What Happened to Jane?

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn describes the life of Anna Fox, child psychologist turned recluse. Anna has gone through a traumatic incident, leading to separation from her husband Ed and daughter Livvy. She has been agoraphobic the past ten months. Her days mostly consist of online chess, an agoraphobic support group, old movies, lots of wine, and watching the neighbors. I wish that I was more familiar with the old movies referenced during the story, because I’m sure I missed important connections along the way.

Anyway, Anna has been able to watch and photograph her neighbors without notice until the Russells move in. Jane, Alistair and their teenage son Ethan provide a new interest for Anna, especially once she happens to meet Ethan and bond with “Jane.” Shortly after their meeting, she witnesses Jane stabbed and bloody in the Russell home. When Anna attempts to get help, all blame turns back on her. It seems that Jane is perfectly fine and everyone believes Anna to be crazy and hallucinogenic due to her heavy use of medications combined with alcohol. Yet Anna can’t shake the feeling that something is seriously wrong. She attempts to figure out what really happened while in and out of a prescription/alcohol-induced daze.

Important truths are revealed along the way (why she became agoraphobic), and the author keeps the reader guessing as to what (if anything) really happened to Jane. Just when I found myself getting a bit frustrated with Anna, the story twisted again to reveal the true villain. In doing so, Anna proves herself to be stronger than she ever believed.

I read that this book may become a movie; it certainly has potential to be a great one.

Getting Well

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty is about nine people experiencing different degrees of need for escape/recovery. This is what brings them all to Tranquillum House for a ten-day retreat.

Frances is the character we follow most. She is a romance novelist seemingly at the end of her career. Her latest novel has been declined and she is reeling from a nasty review. Tony is the ex-football player who has been “moping” through life since his sports injury. Napoleon, his wife Heather and their daughter Zoe are still mourning their son/brother’s death. Jessica and Ben are recent Lottery winners facing marital issues. Carmel, mother to four daughters, was divorced due to her husband’s affair. Lars is a devastatingly handsome lawyer/retreat junkie. He is there in part to escape his husband’s wish to have a baby.

Masha is the owner of Tranquillum, with her own issues and back story too. In her quest to create the perfect rejuvenating, self-help retreat she pushes the boundaries a bit too far. The retreat begins with days of silence, no speaking or eye contact allowed. During this time, guests have been enjoying daily drugged smoothies. It all comes to a climax when they are given LSD as a means of promoting therapy, followed by fasting while locked into a room together.

This is a great read to escape; I found myself really drawn into the guests as they were developed through the book. I saw a little of myself in many of them. The book concludes with quick snippets of each character’s future. Read to find out if Masha’s therapy helped the guests or not; is she a maniac or a genius?

Keep Guessing

The Things You Find in Rock Pools by Greg Dunnett is quite the murder mystery. The main character, Billy, reminds me of Christopher, the autistic narrator from The curious incident of the dog in the night time. Billy, a 12-year old, is inquisitive, intelligent about his passions and funny at times too. Despite the young narrator, I definitely do not recommend this for young adult readers!

Billy decides to solve the mystery when a young female is killed while vacationing in his beach town. His first suspect proves innocent, and then signs begin pointing to his dad as the murderer. We discover that Billy and his dad are considered missing people and that his dad is wanted for murder. They go into hiding until ultimately the truth about everything is revealed. Also, the story switches back and forth between Billy’s and the investigating officers’ perspectives.

Most chapters closed with a cliffhanger so that I just had to keep reading. And the twists!! I was constantly changing my mind about whether a character was guilty or not. Well-crafted! And now I must switch gears to some young adult literature for a while.

What’s in the Bag?

Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman makes one wonder about how millions of dollars could change people and their relationships with each other. The story starts with Erin digging a grave for her recent husband, then flashes back to the events leading to this point.

Erin and Mark are to be married. During this time, Erin is in the early stages filming a documentary of three prisoners about to finish their prison sentences. There’s Eddie, the former mobster, Holli, possible terrorist, and Alexa, jailed for euthanizing her mother. Erin hopes to capture their experiences as they re-enter the world. Meanwhile, her fiance has just lost his job in the financial sector which is a huge blow.

Once married, they set off on their shortened Tahitian honeymoon. While scuba diving one day, they happen across a plane wreck in the ocean. Mark extracts a duffel from the wreck, which they later find is full of millions of dollars worth of cash and diamonds. There is also a cell phone and a USB drive. They decide to keep the bag and its contents after much deliberation. Unfortunately, Erin’s inquisitive nature leads her to turn on the cell phone, thereby providing a search point for those hoping to get the bag back.

Now they need to cover their tracks and hide the money in foreign bank accounts as quickly as possible. Erin’s documentary subject, Eddie, becomes pivotal as he gives her advice about handling the valuable contents of the duffel and disconnecting herself from two murders.

This is a story with great potential, except for too many loose ends. We never find out who the people in the plane wreck actually are. Also, SPOILERS, it bothered me that a couple who was so in love and who ultimately found an answer to financial stress would turn against each other as they did. Finally, the closing of the book was meant to be shocking, but left me with a “so what?” feeling.

Sparks Ignite

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng kept popping up in my suggested reading list, and I’m SO glad that I finally selected it! What constitutes a good life? What defines a loving mother and a strong family? These questions are grappled with throughout the book.

The story begins as the Richardson family home is burned to the foundation, and then backs up in order to clarify the events/characters leading up to this point.

Events began months earlier, when artist Mia and her daughter Pearl moved into the Richardson’s extra property, an apartment in Shaker Heights. Shaker is an idyllic community where everyone shares common goals: success, kindness and the appearance of perfection. Mia and Pearl have decided to finally grow some roots; Shaker Heights seems a good place to do this.

Moody, one of the Richardson boys, is the first to form a relationship with the newcomers. He develops a close friendship with Pearl. Eventually, Pearl becomes a fixture in the Richardson home, forming relationships with Moody’s sister, Lexie, and with his handsome brother, Trip. Even Izzy, the youngest of the Richardsons and the family outcast, finds a kindred spirit in Mia.

The main problem starts when Mia gets involved in an adoption case between one of her coworkers, and Elena Richardson’s closest friend. This prompts Elena to begin her own investigation of Mia, uncovering surprising parts of her past with Pearl. Through this legal battle, relationships become more complex and entangled until eventually erupting.

Ng does an amazing job of building this conflict and developing her characters. I felt myself pulled in multiple directions; identifying with some while wishing to be more like others. Throughout it all is the undercurrent of Mia’s art, which showcases the need to observe things differently. This is certainly true in art, but also true in life.

Dream Apartment

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager did not disappoint my hope for a creepy, suspenseful book.

Jules is an orphaned twenty-something who has lost her job, her boyfriend and their shared apartment all within a day. The job offer to apartment sit in the exclusive Bartholomew building near Central Park seems too good to be true, although a little strange with its strict rules. Her friend Chloe tries to warn her of the building’s cursed past, but Jules refuses to give up the chance to make a thousand dollars a week.

The story backtracks from present time, in which Jules is hit by a car while trying to escape from the Bartholomew just five days after moving in. The story then moves back and forth between post-accident time to the days leading up to it.

Within her first few days, Jules befriends another apartment sitter (Ingrid) who suddenly disappears. She realizes that others have gone missing before Ingrid. More is discovered about the Bartholomew’s history as she begins digging into the missing girls’ whereabouts. In the process, she gets close to a couple of the building occupants, who turn out to be not at all what they seem.

The author kept me guessing as to what was truly at play in the building. At first I thought it was haunted which made me really excited. I LOVE a good haunted house story. Then I believed the events were tied to a satanic cult. When the past catches up to the present, the story transitions into the days following the accident. This is when readers find out what is truly going on at the Bartholomew, and if Jules is able to get herself out of its clutches.

Cold Revenge

Jezebel by K. Larsen is a book that I wasn’t too into and wouldn’t normally finish, but I did so here goes.

The plot centers around a senior in high school, Annabelle, who gets in trouble for drunk driving. While being completely grounded at home, she must also do community service hours at a rehab facility. It is here that she befriends Jezebel, a spit-fire of a 50-something year old with dementia. Jezebel tells Annabelle a French “love-gone-wrong” story every Tuesday through the remainder of Annabelle’s senior year. During that time the two bond, and Jezebel helps Annabelle get over the anger of losing her brother from a hit and run. She also manages to get Annabelle to reconnect to her parents AND find a new boyfriend. However, the ending of Jezebel’s story reveals that she is actually the jilted lover from her tale, and she is only there for revenge against her ex-husband SPOILER who just so happens to be Annabelle’s dad. She kills Annabelle before taking off with her current husband (also her closest male friend in her story).

There was potential, but I found several issues with the story itself. One oddity is that a woman would give graphic sexual details while story telling to a teenager. This just seemed weird to me! Also, that someone would go to ALL this trouble to get revenge SO many years later. Why not go for the ex-husband and his new wife and call it a day? It just didn’t add up for me. Finally, there was poor editing with so many typos.

This book was highly recommended in a social media group I follow, so there are fans out there, I just don’t happen to be one.

Torn Away

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate definitely makes my top three of this summer’s favorite reads.

It’s historical fiction based around Georgia Tann’s Memphis Tennessee Children’s Home Society which operated between the 1920s through the 1950s. The story follows the fictional Foss children’s story, with a focus on the eldest sister, Rill Foss, who later becomes known as May Weathers.

Rill’s family are river people. They live a simple life on their boat/”kingdom” named the Arcadia along the Mississippi River. Her parents, Briny and Queenie, go to hospital when Queenie has problems delivering twins (their sixth and seventh children). It is at this time when Rill (12 years old) along with her three sisters and toddler brother are abducted and brought to the Children’s Home.

Here they are subjected to inhumane treatment at all levels. I could barely stomach reading the vicious ways that the children were handled by Tann and her employees at the “orphanage.” Rill’s siblings begin to be adopted, and one sister disappears after most likely dying at the hands of staff. Rill and Fern are the final two siblings who are adopted into a musician’s family together. Rill attempts to escape with Fern to her old life, but by this time it’s too late and everything has changed.

Throughout May’s narrative, the reader also follows Avery. Avery turns out to be the granddaughter of one of May’s siblings. Avery works to find her connection to May (Rill) during the course of the story. These stories intertwine perfectly.

This was a book I couldn’t put down, but one that I didn’t want to end. I had to find out how everyone was connected. I only wish there were additional books for every other sibling in order to discover the details of each one’s life; I would read every single one. This is a great story with strong writing to bring every character alive.

Perfect Villain

An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen was my vacation read. Jessica is a make-up artist who manages to get herself involved in a morality study for extra cash. Dr. Lydia Shields is in charge of the study and she becomes particularly interested in Jessica. Jessica opens up to Dr. Shields about her most confidential secrets, including her part in a family tragedy.

They become closer, until some of Dr. Shields’s requests become uncomfortable. Jessica is asked to flirt with various strangers, and to put herself in unsafe situations. She isn’t quite sure how these requests connect to the study. Jessica begins to research more about Dr. Shields. She discovers that Lydia is currently being sued by a deceased patient’s mother (among other oddities).

Meanwhile, we find out that Dr. Shields’s true motivation is to test her unfaithful husband, Thomas. She wants to find out if “once a cheater, always a cheater” is true for him, and she is using Jessica as bait. In a strange twist, Jessica has met and slept with Thomas on her own. It becomes quite clear that Dr. Shields, while brilliant, is obsessed with her husband. She will do anything to keep him, even if it means hurting those that threaten to take him away.

Jessica works with Thomas to outsmart Lydia, but the truth is twisted between the two. When Jessica tries to cut ties with the doctor, she loses her job and her family is threatened. Lydia Shields is a perfect villain. Read to find out if Jessica is able to escape her clutches!

Starring Role

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid is the perfect summer beach read.

Evelyn Hugo is a famous actress, and this is the story of her life as told to her biographer Monique. Monique isn’t sure why she is being offered exclusive rights to Evelyn’s life story, but Evelyn promises that all questions will be answered by the time she is done sharing. Monique’s own life is interspersed throughout Evelyn’s story, and their stories do connect in a surprising way.

Evelyn worked her way into Hollywood using her beauty and sexuality. She speaks about her life marriage by marriage. Each marriage offers its own unique story, and in most cases, the marriages were fabrications arranged for publicity or to cover up her true self. The truth is that Evelyn was deeply in love with another film star, Celia St. James. Same-sex relationships were taboo in the industry during the story’s time frame.

Monique discovers that one of Evelyn’s former husbands and closest friends was involved with her dad’s death, which played a large part as to why Evelyn chose to share her life with Monique.

Evelyn’s gritty, resilient character had me rooting for her success. With some insightful truths about life, love and marriage scattered throughout, this was a fun read for anyone interested in a peek at the potential lives of past-Hollywood stars.