Review-Sometimes it Happens

Sometimes It Happens by Lauren Barnholdt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In this story, the main character, Hannah, is starting her senior year with a big secret: the night before, she slept with her best friend's boyfriend.

This book alternates between the events of the summer,during which Hannah and her BFFs boyfriend grew closer, and the first day of senior year.

The story line was cliche and I found most of the characters, especially Hannah, to be very whiny. It kept me interested enough to want to know what would happen, but I didn't really care once I found out. Not a big fan of this one.



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Source: Library
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Review-I'm Telling

I'm Telling by Karen E. Quinones Miller

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This story had a very good premise, but was not executed well.



The main character is Faith, who when she was younger, witnessed her stepfather sexually molesting her twin sister, Hope.



Fast forward to when they are adults, Faith is a successful book editor with a loving boyfriend named Henry. Hope, on the other hand, has spent much of her time out on the streets, doing whatever she can to get drugs. Their mother takes Hope in, but throws her out once she catches Hope sleeping with the mother's boyfriend.



This story was all over the place, and the characters were never really developed. Although Hope was obviously very messed up after having been molested as a teen (since she thinks it was her fault) it was never fully explored in the novel. The ending seemed very rushed and forced, although the summary on the back of the book makes it seem as if that's a major part of the novel, when it really only ends up being about 3-5 pages at the end. I'm not sure what the purpose of Faith's friend and business partner Ann was, or her relationship with Carol. I know that it helped set up the ending (which I could see coming from a mile away) but their story was unresolved and I don't know why it had to be mentioned anyway.



Almost gave this two stars, but it did keep me interested enough to want to see what would happen, so I gave it a 3. Definitely not a must read, though.



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Review-Tempted by Trouble

Tempted by Trouble by Eric Jerome Dickey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I used to be a big fan of Eric Jerome Dickey's earlier works: Sister Sister, Friends and Lovers, Milk in My Coffee, Liars Game, Between Lovers, and The Other Woman are some of my favorites. Then he started moving more into crime novels with his Gideon series and I was NOT a fan, so EJD had kind of fallen off my must-read list (although as I look through his bio now, I remember reading and liking Pleasure also, the last EJD novel I read.)

I read the synopsis of this one and figured it sounded interesting enough for me to give it a try and I'm glad I did.

The main character Dymytryk has fallen on some hard times-lost his job and his wife has left him. He finds himself as part of a bank robbery ring, under the operation of a man named Eddie Coyle (and I really disliked how he was ALWAYS referenced by the full name Eddie Coyle throughout the book.)

Lots of twists and turns in this one and although I didn't like many of the characters (with the exception of Dymytryk) EJD kept the storyline interesting enough for me to keep reading to find out what happened to them.



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Source: library
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