12.30.2016 - The Devil's Country

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book - highly recommended!
This book is an example of why I love NetGalley - the opportunity to read and review a book by an author I didn't even know existed - and then loved the book!  I will be searching out more by this author!

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book but was more than pleasantly surprised by how quickly I was drawn into this story.

Arlo is an ex-Texas Ranger - forced to leave his job after his family was murdered. This back story is told from the past interspersed with the present day story. Arlo is wandering aimlessly around the small towns of Texas, getting off the bus whenever he feels the need. He ends up in Piedra Springs and sees a terrified woman and her two children in town begging for help. When the woman turns up dead, Arlo is obsessed with finding out what happened to her children. What he finds is a small town corrupt with dealings from a religious cult just outside of town.

Quick moving plot that keeps you engrossed until you turn the last page!

12.28.2016 - The Ice Beneath Her

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This book is amazing - my head is still reeling from it. One of the best psychological thrillers I have read in awhile - and that's saying something since that's my favorite genre! This book languished on my NetGalley shelf for awhile - after reading it I keep asking myself why I didn't read it sooner and why I've never read this author's work before!

Taking place in Sweden, this book is told in the voices of 3 narrators. Peter is a detective who is tasked with trying to solve a gruesome murder (and it is gruesome). Peter is estranged from his son and his son's mother and has major commitment issues. Hanne, is a psychological profiler working with the police and dealing with her own personal issues. Emma is a young girl, working in a clothing store, who is in a relationship with the owner of the clothing store conglomerate, Jesper Orre. Peter and Hanne's stories are in the present time; Emma's voice starts a few months in the past and builds up to the present.

I raced through this book - besides being a great mystery with all the requisite twists, I loved the character development of everyone. I literally couldn't put this book down - don't miss it!

12.26.2016 - The Other Einstein

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I'm very conflicted about my review of this book. I thought that the writing was wonderful and the book certainly kept me engrossed. If it was about made-up characters, I would have given it a much higher rating. However, when you get to the back and read the author's note, I just don't know how much of this book is fiction and how much fact - it sounds like mostly fiction. Which is fine, but it totally sullies Einstein's character. Is that deserved?

This book focuses on Mitza, Einstein's first wife and the mother of his children. Mitza was a brilliant scientist in an age when girls didn't go to university, let alone study physics. This book says that Mitza was the discoverer of the Theory of Relativity as much or more so than Einstein. But the portrayal of Einstein's personality is what gave me the biggest pause. He was so totally unlikeable. Again - truth or fiction?

An engrossing read but left me a bit cold.

12.24.2016 - And Then She Was Gone

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is a prequel to a series already in print - I might have enjoyed it a bit more had I read those other books and felt more involvement with the characters. As it stands, it's an interesting mystery and can certainly be read by itself.

The main character is Jack, a 17-year-old who is passionate about becoming a police officer. He had a rough start to his life and was abandoned by his birth mother. However, he had a great foster mother and was then adopted by wonderful parents. Jack has a path all laid out for himself - join the Army to get college money, then go to the police academy.

However, he gets involved in trying to solve a mystery of a young pregnant woman who goes missing. When she is found murdered, Jack can't let the investigation of her death go, even when it might lead to an interruption of all those carefully planned life steps.

While I enjoyed the mystery and this read, the fact that Jack as a teenager was able to do all this murder investigation seemed to stretch the lines of reality a bit much. There were some interesting thoughts about racial profiling and prejudice - certainly relevant in today's headlines.

A good read - probably better if you are already invested in this series and these characters and this just provides a good back story.

12.20.2016 - Duplicity

Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and the author for the opportunity to read and review this amazing book!

This is why I love Goodreads and NetGalley. A Goodreads friend that I've never met recommended this book to me. It was available through NetGalley but not one I had seen or heard about. And WOW! What a book!

Alissa and Max appear to have the perfect life - gorgeous, wealthy. Then Max is found murdered and Alissa barely escaped. Such begins the roller coaster ride of this book - and you don't want to miss this one! The story is told in two voices - The Other One and The Detective. Suffice it to say that not everyone is as they seem.

Do not miss this book if you love a good psychological thriller. I was obsessed until I finished it. I'm now anxious to go and find this author's other books to see what I've been missing!

Highly recommended!!

12.18.2016 - Secrets of Southern Girls

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I enjoyed this story of Jules and Reba - two best friends from childhood in Mississippi, although from different circumstances. Julie's parents were killed in an accident in NYC when she was 5 and she was sent to live with an aunt she had never met. However, Reba lived next door and they became fast friends. Jules was portrayed as the "wild child" while Reba was the quiet, pure one. But our perceptions of others can be very different from reality.  Do we ever really know another person?

The story alternates between chapters of Reba's diary that tell the backstory with Jules trying to find out what really happened to Reba. Did Jules kill her as she always believed?

A fast-moving story that kept me intrigued until the end.

12.16.2016 - Close Enough to Touch

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this wonderful book!

If you're a fan of JoJo Moyes (Me Before You), you will love Close Enough to Touch. It's sad, sweet, funny, heartwarming - I raced through it!

Jubilee is a young woman with an extremely rare allergy - she's allergic to other humans. After a horrifying incident in high school, she basically became a recluse (cue the funny Boo Radley jokes). After her mother moved out of their house, the problem became even worse - she literally never left her house. Until she was forced to.

I loved all the characters in this book and I just didn't want the story to end! Don't miss this one!

12.14.2016 - Unpunished

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I did not realize that this was second in a series of books involving Maggie (forensic tech) and Jack (cop) set in Cleveland. Reading Unpublished would definitely have been more enjoyable knowing the backstory. However, it was still a great mystery. I'm definitely going back to read the first in the series, That Darkness.

This book involves a series of murders at The Herald Newspaper. You definitely learn so much about the state of the newspaper and journalism in general in this book - very fascinating stuff. I really liked the characters and their interactions (again, would have been better having read the first book) and the list of suspects was long and kept you guessing.

Highly recommended!

12.9.2016 - The Cutaway

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - a thriller set in the fast-paced world of an evening news program in Washington DC. It has a bit of everything - I learned a lot about the TV news world and it covered murder, politics, intrigue, with some romance thrown in to boot, and it was a great who-done-it that kept me guessing. The author's background is in TV news, so things felt real.

Virginia is the producer of the evening news when she comes across a poster for a missing woman. She has a photographic memory and knows that she has seen this woman on a video. For reasons she can't quite explain to herself, she becomes obsessed with finding out the story behind this missing person. Finding out the answers leads her to suspect everyone she comes into contact with, including those she felt were close to her.

Not wanting to give anything else away, I thought this was a well-written thriller. It's a debut novel so here's hoping there's more to come from this author!

12.5.2016 - The Mother's Promise

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this amazing book.

I'm a huge fan of Sally Hepworth's books - I really loved her last one, The Things We Keep, especially. I was so excited to get her latest book that I moved it to the top of my reading list. And I certainly wasn't disappointed - you will need to read this book.

This is the story of Alice, mom to Zoe. Zoe is a teenager struggling with crippling social anxiety. It has always been just Alice and Zoe - Zoe's dad was never in the picture. Her parents are dead and her brother is an alcoholic - she has no support group. She works helping older people with shopping, caretaking and never had time for others. Until she gets sick.

Enter more people into their lives - Kate, a nurse at the hospital, and Sonja, a social worker. They try to step in and help Alice navigate her illness as well as provide for Zoe.

The story is told in all these different voices - it's funny, it's real, it's heartbreaking, it's touching. It leads you to think about all the people in your life - family or otherwise - and who you can really count on.

Don't miss this book or anything by Sally Hepworth - her stories resonate and stay with you.

12.3.2016 - The Survivor's Guide to Family Happiness

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book.

I really fell in love with all these characters and their big, messy lives. The book opens with 3 high school best friends out for a last night before one leaves for college. Tragedy strikes and nothing is ever the same.

Fast forward 35 years. Nina has always known she was adopted but when her adopted mother passes away, she finds herself grief-stricken. She's always been curious about her "real" mom and used to invent real family stories for herself and others.

Lindy is a neurotic mom to 3 kids, running a successful salon, dealing with her adoptive mother questioning her every move, and unsure about her husband's affection. She has no room in her life for Nina who she finds out is her "real" sister.

Add Nina's love interest, an older man, and his 2 kids and you have lots of family issues. But the crux of this novel is just that - what is family?

I loved the writing style, the humor, the mess of all these lives. A great book!