What is your current read and what did you just finish reading? - Page 13

I recently finished reading "Whereabouts" by Jhumpa Lahiri.. and, it's an easy book to read, really short, with many small vignettes from the life of a woman in her 40s.. but personally, to me, feels forgettable.. I already forgot a lot about it :p

The book I'm currently reading is The Search, by Osho Rajneesh.. it's an incredible read.. it's based on the Japanese painting (and poetry) "Ten Zen Bulls" . I cannot say more as I feel I will be ruining what it's about by trying to describe it.. it's about the search.. the existential search. :)

I finally started the Mindf*ck series! Ahhh sooo good! Why did I hold back for so long? I mean there are some definite triggers there - I get it but the author introduces it slowly so there's time to get accustomed to what we know is coming. And the characters are so compelling. Especially Lana. In comparison, Logan is boring (sorry, not sorry). And the dark humour is the piece de resistance. Plus these are short, quick reads - more like novellas. I breezed through Book # 1 and am almost done with Book # 2.

Ok so I marathoned the Mindf*ck series. Good thing I had all 5 books downloaded cos I just couldn't not read the next one. I give it 4 stars overall. Compelling read. Finished it in 2 days but these are more like short novellas. Plus they got me closer to my reading goal for the year so yayy!

That said, I did have some tiny niggles with it.

*** WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

1. The language and the prose as such. I'm no purist but this book had too many grammar mistakes to ignore: "You would have went after her"? "I would saw what she did?" I mean these are just the tip of the iceberg. There were several others - missing conjunctions, articles not being the least of them.

2. Too much suspension of disbelief - especially once they get to Delaney and all the town terrorizing happens. I get it. Jake is a genius. But it's all tell rather than show. The time-delay paint, the hidden cameras so they can watch the whole town without anyone finding out... it was all a bit much given that he's just one techie. It's good entertainment because ofc Lana's path to her revenge has to be smooth given the number of people she has lined up to kill but still ... after a point I was eyerolling so hard.

3. Logan. I get that he's the light to her darkness but when he finds out the truth - HOW COULD HE? I hated him at that point. Even if he thought she's a proxy killer that was a horrible way to deal with it instead of just having a conversation. And he did not even grovel. Also, I did not feel he did enough to show he's on her side. That last act fell flat because that was a foregone conclusion anyway. I expected him to show up more for her especially after seeing the evidence on videotape. How could he not want revenge on her behalf after that? How could he not be burning like Jake was burning for Marcus? At least he could have saved her from that shootout in the end!

P.S. I also figured out who the original killer was. It was pretty obvious from all the hints.

And lbr, Logan was pretty dim. I mean he couldn’t figure out a thing about Lana on his own. Even that guy on his team knew before him.

I ended up liking Jake more than Logan. I wish there were chapters from Jake's PoV. And more from Hadley's PoV. They were more badass than Logan any day.

Also, that ending with Jake and Hadley left a bad taste and felt like borderline queerphobia. Like come on, they're bi, sure but that's not what bi's do!

But before it seems like all I'm doing is complaining, I did really enjoy this.

It made me tear up- especially Book 2 and 4. I think I rated Book 2 the highest. The storyline with Hadley's stepfather and the little girl made me wanna retch and tore up my insides. Lana was a true hero there.

The descriptions were graphic - yes but somehow the way the author built it up made it easier to take. Like right from the start you know Lana has been a victim of rape. So you have time to condition your mind before she lets out the details. And I did not find those as graphic as the ones where the actual kills take place and what happens to the perpetrators. The torture scenes were more graphic imo. I found the smut to be pretty tame compared to what I was expecting given that I'd been warned about the explicitness of the writing in this book.

The Dark humour was delicious. Starting right from the author's pen name. I laughed. The last bit in the epilogue made me laugh too. "She has special needs" indeed! The references to slasher movies and their ‘inspired’ aliases was a fun homage.

UPDATE: I'm still making my way through Marriage and Masti, I just haven't gotten around to having the time to sit down and read it.

Something I didn't plan to read but ended up reading anyway was Roommate Arrangement by Saxon James. I've been out all day, lots of walking and tons of time on the transit and I figured I'd listen to an audiobook instead of music today. Tell me how and why I got through half of it already. It's nearly an 8-hour book and I have less than 4 hours left. This feels like a five-star read already and it's definitely my favourite Saxon James book! I've said this before, but being able to now notice the significant differences between her writing and Eden Finley's and also see what they each excel in has been just the most fun for me.

I can honestly see myself finishing this one by the end of the day, so I might try and get back to Marriage and Masti tomorrow but honestly, I plan to watch Do Patti with my parents tonight and that might just put me in a thriller mood.

I'm breezing through Psychological thrillers! They're keeping me up late at night (yeah not the best when it's a week day) but I'm definitely revisiting my adolescent days And they’re helping me get closer to my reading goals for the year- I might actually make it, you guys!

Finished:

Never Lie - Freida McFadden - OMG, I'm so mad at Freida after this! I think I'm gonna take a pause on her books!

The House across the lake - Riley Sagar (I did not expect this book to take a turn like that! )

Behind Closed Doors - B.A. Paris - Not sure how I felt about this one. The plot was compelling - the writing - not so much. I found myself skimming through half of it because everything is told as a narrative and there aren't enough dialogues.

Moving on to my next reads - I found them on Amazon Prime yayyy! So no long waits for my holds at the library!

What lies between us - John Marrs

The perfect child - Lucinda Berry

Stillwater girls - Minka Kent

All of the above are new-to-me authors so let's see how that goes.

Just finished John Marrs' What Lies Between Us... and the amount of crazy ! Robbed me of sleep and was just so disturbing and distressing.

I need a palate cleanser which means I'm switching back to rom-coms . Any recs?

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

Just finished John Marrs' What Lies Between Us... and the amount of crazy ! Robbed me of sleep and was just so disturbing and distressing.

I need a palate cleanser which means I'm switching back to rom-coms . Any recs?

Did you end up liking it though? Because I think I read The One by him about three years ago and I found it so boring. But I chalked it up to me just getting back into reading for fun instead of school and also not being totally familiar with the genre, because a lot of people liked that book and my friend was the one to recommend it because she'd watched the show.

As for rom-com recs, I'm not really sure what would interest you at the moment so hopefully having a variety of them helps!

• She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen: One of my all-time favourite books, I re-read this every year during Christmas! It's pretty fast-paced despite it being a slow-burn (I consider it a slow-burn just because the book takes place over the course of an entire school year). I have a review of this in the Genre of the Week thread if you want a little more detail and don't mind slight spoilers.
• Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake: Another favourite of mine that I've definitely ranted on here about! This one's a little slow, so I don't know if it's the right book for you at the moment.
• Heartstopper by Alice Oseman: I don't know if graphic novels are your thing or if you've already read this series, but it's always a quick and easy fun read!
• Strobe Edge by Io Sakisaka: I don't even know if manga is your thing, but I always recommend this series to everyone. It's only 10 volumes and I've re-read this series so many times over the years and I'm still not sick of it. The series is about Ninako and Ren, both high schoolers, who get to know each other as they take the same train home. They slowly begin to develop a friendship and Ninako falls for him pretty quickly but obviously there are some pretty significant things preventing them from getting together throughout the series. Anyway, there are tons of sites you can read manga on and I do have a list if you're interested!
• The Geek Who Saved Christmas by Annabeth Albert: A very cute M/M, grumpyxsinshine holiday romance about Gideon Holiday and Paul Frost; two next-door neighbours who may or may not just have more in common than they realize. There's definitely a little bit of the miscommunication trope here, but it wasn't as frustrating as other books and one of my favourite things about these two is actually how mindful they were of each other's fears and triggers. Something I think you would probably like is Paul's backstory as an older sibling who pretty much had to raise his younger brother Brandon - HUGE part of the story as Paul enlists Gideon's help to ensure that Brandon and his girlfriend have a perfect holiday when they eventually come down to Paul's for Christmas.
  Fair warning, I thought this was gonna be just a cute little Christmas rom-com, and it was for the most part, but Annabeth Albert is known by me for writing some of the most emotional scenes in books ever and maybe I'm just highly sensitive, but I don't think there's a single book by her that has not left me completely distraught. At the same time though, this was the most light-hearted of her books, so do with that information what you will.
• Any book by Casey McQuiston and/or Adiba Jaigirdar I will always recommend! They both write LGBT romances, but Adiba only writes YA and sapphic books... and Casey wrote Red, White and Royal Blue (I liked I KIssed Shara Wheeler better, which is definitely an unpopular opinion). I've talked about both of their books in the Romance Genre of the Week thread, but if you're specifically looking for something funny, Casey excels at humour compared to Adiba.

SADENVERSE!!! Okay, I'm going to try to not have a stroke explaining this universe almost every series that Eden Finley and Saxon James have ever written (both together and separately) is somehow connected. These are all adult romances with varying degrees of spice, and they're all M/M books. They're very quick and easy to read, super funny (especially if you're listening to audiobooks because Iggy Toma and Alexander Cendese are the two best audiobook narrators in existence and I will die on that hill) and even though there are a lot of similar themes and story beats, there's still a wide variety of tropes to pick from. (Completely ignore my tangent if this is not your vibe at all, I think I've referenced these books so much, I might as well actually explain them.)

The correct order is to read the Fake Boyfriend series first - it's what started the universe and Eden wrote this one on her own, however, I know almost nothing about it because I haven't read it. I read both the first books of CU Hockey and Famous around the same time, not knowing that these series are both spin-offs of Fake Boyfriend. CU Hockey I don't even consider a spin-off, it's moreso connected to the first Fake Boyfriend book through one of its characters and another series, Puckboys, to me is a spin-off of both of those series. Famous on the other hand is a spin-off of Fake Boyfriend #5 specifically and it's one of the few non-sport/college romances in this universe.

• CU Hockey consists of 5 books - the first four are about members of the college hockey team and the last one is about the assistant coach who used to be a hockey player. Tropes in the series include: best-friend's brother/brother's best-friend, secret relationship, romance between teammates if that's a trope, enemies-to-lovers, You've Got Mail except they're not business rivals who want to destroy each other, bad boy (except not really, he's just an asshole) x coach's son, age gap, single dad except the single dad is actually an eldest sibling who gained custody of his five youngest siblings and is just trying his best. If I were to rank them: 3, 5, 1, 2/4.
• Famous consists of 4 books about the former members of the boyband Eleven (which is obviously mentioned in-universe across all series and also is not inspired by One Direction because they name-dropped One Direction). Tropes in the series include: bodyguard romance, single dad x nanny, friends-to-lovers and I have no idea how to classify Book #4. If I were to rank them: 1, 3, 4, 2.
• Puckboys is an ongoing series that so far consists of 6 books. Book #7 is out and Book #8 comes out next year, I'm just waiting for both books to be available at my library. They're all hockey romances about players on different teams who all became friends because they're the only queer players in the NHL. Tropes in the series include: secret relationship, enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, accidental marriage which turns into fake marriage, PR manager x PR nightmare, one of them has a firefighter and another has a physiotherapist, friends with benefits that turns into one of the best sexual awakening/realizations of the entire Sadeverse. If I were to rank them: 3, 6, 2, 1, 5/4.
• Frat Wars is an interesting one because I feel as though there are certain aspects of this trilogy that you should discover while reading it. Don't read any of the summaries, it's so much more fun that way. This was my first Saxon James solo series and it made me recognize what she actually brings to her co-written books and genuinely appreciate her more as a writer.
• The Divorced Men's Club (DMC) is another Saxon James series that I recently started. I'm 60% through Book #1, Roommate Arrangement, and this is an insane statement to make, but it's my favourite Sadenverse book. Mind you, I've read four other series, 18 BOOKS, and this is my favourite one. It's about Payne and Beau - Payne is getting divorced and decides to quit his current job and move back to his hometown where he re-connects with Beau, his younger brother's best-friend, who suggests that Payne move in with him while he looks for an apartment. I don't want to spoil anything, but Beau is a writer and the way Payne interacts with his writing process is what had me like, 'yeah okay I get it now Beau, I'd pretty down bad for him too'. I don't know how else to really explain why I feel connected to this book, even though I'm not even finished. I think with Beau I really relate to his personality and interests whereas with Payne, we're kind of going through similar experiences of being a little lost in life.

Wow, thank you, that's quite a list. I've never read Manga. I'll check out the others.

About What Lies Between Us - it was a gripping read, but kinda predictable and the characters were so f**ked up that by the time it finished, I couldn't care less what happened to them. Still, I found the ending very dissatisfying. There was a crazy amount of crazy iykwim!

Just that I finished it late at night and then my stomach was churning, I couldn't get to sleep.

I have The One in my TBR but I don't wanna get back to this author just yet.

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

Wow, thank you, that's quite a list. I've never read Manga. I'll check out the others.

About What Lies Between Us - it was a gripping read, but kinda predictable and the characters were so f**ked up that by the time it finished, I couldn't care less what happened to them. Still, I found the ending very dissatisfying. There was a crazy amount of crazy iykwim!

Just that I finished it late at night and then my stomach was churning, I couldn't get to sleep.

I have The One in my TBR but I don't wanna get back to this author just yet.

Let me know if you end up reading any of them!

East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I understand why it is considered an epic.. is un-put-downable. Beautiful book.. from the passages capturing the sublime Californian landscape, to the complicated characters.. loved everything about it. Absolutely relished John Steinbeck's writing.