February was a stressful month for me, and I didn’t read nearly as much as I would have liked. But, I still read five books this month, which brings my total for 2020 so far to 11 books. Lots of room for improvement! But with COVID-19 forcing many people into quarantine, I’m expecting I’ll have lots of solo reading time soon…
5 stars:
You Are Not Alone, by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen: LOVED this thriller, which didn’t disappoint and kept me up reading later than I should have two nights in a row 🙂 I loved the New York City setting, which was woven into the story beautifully – from the stresses of apartment hunting when your roommate wants to change your living situation, to the stress of the subway platform and wondering when the next train will come. The plot escalated nicely, and while the main character came off as a little bit naive at times, I empathized with her rather than thinking she was being dumb. My only disappointment was that the ending was rather depressing – though, it was technically a happy ending.
In An Instant, by Suzanne Redfearne: This book had a really interesting premise: a family is in a car accident where they have to survive in the wilderness. The survivors have a lot to deal with, and each handles it very differently. I found it fascinating how some people were selfless and others selfish, and it was interesting to learn in the author’s note at the end that the plot was borne out of a personal experience. I definitely recommend this book for a very different ensemble cast novel, where as each chapter switched character focus, I didn’t mind because I was excited to see what would happen with each.
4 stars:
The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock, by Jane Riley: This book featured a pretty quirky main character, but I really liked Oliver by halfway through and was rooting for him! Solid debut novel.
How Do You Know?, by Meredith Schorr: Sweet and cute rom com with lots of wit and intelligence! I loved seeing references to places I knew in New York, and found myself really identifying with the main character.
3 stars:
Three Women, by Lisa Taddeo: This book seemed to be quite popular / a must read… but I really didn’t love it. As the title suggests, three women are profiled, but I only found one of the stories compelling (Maggie’s). I was extremely disappointed at the end to learn that the three women’s stories never intersected in some way or had any parallels drawn between them; it might as well have been three manuscripts that got mixed up together by the printer, and I was frustrated to have to wade through Lina’s and Sloane’s stories to get back to what was happening with Maggie’s. I couldn’t get into the chapters about Lina and Sloane at all – Lina, especially, made SUCH poor choices and had so little self-esteem that I found it frustrating that someone could be so dumb (though Sloane wasn’t far off the mark). My only takeaway was frankly a sense of gratitude that I’m smart enough to make better decisions than Lina and Sloane.
Any book recommendations for me? Follow me here on Goodreads to keep up with what I’m reading in real time.
Three Women is actually non-fiction – the author spent almost a decade researching/reporting on the lives of these individuals. Might explain why the “stories” don’t intersect.
I read the author’s note at the end and understood that it was non-fiction. However, I wish the author had tried to draw some kind of parallels between the stories, since it felt very disjointed to me. Did you enjoy it?
Just finished “In An Instant” and also loved it. Definitely a little out of the ordinary and a story that I”ll remember.
Yes! I am still thinking about it too.