Standalone Sunday: None of the Above
Standalone Sunday (#SAS) was started by Megan over at Bookslayer Reads.
What is Standalone Sunday?
Each Sunday bloggers feature a standalone book (one that is not part of a series) that they loved or would recommend. The standalone can also be one you want to read. There is so much focus on books that are part of a series that standalone books seem to be forgotten. They can be just as great as book series!
It has been a while since we did #SAS. This week’s #SAS is a contemporary YA novel. This one deals with coming to terms with yourself and learning who you really are.
This week’s #SAS is by I.W. Gregorio:
None of the Above
A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she was born intersex… and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.
What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?
When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She’s a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she’s madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she’s decided that she’s ready to take things to the next level with him.
But Kristin’s first time isn’t the perfect moment she’s planned—something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy “parts.”
Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin’s entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Remembering Megan:
Standalone Sunday was started by Megan over at Bookslayer Reads. She sadly passed away last year and was the heart of the book blogger community. She was always so welcoming and helpful towards others and she is missed.
Megan’s presence on social media is gone, but I will remember her! It’s sad that a life so young ended.
First Line Friday #119
Today’s First Line Friday is unique. It is Michael Crichton’s first novel written under a psedonym: Jeffrey Hudson. This one was originally published on April 1, 1968.
All heart surgeons are bastards, and Conway is no exception.
Written as Jeffery Hudson in 1968.
A Case of Need is Michael Crichton’s award-winning debut novel, written shortly after he completed his medical internship. Set against the ever-building pressure and pace of a large Boston medical center, the tensions flare-and explode-when a surgical operation tragically ends in death, raising countless questions. Was it accidental malpractice? A violation of the Hippocratic oath? Or cold-blooded murder?
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
MKA’s The High Tide Club
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Published: May 8, 2018
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: July 15 – August 7, 2019
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
When ninety-nine-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons Brooke Trappnell to Talisa Island, her 20,000 acre remote barrier island home, Brooke is puzzled. Everybody in the South has heard about the eccentric millionaire mistress of Talisa, but Brooke has never met her. Josephine’s cryptic note says she wants to discuss an important legal matter with Brooke, who is an attorney, but Brooke knows that Mrs. Warrick has long been a client of a prestigious Atlanta law firm.
Over a few meetings, the ailing Josephine spins a tale of old friendships, secrets, betrayal and a long-unsolved murder. She tells Brooke she is hiring her for two reasons: to protect her island and legacy from those who would despoil her land, and secondly, to help her make amends with the heirs of the long dead women who were her closest friends, the girls of The High Tide Club—so named because of their youthful skinny dipping escapades—Millie, Ruth and Varina. When Josephine dies with her secrets intact, Brooke is charged with contacting Josephine’s friends’ descendants and bringing them together on Talisa for a reunion of women who’ve actually never met.
Jessica’s Review:
The High Tide Club features Brooke Trappnell who is introduced in Save the Date. You do not need to have read Save the Date first, but I would recommend it as you will know Brooke’s backstory. Save the Date was the first Mary Kay Andrews’ (MKA) book I read and she has since become an author who I will read anything she writes! The High Tide Club has become my favorite of MKA’s that I have read!
The High Tide Club has a little bit of everything that keeps you reading: A little romance, a murder mystery that spans decades, a group of girlfriends, secrets and lies, making amends, and family: the biological one and the ones you choose.
There are two timelines that connect: One starts in the 1940s, and the other is in present day. I never lost interest in both timeline stories and I never figured the twists out. Everything fits and flows together well. Though it is a fun and intriguing read, there are also some serious situations that occur in the novel including rape and abandoned babies. MKA may be starting to turn a little ‘dark’ in her novels, but they are still enjoyable and definitely easy beach reads.
The High Tide Club is a longer novel, coming in at 470 pages, but I couldn’t really see any of it being discarded. I do have the book, but listened to the audiobook which is narrated by Kathleen McInerney. I have listened to most of MKA’s books on audiobook and McInerney narrates them all. Both of those ladies just go together like peas and carrots!
If you have not given MKA a try you really need to!
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My review for Save the Date is here.
Kim’s review of The High Tide Club (and more!) is here.
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Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
