Pillow Thoughts Book Review

Pillow Thoughts by Courtney Peppernell

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Blurb:

Pillow Thoughts is a collection of poetry and prose about heartbreak, love, and raw emotions. It is divided into sections to read when you feel you need them most.

Review by Brittany:

Poetry usually isn't my thing, but after skimming through a collection in a bookstore, I decided to give it another go. I found Pillow Thoughts on NetGalley and decided to request a copy of it.

I'm really so glad that I did. I'm a big fan of those heart-wrenching ballads of the 90s, the kind of songs that make you want to ugly cry because you can relate to longing and the heartbreak. This collection is a lot like that. There were so many of the poems that I felt like I could relate to, which to me makes a reading experience that much more enjoyable.

I also liked that Peppernell wrote with such rawness. Through so much of this collection, there's no second guessing the meaning or need to analyze, which is what I typically struggle with when it comes to poetry. She outlines feelings and thoughts exactly, throwing in some beautiful imagery along the way.

If you're a reader like me who typically goes for the straight-forwardness of fiction, you can give this collection a shot. I think it's worth it!

Notable quotes:

But the world goes on even when lovers go their separate ways.

When did you become so tired of us?

I'm caught somewhere between moving on and holding on and not knowing which one I can handle best.

I am no more the person that you left than you are the person I miss.

What She Knew Book Review

What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan

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Blurb:


Rachel Jenner is walking in a Bristol park with her eight-year-old son, Ben, when he asks if he can run ahead. It’s an ordinary request on an ordinary Sunday afternoon, and Rachel has no reason to worry—until Ben vanishes.

Police are called, search parties go out, and Rachel, already insecure after her recent divorce, feels herself coming undone. As hours and then days pass without a sign of Ben, everyone who knew him is called into question, from Rachel’s newly married ex-husband to her mother-of-the-year sister. Inevitably, media attention focuses on Rachel too, and the public’s attitude toward her begins to shift from sympathy to suspicion.

As she desperately pieces together the threadbare clues, Rachel realizes that nothing is quite as she imagined it to be, not even her own judgment. And the greatest dangers may lie not in the anonymous strangers of every parent’s nightmares, but behind the familiar smiles of those she trusts the most.

Review by Brittany:

I decided to one-click this one on Amazon after reading the blurb.

One thing I love about this book is that the reader gets to see the story from a few different points of view. One is from Rachel, Ben's mother, and the struggles she deals with while trying to figure out where Ben is and having to wait for news. She struggles with guilt over his disappearance and slowly develops more guilt over the way she's been behaving since Ben's father, John, left them and got remarried. The other character whose point of view the reader gets to see is Jim Clemo, a DI on Ben's case. While Rachel shows the more human side of what's going on, Jim gives us a chance to see the more technical side of a kidnapping case, including the pieces of information and suspicions that officers often have to keep to themselves.

Rachel ended up being a bit of an unreliable character, to the point where I had a hard time trusting her feelings about anything. While I believed from the beginning that she was innocent, she seemed unstable and like she was a bit of a worrisome character. There were times when I thought to myself, "Oh can you please just drop it?" Of course, that's me lacking a bit of empathy for Rachel's situation, but I think it was also designed to be that way by the author to shed doubt on Rachel as a character.

After his experiences on the case, Jim is seeing a psychologist because his department is requiring him to. There are parts of the book that script his visits with her, and these help to humanize him as well. It also gives Jim's character a chance to reflect on events that happened and to foreshadow things that are coming, which kept me hooked.

I don't feel like this is a book where the ending is easy to guess. There weren't a lot of clues until the very end, which is the moment when it is all revealed. I spent a lot of the book going back and forth on who I thought had done it and felt surprised when it all came out.

If you're looking for a book that will keep you turning pages, this is an excellent one. Rachel's struggles on a personal level and Jim's struggles professionally make this novel one that I think is definitely worth reading.

Notable quotes:

People have an almost compulsive need to justify themselves.

Trust is like that. Once you lose it, you begin to adjust your attitudes toward people, you put up guards, and filter the information you want them to know.

But here's the thing: none of us deserve anything. 

Gather the Daughters Book Review

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed

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Blurb:

Years ago, just before the country was incinerated to wasteland, ten men and their families colonized an island off the coast. They built a radical society of ancestor worship, controlled breeding, and the strict rationing of knowledge and history. Only the Wanderers--chosen male descendants of the original ten--are allowed to cross to the wastelands, where they scavenge for detritus among the still-smoldering fires.

The daughters of these men are wives-in-training. At the first sign of puberty, they face their Summer of Fruition, a ritualistic season that drags them from adolescence to matrimony. They have children, who have children, and when they are no longer useful, they take their final draught and die. But in the summer, the younger children reign supreme. With the adults indoors and the pubescent in Fruition, the children live wildly--they fight over food and shelter, free of their fathers' hands and their mothers' despair. And it is at the end of one summer that little Caitlin Jacob sees something so horrifying, so contradictory to the laws of the island, that she must share it with the others.

Born leader Janey Solomon steps up to seek the truth. At seventeen years old, Janey is so unwilling to become a woman, she is slowly starving herself to death. Trying urgently now to unravel the mysteries of the island and what lies beyond, before her own demise, she attempts to lead an uprising of the girls that may be their undoing.

Review by Brittany:

I have so many feelings about this book. I was fortunate enough to request an advance copy of this book off NetGalley and get approve, so I was able to read it well before it's release date in July.

This book takes place in a time period that feels almost ambiguous. The world as we know it is gone, and instead there is a vast wasteland from which a society has been built on its own island. This society is one in which woman's main role is to reproduce. They are married off - carefully, so that they don't end up with someone to whom they are related - and expected to build a home and a life for their husband and children. They have no knowledge of what happens outside of the island, and they have no opportunities to gain knowledge. There are no hospitals, no modern medicine, and women are expected to simply follow what their husbands want.

It is a hard time for women. They watch as their daughters are raised by fathers who are allowed to visit their bedrooms at night. They fear having daughters and weep when one is born, and they only celebrate when sons are born because of the privilege they will get to experience. Women cannot gather without chaperones unless it is at a birth, which means they rarely get to build relationships or discuss anything that happens to them on the island.

At some point, the younger girls decide they don't want to do it anymore. They are tired of being abused, married off, discarded. The girls escape to the beach to try to live, but with limited food and only the outdoors as shelter, this is not a promising way to live.

I had so many feelings when I was reading this book - interest, sadness, shock, anger, pride. There aren't many happy moments in this book, but there are moments of small triumphs that made me feel good about being a woman. I struggled with how these women could possible allow things to happen to their daughters and fellow women, but the reality is that this is how it works in society. We mold and move along with the flow more often than we don't, and that's what happened in this book. And those who question are punished for their bold willingness to say what a lot of others are thinking.

I really, really enjoyed this book. It's not going to give you a happy, tied up ending, but it's a well-written, striking story with characters that I learned to love as I read.

Notable quote:

"I know it's not perfect, but it's the best I can give you." 

Suicide Med Book Review

Suicide Med by Freida McFadden

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Blurb:

There’s a reason Southside Medical School has been nicknamed “Suicide Med.” For the last six years, every year one student has taken his own life. Except for last year. Last year was a murder-suicide. The press has pointed to the heavy workload as the culprit in the high suicide rate. Some students believe that the school is cursed. And others believe that the deaths may not be suicides at all—that it’s no coincidence that Dr. Conlon, Southside’s quirky but beloved anatomy professor, joined the staff on the very year that the suicides began. Either way, the same question echoes through the minds of every first year student at Suicide Med: Who will be next to die?

Review by Brittany:

This book was unexpectedly great. I downloaded it when it was free on Kindle because the blurb sounded interesting, but I wasn't sure entirely what to expect from an unknown author.

This one had me hooked from the start. The prologue jumps right in with a gun wielder threatening the life of another med student. From there, the story is divided into multiple parts in order to give all of the main characters an opportunity to tell their side of the story.

Heather is barely scraping by, studying but struggling to pull the information out when she needs it. She has a long-distance boyfriend, Seth, but that relationship falls apart and she quickly finds herself in a new relationship with Abe. This one isn't moving at a great pace, and Heather slowly starts to realize that there's a secret that Abe is keeping.

Abe's secret is revealed through the story that's told from his point of view. He quickly falls for Heather, almost from day one, but he's embarrassed about a "growth" on his body. Little does he know that having it removed could cause some unexpected consequences.

Rachel seems not to care too much about anatomy. She's not really passionate about becoming a doctor and is used to cheating her way through classes. Dr. Conlon, her anatomy professor, lets her think she's going to con him into changing her grades, but he pulls one over by figuring her out. The development of that relationship was an interesting twist to the story.

Mason is clearly the head of the class. He knows the material like the back of his hand, and he is determined to be a plastic surgeon, the head of his class, and to prove himself to his dad. However, the unknown cause of death to his lab cadaver slowly starts to make him fall apart. Or could it be due to something else?

Ginny is quiet with no charisma, so even though she's an excellent student, she is often overlooked in favor of Mason, with his big personality and charm. She gets fed up with him taking her spotlight and decides that she's going to try to knock him off his pedestal a little. Are her actions the cause of Mason's completely crazy turnaround?

Each character has their own secrets that they're keeping and their own link to the tragic events that are the climax of this book. I was taken in by each part of the story, and realizing that no one truly knew anyone in this book was incredibly interesting. The pressure and competition of med school was enough to make each person crumble in their own. I definitely recommend this book as an easy read that will be pleasantly surprising.

The Girl in the Spider's Web Book Review

The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

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Blurb:

A genius hacker who has always been an outsider. A journalist with a penchant for danger. She is Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. He is Mikael Blomkvist, crusading editor of Millennium. One night, Blomkvist receives a call from a source who claims to have been given information vital to the United States by a young female hacker. Blomkvist, always on the lookout for a story, reaches out to Salander for help. She, as usual, has plans of her own. Together they are drawn into a ruthless underworld of spies, cybercriminals, and government operatives—some willing to kill to protect their secrets.

Review by Brittany:

I was a huge fan of the original Millennium trilogy, so I am very pleased that this is being extended into a series.

I thought this book was a fantastic addition to the series. Of course, it has been a while since I read Larsson's books, so I can't compare writing styles, but I devoured this book with the same anxious anticipation as I did all the others. Salander is a quirky character, one who I can't relate to and don't envy exactly, but she is so incredibly smart and brave that I find myself sometimes wishing I could be a little more like her.

As with the other novels, this one has a lot of computer science/hacking terminology and information that is way above my level of knowledge, but for me that doesn't take away from the story. I am still able to be just as invested in the characters and the story, even if I don't understand every little detail of what's going on. This one also had August, a young boy with Autism, and it explored different skill sets that he might have developed in part because of his having this syndrome. I found those parts of the story incredibly interesting to read about, and I fell a little in love with this poor, disabled boy who got drawn into a situation that he couldn't understand.

This book ended in such a way that I am anticipating there will be another in the series, which I'm pleased about. If you're already a fan of the series and haven't read this one yet, don't let the new author deter you. Pick it up!

The Missing Book Review

The Missing by Caroline Eriksson

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Blurb:

An ordinary outing takes Greta, Alex, and four-year-old Smilla across Sweden’s mythical Lake Malice to a tiny, isolated island. While father and daughter tramp into the trees, Greta stays behind in the boat, lulled into a reverie by the misty, moody lake…only later to discover that the two haven’t returned. Her frantic search proves futile. They’ve disappeared without a trace.

Greta struggles to understand their eerie vanishing. She desperately needs to call Alex, to be reassured that Smilla is safe, or contact the police. But now her cell phone is missing too. Back at her cottage, she finds it hidden away under the bedsheets. Had she done that? Or had someone else been in the cottage? But who, and why? As Greta struggles to put the pieces together, she fears that her past has come back to torment her, or she’s finally lost her grip on reality…

In this dark psychological thrill ride—with more twists than a labyrinth and more breathless moments than a roller coaster—Greta must confront what she’s always kept hidden if she has any hope of untangling the truth.

Review by Brittany:

This book. I spent the entirety of it feeling like I had no idea what was going on, and by the end of the book I realized it was totally different than I was expecting. I know that's vague, but it's hard to talk about it without giving something away, and I don't want to take away from the joy of discovering.

Greta makes a really interesting protagonist because it's hard to tell for sure whether or not she's a little crazy. She reveals piece by piece faults in herself, which left me wondering if she was a narrator I could trust. How much has she lied to me, and how much more will she do so? It was interesting trying to piece together what was really going on versus what Greta perceived to be going on.

There were also bits of the book that were told from another person's perspective, but it's not revealed to the reader who this other person is until nearly the end of the book. The way these two stories end up intertwining was surprising to me and was also a little heartbreaking. Greta's past is revealed in pieces, and it slowly starts to explain the struggles she has as an adult.

This story starts out about two people going missing and ends up being about relationship struggles and self-esteem issues. (I know.) Despite the constant feeling of having no idea what was going on, I enjoyed this book. It left me with the feeling of being a little off kilter, like I wasn't on comfortable ground, and I definitely couldn't guess the ending. I really enjoyed this one.

Everything Belongs to Us Book Review

Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz

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Blurb:

Seoul, 1978. At South Korea’s top university, the nation’s best and brightest compete to join the professional elite of an authoritarian regime. Success could lead to a life of rarefied privilege and wealth; failure means being left irrevocably behind.
           
For childhood friends Jisun and Namin, the stakes couldn’t be more different. Jisun, the daughter of a powerful business mogul, grew up on a mountainside estate with lush gardens and a dedicated chauffeur. Namin’s parents run a tented food cart from dawn to curfew; her sister works in a shoe factory. Now Jisun wants as little to do with her father’s world as possible, abandoning her schoolwork in favor of the underground activist movement, while Namin studies tirelessly in the service of one goal: to launch herself and her family out of poverty.
           
But everything changes when Jisun and Namin meet an ambitious, charming student named Sunam, whose need to please his family has led him to a prestigious club: the Circle. Under the influence of his mentor, Juno, a manipulative social climber, Sunam becomes entangled with both women, as they all make choices that will change their lives forever.
           
In this sweeping yet intimate debut, Yoojin Grace Wuertz details four intertwining lives that are rife with turmoil and desire, private anxieties and public betrayals, dashed hopes and broken dreams—while a nation moves toward prosperity at any cost.

Review by Brittany:

I was offered the chance to read this book through NetGalley, and while it didn't sound totally up my alley, I decided to give it a shot.

I'm on the fence about this book. It opens with a women's protest, which I found extremely fitting for the current times our own country is experiencing. However, the cultural differences were definitely pronounced in this book. The stress that Namin is under to try to make a successful life for herself and her family is immense. She is what her entire family is relying on - only her success will pull them out of the poverty they are facing. Her older sister was passed over and works in a factory, doing the same work that is being protested across the country.

Jisun, on the other hand, actively participates in the protests, despite having no true experience of what those other women are going through. She tries to separate herself from her father's wealth, but her family name is something that she cannot discard.

Sunam becomes Namin's boyfriend, even meeting his family and carrying on this relationship, despite the fact that he is in a separate class from her. However, Sunam finds himself a bit intrigued by Jisun and a bit exhausted of Namin's desperate race to be a successful doctor.

The storyline here is interesting. I loved reading about Namin's struggles with her family and the ways in which she was impacted by the poverty into which she was born. Her relationship with Sunam gives her a chance to prove that a person is not merely how they grow up, but also the drive that they have themselves. Her friendship with Jisun is fraught with tension throughout the entire novel, to the point where it is often difficult to see that there is actually a friendship there.

Where this book falls short for me was on the pacing. There were often times when I found myself just waiting for something to happen, and by the end of the book I was ready for it to be over. I think that with some quicker moving action this book would have been better.

The Trapped Girl Book Review

The Trapped Girl by Robert Dugoni

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Blurb:

When a woman’s body is discovered submerged in a crab pot in the chilly waters of Puget Sound, Detective Tracy Crosswhite finds herself with a tough case to untangle. Before they can identify the killer, Tracy and her colleagues on the Seattle PD’s Violent Crimes Section must figure out who the victim is. Her autopsy, however, reveals she may have gone to great lengths to conceal her identity. So who was she running from?

After evidence surfaces that their Jane Doe may be a woman who suspiciously disappeared months earlier, Tracy is once again haunted by the memory of her sister’s unsolved murder. Dredging up details from the woman’s past leads to conflicting clues that only seem to muddy the investigation. As Tracy begins to uncover a twisted tale of brutal betrayal and desperate greed, she’ll find herself risking everything to confront a killer who won’t go down without a deadly fight. Once again, New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni delivers a taut, riveting thriller in the fourth installment of his acclaimed Tracy Crosswhite series.

Review by Brittany:

I have become a huge fan of Dugoni's Tracy Crosswhite series, devouring the other three books before this one. I was able to get an advanced copy of this one through NetGalley, and I devoured it in just the same manner.

One thing that I love about Dugoni is that he is able to make each novel just that little bit different enough from the last that they don't all feel like the same book, even though the characters are the same. In this one, Dugoni gives little snippets from the point of the view of the victim, either confirming or disproving piecing of evidence that the homicide team has found. This added a layer of intrigue, while also allowing the reader to get to know the victim on a more personal level. This technique hooked me.

As usual, the dialogue between Tracy and partner Kins is both character building and story telling, developing their relationship more and more throughout each novel while also filling the reader in on the thought processes of the detectives as they work on solving the crime. The same thing happens with detectives Faz and Del, with a little comedy thrown in the keep some light in what could otherwise quickly become a heavy murder story.

Dugoni also develops Tracy's personal life in this one, exploring the idea of Tracy and Dan having children and whether or not they want to move forward in their relationship or maintain the status quo. Having Dan there as a supportive character gives more insight into each case Tracy works, but it also serves to develop Tracy as a character.

The victim in this story, Andrea Strickland, turned out to be such a wonderful character. The glimpses into her life build her into someone who has struggled from the beginning, and yet she finds a way to survive. She keeps hoping that life will get better and she just keeps on going. And while there's a part of me that recognizes that people have no choice but to keep on keeping on, I still respect the fact that she did it.

The climax to this novel was, in typical Dugoni fashion, a last minute surprise to me. Just when I thought I had things figured out, Tracy gets that one last piece of evidence, makes that one last connection, and it totally blows the story open. There are few things that are greater than being continually surprised by a novel, and Dugoni does that extremely well.

If you aren't reading the Tracy Crosswhite series, you need to be. These books are all amazing, well-written suspense novels, with snarky and heartfelt characters built right in. Pick these up!

You Will Know Me Book Review

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

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Blurb:

How far will you go to achieve a dream? That's the question a celebrated coach poses to Katie and Eric Knox after he sees their daughter Devon, a gymnastics prodigy and Olympic hopeful, compete. For the Knoxes there are no limits--until a violent death rocks their close-knit gymnastics community and everything they have worked so hard for is suddenly at risk.

As rumors swirl among the other parents, Katie tries frantically to hold her family together while also finding herself irresistibly drawn to the crime itself. What she uncovers--about her daughter's fears, her own marriage, and herself--forces Katie to consider whether there's any price she isn't willing to pay to achieve Devon's dream.

Review by Brittany:

I wanted to read this novel because it fits in with my current obsession with suspense novels.

There is something about the way this one was written that really appealed to me. The sentences tended to be choppy and parts were sectioned, and books like that always keep me thinking, "I'll just read the next section". And before I know it, I've completed the book. Of course, this one also had the suspense of trying to figure out exactly what happened to the person who died in a hit and run. (Sorry to be vague, but I want to avoid spoilers!)

I also loved how the author told the story from Katie's point of view, but then gave Devon a much closer, intimate relationship with her dad than her mom. This meant that Katie was constantly piecing together parts of Devon's life that she had no clue about, only to find out that often her husband did. They had almost banded together against her, leaving her feeling left out and always a step behind.

The author dropped clues throughout the novel that helped me piece together Devon's life outside of gymnastics, often before Katie would make that leap. Abbott also used some misdirection, leaving me wondering whodunnit until the end of the book. Abbott also created an entire novel full of suspicious characters, people who are keeping pieces of themselves hidden on a daily basis. This feels so true to life to me, although of course it is exaggerated for the purpose of fictionalizing, but who truly knows anyone else? This is illustrated most clearly in Katie's relationships with both Devon and Eric, but it's also made obvious with the other gymnastics mothers and coaches.

Abbott also knew how to pull me into the world of gymnastics and care. I have never had a particular interest in gymnastics, but the way Abbott illustrated the grind these young girls undergo and the fierce desire they have for success kept me hooked. There were also many comments on the girls "stopping the clock", referring to them training so intensely that they are able to postpone their own puberty - the mark of a true, devoted gymnast. The idea of this was completely absurd to me, yet it's a struggle that is very real. It also added to Devon's story line, a gymnast star who is struggling with also being 16 and the difficulties that come with that.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend.

Secrets of the Lighthouse Book Review

Secrets of the Lighthouse by Santa Montefiore

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Blurb:

Ellen Trawton is running away from it all. She hates her job, she doesn’t love the aristocratic man to whom she is engaged, and her relationship with her controlling mother is becoming increasingly strained. So Ellen leaves London, fleeing to the one place she knows her mother won’t find her, her aunt’s cottage in Connemara. Cutting all her ties with chic London society, Ellen gives in to Ireland’s charm and warmth, thinking her future may lie where so much of her past has been hidden. Her imagination is soon captured by the compelling ruins of a lighthouse where, five years earlier, a young mother died in a fire.

The ghost of the young wife, Caitlin, haunts the nearby castle, mourning the future she can never have there. Unable to move on, she watches her husband and children, hoping they might see her and feel her love once more. But she doesn’t anticipate her husband falling in love again. Can she prevent it? Or can she let go and find a way to freedom and happiness?

Review by Brittany:

I picked this one up based on a recommendation I saw on Twitter, giving this author props for being one of the best.

This book has a little bit of all the things I like best: romance, mystery, family drama, and beautiful descriptions of the scenery. Montefiore took the time to describe Ireland in all of its finery, which I loved reading about and which made me long to be able to go. The romance part comes in with Ellen meeting Conor and falling quickly in love with him, but the mystery surrounding his wife's death leaves many people in the small town of Connemara warning her away from him. Gossip reigns supreme in trying to determine if he killed his wife or if it was truly an accidental tragedy. And of course, with Ellen abandoning her life in London and fleeing to Connemara, there is much family drama to be had.

What set this book apart from others in this genre was Caitlin's ghost. Despite her death, her soul still lingers, unwilling to let go of her children and the husband who has been grieving her for so long. When Conor begins to develop a relationship with Ellen, Caitlin can't handle it; her jealousy and selfishness leave her determined to drive them apart. Montefiore uses Caitlin's ghost as a way to move away from Ellen being the narrator and to give a different perspective of the events happening in the novel, but also as a way to give the readers some insight into what's going on with other characters. I thought this was a great technique to use and fit well with the dreaminess of the lighthouse.

The climax of the novel finally reveals what truly happened the night that Caitlin died, and it finally gives Conor a chance to come to terms with the realities of his wife.

I really enjoyed this book. The minor characters were refreshing and well-written, and the main themes of the plot kept me hooked until the end.

After the Cure Book Review

After the Cure by Deirdre Gould

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Blurb:

Eight years ago the December Plague swept through the human population of earth. The Infected were driven mad by the disease, becoming violent and cannibalistic, killing even those closest to them without hesitation. Six years ago, the tiny surviving community of Immune humans found a cure, and the Infected began to wake up and realize what they'd done. Over time, society has begun to rebuild itself. It's now ready to judge those responsible for the Plague. Nella Rider, the court psychologist and Frank Courtlen a defense attorney are trying to establish the truth. But more depends on it than they know. Can they find the answers they need before the fragile remains of humanity vanish for good?

Review by Brittany:

I originally downloaded this book from Amazon because it was on a free promotion and the blurb sounded interesting. Who doesn't love a good zombie story?

This one had a really neat twist of taking place after a Cure was found. What would it be like to have to rebuild the world after 8 years of it falling apart? How would it feel to be Cured and yet remember all the terrible things you did when you were Infected? What lengths would you to go to prevent another Infection if you knew it was coming?

These are some of the questions that Gould explores in this novel. Frank and Nella are given the task of working with the courts to bring those responsible for the Infection to justice. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the scientists who were developing a new medicine did not follow the proper procedures for testing, which led to unexpected mutations and a plague of cannibalism across the world. Through interviews, Nella and Frank find out that there is another strain of the Infection that was created, one that is impervious to any Cure, and it has not been accounted for. Thus begins the search for the strain so that it can be destroyed before another plague destroys the world.

I loved Frank as a character. He is one of the Cured, which means he has insights into the Infection that Nella can't possibly have. This information comes in useful as they start piecing together where the new strain might be. He also reveals through the story that he is representing the man who is charged with starting the Infection to get to the truth of what happened. Frank suffered his own tragedies at the hands of this man, but he is using the court case to seek understanding. His noble intentions give a lot of indication of what type of man that he is.

I also loved that the author did not shy away from sharing gruesome details. Both Frank and Nella reveal some of the more tragic and shameful things that they did during the Infection, and gory details are not spared. I think this added a touch of realism to the novel and satisfied the creeper in me. It was also a great tool to help readers get a gauge on what the Infection was like and the way the world changed almost immediately.

The story itself kept me turning pages. I was always interested to see what was going to happen next and what piece of the puzzle Nella and Frank would find next. It does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, leaving the reader wondering if the world is truly as safe as the characters believe it to be.

Overall, this was a really good read. I was pleasantly surprised by the character and relationship development throughout the book, and I am interested in reading more by this author.

Good as Gone Book Review

Good as Gone by Amy Gentry

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Blurb:

Thirteen-year-old Julie Whitaker was kidnapped from her bedroom in the middle of the night, witnessed only by her younger sister. Her family was shattered, but managed to stick together, hoping against hope that Julie is still alive. And then one night: the doorbell rings. A young woman who appears to be Julie is finally, miraculously, home safe. The family is ecstatic—but Anna, Julie’s mother, has whispers of doubts.  She hates to face them. She cannot avoid them. When she is contacted by a former detective turned private eye, she begins a torturous search for the truth about the woman she desperately hopes is her daughter.

Review by Brittany:

As mentioned in a previous review, I subscribe to Book of the Month, and this was one of the selections that they offered. I've been loving mystery/thrillers lately, so I picked this book because the blurb was very intriguing.

Gah. This book hooked me from page one and became a one-day-read. The story opens up with Jane telling the story of Julie's abduction as she remembers it. Then it jumps forward to the day Jane returns home, giving the reader a glimpse into what life is like for the Whitakers now, eight years later. It is clear that relationships have become strained and that nothing is the same as it was.

One way this writer kept me in suspense was to make me doubt if Julie was genuine. Is it really her? Or is this someone posing to be Jule for some reason? Is it about money? The story switches from the present to Julie's life in the past, working backwards to the time of Julie's abduction to reveal if this person is actually Julie or not. Either way, this girl's story is painful and traumatic, and I found myself often thinking, "I don't care if she's Julie; she needs to be safe." It's interesting to me that this writer wanted the reader to doubt if Julie was genuine, but then roped us into not caring. It made for good reading, and I honestly couldn't decide throughout if this person was really Julie or someone else.

At the end of the story, the truth comes out about this person and what happened to lead her to their door. And some of the unanswered questions about Julie's abduction also come to light, leaving all of the characters with the feeling that they really had no idea what was going on in their own home.

I loved this book. I was hooked from the start, wondering about the new Julie and piecing together her life. This was a very well-written, suspenseful novel.

The Winter People Book Review

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

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Blurb:

West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.

Now, in the present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister, Fawn. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she's not the only person looking for someone they've lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.

Review by Brittany:

I picked up this book after seeing it recommended on Facebook by a book blogger who had nothing but glowing things to say. From there, I read the blurb and decided that this book would be one worth trying out.

Wow. I had no idea quite how much I was going to enjoy this one. The book opens up with a note from the editor of Sara's published diary, and from there the book splits between the past and the present. I enjoyed reading from the perspective of Sara and husband Martin, and getting bits and pieces of their story as I learned about Ruthie and Katharine, two women who seem to have nothing in common until the climax of the story. I think having different perspectives coming together to reveal the mysteries of both the past and the present was extremely well done in this novel.

I also loved the paranormal aspect to this story. The winter people are also called sleepers, and they are essentially zombies. People can use black magic in order to revive a loved one who has passed, although it is temporary and the people don't come back to you the way they left you. The book chronicles Sara's experiences with wanting to bring back her 8-year-old daughter, Gertie, and what happens in the aftermath of her attempt to do so. That ties in to Ruthie's search for her mother and what's happening in the present.

What struck me the most about this novel - and what I think will stay with me - is the complete sadness of the tragedies in the book. There was so much sadness and so many terrible things that happened to the characters in the book, particularly the ones from history, that spiraled to create this huge mess they are all now in. Sara's experiences with losing her family members as she grew up and then losing her daughter at such a young age left me aching for all that she'd been through. Who could blame her for wishing for one chance to see her daughter again? The way the author spun the story to start with one terrible event - not revealed until the end of the book - and had it all unravel from there, creating havoc as it went along, was a beautiful storytelling technique and kept me hooked throughout.

I absolutely loved this book. It kept me turning pages and eagerly reading whenever I could, a sure sign of a good book. I definitely recommend.

The Things We Wish Were True Book Review

The Things We Wish Were True by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

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Blurb:

In an idyllic small-town neighborhood, a near tragedy triggers a series of dark revelations.

From the outside, Sycamore Glen, North Carolina, might look like the perfect all-American neighborhood. But behind the white picket fences lies a web of secrets that reach from house to house.

Up and down the streets, neighbors quietly bear the weight of their own pasts—until an accident at the community pool upsets the delicate equilibrium. And when tragic circumstances compel a woman to return to Sycamore Glen after years of self-imposed banishment, the tangle of the neighbors’ intertwined lives begins to unravel.

During the course of a sweltering summer, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the neighbors learn that it’s impossible to really know those closest to us. But is it impossible to love and forgive them?

Review by Brittany:

I one-clicked this book on Amazon because of the blurb. I like the Desperate Housewives sort of idea, where neighbors know each other on the surface but have no idea what's actually going on behind closed doors. I think that is truer than we often want to admit in the world around us, and suspense novels like these usually take it up a notch.

While this book kept me turning pages, it was less about the suspense and more about the characters and relationships that were being built. Zell, an older woman whose children have long since moved out, was one of my favorites. She is they type of woman who goes out of her way to help other people, which can sometimes put you in a position to know too much about what's going on in other people's lives.

My favorite tangled relationship in the novel was between Jencey and Bryte. Two woman who were best friends once upon a time now can barely move beyond the surface to address the things that happened in the past. Jencey was being stalked and up and left home, never returning after leaving for college. What got left behind was Bryte, her best friend, and Everett, her high school sweetheart. In the wake of Jencey leaving, Bryte picked up the pieces for Everett, and now they're married. This makes for a complicated rekindling, and the author made these moments just as awkward as you'd think they'd be. In the tangle of this relationship is Everett, a man who loves his wife yet can't help but think about the what-ifs when Jencey comes back into town. I felt like this triangle was pretty true to life, people struggling to come to terms with the past and to deal with the repercussions it has on the present.

Of course, secrets slowly get revealed - who was Jencey's stalker? What is Bryte keeping from Everett? What does Zell know about her neighbor's wife leaving? - and this adds to the suspense. The author did a great job of keeping some realism to things that people were hiding while maintaining the heightened suspense of figuring it all out.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It wasn't quite as heart-poundingly suspenseful as I was anticipating, but the character and relationship development added an unexpected layer of enjoyment. I definitely recommend this one!

Notable quotes:

Did life add or take away from who we are at sixteen?

This is who they were. This was the choice they'd all made.

...she could sympathize with his reticence to be somewhere people were having a good time. It took a lot out of you: celebrating when you wanted to do anything but.

The day, she concluded, hadn't been bad or good. It had been a day like any other, another bead in a very long string.

Her inexplicable unease about Jencey was either women's intuition or complete paranoia. Or residual from their past, creeping in, never fully vanquished no matter how much they all moved on.

She wanted to tell her that this reality wasn't the only one there was, forever. That nothing stayed the same.

And yet, Jencey understood, there were the things she wished were true, and there was what was actually true.

The Secret Place Book Review

The Secret Place by Tana French

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Blurb:

In this "dizzyingly addictive"* novel, Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of a popular boy whose body was found at a girls’ boarding school a year earlier. The photo had been posted at “The Secret Place,” the school’s anonymous gossip board, and the caption says “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case—beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique, and to the tangle of relationships that bound them all to the murdered boy, the private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.

Review by Brittany:

I am a long-standing fan of French's Dublin Murder Squad series, and this installment didn't disappoint.

The entire book takes place over one day, adding snippets of the girls' lives leading up to the day that Chris Harper died, with Moran and Conway working to piece together a murder that happened a year ago. When new evidence comes in, they head out to Kilda's, the boarding school where Chris Harper's body was found a year before. At the time, minimal progress was made, and the crime was left unsolved. Now, Conway and Moran are working together, interrogating the same group of girls who were interrogated before. They slowly start to realize that, a year ago, these girls were keeping some secrets very close to the chest.

I love the way that French wrote these teenage girls. They are all around 16 years old, a tough age where it's all cat-fights and sticking close to your best friends. French encapsulates this feeling exactly, setting all the girls up to fight with their "enemies" and constantly use the murder investigation as a way to give them grief. What better way to get back at someone you don't like than to throw some suspicion over them for murder?

I enjoyed watching the partnership between Moran and Conway build throughout the daylong investigation. They give each other little jabs every now and then but are also able to bounce ideas off of one another to try to get to the bottom of what exactly is happening in the school. When Mackey shows up and tries to shake them up, it's a no go - these two are well teamed up.

The climax of the novel is well done. I felt surprised enough by the ending to appreciate it, but no so surprised that it felt outside the realm of possibility. There's a certain gritty, dark feeling to all of French's novels that really appeals to me, and this one had that same feeling that I crave whenever I pick up one of hers. I loved this book and think it makes a great addition to the series.

Notable quotes:

"This fucking place. Trips you up every time you turn around. Whatever you do, turns out it was the wrong call."

Fair play to teenage girls; I'd never have been able for it.

She was right; course she was. You don't get a second first time.

Be scared you're fat, be scared your boobs are too big and be scared they're too small. Be scared to walk on your own, specially anywhere quiet enough that you can hear yourself think. Be scared of wearing the wrong stuff, saying the wrong thing, having a stupid laugh, being uncool. Be scared of guys not fancying you; be scared of guys, they're animals, rabid, can't stop themselves. Be scared of girls, they're all vicious, they'll cut you down before you can cut them. Be scared of strangers. Be scared you won't do well enough in your exams, be scared of getting in trouble. Be scared terrified petrified that everything you are is every kind of wrong.

Fractured Book Review

Fractured by Catherine McKenzie

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Blurb:

Julie Prentice and her family move across the country to the idyllic Mount Adams district of Cincinnati, hoping to evade the stalker who’s been terrorizing them ever since the publication of her bestselling novel, The Murder Game. Since Julie doesn’t know anyone in her new town, when she meets her neighbor John Dunbar, their instant connection brings measured hope for a new beginning. But she never imagines that a simple, benign conversation with him could set her life spinning so far off course.

After a series of misunderstandings, Julie and her family become the target of increasingly unsettling harassment. Has Julie’s stalker found her, or are her neighbors out to get her, too? As tension in the neighborhood rises, new friends turn into enemies, and the results are deadly.

Review by Brittany:

I requested this book off of Netgalley because I loved the cover and the blurb. I'm still on my suspense novel kick, so this one sounded like it would fit the bill.

I loved the way the story bounced from present time to months past. This really added to the mystery part of the novel. The present day parts are told from John's perspective, and the reader becomes aware that there is some kind of court case that he and his family are involved in. As the story develops, it's revealed that there was an accident in which someone was killed, but we don't know who the victim was.

In the parts that relay the past, the reader becomes embroiled in the drama of living in Mount Adams and the ways in which small misunderstandings can build up to ruin someone's life. Julie and John become easy friends, running together each day as they both work from home. This, of course, causes some trouble among the neighborhood - a man and a woman can't just be platonic friends. As the relationship develops, it becomes clear that they do struggle to maintain a certain level of platonic friendship.

Couple the nosiness of Julie's neighbors with her own paranoia at what had happened to cause her to move, and the buildup of this story leaves you flipping pages and dying to figure out what happened. The end of the book is definitely a surprise, and it left me feeling satisfied with the climax but so sad for everyone involved. This book was well-paced and a fantastic suspense, with believable characters who I could sympathize with.

Notable quotes:

Everyone's life has its complications. Sometimes you get to choose them, and sometimes they're thrust upon you.

We all wear masks. The challenge is keeping them in place.

It's just that sometimes you can't shake a dream. It clings to you like film.

I felt better having him next to me, which felt like something I needed to remind myself.

"Everyone has their stuff. Things they'll do that you find annoying or don't understand. But if you love someone, or think you might, then you decide what's the most important thing. Them in your life, or not."

Memory isn't a provable thing. We see what we want, hear what pleases us, and remember what grieves us. That is the human condition.

Just because I felt something didn't mean the person who had caused the feeling had done anything wrong.

Fangirl Book Review

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

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Blurb:

In Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life--and she's really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to.
Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Review by Brittany:

So I'm a little late to the Rainbow Rowell sensation, just now picking up Fangirl. And I loved this book.

First of all, the pieces of the Simon Snow series that Rowell tucked into Cath's story were fantastic. I enjoyed jumping into that piece of fiction which reading my own piece of fiction, if that makes any sense.

Secondly, the themes of anxiety and depression were spun in such a way that the book was able to stay light. While the reader recognizes that Cath struggles with anxiety, largely due to her mother leaving her at a young age, Cath's character is written in such a way that she is able to joke and function, keeping the book from getting bogged down with what could be dark themes. Her twin sister Wren is also clearly a bit of a mess, partaking in underage drinking constantly and even ending up in the hospital. It takes a lot of work for both girls to trust those around them and to overcome the pieces of life that have pulled them down.

I also liked that Reagan, Cath's roommate, is such a great character without being a super nice character. She's rough around the edges and doesn't say all the right things all the time, but she clearly cares for Cath and quickly became a favorite of mine. I wonder about her issues and why she's so rough and tumble.

There is also a really great family dynamic written into the book, allowing Cath the chance to decide if she wants a belated relationship with her mother or if she's better off not pursuing that avenue. The reader also gets invited back home, where Cath's father is still clearly struggling with his wife leaving a decade before. His heart was broken and he never quite recovered, which then had a huge effect on Cath.

Overall, this book had some great themes to explore, well-written characters, and fantastic relationships. I loved reading this book and would definitely recommend.

Two Days Gone Book Review

Two Days Gone by Randall Silvis

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Blurb:

What could cause a man, when all the stars of fortune are shining upon him, to suddenly snap and destroy everything he has built? This is the question that haunts Sergeant Ryan DeMarco after the wife and children of beloved college professor and bestselling author Thomas Huston are found slaughtered in their home. Huston himself has disappeared and so is immediately cast as the prime suspect.

DeMarco knows-or thinks he knows-that Huston couldn't have been capable of murdering his family. But if Huston is innocent, why is he on the run? And does the half-finished manuscript he left behind contain clues to the mystery of his family's killer?

A masterful new novel by acclaimed author Randall Silvis, Two Days Gone is a taut, suspenseful story that will break your heart as much as it will haunt your dreams.

Review by Brittany:

I requested this book off of NetGalley because the blurb sounded interesting, and it fit in with my current suspense/thriller kick for reading. 

I did not anticipate loving this book as much as I did. DeMarco is a bit rough around the edges, dealing with his own issues and his own struggles, but he is such a great character. He's sharp, picking up on the subtle signs that are there for the reader but that I never noticed. He has good intuition and an understanding of the human psyche that makes him good at his job, and as a character, none of this is outside the realm of believability.

The book flip-flops between DeMarco's search for answers, and Huston's travels as a fugitive. The parts that are written from Huston's point of view are so intense and so shocking, illustrating how disconnected Huston has become after the tragedy of losing his family - and possibly being the cause of it. As a character, Huston is a best-selling author, and the reader learns about him through DeMarco's questioning of people Huston knows. In the passages where Huston is on run, he often draws the connection between himself and a character in the novel, separating himself from the reality of what has happened and basically writing his own story. It's an interesting way to show what's going on in Huston's head, and I loved reading those passages.

The end of the book has one twist after another. It's both what I was expecting and a surprise. Nothing is quite what it seems, and even the most unseemly of characters are given a bit of redemption in the book.

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me turning pages all the way through, and I found myself easily sucked into the story. This one definitely fulfilled my current obsession with suspense novels, and I recommend it to anyone who's interested in the genre.

Notable quotes:

...writing a story is like driving at night through a fog. The thing to do is to just keep moving.

Then he dried himself off and wiped the fog off the mirror, and just like that, the routine took hold as always, the mechanics of living, step one, step two, step three, and the wind-up man was moving again.
 

The Woman in Cabin 10 Book Review

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

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Blurb:

In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

Review by Brittany:

I recently joined Book of the Month and this was one of the options. I have been on a bit of a mystery/thriller kick, so this sounded suspenseful enough to fulfill my reading need.

My favorite thing about this book is how unreliable the narrator seems. Lo is, from the very beginning of the book, kind of a mess. She's drunkenly burgled, which causes her issues with sleeping and ultimately puts her on edge. She drinks often throughout the book, and it is also revealed that she is on anti-depressants. She is not the most believable of characters, so when she claims that a woman has been murdered on the cruise ship, the other passengers are hard-pressed to believe her.

Her one possible ally is Ben, an ex of hers who is on the ship as well, but she gets so tangled up in trying to find "whodunnit" that she can't even trust him anymore. Everyone seems shady and deceitful, and this just adds to the unreliability of Lo.

The story line itself gets a bit crazy by the end. Lo often thinks that it's too crazy to be believable, and as a reader I had a similar feeling. It's far-fetched, but just enough so that it kept me turning pages and eager to find out what was going to happen next. Honestly, is there anything scarier than being trapped at sea with a killer?

This one is definitely worth picking up for those who are fans of suspenseful thrillers. Lo's slow unraveling of the mystery (and a bit of her sanity) kept me hooked and reading all day, until I had devoured the very last page.

Hidden Bodies Book Review

Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

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Blurb:

In the compulsively readable follow-up to her widely acclaimed debut novel, You, Caroline Kepnes weaves a tale that Booklist calls “the love child of Holden Caulfield and Patrick Bateman.”

Hidden Bodies marks the return of a voice that Stephen King described as original and hypnotic, and through the divisive and charmingly sociopathic character of Joe Goldberg, Kepnes satirizes and dissects our culture, blending suspense with scathing wit.

Joe Goldberg is no stranger to hiding bodies. In the past ten years, this thirty-something has buried four of them, collateral damage in his quest for love. Now he’s heading west to Los Angeles, the city of second chances, determined to put his past behind him.

In Hollywood, Joe blends in effortlessly with the other young upstarts. He eats guac, works in a bookstore, and flirts with a journalist neighbor. But while others seem fixated on their own reflections, Joe can’t stop looking over his shoulder. The problem with hidden bodies is that they don’t always stay that way. They re-emerge, like dark thoughts, multiplying and threatening to destroy what Joe wants most: truelove. And when he finds it in a darkened room in Soho House, he’s more desperate than ever to keep his secrets buried. He doesn’t want to hurt his new girlfriend—he wants to be with her forever. But if she ever finds out what he’s done, he may not have a choice...

Review by Brittany:

So I loved You, the weirdness and all. In fact, it was one of my favorite reads of 2015, so picking up this one was an obvious choice for me.

How can I possibly love Joe Goldberg so much when I know he's a freaking psycho?! There's something about him that I find so shamefully appealing. And now he's in  LA, making fun of the people with aspirations while becoming one of them.

What I liked about this one was that Joe becomes more human in this book. He begins to want things and to care about people, something that didn't seem to happen in the first book. He figures out that he actually enjoys writing screenplays and maybe this could be his thing. He falls in love with Love, a woman he meets while trying to chase down Amy to kill her, and begins to want a future with her. He notices how her brother tears her down constantly and starts dreaming about making her life better, even if that means getting rid of her brother. Joe's still Joe, twisted and willing to murder if that makes life easier, but he's developing a little bit of humanity this time around.

It was the other characters in this book that made it less of a favorite than the first one. Forty, Love's brother, was so annoying and obnoxious. I reached a point where all I could think about was how he was thirty-five and still a childish mess. I needed him to get his stuff together, and that just didn't happen. Love was similar in that she was always forgiving Forty's behavior. Like everything he did was fine because they were twins and you have to love your family.

I did like this book, but I think You was better. Joe just didn't have the same spark in this one, and I liked the characters from the first book better. However, if you're a fan of Joe Goldberg, then you should still pick this one up.

Notable quotes:

This is what all the love songs are about, the moment when you find your own way forward with someone and there is no turning back. 

I wonder when the wondering will stop. I hate this part of the split, when that girl just lives in your head.

Sometimes, what you do for one night destroys your future.

It's an ugly thing, the inside of a family, the disappointments, the disgust...

I don't know any perfect couples, true partners who share the load equally.

...most of the time in life, I'm starting to realize, love is not the problem.