“Apart from the murders, it had been a successful reunion”
Author: Benjamin Stevenson
When your dad dies in a shootout with the cops, your family doesn’t get invited to a lot of potlucks. That makes family reunions all the more important.
For the Cunningham family, death is part of life. Murder, self-defense, medical malpractice, it seems that every member of the Cunningham family has blood on their hands. They are also gathering together for a family reunion… at a remote ski resort… with a massive storm front coming in… this sounds like a great idea!
It’s not long before the bodies pile up and Ernist Cunningham decides to play detective. Ernist figures he’s read enough murder mysteries to help the bumbling local cop. Unfortunately for Ernist real life isn’t a detective novel.
This was a very fun read! Stevenson takes the Agatha Christie tropes like the trapped with a killer plot and twists it around just enough to leave you guessing. Stevenson has a banty style that is hilarious to read, he not only winks at the audience he actually dares you to solve the case yourself reminding you of detective novel “rules” along the way.
If a killer is ever revealed and your ‘percentage read’ isn’t at least in the high eighties, they cannot be the real killer; there is simply too much of the book still to be read.
I liked how cheeky the style is, I usually read cozy murder mysteries as “turn your brain off entertainment” but Stevenson wouldn’t let me! I had to stop and think to put all the clues together with him reminding me of “detective novel rules” every step of the way. This is a cozy murder mystery that keeps you on your toes.
“The following instructions will save your daughter’s life…”
Author: Clare MacKintosh
Between her crumbling marriage and trouble bonding with her adopted daughter, flight attendant Mina plans on using the twenty-hour nonstop flight to think things through. Unfortunately for Mina, this flight is hardly routine. With terrorists threatening not just the flight, but her family on the ground, Mina finds herself an unwilling accomplice to their villainous schemes, but twenty hours is a long time. Will it be long enough for Mina to find a way to fight back?
This book kept me on the edge of my seat! This is one of the best thrillers I have ever read. Mina is a great lead character. I love how smart little Sophia is! Often times in stories like this, kids are written as either too dumb to live, or as mini college-educated adults. Sophia is the right blend of smart and stupid just like you would expect from a real kid. I really enjoyed her age-appropriate (possibly high-functioning autistic) problem-solving. She’s very smart for her age, but she still reasons like a child.
I recommend this book to fans of thrillers and that ending will leave you gasping for breath.
“We must become friends before this coffee cools.”
Author: Toshika Kawaguchi
Local legend tells of a coffee shop. If you sit in a particular seat and order a particular coffee, you can time travel to the past. The catch? There are two: 1) You can’t change the past. 2) you only have until the coffee gets cold.
Nothing will change the past, but YOU can change. Only enough time for a conversation, but maybe you can finally make yourself understood by someone who matters to you.
This is an anthology of interconnecting short stories about the staff and regulars of this strange little coffee shop. It’s about how using this strange time travel changes their lives, not by changing their past, but by changing their understanding of the past… and empowering them to change their future.
This is the first in a series of books about the coffee shop, and I eagerly look forward to reading more!
“Just like their whiskey, the marsh dwellers bootlegged their own laws”
Author: Delia Owens
Chase Andrews fell from the old fire tower… or was he pushed? As the sheriff investigates the strange death, he discovers a connection between the local girl “Marsh Girl” and Chase. No one knows the marsh better than Kya, the “Marsh Girl,” but does she know it well enough to kill a man without leaving a trace? Will Kya be locked up for murder? or will she stay in the marsh she loves, free and wild, where the crawdads sing?
Kya is a very nice change of pace from the super competent female protagonist of many novels you get these days. Kya is a character living with trauma. She both craves and fears human connection. She wants to love and be loved, but her life experience has taught her that other people will only hurt and abandon her.
Kya’s was abused/neglected/ abandoned by her whole family. Pa was abusive, Ma walked out, and her older siblings ran away from home. While Pa was good to Kya sometimes, he never cared enough to take her to school, buy her shoes, or teach her to read. Then one day, he went out drinking and never came home.
Kya is a lot like a wild animal, acting on instinct and withdrawing in fear. It’s exactly what a child who raised themselves would be like.
The murder mystery was the weakest part for me. I knew the truth of how Chase died VERY early on in the story. I don’t think the murder mystery was intended to be the point. It’s Kya’s story, and the mystery was a narrative device to drive the plot forward.
There is a reason this book was so popular and it was quickly turned into a movie. Owens knocked it out of the park with her first novel! It is well worth the read.
“Real suffering isn’t just about physical pain, but about not knowing when the pain will end, not knowing what the point of it all is.”
Author: Kirstin Valdez Quade
The Padilla family is full of drama. Cancer, alcoholism, unemployment, neglectful parents, teen pregnancy, and that’s all under one roof! Once we get to the extended family there’s domestic abuse, sexual objectification of a child, and more!
This is a well-written drama about a messed-up family manipulating and enabling each other. It’s realistic and raw. All the characters make realistic mistakes and you understand why they make these bad decisions. If you read this book you will likely nod and say “I know these people.” If you are like me you will say “I know these people, and there is a reason I don’t talk to them anymore.”
My biggest weakness in the writing is that this novel grew out of a great short story. You can tell that the original short story was about the events of Holy Week. Amadeo Padilla (unemployed, neglectful father, and family alcoholic) is playing Jesus in the church passion play. Amadeo sees this as a way to get his life back on track, to finally make things right with God and his family. despite this, after the dramatic events during the play, he just goes back to his old ways. While it is realistic, I just wish this had more plot significance. don’t misunderstand me: It is realistic, lots of self-sabotaging people want to “pray away” their problems rather than make life changes to fix their problems. it is just a huge part of the plot that disappears.
My biggest criticism of the writing is that everything just works out for them because we as readers want a happy ending. While I have no problem believing that this family of enablers would lie to the cops to cover up for each other as they do in the book, that’s the problem, These people make horrible, dangerous, abusive choices and try to dodge the consequences of those decisions.
Angel is a very believable teen mom. Putting on an act of maturity she doesn’t really have. Again, very well written, I thought I could root for her. Early on I thought she wouldn’t mention the father because she was raped by her mom’s boyfriend, but no, it turns out she was just playing the “it’s not yours” mind games with him. You little b%$^%! In the end, Angel magically works everything out with her baby daddy… even though there is no mention of putting his name on the birth certificate so that his paternal rights and responsibilities are recognized by law. Yeah, that’s not going to end well.
Maybe I’m just cynical, but I have no hope that any of them will actually make their lives better. They are reactive instead of proactive.
This is not a criticism of the writing! This book was very well written. Some people- especially those who have been through generational trauma- are reactive instead of proactive in life.
I wasn’t kidding in my into, I’ve known people just like this! I have had to cut ties with friends and family who act like this because their toxic self-destructive behavior was dragging me into the same behavior. My favorite character was the sister, setting boundaries and calling toxic behavior.
If you are lucky enough to have lived a charmed life and have no idea what generational trauma can do to a family, check this book out.
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