Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy {ARC Review}

November 15, 2020 KalaLeave a comment

Blurb:

Newlyweds Sam Statler and Annie Potter are head over heels, and excited to say good-bye to New York and start a life together in Sam’s sleepy hometown in upstate New York. Or, it turns out, a life where Annie spends most of her time alone while Sam, her therapist husband, works long hours in his downstairs office, tending to the egos of his (mostly female) clientele.

Little does Sam know that through a vent in his ceiling, every word of his sessions can be heard from the room upstairs. The pharmacist’s wife, contemplating a divorce. The well-known painter whose boyfriend doesn’t satisfy her in bed. Who could resist listening? Everything is fine until the French girl in the green mini Cooper shows up, and Sam decides to go to work and not come home, throwing a wrench into Sam and Annie’s happily ever after.

Review:

The start of this story had me intrigued. While I typically don’t like unreliable narrators, I found this narration style perfect for this story. Then I read more of the book. I soon felt like I was reading a remake of Misery by Stephen King, which is mentioned in this book quite a few times. The first part of the book was not too bad, it was the second part of the book that made my opinion waiver more. It was as if there was too much Misery in the story instead of the author’s own ideas which were actually great ideas had she stuck to them during the entire story.

This is my first book by this author, and I am willing to give her another chance. While Misery is one of my favorite Stephen King novels, I would have preferred if the author had maintained more of her own ideas throughout this novel.

This book was more of a suspense than a psychological thriller.

Rating:

1 Golden Girl

Availability:

Available now in hardcover, ebook and audiobook

Thank you to Harper for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

abuse · Blog Tour · book review · books · Historical fiction · love · reading · romance · World War 2

Not Our Kind by Kitty Zeldis {Suzy Approved Book Tours Review}

September 10, 2019September 10, 2019 KalaLeave a comment

Blurb:

With echoes of The Rules of Civility and The Boston Girl, a compelling and thought-provoking novel set in postwar New York City, about two women—one Jewish, one a WASP—and the wholly unexpected consequences of their meeting

One rainy morning in June, two years after the end of World War II, a minor traffic accident brings together Eleanor Moskowitz and Patricia Bellamy. Their encounter seems fated: Eleanor, a teacher and recent Vassar graduate, needs a job. Patricia’s difficult thirteen-year-old daughter Margaux, recovering from polio, needs a private tutor.

Though she feels out of place in the Bellamys’ rarefied and elegant Park Avenue milieu, Eleanor forms an instant bond with Margaux. Soon the idealistic young woman is filling the bright young girl’s mind with Shakespeare and Latin. Though her mother, a hat maker with a little shop on Second Avenue, disapproves, Eleanor takes pride in her work, even if she must use the name “Moss” to enter the Bellamys’ restricted doorman building each morning, and feels that Patricia’s husband, Wynn, may have a problem with her being Jewish.

Invited to keep Margaux company at the Bellamys’ country home in a small town in Connecticut, Eleanor meets Patricia’s unreliable, bohemian brother, Tom, recently returned from Europe. The spark between Eleanor and Tom is instant and intense. Flushed with new romance and increasingly attached to her young pupil, Eleanor begins to feel more comfortable with Patricia and much of the world she inhabits. As the summer wears on, the two women’s friendship grows—until one hot summer evening, a line is crossed, and both Eleanor and Patricia will have to make important decisions—choices that will reverberate through their lives.

Gripping and vividly told, Not Our Kind illuminates the lives of two women on the cusp of change—and asks how much our pasts can and should define our futures.

Review:

Historical fiction, strong female character, lovely storyline, and wonderful writing. These are all things that come to mind after reading this book and thinking about it.

Zeldis gives us a story that makes you not want to put this book down even after finishing it. She takes you on a trip and drops you off at the ending wondering what exactly you just experienced. I wish I had known about this novel when it was first published but I am thankful I was given the opportunity to read it now.

There is nothing more fulfilling than reading a novel in your favorite genre and the story is not of the usual caliber. Yes, this story takes place after WW2 but it shows a side of the prejudice against Jews that existed here in America even after America helped end the war and the terrible things that were going on in Germany.

Eleanor and Patricia are both forced to set aside their differences in order to do what’s best for Margaux. Which they are able to do until something terrible happens, affecting everyone involved. Eleanor is forced to see the world as it really is and Patricia is forced to face her own feelings and beliefs.

This is one of those stories that doesn’t necessarily end on a high note but it has a realistic ending that leaves you satisfied, yet wanting more.

Rating:

4 Stars

Availability:

Available now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audiobook.

A special thank you to Suzy Approved Book Tours for having me along and Harper Books for my gifted copy.

abuse · book review · books · crime · diversity · Historical fiction · mystery · own voices review · reading

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins {Review}

May 29, 2019 KalaLeave a comment

Blurb:

A servant and former slave is accused of murdering her employer and his wife in this astonishing historical thriller that moves from a Jamaican sugar plantation to the fetid streets of Georgian London—a remarkable literary debut with echoes of Alias Grace, The Underground Railroad, and The Paying Guests.

All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Crowds pack the courtroom, eagerly following every twist, while the newspapers print lurid theories about the killings and the mysterious woman being held in the Old Bailey.

The testimonies against Frannie are damning. She is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator, a whore.

But Frannie claims she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening, even if remembering could save her life. She doesn’t know how she came to be covered in the victims’ blood. But she does have a tale to tell: a story of her childhood on a Jamaican plantation, her apprenticeship under a debauched scientist who stretched all bounds of ethics, and the events that brought her into the Benhams’ London home—and into a passionate and forbidden relationship.

Though her testimony may seal her conviction, the truth will unmask the perpetrators of crimes far beyond murder and indict the whole of English society itself.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a breathtaking debut: a murder mystery that travels across the Atlantic and through the darkest channels of history. A brilliant, searing depiction of race, class, and oppression that penetrates the skin and sears the soul, it is the story of a woman of her own making in a world that would see her unmade.

Review:

What attracted me initially to this story was that it put me in the mindframe of one of my all time favorite books, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Conde. It takes during slavery, but not American slavery.

Frannie is writing her story, not to dispute her guilt of the horrendous crimes she may or may not have committed but to clear her conscience of the things she has done in her life. Things that were done by force and by choice.

Frannie is born into a life that she has no control over what happens to her but at the same time is given the slight freedom of having a bit of education. Being taught how to read has both its advantages and its setbacks for her as she grows up with the Langton’s but is later practically thrown to the Benham’s.

As I progressed thru this story, I quickly realized how different it was from my favorite novel and I loved the differences. Frannie’s story made me feel sorry for her while at the same time infuriating me. There were things I felt that she could have had more control over even if she were a slave and later a servant as intelligent as she was, but these flaws showed her vulnerability. At the same time she faced issues that not even a free person could have avoided.

Although this isn’t your typical summer read, if given the chance it will tick off more boxes on your list than you can think to imagine. Along with being a historical fiction, there is also the element of mystery and the hint of romance regardless of how socially unacceptable it was for its time period.

This is a beautifully written debut that will hold your attention not only with the storyline but with the lyrical writing style. I look forward to seeing what else Sara Collins will write in the future.

Rating:

4 Stars

Availability:

Available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook

*A special thank you to Harper Books for my review copy in exchange for my honest review*