Hello from Ft Lauderdale! My mom, stepdad, and all of our pets evacuated on Tuesday to escape Hurricane Ian. I live in a mandatory evacuation zone, as do my mom and stepdad, so we booked an Airbnb on Monday night, prepped our homes, packed up the pets, and took a 5-hour journey to the southeast side of the state! It’s been a wild week, one I will be posting about next week once all of this mess is behind us. (Wonder of wonders, the Tampa Bay area once again escaped a direct hit by Hurricane Ian. How do we keep getting so lucky?! A hurricane hasn’t hit our area in over 100 years!)
For now, I’m sticking to my original posting plan: book reviews! I had hoped to get this post up yesterday but it didn’t happen. Neither of these books is going to make my favorites list, but YMMV.
A Lie for a Lie by Helena Hunting (★★★☆☆)
A Lie for a Lie had the potential to be a wonderful romance but it included my least-favorite twist in these kinds of books (telling you this twist would be a spoiler, so unfortunately, I can’t) and a set of over-the-top parents who engaged in some of my least-favorite behaviors (no, we’re not asking fathers for their permission to marry their daughters anymore). This was a second-chance romance about Rook and Lainey. Rook is a popular hockey player who has been known as a bit of a ladies’ man and is off on his usual Alaskan adventure. Typically, he comes to his cabin in Alaska every summer with his brother to get away from it all, but his brother can’t come this year so it’s just him. Lainey is a marine biologist working on a PhD who comes to Alaska to study wildlife. Rook and Lainey share a very bumpy airplane ride together that bonds them, and then, when they arrive at the airport and Lainey finds out she can’t reserve a rental car, Rook offers to take her to her cabin. (A great premise for a terrible thriller.) Alas, this is a romance novel so nothing nefarious happens. Rather, the two of them spend the month falling in love. And then… Rook has to leave Alaska unexpectedly and wouldn’t you know it: Neither of them leaves any way to communicate afterward. No cell phone numbers, not even a last name. A year later, they reconnect when Rook finds out that Lainey is working at the same aquarium where he’s attending a kid’s birthday party. And, well, I’m sure you know what happens from there. This wasn’t a terrible romance, but I just wasn’t a fan of the far-fetched plot nor did I care for many of the characters. (Open-door romance.)
The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare (★★★☆☆)
Oh, you guys. I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. It was beautifully written, a heartbreaking yet also uplifting story about a young girl in Nigeria who simply wants to find her “louding voice.” Adunni wants what girls her age don’t get: a chance at education and a chance to use her voice for good. Instead, at age 14, she is married off by her father to a man three times her age. I showed my naivete here, as I was astonished that this wasn’t a historical fiction novel; instead, it was written in present day, which means these atrocities of girls being married off to much older men and the human trafficking that ensues is a reality for so many Nigerian girls. It’s horrifying. While this book had such a big story to tell, it was one that was very easy for me to set down. And at night, I found myself not wanting to sink into the story, knowing it was just going to break my heart. All in all, it’s a story that I definitely think people should read, and I wish I was in a better headspace to appreciate it.
What I’m Reading This Week
- You Got Anything Stronger? by Gabrielle Union (audio) – I’m a few hours into this audiobook and y’all, it is so, so good. I have found every essay to be so impactful and resonant.
- Pint of Contention by Susannah Nix (e-book) – I just started this fun contemporary romance, and I have a feeling I’m going to like it a lot.
- Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (print) – I couldn’t help buying Taylor Jenkins Reid’s latest, as I have just about her entire collection on my shelves. I am over 100 pages in and loving it.
What are you reading?
I think you’re a secret mood reader. The Girl with the Louding Voice is very hard to read, but so good. I earned so much from reading it and am very glad I did read it. There are some scenes that have really stuck with me from it. BUT. It is CHALLENGING and I can see how you might not be in the right headspace for it, particularly in light of the evacuation situation! I am glad that things seem to be going okay on that front, but it must be hard to have cats and dogs together! Good luck and stay safe!
Haha, I think you might be right! I just need to be a better mood reader! I have been such a TBR-list person, rarely deviating from my list, but it seems like I am definitely turning into more of a mood reader these days. I just have to come to terms with that. Eeks!
I’m so glad you’re safe! I have been thinking about all my Floridian friends.
I just finished The Startup Wife and now I’m going to start The Dead Moms Club, which I AM NOT RECOMMENDING TO YOU, DO NOT READ THIS STEPHANY. But the author is a podcaster who I really like, and this is a memoir. AGAIN, NOT FOR YOU! I’m going to be bossy on this one!!!
I love when someone gets book bossy on me! Ha. I am definitely going to take a pass on that one, for sure!
I am glad that you guys stayed safe and that you evacuated. I have 2 sets of aunts/uncles that live in Venice, FL and they DID NOT EVACUATE! I think it is bananas that they didn’t but my mom said something like “they wanted to stay in their homes.” Luckily the damage wasn’t too bad but there was terrible flooding and they lost power and likely still don’t have power? But sheesh. My mom’s brothers are soooo stubborn, though.
I just started “The Book of Goose” which I am really liking. The writing is beautiful. It’s about the friendship of 2 young girls in post-WWII France. Before this, I finished “Flying Solo” which I loved!
People in Florida, especially those of us on the West Coast that don’t get hit with bad hurricanes too often, are soooo stubborn when it comes to evacuating for a hurricane. We think we’re invincible, but we’re not. Mother Nature DOES NOT PLAY. I really did not want to be one of those people who has to be rescued from my roof, so I’m glad we ended up evacuating even if I had to twist my mom’s arm to leave.
Oh and I was so worried about your Dolphin’s QB last night! I didn’t watch much of the game but I saw him get hit and it did not look good! I asked Phil for an update when he came to bed and then googled this morning and was relieved that he was released. I thought he might have been paralyzed or something! 2 concussions so close together is NOT good. I was talking about it with my doctor neighbor on our run and she said she wished concussion wasn’t used because it’s truly a ‘traumatic brain injury’ which long-lasting effects.
OMG, it was probably the scariest thing I have ever seen on a football field! I was really worried he was going to have a really bad TBI because he wasn’t even moving when he left the field. It was such a relief to find out he was able to be released from the hospital and travel home with the team. It was hard to watch the rest of the game because I just kept thinking about how brutal this game is and how we don’t take concussions as seriously as they need to be.
Oh, I felt for you when I saw Tua go down. One of the most frightening involuntary responses the body can have to a head injury, to be honest. I Also thought it would be much worse, and while I am grateful he is recovering, I am terrified of what will happen to him in the future (short- and long-term). Brain injury is no joke. 🙁
I have this existential thing with football – I love hearing about it, I hate hate hate the violence and the injuries that result. Sigh.
(On the books? Agree w/ NGS – I think you are a secret mood reader. :>)
I have the same existential thing when it comes to football. I love the game so much, but the injuries and violence… not so much. Have you listened to the Gladiator podcast? They did a season on Aaron Hernandez, CTEs, and the way the NFL deals with injuries as a whole and it was FASCINATING. It really opened my eyes to the way players are taught to treat their injuries, and why concussions are still not treated as seriously as they should be.
I’m so glad Tua is okay, and it looks like he might be back next week, but man, I’m going to be so nervous watching him (especially with our offensive line that isn’t doing much to protect our QBs lately, seeing as every starting QB from the last 3 weeks leaves with an injury, ugh.)