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The Raw and The Cooked

Simple Meals + Honest Book Reviews + Practical Living

A Very Bingeable Read | Bonfire by Krysten Ritter

A Very Bingeable Read | Bonfire by Krysten Ritter | Review by Dara Boxer at Peonies and Bees

I’m going to tell you right off the bat, if you’re into mystery thrillers, you’ve read some variation of Bonfire‘s storyline a million times before: a girl from a small town with a cold disposition and strained relationships moves to the big city to become a lawyer / journalist / etc. Girl comes back 10+ years later to solve a mystery, or resolve tangled threads of her past, which usually involves one of the popular girls who went missing around the same time our protagonist left their small town….

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My Morning Routine with a 3 Month Old Baby

If there’s one word that can describe my new morning routine it would be chaotic (I’d choose cluster f*ck, but that’s two words) . Naomi isn’t on any sort of schedule yet — my boobs are an open buffet and she seldom naps. With that, here’s what our typical morning looks like if we don’t have anywhere to be before 12pm. (Psst…I quickly learned to stop scheduling anything before 12pm).

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Bedtime Stories | Crooked House by Agatha Christie

Book Review by Dara Boxer at Peonies and Bees | Crooked House by Agatha Christie

It’s strongly advised to any new parent to begin a ‘bedtime routine’ for your little one as soon as possible. What that means for a baby under 3 months? I have no idea. My husband and I were just desperate to get the crying bloody murder screams thatwentonforhoursonend to subside. The Witching Hour is a f*cking nightmare, but it does come to an end, even though it feels like it never will.

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Book Review | Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Book Review | Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens | By Dara Boxer at Peonies and Bees

I recently finished Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I found myself drawn to the story and felt deeply committed to our main protagonist towards the end of the novel. It was an extremelly sad, yet sweet story about The Marsh Girl, and I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for your next read.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

We’re taken to Barkley Cove, a small town along the coast of North Carolina in the 1960’s, where we meet Kya Clark — a young girl left completely abandoned by her family, living in solitude in the shack she calls home. Kya learns to fend for herself, finding any means to survive, mainly by way of the marsh, her safe haven. Hence the nickname the townspeople gave her, The Marsh Girl.

Delia Owens paints two storylines for us. The first being Kya’s coming of age story, starting when she was a small girl, freshly abandoned by her family. We follow Kya through her lonely childhood where she is ridiculed out of school, illiterate until she’s a teenager. We watch Kya blossom in her adolescence, falling in love with both men and nature. But mostly her love with nature, the beauty she finds within the marsh.

And then Kya’s story intertwines with the murder of Chase Andrews, a well loved young man whose body is found dead at the bottom of a water tower. Chase and Kya dated for a brief period of time several years back, so naturally the murder investigation points in her direction. Of course it would. She’s the town outcast, and it makes the most sense, right? The two leading detectives arrest Kya for Chase’s murder. But do they have it all wrong?

The story was beautifully written, vivid with color and nature and sadness. It was definitely an enjoyable listen during frigid winter walks with my baby bundled in her stroller. Would recommend!