Honest book reviews and curated reading recommendations by Fareya.https://new.booktimistic.com/en-ushttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-toni-morrison-book-club/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-toni-morrison-book-club/Four friends use Toni Morrison's novels as a springboard for intimate essays on race, identity, and gender — a slim, brilliant group memoir.Mon, 29 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMTnon-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/if-i-had-your-face/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/if-i-had-your-face/Frances Cha's debut follows four young women in contemporary Seoul navigating brutal beauty standards, class, and the fragile friendships holding them up.Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMTcontemporary-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/pretty-things/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/pretty-things/Janelle Brown's slow-burn literary suspense: a grifter, an Instagram heiress, and a con man collide at a Lake Tahoe mansion full of secrets.Sun, 14 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMTsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/good-talk-a-memoir-in-conversations/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/good-talk-a-memoir-in-conversations/Mira Jacob's inventive graphic memoir uses conversations to explore race, identity, and raising a mixed-race son in an increasingly fraught America.Wed, 13 May 2020 00:00:00 GMTnon-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/what-you-wish-for/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/what-you-wish-for/Katherine Center's sunny Galveston novel follows a school librarian whose old crush returns as her rigid new boss — a warm story about choosing joy.Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMTcontemporary-fictionromancehttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/in-five-years/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/in-five-years/Rebecca Serle's quietly devastating novel about a Type-A New Yorker who glimpses one hour of her life five years ahead — fate, friendship, and grief.Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMTcontemporary-fictionromancehttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-summer-of-sunshine-and-margot/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-summer-of-sunshine-and-margot/Susan Mallery's breezy summer novel follows opposite twin sisters Sunshine and Margot through eccentric clients, single dads, and second chances at love.Fri, 05 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMTromancehttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/whisper-network/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/whisper-network/Chandler Baker's #MeToo-era workplace thriller follows four women lawyers who decide enough is enough when their predatory boss is poised to become CEO.Fri, 21 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMTsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-printed-letter-bookshop/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-printed-letter-bookshop/Katherine Reay's warm, bookish novel about three women — one reluctant heir, two devoted employees — drawn together by a struggling small-town bookshop.Mon, 20 May 2019 00:00:00 GMTcontemporary-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/before-she-was-found/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/before-she-was-found/Heather Gudenkauf's chilling, multi-format thriller about a twelve-year-old found stabbed by the train tracks — inspired by the Slender Man case.Mon, 06 May 2019 00:00:00 GMTsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/if-im-being-honest/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/if-im-being-honest/A modern YA retelling of The Taming of the Shrew about an unapologetically blunt queen bee who tries to 'tame' herself — and learns who she really is.Sun, 21 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMTyoung-adulthttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-things-we-cannot-say/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-things-we-cannot-say/Kelly Rimmer's dual-timeline WWII novel braids a teenage girl in Nazi-occupied Poland with a present-day mother chasing her grandmother's buried secret.Mon, 18 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThistorical-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-woman-in-the-lake/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-woman-in-the-lake/Nicola Cornick's dual-timeline novel ties a Georgian noblewoman, her conflicted maid, and a modern survivor together through one beautiful, cursed golden gown.Tue, 12 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThistorical-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/low-country-hero-safe-haven/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/low-country-hero-safe-haven/Lee Tobin McClain's warm small-town romance: a fugitive single mother and a former-military contractor find healing and love in coastal South Carolina.Thu, 07 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTromancehttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-hiding-place/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-hiding-place/C.J. Tudor's bleak, twisty thriller: a man returns to the haunted mining town he fled, where the horror that took his sister is happening again.Wed, 27 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/how-the-light-gets-in/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/how-the-light-gets-in/Jolina Petersheim's heartfelt novel about a widow grieving on a Wisconsin cranberry farm — and the impossible choice when her husband may not be dead.Fri, 22 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTcontemporary-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/golden-child/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/golden-child/Claire Adam's stark debut set in rural Trinidad: a father of twin boys faces an impossible choice when one son vanishes into the bush.Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTcontemporary-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-death-of-mrs-westaway/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-death-of-mrs-westaway/Ruth Ware's atmospheric gothic mystery: a broke tarot reader claims a stranger's inheritance and walks into a crumbling house full of buried secrets.Fri, 16 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMTsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/you-were-always-mine/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/you-were-always-mine/Nicole Baart's slow-burn domestic drama follows a separated Iowa mother whose adopted son sits at the center of a tragedy and a web of buried secrets.Mon, 05 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMTcontemporary-fictionsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-witch-willow-hall/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-witch-willow-hall/Hester Fox's atmospheric gothic debut sends the scandal-fleeing Montrose family to a haunted New England estate, where Lydia discovers her own power.Tue, 16 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMThistorical-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-hate-u-give/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-hate-u-give/Angie Thomas's landmark YA novel: sixteen-year-old Starr witnesses a police officer kill her unarmed friend and must decide whether to speak.Sat, 13 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMTyoung-adulthttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/subtle-art-not-giving-fck/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/subtle-art-not-giving-fck/Mark Manson's blunt anti-self-help bestseller argues a better life comes from choosing what to care about — not from relentless positivity.Fri, 28 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMTnon-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-phantom-tree/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-phantom-tree/Nicola Cornick's dual-timeline tale: a Tudor portrait of a vanished girl pulls a modern woman into a centuries-spanning mystery of love and loss.Thu, 20 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMThistorical-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/i-should-have-honor-a-memoir-of-hope-and-pride-in-pakistan/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/i-should-have-honor-a-memoir-of-hope-and-pride-in-pakistan/Khalida Brohi's memoir of how a young tribal woman from Pakistan turned grief over an honor killing into a global fight for women's rights.Sat, 15 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMTnon-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/when-the-lights-go-out/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/when-the-lights-go-out/Mary Kubica's slow-burn psychological suspense follows a grief-stricken, insomnia-wracked young woman who discovers she may not exist on paper at all.Mon, 10 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMTsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-bankers-wife/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-bankers-wife/Cristina Alger's brisk global thriller about offshore banking, a suspicious plane crash, and two women pulling at the same web of dirty money.Tue, 31 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMTsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-paris-wife/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-paris-wife/Paula McLain's luminous portrait of Hadley Richardson, Hemingway's first wife, and their unraveling marriage amid the glamour of Jazz Age Paris.Sat, 07 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMThistorical-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/a-place-for-us/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/a-place-for-us/Fatima Farheen Mirza's sweeping debut about an Indian-American Muslim family reckoning with faith, identity, and a son's estrangement across decades.Fri, 22 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTcontemporary-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/social-creature/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/social-creature/Tara Isabella Burton's dark debut: a broke striver and a dazzling rich girl spiral into a toxic, obsessive New York friendship that turns sinister.Fri, 08 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-kiss-quotient/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-kiss-quotient/Helen Hoang's swoony debut: an autistic econometrician hires a male escort to teach her about relationships — and logic turns into love.Mon, 04 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTromancehttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-fortune-teller/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-fortune-teller/Gwendolyn Womack's centuries-spanning mystery: a Manhattan appraiser finds an ancient manuscript — part memoir, part prophecy — tied to a lost tarot deck.Fri, 01 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMThistorical-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/sometimes-i-lie/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/sometimes-i-lie/Alice Feeney's twisty debut: Amber lies in a coma, hearing everything, unable to move, convinced her husband had something to do with it.Tue, 29 May 2018 00:00:00 GMTsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/me-before-you/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/me-before-you/Jojo Moyes's tender, devastating love story about Lou and Will — a romance that doubles as a clear-eyed argument about choice and dignity.Fri, 25 May 2018 00:00:00 GMTromancehttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/our-souls-at-night/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/our-souls-at-night/Kent Haruf's spare, tender final novel: two widowed neighbors in small-town Colorado decide to share their nights — and their loneliness — out loud.Mon, 21 May 2018 00:00:00 GMTcontemporary-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/dating-you-hating-you/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/dating-you-hating-you/Christina Lauren's sharp, funny enemies-to-lovers romance about two rival Hollywood agents forced to compete for the same job after their firms merge.Mon, 14 May 2018 00:00:00 GMTromancehttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-room-on-rue-amelie/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-room-on-rue-amelie/Kristin Harmel's WWII novel braids an American newlywed, a Jewish girl, and an RAF pilot in occupied Paris into a story of love, loss, and survival.Fri, 11 May 2018 00:00:00 GMThistorical-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/someday-someday-maybe/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/someday-someday-maybe/Lauren Graham's warm debut follows aspiring actress Franny Banks chasing a Broadway dream against a self-imposed deadline in 1990s New York.Mon, 30 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMTcontemporary-fictionhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-chalk-man/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-chalk-man/C.J. Tudor's hyped debut: a childhood game of coded chalk drawings led to a body in 1986 — and thirty years later the chalk men return.Fri, 27 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMTsuspense-thrillerhttps://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-hating-game/https://new.booktimistic.com/reviews/the-hating-game/Sally Thorne's enemies-to-lovers office romance about Lucy and Joshua — razor-sharp banter, off-the-charts slow burn, not one dull page.Mon, 23 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMTromance