A Good Marriage | Kimberly McCreight |  Harper Collins |  Pub : May 5, 2020|  Pages : 410 I’m honestly surprised I liked this book! As I previously mentioned, I am usually not a fan of legal thrillers, but I quite enjoyed this one! This book is about Lizzie, an attorney, that receives a call from a man she went to law school with who has just been arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife. He wants her to represent him, but she doesn't work in criminal law, so she's not sure why. This was a roller coaster ride! It started out a bit slow, but then I couldn’t stop reading! This book gives us multiple POVs, which I always enjoy! The different POVs are from present-day Lizzie, and Amanda’s POV prior to her death. These chapters made me even more engaged and entertained. Both women have secrets that they would rather take to their graves…what could those be?! This book kept me guessing the entire time and I loved the ending! Such an entertaining and surprising read! Highly r...
The Smiling Man | Joseph Knox | Doubleday Publishing | Pub : March 8, 2018 | Pages : 400 I knew this was a highly rated book but for some reason, I kept pushing this read back and boy do I regret it! I was hooked from the very first chapter! If you like dark books with lots of descriptive violence, this one is for you! It was so brutal sometimes I was cringing. However, I realized this was a book series based on the main character Aidan Waits and I will read all the other books in that series. Unfortunately, there are only 3 books so far, the last one was released in 2019 so we are due for another one. I really fell in love with Aidan, he is very flawed but as the character develops you start to understand why he is that way and you just sort of root for him. I’ll try something new for my review, instead of describing the book in full sentences I’ll just give a point form breakdown! Who has time to read reviews now anyways! Haha Atmospheric Eerie vibes Unforeseeable twists Excellen...
A Life to Kill | Matthew Hall | Mantle Books | Pub : January 12, 2017 | Pages : 464 This book was good, not my favorite but it was okay. I loved Jenny's character and how she would stop at nothing to find the truth, but man was there ever a list of characters in here. I was getting confused and the POV kept changing and trying to keep track of who’s POV I was reading. It took me a bit to figure out who each character was and how they were connected. Another part I didn’t particularly enjoy was the courtroom drama, that just isn't really my jam. It was a bit dry, but I did really like that the story took place back home in the UK and not in Afghanistan since I don't really enjoy reading about war. I also liked the spouses of the men deployed and their realities and what they were all dealing with. As much as this is fiction, I'm sure there are some truths about how the MOD might want to hide things. There were many secrets and lies, that I was definitely surprised at t...
Only Daughter | Sarah A. Denzil | Bookouture | Pub : March 13, 2019 | Pages : 318 I usually steer clear of books about missing girls/women, I usually find them dry, slow and boring, but I LOVED this one! It’s about a mother that will not give up on finding her missing child! It’s been two years, but she will not give up, she knows her child is out there somewhere. This book was 100% unpredictable, I for sure had it all mapped out in my mind about what happened or who was involved, etc. but boy was I wrong. This story is full of misdirection, full of action and full of twists! The ending definitely had me….. Highly recommend this book! You won’t be disappointed. Thank you to Kensington Books for providing me with an electronic ARC of this book via NetGalley. As usual, my reviews are my honest and unbiased opinions. Synopsis In one moment, Kat Cavanaugh’s perfect world is shattered into tiny fragments. The flash of her daughter’s yellow dress, the blonde hair ha...
The Dead Husband | Carter Wilson | Poisoned Pen Press | Pub : May 4, 2021 | Pages : 400 Okay, let’s talk about this one! I listened to the audio version of this book, and I admit that I usually tend to drift away, miss key moments and characters, which makes me disinterested in the book versus reading the physical copy where I pay 100% attention. However, this one took me by surprise! I was at the edge of my seat the entire time! Talk about a nail-biting, heart-pumping, edge-of-your-seat unputdownable book. The story is about a dysfunctional family, and you can expect an action-packed story full of questions, crazy twists and surprises! Thank you to Dreamscape Medio for providing me with an audio version of this book via NetGalley. As usual, my reviews are my honest and unbiased opinions. Synopsis A murderer, a victim, and a witness... but no one in this house is innocent Twenty years ago an unspeakable tragedy rocked Rose Yates's small, affluent hometown... and ...
Hideaway  | Nicole Lundrigan |  Viking |  Pub : July 9, 2019 |  Pages : 317 I can’t believe I finished this book. This should have been my first DNF book. I didn’t know what I was getting into, but the whole book was just depressing, disturbing and boring. The only good thing about this book was Nicole Lundrigan’s excellent writing. Maybe that’s why I tried to power through? If you like very disturbing family drama, you might like this one, but unfortunately, this one wasn’t for me. This unfortunately made me not want to pick up another Nicole Lundrigan book in the future. Synopsis Gloria Janes appears to be a doting suburban mother and loving wife. But beyond her canary-yellow door, Gloria controls her husband, Telly, as well as seven-year-old Maisy and her older brother Rowan, through a disorienting cycle of adoration and banishment. When Telly leaves, Gloria turns on Rowan. He runs away, finding unlikely refuge with a homeless man named Carl, with whom he forms the kind o...
Cut to the Bone | Ellison Cooper | Minotaur Books |  Pub : July 14, 2020|  Pages : 336 This is Book #3 in the Agent Sayer Altair series. I do wish that I would have started with Book #1 in the series: Caged . Despite this, the author provided enough backstory to avoid confusion. The three books are highly rated on Goodreads, and I think we are due for Book #4 very soon! I really loved this book and will definitely go back and read the whole series! I love a good series + police procedural, and the fact that I absolutely adored Sayer’s character will keep me coming back for more! Additionally, there were many other main characters that were quite interesting and loveable! They were also quite diverse which was nice to see in a book! I also really enjoyed the inclusion of multiple work dogs as the main characters! There was a therapy and a search and rescue dog. As far as death and violence go, this one isn’t super gory or descriptive. I’ve read far worst violent and dark thrillers. If y...
Home Before Dark | Riley Sager | Dutton Books |  Pub : June 30, 2020|  Pages : 384 Riley Sager is one of those authors that I will just buy his books, no questions asked! Riley Sager is such an amazing writer! He can easily bring spooky eerie vibes to a story! This book was fantastic! I’m usually not a fan of paranormal or ghost stories, but this one delivered! It includes all the makings of a horror story; a large, isolated creepy mansion with mysterious noises and music. Maggie Holt seeks to solve the mystery of her past and the house her family used to live in. I loved that we got both Maggie’s POV in the present, and chapters from her father's book about the history of the house, and things that may have happened. Is the book fiction? Did her dad just want to make money? There are so many questions to be answered in this one! If you want a dark and spooky thriller! This one is for you! Highly recommend! Synopsis What was it like? Living in that house. Maggie Holt is us...
Truly Devious  |  Maureen Johnson  |  Harper Collins  |  Pub : January 16, 2018 | Pages: 416 “We have a limited emotional vocabulary. We’re indoor kids.” I have been in such a mood for mystery books and Truly Devious did not disappoint in the mystery department! Truly Devious flip flops between 1936 and present-day at Ellingham Academy. In 1936, Ellingham’s family was kidnapped along with a student who was just minding her own business reading. Come to present day, Stevie is accepted into the academy because of her obsession with the crimes thereof 1936. As Stevie tries to solve the crime in the first book, bad things start to happen, and a student is dead. Has Truly Devious made their return or is it a coincidence? I enjoyed this book because you really can’t tell who is the “bad guy” so far. Apparently, we don’t find much out until book 3 which I am completely okay with because of how well this is written. Stevie is also a great character. She has really bad anxiety which is ad...
Apple of My Eye | Claire Allan | Avon Books UK | Pub : January 24, 2019 | Pages : 400 The story was gripping from the start, it was fast-paced, entertaining and action-packed. It's the type of novel where the author makes you think you've got everything figured out, and then the plot thickens. It’s so hard to review mystery and thrillers because I don’t want to give anything away! Even though I did think it was an action-packed engrossing thriller, I, unfortunately, felt like at some point the story was going around in circles and I was getting a bit bored. It’s a good premise and great writing, just not my favourite book. The story is told in multiple POVs. Eliana, who is seven and a half months pregnant and under a lot of stress as well as the dreaded morning sickness. Louise, a character we don't know much about but seems to be stalking a pregnant lady in the hopes of kidnapping her baby. And then there is Angela, who is Eliana's mother. The chapters were well ide...
Regretting You | Colleen Hoover |  Montlake Romance |  Pub : December 10, 2019|  Pages : 363 Bow Down for Queen Colleen! Usually, I always check my book progress while reading, but I don’t do that when I’m reading a Colleen Hoover book! Time just flies by as I’m enthralled in the story! I was hooked right on the first Chapter! Also, we get a bonus romance story in this one! There is sort of two separate stories going on in here. Morgan’s (the mom) and Clara’s (the daughter) POV. Reading Clara’s chapters made me feel like a teenager again! Even though her POV was cheesy, I loved every bit of it! Since Clara has animosity toward Morgan, I even started to get animosity towards Morgan! I was like “let your daughter live her life!!!”   I did love all (most) of the characters though! Overall, amazing story! Highly recommend ALL of Colleen Hoover’s books. Colleen is still the queen of romance! Synopsis Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, wou...
The Overnight Guest | Heather Gudenkauf | Park Row | Pub : January 25, 2022 | Pages : 352 Such a great “lock-room” mystery! I’m slowly becoming a fan of Heather’s! I’ve read three of her books and this one is my favorite so far! I read this book the minute it came out and read it in 2 days. I couldn’t stop reading. There were lots of characters to get acquainted with, especially in the first chapter, but it was fairly easy to keep up. This was a tense-filled action-packed thriller told in 3 POVs. One of the POVs was also anonyms which added to the mystery and intrigue! I'm not sure what it is about books set in an isolated house/cabin during a snowstorm that makes the story so much more enjoyable, but it does, and I’m obsessed! Given the setting, I found the book to be very atmospheric, which I LOVE. I could read these types of mysteries all day. Expect the unexpected with this book; there were so many twists and turns! It was almost the perfect mystery/thril...
The Mirror Man | Lars Kepler | Knopf | Pub : January 18, 2022 | Pages : 480 TW: Animal Cruelty Book #8 in the Joona Lina series ! I’ve officially read the whole series! This is one of my favorite Nordic Noir series! I love the Jo Nesbo Harry Hole series but I’ve just fallen in love with Joona and his journey. As usual, this book was extremely atmospheric! I think it’s my favorite part of these novels. It’s just exceptional writing and it truly makes me feel like I’m in the story. However, this one didn’t capture my attention as much in the beginning. It took me a while to get into it, which is truly unheard of with this series! It was a really great high-paced, action-packed unpredictable novel – it just isn’t my favorite in the series. There was a small twist at the beginning that got me really into it though, and the twists just kept on coming! There wasn’t a whole lot of character development in this one, it was mostly revolving around the story. We did ge...
The Golden Couple |  Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen | St. Martin's Press | Pub : March 8, 2022 | Pages : 336 As soon as I saw this book, I dropped everything and dove right in! Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen books are generally psychological/domestic thrillers and this one is no exception! You can expect unreliable narrators and many twists in this one! The story is told between the two main characters’ POVs; the therapist that lost her license, Avery and Marissa, the new client. As usual, I loved the dual storylines, it really upped the suspense and really piqued my interest! Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen are so good at developing intricate webs of deception, I didn’t see anything coming. I remain a huge fan and highly recommend picking up this book in March 2022! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an electronic ARC of this book via NetGalley. As usual, my reviews are my honest and unbiased opinions. Synopsis If Avery Chambers ...
Her One Mistake | Heidi Perks | Gallery Books |  Pub : January 8, 2019 |  Pages : 320 As I previously mentioned, I usually don’t enjoy books about missing girls/women, but again, I loved this one! The story didn’t go where I thought it was going, which was a great surprise! Especially since I had been reading books about missing children back-to-back, I was not hopeful about this one. I was pleasantly surprised! Some aspects were predictable, but it didn’t take away the unputdownable and gripping story this book was! There were many clever twists! Even though I didn’t love the ending, it’s a very minor complaint in the grand scheme of this book. Highly recommend! Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with an electronic ARC of this book via NetGalley. As usual, my reviews are my honest and unbiased opinions. Synopsis It all started at the school fair… Charlotte was supposed to be looking after the children, and she swears she was. She only took her eyes of...