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You Are Not Alone
You Are Not Alone
Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen | 2020 | Contemporary, Thriller
8
7.6 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
A few seconds change Shay Miller's life forever. It's almost ironic, as Shay, 31, and a market researcher, is obsessed with data. She's been keeping data books since age eleven, listing statistics and facts the way other girls write in diaries. Shay's recently lost her job, and her roommate and best friend, Sean, spends more time with his girlfriend than her. She feels hopeless and isolated. Then everything changes, and Shay finds herself swept up in the glamorous world of the Moore sisters, Cassandra and Jane. They have a way of making Shay feel different. They also seem to be everywhere, shaping Shay's life in strange ways.

I've learned by now when I pick up a book by the Hendricks-Pekkanen duo that I need to just suspend disbelief for a bit and go with it. If I can do that and enjoy the ride, then the book is a fun little escape mechanism. When looked at via this prism, You Are Not Alone was very successful.

The book is told from different points of view that often stray into various time periods, and it took me a while to keep all the characters straight. Cassandra and Jane have a host of friends, and I had to bookmark the page that introduced them all so I could remember who was who for a while. There seem to be unreliable narrators galore for a while--can we trust Shay? The sisters? Their friends?

I don't want to get too much into the plot and give anything away. It's a crazy story and again, not really probable (I hope). However, it's highly addictive, and I found the book to be compulsively readable. I also really grew to like Shay, even if I was suspicious about her.

There are some great twists and turns in this thriller, which I really enjoyed. I liked how this one kept me guessing, even if there was an eye roll or two in there too. It was definitely wild! 4 stars.
  
Odyssey (Stephen Fry's Greek myths #4)
Odyssey (Stephen Fry's Greek myths #4)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The final(?) part in [author:Stephen Fry|10917]'s retelling of the Greek myths, with this one - as in the name! - mainly concerning itself with what happened after the fall of Troy.

Indeed, I was surprised at how late into the tale it was before it stated focusing on Odysseus and his epic (10 years) trip to get home to Ithica and his wife Penelope!

Said legendary journey is what I was expecting the novel (retelling) to be about: I was unaware that it also concerned what happened to Menaleus (amongst other Greek victors) or to his Trojan captive Cassandra - fated to never have her prophesies believed but always to become true - amongst others.

I was also unaware, prior to reading/listening (I did both, switching back and forth), that the Latin name for Odysseus was Ulysses, or that - shall we say - Odysseus could be a randy old so-and-so ...

Looking forward to the forthcoming Christopher Nolan movie, now, to see how much is changed!
  
 Fall of Kings (Troy #3)
Fall of Kings (Troy #3)
Stella Gemmell, David Gemmell | 2007 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
The final part in David Gemmell's 'Troy' trilogy, this was also the final book he ever wrote, as he passed away (in 2006) before it was finished by his wife Stella Gemmell and published in 2007.

As evidenced by the title, this particular volume deals with events leading up to and the actual fall of the city of Troy itself, with the Trojan Horse largely responsible (still) for this fall, but having a more mundane explanation than in the legend.

The same characters appear in this version: Agamemnon, Odysseus and Hektor chief among them, with supporting work by Cassandra and both Andromache (Hektor's wife) and Helikaon proving to be more prominent than I remember from that legend (both of whom were also prominent in the first two entries in this series i.e. 'Lord of the Silver Bow' and 'Shield of Thunder'). There's also room for some of the cast of those earlier novels (such as Banokles or Gershom), but this particular entry, I felt, was not so much about them as about the 'power players' (if you will) of Hektor, Achilles and Odysseus.