I’m going to try to do better about reviewing books I’ve ready or listened to here on the blog. I am a little late on January but wanted to share these with you! I am trying to find my stride I the best way to share these book reviews.
Spare
My Review: ✮✮✮1/2
I listened to this book on Audible and did enjoy the fact that Harry narrated. I had already watched the special they had done with Oprah and then also on Netflix. I had such mixed feelings listening to this book. The book itself is extremely well-written and you can tell Harry has a very experienced and talented ghostwriter that helps him with the book. He shares some of his pain and heartache after losing his Mom and then a lot about his time in the military. That part got a little drawn out for me. I feel like you can really hear the anger and resentment towards his family and the role of the “spare” and really just a lot of sadness because his family will never be the same again. I just hate seeing two brothers that may never be able to heal from this.
The House in the Pines
My Review: ✮✮✮
This was a book we picked for our book club read and it was also picked as Reese Witherspoon’s January 2023 book club read. I had pretty high hopes for this book because I love a good thriller and it had been a bit now since I had read one that I LOVED.
The book tells the story about Maya who returns back to her hometown to try to solve the murder of her best friend that happened years earlier. She wants to reopen this case after finding out that their old friend, Frank, may be responsible for a new murder. Woman have just fallen down dead while being with Frank. I would say that I flew through the book but overall was pretty let down in the end. The author had a lot going on throughout the book and I didn’t feel like she fully tied it all together at the end and the twists and turns just didn’t really wow me! I hate the possibility of ruining a book for anyone, but personally, this was not one of my favorite thrillers!
Amazon Summary:
One Day in December
My Review: ✮✮✮✮
I listened to this book as well mostly during December, but finished it up right after Christmas. This was a super cute little love story based in London. I felt like it was the perfect winter read with a great mix of romance and a little bit of drama for you!
Amazon Summary:
Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic…and then her bus drives away.
Certain they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they “reunite” at a Christmas party, when her best friend, Sarah, giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It’s Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.
What follows for Laurie, Sarah, and Jack is 10 years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming, and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.
The House Across the Lake
My Review: ✮✮✮1/2
I listened to this book on audible and I did not like the narrator on audible which I had read bad reviews about. I should have read the book instead. The narrator is a very old lady and her voice wasn’t great for the audio book. This book is domestic thriller meets supernatural. There were some definite twists and turns which kept me reading, but ultimately I didn’t love the direction the book ended.
Amazon Summary:
Be careful what you watch for . . .
Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of bourbon, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is powerful; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.
One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage isn’t as perfect as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey immediately suspects Tom of foul play. What she doesn’t realize is that there’s more to the story than meets the eye—and that shocking secrets can lurk beneath the most placid of surfaces.
Packed with sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy plot twists, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake is the ultimate escapist story . . . no lake house required.
Duke Actually
I didn’t finish this one. Mainly because we picked this to read over the holidays in our book club and I did a terrible job reading in December and then we had our book meeting and picked new books, so I decided to move on 🙂
Amazon Summary:
There’s a royal wedding on, and things are about to get interesting.
Meet the man of honor.
Maximillian von Hansburg, baron of Laudon and heir to the duke of Aquilla, is not having a merry Christmas. He’s been dumped by a princess, he’s unemployed, and his domineering father has sent him to New York to meet a prospective bride he has no interest in. In the city, he meets Dani Martinez, a smart (and gorgeous) professor he’s determined to befriend before their best friends marry in the Eldovian wedding of the century.
Meet the best woman.
Newly single, no-nonsense New Yorker Dani is done with love – she even has a list entitled “Things I Will Never Again Do for a Man” – which is why she hits it off with notorious rake Max. He’s the perfect partner for snow angels in Central Park and deep conversations about the futility of love.
It’s all fun and games until their friendship deepens into attraction and, oops….
Falling in love was never part of the plan.
I felt the same way about Spare! It was very interesting, but after watching the Netflix special I felt that I had already read half the book. Mostly I just feel very sad for their family.