Everything We Read

Howdy Y'all!

Happy day of mulitcolored explosions! I am hunkered down and hiding from the crazies outside and catching up on my book reviews and organizing future blog posts / literature goals. That being said, today you get a Two fer One in this review post! Today I'm going to give you a quick rundown of Kerry Lonsdale's Everything We Keep and Everything We Left Behind (which came out today!!!)

Side note.... SPOILERS AHEAD...obviously!

Everything We Keep was published last summer, and follows Aimee Tierney (yay for having the same first name as the character!). Following the somewhat traditional story line, Aimee has her life figured out. She's going to marry James, the boy she's loved since childhood, they'll have adorable babies, live in the white picket fenced house, one day she'll be able to own her parents restaurant, and life will be amazing and perfect. CUE THE SOMETHING BAD MUSIC! Dun dun dun...... James goes MISSING! He goes out on a boat, he doesn't come back. You then get Aimee at his funeral with the gnawing feeling that something isn't quite right here. Ladies and Gentlemen, trust your gut and all those hours of Lifetime movie watching, this is the part where you'd be screaming at the television that "he isn't missing, he's XYZ!!" As Aimee tries to move on from this loss, she discovers that what she has lost isn't what she originally thought. Suddenly mired down in the clues she's finding Aimee is acting like an idiot, trusting psychics that aren't psychics, and genuinely being stupid in Mexico. You get sucked into Aimee's life, and the mystery around James, and the genuine moments that come from the relationships in this novel. Also, this was Lonsdale's debut and I need her to teach a class on how to write real relationships because nothing felt forced or faked, or insignificant; which as a reader I appreciated. At the end of Everything We Keep you're left with some resolution, some questions, and some satisfaction to tide you over to book two.

Book Two is Everything We Left Behind, and publishes TODAY!!! Seemingly told more from James side, or at least telling more of his story we pick up SIX AND A HALF YEARS LATER!! Y'all this book is seriously part two of a very long and complicated story that combines both Lifetime movie and old fashioned soap opera. James has woken up from a coma/fugue state/disorientation of lies, to find that he'd been living as Carlos, widower and papa to two. Not ready to accept the life he's been living due to some terrible life choices James wants what he could have had. Logically he packs up his hijos and moves to California to once again pursue Aimee, whom he does truly still love, but who has truly moved on, and even has her own kid at this point. Never fear though! James does have his sister in law Natalya to help him and the ever present fear of retaliation from Phil to keep him moving and motivated. Here Lonsdale has given us a more romanticized version of Jason Bourne, which contrasts a bit from book one, but somehow she makes this work!!

Lonsdale's books were not ones I would have read had I not succumbed to peer pressure. I am so very glad that I did. These books are a roller coaster of emotion and happen to take you through some bizarre situations and yet give you honest relationships and reactions. Everything We Left Behind will make zero sense if you haven't read Everything We Keep, and thankfully there will be a third book to this series. The end of book two has multiple epilogues, which is frustrating since book three isn't releasing until NEXT JULY.

I will be crankily waiting in utter anticipation to see what happens next.

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

Also a HUGE thank you to Lake Union Publishing and Net Galley for the ARC's of both books!!! Seriously, I can't wait until book three!!!!