
annieeinna1 TBR'd a book
2w

Girl Dinner
Olivie Blake
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, Girl Dinner is a darkly-fun novel about power, lust, and eating your fill, as wealthy moms and sorority girls practice a sinister new wellness trend . . . Good girls deserve a treat.Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected. After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she's taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey. Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling to return to work after accepting a demotion to support her partner's new position at the cutthroat University. After 18 months at home with her newborn daughter, Sloane's clothes don’t fit right, her girl-dad husband isn’t as present as he thinks he is, and even the few hours a day she's apart from her child fill her psyche with paralyzing ennui. When invited to be The House’s academic liaison, Sloane enviously drinks in the way the alumnae seem to have it all, achieving a level of collective perfection that Sloane so desperately craves. As Nina and Sloane each get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

annieeinna1 finished a book
2w

Broken Country
Clare Leslie Hall
An “evocative, sensitive, and compelling novel” (Delia Owens, New York Times bestselling author of Where the Crawdads Sing) that explores the deadly consequences of a love triangle in an English farming village as dangerous secrets from the past resurface—perfect for fans of The Paper Palace and Where the Crawdads Sing.“The farmer is dead. He is dead and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.” When her brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart all those years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son Bobby, who died a few years earlier. As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel and Leo’s lives, tensions around the village rise, and jealousy rears its ugly head. Beth and her gentle and kind husband Frank are happily married, but they have their fair share of secrets, and their relationship relies on the past staying buried. And when the truth begins to come out, events spiral out of control, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice—between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become. A sweeping, sexy love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.

annieeinna1 started reading...
2w

Broken Country
Clare Leslie Hall
An “evocative, sensitive, and compelling novel” (Delia Owens, New York Times bestselling author of Where the Crawdads Sing) that explores the deadly consequences of a love triangle in an English farming village as dangerous secrets from the past resurface—perfect for fans of The Paper Palace and Where the Crawdads Sing.“The farmer is dead. He is dead and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.” When her brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart all those years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son Bobby, who died a few years earlier. As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel and Leo’s lives, tensions around the village rise, and jealousy rears its ugly head. Beth and her gentle and kind husband Frank are happily married, but they have their fair share of secrets, and their relationship relies on the past staying buried. And when the truth begins to come out, events spiral out of control, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice—between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become. A sweeping, sexy love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.

annieeinna1 finished a book
2w

Madwoman
Chelsea Bieker
The world is not made for mothers. Yet mothers made the world… Clove has gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation. But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun. As we race between her precarious present-day life in Portland, Oregon and her childhood in a Waikiki high-rise with her mother and father, Clove is forced to finally unravel the defining day of her life. How did she survive that day, and what will it take to end the cycle of violence? Will the truth undo her, or could it ultimately save her? A gripping story of motherhood and motherloss, intimate terrorism and terrifying love, the insidious ways male violence disrupts mothers and daughters, and the brutal, mighty things women do to keep themselves and each other alive, MADWOMAN marks Chelsea Bieker as a major fiction talent.

annieeinna1 started reading...
4w

Madwoman
Chelsea Bieker
The world is not made for mothers. Yet mothers made the world… Clove has gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation. But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun. As we race between her precarious present-day life in Portland, Oregon and her childhood in a Waikiki high-rise with her mother and father, Clove is forced to finally unravel the defining day of her life. How did she survive that day, and what will it take to end the cycle of violence? Will the truth undo her, or could it ultimately save her? A gripping story of motherhood and motherloss, intimate terrorism and terrifying love, the insidious ways male violence disrupts mothers and daughters, and the brutal, mighty things women do to keep themselves and each other alive, MADWOMAN marks Chelsea Bieker as a major fiction talent.

An Irish, lit fic/thriller? Right up my alley hehe, really enjoyed this overall☘️☘️
Accurate Irish dialogue is hard to find as an Irish girlie, this one was great (maybe ‘ye’ slightly overused lol)
Was a bit confusing to keep track of all characters and their relation to each other at times
Looooved the flashback scenes about the Sisco, the sneaking out, Kala and Joe’s relationship. Felt so familiar
Got a lil over philosophical near the end lol. The river bs from Mush I skimmed over

annieeinna1 finished a book
4w

Kala
Colin Walsh
A gripping literary page-turner from a rising Irish talent in which former friends, estranged for twenty years, reckon with the terrifying events of the summer that changed their lives. In the seaside village of Kinlough, on Ireland’s west coast, three old friends meet for the first time in years. They—Helen, Joe and Mush—were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann at its white-hot center. But later that year, Kala disappeared without a trace. Now remains have been discovered in the woods—including a skull with a Polaroid photo tucked inside—and the town is both aghast and titillated at reopening this old wound. On the eve of this gruesome discovery, Helen had reluctantly returned for her father’s wedding, the world-famous musician Joe had come home to dry out and reconnect with something authentic, and Mush had never left, too shattered by the events of that summer to venture beyond the counter of his mother’s café. But when two more girls go missing, they are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala’s disappearance. Ultimately, they must do what others should have done before to stop the violent patterns of their town’s past repeating themselves once again. In cracklingly vivid prose, Kala brilliantly examines the sometimes brutal costs of belonging, as well as the battle in the human heart between vengeance and forgiveness, despair and redemption.

annieeinna1 started reading...
6w

Kala
Colin Walsh
A gripping literary page-turner from a rising Irish talent in which former friends, estranged for twenty years, reckon with the terrifying events of the summer that changed their lives. In the seaside village of Kinlough, on Ireland’s west coast, three old friends meet for the first time in years. They—Helen, Joe and Mush—were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann at its white-hot center. But later that year, Kala disappeared without a trace. Now remains have been discovered in the woods—including a skull with a Polaroid photo tucked inside—and the town is both aghast and titillated at reopening this old wound. On the eve of this gruesome discovery, Helen had reluctantly returned for her father’s wedding, the world-famous musician Joe had come home to dry out and reconnect with something authentic, and Mush had never left, too shattered by the events of that summer to venture beyond the counter of his mother’s café. But when two more girls go missing, they are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala’s disappearance. Ultimately, they must do what others should have done before to stop the violent patterns of their town’s past repeating themselves once again. In cracklingly vivid prose, Kala brilliantly examines the sometimes brutal costs of belonging, as well as the battle in the human heart between vengeance and forgiveness, despair and redemption.


“Nothing could have prepared her for this: the unimaginable bliss of true, unconditional love - but also the huge, crushing pressure of it.”
I laughed out loud at a lot of this but was also so stressed/overstimulated at the reality of a single DAY solo parenting. I have even more respect for parents everywhere now😭 The buggy being too big to fit into the door of the shop had my heart racing LOL
Also loved the reflections on parenthood and how well they were weaved in amongst the chaos of the day! I’m not a parent, but I really loved the raw thoughts about lack of identity/pressure of being needed/overall exhaustion that comes with being a mother.
A short, fun read but also LOTS of food for thought 🧸🍼🌸

annieeinna1 TBR'd a book
6w

Female, Nude
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
Sophie, a painter, is holidaying with friends in a stunning villa in Greece - her best friend Helena is shortly to be married, and this is the last time she and her friends will be together as single women. But life has treated them so differently since their university days, that Sophie is questioning everything about their friendship. Meanwhile her partner, Greg, is desperate for them to try for a baby, but she wants to devote herself to her art - and there are other, deeper forces, pulling the two of them in opposite directions.In the course of the holiday, Sophie paints a nude portrait of her friend Alessia, and becomes involved in an intense affair with Ky, who lives and works on the island. Both the painting, and the affair, will challenge everything Sophie thinks she knows, about art, about motherhood, about sex - and about how and with whom she wants to spend the rest of her life.





