September TBR!!

Good Morning Readers!!

It is officially September which means it is officially time for a new TBR!!

To begin with....

My Book of the Month Subscription Box picks:

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE)

Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough

The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock

(I super love my BOTM Subscription and highly suggest y'all try it too! Click HERE for my referral link and we'll both get great things!)

More TBR's for September include...

To Kill a Kingdom
Jane Doe: A Novel
Always Watching
In My Own Words
The Watergate
Fruit of the Drunken Tree
Vox
Three Dark Crowns
One Dark Throne
Two Dark Reigns
The Thousandth Floor
The Dazzling Heights
The Towering Sky

And probably so many others!!!

XoXo

Until Next Time,
BrainyHeroine

August Book Round Up!!

Good Morning Readers!

August has FINALLY reached it's end, which means it's time for a book round up and then, later, a September TBR!!

So what did August look like bookishly? Like this...a whole lot of insomnia + lots of time off + lots of simultaneous reading + audiobooks

The Wildling Sisters
Still Lives
Social Creature
Black Rabbit Hall
Heart of Thorns
The Essex Serpent
The Dinner List
Ghosted
Sweet Little Lies
Dance of Thieves
Kiss of Deception
Heart of Betrayal
Beauty of Darkness
Every Single Secret
Under the Banner of Heaven
The Ghosts of the Orphanage
And I Darken
Now I Rise
Bright We Burn
Lies
The Death of Mrs. Westaway
Believe Me
With You Always
I Will Never Leave You
Ginsburg Rules: A Collection of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Supreme Court Decisions
The Lullaby Girl
The Girl in the Moss
Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and The World's Most Famous Detective Writer

Review Time: With You Always by Rena Olsen

Good Morning Readers!! 

Today we're talking about a book I just finished, the second by one of my favorite authors, 

With You Always by Rena Olsen; her first book is The Girl Before and she doesn't disappoint with her sophomore novel. Just a heads up, I will be spoiling the novel, so if that is going to bug you read the book first and come back tomorrow. Additionally, I listened to the Audible version of this book, because Brittany Pressley is amazing and I love listening to her; also, psycho thrillers are way more fun as audio books. 

Told in multiple parts and from the perspective of Julia, our gem of a leading lady, With You Always brings you in and then leaves you feeling trapped. (In a good way I swear!)  

"In the wake of a painful breakup and struggling to prove herself at work, Julia feels adrift. When Bryce blows into her life, he seems like the perfect anchor. Handsome, charming, secure, and confident, Bryce brings out the best in Julia, sweeping her off her feet with attention and affection while grounding her with his certainty and faith. Together they embark on a path guided by the principles of his family and their church, each step a paving stone leading to happily ever after.

But this is no fairy tale.
Step by step, one small concession leading to another, Julia is slowly isolated from her job, her friends, and her family, until she comes to find that her dream come true is a cage. Then one day everything changes...and Julia is faced with no choice but to find a way out" 

As the story begins Julia is relatable to every single woman in the world who has dated a terrible guy. Her fiance leaves her, after cheating on her multiple times, and she is seriously lacking in confidence. She has some great friends from college, a good to great relationship with her sister, nephews, and parents, and a domineering female boss that makes her feel inferior, though she's starting to make her mark at work. Julia feels disturbingly normal, and Bryce feels somehow planted. He just happens to be there when Julia is taking a break from work outside when the wind blows and scatters her papers, he just so happens to be at the bar she's at with her friends after she and Bryce have gone on a few dates. He's perfect with her nephews and parents, he even gets along with her sister's (probably soon to be EX) husband, and the only one who is skeptical is Julia's sister Kate. 

So when we get brought into Bryce's life, with his "parents" the Reverend and Nancy, the church life and culture, I was getting some Scientology vibes. (I also picked up on the drug thing as soon as "The Gathering" was described the first time.) Everything about Bryce felt fake, especially compared to how real Julia felt. Their relationship, the dynamic, you know from the synopsis what's going to happen, but I wasn't anticipating HOW it happened. 

Like I said this story is told in parts, and I liked that. We start off with a large cast of characters as well, and as each part is told references to other characters start dying down, I flat out forgot about a couple of them by the end, not that they weren't well written, just that the story had so completely focused on Julia and Bryce by that point that I started feeling Julia's isolation as I listened. It's brilliant. 

I do wish that the bits and pieces of Bryce's back story that we got were larger. There are some flashback scenes that happen, giving us clues as to why Bryce was so enthralled with the Reverend, why Bryce left his home and changed his name from Bruce to Bryce, and sure, he killed an abusive jackass to save his mother and sister, but I wanted more from Bryce. Hell, I want more from Reverend and Nancy. Like a whole book of their backstory, how many people in their church are abusive assholes, the whole nine. I want more info on the school, I want to know what the hell happens in that punishment closet, can these characters have a spin off? Can we be told their story and have Julia and Bryce be background characters? They're so addicting!! 

One thing I wasn't expecting was the foreshadowing or outright explanation of the ending. About halfway through the book, when we're getting used to the narrator telling us about Bryce's back story, we start hearing about a dead man in a tub, about him being held down by a woman, and it's written in such a way you think it has something to do with something "Bruce" did, or maybe even something Nancy did, that woman is shady as hell, when in reality, it's Julia killing Bryce. 

All in all, this novel was every single bit as compelling as The Girl Before. I couldn't finish it fast enough, and I want more. I'm excited to see what comes next from Rena Olsen, because hands down I will always be here, ready to read or listen. 

Until Next Time! 

XoXo

BrainyHeroine

P.S. Rena Olsen's first novel is also how I found J.P. Delaney, who's second book I'm currently listening too. Sooooo you'll get that review by the end of the week I'm sure. 

Innocent, or Indecent?

Hello Readers!

Over the next few weeks I'm going to be publishing reviews on some of my favorite books I've read this year. Many will be ARC's, some coming out soon, some already published, all will be books I think everyone should read. Starting with...

Indecent by Corrine Sullivan.

Wednesday Books
304 Pages
Published 3.6.18

Indecent is the debut novel from Corinne Sullivan. Smart and sexy, Indecent tells the story of Imogene Abney, a twenty something teacher's assistant who begins a salacious and illicit affair with one of her students: Adam Kipling. Adam is the classically handsome, privileged, and much younger than Imogene, boy next door student at the Vandenberg School for Boys. All to quickly Imogene is swept up in the affair, and finds her self caught in a dangerous world of lust, love, obsession, and one where victimhood and blame get redefined.

Corinne Sullivan Studied English with a creative writing concentration at Boston College, where she graduated in 2014. She then received her MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College in 2016. Her stories have appeared in Night Train, Knee Jerk, and Pithead Chapel, among other publications. Indecent is her debut novel.







Review:

I received my copy of Indecent January of this year. It was a quick and steamy read that I was thankful didn't just feel like a genderbent Lolita. No, this novel has something else. Imogene feels familiar somehow; Ms. Sullivan doesn't do her the disservice of writing her with an immature voice however, instead she is written innocently only to have her unfold throughout the story. She's boy crazy, like any girl in high school who grew up in a small town. She's idealistic, and hedonistic. The woman knows the power of the flesh and the potential enjoyment of that flesh. In many ways her mental age remains that 16 year old who maybe wasn't that cute in high school, but grew up to be beautiful. That being said Imogene is one of the most slapable characters I've ever encountered. There were times her actions just truly didn't make sense, and irrational doesn't even begin to describe them. Ms. Sullivan wrote a truly passionate book, but it is also a bit on the batshit side. I loved reading it, mainly because it was such a good distraction from my life at the time. It is impossible to say that this book is flawless, no book is, but Indecent will become a great beach read with a narrator that is horny and unreliable. It's great! There were times I threw this book down because of the self destructive actions of Imogene, there were times I was simply laughing out loud, and since I didn't know what to expect going into this story, as it isn't my usual genre, I am forever glad to have read it. Additionally, after reading Indecent, I was in a much better place to enjoy Tampa by Alissa Nuttig; a story that genuinely feels like Imogene's story ten or so years from now.

Until next time,

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

 

From Meg Little Reilly, comes a stunning thriller that will keep readers up turning pages long into the night, EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS! Grab your copy of EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS today!

  

CAUGHT IN THE BACKWASH, THEY HAVE LOST CONTROL OF THEIR LIVES…

For fans of Megan Abbott and Chris Bohjalian comes a novel of moral complexity about friends who must choose between self-preservation and doing the right thing in the wake of a fatal boating accident. Set in the moody off-season of Martha’s Vineyard, Everything That Follows is a plunge into the dark waters of secrets and flexible morals. The truth becomes whatever we say it is…

Around midnight, three friends take their partying from bar to boat on a misty fall evening. Just as the weather deteriorates, one of them suddenly and confusingly goes overboard. Is it an accident? The result of an unwanted advance? His body disappears quickly, silently, into the dark water. The circumstances are murky, but what is clear is that the other two need to notify the authorities. Minutes become hours become days as they hesitate, caught up in their guilt and hope that their friend has somehow made it safely to shore. As valuable time passes, they find themselves deep in a moral morass with huge implications as they struggle to move forward and live with their dark secret.

Grab your copy of EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS here!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play

iBooks | Kobo | IndieBound | Audible

  EXCERPT: It didn’t seem dangerous until the rain started. Not really. Until then, the evening still felt largely unwritten and within their control. But as the fog changed to mist and then to hard wet rain that soaked their boozy skin, the night started to get away from them. Doors were closing, options vanishing. And by the time Kat was being pulled by Kyle unwillingly toward the edge of the boat, the approaching danger was inescapable. Kat blinked the water out of her eyelashes. When her vision cleared, Kyle’s face was just inches from her own. Someone watching from behind might have mistaken them as a couple in an intimate embrace, that suspension of breath before a first kiss. But that person would have been wrong. Their closeness was not voluntary. Kat twisted her torso around and tried to get a clearer view of where behind her Hunter was seated, but Kyle’s fingers dug harder into her waist. He was leaning back against the wall of the whaler’s stern, pulling her weight toward him. All she could see beyond his body was the black, churning ocean. Three of them were on the boat—Kat, Kyle and Hunter—so maybe the encounter didn’t really look romantic. Three people made it something else. But what, Kat couldn’t pinpoint. She twisted around again, trying to catch Hunter’s attention, but it was useless. Hunter had passed out somewhere around the last finger of whiskey and hadn’t budged since. Now he was slumped along the white leather bench at the bow, his face pressed into the smooth cushions that formed a half-moon. He didn’t flinch as the rain pelted his tanned skin. Kat turned back to Kyle. His face was too close, distorted. The sharp angles of his jaw, his prominent nose and dark eyes. He looked surprisingly hideous at such proximity. The night wasn’t supposed to end this way. Nothing they planned pointed to this. It was supposed to be a celebration. And yet, there they were, alone on the Atlantic in the driving rain. Kyle shouldn’t have been there, either. That, it seemed now, was where they’d taken a wrong turn. If anyone were to be out on that fishing boat late at night, it should have been Kat and her boyfriend, Sean, and their friend Hunter.It was Hunter’s boat. They were supposed to be celebrating her biggest sale ever: a large, blown-glass sculpture she called The Selkie. The Selkie was the size of a toddler and twice as heavy, and its sale would pay for a year’s worth of rent. Glassblowers don’t make a lot of sales like that—not even on Martha’s Vineyard—and so a night of overindulgence might have been expected. But the party at the bar went on too long, and the after-party shouldn’t have happened at all. With or without Kyle, the boat had been a bad idea. Kyle’s shoulders swayed with a gust of wet wind. He looked around nervously at the choppy waters and used one hand to steady himself on the edge of the boat before returning it to Kat’s waist. Was that hesitation she saw? A second thought about where he was taking this? In his inebriation, Kyle seemed to be oscillating between asking permission and not asking. He was a beggar and a predator both at once. But his grip on her body didn’t relent for long. Kat still felt trapped. “Kyle, let’s drive back in. It’s starting to really come down.” “We will, we will,” he said. “In a few minutes.” Even if she broke away from him, where would she go? Kat was usually good at this—recognizing untrustworthy characters and threatening scenarios. It was a skill learned of necessity, unfortunately for her. But the whiskey had dulled her powers. And Kyle had seemed so desperate to impress, too passive to be a threat. She didn’t see this move coming. She’d overlooked the signs, and at some point along the way, the evening simply got away from her.

EXCERPT 2 Sean felt his arm pull back before he could think to stop it, and then the skin around his knuckles was tightening, and with one furious swing, his fist exploded into the side of Hunter’s left eye.

Hunter’s hands rushed to his face just as his knees buckled and the blood around his cheekbone started to pour. “Fuck, man!” He fell to the dock.

Kat ran toward him.

Ashley ran in after her.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. Sean looked on in horror as the women tried to pry Hunter’s fingers from his face so they could examine the damage. They looked at his busted eye, and then back and Sean, and then back to the eye. This wasn’t what he’d intended to do. It wasn’t Sean’s plan.

“Fuck, man!” Hunter yelled again as he stumbled up to his feet. He let his hands drop to his sides and everyone took a good long look at what Sean had done.

It was hard to make out the injury in the moonlight, but not impossible. Hunter’s eye was red, the socket soon to be bruised and the broken skin beneath it was a bloody mess. But it was a standard punch, probably no permanent damage incurred.

Sean was relieved to see that he didn’t seem to have broken anything, butwas no less ashamed. He hadn’t thrown a punch since ninth grade, and even then—after he caught Bryan Alpo trying to steal his bike—he couldn’t believe he had it in him. There may have been times in life when a punch was justified, but that didn’t mean all men possessed such an impulse. Sean always thought he wasn’t the punching type.

Hunter stared at Sean, and everyone held their breaths. Would he punch back? If he wanted to, Sean wouldn’t block it. That wouldn’t be right. He would let Hunter take a big, premeditated swing as he stood there. He wanted it now because this was almost worse than a punch. Hunter just stared in anger, like he was considering every revenge possibility, and the longer he stared, the more violent his busted eyes looked.

Just fucking punch me, Sean thought.

Hunter drew a wet breath. “I’m not sleeping with Kat,” he whispered. “I’m not.”

Sean looked at Kat, who had been watching him. He believed her. He believed both of them now. He turned back to Hunter and suddenly felt more horrible than he had ever felt in his whole life. They really weren’t sleeping together. Something was going on with his girlfriend, but it was clear now that it wasn’t an affair. And he’d allowed himself to be seduced by outlandish theories from a near stranger. Ashley.She was still there. Jesus, why was she still there?

“Taut with moral complexity and a subtly building tension, this is the kind of story that punishes you if you dare to put it down. ”

— Kim Cross, New York Times best selling author of WHAT STANDS IN A STORM

   

Add it to your Goodreads Now!

   

“[a] skillfully wrought tale of atonement in a frame of psychological suspense.”— Booklist

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

    About Meg Little Reilly: Meg Little Reilly is the author of the novels EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS and WE ARE UNPREPARED. She's a public radio commentator, essayist, and outdoors enthusiast. Prior to writing novels, Meg worked in national politics and the White House. She holds a B.A. from the University of Vermont and an M.A. from the George Washington University. These days, she lives in rural Vermont with her husband and two daughters.      

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

REVIEW: This novel took me about 2 days to finish. I found it to be compelling, confusing, and absorbing. While parts felt predictable to me, which is probably due to how much I read the genre, I was still utterly amazed at the story Meg Little created. The characters are believable, to the point where you end up wanting to punch them in the face or shake some sense to them. At a few points I wanted to throw this book across the room because I could NOT believe what had happened. Since I read this electronically I didn't throw my Kindle but the desire to was real. I also found myself shouting at the characters because I felt they were being idiotic at certain points, that's how engrossing this novel is! It was hard to anticipate the ending, which I appreciated, and I feel like the ending worked. I will be looking up more of Meg Little's work in the future.