Reading Recap

Spectacular Things had me captivated from the very first pages. It starts in 2028 at a high stakes crossroads... Mia Lowe gives birth to a baby girl as her younger sister, Cricket, is playing as the goal keeper for the US Women's Soccer team at the Olympics. Mia suffers severe complications and needs a kidney transplant and she asks her sister and then the book quickly rewinds back to 1989 and starts telling the story of the girls, their mother, and everything leading up to those pivotal first pages. I felt like the characters were endearing, I loved the writing style, and LOVED how it started off and then "rewound" to the beginning and worked it's way back - fitting all the pieces in. I cried and was sad when it was over which says a lot ;) 

The Wrong Daughter was a psychological thriller that I couldn't stop listening to. It follows Caitlin, who has been eaten alive by lifelong guilt after witnessing her older sister Olivia's abduction 16 yers ago. Her life is completely upended when a woman claiming to be Olivia suddenly returns... bringing her grieving parents closure and joy but big doubts in Caitlin.  Then we meet Elinor, she is 17 and lives with her brother who she is obsessed with. Elinor and her brother’s lives are controlled by their uncle. Elinor’s POV felt very fairytale like which left you confused because you don’t know the time period of her POV or how it connects to overall the story. I honestly couldn't figure out how the two stories were going to fit together until it smacked me in the face and it was unexpected, dar, and twisty (THE BEST!). Overall I enjoyed how "different" it was and that it kept me guessing.

My only complaint about Dead Med is that I felt like it ended kind of abruptly and I was disappointed that it was over ;) It was a dark psychological thriller centered on five elite first-year medical students navigating a grueling, high-pressure curriculum at a prestigious medical school notorious for its suicide rate. Driven to their absolute breaking points by academic stress, cutthroat competition, and deep personal secrets, the students' ethical boundaries completely disintegrate. This volatile mix of paranoia and desperation ultimately builds to a single, chaotic night of shocking violence, murder, and irreversible choices that will change their lives forever.

Dead Woman Crossing follows Detective Kimberley King, who relocates from the NYPD to sleepy Custer County, Oklahoma, to reset her life. Shortly after arriving, her friend is brutally murdered, leaving a toddler as the only witness—and mirroring a century-old local unsolved crime. This one was a 3/5 for me... I didn't love the characters and found it to be a bit slow and predictable. That said - if you're down for a series and don't mind a slower burn I'd give it a try!

100% honest I really don't know how I feel about Yesteryear . On the one hand - I found it super entertaining... it's marketed as a "dark, biting satire" which it definitely is but at points it felt really pointed and almost kind of mean. Could it possibly be because I've been a HUGE fan of Ballerina Farm (I literally shared about her here in 2023 when she had like 150k followers - hahaha) for years and this felt like a personal attack on her? Probably. I think that I've always had a soft spot for Hannah and her family so this just felt kind of icky to me. 

While I understand the nuances of the conversations surrounding Ballerina Farm and influencer families in general (dare I say myself included - although I feel ridiculous even lumping myself into a conversation regarding people who have HUGE accounts/followings) and I know that Burke clarified that "her focus was on the images being produced rather than the real women behind them" it definitely read as almost targeted to Hannah and her family which I didn't love. 

ALL THAT TO SAY - I'd still recommend the read as it was unique, DARK, and just the right amount of weird ;) 

HAPPY Thursday and HAPPY reading, friends!!!