Book Review: THE HOLDOUT by Graham Moore

THE HOLDOUT by Graham Moore

B&B RATING: 4 / 5

MOOD: If you’re looking for A courtroom drama and murder mystery combined with amateur detective bravado, this one is for you.

Synopsis

Maya Seale was one of the notorious jurors responsible for letting Bobby Nocks go free for the kidnapping and assumed murder of teenaged Jessica Silver. Now, ten years later, Maya is a successful criminal defense attorney working at a prestigious firm in downtown L.A when she gets roped into a reunion of the original 12 jurors in the Jessica Silver murder. One of them has some incredible new evidence to blow the whole case apart, though what that is is anyone’s guess.

Things take a turn when one of the jurors winds up dead, sparking a new investigation, new allegations, and a new arrest. Will the old set of jurors band together to solve the murder, or will they tear each other apart in their own framed defenses? Time to play jury, judge, and executioner…

Review

I really loved this book! There was a lot going on all at once, and it flipped between the current time in Maya’s point of view to the past, a chapter from the point of view of each member of the jury giving the whole thing an interesting perspective. The writing was a little slow at first, but once I crested the first 50 pages I had a hard time putting it down.

Maya was a likable character, and relatable. She had very little direction in her life until this jury summons put her in a unique position, tearing away her veils of normalcy and exposing her raw self underneath, the self that she had always been meant to be. As someone who has had more than their fair share of wandering through the “normal” stages of life and then wondering, “Well, what the fuck do I do now?” it was comforting to find a strong female lead that found her decisive part of herself after the storm struck. Gives broads like me some hope.

Drink Pairing:

A glass of Chandon Blanc de Noir, mixed with a little bowl of raspberries.

Book Review: THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides

THE SILENT PATIENT by

Alex Michaelides

B&B RATING: 5 / 5

MOOD: If you’re looking for something you just can’t put down and grips you unexpectedly, this one is for you.

Synopsis

Alicia Berenson, a renown painter, is living her dream life with her steamy husband Gabriel, a high-fashion photographer. The two of them make a striking couple, turning heads wherever they go. You can smell the sex in the room whenever the two are around each other. That is, until one day Alicia snaps and shoots her husband in the face at point-blank range. Now, Alicia is locked up in The Grove, a psychiatric facility, as she has not uttered a word since the police knocked down her door that fateful night. Her silence has been puzzling to everyone and anyone, no one can make her talk.

Theo Faber is determined to change that. A psychotherapist at an upstanding institution with his whole career ahead of him, Theo decides to jump at the opportunity to treat his dream patient: Alicia Berenson. Theo leaves his sparking career for The Grove which is under constant threat of being shut down. He is determined to help Alicia speak, and the two are set onto a twisting intermingled path that will forever bind the two of them in the most uncharacteristic of ways.

Review

I was obsessed with this book from the first few lines I read. I needed to read it, and a book is worth 5-stars to me when it consumes your thoughts. Not only was I thinking about this one during the day, I DREAMED of it the two nights in between finishing it. I had a hard time focusing on other things because I knew something big was afoot with this, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

The ending I didn’t see coming at all. It was a slow-burn with the stories interwoven so well, with just enough backstory of the characters to keep me enthralled. I was on the edge of my seat with each page turn wondering when the shoe was going to drop. The way that Theo and Alicia were brought to life in the book made me feel like I knew them, like I had known them my whole life, despite having only been acquainted with them a few days. The writing was evocative, making me feel all sorts of emotions all of the place, never quite settling on one.

Drink Pairing:

A glass of sauvignon blanc, mixed with a bunch of chocolate to help you cope.

Book Review: THE SUN DOWN MOTEL by Simone St. James

THE SUN DOWN MOTEL by Simone St. James

B&B RATING: 3 / 5

MOOD: If you’re looking for a weird ass unrealistic ghost story (yes, I know how that sounds), then this one is for you.

Synopsis

Carly has a family secret - that her Aunt Viv up and disappeared from her job at a motel 35 years ago. Vanished, without a trace. No one has been able to find her, much less had the courtesy to look. With the recent passing of Carly’s mom who refused to speak about Viv, Carly decides to take the investigation into her hands and find out what the f*%$ happened to Aunt Viv. She lands herself some rag-tag friends who are determined to help her find out what happened, Carly starts along the same path as Aunt Viv.

Told from two points of view - Carly’s and then a play-by-play of events from Aunt Viv herself, a near mirrored story unfolds before your eyes. Set in the 70s, Viv is desperate to get away from her vanilla existence and is destined for New York. Along the way she lands in a blip of a town called Fell, accidentally lands the night clerk job of The Sun Down Motel. Something was not right with the hotel, and it catches Viv up before the first night ends. Things get more complicated the longer she stays, until one day, she no longer exists. Just Vanishes.

At the end of the day the question remains - What happened to Aunt Viv?

Review

Um. Snore. Seriously? I know Simone St. James as a cult following for her books, and hey, that’s awesome. For me though, thins one struck all of the wrong chords. There were too many things that that didn’t seem to add up and were unrealistic beyond reasonable liberties. For one, no one moves into a stranger’s apartment within ten minutes of meeting them, becoming instant best friends. That just doesn’t happen, at least not in my world, not the world here in America. Men don’t come out of the woodwork like that. No one is that obsessed with their teeny tiny hometown. Not to mention the plethora of other logistical issues and useless sub-plots that didn’t add to the story.

What really got me were the mistakes in the writing. Not punctuation or verb tense, but issues with the story itself. There were several times where a character wouldn’t have their cell phone on them, but were able to check the time…. on their phone. Or scorning certain reading material, only to fall asleep reading it because it gives nostalgic comfort from being read so many times about 200 pages. When things like that happen I start I find I’m unable to let go of it, and then I start looking for them. It gets to be one of the few things I can think of, not allowing me to concentrate on finer aspects of the book.

I would have given this a two-star rating, but, there were some parts that were pretty clever and I enjoyed. There is some of the ugly side of mental illness (not enough to be a trigger warning in my opinion, but as always, be cautious), that I will always respect authors for including. Overall, this one wasn’t for me, thought it deserved that third star

Drink Pairing:

Several glasses of Spumanti Andre so you physically feel how terrible this book mentally makes you feel.

Book Review: The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

The family upstairs by Lisa Jewell

B&B RATING: 3 / 5

MOOD: If you’re looking for a mystery masking as a thriller with cultish vibes but not really, yeah, this one is for you.

Synopsis

Libby works as a kitchen designer, loving her little life, living in her little basement apartment in London. She knew she was adopted and that her deceased parents had been rich, but unbeknownst to Libby, she would inherit an entire house in the fashionable upscale Chelsea neighborhood on her 25th birthday.

After visiting the house and doing some quick research, Libby learns a tragedy plagued the house and a suicide kool-aid pact had happened, resulting in three dead and her being left behind in her crib with a strange piece of memorabilia. Out of nowhere, Libby now has a torrid past that she is desperate to uncover, and is determined to do such with the help of one of her colleagues and an investigative journalist who had been digging for the scoop years ago.

What is Libby going to find? That she is the product of a cult? What happened to her glorious socialite mother and her bullhorn father?

Review

Uuuuuugggghhhhh. This book had so much hype surrounding it, and there was a lot of book-club vibes circling it in the Insta community. Everyone has their own style of books that speak to them, but if this one had a language - to me - it would be a mute.

The story was told from three separate points of view - Libby, presumably was the main character and was in present-day, finding out what was going on about the house (but told in a third-person narrative?). There was a second woman, Lucy, who’s story seemed pretty disconnected, morbid, also present-day, also third-person narrative, and took awhile to realize how she was related. Then there was Henry who was telling a first-person narrative about what it was like to live in the the mysterious house back when everything was changing and falling apart. The mixed points of view with the back and forth made it semi-difficult to keep me interested. I wanted to hear more about what Libby was going through, and I could really care less about what was happening with Lucy. The subplots surrounding Henry were mediocre at best.

The story itself had good structure and interesting details, but not enough to keep me going. It took me several weeks to finish it, and the book wasn’t interesting enough for me to take it with me on vacation. I kept having to remind myself to read it and unceremoniously watching more and more TV, having this book become a chore I kept procrastinating on.

I know there are very avid fans of Lisa Jewell, and that’s completely okay! There are authors I love that strike a shitty chord in others, and that’s also okay! It wasn’t a bad book in the end, it just wasn’t for me.

Drink Pairing:

Several Irish coffees to help you stay buzzy but awake, mixed with dry toast to match the flavor of the book.

Book Review: BABY TEETH by Zoje Stage

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

B&B RATING: 5 / 5

MOOD: If you want to be grateful for your child, for your normal existence,and the absence of someone trying to kill you - read this one.

Synopsis

On the outside, it’s easy to think Suzette is living the dream. With a husband hot enough to cook bacon off of, a dream home designed by the two of them, and living as a stay-at-home-mom to a spitting-image daughter, how could she not be? What lies beneath the surface is a family living two lives - one where 7-year-old Hanna is a sweet darling to her doting father, all while she is an unholy terror to her mother. Suzette sees the ugly, twisted side of her little girl who chooses to be mute, torturing her family further with her refusal to communicate.

With a calculated wit and cunning intelligence that most adults don’t posses, Hanna does some unthinkable acts in trying to get rid of her mom, hoping to have Daddy all to herself. Through getting kicked out of any school she’s put in to, to punishing Mommy for the many doctor’s appointments relating to her silence, winding up to the sweetest pouty faces switching on and off when Daddy’s home, Hanna is a conniving child intent on one thing: getting rid of Mommy, one way or another.

Suzette is under constant torment by her daughter and just doesn’t understand why she is the object of such scorn and hatred. Hanna gets too much pleasure out of playing her terrifying games with Mommy to stop, and each time she ups the stakes until only one of them can remain: Hanna or Suzette.

Review

I LOVED this book. Everything about it. I can’t think of an element of it that I would have wanted different. The story itself is written from two points of view - Suzette’s and Hanna’s. Suzette makes for quite the sympathetic character, with a dark family past of her own and an auto-immune disease that keeps her on the edge. She does what she can to make sure that Hanna is taken care of, putting up with Hanna’s refusal to speak, her throwing objects and spitting food, slamming doors, and acting like a vicious dog in public.

Hanna on the other hand is loving the fear she sparks in her mother. Nothing makes her happier than seeing her mother caught off-guard, locking herself in her room, waiting for her husband Alex to come home and save the day. The dynamic between the two relationships - Hanna and her mother and Hanna with her father - is astoundingly well done. The complexity of all the little pieces, the story within the story, and the way the ending twists and merges takes it to a whole new level.

This book was written so well I found myself dreaming of it, wondering what Hanna was going to do next. I couldn’t put it down. I carried it with me everywhere I went, to each room in my house and every trip I took in case I had a down moment to read. It was enticing, cynical, engrossing, cringe-worthy at points, and overall one of my favorite reads of the year.

This is Zoje Stage’s debut novel, and if this is her debut, I cannot wait to see what else she has in store for us!

Drink Pairing:

A glass or five of Chandon Classic Brut, mixed with some chocolate covered blueberries.

Book Review: Final Girls by Riley Sager

final girls by riley sager

B&B RATING: 3 / 5

MOOD: If you’re looking for a book to make you constantly second guess yourself, this one is for you.

Synopsis

What was supposed to be a fun weekend with her friends in the woods turned into an unprecedented nightmare. Celebrating the birthday of her best friend and college roommate Janelle, Quinn and a group of friends plan to spend the weekend in Pine Cottage, a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Cell phones locked away in the car, an abundance of booze, creepy woods, and a random stranger showing up creates the perfect mix of heady teenage fun, sexual tension, and a creepy unease.

After a night filled with partying, the entire group of friends is slaughtered by a random stranger - with Quinn being the only one to make it out and without a memory of anything that happened - both her blessing and curse of that night. Coop, the police offer that finds her hysterical and covered in blood, becomes her saving grace as she swims through the media, now part of an exclusive club of Final Girls: a total of three women, Quinn now included, who survived brutal massacres.

Now, another Final Girl commits suicide, and the other, Sam, comes out of the woodwork to seemingly mess with Quinn’s mind. Pushing Quinn to the point of uncontrollable rage, making her double guess what happened that night in Pine Cottage, and flipping her world upside down, Quinn takes a deeper look into the two Final Girls’ past to piece together why Sam is here. What Quinn finds is unprecedented, sending her in a whirlwind unlike any other.

Review

Filled with twists and turns, you’ll need to hold onto your seat for this one. While not hard to follow, there were times I had to go back in the book to resolve the timelines in my head. The characters were well developed, and the arc on Sam was astounding to me. I found myself much more interested in her story than in Quinn’s, often reading into her past, trying to understand what lead her to reach out to Quinn. Some pieces just don’t seem to make sense.

I’m starting to identify what a classic Riley Sager is. He has three books out (in order): FINAL GIRLS, THE LAST TIME I LIED, and LOCK EVERY DOOR. I’ve read LOCK EVERY DOOR and just got LAST TIME I LIED from the library yesterday, getting ready to continue my Spooky Season reading. When reading LOCK EVERY DOOR a few months ago, I was absolutely obsessed with it, needing to know what happened, like I needed it to breathe. I’ll do a full review on that one soon (I’m going through a backlog of some things I ready this year). While he knocked it out of the park for that one, I didn’t feel quite that way about FINAL GIRLS, but I finished it in four days, so it definitely wasn’t a bad read.

I love the way Sager writes - from the first-person point of view, sucking you into what the protagonist is thinking. It helps to trap the reader in the many twists and turns the book takes, and man, there were many. The beginning was captivating. I kept questioning what I knew, often switching my opinion of who the Pine Cottage killer was several times throughout the read. I wasn’t expecting the ending,

Told as a tale of current, mixed with memories revealing themselves about the past, this will keep you guessing, second guessing, triple guessing, and then still wrong at the end.

Drink Pairing:

A glass of mid-range light and fruity moscato to tame the senses, while snacking on a classic cheese plate.

Book Review: THE TURN OF THE KEY by Ruth Ware

THE TURN OF THE KEY by Ruth Ware

B&B Rating: 5 / 5

Mood: if your goal is to think everY noise in your house is a serial killer out to get you - I recommend this one.

Synposis

Rowan, a child-care provider in her early 30s, lands her dream job working as a live-in nanny in the remote Scottish Highlands. The salary and location seem too good to be true. What’s the catch? The family seems normal enough, if not ungodly rich. And her new quarters are gorgeous, with a private bathroom and enough space for a family in its own right.

The day Rowan moves in to her new position, the parents unexpectedly take off on a business trip, leaving her alone with the three little girls. The house - an old Victorian that collided with a modern smart house - has architecture like she has never seen before. Being a complete smart home, everything is controlled by an app, “Happy,” that Rowan thinks has a mind of its own. The house is wired everywhere - making her feel watched, listened to, and creeped out.

The girls are unruly, testing Rowan at every angle. She is determined to make it work, using every trick in the book while the parents are gone. It’s not the kids that are making Rowan second-guess her commitment though, it’s the house. With its smart technology ingrained everywhere from the kitchen to the bathroom, mixed with the mysterious sounds of what could only be a ghost or a serial killer roaming in the attic, Rowan feels both haunted and hunted. Something here isn’t right. Combined with the house’s tragic past, the recent history of four other nannies quitting in the span of a year, Rowan is determined to stay, despite everything going wrong, as if the house is driving her away. If only she knew her stay would end in a tragedy that would ultimately be blamed on her, taking away her freedom and potentially paying the ultimate price…

Review

I LOVED this book. I think obsessed would be the proper term. I devoured it in two sittings and had a hard time putting it down to sleep (the only thing separating myself and this read while I was on vacation). This is my first Ruth Ware novel, and it’s apparent I need to catch up to what I’ve been missing! She has a way of creating a world within a world, weaving a tale so rich and vivid it’s as if you’re living in it. I recently moved into a new (to me) house that’s over 50 years old that’s filled with its own creaks and shifts, making noise at all times of the day and night. I’ll admit, I felt like I WAS Rowan at times, jumping at every noise my old house made, constantly checking behind the shower curtain and turning on all the lights. Hey, I needed some comfort! I live alone!

Written from Rowan to her hopeful lawyer, her letters detail the harrowing incidents that led up to the fateful night that landed her in jail, awaiting trial. The writing is beautifully done, with the right amount of descriptive details to paint a picture, but leave a touch to the imagination. I ached for Rowan, feeling for her and connecting to her character in a way I haven’t felt in an eternity.

Drink Pairing

A whole bottle of Chandon Vintage Brut because you’ll be reading all day, mixed with as much peanut butter toast you need for comfort.