Book Review - Mercury by Amy Jo Burns

 

 

Mercury by Amy Jo Burns is about seventeen year old Marley West, who is trying to find a place to belong. In 1990, Marley and her mother arrived in the small river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. Marley and her mother are constantly moving city to city looking for work. Marley felt like a loner and is looking for a community and a place to belong.

When Marley arrives at Mercury, she sees three men on top of a roof. She isn’t able to make out who the men were as only their silhouettes were visible from the sun. Later, when Marley decides to watch a local baseball game, she runs into one of the Joseph brothers and is later introduced to the rest of the family.

Marley receives an invitation to join the Joseph family for dinner and eventually leads to a standing invite. It started as a simple dinner but it led Marley to be intertwined with the entire Joseph family and eventually she married into the family. Marley finds the connection and family that she has been searching for but, she realizes that it comes at a steep cost.

I thought the book was a dull read. I thought there was going to be a mystery around the dead body but it wasn’t until almost halfway into the book that it was even mentioned. I felt like there wasn’t much going on in the book and a lot of the drama was just drummed up or exaggerated to make it seem like more was going on. I didn’t understand what the point of the book was. Was it to show how consuming a small business is? Or should we be careful about what we wish for? 

While the plot was moving as slow as molasses, I didn’t find any of the characters to be enjoyable. I found it weird that Marley wants a family of her own, when she is barely an adult and has a very supportive mother. Instead, she jumps headfirst into building connections with a highly dysfunctional family and continues to stay with them even though she has her reservations about them.  No one from the Joseph family seemed remotely interesting. Elise Joseph, the mother, seemed to be welcoming, but then cold at times. I wish we were given more information on her behaviors along with the other members of the family. The entire family just seemed selfish and unbalanced. Readers who enjoy reading about people’s everyday lives and family drama, might find this more entertaining than I did.

 

Book Review - The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Photo Credit - Amazon

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all from the outside. They have a loving relationship, a beautiful home, and their adoring baby, Cora. The couple decides to leave Cora at home while they attend a dinner party next door. They arrive home, they realize something is wrong and their daughter is missing. When the cops are called in, the detectives are suspicious of the couple. The pair realizes that they both have deadly secrets that they have been keeping from each for years.



I found the novel to be a very interesting read but, halfway through the novel, I figured out the basic premise of the ending. A few things were a surprise but, not enough to say this book was a suspenseful or a thrilling read. I wish some of the characters and the side stories were more detailed. For example, the detectives felt that something was off by the whole kidnapping but, they never really went into much detail on why they felt that way. Overall, it was a decent read and I look forward to reading other books by the author.

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Book Review - The Best and Lightest: 150 Healthy Recipes for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner by Editors of Food Network Magazine

Photo Source - Amazon

Food Lovers Rejoice! No longer do you have to sacrifice taste when cooking healthy. As a longtime fan of Food Network, I couldn't wait to get my grubby (hopefully, I can lose some of my baby fat -- you know the fat I had for 30 years now :}) hands on this cookbook.

If you read the Food Network magazine, the cookbook has a similar layout. The book is divide by categories such as sandwiches, poultry, meat, seafood, eggs, pasta, side sides, sweets, and etc. Each of 150 recipes is accompanied by full color photos along with nutritional facts. In between each chapter is little mini recipes for quick snacks like eggplant chips, pesto-tomato crostini,  corn-bacon guacamole, and etc.

**Disclosure - I received an copy of this book in exchange for honest opinion.**