Review: A Dangerous Collaboration

Title: A Dangerous Collaboration
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Publication Date: March 12, 2019
Genre: Mystery
Recommended If You Like: strong female characters, male and female detective duos, secluded island settings, mysteries from the past

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

The Book:

Veronica and Stoker find themselves as houseguests on an island owned by Malcolm Romilly, whose bride Rosamund disappeared after they said their vows. Now Romilly has reunited everyone who was there that fateful day, and Veronica and Stoker must find the murderer before the murderer finds them.

What I Liked:

This was such a fun book! Veronica and Stoker are fantastic characters, who were surrounded by a strong and unique supporting cast. There were so many revelations, twists, and turns, and I loved the use of the isolated island to up the tension level. I also didn't see the solution to the mystery coming at all, which is always fun.

Anything I Didn't Like?

Honestly, there wasn't anything not to like. This book just flew by, and was so much fun to read.

So...?

I will definitely be needing to read the rest of this series!

Review: Between the Lies

Title: Between the Lies
Author: Michelle Adams
Publication Date: March 5, 2019
Genre: Psychological Suspense
Recommended If You Like: amnesia mysteries, family drama

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

The Book:

Chloe Daniels finds herself surrounded by her parents and sister after waking up from a car accident with no memory. Feeling literally trapped in her childhood home, her attempts to regain her memory begin to open doors to secrets her family would rather she forget.

What I Liked:

I'm always intrigued by a book with a premise like this, where there are secrets from the past that the protagonist can only discover through finding their own clues and putting them together. Plus, there were a lot of twists.

Anything I Didn't Like?

Unfortunately, this was another meh psychological suspense book for me. I saw the big twist coming from before the halfway point of the book. Most of the main characters were highly unlikable, and the narrator came across as unfortunately pretty boring. The random italicized chapters from a "mystery" character's point of view were poorly written and took me out of the book.

So...?

This was another book I really did want to like, with an intriguing premise in a genre I tend to love. But I unfortunately cannot recommend this. I kept reading until I finished, hoping I would be surprised, but I was left unimpressed. 

Review: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

I had been wanting to read this book since I first heard about it. It took months to get a copy through the library, as the hold list was so long due to the hype being so big.

Luckily, Turton's extremely popular read did not disappoint.

This is a brilliantly original book that kept me guessing the whole time. Aiden Bishop is caught in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over, each day in a different host body. He won't be freed to live the next day until he identifies the murderer of Evelyn Hardcastle, an unsolved crime.

I will admit, sometimes this book had me confused-and I'm still a little uncertain about how some of the timeline angles worked. But I couldn't put this book down. To be honest, I just shrugged the confusion off, because the story was so brilliant, and I had to know the ending. The ending was amazing, but every other twist and turn was too.

I would definitely recommend this book. Know you may be left a little confused by some of the time aspects, but also know that this book is so good that it's worth turning those pages. In fact, you won't be able to help turning page after page.

Review: The Last Woman in the Forest

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

I'm left not knowing how I feel about this book.

On the one hand, it was definitely suspenseful. When I was about 25% from the end, I had to sit down and just keep reading so I could find out the ending.

On the other hand, the long-sometimes paragraph long-run on sentences drove me crazy. The whole book was full of them, to the point that I almost stopped reading about 10% in. I also had a similar problem to the one I had with The Abominable, where so much of the book was focused on the main character's job-in this case, being a dog handler for wilderness studies-that I just wanted more of the mystery.

The author has a personal stake in this book which is really powerful, and she clearly did her research on the main character's job. I just really wanted to like this book so much more than I did. The writing style makes me think I won't be seeking out any more of Les Becquets' books.

Review: The Cheerleaders

In The Cheerleaders, the book alternates between past and present, telling the tale of why there are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook. Years ago, five cheerleaders died, in a car crash, murdered, and through suicide, and the school disbanded the cheerleading team permanently. In the present, one of the cheerleaders' sisters is determined to find out what truly happened, as she discovers mysterious notes, cell phones, and connections she never knew about.

I really enjoyed this book, just as I really enjoyed Thomas' The Darkest Corners (and have just put her Little Monsters on hold at the library). There is so much suspense, and so many red herrings and twists and turns. The ending left me absolutely shocked, which I love-I didn't guess any of the answers or twists.

This is a quick, gripping read that will keep you guessing, and I definitely recommend picking up a copy.

Review: The Winter Sister

Title: The Winter Sister
Author: Megan Collins
Publication Date: February 5, 2019
Genre: Psychological Suspense/Mystery
Recommended If You Like: family stories, secrets from the past coming to light

I received an ARC of this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

The Book:

Sylvie's sister was murdered sixteen years ago, and the murderer has never been brought to justice. Forced to return to her hometown by her estranged mother's cancer diagnosis, Sylvie finds herself brought back into contact with her sister's ex-boyfriend, who she always believed guilty of the crime. But Sylvie is dealing with guilt of her own, and her presence begins to bring out dangerous secrets from the past.

What I Liked:

Sylvie is a very compelling character you can't help but feel for, and Collins explores her family dynamics and drama in a very realistic and sometimes heartbreaking way. This book feels real, like it could be a real case I was reading articles about.

The mystery is very suspenseful, and I did not guess who the murderer was at all. I love when a book can surprise me like that.

Anything I Didn't Like?

I did call one of the major twists about halfway through, which did lessen the surprise and suspense somewhat, though it did not lessen my enjoyment of the book.

So...?

I would recommend this book. It's compelling, well-written, and the mystery is mixed really well with an exploration of the dynamics of troubled and broken families.

Reviews: Changeling and The Abominable

This is (at least at this point, I'm hoping for more!) the final book in the Six Stories series. I have been devouring this series, to the point where I had to buy this on Kindle (which I never do-oh, tight budget) when my entire library system and interlibrary loan didn't have a copy. 

This book looks at the mysterious disappearance of a young boy in woods that may be haunted. Wesolowski plays with the reader's mind so well-is the cause supernatural? Is the cause human? And then, like the other two books, everything gets expertly and incredibly turned on its head in the last chapter. This was the first one in the series where I was able to predict any part of the ending, but that didn't take away from my enjoyment. 

This is a series many, many more people need to read. It is brilliant, surprising, clever, and has twists like you literally wouldn't believe. 

Oh, this book. I wanted to love it. I absolutely loved Simmons Drood , a book I recommend to a lot of people as a brilliant example of exceptionally well done slow build unique horror. 

But The Abominable took me forever to get through. I mean, weeks. I kept putting it down, reading a chapter, putting it down again. I kept with it because I had committed to it for a few reading challenges already, and because I had loved the other Simmons' book so much, and because once I was 300 pages in I figured I might as well just go for the last 300 pages.

The main problem for me was that I was looking for the horror and suspense I was promised on the inside flap, and instead I got essentially 500 pages about mountain climbing. And then when things finally picked up, it didn't make a lot of sense, and seemed very out of left field.

Go read Drood for sure, but I wouldn't bother with The Abominable unless you really love mountain climbing.