The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

First Things First: Cover art!

I actually like the cover art for this book! I think it works great with the title, it seems to represent something in motion which again works really well with the cover. 

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Summary:

"Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?"

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My Review: 

Eh... This book was not my favorite. I skipped to the end a third of the way through and then forced myself to read through the rest of it. I expected a murder mystery full of suspense and crazy twists and turns, what I found was a crazy alcoholic lady who can't get over the fact that her husband cheated on her.

 Rachel as a character, she's a mess.  She's written well but I just couldn't get myself to like Rachel at all... She wants her life back, I get it but why is it that suddenly everyone in the world is involved with her ex-husband. If Criminal Minds was about cheating husbands instead of serial killers, than this would definitely be an episode. I just did not like how it revolved on Rachel's problems more than the actual story line.
Usually in books like this I can have sympathy for the main character, but Rachel she is doing NOTHING to solve her problems which absolutely ruins the story line. Thy mystery of it all was really good but halfway through the book I already knew who killed when and where and what happened pretty much. I feel like this book could be a People magazine story just add celebrities and you got an instant story!
Now I didn't hate everything about this book I liked the premise of the story but it's not what I signed up for after reading the dust jacket summary. Rachel as a character I just couldn't... We all have one of those friends at some point which basically sit there like slugs, complain to you that their lives are miserable and complain all the time about the decisions that THEY make. I wanted to grab Rachel and push her into a very very very cold pool of water in hopes that would knock some sense into her. Half the book was her complaining about how "I know this decision is stupid but I am doing it anyways". She made great strides in overcoming her alcohol addiction at some points but she always slipped back into her addiction without fail for some reason or another which just made her to whiny of a character for me. The end was somewhat expected for this book, I kinda knew it was going to go in that direction about fifty pages before the end of the book. All in all, this book started out promising but it just didn't finish strong, and it became very predictable.

Rating: 5 out of 10. Wasn't good but it wasn't great either. Just feel like the summary promised one thing and what I got was something else.

Content Rating: 4 (18+). Adult romance, swearing, and alcohol.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

First things first: cover art! After reading this book I really love the cover art for it, it makes so much sense! I love it when the cover art actually pertains to the book and isn't just a random image.I also love just how simple and profound it is. 

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Summary: 

"Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child.

So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over…"

 *******

I first found this book while copying and pasting a summary into my blog from Amazon.com. After waiting a full month for it I finally got it at the library and fished it on the same day I started it. This book was so good! It's told from three points of view, the first is what I like to call "fly on the wall" narrative, the second is in letter format to a therapist, and the third is letters to a dead fiance. All three points of view come together to give us this amazing story! I am so so glad that they are making it into a movie because seriously, it's amazing. Alice was written very well, Moriarty had to deal with two different characters in one considering there is an "old" Alice and a "new" Alice. Plus this love story starts somewhere where most don't, the relationship is on the brink of extinction and its going to take work to bring them back together. Elizabeth, Alice's sister, is also another complex character, She is the exact opposite of Alice and I love the stark contrast between the two characters. The ending is also great! Usually I hate books that seem to scream, "EVERYBODY GETS A HAPPY ENDING!", but this book makes you root for all the characters to find happiness and its amazing when all of them do. 

Rating: 10 out of 10. Highly, highly recommend this book!!! 

Content Rating: 4 (18+). This book has some swearing, and a bit of adult romance. Some topics are definitely meant for older readers! 

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simson

Summary:

"The art of love is never a science: Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

Rosie Jarman possesses all these qualities. Don easily disqualifies her as a candidate for The Wife Project (even if she is “quite intelligent for a barmaid”). But Don is intrigued by Rosie’s own quest to identify her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on The Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie―and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you."

This book will make you laugh, a lot. Don is a geneticist at a University in Australia, and that might be the only normal thing about him. His character is very interesting, and he likes everything to be just so. This book is a fun read, its amusing to watching Don change for the women he's falling for. Simson's writing style is amazing! I love how he is able to make Don's and Rosie's worlds and interactions come to life. He also lets you see the incredible amount of differences between the two characters.  The use of first person narration in this book also works really well with this novel. The plot is delightful, the characters are amazing and so is this book! This will eventually become a movie some day! According to IMDb Jennifer Lawrence is slated to play Rosie, so excited to see if this movie happens!! Can not wait for the second book, I am number one in line for it at the Library so I am hoping to have the review up for it by the end of August. 

Rating: 10 out of 10. Again, this book is hilarious, fun and well written. 

Content Rating: 4 (18+). Rosie has a rather large swearing problem, there is some adult romance, as well as some other mature scenes.