Month: September 2026

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – The Teacher (Freida McFadden)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies!

Okay, so before I begin the review, I just wanted to post a little side note:

If you see me suddenly stop posting blog reviews in the next few weeks, it’s because I had my baby boy! He’s due October 7th, so any time around then, if you notice either little to no blog posts, that is why I disappeared. In the meantime, I’m going to be trying to get as many book reviews as I can get done and have them scheduled out, just so you guys have something to look forward to on Sundays!

Now, back to the review!

Yes, I have another review from Freida’s library again! This one came up as a suggestion from Kindle Unlimited for me and a few others, but I wanted to give this one a go and see what she came up with for this one.

Before I go further into the review, I wanted to mention that this does have an underage romance between a student and a teacher. Now, from what I’ve read and heard, a lot of people had a hard time getting into the book because of it, which I completely understand. I was a little iffy about reading it as well because of that.

Anyway, the book has a few different people that you read about from their POV. Eve’s is the first one you start out with, and it goes between her and Addie, who is a high schooler who has both Eve and Nate as teachers; then lastly, you’ll get Nate’s POV.

It starts out by talking about what Eve and Nate’s relationship is, which is pretty basic since they are high school teachers. Eve teaches Math, while Nate teaches English. The only other thing you find out is that Eve has been having an affair with someone that she sees regularly.

Then you have Addie, who is a high school student who had a rough year before; she not only had her dad pass away, but she was accused of sleeping with another teacher, who ended up having to leave the school because of it. Although it doesn’t really explain or say if she did it, the only thing the teacher did was give her a ride home and tutor her with math. Eve ends up running into that teacher, and he warns her that Addie is a troubled girl.

Of course, Eve and Nate both have Addie as a student for this year, as she is a junior. Eve gives Addie a hard time in class, as the teacher she was accused of sleeping with was someone who was a mentor to her. Nate, on the other hand, thinks she is a struggling student who needs guidance.

On top of one of her teachers giving her a hard time, Addie is also getting bullied by one of the popular students, as well as the entire school, because of the whole situation she caused last year. Plus, her mother is also giving her a hard time about making friends, but the only people who wanted to be her friends were those who wanted to know more about the rumors.

So, Addie turns to writing as a way to release the emotions that she has bottled up. Nate happens to find her work very interesting and invites her to work with the newspaper club so that she can get one of her poems published in the paper.

This is when Nate and Addie start to get closer, more than just student and teacher, but more than that. Addie ends up losing her virginity to Nate, as Nate tells her she’s his soulmate and wrote a poem just for her about how amazing she is to him.

They start falling head over heels for each other and meet up frequently after school to have sex. Of course, Eve starts to suspect that something is going on with Nate and Addie as Nate starts to stay later at the school more. She also then accuses Nate of that and threatens to expose him to the principal.

I really did have a hard time trying to understand why Nate would go after Addie, but as a spoiler alert, she wasn’t the only high school student that she has slept with. Addie does find out that the girl who bullies her, Kenize, also slept with Nate as he got to her too, but she doesn’t tell her until later on in the book.

Anyway, Addie tries to visit Nate after Eve threatens to expose them, and Addie ends up knocking out Eve, but Nate makes her think that Eve is dead, which freaks Addie out. I honestly thought Eve was dead too, but as Freida does, she keeps you on your toes and has Nate freaked out over finding Eve’s favorite shoes randomly all over the house.

Overall, it was another quick read, but I get why a lot of people were uneasy about the whole “student-teacher romance”. Thankfully, there are only like two or three scenes where they kiss or have sex, which made it easier to get through. I will say, I don’t think I would randomly pick this one to read again, just because of that.

I swear that every time I read one of Fredia’s books, I think I know exactly who the murderer or trouble marker, but then you find out you were way off. For example, I thought Nate was innocent and Eve was the one who was going to kill either Addie or him, but nope!

What did you think about this book? Did you read it, or was this one of her books you didn’t want to read because of the student-teacher love affair? Let me know in the comments below.

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – The Divorce (Freida McFadden)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies!

You guys must be shocked to see another one of Freida McFadden’s books in my reviews again! She is on my list as one of my favorite writers to read! Out of all the thrillers that I’ve read, hers has so many twists and turns that you didn’t even expect to happen.

The story starts out by following Naomi, who is married to Jeremy, and they have a son, Teddy. Naomi thinks that everything is fine and well until her husband throws her out and takes custody of their son. Of course, this poor woman is sideswiped because she thought they were happy.

Instead, her husband wants to file for divorce and take custody of Teddy. Then Naomi finds out there is another woman he has been seeing, Veronica, or “Ronnie”, who is younger than her, that Jeremy has been seeing.

Naomi also doesn’t want to go through with the divorce because of the fact that she thinks there is a chance to save their marriage and thinks that Jeremy is going through a midlife crisis. However, Jeremy wants nothing to do with fixing the marriage and insists on the divorce, as well as pushing for her to get a lawyer so they can start the process.

When she goes out to find the best lawyer, Jeremy has already taken away most of her options. She also has no money, as she was a stay-at-home mom before all this happened, so her options are pretty slim.

I honestly was feeling bad for Naomi! Gets kicked out of her house, only gets her son part-time on the weekends, and now has to start all over by getting a job again, just to get back on her feet. Plus, while all this is happening, strange things keep happening at the new place she is living at, and she is thinking it was the new girlfriend that Jeremy is seeing again.

At first, I was on Naomi’s side, but then the book switches to Ronnie’s POV and talks about how she was struggling with drugs, but decided to get clean once she found out she was pregnant. Then, once she has her son, she ends up losing him because her boyfriend ended up doing drugs and passed out in the car while their son was in the back crying.

You are not going to believe who happened to take this poor little boy out of the car.

Honestly thought if you saw a passed-out dad in the front seat of the car with his screaming infant in the back, wouldn’t you have tried to wake up the dad before just taking the baby? Granted, he was passed out because he was shooting up, but still, I would at least have involved the police or something to that effect.

The crappy thing about this situation is that when Ronnie reported the baby being missing, when her boyfriend came back to the house, the cops didn’t do anything about it because they both had been arrested for drug possession, which I can understand why the cop didn’t make a report about it, but she also didn’t give birth at a hospital so there was no record of her son being born or having a birth cerifitcate.

Without spoiling it with you, I started to side more with Ronnie after that. I wanted Naomi to get what she deserved in the divorce and to have her son full time, but after knowing Ronnie’s side and what she has been through, I felt more for Ronnie than Naomi!

I really couldn’t believe it! I also don’t want to spoil how it ends or what else happens, but it’s like everything you thought you knew in the first part, the second part proves how crazy it really turns out to be. I love every second of it!

Overall, this was another one of her books that kept me on my toes for sure! I know a lot of people that I saw, it was hit or miss, but I’m a newly found reader of hers, so I’ll have to see how her other works are, but I really enjoyed this one!

I also am fairly new to thrillers, and I only started reading her works this year, which I also found out she writes like a few novels a year, which is amazing, and she’s a surgeon? How does she have the time to do both! I wish I was that talented!

Let me know down in the comments if you really liked this one or if you have another favorite/recommendation for me to check out of Freida’s work! I would love to know down below!

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies!

I figured I would switch it up a bit and review something that was actually really popular when I was in high school. Granted, I never read the book until now, but I did see the movies first, and with another movie coming out, I wanted to read the book before I see it.

Plus, they were selling special editions of the Hunger Games Saga books, and the covers were absolutely beautiful! I figured I would buy them and actually see if they followed the books more or if they left some things out.

Now, I’ve only read the book once, but I have seen The Hunger Games multiple times. So, I’m going to do my best to compare both of them, but this is more going to be a review of the book side, not the movie side.

The book is completely in Katniss’ POV, which I love because her energy is pretty much the same as shown in the movies. She lives in District 12, which is the poorest District to be in. Each District represents an industry that provides for all the others, as well as the Capitol, which is where the rich and famous people live, as well as President Snow.

Here is a List of each District to give you a clearer picture:

  • District 1 – Luxury Items made for the Capitol
  • District 2 – Stone Mining (Makes weapons and trains Peacekeepers)
  • District 3 – Technology, Computers, and Electronics
  • District 4 – Fishing and Seafood
  • District 5 – Generates Power and Electricity
  • District 6 – Transportation and Trains
  • District 7 – Lumber and Paper Goods
  • District 8 – Textiles and Clothing
  • District 9 – Processes Grain
  • District 10 – Raises Livestock for Meat
  • District 11 – Agriculture, Fruits, and Vegetables
  • District 12 – Coal Mining

To keep the peace within the Districts, they select 2 children, one female and one male, from each District to fight to the death in their annual Hunger Games. Every child aged 12-18 will have their name drawn once, but if you are in the poorer Districts, your name might be drawn multiple times if you end up needing food.

Oh, and the whole thing is broadcast for everyone to see. Actually, you are forced to watch it, from what I gathered in the book, no matter who you are. I couldn’t imagine being a mother in that society and having to watch any of my children compete in that arena.

In the book, Katniss talks about the games and that today is the day of the reaping and that this is her little sister Prim’s first time being a part of the reaping, as she is 12. Of course, Katniss tells her that she shouldn’t worry about being picked because her name is only in there once.

However, her name gets picked, and Katniss volunteers as a tribute, protecting her sister from having to endure the Hunger Games. Since she’s in District 12, volunteering only usually happens from the first two Districts. Mind you, the tributes being picked and everything is being broadcast to the Capitol; this is like their Wrestlemania or Super Bowl.

Once Katniss and Peeta, who were chosen, get selected, they have a few minutes to say goodbye, and this is when the movie doesn’t show. Katniss gets visitors from Gale, Prim, and her mother, but she also gets Mage, who gave her the Mockingjay pin, as well as Peeta’s father.

Which I sort of understand why they didn’t include those; I don’t even think you see Peeta’s parents or hear about them at all through most of the other movies, except in the scene where Peeta’s mother yells at him for burning the bread.

Then they are off to the Capitol, where they have Haymitch and Effie. They will do what they can to help get both Katniss and Peeta prepared for what they are about to endure. Also, side note, Haymitch is my favorite character, both in the book and in the movies. He’s also the only living District 12 tribute and now mentor to both Katniss and Peeta.

Anyway, they are at the Training Center for about 2 weeks, and then they are released into a giant dome where the games will happen. So, they get a little taste of what it’s like to be in the Capitol before they are ultimately killed.

Since this is a “TV show” to the people of the Capitol, they have all the tributes interviewed so that they can get to know them. As Haymitch says, “You want to get people to like you.”, which is needed to get sponsors that could help you in the middle of the games.

During the interviews, Peeta also confesses that he’s been in love with Katniss; she doesn’t take it well because she thinks it makes her look weak, but instead Haymitch tells her it makes her more desirable. This is when the beginning of the “Star-Crossed Lovers from District 12” starts to begin.

Throughout the time after the interview and during the games, you can see Katniss warming up to Peeta, but she’s still confused about her feelings throughout the entire book. Which I get and don’t get because of the society they are in; if she were to do something that pissed off the Capitol, everyone around her would be in trouble.

Plus, she also has mixed feelings about Gale; although they are close, she sees him more like a brother than a lover. I’m also not a huge fan of the Gale and Katniss couple. Yes, they are similar, but Peeta understands her a little bit more, in my eyes, just because they both endured a lot of PTSD from the games.

The one thing that got me when Katniss was in the games is that she had Rue (from District 11) as an ally, whom she wanted to protect like her little sister. Unfortunately, she was too late to save her, but stayed with her until she passed so she wasn’t alone.

Overall, the movie followed the book, missed a few things, but was pretty close to other books that didn’t do the book justice; this one did. I really also enjoyed the author’s writing style as well; usually that determines if I’ll read the book or not. I honestly wish I had read it when I was in high school because then it would have made seeing the movie even more exciting.

I will be reading the sequels as well; the only ones I haven’t gotten yet are the two newer books, but I plan on getting them with the special edition covers. I’m also super excited to read and watch the newer movie about Haymitch because he’s just my favorite!

I also must be living under a rock because I wasn’t sure if I could post GIFs!

What did you think about The Hunger Games? Did you end up seeing the movies first before reading the books? Who is your favorite character? Let me know down below!