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I am a little late getting this post out. I wanted to get out my gift guides first because I know that shipping delays are real this year. So I wanted to get those out before Thanksgiving.
Anyways, onto what I read last month.
The Girl from Widow Hills - Megan Miranda
The Girl from Widow Hills was a book I had interest in since I enjoyed Miranda's previous book The Last House Guest. I think this book is even better.
Arden survived a tragedy when she was growing up. She slept walk and was swept away in a flood. She survived, but her life was never the same. She changed her name as she got older, so she could live a normal life and not be Arden..the girl who was saved. But as the anniversary comes up, people start connecting Olivia (her new name) to Arden.
Arden also sleep walks again 20 years later and this time someone from her past is found dead at her feet. What happened? This book captivated me. I wanted to know what happened. Also what really happened 20 years ago. I liked the twist and didn't see how everything would unfold.
I would give this book 4 1/2 stars.
Here is Amazon's synopsis:
Everyone knows the story of “the girl from Widow Hills.”
Arden Maynor was just a child when she was swept away while sleepwalking during a terrifying rainstorm and went missing for days. Strangers and friends, neighbors and rescue workers, set up search parties and held vigils, praying for her safe return. Against all odds, she was found, alive, clinging to a storm drain. The girl from Widow Hills was a living miracle. Arden’s mother wrote a book. Fame followed. Fans and fan letters, creeps, and stalkers. And every year, the anniversary. It all became too much. As soon as she was old enough, Arden changed her name and disappeared from the public eye.
Now a young woman living hundreds of miles away, Arden goes by Olivia. She’s managed to stay off the radar for the last few years. But with the twentieth anniversary of her rescue approaching, the media will inevitably renew its interest in Arden. Where is she now? Soon Olivia feels like she’s being watched and begins sleepwalking again, like she did long ago, even waking outside her home. Until late one night she jolts awake in her yard. At her feet is the corpse of a man she knows—from her previous life, as Arden Maynor.
Someone had recommended The Last Flight to me, but I can't remember who. I really enjoyed this book. It is told between two different people, Claire and Eva. Claire is a socialite who is married to Rory. Eva is a girl who lives in Berkeley. But one day they meet in the airport and switch tickets and lives. But something goes wrong...Claire's flight to Puerto Rico crashes into the ocean and now she is left living Eva's life. But is Eva's life all that it seemed?
I really enjoyed this book. I kept wondering what Eva was hiding and as it unfolded, I felt bad for Claire. Which life is worse, the one she left or the one she came into. I think the book lacked a bit at the end, but it is still worth the read. I would give it 4 stars.
Here is Amazon's synopsis:
Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move, making sure she's living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.
A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets―Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico goes down, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva's identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.
I had never heard of this author until I heard about this book. Everyone recommended it and said it had a good twist to it. Lizzie is a lawyer, Zach is a friend from law school, and now Zach's wife is dead and Zach is the main suspect. Zach calls upon his friend to help defend him. The problem is: Lizzie doesn't defend murder suspects, she hasn't seen Zach in years and Zach used to be in love with her. But Lizzie's life isn't all it seems to be. She is stuck in a lawyer job that she hates thanks to her husband. Lizzie's boss likes the case and tells her to take it.
The book goes back and forth between Lizzie and Amanda. Amanda is Zach's wife. I liked the format of the book and I kept wanting to know more. There is a good twist to it like everyone says. I couldn't read this fast enough. I would give it 5 stars.
Here is Amazon's synopsis:
Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart.
No. That’s a lie. It wasn’t sudden, was it? Long ago the cracks in Lizzie’s marriage had started to show. She was just good at averting her eyes.
The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help—even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. But Zach is desperate: his wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach’s the primary suspect.
As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed—and that their friends, a close-knit group of fellow parents at the exclusive Brooklyn Country Day school, might be protecting troubling secrets of their own. In the end, she’s left wondering not only whether her own marriage can be saved, but what it means to have a good marriage in the first place.
What did you read this month?
