xxstefaniereadsxx's reviews
1663 reviews

 

Jeanne Dominico was found dead inside her home on August 6, 2003. Her fiancée, Chris, had notified police, but took an unusually long time to answer the door when they arrived. The investigation determined that Jeanne had been stabbed and slashed with a broken steak knife found in the kitchen, with around 50 injuries total. Suspects included the ex-husband of Jeanne, as well as her current fiancée, Chris. The ex-husband had been known to be physically abusive to Jeanne. The former couple shared two children together, Charlie and Nicole, who were also interviewed by police. This case took a turn that I was not expecting, which I will not relate as to not spoil the book for anyone wanting to read it.

This case was featured on the show Wicked Attraction, (Season 3, Episode 10), if anyone is a fan of that show. The author is a decent true crime writer and always does a good job of conveying well researched facts of the case, while also writing about the people involved in a way that makes you feel like you get to know them. I did not find the book to be salacious in nature. I was pleased with this book, and am looking forward to finishing off the few I have left by this author. I guess I have to pick another house book to read now.

 

 

The author of this book certainly put in work doing the research for this book. The timeline of the insanity that is Evangelicalism and White Christian Nationalism is easy to follow, despite being abhorrent. There were plenty of specific talking points in this book, including televangelists, political figures, media figures, etc. This book explains how all of these people got in bed with each other to push their agenda onto everyone else. (Which really infuriates me when I hear how Christians are so persecuted...they are clearly the ones doing the persecuting and indoctrinating.) It also discussed a bit about that Islamophobia in the wake of 9/11 and the subsequent wars in the middle east. Certainly, there was plenty to be said about the hate for LGBTQ, minorities, and women. (These people HATE women, and there is nothing anyone can say that will ever convince me otherwise.) I have never been able to understand why these people have rallied behind Donald Trump, of all people, but they have and continue to do so. I think this book provided some good insights as to why.



I have been listening to this book for several days on my commute to and from work. It is an absolute miracle that people that were next to me at traffic lights did not think I was insane and call the police for the very audible and visible comments I was making. Likewise, it is an absolute miracle that my eyeballs did not detach and roll around the world at some of the things in this book. The tragic part of it all was that I know so many people exactly like the ones discussed in this book. I have never been so glad that I have blocked my entire family on social media and stay away from family function. I have never been so glad that my personality type was not one that ever indoctrinated to their organized religion, and even more glad that I do not participate in such stuff. I said so many times during this book "that explains so much" and "that completely tracks" with the experiences I have had so far in my life. This book was really useful in understanding the current political and social climate that is going on in America today, though I doubt anyone can really comprehend what goes on in these peoples' heads.

 

The only reason I am giving this book two stars is because I appreciate that the author keeps up with the timeline by mentioning current events and new forensic and scientific technologies. The author always does an impressive and extensive amount of research going onto the next book in this series. I would also like to state that I am typically a nonfiction reader, and I only read two series with religiosity- this is one of the two. I enjoyed this series tremendously when I found it several years ago, and I have read every book. If I didn't take my commitment to the series seriously, I would have divorced it by now. I truly hope there is another book in the series and that it goes back to being a three- and four-star review series for me, but this one did not cut the mustard. I wasn't sure my eyeballs could handle much more rolling. The last few chapters of the book were really interesting, though the bulk of the book was spent on Kay thinking about her past relationships, Lucy's past relationships, Marino's past relationships, etc. This book could have been considerably less tedious, and the last few chapters where the case was wrapped up with a cute little bow, though interesting, was somewhat of a letdown. Spoilers ahead.


******SPOILER ALERT BELOW THIS POINT******

Lucy: Slightly less annoying in this book than in previous ones. I really miss the days when she was my favorite character, but that ship has sailed, I am afraid. Her attitude is infuriating, though she was not quite as self-important in this book as in prior ones. 

Dorothy: Still annoying. Still hate her. 

Marino: When you read a fiction book, you typically like to escape the world. Marino is the embodiment of the people in my geographical region I strive to avoid. We have so many people just like that, and now that he has embraced the bigfoot hunting and alien watching, it is just.... he didn't need another quality to make him distasteful. 

Kay: I realize she is the main character, thus the hero of the story, but WOW. I can see where Lucy's sense of self-importance comes from. She absorbed it from this one. 

The Villains: There are plenty of extremely unlikeable characters throughout this entire series, and there were several in this book. Why do none of these people ever die?? And why can we not finally get rid of one of these people for good?? We do not need to resurrect them every few books simply to irritate the masses. 

This memoir discusses an upbringing in the Jewish Orthodox faith. I didn't really know much about this religious group before reading this book. I learned a great deal about the customs and beliefs of those who practice this faith. I can understand why anyone would want to deconstruct and leave any kind of organized religion, but it was really interesting to follow someone else's journey. This was a good book to start the new year, new reading challenge off with. 

Simon Winchester is one of my favorites. I have enjoyed every book of his that I have read so far. This book held a really interesting history of the Atlantic that I hadn't ever really considered. There have been so many events, from natural disasters to manmade issues. It never would have occurred to me to put them together to make a concise history.

 I have always had an interest in family dynasties, and the Kennedy family certainly falls into that category. I probably would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I wasn't so sick of RFK JR being on my news feeds saying nonsense with his creepy voice. He is a resounding disappointment to the Kennedy family, and I wonder what the prior members would have thought about him. At any rate, this book was interesting enough to read. This author has written multiple books on the Kennedy family if you are interested. 

 Nick Irving, Special Operations Direct Action Sniper, details his deadly record during his military service in this book. It is always interesting to know the motivation behind joining the military, because it is my personal experience that the people from my hometown joined to get out of this town. It is interesting to see what the motivation is for becoming a Special Ops person, and learning about some of the training, which takes some real determination to complete, is like. People love a war story, especially the ones that have never experienced war. I am sure this book would appeal to many like that. Overall, the book was a decent read.

I have a whole collection of books from the Global War on Terror that I have put off reading for personal reasons. I hope to finish this stack of unread books in the coming year and move them out of my house. If you follow my reviews, I apologize in advance for the number of books of this content that will be in your feed next year, but they must go. 

This book was suggested to me by someone who thought I would like to learn more about the history of pirating. The book was pretty interesting, going into detail about one of the most well-known pirates, Captain Morgan, and all of the things that they got up to.  If you are interested in pirates or sea history, this might be something to look into. 

 Edward Wayne Edwards was born in Ohio in 1933. Edwards grew up in a Catholic orphanage, where he claims he was abused by nuns. After having read other books about the abusive nuns in other schools...this claim is likely true. Edwards joined the Marines but eventually went AWOL and was discharged. Edwards held a series of random jobs and frequently moved around the country. Edwards was wanted by the FBI at one point for multiple robberies. He was wanted again in the 1980s for arson. Edwards was eventually apprehended for the murders of five people, though the number is expected to be much higher. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection but died of natural causes before his execution date. This book was written by his daughter, April, who details a childhood filled with poverty, uprooting, and extreme violence. April discusses Edwards and his extreme physical abuse of her mother and all of the children. He was also abusive to animals, killing them and attempting to kill them. His temper and personality were fear inducing and the lack of care that he showed towards his family was terrible to read. There were many instances of outright cruelty in this book that were just disgusting.

I have the Audible version of this book, which is several hours long. It took me a few days to listen, as I am unable to listen to books at my new job. The physical copy of this book is around 400 pages. I am a firm believer that people often dismiss the family members of those who have done terrible crimes. I think that is especially true in the case of children. People often assume that the family of the criminal must have known what they were up to, helped them do the thing, or covered up for them in some way. That may be true in many cases, but it is certainly not true in all of them. Especially when it comes to the children. Children are often unaware of what adults get up to in their spare time. Children are also often victims of various types of abuse, as is the case with the author of this book. Often, children do not gain clarity on their childhood experiences until much later in life and often require extensive therapy. It is easy for the public to condemn the family of the criminal along with them, but that should not be a default thing to do. I appreciate the author for being willing to share her story and her conflicted emotions about her realizations. I hate to say this was a good read, but it was. 

Hurricane season in the Americas typically occurs from June through November. Hurricanes have occurred throughout the centuries, but it is easy to forget about that. This book provides a pretty detailed history of hurricanes that have impacted the Americas and the ships in the waterways over five hundred years. This was a pretty interesting book, but I do typically like books about disasters and weather events.