First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
Goodreads blurb: “This fast-paced read has everything you could want in a thriller: secret identities, a mysterious boss and a cat & mouse game that kept me guessing the whole way through.”—Reese Witherspoon Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist. The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time. Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to—her real identity—just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge...
My take: 4.5 out of 5. It took me a bit to get into the book but once i did I was sold. It’s always kind of strange when you are rooting for a morally questionable character, but that is what’s going on here and you really do root for her. And really she is the least morally questionably character in the book so i think its justified. I enjoyed the jumping timelines, I did not see some of the twists coming and I thoroughly enjoyed all the behind the scenes spying and surveillance action that you get to be a part of.
Why did I choose it: It was my Book of the Month for January, as well as Reese’s Book Club pic so it had two things going for it.
Read this if you like(d): Lisa Jewell, or Wrong Place Wrong Time. Also good if you like Non scary thrillers.
Mercury by Amy Jo Burns
Goodreads blurb: A roofing family’s bonds of loyalty are tested when they uncover a long-hidden secret at the heart of their blue-collar town―from Amy Jo Burns, author of the critically acclaimed novel Shiner. It’s 1990 and seventeen-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone’s table and a family of her own. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town is three men standing on a rooftop. Their silhouettes blot out the sun. The Joseph brothers become Marley’s whole world before she can blink. Soon, she is young wife to one, The One Who Got Away to another, and adopted mother to them all. As their own mother fades away and their roofing business crumbles under the weight of their unwieldy father’s inflated ego, Marley steps in to shepherd these unruly men. Years later, an eerie discovery in the church attic causes old wounds to resurface and suddenly the family’s survival hangs in the balance. With Marley as their light, the Joseph brothers must decide whether they can save the family they’ve always known―or whether together they can build something stronger in its place.
My take: 3.5 out of 5. Repeating parental actions and mistakes is an epidemic in this book. An exercise in the futility of our every day lives, and how intergenerational patters and mistakes can continue and how empowering it is to let go of those. Its a good book and it definitely is a very well written book it just needed a bit more action. I appreciated the character development it was just a tad boring at times. Bonus points (and it raised itself to 3.5 from a 3) for the good ending, I was very satisfied by it. “men do things and women apologize for it”
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher.
Why did I choose it: It was in a lot of lists of books to look forward in 2024. It was also a Book of the Month option, and although I did not pick that one it intrigued me enough to ask for an ARC and I got it!. It also got described as a type of Hello Beautiful but with men (let me assure you it is not, Hello Beautiful was one of my favorite books, this is not to that level for me)
Read this if you like(d): Family dramas, small town stories. This feels very art house movie like.
The Storm we Made by Vanessa Chan
Goodreads blurb: A novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII—and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family. Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day. Cecily knows two things: that this is all her fault; and that her family must never learn the truth. A decade prior, Cecily had been desperate to be more than a housewife to a low-level bureaucrat in British-colonized Malaya. A chance meeting with the charismatic General Fuijwara lured her into a life of espionage, pursuing dreams of an “Asia for Asians.” Instead, Cecily helped usher in an even more brutal occupation by the Japanese. Ten years later as the war reaches its apex, her actions have caught up with her. Now her family is on the brink of destruction—and she will do anything to save them.
My take: 2.75 out of 5 I considered DNF this book a number of times. It is a hard book to read. Objectively it is a very well written book, with a dual timeline that has some very strong implications as to what are the effects of our actions and the realities of war when really no side is safe. However as objectively good as it potentially could be I found it very hard to get through. There were a lot of strong moments, graphic moments and at some point its all a bit too much to hear (i did the audiobook). I really disliked most of if not all of the characters. The main character, Cecily, was probably my least favorite of them all (And there were a lot of questionable characters). Her actions at times I felt had little motivation, and just could not really see why she did half the things, nor found any sense of empathy towards her. War books are hard reads but this one was a bit much for my palate. I really enjoyed that it was a WWII book but unlike most of its genre, it does not center around the European effects, but goes to Asia, Malaysia here in particular. IT also has a great quote: “The Price of war is innocence”. This book requires a strong palate cleanser after. FYI its a longish read, the audiobook was 11 hours although I went through it in half the time (I usually do 2x) , but at the beginning I had to slow down a bit because a lot of new names that were not familiar to me where coming my way.
Why did I choose it: It was the GMA Book Club pic, and a Historical Fiction one at that so it was an easy choice
Read this if you like(d): World War II Historical Fiction, family dramas.
Forget Me Not by Julie Soto
Goodreads blurb: An ambitious wedding planner must work with her grumpy florist ex, whose heart she broke, on the most high-profile wedding of her career, in this spicy and emotional romance from popular fanfic author Julie Soto. He loves me; he loves me not… Ama Torres loves being a wedding planner. But with a mother who has been married more times than you can count on your fingers, Ama has decided that marriage is not the route for her. But weddings? Weddings are amazing. As a small business owner, she knows how to match her clients with the perfect vendor to give them the wedding of their dreams. Well, almost perfect… Elliot hates being a florist, most of the time. When his father left him the flower shop, he considered it a burden, but he’s stuck with it. Just like how he’s stuck with the way he proposed to Ama, his main collaborator and girlfriend (or was she?) two years ago. But flowers have grown on him, just like Ama did. And flowers can’t run off and never speak to him again, like Ama did. When Ama is hired to plan a celebrity wedding that will bring her business national exposure, there’s a catch: Elliot is already contracted to design the flowers. Things are not helped by the two brides, who see the obvious chemistry between Ama and Elliot and are determined to set them up, not knowing their complicated history. Add in a meddling ex-boss, and a reality TV film crew documenting every step of the wedding prep, and Ama and Elliot’s hearts are not only in jeopardy again, but this time, their livelihoods are too.
My Take: 3.5 out of 5. This is a super cute, very fast to read love story. For me it was a one sitting reading situation. I love the beautiful descriptions and all the flower/wedding beauty surrounding them, it just made the story aesthetically pleasing in my mind. I love the tattoo situation (you have to read it to know but it was sweet). It might not be my favorite romance, but it is definitely a sweet one to pick up during valentines time.
Why did I choose it: A Friend in Book Club recommended it, and it had availability right away in Libby (which sometimes is the very honest reason on how some book selections happen)
Read this if you like(d): to watch HGTT shows and wedding reality shows but you also are also. hard romantic. Definitely read it if you liked Practically Perfect
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James Mc Bride
Goodreads blurb: The new novel from the bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Oprah Book Club-picked, Barack Obama favourite James McBride.In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community-heaven and earth-that sustain us.
My Take: 3.75 out of 5. I really wanted to like this book, and objectively it is a beautifully written book. For me, it fell a bit below expectations. It was a book that took me a bit to read, I was doing audiobook and i kept switching to others, because I didn’t fully get into the story. After the 50% mark then i was fully committed to it. However the end fell flat for me again, I don’t know what I was expecting but I wanted more of a splash with it. It is however a beautifully written literary book and one that I enjoyed, i just think my expectations were too high. The interrelationships within the characters was so well done, and this huge cast of characters come together in beautiful ways. It is also a crude realistic description of immigrant life and quite important for that. But i had to confess that by the time i got to the end I ad completely forgotten the “mystery” that we were supposed to uncover at the beginning. There are over 100 characters in the story, and The Literary Lifestyle, a great blog, has a summary of all the characters in case you need to.
Why did I choose it: it was on a lot of the top books of 2023 list and came highly recommended.
Read this if you like(d): sweeping family geographical dramas, 100 years of solitude
Tati's Tidbits 