Dear Readers, June was a horrible month for reading, but a good month for Overtime at work with working over 50 hours each week, I read 3 books this month, my lowest since starting Readingwithmyeyes blog. I did not make a TBR this month and will not make one this month since I still have overtime .  My ratings for this month are 1 five star, 1 fours star, and 1 three star. I read 1 book in a series, 1 horror, and 1 advance reader copies (thanks to Netgalley).

Five Star Reviews:

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a historical fiction novel about tennis, love, winning, losing, and family. There’s a metaphor that runs through the novel about love, in tennis, love means 0 or better yet nothing. Carrie Soto throughout the book evolves into what love is in terms of winning and losing. This is a great book that hooks you in so fast and you instantly care about the character of Carrie Soto and what she wants to accomplish in the book. The father and daughter relationship works well and evolves through the years. The opening starts in the present of 1994, then goes into the past to show how Carrie got there. The majority of the novel takes place in 1994-1995. Carrie Soto Is Back is classified as historical fiction but there’s not much history in the story since most of the time is spent at a tennis court. This is my fourth Taylor Jenkins Reid novel starting with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & the Six, and Malibu Rising I’m blown away every time by how easily I’m hooked, she has such a talent for that. Carrie Soto Is Back was published on August 30, 2022, by Ballantine Books.

Four Star Reviews:

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin is an emotional science fiction ride. The Novel feels like two stories in one. The world-building is well thought out and creatively developed. I love how dreams work in the story and how they are analyzed. The story goes places that I couldn’t predict, it is a wild ride. The story at the beginning reminded me a lot of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and the way it was set up then the novel shifts and it reminded me of a couple of films, none that I could list because it would give the twist away. I think this story works better not knowing too much going in. This novel joins Recursion and Dark Matter both by Blake Crotch in stories that I had no idea where they were going. The pace was sometimes a bit too slow. The story is a bit long and has far too many endings than needed. The climax was pretty exciting and brought an emotional impact to the story. The story is complex but at its heart, it is a very simple idea of love, loss, and hope. This is my first Justin Cronin novel I have been recommended the Passage trilogy by more than a few people. I was given The Ferryman from Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine to read and review. The Ferryman was published on May 2, 2023

Three Star Reviews:Night of the Living Dummy III by R. L. Stine is Goosebumps book 40 in the original series order. The Night of the Living Dummy series has been my favorite of the series so far. My big fear is wooden dummies, they freak me out. So this series has been generally scary for me until this book which had so much potential but was wasted with dumb pranks. The novel has two highlights a pretty good twist midway and a decent ending, but the story is filled with so much fluff. When the Living Dummy aspect of the story comes in the story is almost over. I’m always happy to see Slappy comeback, but if you have read the other two Night of the Living Dummy stories you know when the spell is read the dummy or dummies come to life. Why Stine hid it until the 75% mark, I do not know. This story had so much potential since there are 13 in total dummies and the story could have done so much more with them. The ending is the saving grace of the story and how well it serves the story. There were only two moments of real scares one was at the end and one was a dummy nightmare scene. Night of the Living Dummy 3 was published on February 1, 1996, by Scholastic