First Wife’s Shadow by Adele Parks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3.5 stars, interesting thriller. twists and turns but also not the ending i thought it would have. liked it!
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I love Rachel Joyce. I love her rich and three-dimensional characters. I love her immersive stories. I love how when you finish her novel, you are left with a feeling of being full after a delicious meal. The Homemade God is full of adult children whose lives are stunted because they have continually revolved around their father. Their father who marries a very young woman that none of them have met and dies soon after. Now they travel to Italy to figure out what happened, who this woman is, and how their father died. And they each come undone one by one. The time on the island changes each of them in irrevocable ways. This is a story about family, and the roles we can slip into and stay stuck in for a long, long time. The hold our parents can have on us. The pieces of ourself that we give up along the way, never to realize how much of it we’ve sacrificed. It’s a beautiful story, beautifully told. That I grew to love each of those unlikable characters serves as a testament to the powerful storytelling and character building talent of Joyce. with gratitude to netgalley and The Dial Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
This was an interesting story about what happens when a critic who loves giving terrible reviews (and is even more despicable for other reasons) finally gets his due when an artist decides to make her whole show about what he did to her. There’s a lot to unpack in this story about art, self-expression, payback, what’s ok to criticize, family, trauma, and one’s reputation. I felt that the story was both slow and the characters were all not-likable which made it hard to feel sorry for them and for what was happening to them. It created a distance between me and the story. It was still really interesting and a lot of food for thought. with gratitude to netgalley and Doubleday for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
I am a huge Stiefvater fan and could not wait to read her adult debut. Even though this plot seemed a bit weird, I knew that I would find the writing enjoyable. And I wasn’t wrong. There was so much of Stiefvater’s attention to detail, her quirky characters, her unusual storylines. I loved June as a main character. I loved all the Gilfoyle stories and I loved each of the unique characters along the way and I really liked the twist. Even though this was historical fiction, it was more because it felt like a Stiefvater novel. I wasn’t crazy about the water under the hotel and never truly understood its significance to the story line. I am sure this is my miss but in my opinion it didn’t add much to the story. with gratitude to netgalley and Viking for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
There’s something magical in Wilson’s ability to tell a story. His characters are a little bit off, but they are so lovable, so real and so memorable. He then takes these characters and puts them in interesting situations. The dialogue is memorable, jumps off the page and fills you with joy even during a tragic scene. I love reading his novels and Run for the Hills is one of my favorites. I loved all the characters in this story, especially Mad and Rube. The yearning for belonging and family and finding a sense of grounding is at the root of this beautiful story. And of course life is never what we want it to be, it’s always both less and more. As in all his novels, Wilson makes you fall in love with his characters. with gratitude to netgalley and Ecco for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
I have been wanting to read Boyne’s novels since I first found out about them. They were published in England individually over the last few years but never made it here to the US. Now that I’ve read it, I think having them published all together is actually so much more powerful than reading them one by one, a year apart. This was an incredibly powerful read. Boyne’s ability to create three-dimensional characters is incredible. In 170 or so pages, the reader gets to know the characters so deeply well that it can evoke all sorts of emotions. I loved how there’s always a tie-in from story to story, I loved how the lens changes with each story and you’re experiencing a totally different perspective and you feel frustration, sorrow, anger, despair and so much more for each character at different times. I love how much these stories stretch your mind and show you that people are complex, stories are complex, we are all flawed in ways big and small. It makes you think about your own boundaries with what’s forgivable and what’s not. About grief and it’s lasting impact. About trauma and it’s ability to stain all that comes after it. About forgiveness. And I love that the last story brings everything back full cycle. Boyne is an incredibly talented author. These are hard stories to read, all of them. And they are also really really powerful. with gratitude to netgalley and Henry Holt and Co. for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
I love Julie Clark’s writing. Her female characters are always sharp and interesting and Olivia was no exception. I loved both the feeling of how one returns right back to being a kid when they go back to their home and how hard she worked not to abandon herself. So much story to unpack here and i loved the way it unraveled piece by piece. Early on, I guessed a big part of the puzzle but I was both totally right and totally wrong at the same time which I loved. Because it showed that she could still surprise me while dropping crumbs I could pick up. That, in my mind, is the best kind of skill. Can’t wait to read more of Clark’s work. with gratitude to netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
This novel was so, so sweet. I loved the idea of the Sliding Doors storyline. I loved the idea of living the what-if life and seeing what stayed the same and what changed. I loved how awesome the characters were and how sharp and funny and joyful the dialogue was. This novel will keep you smiling from beginning to end. It’s really impossible to put down because the characters give you so much joy that you want to come back to them again and again. Loved it. with gratitude to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
The writing, characters and dialogue of this book are where it shines. They jump off the page with such dimension that it’s impossible not to get immersed in the story. At its heart this story is about who we are, how we grow, mistakes we make and whether they are forgivable or not, what we keep from each other and the damaging impact of shame. There’s so much in this one story. It’s the kind of story where you finish and then think about for days and can’t remember if the characters were real people or made up. For me that’s how the best stories are made. with gratitude to netgalley and The Dial Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
This mystery was interesting and unpredictable. The reason I didn’t rate it higher is because most of it didn’t stick with me. I felt like the characters weren’t that interesting. The most interesting part actually was the setting. I liked that there wasn’t really a huge shocking twist because I am tired of them. There were twists just not of the kind that completely change what you’ve read so far. with gratitude to netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
This was such an unusual story, considering how much I read, I am always pleased when I can find a book with a plot i haven’t seen before. And I love time travel novels so I was excited to read this one. Once they started traveling, I kept looking for the connection between them. Even though it got convoluted and a little hard to follow in some sections, this book in its heart was about grief, second chances, love, forgiveness and maybe a little bit about destiny. I loved the message it had about the power of self-forgiveness and I also loved that things can feel and be so different if we have the ability to widen the lens with which we get to see them. with gratitude to netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
For some reason, I never got into this story. I liked reading about the women, I liked the math and i liked the idea of this book but I just didn’t get attached enough to any of the characters. |
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