Review # 12

I am reviewing the book Watch Me Disappear, by Janelle Brown.

I gave this book book 3 stars out of 4. It was a little hard to get into this book. It wasn’t until the end that I really started to get into it. Therefore, it took me months to finish.

SPOIL ALERT

This book is about Billie Flanagan, a wild child, but she was a woman. She was witty, fun, open, wild, wasn’t afraid of anything. She was married to her husband Johnathan and had a daughter Olive.

Billie has what seems like a life crisis, and starts to ponder her life. She was a free spirit, didn’t really like to be tied down, until she met her husband. However after many years, that didn’t last.

Billie goes off for a hike, leaving her husband and daughter at home. A few days go by and she never came home. Johnathan and Olive start to worry and they send a search party. The search party finds Billies shoe and she is presumed dead.

After a year goes by, Olive starts to have visions of her. She thinks she’s trying to tell her. She gives her clues and Olive tries and finds her. She’s convinced she is alive somewhere. She tells her father, but he dismisses her.

Johnathan feels like he’s going through a midlife crisis. He quits his job, and writes a memoir about his beloved wife. He finds himself however, finding clues and things hidden from him, like the fact that Billie had a daughter, from a previous marriage, that she neglected to tell him. He starts up a relationship with Billies best friend Harmony, and his daughter is skipping school and avoiding him all together. He feels like nothing is going right for him, until he comes across Billies laptop.

Johnathan can’t get into his wife’s computer, so he hands it off to his friend to crack the password. He hired a private investigator, because Johnathan realized a lot of money is taken from him.

Johnathan finds out an address of someone that was Billies computer of a man, or he thought was a man. He also found a letter that Billie wrote. It seemed to be intimate in his eyes. He thought she left him and Olive for another man. He hid the computer and didn’t want to see it anymore. He thought if she wanted to disappear and be with that man then let her.

Olive finds the laptop, and retrieves the address. She leaves school and takes a drive. When she pulls up to this address of Ryan, she knocks on the door and to her surprise she sees her mother looking back at her, except it wasn’t really her mother. It was Billies daughter.

When Jonathan found out that Olive skipped school, he knew that Olive found the laptop and went to that address. He pulled up, knocked on the door and there she was. A younger version of his wife.

Billie did hike up to the mountains, but she knew her life was over with Johnathan and Olive. She faked her own death by throwing a shoe into a rock, thinking she got stuck.

She hired a private investigator to get a new passport and to change her name. She left and started anew in Denmark.

I did like this book, but sometimes I think, she was really selfish. She just left her daughter and husband. She didn’t tell them about her other daughter. She kept so many things from them. She felt like she just needed to start over. That to me is a shitty mother, and really selfish. But hey, it’s fiction right haha it’s different then my other reads.

Author Expo

What’s up everyone!

I know it’s been awhile, been crazy busy with writing and reading!

Just wanted to let you all know if you live in the Bucks County, PA area, I’ll be apart of a local author expo at Northampton Free Library on Upper Holland Road. The time is 11 until 2.

Hope to see ya there!

Review # 11

I’m very excited to review this next book. It’s called Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. I gave this book five stars. It was amazing!

Here comes the spoilers in case you want to read this book yourself.

WARNING: SPOILERS

Garden Spells is about the Waverly family. Claire and Sydney. They are sisters that are the complete opposite. Sydney was a wild child while Claire was a homebody, who did right by everyone.

The Waverly’s were highly popular in their cozy North Carolina town. They were popular and well known because they were something magical. They knew things and things would happen when they were around. They weren’t per say witches, but there was something to them. The townspeople didn’t really care for them because they were different. Claire however, always tried to make people like her. She was a caterer and made wonderful meals that everyone loved. She tried to please everyone.

There was Evanelle, an Aunt from what I gathered who also lived in town. She had the power of giving things to people when they need them. A lot of people in town were afraid of her because you never know what she could give you. It was like something called to her and she needed to give it you right away. It could be in the middle of the night and she would have to get it to you.

Sydney ran away from her home where she was living with her daughter Bay and her boyfriend David. David was a bad man. He would beat Sydney within inches of her life, so she and Bay decided to move away from there and back home with Claire, who hadn’t seen her in years. They didn’t always get a long and didn’t see eye to eye.

So when Sydney showed up out of nowhere with a daughter who is five years old, Claire was shocked. She didn’t know what to think about all of this. Sydney wouldn’t tell her anything about the life she was living.

As time passed, the girls became closer. A man named Tyler lived next door to them and Claire had a thing for him, but it was more like he had one for her. You see there was an apple tree that was planted in the Waverly’s backyard. It had a mind of it’s own. It would throw apples and it would spread it’s branches out. It liked the attention. It was magic. It was said that if you ate one of those apples, you would see the one thing you were destined for. It would be either horribly devastating or wonderful.

Tyler ate one of those apples and he saw something that he never imagined. He saw Claire. She pushed him away as much as she could, she didn’t want love or to get hurt. However, there was something about him that drew her in.

Sydney spent a lot of time with Tyler because they were becoming great friends. They would tell each other everything and he would talk about Claire all the time.

Claire would make her infamous magical food to wean people away from her, but it didn’t work on Tyler. She couldn’t stay away from him any longer.

Sydney found Henry, a boy she knew since grade school. She just wanted to be friends with him, but Henry didn’t want that and it took him a good chunk of the book to tell her. At the end, she realized that she loved him. She kissed him to be sure, and it was pure electric. There was one thing though, there was David. The ex.

David pops in at the end of the story during a party that Claire and Sydney are throwing. He carries a gun with him and he shoots Henry in the shoulder. Bay hid away from David, she didn’t want anything to do with him. The tree threw an apple at him, thinking it came from Bay and he ate it. What he saw a few seconds later changed everything. He dropped the gun and he fled.

In the end David gets caught and goes to prison. They believe he saw his death in jail. Henry and Sydney spoke about marriage and Bay became incredibly happy. Claire and Tyler end up together with a baby and an engagement.

They all lived happily ever after.

That was my review of Garden Spells. I know what I wrote didn’t do the book justice but it’s only a tad of what this book is about. If I had to compare it to anything, it reminded me of Practical Magic.

 

My Husband Broke Me

I know this is personal, but at this point I really don’t care…

As I’m writing this I feel defeated, like I’m lost in limbo. Waking up everyday is a current struggle for me. My husband cheated on me from 2017 until the middle of 2018, and I can’t get it out of my head. I keep thinking about it constantly. I separated from him once, almost twice because of it.

Everyday there is a constant battle within me, should I leave him permanently or should I stay? He apologized profusely, but yet I can’t forgive him. He cheated on me for over a year, and if I had not caught him, it probably would’ve continued.

The funny thing is, I’m one of those people that if the tables have turned and this happened to someone else, I would’ve yelled at them for staying with their significant other. Instead, I’m staying. I love him still, I do. But because what he did, I’m losing it.

I’ve never felt this broken before and depressed by something. I know what I should do, but I don’t know if I can. The other night we were laying in bed, and I told him that I felt really fucked up in the head. That I feel depressed, and I need to see a therapist about all of this. He got mad at me because of the way I feel. He’s a master manipulator, I don’t know if he’s to the extent of an emotional abuser, but he’s something.

I have so many thoughts in my head, but at the same time I’m struggling to understand any of this. I’m honestly so tired and I can barely function anymore. Should I forgive what he did? I don’t think I can ever forgive nor forget. It’s harder because the person that he cheated on me with confronted me last month with more news. This devastated me even more, and brought up the almost second separation. He denies everything that she says, except for the part that he had phone sex with her for over a year. Which just sickens me. I mean who does that? If you’re feeling a certain way, then tell me. Don’t go off and fool around with someone else. That’s just downright disgusting.

I am a novelist, that is what I do and right now, with what he did, I lost my mojo. I have no ambition at all to write anything. It took all my might to even write this. I don’t expect anyone to comment or like my post, but I needed to get this out of my system.

He made me feel like it was my fault, that he cheated. He said that he was lonely and we weren’t being intimate. He’s a tattoo artist, so he constantly tattoos women. A lot of them attractive, so will I ever be able get over what he did? Could he do it again? He keeps saying that he regrets it, and that he would never do it again. All he wants to do is put this all behind him. I’m so glad it’s so easy for him to just forget about it. Of course he would say that, he’s the cheater.

I’m sorry if I’m ranting about this, but I’m hurting and I feel broken. I feel like I lost everything. My best friend cheated on me. For over a year nonetheless. That’s probably the hardest part. What drives someone to really do that to their partner? It is beyond me. I’m just not right these days. I feel like I’m running on fumes, like I’m in a fog.

M.

Review # 10

 

loreen

 

For this review I’m doing it on the book Loreen On The Lam: A Tennessee Mystery, by Marielena Zuniga. I gave this book three stars. The story was pretty good, but the way it was written was not.

*SPOIL ALERT*

The story starts out with Loreen, a woman in her young twenties, from what I gathered,  breaking out of prison. She meets up with a man that she was supposedly “sleeping with” at his garage and she steals Josh Montgomery’s tour bus.

Loreen breaks out of jail, because she receives a letter from her mama, telling her that she is dying and she doesn’t have much time left.

Loreen takes the bus and drives as fast as she could to her mama, but along the way she meets Tilly. Tilly is on the side of the ride crying and she needs a ride, to get rid of her abusive cop husband. Loreen now takes on the responsibility of this woman. They go on their way, when they meet a mute bible salesman, Splat. However, it turns out Splat isn’t who he said he was. He was a murderer and was on the way to murder Josh Montgomery. What a coincidence.

There are two parts of the story: one is Loreens, and the other takes place in the 80’s and has something to do with her grandfather Mac. Mac robbed a bank with some other people and hid the money and jewels in a cave back in the 80’s. These bad people were trying to look for this treasure, but Mac wouldn’t give it up and tell them where it was. They even threatened to hurt Loreen, when she was a little girl, but Mac still wouldn’t budge.

Meanwhile, Loreen was a woman who broke out of jail, and brought along two other people, now ran into a nun who was broke down in the middle of night. Loreen went out to get her, but Splat turned the gun on her and the nun. Loreen knew he was trouble. Splat made the nun get on the bus.

Throughout the story, all Loreen is trying to do is get home to her dying mama. Obstacles keep on getting in her way.

When Loreen finally makes it home to her destination, she goes to her mama and she is pretty much gone. She tells her that she loves her and apologizes for the daughter that she has become. She kisses her one last time. Her mama’s caregiver gives her a letter containing information where the money and jewels were. Mac wrote it back in the 80’s when he thought he would disappear, because of all the threats made against him. He was presumed dead, and was never seen again.

Loreen was on her way to the cave when Splat went after her with a twist Josh Montgomery, they were heading to kill Josh Montgomery’s wife. They were going to pin it on Loreen. However, when they got there, his wife wasn’t dumb and nailed Splat. His wife listened to Loreen’s story. She was her get out of jail free card.

The end of the story, Splat and Josh Montgomery go to jail for trying to kill his wife. Tilly and the nun are free from the chaos that happened. Loreen finds the money and jewels and returns them. Josh’s wife, gets Loreen off so she doesn’t have to do any time. The biggest shock for me in this story, was that Mac was indeed alive, but dying with the same thing her mama had.

I only gave this story three stars because of the way the book was written. The grammar and spelling were a mess. The story however, was good. Sometimes though, it took a while to get through. Some of the parts were boring. It took me months to get through it.

Have a great weekend!

M.

Review # 9

 

fifty shades

 

my newest review is about the book Grey by E L James. This book is in Christian Grey’s point of view. I did read the Fifty Shade’s books when they first came out and I did enjoy them. However, as I became a writer, I noticed that I didn’t really care for them as much.

When I read Grey, I struggled to get through it. I just wasn’t into it, but I am not one of those people that can toss a book by the way side, so I reluctantly finished it. I am giving this book three stars. It did not hold my interest and it took me a really long time to finish it, although it was a pretty fast read. I found myself over it and over all the sexual escapades that was going on.

*SPOIL ALERT*

The story goes if you don’t know it already. Christian Grey, a wealthy man in his twenties who owns his own huge corporation meets Anastasia Steele, a twenty something college student.

Christian is all about finding a submission for his sexual lifestyle to succumb to his every need. However, when he meets Ana all bets are off. He finds himself having feelings for her, feelings that he’s not used to. He can’t stay away from her and he wants her all to himself.

That’s basically the gist of it. the story line was pretty good, but the writing style just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Review # 8

For this book review I decided to review What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. I gave this book a five-star rating. I absolutely loved this book and I thought it was an amazing concept of a story. I’m actually jealous that I didn’t think of this when I was writing.

WARNING: Spoil Alert

Alice Love is a twenty-nine year old woman, happily married to her husband Nick and expecting their first child together. Or so she thought!

Alice woke up on the gym floor not knowing where she was. Her spin class friends tell her that she had fainted. She hit her head so hard that she’s forgotten the last ten years of her life. She thought she was still pregnant with her first child and married to her husband. When in actuality, she had three children and now she is separated from the love of her life.

Alice is rushed to the hospital not knowing what is happening. Nobody looks familiar to her, but yet everyone knows her. They call her sister Elisabeth and she doesn’t rush to her side. She calls Nick, but he screams at her. She feels lost and confused. Supposedly all of her relationships crumbled.

Eventually Elisabeth comes to the hospital and Alice realizes that her sister doesn’t seem the same. She’s older, stiff, and cold towards her. They used to have such a wonderful relationship. Elisabeth is flabbergasted by her memory loss. She thought she was faking it, but soon realizes that she is not.

Her mother Barb comes to the hospital and finds out that she was married to Roger, which is Nick’s father. They proceed to tell her that she has three children and Alice is about to lose her mind. She still thinks it’s 2008 and pregnant with her first child.

The doctors send her home, figuring she will regain her memory any day. Her kids are with Nick for the weekend, so Alice doesn’t have to worry about them yet. She’s noticing little flashes here and there of memories, but has no idea what they are or if they are even real. Her sister tries to fill in blanks for her, but has no idea of anything. She’s supposedly dating someone named Dominick, that’s the principal of her kids school. She’s so confused and just wants Nick back. She asks everyone where they went wrong, but nobody can tell her why.

When the weekend came to an end, she anxiously waited for her kids, whom she doesn’t remember and her Nick. She goes outside to greet them and she’s stunned to find out how much they are just like her and Nick with a mix of their own personalities. When she sees Nick, she wants to run to him, but he doesn’t want anything to do with her. They make small talk and he realized that she still has no memory. He’s concerned and asks if he should take the kids and she said no.

As the week unfolds she finds out many interesting things. She had a best friend Gina, who lived next door. They were supposedly inseparable. It turns out that Gina was killed in a freak accident, when a tree landed on her car at a stop sign. Alice and her daughter Madison witnessed the whole thing because they were following her from the gym.

She finds out that Gina’s husband Mike, was caught kissing another woman and that destroyed their marriage, which in turn destroyed Alice and Nick’s marriage.

With Alice losing her memory, she convinces Nick to give her a shot and she tries to break it off with Dominick. She just wants her life back to the way it once was. She discovered in a span of a week, how much she loves her kids and is willing to do anything for them. Supposedly the old Alice was somewhat a cold hearted bitch. Now she has this fresh attitude that everyone likes. They wonder and she wonders if her memory will ever come back.

Alice organized this event that featured the world’s largest lemon meringue pie. It was supposedly Gina’s favorite pie and Alice did this event in honor of her. She convinced a bunch of mother’s and businesses to get together  to help her with this process. Their was a band there set to play all Elvis songs, which Gina loved. All of a sudden Alice felt weird, she was weak in the knees, and she was about to pass out. Nick and Dominick came to her aid for they could see something was wrong. As she laid there for a brief moment, she remembered. She remembered EVERYTHING. All the memories came back to her like a flood. Pouring into her. Her kids being born, her best friend Gina, her and Nick’s marriage, and Dominick. She looked at Nick and Dominick and she flinched. Nick knew she regained her memory and walked away.

Flash forward a few years. It turned out that Alice ended up with Nick after all. I was shocked and I was relieved. I thought the ending of this story was great and I was rooting for their relationship to work out. They surprised her with breakfast in bed and she was happy as can be. The knock on her head was a curse but it turned out to be a blessing.

Also a side note that I didn’t really mention. Her sister Elisabeth and her husband were trying to get pregnant for years and did IVF and every time it failed. They were older and Elisabeth was tired of trying. She and her husband were constantly fighting now and it was starting to ruin their marriage. They decided to stop the treatments, but they had to do their last round first. Elisabeth received the news that she was pregnant. She was devastated, figuring she was going to lose this baby as well.

She didn’t! She ended up having a daughter. Alice and her sister became really close again, as they once were ten years prior.

I loved this story, I really praise the author!

 

Review # 7

dark matter

 

This week my review is the novel Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. When I first started reading this book, it got my attention. Some books are hard for me to get into, but not this book. Very good and very different.

#Spoil Alert

This book follows Jason Dessen, a physicist teacher at a college. He has the perfect life: a wife, a son, a warm house to come home to in Chicago, IL. What he doesn’t know, is that everything is about to change. His wife Daniella convinces him to go out to a bar to have a drink with his friend Ryan. On his way home, he decides to take a different way and grab some ice cream so he can enjoy it with his family. Suddenly someone approaches him with a gun in the shadows. He doesn’t see his face. He tells Jason to get into his car and drive to an abandoned warehouse. When they get there, Jason is beside himself. He doesn’t understand what this guy wants. He starts to beg and plead for his life. The other guy then tells him to take off all his clothes and walk down a dark hallway. Jason does as he is told. They arrive at a dark area and the guy tells him to put on some clothes and then injects him with a serum.

Jason falls asleep and when he wakes up, he doesn’t know where he’s at. He’s in a building that looks like a scientists wet dream. A man runs over to him, excitedly. He kept saying ‘oh my god it worked!’ Jason had no idea where he was and who this guy was. He asks Jason all kinds of questions about this portal, and Jason is confused.

He comes to realize that this other person that kidnapped him, was his other self. On the opposite vortex there was another Jason, who did all he dreamed of. But he made this portal that can transport you into another parallel universe. The other Jason was home with his wife and son and this Jason was here at the lab, confused.

Jason decides to go back into this portal with syringes that contain a solution that will help him crossover. When he goes back in, it’s a long dark hallway. He continues walking and sees dozens of doors. He doesn’t know yet what the purpose is of these doors, so he keeps on walking. Eventually he walks through one of the doors, he’s trying to get back to his home. As he goes through the door, his world is completely different. His house has changed, and things are different even with his wife and son. He doesn’t understand what has happened and why things have changed.

The whole book is Jason going through various worlds to find HIS world. He’s tired, upset, lonely, and he misses his family.

#Warning: Don’t read if you don’t want to know the ending

By the end of the book, Jason has one ampule left to take. He figured out a formula to finally get back to his world. He outsmarts the hundreds of other Jason’s that have arrived (Which I still don’t know how that happened). He gets Daniella to believe that he his the real Jason and she believes him. They go to a cabin in Wisconsin I believe and take shelter to figure out to get rid of the Jason impostors.

At the end Jason takes the last ampule with his wife and son. Jason told his son to conjure up something beautiful in his mind and then they would walk through a door.

I gave this book four stars, only because some things I were confused about. If you like science fiction, you should read this book. It really makes you think!

Purrrfect

My husband and I decided to rescue three kittens, and I’m in love! They are the cutest. After Memphis passed away, his brother Mr. Miyagi was devastated. He seemed depressed and was missing his brother. we waited over a month before deciding to get another kitten. I thought maybe if we got a kitten, it would get him out of his funk.

The day that we went to look at the kittens, I was a nervous wreck. I had no idea how my other cat would react to a kitten. Miyagi is a very sweet cat and loves everyone and he loves our two dogs. Sometimes he likes to sleep with them, especially Buddy, our bulldog.

We went to the foster house where the kittens were and we saw them and my heart melted. I was only looking for one kitten, possibly two, but not three. We were playing with them and they were a boost of energy. One kitten was all black, and the other two were a mix of black and tiger stripes. They were supposedly all sisters. So when we saw them, we knew that we had to get all three. I didn’t want to rip them apart.

We brought them home and locked them in one of our spare bedrooms, gave them food, water, a litter box and a nice cozy blanket. The first night, my husband slept with them. Of course almost every day since we got them, he’s been sleeping with them. By the second or third day, they started to get comfortable with us. They’re climbing all over me and meow and whenever I come in. It’s the cutest thing ever. It makes my heart smile.

We put a gate up in the hallway, so we could introduce our other cat to him. Of course he was hissing at them, but after a few days the hissing subsided. Now he comes and visits them on a regular basis, by jumping over the gate and into their room. The kittens can now also climb over the gate and they go into our bedroom. They’re starting to explore more and play a lot. The cat doesn’t seem to mind so much these days, just if they get too close, he hisses.

We also decided to introduce one of our dogs Zoe. She’s a Cairn Terrier, so she’s kind of small. As soon as she saw them, she wanted to play with them. We had the gate there so she couldn’t get to them. The kittens didn’t like her. They were hissing at her.

A couple days later, they were all in the same room, and they got along. We have brought Buddy up one time, behind the gate and the kittens didn’t like him much. He barked and sneezed in their faces. They obviously didn’t like that. We’re limiting our time with Buddy for now. We don’t think he’ll do anything, but he’s jealous and he doesn’t like change. He’s a momma’s boy, so he doesn’t want another animal coming along taking over haha I think he’s harmless though. Eventually, I think they’ll all get along. Maybe even play together. I thought it was cute that all the kittens, Zoe, and Miyagi were all in the same room. I’m really enjoying these three babies and can’t wait to see what the future will be with all animals together. I also hope that Miyagi will get out of his funk. This morning, he was actually playing with toys. I was so happy! I’d like to introduce you to Gypsy, Bella, and Stella Rose!

Caught!

This blog is about the woman and my husband who’ve been messaging/chatting. I’ve been married to this man for fours years and been with him for the last seven years.

A woman comes out of the blue and ruins my marriage. Supposedly this woman is also married with kids. Why the fuck would she target my husband out of every other man out there? Maybe it’s because he’s a tattoo artist. So it supposedly started months ago. My husband is just as at fault as this woman is because he was texting her back and talking to her for months.

Last Thursday everything changed and knew something was going on. I received a text in the morning saying “He better not be more then a friend and touch you inappropriately. He better not smack your ass either.” Okay now when I saw this I was like what the fuck! So of course I confronted him about it, and of course he changed his story. Not once, not twice, but three times. That’s how I found out that he was texting this woman. He swore that he never cheated on me and that they were just friends. But the last couple of weeks they were flirting. He begged and pleaded with me to forgive him and that he never cheated on me. I couldn’t right away, it hurt too much. I mean come on this is my husband and he’s talking to another woman and he got caught. Friday I forgave him. I made him promise to not talk to this woman ever again. So a week went by and things were going pretty well, but something wasn’t right. Do you ever have this feeling that something is off?

When I came home from work yesterday, I decided to check my phone records. Fortunately for me, the records are in my name so I can check texts and calls. I knew something was going on when I checked the phone records. Boom, there it was in black and white. He was still talking to the bitch and he was talking to her on the phone as well as texting. He doesn’t even call me on the phone, but he can call her and talk about an hour. When I saw these texts and calls I wanted to freak out, but I didn’t! I was pissed yeah, but I knew something was going on. I wasn’t born yesterday. I couldn’t wait however, to confront him. He wasn’t going to be home for hours, so I had to pre-occupy myself, so I went to yoga. That didn’t really help, I couldn’t stop thinking about what he did me, and to our marriage.

Finally he pulls up and he walks in the house. I’m sitting there on the couch with tears running down my cheeks. He’s like uh what’s going on. I ask him if he’s talking to that other woman and he says NO. No do you believe that? I ask him one more time, and again he says no. That’s when I pulled the phone records out on him. Can you believe he still denied it, but then said that they were just friends. How can friends talk for 24/7 and if she was a friend, how come I didn’t meet her??? I’m totally confused by this response. Does he peg me for an idiot or what? I yelled, I screamed and I cried. He said he fucked up and that he wasn’t going to talk to her anymore. No shit you fucked up! I told him I was done and that I want to separate.

This morning he texted me good morning and before I even responded to him I checked the phone records again, and guess what?! HE MESSAGED HER AGAIN!! He messaged her last night right after he promised he wouldn’t. He texted her three times! Dude what the fuck is wrong with you?! Have you no morals? I don’t get this guy at all! What kind of man did I marry!?