Category: 4-Stars

Posted on

Book Review: The Girls by Bella Osborne @osborne_bella @Aria_Fiction

The Girls
by Bella Osborne 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

Four old friends. Thrown back together after fifty years apart. What could possibly go wrong?

In the 1970s, The Girls were best friends sharing a flat and good times: Zara the famous diva actor, Val the uptight solicitor, Jackie the wild child and Pauline the quirky introvert. Now they’re in their twilight years, and Zara suggests that they live with her to support each other through old age.

Initially, being housemates again is just as much fun as in their heyday. But then Zara reveals the real reason she asked them to move in with her, and suddenly things take a sinister turn.

As the women confront their demons they come under the spotlight of the press, the police and an angry parrot. With their lives spiralling out of control can they save their friendships and each other?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘And how old is Stefan?’ she asked. ‘Forty-five,’ said Jackie proudly. ‘Recently divorced. As fit as a butcher’s dog with a bone to match.’

 

Rogues and charlatans are all I seem to attract these days. And nobody wants a decrepit old woman with the memory of a stunned goldfish. I’m better off alone.

 

Zara was the last person she expected to see on her doorstep. She was standing there dressed to the nines and inspecting her finger as if by pressing the doorbell she may have picked up a communicable disease.

 

‘Lad? He’s an adult– that makes him fair game,’ said Jackie, her words a little slurred. ‘You’ve got underwear older than him,’ said Pauline, who had been rather quiet. ‘It’s not my fault that Marks and Spencer’s make them to last.’ Jackie jutted out her chin.

 

Her hair looked like she’d backcombed it with a hedgehog and she still had a full face of make-up although it was now rather patchy and smudged, giving her a certain Dalí-esque quality.

 

My Review:

 

I enjoyed this wryly humorous women’s fiction tale. While the characters weren’t always likable, they were well-nuanced and insightfully layered with realistic complications and foibles. The writing style was delightfully detailed with sardonic observations, sparring and snappy banter, and perceptive inner musings and narratives that tickled and taunted my curiosity as well as my funny bone. I had pages of cleverly written highlighted passages and was greatly pained to narrow the list down to the handful in this review.

 

 

About the Author

Amazon
Goodreads
Website
Facebook
Twitter
BookBub
Instagram

 

 

Bella Osborne has been jotting down stories as far back as she can remember but decided that 2013 would be the year that she finished a full-length novel. In 2016, her debut novel, It Started At Sunset Cottage was shortlisted for the Contemporary Romantic Novel of the Year and RNA Joan Hessayon New Writers Award. Bella’s stories are about friendship, love, and coping with what life throws at you. She likes to find humor in the darker moments of life and weaves these into her stories. Bella believes that writing your own story really is the best fun ever, closely followed by talking, eating chocolate, drinking fizz, and planning holidays. She lives in the Midlands, UK with her lovely husband and wonderful daughter, who thankfully, both accept her as she is (with mad morning hair and a penchant for skipping).

 

Follow Aria & Head of Zeus:

Twitter: @Aria_Fiction

Instagram: @headofzeus

Facebook: @ariafiction

Website: https://headofzeus.com/

Posted on

Book Review:  The Cafe at Marigold Marina by Tilly Tennant  @Bookouture @TillyTenWriter

The Cafe at Marigold Marina
by Tilly Tennant  

 

Welcome to the café on Marigold Marina, where the smell of freshly baked cakes fills the air and the boats bob merrily in the mellow evening sun. But will an unexpected meeting mean the chance to love again or a broken heart?

When Rosie inherits the café on Marigold Marina after her husband’s tragic death, she is determined to pour her heart into his dream. Nine months later, as she serves coffee and cakes to customers, she is all smiles and laughter. But when the sunshine-yellow doors of the café are closed, she allows her heart to break all over again.

Rosie doesn’t have much room in her life for anything but the café. But when Kit, the mysterious owner of a bookshop barge, starts to come by regularly for lunch, she finds it difficult to ignore his dark eyes, disheveled curls, and the fact that he has his own sorrows. Rosie finds it easy to talk to Kit and as they swim together in the sparkling marina waters she hopes she can help Kit the way he has helped her.

But just as she is letting herself open her heart, she learns the shocking secret that the husband she loved for so many years kept hidden from her. And when she discovers that Kit is hiding things too, she fears she has been foolish to trust again. Should she close her café and move away from the marina? Or take a risk and give love another chance?

An absolutely gorgeous and heartwarming read about what can happen when you leave your comfort zone and listen to your heart. Fans of Shari Low, Heidi Swain, and Nicola May will fall in love with The Café at Marigold Marina.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

There were emotions, all jumbled up inside her, so many she was overwhelmed. She couldn’t pick out a single one and feel it.

 

‘You said you wanted to broaden your horizons and push yourself to do new things.’ ‘I meant like trying a new flavour of crisp.’

  

My Review:

 

This was an easy-to-follow and engaging small village read with a couple of challenging characters that I just wanted to give a good pinch or ten.   The small riverside village and its populous of quirky residents were so well detailed I feel I could recognize and greet them in passing. The main character of Rosie was timid and anxiety-ridden and basically allowed herself to be a doormat, which was rather tedious at times yet the insights and observations written for this character were realistically true of many people.   Tilly Tennant’s stories are so well-honed and complete they could easily be transferred immediately to the screen as sharp visuals scrolled through my brain throughout perusal.

 

 

About the Author
Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset, the oldest of four children, but now lives in Staffordshire with a family of her own. After years of dismal and disastrous jobs, including paper plate stacking, shop assistant, newspaper promotions, and waitressing (she never could carry a bowl of soup without spilling a bit), she decided to indulge her passion for the written word by embarking on a degree in English and creative writing. She wrote a novel in 2007 during her first summer break at university and hasn’t stopped writing since. She also works as a freelance fiction editor and part-time lecturer.

Tilly also writes young adult fiction as Sharon Sant. Find out more about Tilly and how to join her mailing list for news and exclusives at www.tillytennant.com

 

Posted on

Book Review: The Three Mrs. Greys (Three Mrs. Greys #1) by Shelly Ellis  @ellisromance

The Three Mrs. Greys
(Three Mrs. Greys #1)
by Shelly Ellis  

Amazon  / B&N /  GP/ Apple / BB

 

One wealthy businessman, a trio of unsuspecting wives, and an explosive turn of events. In this scandalous, twist-filled new series from Shelly Ellis, will too many secrets and one devastating bond unite three women–or destroy them?

Noelle. Diamond. Vanessa. Each woman believes she is Cyrus Grey’s only wife–until he’s nearly shot to death. Now, as he lies in a coma, the deceptions keep coming, unraveling everything they thought they knew…

Gorgeous model Noelle’s marriage to Cyrus anchored her–though she couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t have a baby with her. They certainly had the money. But she’s learning fast just how Cyrus became so rich–thanks to his fatally attractive business partner…

For Diamond, marrying Cyrus saved her from the streets–and being a pimp’s punching bag. But her past makes her the police’s prime suspect in Cyrus’s shooting. She’s determined to get to the truth–if she can she survive long enough to tell it…

Even with her beautiful house, three kids, and elegant lifestyle, Vanessa sensed something was wrong in her marriage. But she never expected this–or that taking a lover for comfort would change the game completely.

With danger closing in, Cyrus’s life hanging in the balance, and collateral damage threatening to take them all down, how far will each woman go to be the real Mrs. Grey?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

All eyes in the waiting room were focused on them. Vanessa wondered if the nosy family of three huddled across the room in the line of leather chairs was going to break out a bucket of popcorn to watch the show.

 

Why would I be jealous of a woman who’s made of more plastic than my daughter’s Barbie dolls?

 

Ripe? … What am I? A damn grapefruit?

 

When Vanessa had heard he was shot, she’d braced herself for the possibility that her husband would die and had even started eagerly looking forward to it, but here he sat, very much alive. A wave of emotions overwhelmed her, making her eyes flood with tears.

 

Cy’s life had always been a delicate balancing act. He would sometimes envision himself as one of those high-wire performers rolling across the Big Top on a unicycle.

 

My Review:

 

This was a gritty, confounding, and curiously intriguing tale about horrible people engaging in stupid and reprehensible behaviors.   While some were getting what they deserved, some were not. The storylines poked and taunted my curiosity while also making me itch and gnash my teeth, yet I couldn’t put my Kindle down as Shelly Ellis can certainly unspool an entertaining, addictive, and uncomfortably chilling tale. But, to leave me dangling with a despicable cliffhanger… what gall! Thankfully I already have book two locked and loaded or I would be stamping my little foot and turning the air blue.  I do believe I am invested.

I generally despised 90% of Ms. Ellis’s uniquely bent and well-drawn characters – the uncouth, volatile, and self-serving wastrel of wife #1 Vanessa, most of all.   Although followed closely in my level of annoyance was the weak and moronic wife #3, named Diamond.   Vanessa was a conspicuous and spoiled trophy wife who seemed to be thinking with what was between her legs rather than using the limited gray matter she had between her ears. Although, I wanted to give all three Mrs. Greys a few good smacks with my Kindle to hopefully jar lose the few functioning brain cells between them, and most of those seemed to belong to wife #2, Noelle.

Mr. Grey was obviously a demon and a toad, and I have my fingers crossed that these hideous humans get exactly what they deserve in the newly released sequel.

About the Author

Shelly Ellis is an award-winning journalist, NAACP Image Award finalist, and acclaimed author of more than two dozen novels, including the Chesterton Scandal Series, The Gibbons Gold Diggers Series, and The Three Mrs. Greys Duology. She lives with her husband and daughter outside of Washington D.C. in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Posted on

Book Review: Killer Looks (Assassins in Love #0.5)  by Tawna Fenske @tawnafenske

Killer Looks
(Assassins in Love #0.5)
 by Tawna Fenske

Amazon / B&N / GP/ Apple / BB

They’re hitmen. Trained assassins. If they nail this job, there’s a payoff. Possibly cookies.

But first, the bad stuff. Dante’s done with hitman life, but there’s one last job to do. A favor to the Duke of Dovlano targeting brutal gun runners. Dante calls on comrades, Matteo—brilliant, brooding, lethal—and charming Sebastian “The Dentist” LaDouceur. Each has skills he’s honed to take out threats at all costs. They’ve also got soft spots for family, lost loves, baby farm animals, and iambic pentameter.

But when the job falls apart, their carefully laid plans go up in smoke. Can three killers with a conscience stick together, or is it every man for himself?

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

Seattle’s so weird… Everyone wants to look like they just hiked back from chopping down a pine tree and now they’d like an extra-tall espresso to go.

 

My Review:

 

This fast-paced novella kicks off an unexpected genre from this talented scribe. The storylines were busy, action-packed, and went in all directions at once while introducing three quirky mercenaries with an eye on taking down bad guys. This installment was short, amusingly detailed yet tense with impending peril while peeling back just enough layers of their past to taunt and tease my curiosity while leaving me hanging about their future. If I didn’t know the next installment was already on its way I would be stamping my little foot and swearing a blue streak as well as a pox on this wily author for the heinous cliffhanger. I do believe I’m hooked.  And would you look at that – it is currently free – but, you better hurry!

About the Author 

 

Website 
Amazon
Goodreads 

Facebook
Twitter 

 

When Tawna Fenske finished her English lit degree at 22, she celebrated by filling a giant trash bag full of romance novels and dragging it everywhere until she’d read them all. Now she’s a RITA-nominated, USA Today bestselling author who writes humorous fiction, risqué romance, and heartwarming love stories with a quirky twist. Publishers Weekly has praised Tawna’s offbeat romances with multiple starred reviews and noted, “There’s something wonderfully relaxing about being immersed in a story filled with over-the-top characters in undeniably relatable situations. Heartache and humor go hand in hand.”

Tawna lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, stepkids, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets. She loves hiking, snowshoeing, standup paddleboarding, and inventing excuses to sip wine on her back porch. She can peel a banana with her toes and loses an average of twenty pairs of eyeglasses per year. To find out more about Tawna and her books, visit www.tawnafenske.com.

 

Posted on

Book Review: Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow @BCMorrow @duttonbooks @isabelrosedas

Cherish Farrah
by Bethany C. Morrow 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

From bestselling author Bethany C. Morrow comes a new adult social horror novel in the vein of Get Out meets My Sister, the Serial Killer, about Farrah, a young, calculating Black girl who manipulates her way into the lives of her Black best friend’s white, wealthy, adoptive family but soon suspects she may not be the only one with ulterior motives. . . .

Seventeen-year-old Farrah Turner is one of two Black girls in her country club community and the only one with Black parents. Her best friend, Cherish Whitman, adopted by a white, wealthy family, is something Farrah likes to call WGS–White Girl Spoiled. With Brianne and Jerry Whitman as parents, Cherish is given the kind of adoration and coddling that even upper-class Black parents can’t seem to afford–and it creates a dissonance in her best friend that Farrah can exploit. When her own family is unexpectedly confronted with foreclosure, the calculating Farrah is determined to reassert the control she’s convinced she’s always had over her life by staying with Cherish, the only person she loves–even when she hates her.

As troubled Farrah manipulates her way further into the Whitman family, the longer she stays, the more her own parents suggest that something is wrong in the Whitman house. She might trust them–if they didn’t think something was wrong with Farrah, too. When strange things start happening at the Whitman household–debilitating illnesses, upsetting fever dreams, an inexplicable tension with Cherish’s hotheaded boyfriend, and a mysterious journal that seems to keep track of what is happening to Farrah–it’s nothing she can’t handle. But soon everything begins to unravel when the Whitmans invite Farrah closer, and it’s anyone’s guess who is really in control.

Told in Farrah’s chilling, unforgettable voice and weaving in searing commentary on race and class, this slow-burn social horror will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Being a spoiled white girl when you’re Black is literally my favorite thing ever. It confuses very literally everyone.” “That’s the only reason I put up with it.”

 

Polite society is a misnomer.

 

She’s the only person I still love when I hate her.

 

Whatever else you are, you’re still a Black girl. One day you’ll know how impossible it is to tell the difference between personalized terror aimed straight at you, and good ole run-of-the-mill systemic prejudice.

 

Cherish was a spoiled white girl who also happened to be Black, and it meant that the consequence of coddling, the incompetence it breeds, was dangerous.

 

My Review:

 

It has been over a day since I finished reading this one and I am quite conflicted and have been stewing and unable to start another book while I ruminate. I vacillated while reading but just couldn’t grasp all that was going on in this disturbing, multi-faceted, and complex tale. I occasionally felt lost, and frequently addled and confused while trying to understand the logic and symbolism the characters employed. And I wasn’t the only one as they were confusing and confounding each other as well.

There was a surfeit of personality disorders, anger, smoldering resentment, and an annoying sense of entitlement, as well as significant features of mental illness to wade through. I was invested and motivated, yet I couldn’t put all the pieces together, it was beyond my plane of experience or comprehension. Regardless, the various characters’ level of sociopathy was chilling and distressing.

I still can’t settle on whom I despise more, as every single one of them was a source of deep disappointment to me in the end. There were no heroes in this tale but quite a few victims. I must surrender and move on, yet I give the author her due and respect her process and word prowess.   Ms. Morrow kept me on edge, off-balance, and intrigued.

 

A somewhat-recovering ex-pat living in the American Northeast (with one foot still firmly planted in Quebec), Bethany C Morrow writes speculative fiction for both the adult and the young adult market.

Her adult debut, MEM, was an ABA 2018 Indies Introduce pick, and a June Indie Next pick, and was featured/reviewed in Locus Magazine, the LA Times, Buzzfeed, Book Riot, Bustle, and Tor.com, among others.

She was editor and contributor to TAKE THE MIC: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance, which was released with AAL/Scholastic in October 2019.

Posted on

Book Review: The Rebound by Catherine Walsh  @CatWalshWriter   @Bookouture

The Rebound
by Catherine Walsh 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

A newly single girl. A tall dark handsome stranger. What could go wrong?

It’s 7 a.m. on a Monday morning and Abby Reynolds isn’t where she wants to be. She wants to be in her beautiful loft apartment in Manhattan, drinking a coffee with her fiancé.

Instead, she’s heading back to the childhood home in rural Ireland she swore she’d never return to, with some big old secrets. Namely that she’s suddenly found herself unemployed, homeless, and absolutely 100% single.

She’s feeling all out of luck until the first person she meets after she touches down is an absurdly hot guy called Luke, who offers her a lift home. Gazing deep into his sparkling emerald-green eyes, Abby knows instantly that he’s exactly what she needs to take her mind off everything. The perfect rebound.

It’s a flawless plan. Until the next day, when Abby realizes who he actually is. Not just a stranger. He is, in fact, Luke Bailey, aka the boy next door. Luke Bailey who—so help her God—she’s pretty sure she once shared baths with, back when they were kids. Not that she can allow herself to imagine him in a bath now, not without blushing from head to foot.

And judging by the smirk on his face, the same Luke Bailey who’s known exactly who she was the whole time… And who, like everyone in the village, still thinks she’s a high-flying New Yorker… who’s getting married next year.

Abby is certain getting under Luke will help her get over her ex. But the truth is stopping her. Can she admit to everyone back home that she’s single and has lost everything? Because, if she wants the boy next door, she may just have to…

The perfect feel-good romantic comedy that will make you laugh until you cry and fall completely in love. Fans of Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes, and Emily Henry won’t be able to put this down!

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Louise works for the Irish Oceans Association, a charity dedicated to the conservation and protection of our waters. A few Christmases ago, she gave me a certificate informing me I’d adopted a whale. The year before that it was an eel, so I like to think I’m slowly moving up in the marine world.

 

You know… You pretend you’re super boring but you’ve always got some little drama happening, don’t you? It’s like the time you told me you had a migraine all weekend but really you’d gone to Aspen with that Hollister model from reception.

 

“I tend to follow others,” she says. “Everyone thinks I’m a free spirit but I’m not. I’m a barnacle. I latch onto people. If people were boats,” she clarifies.

 

“How’s your moping?” Tomasz lingers in the doorway of my bedroom the next day, eating an apple. “Going well? It looks like you’re really getting the hang of it.”

 

My Review:

 

Catherine Walsh took me to Ireland and made me smirk, sigh, and flinch with this one. Her characters were distinctly Irish and although her heroine, Abby, was not always likable and I actually wanted to smack her a few times, I was engaged and invested in the tale and had hope for her. The humor was clever and well-honed, as was the character development and their unique quirks and foibles. The romance was slow burn and a secondary thread to Abby’s long-standing family drama and career stress. While the pace and emotional tone meandered at times, the perceptive quality of Ms. Walsh’s writing and her amusing wit kept me entertained, involved, and interested in the outcome.

Catherine Walsh was born and raised in Ireland. She has a degree in Popular Literature and the only prize she ever won for writing was at the age of 14 in school (but she still cherishes it.)

She lived in London for a few years where she worked in Publishing and the non-profit sector before returning to Dublin where she now lives between the mountains and the sea. When not writing she is trying and failing to not kill her houseplants.

 

Posted on

Book Review: Nanny Dearest by Flora Collins @flococo16

 

Nanny Dearest
by Flora Collins

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

In this compulsively readable novel of domestic suspense, a young woman takes comfort in reconnecting with her childhood nanny after her father’s death, until she starts to uncover secrets the nanny has been holding for twenty years.

Sue Keller is lost. When her father dies suddenly, she’s orphaned in her mid-twenties, her mother already long gone. Then Sue meets Annie. It’s been twenty years, but Annie could never forget that face. She was Sue’s live-in nanny at their big house upstate, and she loved Sue like she was her own.

Craving connection and mothering, Sue is only too eager to welcome Annie back into her life; but as they become inseparable once again, Sue starts to uncover the truth about Annie’s unsettling time in the Keller house all those years ago, particularly the manner of her departure—or dismissal. At the same time, she begins to grow increasingly alarmed for the safety of the two new charges currently in Annie’s care.

Told in alternating points of view—Annie in the mid-’90s and Sue in the present day—this taut novel of suspense will keep readers turning the pages right up to the shocking end.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

It is a microcosm of motherhood here, women huddled in clusters around the edge of the playground, shaking out Goldfish, handing over juice boxes, wiping away dirt from little hands… Men are so absent, you would forget they existed at all.

 

But there’s something wrong with me, Suzy. Something very, very wrong.

 

My Review:

 

This was a disturbingly realistic and disquieting piece packed with warped and fractured characters who were all rather lacking in the areas of mental health and likable personalities. The writing was insightful and perceptive with a constant thrum of apprehension and risk of discovery, but the discovery of exactly what was always in question. I was deeply curious and invested in their tale and had developed multiple theories as I read, and all of them were wrong. How I love it when that happens!

The tale unraveled slowly while ratcheting up the tension, which was present and tautly held from the first page to the last word. I was impatient at times when the storylines appeared to falter or veer in other directions although I later realized the author was weaving in additional threads as the characters became increasingly unhinged.   But that ending has left me tapping my little foot while I contemplate my feelings, I’m quite unsettled and bordering on distressed. I have a feeling I will be ruminating on this one for some time.

 

 

About the Author
Flora Collins was born and raised in New York City and has never left, except for a four-year stint at Vassar College. When she’s not writing, she can be found watching reality shows that were canceled after one season or attempting to eat soft-serve ice cream in bed (sometimes simultaneously). Nanny Dearest is her first novel and draws upon personal experiences from her own family history.
Posted on

Book Review: Give It Arrest by Laura Barnard @BarnardLaura

Give It Arrest
by Laura Barnard

 

Amazon  / B&N / BB

The high always comes before the fall…

Sadie would do anything not to end up on the streets again.  Even come up with the crazy idea of selling marijuana to cancer patients struggling through chemo.

Before they know it Sadie and her friends are over-run with orders, have a sexy detective on their trail, suspicious neighbours and drug dealers angry they’re working on their patch.

Can Sadie pull them out of this dangerous world they’ve found themselves in, all while ignoring the attraction between her and sexy detective Harry? And can she do it before they end up in prison?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘You think I’m a police lady?’ I ask in disbelief. ‘How dare you! Have you even seen my shoes?’ I throw my leg up onto the counter, years of adult ballet working in my favour. I present my black patent stilettos with a red strap. ‘Do these look like the ugly shoes of a policewoman?’ I ask, my voice rising higher than it should. Damn it, he’s offended my shoes. He might as well have called me fat.

 

I feel a thrill of excitement go through me at the thought of it. I’m like a bond agent. What would I call myself? Pussy Galore’s taken. Maybe Gorgeous Chick. No, that doesn’t sound like a name. Maybe Gigi Paris. Yeah, I like that.

 

My God, my lady bits are so excited I’m worried I’m going to take off any minute, spinning round the room like a let off balloon.

 

My Review:

 

Don’t pick up this book unless you are ready to let your hair down for an irreverently humorous, snarky, sweary, and busy read. The writing was sly, wry, snappy, ironically amusing, and laced together with Ms. Barnard’s signature style of impertinent levity. The storylines were filled with struggling and conflicted characters who were deeply flawed and extremely annoying, yet I was invested in their plight.

The story was written from the first-person POV of Sadie who was recently unemployed and panicked by her inability to find a new job. Sadie was flippant, crass, and brassy, yet she meant well. She was fiercely independent but had a painfully heavy chip on her shoulder, was prone to irrational temper flares and was easily distracted. While trying to make ends meet and help her former co-workers/friends, Sadie found herself on a course of self-destruction.   I alternated between empathizing with her and wanting to pop her in the mouth. Her unusual odyssey was cheekily entertaining, smirk-worthy, and action-packed.

Laura Barnard lives in Hertfordshire, UK, and writes romantic comedy or ‘chick lit’ as it is so often described. In her spare time, she enjoys drinking her body weight in tea, indulging in cupcakes the size of her face, and drooling over hunks like Jamie Dornan, Ryan Gosling, and Leo Dicaprio.

She enjoys wearing yoga pants and reading fitness magazines while sitting on the sofa eating chocolate. She’s a real fan of the power nap and of course READING!

She writes not to get rich or famous, but because she LOVES writing. Even if one person tells her they enjoyed her book it makes the midnight typing worth it!

 

Posted on

Book Review: The Sorority Murder by Allison Brennan  @Allison_Brennan

The Sorority Murder
by Allison Brennan 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

Senior Lucas Vega is obsessed with the death of Candace Swain, who left a sorority party three years ago and never came back. Her body was later found, but the culprit never was. Lucas thinks he has uncovered new evidence, but to prove it he creates a podcast that traces Candace’s last hours. Listeners crowdsource what they remember as college lecturer and former US marshal Regan Merritt adds her expertise.

Then one caller turns up dead. Another hints at Candace’s hidden life that may implicate other sorority sisters. Regan uses her sources to bolster their theory but discovers that Lucas is hiding his own dark secret. The pressure is on to solve the murder, but first Lucas must come clean about his own motives before the killer strikes again.

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

A lie for a good reason is still a lie.

 

When there is no place to go, you go home.

 

Regan had to really dig down to dredge up sympathy for her. A pathetic, selfish, sociopath. Maybe she didn’t have any sympathy.

 

My Review:

 

I preface my review with the confessions that it has been decades since I stepped on a college campus, I have always had a negative opinion of Greek life, I have never listened to a podcast, and I had to Google what crowdsourcing and capstone projects were. This tense written and slowly developing tale has me convinced that I have become a complete and total goober!

The writing was tensely emotive and highly evocative although I often felt frustrated with the pacing. The story seemed to be progressing at a turtles pace with the main characters going off in all directions while battling to gain ground by inches and thwarted from every side. Yet despite my impatience, I was invested, engaged, and incurably curious and hooked into Allison Brennan’s fiendishly confounding storylines.

My cuticles became increasingly ragged as I worried for the determined and tenacious young podcaster and spun and discarded my own useless theories. The reveals exposed events that were realistic and relatable as well as clever with the final chapters being a maelstrom of peril. Allison Brennan took me down a rabbit hole. I may need to wear gloves for a while…

 

About the Author

 

.

Allison Brennan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of three dozen thrillers and numerous short stories. She was nominated for Best Paperback Original Thriller by International Thriller Writers, has had multiple nominations and two Daphne du Maurier Awards, and is a five-time RITA finalist for Best Romantic Suspense. Allison believes life is too short to be bored, so she had five kids. Allison and her family live in Arizona..

Posted on

Book Review: Somebody’s Home by Kaira Rouda @KairaRouda

Somebody’s Home
by Kaira Rouda 

Amazon  / B&N / BB

A quiet neighborhood. A lovely home. A promising new beginning. In a heartbeat, everything can change in this propulsive novel of suspense by USA Today bestselling author Kaira Rouda.

Julie Jones has left her suffocating marriage. With her teenage daughter, Jess, she’s starting over. Their new house in Oceanside is the first step toward a new life. Even if it does come with the unexpected. The previous owners, a pastor, and his wife have left something—or rather someone—behind…

Tom Dean has a bitter hatred for the father who considers him a lost cause, and for the woman who’s moved into their family’s house. The only home he’s ever known. He’s never going to leave. She thinks he’ll be gone in three days, but Tom has the perfect plan.

For a newly single mother and her daughter, a fresh start is the beginning of a nightmare. Before the weekend is over, somebody is going to get exactly what they deserve.

 

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

Fate is funny that way. You find what you think is your dream, and eventually it becomes your nightmare.

 

It’s so satisfying, hanging up on someone. In the olden days, back when we had big thick phones, you could slam those into the cradle and— pow!— make an impact. Now I stab at tiny buttons with my thick fingers, but still, he got the point.

 

I never want my face on TV. I like being powerful, but behind the curtain. Like a real Wizard of Oz.

 

My Review:

 

This was my first-time buddy reading and I had an excellent partner in which to experience this when my blogger gal-pal Joselyn, of rincondejoss.com, suggested we collaborate.  Joselyn is far more adventurous in her reading genres than I am so I most likely cramped her style with my choice for our buddy read.   After perusing the first chapter, I feared her potential wrath with my selection as the book soon had me more than a bit nettled.

I deeply despised this entire cast of obnoxious characters, as they were horrid and ghastly people, types I would never willingly share air with.   While they were all individually detestable and loathsome, the minister was the worst of all – he was abhorrent and oddly enough, the most familiar. Yet as vile as they were and as impatient as I was with their floundering and shallow self-absorbed thinking, I found myself prickling with curiosity and invested in their twitchy story. The little pea in my brain was simmering.

Kaira Rouda is a sly and crafty trickster! She sucked me into this itchy tale that annoyed and captivated me in equal measure. I bow to her adept pacing and exceptional word voodoo that kept me grinding my teeth yet unable to put my Kindle down, even when I wanted to throw it at the back of her characters’ heads to knock some sense loose. This is only my second time perusing Ms. Rouda’s vexing mastery, a slight I plan to rectify ASAP. The gal has skills!

 

 

Joselyn’s Review:

Joselyn’s Rating:

First Impressions

So the beginning was harsh since it was a little slow in a way and really the situations were like totally avoidable in a way, but we humans love complicated.

It was interesting since usually, books tend to go happy till the end of time, but this one was as dark as it gets, real business here.

She is very compelling in her writing, I mean I kept reading even when a lot of things were so wrong for me in this one.

And even when I thought like this is not going that way or that, she went right through and it was like OMG really.

Characters

I hated them all, I think Julie and Sandi semi-redeem themselves and just barely really.

Identified more with Sandi since my dad’s a priest, but thank god he wasn’t that strict and let me take my decisions in life.

But OMG, they were all so mostly brainwashed in this book I swear I was having headaches like how can they think like that so badly of themselves and other people, and sadly I realized it’s just how normal brains operates and made sad.

Final Thoughts

In all, it was curious how I went to go ahead and just keep coming back and keep reading since it was so cringing for me, but I have to say you’re in for a very interesting read with this one.

This one I read with my Friend Honolulubelle and she hated it as much, it came to an interesting debate about how life is built in these things and how people it’s so super destructive, and how to try and avoid it.

 

Joselyn

More of Joselyn’s unique book reviews can be found on her blog here:   https://rincondejoss.com/category/book-reviews/

 

 

Kaira Rouda is a USA TODAY and Amazon Charts bestselling author of contemporary fiction exploring beneath the surface of seemingly perfect lives. Her suspense novels include BEST DAY EVER, THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER, ALL THE DIFFERENCE, and THE NEXT WIFE. Her latest novel, SOMEBODY’S HOME, is out January 18, 2022, and THE WIDOW releases November 15, 2022.