#not so perfect strangers

[morganc89]

Not So Perfect Strangers by L. S. Stratton

I stumbled across this novel on a trip to Barnes & Noble with Christmas gift cards to be spent, and decided it was time for me to read something from an author that is new to me. Tasha Jenkins and Madison Gingell are the main characters and their paths happen to cross in a very unusual way. See, Tasha happens to be married to a very abusive and controlling man, and the two share a teenage son.…

[scapegods]

he ran out of canvases

[zunaki]

Repainted an old Byler illustration 💖

[whitneydaniell]

by: L.S. Stratton Published: Mar 28, 2023 Genre: Thriller, Murder Mystery, Fiction 320 Pages, Paperback

★★★

GoodReads Synopsis:

Tasha Jenkins has finally found the courage to leave her abusive husband. Taking her teenage son with her, Tasha checks into a hotel the night before their flight out of D.C. and out of Kordell Jenkins’s life forever. But escaping isn’t so easy, and Tasha soon finds herself driving back to her own personal hell. As she is leaving, a white woman pounds on her car window, begging to be let in. Behind the woman, an angry man is in pursuit. Tasha makes a split-second decision that will alter the course of her she lets her in and takes off.    Tasha and Madison Gingell may have very different everyday realities, but what they have in common is marriages they need out of. The two women want to help each other, but they have very different ideas of what that means . . .   They are on a collision course that will end in the case files of the D.C. MPD homicide unit. Unraveling the truth of what really happened may be impossible‒and futile. Because what has the truth ever done for women like Tasha and Madison?

My Review:

Uhhhhhhh, where to begin?

I love a good murder mystery but I hate terrible, unlikable characters. Tasha and her son, Ghalen are both.

An unsuspecting Tasha invites a stranger, Madison, into her car to save her from her abusive husband - or so she thinks. Madison then reaches out to thank Tasha, invites her to lunch, then drops a bomb on Tasha as she is heading to the METRO to get home. Tasha is a victim of domestic abuse and ultimately, she is returning home from this lunch right back to the man who has been holding her captive!

Here are some areas where things fall off the tracks for me:

Tasha leaves the hotel to return to Kordell because her 17-year-old son wants to stay. He is 17. He can make that decision for himself. If he is unwilling to see his father for who he really is and has your best interest at heart, LEAVE HIM THERE WITH THAT MAN AND GO ON ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS.

Madison's proposition to Tasha. Madison is not an intelligent criminal if this was her plan all along because now, you've been seen in public with this woman. You've messaged her on IG - which could be used as evidence. Not only with Tasha but, you're talking on the phone with Summer about committing a crime. That's like, the number 1 rule when doing dumb sh*t; don't leave a paper trail or have conversations on the phone. Word to American Gangster!

Morris was way too nice and way too willing to go along with Tasha's dumb sh*t. As a man, how could you walk around with this woman knowing what her husband is doing to her? Why not go to the police to try to save her?

Ghalen! I saw his abusive tendencies coming a mile away. Sadly, Tasha is a mother that we all know; a mother who loves her son instead of raising him. That boy is immature and emotionally stunted and from the moment he was able to discern what was going on around him, he should have been in therapy. For seventeen years he witnessed his father abuse his mother. Not only that but, his mother has only babied and pacified him, his actions, and his behaviors. He was insufferable.

For a murder mystery, it had a great twist. But for me, when there are no redeemable characters, and no one to root for, it makes it hard for me to "like" the book as a whole. Detective Simmons was the only character who had some sense and even he got on my nerves. You cannot function off of lack of sleep and 12 cups of coffee.

I've said it before about murder mysteries: usually, the cops are useless and dumb but, Simmons sniffed out the right clues immediately.

Final Thoughts: The story was cool, I'd give it a 4/5. The characters killed it for me tho, they're a 1/5.

One-Word Summary: 818 Wicker Street

[tzarrz]

i listen to fog lake too much

[booksteacupandreviews]

Not So Perfect Strangers by L.S. Stratton - tense domestic thriller

#NotSoPerfectStrangers by @ellisromance is an intriguing, relatable, and tense #domesticthriller with heavy themes and layers. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thanks @GoSparkPoint for eARC. check out full review ⬇️

Not So Perfect Strangers is an intriguing, relatable, and tense domestic thriller with heavy themes and layers. Not So Perfect Strangers by L.S. Stratton Publication Date : March 28, 2023 Publisher : Union Square Co. Read Date : March 21, 2023 Genre : Thriller / Domestic Thriller Pages : 320 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Disclaimer – Many thanks to publicist @SparkPointStudio for eARC.This…

[theghostinyourwalls]

I can’t believe we’ve all been cropped out of these pictures

[strangertheories]

I really despise the Marvelification of Stranger Things, because all the interviews nowadays are constantly referencing how fast paced and epic and big the finale will be but the reason people fell in love with the show wasn't special effects or long episodes; it was the plot, it was the characters, it was the mystery. Stranger Things 1 may have been a story about a government conspiracy and a monster, but that's not why we stuck around. The show can throw amazing CGI, Russians, a battle within the American army and an apocalypse at the audience with the biggest budget known to man but if they forget to ground it and keep it central, it'll just get lost amongst a plethora of other "epic" blockbusters. We want Steven King, not Avengers.

[goryhorroor]

horror + letterboxd reviews pt3

[cholvoq]

Oh kiss me, kiss me, kiss me- 🎶💋

I’ve listened to so much of The Cure while drawing this, they’re literally so Steddie-coded istg—

[bangtanthoughts]

everyday i think about this and everyday i'm more sure this is a letter from mike to will he never sent. i think it's something like "anyway i think you'll like it, sorry i couldn't get it done in time but you mean so much to me and it's been weird here without you/so long since i saw you, i hope this is enough to last until we see each other (?). love, mike." simply cause why wouldn't it be a letter to will? mike would not sign his letters to el "love, mike", and he only told her he loved her cause of the version of her will put in his head (which doesn't exist), because will encouraged him to and because el was in danger and he thought it would do, so i don't believe he signed any letters to her with "love, mike". lettergate feels too good to be true yet it makes so much sense

[unclewaynemunson]

Pt2 to this post

'Is something wrong?' Nancy asks, not long after the two of them have taken their familiar spots on the hood of Steve's car. They're basking in what might be the last warm sunlight of the year, looking out over the quarry, at a safe distance from the edge.

It's become a tradition the two of them share, ever since they reconnected back in March. It calms them both, to just sit here and take in the view, no one around but each other. Nancy is one of the few people Steve can share a comfortable silence with: sometimes they sit here quietly for what feels like hours, side by side, listening to music or to nothing but the birds singing around them. But they also have their best conversations here: it's the place where Nancy entrusted him she wanted to break up with Jonathan; it's the place where they talked about their shared past and decided they would always love each other as friends; it's the place where they finally talked about Barbara in a way they couldn't when they were younger. It's where Nancy talked about the ghosts still haunting her and Steve talked about how lonely he sometimes felt.

Steve huffs. 'How did you guess?'

'When you frown, you always do it with your whole face,' Nancy notes. 'So it's hard to miss, really.'

Steve glances at her side profile. There's a serenity to her features that's still relatively new. It means she's healing, slowly learning how to be happy again. It means she stopped waiting for the end of the world and started believing in a real future again. It makes Steve proud of how far they both have come.

'I had a fight with Eddie,' he confesses. 'And with Dustin, I guess.'

'What happened?'

He sighs. 'It's complicated.'

'Wanna tell me about it?'

The look in her eyes is kind and inviting. Steve hesitates. He wants to, but he doesn't know if he can. It's a risk. It's scary.

But he can't imagine Nancy Wheeler ever being careless with his secrets. He can't imagine her judging him, can't imagine her being as small-minded as most people in this town.

He was planning on telling her anyway, because things had been going so well with Eddie lately and – no, he shouldn't think about that right now. But maybe it would actually be nice to talk about it with Nancy.

'So, um...' His throat feels tight and his hands are sweaty. 'I recently discovered some things about myself. I-' The words get stuck somewhere on the way to his mouth, and he clears his throat.

Nancy doesn't push, but only gives him an encouraging nod, waiting for him to find his voice again.

'I found out I like boys,' he finally manages to confess. 'And I need you to know that – that that doesn't mean that what I felt for you wasn't real. It was. I loved you, and now I fell in love with a boy. And-'

'Steve.' Nancy's hand suddenly covers his, causing him to finally jerk his head away from the view over the quarry, to focus on her face again instead.

Her eyes are wide, and she squeezes his hand.

'You don't have to explain yourself to me,' she tells him. 'We're good. But thank you for telling me. For trusting me with this.'

Steve heaves out a relieved sigh, and Nancy smiles; it's that genuine kind of smile which reveals all kinds of dimples and soft lines across her face.

'We might be more similar than you thought,' she tells him, a faint blush spreading over her cheeks.

'Really?' Her words make his breath catch in his throat. He squints at her, trying to see her in this new light. 'Are you saying what I think you're saying?'

She shrugs. 'I don't know. I'm not sure yet,' she admits. 'Still figuring things out.'

'Take your time, there's no rush,' he tells her. 'But...' He bumps his shoulder against hers. 'When you're done figuring it out, talk to me, okay?'

She nods. 'Okay.'

For a while, it's quiet between the two of them. Some kind of raptor circles high above them in the sky. They both follow it with their eyes until it disappears among the tree tops west of the quarry.

'Is it Eddie?'

Steve blinks dumbly a couple of times.

'Wha- what?'

'The guy you were talking about. The one you fell in love with. It's Eddie, isn't it?'

'Jesus, Wheeler, what kind of sorceress are you?' Steve exclaims.

Nancy laughs again. 'You're not being as subtle as you think,' she tells him. 'The two of you have been hooking up for a while now, haven't you?'

Steve huffs dramatically. 'This is unfair. You know everything; I can't even tell you my own secrets anymore!'

'So what happened?' Nancy asks. 'You said you had a fight with him?'

'It's fucking stupid,' he sighs. 'Dustin was getting way too excited about the fact that I was gonna be hanging out with you, so I told him I was seeing someone. Next thing I knew, he was telling Eddie all about how I was seeing a girl.' He waves his hands around to make annoyed air quotations. 'I wanted to tell Eddie it was a misunderstanding, but Dustin was there, so I couldn't out us just like that, and he looked so betrayed and heartbroken... He didn't wanna listen to me.'

Steve sighs; he still can't manage to forget that look in Eddie's eyes when Dustin delivered the big news. 'I wish I would've talked about what I felt for him earlier. I should've been honest when I had the chance, y'know. But I was afraid he wouldn't wanna label what we had, that he wouldn't feel the same way – and now we're in this whole mess. God, he must hate me right now, Nance.'

To his surprise, Nancy gives him an unexpected slap against his arm.

'Ouch, what the hell was that for?!'

'What are you even doing here with me, Steve? You should've gone after him, tell him how you feel!'

'I tried, obviously, but he didn't wanna listen to me!'

'So make him listen! You're in love with him, he obviously feels the same way about you, and you let him leave to wallow in a broken heart he doesn't even need to have!' She rolls her eyes and slides off the car, adding something under her breath that sounds suspiciously like an exasperated 'Boys!' before she pulls Steve off the car as well. 'C'mon, time to get your ass over to the trailer park. Right. Now,' she says through gritted teeth. And, well, Steve knows better than to argue with a determined - and truthfully quite terrifying - Nancy Wheeler.

Read the last part here Taglist: @withacapitalp @ultimatedreamer104 @irregular-child @jcmadgirl @estrellami-1 @myguiltyartpleasure @hallucinatedjosten @jaybren @thew1ldblueyonder @melodymeddler @alycatavatar @zoeweee @lolawonsstuff @fairy-princette @saramelaniemoon @phirex22 @krazyperson @xxsky-shockxx (I only put people on this list who explicitly asked to be tagged. That's really no problem, I love to do that so dw about asking, but I got a lot of relatively vague reactions to the previous post that i'm not gonna dissect and interpret, bc I don't wanna clog anyone's notes unwanted. So just to be clear: i consider it a huge compliment if anyone asks for a tag but please do it clearly if you do!)

[otrtbs]

btw people keep taking fanfic and selling it on amazon and etsy and the likes because people are buying it. stop buying fanfiction.

[emergingghost]

boygenius members' albums as moths! because! <3

[matthewrhys]

Deborah Kerr & Glynis Johns Vacation from Marriage (1945), directed by Alexander Korda

[kurtkankle]