juliannewarren12's reviews
56 reviews

It took about 1/3 into the book to become interesting. The initial plot twist is very easy to predict but then the plot twist, twists about 10 more times. While it was an entertaining story, the character development/world building was lacking. The only character that had a personality to the writers was Marcie. Silas and the mob boss were supposed to be so scary, yet the lack of depth in every character made the stakes feel so small and no one was threatening at all.

I hated how they kept trying to build tension between Marcie and Kyle and then make them friends in the epilogue. They should’ve built up more tension or just completely left Kyle out of the epilogue. I’ll be honest, I still don’t fully understand what “side” Camille was on and who’s the father of her baby.

It was a quick and interesting read, but nothing mind blowing or newsworthy. The last quarter of the book is the only reason it’s not a 2 star read. 

It feels so wrong to rate a memoir, especially this one. I feel so bad for all of them and hope they are all doing okay. Shari is a great writer and did such a good job navigating how much to share without losing privacy for her family. I didn’t know much at all about this family/8 Passengers before this book and would recommend everyone to read this no matter their level of knowledge about these tragic events. 

OMG… this book truly took me on a rollercoaster of emotions. I kept having to remind myself that this is fiction and not too stress so much about Jenny’s secret, but I think it’s also so important to recognize the realness to this book. The fact that this is a fiction story but can be true for many women is just utterly devastating but I appreciate the author acknowledging that in the acknowledgments. It such an important discussion to having around current AND past views on adoption, abortion, and the flaws of the prolife movements. 

I just need to say that Bernard Quinn is an angel on earth.

The way he was so able to forgive and embrace Jenny’s secret was beautiful. He didn’t have to be okay with going 60 years without knowing about James, but he was so kind and forgiving to Jenny. The forgiveness will truly stick with me and remind me to forgive more in my life as well.

I think we can all learn so much from his character and even on just how to forgive. 

I enjoyed the plot and all of the characters but final chapters were just so powerful that it is all I can take away from this book. 

I think everyone needs to read this story asap.

This book had so much potential to be a  4+ star for me but it fell short in some key areas. 

The author does a good job at making the dialogue flow and sound natural, especially when switching from Spanish to English. The plot is easy for the reader to understand without much world building, but complex enough to make it through the whole book. 

I enjoyed the characters, especially the two grandfathers. I felt that we learned just enough about the side characters to enjoy their presence and were in the story an appropriate amount of time. 

I liked Liam and Kamilah but their relationship fell flat to me. There was so much build up and tension during the beginning of the “fake” relationship but the release was not satisfying. When they finally fell for each other, the relationship seemed to stop building up and fell flat overall. I would’ve loved to see more flashbacks from their childhood and more of them not getting a long at first. K moving into L’s apartment would’ve made a good chapter where they were still disagreeing/being mean towards each other. 

I did not except the plot twist at the engagement party whatsoever. I thought that was very well done and my jaw genuinely dropped when Leo revealed the mic was on for their whole conversation. That whole scene was captivating with Liam leaving out the back dramatically and Kamilah having to go face her family. 

K’s family is pretty toxic but they redeemed themselves in my opinion. I m thought the apology to her parents was written beautifully. It was very sweet but not too sappy or corny. 
Saint still being nice to K was nice to see as well. I liked the she had one family member support her. 
I was very happy that K’s friend didn’t take her back after finding out about the whole Paris lie. I felt like that was realistic and raw. 
 

I think there should’ve been more information about K and L reconciling but the whisky reveal at the end was sweet. What kind of ruined it for me though was the fact they were still doing the distillery tour and the judges had to watch all of that go down. It made me laugh thinking about how the judges watched this random lady (K) sob and the couple make out when they just expected to be judging whisky. I get that it was meant to be done in from of the cameras but it just took me out of the moment.

I truly hated the one sex scene in this book. It wasn’t overly sexual but it was just flat out cringy. I thought the dirty talk was weird and the description of the whole scene was not enjoyable. There isn’t much “spice” in this book besides one scene and then briefly mentioned later on. 

I did tear up at some points in this book at the sweet moments but the main plot didn’t make me emotional at all. 

I will probably read the rest of this series as this was a good starting book. 

It was okay… just not my cup of tea. This is the only Reacher novel I have read and it was good as a standalone. I was able to understand the story and didn’t feel like there were missing pieces. I would’ve liked more character building for most of the characters (including Reacher but i’m sure reading the other novels would’ve helped me like his character more.) Every single character felt very very surface level that I didn’t really root for OR against anyone. 

I did like the unreliable narrator aspect with Reacher having amnesia.

I think it was smart that the full story of the crash was never revealed outside of Vidics perspective which was proven to be not the full truth. 

I did not catch on to the twist of Vidic being the Fed before it happened and thought that was cool. 

Overall, the plot was interesting and there was not that many twists. It was dialogue heavy and focused on the plot versus character and world building. 
 
I enjoyed reading this book once but wont read it again since didn’t make me excited to read at all. 

This is so drawn out and boring sorry. 

This book was a sweet story and easy read that I finished in a day and a half, but it was not for me. 

The characters didn’t have much depth to them to where it was hard to care about anyone. I wish that there was more backstory and/or flashbacks to a younger Murphy and Kat. I also feel
like more time spent on how Kat got distant during college with a new boyfriend could’ve helped. I also think that more insight into the parents would’ve made them seem less like assholes who didn’t care about their daughter. 

Murphy and Ellie’s relationship felt bland and lacked any real connection. I was honestly way more invested in Murphy’s plans for the future and Sip than the relationship. I think this book really could’ve benefitted from a dual POV of Murphy and Ellie to add more to the overall relationship and chemistry. 

I did like the dynamic between Murphy and Kara/Professor Meyers. Honestly that was my favorite relationship in this book as she seemed to be the only person who cared to see Murphy succeed. 

Despite the lack of depth to these characters, they were still pretty relatable. I think we have all had a Kat and Daniel couple in our lives (and maybe even been them, oops!)

This was a 6 star read for me. The story was so emotional and powerful that left me with complex emotions. If you are planning to read this book anytime soon, grab your tissues now. 

I loved the sisterhood bond between the female characters that KH seems to write so well. I adore how strong the relationship between Frankie, Barb, and Ethel was. I think KH did an amazing job with Frankie’s character development. It was very fragile and non-linear that felt very realistic. 

Addressing many aspects of war (and not just being a nurse there) such as POWs, America’s opinion, “good days”, personal relationships, etc truly made this story feel like you were watching a documentary. As the reader, I felt so immersed into the story that every emotion was so strong. 

It is apparent that KH put so much time and effort into making this accurate and respecting actual Vietnam Veterans. I think that the clear respect for real life is what made this book so well done and well received. 

I loved loved loved the plot of

Rye and Frankie, how he lied to her twice. While I was obviously sad for her, the double betrayal gave me very complex feelings and got me thinking about my own life. 

Having Jamie come back at the end totally surprised me. I had a feeling that someone was “going to come back from the dead” but I didn’t expect it to happen multiple times. I thought the whole minor sub-plot of Frankie losing her morals to sleep with Rye while he’s married but refusing Jamie just to end up with Jamie was more
thought provoking than meant to be. It was sweet how she stayed true to her morals with Jamie and he ended up being the good guy she needed. (Assuming they got together at the end)

‘Women’ left me emotional and wanting more at the end. It was my best read of this year so far and I will be recommending it to everyone. 

I enjoyed the first half of this book but by the second half we don’t need a breakdown of every single aspect. There are some good tips and inspiration but it does start to get repetitive. This book could be 200ish pages and be better. The sample pictures were fun to look at but honestly a lot of them seemed similar and not “risky”/out there enough to make it into a style book. 

This book could be cut in half to be honest… Part two is very repetitive and doesn’t provide any new information. This book is helpful but you can find everything in this book elsewhere. I mean, you probably have heard all of this information already and don’t need to go looking for it. 

I was inspired to start decluttering and feel less overwhelmed, but I didn’t need to read 300 pages to feel this way.