The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Synopsis:

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?

I know this is supposed to be a mystery or thriller novel, but sometimes those can be very fun to read. If you pick up this book expecting it to be fun and exciting while keeping you guessing and on the edge of your seat, well. . . choose a different book because this one is not that.

Girl on the Train can best be described in one word as: FRUSTRATING. The plot is frustrating, the characters are frustrating, everything about it is frustrating. Every single character in this novel is a whole different level of crazy and I found myself just wanting to shake them back to reality!

The twist was a…twist, but I figured it out before the reveal. That isn’t the worst thing because I didn’t guess it halfway through the book. It still kept me guessing a little, but it became more obvious before the actual reveal.

I think, overall, I can say that I enjoyed this book. . . I think. I am still undecided on it. I am glad I read it, but I don’t know that I would recommend it to my best friend to read… If you are intrigued by the plot, pick it up. But it can be passed over and you won’t be missing much.

3/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes: “I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head”

“Maybe it was then. Maybe that was the moment when things started to go wrong, the moment when I imagined us no longer a couple, but a family; and after that, once I had that picture in my head. Just the two of us could never be enough.”

“I’ve always liked to drink. But I did become sadder, and the sadness gets boring after awhile, for the sad person and for everyone around them. And then I went from being a drinker to being a drunk, and there’s nothing more boring than that.”

“I don’t believe in soulmates, but there’s an understanding between us that I just haven’t felt before, or at least, not for a long time. It comes from shared experience, from knowing how it feels to be broken.”

“I want to drag knives over my skin, just so that I can feel something other than shame, but I’m not even brave enough to do that.”

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The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper

Synopsis:

Right after high school, Joe Goffman left sleepy Bush Falls, Connecticut and never looked back. Then he wrote a novel savaging everything in town, a novel that became a national bestseller and a huge hit movie. Fifteen years later, Joe is struggling to avoid the sophomore slump with his next novel when he gets a call: his father's had a stroke, so it's back to Bush Falls for the town's most famous pariah. His brother avoids him, his former classmates beat him up, and the members of the book club just hurl their copies of Bush Falls at his house. But with the help of some old friends, Joe discovers that coming home isn't all bad--and that maybe the best things in life are second chances.

This book had the typical plot line of a person that hasn’t been to their hometown in awhile. They have to go back for a tragic reason, and they end up rediscovering themselves.

Now, just because this has been done quite a few times, it doesn’t mean that the book was boring. Quite the opposite, really. It took me a few chapters to really get into the book, but once I hit that point, I didn’t want to put it down.

It is hard to talk about the book without talking about everything that happened to Joe when he went back to his hometown.

Without revealing anything, I will say that the characters were all very interesting. They were all so DIFFERENT. Commonly, you will find some background characters blending in with each other. But each character in this one had their own personality, and it was a very character driven novel. As I said, the plot has been done many times before. The characters are what set this book apart from the others.

It also tackles many tough topics: homophobia, suicide, death, and many more.

4/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes: “Everyone always wants to know how you can tell when it’s true love, and the answer is this: when the pain doesn’t fade and the scars don’t heal, and it’s too damned late.”

“When you’re eighteen, time isn’t nearly as crotchety and relentless as it becomes soon thereafter, and eight months is nothing less than a lifetime.”

“It’s almost like they knew it would never get any better for them than it was right there. And for me, it was the time I spent with you. And for the last seventeen years, that time was the ball in my trophy case that I could look at every day and find some measure of comfort, of happiness remembered.”

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NYPD Red 4 by James Patterson

Synopsis:

When a glitzy movie premiere is the scene of a shocking murder and high-stakes robbery, NYPD Red gets the call. Traversing the city's highs and lows, from celebrity penthouses to the depths of Manhattan's criminal underworld, Zach and Kylie have to find a cold-blooded killer--before he strikes again.

ZACH, PICK A WOMAN!!!!!

That was my most common thought while reading the whole series thus far. Especially in this one though. The books always end promising for him and his relationship, but then he goes and messes it up.

‘4’ was full of action. There were 3 different things that Zach and Kylie were trying to take care of at the same time and it was a bit chaotic. I felt like the book wasn’t long enough for everything to get solved, but I was wrong. Of course, there was a cliff hanger at the end that leads us to the wait time for the 5^th book, but that was to be expected.

It seems like the cases are the most interesting in every other book. The first and the third were the best. The second book was definitely the worst so far. The 4^th was a solid installment in the series, but it left me wanting more. I’m not exactly sure what I felt was missing though.

This series, like many Patterson series, has a great supporting cast around Kylie and Zach. As strong and developed at the main two are, the supporting cast really keep the books going and keep pushing the series forward.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I can’t wait until the next one!

4/5 stars

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