Unfollow Me, by Charlotte Duckworth ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Social Media, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 10th, 2020

352 Pages

Synopsis: 

You Can’t Stop Watching Her.

Violet Young is a hugely popular journalist turned-mummy-vlogger, with three young children, a successful husband, and a million subscribers on YouTube who tune in daily to watch her everyday life unfold.

Until the day she’s no longer there.

But one day she disappears from the online world—her total social media presence deleted overnight, with no explanation. Has she simply decided that baring her life to all online is no longer a good idea, or has something more sinister happened to her?

But do you really know who Violet is?

Told from the perspectives of her most avid fans, obsessed with finding out the truth, their search quickly reveals a web of lies, betrayal, and shocking consequences…

With the exception of WordPress I’ve made a point to stay off social media including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. While I acknowledge that they can bring people together who are separated by long distances, I also believe that social media often brings out the worst in people in terms of mean spiritedness and obsessive over sharing. Unfollow Me addresses both of these and underneath the entertaining plot is a very real cautionary tale.

The story unfolds through the perspectives of three characters who are all pretty murky and unreliable. At the beginning they seem separate except for their shared connections through Violet, but then things turn into a truly wild and crazy roller coaster ride filled with so many twists I found myself gasping out loud more than once.

While the main mystery concerns what happened to Violet, there are smaller ones pertaining to the other characters, and they all kept me guessing right up until the end. Because of this and the book’s fast pace, I literally was unable to put this down and finished it in one sitting.

Unfollow Me is a fantastic thrill ride filled with damaged characters who you can’t help but feel sympathy for. I HIGHLY recommend this for anyone looking for an engrossing psychological thriller that addresses real life issues.

 

Dead to Her, by Sarah Pinborough ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, LGBTQ, Mystery, Suspense

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

Release Date: February 11th 2020

400 Pages

Synopsis: Being the second wife can be murder…

”Once a cheat, always a cheat,” they say. Marcie Maddox has worked hard to get where she is after the illicit affair that started her new life a few years ago. But her world of country clubs, yachts, and sumptuous houses in Savannah, Georgia, isn’t easy to maintain, no matter how hard she tries. Nor is keeping her husband, Jason, truly interested. So, when Jason’s boss brings home a hot new wife, from his trip to London, the young Mrs. William Radford IV isn’t quite the souvenir everyone expected. Sexy, drop-dead gorgeous and black—Keisha quickly usurps Marcie’s place as the beautiful second wife. But when Marcie sees the extra spark in the room when Keisha and Jason are together and their obvious magnetic attraction, the gloves come off.

Revenge is best served cold, but in the steamy Savannah heat, blood runs so hot that this summer, it might just boil over into murder.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive. ~ Sir Walter Scott

By the time I was halfway through Dead to Her, I thought I had everything figured out, but as this is by Sarah Pinborough, I really should have known better. This story is filled with a plethora of twists, unreliable characters with unknown motivations, and a juicy ending that caught me completely by surprise. Lies, secrets, and betrayals are all set against the steamy backdrop of Savannah. And underneath the backstabbing drama is an interesting exploration of race and white privilege, with a little voodoo thrown in. It’s all a bit crazy and unrealistic, but where in less skillful hands, this easily could have been a hot mess, Pinborough as always, adeptly juggles her numerous murky characters with a myriad of flavorful plot elements. Fans of the author will not be disappointed in Dead to Her and I guarantee that this will appeal to a wide audience of new readers as well.

 

 

The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Horror, Native Americans, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: May 19th, 2020

320 Pages

Synopsis: Peter Straub’s “Ghost Story” meets Liane Moriarty’s “Big Little Lies” in this American Indian horror story of revenge on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Four American Indian men from the Blackfeet Nation, who were childhood friends, find themselves in a desperate struggle for their lives, against an entity that wants to exact revenge upon them for what they did during an elk hunt ten years earlier by killing them, their families, and friends.

Entertainment Weekly recently asked if award winning author Stephen Graham  Jones could be the Jordan Peel of literary horror, and after finishing The Only Good Indians in less than three hours, my answer is a resounding “Yes!”

I’m going to start out by saying I’m not a fan of hunting. However, I don’t judge people who do, except for those who just kill for trophies to hang on their walls. In this overwhelmingly suspenseful story, four friends pay for what they did a decade previously during a bloody elk hunt. They immediately lose the right to hunt on reservation land, but there’s a future price that they never could have conceived of that will not only cost them, but everyone they love and care about. The first few chapters nicely sets up what’s to come as the readers are introduced to the four men and the people in their lives. It doesn’t take long for the horror elements to come into play and some of the scenes are just gory enough that they may be difficult for some readers, especially those who are animal lovers.

One of the things that made me feel so empathetic toward these characters is that they’re not indifferent to the suffering they caused during the elk hunt, and they know they crossed the line. When vengeance/justice comes for them years later, it’s almost as though they’re expecting it, which broke my heart a bit. Just as it did for the entity that hunts them as it too suffered unimaginable loss. At the end, there are no real villains here.

The Only Good Indians is a literary horror tour de force that will have you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Jones masterfully blends horror, suspense, Native American life, and biting social commentary into a beautifully crafted tale that’s storytelling at its best. If Hollywood doesn’t scoop this up I will be shocked. This isn’t out until May 2020, but horror fans should add this to their calendars now because I predict it will be one of the most talked about books of next year.

 

 

The Chill, by Scott Carson ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Historical Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Fiction, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: February 11th, 2020

384 Pages

Synopsis: In this terrifying thriller, a supernatural force—set in motion a century ago—threatens to devastate New York City.

Far upstate, in New York’s ancient forests, a drowned village lays beneath the dark, still waters of the Chilewaukee reservoir. Earlier in the 20th century, the town was destroyed for the greater good: bringing water to the millions living downstate. Or at least that’s what the politicians from Manhattan insisted at the time. The local families, settled there since America’s founding, were forced from their land, but they didn’t move far, and some didn’t move at all…

 Now, a century later, the repercussions of human arrogance are finally making themselves known. An inspector assigned to oversee the dam, dangerously neglected for decades, witnesses something inexplicable. It turns out that more than the village was left behind in the waters of the Chill when it was abandoned. The townspeople didn’t evacuate without a fight. A dark prophecy remained, too, and the time has come for it to be fulfilled. Those who remember must ask themselves: who will be next? For sacrifices must be made. And as the dark waters begin to inexorably rise, the demand for a fresh sacrifice rises from the deep…

The Chill by Scott Carson (a pseudonym from a bestselling author), is a slow burning horror tale that gives an interesting twist to real life “drowned communities.”

I was interested in this story initially because I grew up a fairly short distance from the Quabbin Reservoir in MA and remembered my dad telling me stories of the communities displaced in order to form the largest body of water in the state. What I loved about this fictional story is the empathetic and thoughtful exploration of the sacrifice demanded of inhabitants of these towns and farms. This is a character-driven story which follows multiple people who are fully fleshed out and add interesting layers to the complex plot.

The story itself is slow at times due to the insertion of a plethora of technical details concerning dam construction and water tunnels, but the tension-building suspense nonetheless kept my attention until the very last page. Overall, The Chill is a perfect example of storytelling that may not be action-packed, still packs an emotional punch. It’s also a timely reminder of humanity’s tendency toward embracing baser instincts such as greed and outright stupidity, something I believe will resonate with many readers. I highly recommend this to fans of Michael Koryta.

 

Chosen (Slayer #2), by Kiersten White ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

LGBTQ, Supernatural, Suspense, YA Fiction

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

Release Date: January 7th, 2020

368 Pages

Synopsis: Now that Nina’s has turned the Watcher’s Castle into a utopia for hurt and lonely demons, she’s still waiting for the utopia part to kick in. With her sister Artemis gone and only a few people remaining at the castle—including her still distant mother—Nina has her hands full. Plus, though she gained back her Slayer powers from Leo, they’re not feeling quite right after being held by the seriously evil succubus Eve a.k.a. fake Watcher’s Council member and Leo’s mom.

And while Nina is dealing with the darkness inside, there’s also a new threat on the outside, portended by an odd triangle symbol that seems to be popping up everywhere, in connection with Sean’s demon drug ring as well as someone a bit closer to home. Because one near-apocalypse just isn’t enough, right?

The darkness always finds you. And once again it’s coming for the Slayer.

Being a Buffy fan there was no doubt I was going to have to read Kiersten White’s take on the vampire slayer universe. While Chosen got off to a somewhat slow start, overall it was an enjoyable follow up to Slayer.

Nina grows quite a bit as she struggles not only with her new Slayer role and all the responsibilities that come with it, but also with her personal relationships. She is someone worth rooting for. In addition to Nina and the other original characters, White also seamlessly includes a few cameos from Buffy fan favorites that will thrill devotees of the tv series.

The plot itself, after the first few chapters, picks up its pace and is helped along by some thrilling fight scenes. There’s also some levity now and then to lighten things up. The ending however, left me with mixed feelings. This will be a *SPOILER* because there’s no way to no other way to discuss it, so be warned! I was under the impression that this was going to be at least a trilogy. And right up until the epilogue, I still thought this. Well, apparently this is now a duology, and I personally feel a bit let down. It’s not that the ending was unsatisfying, not really. It’s just that I think White could have taken her characters farther. But, it is a writer’s prerogative to do what they wish with their stories, so I suppose I can’t quibble too much.

Overall, Chosen is a satisfying conclusion to the Slayer duology and both books should be must reads for any Buffy fan. It’s obvious the love that Kiersten White has for the original tv series and she’s done a wonderful job building upon that world, mythology, and characters.

 

 

 

 

Of Curses and Kisses (St. Rosetta’s Academy #1), by Sandhya Menon ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Diversity, Fairytale Retellings, Mystery, Suspense, YA Fiction

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

Release Date: February 18th, 2020

384 Pages

Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling author of “When Dimple Met Rishi,” comes the first novel in a brand-news series set at an elite boarding school, that’s a contemporary spin of Beauty and the Beast.

Will the princess save the beast?

For princess Jaya Rao, nothing is more important than family. When the loathsome Emerson clan steps up their centuries-old feud to target Jaya’s little sister, nothing will keep Jaya from exacting her revenge. Then Jaya finds out that she’ll be attending the same elite boarding school as Grey Emerson, and it feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. She knows what she must do: Make Grey fall in love with her and break his heart. But much to Jaya’s annoyance, Grey’s brooding demeanor and lupine blue eyes have drawn in. There’s simply no way she and her sworn enemy could find their fairy-tale ending…right?

His Lordship Grey Emerson is a misanthrope. Thanks to an ancient curse from a Rao matriarch, Grey knows he’s doomed when he turns eighteen. Sequestered away in the mountains at St. Rosetta’s International Academy, he’s led an isolated existence—until Jaya Rao bursts into his life, but he can’t shake the feeling that she’s hiding something. Something that might just have to do with the rose-shaped ruby pendant around her neck…

As the stars conspire to keep them apart, Jaya and Grey grapple with questions of love, loyalty, and whether it’s possible to write your own happy ending.

I love contemporary retellings of classic fairytales so when I saw Of Curses and Kisses, by Sandhya Menon on NetGalley, I just had to request it. Except for a couple of issues, this modernization of Beauty and the Beast kept me thoroughly entertained.

I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m a sucker fo fairytale retellings. And you probably won’t be surprised that one of my favorite fairytales is Beauty and the Beast. So when I saw Of Curses and Kisses on NetGalley I knew I had to request it even though I wasn’t thrilled with the title (love the cover though!) 

After a somewhat slow start during the first 40 pages or so, I found myself completely captivated by this modern day version of the beloved classic. I’ve seen other reviewers complain about Jaya, saying she’s cold and standoffish. Which to be honest, she is, at least at first. But I completely understood why. This is the oldest daughter of an Indian royal family, and as such, has had numerous weighty expectations on her shoulders all of her life. But balancing this is her close relationship with her younger sister Isha, and her protectiveness toward her is both irritating and touching. And speaking of Isha, she’s actually my favorite character in this story. At fifteen-years-old, she’s been shamed in Indian society and the media for a mysterious incident that isn’t actually revealed until you’re several chapters in. Unsurprisingly, the “scandal” is completely overblown, and the fact that Isha is a sweet, innocent girl with a sunny disposition, makes this even more hurtful. I also love her determination to become an engineer despite her family and just about everyone else frowning upon this. Grey is also a wonderful character whose backstory will tug at your heartstrings. In addition to the curse hanging over his head, he’s been neglected his entire life by an uncaring father who irrationally blames him for his mother dying in childbirth. The relationship between him and Jaya starts out rocky, but it progressively develops into a lovely romance.

The story itself, despite being a retelling, is creative and original. For example, Menon turns the rose that slowly loses its petals into an exquisite rose-shaped pendant whose rubies begin to fall out one by one as Grey’s eighteenth birthday approaches. Yes there are nods to the original fairytale as well as the Disney adaptation, but there are many unique twists and although I was pretty certain Jaya and Grey would attain their happy ending, I was kept guessing as to how things would unfold.

I HIGHLY recommend Of Curses and Kisses to anyone who loves imaginative fairytales retellings with plenty of diversity and complex characters. I have no idea what the next book in the St. Rosetta’s Academy series will entail, but after this magical beginning I can’t wait to find out!

 

 

 

The Deep, by Alma Katsu ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Historical Fiction, LGBTQ, Mystery, Paranormal Fiction, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 10th, 2020

432 Pages

Synopsis: From the acclaimed and award winning author of “The Hunger” comes an eerie, psychological twist on one of the world’s most renowned tragedies, the sinking of the Titanic and the ill-fated sail of her sister ship, the a Britannic.

Someone, or something, is haunting the ship. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the passengers of the Titanic from the moment they set sail. The Titanic’s passengers expected to enjoy an experience befitting the much-heralded ship’s maiden voyage, but instead, amid mysterious disappearances and sudden deaths, find themselves in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone. While some of the guests and crew shrug off strange occurrences, several—including maid Annie Hebbley, guest Mark Fletcher, and millionaires Madeline Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim—are convinced there’s something more sinister going on. And then disaster strikes.

Years later, Annie, having survived that fateful night, has attempted to put her life back together by going to work as a nurse on the sixth sailing of the Britannic, newly refitted as a hospital ship to support British forces fighting World War I. When she happens across an unconscious Mark, now a soldier, she is at first thrilled and relieved to learn that he too survived the tragic night four years earlier. But soon his presence awakens deep-buried feelings and secrets forcing her to reckon with the demons of her past—as they both discover that the terror may not be over.

Featuring an ensemble cast of characters and effortlessly combining the supernatural with the height of historical disaster, The Deep is an exploration of love and destiny, desire and innocence, and, above all, a quest to understand how our choices can lead us inexorably toward our doom.

I loved Alma Katsu’s previous book, The Hunger which was centered around the Donner party, so I was quite excited to see what her take on the Titanic and the Britannic disasters. With The Deep, Katsu once again takes historical tragedies and skillfully blends them with the supernatural.

The story shifts between the two time periods leading up to the twin tragedies, and while it’s told from multiple viewpoints, the main character that forms a connection between both events is mysterious Annie Hubbley. What adds even more fun to this tale though are some of the real life characters that you get to see like Madeline Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim. And best of all is the inclusion of Violet Jessop, who actually did live through the sinking of both ships, as well as a previous collision between the RMS Olympic and the HMS Hawke. While Violet, who’s portrayed as Annie’s friend, has a relatively minor role here, her real life story is fascinating.

Katsu subtly weaves in supernatural layers to the suspenseful events leading up to both disasters. It makes for a chilling and goosebumps-inducing read that I found impossible to put down. I have to be honest and say I did find the ending a tad anticlimactic, but this is a relatively minor complaint.

Overall, The Deep, will further cement Katsu’s reputation as a storyteller extraordinaire. She’s a refreshing voice in the genres of historical and paranormal fiction, and I can’t wait to see what she writes about next!

 

 

 

Deadly Little Scandals (Debutantes #2), by Jennifer Lynn Barnes ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

Dysfunctional Families, Mystery, Suspense, YA Fiction

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

Release Date: November 5th, 2019

352 Pages

Synopsis: “Think of the White Gloves like the Junior League—by way of Skull and Bones…”

Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret. When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite and all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group’s ranks may have the answers she’s looking for. Things are looking up…until Sawyer and the White Gloves make a disturbing discovery near the family’s summer home—and uncover a twisted secret, decades in the making. No one is quite who they seem to be in this twisty, soapy, gasp-inducing sequel to Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ unputdownable Little White Lies.

Deadly Little Scandals is the sequel to Dirty Little Secrets, and the spellbinding conclusion to Barnes’ Debutantes duology. While I didn’t like these quite as much as her The Fixer duology, (I’m still longing for a third book), Debutantes is filled with all the excitement, humor, suspense and quirky characters the author is known for. What prevented me from giving this a perfect 5 star rating is that Barnes throws a little too much into the mix, giving this a confusing frenetic quality, especially in the second half of the book. I found myself having to re-read certain passages detailing the myriad of convoluted secret family ties, because I just couldn’t keep everyone straight. That said, I absolutely loved the characters, and because of this I was on tenterhooks to find out what happens, right up until the satisfying conclusion. Barnes can always be counted on for providing shocking twists, and she did not disappoint here. There were quite a few surprises which completely blew me away. Overall, Deadly Little Scandals is a slightly messy, yet still enjoyable thrill ride that I recommend to anyone looking for a unputdownable book in the same vein as Pretty Little Liars. You definitely need to read the previous book first though because otherwise you will be left floundering.

The Dead Girls Club, by Damien Angelica Walters ~ 3.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Child Abuse, Mystery, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: December 10th, 2019

288 Pages

Synopsis: A supernatural thriller in the vein of  “A Head Full of Ghosts” about two young girls, a scary story that becomes all too real, and the tragic—and terrifying—consequences that follow one of them into adulthood.

Red Lady, Red Lady, show us your face…

In 1991, Heather Cole and her friends were members of the Dead Girls Club. Obsessed with the macabre, the girls exchanged stories about serial killers and monsters, like the Red Lady, the spirit of a vengeful witch killed centuries before. Heather knew the stories were just that, until her best friend Becca began insisting the Red Lady was real—and she could prove it.

That belief got Becca killed.

It’s been nearly thirty years, but Heather has never told anyone what really happened that night—that Becca was right and the Red Lady was real. She’s done her best to put that fateful summer, Becca and the Red Lady behind her. Until a familiar necklace arrives in the mail, a necklace Heather hasn’t seen since the night Becca died.

The night Heather killed her.

Now, someone else knows what she did…and they’re determined to make a Heather pay.

There were two things about The Dead Girls Club that initially caught my attention. First, there’s that gorgeous cover. Second, there’s the comparison to Paul Tremblay’s mind-bending A Head Full of Ghosts. Now that I’ve finished I can say I still love the cover, and I think the story is decent, however it has me wishing yet again that publishers would stop comparing upcoming books to previous bestsellers, and simply let them stand on their own merits.

This is a story told in two different time periods: the present, and the early 1990s. I found myself liking the tween Heather much more than the adult one. I’m all for unreliable characters who keep you guessing, but Heather’s actions, both professionally and in her personal life, did nothing to make me feel sympathetic to her plight. The two characters I felt for the most were her husband and best friend who were very supportive, and gave her increasingly unhinged behavior wide latitude. 

What saved this story for me were the chapters set in the past, and which detailed the close friendship between Heather and Becca, as well as its slow fragmentation. When it’s finally revealed what happened the night of Becca’s death, I was empathetic toward both girls, although I don’t think their actions were entirely believable.

The final few chapters contain a few surprises, and there’s an awesome fight scene between Heather and her tormentor. The ending has left me a little conflicted, and two days after I finished, I’m still not sure whether I liked it or not. But on the other hand, the fact that I’m still thinking about it is a plus.

For me, The Dead Girls Club wasn’t perfect, but it was a quick read that I easily finished in two sittings. The actual mystery behind Becca’s death kept me guessing, and even when the adult Heather was annoying the heck out of me, there was no way I was not finishing the book until I knew what happened. I’d recommend this to readers who enjoy twisty mysteries with unreliable main characters. In particular, I think fans of authors like Gillian French, Paula Hawkins and Ruth Ware will enjoy this.

 

The Last to Die, by Kelly Garrett ~ 3.0 Stars

Tags

Contemporary Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, YA Fiction

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

Release Date: November 5th, 2019

205 Pages

Synopsis: It all started out as a game.

Just a way to have fun. We figured as long as we had rules, it wouldn’t be a problem.

 Rule #1: Only break into one another’s houses.

Rule #2: Only take stuff that can be replaced.

It worked for a while. Whoever’s turn it was to break in got a rush, and the rest of us got a laugh over the trophies they brought back. But then someone went too far. Lives got ruined. Someone is dead.

And I might be next.

The Last to Die is one of those books that I dread reviewing because while it’s not a stellar read, neither is it so horrible that I can vent by ranting. No, it falls somewhere in the middle and has me feeling a bit frustrated.

My first issue is with the characters who I couldn’t relate to at all. I know what you’re thinking. “But Kim. These are teens and aren’t you in your 50s?” Okay. First, thanks for the reminder of my advancing years. Second, as most of you know I read and review a fair few of YA novels and there have been plenty where I related to the characters. With this story I tried. I really, really, REALLY tried. But alas, despite my best efforts I couldn’t sum up any strong feelings toward these teens except for extreme dislike. Harper and the others are cookie cutter characters who display the worst personality traits that many adults attribute to teenagers. While I don’t have to like a character(s) to enjoy a book, these are completely bland and shallow with no intriguing layers or depths to them. There is one exception and that’s Harper’s younger sister Maggie, who’s deaf. I loved her, but unfortunately she’s a minor character. 

I did find the plot interesting, which is what saved the book for me. The mystery is a tad predictable, as is the final outcome, but I still enjoyed the way events unfolded. The pacing is consistently fast and this coupled with the book’s short length, makes this an easy and quick read.

Overall, I don’t think The Last to Die quite lived up to its potential. However, this is the debut by author Kelly Garrett, and I did enjoy it enough that I will most likely check out her next book.