Okay, so today we are going to be doing a review for two books. I kind of am gonna mash the reviews
together because i finished them close to the same time and this will work out. We're gonna
be reviewing Pretty Little Wife as well as this nonfiction that i can't say the name of without
it hurting my cpm. I'll have time stamps in the description in case you're only interested in
one of these books, but both of these reviews are going to be spoiler free so that you can decide
if it's a book that you want to pick up, or not. Starting with Pretty Little Wife probably just
because i have more to say about it because you know, it's fiction. Pretty Little Wife is a...
i don't know how it's categorized. Let's find out real fast. Okay, okay. So it's it's categorized
under a suspense, psychological thriller. I'm gonna re-categorize it just for the sake of
this review. I would call it a mix between a mystery and a domestic thriller. So we follow two
POV's. Our primary POVis the wife, Lila who found out some dirty secrets. Um... you know what? That
minimizes it more than i'm comfortable with, even if, even though i'm trying to be vague. She finds
out some things about her husband and decides the correct solution is to kill him. We know this from
the first chapter, we know this from the back description, so that's our main POV um and then
after she does kill him (which again is in the description of the book so it's not a spoiler
and it happens at the very beginning of the book) after she does kill him we also follow the
perspective of the detective who is heading up the investigation of this murder. Her name is Ginny.
So the reason i say that i... for the purposes of this review i'm re-categorizing it as domestic
thriller/ mystery which obviously i can't actually do that, but the reason i say that is because i
think that it sets the expectations just right. I didn't look anything up about this book when i
started reading it so i went in with no expectations, but it's definitely not paced like a
psychological thriller. A psychological thriller usually has um more intense writing and more
suspenseful, heart hammering, "oh my goodness what's going on here?" sort of stakes and
sort of pacing and this book didn't. It had much slower uh more chill pacing.
With domestic thrillers and mysteries in general it's more of like, "Let's hang out for a while
and slowly uncover some clues" and less of, "Oh my goodness i'm on the edge of my seat!" This is
not an "edge of my seat" kind of book. This is a slow unveiling kind of story, which i enjoy.
I have a good time with those types of books, so you know, i was happy with it. I actually really
enjoyed the combination because as you guys know i've been trying to read more mysteries lately and
i almost always either don't end up finishing them because i kind of lose interest, or i
finish them out and i don't have strong feelings about them. Following a detective solving a crime
is just a tough sell for me for whatever reason. It's not in my taste. I really like this balance
because i felt like i got that, but i got it in pieces with also another thing being the focus,
so it was a good balance for me personally. Also it really leans into some sick themes without
going over the top with them; without it being as intense as a lot of psychological thrillers
or mysteries can go (I don't know why i'm still holding this) with these sort of themes. Some
things that uh didn't work for me... i really didn't care for this author's writing. Again,
i'm becoming a prose snob. I kind of hate it about myself, but i also kind of love it because i
really appreciate good prose. This author had not just simple prose but just in general, not great
prose. If you're not a prose snob you won't care. If you are, it might not be the funnest writing
style to read. Also, just in general, when you're trying to write a more intense story i really
love it when prose match and um... i didn't feel like her prose really matched what she was trying
to accomplish, but again, i know that that's not something that a lot of people care about,
so all good If that's not something that you care about. The other thing that i kind of nitpick
complain about this book is uh there are certain things about it that were written kind of sloppily
in in... i'll just show you. So this is all within the first like two or three chapters of the book
and the chapters are very short. This is within like 20 pages of the book beginning so spoilers
for the first 20 pages, but not spoilers for any major points or even storylines of the book. You
can skip to the time stamp of my final thoughts on this book if you don't want this, but the book
kicks off with her husband's boss coming to her house and telling her that her husband didn't show
up for work. She's not concerned about it. She says, "Oh he's probably just not... he's probably
in a field somewhere." or something like he's a coach so, he's probably scouting out something.
She gave some excuse. Her boss was like, "No. He's never late for work. This never happens. He
prides himself about always being at work. There's something wrong here." So she agrees to go to the
school with him to try to help find out what's going on even though she knows what's going on.
A detective shows up at the school. So, this is about... he was about an hour late for work
when her husband's boss freaked out and and came to her house. He's a teacher at this school,
he's a coach at the school. By the time they actually got to the school, let's pretend two,
maybe three hours has passed. Probably not even that long. A detective is already on the scene
and that means that they would have known, "Oh. He's an hour late. This is strange.
Let's call the detective now." They would have called the detective after about an hour of
"he's late for work." This detective then said, "I was between, i was between um... cases
so i had some spare time so i decided to do a courtesy call and come on to the school and check
it out." which i just don't believe you. Like i just don't believe that a detective would be like,
"Ah. I'm in between cases. I got some spare time. Let me go see why a man is late for work."
Then later on in the book Ginny, the detective even says that detectives don't take on one case
at a time. They're always balancing more than one case. So were you between cases,
or do you have multiple cases you're working on? Which one is it? Then on like the next page,
this exchange happens where Ginny says, the detective says... "Several people seem concerned
about your husband and his whereabouts. We likely don't have anything to worry about.
Most people show up within a day or two and have an explanation." Most people show up within a day
or two and have an explanation. No worries at all. Literally, just two paragraphs down Lila says,
"Aren't you supposed to wait 48 hours before you start investigating?" to which Ginny replies,
"That's a bit of a Hollywood myth based on the idea that grown-ups sometimes wander,
but usually come back. We don't want to waste resources, but we don't want to lose precious time
either." So she just said: "We likely don't have anything to worry about. Most people show up
within a day or two with an explanation." and then says it's a Hollywood myth that people sometimes
wander, but they usually come back. Which one is it Ginny?? This happened throughout the book
a lot where these tiny little details even on the same page seemed contradictory and it's just like,
it just seemed a little bit sloppy to me that that they these characters would be talking in circles
and nobody noticed, nobody cared. It really just seemed like the author just like wasn't
catching these these inconsistencies. Oh, also, just like a page after that uh Ginny mentioned...
she's questioning uh Lila and she mentions um there were no car accidents in the area with her
husband's car model, no people in any surrounding hospitals under his description. So basically she
got called after he was late, he was one hour late for work. She decided to do a check for any car
crashes, do a check for all the hospitals in the area for his description, then come to the school.
All of this is just because, "Hey. I had some spare time because I was between cases." Like,
i just don't believe you're gonna put that kind of work in and then leave your office and then come
here and then question the wife all as a courtesy call and then speak really inconsistently. I'm
nitpicking because as far as i could tell there were no inconsistencies as far as the major plot.
Like as far as things that actually mattered it all seemed pretty solid and it was a fun ride,
but i'm nitpicking because it kind of irritated me that these little details were just kind of like,
all over the place. That's my really one big complaint with this book, but really in general,
i had a fun time reading it. The whole overarching story was a fun ride. I had a good time watching
the little layers get peeled back and the resolution to the whole thing was great. I have,
i usually have pretty mixed feelings about domestic thrillers, about mysteries, about
how it all resolved a lot of times. I feel like i don't love the way it lands and i felt really good
about the way this one landed, so i had a good time with it. I'm giving it four stars. I thought
it was a really good read. If you are nitpicky like me, you'll notice some inconsistencies.
If you can let them go you'll have a good time. I feel like i honed in on those nitpicks a lot
so i just reiterate... i really did enjoy reading this. I thought that it was a fun
ride and if you enjoy a more slow paced, more character-focused story, it was a good one. If
you like this genre it's a good book. Next book is the Subtle Art of Not Giving A Flying Who's It. So
i have had so much anxiety lately and um not been in the best headspace and in that, i have realized
as spotlight has shown on something that i need to fix, and that's the fact that i care way too much
what people think about me. I just want everybody to get along. I just want everybody to to live in
harmony and be happy with each other and generally when i find out that that's not happening
i don't like it. I want i want everybody to have to be resolved with each other and to at least
be okay with each other. Anytime i find out that somebody has a problem with me it bothers me and
i realized that that's not my that's not a great trait. So i decided to pick up this self-help book
that is basically about uh letting go and not caring so much about a lot of stuff actually.
So i'll say this, i buddy read this with G from Book Roast and while we both liked the core of the
of most of what he said in the book, um we had really different experiences with it because he
really leans into the humor of the title of this book and the way he presents things is very um...
i don't know, terse and crass and you know, it's the... he leans into it in a way that
you would expect a title like this to be. And for G she she kind of had this perspective of like,
he's he's a bro talking to bros and he's like trying so hard to be cool and for me
i kind of thought the humor was funny and i liked that he leaned into it so much. So i
guess it kind of depends on what tolerance level you have for this type of humor. He's a very blunt
and uh, i don't know terse way of talking um, but it didn't bother me too much and i really
liked the stuff that he had to say. With any non-fiction book, especially a self-help book,
i don't agree with everything that they say so i didn't agree with everything that he said
in this book, but i expect that and i'm fine with that uh, but i did take a lot out of it.
There was a lot of stuff that he said about just shifting the perspective in which you view things
that really helped me a lot. Certain things that i've been feeling more anxiety around,
the way that he suggested looking at it and not expecting so much out of certain things and maybe
broadening the way you see the world. This is spoiler free so i'm trying i'm trying to give you
like broad idea uh without actually just laying out all of the tips that he gave. But he did a
really good job of of helping broaden the scope of your perspective so that these things that
seem major, that seem big, that seem terrifying or anxiety inducing seem much more insignificant and
help you to be able to move forward in a healthy way. And man, it was really helpful. It's not just
in regards to relationships. It's about jobs and it's about the way you perceive yourself and you
know, he covered a lot of different topics and and some of it i already felt equipped in and it was
a good reminder and then some of it was stuff that really helped me to shift my perspective
and help me to appreciate stuff more, or just not really worry about certain things so much.
It was a really good book. I really enjoyed it. If it sounds like something that you would be
interested in, i do really recommend it. I don't agree with every piece of advice that he gave,
but he did give a lot of good advice in there. Okay, so those are two quick reviews for two
books that i read recently. I decided to push them together because both of these are genres
that i don't talk about as much on my channel, so i don't know how much interest there will be,
but i hope that you guys enjoyed this review. Be sure to chat with me more about both of
these books in the comments, if you plan to read them, if you have read them and want to
discuss them more. I post videos every Tuesday through Friday. I'll see you guys again soon.
Bye.