Considering Then She was Gone is the third book by Lisa Jewell I did not like I am thinking she was a one shot wonder for me.
The premise sounded promising and like it could be a fun mystery. Nope I figured it all out around the ten percent mark. It is not fun figuring out the whole mystery that soon. The characters were shallow and unbelievable.
Poppy was the best character but only because she came off as creepy and clearly needing guidance on how to act with peers her own age.
I did finish but I was bored and skipped "fluff" paragraphs.
The Village Beyond the Mist was showcased on the e-library with a lot of copies available so I checked it out. I am glad I did since power went out for four days and I had my tablet to read on since it was freshly charged.
Lina was such a fun character, at the age where she is starting to learn adult responsibilities but can still have the carefreeness of a being a child. It was a lot of fun to read the story and see the parts that were incorporated in Spirited Away. The side characters were all unique and well thought out. As the story progressed I was eager to see how Lina would learn from each job and evolve into a more responsible young adult.
The reading is easy, it is perfect for a middle school student, and I was able to read it all in one sitting. The illustrations added to the story a lot and I loved the whimsy and magical fun each picture did to help build the story. Since I read it in English I have to judge how the translator did and not once did I get confused, lost, or try to figure out what a word was used. The writing flowed smoothly and the story made sense.
The cover of Good Spirits is so pretty, festive, whimsy, magical, and it had pretty red edges. I saw Good Spirits in Walmart and reserved it through the library since I had to buy Christmas presents. That is probably a good thing since the cover and sprayed edges turned out to be my favorite part of the book overall.
Harriet is just a normal woman living her life running her antique shop when all of a sudden a man appears in her living room. I liked Harriet, she was a believable person. Instead of just going with the flow of things Harriet questioned things like why Noland was in her living her room and why he was haunting her.
Noland was a bit lackluster. He supposedly has been a ghost for over a hundred years. I wanted more history from him. Not just he learned to knit and read a lot of books. While he was set in his ways he also was sort of boring.
I wanted more historical references to A Christmas Carol. Steamy and spicy scenes I could have done with less of those. One is enough for a whole book for me. The story was too long, parts of it repeated and it would have been nice to see more memories. Not just hear about them as they came back. The writing was okay. Not horrible but not amazing just average. I do not plan on continuing the series but I may forget that plan if the see the cover for Grim Tidings and like it.
I need to learn Booktok is not aligning to my taste in books. I kept seeing That's Not My Name all over Booktok (I don't even have tiktok) and it sounded intriguing.
I really wanted to enjoy, love, and eat up That's Not my Name. When I went into the story I did not realize it was told from duel points of view but I don't think that is what turned me off from the story. Like most duel point of view stories when one part is getting good, suspenseful, or addicting it jumped to another point of view.
Mary is a bit clueless for a seventeen year old even though she is a child she is close to being an adult and has to learn to advocate for herself some. That never really happened she just kept hiding her discomfort and trying not to upset her father. even seem to take time off of their jobs to help him cope with Lola disappearing.
Drew seemed hard to believe. I liked how his father's were worried about him but other then that they did not press him to get therapy or
I figured out the mystery early on like in the first 40 pages. I kept hoping for some big revelation about what was going on but it was pretty predicable not sure if this was due to it being young adult or if the mystery was that easy to figure out.
Since I could not sleep last night I did read the sample for Mrs. Lally's next work and it sounded okay. Same writing style but maybe the mystery will appeal to me more. For me That's Not My Name was just an average book.
I uss to post book trailer with my reviews but those seem to be less popular since everyone does a tictok now. However I did find an official audio book trailer for That's Not My Name.
