ShayKay's Review of The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan

 

This review is going to be really different than normal since I picked it up and read it as soon as I got it and didn't make up the template for the post at all so we don't have a before I read, halfway through, or even a synopsis this time around. I got this book through Book of the Month club which has opened my eyes to so many adult books that I would never have found or picked up on my own and honestly is usually a really great deal. This is actually my August pick so you'll see it again in my end of the month book haul. So let's jump into it.

I loved the synopsis of this book and had so much hope for it. To be completely honest the synopsis reminded me a lot of Taylor Jenkins Reid's Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones books. One I absolutely loved and the other was just okay. So I picked this book with a lot of optimism that it was going to be an amazing book! After I ordered people in the groups I'm in were raving about it too and some were also linking it to Reid's work. I really wanted to love it and expected too. But that's not what happened.

First I feel like the beginning was really good, the middle was good too, but then it took a wrong turn and just failed by the ending for me. I loved how the book started. Throughout the book we go between Cassidy's experiences starting her singing career, during her career, and the downfall of it. We even get to see behind the scenes and at the beginning of the book I lived for these moments because they were so interesting. In the other part of the book, we would alternate between the three other women's points of view. This shifts by the end and we'll talk about that in a minute. This first third of the book was an amazing build-up and definitely leading towards a 5-star read for me. This part really had some curveballs too which just added to my love for this book starting out. Without giving any spoilers we were reading an event really in the beginning that should've gone one way since this was supposed to be Cassidy's prime but then it did the complete opposite and we watch her deal with the disappointments.

So as I said the beginning of the book I really loved Cassidy's point of view more than the others but towards the middle or maybe a little bit before that, I started appreciating these points of view. Their views happen current day so we see the way after their prime and how they are barely even celebrities anymore. All three of them are living completely different lives from one another and even the one they lived with Cassidy. Most of the format of the book we would see them explaining what they thought about what we just read about with Cassidy or foreshadowing what is about to happen in Cassidy's story. I really preferred the foreshadowing. The biggest foreshadowing that I was really thrilled about was about Alex who is a love interest in the book and it made a sound like he was going to die or something catastrophic was going to happen to him really soon in the book. By that point, I was ready for some drama because Cassidy's story was really slow-burning and I loved their story together. But no that didn't happen how I was hoping. There was something that happened to him that was horrible but that doesn't happen until the end of the book! Which took forever because this book is a chunker! The things that happened with Cassidy started to not make sense to me anymore and I started getting really aggravated with her because I wanted more and was hoping for it. Towards the end of the middle of the book, it took a massive 180 that just felt like made no sense whatsoever, and I'm going to have to use spoilers to explain this part so if you want to read this book without spoilers I'll see you next time! If you don't care scroll a little further down and we'll talk some.

***** Spoilers Below *****

Okay, above I mentioned that towards the end of the book something happens with Cassidy that made no sense to me and this is when she starts having feelings for Rose and her for Cassidy. Up until this point, Rose has been horrible to her and obsessed with the fourth member that Cassidy actually replaced in the band. Up until this point, I had vibes that Rose felt that way towards that other member and I loved it but never thought these two had any chemistry. The only interactions we saw was Rose being horrible to Cassidy. Also up until this point, Cassidy was questioning her feelings towards Alex and I got it. He was her best friend that connected her to her old life pre-stardom so she didn't want to let that go even though she wasn't really feeling those feelings towards him anymore, if ever. But she never acted like she was attracted to females ever in this story. If it wasn't Alex she was talking about it was Stephen which I get he was horrible and definitely not good for her. But these were both guys. I get that it is hard to express her feelings completely in a book but would it have been so hard to show her questioning her sexuality somewhere between the beginning of the book and the end of it? I mean it was like a switch flipped and boom she was all about Rose and wanting that relationship and just made 0 sense to me. This really annoyed me but I was already getting annoyed with the book at this point. 

I hated how the today perspective warned me about how some horrible thing was going to happen to Alex, which it did don't get me wrong and it was Cassidy's fault sort of. But it took the whole book for this to happen, and I felt like the foreshadow should've been faster since it was all really one thing was talked about and then boom it would've happened. I just felt like this was all really problematic and now every time Alex showed up in the book I was expecting something was going to happen and kill him off and when it happened it was disappointing. 

When I finished with the book I decided that it was more like Daisy Jones since it was about a band, the start of it, and the demise of it. But I feel like Daisy Jones did it better and we all know that wasn't my favorite Reid book. Since I really loved the beginning of this book I ended up giving it 3-stars. I just didn't love it like I thought I was going too and it really was more of a let down than anything.

ShayKay's Review of Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein

Synopsis from Book

The past seven years have been hard on Avery Abrams: After training her entire life to make the Olympic gymnastics team, a disastrous performance ended her athletic career for good. Her best friend and teammate, Jasmine, went on to become an Olympic champion, then committed the ultimate betrayal by marrying their coach, Dimitri. 

Now, reeling from a breakup with her football-star boyfriend, Avery returns to her Massachusetts hometown, where her old acquaintance Ryan, now a coach, asks her to help him train Hallie, a promising young gymnast with Olympic aspirations. Back in the gym for the first time in years, she's surprised not only by Hallie's talent but also by the sparks flying with Ryan. But when a shocking scandal in the gymnastics world breaks, it has shattering consequences for the sport. Avery isn't sure her burgeoning romance can survive it.

Thoughts Before Reading

Since I got this book I thought it was about ice skating which I'm a sucker for but now that I'm actually reading it I see that it's about gymnastics! Which is also a guilty pleasure. I loved all of the Bring it On movies (yes I know its cheerleading), Stick It was one of my all-time favorite movies for a really long time, I love any of the movies that come on TV that I can watch. I just find it so fascinating. I think this is going to be an interesting book and I really want to read it. I've been in such a reading slump though so I'm curious how this is going to go. I've already the first chapter and I was hooked so let's see how this goes.

After Thoughts

Now that I finished the book and have had some time to think about it I agree with my rating. I gave it a 3-star overall. I really got annoyed with it. I feel like it kept repeating itself and I was just getting really annoyed with it. I think my biggest complaint with this book is that everything between her and Ryan just felt so off. I wasn't pulled into their relationship. The way things went down at I think trials between Avery and Ryan I wanted them to just be done because their relationship felt messy to me like it just didn't make sense. This could've been fixed in my eyes IF they would've worked through their issues. In the synopsis, it sounded like they were going to have a big fight over something Avery did in her past but what we get in the book wasn't that. Their fight boils down to a job offer and ultimately destroys there relationship and then it's fixed because he finally realized that what she was telling him was true but they never talk it out. I just wanted more context there. Another place I wanted more story would've been Avery's coach Dimitri. I know that they had a very bad relationship but no one talked about it and when Avery talked about it she could've gone more into her story kind of like a flashback or something but that didn't happen and she just like implied how abusive he was and expected everyone to just know what she went through. This kind of thing happened all throughout this book so I feel like I need to go back and change my rating on Goodreads now that I've had the time to digest this book. I read it so fast because it is an easy read and I liked what could've happened with it but overall it fell really flat. I like how the book pulled in real-life events into the story such as the big scandal with the doctor that happened a couple years ago but even though I loved this aspect of the book I think it could've been done better such as Hallie's involvement with it. Hallie is effected by everything going on with it to the point that it is messing with her performance and I don't necessarily want or needed her to be one of the victims but I feel like it was sort of implied that she was but she never spoke up. I think that would've been an interesting angle to use that would've been really gripping to read. I loved how Avery and Jasmine were able to reconnect, I think that is one of the things this book did really well and was able to discuss where they fell apart and work through it. 

I think the book should've started with Avery training for her Olympic trials that way we would've seen her, Jasmine, and Dimitri training and their interactions together. We would've gotten to experience the abuse Dimitri did, Jasmine and Avery's friendship, and her gymnastics. Then after her accident, we could've cut to today's time and see her in college being this party girl, her relationship with Tyler that pulled her out of that life, to her coming back to her town where the whole story took place. I think this would've helped the story so much and make it where you wouldn't have had to change the story much we could've left all of the implications but evolve her and Ryan's relationship a little bit. This version may have been a little bit longer but I think it would've made it so much better. So the book in my eyes as it is, is a 2-star read and I just updated my ratings on Goodreads. 

ShayKay's Review of Final Girls by Riley Sager

Goodreads: Final Girls by Riley Sager

Synopsis from Book

Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie-scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to - a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls: Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who went up against the Slack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them and, with that one another. Despite the media's attempts, they never meet.

Now Quincy is doing well - maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost fiance, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won't even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past. 

That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam has sought her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished. 

Thoughts Before Reading

I have been interested in Sager's books for a while now, but I haven't gotten around to picking one up yet. I ordered this one from Book of the Month a couple of months ago and after having a streak of romancy/contemporary books I think I'm ready to swap it up on a little. The synopsis sounds really interesting and I'm really curious about what is going on. I actually thought about waiting on this read but since reading up on the author I figured out how it could fit for my HouseCupaThon that I'm working on this month. I think I'm going to look for a readathon for next month, I definitely want to try to fit one more in this summer so we'll see if I find one that we can just jump into. Anyways I've heard a lot about Riley Sager's books since being apart of Book of the Month, and even though I really wished they had Elin Hilderbrand's book this summer I went with his newest book this month so maybe I'll jump into that one next. We'll see I have a lot of prompts for the reading challenge that I could potentially do so we'll see what happens. 

Halfway Through Thoughts

I really am enjoying Quincy so far. I think she is a really interesting character to follow and overall I think the Sager really used Quincy's whole life as part of this book. By this, I mean that sometimes we are told that a character does baking for a living, but the story doesn't draw any part of that into the story, we are just told that this is what they do. In Final Girls, we actually see why she bakes and even is introduced to her baking. I think it is so far really developing really good and I am so hooked to it! I've heard a lot of good things about Sager, but also a lot of bad things too. So I went into it really open-minded into this read. But the chapters are short and really captivating, I even really love the flashbacks because Quincy has no memory of the massacre and this was an interesting way to learn about what she went through. I have a feeling that either Sam or Jeff could potentially be the 'new' bad guy in Quincy's life. I think maybe Jeff because we don't really see him that much, at the beginning of the book he was even out of town when everything happened to Lisa, and he is a public defender that loves sticking to the fact that they are innocent until proven guilty regardless of if they are actually guilty or not. We really see that value shine in his character a lot when he first meets Sam. I kind of really want Quincy to end up with Coop because I think they just have that connection that she should have with Jeff, but she doesn't. 

I really don't know why I've been holding off to read Sager's work! I've become really obsessed with this book and should hopefully finish this tomorrow! I really need to know what is happening and what is going to go on with Quincy! Does she ever remember the attack? Who killed Lisa? I really love how this is kind of a mystery with a settle undertone of a thriller because we are watching Quincy figure out what is going on but at the same time, you know this is a thriller so I like I said I need to finish this book ASAP!

We even have some books in the wild pictures this go around! I read on the way to the lake last weekend and then some at the wake. Summertime we get really active because I love taking my dogs out to go swimming! 

On the way to the Lake

It seems like a pretty accurate bookmark for this one!

After Thoughts

OMG! I just finished this book and I cannot believe it! It really tied up really fast, but the book didn't feel rushed while I was reading it. I feel like everything really got tied up and guys I was wrong about people in this book! I'll get to that more in a little bit I want to try to stay spoiler-free first. I think this is a new favorite. I think I really need to do a reread of it now that I know how it ends just to see if there were signs that I missed because even though I was kind of right about the ending I was also so freaking wrong! So it is kind of obvious that this book had to be a 5-star read! I mean I could not put it down, I loved the writing style and the pace of it, the characters were so amazing and interesting to read about, and overall I just could not put this book down, plus I already want to do a reread of this book.

Since it is still June this book was able to be apart of my HouseCupaThon, and I used it for Tom Riddle's journal which was reading a book where the author used a pen name or their initials and Riley Sager is a pen name, he actually publishes books under another name too, and I actually fell into this bit of information. I really thought this book wouldn't count on my chart but it did and I'm so happy that it worked out this way. I'm going to add the pictures before the spoiler section so that you won't accidentally see spoilers if you don't want too. So there is a spoiler review (kind of) at the very bottom underneath the pictures. 

***** Spoilers Below *****

Looking back at my notes that I made while reading this book is so funny because I was so close! I guessed that either Jeff, Sam, or Joe's girlfriend was the person that killed Lisa. The reason I put Joe's girlfriend is that back in the beginning of the book, well more of the middle of it, Joe is explaining that he does have a girlfriend. So that really pulled in a new suspect to Lisa. But there was never a name for that girlfriend until the end of the book, which was Tina Stone who was in the asylum with him! I love how even these small details ended being a really big thing in the book. I'm not going to talk about the big bang at the end of the book even though I labeled this section as spoilers, I just think that Tina was already a huge spoiler and I don't want to go further into it as to who was the killer. 

Anyways I'm not surprised that Quincy and Jeff ended up splitting up. I don't think they really had that much chemistry together and even though he was her rock I don't think she loved him how she thought she did. I just wish she would've broken up with him versus doing what she did. I kind of think Quincy might check in with Tina from time to time now that everything ended, but I don't think they will be friends or anything like that. I do love that she remembers that night even though it was painful for her because that added so much more OMG moments for me. You really need to read it because you won't expect it, at least I didn't and this isn't my normal genre. But this was such a fun, unexpected read. At the very end of the book Quincy kind of picked up Lisa's shoes and went to be there for a new Final Girl and I really loved it. I think it kind of helped the book go full circle and I really loved it. Definitely a 5-Star read for me.

ShayKay's Review of Crazy Rich Asian By Kevin Kwan

******Book Spoilers*******

I just finished chapter one in part two. So far Rachel is just starting to learn about who Nick really is. I like how Kwan writes about all of his family. You get a sneak peak into all of their lives as the book progress, and let me tell you there is a lot of drama!

Astrid is probably one of my favorites. She is a very interesting person within this book. I feel bad for her for everything she is discovering about her husband however she does travel a lot and he travels a lot too. I mean when we really get into Astrid's story she is in Paris for her MONTH LONG shopping trip! But deep down you can tell she doesn't really want what all goes on within her life, at least that's how I feel by reading her story. She wants the perks such as that shopping trip, but she even mentions how she just wants to be home with her family.

I love that Rachel has Peik Lin in Singapore. I think she can help Rachel conquer this new culture. Even though Rachel has an idea of how a traditional Chinese family works she was never a child of that sort of home. It is talked about a lot in the beginning of the book about what a close relationship Rachel has with her mother. There are even conversations between Rachel and her mother that shows her mother is trying open Rachel's eyes to what she may experience while being in Singapore. But since Rachel really has no idea who Nick's family is she is going into this wedding completely blind. I think Peik Lin is going to play a huge part in Rachel's journey through Singapore. I can't wait to see what Nick's mother finds out about Rachel and what happens with this blow up.

Right now I'm at the part where Rachel and Peik Lin just showed up at Nick's grandmother's house. They are both in shock when they finally make it there. It was funny that Peik Lin had no idea that this place was even a part of Singapore, and she really seems like she knows all of the ins and outs of Singapore. When they finally arrive there she mentions that his family is one of the richest ones in Singapore. I'm finding it highly hilarious how all of Peik Lin's family is determined to figure out who Nick is after hearing that his best friend is Colin Khoo.

I am highly addicted to this story. I can't stop reading it!