Reading Lately – January Book Review

It seems I always start out with a reading binge at the beginning of the year. Maybe it’s the shorter days, our lighter scchedule or the cold weather that tends to make me want to curl up with a book. I read three fiction books this month and thought I would round them up with a January Book Review along with one I finished on New Years Eve.

Amazon: Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers—Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.

As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a US marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.

Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they’re also building a new future—one neither of them could have anticipated

My reveiw: This book started strong and I was invested and turning pages as quickly as I could. That lasted all theway until near the end when it felt a little rushed as the author tied it all up. Maybe I just really didn’t love the way it ended. Overall it was a decent read until that point but for me it was only 3 stars.

Amazon: For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts.

Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest: Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons, only to later doubt her gifts, and Virgil Stanhope, the jaded private detective who’d originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers.

As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish.

My thoughts: Loved this book! There were a few parts that felt a little slow but I love the authors writing style, bouncing from each characters point of view. It was a beautiful but tragic story with an ending I was not expecting. If you have ever read Jodi Picoult you will love this one too and learn a ton about elephants along the way! Leavng Time was 4 stars for me.

Amazon: Duchess Day Radley is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Rules are for other people. She is the fierce protector of her five-year-old brother, Robin, and the parent to her mother, Star, a single mom incapable of taking care of herself, let alone her two kids.

Walk has never left the coastal California town where he and Star grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. And he’s in overdrive protecting Duchess and her brother.

Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released. And Duchess and Walk must face the trouble that comes with his return. We Begin at the End is an extraordinary novel about two kinds of families―the ones we are born into and the ones we create.

My thoughts: We Begin at the End was another page turner for me. Such a tragic story that continued to become even more tragic as it went on. I really wanted some good news and a happier ending for poor Duchess. I thought it was thoughtfully written and turned the pages quickly. We Begin at the End also gets 4 stars from me.

Amazon: Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

My thoughts: I read 90% of my books on my kindle but was thrilled a friend shared her paperback with me! This book has been on my reading list FOREVER and I’m so glad I finally checked it off. I loved this book and was so surprised by her greatest love. While I knew there would be a twist, I did not see it coming as I became so invested in the story as it was being told and it really shocked me once it was exposed. I loved this book! Loved Evelyn despite all of the things she did for fame and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo gets 4 stars from me.

I’m adding so many books to my reading liist for 2022! Do you have one I should definitely add? I was so excited to find out from a fellow Texas that I could get a library card for the Houston Library for digital books. The selection and wait time has been much shorter. I’m definitely more apt to read more if I’m not worried about the cost.