jaxyway's reviews
731 reviews

Posted on my blog, www.bibliobrat.com

Please note: I received a free copy of this novel courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher, Random House, in exchange for my honest review.


The Weight of Blood is a novel about two girls, Lila and Cheri, that disappear a generation apart, in the same small town in the Ozarks of Missouri. The story is told largely in the narrative of Lila (before her disappearance), and Lila’s daughter, Lucy, who was friends with Cheri. Lucy inadvertently stumbles upon a clue that may help her find out about her friend, and it isn’t long before she suspects both disappearances may be related.

The Weight of Blood is a powerful and haunting literary thriller that tests the very limits of family loyalty, or the weight of blood, so to speak. The Ozark landscape is absolutely perfect, and I am typically not a fan of small town mysteries. Before reading this book, I knew almost nothing about the customs and way of life for those living in the Ozarks, and truth be told, I felt transported to this very different world. Only a masterful writer can transport you to places you’ve never been and would never want to go to. Especially now. Travel agent, Laura McHugh is not.

The characters were all wonderfully developed, with unique voices. I absolutely loved Lila’s story from the beginning, with its creepy sense of dread throughout.

Unfortunately, the ending felt a bit rushed to me, although I think this was the author’s intent; she clearly wants the reader to draw their own conclusion about something, and I wasn’t fully satisfied with that. Despite the end, though, The Weight of Blood was a great read, and highly recommended.

It should be noted that this is Laura McHugh’s literary debut, and that excites me more than anything. Once she hones her skills, which are already well-developed, she could be a master of this genre.

Reviewed on my blog, www.bibliobrat.com.

Decent concept, bad execution. Make no mistake – this is not a dystopian novel. It is based on an apocalyptic event, yes, but one that was only referenced in a handful of pages in the entire novel. Yes, the heroine and her people came from a dystopian setting, but the book takes place in 2014. This is a time travel novel. (Not a very good one.)

I’ve never read anything by this author before, and have no interest in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, but she has skill, for sure. Unfortunately, I think time travel is a little out of her comfort zone. The parts of the novel where the heroine remembers the past (the plague that ended the world as she knew it) were actually decent. If this book was just about that plague, it would have been better.

So in this book, a thousand people from the future (around year 2090) find a way to travel through time and leave their devastated world. But they have rules, and they will be drowned to death if they disobey them. So they can’t have close personal relationship with the “time natives”, and are forbidden on doing a bunch of other stuff which is fading from my mind like a bad dream as I type this. So Prenna can’t fall in love with Ethan or there will be consequences. Like there wouldn’t already be devastating consequences from a thousand people taking up permanent residence in the past that they don’t belong in, but right, a committee in their system is going to micro-manage high school relationships. They have time for that shit.

Also – this story would have worked better as a trilogy, or hell, even a longer book, so that we could have taken the time to get to know the characters. If the reader would have had a chance to fall in love with the hero instead of just being told that the heroine loved him, we could have forgiven weak secondary characters or a plot riddled with holes if you think about it too much. Maybe. But no chance with the lack of character development we were given.


Two stars, because it started off decent enough, and despite inconsistencies, I read it quickly and it kept my interest. The more I think of it in retrospect, though, the more I realize that it just wasn’t very good.

I was invited by the publisher, Random House Children's, courtesy of Netgalley, to receive a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Hidden is told in the first-person narrative of three characters – Jeff, the deceased, in the past, along with Claire, his wife, and Tish, his lover, both in the present. The novel begins with Jeff’s untimely demise, and the first half of the novel tells the story of the first few days following his death, along with a look at Jeff’s past.

We know going in to the novel that Jeff was cheating on his wife with a coworker at the time of his death, and it is slowly revealed how his adulterous relationship came to be throughout the course of the novel.

Like most novels that start with a huge opening such as this one, Hidden was easy enough to become interested in. The characters were satisfactory, but not great; Tish and Claire didn’t really stand apart from one another in their narratives, but Jeff had his own unique voice. The writing is decent, but again, not great; unfortunately, when a novel deals with a topic that is written about a lot like this one is, it has to be fantastic to stand out. This novel fell a bit short of fantastic. However, if you haven’t read any books with a plot like this in the past, you may feel differently. For me, though, nothing about this book was especially unique.

The big reveal at the end was not much of a reveal at all. I was hoping to like all of the characters despite their obvious flaws (adultery sucks, but it happens to the best of us, after all; no one is perfect), but sadly, at the end, I was left thinking that two of the three characters were assholes. Also, Jeff’s reason for cheating wasn’t a good reason at all, in my opinion. Sorry, Jeff, you’re one of the assholes.

Review to be posted soon on my blog, www.bibliobrat.com

Posted on my blog, Bibliobrat.com

Unfortunately, psychological thrillers like this are a dime a dozen, and The Magpies does little to stand apart from other works in the genre. Jamie and Kirsty just moved into the apartment of their dreams, but everything is not as they imagined it would be; they seem to be living under the couple from hell. Shortly after moving in, pranks start happening: dead rats on their door step, the fire department being called when there was no fire, pizza being delivered to their house when they did not order it, et cetera.

Then, they start receiving notes from their neighbors, telling them that they have sex too loudly, and even one time enclosing a recording of them having sex that they had apparently taped. Creepy, yes, but then the creepiness factor kind of sputters out, and nothing of consequence happens for entirely too long.

At the end, Kirsty wants to sell the apartment, but her husband has developed a Jack Torrence-like obsession with staying, regardless of personal cost, and even tries to hire a hit man to teach the neighbors a lesson. He has a lackluster little show-off against the neighbors, burns the place down, and that's that. The end.


Overall, not the worst I've read, but nothing that will stand out in my mind in a couple weeks time. Decent, but not great. And the sex scenes were just awkward.

Review to come!

Okay, yeah, no. I can't read this book. It is absolutely ridiculous. Jesse, the ultimate alpha male, is clingy and obsessive in a way that is EXTREMELY unappealing. Sure, his description is sexy (think: Ryan Gossling), but that is the only thing about him that isn't the biggest turn off EVER.

I didn't realize this was erotic romance (lol) prior to reading it, and apparently women nowadays get their rocks off on being controlled and dominated by rich, good looking men. I don't. That does nothing for me. If that's your thing, you may love it. Did you like the 50 Shades trilogy? You WILL probably like this, then; I only got 26% through the novel, but it was clearly better written than that utter garbage.

The plot of this book is just absolute garbage. 'Nuff said.

OH! And the writing sucks!