Review: Is This A Cry For Help by Emily Austin

 

DNF at 40%.

I could not continue this whiplash. I was expecting some big drama surrounding the ex but finding out that she broke up with him 10 years ago, and that she blames herself for it seems very selfish in my opinion. She also blames this for her mental breakdown... which I question.

This also gave me the ick when she was talking about the baby's missing fingers and that the baby wouldn't be able to flip anyone off with her left hand and that she wont be able to wear a wedding ring if she was into that sort of thing when she is older. The fact that she only thought of those things, and not what she will probably go through as a child and possible bullying, shows that Darcy is not a good character and that she has no compassion for the things that truly matter.

Also her theory on the porn and censorship and what she would do as head honcho would be a complete overhaul. But Darcy, during your mental breakdown, you were offered a management position in the library and you turned it down.

I truly do not understand darcy as a character.

Review: Trust by Hernan Diaz

 

I have had this book on my radar since it came out and I found a copy at Goodwill a year ago. I picked this up this month because it fulfills two Goodreads reading challenges for the spring. When I read the synopsis, I was confused because it says the first story is based on a book about a character in this. So I start thinking that this is a nonfiction and I do some research. 

I had to wrap my head around the fact that the author created a fake book to be able to advance this story and Bonds is not a real book. So Bonds the "book" is about a guy named Benjamin Rask. He is an only child living in New York with his parents who are socialites and big wigs. Benjamin is great with math and he becomes a stock trader or something like that, I kept thinking of him as a day trader.

He becomes filthy rich and he gets marries to a woman named Helen. Helen has just come back from Europe with her parents and she finds that she is the perfect fit for Benjamin because he keeps to himself and only makes appearances in public to keep his status up. Helen then becomes ill and it is similar to what ailment her father had, and she goes back to Europe to the sanitorium that her and her mom put him in.

The second story in this book is the"real" Bejamin Rask. His name is Arthur Bevel and it is basically a retelling of the first story Bonds, except names weere changed and the attitude towards family and social events were totally different.

The third story is about Arthur told through the eyes of a woman named Ida and he is trying to clear his and his wife's name from a defamatory book called Bonds by Harold Vanner. Bevel hires Ida to takes his dictation so she can write his autobiography. The whole time while reading this, I got Donald Trump vibes and it gave me the ick. We also get Ida's life story and how she is the daughter who an anarchist Italian immigrant father who tells stories and maybe embellish some to make himself sound tough. He gets angry when something doesn't go his way. 

Ida eventually gets an apartment from Bevel because he wants her to be close so they can finish the book. He dies of a heart attack before that and we also get future timeline of Ida as an older woman and she is finally able to learn more about Arthur's wife Mildred. She learns that he has narrated her completely wrong and he took all the credit for her ideas. While Ida is looking through all the paperwork that has become available since the estate of the Bevel's became a museum. Ida finds a hidden diary of Mildred's and she takes it.

The fourth and final story is the diary. It is very chaotic and it is her thoughts and routine during her stay in the sanitorium in Europe. She is dealing with cancer and it is her final thoughts. She also puts down that she told Arthur how to beat the ticker tape and he eventually does it making him an enormous fortune and she calles him a criminal and they don't talk for two years. That was surprising because throughout the book, we are led to believe that they were close and didn't have any qualms. 

It shows that trust was not there in the marriage and it makes the reader question, can we really trust the government and the federal reserves and the stock markets. 

Review: The Poet Empress by Shen Tao

 

I love Asian fantasy and I almost always give them 4 or 5 stars and this was no exception. I picked this up thanks to the spring goodreads challenge and I liked it. Throughout the book, it was a three star and I was kind of getting over the repetitive narrative of Terren being awful and a monster and that the royals were out the get each other and our main character Wei being so disbelieving of the betrayals.

The book starts out with Wei being with her family while they bury her little sister who has died from the famine that is decimating the nation. Wei is hopeful for blessings to come to her local village from one of the princes that is supposed to come to the festival. They go to the town and they are looked down upon because of how they are dressed and how they smell.

One of the princes does in fact show up, and it is Prince Isan who has the magic of growing fruit instantly. He also tosses out blessings, and Wei's little brother Bao catches two. The prince then informs the citizens that he second brother has been named Heir and he is looking to fill his inner court with concubines. Wei is instantly interested because she wants to take care of her village. She goes back and everyone starts giving her prized possessions for her offering basket. The day of the selections, the eunuch that is part of the inner court has to choose one girl. He chooses a girl that made fun of Wei and her family. Wei immediately begs for a chance in front of everyone which is seen as embarassment in the villagers eye, but it is desperation to keep her village fed.

Wei is also chosen because the eunuch can have a good laugh. She is then placed with hundreds of other girls and taught how to please her prince and use techniques to get planted with seal bearing sons. On the day of the selection process, a girl in front of her in line attempts to kill Prince Terren. Then Wei is up next and she is the first that Terren officially gives a title too and he names her his empress.

From then she is constantly being betrayed by the other concubines, she is being blackmailed by the current empress and being tortured nightly by Terren. She eventually learns that the only way to kill Terren is through a heart poem because he has a magic ward around him that makes him impossible to kill.

She then has to gether stories from old advisors and she commits treason and learns how to read because in this world, women being literate is treasonous. It gets kind of repetitive after a while but the ending was shocking and it made me cry. 

Review: Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

 

Thanks to the Goodreads spring reading challenge, I had to pick this one up. I was not expecting to read this one so soon, but I did finish it in three days. 

It was also very easy to read because I could picture the actors as their characters. Everyone knows what Heated Rivalry is. It is about two hockey players named Shane and Illya. They start their hockey careers at the same time and this starts their rivalry in the media because they are both head to head for first round draft pick.

Ilya is a Russian hockey player who was chosen as first round draft pick and Shane was drafted second. They are also drafted to rival teams which is another boost to the rivalry.

Throughout their careers, the rivalry is still going strong and they hate each other. But behind closed doors, they are railing each other whenever their teams play each other. Ilya is comfortable with his sexuality and he is bi. Shane, throughout the whole book is paranoid that they will be found out and he is constantly wanting to end the relationship. He even starts dating a actress who eventually asks him does he like women and he tells her that its a complication. They even bring up square peg in round hole, and then he compares it to himself that he likes to be the hole rather than the peg and I died laughing.

Ilya is also dealing with family issues back in Russia. He can't come out in Russia because it is illegal and his father is a important minister who is dealing with Alzheimers. Ilya's brother is constantly asking him for money. Once his father dies, he doesn't go back and he can be safe from persecution. 

Shane and Ilya start to get closer in the feelings department and one summer, Ilya goes to Shane's summer house for two weeks. This is the first time they have been together during the summer, and then one day Shane's dad shows up. They end up coming out to him and his mother and they also help with Ilya start the process to become a Canadian citizen. 

I also read the novella between this book and the next book. I am starting to lean more towards watching the show. 

Review: The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness *SPOILERS*

 

I have read the third book in the All Souls or A Discovery of Witches series, and this one is by far my favorite of the three. I gave it 5 stars because the beginning made me cry. I love ghosts, and the inclusion of Phillipes and Emily's ghosts hit me in the feels. It made me cry when Emily said that she didn't get to say goodbye and she didn't want to leave them. It hit close to home because I am still grieving my grandmother who died in 2024 and I had to leave her in the hospital.

Anyways, this picks up right where the second book leaves off. Diana and Matthew arrive back in present day and see everyone at Sept-Tours. Diana learns that Peter Knox killed Emily and she begins grieving and Matthew is distraught because he really liked Emily. Sarah is trying to cope with smoking and drinking large amounts of whiskey. She is being looked after by Fernando who was the mate to Baldwin's brother Hugh. Fernando is trying to help her process the loss and he calls her the widow, which demands a large amount of respect in his culture.

The book takes place in multiple areas including France, London, Massachusetts and Venice. We learn of a new foe and he is awful. I genuinely got the ick because this character was introduced in book two and we get information that he is known as the bad seed. This character is raping witches and trying to get them like Diana and Matthews twins. He crosses Diana's path while she is in the Bodliean trying to get the manuscript and he tells her that he hopes her twins are girls.

That is one of my biggest fears since having three daughters myself. The ending was page turning and it made me excited for the fourth book. I am really excited to watch the third season now, even though I know that they may have changed some things. 

Review: The Giver by Lois Lowry

 

Another classic read off of my 5 year classics list and I am sad to say that I will not be completing that list before July. 

I have had a bind up of all four books in this series since 2020 and I have been wanting to read this for years. If I think back, I do think that my 7th grade teacher read this outloud to us but I did not remember anything. My hubby also watched the movie years ago and at the time, I thought that the black and white was a stylistic choice that the screenwriters and directors decided, but that is not true.

This is a dystopian where we follow a 12 year old boy named Jonas who has been chosen to be the next receiver of memories. It is the highest honor and he gets to be the most respected. He gets to ask rude questions of the citizens and to lie. Those two things are forbidden. When you break a rule or ask a question, you have to apologize. The citizens or people around you automatically forgive you and you go about your day.

The citizens live in communities that live in Sameness. Everyday is the same with meal times and bedtimes and everything. You have to talk about your feelings every night and every morning, you have to talk about your dreams. You are assigned your future at 12. Jonas' dad is a nuturer who helps take care of the babies who around their first birthday are given names and given to their parents. If they are not ready, then the are released.

We also learn that the old people are in a community center and taken care of and when it is there time, they are also released.

We learn what release actually means and The Giver who is teaching Jonas and giving him memories is against everything. 

I do wish we got more about why everything went to sameness and who made the rules and are there other commuities like this. 

While reading this, I was seeing parallels and same situations from Brave New World and it also reminded me of Divergent. I am intrigued to continue the series even though I gave this a three. I am wanting to learn more about the world.

Review: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

 

My hubby has been nagging me to watch the movie with him since this came out and I finally got to it because of the Goodreads bookmark challenge for spring. I had such high expectations because I really like the actors that are in the movie. It was also easier to picture the characters while reading except for the character of Joyce. 

I had never watched anything with Celia Irmie before and I couldn't picture Joyce clearly. I also found her character rather annoying with the journal entries. But movie Joyce, I really liked her after watching. I will not be continuing in this series, but if they do adapt the sequels I will be watching with my family because my hubby and daughters loved it.

This book follows four old people who live in a retirement village in England. Three of the four are in a little group called the Thursday Murder Club. They meet every Thursday in the jogsaw room because it is vacant. They go over old cold cases that another resident had when she left the force. Her name is Penny and she is one of the main baddies but not really a baddie. She is close friends with Elizabeth who is the leader and a former MI5 or MI6, don't really know the difference. 

Penny is in a coma and she is only shown when Elizabeth stops by to update her and visit. Elizabeth asks Joyce one day for some medical advice because Joyce was a nurse. Elizabeth brings Joyce into the club to figure out who murdered a girl and did the boyfriend do it.

While they are trying to figure that out, the owner of Coopers Chase named Ian is being a dick. He is wanting to dig up the graveyard and build new flats. The residents are against it and a priest named Father Mackie. We learn his story which is sad but was cut out of the movie. There is another owner of Coopers Chase named Tony Curran. Ian decides to cut him out of any future dealings and Tony gets pissed.

Tony is killed in his home and the Thursday Murder club is on the case. They get the officer who came to talk to the residents about safety and phone scams on the case. There was a lot of humor at the beginning of the story but it was nonexistent when the book started to get boring. Ian eventually moves forward with his plans to dig up the graveyard and there is protests. When Ian is on the way home because the work is stalled and he cant do nothing because the police need to go through legal channels, Ian drops dead.

They find out that Ian died from an overdose and that now all of them are suspects.The other storyline that was so unnecessary and was cut out of the book was Bernard's plotline.

By the end of this, I was skimming because I honestly did not care about the other plotlines or who killed who.