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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Review: The Harbor

The Harbor by Katrine Engberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.

This is the third book of the series I have read, and I really enjoyed it. Not only did I get to follow a gripping mystery about a missing young boy, but I was also able to catch up with all the characters from the series I have come to care so much about. This story was atmospheric, compelling, and a great mystery. The author does a great job of creating the atmosphere of Copenhagen, and that is part of what makes these books so good.

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Review: Our American Friend

Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.

I did not enjoy this book. The jumping back and forth in time with no warning or set up was very confusing, and I had to keep going back and rereading passages because I would lose track of what was going on. I also didn't enjoy the glaringly obvious parallels between the characters in the book and the Trumps. I felt like the author was taking the easy way out instead of inventing her own characters. I would not recommend this book.

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Review: The Rising Tide

The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
Oh my word, I loved this book! So many things about it were amazing: the descriptions, the characters, the story.... So good!
This book is about Lucy, a mother with the seemingly perfect life. She's got two kids, a thriving business, a wonderful husband, and an amazing home overlooking the ocean. Despite some rough times in her past and some financial issues that her family is facing, she appears to be one of those people whom fate has smiled upon. But all that is upended one afternoon when she gets the news that her husband, unbeknownst to her, has taken their boat out into what is shaping up to be the storm of the century. Why did he go out into the water, knowing what was coming? Why did he not tell anyone? Where is he? And where are Lucy's children? When the police get involved, led by dogged Detective Abraham Rose, Lucy is terrified to realize something truly evil may be at work, and her family may never be the same.
This book grabbed me from the very beginning and never let go. The cataclysmic storm that begins to build in the first pages and then erupts as the story careens along in tension and fury echoed Lucy's fear and determination. The way the author describes the storm--the clouds, the waves, the rain, the wind--is perfection. Oftentimes an author will spend (or waste) so much time and so many words describing a scene in excruciating detail that those details overshadow the action, and then the reader gets bored...but not in this case. Over and over again, in just a few words the author shows the reader exactly what the natural world looks, sounds, and feels like to an extent that with just a line or two of description and imagery the reader can see, smell, or feel exactly what is happening. It was spot on every time. Not only could was the reader almost physically transported into the action in the book, but the action never slowed down or let up. I truly commend the author for this!! It is not easy and the author does it through the whole book.
I could recommend this book for nothing other than the imagery and descriptions, but the characters were extremely dynamic as well. Lucy was fabulous as a terrified mother who knew she had to fight for her family and never backed down, even when pushed past the breaking point. In addition, Abraham was amazing character, and I was rooting for him just as much as I was rooting for Lucy. Abraham is variously described as a crusader knight, God's blunt-edged tool, God's servant, and he serves a similar purpose in the story, like an avenging angel or heavenly messenger sent to move along God's plan. He is equal parts endearing, stoic, tragic, fierce, and poignant (Fin's Bogwort story was perfect). Between the character of Abraham, the apocalyptic and almost Biblical descriptions of nature's fury, and the mentions of destructive katharsis, this book has a strong theme of the huge power of SOMETHING ELSE at work in nature--in the world--whatever that power might be. And that undercurrent really adds to the sweeping tension, fury, and urgency of the book.
Was this book perfect? No. I might be rounding up a bit. But it was the best book I have read in months. I did not want to put it down. I was never quite sure who to root for. I never once knew what what going to happen next. And I was completely sucked in to the harrowing destructive power of the storm at the beginning of the book and then later on the destructive power of human evil as well as the redemptive power of love and compassion. I gasped at parts, I got teary at parts, I looked away in agony at parts, I loved this book! If you like mystery, action-filled suspense and thrillers that leave you breathless, I HIGHLY recommend it!

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Review: The Night She Went Missing

The Night She Went Missing by Kristen Bird
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This is a mystery about a missing high school senior, her family, and the exclusive community she is a part of on Galveston Island. When Emily goes missing after a party one night no one knows what has happened to her, or who is responsible. Her mother is desperate to find her, her grandmother feels compelled to manage what could be a huge scandal, the mother of the boy suspected of being involved is worried about what her son is capable of, and the mother of Emily's biggest rival at school doesn't believe her daughter could have anything to do with the disappearance.
The book begins with Emily's "rescue," so the reader knows that at some point Emily will resurface and be okay. That takes away a bit of the urgency of the first part of the book, which leads up to Emily's disappearance and the search to find her, although the author does create an interesting story. Once Emily is found, towards the middle of the book, and the police and doctors are trying to figure out what exactly happened to her, I will admit that I figured out who was responsible very quickly. After that, everything kind of took on the quality of a Lifetime Movie or something. Everything was a bit over-exaggerated and melodramatic. From the rich and dignified matriarch of the island to the mom horribly preoccupied with appearances to the wide-eyed and innocent teenage girl, the characters and their actions really began to feel inorganic and heavy-handed. And I couldn't help but wonder how she could have stayed missing for as long as she did...in this day and age, when a young and pretty and rich girl goes missing, it would be all over the regional news, whether the girl's grandmother wanted media coverage or not. I was unsatisfied with the ending, as well.
This book showed promise and had interesting bones, but didn't quite deliver.

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Review: Sleep Tight

Sleep Tight by C.S. Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am rounding up on this book. I enjoyed the characters. I enjoyed the story and the plot. I enjoyed the mystery and suspense. But something about the book made everything feel a bit disjointed or off.
DC Rose Gifford is part of the investigation team working to solve the crime of a woman found strangled to death in a room locked from the inside. No one is sure what happened, other than that the victim claimed to be suffering from debilitating nightmares and insomnia. Is there something supernatural going on? As a firm sceptic, Rose desperately wants to believe that this crime has a simple, perfectly natural explanation, even when everything in her life points to the fact that there quite possibly are other forces at work.
Rose was a great character. I liked her journey throughout the book, even though sometimes I wanted to yell at her. I was always rooting for her and really came to care about her. I also liked the secondary characters, and they added to the story. The crime element of the story was intriguing. The reader knows something perhaps bizarre and strange is going on, and is drawn into the mystery. I had a pretty good suspicion early on who the killer was, and I was right, but it did not at all take away from my ability to enjoy what I was reading.
Yet despite the fact that I liked everything about the story and did not want to put the book down, the book itself just didn't quite work... And I am not sure why. It's almost like all of the perfect ingredients were there, but they just didn't gel. The book felt like it was made up of a bunch of different components--great components--that didn't really come together to create a cohesive whole. Maybe because this is the first in a series, so things are being set up and introduced for subsequent books? I don't know.
So while I am not sure that this was actually a good book, I really liked it and would absolutely read the next one in the series. Strange to say, I know. If you are looking for a new, fresh procedural series with an element of the supernatural, I would recommend this book. I am hoping this series goes on to become really great, because it has the potential to do so.

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Review: The Christie Affair

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This was a very interesting book. Fair warning: this is not a "thrilling mystery." I have read other books about the mysterious disappearance of Mrs. Christie, but I liked this one best. While it surprisingly focuses more on "the other woman" in the relationship between Agatha Christie and her estranged husband Archie, it nevertheless offers a fascinating insight into what might have happened during those days that Agatha just "forgot."
At first I was surprised that the whole story was "told" by Nan, Archie's mistress. But as the story unfolded it was a bit fascinating to see how Nan shared her "perspective" on the events leading up to Agatha's disappearance, as well as what exactly happened while Agatha was missing. I was also completely drawn into the book as Nan revealed how she ended up on the verge of marriage with Archie and why she felt the need to marry him.
In the beginning the book felt like it would be a mystery about Agatha's disappearance. Then, about 1/3 of the way through, the book became more about Nan and her history. The "mystery" aspect of the book fell by the wayside a bit, but the threads of Nan's story kept me very interested in the book. Then, after finishing 2/3 of the book, everything fell completely in place, and I said, "Ahhhh! Wow." The mystery part of the book picked back up a little, and all of the threads came together to really weave a compelling tale. The twists and turns which had in the beginning of the story seemed random or off-hand were actually terribly important.
If you are looking for a thrilling take on what happened to Agatha Christie when she disappeared, or a suspense-filled mystery, this probably isn't the book for you. But if you enjoy Mrs. Christie's books, like a slow-burning mystery, and want to read more about what could have happened in her life, I would recommend this book. I did enjoy it.

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