Turkey Films 2023!

2023 brought a new grandchild to the Baggs family. To honor and celebrate this new baby (and babies everywhere), this Thanksgiving I am giving thanks for babies and baby movies. So, for this year's Turkey films, I am focusing on movies that feature babies in one way or another. The Turkey Film blogposts  date back over a decade to the first version in 2011 (check out the "rules" laid out in the first of these annual posts). So, in no particular order, turkey films 2023:

Happy and safe Thanksgiving to all.

• Raising Turkey 
• Turkey mama
• Three men  and a Turkey 
• Look who’s turkeying 
• She's having a Turkey 
• Nine turkeys 
• Turkeyed up
• Bridget Jones' Turkey 
• Rosemary's Turkey
• Boss Turkey

Happy and safe Thanksgiving to all.

Book Review: Nightwatching

Title: Nightwatching
Author: Tracy Sierra
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books 
Publication Date: February 6, 2024

Rating: 4 out of 5

What do you do when there is a snowstorm outside, a menacing intruder inside, and there is no help for you and your kids? This is the situation facing the heroine in Tracy Sierra's debut thriller. With the husband absent, the mother has to scoop up her two kids and hide in a tiny secret room behind a fireplace. Then she must decide whether to try to wait out the threat or leave her kids and run for help.

The premise has great potential. And the opening chapters are taut and terrifying, real edge-of-the-seat stuff. But the middle of the book slowed down and seemed mired in mundanity. It was only towards the end that it really came alive again. 

This is a good thriller, not a great one. More action in the middle would have realized its potential. Still, this is worth a read and a good beginning for a new author to watch.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Book Review: She's Not Sorry

 Title: She's Not Sorry

Author: Mary Kubica

Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing

Publication Date: April 2, 2024

Rating: 5 out of 5

This psychological thriller centers on an ICU nurse, Meghan Michaels, and a coma patient, Caitlyn. Caitlyn has jumped from a bridge and fallen 20 feet onto train tracks and arrives at the Chicago Hospital where Meghan works with barely a 50:50 chance of living. And Meghan becomes her nurse. Nothing special so far. Until we find out Caitlyn may have been pushed, and Meghan becomes emotionally involved with Caitlyn's care. In parallel with this, there is a man preying on woman which keeps Meghan and her teenage daughter worried.

There seems to be two or three stories going on at the same time, all related to these two central females. But who is the heroine and
who is the villain? It is only when the stories collide at the end of part 1, that a huge ball drops. With plot twists spiralling on plot twists, this is a really clever thriller that sucked me in and kept me reading. I was not sorry to have read this book!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Book Review: Twenty-Seven Minutes

Title: Twenty-Seven Minutes

Author: Ashley Tate

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: January 30, 2024

Rating: 3 out of 5

The premise of the book is great: a car crash on an isolated bridge, three high school students hurt, but the driver takes 27 minutes to call 911 for help. Why did Grant wait so long? As a result, his sister Phoebe died. And their small town is stuck in the aftermath of the tragedy, with lives disrupted and forever altered. 

The story takes place 10 years later. Chapters alternate between four points of view: Grant, the other passenger, Becca, and siblings June and Wyatt. Also interspersed are flashbacks to that tragic night , exposing the events of that night little by little.

I found the story to be too slow, and strangely I got lost in the characters, having a hard time keeping track of who was who. I kept having to rethink who Becca and June were, and what their relationship to Grant was. I don't know why. The pace did accelerate as the end approached, and the climax was a surprise. But I probably would have stopped reading far earlier if I had not committed to writing a review. The book did not live up to its premise and potential. 

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review.