Finishing Up My Summer TBR

Hey,

Like so many I had a summer to be read list which I just finished getting through and I decided why not do a little mini review in case any of you were considering reading one of the books. Some of them I loved, some I couldn’t even finish, and one I didn’t even start. Lets start with the good shall we…

With Malice

I read this book in a few hours because it was so suspenseful I couldn’t put it down. It had great characters, a great setup, and that really amazing eerie feeling you want from a thriller. Plus it reminded me of The Talented Mr. Ripley so I pretty much had to love it.

Dorothy Must Die

I went into this not knowing this was a series of books and I can’t say I would have read it if I had known but I’m glad I did. It’s a fun twist on the Wizard of Oz and it made me laugh, jump, and fall in love a little bit. In other words this was a really fun book.

My Lady Jane

I read this after With Malice and instead of hammering through it in a few hours I spread out reading it over several days and I’m glad I did. I love all things Tudor and it was surprisingly fun reading something based in history then turned into fantasy. It was a longer book, but it never once got dull thanks to the fact that it told the story from 3 alternating perspectives and they paced the story so well and introduced new characters gradually so you never found yourself like ‘who is this’. Overall I think it was funny and interesting and just so well done, I highly recommend it.

Vanished

This is actually a compilation of the 1-800-where-r-u series and I ended up reading the entire series which was the vanished books that covered books 1-4 and book 5. I really like Meg Cabot and I will generally read anything of hers because you can always be sure you’ll get an interesting story. I liked these books, I didn’t love them but they were entertaining and a fun quick read.

You Will Know Me

This book was marketed with the dreaded “just like The Girl on the Train” which is a ploy I keep falling for because I loved TGOTT so much, but after reading 4-5 books marketed as being just like it or Gone Girl I had low hopes for this one. It proved me wrong a little bit because it was good (nothing like TGOTT) and I enjoyed reading it until I got to the end. The ending bugged me because the characters act one way the entire book and then at the end they do a 180. Normally that would make for a good twist, but here it’s like you didn’t care about something for like 250 pages and now its the most important thing in the world…huh? I don’t know it’s hard to explain, but the ending ruined the book for me.

American Girls

I was really looking forward to this book and I made it halfway through before I was just like NOPE. I pushed past the unlikable characters and the cringeworthy moments, but the second they employed the cheapest trick to make a unlikeable character more sympathetic I was out. Nothing from there on out was going to make that book worth my time.

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

I like Issa Rae, I watched her web series religiously and I can’t wait for her HBO show but this book was a no for me. It was so Lena Dunham-esque and I don’t mean that in a good way. It was like a privileged kid who believes they are a special snowflake tells stories they think are hilarious, but are in fact mundane and boring. Like there is a whole chapter on how she was a “cyber ho” and it’s utterly boring. I think it’s because like Lena she’s young and hasn’t gone through enough to create a book that gives the reader something. I can sit and quote Mindy, Tina, and Amy because there books have little life lesson gems. This didn’t and I stopped reading it about 1/3 through because I didn’t want to ruin her show for myself. Also can one woman please write a book in which she does not dedicate an entire chapter to how fat she felt? That would be great thanks!

Sharp Objects

Listened to this on audiobook which is my go to if there is something I’m interested in but not sure I will like and I still didn’t make it more than a few pages. I think I just wasn’t feeling it, so I might pick it up again.

And that is all for my summer TBR, I can’t wait to make up a fall one! Let me know what you’ve been reading I could use some recommendations.

Later.