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How to Survive Your Murder
Author: Danielle Valentine
Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin Random House)
Date Published: August 30, 2022My initial thoughts looking at the bloody spatters on the cover of How to Survive Your Murder were that it looked like a darkly interesting book, but not in my genre, so would I really enjoy it? Chainsaws in a cornfield freak me out because I’m still traumatized by the smell of gasoline and sound of the chainsaws at a Halloween event my sister forced me to attend. In the words of Jordan Peele, I almost said “nope” after reading an excerpt.
Well, I not only enjoyed it, I loved it! This YA book uses the horror movie trope of the Final Girl to take us on the journey of “what if”. What if Alice had followed her sister into the corn maze? What if she had had an opportunity to go on a date with bad boy, Wes? What really happened that night, a year ago?
It was like a bad accident – I couldn’t look away. And every time Alice said this is where she should be doing what the horror movies told her she should do, I was screaming “RUN!” My first foray into Final Girl homage prior to this was much more steeped in horror movie lore, so I appreciated the relatable humor and down-to-earth, realistic language that made me realize I’m missing out by not reading more YA books!
Thanks to Bookish First and Penguin Books for an advance reader’s copy.
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The Woman on the Bench
Author: Eliot Stevens
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Date Published: August 28, 2022It’s the stuff of romance novels: a chance encounter with a perfect stranger. A shared moment. The wish for more.
So it went for Mark and Alice, who encounter each other at a party. Mark is there with his wife Cecilia and doesn’t get the chance to find out more about Alice. So, he can’t believe his luck when Alice finds him, and they decide to meet at “their bench”. The relationship quickly escalates.
At first, we feel sorry for Mark. He’s the “good guy”. But then we find out more of his back story and feel sorry for his beautiful wife, still hurting from a miscarriage, and Mark’s bad behavior during her pregnancy. Plus, she knows something about Mark that could ruin him.
Mark should have known something bad was going to happen. Alice knows much more about him than he does about her. But he’s thinking with his emotions not with his brain – he’s so flattered by Alice’s attention he can’t see that he has completely lost his moral compass. You won’t even feel sorry for Mark when he’s blindsided. He’s been so stinking smug about his affair!
Although we can see where the book is headed, the author meanders toward the ending so when we get there, it’s with great satisfaction!
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Please Join Us
Author: Catherine McKenzie
Publisher: Atria Books
Date Published: August 23, 2022Please Join Us is an intelligently written book about a group of women ostensibly gathered together to collaborate in an attempt to usurp the “old boy’s network”.
When litigator Nicole is invited to join Panthera Leo at an expensive retreat where women come together to do bonding exercises, I totally got “The Hunt” vibes. Not being a person who could be thrown into the wilderness and survive, I really felt for the characters. I’m pretty sure my jaw was tense as I read about the trials they went through.
As the book progresses, Nicole sees what the group has been trying to teach her – connections and powerful networks are the key to success. As one of the characters remarks, you like to think you get ahead on your own merits, but really how far can you go before needing connections before being passed over for someone who does? But what is the price for their loyalty?
I love how McKenzie takes us through Nicole’s thought process as she begins to unravel the secrets of Panthera Leo. Although all of the characters were flawed, I was rooting for Nicole one hundred percent!
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for another great Catherine McKenzie thriller!
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Into the Woods
Author: Lorraine Murphy
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Date Published: August 21, 2022Into the Woods a well told story about the disappearance of a little girl and her family’s fight to save her. The author covered everything – the dangers of social media, loss of a child, mental illness, marital issues, parent alienation – with compassion and authenticity.
I love how Murphy created characters that are all flawed but kept us invested in them. I found this book well written and so fast paced I finished it in a day (if you count staying up past midnight as one day 😉
I can’t wait for Murphy to write a new book – I’ll be the first in line to buy it!
Thanks to NetGalley, Inkubator Books, and Booksprout for an advance reader’s copy.
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You’re Invited
Author: Amanda Jayatissa
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Date Published: August 9, 2022Once again, I enjoyed the perspective that Amanada Jayatissa brings to her novels. We get a wonderful glimpse at Sri Lanken culture and traditions, especially the preparations and intricacies of a Sri Lanken wedding in a privileged family.
But this is not just any wedding. It’s a wedding that must be stopped. The only problem is, the one who can stop it has been “uninvited”.
Amaya innocently believes she has been invited to her former best friend’s wedding to her ex-boyfriend. Is she just jealous, or is something darker going on here? She’s determined to stop the wedding of Kaavi and Spencer, and now that she’s in Sri Lanka, she has to carefully navigate the world of aunties, gossip, and mortal tutting.
I loved Amaya’s little asides, imagining in her head what disaster she would like to see befall someone who has slighted her (imagined or otherwise). I also liked how she compulsively and superstitiously checked time to see if it was a good sign before proceeding (because I think, subconsciously, I do that 😉
Although it took a while to get to all of the secrets that EVERYONE was hiding I did not guess the ending and I loved the twists and turns the story took to get there.
Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for an advance reader’s copy of another great book from Amanda Jayatissa!
Background photo courtesy of @valkyriepierce at unsplash.
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The Other Girlfriend
Author: Alex Stone
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Date Published: July 28, 2022Even though there was a slow burn to the “secret” that had Lizzie/Beth feeling so guilty, it was easy to guess. As was the rest of the book.
Beth is pining for the “love of her life”. The story is told in flashbacks to when Lizzie, Tom, Hannah, Rebecca and Luke go on a camping trip for a little get away. There is a lot of wine, and after playing a game of truth or dare, Lizzie, Tom and Hannah go up the mountain. Only Lizzie and Tom come back, but Lizzie doesn’t remember anything, and has lived her life full of regrets and guilt for Tom’s decision to not see her again.
But after 10 years Tom is back in her life and even though I liked the younger Tom, the older Tom is a total jerk. Beth has been pining for him all these years though, so she’s blinded to the manipulation he brings to this new relationship. But as a reader, it wasn’t hard for me to see where this was going, and I just kept wishing Beth would wake up. When she finally does, though, it’s so sudden it made my head spin.
This was a quick read, but I like my twists to be less predictable. Others may like the short chapters, the handling of the mental health issues (agoraphobia, OCD), which were handled well.
Background photo courtesy of @yogidan2012 at @unsplash
Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an advance reader’s copy.
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The New House
Author: Tess Stimson
Publisher: Avon Books UK, Avon
Date Published: August 4, 2022So many psychopaths! Psychopaths, sociopaths, enablers, oh my!
But as one of the narrators, Mille tells us, there are good and bad psychopaths. She’s one of the good ones. She uses her powers for good as a cardiac surgeon. It what gives he the ability to hold a beating heart in her steady hands, or to operate on someone she knows, without feeling emotion.
So when she gets into a bidding war for the house of her dreams, she sets in motion a domino effect between her family, the owners of The Glass House, Stacey and Felix, and her buyers Harper and Kyle. If Mille and Tom can’t get the house, Harper and Kyle (or kyperlife as their popular vlog is called), can’t buy Mille’s house. The problem is, Harper has already sold her house when she finds out, and is stuck in what she calls her “teeny little rented mouse-house”.
This story takes the notion of house wars to a whole new level. Buying a house is definitely requires a strategy, but the degree of manipulation these three families go to is off the charts. And in the end, someone is dead (no spoiler – we know this from the beginning). We hear many theories about what might have happened, and the whole time we know someone knows the whole story. And in the best suspense style, we must wait until the nail biting ending to find out.
Background photo courtesy Mike Von on Unsplash.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an advance readers copy.
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The Couple at Number 9
Author: Claire Douglas
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: August 2, 2022What do you do when you need clarification about events that happened 30 years ago, but the only person with a memory of what happened is in a care home for dementia?
This book rings so true for the descriptions of what it is like to wish you could go back in time and ask the burning questions that the discovery of two bodies in Saffy and Tom’s yard bring. Could Saffy’s grandmother hold the secret to their identities?
I had a hard time placing Rose and Daphne in the 80’s because the only descriptions that placed them in that era were the clothes they wore and their stance on feminism. The description of the cottage gave the book setting a more gothic tone. However, this is a great story about three generations of women and the secrets that have followed two of them through the decades. One thing was certain – they each in turn loved and were fiercely protective of their daughters. I really appreciated the way the author handled the police questioning of Rose, how her granddaughter Saffy prepared her for the police interviews and grounded her with stories about their time together.
I loved the family dynamics, the multiple points of view, and the twists and turns that were spread out over the story. I will definitely be checking out other books by Claire Douglas.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for an advance reader’s copy.
Background photo courtesy of @johnmcclane at @unsplash
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The Waitress
Author: Nina Manning
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Date Published: July 21, 2022Be warned that this is a slow burn. I found myself checking at the halfway point when the secret that Kit has been hiding has yet to be revealed.
But if you stick with it, the book advances through some atmospheric scenes in the large and isolated mansion that Kit has won through a raffle. The house has its problems, like most old houses, but Kit also has won £20,000, which she believes will last her for a while (clearly, she has never lived in an old house!).
Although she still hasn’t quite moved all her things into Willow Cottage, she feels like it’s the perfect place to be anonymous, a place where her past won’t catch up to her. But someone knows she’s there. I cringed every time she returned home after dark. Since she still had her old flat, I kept willing her to return there.
Although it’s easy to guess several of the plot points, and Kit’s secret wasn’t the horrible thing I thought it would be, Kit is so mired in guilt and self-doubt that to her it’s the only thing she can think about. Stick through to the end of the book and the ending will be a pleasant surprise.
Nina Manning Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an advance reader’s copy.
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Amen Maxine
Author: Faith Gardner
Publisher: Mirror House Press
Date Published: July 23, 2022I almost didn’t read this book because I thought the AI theme would make it too sci-fi-ish. Boy was I wrong! This is about a machine called Maxine, sort of an Alexa on steroids.
Rowena has an almost 1-year old, a mostly absent husband, and Maxine. Skeptical at first, Rowena comes to rely on Maxine as her machine learning becomes all encompassing. As her husband works late, or comes to bed with his AI goggles on, Rowena begins to trust Maxine more and more. She gives the little glowing machine access to most of her life – emails, phone, bank accounts….and comes to think of Maxine as a sentient being.
Maxine gives Rowena insights about her marriage, with advice and predictions. If Maxine is right 9 out of 10 times, can Rowena trust her? What if she’s right 3 out of 5 times?
There are all the tropes we are used to with recent books – possibly unreliable narrator, gaslighting, mental illness, cold mother-in-law and more – but Gardner has handled them brilliantly.
I wish the ending had gone a different way, but despite that, I give this book 5 stars for it’s unique storyline, fast paced narrative, and excellent writing.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mirror House Press for an advance reader’s copy that I read in a day.
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