✨Book Review✨

Hey, hey, hey! 👋🏻 My bestie was here for the weekend, so I was out of pocket…but, I’m back with a book I finished last night!

Thanks for @netgalley and @penguinbooks for this eARC.

Karen Winn’s debut novel is a coming of age story about a young teen coming to terms with the summer her entire life changed. Living on a small cul-de-sac in 1985 Bee and her sister, Audrina, befriend the new kids who just moved in across the street. Max is the same age as Bee, but he also has a 4-year-old sister, Sally. In a devastating twist, Sally goes missing at the local swimming lake shortly after they arrive.

The novel grapples with how the family, the neighborhood and the small community handle this unbelievable tragedy. Then, Bee alludes to how her sister will die soon… You can tell throughout the book that Bee is looking back to how her childhood has molded her to be the adult she is at present.

This turned out to be an impromptu buddy read, my first with @picture_pretty_books and @brandy_reads and we all finished feeling about the same way. Winn‘s writing style flowed extremely well and I enjoyed her writing. However, for a character driven novel, it almost felt like it was trying to be a mystery at the same time? I will definitely read a second book by her, but I wonder if one without the mystery/thriller twist might be better? Overall, a good read, but not something I’m going to shove into other readers’ hands. Solid debut.

Publication Day: Tomorrow! 5/3/2022

It may sound cliché but the best way I can describe this book is beautifully tragic. This is one of those books that you just know will stay with you forever. If you have a sister this will make you relate so much to all the emotions you feel towards them growing up. How confusing it is to be jealous or hate them one second but love them deeper than the ocean the next. I rarely read a book and immediately think "this should be or would be a great movie" but I did with this one. A fantastic first novel from Karen Winn and I will be waiting for her next release. I enjoyed her writing style and storytelling that had me eager to turn the page to discover more of what other secrets the summer of 1985 held.

This book. 💔

This story takes place in the 80s and transported me back to my childhood, but it was absolutely heartbreaking.

We follow Bee and her sister Audrina (middle schoolers) during an innocent summer that is forever marked by tragedy. As the sisters have grown up, they’ve also started to grow apart and Bee is struggling with that. One fateful day, they head to the beach with their new neighbors- Max and his little sister Sally. What starts as a fun outing, ends in an absolute nightmare when Sally goes missing.

As this small town tries to wrap their heads around a child being abducted in such a public place, the families navigate through trauma and the difficult emotions that come with it.

I won’t lie to you- this book is incredibly sad. There was so much devastating loss in this book that it was difficult to read and hard on my heart. However, the story is beautifully written and it gave me serious nostalgia. I look forward to seeing what Karen Winn comes out with next. Thank you Netgalley and Dutton Books for this advance reading copy.

Our Little World is a coming-of-age story about a family who is touched by tragedy. The story is set in the 1980s and largely follows Bee and Audrina, sisters who are friends with a younger girl who goes missing. I really liked the writing style, but found Bee's story a little repetitive and moved slowly. It is largely a slow burn, interior novel, similar to the style of Celeste Ng. The characters are written in a very honest way. They're not always likeable, but they feel very real. I found it compelling to learn how they lost their innocence due to the tragedy that lies so close.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

This book left me speechless (not something that is easy to do!!) The writing was incredible, the story was heartbreaking and the characters were so realistic that they could have easily been someone I knew in high school. Karen Winn truly wrote an incredible book - a little suspense, a little drama, a lot of angst and growth. Everything about the story was flawed, making it that much better and more believable. Have your tissues ready, because the tears will flow in this one!

July 1985 in NJ, 7th grader, Bee spends her days with friends and her sister, Audrina. That is until 4 year old Sally (her neighbor) goes missing. During this time, Bee’s family life becomes strained and difficult - her relationship with her sister pushed to the limit, a family tragedy and lots of secrets. Will Bee be able to handle the emotional turmoil? Will the secrets be exposed?

Dare I say riveting? I do not dare because while the idea of the book is riveting the execution is not so. Now don’t get me wrong was it a good story? yes, no doubt. However I think i was gagged, tricked, and manipulated into thinking the missing kid would be an important aspect in the story. I mean I was 44% in and knew about as much as I did when I started the book. The missing kid story was pointless we got NOTHING, zilch, until the until the epilogue. It was so pointless, and the story would’ve been better off without it. If we took the missing kid out and just focused on the relationships that main character had it would be a 4 star read but I couldn’t focus on that because I was to fixated on learning about what the heck happened to sally

Our Little World by Karen Winn is both a nostalgic look back at the mid-80s and a fascinating mystery. This coming-of-age novel is set in the mid-’80s in a cul de sac in a small town in New Jersey. The story is about the loss of innocence, sisters, and growing up. All this is written by a debut author!

Bee Kocsis is just about to start seventh grade when a new family moves in across the street in their cul de sac in their small-town New Jersey. Max Baxter is close to Bee’s age and Sally Baxter is only three years old and they become friends with Bee and her younger sister Audrina. Bee and Audrina are only a year apart, and they are best friends and worst enemies at the same time. Bee is convinced that her sister Audrina is much prettier and more social than Bee, and this causes some jealousy between the sisters.

Their idyllic life on the cul de sac is shattered when little Sally goes missing at the Deer Chase Lake on a hot summer day. Bee, Audrina, and Max are all at the lake when she goes missing, but nobody knows what happened to Sally. Bee’s relationship with her sister changes, as does the relationships of the adults on the cul de sac as the investigation into Sally’s disappearance continues.

Our Little World is full of nostalgia, mystery, angst, and emotions. I read this in one sitting, as I couldn’t wait to see what happened to Sally, and I enjoyed the writing so much. I was a young woman in the mid-80s and I found this book to be very true to life in the mid-80s. The descriptions of the cul de sac, the beach at the lake, and school felt very realistic and they brought back memories of my own childhood.

I liked that the mystery of Sally’s disappearance is completely told through the eyes of Bee, and the author did an excellent job of telling the story through an adolescent’s eyes and not that of an adult. The relationship between Bee and Audrina is so authentic. They are best friends one minute and sworn enemies the next, but there is always their underlying love for each other.


I highly recommend Our Little World by Karen Winn to anyone who enjoys historical fiction with a bit of mystery. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Our Little Wold by Karen Winn
A special thanks to Penguin group Dutton and NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Karen Winn is a new author for me but I so enjoyed the blast from the bast this book brought.
Set in the 80s in a cul-de-sac housing community in New Jersey. Bee is a soon to be 7th grader, Audrina may be the younger sister but she always seems to be in the spot light. But when the new neighbor girl goes missing their whole world changes.
The bond between Bee and Audrina was truly something special. I really enjoyed this book. It held my interest and the characters were spot on. Please check out the debut book Our Little World by Karen Winn

This is a fascinating coming-of-age debut novel that kept me intrigued throughout.

Set in a Jersey suburb during the mid-80s, the story centers around Bee and Audrina, who are preteens when their 4-year-old neighbor goes missing during a trip to the town lake. Things quickly start to unravel for the sisters, their families and the neighborhood.

It was interesting and unexpected for me as a reader just how much of this novel centered on teenager Bee. Whenever I got frustrated with her, I had to remind myself just how old she was. I thought there may be more mystery/thriller type vibes but its themes are more domestic, small-town forward.

In all transparency, I did partly pick this up because of the New Jersey connection and I was pleasantly surprised! I look forward to seeing what author Karen Winn writes next.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for providing me with an advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When 12-year-old Max Baker and his four-year old sister Sally moved next door to the Kocsis family, life would never be the same for the small New Jersey town of Hammend. It was June 1985 and the world had seemed like a sweet, safe place to sisters Bee and Audrina Kocsis. Close in age, 12-year-old Bee was the good student, and a bit of a tomboy and Audrina was the beautiful one exuding great confidence, with everyone falling under her spell. As this emotional, coming-of-age book begins, Bee is looking back at her childhood, and we learn that tragedy is just around the corner.

Once the world of this small community starts to fall apart, relationships are challenged, including the close bond of the two sisters who had previously managed to work through their differences. But their sadness, along with lies, jealously and guilt, take them to the breaking point. Our Little World is Karen Winn’s impressive writing debut. Her childhood in New Jersey provided the author with lots of inspiration to tell a story about life in a seemingly idyllic town. The characters in this book were well developed and their pain rang very true. This haunting book left me weeping.

Having raised my family in a nearby town to the one that inspired this book, Our Little World felt extremely real and perhaps a little too close for comfort. I highly recommend reading it – just keep some Kleenex nearby.

This is a poignant story. It explores how one woman’s trauma in her youth affects the rest of her life. It explores the emotional ups and downs through the voice of the young girl and the adult. It also reflects on how those around her deal with the the deaths differently. It is also about sisterhood. It shows how complicated the relationship can be and how not even death can break that bond.

This debut novel made me feel so many things. It’s focus shifts around family, loss, a kidnapping, and growing up, but it’s essence is rooted in the sisterhood between Bee and Audrina.

The small town of Hammond is rocked when 4 year old Sally Baker, Audrina’s best friend, goes missing from the lake. She is never found. This sets in motion Bee’s story, her ascension from a child to a teen, in a world where she thought she was perfectly safe.

Bee constantly compares herself to her beautiful younger sister and though they clearly love one another, it’s always a competition between the two sisters.

This novel was a journey I wasn’t expecting — emotionally, especially. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Holy smokes…. what an emotional ride.

I found the aspect of Sally’s disappearance interesting & I’m glad that we were able to find out what happened (I would’ve been so upset if the author left us hanging). I really enjoyed reading about Bee and Audrina because it reminded me of me & my sister and our relationship growing up.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one but it definitely made me sad 😕

In July 1985 a new family moves in across the street from Bee & Audrina Kocsis. They have two kids - Max is Bee's age and Sally is four and half. One day on a trip to the lake with the two families, Sally goes missing, and is never found. Her disappearance shatters the feeling of safety in the small town, and parents quit letting their kids out. As time goes by with no clues to what happened to little Sally, life starts to go on again, but secrets being kept by several members of the Kocsis house are close to fracturing their lives as they know it.
This book was well-written and the author did a good job describing the complicated bond between sisters. It was a very sad book and it did seem to drag at times but overall it was a good read.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Bee and her sister befriend children who move across the street from them. In an afternoon at the lake, the young neighbor girl goes missing. Bee keeps a secret that may or may not be irrelevant. Life goes on unhappily, with tensions in the household, knowledge of her father's faults, and the sister's illness.

The ending is both heartbreaking and satisfying.

This is a hard review for me to write / book for me to review. I picked it up because, having grown up in the great Garden State, I will read anything that is set in New Jersey. This is not a happy story though. And that’s okay - many of my favorite books are not “feel good” stories.

A coming-of-age story about two sisters, the beginning of the book gave me Now and Then vibes - neighborhood kids with a whole summer ahead of them. Then tragedy strikes and a 4-year-old girl goes missing. I was expecting the rest of the book to focus on the missing girl, but it covered so much more ground, and that’s actually when it started to hit a little too close to home for me… to the point that I almost set the book aside around the halfway mark because it was becoming difficult for me to read based on my personal experience. But that’s no fault of the book or the author!

I loved the mid-1980s setting and the cultural references were so fun. However, this story is slloooooww. While I think the writing was impressive for a debut author, it felt a little too dense for the story and the reading mood I found myself in this month. Many people have loved this one, so it just might not have been for me.

Our little world starts with a horrible tragedy. Then it ends with a horrible tragedy. In between are the many but not terribly deep thoughts and experiences of preteen Bee. Bee could be fascinating. She borders on it many times. She just never gets there. Had the story been told in some other order maybe it would have made it. Instead, it. Is touching but depressing. Bee could have looked inward more. She didn’t. The author tried to make up for it at the end, but it all felt rushed. An afterthought.

Karen Winn's debut novel Our Little World deserves the highest acclaim on the book review sites. Karen's writing is raw, emotional, heartfelt, and lives up to the hype!

Synopsis:
Bee Kocsis and her younger sister Audrina are two typical girls ages 12 and 11, growing up in the '80s. Though they have normal sibling rivalry, the sisters are very close. Their primary interest is dreamy Max Baker, a neighborhood boy Bee's age, and his adorable little sister Sally. During the summer, both moms alternate carpooling the kids to entertaining activities until one day when 4-year-old Sally disappears in a dramatic life-changing event.

I find it amazing that Our Little World is a debut novel. It's such an impressive read with stunning plot twists. I am eager to read more books by Karen Winn. She has proven herself as a mega-talented novelist! Our Little World is available on May 3rd. (4.75 ⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Warning: The contents of this book include death, diabetes, infidelity, grief, kidnapping, insecurity, and mental disorders.

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton, for allowing me to review this outstanding debut. I am grateful for your kindness.💓

Karen Winn's debut novel is a coming of age story about an awkward, preteen named Borka, or Bee, as she liked to be called. Her father is Hungarian, so she was saddled with the family name, while her younger sister, Audrina, received the more normal, beautiful name. The setting is in the mid 1980's New Jersey, and a new family has moved to the small town from the big city of Boston.

Bee likes Max, who is her own age, and his four year-old little sister Sally. But when they seem to really like Audrina, Bee begins to feel that little green monster of jealousy invade. Then, tragedy strikes and the two sisters become closer than they ever have before. As time goes by, friends come and go, and their relationship is strained by more negative news.

Winn is a masterful storyteller. I was transported back to my childhood during the 1980's, and I could feel the awkwardness and enviousness that transpired with the girls. I enjoyed reading this and also having the mystery resolved at the end. This will be a story that will stay with me for a while.

Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the digital ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.