Book Review: Then She Was Gone (Lisa Jewell) @lisajewelluk @AtriaMysteryBus

I really love a novel that is a nice blend of suspense and women’s fiction. I find them to be such a nice breath of fresh air in a genre saturated with serial killers and psychological thrillers (mind you, I enjoy those as well!).

After reading the synopsis of Then She Was Gone, the newest publication by Lisa Jewell, I knew this would fit that bill for me. Having read several of Jewell’s other novels, I was excited to dive into this one. Just as entertaining as her others, I flew through my reading but, truthfully, I didn’t find it to be as suspenseful as some of the other novels I have read by Jewell. I actually found it to be quite predictable but still incredibly entertaining.

Let me break it down a bit further.

So, the novel follows Laurel Mack, who is still reeling after the disappearance of her daughter, Ellie, 10 years prior. She has never been able to fully move on and this has ultimately affected most of her relationships.   This begins to change when she meets Floyd and she finally starts to feel like herself again. However, Floyd’s nine-year-old daughter unsettles Laurel when she realizes she shows a startling resemblance to Ellie.   All those memories of Ellie come flooding back pushing Laurel to find out once and for all what happened to her daughter.

I loved the writing style of Jewell, as I always do! Something about her writing is so easy to digest. It is sort of like chatting with a good friend. I really like that I can start one of her novels and them just sort of settle in and enjoy the ride.

However, like I said above, I found this novel lacking suspense. To me, it read more like women’s fiction or contemporary family drama. I enjoyed it. I wanted to know what happened. I just feel like it was a bit misleading in this genre.   Also, I felt like it was very predictable. I was able to guess what has happened very early on in the novel but was still interested to see whether or not I was correct.

Overall, I really like this novel as an easy read and will continue to read more Lisa Jewell. If you are looking for an on the edge of your seat style suspense, this will be lacking but I would highly recommend if you are looking for a well-rounded and developed story.

3.5/5 stars.

Thanks to the publisher (Atria), the author (Lisa Jewell) and Netgalley for a digital copy of this novel.  It was my pleasure to provide an honest review.

Jessica and Chandra read this one with me for #cjsreads.  Want to know what they felt about Then She Was Gone?  Keep reading to find out!

Book Review: Zero Day (Ezekiel Boone) @AtriaMysteryBus @ezekiel_boone @SimonSchusterCA

YES! YES! YES! I had been eagerly awaiting the third instalment of The Hatching series since last year when I read Skitter last year.  Seeing the spiders hatch, take over and seeing the apocalypse on the horizon, I couldn’t wait to watch the United States go to war against the queen spiders; Zero Day by Ezekiel Boone had arrived!! Truthfully, if anyone had told me that I would be anticipating a book about killer spiders, I would have looked at them like they were crazy. But, alas, here we are!

One of my favourite things about the writing style of Boone is his ability to take tons of characters, both major and minor, and blend them effortlessly together.   All characters are fully developed and each with their own POV. This could end up being confusing the Boone’s execution is brilliant and it ends up adding continuous layers to the plot.

Another fast paced, action packed novel that had me up late into the night and my eyes glued to the pages, but, I have to say, I feel like the ending was a little lacklustre for me. I think I wanted a big SHABANG at the end and it turned out to be a little bit meh. Mind you, this was a trilogy, so I knew it had to come to an end but I wish there would have been a bit more development so the ending could have been drawn out a little more.

I know I will read anything that Boone publishes in the future and cannot wait to see what he will come up with next!

4.5 stars.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this novel; it was my pleasure to provide an honest review.

Of course, Chandra and Jessica gave this one a read with me!  In fact, the first book in this series, The Hatching, was one of the first books that Chandra and I read together!

Keep reading to see what Chandra and Jessica thought of this one!

Book Review: Anatomy of A Scandal (Sarah Vaughan) @SimonSchusterCA @AtriaMysteryBus @SVaughanAuthor

When choosing a novel, I am typically drawn to anything involving courtroom drama or a he said/she said type storyline. When I discovered that Anatomy of a Scandal, the new novel by Sarah Vaughan, had these exact two things within its storyline, I was sold! Up to the top of my TBR pile, it went.

The novel opens with the introduction of James: loving father, Member of Parliament and accused rapist. His wife, Sophie, is shocked at the accusations and is desperate to protect her family. Kate, the lawyer hired to prosecute the case, is certain James is guilty and should pay for his crimes. As all three viewpoints collide, Vaughan weaves a tale of love, betrayal, deceit and revenge.

When I started reading, I was completely hooked from the first few pages. In fact, I flew through Anatomy of a Scandal within a couple of sittings. Vaughan’s narrative voice is completely addictive and I found myself loving the characters; I found Sophie and Kate to be extremely relatable. Vaughan did a spectacular job at making her characters jump off the pages; there was nothing superficial about them. Instead, Vaughan seemed to delve deep and I found myself completely engrossed as their stories developed. While I loved the female characters, James, on the other hand, I hated from the moment I was introduced to him. Conniving and powerful, I felt like I couldn’t trust him for a second. I loved this juxtaposition within the writing! Having characters I loved and characters I abhorred kept me on the edge of my seat!

As for twists, I felt as if the story was pretty surface. I was able to guess where it was going almost immediately but that didn’t disturb or affect my reading at all. In fact, it made me more curious to see exactly how the story was going to play out.

I think my favourite part of the novel was how relevant it was. With all that is going on in the world involving rape culture, women’s rights and Hollywood/political scandals, I felt as if Anatomy of a Scandal did an amazing job at portraying the system surrounding these issues and what needs to change.

Overall, I really enjoyed Anatomy of a Scandal. If you are looking for a character-centric, slow burn that will get you thinking and leave you feeling, then you will enjoy this one too! However, if you are looking for an extremely fast-paced, thrill ride type of novel this one will likely disappoint.

I gave it 4/5 stars.

Thanks to the author (Sarah Vaughan), the publisher (Atria/Simon and Schuster Canada) and Netgalley for copies of this novel; it was my pleasure to provide an honest review.

Obviously, #cjsreads had to make this one of our January picks!  Keep reading to see what Jessica and Chandra thought!

Book Review: The Blackbird Season (Kate Moretti) @KateMoretti1 @AtriaMysteryBus

Last year, I read (and loved!) The Vanishing Year by Kate Moretti, so I was thrilled to find out that #cjsreads had obtained copies of her sophomore novel, The Blackbird Season as one of our September picks!    I had absolutely no expectations going into this book; truthfully, I loved The Vanishing Year so much that I didn’t even read the synopsis of this book.  I figured that if Moretti wrote it, I would be interested.  I was right!  Moretti was able to weave a pretty stellar, mysterious novel within these pages.  One that left me binge reading late into the night.

This story surrounds high school teacher, Nate Winters as he is accused of having an affair with a female student, Lucia Hamm.  As Nate’s life spirals and Lucia goes missing, Nate is the only suspect.  As his wife, Alecia begins to question his situation, his only ally comes in the form of co-worker and creative writing teacher, Bridget, who realizes the only way to save Nate’s reputation could be using Lucia’s journals.

Though marketed as a psychological thriller, I didn’t find that this one fit that bill in the traditional sense.  When I think of psychological thriller, I think of a fast-paced, on the edge of your seat, mind-bending plot filled with unreliable narration and lots of “WHOA” moments.  In this case, I felt Moretti created more of a slow-burning mystery.  What happened to Lucia?  Who is telling the truth?  What is the deal with all these birds?  For me, this absolutely worked.

Generally speaking, choppy and disjointed narration usually gets on my nerves, but, somehow, Moretti manages to make this style of narration easy to follow and completely addictive throughout the plot of this tale.  I was on the edge of my seat as I devoured each chapter (both and back and forth in time) and tried to figure out what the true happenings were and what motives the characters were acting with.   Each character gets a distinct POV and I loved hearing the story from each of their perspectives.  I found this to be incredibly interesting.

One of my largest gripes to this story was the situation with the birds.  At the beginning of the story, we are told that thousands (hundreds?  millions?  Who knows) of blackbirds have fallen out of the sky and into the town.  People are horrified by this phenomenon and experts are called into the test the town’s water and air, looking for reasons and possible side effects of this occurrence.   I waited for the entirety of the book for this to be made clear.  And, alas, there was never really an explanation. The birds were more of a metaphor or a representation and I just wasn’t about that.  Personally, I felt like I needed an explanation.

Overall, if you enjoy a tightly woven plot with multiple characters and a compelling mystery, I think you will enjoy this book.  It really reminded me of Everything You Want Me To Be by Mindy Mejia.  They both had that small town mystery vibe.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of The Blackbird Season; it was my pleasure to provide an honest review.

Want to see what Jessica and Chandra thought of this one?  Keep reading to find out!

Blog Tour: Until It Fades (K.A Tucker) @AtriaBooks @kathleenatucker @SimonSchusterCA

 I am absolutely thrilled to be on the Until It Fades blog tour today celebrating the release of K.A Tucker’s newest novel!

KA Tucker has quickly become one of my go-to authors.  Not only does she in Canada (oh hey!) but I love how her titles have a Colleen Hoover vibe with an edge.

Genre bending structure, complex characters and the perfect amount of romance and tension make me devour her novels whole.

Her newest novel, Until It Fades, brings around the softer side of Tucker and reads like a new adult or contemporary romance novel. It follows Cath Wright, a single mother and truck stop waitress, who has been doing her best to live her life under the radar. After she ended her teenage years being the talk of her small town, she wants nothing more than to blend in and move on. That is, until one foggy night, she saves a man’s life. Soon, the media is at her door and it isn’t then until Cath realizes whom she has saved: Brett Madden, a hockey icon. Their friendship is immediate and soon Cath finds her feelings developing into something more, something she is afraid of and something she feels she cannot trust.   Because how long can a man like Brett be into a woman like Cath….before the spark fades?

BOMG Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Taylor Jenkins Reid) @tjenkinsreid @AtriaBooks

I had read my first Taylor Jenkins Reid novel earlier this year (you can check out my review for that one here) and immediately fell in love with her narrative style.   So, imagine my delight when I stumbled across The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Reid’s latest release, as I was scrolling through Netgalley. Now that I have finished this novel, I must say, I was completely blown away by Reid’s writing ability in this novel. Beautiful, bittersweet and deliciously decadent in her prose, I could not put this one down.

Book Review: I Found You (Lisa Jewell) @lisajewelluk @SimonSchusterCA

I Found You by Lisa Jewell was one of the most originally written novels I have read this year; a slow burning mystery and then a fast race to the finish, Jewell had me captivated with her complex characters and her smart prose.

This was one of my most anticipated April reads. I have countless novels by this author on my TBR shelf, but, for whatever reason, they always end up in my bag log.   So, needless to say, I was pleased as punch when #cjsreads made this one of our picks and forced me to move this one to the top!

Sitting Down With Christina Kovac: Author of The Cutaway #authorQ&A @christina_kovac @AtriaMysteryBus

 

I am thrilled to have Christina Kovac, the author of The Cutaway, on Clues and Reviews today.  When I read The Cutaway by Christina Kovac, I was in awe of its originality; I was so glad to find a novel from a fresh, new perspective.  After reading, I took to Twitter to stalk down Christina ask politely for an author interview, completely casually.  And she agreed!  Here is what Christina Kovac had to say about her novel, the writing process and life in general!

#cjsreads: The Cutaway (Christina Kovac) @37INKBOOKS @CHRISTINA_KOVAC

So excited to be sharing our collaborative reviews of The Cutaway by Christina Kovac (which is out TOMORROW!)

I read this book last week and was so glad to read a book with such a twist on the traditional police procedural type novel.   This one is told through the eyes of a journalist.

Keep reading for a synopsis of the book and to find out what we thought about this one….