Review: Alessandra by Lizzy Ford

 

I have had this series of short stories on my kindle for over 10 years and I have finally started the series. The stories are only 30-40 pages long. This story gripped me and I am excited to read the rest of the books and get to the main novel which is called Omega and I have already read the first three chapters and it is compelling.

We follow this little girl named Alessandra and she has this gift of being able to see people life ribbons. She can also see inanimate objects ribbons and she is able to weave her green ribbon with her toys ribbons and bring them to life. 

She is on this school trip with her kindergarten class and she sees this group of boys being mean to this really ugly statue and she can hear the statue crying out in pain. They break off a piece of his ear and she ends up bringing this statue to life.

Her parents know about her powers and they are freaking out because more of their neighbors have been picked up by the goverment for reasons that are wrong against the government and the Greek Gods. Alessandra one day gets told to hide in the panic room and she ends up breaking the rules and then she sees people tearing through her house.

The story ends with her statue coming to protect her.

I am so obsessed and cannot wait to read the next short story which is from the statue who Alessandre named Mismatch. 

Review: How To Love Your Neighbor

 My kids recently started going to a lot of events at our local libraries and while I was sitting in the main part of the library, I decided to start on my Netgally books because I have a lot and I am still surprised I have not been banned. This was the very last one on my shelf and I got this one back in 2022.

This took me almost a month to read because I was only reading it during library events, and then I had to put it down because I starterd reading The Cinnamon Bun Book Store and it was so similar and both male characters were named Noah. I was also having anxiety everytime I picked it up because there is a character that I was dreading on being introduced too.

This book starts off with our main female named Grace doing her morning dog walks on the beach and then she sees this hot surfer guy coming out of the water and the dogs basically attack him with kisses. Throughout the first quarter of the book, we find out that he is a rich boy who is used to getting his way and making business deals. He is in the process of renovating his house and he wants the house next door because he wants to build a pool.

He is having trouble finding the owner and lo and behold, one day Grace moves in because it had been given to her by her grandparents. Noah quickly makes his way on to my shit list because he just will not take no for an answer. Grace is renovating the house on her own and Noah is coming up with all these ways to manipulate her into selling and tries to come up with all these expenses to throw at her.

They eventually get close because obviously, and then Noah gets a magazine offer to document the renovation and the journalist drags Grace as the interior designer. Grace comes up with all these challenges to do with Noah. It was very unrealistic, because one of them is painting walls in her home and he has never painted in his life because why do something youself when you can pay someone to do it.... ugh. 

The character that I was dreading ended up be Grace's mother and she was just a money hungry bitch who wanted the house and was going to do anything and everything to get what she thought was owed to her and she was just awful to Grace. I was dreading this character so much because my husbands father is the same exact way and it was very triggering. 

I ended up skimming the end because it was very rushed and predictable. 

Review: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

 

Another book crossed of my classics club challenge list. I have so many more to read before July next year. I put this book on my list because I remember watching some of the movie with my dad when I was little and all I remember is Jack Nicholson sitting in white clothes. 

Before I started reading this, I read a synopsis online and it said that the main character gets commited to an institution for rape of a 15 year old girl. That is one thing that immediately lost it a star regardless because I have a 15 year old and I thought about not reading this. 

The story is told from the point of view of a guy name Chief. He is an Indian "Native American" and he tells the story of the new guy on the ward who is the main character. His name is McMurphy and he decided to be institutionalized to not be on a work farm in Georgia.

He makes a big entrance and immediately he starts questions the big Nurse, Ms Ratched and her policies on the ward. There is alot of stereotypes and racism. There is assumptions of sexual assault by the aides in the shower rooms, but it is never said out right.

There were some times where I giggled and laughed but the audiobook I was listening to, I just could not get fully into this book and I got a little bored. I did end up giving this a 3 star because I did enjoy the difference that McMurphy made on the ward, but I know that the nurse probably went back to her old ways after he died and the other Acutes on the ward left on their free will.

Review: Goobers by Cody Ziglar

 

My 50th book read for the year and ha;f way in I had to DNF. I just could not care about the plot of what happpend to these characters. It reminded me so much of Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. A group of friends staying in a cabin and then a alien parasite takes over their bodies and the town. 

We follow this group of friends who are going to stay in a cabin in a small town one of the guys named Clay is from. His friends don't want to deal with white people and rednecks. They head into town to buy food from the local Food Lion and Clay bumps into an old friend and he says an old teacher looking really weird.

They get to the cabin and get wasted on moonshine, which is very bad because that shit will blind your ass. In the middle of the night, Clay is woken up b a raccoon messing with the trash cans. He goes out an he sees the town drunk named Beanie walking around and repeating himself. Clay offers to take Beanie home and these gross things startcoming out of his ears and mouth. He falls over and breaks his neck on the trash can, but then he gets back up and the alien parasite thing leaves his body.

The group end up trapping it in the car and eventually kill it. Clay it adament about going into town to see if there are anymore and to help get rid of them because it's his hometown.

The barkeeper is also affected and they take him out and at that point, I had to stop because it is very predictable about what was going to happen and how it would end. 

Review: Something Crawled Out by Son M

 A quick graphic novel that I got recently and it was OK. I was really confused with the characters and who was who at first. I think it was because the scene in the very bgeinning where Eddie and Rainer were sitting on the roof and Eddie was dared to jump off, then the next page shows a naked woman and a guy at the window knocking.

I was very confuddled and thought that the two kids were boys, but one was a girl. Eddie is short for Edith, so there is that clear up. Eddie is off to work and she is trying to call her sister Charlotte. Rainer is getting his car fixed and he goes to work as well. 

When they are on their shift, the power goes out and someone shows up knocking on the door with bright yellow goggles on. It looked creepy as fuck. The power comes back on and the guy goes away. The a guy named Charlie comes in to by a box of condoms and then a weird naked girl comes in with a shotgun and shoots Charlie in the back of the head and then shoots herself.

Eddie and Rainer start trying to find Charlotte and they go to the big city. They comes across leads and similarities and jewelry. They fuck people up and kill people. 

It is never really described what is inside the missing girls, just that they were given up for money because there families wanted to live comfortably. There is two storylines going on and neither one goes together. 

We are constantly told that Rainer is a devil and he has a power of persuasion, but we don't get any back story of how and why.

Review: Peril at End House by Agathe Christie *spoilers*

 

Finally another Hercule Poirot book. I have missed this little Belgian detective. Listening to the audio book and I love that Hugh Fraser is narrating them all. I have been catching up on the Poirot episodes by book order and I would have liked these books even more if David Suchet also narrated side by side.

This book starts off with Poirot and Hastings having lunch and Poirot refuses to help investigate a case because he wants to retire. Then he sees a woman next to him that is beautiful and he strikes up a conversation with her. She tells him that her day has been eventful and has survived three attempts at death that day and she leaves her hat behind. Poirot picks it up and notices that there is a bullet hole through the hat.

Poirot makes a meeting to the woman Nick to meet her at her home and to tell her and finds out who could be an enemy. Nick is not taking it seriously and Poirot is getting frustrated. Poirot instructs her to get her cousin to come stay with her. 

The funny thing that keeps happening is that Poirot keeps calling Hastings a faithful dog who is very loyal and I am just like..... rude ass. Anyways, Nick throws a party to watch fireworks for Guy Fawkes night. Nick and Maggie go inside to get coats because they are getting cold and then Poirot and Hastings find Maggie face down on the ground and been shot. Nick is in shock and Poirot sends her to a nursing home and to be safe.

Poirot has made a list of suspects and he is doubting everything and blaming himself for Maggie's death. Poirot and Hastings make a visit to the nursing home and try to find out where she has stored her will. Nick tells them that she doesn't file anything and just tosses them anywhere and everywhere. That makes sense that someone could read it and find out who she is living her fortune too. Poirot also confirms that Nick was in love and engaged to the missing and now dead airmen Michael Steton.

Poirot has trimmed his list to two suspects and I honestly think that it is not the person he thinks it is. 

Nick ends up getting poisioned with cocaine laced chocolates that was supposedly sent by Poirot and it wasn't. Poirot ends up getting her to play dead to get events started and to see who would send the will, and voila it happens. Poirot ends up hosting a type of play that turns into a will reading . We find out that Nick left everything to Mrs. Croft and it was honestly surprising.

Inspector Japp comes to the door and calls out Mrs Croft who is not really Mrs Croft but a fraud who has been faking identities for a long time. Nick tells everyone that the will was a fake and that the house was to be left to her cousin the lawyer and everything else to her friend Mrs. Rice. As soon as she announces that, Mrs. Rice gets shot from no one other than her husband who is a drug addict. He is the one who killed Maggie.

Nick doesn't want Poirot to announce in the paper that Mr. Rice is the one that killed Maggie because that will bring scorn and shame onto Mrs. Rice and she is trying to get clean from the drugs that he forced her to take.

Poirot of course has to do his big reveal and shock everyone that the real culprit is Nick who shot Maggie because Maggie is the one who was engaged to Michael Seton. My flabbers were gasted. We learn that Commander Challenger was the drug dealer and that Nick rain off with the wrist watch full of cocaine to overdose so she wouldn't have to be executed publicly.

Review: The Cinnamon Bun Book Store by Laurie Gilmore

 

Book two in the Dream Harbor series and it was a 5 star read. I enjoyed it more than The Pumpkin Spice Cafe. I really liked Hazel and Noah more than Jeanie and Logan even though they made an appearance a couple of times throughout this book. 

Hazel runs the local book store and she is about to be 30. She is feeling stuck and wants to have a fun 2 months before her birthday. She then notices a book hanging out of the romance section and it has been dog eared and marked. She is angry at first because who would vandalize a book and not buy it. She then reads the underlined portion and takes it to be a clue that she needs to have fun. 

She then enlists the help of Noah, who is a fisherman and boat tour guide who moved to the town recently. He has the "hots" for Hazel and the take the clues and have a fun summer adventure. Noah is known for not having long relationships because he has one night stands only with tourists.Hazel is also older than him and Noah is running away from his family because he thinks of himself as a disappointment.

Noah and Hazel grow close obviously and then things get hot and spicy. Noah learns about things going on back home and he decides to go back after Hazels birthday which Hazel takes to think that he doesn't want to be with her and that their fun summer adventure is coming to an end. 

The ending was predictable and Noah's grand gesture at the end made me freaking swoon and it is what pushed this to 5 stars. We also get introduced to the next character that will be our main female in the next book that I am hoping to read before Christmas. 

I really loved that the cover was described in a scene but this book is set during summer and I would have wanted some more summer vibes, but the foil leaves made me happy. I also love that Caspar the cat makes an appearance on the cover. 

Review: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

 

Never realized how short this was. I had never read this as a kid or watched any adaptation, but I knew the character Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman. That is it. I ended up giving this 3 stars because I really like the spooky and creppy atmosphere of the puritan type town of Sleepy Hollow. I could imagine it just shrouded in fog always.

While I was listening to this on audio, I got bored really quickly because while Ichabod Crane is in the woods, there is a description of every single bird there is and I just did not care at all. I just wanted to know more about Crane and the headless horseman. I would have loved to know if the horseman was a hessian soldier.

I can't wait to watch the movie because I think it will be one of those times where the movie will be far more superior than the book. I am a Johnny Depp fan so I may be biased.

Review: The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie

 

My second ever 2 star Agatha Christie book. I just did not enjoy this one because I feel that we were just thrown in without any introduction to the characters. We immediately meet a character named Major Burnaby who right away was a sexist asshole. He goes to this little manor to visit a mother and daughter who had just come in from South Africa to experience the winter in England.... right away they are sus because they left summer time to deal with snow storms.

They decide to entertain themselves and mess with a table turning which to begin with I could not figure out what that meant until they started asking questions and then I figured out is was a Ouija board. They ask a question about a man named Captain Trevelyan who did not show up and Major Burnaby is spooked. He leaves and walks in the blizzard to check up on him and he finds him dead by sandbags.

Now here is another part where I got really frustrated because we meet our main investigator named Narracott. He goes around the village of Sittaford asking questions and then we meet a woman named Emily Trefusis who also become a detective like character because her fiance Joe has been arrested for the murder. The story becomes told from her narrative for the rest of the story and then basically we get told who is who and who dun it.

I was not a fan of this one because it wasn't thrilling or compeling. I feel that Agatha Christie had a hard time figuring out who she wanted to be the lead investigator.