Book Review: The Teacher by Frieda Mc Fadden

 About

Lesson #1: Trust no one.

Eve has a good life. She wakes up each day, kisses her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except…

Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye.

Addie can’t be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that’s what everyone says.

But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet…

My Thoughts

Wow!!! Jus Wow!! That twist at the end...I didn't see that coming.

This was my first time reading this author. Her books are everywhere and now I know why. I think this style of writing can grip anyone even if someone does not like reading or if they are just getting into thriller books.

I could not put this down. I needed to see what would happen at the end.

In The Teacher we meet 16 year old Addie who is having a hard time adjusting after a scandalous affair involving a teacher surfaced the previous school year where her Math teacher was replaced by Eve Bennett. Eve is tough, and is much different from her English teacher husband Nate.

Addie, upon joining a poetry club at school gets very close to Nate which turns out to have deadly consequences. Eve is at the centre of it all.

A nail biting drama, The Teacher will have you at the edge of your seat literally.

Book Review: This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan

About

Soledad Barnes has her life all planned out. Because, of course, she does. She plans everything. She designs everything. She fixes everything. She’s a domestic goddess who's never met a party she couldn't host or a charge she couldn't lead. The one with all the answers and the perfect vinaigrette for that summer salad. But none of her varied talents can save her when catastrophe strikes, and the life she built with the man who was supposed to be her forever, goes poof in a cloud of betrayal and disillusion.

But there is no time to pout or sulk, or even grieve the life she lost. She's too busy keeping a roof over her daughters' heads and food on the table. And in the process of saving them all, Soledad rediscovers herself. From the ashes of a life burned to the ground, something bold and new can rise.

But then an unlikely man enters the picture—the forbidden one, the one she shouldn't want but can't seem to resist. She's lost it all before and refuses to repeat her mistakes. Can she trust him? Can she trust herself?

After all she's lost . . .and found . . .can she be brave enough to make room for what could be?

My Thoughts

When you finish reading a book and you start listening to the playlist immediately after you know the book means business. I absolutely loved everything about this book.

In This Could Be Us we meet Soledad Barnes, a married suburbian housewife living what most may have called a dream life. Nice house, husband, three girls. It all comes crashing down when Sol's husband gets in trouble for something unthinkable, all because of Judah Cross the new mysterious accountant at CalPot the firm that Edward works at.

Soledad's world is suddenly turned upside down. She is left to pick up the pieces in more ways than one. Meanwhile Judah Cross, a single dad with a complicated life with his autistic sons takes a sudden interest in Soledad and the rest...... you will have to read.

This was a captivating story, romantic and also very enlightening on a variety of topics, most important self love.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend.

 

WE DID IT!!!! (TGR is among the 25 Best Caribbean Book Blogs)

 

Hello readers,

When I began blogging a few years ago, I was doing it simply for fun, since I love reading and wanted to share that passion with others. Now some three years later, 

I am pleased to announce that Trini Girl Reads is now in the top twenty five (25) best Caribbean Blogs on the internet. 

I would like to thank Feedspot for this honour and most importantly I want to thank all the readers of the blog because without you I would be nothing.

Here is the link to view the TOP 25 Caribbean Book Blogs List. 

25 Best Caribbean Book Blogs and Websites

Happy Reading!!!

From Trini Girl Reads

Book Review: Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

 

About:

A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.

The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.

Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.

Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

My Thoughts

This story kept me interested from beginning to end. The end had me quite emotional too. SA Crosby is an author to watch.

In Razorblade Tears we meet Ike and Buddy Lee, two fathers who become bonded by revenge for the death of their sons. These fathers sought revenge as a plaster to a sore, that being the unwillingness of both dads to accept that their sons were homosexual.

Ike and Buddy Lee also were also former prisoners so you know that their attempt at avenging these guys' deaths may lead them down a dangerous path.

This book was so full of action that you felt as though you were watching a really good movie. I loved how creatively Cosby dealt with loss and grief in this book and also regret. I think that avenging their sons' deaths was partly out of regret at how they treated their sons.

This is worth the hype. Indeed a masterpiece

Book Review: Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena

 

About:

Welcome to Stanhope - a safe neighbourhood. A place for families.

William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he's been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter Avery unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper.

Hours later, Avery's family declare her missing.

Suddenly Stanhope doesn't feel so safe. And William isn't the only one on his street who's hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery's neighbours become increasingly unhinged.

Who took Avery Wooler?

Nothing will prepare you for the truth.

My Thoughts

When I finish a book in a day you know it is really good. In Everyone Here is Lying, we meet Dr. William Wooler a handsome medical doctor who is having an affair with co worker and neighbour Nora Blanchard. When Nora breaks off the affair, William becomes frustrated, so much so that he takes it out on his nine year old daughter Avery, who is deemed a difficult child.

When Avery goes missing, fingers start pointing and this is when the lies and lives of the peaceful community of Stanhope becomes intertwined.

What I like about this book is that it was very dramatic from beginning to end. Each character especially Avery was so unique that it made for a very interesting story. This is my first time reading a book by this author and of course it would not be my last. A great thriller to start my vacation.

Book Review: How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz

 

About

Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her alternately biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification and loss, and, eventually, what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando. As Cara confronts her darkest secrets and regrets, we see a woman buffeted by life but still full of fight.

Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz’s most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.

My Thoughts

This was our March Book Club Pick @we_read_books_period and it was a very interesting book indeed. Thanks for this recommendation.

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is set in Little Dominican Republic, New York at the height of the recession that occurred in the early 2000s. In the story we meet Cara an immigrant from the DR interviewing for a job after loosing her job in a factory where she worked for over 20 years.

Every chapter of the book is a different session of the interview. It is in this job search Cara tells of the life of an immigrant in the USA the highs and the lows. I love stories like these so it really gripped me.

Cara's relationships were very notable in the book. Her sister Angela, her friends Lulu and La Vieja Caridad these women all had struggles and similar demons to deal with. It was Cara's relationship with her son Fernando that took me on an emotional rollercoaster.

Very creative and somewhat poetic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is truly a MUST Read.

BOOK REVIEW: The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson

About:

" New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson ramps up the horror and tackles America's history and legacy of racism in this suspenseful YA novel following a biracial teenager as her Georgia high school hosts its first integrated prom.

When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation … Maddy did it.

An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.

After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life.

But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret … one that will cost them all their lives. "

MY THOUGHTS

Loved It.

This is definitely a must read if you enjoy YA thriller.

In this book we meet Maddy Washington a shy teenager who has a deep dark secret that becomes revealed one rainy day on the track. This revelation makes Maddy's life even more miserable than it already was in a high school that does not embrace diversity.

As Maddy tries to survive at school, at home she had to deal with an abusive father who is determined at all cost to hide who his daughter really is. Maddy soon finds out a secret that could change her life forever, and that it did because the night of the prom was something that no one in the town of Springvale never forgot.

This book is the perfect example of how a thriller is supposed to be written. I hear people saying it was inspired by Carrie. I will definitely be trying to read Carrie now after reading this.

I especially loved how this book touched on serious issues and was able to do it in a very unique way. This was good.

I recommend this one.

 

Book Review: The Whispers by Ashley Audrain

 

About

From the author of THE PUSH, a pageturner about four suburban families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens--and what is lost when good people make unconscionable choices

The Loverlys sit by the hospital bed of their young son who is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window in the middle of the night; his mother, Whitney, will not speak to anyone. Back home, their friends and neighbors are left in shock, each confronting their own role in the events that led up to what happened that terrible night: the warm, altruistic Parks who are the Loverlys' best friends; the young, ambitious Goldsmiths who are struggling to start a family of their own; and the quiet, elderly Portuguese couple who care for their adult son with a developmental disability, and who pass the long days on the front porch, watching their neighbors go about their busy lives.

The story spins out over the course of one week, in the alternating voices of the women in each family as they are forced to face the secrets within the walls of their own homes, and the uncomfortable truths that connect them all to one another. Set against the heart wrenching drama of what will happen to Xavier, who hangs between death and life, or a life changed forever, THE WHISPERS is a novel about what happens when we put our needs ahead of our children's. Exploring the quiet sacrifices of motherhood, the intuitions that we silence, the complexities of our closest friendships, and the danger of envy, this is a novel about the reverberations of life's most difficult decisions.

My Thoughts

Wow!!! Where do I start with this review? This book was a wild ride that's for sure. One night changed everything for the ladies of the suburb of Harlow Street, when Xavier, the son of Whitney fell through the window and is at hospital fighting for his life. The question was did he accidentally fall or was he pushed.

The ladies of the area Rebecca, Blair, Mara and Whitney were all neighbours in Harlow Street but the secrets they held....

This story is about friendship, relationships, jealousy. It really shows that as women many times we may look at someone's marriage or just their life in general and feel as if we are missing out or ask ourselves why can't I have a husband like that or a child like that.

Blair and Whitney were very well written characters. I really felt it for Rebecca though.

I highly recommend this one. It is full of drama yes. But equally it has some important life lessons for women.

Book Review: The Street Lawyer by John Grisham

About:

Michael was in a hurry. He was scrambling up the ladder at Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. law firm with eight hundred lawyers. The money was good and getting better; a partnership was three years away. He was a rising star with no time to waste, no time to stop, no time to toss a few coins into the cups of panhandlers. No time for a conscience.

But a violent encounter with a homeless man stopped him cold. Michael survived; his assailant did not. Who was this man? Michael did some digging, and learned that he was a mentally ill veteran who'd been in and out of shelters for many years. Then Michael dug a little deeper, and found a dirty secret, and the secret involved Drake & Sweeney.

The fast track derailed; the ladder collapsed. Michael bolted the firm and took a top-secret file with him. He landed in the streets, an advocate for the homeless, a street lawyer.

And a thief.

My Thoughts

The master of legal drama did not disappoint with this one. Michael Brock was an amazing character. Imagine a lawyer on the fast track to being a partner of one of the top law firms in D.C., when a hostage encounter with a homeless gunman would change his career drastically, sending him to be a lawyer for the homeless, hopeless and destitute. THE VOICELESS.

Many times persons enter the legal profession, or any profession to be of service to the community, but then when money comes in the way the focus becomes just that, getting rich. Grisham being the masterful storyteller that he is, worked in a message that persons should always try, especially as lawyers to remember that the job is there to provide a service, to be of a benefit to humanity and be a voice for those who cannot do it themselves. 

The cast of characters were amazing. The most notable being Mordecai, the head of the legal clinic that Michael eventually began working with, When I read legal books, I always look forward to a trial. I think more could have been done with the "Case of the Missing File" I wanted more drama there. 

Overall this was a good read.