Tag Archives: review

Jun26

Familia by Lauren E. Rico, a Review

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Thank you to Kensington Publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book was wonderful and enjoyable. I inhaled it in a couple of reading sessions.

We first meet Gabby, a fact checker for a magazine who has aspirations of being a writer for the same magazine. The problem is, she is too good at the job she currently holds and is being thwarted in making her dream come true. She is an only child and her parents are deceased.

The magazine editor decides to do a story on people finding relatives through the genealogy websites and asks all the staff to take the DNA test offered by one site to see what gets uncovered.

Isabella is a young, married women living in Puerto Rico. Her mother passed away and left her and a baby sister with their father. The father, in his grief, turns to drink. One night, while he is out at the bar with the baby, he passes out in the street and wakes up to an empty stroller. He can’t forgive himself for losing his daughter and life for the older daughter changes dramatically as her father isn’t there to protect her from the evils of the world as he is too busy drinking and grieving, now both for his lost daughter as well as his wife.

Isabella is able to make a happy marriage but she spends a lot of her life searching for her lost sister.

When Gabby receives the results of her DNA test, she is stunned to see that the company has indicated she has a relative. She can’t believe the test is correct. Isabella gets an email that there is a match for a sibling. While Gabby wants another test since the first one was in error, Isabella is hopeful that this Gabby person is her long-lost sister.

Gabby’s boss wants to send a staff member to Puerto Rico to get the story. Gabby wants to do it herself and, when she’s denied the chance by her boss, she quits her job. Skeptical that this is anything but a mistake, she goes to Puerto Rico anyway and meets Isabella.

The story takes off from there on the lives of these two women, solving mysteries for each, and learning about each other. One is convinced she has found her sister at last and one is convinced there’s been a huge mistake. This makes for some great conflict in the storyline.

The way the author weaves the stories of the two women is brilliant. As well, she has captured Puerto Rico and its beauty and culture and I’m not surprised to learn she spent a lot of time there over the years visiting her grandmother. The island becomes a character itself in the excellent descriptions of various places in the story.

If you enjoy multi-cultural stories with heart, this one is highly recommended.  Five Stars.

BLURB:

What if your most basic beliefs about your life were suddenly revealed to be a lie?

As the fact checker for a popular magazine, Gabby DiMarco believes in absolute, verifiable Truths—until they throw the facts of her own life into question. The genealogy test she took as research for an article has yielded a baffling result: Gabby has a sister—one who’s been desperately trying to find her. Except, as Gabby’s beloved parents would confirm if they were still alive, that’s impossible.

Isabella Ruiz can still picture the face of her baby sister, who disappeared from the streets of San Juan twenty-five years ago. Isabella, an artist, has fought hard for the stable home and loving marriage she has today—yet the longing to find Marianna has never left. At last, she’s found a match, and Gabby has agreed to come to Puerto Rico.

But Gabby, as defensive and cautious as Isabella is impulsive, offers no happy reunion. She insists there’s been a mistake. And Isabella realizes that even if this woman is her sister, she may not want to be.
With nothing—or perhaps so much—in common, Gabby and Isabella set out to find the truth, though it means risking everything they’ve known for an uncertain future—and a past that harbors yet more surprises . . .

Jun17

New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke

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Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

Courtney, 40ish and Ruby, 20ish are roommates.  They have differences. Courtney is quiet, private, loves plants, and had an alcohol problem. Ruby is free-spirited, outgoing, desperately in need of a job, and wants to make her way in the world away from her family. And oh, yeah, Courtney is dead and Ruby is alive. Which makes it hard to communicate with each other, to say the least.

The two of them team up to try to solve the murder of the guy who lived across the hall.

The book was quite clever and part of the fun of solving the mystery of who done it was the mechanics of how they learned to work together once Ruby learned she wasn’t living alone in their apartment.

Courtney helps Ruby with some much needed hidden money as well as assisting her to find employment.

I enjoyed the interactions between the two main characters as well as the mystery itself. And the fact that the author named the deceased Courtney Graves and the 20-year-old Ruby Young was not lost on me. J

There’s clearly another book planned as there’s one overarching plot point that I kept screaming about that will hopefully be resolved in the next book.  I’m not a fan of cliffhangers and I’m glad this book was not one. Yes, there is an overarching plot to tie book two to book one but we got resolution of the mystery of how the neighbor died and who was responsible and that satisfied me.

Can’t wait for the next book as these characters are delightful and fun to read. Dark, yet fun, this is a great read.

This one gets five stars from me.

BLURB:

In this darkly funny supernatural mystery about an unlikely crime-solving duo that launches a commercial, unique, and genre-blending series, death is only the beginning.

Ruby Young’s new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she’s kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there’s more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can’t solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn’t kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can’t, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. The roommates form an unlikely friendship as they get closer to the truth about Jake’s death…and maybe other dangerous secrets as well.

Apr11

Zenith Man by McCracken Poston, Jr.

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I was given this book by Kensington Publishing in exchange for an unbiased review.

McCracken Poston, Jr. is lawyer who served in the State House for the State of Georgia and lost his bid for Congress. He practices law in Ringgold, Georgia

Alvin Ridley is a local man who lives in Ringgold, Georgia as well. At one time, he owned the Zenith dealership in town. He had always been a bit odd and not many people wanted to deal with him due to his eccentricities.

Ridley had some run-ins with the local sheriff. He’d sued the department and had a vehicle taken by a deputy when a suit ended with Ridley on the losing side.  This turn of events made him distrust law enforcement even more.

In October, 1997, a woman was found dead in Alvin Ripley’s house. He told the police it was his wife and she must have smothered herself during an epilepsy attack when her face turned into her pillow in the midst of the seizure.

The community was shocked to learn he even had a wife as they’d never seen her.  This was yet another strange thing about the loner, Alvin Ridley. Many years prior, his wife’s family accused him of keeping her a prisoner in their home, but a judge found the allegations untrue when the wife testified about their lives.

With Ridley charged with murder, McCracken Poston agreed to help Ridley because it didn’t seem anyone else would take on the case. Poston wasn’t sure about Ridley, but he was determined to try to assist the man.

And then the real story begins. The tribulations of Poston as he tried to represent this man who had many odd habits and lived in a place that was roach infested and filthy. It took a long while for Ridley to trust his lawyer and actually let him into his house.

Inside was a plethora of evidence that would help his client and Poston had a difficult time getting the man to even let him look at it, much less copy it for purposes of trial discovery.

This was a story of redemption for both the attorney and his client. It was a wild tale with a lot of ups and downs. From the roaches brought to court in the suitcase full of evidence that Ridley didn’t want to let go of, to the expert witness that Poston hired who was an expert in pretty much nothing, to the marital issues Poston had during the run up to the trial. This was a great book with a deep friendship that developed at the heart of it. Ridley was eventually diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and once the community learned of this, his life changed for the better. Both lawyer and client owe each other a debt of gratitude for changing each other’s lives for the better.  Highly recommend for the legal drama as well as the heartwarming outcome.

BLURB:

Was this small-town TV repair man “a harmless eccentric or a bizarre killer” (Atlanta Journal Constitution). For the first time, Alvin Ridley’s own defense attorney reveals the inside story of his case and trial in an extraordinary tale of friendship and an idealistic young attorney’s quest to clear his client’s name—and, in the process, rebuild his own life.

In October 1997, the town of Ringgold in northwest Georgia was shaken by reports of a murder in its midst. A dead woman was found in Alvin Ridley’s house—and even more shockingly, she was the wife no one knew he had. 

McCracken Poston had been a state representative before he lost his bid for U.S. Congress and returned to his law career. Alvin Ridley was a local character who once sold and serviced Zenith televisions. Though reclusive and an outsider, the “Zenith Man,” as Poston knew him, hardly seemed capable of murder. 

Alvin was a difficult client, storing evidence in a cockroach-infested suitcase, unwilling to reveal key facts to his defender. Gradually, Poston pieced together the full story behind Virginia and Alvin’s curious marriage and her cause of death—which was completely overlooked by law enforcement. Calling on medical experts, testimony from Alvin himself, and a wealth of surprising evidence gleaned from Alvin’s  junk-strewn house, Poston presented a groundbreaking defense that allowed Alvin to return to his peculiar lifestyle, a free man.

Years after his trial, Alvin was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, a revelation that sheds light on much of his lifelong personal battle—and shows how easily those who don’t fit societal norms can be castigated and misunderstood. Part true crime, part courtroom drama, and full of local color, Zenith Man is also the moving story of an unexpected friendship between two very different men that changed—and perhaps saved—the lives of both.

Feb1

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney- Review

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This book is a wow. I loved it. Great mystery and an enjoyable read.

The story is told from the point of view of Daisy. Her grandmother is a children’s book author who owns a house on the coast of Cornwall separated by a spit of land from the mainland. For many hours each night, the small island where the house is located is inaccessible as the high tide of the Atlantic Ocean cuts off the path onto the island.

A tarot reader from Land’s End predicted Daisy’s grandmother’s death in her 80th year. The book takes place on October 30 and 31st and the 31st is the grandmother’s 80th birthday.

Grandmother invites all her family to the house for the birthday celebrations. Her son, an orchestra conductor, her former daughter in law, a failed actress, Rose- the veterinarian daughter, Lily- the daughter who has never worked and is rude and self-obsessed. The great granddaughter named Trixie is fifteen. And Daisy is there as well.

Also invited is a young man, Conor, who was a childhood friend of the three grandchildren, Rose, Lily and Daisy.

The set-up of this story is much like the Agatha Christie book “And Then There Were None.” Isolated setting, people who mostly don’t have much to do with each other and some who actively are unkind to each other, a cast of characters who all arouse suspicion, and, of course, the requisite murders.

Some fun quirks of the story are that the grandmother has 80 clocks in the hallway that all go off every hour. She also has a time clock like is used with employees and she gets her guests to clock in and clock out when they visit.

I really enjoyed this one. Lots of twists and turns. There are some flashbacks to the childhoods of the granddaughters and they tie into the plot nicely.

I’m usually good at figuring these books out and I’m happy to say, other than a few small things, I didn’t on this one. Maybe that’s a big reason I enjoyed it so much (it was a bit of a Deus ex machina resolution though) Besides the great writing and building of suspense throughout the tale. Highly recommended to the point I encourage you to drop what you’re doing and dash out to the store a get a copy post-haste.

BLURB:

Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart. Now after years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in her crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. When the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

But at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide goes out and all is revealed. As seen on the TODAY show and picked by Book of the Month, Daisy Darker’s family secrets and Alice Feeney’s trademark shocking twists will keep readers riveted.

Oct18

Wander in the Dark- by Jumata Emill- a Review

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New Orleans. Mardi Gras. The Garden District. Two half-brothers, estranged. Families with issues. A private school. A murder. A perfect storm of ingredients that lead to a great read full of mystery, danger, and anxiety for the protagonists.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and Random House Children’s Books in exchange for an impartial review.

Marcel and Amir are half-brothers who share a father and not much else. Marcel is the elder of the two and his father cheated on his mother with Amir’s mother. This led to their father leaving Marcel’s mother and his subsequent marriage to Amir’s mother. Family dynamics have been problematic since that time. The boys are now in high school and don’t communicate with each other.

Until the fateful night of Amir’s 16th birthday party when Marcel shows up at the invitation of Amir’s best friend, Chloe.

He and Chloe eventually leave the party and head to her house. A few hours later, Marcel wakes to the horrifying sight of Chloe’s lifeless body. Her room ransacked and her being stabbed panics Marcel and he runs. A Black young man found in the home of a dead white girl is always going to go sideways.

And indeed it does when he’s seen on a security camera leaving the house via the front door.

From this point, the story moves into trying to resolve the question of who really killed Chloe.

Amir is sure his brother is innocent and he’s on a quest to clear his brother’s name.

Along the way, we meet a cast of characters who all have something to hide. The family dynamics of several of the characters enter into the story. There’s also the discovery of a reprehensible game being played online at the private school. That part of the book absolutely turned my stomach and made my blood boil.

Amir and Marcel’s family dynamics are also an integral part of the story and I was rooting for a good resolution to that part of the story as well as the solving of the murder.

I loved this book. Lots of twists and turns and some parts kept me guessing which I love. The growth of the characters is super well done by the author.

Throughout the days as I was reading this, I found myself thinking about getting back to the story of Marcel and Amir when I should’ve been focused on other things. These characters were both well drawn and they seemed very real to me.

The New Orleans setting also appealed. It’s one of my favorite cities and I could picture all the places in the book which added to my enjoyment of this story.

Highly recommended. To be released Jan 29, 2024.

Sep26

The Revenge Game by Jordyn Taylor- Review

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Alyson, the high school junior, protagonist of this book, is a hopeful romantic. She even wants to write romance novels someday after attending a prestigious college with a first rate literature and writing department.

Her problem? She comes across to the first boy she’s interested in as desperate and, after she overhears him talking about her not in a good way, she determines to be more cautious as she moves on from this embarrassment.

But her resolution doesn’t last long. The first day of the new school year, she finds herself attracted to a senior lacrosse superstar. To her astonishment, her teacher pairs her with him for a class project.

Before she knows it, she finds herself falling for him as they seem to hit it off immediately. He’s kind and sexy and nothing like she thought he might be as the big man on campus. They seem to have a lot in common even though she is a library nerd and he’s a sports star.

At a camping trip with other students, one of Alyson’s friends overhears a conversation with some of the boys. It seems they have a contest going called the King’s Cup. Points are awarded to the young men for various acts related to the opposite sex.

Upon learning of this, the girls set up a Queen’s Cup for dumping boys publicly because of this point system.

Alyson is sure her lacrosse player, Riggs, isn’t part of the King’s Cup. He even tells her he thinks it’s a stupid game.

She helps her friends with their plans for the Queen’s Cup and is pretty much the ringleader of the quest to expose the boys in the King’s Cup to ridicule. But she is relentless in her belief in Riggs. She feels sorry for the other girls that they can’t find a true and loyal boyfriend.

As the book progresses, the book moves from flashbacks of Alyson and Riggs during the school year to various news reports of Riggs being missing after the prom in May.

The way the author moves the story from time to time is seamless and intriguing. We as the readers know something bad may have happened to Riggs and the story keeps us turning pages to see what occurred to cause his disappearance.

Alyson is likable and funny.  She’s a well-rounded character with a few blind spots but, she’s a teenager, so that’s expected. I enjoyed her and her personality. I liked she had a good family relationship and loyal friendships.

The last chapter seemed a bit off for the character to me but that’s really my only issue with the story. I didn’t think it rang true for the character we’d learned about in the rest of the story.

An enjoyable, intriguing read with a unique presentation. And it ticked a lot of boxes for our times, including feminism, family dynamics, date rape, and empowerment over misogyny in a boarding school environment.

Thank you to Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

BLURB:

Alyson is a romantic, and sometimes it gets her into trouble. Like last summer, she thought her co-worker was into her, when in reality he found her flirting pathetic.

Then she meets Brenton Riggs Jr., and right away she knows that their connection isn’t just in her head. When he swoops in to save her one night from a less than savory party encounter, she falls head-over-heels. Finally, someone Alyson likes who likes her back!

But when she finds out about the King’s Cup—a competition the guys at their boarding school started to see who has the most sexual prowess—she’s put on edge. Does Brenton really want to be with her, or is he just trying to win? Then Alyson and the other girls at the school start a competition of their own: The Queen’s Cup. It’s all about reclaiming their power. But as the competition heats up, Alyson’s relationship begins to fall apart—and it isn’t long before the cracks in her perfect love story start to show through.

Aug22

The Hoax- by Nikki Rodwell- Review

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This is going to be a strange review as, in the beginning, I hated both of the main characters in this book. One of them was a terrible, terrible, terrible human being. The other was a victim of the first. But he had a lot of unlikable characteristics himself. I almost put it down several times and walked away. I could only manage a chapter or two a day as I began this one.

The father character, Ronnie, was downright abusive to everyone he knew but mostly to his son. It was hard to read the awful things he did to the poor boy growing up.

Based on the blurb, I knew this was going to turn into a thriller type book even though it was slow getting there.  By the end of chapter eight, I thought I had the story figured out. When I decided I’d figured the case out, it motivated me to keep reading and I was able to read more than a chapter at a time. I still was angry at Ronnie, but I was determined to see if I was right about how this would play out. LOL  

I went on reading, getting more and more agitated at this Ronnie guy’s behavior. As I went on, though, the psychology classes I took kicked in and I became more sympathetic to the son. He was definitely a product of his upbringing. A mostly absent mother and an absolute jackass of a father. Of course, I did see that the father was also a product of some things that happened to him as a boy but, he was too far gone for me to have any sympathy for at all.

It turns out I did figure out the outcome of the story. I’m glad I finished it as it was definitely well written and the author must have some psychological training or had good advice on this work. She crafted a character in Ronnie that evoked strong feelings—albeit negative ones—that compelled me to keep reading. So, well done to the author.

To sum up, a slow start, a character who isn’t likable, and a female character who was clueless, along with a younger character we learn to understand, all add up to a read that is compelling and well written. I recommend plugging away at this one if you enjoy psychological thrillers.

Aug16

Reclaiming Mni Sota by Colin Mustful

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This book is an alternate history of the U. S. – Dakota war of 1862. A novel with an interesting premise of what if the Indigenous People won the war that, in reality, they lost?

The author is a gifted writer with a knack for creating compelling characters. This reader became very invested in both of the protagonists as the story progressed.

Samuel, the young boy who encouraged his family to move west when they were having financial difficulties after his father was injured, was a kind lad who wanted the best for his family. Sadly, they had a rough time in their home of Vermont and that lure of a new life in the west wasn’t all it was promised to be in the brochure he picked up one day. Lots of hardships were in store for this family.  Samuel blamed himself for the woes of his family.

Waabi, an Ojibwe, was also a young lad who adored his family and his culture. He was one with the land as his ancestors were. He watched as his world changed and promises made by the government officials were made and broken over and over. He was also witness to hunger of his people as well as land grabs of the white settlers. This could have made him butter and angry, but with the help of his grandmother, he was able to avoid that.

The trials these young men went through shaped their personalities and lives. They each were compelled to act in certain ways by their experiences.

The novel alternates between the two young men and their viewpoint of their respective worlds. Both are written as sympathetic characters. This reader found herself rooting for a good outcome for each of them. Being drawn into each one’s struggles and disappointments made for compelling reading.

The reader knew we were on a collision course for these two protagonists to meet. What wasn’t known was how their lives would intersect and how they’d be impacted. It kept this reader turning the pages.

I enjoyed the story up until the last few chapters and the epilogue. The fate of one of the characters seemed to me to be jarring and out of keeping with the rest of the story. I’m sure other reviewers may disagree with me but I wasn’t pleased with that angle of the story. I also felt like the reader was left hanging with the fate of the other character. There was no satisfactory wrap up.

Then the epilogue was a bit disconcerting. It took place in the modern day. That was interesting and the words of the character’s ruling were well stated, but who she was and why her name was the same as a character in the 1860s was never explained. Leaving this reader wondering what her relationship was with that other character. That question unanswered as well as the question of the ultimate fate of that other character left me dissatisfied with the way the book ended.

Overall, the book was well written and thought provoking. The history of the white man in this country and the way the native culture and land was overrun is a sad reflection on the settlers of this continent.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Jul25

The Exorcist Legacy, 50 Years of Fear-  By Nat Segaloff

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I received this from NetGalley and finished it a while back but before I could do my review, my mother was in her last illness and passed away so I have been dealing with that as well as the funeral and being present for my dad. I finally got this done and am posting it today.

The Exorcist came out when I was in middle school so I didn’t get the theatrical experience with the movie but did get to see it when I was older. I did read the book while I was still in middle school. Our theaters in my town were very strict in not admitting anyone under 17 without a parent and my mom didn’t care what I read but she was not going to go with me to see that. My dad wasn’t a film fan, and in fact, I only ever recall him going to one movie in my life. I threw up cheese popcorn and I think that did it for him.

I was interested in this book to find out more information about William Peter Blatty’s inspiration for the book as well as the journey to get this film made. The author did not disappoint. Meticulous research went into this thorough volume. I enjoyed it immensely. Interesting information was in every chapter and the way Blatty fought for his vision was admirable.

I learned a lot about the man and how strongly he believed in this story and wanted it told in the way he imagined it. He never sold out his characters or how he saw the crux of his story. His vision was to focus on the priest’s crisis of faith. In his mind, the story was more about the priest than the possessed child.

At the end of each chapter was a side note section that gave even more insider information and insight. That additional information was much appreciated by this reader as it fleshed out more details than might have fit seamlessly in the flow of the chapter.

The best parts of the book dealt with the original story. The author also fully explored all of the sequels and the nuances of them. As well, he described the ways they worked as sequels and the ways they didn’t. These sections were as meticulously researched as the parts about the book itself and the film. I have to confess I didn’t enjoy the parts about the sequels as much (some of them I hadn’t seen and thus, I appreciated the plot synopses by the author). If you’re a film buff, a fan of The Exorcist and all its permutations, or if you just like Hollywood stories about making of films and the politics and machinations of getting a book to the screen, this is an excellent work to read. The author is to be commended for all the research he did and kudos to him for the insider information he was able to obtain from all the interviews he conducted.  Highly recommend this for lovers of the book, film and/or the sequels

Jun27

The Harbor by Katrine Engberg

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As someone who enjoys the Icelandic, Danish and other Scandinavian dramas, a genre apparently called Nordic Noir, I picked up this book a while back and have finally found time to review it.

I love this story. It has a lot of twists and turns—being someone who reads a lot of crime fiction, I really appreciate it when the author can keep me guessing for a while. I did figure out parts of it, but not the complete solution. I also like that each section had the day of the week at the beginning of those sections. It helped keep the reader oriented to the time passing in the investigation and upped the stakes on how long the boy was gone.

The story starts when a young man disappears on his way home from school. He lives in Copenhagen and has two siblings and some very odd parents. The reactions of his parents when he goes missing are strange and immediately make the reader suspicious. But there is no shortage of suspects in this story. The parents are a small part of the suspicion here. A murder occurs and more layers are added to the story. There are a lot of characters to sink ones teeth into. The ending of the investigation is superbly done.

The two detectives in the story are richly drawn with flaws as well as talents. Having fully fleshed out protagonists is always appreciated. The reader can really get behind these characters as they move forward in not only the investigation but in their personal lives.

The flow of the story is well done, clues are dropped and twists happen at a good pace.

If you’re a fan of detective stories with intriguing premises and interesting crimes and criminals, this is one to pick up.