Sara Shepard's "The Elizas"

When debut novelist Eliza Fontaine is found at the bottom of a hotel pool, her family at first assumes that it’s just another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed, and her rescuer is the only witness.

Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional, isn’t it?

The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins. ~Taken from Goodreads

I was very excited to read this new novel by Sara Shepard! I fell in love with the Pretty Little Liars series. This new novel, "The Elizas" is geared more towards the adult audience, as opposed to her previous novels in the Young Adult genre. 

My full review will be added to this post closer to the release date of April 17, 2018. For the meantime, I will tell you I really enjoyed this read! 

This thriller was easy to get into from the start. The cast of characters are interesting, diverse and relatable. Mysteries and plot twists kept coming and I stayed engaged throughout the story. I honestly didn't see the end coming! 

If you are looking for a vacation read, this is a must! I think Sara Shepard did a great job transitioning to adult fiction. I look forward to her next novel! 

Thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for allowing me a free copy to read and give my honest review! It was a 4 star read for me! Look for my complete review next month and pre-order this new novel now! 

Happy Reading! 

"Other People's Houses" by Abbi Waxman

At any given moment in other people's houses, you can find...repressed hopes and dreams...moments of unexpected joy...someone making love on the floor to a man who is most definitely not her husband...

*record scratch*

As the longtime local carpool mom, Frances Bloom is sometimes an unwilling witness to her neighbors' private lives. She knows her cousin is hiding her desire for another baby from her spouse, Bill Horton's wife is mysteriously missing, and now this...

This was a book I thoroughly enjoyed! It was a hilarious, realistic, and brutally honest look into modern day family life. I am in awe of how author, Abbi Waxman, managed to spin the everyday mundane happenings of child rearing, grocery shopping, and marriage into such a delightful story. 

This book is about a group of neighbors whose lives are detailed after the main character, Frances, heads to one of her carpool kids' houses for a forgotten school item and walks in on her neighbor, Anne, having an affair on the living room floor. This effects not only the life of Anne and her family, but every family whose child rides in the carpool also.

This story follows the lives of 4 families that live on the same block and have daily interactions with one another. Some are friends out of mutual interests, other just because their children play together. I loved this book because it shows that everyone's life is anything but boring. It's always interesting to know whats happening in other people's houses. 

While everyone in this story has some kind of insecurity and marriage problem of their own, I feel the way the characters dealt with their issues were a real to life and completely relatable to most families today. Its a book that shows that not every family is perfect, no matter how they look to others on the outside, and that everyone has their own way of dealing with all the minor or major crisis's that appear daily in family life.

***Side note- I imagined the main character of this book as Katie Otto from ABC's sitcom "American Housewife". She is just funny as hell and takes on life with such sarcasm! ***

"Other People's Houses" is due to be released here in the U.S. on April 3, 2018 so pre-order it now! I give it 5 stars!

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me to read and give my honest review.  

Happy Reading! 

Maureen Lindley's "The Beloveds"

An exploration of domestic derangement, as sinister as Daphne Du Maurier’s classic Rebecca, that plumbs the depths of sibling rivalry with wit and menace.

Oh, to be a Beloved—one of those lucky people for whom nothing ever goes wrong. Everything falls into their laps without effort: happiness, beauty, good fortune, allure.

Betty Stash is not a Beloved—but her little sister, the delightful Gloria, is. She’s the one with the golden curls and sunny disposition and captivating smile, the one whose best friend used to be Betty’s, the one whose husband should have been Betty’s. And then, to everyone’s surprise, Gloria inherits the family manse—a vast, gorgeous pile of ancient stone, imposing timbers, and lush gardens—that was never meant to be hers.

Losing what Betty considers her rightful inheritance is the final indignity. As she single-mindedly pursues her plan to see the estate returned to her in all its glory, her determined and increasingly unhinged behavior—aided by poisonous mushrooms, talking walls, and a phantom dog—escalates to the point of no return. The Beloveds will have you wondering if there’s a length to which an envious sister won’t go. ~taken from Goodreads

This book... I am all one for a dark, twisted thriller. Betty is a character I thought I would really like. I will admit I had high hopes for this book. It was a premise I hadn't seen before and it seemed interesting. I was wrong. 

This book is slow moving from the get-go and gets even slower in the second half. All of Betty's hatred for her sister, both past and present, are presented to the reader in the first half and primarily takes place in her thoughts and memories. As Betty drinks more and more,her thoughts get even more bizarre and evil. She goes from a selfish, scorned sister to a truly evil human being- all over a house she believes is alive and wants to have as her own.

There are very good parts to this novel that I really did enjoy. The way the author writes about Betty's time working in the art gallery had a melodic, magical element to it. Descriptions of the house and the grounds surrounding it were descriptive and enjoyable. The author does have some fine writing skills.

The biggest problem I had with "The Beloveds" was the complete lack of closure at the end. I got no satisfaction for finishing this long, mostly boring read. The book just ends and left me wondering "what just happened", and I mean this literally. Nothing at all happens. It left me wondering  if there a sequel. If there is a sequel do I really want to read it? I felt like I had wasted my time with a story that the author didn't finish writing.

This is a book I could have really liked, had the author, in my opinion, spent more time on story development and completion. It was a 2 star read for me.  

Thanks to Netgalley and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books for allowing me the opportunity to read and give my honest review. 

"The Beloveds" is due to be released here in the U.S. on April 3, 2018.

Happy Reading!