booklistqueen's Reviews (634)

 From a lifetime obsession with laundry, Patric Richardson is the laundry guru you didn't realize you needed. Having run Laundry Camp at Mall of America for years, Richardson has all the tips and tricks for you to wash everything at home, saving you time and money and making your clothes look fabulous.

Boy, does Richardson love laundry. His energy makes you feel like you can conquer the world and completely redo your laundry routine. I listened to the audiobook and I wish I had purchased a print copy instead. While his narration was surprisingly entertaining, a hard copy would be much more convenient to use as a reference guide for all your future laundry needs. 

 When the President's son falls in love with the Prince of Wales, international relations take on a whole new term. At first, America's darling Alex Claremont-Diaz can't stand the royal British heir, Prince Henry. Forced to develop a fake friendship for the publicity, the two soon realize that no faking is required.

Everyone has been talking about Red, White & Royal Blue for the last few years, so I decided to see what I thought. To be honest, it wasn't really my thing. I'm more of a will-they-won't-they kind of girl who prefers fade to black. Red, White & Royal Blue definitely did not fade to black. Basically, the whole middle of the book described the clandestine hookups and snarky love emails between the two main characters. Full of irreverent humor, McQuiston's silly romance was utterly predictable, tying everything up in a neat little bow at the end. 

If overly sweet queer romance books with plenty of smut is your thing, then you'll love this book. Else, I'd give it a pass. 

 In a spinoff of her bestseller These Violent Delights, Chloe Gong returns to 1930s Shanghai with a tale of dueling spies. After an experiment makes her ageless and immortal, Rosalind Chang becomes a spy for her country hoping to redeem her traitorous past. When the Japanese are suspected of a series of murders, Rosalind must go undercover posing as the wife of another spy to investigate a series of murders.

Though promoted as a spinoff series, Foul Lady Fortune is actually just the third book in the These Violent Delights series. Gong toned down the supernatural vibes of the series in favor of a spy novel, at least until the ending. To me, the story didn't stand out, lacking the vibrancy of the original. However, I imagine fans of the series will find it an enjoyable read. 

Just as Sadie finds she is a finalist in an art competition, she has to undergo an unexpected brain surgery. Suddenly, Sadie finds she has face blindness, hopefully, just a temporary complication that she is determined to hide. As soon as she meets her new vet, Sadie instantly starts fantasizing about their future wedding. Yet before they can even go on a date, Sadie finds herself increasingly drawn to her annoying neighbor. As Sadie struggles to paint a portrait without being able to see faces, her personal life implodes around her, teaching her love can come from the most unexpected of places.

Katherine Center's latest romance is predictable in that way you want romance books to be predictable. Although the storyline was a little hard to swallow and the characters were so one-dimensional that it was a bit ludicrous, the cute and quirky premise makes it a perfect read-it-and-forget-it story for when you just want a mindless love story.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. 

 Known for his role as Chandler Bing on Friends, at one point, Matthew Perry had the number one tv show and movie at the same time. Yet, while his career was hitting a high, Perry struggled through some of his darkest days. In this candid memoir, Perry discusses his lifelong battle with addiction and the persistence, hope, and friends who helped him along the way.

Perry's memoir gives you a powerfully intimate look at addiction and its overwhelming power. You can really feel Perry's pain as he constantly tries to escape the feeling of never being enough that drives him throughout his whole life. Yet, the nonlinear timeline made the disjointed narrative hard to follow and I was glad I didn't listen to the audio version. 

 In 1946, Vincenzo and Giovana fall desperately in love in Genoa, Italy. Although they come from different worlds, they find themselves inseparable, until politics forces them to choose opposite sides. Now in 2017, Cassandra and Luca are in love although their families don't get along. When Cass's grandmother and Luca's grandfather pose for a painting, a long-buried secret changes everything.

Jill Santopolo's post-World War II tale was an utterly predictable feel-good story with overly simplistic writing. Santopolo goes into inane detail about everything, yet fails to give any proper depth to any of the characters. Like many historical fiction books with dual timelines, the modern story felt forced. Unless you are in the mood for a mindless cute historical fiction, I'd give this one a pass.

 At age eleven, best friends Naomi, Cassidy, and Olivia spent the summer roaming the woods. Until Naomi was attacked, surviving 17 stab wounds, and the girls' testimonies put a serial killer in prison for the death of six other women. Except, they lied. Now Olivia wants to tell and Naomi must discover the dangerous truth of what really happened in the woods that summer.

If you are looking for a solid thriller to curl up with this winter, What Lies in the Woods delivers a fun quick read. I was worried the story would be too predictable, but even though several of my guesses were correct, there were still twists I did not see coming. I won't say it's the most original thriller I've ever read and the characters weren't the best developed, but it was an enjoyable weekend read. 

 In the middle of the night in New Delhi, an expensive Mercedes jumps the curb and kills five people. When the dust settles, only a stunned servant is left to explain what happened. An Indian version of The Godfather, Age of Vice tells the interconnecting crime thriller and epic family drama of Sonny Wadia, the playboy heir of a mobster; Neda, his journalist girlfriend; and Ajay, his loyal servant.

Age of Vice starts out with a bang, gripping you from the start with the tale of Ajay, an Indian boy born in poverty, then sold into slavery, who eventually becomes the personal manservant of the son of a mob boss. At this point, I was completely feeling all the five-star reviews.

Once the narrative shifts away from Ajay, the story stumbles. Kapoor recycles the narrative, this time showcasing Neda's backstory, which is less interesting but still manageable. Then, the plot shifts again, into the train wreck that is Sunny's current life plus random backstories of other characters that dragged on and completely lost me. The fast-paced ending was hard to follow and left you without a resolution for any of the characters. Which is how I found out it's the first book in a planned trilogy; a trilogy I have no intention of finishing. 

 As she turns one hundred, Violeta Del Valle writes a letter to her true love telling how the upheavals of the last century have shaped her life. Born in 1920 as the Spanish flu ravages her South American homeland, Violeta's childhood is marked by the Great Depression. As she grows older, Violeta's life is shaped by the world events that rage around her - the struggle for women's rights, the rise and fall of dictators, even a second pandemic.

If I just told you the basic plot points of Violeta, you'd think it was this epic read. But you couldn't be furthest from the truth. Instead, Violeta read like the Wikipedia article of someone's epic life. Told with the dullest storytelling ever, I felt absolutely nothing as I read the book. The dispassionate writing style kept you at a remove from the characters, not allowing you to share in their joy or sadness or frustration. Violeta ended up being an absolute waste of my time.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Ballantine Books. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. 

 Seventeen years ago, contaminated water runoff from a chemical plant caused deaths and birth defects throughout the small town of Bourne. One Two Three tells the story of sixteen-year-old triplets: Mirabel, a genius trapped in a wheelchair using a computer to speak; Monday, a neurodivergent bookworm; and Mab, who feels guilty for being "normal." When the company decides to reopen the chemical plant, the sisters become obsessed with finding the necessary proof to stop them with the help of the owner's grandson who just moved to town.

I have mixed feelings about One Two Three. The highlight of the book was the Mitchell sisters, with chapters cycling between the three, each with a distinct voice. The interplay between the sisters fascinated me and I loved seeing how their actions and abilities affected each other. Yet, the evil corporation storyline was a bit trite and the second half of the book was overly long and repetitive.