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Book Review: With You All the Way by Cynthia Hand

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With You All the Way by Cynthia Hand
Release Date: 30th March 2021
Genre: Contemporary
Source: Publisher

Ada’s life is a mess. She just caught her boyfriend cheating on her after a humiliating attempt at losing her virginity, and she’s had it up to here with her gorgeous older sister’s unsolicited advice.

But things really hit the fan during a family vacation in Hawaii, where Ada discovers her own mother is having an affair. Apparently, everyone is falling into bed with people they shouldn’t. Everyone except Ada. But when Ada decides she’s going to stop trying and start doing—sex, that is—her best laid plan overlooks an inconvenient truth:

Feelings, romantic or not, always get in the way.

My Review of With You All the Way

I’ve been reading Cynthia Hand’s books since her debut novel, and she’s normally always a hit for me. I have been enjoying her transition into YA contemporary stories (she started out with YA paranormal during the whole fallen angel craze… that was fun too!) and I find that she tackles difficult topics well.

I wouldn’t say that With You All the Way is her best book, but I still very much enjoyed reading about Ada’s disastrous love life and her vacation to Hawaii. Ada discovering her mother’s affair and how to deal with it was emotional and realistic. I loved the way it all resolved in the end. 

I didn’t find any of the characters to be memorable, but I think this is a good story that teens would enjoy.

4/5

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Book Review: The Appeal by Janice Hallett

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The Appeal by Janice Hallett
Release Date: 25th January 2022
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Source: Publisher

This murder mystery follows a community rallying around a sick child—but when escalating lies lead to a dead body, everyone is a suspect.

The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals for an Arthur Miller play, when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Haywood and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment costing a tremendous sum, their fellow castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival.

But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy—nor of the good intentions of those involved. New actress Sam, a former NGO worker, raises doubts. But are her suspicions justified? Or does she have a history with the doctor involved? As tension grows within the community, things come to a shocking head the night of the dress rehearsal. The next day, a dead body is found, and soon, an arrest is made. In the run-up to the trial, two young lawyers sift through the material—emails, messages, letters—with a growing suspicion that a killer may still be on the loose.

My Review of The Appeal

I don’t remember requesting The Appeal for review purposes but I suppose I must have done. Either that or the publisher knows my taste really well and sent me the e-ARC via Edelweiss unsolicited. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. I was immediately hooked and intrigued so any confusion over the source of this book evaporated pretty quickly.

The Appeal is captivating from the very first chapter. It’s told in an interesting format, in that we’re reading case files alongside a couple of junior lawyers to try to figure out what’s really going on with this case. I love this idea. It was a great way of keeping things interactive and making sure the reader got involved. I don’t think this format is for everyone, but those of us who really enjoy pretending to be detectives while reading thrillers would probably really like this book. I certainly did. 

I also love small town drama, and this book is perfect for that. I loved the questions the case files brought up – what was happening in this theatre group? Is this girl really sick? What’s going on with half of these people – are they okay?! I particularly loved feeling as though I was watching the small town drama unfold from the outskirts. The build up to finding out what the case was actually about was also a lot of fun.

While The Appeal isn’t a five star, all time favourite read, it’s definitely something a little different in the thriller genre and I would recommend it to fellow armchair detectives who love a good mystery book.

4/5

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Book Review: The Sorority Murder by Allison Brennan

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The Sorority Murder by Allison Brennan
Release Date: 28th December 2021
Genre: Thriller
Target Audience: Adult

Lucas Vega is obsessed with the death of Candace Swain, who left a sorority party one night and never came back. Her body was found after two weeks, but the case has grown cold. Three years later while interning at the medical examiner’s, Lucas discovers new information, but the police are not interested. Lucas knows he has several credible pieces of the puzzle. He just isn’t sure how they fit together. So he creates a podcast to revisit Candace’s last hours. Then he encourages listeners to crowdsource what they remember and invites guest lecturer Regan Merritt, a former US marshal, to come on and share her expertise. New tips come in that convince Lucas and Regan they are onto something. Then shockingly one of the podcast callers turns up dead. Another hints at Candace’s secret life, a much darker picture than Lucas imagined–and one that implicates other sorority sisters. Regan uses her own resources to bolster their theory and learns that Lucas is hiding his own secret. The pressure is on to solve the murder, but first Lucas must come clean about his real motives in pursuing this podcast–before the killer silences him forever.

I think a lot of readers will have some issues with The Sorority Murder, particularly with the large amount of dialogue, but I actually very much enjoyed it. In terms of the plot, it was certainly intriguing. I love any story to do with podcasts or streaming, and this aspect always adds another element to a thriller plot.

I think the writing style was the biggest let down of the book, in that it was dialogue heavy. Everything was discussed between characters and there was little room for description or much prose at all. I didn’t actually mind this, as I found it worked well with the podcast element, but I know that some readers will be put off. I don’t particularly like my thriller books to include too much description anyway, although admittedly a little more wouldn’t have hurt.

I really enjoyed following the mystery along with the characters and trying to figure out what had gone on at this university. It was a lot of fun, and by the end the reveals felt very satisfying.

Book Review: One True Loves by Elise Bryant

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One True Loves by Elise Bryant
Release Date: 4th January 2022
Genre: Contemporary
Target Audience: YA

Lenore Bennett has always been a force. A star artist and style icon at her high school, she’s a master in the subtle art of not giving a . . . well, you know what. But now that graduation is here, she’s a little less sure. She’s heading to NYU in the fall with a scarlet U (for “undeclared”) written across her chest. Her parents always remind her that Black kids don’t have the luxury of figuring it out as they go—they have to be 110 percent prepared. But it’s a lot of pressure to be her ancestors’ wildest dreams when Lenore’s not even sure what her dreams are yet. When her family embarks on a post-graduation Mediterranean cruise, her friend Tessa is sure Lenore’s in for a whirlwind romance. But Lenore knows that doesn’t happen in real life. At least not to girls like her. Then she meets Alex Lee. After their parents bond over the Cupid Shuffle, she ends up stuck with him for the remainder of the cruise. He’s a hopeless romantic and a golden boy with a ten-year plan. In short, he’s irritating as hell. But as they get to know each other during the picturesque stops across Europe, he may be able to help her find something else she’s been looking for, even if she doesn’t want to admit it to herself: love.

I’m more than a little disappointed by One True Loves. I loved Happily Ever Afters (it was one of my favourite debuts of 2021) so I was keen to get my hands on this one as soon as it popped up on Edelweiss. Thanks to the publisher for providing an e-ARC of this one!

That said, I didn’t like One True Loves. I was expecting a super cute romance with some European travel – it’s set on a cruise ship, for crying out loud! – but instead I got a mediocre and fairly boring story without seeing any European sights. I’m a sucker for travel and adventuring in my books, but this book had none. I also didn’t love the romance. While it was cute, it didn’t stand out to me at all, and it felt like this book was rushed through publication before the author had a chance to really figure out what she was going to do with it.

One True Loves isn’t enough to entirely put me off reading this author because I know she is capable of great things, but I’m sad that this one turned out to be a dud.

Book Review: Where the Rhythm Takes You by Sara Dass

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I enjoyed this book so freaking much! From the characters to the relationships to the setting, Dass delivered a great contemporary debut that had a lot of elements that I loved. She even included some things that I don’t normally enjoy (I tend to not like reading books about musicians, sorry!) but everything worked really well in this book. 

I loved reading about the Tobago setting. It’s not a country that I’ve read about before, and after reading this book I’ve been reading up on its history and current state. It’s all very intriguing! 

I loved Reyna and her friendship/relationship with Aiden. It was so much fun to read about the two of them breaking apart and then coming back together.

Honestly, I have no complaints about this book and I’m looking forward to seeing what Sarah Dass comes out with next.

Book Review: Game Changer by Neal Shusterman

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Game Changer isn’t my favourite Neal Shusterman book but I still enjoyed it. I love all things about parallel universe or multiverse stories, so of course when I found out one of my favourite authors was writing a book about that I was thrilled. 

The book follows a very privileged teenage boy who gets hit in the head and thrown into various different dimensions. I thought it was a very clever (but not very subtle) way of showing privilege to teenagers who may not have come across the term or subject before. Who are privileged teens most likely to relate to if they haven’t been exposed to this kind of thing before, after all?

Like I said, this isn’t my favourite book of Shusterman’s. I don’t think it offered anything new, and other authors have certainly approached the topic better, but I enjoyed the parallel universe stuff enough to give this a good rating.

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