If you are a reader & a blogger, you know the 2nd Tuesday of every month is all about books.
I love this day in the month. I seriously keep my Goodreads account open on a tab so I can go & add books that some of my favorite bloggers recommend. THE BEST BOOK DAY!
Thanks ladies for starting this link up 2 years ago... HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO YOU!!
So how did my past month go? Not as good as my previous month - but still got in 3 books - I won't complain. I had a wedding in there after all - always keeps me busy.
Here's my reads for the past few weeks.
99 Days by Katie Cotungo
3 out of 5 starts
The book legit counts down the amount of time that Molly leaves to go to college after returning to her home town where she's sort of an outcast after having a 'fling' with one brother while dating the other. Town drama.
I'm always up for a good playful love story - especially a love triangle. & this was the cheesiest of love triangles. It was an easy, light read but Molly just started to get on my nerves on her indecision between the brothers that she started to dive into new relationships with on her return back to town. It wasn't enough for me to hate the book, but it did aggravate me. But then the ending? It was so unresolved. It didn't make me feel like anything had been answered or completed especially after the back & forth of these brothers & all these relationships. I closed the book totally aggravated at that point & just let down. I did give it 3 out of 5 though just because it did keep me engaged the whole book. If books with no 'real ending' doesn't bother you, go for it.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
3 out of 5
FINALLY! This book was all over blog world & everywhere else for awhile & I never got around to it. I just need a movie to come out to inspire me to read it. Always love to read before I see. Which I didn't make the movie this weekend... gotta try& get it in next weekend!!!
A missing girl - a drunk woman who thinks she saw something - ex husbands married to his mistress - husband accused of missing wife's disppearance. All so DRAMATIC. I couldnt wait to see how it all it was going to come together.
Except I kind of figured it out pretty early on. Dont ask me how I knew. Maybe because the movie trailer stuck out in my mind & I think that helped a lot.
I did enjoy the book. But I have to say, the main character, Rachel, with her drunken ways - I just wanted to punch her. She got on my nerves with her antics & her drinking & her scheming & making up lies to get into situations that didn't involve her. Honestly, if she were my friend, we'd have to have a Come to Jesus moment or we couldnt be friends anymore. Mercy... that woman.
If it wasn't wanting to know how it all came together, I would have given up on the book - she bothered me that much. But luckily there was a mystery to solve. & while I figured it out, it was still holding me in to see exactly how it would play out.
& in the end, I didn't mind the book. It wasn't horrible. It wasn't amazing. But glad I read it.
Anxious to see how much of the movie is like the book now.
The A to Z of You & Me by James Hannah
2 out of 5 stars
I should have known this was just going to be a heart wrench from the beginning when we see the main character in a Hospice unit.
His nurse gives him something to occupy his time by thinking of a body part that starts with every letter of the alphabet & then think of a memory with that body part.
& every memory is just torture. Either the way he's treated his body with drugs & alcohol even though he's a diabetic, or a memory of a girlfriend that we know early on that isn't around anymore herself. How she passes away is a big part of the book that you have to read to find out.
So this was just a bunch of death. Uplifting, huh?
The one thing that really got me in this book was all the jumping time. You would be in present time in Hospice in one paragraph & then it was like it would jump & you weren't sure how far back you were.
There weren't very many characters I liked in this book. Except for the Hospice Nurse & the young daughter of a patient across the hall from Ivo, the main character. I did like Mia (the girlfriend) - but you already knew her fate. Ivo's friends? If we all had friends like that - we'd be in trouble. Just a hot mess of characters really.
& the ending? I had more questions than ever before. I didn't understand how you keep a person out of Hospice the whole book can slide in with no explanation. & how a book is centered around a hatred for someone the entire time & then forgiveness happens without any big explanation. I get forgiveness... I love forgiveness ... but not when in a book, its not explained. It was like, "I'm dying right now so I'll forgive"... dumb. Just dumb finish to me.
I shut this book just depressed. I saw it in Target with my niece who was picking out a book for her birthday. I told her if I ever caught her reading that book, I'd slap her. Aunt love right there.
If you ever want to read something to just sink into a little despair - this is the book for you.
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Needless to say, this wasn't the best month in books for me.
A bunch of aggravation, frustrating & despair.... sometimes, that's how it all works.
Right now, I'm reading a love story centered around a girl who finds out she's royalty - a MUCH lighter read. My brain, heart & soul needs some cheesy princess romance.
What are you reading right now?
I think I have the A to Z book on my list to read already. I have not read Girl on the Train and I don't think I plan to. So many people said they disliked the characters and such and I don't know? I get tired of all the novels being compared to it.
ReplyDeleteI've gone back and forth with Girl on the Train, but I think it'll just end up being a movie for me. They definitely made the movie look good! That first one sounds good, but I'm starting to get annoyed more easily with characters, so thanks for giving us your thoughts!!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same about The Girl On The Train, at some point I wondered if I was reading a different book to other people since everyone said it was amazing and I was just sat there thinking "meh, it's alright". I listened to it on audio (at 2x speed) so the annoying-ness of the characters didn't grate on me too long before the perspective changed, I think if I was reading it, I might have DNF-d it. I wasn't really invested in the mystery too much, but it was alright in the end.
ReplyDeleteYou win some, you lose some and all that.
Town drama...can be entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI liked The Girl on the Train despite hating the main character.
Great reviews! At least you got three books in, I'm only getting in one a month and I thought I would way more with the two oldest ones went to college, but it has not slowed down any. I will admit, the girl on the train was way better at the movies. It stayed pretty true to the book but Emily Blunt's character was so amazing but I think you'll really like it.
ReplyDeleteIck. Not a very good reading month.... I think I'd like to see the movie The Girl on the Train but I really don't have any interest in reading the book. That's rare for me, but I'm not going to fight it ;)
ReplyDeleteOh man, those all sound pretty depressing :( I think you deserve cheesy princess romance now :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed The Girl on the Train but I'm not going to rush out to see the movie. It really kept me in suspense and was messed up, but it kept me pretty captivated.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that you figured out The Girl On The Train so quickly! It took me forever to figure it out, but I loved it nonetheless. I'm right there with you on Rachel annoying the heck out of me! I wanted to slap her all the time while I was reading it, but I still want to make it out for the movie sometime too!
ReplyDelete99 Days sounds interesting but i don't know if i can get behind a love triangle involving brothers lol.
ReplyDeletei felt the same way about a to z. blech.
I tried reading Girl on the Train and nope; couldn't even get past chapter 3.
ReplyDeleteI figured out Girl on the Train pretty early on as well and Rachel drove me crazy. I'm not a big Emily Blunt fan, so I'll probably just skip the movie.
ReplyDeleteGlad you finally got to read Girl on the Train. I loved it, but read it awhile ago. I didn't like Rachel much either. I do want to see the movie though!
ReplyDeleteI intensely disliked Rachel too but was caught up with the story enough to finish it. A less entertaining story would have been DNFed. I am getting a bit tired of all these unreliable and unlikable narrators. A to Z has a beautiful cover but sounds pretty ugly inside.
ReplyDeleteOMG I felt exactly the same way about Rachel! Honestly, there wasn't one character that I could say I liked. I was gonna see the movie with my my this weekend on the way home from shopping but we missed the 7:10 show and didn't want to stay up for the 9:55pm show! Maybe this week!
ReplyDeleteI think you will like the movie. We saw it this past weekend, but I actually liked the book better! Aw! My book post is coming out tomorrow! Had no idea about this link up, though! Thanks for letting us know!
ReplyDeleteI read Girl on a Train and would give it 2.5 stars. I wasn't that impressed with the characters or the story line and felt like I missed something since everyone else was so crazy about it. I will see the movie when it hits Netflix, just to see if it is better than the book. The other two your reviewed for us, I will avoid!! Thanks!! :)
ReplyDeleteI've been going back and forth on whether or not I want to read The Girl on the Train. I've seen the movie preview, and the story sounds intriguing, but I've seen a bunch of so-so reviews!
ReplyDeleteTHAT is why I watch Once Upon a Time: It's light and hopeful after any and all doom and gloom in books or on TV :)
ReplyDeleteBut I did really enjoy The Girl on the Train. I read it the month it came out, so I think that the longer it's been out, the more critical people get because the more they seem to expect from it.
Ugh, I agree - I couldn't stand Rachel in The Girl on the Train! The book took me a bit to get into, but I did enjoy it overall. Definitely looking forward to seeing the movie, but I adore Emily Blunt so it will be interesting to see her play a character I despised.
ReplyDeleteAll the characters in TGOTT were awful. But I found her writing strong enough to keep me reading all the way till the end. I'm curious to see what they did with the movie.
ReplyDeleteThe A to Z in on my TBR but I haven't gotten to it and honestly, I usually forget that it's there.
I'm like you in that I also am more motivated to read a book if a movie is coming out on it (that I might possibly see). It's how I read Lord of the Rings (finally), Me Before You, Life of Pi...etc. etc. I'm also thinking it's probably time I just bit the bullet and picked up TGOTT too.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's a pity that that last one was so downright depressing because from the premise, it sounded like a pretty cool idea for a book.
I own my past and have talked about this particular aspect on my blog before...I used to be a lousy, blacking-out drunk like Rachel from The Girl on the Train. So, although part of me wanted to shake her, the other part of me related, and not in a good way. I think that's why I was able to accept her more than others.
ReplyDelete