Carrie Soto is back by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Carrie Soto is a 37 yo ruthless Tennis player that won 20 grand slams. Now retired for 6 years, a new player, Nicki Chan is about to beat her record. Carrie decides to come out of retirement and her dad Javier, a former player as well, is coaching her so that she can maintain her record. Carrie is not well liked by her peers, she is ambitious, competitive and not the most graceful winner. She has to be number one, that’s always her goal. Not going to lie, I really did not like her at first, but she grew on me because those qualities are often only criticized when a woman displays them. TJR also humanized Carrie but showing us her fears and vulnerable side, so in the end I was rooting for her and Nicki Chan because they were badass women. I loved this book! 5/5 Stars
Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan: My friend Christie sent me this book and it was the perfect palate cleanser. Nora writes Hallmark-type rom coms and after her husband Ben leaves her and her two kids with nothing but debt, she writes their marriage story and it’s being turn into a movie played by a major Hollywood actor, Leo Vance. Her actual home is the set of the movie and after filming Leo ask her to stay for a week. He recently lost his mom and is not too eager to go back to his movie star life. Leo ends up immersing himself into Nora and her kids life and they fall in love. When Leo has to get back to work, he tells Nora he loves her and will be back but that does not happen. Nora is heartbroken and so are her two kids, she also finds out that Leo is dating his costar Naomi. Don’t want to spoil it for you but this was so so cute. 5/5 Stars
When She Returned by Lucinda Berry: Ok this book was well written so my frustration is more with the subject of the book. This book triggered me so much and I had zero empathy for any of the characters. So I’m from Haiti, I’ve witnessed extreme poverty and I simply cannot wrap my head around why someone leave their homes, family, comfort to put themselves in such sticky situations. I’ve also watched a lot of documentaries about cults and it’s beyond me that someone would just believe someone who was in one.
But anyway, Kate has been missing for about 10 years and one day her husband (Scott) and daughter (Abbie) get the news that she was found with an infant. Things are very complicated as Scott is remarried to Meredith. She’s the only one that is at all skeptical of Kate and turns out Kate was not abducted. She joined a cult and willingly left her family. Scott and Abbie are happy to have Kate back and are not at all skeptical of her whereabouts for the past ten years. I expected this kind of gullibility from Abbie but it was not believable at all to me that Scott, an adult man, was not at all suspicious. They did mention that Kate and Scott were from a small town, but I think it’s insulting to assume that about people from more remote places. The book is overall well written but I had to take a star and a half off because this book frustrated me so much. Sorry for the rant <3 3.5/5 Stars
The Old Place by Bobby Finger: I listen to the Who Weekly podcast religiously so I had to support Bobby for his first novel. In Bilington, Texas, Mary Alice was just pushed to retirement as a teacher. Now she doesn’t know what to do with her days and started reconnecting with her neighbor Ellie by having coffee every morning. She is also the planner of the town’s annual picnic but that’s not enough to keep her busy. Her and Ellie became friends, when the latter moved next door with her son, they were both single moms and their boys were the same age and closed friends. They both also lost their sons a few months apart, so now they are trying to rekindle the friendship they had before all this tragedy. But Mary Alice’s sister arrives from Atlanta with very troubling news and Mary Alice is not sure her and Ellie’s friendship will survive these revelations and more. I loved this book so much and read it in a couple of days.. 5/5 Stars