40/100

But Inside I'm Screaming by Elizabeth Flock

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
For some reason, I found this book to be fluffy. A woman tries to commit suicide and then winds up in a mental institution. She fights everyone that tries to help her because she doesn't think she should be there. It vaguely touches on her abusive relationship with her husband and her troubled childhood but I felt like it never really delved into enough depth. The scenes in the institution did not really seem deep enough either.


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39/100

Blueberry Muffin Murder by Joanne Fluke

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I choose this book because it was recommended as an audio book. I thought it was a cute who-done-it that was not as good as a Stephanie Plum book, but of the same vain.



Hannah Swensen owns a cookie shop. A famous tv cook is found murdered in Hannah's shop and this forces her to close down until the murderer can be found. Rather than sit by and wait, Hannah chooses to investigate herself and finds more dead bodies along the way.



Again, it was cute and when I went home I found myself wanting to go back in the car to see what happened. I found the reader's pronunciation of "cookie" really annoying for some reason. The story was also pretty predictable.


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38/100

The Hour I First Believed: A Novel by Wally Lamb

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have to start by saying I LOVE Wally Lamb. His novels are some of my favorites, and a new one has been a long time coming. With that being said, this book was my least favorite of his three.



I took this book on a trip with me as the only book I was bringing, so I first looked at the reviews to make sure I would like it. I couldn't agree more with the person who said the book completely changed when it hit page 400. In the first 400 pages, a huge focus was on Columbine and its effects on its victims, including the main character, Caelum's wife, Maureen. Although Maureen did not actually get shot, she suffers terrible Post Traumatic Stress from the ordeal.



Once page 400 comes around, a whole new story begins about Caelum's family history. To be honest, the story within a story is my least favorite part of all Wally Lamb novels. I found myself disinterested in the back story. The names (Lily, Lydia, Lizzie) were also confusing and hard to keep track of. After this point in the story, there were just far too many things going on at once. The book was still engaging, but not as good as it could have been. Despite not loving the book, I will still be a dedicated Wally Lamb fan.


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37/100

Breaking Her Fall by Stephen Goodwin

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was about a single father raising his two teenage children. One night, he get a phone call that he daughter Kat is "in trouble." When Tucker goes to rescue his daughter, he winds up seriously injuring one of the boys at the scene. I like the premise of this book a lot. But to be honest, I found the character of Kat to be extremely annoying and ungrateful. I also found Tucker to be a bit of a jerk at times. But by the end of the book, I really wanted to finish it to see what would happen.


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36/100

Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I read The Girl Who Stopped Swimming and I wasn't really impressed. I decided to give Joshilyn Jackson another try, and I think that will be my last.



I liked how the book started out. Teenager Hazel Crabtree, runs from home and gives birth at Bernese's house, even though no one knows she is pregnant. Bernese's sisters Stacia and Genny are there for the birth and deaf (and almost blind) Stacia decides to steal the baby.



Then the book fastforwards 30 years and the baby is now 30-year-old Nonny Frett. There has been an ongoing battle between the Fretts and the Crabtrees. I think the whole book I was kinda thinking, "what is the point?" There is a weird bug museum. Weird doll heads. Weird feuds. I honestly just was not feeling it at all.


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35/100

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
When I started reading this book, I thought it was going to be hokey. It was talking about how this woman could create dishes, using plants, that would alter their moods. Oye. But as it turned out, I really wound up liking the book.



Claire Waverly lives in her little town that she has always lived in and runs a catering business where she influences peoples moods through plants in the food. One day, her sister Sydney shows up at her door with her daughter Bay. Sydney swore she would never come back, but because of an abusive relationship, she went back home. Claire can tell something is up but the sisters do not talk,as their relationship is rocky.



Eventually, the sisters work together to create a better relationship for themselves and their love lives. I really liked the character, Evanelle, who would basically get visions of what people "needed" and she would give them this object, even though they didn't really know why they needed it.




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34/100

The Other Queen: A Novel by Philippa Gregory

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I felt like this book was going back to a regular Phillipa Gregory format in a way, so it was better than the last one. But it was still only 5 CD's long and I think that is a good judge of quality for these books.

This is the story of Mary Queen of Scots and her feud with Queen Elizabeth. I recognized a lot of the voices from previous PG books so that was good, although maybe a little confusing.

More and more PG's books make you despise the Tudors and most of the people surrounding them. Your heart goes out to all that suffered because of them. However, I didn't think this had as much depth as, say, The Other Boelyn Girl or The Boelyn Inheritance.


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