R.I.P. Al Jarreau “Acrobat of Scat” ~ March 12, 1940 – February 12, 2017

Tags

Inspirational quotes, Music Icons, RIP Al Jarreau

These songs are old friends I have entertained myself with when I’m washing the dishes, driving to the store, and walking down the aisles. The ones that you sing when you’re driving in a car and as a singer you always go back to them.

🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼

Once you discover you can, than you must. And it’s not easy. You have to take direct steps. You really have to count your blessings and you have to make a decided effort to not get seduced by the blues.

Blink ~ By K.L. Slater – 4.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Psychological Thrillers, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: February 16th, 2017

295 Pages

Synopsis: What if the person you love most in the world was in terrible danger…because of you?

Three years ago, Toni’s five-year-old daughter Evie disappeared after leaving school. The police have never been able to find her. There were no witnesses, no CCTV, no trace.

But Toni believes her daughter is still alive. And as she begins to silently piece together her memories, the full story of the past begins to reveal itself, and a devastating truth.

Toni’s mind is trapped in a world of silence, her only chance to save herself is to manage the impossible. She must find a way to make herself heard. She must find her daughter.

Blink is another much talked about book and while I personally didn’t feel like it quite lived up to the hype, I still thought it was a pretty solid thriller. Part of the problem was that I couldn’t really connect with any of the characters and worse, I was really annoyed with Toni until the latter half of the story, when she somewhat redeemed herself in my eyes. She’s coping with the death of her soldier husband, by abusing a medication of his that she still has refills on. I can emphasize with her need to try to manage her depression and anxiety. What I didn’t like was that because she chose to self-medicate, her daughter’s safety was put in jeopardy multiple times and that was well before her disappearance. And as far as the other characters, none of them come across particularly well, and the majority of them were one-dimensional. The upside of this, is that there’s no end of possible suspects. The suspense is constant and is cleverly built up in part by the chapters alternating between “Three Years Earlier” and “Present Day”. You see with mounting dread, the events leading up to Evie’s kidnapping. Misdirection is the central theme of this book, and not just in regards to who the actual kidnapper is. This is one of those books that by the time you’ve reached the end you feel as though you have whiplash. I have to be honest and say that I did guess who the main villain was going to turn out to be, before I was halfway through the book, but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment any. Although I had my issues with characters, with its clever storyline and liberal use of smoke and mirrors, Blink will keep you glued to its pages right up until the very end.