Let’s Be Real: Should You Only Wash Your Hair Once a Week?

After doing a little research (I googled it), I’ve found some pretty conflicting info about how much you should be washing your hair. Apparently, how much you wash your hair depends on your hair type. If your hair is dry, no more than twice a week. If it’s oily, everyday is fine. If your hair is thick, once a week. If you’re a brunette, no more than twice a week. But what if you have oily, thick, brown hair? Good luck.

The censuses seems to be, less is more. The less you wash, the less you have to style it and the less chance for damage. My hair is naturally very oily or “greasy”, as I fondly, (not fondly), refer to it. Before the beautiful invention of dry shampoo, I used to just put on a headband and wash my hair every other day. Needless to say, I was first-world suffering. Since adding dry shampoo into my life, I’ve been able to wash my hair less and less. I try to go at least 3-ish days and day three was a bun day for sure. Recently, a combo of laziness and honestly just seeing how long I can go, I’ve been going longer and longer between washes. I’ve been doing a wash on Monday and then another towards the end of the week so I can appear to be fresh on the weekends. This past week, I went an entire 7 days without washing it. Here’s my true hollywood story:

Headbands are back and my dirty hair is thriving in the Blair Waldorf of it all. I recently got a bunch of really cute puffy velvet headbands and have been utilizing them to the max. Do they hurt? I’m not gonna lie to you, they give me headaches. So do a lot of other things: people who don’t text back fast enough, when its randomly 40 degrees and you wanted to wear shorts and a light jacket, when the subway doors don’t open for a long pause so you just stand there brimming with anticipation, someone taking a call on speaker in a public place etc. This headache is self-inflicted and I will endure pain for beauty!!

Dry. Sham. Poo. Obviously if this did not exist, I could not not wash my hair. It would drive me nuts. I will say after like day 3, you don’t need as much because it doesn’t, like, evaporate. It sticks around. My favorite is Dove, but it’s all about preference. Gives me the most volume and smells good.

Have good shampoo for when you do actually use it. I’m gonna level with you, my shampoo right now is crappy. It was cheap and I really needed some so I took what I could get. I have a very itchy scalp and dandruff issues, (TMI?) so I really need to switch. Thinking heavily about Function of Beauty again, but tbd.

On that note, probably also get a clarifying shampoo. What the heck is clarifying shampoo, Katie? Well I’ll tell you, dear reader. I discovered it the last time I went to get my hair cut (10 billion years ago) and I told my stylist that my hair looked so gross even though I had washed it that day. Apparently, jus regular ole shampoo doesn’t take all of the stuff out of your hair, so you need to use a clarifying shampoo. Go figure.

If you’re trying this, now is a great time. Hair + cooler weather = gorgeous hair for days. I don’t know what it is about fall/winter weather, probably the fact that you aren’t sweating anymore, but good hair is imminent. On day six of this journey it was about 40 degrees outside and for some reason my hair looked amazing (its also my featured image in the post thank you very much). If you’re even thinking about washing your hair less, this is a fabulous season to start. Also hello hat season!!!

Start slow. Go an extra day every now and then and work up to a full week without washes. Embrace a ponytail, a bun, a cute puffy headband. It’s better for your hair, better for good ole mother earth and saves some money.

 

Read and Review: May Reading List

Finally May! Feels like the year is going quick but also not at the same time? It’s technically spring but I’m still freezing my butt off in NYC otherwise known as the arctic tundra. Hope it’s all warm and sunny wherever you are, but don’t rub it in.

Read a bunch of stuff recently and figured I should share my yes and no’s for the month’s reading list!

The Death of Mrs. Westaway

The Gist: Tarot Card reader down on her luck receives a letter claiming she is to inherit a fortune, however,she immediately finds out they have the wrong person.

Thoughts and Feels: I got about half way through this book before I was like “I can’t.” I hate not finishing books, but this one was just so boring. The characterization of the main girl was bad, so I really wasn’t invested in what happened to her. If I don’t care about the main character, it’s a really hard read. I would say she was better at describing scenery than characters. I also kept getting confused on the time period because it sounded like the early 1900s but it was actually the 90s.

Rating: 0/10 just skip it. nothing interesting about it

The Proposal

The Gist: Girl gets randomly proposed to at a baseball game by her boyfriend on the jumbo tron and rejects the guy. It’s a love story, don’t worry.

Thoughts and Feels: This one I liked! It was cute, but predictable. Sometimes you just need a good rom-com after all the thrillers and murder mysteries

Rating: 8/10 cute, but like not the best thing I’ve ever read

The Outsider

The Gist: A boy is brutally murdered in a small town. Police think they have the suspect, but that’s just the beginning. 

Thoughts and Feels: I’m embarrassed to say this was my first Stephen King. Also embarrassed to say it did freak me out for a couple nights trying to sleep. It starts off like a normal murder mystery, but he adds a supernatural element towards the middle. Not gonna give anything away but it’s pretty creepy stuff. As I assume with all Stephen King novels, it was very well written. Switches between a few character perspectives, fantastic character development and just all around good story. Longest book I’ve read in a while, but worth it. 

Rating: 10/10 creepy in the best way

The Lying Game

The Gist: Woman goes back to her childhood boarding school in order to help her friend.

Thoughts and Feels: If you think that description is weirdly short, you’re right. There’s no other way to describe it without giving anything away other than saying very little. Managed to finish this one, but really wasn’t super into it. Ruth Ware books have a way of jumping right into the story, but not making it a very interesting one. The main character also brings her 6 month old baby everywhere which seemed very unnecessary? Not great, but the idea was pretty okay-ish.

Rating: 5/10 probably just skip it

Where the Crawdads Sing

The Gist: For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens

Thoughts and Feels: Had to copy and paste the actual summary because my “gist” was going to be something along the lines of “girl who grows up utterly alone find love. Also someone dies?” which sounds like a stupid book. Not gonna lie, when I saw this on the best seller list, I rolled my eyes. I hate the word “craw-dad,” but since its not based in Louisiana, I let it slide. I’m glad I did because this book was phenomenal. Reads almost like a biography, switching from the past to the current state A.K.A the murder. Couldn’t put it down and loved the ending.

Rating:10/10 devoured it

The Woman in Cabin 10

The Gist: Woman goes on a luxury trip on a yacht for work that turns into a possible murder mystery.

Thoughts and Feels: Here we are with another Ruth Ware. Went on a kind of rampage reading them. This one I’d say was the best one. Didn’t hate the main character, although there were times where I wished she’d kept her damn cool–if that makes any sense. Not predictable and went through it pretty quickly.

Rating: 6/10 no Karin Slaughter, but pretty decent

 

Live From New York It’s the Skin Update

Well hey, its been literally over two months since I posted anything on here… Do I have any explanation? Lack of inspiration? Not really knowing what to talk about? Feeling like  I’ve been just writing things for the sake of writing things? Haven’t been meditating and my mind is all over the place? Yes, yes, yes, and YES.

Honestly, I kept putting it off and then it got to a point where I was like, okay now it’d be lame if I posted that after THIS long. I do really feel I should update you on my skin situation. Let’s start with the bad news?

I don’t use honey as face wash anymore. I’m not sure why, but once winter came, my jawline was breaking out so bad I was getting super self-conscious about it. I tried to ride it out, but at some point I had to go with my skin and try other things. For now, I’ve moved back to good ole soap. I use this in the morning and this at night. My skin still isn’t perfect, but my jawline cleared up almost immediately. Which was a sign I really needed to switch. I’m thinking about going to oil based cleansers in the near future.

My skin responds really well to two things, coconut oil and lemon juice. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been using coconut oil as a moisturizer as well and its been amazing! My skin is normally super oily, but lately its been dry in patches on my t-zone area. All of that to say, I’ll be using both until my–hopefully–timely death, thanks.

The last thing that has been a real game changer for me: Collagen. I would say this is one thing thats transformed my skin and gotten rid of scarring the best. Some people really like it for hair, nail and eyelash growth! I’m pretty blessed in those departments, so the most apparent change has been in my skin. I recently switched to this kind and I just pop it into my coffee every morning!

That’s a wrap! Starting a new series late this week (probably next week) so stay tuned for that!

Love You, But Get Over Yourself

It’s Valentine’s Day! Everyone today is talking about self-love and loving yourself matter if you’re single or dating someone or you married, which is great! Do that! Today I wanted to shake it up and talk about something a little bit different. I talked a little bit about this on my Instagram stories, which if you’re not following me on Instagram you should be, hello. I somehow inspired myself to write this little reminder for you, on this day of love of you and/or someone else.

I had a moment, well more than a moment, more like 6 months in my life where I gained weight when I first moved to New York. I haven’t talked about it at all because, really not in the best place yet to discuss it(but I’m getting there).  It was not the best time considering all the crazy changes happening in my life. I started off with a very low self-esteem as a kid. It’s gotten way better over the years but it’s still not amazing especially when it comes to my body. I had very weird relationship with food and still struggle with it! So when I gained weight for the first time in forever, I panicked. I didn’t know what the heck was going on, I was not happy about it and it only got worse once I started focusing on it.

I spent a lot of time last summer putting on clothes that I had been wearing for years and noticing that they didn’t look the same way or I didn’t feel the same way in them. It got to a point where I wasn’t even sure what size I was anymore and so I stopped buying new clothes because it would bum me out. At the end of the day, I still had to live my life. I wasn’t gonna sit in my room and cry about it even though that’s really what really what I wanted to do. Summer is the most fun, so a lot of the time I just had to put on what I had and try not to think about it.

Nobody noticed or cared except for me and I think that’s one of the things that got me out of the house half the time is nobody is going to notice. Nobody cares about me, nobody looks at myself the way I do or looks at me in the critical way that I do. That has helped me more than anything, so I guess today I’m preaching get over yourself. Nobody cares what you look like half the time, nobody noticed the pimple on your face, nobody noticed that you look a little bloated today. Everyone else is way too busy thinking about how they look, feel and act to also worry about you and your crap!

The people who love you and the people that matter, don’t give a singular crap about the dumb, awful things you think about you. It’s nice to know you’re the only one who cares about every single thought in your head or about what you look like every single day! Obviously love yourself, don’t think that you’re a piece of crap because you gained a little weight or you have a pimple on your face or you did something embarrassing 2 months ago.

Some of the best times I’ve had in my life were when I sucked it up and did whatever it was regardless of how I felt about my outward appearance.

Read and Review: Your February Reading List

I’ve been meaning to do this for ages, since I love reading and sharing which books I loved. However, in earlier months, I’ve just managed a couple of books and who wants one review a month? I need a whole list. So I hunkered down and managed to read 5 this month, which I consider a feat, thank you very much! Especially with Netflix putting out new TV I want to binge once a week (help). Anyway, here’s all the books I read and how I liked them! Enjoy

The Handmaid’s Tale

The Gist: Post apocalyptic world where some women are servants and men control everything. Yeah that’s it

Thoughts and Feels: I read this mostly because it’s a show and instead of paying for Hulu, I decided to read the book. It was a relatively fast read, but only because I kept waiting for it to get good. The premise is really interesting, but left a lot to the imagination. I never understood people’s roles or what really happened to cause this societal shift? It’s one of those books where the end leaves you to come up with your own conclusion, which as a write myself, feels like a cop out.

 Rating: 4/10-Meh

Pieces of Her

The Gist: Andrea moves back to her hometown in Georgia after her mother becomes ill. Her and her mother experience a tragic shooting that leaves Andrea questioning everything she thought she knew about her mother and her own life.

Thoughts and Feels: Twists! Turns! Murder! I’m here for it! I love a good murder mystery and this one was insane. I love a good book that just absolutely consumes my life and I read it every free second I have. It’s one of those really rare books that you don’t guess the end or half of the things that happen, for that matter.

Rating: 10/10-please read

Cop Town

The Gist: Atlanta cops Kate Murphy and Maggie Lawson work to uncover a cop killer, while navigating life as a female police officer in the 1970’s. Let’s just say it’s not easy.

Thoughts and Feels: I LOVED THIS ONE. All about bad ass lady cops in the 70s what more could you want? Also the whole crazy-dont-know-what’s-gonna-happen-murder mystery. Basically going through Karin Slaughter’s entire “discography” (but what’s the book form of that word??) and I’m not mad about it.

Rating: 10/10-please read

All We Ever Wanted

The Gist: At the heart of the lies and scandal, Tom, Nina, and Lyla are forced together—all questioning their closest relationships, asking themselves who they really are, and searching for the courage to live a life of true meaning (stole this from Amazon cause I really didn’t know how to summarize it)

Thoughts and Feels: This was a weird subject to touch on. Very much a “hot button” issue and I’m not really sure how I feel about this book. It did some things really well, but others maybe a little bit problematic. I usually love everything this author writes, but this one was puzzling.

Rating: 6/10 because I still liked the book, just not as much as I normally do

The Unexpected Truth About Animals

The Gist: Touches on a few misconceptions about animals and where those misconceptions came from in our history.

Thoughts and Feels: If you didn’t know this about me, I find animal documentaries super fascinating. I’ve been deciding whether to buy the book for a while and I’m very glad I did. History is crazy, animals are very weird and the writing is funny.

Rating: 8/10 not a murder mystery but still good

 

The Sunday Summary

I haven’t done one of these in MONTHS, so I feel as if I need to update you guys on the things I really like lately. Pay attention (please), this is a good one.

Elf Concealer

I have this weird thing where I have two concealers. One is my expensive concealer for when I wanna look like a pore-less model and one for when I’m just living my everyday life as a regular human—or for when I wanna look good, but not that good. Just me? I happened to be in Target the other day and remembered I was running out of my regular human concealer, as well as my fancy one. A dilemma! On a whim, (and because I didn’t wanna go to the mad house that is Sephora), I bought this. Actually rivals my expensive concealer AND only $3?! I have turned a new leaf.

Graphic Tee Trend?

I never, In my wildest dreams, thought I would actually like this trend. I love pairing a tee with fancy pants (as seen below), especially patterned pants. Not by any means ready for Fall, (because Winter is next), but I do miss my pants. I’m still hesitant to buy any band t-shirt that I have never listened to, or a shirt that says something horrible like “beast mode.”

RX V.S. Lära Bars

It’s hard to pick which one I like better. RX bars are my personal OG. They have basic ingredients, big, taste amazing and have no added sugar. HOWEVER, Lära bars are making a serious contender. Some of them do have added sugar (usually only about 3g), but follow the same “basic ingredients” principal. They also have some amazing flavors like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Coconut Creme Pie and (my personal fave) Lemon Bar. They aren’t as big as RX bars, so I would say that’s their downfall. I know I’m late to the party on these, but maybe someone else is too, okay!!

Running on a Treadmill?

As you guys may know, I’ve been implementing running back into my daily workouts. I used to run solely outside (in the devil’s heat), but lately, I’ve been using the treadmill. At first, it was a ride on the struggle bus. You have nothing really to pay attention to except maybe a TV you can’t hear. You also aren’t really going anywhere, so it’s just you and your thoughts for however long you can stand it. Since switching to a focus on endurance, instead of focusing on speed, I’m actually enjoying it. I either listen to a podcast, or some of my favorite jams of the moment. Definitely not going fast, but I can usually last longer and run better on the treadmill. As with anything, the more you do it, the better you get.

Book of the Summer: You are a Badass by Jen Sincero

Late to this party as well, mostly because I figured this book was corny. I decided to switch it up and read a book or two about bettering my life—maybe give the murder mysteries a break. This was surprisingly good and only slightly corny. I would say, keep an open mind when reading. It gave me things to do while on the job hunt and inspired me to change some things in my life. Highly recommend if you feel like you’re struggling with anything or just need some inspiration*~.

 

The Sunday Summary

Talking about some realness on this Sunday summary. All about putting lemon juice on my face, what to do when your running day doesn’t workout because the weather is horrible(or maybe you just don’t wanna run because who really likes that shit?) and what book I am loving right now(and how to get a free book)!!

Beauty

Okay I touched on this a little bit in my last post, but I wanted to go a little bit more in-depth about it. I’ve always had “problematic” skin and I will try anything once if it will help in some small way (and doesn’t cost my left arm). I just started putting lemon juice on my face randomly one night and I got say, I love it. My skin is naturally super oily, uneven and I have dark marks from my time with cystic acne. I’m so serious when I say, I’ve never had my skin look so even and bright when I wake up in the morning. And this is just using a lemon. A LEMON. I highly recommend if you have skin like mine. I just squeeze a little on my face where I have the most issues and sleep with it on (kinda sticky, but worth it). 

Style

The newest trend among the fashion conscience people is, the mom jean. Basically loose-r fitting jeans that are super high-waisted and usually light-washed. I love anything high-waisted to cover the *ahem* problem areas and suck that crap right in. However, I can’t help but wonder if I would actually think these were cute if half the world wasn’t wearing them? Probs not. All the fancy people are wearing the 501 Levi’s (you know which ones) and ya girl was on the hunt for cheaper ones (NOLA trip coming up and also wanted Steve Madden strappy heels). After going to Levi’s in Brooklyn for a wear test, I set off to find similar fitting ones for cheaper. I found these babies and after trying on several decided they were my closest match. Keep in mind they are crazy tight when you first put them on, but they stretch out after a couple wears and aren’t meant to bounce back(no spandex or stretchy material). I thought about going a size up, but ultimately stuck to my true size and I’m glad I did. if you wanna be trendy, but not spend a cool 100 bucks, these are for you.

Food baby

I was nervous to try this because usually with certain dairy-free ice creams they like have a drier texture and just aren’t as delicious as regular ice cream. I swear, this brand puts out the best dairy free stuff cause this tastes creamy and ah-mazing. I literally come home and eat it immediately after work(don’t @ me). This is the best flavor, 10/10 you won’t regret it.

Fitness

In this endless winter NYC calls “normal” and “not a big deal” and “a livable place,” some days I don’t wanna go outside. I’ve committed to two days of running, but some days, when its 30 degrees or snowing in March, I don’t. I love the feeling I get after I run, (not the actual running cause who actually likes that), so I needed to find a cardio routine I could do in my apartment that gave me a similar feeling. In comes PopSugar Fitness to save the day. This is one of those cardio videos where you are constantly moving the entire time, which are my favorite. I feel pretty much as winded as I do when I run when I finish this video. The best part? Only 10 minutes. Quick and a great workout!

So I read a book…….

I don’t know if I’ve talked about this yet, but I signed up for Book of the Month in January and I am in love with it. For those who don’t know what it is (which I didn’t either) basically they have a list of amazing books and you pick one for them to send you! It arrives in maybe two days, tops, and I haven’t gotten a book I didn’t absolutely love, yet. The book I chose for this month was Other People’s Houses. I’m normally a murder mystery gal, but I decided to branch out for once and see if I liked this book since it wasn’t something I would normally get. I gotta say, I loved it. I binge-read(is this a word????) it in a literal week any time I had a few minutes. It’s mostly just about the lives of these people in this one neighborhood in L.A. Sounds boring, but the characters are so funny and relatable I couldn’t put it down. Here’s my link to get a free book! 

So I listen to this podcast

Podcasts are slowly becoming my favorite things to listen to at work and they’re fabulous for long flights (NYC—>NOLA). “Keep it!” is a new podcast from my faves at crooked media which stars Ira Madison III, Kara Brown and Louis Virtel. They talk mostly about celeb news and the occasional politics. The most current episode talks about Cynthia Nixon’s run for governor of New York (Mirandas everywhere rejoice!) and the Donald Trump Jr./ Aubrey O’Day scandal. To be honest, Louis could probably do a dramatic reading of my to-do list and make it funny. 10/10 look forward to these every week.

I did a thing in NYC and you should too™

Okay on Saturday I finally did something I’ve been wanting to do for like two weeks. I had an entirely vegan meal at a Mexican restaurant. Yes you read that right. Thrillist did a piece on the owner talking about his amazing new creation. I went, mostly because I really wanted the nachos and didn’t wanna feel bad about eating crap (trying to save my calories for my trip to NOLA next week). I highly recommend the nachos , as they were the best part. I also had the quesadillas, which are my favorite at any Mexican restaurant because of my love of cheese. They were pretty good, considering I absolutely hate vegan cheese of any kind. Also had margs of course, which you can’t go wrong with. Definitely something to try and I’ll probably come back just for the nachos. 

The Sunday Summary

Talking about this new dry shampoo hair trick I tried, my new favorite pants (cause I’m all about pants lately), the best Galentine’s ever and the best workout for your abs!

Beauty

As a blogger, I follow a ton of bloggers on Instagram (duh). I recently started following Brighton Keller who lives in Dallas. She super sweet and one of the more genuine bloggers in my opinion. I saw on one of her stories recently about a dry shampoo trick she does with her hair and then mental made a note to try it out one day. Well Friday I was struggling with some day-3-hair-bun-action and this guy was like “let’s have drinks!” My motto is to just say yes to everything so I was like I guess I gotta figure out how to make this work and then I remembered her trick and was immediately over-joyed. I’ll link her video here, but the gist is to take a round brush, hair drier, dry shampoo and basically act like you’re drying your hair with a round brush even when its dried. Sounds very weird but my hair was super flat and gross so I figured I’d give it a shot. I used Not Your Mother’s Texturizing Dry Shampoo, but you can use whatever you have.

 

And there you have it! Definitely not something I have time or energy for everyday since I barely have time to dry my hair, but definitely something to do on day 3 hair that just the grossest it could possibly be (aka my hair).

Style

I never in my wildest dreams thought I would like pants that look like these, but New York has changed me (kinda). These are some that I got from work that aren’t available yet (coming soon I swear its on the website), but you really can get these anywhere. Super comfortable and have like a denim-feel without looking it straight up jeans. Here I dressed them up with booties and a black turtle-neck:

 

Then I dressed them down with a t-shirt and sweater with converse:

 

Fitness

I love me some Tabata because its short bursts of working out, which makes it go by quicker. To me, it’s the best new way to do a HITT workout. My new favorite is this super quick ab workout I just discovered. As I’ve said in my workout routine post, I run every other day and do abs. This is great because its quick and by the time I finish running, I’m over it (cause running kinda sucks lets be real).

So I watched this show………

This honestly should just be titled “I binged this show in a day because it was so good.” I don’t know if you guys remember Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, but me and my mom LOVED that show when I was a kid and we watched it all the time. Well Netflix has done a re-boot with all new people and it is the best reality show I have seen in a while. The guys are ADORABLE and fun, I have a huge crush on Antoni like zamn. It’s just like the old one where each guy is in charge of different aspects of life like food, style, and design. Besides this show being hilarious and fun, it’s also so important and they touch on some really serious issues. They talk about police brutality against black men (Karamo is black), what it means to be gay and religious and the struggle to define yourself as a black and gay man. I laughed, I cried and I cannot wait for next season

So I read this book…….

I subscribed to Book of the Month, which is a great way for me to push myself to read more and I get a gorgeous hardcover book for 16 bucks! I just finished this book and wow, it was insane. It’s all about this woman living with Agoraphobia (fear of the outside) because of a drama she experienced about a year ago. Of course it’s a murder mystery romance-y thing because that’s all I read now.

 

So I did a fun thing in NYC and you should too

If you’re a human being, you know that Valentines Day was this past week (barf). However, you might not know that the day before Valentines day is Galentine’s Day! Coined by the beautiful and fictional Leslie Knope of Parks and Rec, it is a day of celebrating gals! I decided to take my gals to this beautiful restaurant Café Medi. I’ve been wanting to see it girl because the pictures I’ve seen are unreal.

 

They were having a Galentine’s event, 3 courses AND a bottle of wine for 50 bucks. Basically a steal for NYC and I love any excuse to drink on a weekday. The place was gorgeous, and the food was unbelievable. I ate way too much and had way too much fun. No complaints from me.

A Read and Review -The Good Daughter

If you know me, you know that I absolutely love reading. Fun Fact: I was the #1 sixth grader in ALL of sixth grade with the most AR points. I got to go to Kart Ranch or some fun zone shit and yes I was teased endlessly and for some reason did not care. I had thicker skin back then. Anyway, point is I read a lot. I couldn’t even tell you how many books I’ve read in my lifetime but it’s a long list. I also studied English in college which means I got to read more stuff (sometimes awful shit) and discuss meaning!!!!!! College was fun.

One thing I wanted to do more with this blog is talk about books more, since they are such a huge passion for me (ask me for recommendations because I could talk about books for hourssssss).

That being said, I am going to start reading more and trying to sort of review books. The one I’m gonna talk about in this post I won’t spoil, but my next book I will be going more in depth with it and talking about my favorite parts. Planning on doing this every now and then, hopefully bi-weekly, and I’ll post what book I’m reading next on every post! So excite to talk about my love affair with books more!

The book I finally just finished is The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter. It wouldn’t have taken me so long, but I rent my books from my library for free (a blessing) and sometimes I have to return them before I finished. I’ve been waiting for this one to become available again for at least a month and lemme tell you it was worth that month wait y’all. 

I’ve read a couple of her books before that I’ve briefly talked about on some previous posts. Her novels are murder mysteries and are so twisty and amazing.

This particular book is about two sisters who went through something horrific as children that changed them forever. One sister moved to New York (holla @ me) and is a corporate lawyer. The other stayed in her hometown and works with her father doing criminal law. Their father is known around town for getting sleazy people off of really awful charges so he’s not super well liked.

The book literally starts with the dramatic event that happened to them as kids in the first chapter which is a crazy way to start a book, but I so love that we didn’t have to go through the usual character development. The rest of the book is a rollercoaster where we sort of go back and forth through time to the tragic event and then back to present day.

Present day, one sister, Charlotte, gets caught up in a school shooting (y’all might think this is a spoiler but ITS NOT I SWEAR). Her father is the first to volunteer to be the lawyer of Kelly, the shooter. This leads to a whole mess of trouble that I won’t get into, but wile trying to solve this, you ALSO get new info about the tragic thing that happened to the two sisters. So its like two murder mysteries in one and its so not one of those, okay duh this person did it I’m just reading this till the end to prove myself right, NO. You are so blissfully unaware until the end where its just like WHAT??!?! 

A huge thing I loved about this book is that the characters are so dynamic. There’s a grey area for good people and bad people that I feel like is so much more realistic. These characters are good people, but they also make some huge mistakes (some more than others as you’ll see).

Okay I could talk about this book all day, but seriously read it. Such an amazing book and tell me what you think!!!!

 

Next book I’m reading: Alias Grace by Margret Atwood. Mostly because the show has been sitting in my list for forever on Netflix and I’m dying to watch it (and compare of course).