ritaslilnook's reviews
313 reviews

I almost, almost, left this book unfinished, but I pushed through and am here now to talk about it. Firstly, let me start by saying that I didn’t read the previous book to this one so I’m not sure if my thoughts on this would be different but … I don’t think so.

Girl Lost is a book following the life of Detective Kaitlyn Carr, an LAPD agent who is assigned the case of a disappearing woman - Karen. Meanwhile, back home at Big Bear Lake, her thirteen-year-old sister, Violet, is missing. That’s the story, you don’t really get more than that.

I was very excited going into this story, it sounded like the perfect mix of the real-life of an agent vs. their working career. However, it ended up being too unrealistic and the writing was borderline average. Most descriptive scenes dragged on and on about details that you don’t really need to know to get the vibe the author is trying to pass onto you. I get that maybe her idea was to make you feel exactly what Kaitlyn was feeling and maybe in the author’s mind, it made sense to describe certain environments excessively to create a certain idea or image in our minds, but this story could have been told in half the number of pages it was.

All the scenes that promise to be climatic end up being monotonous and underdeveloped. Also, the ending wasn’t too surprising. Some of it, yes, but the person who committed the crime seemed quite obvious to me halfway through the book.

The premise of this book made me feel like I was going down a hill with a few bumps along the way.

One last thing and, please, bear in mind you might consider this a spoiler:

Spoiler

For someone who loves her sister so much and tries to be more invested in finding her than working on her real case, it seems kind of strange to me how she’s so worried about whether she should pursue a relationship with one man or another. She’s going out eating dinner, talking about life (I would consider them dates) with men instead of doing her job, and focusing on both her sister and Karen. It takes the truthfulness of her feelings towards her sister and even her job seem quite fake and it makes her look unsympathetic towards both cases.

Happy reads, besties.

I’m speechless, but not in a good way. I’m staring at this page without knowing where to begin. This book made me consider throwing it across the river and, mind you, I read it on Kobo - I was willing to sacrifice my poor Kobito.

As you are already aware, this story follows the road trip of five individuals who are making it to their friends’ wedding - throughout the book we keep going back and forth between the THEN and the NOW. The author’s idea was great, really, she wanted to glue us to the story in order to find out what leads the five of them to be where they are, on the terms they are.

Our main characters are Addie, Deb (who is Addie’s sister), Dylan (Addie’s ex-boyfriend), and Marcus (Dylan’s best friend). The reason why they all end up in the same car doesn’t matter much but I’m quoting the synopsis of the book here: “The car is soon jam-packed full of luggage and secrets, and with three hundred miles ahead of them, Dylan and Addie can't avoid confronting the very messy history of their relationship.” That’s the premise. Maybe there’s more than one? I think the author tried to focus mainly on their relationship, but Marcus’ development was also an essential part of this story.

I read this book influenced by the BookTok community, but I didn’t get what I was promised. Or, at least, what I expected which was a fun road trip led by romance. Instead, this book contains constant bickering between the girls vs. the boys. It is so frustrating because what we get is a book about a boy, yes, Dyl, you’re a boy, who is lost in life and lets his toxic best friend make all his decisions for him… There’s not much NOW, there’s more THEN, and even though I do understand the importance of that for us to understand the story, maybe the author could have taken fewer pages to do so.

I was OK with the first pages of the book - they were light, fun, amusing, even loving with all the young love experience. But when Marcus took the spotlight from Addie and Dylan working on themselves, I lost it. I found the book too repetitive in the sense that it takes forever to get new details on how things are as they are and the chapters seemed the very same oftentimes.

Now, I will talk briefly about the characters, so there may be spoilers ahead.

Spoiler

I know deep down they are all in their early twenties, but let me tell you… what a lack of self-awareness.

- Addie is a strong girl, she is, so why did she take so much crap from Marcus? From Dylan, even? Take the ropes of your life, woman! You know better.

- Deb is hilarious and probably my favorite character. Very down-to-earth, very fun, and light. Most importantly, she keeps her sister’s interests as a priority. I love her. Although, I wish she could have beaten Marcus for me.

- Dylan is such an immature boy. Ok, he has family issues, daddy issues, to be fair. But… GOD DAMN IT, SUCK IT UP. Don’t you love Addie? Don’t you want to be your own person? DO THAT. Screw Marcus. You’re his friend, not his companion. Your girl’s word should be first. Also, how do you not question him following her around EVERYWHERE?!

- Marcus, mate, I hate you. You totally overshadowed the main story here. Midway through the story, due to the “glares” Addie often noticed coming from him, I did assume he was being an idiot because he loved her - or rather, he didn’t love her, he just wanted what his friend had. Ugh, all this crap because of a spoiled boy.

AND LET ME TELL YOU, they are enriched, ok? Maybe not Addie and Deb, but Marcus and Dylan are and they could have gotten mental help at any given time. Dylan, my boy, you’re not going to find yourself unless you look inside, and neither are you, Marcus.

To finish off, Addie and Dylan’s love story never felt like real love to me. I don’t know if it was because of Marcus or what, they did seem to be enamored by each other, but I wouldn’t say LOVE is the right word to describe a relationship that ends due to the strain caused by a toxic best friend.

Overall, the book was ok. It’s a light read if you’re not as aggressive as throwing your book against a wall or making a Marcus voodoo doll (oh wait, maybe shouldn’t have said that).

Still, it was an ok book and I still want to read more of the author. The story just wasn’t it for me but, hey, the premise was established. Kudos for that.

Happy readings,
Rita

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

I have read books by Cecelia Ahern and there was quite some hype a while ago about this book, so I bought it. I’m easy like that. However, this book was not IT for me. You either love it or hate it.

The story is about a quirky girl named Allegra, also known as Freckles - due to having freckles all over herself, who goes from a small town to a big city in search of

Spoiler

her biological mother

.

She’s not living her dream life but still tries to make her days meaningful by focusing on her job as a parking warden and by keeping a routine that keeps her grounded. It doesn’t mean she lives up to it every single day, though.

This book and I have a very difficult relationship because it took me TWO times trying to read it to actually finish it. I struggled a lot with the plot. The chapters are very slow-paced and all you feel is sadness, really. Melancholy, maybe, is a better word for it. I was having none of it, I swear.

One day, Allegra meets a guy who puts her whole life into perspective for her and the book goes from following her routine to following her trying to find who her five people are. As quoted above, this is the idea that makes up the whole premise of the book. Allegra, besides

Spoiler

wanting to meet her birth mother

, also wants to have a five - a number of five people who make her be her better self.

It wasn’t until the last few chapters, which in my opinion, could have actually dragged on for a little longer - NOW, SEE, HERE I think the slow pace was necessary -, that we start to understand the meaning of the story.

Allegra does find her five, kind of unexpectedly, and the story had me by the last chapter. It wasn’t TOO bad, I was kind of dramatic to be fair. As I said, by the end, I was happy I took the time to finish it. The side characters were also great to read about. Following their story along with hers, seeing how it impacted her as a person as well. To be honest, if it wasn’t for the narrative I’m not sure I would have finished the book.

Allegra reminds me a lot of myself in the sense that she is trying to fit life. Sounds easy, but it isn’t, really, and most importantly it left me wondering who my five people are and what they think and say about who I am.

This is a 3 star for me, but I do understand why some people love it so much.

Happy reads,
Rita

I didn’t think I would be reading this book so soon, but it was for 1,99 on Kobo and you know your girl can’t resist a good deal.

This book tells us the story of a single mom, Jess, who works freelance on data and statistics matters. She hasn’t been in a relationship or with someone else for a long time, even if Fizzy, her best friend, pressures her all the time to take a leap and jump back into the dating world. However, Jess never had her father around and her mom is an absent drunkard who only cares about her whenever she needs money. She was raised by her grandparents with whom she has a beautiful relationship and, not wanting her child to suffer any added stress due to badly ended relationships, Jess keeps avoiding men like the plague.

Every day, she meets with her friend, Fizzy, at Twiggs - a local café. And, every day, she is distracted by the presence of ‘Americano’, a man who to her is nothing but smug and unpleasant, even if they have never shared a word.

One day, Fizzy tells Jess about a new app that is about to launch, an app that will revolutionize the dating world. An app, ‘Americano’ works for - GeneticAlly, a promising new way to predict matchmaking and … soulmates… all that through DNA.

Fascinated by the science of this and how the stats of it work, Jess approaches ‘Americano’ and, thanks to Fizzy’s bluntness, they both win themselves a meeting at the company to know more about it and who knows, maybe even participate in the project. Which they do.

It took me a while to get into this book. The beginning was slow and kind of confusing (?) to me. In the first chapters, all you get is Twiggs, Fizzy, Jess, and Americano (who is actually named River), that’s it. It’s kinda frustrating considering it is assumable that this is a story with a happy ending, so waiting for the romance to develop is, in my opinion, kind of a letdown. Regardless, when the story picked up its pace it was actually quite enjoyable to read about Jess and the little family she created for herself.

The chemistry between her and River is *fire emoji*.

It was very interesting how the authors managed to focus the story on Jess but still made us care for all the side characters. What I mean is they managed to develop Jess’ story, as well as River’s and Fizzy’s. And, if you think about it, even Juno’s story. They all blend in very well together… this was a very cutesy, fluffy story. Hot at times, of course. One thing: the drama, can’t be even considered drama or angst, per se. Trust me, this is quite a light read. Just push through those first few chapters and you get yourself a beautiful story.

And if I can say so, my favorite love story was Juno and River’s. Ah, those two. It’s heartwarming.

Personally, I think this book has a very different concept to it. Finding a soulmate through DNA can be a thought that has never crossed our minds, but I can’t say it felt ‘weird’ or even ‘unreal’ reading about it. It all sounds pretty great to me, actually, finding someone who is compatible with you so easily.

I rated it 4 stars, but it is more of a 3.5, to be fair.

Until next time. Happy reads,
Rita

O tema deste livro é, sem dúvida, da maior relevância: a importância da vida animal, aceitá-los como Seres conscientes, capazes de sentir o que nós sentimos, seja felicidade, dor ou até ciúme. No entanto, admito que esperava uma narrativa diferente.

Algo que me incomoda muito é a forma como o autor escreve os diálogos; ninguém fala assim no seu dia-a-dia, ninguém (ou pelo menos 99,9% da população) é tão formal. Este detalhe torna os personagens menos credíveis e faz com que seja muito mais difícil sentir empatia com a história.

O autor escreve de forma muito descritiva e, muitas vezes, repetitiva. Se há informação que o leitor já conhece, não creio haver necessidade de dedicar 5 folhas a explicar a mesma ideia de novo.

Fiquei muito desiludida com o livro, o que é uma pena, porque a mensagem está lá, mas a forma como a história é desenvolvida deixa muito a desejar. O livro poderia ter sido escrito em menos páginas, não fosse tanta a informação repetida.

No entanto, volto a sublinhar a importância do tema e creio que a ambição que José Rodrigues dos Santos teve para escrever esta obra foi essencial.

Para mim, este é um livro de 2.5 estrelas. Espero que a vossa experiência enquanto leitores consiga diferenciar-se da minha.

Felizes leituras,
Rita

This genre is not usually what I go for but I wanted to read something of the sort and it was free on Kobo so I decided to give it a go.

This book tells us the story of C.T. Ferguson, a man who after finishing college goes to Hong Kong for three years during which he becomes a hacker and consequently leads him to be incarcerated for a few months in China. Out of jail and back in his hometown, Baltimore, C.T. has to choose whether he wants to work to support himself (like a regular person would) or depend on his wealthy parents for income and work as a Private Investigator pro-bono. Now if you’re wondering if there’s much else to it… no.

This is the kind of book you finish in a day or two, but the story is so dull that you don’t even get the urge to want to know what’s about to happen next. Some say the premise took some time to be established, but to me personally, I don’t think there was one at all. The plot is decent enough, but the mystery was not there. This book reminded me of those puzzles we used to do as kids where we were supposed to connect the numbers and then would get a figure at the end… It goes from one thing to another with nothing much to add. Nothing extraordinary happened. I wasn’t surprised with twists and turns as you usually do in these kinds of books.

There was so much potential to it, though. Tell me more about what he did in China, how did he learn to use a gun or be a badass fighter, what were the reasons he chose to become a P.I. other than the sob story of his sister dying - which, let me tell you, not even that made me feel for him. He is basically just doing what mommy and daddy tell him to do and playing detective throughout the book just to get a large sum of money at the end.

C.T. isn’t the only problem, though. He is the main character, yes, but if he doesn’t have much development as a character imagine the rest of them! None of them are very engaging and you don’t even get to sympathize with the victim, in my opinion. Every chapter seems forced and more of the same - he needs food, coffee, and to either meet one or two criminals. Oh, also! His cousin detective who seems so frigid I almost felt like striking out the dialogue between those two.

We all have different opinions and that is what makes this community so beautiful, really. I thought I would love this and to me, it was just … meh.

“My mother, you see, is the great love of my life.”

Carol morre e, mais que sem mãe, Katy fica sem a melhor amiga.

Para comemorar os 60 anos de Carol, mãe e filha, decidem visitar Positano. Quando Carol morre antes do seu aniversário, Katy não sabe o que fazer. Impulsivamente, decide pegar nas malas e deixar o pai, que fica sozinho em luto, e o marido, de quem já não sabe se quer ficar casada, para trás, e ir nesta viagem à procura de respostas para as suas inseguranças.

Positano é a terra mágica que enfeitiçou Carol antes de se casar; é o local da certeza de que tudo vai ficar bem, um sentimento que Katy anseia sentir.

Quando chega ao hotel Poseidon, onde iriam ficar hospedadas, Katy reconhece uma mulher que está convencida ser a sua mãe. O nome? Carol. O problema? Além de impossível, Carol parece 40 anos mais nova e de boa saúde.

Afinal, onde está Katy? Será isto imaginação? Luto?

Como amante de Itália e romance, este livro tinha todo o potencial para ser um favorito.

Cada capítulo descreve a Costa de Amalfi, a comida que a Katy come, o que ela veste, a saudade que ela tem da mãe… Mas a dor que ela sente parece hipotética, pois não há como empatizar com a história, ou a personagem, quando esta se revela tão egoísta.

Katy passa as duas semanas das suas férias a seguir Carol e a conviver com Adam, um homem com quem se envolve. Parece-me hipócrita, sendo que deixou o marido para trás porque não se queria sentir sufocada por ter alguém que a apoiava demasiado junto a ela.

Esta história revelou-se um ciclo vicioso, aborrecido e não me fez sentir absolutamente nada sem ser frustração por tão idiótica a Katy ser.

A reviravolta que a história dá foi interessante e inesperada, mas nem assim consigo gostar desta narrativa.

“People love to sleep, and yet they are so frightened of death.”

Dear Richard Osman, once again, well done.

That was such a fun book to read. I love the friendship, love the loyalty and commitment on which this plot relies on. In the first book, I had Elizabeth as my favorite, but on this one, it was Joyce - she’s such a personality, one of the kindest, smartest people. But, who am I kidding, I LOVE THEM ALL.

This book starts where the previous one left us: the four friends, sat at a table, chatting away, and Elizabeth thinking about a letter she got from an old friend who is in trouble. Of course, no sooner than later, she gets The Thursday Murder Club working and, this time, even the secret services are involved.

The story is very compelling, although it takes a while to develop. Unlike the first book, I found myself reading this one with a main focus on the characters and not so much on the crime they are investigating, that’s how loveable they are. Osman makes this a very light story, focused on LIFE itself. It does not have a heavy, complicated plot, for you to keep up with, which I appreciated.

As he did in the first book, the author chose to keep the multiple points of view of the characters, sometimes with a more personal touch from Joyce’s diary - who, to me, is the highlight of the story.

Most definitely a book to read if you're looking for something light and different.

If you're interested, I leave you my review of the first book here to read.

Happy reads,
Rita