These are the top 5 books I read in January!
#5 – When We Were Bright and Beautiful by Jillian Medoff
This is a book about a court case, a family, and the secrets they hide. When Cassie Quinn gets a phone call her life changes she is forced to confrount her family and her past.
When her brother Billy gets arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend Diana, she rushes home and has to grapple with the truth. Billy and Diana’s relationship was tumultuous and Cassie doesn’t know who to believe. Does she stand with her family or does she turn her back to them as she did in the past?
It’s not a fun or particularly enjoyable read but rather grabs your attention and captivates you with its characters and mystery. Saying that the mystery can be somewhat predictable but I don’t think that takes away from the story. The characters are insufferable and never seem to make the right decisions. At the same time, however, they seem very human and real. It belongs to a group of books that I like to call “infuriating rich people think they can evade the law and do the dumbest of things” and fits that genre quite well.
#4 – The Blood Mirror (Bk. 4) by Brent Weeks
This is the fourth book in the Lightbringer series and it keeps getting better!
This series follows Gavin Guile, the most powerful man in the Chromeria. He is the prism and must fight against an uprising led by a self-proclaimed king that is against everything the Chromeria stands for.
The series also follows Gavin’s newly discovered son, Kip, as he rises through the ranks of the Chromeria and has to find his place in society while confronting the people preventing him from developing his true powers.
The magic system in this book is amazing. It utilizes the seven colours of the rainbow, where each colour represents a different trait. The prism has the power to wield all seven but at a steep cost. The more power you use the sooner you die.
#3 – Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
When a young woman finds the love of her life in Monte Carlo, Monaco she is ready to live the rest of her life with Maxim de Winter. She’s whisked away from her dull life attending to a rich lady and brought to Maxim’s isolated estate in Manderley. Maxim is rich, handsome, and a widower. His first wife, Rebecca, is dead yet the main character feels like she is living in her shadow. In every room, decoration, and party she is reminded that she is not Rebecca.
Rebecca is a gothic novel about a woman in love, a man with skeletons in his closet, and an estate in Manderley.
#2 – Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
Alone With You in the Ether is a love story. It is a story about passions, learning, and finding your place in the world. It is also a story about time travel, counterfeiting foreign currency, and bees.
Regan is manic, a compulsive liar, and makes every decision impulsively. Undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy, she imagines being anywhere except where she currently is.
Aldo feels like he is drowning in the world. It’s too much; the people, their thoughts, it is all too chaotic. He is also attempting to solve time travel.
Over the span of six conversations these two talk about life, bees, and how to find one’s calling.
#1 – Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
This is the story of the Sackler family and how they changed the world (for the worst). Their name was once the marque of many prestigious institutions around the world. Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, and the Louvre once proudly displayed the Sackler name and accepted millions in donations from them. They flaunted their wealth through donations of lavish proportion and were known as strong sponsors for the arts and sciences, a family that institutions could turn to for more money.
Underneath the art and prestige is the underbelly of the legal drug market. The Sackler family made their riches off of the marketing, selling, and creation of OxyCotin. The prescription drug was peddled to thousands around the world. It’s the deadly painkiller that led to the opioid crisis. This book follows the generations of the Sackler family and tells the story of what happens when you put profits over human suffering.
Rebecca's Thoughts 
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