Review// Darling by Rachel Edwards

 

Author: Rachel Edwards
Series: Standalone
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: February 7, 2019
Book Length: 352 pages 
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Review: 2.5/5

If it weren’t for this being my book club book this month, I don’t know if I would have finished it. Not going to lie though, sticking it out to see what ridiculousness was going to happen next for me to roll my eyes from here to Mars about was worth it.

Let me start off explaining a little bit about what this was about: Darling, a middle-aged single mother of 6-year-old Stevie, meets Thomas, the single father of a 16-year-old Lola, at the grocery store. Flash forward a few months, and these 4 become one ‘happy’ family. Except, this is no Brady Bunch – Thomas’ teenage daughter, Lola, isn’t too keen on having a step mother; can you blame her? Well, surprisingly, you totally can, because Lola is a nutcase. These two ladies are at war; can they both make it out alive?

First off – the positives:

• A biracial couple as the main characters! – I have said this before, but I have wanted to read more of that. Was it done well? No comment (yet).
• The alternating narrators between Darling and Lola – the writing wasn’t the best, but I liked how we got both perspectives.
• The mystery – a lot of the book eludes to Darling having a negative past, and all of the speculation made me want to continue reading to find out what that was.
• The plot twist – I was surprised, and it added half a star to my overall rating.

Now for the negatives:

• Many. Extreme. Scenarios. – Think of any scenario, and this book probably had it. It just felt like the author kept adding random events for shock value, but I didn’t feel shocked because there were far too many [Pregnancy; Bulimia; Sex Tapes; Murder; Incest; Pedophilia; Affairs, etc].
• Zero spark between the love interests – I don’t even know what to say to further explain myself on this. It just is what it is; they didn’t really seem like a couple.
• Lola – Yikes. Do not get me started on the writing in her chapters. “And I was like, I hope Will doesn’t get with Emma lol like seriously I’m soo much prettier #hatethatbitch #hesmine.” That’s not even a real quote, but all of her chapters sounded exactly like that. It felt like the author was trying to sound too much like a teenage girl. As a former teenage girl, I can assure you we don’t sound like that. Note to authors out there writing teenage characters: #DONTRYSOHARD.
• Darling – I know the book is named after her, but I couldn’t care less about her chapters. Lola’s were annoying, but Darling’s were mostly boring.

I thought that this could be so much better, because the plot doesn’t sound that bad; I think that the execution was lacking though. In addition, characters can make or break a book for me and because I didn’t particularly care for either of the main ones, this felt sort of like a chore to read. This wasn’t the worst book ever, but just not for me.

– Catherine

Let’s connect! Goodreads | Twitter

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The Television Tag!

Hello! Okay so I don’t normally talk about this on my blog, but I thought it would be fun to do something different. This tag was adapted to blogs by Sam @ Fictionally Sam and I was tagged by one of my favourite people, Kelly, over @ Struggling Bookaholic to participate in it! So thank you to both of them, you should definitely check out the content over on their blogs as well 🙂

1. Favorite shows?

Alright, I’m going to be super basic with this right off the bat and say that Friends is definitely up there. Watching it just feels like being rolled up in a blanket burrito in bed – comforting, warm, and really stupidly funny. Some other shows I love are How I Met Your Mother, Queer Eye, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Black Mirror, Nailed It, This is Us, and How to Get Away with Murder.

 

2. Favorite genre?

I like sitcoms a lot! I really enjoy following a story-line and becoming attached to characters and how they develop as the seasons progress. I also really like drama – especially if it has a criminal or sci-fi theme to it.

3. Least favorite show?

I can’t even think of what my least favourite show is. If I’m not feeling something, I usually stop watching it before it has a chance to develop into something I hate. I kind of just allow myself to become indifferent to it, which is probably why I can’t think of any examples right now.

4. Most re-watched show/favorite show to binge watch?

Although I haven’t re-watched it the whole way through chronologically more than once, I like watching random episodes of Friends. My favourite shows to binge watch though are usually reality shows like Are You the One? or RuPaul’s Drag Race – something where each season is its own separate thing that’s super light and entertaining where I don’t have to focus too much.

5. Do you prefer watching things week-by-week or binge-watching?

Binge watching for sure because watching an episode week-by-week sometimes starts to feel like a chore and I stress myself out thinking about having to watch it in time for the following week. I would rather watch TV at my leisure

6. Favorite television characters?

Monica and Chandler from Friends; Barney from How I Met Your Mother; Annalise Keating from How to Get Away with Murder; Will from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. 

7. Favorite television ships?

Marshall and Lily from How I Met Your Mother; Jesse and Becky from Full House; Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World and others that I can’t say because I think they would be spoilers for people if they are currently/decided to watch those shows.

8. Show you could never get into?

There was a lot of hype around this show at the time that I tried getting into it, but I could never get into Suits. I don’t even remember there being anything wrong with it, I just remember having very little interest in continuing after a few episodes so I never watched again.

9. Show you fell out of love with?

I wouldn’t say I fell out of love with it because if I picked it back up again, I know I would enjoy it, but my answer for this one is Nashville. At the time, I knew that some very serious plot moves were on the horizon that I didn’t want to see happen, so I stalled for as long as I could until I eventually stopped watching altogether (oops), but I would still recommend it as an awesome drama.

10. Cancelled too soon?

Thankfully I’ve never really had a problem with this because most of the shows I get into have been around for a while prior and have a foreseeable closure.

11. Guilty pleasure show?

Nailed It has been a guilty pleasure show for a while. It’s about amateur bakers trying to replicate really intricate desserts and it is hilarious!

12. What are you currently watching?

Right now I am watching Queer Eye, slowly making my way through Season 3 through a film of tears.

I’m not going to tag anyone because I just wanted to do it for fun, but if you do want to participate feel free to ping back my post so I can check your answers out!

– Catherine

Let’s connect! Goodreads | Twitter

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The Emoji Challenge Tag

I saw this tag over on Sara’s blog and thought it looked fun so I decided to give it a go!

From her post, I learned that she speaks 3 languages – English, Spanish, & Portuguese 🙂

Rules:

• tag the creators @bookprincessreviews
• share one thing you learned about the person who tagged you
• for each prompt, you can use a maximum of three emojis
• tag at least two other bloggers you want to get to know better

[1] What country do you live in?

🇨🇦

[2] What was your dream job growing up?

🕵🏻‍♀️

[3] How many siblings do you have (if any)?

👩🏼👨🏼

[4] What are your top three favourite activities?

🎧💃📚

[5] What is something you’re very good at?

🎨

[6] What is something you’d like to become better at?

☯️✌️

[7] How many languages do you speak?

🇬🇧 👌🇮🇹

[8] What is something you could talk about for hours? (non-book related if possible)

👻👽⁉️

[9] What’s your favourite book genre?

1️⃣👩🏻💭

[10] What is your favourite season of the year?

🌸🌱🌹

[11] If you had to describe yourself as an animal, what animal would you be?

🐈

I tag Books By The Cup & Suziey, but if you want to give this a go and I didn’t tag you, I would still love to see your answers!

Catherine

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An Open Letter to Myself on my One Year Blogging Anniversary

Dear me,

You did it – you’ve been blogging for a whole year. I know that when you started this, it was because you love to read, and you wanted an outlet to share all of your thoughts about one of your favourite hobbies, but I also know that you probably didn’t anticipate lasting this long so I’m really proud of you. Although ‘this is one for the books’, it’s also become one for the life lessons, new friendships, and everything in between. This is a space where you can talk about whatever you want, and I like that you never shied away from that, even when it made you vulnerable and nervous to be so open.

In the past year especially, you have been growing into such a strong and beautiful person even though you don’t see that a lot of the time. Between you and me, I think the one year ago you who started this blog would be really proud of the person you are now, and if you could see yourself through her eyes, I bet your perception of yourself would be a lot different. Reading has helped you through so much, and I’m glad you could find a community of people like you to share that passion with. When you first started one year ago, I don’t think you understood how impactful your blog would be on your personal life. You have made some amazing friends, both online and off, and read some of the most eye-opening and life changing books this past year which have enriched your life in ways you may not even be fully aware of yet.

If your experiences last year are any indication of what’s to come, I’m excited to look back this time next year at all of the new adventures you went on because of all the great books waiting to be discovered by you right now in this very moment. I know that these days it’s become difficult to finish books as fast as you used to, and sometimes even to pick one up at all, but my wish for you is that in the next year, as you get to know yourself more deeply, that you get to read even more books that change your life for the better. Happy one year of blogging; I can’t wait to see all the wonderful things and books in store for you next.

Always & Forever,
Catherine

“One must always be careful of books and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”

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Review// The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Author: Cormac McCarthy
Series: Standalone
Genre: Science Fiction
Release Date: September 26, 2006
Book Length: 241 pages 
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Review: 4/5

My Review:

In a post-apocalyptic world where a man and his son struggle to survive, The Road offers a horrifying glimpse into what life is like for the little civilization that is left.

This book follows the man and child as they are walking along the road in search of food, shelter, and supplies to continue their journey. Admittedly, it wasn’t until about the 40% mark that things started to get interesting for me. Up until that point, it didn’t seem like the two were faced with very many dangers aside from the unfortunate living conditions that made it difficult to get through each day. This danger eventually came in the form of people whom the boy referred to as “bad guys” that seemed to be capturing, severing and eating other humans. As they ventured off the road from abandoned house to abandoned house searching for what they needed, I was always curious as to what, if anything, may be lurking in the shadows next.

Although the man and the boy do not speak to each other very much, the conversations they did have pulled at my heart strings. It was evident that in this new world, people were forced to harden in order to maintain any chance of going on, but the true softness of humanity could still be found in the voice of the child. Society had become very ‘every man for himself’, yet it was the boy who always found it in his heart to ask his father to extend a hand and share their food or bring other potential ‘good guys’ along on their journey.

This is undoubtedly a book about survival, but not so much about the act itself as it is about the survival of the defining qualities of human nature: compassion, hope, humility, kindness, and optimism—even when it seems too difficult to carry on.

What’s the bravest thing you ever did?
He spat into the road a bloody phlegm. Getting up this morning, he said.

-Catherine

Let’s connect! Goodreads | Twitter

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