Review: You Will Remember Me by Hannah Mary McKinnon

You Will Remember Me by Hannah Mary McKinnon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Published: May 2021

A man finds himself washed up on the shores of Maryland. He has no idea how he got there or who he is. Lily was expecting her boyfriend to come over with blueberry pancakes, but he's late. All calls and texts to him go unanswered. Unsure of where to go and what to do, he hides out in a camper with Maine license plates. Something about Maine is familiar. What will he find there about himself?

Thank you to St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Last year I fell in love with McKinnon's writing with Sister Dear. I was so excited when this dropped in my inbox. I had no idea what it was about. I was really excited when I started reading and it was in my home state of Maryland. I wasn't sure where this story was going to go, but I was along for the ride.

Both Lily and Jack/Ash have pasts that they didn't share with each other. Their present was amazing, but his disappearance and memory loss force them both to figure out how they are going to tackle the future.

Being drawn to Maine, Ash found his stepsister Maya. Maya helps Ash to remember his past, but is the information she is giving him the truth, or what she wants him to believe?

This book had me on the edge of my seat and wanting to jump through the book to slap a few people.

View all my reviews

To learn more about this book, or to order a copy, click the links below(affiliate links):

Amazon

Books A Million

Review: Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin



Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars



Aviva Grossman has made a mistake, but so has Aaron Levin. One of them will continue to lead a normal life and one of them will go into hiding and move hundreds of miles away from their home until the secret comes out in the open. Similar to the story between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, Aviva Grossman has had an affair with a Congressman she was working for in South Florida. When the scandal breaks, Aviva can no longer get a job or leave her house without being recognized. So she changes her name to Jane Young, leaves the state, and cuts ties with her old life. But now she wants to run for Mayor of her small town and her secret will no longer be safe.

I decided to read this book for a couple of reasons. I have seen the book at the library for a while and I wondered about the woman on the cover. A few people I know have read the book and enjoyed it. This book was better than OK, but not great for me. The book is told from four different perspectives, spanning a time from when the affair begins, to 13 years later when Aviva, now Jane runs for Mayor.

1. Rachel Grossman, Aviva's mother, is a good Jewish mother. She tries to do her best for all of those around her, but it doesn't always pay off. (This part of the book was the hardest for me to get through)
2. Jane Young, the event planner in Allison Springs, Maine. She is a single mother whose main focus is raising her young daughter to be nothing like her old self.
3. Ruby Young, Jane's daughter. Ruby tells her part of the story through emails with her pen pal in Indonesia as part of a school assignment. (this was my favorite part of the book)
4. Embeth Levin, the Congressman's wife. Her part of the story was quite interesting. You wonder what goes through the mind of a wife who has been cheated on especially one in such a public light
and finally from the woman herself
5. Aviva Grossman. We find out about the affair and how it all happened and the aftermath of the scandal. Aviva writes in a Choose Your Own Adventure style, but she has already chosen the path the story will take. Aviva ran from her problems to in Florida to become Jane in Maine and make a new life for herself. But once her secrets are revealed, will she be able to maintain her new life?

The reason I gave this book 3.5 stars is because I felt as if there was something missing. I'm not sure exactly what it was. I didn't enjoy the mother's part of the story and I wasn't too keen on the ending. Overall, I would recommend this book to those who enjoy general fiction.

View all my reviews

Order a copy of this book by clicking the book over below:

Review: Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker

Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cass and Emma are sisters. And like most sisters, some days they are best friends and some days they just aren't. But one thing that keeps them tethered to each other is their shared love/hate relationship with their mother. She is a narcissist and only praise of the utmost will allow her to bring her children any joy. Then the girls disappear and three years later Cass shows up at her mother's doorstep, demanding that they find Emma. Cass describes the place they had been living for the past three years and hopes that the FBI and investigators are able to find this mysterious island and Emma.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book started off a little slow for me. Hearing the background information about what happened before the disappearance, intertwined with what was going on now to describe the place the girls were being held, took up the first half of the book.  Told from the perspective of Cass, the youngest daughter and Dr. Winter the FBI Psychiatrist who did the initial investigation.  After that, the reading went by much faster when the twists and turns started to take place.

Cass and Emma have a mother who constantly needs to be told how beautiful she is and how good of a mother she is. The only problem is that she's not. But hearing these things make her feel good about herself and keep her children on her good side. When things don't go the way she wants, she punishes the girls in unspeakable manners. Buying one a gift the other wanted, favoring one child and ignoring the other. This is a family that has a lot of issues going on inside of their home. They way things are handled are completely out of spite for another member of the family. Although this book had a slow start, it really had a great ending. So stick with it if you have to and it will be well worth it.

Wendy Walker also wrote, All is Not Forgotten which was also a great book released last year. I look forward to what else Ms. Walker has in store.

See all my reviews at http://whatchatreadin.blogspot.com

Order a copy of this book by clicking the book cover below:
  

Review--The Sound of Glass by Karen White

The Sound of Glass by Karen   White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Merritt Heyward has just inherited the home of her deceased husband's grandmother.  A grandmother she never knew existed.  Now she is packing her whole life and moving from her home in Maine to Beaufort, South Carolina.  What secrets will she uncover about her husband and about herself?
Edith Heyward's whole world is turned upside down in July 1955 when on the same night, a plane explodes over small town Beaufort and her husband is killed in a car crash from watching the explosion.  How will these events change her life.
These women have a very strong connection to one another.  One that involves more than just Cal Heyward(Merritt's Husband).  They both share a secret that they don't want the world to know.

I so enjoyed this book.  This is the second book by Karen White I have read.  The first being The Beach Trees.  In this book, you were on the edge of your seat to see the way secrets were going to unfold.  When I first started reading this book, I thought what a bitch Merritt was.  But as the story unfolds you get to see what a sheltered person she is who has had to hide her emotions for so long, she's not sure how to act.
At the same time Merritt is moving to South Carolina, her step-mother and half brother are moving there as well from Georgia.  Merritt has never met her brother,Owen and does not have a relationship with her step-mother, Loralee.  But when they show up at her front door in a town where she is new to as well, walls start to come down and friendship and love is born.
Trying to find her way in a new town, find out who her husband was and why he kept so many secrets, and get to know family members she had no desire to know in the first place; Merritt is destined to learn more about the South, conquer her fears and become the woman she has always wanted to be.

This is an amazing novel with strong characters.  You will find yourself, looking for a journal to write down all of the inspirational quotes and sayings.  I highly recommend this book to all of my female friends.


View all my reviews

**I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.**