Tag: #bookblogger

Audiobook Review: Do Not Disturb {Freida McFadden}

Audiobook Review: Do Not Disturb {Freida McFadden}

Crumbl Cookies, you have my heart.

Hiiiii! How are you? I have been on such an audiobook kick lately! I listened to this one a few weeks ago over the course of a few days. This is my 2nd Freida Mcfadden book. You can read my review (and book synopsis) of The Surrogate Mother HERE.

Photo Credit: Amazon

Goodreads Synopsis of Do Not Disturb {Freida McFadden}:

Quinn Alexander has committed an unthinkable crime.

To avoid spending her life in prison, Quinn makes a run for it. She leaves behind her home, her job, and her family. She grabs her passport and heads for the northern border before the police can discover what she’s done.

But when an unexpected snowstorm forces her off the road, Quinn must take refuge at the broken-down, isolated Baxter Motel. The handsome and kindly owner, Nick Baxter, is only too happy to offer her a cheap room for the night.

Unfortunately, the Baxter Motel isn’t the quiet, safe haven it seemed to be. The motel has a dark and disturbing past. And in the dilapidated house across the way, the silhouette of Nick’s ailing wife is always at the window. Always watching.

In the morning, Quinn must leave the motel. She’ll pack up her belongings and get back on the road to freedom.

But first, she must survive the night.

My Review of Do Not Disturb {Freida McFadden}:

I appreciate the writing…so many different storylines and so many characters all weaved together.

The actual story? Eh. I wasn’t nearly as invested in it as I should have been. An easy listen but one I most definitely wasn’t racing to listen to at every chance I got. I kept waiting for it to get better but it just never did. Fell flat for me. And while my predictions did keep changing as I read, I found one major part of the ending to be pretty predictable. Eh.

As an audiobook? Another eh. I hated Nick’s voice.

Book Coffee Happy Epilogue:

I would skip this one. It’s fine…but there are way better audiobooks out there!

Have you read this book? What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Xo,

Jenny

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Click HERE for the 13 best books I read in 2022

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Why these 2 Books Are So Meaningful To Me: The Time Travelers Wife {Audrey Niffenegger} and The Sari Shop Widow {Shobhan Bantwal}

I’ve mentioned before that I take choosing books for vacations very seriously.  When packing for my honeymoon 10 years ago (!!!) I took choosing these books VERY seriously!  Jon and I just celebrated our 10 year anniversary last week and in honor of this milestone anniversary, I thought I would share bits of our honeymoon with you today.

10 years ago, we left for our honeymoon approximately 28 hours after our wedding ended and I was more than READY for a relaxing, perfect week in Jamaica with my HUSBAND!

Checking into the hotel was the very first time I ever officially wrote my brand new name!

We had the best week with the best memories.  The most perfect start to our new life!

For as long as I live, I will never ever forget laying in the shallow end of this beautiful ocean while reading a book.  To this day, I’ve never in my entire life felt as peaceful as I did in that moment.  The waves all around me, the sky as perfectly blue as could be.  I would give anything to return to that beach and read just like that again one day.  Hands down one of my most favorite reading moments of my life!

So peaceful, right???

Beautiful.

We had our own private villa with our own private pool.  See those lounge chairs?  I remember laying there and reading next to my new tote bag with my brand new initials while Jon was laying in the chair next to me.  Every few pages I would glance over at that tote in pure disbelief that those initials were now MINE!

Only a true book nerd would apparently take a picture of the book she was reading while on her honeymoon, lol:

Our private villa had the most gorgeous balcony where I would wake up before sunrise and read while Jon was still sleeping (AKA still one of my favorite things to do on any vacation!  I would rather wake up early and read than sleep in any day):

Here are the 2 books that I brought with me that week:

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Audrey Niffenegger’s innovative debut, The Time Traveler’s Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.

The Time Traveler’s Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals—steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

My Thoughts:

Omg this book.  I SOBBED in the very best way possible!  Truly one of the best and most thought provoking books I’ve read.  If you haven’t read this gem, I VERY highly recommend it.  Beautifully written characters, beautifully written story.  I’m getting teary just thinking about it.  Such a gorgeous book.  READ THIS BOOK!

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Since becoming a widow at age twenty-seven, Anjali Kapadia has devoted herself to transforming her parents’ sari shop into a chic boutique, brimming with exquisite jewelry and clothing. Now, ten years later, it stands out like a proud maharani amid Edison’s bustling Little India. But when Anjali learns the shop is on the brink of bankruptcy, she feels her world unraveling…

To the rescue comes Anjali’s wealthy, dictatorial Uncle Jeevan and his business partner, Rishi Shah — a mysterious Londoner, complete with British accent, cool gray eyes, and skin so fair it makes it hard to believe he’s Indian. Rishi’s cool, foreign demeanor triggers distrust in Anjali and her mother. But for Anjali, he also stirs something else, a powerful attraction she hasn’t felt in a decade. And the feeling is mutual…

Love disappointed Anjali once before and she’s vowed to live without it — though Rishi is slowly melting her resolve and, as the shop regains its footing, gaining her trust. But when a secret from Rishi’s past is revealed, Anjali must turn to her family and her strong cultural upbringing to guide her in finding the truth…

My Thoughts:

I’ll be honest…this book didn’t leave nearly the impression on me as The Time Traveler’s Wife did.  I very much remember LIKING it…but I do not very much remember LOVING it.  Wasn’t horrible, wasn’t amazing.  This book was just a bit forgettable although clearly the EXPERIENCE of reading it for me was most definitely not!

I loved both of these books but the most special part of them isn’t the writing.  It is the fact that they are both completely water logged from the gorgeous Jamaican water!  Just looking at the ripples in these pages will forever make me smile and remember one of the best times of my entire life.  I will never, ever get rid of these books!

Aaaaand come to think of it…this would be yet another example of how I don’t take care of books, lol 🙂

Have you read either of these books?  What did you think?

Xo,

Jenny

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

This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support!  Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:

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The ultimate list of my top book suggestions can be found HERE

How Do You Treat Books?

I’m currently borrowing a book from a friend and knowing that I have to give it back when I’m done reading is making me very much aware of the way I am treating it.

It’s not that I normally MIStreat books necessarily, it’s that I’m just so used to always having them next to me that I just seamlessly incorporate them into my daily life.  I toss them into my computer bag, throw them onto the seat of my car, eat while reading, etc.

Not this book.

See that safe place on top of my husband’s dresser?  The dust jacket (or book jacket…both terms are correct) has been sitting safely there since the day I began reading so I won’t accidentally tear or bend it.  Safely away from my children’s curious hands.  The ONLY times I have put it actually ON the book have been to take pictures for Instagram or Facebook, lol.

I NEVER use bookmarks…ever.  I always dog ear (fold down) the corners of my pages!  Not this time…a tiny yellow post it note has been holding my place.  Hate it.  I’ve never been one to have to read to the end of the chapter before putting the book down so I always leave off in random places.  Dog earing the pages allows me to know exactly which page I left off on!  Now I have to figure it out between 2 pages each time I pick it up which is annoying.

I LOVE to bend the spine of books as I’m reading.  I know many of you may find this weird but it actually makes me feel more connected to the book because it feels more “lived in” as I’m reading!  Here are some examples of this from my bookshelf:

The borrowed book I’m currently reading?  PERFECT SPINE.

I never realized how much I use books as coffee coasters.  Apparently it’s often!  Not this book 🙂

And a small glimpse into my life…I have written this entire blog post with a 4 year old  cuddled up to me with his favorite joke book.  The book comes with a “Whoopie Blaster” and makes various farting noises.  Some bloggers write to the sound of beautiful music while here I am sitting and writing to the sound of farts.  Lovely.

Wake of the Sadico Winner:

How do you treat books?  I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Xo,

Jenny

This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support!  Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:

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***GIVEAWAY (Open to International Readers)*** Wake of the Sadico {Jo Sparkes}

I’m excited to host this international giveaway for you today!  When Jo Sparkes reached out to me last fall to see if I would be interested in reading and reviewing The Wake of the Sadico, I knew that it was a book that would be quite different from the usual books I read and review.  As with everything in life, sometimes going out of your comfort zone is a good thing.  In this case, it was a VERY good thing!

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest blog review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Synopsis:

On a Caribbean dive vacation, five friends discover a centuries old shipwreck – and a karmic debt past due.
Wall Eddington has always done the correct thing. It’s part of being British, part of family tradition. Yet somehow someone drowned.
Now, half a world away, he’s diving off an old sailboat with four American friends. As a vacation it’s a bit primitive, but just what his soul craves.
Until they find a shipwreck.

Untouched and impossibly preserved, the thing bewitches with promises of gold. Their rush to claim it bogs down with odd accidents and petty arguments – and Wall is not the only one with dark dreams of pain and torture. Dreams of a captain called Sadico.
In fleeing his personal demon, Wall has run straight to its lair.
This trap was laid centuries ago, for five souls moved on to new lives and new loves. Set by the one soul they left behind.

My Thoughts:

First of all, can we please take a moment to discuss how gorgeous this cover photo is?!?  STUNNING.

This book is the most perfect example of why sometimes it’s great to have new experiences and reading a book outside of my usual selections proved to be such a positive and new experience for me.  I went into reading this book with a completely open mind and I’m so happy to report that it totally sucked me right in.

Some of the underwater scenes had me literally holding my breath because they were so intense!  I couldn’t put this book down and finished almost the entire second half over the course of 2 days.

I couldn’t help but think numerous times while reading what an intense and awesome movie this book would make.  The writing was so colorful and descriptive that bringing it to the big screen would be fantastic!  One of the best parts of this book was how everything and everyone tied together to create such a complicated and twisted story.  Seeing all of that unfold on the big screen would be so amazing. I can’t even imagine how terrifyingly awesome some of those underwater scenes would be!  OMG.

One of my absolute favorite parts of writing my blog is communicating with authors and I have loved communicating with Jo Sparkes over the past few months!  She is just lovely and so is her book!  Thanks so much for allowing me the opportunity to read and review your book, Jo 🙂

A Conversation with Jo Sparkes, In Her Own Words:

How did you create the idea for your book?

The book came together through 3 separate pieces.

Learning to dive with 2 instructors who loved wreck diving and a Brit who took exception to some American rules.

Spending time in the UK with my British husband and his friends. I grew fascinated with the cultural differences from the USA (my home country). Wall sprang from 3 people, though (like all characters really), he grew into his own identity.

When reincarnation sprang into my orbit – all the pieces fell together.

What audience would be most interested in your book?

Those who like beach reads, supernatural thrillers, tales with ghosts and a happy ending. This plays with reincarnation a little differently.

Where can your book be purchased?

Currently on Amazon and Ingram. That should expand to other outlets in a few months.

Use 3 adjectives to describe your book:

scary   tropical   suspenseful

Any additional information that you would like to provide about you or your book:

I made up the term ‘soul pods’ – but not the concept. And while I wouldn’t label it a romance, my editor points out “but they’re literally soul-mates!”

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

***GIVEAWAY DETAILS***

Would you like to win a copy of Wake of the Sadico?
I have 1 copy to give away!  Your choice…hard copy or Kindle version!

To be entered, please complete these 2 simple steps:

1. Make sure that you are following and/or subscribed to my blog

2.  Tell me in the comments below (on this blog post) about a time when you did something outside of your comfort zone!

**You must complete BOTH of these steps to be eligible for the giveaway and you must complete them here on my blog (not on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)**

Giveaway will close tomorrow (4/17/20) at 6:00 pm CDT and the winner will be randomly chosen and announced in Saturday’s blog post (4/18/20).

Make sure you check the blog on Saturday to see if you’ve won (you will have 48 hours from the time I post the winners to email me your mailing address.  If I don’t hear from you within 48 hours, I will pick a new winner).

If you already follow and/or subscribe to my blog, you are still eligible…just leave a comment below to be entered 🙂

Good luck!  Can’t wait to read your comments!

Xo,

Jenny

This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support!  Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:

*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*

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The ultimate list of my top book suggestions can be found HERE

WWW #6 {Book Coffee Happy}

Thanks so much to Sam from Taking on a World of Words  for hosting this fun weekly WWW (What I’m Reading) post!  I love when Book Coffee Happy can participate!

The Three W’s are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Be careful who you let in.

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

In The Family Upstairs, the master of “bone-chilling suspense” (People) brings us the can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

I started reading this one a few days ago.  I’ve heard from so many people who loooooved it, I’m excited to see if I will feel the same way 🙂 I’ll post a full blog review once I’m finished reading!

What did you recently finish reading?

Synopsis from Goodreads:

On a Caribbean dive vacation, five friends discover a centuries old shipwreck – and a karmic debt past due.
Wall Eddington has always done the correct thing. It’s part of being British, part of family tradition. Yet somehow someone drowned.
Now, half a world away, he’s diving off an old sailboat with four American friends. As a vacation it’s a bit primitive, but just what his soul craves.
Until they find a shipwreck.

Untouched and impossibly preserved, the thing bewitches with promises of gold. Their rush to claim it bogs down with odd accidents and petty arguments – and Wall is not the only one with dark dreams of pain and torture. Dreams of a captain called Sadico.
In fleeing his personal demon, Wall has run straight to its lair.
This trap was laid centuries ago, for five souls moved on to new lives and new loves. Set by the one soul they left behind.

This book is GREAT and…I’m hosting a GIVEAWAY for it on the blog TOMORROW!!!  Be sure to check back here in the morning for your chance to win!

What do you think you’ll read next?

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Assigned to the same suite during their freshman year at Quincy-Hawthorne College, Lainey, Ji Sun, Alice, and Margaret quickly become inseparable. The leafy green campus they move through together, the idyllic window seat they share in their suite, and the passion and ferocity that school and independence awakens in them ignites an all-encompassing love with one another. But they soon find their bonds–forged in joy, and fused by fear–must weather threats that originate from beyond the dark forests of their childhoods, and come at them from institutions, from one another, and ultimately, from within themselves.

The Other’s Gold follows the four friends as each makes a terrible mistake, moving from their wild college days to their more feral days as new parents. With one part devoted to each mistake–the Accident, the Accusation, the Kiss, and the Bite–this complex yet compulsively readable debut interrogates the way that growing up forces our friendships to evolve as the women discover what they and their loved ones are capable of, and capable of forgiving. A joyful, big-hearted book that perfectly evokes the bittersweet experience of falling in love with friendship, the experiences of Lainey, Ji Sun, Alice, and Margaret are at once achingly familiar and yet shine with a brilliance and depth all their own.

I’m such a sucker for novels about best friends.  And this book has FOUR best friends just like ME!  I can’t wait to start reading.  The synopsis makes me immediately think of this book.  Fingers crossed it’s similar because I LOVED that book…

What are you currently reading?  I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Xo,

Jenny

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

This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support!  Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:

*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*

*Subscribe with your email address to my blog (scroll all the way to the bottom of this page on mobile devices OR check the top right of this screen to enter your email address)*

*If you already have a blog, please “follow” mine*

*”Like” my Facebook page (and please comment on, “like”, and share my posts)*

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The ultimate list of my top book suggestions can be found HERE

An Older Book that I LOVED #3

I posted about one of my all time favorite books a few days ago and it got me thinking of other older books that I LOVE but for whatever reason have never been written about on my blog.  Being home and quarantined is giving me a perfect opportunity to share these special books with all you 🙂

During a time when so many of you are looking for wonderful books to read, this feels like a wonderful time to give these suggestions and a chance for me to revisit some of my very favorite titles.  Writing about these books is definitely making me want to reread them!

(I wrote this post last year but it is another example of an older book that I LOVED so I’m including it in this new blog series as well)!

Synopsis from Goodreads:

A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.

Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what’s been missing in her life, and when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.

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

Oh how I loved this book!

It was so beautifully written.  Everything about this book was absolutely stunning…the storylines, the characters, the writing style….everything.  Couldn’t put it down.

I remember sitting in our library’s silent reading room 6 years ago with this book open in front of me as I DEVOURED each beautiful page.  There was a cackling fire in the fireplace, blueberry oatmeal in the tupperware container next to me, steaming hot coffee in the orange travel mug in my hand, and I remember thinking that the entire scene was the most perfect definition of the word”glorious”.

Although I never wrote about this special book on my blog until today (hoooow???), I apparently did write about it on Instagram back in 2018:

Bottom Line:

One of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read.

Xo,

Jenny

Have you read The Language of Flowers?  What did you think?  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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

This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support!  Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:

*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*

*Subscribe with your email address to my blog (scroll all the way to the bottom of this page on mobile devices OR check the top right of this screen to enter your email address)*

*If you already have a blog, please “follow” mine*

*”Like” my Facebook page (and please comment on, “like”, and share my posts)*

*Follow me on Instagram*

*Follow me on Twitter*

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel*

*Clicking and buying products through my Amazon Affiliate links.  The cost to you is exactly the same and I receive a tiny commission off of your purchases.*

*Leaving a positive review on my Facebook page*

The ultimate list of my top book suggestions can be found HERE

Coronavirus Quarantine Life

Hi Friends!

How are you doing during this Coronavirus quarantine?  We are doing well, staying HOME, and trying to do all that we can to avoid exposure to this crazy virus.

I am usually VERY strict about lighting seasonal candles only during the appropriate season.  This quarantine has thrown all of those rules out the window!  Loving going through all of my candles with zero regard as to which season they correspond to!  Burning my all time favorite Bath and Body Works Winter Candle Apple as we speak 🙂

Last week my husband took my kids on a bike ride and my son fell asleep in the bike trailer.  Every time!!!  I was waiting inside (DAMN BROKEN TOE 3 MONTHS LATER) with open arms and an open book! My daughter took this picture, I love it.  He slept on me for over an hour like this!  FYI…the book I’m reading in this photo is Wake of the Sadico By Jo Sparkes (affiliate)!  I’m still reading but plan to finish this weekend (hopefully today).  I’ll have a full review and GIVEAWAY for you next week!  Stay tuned…

Reading side by side with my daughter one night last week.  The best!  I really, really hope that she will always and forever love books as much as her mama does…

My precious vintage Marshall Field’s teddy bear in our window (Marshall Field’s I MISS YOU) is hopefully providing smiles for people out walking during this quarantine.

Happy Passover to those celebrating!  We had such a lovely virtual seder with my family!

What are you currently reading?

Xo,

Jenny

This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support!  Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:

*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*

*Subscribe with your email address to my blog (scroll all the way to the bottom of this page on mobile devices OR check the top right of this screen to enter your email address)*

*If you already have a blog, please “follow” mine*

*”Like” my Facebook page (and please comment on, “like”, and share my posts)*

*Follow me on Instagram*

*Follow me on Twitter*

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*Clicking and buying products through my Amazon Affiliate links.  The cost to you is exactly the same and I receive a tiny commission off of your purchases.*

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The ultimate list of my top book suggestions can be found HERE

How Have I NEVER Talked About This Book on Here??? One of My All Time Favorites and Here are Some Personal Reasons Why :)

How on EARTH have I not reviewed this book on here yet?!?  One of my all time favorite books and it’s so special to me for so many personal reasons.  If you haven’t yet read this book…READ.  THIS.  BOOK.

In 2010, I remember walking through Sams Club and seeing it among the other books on the table.  I had heard such great things about it and immediately tossed it into the cart (this was waaaaaay before my minimalism lifestyle started).  I immediately came home and wrote the following Facebook status:

Turns out my Facebook friends LOVED it! I couldn’t wait to start reading.

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women, mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends, view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

My Thoughts:

5,000,000 Stars

I brought this book with me to Minnesota where my husband had a work trip and I tagged along because when your husband has a work trip in the same town as the Mall of America….you tag along. Obviously.

While he was in meetings, I spent my days alone and SHOPPING (again, before the minimalism lifestyle) and when his meetings were done, him and I had the best time exploring a new (to us) city.  What started off as a work trip quickly and randomly turned into one of the most fun vacations him and I have ever taken!  The 2 of us went to fancy restaurants, international bazaars, art galleries, comedy clubs, and more.  We had the best time!  I remember laying in our hotel bed and completely immersing myself into this wonderful book throughout that special week.  I LOVE when I’m reading a great book while on vacation…

Jon and I on that 2010 Minnesota trip! We look like babies!

Fast forward 1 year later and to one of the best memories of my entire life.  I woke up, took a pregnancy test, and everything was instantly changed forever! I was going to be a MOM! Jon and I spent the whole day in complete excitement of what was happening.  Our day of celebrating together had to be cut short because I had made plans that night to go into the city with 2 of my closest friends for a fancy dinner and to hear Katheryn Stockett give a book talk all about The Help!  My friends and I had been planning this special night for MONTHS, how could I cancel on them?!?  So I went…along with my huge secret.  I remember telling the server to leave the feta cheese off of my chicken at dinner and praying that my friends wouldn’t suspect a thing because I LOVE feta cheese (they didn’t)! As much as I adore Kathryn Stockett and her beautiful book…I truly didn’t listen to a single word that she said that night 😉  I’m sure her talk was lovely!

At the book talk the day I found out that I was going to be a MOM!

When I got home that night, I found Jon reading a book of a different genre 🙂

Fast forward 4 years and my sister in law bought my daughter the most perfect shirt with the most perfect quote from the most perfect book:

LOVE IT.

Look closely at my blog’s signature picture of me reading a book and drinking coffee…I spy The Help 😉

If you haven’t read The Help, you absolutely must.  It’s such a beautifully written story!  It will make you laugh, cry, and every emotion in between.  And as a bonus…this is one of the rare circumstances where I actually think that the movie IS as good as the book!

I went to the theater to see this movie when I was 4 months pregnant with my daughter and spent the entire movie rubbing my growing belly.  Her first movie!

I loved the movie and how true it was to the book. Both the book and the movie were so well done. I was able to talk to live chat with Viola Davis (one of the stars of the movie) online after its release and was able to tell her how much I loved it! She was lovely and appreciative of my message and her and I continued to message back and forth…she was so sweet!

Obviously just thinking about this book brings up some beautiful memories for me but even without those, I would so highly recommend this gorgeously (is gorgeously a word?  If not, it should be) written book.  The messages that it sends, the lessons that it teaches, the in depth characters…and everything else.

Bottom Line

It’s an amazing book.  Read it.

Have you read The Help? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Xo,

Jenny

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

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WWW#5…On A Tuesday {Book Coffee Happy}

I love when Book Coffee Happy is able to participate in WWW!  Thanks so much to Sam from Taking on a World of Words  for hosting this fun weekly post!  Technically this is supposed to be posted on Wednesday but tomorrow I have: a Zoom PTO Presidents meeting, my daughter has a Zoom Show and Tell with her class, e-learning for both kids, AND a virtual Passover Seder with my family!  Hence the Tuesday WWW post 🙂

The Three W’s are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

Jo Sparkes sent me a copy of her newest book and I am 100 pages in.  It’s so different than the books I usually read and I’m learning so much!  I’ll have a full blog review (and giveaway!) posted once I’m finished.  In the meantime, check out this gorgeous cover:

Synopsis from Goodreads:

On a Caribbean dive vacation, five friends discover a centuries old shipwreck – and a karmic debt past due.
Wall Eddington has always done the correct thing. It’s part of being British, part of family tradition. Yet somehow someone drowned.
Now, half a world away, he’s diving off an old sailboat with four American friends. As a vacation it’s a bit primitive, but just what his soul craves.
Until they find a shipwreck.

Untouched and impossibly preserved, the thing bewitches with promises of gold. Their rush to claim it bogs down with odd accidents and petty arguments – and Wall is not the only one with dark dreams of pain and torture. Dreams of a captain called Sadico.
In fleeing his personal demon, Wall has run straight to its lair.
This trap was laid centuries ago, for five souls moved on to new lives and new loves. Set by the one soul they left behind.

What did you recently finish reading?

I recently finished reading this one!  You can read the book synopsis as well as my full review HERE.

What do you think you’ll read next?

One of my beautiful best friends dropped this book off on my porch 2 weeks ago.  She had recently finished reading it and thought I would love it!  My kids and I sat on our living room couch and waved to her though the window as she placed it on my porch.  Social distancing is so sad and so hard during times like that, ugh.

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Be careful who you let in.

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

Happy Passover to all who are celebrating!  

What are you currently reading?  I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Xo,

Jenny

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

This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support!  Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:

*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*

*Subscribe with your email address to my blog (scroll all the way to the bottom of this page on mobile devices OR check the top right of this screen to enter your email address)*

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The ultimate list of my top book suggestions can be found HERE

Book Review: The Housekeeper {Natalie Barelli}

I so randomly found Natalie Barelli’s The Housekeeper on the library shelf and picked it up without knowing anything about it.  That rarely happens to me in the “New Release” section of the library!  I thought it sounded GREAT so I happily added it to my pile of books and left the library excited to start reading.  I couldn’t wait to read and review this book!

And then the world shut down and suddenly I was given plenty of time with my stack of library books 🙂  Having not loved the previous book that I read, I was more than ready to start fresh with a new book!

Synopsis from Goodreads:

When Claire sees Hannah Wilson at an exclusive Manhattan hair salon, it’s like a knife slicing through barely healed scars. It may have been ten years since Claire last saw Hannah, but she has thought of her every day, and not in a good way. So Claire does what anyone would do in her position—she stalks her.

Hannah is now Mrs. Carter, living the charmed life that should have been Claire’s. It’s the life Claire used to have, before Hannah came along and took it all away from her.

Back then, Claire was a happy teenager with porcelain skin and long, wavy blond hair. Now she’s an overweight, lazy drunk with hair the color of compost and skin to match. Which is why when Hannah advertises for a housekeeper, Claire is confident she can apply and not be recognized. And since she has time on her hands, revenge on her mind, and a talent for acting…

Because what better way to seek retribution—and redress—than from within the beautiful Mrs. Hannah Carter’s own home?

Except that it’s not just Claire who has secrets. Everyone in that house seems to have something to hide.

And now, there’s no way out.

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)

3.5 Stars

The Housekeeper was…good!  It held my attention from page 1 and I read through the entire book fairly quickly.  It had short chapters (MY FAVORITE) and twists (including the ending) which I didn’t see coming.

However, there were definitely elements to this book which left me feeling underwhelmed.  I found the writing to be choppy and containing so many details that it was nearly impossible to keep everything straight.  It severely lacked character development which again made parts of this story hard to follow.

The biggest problem that I have with this book was that parts were just so unrealistic.  Like…severely unrealistic.

And here’s something which I’ve never seen before.  DO NOT READ THE AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AT THE END OF THE BOOK.  She somehow managed to spoil the endings of her other books in this one author’s note (insert face plant emoji here)???  For someone who HATES SPOILERS, this infuriates me and unfortunately makes me now not want to read anything else she has previously written.  Like…HOW did her editor allow that one sentence to go through?!?

Bottom Line:

Far from the best psychological thriller I’ve read but also far from the worst.

***If you are looking for some GREAT psychological thrillers (one of my favorite genres), check out THIS POST!***

Xo,

Jenny

Did you read this book?  What did you think?  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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

This blog is my favorite hobby and I would so love your support!  Here are ways you can help my blog to GROW:

*Please share this page with your book and blog loving friends!*

*Subscribe with your email address to my blog (scroll all the way to the bottom of this page on mobile devices OR check the top right of this screen to enter your email address)*

*If you already have a blog, please “follow” mine*

*”Like” my Facebook page (and please comment on, “like”, and share my posts)*

*Follow me on Instagram*

*Follow me on Twitter*

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel*

*Clicking and buying products through my Amazon Affiliate links.  The cost to you is exactly the same and I receive a tiny commission off of your purchases.*

*Leaving a positive review on my Facebook page*

The ultimate list of my top book suggestions can be found HERE