Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker.

It is very easy to play along:

• Grab your current read and open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title & author, too, so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 

Here are my “teasers” :

“A Sunday afternoon in May when our neighborhood is still maintaining its tenuous peace, a loose balance between old and new, us and them. Later this summer when the funeral takes place, the media will speculate boldly on who’s to blame. They’ll challenge attendees to say on-camera whose side they’re on.

For the record: we never wanted to take sides.”

 

From the novel:

 

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

Expected publication: February 4, 2020 by St. Martin’s Press

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Goodreads description:

 

In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door―an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition, and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter.

Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he’s made a small fortune on his customer service and charm, while his wife, Julia, escaped her trailer park upbringing for the security of marriage and homemaking. Their new house is more than she ever imagined for herself, and who wouldn’t want to live in Oak Knoll? With little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over a historic oak tree in Valerie’s yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.

Told from multiple points of view, A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today―What does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don’t see eye to eye?―as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending star-crossed love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.

My Thoughts:

 

I have only read a few pages of this novel but I am really enjoying it so far!  I can’t wait to read more.

Is this book on your “to be read” list?

 

I hope you enjoyed my teasers!

Happy Reading Everyone!!

I can’t wait for : Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel (Can’t-Wait Wednesday)

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a meme hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we are excited about that we have yet to read.

I came across this meme recently and thought it sounded like a lot of fun. There are so many books that I can’t wait to read…

My choice for this week is:

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel

 

Expected publication: March 17,2020 by Berkley

 

Goodreads Description:

For the first eighteen years of her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital. Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers and offering shoulders to cry on, but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold.

Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar.

After serving five years in prison, Patty gets out with nowhere to go and begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes.

Patty insists all she wants is to reconcile their differences. She says she’s forgiven Rose Gold for turning her in and testifying against her. But Rose Gold knows her mother. Patty Watts always settles a score.

Unfortunately for Patty, Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling…

And she’s waited such a long time for her mother to come home.

 

My thoughts: 

I am REALLY looking forward to reading this!  After reading the description, the Deedee Blanchard/Gypsy Rose case immediately came to mind. That case really intrigued me.

I can’t wait to read this book!!

 

Have you read this book or have it on your tbr?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

REVIEW: Life and Other Inconveniences by Kristan Higgins

Published August 6, 2019 by Berkley Books

 

Soooo awesome!!!

I LOVED Kristan Higgins’s previous novel “Good Luck with That”. I was a little worried that this novel wouldn’t thrill me as much as GLWT did. I worried for nothing as right from the start; I was hooked on this story.

Emma London is a therapist who works from home counseling people online. Working from home gives Emma more time to spend with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Riley. Emma and Riley have a great relationship, but Emma has noticed changes in her daughter over the last year. She tries not to over-analyze Riley, but she still worries.

Emma is walking past an empty storefront one day and sees an advertisement in the window. There is a picture of a pink purse with the words Genevieve London Designs Coming Soon! The sign takes Emma back to her childhood. Genevieve London is her grandmother, a woman she has tried hard to forget. That evening, Emma’s landline rings. She’s surprised when she hears her grandmother’s voice.

“I’m dying, so you have to come home and do your familial duty. Bring your child.“

Emma can’t believe Genevieve has the nerve to talk about family and duty. She tries to tell herself that she doesn’t care what happens to Genevieve. She remembers how unloved and unwanted she felt as a child. She also remembers the things Genevieve said to her the last time they spoke.  Does her grandmother think that she can buy forgiveness?

“We couldn’t go. We shouldn’t go. We weren’t going to go.“

But after an incident between Riley and some girls at school, Emma wonders if a change of scenery might be good for both of them.

85-year-old, Genevieve London used to be beautiful, wealthy, and well-known but now people barely recognize her. She hates getting old. Genevieve had been a good wife and mother. Then tragedy struck. She did not fall apart (on the outside at least). She went on and became a style icon and industry leader. But she knows she made mistakes.

How will Emma cope with her feelings for her grandmother? Will Genevieve connect with the great-granddaughter she’s just met and help build a bridge to forgiveness with the granddaughter she drove away so many years ago?

This was an incredible story!!!

My emotions were all over the place as I read this novel. I was laughing out loud one minute and wiping tears away the next. At times it was gut-wrenching and raw…and I loved it!

The majority of the story is told from Emma and Genevieve’s perspective but we also hear from many other terrific characters. The interaction between characters was incredibly entertaining. There were a few different storylines but I thought they all meshed so well. I became attached to many of the characters and I didn’t want to let them go.

Kristan Higgins is phenomenal when it comes to writing about relationships. In this novel, the issues around motherhood and parenting were so relatable.

This story touches on many important issues like mental illness, grief, abandonment, suicide, forgiveness, etc.

I can’t wait for another novel from this author!

 

I’d like to thank Berkley Books for providing me with a copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.

 

Goodreads Monday – October 14, 2019

Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners . To take part, simply choose a random book from your TBR and show it off.  Be sure to check out Lauren’s blog too!!

Today the book I’m going to show off is :

 

Take It Back by Kia Abdullah

Published August 8, 2019 by HarperCollins Publishers

Goodreads Description:

The Victim: A sixteen-year-old girl with facial deformities, neglected by an alcoholic mother. Who accuses four boys of something unthinkable.

The Defendants: Four handsome teenage boys from hardworking immigrant families. All with corroborating stories.

Someone is lying.

Former barrister Zara Kaleel, one of London’s brightest young legal minds, takes up Jodie Wolfe’s case; she believes her, even if those closest to Jodie do not.

Jodie and Zara become the centre of the most explosive criminal trial of the year, in which ugly divisions within British society are exposed. As everything around Zara begins to unravel she becomes even more determined to get Jodie the justice she’s looking for. But at what price?

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My Thoughts:

This sounds like it is going to be a very intense and emotional read.  I’m hoping to start reading it very soon. I have a feeling it’s going to be hard to put down.

Have you read this book?  Are you planning on reading it?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!