Lourdes Galindo

I've loved Issa Rae's humor from the first moment I watched the Awkward Black Girl web series and I've watched everything she's been in since. This book was a delight to read, filled with warm, insightful moments from her life, tinted with her signature wit. It was also a quick and easy read, perfect for when you need a pick-me-up.

I had heard so much praise for this book and, at first, I was concerned that it was not going to live up to the hype because it took me at least 70-ish pages before I started to really get into it. I think maybe I just didn't click with Desiree's POV, because once it switched over to Jude's I got to that “oh my god, I can't put it down” groove. That is when it really picked up for me and then I really began to enjoy the story. Having all the different characters' POVs gave the intertwining stories a lot of dimension and I almost felt like I was right there with them. There were characters I loved (Jude, Reese, Early) and others that annoyed me (Blake, the twins), but they were all believable and I could imagine them as real people, actually doing these things. All in all, this was a great read and the story with the grandmother towards the end brought me to tears. The reason I gave it 4 stars is because I felt it spent too much time on Desiree at the beginning and I just didn't care for her that much.

I'd been wanting to read this book since I first heard about it, as I love thrillers/mysteries, anything of that genre. I was not disappointed. This is a great read and Paula Hawkins' writing makes it easy to visualize the story in your head. It is intriguing and keeps the mystery going almost until the very end. I'd had an idea about the direction it was taking about 2/3 of the way in, but still managed to have an “a-ha!” moment when I got to the end. The best thing about this book is that even though there is not one likable character in the entire story, I still couldn't put it down because i just HAD to find out the true story. I'm really looking forward to the release of the movie now.

Liane Moriarty is one of my favorite authors so I'm reading anything she puts out. Luckily, her books are usually fantastic. This one was very good, full of very well-developed characters and a mostly-satisfactory conclusion. My one complaint is that some of the chapters were a bit too meandering and maybe took a little long to get to the point. Otherwise, this is another winner to add to my LM collection.