After She's Gone

After She's Gone by Maggie James

I really enjoyed this engaging fast paced thriller!

Review:

Stars: 4

After She's Gone is the first book I've read by Maggie James, a book I got via netgalley.

This book follows Lori Golden who's family is shattered after her younger sister, teenaged Jessie is murdered in a brutal fashion. She is raped and left in a building owned by their mother, a fire set upstairs.

Lori and Jessie's pseudo step-brother, Spencer, (the son of their mother's boyfriend) wakes up beside Jessie's body and he has a history of lighting fires. Is he the one who did it? Lori's mother, Dana, thinks so.

Lori has other idea though. There's Jake, Spencer's father who Lori has always thought looked at her younger sister oddly. Her friend's roommate, Damon, who is a firefighter and has always acted oddly around Lori. Finally, Lori's friend Aiden acts oddly to the news of Jessie's death.

Dana, like one would expect, is devastated by the death of her daughter and has a pretty extreme reaction to it, leading Lori to have some fairly deep moments of jealously. James does a good job of exploring how a horrific death has an effect on every member of a family and in different ways.

This book is fast paced full of twists though after a certain point is was fairly obvious who it was behind it all. It was my first by Maggie James but I don't think it will be my last.

The Tiger in the House

The Tiger in the House by Jacqueline Sheehan

This is an incredible book that I purchased based on several recommendations from multiple fellow book lovers.

Review:

Stars: 5

I cannot recommend this book enough! You will eat it up.

The Tiger in the House followed Delia, a social services worker, who is winding up her last few weeks at work before opening up a bakery/cafe with her younger sister, Juniper or J Bird who were orphaned when they were 19 and 13. Their parents, including their schizophrenic father, died in a fire set, presumably by their dad.

Delia is a compassionate social services worker, caring deeply about the kids she oversees, not wanting any of them to fall through the crack. And that is why she is leaving. Working in the system is hard, seeing kids and their families is tough. After a while, it wears on you. Before she gets too complacent, Delia wants out and what better reason than opening a cafe with her sister Juniper.

Her last case is tough, little Hayley is lost and cannot tell them what she has seen or what she knows, even with the aid of a wonderful foster mom and her delightful cat. She was found covered in blood, 3 bodies left behind in a house not far from where was discovered. Who are they? What were they doing there? Where are Hayley's parents? It is hard to get kids to talk,especially when they are traumatized. Kids regress quickly and Delia and her company have to work carefully in order not to cause the girl more pain.

Helping her is a gorgeous detective Mike Moretti, her boss Ira, and Hayley's foster mom, Erica. If only all foster parents could be like Erica. Foster care would be not quite so bad a place for the thousands of kids that enter into it every year.

While everything with Hayley is going on, Delia's ex boyfriend from childhood, Tyler, has returned. He moved away shortly after the fire and Delia hasn't seen or heard from him since.

Moretti thinks the deaths are related to drugs, sending Delia off on an adventure that will forever change the lives of everyone she knows.

This book is wonderful! Foster care and social services gets a bad rap and this shows the good side of it. Of course there is a bad side but it is not easy work for anyone, the foster parents, the social workers, and especially the kids who have it the hardest of all.

I look forward to reading more of Sheehan's work!

Recommend to: anyone who loves a fast paced thriller with twists

This book is available for purchase in paperback and ebook form here.

Tell Me How This Ends Well

Tell Me How This Ends Well by David Samuel Levinson

I received this book from First to Read, using my points, based solely on the plot synopsis. Siblings coming together to kill their father. Well, planning to at any rate.

Review:

Stars: 4

Wow is one word to describe this book.

Set just 5 years from now (April 2022), Tell Me How This Ends Well tells the story of the Jacobson family, a jewish family living in an America that is slowly turning into a Nazi Germany-lite. They aren't being dragged off to camps but they are dealing with an increase in attacks against them from suicide bombers (yes, in the US) to have slurs written on their homes to discrimination in a number of ways. The family is gathering for Passover, the first time they've been together in a while as the youngest son of the Jacobson clan has being living Germany for a few years.

Told in 3 very long chapter (100 plus pages each), one slightly shorter chapter (about 50 pages), and one normal sized chapter (about 15 pages), we follow each of the Jacobson children, Moses, Edith, & the unfortunately named Jacob Jacobson (seriously, who does this?) and their mother, Roz as they each navigate a weekend that will ultimately change their lives.

The children have all gathered to not only be together in what may be the final days of their mother's life but to kill their father. Yes, they want to kill their overbearing unloving father. Reading some of the memories of life with their father and even seeing how he treats them now, it isn't too surprising they want to end his life. Each of the children has their own reason and their own doubts about what they want to do.

The Jacobson are not perfect people. They are flawed, each in their own ways mostly due to the treatment they received at the hands of their father and husband. He treated, or rather mistreated, them all differently. Did he deserve their wrath? Yeah, probably.

While I did enjoy this book, I think it would've benefited from being broken down a bit more. Within each section (each one following a different character though never in the first person) there are flashbacks as well as moments in the present and I feel it would've helped with the flow and understanding if these were split up into separate chapters.

Its frightening to imagine a world like the one depicted in the background this book, where a select group of people are terrorized but it seems like we are heading more and more down that road each day as people allow hate to rule them and they turn to violence to show their hatred. You see it in the news every day and while it may not be based on religion, racial violence seems to be taking over our country. In fate, as I was reading this book, a terror attack happened in London. Can we ever hope to live in a world were people don't want to kill? Doubtful but it would be nice.

Recommend to: anyone who likes dysfunctional families or who has one and maybe wants to see one that could be worse

This book will be released on April 4th and can be purchased here. Enjoy!

The Grave Tender

The Grave Tender by Eliza Maxwell

I received this book from Netgalley to read prior to release for free. And I am so glad I chose it! What an absorbing book!

Review:

Stars: 5

I'm easily distracted and find it hard to read a book in one sitting. Not so with this book. I could not put it down. I had to know what had happened to Cooper. I had to know what happened all those years ago.

Hadley is the main character, seen mainly as a young 10 year old girl growing up in the south in the 80's. She lives with her father, grandmother, and mother, the latter of which is troubled though we don't find out why until later in the book. She has her small circle of friends but one day, that is all broken apart as one vanishes and Hadley's reclusive uncle Eli is the prime suspect.

The book also goes back into the past, to Eli and Walker's (Hadley's father) childhood, to her grandmother's, Ava's life with her husband. Its a harrowing tale and its really no surprise to see how it effects both of the boys in different ways.

The author also takes us to the year 2012, bringing her young characters to adulthood. How has the past shaped them? WIll learning the truth help? How many lives will be changed and shattered?

Maxwell weaves a wonderful tale and I highly recommend it to everyone. Be sure you don't make plans!

Recommend to: Anyone who enjoys reading a book in one sitting, people who like psychological thrillers

This book will be released an April 11th and can be purchased here. Enjoy!!

The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs Shape Every Presidency

The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs Shape Every Presidency by Chris Whipple

I got this book from First To Read. I actually used my points (for 3 books that go around the only way it seems I can get a book lately) because the topic interested me. We hear about the chief of staff at the White House but what do we really know?

Here is my review:

Stars: 5

I really enjoyed this book! I found it to be very short when you consider the subject matter. I feel like the author could've make the book twice as long and still be missing something. It merely touches on some of the big events that have shaped our country since Nixon.

Gatekeepers covers the Chiefs of Staff for the President from Nixon to Obama, each with his own chapter (the Reagan Era earned 2 mostly due to his first Chief of Staff, James Baker), highlighting a known but not too well known character in the story that is the American government. Some lasted a long time (5 1/2 years) some not quite a long time (I believe one lasted less than year). It is not an easy job, not even when the country isn't in crisis. Trying to help the man governing a country of 300+ million is not an easy task as 300+ million people will all try to tell you how you are doing it wrong.

Whipple shows how the chief of staff helped (or hurt) the president during major events that have happened over the last 50 years such as Watergate, 9/11, and various financial crises. Watching these events from the outside, it was eye opening to see how it worked from the inside.

The Chief of Staff is a position many American's know about, mainly due to the West Wing tv show, but that was just a show and I found it enthralling to learn the history of the position and how it changed with the man behind the title.

I found it easier to read once I got towards the end of the chapter on Bush and into the Clinton chapter as these were presidents I remember, events I remember. While I was alive during Reagan, I was barely 6 when he left the office. I'm not sure if that will be the case for everyone else but reading about things you remember sometimes provides you with a visual that really gets you into the work.

Recommend: I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about how the executive branch functions, heck any branch of our government. I really feel like in the future, political science professors will be assigning this book to their students. It made me want to go out and read biographies on the various presidents discussed.

The book comes out April 4th and can be purchased here. Enjoy!!!

Restarting this blog

I've signed up for Netgalley and one of the publishers I've been requesting from likes to see things other than goodreads apparently so I'm going to try to post reviews here (as well as goodreads). If anyone happens to read this, leave recs in the comments. My goodreads page is:https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2635995-jennifer Look for more soonish. Maybe. If I remember.