Review: "I Take You" by Eliza Kennedey

I Take You follows lawyer Lily Wilder in the week leading up to her wedding in Key West where she grew up. The only problem is, she can't decide whether or not she wants to get married. Her continued promiscuity with coworkers, men she meets at bars, and men from pretty much anywhere has her friends, family, and even herself a little concerned. The first third of the book is mostly about her partying, drinking, having sex, and doing drugs mostly as part of her bachelorette parties (she has three). She also seems unable to help her profane language, which comes out at the least opportune moments.

As if she didn't have enough going on trying to plan a wedding while thinking about whether or not she wanted to go through with it, her law firm also has her working on preparing a witness for a deposition. She quickly realizes she's out of her depth when she opens the file and sees some very incriminating emails that show her witness admitting to fraud.

Lily's fiance, Will, seems to be near perfect - an archaeologist who is absolutely head over heels for Lily, but also has a lot on his mind. They got engaged after only two weeks of knowing each other, and the wedding is just six months later. Do they know each other well enough to get married? That's the question that Will, Lily, and all of their family and friends wrestle with throughout the book.

It is a funny and captivating book in all of the crazy antics of Lily, her family, and everyone they encounter, though Lily is an endlessly frustrating narrator. She's outspoken, obnoxious, and continuously makes horrible life decisions that just make her terribly unlikable.  She is overly rude and often just plain mean. But she does learn from them and we do get to see character growth that leaves the novel with a satisfying conclusion and slightly minimizes the negative feelings toward the narrator.


It's definitely not for everyone, but I thought the story was interesting and I was very invested in seeing how it was resolved until the very last page.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

To Review: "I Take You" by Eliza Kennedy

Next up to review is I Take You. 

It's the first novel by author Eliza Kennedy, and I can't wait to read it!

Review: "Princess Grace Sticker & Activity Book" inspired by Jeanna Young & Jacqueline Johnson with Pictures by Omar Aranda

The Princess Grace Sticker & Activity Book is one of five in the series that follows a princess and her sisters. It is a 16-page activity book and includes 50 stickers. The main "story" of the Princess Grace book is following her mischievous kitten, Poppy.

Some of the activities were the same type as in the Princess Joy book, but others were new.  Activities include: picture with sticker placement marked, word search, coloring page, connect the dots, draw flowers in a vase, find missing items, spot the differences, follow the path (similar to a maze), secret code, counting, and drawing people you love.

It's a little odd that the stickers are placed in the middle of a spread that has a two-page picture with missing items to locate. It makes it so you would have to remove the sticker pages to see the whole picture (or keep flipping back and forth).

Other than that, it's a great activity book for a young princess fan! There is a good amount of variety in the activities, and the pictures and characters are all adorable. The publisher recommends this book for ages 4-8.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from BookLook for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "What You Left Behind" by Samantha Hayes

What You Left Behind by Samantha Hayes is a chilling story of a cluster of teenage suicides in a small country town, Radcote. Though it happened before the novel began, a few new deaths re-open old community wounds (and investigations). Detective Lorraine Fisher visits her sister just as her nephew goes missing and together with neighbors and the local police force, they do everything they can to figure out what is going on in Radcote.

The novel was suspenseful and mysterious, doing a nice job of resolving itself, but not revisiting every
piece of the puzzle. It was dark, scary, and disturbing at times, as one might expect from the brief description above. 

The story is told from multiple perspectives, which adds a lot of insight and intrigue. It is especially impactful in the prologue/epilogue, but I don't want to spoil anything!

It was a fast paced book that held my attention the entire time and never slowed down. 

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Blogging For Books for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "Princess Joy Sticker & Activity Book" inspired by Jeanna Young & Jacqueline Johnson with Pictures by Omar Aranda

The Princess Joy Sticker & Activity Book is a short 16-page booklet, but packs a lot of different activities into its few pages. The book starts with a "Once upon a time..." two sentence story with a full color picture and clearly identified places to put six of the 50 stickers that come with the book. The other stickers can be used to decorate other pages, but are not specified for a specific use.

There isn't much of a story line, but there's enough to give the book a theme: Princess Joy's birthday. Each page has a few sentences explaining the activity and talking about the upcoming birthday party. The illustrations give the book a very Disney feel.

Activities include: word search, coloring pages, party invitation decoration, maze, spot the differences, secret code (fill in the letters for the corresponding provided numerical equivalent), counting, and hidden item search.


The suggested age range is 4-8 and the activities do seem to vary quite a bit in the difficulty level. I don't think any of the activities would be too difficult for a four year old with some adult help though.

I imagine this would be a great book for a special occasion, such as camping or a weekend vacation. It's a short and sweet book that kids will love, where the only downside is the limited story and lack of more directions for sticker use.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from BookLook for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

To Review: "What You Left Behind" by Samantha Hayes

Next up to review is a novel by Samantha Hayes, What You Left Behind. 

It is a detective story about a collection of suicides that happened in a small town. At first it's just an unusual new story, a mystery, but then things get a little too close to home for the detective and her family...

Look for my review coming soon!

Review: "Deception on Sable Hill" by Shelley Gray

Though Deception on Sable Hill is the second of the Chicago World's Fair mystery series, I did not feel lost having not read the first novel. However, this book was so enjoyable I may have to go back and read it out of order!

Eloise Carstairs is considered by many to be the most eligible bachelorette: she comes from a very wealthy family, is beautiful, and has a spotless reputation. What her high society acquaintances don't know is that she's hiding a horrible secret. At the beginning of the novel she's hasn't told anyone that she was sexually assaulted, and that haunts her through the story. 

When Eloise finally gets up the courage to start attending parties again, she stumbles into another horrible nightmare. There's a "Society Slasher" on the loose, attacking well-to-do ladies with a stiletto knife, marring their beautiful faces. 

Lieutenant Detective Sean Ryan is on the case and he takes a special interest in ensuring Eloise's safety. Despite being of a much lower class, the two develop an affection for one another. Through their relationship, they teach each other that class shouldn't matter so much and that beauty is as internal as it is external. 

Though the story takes place during the Chicago World's Fair, it is mentioned only briefly and only one scene takes place there. I enjoyed reading about society, the Chicago slums, and in general what Chicago was like in that time period, but I would've liked to see more of the fair as well. 

The characters are lovable and have diverse personalities that create interesting situations. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good romance story with a bit of mystery and  crime. 

I received this book courtesy of BookLook in exchange for an honest review.