02 | February | 2019 | Berit Talks Books

About the Book

Rebecca didn’t know love was possible until she met Paul, a man with a past as dark as her own. Their demons drew them together, but twenty years later, the damage and secrets that ignited their love are consuming their marriage. When Paul catches the attention of the police after two women go missing, Rebecca discovers he is planning a new life without her. She hatches a plan to get revenge … but nothing is what it seems. Rebecca and Paul are playing games, but someone else is playing a deadlier game. One that Rebecca and Paul can only lose. ?

Happy Saturday bibliophiles!

Excited to share with you today my audiobook review for this fascinating and diverse mystery with a splash of art!🎨

Restoration Heights
By: Wil Medearis
Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 01-22-19
Language: English
Publisher: Harlequin Audio

My Thoughts

A compelling mystery peppered with a generous amount of social issues and art!

This was a well-crafted debut that really dissected the social issues impacting New York City… Full disclosure I do not live in New York, I have never been to New York, I probably will never go to New York, I live on the other side of the country in good old southern California where we have our own set of issues…. obviously we have a lot of the same social and racial issues, we are also a melting pot, however the LA area is very spread out and from what I can tell NYC is not…. all this is to say if you are a New Yorker or familiar with the area I think this book will resonate with you a bit more than it did me… that’s not to say I did not enjoy the book, I really did, I really enjoyed the characters, I loved how the story was told, I appreciated the discussion of social issues without being preachy, and most of all I really found the mystery complex and compelling…. Wil Medearis has seamlessly woven together a book that will make you both think and feel…

Reddick is a white man living in a mostly black area of Brooklyn… this is where he is most comfortable and he is not a fan of the impending gentrification of the area… he is also a struggling artist currently working as an art handler… if you are like me and had no idea there was such an occupation, he would go to the homes of the very wealthy and hang their priceless artworks… while working in the home of a wealthy family he hears about a missing girl, and soon figures out he might be the last one to have seen her…. but what would the fiancé of such a wealthy man be doing at a party in his Brooklyn apartment building? And even more puzzling why is the fiancé not more concerned? not contacting the police? Reddick is like a dog with a bone, he will stop at nothing to figure out what happened to Hannah…

Reddick was very passionate about social and racial issues and sometimes it clouded his judgment when it came to figuring this mystery out… it also dictated him getting involved in the first place, it was never quite clear why he would care so much about a complete stranger, other than to prove that this wealthy family was up to no good…. fortunately he had many friends in his life to ground him and to bounce ideas off of… I also really liked how he used his art to try to solve the mystery…And as he got deeper into the mystery he learned that things are much more complex than they appear to be… the web of deceit knows no color!

A slow burning mystery full of well-crafted characters and some thought-provoking issues, absolutely recommend!

🎧🎧🎧 I can guarantee that the audiobook narration to this story definitely added to my enjoyment! Angelo Di Loreto has a stellar voice and really brought all these characters to life, Reddick in particular… he really painted a picture of the story with his voice! And extremely well done audio!

🎵🎵🎵 song running through my head! Lyrics to the song really have nothing to do with this book, however this really was the song running through my head, because it is set in Brooklyn

No sleep till,

Brooklyn!

Foot on the pedal

Never ever false metal

Engine running hotter than a boiling kettle

My job ain’t a job

It’s a damn good time

City to city I’m running my rhymes.

On location

Touring around the nation

Beastie Boys always on vacation

Itchy trigger finger

But a stable turntable

I do what I do best

Because I’m willing and able.

Ain’t no faking

Your money I’m taking

Going coast to coast to watch all the girlies shaking.

While you’re at the job working nine to five

The Beastie Boys at the Garden

Cold kickin’ it live.

No sleep till

Another plane

Another train

Another bottle in the brain

Another girl

Another fight

Another drive all night.

Our manager’s crazy

He always smokes dust

He’s got his own room at the back of the bus….

Beastie Boys 1986

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uZeXhC6SP2M

*** A huge thank you to Harlequin and Harper Audio for my copy of this book ***

About the Book

Reddick, a young, white artist, lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a historically black Brooklyn neighborhood besieged by gentrification. He makes rent as an art handler in Manhattan and spends his free time playing basketball at the local Y. He is also the last person to see Hannah before she disappears.When Hannah’s fiance, scion to a wealthy Upper East Side family, refuses to call the police, Reddick sets out to discover what happened to her. The search pulls him through a dramatic cross section of New York, taking him to the heart of a many-layered mystery that, in its unraveling, shakes Reddick’s convictions and lays bare the complex power dynamics of the city.In lyrical, addictive prose, Wil Medearis asks the question: In a metropolis that prides itself on its diversity and inclusivity, who has the final say over the future? Timely, page-turning and sweeping in vision, Restoration Heights is an exhilarating new entry in the canon of great New York novels.