READING: The Ravens (The Ravens #1) by Kass Morgan and Danielle Page

Publication date: November 3 2020
Published by: HMH Books for YR
Genre: College, Contemporary, Hints of Paranormal, Magic, Mystery, Sorority
Rating:

Kappa Rho Nu isn’t your average sorority. Their parties are notorious. Their fundraisers are known for being Westerly College’s most elaborate affairs. But beneath the veil of Greek life and prestige, the sisters of Kappu Rho Nu share a secret: they’re a coven of witches. For Vivi Deveraux, being one of Kappa Rho Nu’s Ravens means getting a chance to redefine herself. For Scarlett Winters, a bonafide Raven and daughter of a legacy Raven, pledge this year means living up to her mother’s impossible expectations of becoming Kappa Rho Nu’s next president. Scarlett knows she’d be the perfect candidate — that is, if she didn’t have one human-sized skeleton in her closet…. When Vivi and Scarlett are paired as big and little for initiation, they find themselves sinking into the sinister world of blood oaths and betrayals.

Oh my. This book.

I really thought it would be one of my 2020 faves. Not only does it play on sorority books nostalgia like The Ivy or Private series which I really enjoyed, but also...witches?? I mean, seriously. This sounds perfect, right up my alley. And until around halfway I thought it would be good. Not the best, but a fun, enjoyable read.
But it started going downhill from there real fast.

Even though the girls are supposedly in college, the vibe was definitely high school. Vivi, the main female character, was this doe-eyed, innocent, quirky little girl (really? can this trope just die already?) who has absolutely no awareness of what is happening around her and has the personality of a napkin. She was really boring to read and a ridiculously weak character.
There was a scene where she was siting alone at a party and the guy she likes asks her "What are you doing here alone?". Her first thought was that that question would have mortified "Old Her" because she saw it as an acknowledgement of her awkwardness and friendlessness. I mean, what the hell? Just because someone asks you why are you sitting somewhere, it triggers such feelings of unworthiness? That's stupid! Vivi is supposed to be 19 years old, a college girl, a young woman, and she is floored when someone asks her "Why are you sitting alone?"
Oh, right. That's the "Old Vivi". Meaning the Vivi from 10 pages ago, who suddenly changed her whole personality and she doesn't mind these kind of questions.
How many eye rolls can I possibly insert here? 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Scarlett on the other hand, I liked. She was strong and assertive and way more interesting to read. Yes, she was a total bitch in the beginning, but I knew what I was signing up for. We're talking coven/sorority, of course there's going to be bitchiness.
Except for her, all the other characters were soooo dull. The love interest was interest in name only. Mason was an underdeveloped character who did not know what he wanted. Or rather he knew, but he went at it completely the wrong way and that made him immediately unlikeable to me.
The other sorority girls were pretty much one person, they all just blended together after a while, and Vivi's mum had absolutely no backstory to justify her words and actions.

Overall, The Ravens started off as a mildly entertaining YA read (meh, more like middle grade if I'm being honest) and ended up as something I had a very hard time finishing. It was like the authors skipped 10 years of character and story development when they wrote the second half, and I could no longer connect with the book.
Not for me :/

READING: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Publication Date: May 6 2014
Published by: Simon&Schuster
Genre: Contemporary, Coming of age, YA, Romance, Summer
Rating:

 

It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.

On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?

Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.

Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?

Kiss a stranger? Um...

Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane's list. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go skinny-dipping? Wait...what?

I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of coming-of-age books. I am not a teen anymore and I find most of these stories are packed with forced melancholia and unrelatable situations. However, I have heard great things about Matson's books so I thought I'd try one.

The story is about 16-17 year old Emily (exact age unclear, or I just don't remember it) whose best friend Sloane unexpectedly disappeared, leaving Emily a bucket list of things to do during the summer as her "last" wish.
Right of the bat, I disliked Emily's weak personality. She appeared to be more than happy to live under the shadow of the popular girl, Sloane, who she idolised beyond reason. From the flashbacks, we see that Emily had no backbone whatsoever, could never say no to Sloane even when she was being absurd and in the present, she almost has a panic attack when she goes to a party of fellow high schoolers BY HERSELF!! The horror! When a guy offered to move her car because it broke down in the middle of the road, she couldn't even converse with him, she was so shy. I really don't like it when teenage girls are portrayed this way, because I was one of these girls back in the day and I still beat myself over what a stupid idiot I was for letting other people overshadow me. It was horrible and the last thing I want is to relive it through books.

That being said, Emily's transformation begins when she decides to do the list of tasks Sloane left her, probably the one good thing she did in the entire book. Even though Emily is no adventure seeker, she understands it is something she just has to do, mostly because Sloane told her to.
Through these tasks, it dawns on Emily that she has been living her life by someone else's rules and it was time for a change. She slowly realises she is a smart, strong, self - reliant young girl, who doesn't need anyone to speak for her or tell her what to do or how to act. Of course, she was a bit slow to come to that realisation, but at least she finally did. The slow pace only made it more realistic.
The tasks themselves were funny and emotional at times, that part of the book is the best in my opinion. And the fact that she gained nice and understanding friends along the way, was a bonus. I really liked the "love interest", Frank. He was a decent guy, Don't expect a sizzling love story though, it was more of a close friendship that led to something more in the end. A cute and sweet relationship fitting for high schoolers, I liked it.

Apart from Sloane, I didn't particularly care about Emily's parents. They seemed uninterested in their children, bordering on abandonment. It seemed they only cared about their "art", and they came off as selfish jerks. If that is how Emily grew up, I kinda get her attachment to Sloane and her need to find someone to take care of her.
Finally,

Sloane's excuse to why she left without any warning was ridiculous. Classic Sloane, drama queen.

Overall, Since You've Been Gone was a cute and easy read. The whole tone of the book was a bit flat for me, there were no intense emotions from anyone involved, and for a 450 page book, that's not great. But seeing that I am certainly not the target audience for this book, I would happily recommend it to ages 12-15 as a nice, summer read.

READING: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Publication date: February 5 2019
Published by: Celadon Books

Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense, Crime, Thriller
Rating:

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

Finished this book in one day. I can't remember the last time I found a book so addictive!

Part of the Silent Patient's pull lies with its plot. A seemingly open and closed murder that happened 6 years ago, committed by a mysterious woman who has not spoken a word and since been residing in a mental institution, narrated by her psychiatrist. Who wouldn't want to read that?
I am a huge fan of unreliable narrators, especially in such a dark and ominous setting as a mental institution. I have always been fascinated with the therapist/patient relationship and how it's been portrayed in books and movies/TV (hello Hannibal ❤️) There's a co dependency there that I find quite interesting yet disturbing, perfect for a thriller book.
Regrettably, we didn't get to see much of that in this book, mainly because Alicia (the patient) didn't speak at all, and also because Theo was so bad at his job! For those of you expecting to read a lot of intriguing, clue-filled sessions between him and Alicia like I was, you can forget it. For all I know, Theo didn't even need to be a therapist. He could easily be a prison warden and Alicia a prisoner. Her being in a mental institution serves no other purpose than to add an eerie component to the book, it doesn't factor in the story/plot at all.

What also makes Silent Patient so addictive, is the writing. Not necessarily its quality, but its simplicity. Short, to the point sentences, that just had me flying over the words. This was, I'm guessing, done on purpose so the reader, so anxiously wanting to know the ending, would turn page after page without actually seeing what is going on right in front of them.

The characters were across the board very unlikeable, I don't think anyone can disagree with that. Theo in particular was in by no way shape or form the "hero" you're supposed to root for. In some instances I even found myself cringing at what he was saying. He was unesttling, to say the least, and given his profession and the position of power he was in, it was getting harder and harder to sympathise with him as I got more into the book. Granted, he suffered abuse in the hands of his father for many years but then again, according to him (unreliable narrator). I was mostly creeped out by his relationship with his wife, to be honest. Even though at first glance it looked fine, I had a feeling that something wasn't quite right there.

In regards to the ending, I get that it came as a shock to many people, but not to me. I am, by nature, very paranoid, and whenever I read a book like this one, especially one that has been super hyped for its unexpected ending, my mind always goes to the most out-there, wacky places, mostly because I want to be all like "Ha ha I knew it!" (I ruined the Lost Season 3 finale for all my friends. Yes, I'm one of those).
This time, my mind didn't need to go far. I had 2 theories already formed after reading 50 pages or so, and after reaching the halfway point, I was strongly leaning towards one of the two, which turned out to be what actually happened. So, on that respect it kind of disappointed me. I expected a mind blowing ending for such a hyped book and I didn't get it.
That being said, I realised after that it wasn't the ending itself that disappointed me, but how the book came to a close. I felt like there should be a more well rounded explanation as to how and why all this happened. Upon finishing the book and looking back at what I have been reading for the last I don't even know how many hours, I realised that the book's purpose was solely the big reveal and nothing else, and after that was done, the book just stopped existing. I don't know, it just wasn't satisfying to me.

The Silent Patient is an undeniable page turner. You will not be able to put it down, this I guarantee. If you don't take everything apart like I do, you will definitely enjoy it.
If you are nit-picky like me, you will still enjoy it but probably go "Wait, is that it? Well, I already knew that" in the end.

READING: Beach Read by Emily Henry

Publication date: May 19 2020
Published by: Berkley
Genre: Contemporary, Adult, Romance

Rating:

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They're polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

I wasn't a fan of this one :/ It fell flat for me and in my opinion, it is way overhyped.
To be honest, its premise didn't really draw me in, but seeing how much every one else loved it, I thought why not? But see, I knew better. And somehow I still fell for the hype. I should have trusted my instinct and steered clear.

The good:
January and Gus's banter. It was witty and funny and it actually made me laugh out loud a couple of times.

The bad:
Everything else.
The story was not convincing at all. Too many "coincidences" and too much far-fetchedness (pretty sure that's not a word), even for a romance book.
Plus, I thought it was a bit sexist. You have a woman author who writes romance books one one side, and a guy author who writes fiction novels on the other. Now, the romance genre is presented as the laughingstock of the literary world, while fiction is a "serious" genre. The whole story is about the woman author trying to prove to the guy author that her work needs to be takes as seriously as his.
Um why? Isn't that sort of a given? And if the guy doesn't think they are both equals, why the hell am I even reading about him? Why would the woman need to prove anything? And not only this, but we got to see her struggling to write a "serious" book, but never find out how the guy's romance book came out. Only that he got more money for it, which: duh.

Also, you know what I am just over in books with even a hint of romance? How women are all nervous wrecks when they talk to a guy, practically spazzing and constantly questioning everything they say, while the guy is so calm, and cool and whatever he says sounds like the most interesting thing ever?
That's what happened here. There is a scene in Gus's car where he and January talk and she was just a hot mess, even her thoughts didn't make any sense, and Gus was so chill, but kind of arrogant too, especially when he saw the effect he had on January. Why can't women have that effect on men in romance novels? Why do women have to be the insecure ones ALL.THE.TIME?
I wanted to yell at her "Get it together girl!"
Spoiler alert: she didn't get it together.

The ending was even more painful when Henry tried to force the "January's dad is a good person after all" down my throat. He was scum, no matter how many soppy letters he writes.
Plus the insta love came out of nowhere! Obviously, I expected these two to end up together, but all this professing of love after they slept together once and Gus being such a dick to January after? Nuh-uh. Not buying it.

Beach Read wasn't for me. It was slow paced (agonisingly bad, more like) and not interesting at all.
There are so many contemporary romances out there which are far better than this. Don't waste your time.

READING: The Foxhole Court (All for the Game #1) by Nora Sakavic

Publication date: January 15 2013
Published by: Nora Sakavic
Genre: Contemporary, Advertised as YA BUT IT'S NOT!, Adult, Sports, College
Rating:

Neil Josten is the newest addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team. He's short, he's fast, he's got a ton of potential—and he's the runaway son of the murderous crime lord known as The Butcher.

Signing a contract with the PSU Foxes is the last thing a guy like Neil should do. The team is high profile and he doesn't need sports crews broadcasting pictures of his face around the nation. His lies will hold up only so long under this kind of scrutiny and the truth will get him killed.

But Neil's not the only one with secrets on the team. One of Neil's new teammates is a friend from his old life, and Neil can't walk away from him a second time. Neil has survived the last eight years by running. Maybe he's finally found someone and something worth fighting for.

I didn't like this book 😕 I found it weird and off-putting.

Let's go through the GOOD parts first: I found the story interesting enough to offset the bad parts, and what ultimately made me continue reading. I liked Neil's background story in particular, with all his history of abuse and very dark past (I'm a sucker for a tormented soul, what can I do?) I found his difficulty to trust people and his struggle for survival genuine and well presented through his POV. A lot of readers were put off by mafia stuff being thrown in an NA sports book, but it didn't really bother me. I guess when you put it in actual words it does sound ridiculous but trust me, that was the least of this book's problem!

And now the BAD: the characters. All of them! They were impossible to like. Nicky, Andrew, Aaron and Seth in particular. Not that everyone else was great and they stood out, they were all bad. But those four really took the cake.
Where do I begin? The casual jokes about rape? The roofying? The obvious threats to someone's life? The constant mocking and derogatory comments? The homophobic slurs? ... among others. I don't like to use the word "psychotic" because psychosis is actually a serious mental illness. These guys were, simply put, major assholes. Freaking spoiled brats who happen to play a sport, and they think they're all that. Ugh, I hated them so much. I found no redeeming quality in any of them. They were all scum, and I can't think of a reason other readers might like them. It doesn't matter to me if their behaviours are going to be explained away in the next books. I read this one, and in this one, there was no explanation and no excuses. They were just disgusting human beings-end of story. And also, I highly doubt Sakavic would find an explanation that is convincing enough. Neil had an abusive and sad past, he didn't act this way.
The team's Coach was a full-on enabler, giving them drugs and alcohol and talking to them like they were delinquents, which ok, fair enough.

I still don't know what the point of Kevin was. His story and what happened with the Ravens could get someone to read the second book (not me), but he, again, was all fake machismo and toxic masculinity. I thought that had died with Twilight and the whole NA genre, no? I guess I'm too old for this shit, because I seriously can't stand it.

I have no idea why this book is advertised and marketed as an MM romance, because it's not. There is not even a slight hint of romance in this and to be quite frank, I found it refreshing. Imagine if on top of all this verbal and physical abuse, there was a romance out of nowhere? No, thank you.

Braver people than me have read the next two books. I think I might skip them. I have no time in my life for books that bring me down, and this one was a huge bummer for all the wrong reasons.
If the second book is so miraculously amazing as the ratings seem to show, I'll just have to take your word for it. 🤷

READING: Harvest of Sighs (Thornchapel #3) by Sierra Simone

Publication date: May 1 2020

Published by: - - 

Genre: Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Erotica, Menage, BDSM

Rating: 

Delphine Dansey carries her heart on the outside of her body; she’s looking for love and chasing dreams. She’s spoiled and selfish, the kind of beautiful that’s made for money and fame. But somehow she’s ended up in my keeping: a pretty submissive I can’t seem to resist, a lover who obsesses and tempts me.

I thought I’d locked my heart away a long time ago, along with all my other weaknesses. But some doors won't stay closed, no matter how hard I fight to keep them shut. She unravels me, just like our friends are unraveling, just like Thornchapel itself is unraveling.

All year long, we’ve been sowing lust and jealousy and pain, heedless of the consequences. But a harvest is inevitable, and so now we must reap our sorrows.

And our sighs.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING THE BOOK BEFORE READING THIS REVIEW!

This review is suuuper long because I have much to say. I know it’s boring to read long ass reviews, which is why I divided it in small parts so you can read the part you like and skip the rest 😊

I’m so sad I finished this already! I get so engrossed in these books and the Thornchapel verse, that I feel so empty when I finish them. It’s just hard to come back to reality 😭 

OK so let’s get right into it!
Harvest of Sighs was a bit of a puzzle for me. I can’t quite figure it out. That’s why I was going back and forth with 3 and 4 stars, deciding on 3 one minute and 4 the other.
Harvest of Sighs is definitely different than its predecessors. Apparently, Simone decided to lead the story to a different direction, one I admit I didn’t predict. One with less sex and kink (don’t get me wrong, it hasn't lost its sizzle, not at all) and more character development. Also, we finally see the group interacting with people outside their group and be in places other than Thornchapel, which didn’t happen in the previous books.
I understand the need to change it up, I do. And I admire Simone’s courage to step out of her comfort zone and write something other than the 6 of them having sex in Thornchapel again and again and again, because what’s the point in that? 
Thing is, it didn’t always work. But when it did, it was amazing. 

Rebecca and Delphine
I had my reservations about these two from the beginning. Delphine I like just enough, but Rebecca was always indifferent to me. She is just a cold person with not much going for her, personality-wise. She could be much more interesting (and that goes for Delphine too) if she was given a chance from the beginning. Putting the focus on two background characters in Book 3 of a four-book series and expect us to be on board, it's just too late. If their stories and who they are carried the same weight as Poe, Auden and SS, then yes, probably. If more glimpses of them, past or present, together or with others, were peppered in the previous two books then yes, I might have gotten on board. The little flashback they shared in this book was so well written and sweet, but just not enough and very last minute-y. 
Ultimately, and after a lot of effort on my part, I couldn’t see any chemistry between them, their relationship felt forced to me. Also, the structure of the book didn’t help. Simone would give us back to back Rebecca/Delphine POV chapters, which suddenly stopped in the middle of plot development, followed by a long stretch of Poe/Auden/SS POV. By the time she got back to Rebecca/Delphine I had lost interest, and just wanted to read more Poe/Auden/SS chapters.
I don’t know how this relationship will end, but I think these two should not be together. They were miserable for the entire book, and not in a good way.

Auden and St.Sebastian
Speaking of miserable…how contradictory it is, when it works so badly for one couple and so perfectly for another.
What can I say about these two? They are such a pleasure to read. I was looking forward to their chapters throughout the whole book. Simone does her best writing when it comes to them, and their chemistry is electrifying. 
The scene where SS cried in Auden’s lap ahhhhh 😱. One of my favourite parts of the book. Not only it inspired a lot of emotion, but it was also the trigger of Auden’s change which I absolutely loved. It’s the first time we see Auden doubting the decisions he’s made and the things he’s done. It’s the first time we see him actually stopping to take everything in and realising there is something wrong. I really liked that side of him, and having him of all people have doubts and guilt, this unrelenting Thorn God, it was amazing and beautifully written by Simone. 
Of course, the only person that really gets Auden is SS, that’s why he is the only one Auden confides in, no surprise there. And what followed was so intimate and primal and intense that it would either bring these two together in an unbreakable bond forever, or tear them apart. If you haven’t figured it out yet, their final scene at Thornchapel was my other favourite part of the book, from its beginning to its bitter end. I feel like at this point, Simone can never go wrong with these two, their chemistry is undeniable and effortless.

Incest
That being said, I had a hard time with them this time, I am not gonna lie. 
I admittedly have not read a lot of erotica and BDSM books, so I don’t really know how "bad" things get in books of the genre, but for me personally incest is something I can't get behind, even fictional one. That’s why I didn’t like Forbidden when everyone was praising it, and I certainly didn’t like what it did to my perception of Auden and SS. I liked that SS stood his ground, even though he never stopped lusting after Auden, and put a stop to their sexual relationship. Granted, it was true to character, but a welcome surprise nevertheless, since I was sure Simone would definitely keep them together regardless.
In the end, I begrudgingly accepted what ended up happening between them because of:
1. Their very emotional and gut wrenching scene at the gala 
2. The fact that they are not really brothers. I mean, I’m guessing that in book 4 it will be revealed that SS is actually Delphine’s brother and not Auden’s. 
I’m hoping.
If I’m wrong, I am gonna have to re evaluate my opinion of this book 😬

Poe
Boring as ever. She is no more than a prop at this point. Can Auden and SS ditch her and go live somewhere just the two of them?
Also, the fact that Poe leaves with SS in the end and that it wasn't shown at all! I was shocked. I mean where is Auden’s reaction to losing both of them? Nothing? How can you skip this whole thing, which basically is the heart of the books, their relationship? Very bad.

Becket
I really liked Becket in the previous two books, but I didn’t like what Simone did to him in this one. Right from the start he was shown like this poor lovesick puppy who was following Poe around, something that Auden was not a fan of. In fact, I would definitely not be surprised if Auden wouldn’t hesitate to hurt him if things with him and Poe went sour. I mean, Becket announced he was practically fired and was moving away, and all Auden could muster for his great friend was something along the lines of "OK, see ya". 
I didn’t like how he was pushed to the side on this one, when in the previous two books all 6 of them where in things together and shared this great bond. That goes for Rebecca and Delphine as well. 
The sex with Poe felt desperate, completely the opposite from their scene in the church in Feast of Sparks, which was hot hot hot.
I think he’s not going to survive book 4, unfortunately 💀

While the previous books acted as magnets bringing all 6 of them together, Harvest of Sighs definitely acted as a bomb, blowing them up into little pieces. Some survived, some not.
Bright side: we won't have to wait long for the finale since it's coming out Halloween 2020.

READING: The Woman in The Window by A.J.Finn

Publication date: January 2 2018

Published by: William Morrow

Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime

Rating: 

Anna Fox lives alone, a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.

Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother and their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble and its shocking secrets are laid bare.

What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control?

Whenever I read a thriller or a whodunnit, I always like to picture the most unlikely scenario in my head, the most impossible thing that might happen. For one thing, I have watched waaaaay to many TV shows of the same or similar genre, so my mind immediately goes to the most absurd. Second, I am one of those jackasses that always loves to say "Ha! I knew it!". So, if the book does something way beyond my most out there imaginings and it explains it well and is not completely silly, then I consider it a success.
Unfortunately, this book did not. *sad trumpet*

But! That doesn't take anything away from it because to Finn's defense, he thought the most impossible thing I could think, so kudos for that. If only he surpassed it, it would have been one hell of a book.
I loved the setting: dark, old four level brownstone in New York gave it a proper manor mystery vibe.
I also really liked Anna. She is the perfect unreliable narrator, being almost always drunk and heavily medicated. I guess all books of the genre need one of those, but since the trope has been done to death, I dismissed the theory of Anna actually having anything to do with the murder straight away, it would have been too easy for Finn to resort to that and it would have made for a cheap book.

The ending was fine I guess, a bit more disturbing than I anticipated. I thought it was a bit rushed, but I guess that's how it always is with these books: once the murderer has been revealed, what is the point?
I would say however that The Woman in The Window is more about Anna and her trauma (extreme agoraphobia sounds horrifying) than anything else, really. And that sets it apart from the other books of its genre. It could easily stand by itself, but the mystery and the black&white horror film references give it that extra zhuzh.

READING: Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Publication date: January 24 2017

Published by: Harper Collins

Genre: NA, Contemporary, Dark, Abuse, Mystery, Suspense 

Rating: 

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say.

Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?

Definitely NOT the best time to be reading a book like this!

Don't get me wrong, Allegedly was well written with an intriguing story - all in all, surprisingly good for a debut novel, but it was such a bummeeeeeer of a book. With all that is happening right now in the world, and even though the book was addictive, I didn't want to pick it up because I knew it would depress the hell out of me.

Also, I didn't really care for any of the characters enough to want to see what happens to them. Mary is a shell of a girl with myriads of mental and psychological issues which she only immediately identifies in others but never in herself. She is a bit too judgy for my taste, given her circumstances and how easy she forgives and justifies disgusting and wretched people in her life.
Between her and the ending (last 3 page-very unnecessary-reveal), I would only recommend this book to those that are into super disturbing, unsettling, everything-is-garbage-no-hope-for-the-human-race kind of reads. 
I personally don't mind them under normal circumstances, but these are very abnormal times we live in and this book was not for me at this point in time. I will still give it 3 stars though for the writing.

READING: Behind Closed Doors by B.A.Paris

Publication date: August 9 2016

Published by: St. Martin's Press

Genre: Adult, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Contemporary

Rating: 

Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. You might not want to like them, but you do.

You’d like to get to know Grace better.
But it’s difficult, because you realise Jack and Grace are never apart.

Some might call this true love. Others might ask why Grace never answers the phone. Or how she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. And why there are bars on one of the bedroom windows.

Sometimes, the perfect marriage is the perfect lie.

Easily 4,5/5 and I could definitely consider 5/5, it was that good.

I really liked Paris's writing-perfect for the genre; no-nonsense, not flashy. Just matter of fact but still managed to make you care enough about the characters. 
I liked Grace. Many think her weak but I didn't see it that way. She often blamed herself for not seeing Jack's "issues" (even though how could she?), thus taking responsibility, all the while not losing hope and trying to save hers and her sister's lives.
I would have liked Jack to be more of an understated evil guy and not an outright psychopath, but that's just me. I think it would have given the book that a little extra something to make it a solid 5/5.
Overall, I definitely recommend it to fans of the genre. It can be read in one sitting.

Piece of advice: don't leave the last chapters for tomorrow or later in the day. Read the end in one go, otherwise you will feel disconnected from the story when tension peaks.

READING: Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales

Publication date: March 5 2020

Published by: Hachette Children's Group Australia 

Genre: MM, YA, High school, Contemporary, Romance, Bullying, 

Rating:

When Ollie meets Will over the summer break, he thinks he's found his Happily Ever After. But once summer's ended, Will stops texting him back, and Ollie finds himself short of his fairy-tale ending.

A family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country - Will's school - and Ollie finds that the sweet, affectionate and comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn't the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, a basketball jock and, well, a bit of a jerk.

Ollie has no intention of pining after a guy who clearly isn't ready for a relationship. But as school life throws them together more and more frequently, from music class to the lunch table, Ollie finds his resolve weakening.

With the noisy drama of their friends as the backdrop - from ambitious Juliette and frosty Lara, to big-hearted Darnell and king-jock Matt - Ollie has a decision to make.

The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again. Right?

I received an ARC of Only Mostly Devastated from Hatchette Australia and these are my thoughts.

I loved Grease as a kid. I knew the lyrics to all the songs and I used to sing along every chance I got. And for a non native speaker, trust me, it was an ordeal to learn all these lyrics! 

As I grew older, it stopped appealing to me as much and that is why I decided to pass on Only, Mostly Devastating. Until it arrived on my doorstep and I felt like I just had to give it a chance.
The first 70 pages or so were great and I was really absorbed in it, I couldn’t put it down. Ollie was just a bit too intense for my taste, too angsty. He was coming across way younger than a senior in high school but only when it had to do with his romantic life. He acted way more mature in his relationship with his parents and the very serious role he had to play during a family crisis. I felt like that was the biggest contradiction in the book because while I didn’t much care for the romance part of it all which I found quite frivolous – a bummer for a book marketed as a YA romance – I was genuinely touched by the way Ollie’s life outside of school was written. There were a couple of pages where Ollie was thinking about the inanity of death and I could really relate with and feel for him. I was actually nodding my head because those were exactly my thoughts on this! But then he would go to school and everything would change, he became like this completely different person. 

I didn’t really care for Will. I didn’t like the way he was behaving around Ollie for his friends’ benefit even though he absolutely didn’t have to be so over the top anti gay.
Which is way his big romantic gesture in the end was so out of the blue and basically not convincing at all. I didn’t buy Will’s sudden change and I never really got the chemistry between him and Ollie. 
The other characters were more caricatures than real people you can relate to. Over the top reactions that are just not believable at all.

Overall, while Only Mostly Devasted is by no means a bad book, since it is tackling such a major issue like inclusivity, tolerance and acceptance, I would have liked it to be a more realistic depiction of the romantic life of a 17 year old gay kid in the South, rather than an over romanticised, utopic version of it. Just change your target audience to pre teens and you’ll be golden. As it is, I believe older kids will find it silly.

READING: The Outsider by Stephen King

Publication date: May 22 2018

Published by: Scribner

Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Horror, Crime, Dark, Mystery, Some Paranormal, Suspense 

Rating: 

When an eleven-year-old boy is found murdered in a town park, reliable eyewitnesses undeniably point to the town's popular Little League coach, Terry Maitland, as the culprit. DNA evidence and fingerprints confirm the crime was committed by this well-loved family man.

Horrified by the brutal killing, Detective Ralph Anderson, whose own son was once coached by Maitland, orders the suspect to be arrested in a public spectacle. But Maitland has an alibi. And further research confirms he was indeed out of town that day.

As Anderson and the District Attorney trace the clues, the investigation expands from Ohio to Texas. And as horrifying answers begin to emerge, so King's propulsive story of almost unbearable suspense kicks into high gear.

Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy but there is one rock-hard fact, as unassailable as gravity: a man cannot be in two places at the same time. Can he?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but The Outsider TV show is way better :/ The first 4 episodes gave me nightmares and I will never forget the image of a bloody Jason Bateman 😖

That being said, the story is 100% King, and it is horrifying. I would have liked it to be less paranormal and more "we all have an evil twin out there somewhere", but anyway. I felt like it dragged a lot towards the end and apart from Holly and Ralph, all the other characters are almost invisible. Even Terry and Jack - especially Jack with literally no backstory whatsoever. Come to think of it, never really saw much of a connection between Holly and Ralph either :/
Also I am sorry to say, but the dialogue Holly and Ralph had with the "thing" at the end, was almost comical. No idea how it's going to be show on TV.

All in all, first half of the book was great because the story draws you in. Once you realise what is going on, it gets boring really fast. Imagine that almost half of the book could fit into 3 episodes= 3hours. Yikes.

READING: Inexpressible Island (End of Forever #3) by Paullina Simons

Publication date: July 23 2019
Published by: Harper Collins
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Historical, Mystery, Suspense, Time Travel, Romance

Rating: 

Julian has lost everything he ever loved and is almost out of time. His life and death struggle against fate offers him one last chance to do the impossible and save the woman to whom he is permanently bound.

Together, Julian and Josephine must wage war against the relentless dark force that threatens to destroy them. This fight will take everything they have and everything they are as they try once more to give each other their unfinished lives back.

As time runs out for the star-crossed lovers, Julian learns that fate has one last cruel trick in store for them--and even a man who has lost everything still has something left to lose.

Gut wrenching but still beautiful, the last instalment in End of Forever had it all (well, almost). 

This series might have been about two people's epic love story in the beginning but I think in the end, it was all about Julian and about his personal journey as a son, a friend, a partner. He is the main focus of Inexpressible Island and Mia just compliments his story. 
I have to hand it to Simons, her storytelling is magnificent. All the twists and turns will have you sitting at the edge of your seat going "No way!" almost throughout. She knew where she was going with the story from the first page of the first book and it showed. The way the story came together was the most beautiful part of the book for me.
What made me drop one star, was the actual ending. Not that it was particularly bad, but after all this anticipation about what would happen on Julian's last journey, it was a bit anticlimactic imo. I personally don't think a HEA suited these two. I know Julian and Mia had been through so much and they deserved it, but a happy ending comes in many forms. It doesn't always mean 

a beautiful wife and a baby.

shoved in the last 10 pages. I didn't like that history was re-written to their advantage with no actual reasoning. Unless 

it was confirmed that Julian did that full circle "meet Mia-time travel-get lost in the caves-meet Mia" multiple times and the re-writing of history is finally him being lucky and living the best version out of 10 or 100 of tries. Then, yes. I accept the ending. But none of that was made certain. Maybe it was sort of implied, but I can't be sure. Honestly, after Julian got rescued and he "started" his life again and met Mia, I had this sense of foreboding, emotionally preparing for her to die. But not only she didn't die, everything was changed on top of that and I thought "Oh, Ok. Was that it? Why didn't he do that from the beginning then if that's all it took...?" Also, at some point I thought that Mia is the one who time-travelled and came to find him for a change the way she was written, acting all obsessed with Julian from day one. But no, not even that. So even though I was very satisfied with how Julian's story turned out, I was disappointed in how Mia's story concluded. Then again, I was never fond of Mia :/

To readers starting this series now: if you get past the 1st half of book 1, then you are good to go. It only gets better from there.
Paullina Simons is a master when it comes to epic romances, end of story.
Remember: this is a deeply heartbreaking story, bordering on really depressing. Not for the faint of heart.

READING: Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Publication date: October 8 2019

Published by: Flatiron Books

Genre: Adult, College, Contemporary, Paranormal, Dark, Crime, Mystery, Suspense

Rating: 

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

I don’t know where to start with this book 🤔

As soon as I finished the Six of Crows duology, I immediately went to Goodreads to see what is coming up from Leigh Bardugo. When saw that The Ninth House was scheduled for late 2019, I almost wet my pants! I love books about college and at that point I was obsessed with Bardugo. So her writing an adult book about secret societies in Yale was just too much for me. Needless to say, that since then (April 2017), The Ninth House was the most anticipated book release for me. I was 100% sure it would be the most amazing, awesome book I had ever read (not having high expectations AT ALL!). 
After the initial lukewarm and straight up bad reviews, I was a bit disappointed but my interest and excitement never wavered. I just had to get my hands on this book! 

Long story short, the book was great but not what I was expecting at all 😕
I wanted intrigue, mystery, secrets and in part I got all that, but I didn’t expect the paranormal element to be so prominent, it threw me off a little bit. I would have much preferred a contemporary novel. But that’s on me, it has nothing to do with the quality of the book itself.

Another thing I didn't expect was how gritty and, for lack of a better word, miserable this book is. There is no respite from the constant reminder that people are horrible, bad guys always win and life is pointless.
In other words: it was such a downer. And I like downer books, but that was overkill. The hardest thing for me and the reason I didn’t quite get into it as much as I would have liked, was the fact that I didn’t really care for anyone. Alex was the ultimate anti-heroine and a very difficult person to like. The rest of the characters were all pretty terrible except for:

1.Alex’s friends, whose bubbliness was completely out of place and made them stand out like unicorns in a tar pit
2. and Darlington, who was the best part of the book for me, regretfully cut very short. Hopefully, he gets a much bigger presence in book 2 but I have to be honest: it took a lot out of me to read book 1 (three weeks to be exact) a lot of perseverance and patience, so forgive me if I can’t even think about book 2 right now.

All that aside, there were times where Bardugo’s brilliant writing and vision shone very brightly. Like for instance when

Alex goes to the Underworld to strike a deal with North, I thought it was such an awesome scene. I really liked North and Alex together.

 
Or when 

the night at Ground Zero was described -like watching Kill Bill-that good. Or gross and disgusting, depending on your view.

Speaking of disgusting, that whole thing with Blake: Nah, it didn’t bother me at all. He deserved way worse.

To conclude this pretty lengthy and all over the place review, I get why people didn’t like the Ninth House. Most of Bardugo’s readers are YA readers and even though it was mentioned sooooo many times that this is an adult book, Bardugo’s fans would still read it and of course get disappointed because this is DEFINITELY NOT a YA book. 
Personally, I would have liked it to have been more fast-paced and a lot less bleak. If I don’t have someone to root for or care for what happens to them, I kinda lose interest. Hero/villain it doesn't matter, as long as they are gripping enough to get me invested. So, please bring Darlington back OK?