November 2022 Books: Mini Review Catch Up!

 

Oh my word, but I am so behind in reviews. They are all one the YouTube channel though! One minute review shorts!!  And here I'll do the blogging version of that, mini reviews!

So these are the books rounded out my November reading:

The Maid by Nita Prose: It's about a girl who loves being a maid in a fancy hotel. One day she finds a dead dude, and the mystery that wraps up surrounding this guy and the people involved is really quite interesting. I find it fun and engaging, but not as crazy amazing as everyone seemed to be making it out to be. The ending was... surprising. And strange. And I still don't really know what to think about it all. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry: I ended up loving this one! What a great sweet romance. Our main characters have been friends for years, going on a fun crazy trip together every summer. But denying all these years how they feel about each other. We get flashbacks to the previous trips, but spend a lot of time on the current trip where they finally figure things out! I gave this one 4 stars on Goodreads. I  look forward to reading more by her! I hear Book Lovers is a must!

The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson: This is a book I've had on my shelf forever, the second in a YA SF series. In the first book we learn what happened to Jenna Fox... in this book, we learn what happened to her friends, and it's CRAZY stuff! I remember loving the first book, this one was fun, but not as compelling as that first one. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

Not Going There by Terri Osburn: Another book by an author friend! This one is book 3 in the "Not" series where we are following the love stories of a group of fun friends. I totally enjoyed this one about our girl who gets fired and ends up running her own bookkeeping business and then her first client is a dude that she is totally turning her nose up at... and then, she finds out he's actually pretty cool. In fact, I myself quite fell in love with him! I gave this one 4 stars on Goodreads for some fun romantic comedy escape.

Stay tuned for a catch up post on books read in December! Here's hoping I can keep up better this new year! Thought I might keep this format... and just do mini reviews from now on... hmm....

Book Review: Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

Book: Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
Genre: mystery, court room thriller
Rating: ★ ★ ★

This is the first book chosen by the newly created online Asian Stories Book Club (interested? follow on Twitter @Asian_StoriesBC. And no I didn't create this one, Shannon from @ShanKdramaPop got it going!) The intent here is to read books by, about or set in Asian countries. We'll see how it goes, but I'm excited to jump in!

This one is a crazy story about a Korean immigrant family who has a business where they giving pure oxygen treatments to families who have autistic kids... though they treat others too who's ailments might be benefited by pure oxygen.

The crazy happens when something goes wrong during one of these treatments, a fire and explosion happen, and two people are killed. A trial commences where a mom of one of the kids is accused.

The book is then giving us the inside story of this trial, as we go day by day through it, from everyone's different perspectives... and in so doing, we also get the flash backs as to how all this different people were involved. They are many POVs which I enjoyed (some might be annoyed by that) and it was interesting to see how literally everyone had something to hide.

In then end I'm not sure there was one redeemable character! Some were down right awful and some were victims. And in the end, we find out the truth of what really went down the night of this explosion.

It's crazy I tell you!

Anyway. The subject matter was pretty tough throughout. I struggled in parts. I also struggled with court room detail, but that ended up not being the main focus of the story. The Korean immigrant bit didn't really factor into the event itself, but did play a part in the situation these people found themselves in... and in their struggle to make it in America and deal with the obstacles they faced. So hard!

So if you are love mysteries and court room intrigue and all the complicated factors that tell the WHOLE story, you'll probably really enjoy this one.

Book Review: One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

Book: One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus
Genre: YA mystery
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

This one got a lot of buzz last year, so we decided to read it for this month's book club book.

It's about four kids who end up in detention together one day when a fifth kid suddenly collapses with a massive allergic reaction and dies. And now the investigation is all centered on them.

We get the story from all their points of view, which at first was a little much, but it didn't take me long to get into the groove and remember who was who and which was which.

We have:

Copper: the all American star baseball player
Bronwyn: the honor student and classic piano prodigy
Nate: the drug dealer outcast
Ally: the seemingly airheady beauty queen princess

And the guy who died: Simon. And his big claim to fame is that he runs a gossip column type app that dishes all the juicy stories on everyone in the school.

Mix this all up with the mystery of Simon's death, add in some interesting parental figures and siblings, plus some really fantastic secrets that EVERYONE has and you have this fun and page turning story.

And it was very engaging and lots of fun to read. As is usually the case with me, I wasn't that into the actual mystery (and really it didn't seem like this was the main center of the book either) but was very into the relationships of these four kids with each other, with their families, and with their other friends. Really lots of great characters here and lots of modern day struggles addressed. I look forward to discussing it at book club this week.

Book Review Discussion: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Book: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Genre: Suspense/Thriller/Mystery
Rating:★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
For: Book Club
From: Bought it at Costco

Short Synopsis: Rachel rides the train to work (or is she going to work?) everyday. The trains stops every day at a signal located by the house where she used to live before she got divorced. She notices the people who live in the apartment a few doors down from her old place. She fantasizes about them and makes up stories. Then one day, the girl in this apartment turns up missing. Rachel thinks she knows stuff and gets all involved in the whole sordid affair. All while trying to deal with her own massive life issues.

My Response: Gah! This one turned out to not be at all what I expected! I thought it was going to be much more suspenseful and brain twisting. Sort of in the vein of The Rear Window or something! (If you aren't familiar with The Rear Window... please, go out and watch it NOW!) Anyway, it was more about adultry, and depression and drinking and lusting and. . . there was not one redeeming character to root for. Not one. Of course I know that I won't like every character I read, but you know I can be pretty forgiving and will love even the most hateful of characters (Heathcliff anyone?) But these guys in this book? No. And it turned out to be a fairly simple mystery... what happened to the girl and whodunnit? And we know that the characters are all involved so it's just a matter of figuring out which one did it. I went back and forth a few times, but it becomes pretty clear pretty fast who the true bad guy is. Though, really, they are all the bad guys! Ugh.

Bottom Line: I gave it three starts at first because I was intrigued and it's easy reading, but I decided it really was only two stars worth because it was just "okay." I enjoyed the intrigue, but I suffered through the crap these characters forced on me and was glad to be done.

Let's Talk About: You know that thing when you expect one thing from a book, because of buzz and or whatever, and then it doesn't, in your mind anyway, turn out to be anything like you thought it would? You know that? What do you think? Does it happen often? Do you just deal with it? Does it make you crazy or have you just come to expect it now and then?

Other Reviews:

I gulped this one up. I was completely enthralled. From Alternate Readality

It worked for me as a suspense novel – as the story went on, I did become quite invested in the resolution of the mystery. From Dear Author

Although I believe it to be seriously flawed, it is most definitely entertaining and will no doubt help hundreds of thousands of readers while away a few hours of their (our) lives, getting from this station to that. From Fantasy Book Critic

While it is easy to thoroughly enjoy the action and the thrills of The Girl on the Train, it is ultimately one of those novels that can never live up to the generated hype. From That's What She Read

Incredibly well-written, expertly crafted, this is one of those thriller that will generate reviews and reactions that run the gamut of positive and negative. From Jenn's Bookshelves

Book Review Discussion: Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani

Book: Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani
Genre: YA Mystery
Rating:★★★☆ ☆
For: Utah Book Month
From: Bought at the launch party at King's English

Short Synopsis: When Claire discovers a letter hidden away addressed to her new dad, from her old dad (who is dead), she thinks, what is up? She had no idea that her fathers knew each other. She starts looking into it, asking questions, making phone calls and generally digging into things she's not supposed to. Pretty soon, her life is being threatened and she's not sure what the connection is. Just that there is one. Her brothers and her best friends that are boys help her along the way.

My Response: So, I really enjoyed the character bits and the relationships and the connections in this one. I enjoyed all the boys. Boys are awesome. I really love boys. These guys reminded me of the crowd in the Raven Boys books. Only different. But similar. Anyway. But the mystery aspects of this story had me glazed over. You know I'm not a big mystery fan! And yeah, it shows when we have our characters looking up stuff and trying to figure out stuff and I'm all, yeah, okay... on with the story!!

Bottom Line: If you love mysteries, especially ones laced with a bunch of cool Japanese culture, you'll dig this book. If you love boys working with one strong girl,  you'll also love this book! Put the two together and you have it made!

Let's Talk About: What's your take on the whole mystery genre? Are you a fan? Or do you find yourself bored by the solving of the thing? I hate that I do that, but that's just how it is for the most part.

Other Reviews:

Fast paced and bursting with quirky guys, this story has a lot of incredible detail, From Finding Wonderland

So the mystery is combined with a romance, and readers will enjoy following the trail of clues along with Claire and her brothers and friends. From Charlotte's Library

The story was fun and very suspenseful. I thought I knew what was going on and then when it all came together, I found out I was way off, even though I did guess one thing right. From Jenni Elyse

Get it soon, especially if you like stories about uncovering family secrets. From Rich in Color

Book Review Discussion: The Bishop's Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison

Book: The Bishop's Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison
Genre: Mystery
Rating:★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
For: Supporting local authors
From: Received for free from the publisher. All opinions are my own. 

Short Synopsis: Our main character, Linda, is very involved in her local Mormon (aka LDS) ward. That's due in part because she is the bishop's wife. (A bishop is the leader of the ward, or Mormon congregation.) Because of this, she befriends many people in her neighborhood and ends up learning some strange things. For instance, the husband of one of her friends dies, and then she (the bishop's wife) discovers he's been hiding a big secret. Also, the wife of another neighbor disappears in the night and suddenly she (the bishop's wife) is torn between helping him and his daughter, and having him accused of murder! But, did he really do it?

My Response: Ah, I have no idea how to review this book and I've been dreading it since I finished it. So, I guess I'll just jump in. I was intrigued by this book given that it's inspired by (but by no means an account of) the Susan Powell disappearance/murder that happened here in Utah several years ago. What a terrible story that was! Though I'm not that much into mysteries, I was hooked enough to want to find out how this particular story ended. And it wasn't as expected and it made me a little crazy! Maybe even a little mad. Sigh, and I can't say more about that as I don't want to be all spoilery, even more than I just was!

I see from other reviews that many readers really liked this character, Linda. But she made me crazy and I did not like her much at all. I felt like she was all up into everyone's business and justified it because she's the bishop's wife. It made me look at the bishop's wives that I know and wonder about them. I can't imagine them doing anything like this. Maybe visiting neighbors now and then. I don't know. Let's just say I don't think most bishop's wives are like this one! And she seemed to hate on and complain about everything, and her life just isn't all that bad. Sometimes I just wanted to tell her to grow up a little, you know?

Okay, now for all the Mormon talk. As a Mormon myself, it made me just roll my eyes. Like, a lot. I feel like for those wanting to know about what living in this church like, the author could have done a lot more showing and much less telling. There were so many asides of... "and we believe this and we think that and this is what we are supposed to do" that I was like, really? Just show us! All that narrator info dumping took me right out of the story. And also, I just feel like it cheapens our faith to an extent, makes us look so dumb, for lack of a better word. And I really wish that a book could be written that explains our lives without doing that. Am I making sense?

Mostly I just want to say that some of the culture of Mormon life depicted here is what I'd say to be correct, but much of it is not, at least what I see anyway. As with any group of people, everyone is different and I hate it when book such as this (or a movie or TV show or whatever) is written and read by the masses and then everyone thinks that's how we all are. We aren't, we are all different, just like everyone else.

Also, of course, every single freaking controversial thing going on with the church right now was brought up and analyzed. And maybe that was the subtle not-so-subtle point of this book,  I don't know. Because I do feel the author wrote this for a specific reason, I'm just not sure what that reason was. To voice her own issues with the church? I think so. To share our beliefs with the world? Maybe. To dis men? A little. To write a mystery? I'm not sure!


Bottom Line: An interesting story on some levels, and a maddening one on others.  I think most non-LDS readers will find it interesting, and some LDS ones too, but I've a sense that many LDS readers will cringe at most of it. (Now given everything I've said, you may think my star rating is a bit generous, and you'd be right. But I was still intrigued by this story, even with all the eye rolling! Two and half stars would have been more on target I'd say. But I don't know the HTML code for a half!)

Let's Talk About: Religion! There's a reason why I avoid the subject on my blog for the most part. . .but have at it today! Mark, get set, go!

Other Reviews:

But even without the Mormon perspective, it's a good mystery. I didn't see the ending. From Annette's Book Spot

I absolutely love books that give me insight into cultures, religions, and communities I’m unfamiliar with, and this novel did a great job with that. From S. Krishna's Books

I guess the best way to describe this book is that it's not a Mormon book, it's a suspense novel set among Mormons. From 2 Kids and Tired Books

For those wondering if the religious aspects are overwhelming, they're not. From Killin' Time Reading

I'm not sure how other Mormons will react. It may be difficult to see the culture from an outsider's view. Mette is a practicing Mormon, but this narrative reads more like someone on the outside looking in. From Emily's Reading Room

Two Mini Book Reviews and Book Club Reports

I feel bad. I've neglected the book club books for the past two months. This is a post to try and fix that!

Book Club September: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Genre: Dystopian
My Rating:★★★★☆

This book, about a young woman surviving a new government regime that has taken over, was a re-read for me. I was surprised how much of the detail I didn't remember. I think on re-reading, I felt pretty much the same as the first time through. It's a shocking and disturbing story (women are assigned different roles in society, including the handmaids, who's job it is to have the babies) but fascinating at the same time on how this character (we never learn her real name) deals with it.

What the book club thought: A lot of readers wanted to know more about this new society and what made them the way they are, we needed more background or something. Also, we wondered if the author was trying to make a statement and we couldn't decide if it was pro-feminist or anti!

For more book club member thoughts, check out Jenni Elyse's review here, and Jenny's review here.

Book Club October: The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
My Rating: ★★★☆☆

We read this book for a member in our club who loves these sort of thriller/suspense/detective stories. (She has to deal with our love for fantasy, dystopian and classics all the rest of the year!) So, for many of us, it was very much out of our comfort zone. In fact, many book club members (even the diehards!) decided to forgo this book in the end. But I ended up reading the whole thing, and found it to be suspenseful enough to keep me turning the pages.

It's about a famous criminologist (I can't even remember if that's the right term!) who has suffered an injury three years prior that left him a quadriplegic. At the opening of the book, he hopes to find someone to help him end his life. Before that happens, however, his friends have come to him for help in a fascinating case. Along with them they bring newcomer, Amanda Sachs. He (Lincoln) trains her how to do his job... be his eyes and ears and legs so to speak, and within a day or two they solve it all, together. But the question remains, is it enough to make Lincoln think his life is worthwhile?

While I found the graphic descriptions of the murder scenes a bit too much to stomach, and being inside the head of the murderer a bit too creepy,  and the detail of the crime scene investigation a bit too detailed, I did enjoy the human parts of the story... the connection between Lincoln and Amanda  the struggles Lincoln faces , and the all the thought process parts of actually figuring out the mystery.

What the book club thought: Those that actually read it, enjoyed it for the most part! Though many said that's enough of that author for them for now. (There's several more books about this character.) We talked about if we had figured out "whodunit" by the end. I don't think many did. And I asked the question, is the culprit of a mystery ALWAYS someone you've already been introduced to in the course of the story? And is it almost ALWAYS someone the solver of the mystery knows already? I'm just wondering....

We also did a lot of comparing this one to the movie (which I for one have not seen.) Apparently, they changed things up a lot for that. Good thing though, because then those that HAD seen the movie where still surprised by the ending!

Also, we agreed, there were too many F bombs in this book for our level of tolerance.

For more book club member thoughts, check out Jenni Elyse's review here.

Up next for book club: Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman


What's your book club read lately that everyone enjoyed? Or even something they didn't?

Mini Reviews on Two Novellas

At the end of this crazy month of reading, I have fit in two more little tiny books! Yay, that means I could count them toward my overall goal at Goodreads! It helped to catch me up, even just a little. Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick mini review for them both right now.

Book:Deftly Dunne and the Keys of Death by Carmen Wye

Genre: Mystery

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

This one is a first foray into writing by a friend of mine that used to live in the neighborhood and come to book club... until she moved. I had no idea she was writing stuff, but suddenly, her little book (she even calls it a short story, but it's a bit longer than that!) shows up on my Kindle! It's a fun story about a kid named Deftly Dunne who is very klutzy and accident prone, which makes it awfully hard for him to work at his parents cafe. He does have one particular talent though... old typewriters. This leads him to take a writing class where the writers have a thing for using old typewriters. Well, he doesn't show much potential at the writing bit, but when a murder happens right there in class, he is suddenly solving the mystery! 

While the story itself was simple... and a mystery (you know they aren't my favorite!) I did really enjoy the writing! And that's not just because I know Carmen! She's got some funny and spunky writing going on! I totally enjoyed it. 

Shear Luck by Heather Justesen
Genre: Romance
Rating:★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

This is your typical LDS romance squished down into a very condensed version. A girl, who now runs a beauty salon, happens upon a guy who she had a major crush on all her growing up years. Then, he lived next door and hung out with her brother. Now, he owns restaurants and is building one next door to her salon. Well, of course, sparks fly and they get together, yet... his wife has just died and he has a kid and so there are issues to overcome.

This one was just okay for me. It reminded me that this genre of LDS fiction is just not my thing. Too contrived and sappy for me. I found myself rolling my eyes a lot and I'm not one to do that usually. The writing was okay and I would be willing to try another one by this author if it was a different sort of genre.

Review: Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

Book: Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
Genre: Mystery- ish/ Psychological Thriller
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
For: Fun
From: the library

I went to a library thing awhile back and at that thing the staff took turns raving about some of their favorite books of the year. It was fun trying to determine from that presentation which books I would really run out to read.

As it turned out, this book happened to be one that rose to the top in my mind of "must reads" after that fun book talk presentation. So I was excited when it actually came to me after putting it on hold.

But I must say, it wasn't as great as I expected it to be. Maybe they talked it up TOO  much at that library thing? Maybe my expectations where just messed up? I don't know. But it was a bit of a disappointment, sad to say.

So there's this girl who wakes up and doesn't know her life. Her body is too old, her husband is a stranger, her house is unfamiliar and so on. We get clues, along with her, that she has been in some sort of an accident and that every night, after she sleeps, she goes back years to her 20s or sometimes even childhood. She remembers things during the day, but each night, she has to start over again. And again. And again.

She has this doctor dude who suggests she start writing a journal, which she does. He then calls her everyday to remind her about the journal and where she's hidden it. So every day, she re-reads what she's written and then adds to it. This process allows her to discover some things that just don't make sense.

And thus we have the mystery!

Yes, the premise is awesome! But I got bogged down in the repetition, which due to the nature of the story, is quite inevitable right? We see everything from her point of view, which makes sense because it adds to the whole "I wish I know what's going on" feeling, but that meant that every day, we had to repeat everything, along with her, that had been happening. That got old, and I started getting anxious for the "real" stuff.

Also, this book has some language and other "stuff" thrown in that just seemed so jarring and unnecessary. I can handle stuff if it seems relevant to the story, but this just didn't. At least to me. If you read it, what do you think? Did it make sense to be in there for the story? Or was it just shock factor? At any rate, whether it did or didn't, it bugged me.

And, as we always seem to say, you need to connect to the character in order to feel the story, and I just didn't connect....which in turn meant I just didn't really connect to anything else. Know what I mean?

That all being said, I still give it three stars, which means I liked it, yes. The end did start to get pretty page-turning and breath-holding, once things finally started to happen. Of course, I was so very curious as to what was REALLY going on that despite the problems I had with patience, I wanted to keep reading to find out.

Bottom line: It was okay for most of it, pretty good for some of it, and plain stupid for bits of it.

Other Reviews:

Jenny's Books
Book Journey
Book Addiction
Life...With Books

Review: Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale

Book: Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale
Genre: Mystery
Rating: ***
For: Fun (Support Local Authors)
From: I bought it from Amazon, and got it signed at Barnes and Noble!

I don't really have a whole lot to say about this book except that it was a lot of fun! It takes place in the same setting as the first book, Austenland, but it's a totally different story with totally different characters. (If there were some cross over characters, I didn't notice mostly because I've forgotten all the characters in the first book!)

In this book we have Charlotte who is mourning the loss of her first marriage. She needs to find herself. She reads Jane Austen and becomes enamored! So she decides to getaway from reality for awhile and immerse herself into all things Austen-ish. She's willing to play the game, including falling in pretend love, and solving the "for fun" mystery.

But then the for fun mystery begins to turn a little too much real! And maybe even the pretend love too!

Ah mysteries. I just don't get them. But I know that many of you love them, and this one was a really simple "cute" one. Cute? Yeah, I can't decide how else to describe it! But it's a mystery and you'll probably figure it out, but that's okay because that's not the point.

The point is the fun witty writing that we all love so much about Shannon Hale and the throw back to all things Jane Austen and the dream of having a few weeks to pretend like we live in this time. That's the point, and I had a blast with that!

Bottom line: Totally enjoyable!

Other Reviews:

Kay's Bookshelf
Library Queue
Book Nut
The Story Girl
Alternate Readality

Review: Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson

Book: Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson
Genre: YA Mystery
Rating: C+ (don't everyone fall down at once!)
For: RIP VI
From: garage book sale

I know... I KNOW! Look at that rating would you? If I use the rating scale I say I do, this is what it would get... Okay, but would not recommend. Yeah, so this book was not quite what I expected a bit disappointing for me.

First all, I thought for some reason it would have an element of the supernatural so I listed as a RIP read, but it didn't at all. However, it was a mystery sort of story, which still counts so I guess I'm still official there! As you may know, though, mysteries tend to not be my favorite, mostly because I don't ever really care about the solving of the crime or the process one goes through to solve a crime. It bores me. So that was the first hurdle this book had to cross and didn't do very well.

The second was there was not much of story here. There's this girl who is going to this rich fancy school, yet she is in an outsider geeky group. One day she gets invited to hang with the popular kids. When she goes to the party that night, the cool cute guy is all interested in her (which yet again happens too fast for me... I like the build up of relationships,  you know?) and so they kiss and he falls down dead. (This is not a spoiler, it's in the title you see.) So it's a mess and she leaves to her grandma's boarding school where she whines and mopes and wonders what happened and why the kid died. The end.

Oh, there are a few clues thrown out here and there, but nothing really shocking. And then at the end, it seems we might... just might... be getting somewhere and then the book ends. Yes, I think there's a sequel, but this book was barely there anyway, why not just finish the thing? Gah, it's so frustrating sometimes.

You all know (I think) that I'm very very forgiving when it comes to the writing element of books. First of all, I don't have a clue, and second I'm usually too wrapped up in the story to care about the writing. But this writing did nothing for me. Very repetitive and surface-y. I think it's good writing that gets readers into the characters and makes us care about them, and with this story I really really didn't care.

But I did keep reading, because I did want to find out what happened, even though I never did. And there is a cute gardener boy that I was hoping to see more of, but his appearances were rare.

Anyway, there you have it. A book I didn't like. Take note and mark it down.

Bottom line: I plodded through this one.

Have you read it? And what did you think?

Other reviews:

Blinded by Books
Bean Bag Books
Fiction Folio
Carrie's YA Bookshelf

Review: Hush by Kate White

Book: Hush by Kate White
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Rating: B
For: TLC Book Tour
From: TLC/ Publisher

When I do these TLC book tour books, I'm emailed a huge list of books from which I can pick. Often I end up choosing books that become a favorite of the year, which is really quite cool. But sometimes it doesn't go that way. This book, while I enjoyed it fine, wasn't one of my favorites. Actually, it's going to be hard to review, because there were parts I liked and parts I didn't. So, I figure the best way to go about it is to just list those different parts.

But first a little summary. Lake, our heroine, is suffering a divorce when the story opens. She learns that her husband hopes to fight for custody of her kids. This makes her worry that her every move is being noted. Which makes things especially bad when she has a one night fling with the cute new doctor at the clinic... and wakes up to find him murdered right there in the bed! She's scared to say a word, but ends up getting all involved in the solving of the mystery.

What I Liked:

- Of course, I was curious to know "whodunnit." Because, also of course, I will never be able to figure these things out. I'm a clueless reader! As with all mystery books, there's a murder up front and nearly all the characters are under suspicion.

- I enjoyed the plot and it kept me turning the page. Lake works at an infertility clinic where there's curious things a foot. She gets overly involved at trying to crack the silence and it's all quite interesting and disturbing the things she unravels.

-- There were parts that were quite scary, which I enjoyed. I wish there were more of that. The end especially was creepy.

What I Didn't Like

- She has a one night stand at the beginning, as mentioned above. I began to worry that if the rest of the book was like the description of this incident, I'd have to quit! Yeah, let's just say I like a little more left to the imagination.

- For me, the writing style itself was dry and unemotional. It didn't get me involved like I wanted to be.. except for those few scary parts I mentioned above. And like I said, I really wished there had been more of that character-in-peril sort of stuff.

-- Speaking of the characters, and maybe because of the detached writing style, I wasn't very invested in them. It makes me sad when this happens!


But all that being said, I flew through the book quite fast, which means it was the proverbial page turner! My issues with it may just be the fact that mystery isn't my normal genre and one that I tend just not to get.

Bottom line: I liked it.

Other places to find out about Kate White and her book Hush:
Facebook
Twitter

Other stops on the TLC Blog Tour:

Tuesday, February 1st: Colloquium

Monday, February 7th: Reviews from the Heart

Tuesday, February 8th: Teresa’s Reading Corner

Monday, February 14th: Sara’s Organized Chaos

Wednesday, February 16th: Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Monday, February 21st: Life In Review

Tuesday, February 22nd: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books

Wednesday, February 23rd: After ‘I Do’

Thursday, February 24th: Rundpinne

Monday, February 28th: Life in the Thumb

Tuesday, March 1st: Alison’s Book Marks

Wednesday, March 2nd: Stacy’s Books