A little snippet of my bookish thoughts.
Books reviewed in this post:
Pictures of You by Emma Grey and The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley
Pictures of You by Emma Grey – ★★★★
The blurb: They say you never forget your first love. But what if you do?
Evie Hudson should be grieving her dead husband, but since the car crash that claimed his life, she can’t remember him at all. The only person who can help her piece her past together is her high-school best friend, Drew Kennedy.
When snippets of her memory start falling into place, she wonders exactly how she ended up in a life that couldn’t be further from the one she dreamed of. This time around, she’s seeing all the things she missed . . . and the picture isn’t pretty.
My thoughts: Written by an Australian author and set in places I am very familiar with, Pictures of You comes with some trigger warnings – physical and psychological abuse, narcissism, toxic relationships – and an element of mystery.
Definitely not your average second chance romance, this novel is entirely bingeworthy. I wish I could go back and read it for the first time as a physical book. I think I would have preferred reading it in one sitting rather than over a week on audio during car trips to work.
The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley – ★★★★
The Blurb: Adela Woods is sixteen years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck.
The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.
Full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of these friends’ secrets and betrayals, The Girls Who Grew Big confirms Leila Mottley’s promise and offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.
My thoughts: This book was on my TBR long before it’s release but for some reason I kept putting it off. I think I knew it would be an intense read. Confronting and powerful, there are moments in this book that I will never forget. What these young girls, bringing new life into the world, endure; how they struggle, rage, support each other; what they will do to forge a future for themselves and their children – it’s all heartbreakingly raw and surprisingly tender. A compelling and unforgettable read.
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