Books Reviews Written by Nikola Naylor-Warren
Keeping up with tradition, I am updating my blog, with the latest. I have read a few books recently. The last novel I completed was The Last Flight by Julie Clark, this book is a fictional book that touches on the heroism of women who take action to escape domestic violence and decide not to settle with the cards that life unfortunately and inevitably deals without foresight. I don't want to tell the story however, I will give a few details. It's a good read about two women named Claire and Eva with entirely two different backgrounds that have a chance encounter that changes the course of their lives. It's a mystery and a journey that has an unsettling ending.
I read another short story (a novel) The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman in one night about two estranged sisters who were forced to come back together and live in the same home after years of separation to care for a child and an unexpected addition to the family due to a family emergency. The short story was cinematic in its retailing because it takes place on a small piece of family land on a small island, a place one of the sisters left behind years ago, with no intentions of returning. The book makes you value and appreciate the traditions that families have that are often taken for granted when instead they should be preserved and treasured.
Review Updated from Recent Hack on June 2nd 2024, with correct information
I absolutely loved The Tangled Vines by Julianne Maclean from the beginning this book tells the story of a mother and daughter in the past and present. Both women take an epic journey over seas to Europe and discover another part of themselves they never knew. A journey through vineyards, love, new found family, and the taste of wine with a legacy of family treasure.
The Tangled Vines by Julianne Maclean was a page turner. It tells the story of a young woman who receives an inheritance from a father she never knew existed. This new found knowledge and request of her presence for the reading of the will takes her on a journey to a vineyard in Europe. A trip that reveals long buried past secrets that her mother who also passed took to her grave.
From the start this book takes you on a whirlwind. Starting with the news, shock, and disruption of entering into a new class of people and upsetting everyone in the room. Learning legal news, that no one would expect or see coming, starting with her first encounter with her privileged entitled siblings who didn't even know she existed.
In all the drama, The Tangled Vines untangles the truth about an unknown love that was worthy of an inheritance that no one could comprehend by taking readers back to the past to understand how this young woman came to be the daughter and heir of a such a wealthy man named Antwon, a father she never knew. In this new discovery new questions are raised in wanting to understand how the man who she thought was her father ended up being such a pivotal part of her life without acknowledgement of the truth from her deceased mother or her ailed father. I could not put this book down. It was good.
Review by Nikola Naylor-Warren
The last book that I am reading now, that makes me think I'm getting Ashton Kushner punked is about a woman who does not recognize her fiance at their wedding. I am 84 pages in so far and it reads like the story about my surgery ( I won't say more about that). The story begins at a wedding and as the bride is about to marry she gets cold feet because she does not recognize the man she is about to marry. The wedding is crowded full of friends, family, and loved ones. Everyone recognizes her fiance but her. She is told by an attending physician at the wedding that she must be having some type mental episode that blocks facial recognition. She visits another doctor to have a brain scan and a mri, and is told that isn't the issue. So far she has been undiagnosed. The story so far has recounted several past events that her fiance missed. She recounts him missing key events such as the announcement of her engagement during a family dinner. The bride to be announced to family by herself that she was getting married because her fiance at the last minute could not attend. At another event, at a night club, the bride to be was so excited to introduce her finance to her friends for the first time and at the last minute he couldn't make it. The year long photos of her relationship have been changed or are missing from her social media. The photos her friends have of her with her fiance seem to show a man she does not recognize. I am 84 pages in, her friends and family thinks she is having a mental episode. I don't know where the writer of this book is going. I'm beginning to think that this is going to be some kind of "Fight Club' type ending, I don't know, I'm about to stop reading it because I'm 84 pages in, and the whole book so far has been about her not recognizing the man she was about to marry at her wedding. OMG! its a mystery I'm getting tired of, I don't know what to think. It's on my E-reader and I'm about sick of it, I don't know if I can finish it because it has been the same scenario every chapter. I'm wondering if this book is a hack, because so far, it's ridiculous. I'm literally like, get on with it, as I turn the pages. The title of this book is called The Silent Bride by Shalini Boland. Another reader can take a crack at it and see if you have better luck. I need it to pick up the pace.
Special Note: If in fact The Silent Bride turns out to be a good book, I will update and change my review. This is one of the first times I have given an opinion about a book before I actually finished the book, if I can finish the book, lol....
These reviews are written by @NikolaReviews
Nikola Naylor-Warren
I do not do reviews on everything I read or watch, however I tweet out good tv shows, movies, and books, especially during the writers strike that I think are good. Even if I do not do the reviews, I will tweet a list anyway. So if you are looking for a good book, movie, or tv show, I often tweet what I like, because I think you may like it too. I have been doing movie and book reviews since college. I used to write for the Drexel Triangle at Drexel University during my undergrad years as a movie critic. It's a hobby, I have always enjoyed.
