It’s BOOK REVIEW DAY! This is one of my FAVORITE days!! Since my last book review post, I have read FIVE books. 3 good books, 1 amazing book, and 1 book that I struggled with.  Lots of great reading!!

If any of these interest you, click on the links below, head to my Amazon store, and get a copy for yourself, your best friend, your mom, anyone.  Its the holidays, people.  Time to start Christmas shopping! Woohoo!

a stranger in the house by shari lapena

You guys know that I love a good thriller.  I don’t like scary or horror, I like psychological suspense thrillers.  A Stranger in the House DOES NOT disappoint! Wowza! The story is about Tom and Karen Krupp, happily married newlyweds in New York. One night, Tom comes home from work late to find the door unlocked, dinner half cooked, his wife is missing, and her phone and wallet sitting there.  After calling all of her friends, he dials 911 as he desperately tries to find her.  He does find her, in the hospital. While making dinner that night, Karen got a phone call, rushed out of the house, found herself in a very bad part of town, and accidentally drove herself into a utility pole.  The main problem, she has no memory of anything at all. Oh, and a dead body is found right near her accident.  Are these two things connected? Is Karen hiding something? What about that crazy neighbor? Y’all.  So, So, So good! I have read some thrillers that made me anxious and made it hard to fall asleep.  This is not one of those.  Just a fun book, with lots of twists and turns.  And, I never saw the ending coming! I loved this book! Get yourself a copy!

good luck with that by kristan higgins

I love Kristan Higgins.  I have read several of her books, and always fall in love with the characters, the story, everything! I was so excited to find her new book, and couldn’t wait to read it.  Let me say that this book is very different than any of her other books.  It is about three life long friends that deal with the daily battle of being overweight.  During a week at “fat camp” when they were eighteen, they made a list of things they wanted to do when they were skinny.  The list is super sweet and simple (one was “be skinny enough to let a guy give you a piggyback ride”), but also so sad.  After one of the friends dies due to weight-related complications, the other two decide to try to get their lives back on track.  While the theme of this book is acceptance of who you truly are, there was a lot of self-hate throughout this book.  I have to say that this book was hard for me to read.  And, I didn’t really like myself while I was reading, and then for a few days after.  All of those insecurities that I have about my own life, the ones that are buried down nice and deep, started to bubble up while reading this book.  I like Kristan Higgins, and this was an interesting story, but for me personally, it wasn’t my favorite.  Have any of you read this? I would love to her your thoughts on this book.  If you would like to read it, click here to grab yourself a copy.

waiting on you by kristan higgins

You would think that after Good Luck With That, I would need a break from Kristan Higgins.  You, my friend, would be incorrect.  To get out of my funk, I dove right back into the Blue Heron Series.  Waiting on You is the third book of the five book series.  Let me just say that I AM OBSESSED with this series! While the main characters change in each book, all of your favorite characters are still hanging around.  So, the first book (The Best Man) was about Faith and Levi . . . well, I am still following their story in the second book and the third book.  Just love the little town of Mannigsport, New York, and all of the people that live there.  Waiting On You centers around Colleen O’Rourke, a Mannigsport native, co-owner of O’Rourkes with her twin brother, and best friend to about everyone in town.  Her heart was broken ten years ago when Lucas, her first love, left her and she has never truly recovered.  After his uncle’s most recent health scare, Lucas comes back to town to take care of his family, and runs into Colleen.  Just the sweetest story about first love, second chances, and how much we can grow over the years.  LOVED IT! LOVED IT! Like I did with the other two Blue Heron books, I re-read the last two chapters just because they were so amazing, and I didn’t want the story to end.  Click here to grab a copy!

nine perfect strangers by liane moriarty

I am a HUGE Liane Moriarty fan! You may remember the obsession that I have with her book What Alice Forgot!  I have read all of her books, and have loved every single one of them.  When I heard that she was coming out with a new one, I was so excited!  I pre-ordered this bad boy over the summer, and have been anxiously awaiting its arrival during the first week of November.  I am so sad to report that I thought this book was just . . . okay!  I am so bummed to actually say that.  I guess I was expecting the writing style and plot formula of her other books, and this, to me, was a bit different.

The story follows nine strangers that check in for the ten-day detox program at the Tranquilibrium House, a health resort in a remote area of Australia.  All nine guests have reached a point in their lives where they need help, and they are hoping to be transformed during these ten days.  I enjoyed all of the characters, and even found myself laughing out loud a time or two.  While I was definitely routing for the characters to find their way during their time at Tranquilibrium House, the book was long . . . like 450 pages long!  And, I just kept waiting for something big to happen.  I guess I was wanting to read Big Little Lies, and it didn’t hit the mark for me.  It wasn’t a bad book.  It just wasn’t what I was expecting. My love affair with Liane Moriarty books will continue, and I look forward to reading her next book!  If you are a huge fan of this author and want to check out Nine Perfect Strangers, click here to grab yourself a copy!

what we find by robyn carr

This was the last book I read over the last few weeks, and y’all . . . I LOVED IT! This book is about Maggie Sullivan, a thirty-six year old doctor in Colorado.  After a series of hardships (her practice closes down due to two of her partners committing fraud, a wrongful death suit is filed against her, her boyfriend breaks up with her, and she has a miscarriage), she takes a leave of absence from work and escapes to her dad’s house.  Sully’s Crossing, where her dad lives and works, is a general store and campground in the mountains on the Continental Divide Trail.  Her two week break turns into months, as she tries to figure out who she is.  This is definitely chick lit with a little more depth.  I think the reason I love this book is that it is so relatable.  It isn’t about trying to figure out your life when you are young, right out of school and on your own for the first time.  This book is about having lived your life, having gone through some significant hardships along the way, and then trying to figure out who you are from there.  Which way is up and which way is down.  I discovered while reading the “bonus chapter” at the end of this book, that this is a part of a series.  I won’t go down that rabbit hole for awhile because I just loved this book, its characters, and all of the amazing closure that I always love to have with books.  Such a great book!  This is an easy one to throw in someone’s stocking or have for a gift exchange this year!  Click here to grab a copy for yourself!