Lovely Children's Librarian Darcy is having hot sex with a local handyman who hasn't defined their relationship, when she learns her ex, the smarmy Boyz, is renting the Nantucket mansion behind hers. Plus, another handsome neighbor and his charming grandmother are renting the mansion next door. Poor beautiful Darcy gets sucked into various melodramas of the summer set included love squares, heroin use, and affairs, among others, and ends up with a HEA you can see coming from miles away. Not my cup of tea, as the storytelling style left me feeling cold, especially regarding the various relationships, and as a main character Darcy is annoyingly perfect. So perfect she even calls it out herself in the text.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC.

Part-time secretary Louise has a romantic evening with a mysterious man and finds out he is her new boss the next day. Not only is David her boss and super sexy, he is married! David's wife Adele is beautiful and mysterious, but something is not quite right. Louise gets sucked up into the lives of both David and Adele, with grievous consequences.

**Spoilers ahead!!**

What the fuck ending indeed. However, I did figure it in some ways prior to the big reveals. I did listen to it on audiobook and quite enjoyed the two female narrators, who perfectly fit their respective characters. My main irritant was the slight supernatural element, which wasn't my favorite. I prefer the realism of The Girl on the Train or The Woman in Cabin 10, both of which rely on reality to shock you. Behind Her Eyes instead relied on lucid dreaming, which while interesting, seemed a bit of a cop out.

This book broke my spirit in graduate school.

I typically avoid self-help books, but in recent times I've needed a little dose of something to help lift the spirits and this one seemed just schlocky enough to do the trick. Basically, Manson espouses that while you can't give ZERO fucks, you have to choose which fucks you are willing, able, and WANT to put in the time, sweat, and tears in. The rest can fuck off.

I also enjoyed the discussion about problems. We will always have problems, and it is the problems we are okay with that are the fucks we should give. Every solution simply leads to the next set of problems, so remove yourself from a negative feedback cycle of desires and choose fucks that reward the struggle. It reminded me of "Life is pain highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something."

The ending was a bit overwrought, especially with the 'and we all will die, so no need to fear death' which didn't seem to resonate with the rest of the book, but overall worth the few lunch breaks it took me to plow through it.

Definitely a lot of bang for your buck (ha ha ha). The second in the Redhead series, this explores the complications and ramifications of Grace and Jack's exploding careers and their long distance relationship. Everything can be seen coming from a mile away (including the characters) and there is an annoying "cliffhanger" ending regarding a gift that is resolved in an epilogue. Still funny, and sort of cute, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first in the series.

The day Marin's grandfather died, she left everything behind, moving across the country to her new East coast college town weeks before her freshman classes were set to begin. Marin also left behind a burgeoning relationship with her best friend Mabel. Six months later, Marin has decided to stay at her dorm over the holiday break, alone except for the one groundskeeper who periodically checks on her and but for an upcoming visit from Mabel. Marin is nervous, as she hasn't spoken or seen Mabel since she left California and doesn't know what their relationship status is. Friends? Lovers? Family?

Alternating between Then and Now chapters, the reader is taken on a wonderfully delicate and emotional journey as the layers of Marin's childhood and relationships are unfolded. The dichotomy between Marin's life in California and New York is exquisitely written. You can feel the heat of the sun in LA and the empty coldness of the deserted NYC campus as Marin awaits Mabel's arrival. Every sentence and word exude meaning and imagery. I wept as Marin came to terms with her past and present.

Simply lovely. Highly recommend.

I also have to note how much I adore the cover on this novel and the endpapers inside. So. Good. This one really stands out from the YA display shelves.

An epic tale of love, identity, race, and home. Ifemelu and Obinze are lovers separated by differing opportunities, or the lack thereof. Dense and lyrically written, take the time to immerse yourself as you contemplate the many themes explored, especially Ifemelu's blog about experiencing race in America as a Nigerian, Obinze's experiences as an undocumented immigrant living in post-9/11 London, and what it means for them to both leave their country and come back again.

One of my favorite quotes: "But of course it makes sense because we are Third Worlders, and Third Worlders are forward-looking, we like things to be new, because our best is still ahead, while in the West their best is already past and so they have to make a fetish of that past." (539, paperback edition).

Highly recommend.

Picking up shortly after the events that left Paige Mahoney Underqueen of London, The Song Rising was a bit of a snore for the first half of the book but did reward the persistent reader at the end with a gritty heist. Alas, while one of my more anticipated books of 2017, I did not enjoy this as much as I did the previous two in the series. I feel there was a lot of sitting around and talking that could have been condensed down and included with another storyline arc.

I will still continue to read this series as it moves forward, as I do enjoy Shannon's worldbuilding and think Paige Mahoney is a grand character.

Spoiler is about Paige and Warden:

Paige and Warden's relationship also irritated me. The two are in love/lust, but have spent little time together on the page with this booking being no exception. There also seemed to be a lame attempt at introducing another male character as a potential rival that fell really flat and then was entirely forgotten in the end.

What in tarnation did I just listen to? I'm going to pat myself on the back a little for actually finishing this one. The concept of a chorus of different spirits and historical citations describing the aftereffects of the death of Abraham Lincoln's young son Willie was certainly intriguing, but overall I can't say I enjoyed the total experience. I did like trying to ID the varying voice actors (167 and all), and once I got used to the chapters dedicated to citing sources I could appreciate the intent to demonstrate how different witnesses can see and describe identical events differently (duh, historian here), but I still don't know what the point was. Death is sad, we don't know what will happen to us when we die and I guess acknowledging death will help us move on? Who knows.

The entire book is just sad. Lincoln grieving his son, and having the son's ghosts confused about his own death, calling his corpse a "worm" and his casket a "sick-box" and not being able to hug his father is heartbreaking. So, good on you Saunders for making me real bummed.

My favorite chapter, if I could call it a 'favorite,' was the list of citations about the embalming process that could have been lifted from my research notes on the creation of the funeral industry in the late 1800s. Thrilling!

There was also a lot of gross sexual stuff that felt completely unnecessary. Did one of our main ghosts really need to be wandering around with a massive boner for the entire run of the book? Did I need to listen to Lena Dunham voice a hyper-sexual young girl who in death could only talk about all the men who wanted to fuck her and never got to? Meh.

Literary achievement unlocked; I will never read or listen to this book again.

We meet up with the gang who have been transported to 2016, where they find "future-adult Erin" while searching for the lost KJ. There are also giant versions of what I think are supposed to be microscopic organisms and some shifty characters from a far-future time. My most favorite thing about this series are the color palettes. They are so glorious, and I could just stare at each panel forever. I also, as always, enjoy BKV's dialog.