BIG LITTLE LIES!!

So I just finished Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen. This book took me longer to start but once I did I read it in two days. I really liked the concept of the book. I guess I was hoping for a more sinister outcome. I mean Hannah the main character comes home from a business trip and her boyfriend of four years is gone, and when I say gone I mean he has taken everything of his and left. Made it look like he was never there. He replaced his things with hers. Deleted messages, photos, numbers and emails from him to her from her phone and computer. Like he never existed. As the days go on she begins an obsessive search for him that soon begins to take a toll on her and her work. Her friends start to think that she is crazy. As she digs for answers she begins to see answers about herself and her friends and family. I didn't really care for the ending. I liked that it was an ending I wouldn't have thought of. I had who I thought had helped and did it from the start only because I didn't care for her friendship, she was always putting her down and making her second guess herself. It was an okay book definitely not one of my favorites to say the least, but I would like to see what else the author has in store for us in the future.
I am getting ready to start Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. A murder...A tragic accident...Or just parents behaving badly? What’s indisputable is that someone is dead.Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny, biting, and passionate; she remembers everything and forgives no one. Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare but she is paying a price for the illusion of perfection. New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for a nanny. She comes with a mysterious past and a sadness beyond her years. These three women are at different crossroads, but they will all wind up in the same shocking place.Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the little lies that can turn lethal.
I am excited to start this I have heard so many things about it. We Shall See!

Baskets and Books

Well I have to say that the baskets that I made for my senior graduates were a hit! I bought a laundry basket and then filled it up with stuff:

                                                     pop tarts                                                     

chap stick

laundry detergent

pens, pencils, highlighters

gum

candy

air freshener

dish soap

notebooks, notepads, notecards

pringles

tide pen

lint roller

hand sanitizer

mini stapler

planner

first aid kit

ramen noodles

Clorox wipes

sleep mask

 

   I recently finished The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda. Confronted by a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs to get out of Boston when she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who has just left a troubled relationship. Emmy proposes they move to rural Pennsylvania, where Leah can get a teaching position and both women can start again. But their new start is threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leah is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy disappears days later.Determined to find Emmy, Leah cooperates with Kyle Donovan, a handsome young police officer on the case. As they investigate her friend’s life for clues, Leah begins to wonder: did she ever really know Emmy at all? With no friends, family, or a digital footprint, the police begin to suspect that there is no Emmy Grey. Soon Leah’s credibility is at stake, and she is forced to revisit her past: the article that ruined her career. To save herself, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey—and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name.
   When I started this I was kind of concerned because I had read the reviews and some of them were not so nice and they hated the book, because it was implausible and the plot didn't make sense to them. I on the other hand really liked the plot and think that the author wrote it in a way that if it were to happen it could. I really liked Leah from the start and had questions about Emmy for sure. Even though there was a lot of backtracking in the story; it made the story that more interesting like you had to pay attention to what was going on. I like that it had a plot that I could guess and in the end I would be wrong. I had it right with who I thought was behind everything but I couldn't put a finger on why this was happening. I overall liked the book very much and cant wait for the next thing that she comes out with.
   I also finished Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged.Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from—a place to which she vowed she'd never return.
With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present..
   It took me a little bit to get into this one only because the author used multiple characters to tell the story; once I got them straight I was able to read straight through and ended up loving the book. It wasn't really anything like The Girl on the Train but I liked it none the less. I really liked the main character but it took a lot for me to not want to ring her neck every now and then. I liked the back story from the characters too, I mean it added more to the story. I do have to say that my favorite character was the crazy lady that knew more than she could let on. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery.
   I am getting ready to start reading Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen. Hannah Monroe's boyfriend, Matt, is gone. His belongings have disappeared from their house. Every call she ever made to him, every text she ever sent, every photo of him and any sign of him on social media have vanished. It's as though their last four years together never happened.As Hannah struggles to get through the next few days, with humiliation and recriminations whirring through her head, she knows that she'll do whatever it takes to find him again and get answers. But as soon as her search starts, she realizes she is being led into a maze of madness and obsession. Step by suspenseful step, Hannah discovers her only way out is to come face to face with the shocking truth...
  

Having a heart to heart with myself is tough

So have you ever watched Good Luck Chuck, you know the movie about he guy that after he sleeps with a woman, she in turn finds her true love and gets married? Well I have been thinking that I am the female version of stupid Chuck! I swear everyone that I have been with is NOW in a nice healthy relationship; hell some are even married. I have no ill feelings towards the fact that they are now happy I mean hell apparently we weren't happy and it didn't work for us but come on every last one of them. I just kind of wish that it had that effect on me, not that I am not loving my single life, I mean I am 30 years old I have to eventually settle down right? There is someone out there for me isn't there; because at this point I am beginning to think that he is never going to appear. I will be the old lady that dies with her cats.
   On to a lighter topic, we had a major, record breaking rain and flood here in town last weekend. It started off with just rain and then it just kept coming. So that made the ground soft and when I came into to work one day my tree in the parking lot had fallen over almost hitting my Post Office. I will post pictures. Then like I said it never stopped, it got to be where we had a river running through our yard, which soon turned into coming in through our door and flooding our house. We had to take the carpet out and thankfully we live in an Old Methodist Church, its walls are cement so it didn't bother that. We did have to move the TV stand which is VERY heavy and I had popped my pelvis and back out the week before so it was a bitch to move. Finally while it was raining so much out bridge had a flood stage of 13ft and we made it to 30ft. It was up to the side of the bridge running over the road, it made it to the bottom of the train bridge that we have. It also washed out the train tracks and they had to work through the night to get gravel up here from Texas to get the trains running again. It has been a hectic few weeks to say the least.
   I just finished reading The Dry by Jane Harper, and OMG is all I have to say. This was the authors first book and man she came out to win. Her writing style kept me from tuned in from the beginning. The way she introduced the characters made you want to know more about them right then but she kept you in suspense until the time came to give you more. I love small towns I mean I grew up in one and still live in the same town, so I know all to well how they are. You can tell one person something and by the time you make it to the end of the street everyone knows. Secrets are the same way, either everyone knows or nobody tells a soul and they take it to the grave. Unless you cant keep it in any longer.
After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke’s steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn’t tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.
Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there’s more to Luke’s death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them. And Falk will find that small towns have always hidden big secrets.
This book took me two days to read and I would recommend it to anyone. I really liked that even though it was dealing with a murder set in the present time, it went back through the past and answered questions. I wasn't left with questions when I closed the book like I was when I finished In The Woods by Tana French.
   I also finished reading Still Missing by Chevy Stevens. I can say that this book took me longer to read than I wanted it too, I really liked it. On the day she was abducted, Annie O'Sullivan, a thirty-two year old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever- patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all. Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent as the captive of psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.
   I really liked how the author went back and forth with the present time and during the time she was kidnapped. I also like the main character a lot, she went through so much and I wont lie I may have cried at a point to two. She is a strong character and I wish things would have worked better for her in the end, if you read or have read the book you know what I am talking about, I wont spoil it for you. I didn't really see the end coming until I was about 3/4 through the book and I knew there was a reason I didn't care for that character at all. if I say anymore I will spoil it, I can say though that I will be checking out more of her books!
   I am getting ready to start The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain. This will be the first book that I have read by this author too so I am excited. *update* I completely finished this book in one day! OMG this book was amazing. I loved it so much. In The Silent Sister, Riley MacPherson has spent her entire life believing that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager. Now, over twenty years later, her father has passed away and she's in New Bern, North Carolina cleaning out his house when she finds evidence to the contrary. Lisa is alive. Alive and living under a new identity. But why exactly was she on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are being kept now? As Riley works to uncover the truth, her discoveries will put into question everything she thought she knew about her family. Riley must decide what the past means for her present, and what she will do with her newfound information.
   I started this book at work and I finished it about 10:30 last night. I couldn't put it down. When I started it I was pulled in by the author's writing and way with her words. She painted the picture so well, I felt like I was there. I loved Riley from the beginning and even felt a little sorry for her brother Danny. I loved how she didn't just throw everything at you and the fact that the other characters kept letting little things slip. I liked how it went back and forth telling the story between Riley and Lisa, I kind of figured out some of it but not all of it. I can see why she was getting mad at the real estate agents, I mean they were just rushing her and I think it was because they didn't want her to start asking questions that they had tried to hide for nearly 20 years. A lot of people in the book was trying to hide stuff from her and she worked hard to discover what was going on. I think it made me think that we never really know the whole story nor do we every really know someone like we like to think that we do. I would recommend this book to anyone, it was absolutely one of  my favorites. I will be looking for more of her books for sure!
   I finally used my Barns and Noble gift card from Christmas and my books came in today: I got The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda, Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, and Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen. I can not wait to read them!!
   I am working on two "Off To College" baskets for two very special girls that are graduating next week. I will post a picture of them when I am done and what all I put in it. I wish someone had done this for me, I know it would have been very helpful to start out with stuff and not have to buy everything by yourself. I know that they will go far!