ARC Review: The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

Title: The Wife Between Us
Author: Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
Source/Format: Bookish First (St. Martin's Press); Bound ARC
More Details: Thriller; Suspense; Mystery
Publisher/Publication Date: St. Martin's Press; January 9, 2018

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository


Synopsis from Goodreads...

A novel of suspense that explores the complexities of marriage and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love...

When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. You will assume you are reading about a jealous wife and her obsession with her replacement. You will assume you are reading about a woman about to enter a new marriage with the man she loves. You will assume the first wife was a disaster and that the husband was well rid of her. You will assume you know the motives, the history, the anatomy of the relationships. Assume nothing...

I don’t typically read thrillers, but The Wife Between Us seemed too good to pass on. And let me tell you, this book surprised me in a good way. It was a thriller from start to finish, and I ended up loving it.

The back of the ARC states that “you will make assumptions,” and that’s true. I had several conflicting theories about how it all went down. I was right about some of it, but others aspects I was wrong about. Untangling the mass of lies rooted in the relationships between the characters, is part of what made The Wife Between Us such a great book. There was a lot of intentional misdirection—due in part to the narrative style, a combination of third and first person. There was always a foreboding sense that something has already happened. As well as the fact that something would happen, based off the context. So, in that way, the authors succeeded at maintaining tension throughout the entire story.

My favorite part of this book was Vanessa. She was an unreliable narrator, but her bitterness, hurt, and anger were as loud and clear as her fear. She was haunted by the events of her past—from the time she was in college all the way to the end of her marriage with Richard. In many ways, this book wasn’t only a mystery and thriller. It was also a thorough exploration of her character.

Overall, The Wife Between Us was a fantastic thriller that kept me guessing right up to the second to last page. It’s officially one of the best books I’ve read so far this year, and I look forward to seeing what Hendricks and Pekkanen write next.

 Disclaimer: This copy of the book was provided by Bookish First & St. Martin's Press for this review.

About Greer Hendricks...

Greer Hendricks spent over two decades as an editor. Her writing has been published in The New York Times and Publishers Weekly. The Wife Between Us is her first novel.

About Sarah Pekkanen...

Internationally bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen's newest book is THE PERFECT NEIGHBORS. She is also the co-author of the upcoming THE WIFE BETWEEN US (out in January 2018). Her prior novels are: THINGS YOU WON'T SAY, CATCHING AIR, THE BEST OF US, THE OPPOSITE OF ME, SKIPPING A BEAT, and THESE GIRLS....

ARC Review: The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

Title: The Wedding Date
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Source/Format: Bookish First (Berkley); ARC
More Details: Fiction; Contemporary; Romance
Publisher/Publication Date: Berkley January 30, 2018

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository


Synopsis from Goodreads...

A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel...
Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist. On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend. After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other. They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want...

It’s been some time since I picked up a contemporary romance novel. I had the chance to read a preview of The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory and couldn’t resist entering the raffle. After all, this book involves a couple of my favorite romance tropes: accidental meetings, and fake wedding dates. There were a couple of things I was a little on the fence about, but overall, The Wedding Date was a nice story with a cute main couple and a great cast of supporting characters.

I was already excited to read the full book just based off of the preview, and now I can say for certain that I liked this book a lot. It can feel a little formulaic at times, but the diverse and career-minded characters more than make up for that—particularly Alexa and Drew. Parts of the book focused on their respective professions and goals. It added a lot to their characterization. I thought it was a nice touch.

What I was a little conflicted about was certain aspects of the relationship. While I liked Drew and Alexa together, the start of their relationship happened quite quickly. At times, it felt more like lust. However, as the book progressed, they did talk, and the early chemistry really came through and developed into something more.

The Wedding Date is one of the best contemporary romance books I’ve read so far this year, and I look forward to reading Guillory’s next book.

Disclaimer: This copy of the book was provided by Bookish First and Berkely for this review.

About the author...

Jasmine Guillory is a graduate of Wellesley College and Stanford Law School. She is a Bay Area native who has towering stacks of books in her living room, a cake recipe for every occasion, and upwards of 50 lipsticks.

ARC Review: Death in the Stacks by Jenn McKinlay

Title: Death in the Stacks
Author: Jenn McKinlay
Source/Format: First to Read; eARC
More Details: Mystery; Cozy-Mystery
Publisher/Publication Date: Berkley; November 14, 2017

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads...

In the latest Library Lover's Mystery from the New York Timesbestselling author of Better Late Than Never, the library's big fund-raiser leaves director Lindsey Norris booked for trouble . . .

Lindsey Norris and her staff are gearing up for the Briar Creek Library's annual Dinner in the Stacks fund-raiser. The night of dinner and dancing is not only a booklover's dream--it's the library's biggest moneymaker of the year. But instead of raising funds, the new library board president is busy raising a stink and making the staff miserable. Although Olive Boyle acts like a storybook villain, Lindsey is determined to work with her and make the event a success. But when Olive publicly threatens the library's newest hire, Paula, Lindsey cracks like an old book spine and throws Olive out of the library. The night of the fund-raiser, Lindsey dreads another altercation with Olive--but instead finds Paula crouched over Olive's dead body. Paula may have secrets, but Lindsey and the rest of the crafternooners know she's not the one who took Olive out of circulation. As the plot thickens, Lindsey must catch the real killer before the book closes on Paula's future . . .

Last year, I got the chance to read the previous book in the Library Lover’s Mystery series, Better Late Than Never. I adored that book and was excited to read the latest release in the series, Death in the Stacks. It was a quick read and fairly typical for a cozy mystery—amateur sleuth, small town setting. That being said, I honestly enjoyed Death in the Stacks because, at the end of the day, it was still an interesting mystery. And, it gets a couple of bonus points for being set in a library with librarians as main characters.

The gist of the story is that Lindsey Norris is entangled in another mystery, this time involving Olive Boyle—the troublemaking and manipulative new president of the library board. Olive had a lot of enemies, and that’s what made the mystery so good—I never knew who the culprit was because so many characters did have a clear motive. Also, another thing worth mentioning is the balance between the mystery and the personal lives of the main characters—such as the continued development of relationships established in previous—which added an extra layer of depth to the story. It also led to some interesting scenes between the mystery and subsequent investigation.

All in all, Death in the Stacks was a good book and I look forward to Jenn McKinlay’s next book.

This copy of the book was provided by First to Read (Publisher) for this review.

About the author...

Jenn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several mystery series and will be debuting a new women's fiction series in June 2017, starting with the title About a Dog. She lives in sunny Arizona in a house that is overrun with kids, pets and her husband's guitars.

Thought Corner: Kind of Miscellaneous Monday Musings

I've fallen out of the habit of writing miscellaneous posts with shorter discussion topics, and participating in weekly memes like Musing Monday. So, today I’m going to talk about some of the things I wanted to mention earlier in the month but never got around to doing.

So, it’s November—NaNoWriMo; start of the holiday blog post preparation rush; all that good stuff—and I want to talk about some of my current November and upcoming December plans.

First, I'm not planning much for the month of November; however, I have a reason for that. I decided to skip a lot of extra posts in November in preparation for December. I have a couple of post ideas that I want to work on in between getting caught up on reading ARCs and posting reviews I’ve been sitting on for months. And I wouldn’t have the time to do everything I want if I didn’t scale back on blogging  in November. I also want to have the time to enjoy December. So, I'm hoping to get a lot done this month, which will involve schedule-schedule-scheduling away until I have enough posts to cover most of December.   

And second, I want to talk about subscriptions. I’m talking about the fact that I have finally joined the subscription bandwagon by signing up for my first one. Hooray! But wait, it’s not for a subscription box. I had to pick and choose what I wanted to do with my money. I thought long and hard about this, and focused on what would be more of interest to me in the long-run. That’s why I got a subscription for Discover Magazine.

There’s a pattern to what I’ve been reading recently: lots of nonfiction. I enjoy reading a variety of different subjects, because there’s always something to learn. I also want to stay somewhat up to date about what’s currently happening. So, while I think subscription boxes are great, Discover Magazine was more of a fit for me.

What about you? Do you have any subscription services you’re subscribed to? If not, is there any particular one or more you would like to join?

Review: Otherworld by Jason Segel & Kristen Miller

Title: Otherworld
Author: Jason Segel; Kristen Miller
Source/Format: Blogging for Books; Hardcover
More Details: Young Adult; Science Fiction
Publisher/Publication Date: Delacorte Press; October 31, 2017

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository


Synopsis from Goodreads...

The company says Otherworld is amazing—like nothing you’ve ever seen before. They say it’s addictive—that you’ll want to stay forever. They promise Otherworld will make all your dreams come true. Simon thought Otherworld was a game. Turns out he knew nothing. Otherworld is the next phase of reality. It’s everything you’ve ever wanted. And it’s about to change humanity forever. Welcome to the Otherworld. No one could have seen it coming...

I’m so very-very disappointed. I’ve been looking forward to Otherworld since it was first announced, because I read Segel and Miller’s middle grade series—Nightmares!—which was phenomenal. Needless to say, I was ready to love this one as much as Nighmares!. So, you can imagine how surprised I was by the fact that I just didn’t like Otherworld and ultimately DNFed it before the hundred page mark. My main reason is the main character. It's told in first person, so, the fact that I didn’t like the main character at all presented some issues I ultimately couldn’t get over. I didn’t like his personality, and his thoughts/internal monologue had me shaking my head “no”, and not in a good way. His actions weren't humorous. Instead, he came off as spoiled and extremely gross. Based off of how this one went, it's not for me, and I won’t be continuing on with this series.

Disclaimer: This copy of the book was provided by Blogging for Books (Publisher) for this review.

About the Jason Segel...

Jason Segel is an actor, a writer, and an author. Segel wrote and starred in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and cowrote Disney's The Muppets, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Segel's other film credits include The end of the Tour; I Love You, Man; Jeff Who Lives at Home; Knocked Up; and The Five Year Engagement. On television, Segel starred on How I Met Your Mother as well as Freaks and Geeks. He is the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling Nightmares! series. Otherworld is his first novel for young adults...

About Kristen Miller...

Kristen Miller lives and writes in New York City. She is the author of the acclaimed Kiki Strike books, the New York Times bestseller The Eternal Ones, and How to Lead a Life Crime. Otherworld is the fifth novel Kristen has written with Jason Segel...

The Friday 56 (118) & Book Beginnings: Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed by Douglas Axe

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Throughout his distinguished and unconventional career, engineer-turned-molecular-biologist Douglas Axe has been asking the questions that much of the scientific community would rather silence. Now, he presents his conclusions in this brave and pioneering book. Axe argues that the key to understanding our origin is the “design intuition”—the innate belief held by all humans that tasks we would need knowledge to accomplish can only be accomplished by someone who has that knowledge. For the ingenious task of inventing life, this knower can only be God. Starting with the hallowed halls of academic science, Axe dismantles the widespread belief that Darwin’s theory of evolution is indisputably true, showing instead that a gaping hole has been at its center from the beginning. He then explains in plain English the science that proves our design intuition scientifically valid. Lastly, he uses everyday experience to empower ordinary people to defend their design intuition, giving them the confidence and courage to explain why it has to be true and the vision to imagine what biology will become when people stand up for this truth. Armed with that confidence, readers will affirm what once seemed obvious to all of us—that living creatures, from single-celled cyanobacteria to orca whales and human beings, are brilliantly conceived, utterly beyond the reach of accident. Our intuition was right all along...

Beginnings: "In August of 2013, as I was making my way down a picturesque Cambridge street called King's Parade, I nearly collided with renowned British scientist Sir Alan Fersht."

56: "Despite the opposition, by 2004 I was confident that I had conformed Michael Denton's hunch that "functional proteins could well be exceedingly rare.""

Comments: Undeniable was a truly fascinating read. My 56 is from page 57.

What are you reading this week?

Review: The Cosmic Web: Mysterious Architecture of the Universe by J. Richard Gott

Title: The Cosmic Web: Mysterious Architecture of the Universe
Author: J. Richard Gott
Source/Format: Borrowed from the library; Hardcover
More Details: Nonfiction; Science
Publisher/Publication Date: Princeton University Press; February 9, 2016
Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads...

J. Richard Gott was among the first cosmologists to propose that the structure of our universe is like a sponge made up of clusters of galaxies intricately connected by filaments of galaxies--a magnificent structure now called the "cosmic web" and mapped extensively by teams of astronomers. Here is his gripping insider's account of how a generation of undaunted theorists and observers solved the mystery of the architecture of our cosmos. "The Cosmic Web" begins with modern pioneers of extragalactic astronomy, such as Edwin Hubble and Fritz Zwicky. It goes on to describe how, during the Cold War, the American school of cosmology favored a model of the universe where galaxies resided in isolated clusters, whereas the Soviet school favored a honeycomb pattern of galaxies punctuated by giant, isolated voids. Gott tells the stories of how his own path to a solution began with a high-school science project when he was eighteen, and how he and astronomer Mario Juri? measured the Sloan Great Wall of Galaxies, a filament of galaxies that, at 1.37 billion light-years in length, is one of the largest structures in the universe. Drawing on Gott's own experiences working at the frontiers of science with many of today's leading cosmologists, "The Cosmic Web" shows how ambitious telescope surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are transforming our understanding of the cosmos, and how the cosmic web holds vital clues to the origins of the universe and the next trillion years that lie ahead...

The Cosmic Web was a challenging book and not something I could just sit down and read in one sitting. It took me at least a week to read it. Yet, it was time well spent, because this was the kind of book that really made me think about what I was reading. The Cosmic Web put a real focus on the hard science, which I personally enjoyed. There was a lot of technical terminology pertaining to everything from physics to astronomy. However, it’s a fascinating read about what makes the universe what it is—how it’s structured, how galaxies are formed, the Big Bang, and so on. I also like the fact that Gott talked about his experience in his profession and mentioned people like Vera Rubin, Edwin Hubble, and Einstein—as well as many others. I mean, it’s not every day that I come across a book that describes the structure of the universe as a “sponge,” and managed to accurately describe why that was so.

Now, I’m a little sad that I checked this one out from the library but hope to eventually purchase a copy to keep on my shelf.

Music Monday (32): Purity Ring

   Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: It’s been some time since I lasted participated in Music Monday, but I honestly haven’t had any new songs to share. However, this past week, I’ve been listened to Google Play Music again and have discovered some new music by a familiar artist that I want to share.

I haven’t listened to Purity Ring (the band) since their 2012 album, Shrines, which is one of my favorites in the electronic (electropop/synthpop) genre. I’m actually a little surprised that I missed the release of their second album, Another Eternity, back in 2015. Suffice it to say, I’ve been listening to Another Eternity all weekend. I really love the sound of the album and it does remind me a little of Grimes’s Art Angel album, but it’s still unique. A couple of songs in particular are my favorite. My first pick is Begin Again. I love everything about this song, and the beat sounds particularly fantastic with headphones on.

My second pick is Repetition, which is the song I heard while listening to Google Play Music. Without Repetition I might have continued to overlook Another Eternity altogether.

Have you discovered any new music this week?