Bout of Books 25 Update – Day 5

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Yesterday I read a little in the afternoon while getting my car serviced but we went out to dinner with family so I didn’t get to read much at night. So anyways my Friday’s progress is below:

Update

Friday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 1 hour
Number of pages I’ve read today: 55 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 791 pages
Books read: Continued reading Next Girl to Die
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday – the day just flew by and there wasn’t enough time

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Saturday update!!

2019 Book #29 – Next Girl to Die by Dea Poirier

41OqgV4QuzL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Title: Next Girl to Die
Author: Dea Poirier
Date finished: 5/18/19
Genre: Thriller/suspense, mystery
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Publication Date: May 1, 2019
Pages in book: 320
Stand alone or series: #1 in The Calderwood Cases series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Solving the case will avenge her sister—unless the killer finds her first.

It’s been fifteen years since Claire Calderwood’s sister, Rachel, was brutally murdered in their small hometown in Maine. Claire has finally carved out a life for herself as a homicide detective in Detroit, but the past comes calling when the local police back home ask for her help with a murder eerily similar to Rachel’s.

Still haunted by Rachel’s cold case, Claire returns home, hoping to solve the crime and finally put her grief to rest. As she starts investigating, the last thing she needs is tenacious journalist Noah Washington asking questions she’s not ready to answer. But like her, Noah won’t give up until he finds the truth—and Claire reluctantly finds herself relying on him more and more when disturbing new details about Rachel’s death come to light.

When the killer strikes once again, Claire knows he’s not done. Now he’s set his sights on Claire, who will have to find the courage she needs to survive a deadly confrontation years in the making.

My rating: 3.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I think I ended up requesting this book mostly based on the cover (which looks great). I don’t usually love novels about a cop who is working to solve a crime, particularly one that is looking to set up for a series all about that same cop. So I did like this book and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite right for me – I’m just not interested in this particular style of novel. Claire as a character wasn’t my favorite either, she was a bit too gloomy for me. There were definitely some good parts to the novel and also there were a few very good plot twists. The ending felt pretty underwhelming for me, there weren’t any great twists at the end or anything too exciting. I still liked the book though and thought it was a good read, I think that the genre it’s in just isn’t for me. If you liked series like Rizzoli & Isles or other series about a cop who solves crimes, I’d check this one out!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2019 Book #28 – The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

519MFfKuuAL._SX320_BO1,204,203,200_Title: The Unhoneymooners
Author: Christina Lauren
Date finished: 5/16/19
Genre: Contemporary romance, women’s fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: May 14, 2019
Pages in book: 416
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

For two sworn enemies, anything can happen during the Hawaiian trip of a lifetime—maybe even love—in this romantic comedy from the New York Times bestselling authors of Roomies.

Olive Torres is used to being the unlucky twin: from inexplicable mishaps to a recent layoff, her life seems to be almost comically jinxed. By contrast, her sister Ami is an eternal champion . . . she even managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a slew of contests. Unfortunately for Olive, the only thing worse than constant bad luck is having to spend the wedding day with the best man (and her nemesis), Ethan Thomas.

Olive braces herself for wedding hell, determined to put on a brave face, but when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. Suddenly there’s a free honeymoon up for grabs, and Olive will be damned if Ethan gets to enjoy paradise solo.

Agreeing to a temporary truce, the pair head for Maui. After all, ten days of bliss is worth having to assume the role of loving newlyweds, right? But the weird thing is . . . Olive doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, the more she pretends to be the luckiest woman alive, the more it feels like she might be.

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I’ve loved the last couple novels I’ve read by Christina Lauren (technically a pen name for two authors writing together). They’re books are addictive! The characters are always so engaging and find themselves in the funniest situations. The story lines really draw in the reader and engage them emotionally. I don’t want to put the book down but at the same time don’t want it to end! In this book, Olive and Ethan were both very interesting characters and were adorable once they figured out how they felt about each other. One thing I didn’t care for was that the story was told all from Olive’s point of view but then switched to Ethan’s point of view for the last chapter only. To be honest I was annoyed with Olive’s melodramatics mid-way through the book and thought it would’ve been nice to get someone else’s thoughts. And also it was hard to understand Ethan’s thoughts in the last chapter when its the reader’s first look into his brain. Overall though I really liked the book and I would recommend it!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page