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They Wish They Were Us
They Wish They Were Us
Jessica Goodman | 2020 | Young Adult (YA)
7
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
They Wish They Were Us is about Jill Newman and her senior year at Gold Coast Prep. Though everything looks perfect, it's far from it. Three years ago, Jill's best friend Shaila Arnold was murdered. Her boyfriend Graham confessed, the police arrested him, cased closed. Now, Jill is a senior member of the Players (a Gold Coast Prep exclusive, not-so-secret society) and she's ready to make a change. One night, she gets a text claiming Graham's innocence and her year begins to crumble. She needs to find out what really happened to her best friend, no matter the cost.

I enjoyed this book, but I think I enjoyed it most because of the character of Jill Newman. She's a badass, independent female character who knows what she wants. Her friends though, I absolutely hated them at the beginning - spoiled little rich kids who thinks the world owes them everything. But throughout the book, Jessica Goodman was able to drop hints here and there about why they are the way they are, and it made me hate them less. By the end of the book, I actually started rooting for them.

Towards the end of the book, I had a thought as to what the twist was, but still didn't know who the killer was, not until it was basically revealed. Goodman did an excellent job at keeping the suspense. The twist ended up being good - sometimes with murder mysteries, the killer/killing ends up being a bit out there, but this one added up.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and the mystery within. It kept me turning the pages to see what the end results were.

*Thank you Bookishfirst and Razorbill for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
  
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CKD (37 KP) rated Home Front in Books

Dec 7, 2018  
HF
Home Front
10
10.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book was great! I won it through the Goodreads pre-release program and received it in the mail just a few days prior to its release to the public. The story focuses on Jolene, her family and her friendship with Tami and her family. Jolene and Tami are helicopter pilots in the Guard, raising their families on the West Coast and neighbors. Jolene's husband is an attorney and they have two daughters. Jolene's husband does not approve of the war and thinks it's something that is happening "over there" and not something that affects us here in America. Until Jolene and Tami get deployed and he has to reconfigure his entire life to be a single parent while Jolene is gone. This is a wonderful story that is beautifully told and I highly recommend it.
  
A Ship of the Line
A Ship of the Line
C.S. Forester | 1938 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
2nd published but chronologically number 7 in CS Foresters Hornblower series, that sees Horatio Hornblower in command of his first ship-of-the-line, the 74 gun HMS Sutherland.

A ship-of-the-line, by the way, is simply that: a naval ship of 2+ decks of guns that was designed to stand in the line of battle back in the days when they largely sailed astern of each other, and when the battles devolved into firing broadsides at each other.

Under the command of Admiral Leighton, who has married Hornblower's extramarital flame from the previous novel (Lady Barbara Wellesley), Hornblower finds himself sailing the coast of Catalonia (Spain) and getting - as per usual - involved in all sorts of missions both on and off land, ending with a cliff-hanger ending when he and his ship fights alone against 4 enemy vessels.