The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin

How do I even begin to explain this book...

Let me start with, this isn't for everyone. You will want unusual stories with a specific brand of humor. Though this is a mystery, I am not sure how intriguing that was and was more of a device just to keep moving through Toy Town and to the next character.

I am getting ahead of myself though. 

So this was a book club pick, and this is why I love my book club. I am being exposed to books and authors that I would never naturally gravitate to or pick up. I liked the writing style in this book. I know some of the other members did not but I was entertained by it. It is the rest that kind of fell flat for me. I felt like maybe the author was trying just a smidge too hard to make the story absurd.

Jack is heading to the city to seek his fortune. After having a rough start to his adventure he ends up in The City finally only to realize that its inhabitants are all toys. These toys are second class citizens to the humans that are nursery rhyme characters that are being murdered in the order of their fame.

In this chaos Jack meets Eddie who is an alcoholic teddy bear who is searching for the missing the Detective Bill Winkie who was tasked with finding out who was murdering the nursery rhyme characters.

I liked the play on the characters and would have been happy travelling through Toy City learning about them in this odd retelling. I think the mystery just kind of through a wrench in me liking the story.

For Better and Worse by Margot Hunt

An entertaining book I kept coming back to see what would happen next.

Natalie and Will are married with an 11 year old son, Charlie. Their marriage is okay, fraying a bit around the edges. Then everything implodes. As they pull into school one morning there are police there. As the gossip mill turns the reason is quickly spread around the small community.

The principle, Robert, is being charged with a horrible crime against one of Charlie’s schoolmates. All the parents are shocked, but Nat believes the former family friend might be painted in a bad light.. Being a defense attorney, Nat digs in to learn more and as things are revealed decides to take matters into her own hands to correct what has happened to her family.

There are many difficult topics in this book that I think for the most part were handled well. I did not like Will and this could have been by author design. He was typical party frat boy married facing midlife crisis and blaming everyone but himself for his problems. We think he sees the error in his ways but the ending leaves a lot of open story lines, which I love and hate.

Thanks to Netgalley for sharing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.