Review: Such a Good Wife

Such a Good Wife by Seraphina Nova Glass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I enjoyed this book. It was a quick, easy, soapy kind of mystery that would be great for a vacation or beach read.
Melanie is a seemingly perfect wife. She cares for her mother-in-law who is suffering from dementia, her young son who has autism, as well as her teenaged daughter and husband. She gets everyone to school and their practices, makes healthy meals, and does her best to be diligent with her mother-in-law's and son's care. And so it is easy to see how Melanie feels a bit invisible and worn out. When she encounters a best-selling author at a local bookstore, she allows herself to get caught up in a steamy affair. While she can't believe that she is doing it, she also enjoys the feeling of having someone really see her and put her first. But then when she discovers the dead body of the man she's been involved with, the perfect life she's built threatens to fall down around her. Why is he dead? How did he die? Did anyone see her leaving his house? Does anyone know her secret?
This was a fun book. It was a quick read and hard to put down. I liked Melanie. Even though she made some pretty bad decisions--especially in the beginning, deciding to get involved with another man--her feelings of being overwhelmed by her responsibilities and invisible to those around her give the reader some insight into the motivations for her behavior.
The setting was very immersive too. I felt drawn into the steamy heat of small-town Louisiana, and enjoyed all the details.
The plot and the mystery were well-done as well. There were several unscrupulous characters, some red herrings, and lots of secrets to untangle. I will admit I never say the end coming. The "resolution" might have been a bit far-fetched and a little too easy when all was said and done, but I still enjoyed it.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a quick, fun mystery to read at the beach or on vacation.

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Review: The Death of Jane Lawrence

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This book just wasn't for me. I should not have read it. I was worried about that going into it, because I am not a big fan of horror or really scary books. But that was not why I didn't like this one.
The first 1/3 or 1/2 was actually pretty creepy and frightening, and I surprisingly enjoyed that part.
The book lost me once Jane embarked upon her personal and VERY very very solitary journey into magic and finding the power of that magic inside herself. At that point the book just got repetitive (One horribly graphic description of swallowing the contents of an egg is enough. Really.), esoteric, a bit boring, and hard to follow. It was just too much for me. I skimmed and skipped a lot. This part of the book could have been cut down quite a bit and it would have made a much tighter, more meaningful story. The "big" chapter towards the end was good, but after so much metaphysical rigamarole in the preceding chapters, it kind of took away from the impact. I got a bit confused to tell the truth, and had to go back and reread (reluctantly, I might add). And I still wasn't quite sure what happened and how everything turned out in the end.
I would not recommend this book. I think Mexican Gothic tackled a similar concept much better.

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Review: Palace of the Drowned

Palace of the Drowned by Christine Mangan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC for this book.
It is hard for me to figure out how to review this book. It was well-written. The setting was incredibly evocative. The characters were strangely compelling.
But I didn't just didn't like it. The story of author Frankie, and what happens during her (perhaps forced) sabbatical to (a surprisingly dismal!) Venice during the off-season in the mid-sixties really did transport me there. The descriptions of everything from the decaying palazzo to the stench of the water at high tide to the fizzy Prosecco drew me into the book. And the promise of a dark and twisty mystery kept me there. But I kept waiting for the dark and twisty mystery to actually...start.
And it got harder and harder to wait, because not only were the descriptions of how doleful everything was in Venice--from the miserable weather to the rotting buildings--verging on redundant, I just didn't like the characters. I kept trying to like Frankie, but just couldn't. I didn't like Gilly AT ALL. Jack was a horrible friend. Even Harold and Maria seemed miserable. And I just felt bad for Leonard having to put up with all of them.
I know that the relationship...friendship?...between Frankie and Gilly was intended to be ambiguous, nebulous, and uncertain. But I just couldn't figure out how Frankie, who seemed to be an intelligent person, would put up with Gilly, not to mention allow the young girl into her life. It just made me feel sorry for Frankie and what her once promising life had devolved to, which perhaps was the point.
I really contemplated not finishing the book, not because it wasn't well-written, but because I just didn't like the characters or their almost repetitive desultory conversations in various cafes and landmarks. Once the torrential rain storm began, the action picked up, and I continued reading with a bit more anticipation, because I was wondering how everything would turn out.
But to me, this book was just depressing--which again, was perhaps the point--and when I finished, I was underwhelmed. The ending felt sadly predictable.
As I said, I am not sure how to rate this book. I didn't like the story or characters. I never want to visit Venice because it seems like a water-logged, decaying, stinking place full of rude people. But maybe all of that is a testament to how well-written the book is. I don't think I would recommend it--at least if you are after a twisty suspenseful mystery. That is not what this book is at all.

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Review: The Fiancée

The Fiancée by Kate White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I really enjoyed this book. The author used the setting, the plot, and the characters to create a feeling of tense and slightly eerie suspense that permeated the book.
Summer is very excited about accompanying her husband and young step-son to her in-laws' idyllic, rural, and extensive property for their annual family vacation. Amazing meals and cozy accommodations, all over-seen by the family matriarch Claire, create an atmosphere of relaxation at its best. Summer is also looking forward to spending time with her extended family, until one of her brothers-in-law brings his new girlfriend, Hannah. Summer is immediately suspicious of Hannah after she catches her in a lie. Hannah's strange behavior--apparently only obvious to Summer--only increases until Summer cannot shake the feeling that Hannah is not at all what she seems. When someone ends up dead, Summer knows Hannah must be involved somehow, and tries to find a way to root out exactly what Hannah's agenda could be. As another body appears and even more secrets and lies are exposed, Summer has to find a way to save the family she loves.
The first thing that I loved about this book was the setting. The author does a great job of transporting the reader to an intentionally casual yet lavish country retreat where the affluent Keaton family spends their vacations together. The descriptions of the food, the colorful gardens, the cozy cottages, and the al fresco meals with wine freely flowing and fireflies dancing really made me want to vacation with the Keatons, too! The setting really became a character in the story. Then when Hannah joins the group, the author is able to subtly introduce tension. Is the tension truly there, or is it only visible to Summer? The reader is not sure, but it is definitely there.
I also really enjoyed Summer. She is a character that is relatable and worth rooting for. While it seems to the reader that Summer might go a bit overboard when it comes to her distrust of Hannah, and there are a few times when Summer doesn't always make the best decisions, Summer doesn't ever get annoying or stupid. And I really appreciated that. It seems I have read so many books lately in which the main character is either extremely naive (too-dumb-to-live!) or just so unlikable that there is no rooting value. Summer was someone I liked and enjoyed reading about. It was refreshing.
The mystery was well-done, too. While the initial crime might be a little obscure (I don't want to give away any spoilers), I liked it nonetheless. The way that the tension in the family ratcheted up every time Summer overheard a private conversation or stumbled upon a secret encounter worked to change the atmosphere from a bucolic country retreat to an isolated, insular tract of land cut off from the rest of the world.
I would absolutely recommend this book. It would be great to take on a summer vacation for anyone who enjoys mystery, domestic suspense, and thrillers.

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Review: Her Dark Lies

Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am rounding up a little. This book was kind of all over the place. The premise sounded good: the glamorous destination wedding of a billionaire and a young artist, on an isolated island during a violent storm. The reader knows something is going to happen, but is not quite sure what. The soon-to-be bride is feeling a bit overwhelmed, especially when suspicious activity begins to occur, both at home and at the incredibly posh Italian villa where the wedding will soon be held.
The author does a fairly good job of ratcheting up the tension at the beginning of the book, creating an atmosphere of ominous gloom, isolation, and slight creepiness. About a quarter of the way in, though, the book seems to lose that focus. Other points of view are added in, and instead of upping the suspense and contributing to the story, it just gets kind of muddy. At about about halfway the action and plot (while a bit unbelievable) get more exciting, but at three-quarters the wheels just kind of fall off. I wasn't sure where the author was going and wasn't really sure that I cared.
The characters were at best naive, at worst cartoonish. There were quite a few murders and dead bodies, but instead of adding suspense and gravitas, they were treated a bit off-handedly.
I wanted to like this book, but I didn't. I wouldn't recommend it.

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Review: All of Us Villains

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This book sounded interesting, but I just could not get into it. I know a lot of people are loving it, but to me the plot was confusing, the backstory was too convoluted, and the characters were cartoonish and immature.
I did not finish it.

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Review: The Perfect Couple

The Perfect Couple by Jackie Kabler
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I really tried with book, but I did not like it. The characters, the "mystery," the plot--it just wasn't good. Gemma, who returns home from a business trip to find her "perfect" husband missing, was just a bit too naive (maybe "dumb" is a better word?) for me. I just did not understand most of the decisions she made, and the way she would go on and on with her inner monologues about how upset she was, and how she did not want to shower, or how she could not eat got very old, very fast. It was perfectly understandable for her to be upset, but Gemma just became repetitive and boring, instead of a character you could have sympathy for.
The detectives tasked with trying to figure out what happened to the missing Danny, and several other men who had been killed, were not very smart either. They seemed to focus on Gemma and Danny, instead of trying to find the killer of the two men who had been murdered. The author also seemed to spend way too much time on the detectives' personal lives. I assume this was to flesh them out and give them some personality, but instead I just found it boring and irrelevant.
The plot was a bit all over the place, and the reveal of the culprit and the mystery of Danny's disappearance made me say, "...seriously...?..." instead of, "Oh! Wow! Really?!"
I just wasn't impressed with this book and would not recommend it.

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