November Book Reviews

So....you may or may not of noticed that there wasn't a book review for October.  Unfortunately I read no books in October, but it wasn't for lack of trying!  I spent 3 weeks trying to read Seeing Red by Sandra Brown.  Usually I like Sandra Brown, and this was her newest and the librarian talked me into borrowing it because it had just come back in.  I could not get into it!  Now it has decent reviews on Goodreads, so maybe I'm the only one who felt this way.  But I just found that it went on and on about nothing for too long.  And I HATED the way the man talked to the woman in it.  I found him crude and vulgar and yet she was interested in him.  It sounded like the book was written by a man because I couldn't imagine a woman actually writing those parts.  So anyways, this was one of the first books in a very long time that I didn't finish!

Luckily November has been better.  I'm back to work so I don't have as much time to read, but I'm often reading on my lunch since I have an hour.  So we just have a couple of reviews this month, and here they are.

The Rumour by Elin Hilderbrand

I knew that this was a good choice after the Sandra Brown fail because although I don't find Elin Hilderbrand's books hugely thrilling, and they are somewhat predictable, they are a nice light read.  It's easy to get into them and enjoy them. 

This book is about a couple of friends in Nantucket.  There is one who is having an affair with her gardener, one who is writing a book about it, and then all of the rumours that are going on about both of them an their husbands because Nantucket is a small place, and that's what happens.

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

I loved this book.  How much I love a book is just based on the feeling I get.  I couldn't put this one down but I also didn't want it to end.  I liked it much more than The Woman in Cabin 10, which was Ruth Ware's last book.  I'm also definitely looking forward to reading her other novel "In a Dark Dark Wood" now.  

This book is about 4 girls who were friends in high school.  While there, they had a "lying game" where the goal was to tell the biggest lies and make people believe them basically.  Of course something terrible happened as well and now 15 years later it is coming back to haunt them.  I liked that this book was about girlfriends, it made it different than so many other books.  I found it interesting the differences between the girls, the length of time that had passed and yet they could still pick up where they left off.  There were some plot holes as we got further in, which kind of bugs me.  I think that's what bugged me most about The Woman in Cabin 10 as well.  But overall this has been one of my favourite books in awhile!

Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is a super late addition (like I'm adding it on December 21 and originally posted this at the beginning of the month).  I'm not really sure how I missed this book!

This book is based on the idea that every time we make a decision, the two decisions create a new life line and our lives run in parallel in two separate dimensions...if that makes sense.  I know there's a more eloquent way to state that, but I can't figure out how right now.  So this book is based on Hannah's life and two very different ways it could of gone based solely on the a decision she makes one night.  I did like the book, I found it interesting that I wasn't cheering for one story line more than the other, I liked them both.  But I'm not sure I buy into this idea that we have parallel lives. 

The book was a good read, like all of the other Taylor Jenkins Reid books I've read have been, but it wasn't one of my favourites.