Book Review: The Fallout by Tamar Cohen

Set in England, Dan, Sasha, Hannah, and Josh are best friends. Their four year old daughters, Lily and September, are also best friends. Life couldn’t get any better for the the two families. Until one day, Dan tells Josh that he is going to divorce his wife, Sasha, for a younger woman. Torn between their relationship with the couple and with each individual, Hannah and Josh struggle to keep their own marriage together, while Sasha and Dan’s turns into a custody battle.

The Fallout by Tamar Cohen is a juicy read; there are so many little stories tied into one big problem. The novel starts off a bit slow. I found myself getting distracted easily, but once I got to the middle, I didn’t want to put it down. The whole book is full of “he said, she said” and a ton of drama. I felt so bad for the two little girls, September and Lily, they were certainly stuck in the middle of their parent’s issues. As the story goes on, there is a bit of an eerie, creepy undertone that you can’t ignore. I was just waiting for something terrible to happen, every time I turned the page. The ending basically hit me in the face like a car crash. It was very unexpected, yet perfect, at the same time.

The Fallout certainly proves how one person’s actions can cause a chain of reactions. Hannah and Josh swore they would stay neutral during their friends’ separation, yet it is only natural for Hannah to sympathize with Sasha and Josh to sympathize with Dan. You really get to know all four main characters in this novel. It was such a relief to read a book that didn’t alternate character perspectives from chapter to chapter. There are too many novels that do that, these days, and frankly, I get tired of reading them. The Fallout is a breath of fresh air, a fiction novel that didn’t make me feel rushed from one chapter to the next.

I really enjoyed the setting in this novel. I went to England once, and would go back again, given the chance. I love that that the little girls have afternoon tea dates. I enjoyed reading about daily life in England. As I have mentioned before, it is always nice to read a story that isn’t based in North America. But even outside of our country, divorce isn’t very pretty. Tamar Cohen definitely crafted a novel which drives that point home.

The Fallout  by Tamar Cohen was originally published under the title The Broken in the UK in 2014. The Fallout is now available for purchase here in the States.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

From Goodreads:

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

Wow! The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is a fantastic thriller that left me speechless. If you’re looking for a new book to read, this is it. I know I am one of the last book worms to jump on the Paula Hawkins train (pun intended) but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take my word for it. I read Paula Hawkins’ debut novel every second that I could while, obviously, still taking care of a toddler. I read it when he slept, napped, and was independently playing. Luckily, Jimmie also likes to read. While he read his board books, I read my book.

When I first started reading The Girl on the Train, I thought the entire novel was going to be about the main character, Rachael, sitting on the train, going to and from work. I quickly realized that other character’s point of views were present in the story, Megan and Anna’s. The daily train riding slowly faded away as the novel chugged along. Making this book about more than just a passenger on a train.

Rachel is a struggling alcoholic who can’t accept that her ex-husband has moved on with the woman he cheated on her with. Megan is her ex-husband’s neighbor and Anna is the mistress. All three women, all different, but connected by the train that Rachel takes twice a day to and from London, England. This thriller is so creepy that I had nightmares after reading it, two nights in a row. It got into my head and made me think about how you never know what is going on in someone else’s life. You can’t judge a person by the small glimpses you have of them, just like you can’t judge a book by its cover.

Just like everyone else in the world, I can see the similarities between The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl. To be honest, I think The Girl on the Train is better. The entire time I was on edge  trying to figure out who was good and who was bad; I was second guessing myself and the characters, non-stop. One minute I liked Rachel, the next I hated her, and the next I felt bad for her. The book really brings you inside the mind  of an alcoholic. I kept rooting for Rachael, hoping she could get her act together, hoping that she wasn’t the bad guy. Not that I have had the energy to have more than few drinks since having Jimmie, but it made me never want to overindulge in alcohol ever again. Maybe this book should be put on the required reading lists for college students, better yet, high school students.

As much as I wanted to finish The Girl on the Train to see how everything turned out, I also didn’t want it to end. I wanted to savor every word on every page as I got closer and closer to finding out who was in the wrong. It’s always surprising to me when I get to the end of a novel and I’m left stunned. This was how I felt when I finally finished The Girl on the Train. You think you know someone, but then they end up being someone else entirely.

The Girl on the Train movie adaption will hit theaters October 7, 2016. I can’t wait!

Book Review: Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

Living in Chicago, Heidi and Chris have what seems to be a perfect marriage. They have a daughter named Zoe, who is 12, and live in a comfortable condo. Heidi works for a non-profit and Chris works in investment. One day, on the way to work, Heidi sees a young girl and a baby, standing in the rain, waiting for the train. The girl is carrying a suitcase and seems to be homeless. As Heidi gets on the train she can’t get the girl off her mind. During the next few days, she keeps thinking about the girl, who we soon find out is named Willow, and decides that it is in her responsibility to help the girl, and her little baby.

Told from three different perspectives: Heidi, Chris, and Willow, Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica is a thriller that can’t be overlooked. The plot in the novel is so twisty and juicy; I could not put it down. Pretty Baby kept getting better and better, up until the very last chapter. I love the way Mary Kubica reveals bits and pieces of Willow’s past. Each bit of information kept me at the edge of me seat, surprising me and shocking me.  I could not wait to get to the next chapter to see what each character was thinking about one another and to learn more about their personal story and struggles. Sometimes, when books switch from perspective to perspective, I get hooked on one story and speed through the others. This was not the case in Pretty Baby. Each character was interesting in their own ways, which made me soak in every word in, yearning for more.

Pretty Baby is like a puzzle: a puzzle that kept me guessing throughout the entire story. I couldn’t figure out why Willow had a baby and was living on the streets. I couldn’t figure out why Heidi would bring a stranger into her life that could potentially endanger her family. I also couldn’t figure out why Zoe didn’t have her own chapters. Zoe, Chris and Heidi’s daughter, was a main character at the start of the book, but towards the end, she just drifted away. I feel that way about the entire ending of the novel. The ending just kind of…ended. There were still a few loose ends, a few major loose ends that were just ignored. The storylines that were tied up, were wrapped up quickly and without too much thought. It was as if the author got tired of writing this amazing story and decided to finish it up in a hurry.

Pretty Baby put me through a whirlwind of emotions. I felt so bad for the little baby, Ruby, whom Willow was caring for on the streets. I yearned to take care of the baby myself and make her pain and fear go away. Even though Willow was living on the streets, she was trying, at the very least, to take care of a baby, even when she had no place to go and no money. It made me think about how the world is full of women like Willow, trying to get by on so little. Willow was portrayed as a strong woman, a survivor. She is a survivor of the streets and also a survivor of so many other things that no child should ever have to go through. Even though Willow made a few questionable choices, one being major, she still survived more than any person should have to survive in an entire lifetime.

As you read Pretty Baby, you will discover that a vague review was the only way I could explain my love for this novel without giving anything away. There are so many moments that are what Shonda Rhimes (creator of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder) would call OMG moments. Every time a puzzle piece was revealed, I wanted to scream OMG. Trust me, you will too.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.