I feel the need to spread some love and joy right now and Happy & You Know It by Laura Hankin is a perfect one to share some love for! It’s a fun, great distraction to bring some joy and laughter to your day!
Hurray! I am happy, and I want to show it!! Happy & You Know It by Laura Hankin was another book from that stack of not my normal that surprised me. Again I find myself feeling like a little kid on the playground wanting to share my joy with everyone or more like wanting to share my joy with friends and a bottle of wine!
There is no shortage of books out there that explore “Mom culture,” wealthy moms and their struggles with keeping their image while raising their little joys or terrors. It can often feel like a playground of drama. Well, Laura Hankin takes this overused storyline and creates a fresh, exciting, and delicious playground for us to emerge ourselves into!
Things do start off feeling like satire; however, there are a few turning points that take this story and characters in a thrilling, delightful and fun direction that took me by surprise. The drama is smart and fun, the suspense had me anticipating the outcome of each of the character’s conflicts and secrets. Some of the characters are likable, and some not so, each with some vulnerability to provoke some emotions. The dialogue between them is fun, entertaining, smart, witty and balanced nicely with some snarkiness. There are some twists and turns that kept me on my toes!
I had some fun with this, and it kept me entertained, and I want to sing about it! With all the sadness going on right now, I just want to find some joy, and I am going to sing! If you are happy and know it and want to show it share it here with me!!
Welcome to our stop on the blog tour for Sister Dear by Hannah Mary McKinnon. We are excited to share our reviews with you today. Our reviews again reflect the different types of readers we each are and we had some very different thoughts on this one. Sister Dear makes for a great group read and is a fun and exciting one to discuss.
Book Summary:
In Hannah Mary McKinnon’s psychological thriller, SISTER DEAR (MIRA Trade; May 26, 2020; $17.99), the obsession of Single White Female meets the insidiousness of You, ina twisted fable about the ease of letting in those who wish us harm, and that mistake’s dire consequences.
The day he dies, Eleanor Hardwicke discovers her father – the only person who has ever loved her – is not her father. Instead, her biological father is a wealthy Portland businessman who wants nothing to do with her and to continue his life as if she doesn’t exist. That isn’t going to work for Eleanor.
Eleanor decides to settle the score. So, she befriends his daughter Victoria, her perfect, beautiful, carefree half-sister who has gotten all of life’s advantages while Eleanor has gotten none.
As she grows closer to Victoria, Eleanor’s obsession begins to deepen. Maybe she can have the life she wants, Victoria’s life, if only she can get close enough.
Norma’s Review
Wowzers!! Surprising, thrilling, and a compelling page turner!
SISTER DEAR by HANNAH MARY McKINNON is a dramatic, cleverly layered, twisty, and crafty slow-burn suspenseful psychological thriller that was quite the surprising book to read. The story progresses at a steady pace and the tension subtly increases throughout. There is an unpredictable and pivotal moment in the story that changes the dynamics totally and makes this quite the apprehensive non-stop, exciting read.
Normally I don’t do all that well with slow-burn character study sort of reads but Eleanor’s character totally hooked me in right from the beginning. There were some characteristics to her personality that were so wickedly interesting, emotional, and relatable to me that totally fascinated and immersed me in this storyline. What I especially connected to was how Eleanor perceived her body. I definitely shared some of her body image issues.
HANNAH MARY McKINNON delivers an entertaining, well-written, and absorbing read here that had me immediately questioning each of the sisters characters and what exactly and who exactly I was supposed to pay attention to. For the most part I thought this was extremely unpredictable even though I guessed one aspect to the twist: the end result was totally mind-blowing. I couldn’t read the book fast enough to see how this was all going to play out in the end.
Thank you so much to Edelweiss for my eGalley. This book has one of the best cleverly crafted endings that I have recently read. It is twisty, thrilling and totally took me by surprise! Can we have a sequel please?
Brenda’s review
A secret is revealed that sends our main character grieving Eleanor on a path of deception, revenge motivated by grief jealously and the need for a family connection.
The story starts slow as Hannah Mary McKinnon creates a sinister story and delves into Eleanor’s mind, where we see her thoughts of self-loathing, paranoia, desperation and jealousy. This took on a depressing and sad mood to the story for me, and I didn’t get the emotional response I was looking for.
Hannah Mary McKinnon leaves those twists and reveals till end and the tension rises till that explosives ending that felt exciting. I was tapping my kindle faster than a line of tap dancers.
Some clues and actions by the characters are a little too convenient, and not as convincing as I would have liked them to be. However, that ending took me by surprised and was thrilling and twisted, just like this twisted dark reader likes!
I received a copy on NetGalley for this blog tour
Lindsay’s thoughts
A great start that quickly turned extremely unrealistic.
The first few chapters set up an intriguing storyline that piqued my interest and curiosity. That dwindled away as most of the plot points of the book felt implausible.
Although I wish I could simply read for entertainment and not over-analyze, I am the type of reader who needs a believable storyline and realistic characters. This simply comes down to me not being the right reader for this book.
Thank you to Edelweiss for my review copy!
Author Bio:
Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing, and is now the author of The Neighbors and Her Secret Son. She lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons, and is delighted by her twenty-second commute.
After the death of our main character Robin’s husband, she is left in some financial trouble. He leaves her some investment property that takes investing her time and she becomes a reluctant landowner to some rundown rentals. She is forced to return to her home town with her daughter
The story is slow at times and seems like a simple story here, however, there are some darker themes to the story that Margo Orlando Littell handles with a lighter hand while provoking an emotional response from me for the characters. The strength is in the depth to the characters, their growth and the relationship between Robin and her friend from her past Cindy. I enjoyed seeing how they both developed through the story and learned something about themselves from each other. Both characters are convincing with their strength and courage but Cindy stood out for me. She is honest and tough with the way she lays it all out there for Robin showing her that it’s not about a better life but coming to terms with your past.
Now I did questioned one character and how convenient everything came together but sometimes this reader just needs to lighten up and enjoy a good ending.
YaHoo!! Hot Diggity Dang! This is one brilliantly done story!!!
So how does what seems like a stereotyped, mocking sexism story about southern woman in a book club turn into a skin-crawling, blood soaking story? Then turn into a refreshing, powering, brilliantly humorous story with meaningful character development. Well, Grady Hendrix does some mighty fine footwork here, and I couldn’t help but analyze this story.
This one is not my normal story and one that was not on my radar to read, but after seeing how much fun some TS were having in a group read, that fear of missing out on a fun discussion had me joining in. That overthinker in me almost ruined the story, and that over-analyzer saved it for me along with my curiosity. I struggled at first with a few of those the gory scenes and with a darkly disturbing part to the story and almost did not finish, but I had to know why so many readers loved this one. Once the story hit that major turning point, everything started to become clear to me as to why!
On the surface, this one is not what it seems, through the brilliantly layered southern humour, horrifying twists, what seems like stereotyped characters and insightful social commentary comes a powerful turning point in the story that made this one an eclectic sightful, thrilling and entertaining read.
There is no doubt the story is over the top and highly fictionalized with the supernatural side to the story. It’s all in the subtext here, and Hendrix draws parallels between a blood-sucking vampire and soul-sucking husbands here in this story along with sexism and racism through the actions of them.
The strength of the story here is Grady Hendrix wanting “to pit Dracula against my mom,” he writes. “As you’ll see, it’s not a fair fight.” Never underestimate a Mother’s magical power called love!!
Well, this one is not for everyone I do highly recommend giving it a try if it has caught your curiosity. You might find yourself as surprised as I did!
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour to celebrate the book birthday for Family for Beginners by Sarah Morgan! With a cover like this one, how can that not set the scene for a great summer read? I love the cover! Family for Beginners makes for a great summer read and doesn’t require much from readers expect your favorite place to read it with your favorite beverage.
FAMILY FOR BEGINNERS
Author: Sarah Morgan
Publication Date: 5/5/2020
Publisher: HQN Books
Book Summary: USA TODAY bestselling author Sarah Morgan returns with a life-affirming exploration of love, loss, and how families come in all shapes and sizes…
New York florist Flora Donovan is living the dream, but her bubbly optimism hides a secret. She’s lonely. Orphaned as a child, she’s never felt like she’s belonged anywhere…until she meets Jack Parker. He’s the first man to ever really see her, and it’s life changing.
Teenager Izzy Parker is holding it together by her fingertips. Since her mother passed away a year ago, looking after her dad and little sister is the only thing that makes Izzy feel safe. Discovering her father has a new girlfriend is her worst nightmare—she is not in the market for a replacement mom. Then her father invites Flora on their summer vacation…
Flora’s heart aches for Izzy, but she badly wants her relationship with Jack to work. As the summer unfolds, Flora must push her own boundaries to discover parts of herself she never knew existed—and to find the family she’s always wanted.
Author Bio: USA Today bestselling author Sarah Morgan writes lively, sexy contemporary stories for Harlequin.
Romantic Times has described her as ‘a magician with words’ and nominated her books for their Reviewer’s Choice Awards and their ‘Top Pick’ slot. In 2012 Sarah received the prestigious RITA® Award from the Romance Writers of America. She lives near London with her family. Find out more at www.sararahmorgan.com.
My review
Family for Beginners explores loss, belonging, acceptance and family in a lighter, more dramatic way this dark emotional reader is used to. It provided an emotional response from me that had me feeling a few emotions for the family in this story.
The characters are all likable yet a little frustrating at times with their ability to create some high drama in the family and to the story. I felt for the characters each looking for acceptance and a place to belong after a loss that changes their world. I cared for them and their conflicts with themselves and each other. Now this family is overflowing with love with each other, and at times the dark reader in me was drowning in it. I think I really need to read more books like this. Lol Even though I found the drama high and at times I wanted it to stop, it felt very realistic, and I couldn’t help but love the characters.
The story wraps up nicely, and I had a feel-good feeling after reading this warm and uplifting story. I recommend for a summer read!!
Hot Diggity Dang! If I were to describe She Has a Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be in one word, it would be MASTERFUL. But of course, I have many words, and so much I want to say about this one. I just had to ask J.D. Barker about his books and he joined us in The Behind the Pages group for a Q & A. I will be posting the Q & A here soon!
I am always intimidated by longer books, and J.D. Barker has intimidated me a few times with the length of his books. Even the title is long for this one! Lol, I am slow to start, but once I do, I can’t wait to finish but don’t want them to end.
She Has a Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be is one of a kind here and there are a few things going in the story that is weaved together so brilliantly. A twisty romance, mystery, unquie characters, a little horror to the story and enough suspense that will have you asking many questions. Making this one a great for a group discussion. I read this one in The Traveling sister group and we had a lot to talk about.
Things start a little strange, and I had no idea what was going on here with the characters, and the suspense that created had me turning the pages as fast as I could. It’s all about the characters here for me, and J.D creates a wide variety of characters here with conflicts that all come together so well. The characters are multidimensional, and through their actions and decisions under pressure, I changed how I felt about some characters as they developed. They were characters we wanted to talk about.
The story reaches an exciting, dramatic climax that had me at the edge of my seat, flipping the pages as if my fingers were on fire. After finishing, I was left wanting more from the characters, and I thought about them long after finishing the book. We did ask J.D. if he has plans for a sequel with these characters, and this is what he said “I have no plans to revisit them in a sequel at this time. Too many other books to write!” I am looking forward to those many other books he has in store for us!
