There is a lot to love about The Verifiers by Jane Pek. The interesting main character, a timely mystery about the ethics of online dating and data collection, a mysterious research group/detective agency, sibling and parent issues, urban bike riding, a realistic NYC backdrop. So much material and depth there. What dropped it down to three … Continue reading
Find Me by Alafair Burke was a weird mess. It was definitely presented as a standalone book when I asked for and was rejected for a galley but it contains a character, Ellie Hatcher, who is the main character of Burke’s long-running Ellie Hatcher series. I haven’t read that series (only Burke’s standalone novels) so … Continue reading
I’ve read Amanda Eyre Ward’s books for nearly 20 years and was so disappointed by The Lifeguards. I didn’t love her last book but it was better than this one. I used to count on her to deliver a book about women and some sort of contemporary issue in an interesting, thoughtful way. I didn’t … Continue reading
White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson is fun book that ties in a lot of topical issues like prisons, blended interracial families, poorly treated mental illness, veganism, peanut allergies, predatory televangelists, drug use and gentrification into a spooky ghost/horror story. The ending was incredibly abrupt. Bizarrely so. I got it from the library and truly … Continue reading
I had some high hopes and mixed feelings about The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue. On the surface it ticked all of my “summer reading” boxes: A book set the late 1990s where a sixteen-year-old girl and her teacher disappeared from a remote Catholic girls’ boarding-school housed in a cliffside old mansion in Ireland? … Continue reading
I came across this one in a NYT column and put it right on my holds list. It sounded intriguing–a man with three wives found dead near his rural compound. What a disappointment! I’m not entirely sure if Marilyn Stasio actually read the book. I didn’t get the impression from Black Widows or interviews with … Continue reading
I found A Spy in the Struggle a little puzzling. The concept was unique and I like how it touched on real issues and was topical (there is even a Covid-19 reference) but the main character was so flat. Her thinking was very black and white and childlike. It was very difficult to believe she … Continue reading
There needs to be a new subgenre of books that describe a book where something mysterious happens but that at the heart of the book is family-centered general fiction. I’ve read many books where a teenage girl disappears but the book is mostly about what is going on in the town vs. a true mystery or investigation. … Continue reading
I have not had great luck with books this month. Even ones I really looked forward to like the new Meg Wolitzer didn’t really grab me. I must have started and stopped a dozen books this month. I had high hopes for Then She Was Gone. I’ve read Lisa Jewell’s books since college. Back then … Continue reading
Trying to get back into the habit! Night Film was the 6th book I’ve read so far for 2018 so I’m off to a good start! I’ve started a new page on my book list for this year so we will see how many books I end up reading. I had read Marisha Pessl’s first … Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 