The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
Published: January 5th, 2021 by St. Martin's Press
Genre: Retelling, Psychological thriller
Format: Audiobook, 9 hours and 10 minutes, Scribd
Rating: 3 Stars
Publisher's Summary:
Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates—a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.
But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in Eddie—not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she’s always yearned for.
Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie’s heart before her past—or his—catches up to her?
With delicious suspense, incisive wit, and a fresh, feminist sensibility, The Wife Upstairs flips the script on a timeless tale of forbidden romance, ill-advised attraction, and a wife who just won’t stay buried. In this vivid reimagining of one of literature’s most twisted love triangles, which Mrs. Rochester will get her happy ending?
My Thoughts:
I can't get away from any Jane Eyre retelling. I am a sucker! It was different for sure. But it didn't quite have that Jane Eyre feeling for me, though. But it has quite an ending and I liked the twist.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Published: May 4th, 2021 by Ballantine Books
Genre: Sci-fi, Action-adventure
Format: Hardcover, 476 pages, Library
Rating: 5 Stars
Publisher's Summary:
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.
Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian--while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
My Thoughts:
This is in my top five this year if not higher! I loved everything about this book. I can't wait to reread it on audio. There are a few parts that will come alive once I can hear it. I hope they make this one into a movie as well.
Lots of science discussion in this one. But I loved that. I didn't understand everything but I loved the way he walks himself through it. This one gave me hope for humanity after reading it. That can only be a good thing.
Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery #1) by Mia P. Manansala
Published: May 4th, 2021 by Berkley
Genre: Mystery
Format: Paperback, 336 pages, Libary
Rating: 3 Stars
Publisher's Summary:
When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She's tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.
With the cops treating her like she's the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila's left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block…
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this introduction into Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery series. It wasn't more than it needed to be. We have a couple of love interests for the future! We've got an amateur sleuth who can cook! The author includes several recipes to try at the end of the book. I tried out the adobo chicken and it was super yummy! I will make it again.
The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad #6) by Tana French
Published: October 4th, 2016 by Viking
Genre: Crime Fiction
Format: Kindle, 464 pages, Own
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Publisher's Summary:
Being on the Murder squad is nothing like Detective Antoinette Conway dreamed it would be. Her partner, Stephen Moran, is the only person who seems glad she’s there. The rest of her working life is a stream of thankless cases, vicious pranks, and harassment. Antoinette is savagely tough, but she’s getting close to the breaking point.
Their new case looks like yet another by-the-numbers lovers’ quarrel gone bad. Aislinn Murray is blond, pretty, groomed to a shine, and dead in her catalogue-perfect living room, next to a table set for a romantic dinner. There’s nothing unusual about her—except that Antoinette’s seen her somewhere before.
And that her death won’t stay in its neat by-numbers box. Other detectives are trying to push Antoinette and Steve into arresting Aislinn’s boyfriend, fast. There’s a shadowy figure at the end of Antoinette's road. Aislinn's friend is hinting that she knew Aislinn was in danger. And everything they find out about Aislinn takes her further from the glossy, passive doll she seemed to be.
Antoinette knows the harassment has turned her paranoid, but she can’t tell just how far gone she is. Is this case another step in the campaign to force her off the squad, or are there darker currents flowing beneath its polished surface?
My Thoughts:
I have officially read all of the Dublin Murder Squad series! Until she writes another one...
I enjoyed the themes of how everything isn't how it always seems and how people can surprise us in good ways in the end. But it was a bit of a long stretch where I didn't quite like the way the book was going. Her main character Antoinette was absolutely dreadful. I didn't feel like she was an actual human being that interacted with the world. She was just too much. I don't think French gave her a fair shake. She seems to give the men fair shakes in her books but the women? Not so much.
Plot was a bit stretched as well. But overall, I liked the overall feel of the book rather than the actual plot or the main protagonist. It is a worthy series. I hope she writes more.
The Bombay Prince (Perveen Mistry #3) by Sujata Massey
Published: June 1st, 2021 by Soho Crime
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Format: Hardcover, 360 pages, Library
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Publisher's Summary:
India’s only female lawyer, Perveen Mistry, is compelled to bring justice to the family of a murdered female Parsi student just as Bombay’s streets erupt in riots to protest British colonial rule. Sujata Massey is back with this third installment to the Agatha and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning series set in 1920s Bombay.
November, 1921. Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and future ruler of India, is arriving in Bombay to begin a four-month tour. The Indian subcontinent is chafing under British rule, and Bombay solicitor Perveen Mistry isn’t surprised when local unrest over the royal arrival spirals into riots. But she’s horrified by the death of Freny Cuttingmaster, an eighteen-year-old female Parsi student, who falls from a second-floor gallery just as the prince’s grand procession is passing by her college.
Freny had come for a legal consultation just days before her death, and what she confided makes Perveen suspicious that her death was not an accident. Perveen, who strongly identified with Freny—another young Parsi woman fighting hard against the confines of society’s rules and expectations—feels terribly guilty for failing to help her. Perveen steps forward to assist Freny’s family in the fraught dealings of the coroner’s inquest, and when Freny’s death is ruled a murder, Perveen knows she can’t rest until she sees justice done. But Bombay is erupting: as armed British secret service march the streets, rioters attack anyone with perceived British connections and desperate shopkeepers destroy their own wares so they will not be targets of racial violence. Can Perveen help a suffering family when her own is in danger?
My Thoughts:
I loved the first two in this series. But The Bombay Prince just didn't quite live up to the first two. It could be that Perveen is a little more confined in this one. She's back home with her parents and working under her father. The restrictions placed on women really come out in this one. And while her romance heats up a tad in this one...it felt a bit forced. I feel like this book was a way to get to her other stories that will move along Perveen's story. It felt a little rushed to me. But I am hooked and will continue on with the series.
The setting in 1920s India is also fabulous. Lots of history and ideas are presented. It makes me want to read more Indian history during this time. Overall, a great series.
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Published: First published 2002 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Genre: Dystopia, Young Adult
Format: Paperback, 380 pages, Own
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Publisher's Summary:
With undertones of vampires, Frankenstein, dragons' hoards, and killing fields, Matt's story turns out to be an inspiring tale of friendship, survival, hope, and transcendence. A must-read for teenage fantasy fans.
At his coming-of-age party, Matteo Alacrán asks El Patrón's bodyguard, "How old am I?...I know I don't have a birthday like humans, but I was born."
"You were harvested," Tam Lin reminds him. "You were grown in that poor cow for nine months and then you were cut out of her."
To most people around him, Matt is not a boy, but a beast. A room full of chicken litter with roaches for friends and old chicken bones for toys is considered good enough for him. But for El Patrón, lord of a country called Opium—a strip of poppy fields lying between the U.S. and what was once called Mexico—Matt is a guarantee of eternal life. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself for Matt is himself. They share identical DNA.
My Thoughts:
G really enjoyed this one. I think he liked it better than I did. I liked it but didn't love it. There are some hard ideas in this series. I think that's good. We had some discussions while reading. But I also felt there were a lot of things in this book that were glossed over or made less horrifying because it's young adult. But it's still an interesting dystopia that focuses on what makes someone human? Is it nature versus nurture? Both? Her series is a fun exploration.
The Searcher by Tana French
Published: October 6th, 2020 by Viking
Genre: Mystery
Format: Hardcover, 451 pages, Library
Rating: 4 Stars
Publisher's Summary:
Retired detective Cal Hooper moves to a remote village in rural Ireland. His plans are to fix up the dilapidated cottage he's bought, to walk the mountains, to put his old police instincts to bed forever.
Then a local boy appeals to him for help. His brother is missing, and no one in the village, least of all the police, seems to care. And once again, Cal feels that restless itch.
Something is wrong in this community, and he must find out what, even if it brings trouble to his door.
My Thoughts:
I loved all the things in this newest book by French. What are the codes we live by? When don't they work? Life has all that gray in-between stuff and French explores this by having an ex-cop from America in Ireland trying to figure out why his code doesn't always work.
We see how his relationship with his daughter and his marriage fell apart because he did what he thought was the right thing...
The character development between Cal and Trey was also delightful. They both felt real and their budding dad/kid relationship felt hard-earned and genuine.
Just a really well done novel on life not always being what you expect and all that "gray" in between it all.
