shelfreflectionofficial's Reviews (844)

So I actually read book two (The Match) first on accident, so it was a little bit different experience/perspective reading this one AFTER that one.

I’ve always enjoyed Harlan Coben’s books. He writes a good thriller and they’re usually pretty clean. (I think this one only had 1 f-word in it)


The Characters

I think what makes this series unique are the characters.

Wilde was found as a boy, surviving on his own in the woods. No parents were ever found (Cue book 2 when he pursues a DNA match on an ancestry site). He makes friends with a boy he meets named David until they are discovered. He grows up with a foster family and is now an adult with some military experience living off the grid with attachment issues. But he’s super smart because he would break into people’s houses and watch their VHS tapes. (Okay so it’s not a flawless backstory…)

I picture him like Jim Caviezel’s character on the show Person of Interest except Wilde is a worse shot and a worse driver. Somewhat flat personality— I read all of his dialogue in my head with zero inflection. He’s mysterious and loyal and has a strong sense of justice. He’s a protector and a finder of the bad guys.

David’s mom, Hester Crimstein, is our other main character. Her and Wilde have a special bond and share the grief of David dying in a car accident. Hester is a feisty well-known criminal defense lawyer over 70 with a non-nonsense demeanor. She’s like a mixture between Judge Judy and Betty White. She says it how it is.

She brings a lot of entertainment to the book.

A couple other minor characters are Laila and Matthew. Laila was married to David and Matthew is their son. Laila and Wilde have a complicated relationship. They’re both in love with each other now but don’t think they could ever make it work. Wilde has to live in the wild and commit to anything. We watch that relationship unfold in this and the next book.

Wilde is like a father-figure to Matthew. Matthew is mostly in the story to create a way for Wilde to interact with someone and to show his fatherly side, trying to make up for the years Matthew lost with David.


The Plot

A girl at Matthew’s school— Naomi Pine— has lived a tormented life at school with severe bullying. One day she goes missing. She is expected to be a runaway. Eventually we discover it was a ruse, a game called The Challenge— in efforts to climb the social ladder. So when she disappears AGAIN, no one takes it seriously.

But then the rich family’s son— her bully (His name is Crash; I think Cash was already taken)— also goes missing, Wilde can’t help but think there’s a connection.

Wilde and Hester are hired by the rich family to help them get their son back. They do double duty trying to also track down Naomi.

A ransom note gives them a task and a deadline. Can they get the teens back before someone gets hurt?


Comments

I thought it was suspenseful. It may not have had a shock factor, but it was still a good story and I read it pretty fast.

The plot of the next book revolves around the DNA match Wilde gets and I didn’t realize that would come up that much in this book, but it’s setting the scene for the next one. I wish I could remember better how that one ended!

One thing that bothered me in the second book was how much they talked about David’s accident and how Hester wanted to know what happened and Wilde was avoiding the subject.

We never got any answers in that book. So I was curious to know if this book had any, because if it didn’t I was going to be very annoyed.

I think we did? The second book made it seem like a really big deal so what they explain in this book seemed a bit anticlimactic to what I was expecting, so I think part of me feels like I missed something. But maybe if I had read them in order it would have made more sense.


Recommendation

I think this is a great series! I’m anxious for the next one if he chooses to continue it.

If you already like Harlan Coben, I think you’ll like these.

If you’ve never read Harlan Coben and you enjoy thrillers— definitely check him out!

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“Through each of these women’s eyes, we see Jesus as the one who brings healing to the sick, life to the dead, welcome to the outcasts, and honor to the scorned.”

Rebecca McLaughlin is the author of several books including The Secular Creed and Confronting Christianity. Most of her books tackle controversial issues or questions that the general public bring against Christianity.

This book is no different.

“Some see Christianity as, at heart, misogynistic: silencing, sidelining, and trampling on women.”

This is a popular belief. But it is unfounded.

McLaughlin has written this book to show us that the way Jesus treated women was revolutionary and counter-cultural. A true reading of Scripture reflects Jesus’ care, love, and respect of women.

“The way that Jesus treated women tore up the belief that women are innately inferior to men: a belief that was pervasive in the ancient world. We should not be surprised, therefore, that women have been flocking to Jesus ever since.”

McLaughlin takes us through many interactions between Jesus and women: Mary (his mother), Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha (Mary was the most common name during that time if you haven’t noticed), Elizabeth, the Samaritan woman at the well, Joanna, the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, and more.

And when we try to see Jesus from their perspective we see a deeper picture of the heart of Jesus.


One of the first things McLaughlin does is talk about the reliability of Scripture. If we’re looking at eyewitness testimony, can we trust the source we are basing our belief on? She compares the Bible to the Gospel of Mary, and gives other evidence for why we can believe these biblical accounts. (For further reading on this aspect, check out Taking God at His Word or Surviving Religion 101.)


A theme we see as we go through these accounts is that God has used women in a fundamental way for his kingdom. And I say ‘use’ not in way that denotes ‘takes advantage of’ but in a sense of respect; women were valuable and vital in God’s plan for his Son and his Gospel message.


McLaughlin points out some things I had never realized:

“Hannah is the first to prophesy directly about the Lord’s anointed King. Mary is the first to find out his identity.”

“Anna is the first person in the Bible officially called a prophet since the death of the last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, some four centuries before. “

“In a culture where women were often silenced, Jesus commissions a female disciple to announce his resurrection to his male disciples. Strikingly, Mary Magdalene is the first person in John’s Gospel to call Jesus ‘the Lord.’"

Jesus could have first shown his resurrected self to Peter who came to the tomb, but instead he came to Mary.

Jesus’s life and resurrection on earth are book-ended with women!

“Much of what we know about Jesus’s conception, infancy, and childhood we only know because the women who surrounded him passed on their testimony.”


Something that is important to touch on in this discussion is ‘sexual freedom'. This is one of the main tenets of the most recent wave of feminism. Many view the Bible’s teachings on sex as unfair or stifling. But when you look at the sexual climate during these ancient times, you will see that the laws God made around sex were to protect women and children, not harm them.

Women were extremely vulnerable and easily exploited.

“The sexual revolution that was triggered by the rise of Christianity within the Roman Empire cut out men’s sexual freedom and called them to the kind of faithfulness in marriage that had previously only been expected of wives. This meant that women could no longer be seen as expendable objects of male lust.”

Boundaries are necessary for human flourishing. The Bible’s boundaries surrounding sex and limiting it to a male and female within the covenant of marriage protects all parties and creates a safe and healthy environment for everyone to thrive. Among many other benefits, it creates financial, emotional, and physical stability.

(For more on the discussion of sex, purity, and how the church can do better at communicating these things in a clear and right way, read Talking Back to Purity Culture or What God Has to Say About Our Bodies)

If we want to talk about sexual freedom in regards to bearing children, that’s a topic for another time.

McLaughlin does caution this:

“When it comes to women’s unique ability to bear children, it’s easy to make one of two mistakes: to overvalue childbearing, as if it’s the primary reason why women exist, or to undervalue it, as if creating new life doesn’t matter.”

And I’ll just add one thing— God chose women to bring life into the world— that is pretty significant and honoring. God creates life inside our bodies! That’s incredible to me. Even though it comes with pain, I am thankful to be part of that amazing process.



Each chapter highlights characteristics of Jesus. We see prophecy, discipleship, nourishment, healing, forgiveness, and life.

We see a God whose concept of power and worth counters cultures at large. We see a God who defends, who knows all but still loves us, forgives us, and offers us refuge. We see a God of redemption who transforms lives. A God who suffers with us, who is near to us and wants to spend time with us. A God who defends a woman’s right to learn. A God who gives us identity, mercy, affirmation, and hope.

If you’ve been told the Bible is anti-women, or you’ve experienced inferiority as a woman from a Christian or church, this book is for you. This book will set the record straight.

If you stand secure in your biblical womanhood, this book will affirm that you are in a safe place. Jesus is for us and teaches love, dignity, and respect for us. It will also help you see these events through new eyes.

As usual, Rebecca McLaughlin brings the truth, and I would highly recommend this book!

“How do we see Jesus through these women’s eyes? We see him as the one who heals our hurts and meets our needs. We see him as the one who takes our sin upon himself and welcomes us with unimaginable love. We see him as the one who sees us, even when others turn away, and as the one who welcomes us to learn from him and pour our meager love out at his feet. We see him as the one who is the Savior of the world and yet knows us each by name— even if we answer to the most common name in town. We see him as the one who gathers up our broken hearts and bodies in his arms, and as the only who who has the power to make us whole.”




If you want further reading on women’s role in the church and an exegetical look at what specific verses mean, I would recommend Evangelical Feminism by Wayne Grudem or Men and Women in the Church by Kevin DeYoung.

If you want further reading on biblical womanhood as it relates to feminism, I would check out Radical Womanhood by Carolyn McCulley or Eve in Exile by Rebekah Merkle.



More Quotes:

“As we look at Jesus through his mother’s eyes, we see how God grabs ordinary folk to be his chosen agents in this world. When you and I let Jesus in, our humdrum lives become the buzzing center of a miracle— however little it may feel that way at times.”

“As we look through Mary’s eyes, we also see the cost of letting Jesus in. Birth itself is intensely costly. Nursing an infant day and night is an ongoing act of sacrifice love… Mary risked much more with Jesus than she would have with another child. She risked her reputation, her marriage prospects, her community, even her life when she replied to Gabriel, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord: let it be to me according to your word.”

“So often in our modern life, we see service and freedom as opposites… We humans thrive when serving with a grateful heart, while endlessly self-realizing ‘freedom’ makes us miserable.”

“If you have been a Christian for a while, my guess is you can think of times when you’ve cried to God for help and felt like you got nothing back. You’ve prayed for healing and it hasn’t come. You’ve sent for Jesus and felt quite alone. But when, at long last, Jesus comes to Mary, he sheds tears with her. He hadn’t stayed away because he didn’t care. He stayed away because he did care. The best thing he could give these siblings, whom he profoundly loved, was not immediate answer to their prayers, but revelation of himself.”

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“Everyone costumed up, ready to step on to the stage. I wonder where we will be when the curtain falls.”

“For a fortunate few, war allows us to rise in ways that would otherwise be impossible.”


This book had been on my list for awhile but to be honest, I wasn’t super excited to read it. The title and the book cover weren’t as appealing as some of the other books I had.

But I’m glad I did!

This is a historical fiction family saga that takes place on the shores of England. There are themes of art and acting, magical exploration and discovery, love, family dynamics, and gender and class differences.

It is the story of three siblings—Cristabel, Flossie, and Digby— and how they grow from play-acting on the beach to doing undercover work during WWII.

It’s not an intense read and it’s fairly long, but it still held my attention. I was surprised how much I wanted to keep coming back to it.

Told in five different ‘acts’ (time periods), we follow them from childhood to the teenage years and on to adulthood. We see their family dynamics change and see them grow as individuals. They each realize they don’t ‘fit the mold’ of what is expected of them and are looking for where they belong.

I think this would be a good book club book and I’ve come up with some book club discussion questions listed at the bottom.


Writing Style

I thought the writing of this book was also unique. Within the narration, there were chapters that were letters, postcards, diary entries, newspaper articles, and lists as a way to fill in blanks and move the timeline. I thought this was creative and worked well.

I also thought she had some funny/creative descriptions. For example:

“His wooing of her had largely consisted of him presenting her with historical facts in the way a cat continually brings its owner dead mice, despite their perplexing lack of success.”

“England’s insipid South Coast, the ocean’s limpest handshake.”

“One evening, Robert, a man who began conversations somewhere in the middle…”

“He could hear himself breaking wind in his sleep, the helplessly escaping air a sort of continuation of his inept attempts at making small talk, a smattering of half-hearted repartee.”

“Robert had been blessed with the gift of obliviousness and the villagers appeared to admire him for it.”

“She enjoys both their company and their useful skills, for she admires things done in an adept manner, in the same way she covets tools that can be snapped shut and pocketed.”

“He pulls himself up and announces, as if bringing news from a distant kingdom, ‘I am hungry.’”

“Cristabel says you can play Helen, but you will not need to learn any lines. She says you are to be a mute witness to bloody scenes of horror that you have brought about.”

“Veg sits at the piano to practice, determinedly plonking her way through melodies until she has mastered them, changing direction with each wrong note, like somebody blindfolded colliding with furniture.” (I play piano and my practicing is very similar, this description is spot on!)

“Had there been carpets in the building rather than cheap lino, she imagines a great deal would be swept beneath them.”

“… a handbag that appears to be made from molten cutlery.”


Characters

Much of the book is character study. Here are a few of the main ones with some characteristics we see from the beginning:

I would say the primary character is Cristabel. She outshines the others who are somewhat there as a support to her character and growth.

Cristabel: feisty, clever, mischievous, visionary, takes charge, observant, perceptive; “dauntless leader”

“she had thought it likely that she might be a boy. She had qualities and ambitions well matched to boyhood. An interest in snails and maps and warfare. A roving disposition. Nobody told her that she wasn’t.”

Digby: loyal to a fault, companion

“he has never faltered, gamely following her into bramble bushes and freezing streams.”

“They confiscated my Wind in the Willows. I asked for a new one and Father gave me a cricket bag. Told me not to bother with stories. Told me to give up the stage. Everything I’ve liked has been taken away from me, and nobody could give me a good reason why.”

Flossie: self-conscious, living in the shadow of her mother, not the boy her parents wanted

Willoughby: nonchalant, restless, used to getting what he wants; “a performance”; “no boundaries”

Rosalind: high-maintenance, selfish, neglected and neglectful, lonely

“she has always lived in a dance towards pleasure as a means of distraction.”

“Rosalind has a desperate feeling she will be echoing his words forever. She is a parrot; she is a cave.”


Other Random Comments

As I said earlier that this book is pretty long. The Goodreads summary might be a little misleading because the undercover agent part of the book is not the majority of the story. We don’t get to the WWII part until about 50% through. Crista doesn’t go undercover until 70%.

I was also surprised how long it took to get to the part where the whalebones become a theater.

You’re just going to have to nestle in with this one and take it as it comes. I think it’s meant to be devoured slowly.

I think it was largely her writing style that kept me engaged. I could hear the sounds. The narration depicted the various voices well. And the variety of chapter ‘types’ broke it up.


They reference a Russian female sniper with a ton of kills— if you would like to learn about that story read The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn.


Some fun words I learned!

Flibbertigibbet: a frivolous, flighty, or excessively talkative person

Bolthole: a place where a person can escape and hide

Batman: an officer’s personal servant (so Alfred is Batman’s batman?)

Bagsied: called dibs



Here are a couple other quotes I liked:

“War might depend on people who don’t flinch, but humanity rather relies on those who do.”

“She realizes that, for all she resents the unfair advantages given to the opposite sex, she does not want to be a man, she only wants it not to matter that she is a woman. She wants this. This friendship, this acceptance. To be valued for what she can do, rather than told what she can’t.”


More Plot Details

[FYI— I suppose this may give some spoilers but they’re not shocking twists or anything that would ruin the book]

Crista’s mother— her father’s true love—died in childbirth. He never really loved Crista. Her Uncle Willoughby, exciting and adventurous, gave her more attention whenever he was in town.

Eventually her father marries a younger woman— Rosalind— whom he also doesn’t really love but does so to try to get a male heir for his wealthy estate.

They have a girl— Flossie— who gets the nickname ‘The Veg’ because Rosalind says she looked like a vegetable when she was born. Rosalind, an aspiring socialite, was not up to the mothering task and would rather throw parties and buy luxury items then care for the children.

Crista’s father dies and Rosalind ends up marrying Willoughby and finally bears a son— Digby— who is now the heir they were hoping for.

As you can see, the siblings already have a complicated relationship with each other and their parents.

To escape the tension at home, the imaginative and brave Christa leads the other two into grand adventures in the woods and waters around their home.

When a whale carcass washes up on shore they eventually use the bones to create a makeshift theater stage on the beach where they put on elaborate plays for family and eventually the community.

This thread of ‘acting’ plays a big role in all of their lives. As we jump ahead to the throes of WWII, Crista and Digby find that their acting skills may come in handy to work undercover against the Nazi party.

Some of the questions this book sets out to answer are: What is their purpose in life? How does the war change how they see themselves and others? Can they all survive the war intact?


Recommendation

I think I would have liked the undercover agent part to be a more significant part of the story and I’m not sure if the ending was big enough for how long the book was, but I still enjoyed it.

If you like historical fiction, family sagas, and character development, I think you’ll like this one.

If you want something more fast-paced, better pass.



[Content Advisory: No f- or s-words. Some promiscuity but nothing described. Most often implied or spoken of in delicate vague terms. A couple LGBTQ characters but it’s not a prominent theme.]


Book Club Discussion Questions

I think there are a lot of things that could be talked about, here are some to get you started:

1. What does the whale symbolize for each character?

2. How does their childhood happening right after WWI shape them?

3. Taras says, “Money is the great destroyer of art.” Do you think this is true?

4. Why do you think Rosalind never bonded with the girls? (Especially if she felt neglected as a woman)

5. What do you think Rosalind wanted out of life?

6. Did your view of Jasper change at all?

7. Which character do you most relate to?

8. What is your opinion of art? Which of the arts speaks most to you— music, dance, painting, acting, sculpture, etc?

9. What characteristics of their parents do Crista, Flossie, and Digby resemble?

10. Why do you think Crista is drawn to the goddess statue?

11. What connects Leon and Crista?

12. How does each of their (Crista, Digby, Flossie) childhoods prepare them for their future role in the war?

13. Which of the three took on roles in the war that surprised them?

14. What role does Perry play in the lives of the trio?

15. Why do you think Uncle Willoughby is absent from the second half of the story?

16. What do you think Cristabel’s dream at the very end signifies?

17. How would you have liked it to end?


**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

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"You don’t ever get anything in here without paying for it. Ever.”


I read Naomi Novik’s book Spinning Silver and really enjoyed her writing style and world-building.

I finally started this series and I’m really enjoying it!

This is a story of a wizarding school and the creatures who want to eat wizards.

It’s like a more cutthroat version of Harry Potter and instead of a naive, eager, friendly male protagonist, we have a female protagonist (Galadriel) who is one part Captain Marvel two parts April from Parks and Rec.

I will say that it took a hot minute at the beginning to grasp what was happening. There is no context or background to the world we’re being dropped into. There’s jargon you have to figure out. And the way all of the magic works is a bit confusing.

But if you push through the first few chapters, you will be rewarded.


I really liked Galadriel’s character. Sometimes she was too rude, but generally she had a reason to be. She’s got a chip on her shoulder as she has not been well-liked almost her whole life and people never give her a chance.

The story is told from her point of view so we get to hear all her snarky thoughts— like how she almost constantly wants to punch someone in the head.

She is courageous, resourceful, and sticks to her convictions. Her weakness is her pride, insecurity and her tendency to self-sabotage.

I have a feeling we will meet her mother in later books and I’m not sure if I’m gonna like that. Her mother sounds like a hippie free-spirit and that usually annoys me. El was raised that way but she is more feisty and entrepreneurial than her mom so we will see how that plays out later in the series.


The humor in this book was also done well so props to Novik for that! It was definitely a different vibe and voice than Spinning Silver so it shows her versatility as a writer.


I liked the pictures she included in the book but there were still parts of it that were hard for me to picture.


Whenever I read fantasy books I’m always amazed by how authors can create these worlds and come up with new ways of using magic.


After I read this and started to read some other people’s reviews I was surprised to find claims of racism against this book. I can’t think of any instance of racism that I read. I thought she did a great job of including people from all different nationalities as it is an international school. Our main character is part-British, part-Indian. Apparently there was a remark about dreadlocks in the book but I don’t even remember reading that, and Novik immediately apologized for it though it wasn’t really racist… there were comments about all long hair styles because of the dangers of the school.

It seems that many readers of color have defended her book and agreed that most of the claims are baseless.

There is a theme of privilege in this book as ‘enclavers’ (essentially people with resources and alliances) come in with a lot of advantages compared to wizards like El who have to work harder and more resourcefully to survive. El sees the way enclavers use ‘lesser’ wizards as human shields and she voices her opinions throughout the book.


Recommendation

If you like fantasy books with magic (especially Harry Potter) you should read this! It’s a fun and creative read.

Some of the details and explanations feel tedious at times but I don’t think it’s necessary to fully grasp how the magic aspect works to enjoy the story.

The last line of this book is a gasp moment so I’m going to have to not take too long to get to the other two books. The third one just came out!



Summary and Terms

If you want to know more about the actual story/plot, this bank of terms will help explain

The Scholomance: (I’m not sure how to pronounce this. Like scholar? Or scole—omance? Or shole-omance? I tried to look it up and it was unclear. Fill me in!) a school built by wizards for young wizards to be protected by mals while they get better at their magic; not sure how it was built or how it’s connected to the real world— it sits on the edge of ‘the void’

Mals: nasty creatures of all sizes and varieties (flinger, mimic, blood-clinger, soul-sucker, sirenpsider, scratcher, maw-mouth, eyestalk, etc.) that want to eat wizards because wizards have mana

Mana: what fuels the wizards’ magic; accumulated in crystals or power banks when doing physical activity

Malia: also fuels magic but is obtained from living things, aka, sucking their life source (this is what the bad guys do)

Maleficier: 'bad' wizards who use malia to do magic (think Slytherin)

Mundanes: non-wizards (think Muggles)

Enclaves: communities of wizards throughout the world; the ideal place to live for protection; El and her mom refuse to live in one


Life at the school is about survival. They have to constantly check for mals in all places, even in their food. There are no teachers to protect them, the school is run on some sort of magic. They are cut off from any communication outside the school.

When kids finish their senior year there is a graduation. They must pass through a hall that has essentially become a gauntlet of mals waiting to devour them. The only way to survive graduation day is to accumulate a lot of mana, get really good at spells, and make alliances with other people (who also have a lot of mana and are good at spells).

So everything at the school is a transaction. Even relationships. What can I get out of this that will help me survive?

But El is not your average wizard!

Her great-grandmother prophesied that she would be a destroyer. While other wizards have affinities for languages or working with metal, El’s affinity is for mass destruction. (Think Skye from Marvel Agents of SHIELD).

The catch is… she doesn’t WANT to destroy. She never uses malia. So she is constantly having to work around spells to use them in a safe way.

Add to this struggle that she is an outcast and generally a stand-offish person who refuses to suck-up to other enclaves, even for survival.

How will she survive graduation day?

Well lucky for her, the school’s hero boy, Orion (think Captain America), befriends her and triggers a series of events where the students must work together to save the school from the mals—graduation day came early!


[Content Advisory: a handful of f- and s-words; no sexual content; oh and a lot of death by magic and monsters]

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“I love being the one who makes him weird.”

This one lived up to the hype!

It’s a funny, feel-good rom-com about two best friends who clearly love each other, but it takes them decades of vacationing together to finally figure it out.

This was my first Emily Henry book.

I’m not big into romance novels, but this book focused more on their friendship and the trips they took, the banter they shared. There was clear attraction but thankfully the book wasn’t a compilation of sex scenes and fantasies.


I loved Poppy and Alex. I loved that they were weird together. Emily Henry did an awesome job writing their dialogue. It was witty and creative. And maybe it was because it also reminded me of my husband and my relationship (except with less arcades and more bars).

I’m a big fan of best friends falling in love. Even more so when they’re both weird and don’t care what normal people do.


Of course, the fact that they are male and female best friends who take vacations alone together and talk on the phone for hours is totally a not normal thing. I knew where they were going with it so I didn’t mind. But let the records show— if this is happening to you in real life, one or both of you are in love with each other, just admit it.

The book goes back and forth between ‘this summer’ and previous summers. Something happened two years prior on their trip to Croatia (where, ironically, I was supposed to go two years ago when Covid ruined that) and somehow it messed up their friendship. We start from the beginning and make our way to the fateful trip to find out why.

Once I found out he loved his cat so much I was convinced she had accidentally killed it or something and that was the ‘big thing.’ But, spoiler alert, I was wrong.


Poppy reminds me a little bit of Poppy from Trolls because she wears orange bell bottoms and she loves everything. She seems ready to break out in song or dance if the moment calls for it. And joked about rolling herself in glitter. But she is a more sarcastic, witty, and 40% Amy Schumer but in a slightly sweeter girl-next-door version.

Alex was a little harder to picture as a person because he was more reserved. I picture like a younger, muscular Danny Tanner (because tall clean-freak) with the face of Paul Rudd and the banter of Neil Patrick Harris or Seth Rogen. I don’t know, does that seem right?


It looks like it’s set to become a movie sometime in the near future but no casting has been decided as of now. I’m nervous to see who they cast and how the movie is done. I wouldn’t want them to ruin it for me.


Um. A couple other things.

I love that every time she mentions her mom it involves baked goods and cleaning. And her mom asks them about grapes that taste like cotton candy and I just discovered those this month and they blew my mind a little.

This quote: “Khakis just make a person look like they’re both pantsless and void of a personality.”

And the game Poppy played with her brothers where they named a movie and her brother tried to connect it back to Keanu Reeves within six degrees. I feel like I want to try this. And it’s definitely the type of weird, random game that we would come up with to pass time.


If all of Emily Henry’s books are like this I’ll have to keep reading them!

If you want a feel-good romance with minimal (considering the genre) content that makes you laugh, this is it.


[Content Advisory: a couple handfuls of f- and s-words; one sex scene that lasts a couple pages but at least isn’t vulgar; one other make out scene; there are a couple LGBTQ side characters]

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“I should be more afraid. But I’m not scared of dying, not anymore. Not after everything.”

So far I’ve read B.A. Paris’ The Breakdown and The Dilemma. I enjoyed both of those but I think I liked this one better!

This was a totally different vibe than those two books. The Breakdown is a slow burn psychological thriller and The Dilemma is more of a thought-provoking familial drama.

The Prisoner is all action! I read this book in a span of 24 hours I think. It’s short and suspenseful and Paris is not afraid to kill off characters.


Plot Summary

The basic plot is that Amelie, young and recently orphaned when her father dies from cancer, is trying to make her way on her own and is desperate enough for money that she is naively (and stupidly) willing to marry her insanely rich boss for just a month, thinking it’s above board and mutually beneficial. He gets his parents off his back, she gets $100,000.

I mean, I think we all know that nothing good happens in Vegas so that’s our first red flag.

But this ill-fated decision throws Amelie into the worst month of her life full of isolation, lies, murder, and of course, being kidnapped. The prisoner.

Her life has unraveled and she is slave to her nightmares and questions.

Can she survive long enough to get the answers she wants?


Comments

This is one of those thrillers where there’s not much to dissect about it. It’s just a good suspenseful novel.

I was surprised by the mixed reviews but apparently we have opposite preferences for Paris’s books. I liked all the action, even if it was predicated on a stupid choice. Considering the context and circumstances I can see how someone, pressured with a timeline, could make that choice. She obviously didn’t know his sordid past at the time.

My only two criticisms are that all the answers at the end are basically given in monologue form which isn’t the most creative way of telling the reader. But in some ways I didn’t mind that. It’s a concise and complete way to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and explain it all. At least it wasn’t the killer-‘revealing’-everything-to-his-victim-before-he-tries-to-kill-them cliche.

The other criticism is that Lina, Justine, and Carolyn are really important people in Amelie’s life. But because of the nature of the book and the first person POV we don’t really get to know them at all. Their absences in the story feels abrupt. Which considering the reason for their absence makes sense, but as a reader we don’t get much closure and are left unsure if we need it.

Also this book takes place in London but I kept forgetting because the terminology seemed more American which was unlike her other two books. When going to Vegas was such a big deal I forgot that they were crossing the pond to do so. I’m not sure what words should have been different, if any, the geography was just something I kept having to remind myself of as I read.


Recommendation

If you want a fast-paced thriller and like a good kidnapping, you’ll like this book.

I would say that if you’ve already read some of Paris’s books, I don’t think your opinion of those will necessarily be indicative of whether or not you like this one.

And if you’ve never read Paris, you should give her a shot.

Side note: I loved the dollar-doubled-for-31-days trick and the next time I get a choice between a million dollars or my own terms, I will definitely use it in my negotiation strategy.


[Content Advisory: 7 f-words; 6 s-words; no sexual content]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**


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“I never thought about secrets being like a bull’s eye. The smaller the circle, the bigger the secret.”

When I first started this book I was a little overwhelmed. I was confused and asking ‘Where am I?’

The bird’s eye view of the book is: a science-minded, hockey-playing Ojibwe girl helps the FBI investigate a meth ring in her tribe and nearby town in the Upper Peninsula (Sault Ste Marie) while also struggling with grief from the loss of several people close to her.

So from the very start I felt inundated with lingo and culture that was new to me. There are a lot of Anishinaabemowin words, Yooper slang, anatomy/science-related terminology, and hockey jargon. We are dropped right into Daunis’s life with little context. We find out immediately we’re in the ‘New Normal’ of her life but with no knowledge of what ‘Before’ was.

After several chapters I was able to be more engaged with the book and really enjoyed reading it. I learned a lot about the Ojibwe culture in a modern setting. I think it’s true that the US at large tends to think about Indigenous tribes as a historical thing and thing of the past, but they are still a people in the world today, operating in a modern society but preserving ancient traditions.

I don’t have any knowledge of what that looks like so this was an insightful read in that regard.


This is a pretty long book and I tend to side with the other reviewers who say it was too long. I, personally, didn’t feel like it was a slog to get through, but I do think it could have been shorter or told more efficiently.

It’s told from Daunis’s POV so we are privy to all of her thoughts. They are disjointed and confusing at times, but I think Boulley did a good job of capturing an authentic train of thought. I think it would be hard to write that; when I think about my own thoughts, they do jump around a lot or make random connections. To an outside viewer it would take a minute to catch up. It is a unique aspect of the writing, but I’m unsure if it added enough to justify the extra pages and confusion.



Part of the length of the book is due to the complexity of the story. There are a lot of threads woven together:

- Daunis’s uncle died under suspicious circumstances recently and she and her mom are struggling with his loss and his supposed involvement with meth.

“When someone dies, everything about them becomes past tense. Except for the grief. Grief stays in the present.”

- Daunis’s dad, Levi, cheated on her mom (a non-Native) with a woman named Dana and essentially chose Dana over Daunis’s mom. Levi and Dana had a son, Levi Jr., three months after Daunis was born creating a complicated relationship between Daunis and her half-brother as well as with the tribe as a whole because of the circumstances surrounding her birth. Her father’s name is not on her birth certificate which has prevented her from being considered an official tribe member which is important to her.

- Daunis is part Ojibwe and part-white. She has very pale skin and struggles with identity in the sense of skin color and belonging in her tribe, yet loving her non-Native family, especially her grandmother (even though her grandmother says some racist things)

“It’s hard to explain what it’s like being so connected to everyone and everything here… yet feeling that no one ever sees the whole me.”

- There is the emotional complexity of loving people but not certain parts of those people— the things they say or the bad choices they make that hurt people. Reconciling who she knows people to be with who they are becoming.

- Daunis loves hockey and feels closest to her dad when she is on the ice. But something happened to her and she has hung up the skates. She is struggling with losing that part of her identity as well.

- Daunis is working with an undercover FBI agent posing as a high school senior to investigate a meth ring that is affecting a lot of Natives in reservations up north. (They call themselves the Meth Blasters. JK.) Daunis is struggling with wanting to protect her tribe from unfair government treatment or judgment but also wanting to protect her tribe from the devastating affects of meth use and drug distribution and keep it out of her community.

“I’m the only person looking at the whole person, not just the wound.”

- This is a YA novel so we also have a romance thread. The undercover FBI agent and Daunis are pretending to be in a relationship as their cover story but the lines between business and personal are blurring and they are falling in love with each other.

“All’s fair in love and hockey. And meth.”

- Near the beginning of the book Daunis witnesses her best friend Lily being killed by her on/off boyfriend and recent meth-user, Travis, who then turns the gun on himself and commits suicide. Daunis is haunted by this scene and the loss of her best friend. This is the catalyst that drives Daunis to want answers and to protect anyone else from being hurt.


As you can see, there is a lot of struggle at play in this book. We learn about the Seven Grandfathers of living the good way of life: love, humility, respect, honesty, bravery, wisdom, and truth. All of the story’s threads take Daunis through each of these traits as she navigates her life and who she wants to be.



Some other random comments/observations:

Sault Sainte Marie is not pronounced ‘Salt’ but ‘Soo.’ So I’m going to have to change my pronunciation the next time I play Ticket to Ride.

I learned this fun fact: the liver is the only internal organ that can regenerate.

This book takes place in 2004. I’m not entirely sure why. The only thing I can think of is if meth use/distribution was particularly popular during that time as opposed to something more recent. But otherwise it seems like a random choice for a time period.

I didn’t like the way Boulley wrote the text messages. T9 existed in 2004. It seems like it would be harder to abbreviate than just write words out. Am I just in denial about how everyone else in the world texted? This always bothers me in any book. Type out the words!!

Also there is group texting happening in this book and I don’t think that existed in 2004.

Some of the Yooper slang was saying ‘yous’ like how the South uses ‘ya’ll'.’ They also said ‘eh’ or ‘hey’ a lot at the end of their sentences. I’m not sure if the ‘hey’ one is Canadian or Yooper or Ojibwe slang?

Granny June is a great character! She offered some comedic relief. She named her dog Tribal Council just so she could yell at him. And: “Just wait till you realize everything she says is either raunchy or a quote from a fortune cookie.”

Daunis means daughter but it also sounds like ‘dauntless’ which I think is an appropriate adjective for her!

Boulley kept using the phrase ‘pointed her lips at’ something or someone and I can’t picture what this gesture is. It was a bit annoying and definitely overused.

I liked the main character—Daunis. It’s not often you have a tall female protagonist either. Some reviewers were annoyed at the ‘not like other girls’ trope and didn’t like how she judged the other girls by calling them anglerfish for latching onto their boyfriends. I think some of this is fair. But it is a YA novel and I think it would resonate with some high schoolers. Plus Boulley is trying to make a heroic character for young women to look up to. She may overdo Daunis’s intelligence, skill, or altruism, but I think it fits with the story.

I think a lot of YA novels focus on identity. Young adults are trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be. Firekeeper’s Daughter covers a lot of aspects of identity and how our choices affect other people. YA novels also focus on relationships. I really like the emphasis on the idea that if you need someone and you can’t imagine life without them, then you probably aren’t ready for a relationship. If you don’t need someone, then you are able to enter into a romantic relationship without turning it into your identity. You don’t come across that idea very much.

“Love is not control.”

It is not new that Native American tribes treat Elders with a lot of respect and honor, but it was a good reminder seeing that portrayal in this book. I think it’s really cool to see cultures that take care of their elderly and recognize their wisdom and experience, who treat their stories with such reverence and respect. For Daunis, at that age, to spend so much of her free time at the center with the Elders says a lot about her.

It was interesting how Daunis’s aunt seemed more important and present than Daunis’s mom. Daunis even says that she has always wanted to be like her aunt. We don’t really get much insight into her dad or mom’s personalities or development. Her dad has passed and her mom seems like she is in another world. Daunis has a good relationship with her mom but it is more like Daunis took care of her mom than the other way around.

Boulley shares in her author’s note: “4 in 5 (84%) Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime and more than half (56%) have experienced sexual violence. Nearly all (97%) of the Native women who have experienced violence had at least one non-Native perpetrator.”

I had no idea the stats were that high! Add to that the complications of different court jurisdictions between the tribe and the American government and justice is not usually served. I’m glad Boulley exposed that in this book and hopefully more awareness will lead to better ways of prosecuting offenders and Native women can feel safer in their communities and feel like what happens to them matters and deserves justice.

The last scene of women around the fire was pretty powerful.

I’m learning more about domestic and sexual violence. If you want to hear of another woman’s story, you can check out Trauma Bonds.


One of the parts of the book that was NOT complex is the mystery. There weren’t really any red herrings and I had most of it figured out. I would have liked a few more surprises in that sense.



Recommendation

I think this is a great read. Even though it’s long and overwhelming at times, I think it covers a lot of important topics. It’s interesting and there is a mystery aspect to it which helps the length seem less.

It would make a good book club book. But I’m not going to attempt to write any book club discussion questions for this one because I’m sure I didn’t fully grasp all the meaning and symbolism in it and I wouldn’t do the book justice with my questions.

It sounds like this could be coming to Netflix as a limited series. I’m really looking forward to that happening so that I can visualize more of what I read. So many cultural aspects for them to depict and Boulley made sure that they would have Native people working alongside every part of the production so I feel like it will be pretty authentic.

I would for sure read the book before watching so you know what to look out for and can get the word picture before the visual.

I can see why this was nominated for a debut book— for a first book she took on a big and complex project and handled it very well! I’m glad she is sharing her culture and community with us and I will definitely read more of what she writes.



[Content Advisory: a handful of f-words and quite a few s-words; trigger warnings for rape (it’s not very descriptive) and suicide]


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“Right now, today, he’s still a boy, and I know him better than anybody, but what if it isn’t always this way? Already our paths are diverging, a little more every day, the closer we get to August.”


This is the final book in this trilogy and I really enjoyed it. Definitely better than the second one. Not sure between this and the first one.

There is no love triangle in this book unless you count Lara Jean’s potential college prospects. And no Gen drama! Whoop whoop!

This book brought on some nostalgia as Lara Jean finishes up high school and is preparing for college. All the excitement of heading off. Picturing the campuses! Sigh. I loved college.

Plus Peter and Lara Jean’s love is just sweet. This is weird for me to say because after book two I was Team John Ambrose and didn’t like Peter, but this book made me like Peter again (mostly).

Just be prepared that if you read this book you will want to bake all the things. Except I didn’t because I have four littles who all cry when I go in the kitchen. Pity.

Content Advisory: there were a handful of f- and s-words and some talk of sex, but it seemed different than the second book. I don’t completely agree with her philosophy on sex but I do appreciate that she holds her ground on it (at least as of this series).


The Brief Synopsis

Lara Jean and Peter are in a good place, super in love, and have made plans to go to UVA together. They have their whole future ahead of them.

Until Lara Jean doesn’t get into UVA.

And now she has choices to make and Peter to consider or not consider.

Can they do this long-distance? And what about going to college without a boyfriend like Lara Jean’s mother had told Margot?

We follow the couple through their NYC senior trip, prom, Beach Week at Nag’s Head, Stormy’s funeral, Lara Jean’s dad’s wedding, and the rest of the end-of-the-year festivities with decisions and college looming over their picture-perfect high school romance.


My Thoughts

Characters:

Still love Kitty and her bluntness. She was cast well in the movie so I just pictured that girl the whole time during the book which was good.

Liked Margot much less in this book. She’s so negative and angsty. I mean I get she probably feels left out of so much and doesn’t know Trina like the others, but I just didn’t like how Margot handled it all. I don’t think Lara Jean even needs her advice anymore these days.

Liked Peter more. He finished reading all of the Harry Potter books so that tells me a lot about him actually. Plus his birthday surprise for Lara Jean, him planning her dad’s bachelor party. Just a lot of thoughtfulness. I don’t know if that’s characteristic of high school boys these days, but I don’t care. He had some ground to make up from last book and I accept.

Liked Chris a lot less. Seems like she’s given up on a lot of life. It didn’t help her any when she is smoking and complains about America- “Ugh. America is so annoying about smoking. So basic.” Okay, Chris, let’s be logical. There is really no good reason for anyone, especially her age, to be smoking. The facts are the facts and she is an idiot for doing that to her body. Not smoking is basic because it’s basic common sense and people should all be following along on this one. (I could have a soap box about this apparently.) I will also say that I like how Lara Jean recognizes the dysfunction of Chris and is still her friend but doesn’t allow Chris to corrupt her.

And, of course, still loved Lara Jean. I love that she is unapologetic about who she is and is not trying to conform into the ‘typical’ high school girl. She is comfortable in her skin and likes her hobbies and owns it!

“I’m actually not that quirky, lots of people like to stay home and bake cookies and scrapbook and hang out in libraries. Most of them are probably in their fifties, but still.”

“Instead of giving him a sexy picture of me, I’ll make him a scrapbook!” [I did this. It’s so much more meaningful. I am definitely on Lara Jean’s wavelength.]

I also like how she breaks the whole ‘hate the stepmother’ stereotype and genuinely likes Trina and seeing her dad happy. She also picks up on the ways her dad sets aside his own preferences and interests for Trina and I like that she recognizes that selflessness and calls it a good thing.

One thing I’m undecided about is her ‘motherliness.’ She goes and buys all of Margot’s favorite foods, changes her sheets, makes a French toast breakfast for a whole house of boys by herself of her own volition. I don’t know, man. Maybe it’s because they’ve been so long without her mother that she’s learned to take on these roles? It’s quite possible. But there is no way I see my high school self doing a lot of things she does.


Randoms

Trina goes to SoulCycle… hahaha. If this doesn’t mean anything to you. Read Cultish— SoulCycle makes a little debut.

I learned that the phrase ‘knock on wood’ comes from Greek mythology because dryads, whom people would call on for protection, lived in trees. (It’s at least one theory.) So that’s a fun fact I’ll whip out for sure.

I like that they use Mr. and Ms. for all the neighbors. We don’t really do that here in the Midwest. At least where I grew up. But there’s something charming about it.


A couple thoughts on high school romance. I understand the dilemma of not knowing if a relationship can last through college, especially long distance. It’s quite rare. No impossible, but not necessarily probable.

High school is a bubble of life and college opens up the world in so many ways and you realize how many other people are out there. You change a lot as people because you’re really learning who you are and what you believe. You have a freedom from expectations. Diverging paths is normal and common. You're building new and meaningful bonds with different people and it’s hard.

I felt like the book captured the dilemma well. And even though you know the statistics, this book makes you hope for them to last. Without giving too much away (not sure if that even matters for a book like this) but I was happy with the ending. I think it was wise and right.

Spoiler

Breaking up because you think you might break up later is stupid. Sure it might not work out, but if you're both still wanting to try, then try! There's really no way to avoid broken hearts and if that's all we're trying to do in life, we will be very lonely. I'm glad she changed her mind. And shame on Peter's mom for burdening her with that pressure.

Book/Movie Comparison

Okay, I’ve watched the movie now. There are quite a few differences.

For one, the movie STARTS OFF with Lara Jean in Korea. And not only with her sisters but with her dad and Trina too. I can see why this was a production choice in terms of the movie because it’s a fun and exciting intro, but it takes away from the implications of this trip in how it was portrayed in the book.

I guess I didn’t realize this in the first two movies, but they set them in Washington. In the book they live in Virginia. I’m not sure why they chose Washington. Because then they had to change what colleges they were trying to get into (Standford instead of UVA) and and the other college Lara Jean applied and got into (NYU instead of UNC).

Piggy-backing off this then, instead of a spontaneous friends road trip that Chris convinces Lara Jean to take, they have Lara Jean convince Chris to go to an NYU party (with Gen) while they’re in NYC for their senior trip.

Again, I can see the appeal of this for a movie but it doesn’t appropriately reflect Lara Jean and Chris’s personalities to switch it to this scenario. Lara Jean is supposed to be the hesitant rule-follower and Chris is supposed to be the irresponsible, impulsive one. So that bothered me. It just didn’t make sense to me that they would change the setting of it so drastically. I don’t follow that choice.

Another big difference is that Peter breaks it off with Lara Jean, not the other way around. They don’t include Peter’s mom pressuring Lara Jean to do that. But I feel like that changes the story too because then it makes Peter seem like kind of the bad guy but really it was Lara Jean struggling with that decision.

Some other things they left out:

- No funeral for Stormy which means no re-entrance of John Ambrose.

- Since they weren’t in Virginia, there was no friends trip to Nag’s Head which takes out a lot of the drama between Lara Jean and Peter.

- There is no scrapbook. Instead she just puts some pictures and memorabilia into a hat box.

- There is no post-prom birthday surprise which is a bummer because I thought that was sweet of Peter to think of. Instead they had him do a grand prom-posal at the diner. However to do that, then we don’t have the prom-posal attempt at the top of the Empire State Building to replicate Sleepless in Seattle.

- Her dad’s proposal. They have it but it’s a private affair. I liked how the book did it better because the sisters were part of proposal and I think that’s meaningful since Trina is marrying into a family, not just a man.

- Margot doesn’t come home with a boyfriend and she’s not really that mean to Trina. The book made me really not like Margot but the movie gave her a better image.

- The letdown of Peter’s dad. In the book his dad leaves him hanging but the movie portrays their interaction more positively and make it seem like his dad is trying to be better and actually wants a relationship with him.


A couple additions:

- Kitty has a boyfriend. When they left out all the above things I was annoyed that they tried to add this storyline.

- They actually have sex in the movie. Not a fan of that. I liked that they put it off in the book.

- They go bowling. And also, Peter kisses his bowling ball and that’s pretty gross.


Per usual, the book is better than the movie. But with these movies, I still enjoy watching them. I like who they cast and Peter and Lara Jean are cute together. My husband also liked the movie (I mean as much as a man can like a chick-flick) and he didn’t read the books.

I really liked the song they chose for ‘their song’ in the movie.

I also liked that they emphasized that love is a choice. You choose love.

This was a fun movie series to watch and even though the books are better, I was still able to enjoy both without being too annoyed at the differences.


Conclusion

I’ve really enjoyed this series. It’s a fast and light read. Even though there are some things in it that I don’t like in reference to teenage love, I do like the character of Lara Jean— there is a wholesomeness to her. And it’s very family-centric which is also a big plus.

The movies have also been a good addition to visualize the story.

I’m sad to see it end, but I think it’s for the best. This book wrapped things up nicely and I wouldn’t want any future books to taint where I’m sitting with it right now.

Farewell Peter and Lara Jean!

Brittany
XOXO


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“She was going insane. The only way she could know peace was with Moses behind bars. Abby would chase Moses Wilcox to the ends of the earth to protect her children.”

This has been a good trilogy that I stumbled upon on NetGalley. A Burning Obsession is the final book.

I am a bit disappointed that my prediction on book title was wrong. (You can read my full list in my Damaged Intentions review)

But I suppose this title fits so I won’t hold a grudge.


What’s New?

It has the same suspense, crisis negotiation, and freaky cult stuff as the previous two but this one is a little different.

Abby’s family is fairly absent in this book. I think her son, Ben’s, pet spider gets more page real estate than he does! We also don’t have her work partner, Will, or the other two cult survivors from her childhood. Not having the other survivors feels a bit unsatisfying because I feel like they needed this closure too and they had been talking with Abby about things in the previous two books.

This book is more about wrapping up Abby’s trauma with her past and focusing on the relationship between Abby and Zoe Bentley— a character from a previous trilogy Mike Omer has written— as their spheres intersect and they work the case together.


Another difference with this third book is that we have access to what Moses Wilcox is thinking and feeling. Up until now he’s been pretty elusive and mysterious. But if Abby is going to deal with her past, she is going to have to confront who Moses Wilcox actually is. Zoe is convinced Abby isn’t seeing him accurately.

“‘He’s not a demon,’ Zoe said sharply. ‘Or a cancerous growth. Or a monster. And he’s not a messiah either. He’s a man who happens to be very good at making people do what he wants.’”

Moses is all about control. And Abby is still being controlled by her perception of him. She has to recognize his humanity. He is just a man and he is not invincible. To follow this theme we have to understand more of who Moses is and I believe that’s why Omer decided to give us more access to what drives Moses.

That being said, the last notable difference with this book is that the cult stuff vamps up a bit. In this book we have people being burned alive at the hands of Moses and his cult.

As the book is titled, we figure out Moses’s burning obsession. He is obsessed with fire as a cleansing process but he also has a fetish. He is aroused by fire and is convinced that he must have sex with various members of his group (while the fire is raging and the victims are screaming) in fulfilling ‘God’s will’ of procreating little ‘angels’ to protect their group during the end times.

This sexual fantasy component is new to this book, but comes as no surprise considering the information we have on most cults out there.


The Context and Plot

This one picks up one month after book two— Damaged Intentions— when the hostage situation took place at Abby’s daughter’s school.

Now that Abby knows Moses Wilcox is her father and that he intends to get her and her children back into “his flock” she can’t rest until she has tracked him down and can be sure he can’t come for them anymore.

Following a trail of arson, Abby gets a solid lead on Wilcox’s whereabouts. He is traveling with his followers through a series of connected church locations. As they depart each church, they also leave behind a burning house where they have tied up a victim to meet their fiery fate.

Abby teams up with Zoe Bentley to try to correctly profile Moses and predict where he is going and how to stop him without more people getting hurt.

Can they get to him in time?


Other Comments

In his acknowledgements at the end Omer talks about how he had wanted to write a showdown between Moses and Abby. He wanted to make sure to add the ‘other’ character— the fire. That definitely added to the showdown scene but I felt that I wanted more dialogue about the past. We hear Abby’s thought process as she has some realizations but she doesn’t specifically voice them to Moses. We just watch her ‘negotiate’ her way through the situation. I wanted to see her confront him about some of the cult things.



This was an interesting quote:

“Fear flourished at night. But it didn’t necessarily lie. In Delilah’s own experience, fear mostly told the truth at night, a truth that during the day she could all but ignore.”

In some ways I disagree. When I think about some of the fears I have at night, they can be pretty irrational. But considering the context of her situation, this quote can be accurate. The cult is keeping her isolated and busy and inundated with information so that she doesn’t have time to think things through. As she lays in bed at night it’s quiet and she can process things in a way she can’t during the day. Her real fears tell her the truth that she’s not allowed to think about when she’s surrounded.


And this quote:

“‘She didn’t join this group. People don’t join cults. They’re recruited. And usually they have little control when it happens.’”

This is really insightful. We tend to judge people who ‘join’ cults thinking they’re idiots and why would they choose that, but we don’t recognize the strategies and manipulation that is at play. The more I read about cults and people’s experiences the more this statement resonates with me.

Check out Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism to see how words play a part in that.


And this one:

“What motivated a serial killer to kill repeatedly wasn’t the same as what necessarily motivated a cult leader to kill repeatedly.”

Zoe Bentley’s series is about serial killers. Abby’s series is about cults and negotiating. So what happens when these two worlds collide? Profiles have to be adjusted. The environment and principles of a cult do create a different system than a ‘normal’ serial killer. It’s interesting to think about what creates these two different types of killers. Or is the conception similar even if the outcomes vary?



Abby’s teenage daughter, Sam, gives a speech at her concert and says: “A few of us… pupils and teachers…” and I just wanted to point out that nobody uses the word ‘pupils.’ Nobody. Especially a teenager. The word choice should be students.



I hope no one needs this disclaimer, but I want to confirm that Moses’s interpretation of the Bible is wrong and twisted. It makes me sad and angry that people create these evil cult groups and incorporate the Bible into their wicked ways. They pervert truth and use it to hurt people and that is not God’s will. Moses’s cult is fictional but there is no shortage of real cults that function like that in the world today.



Recommendation

If you’ve already been reading this series, then you’ll definitely want to read this one to finish it up!

If you haven’t started it yet, I think it’s worth checking out! But read it in order or you’ll probably be a little confused and not fully understand everything.

It’s suspenseful and very mild in terms of language and sexual content. I think his writing is good and his stories are interesting.

I haven’t decided if I’ll go back and read Zoe’s series or not. Zoe is quite a different character than Abby and from what I’ve read (which really isn’t much) it may be a bit more intense or violent as it focuses on serial killers who do some strange things.

It seems like Omer’s MO is to create a main protagonist who is still haunted by their past which becomes entangled in their present lives and forces them to confront that part of themselves that hasn’t fully healed or resolved.

If I decide to read it, I’ll link my thoughts here.

But I’m definitely going to keep my eye out for Omer’s next book! Maybe he’ll be starting a new series!


[Content Advisory: 0 f- words, 17 s-words]


**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

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“If we say the good life is a happy one, and what makes a person happy is freedom, and we define freedom as unlimited autonomy, then all our unlimited autonomy should create happy, contented people. But our unlimited autonomy isn’t bringing happiness; it’s producing stasis, exhaustion, and hurry.”

“We are lonely, exhausted, and unsure what success or joy even looks like anymore.”


What do you picture when you think of a ‘spacious’ life?

I think of time. A spacious life looks like time.

The reality is, time is a constraint. We cannot make more of it. So how do we use the time that we do have? Is it filled with things that distract us, distance us, depress us?

Especially living in the Western World, life looks full. Full of work. Full of stuff. Full of achievement and striving. Full of standards and measurements. But in all of that fullness, we are left feeling empty. An emptiness that doesn’t feel spacious.


Ashley Hales understands this.

She has written A Spacious Life to invite us into a life that embraces limits.

This is a counter-cultural concept.

We are told the possibilities are endless. Our options are endless. Freedom is ultimate. But as the quote above states— the definition of freedom matters. And we are not all using the same one.

The ‘freedom’ offered by the world is actually a cage. Bondage. Paralysis.

Doing whatever we want whenever we want, having no constraints— it sounds nice.

But humans don’t flourish in a limitless world. Limits and boundaries are good; they are what produces security and flourishing.


Hales poses:

“What might happen if we tried embracing our limits as gifts for our flourishing rather than barriers to our success?”

She goes on to say:

“[After the fall] We began to believe the good life is a life without limits. More fruit, more knowledge, more suspicion, more work, and more on our to-do lists to try to earn for ourselves the things we had already been given: a name, a relationship, a life, a purpose.”

“Limits are built into the fabric of creation as part of God’s loving rule and care. Limits are not a result of sin, strictures to hold us down, but a part of God’s very good plan. Limits create for us a home; they create the condition for flourishing.”

It’s easy to get lost in the hustle and the hurry. When I sit back and ponder that, I think I do try to hurry through life. That doesn’t mean we should try to make every second last as long as possible. It just means we are conscious of our time and we are conscious of our limits.



Hales subtitles her chapters with invitations. Invitations to ways of building a spacious life.

She invites us to:

- reconsider freedom and significance (freedom isn’t freedom from, but freedom for)

- smallness (this is a recognition of our place in this world and our posture before the Limit-Giver)

- set aside social media (our digital lives are not our real lives; the internet lures us in with the poisonous fruit of limitlessness in many ways)

- wait (remembering our dependence on a sovereign and omniscient God)

- rest (reorienting ourselves toward God instead of serving our work)

- delight (this brings us back to our identity in Christ and delighting in the Lord, a dance of joy)

- pay attention (are we seeing others? listening to them? how can we love our neighbors if we’re not paying attention to them?)

- community (our faith is not just about our individual experience but the affect of the gathered body of Christ living and acting in community with one another)

- remember the stuff of the kingdom (remembering God’s faithfulness; seeing things as markers of where we’ve been and how God is making all things new)

- abide (means “to stay put, to remain, even to wait defiantly, to stand ready, to sojourn, and to watch” during the hard or dark times)

- be surprised by hope (though we are limited, our Savior is limitless)

- purpose (“Our purpose has less to do with what we do and more with who we are becoming in Christ.”)


In short, “The spacious place is God himself.”

All of the limits he has given us draws us to him in dependence, rest, hope, love, purpose, and truth.

“However God has made you, wherever God has placed you, with the limits that are yours to embrace, you get to be a part of his great mission: finding ways to connect the ordinary with the story of God. That is your job: to bear witness, from the budget-doing, to the carpooling, to working to end injustice, to your work and leisure. All of it is holy. All of it can be redeemed, multiplied, and given in love— from the cup of cold water given to the prayers prayed.”


If you’re now wishing for a ‘How-To’ book that tells you how many activities you can sign your kids up for, how many hours you can be on your phone, and how often to serve in your church, etc., you’re missing the point.

Your life will become spacious when it is oriented around God. When you stop finding your purpose in what you’re doing but in who you’re becoming in Christ. When you feel the freedom of limits.

The way we spend our time, minute by minute, hour by hour, is not prescriptive. But is your life characterized by rest, hope, attentiveness, joy, and community? If not, maybe it’s time to rethink how you view your life and make some changes in your schedule, your attitude, your family, and your heart.


This book can feel like abstract ideas when we desire concrete tasks. Even as I’m writing this review I’m feeling challenged to explain it. I don’t know if my life is spacious. I don’t know if it’s something we can ever really achieve long-term.


But what I love about this book is that even if I don’t get a list of steps, I am reminded of a Person. And I think what Hales is getting at is that if we lean into Him, we will find our lives become more free, more spacious, and more meaningful.


I think you should allow this book to challenge you as it did me. I think it’s one I’ll have to revisit frequently to check in and see if I’ve fallen back into the alluring cycle of hustle, hurry, and striving.



Further Reading:

She quoted a few books in her book that I really enjoyed and would recommend as well:

- To Hell with the Hustle by Jefferson Bethke

- Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund

- On the Road with Saint Augustine by James K.A. Smith

- Raising Worry-Free Girls by Sissy Goff (on my TBD)


I also recommend:

- When Strivings Cease by Ruth Chou Simons

- Humble Moms by Kristen Wetherell


More Quotes

“My biggest growth point in parenting is realizing that though it has narrowed my “free” time, attention, and availability, it has also helped me grow in empathy, to practice asking for forgiveness, and it reminds me I cannot meet everyone’s needs. This is a gift.”

“As God’s creatures made in his image, we are limited by our bodies, by our personalities, by our places, by our circles of relation, and by those for whom we are responsible. We are limited in our power and authority and by particular seasons of work, health, and faith. We are limited in our time, our attention, and our calling. Our God-given limits are the doorway into a more spacious life.”

“We must start by putting screens away. We use them to push off dissatisfaction with long lines, the emotional fallout from a fight, boredom, and loneliness. We’re being formed by screens instead of through embodied and habitual spiritual practices that move us toward Jesus.”

“When we wait we leave behind hurry; we slow down to see the beauty of being a creature, a part of God’ good created order, not the masters who are responsible for keeping it all spinning.”


“Waiting time isn’t wasted time… In the waiting we are becoming.”


“Waiting is trusting that our normal human limits aren’t mean as defects but as guardrails that guide us to God.”

“In pursuit of freedom, we instead serve our work. We are desperate for rest and so very fearful of it.”

“The order of the universe is always grace first: we receive first and then we work in response to the rest and care we’ve been given. We do not work for rest or in order to earn our rest. We start with rest.”

“The general human failing is to want what is right and important, but at the same time not to commit to the kind of life that will produce action we know to be right and the condition we want to enjoy.”— Dallas Willard

“We think guardrails restrict our freedom. When freedom is freedom from constraints, we live in a world we can’t control— yet we find ourselves caged by the things we chase.”

“Part of our work as followers of Jesus is resisting the limit to create our own purpose and instead receive the one God gives us, even if it doesn’t look like what we imagined. My children were not inconveniences to more important things; they named the boundaries of my body and the limits of that season of mothering little ones.”


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