By Tessa Pulyer Posted on

What Are You Reading This Week – October 20, 2021? #WWWWednesday #CurrentlyReading

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words.

You Can Go Your Own Way (I dare you not to hear the song of the same title in your head) isn’t a normal one I’d pick, but I read another book (last year, I think) by Eric Smith and enjoyed it. So, I agreed to the blog tour. I’m hoping I will enjoy this one. I will start it later today.

  • Genre: YA Contemporary
  • Pages: 336 pgs.
  • Publisher: Inkyard Press (Harlequin Trade)
  • Publication Date: November 2, 2021
No one ever said love would be easy…but did they mention it would be freezing? Adam Stillwater is in over his head. At least, that’s what his best friend would say. And his mom. And the guy who runs the hardware store down the street. But this pinball arcade is the only piece of his dad that Adam has left, and he’s determined to protect it from Philadelphia’s newest tech mogul, who wants to turn it into another one of his cold, lifeless gaming cafés. Whitney Mitchell doesn’t know how she got here. Her parents split up. She lost all her friends. Her boyfriend dumped her. And now she’s spending her senior year running social media for her dad’s chain of super successful gaming cafés—which mostly consists of trading insults with that decrepit old pinball arcade across town. But when a huge snowstorm hits, Adam and Whitney suddenly find themselves trapped inside the arcade. Cut off from their families, their worlds, and their responsibilities, the tension between them seems to melt away, leaving something else in its place. But what happens when the storm stops?

Fan Club is a different kind of psychological thriller. It’s a challenging read, but that’s because it’s very smartly constructed. I will have to digest it for a few days before I decide how I feel about it.

  • Genre: Psychological Thriller
  • Pages: 320 pgs
  • Publisher: MIRA (Harlequin Trade)
  • Publication Date: October 26, 2022
In this raucous psychological thriller, a millennial office worker finds relief from her crippling ennui in the embrace of a cliquey fan club, until she discovers the group of women is bound together by something darker than devotion. Day after day our narrator, a gloomy millennial, searches for meaning beyond her vacuous job at a women’s lifestyle website—entering text into a computer system while she watches their beauty editor unwrap box after box of perfectly packaged bits of happiness. Then, one night at a dive bar, she hears a message in the newest single by child-actor-turned-international-pop-star Adriana Argento, and she is struck. Soon she loses herself to the online fandom, a community whose members feverishly track Adriana’s every move. When a colleague notices the extent of her obsession, she’s invited to join an enigmatic group of adult Adriana superfans who call themselves the Ivies and worship her music in witchy, candlelit listening parties. As the narrator becomes more entrenched in the group, she gets closer to uncovering the sinister secrets that bind them together—while simultaneously losing her grip on reality. With caustic wit and hypnotic writing, this unsparingly critical thrill ride through millennial life examines all that is wrong in our celebrity-obsessed internet age, and how easy it is to lose yourself in it.

I’m reading The Book of Uriel – a historical fantasy – for a The Write Reads blog tour. It’s an indie-published book that I think sounds interesting. I’m pretty sure I’ve never read anything even remotely similar.

  • Genre: Historical Fantasy
  • Pages: 373 pgs
  • Publisher: Indie
  • Publication Date: January 26, 2021
In the fires of World War II, a child must save his people from darkness… Ten-year-old Uriel has always been an outcast. Born mute in a Jewish village known for its choir, he escapes into old stories of his people, stories of angels and monsters. But when the fires of the Holocaust consume his village, he learns that the stories he writes in his golden notebook are terrifyingly real. In the aftermath of the attack, Uriel is taken in by Uwe, a kind-hearted linguist forced to work for the commander of the local Nazi Police, the affably brutal Major Brandt. Uwe wants to keep Uriel safe, but Uriel can’t stay hidden. The angels of his tales have come to him with a dire message: Michael, guardian angel of the Jewish people, is missing. Without their angel, the Jewish people are doomed, and Michael’s angelic brethren cannot search for him in the lands corrupted by Nazi evil. With the lives of millions at stake, Uriel must find Michael and free him from the clutches of the Angel of Death…even if that means putting Uwe in mortal danger. The Book of Uriel is a heartbreaking blend of historical fiction and Jewish folklore that will enthrall fans of The Book Thief and The World That We Knew.

15 Replies to “What Are You Reading This Week – October 20, 2021? #WWWWednesday #CurrentlyReading”

  1. Mae Clair says:

    That’s a highly diversified group of books, Tessa. I normally go for the psychological thrillers, but I’m not sure Fan Club is for me. I’ll be looking forward to your review on that one.
    Right now I’m reading The Weekend Escape, a murder mystery about a group of women on a climbing trip that takes a dark turn.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      I’m not sure it was for me either, unfortunately. The writer constructed it in a very literary-smart way, but it is such a challenge to read unless you are a millennial and totally get it. And, I’m definitely not a millennial 🤣
      The Weekend Escape sounds like a wonderful read. Hope you enjoy it!

      Liked by 1 person

  3. WendyW says:

    I’m looking forward to seeing what you think of The Book of Uriel, it sounds very different.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      I think I will. I got about a chapter in this evening but Eric Smith is an awesome writer who writes very relatable characters.

      Like

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      I think I forgot to sign up for the blog tour since I didn’t get an asset folder yet, but I was not too fond of the book. So, that might be for the best. It’s written well, but you are in the mind of an every-millennial character who is never named or described beyond that she is a female. If you can connect to her and understand her world – which almost requires that you be a millennial yourself – it is a very immersive and thrilling journey. But, if you can’t, it isn’t easy to take this journey with her. I just kept thinking as I read, “please let me off of this bus.” I didn’t connect with any of it, and it felt very claustrophobic to me. I’ll put a little review on NetGalley and Goodreads, but I won’t post anything else about it unless I do end up with an asset folder. It wasn’t for me though, it is creatively written and done well for what the author was trying to do. I could see it, but I couldn’t enjoy it.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Teri Polen says:

    You Can Go Your Own Way is up next for me. I’ve enjoyed all Smith’s books, so I don’t expect anything different from this one.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      That’s how I feel. He writes such relatable characters. I’ve only gotten about a chapter in but I like it so far ❤️

      Liked by 1 person

  7. writerravenclaw says:

    A great selection as normal, I’m reading the Death of Fiona Griffith. It is about a woman who is undercover. In first person you really get to know the main character, and what it is like to go undercover as someone else. I’m going to put the full review on my site when I’ve finished, but I’m really enjoying it.

    Liked by 1 person

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