Hi everyone! I hope you are doing great. Today, I would like to share with you the two books that I read in February and March 2024. As a slow reader, I was hoping to read more these two months, but I got time.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Synopsis
Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London's most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Alicia's refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations - a search for the truth that threatens to consume him...
My Rating: ✰✰✰.5
Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Audible, and Book of the Month
The book was okay. I predicted it was going to be a 5-star read and a great start to the Book Club this year.
I was wrong. I didn't like any of the characters, besides Alicia maybe, but I'm still not too sure.
There are some positive aspects to this book, I did like how we got the perspective of Alicia through her diary and got to know how Theo lived his life and took care of his patient, Alicia.
I didn't like Theo for many reasons and a small spoiler, I guess, but Theo plays detective too many times. Like, I understand Theo wants to know more about Alicia, but please stick to your profession. Thank you!
The mystery was alright, the twist was predictable just by the way Theo would do and say things.
I did annotate this book and wrote in the margins which I'm happy about because I get to see what quotes I like, and what quotes annoyed me.
I do have another of Alex’s works, The Maidens, and I applaud Alex for having his first novel ever being published. I do hope the Maidens are going to be better than The Silent Patient.
Curvy Girls Can't Date Quarterbacks by Kelsie Stelting
Synopsis
Curvy girls deserve happily ever afters too. I'm a big girl, "plus-sized," whatever. I'm sick of hearing about it, especially since my doctor diagnosed me with PCOS.
So when Mean Girl Merritt shot her mouth off about how fat people should just lose weight, I couldn't take it anymore. And now I've got a huge problem. To prove curvy girls like me can get happily-ever-afters too, I have to get our school's quarterback, Beckett Langley, to take me to homecoming. And he doesn't know I even exist. But it's not hopeless. Four other girls just like me are willing to help, because enough is enough. I will not lose this bet.
My Rating: ✰✰✰
Buy: Amazon
I’m going to be honest. I didn’t like this book. I like the plot and the tropes, and that’s about it.
I regretted buying this book when I saw it advertised on Instagram so much. The fact that this was written in 2020, it’s not giving 2020 vibes, it’s definitely giving early 2000s, even though there is Instagram in the Curvy Girls universe.
I didn’t like the main character, her mother, and the mean girl. Rory, the main character, was annoying, to be honest. Just kept repeating how she’s overweight due to her illness PCOS, and that the love interest and long-time crush shouldn’t be with her because she’s not skinny like the head cheerleader. Like I understand she’s a teen and whatever, but if Beckett, the love interest, is into dating someone who isn’t all about appearances then what’s the problem?
I did make a bunch of comments while reading this on my phone with the Kindle app. One quote I didn’t like “If there was a predestined couple, it was them. Quarterbacks and cheerleaders were like magnets in the world.” Not all quarterbacks and cheerleaders date, I remember a few cheerleaders I was cool with in high school and they weren’t dating guys on the football team. This is just a stereotype and I didn’t like it.
I did not like the mean girl, Merritt. Her name is not giving mean girl and the way Kelsie was writing Merritt from Rory’s perspective, was annoying. She was giving the stereotypical cheerleader with a wealthy family from 2000s movies.
Rory’s mom is a health teacher at her school. When Rory was diagnosed with PCOS, I was surprised that the mom didn’t know how to handle it, and was just being very controlling and that was off the first page. I thought she would be more understanding.
I did want to DNF this book after screaming into the void about how annoying Rory was being, but I was almost done with it so I suffered through it and it shows with this review that I didn't like the book.
Will I ever continue with the series? No. I don’t care about the rest of the girls in the friend group.
Will I ever read from Stelting again? I honestly don’t know. Her writing was pretty good, her characters were just bland.
That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed reading about my February and March reads. Let me know if you have read these books or if you have any recommendations for me. Happy reading!