So, from mid-June to the beginning of the September, we read a whopping 10 books together! And unfortunately, various factors conspired against us so we were unable to get together for lunch to discuss. So, we decided to do just a quick summary of our thoughts on each book, both to share with each other and for the edification of readers of this blog as well!
Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica
Jen: In this quasi-psychological thriller, Clara has a 4 year old and has just given birth days before when her husband Nick dies in a car accident. The book alternates perspectives between Clara, who becomes convinced that Nick was actually murdered, and Nick in the months before the accident. This was my first Mary Kubica book and I thought it was okay, but not great. We read it less than 3 months ago and I've already pretty much forgotten it except for a vague memory of finding the ending kind of lame.
Sarah: I don't even remember reading this book or what it was about! That should tell you something. I've read a few of Mary Kubica's other books and enjoyed them, so this was probably not her best effort. That said, I think I am also getting overloaded on this genre, so a book that may have seemed exciting a few years ago, might not be as well received now.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Jen: This was a young adult novel about a teenage girl named Starr living in the inner city who is in the car when her friend is unjustifiably shot by a police officer during a traffic stop. In addition to grappling with this, she's also dealing with other issues with family and friends, and how to juggle how she acts living in a poor neighborhood while attending a fancy white private school in the suburbs, feeling sometimes like she doesn't belong in either one. A moving and thought provoking book.
Sarah: One of my favorite books of the year - this book was pretty long for a YA novel, but I tore through it. Thought provoking, entertaining and well-written. Can't wait to see the movie!
Force of Nature by Jane Harper
Jen: I loved this one so much I gave it 5 stars and a full write up on the blog! Great mystery, great characters, great writing - I enjoyed it even better than her first book, "The Dry."
Sarah: I don't really remember this one, but I liked it. This type of book is definitely a favorite of mine, and I would put Jane Harper up there with some of my favorite mystery writers, like Tana French and Sophie Hannah. Funnily enough, I listened to the first book in the series and it was narrated in an Australian accent, so as I was reading this book, all I could hear was that narrator in my head....
Still Me by Jojo Moyes
Jen: I just love Jojo Moyes! This is the third book in a series, following "Me Before You" (which seemingly everyone I know read) and "After You." I also discussed this one in my blog post on the books I read on my weekend away. The stakes are certainly not as high in this novel in terms of the characters' lives as in the previous books, but I enjoyed it very much nonetheless. Louisa is just such a lovable character. There's not really a need for a 4th book about Louisa, but if Jojo Moyes wrote another one, I would read it anyway!
Sarah: This book was great - I liked it better than the first book in the series, maybe because it was more of a regular chick-lit book and not so sappy. Louisa is a great character and I'd be happy to read about any of her adventures.
The Last Mrs. Parrish - Liv Constantine
Jen: Like "Every Last Lie," this was another quasi-psychological thriller that was just ok for me. The first half of the book is told from the perspective of Amber, who is basically a total sociopath befriending a rich woman named Daphne so she can insinuate herself into her family and then steal her husband. And this is not a spoiler because Amber reveals that to the reader pretty immediately. It is definitely strange to read a book from the perspective of a character who is so conniving and totally lacking in empathy. About halfway through, the book switches to Daphne's perspective, who is at least a more sympathetic character, though there is a lot of other upsetting stuff in her half of the story as well. Then towards the end we see both their perspectives. There were a bunch of twists, some of which I predicted and some of which I didn't. It definitely was a page turner, but also somewhat unpleasant to read.
Sarah: I guessed the big twist pretty early in this book, but I still loved it for some reason. Amber was just one of those characters I loved to hate. And then Daphne turned out to be even more bad ass than I had hoped. I hope Reese Witherspoon is making this into a movie.
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Jen: I know you and I share a love for Beatriz Williams, though we both kind of hated her last book "Cocoa Beach" which we discussed in our first GCBC post. Luckily she was back up to form with this book, at least in my opinion. Enjoyable historical novel, set in 1930, 1951, and 1969, all on a tiny island on the Long Island Sound off of Connecticut, where the rich summer folk co-exist uneasily with the year-round residents. Not my favorite of her books, but a good soapy historical romance which is her specialty.
Sarah: I think Beatriz Williams was back in good form with this book, and it's one of my favorites of hers that I've read. Some of the twists were easy to guess, and some were pretty preposterous, but I loved the scene she set of life on the island and it was a good vacation read.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Jen: So, my 14 year old daughter Allison read this one too, as all 3 of us were going to have lunch this summer before your mean old opposing counsel on a deal for work made you have to cancel. Allison and I both LOVED this young adult historical novel, which begins as an account a young British female spy is writing after being captured by the Nazis in occupied France, where she is supposed to be sharing her knowledge to avoid further torture - and she starts by taking a long time to work up to how she came to be there, telling the story not just of how she came to be captured but also about how her best friend Maddie came to be a female pilot. It definitely starts out slow, but once it gets going, wow! Not entirely clear to me why this book is billed as a young adult novel, other than that both women are probably 17-18 - this is actually a pretty intense book. Once I got into it, I couldn't put it down, and I sobbed like crazy finishing it. You and I did discuss this one a tiny bit so I already know you didn't like it, which makes me SO sad since it is a definite contender for my 2018 Top 10 list!
Sarah: Hated this book. The entire first half was pointless and after that I just couldn't get into it.
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
Jen: I enjoyed this thriller even less than the two discussed above, so combining that with my dislike for "The Perfect Mothers," which I described in my weekend away blog, it has caused me to actually temporarily stop reading psychological thrillers. The genre exploded after the popularity of "Gone Girl," and I used to really enjoy them, but I'm just getting so sick of unreliable narrators and suspense created largely by narrators withholding important facts from the readers. This one is is about an agoraphobic woman who hasn't left the house in almost a year (for reasons which are not disclosed til much later in the book but I had figured out before then), who also has a drinking problem and is not properly taking her psychiatric meds, who likes to spy on her neighbors and believes she witnesses a murder - or did she? So kind of like "Girl on the Train" times 10 plus agoraphobia, and the possible crime doesn't take place til about 1/3 into the book so up until that point all the suspense comes solely from the unreliability of the narrator (and a lot of the suspense even after that does too, for that mater). Then towards the end some really bonkers twists start happening that I did not predict but nor were they satisfying. It definitely was a suspenseful book that kept me reading, but it also really annoyed the heck out of me.
Sarah: I think this genre is done for me, even though I am reading a psychological thriller right now! None of these are ever going to be as good as Gone Girl, even though they all bill themselves as the "next Gone Girl". Also, unreliable narrator is a cheap trick, in my opinion.
The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
Jen: I had very mixed feelings about this book. It really drew me in and kept me reading, but the characters were annoying (in a way that I don’t think was intended). The novel is told from the point of view of a woman named Lucy who narrates the whole book to “you,” with the you in question being a man named Gabe, from the time they met to their relationship afterwards. This was definitely a unique device though a little distracting at first, and I guessed the reason for it somewhat early on. Like I said, I really couldn’t put this down - but I’m giving it 3 stars, especially because, without giving spoilers, what seemed to be the overall message of this book for me was problematic rather than romantic.
Sarah: This book was quick reading, but the narrator was extremely annoying and needy. On top of that, she spends the whole book obsessing over some guy who she barely went out with, who treated her like dirt, and then dumped her. Meanwhile, she has a great husband at home. I really enjoyed the author's writing style, but I just wish she wrote about something less annoying/demeaning to women.
The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green
Jen: I think you and I have both read almost all of Jane Green’s books (though not necessarily all the same ones), and I’d put this one somewhere in the middle of the pack - not her best, but not her worst. Definitely better than the last one of hers that you and I read together, "Saving Grace." This one is about an actress and her 3 daughters, all of whom have difficult relationships with each other - the book starts with brief glimpses of each of them over the years, and then the bulk of the book is set in the present when the actress is sick and calls her daughters home to try to repair everyone’s relationships. I found all the characters annoying for much of the book as each seemed to be defined pretty much by one flaw, but as the book went on and the characters finally started to break out of their ruts, they grew on me. The end was perhaps a bit pat (and failed to wring any tears out of me), but I still was ok with it.
Sarah: I loved this book, perfect for vacation reading. I thought it might have had one too many characters, as there were too many stories to follow and the endings were a bit pat (had to be or the book would have been 1,000 pages long). Also, wasn't it weird for the grandson and his girlfriend that their moms got together? Awkward....
Jen: Sounds like other than "Code Name Verity," we pretty much agreed on everything! And that we both need a break from thrillers especially those with unreliable narrators. Though I have a feeling we’ll both keep reading them anyway!
*****
So there you have it! And that doesn't even count the books that one of us read and the other one is still reading or waiting on from the library. If you're wondering, that's"The Alice Network" by Kate Quinn and "The Death of Mrs. Westaway" by Ruth Ware that I read already and Sarah is currently working on/about to read; while Sarah has read "Leave No Trace" by Mindy Mejia (which I'm partly through), and she also already read 3 books which I'm still on the library waitlist for - "The Incendiaries" by R.O. Kwon, "Next Year in Havana" by Chanel Cleeton, and "Something in the Water" by Catherine Steadman.
In addition to catching up on those books, next up for us, at least currently, are: "The High Season" by Judy Blundell, and "The Husband Hour" by Jamie Brenner.
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