ARC Review: Too Good to Be True

 

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 premise of a love triangle-married man, wife, and girlfriend-is one that has been explored a lot in many psychological thrillers in the last few years. But Lovering expertly manages to create and explore a brand new take on this concept.

What works most effectively here are the twists and turns. I was completely shocked by every single expertly laid surprise. There was one in particular at the beginning of the second part that made me actually gasp out loud and just stare at the book for a minute. And when I looked back, every bit of the twist made sense.

I love that not only the big storylines, but the small details, all end up mattering. The beginning of the book moved a little slowly for me, but I was still intrigued. Once the story really got going, I couldn't put the book down.

ARC Review: A Pho Love Story

 

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.

Bao and Linh are teenagers whose families have been feuding for as long as they can remember, even owning competing Vietnamese restaurants across the street from each other. Bao feels like he is nothing special, Linh feels like her dream of being an artist is impossible. But a chance encounter sets events in motion that could bring the past to the light and bring hope to the future.

This was a really good read. At first glance, it seems like it would be a lovely light romance book, about two teenagers who find each other and fall in love despite the obstacles. And that is definitely part of the story, and a very enjoyable part-Bao and Linh are well-written, complex characters whose motivations and feelings ring real, and I was definitely rooting for them.

But there is also such a depth that Le has created, weaving in culture, tradition, familial ties, and the deep lasting impact a painful history can continue to have on those who lived it and those who now feel the reverberations of it. Le has written a really layered book here that I would definitely recommend.

ARC Review: Whisper Island

 

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:

A group of college friends, four female artists, take a trip to an isolated island to spend months creating together. But it isn't long before they start realizing that their retreat has led them right into a trap, and into the path of a murderer.

What I Liked:

This is definitely a suspenseful book. I am always excited about a plot involving an isolated location where a group is trapped with an unknown murderer, and that horror aspect is definitely amped up here with lots of quick short chapters, a small group of characters, run down buildings and mysteriously locked spaces. Once the book got going, it really got going, and I couldn't stop reading.

Anything I Didn't Like?

Chapters switch back and forth between different characters' points of view, and this could get a little confusing. The story also took a while to get started for me, with a lot of exposition. Things felt a little repetitive sometimes in the beginning, when each character would reference their own sort of mysterious secret or mysterious difficult situation multiple times in a similar way.

So...?

This was a quick, suspenseful read that kept me turning pages, but it definitely wasn't the best version I've read of this type of plot. 

ARC Review: The Project

 

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.

In The Project, Lo wants to be a writer and she wants to talk to her sister, Bea. But her boss has essentially declared there's no option for her to advance, and her sister is a member of The Unity Project, which Lo (and many others) believe to be a cult.

Determined to kill two birds with one stone, Lo begins visiting the sites of The Project, hoping to see her sister and get information that can be used to bring The Project and its leader, Lev Warren, down. But as Lo tries to get closer, she finds herself drawn in deeper, and she may not be able (or want) to find her way back out.

As in her amazing book, Sadie, Summers deftly tackles heady topics, such as the role of women in different facets of society, what it means to be part of a family (and what exactly defines a family), and what true darkness may lurk under a seemingly bright surface. Summers has a beautiful writing style that lends itself well to the eeriness hovering over every word of her newest story, drawing readers in just like the characters within the book are pulled in deep.

ARC Review: Possession

 

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.

It's been a decade since Hannah's husband was murdered. Hannah has resettled into a new life, always swearing she remembers nothing of what happened that night. But when a true crime podcast dedicates its new season to that murder from ten years ago, everyone, including Hannah, must decide on what truly happened.

This is a very suspenseful and spooky read. Hannah is absolutely an unreliable narrator, but so is the podcast host, who has her own motivations of high ratings and public acclaim. Readers don't know who to trust, something Hannah struggles with as well, and it is painful to watch Hannah and the people who love her have to reckon with their decisions, delusions, and beliefs.

The book could get a little confusing at parts with how many sleights of hand and reveals Lowe is juggling, but the ending packs a real punch, and the journey along the way is one that will keep readers guessing.

ARC Review: If I Disappear

 

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.

Sera feels lost in the world, and true crime podcasts are what make her feel safe, giving her a sense of control and power she feels nowhere else in her life. So when Rachel, the host of her favorite podcast, seems to vanish completely and without warning, Sera decides this is what she has been training for, and throws herself into the life Rachel left behind. But despite all the clues Sera is convinced Rachel left for her within the episodes, there is still so much Sera doesn't know, and what she doesn't know could add her to the list of vanished women.

Brazier dives deep into views on what it means to be a woman: no one (including the woman herself) knowing where she fits if she isn't a wife and/or a mother, having to constantly be on guard because a woman never knows when someone might want to hurt her, the story that people decide about a woman if she doesn't fit into a typical mold. Even just the seemingly simple act of cooking, serving, and eating dinner becomes a highly heightened experience for the female characters in the story.

Sera is an unreliable narrator to the extreme. She has woven Rachel's podcast so tightly under her skin that not only does she have every word memorized, but her narration is directed to Rachel, who she is convinced she must rescue. Brazier explores the possible role of true crime podcasts to women, as lessons about what to watch out for to keep themselves safe, and what to do if even the most extreme precautions aren't enough.

I struggled sometimes to like Sera, but it felt that, at least to me, that was the point. She is someone completely unmoored, directing her first person narration not at the reader, but at another character. Sera is a character that forces the reader to think about why they respond to her negatively, and what that might mean in a larger context.

As the book continued, I found myself so inside Sera's head that I was on the journey with her, whether or not I trusted her. This forced me to look at every character in the book in a new light, weighing how much about them I could truly know and believe.

The ending gives me chills still just thinking about it. It hits like a storm in the best possible way. I was completely shocked even while in the head of the main protagonist. 

This book doesn't always sit comfortably, which fits perfectly since the world of the story is not a comfortable one. Brazier plays so cleverly with this genre, it is definitely worth giving this book a read.

ARC Review: The Wife Upstairs

 

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 Wife Upstairs is both a mashup of Jane Eyre and Rebecca (even containing characters named Edward, Jane, and Bertha), and a brand new exploration of what has become almost its own gothic genre. The finished product is absolutely a success.

Readers are introduced to Jane (the new wife) and Bertha (the previous wife) through their own first person narrations. Jane begins as a dog walker for the extremely wealthy in an exclusive neighborhood, but as the story continues, we learn her beginnings are far darker than originally indicated. Bertha began her own highly successful company from the ground up, but there are hints that there were large cracks in the facade she put up.

Hawkins expertly explores so many themes here: family, wealth, what women must do to survive and thrive, being haunted by the past, and the idea of facades in humans and buildings both, just to name a few. This book has so many layers, and its because of that that the ending comes as such a brilliant and shocking surprise. 

This is a book that absolutely lives up to the hype.