Category: Book reviews

The Perfect Family by Shalini Boland My rating: 5 of 5 stars Fantastically twisted and utterly creepy! Gemma Ballantine has a perfect life: A gorgeous husband, two adorable little girls, a successful business. What more could she want? But she is constantly juggling work and family life, questioning if she’s a terrible mother or not.…

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier My rating: 5 of 5 stars My write-in Goodreads Choice Award for 2018! I absolutely loved this book. Dark, tautly written with flawed and real characters, I couldn’t stop reading! At the heart of the story is Angela Wong, who was 16 years old when she went missing, not…

River Bodies by Karen Katchur My rating: 5 of 5 stars River Bodies is a compelling and dark mystery that shifts from a present day murder to one that happened 20 years ago. The setting is vivid and evocative, the forest and the river lending a fantastic atmosphere to the story. When Becca catches her…

We Were Mothers by Katie Sise An intriguing look at the gossipy, dark side of suburbia, with a number of well-drawn but unlikeable characters. The story starts very slow, but does build tension as you go. It’s an easy read that you can pick up and put down as and when you want. View all…

Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips What would you do if you were with your small son at the zoo when shooters started killing people? This is the question Gin Phillips explores in Fierce Kingdom. She sets the story in what many find a familiar and happy environment (the zoo) then pushes on many of our…

Little Broken Things by Nicole Baart Little Broken Things is a family drama exploring lies and dark secrets. When a little girl arrives, all those secrets start to come out into the open. Told primarily from the POV of Liz, Nora and Quinn, the story explores what happened in the past and who the little…

Final Girls by Riley Sager My rating: 5 of 5 stars Of the +/- 100 books I’ve read this year, Final Girls is definitely up there at the top of my list. I absolutely LOVED every page. Initially I stayed away because I thought it sounded too much like a slasher movie, but fortunately it…

Honeymoon by James Patterson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Ok, there are some really cheesy moments in this book, but it’s a quick, easy read that is also entertaining. No, there are no themes or plot points to discuss, no great book club questions, but it never promises to be that. James Patterson is…

This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay My rating: 5 of 5 stars A darkly hilarious and heartwarming look at what it’s like to be a junior doctor, with snippets of stories so horrifying, surprising and amusing I had to read almost all of them out loud to…

Forget You Know Me by Jessica Strawser My rating: 5 of 5 stars What an intriguing premise! Childhood best friends Liza and Molly decide to catch up over a Skype call and some wine. But when Molly goes upstairs to check on her daughter, Liza sees a masked intruder enter her house. This one incident…

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult My rating: 5 of 5 stars Intricate, gorgeous and incredibly intelligent, I loved every second of this book. No matter what your views on this very sensitive social issue, A Spark of Light is a wonderful read. Rather than being preachy about either side, I think the success…

Him by Clare Empson This is a thoughtful character-drawn book, a tragic tale of love, obsession and guilt. My only problem with it was it’s one of those books that’s packaged as a psychological thriller and it just isn’t. But once you push that expectation aside, the writing is good, fluid and intelligent, with a…