Tag: carti adulti

Posted in Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (Vera Wong #1) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Posted on by roxtao

SYNOPSIS:

Put the kettle on, there’s a mystery brewing… Tea-shop owner. Matchmaker. Detective? Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).

But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could – because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands – Vera decides it’s down to her to catch the killer. Nobody spills the tea like this amateur sleuth.

REVIEW:

The day I finished this book I bought two other novels by Jesse Q. Sutanto and I’m hunting what else she wrote. I do have a weak spot for books that have this type of nosy old lady as a protagonist so I wasn’t quite surprised that I loved Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice For Murderers as much as I did. The fact that the author is also diving into so many different cultures through her characters also added to my delight while reading the book.

It’s been a while since I read Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice For Murderers and I’m still unable to find anything I did not like about it. The atmosphere, the mystery, all of the characters and the relationships between them, everything had just the perfect dose of comfort and thrill. I did feel my heart beating equally faster both when the action was becoming more intense and also when anything was threatening a new friendship between the characters.

I love how strong and uplifting the whole story was, despite each character carrying their own problems on their shoulders. Each of them could be crushed under the pressure, but the bonds that form between them empower them equally and lift some of the weight. Not all of it, but just enough to keep them going and to grow stronger with every day that passes. And that’s probably one of the most beautiful things that we see not only in books, but in daily life as well: how humanity is not defined by a multitude of people, but by the relations between them.

I also loved how visual the whole story was, without even using an excessive amount of descriptions. The moment I think about Vera’s teahouse I can envision it clearly, with all her ancient cabinets and windows darkened by time, on the quiet ethnic street with snoopy neighbours. Additionally, the narrative voice definitely has an accent, so it almost felt like I was listening to an audiobook in my head, rather than reading.

Really fun and lovely read! I haven’t checked any GoodReads reviews yet in order to be sure, but I highly doubt anyone could possibly dislike this book. I personally enjoyed every page of it!

Posted in Agatha Christie

Death Comes As The End by Agatha Christie

Posted on by roxtao

SINOPSIS:

In this startling historical mystery, unique in the author’s canon, Agatha Christie presents the puzzle of a deadly mystery at the heart of a dissonant family in ancient Egypt.

Imhotep, wealthy landowner and priest of Thebes, has outraged his sons and daughters by bringing a beautiful concubine into their fold. And the manipulative Nofret has already set about a plan to usurp her rivals’ rightful legacies. When her lifeless body is discovered at the foot of a cliff, Imhotep’s own flesh and blood become the apparent conspirators in her shocking murder.

But vengeance and greed may not be the only motives…

REVIEW:

I’ve gone through hundreds of books throughout my life, from famous one to completely unknown ones, but weirdly, I seem to have skipped few major authors. Agatha Christie is one of them. So I decided to rectify this issue and randomly started with Death Comes As The End.

I’m not sure if it was the best choice for a first reading of this author of if I should have started maybe with one of her more popular novels. Not that I disliked the story, but it was a bit far from what I was expecting.

Death Comes As The End felt kind of like a light, cozy mystery set in an ancient setting. I mean… as “cozy” as it can get, considering the seven murders that take place. Nothing wow, nothing impressive, yet pleasant and catchy enough. It didn’t make me wish to instantly buy all the books written by this author, but in the same time, it’s hard to find anything to dislike in the story. Everything feels just… unremarkable, from the chain of events to the personalities of the characters. The kind of book that you enjoy while reading, but completely forget a week after.

I did appreciate the construction of the characters though. I did not get attached to any of them in particular, I found most of them to be too passive, but I loved how clear and well defined each of them was. I don’t know how to explain it in a better way, but even if you would suddenly forget all their names midway, it would be impossible to get confused about who is who. Their actions and words are perfectly well aligned with their personalities. I encountered the opposite in many many other books and I completely detest when the characters and their voices or behaviours are indistinguishable.

Regarding the mystery itself, I’m never the kind of reader that tries to be a step ahead and guess in advance who the killer is. So as long as the solution is not painstakingly obvious, I’m usually enjoying the story as it goes. This was the case with Death Comes As The End. I probably should have paid more attention to the psychological development of the characters and seen what was coming. Looking back, the changes in their conduct would have been the best clue to follow if I’d be the detective type of reader. But I feel that I did not get the chance to connect with them more because of how inactive most of them were throughout the storyline.

Overall, it was an enjoyable and quick read, but definitely not the type of book that would make me want to read even the grocery list of that author. If I’ll return to Agatha Christie, it will definitely be because of her name and not because of this particular story.

Posted in Jessica Knoll, Uncategorized

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

Posted on by roxtao

SYNOPSIS:

Her perfect life is a perfect lie.

As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself.

Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret. There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that’s bigger than it first appears. The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for-or, will it at long last, set Ani free?

REVIEW:

I’m very rarely bothered by the style of a book and I’m usually too captivated by the story in order to notice any possible errors or any… stylistic issues. But my god, did Luckiest Girl Alive, bore me with those long, long sentences. There’s description after description for literally every single thing, important or not. Moreover, each phrase contains several metaphors and “quirky” little comparisons. It’s getting so tiring after a while that I’d just start reading a sentence, lose interest midway and skip the rest.

Anyway, I persisted and after a while I managed to get used to the style and just focus on the storyline. Or perhaps the author just changed her style? I don’t even know anymore honestly.

The protagonist couldn’t be more annoying in the beginning. She’s not just intentionally bitchy, but she wants everyone to know what a mean person she is. Page after page, every action and sentence just screams: “Look at me how rich, important and cool I am!”. Later it becomes obvious that it’s just a protection mechanism for her to deal with her past. The more vulnerable she becomes, the more you forgive her shallowness from the beginning.

The story begins to become stronger and more disturbing as you read on and at some point it’s easy to forget all the negative aspects that you observed in the first few chapters.

You start to actually love it and be captivated by it and then.. bam! You get this new age ending where she made peace with herself, with everyone around her and with her past and she’s all wise and transformed into a new person who is suddenly not craving for attention and for luxury and for that perfect image that she was dreaming about just months before.

The whole book is just a hot pot of mixed feelings. I didn’t hate it, or at least not all the time, but I can’t say that I liked it either. And despite the fact that I rolled my eyes over and over again… overall it did not actually bore me. I didn’t find it memorable but in the same time, it did keep me hooked enough to finish it in a few days.

And I guess it’s worth giving it a chance, because not a lot of books manage to trigger such confusing reactions. Plus, the fact that they made a movie out of it kind of tells you it’s not really a waste of time.

Posted in Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Posted on by roxtao

SYNOPSIS:

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career. Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ’80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

REVIEW:

I am so unimpressed by this book that I don’t even know what to write in this review. I didn’t hate it, but everything in it was so bland that I find it inexplicable how it managed to create such waves in the reading communities.

The whole book revolves around the idea of the difficulties of being queer during an era when this was seen as one of the greatest possible sins. Unfortunately, for me, it just didn’t look like it was enough to center a whole novel around it. Some might say that the fame of the protagonist is adding more to the tension of the story, but objectively, the stardom (and the money and influence that come with it) only made things easier for the protagonists.

I’m always open to love a book even if the storyline is not the best, if it compensates with some good characters. But besides Harry, the longest lasting husband of Evelyn, who was really lovely (still pretty dull, but at least sweet enough to balance it), everyone else was either insipid or terribly annoying.

There’s no drama, no suspense, nothing memorable or breathtaking. Just a flat, boring and flavourless story that wants to be deep but fails. I did like the fact that there is no joyous ending. The only thing that would have made things worse would have been to turn the whole plot into a classic happy ending where everything gets bubbly and optimistic.

Posted in Deanna Raybourn

Killers Of A Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Posted on by roxtao

SYNOPSIS:

Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon.

They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they’re sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire – it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.

Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman–and a killer–of a certain age.

REVIEW:

I have never read a book that wants to be a movie more than Killers Of A Certain Age. From page one, until the very end, this novel screams to be turned into a movie! It just has the perfect dose of high adrenaline and action mixed with short personal insights and equal doses of melancholy and humor. I loved it, every page kept me entertained and didn’t give me one moment to get bored.

If there’s a downside, it’s the fact that it is quite difficult to distinguish the four protagonists between each other. The book is separated into Past and Present chapters, with the present ones narrated from Billie’s perspective and the past ones written in third person. This would make you think that Billie is the protagonist but in reality, all four ladies “of a certain age” are main characters and play equally important roles. Unfortunately, it feels like the author created the contours of one character, made another three xerox copies of it and afterwards used different colors to paint each one of them. They’re all pretty much the same, just slightly different shades. And no matter how far you’ve reached into the book, the differences are not becoming more noticeable.

Despite the slightly confusing protagonists, I did enjoy the novel a lot. I noticed some GoodReads reviews making a fuss about the old ladies not acting or speaking like… well, proper old people. And I feel that those reviewers didn’t get to spend a lot of time with real old people. Growing old does not take the fun out of life. You don’t stop swearing or making faces or throwing dirty jokes here and there. You just stop doing that in public. But inside your intimate circle? You are still you, you don’t suddenly turn into a boring, complaining and grumpy “Karen”. I had the opportunity to grow up and spend a lot of time between elders. I’ve heard jokes that made me blush more often that you’d expect. I’ve witnessed the same dynamics in a group of old people that I’ve seen between young friends. I spent countless hours crying with laughter with a group of 80 years ladies, completely forgetting that they’re not in their thirties. Yes, there are more conversations about back pain and heartburn. But the society’s expectations are way more conservative and depressing than what reality is. So I honestly think that the author did a great job portraying her characters and the friendship they developed during the decades of working together.

The mystery at the base of the storyline is not breathtaking, but it is enough to create interest. The action and characters fill the gaps enough. I would have loved to find out more about Billie’s protégé, Minka. It could have been an interesting backstory and would have deserved more than just being left as a hanging thread, especially since Minka has a lot of potential to be a more important character. But that’s simply a wish and not a complaint.

My thoughts still drift to the book, days after I have finished it and I realised today that it’s been a pretty long time since a novel filled me with such joy. It’s a cocktail of spies, chick-lit and bittersweet old ladies and Deanna Raybourn did a great job mixing it!