Review: Stealing the Show: How Women are Revolutionizing Television byJoy Press

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Ever since I was child, I've loved television. From watching Degrassi reruns to Grey's Anatomy, I've always been deeply intrigued by the every day lives of fictional characters.  

And lately, I've been intrigued by the behind the scenes work. Stealing the Show: How Women are Revolutionizing Television was an interesting read that explored the women who honestly don't receive the recognition that they deserve. The book highlights Shonda Rhimes, Tina Fey, Mindy Making, and so many other incredible women. Each woman is unique and brought something different to the television industry. 

Each chapter is carefully dedication to one or a couple of women. It doesn't seem rushed nor is there any favoritism towards a certain person. Within the chapters, there is background for everyone that shows how they started and where they ended up. 

It was empowering to read about how these women transformed the industry. It was not an easy experience for them. There were blond sweat and tears. And Joy Press showcases the failures too. Not every venture was a successful, however, it was always a learning experience for them. 

The author does a beautiful job of explaining and giving these women a platform to tell their stories in their own voices. The author had several direct quotes from them. 

Final Analysis 

Stealing the Show: How Women are Revolutionizing Television is the perfect for anyone who has an interest in writing, producing and directing. It gives an indirect view of the challenges of incredible women who have revolutionized the television industry. 

Review: People Like Us by Dana Mele

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People Like Us is a young adult book that centers around Kay Donovan. A Bates Academy student who unfortunately has a few skeletons in her closet.  After her and a groups friends, find a dead body near the school, Kay receives an email that leads her on a scavenger hunt. In the progress of making sure that her secrets stay buried, Kay gets involved in a murder investigation, love triangle, and a race to find the truth.

If I had to describe People Like Us to a random individual, I would say that it is Mean Girls with murder twist and private school twist. Sort of like Pretty Little Liars, but less complicated.

It’s a quick read, nothing overly complicated. It straddles the line of thrilling, without every crossing it. It is interesting; I especially liked how the revenge blog was incorporated in the plot.

But the book was not so interesting that I was on the edge of my seat and desperate to find out all the answers. Had this been an exciting thriller, I think I would have enjoyed it more.

I felt that the first half of the book was the strongest part. Everything flowed well and the pacing felt right. However, towards the middle, it stated to drag on and somethings started to feel unnecessary. Eventually, the book did pick back up, however, in hyper-speed especially when the mystery was solved.

Characters

I struggled with the main character, Kay Donovan. I found her unfortunately uninteresting and she made very questionable decisions. She wasn’t a good person at times, and normally I can be forgiving with morally gray characters, but there was not much to her. So it was hard to even connect with her. Who exactly is Kay Donovan, because I wasn’t sure. I also was not sure why everyone was so obsessed with her. I didn’t see the charm.

Final Analysis

Instead of being a thrilling mystery novel, People Like Us feels rushed and lacking. The supporting characters felt more exciting than the main character and it ends on a forgettable note.  

Review: Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone

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Let me tell you about how much I almost didn’t read this book. I’m open to many books but honestly this was a departure from my “open norm” genres of what I read. Then it sort of fell in my lap and needless to say I’m going to venture out more because this was way better than I assumed it would be. Nothing about the quality, just solely basing it on the subject assuming it wasn’t for me but as it turned out, I couldn’t turn those pages fast enough. 

So Jane is living this double life for a motive. She gets a job at an insurance company and one day seems to attract the attention of one particular person, Steven Hepsworth. Assuming she is this shy, naive gal, he decides to dive right in and grab her for himself but little does he know, Jane has other plans for him. Using this to her advantage, Jane gets close to him and doesn’t stop until she can take what matters the most to him like he did to her. Little does he know, karma is coming for him and vengeance will be hers..

The plot of this book was fantastic. I’m so glad that I read this book. I couldn’t read it fast enough. I had a love/hate relationship with the characters in the book. I mean this in the most endearing way. You know a book is awesome if you are talking about it after you finish. Jane, is who she is. A total sociopath, void of emotion, but driven by the love she felt for the way her friend made her feel to avenge for her and fight for justice. She has a dark sense of humor but is so likable. At first I was like, what her deal but then once you find out what happened and why, the plot takes off and there’s not a moment that you want to miss. 

Then the part of the book I hated was the character Steven. He is to put it plainly an undercover tool. Ugh, I just cringe reading him but he brought out something in Jane that made that book just so interesting. It drove her to where she ended up and made for an interesting story. I guess there has to be the bad guy to drive the plot to the good. All I’m going to say is that he got his and it is worth reading to see what happens.

Overall, you can’t put this book in one category. All I can say is dive in and give it a chance. I say that because at first, Jane might rub you the wrong way but the road leads to a good one once you learn what is her driving force. It’s a psychological thriller that is sort of lays out the why and you just have to experience what happens. Nice pace that is pretty straightforward. A little mixture of dark humor and suspense wrapped up for fun page turner. I’d recommend you adding this to the tbr list.

Review: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

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Buy on Amazon

Buy on Amazon

Dark Places was just as dark and twisted as I had imagined it to be. It was a roller-coaster filled with unexpected twists and thrills. I highly recommend this book to anyone who will listen. It is a thought provoking book that runs with the idea of an unreliable narrative.

At the age of seven, Libby Day’s mother and two older sisters were brutally murdered. She managed to escape, and later testified that her older brother, Ben, had committed the murders. 25 years later, Libby is contacted by the Kill Club, a secret club who is fascinated with brutal crimes. The club is convinced that Ben is not the murderer, and want more details for Libby. The club’s willingness to pay Libby, sends her on a search to figure out what truly happened on that dreadful night.

For the first page, I was immediately hooked, and there were times when it was hard to put the book down. Gillian Flynn has an addictive and captivating yet simple way of writing. It is not overly stuffed with metaphors. Instead the writing is filled with just enough detail paint a brilliant story. And each of those details, are just as important as the first. Nothing felt accidentally in this book; every line felt carefully written so that this mystery could be well crafted, surprisingly, and haunting.

I felt uncomfortable while reading this. It is not a wholesome light read, and the author does not shy away from anything. It is dark. Truly dark. And the more Libby tries to piece together the truth, the darker it gets.

Characters

There were times when I did not like several characters’ motives or behaviors but that never overshadowed the book. Within this universe that Flynn has created, it made sense for those characters to act that way. It felt very human, and I couldn’t fault some of them, not all of them, for their mistakes or choices. No one in this book is truly good or innocent.

For example, Libby. She is not the type of character that I typically lean towards. She’s done some terrible things in the past, but I understood her and I could not help but want her to come on top.

Libby Day was a deeply troubled, flawed, and complex character. Which is understandable considering her life has been nothing but tragic. She’s been through a lot, and since the book is written in her POV you truly get to witness her pain and suffering.

Final Analysis

Dark Places is a haunting and unpredictable book that does not fail to leave you on the edge of your seat. It’s an unforgettable page turner that will leave you speechless.

Review: The Art of Inheriting Secrets by Barbara O'Neal

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To be honest, I didn’t want this book to end. Such a beauty from the cover through the end of the novel, it really was such a warm experience. You get swept away in a book that just keeps pulling you in unlayering secrets through the past and present of Oliva Shaw and finding answers through her grief in the hope of unlocking the mysteries secret lineage.

To the surprise of food editor Olivia Shaw, after the death of her mother, it was revealed to her that she inherited a Castle. Not just any castle, but one revered in that town but was rooted in many secrets and even said to have been cursed. A complete shock because there had never been any mention of this part of her mother’s life and to add to her grief the overwhelming surprise behind those walls lied many secrets left for her to discover on her own.

Growing up, unbeknownst to Olivia, her mother had a theme to her paintings. It wasn’t until she came to England where she made the connection, she slowly pieced together the puzzle that her mother left unspoken. Trying to adjust to this entirely different life, Olivia on this journey not only discovers a connection to her past but uncovers renewed perspective that changes her future and amends the past.

Overall, this was definitely one that you can just melt into. The plot of the book was really intriguing. I found myself almost flipping forward but I’m glad that I didn’t because everything revealed itself in the time it was meant to. There is a joy and beauty to the way she descriptively places the reader in the time and place as well as allow the characters to never disappoint. I love how the book ended because I think it brought everything home and leaves you fulfilled. If you get a chance, I’d recommend adding this to your reading list!

Review: The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell

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When his wife is killed in an unlikely accident, Adrian Wolfe is left, to his anguish, alone. This isn’t the first time his life has been overturned (she was his third wife, after all), but it’s the first time that he wasn’t the one in control. When he’d left his first wife and two children, he’d done so with the conviction that it was for love, to be with his second wife and have three more beautiful children. That same conviction had led him to Maya. They had been happy. They were trying for a baby. Everyone from his first wife to his latest child was so encouraging, or so it seemed. He and Maya had a long road ahead which Adrian had already mapped perfectly and now this. This wasn’t supposed to happen; someone had to be responsible.

Despite his grief, when a mysterious and captivating woman seeks him out under the pretense of adopting his late wife’s cat, Adrian takes notice. He’s not the only one. Members of his patchwork family have noticed the woman popping up since Maya’s death, but just as they’re piecing things together, she disappears. With the lines separating accident and intent growing blurrier by the day, Adrian is determined to get to the bottom of things. Doing so forces him to unpack his own baggage and see what really lies beyond his rose-colored glasses; a resentful son who he hasn’t seen in months, a daughter binging on comfort foods, violent emails, a long line of strained family outings and his wife’s own muted protestations. Adrian’s investigation leads him to wonder just how inscrutable Maya’s death had been after all. 

Through the Wolfe family, Lisa Jewell has crafted an intricate puzzle containing all of the classic elements of a whodunit (complete with clues, motives and characters exonerated one by one) while retaining the complex facets of real people. With such a far reaching and tangled familial web, the suspects were practically endless, but never were they obvious. While the story’s premise was entertaining and moved forward at a clip, I wasn’t always impressed with the individual characters. Their dialogue was peppered with bits of grating teenage slang even among the thirty-somethings (“What. Ever”) and even in the case of an unexplained death, they indulged too readily in melodrama. Then again, while these traits might not be likeable, they make each person all the more genuine. This is especially true in the case of Adrian. Just like his two ex-wives and five children, you want so badly to like him that you just do, despite all his mistakes and that is what lies at the heart of the novel; a flawed man trying to make sense of the life he’s upended so badly without ever allowing himself to realize it. It’s all unveiled so subtly that it gets to be a page turner. By part two you’re forced to bore right through it, making this one a great weekend read to swallow up in one gulp.