The Saturday Review - 26 January 2019

The Saturday Review is a weekly meme hosted by me (Taylor Fenner's Bookish World where fellow book bloggers and readers can share what books they've recently reviewed. 

Only A Breath Apart by Katie McGarry

Blurb:

Bestselling author Katie McGarry’s trademark wrong-side-of-the-tracks romance is given a new twist in the gritty YA contemporary novel, Only a Breath Apart.

Jesse Lachlin is cursed.

So the town folklore says, but while Jesse’s had his fair share of tragedy, the only curse he believes is in his grandmother’s will: in order to inherit his family farm he must win the approval of his childhood best friend, the girl he froze out his freshman year, Scarlett Copeland.

Scarlett Copeland is psychic.

Glory Gardner tells Scarlett she has hidden psychic abilities, but Scarlett thinks Glory is delusional. What is real is Scarlett’s father’s irrational fears, controlling attitude, and the dark secrets at home. Scarlett may have a way to escape, but there’s a hitch: she’ll have to rely on the one person she used to trust, the same boy who broke her heart, Jesse Lachlin.

Each midnight meeting pushes Jesse and Scarlett to confront their secrets and their feelings for each other. But as love blooms, the curse rears its ugly head…

My Review:

I love Katie McGarry's books, but this one is a bit of a departure from her usual writing style - and I have to tell you, I LOVED IT! Yes, there's still romance, yes it still had the ability to make me feel strong emotions and even cry a little, but the whole idea of curses and psychic characters was up a different but equally awesome alley than McGarry's usual books about trauma and kids-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks-falling-for-a-good-girl/guy.

Up until now Echo and Noah were my favorite of McGarry's couples, but Jesse and Scarlett were pretty fantastic. I couldn't get enough of them together - their past, their reconnecting at Jesse's grandmother's funeral, their chemistry, and the potential for their future together... just gah. So good!

Overall, I highly recommend this book for both those familiar with this authors books and those just reading her for the first time. It's gritty, emotional contemporary romance... with a twist!

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 of 5 Stars!

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Blurb:

Satire meets slasher in this short, darkly funny hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends.

"Femi makes three, you know. Three and they label you a serial killer."
Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead. Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.
A kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where Korede works, is the bright spot in her life. She dreams of the day when he will realize they're perfect for each other. But one day Ayoola shows up to the hospital uninvited and he takes notice. When he asks Korede for Ayoola's phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and what she will do about it.

Sharp as nails and full of deadpan wit, Oyinkan Braithwaite has written a deliciously deadly debut that's as fun as it is frightening.

My Review

I first read about this book on BuzzfeedBooks and decided to check the ebook out on Overdrive. 

MSTSK is a short, dark, occasionally humorous novel. Korede is the good girl type with a major case of OCD and Ayoola is this flaky, self-absorbed character that basically just has to look at a guy to rope him in - but Ayoola has a dark, deadly side. She claims she's killed her boyfriends in self-defense, but have any of them really done anything wrong to her? It's unclear, though unlikely as Korede begins to cyber stalk Ayoola's most recent victim's poetry blog. But when Ayoola sets her sights on Korede's boss and secret crush, will she stand by and let it happen? Or sabotage the relationship in the name of saving her boss from Ayoola's knife.

I liked this book but at times found the dialogue hard to understand. It's written heavily in Nigerian slang and as an American I had no idea what the characters were saying to each other. I also kind of felt that Korede was condoning - or at the end encouraging - Ayoola's murderous tendencies. As she herself says, Ayoola is beautiful so she gets a free pass. No, Ayoola is manipulative and good at playing the innocent act. 

Overall, I do recommend this book and I'm glad I read it, but it's not a high-ranking love for me.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟1/2

3.5 of 5 Stars!

The Breathless by Tara Goedjen

Blurb:

No one knows what really happened on the beach where Roxanne Cole’s body was found, but her boyfriend, Cage, took off that night and hasn’t been seen since. Until now. One year—almost to the day—from Ro’s death, when he knocks on the door of Blue Gate Manor and asks where she is.

Cage has no memory of the past twelve months. According to him, Ro was alive only the day before. Ro’s sister Mae wouldn’t believe him, except that something’s not right. Nothing’s been right in the house since Ro died.

And then Mae finds the little green book. The one hidden in Ro’s room. It’s filled with secrets—dangerous secrets—about her family, and about Ro. And if what it says is true, then maybe, just maybe, Ro isn’t lost forever.

And maybe there are secrets better left to the dead.

My Review:

This book has been on my TBR list since before it came out in 2017, mainly because of the cover - but also because of the blurb.

I finally got a copy from the library and started reading. I was hooked from the beginning mainly because of the weird feeling of this book. I liked the alternating chapters between Mae and Cage and even the chapters from Grady in 1860 but one thing didn't make sense to me, who were the "We" that were always watching over everyone? Were they spirits? Ghosts? It was never really explained.

I kept reading, dying to know who had killed Ro. Was it Cage? Lance - honestly I had a bad feeling about him from the first time he appears in the book. I even considered Sonny. 

I thought the ending was satisfying but I was left with one question - [spoiler alert].

Overall, if you love Southern Gothic settings, old run-down antebellum mansions, murder, and magic, you'll want to read The Breathless!

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 of 5 Stars!