-
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.
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
See all of the reviews! -
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.
-
The Insomniac
Author: Miranda Rijks
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Date Published: July 24, 2022Disclaimer: I will pretty much gobble up anything Miranda Rijks writes!
And this book did not disappoint! I’ve been on a roll with psychological thrillers that take place in (creepy) spa like settings. But this book had the added element of dealing with insomnia. Already in a vulnerable state because of her inability to sleep, Daisy is a journalist and she’s having trouble functioning, so she decides to take up her editor’s offer to review the new, exclusive spa for a free week to try to get some much-needed sleep.
Amity is the beautiful and put-together owner of Serinity Spa. And she has already employed some rather unorthodox methods. She tells Daisy that things will get worse before they get better. Amity also lets Daisy know that “we need to understand what triggered the sleeplessness in the first place”. Daisy is a control freak and doesn’t want to reveal too much in her therapy sessions. So, when she starts to get an uneasy feeling after several sessions, she wants to leave. But her editor at the newspaper is counting on her. And Amity convinces her to stay and tough it out.
And that’s when Amity starts to ramp it up….and things start to get really weird.
Thanks so much to NetGalley, Inkubator Books and Booksprout for another thrilling advance reader’s copy by Miranda Rijks!
Background photo credit @alexagorn on unsplash.com
-
The It Girl
Author: Ruth Ware
Publisher: Gallery Books, Gallery/Scout Press
Date Published: July 12, 2022I jumped over all the other books on my TBR pile to get to review The It Girl. Because…Ruth Ware, ya’ll!!
This is decidedly a departure from her earlier books, which had a more gothic, more locked room, Agatha Christie feel, so I had to check a couple of times that I was actually reading Ruth Ware. But with her skill for encompassing the time and atmosphere of a place, the author takes a sophisticated leap in the genre of psychological suspense. This is the tale of a young woman, Hannah, who feels out of her element but accepted by her peers at Oxford’s Pelham campus, mostly because her roommate April has taken her under her wing. But there’s an ick factor in a porter John Neville, who seems to always be lurking and saying inappropriate things. So, when April is killed, and Hannah is called as a witness, it’s her testimony that sends Neville to jail.
Ten years later, Neville has died in prison. Instead of feeling closure, Hannah is having doubts. And more than halfway through a pregnancy with April’s former boyfriend Will, Hannah decides to investigate, a move that will send her spiraling, placing her unborn baby at risk.
The characters are richly drawn, with all the nuances their personalities are built on. They all come from either a posh background, or from less well-off families, and feel the pressure to succeed. We see April’s vibrancy, and we mourn her loss along with Hannah and Will. We feel the toll her death has had on everyone in her circle of influence long after she’s gone, because she was the “It Girl,” the one who made everyone feel joy in her presence, even if they had been a recipient of one of her infamous pranks. Ware takes us on a wild ride, and masterfully brings us to the startling conclusion.
I am so glad that NetGalley and Gallery Books/Scout Press made my wishes come true with an advanced reader’s copy!
Thanks to @shyshkina on Unsplash for the background photo of Oxford University.
-
A Perfect Stranger
Author: Shalini Boland
Publisher: Bookouture
Date Published: July 11, 2022description
Two marriages. Three little lies. Someone’s going to die…
I hold my breath as my handsome husband walks through the door. I’ve planned the perfect surprise birthday party for him. Our friends are gathered and the champagne is flowing. But when I catch the look in his deep brown eyes, I realize I’ve got this horribly wrong.
MY THOUGHTS
We know from the prologue that someone is dead. Our job is to find out why.
And oh, the journey to why is complicated and twisted. First, we have Emma, the unsuspecting wife (and this time the secret is not an affair!) who is heavily pregnant. And that always ties my stomach in knots because I know that she’s going to be vulnerable at some point as she tries to prevent the baby from coming too early. And as if that weren’t enough, she’s also trying to protect her 4-year-old, Josh, from what she just learned about her husband, Aidan.
And then there’s Josh’s boss and his wife. They seemingly have it all. Marcus owns a luxury car dealership. And Dani is his always perfectly put together wife, who didn’t come from money but now that she does, acts like she’s so much better than Emma.
But looks can be deceiving. And once again Shalini Boland pulls off a tense tale with an ending that’s so full of twists and turns they tumble over themselves in the final reveal. And I mean that in a good way, as the final ending is a jaw dropper!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advance reader’s copy of another great psychological thriller from Shalini!
-
The Lost Boy
Author: Jane Renshaw
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Date Published: July 10, 2022Description
One island. Two women. A journey to hell.
The Clarke family, Penny, Rod and their two young boys, are delighted when they are offered a holiday in a high-end guest house on a remote and beautiful island.
Their hostess Anna seems like a lovely woman. But what the Clarkes don’t realise is that this is no random invitation, that Anna has carefully selected the family to satisfy her own sinister agenda.
Penny soon begins to sense there’s something off about Anna. She often speaks about her husband and son, but is it odd that they are both away? And that Anna seems perfectly content to be alone in this isolated place?
And then there’s the way she looks at Penny’s boys – as if she’s sizing up chickens for the slaughter.
Penny grows increasingly uneasy and begins to do a bit of digging, which leads to a horrifying discovery – she finally realises who Anna is, and then she knows exactly why they’ve been invited to the island.
She also knows that if she and her family are ever going to leave, they’ll have to fight for their lives… and find the answer to one terrifying question – how far would you go for the people you love?
MY REVIEW
This was a dark thriller with beautifully written descriptions of the fictional island of Faida. The author translates the Gaelic and Scottish words (e.g., Traigh Bheag – the small beach). It was interesting to read about the different landscapes and birds of the island.
Anna was a little strange from the get-go, with her crazy smile and constant contact with her houseguests. Her husband and son were away, and the rest of the guest cottages were closed for renovation, so the Clarke family had the run of the island. Which probably isn’t a good thing when you have two willful and adventurous boys.
Soon enough, one of the boys takes his exploration a little too far and winds up in trouble. While his dad, Rod, is very concerned, mom Penny seems content to camouflage her worry with work and wine. Anna starts to see the disconnect between husband and wife, and soon has Rod telling her confidences.
I love how the author had us sympathizing with the Clarkes but agreeing with Anna that the boys were just spoiled beyond reason. By the end, my heart and mind had shifted completely.
Thanks to NetGalley, Inkubator and Booksprout for an advanced reader’s copy.
-
The Trial
Author: S. R. Masters
Publisher: HarperCollinsUK, One More Chapter
Date Published: July 7, 2022Would you take part in a paid clinical trial in the Canary Islands?
Secluded island.
Unknown side effects.
Psychopaths.
What could go wrong?
Elle believes she has been chosen for the trial in error because in a fit of drunken abandon, she lied on her application. But what the heck? It’s a free vacation and she deserves it since her mother and her mother’s boyfriend have conned her out of her vacation funds.
Misgivings start as soon as Elle and her fellow travelers land on the island – no one seems to know exactly which Canary Island it is, but it doesn’t seem to be all that inhabited beyond the resort. And then the headaches start.
Elle’s character is different from the others on the island. She seems to be full of empathy for the other trial participants, and she’s not getting headaches like some of them are. And once the bad stuff starts happening, Elle shows she has real grit. I was holding my breath the whole time she tried to find a way off the island. But oh, that ending! I’m not sure Masters could have ended any other way, but you’re left to your own interpretation for what happens next!
While a lot of readers found the first part of the book slow, I think the narrative successfully built the tension and left just enough doubt about what the trial was about.
It will be a long time before I volunteer for an undisclosed trial!
Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollinsUK and ONeMoreChapter for an advance read along copy.
Book Cravings 