Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur

Cover Photo from GoodReads

I was given an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. 

I don't generally read memoirs. They really aren't my thing, and I tend to prefer the world of fiction to real life. When I saw the title of this book though, I couldn't help myself. It sounded like an episode of Jerry Springer, and I was curious. It took me a while to get to it, and the book has already been published, but here we go. While reading this I was reminded of "The Glass Castle" in a way because both are memoirs about awful parents. 

First of all, Malabar is TOXIC as hell. She decides to cheat on her ailing husband with his best friend and uses her 14 year old daughter as an accomplice and an alibi. Adrienne, or Rennie as people call her, mentions that she grew up without a moral compass, because what was right was whatever pleased her mom at the time. That's an important thing to remember, because it's something that follows Rennie throughout her mom's twenty year affair. Even as an adult, Adrienne's life is all about her mother. She marries the son of her mom's lover (ICK) and is put in a compromising position when he finds out that not only have their parents been sleeping together for years, but she knew about it and never said anything to anyone. Her mom essentially gaslights her throughout her life in order to get her to do whatever she wants, and it isn't until years of therapy later that Rennie starts to see their relationship for what it was. 

At the end of the book, Rennie faces her fears of being like her mother when she has her first daughter. Having a toxic parent myself, I could almost put myself in her shoes, which made it bittersweet for me to read about. I remember having that same feeling while holding my daughter, wondering how anyone could do the things that were done to me and call themselves a parent, knowing that as scared as I was to make the same mistakes, somehow, it was all going to be okay. 

I would definitely recommend this for anyone who wants to read a wildly complicated mother daughter memoir. 

Child's Play by Danielle Steel

Cover Image from GoodReads

* I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.* 

As I've previously stated, I've read a ton of stuff by Ms. Steel, mainly because it's "fluff" for me. Her books are always things that don't necessarily make me think too hard, feel good type formulaic books that make me think of my grandma. Child's Play  wasn't that different. 

I will admit, I absolutely couldn't stand the main character in this book at first. I thought it was ridiculous that Kate would be so angry with her daughter because she didn't want to get married just because she was pregnant. This isn't the 1950s and personally I feel like you shouldn't try to force your child into a legally binding contract with someone that may not be good for them just because they accidentally got pregnant. People co-parent like adults all the time. 

When one of the children came out as gay, I immediately thought "oh man, if her reaction is anything like before, I'm going to have to cuss someone out", but Kate gains a shred of common decency and isn't homophobic and disgusting along with being misogynistic, so she's got that going for her. I didn't really understand the point of bringing her ex husband and the loss of her baby up, mainly because it was never really mentioned again. I did, however, enjoy the relationship between her and Scott, and getting to watch that unfold. Personally, I think the grandmother, Margaret, was my favorite character, because she seemed to be the one with the most sense. 

As far as DS books go, this one was a pretty typical one. HEA was included, storyline was similar to most of her other ones, and it was a fast easy read. I know it's already been published because I'm behind, but I already know patrons are going to lap it up like they do all of her other books. 

Love, Heather by Laurie Petrou

Cover Image from NetGalley

*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. *

When I first read the premise of this book I was excited. "Heathers" was one of my favorite movies, and I thought that the plot had promise. Now that I have finished it, I can say that it fell a little flat to me. I couldn't sympathize with the main character, Stevie, even though she was definitely the victim in this scenario. The fact that not a single person in her life bothered to listen to her, including her mom, sort of made me hate everyone in the book. None of the characters was particularly likeable, which doesn't make for a good book for me. I was sightly amused by the "pranks" that were going on around the school, but the premise of the book made it sound like they got awful and violent-- when it wasn't really THAT bad until the end. I saw the "twist" coming from a mile away, and sort of had to force myself to finish the book. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever read, but it isn't something I would read again or even recommend. 

One Night Gone by Tara Lakowski

Cover Image from GoodReads

*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.* 

Back story: Maureen is a young girl who moves to a beach town and tries to fit in. Inevitably she vanishes. Years later, Allison moves to the same town to put the pieces of her own life together, and gets sucked into the mystery of what happened to Maureen. 

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It had all the elements I usually like: mystery, dbag exes, multiple points of view, but I just didn't. For one thing I figured out what went down long before I got to the end of the book, which could have just been because I've read a ton of thrillers lately and my mind is just already down that dark path, not necessarily because it was too easy to figure out. 

I really liked Maureen as a character, even though knowing she didn't survive throughout the book made that bittersweet. I was thoroughly amused that the roller derby nickname for the librarian was the "spine cracker". I even felt like I connected fairly well with Allison, although I felt closer to Maureen. I was glad that the victims got the ending they deserved, so it wasn't a total hatred of a book, it just wasn't my favorite. 

I can totally see this being a book for people who like thrillers. I already know a few patrons I'd recommend it to. "One Night Gone" was published in October, so check it out on the shelves if you're looking for a book to take your mind off things! 

No Judgments by Meg Cabot

Cover Image from GoodReads

*I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.* 

I want to preface this by saying that Meg Cabot is one of my favorite authors. I've read (& loved) almost all of her books. I wasn't overly fond of the Heather Wells mysteries, but I read those as well. No Judgments  did not disappoint. The premise of the novel is that our main character, Bree, has moved to a small town in Florida to start her life over. This town is in the path of a hurricane, and Bree has chosen to stay with her cat! instead of leaving him to fend for himself. After the storm passes, Bree, and her "friend" Drew <3 form their own team to check on the animals of the people left behind-- without passing judgment on them for why they left their animals in the first place. 

Bree was a character that I identified with very well. She struggled with not knowing one of her biological parents and how that played a part in her life, losing a parent, and a sexual assault that no one really treated like a sexual assault. That last one isn't explained until further on in the book, and it made me want to cry for her to see how her family members treated it. 

Drew might be my newest "book boyfriend". He was cute, had a house on the beach, loved animals, and had this playful back and forth relationship with Bree that I appreciate in a partner. I loved the relationship between the two of them, and I am glad that they got their HEA. I look forward to reading more in this series. 

The Liars of Mariposa Island by Jennifer Mathieu

Cover Image From GoodReads

*I was given an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.* 

I just want to start off by saying that originally I thought this was going to be somewhat like We Were Liars. It was not. It actually took a while for me to even get in to the book. Normally I like the different POVs, but I didn't like the way it was done here. I didn't mind hearing snippets of Caridad's POV so that we could understand what happened to her, but I didn't like how half the book was told in Elena's POV and then the other half was in Joaquin's. I felt like I was just starting to get to like Elena and all of a sudden her story was abandoned for her brother's. 

I'm honestly not sure if the author was trying to make Caridad a sympathetic character by telling us about her background and what she went through, but frankly I couldn't be bothered to like her character at all. Yeah, you had a rough life, but that doesn't give you the right to look down on the people who are only trying to help you. She seemed nonredeemable to me, and I wanted more from the ending as well. It seemed very abrupt and we didn't really get much closure for the characters, or at least that's how it felt to me. 

I have read a few of the author's other books, and they were much better. This one just fell flat. 

The Stranger Inside by Lisa Unger

*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.*

I read some of the other reviews before I started mine, and I was sort of surprised to see that it had mixed reviews, considering I really liked it. But then again, I'm an oddball and the idea that a serial killer could be made based on psychological traumas that a person has endured is both terrifying and interesting to me.

Our main character, Rain, is one of those people who survived a trauma but never managed to forgive herself for being the one who survived. She was a child in a desperate situation and her body did the only thing it knew how to: it shut down. Because of that, one of her friends was killed and the other was tortured, leading him to become the dark and fascinating character I thought he was.

Rain has trouble letting go of her past and feels as though she needs to "tell her story", and the rest of the book is about how her story connects to other murders that are happening in their area. Rain also struggles with wanting to be a stay at home mom and needing to work to feel like she doesn't lose a part of herself (can 110% relate). All in all, I thought the characters were interesting, I enjoyed the way the story wrapped itself up in a pretty neat little bow, and even though I saw the twist coming, I liked it. Would definitely recommend to some of our psychological drama enjoying patrons.