Book Chatter

This is my street this morning. It’s a cold 50 degrees and it’s 10am. It’s pretty early for us to get a cold snap. We typically don’t see temps like this before mid-December. But look at that sky!

Last night, I brought all my succulents in. I wasn’t sure they could handle the 30 degree night. Some are in fixed planters so I covered those. I would hate to lose them to a freeze. I know certain types can take the cold but I have no idea what I have. I just pick plants that speak to me.

This crisp weather has me thinking about the Thanksgiving meal. I have a notebook that I keep JUST for Thanksgiving. Most of the dishes we enjoy are family faves that we always make but I will add one “new to us” dish for us to try. Last year, it was a baked sweet potato dish and it was not good. Kind of liked scalloped potatoes but with sweet potatoes. It was soupy and kind of weird. I’d rather just have a sweet potato with butter and cinnamon.

I always stress about the pies because I need to use a gluten free crust but this year, I am just going to use the Trader Joe’s GF crusts. They are decent. I won’t spend $28 on a GF pie from Whole Foods like I did last year, plus it was just okay.

Have you started to plan for the holidays? I know it will be hard for some, as their loved ones may not be able to visit due to COVID but do try to celebrate a little. This year was rough and we all deserve it.

You Can’t Catch Me
By Catherine McKenzie
Lake Union Publishing, 9781542019033, June 2020, 335pp.

The Short of It:

If you enjoy cat and mouse type games, then this might be a good one for you. Not sure I was in the right mood to read it.

The Rest of It:

Jessica Williams escaped a cult more than a decade ago. She attributes her rescue to a detective with whom she still keeps in contact with. This is convenient because at an airport bar, while waiting for her flight, a young woman sits next to Jessica and asks her if she wants to play a game. Why not? Enjoy a few drinks, a little bit of banter. Whatever helps the time pass.

Except, this young woman is also named Jessica Williams and shares the same birth date as Jessica #1. Weird, right? Once they finish their drinks and part ways, Jessica #1 quickly learns that all her money has been taken from her bank accounts. That game that they played pretty much told Jessica #2, everything she needed to know to go online and wipe her out.

When Jessica #1 shares this information with her long-time detective friend, they decide to go after her and find that she’s left other victims in her wake.

This story was just too convenient all around. No one would be that gullible. Okay, Jessica #1 was in a cult once so perhaps she was the level of gullible needed to play a 20 questions like game that pretty much tells the world who you are. But it seemed all together too easy.

There is a lot of chasing fake Jessica around. I quickly tired of this because I just didn’t buy the story as a whole. It wasn’t suspenseful in the way I expected it to be. Overall, it was disappointing. Instead, I recommend her other book, Fractured.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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