Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

 

Four-star review of The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

A quick read about a woman, Hannah, whose husband asked her to protect his teenage daughter, Bailey, before he disappeared. Soon after, the head of the company where he worked designing games is arrested by the FBI. But is his disappearance due to the issues at his firm or to something in his past? Hannah is determined to find out about the discrepancies in his story about his history at the same time that she does what she can for Bailey, who has never accepted her as a step-mom. There were several holes in the plot and the ending seems manipulated, partly because Dave wrote her way into an unresolvable situation but also, probably, because of an upcoming sequel.

 

 

Tuesday Book Review

Five-star review of The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

After seeing the animated movie version of this story in the theater, I wondered how much it differed from the original book series. It is aimed at children, of course, but the story of a robot named Roz stranded on the beach of an island in the middle of a vast ocean and eventually adopting a gosling she names Brightbill is charming and full of adventures. Some of the language used might not be easy for young readers and even younger children who are read to but that adds to all that children might learn from the book about kindness and friendship, nature and technology. The story does differ somewhat from the movie but was moving and engaging. A quick and easy read for an adult and an enjoyable one for a child.

Tuesday Book Review

Four-star review of Drop Dead Sisters (The Finch Sisters Book 1) by Amelia Diane Coombs

The Finch sisters have been estranged for years, or rather the narrator, Remi, has been estranged from her much older sisters Maeve and Eliana partly because of her interpretation of their childhood together. But when a family camping trip, complete with quirky relatives including their parents, turns into a murder mystery involving them all, the three sisters must work together to investigate what happened. Remi hates camping and hiking, she hates her job, she has trouble making relationships work, etc., and her whining about her past is a bit too much, but her sense of humor, the weird and even weirder situations that occur, and even Remi’s moments with the hot ranger made the story enjoyable.