Reading + Watching Lately

With all the recent travel I’ve done, I’ve had a lot of time to read books and watch movies. Shoutout to Delta’s in-flight entertainment for giving me literally hundreds of options. Shows, movies, audio…you name it, they have it. Anyway, I figured I would take the time to share my latest in a reading + watching lately round-up. Enjoy!

Let’s talk books first…

The Breakdown by B.A. Paris – I will be honest, it took me two chapters to get into this book and I had kind of been putting it off even though I LOVED Behind Closed Doors (same author). In a last ditch effort to keep myself from going insane on a flight out of Taiwan, I picked it up. I don’t know what happened, but 4 hours later I was done (and the plane still had not landed). HOLY WOW! Go get this book immediately and prepare for a total mind fuck. It is AWESOME. If you liked her previous book Behind Closed Doors, this one does not disappoint. It’s set in England so the writing style is initially a little hard to follow, but overall not bad at all. The plot is simple: Cass is driving home late one night and notices a car has broken down on a back road. She stops briefly to help, but leaves after giving it a second thought. The next day she wakes up to the news that the woman driving has been killed. She tries desperately to put the murder out of her mind, except that she keeps forgetting every little thing and can’t seem to remember details at all. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s a thriller that will keep you turning the pages. 5/5 stars.

Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale – This book came highly recommended to me from Kelsey who shares my obsession with twisted plots and thrillers. I read it cover to cover from Honolulu to Detroit and only wished I had the sequel sitting in my lap to dive into! Aimee has it all – the perfect job, fiancé and life. But all of that is turned upside down when her fiancé dies mysteriously in Mexico and is buried on the same day as their planned wedding. As Aimess tries to pick up the pieces, she uncovers things she didn’t know and digs deeper for truth. It’s a definite page-turner and what transpires it not something I would have ever guessed. I loved being kept on the edge of my seat! 5/5 stars.

Here And Gone by Haylen Beck – I received this book from Blogging for Books, so I didn’t know what to expect since I only really had the brief synopsis and not a friend recommendation. The synopsis given: “It begins with a woman fleeing through Arizona with her kids in tow, trying to escape an abusive marriage. When she’s pulled over by an unsettling local sheriff, things soon go awry and she is taken into custody. Only when she gets to the station, her kids are gone. And then the cops start saying they never saw any kids with her, that if they’re gone than she must have done something with them… ” I was drawn in immediately! I will say that this wasn’t quite the page turner I had hoped for, but it was a nice surprise read with an ending I didn’t quite expect. 4/5 stars.

Now let’s talk movies, shall we?

I am not usually a movie watcher, but I get sucked in when I’m on airplanes, because honestly – what the hell else am I going to do?!

So up first we have Unforgettable, which I think must have done really poorly in the theater, because I don’t even remember it there. That said, I love Katherine Heigl, so for me – it was a no-brainer. The basic synopsis is that a crazed ex-wife can’t handle her husband’s new girlfriend. It was more-or-less a Lifetime original portrayed on the big screen but honestly? I loved it. I didn’t have to really think a whole lot and it was purely entertainment, plus there were some twists and turns I didn’t expect AND it wasn’t too scary. I give it 4.5/5 stars.

Next, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Now listen, I’m not a huge Kardashian fan, but I didn’t want to lock myself into another movie and the 43 minute episodes make the time seem like it’s passing rather quickly, so I tuned in. Some of the episodes covered Kim’s assault in Paris, the family trip to Costa Rica and then Kourtney and Scott’s trouble relationship. For what it’s worth, they do a dang good job of keeping up appearances for their kids! Anyway, three episodes of that and I had to walk away. I just couldn’t handle it anymore, but if you were wondering, they are all still very successful.

The next movie I watched was Snatched. It’s about a mother and daughter who go on vacation to South America, except things go awry. I’ll be honest – I shut it off. I cannot stand Amy Schumer and I think in my delirious flying state I thought I might be able to tolerate her, but nope. I only watched the first 40 minutes, but I feel like for a comedy, I should have laughed by that point? Maybe? I didn’t. 1/5 stars (but maybe more if silly comedy is your thing?)

Anyway – we have a few more trips on the docket for this year and I would LOVE your reading suggestions! Send them my way, if you would 🙂 Also – tell me what to avoid…no sense in weighing down my bag with crap books, ya know? 😉