Gone Girl- TLC Book Tour Review

What Gone Girl is about: 
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick Dunne’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick Dunne isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but hearing from Amy through flashbacks in her diary reveal the perky perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. 


After I finished this book, I wondered how in the world I could adequately review it and not spoil one darn thing for any of my friends. I like to be quirky and different sometimes in my reviews so below is a little peek of what was going through my mind as I was reading one of the stellar reads of the year for me!!!

• Are you kidding me? He (Nick) is such a jerk...egotistical freak!!
• Amy's parents are so twisted and yet, she seems so normal. I like her.
• It's what time??? 12:30 a.m.  ...okay, I have to turn my Kindle off and go to bed. But no one better want anything done tomorrow. Seriously, I have to get back to Nick and Amy!!
• Would the dogs quit looking at me? You can't possibly have to go potty! I just took you out at 6:00 am....looking at clock- 11:30 am. Well, I guess you guys can pee again, but be quick about it because I have a book to read!!
• Mom, what's for dinner???????? Who in the hell just asked me that question? They will suffer! How dare anyone request that I move from my seat outside. The last time I checked everyone had fingers and opposable thumbs. Open up the bread and make a pb&j for goodness sake!! 
• Honey??? Can you come here for a minute and help me? WHY????? Can't you lift the 200 pound plow by yourself??? Why in the HELL did you decide to do that right now. Can't you see that I'm reading!! I'm reading!!!!
• Oh, Gillian you tricky little writer you. I love how you mess with my mind! Damn, you are good! 

I loved this book! Absolutely, loved it! I was lucky and stumbled upon Gillian's first book a few years ago and thought it was amazing. She has another winner on her hands with Gone Girl. I fell for every trap she set up and wasn't sure who to believe or trust....and that's what I love about her stories!! I was immersed into the story and by the free flow of consciousness above, you can see that I didn't want to be bothered by anything.....nothing!! I raced through the story and then when I read the very last paragraph I screamed!!!!!!! But in what context? Well, read the book and get back to me! 

P.S. Dear Gillian- get your smart little tushy back to the computer and write me another story!!! Or else... insert evil smiley face here!!

Source: TLC Book Tour and publisher

Genre: Freakin' awesomeness Suspense and Creep Factor Fiction

Pages: 432

Published: June 5, 2012

About Gillian Flynn

GILLIAN FLYNN is the author of the New York Times bestseller Dark Places, which was a New Yorker Reviewers’ Favorite, Weekend TODAY Top Summer Read, Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2009, and Chicago Tribune Favorite Fiction choice; and the Dagger Award winner Sharp Objects, which was an Edgar nominee for Best First novel, a BookSense pick, and a Barnes & Noble Discover selection. Her work has been published in twenty-eight countries. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son.

Disclaimer:Thank you to TLC Book Tours for sending me a review copy. I was not compensated for my review. My thoughts on this book were in no way influenced by the author or publicist.They are my personal reflections based solely on MY experience while reading this novel.

Review Book #17
© 2011, Staci of Life in the Thumb. All Rights Reserved. If you reading this on a site other than, Life in the Thumb or Staci's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission. 

Happy Hour (Kindle Freebie)- Bookish Thoughts #31

What Happy Hour is about:
Every woman has that group of friends in her life ~ her "go to girls" The friends that she can turn to who "get it." The ones who are there for you no matter what. The ones who laugh with you and cry with you. The ones that will always be there. These are the women of Napa Valley.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I think I suffer from some misconception that the "free" books are not always the highest caliber of writing or story. I can honestly say that I've been proven wrong! The author wrote a very readable story with a great plot, depth, and characters that you could really identify with and root for during their tough moments in life. I was lucky to have been able to read and discuss this with a group of women who are just as varied as the four women in this novel. We all felt some type of connection to one or more of the characters and could easily empathize with their heartaches! The best part of this book was that the women came together every Sunday to eat, drink wine, and share. I really liked that type of bonding and friendship!!

Recommend? Absolutely! Especially to those that love books that are about women, friendship,  love, heartache, and realizing life-long dreams. And it's a steal for $2.99!!

Source: Free Book for my Kindle

Bookish Thoughts #31

© 2012, Staci of Life in the Thumb. All Rights Reserved. If you reading this on a site other than, Life in the Thumb or Staci's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

The Age of Miracles- TLC Book Tour Review

What this book is about:

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life—the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

I finished this book in one day because I fell into an easy rhythm of Julia's story and for the most part is was pretty simplistic. When I finished it, my reaction was just one of eh, that was okay but nothing remarkable really happened. I mean, yes, Earth's rotation slowed down, and gravity really put the big bad spell on everyone, but the author never conveyed the sense of any urgency that I felt the story called for .  And for me that was clearly something I needed in order to buy the whole scenario that was proposed.....URGENCY and CERTAIN DOOM!!

Recommend? If you're a fan of dystopian novels then I think you may just enjoy this one. I did really like Julia and I thought the story could have been stellar had the author ramped up the seriousness of the whole situation. Everyone just acted as if this happened every day, no biggie! I needed more intense repercussions from the slow down, maybe some violence..real and gritty. So, I'm on the fence with my recommendation. However, there are many bloggers on this tour, so please do yourself a favor and make sure you add some other reviews into the mix! 

Source: TLC Book Tours
Genre: Dystopian Fiction
Pages: 288
Published:  June 26, 2012

Disclaimer:Thank you to TLC Book Tours for sending me a review copy. I was not compensated for my review. My thoughts on this book were in no way influenced by the author or publicist.They are my personal reflections based solely on MY experience while reading this novel.

About Karen Thompson Walker

KAREN THOMPSON WALKER holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University and is an editor of fiction and non-fiction at Simon & Schuster. The Age of Miracles is her first book.

For more information about Karen and The Age of Miracles, please visit the book’s website, www.TheAgeofMiracles.com, and Facebook page.

Review Book #16
© 2011, Staci of Life in the Thumb. All Rights Reserved. If you reading this on a site other than, Life in the Thumb or Staci's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission. 

Mailbox Monday and It's Monday...What Are You Reading?

Mailbox Monday 

is a gathering place for readers to share the books that

came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. 

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Our June Host is Burton Book Review

All the Truth- review copy courtesy of Erin @ Penguin.

------------------------------------------------------

Hosted by

 Sheila @ One Person's Journey Through a World of Books

We discuss the books that we've read 

and what we're planning to read for the week.

Read and reviewed last week: 

Nothing- I reviewed nothing, however I did post about my feelings in regards to expectations from authors which I felt created some great conversation! Thanks to all who stopped by and left me feedback! 

Books I will be talking about this week:

Happy Hour- a freebie from Amazon Wednesday

The Age of Miracles- TLC tour stop on Tuesday

Gone Girl- TLC tour stop on Thursday

In my book box:

I finally finished my Fifty Shades trilogy and it left me wanting more but this time from Christian's POV!! 

• Sea Change
• All the Truth
• The Flight of Gemma Hardy

Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot

is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books.

It’s easy to participate – just post a picture

that was taken by you, a friend, or a family member and add your link on Alyce’s site.

This nest was built atop my Christmas wreath that I accidentally (not really, I love the lights but my husband makes fun of me) left on the front door! Imagine my surprise when I looked up one day to see a robin sitting on top of the wreath! I had to sneak up there to take a picture of the eggs when she left. I love the color of robin's eggs!!!!

Friday Fitness- Update #1 in 2012

Has two weeks went by already? I wish I had stunning news to share with you in regards to great weight loss, awesome recipes, and clothes fitting better. But I don't. What I can tell you is that being on the road is not conducive to losing weight!! My husband and I have been all over Michigan these past two weeks looking for our new camper. With that comes lots of time in the car and yes, you guessed it...eating out! I didn't weigh myself at home so I'm just going to say that I have stayed pretty much the same. I need to get my scales out ( my initial weight I posted 2 weeks ago was the scale at work) and post that on here later tonight. I'm just too lazy right now to get it out of the basement. Nice place for it though, don't you think???

New things I discovered:

• A very cool app that you can use on your phone, computer, iPad, ...whatever you want! This is called My Fitness Pal and I just started using it today. One of the things that I noticed right away was how easy it was to use! Makes adding your food not quite the hassle and there's no excuse not to do it! Added bonus- it's free!
• Losing weight with friends makes the journey a lot easier!! With this app, I have other friends who are using it and we can check in on each other to cheer on the weight loss or we can also stick a foot up someone's butt when they haven't logged in for a while!! I like that!! 
• I must not go over 1200 calories, 192 carbs, 46 g fat, 52 g protein, 28 g. sugar and 2500 g. sodium. I love how this app takes care of my totals and at a glance I can curb my eating immediately. I have already failed in the sugar department though. It was my Maple and Brown Sugar oatmeal that tripped me up! I'm removing that from my breakfast foods immediately!!

Progress:

• 173 pounds posted 6/1/12
• same weight but will post what I weigh on home scale

What? You didn't care for my honest review?

I was going to post a review today but an email (she received an email from an author that she was afraid to open because of a negative review she posted on HER blog)  I received from a fellow book blogger made my wheels start turning in my brain and I just felt the need to write about something that has been bothering me for a while......author's who don't like what you posted about their book!

I normally tend to stay far, far, away from controversial goings on in the bloggersphere. I don't like to judge other bloggers and wouldn't want them judging me. There are hundreds of book bloggers and we are so diverse that I feel there is room for everyone and every review style. Many are very in-depth and really like to dig into the meat of the books, while others are short, sweet, and to the point. But the one thing that we all have in common is that author's, agents, and/or publisher's contact us to review books. Most bloggers do NOT get paid for their reviews, but I do know that ALL of us invest a lot of time reading the books and then writing reviews for our blogs. What the author gets in return is an honest assessment from the most important person out there....THE READER! Most of us blog because of our love for the written word and to tell our friends about an amazing book that they MUST read. We also look out for each other, because our time is PRECIOUS (do you hear that?? it is PRECIOUS TOO!!) and with our honest reviews a fellow reader might avoid a real time sucker that doesn't pay off in the end.

I have only had one terrible experience with an author. She contacted me...I did NOT contact her. The book was sent, I read it and for the only time in my blogging career, I was late with the review. My dog, Bruce had just died and I could not do anything. Needless to say, she wasn't too pleased that the review didn't go up on time. So she sent me an email. I responded telling her what had happened but also informing her that my review would not be a recommendation. She then asked me NOT to post my review but to instead just highlight her book...WTF?????????????????????? At that point I didn't care, I just wanted her off my back, so I did what she asked of me. But when I responded to comments, I told all of my readers that her book read like a bad Lifetime Movie! A few days later I was looking at her reviews on Goodreads and a light bulb went on in my head. She had almost all 4 or 5 stars for every review. Hmmmmm.......now I'm not a rocket scientist but it didn't take me too long to add 2+2= unfair average review rating and misleading content to the Goodreads audience. That whole experience left a dirty taste in my mouth and with a BAD ATTITUDE towards certain review copies.

Here are my HARD LIMITS (ha! had to sneak some Fifty Shades of Grey references in here!!) on what I will or will NOT say on MY blog!

• No matter what...I will be honest! 
• If I pick your book up from the library or my personal book shelves and hate it, I will write what I please. Most of the time, even if I hate it, I'm pretty decent.....most of the time.
• If I'm sent a book for review and I don't like it, I will be nice about it.Do not expect anything more. 
• It's my blog, not yours.
• If you're not sure about me, then don't bother initiating contact. Trust me, I will survive.
• Don't even think about sending me a chastising email.....you might not like what I send back in return.

So in closing, the real purpose of this post is to put down in writing my philosophy about review requests and expectations. It may sound as if I have a bit of a grudge against authors. That is the furthest from the truth. I have issues with expectations from some authors, not all. There are many people that are NOT their true selves on the internet. That isn't the case with me. I am true to myself, my fellow book bloggers, publishers, and authors. I will never compromise my core beliefs and my integrity by posting a positive review of a book that I did not like.