Sorry for Your Loss by Georgia McVeigh

 

What is a thriller novel, show, or movie that you have enjoyed lately?

Iris has recently lost her fiancé and has joined a local grief group to work through her loss.  While there, she meets the very handsome Jack who has recently lost his wife to cancer.  As Iris plots ways to win Jack’s affections, she discovers things are not what they seem.  What is real and what is deception in Iris and Jack’s world?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This is a contemporary psychological thriller.

·       It’s hard to write a review for this one as I don’t want to give anything away.  It’s best to go in not knowing much about the story.

·       There were many twists and turns in this one, some I figured out, and some where a surprise.

·       The story alternates between the present and the past.  Iris lost her twin sister, Marcie, growing up and it details their relationship and Marcie’s fate.

·       The story is set in London.

·       Iris is not a very likeable person, but I was intrigued to see what she would do next.  I also felt sorry for the losses that she had in life.

·       The novel was very action packed at the end and I couldn’t put it down.

·       The story is told as Iris’s inner monologue.

·       I can’t believe this is a debut novel.  I’m interested to see what Georgia McVeigh writes next.

·       The ending did leave me wondering what could happen next. 

Overall, Sorry for Your Loss by Georgia McVeigh was an intriguing contemporary psychological thriller. 

Book Source:  Review copy from Penguin Random House.  Thank-you!

Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston

 

What is your favorite mystery/thriller? Recommendations please.

Camille Baylis is unhappy in her marriage to lawyer Ben.  He tracks her every move.  She is sure he is hiding something from her so she comes up with a plan with Aubrey Price to have Aubrey take her car and spend a day as her so that Camille can figure out what Ben is up to.  Aubrey is sure Ben knows something about her parents’ deaths.  When Ben is found dead the next day, only one woman has an alibi.  Who murdered Ben and why?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I don’t want to give too much away in my thoughts so they will be brief.

·       The plot is intricately woven and entertaining.

·       I was guessing up until the very end and I was surprised by the ending.

·       I loved the romantic subplot with Aubrey and her protective housemate, Duncan.

·       I enjoyed the alternating viewpoints between Camille, Aubrey, and Hank (Ben’s law partner).

·       I loved The First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston.  Anatomy of an Alibi was good, but not as good as The First Lie Wins.  I think the story was tighter in First Lie Wins.  There was a lot of characters to keep straight in this one. 

Overall, Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston was an enjoyable contemporary thriller.

Book Source:  Review Copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you!

Retreat by Krysten Ritter with Lindsay Jameson

 

Title:  Retreat

Author:  Krysten Ritter with Lindsay Jameson

Narrated by:  Krysten Ritter

Publisher: Harper Audio

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 41 minutes

Source: Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for the review copy of the physical book.  Audiobook purchased from audible.

Who is your favorite con artist in book or film?  I love Thomas Crown in the Thomas Crown Affair.

Liz Dawson is a beautiful and smart woman who has lived her life as a serial con artist.  She takes an easy job installing a piece of art in Isabelle Beresford’s vacation villa in Mexico.  When she is mistaken for Isabelle, Liz takes over her life.  She soon finds out, “Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive.”  What secrets did the real Isabelle have and will Liz make it out alive?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I liked that the main character, Liz, is a con artist and it was interesting to hear her story and how she can pretend to be high class people and scam them.  Even thought she was a con artist; I find myself liking her and rooting for her.

·       This was riveting to listen to on audiobook.

·       This was a fun book to read.

·       I loved the beautiful Mexico setting.  It was nice this week especially with the giant blizzard we had in Northeast Wisconsin.

·       I don’t want to give away the plot, but I sort of guessed the end, but not quite all the way.  There was a great twist!

·       There were a lot of rich people behaving badly in this story.  It was a good escapism read.

·       This was a fast-paced suspense thriller and a quick read.

·       The story is contemporary and a psychological thriller. 

·       The ending was open ended and has kept me thinking.   I do wish it had been a clear ending. 

Overall, Retreat by Krysten Ritter with Lindsay Jameson was a great escapism thriller read.

 

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

 

Title:  Beautiful Ugly

Author:  Alice Feeney

Narrated by:  Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton

Publisher: MacMillian Audio

Length: Approximately 9 hours and 19 minutes

Source: Review Copy from NetGalley and checked out through Libby with the Kewaunee Public Library

Do you prefer reading books with single POV or multiple POV?

Grady Green has just found out that his latest book has made the best sellers list, but his joy is tempered as his wife Abby has not returned home to hear the news.  He receives a mysterious phone call from her and then she disappears.  A year later, Grady’s life has gone off the rails, but he has one last opportunity to get back on the right path.  His publicist has been left a writer’s retreat on a remote Scottish island that another of her famous writers used to use to write his books.  Grady can use it to crank out a book.  Once on the island, he notices that things are odd. Is he seeing his missing wife?  Why does everyone wear the same mysterious ring?  Can he leave the island?

My thoughts on this book:

·       This book had a great first chapter that pulls you in with Abby going missing.

·       I loved Richard Armitage as the main narrator of the audiobook.  There were also sound effects throughout the novel, especially with phone calls.

·       The story was primarily told through Grady’s point of view, but there are some chapters set in the past told through Abby’s point of view.

·       I loved the Scottish island setting of Amberly.  Being cut off from the rest of the world gives the story an eerie feel.

·       This novel had interesting characters.  I felt like I was losing my mind with Grady on the Island. I must admit that my favorite character though was Grady’s dog.

·       I enjoyed this thriller until the end.  There was just one too many twists and it fell into the very unbelievable category for me.  I was disappointed as I had really enjoyed the book until that point.

Favorite quote: “Sometimes I think we are all the unreliable narrators of our own lives.”

Overall, Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney had all the makings of a great thriller, but unfortunately the ending made this an overall disappointing read.

The Good Samaritan by Toni Halleen (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for the review copy of The Good Samaritan by Toni Halleen.

Have you ever been helped by a good Samaritan, or have you been one yourself?  I spun my mom’s car and slide off the highway while driving through a snow storm when I was in college.  A good Samaritan stopped and made sure I was okay, which I greatly appreciated.

Matthew Larkin is a sociology professor at St. Gustaf in Minnesota in 1992.  While driving home one night, he comes across a young passed out boy underneath a tarp in the rain.  Trying to be a good Samaritan, he decides to take the boy to the hospital himself.  The boy wakes up and runs off before Matthew gets him to the hospital.  Who is this boy and why was he passed out in the rain?  Why does he remind Matthew of the poor choices he has made in his own life that led up to his own son’s death?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was an interesting domestic suspense thriller.  I would call this a family drama or slow burn domestic thriller as didn’t have a lot of stunning twists and turns.  It did have a lot of character and family development.

·       I liked the 1992 and Minnesota setting. 

·       The story was told through many people including Matthew, his daughter Claire, the missing boy, Seaver, and Kira a social worker that is looking for Seaver.

·       The stories were all separate, but intwined.  I liked the resolution at the end.  I thought that the mystery was solved and that the characters also had great growth towards a positive solution to the problems in their lives.

·       I didn’t always think Matthew made the right choices, but I felt for him.  He tried to do what was the right thing at the time.  He kept harkening back to the worst moment of his life, his son’s death, and the aftermath which included the destruction of his marriage. 

·       Claire is trying to navigate life as a teenager from a broken family.  She has a crush, but when her crush takes things too far, what will she do?

·       Seaver had to leave his foster home suddenly, but what he wants most is to get back his mother.

·       Kira wants to find Seaver, but she also has ties to Claire and gets to know Matthew.

·       There are some trigger warnings and heavy themes for this book including sexual assault, the death of a child, alcoholism, drug addiction, divorce, grief, foster care, and runaways.

·       The book does make you think, what would you do in such a situation?  Now with cell phones, I would just call the police immediately.  It’s interesting how technology has change our society so much since the 1990s.

·       I enjoyed these characters and would love another novel to catch up with them a few years down the road.

Overall, The Good Samaritan by Toni Halleen was a good domestic suspense thriller with interesting characters and premise.

Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for the review copy of Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler.

What is your favorite thriller novel/show/movie?  I don’t know if I have one favorite, by I know I really enjoyed Gone Girl as it kept taking me by surprise.

Shell Games is a quick moving thriller that I had a hard time putting down.  Kate has built her real estate empire from the ground up and now late in life, she has reunited and is marrying her high school sweetheart.  On their first night of marriage, Charlie tells Kate that he was the Tylenol serial killer in the 1980s.  The police are called, and Kate is convinced that Charlie is trying to gaslight her to be able to take over her fortune.  Kate’s daughter, Julie, is not sure who to believe.  Is her mild-mannered step-father a smooth operator planning to steal her mother’s fortune?  Does her mother have dementia?

My thoughts on this book:

·       I loved the growth of Julie throughout the book.  She has an unhealthy marriage, she feels overshadowed by her mother, and she doesn’t seem to be living life for herself.  Through the book, she learns to be confident and to value herself.

·       I liked the twists and turns in this book.  I’m still thinking about it almost a week after finishing it.

·       Gaslighting is a major theme of this novel.

·       There was a brief snippet this week about this book on NPR’s Book of the Day.

·       I liked the discussion in the book about climate change and the impacts on Florida’s coast. 

·       It’s best to go into this novel not knowing much about the story and just enjoying the ride.

Overall, Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler is an exciting new thriller that is a fun joy ride to read.

She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica

 

What is a recent thriller that you have read and enjoyed?

Meghan Michaels is a divorced ICU nurse in Chicago.  She’s a single mom taking care of her teenaged daughter as a killer roams the streets murdering single women.  A new patient has arrived in the ICUE named Caitlen.  It’s thought that she tried to commit suicide, but a witness comes forward stating that they saw Caitlin fighting with someone right before her fall.  Could it have been a murder attempt?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I have enjoyed Mary Kubica’s thrillers in the past and this did not disappoint.

·       I really enjoyed the twist at the end of the novel.  I don’t want to ruin the surprise, so I am not going to get into details.

·       The plot was very engaging, and I read this story quickly.  I was hooked from the very first page.

·       I especially enjoyed the atmosphere and tension in this book.  I felt scared for Meghan every time she walked home. 

·       The unreliable characters made it so that the reader was not sure who to believe.

·       The difficulty of the mother and teenage daughter relationship seemed very relatable.

·       It was interesting thinking about being a nurse and trying to maintain the balance of being a professional and not digging into patients’ private matters.

·       I read this book in April, but I’m still plucking away at getting some past reviews posted.

Overall, She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica was an engaging thriller that I could not put down.

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley. Thank-you!

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

 

Title: One Perfect Couple

Author:  Ruth Ware

Narrated by:  Imogen Church

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 14 hours and 25 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank you!

 

If you could be on a reality TV show, which would you like to be on?  I always thought it would be fun to be on The Amazing Race.

Lyla is a post-doctoral researcher.  Her boyfriend Nico is an actor.  He receives an opportunity to join the cast of a new reality show, One Perfect Couple, but only if Lyla goes with him.  She decides to join him to help out his career.  They must compete against four other couples for a prize.  Unfortunately, Lyla finds out that individuals are voted off and that the point of the show is to recouple.  She is not happy that Nico left this detail out of the explanation.  A horrific storm hits the island where the show is filmed in the Indian Ocean, and all of the teams are cut off from the world on a desert island with limited food and water.  As people start dying one by one, are there more sinister forces at play?

My thoughts on this book:

·       This book is survivor meets Lord of the Flies meets Agatha Christie’s And then There are None.

·       This was a very engaging audiobook.  I enjoyed the thrilling suspense.

·       Lyla is the narrator of the story, and Imogen Church did a great job of providing her voice in the audiobook.

·       Lyla is also my favorite character.  As a woman in STEM myself, I enjoyed her perspective on everything, even though I wanted to sit down and have a serious talk with her about her relationship with Nico.

·       I loved the tropical Indian Ocean setting. 

·       I enjoyed the surviving while deserted on the island scenario as well as the bonding between the characters that took place on the island.

·       All the couples have various problems that come to head in such a tense situation.

·       I don’t want to get too much into the plot and ruin the story.  I finished this audiobook quickly and greatly enjoyed the thrill of the story.

·       I wasn’t wowed by the ending, but it worked okay for me.

Overall, One Perfect Couple is another great suspense thriller from Ruth Ware. 

 

One of Our Own by Lucinda Berry

 

Title: One of Our Own

Author:  Lucinda Berry

Narrated by:  A.J. Cook, Tessa Albertson

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 3 hours and 54 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank you @simonandschuster @BookClubFavorites #BookClubFavorites for the free books!

Do you like to listen to audiobooks?  Do you like audiobook originals?  I do as they provide a great audio experience with different narrators, sound effects, music, etc.  One of Our Own by Lucinda Berry is an audiobook original from Simon & Schuster.

In this thriller, Felicia who beyond her regular duties as a single mother and a lawyer, volunteers at a suicide help line.  One day she talks with a girl who has been raped and she realizes it happened at a party that her son had attended.  Will she be able to help out this girl and did her son know anything about it?

My thoughts:

·       I don’t want to give away too much of the plot so this review will be brief.

·       This was a nice short read for when you are looking for a quick audiobook.

·       It had a great audiobook production with wonderful voice actors and sound effects.

·       Trigger alert:  Rape and abuse.

·       This book was set in Wisconsin, and I enjoy when books are set locally.

·       Author Lucinda Berry is a former clinical psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma.  She uses her knowledge and experience to craft a moving psychological thriller.

·       I did predict the ending of this one, but I enjoyed reading about Felicia’s journey.  She was an interesting character that had to work through moral dilemmas.

Overall, One of our Own is a riveting thriller and audiobook production.

The Fury by Alex Michaelides

 

Do you like stories with unreliable narrators?  I do with two of my favorites being The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Lana Farrar is a famous ex-movie star.  She has invited her friends to her private Greek island for a holiday.  When a murder occurs who is the culprit?

My thoughts on this thriller:

·       Elliot Chase, Lana’s best friend, is the first-person narrator.  He is unreliable and a mystery himself.

·       Elliot has a hard time sticking to the story.  He has one surprise in him, but when he gets to a second surprise, it was too much for me. 

·       Elliot addresses the audience, breaking the fourth wall, which I liked, but he also seemed to know things that he wouldn’t have known as he wasn’t in the room or with those certain characters.  He says at the beginning of the book that maybe he is making up scenes.  I wasn’t sure how to feel about this.

·       This story moves between being a love story or a story of obsession.

·       Nothing or no one is as it seems in this book.

·       I enjoyed the exotic Greek setting, especially when reading this during a Wisconsin winter.

·       I was reading this novel quickly as it was an engaging thriller, but it lost steam by the end for me.

·       I listened to an interview with author Alex Michaelides and he stated that he meticulously plotted his first two books, but went with the flow on this one.  You could tell.  I loved one of his previous books, The Silent Patient, which was tightly plotted.

·       I didn’t really like any of the characters.  It was more the style of the story that kept me engaged.  I liked that fury became a character itself.

Overall, while The Fury didn’t keep me engaged through the entire book, I did enjoy reading it and being a part of the fury.

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley and Celadon Books.  Thank-you!

The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson

 

Title:  The Christmas Guest

Author:  Peter Swanson

Narrated by:  Esther Wane

Publisher: HarperAudio

Length: Approximately 2 hours and 48 minutes

Source: Purchased from Amazon.com

Do you like to read novellas or short stories?  I do, especially during the busy holiday season.  I have enjoyed Peter Swanson’s thrillers in the past and was excited to see what he would craft with a Christmas story.

Ashley Smith is an American Art student studying in London in the 1980s.  She is excited to be invited to spend the Christmas season with a fellow student Emma Chapman at her family’s country estate.  Ashley is intrigued and smitten by Emma’s brother Adam.  There is also a sinister stranger lurking in the woods between the manor house and the local pub the young people like to hang out at.  Has Ashley stumbled into a romance, a gothic story, or something else at this picturesque estate over the Christmas season?

I don’t want to get too much more into the story as I appreciated all the twists and turns.  As with other Peter Swanson novels, things are not what they seem at first glance and the characters are much more than they first appear.  I liked how this story was told through Ashley’s diary entries from the 1980’s and the second half was Ashley filling in the rest of the story in the present day.  This is definitely NOT a Hallmark Christmas story, but I loved the English manor atmosphere, the mystery, and the psychological thriller aspect.  It was a good Christmas story and definitely had me thinking at the end.

Esther Wane was a good narrator and was the voice of Ashley through the novel for me.

 

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

 

Title: None of This is True

Author:  Lisa Jewell

Narrated by:  Kristin Atherton, Ayesha Antoine, Louise Brealey, Alix Dunmore, Elliot Fitzpatrick, Lisa Jewell, Thomas Judd, Dominic Thorburn, Nicola Walker, Jenny Walser

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 20 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank you @simonandschuster #BookClubFavorites for the free books!

Have you read any good thrillers lately?  None of This is True was a great thriller read for October that kept me riveted during long drives.

Josie Fair and Alix Summers meet when they both are celebrating their 45^th birthdays at a local pub and discover they are birthday twins.  Josie learns that Alix is a podcaster and listens to her podcasts.  They run into each other again and Josie tells Alix she thinks she would make an interesting subject for Alix’s podcast as she is about to change her life.  As they get to know each other, Alix discovers that Josie has lived through some terrible times and her story does have the makings of a great podcast.  As the title informs the reader, is Josie’s story true?  What is truth, and what is fiction about both Josie’s and Alix’s lives? 

This thriller keeps the reader guessing throughout the novel.  I guessed some of the reveals, but other items took me by surprise.  I needed an audiobook that could keep me engaged on long car trips and this was it.  I almost hated arriving at my destination as I wanted to know what was going to happen next!   I don’t want to spoil the story by giving away too many details, but this was a great thriller story and audiobook.

None of This is True is a stellar audiobook production with great sound effects and a full cast to put together the pieces of the podcast.  Especially listening to this as an audiobook, it was so fun to hear all of the interview clips and parts of the podcast rather than just reading them.  It was an immersive experience.  It was one of the best audiobook productions I have ever listened to.  I highly recommend it if you’re looking for an engaging audiobook.