Tag: Bookish and Bingeable

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Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Ex Hex

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Erin Sterling

Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths…and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride” scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two.

That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendent of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after another striking Rhys, Vivi realizes her silly little Ex Hex may not have been so harmless after all.

Suddenly, Graves Glen is under attack from murderous wind-up toys, a pissed off ghost, and a talking cat with some interesting things to say. Vivi and Rhys have to ignore their off the charts chemistry to work together to save the town and find a way to break the break-up curse before it’s too late.

This book was recommended by countless folks online. Hailed as a fun, sexy, witchy, Halloween read sure to leave me crying in laughter, I lost no time in making this my Book of the Month Club choice, eager to dig in and read this holiday rom-com. 

What I wanted was a fun, lighthearted, romance book with a touch of the supernatural. What I got was a cringe-worthy, smutty, high school-ish story that was so bad, I couldn’t finish. 

Overall, the concept overall sounded fun. I instantly fell in love with the town of Graves Glenand the whole concept of hexing a former lover seemed hilarious. Anyone who’s ever been through a breakup of any kind wishes they had the kind of magic to bestow something unfortunate on their ex. As someone who is (happily) divorced, I would have given almost anything for a magic wand and a grimoire filled with spells to cast those most hapless of circumstances on my ex-husband. 

But that was after 10 years of marriage. It’s hard to imagine being that upset after only a 3 month snog fest. So, right off the bat, I was a little confused as to why Vivienne was so heartbroken as to cast a curse. And with a Bath and Body Works candle, no less. Then NINE YEARS LATER, Rhys comes back to town and she’s all undone again? And so is he? I just couldn’t buy it. It made no sense. And there was no chemistry at all between Rhys and Vivi. 

The overuse of certain female anatomy had me cringing. Gwen’s obsession with sex was very high-schoolish and not worthy at all of someone who is supposed to be in her late twenties. Rhys acting clueless 100% of the time was more than I could take. I got about 40% through the book and had to DNF it. I couldn’t go on anymore. And that was after I survived the magic cave of instant arousal which was just high school. 

I wanted to like this book. The overall concept hooked me. Unfortunately, that’s where this ended. It was too immature, too high school and too cringy for me.

My rating – :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Shadow House

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Anna Downes

Alex, a single mother-of-two, is determined to make a fresh start for her and her children. In an effort to escape her troubled past, she seeks refuge in a rural community. Pine Ridge is idyllic; the surrounding forests are beautiful and the locals welcoming. Mostly.

But Alex finds that she may have disturbed barely hidden secrets in her new home. As a chain of bizarre events is set off, events eerily familiar to those who have lived there for years, Alex realizes that she and her family might be in greater danger than ever before. And that the only way to protect them all is to confront the shadows lurking in Pine Ridge.

If Oscars were given out for opening chapters of a book, I’d hope Anna Downes would get one for this one. The opening chapter was deliciously creepy and drew me in right away. I instantly wanted to keep going. 

Alex is such a broken character. With a teenager (who’s good at being a teenager) and a baby still being breastfed, she’s clearly worn out and looking for something new. Add that she’s running from an abusive relationship and you have a woman so mentally exhausted even the smallest shadows will play on her mind. 

Alex’s story is told in the first person point of view (my favorite!) so we’re treated to the internal monologues of a person trying to stay connected with her disengaged teenaged son who clearly needs his mother now more than ever yet still care for a baby whose basic needs seem all consuming. I liked her instantly. I felt her weariness at life over all, her desire to constantly run away and her fierce love for her children. 

Renee’s story is told in 3rd person but we are also treated to a kaleidoscope of emotion. I placed Renee at around the same age as Alex. While Alex has a baby to contend with, Renee has two overbearing, interruptive and opinionated parents to deal with. She feels their constant judgment of her as a wife and a mother while standing in the gap between them and her husband and her son, trying to keep the peace. 

In the midst of all of this is a creepy force attempting to steal their children and their lives. It disrupts the very fabric of the lives of these two women at the very worst of times. It plays on their minds, steals their peace and leaves both women hopeless. 

I really loved how these two stories were written. The events in Alex’s and Renee’s lives are lived perpendicular to each other at first but later in the story, they intersect in a most shocking reveal which I did not see coming. 

I loved the ending. Just when you thought it was all over, it really wasn’t. Not until the very end and I have to say, I was so pleased with the ending each character got. It wasn’t unbelievable in any way. 

If I have a critique at all, it’s how Renee’s parents were written. They could have been written as the insane, overbearing, judgmental people they were without adding in the Christian element. This is more of a personal remark as we Christians are almost always portrayed as Bible-thumping, unloving, calling Satan down, unreasonable people when most of us are not and most of us would not act like they did with our families. That being said, I will also add that it works well in this story. Go figure. 

My recommendation is to read this! It’s not scary but it is creepy and will keep you engaged from the first page to the very last. 

NOTE – Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

My rating – :star: :star: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Christmas Dress

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Courtney Cole

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow and Custom House for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

One Dress. Two Women. The Magic of the Holiday Season.

When hopeful fashionista Meg Julliard must return to her hometown of Chicago to manage her late father’s apartment building, she thinks her dreams of making it in the fashion business are over. Add in her father’s eclectic roster of tenants who all need Meg’s attention (ASAP!), a host of building related disasters, and a handsome handyman she keeps embarrassing herself in front of, and this has all the makings for the worst Christmas she’s ever had.

Ellie Wade, one of the building’s longtime residents, is also not feeling the Christmas Joy this year. She is preparing to move into a nursing home (reluctantly), and is in the process of sorting through her belongings to downsize. Every corner of her apartment holds memories, some good, some bad. But there’s one dress she hesitates to pack up as it represents both the best and worst night of her life.

Ellie and Meg strike up an unlikely friendship and the story of Ellie’s dress comes out. Ellie gifts the gorgeous dress to Meg, hoping that it will bring her more luck, on the condition that she wear it to the building’s Christmas party.

The dress magically fits, and while it eventually leads to the best night of Meg’s life, it also acts as inspiration for Meg to follow a life-long dream of her own, a dream that will help save the crumbling Parkview West, and restore it to its former glory, and keep it as a safe home for all of the current tenants.

The dress and the magic of the holiday season helps both Meg and Ellie find their own happy endings. 

This book was like a Hallmark Christmas movie wrapped up in a book. It has a girl who’s life is at a crossroads, a handsome boy with a past, a snarky best friend and an older woman full of wisdom. 

I loved every bit of this book. After losing her Dad, Meg Julliard moves into the old, dilapidated apartment full of senior citizen formerly owned by her Dad. The building needs an overhaul and of course, money is in short supply. She meets Ellie, one the residents, who gives her an old dress full of magic. A little magic plus a stubborn “concierge” and a hot handyman who likes to donate his talents and time to anything Meg needs makes for a perfect Christmas romance. 

One of the first things I loved about this book is the romance is just that – romance. Not sex. I’m sure this is an unpopular opinion but I don’t need a bunch of sex or steamy scenes in order to make a book romantic for me. Innuendo goes a long way for those of us more old-fashioned readers. 

Every single character right down to the cat was interesting. I loved each one of them! I loved their stories and how they created a family atmosphere within the building. Each one had their own stories and what I really loved was how the author touched on each story without allowing the story to lag and become inundated with details. 

The main character, Meg, sorta comes of age in this story. But so does the building. As Meg grows and grieves and remakes herself, the building undergoes the same, revealing some life saving history that actually probably exists in many of the older Chicago buildings downtown. 

It’s true there were some cheesy moments and, like any good Hallmark movie, it’s totally predictable but there were some nice surprises along the way. All in all, this was very enjoyable. A very nice Christmas read for the upcoming season. 

My rating – :star: :star: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Christmas Past: A Ghostly Winter’s Tale

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: John Alcox

Thank you to NetGalley and The Story Plant for the eARC in return for an honest review. 

The winter holiday season is a time for gifts and music, for snow and miracles, and for family and going home. For Jessie Malone, it’s a time for sorrow.

Jessie is a graduate student living in London, where she hopes to be one of the first folklorists ever to trace an urban legend back to its original source. She’s also a grieving young widow unable to heal from the agony of her life-shattering loss.

In the bleak midwinter, Jessie learns of an urban legend about a lonely, wandering ghost, a British sailor named Sam who promised his bride that he’d be home for Christmas. The legends say he’s been trying to make it back to her since World War II.

As she investigates, Jessie learns that Sam’s story defies the patterns of how urban legends are supposed to work. It’s a puzzle she can’t let go. To solve the mystery, she must confront the impossible and, just perhaps, discover a miracle of Christmas love that survives beyond the grave.

A story that will engage all your emotions, Christmas Past bursts with wonder, enigma, romance, and the unquenchable spirit that comes from promises that must be kept.

This book was a DNF for me. I tried several times to pick it up and read it and just couldn’t get into it. I really loved the concept of chasing down older Ghost stories or legends to see where they originated from. Unfortunately, that’s where the magic ended for me. 

The character didn’t have much emotional output for me. The main character didn’t interest me at all. I really felt nothing for her at all. It annoyed me how many times she reminded us that she cannot get distracted from her main purpose of writing her dissertation. Her memories were lovely but again, no emotional reaction from me.

The imagery didn’t strike a cord either. I couldn’t feel London or Paris around me at all.

I did love the ghost stories and how the legends were relayed. It’s such an interesting concept of how a legend is born and how it travels from place to place. I also enjoyed reading about the effect each story has on folks as it gets passed down from generation to generation. The stories were stories of kindness and humans going out of their way for those in need. This is a theme much needed in today’s world so I was glad to see it.  

I wish I could have loved this but I didn’t.

My rating – :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Resting Place

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By Camilla Sten

The medical term is prosopagnosia. The average person calls it face blindness—the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face, even the faces of those closest to you.

When Eleanor walked in on the scene of her capriciously cruel grandmother, Vivianne’s, murder, she came face to face with the killer—a maddening expression that means nothing to someone like her. With each passing day, her anxiety mounts. The dark feelings of having brushed by a killer, yet not know who could do this—or if they’d be back—overtakes both her dreams and her waking moments, thwarting her perception of reality.

Then a lawyer calls. Vivianne has left her a house—a looming estate tucked away in the Swedish woods. The place her grandfather died, suddenly. A place that has housed a dark past for over fifty years.

Eleanor. Her steadfast boyfriend, Sebastian. Her reckless aunt, Veronika. The lawyer. All will go to this house of secrets, looking for answers. But as they get closer to bringing the truth to light, they’ll wish they had never come to disturb what rests there.

A heart-thumping, relentless thriller that will shake you to your core, The Resting Place is an unforgettable novel of horror and suspense. 

Note – Thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

This is the second Camilla Sten book I’ve read. I read The Lost Village last month and it was a decent read. I wanted to give her another try. 

In truth – I didn’t love it. It started out all mysterious and eerie. The timelines flipped back and forth from the past to present and back again. In the beginning, it was hard to know who was who – I got a little lost in the introduction of the character Anushka. 

The spooky atmosphere starts to build immediately as Eleanor and her boyfriend, Sebastian, reach Solhoga, the abandoned family mansion in the woods. Floorboards creak, a dumb waiter has a mind of its own, shadows appear in the woods and doors open by themselves. The main character has prosopagnosia (face blindness) which adds to the intensity of the story. You can clearly see the two storylines racings heading towards an intersection. Clearly, the author wants us to think the house is haunted and tries to write it as a character on its own. 

Unfortunately, it fell a little flat to me. The storm that cuts Eleanor and her party off from all civilization seems a little contrived. The characters were uninteresting and over-dramatic. There were a few loose ends that left me with question – like Vivianne’s background. It’s hinted at but never really explained. The relationship between her and Anushka is weird and unexplainable. The family dynamic was really disjointed. Sebastian was condescending and commonplace. I didn’t buy that he cared even a little for Eleanor. 

The macabre ending was predictable and uninteresting.

I will say that Sten’s writing style, her use of vocabulary is stunning. She’s descriptive and fluid. She’s detailed without losing you in the detail and is adept at creating a tangible atmosphere.  

Overall, I wanted to love this but I didn’t. However, I’m still a fan of Camilla Sten and eagerly await what she’s got in store for us next.

My rating – :star: :star: :star: