Author: SamanthaWho

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

~ SamanthaWho ~ 21 Comments

Pretty Girls by Karin SlaughterI was absolutely unprepared for the nasty horror in Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. This was the first book I’ve read of Slaughter’s (her last name seems fitting now) and didn’t know what to expect. Maybe it was the bright cover and whimsical looking locket, but it sure fooled me. That being said, I did really enjoy the book and was completely absorbed from the start.

The Carroll family has been through hell. The eldest daughter, Julia, disappeared when she was 19 years old and no trace of her has been found over two decades since. The two remaining daughters, Lydia and Claire, haven’t spoken for 18 years, but are reunited when horror strikes again. Claire’s husband Paul has been murdered in front of her eyes and she turns to her sister for support after 18 years of separation. As Claire learns more about the husband she trusted wholeheartedly, her world starts to fall apart and every nightmare she hadn’t imagined comes true.

The silver lining of this horrific story is that the sisters who have held so much anger and pain in their hearts for so long, find their way back to each other, even if it’s under terrible circumstances. Lydia and Claire are outspoken, hot-tempered, and clever, so I really enjoyed reading about them.

Slaughter is a talented writer, spinning a twisting plot with engaging characters. I was horrified by some of the ghastly scenes she has constructed, but I stuck with the novel and wanted to see what happened to Claire and Lydia.

This book had me gripping the binding and clenching my stomach with nerves. I didn’t realize this until my roommate walked in and sent me jumping off the couch. Here is fair warning, this book isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s worth a read anyway.

Leave Your Mark by Aliza Licht

~ SamanthaWho ~ 2 Comments

Leave Your MarkAliza Licht, a highly successful communications executive in the fashion industry, brings us Leave Your Mark. This book is a how-to guide explaining the foundation needed to get ahead in your career, on social media and with your personal brand, through her own experiences. I don’t typically read how-to books, usually choosing much shorter online articles with a list of tips, but I really enjoyed this one!

With a conversational tone, I felt slightly like I was have an extended coffee date with Licht as she explained her top tips for succeeding in any industry as a professional. Her casual tone was very easy to read and engage with. Her advice ranged from broad categories of how to find your passion to writing a short follow-up email. Slightly sassy in tone, I respect Licht’s tell-it-how-it-is attitude because there are some things in life that just shouldn’t be tiptoed around!

As the new year begins, I’m going to do my best to take some of the advice from this book to heart. Here are a few pieces of advice from Leave Your Mark that I think are the most insightful and beneficial:

– “Anticipate your boss’s needs.”
– “You don’t get a promotion for doing your job; you get a promotion for going above and beyond your job.”
– “Don’t just learn your job, learn everyone else’s.”

I graduated from college last spring and as someone entering the business world, I found her advice to be both intelligent and perceptive. Whether it’s applying this advice for my career, on social media platforms like WordPress and Instagram, or while communicating with other professionals, I’m glad to have read Leave Your Mark.

Bookstagram highlights of 2015

~ SamanthaWho ~ 22 Comments

Happy New Year’s Day! Because its the beginning of 2016, I’ve decided to do a bit of reflecting on this past year. Along with starting this blog in July 2015, I started an Instagram account filled with bookish photos. While the blog has been a great platform to share my words with the world, Instagram has been a way to show my photos. These photos are mainly of what I’m currently reading, my cozy socks, creamy lattes and mugs of tea!

In the past few weeks I’ve made some big jumps in the Instagram community that I am VERY excited about! It’s the type of excitement that has me literally jumping up and down. Here are the highlights of 2015:

1.Random House (@randomhouse) reposted my photo on their account for over 35,000 followers!

To make it even sweeter, my photo of Sara Gruen’s At the Water’s Edge, made Random House’s top nine photos of 2015 based on the number of likes!

2. Hachette Book Group (@hachettebooks) reposted one of my photos of After The Crash on their account.

3. Books and Beans (@booksandbeans) is a popular account with 126,000 followers and one of my photos was reposted on their account.

With just over 2,000 Instagram followers, I still can’t believe that this many people want to see my posts! Please feel free to look me up at @dreambyday_bookreviews, I would love to connect with you all on Instagram!

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

~ SamanthaWho ~ 2 Comments

Circling the SunI really enjoyed The Paris Wife by Paula McLain so I was excited to get my hands on her latest book, Circling the Sun. I liked this book, but unfortunately I wasn’t as drawn into the story as I had hoped to be. It was good and I wanted to see how it turned out, but I didn’t feel like I couldn’t put it down.

The book is based on the real life of Beryl Markham, a record-setting pilot. Beryl is a strong character, very alive and brave, and one who wants freedom more than anything else. As a young English girl growing up in colonial Kenya, she faced wild animals regularly, but she used fear to motivate her rather than hold her back. Beryl is a character that is easy to admire.

Along with Beryl’s character I was fascinated to read about life in Africa during the 1920’s. McLain did a great job of creating this wild colorful scenery filled with lions, horses, and other animals.

Throughout the story I had a hard time understanding how each character’s lives could change so often. From romantic partners to careers to houses, each character seemed to be bouncing all around with no sense of stability. As a person that doesn’t always welcome change, this was very strange to read about. Some sections were also a bit slow for me and at times I had a tough time keeping track of the many characters involved.

Circling the Sun is definitely an interesting and well-written story worth a read!

After the Crash by Michel Bussi

~ SamanthaWho ~ 3 Comments

After the CrashI really enjoyed After the Crash, a mystery thriller, by Michel Bussi. A popular French author, this is the first book of Bussi’s to be translated into English so that more of us readers can enjoy his work! A very well written story that’s nicely translated, it’s filled with intriguing characters, some of which I enjoyed and others that I was disgusted by, and surprising plot twists.

Right before Christmas of 1980 a plane crashed into the Swiss Alps killing all 169 passengers besides one… A baby was found to have miraculously survived the crash. Against to odds, there were two baby girls of similar age and with similar features on board meaning that the found child’s identity was unknown. Officials were unable to determine which of the babies on board, Lyse-Rose and Emilie, was the child found at the crash site.

A private detective is hired to investigate the case and has spent 18 years trying to find the real identity of Lylie, the name the baby goes by, a combination or Lyse-Rose and Emilie. Over the years he has compiled a journal full of clues explaining his inability to find the real identity of the baby, who has now grown into an 18-year-old woman. On the eve of Lylie’s 18th birthday, the same date that his contract ends, the detective claims to have come across a case-solving clue…

I really enjoyed this book because it switches between the perspectives of multiple characters (including members of each family and snippets from the detective’s journal of notes) as they all race to answer the ultimate question: who is Lylie?

Thank you to Hachette Book Group for sending me an advanced reader’s copy of After the Crash in exchange for an honest review. The book will be released on January 5, 2016!

In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

~ SamanthaWho ~ 3 Comments

In a Dark Dark WoodI refuse to waste the time I spend commuting back and forth from work so I’ve been listening to audiobooks over the last few months. In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware is the latest of those audiobooks. A creepy murder mystery, this one had me sitting in my car once I arrived home just to keep listening to the story.

Leonora, a crime novel writer, finds herself in a situation just like one of her plots when she goes to the bachelorette weekend of her old friend Claire. Leonora and Claire lost touched many years ago and haven’t spoken since they went to school together as teenagers, so Leonora is confused about her invitation to the weekend. Despite having a bad feeling about the whole thing she goes anyway. A couple days later she wakes up in the hospital with scratches and bruises all over her body and doesn’t remember how she got there. Someone has died, that much she hears from the police outside her room, but she doesn’t know who has been killed or how she’s involved.

Leonora describes the house they stay in next to the woods as a glass castle with the feeling that something or someone is outside watching which creates a creepy tone for the story.

At times I was frustrated by Leonora for going to the bachelorette weekend when she didn’t want to and for not standing up for herself when she felt uncomfortable. Her character did grow on me a bit throughout the book though and I really enjoyed the story. Definitely pick up In a Dark Dark Wood for an engaging and descriptive mystery!

Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand

~ SamanthaWho ~ 3 Comments

Winter Street

Because I’ve been reading a lot of eerie mystery thrillers lately (which I love, don’t get me wrong), I was in the mood for something light. That’s exactly what I got with Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand. It’s a light easy read that I flew through just in time for the holidays.

The story is set in a nice bed and breakfast, the Winter Street Inn, of Nantucket. During the first few pages we learn that Kelley, the father of the family and inn owner, walks in on his second wife Mitzi sleeping with another man. Only a couple days before Christmas, Mitzi leaves and chaos ensues from there. Patrick, the eldest son, has made a huge mistake that could ruin his family. The second son, Kevin, thinks that he has found the love of his life. Ava is now in charge of the annual holiday Christmas party at the inn and can’t get her boyfriend to commit to her. The youngest son, Bart, is fighting in Afghanistan and no one has heard from him. Kelley’s ex-wife Margaret, a famous news anchor, might be just the person that can hold the family together when everything looks like its spiraling out of control.

At the end of the story, the loose ends are tied into a neat bow, which is both satisfying and expected. As a story set during the holidays, it was an enjoyable read filled with images of cozy decorated rooms and elaborate meals.

Amazon’s first physical bookstore

~ SamanthaWho ~ 32 Comments

Amazon's physical bookstoreA few weeks after opening, I finally visited the Amazon bookstore in the University Village shopping center of Seattle, Washington.

The first thing I thought (along with just about everyone else hearing the news) is that it’s ironic that Amazon has decided to come out with a physical bookstore when they grew in size and scope by putting so many other physical bookstores out of business.

As far as appearance goes, the bookstore is pretty nice! The store is brightly lit, with rows of bookshelves along with areas designed for handling and testing out kindle products. News coverage of the store has explained that it is different from other bookstores because Amazon is using its huge database to stock  only  products that they believe will sell in a timely manner. Reps from Amazon have also said that instead of the spine out displays that are typical and are able to fit more books, they will show the book faces. This way the books each get more space and are easier to browse through.

Ironic or not, I love a bookstore and Amazon may be onto something with how they stock and display books. Either way, only time will tell the success of Amazon’s first physical bookstore and whether there will be more to come in the future….

The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg

~ SamanthaWho ~ 8 Comments

The Ice PrincessI’ve been waiting to read The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg for a while now, the eerie blue cover taunting me every time I pass my bookshelf. I don’t know what I was waiting for though because this book is a great mystery novel! One filled with seemingly unconnected characters and horrifying hidden secrets, I couldn’t put it down.

A scandal rocks Fjällbacka, Sweden, when a woman is found dead in her childhood home with her wrists slit open. No one knows what Alex was doing back in her hometown and why she would take her own life until details come out that it couldn’t have in fact been a suicide. Erica Falck, the childhood best friend of Alex, is coincidentally in town when the tragedy hits and is quickly pulled into the murder investigation. The more she learns, the more Erica realizes that Alex has changed in their 25 years apart, becoming distant and elusive over time. Clues pointing to the killer elude police until Patrik, a local detective, and Erica work together to piece together the mystery. As the story goes on, it’s clear that this murder isn’t the only scandal in the small town’s history…

A novel full of characters and storylines, I was fully engaged until the very last page in an effort to sort out how each story is intertwined. I really enjoyed this book and plan to read many more by Läckberg in the future!

At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen

~ SamanthaWho ~ 13 Comments

At the Water's EdgeThis is one of the books that helped build my love for Scotland, its green countryside, and the lively people. Sara Gruen, the author of Water for Elephants, has returned with another great book, At the Water’s Edge.

The story centers around Maddie, a young woman from high society Philadelphia. During World War II, she travels to Scotland with her husband and his best friend in an attempt to locate the Loch Ness monster, following a trail left by her father-in-law. After behaving poorly at a party, Maddie and her husband, Ellis, hope that finding the mystical monster will win back his favor.

Maddie has grown up in a very restrictive environment, bound by the rules of society and distant parents, but doesn’t realize how much so until she arrives in Scotland. The Scottish barmaids and inn owner open her eyes to an entirely different world and she finds herself drawn to it. In the Scottish countryside she also finds out that the man she married may not be who she thought he was. Her charming husband turns out to be a nasty brute while a new man in Scotland may win her heart instead.

At the Water’s Edge has a snowball effect, picking up speed as the story goes on. With an intense ending, I was gripping the book until the very last page. I really liked the story and found myself rooting for Maddie the whole time!