#TNReads: Real Quick Reviews for Lazy Readers featuring Sarah Henning

Let me start you off with a quote from the Goodreads synopsis:

“Everyone knows what happens in the end. A mermaid, a prince, true love’s kiss. But before that siren’s tale, there were three friends: one feared, one royal, one already dead.”

And I’ll stop there because this book is best enjoyed when you go in knowing almost nothing. I’ll say that it’s an origin story, but I won’t say whose. And that it seems to be set a few hundred years in the past in Scandinavia. I believe this is Sarah Henning’s debut novel, and it definitely had a few rough edges typical to one. The pacing at the beginning is a little choppy, there were a few plot holes but PUSH THROUGH because once this story gets going it takes you places you do not see coming. What starts off as a typical (aka forgettable) YA novel ends up being totally unique, twisted, and fabulous. I’m really excited to see what Sarah Henning will write in the future!

In recent months the term “open secret” has had sinister connotations, referring to years of men behaving badly and expecting to get away with it due to their positions of power. Amy Bloom explores an open secret of a different nature in White Houses. Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin Deleno Roosevelt and former first lady of the United States, lived with her lesbian lover in the White House during years of her husband’s administration.

White Houses, views this relationship through the eyes of Eleanor’s lover, Lorena Hickok. Bloom recounts Hickok’s early life, marked with poverty and abuse, and her fierce spirit which helped her become one of the most prominent journalists of her time. Slow at times, White Houses, still fascinates by the simple fact that in the 1930’s, lesbians were living in the White House and no one turned it into a giant scandal. Although some historians would choose to debate the nature of the women’s relationship, thousands of romantic and even erotic letters between Eleanor and Lorena provide plenty of evidence and material for this fictional take on a true love story.

As with False Start, this story continues to be engaging and intriguing. Despite the fact that Dex has been around since the first book, I felt a little bit of instalove between them at the beginning, which I’m generally not a fan of, but I think that’s only because the first book focuses so much on Maddie, her history, and all the important people in her life, which is what I loved about it. This book centers much more on the romance and ANSWERS, FINALLY, which is where it needed to be.

Thank god this is fiction because I don’t think any one person could get through all the shit that Maddie and her group of friends do and come out without a straight jacket. It’s one thing after another, but it’s what makes this story so readable. I needed to know what happened next, even if that meant reading at work or staying up late to finish that next chapter. You get invested in these characters. And I’m sure I’ll get sucked in again with the first book in the Seven Hummingbirds series. We better get some answers, y’all!

Getty Caster has made a new life for herself on a small resort island off the coast of Washington. She has changed her name, avoided the internet and even started a job as a bartender in her quest to run away from her abusive past. Just as she’s beginning to feel safe in the home she’s borrowing from a friend, a miscommunication with the owner means she has a new roommate. Not just any roommate, Zander Donovan is the recently disgraced Indy race car hotshot, with a tragic history of his own. Zander and Getty argue, flirt, heal and fall in love in a satisfying story. This standalone book is emotional and steamy. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Set in an Ikea-like store that has strange things occurring after the store closes every night – such as finding a couch on the showroom covered in feces – the assistant manager, Basil, hopes to keep his store in good standing with the corporate bigwigs that are coming the next day to deal with all of the loss. Basil convinces the store team player, and the store’s most combative employee, Amy, to stay with him in the store overnight to track down the culprit. Meanwhile, two other employees sneak in because they’ve decided that the empty store is the perfect location to film the ghost hunting show that they hope to sell to Bravo.

This one actually scared me, but I also couldn’t put it down. It is super gory, so be ready for some descriptions worthy of the Saw movies, but it is also funny. Maybe I spent too many years in retail and many days in a dark, nearly empty store when it was closed but the comparisons between the retail world and prisons spoke to me, and comparing everyone walking through the parking lot to zombies has definitely come out of my mouth more than once (why do people wait outside the door for a store to open on a Sunday morning?! You should either be in bed or at church, not buying mom jeans from the clearance racks!). It’s super relatable, so BUY IT.