sarahsbookstack's Reviews (2.55k)

This book gives commentary on the pitfalls of diet culture and body shaming. Gemma is a body  influencer in a bodybuilding competition. Ashley is a "fat" girl who gets roped into a dangerous playground to try and bring the fitness people down. 

Then the bodies start piling up. I was pretty sure who was behind it but I was only half right. It goes pretty much deeper than I thought. 

I liked part of the ending for Gemma and Ashley and I'm happy for them. 

I was very invested in this story of the rock scene of the 80s (hello nods to Aerosmith and Poison). There was always something going on, the good and the bad of fame, so I never felt bored. As per that time, there are a lot of mentions of drugs and drinking. 

I really did like Kit. She's a very driven and hard worker, especially as she was kind of looked down on (hello men's club 🙄) as being a manager of a music band. The way that she knew how to get the best deal for her bands.  The many highs and lows her friends and her go through drive this novel forward. 

I love to learn anything new about a country's history that I never learned about in school.  This book is based on real events that happened from the 1970s to about 1983 in Argentina where people were kidnapped to "prevent political and civil unrest". Many of these people that disappeared are never to be seen again. A group of mothers and grandmothers (that are STILL operating today) work timelessly to find these lost souls.

This book gives us a fictional woman Rachel who was adopted and she might be a baby of one of the disappeared. She gets to learn the truth about her life and finally makes some decisions for herself. She gets to find a family she didn't know about. This book was so sad and emotional. 

I really enjoyed this book though I tend to keep Christmasy books in December... But it's not really so much about the holiday. 

Grace is a transgender woman who is estranged (they kicked her out) from her very Christian family. When her "found" Dad suffers a heart attack and her best friend Mallory has Grace call her brothers, she gets into it with Alex, the only one who picked up.

Alex and Grace are attracted to each other and slowly melt their defenses. When Alex finds out she's trans, he learns what he can to speak the right way with her and to be sensitive. He also learns how to talk her back from PTSD episodes. 

I really like her relationship with Mallory and how day they became instant besties. Mallory is a rock in Graces life. She's a breathe of fresh air at her bluntness 🤣

I could not stand Grace's family and how they treated her.  Her father especially. Though a few of them redeemed themselves and I was so happy that Grace finally got the support she needed from them. 

A very compelling book about a kidnapped baby and the family she ends up in. This was twisty and gut wrenching. In the middle of the book, everything you thought you knew gets flipped on its head and becomes even more mysterious.

After the ending, I was questioning so much of what I thought I knew.....I even have been telling myself "you are questioning stuff that isn't there" and I'm not confident in my understanding of the ending (and a big ❓ of something that happened not related to the baby..... Or is it?) but I'm ok with it 🤷‍♀️. 

This book grabbed me right away and didn't let go.....I couldn't put it down! 

We have Vienna and Madison who after a small rough start become best friends. They form a rock group that seems promising but falls. We then get them adding more to their group to be a band again and big success seems to be on the horizon... Until an accident claims the life of one member right away and only one survivor is found....Vienna.

At first, I thought Madison was a spoiled rich girl who was too toxic of a person. I felt bad for Vienna because of her verbally abusive mom and her jerk of a stepdad. But then the twist comes, and comes, and comes even more and you start to see fractures in the "bad girl Madison" story.  We get to see Vienna go through in her mind what really took place and it's pretty chilling. And the epilogue 😱

Such a great thriller and one I'll think of for awhile!

This was my first book by Deborah and even though it's called a sequel to Redemption, I still enjoyed the book. 

Eva is a great tribal officer and I liked to see how much she cared for Kai (whose mom was the subject of book 1, I think). The tension in finding a bank robber and a Pueblo boy who's shot and not knowing if one had to do with the other until you start to build clues along with Eva. 

I love the representation of the Taos Pueblo people. I was really interested in their traditions for a funeral of one of their own (my sister dated a Navajo guy who died so it was a little bit personal to me... Even if it's not the exact traditions his people may have had). 

It was interesting to follow a ghost cat through each of its 9 lives. I liked the way they describe the lives- 3 for staying, 3 for straying and 3 for playing. 

This cat lives through 120 years (from late 1800s to late 2020s) in the same house in Edinburg. He gets insights to the changing times and people. I love how he helped one certain person, Hannah, who was dealing with some awful flatmates while trying to go to uni. 

This is a slow paced book but it was unique enough to keep me entertained throughout.

I liked this one. As I was reading, it was hard to tell why these two stories are being told together but as they weave into the same story, there are a lot of twists that are quite clever. 

Angie is a 16 year old who is hearing voices in her home. Her dad and her best friend Bas don't believe her. Then Angie and her dad disappear.

Madelyn is new to the town 10 years later trying to find out why her cousin, that she had found through a DNA match site, because she also went missing from this town. There is a common man to both stories, Doug a real estate mogul that seems to run the town. 

The first maybe 60% is a bit slow and goes back and forth through the two timelines but I felt the 40% of the end just flew and I was totally engrossed in finding out what happened. I did like the conclusion!