Featuring The Environment – Samwise Reviews

Author: Lucy Foley
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 313
On Sale: July 2020
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Adult, Suspense
Stars: 5/5

From the Publisher:

It’s the wedding of the year. But someone won’t survive it.

On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate the wedding of Jules Keegan and Will Slater. Will is a rising television star, handsome and charming. Jules is a smart, ambitious magazine publisher. Though the sea is a little choppy and the cell service spotty, their wedding is everything you’d expect of a young power couple: designer dress, four-tiered cake, boutique whiskey, vintage champagne. Every detail has been curated to perfection. All that’s left to orchestrate is the happiness.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. It’s not long after the cake is cut and the champagne popped that resentments and petty jealousies come out. Worse yet, the latest barometer reading shows the weather has shifted from FAIR to CHANGEABLE, and dark clouds are looming overhead.

Everyone on the island has a secret. Everyone has a motive. And someone won’t leave this wedding alive…

From Me:

I could not put this book down, I started it on my lunch break and read all the way home and didn’t eat until it was finished. I was floored by how little I predicted and how many surprises there were at the end. I was expected one, and they just kept coming. Some of the “stags” or groomsmen blurred together a bit, but the rest of the characters were unique and easy to keep track of. Each chapter is from a different person’s perspective, and it was nice to have their names at the beginning of each one to keep them straight. This book started out on more of a gentle pace, but then it’s a riot right till the end.

Would fit The 52 Book Club’s 2021 prompts:

1 – Set In A School
19 – Book With A Deckled Edge
23 – An Ending That Surprises You
25 – A Book With Multiple Character POV
29 – Featuring The Environment
32 – A Selfish Character
34 – A Book You’d Rate 5 Stars
41 – An Endorsement By A Famous Author On The Cover

Author: Thomas King
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 286
On Sale: August 25, 2020
Genre: Fiction, Cultural, Travel, Humor, Contemporary
Stars: 2.5/5

From the Publisher:

Meet Bird and Mimi in this brilliant new novel from one of Canada’s foremost authors. Inspired by a handful of old postcards sent by Uncle Leroy nearly a hundred years earlier, Bird and Mimi attempt to trace Mimi’s long-lost uncle and the family medicine bundle he took with him to Europe.

By turns witty, sly and poignant, this is the unforgettable tale of one couple’s holiday trip to Europe, where their wanderings through its famous capitals reveal a complicated history, both personal and political.

From Me:

This was more of a 2.5 as it started as a 3 then went downhill a bit for me. I’m not sure why I didn’t love it, there was nothing wrong with it, I just couldn’t connect with it or really understand it. I know it’s probably accurate for many people, but him having named, physical embodiment of his depression and anxiety etc was hard for me to understand and relate to. There were bits of humor in this book but it wasn’t enough to carry the story or bring me in any closer. I also found the flashbacks and memories of other cities to be a little confusing, and at times they were hard to keep track of.

Would fit The 52 Book Club’s 2021 prompts:
14 – Written By An Author Over 65 When Published
19 – Book With A Deckled Edge
26 – An Author Of Colour
29 – Featuring The Environment
33 – Featuring Adoption
47 – A Character With A Disability