Book Review Feb 9

Welcome to my new Book Reviews section on the blog! Twice a month I’ll be posting a “read” book review, an older kindle book suggestion or two and my next read for the month. I hope you find these helpful and that my thoughts spark your interest in some new reads!

Kindle Book . . . LISTEN by Rene Gutteridge

Amazon Unlimited FREE, $3.99 to buy

Your private conversations just went public

I read this book several years ago but it still sticks in my mind now and then. Listen is one of those books that sticks with you and makes you stop to think about your actions while reading it. In todays society we seem to have forgotten that words can and frequently do hurt others. Many times in ways we never know or see. Many post comments and thoughts on the internet that they would never say to a person face to face.

Information is shared on whims without a thought that it was told to us in confidence. Stories are made up when the truth isn’t known for sure and speculations seem to be taken as fact.

Nothing much ever happens in the small town of Marlo … until the residents begin seeing their private conversations posted online for everyone to read. These actions cause neighbors and friends to fight with each other while accusations are thrown around at a whim. The police attempt to find who is making the posts online while the town is tearing itself apart.

So what responsibility do people have for the words they say when they think others are not listening?

What reason does this person have for posting the conversations? What does he hope to gain?

Will the town be able to return to normal in the end?

I guess you will have to read this one to find the answers to those questions. I highly recommend this book to all ages as well as those who wouldn’t normally read this genre!

I give this one 5 stars!

My next read: A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER by Holly Jackson

Amazon: Kindle $8.99, Paperback $7.48

Note: Sequel – Good Girl Bad Blood will be released on Amazon March 2, 2021 and there will be a third book as well.

I ran across this title while watching another YouTuber review it and was instantly ported back to those days of reading Nancy Drew Mysteries. I’m excited to see how this one goes and will be reviewing it near the end of the month.

Pip, a senior in high school, decides to reexamine a closed murder case for her final year project. A childhood friend was accused of murdering his pretty and popular girlfriend and then killed himself. Pip doesn’t agree and believes there is more to the murder. As she investigates she believes that the boy was innocent and soon notices that someone in the town does not want her to discover the truth.

Possibly shades of Pretty Little Liars or The Lying Game??? I’ll be sure to let you know!

Review . . .

THE HAZEL WOOD (book 1 of 3) by Melissa Albert

#2 – The Night Country
#3 – Tales from the Hinterland
There was also a novella published but sent only to those who pre-ordered The Night Country, The Boy Who Didn’t Return

Amazon: The Hazel Wood is FREE for kindle unlimted or $9.99 for the Paperback and $10.93 for the Hardback.

It seems that by reading other reviews once I finished the book this morning, people either love or hate it and strongly! On the love it side myself, I’m not sure that I truly get the negative reviews. It sounds more like the hate it group either didn’t get the book at all or skim read it. But that’s just my opinion (grin).

Seventeen year old Alice and her mother have bounced around from town to town moving in a hurry for no apparent reason as Alice can figure. One thing she does know is that bad luck seems to follow them wherever they go. When her Grandmother, a reclusive author of a cult-clasic book of fairy tales dies, Alice will soon discover just how bad her luck can get. She is suddenly pitched into a search for a place that may or may not be real.

When her mother is stolen away Alice must ally with a super fan schoolmate to find her mother. Together they must venture to Hazel Wood where her grandmother’s tales began.

Some of the reviews mentioned that Alice was a nasty person and was horrible to others, especially her schoolmate Finch. What I got from the book was that Alice has never had anyone but her mother to rely on. She has been uprooted countless times and therefor has never learned to care for or trust others. She doesn’t let anyone get close and the bad temper part of her or the mean girl part is an effort to keep people away. When she finds herself starting to care for or get attached to Finch she lashes out or treats him badly to keep him at arms length. So I ask you to keep this in mind when forming an opinion about Alice and her actions.

Another comment I heard often was that the book was slow and really wasn’t a fairy tale. I agree with part of this somewhat. The author does like her words and in the first few chapters she does spend a lot of time being very descriptive about Alice’s feelings and actions. But this leans towards this anger that Alice has inside her and that is explained further in the book as there IS a reason for it. This is not a “fast read” type of book and I think you would miss out on a lot trying to read it quickly. As for the fairy tale part . . . yes it is but it’s a very dark fairy tale, not the sweet happy type of story. More along the lines of the original Grims Fairy Tale is what came to mind for me.

This book is very different from what I normally read and I found that it sucked me in slowly to the point where I could not put it down. The second half was less wordy and faster paced and I think that is what the author intended to do. Only when I could not keep my eyes open any longer did I close the book last night.

Last but not least, you will find that the Hardback version is truly lovely to look at, outside as well as the inside.