Author: Michelle

Ages 18+

Maddy Banks is a perfectly normal 19-year-old girl who is enjoying her life as a NYU college student. Although, of course she’s stressed out, between having to balance her heavy course-load, her friends, and the recent breakup with her boyfriend. But that’s normal, right?

It all seems to be, until she feels unbelievably low. So low that she goes to the school clinic and is prescribed an anti-depressant. It makes her feel better. So much better in fact, that she feels incredible, a high she’s never felt before. This leads her to do some dangerous stuff that all culminates in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. As Maddy begins to navigate her “new normal,” author Genova takes readers on the highs and lows of the world of bipolar depression in a a very real, but gentle way.

I appreciated the honesty shown of how Maddy deals with life after her diagnosis, and related a lot to it as well, after having been dealing with with my own mental health issues since I was about Maddy’s age. Lisa Genova is in a lane of her own. Five well-deserved stars!

Thanks to Netgalley for a review copy of this book.

Ages 18+

Dr. Richmond Dougherty is a pediatric surgeon who has recently fallen down the stairs to his death…or was he pushed? His neighbors are accusing his second wife, Mrs. Addison Daugherty. She is young and a suddenly very widow, as their marriage only lasted a little over 3 months.

Wife number one is Kathryn, Richmond’s high school sweetheart, with whom he had two children. So, the question is: who done it’?

Giving off The Last Mrs. Parrish vibes, this novel was easy to go down and one I won’t soon forget!

Thanks to Netgalley for a review copy of this book.

Ages 18+

Classical music prodigy Curtis Wilson has it all figured out after making it out of inner city DC. He’s worked his way through Juilliard and is now performing a solo with the New York Philharmonic on his beloved cello.

However, his father, Zippy, and Zippy’s long time girlfriend Larissa, who has been a mother figure to Curtis since he was small, have other ideas. Zippy is a midlevel drug dealer and gets into it with the drug kingpin, leaving the whole family no choice but to enter witness protection and to upend their entire lives. Curtis is determined to get them out of this mess, but can he do it before it’s too late? I finished Slocumb’s 600 page novel in 3 days because it was so propulsive and I couldn’t put it down. I’ll read anything he writes!

Thanks to Netgalley for a review copy of this book.