Tag: Readalong

Book Review · Books

The Glass House by Eve Chase [BOOK REVIEW]

innah961 Comment

★★★

I am so glad I got the chance to read The Glass House by Eve Chase! I read it for a readalong, alongside some amazing people! It was a very good book, and I enjoyed it a lot. However, it lacked some mystery elements, which was the main reason I picked it up.

Synopsis

When the Harrington family discovers an abandoned baby deep in the woods, they decide to keep her a secret and raise her as their own.

But within days a body is found in the grounds of their house and their perfect new family implodes.

Years later, Sylvie, seeking answers to nagging questions about her life, is drawn into the wild, beautiful woods where nothing is quite what it seems.

My Thoughts:

The Glass House is a well written drama with a couple of mysterious elements. Through a couple of characters and two different timelines, we discover how two families end up connected to each other, and what secrets they have been keeping over the years.

It was very easy for me to get into this book, as the writing is captivating and colourful. I started to connect the dots very early and from then on, I was more and more curious to see what direction the story will take.

I loved Rita, the nanny. She was the one person in the book I truly cared about and I really wanted the best for her. I was invested in the other characters as well – they were all likeable in their own way and I enjoyed getting to know them better. However, apart from Rita, no one else made a huge impact on me.

The story and the development were set up very nicely.

I could predict almost all plot twists way before they happened, which was slightly disappointing. I was expecting more thriller elements, as there is a murder involved, but that wasn’t quite the case. The focus was on secrets and family drama, and this part managed to keep me entertained. There was a slight lack of suspense though.

The Glass House tells a lovely tale about how secrets can connect two completely different families. And also how fate can reunite them. It was gripping and full of family secrets and drama. If you are looking for the next murder mystery or suspenseful thriller, this is not it. But if you love a good story with likeable characters and a lot of family secrets buried in the past, you will definitely enjoy this one!

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Book Review · Books

Badass Habits by Jen Sincero [BOOK REVIEW]

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Badass Habits by Jen Sincero [BOOK REVIEW]

★★★★

Badass Habits by Jen Sincero is truly a remarkable book! I was reading it as part of a month-long readalong with some amazing people, where we all were forming some badass habits. We even had Jen Sincero herself in our chat, as well as for a Live session on Instagram. Huge thank you to Tandem Collective and John Murray Press for organising this!

Badass Habits

“Our thoughts become our words, our words become our beliefs, our beliefs become our habits, and our habits become our realities.”

If you want to form new badass habits, or replace your old bad habits, this is definitely the book you need! Through a step-by-step guide over 21 days, you will be in a completely different mindset and will be ready to tackle anything coming your way.

My Thoughts:

I will be honest with you, I am not a huge fan of self-help books. I find them very preachy, and quite often, I cannot relate to them, and end up with no outcome. But reading Badass Habits was such a different experience. I started reading it only with the goal to drink water more consistently, and I have managed to achieve so much more!

Now I exercise daily, eat healthier food, drink water regularly and have also stopped biting my nails. I even started baking more often as well, and lost weight. Honestly, I feel like a completely different person!

I loved Badass Habits because it’s not one of those preachy books. It actually contained so many practical examples and real-life tips that I could relate to so well. It focused mainly on how a habit is formed and how we can use that knowledge to make new (better) habits and replace bad ones with badass ones. Now, I feel like I have had these new habits all my life – they feel so natural to me, and that is what allows me to be able to take on new habits again, and keep improving.

My favourite part was the part about excuses.

We know ourselves the best and we can predict what excuses we are about to create for ourselves on this journey. And having this information, we can change our circumstances and not allow room for any excuses. This bit helped me so much! I could think of so many silly excuses that I have used often in the past. For example, I would skip an exercise because my favourite sports bra was not washed. So I got myself three more pairs of my favorite sports bra, so I can have one ready every day, while the other ones are being washed. Now I eliminated that possibility of an excuse, and it actually worked. I haven’t skipped a workout since I started reading this book. It’s so interesting what your mind can do, when you set it up for success.

Badass Habits is a great book to challenge you to tackle on a new habit, or change a bad one for a better one in 21 days. It’s perfect for a “new year, new me”, but is also one of those books that will be useful to have with you at all times. There were many motivating quotes inside, that will bring enthusiasm, even though at some points, I wish more scientific knowledge and examples were included. I definitely recommend it, if you’re looking for a book to prompt you to change your life for the better, one habit at a time.

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Book Review · Books

The Push by Ashley Audrain [BOOK REVIEW]

innah963 Comments
The Push by Ashley Audrain [BOOK REVIEW]

★★★★

I read The Push by Ashley Audrain as part of a global readalong. Huge thank you to tandem and to Michael J Books, for sending me a hardcover copy of this book so I can join the readalong. The Push really intrigued me from the very first start and it was one of those books I devoured in a day, needing to know the next chapter. If you’re looking for a fast-paced thriller, it will not let you down.

Synopsis:

Blythe is afraid that history will repeat itself when her first child, Violet, is born. Having a complicated relationship with her own mother, she is dedicated to give all the love and attention to Violet.

But Violet is not an easy child, and something is not right. She doesn’t smile at all, and no matter how much Blythe tried, Violet seems to not like her at all. Blythe’s husband, Fox, is certain that Blythe is just imagining this. But he cannot understand what Blythe has experienced as a child.

Fighting a battle that she might never be able to win, Blythe is on the verge of losing her daughter, her family, her husband, her marriage, and everything she does seems to be wrong. Is her child really evil, or is she just being delusional?

My Thoughts:

The Push was certainly a different book, unlike anything else I’ve read. Many people in our group have compared it to “We Need To Talk About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver, because of the style of writing. I haven’t read that one, so I couldn’t compare it, but it’s definitely on my radar now.

The Push is written in a first person perspective, where Blythe is telling her story to her husband, Fox. There are also parts in the book where we follow the stories of Blythe’s mother and Blythe’s grandmother. These parts help us learn more about those relationships and help us understand Blythe better, as well how her childhood plays a part in her relationship with her daughter, Violet.

The relationship between Blythe and Violet was presented in such a unique way, full of anxiety. Their interactions made me uncomfortable many times, but I enjoyed that. It’s not often that a book can push me out of comfort zone like that and I hope to find more books like this in the future. I am not a mother myself, but this book might be a hard read for parents. Especially during certain scenes, I could barely read chapters without taking a break.

The short chapters and the many plot twists are what made The Push unputdownable for me.

I was staying up all night, flipping pages and I loved that. I mostly felt for Blythe, because of what she was going through. no one should have to experience that and she should have received more support from her husband. However, there were also instances where she was neglecting Violet as a child and I wonder whether this had any consequences to Violet’s personality later on, as well as her development.

I loved the suspense of The Push, as well as the fact that we can never truly trust Blythe to tell us the truth, because this is her story, but it may not necessarily be completely true. The only part that I wanted more of was the ending. It didn’t finish as concluded as I’d hoped, but that’s just my personal preference. I also hoped to see Violet’s point of view, as well as what was going on through the husband’s mind – I feel like this might have brought more plot twists, or make people choose sides and discuss this.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Push.

It was a very interesting and dark psychological thriller. Extremely fast-paced and full of plot twists. If you are looking for something to keep you on your toes, look no further.

Purchase Links:
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Book Review · Books

The Courage To Care by Christie Watson [BOOK REVIEW]

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The Courage To Care: A Call for compassion by Christie Watson Book Review blog blogging diaryofdifference diary of difference

★★★★★

I was part of the Instagram Readalong of The Courage To Care: A Call For Compassion by Christie Watson, thanks to the TandemCollectiveUK team. They sent me the book, together with the discussion prompts, and me and an amazing group of bookstagrammers have been reading it and discussing it for the duration of five days. The Courage To Care is published by Vintage Books.

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Readalong time – The Courage To Care by Christie Watson! A huge thank you to the amazing teams at @tandemcollectiveuk and @vintagebooks, as well as the author @christiewatsonwriter – for including me in this readalong and sending a copy of this book my way. I will also tag all the other amazing bookstagrammers that are participating 💙 DM me if you want to tag along, and I will send along the reading schedule and discussion prompts 💙 I used to work as a carer in a care home for people suffering from Dementia. It was the hardest job I have ever done in my life. 12 hour shifts, night shifts, watching people get more ill and eventually die. Seeing relatives and their sadness when their mum or dad don't remember them. And people often ask me – how did you do it, day in, day out? Well, this is where Christie's book answers all those questions. From a nurse's perspective, she will talk about all the lows. But she will also talk about all the good things. The rewarding feeling of being part of a team that makes people's lives better. Putting yourself on the line, especially in today's world of a pandemic. Having people around you that share the same mission. This book already made me cry. And it also made me hopeful. It gave me a wave of positivity I didn't expect, and the most important message – to be brave, no matter what the purpose may be. Courage is a very powerful trait to have, and nurses all have it! I am so lucky to have experienced this first hand, working as a carer, and also now with this book.

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I chose to read The Courage to Care because both my auntie and mum are nurses. I also used to be a carer in a Care Home for people suffering from Dementia. The work nurses do, the hours they put into saving lives and the compassion and courage they have is incredible. I felt an obligation to read this book, and use my platform to emphasise how important nurses are. 

In The Courage to Care, Christie Watson writes about the importance of nurses, not only in the hospitals, but just everywhere. The schools, on the streets, hospices, care homes, in prisons. And in Covid-19 times, when people need them the most, nurses are there, sacrificing their own health and families in order to help others. Their courage and bravery is something I have always admired, but especially in these hard times, it is something we shouldn’t forget. 

This book is filled with different stories, showing nurses in different environments.

It is also filled with Christie’s personal stories and struggles, managing her nursing career, whilst also ongoing an adoption process and being a single parent. 

It is very hard for me to write a detailed review of this book, without spoiling the stories for you, and I will do my best, because these stories are something that you should experience first-hand, for yourself. 

With every story, we get close not just with the nurses, but with the patients and their families as well. We get to feel how they feel. And sometimes nurses are able to help them and bring happiness and hope to their lives. Other times, there is nothing else a nurse can do to help, except to just show compassion and make the patient feel comfortable. And during Covid-19 times, the nurses share the last moments with the people that couldn’t be with their loved ones.

This book made me cry more times than I could count, but it also made me giggle at times too.

Among all the sadness that comes with illnesses and hospitals, nurses are also there to make lives better for people. Give them hope. And for a moment, help patients forget that they are ill, even just for a moment. 

I am so grateful to be able to read the Courage To Care.

And I am so grateful to be healthy at this very moment. This book made me appreciate the present. It reminded me to be kind and to show courage where needed, and help others who might need help. I cannot recommend this book enough! 

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