booklistqueen's Reviews (634)

While promoting her latest movie, actress India Allwood sparks a media firestorm when she complains that the project only shows the tragic side of adoption. India knows the blessings adoption can bring as both an adoptive mom and as a teenage mom who placed a child for adoption. Now that child is sixteen, excited to meet her birth mother and willing to help - only to make the media firestorm worse. Family Family takes on adoption in a nuanced way, reminding us that, no matter how it was formed, every family is complicated.

The world likes to make issues black and white when reality is much more shaded. Which is why I quite enjoyed Frankel's nuanced look at adoption. Frankel tackles the stereotypes of adoption head-on, neither glorifying it or vilifying it, reminding us that because something is often the case doesn't mean it's always the case. India Allwood's backstory provided an interesting an unique perspective and the entire story had a heartwarming tone that made it a quick read.

 Even though Maggie and her husband have been together since they were teens, they find themselves divorcing less than two years after their wedding. Although she pretends everything is fine, Maggie is a hot mess. With observant sarcasm, Heisey narrates Maggie's self-destruction thoughts and cringeworthy choices as she painfully learns to take care of herself.

Although Heisey's clever observations made me laugh at times, Really, Good Actually wasn't really that good. As a protagonist, Maggie is hard to love; she's an over-the-top hot mess who has no concept of how the world actually works. Her constant poor decision-making gets a bit old and the plot rambled so much that I didn't even notice when my audiobook skipped a chapter or two in the middle. The only saving grace was Heisey's witty writing and hilarious one-liners. 

After massive upheaval in the third book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, The War of the Five Kings has ended with an uneasy truce. Queen Cersei rules as Queen Regent in King's Landing but her fears lead to choices that threaten the alliances that hold her in power. Meanwhile, new competitors willing to play the game of thrones vie to fill the empty vacuum of power left behind.

Having shaken everything up in A Storm of Swords, Martin is forced to reset the story in A Feast for Crows. Martin made the unusual choice to have book four and five ( A Dance with Dragons) cover the same timeline but for different characters, with the story converging in the end of book five. Yet, I felt like this was a poor choice since A Feast for Crows as all the weaker storylines and almost no big twists to throw at you. The split format leaves you with an excess of Cersei and Jaime Lannister, a few token chapters about the Stark sisters, the addition of several storylines, and a desperate desire to hear more about your favorite characters. 

 After the massive upheaval in book three, the fifth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series focuses on the journeys of several fan-favorite characters. With her dragons growing, Daenerys Targaryen struggles to rule in Meereen while Jon Snow also finds difficulty managing politics as Lord Commander on the Wall. With a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister still wants to be player in the game of thrones in exile.

A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons are best read back-to-back since they cover the same timeline but for different characters, with the story converging in the end of book five. Martin uses these two books to rebuild the series, ending A Dance with Dragons on various cliffhangers for most of the characters. Which would make for an epic book six except since Martin never wrote book six and probably never will. And now I've joined the legion of readers who moan anytime Martin announces he's doing another project that is not The Winds of Winter. 

Emma has purposely kept her husband in the dark about her past. When Emma announces she is pregnant, he confesses that he was laid off and has lost the down-payment to their house. With nowhere else to turn, Emma and Nathan move into her parent's estate that she jointly owns with her estranged sisters. Emma just never mentioned that this is the house where her parents were murdered, and she was always seen as the prime suspect. With a baby on the way, Emma finds it's time she learn what actually happened all those years ago. For Emma has been covering for her sisters without ever really knowing what actually happened that night.

It's been awhile since I've read a really satisfying thriller, and No One Can Know was just what I needed. Emma makes for an excellent narrator. You know she is covering for her sisters, but even Emma doesn't know what exactly she's covering for. Marshall smoothly builds tension as you slowly learn the truth of what actually went on in that house. I loved the complicated relationship between the sisters and Emma's intense desire to protect them no matter what. With excellent pacing and plenty of unexpected twists, No One Can Know is the perfect thriller to kick off the new year. 

 In a future not too dissimilar from our present, three tech billionaires wield a disproportionate influence over the world and their bottom line conflicts with the good of humankind more often than not. Prepared for the end of the world, they each of their own bunkers and band together to create an early warning system so they can escape before anyone knows what's happening. After popular survivalist Lai Zhen sleeps with the personal assistant of one of the billionaires, she unexpectedly gains access to the early warning system, sparking a race with catastrophic consequences.

It's really hard to give a description of The Future without spoiling the story. Naomi Alderman brilliantly describes a very realistic dystopian scenario where the world is on the brink of collapse. Told nonlinearly, The Future jumps around in its timeline, creating clever twists that dive into intriguing themes about technology, social media, and social responsibility while still giving an action-packed story. 

 When her brother ships off to Vietnam, nursing student Frankie McGrath impulsively decides to leave her sheltered life on Coronado Island and join the Army Nurse Corps. In Vietnam, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos of war. Yet, even more unsettling is the shock of coming home to a country that has been divided by war and disillusioned by politics.

With a similar feel to The Four Winds, The Women is immersive historical fiction with a more serious tone. I took a little longer to attach to Frankie than usual but, by the time I did, I was desperate for Frankie to get her happily-ever-after. Yet, The Women reminds us that life isn't like a fairytale. War is a messy, traumatizing business even when veterans are fully-supported. And Vietnam was messier than any other war in American history, leaving unheard of struggles for returning soldiers, especially for the women who were often overlooked and forgotten.

 Reclusive former movie starlet Lana Farrar invites her closest friends to her private Greek Island. Having recently discovered her husband's affair, Lana intends to confront him. As bitter resentments between old friends come to a head, a cat-and-mouse game that ends in a murder. Told through the enigmatic narrator Elliot Chase, The Fury will keep you guessing what actually happened on that island.

I will admit, I hated The Silent Patient but its twist was so well done that it's unforgettable. The Fury, on the other hand, was an enjoyable, though quite forgettable, read. Elliott Chase is the ultimate unreliable narrator, whose unique storytelling will likely divide readers. With each section, Elliott keeps revising the story, reluctantly filling in the details he forgot to mention the last go round. As the puzzle pieces fall into place, The Fury keeps you engaged trying to parse truth from fiction in a completely implausible but fun tale.

 Cracks begin to form for a Brooklyn family as troubled husband and wife, Dan and Isabel, find they are both a little in love with Isabel's younger brother Robbie, who lives in the attic. Meanwhile, their children try to navigate growing up while ignoring the strain between their parents. After Robbie moves to Iceland, the pandemic hits, adding even more strain as the family tries to figure out how to live together and apart.

Told as snippets of the same day, April 5, over a three year period from 2019 to 2021, Day is both beautiful and boring. With not much plot, Day is the kind of story that only English majors truly enjoy. All of the characters are all too in love with each other, making for an extremely dysfunctional family setup. Luckily it was short for its brevity saved it from feeling too pretentious.

Amanda Cole has followed in her father's footsteps as an ambitious young CIA agent. When a Russian defector walks into the office warning of the assassination of a US senator, Amanda is the only one to believe him. When the senator is killed, Amanda teams up with a legendary female spy to uncover the truth of the Kremlin plot.

I love me a good spy thriller and, unfortunately, this was not it. The Helsinki Affair was a run of the mill story where you quickly realize you don't really care what happens. The writing is so weak that you don't develop any feelings, positive or negative, for any of the characters. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't awful. It was just meh - uninspired and completely forgettable.