Nelson Mandela was a great man. This is a great book about his life. It's written in an accessible way and his ghostwriter apparently did 70+ hours of interviews, many of which are apparently available to be listened to and I'd be very interested in hearing some of Mandela's own words.

This book really confronted my ignorance on Mandela, apartheid, and South Africa in general. I knew the barest of bare bones, but nothing of substance at all and Mandela explains a lot of things very well. It gives you a great picture of what black people in South Africa were subjected to for so many years.

This book also does a fantastic job of capturing the politics and the various parties and people in political power. It's a complicated structure, but Mandela simplifies it where necessary so that even those who are very ignorant of the political situation can understand the different roles.

It is a political autobiography, so he obviously wrote with the intent of making himself look good, which is not an attempt to throw shade on Mandela. That's just something that comes with the genre. You gloss over some of the darker bits. It makes me want to read more broadly on the subject so I learn more than just this one (albeit incredibly important) perspective.

I highly recommend this. It's a great book about a great man's life with so much important information. It's a very valuable resource on fighting for human rights.

I don't understand why you wouldn't hire a South African audiobook narrator if you want the book narrated with a South African accent. I understand that Michael Boatman is very famous and great at audiobooks, but you can hear his terrible fake accent changing constantly throughout the books- sometimes her rolls his Rs, sometimes he does a soft British R, sometimes he does a standard hard American R (an easy example, but you could tell with other pronunciations too). Sometimes those things would change from sentence to sentence. Just hire a South African.

I don't think I get Agatha Christie. This was barely a story. I like logic puzzles, but this wasn't even a great one of those- too long and too many times where I was looking for specific information that Poirot received and I didn't.

This is my second of her books and I rated the other 3 stars as well, but I quite liked the cozy mystery vibe and Miss Marple as the main character. Poirot is smug and annoying and has basically no personality beyond that.

I perhaps would have enjoyed this more if it was more succinct or if the characters had been more than caricatures, but I like logic puzzles. It's fun to puzzle things through on your own and put together the pieces. I just don't understand the love for this. It felt so meh.

This has been the only Jane Harper novel to disappoint me so far (only one left to read and it's the third book in this series). I just didn't connect with this story the way I have all of her others. I like Aaron Falk as the main character and I really loved The Dry, but there was a distance from this book I haven't felt before.

None of the people involved in the actual mystery are main characters. We get their perspectives and get a window into their lives, but Aaron Falk is carrying the book and investigating with his partner. I feel like because of that, it felt a little bit less. The books Harper write really need that personal connection for me. It was a little bit purposeless without that. I just didn't care.

I did find that I was fairly bored throughout this book, just waiting for stuff to happen. It wasn't exciting, it wasn't emotional, it wasn't interesting. It just kind of wasn't anything at all.

But even that being said, I like her writing style. I like the characters she writes and I like the story on a conceptual basis. I did enjoy this. It's just compared to the rest of her books, this is the only one I haven't loved. It's a perfectly fine mystery/thriller, but I'm not sure I'd have read through all her books if I had started with this one.

It's very cliche and over the top, but that was kind of the vibe I wanted when I picked this up, so I had a good time.

For me, too much time was spent on the "will they, won't they" bit of their relationship (like 90% of the book) even though it was abundantly clear the entire time that they both desperately wanted to. I can do a bit of that, but at some point it just gets to be too much.

Some of the side characters were flat caricatures who didn't seem like real people. Particularly when it came to Derek's grandmother, who was meant to be a prim and proper southern lady from old money who was big on manners and behaving in a ladylike fashion, but spent her time calling strangers nincompoops and saying whatever. Or the cartoonishly evil exboyfriend.

Definitely some cringey bits, like when Derek gets beaten up and Ashtyn administers first aid because apparently her "female instincts" are kicking in. There were a few more, but to be honest I've mostly forgotten any specific examples.

Like this wasn't fantastic, but it satisfied the vibe I was desperately craving and I devoured it in an afternoon. Not a terrible romance and I was very happy for the main characters to finally get together. I had a fun time despite the flaws.

This book was way over the top. I like drama and tragic backstories when it comes to characters, but this book spent way too much time emphasizing how broken and sad and abused these two characters were instead of spending that time developing their personalities. There was no time spent actually dealing with the sensitive issues (physical abuse, verbal abuse, rape) because they existed solely to make these characters sad and broken and desperately need each other. I do really enjoy reading about trauma, but I want it to be handled well and it wasn't here.

My other main issue was the ending. It just kind of stops in the middle of the drama. There's no happily ever after or happy for now ending. There's not even a conclusion. It just cuts off. This is a series so I assume the next book picks up right where this one left off, but it's such a short book that it feels like we only got that first half. It's absurdly unsatisfying. I'm sure that doesn't matter as much if you plan to continue on with the series, but I don't so it's very annoying. I didn't even get a partial ending.

Wouldn't recommend, won't plan to read this author again.

I liked this book quite a bit. The MMC had a really interesting storyline and I thought it was handled pretty well. He's in foster care and planning to care for his brothers once he turns 18, and it was actually enough to make me tear up a little bit toward the end. I was much more invested in him and his story than the other narrator. He did need a lot more time at the end to wrap it up, but I feel like that's pretty par for the course since it was a secondary element of the story.

There were cringe bits. I hate when characters can't actually say the word sex, especially when they're talking about having it. I can never get behind that. It's so cringe and awkward. Like y'all should not be doing anything hot and steamy when you're going around saying things like "I've never done 'it' before." If you took a shot every time the main female character said "it" instead of sex, you'd be wasted before they got into the drama.

The drama around Echo was not particularly well done. She went through a traumatic experience with her abusive mother that she's repressed, and it was very over the top and not sensitively handled. I never bought into it. And so much energy was put into her lack of memory and what she'd forgotten, but it wasn't a whole lot and it wasn't very dramatic, based on what she already knew.

But I liked the writing style and I had a good time reading this.

I don't even know what this book was supposed to be, but it pissed me off so much. The most positive thing I can say was that it was an incredibly fast read and only took me about two hours. Characters will be referred to as husband and wife in this review because I have already forgotten their names (finished this book an hour ago) and can't be bothered to go find them. They had basically no personalities anyway.

The main character in this book cheats on her husband. She's 43 and going through a midlife crisis and finds a young hot guy in a bar for a fling. And then she gets pregnant by him with a much wanted baby. Based on this premise, I was not expecting a heartwarming lovely story. I was expecting to delve deeply into these characters' emotions, their thought process, the guilt and shame and decision making.

Wife is pregnant and has desperately wanted a third child for years, but if she remains pregnant, she'll have to confess the affair to Husband who will likely leave her. That leaves so much space to explore what she's experiencing. I don't have to love her as a person, but I wanted to see inside her mind and heart. That should be gut wrenching. But it kind of gets two sentences of thought and that's it.

This whole book was so shallow and superficial. It spent the whole time just describing the action of the story and the most basic feelings the characters could have. Like wow who could have imagined that wife feels regret over her stupid fling that meant nothing? And guilt for cheating? Groundbreaking. There was nothing more complicated than that, and based on the premise, every character ought to have had very complicated feelings.

Everything was so easily resolved. A hug, an apology, a 'let's work forward even if we can't go back,' like that was enough to add depth. Sometimes a few tears thrown in. The oldest daughter is seventeen and hates her mother for breaking up their family, but changes her mind randomly one day because mommy said she was struggling with feeling old. Totally understandable. Instant forgiveness.

I hated the ending. This is gonna be some spoilers, so I'll tag it, but I just needed to say I hated the ending.

Spoiler

Eventually she and the husband reconcile and live together with the guy she cheated with happily ever after. Which to be honest, could've been done well. But there's so much effort put into the husband cooing over the baby. Wife had always wanted a third baby and he said no and got a vasectomy. But now she has a baby that's so well behaved. Never cries. Sleeps through the night. Such a good baby. I don't care that the husband had a change of heart, but I hated how much time was spent on describing how good the baby was. So should I assume that had the baby been colicky, the husband wouldn't have come back? Because that's the vibe it gave me. It's not a heartwarming ending when all the characters come across like assholes.

Also the husband is just suddenly okay with the man the wife cheated with being a part of their family now. He has no jealousy or animosity. Despite spending a year planning to divorce his wife, this is now totally fine with zero development. End rant.

Shallow. Annoying. Every character was a void of personality. Nothing was interesting. This whole book felt like a void of literature. I'm probably overly harsh for what it deserves right now, but this was just one of those books that irritated me on every level and I'm so mad I thought it was going to be interesting and thought provoking. I can't remember ever reading something that offered less than this did.

I couldn't get over the main character's self absorption. Essentially, at age 12, Catherine is asked to watch a two (? I don't really remember) year old at a family gathering. She forgets for a few minutes and the kid winds up drowning. She is very traumatized and blames herself, which is totally understandable. What isn't totally understandable is how much she's focused on her own pain over the pain of the child's mother. It's constant throughout the book. It makes sense that a 12 year old isn't thinking of the mother's grief, but not so much as a thirty year old. At one point Catherine discovers a painting that the mother did titled The Last Day and literally believes it's inspired by Catherine's family moving away. Because that was the big event that summer. Not the death of her child, but the neighbors moving away. I expect her grief and trauma to be centered in a book where she's the main character, but it's possible to do that without having the main character completely disregard the feelings of others.

I didn't enjoy the melodrama in the writing style. There was too much of everything. I don't buy into people running after an ex who's driving away, or collapsing on a dock in hysterical sobs, or having a screaming match just to forgive someone sixty seconds later. And I definitely don't buy this happening every six pages.

I don't like the bad boyfriend trope. Especially in this book, the bad boyfriend had basically nothing to do with the story. If we want Catherine to be available to rekindle a relationship with an old flame, why not just make her single? Having a bad boyfriend to justify the emotional cheating when it's such a small and underdeveloped part of the story felt so unnecessary.

At one point her dog has a stroke and instead of going home to be with the dog, she stays away for another night. And then most of the next day. Not doing much, just kind of chilling around town. This is allegedly her beloved childhood dog. I couldn't decide if it was out of character or just another mark towards her self absorption.

It wasn't terrible, but despite having a somewhat interesting premise, none of the elements were well done.

This was fun. Flawed, but to be honest, I didn't hate anyone and I wanted the two main characters to end up together, so I'll consider that a win. If a romance novel accomplishes that much, I'm probably going to rate it at least three stars. But onto the negatives.

Too many miscommunications and random fights that were resolved too quickly. I'm totally fine with main characters fighting. People fight. But there were so many fights over literally nothing, fights that didn't even require a conversation to resolve. Like why even bother? Especially for a book as short as this.

This is a minor spoiler so I'll tag it, but to be honest, I don't think it's that big of a deal. Essentially, when Aubrey was younger she drove drunk one night and got into a car accident that killed her sister, who was a passenger in the car. She has no memories of the night, only what her sister's boyfriend (and later her boyfriend) told her. He is also an asshole extraordinaire.

Spoiler

Apparently, he was hitting on Aubrey that night and his distracting her contributed toward the crash. For some reason she thinks this absolves her in some way? Like she was still driving drunk, I don't understand how this changes anything, except the guy being an asshole.But she feels way less guilty over the crash after this revelation, which rubbed me the wrong way.

There's a lot of sex. Like a lot. And graphic. Which is not my thing. Although, I don't really mind because I just skim through it. But with how short this book is anyway, the amount of sex felt like it took precedence over the story and character development.

I was also super uncomfortable by the fact that the first time they have any sort of sexual encounter, Aubrey is completely wasted. Lex stops at a point, not wanting to be a rapist, but that point was already way too far. He even comments on the fact that it's super questionable so many people (his driver, hotel employees) saw him take a wasted, stumbling girl with no shoes up to his hotel room without saying anything, but he was glad because it served his purposes. Yikes.

I may have just talked myself into rating this two stars. I honestly can't think of anything positive to say, except I did want them to end up together, which seems like more the bare minimum than anything.

This felt so flat. I think one problem is that this book is described as "funny" multiple times in reviews, but I didn't know that going in. I don't really get funny books. The humor just goes over my head and I'm left feeling like it was some very strange storytelling. Perhaps this book is hilarious. But it mostly just seemed sad to me. I don't see where the humor would come from. But I am a terrible person to have an opinion on this because this is how I always feel about "funny" books.

Maybe I shouldn't say this after all the covid "quarantines," but the protocols felt shockingly lax. There's a deadly virus (which seems to be a fictionalized ebola type deal, unless I'm completely stupid) and there's basically no quarantine? She flies home commercial with no PPE in a crowded airport. Like she's supposed to stay inside with no contact, but it's totally fine to hang out with her family even though she has her own flat. And it's totally fine for random people to join, they just can't leave. Unless they do and that's mostly fine too. Even after living through this, I still can't wrap my head around it. So maybe I am just completely stupid lol.

I hated all the over the top coincidences. People run into random strangers in busy public places (airports, for one) and then wouldn't you know it, that person turns out to be related in some way! What a coincidink! If it was one funny coincidence, maybe I could have handled it, but it was all of them. So many, each absolutely ridiculous.

The characters were all so flat. It wasn't that they were shallow people, although some of them were, but their character development was so superficial. They had only the most surface level motivations, nothing deep or complex about any of them. I didn't necessarily hate them as people so much as I hated having to spend time in their vacant perspectives.

I was entertained by this, though. Like for all my negatives, it kept me reading along and wanting to see how it all turned out. Which includes a lot of depressing stuff, in case that's not what you're looking for. But even all the sad things felt so hollow to me. Like the characters almost didn't seem to care. So why should I?

I dunno. I wouldn't say don't read it because if it's meant to be funny, I was never going to be a fan. It just genuinely confuses me because I didn't realize people described it that way until I read the back when I was two thirds through and thinking about how depressing this was. Sometimes I feel so wildly off in my perceptions of books.

*Received an ARC for honest review. Cannot comment on any changes made between the ARC and the publication of the completed book.*