Images from Goodreads

[72] Thin Girls by Diana Clarke
Fiction / Literary, saw on gimoreguide Instagram post

Trigger warnings: eating disorders, abuse, addiction. I really needed something light after this and Heft.

Synopsis: Rose and Lily are identical twins except for the mole on Lily’s back. Lily is social and popular but Rose is awkward and desperately wants to fit in, so she copies Lily as much as she can – her style, her mannerisms, what she eats. In high school, Rose starts to copy the popular crowd instead, and stops eating. Lily starts to eat everything Rose won’t, and they quickly lose their connection and identical identities.

Review: This is a debut novel and the writing is fantastic. Rose tells the story from a first-person narrative and intersects it with relevant facts she’s read in books about animals, plants, and the history of treatment of weight loss and homosexuality. HOWEVER, most of this book is depressing AF, and a lot of the beginning of it details Rose’s time in a treatment facility for anorexia, so if that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, pass on it.

Recommend? Nah

[73] Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland
Young Adult Fiction / Action & Adventure / Survival Stories, sequel to Dread Nation

Synopsis: Deathless Divide picks up where the first book left off, and I don’t want to spoil its ending, so I’ll just say: Jane McKeene and her allies continue to fight shamblers (the undead/zombies) and look for a safe haven.

Review: The first book took me a while to get in to, and I thought that would be the case here, but no, I never got in to it. I never cared what happened to the characters (and this book switches to dual point-of-view, which I liked, but it didn’t help much). This book is way too plot driven (we did this then this happened then there was a commotion) and long (560 pages) for my taste. I was bored with the repetitiveness of the adventures and constant fleeing only to find the city they fled to was never what they thought it would be. Meh. I think plot driven zombie stories set in the 1800s might not be my thing. Ha.

Recommend? No

[74] Hideaway by Nora Roberts
Fiction / Contemporary Women, heard about on Currently Reading “Minisode: An Interview with Audiobook Narrator January LaVoy”

Synopsis: Budding actress Caitlyn Sullivan is kidnapped when she’s ten years old. She escapes to a nearby ranch, where the Cooper family embraces her and reunites her with her family. The Coopers and Sullivans enjoy a meaningful friendship because of the kidnapping, but the ordeal of it follows Caitlyn for years.

Review: From one plot-driven novel to another… the difference is that I thoroughly enjoyed Hideaway! What a delight! The pacing was fast (we get to see Caitlyn grow up), and once I figured out who all the characters were (oofta, that took a while) I was totally into it. I loved the Sullivan and Cooper families, and want to be adopted into both of them. The inside look into an acting dynasty was fun (it’s interesting I heard about this through an interview with an audiobook narrator, because Caitlyn does some voice acting and that would have been fun to hear in the audio version!). This is complete fluff reading, not highly literary, and cheesy at times, but it was exactly what I needed… even with what felt like an abrupt ending. And the constant mentions of drinking Coke (was Coke a sponsor or something?! ha). I thought this was my first Nora Roberts book, but I’ve read some of her work as J. D. Robb in the In Death series. I’d read more from her!

Recommend? Yes!