reneedecoskey's reviews
318 reviews

This is a political thriller that had me hooked from the start.

It starts with 2 couples: Sloane and her husband Robert Chase, who is a senator, and his cousin Peg and her husband Whit Montgomery — also a senator. In a tragic accident that Whit survives, Peg and Robert are both killed. This isn’t a spoiler. It happens in the first few pages.

Sloane and Whit grow close and eventually marry 2 years after the accident. More than a few people are concerned, chiefly Robert’s mother.

Sloane suffers with lupus and will require a hip replacement, so Whit hires an in-home caregiver, Athena. Athena will help around the house, drive Sloane to her appointments, and most importantly, help with Sloane’s nonprofit foundation that she runs so that the work doesn’t fall too far behind.

As Athena helps nurse Sloane back to health, Sloane begins to get even sicker. She ends up locked in her room, unable to stay awake, with no strength. But her mind is sharp enough to know someone is doing this to her. Everyone seems to be pointing at someone else.

It raises questions of how far people will go for political clout, and what they’ll do to secure the almighty fundraising dollars.

This book is fun because you have no idea who is trustworthy and who is lying. If you believe that political offices are full of sociopaths (I do), this will reassure you that politicians, from local to federal, are only looking out for #1.

But also, why is Athena so interested in Sloane’s backstory? Why does Sloane catch her prying and going through files? Why is she having dinner every night with Senator Montgomery?

I think I read this in 24 hours but it’s hard to know for sure since I read most of it on a plane crossing 17 time zones or something like that. Anyway, it was a quick and engaging read for me with a plot twist that I didn’t find totally predictable.

4.5/5

While this book held my attention, this rom-com genre isn’t really my thing. I chose it because I thought it would be an easy read while I was traveling and I was right. That said, most other people who enjoy the genre loved this book.

This is the story of Nora, an Independent City Woman who works on the agent side of publishing, and Charlie, Brooding City Guy who works on the editing side. Definite “enemies-to-lovers” trope.

What I liked was the witty dialogue. The banter was great and engaging. I appreciated that the book had a tongue-in-cheek way of making fun of itself for being like a Hallmark movie. In fact, some of the characters’ goals in the book are explicitly set to make the action more like a Hallmark movie (goals include escaping the city for a small town, dating townies, saving a local business, etc.).

What I didn’t like was when the dialogue shifted from witty banter to Having Feelings. It felt so hokey and cheesy and I couldn’t picture the Charlie character saying most of what he was saying based on what I knew of his character up to that point.

After a while, the “will-they-won’t-they” trope felt so tired to me. It got to a point where I started skimming pages because I lost interest (and I rarely ever skim). It was like “ok, they’re going to get together. Just kidding, some crazy small town problem that only one person can resolve is in their way and they just don’t have time now.”

I’m not saying it was terrible. There were parts I did enjoy and parts I even thought were funny. I just got tired of it by the end. Not my first Emily Henry book. Maybe my last. I haven’t gone crazy for them like others have. But again… not my genre. You read what you like.

2.75/5

Vera Wong’s husband died and her son barely wants anything to do with her. So when a dead body is found in her tea shop (which rarely has customers), she goes all in on solving the mystery. Despite police saying no foul play was involved, she knows there must be. She knows murderers always return to the scene of the crime, so she befriends every person who unexpectedly shows up. She brings them together to solve the murder, creating a sort of found family in the process.

The only problem with this family is that she’s sure one of them is a murderer.

Still, she delights in the companionship after spending so much time alone.

When the mystery is final solved and the murderer is revealed, it was a bit understated for me. But I reminded myself that it’s a cozy mystery and not a thriller, so it does what it should.

This book is at times very funny. Sometimes it’s a bit slow. Enjoyable when you want to savor rather than fly through a book.

I struggled a bit with some stereotypical language being used, but it might just be me. I don’t know much about the author. I’ve heard the audiobook is delightful.

3.25/5

Because of all the travel I have coming up, I finally caved and bought an eReader. But I bought a Nook and not a Kindle because Jeff Bezos is garbage. Anyway, last night I finished The Broken Girls by Simone St. James.

Much like when I read her book The Sundown Motel, I was hooked. There’s a ghost story element to this one too, but it wasn’t enough to scare me too much (which is good since I’m a baby).

In this book, freelance journalist Fiona Sheridan is working on an investigative piece about the restoration of Idlewild Hall, an abandoned boarding school in her small Vermont town. This story is personal for Fiona. In the mid-90s, her older sister was murdered and dumped on the grounds at Idlewild Hall.

Woven in with Fiona’s present-day story are the stories of a group of girls who attended Idlewild in the 1950s. Those stories serve to set up the legends and lore of the place, including its resident ghost, Mary Hand. No one liked being at Idlewild. It was a dark place where families sent the girls they wanted to hide. And strange, creepy things were always happening (Mary preying on the girls’ fears and insecurities, filling all their days with anxiety).

When another body is found in a well during renovations at Idlewild, the past and present clash, sending Fiona on a quest to solve a 60 year old murder, as well.

This was just a fun, well-paced read. I was engaged the whole way through and appreciated the way she wove the stories together. There are some historical aspects that felt like she was trying to do a lot at one time, but those didn’t take away from my enjoyment. 4/5 for me.

I finished “(If) I Did It,” the OJ Simpson confession, while watching the Phillies last night and I don’t know which was more painful. Pretty sure no one needs to be reminded about what OJ Simpson did to his ex-wife, but this book is his “hypothetical” confession. You might remember where you were when you watched the verdict come back in the Trial of the Century (7th grade math class here).

The only backstory you need is that in 2007, Ron Goldman’s family was able to secure the rights to OJ’s book, If I Did It, and it killed the deal with HarperCollins. They published it with Beaufort Books under their names, referring to him only as “The Killer.”

The beginning is an essay from the Goldmans and it’s a little tedious, talking about how mean Denise Brown is and how Oprah screwed them over, etc. They explain why they published it and the money they hoped to get back what they were owed from the civil case.

Then there’s a prologue from the ghost writer.

The bulk of the book is the original manuscript of If I Did It. I don’t know what the ghostwriter did besides tape OJ telling his story and write exactly what came out with no editing. It was laughably bad. I have never seen the phrase “yada yada yada” used so many times (not in quotes) in any book that claims to take itself seriously.

He repeats the same points over and over, insisting that he wasn’t perfect but he was the voice of reason and Nicole was abusive to him and how her friends were bad influences and he didn’t want them around his kids. Basically the point was “Nicole bad, OJ good.”

Now, I read Faye Resnick’s books years and years and years ago. It’s also naturally very biased. I weirdly have more respect for Faye though because at least she owns her shit more than OJ does. I believe that Nicole was doing a lot of drugs and hooking up with a lot of people. I believe she was drinking a lot. I believe she had a temper. I believe there were issues and lots of drama in her group because now they’re the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills crowd. But the degree to which OJ uses all of that to engage in victim blaming and basically implying that she deserved it and he did it for her own good is just… well, I guess it’s not really that surprising.

There is also this weird mention of someone named Charlie who is with him during the murders. He’s the only person in the book that isn’t introduced with a full name. Very little is said about him, and he’s never mentioned again. He never comes up during the trial. Maybe Charlie is the “hypothetical” part of this book.

And at the end, as he’s surrendering to the police, he’s like, “you were right, Nic. There was no couple like us.”

The dialog is terrible.

The highlight of this book, for me, was the essay by Dominick Dunne after OJ’s story ends. Dunne’s essay was the best-written and most coherent part of the book (no disrespect to the Goldmans, but they aren’t captivating writers). It concludes with an essay by a lawyer, which I had to skim because it was so in the weeds and not saying anything new or interesting (I will grant that this book is from 2008, but still).

I do believe he did it and I think this book is hypothetical insofar as he is trying to paint a better picture of himself and say that if he did it, he doesn’t remember because he blacked out and “woke up” to discover dead bodies in front of him and blood all over. He’s a smug bastard.

So anyway, everyone in this story is awful and the writing is very bad. 2/5 because I still found it mildly entertaining.

Maggie Banks hasn’t found her calling yet. Her college friends all have their lives together and she’s still floundering. Her college roommate Rochelle invites Maggie to come fill in at her family’s bookstore while she’s out on maternity leave.

Maggie isn’t a reader and soon discovers the town’s entire identity is wrapped up in a long-dead author who lived there and wrote one famous book. The bookstore isn’t even allowed to sell books that were written after the author died, decades ago.

She finds a community of people and small business owners, makes friends, and tries to save the bookstore by holding secret events.

I liked the book but thought there were a number of holes and gaps. It was a good lighter read. 3/5 for me.

Early front runner for my favorite book of the year. This was my first free weekend since I can’t even remember and the last one for the foreseeable future. So I spent it finishing I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai.

On the surface, this book is about a 1995 murder at Granby, a boarding school tucked into the New Hampshire woods. Senior Thalia Keith is found floating in the swimming pool, her head cracked open. The school athletic trainer, a black man named Omar, is arrested and charged with Thalia’s murder. Eventually he confesses, but then recants the next day, claiming it was coerced. But the jury found him guilty anyway.

More than 2 decades later, Bodie Kane, a podcaster and Granby alum who was roommates with Thalia junior year, returns to her alma mater to teach a winter “mini-mester” on podcasting.

Being back at Granby has made her feel like a ghost seeing ghosts. But when one of her students decides to investigate Thalia’s murder for her podcast, Bodie becomes completely immersed in the past. Like her student, she doesn’t believe Omar actually killed Thalia, but she thinks she knows who did.

Beneath the surface, though, this book offers commentary on systemic racism in the law enforcement and judicial systems. Even more than that, it underscores the ways in which women are often abused, assaulted, and even murdered over a man’s slight inconvenience. She lists dozens of examples throughout the book. Some you can pick up right away.

It highlights how easy it is for white men to evade the system or not feel its full effects because we live in a patriarchal society (if you need an example of how that works in today’s world, please read Chanel Miller’s book Know My Name about what happened when she was SA’d by Brock Turner). And how women suffer at the hands of these men and their entitlement. All the murdered girls start to blend together.

The book is compulsively readable, which is good because it’s almost 500 pages. It moves quickly though, especially with some very short chapters. The ending is perhaps not tidy, but it is realistic. Note that this is more literary fiction than it is thriller/mystery. Worth the hype. 5/5

I finished Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi last night. It’s this month’s pick for my work book club. It’s only 275 pages, so I read it in two sittings. Also, it destroyed me.

In a strange little basement cafe in Tokyo, a ghost sits at the same table reading a book all day, every day. Once a day she gets up to use the bathroom. When she does, customers can sit in her seat to travel back in time.

They can go back to any day. They can only visit people who have been to the cafe, though. They can’t leave the chair. Nothing they say or do in the past will change the future. The outcome will still be the same. So really, it’s not a chance to change things. It’s a chance to either experience them with more appreciation or say the things they wish they’d said.

And they can only stay in the past for as long as it takes them to drink a cup of coffee before it goes cold.

The book contains 4 parts, all with the same characters. But each part tells a different story and sees a different character travel through time — and all for very different reasons.

If it weren’t for book club, I probably wouldn’t have picked this up. But I’m glad my coworkers chose it. This is the first in a series, but I don’t know if I’m emotionally prepared to read more of them yet, haha.

Recommended if you like time travel, sentimental tales, translations, and/or sobbing. 4.5/5.

I wore myself down the past few weeks and ended up getting my first cold since 2019. Multiple negative COVID tests, so a cold is all it was, but it gave me some extra reading time earlier this week. So I finished The 7.5 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.

This book was a trip. It was so much fun to read. I had absolutely no idea what was going on and I didn’t even care. I was just along for the ride. The author says he was influenced by Quantum Leap and Agatha Christie. It shows.

Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11 pm. It’s Aiden Bishop’s job to stop it from happening. There’s just a small catch. Every time he wakes up, he will inhabit the body of a new host; a different guest at the party that Lord and Lady Hardcastle are throwing. After 8 days and 8 hosts, if he has not solved the murder, everything resets and he goes back to the start without remembering any previous attempts.

I usually spend a lot of time trying to piece stories together and figure out the answer. You can’t in this book. There’s just no way. You’re getting more surprises even after you think the book is over and we’ve entered the falling action. It’s impossible to call it until you’re in the very final pages.

Such a fun read. Recommended for mystery and suspense fans. 5/5

I finished the audiobook of Carrie Soto is Back, by Taylor Jenkins Reid, on Thursday. Then I forgot to post.

My sister reminded me that Carrie Soto is a character in TJR’s book Malibu Rising. I totally forgot that because I can’t remember anything anymore (frustrating when you’ve been long praised for never forgetting). There’s also a point in this book where Carrie is reading a book about Daisy Jones & The Six, so I appreciate the references from within the TJR universe.

Throughout the 80s, Carrie Soto was the best tennis player in the world. Coached by her tennis champion father, Javier Soto, she was unstoppable.

In 1994, several years after her retirement, she’s watching tennis with her father when she decides she wants to come back and win a slam in 1995. I think that’s the term. I don’t know much about tennis except what I learned in this book. She wants to reclaim her title as most decorated tennis champion.

Half of the book takes place in the past, giving the reader a sense of who Carrie Soto is, how she became the best tennis player in the world, and her relationship with her father, including a rift they had that separated them for a while. The other half is in 1994-95 as she prepares her comeback.

Carrie is not likable. She’s arrogant and cold. She’s calculating. Nothing matters more to her than tennis and being the best. In the 80s, that questionably included her father. Now in the 90s, she’s aged a bit, but she’s still the Battle Axe.

And in the 90s, she can finally see the sacrifices her father he made for her.

As he coaches her one last time, she’s out to prove to herself and everyone else that she can and will beat the young woman who is taking away Carrie’s accolades: Nicki Chan.

She’s back and silencing all the naysayers. But something unexpected threatens her final tournament — the one in which she is to meet Nicki Chan and reclaim her titles.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this book because I know virtually nothing about tennis. The audiobook was so well done that it made me not only feel like I was there at the matches, but invested.

I also enjoyed the father/daughter dynamic between Carrie and Javier. Javier was probably my favorite character.

There are parts of dialog that are spoken in Spanish. That might not be for everyone but I enjoyed listening to it and trying to figure out what they were saying in the context of the English around it and with the handful of Spanish words I can recognize.

Overall, engaging. Another good TJR read. 4/5.