Book Review: "Nightwatching" by Tracy Sierra

Excuse me while my breathing gets back to normal! This was an intense, crazy thriller that didn’t really let up until it neared the end.

It’s the middle of a blizzard, and a woman is at home with her two young children. When her son awakens in the middle of the night, she gets him settled back into his bed. And then she hears a noise. Of course, it’s an old house and there’s a storm outside, so noises are inevitable. But as she stays hidden, she sees the face of a man appear at the top of the stairs.

“Reality can be more disorienting than dreams.”

She’s determined that she and her children will not be sitting ducks for this intruder. She wakes the kids and takes them into a secret crawl space, where she tries to calm them down and wait him out. But when she hears his voice, first trying to coax the children out of hiding, then threatening to destroy all of them, she realizes she knows who this man is, and what he wants she will never give him.

She tries to figure out a way to escape and get help, but can she leave her children alone in the house? And how far will she get in the blizzard?

I really wasn’t sure how this story would be resolved. I’ll admit I thought this could all be some sort of hallucination, or that there would be a twist I didn’t enjoy. But Tracy Sierra, in a tremendously self-assured debut, slowly lets things unfold and keeps you thinking.

Book Review: "Loathe at First Sight" by Suzanne Park

When your workplace is in chaos, the last thing you can handle is a workplace romance. At least that's the case in Suzanne Park's fun rom-com, Loathe at First Sight.

Melody Joo thinks she’s landed the perfect job as a producer at a video game company, but she learns quickly how wrong she is. The CEO is a petulant jerk, her male coworkers are sexist (and a bit racist), and there’s even a handsome yet insufferable intern, who happens to be the boss’ nephew and seems to get all of the perks she isn't. She wants to quit ASAP.

When a joke about a video game featuring male strippers fighting to save the world (as opposed to the ubiquitous hyper-sexual female characters which appear in video games) gets taken seriously, she’s put in charge of developing it. Nolan the intern gets assigned to help her, and while she’s ready for him to be useless, Melody is surprised by how smart—and sexy—he is. But the last thing she needs is to hook up with the boss’ nephew and an intern to boot, given that half of the guys she works with already think she's slept her way into the opportunity to develop the game.

Suddenly she faces intense pressure to deliver the game amidst unrealistic and unfair demands from the CEO, hostile coworkers, and a trolling scandal which actually frightens her. Couple that with constant nagging from her Korean parents to get married and some meddling from her best friends, and she’s ready to crack. All she wants is to turn to Nolan, but is that the worst choice she can make? (I think you know the answer to that question.)

This was a cute enemies-to-lovers (sort-of) rom-com. I liked Melody and Nolan and definitely rooted for them. I thought she really took a lot more verbal abuse from her coworkers, the public, her family, even her friends, than was enjoyable. There’s only so many insults—even when done in love—that are fun to read.

Still, I thought the book had some good messages about sexism in the workplace, particularly in the gaming industry. And so much of what Park describes about gaming fans is true. It's a fun romp.

Avon Books provided me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!!

Book Review: "The Escape Room" by Megan Goldin

It's a good thing I'm the boss, because after reading Megan Goldin's new book, The Escape Room, if someone ever suggested a team-building exercise, I'd run in the opposite direction!

Stanhope and Sons is one of the leading financial firms in the country. The deals they close net millions—if not billions—of dollars, and can make or break major corporations.

The firm hires only the best and brightest, and is tremendously choosy. They want people who look like they're worth millions, let alone be trusted to make millions on behalf of their clients. Successful employees make an immense amount of money between salaries and bonuses, yet the firm works them like dogs, at least until you get to the point where you're responsible for wining and dining potential and current clients.

One night four of the firm's leading employees, Vincent, Sam, Jules, and Sylvie, are summoned to an office building in the South Bronx with a directive to attend a meeting at the behest of HR. The past year has been a tough one for the quartet, who seem to have lost a bit of their luster lately, losing money and clients. There are rumors of layoffs, reassignments, so the four know that whatever they have to sacrifice for their job—as they always have—they will, if it means preserving their job and their astronomical salary.

No one is quite sure who summoned them to this meeting, but when they are directed into an elevator, they obey. It turns out the elevator is an escape room, where they must work together as a team in order to solve puzzles and identify clues so they can get out of the elevator before time elapses. The problem is, even though they work so closely together, no one is really sure whom to trust. They're convinced everyone is out simply to protect themselves, since that's what they would do, too.

When the lights in the elevator go out and it starts to get hotter in the confined space, they're desperate to solve the challenge and get out. But when the clues start to remind them of errors they've made and people they've wronged, they begin to realize this isn't just any escape room challenge. Someone is clearly out to get them—but is it one of the four of them, or someone else? How far are they willing to go to escape and save themselves?

There's a lot more to this book than that description but it's best to keep it fairly vague so as not to ruin the surprises along the way. The Escape Room isn't quite what I was expecting, and that doesn't disappoint me. It's definitely more of a slow-burn thriller than one with breakneck pacing, but you still want to know how Goldin is going to tie everything up. This is definitely a more cerebral book but not a boring one by any means.

I've never done one of those escape room challenges, and I don't think I'm in any hurry to do one after reading The Escape Room. I've seen this book get a lot of hype leading up to its release earlier this week, and it's definitely deserving of buzz. As long as you're comfortable with a slower pace and storytelling that will stimulate your mind more than rev your heart, you'll enjoy this one!

I was fortunate to be part of the blog tour for The Escape Room. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!

Check out some Q&A with Goldin at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2019/08/q-with-megan-goldin-author-of-escape.html.

Book Review: "Talk to Me" by John Kenney

"But deep down in places he rarely allowed himself to go, Ted knew he was a lie. A handsome, large-headed, reasonably intelligent lie. They had made him this thing, this...character, this cartoon, really, where once, long ago, Ted had been a reporter. A writer."

Ted Grayson is a well-respected television news anchor. At 59, he's one of the last bastions of the "old guard" of news media, as television networks battle with cable and internet for ratings and advertising dollars. The definition of what is "news" has also changed since he got his start, and at times he doesn't even recognize the industry he's working in.

But while he is well-regarded by the viewers, his family doesn't have the same opinions about Ted. He and his wife, Claire, have been estranged for some time (following a long period of time where they were estranged even while living in the same house). She is weary after years of neglect, infidelity, and Ted's need to chase a story instead of actively participate in his marriage. Ted's daughter, Franny, hates him. Nothing he does is not deserving of scorn, even if Franny has more than her own share of issues.

"Life changes. This was the essence of news. Why did it come as such a shock to an anchorman?"

One night, in the middle of a newscast, things go spectacularly awry. Ted loses his temper and goes on a profanity-laced and misogynistic rant. It's a momentary lapse, but it doesn't wind up on camera, so everyone is hoping it will blow over. But then it hits the internet, and then it's a matter of minutes before Ted, and everything he represents, wind up in big trouble. Everyone has an opinion, and none of them are anything less than career-ending.

Franny, who works for a popular "news" website, watches her father's downfall with bemusement. But when it is suggested that she interview Ted for an article to help bolster her somewhat-flagging prospects at the site, she isn't sure whether she really hates her father enough to make career hay at his expense. Ted, on the other hand, wonders if it matters at all what Franny writes. Maybe he does deserve everything that's coming to him. Or maybe it's an opportunity to gain some control of himself before it really is too late.

John Kenney's Talk to Me is the story of a man whose career—and his life—are in freefall. It's a look at what it's like to finally have to come to terms with the choices you've made and whether you would make them again, and at whose expense you've made them. Ted's problems aren't unique—we've seen this type of story play out many times in real life, both involving celebrities and "real" people.

At the same time, this is a book about our scandal-hungry society, how the media loves to put people up on a pedestal only to gleefully knock them down when they make a mistake. It's a commentary about how quickly bad news, errors, or misdeeds travel, and the ripples they cause. It's also a look at the balance between news and entertainment, and how easy it has become to confuse the latter for the former.

When the book focused on Ted and his downfall, and how clueless he really was about the ramifications of what he did, I really enjoyed Talk to Me. But the more it focused on the outrage caused by Ted's rant, the reactions of those in society and the media, and the machinations of Franny's boss, I didn't find the book as interesting. I guess I feel like we're living in that society right now, and I didn't need much more of an analysis of how angry and unforgiving we can be to those who do things we perceive to be egregious.

Kenney is a great writer, and he has achieved a tough feat of making you care about unlikable characters. Ted and Franny in particular were complex, flawed yet sympathetic characters whose trajectories I understood. I didn't feel as if Kenney gave Claire as much depth, and I found a tangential storyline with an old roommate of Franny's to be mostly unnecessary.

So while I wasn't head over heels for Talk to Me, there are enough redeeming qualities to recommend it. There's some real emotion here amidst the melee, and it is those moments that make this book worthwhile.

NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!