The Hunted Girls | Jenna Kernan | Bookouture | Pub: May 25, 2021 Another book revolving around a serial killer?! Yes pleaseeee I really loved A Killer’s Daughter (Book 1) in this series and was looking forward to this book and it did not disappoint! I admit it was a bit slow-paced at first but once I hit the halfway mark it was action-packed! I really love the dynamic between the main characters and love that Nadine now has her own “team” to help her solve crimes! I just hope we get to see more of them in the next novels! I did feel like I was missing a bit of character development between Nadine and Detective Dempko in the beginning of the story, but I was satisfied by the end of the book. The book takes place in Florida, and Jenna did an excellent job at making you feel like you were there with the characters, she definitely brought that atmospheric element. Even though the beginning was a bit slower (I felt the same when reading Book 1), it’s 100% worth it! I’m looking f...
  TheOcean at the End of the Lane | Neil Gaiman | William Morrow | Pub: 6/18/13 “You don’t pass or fail at being a person, dear.” This was my first Neil Gaiman book, and I really didn’t know what to expect. I had seen somewhere that this book was compared to Piranesi , which I enjoyed, but it was nothing like Piranesi. This book starts with a middle-aged man going back to where he grew up to get away from a funeral. As he sits there, he remembers a time when he was seven and the little girl, Lettie, that lived at the end of the lane. The majority of the story is then him remembering his past. At one point when he is with Lettie, they travel to another place that’s in our world but not in our world. After that visit is when things start to go all wrong for our main character. We don’t ever find out his name. There is one point where he mentions his nickname from his dad is little George or something like that, but it is never confirmed his name is George… Anyway, things sta...
You Will Remember Me | Hannah Mary McKinnon | HarperCollins | Pub: May 18, 2021 Ahhh Hannah Mary McKinnon! I should have known what I was getting myself into with this book! Haha I’ve read enough of her books to know not to expect a cookie-cutter story, or a “perfect” story (in a good way!). I’ve absolutely adored all of her books because of this. They are so unpredictable and twisted, I just love it so much! This story had me at the get-go and I couldn’t stop reading until I found out who the man from the beach was, what happened and what had he left behind in his past?! I was really invested in the main characters, well let’s just say some of them…I love how the characters were developed throughout the novel. I really loved the way the story was told using different POVs as you could “see” what was going on behind the curtain of these different characters. Incredibly wicked and gripping book! A must read. Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for providing me with an ARC of this ...
Arsenic and Adobo | Mia P Manansala | Berkley | Pub: 5/4/21 “I’m like an onion. Many layers, lots of flavor, and I provide incredible depth. Lucky for you all, I’m not as pungent.” If you didn’t know, I love cozy mysteries. Less graphic but just as mysterious. Lucky for me that Arsenic and Adobo had it’s big murder committed in a lovely Filipino restaurant. I loved learning more about Filipino culture and cuisine and there are recipes in the back of the book! Lila has only recently come back home to her family and unfortunately for her, her ex-boyfriend dies while eating in her restaurant. Poisoned by Arsenic obviously… or was he? Lila decides to do her own detective work because she is the number one suspect, and she feels law enforcement isn’t looking at anyone else. I really liked that she did some sleuthing on her own but also got a little frustrated because she didn’t always make the best choices while doing so. Her investigation was SUPER OBVIOUS. While reading this ...
  The Maidens | Alex Michaelides | Celadon Books | Pub: 6/15/21 “Love isn’t conditional. It’s not dependent on jumping through hoops to please someone-and always failing. You can’t love someone if you’re afraid of them.” Thank you to Celadon Books for the gifted copy of The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. All thoughts are my own. Back when I was obsessed with thrillers, I read Alex Michaelides first book, The Silent Patient. It was absolutely thrilling, and I did not see the end coming. Now I have read way more thrillers and mysteries, but Alex did it again with surprising me. The Maidens follows Mariana, a young widow, an her niece Zoe, who is a student at Cambridge. Mariana is a group therapist and after one of her sessions her niece, Zoe, calls her to let her know that a student has been found dead. Not just dead… murdered, and she thinks it’s Professor Edward Fosca. Mariana rushes to Cambridge to console Zoe and to prove Fosca is the murderer. Not long after Mariana arriv...
TheCrown of Gilded Bones | Jennifer L Armentrout | Blue BoxPress | Pub: 4/20/21 “Bravery is a fleeting beast, isn’t it? Always there to get you into trouble, but quick to disappear once you’re where you want to be.” Well, here we are, book 3 of the Blood and Ash series. The Crown of Gilded Bones picks up right where we left off on our cliffhanger from A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire. This book has lots of action from the very first page until the very end with our beloved smut mixed in. Poppy finally gets to see more of Atlantia, she learns more about the wolven, she learns more about her background, and she has to make some really tough decisions in this book. We lose some characters. We meet some gods… truly loved it just as much as the first three books. I really can’t go through what happened without there being spoilers and since the book is only 2 weeks old, I refuse to post spoilers knowing not everyone has gotten to this book yet. We have to wait until 2022 for book fo...