Thursday, October 20, 2022

Reading Recap

It's been a hot minute since I've shared what I've been reading and I'm pumped up for today since there are some GOOD ONES in this batch of books!

I've been a Crime Junkie fan for EVER and was super excited to give  All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers a listen and I LOVED IT!  You can totally tell that Ashley loves true crime and storytelling and the twists and turns kept me guessing and I was really engaged with the characters.  It had a "JonBenet" feel to it which I thought was interesting.  Y'all know I love a flashback and I enjoyed concurrent story lines and how the pieces all fit together using them.  If you love true crime I HIGHLY recommend!



"Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the case of January Jacobs, who was found dead in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist, but she’s always been haunted by the fear that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her sick uncle, it feels like walking into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembered: genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under eerily similar circumstances. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and solve January’s murder once and for all.

But the police, the family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could the killer still be out there? Could it be the same person who kidnapped Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night?"


The Second Life of Mirelle West was everything I love about historical fiction.  I had NO CLUE that there was an actual Lepers colony in the US in the 1920s and literally felt like my mouth was hanging open as I read in disbelief.  It was unique and haunting and I LOVED the characters of Carville.


"For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease."

The Knockoff was probably my FAVORITE read this month.  It had strong Devil Wears Prada vibes (but in a backwards sort of a way) and I found myself smiling through the whole thing and it was just FUN.  I listened to it on audible and the characters were big and loud and while I did feel like Imogen came across as A LOT older than her 42 years I REALLY enjoyed the book.


An outrageously stylish, wickedly funny novel of fashion in the digital age, The Knockoff is the story of Imogen Tate, editor in chief of Glossy magazine, who finds her 20-something former assistant Eve Morton plotting to knock Imogen off her pedestal, take over her job, and reduce the magazine, famous for its lavish 768-page September issue, into an app. 

When Imogen returns to work at Glossy after six months away, she can barely recognize her own magazine. Eve, fresh out of Harvard Business School, has fired "the gray hairs", put the managing editor in a supply closet, stopped using the landlines, and hired a bevy of manicured and questionably attired underlings who text and tweet their way through meetings. Imogen, darling of the fashion world, may have Alexander Wang and Diane von Furstenberg on speed dial, but she can't tell Facebook from Foursquare and once got her iPhone stuck in Japanese for two days. Under Eve's reign, Glossy is rapidly becoming a digital sweatshop - hackathons rage all night, girls who sleep get fired, and "fun" means mandatory, company-wide coordinated dances to Beyoncé. Wildly out of her depth, Imogen faces a choice - pack up her Smythson notebooks and quit, or channel her inner geek and take on Eve to save both the magazine and her career. A glittering, uproarious, sharply drawn story filled with thinly veiled fashion personalities, The Knockoff is an insider's look at the ever-changing world of fashion and a fabulous romp for our internet-addicted age



Finlay Donovan is Killing It was another SUPER fun read.  It was a comedy-mystery mix which I LOVED and Finlay could not have been more endearing.  The book was FUNNY (she was banned from Panera!) and lighthearted but the mystery part was still there which was great. 


FINLAY DONOVAN IS KILLING IT...except, she’s really not. The new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head.

When Finlay’s overheard discussing the plot of her new novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet...and she soon discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart.  



Girl, Forgotten is another dual timeline book with a story from 1982 being told along with the current time and if I'm being honest I hated EVERY SINGLE PERSON from the 80s timeline.  Like - they were awful human beings and parts of it were really hard to get through because of it BUT the book as a whole was dark and twisty and compelling and I enjoyed it A LOT.


"From the New York Times bestselling author of Pieces of Her, comes an electrifying thriller featuring newly minted US Marshal Andrea Oliver as she investigates a cold case with links to her father’s past. 

A small town hides a big secret…

Who killed Emily Vaughn?

A girl with a secret…

Longbill Beach, 1982. Emily Vaughn gets ready for the prom. For an athlete, who is smart, pretty and well-liked, this night should be the highlight of her high school career. But Emily has a secret. And by the end of the evening, that secret will be silenced forever. 

An unsolved murder…

Forty years later, Emily’s murder remains a mystery. Her tight-knit group of friends closed ranks; her respected, wealthy family retreated inwards; the small town moved on from her grisly attack. But all that’s about to change.

One final chance to uncover a killer…

US Marshal Andrea Oliver arrives in Longbill Beach on her first assignment: to protect a judge receiving death threats. But, in reality, Andrea is there to find justice for Emily. The killer is still out there—and Andrea must discover the truth before she gets silenced, too…"




After Girl, Forgotten I needed something lighter and so I indulged in  When Life Gives You Lululemons.   It's the third book in the Devil Wears Prada series, but is pretty much stand alone and I found it to be fun and irreverent.  It was pretty vapid, but that comes with the territory and I didn't enjoy it as much as I liked The Knockoff but if you're looking for a fun, light, easy read I'd for sure recommend it.


Welcome to Greenwich, Connecticut, where the lawns and the women are perfectly manicured, the Tito’s and sodas are extra strong, and everyone has something to say about the infamous new neighbor.

Let’s be clear: Emily Charlton does 
not 
do the suburbs. After leaving Miranda Priestly, she’s been working in Hollywood as an image consultant to the stars, but recently, Emily’s lost a few clients. She’s hopeless with social media. The new guard is nipping at her heels. She needs a big opportunity, and she needs it now.

When Karolina Hartwell, a gorgeous former supermodel, is arrested, her fall from grace is merciless. Her senator-husband leaves her, her Beltway friends disappear, and the tabloids pounce.

In Karolina, Emily finds her comeback opportunity. But she quickly learns Greenwich is a world apart and that this comeback needs a team approach.

So it is that Emily, the scorned Karolina, and their mutual friend Miriam, a powerful attorney turned stay-at-home mom, band together to navigate the social land mines of suburban Greenwich and win back the hearts of the American public. Along the way, an unexpected ally emerges in one Miranda Priestly.


HAPPY Thursday and happy reading, friends!!!

2 comments :

  1. Wakarusa, IN? You are kidding me. I have to read this one! Waky is where I lived as a child and when we returned from PR at age 16. That is where I want to be buried.......Gotta read this one...

    ReplyDelete

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