katietotallybooked's Reviews (785)

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

 Thoughts: 
  • Underwhelming - I felt like the book didn’t hold my attention that well and I was not too impressed by the ending 
    • The ending being that Holly Fairchild - aka Miss Fairchild was an unreliable character. What she disclosed to the therapist Dr. Warren was lies, and was told when she was in prison for kidnapping. “Amy” was her sister, not her daugher. Holly killed Amy, not her mother.
  • Enjoyable overall - I did enjoy the audiobook and I did like the writing.
  • I’ll continue to read Sally Hepworth, but I just wasn’t hooked on this one so much.
  • I found the sisters were interesting characters, but that they also were interchangeable and easy to mix up. There wasn’t enough depth into them to really connect with each one.

Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

This was a case of “right book right time”. I’ve been doing a lot of personal work related to self worth and feeling “worthy”, so I really connected with a lot of what Jada was sharing. 

I enjoyed the way her story was told and shared. I think it is also wonderful to have another example of a marriage/life partnership shared with the world. 

I captured many quotes and passages from the book that I’ll reflect on and carry with me. I enjoyed tandem reading the audio and physical book. The audio is narrated by the author Jada, which always positively impacts my rating and reading experience. 

A very important reading experience for me and I think this will stick with me. 😊
emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
emotional reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

So, my rating reflects a “me” issue with this book. First of all, I felt like the pace of this book was so slow. I’m not sure if the pace was why it took me 2 weeks to read it, or if I took 2 weeks to read it because I am reading at a slower pace in this season. The story felt really long. I also had some issue with Soledad and her “self-partnering”. I am so glad the author brought this storyline and theme into the book, but a woman can “date herself” and still be in a relationship. She can still love yourself and be married. It felt like the author was taking the stance that you can’t practice self-love in a marriage and I just have issue with that because I don’t share that opinion. I am learning to date myself and show myself love because I am responsible for giving myself what  I need. But I also recognize that how I took it may not have been how the author intended this theme to come across. So, I didn’t love this book in the Skyland series as much as Before I Let Go. But that’s okay. I look forward to book #3!