Category: Books

Hello! It’s the end of the month, which means I have three book reviews to share with you! Here’s what I read in the month of January.

The Idea of You by Robinne Lee

This book was a fun beachy type read; it was a lighthearted love story about a divorced mother of a teenager who falls in love with a pop star. She and her daughter go to the bands’ concert and she meets the lead singer and feels an instant connection, but you know, he’s like twenty years old.

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

I’m pretty sure that everyone and their mom read this last year. It was on so many lists and won a lot of awards, so I had to see what all the fuss was about. This is a coming of age story about a girl that lives alone in a swamp, and also kind of a murder mystery. This book did live up to the hype; it was a really good story, but no really big twist at the end or anything like that. I can see a movie being made after this. It was really good.

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

I had been waiting to get my hands on this new book for awhile, so I was really excited to read it. This is about an adopted girl who finds out that she has inherited a house from her late biological parents. The story is about the weird things that happened in that house and why she was adopted. This book was just ok for me, there weren’t any really big twists and I kind of lost interest. I don’t know why it was called The Family Upstairs either, and I couldn’t figure that out. I prefer Lisa Jewell’s other novels to this one.

What have you been reading lately?

xx amy

Hello and Happy New Year! This year I have started reviewing books, which is something I had never done in my 6 years of blogging. It seemed to have a good response, and it turns out I’m not alone in my love of reading!

So, a little about the type of books I like – I love thrillers and mysteries, as you will see, and I love a good surprise ending. I don’t like violence in the books I read, so if anything gets too gory or graphic I usually just don’t finish the book. That being said, the books on this list are all suspenseful and mystery type reads. I also love to read historical fiction and sci-fi as long as it’s not too weird. I try to check out all of my books from my local library (it’s free), but sometimes they don’t have the new books, so I’ll either buy them or read them on my iPad.

Alright, this was really hard, but I’ve chosen 5! They’re all thrillers. Surprise, surprise.

5. I Found You By Lisa Jewell

I discovered Lisa Jewell this year and I’ve read a few of her books, but this one is my favorite of hers. I just got her new one, The Family Upstairs for Christmas, so I’m excited to read that.

I Found You is about a single mother living on the beach in a small home with her family. One day, she sees a man sitting out on the beach in the rain with no jacket. He’s been there awhile and she goes up to him and finds out that he has no idea who he is or how he got there. The story then switches to a younger lady who’s husband has gone missing, and when she goes to the police, they tell her the man she is talking about doesn’t exist.

This story will keep you guessing and has a shocking reveal at the end. So many secrets and twists. Love this one.

4. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

I had never read anything from this author before, but this book came recommended at the library, so I decided to try it out. This is a sci-fi book, and very good. I got about a quarter of the way in and felt kind of lost, but I stuck with it and it was INSANE.

A man named Jason is walking home one night and is kidnapped, only the person kidnapping him sounds so familiar. He is taken to what looks like a hospital, strapped down and with tons of doctors and people around. Once he escapes, he finds out that his life never existed, or has it? His wife isn’t his wife, his house not his house…and he doesn’t know how to get the life that he once knew back.

So good you guys. The ending was crazy.

3. The Woman in The Window by A.J. Finn

This book was at the top of the list for best thrillers, so I had to check it out. I also just found out that they are making it into a movie, and the previews look awesome and just like the book! Can’t wait to see it.

The book is about a lady named Anna Fox who is housebound due to mental illness. She drinks a lot of wine, and spies on her neighbors all day. One day, she sees something awful happen in one of her neighbors houses. Was she drunk, hallucinating, or did it really happen?

Nothing is what it seems. HUGE twist at the end and kind of reminded me of Gone Girl.

2. Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris

I’ve read all of the B.A. Paris books (all thrillers) and this one is by far the best!

This book is about a young couple, Finn and Layla, and the book begins with them stopping at a rest stop late at night. Finn needs to use the restroom, so Layla stays in the car. When he returns, she’s gone, and not found. A few years later, he is engaged to Layla’s sister, Ellen, but never loves her as much as he loved Layla. After they get engaged, weird things start happening, like a phone call from someone claiming they have seen Layla, and some long lost items that were Layla’s start to turn up. Finn believes that Layla may still be alive and tries to find her.

This book will keep you on the edge of your seat and is full of twists. The ending was the biggest twist ever for me, and one that I didn’t see coming!

1. Verity by Colleen Hoover

I’ve read my fair share of Colleen Hoover books, and they are usually love stories, but this one is a shocking thriller with so many twists! This is the type of book that you just cannot stop thinking about it after you read it.

Verity Crawford is a bestselling, award winning writer. A tragic accident leaves her unable to write and finish the book series that she has been working on. Her husband hires a young writer, Lowen Ashleigh, to finish the series. Lowen spends days and nights at their home researching and going through all of Verity’s notes and outlines. She comes across a shocking manuscript, with secrets that would devastate Verity’s husband. As Lowen and Jeremy eventually fall in love, she wonders if she should show him or if she should keep all of the secrets to herself.

This book is crazy. I was like “what did I just read?!” after I finished it. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That’s how you know it’s good.

Ok, so that’s the top 5! Stay tuned for more book reviews coming this year, and please share your book recommendations with me!

xx amy

Today I am sharing a few of the books I read this month – I’ll be honest, I am obsessed with reading and read way more than three books a month, but these three were my favorites.

First up, a Colleen Hoover book. I really have been loving her books lately, they are usually love stories with a mystery or a bit of a twist. Sometimes a big twist!

This one is called It Ends With Us.

This is a powerful read about a girl who falls in love with a homeless boy while in high school. Their relationship ends and years later she runs into him whilst engaged to another man. This isn’t the typical love triangle and has some surprises and twists along the way.

Next up is a historical fiction novel called The Alice Network by Kate Quinn.

This book is set in the 1940’s, and uses the perspectives of two different characters, Eve, a woman who worked as a spy during the war, and Charlie, a young, pregnant girl who is searching to find her lost cousin who vanished during the war. Eve’s story as a spy is fascinating and Charlie’s story is interesting as she is pregnant and will stop at nothing to find her lost cousin. The shocking ending pulls both of their stories together. It’s really good.

Last, a book by Chevy Stevens, called Never Let You Go.

This book is a suspenseful mystery about a girl named Lindsey who escapes from her abusive husband and now lives a new life with her daughter. Years later, her ex-husband is released from prison and she fears will come looking for her. When he moves to the same town, she blames him for her home being broken into, and she feels as though she is being watched. She doesn’t know if it is someone else, or if it is him, even though he tells her he has changed.

That’s it for my reading wrap up!

Do you have any books that you would recommend?

Thanks for reading!

xx amy

Do you guys love to read? I have loved to read ever since I was little. The first books I ever remember reading on my own were the Babysitter’s Club Little Sister books, which my 8 year old is now reading- we have a whole box of them; my mom saved them. I love reading so much, I even majored in English Literature in college. Getting lost in a book is one of my favorite things to do.

My favorite types of books to read are mysteries, psychological thrillers, and I also like reading historical fiction. I love books with a twist or a strong message at the end. I LIVE for a good twist.

Today I’ll be reviewing some really good books that I’ve finished recently. I have a library very close to me, so I prefer checking books out versus buying them- but sometimes they don’t have all of the current books that I want. I also love to keep track of books I have read and want to read on the app Goodreads. You can read reviews and leave reviews, and it’s a really good resource if you need help finding a book. You can also follow people and see what they’re reading.

I read at least 3 books a month, sometimes more. I enjoy reading more than TV or movies, so I usually read when I have free time at night after the girls go to bed.

Here are the books I’ve picked out to review today.

So, I just checked my app, and I’ve read 22 books so far this year. My favorite so far this year is this one. I read it in January but I still wanted to mention it.

This was the first book I had ever read by this author, and I loved it so much, I read the other two that she has written.

So, this book is about a young couple, Finn and Layla, and the book begins with them stopping at a rest stop late at night. Finn needs to use the restroom so Layla stays in the car. When he returns, she’s gone. She’s never seen again. A few years later, he is engaged to Layla’s sister, Ellen, but never loves her as much as he loved Layla. After they get engaged, weird things start happening, like a phone call from someone claiming they have seen Layla, and some long lost items that were Layla’s start turning up. Finn believes that Layla may still be alive and tries to find her.

This book will keep you on the edge of your seat and is full of twists. The ending was the biggest twist ever for me, and one that I didn’t see coming! It was a really suspenseful read.

Colleen Hoover is an author I really love. She has a lot of books, and most of them are love stories. They always seem to have some kind of twist or surprise at the end that is interesting.

This book is about a girl named Fallon, who is preparing to move across the country to begin a new life after being burned badly at her home in a fire. She is having lunch with her Dad when she randomly meets this guy, Ben, and they really hit it off. Since she is moving away, they agree to meet every year on November 9th, the day that they met. They live their separate lives, but always come back to each other on that day. Ben starts writing a novel about Fallon and her life, and when Fallon finally reads it after falling in love with him, she finds out a shocking surprise.

A huge twist at the end, one that kind of made me mad to be honest! You won’t be able to put this one down.

The last one to review is by Shari Lapena, and this style is very similar to B.A. Paris. This is also a very suspenseful mystery.

Anne and Marco seem to have the perfect marriage and life. They have a baby, Cora, who they leave in the house one night while they go to their next-door neighbors house for a dinner party. They check on the baby every so often throughout the night, but the baby is nowhere to be found when they return home for the night. The police point immediately to the parents but Anne claims to know nothing, and she suspects the neighbors.

This novel is full of deception and suspense, and of course a huge twist at the end!

Well, that’s it for my reading wrap up! Let me know if you like these kind of posts and if you can recommend a good book! 🙂

xx amy