Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella

 Surprise Me

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(5/5 stars)

Review:

A wonderful book, full of life and adventure!

A big surprise indeed! We live through the main viewpoint of Sylvie, sharing her struggles after finding out her and her husband Dan has over 68 years of marriage with each other. I thought this story was going to be a sloppy love story, something I’m not really interested in, but it was a rather fun surprise. The story shows the life of Sylvie and Dan, a happy married couple, nervous to live with each other for so long, so Sylvie thought about how they could make their love life unique whilst caring for her twin daughters, a bunch of surprises!

Sylvie comes from a “perfect” life with wealthy parents, well, one after her loving father tragically passed away, and a perfect partner, making everything entertaining, but deep down, the cracks are breaking. What is going on with Dan? Why is he leaving secrets everywhere, abandoning their love life for work, or more, it seems.

I love how the perfection gradually breaks, showing what happiness is for the couple and their lively twin girls. We discover that Sylvie’s life isn’t exactly perfect, struggling for acceptance. Something is going on in the background, especially with her husband. Dan was never fond of Sylvie’s dad, for unknown reasons, Sylvie starts suspecting something is going on when Dan and her mother start discussing secretly.

The entire book has distinct inclusions and details making the story feel realistic and full of life, with the parents or each character in between having a struggle to conquer, especially the main character: Sylvie. Although I struggle to enjoy romance books, this was an outlier with a fun and surprising story, I wouldn’t expect the author would take.

The Ghost House by Helen Phifer

 The Ghost House

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐(3/5 stars)

Review:

After moving near the woods for a break away from the tragedy, Annie Graham is the new caretaker to a wonderful, but ruined, mansion filled with many stories. An old diary owned by a Victorian girl, Alice, was found sharing the love and darkness of the house.

This book was interesting to read, especially the investigation of finding a missing girl. The police inspectors had fun chapters, bringing the office to life through small talk and showing how the place can quickly grow to chaos, showing how the police officers have to stay calm. It felt realistic to how I imagine the town’s police office would be with a tragedy unfolding.

The characters were great, and I enjoyed how Annie’s closest friends kept checking in on her. It wasn't until they couldn’t when disaster happened, although being a police inspector herself. I liked how courageous and adventurous Annie was in finding out what happened to Alice in the house full of mystery, tying into the kidnapping.

It was creative to use an old murder investigation in the story, but personally, I didn’t enjoy who it was based upon due to what happened to the victims. I found it intriguing, but it was difficult to read.

Overall, I enjoyed the story showing Annie recovering from past events and finding out about Alice, as well as the police investigations towards the missing girl, all stories tying into one in the end, making the book satisfying. However, certain plot points I would have wanted to adapt due to confusion of certain characters and the paranormal.