Category: Book reviews

Girls with Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wickedly paced and devilishly clever, Girls with Bright Futures is a serious case of moms behaving badly, perfectly showcasing the dark side of ambition in the cut-throat world of elite college admissions. With a ripped-from-the-headlines feel a la Felicity Huffman, we get…

Her Last Holiday by C.L. Taylor An interesting, slow paced mystery with a lot of drama. I loved the premise of a sister looking into what happened to her sister. With a cast of several excellent suspects at the retreat, I was entertained, even if I did guess the twist. A light beach read. View…

The Dry by Jane Harper My rating: 3 of 5 stars An atmospheric slow-burn whodunit, I enjoyed The Dry. Part police procedural and part murder mystery, the question of whether Luke murdered his family kept me glued to the page, but the real strength of the story comes in the descriptions of the drought. Setting…

The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous My rating: 5 of 5 stars A richly atmospheric time-slip mystery with the pulse of a thriller, The Perfect Guests is deliciously evocative and absolutely spellbinding. Set up like a game of Clue, the story alternates between two narratives, one in the past, the other in the present, each…

Crazy Love You by Lisa Unger A twisted tale about a graphic artist with a lot of unresolved childhood issues, Crazy Love You explores, through a fog of haze and desperation, the things that are real and the things that aren’t. With pitch-perfect pacing, a dark psychological heart, and deeply moving flashbacks, I couldn’t put…

Pines by Blake Crouch Very M Knight Shamalayan or Dean Koontz, but with spies. Lots of scenes that were pretty gruesome, intense, blood, torture. In fact, the first 3/4 of the book is all about the protagonist being beaten, then he’s running, then he’s tortured, running, climbing, then beaten again. There seems to be little…

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb My rating: 5 of 5 stars Profoundly moving, charming, and thoroughly absorbing, I’m not even exaggerating when I say Lori Gottlieb’s memoir resonated with me deeply. There were so many parts that left me in awe or questioning…

Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger My rating: 5 of 5 stars Smart, textured and unsettling, Confessions on the 7:45 may just be my favorite Lisa Unger book yet. With a deep dive into human psychology and a fascinating character study, this one explores the gritty behind the gorgeous, the human behind the façade,…

Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone Anyone who reads this should know it’s heavily laced with magical realism. I do enjoy a little magical realism, it was to the extent that I really struggled with the first 50% of the storyline. It did pick up and I’m glad I finished, as I really enjoyed the ending. While…

The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn Oof! This one is…dark. The story is basically about means girls doing mean things to a nice girl and ruining said nice girl’s life. Mental abuse, bullying, social climbing, backstabbing, these are the sorts of themes we cover. But without the protagonist having any…

In the Deep by Loreth Anne White My rating: 5 of 5 stars Smart, compelling and flawlessly plotted, with red herrings sprinkled in like little dashes of chilli, In The Deep is seriously entertaining. And that ending! I’m still running it through my mind the next day! We start with a woman’s murder trial after…

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth My rating: 5 of 5 stars An enchanting, enthralling, and utterly beautiful women’s fiction novel with a twist of domestic suspense, The Good Sister is that rare story that manages to hit all the right buttons. Rose and Fern are fraternal twins who survived a traumatic childhood with a…