Book Review: Ashley's War, The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

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Ashley's War:  The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a non-fiction book published in April 2015.  The story follows several women and their quest to become the first women to be in combat along the Green Berets and Army Rangers. This is a book that was selected in my workplace for discussion between women and/or veterans.  The book discussion was broken into three parts much like how the story was broken up.  It garnered great conversations. Some of the things that happened in the book didn't surprise me, such as how physically demanding the tryouts were to be part of the special operations.  It's a demanding job that requires people to be not only physically strong but mentally strong.     What did shock me was that it took the military so long to allow women to fight along men on the battlefield.  Another thing that astonished me were how accepting most of the men in the Army Rangers were of the women fight
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Book Review: Finlay Donovan is Killing It (Finlay Donovan, #1) by Elle Cosimano

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Book Review Finlay Donovan is Killing It Finlay Donovan #1 by Elle Cosimano

Finlay Donovan is Killing It (Finlay Donovan, #1) by Elle Cosimano opens with a stressed out single mother of two named Finlay Donovan, and her babysitter is a no show.  Finlay meets with her book editor, and when they are overheard discussing the plot line of the book, Finlay is mistaken as a contract killer and accepts an offer to kill someone's husband inadvertently.

This novel was chosen as the August read for the book club I belong to.  I knew this book was a popular book but not one I would have picked up on my own despite it being in my favorite genre.  I struggled with the first 125 or 150 pages of Finlay Donovan is Killing It because the premise of the book was so far fetched.  It was almost a "Did Not Finish" for me, but I didn't want to show up without finishing the book.

With that being said, I was happy that I finished the book because there were parts that I ended up enjoying, but I'm not sure why people thought this book was funny.  It was a extremely dark book, and it reminds me a bit of the television show Good Girls.  This was a fast paced novel that I finished quickly over the weekend, and I would consider it a beach read despite the dark matter.

What I found interesting was that the twenty-two year old babysitter, Vero, seemed so much more together than Finlay, who was thirty-one.  I also thought it was strange that Finlay was in her thirties but had nothing in her wardrobe other than t-shirts, jeans, and sweats.  How do you not have any business casual clothes or dresses?

There are things I did enjoy about Finlay Donovan is Killing It.  One such thing is the relationship between Finlay and Vero.  I think it was great that Finlay had someone she could implicitly trust.  The romance part of the mystery was a fun part of the storyline and trying to figure out if Finlay would end up with one of the men she was "dating".  There is also a line that says something to the effect of women needing to support other women.  This is something I completely agree with, but not in the instance of killing someone.

Despite the farfetched storyline and the main character making really stupid mistakes, I gave Finlay Donovan is Killing It (Finlay Donovan, #1) by Elle Cosimano four out of five stars.


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