Review: Truly Madly Guilty

Synopsis:

Six responsible adults. Three cute kids. One small dog. It’s just a normal weekend. What could possibly go wrong?

Sam and Clementine have a wonderful, albeit, busy life: they have two little girls, Sam has just started a new dream job, and Clementine, a cellist, is busy preparing for the audition of a lifetime. If there’s anything they can count on, it’s each other.

Clementine and Erika are each other’s oldest friends. A single look between them can convey an entire conversation. But theirs is a complicated relationship, so when Erika mentions a last minute invitation to a barbecue with her neighbors, Tiffany and Vid, Clementine and Sam don’t hesitate. Having Tiffany and Vid’s larger than life personalities there will be a welcome respite.

Two months later, it won’t stop raining, and Clementine and Sam can’t stop asking themselves the question: What if we hadn’t gone?

In Truly Madly Guilty, Liane Moriarty takes on the foundations of our lives: marriage, sex, parenthood, and friendship. She shows how guilt can expose the fault lines in the most seemingly strong relationships, how what we don’t say can be more powerful than what we do, and how sometimes it is the most innocent of moments that can do the greatest harm.

Rating: 4-stars

Review: 

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty is a suspenseful read. Edgy, dark, and gripping. It grabbed me and took me on a journey. The characters’ lives seemed pretty normal until one event that changed everything. Emotions leak out everywhere. The intrigue is so intense that once the wave comes…the relief wasn’t as spectacular. I felt something missing. However, there was humor written inside…and it was good. I haven’t read any of Liane Moriarty’s previous books, so I can’t compare to her normal standards of writing. This book moves slowly, then builds, only to come crashing upon everything readers think might happen. Curiosity is a killer. Overall, Truly Madly Guilty was great. 

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Review: Boy 9, Missing

Synopsis:

In the tradition of Defending Jacob or Drowning Ruth, this is a suspenseful debut that explores the ramifications of revenge, justice, and the aftermath of a terrible night in the lives of two families.

It should have been just a quiet evening with friends. But Francis lost his brother that night in what was ruled a tragic accident. He’s tried to move on in the last twenty-three years, even though his father certainly hasn’t. Indeed, his father still blames the lone witness, Sam, the nine-year-old son of friends. Perhaps if Sam would have just said something, anything, about what happened that night, but Sam still seems unable-or unwilling-to utter a word about the accident.

And now, twenty-three years later, Sam’s own nine-year-old son has disappeared.

Rating: 5-stars

Review: 

Boy 9, Missing by Nic Joseph is a psychological suspense novel, all readers won’t forget. The death that haunts the family within is one of the most realistic tellings I have ever read. An older brother can’t move past his younger brother’s death. Since that day, he has needed therapy of all kinds. He can’t move forward. Like the weight and unknown truth of what happened that night keeps haunting him. It’sad to see a family torn both physically and emotionally like this one presented here. A witness, annother young boy, has never once told the truth of what he saw that night on how his friend died. The mystery has surrounded that place until the last page…where all hell breaks loose and the truth may just come out after all. Nic Joseph created a thriller that was stunning, well-developed, and intriguing from the start. It sent chills down my back and tears down my cheeks. Who knew the killer was closer than the family thought. Anger, sex, psychological trauma and another young boy missing…keeps reading turning the pages. I couldn’t stop reading it. I had to know the truthjust like the main character, Francis. Boy 9, Missing is one novel that I highly recommend to all readers. 

Review: The Best Possible Answer

 

Synopsis:

AP Exams – check
SAT test – check
College Application – check
Date the wrong guy and ruin everything you’ve spent your whole life working for– check

Ultra-high-achiever Viviana Rabinovich-Lowe has always had a plan—and no room to be anything less than perfect. But her quest for perfection comes to a screeching halt when her boyfriend leaks racy pictures of her to the entire school. Making matters worse, her parents are getting divorced and now her perfect family is falling apart. For the first time, Viv feels like a complete and utter failure.

Then she gets a job working at the community pool, where she meets a new group of friends who know nothing about her past. That includes Evan, a gorgeous guy who makes her want to do something she never thought she’d do again: trust. For the first time in her life, Viv realizes she can finally be whoever she wants. But who is that? While she tries to figure it out, she learns something they never covered in her AP courses: that it’s okay to be less than perfect, because it’s our imperfections that make us who we are.

E. Katherine Kottaras once again captures what it means to be a teenager in The Best Possible Answer.

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

The Best Possible Answer by E. Katherine Kottaras is a young adult novel unlike any I have personally read. This book is just as epic as The Fault in Our Stars movie was. Mega sad. Actually is was sad all the way until the ending…the ending gave off an enormous feeling just as strong the weight of grief. I can’t ruin it and say what the new feeling was…but it’s one worth experiencing from beginning to end.

Inside, The Best Possible Answer, I like the main character a lot. I easily was able to connect with her frustrations, anger, grief and other feelings. Her reactions are completely normal for any teenage girl. Yet she handled every major life situation as maturely as possible. Okay, shouting at people isn’t mature but certain times do call for it. Working a summer job, she ends up offering her summer money to her mom. That’s shows she handles situations above her teenage years. Most teenagers roll their eyes, show awful attitude, and don’t want to do more than necessary. Here, however, Vivian is pressured into doing too much by both of her parents. This sets into motion the conflict that will hover over every scene.

Katherine Kottaras’s latest novel, The Best Possible Answer, shows readers a realistic side of being a teenager. Not only that but also how a teenager goes through a traumatic experience. Parents divorcing, failing AP exams, doesn’t get into the college of choice, a secret photo popping up everywhere and a health condition that lands her in the hospital. Could the life of Vivian get any worse? Yes. It does. But that’s for readers to find out and for me to keep top secret. I loved reading it. A great novel that captures everything brilliantly. I hope this makes it onto the big screens one day. Super good. Overall, I highly recommend this read to all.

Review: Dark Psychosis

 

Synopsis:

Take a journey into the disturbed, delusional mind of Jack Cyrus … take a journey into Darkview … a small, remote coastal town, deep, within the Scottish Highlands. The sleepy, isolated spot bears a sinister, horrific history, shrouded by a chilling secret. A secret one man must unveil, which will ravage his soul … and sanity! Jack Cyrus is in damnation! After witnessing the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, he has become plagued by dark memories and devilish visions, the result of post-traumatic stress.

Compounding his trauma, he is faced with the sudden death of his wife, from cancer, after returning home to Scotland. Lost and alone, and struggling to forget the horrific circumstances surrounding her passing, Jack has developed schizophrenia, experiencing chaotic, disturbed thoughts and demonic hallucinations. On the sixth anniversary of his wife’s death, Jack receives a cryptic, hand-written letter from her, telling him she is still alive.

Suffering and held captive, she pleads with him to return to Darkview, the place she spent her last days, and rescue her from purgatory. Upon arrival in Darkview, strange things start happening, and what appears to be a centuries-old mystery, starts unravelling itself. Jack must piece together the clues and lost fragments of his sanity to solve the unravelling mystery. Is any of it real, or is it just a manifestation of Jack’s mind, or another facet of his schizophrenia?

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

Darkview Psychosis by R.J Bathgate and M.J. Hall is one of the darkest and most traumatized novella I have ever read. It’s one dark ride after another one. A sadness unlike anything I have experienced is brought forth from the words on every page. A misery of hell that appears to be a nightmare or is it? Readers will be stuck in suspense and intrigue even after the ending. Wow…explosive, edgy, and full of danger. Loss, love, and craziness that leaves more questions than answers. Both R.J. Bathgate and M.J. Hall have a raw talent for creating a thriller suspense that will blow readers away. From the beginning to end I was sucked into the fast-paced plot before me. If this is turned into a movie, I will forever have the worst nightmares imagined…overall, I highly recommend this novella to all. Definitely, a must read.

 

 

 

Review: What the Hell Was I Thinking

 

Synopsis:

In an attempt to deal with the physiological trauma of being molested as a young girl, 28-year-old China agrees to be hypnotized by her therapist to speed up her rehabilitation. During her session, China recollects family secrets of deceit, rape and murder. In order to figure out why her life is upside down, China explores her past of lesbianism, sexual additions, self identity issues and much more. It slowly becomes obvious that China’s choices weren’t the only ones effecting her life because China’s mother, Renee, has a closet of secrets that have shaped China’s destiny as well.

As China fights to provide a better future for herself and learn from the mistakes that cost her the life of her unborn child, she learns there are only two options when dealing with the hard times in life: either triumph or parish.

What the Hell was I Thinking is an urban drama that shows that every thought has an action and every action has a consequence.

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

What the Hell Was I Thinking by MZ Joe is a dark urban read. Inside, readers will explore issues that are still being faced within out society today. Child abuse, sexual harassments, and sexual identity. This novel was definitely fast-paced and realistic. The family issues going on were believable and sad. I couldn’t believe all that went on with the main character when she was only a child and then continued as she grew up…then there are the marital issues, molestation, and rape. Quite an eye opener read. The writer left strong points such as watch out for men that are too close your kids and watch your kids at all times. If left unattended, bad things can happen just like what happened to the main character inside this novel. Now, as a grown adult, the character still struggles from her past and present.

What the Hell Was I Thinking takes readers on a young woman’s journey into her past and present. It was also done in a way that makes readers more aware of bad situations. I liked how they MZ Joe kept me guessing as to what would happen next in China’s life. China was raped by a man her mother was having an affair with…and when the affair was ended the man took revenge on China. After that, China was never the same again. Sex was a constant in her life. The story was like a rollercoaster…both good and bad points. This urban fiction was well done. I highly recommend it to readers everywhere.

Review: From Ashes Into Light

 

Synopsis:

FROM ASHES INTO LIGHT is a transpersonal tale of epic tragedy, spirituality, family, and personal redemption. It is told through three distinct voices: the haunting story of Ruth, a Jewish adolescent during Kristallnacht in World War II Austria, Saqapaya, a stalwart Native American from coastal California during the time of the Spanish conquest, and Friede Mai.

Friede is born during WW II to a Bavarian soldier and an East-Prussian mother. As those around her struggle with the inevitable chaos and paradox of war, young Friede opens her heart to gruesome enemies, at times helping her family members escape atrocities.

With the war behind them, the Mai family immigrates to the US, where Friede, her veteran father, and ex-refugee mother, struggle with reverberations of trauma, suspicion, and prejudice. Upon leaving home, Friede meets her spiritual guide and confidant in her fiancé’s Rabbi, who helps her see that the voices from her past are teachers and the horrors of history also contain beacons of light.

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

From Ashes Into Light by Gudrun Mouw is the most fascinating historical fiction piece readers will find. I couldn’t help but to fall in love with the characters and their journeys as the plot unfolds. Three unique characters are brought together…each one with their survival story. I found this tale absolutely compelling. Never have readers seen a book quite like this one. The culutral aspects and the historical time periods make this a number read for everyone.

Gudrun Mouw is a talented writer whose words come off the pages. Anyone who loves history will find it hard to stop reading this novel. From Ashes Into Light is one story that is both highly entertaining and educational. I loved the different point of views from the characters. That’s what really sets this novel different from most in its genre. Overall, I highly recommend this beautifully told story to readers everywhere.