Book Review: Something In The Water

Author: Catherine Steadman

Publication Date: June 5, 2018

Publisher: Ballantine Books

“A psychological thriller that captivated me from page one. What unfolds makes for a wild, page-turning ride! It’s the perfect beach read!”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine book pick)

If you could make one simple choice that would change your life forever, would you?

Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans. Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora, where they enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other. Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water. . . .

Could the life of your dreams be the stuff of nightmares?

Suddenly the newlyweds must make a dangerous choice: to speak out or to protect their secret. After all, if no one else knows, who would be hurt? Their decision will trigger a devastating chain of events. . . .

Have you ever wondered how long it takes to dig a grave?

Wonder no longer. Catherine Steadman’s enthralling voice shines throughout this spellbinding debut novel. With piercing insight and fascinating twists, Something in the Water challenges the reader to confront the hopes we desperately cling to, the ideals we’re tempted to abandon, and the perfect lies we tell ourselves.

Steadman’s writing in her new psychological suspense packs quite the punch! Can you say fast-paced? Steadman drops readers right into a sticky situation, to say the least, and she reveals one twist after another as the chapters unfold. The best thing about the story, and Steadman’s writing, is that she really makes you think with this story. This story makes you realize just how badly one bad decision can take you further than you thought you would ever go and change your life forever. Mystery is a perfect genre to dig deeper into ideas just like this one. The characters were written to be fully fleshed out; readers will know and learn their innermost secrets and will question their reliability the entire time. 

Have you ever wondered how long it takes to dig a grave? Wonder no longer. It takes an age. However long you think it takes, double that. 

I feel the trapdoors in my mind creaking under the strain of what lies underneath.

We can go back to our normal lives. Well, normal-ish.

Hands down, fans of Paula Hawkins, Ruth Ware, and even Gillian Flynn will relish in this new thriller out just in time to be everyone’s beach read. As if I haven’t already endorsed it enough, this novel was Reese Witherspoon’s pick for her book club this month! I loved this book; it will most likely be one of my favorites of the year. The climax and the ending came out of NOWHERE – I DID NOT SEE IT COMING! I live for books like this one!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Ballantine Books in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: Sex and the City and Us

Author: Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

Publication Date: June 5, 2018

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

By the bestselling author of Seinfeldia, a fascinating retrospective of the iconic and award-winning television series, Sex and the City, to coincide with the show’s twentieth anniversary.

This is the story of how a columnist, two gay men, and a writers’ room full of women used their own poignant, hilarious, and humiliating stories to launch a cultural phenomenon. They endured shock, slut-shaming, and a slew of nasty reviews on their way to eventual—if often begrudging—respect. The show wasn’t perfect, but it revolutionized television for women.

When Candace Bushnell began writing for the New York Observer, she didn’t think anyone beyond the Upper East Side would care about her adventures among the Hamptons-hopping media elite. But her struggles with singlehood struck a chord. Beverly Hills, 90210 creator Darren Star brought her vision to an even wider audience when he adapted the column for HBO. Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha launched a barrage of trends, forever branded the actresses that took on the roles, redefined women’s relationship to sex and elevated the perception of singlehood.

Featuring exclusive new interviews with the cast and writers, including star Sarah Jessica Parker, creator Darren Star, executive producer Michael Patrick King, and author Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City and Us brings us a both a critical and nostalgic, behind-the-scenes look at a television series that changed the way women see themselves.

I was such a huge fan of the Sex and the City series. I have watched them all and even the movies; Carrie Bradshaw is my ultimate favorite and I always admired all that she stood for. When I saw this book being published, I just knew I had to review it on my blog. I am so glad I read it and here are a few thoughts I had while doing so…

There are so many details in this book for people who are pursuing a career in writing, directing, or producing TV shows. Armstrong provides so many wonderful anecdotes behind the making of the show and this book is truly for hardcore fans – you will learn some of the ins and outs and reasons behind certain things that took place throughout the shows running six seasons. But more than unveiling the secrets behind the show and the characters, you will learn how a hit show is made. This is my first read by Armstrong but it is my understanding that she has written other books that look at hit TV series and she is one of the best for doing so. Her writing shows just how much she researched the topic and reading the interviews was my favorite part!

Everyone involved with Sex and the Cityhedged their bets. But when the show premiered on HBO in June 1998, it would do more than become a hit television show. No one, least of all its own cast and crew, saw it coming.

By the third season, Sex and the City’s writers and directors knew what viewers wanted, and they knew how to give it to them. Sometimes it was the impossibly luxe lifestyle. Sometimes it was the characters’ intimately embarrassing moments. Sometimes it was romance. In a few magical moments, it was all three.

The fashion helped define the characters, from the tulle skirt in the opening sequence to Carrie’s crop tops, Samantha’s siren dresses, Charlotte’s classy chic, and Miranda’s power-bitch suits. The time spent on the stars’ looks was not to be questioned. 

Sex and the City had formed its own economy, and it did not come cheap.

It was so great to reminisce about this TV show that stole my heart so long ago. I had laughs while reading and ultimately found myself wanting to binge watch the show all over again. I loved the background about the setting, the fashion, the food, and the impact that these four women made on the world. To any fan or to anyone wanting to see what this show is about, this book is a great resource – you are sure to learn a lot and have fun while reading it!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Simon & Schuster in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: The Royal Art of Poison

Author: Eleanor Herman

Publication Date: June 12, 2018

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Hugely entertaining, a work of pop history that traces the use of poison as a political―and cosmetic―tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Kremlin today

The story of poison is the story of power. For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns, and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family’s spoons, tried on their underpants and tested their chamber pots.

Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications, and filthy living conditions. Women wore makeup made with mercury and lead. Men rubbed turds on their bald spots. Physicians prescribed mercury enemas, arsenic skin cream, drinks of lead filings, and potions of human fat and skull, fresh from the executioner. The most gorgeous palaces were little better than filthy latrines. Gazing at gorgeous portraits of centuries past, we don’t see what lies beneath the royal robes and the stench of unwashed bodies; the lice feasting on private parts; and worms nesting in the intestines.

In The Royal Art of Poison, Eleanor Herman combines her unique access to royal archives with cutting-edge forensic discoveries to tell the true story of Europe’s glittering palaces: one of medical bafflement, poisonous cosmetics, ever-present excrement, festering natural illness, and, sometimes, murder.

This book is a fascinating look at poison, as you might have guessed from the title. However, this book looks at more than just death by poison, but also accidental poisoning, poisons in medical treatments, and poisons in skin care, what was used for makeup, and even in clothing. I was so enthralled by the history I learned about here. Herman’s voice and writing is witty and many parts of this book were laugh out loud hysterical. Things that sound common sense and second nature to us today were not so easily understandable years ago. Many famous deaths are categorized throughout the pages – showing how poison was used purposefully and not so purposefully cause death. Herman’s writing was enrapturing, her facts are ones I would have never been able to find out on my own, and her voice caused this book to not feel like a history lesson, but a stirring, rousing thriller with a killer ending.

Imagine a king casting his gaze over a feast of roasted meats, rich sauces, glazed honey cakes, and fine wine. Even though his stomach rumbles with hunger, he might lose his appetite when considering that on the table could, in fact, cause him to die horribly over the next few hours.

Over the centuries, royal courts developed methods for detecting poison or, if poison had been consumed, for reversing its fatal effects. Most such methods were both medically useless and extraordinary silly, yet they were trusted by some of the most powerful and educated people in Europe.

Looking around our Ikea-filled apartments, many of us might utter a soul-deep sigh as we ponder the marble floors, gilt ceilings, and finely carved furniture of European palaces in centuries past. We would be less envious, perhaps, if we remembered that the most magnificent chambers were befouled by parasites, bacteria, viruses, and environmental poisons that carried far more victims to the grave than arsenic ever did.

Palaces were, in fact, a dominion of dung. Inside those lacquered cabinets were chamber pots brimming with a stinking view of human waste. The contents of chamber pots were thrown down latrines, open holes with wooden seats and a straight shot down either into the castle moat, which frequently featured floating turds, or into the palace basement, which was only cleaned – and that must have been quite a job – when full to bursting. The human waste below Henry VIII’s Great House of Easement, a two-story deluxe toilet facility at Hampton Court with twenty-eight holes, rose head-high before it was cleaned out.

This would be the perfect beach read – of course, you might get some weird looks if you chose to read it anywhere in public. I forgot that what I was reading was non-fiction more times than one. Some of my favorite parts of this book were reading about famous deaths like Mozart and Napoleon Bonaparte. I learned more in this book than I ever could have in a history class. Such a entertaining, clever read!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at St. Martin’s Press in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: The Book of Essie

Author: Meghan Maclean Weir

Publication Date: June 12, 2018 

Publisher: Knopf

A captivating novel of family, fame, and religion that tells the story of the seventeen-year-old daughter of an evangelical preacher, star of the family's hit reality show, and the secret pregnancy that threatens to blow their entire world apart. 

Esther Ann Hicks--Essie--is the youngest child on Six for Hicks, a reality television phenomenon. She's grown up in the spotlight, both idolized and despised for her family's fire-and-brimstone brand of faith. When Essie's mother, Celia, discovers that Essie is pregnant, she arranges an emergency meeting with the show's producers: Do they sneak Essie out of the country for an abortion? Do they pass the child off as Celia's? Or do they try to arrange a marriage--and a ratings-blockbuster wedding? Meanwhile, Essie is quietly pairing herself up with Roarke Richards, a senior at her school with a secret of his own to protect. As the newly formed couple attempt to sell their fabricated love story to the media--through exclusive interviews with an infamously conservative reporter named Liberty Bell--Essie finds she has questions of her own: What was the real reason for her older sister leaving home? Who can she trust with the truth about her family? And how much is she willing to sacrifice to win her own freedom?

The Book of Essiefollows our main character Essie Hicks and her family as they venture through life while being filmed for reality TV on their show called “Six for Hicks.” Think Duggars – yeah, that’s the Hicks family. So, knowing that the Hicks family is similar to the Duggars, you may have guessed that they are religious, pious, and all the other synonyms that relate to the word CONSERVATIVE. Are you ready for the twist? Essie, the youngest in the pastor’s family, is pregnant at seventeen.

The novel shares the viewpoints of three characters: Essie, Roarke (Essie’s chosen husband), and Liberty (a television reporter). Essie is by far my favorite character because of the character arc she follows during this story. She is victim to many issues and struggles and you will be rooting for her the entire time you read. I was very glad that I got to see this world through her eyes. She is a phenomenal character – realistic, emotional, pure, and determined to break free. My next favorite thing about reading this debut was the relationship shared by Roarke and Essie. Roarke has a few secrets of his own and you will spend a lot of the book waiting for them to be revelaed. These two characters need each other for far more reasons than the obvious. 

Weir does an excellent job at dealing with religion, topics like abuse, and LGBTQ +. She handles all of these topics tastefully. This book deals with some major abuse and should not be taken lightly. I felt myself cringe at times and wonder why some people choose to live this way, but I am not one to judge. This book is fast-paced and deals with a lot of family drama – I would definitely recommend if you are a fan of these. The alternating POV’s is done well and each of the three characters has a voice that is distinctly their own. Characters were fully developed – I loved all of them, but Essie the best, of course! 

It was hard to believe that I deserve a day like this. I used to think no one would ever love me. I used to think that I was unlovable. I used to think that everything that happened to me was my fault, that I deserved it. 'Be brave', my father said during the ceremony. It's hard to be brave, but I know I have to try..."

On the day I turn seventeen, there is a meeting to decide whether I should have the baby of if sneaking me to a clinic for an abortion is worth the PR risk. 

Small-town girl in the big city; they almost didn’t let me come.

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Knopf in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: The High Tide Club

Author: Mary Kay Andrews 

Publication Date: May 8, 2018

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

An instant New York Times bestseller (May 2018) from the author of The Weekenders - a delightful new novel about new love, old secrets, and the kind of friendship that transcends generations.

When ninety-nine-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons attorney Brooke Trappnell to her 20,000 acre barrier island home, Brooke is puzzled. Everybody in the South has heard about the eccentric millionaire mistress of Talisa, but Brooke has never actually met her. Josephine’s cryptic note says she wants to discuss an important legal matter, but why enlist Brooke and not the prestigious Atlanta law firm she has used for years? Brooke travels to Shellhaven and meets the cagey Josephine, whose home is a crumbling pink mansion at the edge of the turquoise sea. 

Over the course of a few meetings, Josephine spins a tale of old friendships, dark secrets, betrayal, and a long-unsolved murder. She is hiring Brooke for two reasons: first, to protect her island from those who would despoil her land, and second, to help her make amends with the heirs of the women who were her closest friends, the girls of The High Tide Club―so named because of their youthful skinny dipping escapades―Millie, Ruth, and Varina. To fulfill a dying woman’s wishes, Brooke must find Josephine’s friends’ descendants and bringing them together on Talisa for a reunion of women who’ve actually never met. But in doing so, Brooke unleashes the makings of a scandal that could make someone rich beyond their wildest dreams…or cause them to be in the crosshairs of a murderer….

The High Tide Club is Mary Kay Andrews at her Queen of the Beach Reads best: a story shrouded in mystery, Spanish moss, verandah cocktails, 1940s dinner dances, love lost, and possibly…love found.

I have been obsessed with Mary Kay Andrews since I started this blog. She publishes a new book each year and each year I am always crazed excited to read it. I will be journeying to the beach later this month and had originally thought about saving this book for that trip, but we all see how that went! Anyway, Mary’s newest novel is easy to read, relatable, and definitely beach read worthy. The chapters are short, which I love, and the story and characters are easy to follow along with and love. The book is over four hundred pages, but Andrews knows how to write a book that will make you fly through the pages with more than one hundred pages in one sitting. You will easily get swept away in the story and won’t remember when you looked at the time last! The southern Georgia setting adds to the atmosphere which helps you forget your worries and get lost in this story. 

“Do you have any family?” The old lady put her head back and closed her eyes. “Not really. My brother, Gardiner, was killed in World War Two. Preiss and I never had children.” She smiled, briefly. “Never wanted any, either. I didn’t marry until I was in my thirties. He was six years younger than me. Bet you didn’t know that. No, there’s somebody else. My friends. My oldest, dearest friends. The High Tide Club girls.”

“You’re all invited to my home at Newport.” She waved her cigarette in our faces. “And don’t forget your birthday suits.”

“Someday, you’re gonna make somebody a hell of a lawyer.”

This might just be the best Mary Kay Andrews book yet, and I certainly don’t say that lightly! This book just had more depth and charm than her previous ones – not that they weren’t spectacular. The characters, Brooke, Lizzie, Varina, Marie, and Felicia, just made the story come to life – I am such a character driven reader. They were each so special and unique to the story. This book screams summer and I am sure it will be at the top of this year’s most read lists!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at St. Martin’s Press in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: Lying In Wait

Author: Liz Nugent

Publication Date: June 12, 2018

Publisher: Gallery

“An extraordinary novel. Lying in Wait crackles and snaps like a bonfire on a winter’s night; you shudder even as you draw closer to it. Spellbinding.” —A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

From the international bestselling author of Unraveling Oliver, an “unputdownable psychological thriller with an ending that lingers long after turning the final page” (The Irish Times) about a Dublin family whose dark secrets and twisted relationships are suddenly revealed.

My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.

On the surface, Lydia Fitzsimons has the perfect life—wife of a respected, successful judge, mother to a beloved son, mistress of a beautiful house in Dublin. That beautiful house, however, holds a secret. And when Lydia’s son, Laurence, discovers its secret, wheels are set in motion that lead to an increasingly claustrophobic and devastatingly dark climax.

Read this book is you can stand it! Yes, that is a dare. The first words on the first page from our main protagonist Lydia Fitzsimmons are as follows, “My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.” OMG! The book is told in alternating viewpoints, starting with Lydia and followed by the victim’s sister, Karen. Lydia and Andrew’s son, Laurence, also gets to share his voice as well. Each chapter reveals more and more about the characters and the scenario that was described so well for readers in the very first chapter. Lydia’s voice is chilling and her character is downright cold-hearted and unreadable at times, which makes the twists and turns all the more questionable.

I waited for her to shout at me and complain to Daddy about how awful I was. I knew it would take her a very long time to forgive me this time. But she still wasn’t moving. Had I gone too far?

“Right now nobody knows she is dead. Nobody knows she is missing. We need to keep it like this.”

I did the girl a kindness, like putting an injured bird out of its misery. She did not deserve such kindness.

The characters are complex, the writing is dark and disturbing, and the story is just flat out creepy. This is the first novel I have read by Liz Nugent, but she is a mystery/thriller author that should be added to everyone’s shelves. Nugent wrote a book that I got through in one sitting – I just could not stop reading. I HAD to know why Andrew Fitzsimmons murdered Annie Doyle and I HAD to know why Annie Doyle deserved to die. This was an invigorating story – I needed a book like this and this is perfect for anyone wanting to beat the heat of hot summer’s day by reading a book in doors.

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Gallery in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: All The Ever Afters

Author: Danielle Teller

Publication Date: May 22, 2018

Publisher: William Morrow

In the vein of Wicked, The Woodcutter, and Boy, Snow, Bird, a luminous reimagining of a classic tale, told from the perspective of Agnes, Cinderella’s "evil" stepmother.

We all know the story of Cinderella. Or do we?

As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story. . . .

A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress’s apprentice when she is only ten years old. Using her wits and ingenuity, she escapes her tyrannical matron and makes her way toward a hopeful future. When teenaged Agnes is seduced by an older man and becomes pregnant, she is transformed by love for her child. Once again left penniless, Agnes has no choice but to return to servitude at the manor she thought she had left behind. Her new position is nursemaid to Ella, an otherworldly infant. She struggles to love the child who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, eventually, the celebrated princess who embodies everyone’s unattainable fantasies. The story of their relationship reveals that nothing is what it seems, that beauty is not always desirable, and that love can take on many guises.

Lyrically told, emotionally evocative, and brilliantly perceptive, All the Ever Afters explores the hidden complexities that lie beneath classic tales of good and evil, all the while showing us that how we confront adversity reveals a more profound, and ultimately more important, truth than the ideal of "happily ever after."

I never thought I would see the day when I felt sorry for the evil stepmother. Danielle Teller, and her debut novel, have made me rethink everything I was ever taught about Cinderella. Her characters are well-written and deeply developed, especially the evil stepmother, Agnes. You will feel so absorbed by their captivating character traits that you will swear you are in the story right alongside them.

The story follow Agnes from the time she was a young girl of around ten or eleven and readers grow with her as she works as a laundress, through her awful upbringing, through her many struggles, as she has children of her own, as she becomes stepmother to the beautiful Elfida “Ella”, and even as Ella is married to the prince and enjoys her life in the palace. 

Ella and Agnes are contrasting characters and it is hard at times to choose the likeness of one over the other. They are completely fleshed out, have invigorating lives and backstories, and ultimately made me consider everything I know about the beloved fairy tale.

Danielle Teller’s prose is beautiful, her added twists in the story are remarkable, and her historical world building is comforting, cozy, and like something straight out of a movie. There were journal entries between every few chapters that allow readers to go from past to present, while gaining all the information needed to put together the pieces of Agnes’s story. At times the novel read slowly because the author took her time to build up to pivotal moments, but when reaching those moments, readers will be utterly and pleasantly surprised.

As for fables about good and evil and songs about glass slippers, I shall leave those to the minstrels. They can invent their own tales about Cinderella.

I know more of the princess’s history than anyone else alive, and the true tale is not as fantastical as the one sung by troubadours. 

Despite our rarefied circumstances, we have no control of our destinies. 

I was reminded of Gregory Maguire’s writing as I read All The Ever Afters.I was transported back to a world of fairytales and folk lore that I have been surrounded by my whole life. After completing Teller’s debut novel, I am looking at Cinderella through a different lens as I re-watch the Disney version as I type this review. But ultimately, I am happy that authors like Danielle Teller choose to give a voice to our villains who all too often get the bad end of the deal. 

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at William Morrow in exchange for my honest review***

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