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The Raw and The Cooked

Simple Meals + Honest Book Reviews + Practical Living

The Best Books of Twenty Seventeen, According to GoodReads

3 Excellent Non-Fictions I Recommend by Dara Boxer at Peonies and Bees‘Twas the Saturday before Christmas… I’m currently sitting on a train, heading up to NYC for Christmas. My husband and I are spending the holiday weekend with his parents and his sister. With roughly three hours on the train between DC and NYC, I decided blogging is how I’m going to pass the time.

Alright ladies. After three million, eight hundred eighty-seven thousand, nine hundred and fifty votes the BEST BOOKS of 2017, according to GoodReads is HERE!  Since I live and breathe by GR ratings and reviews, I had to share the winners with you, and of course my thoughts on each said genre winner.  …

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Overrated Reads | Volume No. 7

Overrated Reads | Volume No. 7 | By Dara Boxer @ Peonies and BeesI know that no two people read the same book. I’m sure a novel that I love and cherish is a novel that another person can’t seem to get through, and vice versa. Here, I’m targeting books that we’re given high praise and seriously pushed into the main stream as ‘must-reads.’

Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand how subjective my Overrated Reads series is, but hey! It’s my blog and my opinion. Take these brief reviews with a grain of salt.

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New Adult + Young Adult Novels You Should Read

New Adult + Young Adult Books to Read | Dara Boxer @ Peonies and Bees Alright, so I have a soft spot in my heart for Young Adult / New Adult novels. I think you’d be lying if you said you didn’t love them too. I also have a tough time figuring out if a book is Young Adult or New Adult — can someone please help me out with that one?

ANYWAY. This year I’ve read quite a handful of swoon-worthy YA / NA books and I’m here to share with you my favorites, and ones that you should most certainly add to your Want-To-Read list!…

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Why I Didn’t Like Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

Into the Water Book Review @ Peonies and Bees by Dara BoxerYou all know my gripe with authors who have a smashing mega success with their first book, and then a total and utter flop with their second. I’m talking about Mary Kubica, Shari Lapena, Ruth Ware, and now I’m adding another author to this list — Paula Hawkins. Why does this keep happening? And why do we continue to assume that these authors with mind-blowing first novels will be able to duplicate the success with their second novel?

I don’t even know where to start with why I disliked Into the Water. Note: no spoilers will be in this post. …

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The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr

The Sinner Book Review @ Peonies and Bees by Dara BoxerThe Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr was originally published in Germany, where it remained on the bestsellers list for fifteen consecutive months. It was recently picked up as a mini-series by USA staring Jessica Biel. After reading the synopsis, I decided to give it a go — and also forced my friends to read it with me so we could discuss it over dinner & drinks this past weekend. Overall, all three of us enjoyed it, albeit had strongly mixed feelings along the way.

The Sinner is an excellent book club choice and I’m here to tell you why. …

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Overrated Reads | Volume No. 6

Overrated Reads | Volume No. 6 @ Peonies and Bees by Dara BoxerI know no one reads the same book. With that said, at any given time, there are always a handful of newly released novels that sing praise holier than thou, and I’m here to put a stop to this madness. Today, I’m giving you my honest opinion on three books that I dub OVERRATED.

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