Books I've Read: The Spare Room

This one was a frustrating read.  The main character was annoying and ignored so many red flags it's amazing she ever made it to adulthood.  

Set during the pandemic, Kelly and her fiancee are trapped in an apartment in a city they're new to and where Kelly has nothing to do and no friends to call her own.  When Mike calls off the wedding they've been planning, she decides she needs a break and takes up an offer from an old high school friend she's recently re-connected with online to go and stay.

Sabrina is a best-selling romance author with a glamorous,  if mysterious, husband.  They have a spare room at their place in a gated community near DC and are happy to open their bubble to include Kelly and her cat, Virgo.

Kelly is enchanted by her hosts who are fun and sophisticated, if a little secretive.  The house is beautiful and the grounds give plenty of space to wander and exercise. So what if the neighbors act a little weird toward them?

One night, things get a little crazy and Kelly winds up as part of a threesome with her hosts.  It's exciting and risqué and offers Kelly something new that she never thought she'd do.  She finds herself falling for these two people who open their marriage to include her.

But things start to become weird when she discovers she's not the first person they've opened their marriage to and the first woman is now missing.  She starts to wonder if the people she's with are who they say they are and if, in fact, she's safe in this place she's never felt more at home in.

Kelly is a very frustrating character.  Throughout the story both Natan and Sabrina do things that throw up huge red flags about whether they are who they say they are, whether they're being honest or whether their intentions are what they say.  And every time Kelly ignores them, or brushes them away with some excuse.  She loves them, she claims after about three days in the threesome.  And apparently that is enough to excuse even the most suspicious behavior.

I didn't buy it.  I doubt many people would buy it.  I understand that the pandemic made it more difficult to get out of a situation like that, but when it was convenient for Kelly to be out of the house, she had no problem finding a hotel to stay in.  Plus, she go out of her home bubble with her fiancé in the first place.  Not a good enough excuse.

Not to mention, Kelly isn't as good a person as she claims to be.  She snoops through peoples' things and makes judgements on them without all the facts in place.

So, yeah.  I didn't like this one much.  I think it's supposed to be a sexy, provocative thriller, but it didn't;t work on any of those levels.  It wasn't sexy or nearly as provocative as the author probably thinks it is, and the thriller part wasn't very thrilling.

But don't just listen to me; here's the blurb:

Staying with a friend and her husband is sexier—and deadlier—than anyone could have imagined, in this provocative domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here. 

Kelly’s new life in Philadelphia has turned into a nightmare: She’s friendless and jobless, and the lockdown has her trapped in a tiny apartment with the man she gave up everything for, who’s just called off their wedding. The only bright spot is her newly rekindled friendship with her childhood friend Sabrina—now a glamorous bestselling author with a handsome, high-powered husband.

When Sabrina and Nathan offer Kelly an escape hatch, volunteering the spare room of their remote Virginia mansion, she jumps at the chance to run away from her old life. There, Kelly secretly finds herself falling for both her enchanting hosts—until one night, a wild and unexpected threesome leads the couple to open their marriage for her.

At first, Kelly loves being part of this risqué new world. But when she discovers that the last woman they invited into their marriage is missing, she starts to wonder if they could be dangerous . . . and if she might be next.

Packed with Andrea Bartz’s signature tension, twists, and toxic relationships, The Spare Room marks an edgy, boundary-pushing new direction from the “master of the ‘feminist thriller’” (Los Angeles Times).

Weekly Goals 16-2-26

 I'm having surgery on Wednesday, so I'm not making too much in the way of plans or setting any real goals for the week.  I don't know how I'm going to feel or what I'm going to be up to doing, so it seems silly to set a whole bunch of goals I might fail to meet.

So, my main goal is to get through the surgery and back on my feet as quickly as possible.  I only have 11 days off work so I'm going to use those to rest and recover and hopefully do a bunch of walking so I don't lose too much fitness.

I've taken four weeks off from the gym, but if I feel okay, I might go back sooner.  I guess I just need to listen to my body and not push myself too hard in any area.

If I'm feeling okay, I'll try to write flash fiction every day and do some critiques for my crit group each day.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 13-2-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

It has been a pretty crazy week at work, so I'm looking forward to a couple of days off.  Not that I can complain too much.  I'm having my surgery on Wednesday, so I'll have a couple of weeks off after that. I just have a lot to get done before then,

Only a couple of rejections this week, but no requests to balance them out I'm afraid.

I still don't have any burning idea for a new book.  Just something tickling around the edges, but I don't feel ready to start writing yet.  The characters haven't fully introduced themselves and aren't demanding I tell their story yet.  I guess I just have to be patient.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Just Friends

I got this one out of the library because I haven't read much YA recently and I miss it.  I thought it was a new book, read the whole thing, then discovered, when I went to add it on Goodreads, I'd already read it.  Have absolutely no memory of that at all.  Usually when I've already read something, it feels familiar and I'll remember at least a little bit about the story.  This one - nothing.

It's about Jenny, a smart girl who makes perfect grades and has very few friends and her friendship with the school bad-boy, Chance.  They meet by *ahem* chance in their oral communication class when they're paired up for an assignment.  Chance spins a lie that Jenny easily and eagerly picks up - she and Chance are childhood besties and have spent all their important moments together.

The lie is fun and soon spills out of the classroom and into the rest of their lives.  Jenny finds herself enjoying spending time with Chance who might not be quite the bad boy his reputation would have him painted as. Through Jenny, Chance gets a chance to live a more normal life than what he gets at home.  Through Chance, Jenny gets to experience all the high-school things she's seen on TV, but never experienced herself.

 The more time they spend together, the more true the story they've been spinning becomes - they really are best friends.  But maybe that's the biggest lie of all..

I didn't think this was a particularly well-written book and some parts of it really strained credulity.  Jenny's single mother is painted as being overprotective, but there is no blowback when Jenny and Chance stay out all night at an old barn.  More than once.  Chance's parents are supposed to be selfish and fight all the time, but we never really see that.

It's one of those books where miscommunication and misunderstanding provide all the conflict and you know the whole thing could be resolved- and is, toward the end of the book - with a single conversation.  Which is always frustrating.

So, while there is a fun premise here, the execution isn't great and I fund myself questioning the veracity of so many things the characters did and said.

So, I probably wouldn't recommend this one unless you're looking for something quick and easy to read in an afternoon for some reason...

But don't just listen to me; here's the blurb:

A new spin on the classic smart-girl-and-bad-boy setup, this witty contemporary romance shows how easily a friendship – even one built on an elaborate lie – can become so much more.

Jenny meets Chance for the very first time when she is assigned as his partner in their Junior Oral Communications class. But after they rescue a doomed assignment with one clever lie, the whole school is suddenly convinced that Little-Miss-Really-Likes-Having-A’s and the most scandalous heartbreaker in school have been best friends forever. It’s amazing how quickly a lie can grow―especially when you really, really want it to be the truth.

With Jenny, Chance can live the normal life he’s always kind of wanted. And with Chance, Jenny can have the exciting teen experiences that TV shows and movies have always promised. Through it all, they hold on to the fact that they are “just friends.” But that might be the biggest lie of all.

Debut author Tiffany Pitcock delivers a spot-on depiction of first love and the high school rumor mill in Just Friends, chosen by readers like you for Macmillan's young adult imprint Swoon Reads.

Weekly Goals 9-2-26

 It's going to be a busy week this week.  I have only nine days before my surgery so I need to make sure all the important things that need to be done at work are done before I'm off for two weeks.  Plus, I have a bunch of social things going on this week too and I'm teaching some extra classes at the gym.  Phew!  I'm tired before I even start the week.

I'm not sure how I'm going to feel after the surgery, but I'm hoping it won't be too bad I can use some of that time off to write.  I'm not sure what I'll write, but I can play a bit with the idea I have for a new book or work some more on the MG book I started last year, or just write flash fiction if that's all I can deal with.

So, this week's goal is to get all the stuff done at work so I don't have last minute panic next week.  And to think a little more deeply about this new story idea I have.  I can probably knock out a pretty decent hunk of a draft in two weeks if I can write a few hours each day.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 6-2-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend...  Well, almost.  But it's a public holiday today, so it feels like a weekend.

I went to see one of my favorite bands play last night and it was amazing!  I managed to get myself into a really good spot about a row back from the stage so it was super intimate when the singer came down the catwalk to sing to us.  And it was an epic concert - four hours.  That's a long time to stand in a hot room with a crowd, but I loved it.  I'm going again tonight with a group of friends so it will be interesting to see what it's like a second time.  I'm curious if they'll play the same set or id they might change a few things out.

I got a partial request for A Stranger to Kindness yesterday which made me happy.  I also got a rejection, so I guess it all balances out.

Work has been particularly busy this week, so I'm looking forward to having three days off to recover.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've read: Under the Stars

I read this one over the weekend, and while it wasn't a bad read, I feel a little bit like the author couldn't

decide exactly what they wanted to write and threw everything they could in there.  It's part romance, part family saga, part mystery and part historical fiction.  With a little bit of thriller thrown in there for good measure.  It kind of works, but it does kind of give you whiplash as a reader.

Audrey has recently been abandoned by her husband and left with a pile of debts after he didn't;t tell her the restaurant they owned together was tanking.  Still trying to dig herself out of the financial and emotional hole this has left her in, she agrees to help her mother, Meredith,, a famous Hollywood actress, dry out before she reports for her next role.

They head to the remote New England island where Meredith grew up for some privacy and isolation.  Neither she nor Audrey are thrilled to be there, but in terms of privacy, they can't fault it.  Plus, Audrey's father still lives there, running the local bar like his parents did.  Having grown up off-island, Audrey's relationship with him is tentative, at best, but she's curious enough to make some effort.

When she finds a trunk full of old paintings in the basement of the bar, it excites curiosity, even among wealthy neighbor Sedge Peabody, one of the wealthiest residents of the island.  The mystery of how a trunkful of unknown paintings from one of America's leading artists came to be hidden in the cellar of the local inn is one demanding to be solved.  As is the question of who the woman is in all these paintings.

Told in parallel with Audrey's story is the story of the woman in those paintings, a woman who fled Boston with the law on her heels in 1846 and was one of the survivors of a catastrophic shipwreck.  Who this woman was and why she was on this ship the night it sank with the detective in charge of investigating the mysterious death of her employer makes up another strand of the story.

The third strand is Meredith's story, about growing up on Winthrop Island with one goal: to get away and never come back.  A goal that becomes more and more difficult to imagine as life throws obstacles in her wake at every turn.

I didn't hate this book.  There was so much going on, it was easy to keep turning pages to find out what might happen next.  But that's really the problem with it:  there was so much going on.  Murder and deception and blackmail and theft and kidnapping and... well, it goes on.  And somewhere in there, were three romance stories too.  It was just a bit much!  There was enough plot in this one book for about three books.

So, if you're looking for something that will keep you turning pages and might make your head spin from how quickly the mood changes from one thing to the next, this one might be fore you.

But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:

Audrey Fisher has struggled all her life to emerge from the shadow of her famous mother by forging a career as a world-class chef. Meredith Fisher’s glamorous screen persona disguises the trauma of the tragic accident that haunts her dreams. Neither woman wants to return to the New England island they left behind and its complicated emotional ties, but Meredith has one last chance to sober up and salvage her big comeback, and where else but discreet, moneyed Winthrop Island can a famous actress spend the summer without the intrusion of other people? Until Audrey discovers an old wooden chest among the belongings of her estranged bartender father, Mike Kennedy, and the astonishing contents draw the women deep into Winthrop’s past and its many secrets…attracting the interest of their handsome neighbor, Sedge Peabody. How did a trove of paintings from one of America’s greatest artists wind up in the cellar of the Mohegan Inn? And who is the mysterious woman portrayed on every canvas?

On a stormy November night in 1846, Providence Dare flees Boston and boards the luxury steamship Atlantic one step ahead of the law….or so she believes. But when a catastrophic accident leaves the ship at the mercy of a mighty gale, Providence finds herself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the one man who knows her real identity—the detective investigating the suspicious death of her employer, the painter Henry Irving. As the Atlantic fights for her life and the rocky shore of Winthrop Island edges closer, a desperate Providence searches for her chance to escape…before the sea swallows her without a trace.

In Under the Stars, the destinies of three women converge across centuries, as a harrowing true disaster at the dawn of the steamship era evokes a complex legacy of family secrets in modern-day New England. Williams has written a timeless epic of mothers and daughters, of love lost and found, and of the truths that echo down generations.