I admit to being a late and slow adopter of Finlay Donovan. It just all sounded a little hokey to me, maybe even a little too Hallmark-channel for me.I admit to being a late and slow adopter of Finlay Donovan. It just all sounded a little hokey to me, maybe even a little too Hallmark-channel for me. I don’t have the best track record with mysteries like these geared toward women. But one day a couple of months ago I came across the first paragraph from the first book (Finlay Donovan is Killing It), and I found myself shaking with laughter because I’ve been that mom. So I decided to read the first two books and then read this one for release day.
And, as much as I love admitting I fell in love with the first two books of this series, I actually felt this installment fell short of the shining mark of those two previous books. I mean, it’s still a Finlay Donovan book, and it still enthralled me, but I felt that in this book there were just far too many hens in the hen house and they were are too willing to just bend over backwards to accommodate Finlay, Vero, and her kids. Maybe you know what I mean, maybe you don’t. The amount of looking the other way and sloppiness in the plotting of this book just so Finn and Vero could get around wherever they needed to be whenever they needed to be there really stretched my capacity to suspend disbelief. I live about a mile from a HighWay Patrol training facility, and that place is darn near like Fort Knox for all the gates and checkpoints. There are cameras everywhere.
Two serious bones I have to pick with this book are there are just too many characters, both old and new, and I found myself having issues keeping track of them all. The other bone I have to pick is that both Finn and Vero, by the third book, should know by now how to take forensic countermeasures and yet they continue to just possibly leave DNA, fingerprints, tire tracks, and all other matters of possible evidence of themselves at the scenes of different crimes without seeming to care.
I miss Finlay keeping it a little more simple. I miss her and Vero just trying to take care of the kids, keeping Steven in the dark while trying to keep him complacent, and Finn trying to overcome her writer’s block by working through the wreckage of her life. I just hope we get to see more of that.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All views and opinions expressed are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: General Fiction/Amateur Sleuths/Women’s Fiction/Comedy/Mystery/Suspense/Part of a Series/Crime Fiction ...more
This book was so much dang fun to read! I knew from the very beginning I was going to love it, and I was totally sucked in from page one. I just sat hThis book was so much dang fun to read! I knew from the very beginning I was going to love it, and I was totally sucked in from page one. I just sat here all day, avidly reading page after page, only getting up to grab some lunch (which I ate one-handed while I continued to read) and to refill my iced coffee (because caffeine).
I knew I would love a book about a total boss woman who decides to defend the legacy her and her husband built in Washington after he went and tarnished it like an idiot. What I didn’t expect was to love this greedy, ambitious, shallow, vain, unscrupulous, whip-smart, and borderline sociopathic boss woman so much. She’s everything I’ve always imagined the ideal politician’s wife to be, save that most politician’s wives don’t see people as toys that can be taken out and played with at will and then discarded carelessly when she feels they have no use anymore. Her lack of impulse control and her childlike understanding of politics only made me love her more, because it caused the book to edge on satire at times, showing the true colors behind all politicians: they are all just petty children looking to not be picked last for kickball on the playground. They are all adolescents in a high school cafeteria looking for the ideal place to sit for maximum popularity. They are all part of a clique facing the peer pressure to take this or try that. But Jody Asher? Jody Asher is a singular woman who wants to be Captain of the kickball team, the most popular girl in school whom everyone wants to sit next to at lunch, and never have to fit into a clique because she is every clique and everyone both loves her and fears her.
In short? She’s the Regina George of Washington D. C. and I am here for it.
This book would be a good book if it was just about Jody and her efforts to restore the glory of the Asher legacy her idiotic husband left her with, but Rouda adds a layer to the cake with a glorious game of bad blood between Jody and her college friend/Think Tank founder, Mimi. That whole layer of the cake should and will remain a huge spoiler should it be revealed in a review, so this reviewer will keep her trap shut and let you find out when you go to read the book, because it’s catty, juicy, and metaphorically bloody. In short, it’s a delight.
I’m here for all of Jody Asher’s blind ambitions and political fumblings, coasting on her husband’s years of service and a lot of hidden dirt to get what she wants. I’m here for her efforts to try and at least give somewhat of a crud about her fellow humans. Most of all, I’m here for what was just a really clever and sharp book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for granting me access to this title.
File Under: Thriller/Political Thriller/5 Star Books/Crime Fiction/Mystery/Suspense ...more
This is a gripping, propulsive, positively disquieting and creepy thriller that caused me to want to bare my teeth at anyone and everything that causeThis is a gripping, propulsive, positively disquieting and creepy thriller that caused me to want to bare my teeth at anyone and everything that caused me to be ripped away from reading it for any length of time. How dare anyone drag me away from the pitch-perfect suspense and chills this book is evoking in me after so many thrillers that couldn’t accomplish that same feeling? Why am I being ripped away from the delicious panic spiral one protagonist keeps sliding down like a greased staircase while the antagonist seems to gleefully watch his descent from the shadows? The mutual hatred? The mutual resentment? Argh!
This book will grip you from the start, with the protagonist’s unorthodox response to the knowledge he and his wife are obliged (via his sister and her husband’s will) to take guardianship of their nephew until he goes off to Yale in less than a year. Most aunts and uncles would be glad to take family in during such a tough time, but their nephew, Matthew, has never been your average child, and they haven’t seen him or or talked to him in about six years. For spoiler reasons, I can’t tell you why, but it’s a good reason.
The differences between Gil (the uncle and our protagonist) and Matthew (the nephew and the antagonist) are so extreme they almost touch behind, making a sphere. Gil and his family are progressive neoliberals, while Matthew could care less about the human condition and believes only in the power of money, making more money, and making people do things solely due to the influence of money. It would seem, even though it mostly goes unsaid, that the only thing Gil and Matthew might ever agree on if it wasn’t such a taboo topic between the two is that Matthew’s dad was a horrible person and Matthew’s mom/Gil’s sister was a good person at heart but was ultimately an absentee parent who didn’t know what to do with her son but throw money at him and hope it would solve his issues. And if there’s one thing Gil doesn’t trust and has never trusted, it’s money. In his mind, money stole and changed his sister and his mother. Better to live modestly than to live in excess, in his mind, no matter how much he envies what money could do for him and his family. No matter what Gil does, his paranoia is hyperfocused on money and rich people, especially on Matthew (for reasons I can’t tell you because of spoiler reasons), who is the very picture of the privileged white male.
Now Matthew is in Vermont with them, in the place of sanctuary Gil feels saved him and his family after trying to live in New York City, a place that he felt squeezed the life out of him. This city boy, full of money, arrogance, and privilege, invades the only place Gil has felt safe since his parents passed and the only place he’s ever felt sure his two girls have been safe from everything a city like New York could take from them. Unlike Gil, however, the rest of his family thaws toward Matthew, forming closer friendships and relationships that Gil can’t seem to stop without coming across as a complete lunatic.
Is this a story of a psychopath? Yes. More than that, though, it’s a story about being forced to live in a constant state of paranoia that drives you inside your head and into a choking state of anxiety. Sleep becomes elusive, if not completely absent. Your sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive, constantly on alert. You’re hyperfocused on the object of your paranoia and it soon becomes apparent that knowing everything and anything about that object is the only thing that may be the only balm to soothe you, if only for a little bit. The psychopath already knows the path he’s on. He’s loving your spiral and how you’re going downhill. To him, you’re pathetic. He’s just waiting to either get bored of you or waiting for you to become a problem to get rid of.
It’s this tightrope that keeps A Flaw in the Design such a delicious read. The standoff. Who’s going to give first, the anxiety-ridden uncle in the middle of a paranoia-induced nervous breakdown or the psychopathic nephew? Which path is the uncle going to take? Is the nephew even a psychopath or is he just an awful jerk? It’s going to keep you guessing almost to the very end.
And there’s the rub: the ending. I’ve seen other reviews complain about the ending and I have to say I’m among the naysayers. I didn’t like the ending. I would’ve given this book five stars if the book ended the way I thought it should have. Otherwise, it’s an absolute gem of a thriller from a debut author and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. Any ideas, thoughts, opinions, or views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I tried to like this book. I really did. But by 20 minutes into what was supposed to be an espionage thriller with some serial killer elements thrown I tried to like this book. I really did. But by 20 minutes into what was supposed to be an espionage thriller with some serial killer elements thrown in, I was bored out of my mind.
And the real story hadn’t even begun yet. Our protagonist, for lack of a better way to sum it up, hadn’t even accepted the call to adventure. More time in that 20% of story was spent describing how cold Belarus is than on the story itself.
We get it. Belarus is really cold.
This book is scattered, with no real through line and no steady story arc to hold the entire thing together. It’s like a whole bunch of really good thoughts that really needed a competent, solid editor to put their foot down and demand everything be brought together into something more cohesive. The book, as it exists, is like a tangled head of hair that needs to be brushed.
I just don’t understand how you can take this concept and make it so bland and, well, lost. I’m actually a little mad Kathleen Kent took such potential and wasted it.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions contained herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. Owing to the 3 star or under rating, this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller website. ...more
Talk about a book that grabs you by the throat right from the get, drags you right into its pages, and never lets you go. My issue? It should’ve let uTalk about a book that grabs you by the throat right from the get, drags you right into its pages, and never lets you go. My issue? It should’ve let us readers go a little earlier.
I know, I know! I’m always complaining books are too long. So sue me. Or that books have too many epilogues when just one would suffice, thank you very much. This books suffers from that rare combination I call “The Return of the King Syndrome” (for those who have seen Peter Jackson’s “LOTR: The Return of the King”): Too many chapters at the end that read like epilogues so you think this chapter must be the ending, but then there’s another chapter that makes you think the same way, but then there’s another chapter that would’ve sufficed as a perfectly good ending as well. This goes on for several chapters. I would’ve nixed all but maybe two or three of them.
But the ending? *chef’s kiss*
This book feels a little like The Village, a little like Midsommar, a little like Hannah Whitten’s Wilderwood, and there’s a touch of The Handmaid’s Tale in there too. Even as I write this list of cultish/occult/horror/ and speculative fiction influences that I felt traces of in the framework of this novel (and, for some reason, there’s an episode of Criminal Minds that involves someone running through a sunflower field to hide from an unsub, I think), I know I can’t write this list down without acknowledging the other half of this book, which involves women working the soil, spilling their blood, sweat, and tears into it to bring forth crops mostly for the menfolk to eat before they do and flowers to bring beauty to the world.
If you pay attention to the narration clearly in the very beginning of the chapter you can tell it’s the time of the Dust Bowl Migration, and the town of Bishop is established when the land there calls to one particular migrant from the eastern seaboard, who had restlessly been searching for a place to establish his own town. We don’t find out until later that the place where the town founder has picked to become Bishop, the town where the events of our book take place, is in Kansas, which suffered the most drought and agricultural damage of any state during the Dust Bowl period. It was a truly damaged land, deprived of life. It called to this restless soul searching for a place all his own, and it spoke to him. And he paid the price many times over to establish Bishop, a town that was his, and his alone.
By the time the story of our four friends starts in earnest, it’s much further into the future. Twins Whitney and Jude, angry Bo, and lost Delilah. All four live together in Deliliah’s house, since their mothers collectively disappeared one day two years ago and haven’t been seen since. Was it murder? Did they just decide to leave their daughters and run away? No one knows. But the answers to what happened that day have haunted all four girls every moment since, and they still long for closure. For answers. Each of them have their own theories and opinions they don’t tend to share with the others. All four of them have secrets, some of them painful. And all four of them know something is wrong with the town of Bishop, but none of them are able to put their finger on it.
Andrea Hannah writes in her acknowledgements, “This is the first book I’ve written in a long time that feels like me.” Well, I applaud you, Ms. Hannah, for getting your literary groove back, because the juxtaposition between these large flowers blooming in the sunshine and yet knowing somehow that becoming sunflowers would both give the men reason to not cut them down but also would give the women of Bishop some protection if they needed it with their sheer height was a stroke of genius. You gave the men the wind and the earth, but you gave the women the flowers and the water. Necessity is the mother of invention, and the dead women of Bishop used what was once theirs to invent a way to fight against the patriarchy that ruled their town until the day would come when the town could be freed.
There’s not a lot of world building to do in this book, and there’s not a magic system, per se. This book is almost entirely driven by the characters and their emotions. I’d actually wager this book would be nothing without emotion. They flow, fly, simmer, and rage through every character, sometimes to the point where it almost feels palpable. I love a book where I can almost taste a character’s feelings in my mouth, like the saltiness of tears or the sourness of disappointment. Keeping this book small in geographic scope fit Ms. Hannah’s writing style so well I kind-of hope she doesn’t stray to anything in the epic/high fantasy genre, where characters are far-flung around another world, where time will be taken away from intense and passionate characters.
This book could’ve been rated 5 stars, if it weren’t for the awkward and stuttered denouement.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions contained therein are mine and mine alone and are given of my free will. Thank you.
Okay, writing nerds: Did any of you play the writing game “Round Robin” when you were younger? Heck, maybe some of you stillReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
Okay, writing nerds: Did any of you play the writing game “Round Robin” when you were younger? Heck, maybe some of you still do. You know, you start a story, then you fold the sheet of paper over so only the last line or so is visible, and the next person in the circle only has those two lines to go off of to continue the story…and so on until the circle is completed and you see how the story played out under those limited circumstances.
That’s part of the vibe I got while reading The Grimoire of Grave Fates. An overarching concept story, each of the chapters done by a different author (which gives it an almost-anthology feel due to the variations in each author’s writing style and voice), and each author carrying their assigned character through the story with only the limited knowledge of what’s already happened in the story prior to their chapter to guide the way. It’s a sophisticated game of Round Robin, with Margaret Owen and Hanna Alkaf playing the roles of (essentially) comperes: checking for continuity and other possible goofs so that, when the individual chapters are collected from the contributing authors and put together, the story blends almost seamlessly into a single compendium made of many disparate parts.
The most important part of this book, which I didn’t realize when I requested it, is that the release date on the first Tuesday of June (HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!) was not coincidental: The Grimoire of Grave Fates is a book where every chapter is written from the POV of a marginalized member of society. Minorities, disabled people, LGBTQ people, mentally ill people, and even a young criminal who’s no stranger to jail. Not only that, but more than one allusion is made about the school in this book (Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary) that likens it to the Hogwarts of the transphobic JKR’s brain (and points out how inaccessible castles like that are to the disabled), and the central mystery of the book centers around the murder of a professor at the school who is somewhat like Snape, if Snape cared about money.
(But, the castle also wins points for being able to fly like a gyroscope and Howl’s Moving Castle is mentioned. So mad props.)
See, I get what Owen and Alkaf were trying to do. I don’t know if it’s my age (I read YA all the time, but this felt like maybe it was made for the younger section of the YA set–maybe closer to 13 than 16-18?), but this book felt a little simplistic in the writing and ran too long for my tastes. It’s not the book was bad; it’s just that the book seemed to go on far too long and I started to feel like Owen and Alkaf were just trying to shoehorn in as much diversity as possible.
By all means: Do that. We need diversity. We want diversity. It’s necessary. The more diversity there is on bookseller websites and library bookshelves and home bookshelves the less excuses there will be to take them down. I’m all for publishing diverse reads in ever genre and every format possible.
Will that change my mind about how I rate this book, though? No, it won’t. But I can tell you this is a book I’d recommend to someone like my 13 year-old niece. She’d probably give it 5 stars and a place of honor on her bookshelf.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the creators/editors. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
While Roza Vallo, our protagonist’s favorite author, isn’t a cult of personality, she does carry a serious case of charismatic authority which draws yWhile Roza Vallo, our protagonist’s favorite author, isn’t a cult of personality, she does carry a serious case of charismatic authority which draws young, female, feminist horror writers to her like moths to a very lovely and mysterious flame. But charisma only lasts so long and it only runs so deep before it wears off and the charisma is gone. And the element of mystery a person holds is as a house of cards: All it takes is one tiny tremor or huffed disbelief of doubt before it collapses and everything that seemed so mysterious before now simply looks like a dangerous con. The aftermath? Spoilers, my loves.
The famous author lives in an isolated mansion, miles away from civilization, and notoriously shuns publicity. The mansion was the location of a grisly and unsolved murder and unsolved crime that no one has ever been able to explain but has always been surrounded by conspiracy theories and occult rumors. It is here, in this gothic setting, that Roza decides to host a month-long writing retreat for a handful of up-and-coming female horror writers under the age of 30. For a month they’ll have no contact with the outside world while they all sit down to each write an individual novel and workshop them with Roza and each other every day. It’s winter, and soon they’re all snowed completely in.
And this being a thriller, well you know nothing is exactly what this means. Yup: There’s malarkey afoot, and not the fun kind. And almost no one is who they seem. Whether that’s for good or ill is for you to find out.
I want to skip over what most people are going to talk about in their reviews: the mind games Roza plays, the concept of publish AND perish, of every character being trapped in a different way and finding a way to break free, the group’s collective trauma, and more to touch on a theme I had to sleep on to get untangled in my mind, because I wouldn’t have been coherent enough last night to write about it.
Both Roza and Alex (our protagonist) are of Hungarian descent, which tickled something in the back of my mind. You know who else was Hungarian? Countess Elizabeth Bathory. While history goes back and forth on whether or not the stories of Bathory bathing in the blood of young, female virgins to maintain eternal youth and beauty are completely made up by men who wanted to demonize her, brand her a serial killer and witch so they could take her lands for themselves or whether she truly was a serial killer (this was the 16th century and history is written by the winners), Roza reminds me greatly of Bathory, with her need to be surrounded by young, female writers who spend their days and night trapped inside her home with her, no escape, working constantly day and night to provide their lifeblood (their writing) for Roza, following her every direction and playing her games (sometimes to their own physical and mental detriment, as if being tortured), until eventually madness starts to unravel and young blood begins to spill and things become so serious a Sword of Damocles might as well be grazing these young writer’s scalps. In more than one instance of pop culture females either bathe in young blood or make creams and unguents with young blood in them in an effort to stay young, beautiful, and powerful. And this is where I find the ties to Roza: Roza loves the power and prestige the publishing world gives her, but in order to maintain it, she needs to stay relevant. So, much like a modern-day Elizabeth Bathory, Roza Vallo needs young, fresh, female writers to bring new blood in the form of their writing to her demesne…because forever isn’t guaranteed.
The ending to this novel was perfect, in my opinion. I couldn’t get enough of it. I thought it fit the feel of the novel in a surreal and sublime way.
Now, this could’ve been a five star novel if it weren’t for some anachronisms in the plot that any serious fan of thriller novels (given the genre of literature these characters write, there’s no way they wouldn’t have read a great deal of thriller novels; as well as suspense and mystery) would’ve thought of that could’ve solved more than one serious roadblock in the plot. It was an easy catch, in my opinion, and something so obvious was something I couldn’t ignore.
All in all, it was a fantastic read and I know I’ll be recommending it.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone and are expressed of my own free will. Thank you.
After reading the blurb for this book I was so excited to read it. A corrupt priest, dead. A cold case. A former prosecutor and a hot shot prosecutor.After reading the blurb for this book I was so excited to read it. A corrupt priest, dead. A cold case. A former prosecutor and a hot shot prosecutor. A tale of whodunit that involves more than one murder. Sounds great, right? I love a good crime thriller/suspense novel that throws religion into the mix. Sadly, this novel fell completely flat for me.
From the very beginning, the non-linear timeline and mixed POVs was often confusing and didn’t last long enough for me to get a good grasp of what was going on before quickly shifting to another chapter. This grew old very quickly. Then the book just moved slowly, with a lot of unnecessary sections and passages that bogged down the book and slowed the pacing so much I found myself wishing there was such a thing as fast forward. This book simply wasn’t done baking, for lack of a better term. It needed content editing and maybe a few more readers on Beckman’s side to be honest about how and where the suspense was slacking off in her novel.
I simply wish that for such a dynamic blurb the book would’ve matched. I would’ve loved that book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. Personal policy dictates that due to the 3 star or lower rating this review will not be posted to any bookseller or social media website.
Filer Under: Amateur Sleuths/Crime Fiction/Crime Thriller/Just Not For Me/Mystery/Suspense Mystery/Suspense Thriller ...more
Such pretty flowers, such a pretty city, and yet this is such an underwhelming book in almost every way.
If you’re looking for something original, thiSuch pretty flowers, such a pretty city, and yet this is such an underwhelming book in almost every way.
If you’re looking for something original, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for something unpredictable, this most certainly isn’t it, because you can practically draw a map to the ending from around the 20% mark (AKA the point in the book where the protagonist “accepts the call to adventure”) and you will likely not be too far off the mark at any point in time. If you’re looking for something lgbtq-friendly, then I’m sorry to disappoint you there, again, because while it’s not homophobic, I am calling this book and the author out on using the attraction between lead characters Holly and Maura as titillation and not as something authentic. And if you’re looking for that lush, southern gothic thriller, I’m going to have to say again: NO. This isn’t that kind of book either. It sure wants to be, but it never quite reaches that level of atmosphere.
I can tell you I was immensely impressed with the general idea of the book, and with the amount of research author K. L. Cerra must have put into it for it to be so detailed when it comes to toxins, poisons, flowers, herbs, teas, tinctures, and more. Botany isn’t an easy science, and toxicology isn’t one either. Bring them together and you’ve got one of my favorite pet subjects, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to understand.
This is K. L. Cerra’s debut novel, and I can see she has the bones in there to write great novels. She’s got ambition and she’s got direction. She’s obviously got drive. All it will take is some workshopping and a great support team who will keep her from going with the flow and instead encourage her to try the path less traveled when it comes to books like these for her to craft better novels. I look forward to seeing a better effort in the future.
I was provided a copy of this novel by NetGalley and Bantam. All views and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Due to the 3 star or lower rating this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller websites. This is a personal policy. ...more
After a couple of ARCs running either long or deep, I decided to pick up Jessica Hamilton’s Don’t You Dare today to cleanse the palette with some loveAfter a couple of ARCs running either long or deep, I decided to pick up Jessica Hamilton’s Don’t You Dare today to cleanse the palette with some lovely crime, mystery, suspense, and thrills. It was nice to have something fast-paced, erotic, and suspenseful to read today since I’m kind of wound up and anxious myself (my mom’s having knee replacement surgery tomorrow, so we’re all kind of wound up around here).
I know exactly what it was about this book that drew me in: The commiseration I felt with Hannah (our protagonist) as she realizes she accidentally slept in and her husband has no compunctions about leaving her a passive-aggressive note about how it, and the way he constantly nitpicks at her as if he’s perfect and she should be ashamed of the hot mess she is. The shame mothers the world over feel of not being good enough, of not doing enough or being enough is an almost universal feeling that we can’t help but be pulled in by, as if we want to automatically create some sort of sympathetic bond with a character like Hannah and let her know that we’re all hot messes behind closed doors. Some of us just hide it better than others.
And then what hooked me was how just as it seems Hannah is absolutely headed to self-destruction and deep depression, the man she loved so deeply in college but lost to the combined efforts of a toxic game she, her best friend, and the man she loved played called “The Daring Game” and her vindictive best friend’s vengeful machinations suddenly appears in the city she lives in, saying he’s moved back and why don’t the two of them pick up “The Daring Game” just for fun between the two of them? Wouldn’t it be fun to do silly and daring things before they truly get too old to be daring?
This book plays off a dual timeline: One taking place in the present, and one taking place back when Hannah, Scarlett (the bestie), and Thomas (the friend turned boyfriend) are in college together. Like most dual timeline books, Don’t You Dare plays the present-day timeline off the past timeline. In essence, the past timeline serves to either foreshadow or to outright hint toward what’s coming up soon in the present-day timeline. It’s not so bad the past timeline outright gives away things, but it’s enough that you get an inkling as the book moves along in which direction we might be going. There are genuine surprises here and there, and successful red herrings are deployed, which made me happy.
The pacing of the novel was definitely what I look for in a suspense thriller like this, though I do wish the author could’ve kept up the same pacing while letting us get a better look at the characters. I’m not saying I wanted this book to be character-driven (this book is definitely plot-driven), but it wouldn’t have hurt to get to know some of the characters a touch better.
I’m not going to say this is a strong four star review. It’s just barely a four star review. If I had to put it more clearly, I’d say it’s more like 3.75 stars. That 0.25% deduction comes from the woefully underdeveloped character of Evan, Hannah’s husband. He’s automatically cast as the villain, but rarely is there truly a villain in a marriage in the case of a marriage like Hannah and Evan’s (I’d explain why, but spoilers). I feel like this book would’ve come across a lot better had we understood Evan more.
If you’re simply looking for an entertaining read at the level of a “popcorn movie” (you know, grab some popcorn and curl up on the sofa to just watch a fun movie), then this is a good book for that kind of entertainment. It’s not breaking new ground and it’s not revelatory, but it’s a solid good time.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This is a book about bondage. Yes, it is somewhat about bondage like the cover shows, but it’s really about all sorts of bondage women could be bound This is a book about bondage. Yes, it is somewhat about bondage like the cover shows, but it’s really about all sorts of bondage women could be bound in the time period this book is set in, especially when that bondage involves the will of men or the power of money.
The cover calls this “a novel of suspense”, but if you’re looking for some high-wire suspense thriller or suspense mystery, you’re looking in the wrong place. This is more of a low thrumming, steadily beating, pastoral sort of suspense novel. The gothic isolation and overall story of trying to undermine and find a way out of an untenable situation with an awful patriarchal overlord is a more quiet and furtive pursuit for a lady’s maid in the 1800s than in most other suspense novels you may read this year. And this is, indeed, a rather quiet book, despite its cover.
I like this book, though, because it’s so unassuming and has no pretenses. It simply is what it is: a historical fiction novel that brings us some suspense, some mystery, some romance, and lovely prose. The narrative isn’t heavy, which can be an issue with some historical novels set in this time period, nor is the dialogue melodramatic, which can also be an issue. The small details a frequent reader of historical fiction would notice have been neatly taken care of, as far as I can tell, which is something I always look at in reading HF. The characters are outstanding, and their moral dilemmas, as written, would be quite consistent with the social mores and conventions of the time. Sure, even the Victorians got a little spicy and liked more than a little slap and tickle, but only the rich and privileged would have had the freedom to express such feelings without consequence (because they would have been the only ones who could pay for loyal silence).
This book does have a non-linear timeline of sorts, too. The book has scenes set in the past, when two of the main characters are young and live in one of London’s workhouses, and then in the present as they work together at Valor Rise. There are also letters from the FMC to an anonymous receiver interspersed throughout the novel. I greatly enjoyed the scenes set at the workhouse, because I believe the past scenes greatly helped to inform the present scenes. In some books I believe a juxtaposed timeline like this is extraneous, but in this book I fully believe it works really well.
Overall, it’s an enjoyable page-turning novel. I greatly enjoyed it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for granting me access to this novel.
“With a dreamy, far-off look, and her nose stuck in a book…”
Her name is Victoria, not Belle, and his name is Eric, not Gaston, and she’s not only disg“With a dreamy, far-off look, and her nose stuck in a book…”
Her name is Victoria, not Belle, and his name is Eric, not Gaston, and she’s not only disgusted by her husband but is also pretty sure the world would be no worse for wear if he were to die in, well, any number of ways.
I was delighted by this book. It combined immense whimsy with morbid comedy. How the heck am I supposed to resist that? This is like a sky full of colorful balloons all bursting at once only to find a sky raining blood on a gala full of ultra rich people dressed all in white and dripping in diamonds. That’s whimsical, morbid, and funny as heck. I’d pay to watch that.
Victoria has that rare and precious jewel a lot of people covet: a wild and active imagination. It’s too bad everyone in her life not only hates her tendency to daydream, but also to bury her nose in a book at every available opportunity (same girl, same). Her parents wanted her to be a lawyer and have never stopped belittling her or causing her to feel like she’s a disappointment to them. Her husband won’t allow physical books in the house because he feels they cause clutter, hates her bringing home books from the library, and doesn’t like hearing or seeing her react to the books she reads. And her best friend would rather shop and browse dating apps. But books have been with Victoria since she was a small child, and she’s not letting go of them now.
Whimsical, isolated, bored Victoria finds a possible answer to her prayers for an escape from the entropy of her life when she spies a handsome, working-class man reading the same book club-type book at her usual cafe one day. She sees it as a sign they’re meant to be together, and she aims to reach that goal. Sure, her husband will have to go, but that can’t be too hard, surely?
So much of what follows in this book are sparkling passages of differing types: dark, morbid, funny, and detailed scenarios in which Eric dies in various ways; Victoria’s vivid imagination creating backstories for the people she sees as she sits in the cafe, the narrator’s whimsical and erotic writing during the astral projection scenes, and the placid, Suzie Homemaker scenes later in the book when Victoria decides to take up baking in a fit of small rebellion.
Is this book perfect? No. But it’s a treat.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and Harper Perennial. All views and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This book is a jewel! Author Jilly Gagnon takes three concurrent storylines and interweaves them almost seamlessly to create one entertaining tale of This book is a jewel! Author Jilly Gagnon takes three concurrent storylines and interweaves them almost seamlessly to create one entertaining tale of love, betrayal, mystery, and murder most foul.
Becca and Blake are having a tough time patching up their marriage, despite the constant therapy they’ve been going through ever since Blake cheated on Becca with a coworker. Blake surprises Becca with a 1920s themed weekend getaway that is also murder-mystery themed. But Becca is still seething with resentment and Blake is still fumbling with how to make things right. In total, six other people (including a married couple Blake and Becca are friends with) are cobbled together as a group to solve the murder mystery. But Becca overhears one thing and sees another thing and then starts to wonder if a real crime is happening right under everyone’s noses and she’s the only one who knows.
I’ve got to tell you: This book was a page-turner like no other. I can’t even point to one aspect of the book that kept me turning the pages, either. The suspense is nice and tight, wound up just like you’d want in a novel like this, with appropriate jumps and startles in different places just to open the pressure valve a little for the reader. Let you catch your breath before it all gets wound up tight again. Everyone has some emotional or anger issues and some moments where things go just a bit askew for them, ensuring you suspect the vast majority of the cast (and this is a locked-door mystery, if that wasn’t clear–not a closed-loop) for most of the book. Very few of the cast members escape at least some scrutiny when it comes to solving both mysteries. The emotional and psychological issues between Becca and Blake concerning his cheating and their marriage are just as big of a part of this book as the murder-mystery weekend or the mystery Becca’s trying to solve on her own, and that part is vulnerable, painful, and like a raw wound that is exposed for the whole book.
Gagnon really has a talent for knowing when to throw her scenes into gear and when to back off so everyone, including the reader, has time to gather themselves and regroup. Even while she does that, it’s like the engine of the whole book is still running, maybe just at a lower speed, but never completely letting off the accelerator until it’s time to put the pedal to the floor again. The story never stays still… it just slows down a little until all of us can catch up. But it’s so worth it when we do.
The only weak spot I found is that I didn’t like the way Gagnon handled the possible way Blake and Becca might take to repair their marriage as of the end of the book. I don’t want to spoil the ending, so I won’t say anything more, but I didn’t think it fit the characters.
Thanks to NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and Bantam for granting me early access to this title. ...more
You know, I’ve been seeing reviewers comparing this novel to “Knives Out”, and I honestly can’t see any resemblance between Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
You know, I’ve been seeing reviewers comparing this novel to “Knives Out”, and I honestly can’t see any resemblance between the two besides the two properties both being closed-loop mysteries involving the head of a wealthy family being murdered. Other than that, I can’t think of them being anything alike. So if you want to take this reviewer’s opinion into consideration when looking to read this novel, I can tell you (as a huge “Knives Out” fan who watches it all the time) that if you’re looking for a book that’s similar to that movies, then “Lavender House” is not it.
That’s not to say that “Lavender House” doesn’t have its own charms, though I don’t seem to have fallen in love with the book as many other readers and reviewers have. It’s a closed loop mystery in the style of Agatha Christie and her detective Hercule Poirot, but with some of the pulp charm of hard boiled noir detectives like Raymond Chandler’s Sam Spade. By this, I mean that the mystery and setting themselves are closer to Christie, but the detective himself is like a queer version of Sam Spade… or maybe queer Sam Spade just as he started up his PI business.
I’ve got a great deal of love for old dogs that are taught new tricks in our glittering world of literati: when we take the old tropes, genres, and more and breathe new life into them using the issues, themes, and conflicts we face today. What this book shows us, in a way, is that we faced these issues back when Raymond Chandler was even writing Sam Spade novels, but some of those issues more than often had even more life-threatening consequences back then than they do now. Consequently, it’s only now that authors can write novels using those genres and tropes to showcase those dangers without facing the end of their careers or worse.
“Lavender House” has a great story to tell and great lessons to impart about queer love in mid-century America and a little about queer history in San Francisco, but the mystery itself is where the story fell flat for me. It’s not that I could guess who was the killer; it’s rather that I didn’t much care. I ended up being much more intrigued about the family, the detective, and the other characters than I did about the mystery death at the heart of the book. I’d say you have a huge problem if your reader doesn’t care about the mystery in your mystery novel.
I still recommend it, because the glimpse of what it takes to live a queer life in 1950s San Francisco is really worth it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Forge Books for granting me access to this title.
While it was the title and its play on words (a clever twist on John le Carre’s novel “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) that caught my attention (and I havWhile it was the title and its play on words (a clever twist on John le Carre’s novel “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) that caught my attention (and I have no doubt that was the author’s intention), it was the blurb that got me excited. It promised a thriller: sinister and tantalizing. What I felt I got was a book that was so slow to start I wondered if I was even reading the right book (I don’t think the actual plot activated in any minor way until between 25% or 30% of the way in, which is just about anathema in any novel that purports to be a thriller, in my opinion). Even after the plot kicked in the pacing was uneven, the characters weren’t compelling, and the book simply never felt like a thriller.
Back in June, I read William Martin’s “December ‘41”, which is a WWII espionage thriller and WWII historical fiction novel. As a matter of fact, when I reviewed the title, it was categorized exactly the same as “Mother Daughter Traitor Spy” is on Amazon right now. That book is also set in the same time period, starts in Los Angeles with a lot of the same real-life players and the same real-life locations before spinning off into their own plots. Yet “Mother Daughter Traitor Spy” felt like a women’s historical fiction than a thriller at any time. Dramatic and suspenseful, sure, but a thriller? No.
I really wanted this book to wow me, to give me the female spy vibes I longed for. But it just fell flat.
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine Books, and Bantam for granting me early access to this title. Due to the 3 star or lower rating, this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller website. This is my personal policy as an ARC and book reviewer. ...more
I wanted to like this book so much. I really tried. I started out intrigued and fascinated, but the deeper I went into the book the more I wanted to sI wanted to like this book so much. I really tried. I started out intrigued and fascinated, but the deeper I went into the book the more I wanted to stop reading it because the more I disliked it.
The issue wasn’t the plot, or even Courtney Gould’s stunning, evocative prose. It was the characters and the way they were written. See, it’s a bad sign when your protagonist is not only someone a reader can’t identify with but also genuinely thinks is a bad person. I couldn’t stand Beck, and by the end of the book I thought she was a horrible person who really should be put in jail.
They label this book paranormal fantasy, but what it’s closer to is metaphysical fantasy with a tinge of cult horror. Gould does great with the otherworldly aspects of writing metaphysical fantasy. She has a sincere talent for worldbuilding and vivid imagery. The decision to set this book in the desert helps with some of the imagery, given how much deserts remind people of mirages, air so hot it shimmers, slipping in loose dirt, and how easy it is to get lost in that environment. A desert setting is almost using subliminal messaging from the start to lay a foundation on which many other mysteries can be easily placed.
I don’t know if I’m alone in my disdain for Beck or not, but she definitely ruined the book for me. The only reason I finished the book was because I wanted to see how it ended. Given that it ended pretty much exactly how I guessed it would, I was disappointed.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All opinions, thoughts, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Due to personal policy, this review will not be posted on any social media or bookseller website owing to a rating of three stars or lower. ...more
Crooked Lane Books rarely lets me down. I am usually a huge fan of the imprint’s titles. Crime procedural mysteries and thriReal Rating: 2.5 / 5 Stars
Crooked Lane Books rarely lets me down. I am usually a huge fan of the imprint’s titles. Crime procedural mysteries and thrillers are essentially their bread and butter, and for someone like me (who basically spends every day mainlining syndicated crime procedural dramas) this means that usually a Crooked Lane book is a guaranteed solid read.
That’s why I was beyond frustrated and absolutely disappointed in “Her Dying Day”. I was looking forward to this book so much, because if there’s one historical tale that has always made me chuckle it’s the mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie in December of 1926 after her husband told her he wanted a divorce and then took off on a vacation without her but with his mistress in tow. When Christie was found 10 days later in a hotel/spa, she was registered under a false name, the surname of which belonging to her husband’s mistress. There were (and still are), so many theories as to why Christie did what she did, and some of them are paralleled in this book (the author who disappeared in this book is named Greer Larkin): Christie’s car was found abandoned at the top of a chalk quarry (Larkin’s is found abandoned by a lighthouse), and a few of the theories on why Christie disappeared are echoed in why Larkin may not be dead and simply disappeared into thin air instead.
The thing is, if they had centered the whole book on June (the protagonist) being intent on making her documentary about Greer Larkin’s disappearance and then getting in too deep as she gets closer and closer to the truth as she decides to move from simply documenting the disappearance to trying to actually solve it, then I could’ve gotten behind this book 100%. But Mindy Carlson (and, if I can be honest, probably her editor too) couldn’t leave it at that. A great deal of this book was devoted to a terrible subplot about June being her thesis advisor’s mistress that was shoehorned in whenever Carlson got the chance, even though most of the time I couldn’t see the relevance or connection between the affair and the mystery of Greer Larkin. It’s not only until the end of the book that the affair makes any difference to June’s state of mind at all, really. And even then, it seems rushed and, again, shoehorned in. The book would’ve been better off had this subplot been ditched entirely. Also, there were “excerpts” from Greer Larkin’s books plopped into the book in intervals, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. I suspect they had something to do with something coming up soon in the story, but they honestly had the feeling of when someone writes a term paper and just plops in quotes just to look like they’re smart and clever but it just looks and feels clunky, ruining the flow of the paper entirely.
All in all, this book suffers from bad characterizations, poorly-structured plot, stuttered flow, poor pacing, and a serious case of too much unnecessary stuff shoved into a book that just ends up being padding. It could’ve been so much better, and that’s the worst feeling in the world.
Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. Per personal policy, this review will not appear on social media or bookseller websites due to the 3 star or lower rating. ...more
I love a good time loop novel, but it’s so hard to get them right. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to keep the notes on a novel like this whI love a good time loop novel, but it’s so hard to get them right. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to keep the notes on a novel like this while you’re writing it, always endeavoring to make sure you keep your loop notes in a row like so many duckies. How many revisions must it take? How many times must an author want to pull their hair out because they forgot a tiny detail and now must write a whole section over again? Never mind the editing process! The give and take relationship between editor and writer, the many discussions there must be about what needs to go and what needs to stay and just why they need to go or why they absolutely need to stay.
The cleverness of writing a time novel in reverse is that the author doesn’t have to worry about getting the details of every single day correct every time it loops. Every day is different, because our protagonist is moving backwards in time. She has a mission, and every day she lands in is somehow important to getting to the bottom of stopping her son from committing murder some day in the future. But as we move through the book (and through time) with Jen, we begin to figure out it’s not only the mystery of stopping the murder she needs to solve, but she also needs to figure out what set this whole chain of events in motion in the first place. That’s when the book goes from merely interesting to downright intriguing.
As a mother, I had so many feelings about this book in the first half. I found myself tearing up more than once reading about how Jen struggled with wondering if what happened was all her fault; if somehow she had failed somewhere along the line as a mom and that’s why her son had ended up killing a man. As she moved backward in time and saw her son grow younger, saw all the tiny things she missed or took for granted at the time like we all do, and wondered where all the time had gone and why. Her conviction to keep looking and keep digging is something I sympathized with, because I know if I were in a situation like that I would do everything possible to try and figure out why my kid killed someone so suddenly and without warning.
In the second half of the book, I sympathized with the complex and myriad emotions Jen was feeling while at the same time enjoying the upshift in both pacing and suspense. Jen goes from fumbling and trying her best to piece together this puzzle, and then an important piece clicks into place and it changes the whole game. From there on out it becomes amateur covert ops combined with a mettle only a mom can gather when her child’s life is on the line.
The bottom line is Gillian McAllister somehow manages to weave intense family drama with intriguing suspense thriller without making the book clunky or slow. It’s a wonderful and moving read.
Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for granting me access to this title....more
First off, I need to start off by stating that I have not read the first book in this series. I didn’t realize until after IReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
First off, I need to start off by stating that I have not read the first book in this series. I didn’t realize until after I had gotten the book that it was the second in a series, but I was so intrigued I decided to go ahead and read it anyway. It proved not to be an issue, as it seemed the plot from the first book didn’t seem to overly affect the plot of this book; at least not enough to curtail my enjoyment of it.
Make no mistake, despite the 3.5 star rating I gave this book, that’s not because I didn’t enjoy the book. There are aspects of the book that did affect my enjoyment to some degree (as in I would have enjoyed it more if this aspect of the book had been done better or if this part had been left out), but overall I did find the book to be an engaging and humorous read. In a way, this was like if you took any of the female BAU agents from “Criminal Minds”, but had them decide not to join the FBI, and then plop them into suburbia and make a satirical mystery book series out of the bug for solving crimes and studying behavior they just can’t shake. Does that make any sense? It does to me. But, then again, I keep crime procedurals on for background noise all day and night.
Things I loved: The suburban setting and how it affects families in different ways. Suburbs have never been a solution: they have always been a problem. They were a white privilege answer to a racist and classist issue. They didn’t see it that way, of course, but that’s what it was. And all it earned them was an urge to keep up with the neighbors, to encourage cultural hegemony, and to turn them all into people who were too busy trying to earn money to afford to keep living in suburbia they spent more time at work and commuting than at home with the family and house they worked so hard to have. This theme plays a huge part in the book for every couple involved. I also loved how Nicieza never magically made it so the children in this book were magically transported off somewhere else when things needed to be taken care of: In real life, it’s not like you can just drop off your baby every time you want to go to lunch. The baby comes with you, whether you want her to or not. So does the diaper bag and the car seat. It’s a fact of life. And sometimes babies poop in public places and spit up on your friend’s shirts. Welcome to parenthood. I also loved the dry wit and acerbic personality of Andie, our main character. Her background is interesting as heck, and I don’t know if they cover more of it in the first book, but if they don’t I hope they cover more of it in a future book, because I’d love to see and hear more.
Things I didn’t like: The constant switching of POVs and the characters of Kenny and Sitara. The problem I had with the POV switching is that it was done clumsily. It was done with no grace. It was almost a stumble every time and it made me sigh every time it happened. I found Sitara both patronizing and too tolerant at the same time, and it made me feel like she was far too spineless for her role in the story. And what can I say about Kenny besides going off on a complete tirade on how utterly annoying I found him? There’s literally nothing I like about his character. If you want me to talk about the thing I liked the least about this book, I can tell you emphatically it’s Kenny. The man needs help.
Overall, it was a decent job. Could’ve been better, could’ve been worse. I’m eager to see if there will be a follow-up. Hopefully with less Kenny.
Thanks to NetGalley and G. P. Putnam’s Sons for granting me early access to this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
It’s a lot of Jack the Ripper, fantasy-style, with some amateur sleuthing and a rather intriguing moon-based magic system (I’m serious! I’ve read magiIt’s a lot of Jack the Ripper, fantasy-style, with some amateur sleuthing and a rather intriguing moon-based magic system (I’m serious! I’ve read magic systems that are similar based on darkness or shadows, but not on the moon itself unless it involved vampirism or lupine transformation, so I was geeking out a little. If you read this book and can think of another book with a magic system that comes very close to this one, can you reach me directly and let me know? I’d be totes interested!).
Okay, okay, I’m going to admit that I’m totally guilty of “Ooh, shiny cover” syndrome with this one. I saw the cover and was immediately fixated on it. I had to read it. The blurb helped some, but I’ll go ahead and give big props to the cover designer. But the book didn’t disappoint me either. It’s not the best standalone fantasy novel I’ve read this year, but it’s pretty darn good, and that’s better than 80% of the standalone fantasy novels I’ve read this year so far. As a matter of fact, the only true complaint I have with the book is that I think it’s too long. I think the content editing could’ve been tighter and the story could’ve been resolved in under 400 pages if that had happened. But that’s just this reviewer’s opinion. And we all know I think a lot of books are too long and need better content editing.
The world building is above average, but not outstanding. The magic system is fantastic, even though I wish there was more time to explore it. The plot is entirely a Jack the Ripper plot (or it begins as such, before the serial killer changes his aims and goals), but the way it’s handled by Beaty is masterful: She uses the central conflict of having our female protagonist, Cat, try her hardest to help flush out the killer to highlight how young men feel they are entitled to women’s bodies and hearts as payment for all they do for them and how poor behavior on the part of men is dismissed as playful or flirtatious when it more often than not only frightens women and causes them to eventually become accustomed to violence being a sign of love and affection. This is most evident in the character Juliane, who is mentally ill and has not only witnessed and been a victim of violence in her family all her life, but she also suffers from extreme neglect due to her own violent urges she cannot help.
This was a satisfying, fun read I recommend for fans of fantasy novels involving sleuthing, suspense, or crime-solving. Catch a serial killer in a fantasy world.
Thanks to NetGalley and FSG for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
Loading...
