"You're a liar! I'm going to tell on you!"

"I'm not the liar... you are! Liar liar, pants on fire!"

Ok, that's not actual dialogue from the book, but it might as well have been.

Patrick and Stephanie are enjoying life as new parents with their colicky twins, when some woman shows up and claims that Patrick killed his first wife. The shock! She demands money for her silence, of course. Instead of going to the police with this threat, the couple decides to fight back by engaging in a Who's the Bigger Liar contest with the blackmailer. After that, all hell breaks loose.

You guys, sometimes I don't even know what I'm reading anymore. Have domestic thrillers lost all sense of reality? Don't go to the police when randos threaten you; you should talk them out of it instead! Getting blackmailed over something minor or false? Best to freak out and give in! And accusing someone of murder? You just need evidence of an affair and a life insurance policy!

Where is the logic in here? No one behaves like this, I tell you! And yet, this book is full of these loonies, and we are forced to read about them overreacting to every little thing, having paranoid breakdowns, and making one bad decision after another. Nothing they did or said made any sense. My eyes rolled so hard I was seriously afraid of permanent damage.

Then, as I'm getting towards the end of the book, a thought popped into my head: "You know what would totally cement the insanity? If this happened." And guess what... that was indeed the big twist of the story. So I didn't even get to enjoy the surprise after all that.

Honestly, what a completely silly, nonsensical, ridiculous story this turned out to be.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

There is something odd going on in the boarded-up house at the end of Needless Street. Its inhabitants include a man who drinks a lot, an angry teenage girl who isn't allowed out, and a religious cat. When a new neighbor moves in next door, it seems all their secrets will finally come to light.

Talk about a riveting story. It took me a few chapters to get into the rhythm of this, but once I did, I could not put it down. There is this chilling and discordant atmosphere that permeates the pages and kept me coming back for more. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it, mulling over what was real and what wasn't, and trying to puzzle it all out.

A lot has been said about the twists in here, but I don't want to talk them up too much because I think it sets up unreasonably high expectations. Either you'll get an inkling of what's going on or you won't, but in both cases, there are still plenty of surprises in store.

I'm not afraid to admit that this book got under my skin. At times, it feels so raw and dark and uncomfortable. I even had a dream about it, though my subconscious subbed in much scarier details than what was actually in the book, which thoroughly freaked me out.

This feels like one of those books that everyone will read and talk about. It's wild, engrossing, and thoroughly memorable. If you read this (which I highly recommend), don't skip the afterword. It adds a new dimension to the story, and I appreciate it even more for what the author said in there.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

My heartfelt thanks for the advance copy that was provided for my honest and unbiased review.

Poor Madison May! She keeps getting murdered and she never sees it coming.

Each time, there is Maddie, going about her life as an actress or a student or a real estate agent when bam!, this obsessive guy shows up, professes his multi-world love for her and kills her. The police are rightfully puzzled, but what could they do against a world-hopping traveler? Enter Felicity Staples, a journalist trying to figure out what happened to Maddie, who soon realizes there might be more to this than just a seemingly random murder.

Whenever I come across a book that's set in a multiverse, I'm always excited to read it and curious to see where it goes with that concept. And this ends up being a fascinating take on parallel universes. It touches upon all the ideas I'm interested in, including how one goes about picking the next world to travel to and what happens to the version of the person already there.

But if you're not a science buff like me, don't let the science fiction part deter you. This is sci-fi at its lightest. There are no extraneous technical details to get bogged down in and no prior knowledge needed to understand. Once you accept the concept of parallel universes and being able to travel between them, all that's left is a thriller. And what a riveting one it is.

The pacing is fast, the action nonstop, and it all builds into a satisfying conclusion. One of the most interesting byproducts of setting a story in a multiverse is that you get to play around with the concept of slightly different versions of the same person. And it's clear the author had a lot of fun crafting all the versions of Madison May.

This has everything I enjoy in a thriller, albeit with more locations and slightly different versions of the same people. It took an interesting premise and made it into a unique story, one that both entertained and surprised me. This is my first time reading Max Barry, but it won't be the last.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

My heartfelt thanks for the copy that was provided for my honest and unbiased review.

I've got to hand it to Liane Moriarty. Just when I think I've seen it all, she comes along and completely surprises me with this sparkling and startling gem of a tale.

Joy Delaney, beloved wife and mother of four, has disappeared. Her adult children are rightfully aghast, but they're reluctant to report her missing. Because they know the prime suspect will be their father, and they're not really sure of his innocence. When the police start asking questions, it quickly becomes clear everyone in the family has stories to tell and secrets to hide. And before it's all over, everything will be revealed and laid bare.

I've really been enjoying stories about dysfunctional families lately, and this is such a superb one. The four siblings are all trying to figure out if their father could've really murdered their mother, and if so, which side would they be on? It's a fascinating premise, and the progression of the story captures all of the nuanced facets that this dilemma would bring to the family.

What I've always admired about Moriarty's writing is her sharp and astute observations of people and their flaws. She has this ability to peel back the layers of family relationships and what it means to be human, and to expose everything ugly and beautiful within, while injecting just that right dose of humor. This book hits upon tender subjects that everyone would recognize as familiar, yet instead of making me cry, it made me laugh.

Needless to say, I found this whole thing to be utterly riveting and unputdownable. The characters are memorable, the strife feels all too real, and the dialogue is snappy. I devoured it in just a few days. While the mystery isn't the core of this book, there were still plenty of revelations along the way that kept me surprised and delighted.

Liane Moriarty is back! This seemingly simple tale of dysfunctional families and relationships, of people's flaws and the messiness of their lives, of unmet expectations and unspoken dreams, hit all the right notes for me. It feels like Moriarty's last two books have been a little bit off of her true form. But with this one, she again returns to the pinnacle of her craft.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

My heartfelt thanks for the advance copy that was provided for my honest and unbiased review.

So many words! It would take seven lifetimes to learn them all.

Have mercy! That's how I felt reading this monstrosity of a book. So many descriptions... it would take seven lifetimes to read them all. Sigh.

For all you fans of Anthony Doerr and All the Light We Cannot See, rest assured, because Cloud Cuckoo Land delivers more of the same: endless, beautiful descriptions of mundane nonevents and no actual plot to be seen anywhere. I'm sitting here trying to think up some sentences to describe what this book is about, and I'm honestly at a loss.

It has five points of view and an additional story within, so that's six separate plot lines we are following, with some of them jumping across multiple timelines as well. If that's not confusing enough, each chapter is only a few pages long before switching to someone else. So just as I'm settling into one, I'm yanked out of it and dropped into another.

Speaking of the different storylines, they are not all equally interesting. My most dreaded are Omeir and Anna's, who are both waiting and preparing for war (but separately). How much is there to write about the non-act of waiting? Well, a lot, as it turns out. To pass the pages, we get to know intimately these characters' landscapes and their every thought.

We also read all about Zeno being in war, though this is a different war from the other one, so it requires its own detailed descriptions. It's not that there is no action, but rather that whenever anything potentially exciting happens, it's immediately mired within paragraphs of descriptive prose, which no matter how beautifully written, just don't hold my interest.

I do want to point out something that made me uncomfortable. The one "villain" we follow is clearly described as an autistic person, and I'm honestly a little surprised this made it through. Are we still living in a time period where it's ok to vilify certain groups of people? I understand that his storyline is eventually redemptive, but why was it necessary to make him autistic to begin with?

The most interesting of the storylines happens aboard the Argos. But here, too, it disappointed me. One of the (only!) interesting things to happen was never fully explained. And the plot's eventual pivot towards the end of the book felt underdeveloped and a waste of potential.

The six different storylines do all tie together in the end, but it's a pretty weak connection. Honestly, you could've strung random storylines together the same way and called it good too.

Obviously, many readers love Anthony Doerr, so something must be broken in me because I just can't understand it. This is the second novel I've read by him, and I feel exactly the same both times. When I see his paragraphs upon paragraphs of descriptive prose about walking or hiding or skulking, my eyes glaze over. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to process or retain his writing. My mind wanders constantly. And when I do manage to focus, my memory of what I read is gone as soon as I've finished the sentence. Often I can't even make it to the end of a paragraph before I've forgotten the beginning and had to start over. This happened for almost the entire book.

If I sound somewhat bitter, I apologize. It's just that this book is more than 600 pages and I read through it all (many parts multiple times) just to make sure I didn't miss some epiphany. Spoiler alert: I didn't.

Readaroo Rating: 1 star

My heartfelt thanks for the advance copy that was provided for my honest and unbiased review.

I don't even know how to begin to rate or review this book, because this isn't the story I signed up to read.

First and foremost, I do want to thank Helen Hoang for being courageous enough to write this story. It's clear that this is a deeply personal book for her, and in the author's note, she said as much, calling this "half a memoir."

I went into this expecting a sweet and heartfelt romance. I'd read both of Hoang's previous two books, and loved them for their diverse and nuanced depiction of people on the autism spectrum. For a condition that's fairly common, the representation of neuroatypical main characters in books and movies is woefully lacking, which is why I found Hoang's books particularly refreshing.

But that isn't the main focus of this book, not by a long shot. Instead, this book should've come with a long list of trigger warnings, including abuse and bullying from family members, gaslighting, emotional blackmail, going against a loved one's wishes during end of life, caregiver burnout, and suicidal thoughts, just to name a few.

The way Asian culture is portrayed in this book, in particular the way Anna's mom and sister disregarded her autonomy at every opportunity and actively worked to keep her mentally beaten down so that she would comply with their wishes, is so accurate as to be too much for me to handle. It hits too close to home. While reading this, I was so distraught I felt almost physically ill.

Can anyone actually remain emotionally in control while reading a story reenacting trauma they themselves have experienced or have watched people they love be subjected to and are still recovering from? If you can, you are a stronger person than I am.

How can I even think about this book in the context of a romance? Whenever Quan and Anna are together, it's beautiful, but other than the initial setup, it was just a few pages here and there. The romantic and sexy scenes, when they did show up, felt so jarring against the otherwise darkness that is this story.

I made it all the way to the end of this book, but I shouldn't have started. It reopened wounds I'm working hard to heal and move on from. I felt like I was being sliced open from the inside, and it was traumatic and distressing.

I think most readers will love this book and appreciate its unflinching and truthful portrayal. But my personal experiences make me unable to enjoy it.

Readaroo Rating: None

This was my Book of the Month pick for August. If you're curious about BOTM or want to find out how to get your first book for $5, click here.

Gosh, The Guncle turned out to be exactly the sort of feelgood, laughy-taffy book I didn't know I needed.

Patrick adores his niece and nephew, and enjoys spending time with them, though only a few days at a time. But when tragedy strikes and he is unexpectedly called upon to care for them, he doesn't think he can do it. For one, he knows nothing about raising children. But more importantly, he's been hiding out for years, dealing with his own personal grief. How can he help these children move on with theirs when he hasn't ever learned to do it himself?

Grief is a hard topic to write about, especially if you're aiming to be uplifting rather than depressing. But Rowley hits upon exactly the right notes with this book. The focus is on moving forward and making new relationships and memories. Patrick and the children need each other, which they slowly realize as time goes on. And it's only through their shared bond that they can overcome this dark shadow in their lives.

There is so much heart and humor in here. Every character is adorable and lovable, from the kids to the dog to the neighbors. Patrick's snarky humor and zingy one-liners had me in stitches. Honestly, I haven't laughed like this from reading a book in a long time. My cheeks were sore the whole way through, stretched out with smiles and laughter.

I'm always in the mood for a heartfelt story, one that tackles a serious subject, but does so with humor and warmth. After all, it's inevitable that life is full of tragedy. Sometimes all you can do is laugh and look out for each other and try to move on the best you can, and this book embodies exactly that.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

My heartfelt thanks for the copy that was provided for my honest and unbiased review.

"Who do you think I am, an amateur?"

Move aside, Nancy Drew! There's a new teen detective in town. And she won't rest until she's unearthed all your secrets and gotten to the bottom of a mystery that has long held her town captive.

Pip never truly believed what all of Fairview has accepted: that Sal Singh murdered his beautiful and popular girlfriend Andie Bell and then killed himself. Five years later, Pip is a senior in high school, and decides for her final project that she's going to find out once and for all what really happened that night.

I'm always in the mood for a good whodunnit. Give me a small group of suspects, everyone hiding secrets, more twists and turns than you can shake a stick at, and red herrings galore, and I'm in heaven. I loved putting on my detective cap and puzzling out the clues alongside Pip as she investigates and solves this mystery.

For me, in order for a mystery to be successful, it has to be so riveting that there is no room for me to think. Once my mind gets going, it has this annoying habit of supplying me with random unsolicited guesses, some of which inevitably turn out to be right, and ruining the surprises. So it's best if I'm so taken with the story that I'm only surfacing to turn the pages as fast as I can. And this story was exactly that.

I grew up on Nancy Drew, and have been looking for an older version of that for as long as I've outgrown it. And how wonderful that this story turned out to be all that I've been looking for and more. Pip is clever, spunky, and fearless, the perfect teen detective staring down secrets and murderers. And the fact that this is a series means I won't have to say goodbye to her just yet.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

They say a witch used to live in these woods a long, long time ago . . . They say she loved a man with scarred lips and a sharp tongue, a man who gave her back her heart and more.

The witch Angrboda is known for seid, the power to divine the future. When Odin, the highest of the Norse gods, demands her power for himself, she refuses. He punishes her by burning her three times on the pyre, but she escapes, leaving her smoldering heart behind. When a man shows up in the remote forest she's hiding and offers her heart back, so starts the love story between Angrboda and Loki. Before they are through, they will have set in motion a chain of events that will remake the world as they know it.

This story grabbed me from the very first page. Going in, I didn't know much about Norse mythology and wasn't sure what to expect. But boy, does this deliver. It has everything you'd expect from a mythological retelling: love, intrigue, betrayal, and ultimately redemption. And since every part of this story was new to me, I was able to savor every single development and twist.

The fully formed characters and their relationships very much contribute to this captivating reimagining. Angrboda, in particular, is a compelling female character, uncompromisingly strong in the face of adversity, but also tender and loving. Her complicated relationship with Loki and Skadi, as well as her children, and all the impossible decisions she has to make, are at the heart of this tale.

The writing is vivid and visceral, lending a sense of urgency that propels the narrative forward. The only nitpick I have is that some of the dialogue feels a little too modern with their phrasing and idioms. Instead of being the more formal and reserved speech you'd generally see from mythology retellings, it reads like something I would say in my casual conversations, which felt a bit jarring with the rest of the story. But that's a small quibble.

It was easy to get lost in this rich and magical world. I'm so glad I took a chance on this book. It's whet my appetite for Norse mythology, and I'll definitely be reading more.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars