October Book Review
The most wonderful time of the year has officially dropped, y’all!!! Starbucks cups are merry and bright. Skeletons are back in the closet (though I miss them already). We are still embracing the pumpkins for a bit longer, but gosh, do I love this season!
This magical time also marks the—gasp—launch of my second book, Suing Cinderella, out November 14! Eeeeeeeeeek! I totally can’t believe it… and also have been waiting two years for this. LOL. It’s both at once, and it’s beautiful. My heart is exploding, truly. The journey’s been rough, to say the least, but all I feel now is excitement, relief, and gratitude. God has been leading me HERE, right here! My early readers are loving the book, and there is no feeling like it. I could not ask for more.
As I’ve said before and can’t say enough, YOU are the start of it all, my friends, and you are so impossibly good to me! Thank you just doesn’t suffice! Thank you for your encouragement, kind words, and pre-orders. Your reviews and your nods and your hugs. My sophomore scaries are melting away… and now I just want to get her into your hands already!!!!
Now for the book reviews, shall we?! I only read three books in October, but honestly, given my pre-launch schedule, to-dos, and general state of my brain (scrambled eggs… with glitter?), I’m surprised I read that many. Pre-launch is very, very busy. So much fun, but so wild. My attention is popping like Disneyland popcorn. Deep focus is hard to come by. These books kept me great company, though, in my small snatches of reading time! I greatly enjoyed all three.
Ready, set, GO!
I have long been a fan of juicy-thriller author-duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. The Wife Between Us, An Anonymous Girl, and The Golden Couple. So when I heard that Pekkanen had released a new solo title, I wasted zero time! This book is fantastic. It was exactly the nonstop-entertaining, highly suspenseful, smartly woven tale I was craving for spooky season. It was also more than I bargained for with the depth of character development and compelling, whiplashy plot. Forty-one-year-old Ruth is desperately hiding something from her 21-year-old daughter, but what?! Why does Ruth grip her so tightly—and what does she have to lose?! As jigs are up and deceptions crash down, Gone Tonight will, well, render your precious sleep gone tonight! I gulped it down and highly recommend for your next fast, fun, twisty ride! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My book club selected this one for our October category, which was—are you ready for it—non-World War II historical fiction. Just writing that makes me giggle again, but we had to assign the caveat because a.) we have read SO many (magnificent) World War II books over the years, and b.) they never stop coming, we’d pick them again, and we must proactively encourage ourselves to explore other parts of history! Enter Lady Tan’s Circle of Women. (Along with Steph’s forever reminder that she doesn’t tend to love historical fiction.) That said, this book was a standout read and super-intriguing experience! I learned so vastly much about 15th-century China and, my goodness, had visceral reactions to much of it.
Lady Tan follows a young female Chinese doctor—based on a true historical figure—through her emotional and actual journey of unforgettable friendship, uncomfortable truth, and undeniable power. This book is so intricately told and well-researched that it’s hard not to be in awe. The foot-binding?! What?! I had no idea the true extremes and gross realities of this tradition. Let’s just say I could not “eat and read” with this one. I’d love to read more from this author, though, and found this book a real treat! Four stars! (Rated even higher by nearly all of my historical fiction babes!) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Where do I even begin with you, Britney Jean Spears? I just have so much to say about your brave memoir. I wish I could hug you and tell you that I am so proud of you—and how much my heart physically breaks for you. I wish I could tell you that there will never be another concert quite like your Dream within a Dream tour in 2002, when I was a junior in high school. You made an indelible imprint on me, as a woman and artist and force. That waterfall from the ceiling?! Are you kidding me?! Your dancing, your passion, your drive. I feel so incredibly lucky to have witnessed it all in the flesh. I had posters of you in my room and played every CD on repeat. I’ve adored you for so long. Sometimes I’d say a prayer for you, at barely sixteen myself. I didn’t yet know why.
Next, I wish I could tell you that, many years later, after you suffered a horrible public breakdown but before anyone was whispering about the conservatorship, I saw you again in your Circus tour in 2009. I left with a pit in my stomach. You were not the same girl. They wouldn’t let you speak. It was hauntingly clear to me you that you were a beautiful puppet. And so, so very sad. Just a shell. The life had been sucked from you. They turned on your microphone once, at the end. You yelled, “Merry Christmas, San Diego!” It was Anaheim. It was April.
I wish I could tell you that I was disappointed at first to find that your memoir was rather short. Large font, tons of space, 275 pages. Only a five-hour audiobook. Nowhere near the heft of, say, Prince Harry’s, Demi Moore’s, or Jessica Simpson’s. But I wish I could tell you I got full chills when suddenly it dawned on me, duh. Of course your memoir is short. The conservatorship stole 13 years of your life.
You were generous and guarded at once in your memoir, which feels appropriate. We understand! I actually believe that you wrote it yourself and someone came in to help—rather than the reverse. It felt like you; it sounded like you. I cannot believe (and yet I can) the way you were treated, used, and abused. You needed help. Intensive help. Instead, you were propped up by your very own father for hundreds of millions in profits over a decade. If someone had done a mere fraction of that to me in my lowest pit of postpartum depression and body shame and desperation, well, I can’t begin to imagine, obviously. It feels like we should’ve known.
My favorite line of the entire book has an expletive, and I understandably could see some taking offense, but it stopped me right in my tracks. (Also, who wouldn’t use that word in your shoes?) I look at your story and see what you see: that God crashed in and He saved you. He showed you what a Father should be. He heard every one of your cries from within that horrible institution. “You can’t mess with a woman who knows how to pray. Really pray. All I did was pray.” He sets the captives free. And free now, you are.
I wish I could tell you that I so badly want your mind, body, and spirit to fully return to you. I want to see you make the comeback of all miracle comebacks at age 45. Another Vegas residency or some kind of worldwide tour. Your dedicated fans would blow Eras out of the water. I hope you know how big we’d show up for you! I don’t know if you’ll ever perform again, and absolutely no one would blame you, but I want you to know that we want you to, more than we want anything from most artists of our generation.
You said it all so perfectly at this moment in time, but I guess I just want to tell you that I’ll always have a big special place in my heart for you. I want to tell you that insanity can be momentary, icons are forever, and even with your knife-dancing and barefoot-twirling and totally wild Insta-captioning… I see you and you are incredible, a masterpiece of His creation. I’m frustrated for you and I’m thankful for you and I’m going to keep saying prayers for you.
Because you can’t mess with a woman who knows how to pray.
Really pray.
Five stars, Princess of Pop. Five stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What did you read in October?! Anything wonderful?!
Based in Orange County, California, Stephanie Mack is a longtime writer, wife to one, and mom of three little girls. She has been blogging at MOMentary Insanity® since 2014. Her work has also been featured on Scary Mommy, Faithit, Coffee + Crumbs, and more. She holds a Master of Professional Writing degree from USC. When We Blinked is her debut novel.
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In 2024, one specific piece of writing advice has persisted in reaching my ears. Through the Booked Solid podcast, landing my dream agent, and my ever-trustworthy author friends, the message echoes: Get out of the slush pile.