Review: Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

 

Publication Date: September 2014

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Blurb:  (Goodreads)

In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever.

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept separate but equal.

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

This book has been on my TBR, my physical TBR at that, for 12 years! That is insane. I am trying to read some of my older TBR books this year and although I don't always do that as much as I should I thought 12 years is a ridiculous amount of time to have a book on my shelf unread for. 

The plot of this book is set around the integration of black and white students into a high school in Virginia America in 1959. The author clearly did so much research when writing the book that all of the tension, anger and behaviours of the time really rose from the page with how vivid they were. The subject was very tough to read about, especially with 2026 eyes, seeing how such hatred was allowed and encouraged by the staff, business people and adults of the time. 

Review: All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth

 

Publication Date: July 2018 (Goodreads)

Publisher: Penguin Books

Blurb: 

In the last day of summer, Grace Fairchild, the beautiful young wife of real estate mogul Allister Calloway, vanished from the family’s lake house without a trace, leaving behind her seven-year old daughter, Charlie, and a slew of unanswered questions.

Years later, seventeen-year-old Charlie still struggles with the dark legacy of her family name and the mystery surrounding her mother. Determined to finally let go of the past, she throws herself into life at Knollwood, the prestigious New England school she attends. Charlie quickly becomes friends with Knollwood’s “it” crowd.

Charlie has also been tapped by the A’s—the school’s elite secret society well known for terrorizing the faculty, administration, and their enemies. To become a member of the A’s, Charlie must play The Game, a semester-long, diabolical high-stakes scavenger hunt that will jeopardize her friendships, her reputation, even her place at Knollwood.

As the dark events of past and present converge, Charlie begins to fear that she may not survive the terrible truth about her family, her school, and her own life.

When I picked this up, I had been eyeing it for a while and was excited for some messy rich kid drama with a summery backdrop. And while it did deliver in that, there was a little lacking for me in some areas. 

The mystery thriller element was interesting but sometimes the twists and turns felt to me like they came out of nowhere. It began to feel a little random in the middle and I was starting to lose my grasp of what the timeline was and what was actually going on. The conclusion to the mystery was what I had thought it was from the beginning so that left me a little disappointed. 

Review: The Exorcism of Faeries by J.L Vampa

 

Publication Date: November 2025

Publisher: Vampa Productions LLC

Source: Purchased on Kindle (Goodreads)

Blurb: 

She is the daughter of morticians, studying Botany at Trinity College, Dublin. He is her Morbid Anatomy professor. And the Fae are possessing the good people of Dublin. Only Atta and Professor Murdoch can exorcize the fae, but can they fight their forbidden feelings for one another in the process?
Trinity College, Dublin 5th November, 1993

He always reads standing in front of the shelf, one hand shoved in his pocket until it’s time to flip the page. It’s the first thing I noticed about him, while I was supposed to be studying. Instead, I watched him move from shelf to shelf and book to book. I had no idea at the time that I would one day meet him and he would change everything. We would change everything.

-Excerpt from the diary of Ariatne Morrow, found in the wreckage at Ground Zero

This was a book club pick and I was glad it was chosen as it was something I never would have picked up normally, very out of my comfort zone but a welcome surprise! 

The book centers around Ariatne at college in Dublin whose real passion is human anatomy, studying and delivering mysterious corpses to a secret society of masked scientists. Secret society, mysterious deaths and dark academia vibes GALORE. 

Review: Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley

 

Publication Date: February 2025

Publisher: Crown

Source: Borrowed from Library (Goodreads)

Blurb: 

Look, the song whispered to me, that day in my living room. Life can be so big.

It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night.

Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice?

I picked up this book solely because I heard it was being made into a movie at some point with a stacked cast.. not sure if that is still going ahead as I haven't seen any updates but this was definitely a book that disappointed me. 

I had seen people comparing this book to Normal People and One Day - both of which I loved, so I had some high expectations going in which were ultimately not met by the book. 

To start on a positive note, I thought the characters were really realistic and while they were completely self-pitying and pretentious I did feel they were true reflections of the type of people you meet in college who believe they know everything about one topic (music) and think all other opinions are invalid. I think I enjoyed reading about some of the side characters more than the main characters at times as the constant music chat going on for paragraph after paragraph did begin to grate on me and I found myself skimming over those parts to get back to wondering more about the "will they won't they" aspect of the story. 

I didn't find myself bored at any point reading the book, though it was definitely not a gripping read I was looking forward to picking up each evening. It turned out to be just an okay read for me with a very disappointing anti-climactic ending. Kinda like a digestive biscuit, plain and okay but there are other biscuits out there that are tastier. 

A reviewer said that they thought book would have been 90% more enjoyable if it was 10% gayer and I completely agree. There was a hint towards something in the storyline that then felt rushed and shoved off to the side. 

An okay read that was enjoyable at times, the music monologuing for me was too much, but I won't be rushing out to buy Brickley's next book. 

Review: When Love Comes To Town by Tom Lennon

 

Publication Date:  1993

Publisher: O'Brien Press

Source: Borrowed from library (Goodreads)

Blurb: 

Meet Neil Byrne - try-scorer on the rugby field, prizewinning student, one of the in-crowd at the disco, regular guy, gay. Presenting one face to the world and burying his true feelings in fantasy, Neil manages to keep his secret. But when fantasy isn't enough and he becomes caught up in the bizarre subculture of Dublin's gay nightlife, the pretence must end. It is the time for truth. The consequences are both hilarious and painful. Told with honesty, humour and originality, WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN brings a new type of hero to modern Irish fiction.

Stumbled across this book at work and thought I'd give it a go. I was glad I did. 

This book was a quick but memorable read for me. I read it over the course of a weekend and enjoyed the characters, the storyline and how while it was definitely "of its time" it still felt relatable to today. 

The book centers around our main character who is hiding his sexuality while finishing secondary school in Ireland. Pressures are building on him from hiding his feelings for men, doing his leaving cert, pressures from his parents and the casual homophobia he is exposed to in his friend group. 

Review: Ultra-Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken

 

Publication Date: April 2023

Publisher: Penguin Books

Source: Borrowed from library (eAudiobook) (Goodreads)

Blurb: 

It's not you, it's the food.

We have entered a new 'age of eating' where most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances called Ultra-Processed Food, food which is industrially processed and designed and marketed to be addictive. But do we really know what it's doing to our bodies?

Join Chris in his travels through the world of food science and a UPF diet to discover what's really going on. Find out why exercise and willpower can't save us, and what UPF is really doing to our bodies, our health, our weight, and the planet (hint: nothing good).

For too long we've been told we just need to make different choices, when really we're living in a food environment that makes it nigh-on impossible. So this is a book about our rights. The right to know what we eat and what it does to our bodies and the right to good, affordable food.

This is a book I have seen so many people buying, borrowing and raving about online. As someone who is very health conscious when it comes to food, although I do believe in non-restrictive diets and treating yourself when needed without guilt, I was very looking forward to reading this book. 

Review: My Husband by Maud Ventura

 

Publisher: Hutchinson Heinemann

Publication Date: January 2021

Source: Borrowed from library  [ goodreads ]

Blurb: 

From the outside, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she's never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated.

Determined to keep their relationship perfect, she meticulously prepares for every encounter they have, always taking care to make her actions seem effortless. She watches him attentively, charting every mistake and punishing him accordingly to help him improve. And she tests him -- setting traps to make sure that he still loves her just as much as he did when they first met. Until one day she realizes she may have gone too far . . .

I read this as part of my book club and had heard it described as "unhinged woman" meets "unreliable narrator" two of my favourites? Count me in!

I was immediately gripped by this book from the very first page. We are introduced to our main character whose one desire is to be perfect for her husband. Her entire day, life and world revolves around her husband - pleasing him, being noticed by him, watching him. Being inside this main characters mind as she spends her day observing, testing and punishing her husband for failing her mental tests was a wild ride. Because we spend so much time in her head, I did find myself thinking "oh well that wasn't too bad of a punishment" or "yeah that deserves a punishment" before being like WTF she is brainwashing me too!