Julie's Review: How To Save a Life

Author: Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
Series: None
Publication Date: July 14, 2020
Publisher: Lake Union
Pages: 301
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: MAJOR book hangover
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Dom is having a very bad day—one he literally can’t escape. When Dom bumps into Mia, his ex-fiancée whom he hasn’t seen in almost a decade, he believes they’ve been given a second chance and asks her out. When Mia dies tragically on their date, Dom makes a desperate wish: to be given the chance to save her life. And when he wakes the next morning to the shock that she’s alive, he thinks his wish may have been granted. But day after day, no matter what he changes about their time together, she still meets a terrible fate. Dom frantically searches for answers to save his beloved Mia and rekindle their former love. But the further he digs, the more obsessed he becomes, making him realize that slowing down time may be the only way to see things clearly. As he’s forced to confront the truth about himself and those he’s closest to, Dom vows that he’ll watch Mia die a thousand times if it means he can save her once.

Review: I really don't say this lightly but I have read all their books and this to date, is Liz and Lisa's best novel. From the first line it pulls you in and then the emotional roller coaster never stops. It really puts you in Dom's place as he tries to figure out this worm hole he has been placed in.

Dom runs into Mia in a coffee shop that he wasn't even supposed to be at that day and decides that this is his 2nd chance at love. She's always been the one that got away and no one has ever compared to her. He gets her to agree to go on a date with him but it ends in disaster when she dies in a freak accident. 

For the next few days he wakes up to repeat the same opening sequence only to try to figure out what he can change to keep Mia alive. Each day he tries and each time he fails. He learns something from each replay and you have to wonder if that’s not the life lesson in all of this. 

I loved Dom. He was a terrific character and while I liked Mia I felt that she was more of just a catalyst for him to learn to live.

I loved this book so much that it has taken me a bit to get into another book; so major book hangover. I highly recommend this book and I don't think you'll be disappointed. 


Google+

Julie's Review: The Two Lila Bennetts

Author: Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
Series: None
Publication Date: July 23, 2019
Publisher: Lake Union
Pages: 320
Obtained: Publisher/Authors
Genre:  Suspense
Rating: 4.5/5
Bottom Line: What lines have to be crossed to be a good person doing bad things?
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Lila Bennett’s bad choices have finally caught up with her. And one of those decisions has split her life in two. Literally. In one life, she’s taken hostage by someone who appears to be a stranger but knows too much. As she’s trapped in a concrete cell, her kidnapper forces her to face what she’s done or be killed. In an alternate life, she eludes her captor but is hunted by someone who is dismantling her happiness, exposing one secret at a time. Lila’s decorated career as a criminal defense attorney, her marriage, and her life are on the line. She must make a list of those she’s wronged—both in and out of the courtroom—to determine who is out to get her before it’s too late. But even if she can pinpoint her assailant, will she survive? And if she does, which parts of her life are worth saving, and which parts must die? Because one thing’s for certain—life as Lila Bennett knew it is over.

Review: Don’t we all have those decisions we wish we could undo? A path that would could have taken and wonder what could have been? Liz and Lisa explore this dichotomy in this novel but give it a twist with domestic suspense.

Lila Bennett has made some questionable choices and one of those choices gets her kidnapped and locked away. Unfortunately for Lila, there’s a huge list of people who might want to harm her. Her career as a high profile criminal defense attorney doesn’t help nor do the personal life choices she’s made. I mean she's not exactly the nicest person but does that make her unlikable? Don't some people who do bad things deserve a chance to redeem themselves?

My question is will Lila really change? Will she redeem herself in the end, even though she's already lost those closest to her? And should she change who she is? Maybe how she approaches things and coming at decisions differently but I don’t think she should change her drive and ambition. That shouldn’t be the message we send to women, although stepping on people will eventually lead to your downfall.

I liked the dual story-line and was excited to see which one would play out and if all her truths would come out. I didn't mind Lila and her suspect morals because I do feel like she felt remorse but didn't have the tools to deal with those emotions. In order to make some major changes she will need some therapy but I think she can do it.

I would have liked a bit of a stronger ending or an epilogue to see how Lila changed her life and how they have changed her life,

Julie's Review: Girls' Night Out

Author: Liz Fenton, Lisa Steinke
Series: None
Publication Date: July 24, 2018
Publisher: Lake Union
Pages: 338
Obtained: Authors
Genre:  Mystery, Suspense
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Friendship ain't easy
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: For estranged friends Ashley, Natalie, and Lauren, it’s time to heal the old wounds between them. Where better to repair those severed ties than on a girls’ getaway to the beautiful paradise of Tulum, Mexico? But even after they’re reunited, no one is being completely honest about the past or the secrets they’re hiding. When Ashley disappears on their girls’ night out, Natalie and Lauren have to try to piece together their hazy memories to figure out what could have happened to her, while also reconciling their feelings of guilt over their last moments together. Was Ashley with the man she’d met only days before? Did she pack up and leave? Was she kidnapped? Or worse—could Natalie or Lauren have snapped under the weight of her own lies? As the clock ticks, hour by hour, Natalie and Lauren’s search rushes headlong into growing suspicion and dread. Maybe their secrets run deeper and more dangerous than one of them is willing—or too afraid—to admit. ~amazon.com  

Review: We all have those friendships where one person seems to be the glue that holds all of you together right? Well it is the same with Ashley, Natalie and Lauren. Ash is the one that both brings them richer and in some ways separates them. After Ashley and Lauren have a fallout a year ago, Natalie lost contact with Lauren as well. In order to mend their friendships, Ashley invites both on a trip to Tulum saying it’ll help them heal. This is where is all goes haywire though.

Each woman has her share of secrets that they’ve been keeping from each other and in some ways themselves. When you admit something to another person it makes it real for you too; which none of them are truly ready to admit. Add in a handsome stranger who takes all of one of their attentions away and you have storm a brewing. What I loved about this book is that each friend was in the wrong in some way. None of them were better than the other. I also enjoyed how what occurred a year ago was revealed piece by piece by each of the friends. Female friendships are tricky and sometimes you have to evaluate whether or not you need to cut ties with a toxic one.

Ashley is completely self-absorbed and while I felt that at first she really did want to reconnect with Lauren and Natalie; as the time wore on I felt that she didn't. To defend her though, I don't think she knew how to approach the history. No one wants to dredge up the past when it doesn't put you in the best light.  She seems to want to move on to be a better mom but she's not willing to change her ways either.

Natalie perhaps had the biggest secret from her friends' but I didn't feel that she should have had to reveal it to Ashley to make her understand why she wanted out of their joint business. If Ashley wanted to keep it so badly, perhaps she needed to find away to buy Natalie out.  Natalie was trying to do what she could to save her family and her marriage and that included walking away from the business that she built from the ground up with Ashley. Also, doing business together was truly wreaking havoc on their friendship, which for Natalie was more important.

Lauren was the wild card for me. Yes she had issues with Ashley and perhaps Natalie to a degree but her life since letting them go a year ago has been a bit messy. Making up with Ashley was the least of her issues that she had to work out. I didn't feel that repairing her friendship with Ashley was her top priority, nor should it have been.

Sometimes in life you have to decide to let go of friendships. People come in and out of your life for reason and purpose. Some have expiration dates and some don't but we learn something from each of them about ourselves. 

Liz and Lisa have a knack for writing stories you want to read and women you want see yourself or people close to you in. Not only that but they aren't afraid of shying away from some subject matters that can't be easy to write. I have read each of their books and loved each of them for different reasons but Girls' Night Out is their best to date.


 Google+

Julie's Review: The Good Widow

Author: Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
Series: None
Publication Date: June 1, 2017
Publisher: Lake Union
Pages: 368
Obtained: via Great Thoughts
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Suspense
Rating: 4.75/5
Bottom Line: A great domestic suspense with a twists and turns
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Elementary school teacher Jacqueline “Jacks” Morales’s marriage was far from perfect, but even in its ups and downs it was predictable, familiar. Or at least she thought it was…until two police officers showed up at her door with devastating news. Her husband of eight years, the one who should have been on a business trip to Kansas, had suffered a fatal car accident in Hawaii. And he wasn’t alone. For Jacks, laying her husband to rest was hard. But it was even harder to think that his final moments belonged to another woman—one who had left behind her own grieving and bewildered fiancé. Nick, just as blindsided by the affair, wants answers. So he suggests that he and Jacks search for the truth together, retracing the doomed lovers’ last days in paradise. Now, following the twisting path of that fateful road, Jacks is learning that nothing is ever as it seems. Not her marriage. Not her husband. And most certainly not his death… ~amazon.com  

Review: Lightning strikes twice for Jacks when she learns that her husband was killed in a car accident in Hawaii and that he had another woman with him. This is how the beginning of The Good Widow kicks off and never really lets off the accelerator. Jacks is thrown into a deep, dark hole when she learns the fate of her husband, James. She has to wrestle with the fact that their last words before he left weren't of love but were of something else, because we aren't told for a while what transpired. She's determined to find out what happened and what went wrong but she's unsure how to make that happen. This is where, James' lover's fiance steps in, Nick.

Nick and Jacks journey to Hawaii to retrace the last steps of James and Dylan. They do everything they did and inquire about the deceased pair whenever they can. Like any journey, Jacks uncovers things she didn't know and maybe would have been better not knowing but it leads to other revelations.

Jacks wasn't a perfect wife but honestly, who is? No marriage is perfect and neither are the two parties in it. Did Jacks keep something important from her husband that might have changed the course of their relationship? Absolutely. I would like to think that if he had lived that they could have worked through both betrayals but not without a ton of therapy. Most importantly Jacks finds out that she is strong and can move on with her life.

I will admit that I saw a couple of the twists coming but I still wanted to see how Jacks would respond to these events. There was one that I didn't see coming but made total sense after the reveal. Liz and Lisa have done a fantastic job in their first suspense novel and I can't wait to see where their writing takes them next.

If you are looking for a book to kick off June with, look no further than The Good Widow.






  Google+

Julie's Review: The Year We Turned Forty

Author: Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
Series: None
Publication Date: April 26, 2016
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Pages: 336
Obtained: author(s)
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Poignant, Funny and Endearing
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary: If you could repeat one year of your life, what would you do differently? This heartwarming and hilarious novel from the authors of The Status of All Things and Your Perfect Life features three best friends who get the chance to return to the year they turned forty—the year that altered all of their lives, in ways big and small—and also get the opportunity to change their future. Jessie loves her son Lucas more than anything, but it tears her up inside that he was conceived in an affair that ended her marriage to a man she still loves, a man who just told her he's getting remarried. This time around, she’s determined to bury the secret of Lucas’ paternity, and to repair the fissures that sent her wandering the first time. Gabriela regrets that she wasted her most fertile years in hot pursuit of a publishing career. Yes, she’s one of the biggest authors in the world, but maybe what she really wanted to create was a family. With a chance to do it again, she’s focused on convincing her husband, Colin, to give her the baby she desires. Claire is the only one who has made peace with her past: her twenty-two year old daughter, Emily, is finally on track after the turmoil of adolescence, and she's recently gotten engaged, with the two carat diamond on her finger to prove it. But if she’s being honest, Claire still fantasizes about her own missed opportunities: a chance to bond with her mother before it was too late, and the possibility of preventing her daughter from years of anguish. Plus, there’s the man who got away—the man who may have been her one true love. But it doesn’t take long for all three women to learn that re-living a life and making different decisions only leads to new problems and consequences—and that the mistakes they made may, in fact, have been the best choices of all… ~amazon.com  

Review: The Year We Turned Forty is about having the opportunity to go back and fix the mistakes you made but do you fix the old ones only to create the new ones? Who's life ever fully goes as they "plan" it? If it does, then did they ever take risks? For Gabriela, Jessie and Claire life hasn't really been what they thought it would be in the 10 years since turning 40. As they approach 50, they wonder where their lives would be if they had done some thing(s) differently. They get the chance to go back to that year but there are some condition: one being at the end of the year they either all have to agree to stay on that path or come back to the point in time when they went back. That could be the real tricky part of this whole second chance.

What I loved about this book is that you can see yourself in each of these characters even if you don't necessarily identify with their problems. Each of the friends' gains something in the year they go back but I also think they lose something as well. This was most evident for me with Gabriela. She went from this kick-ass, take no prisoners, best selling author to a woman who was laser-focused on the one thing she thought she wanted, thought she was missing out on. She was sacrificing her health, mentally and physically, and her marriage. Before she went back, her and Colin had a solid marriage that was built on love and respect. Not so much this time around.

Jessie lost herself when she had an affair and lost her marriage. In the 10 years she's been divorced, she's never gotten over it, forgiven herself and moved on from her mistakes. This is her chance to undo all of that.  While I didn't agree with how she approached the situation by not being honest again. We all know the truth comes out eventually and she spent her year full of worry about when it would happen. I did like how in the end she did learn to fight for herself and her family. Perhaps that was what her year was about.

Now Claire, she thought her life going into 50 was pretty great. She has a man, she loves and is finally getting on good footing with her adult daughter, Emily. She has her regrets but I would say hers aren't as dire as perhaps her best friends. She would have liked a better relationship with her mom before she passed, been a bit tougher on Emily instead of giving in all the time and maybe she would have tried a bit harder with her former boyfriend. I liked Claire, a lot. She seemed to be the most leveled headed one of the group of girls. She knew what she had to do to repair her relationship with Emily and started doing it even though it was hard. She knew what 10 years in the future would look like if she didn't. She worked on her relationship with her mom, even if the ending was the same. She strove to make things different this time, although I think one of threw her for a loop, she ended up accepting it because she knew the alternative was selfish.

I have read Liz and Lisa's other two books and I enjoyed them immensely but there is something different about their writing and the soul of The Year We Turned Forty. It feels like they left it all out there for their readers. They created characters you cheered for, cried with and yes at times wanted to shake but that's friendship. While there is magic in the book, the words on the pages were magic. This book was just what I needed, even if I didn't know it.

If you haven't read these two authors you need to pick up their other two books: Your Perfect Life and The Status of All Things, you can come back and thank me later.

 Google+

Julie's Review: The Status of All Things

Author: Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
Series: None
Publication Date: June 2, 2015
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Pages: 304
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Magical Realism
Rating: 4.25/5
Bottom Line: Are we as happy as we post on Facebook? Probably not.
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary: What would you do if you could literally rewrite your fate—on Facebook? This heartwarming and hilarious new novel from the authors of Your Perfect Life follows a woman who discovers she can change her life through online status updates. Kate is a thirty-five-year-old woman who is obsessed with social media. So when her fiancé, Max, breaks things off at their rehearsal dinner—to be with Kate’s close friend and coworker, no less—she goes straight to Facebook to share it with the world. But something’s changed. Suddenly, Kate’s real life starts to mirror whatever she writes in her Facebook status. With all the power at her fingertips, and heartbroken and confused over why Max left her, Kate goes back in time to rewrite their history. Kate's two best friends, Jules and Liam, are the only ones who know the truth. In order to convince them she’s really time traveled, Kate offers to use her Facebook status to help improve their lives. But her attempts to help them don’t go exactly as planned, and every effort to get Max back seems to only backfire, causing Kate to wonder if it’s really possible to change her fate. In The Status of All Things, Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke combine the humor and heart of Sarah Pekkanen and Jennifer Weiner while exploring the pitfalls of posting your entire life on the Internet. They raise the questions: What if you could create your picture-perfect life? Would you be happy? Would you still be you? For anyone who’s ever attempted—or failed—to be their perfect self online, this is a story of wisdom and wit that will leave you with new appreciation for the true status of your life. ~amazon.com  

Review: The Status of All Things is something that many of us can relate to in some way. You might not be solely focused on making sure that selfie you just took is perfect enough to post to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc but we do make our lives all shiny on social media. If we don't, we always mask in in cryptic messages. What if we were all honest? What would it look like then? Would you lose friends? Probably. This is the quandary for Kate who just got dumped by her fiance at their rehearsal dinner. What do you think her first question or thought should be? Probably, why right? Nope for Kate it's how am I going to update my status. It literally comes out of her mouth to her now ex-fiance, Max.

This gives us a glimmer into Kate and what she's focused on. What Kate gets is the ability to re-write her statuses for the last 30 days before the rehearsal dinner dump by Max. As we all know if you change one thing about the past, it sets into motion changes that you can't even think of, with consequences. Where Kate things she's going to save her relationship with Max and is so focused on that, she doesn't for one second think that maybe they aren't supposed to be together. Kate is a bit self-centered and going back 30 days shows her that maybe things aren't so perfect in Jules' marriage and maybe Liam being in a relationship isn't good for their friendship.

As Kate starts to realize that things aren't always great when you go back to fix them, she figures out that maybe the place she needs to be is right where she was in the beginning. It's a long road for Kate and her friends but I do think that she learned something from her journey. Sometimes what we need most is staring us right in the face and learning to let go is the hardest thing we need to do. Liz and Lisa have a great social commentary on the use of social media and what it does to our relationships, our egos and our self-worth.

We all have that one friend or maybe friends whose lives look so perfect but are they really or are they self-editing? No one's life is perfect, we all have our own struggles and I think this book is a reflection of that. There are very humorous moments and very poignant ones. You identify with Kate and want to shake her sometimes with in sentences of the novel. She's got a great heart but she's slightly misguided.

If you ever find yourself getting caught up in the perfect lives of your friends on Facebook, et. all, then I highly recommend The Status of All Things . Even if you aren't caught up in social media, you will still take something away from this novel.



 Google+

Julie's Review: Your Perfect Life

Author: Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
Series: None
Publication Date: June 30, 2014
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Pages: 304
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  contemporary fiction, chick-lit
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Fun summertime (or anytime) read to share with your friends
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Two childhood best friends wake up the morning after their twentieth high school reunion to discover that they’ve switched bodies in this hilarious and heartwarming debut by two childhood best friends.With “a delicious, page-turning premise, and sweet and surprising insights” (New York Times bestselling author Jen Lancaster), Your Perfect Life perfectly illustrates that old adage: Sometimes, you have to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes to see what’s in her heart. Best friends since childhood, Casey and Rachel couldn’t lead more different lives. While workaholic Casey rubs elbows with celebrities daily as the host of Gossip TV and comes home nightly to an empty apartment, stay-at-home mom Rachel juggles an “oops” baby, two fiery teenagers, and a husband who barely seems the man she fell in love with two decades before. After an argument at their twentieth high school reunion, Casey and Rachel throw back shots to get the night back on track. Instead, they get a life-changing hangover. Waking up in each other’s bodies the next morning, they must figure out how to navigate their altered realities. Rachel is forced to face the broadcasting dreams she gave up when she got pregnant in college, and Casey finally steps out of the spotlight to face the real reason why she’s alone. And they soon discover that they don’t know themselves—or their best friend—nearly as well as they thought they did. ~powells.com

Review: Your Perfect Life is quintessential chick-lit and that's just fine. I thoroughly enjoyed the premise and even their reference to Freaky Friday within the novel. Gotta pay homage to those that have come before you. Each character has their flaws, which makes this an even better read because we all know no one is perfect.

Rachel and Casey have been BFFs since high school but their relationship has been a little rocky lately due to the pressures of their lives. Plus their lives couldn't be more different. Casey has a high powered job delivering the latest in celebrity news/gossip and Rachel is a frenzied mother of 3 who barely has time to shower let alone get a blow out done on her hair.

Things aren't always what they seem on the other side once each other is living the others life. What might seem glamorous is lonely and what might seem perfect is far from it. There is definitely some silliness in the novel but there are also some serious subject matters that are highlighted as well. While the authors don't dig deep into them, they don't skirt around them either.

I always say that things might look perfect from your point of view but that is rarely the case when the doors are shut. Plus as much as you might "want" someone else's life, someone else "wants" yours.


I enjoyed the fact that not only did switching bodies get them back on track in their lives but it got them back on track with their friendship. We all know life is busy but it's important to take the time to connect with the people we care about.

If you are looking for a fun read over the holiday day weekend, this is it. I also recommend passing it around to friends or purchasing it for them as a fun summer read.

Google+