jessica42980's reviews
629 reviews

All my reviews can be found at: http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on November 4, 2021.
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I absolutely adored the audiobook of Cerulean Sea, so I was looking forward to Whispering Door, but for some reason it did not work for me. Maybe it was that Fantasy isn’t one of my typical genres, maybe I wasn’t in the mindset needed for listening to this one, maybe it was the narrator… I’m not really sure.  It could also be that I did not connect with Wallace as he was a bit of an a**hole, but that is the point of the book and his change over the course of the novel, but still…  This will be yet another book I will need to actually read in the future versus listening to the audiobook. 

 

The beginning of the novel did have my attention, as did the last portion, but I seemed to tune out the rest.  Whispering Door does have a similar feel to Cerulean Sea  and it seems that the two books are in the same universe as there were a couple of references to Cerulean Sea.  Maybe I was wanting more adorable kids and we just don’t get them in this novel.  

 

There is a trigger warning at the beginning of the novel in the form of an author’s note that the book deals various types of death including suicide. I will definitely give this one a physical read at some point in the future, but for now Whispering Door receives 3 stars.  

All my reviews can be found at: http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on November 9, 2021
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 Forget what you personally believe about transgender people, we need more books like this!  Whether this will be a book for a transgender child to read, this book can be for everyone as it shows how one person who feels they are very different from others can be their own person. 

 

George is in 4th grade and though she physically looks like a boy, she knows in her heart that she is a girl. As the reader reads the novel, they see how George feels.  She has not told anyone who she really is, including her family. Over the course of this short novel, George tells her best friend Kelly who she actually is and that she wants to be Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web in the school play and Kelly is all for that! 

 

This is a novel of differences, acceptance, and coming together.  This is a novel that shows how being different can make one person feel among other ‘normal’ people.  

 

This is a novel written by trans author Alex Gino and the title was just changed from George to Melissa earlier this year.  Here is a link that explains that change:  https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/87750-alex-gino-debuts-new-title-and-cover-for-groundbreaking-trans-novel.html  This book is one of the most banned books for a variety of reasons and I found out about it during Banned Books Week this year and decided to read it for myself. Though I am not a parent, I did really enjoy this novel and feel it would be appropriate for middle grades kids.  

 

Depending on the version you read, George/ Melissa is highly recommended! 

All my reviews can be found at: http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on October 28, 2021
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This is the perfect novel to be read around Halloween! We are dealing with the multiple tragedies of the past and is this house haunted or not?  Only time and reading Home Before Dark will tell! 

Maggie Holt was just 5 years old when her family fled Baneberry Hall, the house they stayed in for just three weeks.  After the family’s ordeal, her father Ewan wrote a book based on their experiences and the book became a spectacle that Maggie has dealt with her whole life.  Being she was just five years old, and has no memories of the house and what may or may not have happened, she never believed her father.  It has now been 25 years and Ewan has died and left Baneberry Hall to Maggie.   Not even knowing that he still owned the home and not believing her father’s ‘non-fiction’ book, she decides she can fix up Baneberry Hall and then sell it.  But what Maggie gets is more than she bargains for when she returns to town. 

We get two narrators with Home Before Dark:  We get Ewan’s narration through the book he wrote and we also have Maggie’s narration in present day.  And let me just say that Baneberry Hall is definitely its own character in this novel: In fact it is really the star! 

There is definitely the horror element throughout this novel!  Is it ghosts of the past still haunting or something else?  Let me just say, if you don’t like snakes, then there is a part of this book that you must avoid!  
We do get full conclusions to everything that has happened at Baneberry Hall and we end up with a satisfying yet scary novel from Sager! 

Home Before Dark is recommended! 

All my reviews can be found at http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on October 29, 2021.
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Survive the Night is Riley Sager’s fifth novel and a first for me, and I cannot wait to read the rest of his! 

At first when I realized that Charlie was going to be an unreliable narrator, I rolled my eyes because most of the time those novels do not work for me, but then something occurred and I was 1000% pulled in and absolutely had to know what was going to happen! 

Survive the Night is a very fast paced novel that takes place just overnight on a long and tedious drive.  Nothing is as it seems… Or is it?  Who or what should the reader believe??? 

Again, Charlie is our very unreliable narrator and a bit obtuse.  If you are thinking your life is in danger, and you had several opportunities to get away, why not do it?!?!?  The way Charlie is unreliable is a different type of narrator, so I did welcome this versus the typical unreliable narrator who is an alcoholic.

For many reasons, this story would not be able to take place today, so Sager set it in 1991, which was perfect: There are references to this time period including Nirvana’s Come As You Are (which is referenced multiple times for a reason) and also phone booths!! 

I had convinced myself that I figured out the ending, and I can say I am very glad I that I was wrong!!  It was an ending I would not have been happy with and I really enjoyed the many twists that just kept coming. 

I am ready to read more of Sager’s novels (which I have three of his four others) and see what else he can write!

Survive the Night is definitely recommended for thriller lovers!!! 

Review Update:
I wrote these reviews as I listened to the novels by Riley Sager which were out of order over several months. Now that I have listened to them all, my order of preference of the books are:

-Lock Every Door
-Survive the Night
-Home Before Dark
-The Last Time I Lied
-Final Girls

All my reviews can be found at http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on October 26, 2021.
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For me, Riley Sager is an author who has gotten better as he writes more.  His first two books were not really for me, but books 3-5 are superb!  I am glad I did not start off with reading his first two novels, but I usually give an author three chances, and his third book….Well… You will see that review tomorrow! 

 

We get two timelines, present day and 15 years ago and we get Emma’s point of view.  For me this one was just lacking in the suspense and intrigue, but I wanted to see how it would end. It really got moving around 75% in and I was into the book from that point. We do get answers to what happened in the past and then I enjoyed that final reveal.  

 

Even though his first two novels were not for me, I really enjoyed his more recent novels and look forward to what he will write in the future! 

All my reviews can be found at http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on October 24, 2021.
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I don’t tend to read Christmas romances, but when the author gave me an opportunity to read an advanced copy of Tessa and Weston’s continuing story I had to read it: I mean this is Tessa and Weston!!!  

 

Picking up after 100 Days of Sunlight which I just adored, Tessa and Weston’s first Christmas together is very quickly approaching and then the unexpected arrives in the form of Tessa’s estranged mother.  She also wants to heal wounds and Tessa wants nothing of it.  

 

T&W (Tessa and Weston) is a short novella sequel that focuses on everything it needs to while giving you all the Christmas feelings that Christmas stories have.  T&W will definitely put you in the Christmas spirit. It deals with family, forgiveness, and the joys and pains of young first love.  After this second novel with Tessa and Weston, I want to read even more of their story and to see them mature and grow into adults with each other. 

 

After two years from the publication of 100 Days of Sunlight, T&W comes as an unexpected, but most welcome surprise filled with lots of sweetness.  This is a clean first love/romance story, with some minor foul language.  

 

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up on November 1st! I had not even finished my advanced copy and clicked that pre-order button.  As with 100 Days, the cover of T&W has small images that reflect the story you are about to read. I cannot wait to have my copy to put next to 100 Days! 

Pick both novels up if you have not read either one and get ready to fall into the Christmas spirit! Get some cookies and hot chocolate to snack on as you read!  And just maybe I will start reading some Christmas romances one day soon… 

 

Tessa and Weston: The Best Christmas Ever is highly recommended!  Many thanks to Abbie Emmons for inviting me to be a part of her ARC Team for this upcoming release! 

 All my reviews can be found at: http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on October 22, 2021.
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A Breath Too Late begins with a trigger warning dealing with physical abuse, suicide, and depression. And it fully deals with these issues. After the trigger warning there is an author’s note and the novel ends with ways to reach out for help. Yes, when you read A Breath Too Late, you are in for a full-on emotional story with Ellie. This novel does not deal with a happy ending, and has a tragic story, but the reader is actually left with hope.

The novel is written in letters from Ellie to her mother, father, a very important boy, life, depression, and more. It is too late for Ellie, but it might not be for potential readers who Callen wrote this novel for: For those who have kept their pain and emotions a secret to all. 

As the novel progresses, things become clear to Ellie that she could not see through her painful life. Through death, she did find peace as she saw how the two most important people to her actually felt about her. 

This novel will bring so many thoughts and emotions to those who read it. It is a powerful one that I will stick on my shelf next to Just a Normal Tuesday, which also deals with suicide and greatly affected me. At the end of the novel the author gives contact information for those that may need some kind of assistance. 

I read this book as a part of #Diverseathon and for October the prompt is a main character who lives/lived with abuse. October’s Host is Yami @ A Bookworm’s Thoughts. She is hosting at Facebook and Instagram and having a giveaway! 

All my reviews can be found at: http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on October 27, 2021.
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Jules is down on her luck and gets the opportunity of a lifetime: To apartment sit an empty apartment for 3 months for $12,000.  It seems like a dream come true with the easiest job in the world… until this dream job becomes a nightmare.

The rules seem a little strange, and she meets a couple more apartment sitters in the building, and fan girl moment: the author of her favorite book lives in the Bartholomew (which didn’t go as she hoped). Jules gets to know fellow apartment sitter Ingrid a little bit, but then out of nowhere, she disappears. And then things start not feeling right for Jules.  Jules becomes determined to figure out what is going on.  And she starts learning about the Bartholomew’s infamous history.

Let me just say this: Riley Sager is a frickin’ genius!  For most of the novel this was a solid 4 star read for me…And then we get to the last 20% and HOLY CRAP!  This is the third of Sager’s books I have read, and will soon read his other two, and so far Lock Every Door is my favorite of his! I never would have guessed what was coming in that final act of the novel! That last 20% becomes the horror I was waiting for in this one!  Sager is fast becoming a new favorite author of mine! He looks to become an autobuy author that soon as I find out he has a new book coming out I will order it, not even knowing what it is about!

You can’t really say much about Lock Every Door other than what I already said without spoiling that last act. This is one where you need to know next to nothing going into reading.  Do yourself a favor and pick up Lock Every Door now!
  
Lock Every Door is very highly recommended!

All my reviews can be found at: http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This will appear as a double review on my site on October 25, 2021.
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Final Girls is Riley Sager’s debut novel, but I am glad I did not read it first. I’ve basically been going backwards and have read his books 5,4, and 3, followed by this one and I still have his second one to go. His novels have gotten better than his first with books 3-5 all getting 5 stars and this one getting 3 stars from me.  

As we read, we get two time periods with Quincy: The past where she survived the massacre that left her friends all dead, and present-day Quincy dealing with life in general and then the effects of final girl Lisa committing suicide and meeting another final girl Sam and them forming some kind of relationship. It helped that I did like Quincy and was rooting for her, while Sam just rubbed me the wrong way so many times!

I was interested in this novel the whole time and it will keep you on your toes. I also had several different thoughts as to who the ultimate villain was, and there were several twists that occurred towards the end. But that final reveal of the villain I guessed wrong, but I was also not surprised by.  I do read lots of thrillers and enjoy NOT guessing the twist and getting my mind blown, so for me Final Girls was a decent novel and I did like the ultimate ending.

With only his second book left to read, I do really enjoy Sager, but recommended his third novel Lock Every Door the most! We will see what happens once I have finished The Last Time I Lied to see if my favorite Sager novel changes!

All my reviews can be found at: http://www.jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on October 8, 2021.
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Despite not really being a Grady Hendrix fan, in the spirit of Halloween I gave the audiobook a listen, but like his others, it did not agree with me.  The premise has something to it: What happens to ‘final girls’ after the headlines end?  All the final girls are reminiscent of final girls from the slasher movies of the 1980s and 1990s.

For me, what happens with these final girls is that they are all beyond messed up!  I did not form any attachment to any of the final girls, so when things happened to them, I did not real-ly feel anything. We do get details of what Lynnette survived and it is very brutal in a jaw dropping way.  

This novel did get me thinking about Neve Campbell’s character Sydney in the Scream mov-ies: She survived multiple attacks by multiple killers so how messed up would she be in ‘real life’??? Also Jamie Lee Curtis in the Halloween movies, yep, she’s a total Final Girl!  And we get new movies in both of those series relatively soon.