Book 167 – Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

• Started: December 31, 2021
• Finished: December 31, 2021
• Pages: 369
• Fiction
• Rating: 5/5

REVIEW + SUMMARY

Another incredible book from Taylor Jenkins Reid. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was one of my favorite books from 2020 and this book, which takes place in the same universe (and as Evidence of the Affair, another incredible 2021 read), was also just an absolute delight. She has such a lovely way with words and I found myself so drawn into her main characters and their lives. This book, compared to others, had a lot of side characters mentioned throughout the night of the party. I have to admit, I did not really try to stay on top of them, but just let their general shenanigans add to the atmosphere.

This book follows the four children of Mick Rivera (Evelyn’s third husband) on the night of the eldest daughter’s, Nina’s, epic Malibu party. The book works through their past, starting with when their mother, June, first met Mick and the course of their tumultuous relationship. It also covers how each of the four siblings found their place in both the family and the world, growing up in their absent father’s shadow. Each of the four siblings (Nina, Jay, Hud, and Kit) is harboring a small secret from the other and, as they make their way through the seemingly non-stop onslaught of guest (invited or otherwise), all will be revealed.

I would highly recommend this book (I already passed it on to my mom!) and am so glad this was the last book I read in 2021. Yes, there is one more post to come but it’s a bit of a different situation which will make sense as soon as I get around to posting its review…. Taylor Jenkins Reid is an incredible writer and her books make me feel so much. From the opening line, I had chills! I am definitely going to continue to work through her bibliography.

Book 166 – You Can Run by Karen Cleveland

• Started: December 28, 2021
• Finished: December 28, 2021
• Pages: 313
• Multiple POV, Timeline Jumps
• Rating: 4.75/5

REVIEW + SUMMARY

I’m back! At least to wrap up 2021. While I have been reading a bit in 2022, I haven’t been pushing through books quite as aggressively and I am still undecided on whether or not I will be maintaining this blog/my reviews. If nothing else, I wanted to get through the last three books I read so look out for for two more over the next few days.

I picked this book up on a whim from the library and it was a very classic thriller filled with international espionage and intrigue. I thought that all the characters were sensible – given the circumstances – and that it ended on a strong note. The villains were particularly deceptive and good at their jobs. Espionage and international conspiracies can get pretty far-fetched but I thought this operated well within the realm of what various nations would do in order to pull ahead.

Jill, a CIA analyst, is having a normal day vetting sources when she gets a call that her son, Owen, has been kidnapped. in order to get him back she needs to approve the next source in her queue, Falcon, no questions asked. She does, quits her job, immediately relocates her family out of state and constantly worries about the fall out. There doesn’t seem to be any until four years later when a journalist, Alex, reaches out to he after an anonymous tip about Falcon. At first Jill is reluctant to help, happy enough knowing that her family is safe. But Alex has piqued her curiosity and as they start to learn more about Falcon, Alex is able to convince Jill that she needs to come out of retirement. The two women join forces in order to protect both the nation and Jill’s family from a much larger, hidden threat.

I really liked this book and would definitely recommend. It reminded me a bit of The Banker’s Wife by Cristina Algers or The Power Couple by Alex Berenson. I like the spy genre and when books play out on such a large scale. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Book 165 – The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright

• Started: December 27, 2021
• Finished: December 28, 2021
• Pages: 259
• Fiction
• Rating: 4.75/5

REVIEW + SUMMARY

As I mentioned in my review of The Gathering, this is one of my favorite books. I believe the first time I read it was in 2013 (though the first time I saw the book was even earlier – probably 2012 when it came out). I definitely re-read it in 2016 or 2017 and here we are again. The storyline is much more cohesive and he narrator, Gina, has a much more tangible focus in her musings. Each time I read it, the same lines still stand out (perhaps because I reflect on them in the interim), but I also pick up on new pieces. I rarely buy books, but this is one I plan on picking up from a local bookstore; I want to be able to scribble in the margins and highlight my favorite passages before my eventual next re-read.

Gina starts the book reflecting on the first time she saw Sean Vallely, a married man that we now is now her lover. It was at her sister’s house in 2002 as Ireland is experiencing an economic boom. She is “just back from three weeks in Australia and mad – just mad – into Chardonnay.” At the time she is with Connor, a man who will become her husband and the overall moment seems insignificant. Or was it? She can’t tell – the moment is so clear to her and yet memory is such a fickle thing. They run into each other again and she meets his daughter, Evie, a slightly wayward girl. And still nothing happens. Until they’re abroad at a work conference and one drink leads to another and by the fourth day they find themselves in his room: the affair has begun. She goes home and thinks nothing of it, this fact that she has just killed her life. He starts consulting for her firm, the affair picks back up, her mother dies, they are found out, she separates from Connor but Sean’s ties to his wife and daughter remain. All throughout she reflects on the banality of life, the way she fell in love with Sean, and how things have changed since they officially got together – both for Ireland and for their personal life.

This is such a beautiful book and an overall quick read. As I mentioned, I love it enough to purchase it which is a pretty big deal for this library lover. It’s a flighty book and the characters aren’t particularly like-able but that doesn’t bother me. I don’t know that I would recommend it to most people but it’s special to me and that is enough. Here is a review that I love from someone who did not like the book as much as I did.

Book 164 – Friends Like These by Kimberly McCreight

• Started: December 26, 2021
• Finished: December 26, 2021
• Pages: 299
• Multiple POV, Timeline Jumps, New York
• Rating: 4.5/5

REVIEW + SUMMARY

This was a good reunion thriller. You know, a bunch of friends – each with their own secret and a shared dark past – get together and one ends up dead. Another good example would be In My Dreams I Hold a Knife or maybe even How To Kill Your Best Friend. I do think the story as a whole ended up being a little too neat with almost all of the various crimes over time being wrapped neatly into one solution but that’s okay. I was surprised by the ending – though in hindsight the clues were definitely at least partially there. I thought the friends’ dynamics were realistic, especially how shared memories can bring a group together no matter how much time has passed. I think that sense of camaraderie is one of my favorite parts of this type of thriller.

Five friends go to upstate New York together, partially to celebrate a bachelor party, partially to stage an intervention (for two different people!). The house belongs to wealthy Jonathan’s – a weekend place that he has been renovating with his fiancé – and it should be the perfect, isolated spot to convince Keith that he needs to go back to rehab. Lawyer Stephanie, peacekeeper Maeve, and writer -turned-professor Derrick are all there to support him, knowing that he never really got over the suicide of his college girlfriend, and their close friend, Alice. Things get off to a rocky start when they realize that Keith also brought his star artist, Finch, a very unwelcome guest. As we switch back and forth in time, we learn that things also ended rockily; one of the friends is dead and another is missing still. The book switches between characters and time over the course of the weekend (and their shared past) to show that pretty much every moment of the ill-fated trip was rocky; it started bad and just went downhill from there.

Some people complained that there was too much going on with the different characters and timelines. Normally, I do get confused pretty easily when there are more than 5 characters, but I did not find that to be the case here. I do think that the constant switching did muddy the waters a bit more and made it more difficult to pick out the culprit. Overall, I liked the book and would recommend it. If you read this and liked it, I would recommend the other two books I mentioned earlier, both were really good as well!

Book 163 – 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

• Started: December 25, 2021
• Finished: December 25, 2021
• Pages: 305
• Multiple POV, Timeline Jumps, Ireland
• Rating: 4.25/5

REVIEW + SUMMARY

This book, like the last thriller I read (Last Girl Ghosted) referenced COVID; but unlike that book 56 Days leaned HEAVILY into the COVID plotline. In fact, without that as a backdrop, the book wouldn’t have had quite the same atmosphere. I know for some people that will be a turn off and I do think that some of the parts (namely the present where the investigating detective is dealing with new protocols) were a little eye-roll inducing, but overall it captured the confusion and fear that plague many in the early days of the pandemic. The book did keep me on my toes and I was continuously surprised as more was revealed.

Ciara and Owen meet in late Winter 2020. You know, the eve of the world-wide COVID pandemic. Quickly they find themselves falling for each other and struggling with a whole new set of dating rules as Dublin enters lockdown. The book switches between Ciara and Owen throughout their courtship and we learn that they are both hiding secrets from their past. In the present, a detective arrives at their shared apartment to investigate the discovery of a body. Over the course of the book we learn what transpired over the course of their 56 days together and how it led to one untimely death.

I know some people have a hard time reading about COVID, especially as new variants are surging, but I do overall like the way it was handled and don’t feel as though it seemed forced as I have in other books. As far as thrillers go, I did not find it predictable at all. I can’t decide how I felt about the ending. Part of it was satisfying (the fact their relationship had been started during COVID and no one knew of their pairing allowed the remaining partner to walk away without issue) but part of it was deeply unsatisfying (the actual death, the deathbed confession, the fact that they had actually fallen in love it seemed??). Overall, I would recommend still.

Book 162 – Hysteria by Jessica Gross

• Started: December 23, 2021
• Finished: December 23, 2021
• Pages: 184
• Fiction
• Rating: 5/5

REVIEW + SUMMARY

I picked this book up on a whim at the library from its “new in” section and I am so glad I did. A reviewer on GoodReads said fit under the specific genre of “Disaster Women” not unlike an earlier favorite book – My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. And boy, was this narrator (unnamed) a disaster. Think Fleabag if Fleabag hated herself, had psychiatrists as parents, and a strange affinity for Sigmund Freud. (And if you haven’t seen Fleabag, I HIGHLY recommend.

The narrator is a young teacher who spends most of her time drinking or hungover, having sex, masturbating, or thinking about having sex. She simultaneously craves the attention and feels disgusted by her urges and the aftermath of her decisions. She’s mulling over her most recent exploits – her roommate’s brother and her parents’ friend, both of whom she is likely to run into on the same day – when she heads to her local bar to grade papers. There she meets a new bartender and quickly becomes convinced that he doesn’t just remind her of Sigmund Freud, he is Sigmund Freud. Over the course of the weekend she runs into him again and is forced to confront her destructive choices and the reasons she keeps returning to them.

This was such a quick read at under 200 pages and such a strange ride from beginning to end. But I loved it. It was so strange but also captured some very relatable thoughts – getting into habits that we are know are bad as a way to self-medicate and then relying them even more to escape the shame of the bad decisions (The plan was to drink until the pain’s over / But what’s worse – the pain or the hangover? – “Dark Fantasy” by Kanye West). This was much different than the thrillers I normally read so if that’s more what you’re into, I can’t say that you would like this book, but if you liked My Year of Rest and Relaxation then I would definitely recommend this as well.