Innocence Denied by Mike Garrett

   

First, I want to start by saying that Innocence Denied by Mike Garrett was sent to me by BookCrash in exchange for a review. And, I want to always give my honest opinion on the books that I read. I also want to say that I was raised in a Christian home, and I try to live right as an adult. I have a love for Christian books. But, I will not be finishing this book. Don’t worry though, I will be explaining. There will be some slight spoilers, so if that isn’t your thing, I apologize. I have some photos, and some thoughts that I want to talk about. And, because I feel it is necessary, I’m including a trigger warning here, for stalking and creepy behavior. Because I was not expecting this, and I understand how the content could be upsetting. I'll put the pictures I took at the end of this review.
    In the first six chapters, I was in love with this book. It grabbed me, and held on tight. The murder happened quickly (I am a true crime junkie, so this kind of story was right up my alley). It made me feel like the books was going to be quick, and juicy. The chapters are short, which is great for a busy homeschooling mom. I can read a chapter quickly when I manage to grab a minute. But, at the start of chapter 6, things changed for me.
   The two main characters are named Larissa, and Derrick. I feel like I need to address that so I can specify who I am talking about.
    The first sentence of chapter six states that Larissa’s address had been easy to find online. It then went on to say that Derrick drove past her house several times. Derrick is the man who is supposed to be a Christian, and then judging by the description, help her save her soul. This set of a red flag for me. But, I kept reading because just driving past her house a few times, isn’t that big of a deal. Weird, yes. But, not wrong.
  Then came chapter seven. The first sentence of the last paragraph of that chapter says he “observed her for several nights.” He learned her routine. This is not ok, but again, I kept reading. I was interested in this book, and the premise of it was interesting to me. But, continuing on in chapter seven, something even more upsetting happened. Derrick tells the dog he has to stay in the car while he grabs a ski mask, a revolver, and a flashlight. Why is this man of God heading to a woman’s home armed with a gun, and a ski mask? It also says in this chapter that he guesses her height and weight to order clothes for her, and states more than once that his attraction to her has tainted his original intent.
   Chapter eight. “In the eyes of the law he was about to attempt an unconscionable crime, but holding the crucifix dangling from a chain around his neck, he knew that god supported his actions.” I don’t think I agree that God would be ok with him stalking a woman, and then sneaking up on her, and terrifying her. But, there’s more. He says that since he has nothing left to live for, what does it matter if he goes to jail. Which to me, shows that he is aware of what he is doing, and that it’s wrong.  Still in chapter eight, there was another quote that disturbed me, and is where I decided to stop reading. This quote is “She was obviously in good physical shape, but hopefully she would still be too exhausted frim her workout, unable to physically avoid him until he stated his intentions.”
   I skimmed a bit more after this, and decided that I no longer felt good about finishing this book. As a woman, who is afraid to go outside alone, or to keep a pattern in fear of someone using that against me, I am upset, and disgusted. As a woman, from a young age, I learned to be aware of surroundings at all times. I learned to hold my keys between my fingers, just in case I need a weapon. I learned from my dad to sharpen my pencils before leaving every class, just in case I needed to protect myself. I learned that I had to watch what I wore in public, and to check my car before getting in. I learned to try to get all of my errands done before the sun went down. All of this, for my own safety because a lot of men (no, not all of them, but that is not that point) think that they are entitled to me. That I owe them something. Even if they are asking me to smile more. They are not entitled to me, or my smiles, or my body. And this book, really disgusted me. I don’t care that Derrick had good intentions. What good are good intentions if you use them to be deplorable. There are too many examples of men doing horrible things because they felt entitled to something, or someone. Or because they were nice to a girl, but she wasn’t interested. Or a girl said no to them. I will not continue to read a book that lets a man stalk, and then confront a woman in a terrifying manner under the umbrella of good intentions. If his intentions were so pure, why didn’t he write a letter? It said in the book that Larissa’s address had been easy enough to find. So write her a letter, leave your contact information, and if she wants, she can contact you. But to go so far as to assume that she has to let you help her, so you stalk her, it’s just disgusting.
   I know some people will be bothered by this, so I feel the need to include. There is an animal death, and not because of natural causes, in chapter 30. So if that kind of thing upsets you, you can be prepared for it. I found that while skimming through the book, so I can't promise nothing like it comes up before then.
   I am sorry that I won’t be finishing this book, but I am not sorry for using this moment to take a stand for something I believe in. I can’t say that I recommend this book to anyone, but if you want to read it for yourself, you can grab a copy here.

(These images aren't in any particular order.)

Girl, Wash Your Face By Rachel Hollis

    I love a good self help book. That's what I thought this book was going to be. It had so many good reviews, I was excited to get my hands on it. I was sadly, disappointed.
  I had no idea who Rachel Hollis was before this book. But, I didn't care about that. Having read the book, I wouldn't care if I ever knew who she was. She is a christian blogger, which is not a big deal. I was raised in a christian home, and I thought that would help me enjoy this book more. It didn't.
  All this book managed to do, is bore me. The author is not as relatable as she wants to come off as. I know that not every one has a perfect life, but this author does a darn good job of making me feel bad about mine. I'm glad her business was successful, and that she found her one true love easily, and that she had 4 kids after a small bout of infertility, but so many women struggle much harder than that through most of these things. It makes her seem privileged and stuffy. So, while I think this book had some good, but kind of generic, motivating quotes, it was over all, kind of annoying. So, read it if you want. It wasn't the worst book ever, but just know, it will probably make you feel like you suck at everything, instead of like you can do anything.

Blood Bond Saga, Pt. 1 by Helen Hardt

    If you are a fan of Vampires, this is the book for you. Vampires have never been my favorite thing, but I really enjoyed the idea of them in this book.
  This book is told in a dual viewpoint. We meet Erin Hamilton, an ER nurse, as well as the Vampire himself, Dante Gabriel. When we meet Dante, we learn that he was held captive for many years. Helen Hardt does a wonderful job of making you want to keep reading. She does it in this book by keeping a lot of his captivity a secret, and only letting us get a small glimpse though flashbacks. SO you have to keep reading, you just keep going trying to piece it together, and the next thing you know, you're invested.
  I wasn't sure I was going to like this book, because I feel like Twilight ruined vampires. But now that I'm done with it, I will be picking up the second book as soon as possible.
  One thing I love about Helen Hardt's books, is that they're fairly short, so they are easy to get though, but also totally addicting.
  I don't really have to much to say about this one, without giving away all of the good stuff, but trust me. If you love vampires, an sexy stories, pick this one up.

A little About Me.

  Hi! I realized that I never made a post talking about myself. So, I decided to do that. If you care at all to get to know me, and I hope you do, then please continue to read. If not, I understand, and I still hope you have an amazing day.

   My name is not Noomi, but it's the name I have choosen for myself, and the one I would like to go by. So, hi. I am Noomi. I'm a 30 year old, mother to two boys. My oldest is 10, and my youngest is 7. I am a cat mom as well. We have 3. I'll probably make a post about the kids and the cats at some point.

  I started this blog because I have a new years resolution to read more. I loved reading as a teen. But, as I grew up, and got more responsibility I found myself have less and less time to sit down and do it. So, I set a goal to read just one book every month, this year (2019). I want to read more, but we are a homeschooling family, so I didn't want to set my goal too high. So one book it is. If I can get in more than one, great. If not, at least I hit that goal. I also decided I wanted to talk about the books I read. I don't socialize a lot, as I have a pretty heavy amount of anxiety, which gives me very few people to talk to. So, I figured I could just spill my guts about these books to the people on the internet. And I could return and read my thoughts at a later date if I wanted.

  As a teen, I loved V.C. Andrews. I would take a book of hers to school, and sit and read in the hall before school started, and then every chance I got in between getting my work done, and travelling to the next class. I was the weird kid, that actually enjoyed the required reading. My absolute favorite book was required reading in high school. That book was Feed, by MT Anderson. This is a book abut teens who take a trip to the moon, and then chaos, basically. It's good stuff. Now, this book gives me anxiety. I think that's because the technology in the book didn't seem possible at the time, and now it does. So it's a little scary.

   I do want to make posts that aren't just about books. That is why I changed the name of the blog to Thoughts With Noomi. I just want to share all of my thoughts. But here are some facts about me, and I hope you do stick around. 

1. I have trichotillomania. And I would love to talk with you about it. Or if you have, feel free to leave a comment, and I'd love to chat and share experiences. (Trichotillomania, is a body focused repetitive behavior that causes one to pull out their own hair, often without them even realizing they are doing it.)

2. I am a multicrafter. I knit, crochet, cross stitch, sew, and I'm learning to make jewelry.

3. I have a fear of the dentist, and actually have to get all of my wisdom teeth out in a month. I will be making a post about it, because I am scared and I want to talk about it when it's over.

4. I have driving anxiety, I do drive but only if I can't find someone to take me where I want to go.

5.  I LOVE Musicals. All of them. The cast recordings are all that I listen to for music.

6. My favorite food is probably ramen. Especially this one:

7. My favorite day of the week is Wednesday.

8. I have been married for 11 years (it will be 12, next month)

9. I am discovering who I truly am, and what I believe (I will be making some posts about this, so stay tuned)

10. If you want to make me happy with a gift, buy me a mug, or a blanket, or socks. And I am happy.

That's all for now. Thank you for reading. 

Little Lovely Things by Maureen Joyce Connoly

     

Lovely Little Things is the debut novel by author Maureen Joyce Connolly. What a debut this is. As a mother, the topic of this book hit really close to home. It is about a mother, whose children are taken from her. That made it a little hard to read at times, but I powered though that, and thoroughly enjoyed this book.

  We meet Claire and Glen. They are loving parents to their two beautiful daughters, Andrea and Lily. On the day of the of the kidnapping, Claire is trying to soldier through an allergic reaction to a vaccination she was required to take. That day, it was her responsibility to drop the girls off while she and Glen were at work. She was really struggling with not feeling well, and knew she needed to pull over. She pulled into a gas station, and ran into the bathroom, leaving the car running with her two girls inside. After all, it was hot, and she wanted them to have air conditioning. Unfortunately, she passes out, and the unthinkable happens. Her car, with her children inside are taken.

    Next we are introduced to two more people. Eamon and Moira. In my head, I pictured them to look like Xander and Zoe from The Bold and the Beautiful. I was really excited to meet them, initially because my Son is also named Eamon. But, once I learned more, I was glad my son actually goes by his middle name. We don’t see too much more of Eamon, but Moira hangs around for a much longer period of time. 

  Jay white. I was really confused when we met him. He seemed to come out of nowhere. And the fact that this story is told in many different characters points of view, I didn’t understand who he was. We do learn though by the end of his first chapter, and he becomes a very important part of the story. He is an indian man, and he has this intuition that proves very helpful. And he’s just a great guy. He has a troubled past, but he was probably my favorite character, and my favorite chapters to read.

    I won’t talk about the other people we meet because I don’t want to ruin the story. I will continue to talk about why I loved this book, and the little bits that I didn’t like. Overall, I really did enjoy this book. I understand why it was told in so many points of view, but it was really difficult to really get attached to any character because I felt like I didn’t get to know any of them enough. I did appreciate the flaws and struggles of all of the characters though. My favorite character was Jay. I just felt like he had the most personality, and he was just a sweetheart who got dealt a bad hand in life, but was doing his best to play the cards he had. My second favorite character was actually Moira. She managed to make me feel for her, and hate her. And that is something that, in my opinion, makes a good character. I do truly believe she thought she was doing good by taking the girls, since Eamon is a good liar. But, then I hated her because once Eamon was out of the picture, she could have done the right thing, and dropped the girls off somewhere they would be found. So I think initially she had good intentions, but the bad in her is what lead the way.

  There wasn’t enough of Glen to really have an opinion, but Claire, there is. I like her. She was a mother who was struggling and tried to be a good mom, even though she probably almost died. We spent a lot of time with her, feeling her emotions, and those were the hardest chapters for me to read.

  I was slightly disappointed at the ending. I had conflicting emotions. Both happy, and annoyed. I don’t want to give too much away, but I feel like I want to know what ended up happened to all of our characters. Since we spent so much time jumping around in the different heads of the characters, I wanted more of their thoughts in the aftermath. But I did enjoy this book, and will be telling everyone I know, to read this book.

I was given this book in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion of this book.