reneedecoskey's reviews
318 reviews

While out to dinner for her 45th birthday with her quiet husband who is in his 80s, Josie Fair sees another woman celebrating her birthday surrounded by an attentive husband and lots of family and friends. The woman is also turning 45. 

Josie follows her to the bathroom and introduces herself by saying, “Hi! I’m your birthday twin!” They realize that they were born on the same day at the same hospital. But their lives have been very different. 

The woman is podcaster Alix Summer, and in her, Josie sees an opportunity to share her story of change. Josie wants a change. Her life feels stagnant. Routine. She’s bitter and resentful. 

Josie latches onto Alix and they begin recording. 

Within a few weeks, both families are shattered and two people are dead. 

Lisa Jewell is so good at domestic thrillers. This one kept me turning pages, eager to find out what was going to happen next. The reader knows pretty early on that something isn’t quite right with Josie, but there are so many different versions of events that it’s hard to know exactly what’s true. 

I also really liked the format of this book. Even though it’s about a podcast, the podcast itself isn’t the format. The format is the Netflix documentary series based on the podcast, so we “see” interviews with people and get to read some of the podcast transcript that’s used. 

I’ve been looking forward to reading this one for a while and it didn’t disappoint. 

It was all a privileged white woman complaining about how expensive it is to renovate the summer home she purchased in Tuscany and how she suffered because there were scorpions in the house that had been sitting dormant for so long and how she would have to stop taking 10 pairs of Italian leather shoes back to the US with her every year. Insufferable. And that was just the first 35 pages. I gave up after that. 

I think this was written at a time when privilege was a thing to flaunt because it was "inspirational." I hated this in the same way I hated Nickel & Dimed and Eat, Pray, Love. If you like books about rich women who travel to find themselves only to learn that the real you has been right there all along inside your heart waiting for you to have wine in Italy before she could be fully realized and then she is forever changed, go for it. Not suggesting travel won't change you. Just suggesting that this story is tired and didn't age well. 

Charlotte Walsh and her husband, Max, are executives at a tech company in Silicon Valley, but she wants more. Originally from Pennsylvania, she decides to return there to run for Senate against Ted Slaughter, a Republican who generally runs unopposed because he’s occupied his seat forever. 

The book follows Charlotte and her family for a little over a year as she launches her campaign, moves back to Pennsylvania, and focuses all her time and effort on winning. 

As the pressures of campaigning mount, Charlotte’s personal life is starting to unwind too. Her friendship with Leila, her assistant, becomes strained after Leila makes campaign decisions Charlotte doesn’t agree with. She finds it strange to be back in her hometown, living in the house she grew up in, which was left to her after her parents died. 

Max becomes the primary caretaker for the children, but it also makes him a little bitter, and she finds herself fighting to save her marriage at the same time. 

And all the while, Ted Slaughter is saying terrible things about her, presenting them as fact. 

When it’s finally election day, Charlotte knows that no matter the outcome, everything will change the next day. She’s either going to be preparing to go to Senate or she’s going to be deciding what becomes of her marriage and the issues she and Max are facing. Or maybe she’ll be doing both. 

This is definitely a good book to read if you're interested in women in politics. I think the more interesting thing is the way it looks at gender roles and its portrayal of the idea that women can have it all and do it all. The flip side of that is knowing that "all" means the good and the bad. That's life, and women unfortunately often have to pay a toll for ambition. 

Bel Price was a small child when her mother, Rachel, disappeared. Bel was found in her car seat, in the back of her mother’s car, with her mother nowhere to be found. 

As the anniversary of Rachel’s disappearance approaches, a film crew comes to town to investigate and interview Bel, now 17, her dad, Charlie, and other members of their family. 

And then, in the midst of filming the documentary, something happens that no one anticipated: Rachel returns. 

She says a man kidnapped her and kept her in his basement for the last 16 years. 

Bel isn’t sure she believes it, and she starts her own investigation to prove that Rachel has something to hide. The truth is something she could have never dreamed up. 

While this is technically a YA book, I think that, like with Holly Jackson’s other books, adults can enjoy it, as well. The main character is a teenager and I think that’s why this gets classified as YA. That said, this is the kind of book I loved as a teenager, so I often find that books like this help me get out of a reading slump. 

The narrator is good and kept my attention on the story while I listened to the audiobook. I started it on a long drive across the state and it kept me safe and focused. 

The God of the Woods set a high bar as my first book of the year. I loved it. 

It’s August 1975. 2 months into the summer at Camp Emerson, Barbara Van Laar goes missing. But Barbara isn’t just any summer camper. Her wealthy family owns the large home at the top of the hill where they host extravagant parties for their wealthy friends. And, unfortunately, Barbara is not the first of their children to go missing. Their son Bear disappeared from the property during the summer of 1961 and was never found. 

The book weaves together the stories of multiple characters: Barbara; her bunkmate, Tracy; her camp counselor, Louise, her mother, Alice; and Investigator Judy Luptack, the only female investigator on Barbara’s case. Through these stories, another emerges from the camp’s director, TJ Hewitt, a woman who grew up at Camp Emerson and the Van Laar Preserve, and whose father was the caretaker before her. The Hewitts and the Van Laars are and have always been closely connected. 

Throughout the book, we learn that each of the female characters is struggling in some way to make the best of a bad situation. 

I couldn't put this down or wait to see how it all came together. 

Finished Unlikeable Female Characters by Anna Bogutskaya over the weekend. The book looks at the way female characters are portrayed in film and television, and how they are often considered unlikeable for the same reasons their male counterparts are heralded. But in the grander sense, it’s an examination of art imitating life. Women experience this double standard so often that it’s almost more surprising when we don’t have to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously. 

I am not big into film or tv so some of the references didn’t land for me, but enough of them did that I found it interesting. Each section looks at a different trope in which women are commonly portrayed, including the bitch, the psycho, the weirdo, the shrew, etc., and how these tropes affect how real-life women are treated. 

The commentary resonated with me. If I had one major critique, it’s that the book isn’t edited very well. There are typos and, in one case, completely wrong information (the author said one film — pretty sure it was 10 Things I Hate About You — premiered in 1992 or something when I know 100% that it was later than that and could easily verify that with an internet check). 

Still, the point remains. I underlined and marked passages in a way I haven’t done since grad school because I want to go back and reflect on certain parts that really resonated with me and where I felt seen.

I couldn’t put this book down, even though it did give me nightmares one night.

When Alexandra Quinlan is 17, someone enters her family’s home in the middle of the night and kills her parents and 13 year old brother. She survives only by making it look like she jumped from her window and, instead, hiding behind a grandfather clock.

Police decide she must be the suspect. There’s a trial. Her lawyer, Garrett Lancaster, and his partner Jacqueline convince the jury of her innocence, but it doesn’t convince the general public. Meanwhile, the killer is still out there.

Over the course of the next decade, Alexandra conducts her own investigation, following clues and the little bit of evidence she has. She finds other similar crimes with a similar calling card and starts to make connections with people who can help her learn more.

But someone’s got an eye on her, too. Someone knows she’s getting too close to figuring out what really happened that night, and why.

This one kept me turning pages. I had fun trying to piece the mystery together with the clues provided, always changing my theory as I learned more. There are lots of twists and turns in this one. Really enjoyed it. 4.5/5.

This book is about Summer and Leo, 2 young women seemingly forgotten by society. Summer was raised by a bohemian mother who left her with nothing but a tent — not even a last name — when she was a teenager. Leo grew up in a happy family that was shattered when her older sister was murdered, and Leo eventually ran away.

They are family too each other and they get by on pickpocketing and theft, usually from the wealthy. They live in the back of a truck that’s been converted to a small bedroom with storage.

When Leo meets billionaire Michael Forrester, she thinks she’s hit the jackpot. After all, he noticed her first, liking one of her Instagram photos. Leo goes out with him and he ends up extending their evening party by whisking her off to his private island.

Summer is worried when Leo doesn’t come home. She starts contacting connections from Michael’s party and manages to get herself invited to the private island for the weekend. All she wants to do is find Leo.

But no one on the island seems to have seen Leo. They’ve never heard of her. They don’t know what Summer is talking about. They don’t know that Michael had a previous connection to Leo that even she didn’t know about.

Where is Leo? And what will happen to Summer?

The first half of this book is kind of slow, but the second half is faster-paced. It made it a little tough to get into, but I enjoyed it overall. My one criticism is that it’s a bit contrived. Everything feels very convenient in the way the times line up. I also didn’t understand why Michael randomly remembers Leo. Either way, it’s not perfect but it is enjoyable. 3.75/5

I like thrillers in the summer especially and this was a good one.

Avery is a local with a troubled past, but she’s finally found a place for herself in her Maine town — one where the wealthy spend their summers. The Lomans are a big and influential summer family, and Avery and Sadie Loman become fast friends. For years, Avery is welcomed into the Loman home during the summer. They give her a job and a place to live and help her get on her feet.

That all changes when Sadie is found dead.

The police rule it as Sadie’s own intent, but Avery isn’t convinced. As she starts digging to find out what really happened, fingers start pointing at her and she finds herself a suspect. She knows she has to clear her name before it’s too late. But she’s not prepared for what she’ll learn about her own past along the way, and how she is forever tied to the Lomans.

This was a perfect, twisty summer thriller and I couldn’t put it down. 5/5

Missing Dead Girls by Sara Walters is the last book I started reading on my trip, in the airplane on the way home. I chose it because it’s YA and sounded like the kind of easy summer thrillers I used to enjoy growing up. So basically… nostalgia. And it was featured in the Nook store as a thriller not to be missed. I went in pretty blind.

It’s a story about a girl named Tillie whose mom makes her leave Philadelphia for a suburb before her senior year of high school. Something bad happened last year. Her mother needed to get Tillie away from the city.

Tillie is distracted by that incident, which involved her ex-girlfriend and another girl … one who ended up dead.

But when she meets Madison Frank, last year becomes a memory … at least for now. She and Madison fall hard for each other and begin spending all their time together. And it turns out they both have cause to want revenge against the same boy.

There’s a problem, though, and spilling secrets might be the only way to save Madison when a photo of her bloody body is texted to the whole school from Tillie’s name — on the first day of school when no one knows Tillie at all. And how did that other girl die back in Philly?

I guess I had higher expectations for this book. Or maybe I just didn’t remember how watered down YA thrillers can be. I didn’t find this book exciting. From the start, I kept picturing Tillie as Kristen Stewart … boring and meh. Her character just felt like monotone personified. Flat affect. Not interesting. Kind of annoying.

I think a teenager would really like this. I have clearly outgrown YA thrillers, haha.

1.5/5