fully as it happens. While some of the themes could warrant a content warning, as I said I believe that if you are able to read them then you should start here. If you’re not sure if this book or the themes would be easy for you, I would honestly highly recommend reading this with a friend or a book club, in order to really get into the conversations that this type of story starts.
    I would highly recommend this read, and if you are planning to read it, or have read it, and want someone to get into a discussion with, you know who to call. Or… email.

    Posted on by tacklingtbr

    First a Lady by Jade Cary

    Review : 2.5 / 3 stars

    Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy in exchange for my honest review! All opinions are completely my own.  (2.5 stars, rounded to 3)

    I have some very mixed feelings about this book. I feel that it’s important to note that, while they aren’t the majority of what I read, I have nothing against passionate romance novels. I love a good guilty pleasure romance as much as the next guy, and a well written sex scene can be really great. That being said, I don’t think that this book really did anything for me. 

    Some bits of the plot were interesting, and I did find that I liked the characters. It was their relationship that gave me a bit of pause. I don’t mind a Dominant-Submissive relationship in books, but this relationship seemed to live right on the line between that and borderline abusive. So while I did have moments that I really wanted to enjoy this book – the story, the banter dialogue and parts of the relationship and scenes that were clearly consensual, etc. But the couple of times that it seemed to cross back over to the other side of that line just kind of turned me off of the novel, so to speak. 

    I didn’t hate the book, though, by any means. It was still an enjoyable read and, if we are ignoring those couple of instances referenced above, I liked the rest of their relationship. Also other than a few bits of the plot that were a bit confusing, and never fully explained, the plot was fun too. I found this book on NetGalley’s back catalog because I was looking for something fun and frivolous that wouldn’t require too much brain power or time to get through. And while I think that this did for the most part accomplish that, there were enough little moments that seemed problematic enough to me that I probably won’t be going back to re-read it anytime soon. 

    If one of my friends or family members was going to pick up this book to read I wouldn’t go out of my way to stop them, but unless I knew that it was exactly what someone was looking for then I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it either. Over all, with the issues above, I find myself just feeling a bit conflicted and a bit “mehhh” about this particular read. This one just wasn’t for me.