After starting on a not so good foot, in the other half of January me and my girls picked another book to read together, and this time we were even less thrilled. I was excited to read another book by Gillian McAllister as I liked some of her novels in the past, but unfortunately Just Another Missing Person didn’t do it for me. You can read my review bellow.
This novel was first time published on August 1st 2023 and it has 384 pages.
About the book:
FROM GOODREADS /
22-year-old Olivia has been missing for one day…and counting. She was last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again.
Julia, the detective heading up the search for Olivia, thinks she knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her husband and daughter. But she has no idea just how close to home this case is going to get.
Because the criminal at the heart of the disappearance has something she never expected. His weapon isn’t a gun, or a knife: it’s a secret. Her worst one. And her family’s safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia – and must frame somebody else for her murder.
If you find her, you will lose everything. What would you do?
This clever and endlessly surprising thriller is laced with a smart look at family and motherhood, and cements Gillian McAllister as a major talent in the world of suspense and a master of creating ethical dilemmas that show just how murky the distinction between right and wrong can be.
Review:
This was a book club pick for January. I was excited to read this author again, as I previously loved her other two books, and because in the meantime her career skyrocketed (or so it seems to me).
Unfortunately, reading Just Another Missing Person was not a good choice by me and my friends. Out of five of us, only three of us managed to finish it, and not one of us gave it a rating higher than 2. So I think in this case it’s a book, not us.
The biggest turn down was the way it was written. Some chapters were written in third person, some in second, with so many characters that it was hard to get into the book. I couldn’t connect to anyone really, but I didn’t have trouble to judge that mum who threw her son to the wolves and I am still not sure if she was even aware of that. Since that was the only case when I felt at least something, I will hang on it if anyone ask me how I feel about this book.
Also, I have to mention that the father of a missing girl sounded like a creep and gave me chills. It was like reading from perspective of an adult who is romantically in love with his daughter.
I couldn’t care about the missing girl as the author didn’t do anything to make us connect with her. The only character I can say I was intrigued about was that young guy who dated the missing girl.
Unfortunately, this was a big let down for me and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
I made a mistake for not picking up Wrong Place, Wrong Time instead, but now, after finishing Just Another Missing Person, I lost the will to give it a try.
As you probably already know, I am a member of a book club where four of us girls (plus from February one guy as a new member) pick a book or two and read it together, while discuss it all along as we read. 2024 didn’t start on a good note, as both books we read in January weren’t that good.
Today I bring you my review for a book that got lot of hype at one point in 2023. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of it, but at least my FOMO was cured.
The Last Word was published on April 25th 2023 and it has 340 pages.
About the book:
FROM GOODREADS /
After posting a negative book review, a woman living in a remote location begins to wonder if the author is a little touchy—or very, very dangerous—in this pulse-pounding novel of psychological suspense and terror from the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and Hairpin Bridge.
Emma Carpenter lives in isolation with her golden retriever Laika, house-sitting an old beachfront home on the rainy Washington coast. Her only human contact is her enigmatic old neighbor, Deek, and (via text) the house’s owner, Jules.
One day, she reads a poorly written—but gruesome—horror novel by the author H. G. Kane, and posts a one-star review that drags her into an online argument with none other than the author himself. Soon after, disturbing incidents start to occur at night. To Emma, this can’t just be a coincidence. It was strange enough for this author to bicker with her online about a lousy review; could he be stalking her, too?
As Emma digs into Kane’s life and work, she learns he has published sixteen other novels, all similarly sadistic tales of stalking and murder. But who is he? How did he find her? And what else is he capable of?
Review:
This was a January pick for our book club and unfortunately 2024 didn’t start well. The Last Word was a mess, and the book we read after this one was even worse.
I would like to say that this novel started promising. The writing style was good, slow but interesting, and it was easy for me to connect with Emma. She was a loner, clearly suffering with depression after a tragic event in her life. I could understand why she chose solitude and comfort in this new, boring way of living (if you can call it that).
However, with part 2 being written in a different way, all the connection I had for the story and our MC slowly but surely fell down the drain.
It’s not even about the choices Emma made, it was mainly the writing style. All of the sudden beautiful prose was replaced with harsh storytelling, with more action that in Terminator movies. At one point so much was going on that it made puree in my brain, it was too much to handle. Especially as I didn’t enjoy the story anyway, nor did I like the characters enough.
The closer to the end we were, my connection to the story was less and less there, until it faded completely.
The last few chapters were pure torture and I couldn’t wait to be done with it and move on. The only reason I decided to finish The Last Word is because my FOMO activated, just like it does every time I take part in buddy reads.
If anyone asks me, this book got more hype then it deserved.
Today I bring you my review for a book I read with my girls in our book club. We all expected thriller and were left little disappointed. Still, it was a good reading experience. After all, the joy of book clubs is in the discussions and other talks that come out inspired by the happenings from the books.
About the book:
FROM GOODREADS /
he best of friends keep the deadliest secrets…
Jo is my best friend. From high school to adulthood, we’ve gone through everything together. Even when I made a foolish mistake and betrayed her in the worst way, she forgave me. She’s godmother to my son and our lives are intertwined. We want the best for each other, always.
I hope she approves of my new boyfriend Noah. How could she not? Noah is kind, attentive and loves me for who I am. But when I introduce them over dinner one evening, Jo doesn’t look happy. She’s always been protective of me and as Noah clutches my hand, I force her reaction to the back of my mind.
But later Jo tells me that someone is threatening her and she fears for her life. And all too soon, the threats land at my door too. At first it’s small things: my precious roses destroyed, my mail sabotaged. But when I receive a note saying, “I want your life,” I’m terrified.
Someone wants to cause me harm. They’re prepared to take everything I love. But are they closer to me than I could have ever imagined?
Review:
This was October pick in our book club and the five of us were looking forward to read it. In the end, only three of us managed to finish it, which speaks on it’s own.
By the synopsis, we expected a thriller when in reality we got women’s fiction going all out of it’s way to kookoo land by the end, with thriller aspects at the very epiloque. Just like my friend Ani stated, if nothing, it read like villain original story or however you call that genre.
The book was written in first person following two friends’ perspectives: Abi‘s and Jo‘s.
This novel had interesting but also awful set of characters, where all the people were toxic to each other and for some reason kept staying together. They reminded me why my policy is “no friends are better than fake friends”.🙃 The only somewhat normal character was Abi’s son Rob, but the author managed to ruin him too with some of his comments (also, he was gone for most part of the story).
Abi was my least favourite of them all. She was spoiled to death and didn’t even realized her actions and Jo I liked until the very end when the author decided to kill all of her potential and ruin her completely.
I wish Nicola Marsh didn’t decide to jump on that “thrillers are popular” train and wrote coming of age end for Jo.
As for the writing, it was good and it was very similar to Jane Fallon’s. My friend Amanda and I agree: it felt like we were reading Fallon’s work.
Overall, it was a good book to pass time and I am glad I read it along with my friends because that way I enjoyed it more then I would if I was reading it on my own.
Today I bring you my review for the book that I read along with my frineds in our reading club. Lock Every Door was our September pick. I really enjoyed it and am glad to tell you all about it.
This novel was published back in 2019, on July 2nd. It has 381 pages.
About the book:
FROM GOODREADS /
No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen’s new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.
As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story—until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.
Searching for the truth about Ingrid’s disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew’s dark past and into the secrets kept within its walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building’s hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.
Review:
Lock Every Door was September pick in the reading club I am a part of. I was so excited because this novel was on my radar ever since it came out. Out of four of us, I think I liked it the best.
Written in first person, the novel is tense and capturing. Jules is a reliable narrator (which was so nice for a change) but what makes this book so good is that you can’t trust absolutely no one but her.
This novel was really something. Now I get why all the hype. The mysterious atmosphere where you feel like you are trapped along with main character but can’t figure out what is happening and can’t get out was the cherry on top in my reading experience.
I also want to mention how this book touches some important topics like poverty and what goes along with it, and I believe no reader can stay calm or cold to it. Some parts were heartbreaking. I do believe stories similar to this one happen in real life and often poor people who have no one to look for them are ones who pay the price.
I remember my friendAmanda and me were afraid that this story would be too similar to Turn of the Key, and now I laugh when I think about it, because those two stories can’t be more different. The only thing they have in common is that they are both very good novels.
The end was good. I like how this whole mystery solved out and what was the story behind the curtain, even though some of my friends who I read this with were disappointed. However, I will admit that I wasn’t satisfied with the very end. In other words, I think justice could have been served better.
Hi Everyone, It has been a while, probably over a month since the last time I wrote something for this blog. There were some scheduled reviews poping up, but I personally wasn’t active anywhere except on Goodreads, and I was pretty unactive there too. The reason for that: I feel like I never have time to just sit and in piece and silence write and read in front of my computer, except in the very late evening when I am too tired to be productive, so I choose to read instead.
Today is Halloween, and I want to bring you my three reviews for the books I read this October. Non of them was given to me in an exchange for review, but all three of them I chose along with my friends because we wanted to give them a try.
Mexican Gothic was an October pick in the book club I am a member of along with other awesome book reviewers, when Cackle and House of Hollows I read along with Amanda from Chocolate Pages, who is also the member of previously mentioned book club.
So in conclusion, Amanda and I read together all of the three books I talk about today, so make sure to visit her BLOG too, to see what she thought about them.
Mexican Gothic
Mexican Gothic took the bookish community by the storm last year when it came out, and if there wasn’t the hype around it I probably wouldn’t pick it up. It’s magnificent cover, although beautiful to look at, didn’t “speak” to me so this time I am thankful for the hype because now I am glad this novel joined my read shelf.
I, just like most of the readers I believe, have certain aspects of the story that are important for me to like the book, character development being in the first place. What I’ve noticed lately is that the atmosphere in the story is slowly getting closer and closer to take that CD aspect from the throne.
And if there is something this book has fully developed, is the atmosphere. Gothic, dark, gray, wet… I could almost smell the damp when I was imagining being in High Place.
One more thing that makes this book special to me is that my favourite character was High Place. Yes, you read it right. The big, cold house has such a strong presence it felt like it was a person itself.
As for other characters, I think our MC Noemi was fully developed and it was clear what was her motive, her reasons to act the way she did, and she was also likeable and the one to look up to.
On the other hand, I think some side characters could have been more developed or at least more presented.
The writing was good and easy to read, but if I am being honest, the story was boringat times and I caught myself yearning for some action, or at least for something to happen.
As we got closer to end and secrets started yo reveal I was little disappointed with the way the story turned, but at the same time I appreciate it because it does make it different from other stories in this genre (here I am mostly comparing it to movies as I am still new to horror genre in written form). My personal opinion is that the movie would be great and I would like to absorb it for the first time in that format, but that ship has sailed, obviously.
In the end, I just want to warn you about some scenes that can be triggering like ones that can remind of sexual abuse, but there is long list on TW for this novel so make sure to check it out. I don’t always recognize them, as they are personal to each reader, but I would say TW: sexual abuse, racism, substance addiction, and also some graphic and gory scenes.
I decided to give Mexican Gothic 3,75 stars because although it was good and I can’t find it many flows except maybe being too slow at times, it just didn’t wow me to give it a higher rating.
Cackle
Let’s make one thing clear: 👏This is not a thriller! This is not a horror! 👏 To be a thriller, it has to play with your (or at least the MC’s) mind, to be a horror, it has to have at least one character dead/murdered (or in danger of the same) and at least one gory scene.
(Not) Sorry to spoil you, but this has non of that.
This is cozy women’s fiction with paranormal (witchy, perfect for Halloween) elements that can also be categorized as feminist novel and that is it!!
It was weird, I’ll give it that, but it is definitely not disturbing (unless you hate spiders, who are here pets because why not throw something childish and unnecessary to make it unique)!
So yeah, if you consider Twilight a horror because it has vampires as characters, then this is the horror/thriller for you. If you are looking for thrilling book that will keep you at the edge of your sit, this is not a book for you.
This is cozy, slow paced book, perfect for readers who are looking something to read for Halloween, but instead of being scared, they want to be relaxed.
It was entertaining, with characters interesting enough, and easy to read writing style. It is written in first person.
I could spend my time overanalyzing the novel, telling you how Annie reminded me of my own friend which made me care for her on a higher level, how in my mind Sophie looks like Megan Fox, how I loved Sam and am sorry the writer ruined his character even though I understand why she did it, how I think cat would work way better then the spider and how absurd it was for MC to take everything like it was even though no sane person would do it. I could also tell you how I really enjoyed the atmosphere and my friend Amanda who I buddy read this with, and me, we had great time and how this book was exactly what we both needed after finishing Mexican Gothic, but I won’t bore you more then necessary.
I will just recommend this novel to everyone who are looking for cozy autumn book with witchy/Halloween elements.
House of Hollow
As soon as I saw the cover for House of Hollows I knew I had to read it. The design reminds me of Horrid and Wilder Girls, books I both enjoyed so much, and I have a theory that covers like this keep weird and brilliant stories between the pages. This book proves my theory right!
The story is narrated by Iris, the youngest of the three sisters who disappeared one night and came back one month later not knowing where they’ve been, and clueless about the truth about what happened to them.
The story is written in first person, easy to follow and fast paced from the very beginning. In fact, it was so fast paced at times that I was lost for moments (that often happens to me in fighting scenes).
Once again, my favourite part of the story was the atmosphere. I noticed that that aspect in storytelling became of huge importance for me, so I loved this book for it.
I can’t say much about the world or things that happened, because I don’t know where is the line between reviewing and spoiling in this particular case, but I will say that my bets are the author found some inspiration in the movie Insidious.
The characters were all presented very well, and I love how the author played the game of good guy/bad guy masquerade. I would tell you who’s side I was on, but then I would spoil you, so I’ll keep my mouth shout (or my fingers reserved, I should say).
The epilogue was the only part I didn’t like, as I find it unnecessary.
I should also mention I shared this reading experience with my friend Amanda, who I’m buddy reading so often lately, we should call ourselves bookish sisters. She is not the one to pick fantasy, paranormal or ya on her own, but she really enjoyed this book too, so that says something, right?
In conclusion, I am sooooooo glad I’ve read this novel. It was perfect Halloween/October choice and I recommend it to everyone who is searching something spooky.
GIFTED / Today I happily present you my review for Queen Bee, the newest novel by Jane Fallon, who’s work I always enjoy.
This book should have been published back in April, but the release day has been changed to July 9th 2020. It has 400 pages.
I received an eARC via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank Michael Joseph, Penguin for giving me this chance.
About the book:
FROM GOODREADS / Welcome to The Close – a beautiful street of mansions, where gorgeous Stella is the indisputable Queen Bee . . .
It is here that Laura, seeking peace and privacy after her marriage falls apart, rents a tiny studio. Unfortunately, her arrival upsets suspicious Stella – who fears Laura has designs on her fiancé, Al.
When Laura stumbles on the big secret Al is hiding, suddenly Stella’s perfectly controlled world, not to mention Laura’s future, are threatened.
Taking a chance on beating Al at his own twisted game, these two former strangers are fast becoming best friends.
But has Laura forgotten that revenge never comes without a sting in the tail?
Review:
Once again, Jane Fallon proved herself as a perfect go-to author for book clubs with her newest book Queen Bee.
As I already stated in my reviews for her other novels, I think Fallon’s work is great to read along with friends, as her novels often demand to be discussed about.
However, this time there wasn’t too many things people could argue about, but still it would make a perfect choice to read together and just comment things that were served.
I started this book and immediately knew I wouldn’t let it go until I finish that last page.
But life doesn’t happen as we planned it, so I gave birth somewhere in the middle of my Queen Bee journey, and too pause from it to get to know my baby and get better from that exper.
Once I finally took some time to read again, I was so happy to continue, as I was really looking forward to it, and didn’t forget anything that happened.
I enjoyed spending time in the neighborhood along with Laura. I think fans of Desperate Housewives would enjoy this story, because of the setting and mentality of characters.
The book is written in first person, following Laura’s POV.
I think it was a great choice because it made me really invested in the story.
I also really enjoyed how children of main characters were involved and I was looking forward to read about them.
I really recommend Queen Bee to readers of women’s fiction and I can’t wait to read more from this author in the future.
Book Dust Magic 