Review: A Dark Lure by Loreth Anne White

Twelve years ago, Sarah Baker was abducted by the Watt Lake Killer and sexually assaulted for months before managing to escape. The killer was caught, but Sarah lost everything: her marriage, her child, and the life she loved.

Struggling with PTSD, Sarah changes her name to Olivia West and finds sanctuary working on Broken Bar Ranch. But as her scars finally begin to heal, a cop involved with her horrific case remains convinced the Watt Lake Killer is still out there. He sets a lure for the murderer, and a fresh body is discovered. Now Olivia must face the impossible—could the butcher be back, this time to finish the job?

As a frigid winter isolates the ranch, only one person can help Olivia: Cole McDonough, a writer, adventurer, and ranch heir who stirs long-dormant feelings in her. But this time, Olivia’s determination to shut out her past may destroy more than her chance at love. It could cost her her life.

Publication Date: July 1, 2015

A Dark Lure is perfect for anyone who’s looking to turn off their brains for a few hours and just enjoy the ride. The plot was somewhat predictable, but I still found myself getting lost in the story.

The setting was perfect for a romantic suspense read: an isolated ranch where Olivia has relocated to start over after a horrific ordeal. Olivia is being stalked while also starting to develop feelings for ranch heir Cole. Cole also has his baggage and I was absorbed in finding out what his back story was. It was really sweet to see how these two broken characters could help each other heal.

I love novels with the killer’s point of view included. Freaking creepy as anything! I had to leave all the lights on while reading. There was a great buildup to the complex and I found my heart racing as Olivia finally faced her tormentor.

Fans of thrillers will find A Dark Lure to be the ultimate beach book for the summer!

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Review: Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon

Summary:

For fans of Lianne Moriarty, Paula Hawkins, and Tana French, an arresting debut novel of psychological suspense: a young journalist struggles to keep the demons of her alcoholism at bay as she finds her purpose again in tackling the mystery of a shocking headline-making crime, still unsolved after fifteen years.

Amy Stevenson was the biggest news story of 1995. Only fifteen years old, Amy disappeared walking home from school one day and was found in a coma three days later. Her attacker was never identified and her angelic face was plastered across every paper and nightly news segment.

Fifteen years later, Amy lies in the hospital, surrounded by 90’s Britpop posters, forgotten by the world until reporter Alex Dale stumbles across her while researching a routine story on vegetative patients.

Remembering Amy’s story like it was yesterday, she feels compelled to solve the long-cold case.

The only problem is, Alex is just as lost as Amy—her alcoholism has cost her everything including her marriage and her professional reputation.

In the hopes that finding Amy’s attacker will be her own salvation as well, Alex embarks on a dangerous investigation, suspecting someone close to Amy.

Told in the present by an increasingly fragile Alex and in dream-like flashbacks by Amy as she floats in a fog of memories, dreams, and music from 1995, Try Not to Breathe unfolds layer by layer to a breathtaking conclusion

Publication Date: February 23, 2016

Wow, this book was totally different than anything I read before! Talk about two unreliable narrators: an alcoholic reporter and a coma patient. The story is told in two different timelines: fifteen years earlier leading up to Amy’s attack and the present as Alex tries to give Amy a voice while coping with her own major issues.

Alex was a hard character to like at first, but the author wrote her in such a way that I couldn’t help, but feel sympathy for her. As more of her tragic back-story is revealed, I did find myself rooting for her to get help and start to rebuild her life. When she starts to visit Amy in the hospital, the comatose woman has a profound effect on her.

The book was more than just a mystery of who attacked Amy. I also found the topic of what type of awareness coma patients may have and how brain scans could be used to measure their responses. The author admits to taking artistic license regarding Amy’s condition, but I still found the possibilities intriguing.

My one major qualm is that I wasn’t totally thrilled with the big reveal regarding Amy’s attacker. It’s hard to explain why without posting spoilers, but the revelations just didn’t pack enough emotional punch.

The pace was spot on and the writing crisp. This is definitely one of the strongest debuts I’ve read thus far this year. Can’t wait to check out more from this amazing author!

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review!

Review: All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

Summary: 

Like the spellbinding psychological suspense in The Girl on the Train and Luckiest Girl Alive, Megan Miranda’s novel is a nail-biting, breathtaking story about the disappearances of two young women—a decade apart—told in reverse.

It’s been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace. Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne’s case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched.

The decade-old investigation focused on Nic, her brother Daniel, boyfriend Tyler, and Corinne’s boyfriend Jackson. Since then, only Nic has left Cooley Ridge. Daniel and his wife, Laura, are expecting a baby; Jackson works at the town bar; and Tyler is dating Annaleise Carter, Nic’s younger neighbor and the group’s alibi the night Corinne disappeared. Then, within days of Nic’s return, Annaleise goes missing.

Told backwards—Day 15 to Day 1—from the time Annaleise goes missing, Nic works to unravel the truth about her younger neighbor’s disappearance, revealing shocking truths about her friends, her family, and what really happened to Corinne that night ten years ago.

Like nothing you’ve ever read before, All the Missing Girls delivers in all the right ways. With twists and turns that lead down dark alleys and dead ends, you may think you’re walking a familiar path, but then Megan Miranda turns it all upside down and inside out and leaves us wondering just how far we would be willing to go to protect those we love.

Publication Date: June 28, 2016

Wow! This book has left me speechless. I was blown away by how much I absolutely adored All the Missing Girls. Megan Miranda is slowly, but surely working her way up to being one of my favorite contemporary authors.

All the Missing Girls is unique in the way that most of the novel is told backwards. The first chapter introduces us to the characters and sets up the plot nicely before jumping into the backwards narrative. The epilogue takes place three months after the events of the book and ties up any loose ends. I was afraid the narrative structure would be confusing, but it actually worked exceptionally well for the plot.

It’s really hard to post much about the characters or the plot without spoiling the suspense. But pretty on, it was easy to see that none of the characters are trustworthy. They all seem to have secret agendas and complicated pasts that have never been resolved. Readers have to unravel their pasts to find out not only what happened to the missing Annaleise, but also what took place ten years ago when Nic’s best friend Corinne disappeared as well.

This book is impossible to put down, so I recommend readers clear their schedules for the next several hours before picking it up. There were so many twists, most of which I couldn’t guess. If you liked The Girl on the Train, then you will love All the Missing Girls.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review!

Guest Review: Angels Burning by Tawni O'Dell

Summary:

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Oprah Book Club pickBack Roads comes this fast-paced literary thriller about a small town police chief who’s forced to dig into her own shadowy past as she investigates the murder of a teenage girl.

On the surface, Chief Dove Carnahan is a true trailblazer who would do anything to protect the rural Pennsylvanian countryside where she has lived all fifty of her years. Traditional and proud of her blue-collar sensibilities, Dove is loved by her community. But beneath her badge lies a dark and self-destructive streak, fed by a secret she has kept since she was sixteen.

When a girl is beaten to death, her body tossed down a fiery sinkhole in an abandoned coal town, Dove is faced with solving the worst crime of her law enforcement career. She identifies the girl as a daughter of the Truly family, a notoriously irascible dynasty of rednecks and petty criminals.

During her investigation, the man convicted of killing Dove’s mother years earlier is released from prison. Still proclaiming his innocence, he approaches Dove with a startling accusation and a chilling threat that forces her to face the parallels between her own family’s trauma and that of the Trulys.

With countless accolades to her credit, author Tawni O’Dell writes with the “fearless insights” (The New York Times Book Review) she brought to the page in Back Roads and One of Us. In this new, masterfully told psychological thriller, the past and present collide to reveal the extent some will go to escape their fate, and in turn, the crimes committed to push them back to where they began.

Publication Date: January 5, 2016

About Guest Reviewer Joanna:

Joanna Franklin Bell is a writer living outside Baltimore, MD. Her articles can be read in "Baltimore Magazine" and various Patch.com sites; her award-winning short story can be found on the "Single Dad Laughing" blog; and her books can be found on Amazon. "Muse: A Cat's Story" is her children's chapter book, "Mrs. Just-So" is her children's picture book, and "Take a Load Off, Mona Jamborski" and "That Birds Would Sing" are her novels. Her third novel, "See No Demons, Hear No Demons" will be released in 2016. Catch up with Joanna on Facebook at:  https://www.facebook.com/JoannaFranklinBell

Joanna's Review:

Tawni O'Dell's mother must have hated her, or, had no aspirations for her daughter beyond swinging from a stripper pole. I cannot imagine why else she'd have named her baby Tawni. Since a mother like this doesn't often exist, I assume of course that dear Tawni named herself in an attempt to really sell the white-trash factor of tawdry romances that she pens.

This is what I expected when I opened "Angels Burning," and it got no better when I read the first sentence of the first chapter which ended, "…trying to grope my recently ripened breasts." Yes, that's how the FIRST SENTENCE OF THE BOOK ends.

Strikes one, two, three, and fifteen hundred right there, Tawni. Lord above, I must be so much better than you.

Well thank goodness I had nothing better to do and felt like I could keep on judging this hapless writer and her ridiculous romance. So I kept reading.

And here's where I tell you how quickly I reversed my position and decided that Tawni and her uniquely spelled colorful name was probably just a product of the late 1960s and the creative spirits that birthed her, because this chick can WRITE. And I mean, WRITE. And, yes, she is so much better than ME. Her name could be Larry Curly Moe Joe and it wouldn't matter. You know how long it's been since I highlighted passages because I loved them so much, and not because they contained horrifying crimes against the English language? It's been at least a decade. I cannot wait to read everything else Tawni has ever written, because if it's half as good as "Angels Burning," I'm already a fan. I don't even care if one ends up being a romance.

No formulaic love story here: the main character is a 50-year-old chief of police named Dove, because DOVE had the white-trash mother! I had to laugh. (I do wonder if Tawni knows wherefrom she speaks…) Dove was named after her neglectful mother's favorite soap! Dove's sister, Neely, was named after "Valley of the Dolls," and their brother Champ was named after the mom's childhood dog. If these three don't serve to characterize their mother, who is long dead before the book even begins, nothing will.

The mother's long-ago death interweaves itself with the current crime: the murder of a teenaged girl, whose body was stuffed in the fictional version of Centralia, Pennsylvania's burning ghost town where underground coal mine fires still heat the ground and spew smoke through the cracks. The town in the book is much the same, or at least a section of it is—the police risk their own lives trying to retrieve the girl's body, tying Dove with a rope while she lowers herself into the hell pit to wrap her arms around the charred body, almost lovingly saving the girl, although of course she is far too late.

And the story begins.

Can't tell ya any more without spoiling it… There's nothing I wouldn't recommend about this book. If you read it and love it and highlight passages of your own, tell me what they are—I'd love to know if what spoke to you deeply is what spoke to me deeply. Dove (and Tawni through her) have plenty of deep thoughts to share.

5/5 Stars

Review: Those Girls by Chevy Stevens

Summary:

Chevy Stevens is back with her most powerful, emotional thriller yet— a story of survival…and revenge.

Life has never been easy for the three Campbell sisters. Jess, Courtney, and Dani live on a remote ranch in Western Canada where they work hard and try to stay out of the way of their father’s fists. One night, a fight gets out of hand and the sisters are forced to go on the run, only to get caught in an even worse nightmare when their truck breaks down in a small town. Events spiral out of control and a chance encounter with the wrong people leaves them in a horrific and desperate situation. They are left with no choice but to change their names and create new lives.

Eighteen years later, they are still trying to forget what happened that summer when one of the sisters goes missing and they are pulled back into their past.

This time there’s nowhere left to run.

As much of a thriller as it is a deep exploration of the bonds among sisters, THOSE GIRLS is an unforgettable portrait of desperation, loyalty, and evil

Publication Date: July 7, 2015

Those Girls is a tough book for me to rate. I think my main issue is that I read other novels by the author before and absolutely adored them. I don’t think Those Girls is poorly written, but for some reason I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I would have liked.

The Campbell sisters have seriously screwed-up lives. The beginning really grabbed me and I would say that portion was my favorite part of the entire book. The awful stuff that goes down between the sisters and their father really turned my stomach. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did.

The suspense in the book kept me hooked and there were a lot of situations when I wasn’t sure if the sisters were going to make it out alive. The abuse scenes are not for the faint of heart and it was especially hard knowing all that the young girls had already endured.

Although the characters felt a little two-dimensional to me, especially the villains, I still kept reading the novel. The climax is tense and the epilogue wrapped up the story well. I would recommend the book to fans of psychological suspense with the suggestion of reading the author’s Still Missing first.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review!

Review: Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin

Summary:

For fans of Laura Lippman and Gillian Flynn comes an electrifying novel of stunning psychological suspense.

A girl’s memory lost in a field of wildflowers.
A killer still spreading seeds.

At seventeen, Tessa became famous for being the only surviving victim of a vicious serial killer. Her testimony put him on death row. Decades later, a mother herself, she receives a message from a monster who should be in prison. Now, as the execution date rapidly approaches, Tessa is forced to confront a chilling possibility: Did she help convict the wrong man?

Publication Date: August 11, 2015

Black-Eyed Susans is a tough book to rate. For most of the novel, I was completely enthralled with the plot. Psychological suspense is one of my favorite genres and I really love when an author like Heaberlin can keep a reader guessing. Until the conclusion, the book was five stars all day long. I just felt like the way that the novel ended left me with too many unanswered questions.

I liked both versions of the main character Tessa: the teenaged version in therapy following an attempted murder attempt as well as adult Tessa who is continuously haunted by the holes in her memory about the night of her abduction. I thought the setup was good and I really wanted to find out what Tessa had locked away in her mind.

The writing in the book is exceptional. It was moody and beautiful and I felt instantly transported into Tessa’s dark memories. The author really made me want to uncover the mysteries along with Tessa. The suspense in the book was powerful as the countdown commences on whether or not the wrong killer will be executed.

The book contains a lot of tidbits that I found intriguing. The author obviously did her research as the book delves into the use of DNA derived from bone fragments in order to identify the serial killer’s victims. I also appreciated the random serial killer trivia sprinkled in throughout the story.

I didn’t guess the ending at all. And despite my surprise over the revelations, I really didn’t love how the story wrapped up. I just felt like the story was building up to a very dramatic conclusion that I never got.

Despite my slight disappointment in the ending, I would still recommend Black-Eyed Susans and I’m eager to read more from the author

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review! 

Review: Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

Summary:

After the heartbreak of losing his girlfriend, Beck, Joe Goldberg thought he’d never love again. But when mysterious Amy Adam begins working for Joe at Mooney Books, he finds himself obsessed with his new employee. Amy is Beck’s opposite—she hates Twitter, she doesn’t even have an email address, she's completely unsearchable online—and she quickly captures Joe’s heart. But just before Joe can ask Amy to marry him, she disappears, leaving a trail of clues in her wake.

Joe is then forced to do something so vile, so awful that he nearly loses his mind: he moves to Los Angeles to find Amy. He is tortured by a series of aspiring Angelenos—an insufferable stand-up comedian, philistine booksellers, a money-hungry nanny, and a slutty ghostwriter—before meeting his ticket to a more luxurious world: a surgically enhanced, social media–savvy heiress named Love Quinn. But Joe can’t stop stalking Amy, despite the world opening up to him with Love on his arm. Will Joe finally escape his sordid past? Or is Love just the latest casualty in Joe’s unrelenting search for the perfect match?

Publication Date: September 8, 2015

Last year’s You was a book that stayed with me for a long time. I remember reading it and not being able to get the character of Joe out of my head. Serial killer novels from the murderer’s point of view are usually sick and twisty, but Joe is scary because he’s just so gosh darn likable.

Joe is such a complicated character that I’m sure if he was a real, psychologists could develop textbooks based around him. He’s funny and insightful and has a way of convincingly rationalizing his murders. The tough thing about Joe is that I couldn’t decide if I wanted him to have a happy ending or get killed off in an atrocious manner.

The plot of Hidden Bodies didn’t charm me as much as the previous book. I liked the change of scenery, but I didn’t feel as invested in the relationship between Love and Joe as I had with him and Beck. Love almost felt like a caricature instead of a real person, especially when compared to the rich characterization of Joe.

The pace was good and the end was a nail-biter. There were a few twists I didn’t see coming and a few that I felt were a little too out there to believe. I thought the conclusion was well done and I’m curious if there will be a follow up or not. I love the author’s writing style, so I’m definitely reading everything she writes from here on out.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review!

Review: Someone Out There by Catherine Hunt

Summary:

A debut psychological thriller with a twisting story of obsession, revenge and deceit.

Top divorce lawyer, Laura Maxwell, appears to have it all – perfect career, perfect husband, perfect life. But how well do you really know the people around you? All it takes is one tiny crack to shatter the whole façade.

A series of accidents leads Laura to believe that someone out there is deliberately trying to harm her. The fear starts to pervade every part of her life, affecting her work and her marriage. Increasingly, she feels that no one believes her story, and she must face down her attacker alone. One woman, fighting to survive in a nightmare world.

Publication Date: May 21, 2015

Someone Out There was a good mystery/psychological thriller. It took me a bit to get into, but once I got to the meat of the story I was hooked. The tension is slow building, but I thought the climax was very exciting and I couldn’t guess what direction the story was going in.

I did like the main character Laura and I felt for her as all these terrible things start to happen. I felt for her as she tried to do the right thing by her clients and to protect them from horrible situations (i.e. domestic violence, loss of parental rights, etc.). The secondary characters were good too and I liked that the reader got more than just Laura’s point of view.

The twist wasn’t easy to spot and really brought the story together for me. There are several red herrings that the author uses to keep readers guessing. The ending was fairly good although I would have liked a bit more closure.

I would recommend Someone Out There to fans of adult suspense novels. I think the author did a terrific job on her debut novel and I look forward to future books.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy for review!

Review: Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight

Summary:

From the author of the New York Times bestseller and 2014 Edgar and Anthony nominee Reconstructing Amelia comes another harrowing, gripping novel that marries psychological suspense with an emotionally powerful story about a community struggling with the consequences of a devastating discovery.

At the end of a long winter, in bucolic Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town’s prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions.

When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridegdale Reader, it’s a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby. But the bigger threat comes when Molly unearths some of Ridgedale’s darkest secrets, including a string of unreported sexual assaults that goes back twenty years.

Meanwhile, Sandy, a high school dropout, searches for her volatile and now missing mother, and PTA president Barbara struggles to help her young son, who’s suddenly having disturbing outbursts.

Told from the perspectives of Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, Kimberly McCreight’s taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth about the baby’s death revealing that these three women have far more in common than they realized. And that their lives are more intertwined with what happened to the baby than they ever could have imagined.

Publication Date: April 15, 2015

Where They Found Her had a good premise, but I would have preferred a better execution. I remember really enjoying the author’s Reconstructing Amelia, but I had a much harder time getting through this novel. However, I did like the ripped from the headlines feel of the plot.

I thought some parts of Where They Found Her were really well done. I actually think if the book was told only from reporter Molly’s point of view, I would have given the book an extra star. Her sections were my favorite and I really felt like the author did a good job of portraying the emotional trauma of losing a baby. I didn’t particularly enjoy the point of view switches and the multiple newspaper clippings. These parts slowed the story down too much for me.

The mystery is captivating and I liked trying to figure out what was happening in the town of Ridgedale. I actually didn’t have the mystery completely figured out, so I give the author kudos for throwing me off. The ending wasn’t the best for me since it felt very rushed.

Overall, not a bad suspense book by any means, but I definitely prefer Reconstructing Amelia.

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review!

Review: You by Caroline Kepnes

Goodreads Summary:

Love hurts...

When aspiring writer Guinevere Beck strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe works, he’s instantly smitten. Beck is everything Joe has ever wanted: She’s gorgeous, tough, razor-smart, and as sexy as his wildest dreams.

Beck doesn’t know it yet, but she’s perfect for him, and soon she can’t resist her feelings for a guy who seems custom made for her. But there’s more to Joe than Beck realizes, and much more to Beck than her oh-so-perfect façade. Their mutual obsession quickly spirals into a whirlwind of deadly consequences . . .

A chilling account of unrelenting passion, Caroline Kepnes’s You is a perversely romantic thriller that’s more dangerously clever than any you’ve read before.

Publication Date: September 30, 2014

Well, that was different! I think it’s safe to say most readers will not have read anything much like You before. I was a little leery at first because of the second person narration, but Joe hooked me and I pulled an all-nighter to finish the book. You was suspenseful, funny and definitely a little on the bizarre side. But I loved it and I won’t be forgetting Joe and Beck anytime soon.

Second person narration is always tough for me. I usually end up throwing in the towel after the first few chapters. But the narrator of You was so compelling and freaking crazy I had to keep reading. Joe is the stalker of the novel and I found it incredible how I didn’t completely loathe him. He was funny! There was a lot of dark humor in the book and Joe skewers certain classes of people with exact precision. I felt horrible for laughing alongside someone so depraved, but Joe makes you believe many of his actions are almost justifiable.

Beck wasn’t the most likable character and her flaws helped make the book work. If she were this perfect young woman, then the ick factor would be a little too much for me to take. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely felt like I needed a long shower after reading, but Beck’s caustic personality made it easier to stomach some of the creepier things Joe does in his pursuit of her.

The pacing was excellent and I found so many of Joe’s diatribes hilarious. There were so many quotable lines within the book that I stopped highlighting after the first few chapters. Joe works in a bookstore and I loved the way he would come up with these outrageous connections between his life and his favorite books and movies.

The ending I guessed although I was hoping for a different outcome. But in a way the book’s conclusion fit with the overall creepy feel of the novel.  For fans of psychological suspense and thrillers, this book is a must read.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review!

Review: The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Goodreads Summary:

"I've been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she has her dry cleaning done, where she works. I don't know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she's scared. But I will."

Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life.

Colin's job was to abduct Mia as part of a wild extortion plot and deliver her to his employers. But the plan takes an unexpected turn when Colin suddenly decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota, evading the police and his deadly superiors. Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them, but no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter.

An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, The Good Girl is a compulsive debut that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems…

Publication Date: July 29, 2014

Hmmm…that was an interesting book! I wasn’t sure what I expected, but it wasn’t what I got. But I wouldn’t say that was a bad thing. The flawed characters intrigued me and I did like the twists that the author threw in at the end of the book.

The Good Girl has a narrative structure that I normally don’t like: multiple point of views and time jumps. However, the author handled the transitions flawlessly. I never thought the switches were jarring and I felt like the way the book was laid out painted a complete picture of the plot without giving away anything too soon.

The characters were interesting and I felt the strongest connection to Mia’s mother. She felt like a real mom who had made mistakes in the past with her daughter and starts to question her entire life after her daughter’s abduction. Mia was hard to get to know because the story is never told in her POV. I didn’t like her or hate her, I just felt a little neutral towards her. It was a little bit of an issue because it made it hard to cheer for a HEA for her. I also was never sold on the relationship between her and Colin.

The beginning and end of the book really grabbed me. These sections were exciting and emotionally charged. I figured out portions of the plot early on, but there were definitely some surprises the author decided to add. For a debut novel, the suspense was very well done.

I’ve read several books from Harlequin MIRA and I have to say they were all enjoyable. If you like suspense novels with a hint of mystery, then you should definitely pick up The Good Girl.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review!

Review: Shadow Lover by Anne Stuart

Summary: 

Victim. Lover. Both? His dark game is seducing her-- just as it was when they were young.

How can he still have that power over her? Eighteen years ago, she saw him die.

Wealthy, selfish, and greedy, the McDowell family raised Carolyn McDowell--a foster child--like a modern Cinderella. Neglected and ignored, good-hearted Carolyn adored scion Alexander despite it all, though even he tormented her.

When Alex ran away one night, Carolyn followed and witnessed his murder, though she never told anyone. Her beloved Alex died when he was seventeen. There was no doubt.

Eighteen years later, Carolyn returns to the decadent milieu of the McDowell clan to care for her dying foster mother, Sally. As greedy relatives gather to claim their inheritances, a stunning stranger arrives, claiming to be Alexander. To Carolyn's utter shock, Sally greets her "son" without question, and no one but Carolyn believes he's a fraud.

As she delves into the mysteries of both the past and present, Carolyn quickly realizes that the resurrected Alex is a dangerous combination of seduction and power. Is this stranger after the McDowell fortune, or is he really, somehow, the Alex of old, come back to claim her? How can he be an imposter and yet know family secrets only the real Alex would remember? Was someone helping him?

What would you do if the boy you loved returned almost twenty years later, and you fell in love with him all over again--even if you were sure it couldn't be him?

Publication Date: December 31, 2013 (Original 1999)

This is the first book I read by Anne Stuart and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Alex was dark and brooding which lead to great chemistry between him and straight-laced Carolyn. I read the book quickly, intrigued over the mysteries surrounding the McDowell family.

Carolyn’s character was very guarded and seemed to suffer from a martyr complex. Although her selflessness was grating at times, she was still relatable. I was able to understand her trust issues because of how poorly the McDowells had treated her. Alex returns and one of his goals while he’s at his mother’s estate is to shake up Carolyn’s world.

Alex is far from a hero and part of the novel involves trying to figure out if he’s really Alex or not. The author has an obvious talent for creating imperfect males that the reader can still root for. Alex is selfish, wild and incredibly sexy. I liked that Carolyn didn’t fully submit to him at first and he had to work to get into her good graces. When a romance did start, the sex between the two was crazy intense and hot.

The murder mystery part was just okay for me. I would’ve liked to see more twists and turns and more suspense. The climax felt rushed and the action started very late in the novel. The writing was also repetitive at times (I think Carolyn thought of Alex as having Cossack eyes close to a dozen times).

Shadow Lover was still well worth a read. I liked the romance more than the rest of the plot, but for me sometimes a good romance can make up for other areas that are lacking in a novel. Fans of romantic suspense will want to put this on their to-be-read lists.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this novel for review!

Review: In the Blood by Lisa Unger

Goodreads Summary:

Lana Granger lives a life of lies. She has told so many lies about where she comes from and who she is that the truth is like a cloudy nightmare she can’t quite recall. About to graduate from college and with her trust fund almost tapped out, she takes a job babysitting a troubled boy named Luke. Expelled from schools all over the country, the manipulative young Luke is accustomed to controlling the people in his life. But, in Lana, he may have met his match. Or has Lana met hers?

When Lana’s closest friend, Beck, mysteriously disappears, Lana resumes her lying ways—to friends, to the police, to herself. The police have a lot of questions for Lana when the story about her whereabouts the night Beck disappeared doesn’t jibe with eyewitness accounts. Lana will do anything to hide the truth, but it might not be enough to keep her ominous secrets buried: someone else knows about Lana’s lies. And he’s dying to tell.

Publication Date: January 7, 2014

In the Blood was a page-turning suspense read that will likely stay with me for a long time. The author took some interesting twists and turns with the story that made me keep reading in order to find out the mysteries surrounding Lana and her complex relationship with Luke.

Lana is an unreliable narrator and I loved that the story unfolded from her POV. I was never sure of her culpability in any of the crimes that take place around her. I was captivated by the way she saw the world and how self-aware she became over the unhealthy relationships she formed. My favorite scenes were between her and Luke as they attempted to best each other in the mind games Luke created.

I felt like Lana’s history was a much stronger part of the story in lieu of the parts about her missing roommate. Beck’s disappearance lacked the proper urgency and maybe it was because she was never fully developed as a character. I never felt invested in her survival. One of the villains was also not very fleshed out and the story ended with too many questions regarding his or her part in the story.

The book dealt with a lot of fascinating subjects including child psychopaths, gender identity and nature versus nurture while rearing troubled children. I liked the diary entries included and thought the author gave an honest depiction of a mother trying to cope with a “problem” child.  

This is a great suspense book for readers who like complicated narrators where the good guys are difficult to discern from the bad guys. I highly recommend the novel and I plan to check out the author’s other works.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this novel for review!

Review: Until You're Mine by Samantha Hayes

Goodreads Summary:

You're alone. You're vulnerable. And you have something that someone else wants. At any cost...

Claudia seems to have the perfect life. She's heavily pregnant with a much-wanted baby, she has a loving husband, and a beautiful home. And then Zoe steps into her life. Zoe has come to help Claudia when her baby arrives. But there's something about Zoe that Claudia doesn't like. Or trust.

And when she finds Zoe in her bedroom, Claudia's anxiety turns to real fear...

Publication Date: June 20, 2013

This book was a huge surprise. I’ve never experienced such a change of heart in the course of reading any other novel. I was all set to give the novel three stars when the ending came along and completely blindsided me. It changed the entire book for me and I loved how the author tied everything together.

The subject matter definitely made me squeamish. Pregnant women having their bellies cut into aren’t something I normally want to read about. However, I thought it was interesting how the author focused on different women and their struggles with fertility. I thought the author did a good job of depicting an infertile woman on the outside looking in.

The story is told from three female points of view: Lorraine, Zoe and Claudia. I liked reading about each character and their struggles they faced. A few of the sub-plots were a little boring, but I understood their purpose a little more as the story unfolded.

I don’t want to post spoilers, so I’ll only say the ending will leave you breathless. I’m never usually surprised, but there were incredible twists to the story. I loved how I never saw it coming, but now when I look back at the novel, it makes perfect sense. The author didn’t leave plot holes for the sake of a shocking twist.

I would highly recommend this novel to suspense lovers. The crimes are horrifying and I was on the edge of my seat over if the right person would be brought to justice.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book for review!

Review: Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

Summary:

A stunning debut novel in which a single mother reconstructs her teenaged daughter's life, sifting through her emails, texts, and social media to piece together the shocking truth about the last days of her life.

Litigation lawyer and harried single mother Kate Baron is stunned when her daughter's exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn, calls with disturbing news: her intelligent, high-achieving fifteen-year-old daughter, Amelia, has been caught cheating.

Kate can't believe that Amelia, an ambitious, levelheaded girl who's never been in trouble would do something like that. But by the time she arrives at Grace Hall, Kate's faced with far more devastating news. Amelia is dead.

Seemingly unable to cope with what she'd done, a despondent Amelia has jumped from the school's roof in an act of "spontaneous" suicide. At least that's the story Grace Hall and the police tell Kate. And overwhelmed as she is by her own guilt and shattered by grief, it is the story that Kate believes until she gets the anonymous text:

She didn't jump.

Sifting through Amelia's emails, text messages, social media postings, and cell phone logs, Kate is determined to learn the heartbreaking truth about why Amelia was on Grace Hall's roof that day-and why she died.

Told in alternating voices, Reconstructing Amelia is a story of secrets and lies, of love and betrayal, of trusted friends and vicious bullies. It's about how well a parent ever really knows a child and how far one mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she could not save.

Publication Date: April 2, 2013

I’ve seen this book compared to Gone Girl a lot and since I found that book hard to put down, I looked forward to picking up this one as well. Reconstructing Amelia was a well-done suspense novel that touched upon a lot of hot-button issues like teen bullying.

The book opens with Kate being called to the school to pick up her teen daughter. Amelia has been suspended for cheating, something very uncharacteristic for her. Before Kate arrives, Amelia has fallen from the roof in an apparent suicide. In the weeks following, Kate makes it her mission to find out what really happened to her daughter.

I liked the alternating POVs (Amelia and Kate) and it made me especially connect with Amelia as a character. It was easy to see she was a good and smart girl who was manipulated by the people around her. Kate’s character was harder for me to connect with. She was really naïve as a mother and I also didn’t feel her grief over losing her daughter. Amelia is Kate’s entire world and I just didn’t feel her anguish over that being taken away.

As far as the mystery aspect, I thought it was well done. There were a few great twists that had me thrown. Some of the plot was predictable, but I still found it interesting how the author weaved all of the different pieces together to reconstruct what had happened to Amelia.

This was a good read that I’d recommend for anyone looking for a character driven suspense novel. This is the author’s debut and I think she did an excellent job.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this novel for review!

Review-One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf

Goodreads summary:

In her most emotionally charged novel to date, "New York Times" bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf explores the unspoken events that shape a community, the ties between parents and their children and how the fragile normalcy of our everyday life is so easily shattered. In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom. Outside the school, the town of Broken Branch watches and waits.

Officer Meg Barrett holds the responsibility for the town's children in her hands. Will Thwaite, reluctantly entrusted with the care of his two grandchildren by the daughter who left home years earlier, stands by helplessly and wonders if he has failed his child again. Trapped in her classroom, Evelyn Oliver watches for an opportunity to rescue the children in her care. And thirteen-year-old Augie Baker, already struggling with the aftermath of a terrible accident that has has brought her to Broken Branch, will risk her own safety to protect her little brother.

As tension mounts with each passing minute, the hidden fears and grudges of the small town are revealed as the people of Broken Branch race to uncover the identity of the stranger who holds their children hostage.

Publication Date: June 26, 2012


This book was a very intense read for me. I'm the type of person that can stay up late reading about ghosts, vampires, etc. without any problem. However, put a man with a gun in a school and I'm a complete mess. One Breath Away will definitely keep you reading and I liked many aspects of the story.

What I Liked: The suspense was there from the get go as you know an unknown man has entered a small town school with a gun. No one knows what he wants and I think the chaos that police feel during these situations make books like this captivating reads. I think Gudenkauf also did a great job at character development. In between each character's thoughts about the hostage situation at the school, you get to see tidbits of their past. It made me understand their motivations and lent believability to many of their actions. I also liked that although the threat seemed real, the author didn't use sensationalism as a way to draw readers into the novel.

What I Didn't Like: Readers may thrown off by the multiple points of view that the book is told from. It took me awhile to get into the book since I kept feeling thrown off kilter by so many characters. The mystery aspect of the novel fell short for me. I thought it was pretty obvious from early on who the shooter was. I feel this was from being thrown too many obvious false leads over the course of the novel.

Rating: Three out of five stars