You can always count on Miranda to have a busy plot with a lot of characters but to tie up loose ends. This book was no different. I enjoyed the townie vs college dynamics and how she touched on being a relatively young mother of a college student when some of her peers have elementary … Continue reading
Tag Archives: small towns
The Death of Us by Lori Rader-Day
The plot of The Death of Us isn’t bad idea—the body of woman who may be the birth mother of your not quite adoptive teenage son is found in the quarry behind your house—but the execution was kind of slow. Not much happened for many chapters at a time beyond the main character talking about … Continue reading
The Wives: A Memoir by Simone Gorrindo
The Wives probably should have been called “The Wife” because it was really mostly about her (understandably!) and she didn’t really explore the wives outside of their relationship to her. The other wives actually seemed annoyed by her quite a bit which she sort of noticed but never explored. I wish she had included more … Continue reading
The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves
I have watched the Vera show for years along with Shetland and the short lived The Long Call. I had read the first book years ago and Vera Stanhope is only in it briefly and the book was long and the writing a little stilted so I didn’t pick up more. Then I thought to … Continue reading
The Summer She Vanished by Jessica Irena Smith
I liked the idea of The Summer She Vanished but it could have done with some editing. There was a fair amount of repetition—for example the main character, Maggie, thought things like “why didn’t I think of that” about nearly every revelation. The American characters also used a lot of British terminology like “smallhold” that … Continue reading
Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen
I always love her memoirs and writing in general and this one filled in some gaps in her life’s story. I love how she writes about her biological mother and how fraught that relationship is. She writes very honestly about her father and how he has changed into a very different man with her children … Continue reading
Dirty Laundry by Disha Bose
I liked the idea of Dirty Laundry—Irish small town drama, yes please!—but it was really shallow. We were told a lot about what the characters had done but there was little to no reflection or depth to the story. I also found the ending a little confusing. There was a scene when Parth (spoiler ahead) … Continue reading
All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris
I liked All Her Little Secrets well enough. I liked the characters. I thought the storyline was clever and the mystery wasn’t too mysterious but it was fairly well-paced even with the flashbacks. A few things bothered me. I was puzzled why the single section from Sam’s point of view was basically a spoiler for … Continue reading
Everything I Have Is Yours: A Marriage by Eleanor Henderson
Oh my. I have so many thoughts on this book. I must have requested it a while back because it popped up on publication day in the Libby app to download. I didn’t really remember what it was about but it had a cool cover, it said the woman’s novel was a NYT bestseller and … Continue reading
If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie by Christopher Ingraham
I was hoping this would be a fun book to read during day 18 of quarantine but what a disappointment. Being from the area where he moved from gave me some insight other readers might not have. I don’t buy any of the reasons why he felt like he had to move. It was a … Continue reading