Book Review: The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews

Title: The Newcomer
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
ISBN: 9781250256966
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Synopsis:

Mary Kay Andrews, the New York Times bestselling author and Queen of the Beach Reads delivers her next page-turner for the summer with The Newcomer.

In trouble and on the run…

After she discovers her sister Tanya dead on the floor of her fashionable New York City townhouse, Letty Carnahan is certain she knows who did it: Tanya’s ex; sleazy real estate entrepreneur Evan Wingfield. Even in the grip of grief and panic Letty heeds her late sister’s warnings: “If anything bad happens to me—it’s Evan. Promise me you’ll take Maya and run. Promise me.”

With a trunkful of emotional baggage…

So Letty grabs her sister’s Mercedes and hits the road with her wailing four-year-old niece Maya. Letty is determined to out-run Evan and the law, but run to where? Tanya, a woman with a past shrouded in secrets, left behind a “go-bag” of cash and a big honking diamond ring—but only one clue: a faded magazine story about a sleepy mom-and-pop motel in a Florida beach town with the improbable name of Treasure Island. She sheds her old life and checks into an uncertain future at The Murmuring Surf Motel.

The No Vacancy sign is flashing & the sharks are circling…

And that’s the good news. Because The Surf, as the regulars call it, is the winter home of a close-knit flock of retirees and snowbirds who regard this odd-duck newcomer with suspicion and down-right hostility. As Letty settles into the motel’s former storage room, she tries to heal Maya’s heartache and unravel the key to her sister’s shady past, all while dodging the attention of the owner’s dangerously attractive son Joe, who just happens to be a local police detective. Can Letty find romance as well as a room at the inn—or will Joe betray her secrets and put her behind bars? With danger closing in, it’s a race to find the truth and right the wrongs of the past.

My Review:

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Book Review: Navigating Life Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me by Margaux Bergen

Title: Navigating Life Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me
Author: Margaux Bergen
Publisher: Penguin Press
ISBN: 9781594206290

Synopsis:

You learn a few useful things at school–the three Rs come in handy, and it’s good to know how to perform under pressure and wait your turn–but most of what matters, what makes you into a functioning human being, able to hold your own in conversation, find your path, know what to avoid in relationships and secure a meaningful job, no teacher will ever tell you.This diamond-sharp, gut-punchingly honest book of hard-earned wisdom is one mother’s effort to equip her daughter for survival in the real world.

Wise, heartbreakingly funny, and resonantly true, Navigating Life has invaluable lessons for students of life of all ages. It will challenge you to lead a more meaningful life and to tackle the bumps along the way with grace, grit, style, and ingenuity. What The Blessings of a Skinned Knee did for the early years of parenting, Navigating Life does for the next, far more perilous chapter, when new graduates are cast out on the high seas and have to learn to swim and find their way by themselves.

About the Author:

Born in Paris and raised in London, educated at Edinburgh University and living in Washington D.C., Margaux Bergen is the mother of three Millennials. She has worked in international development and women’s leadership. And is still learning the extreme sports of raising three children.

My Review:

Book Review: Neil Patrick Harris: Choose your Own Autobiography

This is one of the first choose your own adventure style of books I have ever read, and I was not disappointed.  Although I do not know much about Neil Patrick Harris, I found this genre matched perfectly with some of the characters he has portrayed over the years.  If you are familiar with Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother) or his on screen version of himself (Harold & Kumar), you will find yourself at home with his writing style.  Much of this book reads like a weird challenge concocted by Barney himself.

 The book takes the absurd approach of letting you be NPH.  You will attempt to take a journey through his life from freshly born baby, child actor, and adult acting career to family man.  There are even random pages dedicated to mixed drinks, and magic tricks.  Maybe there is even a super secrete hidden page, but that is for you to find out.  Although there are many fun and silly moments throughout this autobiography, NPH does cover serious topics in his life such as his sexual orientation or his struggles to escape his childhood character Doogie Howser.

 All in all this autobiography gives you a glimpse of the man behind the characters he plays.  Although sometimes the real NPH is hard to decipher from the character that is NPH, this is one of the more creative and enjoyable autobiographies you will probably ever read.

Reviewed by my boyfriend