Last Night By Luane Rice and My Brother's Restuarant

 Happy Monday! In my neck of the woods, we are enjoying some summer weather! Today, I'm sharing a quick review of the recent release Last Night by Luane Rice. I picked up this book when it was free to me as a Prime First Read.  I chose Last Night because it said it was a domestic thriller. 

When I was deciding on my First Read, I didn't have my glasses on and I mistakenly thought the hotel on the cover was a government building, I thought domestic thriller meant it was a political thriller about a domestic issue.  I greatly enjoy political thrillers. Domestic thrillers are typically about romantic relationships gone bad and are fine but not what I seek out to read.

If you enjoy domestic thrillers, this book works as a stand-alone book. If you read it and enjoy it there are other books in the series. The book has child kidnapping, it's handled well, but child kidnapping is something I don't really want to read. 

Overall it's well-written, and has a positive conclusion and I rate it four stars because of those factors. If you enjoy domestic thrillers this is likely going to be a five-star review for you. If anyone has any recommendations for a political thriller, please let me know because I'm in the mood for one of those!

Recently, Anne of  Books Are My Heart, commented that she'd like to know more about my brother's restaurant. It's located in a tiny town right over the border of Georgia in Hayesville, North Carolina. It's called Epic Catering and Eatery. As the name implies they do catering in the area. The restaurant is open Wednesday through Sunday from ten a.m. to two p.m. and they do dinner several nights a week. You can follow them on Instagram to see all the delicious food pictures. It's very vegetarian and vegan-friendly. They are located two hours south of Asheville. Most of their food is locally sourced, for example their beef comes from a local farm. They also have a bar where local musicians play on the weekend. Don't plan to be on your phone if you go there, they don't have wi-fi! 

The Sunday Post - School is Out For Summer

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme 

Happy summer my friends!  My last day at school was on Monday!  My plan is more reading--the last few weeks I was busy and wasn't finding the time to read. I did go to a book talk with Stacey Abrams interviewed by Jake Tapper.  I enjoyed her first book in this political thriller series While Justice Sleeps and this one takes place just a few months later.  Stacey Abrams is very good at that sense of urgency that make a good thriller and her plots are possible, not likely but not impossible where it takes you out of the story. 

And speaking of thrillers I recently finished reading Those Empty Eyes by Charlie Donlea, whose books I always enjoy; I'll post a review of that book this week. 

I finished watching Queenmaker on Netflix, it is a Korean political thriller and it's quite good. If you liek a thriller, check it out!  What have you been up to? How is your summer going? 

 

This Thriller Had Me Dropping Everything to Read! State of Terror-

 I don't know offhand if I have read any of Louise Penny's thrillers before, but I think I will definitely read her in the future.  I really did drop everything and read this book, I started reading it Monday night and then I was up until 1AM last night finishing it.  Nuclear Bombs on US soil is a real page-turner!  I will say that within the first twenty pages I was invested in seeing Secretary of State Ellen Adams succeed in her newly confirmed role and then it was the needing to know that she and her best friend and counselor Betsy would not only stop the bombs but also that they would survive.  

I greatly enjoyed reading how their friendship enabled them to persevere. Sometimes when you read a thriller, especially a political thriller, there can be so much jargon it can be difficult for someone who doesn't have much bureaucracy experience to keep up, I didn't find that to be the case with this book. 

I would love to see this book made into a movie or a mini-series on one of the streaming services. My hope would be if it is, they would actually cast women in their 50/60s for the roles. 

If you read the acknowledgments for this book, you learn that the character of Besty is named and has attributes based on Hillary Clinton's lifelong friend Besty Johnson Ebeling and the main character Ellen Adams is based in part on Ellen Tauscher (former Congressional Rep and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security) another close friend of Hilary Clinton who died in 2019.  General Whitehead in this book is named for Louise Penney's husband who died from dementia.  So this book is filled with characters based on people Louise and Hillary loved.  An unlikely love letter of sorts.  

5 stars to a thriller you can't put down that is packed with the beauty of friendships.