Uncategorized – Page 5 – Donna's Reading Chair

Sunday Funday: Goodreads Challenge Update @Goodreads #Goodreads #Reading #BookWorm

July 2nd is the official middle date of the calendar year…so pardon me that I’m 5 days late with my middle of the year update for my Goodreads Challenge ;).

I set a goal for myself of 52 books, or 1 book a week. Sometimes life gets busy and it takes me a few weeks to read a book and other times I’m 3 books down a week if I have time off work. I wanted to give myself a challenge and a book a week is a solid one I think I’ll be able to hit…so how have I done so far?

Now, I won’t change my goal even if I hit it. I will be ecstatic and will think about upping my goal for next year; however, if I can accomplish what I set out to do early, then woo hoo! I won’t pressure myself into trying to hit a secondary goal.

Did you set any reading goals for the year? How are you doing with them??

100!!

OH MY GOODNESS!!! THIS IS MY 100TH POST ON MY BLOG!!!!!

I never thought after starting this blog in December that I would reach this point where I would be consistent, have a small following, and continue to be growing my blog. This is my huge big THANK YOU post for YOU! For sticking around! For reading my blog! For commenting on my blog! THANK YOU!!!!

I wouldn’t be here with YOU reading right now so thank you so much for hanging around! I look forward to the next 100 posts and the next milestones we’ll hit together! Cheers!

Sunday Funday: Spouses Who Don’t Read #Marriage #Reading #Husbands #Wives #Spouse #Bibliophile

Raise your hand if you are married (or dating/in a relationship) to someone who does not read…

If you are in the same boat I am…welcome aboard! If you happen to be in a relationship where the two of you enjoy reading, well, la-di-da (KIDDING, but I am super jealous!!!!!).

I will say, my husband is supportive of my reading and he doesn’t give me (too much) crap about it. When we go out in our travel trailer he will even take the kids out so I can get a few hours in, alone, of reading time in the outdoors. I get the occasional…why are you buying another book, you have so many already…but then I also get the, hey I saw this book you need to read it (few & far between)

I also enjoy sliding a book into our Amazon account. He has turned into an Amazon freak! He is always buying something! I have started to place some books I really, really, really, REALLY want in the cart (thanks to all of your freakin’ amazing reviews I read daily) and I just leave them there. When he goes to buy something he just leaves it there and VOILA, new book! Just remember, technically *I* didn’t buy it…he could have taken it out of the cart, but he kept it in and bought it. I just have happened to be putting in all pre-orders so I have yet to physically get a book…I am going to be surprised when they all finally show up, hahahaha.

I would love it if my husband would pick up a book and read, but for now at least I’m enjoying getting lost in a good book. Anyone else out there like me? What do YOU do?

First Line Fridays: June 14th

As always First Line Friday comes courtesy of Hoarding Books Blog. I discovered this magic thanks to Crystal at Must Love Reviews. I am so far behind on my Netgalley reads (yikes) and this week I am reading Montauk by Nicola Harrison. Here’s the first line…

We left the train and were escorted to our awaiting cars, one for Harry and me and one for our trunks–packed to the brim for the summer months ahead.

What book are you reading this week? Drop me a link to your First Reads Friday blog post and I’ll swing by! Happy Friday!

Thursday Quotables: June 13th #bookquotes @elinhilderbrand #ASummerAffair #MomLife

Welcome to Thursday Quotables. Books Kat Likes has joined in on the weekly fun and came up with this great description of what this is…

This feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines will be, and you’re invited to join in! Created by Lisa, over at Bookshelf Fantasies.

You should join in too! Leave the link to your Thursday Quotable post below and I will make sure to check it out!! Or just leave a comment with a quote from a book that has struck you!

Today I have a picture of my quote!

This is how I feel about my babies…I love them and they are amazing souls. I would love to take credit and say, yeah, I did that, but I know they were born wonderful. The quote was taken from…

I love Elin Hilderbrand. It is my goal to read every single one of her books! From this point forward I will be on her every pre-order list! Any fellow Elin fans out there???

Book Review: Into The Water @PaulaHWrites #IntoTheWater #Thriller #PsychologicalThriller #PaulaHawkins #Mystery #4stars @PenguinBooks @PenguinUKBooks @riverheadbooks

Thank you to my work colleague for lending me this book! I hate saying this now as I don’t want you all to be jealous of the great reads I get passed through the work place! I just want to highlight my FAVORITE part of this book as I referred back to it A LOT. I wish many books had this and I do know that not every edition of this book has this page…

There were a lot of people to remember in this book. Each chapter was from a different viewpoint of a character. Each chapter I flipped back to that page above so I kept everything straight. Game. Changer.

The reader’s digest summary is that Nel Abbott is discovered dead in the drowning pool. It is believed she killed herself, but the family is not quite buying it. She has been writing all about the drowning pool and the women that have died in those waters. The locals do NOT want her writing anything. They kept warning her to stop. Nel’s daughter’s best friend happens to be one of the victims, but Nel just can’t keep her nose out of what is going on.

This story was suspenseful and had me thinking something different each chapter. I thought there was some crazy secret love affair going on with how 2 sets of characters were acting and turns out…nope…but there were multiple love affairs in the book. I just completely made one up in my head, haha. People do crazy things when they’re in love. People do crazy things to protect their family. What happens in this book is a wild, fun ride. Again, it was super easy to follow thanks to the cheat sheet in the beginning. This would be a difficult story to follow without it!

This is my first book by Hawkins and I am excited to read more from her! The characters were unique and I disliked quite a few, but that the book that much more interesting!

This is a solid 4 star read. It is a suspenseful, mind racing thriller that will have you wanting more and more until all your questions are answered. And yes, all your questions will be answered!! The ending was unexpected yet great! Have you read Hawkins work before? Am I crazy for being so late onto her fan train???

Title: Into The Water

Author: Paula Hawkins

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Release Date: May 2, 2017

Find it here on Goodreads and Amazon

Book Review: Mine @Court_Writes @Netgalley @GalleryBooks #Revenge #Infidelity #Unfaithful

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

The author penned a letter to readers on Goodreads and I would like to copy that and put right here for you to read….

Dear Reader,

Before you begin reading this story, I should tell you… this is about every wife’s worst nightmare.
You think it can never happen to you.
It can.
You think you’re impervious to it because you do your best to keep your husband happy.
You’re not.
Trust me, I know.
The title of this story, MINE, has a double-meaning.
Ethan is Tessa’s, so from her point of view, MINE is self-explanatory.
But also… this story… is mine.
At least, parts of it.
My husband was unfaithful. It was a crazy circumstance, a perfect storm of irony and tragedy. It gutted me and brought my world down around me in bits and pieces.
When something like this happens to you, your mind plays tricks on you and turns you into someone you aren’t. I can’t tell you how often I fantasized about terrible things after I found out about the affair— things I would never truly act upon.
Then, one day, I decided to write this story. To unleash the darkness that dwelled in my heart, the things I would never actually do, in a cathartic way to channel my anger.
I’ll let you wonder and decide where reality ends and my dark fantasies begin in this story.

After reading Mine let me tell you what I will never do…and that is to cross Courtney Cole *insert wow face here*. I hope writing this novel was therapeutic for her!

The story is about Tessa, who discovers her husband of 20 years has been having an affair with a young bombshell. She takes the opportunity when her husband is out of town to trap the mistress at her house. How? She sends her a text from her husband’s iPad he left open at home (where she discovered nude pictures and messages). The mistress comes in, finds notes “he” left her, and ends up handcuffing herself to his bed, just waiting for “him…”

The book is told through the perspective of Tessa, the wife, and Lindsey, the mistress. I loved how the story was told in present time with Tessa and Lindsey in the same room with going back to the recent past to tie in to what Lindsey was telling Tessa. At first I felt bad for Tessa, then bad for Lindsey, then really bad for Tessa, and nothing for Lindsey.

I spent most of this book thinking that Tessa is going to end up in jail, if not prison. She goes a little off the wall. Tessa is very intense. Then, the book takes an odd turn. Suddenly Lindsey is free from being handcuffed to the bed and when you think bloodshed would occur, it doesn’t. It almost becomes too surreal and it loses the oomph it had in the beginning. We went from crazy intense to all of a sudden we’ve worked through being the wife and the other woman in a matter of mere hours?? It just seemed unrealistic for what was happening at the beginning.

This was an OK read, very fast paced. I read this book rather quickly and it’s very easy to follow. I think any woman faced with finding her husband in an affair would want to do what Tessa did. I just don’t think I would ever be as gracious as Tessa is in the end. You’ll have to read this one and be the judge for yourself.

Title: Mine

Author: Courtney Cole

Publisher: Gallery Books

Release Date: May 28, 2019

Find it here on Goodreads and Amazon

Book Review: The First Mistake @realsandiejones #TheFirstMistake #ARC #BookReview #4.5stars #BookBlog @panmacmillan @StMartinsPress @MinotaurBooks

I love getting book mail. As you may have seen awhile ago I received an advance copy of this book, The First Mistake, in the mail. Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read this before it hits the shelves tomorrow.

This took me a few chapters to get into. Once I got into it, there was no putting this book down! It reminded me of the country song that goes like this…”Still you wonder who’s cheatin’ who and who’s bein’ true and who don’t even care anymore. Makes you wonder who’s doin’ right to someone tonight and who’s car is parked next door…” or something close to that.

The premise is Alice is (re)married to Nathan. Her first husband tragically died in a skiing accident. She has her best friend Beth by her side…although, they have an odd relationship and not one I would say meets the criteria of “best” friends…but, to each their own! Alice owns her own design company and they are getting ready to take on a HUGE new project. Alice starts to suspect that Nathan may be cheating on her and starts to vent to Beth…the irony is Beth always makes sure that when she comes around, Nathan isn’t there…hmmmmmmm. Let me tell you now, this story is NOTHING what you think it will be! You go on a wild ride.

The story is told in 3 parts; present day Alice, past day Beth, and then back to present day with Alice & Beth. How Sandie Jones ties this one all together was brilliant. I never saw it coming. I just held my breath the entire time while reading the book when one revelation was revealed after the other. I must have gasped out loud at least 5 times!

Personally, Sandie Jones outdid herself in her second novel. There. I said it. I would like to kind of go off track and leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book (my other favorite is within the featured image)…

“These people’s lives are fake,” says Alice, picking up the offending item. Sophia looks at it as if it’s a baby that her mother is about to throw into a road. “They’re not lives you can aspire to because they’re not real, and I think it’s putting you kids under an awful lot of pressure to be a certain way and look a certain way.”

#TRUTH PREACH ON SANDIE!!

This is a 4.5 star read. It grips you and won’t let go until you reach the end. The only reason I did not give it a 5 star read was BECAUSE of the end. I love my endings tied up nicely and this one…well…it ties it up and I can ASSUME what happens because of the careful word choice in the epilogue; however, we are not 100% certain and for that, it’s a 4.5 star read. Let me tell you if I ever meet Sandie the first question I’m asking is…well, I can’t tell you, it will give the book away. Shoo! Go get this book STAT and then come back and LET’S CHAT ABOUT THAT ENDING!!!!!!!!!

Title: The First Mistake

Author: Sandie Jones

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Release Date: June 11, 2019

Find it here on Goodreads and Amazon

Sunday Funday: Barnes & Noble Summer Reading For Kids @BNBuzz #Summer #KidsReading #FreeBook

If you have a child that is in grades 1-6 this post is for you! Share this with anyone who my have a child in these grades, it’s a fun summer activity for the kids to do! It’s simple…here is what to do straight from the Barnes & Noble website (and YES, the links WORK)!

1. Read any eight books this summer and record them in your Summer Reading Journal (download here in either English or Español). Tell us which part of the book is your favorite, and why.

2. Bring your completed journal to a Barnes & Noble store between August 1st and August 31st, 2019. Click here to find a Store.

3. Choose your FREE reading adventure from the book list featured in the journal.

That’s it! Just follow the directions above (originally found here). I have 2 little ones so I will be printing out the journal for them and going on some library runs this summer! Will you be partaking in this activity with your kids??

Book Review: The Perfect Girlfriend @Netgalley @Goodreads @KJHAuthor @HarlequinBooks #ThePerfectGirlfriend #4stars

I have a few people to thank for my copies of The Perfect Girlfriend…Netgally, Goodreads, and Harlequin Books! I didn’t realize I had this on Netgalley so I tried to win it on Goodreads…and won. Whoops! However, it did provide for a fun buddy read with my co-worker! I shared the love! Here’s my honest review in exchange for the free copies!

If you were to look up the definition of a crazy psycho ex-girlfriend a picture of Juliette would be what you would find! WOAH. Just when you think she couldn’t be more of a stalker, there she goes, doing something else batshat crazy!

She adores her ex-boyfriend. She will do ANYTHING to make him hers again. The ironic thing is that Juliette thinks she is completely normal and is doing nothing wrong. Put it this way…Nate, the ex-boyfriend, is a pilot so when they break up she decides to become a flight attendant for the same company he flies for.

She keeps track of him through his work schedule. She somehow has an extra key to his house and freely roams about when he’s flying. She also manages to get a spying app on his phone so she can see what he is always doing!!!

I won’t say too much more about the book because I don’t want to give anything away, but I think I read this book with my jaw open the entire time. It was absolutely crazy! Since I was doing this as a buddy read every day the two of us would be, “CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!?!”

I have to give a lot of credit to Karen Hamilton for what her imagination conjured up…although I have to wonder if she was once a crazy ex-girlfriend herself, haha, just kidding!! I would like to note she is happily married with children (yes, I looked it up) so we can all rest easy!

Juliette is everything a devastated ex-girlfriend is; jealous, envious, and revengeful. The things she does will leave you speechless.

Here’s where it gets tricky…rating. I love a solid ending. The Perfect Girlfriend doesn’t have it. I was left a little miffed with how it ended. On the other side, I know people (one of my good friends included) who would LOVE how it ends. I don’t want to say how it ends, but just know if you read it you’ll understand. Would I say not to read it because of the ending? No, what Juliette does is well worth a read because it’s unimaginable. I think I’m just miffed because what I think should have happened to Juliette didn’t. Looking at it from my friend’s perspective, I get it. It was still a very well written suspenseful, thrilling novel. Well, I guess that settles it then. 4 stars. You will just have to read this one and then come back so we can discuss that ending!

Title: The Perfect Girlfriend

Author: Karen Hamilton

Publisher: Harlequin Books

Release Date: March 26, 2019

Find it here on Goodreads and Amazon