The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

⭐ Didn’t/couldn’t finish.

⭐⭐ Finished, but didn’t captivate me.

⭐⭐⭐ Finished and it was okay all the way through.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I really enjoyed it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I loved it and will DEFINITELY recommend.

From start to finish I was kept in suspense. The writing style was excellent, the story had pieces that, in the end, tied to each other very nicely, and I was just intrigued with curiosity and questions all the way through. Loved it. Very cool story.

 

[From the dust cover] “West Hall, Vermont, has always been a place of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house, just months after the tragic death of her daughter., Gertie. Townspeople say that Sara’s ghost walks the streets after midnight, and some still leaves offerings on their doorsteps to prevent her from coming inside.

Ruthie Washborne has never put much stock in West Hall’s rumors. Having grown up in an isolated farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister, Fawn, she dreams of leaving her sleepy town and escaping her mother’s odd insistence that they live off the grid without Internet or even a listed phone number. But when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished without a trace, she begins to wonder if her mother’s eccentricities have a deeper reason— especially when she finds a copy of Sara Harrison Shea’s diary hidden beneath the floorboards of Alice’s room.

The diary tells the story of a mother on the edge, a mother who is willing to do the unthinkable in order to hold her daughter in her arms once again, no matter the consequences. And as Ruthie gets sucked deeper into the mystery of Sara’s fate, she will discover that she’s not the only person desperate to unlock the secrets that the diary contains. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.”

 

I love her writing style so much that I feel compelled to read some other books she has available:  The One I Left Behind, Island of Lost Girls, and Promise not to tell (mentioned on dust cover). Out of those I think Island of Lost Girls sounds the most appealing.

My tbr list is getting out of hand. What are some of your top books on YOUR tbr list??? 🤓

Instagram: prettybookthingsandreviews

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (no spoilers)

 The Night Circus: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

⭐ Didn’t/couldn’t finish.

⭐⭐ Finished, but didn’t captivate me.

⭐⭐⭐ Finished and it was okay all the way through.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I really liked it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I loved it and will DEFINITELY recommend.

This book was ABSOLUTE MAGIC. I read this early in the year and I must say that this is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.  As you can see from my very important and detailed star rating system I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in romance, magic, and just amazing storytelling. This story is great for pre-teens, teens, young adults, and older. I loved the writing style. It was VERY easy for me to watch this in my head like a movie. It’s really great. Really.

 

Really. Not kidding.

 

[Back of book] “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Reves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Amidst the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone from the performers to the patrons hanging in the balance.”

If you have not read this yet, you should. Or gift this book to some nerd this Christmas!

They’ll thank you later.

I’m baaaaack.

Hello, people who follow me and people who had any interest in my thoughts and views on books! It looks like it has been about a year of being gone. Allow me to assume you have any interest in my lack of presence and explain…

I stopped posting my personal reviews on WordPress because whenever I came across a book that was less than a 3 stars I hated having my “negative” thoughts out there for people to read and then have a bad impression about it, maybe. (Assuming I made any influence.)  I know that it is not wrong to dislike a book or for a book to not be your taste or dislike a type of writing style. I know that. But I felt like whenever I would post a book that didn’t reach 4 stars that I was basically telling people to not read it, even though I know that’s not what I was saying or trying to say. Everyone can make their own choice to read a book or not and can have their own AND DIFFERENT opinion from mine. I know that. But it was what it was and that is how I felt. To recap: I felt like I was telling people not to read or bother with these books I gave less than 4 stars to AND I just felt bad for giving low star ratings.

I felt like, “Who am I to give this book or that book only 1 star? I’m no writer! I’m no professional!”

SO… here I am today deciding to try again, but my stars are now detailed, lol.

⭐ Didn’t/couldn’t finish the book.

⭐⭐ Finished, but didn’t captivate me.

⭐⭐⭐ Finished and it was okay all the way through.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I really enjoyed it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I loved it and will DEFINITELY recommend.

Pretty simply detailed, right? I never thought to do this before and to be honest, I didn’t care too much. I just figured I would just stop. Which I did. But I’m back now because, guess what, I’m still reading all these books and still want to converse with people about them.

I have never left Instagram, though. My personal account is still mandyreads_mandywrites, but I have made a new account just for books. If you want to follow me on that one it is PrettyBookThingsandReviews. Yeah, it’s matchy-matchy.  Remember when I first started blogging reviews my book pics were interesting and fun? Not just snap shots of a book? Yeah, I’m bringing that back, too. I can’t promise I’ll be posting regularly, but I CAN promise that I’ll post whenever I feel like it 😂🤷‍♀️

I don’t know if it’s just my head or what, but I’ll try not to feel the pressure of “I MUST MAKE A POST IMMEDIATELY AFTER I’M FINISHED WITH THIS BOOK” and just take my time to create a creative book pic FOR the post. I enjoyed that part the most when I first started and then I started feeling like I just had to do. I don’t even know why. It’s not like it was my job. I guess I just got sucked in and for no real reason.

Okay, well… there it is and here I am. I’m gonna go read now. Byyyeee.

(Currently reading The Winter People.)

The Postcard Killers by James Patterson

4 out of 5 stars!

Believe it or not, this is my first James Patterson book. I know he’s been around forever, I know he’s been in many airport stores/shops for a long time and probably still is. I’ve always known him to be “airport reads”, which I don’t think I thought that to exactly be a bad label, it was more the fact that I gravitated more to something magical or made obvious to be exciting or scary. I’m always one to be careful on what I spend my money on, no matter how cheap either, and so I never had much interest in his books.

Only recently, within the last year or two, I have noticed he’s done children’s books. Thought immediately attracted my attention because I love the magic and adventure in children’s fantasy books. But his seem more on the humorous side, which attracted me even more. My kid loves reading the books that he does because they are silly and make him laugh. And I love that that turns him on to reading. So when I first noticed his children’s books I was like, “Well, then. He must be a pretty swell dude.” One day, at the airman’s attic (props to those who know what that is, and I’m sorry for those who don’t because I don’t really want to get into that), but I found this book there and figured I’d give it a try. So now, here’s my review:

This story is about a couple of American killers who murder for the sake of art, takes a Polaroid of their work, and sends it to police departments and such along with a postcard. This takes place in Europe, but an American police detective takes it upon himself to stay a part of the investigation BECAUSE….. wait for it……

his adult daughter and daughter’s husband were victims.

From there you probably get the gist of how the whole story goes. The murders were gruesome and the action was fair. On a hype-ness level it was ok. Not bad for my first James Patterson. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t love it. If you’re familiar with my reviews then you know this isn’t my go-to genre, but a decent read indeed.

 

Getchoself a copy if you’re someone who loves a bit of murder. Or gift it to someone this Christmas 🙂

Happy holidays, you wonderful book nerds. Post a list of your favorite holiday reads in the comments!

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

5 out of 5

A BEAUTIFUL memoir.

Since childhood, a young girl struggles in life due to her parents’ lack of taking on parental responsibilities, though not without love. A non-traditional love of a parent.

Her family moves a lot and she and her siblings would often fend for themselves in terms of food, warmth, and even bringing in money. The children always try to be understanding and considerate of what their parents are going through or may be feeling, so they would take it upon themselves to sort of handle and take care of the family; Of each other.

The girl takes you through her ups, downs, and aspirations. You get an understanding of everyone’s roles and relationships. You would like to think it’s a bad situation, and it is, but then you think “At least they have love”, but it still doesn’t justify a lot.

The whole thing is just bizarre and an unimaginable way of allowing\letting\making your kids live. But in the end it all worked out. It wasn’t the cheesy “Disney-ending” I would want for myself if it were my life, but it was satisfying enough.

 

Misery by Stephen King

2 out of 5

While this one was intriguing, it was hard to stay intrigued throughout the descriptive scenes. I know there was a certain mood and time Stephen was trying to convey, but I felt like I was trying to trudge through it to get to the exciting parts. Felt like fillers.

This story starts off with an author who gets in a car wreck and is “rescued” by who you later learn (but not too much later) is a crazy woman. She is supposedly his biggest fan and has a big issue with the way one of his series had ended. Basically, she demands an ending that the book’s character deserves. His legs are all messed up from the accident, so he can’t just escape, though he tries to while his captor goes out on errand runs.

There are some parts that do get my heart racing, the same way as if I were watching it as a movie, but I do have a hard time reading through slow parts. I need constant action or curiosities (that move the story along) to keep me captivated.

 

I was going to give this a 3 instead of a 2, but I have to admit that I didn’t even finish it. I did, however, read more than half the book. So, at least I tried.

I do hear great things about the movie, though. I have never seen it.

Lol.

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

5 out of 5 

Mitch Albom is one of my most favorite authors. His books are so real, in a sense of real life hardships, dreams, love and friendships, experiences, etc.. His stories really speak to my soul, gay as that may sound, but do you know what i mean? I might have already said this in a previous Mitch Albom book review, but after reading a book of his it leaves me with a feeling of light-heartedness and love and awe in my heart. The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto was such a BEAUTIFUL story from beginning to end. At least halfway through i was already telling friends to read it. Especially the ones who love music.

This book is about Frankie and his life told by Music, the very thing every human is born with, whether or not it comes out strong throughout our lives. Music states that we are all born with music in our soul, only some of us keep it alive and some of us let it go. The metaphors used to describe all this is very poetic. Its very attractive and fitting.

So his life is told and explained by Music, but also by his colleagues from different times of his life; People who have great love and respect for him as a friend, fan, coworker, or acquaintance. The way saw it in my head was like a type of docu-series. Something like that. He was a lost baby, a struggling boy, and a man with so much experience, so much passion, and so much love. Ugh!

The end had me unsatisfied in the sense that it messed with my heart and I was wishing that I could go straight to the characters and intervene. I’m not saying it was a bad ending, just that it left me wanting to cry for an important and undiscovered truth will FOREVER be unknown!!

(Sigh.)

But read it anyway. Its still beautiful.

End of Watch by Stephen King

3 OUT OF 5 STARS!

End of Watch is the third book to the Hodge’s trilogy. Unlike the second book, Finder’s Keepers, the story continues with the Mercedes killer in the first book, Mr. Mercedes. In this book, the story of the Mercedes killer comes to an end and fills me with content, sadness, and solace.

I gave the first two books 5 stars and this 3 because it is sort of slow. While just about every part of the book was relevant, funny, sad, messed up, or interesting, it was just a different pace than I was expecting.

It begins with the killer being in a coma. He is coming out of his coma and eludes any court trials for his crimes in the first book by faking coma. After roughly a year or so goes by he slowly realizes that he has mind control power. Eventually, it evolves into using that power through an old video game where while people are playing they become hypnotized and allows the killer to slip into their mind to commit suicide.

Though that is the synopsis of it, the story also includes the close friendship between Kermit, Holly, and Jerome. It is my most favorite thing about these books. Their relationships only grow stronger, closer, and more awesome! The ending… (oh, my heart…). They are friendship goals.

To the very end.

❤

ATTN. AUTHORS! Great opportunity for free book cover artwork explained inside!

(The images above were not done for anyone. They were done out of pure boredom. Dirty Hipsters done recently and the other was done earlier this year (maybe Jan.?))

Hi and thanks for stopping by. I have, for a couple years now, been wanting to get some of my creative works onto book covers. Naturally, as a book nerd, I think it’s a very cool idea, but I never knew where to start.

So I am wanting to work with TWO writers to get a feel for the process. With this I hope to understand all the legalities, what I want in my contract, what I can expect from a writer’s contract, money transaction, and most of all how I can please my clients.

I understand that artists can charge more for revisions, but this will be completely free trials. I would also love feedback, of course, on the flow of our communication and my overall work. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM WILL ALWAYS BE WELCOME!

This will be purely for an educational experience.

*Whether or not you are reading this with the intent to contact me, advice, direction, and constructive criticism is still welcome.*

A little bit about my artistic background: I am fully self-taught. Everything I know about Photoshop I have been pushing myself to learn since around 2012-ish. I started out trying to be a family photographer. Long story short, I did not enjoy it much. There was too much demand and I liked doing things in my own way. The poses were too cheesy, I had to worry about the family’s attire (and sometimes they just won’t get it right), I was often around kids, and a lot of times people would expect me to give them a free session. I liked having model calls for creative portraiture. One day I realized that family photography was not for me. I love the creative stuff. I love great concepts. I have lots of old works practicing that creativity and I also have quite a few sketches of stuff I never got out to do. Some time last year or two years ago I took an interest in digital illustration. I am no artist where drawing is concerned, but since I love great concepts and HAVE TO get them down I go the simplistic route. The way I got into this, actually, was from not being able or having the motivation to go out and set up a shoot for my conceptual ideas. So instead I’ll draw them out. And in doing so I stopped limiting my imagination. I say “limit” because I always had to consider what I CAN/KNOW HOW to do/achieve on PS.

*Fun Fact: The pink-haired character in the above picture was a character I created for a book I was trying to. I sent my transcript to just one publishing company and that never went anywhere. So I guess I’m still figuring out her story 😛 And I just threw her in a picture of an abandoned house I found and photographed.

Whether you want art for a physical book or an ebook, I’m down to try and make something for you. If for whatever reason you decide not to use my art THAT IS TOTALLY FINE. I would thank you for giving me a chance and you may move on. If you are interested please email mandycane2008@hotmail.com with your info: A brief intro about yourself, your book, and (if you have one) a vision of what you would like your cover to look like. I can try to achieve your vision or create my own interpretation.

Thank you for your time! I look forward to future projects!

 

 

Finder’s Keepers (The second to the Bill Hodges Trilogy) by Stephen King

Good morning! I rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars!

First of all, two words: STEPHEN KING.

Now then… it starts off intriguing. It instantly began with trying to get you to think and hope that what was going on went a different direction (at least I was). Oh, but it took a turn for the worst, lol, because of course.

Anyway, beyond that nerve wracking beginning, it was a steady pace of story lines and curiosity. I wouldn’t say it got boring, but I was just waiting for the crazy parts. But worry not, because crazy it got.

This story is different from the first. They don’t go hand-in-hand (if that would be the correct term…), but they do connect. If someone were to have started with Finder’s Keepers first rather than Mr. Mercedes (like I almost did, not knowing it was a trilogy at the time) then I don’t think any confusion would have been made. BUT it is better reading the first one first so that you understand the characters when they reminisce.

The very end makes me think that the next book will go back to the First Book character’s story. And I must say I am VERY excited to get to it. I believe it’s called End Of Watch. I’ve got to get it SOOOOON!

Currently reading Alone in Paris by Ashley Earley. A story that includes depression, suicide, and love. I am almost halfway through.