4 Glasses of Lemonade – Page 2

The Holdout by Graham Moore

Hello Kittens! I’ve got a courtroom thriller for you today. Even as I write it I can’t believe that this is what I’m offering you right now. Can I tell you a secret? Courtroom thrillers are some of my least favorite books of all time. I had a few unfortunate Grisham and Turow experiences and I’ve never fully recovered. This book, however, may just have turned things around. Not for Grisham or Turow. Nope. That is never going to happen again. But Graham Moore has redeemed this category for me. He’s given us pleasant but flawed characters and a story where you want to root for everyone and no one all at the same time. Everyone’s a winner and everyone’s a loser with this one. It’s complex but deeply satisfying. It seems like everyone has been talking about this one so I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I did.

Title: The Holdout

Author: Graham Moore

Author website: https://mrgrahammoore.com/

Publisher: Random House

Publish date: February 18, 2020

ISBN: 9780399591778

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Summary:

It has been 10 years since Maya Seale sat on the jury that handed down the fate of Bobby Nock. In the years since, Maya has been vilified by the court of public opinion and has been publicly blamed by other members of the jury for the outcome of the case. As far as the general public is concerned, that jury let a guilty man go free, and they did it because of Maya.

In the years since, Maya has built a good life. She’s a lawyer, fighting legal battles with the perspective that she gained from her time as a juror. She believes that their verdict was the right one, even with everything that has happened since. But when she is approached in the courthouse by another one of the jurors from that trial, one who quickly and vehemently threw her under the bus after the trial, she is forced to confront what she has spent years trying to move on from.

A podcast turned Netflix-special called Murder Town is reuniting the original jurors to look at the case on its 10-year anniversary. Maya is reluctant to participate. The trial is done and laid to rest and no significant new evidence has ever appeared, or so she thinks. This other juror swears to her that he has found new evidence that proves their verdict was wrong beyond the shadow of a doubt. He won’t tell her what he knows yet, but his belief in this new evidence is absolute.

Against her better judgment, and with outside pressure guiding her decisions, Maya ultimately joins the other jurors for the reunion. Unfortunately, that decision will lead to serious consequences for Maya when a juror ends up dead and Maya is the prime suspect. Now she will have to face the justice system in yet another new role. Will she get the kind of juror that she was? Does she want to?

Why I liked it:

This story is a fascinating look at the justice system that we think we know. As these jurors discover: the lawyers are there to tell a story, the judge is there to make sure everyone plays by the rules, and the jury is there to make sure that justice is served. Can you ever be truly sure about something like this? Aren’t they all guilty of something?

I like how Moore handled the racial tension throughout the story. We got some really powerful monologues about identity and the role it plays in decision making. I also really enjoyed that all of the characters were changed so deeply by their participation on the jury, some for better and some for worse.

I also loved all of the twists. At one point or another I suspected nearly everyone throughout the course of this novel. While some of my guesses turned out to be correct, and I did guess a major plot twist, there was still plenty that I didn’t see coming.

Favorite quotes:

“Out here, maybe somebody goes to jail. Maybe somebody doesn’t. But we never know the truth. The real, whole, definite truth. It’s impossible.” pg. 112

“Their punishment for being people who demanded answers was that they would be forced to go on in perpetuity with their doubts.” pg. 183-184

“It wasn’t that any of them made Carolina nervous. It was that once you combined them all…well, somehow it felt like these people were going to collide against each other like marbles. They were going to send each other in directions none of them saw coming.”

What I would like to change:

This is such a small thing…but there are spoilers for 3 Agatha Christie books included, and I don’t feel like it was necessary. I haven’t read much Agatha Christie, and maybe these were well-known plot twists, but they weren’t known to me and I was a little miffed.

Disclaimer: No disclaimer necessary. I chose this book for one of my Book of the Month subscriptions.

My library rating: I wish this could have been a completely unobjectionable recommendation, but there is a sexual assault (it mostly takes place off the page) and a sex addiction and there are a few scenes involving drugs. It’s really not that bad and I still think it would be a great book club selection for talking about the criminal justice system.

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

My personal preference rating: I gave this title 5 stars. I’m not a fan of courtroom thrillers usually, but this one was fast-paced, had entirely believable characters, more red herrings than you can shake a stick at, and still managed to expound upon some deep issues. It was a joy to read.

Additional Info:

Investigation Discovery started a book club recently and they picked this as one of their selections. You can find more information about the ID Book Club here.

The Field Guide to the North American Teenage by Ben Philippe

Hello Kittens! It’s been a while since I went in blind to read a book, but I saw this title recommended a few times on BookTube and I decided to just take a shot. I’m taking you back to high school with this read. In the middle of reading this story, I was feeling the nostalgia. I was a nerdy semi-jock with a close-knit but utterly weird and unpopular group of friends. While the main character in this book falls into decidedly different categories than I did, his experience still rings true. This book is full of witty teenage sarcasm and drama. You may be thanking your lucky stars that this wasn’t your high school experience, but this fish-out-of-water story is thought-provoking and I hope it takes your mind off of everything else right now.

Title: The Field Guide to the North American Teenager

Author: Ben Philippe

Author website: http://benphilippe.com/

Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins imprint)

Publish date: January 8, 2019

ISBN: 9780062524134

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Summary:

Norris curses Texas and Stephen Fuller Austin the very first day he and his mother land in Austin, TX. He’s a black French Canadian kid from Montreal and he can tell before they even finish their airport layovers that he is a spectacle for the American people. They don’t get his hockey jersey, they openly stare, and they are resistant to his efforts to educate them. Thus begins our introduction to the sassy teen who is the focus of this YA novel. Norris is less than enthused to be starting over midway through his high school career. The only thing worse than his first impressions of his new classmates and teachers are their first impressions of him.

With a mouth that speaks long before his brain fully engages sometimes, Norris is perfectly happy to wait out the next few years in exile, not interacting with the natives. He takes to jotting down his observations in a diary given to him by an overenthusiastic guidance counselor on his first day of school. Considering how his writings revolve around examinations of the Texan-American species, with entries about “jocks and cheerleaders”, “Male bonding”, and “The American Prom”, the diary can be considered a minor character in the story.

As time goes on, Norris makes a few connections with the locals, trying out several new experiences. With a cheerleader named Madison acting as an unofficial guide to romance and a girl named Aarti acting as his unofficial guide to living, Norris is in better hands than he realizes. He even manages to form a hockey team with the help of a persistent new “friend” named Liam. Texas may not be as horrible as he first imagined (except for the relentless heat). Just when things start looking up, everything comes crashing down in typical teenage drama fashion.

While the book comes off as light reading, the truth is it examines several hot button topics in American culture. In particular, we get looks into the immigrant experience, pervasive racism, homophobia, mental health, and the continual threat that everyday life holds for young black men. None of these get a particularly deep examination, but the everyday nature of how Phillipe treats them in the story is almost more damning than any intense scrutiny would have provided. Norris and his friends are all encountering different aspects of these subjects and they all handle them in different fashions, not all of which are completely healthy. The story is not without consequences for typical teenage decision-making, and the inherent lessons are clear for any reader.

Why I liked it:
A lot of YA treats relationships at an accelerated pace, and I really appreciate that Phillipe didn’t artificially speed those up in here. The friendships and the romances develop at a reasonable pace. Old slights aren’t completely forgotten even once they are forgiven. That lines up a lot more closely with the teenage experience that I remember than a lot of YA does. (Seriously though. Pay attention to the timeline in the next couple of YA romances you pick up and see how unnaturally fast the relationships develop.)

I also really enjoyed finding out in the Acknowledgments section that some of the characters are based off of people in the authors life. In particular, I really like knowing that there is a real Aarti out there somewhere, hopefully taking over the world.

What I would like to change:

I know it’s more realistic this way, but I was hoping for a less ambiguous ending. I can’t say too much without spoilers, but there were some things I was hoping for a resolution on.

Disclaimer: No disclaimer needed. I borrowed a digital version of this title from my library.

My library rating: There were a fair number of curse words in here, including sexual and racial slurs, so I’m going to limit the recommendable audience just slightly.

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

My personal preference rating: I gave this one 3 stars. I liked it but didn’t love it. That won’t stop me from recommending it to most people who are looking for a good contemporary YA story.

The Fallen Girls by Kathryn Casey

**Update 5/31/20. I was contacted the publisher who let me know that you can access this book from a few other online platforms. I’ve added links below and updated my intro for you. Now you have even more opportunities to pick up this great read!**

Hello Kittens! I’ve got one that may be a little more limited to access than my normal recommendations but I think it is a worthy read for crime fiction fans. This title is currently only being released in digital formats, but I highly recommend it. There’s an interesting setting, a haunted investigator, and an intriguing premise. I figured out whodunnit about 16 chapters from the end, but I was so hooked that I kept reading anyway. Also, there was always the possibility that the author could throw another curve ball and I would be wrong. Do you try to guess the killer when you read mysteries? I’ve started noting my guesses in my personal notes to see how quickly I can guess. My first guess on this one was wrong, but the plot helped straighten my thinking out over time.

Title: The Fallen Girls

Author: Kathryn Casey

Author website: http://www.kathryncasey.com/

https://www.facebook.com/KathrynCaseyAuthor/

Publisher: Bookouture

Publish date: June 3, 2020

ISBN: 9781838886011

Buy the Book: Amazon, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play

Summary:

Detective Clara Jeffries has been working in Dallas PD’s Crimes Against Persons Unit for 3 years. She’s a workaholic who gets the job done and never seems to take time off. When her boss orders her to take a few days of leave, she’s at her wits end for what to do with herself. Around this time she gets an unexpected call from an old acquaintance, Max Anderson, who tells her that he believes her half-sister has gone missing. Clara agrees to return home to help Max work the case because he is having trouble speaking with Clara’s family.

Clara left Alber, Utah, years ago to escape the fundamentalist lifestyle of her Mormon community. While we only get glimpses of her past, we know that her childhood was a happy one and something happened to her in her teens that changed her life and made her want to run away. With help from a woman named Hannah to escape, Clara hasn’t been back since and hasn’t kept in touch with her family. Clara’s family considers her an Apostate, an outsider who has betrayed the faith, and they’re not anxious to talk to her or even acknowledge her existence. When Clara gets to Alber, she discovers that the case is extremely complicated because Max is certain that her sister is missing and has reason to believe that she has been taken, but Clara’s family refuses to confirm that the girl is missing or provide the police with any information.

To make matters worse, Clara’s family aren’t the only ones denying that her half-sister is gone. The police aren’t anxious to investigate a crime that they can’t prove has even happened, especially without the cooperation of the families. The harder that Clara digs into this, the more threatened the townspeople and the local police departments are getting. She is told repeatedly to drop the case and return to Texas, but Clara is certain that her sister is missing, and according to Hannah, she may not be the only one.

Why I liked it:

This was an intriguing mystery with a setting that I didn’t know much about. Casey writes about the intricacies of this Mormon community and the struggles that they have gone through. She gives a thorough treatment to the religious aspects as well as the pitfalls of this faith community, including the mistrust they have of outsiders. Ultimately, this was a thoroughly plotted mystery with a healthy amount of twists and turns. It’s not overly gory, but there is some violence and there is definitely a villain. I can easily see this novel being turned into a movie.

It’s told in alternating chapters between Clara, Max, and Clara’s half-sister, Delilah. With each chapter you get another piece of the puzzle, but the plotting is intricate enough that I didn’t put everything together until about 60% of the way through the book. I figured out who the villain was, but not everyone might, and I really don’t mind a mystery every now and then where you actually are given enough information to figure things out. Not to mention, just because you think you know who did it doesn’t mean you know why they did it, and the why is just as interesting to find out.

Also, the first chapter is seriously creepy and I loved the tone that it set. The cover art is perfect for this title and I’m not sure I’ll ever look at cornfields without thinking about this read again.

What I would like to change:

The first half of the story was really heavy on gaslighting Clara. For me, that’s always a little tough to read. It made me wish that we got to the action of the story a little quicker.

I also wish I was seeing more promotion for this title. I couldn’t find it on the author’s website (only on her Facebook page). It’s a strong story and it would be more accessible to most people in print… But I suppose that won’t matter if lots of people pick it up in digital format (which you should do). I still prefer print despite the fact that I increasingly read digitally, but I could be in the minority on this.

Disclaimer: I received an electronic advance copy of this title via the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My library rating:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

While there is violence in the book, none of it takes place on the page so I think a book club could handle this one, and they might like reading about a community that is very different from their own.

My personal preference rating: I gave this title 5 stars. I think it is a really solid start to a mystery series. I’m going to be taking a look at the author’s backlist, which includes a lot of true crime too. Yay!

Murder in the Storybook Cottage by Ellery Adams

Hello Kittens! I continue to read up a storm from my quarantine conditions and I have got a treat for you today. It’s the sixth book in a series, so if you haven’t read the Book Retreat Mystery Series by Ellery Adams, now would be a good time to get started. I’ll be honest with you about this one: it saved the series for me. I found the fifth book to be a little underwhelming and I was starting to lose faith in the storyline. There’s a fantastic subplot that goes along with the series and I felt like the fifth book stretched the believability too far. That being said, “Murder in the Storybook Cottage” was amazing! It is a cozy quick read that will be available in less than two weeks and I think it may be just what someone people need to help deal with the stir crazy nature of staying at home.

Title: Murder in the Storybook Cottage

Author: Ellery Adams Murder in the Storybook Cottage (Book Retreat Mysteries #6)

Author website: https://elleryadamsmysteries.com/

Publisher: Kensington

Publish date: April 28^th, 2020

ISBN: 9781496715675

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

***If you are unfamiliar with the Book Retreat series, this review will contain some spoilers.***

This is the sixth installment in the Book Retreat Mystery series by Ellery Adams following Jane Steward, her sons, and her loyal friends and staff at Storyton Hall. I discovered this series a few years ago after devouring Adams’ Books by the Bay series and fell instantly in love with the book-themed resort located in the mountains of Virginia. This book restored my faith in the series after a somewhat disappointing (in my opinion) 5^th book.

We join the action as Jane prepares Storyton Hall to host a children’s book themed weekend for both book industry insiders and families. She is especially excited to be hosting her first Golden Ticket family, a program Jane initiated to bring a deserving family to Storyton who would not normally be able to afford a vacation to Storyton. Things are going well for Jane and her friends, especially as she continues to sell off the contents of the secret library in order to keep her family safe. All seems well as Jane and the staff prepare for a magical weekend, but even with their efforts to mitigate the danger at Storyton, a Rip Van Winkle (code for a deceased guest) is found on the property. The victim is unknown to Jane, her staff, or seemingly any of the arriving guests, which complicates the efforts to explain this death.

Adams has taken this series in a completely new direction with this addition and I am completely supportive of it. Jane is a strong woman, managing a business, taking care of two boys, and setting boundaries on her relationship. But this time, we see the toll that so many years of fighting to protect everyone in her life has taken on her. Jane wants nothing more than for everyone to be safe at Storyton, and she can’t believe that even with all of her efforts, there is still danger afoot. Fortunately for Jane, she never has to stand alone. With her friends the Cover Girls, her steadfast Fins, and her family surrounding her, we know that she will get to the bottom of the mystery while ensuring that all her guests have a weekend they will never forget.

The shining star of this series is truly the setting. When I get to the end of each story and remember that Storyton Hall is not a real place, I am always disappointed. Adams has designed a world that cherishes readers in all forms and she introduces characters that represent the diversity of literature. The books don’t shy away from the tough subjects: this one addresses racism and the lack of diversity in children’s literature. I am really looking forward to seeing where this series will go next…especially with the information that was set up in the epilogue! I can’t believe I have to wait to see how two of my favorite series are going to come together.

Disclaimer: I received an electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

You have no idea how badly I wanted to give this book a 5-glass rating, but it has a few scenes that could be upsetting to some readers. There is mention of an accident that results in the death of a child, and there are also two somewhat grisly murders. While the details aren’t too explicit, there’s enough there that could put someone off. I would almost move this addition to the series out of the cozy category because of the manner of the deaths. Nonetheless, the murders themselves take place off of the page and there are no spicy scenes, so this is a series I will continue to widely recommend to mystery readers.

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

Hello Kittens! I hope everyone is staying as well as they can. I know that for many people these are scary and uncertain times and I hope that you are finding comfort in any small ways that you can. I have been finding some small solace in reading. I’ve only been home for a few days but I’ve managed to immerse myself in my TBR pile and plow through a few books that had been lounging without the attention they deserved over the last few weeks. Reading allows me to get out of my head. I only know that things have gotten to be too much in my life when I can no longer focus on a book. Fortunately, I have not reached that point yet. This book is a creepy one that just might take your mind off of the real world for awhile. I know that it did the trick for me.

Title: The Sun Down Motel

Author: Simone St. James

Author website: http://www.simonestjames.com/

Publisher: Berkley (Penguin Random House imprint)

Publish date: February 18, 2020

ISBN: 9780440000174

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Simone St. James came on my radar last year when I read The Broken Girls as part of my PopSugar Challenge and it blew me away. She’s now on my must-read list, so when her newest book, The Sun Down Motel was offered as one of the options for the January Book of the Month Box, I jumped on it. St. James sets the scenes for creepy mysteries like no one else that I have ever read. She integrates more supernatural elements in this story than she did in The Broken Girls but still creates plenty of scary moments with her earthly characters as well. The story opens with two narratives, separated by 35 years, following Vivian Delaney in 1982 and Carly Kirk in 2017.,

In 1982 Viv Delaney has run away from home and is on her way to New York City to start a new life. She ends up only making it as far as Fell, New York, a sleepy town with limited opportunities. Viv finds work as the night desk clerk at the Sun Down Motel. The job doesn’t require too much of her, since the motel only has a few customers at a time. Soon after starting work, Viv begins to notice some strange happenings at the Sun Down. The more she works there, the more it seems like some of the hotel’s guest checked in…and never left. As Viv begins to unravel the mysteries of the Sun Down, both past and present, she puts herself in real danger. By the end of the first chapter we know one thing for sure about Viv Delaney: by 3am on November 30, 1982, she will vanish.

In 2017, Carly Kirk makes her way to Fell, seeking purpose in her life after the death of her mother. She is drawn to Fell because of an unsolved family mystery, the disappearance of her aunt Viv in 1982. No one in the family would talk about what happened to her aunt, and Carly doesn’t want to live with that mystery hanging over her any longer, so she travels to Fell to find out what really happened. Carly settles into town and starts investigating, ultimately following in her aunt’s footsteps and taking the night desk clerk job at the Sun Down Motel. Along the way she meets a cast of characters who are both helpful and unnerving, including the Sun Down’s long-term residents. She begins putting all of the pieces together and finds herself following the same trails that her aunt did. Carly discovers the truth. Viv Delaney wasn’t the first woman to go missing in Fell. In fact, the town has a history of women meeting violent ends…but Viv was the last.

Told in alternating narratives between Viv and Carly, the reader gets deeply inside the heads of both women. The setting of Fell, New York is eerie, with everyone in town seeming to acknowledge that bad things happen to women in their town. The ambivalence of the townspeople and the local police force in light of these facts only adds to the novel’s tension. Viv’s old-school armchair detective work contrasts sharply with the information that is available to Carly with modern technology. Even as both women are leading the reader to the same conclusion, the story holds so many twists that the reader is going to be flying through the pages, unable to put the book down for fear that they’ll miss something. St. James has a knack for adding supernatural elements that don’t bog down the story. When the final conclusion comes to bear, the real monsters are all too human.

The story is excellent entertainment, but it doesn’t shy away from addressing the very real nature of gender disparity in the 70s. It also succinctly covers issues like mental health and the need to disengage from the facts when they get too dark. The thing that makes this story so good for me, is the fact that Fell, New York, could have been almost any town in the 70s and the story still could have played out this way. Those were dark times, but in all honesty, the story translates well into 2017’s narrative as well. The high point of this story comes when the reader learns how little has actually changed in all those years.

It’s a fast-paced read that mystery readers will love unraveling. Figuring out the whodunnit is only half the battle in this story, where the why and the how is so much more compelling than the who. I would recommend this read to anyone who likes their mysteries a little spooky and isn’t afraid of a little gore. Most of the violence is left off of the page, with the reader left to imagine based on descriptions of the injuries, but it could definitely be a trigger for those who are sensitive to violence against women. Fair warning.

Disclaimer: No disclaimer needed. I got this one through the Book of the Month service that I subscribe to. It’s pretty neat and if you’re an avid reader, I recommend trying it out. You get your choice of books each month across a variety of genres. Some of them are pre-release titles. If you don’t like that month’s offerings, you can pause and choose a book the next month. The prices are reasonable and the titles are top-tier.

My rating:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

Most of the violence takes place off of the page. I think this would be a great book group selection because it is going to spur discussion of why society has so much trouble taking the endemic problem of violence against women seriously. It’s also pretty thought provoking when it comes to the nature of justice. There is a very minimal amount of foul language in the book, primarily spoken by villains, which I feel makes it more palatable to readers. Overall, I will be recommending this book to several of my patrons and most of my co-workers.