Favorite Quotes:

Maybe Amber’s lethal margaritas had tipped her over the edge– cocktails mixed by someone doing the Macarena were always going to be a risk.

Clio had thought that slipping a disc while doing up her bra would go down in history as her worst birthday ever, but it appeared that life always had new treats in store.

Clio could always say anything. She specialised in speaking her truth, no matter how unwilling the world was to hear it.

It must be nice, having an inheritance. All Gary’s dad had left him were freckles and an allergy to freshly cut grass.

She was so full of aggression she had practically grown spikes.

How had Amber managed to work with him for so long? He was the kind of person who enjoyed reading instruction manuals. Out loud.

Clio wondered how science had come far enough to be able to get Richard Branson into space and yet still hadn’t solved the problem of nasal hair.

My Review:

I adored this wittily penned and vastly enjoyable read and was thrilled to realize it is the start of a new series. The writing was giggle-snort and smirk-worthy from start to finish with cunning insights and wry humor lacing it all together.

Katie Marsh is a sly storyteller who has weaved an entertaining and immersive tale with delightfully humorous observations and keenly penned descriptions that drew sharp visuals to my mind’s eye. I was thoroughly engaged, pleasantly entertained, deeply invested, and highly amused and resented any interruptions to my perusal.

The main characters were deeply flawed yet authentic and admirable as they were living their lives and still deeply bonded from childhood while now in middle age, despite their divergent paths and odd personal quirks. I can’t wait to dive into the next installment.

Favorite Quotes:

She should have asked Mira how she’s managed to survive, because with the way Jenkins is looking at her, Eve is not sure she wants to.

People are never satisfied with what they have. They crave the unknown, the dangerous, the forbidden. And then, when they find themselves immersed in it, they cry out for the safety of their former lives.

I didn’t realize how bankrupt you were— morally and emotionally. Money can’t fix that.

Eve can almost taste the irony. For all her persuasive charm and cunning, it took becoming someone’s lifeline to glimpse her own humanity.

My Review:

This was gritty, cringe-worthy, and skin crawling creepy… yet I couldn’t put it down. I have to admit, I worry what that means about me! As is often the case with Ms. King’s brutally provocative, propulsive, and twisty tales; surprises popped out around every corner and few of the characters were even marginally trustworthy. What a nest of vipers. I couldn’t decide who was the second most heinous sociopath as there were so many to choose from.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

One thing Thorne learned early on in fatherhood was that lying to your child was the key to domestic harmony. Carrots were what dwarves ate to give them the ability to see in dark mines, and if you ate yours before they cooled, you, too, might be able to spot gemstones in the dark. Baths were necessary because they washed away any leftover bad dreams from the night before. If you didn’t go to sleep, you wouldn’t grow big enough to ride a unicorn. Unicorns lived in Cheshire and only let little girls who ate their vegetables ride them.

Sadie had been the one to precipitate his proposal to Mrs. Merkle, although not as enthusiastically as she’d advocated for him to marry Miss Highland, the milliner (she had a nice smile and Sadie would always have new bonnets), or their neighbor Mrs. Downwith (septuagenarian she might be, but she enjoyed baking biscuits and had a lapdog Sadie found charming).

The commotion amid the congregation this morning rivaled the time Mrs. Inglewood fell so fast asleep that she’d toppled off her pew and woke screaming that the devil had finally come to get her.

My Review:

I rarely read this genre but I would more often if they were all as cleverly penned and compelling a tale as this one. Elizabeth Everett has mad skills and I am her newest acolyte. I fell into her poignant and heart squeezing arrangements of words that were brilliantly peppered with amusing lashing of wit and wry humor as well as insightful observations. Her characters were uniquely drawn while each was deeply flawed yet endearing, hard-working, and mostly well- intended. I adored them while also wanting to give them a thump or two with my Kindle.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Esther was from an age where loving your neighbor meant loving your actual neighbor, not just adding an emoji to your Twitter name in times of crisis.

Olivia was pregnant with her first and acted as if it made her incapable of lifting a dirty cup into the dishwasher.

The funeral ladies grouped organic devotees in with PETA activists, war criminals, and people who bought designer shoes. One time Iris’s dad had accidentally brought plant-based queso to a cookout at Esther’s, and they’d acted as if he’d murdered an entire village.

It was so different from Los Angeles, where everyone walked around as if they might bestow upon you the honor of doing them a favor.

Mary Frances had come into the world screaming and never stopped. The nurse kept asking, What’s her name? What’s her name? right after she was born, and Esther couldn’t even hear the question. Her daughter refused to be put down for the first two years of her life. They had her tested for everything under the sun, but she didn’t have any medical problems. Just an opinion, at such a young age.

My Review:

I adored this tale as well as all the inhabitants residing within. The characters were knowable and endearing, as well as amusing and authentically drawn. I fell right into their storylines and felt for each and every one of them as their vulnerabilities and regrets were exposed. Ms. Swinarski’s agile writing was well-honed, well-paced, and perceptively scripted. I’ll be on the lookout for more of her clever arrangements of words.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Nothing was ever out of place in Victoria Blake’s kitchen. Even the plastic storage boxes on the bottom shelf all had their matching lids, proving to Tasha’s mind that her mother had done a deal with Satan at some point because how else to explain such an unnatural thing?

My Review:

This was a fun and vastly entertaining read that was enjoyable from start to finish. The storylines were unfailingly engaging, amusing, busy, and creatively detailed with a variety of activities and a full cast of uniquely quirky characters. I jumped into the series with book three, and although I didn’t struggle to keep up, I feel deeply compelled to read the first two for my own self-indulgence. I adored it!

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

The thing no one ever wants to say about dating is this: It’s hard to be real, sure. It’s harder to let someone else be.

Exercise isn’t really a part of my adult life, what with all the sweating, and the fact that I now have a hair-care regimen.

She’s not coming. Some mix-up with my personality. She decided she didn’t like it.

I once read that there are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on Earth. It seemed impossible. It always seems impossible to believe the things we cannot see.

My life has been filled with magical moments, I was just so busy waiting I didn’t see them when they were here.

My Review:

This was a delight to read and wickedly perceptive and observant. I smirked most of the way through perusal although there were several profound inner musings that I had to stop and reread a few times.

I adored every clever word as much as I did the quirky characters, each was authentically detailed yet I ached for just a little more of each chapter. The writing was well-honed, cleverly original, delightfully witty, keenly insightful, amusingly entertaining, and sparked sharp visuals across my gray matter.

Rebecca Serle has strong word voodoo and now rests at the top of my favorites list.

Under a thick canopy of pine trees, Cassidy Wilder frantically searches for a hiding place. Her breath catches in her mouth as she hears heavy footsteps. She says a silent prayer, but she knows he’s closing in on her. She knows it’s too late…

When a robbery at a local store ends with multiple deaths and the abduction of sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Cassidy Wilder, FBI agent Beth Katz and her partner Dax Styles are called in. Visiting Cassidy’s family home just a couple of blocks away from the quiet little store where she went missing, Beth’s heart breaks as she talks to her grieving parents and promises to find their daughter.

Looking at CCTV footage, Beth is horrified to see how calm the killer is as he shoots everyone in the store before forcing the terrified Cassidy to follow him into his truck. Then Beth uncovers multiple robberies just like this one, where all witnesses are killed and a young girl is taken. All of the victims are taken at night and found dead the following morning, so Beth knows time is running out to save Cassidy.

When Cassidy’s lifeless body is discovered dumped on a busy highway near a patch of forest, Beth is devastated. And as more girls go missing, she fears the murderer is escalating. A breakthrough finally comes when she finds a name written in blood next to one of the bodies. Beth knows she’s close to catching the killer and is determined to stop any more lives from being taken—even if it means serving her own form of justice. Will she be able to resist the urge to take a life herself? Or will she become the killer’s next victim?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

She often compared herself to science-fiction characters who by no fault of their own had been the issue of two opposite species. In her case, both sides of her had different ideas of how to deal with monsters and each had a convincing argument for being themselves. Yes, she often referred to herself as two people because in reality that’s what she’d become.

Covering up crimes of the rich and powerful wasn’t new, but it made those responsible as guilty as the perpetrator. Beth might well be a serial killer, but she’d never been corrupt. She followed a set of rules and stuck to them.

My Review:

Silly me for jumping into this series with the third installment yet I didn’t struggle to keep up. However, I am eaten up with a fatal case of curiosity about the prior books and itching to read them as well. The crimes were disturbing and twisted, as were the individuals who were committing them. The storylines were complicated, well-nuanced, and multi-layered while each character was complex and cunningly crafted, even the secondary ones. D.K. Hood has mad skills although I worry for her neighbors if they give her grief.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Kirsten’s smile in response to our confirmed dinner plans is blinding. All that fake ceramic in her mouth should come with a potentially-damaging-to-the-eye warning.

On a scale of one to ten, my femininity is at a solid six, seven when I make an effort. Kirsten is an eleven. Kirsten and her bridal party combined are six figures.

…she studies me. Like a cheetah would study a gazelle she can’t wait to eat alive.

“I promise to love you, your four cats, six hens, and thousand rescue books for as long as my heart shall beat… I promise to love you even when you finish all the hot water in the shower and sing Taylor Swift at the top of your lungs for half an hour non-stop.” “I promise to love you even when you kick me under the covers at night and hog all the blankets.” “I promise to always be there when you need me and be strong when you’re vulnerable. I promise to never lie to you, to always tell you the truth, even when it hurts.” “I promise to keep on loving you every day, until my last breath, even when you get gray hair or when you lose your teeth, because you are the love of my life… and I will never stop loving you.”

My Review:

I reveled in this divinely amusing tale, it sparkled with clever humor and endearing characters. I adore Camilla Isley and I declare this book is her best missive yet. The gal has seriously strong word voodoo and never fails to pull me into a delightful vortex of quirky and authentic characters with real-world problems that are so much more fun than my own.