Review: Something in the Heir

Something in the Heir by Suzanne Enoch
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This book was very strange to me, and I could not figure out what the author was trying to do. The pacing felt off, Emmeline and William's relationship/marriage felt odd, and I just could not figure them out as characters. Were they supposed to be...funny? Because my biggest problem with the book was that they came across as clueless, self-absorbed, patronizing, and just unpleasant. I could not get into a book in which the two main characters decided it would be perfectly fine to find two children to pass off as their own, and then GIVE THEM BACK to wherever they came from WHEN THEY WERE FINISHED WITH THEM. It was one thing (although they both seemed just plain stupid during this portion of the book) when they were attempting to "borrow" the children of some wealthy acquaintances. But then when they went to a poor farming family to ask for a couple of kids to essentially just "use" for a couple of weeks--justifying it by saying the children should enjoy a holiday with their betters during which they could live like the aristocracy--I really was shocked at how unfeeling and snobbish Emmeline and William really were. And then when that didn't work, and they finally came to the obvious conclusion that they "needed" some orphans, they still planned to just "give them back" when the children had served their purposes. SERIOUSLY? I could not get over how over-privileged, out-of-touch, and naively stupid Emmeline and William were. How in the world could ANYONE think it was okay to just borrow two little children who had been subjected to economic disadvantages at best and who had lost their true parents and had to suffer untold abuses and tragedies at worst?! I could not get over how idiotic and arrogant these two were, and I think what makes it worse is that it was being passed off in the story as acceptable behavior. What were--I am assuming--supposed to come across as hilarious episodes showing the reader the ridiculousness of Emmeline and William's situation were in fact unfeeling and jarring. I could not find any way to identify or sympathize with these two characters. How could they not realize that even though the sudden addition of two children might "inconvenience" them, the opportunities and safe home environment they would be able to provide for the children would outweigh that several times over--especially when the situation that Emmeline and William were in was created by their own subterfuge and manipulating. This wasn't a circumstance that had been foisted upon them--they created it when then lied because they wanted to live in a nice, conveniently located house.
I found that I could not finish the book because I was too infuriated by Emmeline and William. Whether they "learned their lesson" in the end or not, they just started off as MUCH too irredeemable. You can't just USE other human beings for your own ends. I could not like Emmeline or William and I wanted to go into the book and tell them off. Ugh. It wasn't funny, it wasn't cute, it wasn't a great way to realize you were actually in love the person you'd been married to for eight years. It was stupid, strange, and incredibly pretentious.
I DO NOT recommend this book.

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Review: Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade

Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade by Nancy Springer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As usual, I really enjoyed this installment of the Enola Holmes series. In this book, Enola Holmes feels compelled to help her friend Cecily who seems to have disappeared. Enola knows something sinister is at work and is determined to ensure that Cecily is safe and sound. Enola's older brother Sherlock makes several appearances as Enola proves she is just as good (or perhaps better!) at solving mysteries than her famous brother.
This book (and this series) is perfect for middle-grade to high school readers who are looking for a light, fun, historical mystery. Enola is an admirable heroine and her pluckiness is fun and engaging.
I would absolutely recommend this book.

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Review: Murder in Westminster

Murder in Westminster by Vanessa Riley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I could not get into this book. The characters felt familiar and almost stereotypical, which was strange when it was obvious the author was trying to counter commonly-held stereotypes. The dialogue felt stilted. And the situations felt too manufactured and overblown. It was like the author was trying way too hard to do way too much. There was no organic flow and I could not get into a rhythm while reading this book, so I did not finish it.

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Review: The Drowned Woods

The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I have had a very hard time reviewing this book, because I loved The Bone Houses so much. But by the time I got about 1/3 of the way through The Drowned Woods, I was very disappointed. It felt like the author was trying to follow a step-by-step manual to writing a YA heist fantasy novel and it just wasn't working. Tropes are only fun when they're done well or when they're tossed on their head. Neither was the case here. Everything felt flat and like the author was trying too hard to force everything to work. I skimmed most of the book, and so the ending, which I am assuming should have had some real emotional impact, just left me underwhelmed.
As I said, The Bone Houses was one of my favorite books, but I wouldn't recommend this one. I might read another by this author, but I am not sure.

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Review: The Last Party

The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This was a satisfying beginning to a new series by one of my favorite authors, Clare Mackintosh. I have enjoyed several of her other books, so when I heard she was writing a series set in Wales about a female detective I couldn't wait to read it.
Rhys Lloyd, a slightly has-been celebrity, has returned to his hometown in Wales to build a luxury resort on a beautiful lake. Most of the residents of the area resent Rhys and his new business endeavor, however, and when his body is found in the lake, Welsh DC Ffion Morgan is paired up with English DC Leo Brady to find out what happened. Unraveling secrets that want to stay buried will be a huge challenge, especially when some of those secrets belong to Ffion herself.
I enjoyed this book. I wouldn't say it was a tense, gripping thriller, but more of a slow-burn police procedural type of mystery. Ffion was an incredibly intriguing character, and the author did a great job of making sure that Leo was a great "partner" in their investigation and counterpoint to her character. The secondary characters were also fleshed out very well. The mystery was well-plotted and the ending was spot-on.
My only issue with the book was the way the time-line jumped all over the place. We have the mystery and action begin in the "present" when Rhys's body is discovered, and then every so often the setting will jump back to the past, before the murder took place. This in and of itself is not a big deal--a large number of mystery books use dual timelines. But in this book we would jump from January, just after the murder, to August, then back to January, then October, then January, then June, then back to January again, then December, and so on and so on. I would much rather have had the "past" timeline move in a more linear fashion. It took away from the flow of the book and made the uncovering and revealing of clues feel less organic and more "convenient."
That being said, I really did like the book and am eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series. Ffion is a character worth rooting for and I will enjoy following her journey.

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Review: The Couple at Number 9

The Couple at Number 9 by Claire Douglas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book. 4.5 stars!
I really really really enjoyed this book! Saffy, a young expectant mother, lives in the cozy cottage she inherited from her doting grandmother Rose. Saffy and her boyfriend Tom are in the midst of renovating their new home when contractors uncover two skeletons buried in the garden. Needless to say, Saffy is shocked, especially when it looks as though her grandmother could have some knowledge of how two bodies came to be buried at her old home. Rose suffers from dementia, however, and even when Saffy's capricious mother Lorna comes to help, everyone wonders if the real truth will ever come out. The stakes are raised when a mysterious man shows up looking for "evidence" and threatening the residents of the cottage. What exactly happened 30 years ago to cause Rose to abandon her home with her small child, and does it have anything to do with the deaths of two people?
Pretty much everything about this book was great. The characters really drew me in from the beginning and made me want to know what had happened in the past at the seemingly idyllic cottage, and how those in the present would get to the truth. The pacing was very well-done, too. It was slow enough to reveal nuances and yet fast enough to keep me interested and turning the pages as quickly as I could. I never got bored and wanted to skim anything. At about 2/3 of the way through I thought, "Wait a minute...what if...??!!" I had figured out the big twist, but I had to sit for a bit, staring off into space, trying to figure it all out in my head and see if it all fit into place. I thought, "I think THIS could be what's going on...! Wow!" And that's what really sealed the deal for me with the book. Sometimes when you figure out a twist it just seems too obvious, or you think," Of course this is what's happening. You are being too heavy-handed, author!" and roll your eyes. But in this case I thought it was very well-done, and the fall-out from revealing the twist really gave it serious impact. The ending was great, too. I have to admit I teared up at the last page. My only real issue was with Saffy. She was supposed to be an important character but she came across as whiny, petulant, and pouty to me--but she did redeem herself a bit at the very end. I really liked Lorna, Rose, and Theo much more than Saffy.
This book is full of tension, old mysteries, motherly love, and secrets that people will kill to keep hidden.
If you are looking for a great mystery, I would absolutely recommend this book.

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Review: The Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt by Emma Seckel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received and ARC of this book.
I really enjoyed this book. It was compelling, atmospheric, evocative, and a bit creepy; all while telling a timely and timeless story.
Leigh Welles suddenly returns to the small remote Scottish island where she grew up after receiving word that her father has drowned as the result of an accident. Leigh moved to "the mainland" after WWII to find her way in the world, but was unsuccessful, and feels a bit embarrassed and ashamed among the people she left behind. Iain MacTavish is a former RAF pilot who lost a great deal in the war and has returned to the island to try to find a way to rejoin post-war life. Both have returned to a different island, however, during the strange and eldritch month of October. Every year, from October 1st to the 31st, the sluagh flock to the island in great numbers. Named for the legendary Celtic "lost souls," these birds have always been eerie and disconcerting. But is seems that in the past several years the birds have taken on even more dark and ominous and behavior. Amidst the threat of the birds, a teenager goes missing, and Leigh and Iain feel obligated to discover not only what has happened to him, but also what might be the truth behind what is happening on their island.
The author does a wonderful job right off the bat of creating an atmosphere of isolation, desolation, and slight dread. As soon as Leigh returns and the first sluagh show up, the reader knows that something strange and perhaps otherworldly is going on. The fact that the islanders completely accept the dangerous and escalating behavior of the birds adds to the feeling of almost mythological preternaturalness. When Hugo disappears the tension and creepiness of the story are ratcheted up, and--while the story has an almost ethereal and unhurriedly mythic fable-like quality--it becomes very gripping and is very difficult to put down.
Another great aspect of the book was the way tragedy, loss, grief, and sadness are woven in, both literally and allegorically. The residents of the island have faced unspeakable hardships both during and after WWII, and the way they have dealt and are dealing with these issues are extremely significant--both for their time and the present day. Whatever dark force has a grip on the island must be addressed, and if the islanders cannot come to terms with it, the force may completely take control of the windswept speck of land.
I would certainly recommend this book. It tells a very relevant tale in a lyrical, slightly frightening, and hauntingly poignant way. It would be perfect for a rainy October day. If you enjoy historical fiction, magical realism, Celtic mythology, or a creepy tale, you should definitely check this book out.

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Review: The Key to Deceit

The Key to Deceit by Ashley Weaver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I must admit I was a bit disappointed by this book. I read the first book in the series and had some issues with the plot and pacing, but by the end of the book everything seemed to work itself out and I ended up enjoying it, so I was looking forward to this second installment.
This book had the very same pacing issues, however. For most of the book, Ellie talks to herself though inner monologue and narrates what is going on in her head. It gets repetitive and boring, not to mention the fact that I don't thing anyone actually speaks that way to themselves. It came across as stilted and inorganic. I just really needed some action in the story, and there was too little of it. The back and forth between Felix and the Major did not add any interest, either. I just got fed up with Ellie because it seemed pretty obvious to me that Felix is not the man for her.
I am not sure if I will read the next book in the series. It will either get better or get worse, and I'm not sure I can put up with it if it gets worse.

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Review: The It Girl

The It Girl by Ruth Ware
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.

This book just kind of fell flat for me. The story should have been interesting, but there was very little sense of tension, suspense, or even mystery. Told in dual timelines, this is the story of Hannah and the defining event of her life--the murder of her roommate and de facto best friend, April. The two bond in their first weeks at Oxford, along with a small group of other classmates. When April is discovered dead several months later, Hannah believes she knows who killed her, but all of April's "friends" seem to be affected by the murder in one way or another. Many years later, the man convicted of April's murder dies in prison, and Hannah begins to wonder if she pointed the finger at the wrong person.
This book just felt disjointed and a bit uninteresting. In the "Before" timeline, I just really got bored: we know that April will end up dead, but there was absolutely no feeling of suspense or doom. It just seemed full of anecdotes about how terrible of a person April was--were we supposed to think she deserved to die? The creepiest part of that timeline was John Neville, the man in jail for April's murder. I didn't have any sympathy for him, either, and so Hannah's quest in the "present" timeline to find out if he was really guilty seemed weird because John was so unsettling.
And then in the "After" timeline Hannah seemed like a completely different person than "past" Hannah. Not to mention the fact that she seemed to be dealing with debilitating PTSD-like symptoms. I really wondered how she had survived this far in life without having some sort of complete break-down.
When the tension finally picked up towards the very end of the book, it was too little, too late. I really didn't care what happened to Hannah, and was really only interested in who had actually murdered April and how they did it.
I don't think I would recommend this book. The pacing needed to be tighter and the book suffered from a lack of tension.

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Review: A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting

A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am rounding up a bit for this one. I get that this book is titled A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting, so the reader should expect a certain amount of mercenary behavior on the part of the "lady" in question--Kitty Talbot. But in order for the reader to either 1.) truly sympathize with Kitty's plight and understand her mammoth undertaking in finding a rich husband in order to save her family, or 2.) enjoy the machinations of Kitty as she searches for a wealthy man to beguile and entice into matrimony, the reader has to somehow root for and LIKE Kitty. And I did neither. She came across as robotic and unfeeling. The few misguided attempts to make Kitty seem sympathetic fell flat and so I really just began to feel sorry for Arthur. I was also astounded as to how she managed to be such a master manipulator when she had such a sheltered upbringing and gained most of her experience with men from her fickle "fiance." I was continually surprised by how easy it was for Kitty to find just the right thing to say or do to wrap Arthur around her finger. By the time the true love interest, Lord Radcliffe, was introduced--waaay too many pages in, in my opinion--I found I really didn't care about Kitty and was bored with the story.
I would not recommend this book. Is it trying to say something about the sexist and snobbish attitudes of Britain in the early 1800s? Umm...Pride and Prejudice was written in 1813…if you haven't figured out by now—over 200 years later—that Regency England had numerous flaws, then you need to be reading a different genre. If you are looking for something in the same vein as this--done much better--check out the real classics, by Georgette Heyer or Clare Darcy.

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Review: The Bodyguard

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I loved this book! And it's been a long time since I've said that about a Contemporary Romance, or a Romance in general! This book was just fun. I enjoyed the characters, the plot was not too far-fetched, and the dialogue didn't make me roll my eyes. This was like the great rom-com movies they used to make.
Hannah is an Executive Protection Agent--bodyguard--and is coming off a very bad breakup with a co-worker, when her boss gives her a new assignment: incredibly hunky actor Jack Stapleton. Hannah has seen most of his movies but is determined to not let his good-looks or dazzling persona distract her from doing her job. Problems arrive however when Jack tells Hannah she's going to have to pose as his girlfriend to keep his sick mother's stress-level down. Hannah will have quite the job to do, protecting her client AND protecting her heart.
I just really enjoyed reading this book. It hit all of the rom-com notes without being cheesy or annoying. No one got on my nerves, everyone (maybe except Hank) felt real, and the actions and decisions of the characters felt organic. I was rooting for Hannah and Jack from the very beginning and their relationship was sweet and mature, never falling into trite or unbelievable territory.
If you are looking for a well-written movie-script worthy romance, definitely check this book out!!

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Review: The House Across the Lake

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This book can be described as "Rear Window" on a lake in Maine--the narrator, Casey, even admits it at one point in the book. Casey, a widowed actress who has been "banished" to her family's lake house after spiraling into alcoholism after her husband's untimely death, witnesses some strange and unsettling actions through her window and comes to the conclusion that the wealthy man across the lake has murdered his ex-model wife. Casey spends the rest of the book trying to discover what exactly happened at her neighbors' mansion, and make sure the killer pays.
I will admit that I went into this book with trepidation, because I haven't always liked Sager's books in the past, and because I am SO INCREDIBLY TIRED of the unreliable female narrator who abuses alcohol/drugs and who inserts herself into her neighbors'/friends' affairs. But I will also admit that after a few chapters in, I really did like Casey and was rooting for her; Sager gave her rooting value and made me "get" her motivations (or at least I thought I understood them with the information I had at hand...).
So up until the "big twist" was revealed, I was enjoying the book. I--naively--thought that I had figured out the twist, and it was really adding to my enjoyment. But then when Casey went into her neighbors' cellar looking for answers, the wheels just fell off for me. What she found there was just too much. I am all for a creepy paranormal element in a book, but in this case it did not feel at all organic or in keeping with the rest of the tone up to that point. And from then on I was just rolling my eyes and groaning. It was all too much--including the "you-thought-you-had-it-solved-but-what-about-this!" stuff at the very end. I was not at all impressed. The plot was just ridiculous.
I would not recommend this book, although I know a lot of Sager fans will read it and enjoy it, regardless. I personally will probably avoid any other Sager books in the future, however.

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Review: Death and the Conjuror

Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This was a very interesting book, and I really enjoyed it. The story felt like a throwback to the good old detective stories of the 1930s and 1940s, with its locked-room murders and cast of fascinating suspects, plus our Scotland Yard detective and the eccentric yet highly perceptive retired magician who helps him solve the case.
One dark, rainy evening in the fall of 1936, an internationally renowned psychiatrist is found murdered in his locked study. No one can figure out how the murderer got in, much less the murder took place, or who could have been responsible. Inspector Flint of Scotland Yard calls on his old friend Joseph Spector, an enigmatic character and "professional trickster," who may be able to give some insight into the crime. The two men have a varied and intriguing array of suspects and persons of interest to look into, including the doctor's patients, his striking and intelligent daughter who is a doctor in her own right, her ne'er-do-well fiance, and mysterious dark-clothed figures who go skulking about in the gloom. The reader is challenged to solve the mystery along with Flint and Spector, and it is a challenge gladly accepted!
The characters in this book are well-done--just enough about them is revealed to make them fully-dimensional and interesting, but not so much detail to bog the story down. The plot is well-crafted and is a quick, easy read. The mystery is tantalizing and the reader knows if he or she just thinks about it hard enough, the answer will materialize right in front of them.
The book was not perfect. There were a few instances in which I wondered, "why are they waiting so long to to ask ... about ... ?" or "why has no one thought about ... ?" and I got just a bit frustrated. But those few things did not mar my enjoyment of the book at all.
If you enjoy Agatha Christie novels, the old Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone, or if you liked The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I would absolutely recommend this book. I hope that in the future we get to see Flint and Spector investigate more unsolvable crimes!

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Review: The Murder Rule

The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am rounding up from a 3.5 on this book. I was really looking forward into delving into this book, and while it was a bit disappointing, I still enjoyed it and was completely engrossed in the story.
This book is about Hannah, who finds her way into The Innocence Project at the University of Virginia. The reader knows she has schemed her way onto the campus and into the inner workings of The Innocence Project in order to subvert their case involving Michael Dandridge, who was convicted of murder many years ago. Hannah will do anything to ensure that Michael never sets foot out of prison.
While I will say that the story completely drew me in and I stayed up way too late reading because I had a hard time putting the book down, the book definitely had its problems.
First, the "Diary" portion of the book, which was interspersed with Hannah's action in the present, was a bit far-fetched (this could be a spoiler, (view spoiler)[ but maybe that was the point...? (hide spoiler)]). In the diary Hannah's mother Laura reveals the events that occurred during an ill-fated summer when she worked as a hotel cleaner in Maine. She relates dialogue and moment-by-moment events that seem to be a bit hard to believe, if someone is truly later writing down events that occurred earlier.
The writing style was a bit odd, as well. Minute details were added about very superfluous things, like exactly what characters ordered to eat in restaurants, exactly how characters walked outside to vehicles and unlocked the car and put their luggage into the trunk, or descriptions of the "curb appeal" of various locations. The very specific descriptions of details that were really irrelevant to the story felt odd and a bit jarring.
Then the big "twist" in the middle just kind of confused me more than anything. I needed a bit more explanation and clarification on the details.
But my biggest issue was with Hannah herself. I had a very hard time really identifying with her, or rooting for her. The reader knows her motivations, but Hannah comes across as slightly devoid of emotion. The reader knows that Hannah has had a very difficult upbringing, but that still doesn't quite justify her actions in the story. I was just missing an emotional connection to Hannah that let me excuse her dubious machinations because I rooted for her.
All of that makes it sound like I didn't enjoy reading this book, which is not at all the case. I was totally drawn into the story. This is not a bad book, but I've read better. Never Saw Me Coming is a book with a similar premise done much better. But if you enjoy mysteries, The Murder Rule might be worth checking out.

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Review: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This was definitely a Silvia Moreno-Garcia book! Which is in itself perhaps a strange thing to say, because all of her books are very unique. I can only describe this as a lush historical literary gothic tale with science-fiction overtones set in the Yucatan Peninsula. It is immersive, poignant, and thought-provoking.
Carlota Moreau has been raised in an isolated manner deep in the jungles of Mexico, and her only companions are 'hybrids"--the results of her father's experiments to combine humans and animals--and Mr. Laughton, the overseer of her father's ramshackle compound. When outside forces come crashing onto Dr. Moreau's enclave, including Mayan rebels and wealthy landowners, the precarious balance that has existed there for so many years is suddenly teetering on the edge of chaos and nothing can ever be the same again. But then, is that a bad thing...?
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is such a fascinating author and she has yet again crafted a thoroughly compelling tale that also sheds light on cultural and historical events and beliefs. While this book was, to me, not as overtly sinister or "gothic" as Mexican Gothic, it had a dreamy, turgid tone that fit in extremely well with the hot and humid jungle setting of the book.
If you have enjoyed any of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's books in the past, I would definitely pick this book up--because you know what you will be getting into! But if you enjoy literary fiction with a speculative sci-fi twist and well-drawn historical setting, you will also want to check this book out.

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Review: You Were Made to Be Mine

You Were Made to Be Mine by Julie Anne Long
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This book was a miss for me. I had read the first book in the series, and was very pleasantly surprised by it, so I was excited to read this one. But I just didn't enjoy it. I had two main issues. One was that the two main characters did not even meet until 1/3 of the way into the book. Once they did meet, they had very few real conversations or time spent together. They had probably 4 conversations--most of which included other people, and only one of which was truly deep and meaningful--before the heroine decided she was completely in love. It didn't feel organic at all. My second big problem was that there was way too much inner monologue. It seemed like the author was trying to make up for the fact that the two MC never really spent time together by having them sit, staring out windows, and obsessing about their life choices and how much they were intrigued by the other MC. It got boring and hard to read, and I started skimming, waiting for some action or INTERaction to start occurring.
And this book might need to come with a trigger warning or something. The heroine suffers--off the pages--from a very serious sexual assault. And to be honest it made the MC's love scene in the book a bit cringy.
The secondary characters were fun, and this could be read as a stand-alone. But I also think that's part of the problem. I would not recommend this book. The focus for a great deal of the book was not on the MC's relationship, but on espionage, revenge, and the various inhabitants of The Grand Palace on the Thames. When the characters finally began to develop feelings for each other the plot felt rushed and flimsy. I really wanted to like it, but just could not.

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Review: The Second Husband

The Second Husband by Kate White
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received and ARC of this book.
I was very confused by my review copy and I will go back and change my rating if the review copy changes before publication., but..
But I did not enjoy this book. I had multiple issues with it, from the main character Emma, to the lack of tension or suspense, to the flimsy issue that the whole plot was based on. But I will not go into all of that because the last two sentences of the book literally made no sense--to the point where I think there was something wrong with my review copy. The book had no ending at all and the ending that was included sounded like two sentences had been copied from somewhere else in the book and jus stuck on.
As it is, I would not recommend this book, despite the fact that I really enjoyed the author's previous work, The Fiancee.

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Review: The Locked Room

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this installment of the Ruth Galloway series. This is only the second book I have read about Ruth, a professor of archaeology, her close friend Nelson, a detective, and all of their friends, colleagues, and families. Covid is just beginning to sweep across the UK when Ruth is called upon to help unearth the skeleton of a possible medieval plague victim. At the same time, Nelson finds himself investigating the apparent suicide of an older woman who lived by herself. When the body of another woman is found dead inside a locked room, Nelson and his team wonder if a serial killer is at work while everyone around them is trying to survive living in lockdown.
The mystery in the book was well done and the pacing was great. The influences and themes of the medieval plague victims interspersed throughout the story tied into everyone's attempts to adjust to living with the threat of Covid in the present day. The author did a wonderful job of capturing those early days of the pandemic, when hand sanitizer, masks, social distancing, and zoom meetings were all so new and different. I also enjoyed the relationships between all the characters. This aspect of the book made it quite satisfying.
This is a slow-burn, cozy mystery, but it was hard to put down and I would recommend it to any mystery-lover. I can't wait to read other books in this series.

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Review: The Drowning Sea

The Drowning Sea by Sarah Stewart Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read an ARC of this book.
I am rounding up a bit on this one. It was a good book, but not a great book. I read the first book in this series and was completely blown away by how much I loved it. But this installment left me a bit disappointed. It was slow, there was very little character development, and the various mysterious happenings in the story felt disjointed. If you have not read the previous books in the series you might feel as though you are missing key facts, as well. Having said all that, if I had not absolutely LOVED the first book in the series I may not have been expecting so much out of this book and I might have liked it better. If you are looking for a slow-paced mystery set in a cottage on the Irish sea-side, then you might want to check this out.

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Review: Breaking Time

Breaking Time by Sasha Alsberg
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book had a great (if not original) concept, but it was just not good. The characters were flat. Klara felt like the author was trying way too hard to create a stereotypical yet "cool" teenage girl and Callum felt like an overdone melodramatic "hero" from a teenaged girl's idea of a romance novel. The actual writing and word choice in the book was--I have to say it--cringy. No one talks like that. It felt like the characters were reciting lines from a badly-written play, and not having actual feelings and conversations. And what I am assuming was supposed to be a grounding in Celtic mythology just felt like a haphazard mish-mash of anything Irish, Welsh, or Scottish. You can't pick an obscure figure from Welsh mythology and stick that in with references to Irish mythology and then have a guy from hundreds and hundreds of years ago to be familiar with ALL of it. Either pick large, overarching general themes and figures from non-specific Celtic mythology, or pick Irish, Welsh, or--HEY, since you're in Scotland!!--Scottish mythology and stick with that.
I just could not get into this book. If you are looking for a time-traveling YA fantasy version of Outlander, I'd keep looking and skip this one (and to be honest, there are a lot of books out there that try to be a YA fantasy version of Outlander, and I haven't read a GOOD one yet...)

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Review: Together We Burn

Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.

This book sounded very interesting, and I was excited to read it. But I just could not get into it. I had a hard time connecting with the characters, and the pacing felt very slow. It seemed like the author was spending too much time carefully crafting the setting and descriptions, that actual events and action and plot points got left by the wayside. I love immersive descriptions and usually think that they add wonderful layers and depth to books. But in this case, all of the similes and adjectives and metaphors and everything began to border on florid and repetitious. It was too much. I got really tired of how burning hot the sand was and dazzling the dresses were and...etc. I needed more focus on the plot and the characters.

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Review: Carolina Moonset

Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an Advanced Copy of this book.

I have to say I was disappointed in this book. It started off great and really held my interest. The main character seemed interesting and the descriptions of the South Carolina Low Country completely drew me in. But about 1/4 of the way in the book thins kind of started to feel strange, and I just couldn't get back into the story.
Joey is visiting Beaufort, SC, to visit his retired parents. Joey's dad, Marshall, grew up in Beaufort and after having decided to return there found out he has been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia. The disease is affecting his short-term memory and is also causing long ago memories to stand out vividly. Joey soon learns of a long-standing hate between his father and the well-to-do Hammond family, as well as mysterious events from his father's past that seem all-too real to Joey's father. When someone in the Hammond family is found murdered, Joey worries that his father might become a suspect and tries to find a way to protect him while still trying to discover how the past is now affecting the present.
As I stated earlier, I really was enjoying this book until about the 25% mark. The descriptions of Beaufort and the surrounding areas were great. But then about the time that Joey began his relationship with Leela, the pacing began to feel extremely off.
Pacing problem 1: Once the murder occurred, Joey became convinced that his dad could have been responsible based on things mentioned in passing in conversations he's just had with people he hadn't seen in years. It began to feel like an episode Murder, She Wrote. It was like Joey was saying, "Well, So-and-so said that this guy didn't like my dad's best friend, so when he disappeared he MUST have been MURDERED!" or, "This guy apparently liked this girl because So-and-so mentioned it, so he MUST have KILLED HER!" There was just A LOT of jumping to conclusions with very little evidence. More time should have been spent following up leads, researching the past, or trying to figure out exactly what happened before Joey and his "sidekick" Leela started playing detective and taking things that very well could have been rumors or coincidences and treating them like hard facts (and she felt like some kind of weird sidekick, and not a partner or a fleshed-out character).
Pacing problem 2: Then to make matters worse things that did not have to be repeated were oftentimes reexplained for no good reason, while other things were described in redundant and excruciatingly unnecessary detail.
Pacing problem 3: (This might be a spoiler) Huge components to the mystery were left to Joey and Leela to "deduce" (and by that I mean jump to conclusions based on little to no evidence and then take them as hard facts...see above), and so when facts were finally confirmed by Marshall, they lost all their emotional impact on the story. This man who has been struggling with his memory is finally able to talk to his son and reveal important events from his past, but Joey (and the reader) is just sitting there like, "Yeah, we already knew that, Dad...and...?" And THEN, where there is a pretty huge reveal that no one saw coming, instead of playing out the scene in real time, the author decides to relate the scene as a recording. So instead of narrating things like tone of voice, body language, and other immediate feelings, everything is completely robbed of emotion. That was a very strange choice, to me.
Pacing problem 4: (Again, trying to to give away too many spoilers) When the killer was finally revealed, this person and their "relationship" to Joey just came off as completely bizarre and out of the blue. I was just sitting there reading like, "Huh?!" It really felt like the author just needed to wrap up everything and found the most convenient scape-goat.
I will say that this was a very fast read. So if you are looking for something to read on vacation or at the beach (preferably somewhere between Cherry Grove and Hilton Head!), and reading a book that comes across as an episode of Matlock doesn't bother you, then give this book a try. If you are looking for something more hard-hitting, well-plotted, and gripping, then I'd skip this one.

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Review: A Proposal They Can't Refuse

A Proposal They Can't Refuse by Natalie Caña
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This book was entertaining. But it certainly wasn't terribly original, and it didn't knock my socks off.
It started off alright, with the grandfathers of our two main characters forcing their grandchildren, Liam and Kamilah, into an engagement. Liam and Kamilah have known each other all their lives and have not gotten along very well for the past several years. They hope that by going along with their grandfathers' plan they can in turn get the things they want out of their family businesses. But of course Liam and Kamillah's true feelings for each other only complicate matters.
From the first several pages, I wasn't sure that I wanted to even read the book, because Kamilah's family and Liam's grandfather were each excessively rude, dismissive, and pretty much just mean. Kamilah's family continually put her down, and Liam's grandfather was incredibly hard on him. It was off-putting and harsh to start right off the bat with that. But I pressed on and eventually became invested in Liam and Kamilah's relationship. I grew frustrated, however, because the pacing of the book was strange, which contributed to the fact that their relationship had very little growing or evolution throughout most of the book. The reader knows that Liam and Kamilah have cared deeply for each other--probably loved each other--for years, and have a long history together. But the reader doesn't really get to see it. I felt like I was missing an essential part of the story because I was just TOLD about important events in the history of their relationship in what kind of felt like an off-hand or glossed over way. Then things that were not really important at all, like furniture or friends' hairstyles or decor of competitor's restaurants or the layout of a nail salon were described in MINUTE detail. Too much time was spent on things that had no bearing on the story at all, and things that were important in the building of Liam and Kamilah's relationship were skipped over. Weeks went by in one sentence. It gave the impression that our two main characters relationships with their friends and family were more important to them and to the story than their relationship with each other--which felt very weird for a romance novel.
I did however appreciate the fact that towards the end when the whole fake engagement blew up in their faces (I don't think that's a spoiler--you have to know it's going to happen at some point!), both Kamilah and Liam got called out for exactly what they both had done wrong. They each made mistakes and had issues that need to be addressed and the people in their lives pointed all of that out to them and forced them to admit the things they'd done wrong, why it was wrong, and what they needed to work on in the future. And then both Liam and Kamilah apologized for their mistakes and realized they had truly messed up. That doesn't always happen in romance novels, so this particular part of the story was very well-done.
I am not sure if I would recommend this book or not. It was a very quick easy read, but parts of it were clunky and the pacing was very off. It was okay. Not great, but better than a lot I have read...

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Review: Juniper & Thorn

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I enjoyed The Wolf and the Woodsman, and so was very interested to read this book. But I did not enjoy it at all. I am not sure if there are enough trigger warnings for this book. It was a lot. This book dealt with child abuse, psychological abuse, emotional abuse, eating disorders, sexual abuse, pedophilia, animal abuse and cruelty, sex trafficking, cannibalism, torture, xenophobia, and graphic depictions of gory injuries and death. And I'm probably leaving some out... It was too much. If the author was trying to make a statement about the horrible nature of these things, picking one or two to include in her story would have had a much deeper and meaningful impact on the reader than throwing everything in. It was almost like, "What know? Well of course they all ate the murder victim, killed their pet, murdered their family member.... Nothing else can surprise me in this book." Things that perhaps were supposed to be jarring and shocking became almost cartoonish by the end of the book. Another issue I had with the book was the overly sexualized nature of just about everything. Right off the bat I thought to myself, "Oh. Okay...we are going there...alright." And then things felt unnecessarily graphic and vulgar. The relationship between Marlinchen and Sevas felt rushed at best, terribly toxic at worst. These are two horrifically traumatized individuals who have just fallen into insta-love with the first person who has shown them glimmers of affection. By the end I couldn't wait to finish the book--not so I could find out what would happen, but because I just wanted it to be over with.
This book was dark, disturbing, graphic, gross, unsettling, and disjointedly weird. And none of that in a good way. Don't come into this expecting another book like The Wolf and the Woodsman, even though it is set in the same world. This is a horror book filled with the terrifyingly awful things that humans can do to each other, described in a strangely off-hand and matter-of-fact YET disgustingly graphic manner.
I would not recommend this book. And I am not sure I would read another book by this author, despite my opinions about her earlier work.

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Review: Twin Crowns

Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I tried with book, but I just didn't like it at all. The story of two twin princesses, separated at birth, was juvenile, stilted, and boring. The word choice and way the characters talked felt robotic and jerky. It was like they were reciting what a 12-year-old imagines a "cool" fairy tale princess would say. Either be snarky and irreverent or proper and formal--it's almost impossible to pull off both, and usually when authors try, it just sounds cringy.
Because of the dialogue I just couldn't connect to the characters. Rose especially just felt like a caricature and was more than a little bit unlikeable.
I would not recommend this book.

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Review: On a Quiet Street

On a Quiet Street by Seraphina Nova Glass
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received and ARC of this book.
Wow, this was a great book! Was it perfect? No, but it kept me on the edge of my seat, rooting for characters (some of whom I wasn't sure I should be rooting for), turning pages because I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next, and yet not wanting the book to end. I loved it.
The story takes place in a seemingly-idyllic affluent neighborhood that at first glance might appear placid, boring, and "normal." But right off the bat the reader realizes there is much more going on beneath the surface and this quiet street is full of secrets, lies, and horrible crimes. Paige is trying to come to terms with the hit-and-run death of her son just a year before but is doing it by pushing away her husband, obsessing over her neighbors, and hounding the police about solving what she believes was her son's murder. Cora believes her husband is having an affair, no matter how much he denies it, and confides in Paige, who offers to investigate the matter. And then rumors surround Georgia, the young English wife of a prominent judge--is she just standoffish, or does she really have a mental health issue that is keeping her isolated in her own home with her young daughter? The way the lives of these three women intersect is twisty, beguiling, and shocking. Everyone is keeping secrets, and the way the secrets are slowly revealed and the lives of these women are changed in the process kept me guessing and gasping out loud.
The characters in this book are wonderful. Each of the three women are compelling and the way the author develops each character throughout the book is amazing. While Paige, Cora, and Georgia all do things that are dishonest, questionable, and perhaps even criminal, they all have rooting value and it is easy for the reader to grasp their motivations in their actions.
The plot while just a bit slow in the first fourth or so, picked up big time and had me at the edge of my seat from about 30% on. What started off as, "Oh no...she shouldn't be doing that," soon turned into,"No!! Why did she do that?!!" and then to, "Oh my goodness, NO! DON'T DO THAT!" And just when I thought I had figured out how things would go, an unbelievable twist would come up that would make me literally widen my eyes, think to myself, "What?! No way!" and wonder what on earth would happen next. So many little clues are dropped in here or there that I was soon thinking to myself, "Oh, that's why she said that," or "I remember when that was mentioned," or something along those lines. And even at the very end, the book got even more exciting in the last pages.
The best thing I can say about this book is that I kept checking how many pages were left because I did not want it to be over. Having enjoyed the author's previous book, Such a Good Wife, I was looking forward to reading this one, but this book absolutely blew me away. I would 100% recommend this book if you like mystery, crime, domestic thrillers, and a story that will keep you guessing.

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Review: Friend of the Devil

Friend of the Devil by Stephen Lloyd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This was a VERY unique book, and I read it in October, which was perfect. It was a quick and quirky read full of bizarre goings-on, interesting characters, and unexpected twists. I had no idea what was going to happen, and that really made this book fun!
The reader is introduced to Sam, a hardboiled '80s detective who is investigating the theft of an ancient book from an isolated island-bound New England boarding school. As Sam questions various students and school employees while tracking down leads, the reader meets a disparate cast of characters from the terribly grumpy librarian, to the eccentric head master, to a jock on steroids, to a misunderstood nerd. The only one who seems in concert with Sam as he tries to do his job is Harriet, a young but intrepid writer for the school paper. As Sam and Harriet get closer to the truth behind the stolen book, missing students, and truly bizarre occurrences around the lonely and highly creepy school campus, what they learn may completely change both of their lives.
This was a really quick read. The story jumped from vignette to vignette, but that really kept me interested and made me want to know what on earth was going to happen next. The characters where funny, real, and spot-on. Harriet and Sam made quite a team, even though they worked alone for much of the book. The supporting characters were also well-drawn, even if many only appeared for a few pages.
This was a really bizarre and gory book, which made it absolutely perfect for a Halloween read. The ending came fast and furious, and I really can't describe it because it wasn't at all what I was expecting (and it might not be for some), but once I finished I realized it totally fit in with the tone of the book. If you are looking for a fast, fun, spooky, twisty, and completely unexpected book to read during "spooky season," I would absolutely recommend this one, for sure.

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Review: The Woman in the Library

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.

I loved this book! It is the story of four people who are brought together when they happen to be sitting near each other in the Boston Public Library Reading Room when a woman screams and is presumably murdered. The four strike up a friendship and decide that they owe it to the woman who was murdered to try and discover what exactly happened to her. Two of the four are novelists, which definitely adds to the story (while crime writers solving crimes themselves isn't a new trope in the mystery genre, this story does it very well). At the very same time that our four new friends are trying to solve the murder, the reader is reminded through emails that are interspersed throughout the book that this is in fact a manuscript that a writer named Hannah is in the process of writing, and she is receiving feedback, research help, and perhaps overzealous advice from a man named Leo. This also adds another layer of interest and even suspense to the book.
I enjoyed getting to know the four main characters and see how they developed as the reader (and the "narrator" of the story, Freddie) really got to know them. I got definite "Only Murders in the Building" vibes from the story, and I really enjoyed the camaraderie between the characters as their quest to find out what happened to the "woman in the library" grew. The interjections from Leo's emails were also very interesting and different, but a great addition to the book.
I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries. I read it quickly and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next!

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Review: One for Sorrow

One for Sorrow by Helen Sarah Fields
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.

This book made me gasp in the first several pages! It was action-packed, full of tension, and told a very poignant story.
DCI Ava Turner has vowed to find the killer of one of her very dearest friends. It appears that a crazed bomber has let loose a reign of terror on Edinburgh and is setting up intricate yet horribly devastating bombs all over the city with mass casualties. Turner and her team, including DI Luc Callanach, must do their best to find who is responsible before even more damage is done. In the meantime, another storyline, which takes place "Before," details Quinn, a young woman with a kind heart who is seeking to find her place in the world as an adult and as part of her family. The reader has to wonder how exactly sweet Quinn fits into the story of a bomber who is not afraid to deal out tragedy and gruesome death to dozens of people at a time.
This book moves at an incredibly fast pace. Turner and her team are doing their best to track down a smart and meticulous killer who always seems to be one step ahead of the authorities. This is contrasted very well with the story of Quinn as her relationships with her friends and family develop and change. As the plot progresses things begin to fall right into place, but I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I will leave it at that.
The only flaw that really stood out to me were the few slow spots in the book. These dealt with the backstory between Ava, Luc, and their best friend Natasha. Because this is the first book in the series I have read, the backstory didn't really resonate with me as much as it probably would someone who has read the other books in the series. So I won't count it against the book, and I will most likely look for other titles in the series, because I really enjoyed this one.
If you are looking for a gripping thriller with twists and turns that you won't see coming, definitely check this book out.

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Review: Who Took Eden Mulligan?

Who Took Eden Mulligan? by Sharon Dempsey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I wanted to like this book, and I tried to like this book, but I just didn't. And I was disappointed.
The story opens with a young woman, covered in blood, confessing to the murders of at least 3 other people. When the police go to investigate the cottage where the crime was committed, they find a reference to a missing persons case from decades ago. What happened, why did this young woman confess, and what does this all have to do with the long-ago disappearance of Eden Mulligan?
I think the problem for me was that I wanted to have all of these questions answered and the author was too busy dredging up back-story on the two main characters, Rose and Danny. Backstory should be revealed in an organic way, and not told to the reader in a surface-level repetitive manner. I got bored and frustrated, waiting for Rose, Danny, and the rest of the investigators to start INVESTIGATING the crime instead of sitting around thinking about things that happened at university or in their childhoods or in their past investigations. Rose didn't like her mother--we get it. Danny messed up when investigating his last case--we get it. Both Danny and Rose have unresolved feelings toward each other--we get it. I really wanted them to stop ruminating over things in their heads and thinking about what they should or should not do/have done and DO SOME POLICE WORK.
I don't think I would recommend this book. It had creepy, gritty potential, but then got lost somewhere in a misguided attempt at fleshing out the main characters. Constantly being told about the characters instead of being shown just made me bored.

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Review: Mrs England

Mrs England by Stacey Halls
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am not quite sure how to rate or review this book. It was well-written and drew me into the story. But it was also very slow-paced and I don't think it's going to stay with me for very long. Once I got to the very end, I wasn't sure what the point of everything was. It just kind of left me shrugging my shoulders, but not really invested enough to spend much more time thinking about it.
This book, despite its title, focuses on Ruby, the newly employed nurse to the England family. Ruby moves to their isolated house and does her best to take care of what turns out to be slightly neglected children. Their mother, Mrs. England, seems to be forgetful at best and completely out of touch with reality at worst. She doesn't seem to have or want much of a relationship with her children, and much of the running of the household falls to her husband, Mr. England. Ruby is able to get the nursery back into tip-top shape and creates a wonderful routine for her charges, but begins to wonder if something isn't very wrong in the England home when things go missing, she intercepts enigmatic glances, and various disasters are narrowly averted. Is there something truly wrong with Mrs. England? Is Mr. England hiding secrets?
The author did a wonderful job of creating a setting and drawing the reader into an upper-class home at the turn of the 20th century. The world of Ruby May was described in great detail--almost too much detail. A great portion of the book was spent on describing washing nappies or combing out hair or making sure the pram was ready to be taken out. It got a bit repetitive and slightly boring. There were so many obscure mentions of little "clues" in the story that got lost by the wayside of the "daily life in an early 1900s nursery" that I got frustrated and needed a bit more meat and a lot less filler. This really threw off the pacing of the book. The real "story" of the book became more and more ephemeral as it went on and I wasn't sure where I should be grasping at it and what was a red herring or just a detail mentioned in passing. There were also quite a few weird interactions between the characters that I wasn't sure what was supposed to be important and what was just strange.
This wasn't a bad book, it was just slow and felt slightly disjointed. I liked Ruby and I was rooting for her, even if I didn't always agree with her decisions. I will say that I wasn't quite sure what to make of the last three sentences in the book.
If you like VERY slow-burning gothic mysteries, maybe this is the book for you. I don't think it was the book for me, though.

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Review: The Accomplice

The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.

This book was just a miss for me. It is NOT a tense, chilling, suspense-filled thriller. It is a novel about friendship and what people will do for each other when those people truly care about you. It was an interesting book, but there were just too many things that I really didn't like to allow me to rate it any higher.
Owen and Luna meet in college and develop an incredibly strong friendship that most people don't understand. When Owen's on-again-off-again girlfriend ends up dead, Luna is one of the few people who stands by him, maybe because she has things in her past that she would rather stay that way. Many years later both Owen and Luna are married--to different people--but are still best friends. One morning Owen's wife is found shot. The police aren't sure who should be a suspect, but everyone knows that Owen and Luna definitely act like they have things to hide.
While there was a mystery (several, in fact) in this book, the author didn't really create a feeling of gripping tension throughout the book. One of the aspects that really took away from any feelings of a suspense-thriller was the fact that the book was written in an omniscient third-person point of view that bounces back and forth from one character to another multiple times on one page. The reader can see what is going on in any person's head at any point in the book. Any feeling of questioning motives or wondering what someone is thinking at any time is gone, and so most of the mystery is gone, as well. The tone comes across as very matter-of-fact, impersonal, and maybe a bit robotic. And for me, the ending wasn't great. I didn't really get much of a sense of personal resolution or character growth.
This was not a bad book--if you go into it knowing it is a literary mystery focused on the deep friendship between Luna and Owen. If you are wanting a tension-filled psychological thriller, then I'd look elsewhere.

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Review: My Darling Husband

My Darling Husband by Kimberly Belle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am rounding up a bit, but I enjoyed this book. It was an interesting thriller about a mother, Jade, and her two children who are taken hostage in their own home by a masked intruder. Jade learns that the man who invaded her home wants an oddly specific amount of money from her very rich husband, and the man wants the money in an almost impossible amount of time. Jade begins to wonder if her husband is hiding terrible secrets all while trying to find a way to keep her children and herself safe.
This author did a good job of ratcheting up tension while letting the story unfold. Jade had enormous rooting value and Cam was a compelling character, despite all of the mistakes he made. I enjoyed the way the story was told through Jade's point-of-view, Cam's point-of-view, and a TV interview after the fact.
This book really reminded me of another book, Mother May I. If you like domestic suspense, thrillers, and mysteries, I would recommend this book.

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Review: Final Girls

Final Girls by Riley Sager
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am really struggling with whether this book deserves a 3 or 4 star rating. Usually I'll just give a 3.5 and round up, but I don't think I can in this case.
The set up in this book really grabbed my attention: Quincy, the sole survivor of a massacre in a lonely isolated vacation cabin many years ago, is one of three famous "Final Girls." These are the girls who managed to escape bloody crime scenes, take down their would-be killers, and live. But this is a group that is hard to belong to, especially it seems for Quincy. In the beginning of the story, Quincy seems to be doing well: she has a successful baking blog, a great fiance, a wonderful apartment, and a bright future. Apart from the occasional call or text to the police man who helped save her life back in college and the occasional Xanax swallowed down with grape soda, it appears as though Quincy has moved past the dark and horrific events at the cabin. But then Samantha, another "Final Girl," shows up and Lisa, the original "Final Girl," is found dead. Quincy's finely created reality begins to splinter and she is not sure what is going on, who she can trust, or whether or not she is in danger.
I enjoyed the book up to the point when Samantha showed up. It was incredibly strange to me that Quincy would just let her in her home, let her in her life, and allow her to talk Quincy into doing some highly dangerous things. I certainly didn't like Sam, and the way Quincy was acting around her made me almost start to dislike Quincy. So the middle of the book, in which Sam comes into the picture and begins influencing Quincy's spiral into deceit, drugs, alcohol, and incredibly self-destructive behavior was difficult to get through. I just kept wanting to yell her her, "What are you doing? Why are you doing this? Stop! Kick Sam out of your apartment!! How many times are you going to let someone you don't know at all talk you into abusing prescription drugs, getting drunk, and then committing various crimes?" I felt like Quincy was just being too dumb.
Then the book picked up right toward the very end. The pacing, the tension, the story...everything got interesting again all of a sudden and I had to keep reading until I got to the very last page. I did not see the ending coming at all, and the author did a great job with the red herrings at that point.
So, that's why it's hard for me to rate this book. The beginning was pretty good. The middle was boring, repetitive, and frustrating, and then the ending was great. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it or not...maybe? Just know if you can get through the middle there is a pretty good conclusion waiting for you.

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Review: Sundial

Sundial by Catriona Ward
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.
This was my first book by Catriona Ward, and I was very excited to read it, because I'd heard such good things about The Last House on Needless Street. But this book was just not for me. I really tried, but by about half-way through I was having to force myself to pick it up and read it, and was just not engaged with the stories or with the characters. I don't know if it was because the storyline itself felt very disjointed, with what was happening in the present with Rob and Callie, what happened in the past in the desert commune/mad scientist lab, or the strange story that Rob was writing. Each of those felt like a completely different story with a completely different tone. But the reason might have also been because I found it hard to connect with the characters. Just when I thought I had Rob figured out she would go and do something completely bizarre. The same with Callie. And then just when I thought I had those two figured out we'd jump back in time to read more about unsettling experiments on dogs. Sometimes in books you can feel like you are not sure what will happen next, or how everything is connected, but the author is able to keep you interested enough that you don't mind and really want to keep reading so you can uncover all the mystery and unlock all the secrets. In this case everything was just too bizarre, jarring, and disjointed for me to find myself caring about what would happen next.
From what I have seen of other reviews, most people either love this book or hate it. I can tell you that I did not love it, and I would not recommend it (especially if you are a dog person).

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Review: The Club

The Club by Ellery Lloyd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am rounding up from a 3.5. This was an interesting mystery. I am not quite sure how to rate it because it did have its issues, even though the story was great and I enjoyed reading it.
The book begins with what appears to be a murder at the opening of Island Home, an incredibly exclusive getaway for the incredibly rich and famous. The island is the newest addition to the Home Group: world-wide members-only resorts for the creme-de-la-creme of celebrities. The celebrities--all paying members of the Home Group--vied for highly coveted invitations to the jaw-dropping opening weekend in order to be pampered in absolute luxury. However something quite sinister is happening at Island Home. And the question then becomes what exactly is wrong with Home? Who knows what secrets are being kept, and how far will people go to keep--or reveal--those secrets? When people disappear and then dead bodies begin to pile up, it becomes obvious that it is the people who have the most who will do the most to keep themselves safe.
This was a very twisty, well-thought out mystery. The reader is never really quite sure, especially at the beginning, who has died and who might be responsible for those deaths. Tidbits are slowly revealed that shed light on what exactly happened on that fateful weekend, and what events led up to making that weekend a flashpoint for murder, vengeance, and desperation.
The big issue with the fact that tidbits are slowly revealed is that very small tidbits are incredibly slowly revealed, while buried in pages and pages of inner monologs. Characters ruminate on why they don't like other characters, or how they dealt with serious events and tragic setbacks in their life, or how they ended up in the positions they are in now...and it got a bit boring. These interludes do shine a light on how exactly everything leads up to multiple deaths on Island Home and make each circumstance very impactful, but things also could have been trimmed. A great deal of time was spent in unnecessarily detailed descriptions and ruminations on what happened in the past. If these sections had been tightened up it would have created a greater sense of suspense and urgency and would have made the book that much better. I also would have liked a little more from Ned. He was such a huge part of the story that it would have been nice to perhaps see things from his point of view or get a larger sense of who he was. Most of what the reader sees of him are interactions with other characters when he is incensed or irate or enraged. Therefor he didn't come across as a three-dimensional character until towards the very end of the book. Fleshing him out a bit would have really added some depth to the story.
I did enjoy the book and would recommend it, despite of the issues I had with it. The ending was great and I loved it. If you enjoy a slow-burn twisty mystery, then you should check this one out.

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Review: The Paris Apartment

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I really enjoyed The Guest List and have been very excited to read this book. But I am struggling with even forcing myself to finish it. It is the story of Jess, who has abruptly decided to go visit her half-brother, Ben, in Paris. When she arrives at his apartment, he has vanished into thin air, and none of the other residents of the building seem to know anything about what might have happened to him. Not to mention the fact that they are all a bit off-putting at best and downright unwelcoming at worst. Jess doesn't know who can help her or who she can trust and is convinced something terrible has happened to Ben.
The characters in this book are all unlikeable, flat, and unsympathetic. Jess is the best of the bunch, but she comes across as naive, terribly impulsive, and not that bright--how else can you explain continuously sneaking around other people's apartments, extensively going through their things, and not seeming to realize that she can get caught at any moment? The rest of the residents feel like cartoons or caricatures: the lonely aging wife who traded her youth and beauty for money, the isolated young daughter who yearns to break free of her introverted exterior and live out her fantasies, the repressed son who could never please his demanding father... I just found it boring and trite. The pacing also was too slow. "Where is Ben?" is really the biggest question or mystery, and there seems to be no real sense of urgency about finding the answer to that question. The biggest feelings of tension come when Jess is snooping through other people's apartments because she always takes forever to do it when someone could walk in on her--that's not tension, that's frustration at Jess being dumb. And the setting is odd. For making such a big deal about this being in Paris, it doesn't really feel like Paris plays that big of a role in the story. Although Jess feels isolated and alone, the setting could be anywhere in the world. It is the apartment BUILDING that is the big factor in the book.
At about half-way through I just really got fed up with the characters, and then they began to commit some really despicable actions with no real explanations. Instead of being intrigued I was repelled. I began skimming, trying to find some action and something interesting. I am now about 3/4 through and am really trying to decide if I want to finish it or not, because I really don't care what happened to Ben, what will happen to the rest of the inhabitants of the building, and although I do care a bit about Jess, she also makes terrible decisions, so she might deserve whatever happens to her.
I suppose if I do end up finishing the book I will update this, but at this point, I would not recommend this book at all. The Guest List was great. This one is not.

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Review: One Night on the Island

One Night on the Island by Josie Silver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I was really looking forward to reading this book, but I have to admit I was pretty disappointed when I finished it. This is the story of Cleo and Mack. They both have decided to visit the remote Irish island of Salvation to take some time away from their lives and hopefully regroup, but for very different reasons. Because of a miscommunication, Cleo and Mack find themselves booked to stay at the same one-room lodge for the foreseeable future. The forced proximity with a complete stranger turns the relationship between the two main characters from barely civil cold war to something much much more.
The synopsis of the book sounded great, and in the beginning everything looked quite promising. There was quite a bit of introspection from Mack and Cleo, but they were both isolated in a small cabin with another stranger, so it seemed to kind of fit in to the action. The secondary characters were a lot of fun and very well-drawn. And when Cleo and Mack began to interact with them the story picked up a bit. Up to this point I was really enjoying the book, despite having to suspend belief a bit: why did Mack think he was entitled to stay there over a paying customer? There had to be SOMEWHERE else he could stay.
Then, we find out that Mack is married. Married. He tells Cleo that he and his wife have been separated for a very long while, but it is MORE than obvious (from the increasingly monotonous and repetitive inner monologues we are subjected to) that Mack still cares for and loves his wife. He doesn't feel like he can pursue anything physical with Cleo until he finds out his wife has been seeing someone else for months...that doesn't seem like the basis for a good healthy relationship, does it? "Well, turns out my wife, whom I've loved for more than a decade, is cheating on me, so why don't we just have an affair, too?! I mean, I have every thing about her, from her appearance to her smell to her personality indelibly etched on my soul, but sure, Cleo... Let's go!"
And then even when Cleo and Mack decide to go all in and have a "no-strings-attached" relationship, we still have to slog through pages of introspective inner thoughts from both characters. I got so sick of reading about Cleo's "self-coupling ceremony" that I started skimming whole paragraphs at a time. When it finally came time for the "marriage" I pretty much skipped the whole thing. And I really found myself not caring at all about the citrus shampoo scent of everyone in Mack's family or how skinny his kids' arms were or what happened that one time they all went fishing... It got really boring. And confusing--was the reader supposed to be investing in a future for Mack and Cleo or rooting for them to find their own separate paths (especially since Mack was MARRIED WITH KIDS)? Even though I felt like Cleo was a bit spoiled and deserved whatever she got, I really got fed up with how hung up on Susie Mack was. Ugh. She doesn't like you anymore, bro!! And then Susie's attitude at the end just made me roll my eyes. By the last few chapters I was just really thinking, "What was the point of all of that?!" And then the ending felt kind of out of the blue, tacked on and anticlimactic.
So, in conclusion, I really wanted to like this book, and in the beginning it looked were promising, but it completely missed the mark. I would not recommend it.

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