SNOW, My Favorite Quote, and a Book Review: Little Fires Everywhere {Celeste Ng}

There is a ridiculously amazingly awesome amount of snow here! I. LOVE. WINTER. My children are home from school, my husband is home from work, and my heart is so very happy. We are safe, we are warm, and my father is coming over this afternoon for the annual “Snow Picnic” that my kids wait all year for. It’s going to be a good day.  A very good day indeed.

3 Days 3 Quotes Challenge

Thank you so much Facing the Story for nominating me to take part in the 3 Days, 3 Quotes Challenge! I gladly accept 🙂 Here are the rules:

RULES:

• Thank the person who nominated you.
• Post one quote per day for three days.
• Nominate three blogs per day to take part in this challenge.

I don’t post every single day but I will take part in this for 3 consecutive blog posts. For Day 1, I’ll leave my absolute favorite quote of all time:

“I always knew I’d look back on the times I had cried and laugh but I never knew I’d look back on the times I had laughed and cry.”

That quote was written in my senior yearbook from high school as my favorite quote and over 20 years later it’s still my favorite. Since becoming a mother, it has taken on an entirely new meaning! I love it so much and I think of it often.

I tag:

Jennifer Tar Heel Reader 

Flowers In The Brain

Dirty Sci Fi Buddha

I’m looking forward to reading your favorite quotes!

And now..a book review:

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When the Richardsons’ friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs to her own family – and Mia’s.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of long-held secrets and the ferocious pull of motherhood-and the danger of believing that planning and following the rules can avert disaster, or heartbreak.

My Thoughts:

(Disclaimer: I will never post spoilers in my reviews HOWEVER the comment section is completely fair game to discuss any and all specifics including spoilers)

4 Stars

When this book was first released last year, it was literally FLYING off of the shelves.  I was #32 on the library wait list and painfully checked the library website every single day to see how many readers were in front of me (does anyone else do this??)  My family and I were on a vacation in Mexico during the painful wait list time.  I was reading (and not enjoying) this book (click the link to read my review): A Stranger in the House {Shari Lapena} while the lady next to me at the pool was casually lounging and reading Little Fires Everywhere (affiliate)! I was so jealous!  I kept glaring at her and she obviously had no idea why, lol (although some of that could have been that she was spending more time talking to her husband than actually reading the book and clearly didn’t realize how lucky she was to be holding it but I digress).

We came home from our glorious Mexican vacation and a few weeks later…I got THE call!  The book was waiting for me!  I drove straight to the library that day, I couldn’t WAIT to dig into this book.

My thoughts in a nutshell?

This book was great…but…I don’t think it quite deserves all of the hype that it has received.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved it.  Like everyone does.  The story lines as well as the characters were complex, detailed, and interesting, Ng did a brilliant job of intertwining all of the characters and it made for a very interesting and intriguing read.  However, with all of the hype surrounding this book, I was just expecting MORE.  If the book weren’t so hyped it to begin with, I truly think I would have found it even more enjoyable.  I spent the entire book just waiting to be blown away so when I wasn’t…it was a tiny bit of a let down.

Bottom Line:

Great book but not nearly as great as everyone says it is.

Did you read this book?  What did you think?

It would really help me if you could follow/subscribe to my blog.  Also, please “like” my Facebook page (www.fb.com/bookcoffeehappy),  follow me on Twitter@bookcoffeehappy, and follow me on Instagram (@bookcoffeehappy)!  

Click the image below to order the book through my Amazon affiliate link.  When you order through this link, I receive a tiny commission. Thank you for your support, Xo