booklistqueen's Reviews (634)

 In South America, famous opera singer Roxane Cross entertains the crowd gathered at the Vice President's home to celebrate the birthday of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Until terrorists storm the party taking everyone hostage. What begins as a terrifying ordeal morphs into something poignant as individuals from different backgrounds begin to bond together.

While the premise of terrorists seizing hostages at a diplomatic party sounds thrilling, in reality, it's not. Bel Canto is a slow literary piece that took me quite a long time to get into. However, once I did, I was hooked by the characters and their increasing disconnection from reality. After months of their stalemate situation, the hostages and terrorists find transcendence in their own little Stockholm syndrome utopia, forgetting that things could not remain like that forever. 

In a sequel to The Night Swim, podcaster Rachel Krall returns to assist the FBI in investigating a case. Popular true crime podcaster Maddison Logan interviewed soon-to-be released serial killer Terence Bailey in prison and then disappeared. But Maddison Logan seems to only exist online. Going undercover at a popular influencer convention, Rachel discovers a fierce world of competitors and suspects that Bailey might have an accomplice on the outside.

While I loved The Night Swim, I didn't feel like it needed a sequel. And I was wrong. Switching the series from a legal thriller to more of a detective mystery, Dark Corners can easily be read as a standalone novel. Early on, Goldin dedicates chapters to the serial killer's perspective, so you already know he's guilty. Instead, you are left trying to figure out how it all connects and hoping Rachel and Special Agent Martinez will solve it before it's too late. Given the electricity between Rachel and the hot FBI Agent, I could easily see more Rachel Krall books coming in the future.

In a series of essays, Patchett writes about what is most important and the moments throughout her life that have shaped her. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage is a collection of Patchett's previous writings, a hodge-podge of her best works that didn't exactly mesh together into one coherent piece. While some of the articles, such as the title essay, were excellent, other selections were merely mediocre. 

 House sitter Emma Carpenter lives in a secluded life at a beach house on the Washington coast. After leaving a one-star review on a poorly-written horror novel, Emma finds herself in an online argument with the author. When strange things begin to happen at night, Emma begins to suspect that the author might be stalking her.

Adams's thriller novel is pure adrenaline in the vein of the best horror/slasher movies. Quickly, the novel moves from "Is it the pyscho author?" to "How am I going to survive?" Honestly, I loved every minute. With a winning premise and non-stop twists and turns, The Last Word is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that is just pure fun to read. 

 The Stockton family of Brooklyn Heights has lived off their connections and old money for generations, firmly placing them amongst New York's one-percenters. Darley, the eldest daughter, traded her job for motherhood but has lost herself in the process. Meanwhile, Georgiana, the youngest, finds herself facing forbidden love, forcing her to choose what she really wants. And Sasha, the daughter-in-law, feels like an outsider after marrying into wealth that she could never have comprehended. Pineapple Street follows all three women, giving a witty look at modern life.

I'd heard mixed reviews about GMA's March Book Club pick, but I loved this family drama about how wealth and class affect people. Each woman's story added a new perspective, showcasing how conflicts arise when communication is lacking. A character study of the top 1%, Pineapple Street highlights the differences in how money is perceived by different classes. 

 With all the work that has been done to push women's equality forward, why are modern progressive couples falling back into traditional gender roles once they have children? Why do women do so much more in the home than men? Lockman looks at why the promised true domestic partnership didn't come to pass for modern married dual-income households.

Be aware that All the Rage is a book that will get you all riled up. Instead of looking at all marriages, Lockman zeroed in on progressive dual-income households where the domestic labor was equally split before children. Yet in nearly every case, once the couple has a child, they fall back into traditional gender roles, with the wife taking on disproportionately more of the childrearing responsibilities. Hearing other women's stories, I felt validated in my own frustrations and enraged that we haven't made more progress toward equality. But it also helped me understand why progress toward equality can be frustratingly slow; it's hard not to slip back into the patterns we have seen modeled for us our entire lives. 

 Ever since her aunt's death, Clementine has put her head down to work harder toward her goals at her publishing company. Living in her late aunt's apartment, one day she finds herself shocked to find a man in her kitchen. With kind eyes and a seductive Southern drawl, he's the perfect man for Clementine. Except for the cosmic mistiming: he actually exists seven years ago. When Clementine encounters him in the modern day, she is shocked by how much he has changed.

I haven't read The Dead Romantics, Poston's big hit last year, so I wasn't sure what to expect from The Seven Year Slip, especially since I'm not much of a romance reader. To my pleasant surprise, I fell in love with Poston's nuanced love story, which reminded me of a few of my favorite Josie Silver's writing. This twist on a time travel story keeps you guessing, for every time Clementine slips into the past, it affects her interaction with the present. Poston takes the concept of right person/wrong time to a whole new level, giving you an engaging and enjoyable summer read.

 In 1929, a teenage Lenora Hope was accused, but never convicted, of killing her parents and her sister. For decades, ever since polio left her unable to speak or move anything but her left hand, Lenora has remained in her family's Maine estate. In 1983, after a six-month suspension after a patient's death, Kit McDeere has no choice but to accept an assignment as Lenora's home health aide. When Lenora begins to type out her story to Kit, Kit suspects that the old lady might not be as harmless as she appears.

Riley Sager's thrillers are usually a summer staple for me, but The Only One Left was a struggle to read. The plot is mind-numbingly slow. Admittedly, it's hard to introduce drama when your prime suspect is a paralyzed old lady who can't talk. The first half of the book spends most of the time in Kit's head, looping on the same anxious thoughts. The book finally picks up near the end, adding in some unexpected twists, but it took way too much forced reading to get to that point.

 Jack and her husband Gabe are security experts, hired to break into buildings and hack security systems. When a routine assignment goes awry, Jack returns to find her husband dead. Now Jack is the prime suspect and, on the run, she must decide who she can trust while hunting the real killer.

In Zero Days, Ruth Ware forgoes her trademark gothic psychological thriller for a straight-up action thriller that sorely missed the mark. With just a few chapters, the reader finds Jack on the run for murder, never stopping until the end of the book. Instead of setting a thrilling pace, the plot felt repetitive, with bursts of movement interspersed with Jack's thoughts as she grieves. With very few characters, it wasn't difficult to figure out whodunit which always spools the fun of any mystery. Having read all of her books, Zero Days is my least favorite Ruth Ware book.

When legendary white Hollywood actress Kitty Karr Tate leaves her entire estate to the St. John sisters, three wealthy Black women who were the daughters of her co-star, the media has lots of questions. For Kitty's backstory is not what anyone realized. Raised by a Black single mother in a segregated Southern town, Kitty began passing as a white woman when she moved to Los Angeles, a decision that would have lasting consequences.

I have mixed feelings about Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?. I can see why Reese Witherspoon picked it for her May book club pick; the plot was intriguing. And not just the premise, but the entire story. I enjoyed learning more about what it was like for a Black woman passing as white: how that affected her relationships with others and with herself. Although the discussions on colorism, racism, and sexism were thought-provoking, the writing quality itself felt subpar and would have benefitted from a better editor.