Reluctantly, Chanie agrees to attend the program — but only so she can maintain her freedom and get to know her new love interest, Blue. As she begins to make strides in the program and meets friends who share similar circumstances, her home life, such as it is, deteriorates. Blue becomes unstable, deceitful, and eventually violent. He puts himself between her and her new friends, between her and the promise of a new and better life.
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Mud Lilies, by Indra Ramayan {ends 7/5}
Reluctantly, Chanie agrees to attend the program — but only so she can maintain her freedom and get to know her new love interest, Blue. As she begins to make strides in the program and meets friends who share similar circumstances, her home life, such as it is, deteriorates. Blue becomes unstable, deceitful, and eventually violent. He puts himself between her and her new friends, between her and the promise of a new and better life.
Monday, June 6, 2022
Book Review: Mad Honey, by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
- Opening lines: Olivia, December 7, 2018, The day of
From the moment I knew I was having a baby, I wanted it to be a girl. I wandered the aisles of department stores, touching doll-size dresses and tiny sequined shoes. I pictured us with matching nail polish—me, who'd never had a manicure in my life. I imagined the day her fairy hair was long enough to capture in pigtails, her nose pressed to the glass of a school bus window; I saw her first crush, prom dress, heartbreak. Each vision was a bead on a rosary of future memories; I prayed daily.
As it turned out I was not a zealot ... only a martyr.
When I gave birth, and the doctor announced the baby's sex, I did not believe it at first. I had done such a stellar job of convincing myself of what I wanted that I completely forgot what I needed. But when I held Asher, slippery as a minnow, I was relieved.
Better to have a boy, who would never be someone's victim. - Reason I picked up the book: I'm a huge fan of Jodi Picoult's books, so I was very excited to get an e-galley of her newest novel.
- And what's this book about?
A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past and what we choose to leave behind, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here and the bestselling author of She's Not There.
Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.
Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.
And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can trust him completely. . . .
Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in Ash, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.
Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.
- Recommended for: Anyone who enjoys a good read with a twist.
- Favorite paragraph: My father taught me that beekeeping is both a burder and a privilege. You don't both the bees unless they need your help, and you help them when they need it. It's a feudal relationship: protection in return for a percentage of the fruits of their labors.
He taught me that if a body is easily crushed, it develops a weapon to prevent that from happening.
He taught me that sudden movements get you stung.
I took these lessons a bit too much to heart. - Something to know: I haven't been reading a lot during the pandemic (hence all the Becki guest reviews on here) but I binged this book in two to three days, because it was THAT good—as are most of Picoult's books, too.
- What I would have changed: Not sure I would have changed anything.
- Overall rating: 5 stars out of 5.
- Where can I find this book? Click here to pre-order on Amazon—it will be out on October 4, 2022.
Thursday, June 2, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Bangalore Detectives Club, by Harini Nagendra {ends 6/9}
The Bangalore Detectives Club, by Harini Nagendra
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Breach, by Kelly Sokol {ends 6/8}
Guest review by: Becki Bayley
Their routine was simple those first few months. Marleigh was surprised and thankful at how quickly she mastered breastfeeding – certainly Jason deserved some credit, too. That boy was born ready to eat. She could feed Jason sitting, laying on her side, and standing up.
“I’m kinda jealous of that little fucker,” Jace said with a smile as wide as the horizon. “He’s got round-the-clock access to my wife’s tits.”
Marleigh sighed. “And they’re still so big and heavy.”
“Yeah, I hadn’t noticed.”
Jason’s hair grew in curly like Marleigh’s. “He’ll have to be a special operator with a mop like that,” Jace said with a smile. Military special forces were granted greater leeway when it came to regulation grooming appearance. Marleigh had learned a few things in her crash course in becoming a Navy wife.
Marleigh dozed when she could, and for the first time in her life she felt no guilt about resting.
“I want you to do nothing while I’m home, babe,” Jace told her. “This is my time to help on the home front. I’ve always got you covered.”
While Marleigh and Jace definitely had their good and bad traits, a reader could want nothing more than their happily-ever-after.
Official synopsis:
Marleigh Mulcahy grew up in a boxing gym, the daughter of hard-drinking parents who didn't keep a stable roof overhead. In the cinder-block Box-n-Go, amidst the sweat and funk, she meets EOD specialist Jace Holt, a highly and expensively trained bomb diffuser with three successful deployments behind him. With a heady mix of hope, carelessness, and a ridiculous amount of courage, they begin a family. When Jace returns to active duty, a roadside bomb resurrects ghosts from the couple's past and threatens the life they've built. An unflinching and timely gaze into the marriage of an enlisted special operator and his wife, Breach is a story of betting it all on love, a couple's determination to change the trajectory of their lives, and one woman's promises to the man she loves and the boys they're raising.What choices will a desperate mother make to keep her family whole?
Marleigh had fought for everything she had, but once she met Jace at her family’s boxing gym, he promised she’d have it easier. They both had paid their dues and were ready for happily-ever-after. But karma doesn’t always cooperate.
Jace’s job as a bomb diffuser with the Navy was a level of stress that most people could never even comprehend, and after every deployment, a little more of him seemed to be left behind. The transition back to family man was harder every time.
They never planned on having kids who would have to struggle as they had, but no one can ever really know the future. The characters in this book were so gripping, I gave the story 4 out of 5 stars. I’d recommend this book for those who enjoy character and family dramas, and military stories (although there is not actual combat re-told in the story, they were definitely a military family, which influenced everything).
{click here to purchase}
Becki Bayley is a homebody who enjoys quirky movies and stories, playing board games, and relaxing with a good book. Check out her summer reading activities on Instagram, where she posts as PoshBecki.
Breach, by Kelly Sokol
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Strangers We Know, by Elle Marr {ends 6/2}
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Mallory's Manly Methods, by Thomas Keech {ends 5/17}
Mallory's Manly Methods, by Thomas Keech
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Scarlet Carnation, by Laila Ibrahim {ends 5/13}
May, a young white woman, is on the brink of achieving the independent life she’s dreamed of since childhood. Naomi, a nurse, mother, and leader of the NAACP, has fulfilled her own dearest desire: buying a home for her family. But they both are about to learn that dreams can be destroyed in an instant. May’s future is upended, and she is forced to rely once again on her mother. Meanwhile, the white-majority neighborhood into which Naomi has moved is organizing against her while her sons are away fighting for their country.
In the tumult of a changing nation, these two women—whose grandmothers survived the Civil War—support each other’s quest for liberation and dignity. Both find the strength to confront injustice and the faith to thrive on their chosen paths.
Scarlet Carnation, by Laila Ibrahim
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: One of Us is Dead, by Jeneva Rose {ends 5/11}
Shannon was once the queen bee of Buckhead. But she’s been unceremoniously dumped by Bryce, her politician husband. When Bryce replaces her with a much younger woman, Shannon sets out to take revenge …
Crystal has stepped into Shannon’s old shoes. A young, innocent Texan girl, she simply has no idea what she’s up against …
Olivia has waited years to take Shannon’s crown as the unofficial queen of Buckhead. Finally, her moment has come. But to take her rightful place, she will need to use every backstabbing, manipulative, underhand trick in the book …
Jenny owns Glow, the most exclusive salon in town. Jenny knows all her clients’ secrets and darkest desires. But will she ever tell?
Who amongst these women will be clever enough to survive Buckhead—and who will wind up dead?
They say that friendships can be complex, but no one said it could ever be this deadly.
One of Us is Dead, by Jeneva Rose
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Quick Pick Book Review: Upgrade, by Blake Crouch
- Opening lines: We found Henrik Soren at a wine bar in the international terminal, thirty minutes from boarding a hyperjet to Tokyo.
Before tonight, I had only seen him in INTERPOL photographs and CCTV footage. In the flesh, he was less impressive—five and a half feet in his artificially distressed Saint Laurent sneakers with a designer hoodie hiding most of his face. He was sitting at the end of the bar with a book and a bottle of Krug. - Reason I picked up the book: I read Recursion by Blake Crouch for my book club, and really enjoyed it.
- And what's this book about?
“You are the next step in human evolution.”
At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.
But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.
The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.
Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.
Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.
And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?
Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential. - Recommended for: Anyone who enjoys sci-fi or dystopian books, or books about gene editing.
- Favorite paragraph: Scythe was the revolutionary, biological DNA modifier system—now extremely illegal—discovered and patented by my mother, Miriam Ramsay. It had been a seismic leap forward that left the previous generations of technologies—ZFNs, TALENs, CRISPR-Cas9—gasping in the dust. Scythe had ushered in a new era of gene editing and delivery, one that brought about catastrophic results. Which is why getting caught using or selling it for germline modification—the making of a new organism—came with a mandatory thirty-year prison sentence.
- Something to know: I would love to see this book made into a movie—definitely would be very exciting, and I could probably come up with a dream cast if I thought about it, as well.
- What I would have changed: Not sure I would have changed anything.
- Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5.
- Where can I find this book? Click here to pre-order on Amazon—it will be out on July 13, 2022.
Monday, April 25, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY - The Devil's Whispers: A Gothic Horror Novel, by Lucas Hault {ends 5/2}
Monday, April 4, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Teach Me Tonight, by Susan Coventry {ends 4/12}
Teach Me Tonight, by Susan Coventry
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Damage Done, by Michael Landweber {ends 4/11}
The Damage Done, by Michael Landweber
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Finding Grace, by Gary Lee Miller {ends 3/23}
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Finding Grace, by Gary Lee Miller
Monday, February 28, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Karitas Untitled, by KristÃn Marja Baldursdóttir {ends 3/7}
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Karitas Untitled, by KristÃn Marja Baldursdóttir
Saturday, February 26, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Duchess Countess: The Woman Who Scandalized Eighteenth Century London, by Catherine Ostler {ends 3/6}
The Duchess Countess: The Woman Who Scandalized Eighteenth Century London, by Catherine Ostler
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
Book Review: The Next Ship Home, by Heather Webb
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton, by Eleanor Ray {ends 2/15}
The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton, by Eleanor Ray
Thursday, February 3, 2022
Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Ship of Blood, by Charles Oldham {ends 2/10}
Ship of Blood, by Charles Oldham