I thought this was going to be a fun and romantic beach read, because it's RaeAnne Thayne and the cover (which is a propos of nothing, because it has I thought this was going to be a fun and romantic beach read, because it's RaeAnne Thayne and the cover (which is a propos of nothing, because it has absolutely nothing to do with the story) screams summer.
Instead, this was a book that focuses mainly on overcoming severe trauma and grief, and how people have different ways of getting on with their lives and coping with it.
I wasn't expecting it to be so heavy, so I had a somewhat jarring reading experience. There's also very little romance, in spite of both sisters both having their own romance angle. I didn't care all that much for either, because one wasn't explored enough and the other was too much of a slow burn (and I love slow burn so it takes me a lot to complain about that).
The 3 stars is entirely because Madi, one of the sisters, runs an animal shelter and that stuff is my catnip....more
I thought this was going to be a suspenseful pageturner, like the Laura Dave book I read two years ago, but this was more of a family drama.
The plot I thought this was going to be a suspenseful pageturner, like the Laura Dave book I read two years ago, but this was more of a family drama.
The plot is incredibly slow-paced and I was never eager to pick this back up because I was bored most of the time. I struggle to understand the purpose of writing this type of story. Was I supposed to be swept away by this epic love between Liam and Cory? I hope not, because I never felt any sympathy for them and the whole length of the book I just kept thinking "things would've been a whole lot simpler if they had just gotten married the first time around". So the entire premise fell completely flat.
What a ride. This was such a compelling book, I couldn't wait to pick it back up every time. It's also relatively short (my ebook copy had 244.5 stars
What a ride. This was such a compelling book, I couldn't wait to pick it back up every time. It's also relatively short (my ebook copy had 240 or so pages); I feel like it could easily have been 100 pages longer, but I appreciate that the author chose not to do that.
I would also hesitate to call this a thriller. It's more of a domestic suspense/mystery, I'd say.
There's some truly unlikeable characters, and there's probably two plot twists too many but I did not care. I ate it up like a fast food meal....more
This was not at all what I was expecting it to be, but I think that's actually a good thing. It's a very atmospheric and poignant book, that 4.5 stars
This was not at all what I was expecting it to be, but I think that's actually a good thing. It's a very atmospheric and poignant book, that had me crying a lot at the end.
I do wish that Cooper's PTSD following his tours in Afghanistan had been explored a little more. It's obvious that this heavily influenced Cooper's decisions that ultimately led him and his daughter to hide away and live so remotely.
This is a very quiet and short book that I found subtly heartbreaking....more
It's been a very long time since I last sat quietly crying throughout a story. I'd only read the blurb and This book broke me.
I can't talk about it.
It's been a very long time since I last sat quietly crying throughout a story. I'd only read the blurb and went into this without knowing anything else, which I think is the best way to experience it.
It was so poignant and heartbreakingly human in many ways. ...more
Kristin Hannah has been an auto-buy author for me for a good few years now, and despite a slow start of this novel, at least for me, I'm happy to say Kristin Hannah has been an auto-buy author for me for a good few years now, and despite a slow start of this novel, at least for me, I'm happy to say this newest book didn't disappoint.
I struggled a little to het into the story, but after I was about a quarter of the way in, I suddenly couldn't stop and finished it all in one sitting. Hannah is an expert at writing women going through tough times, simply trying to survive and keep their families safe. No matter the setting of the book, her female characters all have that in common.
I admit I knew almost nothing about the Dust Bowl except the bare essentials and I sat reading open-mouthed for the better part of the book. I had no idea how truly horrific that period in time had been. Or how frighteningly it would resemble the refugee crisis in Europe now, with the situation in refugee camps probably not being much better than in the California migrant camps in the mid-1930s. Truly terrifying.
Hannah is the master of setting, and she made the Great Plains come alive in a way I hadn't experienced before. I felt outrage, pride, rage and so much sadness. I cried a few times, naturally.
(view spoiler)[I cannot give it a 5 star rating, because as always, Hannah chooses the bittersweet ending and I am (at least usually) a happy ending kind of girl. Just once, I wish she'd choose the happy ending her female warriors deserve. I was under no illusion that Elsa would be alive at the end of this book. I knew it just from reading the blurb, this ain't my first Kristin Hannah novel, after all. But throughout the book I kept hoping she'd prove me wrong and I was unfairly annoyed when she didn't. (hide spoiler)]
I already cannot wait for whatever she'll decide to write next....more
Oh look, it's the first book by Taylor Jenkins Reid that I'm not giving a 5-star rating to. I guess I am capable of that.
I still loved this, though, Oh look, it's the first book by Taylor Jenkins Reid that I'm not giving a 5-star rating to. I guess I am capable of that.
I still loved this, though, because I suspect it's not possible for me not to like a book by this author. She's definitely going on my favourite authors list. This book was so hard to read at times, and I admit I had to skip to the end to see who she would end up with as I couldn't have handled it if it had been another outcome and I was VERY glad to see that it would end the way I wanted it to. I very rarely skip ahead in books to spoil myself, but I felt compelled to do so here.
I love how TJR writes about ordinary people and gets them so right. I'm always super invested in all the characters and I always like all of them, even if they're not always likeable or if they're making questionable choices as in some of her other books. The way she explores the idea of soulmates here and someone's one true love was extraordinary. I laughed, I shed a tear, I felt immensely sad for everyone involved ... but that's the whole point. I felt, deeply, throughout this entire novel.
While some people got to know Kristin Hannah after the huge success her novel The Nightingale had, I have a been a longtime reader and while,3.5 stars
While some people got to know Kristin Hannah after the huge success her novel The Nightingale had, I have a been a longtime reader and while, at first, I didn't seem to be able to give her books a rating higher than 3 stars, that changed when I got my hands on Home Front, the novel that slayed me and that ended up staying with me for a very long time. (I can still quote the very last line of that book.)
Even the books of hers that I've only given 3 stars, I still liked. It was obvious that Hannah could write and she only confirmed her talent not just by writing Home Front, but by taking the world by storm with The Nightingale's success.
I didn't love this like I loved Nightingale and Home Front, but it's still a book worth reading.
In short: this novel is an ode to Alaska, and also to mother/daughter relationships. But mostly to Alaska.
The last frontier comes to life like only Kristin Hannah can make it happen. The imagery and lush descriptions, the harsh weather conditions, the sense of community; it all swept me up and took me with it instantly. I am familiar with short, dark days in winter. We get about 7 and a half hours of daylight here in the middle of winter compared to Alaska's 6 hours, so one might think it's not that different, but I have no idea what it must be like dealing with the extreme weather conditions in addition to the long winter. The deep freeze temperatures, the massive amounts of snow, the winter that lasts from September to May � I can only imagine what that must be like.
In addition to the book's setting wonderfully being brought to life, the book focuses on the relationship between Leni and her parents Ernt and Cora. They move up north on a whim, after her dad (who was a POW during the Vietnam war) decides he wants to get as far away from civilization as he possibly can. They are unprepared for Alaska's unforgiving climate but they learn to love it anyway. Alas, things go from bad to worse with Ernt, who came back from the war a completely changed man and who has been struggling ever since.
I liked Leni and all of the secondary characters a lot. But it wasn't enough to completely make me love this book. I found a lot of the plotlines fairly predictable and there were just so many bad decisions being made all around. Like an overwhelming amount of bad decisions. And I hate when I'm constantly screaming at characters to stop and think and do better.
The melodrama was also amped up towards the end and while I - as always - adore Hannah's writing and her ability to craft masterpieces spanning years and half a continent, I liked but didn't fully love the story being told.
Regardless of my qualms, though, this book is a triumph....more
Behold! A Kristin Hannah book that I've given more than 3 stars. Usually I end up rounding down when I want to give a book a 4.5 rating, but I'm makinBehold! A Kristin Hannah book that I've given more than 3 stars. Usually I end up rounding down when I want to give a book a 4.5 rating, but I'm making an exception in this case because this just grabbed me in a way I hadn't anticipated at all. The summary didn't seem particularly more appealing than any of her other books, and my biggest problem with what I'd read of her previously was the fact that I failed to be completely moved in the way I knew I ought to be.
Yet, I could never seem to stop myself from reaching for one of her books every few months. The stories she tells - while sometimes hard to read and perhaps too honest for my taste - are oddly compelling. Her characters are often not all that likeable, which was another problem I had in the past. But I didn't have that here. The family stuff was just so well done. It was brutal, but it was also honest and very real. I spent the better part of the second half of this book constantly on the verge of tears. It also has one of the greatest best friendships between two women I've read in a long time.
And it's also a story about a couple who've lost what they once had and are trying - amongst the ruins of everything else - to find their way back to each other. Was that predictable? Yes, maybe. But I didn't care. Because it was told beautifully and convincingly.
I know very little about a soldier's life (or the army in general, as, let's face it, it is an entirely different thing for a nation like the US and a nation like ours), so I never thought I'd be this invested; this profoundly touched by one fictional story. But I was. I was completely immersed in Jolene's life, the trouble her marriage was in and then eventually her struggle with being a mom and being deployed to Iraq.
And as many times as I'd been choking back tears throughout the book, by the end they were flowing freely.
And it gets a rounded-up 5 stars for that. ...more
This is only the second book I've read by Kristin Hannah, but just like in the first one (Firefly Lane), there was something about this sto 3.5 stars.
This is only the second book I've read by Kristin Hannah, but just like in the first one (Firefly Lane), there was something about this story that made me...almost uncomfortable. Although that might not be the right word for it, exactly.
I'm not sure if it's because her stories are just so heartbreaking, they make me want to curl into a ball and cry for these fictional people and whatever loss they've suffered. That might be part of it; it's never anything big, or else I would just stop reading halfway through, but there are always elements which make me pause or frown, questioning the direction of the story. Or maybe it was just the controversy of the book's subject.
Regardless, this was very well-written and thought-provoking and overall, I do really enjoy her books, I just don't quite love them. Which is the main reason why they get 3 stars instead of 4. ...more
Heb even zitten twijfelen of ik nu voor 3 of 4 sterren zou gaan, maar over het algemeen beschouwd vond ik dit toch goed genoeg om het bij 4 te laten. Heb even zitten twijfelen of ik nu voor 3 of 4 sterren zou gaan, maar over het algemeen beschouwd vond ik dit toch goed genoeg om het bij 4 te laten.
De eerste 100 pagina's of zo waren voor mij zelfs echt helemaal top (5 sterren, zeker) maar daarna vermindert het ietwat. Het hele boek is op een vreemde manier humoristisch, ondanks het zware onderwerp. En ik weet dat het al bakken kritiek over zich heen gekregen heeft, maar ik vond het geweldig.
De schrijfstijl is inderdaad misschien bedoeld om te choqueren, maar dat stoorde mij totaal niet. Het is een overwegend eerlijke stijl, en dat weet ik altijd te appreciëren.
Dit was realistisch, grappig en geweldig emotioneel. ...more
This was incredibly hard to put down. I loved the writing style; there was never a moment where I found it boring or where I lost interest.
However, IThis was incredibly hard to put down. I loved the writing style; there was never a moment where I found it boring or where I lost interest.
However, I don't think I would label this as a romance novel. I know the author herself calls it a love story, and the element of romance is of course there but for me, that never took the upper hand. The cover text is in fact fairly misleading, although whether that was done deliberately to disguise the controversial subject matter, I don't know.
Basically, I had no idea what I was in for. But I thoroughly enjoyed following Will and Louisa during their 6 months together. This book is thought-provoking, but most of all heartbreaking.
The story is not without its faults. I found it just a little too sentimental at times; the few alternate POV chapters were unnecessary, in my opinion, and it took me awhile to warm up to Lou. But regardless, it made me think about the issue, leaving me completely conflicted, which I'm sure was the author's intention. By the time I reached the end, I didn't care about the couple of bumps in the road anymore. I enjoyed it, and it touched me in a way few books do.
I'm sure this will linger in my mind for quite some time. ...more
Well, this was something else. This book got to me.
It's narrated by letters the mother (Eva) sends to her estranged husband, about a year and a half Well, this was something else. This book got to me.
It's narrated by letters the mother (Eva) sends to her estranged husband, about a year and a half after 'Thursday', which is the only way she knows how to refer to the school shooting her son Kevin is guilty of.
At times, Eva is not a very nice person. She's friendly enough, but she's also selfish and often condescending and intolerant towards other people. It would be easy to dislike her, but the difference is she knows she is all of these things and since she is the sole narrator, it's hard not to get involved. I found it difficult to form an exact opinion on her character because I went back and forth from frustration when she was having another one of her self-important rants to feeling sorry for her when Kevin was being particularly creepy.
Because there's no mistaking that there definitely is more than one thing off about Kevin. Whether that is actually a result of Eva's less-than-mediocre parenting skills (her own conclusion), or because he's just different and far more clever than other babies, I have absolutely no idea. I'm not a child psychologist, but I do find the premise - the question if some people can be born evil or simply turn out that way because of circumstances - extremely intriguing.
It's clear from the start that perhaps she was never meant to be a mother - she has trouble deciding whether she wants to have a child at all - but her failure to form a rapport with her son obviously isn't one-sided. Kevin makes it difficult and shows signs of clear manipulation at a very early age. To me, his growing up seemed like a constant power struggle between the two of them from the get-go.
A power struggle that is nothing but creepy, when taking into account that it starts when Kevin is just a toddler. There's something frightening about a 3-year-old getting the better of his mom where mental games are concerned, especially in the deliberate, well-thought-out way Kevin does.
There were parts of the book, especially around the halfway point, where the story tended to drag just a little, imo. But overall, this was as much captivating as it was disturbing, and I really enjoyed it. ...more
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