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Lesliereadsalot

Lesliereadsalot

Joined July 2021

Former restaurant owner, puzzle solver, constant reader, cookie baker, family gal
review
Lesliereadsalot
The Nursery: A Novel | Szilvia Molnar
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I didn‘t like this short book while I was reading it, but once I finished it, I thought it had something to say. It‘s about a new mother, sometimes depressed, sometimes elated. So depressed at times she thinks about different ways to kill the baby. It‘s a book of her thoughts, from before she had the baby, during childbirth, and the first week after coming home. I really felt her despair and alternatively her happiness.

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Lesliereadsalot
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Mehso-so

Can‘t say this book about four generations of women and a Minnesota supper club grabbed me. I didn‘t find the characters that interesting and I didn‘t like all the jumping around in time. I have been to a number of Wisconsin supper clubs, so I could relate to the picture of the one drawn by the author.

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Lesliereadsalot
Dear Wife | Kimberly Belle
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This one really keeps you guessing. Three narrators tell this story: a wife on the run, a husband looking for his missing wife, and the cop trying to find her. I couldn‘t put it down.

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Lesliereadsalot
The Locked Door | Freida McFadden
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When Nora was 11, her father went to jail for murdering young women. Years later there‘s a copycat killer who may be setting her up to take the fall. Lots of suspects and an ending I didn‘t see coming makes this a pick.

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Lesliereadsalot
Dear Wife | Kimberly Belle
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Just starting this book, but here‘s an amazing tiny bookstore in Paris called Un Regard Moderne.

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Lesliereadsalot
Chrysalis | Anna Metcalfe
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Three narrators each tell their story of their life revolving around the same woman. It‘s a fascinating study of how much one person can influence someone‘s life. With each story, you get more information about her and how her life unfolded. Highly recommended.

Chelsea.Poole Glad it worked for you! Thanks for the tag 😊 1mo
6 likes1 comment
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Lesliereadsalot
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Reading this book about the author‘s 17 brushes with death, made me remember my own brushes with catastrophes. How close we can come to something horrible happening. The first story and the last story rang so true it was frightening. I was crying at the end reading about her daughter. The stories jump around and I had to keep referring to the year of the first story to know how old she was. Still highly recommend.

10 likes1 stack add
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Lesliereadsalot
Tom Lake: A Novel | Ann Patchett
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DO NOT MISS THIS BEAUTIFUL BOOK! One-time actress Lara is telling her three daughters of one summer when she did summer stock and had an affair with a now famous actor. In between telling that story we get to know who she is now, and who her daughters are now. I loved it and hated getting to the end.

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Lesliereadsalot
The Quiet Tenant | Clemence Michallon
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Couldn‘t put this one down! A serial killer kidnaps a woman, and keeps her chained up in a shed on his property. The three narrators are the woman, the man‘s daughter, and a woman who falls for him. You know as you‘re reading that these three women have to come together at some point, you just don‘t know when. It‘s a gripper (with a few parts that will be hard for women to read.)

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Lesliereadsalot
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Mehso-so

Too many twists and turns in this beach read for me. Kit becomes a caregiver to Lenore, an immobile recluse living in a mansion precariously built on a cliff. I read to the end, but each turn seemed a little more far fetched than the last one. Happy to get to the end!

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Lesliereadsalot
Yellowface | R F Kuang
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Mehso-so

This is a very similar plot to a couple of other books I‘ve read: main character steals the writing of someone else, will they get caught, etc, etc. I liked the writing and had compassion for the narrator, but I felt the ending was weak and didn‘t give any payoff. So…I liked it but nothing to write home about. Didn‘t care that much for Babel either, but this story is very different.

Cathythoughts Good to hear your thoughts. I havnt read Babel, I‘m hoping I might like it as I like the idea of it. I found Yellowface an addictive read , but I‘ve forgotten it already. 2mo
batsy I feel about the same. Yellowface is the kind of book that gives you intense feelings right after but now that I'm thinking about it later it's kind of forgettable. I liked Babel a bit more. 2mo
14 likes2 comments
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Lesliereadsalot
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This is one of those books where you really feel like you know the characters by the end. What does a mother do when her 4 year old son keeps asking for his other mother? And his other house? And his brother Charlie? It takes a village to find out who this kid really is. A good, well written story that speaks to every mother out there.

Eggs Agrée Absolutely ? 2mo
LiteraryinLawrence I remember loving this one! 2mo
10 likes2 comments
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Lesliereadsalot
Senator's Wife | Liv Constantine
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Mehso-so

Who‘s trying to kill the wife of Senator Whit Montgomery? Why does she seem to be getting sicker and sicker? Who‘s behind this? And lastly, who cares? Not me, even though I read to the end.

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Lesliereadsalot
The Last Word: A Novel | Taylor Adams
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This is not the type of book I ever read. A grieving woman is house sitting on a remote beach with only a reclusive neighbor for a friend. She becomes aware that she‘s being stalked and the book turns into a cat-and-mouse story of who can outsmart who. And who exactly is that neighbor? Have to admit I couldn‘t put it down and it felt very satisfying as the truth unfolded. Who will get the last word?

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Lesliereadsalot
The Covenant of Water | Abraham Verghese
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Finally finished it! 77 years in the lives of one family and several other important characters in southern India. The characters are drawn so magnificently that you feel as though you know them all. And the end…startling in the way it brings them together. I feel like a different person having read this book and being, for a short time, enmeshed in the lives of Big Ammachi, Baby Mol, Digby, Philipose, Elsie and Mariamma.

jlhammar Wonderful review! So glad you enjoyed it. Definitely among my favorites so far this year. 3mo
15 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Lesliereadsalot
The Covenant of Water | Abraham Verghese
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Really spellbound by the scope of this book. Here‘s breakfast and page 430 out of 715.

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Lesliereadsalot
My Murder | Katie Williams
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Couldn‘t put this one down. A serial murderer kills five women and they‘re brought back to life by the “replication committee.” The narrator, one of the women, is on her own journey, trying to figure out why she was murdered and if it went down the way the reports claimed. There‘s even a virtual reality game of the murders where the women try to outwit the killer. The twists keep coming, all the way to the end!

Cathythoughts Great review! I see I have it stacked already 👍🏻 3mo
Lesliereadsalot Let me know what you think! 3mo
10 likes2 comments
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Lesliereadsalot
The Soulmate: A Novel | Sally Hepworth
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Thought this book was just going to be a beach read, but the story is good and the twists keep coming. One narrator is the murdered woman and one is the wife of a man who‘s involved in the murder. Or is it a suicide? We get the past and the present from each of the two woman. Did she jump or was she pushed? Better not to draw conclusions as there‘s A LOT more going on than you think. It‘s a gripper!

9 likes1 stack add
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Lesliereadsalot
The Ferryman: A Novel | Justin Cronin
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This book gripped me from the first page. I‘ll admit that I had some trouble following exactly what was going on in the last third of the book, but then all was clear. It takes place in the sunny land of Prospera, where there is a clear separation between the haves and have-nots. When you get old or your energy level is depleted, the Ferryman takes you to be “reiterated” as a 16 year old and you get new parents. Lots of moral implications.

Cathythoughts Great review. I see I have it stacked already 😁❤️ 4mo
10 likes1 comment
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Lesliereadsalot
Girl in Snow: A Novel | Danya Kukafka
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A high school girl is dead, and we view her murder through the eyes of three people: the boy who loved her, the girl who hated her, and the investigating cop. They narrate their own stories, and bring themselves to life through their complicated emotions and histories. Thought provoking and well worth reading.

Cathythoughts Great review 👍🏻. Thanks for the tag! I keep seeing it on my kindle and thinking I must go there. I really loved Notes On Execution. This one sounds great too. 👍🏻❤️ 4mo
9 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Lesliereadsalot
The Guest: A Novel | Emma Cline
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What is 22 year old Alex to do? Brought to the Hamptons for the month of August and asked to leave about three weeks in. No life in the city, no apartment, and a mysterious man constantly calling and texting for money she stole. How will she survive day after day? Kept me reading to see how she would navigate her life even though she‘s a very unsympathetic character.

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Lesliereadsalot
I Will Find You | Harlan Coben
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Sometimes you just want a 1-2 day mindless read and Harlan Coben books are perfect for that. A rather far-fetched story about a man breaking out of prison to find his son who was supposedly murdered by him. But it kept me reading, one crazy chapter after another.

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Lesliereadsalot
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Mehso-so

Here‘s the book with my Lego orchid plant I got for Mother‘s Day! In 1800s London, a clairvoyant and her student try to get to the bottom of several murders revolving around seances. I liked the story and it had a twist, but the final seance got a little crazy. The book has a special section at the end explaining how popular seances were in Victorian London and even gives some recipes for houses that were in mourning.

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Lesliereadsalot
Romantic Comedy | Curtis Sittenfeld
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A really fun story about a romance between Sally, an SNL type show writer, and Noah, a famous pop music star. She‘s always got the quick comeback and he‘s consistently sweet and unaffected. I really rooted for these two and their unlikely romance. Curtis Sittenfeld is a terrific writer and I loved two of her earlier books: Prep and Rodham.

Cathythoughts I remember liking 5mo
Lesliereadsalot Yes, that one was good too! 5mo
13 likes2 comments
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Lesliereadsalot
Confidence | Rafael Frumkin
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Really liked this story about Orson and Ezra, two good-for-nothing kids who achieve cult status with the Mini-Bliss, a contraption that makes you feel better. Their journey is unbelievable at times, head scratching at other times, and often laughable for the things people do to be part of the in crowd.

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Lesliereadsalot
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This author wrote Defending Jacob years ago, which you may have read or watched the series on tv. Where‘s Jane Larkin, mother of three and wife of a high powered attorney. Dead or alive? It‘s a page turner, much as his first book. The beginning of the book focuses on the family, the middle third speaks in Jane‘s voice, and the end ties it all up. It‘s a chilling portrait of a dysfunctional family, and who they each are in a crisis.

7 likes1 stack add
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Lesliereadsalot
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The narrator is looking back on her years of high school in New England, where she went to a boarding school and where her roommate was murdered. She‘s still struggling years later to believe if the man who was convicted was actually the murderer. Or was it the music teacher she was having an affair with? Or the boyfriend? The atmosphere of the school is beautifully recreated, along with all the angst and emotions of high schoolers.

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Lesliereadsalot
Vladimir | Julia May Jonas
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A fifty something professor is confronted with the fact that her husband (a professor at the same college) is facing a disciplinary hearing for repeated sexual liaisons with female students. She knew about them, but then becomes obsessed with a young male professor, perhaps unconsciously imitating her husband. It‘s a well written psychological portrait of a middle aged woman coming to terms with her life. I liked it very much.

9 likes1 stack add
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Lesliereadsalot
The Lola Quartet | Emily St. John Mandel
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This is an older book by Emily St. John Mandel. I loved her three more recent books, which may be more familiar: Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel, and Sea of Tranquility. All beautifully written. This book is about three men and two women, four of whom were in a high school band together. We follow them, some flashbacks, through the next ten years of their lives. It‘s very moving and you will really feel invested in the characters.

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Lesliereadsalot
Flux | Jinwoo Chong
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This is a weird one! Bo, Brandon and Blue each have a story to tell. Also going on is an Elizabeth Holmes type story plus some time travel thrown in. Plus constant references to a cop show and it‘s star, which took place years ago. Stick with all the craziness and you‘ll get some twists and a great ending.

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Lesliereadsalot
Sister, Maiden, Monster | Lucy A. Snyder
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Three ordinary women become part of a futuristic world in this sci-fi thriller. They each have an interesting background story, and each becomes something unusual…I‘m not telling! Their stories are intertwined leading up to a fate-of-the-world kind of ending.

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Lesliereadsalot
Birnam Wood | Eleanor Catton
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If you can get through all the long diatribes about the establishment, there‘s actually an interesting plot line going on here. An environmental group gets funding from a billionaire, who‘s really a bad guy in disguise. Will they found out his real motives? Will they care? And there other characters around who can figure it out as well. Kept me reading, but forgive me for skimming those long-winded passages.

Cathythoughts I agree ! I definitely skimmed Tony‘s first big ( annoying ) talk at that early Birnam Wood meeting when Mira was late and coming with big news. I Loved the book. 5mo
10 likes1 comment
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Lesliereadsalot
Hello Beautiful | Ann Napolitano
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Mehso-so

I liked this book but didn‘t love it. It just did not speak to me. It‘s a story of four closely knit sisters and the man in their lives, their fortunes and misfortunes, loves and hates. It‘s a story about families and the love in families, and about how all encompassing that love can be. I suppose there are messages there, but nothing really grabbed me. I loved her last book, Dear Edward, and watched the tv series on AppleTV.

tapgurl It was just ok 5mo
7 likes1 comment
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Lesliereadsalot
Three | Valrie Perrin
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I LOVED THIS BOOK!! Just translated from the French, by Valerie Perrin, author of Fresh Water for Flowers. Two boys and a girl meet each other when they‘re children and become lifelong friends who you will never forget. And what lives they live! This book is 550 pages of extraordinary writing, plot twists and memorable characters, one after another.

Mitch I really enjoyed this too - it was a really immersive read for me - I was swept away by the characters a their story.. so glad ou loved it. 6mo
7 likes1 comment
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Lesliereadsalot
An Island | Karen Jennings
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This is a small but powerful book about an old man who is the caretaker of a lighthouse on an island off the coast of Africa. We learn who he is, what his life has been about, and how he lives now. His life changes when a man washes up on his shore, and he is forced to confront his past. Well worth reading.

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Lesliereadsalot
The Night Guest: A Novel | Fiona McFarlane
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Panpan

The main characters in this book are an elderly widow, a strange woman who takes over her life, and a tiger. Seriously? A tiger? I get what happened at the end, but there‘s a lot of confusion up to that point.

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Lesliereadsalot
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Mehso-so

I was attracted to this book because the author wrote Severance, which you might have seem on tv. Can‘t say these stories spoke to me, as there was only one that I found interesting about a student and her professor. Pretty dull all the way around.

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Lesliereadsalot
Wrong Place, Wrong Time | Gillian McAllister
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This is a mystery where the twists just keep coming. Up until the end. Jen watches as her son murders someone right in front of her house. And then every day when she wakes up, it‘s a day earlier. Or several days earlier. Or several years earlier! As she goes back in time, she begins to put the puzzle pieces together until the truth comes out. Couldn‘t put this one down.

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Lesliereadsalot
Stay with Me | Ayobami Adebayo
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Really enjoyed this story about a marriage of a Nigerian couple, told by both points of view. Learned lots about Nigerian life and rituals and every so often a surprise pops up that you don‘t see coming. This one‘s worth your time.

7 likes1 stack add
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Lesliereadsalot
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I couldn‘t put this beautifully written book down. It‘s a story of one man‘s life, his mother, his wife and her twin sister, and a childhood friend who‘s now a cop. Who is this man, and how did he become a man who at age 17, murdered three girls. And then what happens to him over the next thirty years. This book asks a lot of questions, and it will be with me for quite awhile.

she.hearts.horror Even though I never want to see the word “ Theory” ever again 😭 7mo
5 likes1 comment
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Lesliereadsalot
Hawk Mountain | Conner Habib
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Mehso-so

Todd has had one rough life when his high school nemesis comes to his small town. It‘s just him and his four year old son and now he has to deal with this. Not much payoff in the end.

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Lesliereadsalot
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Mehso-so

This in an older serial murderer book. There are a lot of moving pieces here, but the most interesting thing about it, is that it introduces Will Trent, who you might be watching on tv. There‘s a lot of his back story, and his friend Angie‘s too. I liked the characters but the story is kind of meh.

7 likes1 stack add
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Lesliereadsalot
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Mehso-so

Lots of people loved this book but I just thought it was ok. It‘s a story about two computer game makers who work together for years, with failures and successes. There were a couple of chapters that were written so beautifully they took my breath away. But it mostly left me cold, even though I liked the fact that these two people could always find their ways back to each other through video gaming.

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Lesliereadsalot
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You‘ve never met anyone like Elizabeth Zott before. She‘s a chemist, a mother, a tv personality and someone who knows her own mind. What a character! An interesting read and you‘ll find yourself rooting for her successes.

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Lesliereadsalot
The Impossible Us | Sarah Lotz
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Really liked this book about two people who meet across time and can only communicate through email. The characters are so likable and they go to great lengths to meet each other. As a bonus, there‘s an ending you won‘t see coming!

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Lesliereadsalot
Real Easy: A Novel | Marie Rutkoski
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Mehso-so

Who kidnapped and murdered one of the Lovely Lady strippers? Did keep me reading to the end, but I can‘t say I really cared about any of the characters. Although it was kind of interesting to read about a group of strippers, where they came from, how they lived.

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Lesliereadsalot
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It‘s a jigsaw puzzle, but who doesn‘t love Edward Gorey book covers? I even framed this one!!

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Lesliereadsalot
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Really liked this book about four people who have had a memory wiped, plus one woman who works at the company that performs the memory wipes. When the customers have an opportunity to get their memory back, it‘s really interesting how each responds. Couldn‘t put this one down.

3 likes1 stack add
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Lesliereadsalot
Don't Know Tough | Eli Cranor
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Arkansas high school running back Billy Lowe is dirt poor, angry and abused by his mother‘s boyfriend. But his voice is pure and it‘s hard not to be sympathetic for someone who grew up as he did. The coach tries to help him, as does the coach‘s daughter. Can he be saved? This one is worth your time.

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Lesliereadsalot
The Family Game: A Novel | Catherine Steadman
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This one‘s a gripper, even though I figured out the gist of it about 2/3 of the way through. Novelist Harry is about to marry into one of the wealthiest families alive. Think Rockefeller as an example. But this family is intent on playing games, some with disastrous consequences. Will she get out of this alive? Kept me reading to the end.