Bear by Julia Phillips
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ok, wow.

I have to give this book a 5-star read because it’s unlike anything I’ve read. I love when I discover books that have such unusual premises that even after having read thousands of books, I can still be really surprised.

On the surface, Bear is the story of two siblings who live on a Pacific Northwest island, taking care of their ill mom and working at dead-end underpaying jobs to pay the medical bills. But underneath, there’s so so much more going on. Sam has been waiting for the day that she and Elena can stop having to take care of their mother, sell their house and move off the island, as Elena promised years ago.

And then a bear shows up at their house. And the two sisters have wildly different reactions to the bear. We only see everything from Sam’s perspective and her alarm grows and grows, causing a greater wedge between her and her sister and she feels it’s imperative that she resolve the situation before all their dreams go up in smoke.

And, of course, of course things are not as they might seem to Sam. And, of course, of course things don’t go as planned.

This is a powerful novel unlike any other. I loved it.

with gratitude to netgalley and Random House for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

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Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

when stuck i just read mysteries because i know they will be fast paced and give me something to read. this one was no exception. fast paced, interesting and something to read while I feel stuck.

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Reunion by Elise Juska
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the story of three adults going back for their college reunion weekend. They used to be best friends in college but are not as close anymore. Each of them has their own struggles that they are not sharing with the others.

I thought the characters were interesting and well-drawn. They were three dimensional and their feelings around the reunion weekend were juxtaposed well with the struggles they are each experiencing in their lives at the same time. I loved the wide array of personal struggles they each had and I liked the depiction of the reunion weekend, albeit a little stereotypical.

There is an emergency that ends up taking them out of the reunion and inadvertently forces each of them to face what they’re not dealing with in their own lives. I loved this part, too.

I think, in the end, I didn’t give it a higher rating because I felt like I was watching these characters from afar instead of embodying their struggles and that gave the book a distance that is usually not what I prefer in stories like these. I still really enjoyed my time with this novel and it made me think.

with gratitude to netgalley and Harper for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

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