Open Wide

 

Open Wide by Jessica Gross - 272 pages

Synopsis: Olive is desperate to get close to Theo—really, really close. She’s always struggled to connect with people. And now she’s in her thirties, single, and so flustered by relationships that she secretly records her conversations, hoping to decipher social clues
and find a way to be less alone.

Then Theo turns up for a shift at the same food pantry where she volunteers. He’s a surgeon fascinated by human organs, a former soccer player, and possibly as weird as Olive. For the first time, someone seems to crave and understand her. Every recording Olive makes of Theo is a balm, which just makes her more afraid of losing him. The only solution seems to be to bind him to her forever. Luckily, the gap between Theo’s front teeth is just wide enough for something—or someone—to slip inside.

Arresting and immersive, Open Wide explores the boundaries of love and the body, as universal human impulses bleed into the surreal.

My Thoughts: This was an... interesting read. I really appreciate weird-girl representation in any media but this one had me going "What am I reading?" the entire time. Complete confusion the entire way through. Overall a good book and had a lot of relatable themes, if you can get past the surreal nightmare it turns into. Olive will give any other fictional weird-girl a run for her money. 

I Who Have Never Known Men

 

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman - 173 pages

Synopsis: Deep underground, forty women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.

As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.

My Thoughts: The story felt slow, especially for such a short book, but it was captivating. I enjoyed the ending and felt that it added to the themes in the story. The characters were interesting and well fleshed out. 

Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

Bloodmarked (Legendborn #2) by Tracy Deonn, 576 p.

"The shadows have risen, and the line is law. All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights—only to discover her own ancestral power. Now, Bree has become someone new: A Medium. A Bloodcrafter. A Scion. But the ancient war between demons and the Order is rising to a deadly peak. And Nick, the Legendborn boy Bree fell in love with, has been kidnapped.

Bree wants to fight, but the Regents who rule the Order won’t let her. To them, she is an unknown girl with unheard-of power, and as the living anchor for the spell that preserves the Legendborn cycle, she must be protected. When the Regents reveal they will do whatever it takes to hide the war, Bree and her friends must go on the run to rescue Nick themselves. But enemies are everywhere, Bree’s powers are unpredictable and dangerous, and she can’t escape her growing attraction to Selwyn, the mage sworn to protect Nick until death. If Bree has any hope of saving herself and the people she loves, she must learn to control her powers from the ancestors who wielded them first—without losing herself in the process." --Goodreads blurb

The sophomore release of this series, while maybe not quite as good as the first, was a great story that kept me engaged and needing to know what was going to happen next. The love triangle was a much larger part of the storyline in this one, and for me that part wasn't as interesting. I was mainly wanting to know how Bree would handle her newfound position and power. I believe this is going to be a trilogy and I'm anxious to get to the third book, but I'm also just glad I found this author and will be looking forward to future releases from her. 

 

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Legendborn (Legendborn #1) by Tracy Deonn, 501 p.

"After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies. A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down. And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight." --Goodreads blurb

I picked this up in anticipation of the second book being released and hearing such good things about the first in the series. I was not disappointed. I feel like good, well-written fantasy set in current times is much harder to find than a full fictional world, but Deonn did this well. I was drawn in very quicky and my attention was kept and was even at the edge of my seat many times. So glad I don't have to wait for the second book! 

 

MURDER ON THE POET'S WALK by ELLERY ADAMS

 MURDER ON THE POET'S WALK by ELLERY ADAMS (Pages 315)

When corpses clutching poems begin turning up around Storyton Hall, resort manager Jane Steward is on the trail of someone exercising poetic license to kill . . .

As Jane eagerly anticipates the wedding of her best friend Eloise Alcott, Storyton Hall is overrun with poets in town to compete for a coveted greeting card contract. They’re everywhere, scrawling verses on cocktail napkins in the reading rooms or seeking inspiration strolling the Poet’s Walk, a series of trails named after famous authors. But the Tennyson Trail leads to a grim surprise: a woman’s corpse drifting in a rowboat on a lake, a crumpled copy of “The Lady of Shallot” in her lifeless fist.

When a second body is discovered, also holding a page from a poetry book, a recurring MO emerges. Fortunately, Jane is well versed in sleuthing and won’t rest until she gives the killer a taste of poetic justice . . .

THE WHITE HARE by JANE JOHNSON

 THE WHITE HARE  by JANE JOHNSON  (388 Pgs)

In the far west of Cornwall lies the White Valley, which cuts deeply through bluebell woods down to the sea at White Cove. The valley has a long and bloody history, laced with folklore, and in it sits a house above the beach that has lain neglected since the war. It comes with a reputation and a strange atmosphere, which is why mother and daughter Magdalena and Mila manage to acquire it so cheaply in the fateful summer of 1954.

Magda has grand plans to restore the house to its former glory as a venue for glittering parties, where the rich and celebrated gathered for cocktails and for bracing walks along the coast. Her grown daughter, Mila, just wants to escape the scandal in her past and make a safe and happy home for her little girl, Janey, a solitary, precocious child blessed with a vivid imagination, much of which she pours into stories about her magical plush toy, Rabbit.

But Janey’s rabbit isn’t the only magical being around. Legend has it that an enchanted white hare may be seen running through the woods. Is it an ill omen or a blessing? As Mila, her mother, and her young daughter adjust to life in this mysterious place, they will have to reckon with their own pasts and with the secrets that have been haunting the White Valley for decades.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I really enjoyed it. Will definitely read more books by Jane Johnson.