Tag: book review

Book Review: The Locked Door by Freida McFadden

To be honest Freida McFadden’s books are either a hit or a miss and this one for me was a miss. There was nothing much for a thriller in this book I just read it because I was in a reading slump and it successfully brought me out of it. The book follows the story of Nora who was just eleven years old when her father was arrested for unaliving someone in their basement. Decades later Nora is a successful surgeon while her father is behind bars. Everything was going perfectly until Nora found out one of her female patients had been unalive in the same way her father used to unalive his victims.

The main character is Nora, and the whole book is from her point of view. From the start, the way Nora was, I knew she was her father’s daughter because she did show some psychic things. However, she worked on making herself different from her father, and I guess she succeeded in it.

The pace of this book is very fast I did not even realize it when I ended up in the middle of the book. There is nothing thrilling in the book as it follows just Nora’s point of view. I felt that maybe if the past point of view were of her father’s that would make the book more thrilling. There were definitely some creepy scenes and did I guess the plot twist, no I was thinking totally opposite to what actually happened.

The plot twist was actually kind of good, I didn’t guess it. I think that it did give me a thrilling vibe. The book has a creepy vibe too because I suspect everyone but not the one who was the actual culprit. But I would say it lacked quite a good amount of details which would have made the book more thrilling and creepy.

If you don’t read this book you wouldn’t be missing much.

Rating: 3/5

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Never Lie by Freida McFadden

The amount of people who have recommended this book finally got me and I decided to read it and loved every second of it. The book follows a newlywed couple Tricia and Ethan, who get strangled amid a snowstorm at a remote mansion once owned by Dr. Adrienna Hale, a psychiatrist who vanished years ago. While looking for something Tricia finds a hidden room with tapes of Dr. Hale’s patient interviews. As she listens, she uncovers the unsettling events leading to Dr.Hale’s disappearance. Each tape reveals more secrets until the final one exposes the chilling truth.

This book had me in a chokehold till the last end. I did not see the twist coming at all and that made me realize OMG what just happened. So basically this book has been divided into the present and the past, the past POV of Adrienna and the present POV of Tricia. So there are not many characters one can suspect then too I did not get it. Talking about the characters, we don’t really explore the characters until the truth is finally revealed and their true faces are exposed to the readers. But she made me believe pretty well until the truth was revealed.

Ethan is a side character until the end, and I was shocked because I was not expecting a plot twist on plot twist but he also gave me suspicious vibes. Adrienna’s POV tells a totally different story and at first, I was confused about how the past and the present would merge but Frieda did exceptionally well in merging and executing it well.

The plot and the plot twist were perfect. I did not see it coming and was shocked because HOW!!!!!!!!!. Adrienna’s POV really made me understand that we truly don’t know what goes on in people’s minds, and if we do, then we have to face the consequences. The thriller never fails to make me aware that we truly don’t know which face of the person is real and how they actually are from the inside.

I loved that the author added transcripts, which made the book more creepy and suspenseful. The ending! What will I say about it? It’s so different, but for a thriller, I think it’s perfect. I have not yet read a thriller with this kind of ending, so I loved it. The book is very past-faced and intriguing; it kept me hooked till the end.

If you want to read a thriller where every character gives the vibe of morally gray then I recommend Never Lie by Freida McFadden.

Rating: 4/5

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Before We Say Goodbye (#4) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Writing the first post of 2025 through a book review and it was not planned but accidentally. I hope this year will fulfill all your desires. Wishing you a healthy and happy year.

The fourth book in the series Before We Say Goodbye is another great book written by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. I read this series continuously and the four stories in this one were the most challenging because it has a story about a dog. In this book, we meet again at the magical Cafe Funiculi Funicula known for its famous legend and extraordinary time-travel offering. The customer gets the chance to go back in time but with every journey, there is a risk and here the customer has to obey certain rules otherwise the punishment is brutal. We will be introduced to four new sets of visitors; the husband with something important left to say; the woman who couldn’t bid her dog farewell; the woman who couldn’t answer a proposal; and the daughter who drove her father away.

The vibe of the book is comforting and familiar, the only thing is that the rules are explained very much which makes it repetitive but becomes less in the later part of the novel. The timeline of this book was also a little different than others and I wished there was more of Kazu and Nagare mentioned but because of the timeline, it couldn’t happen. The stories were heart-wrenching, especially of the dog and its owner, I bawled my eyes out. Honestly, this book and this series are like a comfort you can read in a day or savour chapter by chapter. It is a short book, however it makes you empathetic towards others and see how people are going through so much in this world.

I recommend this book.

Rating: 4/5

Check out the review for the first, second, and third books by clicking here.

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Before Your Memory Fades (#3) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

‘Well, I read that when you give a gift to someone who is striving to achieve their dreams, you have to give them the most cherished thing you have. Some days, that person who is chasing their dreams will not be able to find the strength to keep going. It will be bitter and painful, and they will have to weigh up their dreams and reality to make a choice. When that happens, the person gifted with the most precious thing will be able to fight on a little more. It apparently helps them to feel they are not alone. So, I’m giving you this book because I want you to fight for your dream.’

Let me continue with the review of Before the Coffee Gets Cold series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and today it’s time for the third book in the series. Before Your Memory Fades is my favourite book in the series, it has touched my heart with its beautiful stories. Again we met on the hillside of Mount Hakodate in northern Japan in Cafe Donna Donna. The cafe is back serving delicious coffee as well as giving its customers the chance to go back in time by following certain rules. In this book we meet four customers; a daughter who resents her deceased parents for leaving her orphaned, the comedian who aches for his beloved and their shared dreams, the sister whose grief has become all-consuming, and the man who realized his love for his childhood friend.

I connected with this book so much, all the stories were heart-wrenching and inspiring. The four characters who went back in time were filled with angst and guilt, and because of that, the conversation was filled with words that my heart started sobbing. This book truly allows us to see how much every person is suffering from something, how each person is carrying guilt, how they have regretted what they have done in the past, and how they want to just forget the past and make things right. This book also teaches that if you ever get the chance to meet the person again maybe life could get a little better.

‘If it was just a matter of travelling back to the past, anyone could do it. But this cafe chooses people…By its rules…And some people hear those rules and give up. But those people who are resolved to go back, despite the rules, have a reason for doing so. It doesn’t matter what the reason is. If there is someone they must see, or someone they should see… even if the present reality won’t change…then, that’s all that matters.’

However, it also teaches that reality can’t be changed and maybe this is for the better of one being. The thing about me is that when I read stories about people who went through life in a hard way, it makes me want to appreciate life and be more grateful.

That is why I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 4.5/5

‘Something I strongly believe is that we mustn’t allow the death of a person to be the cause of unhappiness. The reason for that is simple: if you let everyone who dies be a cause for unhappiness, that would mean people are being born to become unhappy. But the opposite in fact is true. People are always born for the sake of happiness.’ – Yukari Tokita, Author

Check out the review for the first and second books by clicking here.

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Tales from the Cafe (#2) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Tales from the Cafe is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series and probably my least favourite. The cafe is back with the four stories where we meet a man who has raised his best friend’s daughter and wants to seek his best friend, the son who did not come home for his mother’s funeral, the lover who travelled to see the girl he couldn’t marry, and the ageing detective who couldn’t save his own wife. The stories in this book are all about the regret left behind and the people want the chance to go back in time. On the side street in Tokyo is a cafe Funiculi Funicula that serves good coffee in a warm surrounding. However, the cafe also offers a unique experience to its customers: the chance to travel back in time. However, there are certain rules that the customers have to stick to, otherwise there is severe punishment.

I felt that this book was a little underwhelming for me when I read the blurb I thought it would connect with me well but did not. The stories are all different but each of them includes the regret and pain of their past that they are still carrying. The book is easy to read and short but it took me time to read. The characters are fantastic, it is moving to see the perspective of life through different characters and how each of them is going through something so painful and regretful.

Another thing in this book that captured me was the backstory of the cafe waitress Kazu, as she is shown emotionless and talks straight to the point. The backstory of Kazu and the cafe ghost was not something I was expecting, but it was heartwrenching. Remorse is unbearable if it includes someone we love, and these stories are the perfect example of it.

I would recommend reading it once.

Rating: 3.5/5

Check out the review for the first book here.

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Before the Coffee Gets Cold (#1) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

I always loved books and movies that let me experience time travel because of the mistakes I have made in the past, which I can’t rectify but seeing fictional characters getting the chance makes me imagine myself in their place and I feel happy. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is the first book in the series and when I heard it’s Japanese coffee-themed and time travel I knew I needed to read this book and I’m glad I picked this up. So basically this book talks about a funiculi funicula cafe in a small back alley in Tokyo that has been serving brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But with coffee, they allow their customers a unique experience and what is that? The chance to travel back in time. But there is a catch, a risk certain rules that need to be followed for the person to go back in time. And I am not going to tell you because it’s the main thing and experience that you need to find out by reading the book. The book follows four visitors who want to make things right using the cafe’s time-travelling offer.

Now the book is divided into four parts with each part a new customer comes and time travels and their story is told. Each story is so different from the others, however, the common thing between them is the regret and how they want to go back and make things right. But that’s the thing what happened in the past can’t be corrected, the choices were made and destiny played its part. All four stories felt like a warm hug, the characters were beautiful and how I can relate to them. In this book, the stories focus on the lovers, husband and wife, the sisters, and the mother and child and each of them felt to the heart.

This book shows the memories we have of our loved ones and the life we have with them, we can’t imagine living without them but circumstances can’t be reversed. This cafe allows people to get the chance to relive the moment differently but with rules that must be followed. The waitress in the cafe, Kazu Tokita is such a pure and heartwrenching character and I loved her the most. The setting is beautiful as it doesn’t give an impression that in such an ordinary old cafe something big like going back magic can happen but that is what makes it unique.

I loved the book because it’s pure and very calming to read. The author did an incredible job with his writing to showcase the peaceful vibe of the book. I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 4/5

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

I hate myself because how could I not read from Sally Rooney until now? I have heard a lot of people say how intricate and different her books are and I decided to read her latest release Intermezzo. Let me tell you I was not at all disappointed by her, I admire this book so much. I just finished the book and wrote the review because I can’t hold back talking about how much I learned. So this book follows two brothers, a 32-year-old Peter and a 22-year-old Ivan, who had just lost their father. Peter is a lawyer, torn between two women he loves equally. Ivan, a chess prodigy, sees himself fall for a woman who is 14 years older than him. The book shows their life and how they are coping after their father’s death and also, the women in their life. It is said from three perspectives Peter, Ivan and Margaret.

First of all, let’s talk about the different things in the book. The highly controversial thing people hated was the absence of quotation marks in the dialogue. To be honest I did not know about this however I got used to it quickly. At first, it might be really hard but when I got used to it I loved the book. Sally very intelligently uses different writing techniques between Peter and Ivan’s chapters. In Peter’s chapters, the writing style is incomplete, choppy, and hard to understand while Ivan’s is straightforward, direct, and easy to understand. The book focuses on the grief of two brothers who do not share a great bond and after their father passed away how hard it was for them to connect.

Peter, his character might be my favourite and very hard to understand. He according to his brother is very social, good-looking, decisive, and a perfect person to live life. But in reality, from my perspective, Peter was a man who struggled a lot and never had anyone to share his feelings with because he was the oldest. Initially, it was hard for me to connect with Peter but as he opened up about his feelings, I sympathised with him. It is truly said that grief is that feeling that will never go away and a person who is grieving will fall in the big hole of regret and guilt. It was the same with Peter, first of all, he can’t seem to move on and let go of the situation that he is in. He is torn between two women and can’t let go of either of them because people in his life have made him confused.

Ivan is someone who lost his father at the age of 22 which is very early and he is the one who was closest to his father. Ivan is someone whose character is shown as rebellious and has a strong opinion about life. It is easy to understand Ivan because of his strong views and straightforwardness. The thing I would salute Sally for is that she has shown Ivan as a character who is young and prone to mistakes. His frustrations, fears, doubts, awkwardness and regrets felt so personal. I definitely connected with Ivan first because he thinks very intensely which is actually kind of scary. After all, being 22 and thinking so deeply about life is scariest.

The relationship between Peter and Ivan as brothers brings tears to my eyes. Ivan already created his thinking about Peter but in reality, he never asked Peter how he was doing in life. While Peter does not think before sharing his opinion on Ivan’s decision. I loved the confrontation scene that screamed that they were real brothers. I loved it when Ivan realised his mistakes and understood why Peter changed and apologised. Their relationship and this book taught me how awkward I am feeling, and how much I dislike someone but if I see someone I will always ask how they are doing.

I love books which show flawed characters because they’re highly relatable. It is a slow-paced book so if you want to read it you need to have an open mind and be ready to meet the flawed characters. I recommend this book at least once because it’s legit literary fiction that made me feel so many emotions and I loved every emotion I went through when I read.

Rating: 4.5/5

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn is one of the first thrillers I read when I decided to step up my thriller game. And I loved this book because it definitely checked all the boxes as the new thriller girlie. It is about a woman named Anna Fox who has not left her home in ten months and during that time she has haunted her rooms like a ghost lost in her memories. The only thing that connects her to the world’s reality is her window where she sits all day and watches her neighbours. One day, Russells moves in, a picture-perfect family of three and Anna is instantly drawn to them. Until one evening she heard a terrifying scream and saw something she was not supposed to and from there, her life changed completely.

I loved this book as it was creepy and thrilling. It kept me on edge the whole time especially when the first plot twist happened. The first plot twist OMG, I still remember my jaw hanging for five minutes because I just couldn’t grasp what I read. And you know what after the first plot twist the story gets more creepy and gripping which makes the book interesting. The plot was great from the start I felt like such a good family and then I was gasping at the fact that it was not like that at all, not even close.

Anna, the main character, what can I say about her, she never left me feeling any less creepy, with her thoughts I felt like I was stuck in her mind. Her loneliness was so horrifying because if she wanted to get out of it she couldn’t as she herself had locked the door to her mind. Her mind did not let her accept the reality and that is why she was stuck living in a dream that her mind had created for her that she feels is the reality. What happened to her was heartbreaking and she can’t get past it and that is the reason why her life is like a facade created by herself. I loved the scenes in which she started to realize life and situations. I loved that in the end she realized what truly she is and that is what saved her life.

The other characters in the book are all mysterious and actually deranged. They kept me on the edge and their interactions with Anna were creepy. The pace of the book is fast, and the writing is simple which kept me awake the whole night about what is going to happen next. The ending was good as I did not see it coming but again in a thriller where is the fun if predictable happens, right?

I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 4/5 (Please check trigger warnings)

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides was one of the first thrillers I read after getting back into the reading. And I have to say that this book wrecked me with its plot twist and I did not see it coming. The book describes the story of a thirty-three-year-old famous painter, Alicia Berenson, who unalive her husband, Gabriel Berenson, whom she once loved dearly. This happened six years ago and since then Alicia has not uttered a word not even to defend herself in front of the court. Now, a psychotherapist, Theo Faber, wants to figure out the mystery behind Alicia and joins a hospital where she is kept.

I loved this book so much, not only because of the plot twist but also because of the writing of the author. He made sure to give an explanation about the situation of Alicia and Theo which made me more engrossed in the book. I loved the character of Alicia and how in the end she connected all the lines and freed herself. I don’t know what to say about Theo he did not expect the situation to become like this. He wanted to do something better but everything turned out worse.

The biggest lesson that this thriller taught me was you never know what is going on in a person’s mind. You never know what a traumatic past someone has so it is so much better to be mindful of what you say in front of anyone. The situation of Alicia got wild because of her past and it triggered so fast that she unalive her husband. That is why it is said to be mindful because you never know what can trigger a person and its outcome will be worse than one can imagine.

The plot twist, I was legit staring at the wall when I read the page before it was revealed because I was shocked and at the same time sad because it was the situation that made everything turn out like that. I love the plot it was something very different from what I read and the book focuses more on generational trauma and trust.

I highly recommend this book, if you read a lot of thrillers then it might be predictable, however, there is more to this book than just the plot twist.

Rating: 4.7/5 (Please check trigger warnings)

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Better Than The Movies by Lynn Painter

“She’s not you.”

“What?”

“She. Isn’t. You.” – Wes to Liz

This is my first ever rom-com book and I have not heard any single bad thing about this book so I decided to read it. It is a cute romantic book without much melodrama and to be honest I like books with more melodrama. The story is very simple it is about Liz Buxbaum who wants her real-life love story to be exactly like movies. She is a hopeless romantic and loves to live like it. Wes Bennett is her next-door neighbour who will take any chance to annoy Liz so they are frenemies. When Liz’s crush Michael comes back she wants him to notice her and Michael is getting along well with Wes. So she asks Wes to help her to get to Michael.

Overall the book can be defined as cute, the plot is very straightforward as it is based in high school. The entire book is in Liz’s POV but I wished the author would add Wes’s POV as it would make the book more interesting. I won’t lie and say that I wasn’t annoyed by Liz. Since the whole book was in her POV sometimes she acted to impulse according to me, however, since she was in high school I can look past it. I loved Wes, even from the POV of Liz, I got to know him so much. He is a cutie pie like a typical high school boy and a next-door neighbour. The whole story revolves around Liz becoming close to Wes instead of Michaal and I loved that the author also pointed that out.

In the middle of the book I loved Liz, the kiss scene was just a chef kiss. I was not expecting it at all and the author wrote it so well and captured all the emotions of them. There is no romance romance because till the end Liz is figuring out her feelings. It was also kind of disappointing, but since it’s the book vibe, I did not mind that much. I loved the conversation of them while they were figuring out their feelings. I loved Helena, Liz’s stepmom and she gets most of the credit for making Liz aware of her feelings.

The relationship between Wes and Liz as friends was beautiful, Wes thoroughly understood her. However, since they get together in the end there is not much about their romantic relationship. But there is a sequel to this book called Nothing Like The Movies.

If you want to read something light-hearted, I will recommend this book.

Rating: 4/5

“I fell in love with teasing you in the second grade, when I first discovered that I could turn your cheeks pink with just a word. Then I feel in love with you.” – Wes confession

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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