Book Review ~ The Dry by Jane Harper

Title: The Dry
Author: Jane Harper
Published: 2016
Challenges: new author, cloak and dagger, personal reading challenge, library love

Goodreads Summary: 
A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.

In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier.
But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones

My Thoughts: 
this book felt like it took forever to read. That' not to say it was bad it just felt like I really needed to sit down and focus on it. I am not sure if my interest was there 100% to be honest. It has the typical backstory of the main character interweave into a new mystery. This time though we solved both of them so that was refreshing.  The main character was a little standoffish for me but by the middle of the book I came around. I am curious how this is a series since the main character deals with money crimes normally this was a one off for him solving his best friend's murder. I did enjoy the characters and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the who did the actual crime. I think that this has potential as a series to go someplace. I think at this time I will leave it with this book and if I am looking and can't find anything I will look for the second in the series. I really did enjoy the way the outback was described and how the farmers were dealing with the drought. I would recommend it mainly for the way the author describes scenes and yet doesn't make you feel like you are drowning in description. 

Book Review ~ The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson

Title The Butterfly Garden

Author Dot Hutchinson
Published 2016

Summary
Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.

In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding... 


Thoughts: 
I am not really sure where to start on this review. While I enjoyed the book and clearly read it within the weeks’ time that I had. Now sitting back and reflecting, I feel conflicted. The premise was great, and I loved the shifting of past and present in this story. It felt like we were going down memory lane with the main character Maya. What I didn’t quite wrap my head around was the “big twist” of what she was hiding. It wasn’t that big of a twist, if that makes sense? I won’t ruin it because the book focuses on what she is hiding to reveal it in the last chapter and made me scratch my head.

Now that being said, this book has really stuck with me as I keep picturing the girls with their tattoos and survival of the butterflies. It was interesting enough I was tempted to get the second in the series until I realized that the next book only focuses on the agents who have moved onto another weird case and not really on the aftermath of the butterflies. I may still check it out for the main reason that the story itself was interesting and literally sucked me in. I ended up finishing it up during the Superbowl, LOL, which is saying something. I mainly wanted to know how it ended, which is pretty good as we start off knowing how it ended.

The characters are well-drawn out for the reader, and the gardener himself was just described well enough that the reader was both creeped out and yet weirdly fascinated with him. I enjoyed that while it was POV of Maya we did get to see the other girls through her eyes and what she did to adjust and adapt to her horrible environment. The author did not downplay the horrors in the garden, and yet it was almost like a hazy glass that we were looking through, and I enjoyed that. All in all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is wanting to read a good psychological thriller.

Library Hauls ~ #4

So I got a little carried away this week at the Library and while I am confident I will not finish all these I am excited.

Title: the sun and her flowers
Author: Rupi Kaur
Challenges: Library Love, new author, Personal Reading Challenge

Summary per Goodreads:
From Rupi Kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. A vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honoring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself.

Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms.

this is the recipe of life
said my mother
as she held me in her arms as i wept
think of those flowers you plant
in the garden each year
they will teach you
that people too
must wilt
fall
root
rise
in order to bloom

Reasoning:
I haven't read poetry in so long I was struggling to figure out what I exactly wanted to read and where I should start back up. This was on the goodreads pick of 2019 for poetry and I thought I would give it a shot. Sure as poop I am only a few poems in and I'm like whelp I need to own this book and everything else this author has written. She spoke to me more than any other poet has in a good while. It has been refreshing so I am super excited to review this one.

The next book is:

Title: The Likeness
Author: Tana French
Challenges: Library Loot, Cloak and Dagger,

Summary from Goodreads: 
In the “compellingˮ (The Boston Globe) and “pitch perfectˮ (Entertainment Weekly) follow-up to Tana French’s runaway bestseller In the Woods, itʼs six months later and Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad with no plans to go back—until an urgent telephone call summons her to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used as an undercover cop. Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more important, who was this girl?

Reasoning: 
Well this would be the 4th book I have read by this author because I love her stuff so much so I was excited to be able to read it in order from the last one. 

Title: The Ruin
Author: Dervla McTiernan
Challenges: Library Loot, Cloak and Dagger, new author

Summary from Goodreads: 
It's been twenty years since Cormac Reilly discovered the body of Hilaria Blake in her crumbling Georgian home. But he's never forgotten the two children she left behind...

When Aisling Conroy's boyfriend Jack is found in the freezing black waters of the river Corrib, the police tell her it was suicide. A surgical resident, she throws herself into study and work, trying to forget - until Jack's sister Maude shows up. Maude suspects foul play, and she is determined to prove it.

DI Cormac Reilly is the detective assigned with the re-investigation of an 'accidental' overdose twenty years ago - of Jack and Maude's drug- and alcohol-addled mother. Cormac is under increasing pressure to charge Maude for murder when his colleague Danny uncovers a piece of evidence that will change everything...

Reasoning: 
Whelp I love me some Tana French and this author was highly recommended by the librarians and others online if I enjoyed Tana and now that I have discovered *cough* always known that I have OCD when it comes to reading books in order I figured I would start with the first in the series. 

Title: The Dry
Author: Jane Harper
Challenges: Library Loot, Cloak and Dagger, new author

Summary From Goodreads: 
A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.

In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier.
But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones.

Reasoning:
Again it was suggested by the librarians for someone who was a fan of Tana French and that was really all it took. 

Library Haul ~ #3

This week at the library I got...

Title: How to Be An Antiracist
Author: Ibram X. Kendi
Challenges: Library Love, New Author, Personal Reading Challenge. 

Summary: 
Ibram X. Kendi's concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America--but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. In How to be an Antiracist, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.

In this book, Kendi weaves together an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science, bringing it all together with an engaging personal narrative of his own awakening to antiracism. How to Be an Antiracist is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond an awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a truly just and equitable society.

Reasoning: 
This was on top reads from goodreads I want to say last year and I have to say I am very curious about it to see what it does in fact say. I am always looking for books that make me think.

Haul not from library but from Kindle unlimited

So I also got a 3 month free membership to Kindle unlimited with my new paper white kindle so I wanted to see what was offered. These are the picks I chose. 

Title: Last Train to Istanbul
Author: Ayse Kulin
Challenges: Again Kindle Unlimited is like a library to me so I am going to unofficially put this in the Library Loot challenge, new author, personal reading challenge, and ebook

Goodread Summary: 
International bestseller by one of Turkey’s most beloved authors...

As the daughter of one of Turkey’s last Ottoman pashas, Selva could win the heart of any man in Ankara. Yet the spirited young beauty only has eyes for Rafael Alfandari, the handsome Jewish son of an esteemed court physician. In defiance of their families, they marry, fleeing to Paris to build a new life.

But when the Nazis invade France and begin rounding up Jews, the exiled lovers will learn that nothing—not war, not politics, not even religion—can break the bonds of family. For after they learn that Selva is but one of their fellow citizens trapped in France, a handful of brave Turkish diplomats hatch a plan to spirit the Alfandaris and hundreds of innocents, many of whom are Jewish, to safety. Together, they must traverse a war-torn continent, crossing enemy lines and risking everything in a desperate bid for freedom. From Ankara to Paris, Cairo, and Berlin, Last Train to Istanbul is an uplifting tale of love and adventure. 

Reasoning: 
I mean I love me some foreign travel and I have always wanted to go to Istanbul. I have a trip to Morrocco scheduled for this fall and I thought this would be a fun read to get me in the mood. 

I also got

Title: The Butterfly Garden
Author: Dot Hutchinson
Challenges: I think Kindle Unlimited is a library version you pay for so I am counting this as a Library Loot unofficially, Cloak and Dagger, new author, ebook, personal reading challenge

Summary from Goodreads: 
Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.

In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding...

Reasoning:
I have been eyeing this one forever and tried to debate about getting it as an actual purchase so when I saw that I could get it on Kindle reads I jumped at the opportunity. 
Did you pick up anything good this week? 

Book Review ~ The Bat by Jo Nesbo

Title: The Bat
Author: Jo Nesbo
Published: 2013

Summary
Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. Harry is free to offer assistance, but he has firm instructions to stay out of trouble. The victim is a twenty-three year old Norwegian woman who is a minor celebrity back home. Never one to sit on the sidelines, Harry befriends one of the lead detectives, and one of the witnesses, as he is drawn deeper into the case. Together, they discover that this is only the latest in a string of unsolved murders, and the pattern points toward a psychopath working his way across the country. As they circle closer and closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the case.

Thoughts: 
Okay first off I this book started off so good. I was invested and wanted to know more about Harry, Andrew and the woman that was killed. Then I am not sure where or what happened. We went from oh that makes sense to… scratch my head and a lot of what the ever-loving hell? I just got so lost and found that by mid-way I was done and tired. I didn’t care anymore for Harry or his troubles. I damn sure didn’t care about the big OMG shocker that was supposed to come and yet it did nothing for me. I got to the point that while I figured out who the killer was and was right, I just didn’t enjoy it. The satisfaction was gone by the time we went through all the wallowing in drunkenness and yet WOW magically we pulled out the killer from our drunk ass and POOF we are amazing. So yeah that didn’t turn out the way I thought it would go. And I have to say I was sorely disappointed. I only read this one so that I could find a new series and I really wanted to read the Snowman as it was a movie tie in but, alas I am glad now I didn’t waste my time.

This is not one I would recommend to anyone. I just didn’t like it and was not invested by mid-point. I forced myself to continue to read it as I wanted to finish the book.

Book Review ~ The Hypnotist by Lars Kleper

Title: The Hypnotist
Author: Lars Kleper
Published: 2011

Summary
In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. The killer is still at large, and there’s only one surviving witness—the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes wanted this boy to die: he’s suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock. Desperate for information, Linna sees only one option: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes.

It’s the sort of work that Bark has sworn he would never do again—ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl.


Thoughts: 

I have to say this book started off with a bang and I found myself forced to continue to read it all the way through. Until, that is, the flashbacks happened. I have no idea what it was but, those flashbacks completely pulled me out of the story telling. I understand now that I've finished it why it was important, however it just felt as if someone took the past and plopped it down in the middle of a book expecting it all to work. I have no idea if it was just not the style I am use to or if it really was that jarring. After that I just couldn't seem to get back into the story. I ended up skipping the flashback and skimming the rest of the novel. Add to it there were 2 mysteries happen and that alone through my world off. There is just something about this book that I can't put my finger on that was not enjoyable. Don't get me wrong when I first picked it up it was amazing but then about 400 pages it I just fizzled out with reading and wanting to know more. The characters were not that interesting towards the end and overall I wasn't that impressed with the main detective. Part of me kept waiting for Joona to be a gruff detective I could just fall in love with and move along. However, that was not the case. This detective is so egotistical and so "I was right wasn't I" attitude that I found that I actually hoped for once he would be wrong just so we could see how he would deal with that situation.

Weirdly enough while I did enjoy the book I felt that if they had cut 100 pages or so I would have ranked it so much higher on Goodreads. As of now I have given it 3 out of 5 stars. I would still recommend it but not with the fury that I did when I started. 

Library Hauls ~ #2

This week at the library I got...

Title: The Bat
Author: Jo Nesbo
Challenges: cloak and dagger, new author, library love

Summary:
Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. Harry is free to offer assistance, but he has firm instructions to stay out of trouble. The victim is a twenty-three year old Norwegian woman who is a minor celebrity back home. Never one to sit on the sidelines, Harry befriends one of the lead detectives, and one of the witnesses, as he is drawn deeper into the case. Together, they discover that this is only the latest in a string of unsolved murders, and the pattern points toward a psychopath working his way across the country. As they circle closer and closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the case.

Reasoning: 
I got this book because it is the first in the series following Harry Hole which is significant if you watched the move Snowman it was the latest book in this series. And I may or maynot have a little OCD and have to read books in order as much as possible. So I asked the librarians to track down the first in this series for me. They also ordered the second one so we will see if this becomes a series favorite. 

Title: In the Woods
Author: Tana French
Challenges: Cloak and Dagger, Library Love

Summary: 
As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

Reasoning: 
So, the one time my OCD wasn't bad is Tana French. I have read most of this series the Dublin Murder Squad and I did it out of order. Mainly because I was told that the books don't tie into each other but involve the other members barely. Since I enjoyed reading her so much I figured I should at least give her first in the series a go. So here we are.


Did you pick up anything good this week? 

Personal Reading Challenge

I have a ton of reading challenges happening this year and I thought that it would be fun to have a goal of looking for books. Sometimes when I put a challenge on myself I stress myself out trying to figure out where to even begin. By having a personal reading challenge I think it will make finding a book fun and if I should get in the dreaded reading slump it will give me a starting off point. This challenge is meant to line up with my other challenges which I will tag in the Labels if you want to see where I am starting off at. It can also be found in the Reading challenge tab up top....

On to the challenge

Personal Challenge of Books to Read:

·         A Book with a Number in the Title

·         A Graphic Novel

·         A book based on or turned into a TV show – Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett (currently reading, no other reading challenges at this time)

·         A book with more than 500 pages

·         A classic romance

·         A book that became a movie

·         A book published this year

·         A book written by someone under 30

·         A book with non-human characters

·         A funny book

·         A book by a female author

·         A mystery or thriller

·         A book with a one-word title

·         A book of short stories

·         A book set in a different country – An unexpected inheritance of inspector chopra by Vaseem Khan (set in India) (currently reading, ebook, new author, Mount TBR challenge)

·         A non-fiction book

·         A popular author’s first book

·         A book from an author you love but haven’t read yet

·         A book a friend recommended

·         A Pulitzer-Prize winning book

·         A book based on a true story

·         A book at the bottom of your TBR

·         A book your mom loves

·         A book that scares you

·         A book that is more than 100 years old

·         A book based entirely on its cover

·         A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t

·         A memoir

·         A book you can finish in a day

·         A book set somewhere you have always wanted to visit

·         A book that came out the year you were born

·         A book with bad reviews – The Hypnotist by Lars Keepler (currently reading, Library Love, Cloak and Dagger challenge, new author)

·         A trilogy

·         A book from your childhood

·         a book set in the future

·         a book set in high school

·         a book with a color in the title

·         a book that made you cry

·         a book with magic

·         a book by an author you’ve never read before – In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (read, Cloak and Dagger challenge, Library Love challenge, new author)

·         a book you’ve owned but never read

·         a book that takes place in your hometown

·         a book that was originally written in a different language

·         a book set during Christmas

·         a book written by an author with your same initials

·         a play

·         a banned book

·         a book you started but never finished

·         a young adult novel

·         a New York times bestseller

·         a fantasy novel

·         a book based on its cover

·         a classic –

·         a self-help book

·         an audiobook

·         a poetry book

·         a book written by a deceased author

·         a sequel

·         a book set in Asia

·         a dystopian book

·         a book that is more than 500 pages

·         a book inspired by or retelling of a folklore

·