In Her Skin by Kim Savage

Publisher: FSG

Publication Date: April 17th, 2018

Rating: 3 Stars

Source: Audible

Format: Audiobook

Pages: 293

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Sixteen-year-old con artist Jo Chastain is about to take on the biggest scam of her life: impersonating a missing girl. Life on the streets of Boston these past few years hasn’t been easy, and Jo is hoping to cash in on a little safety, a little security. She finds her opportunity in the Lovecrafts, a wealthy family with ties to the unsolved disappearance of Vivienne Weir, who vanished when she was nine. 

When Jo takes on Vivi's identity and stages the girl’s miraculous return, the Lovecrafts welcome her back with open arms. They give her everything she could want: love, money, and proximity to their intoxicating and unpredictable daughter, Temple. But nothing is as it seems in the Lovecraft household—and some secrets refuse to stay buried. As hidden crimes come to the surface, and lines of deception begin to blur, Jo must choose to either hold onto an illusion of safety, or escape the danger around her before it’s too late.

Much like AFTER THE WOODS, this book was solidly just okay for me. I can't say that I feel particularly strongly about it one way or another.

Jo has not had a very good time since (or really before either) her mother was killed and she ended up on the streets of Boston, but when she finds the perfect opportunity to score herself a loving family, she thinks she's got it made. But does she, really?

I didn't particularly care for the writing style of this one. I believe it was written in present tense, which I am not really a fan of. Also, all the sections of the book where Jo is talking about her new "sister", she refers to her as "you", which is also something I don't really dig. I feel like it just sounds weird and I felt very aware of it the whole time.

I think a lot of my problems with this book stem mostly from the beginning and it got better when I got more used to the things that bothered me. Like a lot of things that I don't specifically remember about Jo's character kind of bothered me, but I don't feel like they were things that were really wrong with her, I think they were totally plausible for someone in her situation, but I guess they were things that were so far out of my own realm of understanding that I just didn't enjoy them.

I believe that Jo is bisexual, but I don't remember it ever being stated outright in the book. She leaves behind a boyfriend of sorts when she gets off the streets and then starts thirsting for her new "sister". There really isn't much in the way of romance in this book, but I think Jo has bigger things to worry about than that.

I feel like this book should have been a lot more suspenseful than it was. It felt like the beginning was a lot more well-crafted, then after the plot twist, everything seemed just kind of haphazardly thrown in and I think it would have really benefitted from more detail in several aspects. I really wanted to feel a lot more like I was on the edge of my seat. I feel like there were things that I would have liked more closure on, but I also feel like not getting it could be fitting with Jo as the narrator, but like.. I wanted it.

Overall, I think I would have to say that this book was mostly a miss for me, but it was nice to listen to while doing menial tasks at work. I think if you are someone who has never really read any thriller books, you are more likely to enjoy it, but if you know what a good suspenseful thriller is, you might not like it as much.

Have you read IN HER SKIN yet? What did you think of it? I tried out a slightly different review style today, in which I tried not to be SO descriptive of things that happen in the book. If you have an opinion one way or the other, will you let me know? I feel like I don't like it as much, but I skipped some things that I normally might have included that I think would have made me overly word-y and give more away than I would like to.

What I've Read Recently // #4

Hello friends! Today I am going to be talking about the books that I have read "recently". I haven't done one of these since like September, so like... oops? If you happen to be curious about what I've been reading in the last like 6 months, then read on!

2019

          

1. The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman

Review

2 & 3. Well Met by Jen DeLuca

Easily made my top 3 favorite books.

Review

4. Magical Places by Nikki Van De Car

          

5. Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

6. Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Review

7. In Real Life by Jessica Love

          

8. Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller

9. The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

10. The Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen

      

11. The Christmas Pact by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward

12. Enslaved by Ducks by Bob Tarte

2020

This year I have decided to try to tackle that PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge and I pretty much have managed to pick out a book for every prompt and so far this year, I have been pretty good at sticking to the TBR, or at least, to the prompts if I change it up. Besides the mangas, I have only physically read one of the following books.

I feel like I have just been in the mother of all reading slumps for the LONGEST time and the things currently going on in the world are definitely not helping things, but I guess sometimes it really do be like that.

 

13. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

So, I really enjoyed this book while I was listening to it, but I feel like I should not have listened to it because I don't think that I retained enough information about this to just be comfortable continuing with the series yet. I suppose it might all come back to me if I was immersed back into the world, but listening to fantasy books like this, for the first time, via audiobook, is probably not a thing I will do again.

14. The A.I. Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

This was a super quick, fun romance. I enjoyed listening to this audiobook so much. I barely remember what happened in it except I have no idea how no one figured out the AI guy was anything but human the first time he opened his mouth. But I gotta say, I would probably listen to this again if I was in a bind and needed something to listen to.

15. Pont Neuf by Max Byrd

I know that this was a story about a WWII photographer/columnist and it was interesting to listen to, but this one was not memorable and I think the ending confused me.

          

16. Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

I absolutely LOVED Tweet Cute so much. I loved Pepper and Jack and their mostly fake Twitter feud. I loved seeing them go from not particularly caring for each other's company to good friends/being in love. I don't think I've ever retained an audiobook as well as I retained this one. It was such an easy listen, even while working on other things that require a little bit of attention. The only thing that I didn't love about this was Pepper's mom. I didn't like how she made her busy daughter do her social media manager's job 90% of the time even though Pepper was trying to keep her grades up and get into a good college. Like, by the end of the story, I understood why the stupid twitter feud was so important to her mom, but I still didn't agree with her tactics. Overall, I want to read this book again after writing this little paragraph.

17. Hungry Hearts edited by Caroline Tung Richmond and Elsie Chapman

I think I need to accept the fact that I just don't really like anthologies. I was excited to get this one because one of my favorite author's had a story in it, but quite honestly, I think hers might have been my least favorite story in the book. There were some that I really liked (Rebecca Roanhorse's story was one of my favorites!), but for the most part, I felt really meh about this book.

18. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

I think that so far, this is my favorite book of 2020. I wasn't sure what I was going to read for a medical thriller until I saw this one listed in the Goodreads list for suggestions. I was absolutely THRILLED by this book. I want to buy this so I can read it again in a physical format. I am still completely shocked by the ending because I didn't see it coming at all.

     

19. Magi vol 4 by Shinobu Ohtaka

I don't have too much to say about this one. I liked the refresher from when I watched the show however long ago, but I haven't gotten far enough into the manga series to get to anything new or exceptionally exciting yet. But my favorite character from the show finally made an appearance in this one!

20. The Legend of Zelda: Legendary Edition, vol 5: Four Swords by Akira Himekawa

This manga was so cute. I love this manga series because it gives Link a personality, but I love that each of the four Links is so very distinctly one part of Link's personality. I need to start buying this Twilight Princess manga series now and I am crossing my fingers so hard for a Breath of the Wild series because that's easily my favorite game in the franchise!

So, those are the 20 books I have read "recently". I am hoping that I will find myself being motivated enough to start writing actual reviews again, but I want to change my review style to be more short, sweet, and to the point. So we shall see how that goes.

What have you been reading recently?

Favorite Books of the Decade

Hello everyone! Today I am going to be talking about my favorite books from the last ten years!

I feel like this list was kind of hard to put together. Like there were the few books that I have just been going on about non-stop lately, but like, I didn't have a ton of books that I just wanted to add to this list. I feel like it shouldn't have been this hard! I just scrolled through my "year in review" feature on Goodreads from like 2012 to the present and just added the books that made me happy when I saw the covers.

I tried to make this one another short, sweet, and to the point post and any reviews I have will be linked by clicking on the title.

1. The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

I don't think about this book very often, but when I do, I just remember trying to sob quietly in my bed after I finished The Mirror King so I wouldn't have to explain to my boyfriend why I was sobbing.

2. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Absolutely no one is surprised that this book made it to my favorite books of the decade list. This is my favorite series of all time and I would die for any of the characters.

3. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

I enjoyed WWII historical fiction before this, but this book really ignited my love for it. Especially books about the little known events of the time. This book is about the worst maritime disaster in history and I had never heard of it until I picked this book up!

4. The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

This was such a lovely and magical book. And it was also the first ARC I ever received from a publisher, so that was super exciting!

5. Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

I love Audrey Rose and Thomas and their relationship and their banter. They are one of my all time favorite fictional couples. I love how Audrey Rose kinda challenges society's view of her and her interests throughout the series. And I love that this series goes into a little bit of gruesome detail about the murders that take place.

6. The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

This series is easily my second favorite of all time. Rin Chupeco is SUCH a good story teller. Oh my goodness, I was absolutely hooked on this story because I had to know everything that happened! I loved the kind of then and now format that the whole series had with the now portion of the books being told through a traveling Bard's point of view and the then portion being Tea's story that she is telling to the Bard. It kept it so interesting. I might have to start pushing this series at people more.

7. Among the Red Stars by Gwen C. Katz

This is another super interesting WWII historical fiction story about something I didn't really know about before! This story follows one of the Russian female pilots during WWII who was in the squadron known as the Night Witches!

8. Well Met by Jen DeLuca

I think I have flailed enough about this in recent posts, so just know that I loved it and that I think you should read it.

9. Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Like I've said before, I was a reader before I read this book, but this was the series that made me an AVID reader. Requiem was the first book I ever preordered. I almost drove to the nearest city to me in the middle of the night after I finished it so that I could buy Pandemonium. I kind of want to do a reread of this series, but I'm scared it won't hold up!

What were your favorite books of the 2010's?

Least Favorite Books of the Decade

Alright, saddle up, friends! Today I'm going to be listing my ten least favorite books that I read in the last ten years!

I don't actually have a comprehensive list of all the books I've read in the last ten years, I didn't use Goodreads all that much until apparently like 2013 or 2014, which is as far back as my year in review goes. So, I have no idea what I read in the first few years of the decade, but these are the most notably bad (for me) books that I know I read in the last ten years.

Most of my list consists of books that I read before I started blogging, which I think shows that blogging really helped me to be better at picking out books that I was going to like! So if I happen to have a review for these books, I will have them linked if you click on the title.

And this list only consists of books that I finished, I didn't include any DNFs in this list.

Let's just get right on into it.

1. Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

When I was first thinking of my worst books of the decade, this was one of the first ones that came to mind. This is the most recent book to make this list and is probably the biggest disappointment. It's the only book that made this list that was a super anticipated book. I couldn't stand the main character of this book or the repetitive phrases. Repetitiveness is something that bothers me a little bit in any book I read, but it was SO unbelivably bad in this book.

I think most notably, the thing that bothered me was the problematic portrayal of sex in this book. Liesel doesn't seem to think anything positive about herself until she gets the D and then she manages to find her worth. No. Bad. You don't need a man to have worth!

2. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

World War II historical fiction is one of my all time favorite genres to read. And this is probably the worst one that I can remember reading. And it's particularly sad that the book could be so bad, but the movie so good.

I absolutely hated being in the main character's head. It was so infuriating. I mean, I know the MC is a nine-year-old little boy, but I can't believe that he would be as clueless about what was going on around him as he was. And the way he interacted with Schmuel made me so angry. I just really don't believe that even a nine-year-old boy could be SO incredibly dense.

If you're interested in this story, just watch the movie.

3. The Word for Yes by Claire Needell

This is a book about rape culture that also features a few instances with the point of view of the rapist. That sounded really interesting to me. Unfortunately, I didn't care for this book at all. I didn't like any of the characters and there were some POVs in the book that felt like they didn't add anything to the already too-short story. For all the growth the characters had and all the resolution there was, I feel like I might as well have nor read this book at all. 

4. Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton

Before I started blogging or found book Twitter, I found a lot of my book recommendations on Tumblr. This is the most notable one that I found on there, and perhaps one of the last times I trusted Tumblr for such things.

I really don't remember a lot about this book at all. What I DO remember about this book were the completely ridiculous weapons that the seekers used in their work. Like the weapon that has a training mode to turn on so you won't actually hurt someone with it?? And also can basically take the form of whatever you need it to be at that time?? Like, talk about unrealistic.

And the super dangerous weapon that basically scrambles your brain if you get hit with it?? What??

Note that I could be totally making this up because it has been AGES since I even bothered to think about this book, but that's how I remember it.

5. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

I probably don't need to say too much about this book because if you're someone who has happened to read my blog for any amount of time, you will know that I really did not like this book.

So basically I just did not like the direction the romance was headed and the writing style drove me up the wall. Nothing new here.

6. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I want to say that this book didn't live up to the hype for me, but I got this book back in the magical days when I knew about so few books that I actually browsed the shelves to find what I was going to read. I didn't know about the hype for this one until I started getting into the book community.

I am pretty sure that I was not a fan of the writing style of this book and I was also disappointed because I FEEL like the synopsis said something about an epic romance (which I don't care enough to go check if I am making that up), but it was just super anticlimactic for me.

And this is probably the book that I am currently the saddest about not liking.

7. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I didn't dislike this particular book. If the Mortal Instruments series had stayed as just a trilogy, I really might be a Cassie Clare fan. But for some weird reason, I absolutely hated the second part of the series. I don't know what specifically it was about it, but it made me never want to pick up another book by this author. And I haven't. And she hasn't announced anything that is making me want to change my mind either.

8. Paper Towns by John Green

This was the third of the four John Green books that I have read, and it was the beginning of the end. I liked Looking for Alaska and I liked The Fault in Our Stars, but I really didn't like this one.

All I remember about this book beyond the road trip aspect, is that Margot Roth Spiegelman was only ever referred to by her full name and I hated that. I hated reading her whole name. I thought it was a bit pretentious. And in general, I didn't like her character.

9. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

I originally picked up this book because a coworker had told me that it was banned for being too "gory". Not gonna lie, not sure if she knows what the word gory means or if she just couldn't come up with the right word for what she wanted to say, but whatever she said sounded interesting so I went home and ordered the whole trilogy. Didn't read the synopsis. I went in so blind.

I was really surprised to find out that it was, in fact, a *gasp* sex book! That was probably the last thing I was expecting when I picked it up. And I didn't like it. And I didn't like any of the other books in the series, but this was back in the day when I was damn sure gonna read a book if I actually went out and got it!

I remember at one point in the second book, I had to rage quit for awhile because I was so frustrated that the only way that Ana's speaking was described was as a murmur. I wanted to send the author a thesaurus so badly. Like.. there are other words!!

10. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

This was the end of my desire to read any books by John Green. I truly don't remember what this book was about beyond that they main character only dated Katherines. But after a certain point, all of John Green's books ran together because all of the characters felt the same to me.

I really and truly can't stand the way his characters talk. Like.. I know I read somewhere once upon a time that he says teenagers aren't stupid and that's why he writes his characters the way he does. And like... he's not wrong, teenagers aren't stupid. But no one talks like that in real life! Let alone ALL the people!

I think it wouldn't have mattered what order I read his books in, my feelings would be the same. I might have liked whichever couple I read first and wanted to tear my hair out by the end of whichever ones I read last.

So there you have it, ten of my most notable bad-for-me books of the decade! Did any of these books make your list? What are some of your worst books of the decade?

Least Favorite Books of 2019

Hello lovely people! It's finally time to share our best and worst reads of 2019! I feel like I'm lucky because I didn't really read very many books that I just truly didn't like. I think of the five on this list, only one of them was a book that I actually did not like. Most of these on this list were moreso disappointments for me personally, or books that just simply didn't vibe with me for whatever reason.

Anyway, here are my five least favorite books of 2019! If I happen to have reviews of any of these books, they will be linked if you click on the title.

1. You'd Be Mine by Erin Hahn

2019 is the year that made me realize that books centering strongly on music are probably just not for me. There really wasn't anything wrong with this book, I just personally found it to be rather boring. After a certain point, it started to feel like it was just dragging.

2. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This just feels like a weird list to find this book on. There was SO much hype around this book over the past year! Unfortunately, it didn't live up to that hype for me. I did somehow manage to read this book all in one day, only because I really wanted to know what broke the band up. I thought that the reason would have to be exciting and dramatic, but it was probably one of the most predictable and anticlimactic endings I have ever read.

3. The Black Coats by Colleen Oakes

This is basically a book about feminist vigilante justice. The Black Coats is basically a group consisting of a bunch of girls who are chosen specifically because they have all somehow been affected by some kind of crime. The group basically helps them exact their revenge on the person who wronged them or someone they love in exchange for doling out punishments for other people who have done someone wrong.

I liked the idea, but I didn't like the execution. It felt like it was basically a bunch of adults who beat on high schoolers and called it training so that they could go out and beat on people.

4. Wilder Girls by Rory Power

This is another case of being let down by the hype. And by the gorgeous cover. I really didn't like the writing style in this book and I really didn't like any of the characters. I'm really not even 100% sure why I didn't DNF this one, I just was really not a fan. I think out of all the books on this list, this is probably my least favorite book of the year.

5. The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

I think that this book was my only DNF in 2019. I think I read 100 pages of it and I just never found anything about it all that interesting. I really didn't like the writing style all that much and I feel like I was never going to really like either of the main characters. It started to feel like a chore to have to pick back up so I just decided not to.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? What were some of your least favorite books of 2019?