Book Review: Jason Rekulak - Hidden Pictures (published in 2022)

 

This whole time I was thinking I would give this book a decent four stars. Then the ending blew me away. The way everything connects was well-done in my view and I think everything wraps up perfectly (including the one thing that doesn't wrap up at all, which I found entertaining).

This story is about a recovering addict Mallory. She's 18 months sober and is looking for a summer job. She's finds this with the help of her sponsor with a family who is looking for an in-house babysitter for their child Teddy. Teddy warms to Mallory immediately and he draws her many pictures. There's something off about the pictures though, they start transforming into more sinister images and who is this woman Teddy is talking to in his room during Quiet Time? 

This book could touch upon one of my major tropes in thrillers when female protagonists are projected as weak. It does not however. Mallory has been written as a decent female protagonist (even though she does somethings that made me shout out in frustration), and the plot evolves in a very interesting manner. It's certainly something I didn't really expect even though I had a bit of an inkling. 

It's a very entertaining read, and I'm looking forward to more books from this author in the future. 

Book Review: Darcy Coates - From Below (published in 2022)

 

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!

I did not like the ending of DARCY COATES' latest horror novel, but there's a big but coming: I loved how it wrapped up all elements of the story so nicely. Nothing is left hanging. All plot points I could think of have a nice ribbon tied around them. 

I read THE WHISPERING DEAD by Coates recently and I enjoyed it, but it was slightly bland. This is not that. The pacing of FROM BELOW is a bit slow. It's not 400 pages but it felt like more, and it didn't really need to be. It nail-bitingly creepy though. I've not read many horror books lately that contain real suspenseful horrific scenes and this one does. 

The story is about an expedition to a sunken ship. No one knows why it sunk back in the day, so a film crew is out to capture footage of the vessel to see if they can uncover more information. And that they do. 

The characters are all interesting and well-fleshed out. It's easy to understand all their motives. Expeditions and explorations where horrific scenes are found are a favourite thing of mine in books, so it has all the elements for me to love. If the pacing wouldn't have been off and if the thing that happened at the end wouldn't have happened it would've been five stars. 

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!

Book Review: Emily Henry - Book Lovers (published in 2022)

This book ticked all the right boxes for me. EMILY HENRY can write such good characters and dialogues it's difficult to think they only exist on the pages of a book. 

BOOK LOVERS felt like a suspense novel for me. I've never been so invested in love story as the one between Nora and Charlie. She's a literary agent living in New York. The men she has dated have almost all had small town flings and have left her. She's living in a romance novel, only she is at the wrong end of it. Charlie is an editor. He also lives in New York. They meet, argue and hate each other. 

Nora's sister Libby has a great idea for her. They have to live the small town life that Nora's exes have done. Who knows, maybe Nora will run into the love of her life there? They move to a small town which was the setting of one of Nora's client's books. There she runs in to Charlie of all people. 

I'm going to leave you there, just know that when you read this book you should be ready for realistic and laugh-out-loud dialogues between the characters; a real heartfelt story; and I can't promise you you won't cry. 

Book Review: Gabriela Garcia - Of Women and Salt (published in 2021)

 

I enjoyed my time with this short story collection by GABRIELA GARCIA. I like it when all stories intertwine and kind of come together by the end. 

The author has given every single woman their own distinct voice, which makes the read surprising and refreshing throughout. We start in the Cuba in the past, in a cigar factory, which I think is immediately my favourite story because it brings back memories of my trip to the country. Then we move from Cuba to present-day USA and we skip backwards and forwards in time and through different countries. 

The subject matter is hard-hitting because it deals with migration and displaced families, but because it's all done from the point-of-view of the women living through it it never becomes overtly dramatic. 

The audiobook narrator has done a good job giving all the women their voices. 

Many thanks to the publisher Picador and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!

3.5 stars

Book Review: Nicholas Sparks - The Wish (published in 2021)

 

I've never read a novel by NICHOLAS SPARKS, but I'm incredibly familiar with his heartbreaking stories. I've seen every single movie that has come out. THE NOTEBOOK, SAFE HAVEN and THE CHOICE are ones I rewatch regularly. 

When the opportunity presented itself to pick up an early copy of his latest books, I decided to go for it. I'm happy I did, because I loved my time with THE WISH. 

The story is about Maggie, a 16-year-old who finds herself pregnant after a night with a stranger. She is shipped off to Ocracoke on the East Coast of the US, as far away from her parents and friends in Seattle. There she stays with her aunt Linda, and she meets Bryce. A young man with wild ambitions who offers to tutor her. 

We cut back and forth between Maggie now, where she receives devastating medical news and Maggie then. 

A lot of the fun of this novel was in getting to know the characters. Everyone, including the Bryce's pupper, became alive on the page. I couldn't wait to find out how the story would conclude. I had many guesses, and many of them were correct. That didn't mean I was fully invested & inthralled in the expert storytelling on the pages of this book. 

I laughed when Maggie laughed, I cried when she cried. 

I secretly can't wait to see who will be cast for the movie, but for now I'm really happy I checked the book out first. 

Many thanks to the publisher Little Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!

Book Review: Lexie Elliott - How to Kill Your Best Friend (published in 2021)

 

This novel has a lot of the elements I love in my thrillers. It has a strong cast of characters who are wel fleshed out. It has a concise plot and clear mystery elements which trip you up as you go. 

It was a bit more predictable than I wanted it to be though. I never guess the outcome of a novel, because it doesn't even occur to me to ever guess what will happen. In this case I guess it around the 25% mark and I was correct. That's a bit of a pity, but that's not were the thrill is alway so it doesn't matter to much. 

The story is about a group of best friends who reunite for their best friend's funeral at a luxury resort where she lived with her husband. The whole group are swimmers and the two girls left Georgie and Bron miss their swimming buddy. 

The way she has passed is very strange and they can't help but investigate a little bit while they're on the island. 

I like how the story unfolds and how we get to meet all the characters. I have a really good picture of what Georgie, Bron, Adam, Duncan, Jem and even Lissa (who has passed) are like. I feel like I know them. 

The ending felt a bit muddled and too slow, but the last scenes blew my mind. I will 100% read LEXIE ELLIOTT's other novels, because if she serves more of this - I'm there for it!

Many thanks to the publisher Atlantic Books and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!

Book Review: A.S. King - Switch (published in 2021)

I was surprised by how easily I understood what was written and in general how easy it was to be swept away by the writing in this book. I'm not normally one to like "experimental" writing like this. I prefer an author who writes like a real person does, rather than a poetic interpretation. 

That having been said, A.S. KING does a great job in making her writing incredibly accessible. The narrative flows like poetry on the pages, but it remains understandable. 

Tru Beck is a teenager in a world where time has stopped. This happened a few days after her mother left her father and her father lost her job. She's been trying to deal with this new reality for over nine months, and everyone around her has slowly settled in to the fact that there is no such thing as time anymore. 

There's a switch in her house but she doesn't know what it does, because her father has constructed boxes around it to protect the switch. Not only that, the layout of her house shifts around at the whims of her father as well. 

There's quite a lot going on in this short novel. A lot of topics are addressed, but the message always remains clear. The parallel that teenagers kind of have to deal with a similar situation today (in COVID times) makes the overall meaning of this book even stronger. 

I would certainly recommend this novel even if you're not a fan of magical realism or poetical writing, I think you might still enjoy it.

Many thanks to the publisher Text Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy! 

4 stars