Paranoid by Lisa Jackson



"How can a foolish teenaged game turn deadly?"  Can your brain download information in a different way to make it less frightening?  Can you survive when others have perished?  How do you maintain who you are and be a whole person when tragedy encompasses you?  How can one live "Paranoid"?
Maybe it is because the 19th anniversary of my own brothers murder is coming up way in November.  Or maybe the characters in this book, all of their emotions, all of their inner thoughts, and some of their actions I MAY have found myself doing and thinking at points in the past 19 years.  Maybe it is plain old Great Writing from Lisa Jackson that made this book soooo amazing! 
​ I did not have as much time as usual to read this book and it was on an e-reader instead of a book (something about an actual book though am I right?) but in I loved this book.  In fact I could not put #readParanoid down!  When I thought I knew, I knew NOTHING!  When I was on it, I was 2 steps behind.  The way that Lisa Jackson created these characters that we understood was captivating and I found myself finding every spare minute reading this book.  So rarely do we see books anymore where the characters are built in so beautifully where we are with them on the ride and feel as if we are literally their "Ride or Die"  
A small town in Oregon that has suffered from years of vacant, abandoned property was rocked 20 years ago with the murder of a teenaged boy with his half sister as the main suspect.  With the 20th reunion coming up, characters are going to have to come together to make their legacy different than their tragic past.  Things quickly start to go bad when those former teenagers start getting murdered, and harrassed by an unknown source.  People who have tried to let the past go have been forced to face it and try to find out the truth of what happened 20 years ago and now.  Can they figure it out before more incidents happen?  Can they push away their past tragedies to deal with the present?  Take the thrill ride and go find out!  #readParanoid #shespeaks #kensingtonbooks

The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves

This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks
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​ “Love doesn’t come with an instruction manual.” I also have added life into that statement as well. Right on the back inside cover “The Girl He Used To Know” reveals a hint of the journey you are about to go on. As young people growing up and discovering the world we grapple with everything from body issues, personality, morals, what to do, when to do it and on and on. Tracey Garvis Graves, a New York Times best Selling Author, takes us into the world of 2 people placed at the right time and place not once but twice in their lives where changes between the times is inevitable. Annika and Jonathan flip back and forth between their college years and the University of Illinois in Champaign and 10 years later in Chicago. Told in the perspective of both people, we are taken on a journey of love and life that weaves such an amazing, yet believable, story of 2 VERY different people. They complement each other. They are the Yin and Yang of people. The couple that completes each other (jerry McGuire anyone?) They get each other and have a love not seen enough.

Life is complicated. People are complicated. There is not one thing that makes a person. In “The Girl He Used To Know” we learn of so many aspects of each character. Mind, body and soul. What makes each tick. What each person’s quirks are. And how they cope with life and world. “The Girl He Used To Know” is different. She has evolved and changed and faced so many of the things that have plagued her for her whole life. She grew up and in the face of crisis learned how to use her weaknesses to her advantage.

It is so hard to not ramble off right now the entire story, this book was that good. It is not often I am able to take time to read and enjoy a book without getting distracted, or doing other menial tasks, you know like playing solitaire and words with friends duh?!! I compromised my daily challenges because I was engrossed. I really love a book that shares a backstory and a current story, and would love to even see these characters pick up after another 10 years. Come on Tracey Garvis Graves I am already craving more of the lives of Annika and Jonathan!

Thank you to SheSpeaks, St. Martins Press, and of course, Tracey Garvis Graves for giving me the opportunity to be an #influencer for #readthegirl #ad Though I received the book early the opinions in this review are all my own. I hope you will take a look at this book when it is “officially” dropped on April 2, 2019. Check out more on the book at: http://bit.ly/TheGirlHeUsedToKnowMWW
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Enjoy Friends! I sure did!


The World Inside Me - Chicago Children's Theatre 
​Recently I was able to attend a showing of the World inside me.  My full review is at Twiniversity, but I wanted to highlight that this weekend in Chicago is an accessibility Weekend.  As my last blog post was about Accessibility I wanted to highlight this!  A great opportunity for your 2 - 5 year old budding theatre patrons!  Enjoy! 
Access Weekend
Access Weekend for The World Inside Me will be Saturday and Sunday, February 23 and 24. Performances times are Saturday and Sunday at 9:30a.
ASL interpretation will be available for the Saturday, February 23 at 9:30a.
Open Captioning will be will be available for the Saturday, February 23 at 9:30a.
On Sunday, February 24, we will offer a sensory-friendly performance at 9:30a.
A quiet room and family restroom will be available.
For more information about access and inclusion at CCT, please visit our Accessibility page, or contact the Access department at access@chicagochildrenstheatre.org.

The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain Review

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Thank you SheSpeaks and St. Martins Press for the opportunity, once again, to read and review this book before it came out.  The way I have been describing it to others is the Outlander meets the Time Travelers Wife meets wow and even better!  This book is absolutely not the same as the books I mentioned but the premises are similar with a Diane Chamberlain twist.  We feel the bond and connection and love of a woman and her unborn and then born child.  There are family dynamics that we all understand but I have never seen so greatly described and felt on paper.  We are walking through the worlds of Carly and Hunter in so many different times and places.  Places that many of us can remember.  Times that many of us can still feel the wrath of and the joy of and the pain.  Some of us have only learned about these times in school and many of us these are lived experiences.  I guess I can almost put in here that it meets up with a little Forrest Gump in the way that history is brought to life and seen throughout this wonderful book.  
All and All I could not put it down.  I did not want to.  I had to find out what happened and what was going to happen to Carly and her Dream Daughter.  Was it all real?  Was it all imagined?  Can we go on this ride and come out better people or regret our movements and our actions?  Find out by reading this wonderful book! #readthedream #thedreamdaughter #dianechamberlain #shespeaksup #stmartinspress 
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How to Walk Away by Katherine Center Review
Thank you SheSpeaks and St. Martins Press for the amazing opportunity to review this book before it came out.  Admittedely I went into this book and reading the intro and thank you's from the author I thought this may be a work of fiction or even a self help book.  I pondered what did I get myself in to and then was pleasantly surprised by the outcome!  I was hooked in the first few pages and needed to read more.  I yearned for more about the Narrator, Margaret's next move.  With an up and down plot line of catastrophe and change.  We have a strong women who didnt even know her strength.  It may sound like a lot of stories these days but this is truly a work of art.  I enjoyed it so very much.  I was able to find time or make time after putting my twin toddlers down and then HAD to read when we were getting ready for dinner.  This book could be a self help book of a women finding her voice and her passion in the face of despair.
Being Ms. WaitWhat and writing this blog, How to Walk away was a book that I took very personally.  Margaret had to ask herself many times over the course of the book that I base my life on, wait, what, excuse me.  My life is going to be different?  My life is going to be harder?  How am I going to survive and thrive in the face of everything falling apart?  Katherine Center really got it.  And she did not need the validation of others at the end.  She needed the validation of herself and her ability to admit that it IS hard and it is going to be hard.  But I can survive.  
Also and something I relish in, there was a finality of How to Walk Away.  Ms. Center gave us the ending we wanted.  We were invested and needed to know.  Loved it!
Check out links and how to buy the book HERE

I feel Pretty Review

Last week thanks to Bump Club and Beyond I was able to see a prescreening of Amy Schumer’s new movie out this Friday April 20. I find it was a predictable movie but a fun and empowering movie. Women need to be able to show all of themselves inside and out. With a supporting cast of Michelle Williams and Busy Phillips I enjoyed every minute. Obviously there are some Schumer antics and times you wonder why this is a full length feature film, but the message kept me going. Thank you Bump Club and Beyond for the opportunity!! #ifeelprettymovie #bcbvip#bcbbrandambassador #amyschumer 
https://youtu.be/cVx9EFK3DWE