Category: suspense

book review · crime · psychological thriller · suspense

The Last Time I Lied By Riley Sager {ARC Review}

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Goodreads Blurb:

Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she–or anyone–saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings–massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends.

Yet it’s immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp’s twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present.

And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.

My Review:

I was excited to read this book since I recently read Sager’s previous book Final Girls which I thoroughly enjoyed.

This story takes place in the past and the present which I find enjoyable in thrillers where you know something has happened but you don’t know exactly what it is. It helps build the tension. Emma is the main character in the novel and you get a feeling that she has more to do with what happened to her friends fifteen years ago, you just don’t know how much. The story is filled with so many lies, that it is hard to keep up with who may or may not be innocent. One thing for sure is that everything is not what it seems and just when you think you have the story figured out, it takes a turn on you.

This story had me so intrigued that I stayed up all night to finish it especially after I realized that I did not have the story figured out. I liked the overall story and plot development. This is a thriller that shows the vindictiveness that people, most importantly woman, have underneath their veneer. They are just sometimes too able to camouflage. This factor definitely played a good part in this novel.

I enjoyed how the novel ended although it wasn’t just a closed door type of ending. It has the type of ending that literally leaves you wanting more but are still satisfied with the outcome.

I received this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating:

4 Stars

Availability:

This book is available in hardcover, ebook, and audio

book review · books · crime · psychological thriller · suspense

Our Little Secret by Roz Nay {Review}

Kala2 Comments

Well, finally I am back in the blogging seat. It has been long enough. Thank you for sticking with me. Today’s book was a surprise ARC in the mail from the publisher. I love getting those. I am much better at keeping up with them than the ebook ARCs, lol. I hope that you find my review informative. Have an awesome weekend!!!!

Goodreads Blurb:

They say you never forget your first love. What they don’t say though, is that sometimes your first love won’t forget you…

A police interview room is the last place Angela expected to find herself today. It’s been hours, and they keep asking her the same inane questions over and over. “How do you know the victim?” “What’s your relationship with Mr. Parker?” Her ex’s wife has gone missing, and anyone who was close to the couple is a suspect. Angela is tired of the bottomless questions and tired of the cold room that stays the same while a rotating litany of interrogators changes shifts around her. But when criminologist Novak takes over, she can tell he’s not like the others. He’s ready to listen, and she knows he’ll understand. When she tells him that her story begins a decade before, long before Saskia was in the picture, he gives her the floor.

A twenty-something young professional, Angela claims to have no involvement. How could she? It’s been years since she and H.P., Mr. Parker that is, were together. As her story unfolds, it deepens and darkens. There’s a lot to unpack… betrayal, jealousy, and a group of people who all have motives for retribution. If Angela is telling the truth, then who’s lying?

My Review:

I will have to admit that I was skeptical about reading this book but figured I would give it a shot since it is not a long novel and it was kindly sent from the publisher.

We enter the story with Angela, a twenty something woman who has been taken into custody because the police believe she may have some information about the disappearance of Saskia, the wife of Angela’s first and only true love. Immediately I got a “this chick is crazy” vibe from the way she was handling the interview. She is more of a calm crazy which seems to be the worse kind. Angela advises the officer that the story is not really about Saskia but about what has happened to lead up to her disappearance. Angela is convinced that Saskia is just pulling a stunt to get attention, which at the end of the novel you will find that very ironic. Angela tells the detective all about her blossoming romance with HP, her first love and Saskia’s husband. The way she presents her story you could almost feel some sympathy for her and the heartbreak that she may have endured with HP. Angela’s mother, in my opinion, has to shoulder some of the blame when it comes to Angela’s behavior and naivety. Her mother was very mentally controlling. She reminded me of Joan Crawford but without the physical abuse. Angela spends the entire interview backtracking on her past with HP and her present time with his family. To me that whole present day set up with them was weird and I thought that HP and Saskia were asking for trouble by allowing Angela to be so involved in their lives. Angela is a very self centered person and in her mind only her feelings matter. She certainly took her mother’s manipulative gene. In the end, I did feel some empathy for the men who passed thru the life of Angela.

I am glad that this book was less than 300 pages. In my opinion the length was perfect with how the story developed. I believe that anything longer would have caused the story to lose what bit of effect it had on me. It is definitely a quick read if you want a suspense that you can just breeze thru. I have to say that when I first started reading this story I could not stand Angela at all. I thought that she talked too much and that the story was going to be drawn out. Luckily it wasn’t and once I was able to sit down and spend some time on it, I saw how quickly it developed even if the ending felt just a bit rushed. But that is something that happens from time to time with these types of stories.

Rating:

2.5 stars

Availability:

This book will be available in hardcover, ebook and audio on April 17, 2018

Book Birthday · book review · books · crime · meet the mrs · Publishing Day · suspense

Happy Publishing Day! 1-9-18

KalaLeave a comment

Two books that I have done reviews on are now available for purchase today!

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen {St. Martin’s Press}

I read and reviewed this book back in November and gave it 4.5 stars. It is definitely a good psychological thriller to start off your 2018 year of reading. It has some great twists in it that you don’t see coming. I always love to be taken by surprise with a thriller.

The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor  {Crown Publishing}

I read and reviewed this book last week. It was my first review of the year. If you like England and kids doing weird things like being kids and being mischievous, with a dash of crazy thrown in, then you’ll definitely enjoy this read. I forgot to put my star rating in my review, so I will put it here, I gave 4.5 stars. ESPECIALLY because of the ending!

Thank you to both publishers for providing me with advanced copies of these books and giving me a chance to review them. I hope that everyone enjoys these novels as much as I did.

Both books will have you like:

Happy reading, folks!

ReaderthenBlogger

book review · books · crime · psychological thriller · suspense

The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor {Review}

KalaLeave a comment

Hello everyone!!! Welcome to my first book review of 2018!!!

So here we have one of 2018’s scheduled for release thrillers, The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor. This is her debut novel.

The story follows Eddie and his four childhood friends who grow up in an English village. You think you have just the typical group of friends who grow up together and go thru the typical adolescent trials and tribulations. However, there are much darker issues that they have to deal with and secrets that they keep. Eddie is our narrator and he narrates the story flipping between current day 2016 and past 1986. The form of the story put me in the mind frame of Stephen King’s It. I think that is what drew it to me most.

In 1986, Eddie and his friends stumble upon a dismembered body of a local girl who survived a freak accident only to come up dead later. What draws them to this body are chalk figures which were an idea of the kids to communicate with each other but someone has found out about their secret language and used it against them, or so they think.

Fast forward to 2016, Eddie and his friends are all grown and living their own lives not thinking about what happened to them back in 1986. However, certain events lead them all back to their home and to the secrets and events that they have all tried to forget. As the story unfolds, more secrets are discovered.

The story unfolds as a thriller should but then you get to the end and BAM!!!! HOLY COW!! I literally cursed out loud at the character in the book.

This was not a long novel and can probably be read in one sitting. Even though it was a quick read, I feel that the story was developed in a timely fashion and I absolutely LOVED the ending. Definitely a great debut novel from CJ Tudor and I look forward to see what else she has in store.

The book will be available for purchase January 9, 2018. I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this novel 4 stars!!!

book review · books · suspense

The French Girl by Lexie Elliot {review}

KalaLeave a comment

Goodreads Blurb:

They were six university students from Oxford–friends and sometimes more than friends–spending an idyllic week together in a French farmhouse. It was supposed to be the perfect summer getaway–until they met Severine, the girl next door.

My Review:

When the story starts, I can say that I did not really like Kate. I thought she was just an uptight, jealous woman. She seemed high strung, but as the story carries along you realize why she is the way that she is. Her best friend Lara did seemed to be as self centered as Caro was. The men were a different story altogether. Tom, who has recently returned from Boston after a divorce was my first suspect in this crime that has recently resurfaced.

Basically what you have is a cold case that resurfaces and 5 lives are disrupted 10 years later. Five of the six friends who are alive, learn things about each other from that summer holiday so many years ago. As things go along, fingers start to point and it even comes to the point where they have decided to point the finger at their friend, Theo,  who has died in combat during his military career. Which I found quite ballsy. I couldn’t blame them. Why not blame someone who isn’t there to defend their own innocence if it means keeping yourself out of jail. The character I did not like the most was Caro. As the story develops and I learned more about her, it made me dislike her even more. She was just one of those characters who has always been unlikeable and does what she has to do to manipulate things to her satisfaction.. Seb didn’t warrant much sympathy from me because of his drunken behavior which apparently was a habit.

This is one of those stories that make you look at your friendships closely wondering if you really know your friends and wonder what their behavior would be if something like a murder case popped up in your lives many,  many  years later after a person has disappeared. How far would you go to protect or defend your innocence?

I will admit I was almost finished with  this novel before trying to figure out “who dun it” because I was enjoying the storyline. I never did get even close to the actual killer was, lol. What I enjoyed most about reading this novel was the fact that it is not set in the United States. I will have to admit that I was not all that excited by the ending but it did not deter my enjoyment of the novel.

I would like to thank Net Galley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This novel will be published February 10, 2018.

I give this novel 4 stars!

books · meet the mrs · suspense

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen {Review}

Kala4 Comments


I was very shocked and happily surprised to have received an advanced copy of The Wife Between Us from St. Martin’s Press. I was going to wait and read this novel around Christmas because I had some reservations about it,  but something kept drawing me to it so I decided to read it this past weekend and I am so very glad that I did. I will have to give this novel a 4.5 star rating.

The story opens with the prologue which is told from the ex-wife’s point of view. I immediately assumed that she is just some jealous, scorned woman. We are then introduced to Nellie. She is a preschool teacher who is about to be married to the man of her dreams. He is rich, good looking and he takes good care of her. Even if he does seem a bit possessive(to others). As the story goes on alternating between the ex wife and the new wife-to-be, I realize that both women have some pretty intense pasts and secrets. I soon find out who Nellie really is(turns out to be Vanessa) and who the new wife to be is(Emma). Nothing in this story is what it seems and no one is who they seem. I went in with the mindset that the ex wife was just some heartbroken hag who let herself go and pushed her husband away into the arms of a young woman who has it all together. As the story develops, you find out that she is not a heartbroken hag, but actually a woman with a plan. This rich successful man, Richard,  is not the man I thought he was. He doesn’t actually have it all together. He may be rich and good looking, but he is a twisted man. This pretty new wife to be, Emma,  isn’t as innocent as she portrays either. She too has her own agenda. Vanessa and Emma end up sharing a past and don’t know it until the end of the story once all the secrets start unravelling. Vanessa thinks she is manipulating the  situation and she is to a certain extent but she is being manipulated as well. Although Richard is not a great guy, I almost had to feel sorry for him because he ends up being a pawn in this twisted mind game that is being played.

Two questions I ended up asking myself while reading this novel were how far does a person go to get out of an unhealthy situation and how far does a person go to seek vengeance. This story, in my opinion was a perfect blend of Gone Girl meets Girl on the Train with a bit of Sleeping with the Enemy thrown in. I see this novel being a satisfying page turner to all who read it. The plot keeps twisting and turning and keeps you guessing until the very end. Every time I thought I had the story figured out, the authors threw a serious curve ball at me and I enjoyed that very much. I would definitely like to see more work from these ladies.

This novel is set to be released January 9, 2018. It will be a great pick for an after the holidays read.