PopSugar Reading Challenge 2020 discussion

Tell us about the book you read with the pretty bird on the cover! What kind of bird was it?

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Award winning book but poorly adapted film - it needs to be a miniseries)

I read "Reverie" by Ryan La Sala.

I really wanted to like this book. I gave it 3 stars but it was more about 2.5 or 2.75. It was okay but it has a lot of potential that I don't think it delivered on. Since the book deals with dreams and nightmares and powers, I knew it would be surreal, but the book really gets bogged down in this and these scenes seem to take soooooo long. The story also gave off more of a middle grade writing feel then young adult. The story was there it just wasn't developed enough, although there were moments.

I'm not usually this harsh but I really expected to like this book and didn't. :(

I read The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. It was my second book of the year and my favorite so far.

Crooked River
(Pendergast #19)
by Douglas Preston (Goodreads Author),
Lincoln Child

I am assuming the bird(s) are seagulls they are in silhouette, but they are the only birds I recall being mentioned in the book. PUT THIS DOWN AS A BOOK I WISH I HADN'T READ.

Sheriff PB kills a dog in the first few chapters for playing with evidence, he doesn't kill the seagulls that are messing with his evidence. There would have been a lot of dead seagulls littering his beach if he had. We learn a horse was killed for throwing his rider in front of a crowd. And to end this wretched book supposedly the evil drug causing people to cut off their feet was developed from a parasite that causes CRAZY CAT LADY SYNDROME.

Lots to hate and nothing to like about this awful book.

I read 'House of Earth and Blood' (Crescent City Book #1) by Sarah J Maas for this category. I love Maas's writing, but I will say this book was a little slow going. It started picking up for me 250/300 pages in, and the first major twist that will definitely suck you in is p. 451 (out of 799 pages it's over halfway though). But after that page it does get to Maas level greatness.

From Beer to Eternity by Sherry Harris. It's the first of a new cozy mystery series. A 20-something Chicago librarian inherits a house and part of a bar in the Florida panhandle from her best friend after he dies. Of course, she stumbles across a body and feels compelled to solve the murder. (Could also fit in the published in 2020 category.)