This was told from a one person perspective of Lindsey. Lindsey is the good girl, the smart one, the rational one in the shadow of her beautiful twin sister. Lindsey loves her sister but acknowledges that they will never be truely close.
So Lindsey works her adult life trying to become the VP of her ad company. However that dream is crushed when the company slut sleeps her way to the position, then Lindsey gets caught with the company skeeze- ball and is fired for indecent behavior.
Now here I truely feel bad and sympathesize with Lindsey and you can see how her need to succeed drives away any close relationships beyond friendship like hers with the sarcastic yet adorable Matt.
Disheartened, Lindsey returns home to help with her sister, Alex’s (now a pro model) wedding to a politician. It’s a perfect wedding and who’s there too…Lindsey’s childhood crush, Bradley who is also in love with Alex.
Now here lies the conflict as Lindsey’s life tries to get back to normal by working in a matchmaking company and developing her own friendships; Lindsey becomes more frustrated to see how Bradly consistently clings to Alex despite how Lindsey knows more about him than her sister.
However a car accident reveals Alex’s more emotional side under her shallow surface when it turns out she has a tumor and . . there is a twist that shifts Lindsey’s perspective around once more. With all these relevations, Lindsey starts to reexamine her life, and where she fits in.
I think this was a very unique book as it shows one girl’s growth in terms of love and sisterhood and personal pride and very enjoyable. But also very slow in the beginning and middle half, and I wished that there were more of the sister interaaction instead of Lindsey jealously thinking about Alex for a good 2/3rds of the book. 3 stars.
This is told through four alternating views founded on the themes female friendship and marriage, as you can tell it is a reoccurring base in her books.
Three college friends are invited by their old dorky college friend, Dwight who has become a computer millionaire. The millionaire and his wife decided to have a little reunion in their Jaimacian villa as his birthday present, oh la la.
Now Skipping a Beat was very different from the last two Sarah Pekkanen books I read since it was about one person and solely a love story. An heartfelt bittersweet love story. It’s like The Vow and I think it should become a movie too.
The main character is Julia, who has been faithfully married to her high school sweetheart Micheal for years. But the thing is with both of them busy with their companies the spark has waned. Especially as Micheal keeps bailing on their plans together. Yet one day as the story began while Julia is setting up for an opera benefit, Michael has a heart attack and dies for four minutes and 30 secs. His life flashed before his eyes, he realizes how much he has neglected her and wants to make a fresh new start.
However Julia who had been considering divorce, doesn’t know what to do with this change of heart. Could they really revive their marriage? What if with his newfound enthusiasm and willingness to neglect his company for her, he will end up regretting his decision? What if this is just a phase and things end up as they were before? Moreover she already feels that Michael has changed so much, it’s not like he can go back in time and be how he was, and how they were.
As you can see I haven’t said much because to do so would give away the best parts. However I do feel free to say that the emotional core is the main draw of this book as Julia navigates there feelings for the old Michael, this new Michael, the past of her suspicions of cheating and feelings of abandonment, how corporate greed and ruthlessness had changed Michael, trying to redo life, and moving forward.
The ending of which I shall saying is a real heartbreaker but not for the reasons you would think.
This is a great book for any romantic and features so much heart pun intended.
This book is about three roommates, Cate, Abby and Renee all as they navigate love and work as 20-30 somethings. Once again, Sarah brings realism and heart to her work as she weaves their lives together. They make mistakes, they hurt people, but they also stand by each other and that’s what makes me love the characters and the book too. This review has some spoilers below.
The Perfect Neighbors by Sarah Pekkanen is the first book I’ve read by the author and it was so good, I went on to read the rest of her realistic fiction catalogue. At least the ones available in my library.
I read this memoir every summer, it’s just so good. Starting from her childhood in Puerto Rico, Moreno paints a rich picture of the world and the brother she left behind when her mother unexpectedly picks her up to travel to New York for new opportunities and a new husband. There it is a dull, grey place full of ticks, snow and some harassers who shout insults at her in a foreign tongue but if there was one thing that was always with her, it was spirit and talent. She delves into her career from being discovered as the Latina Liz Taylor, her new name and the sterotypical roles she got before she became a bonafide hit with West Side Story.
She also delves into her low points like her suicide attempt brought on by her tumultuous relationship with Brando, among other things as well as the other loves she had like Elvis Presley before meeting her husband where it was not always the perfect marriage as it was praised for. Self-reflective without being too deprecating, this is a honest look into her life, her insecurities and flaws. However if you’re not a reader, you can just watch her documentary which is basically the same thing. She did this memoir as a play too so she’s memorized huge swaths of this.
I read this series from its beginning back in 2009 up until 2015 when I grew out of it and addmittedly, didn’t like the art change. I’m kind of picky about those things. Also very nostalgia-biased as you can tell by my choices. Anywho this will include Super specials, but exclude the Thea Sisters at Mousefords since that came out later and I never read them. However, I did get a copy of one of those books in Brazil back in 2012, years before they came out in the U.S. so can someone explain why it was released there and not in the U.S. to me?
Thea Stilton and the Ghost of the Shipwreck
This was my favorite because not only is it like two stories in one, but also features Violet in the second half who was my favorite of the mouselets. Featuring devious villains and beautiful illustrations, it was very enjoyable. Also loved their fashions here.
Thea Stilton and the Mountain of Fire
The second adventure of the Thea Sisters is where I believe the author really cemeted the premise of the series with having the girls travel around the world. I enjoyed getting to see Nicky’s family and a bit of life on the sheep ranch. What was always so cool to me was how it included vital facts of each country, its customs, its geography etc. that was very educational but with its cartoony style, kept it fun. I’m not sure if they still keep that.
Thea Stilton and the Dragon’s Code
The first book in the series brought the girls together and was really the only to include Thea Stilton in it. I believe they stopped having her as a framing device later on the series which sort of a shame. She was the one wh brought them together. Anyway, Thea is invited to her alma mater to become a guest speaker where she meets the girls who are clashing roommates. But a mystery in the halls of Mouseford and a missing teacher brings them together and thus the Thea Sisters are born. Plus it has the original profiles, map of Mouseford and its falculties that were such a nice touch. Or maybe I’m just very nostalgic for this book.
Does anyone else remember this series by Sienna Mercer? I do and I think other people should read it too for a light Buffy the Vampire Slayer esque middle grade series (think Buffy flair and integration of vampires in real world, not the show’s violence and darker themes).
Vampilicious
The fourth book was an excellent wrap up of the series in how long list twins, the vampire Ivy and human Olivia finally figure out the whole story concerning their birth and the implausibility of it all. Not to mention, the heartwarming bonding Olivia and her Dad try to embark on after years apart. Plus the way their friends and family come together to resolve their love issues as well as their few conflicts. It was a wonderful end or so I thought. Until I found out on the internet there were ten more books after this!
Fangtastic
The second book in the series follows the life-changing announcement that vampires are real! Of course, we readers know this from the first book and how they keep their secret underwraps in a sort of subculture hidden in plain sight. But after one of the idiot boys decide to brag about their fangs on live tv, a reporter is determined to confirm out the truth. This was a fun book to see how increasingly unhinged the reporter becomes to get her story with a real suspense on how close she is to uncovering the truth. Luckily, Olivia and Ivy use some twintuition to save the day from the increasing Salem Witch-Trials hysteria rising up.
Cat has been telling her parents she has the perfect life back in London working at an advertising company. Really, it’s her flighty yet shrewd boss, Demeter who has the perfect life. Something which all her co-workers and her resent for the way she steps on their toes and requests them to wash her hair for events. However, when Demeter fires her, she is sent back home to her family farm/b n b. Which she lies, saying she has been sent on a sabatical in order not to crush her father’s joy in his girl making out there in the business world. But months later, Demeter and her family come to the bnb and Cat is furious how Demeter doesn’t even remember the lowly girl she fired, that she still has her perfect life. Well that puts Cat in the perfect place for revenge. But as you can tell by the title not everyone’s life is as perfect as it seems. Cat learns the truth about Demeter and discovers some heavy truths for herself and what she wants in her professional and romantic life.
I went on a bit of a Turner Classic Movie (TCM) book binge last year. Movies are my second favorite thing to reading and I loved reading their collection to find out behind the scenes facts and movie analyses. So here are my top 5 favorites.
The Making of Gone with the Wind by Steve Wilson
I got this 500 page insiders look on the making, filming and concepts of Gone with the Wind for my birthday, and wow, it is amazing. It starts from the very beginning introducing producer’s Selzick’s movie studio and the types of movies he was buying up until he got the rights to the movie. From there it takes exclusive photos, and papers from the TCM archive of studio memos for the search of Scarlet O’Hara, actresses writing for the role, costume sketches, script pages, and memo after memo about various issues on set from creating Tara to the burning of Atlanta scene to the pleas from NCAAP to portray black people well. It also sets up postproduction like the parades springing all over the South in honor of its premiere, Oscar night and more. It’s truly a compendium of all you could ever wish to learn about this classic film.
The Essentials: 52 Must See Movies by Jeremy Arnold
This book really adds to your To watch list. Written by movie critic Jeremy Arnold , he keeps things in layman’s terms by not going into the academic marvels and nuance that make these movies great, but just explaining the enduring appeal of each movie he highlights and how they changed the genre or the movie landscape thereafter. He includes a variety of genres and even a few foreign films, and manages to make them all sound so exciting. Plus it has little factoids in the sidenotes and behind the scenes tidbits.
Summer Movies: 30 Sun Drenched Classics by John Malahy
This is a fun breezy book just like your favorite beach movie where Malahy goes over classics like National Lampoon’s Family Vacation, Gidgit and more to talk about their charm and how they manage to hit that sweet spot to embrace all the craziness, the fun and the relaxation those summer months can bring. It also adds facts and a “If you like this, try” so you can come away with more than 30 movies to watch but 60. He wrote a companion book of Christmas at the Movies which take on those holiday classics. Fright Favorites, Must See Sci-Fi and Must See Musicals are similarly formatted in their respective genres.
This Was Hollywood: Forgotten Stars and Stories by Carla Valderrama
This light hearted book does not go into movie history but Hollywood history with clarifying some urban legends and unearthing unknown quirks and stories of Hollywood’s elite like Hollywood pets and their lavish lifestyles, eccentric home designs and more. Perfect for Hollywood trivia.
Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers by Donald Bogle
This book takes readers through the tricky, at times insulting and other times, empowering moments of black history through film beginning in the 1920s when racist depictions of minstrels were the norm and the only way blacks could be on fim, unless they were servants to the damaging effect of Birth of Nation, widely considered the first blockbuster movie, glorifying the KKK. It takes us all the way to the present though with Black Panther, and all in between highlighting breakout stars like Denzel Washington who embodied a new perception to black masculinity, to filmmakers like Spike Lee and his films that brought the African-American experience and conversations of racism to the forefront. A great, well-researched book.
West Side Story: The Jets, The Sharks and The Making of a Classic by Richard Barrios
Released just before Spielberg premiered his West Side Story in theatres, this book takes us back to the 40s with its original conception by Bernstein, Robbins and Sondheim and how they created a Broadway classic. It then goes into the historical impact, audience reaction, the creation of the movie featuring stories from cast and crew, as well as peeks from the TCM archive of casting decisions and more. This is a great book for any fan of the musical and its timeless legacy.
Rachel Reads & Reviews 