jessica42980's reviews
629 reviews

3.5 Stars

Nearly two years have passed since the ending of Me Before You. Lou is still mourning the loss of Will. You can feel her pain and anguish in the first chapter. She is now working at a bar in an airport, and not happy there. She’s not living the way Will wanted her too.

She has an accident and returns home to recover. Her folks decide to let her return to her flat as long as she goes to a grief counseling group. She meets a man named Sam through a teenager in the group named Jake.

After some time, Lou seems to start to get her life together when (as the back cover of the book teases)a figure from Will’s past appears. This person appearing changes everything for Lou. The person ends up being Will’s daughter Lily. The daughter that he did not know he had. I could not help but wonder, as Lou did, if Will had known about her would he still have gone to Dignitas to end his life or would he still be around today. Would Lily have been what he needed to stay around despite being a quadriplegic?

Lou basically takes Lily in as Lily’s mother Tanya couldn’t handle her anymore. She was a very difficult teenager who just found out who her father was. Lily staying with Lou helped them both: Lily got to find out who her father was and Lou had a piece of Will. There is more to Lily than we first are led to believe. There is more to her than being the “troubled teenager”. I did have some issues with Tanya basically letting Lou take “custody” of Lily as Tanya did not know Lou. It just seemed like Tanya was just ready to “get rid” of Lily since she couldn’t really handle her.

Jojo Moyes brings back the Traynor family as well with the introduction of Lily and there have been some changes. Nathan has moved to NYC. I liked him in Me Before You and missed him in After You. There were a few scenes with himon the phone, but that wasn’t enough for me.

There is back and forth with the relationship of Lou and Sam. Will they get together or not? Is Lou even ready for that step after losing Will??? She is over her grief?

May people consider Me Before You and After You romance novels. I do not. To me, Me Before You was a life story to. It deals with two people’s lives and the decision one man made and they happen to fall in love. To me, After You is a book about dealing with grief and moving on. When the end of the book was coming, I had in my head the decision I was hoping Lou would make for her future. And I was happy with the decision she made.

There is one paragraph that really tugged at my heart. It is very powerful. This is towards the end of the book(page 325 of 352 in the paperback), so this will giveaway some things: Our eyes locked. And in that moment everything shifted. I saw what I had really done. I saw that I could be somebody’s center, his reason for staying. I saw that I could be enough.

In the paperback there is a “conversation with the author”. A question was asked if there will be anymore books with Lou. Jojo Moyes said she could see a third final book as a possibility if the readers want it. Well, Jojo, as a reader I can say that as a reader, I would love one final book with Lou!

I gave Me Before You 5 stars, so it was going to hard to live up to the original. In fact, I don’t think there is a way for After You to live up to Me Before You. It still did well. I would recommend it, but don’t have super high expectations if you loved Me Before You.

**Some spoilers- I am not giving away any huge spoilers in this review- but beware still!

This was my first book by Lisa Scottoline. The premise of the book made me want to read it. Luckily, my local library was offering it on audiobook so I requested it. There was a small wait list, so I had to wait about three months to read it.

If you choose to read this you need to put your sense of reality out the door. Try and enjoy it for the suspense/thriller it is. There is a lot of things with the book that are far from reality. Christine sees the picture of Zachary Jeffcoat on the news after his arrest and is all but convinced that he is the donor. Forget the fact that people do look alike; we all have a doppelganger out there somewhere. Christine and her husband Marcus (who is not supportive at all and he is put on the back burner for most of the book) find a lawyer and go about suing the fertility center to find out if their donor is Jeffcoat or not. This first part of the book seemed well researched in regard to fertility centers and infertility.

Here is where the book really goes out there and you HAVE to let go of reality. Christine decides that the prison where Jeffcoat is being held isn’t that far away, so she goes there with her best friend! They pretend to be freelance reporters to get in to see him. This would not happen in the real world!! And they meet him! She interviews him and finds a way to find out if he is Donor 3319. (I will not give this away). He also asks for help in finding an attorney as he only has a public defender. And guess what??? She does find an attorney for him!…. Now the attorney, Griff- I loved him!! He is the best character in this book. He is a “tell them like it is” guy. Then guess what crazy thing Christine does… She stays out of town away from her husband and very strained and troubled marriage and… works for Griff…. For free!! She also does not tell Griff who she is and what her real motives are.

It all comes down to is Jeffcoat a serial murderer or not? Is he donor 3319 or not?? You will have to read the book to find out. The second half of the book does become the thriller type book. And the last 2 discs got really good. I enjoyed the ending as well.

I almost rated the book 4 stars, but with the "believability" issues I had with the book, I had to rate it 3.5 stars. I do recommend it.

When I first started reading this and saw how Paige acts I thought, “Oh great, another Rachel type character from Girl on a Train: An unlikeable alcoholic with memory problems. She is also a pill addict and resorts to an unmentionable way to get those pills. You can understand why she has these issues: Her daughter was murdered ten years earlier and her husband just killed himself. That’s enough to give anybody issues.

I was determined to see where the book was going to go despite the issues I had with Paige. And then… I get to the halfway mark of the book….. And MAJOR TWIST!!!

I can’t go into many details without revealing the twist. I would not have ever thought that the book was going to go in the direction that it did. It was brilliant! It is also graphic and very disturbing. This book will not be for everyone. It was hard to read. But the book is worth it. I don’t give 5 star reviews out much, but it was well earned with My Girl. Well done Jack Jordan!!!

**I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise caught my attention, so I wanted to read it. The books starts out really good. Two years after leaving her fiance at the alter by saying “I can’t”, Meg feels she can put everything aside and forgive Matt. She decides to visit him at the hospital after a minor surgery to have some closure. Then the bad news: Matt died in surgery. Here comes his brother Kyle into the picture. Kyle has been in love with Meg during her entire relationship with his brother. Then Meg’s self published cookbook all of a sudden becomes “the next 50 Shades” and a legal battle with Matt’s family begins.

Typical with “chick lit” Meg and Kyle start a relationship. Well, more like have really great sex. They are both conflicted the whole book with Matt being brought up CONSTANTLY. You have to almost think, “Would they even be together if Matt had not been around in the past”. For me, Matt was brought up way too much. He was a constant in their conversations. And their conflict on if they should be together or not because of Matt- For me it was “hurry up and make up your minds and stop talking about Matt so much!”

Another thing that was an annoyance was the constant referral to Matt’s mom as Meg’s “former-future-mother-in-law”. She was referred as this the whole novel. Did the author have a word quota she needed to reach? Why not just call Matt’s mom by his name or Mrs. Midland?

For me the best part of the novel was the cookbook and the legal battle that Meg faced. I enjoyed how all of a sudden the book became wildly popular and Meg trying to deal with the after effects of everything that entailed. That part seemed real to me.

Of course towards the end of the novel there is a surprising reveal on a secret Kyle kept. The way that Meg reacted about it and her ultimate decision at the end was not satisfying for me. She forgave him way to easily in my opinion. Books, even “chick-lit” books don’t always have to have a “Happily Ever After” ending.

The issue of grief is in the novel as well. Tawna Fenske did a good job portraying that. You could feel Matt’s family dealing with their grief in various ways.

Overall, I give this novel three stars. I don’t really recommend it. There are some humorous parts to the book. I enjoyed parts of it, but the issues I had keep me from recommending it.

**I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Still Missing is not for everyone as it is graphic, shocking, intense, and very well written! It was also very hard to read. There is graphic language as well, so be prepared for that if you read it. Annie explains her use of the strong language: If you went through everything that she did, it would change you. She is an angry person now, trying to adjust to everything that has happened and to move on in her life. If you can not handle multiple graphic scenes dealing with sexual assault this is not the book for you.

I believe that audiobook is a very good medium for this book as Annie is talking to her shrink; it may have made the book easier to read that way.

You know that Annie does somehow get away, since she is talking with her shrink. Annie’s description of that year is very graphic and she leaves nothing to the imagination, you can picture everything that happens to her.

I can’t go into many details without giving things away. There is a very unexpected twist in the book. You can’t help but find the twist hard to believe. And that last line…Wow.

After finishing the book I have to rate it 5 stars as it is so powerful and an amazing debut. It is highly recommended. I have read a few other books written by Chevy Stevens, but it has been a while since I read them. I will have to see if my local library offers any more of her novels on audiobook.

Kelly Corrigan’s title of her memoir is The Middle Place; which is where she feels she is in life when this journey began. She is in that time between being someone’s child and being someone’s parent. I am the age Kelly is when she discovers the lump in her breast that ends up being cancer.

From the description of the novel, I expected to read more on her journey of going through the cancer treatments. Yes we do get some of that, but then her father gets his third occurrence of cancer and the book becomes more about her being concerned about losing her father. That may have been her coping mechanism to get through her cancer. But being her age, I wanted more of her story. Yes, this is her story to tell in her way, but it seems I wanted a different book than what I got.

In some ways she also became unlikeable. Again, this was most likely her coping mechanism. In one point of the novel she is angry with her husband for “talking to his parents too much” according to her:

“I’m glad you’re bringing your cell. If you get bored, you can call your parents again.” (Page 236)
“It bugs me that you’re always calling your parents,” (Page 237)

Then a couple of pages later, she is calling her parents to check on her dad and her girls. At one point her dad says:

“Lovey! I better let you go! You can’t spend your vacation on the phone with us!” (Page 240)

Isn’t this what you just got upset with your husband about?

Some reviewers have issues with the language she uses. Again, this is her story to tell in the way she will tell it. There was also no big revelation at the end. She didn’t discover faith as some would have liked. This is a memoir and sometimes we don’t get what we want as we do with with fiction books.

Overall, I can’t recommend this book. It just wasn’t for me.

** My rating is actually 2.5 stars, but Goodreads does not let you do half star ratings, so I am being generous giving 3 stars.

This is Ruth Ware’s second novel. I have not read her first (I will soon since my local library offers it on audiobook). The premise interested me: Lo Blacklock has the opportunity to go on the maiden voyage on a small cruise ship. One night she hears a body being thrown overboard…. But no one is reported missing on the ship- employees or passengers.

The novel starts out slow. There is a break-in at Lo’s apartment and she is dealing with PTSD issues from the break-in. I wanted her to hurry up and get on the ship! The novel does pick up once she got onboard.

One thing about Lo: She is not likeable. She is yet another female protagonist who has various issues and she also likes to drink… A lot. Since Lo is the narrator of the novel, you can’t help but wonder if the events described are actually happening. Is the alcohol affecting what she experiences, or is someone actually behind everything? Is she doing things during her blackouts or is someone doing something to her?

Despite Lo not being likeable, Ruth Ware is able to pull you in to the story! She writes the fear and paranoia that Lo experiences very well! I was feeling the paranoia that Lo was feeling.

There is a twist which I did not see coming. The twist does not happen at the very end like most novels do. I actually had no idea what direction the novel was going to go in. I was satisfied with the ending.

I do recommend this novel!

All my reviews are on my site: www.jessicasreadingroom.com
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I will admit I do not know much at all about Marie Antoinette. I read a fiction book with an alternate history about her that piqued my curiosity in regard to her life(Insatiable: A Macabre History of France
by Ginger Myrick). Darkest Days does not deal with her whole life, it focuses on the last few months of her life, specifically her 76 days of life in the Conciergerie.

Will Bashor obviously did his homework! He researched this topic very well and was able to provide specific details of Marie Antoinette’s “life” in the Conciergerie. It wasn’t much of a life. Her husband was executed, her children taken away from her, and subpar living quarters with no privacy. Her health went downhill during her time in the Conciergerie. Regardless of your opinion of Marie Antoinette, her last days her horrible. As she left the Conciergerie for the guillotine, she was mistreated even then. It was a horrible way to end a life. I felt sorry and sad for her. You also learn about plans to rescue her that failed.

Will Bashor writes the book in form of a novel which made it easy to read. Some historical books can be dry and flat, but at times this book was hard to put down. I also enjoyed seeing the pictures and maps provided in the book: that made some things in the book seem more real as the book was being read.

Reasons the book could not be given 5 stars:

The book doesn’t seem meant to be read in e-reader form:

-It was hard to read on a kindle as I wasn’t easily able to go back and forth to look at the map then read the description of places in the map.

-Footnotes in the book were in the middle of paragraphs which broke the flow of reading.

-There were several paragraphs where the paragraph was one sentence. The sentences were not necessarily run on sentences, but those long sentences make it hard to read the book. I had to read some paragraphs multiple times because of this.

(Please note: My copy was an electronic ARC- so maybe these will be corrected by the publication date).


If you are a fan of French history or even Marie Antoinette, check this book out. Despite the issues mentioned above, I do recommend the book.

**I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

All my reviews are at: www.jessicasreadingroom.com

The premise of the book catches your attention and pulls you in. The actual novel not so much.

The Husband is divided into three parts. The first part is very good. Mitchell (Mitch) Rafferty is a landscaper and working a job when he receives a call that his wife has been kidnapped. And the kidnappers want $2 Million cash. He has 60 hours to get the money and they know he is a gardener with limited means. They let him know they are serious by shooting a man walking a dog. And like other novels similar to this, no cops or they kill his wife.

Here starts Mitch’s journey to rush to get the money. Will he make it to the deadline? Will he get the money? Will he save his wife? What will happen?

The book’s direction falls flat. There is a twist that you find out early on who is responsible for this happening.

There are several subplots, one involves his family and his childhood. This includes a sense-deprivation room that his parents used on Mitch and his siblings growing up. You do get to see how experiencing that affects them in both extremes, good and bad. This could be a fabulous plot to be used… in another book.

Overall, I could not recommend this book. I did keep listening to it to see what would happen. When I finished it I did not really have an opinion of the book. This was disappointing as I was hoping it would keep me on the edge of my seat and have me wanting more.

This is my second Koontz book, the first was Life Expectancy which I had rated four stars. Despite being disappointed in The Husband, I will read Koontz again.

***I rated this books at 2.5 stars, but Goodreads doesn't let you do 1/2 star ratings.