Can't-Wait Wednesday: Things You Save in a Fire

Can't-Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings and helps us spotlight upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating!

Things You Save in a Fire
Katherine Center
Expected publication date: August 13, 2019

Cassie Hanwell was born for emergencies. As one of the only female firefighters in her Texas firehouse, she's seen her fair share of them, and she's excellent at dealing with other people's tragedies. But when her estranged and ailing mother asks her to uproot her life and move to Boston, it's an emergency of a kind Cassie never anticipated.

The tough, old-school Boston firehouse is as different from Cassie's old job as it could possibly be. Hazing, a lack of funding, and poor facilities mean that the firemen aren't exactly thrilled to have a "lady" on the crew, even one as competent and smart as Cassie. Except for the handsome rookie, who doesn't seem to mind having Cassie around. But she can't think about that. Because she doesn't fall in love. And because of the advice her old captain gave her: don't date firefighters. Cassie can feel her resolve slipping...but will she jeopardize her place in a career where she's worked so hard to be taken seriously?

Katherine Center's Things You Save in a Fire is a heartfelt, affecting novel about life, love, and the true meaning of courage. - from Goodreads

I don't think I've ever read a story about a female firefighter, so that sounds really interesting!

Top Ten Tuesday: Good Enough to Eat

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.  This week's topic is a freebie.  I knew I wanted to do something with covers, so I went through my GR reads to see if any patterns stood out.  Surprisingly, I found a bunch of covers that featured food!  So, here are some picks that look good enough to eat!

Apples

   

Cake/Cupcakes

   

 

Ice Cream

Hot Dogs 

 What are some of your favorite covers that feature food?

Review: The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party
Lucy Foley
Published: February 12, 2019

For fans of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a shivery, atmospheric, page-turning novel of psychological suspense in the tradition of Agatha Christie, in which a group of old college friends are snowed in at a hunting lodge . . . and murder and mayhem ensue.

All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.

The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.

Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.

Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close? - from Goodreads

Every year a group of old college friends plans a vacation together - this year, they're spending New Year's Eve at a lodge in the Scottish Highlands.  However, one of them won't make it out alive.

I enjoy mysteries like this, where the suspect pool is really limited and you're just trying to figure out who's lying or hiding something.  Foley takes it one step further in this book - although we find out that someone has been murdered in the first chapter, it's not until almost halfway through that we even find out the gender of the deceased and their identity isn't revealed until near the end.  So, the reader is trying to figure out which one of the group of friends could be a murderer while also trying to determine which of them is actually killed!

There are many POVs throughout the story, all women with the exception of one.  I don't mind books with lots of character POVs; I think it helps give a well-rounded picture.  Here, I was able to get to know some characters very well, but unfortunately others got lost in the shuffle.  I had to remind myself who some of the characters were because they showed up so infrequently.  However, the author injected a lot of interesting dynamics in the many friendships and relationships among the group.  These people, who have been friends for years, know each other so well and there's lots of history there, both good and bad.  But there's also any element of, how well can you really know anyone?

The book was a quick read - short, snappy chapters kept the action moving.  There were lots of red herrings that kept me guessing.  Several times I thought I had figured it out, but I was always wrong!  The reveal of the killer was spectacular and a total surprise - both the identity of the killer and the reasoning behind it were not what I was expecting at all!

4 stars

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Love at First Like

Can't-Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings and helps us spotlight upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating!

Love at First Like

Hannah Orenstein

Expected publication date: August 6, 2019

Eliza Roth and her sister Sophie co-own a jewelry shop in Brooklyn. One night, after learning of an ex’s engagement, Eliza accidentally posts a photo of herself wearing a diamond ring on that finger to her Instagram account beloved by 100,000 followers. Sales skyrocket, press rolls in, and Eliza learns that her personal life is good for business. So she has a choice: continue the ruse or clear up the misunderstanding. With mounting financial pressure, Eliza sets off to find a fake fiancé.

Fellow entrepreneur Blake seems like the perfect match on paper. And in real life he shows promise, too. He would be perfect, if only Eliza didn’t feel also drawn to someone else. But Blake doesn’t know Eliza is “engaged”; Sophie asks Eliza for an impossible sum of money; and Eliza’s lies start to spiral out of control. She can either stay engaged online or fall in love in real life. - from Goodreads

This just sounds like a fun summer read!

Embracing Technology: The Libby App

Confession: I'm not a tech fiend.  I can barely operate our DVD player.  I got my first smartphone less than a year ago.  And I've said multiple times here on the blog that I don't do ebooks (although I did read my first one earlier this year).  However, sometimes it's good to get outside your comfort zone, and recently I did just that!

To set the stage: I started a new job earlier this year and now have a proper hour-long lunch break.  I've been bringing the unread physical books from my shelves to read during lunch (goals!).  I was driving to work one day a couple weeks ago when it hit me - I forgot to put a new book in my bag after I finished one the day before!  I literally groaned - what would I do for a whole HOUR?  Was there a bookstore or county library branch nearby that I could hit up? Then, I remembered something I had seen a few times on the library's website - they utilize the Libby app to allow patrons to download ebooks and audiobooks.  I had never thought about using it before, but now, I was kind of desperate.  I worried, though, that it would be too tech-y and difficult for me to figure out, and I would give up.

Guys, I was wrong.  It.  Was.  So.  Easy.

Within two minutes, I had downloaded the app, chosen my library, entered my library card number, and was searching for available books!  I chose Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny, the latest installment in the Inspector Gamache series that I'd been wanting to read for awhile.  I downloaded it and fairly quickly learned how to open, navigate, and bookmark.

The purpose of this post isn't to introduce you to the Libby app or be a how-to guide - it's been around for awhile and I'm sure a lot of you are already using it!  Really, it's more of a personal post.  Too often I'm afraid to try new things, because of either frustration (that it will be too hard for me to figure out) or embarrassment (that I won't get it right away).  I avoided apps like Libby even though it could be really helpful.  I carry a book most places I go, but they get heavy and clunky.  This app ensures that I have a book at all times, because my phone is basically glued to my hand these days. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm glad I tried something new and pushed myself outside of my paper book comfort zone!  I learned that sometimes things are not as difficult as you fear they will be.

Do you use the Libby app?  What are some bookish things you've tried that you once thought you never would?

 

YA Mini-Reviews

Goodbye, Perfect by Sara Barnard (2019)

Thank you to Suzanne at The Bookish Libra for the recommendation!

Eden is stunned to find out her best friend Bonnie has run away with her boyfriend, who turns out to be their school's music teacher.

I was drawn to the ripped-from-the-headlines premise of the book, and Barnard did a great job of making the story feel very grounded and real.  Having the story be from the POV of the friend of the runaway added all these extra layers.  Bonnie's actions cause Eden to really question their friendship - she wonders how close they were if Bonnie never told her about the relationship.

Eden says many times throughout the book that her and Bonnie had such a good friendship because they had very different personalities and balanced each other out; Bonnie's steadiness helped Eden.  However, the same could also be said for Eden's boyfriend, Connor - he was such a sweetheart, and I loved their relationship.  I also enjoyed the secondary storyline about Eden's adoption and her getting to know her adoptive sister, Valerie, better.  Overall, it was nice to see all this support around Eden as she grappled with Bonnie's betrayal.  I did want to shake her at times, though; I know she felt loyal to Bonnie and didn't want to break her promise to not reveal her whereabouts, but couldn't she see that her friend could be in serious trouble?  4 stars

Hope and Other Punch Lines by Julie Buxbaum (2019)

Abbi has spent her entire life being known as the subject of an iconic photo taken on the morning of September 11th.  Now, she just wants one summer of anonymity, but a fellow camp counselor wants her help to get some answers about that day.

Is it bad that I liked the secondary characters more than the main characters?  I sympathized with Abbi about the spotlight that has been on her, and I get that she just wanted to be a normal kid for a little while, but she was keeping a BIG secret, and I was not okay with it.  I wanted her to get the help she needed before things got worse.  And Noah - I didn't like the way he blackmailed Abbi into helping him, even though he tried to make up for it later.  I wanted him to be honest with her from the start.  Their eventual romance was a bit predictable, but they were still pretty awkwardly cute together.

Now, onto the secondary characters - Jack, Noah's best friend, was just awesome.  Funny and blunt, he's what I wished Noah was.  And Abbi's parents were pretty cool, too.  I loved how even though they were divorced, they still got along so well, and Abbi had a great relationship with them both.  Abbi's grandmother also plays an important role in her life and even though she was suffering from dementia, she still managed to have a big impact on the story.

September 11th was a day I'll never forget, and sometimes it doesn't sit well with me when it appears in books - I don't really know why.  However, I thought Buxbaum did an excellent job here of incorporating that day.  She created a unique angle, with Abbi's photo, and brought in some personal stories through other characters.  I also thought the story was informative and sensitive when it came to 9/11-related illnesses.

3.5 stars

Can't-Wait Wednesday: A Dress For The Wicked

Can't-Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings and helps us spotlight upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating!

A Dress for the Wicked
Autumn Krause
Expected publication date: August 6, 2019

Nothing much happens in the sleepy town of Shy in Avon-upon-Kynt. And for eighteen years, Emmaline Watkins has feared that her future held just that: nothing.

But when the head of the most admired fashion house in the country opens her prestigious design competition to girls from outside the stylish capital city, Emmy’s dreams seem closer than they ever have before.

As the first “country girl” to compete, Emmy knows she’ll encounter extra hurdles on her way to the top. But as she navigates the twisted world of high fashion she starts to wonder: will she be able to tailor herself to fit into this dark, corrupted race? And at what cost? - from Goodreads

So apparently this book is what happens when Project Runway is set in a historical fiction book - sounds awesome!