Rachel Reads & Reviews

Sharing books for everyone

  • Book Highlight: Piglet

    This is not a review. As I mentioned in my Animal Books post, I automatically adore nonfiction books about animals and am completely biased so I adored this book. I literally cried (for the first time) because it was so adorable. I also cried because it was heartwarming and there was some animal death/abuse passages. But mainly it’s so cute! Look at the little thing.

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  • Hello, Psycho

    No one goes to intentionally befriend a psycopath. The problem is once you see past their charisma and friendliness and start piecing together the gaps in their stories, they may be onto you and will do anything to shut you up. At least that’s how it is for these protagonists.

    We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

    Emily has been best friends with Kristen since middle school, she’s the most supportive, loyal friend there is and willing to defend her to death if necessary. Which is exactly what happened in Cambodia when Emily is almost sexually assaulted. A vase over the head kills the creep and they hide the body in the jungle, promising never to think about it again, their bond strengthened albeit leaving Emily shaken.

    A year later, life goes on, Emily has even found love which she is eager to tell Kristen on their backpacking trip through Chile. it’s all nature and sun, and delicious food with Kristen hooking up with a handsome Spanish backpacker named Sebastian. Until Emily enters the room to find him dead and Kirsten crying that he tried to attack her.

    Can lightning strike twice? Apparently it has and so they bury another body, swearing not to tell anyone. Which she doesn’t, but even though Kristen is non-plussed, Emily starts seeing a therapist.

    The sessions bring a new perspective to Emily about her relationship with Kristen and her own low self-esteem and she begins to realize something is off about her best friend. Which is only compounded by Kristen moving in with her when she’s laid off. Spending this extra time with her makes Emily realize Kristen is not just a loyal best friend, she’s a possesive friend and she’s stalking her every move.

    Bartz does a great job in amping up the suspense as well as creating the disorienting effect of interacting with Kristen who gaslights and lies as easily as she breathes. The psychological sessions are well-done, informing in small doses how one can get entangled in such a toxic friendship and leaves a twist that is heartstopping.

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  • Contemporary Romance 4 mini reviews

    The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon

    This is a fun contemporary romance that begins with female friendship, and what makes you faster friends with complete strangers than shared humilation. When Samiah finds out via twitter that the man she had been dating was catfishing her and two other women (while using her resturaunt reservation to boot), they go viral when they publically confront him. It’s a bit embarassing for Samiah who just wants to keep her head low and do the best tech work she can, but as the limelight dies down, she keeps meeting with the women, London and Taylor. After their experience they decide they’re going to focus on themselves, all this time wasted on finding “the one” when they could be hyping up their careers which is just the perspective she needs to start her dream-make her own app.

    But this a romance so of course, so Samiah does get swept away with the charm of the new guy, Daniel. He’s attentive, sweet, actually listens and is very supportive of her app plans and that’s all he is. There’s no drama that he’s distracting her on the job or they’re working together, he’s just there to keep her from burning out herself. So yep, it’s a pretty good romance since the attraction and communication was the foundational part of their relationship with some playful joking around that made them feel real.

    However, there’s one crucial thing Daniel didn’t communicate. His name is not Daniel, he’s not a tech guy. He actually works in the Finance branch of the FBI and he’s infiltrating her company to find out who’s embezzling funds. If he solves this, he’s preventing money from going into the hands of cartels/mafia/corrupt corporate exec. and may get a promotion. But now, he finds himself torn between his duty and his heart, ultimately he knows where his decision lies but he can’t stand to see Samiah’s reaction when she knows the truth.

    This was a lovely well-rounded book. I enjoyed the Squad girls’ friendship, and I’m excited to see where their stories unfold since this ended in a cliffhanger. The romance was lovely to read. Plus I enjoyed the additional conflict in the story of Samiah dealing with an upstart stealing her ideas/taking leadership under the guise of “teamwork” and the extra pressure black women are put under because of their race, and gender and how it affects her mental health/insecurities/decision making in terms of her promotion.

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  • Book Highlight: The Waterfire Saga

    For anyone who is a mermaid fan, this fantasy adventure is just for you. The six seas are made up of different kingdoms and are under threat by a monsterous levithan creature called Abbadon who was raised by even more mysterious ancestor come back from the dead and for revenge.

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  • Stephanie Plum Between the Numbers ReRead

    Okay, I didn’t get to Stephanie Plum six yet because someone else borrowed it in the library so I decided to go for the Between the Numbers novellas since they’re short and don’t really require knowledge of the other books that I don’t know.

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  • Fruit Basket Another Review

    Since I thoroughly enjoyed the original Fruit Basket series, I decided to take on the sequel. It’s a short series, only 12 chapters since it was supposed to be a limited run in celebration of the original series. As you may guess, it’s the next generation of Sohmas who are just the family that the insecure Sawa needs.

    It follows similar themes to the original in tracing the effects of parental abuse as seen by Sawa’s relationship with her unnamed mother. The mom is a complete narcassist who constantly insults Sawa as needy, lazy, ugly, annoying and goes out of her way to ruin Sawa’s friendships behind her back to fuel more insults. All while portraying herself as a hard-working, young single mother with an ungrateful daughter. So by the time Sawa enters high school, she is determined to become invisible so she won’t be as annoying/useless to others as she is to her mothers.

    Luckily for her, Hajime (son of Tohura and Hiro) and Mutsuki (son of Yuki) swoop in to invite her to the student government, to dinner and impart the meaningful advice. However, it is not all altruistic, they know Sawa from a secret incident way back in their childhood that she doesn’t remember, and so. . Well it goes into spoiler territory from there but it involves Shigure and Akito’s son, Shike.

    It’s a sweet trilogy, it has more high school slice of life than the evolving treatise on love and family that the original was. And I keep mentioning the original because it really is hard to separate these two. The relationship between Hajime and Mutsuki is notable because they are so close and are aware of how much their father’s would appreciate it considering their own lives. The topic of parental legacy and reputation rears here too.

    But because of the short length it feels very surface level. Readers know how deep and complex writing can be. But putting it all in 12 chapters makes it feel unfufilled. I wanted to know more about why Sawa’s mother treats her this way, how will she split herself from such toxicity? What is Shike’s trauma? And so on.

    Plus in having the next generation of Sohmas without showing their parents, it leaves me wanting more at least. It doesn’t have all the characters. It doesn’t mention how are doing. What happened to Arisa and Kureno and Kisa and so on?

    While it’s a cute story, it is bogged down by inevitable comparisons to the original, the shortness and the reliance on the OG characters that overshadow Sawa’s story.

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  • Ranking Jane Austen

    Sense and Sensibility: This one is a bit from bias because I liked the pictures best in the kids version I read before getting into the real version. Even so, I enjoyed how it focuses on family as much as romance. And having Elinor and Marianna as protagonists offer two heroines for readers to relate to. If you don’t get Marianna’s melodramatics, you’d like Elinor’s reserve and maturity or vice versa. They both go through their own heaps of development and learn to better understand the other (moreso with Marianna toward Elinor). Plus as an only child, and just generally enjoy sibling dynamics and seeing familial dramas play out as it does here.

    Pride and Prejudice: Ah who could argue against Pride and Prejudice with its timeless tale of looking past first impressions. I can’t add much but Darcy and Lizzie are really an ideal match as they recognize their mistakes and their own flaws, and change so they can better enjoy their similarities of wit and observation. It’s just such a good romance.

    Emma: I heartily enjoyed Emma even though Austen originally said that she’d be a protagonist that one might dislike. I think Emma’s flaws of pride and meddling and spoiledness are all part of her charm as the novel brings her down a few pegs as she tries her matchmaking schemes. Plus all the characters are enjoyable like the stately Knightley, the charismatic Churchhill and dreamy Harriet. It’s also helps that she has her fair share of good intentions even though they don’t always turn out the way she means to. And like, Northanger Abbey it is a relatable tale on society, which is why it is readily available to adaptations like Clueless.

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  • YA Protagonists and Relatability

    After reading the Black Widow duology, I started wondering. When writing tie in or spin offs or side adventure books involving popular characters like Marvel heroes or whatever, are the original young adult characters really necessary?

    I wrote in the Black Widow review that I had been expecting more insight to Natasha’s past and her missions from the Red Room, but it was vague. It was less about Natasha as a hero, but her as a mentor figure for the real main character.

    I found the same in the DC’s new series giving side adventures to the heroes like Wonder Woman: Warbringer where there was some focus on her finding out about Man’s Land, it was also about the three unsuspecting teens who end up embroiled in Ares’ plot.

    I know the point of these teen protagonists are to be the entry point for readers unfamiliar with the property. They’re the rookies who are being introduced to the world the same time as the readers, they’re relatable.

    But I’m not interested in them. Not only do they have the same sort of coming of age, learning to harness their power character development. But since I already have some knowledge of Wonder Woman and her mythos, I don’t need to be reintroduced. Plus I picked the book up to see Wonder Woman’s journey, not this random person’s. I want to see her side adventures with the Amazons or Steve Trevor, not her teaming up with a civilian.

    So what are your thoughts? Do you want the teen protagonist in the book or would you rather focus on the main event? Is it necessary to include the person in order to make it YA? Or should it be part of the New Adult genre since the heroes are generally in their twenties than their teens in the books?

    Comment below!

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  • Lovely War Review

    Set in the backdrop of WWI, two loves stories intertwine as the couples face trauma, and bigotry with the help of the gods.

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  • Stephanie Plum #1-5 Reread

    So I decided to reread the Stephanie Plum books since I think I gotten into a funk where I just skim and skip to the funny parts I remembered. So this time I reread it and I paid attention.

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