Category: Four Stars

Part of Your World – Reviewed

On By KaylieIn Four StarsLeave a comment

I gave Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez four stars! This is the first in the Part of Your World series, and I vow to include zero spoilers in this review.

Part of Your World follows Doctor Alexis Montgomery, as she navigates life, post-divorce, and bearing the weight of a family legacy of world-renowned surgeons. She is expected to continue the family legacy at Royaume Northwestern Hospital, where her family has performed as prominent surgeons for decades, but will that plan be derailed when she attends a funeral out of town? She ends up putting her car into a ditch on the way home, and then along comes Daniel, who tows her out, and also happens to be a carpenter and the town Mayor, and maybe the love of her life?

This book felt like I was reading a Hallmark movie, and I can’t lie, I love a good Hallmark movie. Big city girl goes to small town, falls in love with small town boy, but her rich pretentious family would never accept small town boy as their own, so what is she to do?? This book includes some sensitive topics, such as emotional and physical abuse, and Abby Jimenez tackles then perfectly in my opinion.

In the beginning, Alexis thinks she and Daniel are polar opposites, and their lifestyles certainly serve to say so, but as the story goes on and Alexis learns more about Daniel, she learns more about herself as well. I thought the character development in this story was so well-done and relatable, and I loved that Alexis shared everything with Briana from the start. I also just read Yours Truly, the next book in this series, and knowing all of the details from Alexis and Daniel’s story just made Briana’s story that much more interesting.

The conflict in this story comes from Alexis being a big-shot doctor in Minneapolis, Daniel being an all-around, do everything guy from a small town outside of the city, and Alexis not wanting to admit to herself, or WORSE, her family, that she is in love with him. I loved the back and forth, both literally and figuratively, on Alexis’s part, of hiding this relationship, and then coming to terms with it.

This book was written in such an honest, real, and candid tone, and I found myself giggling throughout it. With that being said, I was also deeply concerned the entire time that the ending I thought NEEDED to happen, was somehow not going to, and I could not put this book down in the interest of finding out how everything played out. I was seriously invested in this book. The reason I gave four stars, and not five, is because I was slightly underwhelmed by the ending. I felt like it was a bit rushed, and the predictability of it for literally half of the entire book preceding the ending made it even more underwhelming. Overall though, a great read.

I have said it before, I am not a huge romance novel girlie, but after this I think I might be turning into one. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a cute, easy to read, relatable rom-com that they can get through in a weekend!

Annie Bot – Reviewed

On By KaylieIn Four Stars, Three StarsLeave a comment

I gave this book three and a half out of five stars…though I did battle with giving it a four star review. I’ve categorized this in both three and four star reviews, because after writing this review, I still am torn.

This book was unlike anything I’ve ever read. Throughout this novel, we follow Annie, who is essentially a sex bot who is trying her best to be as human as she can possibly be. Annie analyzes everything, from what the humans around her are doing to how they are feeling to help her figure out how to act just like them. Even though Annie is literally a robot and I am pretty sure I’m not, I felt like this was so relatable.

Annie belongs to Doug, who created her to satisfy his needs, and to not create any more issues. As time goes on, however, Annie learns more about what it means to be human, and about self worth, and she starts wanting to feel loved and valued. Which are human emotions, not emotions robots should have. She also learns about lies, cheating and deceit, all in an effort to ultimately please Doug…

I don’t feel like I can write a great review of this book without giving too much away, but we follow as Annie is faced with challenged she feels like taking on will make her more human, and the consequences that comes with each of these challenges. The book took turns I didn’t expect it to take, but that I also can’t share in the interest of not giving key information away. Over time, Annie starts to learn about her own self worth, and essentially what she wants from a partner. More importantly, what she DOESN’T want in a partner.

This book was a journey of self-love for Annie, which was found through many mistakes, and there’s nothing more human than that.

This book was entirely different than I expected it to be. At times it was steamy, but mostly it was raw, emotional, and honest. Maybe it was personal, but this book had be bordering on emotional a couple of times. When you pick up a book about a robot to read, I feel like naturally the character you think you’ll be drawn to is the human, but I felt most connected to Annie and her struggles. Throughout the book, I found that Sierra Greer’s writing made me feel tuned into Annie’s feelings, and I really cared about what happened to her in the end. Overall, even though I really wasn’t sure it would be, this book was so empowering.

Additionally, if there is one thing I look for in a book, it is often the ease of the read. I have enough going on in my real life, I don’t want the book I’m reading to be work. Greer’s style of writing was so easy to read, and was intriguing. Sometimes, even with books I am enjoying, I am dreaded picking them up because the writing is just too much, and this wasn’t the case. Every time I picked this up it was EASY to get back into. This book was so different than anything I’d ever read, to the point that one or two times I wondered why I was reading it, but I never considered not finishing it. Greer had me invested in the ending from the first page.

There is a big part of me that wants Sierra Greer to make this a series and write about the lives of some of the other characters in this book…. I’d read them in a heartbeat.

What Lies in the Woods – Reviewed

On By KaylieIn Four StarsLeave a comment

I give this book four out of five stars!

22 years ago, Naomi Shaw was attacked in the woods. She and her friends provided testimony to put away a sought after serial killer for life. Today, after he dies in prison, the truthfulness of that testimony is brought into question. Yes, he was a bad man, but did he die in prison because of a lie? We follow Noami and the people she meets along the way as she tries to decipher what the truth really was.

This book kept me actively interested 95 percent of the time, and the other 5 percent of the time I wanted to know the outcome so badly that it was easy to keep reading. I think I said “what the fuck?” at least thirteen times throughout the course.

The book really picked up in the last 50 or so pages, and there were tons of twists. Some were a bit obvious from the beginning, but some were way out of left field. There were a couple turns that I felt like in hindsight I should have seen coming, but I didn’t! I’m so glad I didn’t need to put the book down at all during this section, because I wouldn’t have been able to! Honestly, if my house were burning down, I would have taken the book with me.

Marshall’s writing in terms of imagery was astounding — I almost felt like I was watching a movie in my mind while reading this. I particularly felt this way as I neared the end.

I will say, I was a bit surprised at the end to find out the book had taken place over the span of only a few days. While reading the book, I definitely thought a couple of months had passed… or at LEAST a few weeks. But maybe that was just my misunderstanding.

Additionally, the end did feel a liiiiiittle bit outrageous. But, that’s okay.

This was Kate Alice Marshall’s first thriller, and I’ll definitely be reading her next. If you like a fast-paced thriller that truly will KEEP you guessing, you NEED to read this one!

The Five-Star Weekend – Reviewed

On By KaylieIn Four StarsLeave a comment

“The weekend was filled with so much drama someone could write a novel about it,” and that’s exactly what Elin Hilderbrand did.

I was really looking forward to reading this one, after hearing such great things about it. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, but I wasn’t blown away either.

Hollis Shaw is a recently widowed food blogger, who lives a fabulous life between Massachusetts and Nantucket. After her husband dies, she hosts what she calls a “five-star weekend,” with her best friend from five different eras of her life, at her glamorous house in Nantucket.

This book switches points of view (often) between each character in the book, which I thought gave the reader a very well-rounded view of what was happening, and it was nice to have insight into each character that the other characters didn’t have about each other. Each character has their own issues they are battling and are using the weekend as a getaway from, and the end of the book gives a resolution for almost all of them – another plus!

I think my only major gripe with this book was that there wasn’t enough physical character development from the beginning. The scenery, and each character’s aura were very well described and easy to imagine, but I found it difficult to actually picture each of the people in my mind to complete the picture.

I typically go for books that are fast paced and intriguing, and this one was more of a slow burn. When I had to put it down, I wasn’t bummed, and while I wasn’t reading it, I wasn’t dying to get back to it.

Overall, the book was good. A nice, leisurely read, and I really enjoyed Elin’s style of writing. This was my first Elin Hilderbrand novel, and I am definitely looking for recommendations for my next one!

I give this three out of five stars.

Imaginary Strangers – reviewed

On By KaylieIn Four StarsLeave a comment

First and foremost, at no point while reading this book did I anticipate the absolute betrayal bombshell Minka Kent dropped on us at the end of it.

This book features short chapters, an engaging, suspenseful storyline, and flashbacks to the past to assist in the development of the main character, Camille – a sociopath, which made for an engaging read. When I got to the last page, I was honestly bummed it was over.

Overall, I thought the book was thought-provoking, suspenseful, and entertaining. For all that Camille was incapable of feeling, I felt for her.

Camille, a survivor of a childhood trauma at the hands of her psychotic mother, Lucinda, has worked hard to put her past permanently behind her. After her mother tells her she will kill her, should their paths ever cross again, can you blame her? Camille has since achieved a picture-perfect life with her husband and their two children in a wealthy suburban neighborhood, where their daughter attends the best school they could find, and she now has a loving mother-in-law – worlds different from the life she knew before. Things are progressing smoothly, until Camille’s daughter announces to her that she has made a new imaginary friend, and her imaginary friend begins sharing secrets with her. Secrets which are actually very specific references to the trauma Camille experienced at the hands of her mother growing up. Obviously, the only conclusion Camille could come to is that Lucinda has finally caught up to her, and is coming for her family.

I enjoyed the progression of this book. It was full of twists and turns, and there was a surprise in just about every chapter, making it easy to keep on reading. Some of the events weren’t super realistic, which may be a turn off to some. I personally don’t read fiction books to get a dose of reality, so I enjoyed the somewhat outrageous plot-twists and secrets Camille kept throughout the book. And shall I mention, once again, the ending??? You’ve got to read it. In hindsight, though, Kent did give us a HUGE hint from the get-go.

In terms of character development, Kent lets us in on the secrets of Camille’s past through flashbacks, both to her childhood and other important life events, which I thought was well-done, however in the present-tense it occasionally felt as though Kent suddenly remembered once again the mental health issues Camille struggled from, and needed to remind us, too. Despite this, I believe the goal of bringing awareness to the silent mental health struggles that affect so many of those around us was achieved. I do have some unanswered questions, and the ending seems to leave the possibility for some type of sequel or spin-off open. I look forward to reading that one day!