en-US Thu, 01 May 2025 04:22:06 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 211399784 To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER �� An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

“P������ Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story�� through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.]]> 448 Layne Fargo 0593732049 Holly 3
Many of the characters are truly obsessed with skating and all things that lead to Olympic gold. Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha are front and center of the story. They don't have the money it takes to get the best training, but things go their way and they get the chance of a lifetime.

As we follow their journey/romance, there is quite a bit of drama. The young love romance for me seemed a bit juvenile with the jealously and pettiness. I was pulling for them though.

I enjoyed it off an on! Take it or leave it! I love a soapy tale, but this one was too drawn out and no one was really likable enough to shine.

I read the kindle ebook. Published Jan 2025]]> 4.17 2025
author: Layne Fargo
name: Holly
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/30
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: read-in-2025, slow-burner, some-romance
review:
Overall a good book, BUT too long (448 pages) for my liking and just too much skating/details ( I know its a book about skating)!

Many of the characters are truly obsessed with skating and all things that lead to Olympic gold. Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha are front and center of the story. They don't have the money it takes to get the best training, but things go their way and they get the chance of a lifetime.

As we follow their journey/romance, there is quite a bit of drama. The young love romance for me seemed a bit juvenile with the jealously and pettiness. I was pulling for them though.

I enjoyed it off an on! Take it or leave it! I love a soapy tale, but this one was too drawn out and no one was really likable enough to shine.

I read the kindle ebook. Published Jan 2025
]]> 216546679 What if you saw who tried to murder you but can’t remember, and now your life hangs in the balance out of your control?

Rita Burch is a rising star. The founder of a huge clothing brand, she is on the brink of financial nirvana. Her company is set to go public with a valuation of over one billion dollars when her body is found broken and unconscious, a victim of an apparent accident. Comatose, and fighting for her life, determined to wake, she learns she can leave her body.

Following the detectives as they investigate her accident, probing for clues, Rita learns disturbing details about herself.

Shocked by her life, she faces a dilemma. Even if she could, would she want to live?
]]> 295 D.J. Maughan 1964230047 Holly 3
A bit predictable and nothing new, but I was entertained throughout and really enjoyed the two detectives.

Free from KU!]]> 4.10
author: D.J. Maughan
name: Holly
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/30
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: kindle-unlimited, psychological-thriller, read-in-2025
review:
A solid three star read.

A bit predictable and nothing new, but I was entertained throughout and really enjoyed the two detectives.

Free from KU!
]]> 223688351 Would you defend your husband if he was accused of killing his mistress?

Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned.

The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working.

Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers.

Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home.

Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress.

But is Adam guilty or is he innocent?]]> 352 Jeneva Rose Holly 4 4.01 2020
author: Jeneva Rose
name: Holly
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: kindle-unlimited, read-in-2025, couldn-t-put-down, had-to-finish
review:
I was looking for a bonkers book that would be hard to put down and this was it!!!!
]]> 218155612 Northern Virginia’s own Martha Stewart returns in a brand-new mystery as an interior designer clashes with a killer . . .

Stylish brunches are all the rage this autumn in Old Town Alexandria, and everyone’s posting their parties on social media. But while Domestic Diva Sophie Winston juggles her event-filled calendar, she’s approached by local designer Mitzi Lawson—who is afraid someone is following her. The very next day Mitzi loses her best friend and business partner, Denise. The two were renovating a generations-old house where Denise died unexpectedly, and Mitzi fears that it wasn’t a medical condition to blame, but murder.

It could just be the shock talking, but Sophie agrees to help Mitzi involve the police. Then she receives a panicked phone call from Mitzi, and when she rushes to the old house, Mitzi is nowhere to be found. Now Sophie’s appetite for investigation is piqued even more than her appetite for eggs Benedict and mimosas.

Could Denise’s death be connected to her viper’s nest of in-laws or the house she was working on which her husband just inherited? What of the self-proclaimed etiquette expert with some improper secrets, or the scheming mistress? Or does the old house harbor secrets of its own? There’s a generous buffet of suspects to keep the Diva scrambling for an answer . . .
��
Includes delicious recipes and fabulous DIY decorating tips!
��]]> 320 Krista Davis 1496743458 Holly 0 to-read 4.29
author: Krista Davis
name: Holly
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 230443142 Two families vacationing at a secluded lake resort are at the center of a chilling crime and mysterious disappearance in this twisty, unputdownable thriller

A stunning discovery��
Courtney Gray's tranquil family vacation is shattered when she hears a blood-curdling scream from the lakeside cottage next door. There she finds the lifeless bodies of her brother and sister-in-law. Her teenage niece Reese is nowhere to be found, while her nephew Wyatt lies asleep upstairs, unharmed.

A shocking investigation��
As the police descend on the quiet resort town, disturbing secrets about Courtney’s family start to emerge. When she learns that the town has secrets of its own, it makes her wonder if Reese is another victim in a brutal crime or if she’s the killer.

A truth no one could have imagined ��
As Courtney begins to unravel the terrible mystery, she realizes that everyone around her has something to hide. And the closer she gets to the truth, the harder it is to see…]]> 368 Mary Kubica 0778387992 Holly 0 to-read 4.67 2026
author: Mary Kubica
name: Holly
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217387729 The next riveting summer suspense by the author of THE BLOCK PARTY and ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY, Jamie Day.

WILL THIS BE THE BEST WEEK OF THEIR LIVES... OR THE LAST?

JULIA, DAVID, AND ERIKA grew up together spending summers at their idyllic Vermont lake homes for as long as they can remember. Now adults—with their own sullen teens, endless mortgages, and low-voltage sex lives—the three friends have amassed secrets over the years.

This summer, David is eager to show off his newly renovated home—which now blocks his friends�� cherished lake views—and his much-younger girlfriend. He also, unwittingly, brings a nanny with a hidden agenda. What could possibly go wrong?

When David’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes after a shouting match, Julia and Erika wonder just how well they know their lifelong friend. The lake harbors a harrowing two young women, with no known connection, vanished without a trace thirty years ago. Did the lake take another?

As a search is mounted, an intricate web of lies, deceits, and betrayals spanning generations starts to surface, and everyone finds themselves in danger of becoming the next victim. Of the lake, or something darker.]]> 368 Jamie Day 1250358191 Holly 0 to-read 3.70
author: Jamie Day
name: Holly
average rating: 3.70
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213618135 In the aftermath of a shocking breakup, a woman's desperate quest for answers ignites a psychological inferno that will consume her past, present, and future in this hair-raising debut from an exciting new voice in suspense . . .

She’s been ghosted. But she won’t be forgotten.

Claire is excited to drop off a surprise workday lunch for her fiancé, Noah. It’s their anniversary, after all. But when the receptionist tells her that no one with Noah's name works there, Claire thinks there must be a mistake.

Noah isn't picking up her calls. Her texts go unanswered. It turns out Noah has a different life . . . one with a beautiful girlfriend, a beautiful house. Claire was never really in the picture.

Desperate to unpack all of Noah’s lies, Claire plunges into a nightmarish journey of obsession that submerges her deeper into the murky waters of her own past—a past dominated by a manipulative mother who shattered her sense of self.

Will Claire break free from the ghosts that haunt her? Or will they become more costly than any of Noah's lies?]]> 288 Callie Kazumi 0593871634 Holly 4 Someone's been ghosted!!!

Oh dear, what were you thinking?

Things have not been easy for Claire, but she has finally met someone and becomes engaged. She is on top of the world and looking forward to their future (which looks bright). One day things change and the spiral begins.......

Whats a girl to do? So many unanswered questions and Claire vows to "keep calm and carry on, or break down, cry, scream and fall into a pit of depression." She is clinging to a bit of hope, but definitely has a plan!!

I so enjoyed this debut and could have rated it higher if not for some inconsistencies during the trial. Yes, we get a trial in the second half. Overall, a well paced, intriguing book. It didn't matter that I knew where it was heading! Still a bit shocking.

Audible listen/ Narrated by Bronwen Price (awesome)/ 9 hours]]> 3.60 2025
author: Callie Kazumi
name: Holly
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: audio-edition, court-room-suspense, debut, read-in-2025, had-to-finish
review:
Someone's been ghosted!!!

Oh dear, what were you thinking?

Things have not been easy for Claire, but she has finally met someone and becomes engaged. She is on top of the world and looking forward to their future (which looks bright). One day things change and the spiral begins.......

Whats a girl to do? So many unanswered questions and Claire vows to "keep calm and carry on, or break down, cry, scream and fall into a pit of depression." She is clinging to a bit of hope, but definitely has a plan!!

I so enjoyed this debut and could have rated it higher if not for some inconsistencies during the trial. Yes, we get a trial in the second half. Overall, a well paced, intriguing book. It didn't matter that I knew where it was heading! Still a bit shocking.

Audible listen/ Narrated by Bronwen Price (awesome)/ 9 hours
]]> 212130028 When hometown horrors come back to haunt, friendship is salvation in a novel about childhood fears and buried secrets by #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Dean Koontz.

As kids, outcasts Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer, and Ernie were inseparable friends in the idyllic town of Maple Grove. Three left to pursue lofty dreams―and achieved them. Only Ernie never left. When he falls into a coma, his three amigos feel an urgent need to return home. Don’t they remember people lapsing into comas back then? And those people always awoke…didn’t they?

After two decades, not a lot has changed in Maple Grove, especially Ernie’s obnoxious, scary mother. But Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer begin to remember a hulking, murderous figure and weirdness piled on mystery that they were made to forget. As Ernie sinks deeper into darkness, something strange awaits any friend who tries to save him.

For Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer, time is running out to remember the terrors of the past in a perfect town where nothing is what it seems. For Maple Grove, it’s a chance to have the “four amigos,�� as they once called themselves, back in its grasp.]]> 399 Dean Koontz 1662500521 Holly 0 to-read 4.67 2025
author: Dean Koontz
name: Holly
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 227932643
My delicate newborn, Lola, is just perfect. She’s made our family complete. My wonderful husband Max has his own children. He doesn’t like to talk about his first wife �� and I knew it would be hard, becoming a stepmother. But now I have a child of my own, I can forget about the past.

My stepchildren say they love their new little sister, and Max is so happy. But accidents keep happening around the house. My family look at me pityingly. I know what they’re thinking. She can’t cope. But why can’t I shake the feeling something else is going on?

Then one day I go to check on Lola and what I see changes everything��

Because my baby isn't there. And my first thought is��

Is this payback for what I’ve done?

An edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller perfect for fans of Frieda McFadden, Jeneva Rose and The Girl in Seat 2A. Prepare to stay up all night reading!]]> 324 A.J. Campbell 1836186274 Holly 2 net-galley, read-in-2025 4.22
author: A.J. Campbell
name: Holly
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: net-galley, read-in-2025
review:
Kept me on the edge of my nerves (SO annoying) never on the edge of my seat.
]]> 210819353 The police officer’s voice is steady as he tells me the news. ‘Your husband is in hospital.�� My heart pounds. I think about my children, safely tucked up in bed. What will happen to us if he loses his life? And more importantly�� do the police know where I really was tonight?Everybody thinks Michael and I are the perfect couple. But everybody is wrong. Because my dear, lovely husband was at the heart of a scandal at the school where he teaches. He was cleared of any wrongdoing. At first I believed him. Now, I’m sure he’s been hiding something terrible. But I can’t tell the police a thing. Because my husband isn’t the only one with secrets.So, as I stand here knowing I have to tell my children that Michael is fighting for his life, I ask what would be worse? For my husband, the much-loved local teacher, to die? Or for him to live, and for all his lies to come home again?In the end, the choice is easy. I know what I have to do��I’ll tell the police that I would never, ever hurt my husband. But will they believe me?This is a heart-racing thriller that you won’t be able to put down! Perfect for fans of The Housemaid, Jeneva Rose and Shari Lapena.What readers are saying about AJ ��Wow�� a rollercoaster of a novel that I've just got off with my heart beating faster than 30 minutes on a treadmill!�� exactly what a thriller should be. So many twists and turns�� BAM yet another twist. What an absolutely exhilarating ride. You will now find me in a book coma and I require 5-7 business days to recover.�� ŷ������ reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐��CLEAR YOUR DIARY!!!! When you pick up this book, life as you know it will cease to exist until you have finished it�� starts off at break neck speed and doesn’t slow down!�� will have you hooked from the first paragraph. Highly recommend.�� ŷ������ reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐��OMG!�� had me racing through it�� umpteen twists and turns�� an edge-of-your-seat read�� had my heart racing. Loved it.�� ŷ������ reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘An adrenaline-fueled ride�� keeps you on the edge of your seat�� gripping�� I was completely captivated from start to finish!�� addictive and unputdownable�� heart-pounding twists that will keep you guessing until the last page�� I highly recommend and it deserves all the stars!!�� ŷ������ reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Such a gripping thriller which had me hooked from start to finish�� a fast-paced thriller with many twists and turns�� jaw-dropping�� will have you gasping out loud at parts�� fantastic.]]> 338 A.J. Campbell 1835251021 Holly 0 to-read 4.15
author: A.J. Campbell
name: Holly
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57694667
When the battered body of a female jogger is found beneath the cliffs of an idyllic coastal community, these perfect neighbors suddenly don’t seem so perfect��

Lily Bradley is a respected psychotherapist married to a distinguished professor. They live in a dream house with their two children in close-knit Story Cove. Lily lives a well-ordered life. Or so it seems. As a therapist, she knows everyone keeps things hidden. Even her.

Then sensual and free-spirited Arwen Harper rolls into town in her hand-painted VW van, her sixteen-year-old son riding shotgun. Overnight, Story Cove’s secrets are no longer safe. Because Arwen might know her new neighbors better than they know themselves.

Now someone is dead, and it looks like murder. Brutal and personal. The death invites the shrewd eye of Detective Rue Duval. Rue’s job is to expose secrets. But she’s also an expert at keeping them.

As the lives of three women become inexorably entwined, one thing is clear: when it comes to survival, ordinary people can do the most terrible things.]]> 383 Loreth Anne White Holly 3
It was a good 3 star read for me, but all the POV's were a bit distracting and I didn't realize this one was inspired by true crime or I may have chosen another from her (which I plan to do). ]]> 4.28 2022
author: Loreth Anne White
name: Holly
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: disturbing-content, favorite-author, kindle-unlimited, read-in-2025
review:
Another KU pick!

It was a good 3 star read for me, but all the POV's were a bit distracting and I didn't realize this one was inspired by true crime or I may have chosen another from her (which I plan to do).
]]> 127305853 From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie�� McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Holly 0 to-read 4.58 2024
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Holly
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 220056130 In a world of lies, the truth is her deadliest weapon.

Sierra Coleman awakens from a horrific crash, her mind a blank slate. But as she claws her way back to reality, she discovers her amnesia is just the tip of a sinister iceberg. Every "truth" she uncovers is another lie, every ally a potential enemy.

With a daughter she can't remember and a life she doesn't recognize, Sierra is thrust into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. As bodies pile up and shocking betrayals come to light, she realizes the key to her survival lies buried in her forgotten past.

Barker's razor-sharp prose slices through the pages, each revelation more stunning than the last. This relentless, twist-filled rollercoaster will have you questioning everything until its explosive finale.]]> 253 J.D. Barker Holly 0 to-read 0.0
author: J.D. Barker
name: Holly
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 219240806 From the author of the multimillion-copy bestselling thriller The Perfect Marriage

Till death do us part. Yours. Not Mine.

It’s been eleven years since high-powered attorney Sarah Morgan defended her husband, Adam, against the charge of murdering his mistress. Sarah has long since moved on, starting a family with her new husband, Bob Miller, and changing careers. Her life is back to being exactly how she always wanted �� or is it?

After discovering Bob engaged in a one-night stand, Sarah wastes no time filing for divorce. However, amid their ugly separation, new DNA evidence is uncovered in the case against Adam, forcing the police to reopen the investigation and putting Sarah right back in the spotlight. Everyone wants to know what really happened, most of all former deputy Marcus Hudson, who is hell-bent on finding the truth.

But when the woman Bob slept with is reported missing, he and Sarah start to fight dirty, and a high-stakes game of cat and mouse ensues. Filled with page-turning suspense and Jeneva Rose’s signature twists and turns, this book will have readers wondering: Can Bob and Sarah achieve the perfect divorce? Or will it be “’til death do us part��?]]> 288 Jeneva Rose Holly 0 to-read 4.15 2025
author: Jeneva Rose
name: Holly
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 215362027 A woman dives into her husband's memories to uncover a decades-old feud threatening reality itself in this staggering technothriller from the bestselling author of Ascension.

Maggie Webb has lived the last decade caring for elderly husband, Stanley, as memory loss gradually erases all the beautiful moments they created together. It's the loneliest she's ever felt in her life.

When a mysterious stranger named Hassan appears at her door, he reveals a shocking truth: Stanley isn't losing his memories. Someone is actively removing them to hide a long-buried secret from coming to light. If Maggie does what she's told, she can reverse it. She can get her husband back.

Led by Hassan and his technological marvels, Maggie breaks into her husband's mind, probing the depths of his past in an effort to save him. The deeper she dives, the more she unravels a mystery spanning continents and centuries, each layer more complex than the last.

But Hassan cannot be trusted. Not just memories are disappearing, but pieces of reality itself. If Maggie cannot find out what Stanley did all those years ago, and what Hassan is after now, she risks far more than her husband's life. The very course of human history hangs in the balance.]]> 384 Nicholas Binge 0593852168 Holly 2 audible, read-in-2025, sci-fi Enjoyed the first 30%

A great premise, but the execution failed me. The story became too monotonous, too detailed with the science (complex), the chess playing and the overall explaining of the procedures and process. Perhaps I needed to focus more and a kindle copy would have worked better! Not at all sure!

Anyway, this was a struggle to finish, but wanted to make sure I didn't miss a fantastic turnaround. I did not!

Audio was 14 hrs/ 9 min





]]> 4.14 2025
author: Nicholas Binge
name: Holly
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: audible, read-in-2025, sci-fi
review:

Enjoyed the first 30%

A great premise, but the execution failed me. The story became too monotonous, too detailed with the science (complex), the chess playing and the overall explaining of the procedures and process. Perhaps I needed to focus more and a kindle copy would have worked better! Not at all sure!

Anyway, this was a struggle to finish, but wanted to make sure I didn't miss a fantastic turnaround. I did not!

Audio was 14 hrs/ 9 min






]]> 218431658
What if there were a cure for the broken-hearted?

Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal.

Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain...and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they’re willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects.

On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog: Ava, a book illustrator; Ray, a fireman; Sasha, an occupational therapist; Sky, a free spirit; and a friendly pup named PJ. As they attempt to make their way from the Midwest all the way to the Poppy Fields—where they hope to find Ellis, its brilliant, enigmatic founder—each of their past secrets and mysterious motivations threaten to derail their voyage.

A high-concept speculative novel about heartache, hope, and human resilience, The Poppy Fields explores the path of grief and healing, a journey at once profoundly universal and unique to every person, posing the questions: How do we heal in the wake of great loss? And how far are we willing to go in order to be healed?]]> 324 Nikki Erlick 0063349337 Holly 0 to-read 4.12 2025
author: Nikki Erlick
name: Holly
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 48840119 I hope you don’t find him. And if you do, I hope he’s dead and that he suffered��

Real-estate mogul Martin Cresswell-Smith is the best thing that has ever happened to Ellie. After her daughter’s devastating death, a divorce, and an emotional breakdown, he’s helped her move as far as possible from the grief, the rage, and the monsters of her past. Ellie imagines her new home with Martin in an Australian coastal town will be like living a fairy tale. But behind closed doors is another story—one that ends in Martin’s brutal murder. And Ellie seems almost relieved��

Naturally, everyone thinks Mrs. Cresswell-Smith is guilty.

Senior Constable Lozza Bianchi has reasonable doubt. She sees evidence of a twisted psychological battle and a couple who seemed to bring out the worst in each other—adultery, abuse, betrayal, and revenge. If anything Ellie says can be believed, that is. As the case takes twist after spiraling twist, Lozza can’t shake the gut instinct that she’s being manipulated. That Ellie is hiding something. That there are secrets yet to surface. Lozza has no idea.]]> 367 Loreth Anne White Holly 0 to-read 4.23 2020
author: Loreth Anne White
name: Holly
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59719104 Strangers aboard a London bus unite to help an elderly man find his missed love connection in the heartwarming new novel from the author of The Last Chance Library.

When Libby Nicholls arrives in London, brokenhearted and with her life in tatters, the first person she meets on the bus is elderly Frank. He tells her about the time in 1962 that he met a girl on the number 88 bus with beautiful red hair just like hers. They made plans for a date at the National Gallery art museum, but Frank lost the bus ticket with her number on it. For the past sixty years, he’s ridden the same bus trying to find her, but with no luck.

Libby is inspired to action and, with the help of an unlikely companion, she papers the bus route with posters advertising their search. Libby begins to open her guarded heart to new friendships and a budding romance, as her tightly controlled world expands. But with Frank’s dementia progressing quickly, their chance of finding the girl on the 88 bus is slipping away.

More than anything, Libby wants Frank to see his lost love one more time. But their quest also shows Libby just how important it is to embrace her own chances for happiness—before it’s too late—in a beautifully uplifting novel about how a shared common experience among strangers can transform lives in the most marvelous ways.]]> 368 Freya Sampson 0593201418 Holly 0 to-read 4.02 2022
author: Freya Sampson
name: Holly
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217953376
The pulse-pounding new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of You Don't Know Me

Rose once walked away from her daughter. Now she may be the only one who can save her.

Former London police officer Rose Campbell has been estranged from her daughter, Lou, for almost a decade. But when Lou disappears from a remote beach in Western Australian--and the police suspect her of kidnapping the two young children in her care--Rose is asked to help bring Lou home.

This is the final case in DSS Mal Blackwood's illustrious career--and there's a lot riding on it. The missing children are heirs to the Fisher property empire, and while their multimillionaire grandfather is breathing down Blackwood's neck, the media storm is intensifying. Faced with a deluge of evidence and accusations, Blackwood doesn't know who he can trust.

Rose arrives in Australia intent on proving her daughter's innocence, but how can she be sure of that when she's no longer part of Lou's life? Meanwhile, as Blackwood begins to expose the Fishers' secrets, the investigation takes a dark turn. Shadows of the past gather around the Fishers, and Rose, and soon it's clear that every hour is critical. What has happened to Lou and the children? And can Rose and Blackwood find them in time?]]> 320 Sara Foster 1094094056 Holly 0 to-read 3.96
author: Sara Foster
name: Holly
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.��

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Holly 5 Straight to my FAVORITES 2025 shelf!!

He says: "Should I be worried about you spending time with Wolfe and his son?" Oh boy, he knew something when he had the awareness to ask her!

I was all consumed with all the characters and the plot. The pacing was spot on from the beginning to the last page. They were even on my mind when I wasn't reading!

The romance felt so authentic, raw, dangerous! I knew something was going to happen and my heart raced more than once. There was a thriller vibe in many of the chapters. There is heartbreak, sweet moments, unresolved grief, wine drinking, betrayal and regret. I couldn't put this down!

The secrets that blow up were emotional and full of "if onlys".

I didn't want the story to end! There is also a trial and a verdict. All the feels!! Don't miss it!

Released March 4, 2025
A Reese Book Club Pick

]]> 4.41 2025
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Holly
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: 2025-favs, domestic-suspense, enjoyed-the-characters, had-to-finish, historical-fiction, read-in-2025, romance
review:
Straight to my FAVORITES 2025 shelf!!

He says: "Should I be worried about you spending time with Wolfe and his son?" Oh boy, he knew something when he had the awareness to ask her!

I was all consumed with all the characters and the plot. The pacing was spot on from the beginning to the last page. They were even on my mind when I wasn't reading!

The romance felt so authentic, raw, dangerous! I knew something was going to happen and my heart raced more than once. There was a thriller vibe in many of the chapters. There is heartbreak, sweet moments, unresolved grief, wine drinking, betrayal and regret. I couldn't put this down!

The secrets that blow up were emotional and full of "if onlys".

I didn't want the story to end! There is also a trial and a verdict. All the feels!! Don't miss it!

Released March 4, 2025
A Reese Book Club Pick


]]> 61467934 Soon to be a major US motion picture starring Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, Mothers' Instinct is a dark, twisty domestic thriller in which the bond between two couples--best friends and next-door neighbors--mutates in dangerous and deadly ways in the wake of a tragic accident.

David and Laetitia Brunelle and Sylvain and Tiphaine Geniot are inseparable friends and next-door neighbors in a pretty, tranquil suburb. Their sons Milo and Maxime, born in the same year, grow up together as close as brothers. But when Maxime is killed in an accident, their idyllic world shatters. Maxime's parents, Sylvain and Tiphaine, are consumed by grief and bitterness, while David and Laetitia are wracked with guilt for their role in the tragedy. Soon the couples are barely speaking, although they maintain a polite facade.

Then a mysterious series of "accidents" begins to happen to Milo, raising Laetitia's suspicions. Are their former best friends trying to punish them by threatening their son? As an increasingly paranoid Laetitia frantically tries to protect Milo from harm, the little civility left between the two families curdles into outward hostility. Is Laetitia just imagining things? Or are Sylvain and Tiphaine secretly conspiring to exact their revenge . . . and if so, who will pay?

In her American debut, blockbuster Belgian author Barbara Abel plunges into the deepest, darkest corners of her characters' hearts and minds to explore the limits of friendship, the overwhelming power of maternal love, and how far hate, fear, and vengeance can drive us. Tense and blood-chilling, with a surprising final twist, Mothers' Instinct will keep you on edge until the final page.

Translated from the French by Susan Pickford]]> 352 Barbara Abel 0063306328 Holly 0 to-read 3.61 2013
author: Barbara Abel
name: Holly
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 219301723 In this twisted psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick The Last Mrs. Parrish, a woman is tormented by nightmarish visions of her future—and then they start to come true.

Annabelle has everything she’s ever wanted. A devoted husband, two wonderful daughters, and a career she loves. She couldn’t be happier. So why is she suddenly plagued by disturbing dreams of a future where she hates her husband and her daughters�� lives are at risk? At first, she chalks the dreams up to an overactive imagination. But when details from her dreams, details she couldn’t possibly have predicted, begin to materialize, she realizes these aren’t just dreams but rather premonitions of a terrifying future. They all point to a singular choice, an unknown moment that holds Annabelle’s life in the balance.

Then Annabelle has a dream that her daughter, Scarlett, is in immediate danger.��Someone wants Scarlett dead and Annabelle has no idea who or why. Suddenly, every choice she makes is fraught with peril, with no inkling of which move could bring this terrifying vision to life. As her present life starts to collide with the future in her dreams, she wrestles with how much control she really has over her destiny and whether or not she can change what is meant to be.]]> 352 Liv Constantine 0593875206 Holly 0 to-read 4.09 2025
author: Liv Constantine
name: Holly
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 229004506 #1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham is the acclaimed master of the legal thriller. Now, he’s back with his first-ever whodunit, even more suspenseful than his courtroom dramas, as a small-time lawyer accused of murder races to find the real killer to clear his name.

Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it.

Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But soon her story begins to crack. When she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t murder.

Simon knows he’s innocent. But he also knows the circumstantial evidence is against him, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. To save himself, he must find the real killer��.]]> 416 John Grisham 0385548982 Holly 0 to-read 4.50 2025
author: John Grisham
name: Holly
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 206766189 A deviously twisty novel of psychological suspense about secrets, neighbors, a need to belong, and murder by the award-winning author of The Maid’s Diary.

Socially awkward Chloe Cooper divides her time between dog walking, bartending, caring for her ailing mother, and at a safe distance, watching people and inventing the stories of their lives. Like Chloe’s new neighbors: glamorous influencer Jemma Spengler and Jemma’s husband, Adam, a renowned surgeon. They’re attractive, wealthy, and in a house of open windows, so exposed.

A move to the Pacific Northwest is supposed to be a fresh start for Jemma and Adam. It’s a renewed commitment to a marriage fractured by secrets. A chance to work through the tragic losses in their past. For Jemma, however, this new beginning also comes with an unnerving sensation that she’s being watched.

Then, on a fog-shrouded beach early in the morning, Chloe witnesses the murder of a swimmer. Her suspicions aroused, she suddenly sees her neighbors in a sinister new light. But as a detective and her partner close in, nothing is quite as it seems. Because the Spenglers are not the only ones with secrets. And Chloe isn’t the only one who’s been watching.]]> 349 Loreth Anne White 1662518919 Holly 5 My third by the author and she has never disappointed.

This was addictive and twisty with some truly narcissistic characters battling it out! ]]> 3.96 2024
author: Loreth Anne White
name: Holly
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: couldn-t-put-down, had-to-finish, psychological-thriller, read-in-2025
review:

My third by the author and she has never disappointed.

This was addictive and twisty with some truly narcissistic characters battling it out!
]]> 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Holly 3
The setting is the fictional island of Shearwater. It is a research base housing the world's largest seed bank. The Salt family are the only inhabitants and it is their job to pack up and protect the seeds. Apparently, global warming has wreaked havoc and everything is threatened.

A mystery woman washes ashore during a storm and her connections to the island will slowly reveal.
I was curious to find out what would happen with her, but the way it went didn't seem logical to me.

I listened to the audio which was very well narrated. I didn't connect with any of the characters though and struggled to imagine the scenario that unfolded. It was fine and atmospheric, but I had too many questions in the end.

Lots of rave reviews so I'm an outlier here!

]]> 4.27 2025
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Holly
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: audible, mystery, read-in-2025, slow-burner
review:
A slow burn mystery......

The setting is the fictional island of Shearwater. It is a research base housing the world's largest seed bank. The Salt family are the only inhabitants and it is their job to pack up and protect the seeds. Apparently, global warming has wreaked havoc and everything is threatened.

A mystery woman washes ashore during a storm and her connections to the island will slowly reveal.
I was curious to find out what would happen with her, but the way it went didn't seem logical to me.

I listened to the audio which was very well narrated. I didn't connect with any of the characters though and struggled to imagine the scenario that unfolded. It was fine and atmospheric, but I had too many questions in the end.

Lots of rave reviews so I'm an outlier here!


]]> 217872622
Years later Tom makes a decision that ripples through their families' lives in ways he could not have foreseen. As the consequences of that fateful choice unfold, two women's paths become irrevocably intertwined. But when old love clashes with new, who will be left standing? And what happens when your secrets come back to haunt you?]]> Loretta Rothschild 1250381835 Holly 0 to-read 4.20 2025
author: Loretta Rothschild
name: Holly
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214151565 A read-in-one-night suspense thriller narrated by a compulsive liar whose little white lies allow her to enter into the life and comfort of a wealthy married couple who are harboring much darker secrets themselves. For the millions of us still chasing those gone girls, this is perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Lucy Foley, and Laura Dave.

Sloane Caraway is a liar.

Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad, little life a bit more interesting.

So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can't help herself—she tells the girl's (very attractive) dad she's a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl's foot.

With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy, and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. The perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island.

But maybe Sloane isn't the only one lying, and all that's picture-perfect harbors a much more dangerous truth. To say anything more is to spoil the most exciting, twisty, and bitingly smart suspense novel to come out in years.

The thing about lies is that they add up, form their own truth and a twisted prison of a world. And in Count My Lies, Sophie Stava spins a breakneck, unputdownable thriller about the secrets we keep, and the terrifying dangers that lurk just under the images we spend so much time trying to maintain.

Careful what you lie for.]]> 336 Sophie Stava 1668079348 Holly 3
I enjoyed the first 60% and when the POV changes, it took a dive for me. I was listening so I still wanted to finish and see how the end would go (wasn't a fan).

A bit too far-fetched, but entertaining enough if you are looking for a mindless little popcorn book.

10 hours/ 45 min on Audible]]> 3.73 2025
author: Sophie Stava
name: Holly
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: audible, popcorn-thriller, read-in-2025
review:
Just like the title says, lots of lies will happen.

I enjoyed the first 60% and when the POV changes, it took a dive for me. I was listening so I still wanted to finish and see how the end would go (wasn't a fan).

A bit too far-fetched, but entertaining enough if you are looking for a mindless little popcorn book.

10 hours/ 45 min on Audible
]]> 224277538 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Greer Hendricks comes a chilling story about the hidden cost of perfection.

Anne is barely keeping it together. A frazzled ghostwriter and aspiring novelist, she juggles nine-year-old twins and a listless marriage from an overcrowded Manhattan apartment, spreading herself thinner each day. Just as Anne is about to give up on her dreams, she lands her biggest client Melody Wells.

Melody paints a picture of serenity and empowerment in the lavender haze of her visualization workshops—however, the one thing she can’t manifest are the pages her publisher is demanding for her new motivational book. Enter Anne.

As Melody invites Anne deeper into her magical world, Anne finds herself working impossibly long days and traveling far beyond her comfort zone.

When Melody passes along a lead on a spacious sublet complete with East River views, built-in closets, and three bedrooms, Anne can’t believe her luck. Melody seems to know just what her family needs. But as small, unsettling incidents begin to accumulate, Anne starts to wonder what price she’s willing to pay for the good life.]]> 61 Greer Hendricks 1662528515 Holly 4 Enjoyable short story from Amazon first reads.

Anne is a ghostwriter who has her hands full with twins and a very demanding client named Melody. Anne has been tasked with writing her inspirational self-help book.

Melody is obsessed with all things lavendar! She even has her own line of supplements. She reminded me of Masha from Liane Moriarty's Nine Perfect Strangers (played by Nicole Kidman in the movie). Both are eccentric and controlling. They both also like to release bad energy from spaces.

When Melody leads Anne to a beautiful sublet with nice views and a perfect floor plan, strange things begin to happen. Has someone entered their own horror movie?

I was completely drawn into the story.



]]> 3.23 2025
author: Greer Hendricks
name: Holly
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: novella, read-in-2025, short-story
review:

Enjoyable short story from Amazon first reads.

Anne is a ghostwriter who has her hands full with twins and a very demanding client named Melody. Anne has been tasked with writing her inspirational self-help book.

Melody is obsessed with all things lavendar! She even has her own line of supplements. She reminded me of Masha from Liane Moriarty's Nine Perfect Strangers (played by Nicole Kidman in the movie). Both are eccentric and controlling. They both also like to release bad energy from spaces.

When Melody leads Anne to a beautiful sublet with nice views and a perfect floor plan, strange things begin to happen. Has someone entered their own horror movie?

I was completely drawn into the story.




]]> 228892734 THE UNMISSABLE, UNRELENTINGLY GRIPPING NEW BOOK FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING MASTER OF THE UP-ALL-NIGHT THRILLER

You thought she was safe. You were wrong . . .

Lauren can't wait to see her daughter again, to pick her up from university at the end of her first term. But when she arrives at her hall and knocks on the door to her room, a stranger opens it.

At first, Lauren thinks she must have the wrong room, or the wrong floor. Maybe even the wrong building.

But she soon realises the Evie's not there. She hasn't been there for weeks. So where is she?

Following one family's desperate race against time as one terrifying moment unravels into a living nightmare, The Daughter is the unmissable new heart-in-mouth thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mother and The Dream Home.

Praise for The Daughter

'An excellent premise and explosively enjoyable finale' THRILLERS OF THE MONTH, GUARDIAN

'T.M. Logan does it again with another killer thriller! The Daughter plunges us deep into a mystery that left me breathless in my race to solve it. Propulsive and compelling, this truly is a read-in-one-sitting thriller'
LUCY CLARKE

'Explosive, out of this world pacing, non-stop action, hugely likeable characters, brilliantly twisty - I inhaled it in two sittings. Outstanding - readers will adore it'
ANDREA MARA

'My favourite T.M Logan yet . . . this pacy, gripping thriller kept me glued to the pages as it explored every parent's worst fear in a captivating story that didn't let up. Full of suspense and intrigue, I didn't guess any of the twists and turns, making THE DAUGHTER impossible to put down. A 2025 must-read - a book to binge in one sitting!'
SARAH PEARSE

'Absolutely breathtaking. An utterly gripping and chillingly real thriller that plunges you head-first into one of the most compelling race-against-time mysteries I've ever encountered.'
B.P. WALTER

'A novel which delivers all the pace and brilliant twists that I have come to expect and love from T.M. Logan's books. A superb read'
L.V. MATTHEWS]]> 443 T.M. Logan Holly 0 to-read 4.08 2025
author: T.M. Logan
name: Holly
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 220161593 In this follow-up to #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware’s multi-million copy mega-hit The Women in Cabin 10, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.

When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.

The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.

What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?]]> 400 Ruth Ware 1668025620 Holly 0 to-read 3.83 2025
author: Ruth Ware
name: Holly
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 215541906 I have one thing to do before I die.
And time is running out.

I had it all: a fantastic husband, two great kids, an exciting career. And then, at the age of forty-three, I found out I would be dead before my next birthday.

My mother also died at forty-three. I was seventeen, and she warned me that women would flock to my suddenly single father like stray cats to an overturned milk truck. They did. And one absolutely evil woman practically destroyed his life, mine, and my sister’s.

I am not letting that happen to my family.

I have three months, and I plan to spend every waking minute searching for the perfect woman to take my place as Alex’s wife, and mother to Kevin and Katie.

You’re probably thinking, she’ll never do it. Did I mention that in high school I was voted “Most Likely to Kill Someone to Get What She Wants��?

From thriller writer Marshall Karp (cocreator with James Patterson of the #1 New York Times bestselling NYPD Red series), and rich with Karp’s deft array of three-dimensional characters and his signature biting humor, Don’t Tell Me How to Die has so many twists and turns, you’d swear he wrote it with a corkscrew.]]> Marshall Karp Holly 2
I had a hard time getting through this one. It is getting a lot of five star reviews, but was a fail for me. I thought it was very slow, not pacy, not intriguing or believable. ]]> 4.50 2025
author: Marshall Karp
name: Holly
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: net-galley, read-in-2025, should-have-been-a-dnf
review:
Not for me!

I had a hard time getting through this one. It is getting a lot of five star reviews, but was a fail for me. I thought it was very slow, not pacy, not intriguing or believable.
]]> 221790642 My son and his girlfriend stand there, two terrified teenagers shivering in the doorway, and say the unthinkable. ‘I think we killed someone.�� Now, I have to decide exactly what kind of mother I am��

Everything changes in a heartbeat the night Conor and his girlfriend Paris Levinson come to us begging for help, their clothes spattered with blood. They say it was an accident, that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time��

A mother’s intuition is never wrong, and I know there is more they aren’t telling us. But Paris�� mother Helen and I have to make a choice that will change all of our lives. Do we tell the truth, and risk losing our children forever? Or do we lie to keep them safe?

We will do anything to protect our children, but one wrong move could cost us everything. Lying to the police was a risk, and now Helen is acting more unpredictable by the day �� turning up at my house unannounced, harassing my husband, telling lies about my past��

The only way to save my family is to uncover the truth about that night. I’m convinced the answers lie hidden inside the Levinsons�� house. I’d do anything for Conor, but am I prepared for what I might find behind locked doors? But when your son is in danger, you find out what kind of mother you are��

Anyone who loved Lisa Jewell, Gillian Flynn and The Housemaid will be absolutely blown away by the rollercoaster ride of emotions in this gripping psychological thriller! A totally twisted page-turner guaranteed to keep you up all night turning the pages.

Readers are loving What Kind of Mother:

��Holy Cow�� Right from the get go this book takes off with the action and pretty much never stops, it seems every chapter there is a ""What!?"", ""How!?"", ""Who!?"" kind of jaw dropping plot twist!... It felt like I was dropping my jaw again, right after just picking it up off the floor from the last chapter! I was racing through the pages and still couldn't get through this story fast enough to satisfy my brain!�� ŷ������ reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐��

��I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough... It starts with a bang and doesn’t let up�� left my jaw on the floor�� hooked from start to finish!�� meg.just.meg_reads, ⭐⭐⭐⭐

��An absolute page-turner! Packed with�� jaw-dropping twists�� impossible to put down�� a must-read.�� ŷ������ reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐��

��Twist after twist until the very end. I couldn't put this book down. It was an absolute page turner and I was hooked from the first word.�� ŷ������ reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐

��Wow I loved this so much I didn’t want it to end�� Wow�� A gripping read.�� NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐]]> 338 Anna-Lou Weatherley 1836184794 Holly 4 4.02
author: Anna-Lou Weatherley
name: Holly
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: audible, crime-police-procedural, disturbing-content, had-to-finish, read-in-2025
review:
Thanks to my friend Jayne for the recommendation! The audio narration was the best!
]]> 53138124 From internationally bestselling authors James Murray and Darren Wearmouth comes The Stowaway, a suspenseful masterpiece that leaves a cruise ship stranded at sea with a serial killer hiding aboard...

Two years ago, Maria Fontana was the deciding vote on a jury that set alleged serial killer Wyatt Butler free. Now, she and her family are enjoying vacation on a two week long transatlantic cruise. But when passengers are discovered brutally murdered in a similar way to Butler's ritualistic MO, the ship goes on lockdown. Maria, one of only twelve people in the world with intimate knowledge of the case, faces a perilous ticking clock. Is it a copycat? Or is she trapped on board with the bloodthirsty maniac she chose to set free?]]> 320 James S. Murray 1250263654 Holly 2 SO BAD!

A serial killer is on loose and taunting the passengers. Especially one. Maria Fontana- she was on the jury that convicted him.

This was a train wreck that was a cruise ship!

From the beginning, I knew it was going to be like a B-rated horror movie that is just so bad.

So gratuitous, graphic, and gory that I skimmed all the parts. I'm not a big horror fan, but what bothered me was the murderer was targeting kids. No-no!

I would try these two authors again to see if they can stay campy and forget the formula based, absurd plot. One of the authors is a TV producer, so maybe this is his wheelhouse.

I almost jumped ship on this one.]]> 3.74 2021
author: James S. Murray
name: Holly
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2021/12/18
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: disturbing-content, library-loan, mystery, read-in-2021, horror-ish
review:

SO BAD!

A serial killer is on loose and taunting the passengers. Especially one. Maria Fontana- she was on the jury that convicted him.

This was a train wreck that was a cruise ship!

From the beginning, I knew it was going to be like a B-rated horror movie that is just so bad.

So gratuitous, graphic, and gory that I skimmed all the parts. I'm not a big horror fan, but what bothered me was the murderer was targeting kids. No-no!

I would try these two authors again to see if they can stay campy and forget the formula based, absurd plot. One of the authors is a TV producer, so maybe this is his wheelhouse.

I almost jumped ship on this one.
]]> 203579177 From the bestselling author of Hidden Pictures comes a breathtaking work of suspense about a father trying to save his daughter from a life-altering decision that will put everything he loves on the line.

Frank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He was convinced that their estrangement would become permanent. He’s even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic, and determined to finally make things right.

He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate—very secluded, very luxurious, very much out of his league. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she’s marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But it’s difficult: Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn’t seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose Maggie forever.

An edge-of-your-seat thriller that delves deep into the heart of one family, The Last One at the Wedding is a work of brilliant suspense from a true modern master.]]> 338 Jason Rekulak 1250895782 Holly 4 3.62 2024
author: Jason Rekulak
name: Holly
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: audio-edition, mystery, read-in-2025
review:
My first by this author! I really enjoyed the audio version
]]> 216223604 The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.

She never arrives at her destination.

Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.

But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.

And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself—and her unborn child.

A gut-wrenching story of motherhood, survival, and twisted expectations, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a snowbound thriller that will chill you to the bone.
]]> 384 Freida McFadden 1464232989 Holly 2
I'm an outlier for sure. ]]> 3.58 2025
author: Freida McFadden
name: Holly
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: audio-edition, popcorn-thriller, read-in-2025
review:
This was just WILD, and not in a good way! I only finished because I had the audio with the book.

I'm an outlier for sure.
]]> 217432789 Murder links past and present once again in this mind-boggling metafictional mystery from��Anthony Horowitz—another tribute to the golden age of Agatha Christie featuring detective Atticus Pund and editor Susan Ryland, stars of the New York Times bestsellers Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders.

Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel, and her Greek boyfriend Andreas in search of a new life back in England.

Freelancing for Causton Books, she’s working on the manuscript of a novel, Pund’s Last Case, by a young author named Eliot Crace, a continuation of the popular Alan Conway series. ��Susan is surprised to learn that Eliot is the grandson of legendary children’s author Marian Crace, who died some fifteen years ago—murdered, Elliot insists, by poison.

As Susan begins to read the manuscript’s opening chapters, the skeptical editor is relieved to find that Pund’s Last Case is actually very good. Set in the South of France, it revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont, who, though mortally ill, is poisoned—perhaps by a member of her own family. But who did it? And why?

The deeper Susan reads, the more it becomes clear that the clues leading to the truth of Marian Crace’s death are hidden within this Atticus Pund mystery.

While Eliot’s accusation becomes more plausible, his behavior grows increasingly erratic.. Then he is suddenly killed in a hit-and-run accident, and Susan finds herself under police scrutiny as a suspect in his killing.

Three mysterious deaths. Multiple motives and possible murderers. If Susan doesn’t solve the mystery of Pund’s Last Case, she may well be the next victim.]]> 592 Anthony Horowitz 0063305704 Holly 0 to-read 4.36 2025
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Holly
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211004123 The million-copy bestselling Queen of Twists Alice Feeney returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . .
. . . and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible �� a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.]]> 306 Alice Feeney 125033778X Holly 3 audio-edition, read-in-2025
I had high expectations and I was absolutely loving the first half! I would say it was 5 �� up to that point.

The island setting with the secluded log cabin on the edge of a cliff with no mobile signal or internet was pretty creepy. ]]> 3.63 2025
author: Alice Feeney
name: Holly
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: audio-edition, read-in-2025
review:
My sixth by the author.

I had high expectations and I was absolutely loving the first half! I would say it was 5 �� up to that point.

The island setting with the secluded log cabin on the edge of a cliff with no mobile signal or internet was pretty creepy.
]]> 218671849 “Terrific.”—��Stephen King on��Whistle

New York Times��bestselling author Linwood Barclay enters new territory with a supernatural chiller in which a woman and her young son move to a small town looking for a fresh start, only to be haunted by disturbing events and strange visions when they find a mysterious train set in a storage shed.

Evil has a one track mind...

Annie Blunt has had an unimaginably terrible year. First, her husband was killed in a tragic hit-and-run accident, then one of the children’s books she’s built her writing and illustrating career on ignited a major scandal. Desperate for a fresh start, she moves with her son Charlie to a charming small town in upstate New York where they can begin to heal.

But Annie’s year is about to get worse.

Bored and lonely in their isolated new surroundings, Charlie is thrilled when he finds a forgotten train set in a locked shed on their property. Annie is glad to see Charlie happy, but there’s something unsettling about his new toy. Strange sounds wake Annie in the night—she could swear she hears a train, but there isn’t an active track for miles—and bizarre things begin happening in the neighborhood. Worse, Annie can’t seem to stop drawing a disturbing new character that has no place in a children’s book.

Grief can do strange things to the mind, but Annie is beginning to think she’s walked out of one nightmare straight into another, only this one is far more terrifying…]]> 464 Linwood Barclay 0063436035 Holly 5 This train is different, special.....

Chuffchuffchuffchuff

Stranger than strange things begin to happen when Mr Choo and his special train sets find their way to homes around the area where he set up shop. Choo-Choo's Trains arrives in the town of Lucknow, which will never be quite the same!

Annie Blunt, a successful author/illustrator of children's books decides her and her son, Charlie need a break and move Upstate for the summer. Her plan is for rest and relaxation from the city, but when bizarre, disturbing things start happening, Annie questions both her sanity and her choices.

Several times I gasp out loud, "Oh, nooooo"...... What the hec is happening???
I really liked Chief Cook. He was desperately trying to figure out the whistles in the night, the creepy crawlies, the missing people. But will he be able too??? I couldn't put this down until the end.

This one def gave me a Stephen King/ Creepy Supernatural movie vibe. The author goes down a horror-ish road that gets pretty dark at times. I'm not a huge horror reader, but I was on the edge of the cliff throughout the entire novel and flew through it!

Thanks to NG for my Arc. OUT on May 20, 2025]]> 4.10 2025
author: Linwood Barclay
name: Holly
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: couldn-t-put-down, disturbing-content, favorite-author, horror-ish, net-galley, read-in-2025, super-natural-or-horror
review:
This train is different, special.....

Chuffchuffchuffchuff

Stranger than strange things begin to happen when Mr Choo and his special train sets find their way to homes around the area where he set up shop. Choo-Choo's Trains arrives in the town of Lucknow, which will never be quite the same!

Annie Blunt, a successful author/illustrator of children's books decides her and her son, Charlie need a break and move Upstate for the summer. Her plan is for rest and relaxation from the city, but when bizarre, disturbing things start happening, Annie questions both her sanity and her choices.

Several times I gasp out loud, "Oh, nooooo"...... What the hec is happening???
I really liked Chief Cook. He was desperately trying to figure out the whistles in the night, the creepy crawlies, the missing people. But will he be able too??? I couldn't put this down until the end.

This one def gave me a Stephen King/ Creepy Supernatural movie vibe. The author goes down a horror-ish road that gets pretty dark at times. I'm not a huge horror reader, but I was on the edge of the cliff throughout the entire novel and flew through it!

Thanks to NG for my Arc. OUT on May 20, 2025
]]> 215749267 Her bestsellers explore the wildest, strangest crimes. Now her husband has been murdered�� is she a target, a victim, or is this even darker?��

NYPD Detective Declan Shaw gets the call from his lieutenant at 9:42 p.m.��How fast can you get to 211 Central Park West? The Beresford Building.

At Apartment 18A, Shaw’s partner briefs him. The woman inside called 911 to report a break-in—and the murder of her husband. She fired a round at first responders, then made a baffling demand.��Nobody comes in but Detective Declan Shaw.

The woman answers, covered in blood. She appears to be in shock. A body is lying dead on the floor of the luxurious living room.��

Shaw walks in and spots floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with hardcover books. He recognizes the name—bestselling true-crime author Denise Morrow. When he looks closer, he sees they all show the same familiar picture on the back.��

“This is you?�� Shaw asks. “You’re a writer?��
��
The real question Is she also a killer?]]> 400 James Patterson 0316570001 Holly 5
My heart has been racing throughout this one. ]]> 4.28 2025
author: James Patterson
name: Holly
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: had-to-finish, net-galley, read-in-2025, wow-what-an-ending
review:
Stunned!

My heart has been racing throughout this one.
]]> 211003858
Stephanie and Jasmine have nothing and everything in common. The two women don’t know each other but are on the same plane. Stephanie is on a business trip and Jasmine is fleeing an abusive relationship. After a few days, they text their friends the same exact messages about the same man—the messages becoming stranger and more erratic.

And then the two women vanish. The texts go silent, the red flags go up, and the panic sets in. When Stephanie and Jasmine are each declared missing and in danger, it begs the questions: Who is Trent McCarthy? What did he do to these women�� or what did they do to him?

Twist upon twist, layer upon layer, where nothing is as it seems, THE BUSINESS TRIP takes you on a descent into the depths of a mastermind manipulator. But who is playing who?]]> 344 Jessie Garcia 1250364418 Holly 4
I had the audio which has a cast of 10 fantastic narrators. It really made the novel binge-worthy and quite addictive!

Jessie Garcia is a debut author and she did a few things that surprised me and kept me guessing with a couple of double takes.

It was great to have some characters that I wanted to root for and some I could just recoil at! Someone seems to have gone rogue, someone is acting looney tunes, someone is setting a trap and then there is the person who seems to have "outsmarted" them all! Who, but who?

Fun and twisty, but you may find yourself questioning the plausibility of a thing or two. You know when the story is rolling along and then suddenly you realize, oh, this is happening! ]]> 3.62 2025
author: Jessie Garcia
name: Holly
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: audible, psychological-thriller, read-in-2025, had-to-finish
review:
Two strangers meet on a plane and both their lives take a crazy, unexpected direction. ⬇️ Really love this setting! ✈️

I had the audio which has a cast of 10 fantastic narrators. It really made the novel binge-worthy and quite addictive!

Jessie Garcia is a debut author and she did a few things that surprised me and kept me guessing with a couple of double takes.

It was great to have some characters that I wanted to root for and some I could just recoil at! Someone seems to have gone rogue, someone is acting looney tunes, someone is setting a trap and then there is the person who seems to have "outsmarted" them all! Who, but who?

Fun and twisty, but you may find yourself questioning the plausibility of a thing or two. You know when the story is rolling along and then suddenly you realize, oh, this is happening!
]]> 205098644 In a dark thriller from USA Today bestselling author Samantha M. Bailey, a TV reunion brings costars back for the drama and betrayals their viewers once craved—and this time, the stakes are deadly.

Ivy Westcott fled LA as her acting career imploded. In a flash, she lost her first love and chosen family—her Hello, Juliet castmates. But she never discovered who turned her closest friends against her. Now the whole world knows her as #PoisonIvy.

A decade later, Ivy is horrified when a celebrity exposé thrusts the Hello, Juliet cast back into the limelight, dredging up the old scandals she hoped to escape. Desperate for a fresh start and some financial stability for her mother and manager, Ivy agrees to participate in a top-secret reunion episode.

Ivy’s poised for a comeback, but past betrayals become a present danger when she and the man who once broke her heart find their costar dead.

Determined to find justice and clear her name, Ivy must tear down the facades of cast and crew to uncover chilling secrets that have plagued the Hollywood set from day one. Or she could be the next to die.]]> 301 Samantha M. Bailey 1662513577 Holly 0 to-read 4.19 2025
author: Samantha M. Bailey
name: Holly
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 220160814 Three women are connected by one man in this kaleidoscopic thriller.

Restauranteur Paddy Swann was the life of the party until the day a man pushed him in the path of an oncoming train, leaving his twenty-something daughter Ash and wife Nina devastated. Shortly after Paddy’s funeral, the two women receive a surprise in the mail: a note and package from Nick Ratcliffe, an old friend of Paddy’s, and a nondescript lighter that once belonged to him decades ago. This unexpected gift draws Nick and Nina closer together—much to Ash’s dismay.

Martha is a small-town florist with dreams of expansion. She lives with her second husband Al, her baby, and two sons from her prior marriage. But they never seem to have any money, and with his constant traveling for work, she feels like a single parent—especially when an emergency makes her realize something needs to change.

But Nick and Al may not be who they say they are, leading these three women on a shocking collision course, wishing they had heeded a warning: Don’t let him in.]]> 368 Lisa Jewell 1668033879 Holly 4 I love Lisa Jewell's novels and I was hooked on this one at 16% She tells the best, most shocking stories and I was literally questioning everything for the entire book! ]]> 4.00 2025
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Holly
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: couldn-t-put-down, favorite-author, net-galley, read-in-2025
review:

I love Lisa Jewell's novels and I was hooked on this one at 16% She tells the best, most shocking stories and I was literally questioning everything for the entire book!
]]> 211004916 No greater friend. No deadlier enemy.

Evan Smoak is a highly trained former government assassin who has survived for years by keeping his circle to a few trusted confidants and a strict code he calls "The Ten Commandments." But when Evan suddenly finds himself at odds with his oldest friend, all the rules he lives by shatter--and the consequences are murderous.

Tommy Stojack might be Evan's best friend in the world. He's a gifted gunsmith who has created much of Evan's own weapons and combat gear. But now, he has apparently crossed one of Evan's hardest lines and their argument explodes into open warfare. Now Evan has no choice but to track and face down his only friend.

In the meantime, Tommy has left town in order to honor his own promise to help a dead friend's son. While Tommy is fighting to save the son with everything he's got, Evan arrives with vengeance in mind.

But as deadly as the former Orphan X is, there is an even more dangerous threat about to arrive on the scene. The only question left is will any of them get out alive.]]> 464 Gregg Hurwitz 1250871743 Holly 4
This one felt ultra intense with some scenes that gave me "fight or flight" feelings with a rush of adrenaline. Oh, my heart went out to the situation between Evan and Tommy Stojack. They have been best friends and now something bad has happened and they are both watching their backs.

This is #10 in the series and one of the most heart racing imo. The conflicts, the good vs evil, and the anticipation of how things would play out had me on edge for much of the book.

I'm still thinking about the end. My ]]> 4.19 2025
author: Gregg Hurwitz
name: Holly
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: favorite-author, net-galley, read-in-2025
review:
Another action packed X adventure!

This one felt ultra intense with some scenes that gave me "fight or flight" feelings with a rush of adrenaline. Oh, my heart went out to the situation between Evan and Tommy Stojack. They have been best friends and now something bad has happened and they are both watching their backs.

This is #10 in the series and one of the most heart racing imo. The conflicts, the good vs evil, and the anticipation of how things would play out had me on edge for much of the book.

I'm still thinking about the end. My
]]> 210690230 Darby Kane, author of the #1 international bestseller��Pretty Little Wife,��returns with another twisty domestic thriller about a wife wondering who tried to kill her husband twice before finally succeeding�� because that was supposed to be her job.��

Dr. Richmond Dougherty is a renowned pediatric surgeon, an infamous tragedy survivor, and a national hero. He’s also very dead—thanks to a fall down the stairs. His neighbors angrily point a finger at the newest Ms. Dougherty, Addison. The sudden marriage to the mysterious young woman only lasted ninety-seven days, and he’d had two suspicious “accidents�� during that time. Now Addison is a very rich widow.

As law enforcement starts to circle in on Addison and people in town become increasingly hostile, sides are chosen with Kathryn, Richmond’s high school sweetheart, wife number one, and the mother of his children, leading the fray. Despite rising tensions, Addison is even more driven to forge ahead on the path she charted years ago��

Determined at all costs to unravel Richmond’s legacy, she soon becomes a target—with a shocking note left on her bedroom ��You will pay.��But it will take a lot more than faceless threats to stop Addison. Her plan to marry Richmond then ruin him may have been derailed by his unexpected death, but she’s not done with him yet.]]> 368 Darby Kane 006335196X Holly 3
The beginning was ..... off to the races! The audio was super fantastic. I was hooked for the first two thirds!

I think all the drama went on a bit too long and then went completely off the rails! I still thought it was a fun, very twisty ride (maybe too twisted really). Let's say I was ready for the END.

Read if you love twisty popcorn revenge plots and don't mind stretching your imagination to the edge. The characters are all hiding something and have their own agendas. Plenty of wifey and ex-wife revelations, lots of questionable acts and over the top kitchen sink ending! ]]> 3.51 2024
author: Darby Kane
name: Holly
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: read-in-2025, audible, psychological-thriller
review:
Audio upped this to a 3.5 ��

The beginning was ..... off to the races! The audio was super fantastic. I was hooked for the first two thirds!

I think all the drama went on a bit too long and then went completely off the rails! I still thought it was a fun, very twisty ride (maybe too twisted really). Let's say I was ready for the END.

Read if you love twisty popcorn revenge plots and don't mind stretching your imagination to the edge. The characters are all hiding something and have their own agendas. Plenty of wifey and ex-wife revelations, lots of questionable acts and over the top kitchen sink ending!
]]> 219603177 One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge.

In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family.��Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution.

Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto��a luxury��train from Philadelphia to Chicago,��an overnight��journey of fourteen hours. Her goal? Confront the people who’ve wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. Justice will at last be served.

But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge—and that they won’t stop until everyone else is dead.

With time running out before the train reaches its destination, Anna is forced to hunt the killer in their midst while protecting the people she hates the most. In order to destroy her enemies, she must first save them—even though it means putting her own life at risk.]]> 400 Riley Sager 0593472403 Holly 0 to-read 3.60 2025
author: Riley Sager
name: Holly
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214208297 From Jess Kidd, the bestselling author of Things in Jars who “is so good it isn’t fair�� (Erika Swyler, nationally bestselling author), the first in a cozy mystery series about a former nun who searches for answers in a small seaside town after her pen pal mysteriously disappears.

I believe every one of us at Gulls Nest is concealing some kind of secret.

1954: When her former novice’s dependable letters stop, Nora Breen asks to be released from her vows. Haunted by a line in Frieda’s letter, Nora arrives at Gulls Nest, a charming hotel in Gore-on-Sea in Kent.

A seaside town, a place of fresh air and relaxed constraints, is the perfect place for a new start. Nora hides her identity and pries into the lives of her fellow guests. But when a series of bizarre murders rattles the occupants of Gulls Nest it’s time to ask if a dark past can ever really be left behind.]]> 336 Jess Kidd 1668034050 Holly 4
I do enjoy a good cozy mystery and this one checked a lot of boxes!

A seaside town is rattled when someone mysteriously dies at Gull's Nest Hotel.

Nora Breen is a prior nun/nurse. She comes to investigate why her close friend has stopped writing to her. She is a big fan of detective novels and wants to put her knowledge to work!

She quickly makes herself at home and wants to learn "all the gossip" .

The story is set in 1954 and the hotel was full of secrets. Nora was a fun character and the mystery had a lot of finger pointing going on. There are quite a few characters and the conclusion felt a bit rushed, but I would definitely try the next in this series!

Thanks to EW for my ARC . Comes out April 8,2025

]]> 4.11 2025
author: Jess Kidd
name: Holly
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: cozy-mystery, enjoyed-the-setting, read-in-2024, series
review:
3,5 Stars

I do enjoy a good cozy mystery and this one checked a lot of boxes!

A seaside town is rattled when someone mysteriously dies at Gull's Nest Hotel.

Nora Breen is a prior nun/nurse. She comes to investigate why her close friend has stopped writing to her. She is a big fan of detective novels and wants to put her knowledge to work!

She quickly makes herself at home and wants to learn "all the gossip" .

The story is set in 1954 and the hotel was full of secrets. Nora was a fun character and the mystery had a lot of finger pointing going on. There are quite a few characters and the conclusion felt a bit rushed, but I would definitely try the next in this series!

Thanks to EW for my ARC . Comes out April 8,2025


]]> 198471324
Still a teenager, she discovers she loves music as much as hacking, if not more so. But as she carves out a space for herself, the one thing missing is a family to support her endeavors. When a major recital comes up, she asks her rescuer turned adopted uncle, Evan, to recruit his various friends into another operation—attending her performance. And while Evan doesn’t understand why she wants them there, he won’t let her be disappointed�� no matter what.]]> 91 Gregg Hurwitz 1250356474 Holly 4 4.36 2023
author: Gregg Hurwitz
name: Holly
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read, favorite-author, enjoyed-the-characters, read-in-2024, short-story, novella
review:
Such a fun little read for Orphan Fans!
]]> 204169194 The Family Remains, on Two Dead Wives

An exhilarating psychological crime thriller that will have you racing to the finish!

HIS FIRST WIFE DIED. NOW THERE'S A VACANCY��

When Emma meets Matthew, a kind, handsome widower, he seems to be just what she needs.

Yet as their relationship moves fast, Emma’s friends worry she might be exploited. She’s a rich woman after all.

Emma doesn’t care Matthew has no money. But as the memory of his perfect first wife hangs over them, Emma does have one tiny doubt.

If Matthew’s wife hadn’t died, he wouldn’t be with her. And Emma wonders if she’s second best. Can she ever fill the dead woman’s shoes?

As jealousy and suspicion blossom between Emma and Matthew, events take a darker, dangerous turn.

Suddenly Emma doesn’t know who she can trust. Her friends? Her husband? Or even herself��?]]> 368 Adele Parks 0778368130 Holly 4
My first by this author, but certainly not my last.

Emma meets the man (younger man) of her dreams! Matthew is like a dream come true, although he is a recent widower. What exactly happened to his first wife? He seems to be having a hard time getting over her.

Emma does feel like she is in her shadow, but will allow him the time and space to heal. Her friends are concerned she is moving too fast with the relationship. Maybe they are just jealous?

I enjoyed the unpredictable way things unfolded! A twisted little popcorn read that kept the pages turning. ]]> 3.88 2024
author: Adele Parks
name: Holly
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: domestic-suspense, net-galley, popcorn-thriller, read-in-2024, slow-burner
review:
3.5 STARS

My first by this author, but certainly not my last.

Emma meets the man (younger man) of her dreams! Matthew is like a dream come true, although he is a recent widower. What exactly happened to his first wife? He seems to be having a hard time getting over her.

Emma does feel like she is in her shadow, but will allow him the time and space to heal. Her friends are concerned she is moving too fast with the relationship. Maybe they are just jealous?

I enjoyed the unpredictable way things unfolded! A twisted little popcorn read that kept the pages turning.
]]> 51513806
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> 301 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 1529402654 Holly 2 Velvet Was The Night, I decided to give this one a try and it was entirely different. I can't say I enjoyed it either.

It wins the prettiest cover ever, but didn't deliver on the story, in my opinion.

I did enjoy the setting of the isolated, crumbling mansion named High Place. The staff also gave me major creeps!

The pacing was very uneven-- slow beginning, not a lot happening in the middle and then a frantically paced ending. I didn't find anything "scary", but many of the descriptions and scenes were graphic and repulsive (disgusting fungus, boils, oozing fluids and more).

Overall a flat, boring, and disappointing book.
Library loan/ Read in Sept 2021
]]> 3.70 2020
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Holly
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2021/09/28
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: disturbing-content, enjoyed-the-setting, library-loan, read-in-2021, should-have-been-a-dnf, slow-burner, super-natural-or-horror, a-bit-bored-with-it
review:
My second by the author. After really enjoying Velvet Was The Night, I decided to give this one a try and it was entirely different. I can't say I enjoyed it either.

It wins the prettiest cover ever, but didn't deliver on the story, in my opinion.

I did enjoy the setting of the isolated, crumbling mansion named High Place. The staff also gave me major creeps!

The pacing was very uneven-- slow beginning, not a lot happening in the middle and then a frantically paced ending. I didn't find anything "scary", but many of the descriptions and scenes were graphic and repulsive (disgusting fungus, boils, oozing fluids and more).

Overall a flat, boring, and disappointing book.
Library loan/ Read in Sept 2021

]]> 202538427 He swears by his boundaries. But did he cross the line?

At 8 o' clock on a blustery, mid-January morning, Charles Bliss is summoned to the head of school' s office at Carrington Academy. Charles, a teacher at the elite Connecticut boarding school, is surprised by the unusual request, but when he arrives, no time is wasted. Charles learns that he has been accused of engaging in a romantic relationship with a student.

The student behind the accusation, Hayley Goodloe, is the daughter of a state senator, the granddaughter of an ex-governor, and an heiress to a massive fortune.

But Charles has long prided himself on keeping proper boundaries with his students. He insists he would never cross the line . . . or would he? Hayley' s diary makes it clear she had strong feelings for her teacher. Was it just an unrequited schoolgirl crush? Or was it something more?

When Hayley disappears under suspicious circumstances, a daunting pile of evidence points to Charles as the chief suspect. Charles swears he' s being framed. And it soon becomes apparent there' s only one way he can clear his name.

Find her.

Perfect for fans of Harlan Coben and Jodi Picoult]]> 421 Brad Parks 1608096254 Holly 3 3.94 2024
author: Brad Parks
name: Holly
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: just-ok, read-in-2024, teacher-character
review:
It was okay, BUT I'm an outlier again!
]]> 203164357 The stage is set. Marooned overnight by a snowstorm in a grand country house are a cast of characters and a setting that even Agatha Christie might recognize �� a vicar, an Army major, a Dowager, a sleuth and his sidekick - except that the sleuth is Jackson Brodie, and the ‘sidekick�� is DC Reggie Chase.

The crumbling house - Burton Makepeace and its chatelaine the Dowager Lady Milton - suffered the loss of their last remaining painting of any value, a Turner, some years ago. The housekeeper, Sophie, who disappeared the same night, is suspected of stealing it.

Jackson, a reluctant hostage to the snowstorm, has been investigating the theft of another The Woman with a Weasel, a portrait, taken from the house of an elderly widow, on the morning she died. The suspect this time is the widow’s carer, Melanie. Is this a coincidence or is there a connection? And what secrets does The Woman with a Weasel hold? The puzzle is Jackson’s to solve. And let’s not forget that a convicted murderer is on the run on the moors around Burton Makepeace.

All the while, in a bid to make money, Burton Makepeace is determined to keep hosting a shambolic Murder Mystery that acts as a backdrop while the real drama is being played out in the house.

A brilliantly plotted, supremely entertaining, and utterly compulsive tour de force from a great writer at the height of her powers.]]> 320 Kate Atkinson 0385547994 Holly 3
A slower paced mystery with some well developed characters and their backgrounds (lots of exposition). I had my favorites, but some of them were quite boring and had me wanting to "move on" to the next chapter. Just too many characters to keep the story moving at a pace I enjoy!

I did like the writing, the humor, and the cozy feel of the mysteries.

Read if you enjoy cozies, Agatha Christie novels, or mysteries with some complicated side stories and don't mind plenty of characters to meet along the way! For me, it just lost steam and I was a bit disappointed by the end.]]> 3.69 2024
author: Kate Atkinson
name: Holly
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: audio-edition, cozy-mystery, mystery, read-in-2024, slow-burner
review:
A whole lot of characters!

A slower paced mystery with some well developed characters and their backgrounds (lots of exposition). I had my favorites, but some of them were quite boring and had me wanting to "move on" to the next chapter. Just too many characters to keep the story moving at a pace I enjoy!

I did like the writing, the humor, and the cozy feel of the mysteries.

Read if you enjoy cozies, Agatha Christie novels, or mysteries with some complicated side stories and don't mind plenty of characters to meet along the way! For me, it just lost steam and I was a bit disappointed by the end.
]]> 219327736 ‘I should have seen she was lying,�� Harvey snaps. ‘I let a complete stranger into our lives. Into our home. What was I thinking? If she’s laid a finger on Gwyneth, I’ll kill her.��

Let her in at your peril��

Harvey’s wife Gwyneth lies in a coma, the victim of a hit-and-run, which the police suspect was no accident.

With their investigation stalling, a stranger claiming to be Gwyneth’s mother appears at the hospital �� a frail old lady grateful to be reunited with her daughter after twenty years.

At first she seems harmless enough - but looks can be deceptive.

Something about her story doesn't add up and as her lies begin to unravel, a chilling truth stares Harvey in the face.

The stranger at the door might not be who she claims to be.

With time against him, Harvey must uncover her true identity and what she really wants before she destroys everything - and he and Gwyneth both pay the ultimate price of letting her into their lives...]]> 353 A.J. Wills Holly 2
I have 2 other titles on my TBR, so hopefully they will work for me.

I may be an outlier, there are so many five star reviews for this one! ]]> 4.02
author: A.J. Wills
name: Holly
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: popcorn-thriller, read-in-2024, should-have-been-a-dnf
review:
I'll give the author another chance, but this one was OTT silly and I'm not sure why I kept reading until the end!

I have 2 other titles on my TBR, so hopefully they will work for me.

I may be an outlier, there are so many five star reviews for this one!
]]> 220161029 In this follow-up to #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware’s multi-million copy mega-hit The Women in Cabin 10, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.

When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.

The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.

What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?]]> 400 Ruth Ware 1668032325 Holly 0 to-read 4.12 2025
author: Ruth Ware
name: Holly
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221144907 “No one does suburban paranoia like Shari Lapena.”—Ruth Ware

The new gripping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

When a beloved wife and mother disappears, a luxurious condo building transforms into a potential crime scene, and the investigation begins: can the detectives find her before it's too late?

Bryden and Sam have it all: thriving careers, a smart apartment in a luxury condominium, supportive friends and a cherished daughter. The perfect life for the perfect couple.

Then Sam receives a call at his office. Bryden–working from home that day–has failed to collect their daughter from daycare. Arriving home with their little girl, he finds his wife’s car in the underground garage. Upstairs in their apartment her laptop is open on the table, her cell phone nearby, her keys in their usual place in the hall.

Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out.]]> Shari Lapena 0593832450 Holly 0 to-read 4.18 2025
author: Shari Lapena
name: Holly
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212421066
From the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time comes an addictive thriller about a new mother’s world upended when her husband commits a terrifying crime. How well does she truly know the man she loves? And what danger does she face if her entire life has been built on a lie?

It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla’s life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But, when she wakes, her husband Luke isn’t there, and in his place is a cryptic note.

Then it starts. Breaking news: there's a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive, and tell her Luke is involved. But he isn't a hostage. Her husband—doting father, eternal optimist—is the gunman.

What she does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind that morning says...

Famous Last Words is the story of a crime, a marriage, and more secrets than Camilla ever could have imagined. This novel cements Gillian McAllister’s reputation as “the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.�� (Emily Henry)]]> 336 Gillian McAllister 0063338424 Holly 5 BOOM!

A missing husband, a new mom, and a cryptic note all lead to one heck of a suspenseful ride!!

My third by this author and my favorite.

The wife, Cam has a dream job where she gets to read novels for a living. She drops her baby off at daycare and goes to work after being on maternity leave, but her day takes a terrifying turn when she sees Breaking News flash about a siege in Central London.

The story takes off quickly and my heart skipped a beat more than once. Some parts read like an action movie, chapters with little cliff hangers made it impossible to stop!

I don't want to say to much because there are many surprises and spine tingling moments. I don't want to give anything away. Just read it if you enjoy suspense and rooting for some likeable characters!

Thanks to NG for my ARC! This one is out on Feb 25, 2025]]> 3.71 2025
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Holly
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: mystery, net-galley, read-in-2024
review:
BOOM!

A missing husband, a new mom, and a cryptic note all lead to one heck of a suspenseful ride!!

My third by this author and my favorite.

The wife, Cam has a dream job where she gets to read novels for a living. She drops her baby off at daycare and goes to work after being on maternity leave, but her day takes a terrifying turn when she sees Breaking News flash about a siege in Central London.

The story takes off quickly and my heart skipped a beat more than once. Some parts read like an action movie, chapters with little cliff hangers made it impossible to stop!

I don't want to say to much because there are many surprises and spine tingling moments. I don't want to give anything away. Just read it if you enjoy suspense and rooting for some likeable characters!

Thanks to NG for my ARC! This one is out on Feb 25, 2025
]]> 207293730 A high-stakes legal thriller that is perfect for fans of John Grisham and Scott Turow following a Washington, DC, litigator who is hired to defend his best friend, the former President of the United States, against a murder charge

After a long career as one of DC’s most powerful litigators, Rob Jacobson is faced with the case of a lifetime: the former President of the United States—his childhood best friend—has been accused of murdering his mistress.

Rob knows he’s the only one who can prove his friend’s innocence, but he is soon overwhelmed as he attempts to devise a strategy to defend an authoritative man with a taste for infidelity, serious anger issues, and unconventional sexual appetites. As the high-profile case unfurls, the troubled, intertwining pasts of the two men complicate Rob’s efforts and soon, doubts begin to grow in his head. Could his oldest friend truly be capable of murder or is something even darker at play?]]> 320 Lawrence S. Robbins 1668047195 Holly 3
It started off great with lots of intrigue and the pace was holding my interest for the most part. A former President (Jack Cutler) is accused of murder of a junior lawyer that was in his White House Counsel's Office. This premise seems unimaginable in real life. Jack was adamant that he "had nothing to do" with her murder.

His childhood best friend, Rob Jacobson, is set to be his lawyer, but he knows some secrets from his past. He wants this high profile case, but is it the best choice for him and the President?

I have to say some of the content of the crime was uncomfortable reading for me. It involves some dark sexual practices., but I was intrigued to see how everything would play out.

I also did guess the ending, but was still surprised by a few twists. Overall, it was intriguing, provocative, and thankfully wasn't focused on "politics" other than the characters who were all fictional and pretty unlikeable too.

I'm a bit of an outlier so be sure to check out the many five star reviews!]]> 3.74 2024
author: Lawrence S. Robbins
name: Holly
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: on-my-kindle, read-in-2024, court-room-suspense
review:
I do love legal thrillers, so I wanted to give this one a shot!

It started off great with lots of intrigue and the pace was holding my interest for the most part. A former President (Jack Cutler) is accused of murder of a junior lawyer that was in his White House Counsel's Office. This premise seems unimaginable in real life. Jack was adamant that he "had nothing to do" with her murder.

His childhood best friend, Rob Jacobson, is set to be his lawyer, but he knows some secrets from his past. He wants this high profile case, but is it the best choice for him and the President?

I have to say some of the content of the crime was uncomfortable reading for me. It involves some dark sexual practices., but I was intrigued to see how everything would play out.

I also did guess the ending, but was still surprised by a few twists. Overall, it was intriguing, provocative, and thankfully wasn't focused on "politics" other than the characters who were all fictional and pretty unlikeable too.

I'm a bit of an outlier so be sure to check out the many five star reviews!
]]> 206005312
My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.

So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.

THE MAGICIAN

THE ASSISTANT

THE EXECUTIVE

THE HYPNOTIST

THE IDENTICAL TWIN

THE COUNSELLOR

THE TECH

My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas.

If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.

After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?]]> 175 Benjamin Stevenson 0063412861 Holly 4 Ernest Cunningham is back with another puzzle to solve!

This is a shorter book and features a magician (tricky tricks), an advent calendar and some countdown to Christmas mishaps that suggested hints to the mystery. I didn't solve it, but had fun following how Ernest put the clues together. It is his third murder mystery after all!

A dead body and his ex-wife as a suspect. He really needed to get to the bottom of this one!

This worked better for me than the second in the series. Like the previous books, there are many misdirections, suspects, and someone with sleight of hand! We find out who when the final door of the calendar is opened!

Thanks to NG for my ARC. Published on Oct 22, 2024

]]> 3.70 2024
author: Benjamin Stevenson
name: Holly
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: mystery, net-galley, read-in-2024, series
review:
Ernest Cunningham is back with another puzzle to solve!

This is a shorter book and features a magician (tricky tricks), an advent calendar and some countdown to Christmas mishaps that suggested hints to the mystery. I didn't solve it, but had fun following how Ernest put the clues together. It is his third murder mystery after all!

A dead body and his ex-wife as a suspect. He really needed to get to the bottom of this one!

This worked better for me than the second in the series. Like the previous books, there are many misdirections, suspects, and someone with sleight of hand! We find out who when the final door of the calendar is opened!

Thanks to NG for my ARC. Published on Oct 22, 2024


]]> 204263735 The Afterword. After all, how hard can it really be to write a universally lauded bestseller?

But when Anna publishes her book and indulges in her own literary acclaim, she begins to receive excerpts of a novel she never expected to see again, a novel that should no longer exist. Something has gone wrong, and someone out there knows far too much about her late brother, her late husband, and possibly about Anna herself. What does this person want, and what are they prepared to do? She has come too far and worked too hard to lose what she values most: the sole and uncontested right to her own story—and she is, by any standard, a master storyteller.]]> 304 Jean Hanff Korelitz 125087548X Holly 4
I loved The Plot and couldn't wait to see what this sequel was all about. It could be read as standalone, but I think reading them in order is best to fully enjoy.

Well, l had mixed feelings about Anna. She was such an intriguing, complex character that shocked me many, many times.]]> 3.83 2024
author: Jean Hanff Korelitz
name: Holly
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/21
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: audible, read-in-2024, series, slow-burner
review:
Not as good as The Plot,but I still enjoyed it!

I loved The Plot and couldn't wait to see what this sequel was all about. It could be read as standalone, but I think reading them in order is best to fully enjoy.

Well, l had mixed feelings about Anna. She was such an intriguing, complex character that shocked me many, many times.
]]> 205098968 A master manipulator accused of murder. An attorney sworn to defend her. Keera Duggan returns in a riveting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

When Jenna Bernstein, disgraced wunderkind CEO of a controversial biotech company, is accused of murdering her former partner and lover, she turns to Seattle attorney Keera Duggan to defend her. Keera is more than a master chess player who brings her intuitive moves into court—she’s Jenna’s childhood friend. But considering their history, Keera knows that where Jenna goes, trouble follows.

Three years earlier, Keera’s father successfully defended Jenna when she was tried for the killing of her company’s chief medical scientist who threatened to go public with allegations of corporate fraud. Keera knows Jenna too well. When she was a kid, Keera saw Jenna for what she a manipulative and frighteningly controlling sociopath. Now, with only circumstantial evidence against Jenna, Keera is willing to bury any trepidation she might have to defend a woman she believes, this time, to be innocent.

As the investigation gets underway and disturbing questions arise, Keera puts her trust in a client who swears nothing but the truth. If this is all just another devious game, Keera might be working to set a murderer free.]]> 365 Robert Dugoni 1662500238 Holly 3
Keera Duggan is back for book two in this series. Her client is Jenna Bernstein, a person she knows well since her childhood. She was also a former client of Keera's father, Patsy, who defended her and won. Now, Jenna finds herself accused of murder AGAIN, but this time Keera will represent her!

The first half of the book really dragged on too long for me. The discovery phase was very detailed and wasn't that interesting to me, though we did get all the background for the case at hand. The last third that included the courtroom scenes was much better and piqued my interest.

I enjoyed the first one, Her Deadly Game, much more and will most likely read the next in the series.

Thanks to NG for my ARC and this one is out on October 22, 2024




]]> 4.38 2024
author: Robert Dugoni
name: Holly
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: court-room-suspense, crime-police-procedural, favorite-author, read-in-2024
review:
A favorite author, but not my favorite from him.

Keera Duggan is back for book two in this series. Her client is Jenna Bernstein, a person she knows well since her childhood. She was also a former client of Keera's father, Patsy, who defended her and won. Now, Jenna finds herself accused of murder AGAIN, but this time Keera will represent her!

The first half of the book really dragged on too long for me. The discovery phase was very detailed and wasn't that interesting to me, though we did get all the background for the case at hand. The last third that included the courtroom scenes was much better and piqued my interest.

I enjoyed the first one, Her Deadly Game, much more and will most likely read the next in the series.

Thanks to NG for my ARC and this one is out on October 22, 2024





]]> 203956647 A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 059365322X.]]> 400 Richard Osman Holly 5
I was easily pulled into the lives of the eccentric characters and the mystery of Francois Loubet! He is the world's biggest money smuggler and works incognito. Amy is a bodyguard working for a private security company. She is currently protecting Rosie D’Antonio, a best-selling author and is always coming up with new titles and characters for her future books. "Can I use that in a book?" was her go to line! She made me LOL many times! She added drama many times.

Steve and his cat, Trouble (a rescued stray) were also favorites.

A fun, engaging and entertaining read for me!

I love the characters this author creates and I'm here for the next in this series. Also, waiting for Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron to come back in the next Thursday Murder Club #5!

This one published on Sept 17,2024 and I purchased the kindle ebook/and added the audio.]]> 4.06 2024
author: Richard Osman
name: Holly
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: audio-edition, enjoyed-the-characters, favorite-author, mystery, read-in-2024, series, 2024-favs
review:
A new series from this author!

I was easily pulled into the lives of the eccentric characters and the mystery of Francois Loubet! He is the world's biggest money smuggler and works incognito. Amy is a bodyguard working for a private security company. She is currently protecting Rosie D’Antonio, a best-selling author and is always coming up with new titles and characters for her future books. "Can I use that in a book?" was her go to line! She made me LOL many times! She added drama many times.

Steve and his cat, Trouble (a rescued stray) were also favorites.

A fun, engaging and entertaining read for me!

I love the characters this author creates and I'm here for the next in this series. Also, waiting for Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron to come back in the next Thursday Murder Club #5!

This one published on Sept 17,2024 and I purchased the kindle ebook/and added the audio.
]]> 214442479 IT CAN ALL CHANGE IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE.

Steppy Corner, voice of hit true crime podcast series All the Dark Corners, wakes in hospital with no memory of what brought her to Heartsick - the small Colorado town where her estranged family live - no memory of why she was racing up the mountainside to her parents' house late at night... or why she didn't make that bend.

All she knows is her mother has been brutally murdered and her brother is the prime suspect.

As Steppy begins to piece together events in the run-up to the accident, she discovers her brother's connection to another ongoing case, that of a missing girl last seen with him on Halloween.

Steppy knows better than anyone that the truth often hides in the darkest of corners, but as she races to untangle the web of secrets and lies, will it ultimately prove too close to home?

A twisting, claustrophobic and masterfully plotted thriller, with a breath-taking conclusion. Perfect for fans of Gillian McAllister, Claire Douglas and Lisa Jewell.]]> 330 Jessica Irena Smith Holly 0 to-read 4.01
author: Jessica Irena Smith
name: Holly
average rating: 4.01
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51211417
Flash forward ten years. A true-crime docuseries reassembles the jurors, with particular focus on Maya, now a defense attorney herself. When one of the jurors is found dead in Maya's hotel room, all evidence points to her as the killer. Now, she must prove her own innocence--by getting to the bottom of a case that is far from closed.

As the present-day murder investigation weaves together with the story of what really happened during their deliberation, told by each of the jurors in turn, the secrets they have all been keeping threaten to come out--with drastic consequences for all involved.

From the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and bestselling author of The Last Days of Night : a jury on a murder trial is deadlocked when a young woman manages to turn the tide to acquit; now, a decade later, she must face the consequences when a fellow juror is killed and she is the prime suspect. ]]> 336 Graham Moore 039959177X Holly 4
You get a murder case, a jury some behind the scenes deliberations, and lots of second guessing by most of the characters.

I did have issues with some of the plot/ and the many side stories going on, BUT nevertheless, I was still pulled into the whole murder mystery and really had to know who did it.

Who did it? Did the "holdout" get it right?!! I couldn't stop until I found out.

A solid four stars for me.]]> 3.83 2020
author: Graham Moore
name: Holly
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/08
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: court-room-suspense, read-in-2020
review:
I'm always drawn to legal thrillers and decided to give this one a go (even with so many mixed reviews). Glad I did because it was a nice distraction and I always looked forward to picking it up and seeing what mayhem would develop (and it Always did!!).

You get a murder case, a jury some behind the scenes deliberations, and lots of second guessing by most of the characters.

I did have issues with some of the plot/ and the many side stories going on, BUT nevertheless, I was still pulled into the whole murder mystery and really had to know who did it.

Who did it? Did the "holdout" get it right?!! I couldn't stop until I found out.

A solid four stars for me.
]]> 75482120
ONE MURDER. ONE IMPOSSIBLE CASE. WHO IS GUILTY?

When hero policeman Grant Cliveden dies from a poisoning in the Old Bailey, it threatens to shake the country to its core.

The evidence points to one man. Jimmy Knight has been convicted of multiple offences before and defending him will be no easy task. Not least because this is trainee barrister Adam Green's first case.

But it will quickly become clear that Jimmy Knight is not the only person in Cliveden's past with an axe to grind.

The only thing that's certain is that this is a trial which will push Adam - and the justice system itself - to the limit . . .

'
']]> 358 Rob Rinder Holly 4
Celebrated policeman Grant Cliveden dies from a poisoning and student barrister Adam Green is on the case! Adam was a character I became invested in and was cheering for him along the way. I also enjoyed the phone call chapters of his mom checking up on him and always trying to find him a wifey.

The courtroom drama was surprising at times and the twists were unexpected. The conclusion was a bit far fetched, but possible. Thanks Jayme for putting this series on my radar! I do plan on ordering book two and continuing following Adam and his legal journey!

A purchase from Blackwell UK]]> 4.22 2023
author: Rob Rinder
name: Holly
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: enjoyed-the-characters, read-in-2024, courtroom-thriller
review:
Interesting characters and plot in this courtroom/murder mystery!

Celebrated policeman Grant Cliveden dies from a poisoning and student barrister Adam Green is on the case! Adam was a character I became invested in and was cheering for him along the way. I also enjoyed the phone call chapters of his mom checking up on him and always trying to find him a wifey.

The courtroom drama was surprising at times and the twists were unexpected. The conclusion was a bit far fetched, but possible. Thanks Jayme for putting this series on my radar! I do plan on ordering book two and continuing following Adam and his legal journey!

A purchase from Blackwell UK
]]> 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.��

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Holly 3
Promising take-off, disappointing landing!

Flying is NOT my favorite thing to do, I admit I'm usually slightly nervous until the plane is safely on the ground! This story starts with a delayed 3:29 flight from Hobart to Sydney, but the kicker is "the Death Lady" who has decided to upset the passengers by doing predictions for the entire plane!!! Also known as one wacky fortune teller!


NO THANK YOU!!

First of all, I don't believe in psychics, but still who wants to be burdened with such predictions! I would have wanted to get off the plane A.S.A.P.!

This ended up a mixed bag for me. I was engaged in parts of the storytelling, but some chapters felt like filler and I found the "Cherry" chapters completely uninteresting. There was simply nothing to bring her to life (okay, she is the death lady ]]> 3.98 2024
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Holly
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: audible, read-in-2024, slow-burner, long
review:
3.5 STARS

Promising take-off, disappointing landing!

Flying is NOT my favorite thing to do, I admit I'm usually slightly nervous until the plane is safely on the ground! This story starts with a delayed 3:29 flight from Hobart to Sydney, but the kicker is "the Death Lady" who has decided to upset the passengers by doing predictions for the entire plane!!! Also known as one wacky fortune teller!


NO THANK YOU!!

First of all, I don't believe in psychics, but still who wants to be burdened with such predictions! I would have wanted to get off the plane A.S.A.P.!

This ended up a mixed bag for me. I was engaged in parts of the storytelling, but some chapters felt like filler and I found the "Cherry" chapters completely uninteresting. There was simply nothing to bring her to life (okay, she is the death lady
]]> 36131531 New York Times bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors

The next gripping psychological thriller by the author of How I Lost You, Jenny Blackhurst’s #1 international bestseller, about a psychiatrist and patient relationship that turns not only toxic…but deadly.

Karen, Eleanor, and Bea have been best friends since childhood. They know everything about each other’s lives, or at least they think they do. Now in their thirties, though their lives are beginning to Eleanor is a young wife and mother who is struggling to cope with her many responsibilities; Bea is happy being single—or so she lets people think; and Karen is a psychiatrist who, despite the secrets in her past, considers herself the anchor of the group.

But when she takes on a new patient with issues she just can’t quite put her finger on, she begins to realize she may have put her dearest friends in danger. Because her patient knows more about these three women than anyone outside their circle possible could. Or should…]]> 353 Jenny Blackhurst 1501168851 Holly 4 I loved the setup of the Psychiatrist analyzing the patient (who was at the same time analyzing the doctor). Whoa...

The doctors name is Karen and she is very close to her friends Bea and Eleanor. They are like three peas in a pod. Someone is playing tricks and mind games with them. Just who is the crazy one? The story spins off into many situations that leaves you wondering��. who it is. You know when you lose things and can’t find them, and end up feeling a little crazy, this is happening to the ladies (in some uh um…compromising situations).

An entertaining and fast read, even though I had it figured out early on. It is twisty with a never-ending supply of suspense. I would recommend.


]]> 3.78 2016
author: Jenny Blackhurst
name: Holly
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2018/04/20
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: enjoyed-the-characters, had-to-finish, net-galley, read-in-2018
review:

I loved the setup of the Psychiatrist analyzing the patient (who was at the same time analyzing the doctor). Whoa...

The doctors name is Karen and she is very close to her friends Bea and Eleanor. They are like three peas in a pod. Someone is playing tricks and mind games with them. Just who is the crazy one? The story spins off into many situations that leaves you wondering��. who it is. You know when you lose things and can’t find them, and end up feeling a little crazy, this is happening to the ladies (in some uh um…compromising situations).

An entertaining and fast read, even though I had it figured out early on. It is twisty with a never-ending supply of suspense. I would recommend.



]]> 57638485
You thought she was safe. You were wrong��

Alex knows her daughter would never wander off in a strange place. So when her three-year-old vanishes from an idyllic beach wedding, Alex immediately believes the worst.

The hunt for Lottie quickly becomes a world-wide search, but it’s not long before suspicion falls on her mother. Why wasn’t she watching Lottie?

Alex knows she’s not perfect, but she loves her child. And with all eyes on her, Alex fears they’ll never uncover the truth unless she takes matters into her own hands.

Who took Lottie Martini? And will she ever come home?]]> 448 Tess Stimson 0008386064 Holly 3 Good beginning/OTT ending


Narrated by:��Stephanie Racine, Indra Ove, Colin Mace, Aysha Kala, Beth Eyre ,Josie Dunne,11 hrs and 29 min, Library loan

Little Lottie has wandered off.....

Her mom is frantic and the search begins....

I was intrigued enough to finish. There was misdirection and red herrings along the way. I had a few theories (all were wrong). Overall, it was too long for a missing child story. I was more than ready for the "wrap up"! The narration also became too frantic and dramatic. Alex seemed like she was about to unravel at any second and her voice was making me anxious. I kept thinking, "Please find her before I lose my mind".

If you don't mind the plot holes and an OTT end, it might be entertaining enough.

I think I've read too many books with this trope, so I'll give it a rest.

Merged review:

Good beginning/OTT ending


Narrated by:��Stephanie Racine, Indra Ove, Colin Mace, Aysha Kala, Beth Eyre ,Josie Dunne,11 hrs and 29 min, Library loan

Little Lottie has wandered off.....

Her mom is frantic and the search begins....

I was intrigued enough to finish. There was misdirection and red herrings along the way. I had a few theories (all were wrong). Overall, it was too long for a missing child story. I was more than ready for the "wrap up"! The narration also became too frantic and dramatic. Alex seemed like she was about to unravel at any second and her voice was making me anxious. I kept thinking, "Please find her before I lose my mind".

If you don't mind the plot holes and an OTT end, it might be entertaining enough.

I think I've read too many books with this trope, so I'll give it a rest.]]> 4.18 2021
author: Tess Stimson
name: Holly
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/07
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: audio-edition, domestic-suspense, library-loan, mystery
review:
Good beginning/OTT ending


Narrated by:��Stephanie Racine, Indra Ove, Colin Mace, Aysha Kala, Beth Eyre ,Josie Dunne,11 hrs and 29 min, Library loan

Little Lottie has wandered off.....

Her mom is frantic and the search begins....

I was intrigued enough to finish. There was misdirection and red herrings along the way. I had a few theories (all were wrong). Overall, it was too long for a missing child story. I was more than ready for the "wrap up"! The narration also became too frantic and dramatic. Alex seemed like she was about to unravel at any second and her voice was making me anxious. I kept thinking, "Please find her before I lose my mind".

If you don't mind the plot holes and an OTT end, it might be entertaining enough.

I think I've read too many books with this trope, so I'll give it a rest.

Merged review:

Good beginning/OTT ending


Narrated by:��Stephanie Racine, Indra Ove, Colin Mace, Aysha Kala, Beth Eyre ,Josie Dunne,11 hrs and 29 min, Library loan

Little Lottie has wandered off.....

Her mom is frantic and the search begins....

I was intrigued enough to finish. There was misdirection and red herrings along the way. I had a few theories (all were wrong). Overall, it was too long for a missing child story. I was more than ready for the "wrap up"! The narration also became too frantic and dramatic. Alex seemed like she was about to unravel at any second and her voice was making me anxious. I kept thinking, "Please find her before I lose my mind".

If you don't mind the plot holes and an OTT end, it might be entertaining enough.

I think I've read too many books with this trope, so I'll give it a rest.
]]> 214152422 She has his dead wife’s heart; the one she wants is his. The author of The Family Plot brings her signature prose to a twisty novel about a heart transplant patient who becomes romantically obsessed with her donor’s husband.

Rosie Lachlan wants nothing more than to find The One.

A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, she’s working at her parents�� bridal salon, anxious for a happy ending that can’t come soon enough. After receiving a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie knows her health is precious and precarious. She suspects her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called DonorConnect, ostensibly to learn more about Daphne. But Rosie has a secret: She’s convinced that now that she has his wife’s heart, she and Morgan are meant to be together.

As she and Morgan correspond, the pretense of avoiding personal details soon disappears, even if Rosie’s keeping some cards close to her chest. But as she digs deeper into Morgan’s previous marriage, she discovers disturbing rumors about the man she’s falling for. Could Morgan have had something to do with his late wife’s death? And can Rosie’s heart sustain another break—or is she next?]]> 309 Megan Collins 1668048078 Holly 4 DonorConnect should NOT be an online dating service!

Tell that to Rosie Lachlan, she has recently had a life-saving heart transplant and a breakup where she was dumped in her wedding dress! ]]> 3.61 2025
author: Megan Collins
name: Holly
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/13
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: psychological-thriller, read-in-2024
review:
DonorConnect should NOT be an online dating service!

Tell that to Rosie Lachlan, she has recently had a life-saving heart transplant and a breakup where she was dumped in her wedding dress!
]]> 33937112 The Descendants meets Single White Female in this captivating novel about a woman who moves her family to Hawaii, only to find herself wrapped up in a dangerous friendship, from the celebrated author of We Could Be Beautiful.

When Nancy and her family arrive in Kona, Hawaii, they are desperate for a fresh start. Nancy's husband has cheated on her; they sleep in separate bedrooms and their twin sons have been acting out, setting off illegal fireworks. But Hawaii is paradise: they plant an orange tree in the yard; they share a bed once again and Nancy resolves to make a happy life for herself. She starts taking a yoga class and there she meets Ana, the charismatic teacher. Ana has short, black hair, a warm smile, and a hard-won wisdom that resonates deeply within Nancy. They are soon spending all their time together, sharing dinners, relaxing in Ana's hot tub, driving around Kona in the cute little car Ana helps Nancy buy. As Nancy grows closer and closer to Ana skipping family dinners and leaving the twins to their own devices she feels a happiness and understanding unlike anything she's ever experienced, and she knows that she will do anything Ana asks of her.

A mesmerizing story of friendship and manipulation set against the idyllic tropical world of the Big Island, The Goddesses is a stunning psychological novel by one of our most exciting young writers.]]> 320 Swan Huntley 0385542224 Holly 3
On a good note, I did enjoy the setting of Hawaii and the plot did pick up toward the end. She is a talented writer, but it fell flat for me. It is an easy read if you are looking for something light.

Thank you to netgalley and publisher for my arc
Publication date 7/25/2017]]> 3.40 2017
author: Swan Huntley
name: Holly
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2017/04/19
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: net-galley, enjoyed-the-setting
review:
I previously read Swan Huntley's first novel, We Could Be Beautiful and I loved it so much that I was excited to read this next novel . WCBB had lots of twists and wasn't predictable. This one didn't really capture my interest and I didn't find that I liked any of the characters. I almost gave up on it several times, but wanted to "give" it a chance. I was underwhelmed when it came to twists and overall plot. The ending was just not interesting/thrilling and it left me feeling unsatisfied.

On a good note, I did enjoy the setting of Hawaii and the plot did pick up toward the end. She is a talented writer, but it fell flat for me. It is an easy read if you are looking for something light.

Thank you to netgalley and publisher for my arc
Publication date 7/25/2017
]]> 60583370
Karen is a busy wife and mother. Between work, her husband Peter, and their two children, Oscar and Noah, she doesn’t have a minute to herself.

So when it all begins to feel too much, Karen knows just what she needs - to get away for a little while. Nothing big. Just a short break.

Her friend, Eve, tells her about a quaint little holiday home, and Karen books herself a short stay. She’ll have time to read, take bubble baths, unwind. Perfect.

But this is no ordinary holiday home �� it contains a dark and disturbing secret. Because Karen isn’t alone here �� someone is watching her. Waiting for the right moment to spring the trap and plunge her into a nightmare she’ll never forget.

The Break �� the stunning psychological thriller from the author of The Passenger and The New Friends.]]> 230 Daniel Hurst 1915275326 Holly 3
A quick little popcorn read!

My first by this author who has many fans and has written a bunch of popular psychological thrillers in the last couple of years. The Passenger is free on KU (at the moment) and I have it on my list to read soon.

I enjoyed his straightforward writing, pacing, and the first person narration from the main players. It is the kind of book you can just zoom through even though the plot was mostly predictable with an underwhelming feel.

The characters are standard with some to cheer for and some to detest. One character I really liked added some wisdom of forgiveness and not being consumed with anger forever. This is a revenge story though, and a fairly standard one.

It was a quick one which doesn't require much thinking, grab your coffee kind of read!

Thanks to NG and the publisher for my arc. OUT March 13, 2022

Merged review:

3.5 STARS

A quick little popcorn read!

My first by this author who has many fans and has written a bunch of popular psychological thrillers in the last couple of years. The Passenger is free on KU (at the moment) and I have it on my list to read soon.

I enjoyed his straightforward writing, pacing, and the first person narration from the main players. It is the kind of book you can just zoom through even though the plot was mostly predictable with an underwhelming feel.

The characters are standard with some to cheer for and some to detest. One character I really liked added some wisdom of forgiveness and not being consumed with anger forever. This is a revenge story though, and a fairly standard one.

It was a quick one which doesn't require much thinking, grab your coffee kind of read!

Thanks to NG and the publisher for my arc. OUT March 13, 2022]]> 4.02 2022
author: Daniel Hurst
name: Holly
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/03/17
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: domestic-suspense, net-galley, read-in-2022
review:
3.5 STARS

A quick little popcorn read!

My first by this author who has many fans and has written a bunch of popular psychological thrillers in the last couple of years. The Passenger is free on KU (at the moment) and I have it on my list to read soon.

I enjoyed his straightforward writing, pacing, and the first person narration from the main players. It is the kind of book you can just zoom through even though the plot was mostly predictable with an underwhelming feel.

The characters are standard with some to cheer for and some to detest. One character I really liked added some wisdom of forgiveness and not being consumed with anger forever. This is a revenge story though, and a fairly standard one.

It was a quick one which doesn't require much thinking, grab your coffee kind of read!

Thanks to NG and the publisher for my arc. OUT March 13, 2022

Merged review:

3.5 STARS

A quick little popcorn read!

My first by this author who has many fans and has written a bunch of popular psychological thrillers in the last couple of years. The Passenger is free on KU (at the moment) and I have it on my list to read soon.

I enjoyed his straightforward writing, pacing, and the first person narration from the main players. It is the kind of book you can just zoom through even though the plot was mostly predictable with an underwhelming feel.

The characters are standard with some to cheer for and some to detest. One character I really liked added some wisdom of forgiveness and not being consumed with anger forever. This is a revenge story though, and a fairly standard one.

It was a quick one which doesn't require much thinking, grab your coffee kind of read!

Thanks to NG and the publisher for my arc. OUT March 13, 2022
]]> 127975602
Five contestants have been chosen to compete for ten million dollars on the game show One Lucky Winner. The catch? None of them knows what (or who) to expect, and it will be live streamed all over the world. Completely secluded in an estate in Northern California, with strict instructions not to leave the property and zero contact with the outside world, the competitors start to feel a little too isolated.

When long-kept secrets begin to rise to the surface, the contestants realize this is no longer just a reality show—someone is out for blood. And the game can’t end until the world knows who the contestants really are…]]> 320 Heather Gudenkauf 0778310795 Holly 4 Whoosh!

I picked it up to give it a try, thinking I'd probably put is aside. But, it took off fast, the gas pedal hitting the floor! I was hooked and had to "know more". ]]> 3.61 2024
author: Heather Gudenkauf
name: Holly
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/05
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: audio-edition, read-in-2024, psychological-thriller
review:
Whoosh!

I picked it up to give it a try, thinking I'd probably put is aside. But, it took off fast, the gas pedal hitting the floor! I was hooked and had to "know more".
]]> 63277845
As she strikes out on her own, Julie feels drawn to her old stomping grounds in Banff, a charming and isolated ski town where she once trained for the Olympics. She finds work as a housekeeper at a luxury resort, but just as she starts to piece together a new life, an eccentric guest turns up dead. And Julie, the last person seen in her hotel room, is the prime suspect.

The evidence is stacked against her, but even in the encroaching blizzard, Julie knows her way around these mountains. She just needs to evade the police long enough to find the truth behind the murder…and before the real killer finds her first.]]> 309 Susan Walter Holly 4
Julie's life is turned upside-down and she has to navigate many hurdles to figure out what/why things have gone so so wrong! That is okay though because Julie is a a former Olympian. ]]> 4.14 2024
author: Susan Walter
name: Holly
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/28
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: enjoyed-the-setting, net-galley, read-in-2024, crime-police-procedural
review:
Engaging mystery!

Julie's life is turned upside-down and she has to navigate many hurdles to figure out what/why things have gone so so wrong! That is okay though because Julie is a a former Olympian.
]]> 216224763 “We’re so excited to have you here in our home.�� My boyfriend’s mother smiles at me a little too wide. His father’s eyes are hard at the edges. It’s like they’re hiding something. But of course, I already know that��

The mother: Stay-at-home mother Marta lives in her successful husband’s shadow, overlooked by him ever since her darling son Owen went to medical school. She’s not about to let the beautiful Gina take Owen away from her. Marta will play nice, get Gina to trust her. And then she has a plan of her own.

The son: Owen is already certain he wants to marry Gina. She’s perfect. They just have to get through this weekend and then he’ll propose. Sure, his mom can be overprotective. But Owen knows why. He knows what she’s hiding.

The girlfriend: Ever since purposefully running into Dr Owen Whitlock at the hospital, Gina has been playing the doting girlfriend. She didn’t mean to fall for Owen’s charms for real�� Now she’s finally meeting his parents at their sprawling, secluded home. Gina knows all about the terrible secrets this family is covering up. And she’ll do anything to make sure they never find out who she really is.

By the end of the weekend, the Whitlock’s beautiful house will have burned to the ground. And someone won’t make it out alive��

Fans of The Housemaid, The Girl in Seat 2A and The Perfect Marriage will be totally hooked.]]> 298 Emily Shiner 1835255841 Holly 0 to-read 3.66 2024
author: Emily Shiner
name: Holly
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 140111148
Meghan Michaels is trying to find balance between being a single mom to a teenage daughter and working as a full time nurse. While on duty at the hospital one day, a patient named Caitlin arrives in a coma with a traumatic brain injury, having jumped from a bridge and plunging over twenty feet to the train tracks below.��

But when a witness comes forward with shocking details about the fall, it calls everything they know into question. Was Caitlin�� pushed ��and if so, by whom and why?��

Meghan has always tried to stay emotionally detached from her patients, but this time, she mistakenly lets herself get too close until she’s deeply entangled in Caitlin’s and her family’s lives. Only when it’s too late, does she realize that she and her daughter could be the next victims.]]> 330 Mary Kubica 0778308065 Holly 5
Meghan Michaels is an ICU nurse, she becomes slightly obsessed with her patient named Caitlin, who has suffered a brain injury.

Meghan is trying to spin many plates. She is taking care of her teenage daughter, working extra hard after her divorce. She is also worried about her old friend, Nat, who is an abuse victim. To make matters worse, there is a Rapist on the loose in town!!! ]]> 3.77 2024
author: Mary Kubica
name: Holly
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: audio-edition, couldn-t-put-down, had-to-finish, libby, read-in-2024, wow-what-an-ending
review:


Meghan Michaels is an ICU nurse, she becomes slightly obsessed with her patient named Caitlin, who has suffered a brain injury.

Meghan is trying to spin many plates. She is taking care of her teenage daughter, working extra hard after her divorce. She is also worried about her old friend, Nat, who is an abuse victim. To make matters worse, there is a Rapist on the loose in town!!!
]]> 204600921 An attorney and mother of two discovers her husband’s secret life—and it might cost them all their lives.

Everyone in Hemingway Grove, Illinois, knows David and Marcie Bowers.

David owns the local pub.

Marcie is a former big-city lawyer who practices family law.

When David jumps into Cotton River to save a drowning stranger, he’s celebrated as a hero. His muscled physique, shaved head, and piercing blue eyes are broadcast on every news outlet.

For most people, newfound fame is a lifeline.

For David Bowers, it’s a death sentence.

For Marcie Bowers, it’s a test.

A wife knows the difference between a loving husband and father and a cold-blooded assassin. Right?]]> 373 James Patterson 031640439X Holly 5 Quite the ride!! ]]> 4.48 2024
author: James Patterson
name: Holly
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/13
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: 2024-favs, couldn-t-put-down, net-galley, mystery, read-in-2024
review:
Quite the ride!!
]]> 27161156 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062300546.

Hillbilly Elegy recounts J.D. Vance's powerful origin story...

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate now serving as a U.S. Senator from Ohio and the Republican Vice Presidential candidate for the 2024 election, an incisive account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class.

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were "dirt poor and in love," and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.]]> 264 J.D. Vance Holly 4
I just tried again and this time it went through!

ŷ������ had a note pop up that said "There was too much activity" on this title and they weren't allowing any rating/review.

Has that ever happened to anyone else??

Anyway, I enjoyed it and it was a strong four star for me!]]> 3.81 2016
author: J.D. Vance
name: Holly
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/08/12
shelves: non-fiction, own-it, read-in-2024, goodreads-won-t-allow-me-to-rate-b
review:
When I finished, I couldn't rate. ŷ������ was blocking reviews.

I just tried again and this time it went through!

ŷ������ had a note pop up that said "There was too much activity" on this title and they weren't allowing any rating/review.

Has that ever happened to anyone else??

Anyway, I enjoyed it and it was a strong four star for me!
]]> 156252798
When Callum Champion and his wife, Jade, win big on the lottery, they think all their dreams have come true.

But when they’re approached by a desperate stranger begging for help, they discover the cost of their newfound fortune might be more than they’re willing to pay.

Their win should mean they can look forward to a life of unbridled wealth and freedom. They’ll be able to move out of their tiny, rented property, finally start a family, clear their debts and never have to worry about how they’re going to pay the bills again.

But widower Gabriel Salt has a unique proposition for them �� the chance to put right the appalling injustice of his pregnant wife’s untimely death.

His request puts them in an impossible position, forcing them to make a decision that will have far-reaching consequences and threatening to put them in the crosshairs of a dangerous criminal family.

They may have more money than they could ever have dreamed of, but they’ll soon realise all the money in the world can’t buy happiness �� or even their own safety…]]> 308 A.J. Wills Holly 0 to-read 3.97 2023
author: A.J. Wills
name: Holly
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50748878 She wrote the book on escaping a predator�� Now one is coming for her.

Faith Finley has it all: she’s a talented psychologist with a flourishing career, a bestselling author and the host of a popular local radio program, Someone’s Listening, with Dr. Faith Finley. She’s married to the perfect man, Liam Finley, a respected food critic.

Until the night everything goes horribly wrong, and Faith’s life is shattered forever.

Liam is missing—gone without a trace—and the police are suspicious of everything Faith says. They either think she has something to hide, or that she’s lost her mind.

And then the notes begin to arrive. Notes that are ripped from Faith’s own book, the one that helps victims leave their abusers. Notes like “Lock your windows. Consider investing in a steel door.��

As the threats escalate, the mystery behind Liam’s disappearance intensifies. And Faith’s very life will depend on finding answers.]]> 329 Seraphina Nova Glass 1525836749 Holly 3 Not quite a four star listen, but a solid read!

Narrated by:��Amy McFadden Length: 9 hrs Release date: 07-28-20
Hoopla

I enjoyed the character of Dr. Faith Finley. She has a lot going for her. After all she is a talented psychologist, hosts a popular radio program and is a best selling author. It is all about to go down the drain when a client, Will, accuses her of inappropriate behavior.

Faith is also self destructive, painfully so at that. She is dependent on anxiety easing drugs and numbs herself with alcohol way too much. Yes, that trope again. I liked her sense of humor though and she did make me laugh out loud more than once giving the story a lift.

Although it doesn't offer anything new, a little suspense and plenty of red herrings along with some chuckles made it an entertaining listen, not sure if I'd have enjoyed reading as much.]]> 3.65 2020
author: Seraphina Nova Glass
name: Holly
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2022/07/06
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: audio-edition, popcorn-thriller, read-in-2022, hoopla-audio
review:
3.5 STARS
Not quite a four star listen, but a solid read!

Narrated by:��Amy McFadden Length: 9 hrs Release date: 07-28-20
Hoopla

I enjoyed the character of Dr. Faith Finley. She has a lot going for her. After all she is a talented psychologist, hosts a popular radio program and is a best selling author. It is all about to go down the drain when a client, Will, accuses her of inappropriate behavior.

Faith is also self destructive, painfully so at that. She is dependent on anxiety easing drugs and numbs herself with alcohol way too much. Yes, that trope again. I liked her sense of humor though and she did make me laugh out loud more than once giving the story a lift.

Although it doesn't offer anything new, a little suspense and plenty of red herrings along with some chuckles made it an entertaining listen, not sure if I'd have enjoyed reading as much.
]]> 42041520 From the author of the international bestseller Our House, a new novel of twisty domestic suspense asks, "Could you hate your neighbor enough to plot to kill him?"

Lowland Way is the suburban dream. The houses are beautiful, the neighbors get along, and the kids play together on weekends.

But when Darren and Jodie move into the house on the corner, they donʼt follow the rules. They blast music at all hours, begin an unsightly renovation, and run a used-car business from their yard. It doesn't take long for an all-out war to start brewing.

Then, early one Saturday, a horrific death shocks the street. As police search for witnesses, accusations start flying--and everyone has something to hide.]]> 368 Louise Candlish 0451489144 Holly 4 Ever had some dreadful neighbors? This couple just moved in and have disrupted the happy neighbors on Lowland Way...

When Darren and Jodie move in....all hell breaks lose. Can you hear the whispers...."I could kill him."��Well, of course, they didn't mean it literally, did they?

The pages are filled with some very unlikable characters and a menacing tone. The new neighbors completely put the prior�� "family-friendly" atmosphere and turned it on it's head.

The mystery element was strong and I was super curious to find out more. The pace is steady, but the need to find out more made this one a page turner for me. I was entertained and thanking my lucky stars for normal neighbors!

I had fun guessing throughout, wondering how far some people would go, and surprised by some shockers more than once.

Sign me up for Candlish's next novel please. Fans of this author and her unique style will enjoy this one.

Thanks to Berkley for my review copy.
Pub. date on June 11, 2019.

��

��]]> 3.26 2019
author: Louise Candlish
name: Holly
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/11
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: crime-police-procedural, enjoyed-the-setting, read-in-2019
review:
Ever had some dreadful neighbors? This couple just moved in and have disrupted the happy neighbors on Lowland Way...

When Darren and Jodie move in....all hell breaks lose. Can you hear the whispers...."I could kill him."��Well, of course, they didn't mean it literally, did they?

The pages are filled with some very unlikable characters and a menacing tone. The new neighbors completely put the prior�� "family-friendly" atmosphere and turned it on it's head.

The mystery element was strong and I was super curious to find out more. The pace is steady, but the need to find out more made this one a page turner for me. I was entertained and thanking my lucky stars for normal neighbors!

I had fun guessing throughout, wondering how far some people would go, and surprised by some shockers more than once.

Sign me up for Candlish's next novel please. Fans of this author and her unique style will enjoy this one.

Thanks to Berkley for my review copy.
Pub. date on June 11, 2019.

��

��
]]> 195967140 A mind-bending, psychological thriller from Freida McFadden, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Housemaid!

Lesson #1: trust no one

Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except��

Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye.

Addie can't be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that's what everyone says.

But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet.

From the New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden comes a story of twisting secrets and long-awaited revenge.]]> 379 Freida McFadden 1728296218 Holly 3
I really like books with a school setting and this one was filled with some very unsavory events (trigger warnings galore), BUT the audio had such a fun tone to it and it is FICTION.

Eve and Nate are married and they both work at the same local high school. I really enjoyed Eve's character and literally cracked up at ALL of her "shoe escapades"!! ]]> 3.82 2024
author: Freida McFadden
name: Holly
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/02
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves: audio-edition, libby, read-in-2024
review:
Hello teachers!!

I really like books with a school setting and this one was filled with some very unsavory events (trigger warnings galore), BUT the audio had such a fun tone to it and it is FICTION.

Eve and Nate are married and they both work at the same local high school. I really enjoyed Eve's character and literally cracked up at ALL of her "shoe escapades"!!
]]> 187631596
Adam Turner works the mid-dawn shift at his local radio station. From 12am to 6am, it’s his job to fill the airtime with old songs, inane chatter, and the occasional talkback caller. It’s a long way from his prime-time slot from over a decade ago, when he was a star in the making. Now there’s no producers, no billboards, no stakes, and, crucially, not many listeners. His frequent callers are drunk college students headed home from a night out, or long-range truck drivers. He is completely alone in the studio from midnight until dawn every night.

And then one night at 12:45am, he gets a different kind of call, with higher stakes than he could ever have wanted. The caller’s rules are simple �� stay on the line, live on air, until dawn, or the woman they are holding captive will die.

The night wears on and Adam is tormented by his caller, forced to answer increasingly personal questions, exposing his fall from grace for all to hear. He must try to figure out just who is calling him, what they really want, and how he can stop them. All while staying live on air, and keeping the psycho talking.

But as the conversation gets deeper, is Adam willing to broadcast his darkest secrets to the world in order to keep a stranger safe?

©2023 Benjamin Stevenson (P)2023 Audible Australia Pty Ltd.]]> 3 Benjamin Stevenson Holly 0 to-read 3.54 2023
author: Benjamin Stevenson
name: Holly
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 142327669 From global bestselling Anthony Horowitz, a brilliantly entertaining new mystery in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series.

Richmond, London . Six attractive houses are tucked away in an exclusive and very upmarket gated Riverside Close. Surrounded by flowers and shrubbery, they're sealed off from the busy main road and the realities of urban life. At weekends, with the gate locked, the residents enjoy the sound of birdsong, the whirr of mowers, the occasional snatch of opera through an open window.

Everyone knows each other. Everyone gets on.

That is, until the Kenworthies arrive. With their four big gas-guzzling cars, their noisy children and their plans to build a swimming pool in their garden, they quickly offend every one of their neighbours.

When Charles Kenworthy is found dead on his porch, the bolt of a crossbow through his chest, Daniel Hawthorne is called in.

But how do you solve a murder when everyone has the same motive?]]> 411 Anthony Horowitz Holly 5 Hawthorne and Horowitz round #5

I just love this detective, who-dunnit series. This time they tackle an old case. A cold case murder from five years ago in the neighborhood of Riverview Close. A gated paradise in London, consisting of six homes (each even had a name like The Gables, The Stables, etc.) on a cul-de-sac.

Ever so peaceful, UNTIL the Kenworthies arrive and upset literally EVERYONE!
There would be a reckoning and many fingers pointing at each other in this once cosy neighborhood. None of them liked Giles Kenworthy. They ALL had a motive, so who exactly was it?!

The author was brilliant in the conclusion, planting seeds of doubt and distractions. I went back and forth on who the villain was! Just when I thought I'd connected all the dots, the rug was pulled!

I had both the audio and the ebook which kept me entertained until the last page.

Thanks to Libby for the loan! Published Aprill 11, 2024]]> 4.24 2024
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Holly
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/26
date added: 2024/07/27
shelves: 2024-favs, audio-edition, enjoyed-the-characters, enjoyed-the-humor, favorite-author, libby, read-in-2024
review:
Hawthorne and Horowitz round #5

I just love this detective, who-dunnit series. This time they tackle an old case. A cold case murder from five years ago in the neighborhood of Riverview Close. A gated paradise in London, consisting of six homes (each even had a name like The Gables, The Stables, etc.) on a cul-de-sac.

Ever so peaceful, UNTIL the Kenworthies arrive and upset literally EVERYONE!
There would be a reckoning and many fingers pointing at each other in this once cosy neighborhood. None of them liked Giles Kenworthy. They ALL had a motive, so who exactly was it?!

The author was brilliant in the conclusion, planting seeds of doubt and distractions. I went back and forth on who the villain was! Just when I thought I'd connected all the dots, the rug was pulled!

I had both the audio and the ebook which kept me entertained until the last page.

Thanks to Libby for the loan! Published Aprill 11, 2024
]]> 199026522 In the latest jaw-dropping thriller from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager, a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend—and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood.

The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.

Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?

The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed monsters roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.

The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.]]> 367 Riley Sager 0593472373 Holly 0
DNF at 30%, Maybe I'll try again later ]]> 3.65 2024
author: Riley Sager
name: Holly
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves: to-read, a-bit-bored-with-it, audio-edition, dnf, favorite-author
review:
No Rating

DNF at 30%, Maybe I'll try again later
]]> 201627012 The bestselling author of��The Party��and The Drowning Woman returns with a twisted tale of fame, obsession, and the dark recesses of social media.

Camryn Lane is living her dream. After years of struggle and rejection, her first novel has finally been published. Her editor is happy; her teenage daughter is proud; and her boyfriend and friends are all excited for her. She’s on top of the world—until she receives a disturbing message from an unknown sender.

Rattled by the accusations she finds there, Camryn swallows the sick feeling in her stomach and resolves to put the missive out of her mind. But when she checks her ratings on a popular book site, she finds a scathing one-star review. The reviewer is so articulate and convincing that soon, Camryn’s book is flooded with bad reviews. Could the reviewer be the same person who sent the ugly email? And why do they want to ruin her?

As the online harassment creeps into Camryn’s personal life, she vows to find out who’s behind it. Is it really a disgruntled reader? Or could it be someone she knows? The troll’s actions are escalating, and when the abuse turns deadly, it will take everything Camryn has to unmask the enemy so intent on destroying her—and finally learn why she's being targeted.]]> 342 Robyn Harding 1538766108 Holly 4
She is one that I can count on to keep the pages moving! This time we have a story about an author who finally gets her first novel published. Camryn Lane is on top of the world UNTIL.... Dun,dun,dun... the reviews start rolling in. ]]> 3.56 2024
author: Robyn Harding
name: Holly
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves: mystery, net-galley, psychological-thriller, read-in-2024
review:
My fifth novel from this author!

She is one that I can count on to keep the pages moving! This time we have a story about an author who finally gets her first novel published. Camryn Lane is on top of the world UNTIL.... Dun,dun,dun... the reviews start rolling in.
]]> 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]> 400 Emily Henry Holly 4
I was hoping Funny Story would be a bit "funnier"! I did laugh a few times, but I wanted more humor!

I still enjoyed the lighthearted story of the couple who were both dumped by their partners. I liked Daphne and Miles and the way their story developed.

Is there hope for Daphne and Miles?

This was from Audible. Narration was excellent and it was easy listening! Came out on April 23, 2024]]> 4.21 2024
author: Emily Henry
name: Holly
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/30
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves: audio-edition, read-in-2024, rom-com, some-romance
review:
3.5 STARS

I was hoping Funny Story would be a bit "funnier"! I did laugh a few times, but I wanted more humor!

I still enjoyed the lighthearted story of the couple who were both dumped by their partners. I liked Daphne and Miles and the way their story developed.

Is there hope for Daphne and Miles?

This was from Audible. Narration was excellent and it was easy listening! Came out on April 23, 2024
]]> 30108909 400 Freida McFadden Holly 0 to-read 4.03 2016
author: Freida McFadden
name: Holly
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 127280459
It’s 1999 in Southeast Texas and the Evans women, owners of the only funeral parlor in town, are keeping steady with…normal business. The dead die, you bury them. End of story. That’s how Ducey Evans has done it for the last eighty years, and her progeny―Lenore the experimenter and Grace, Lenore’s soft-hearted daughter, have run Evans Funeral Parlor for the last fifteen years without drama. Ever since That Godawful Mess that left two bodies in the ground and Grace raising her infant daughter Luna, alone.

But when town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi―the original vampire―are back. And the Evans women are the ones who need to fight back to protect their town.

As more folks in town turn up dead and Deputy Roger Taylor begins asking way too many questions, Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and now Luna, must take up their blades and figure out who is behind the Strigoi’s return. As the saying goes, what rises up, must go back down. But as unspoken secrets and revelations spill from the past into the present, the Evans family must face that sometimes, the dead aren’t the only things you want to keep buried.

A crackling mystery-horror novel with big-hearted characters and Southern charm with a bite, Bless Your Heart is a gasp-worthy delight from start to finish.]]> 304 Lindy Ryan 1250888883 Holly 3 I think the adorable cover made me request this one!

I listened to the audio and it was well done, although I'm probably not the right audience. This wasn't scary, but too graphic/gory-ish for my taste. I enjoyed the characters though and wanted to see how the Evan's women dealt with the "new arrivals" coming to their funeral parlor.

I also enjoyed the small town Texas setting. People are disappearing and Deputy Roger Taylor has suspicions and starts asking a lot of questions. Secrets, Strigoi (vampire-ish people), and fighting the un-dead made this one a rather strange and at times cringy read!

Thanks to NetGalley for my arc. This one is OUT as of April 9, 2024]]> 3.58 2024
author: Lindy Ryan
name: Holly
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/25
date added: 2024/06/25
shelves: audio-edition, enjoyed-the-characters, net-galley, read-in-2024, series
review:

I think the adorable cover made me request this one!

I listened to the audio and it was well done, although I'm probably not the right audience. This wasn't scary, but too graphic/gory-ish for my taste. I enjoyed the characters though and wanted to see how the Evan's women dealt with the "new arrivals" coming to their funeral parlor.

I also enjoyed the small town Texas setting. People are disappearing and Deputy Roger Taylor has suspicions and starts asking a lot of questions. Secrets, Strigoi (vampire-ish people), and fighting the un-dead made this one a rather strange and at times cringy read!

Thanks to NetGalley for my arc. This one is OUT as of April 9, 2024
]]> 199116301
Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her job as an archival librarian, constantly surrounded by thought-provoking ideas and the books she loved. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured divorcee with a job that took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.

A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern—five unsolved cases of murdered women.

Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is . . . but what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected.]]> 255 Peter Swanson 0063205033 Holly 4 net-galley, read-in-2024
I didn't realize this was third in the series when I requested, but thrilled to see it!

In this installment, we meet Martha Ratliff, a lonely librarian who decides to say "Yes" to Alan Peralta. He seemed so very sweet and easy going. She wasn't especially attracted to him, but at least he kept her company!

Later, Martha's imagination goes wild and she starts obsessing over Alan's frequent business trips. Just what is Alan up too?! ]]> 3.58 2024
author: Peter Swanson
name: Holly
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/20
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: net-galley, read-in-2024
review:
Lily Kitner and Henry Kimball #3

I didn't realize this was third in the series when I requested, but thrilled to see it!

In this installment, we meet Martha Ratliff, a lonely librarian who decides to say "Yes" to Alan Peralta. He seemed so very sweet and easy going. She wasn't especially attracted to him, but at least he kept her company!

Later, Martha's imagination goes wild and she starts obsessing over Alan's frequent business trips. Just what is Alan up too?!
]]> 48890486
There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.

Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren't found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of Sao Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.

Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.

Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.]]> 280 James Nestor 0735213615 Holly 3 read-in-2024, non-fiction 4.13 2020
author: James Nestor
name: Holly
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/06/18
shelves: read-in-2024, non-fiction
review:

]]> 34466963 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781501144318.

Neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a revolutionary exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Charting the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and marshalling his decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood and energy levels, regulate hormones, prevent cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes, slow the effects of aging, and increase longevity. He also provides actionable steps towards getting a better night's sleep every night.]]> 368 Matthew Walker Holly 4 read-in-2024, non-fiction 4.37 2017
author: Matthew Walker
name: Holly
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/06/18
shelves: read-in-2024, non-fiction
review:

]]> 210040063 Molly the Maid has a whole new mystery to solve in this heartwarming novella from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest.

Molly Gray has always loved the holidays. When Molly was a child, her gran went to great lengths to make the season merry and bright, full of cherished traditions. The first few Christmases without Gran were hard on Molly, but this year, her beloved boyfriend and fellow festive spirit, Juan Manuel, is intent on making the season Molly’s mofinst joyful yet.

But when a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel raises questions about who Molly can and cannot trust, she dives headfirst into solving her most consequential—and personal—mystery yet. Molly has a bad feeling about things, and she starts to wonder: has she yet again mistaken a frog for a prince?

A heartwarming, magical story about the true spirit of the season, The Mistletoe Mystery reminds us that love is the greatest mystery of all.]]> 112 Nita Prose 0593875443 Holly 0 to-read 3.41 2024
author: Nita Prose
name: Holly
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200555213 Bestselling and award-winning author David Ellis delivers a fast-paced, twisty thriller that will surprise readers at every turn.

Leo Balanoff is a diagnosed pathological liar with unthinkable skeletons in his family's closet. He's also a crusading attorney who seeks justice at all costs. When a ruthless drug dealer is found dead and Leo’s fingerprints show up on the murder weapon, no one believes a word he says. But he might be the FBI’s only shot at taking down the dealer’s brutal syndicate.

Risk his life going undercover for the feds or head straight to prison for murder? Leo accepts the FBI’s offer—but it comes with a price, including a collision course with his ex, Andi Piotrowski, a former cop and “the one who got away.�� Forced to walk a tightrope between an ambitious FBI agent and a cruel, calculating crime boss, Leo’s trapped in a corner. But he has more secrets than anyone realizes, and a few more cards left to play …]]> 373 David Ellis 0399170936 Holly 3 Look Closer, from 2023! ]]> 3.85 2024
author: David Ellis
name: Holly
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: a-bit-bored-with-it, crime-police-procedural, favorite-author, read-in-2024
review:
Like so many friends here, I LOVED this author's novel, Look Closer, from 2023!
]]> 205098780 A master manipulator accused of murder. An attorney sworn to defend her. Keera Duggan returns in a riveting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

When Jenna Bernstein, disgraced wunderkind CEO of a controversial biotech company, is accused of murdering her former partner and lover, she turns to Seattle attorney Keera Duggan to defend her. Keera is more than a master chess player who brings her intuitive moves into court—she’s Jenna’s childhood friend. But considering their history, Keera knows that where Jenna goes, trouble follows.

Three years earlier, Keera’s father successfully defended Jenna when she was tried for the killing of her company’s chief medical scientist who threatened to go public with allegations of corporate fraud. Keera knows Jenna too well. When she was a kid, Keera saw Jenna for what she a manipulative and frighteningly controlling sociopath. Now, with only circumstantial evidence against Jenna, Keera is willing to bury any trepidation she might have to defend a woman she believes, this time, to be innocent.

As the investigation gets underway and disturbing questions arise, Keera puts her trust in a client who swears nothing but the truth. If this is all just another devious game, Keera might be working to set a murderer free.]]> 383 Robert Dugoni 166250022X Holly 0 to-read 4.20 2024
author: Robert Dugoni
name: Holly
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62060421
When the doorbell rings, just days after my beloved husband’s sudden death, I don’t recognise the woman on our doorstep, with buttery blonde highlights and a diamond bracelet identical to my own.

My world implodes when she tells me that she is my husband’s girlfriend, that the baby in her arms is his son, and that she owns our cherished family home.

But she doesn’t want to throw me and my children out on the street. She says she’s no monster, that she wants her baby to grow up with brothers and sisters. With no family, no money and no home, I have no choice but to accept her offer.

Now her food is in my fridge and her beautiful clothes are in the wardrobe in our master bedroom, yet as she helps me with chores and plays games with my little daughter, there’s a part of me that’s glad I’m not on my own. And as we sip wine at the kitchen table, I wonder if we could even become friends��

But when I find a phone hidden in her underwear drawer, I discover her terrible secret. Could she have had a hand in my husband’s death? And what exactly does she want from me?]]> 320 K.L. Slater 1803147911 Holly 0 Review later.... 3.84 2022
author: K.L. Slater
name: Holly
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/12
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves: library-loan, read-in-2024, psychological-thriller
review:
Review later....
]]> 128007059 A couple inherits an apartment with a spine-tingling past in this binge-worthy thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six.

Rosie and Chad Lowan are barely making ends meet in New York City when they receive life-changing news: Chad’s late uncle has left them his luxury apartment at the historic Windermere in glamorous Murray Hill. With its prewar elegance and impeccably uniformed doorman, the building is the epitome of old New York charm. One would almost never suspect the dark history lurking behind its perfectly maintained facade.

At first, the building and its eclectic tenants couldn’t feel more welcoming. But as the Lowans settle into their new home, Rosie starts to suspect that there’s more to the Windermere than meets the eye. Why is the doorman ever-present? Why are there cameras everywhere? And why have so many gruesome crimes occurred there throughout the years? When one of the neighbors turns up dead, Rosie must get to the truth about the Windermere before she, too, falls under its dangerous spell.]]> 384 Lisa Unger 0778333345 Holly 3
I did enjoy this one, but it was slow moving and took me awhile to finish it.

I really enjoyed the setting of an apartment building in Murray Hill, NY. It has a dark, haunted past. All of its secrets are slowly revealed in two separate timelines. One in present day and the other follows Willa and her escapades in 1963.

Chad and Rosie inherit one of the apartments and strange happenings begin. The doorman, especially creeped me out.

If you don't mind a slow burn and some supernatural elements, you may enjoy this one too.

Thanks to EW for my arc. OUT on March 5, 2024]]> 3.55 2024
author: Lisa Unger
name: Holly
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/20
date added: 2024/02/29
shelves: read-in-2024, slow-burner, super-natural-or-horror
review:
3.5 STARS

I did enjoy this one, but it was slow moving and took me awhile to finish it.

I really enjoyed the setting of an apartment building in Murray Hill, NY. It has a dark, haunted past. All of its secrets are slowly revealed in two separate timelines. One in present day and the other follows Willa and her escapades in 1963.

Chad and Rosie inherit one of the apartments and strange happenings begin. The doorman, especially creeped me out.

If you don't mind a slow burn and some supernatural elements, you may enjoy this one too.

Thanks to EW for my arc. OUT on March 5, 2024
]]> 176443178
From the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer comes the romance that will define a generation.

Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.

But as Jake and Daphne’s story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper’s prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn’t, information that—if he found out—would break his heart.

Told with her signature warmth and insight into matters of the heart, Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love. The result is a gripping, emotional, passionate, and (yes) heartbreaking novel about what it means to be single, what it means to find love, and ultimately how we define each of them for ourselves. Expiration Dates is the one fans have been waiting for.]]> 272 Rebecca Serle 1982166827 Holly 3
Slips of paper/postcards appear with dates. New man = new paper with an "expiration date" of how long their relationship will last.

She tries to navigate how to handle this situation. Is it something good or a curse? Where oh where will destiny take her?

If you enjoy some magical realism, this is an interesting premise. There were some emotional and sweet moments that were cute, but not sure the chemistry felt right and the flow was also a bit slow for my taste.

Thanks to NG for my arc. OUT on March 19,2024]]> 3.58 2024
author: Rebecca Serle
name: Holly
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/11
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves: a-bit-bored-with-it, just-ok, net-galley, read-in-2024, romance, slow-burner
review:
Daphne is experiencing a sort of life lottery. A premonition involving her love interests.

Slips of paper/postcards appear with dates. New man = new paper with an "expiration date" of how long their relationship will last.

She tries to navigate how to handle this situation. Is it something good or a curse? Where oh where will destiny take her?

If you enjoy some magical realism, this is an interesting premise. There were some emotional and sweet moments that were cute, but not sure the chemistry felt right and the flow was also a bit slow for my taste.

Thanks to NG for my arc. OUT on March 19,2024
]]> 173476065 When any biological matter can be used to create life, stolen celebrity DNA sells to the highest bidder—or the craziest stalker—in this propulsive thriller.

With a vivid imagining of the future, _Gattaca _meets Black Mirror in Kira Peikoff’s Baby X.

In the near-future United States, where advanced technology can create eggs or sperm from any person’s cells, celebrities face the alarming potential of meeting biological children they never conceived. Famous singer Trace Thorne is tired of being targeted by the Vault, a black market site devoted to stealing DNA. Sick of paying ransom money for his own cell matter, he hires bio-security guard Ember Ryan to ensure his biological safety.

Ember will do anything she can to protect her clients. She knows all the Vault’s tricks—discarded tissues, used straws, lipstick tubes—and has prevented countless DNA thefts. Working for Thorne, her focus becomes split when she begins to fall for him, but she knows she hasn’t let anything slip—love or not, his DNA is safe. But then she and Thorne are confronted by a pregnant woman, Quinn, who claims that Thorne is the father of her baby, and all bets are off.

Brilliantly plotted and terrifyingly prescient, Baby X is an unpredictable and relentless speculative thriller perfect for fans of Blake Crouch and John Marrs.]]> 326 Kira Peikoff 1639106332 Holly 3
The Vault is a black market scam that steals and then sells DNA from desirable individuals. They are all about $$ and willing to do almost anything to get the payoff they seek.

Obviously, this is speculative fiction! The pacing didn't hold up for me though. There were three POV's that didn't flow well, the characters felt disconnected. I wasn't as engaged as I would have liked to be and ended up skimming some pages. I'd get hooked and read, read, then the story would get bogged down with techy jargon and I'd want to quit.

Very intriguing premise, but the execution failed me. I didn't connect with any characters, so I wasn't invested. Also, some of the happenings were too over the top for me even though I really enjoy sci-fi thrillers. Check out more reviews because I may be a bit of an outlier!

Thanks to NG for my arc. OUT March 5, 2024]]> 3.82 2024
author: Kira Peikoff
name: Holly
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/08
date added: 2024/02/09
shelves: net-galley, read-in-2024, sci-fi-elements, a-bit-bored-with-it
review:
Stealing DNA , black market sites, and choosing the perfect embryo. All quite terrifying! I hope the future never brings such a thing!

The Vault is a black market scam that steals and then sells DNA from desirable individuals. They are all about $$ and willing to do almost anything to get the payoff they seek.

Obviously, this is speculative fiction! The pacing didn't hold up for me though. There were three POV's that didn't flow well, the characters felt disconnected. I wasn't as engaged as I would have liked to be and ended up skimming some pages. I'd get hooked and read, read, then the story would get bogged down with techy jargon and I'd want to quit.

Very intriguing premise, but the execution failed me. I didn't connect with any characters, so I wasn't invested. Also, some of the happenings were too over the top for me even though I really enjoy sci-fi thrillers. Check out more reviews because I may be a bit of an outlier!

Thanks to NG for my arc. OUT March 5, 2024
]]> 65213277 New York Times bestselling author B. A. Paris captivated psychological thriller readers everywhere with Behind Closed Doors. Now she invites you into another home full of heart-pounding secrets, in The Guest.

Some secrets never leave.

Iris and Gabriel have just arrived home from a make-or-break holiday. But a shock awaits them. One of their closest friends, Laure, is in their house. The atmosphere quickly becomes tense as she oversteps again and sleeping in their bed, wearing Iris' clothes, even rearranging the furniture.

Laure has walked out on her husband—and their good friend—Pierre, over his confession of an affair and a secret child. Iris and Gabriel want to be supportive of their friends, but as Laure's mood becomes increasingly unpredictable, her presence takes its toll.

Iris and Gabriel's only respite comes in the form of a couple new to town. But with them comes their gardener, who has a checkered past. Soon, secrets from all their pasts will unravel, some more dangerous than they could have known.]]> 308 B.A. Paris 1250289424 Holly 3
Domestic Drama

I enjoyed this much more than her last, but it fell short in overall pacing. We spend a lot of time with the married couple Iris and Gabriel and their guest, Laure. She is having marriage trouble with her hubs, Pierre. Apparently, he has upset her by revealing a secret from his past.

There is a good mystery woven into the plot, but I grew tired of the characters discussions, worries and day to day lives that circled around a littIe too long. I also became annoyed with the guest Laure and wanted to kick her out myself! Gees! I wanted to scream, “I’ve had enough��! ]]> 3.53 2024
author: B.A. Paris
name: Holly
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/02
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves: domestic-suspense, family-drama, net-galley, just-ok, read-in-2023
review:
3.5 STARS

Domestic Drama

I enjoyed this much more than her last, but it fell short in overall pacing. We spend a lot of time with the married couple Iris and Gabriel and their guest, Laure. She is having marriage trouble with her hubs, Pierre. Apparently, he has upset her by revealing a secret from his past.

There is a good mystery woven into the plot, but I grew tired of the characters discussions, worries and day to day lives that circled around a littIe too long. I also became annoyed with the guest Laure and wanted to kick her out myself! Gees! I wanted to scream, “I’ve had enough��!
]]> 195790534 The newest, riveting summer suspense by the author of The Block Party, Jamie Day.

The Precipice is a legendary, family-owned hotel on the rocky coast of Maine. With the recent passing of their father, the Bishop sisters—Iris, Vicki, and Faith—have come for the weekend to claim it. But with a hurricane looming and each of the Bishop sisters harboring dangerous secrets, there's murder in the air—and not everyone who checks into the Precipice will be checking out.

Each sister wants what is rightfully hers, and in the mix is the Precipe's nineteen-year-old chambermaid Charley Kelley: smart, resilient, older than her years, and in desperate straits.

The arrival of the Bishop sisters could spell disaster for Charley. Will they close the hotel? Fire her? Discover her habit of pilfering from guests? Or even worse, learn that she's using a guest room to hide a woman on the run.

With razor-sharp wit, heart, thrills, and twists, Jamie Day delivers a unique brand of SUMMERTIME SUSPENSE.]]> 360 Jamie Day 1250283205 Holly 4
What a fun setting! ]]> 3.45 2024
author: Jamie Day
name: Holly
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves: domestic-suspense, enjoyed-the-setting, family-drama, net-galley, psychological-thriller, read-in-2024
review:
4.5 STARS

What a fun setting!
]]> 150386131
Desperate for answers to the millions of questions his untimely death has raised, Anna checks in to The Sycamores, the run-down motel turned apartment Henry rented as an art studio. As she absorbs every bit of gossip the eclectic mix of residents are willing to share about her husband and each other, she begins to piece together a picture of a very different man than the one she married, and the life he led behind her back. The more she learns, and the less sense things seem to make, she finds herself wondering: Did she ever really know Henry at all?

But Henry’s secrets aren’t the only ones; as Anna’s search for clues expands, Cass, the mysterious, jaded motel manager, seems more and more determined to keep Anna in the dark. And when threatening letters start appearing at her door, Anna has to decide what’s more important—the truth, or her own safety.]]> Seraphina Nova Glass 0369748778 Holly 5
A crazy popcorn, page-turning, mouth gaping read! ]]> 3.81 2024
author: Seraphina Nova Glass
name: Holly
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/01
date added: 2024/02/01
shelves: enjoyed-the-characters, net-galley, popcorn-thriller, read-in-2024
review:
4.5 STARS (going to round up)

A crazy popcorn, page-turning, mouth gaping read!
]]> 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Holly 2
I took a chance and listened to the audio version via Libby.

Someone unexpectedly dies while her friend is visiting. One of them is a literary darling and the other is a wannabe best-selling author.

I've read this premise before, but this one gets very heavy inside the publishing world, some parts were just boring and seemed to drag on (speed up the narration at this point).

This one might work better as a book club read where topics of seeking personal gain, prejudices, capitalism, plagiarism,and some internet trolling could be discussed.

There are mixed reviews, and it does have some moments of wanting to know what will happen and wanting to continue. In the end though, I wish I'd given it a skip!

Audio Version from Libby / A Reese Pick/ Came out on May 16, 2023]]> 3.69 2023
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Holly
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves: a-bit-bored-with-it, audio-edition, libby, read-in-2024, slow-burner
review:
A Big MEH!

I took a chance and listened to the audio version via Libby.

Someone unexpectedly dies while her friend is visiting. One of them is a literary darling and the other is a wannabe best-selling author.

I've read this premise before, but this one gets very heavy inside the publishing world, some parts were just boring and seemed to drag on (speed up the narration at this point).

This one might work better as a book club read where topics of seeking personal gain, prejudices, capitalism, plagiarism,and some internet trolling could be discussed.

There are mixed reviews, and it does have some moments of wanting to know what will happen and wanting to continue. In the end though, I wish I'd given it a skip!

Audio Version from Libby / A Reese Pick/ Came out on May 16, 2023
]]>