april 2022
april was another stellar month for reads, honestly! my favorites were malibu rising and the paper palace but let’s get into the reviews without further ado:
the paris apartment by lucy foley
alex’s rating: 9.5/10
prepare yourself for intrigue and mystery with the paris apartment. when jess visits her brother last minute, she expects him to be a little angry showing up almost unannounced but instead, he’s not there at all. and after a few days, she’s really starting to worry. common sense tells her to ask his neighbors - surely they would know where he was last. jess begins to find that the apartment tenants aren’t as forthcoming as she’d hope. and they’re all being super shady. enlisting the help of her brother’s boss, she plays master sleuth to uncover the mystery. there are some serious twists and turns in this easy read - very enjoyable!
love and ruin by paula mclain
alex’s rating: 10/10
another historical fiction coming up!!! as some of you may know, ernest hemingway is one of my favorite authors. in high school we had to do a book report & biography for an author of our choice and i picked hemingway (been infatuated since!) the star of this show however is his third wife, martha gellhorn, an intelligent & kick ass war correspondent for over 60 years. she covered the spanish civil war, wwii, vietnam, you name it! their slow burn affair turned into a nine year relationship that (unfortunately/fortunately) ended in divorce in 1945. she struggled with standing on her own as a writer while her renowned husband published book after book. i was swept up in martha’s story and would have loved to ask her a few questions on her life.
malibu rising by taylor jenkins reid
alex’s rating: 10/10
the much lauded malibu rising lives up to its reviews!!! reid spins a story of a famous family in the small town (at the time) of malibu. the rivas’ throw an epic summer party each year; the kind that e news would report on for weeks. it’s a who’s who type of party. but it hasn’t always been like this though — the four siblings had to pinch pennies growing up with their single mother (and a deadbeat father who turned out to be the famous musician mick riva). this book is simply mesmerizing and captures family drama so accurately, in a way that anyone can relate. i read this in one sitting, i just couldn’t put it down. if you read anything i suggest, let it be this one.
like a sister by kellye garrett
alex’s rating: 5/10
alright guys this started off strong!! a former reality star, desiree pierce, is found dead in the bronx, way far from where she lives. it was determined to be an overdose — case closed. but desiree’s estranged sister believes there’s more to the story. and boy is there more! a pregnancy, a shady (?) boyfriend, and affair! this was a twisty thriller that was hard to put down BUT the ending just didn’t make sense to me. unfortunately this gets a 5/10 from me.
the paper palace by miranda cowley heller
alex’s rating: 10/10
just when i thought malibu rising was going to be my favorite book of the year, i received the paper palace in the mail from my friend at work. another one i read in one sitting!! it is both laugh out loud funny and utterly sorrowful at the same time. elle and her oldest friend jonas grew up spending the summers in cape cod, swimming in the pond, running around wide open spaces and harboring deep secrets. now back at her family home dubbed the paper palace, elle’s attraction to jonas (who is also at the cape for the summer) is still as strong as when they were kids. the only thing that’s changed is the 3 kids + dashing husband she now has, which should have kept her far away from jonas’ loving embrace. only it didn’t. and now she must figure out what to do!!!
when you are engulfed in flames by david sedaris
alex’s rating: 8.7/10
if you haven’t read david sedaris yet, i highly recommend him. he’s smashingly funny. when you are engulfed in flames is a series of short stories about sedaris’ life & observations — like how he lived in japan for three months to quit smoking or when a nine year old told him he was going to hell for not believing in god. sedaris can take the ordinary and make it not only amusing but charming.
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