Poison, by Galt Niederhoffer ~ 2.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Domestic, Dysfunctional Relationships, Psychological Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

320 Pages

Synopsis: Cass and Ryan Connor have achieved family nirvana. With three kids between them, a cat and a yard, a home they built and feathered, they seem to have the Modern Family dream. Their family, including Cass’ two children from previous relationships, has recently moved to Portland—-a new start for their new lives. Cass and Ryan have stable, successful careers, and they are happy. But trouble begins almost imperceptibly. First with small omissions and white lies that happen daily in any marital bedroom. They seem insignificant, but they are quickly followed by a series of denials and feints that mushroom and then cyclone in menace.

With life-or-death stakes and irreversible consequences, Poison is a chilling and irresistible reminder that the closest bond designed to protect and provide for each other and for children can change in a minute.

I really, REALLY hate it when everyone seems to love a book that I don’t. It makes me question myself and wonder “What am I missing?” Unfortunately, due to my intense frustration with the main character, Poison is one of those books.

The biggest problem I had was with Cass. I don’t mind unreliable characters. I actually like them because they can add some interesting twists as you don’t know what’s going on with them. Cass however, really got on my nerves. In my humble opinion, most of her actions were incredibly stupid and put not only herself, but her children at risk. I kept trying to put myself in her shoes. She thought she had the perfect marriage, only to find out that her husband Ryan, is hiding something behind his charming veneer. I can’t go into specifics without plunging into spoiler territory, but I spent a good part of the book mentally yelling “No! Stop! What are you doing? What’s wrong with you?!” Argh! It was so infuriating! 

Ryan is a little more interesting and while he did seem like the perfect husband and dad at the beginning, the author does a good job slowly turning him into a monster. I found myself getting anxious because you didn’t know what he was going to do next. And the children are absolutely adorable and what I liked the most about the book. 

The plot itself was a little slow to start, with lots and LOTS of detail about how perfect this family seemed to be, but once things got going, I couldn’t wait to see how everything would be resolved. Another thing that I liked was how Galt Niederhoffer makes some fantastic points on how women who report being victims of domestic abuse are treated by the police, hospitals, and the criminal justice system. Granted, Cass’ situation is a little unique, but there are some realistic flaws that are explored and I appreciated that. 

I found the ending to be rather abrupt and unsatisfying and it left me with more questions than not. When I got to the last page I thought “Wait. That can’t be it!”

Overall, Poison just wasn’t for me. But, the majority of reviewers are giving this 4 and 5 star reviews, so if you like psychological suspense, please give this a try for yourself. It’s not so much a whodunnit than a howdunnit, which has its own interesting aspects.

#GivingTuesday

For anyone who hasn’t heard of this don’t feel badly. It’s only been around since 2012. This annual holiday, which falls on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, was launched by the 92nd Street Y in New York City and the UN Foundation to encourage philanthropy and charitable giving on social media. There are now 98 countries that celebrate it.

These days it sometimes seems like social media is doing more harm than good. Whether it’s cyber-bullying or the dissemination of fake news, arguing over politics, or simply causing general malaise due to all the negative news out there—-#GivingTuesday is a perfect example of how social media can effect positive change. 

While big companies like Facebook and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are partnering up and having huge fundraisers through which you can donate: https://nonprofits.fb.com there are other simple ways you can contribute.

1. Donate to a local nonprofit. You can visit fundraising platform Razoo at  https://givingtuesday.razoo.com They have a database of nonprofits searchable by category and location. Puerto Rico is still in desperate need of help after being slammed by Hurricane Maria. If you visit https://hispanicfederation.org/unidos you’ll find they’ve made it very simple to donate starting at $15. The Red Cross is also still looking for hurricane relief so stop by their site at http://www.redcross.org If you’re going grocery shopping today, you’ll see the Salvation Army already has its bell ringers out. This is where I made my donation today. Since my husband and I are both disabled it wasn’t much, but they’re appreciative of any amount, no matter how small. You can even volunteer to be a Bell Ringer yourself at https://www.registertoring.com

2. This day isn’t just about cash donations. If you have a favorite cause or organization, call and see if they need any volunteers for the holiday season. You can pick up trash in a local park, walk dogs at an animal shelter, or read to seniors and children at your local library, find out if an elderly or disabled neighbor needs assistance. 

3. Spread the word about the importance of charitable giving and philanthropy via your social media accounts. Just in the US alone, approximately 80% of the adult population is on social media. You can share your philanthropic values as easily as posting a status update.

4. And finally, give back to the people in your life. If you can, reach out to friends and relatives who you may not have talked with in a while. See how they’re doing, tell them you love them. There’s a reason why suicides are so prevalent this time of year. Sometimes a person who’s in emotional or physical pain feel as though they’ve been forgotten. Let them know they matter.

It’s not how much we give but how much love we put in the giving.

~ Mother Teresa ~

And to all you wonderful bloggers, I’m sending you one of these:

Thank you for your kindness and generosity. You all make my life more meaningful!

The Whispering Room (Jane Hawk #2), by Dean Koontz ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Techno-Thriller

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

Release Date: Available Now

512 Pages

Synopsis: “No time to delay. Do what you were born to do. Fame will be yours when you do this.”

These are the words that ring in the mind of mild-mannered schoolteacher Cora Gundersun—-just before she takes her own life, and many others’, in a shocking act of carnage. When the disturbing contents of her secret journal are discovered, it seems certain that she must have been insane. But Jane Hawk knows better.

In the wake of her husband’s inexplicable suicide—-and the equally mysterious deaths of scores of other exemplary individuals—-Jane picks up the trail of a secret cabal of powerful players who think themselves above the law and beyond punishment. But these ruthless people bent on hijacking America’s future for their own monstrous ends never banked on a highly trained FBI agent willing to go rogue—-and become the nation’s most wanted fugitive—-in order to derail their insidious plans to gain absolute power with a terrifying technological breakthrough.

Driven by love for her lost husband and by fear for the five-year-old son she has sent into hiding, Jane Hawk has become an unstoppable predator. Those she is hunting will have nowhere to run when her shadow falls across them.

The Whispering Room is the sequel to last year’s The Silent Corner and while I didn’t think it was quite as good as its predecessor, I still enjoyed it and had a hard time putting it down.

It picks up exactly where the previous book left off. Jane is still on her quest to track down the insidious group behind the suicides and deaths of those they’ve deemed to be undesirable in the new world they’re  planning. There’s very little development in regards to Jane. She continues to be a kick-ass woman who’s been put in the impossible position of hiding her young son with friends, while she travels all over the country trying to track these monsters down. I still like her, but I found myself wishing for more from her than her leapfrogging from one dangerous situation to the next. 

There are plenty of secondary characters and quite a few of them stand out. My favorite is Sheriff Lucas Tillman and his family. I loved their chapters as much if not even more than Jane’s. Their story has some heartbreaking moments and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to them in the next book.

The plot itself is far-fetched yet somehow believable with all the new developments in nanotechnology. It’s a terrifying reminder of what scientific advances could be capable of in the hands of the wrong people. There’s a little more revealed about this conspiracy, but it’s obvious there’s much more to come. The ending has left me extremely curious as to where the next book will be headed.

Overall, The Whispering Room is a solid sequel in the Jane Hawk series. It has a quirky and interesting cast, some of whom will leave you laughing out loud. The pace is frenetically insane which makes it a quick read despite it being over 500 pages. If you’re a fan of Dean Koontz I don’t think you’ll be disappointed and if you’re new to him, this series is a great place to start. The Crooked Staircase is scheduled to be released in June of 2018, but I wish it was much sooner!

 

 

Thinking Aloud on a Sunday

“I lived my life as free of bigotry as I could. Because I chose to.” An incredibly powerful and honest post by Pete. Please check it out.

beetleypete

Racism and Bigotry

No idea why, but I woke up thinking about this today.

When I was young, I had never met a black person. I had seen them singing on TV, and by the age of 11, I owned many records recorded by black artists. Outside of some day trips to France, I had never been out of the UK, and my family circle did not include anyone who was not from a working-class, white English background. I took my lead from my parents, and believed what they told me, using the same terms they used, and holding the same opinions they did. I didn’t know any different. It was very common back then for black people to be called ‘Darkies’, though sometimes, the Yiddish/German name ‘Schwartzers’ would be used instead. Their well-dressed children would be admired, but referred to as ‘Piccaninnies’. There were few children of mixed race…

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Tags

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m taking the next few days off, but I wanted to wish everyone here in the U.S. a wonderful and joyous Thanksgiving.

I hope you all have a perfect day with your family and friends.

Eat tons of turkey, but make sure you leave plenty of room for pie!

IA: Union (IA #3), by John Darryl Winston ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Coming of Age Stories, Coping With Loss and Grief, Inner City Life, Relationships, Science Fiction, YA Fiction

 

Thanks to the author for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: November 24th, 2017

385 Pages

Synopsis: Naz races to put the pieces of his life together while D’s life hangs is the balance.

Naz has lost everyone that he loves. And while he may have found refuge and pause at International Academy, he has found no piece and certainly no answers. All that he knows calls to him from the streets of the Exclave and Union High School where he reunites with friends and mentors.

Naz struggles, unsuccessfully, to put the pieces of his shattered life back together again—-until D comes into his world and changes everything. She helps him put everything into perspective, sees things he couldn’t see before and helps him remember things he had all but forgotten.

But when D goes missing, it will take more than Naz’s newly found abilities to discover her whereabouts, rescue her, and bring her unlikely captor to justice. Will he reach her in time?

I was first introduced to young Naz, back in 2015, when John reached out to me on Goodreads and asked if I’d like to read and review his debut, IA: Initiate. I immediately fell in love with this young teen who had lost so much yet never stopped pushing forward. In IA B.O.S.S. Naz suffers from another devastating loss, and I was anxious as to how he was going to cope with this latest blow. IA: Union perfectly wraps up this trilogy with an action-packed story that also explores love, loss, and closure.

Naz is such an empathetic and relatable character. Because of the horrible things that have happened in his young life, he has been forced to grow up much too quickly. Yes he has special abilities that help him finally bring the villains to justice, but more importantly he has tremendous strength of character and moral integrity. That’s not to say he doesn’t stumble along the way. Struggling with self-doubt, he wants revenge for what’s been done to him and his family. Helping him though, are his friends, girlfriend and mentors who play an integral role in shaping Naz into the remarkable young man he becomes. 

While the story is set in the not too distant future, it also very similar to life in today’s inner cities. Society is not kind to under-privileged youth, especially ones like Naz, who have lost both parents. It’s a dark and gritty world where it’s difficult at times to know who to trust, including adults who seek to either control Naz and his abilities or destroy him. Yet there is hope here as well for new beginnings, especially at the end.

While IA: Union does an outstanding job at wrapping up Naz’s story, I’m going to have a difficult time saying goodbye. He is someone I feel like I personally know and I’ve watched him grow up.  John Darryl Winston teaches when he’s not creating incredible stories, and it’s obvious he knows his audience. From the first book to the last, Naz is someone teens will like, admire, and relate to. I enthusiastically recommend this book and the entire trilogy for teens ages 13 and up. As hard as it is for me to picture John writing another book not featuring Naz, I’m eagerly looking forward to his next venture. 

 

Bad Girls with Perfect Faces, by Lynn Weingarten ~ 3.5 Stars

Tags

Mystery, Social Issues, Suspense, Teen relationships, YA Fiction

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

Release Date: Available Now

320 Pages

Synopsis: Bad girls get it done.

Sasha’s all-time favorite person is her best friend Xavier. He’s smart, funny, and strange. He’s not just nice but kind. He’s endlessly forgiving, even when maybe he shouldn’t be.

So when Xavier lets his ex, Ivy, slither her way back into his life, Sasha knows she needs to protect him. And not just because she can’t stop thinking about the night she and Xavier shared a rum-soaked kiss. No, it’s because Ivy is poisonous. The last time they were together, Ivy cheated on Xavier and he just barely survived.

Sasha has a plan: pose online as a guy to seduce Ivy, proving that cheaters never change. But she soon learns to be careful who you pretend to be—because you can never truly know the darkness inside of someone. Including yourself.

Bad Girls With Perfect Faces is a solid mystery/ thriller that I think will have wide appeal. It’s dark, gritty and compelling, and although I had some trouble connecting with the characters, the plot kept me reading .

The narrative is told from multiple POVs and jumps between first, second, and third person. Ivy is your stereotypical mean girl, who really has nothing that makes her stand out from similar characters in other YA books. Xavier is an affable guy, but rather bland and completely clueless. Sasha is the most interesting character and I appreciated her complexity. She’s impulsive and a bit obsessive when it comes to her feeling about Xavier, yet there’s no doubt that she genuinely cares about him and wants to protect him.

The plot itself is dark and twisty, and went places I did not expect it to go. There’s plenty of twists and turns and while there was some foreshadowing as to the big revelation, the journey getting to that point was still an intriguing one.

Bad Girls With Pretty Faces is the first book I’ve read by Lynn Weingarten, and while I wish the characters had been developed a little more, I thought the story itself was original and entertaining. I think this would appeal to a wide audience. I would however recommend it to older teens as this covers sexual situations, drugs, alcohol and self-harm. I’m definitely planning on checking out future books by this author.

 

Blog Tour: Watching Glass Shatter, by James J. Cudney ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Family Relationships, LGBT, Mystery, Substance Abuse

Thanks to James Cudney for including me in this blog tour and providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher: Creativia

Release Date: Available Now

278 Pages

Synopsis: The wealthy Glass family lost its patriarch, Benjamin Glass, sooner than expected. Benjamin’s widow, Olivia, and her 5 sons each react to his death in their own way while preparing for the reading of his will. Olivia receives an unexpected confession from her late husband about one of their sons that could shatter the whole family.

Prior to revealing the secret to her children, Olivia must figure out which boy Ben refers to in the confession he left her in his will. While the family attorney searches for the mysterious Rowena Hector whom Ben says holds all the answers, Olivia asks her sons to each spend spend a week with her as she isn’t ready to let go of the past. When Olivia visits her sons, she quickly learns that each one has been keeping his own secret from her. Olivia never expected her remaining years would be so complex and life-altering, but she will not rest until her family is reunited after Ben’s untimely death.

We all need family. We all want to fit in. We’re all a mix of quirky personalities. Will Olivia be able to fix them or will the whole family implode? What will she do when she discovers the son behind Ben’s secret? Check out this ensemble cast where each family member’s perspective is center stage, discovering along the way who might feel the biggest impact from all the secrets. Welcome to being an honorary member of the Glass family.

I think I’ve said before that I’m always a little anxious reviewing another blogger’s book because I hate even the idea of having to give a poor review to someone I’ve gotten to know through the WordPress community. But when Jay, one of my favorite bloggers, announced that his book Watching Glass Shatter, had been picked up by a publisher, I was thrilled and unhesitatingly asked if I could be part of the blog tour. I purposely waited to read it until a few days before I was due to write this post. Last Thursday night I picked it up thinking I’d read for a couple of hours before bed. Four hours and half a Kleenex box later I had finished it and my first thought was: “THIS is a debut?”

Starting with the Glass family patriarch Ben, the story is then picked up by his widow Olivia and her four sons: Ethan, Caleb, Matt, Zachary, and Teddy. With such a large cast of characters and a relatively short length, the personalities of the Glass family very easily could have been under-developed and confusing, but instead they literally leapt off the page. I have to admit at the beginning I thoroughly disliked Olivia. She’s judgemental, interfering and self-involved, but as she spends time with each of her sons and discovers the secrets each of them hides, she realizes that her family isn’t as picture perfect as she thought and that she may have played a role in this. She’s a very complex character and while I still didn’t really like her at the end, I did appreciate her more as she evolved and became a little more kind and empathetic.

Ethan, Caleb and Olivia’s underappreciated yet loyal sister Diane, are without a doubt my favorite characters out of everyone, but interestingly, although I had some issues with Zachary, Teddy and Matt, I wound up having a lot of sympathy for them as well. They’re richly drawn and realistically written, and by the end of the book they’ve all recognized their shortcomings and have taken the first steps to correct them. 

Equal to the character development is the multi-layered plot. Beginning with the secret that Ben kept from Olivia, this theme is continued throughout the book. While each son’s story is unique, the parts of themselves that they’re hiding effect the rest of the family. At the end, while some are further along the road to self-enlightenment and recovery than others, the family unit as a whole is so much closer. While I already had guessed how the actual mystery stemming from Ben’s confession was going be concluded, when the revelation came near the end of the book I was so involved with this flawed family, I didn’t mind the lack of surprise. Indeed, it lent even more poignancy to this already compelling tale.

Watching Glass Shatter is a family drama filled with love, humor and tragedy. It elicited strong emotions in me and I found myself laughing and crying multiple times as I was reading. And, that to me is the true strength of this novel. There is so much emotional havoc, yet I never once felt it was over the top. Instead, all the drama drew me that much closer to the family, even with characters I didn’t care for in the beginning. I absolutely loved Jay’s debut from start to finish and I truly can’t recommend it highly enough. Jay writes with the talent of a seasoned author, so I’m excited to see what he comes out with next.  And, as I’m not ready to say goodbye to the Glass family, I’m thrilled that he’s planning to revisit them in the near future! 

There’s a Goodreads Giveaway until November 30th! Check it out at: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/263554-watching-glass-shatter 

Watching Glass Shatter is also available to purchase on Amazon. http://mybook.to/WGS

About the Author:

James is my given name; most call me Jay. I grew up on Long Island and currently live in New York City, but I’ve traveled all across the US (and various part of the world). After college I spent 15 years working in technology and business operations in the sports, entertainment and media industries. Although I enjoyed my job, I left in 2016 to focus on my passion: telling stories and connecting people through words. My debut novel is “Watching Glass Shatter”, a contemporary family drama with elements of mystery, suspense, humor and romance. To see samples or receive news from my current and upcoming books please subscribe with your email address at my website: https://jamesjcudney.com

What do I do outside of writing: I’m an avid genealogist (discovered 2K family members going back about 250 years) and cook (I find it so hard to follow a recipe). I love to read; between Goodreads and my blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com I have over 500 book reviews which will give you a full flavor for my voice and style. On my blog I started the 365 day challenge, where I post a word each day that has some meaning to me, then converse with everyone about life. There is humor, tears, love, friendship, advice and bloopers. Lots of bloopers where I make fun of myself all the time. Even my dog has a weekly segment called “Ryder’s Rants” where he complains about me. All these things make up who I am; none of them very fancy or magnanimous, but they are real and show how I live every day.

A bit of humor: Everything as something else when you live in NYC. For me, it’s the dining room, my favorite space in the apartment, where more than my cooking is on display! As I look out the windows onto the 12th floor terrace, various parts of nature (trees, bushes, flowers, bogs & animals) inspire me to write. Ryder, my 10-year-old shiba inu, usually lays on my feet, growling when I shift position too many times or when I forget to share my food! And although he’s only 20 pounds, he’s quite strong and pushy. But how else do you pen the best story possible without these things by your side?

You can also visit Jay at:

Goodreads ~ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17128817.James_J_Cudney

Twitter ~ https://mobile.twitter.com/jamescudney4

Instagram ~ https://www.instagram.com/jamescudney4/

There’s also a wonderful interview with Jay on Artist First ~ 

http://www.artistfirst2.com/Authors-First_2017-11-14_James_Cudney.mp3

And finally, please check out some of these other fantastic bloggers who have participated in this blog tour. You’ll find more great reviews, interesting Q&As with Jay and even an awesome poll on who should play the characters if this gets optioned for film (which it totally should!)

 

Lovely Literary Lines

Tags

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith, Inspirational quotes, Lovely Literary Lines

‘Dear God’, she prayed, ‘let me be something every minute of every hour of my life.’

Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Disturbed, by Jennifer Jayne ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Thrillers, Serial Killers, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer 

Release Date: Available Now

238 Pages

Synopsis: On Halloween night five years ago, Chelsea Dutton’s college roommates were viciously stabbed to death, and Chelsea was critically injured. She was found hiding in her apartment’s bathtub, barely clinging to life.

With only fragments of shattered memory, she’s been trying her best to move past the nightmares ever since. Now in Boston, she lives a somewhat reclusive life, working from home as a medical transcriptionist and binging on mindless television shows. 

She can’t shake the fear that her attacker is out there, waiting to finish what he started, and Elizabeth, a nurse she met after the murders, is the only person she can trust.

When someone from her past re-emerges, Chelsea starts receiving disturbing messages and worries that her every move is being watched. As the messages mount and her memories begin to return, she’s led to a terrifying and lonely place. But she needn’t be afraid. She won’t be there very long.

Jennifer Jaynes has established a well-respected reputation for writing creepy and chilling tales, and Disturbed is no different. It’s chock full of suspense and it kept me mesmerized right up until the very last page.

Chelsea is a complicated and unreliable character. Suffering from amnesia due to the traumatic events of that Halloween night five years ago, she’s moved to Boston and has carved out a fairly nice life for herself working from home as a medical transcriptionist. But she’s still haunted by her lost memories and occasional nightmarish flashbacks. Thankfully, she has her supportive best friend, Elizabeth, to lean on. After a chance meeting with someone from her past, makes it obvious that the murderer is not done with Chelsea, her life quickly begins to spiral out of control.

While Chelsea doesn’t always make the best decisions, I was sympathetic toward her right up until the end. Her fears that the killer isn’t finished with her are palpable and I was completely invested in her even during the couple of occasions I wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her. 

There’s a huge twist near the end, but I had already grown suspicious toward the character it involved about halfway through the story. That said, I wasn’t entirely sure, so when the revelation came it was still a bit of an “aha!” moment. The story concludes with an open ending and to be honest a couple of days after finishing,  I’m still not sure if I loved it or hated it.

Disturbed certainly lives up to its title and fans of Jennifer Jaynes will not be disappointed by this latest book. If you’re new to her writing and love chilling psychological thrillers, filled with unreliable characters, then I highly recommend this. It’s a twisted tale that can easily be read in 1-2 sittings, and it’s one that will leave you at the edge of your seat!