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The Stillwater Girls
The Stillwater Girls
Minka Kent | 2019
10
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Two sisters raised in fear are about to find out why in a chilling novel of psychological suspense from the author of The Thinnest Air.
Ignorant of civilization and cautioned against its evils, nineteen-year-old Wren and her two sisters, Sage and Evie, were raised in off-the-grid isolation in a primitive cabin in up-state New York. When the youngest grows gravely ill, their mother leaves with the child to get help from a nearby town. And they never return.
As months pass, hope vanishes. Supplies are low. Livestock are dying. A brutal winter is bearing down. Then comes the stranger. He claims to be looking for the girls’ mother, and he’s not leaving without them.
To escape, Wren and her sister must break the rule they've grown up with: never go beyond the forest.
Past the thicket of dread, they come upon a house on the other side of the pines. This is where Wren and Sage must confront something more chilling than the unknowable. They’ll discover what’s been hidden from them, what they’re running from, and the secrets that have left them in the dark their entire lives.

This was my first novel by Minka Kent and it was quite a suspenseful story.
The chapters switched between two characters which was good as well.
Wren, Sage and Evie are three sisters and their mother has been raising them in the forest away from all of civilization.
This is a great story that will have you on the edge of your seat from the first chapter. Very well written.
Loved the plot and the pace. Characters were very believable.
The ending is such an unexpected twist.
Will definitely be reading more from this author.
Highly recommend.

Thank you Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for a copy of The Stillwater Girls. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book
  
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Marylegs (44 KP) rated Spilt Milk in Books

Aug 14, 2019  
Spilt Milk
Spilt Milk
6
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
So I received this book as an ARC. It was definitely not my normal read. I primarily read fantasy/sci-fi/horror/thriller type books, and it always surprises me when I read a book out of these genres and enjoy it. I can honestly say that I enjoyed this book. At the onset of the story we are introduced to three sisters who are trying to get by in a time when morals and opinions were high, and times were difficult for women. The sisters have already lost their mother and father to illnesses and the younger siblings, Vivian and Nellie are dependent on their older sister Rose to bring in the money and look after them.

I won’t go into any more detail about the story as things start happening very quickly and I’m not one for spoilers. The book was beautifully written and once I was invested in the characters (which doesn’t take very long) the chapters began to disappear pretty quickly. It is at its core a story of love and sisters in a time of female hardship. When women could love freely without consequence. When what your neighbors knew about you or could know about you forced women into life shattering choices. That can ultimately tear your family apart. It also shows the change in times and how the love and support of your family can change everything. A beautifully written story about love, family and life time bonds.

I will add just as a slight criticism that I thought the ending sort of dropped off. I would have loved the ending to have had a little something more to it. Having said that that could be the point, that their story hadn’t truly ended, I guess it’s just my personal feelings. I would recommend this book even if it’s not your normal read as it is a captivating story.
  
Cold Hearted
Cold Hearted
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
When you’re eight books into a series such as the Villain Tales by Serena Valentino you would think that I wouldn’t be smug anymore! You would think that I wouldn’t go into the book saying “I won’t end up feeling sorry for this villain”.

You would also think that I know I am always wrong!

Lady Tremaine is one of the easiest villains to hate in the Disney universe: she worked Cinderella to the bone, denied her a decent party and then locked her in the attic for good measure! These are hardly the actions of some misunderstood soul.

Until Serena Valentino comes along of course! Valentino has a truly unique way of humanising these characters that we love to hate and, with the help of the Odd Sisters, proves to us time and time again that there is more to our fairytales than meets the eye.

The previous book in the villain tales, Evil Thing, took the reader outside of the Many Kingdoms for the first time. Valentino takes advantage of this, neatly using Cold Hearted to join together Lady Tremaine’s life in London with both the Fairylands and the Many Kingdoms. This timeline means that the readers meet Lady Tremaine before her role as stepmother: we learn of her worries over indulging her two daughters and her unwillingness to move on after her husband’s death.

Cold Hearted skips time periods slightly so the reader is actually experiencing Nanny and the Fairy Godmother reading Lady Tremaine’s story. Don't worry: this doesn't mean we are deprived of our favourite creepy sisters, although this book may have you looking at the Odd Sisters in an entirely new light.

The 8th villain tale continues Valentino’s reign of brilliant, alternative views of our villains. Lady Tremaine was to be the heroine of her own fairytale; all she wanted was her own happily ever after. Where did it go so wrong?
  
The Hopes and Triumphs of the Amir Sisters by Nadiya Hussain was on my TBR, but I didn’t have the paperback version of the book yet. When I noticed there is an audiobook available from my library, I decided to go ahead and listen to it while I was solving my jigsaw puzzle.

The Hopes and Triumphs of the Amir Sister is the third book in a series that features the Amir sisters. In this book the spotlight is on Mae, the youngest sister of them all. I haven’t read the other two books, but I hope they are better than this one.

Mae was a very annoying character.

And the fact that she was the main character in this book was probably the main reason I didn’t enjoy listening to this book. She has grown up watching her sisters be in the spotlight, living their lives, getting married, having children. She has always been there to help them with everything they might need, because that is her responsibility as their sister.

When Mae heads to university, she fails to fit into any group and make friends. Whenever she goes home and tries to talk about her university life, her stories are lost to the more important stories of her sisters and their babies. Mae feels angry and upset, which leads to her making some decisions that are perhaps unlike her, and also hide some important news from the whole family.

I think the whole family had many issues as a whole, and each individual member had problems on their own.

It is possible that I have never read about a more dysfunctional family that doesn’t work together, but pretends it does. I have seen families that just accept the fact that something is wrong. But this family just keeps going in this weird direction, and it made me uncomfortable throughout the whole journey.

The book in itself handles a lot of sensitive topics, such as sexual advances, public shaming on social media when women put makeup on the train, racism, sexuality, religion, cultural beliefs etc. I felt that this was the only bright spot in the book, to make the readers aware of what is happening, and how some characters respond to it.

Mae was the character I couldn’t relate to the most. Her thoughts and opinions, her way of seeing life was just something I did not agree with. I can understand that she might have been living in a bubble her whole life before moving to university. However, to be so unaware of the outside world and the people around it was just beyond me. I couldn’t agree with how she accepted defeat as something that comes to her by default, and how she was so uninterested to do anything that can make her happier. Refusing to improve in any way is a big character flaw, and I cannot agree with it.

Honestly, I did not enjoy The Hopes and Triumphs of the Amir Sisters.

I am not sure why, but there was so much unnecessary drama, without any real reasoning behind it. Perhaps the fact that I consumed this book as an audiobook has something to do with it as well. The narrator’s voice was really annoying and high-pitched.

The ending was average and very predictable. I didn’t feel as if the characters actually learnt anything in particular about themselves or each other. In conclusion, this book was not for me and I didn’t enjoy it.