Hey, so long time no blog AMIRITE?! I have reasons, of course. Wendy is always one for "reasons." I finally went back to Michigan for a visit with the family in mid-October, soaked up the autumn colors, saw friends, ate my share of donuts, drank some delish apple cider and managed to unwind a tinch. Travel, of course, also means I got to do one of my favorite things ever - airplane reading. And my favorite thing to read on airplanes? Something with some suspense. So fasten your seat belt and locate your nearest exit (keeping in mind the closest exit may be behind you...) - it's time for some mini-reviews!
The Third Mrs. Durst by Ann Aguirre has been languishing on my Kindle for an embarrassingly long time, especially when you consider the fact that it's a revenge thriller. I am utter trash for female revenge thrillers and this one starts out very promising.
Marlena is poor white trash who runs away from Kentucky. There's nothing for her there. Oh sure, siblings but also a drug addicted mother and absolutely no future. No, "the littles" will just need to learn what she learned very early on: wait for your moment and get out as soon as possible. Eventually Marlena starts modeling, working her way up the ladder until she catches the eye of Michael Durst - her plan all along. Michael is handsome, fabulously wealthy, and has buried two wives already. He sweeps Marlena off her feet and then the nightmare begins. Michael controlling her every move. Michael exacting retribution when Marlena crosses some line only he can see. But while Michael is a monstrous abuser, who is the one who is truly in control? Is Marlena a naïve girl who just wanted security and got more than she bargained for? Or is Marlena a Machiavellian puppet master?
When I started this book I didn't come up from air, plowing through the majority of it in record time. The appeal of the revenge thriller (besides a "righting of the universe" feel) is that they keep you guessing. What is going to happen next? Aguirre chooses a slightly different angle instead, with making Marlena an unreliable narrator. How much is she a victim? How much is she a mastermind? And it's great stuff until it started to lose steam for me at the 70% mark. That's the start on the road to the ending and it just drags out too much. It also doesn't help that by this point Michael goes from scary cool and methodical to bat-sh*t unhinged and sloppy. This unspooling, along with some sloppiness on the part of Marlena, took a bit of the shine off and I was relieved to get the final chapter - which was a markedly different outcome than I was expecting after inhaling the first 3/4 of the book. Solid, but a bit of a whimper there at the end.
Final Grade = B-
The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives by Kristin Miller is pure trash straight out of a prime-time soap opera. In case y'all are new here, I am pure trash for soap operas. While all y'all were reading Kathleen Woodiwiss I was at my grandmother's knee watching Dallas and mainlining four daytime soap operas (plus Melrose Place...) to survive college with my mental health somewhat intact. If I had a better grasp of the Spanish language I would spiral into a telenovela addiction - seriously, I am trash for soap operas.
Brooke Davies is a mystery writer and trophy wife to Jack, a tech billionaire who is twenty years her senior. Yes they were having an affair and he ended up leaving Wife #1 - you shouldn't even have to ask. Their next move is to buy a home in a ritzy exclusive gated community in the Bay Area - which is where Brooke befriends Erin King, a local TV news anchor, militant head of the home owner's association, and married to a plastic surgeon. However it's Brooke's neighbor next door who is the real piece of work - Georgia St. Claire, dubbed "the Black Widow" after her first two husbands died and left her a very wealthy woman. Georgia is getting ready to marry Victim Husband #3, Robert, and there's much drama and hullaballoo surrounding the impending nuptials, set to happen in less than a week. Naturally things soon turn completely sideways....
Basically what we have here is a story driven by three manipulative rich white bitches - which, hello soap opera. Did I like any of these people? No. Did I question my sanity reading about this people? Yes. And yet I kept reading. Y'all I'm trash for soap operas and this one kept me entertained for a while, until it didn't.
The problem is it doesn't hold up in the end. Some of the twists and "big reveals" are dropped in the reader's lap with all the finesse of a live hand grenade and then there's the ending - which makes no sense because it essentially unravels the narrative that preceded it. And speaking of that ending? Look, I'm all for positive ("happy") endings, but these bitches do nothing over the course of this story to deserve a wine and roses ending. I mean, happy for who? Not the poor schmoes who end up dead, that's for sure. Ultimately my sense of fair play is offended. These bitches deserved fall-out and there just isn't...well, any. It's a page-turner to be sure but it fumbles on the dessert course. Which is probably to be expected - like these three would ever let dessert touch their lips...
Final Grade = C
1 comment:
I've been holding out the the Aguirre title since forever--I have not been in a good frame of mind for it, frankly. But I hope it works for me at least as well as it did for you (which is not hard, I usually enjoy her work, because I love her writing voice)
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