This was okay. Josephine has just gotten married. As a child, she was known as a "Divine" - she went to a very expensive school for entitled rich people, where the children were taught nothing academic and mostly just how to treat people they considered beneath them poorly. She hasn't thought about her years there much since she left, but when her husband starts asking questions about the box of mementos she's kept, she's forced to relive her past and confront some of the darker moments within - especially the tragic tale of her roommate, Gerry. The mystery part takes a bit to develop, and really isn't the focus of the story? It seems more like the struggle of a young girl to find her place in the world, and to deal with the pressure to conform to what her friends and family want her to be. The chapters alternated between her years at the school and her adult life, and I honestly didn't really care about her as an adult. Those chapters didn't really add anything to my experience. By the end I was left with this vague feeling like I'd missed something important, but I'm not sure what? This was the sort of book that seemed like my jam, because I love a good boarding school mystery, but something about it fell flat and I just didn't adore it like I expected to.

This was so fun! I didn't want to put this one down. Told from the perspective's of twins Fern and Rose, the book alternates between Fern living her life and Rose writing in her diary. Fern has a sensory processing disorder, and she relies heavily on her twin sister to help her navigate the world. When Rose confesses that she has found out she has a rare disorder that is making it impossible for her to become pregnant, Fern decides on the perfect thank you present for her sister - she'll just have to get pregnant and have a baby for Rose! Enter Wally, named for his similar appearance to Where's Waldo, the perfect match for Fern. Unfortunately, he's maybe too perfect, and before long Fern finds herself in over her head. Everything about this was just so well done. I loved the different perspectives we got, and how I really felt like I was following along with Fern and putting the pieces of the puzzle together with her. It felt like it took a little bit for the mystery to come into focus, but when things started to become clearer I was enthralled. I'd have loved more time with Fern and Rose. Absolutely lovely!

I loved this book! Elin Hilderbrand never disappoints! I felt like I knew the characters. I was really hoping that the book they talked about would get published. It's definitely something I would have like to have read. I was hooked into this book very quickly early on.

This is another one of those books where the journey is really fun, but then the author proves that writing endings is really challenging. You can have a great idea for an atmospheric mystery, but you also need to have a great idea for how you are going to close things out, which Sarah Pearse didn't seem to have. The book follows Detective Elin Warner, who isn't really a detective anymore after a case went wrong and she decided to take some extended leave. Elin and her boyfriend, Will, have arrived at a hotel in the Swiss Alps to celebrate her brother's engagement. The hotel just happens to also be a really creepy former sanatorium, because the designer thought that would be a super cool place to build a fancy hotel. To continue with wonderful decision making skills, Elin also decides that this would be a fitting trip to accuse her brother of possibly killing their younger sibling during a childhood vacation. Because, hey, nothing says "happy engagement!" like "did you kill our brother, though? You can totally tell me if you did." There are just a few problems with this plan - first, Elin doesn't really talk to her brother anymore, so finding time to accuse him of this is a challenge. Second, his fiancée just went missing, and it may or may not be in poor taste to accuse him of anything given those circumstances. Third, there is an avalanche approaching the hotel, so they really all need to leave. And, of course, fourth, some people are starting to get murdered. After staying behind and getting trapped from the avalanche, Elin has to really deal with all her personal issues at once because she is the only cop-like person on the mountain who can investigate anything. No one can come help until the weather clears, which probably won't be for a while. There were a few issues I had with the book, two of which I found to be major issues. The first is that this was a fun crime novel, but ultimately it seems like no one could ever be punished for the murders that happened here. Elin isn't a detective in this area, as she points out again and again, and she tends to disobey the orders she is given (or just hides what she is doing because if she doesn't ask permission, she isn't doing anything wrong?) so it seems like everything she has gathered would be utterly useless. She also has a weird tendency to tell everyone around her everything she has discovered. Like, maybe they don't all need to know every piece of evidence you have gathered? You know someone around here is killing people, maybe stop telling everyone everything and you'd have better luck. The second is that the ending was just really dumb. The culprit didn't really make any sense, and it seemed like a massive overreaction for that person to be the one responsible for everything. I think it's worth it for the fun atmosphere of being trapped in the mountains with a killer, as long as you keep your expectations in line for the ending.

I love all of the Rick Riordan books but this one slightly less, the reason for that being is that Rick Riordan killed oh of my favorite characters who is also in the Heroes of Olympus books. Also I like that you have some puzzles involved with the books.

I'm a big historical fiction fan, but this book did not hit the mark. I felt it was quite slow at points, but did at least attempt to re-live what actually happened in history. I did not feel strong connections to the characters, which was something I was looking for in this type of book.

Three characters, two timelines, and a lot of predictable occurrences. Estelle, glamour queen of Paris, is living the life, or so it seems, at the Ritz Hotel. Meanwhile, Sophie is preparing to return to France after her perilous and tragic escape from Poland. And, present day Lia who is trying to figure it all out after inheriting Estelle's Paris Apartment. A good, and also a little predictable, read.

This book is very eerie. It is a dystopian novel about memory. The citizens are on an island and things disappear mysteriously. The Memory Police take people away and the main characters work to try to preserve their things and memories against all odds.

Fanon's book has been called the definitive work on decolonization. He had the unique experience of growing up in Martinique, serving in France during WW2, then joining Algeria in its struggle for independence. Fanon writes with great power on the psychology and the politics surrounding decolonization.

It was a great book to just relax and enjoy reading.