Tuesday, February 23, 2021

The Wife Upstairs

 Hello Interwebs!

The last book I read in January 2021 was the first selection for the Book Troop reading club on YouTube which is a thriller/horror book club hosted by gabbyreads over on YouTube. It was The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins which is a modern thriller retelling of Jane Eyre. I originally gave it a 4/5 star rating but downgraded it to a 3.5. This book was good and entertaining and all but definitely not one that will be a favorite.


So in this book we follow Jane who is a dog walker for the rich people living in the Thornfield Estates community in Alabama. Very early own you also learn that Jane steals little discarded trinkets off side tables in her employers' homes. Then while walking a dog she is nearly run over by Edward "Eddie" Rochester who invites her in for coffee and hires her to walk a dog he doesn't have. Eddie Rochester's wife, Bea, disappeared along with her friend Blanche on the lake and were both declared dead. You go through the whirlwind beginnings of the romance between the two up until they become engaged before you reach chapters that are from Bea's point of view and you find out that she isn't dead but is instead locked away upstairs in the panic room. Through the book you get chapters from Jane's perspective as she becomes increasingly suspicious of Eddie despite her own shady past, Bea who seems to be held captive by the madman who killed her best friend, and finally towards the end you get a chapter from Eddie who reveals that Blanche's husband had been lured to the lake house but stopped by Eddie's to invite him along, after he left Eddie realized it was weird and upon arriving to the lake house finds Bea dragging herself out of the lake. In this it is revealed that Bea killed Blanche and set up Blanche's husband to take the fall. At the climax of the book, Jane finds the book Bea had been writing in in Eddie's suit pocket and opens the panic room door. They knock Eddie unconscious and lock him in there only to have him escape by setting a fire. At the end Jane wakes up in the hospital and is told Eddie died in the fire, identified only  by teeth (which is where I could no longer suspend my disbelief due to my knowledge of the temperatures it takes to cremate someone). She inherits all the money and takes off with the dog for a new life, wondering about Eddie and Bea who are presumably still out there somewhere. 

The book was entertaining and all but definitely had many flaws, such as the fire ending where everyone found a handful and teeth and went whelp he's dead and probably killed his wife and his wife's friend so case closed. I wasn't sorry I read it and I enjoyed it but the "surprise" ending wasn't all that much of a surprise to me considering the big twist (that Bea is alive and hidden away upstairs) is A. in the title of the book, and B. exactly the twist from Jane Eyre. It was a quick read and I still maintain the 3.5 star rating for it. Here's the link to the Book Troop Live Stream for this book if you're interested. It was pretty entertaining. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle

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Monday, February 22, 2021

Crazy Stupid Bromance

 Hello Interwebs!

The fifth book I read in 2021 was Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams which is the third book in the Bromance Book Club series. This is the last book in the series that is currently out and I gave it a 4.5/5 stars. I read it from January 13-25, 2021. As always possible spoilers after the picture. 


This book follows Alexis Carlisle who is Liv's friend from Undercover Bromance and was a victim of the celebrity chef Liv and Mack expose in the previous book. She is the proprietor of Toe Beans, a cat café, which also doubles as a meeting place for other survivors of sexual harassment and violence. It also follows Noah Logan, who was introduced in Undercover Bromance as a former hacker and computer expert that Mack enlists to help take down the celebrity chef. In the interim period Alexis and Noah have become best friends. Then a girl shows up at the café who tells Alexis she's her sister and found her on a genealogy DNA service. Alexis meets her biological father, who needs a kidney but hasn't found a match yet. During the drama with her family and trying to decide whether she'll donate a kidney to her father she and Noah are involved in the preparations for Liv and Mack's wedding and falling in love with each other. 

This was a friends to lovers romance which is my absolute favorite kind of romance, probably because it's the kind of romance I find most realistic and the kind of romance I had with my own partner. I loved the two characters and how Noah is a newcomer to the Bromance Book Club and an outsider to that group of friends. A lot of interactions he had with the Russian make me very very excited for the book in this series coming out this year, Isn't it Bromantic, which is about the Russian. 

I gave this book a solid 4.5/5 stars and I swear I like every book more than the previous one. This series is perfect if you want a fun twist on the romance genre tropes and more self-aware male leads. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle

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Sunday, February 21, 2021

If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home

 Hello Interwebs!

After a long hiatus I'm back with a plethora of book reviews for the end of January and for all of February. This is for my first (and so far, only) nonfiction book of 2021: If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley. This book was 325 pages long and I read it from December 29, 2020 to January 19, 2021 and gave it 4 stars. As always spoilers may occur after the picture. 


So this book is divided into four sections: the bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living room to tell the story of how all of these various rooms developed into how we know them today. I first found out about this book because it's a four part series done by the BBC and hosted by Dr. Worsley which is available on YouTube. My library had the book so I read that as well. Each room is linked to the corresponding episode of the documentary on YouTube. 

First up was the Living Room which was probably my least favorite of the four parts if I'm perfectly honest. It takes you from the single great room which was typical in medieval/Tudor homes where everything happened in a single room to the retiring rooms and parlors in the regency and Victorian eras and into the modern age where at first the hearth, the fireplace, was the center of the home's living space which didn't change until the television caught popularity and then the living space moved to center around the television which is how it remains today. It was an interesting look at why living rooms are arranged the way they are and how it came to be that way. 

Second up was the Bathroom which was especially interesting. Despite the belief that people in the past didn't bathe and smelt bad this wasn't exactly true especially in the medieval period where Turkish style communal baths were very popular. Men and women bathed together in these baths and the people were quite clean until they decided that these baths were too close to houses of "ill repute" and closed them. It went through the stages of chamber pots (including handheld ones that a lady could sneak under her skirts and pee in public which was...weird) and water being toted to dressing rooms for quick washing in the mornings. It went on into the public era where baths were luxuries and flushing toilets were commonplace. I didn't know that there were flushing toilets in tudor times and that miles and miles of pipes were laid during the Victorian period in order to lay the first true modern sewer systems. 

The third section was all about the Bedroom and it started back in the great room of those medieval/Tudor homes where everyone except the lord's immediate family slept in the same room where they ate and lived. The first proper bedrooms were for the whole family to sleep in the same bed, which was usually the first huge purchase after marriage (if it wasn't an inherited heirloom) if not the only big purchase. The bedroom gradually became an intimate space for only the person it belonged to, a personal, private place to be. The book went through other activities, besides sex and sleep, that take place in bedrooms such as birth and death. Most people were born in the same bed they died in. 

Finally there was the section about the Kitchen which went from that same great room that was the beginnings of the living room and bedroom to quickly becoming its own separate building due to the fire danger. It remained a separate building, at least for the rich, until  after the first world war when the domestic service industry began to disappear and most people began to do cooking themselves. It covered the development of different time-saving appliances such as the refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher and other appliances. It also showed how it went from housewives becoming reluctant mistresses of the kitchen to the kitchen becoming the center of the home like it once was when the hearth was the center of the home. 

All in all I really enjoyed this book and the corresponding documentary. There's a lot of interesting facts about things we take for granted and how they came to be. In the end I gave it a fairly solid 4/5 stars and I will definitely continue to read books written by Dr. Worsley (I have Jane Austen at Home on my Kindle). Her writing style is very readable and not too much like an academic paper which is sometimes a problem with history nonfiction. I highly recommend this book and the documentary series. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle 

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Monday, February 1, 2021

February Preview

 Hello Interwebs!

So February is upon us and I have grand plans for my reading this month (maybe too grand but that's beside the point). I have a rather lengthy TBR between the library and my own personal books as well as several books I'm excited about being released this month (one in particular). So let's get right into it, shall we?

First up is my TBR. I have thirteen books on my TBR for February, which considering February is only 28 days long seems a tiny bit excessive. 

  • Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition by Nisid Hajari: this is a nonfiction book about the partitioning of India and Pakistan in the mid-1900s, a topic I realized I knew nothing about and would like to know more after watching an episode of Doctor Who.


  • The Mistress by Danielle Steel: this is a women's fiction/romance about a young woman who was rescued from the streets in Russia and is caught in a love triangle with her rescuer and an artist. 


  • The Duchess by Danielle Steel: a historical fiction/romance about a young woman who is disowned by her half-brothers after their father's death and has to create a new life for herself on her own. 


  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab: a fantasy story of a young woman who makes a deal with presumably the devil to escape a marriage enabling her to live forever while being unable to be remembered by anyone until one day someone remembers her. I wasn't going to put this one on my TBR this month but my boyfriend got the audiobook from audible and has started reading it so I want to read it with him. 


  • Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah: a historical fiction novel about two friends over the course of 30 years starting in the 1970s; I don't know much about this one but it's going to be a Netflix show beginning on February 2nd so I'd like to read it.


  • The Duke and I by Julia Quinn (Bridgertons #1): this is the first book in the Bridgerton series and the one that the Netflix series is based on so yes, please. 


  • Lady Susan by Jane Austen: a short novel about Lady Susan and her scheming to find marriages for both her and her daughter, the basis of the movie Love & Friendship. This is the first book (and one of the shorter ones) in my Jane Austen yearlong readathon. 


  • A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (ACOTAR #1): The first book in the ACOTAR series in a reread before the new book comes out this month. 


  • A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas (ACOTAR #2) 

  • A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas (ACOTAR #3)

  • A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas (ACOTAR #3.5)


  • A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas (ACOTAR #4): The newest book in the ACOTAR series which will focus on Nesta and Cassian and I'm so excited for this and it comes out on the 16th!


  • A Promised Land by Barack Obama: I started this at the end of November on audio book and I'm still working my way through it while I work on puzzles or knit on occasion. Eventually I will finish this book. 

We're not even going to discuss the various book club picks for February because it's clear from this TBR that I will not be getting to them this month. 
There's a handful of books I'm excited about being released in the month of February (including the new ACOTAR book). 
  • Muse by Brittany Cavallaro (2.2.2021): a YA historical fiction/fantasy about a young woman caught in a war in an alternate history 1890s America 

  • Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America; 1619-2019  edited by Ibram X Kendi and Keisha N Blain (2.2.2021): a nonfiction history of African America from the beginnings of the country until now with each section written by a different African American author. 


  • A Pho Love Story by Loan Le (2.9.2021): A YA romance between two teenagers working at their parents' competing Pho restaurants 

  • The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (2.9.2021): A historical fiction about a woman who has to decide whether to tough it out in Texas or move west to California during the great depression and the dust bowl. This is my February Book of the Month pick. 

  • A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas (2.16.2021): see above...so excited! 


So that's it: everything I'm excited for in February both reading and releasing-wise. It's a totally and completely crazy number of things but we'll see how it goes. 

Happy Reading!
Richelle

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January Wrap-Up

 Hello Interwebs!

So the first month of 2021  is in the books and I had a very good reading month. Which wasn't so surprising as I ended up being out of work for almost three weeks due to COVID. I personally experienced nothing more than severe cold symptoms: cough, sore throat, congestion, etc. and now we are all completely healthy and I returned to work this past week. 

So over the course of January I read a total of 6 books, all ones that were on my TBR. I DNF'd one book (technically as I read the first two chapters and decided life was too short for that). So here are my January books in order of completion. 

  1. Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams (The Bromance Book Club #2): read from 12.31.2020 to 1.5.2021; 4/5 stars 


  2. Winter Solstice by Elin Hilderbrand (Winter Street #4); read from 1.5.2021 to 1.6.2021; 4.5/5 stars


  3. The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (Stephen King); read from 1.6.2021 to 1.13.2021; 3.5/5 stars 


  4. If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley: read from 12.29.2020 to 1.19.2021; 3.5/5 stars 


  5. Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams (The Bromance Book Club #3): read frmo 1.13.2021 to 1.25.2021; 4.5/5 stars


  6. The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins: read from 1.25.2021 to 1.29.2021; 4/5 stars


My favorite book of the month was Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams. It was an all around good time of a book with a really solid friends to lovers romance at the heart of it. My least favorite book was The Long Walk by Stephen King which while not a terrible book by any means (with a solid 3.5 star rating from me) it's definitely not one of my favorites and not a Stephen King novel I mean to reread or purchase for myself. 

The one book that I DNF'd in January was Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate. This was a memoir that I discussed in length last year when it was chosen for Reese's Book Club and I wasn't sure I was going to read it and I certainly wasn't going to buy it. I put in a hold for it at the library so I could at least see what it was like. I made it two chapters into the book and wasn't at all a fan of the author's writing style or her "voice" if that makes sense and I DNF'd it at that point. 


Most of my January books were from the library with only The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins being one I own (my December 2020 Book of the Month pick). I'm very pleased with my reading habits in January and hope to carry that momentum into February. 

I did buy several books in January, some were from Christmas money I received from my grandmother and most were on-sale Kindle books from Amazon, ones that are typically less than $5. 
Happy Reading!
Richelle

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