
For the first full week back to work, I managed to read less than I hoped but at least I enjoyed two of the three books. I am so close to being caught up on electronic galleys that I find myself focusing on reading in lieu of everything else. It has been a long, long time since I have been caught up like this!
FINISHED SINCE THE LAST UPDATE:
Maureen Johnson writes such great stories. They are dark without going overboard. They are intense. They have great characters. Her latest series opener is a fantastic mystery in the mode of traditional murder mysteries complete with majestic but eerie setting and characters with secrets. You expect Hercules Poirot to walk into the scene twirling his mustache. I loved every minute of it.
Sarah Vaughan’s novel has SO much potential to inform and change the narrative about sexual assault crimes. Sadly, it failed to live up to that potential and left me feeling not only disappointed but frustrated that even with the #metoo movement still staying strong we cannot seem to change the way we talk about such crimes.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the V. S. Alexander novel. It was exciting and historically interesting not to mention entirely plausible. I found myself compelled to keep reading it and enjoyed it in its entirety.
DID NOT FINISH:
I have my first DNF. I am sure this is a great novel. I could not get past the simplistic sentence structure and the characters. The sentences read like a child wrote them. As for the characters, well, the ridiculously wealthy wife with an oddly close relationship with her son was not doing it for me. I probably could have pushed through it and even found myself enjoying some of it, but I didn’t think it was worth the initial aggravation.

What is The Hazel Wood about? The cover catches my eye.
Having to enter a fairy tale world to save her mother. It sounds odd but is a delightfully dark fantasy.
That’s great that you’re catching up on your books! I wish I could say the same thing…I didn’t get to read nearly as much as I hoped this past weekend, even with it being a long weekend. I am really curious about The Hazel Wood – I’ve seen it a lot lately. I hope you enjoy!
Thanks, Brandie! There is no such thing as a long weekend for me until Memorial Day, unfortunately.
Sorry to hear that THE GIRLFRIEND was not to your taste. I decided not to try that one and am glad I didn’t. I do have a couple of the others as advance reads – THE TASTER (quite interesting sounding) and also ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL (which I’ve heard good things about, but not every book suits everyone). Hope you have a good reading week!!
Thanks, Kay! You can’t love every book, but if I read more that I like than I don’t I call that a win.