Sarah O'Connor

Book Review: Fight Like A Girl by Sheena Kamal

NotSarahConnorWrites

February 23, 2021

“Rule number one of being a woman from Trinidad: be hella fierce,” (Kamal 5).

Trisha hates her father who comes and goes as he pleases living his life between his family in Trinidad and his one with Trisha and her mom in Toronto’s east-end. Trisha wishes he would stay in Trinidad though because when her father comes back so do the bruises on her mother’s body. Violence is a normal part in Trisha’s life and she tries to break the cycle by doing Muay Thai kickboxing, an unlikely sport for a slight girl of Trinidadian descent, but it works for her and helps her work through her home life. That is until one night when her father wanders out drunk in front of the car Trisha is driving, her mother in the passenger seat. Now that her father is dead the violence is gone, her mother strangely at peace things should be better but Trisha isn’t sure. She doesn’t know what exactly happened that night and she’s afraid for what comes next, because her mother has a new boyfriend and it looks like things are about to repeat themselves. Continue reading

Book Review: Meet Cute – Some People are Destined to Meet – Anthology

NotSarahConnorWrites

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February 20, 2021

I don’t read a lot of romance novels. It’s not that I’m opposed to love, only that the tropes of it annoy me for how unrealistic it’s portrayed. But I still read this anthology that was centered on romance, first love, and the whole “meet cute” trope. I knew what I was going into with this book and I didn’t have my hope up too high, which was good because this anthology was very meh. There are some real stinkers in here, a lot of forgettable ones, and a few that actually are wonderful. Mostly though the stories are simple and predictable, which is what I expect from most romance books.

One of my biggest pet peeves about this book was the use of second person narration. It’s a difficult style to use and when done correctly can make for a great story which the three stories that used this narration style didn’t achieve.

What I did enjoy about this anthology was the diversity of it. In terms of race and sexual orientation Meet Cute does a wonderful job of showing the different couples and I feel like the romance genre isn’t as diverse as it should be, so if you’re looking for more diverse romance you’ll enjoy this anthology just for that.

Overall this book wasn’t for me but if you like romance and “meet cutes” you’ll probably like this. Below you’ll find a mini-review of each of the stories in this anthology, so take what you will from that. Also note that my ratings for the stories may have changed from when I first rated them on Goodreads: Continue reading

Book Review: Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

NotSarahConnorWrites

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February 16, 2021

“Whoever had written the note understood that by masking one’s peculiarities, one invokes authority. There is nothing as imposing as anonymity,” (Moshfegh 3).

One day while Vesta is walking her dog Charlie by the woods near her house she finds a slip of paper which reads, “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her body” but despite the note Vesta doesn’t see a body. Recently widowed and new to town Vesta doesn’t know many people and becomes shaken and obsessed with the note. She begins investigating who wrote the note, who Magda was, and who killed her. But does the note mean anything or is Vesta making it into more than it actually is?

Book Review: A Stranger in Town (Rockton #6) by Kelley Armstrong

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February 9, 2021

Thanks to Raincoast books for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

“The gun jerks, and I yank away, but she has my wrist in an iron grip…She’s staring at me, blue eyes impossibly wide. She hisses a harsh stream of foreign language, as if she’s uttering a curse,” (Armstrong 10).

Casey Duncan is back in the sixth book of the Rockton series. For the past few months things have been surprisingly calm, there have been fewer new residents coming in but Casey’s boyfriend Sheriff Eric Dalton says that’s normal for Rockton but Casey isn’t so sure. But bigger concerns come to Casey in the form of a foreign traveler, the only survivor of a hostile attack, and while Casey and the other residents try to get around the language barrier and find out what happened to the hiker tensions get high and the situation gets dangerous. Add in a visit from a mysterious council member which only further complicates things, but luckily Casey and Dalton are on the case, and they’re determined to find out what exactly is going on. Continue reading

Blog Tour: A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong – Interview

NotSarahConnorWrites

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February 6, 2021

Hello everyone! I’m so happy to have a very special guest on the blog today! The one and only Kelley Armstrong answers some question on her blog tour for the newest book in the Rockton series A Stranger in Town, which comes out next week on February 9th.

AStrangerinTown “In #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s next Rockton book, A Stranger in Town, the biggest mystery is the fate of the town itself.

Well would you look at that, it’s another post! Not regular yet but it’s here and that must count for something, right?

So let’s give some updates, shall we? I finished NaNoWriMo WAY ahead with 68,853 words which I’m super proud of and just goes to show that the Stephen King “write ten pages a day” method really does pay off. I’ve been putting off this story for quite sometime and though it’s still in incredibly rough shape I’m happy to have gotten some version of the story out of me. Now it’s just sitting in my inbox waiting for me to return to it, which I’m planning to do in January.

Back on the Stephen King method, I’ve kind of stopped doing that for this month, at least temporarily. I always put a lot of pressure on myself during NaNoWriMo and don’t want to force myself into a burnout, so even though I’ve started a new project I’ve given myself permission to take it slow. On the one hand this is great but on the other it makes me feel panicky, like I’m not doing enough. Oh the life of a Capricorn!

Another new project I’m working on is a short story advent calendar on my Instagram where I post a part of the story everyday from December 1st – December 24th. You can start checking it out here but I think I’ll make a list here for when you can click to a particular day to read it easier, in theory anyways.

Anyways that’s all I have to say, hopefully I have more updates soon!