Friday Focus: Weekend Reads

 

 It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by My Head is Full of Books, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.
  

Today I'm featuring Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library. 

 Book Beginning:  Happily Married

 

If all we need is love, why do we always want more?

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Page 56: We are not the same people we were when we met.

I think you're in my seat.

Those were the first words my husband ever said to me.

I wonder what will be the last.

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My thoughts:  The Green marriage is on the rocks and then the wife disappears without a trace. What happened to Abby and did she meet a tragic end? This is the premise of Alice Feeney's latest twisty, suspenseful tale that's hard to put down.

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From Goodreads: A gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . .and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible — a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.

 

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This Friday Focus: Weekend Reads post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com. It cannot be republished without attribution.

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring my current read,I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney.  The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version I borrowed from the library.

 

Beginning: One

London, 2017

I'm that girl you think you know, but you can't remember where from.

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Page 56:  The water is freezing and it makes me gasp for my breath, like when I fell out of the fishing boat once at home and the cold black sea tried to swallow me.

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My thoughts:  Alice Feeney's sophomore novel (her debut was Sometimes I Lie) is a gripping read about a troubled marriage.  When actress Aimee Sinclair's husband Ben goes missing, her life quickly unravels.  Told in chapters that alternate between her current situation and her childhood, Feeney keeps readers guessing as to whether Aimee is an unreliable narrator losing her grip on reality or a woman whose life is being cruelly destroyed by outside forces.  Filled with psychological twists aplenty, this story is a first-rate page-turner.

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From Goodreads:  l Know Who You Are is the brilliant tale of two stories. One is about Aimee Sinclair—well-known actress on the verge of being full-on famous. If you saw her, you’d think you knew her. One day towards the near-end of her shoot on her latest film, Aimee comes home from filming to find her husband’s cell phone and wallet on the dining room table. He never goes anywhere without them. But he’s nowhere to be found. She’s not too concerned—they had a huge fight the night before. They both said things they didn’t mean. He might have done things he didn’t mean, things she can’t forget. Even though she has a history of supposedly forgetting. After all, she’s a very good actress.

The next morning she goes for her morning run and then goes to her favorite coffee shop. But her card is denied. When she calls the bank they say her account has been emptied of $10,000. She immediately suspects her husband. But they say no, it was Aimee herself who closed out the account. And thus begins a bizarre rabbit hole into which Aimee finds herself falling where nothing is at it seems.

Alternating with Aimee’s story is that of a little girl who wandered away from home. We always tell our kids not to talk to strangers or bad things will happen. Well, bad things happen.

In I Know Who You Are, Alice Feeney proves that she is a master at brilliantly complicated plots and twists after twists. 

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This Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution. Sharing this original post on Twitter with appropriate recognition is appreciated.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . . 

                                                      

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.  

Today I'm featuring Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney.  I'm currently listening to the audio version, which I got when I visited the Macmillan booth last month in the Exhibit Hall at the Public Library Association Conference in Philadelphia.  The print book is published by Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan; the audio is produced by Macmillan Audio.

I'm sharing a tantalizing excerpt that is sure to grab your attention . . .

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:
1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.


What do you think?  Would you continue reading (or listening)?
How can a reader or listener resist those lines?  I'm finding it to be a thrilling listening experience, with the back story being revealed slowly in alternating chapters with the present day.  And the narrator's British accent is spot on for the storyline.

Have you read or listened to this title?  If so, I'm interested in knowing what you thought about it.


This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing of this original post on Google+ are appreciated.