Hey Everyone!
Happy Friday 🙂 I hope you all have some fun plans for this weekend.
We have 3 Hanukkah parties to attend! Our weekend will be filled with latkes, presents, dreidels, menorahs, and lots of family and friends. Happy 6th night of Hanukkah to all who are celebrating! So far, my daughter’s favorite gifts have included her hamster and a gigantic Hatchimal (turns out I am just as excited about this toy as she is. Do any of your kids have one??? It’s awesome!) My son’s favorite gifts so far have included an Elmo lift the flap potty book (he received it 2 nights ago and we’ve easily read it 10 times already) and dinosaur figurines. My husband bought me an online blogging course! I’m so excited, hopefully I will learn all kinds of blogging tips to help Book Coffee Happy GROW!
I Am Brave and Unafraid Giveaway Winners
Congratulations to:
Debbie (I would donate this book to the Roy School library. I have been working in this library for 13 years. The students are always very excited to see new books that I display. This book would be a great addition to our library. Thank you 😃📚)
and
Becca V. (This sounds like a wonderful book to join my classroom library. As a first grade teacher I’d love to have the opportunity to share the important message of this book.
This year I’m really trying to focus on social emotional skills with my students and mentor text are a great way to start the conversation and understanding of these important topics and issues.
It would also be terrific to be able to donate a copy of this book in our school library so that the whole school can have the chance to read the book. Often times the books I read in class are the ones my students like to check out so having a copy in the library would be fantastic and then my students can share it with their families. 🙂! )
Ladies, please email me at bookcoffeehappy@gmail.com and we will arrange all of the details! Congratulations!
If you didn’t win this one, no worries…I have some AWESOME giveaways coming your way soon! Stay tuned 🙂
And now…A book review! I read this book years ago and LOVED it so much.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can’t get the girl out of her head…
Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family’s objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home.
Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow’s past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she’s willing to go to help a stranger. What starts as an act of kindness quickly spirals into a story far more twisted than anyone could have anticipated.
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)
5 Stars
I absolutely love Mary Kubica and this book is what started it all for me. It’s AWESOME. Full of suspenseful twists and a great plot. I truly couldn’t put this book down and absolutely loved it from page 1. Once you start reading this book you will not be able to stop until you get some answers…
The characters, the PLOT TWISTS, the story lines…everything was just awesome. I don’t want to give too much away so I’ll just say this: Read this. It’s fantastic.
For my local readers, Mary Kubica is from Chicago and this is the setting for her books! I would love these books regardless but actually knowing the places she refers to makes her books that much better for me. I definitely do not love all of her books but overall I think she’s so amazing. She has written more since this one but this book is by far her best! Highly recommend.
Bottom Line:
This was the very first psychological thriller I ever read and I instantly fell in love with the entire genre based upon this one awesome book.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
Book Coffee Happy 
I enjoyed this one too. Don’t You Cry is probably my favorite of her books, but her latest one is really good too! I’ve shared this review with Mary. 🙂
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Thank you so much! I would love for her to see it! I tagged her here and also on Instagram, she’s amazing. Don’t You Cry was AWESOME and the ending was perfection.
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I love Mary Kubica books. I haven’t read this one yet. I want to read it!
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Oh you need to read this one, I think it’s her best 🙂
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Have you read The Good Girl too?
On Fri, Dec 7, 2018 at 8:03 AM Book Coffee Happy wrote:
> bookcoffeehappy posted: “Hey Everyone! Happy Friday 🙂 I hope you all > have some fun plans for this weekend. We have 3 Hanukkah parties to > attend! Our weekend will be filled with latkes, presents, dreidels, > menorahs, and lots of family and friends. Happy 6th night of Hanukkah” >
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Loved it!!!
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Pretty Baby has been on my “to read” list for a LONG time, probably since it came out. I’m moving it up on my list now! Love your review, Jenny. Happy Hanukkah and have fun at your parties! Also, Addie has several items of clothing with dinosaurs on them and she smiles and laughs when I talk about her dinosaurs. I bet she would love E’s dinosaurs too!
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Oh you NEED to read this book! I really think it’s her best one. Thank you so much for your kind words! He is currently dinosaur obsessed…all dinosaurs, all the time over here 🙂 I wish you lived closer so we could have a dino play date with them!
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Ahh, a dino play date would be so fun!! She’d probably love to play with “girly” things with Em too. Addie loves purses and shoes too!
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Awwww! This would be PERFECT!
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OK, here are my thoughts:
I started the book on Monday and once I started reading it, I had to finish it. Overall, I enjoyed the POV switch for each chapter to hear the different sides of the story. I also liked the slow progression, it helped build anxiety and a NEED to know what was going to happen. I was almost unsettled during this book, a little anxious – which in a way was a good thing because it kept me wanting to read more. I loved the plot – it had a great premise and the promise to be an amazing book. But it wasn’t and I don’t think she pulled it off. My main problem – lack of character development! I needed more from these characters to actually care about them. Seeing Heidi start to obsess over Ruby didn’t even concern me because I just didn’t care what happened to any of them. I just couldn’t connect at all. The book was also full of unnecessary information. Like details about Zoe. She was always tired and cold, running that damn heater. Was that because she was being drugged by Heidi who was “unknowingly” giving her Ambien? Also, that damn yellow notebook was so important to her and the author wrote about it as if it was an extremely important part of the story. But nothing ever happened with Zoe. She was just a typical, moody pre-teen and some of the details about her were unnecessary. And what happened to Jennifer? She needed to talk to Heidi, obsessively called and went to her house and then nothing. What was the point of that? Parts of the book were also a bit predictable, such as Ruby. Obviously, she wasn’t Willow’s daughter. After she received that letter from her sister’s adoptive family about having a new baby, I knew the baby was Calla. I just didn’t know how she got the baby so I wanted to keep reading to find out. These are just my main thoughts – I’d probably give it a 3/5 stars, and probably wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. That being said, I’m started one of her other books today – The Good Girl because I heard it was so much better than Pretty Baby. And since I enjoyed her writing style, I thought I’d try it out.
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So admittingly I read the book years ago so I’m not totally remembering each detail but I
I absolutely loved it! I agree with you in that I HAD TO KNOW what was going to happen, I truly couldn’t put this book down once I started. I needed answers! I remember being SHOCKED at the twist of who the baby belonged to. I really never try to predict books as I read and this twist caught me completely off guard. LOVE. I’m so sorry you didn’t love this book as much as I did! The Good Girl was an amazing book, my 2nd favorite that she has written 🙂 I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts!
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I just finished Pretty Baby. It was so good. I finished in less than 3 days. I loved how the writing made you think the story was going in one direction, but then it totally turns into a different direction. I couldn’t put the book down. What an awesome read!
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Yay, I’m so glad you loved it! I knew that you would!
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Okay, I know this is from 5 years ago now but I just have to say that I am disappointed. I also want to say that I really like and respect your blog so I am not trying to come across as rude, just want to leave some feedback.
Please try to put trigger warnings perhaps on your reviews of books? I read your review on Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell and you said that book was disturbing and you suggested this one instead. I agree that Then She Was Gone was disturbing, however, this one was three times as disturbing to me. I feel like this book was offered as a less dark alternative to the other one, but it wasn’t. This one was really hard for me to read and will stick with me.
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Hi Mary!
Thank you so much for your feedback and for your suggestion. I really do appreciate it and for your support of Book Coffee Happy! The reason I don’t include trigger warnings is only because I never want to give ANY spoilers and often, trigger warnings can unintentionally lead to some pretty big spoilers. Again, I so appreciate your feedback!
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