Review: The Wife by Alafair Burke

Posted April 5, 2018 by Lily B in Reviews / 11 Comments

The Wife by Alafair Burke
Series: standalone
Published by Harper on January 23, 2018
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Rating: 3.5 Stars

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

His scandal. Her secret.
When Angela met Jason Powell while catering a dinner party in East Hampton, she assumed their romance would be a short-lived fling, like so many relationships between locals and summer visitors. To her surprise, Jason, a brilliant economics professor at NYU, had other plans, and they married the following summer. For Angela, the marriage turned out to be a chance to reboot her life. She and her son were finally able to move out of her mother’s home to Manhattan, where no one knew about her tragic past.
Six years later, thanks to a bestselling book and a growing media career, Jason has become a cultural lightning rod, placing Angela near the spotlight she worked so carefully to avoid. When a college intern makes an accusation against Jason, and another woman, Kerry Lynch, comes forward with an even more troubling allegation, their perfect life begins to unravel. Jason insists he is innocent, and Angela believes him. But when Kerry disappears, Angela is forced to take a closer look at the man she married. And when she is asked to defend Jason in court, she realizes that her loyalty to her husband could unearth old secrets.

The Wife is a type of thriller that starts out with a bang, hooks you and never lets you go.

Angela is married to Jason Powell, they live with her son in a charming carriage house in Manhattan. When Jason wrote his book, his career exploded, and he became the center of the media - a place Angela was careful to avoid. Now, charges are being filed against Jason for inappropriate behavior, by one his current intern and another by a woman claiming rape.

I thought this was interesting, but I thought it could always have been a bit better.

I went into this book completely blind and it was definitely a way to do it. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time wondering what was really happening with Jason and the women who accused him of such terrible actions.

I did struggle a bit with this. First, I wasn’t a big fan of Angela. At the beginning she felt like a big pushover, until we learn more about her past and why she is the way she is. It started to shed some light on her actions and demeanor.

This book digs into the rape “culture” in America. I don’t like to call it that, but I wasn’t sure if there was a politically correct term for it. Thought this plays a huge role in the story, I felt like such an important topic could have been handled a little differently in this book. Needless to say I wasn’t sure I was a fan of how it turned out or was used in this case and when the unraveling came, I found myself a bit upset about it. I don’t think I can say much without spoiling the book, but it just feeds into certain misconceptions.

The ending, I did not see coming. I was trying to put together what was happening, but it ended up being nothing like what I thought it was going to be. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I completely bought it due to the actions throughout the book - at times it felt like it was just thrown there at the end as a shock factor because the original might not have been strong enough.

Overall, despite certain issues with the book, I did find myself enjoying it. I do like endings that are unpredictable, so I cannot complain too much about it and the story flowed and was fast paced. If you are a fan of twisted endings and psychological thriller’s this is definitely worth checking out.

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Review: Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin

Posted March 28, 2018 by Lily B in Reviews / 11 Comments

Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin
Series: standalone
Published by Ballantine Books on May 31st 2016
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Psychological Thriller
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Source: Bought
Buy on Amazon
Rating: 3.5 Stars

A girl's memory lost in a field of wildflowers.A killer still spreading seeds.
At seventeen, Tessa became famous for being the only surviving victim of a vicious serial killer. Her testimony put him on death row. Decades later, a mother herself, she receives a message from a monster who should be in prison. Now, as the execution date rapidly approaches, Tessa is forced to confront a chilling possibility: Did she help convict the wrong man?

Black-Eyed Susan is about a woman named Tessa, who somehow survived the serial killer responsible for killing a bunch of young girls and burying them among the flowers Black Eyed Susan. Years later, she is still known as the surviving Susan, but with the “killer” on death row, Tessa teams up with Bill and Jo to uncover the truth about the real killer and hopefully release the wrongly accused man from being sentenced to his death.

This book follows two different timelines. We follow Tessie, a 16 year old girl and a survivor of her monster and Tessa in present time as a grown woman.

I don’t know how to feel about this to be honest. The mystery was interesting enough, but it was riddled with holes and the pacing made it hard to be really excited about.

Maybe it was just me, but I did not understand how they got the man that they did (the wrongfully accused) as the Black-Eyed Susan murderer. I thought it was going to be revealed through Tessie’s chapters, but I never got the answers I was looking for.

I did not understand why Tessie was spared and the other girls weren’t. How was she picked to be one of the victims?

I also did not understand who kept planting the Black-Eyed Susans years later.

The Lydia storyline seemed a bit far fetched an the end and really hard to believe.

I enjoyed the premise and felt it had a lot of potential, but it fell a bit flat for me. Also enjoyed the underlining commentary and an attempt to bring awareness of the whole justice system in Texas as far as Death Row goes. It was a bit terrifying and uncomfortable. I also enjoyed learning about forensic science and have discovered things I have never heard of before as far as bone identification goes.

Overall, it was a decent read but the pacing and the holes left in the story made me want a bit more. The ending I did not see coming and I was thankful for that, it took me a while to figure out who the killer really was.

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I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga, Charlie Thruston (Narrator)

Posted March 13, 2018 by Lily B in Audio, Reviews / 18 Comments

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga, Charlie Thruston
Series: Jasper Dent, #1
Published by Audiogo on April 3rd 2012
Genres: Young Adult, Thriller
Pages: 9
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Buy on Amazon
Rating: 4 Stars

What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?
Jasper "Jazz" Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.
But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could—from the criminal's point of view.
And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.
In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret—could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

Jasper “Jazz” Dent is a pretty likeable teenager, he is both handsome and charming. But Jasper is also the son of a notorious serial killer Billy Dent with his own set of demons that keep him up all night. Billy Dent had the tendency of taking his kid to “work” and with that Jazz has learned how the killers work.

When a body turns up in the small hometown of Lobo’s Nod, Jasper is convinced that it’s a work of a serial killer. With Dear Old Dad still locked up in the penitentiary, it couldn’t possibly be his work of art, but something about the bodies is making Jazz really uncomfortable and familiar.

Now Jazz joins the police in a wild hunt as they try to identify and catch the serial killer before any more bodies pile up, after all, he seems to know how to think like one.

This was such a thrilling ride. Wow! I don’t usually like Young Adult Thrillers, but this one does not read like one. Jasper is flawed, super flawed and is battling a lot in his head and in his dream. He has seen so much bad done by his dad that he actually has to remind himself about humanity. Sometimes, it’s really hard to be in Jasper’s head as he battles with something on a primal level that has been ingrained with him through his Dear Old Dad (as he calls him)

This book wasn’t always an easy listen and made me super uncomfortable at times, but the writing was amazing. The story flowed, the characters were interesting. I especially loved Howie, Jasper’s best friend, he seemed so original and fun. It was creepy to see how some serial killer’s thing, it most definitely left me cringing. The storyline definitely kept me hooked and coming back.

The narrator for the audiobook was Charlie Thruston and he did an amazing job. I loved how he altered his voice for most of the characters and his impression of Billy Dent really hit the spot and made my skin crawl.

Overall, this was a fantastic read with great characters, great narrator, and a storyline that definitely gave me the chills when listened on audio. It really bought the whole experience to a new level.

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Review: The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Posted February 9, 2018 by Lily B in Reviews / 9 Comments

The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Series: The Fixer, #2
Published by Bloomsbury USA Childrens on June 7th 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Thriller
Pages: 360
Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Library
Rating: 4 Stars

The Kendricks help make the problems of the Washington elite disappear…but some secrets won’t stay buried.
For Tess Kendrick, a junior at the elite Hardwicke School in Washington, D.C., fixing runs in the family. But Tess has another legacy, too, one that involves power and the making of political dynasties. When Tess is asked to run a classmate’s campaign for student council, she agrees. But when the candidates are children of politicians, even a high school election can involve life-shattering secrets.
Meanwhile, Tess’s guardian has also taken on an impossible case, as a terrorist attack calls into doubt who can—and cannot—be trusted on Capitol Hill. Tess knows better than most that power is currency in D.C., but she's about to discover firsthand that power always comes with a price.

Gahh this book is hard to review without giving away much of what happens at the end of book one, but I will try.

The Long Game starts shortly after the events following from book one. Tess has found herself trying to navigate her new life after discovering more secrets about not only her family, her grandfather, but also that there might have been a fourth player involved in the murders that have happened.

Now being a fixer runs in her family, and Tess finds herself thrown into that lifestyle at school. When one of her classmates asks Tess to return the favor and help her win the class presidency, the stakes end up higher than Tess is ready for and secrets that should have been buried come falling out.

Terrorist, murders and secrets, this book really takes you onto one wild emotional ride. I found myself on the edge of my seat once again as I sat there wanting to know what will happen to Tess and her classmates. Some revelations have left me a little on a heartbroken side and we got to say goodbye to a few characters from book one.

The ending was great, though the fact that the author is not writing any more books in this series is a little disappointing, because it leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions. I felt bummed when I realized that after the ringer that we were put through we would never know how all of this was going to end, so let this be a warning to those going into the books, because I found myself debating the unfairness in being left the way it was.

Also, I was a little disappointed that despite Tess’ grandfather who raised her being such a major part of her life and book one, it was kind of ignored in book two.

Overall, this was a great series and it showed quite a lot of promise, the fact that it’s run was cut short, I think is quite a bit disappointing, especially when we are left with a lot of unresolved issues that were major in the book. But, despite all this it is well worth the read because in the end, this series was super exciting, fun and interesting. I definitely do not regret reading.

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Review: The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Posted February 5, 2018 by Lily B in Reviews / 11 Comments

The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Series: The Fixer, #1
Published by Bloomsbury USA Childrens on July 7th 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Thriller
Pages: 372
Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Rating: 4.5 Stars

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This thriller YA is Scandal meets Veronica Mars.
Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her entire life on her grandfather's ranch. But when her estranged sister Ivy uproots her to D.C., Tess is thrown into a world that revolves around politics and power. She also starts at Hardwicke Academy, the D.C. school for the children of the rich and powerful, where she unwittingly becomes a fixer for the high school set, fixing teens’ problems the way her sister fixes their parents’ problems.
And when a conspiracy surfaces that involves the family member of one of Tess's classmates, love triangles and unbelievable family secrets come to light and life gets even more interesting—and complicated—for Tess.
Perfect for fans of Pretty Little Liars and Heist Society, readers will be clamoring for this compelling teen drama with a political twist.

Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick is about to have her entire world turned upside down. Having spent her entire life on her grandfather’s ranch, Tess is suddenly uprooted and moved to D.C by her much older sister Ivy Kendrick, where she is thrown into a world of politics and power.

Tess never knew what Ivy did for a living in D.C. All Tess knows was that Ivy abandoned her after their parents death and the grudge against her sister for bailing and barely calling is strong.

It doesn’t help when Tess learns from the kids at school that Ivy is a Fixer who fixes people’s problems, including a lot of problems for the parents of the teens that go to her school.

When a conspiracy surfaces that might involve more than one family of her new school and Tess’ own classmates, Tess finds herself in a very complicated situation and she doesn’t like being kept in the dark. But what Tess does not realize is just how dangerous power and politics might be.

This was wonderful. My first book by this author and needless to say it will now be my last, I am already on book two and loving it.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes really knows how to write a complicated story that hooks you from the very first page and keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. I had the hardest time parting with this book. I loved the characters, I loved the mystery, I loved how all the lies connected and how everything unfolded.

That shocking moment about Ivy and Tess in the end, I almost did not see coming, but it ended up being such a good twist that only made the book even more compelling.

Tess is a character that is easy to follow. She is still pretty much a teenager in her own way, but it was nice to see that despite her loneliness and grudge against Ivy, she still cares very much.

The writing for this was just great, it kept me interested, the storytelling was well done, how everything connected seemed to be well though out and it ended up being a really engrossing read that I cannot wait for more from this author.

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Review: Poison by Galt Niederhoffer

Posted November 27, 2017 by Lily B in Reviews / 25 Comments

Poison by Galt Niederhoffer
Series: standalone
Published by St. Martin's Press on November 21st 2017
Genres: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 320
Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Rating: 1 Stars

Heat:

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Poison is a literary psychological thriller about a marriage that follows minor betrayal into a bubbling stew of lies, cruelty, manipulation, and danger.
Cass and Ryan Connor have achieved family nirvana. With three kids between them, a cat and a yard, a home they built and feathered, they seem to have the Modern Family dream. Their family, including Cass' two children from previous relationships, has recently moved to Portland —a new start for their new lives. Cass and Ryan have stable, successful careers, and they are happy. But trouble begins almost imperceptibly. First with small omissions and white lies that happen daily in any marital bedroom. They seem insignificant, but they are quickly followed by a series of denials and feints that mushroom and then cyclone in menace.
With life-or-death stakes and irreversible consequences, Poison is a chilling and irresistible reminder that the closest bond designed to protect and provide for each other and for children can change in a minute.

Cass and Ryan Connor seem like a happy family on the outside. They have three children, two from Cass’ previous marriage and one between them. They have moved to Portland, have stable jobs, and a lovely family home. But the perfect marriage turns into a nightmare when Cass starts to discover that her husband had started to lie daily to her omissions and white lies that turn into a series of denials and threats. Soon Cass is in trouble as she goes up against her husband, who seemed like a loving father, but is now a completely different person and the people who are bent on believing a man’s word over the woman’s.

Okay, I hate giving one star reviews, but with this book I just couldn’t rate it higher.

I wanted to love it, but I quickly grew to despise it. If you are planning to read it and don’t want any spoilers, I’d stop reading the review now because the rant that follows is why I have such strong dislike for this wrong.

One, the format. It was all over the place. Sometimes the story jumped between present and past with no clear cut definitive line and it makes your head swim as you scramble to find out what just happened. One minute it’s in the past, the next minute the author is talking about the present, the switch is so sudden it felt like whiplash.

Second, I am not sure what the author was trying to do here. I get that she puts forth a lot of stuff she believes in and how she feels the world functions and it’s very feminist to the point of being overwhelming?

Like for example. Cass has this perfect family and out of no where, her husband grows another head and becomes a man that she no longer recognizes, capable of violence. There are odd scenes between Cass and Ryan when she confronts him about his cheating and he attacks her, and chokes her, and says your life is over now, you will leave me - something along those lines. It was the most random and weirdest thing, like… ever

Now here is the part that really starts to piss me off. Cass is being poisoned by her husband, but NO ONE believes her, with the exception of her best friend. She goes to the hospital and rather than checking her first for poison, they escort her to the psych ward because apparently hospitals don’t believe women if they come into the ER claiming that their husband is trying to murder them, only crazy people come into the hospital claiming to be poisoned. So rather than checking the person first to see if they are telling the truth, THAN sending them to loony bin if necessary, they do it automatically. Right…

So she goes to her lawyer, and he barely believes her.

She goes to the cops and they do not believe her…

She calls her father, who automatically accuses her of pissing her husband off. Oh, and does not believe her…

Even her mother turns on her.

So this well educated woman in her 30s? 40s? is suddenly being viewed by EVERYONE that she has a mental illness, because her husband said so and no one in this country believes women and they all try to discredit them, even our own parents and mothers will testify in court and say - yup this child I raised, who has a good education, has never had a mental illness is obviously mentally ill..

Excuse me? Are you KIDDING ME?

Fine… Let’s say there are hospital in the USA that will throw you into a psych ward if you come in accusing your husband with poisoning you (I’ve been told otherwise, anyone heard differently?) but it’s not like she didn’t have symptoms, she did.

But I never got the sense that her mother would turn on her, like what? Why? I mean, come on…

Also, why did he all the sudden turn on her? I understand she accused him of cheating, which we never got quiet the answer to that, or why he was trying to kill her.

It just did not work for me at all. I get the sense that the author had a strong dislike for the male population in general, including how this country is run in courts, in police, in hopsitals, there is a strong emphasis on male misogyny and was trying to spread the word (or hate) through a psychological thriller, but I never felt like it worked.

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Review: The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

Posted November 18, 2017 by Lily B in Reviews / 12 Comments

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
Series: standalone
Published by Harper on October 17th 2017
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Pages: 400
Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Rating: 4 Stars

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A mesmerizing debut psychological thriller full of delicious twists about a coolly manipulative woman who worms her way into the lives of a wealthy “golden couple” from Connecticut to achieve the privileged life she wants.
Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted. To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne and her husband, Jackson—the beautiful philanthropist and the confident real estate mogul—are a golden couple straight out of a fairytale, blessed with two lovely young daughters.
Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn't have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrish family, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.
With shocking turns and dark secrets that will keep you guessing until the very end, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a fresh, juicy, and utterly addictive thriller from a diabolically imaginative talent.

A story that follows two points of views, of two very different women. First, we have Amber, a small town girl who grew up dirt poor and believes she deserves better. In fact, she believes that so much that she had set her eyes on Jackson Parrish, the husband of Daphne Parrish - who happens to be handsome and rich - the two portraying the perfect golden couple. The second woman, is Daphne, the perfect wife, the perfect mother. She is gorgeous and rich, and Amber wants her spot.

This was a really interesting story, a really quick paced read with some interesting characters. I hated Amber, but we were meant to hate her. She was so deceitful that at times I couldn’t help but have to put the book down from the anger. I felt bad for Daphne, who we later discover has enough on her plate without this snake wiggling into her life.

This book was a good read, well written, totally engrossing with fantastic character development and progression. It was exciting, as it was uncomfortable and believe me the second part of the book had some really cringe worthy scenes when Daphne unravels everything and keeps us on the edge of the seat.

Unfortunately for me, the book was super predictable down to the bone because this was exactly like The Wife Between Us, but on steroids. There was just so much that was super similar, it was kind of weird how similar the two books were? There is even an expression nervous Nellie, which was odd cause it’s not something you see often for it not to be a coincidence? And there were other similarities as far as the story went.

Umm, the difference was how it was told, how it unrevealed and the authors of this one really went farther about the dynamics between Jackson and his wife. Plus the whole Amber plot line was completely different. It was still really well done. I really enjoyed it, a lot, in fact, and why wouldn’t I, I absolutely loved the storyline.

But after reading this, I am a little confused how that happened.

Anyway, that aside. Great book, great characters. The main plot line was different, but the point where this was heading and some things that occurred, felt the same…

I still highly recommended it for fans of psychological thrillers and domestic thrillers, because I found this to be enjoyable, uncomfortable, but still well done.

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Review: Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda

Posted November 14, 2017 by Lily B in Reviews / 13 Comments

Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda
Series: standalone
Published by Graydon House on September 19th 2017
Genres: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 342
Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Rating: 4 Stars

Heat:

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I glance at my wife as she climbs into the passenger seat, and I am bursting with confidence. Today will be everything I’ve promised her…and more…
Paul Strom has the perfect life: a glittering career as an advertising executive, a beautiful wife, two healthy boys and a big house in a wealthy suburb. And he’s the perfect husband: breadwinner, protector, provider. That’s why he’s planned a romantic weekend for his wife, Mia, at their lake house, just the two of them. And he's promised today will be the best day ever.
But as Paul and Mia drive out of the city and toward the countryside, a spike of tension begins to wedge itself between them and doubts start to arise. How much do they trust each other? And how perfect is their marriage, or any marriage, really?
Forcing us to ask ourselves just how well we know those who are closest to us, Best Day Ever crackles with dark energy, spinning ever tighter toward its shocking conclusion. In the bestselling, page-turning vein of The Couple Next Door and The Dinner, Kaira Rouda weaves a gripping, tautly suspenseful tale of deception and betrayal dark enough to destroy a marriage…or a life.

Paul Strom is the perfect husband with the perfect life. He has a beautiful wife, two healthy boys, a dream career as an advertising executive, a big home and a vacation cottage. He brings home the money, he protects his family, he provides for them. Paul even planned a romantic getaway vacation to their Lakeside Cottage so he and his wife, who has recently been in poor health, can have the best day ever.

Paul has everything planned.

This book was a fast pace thrilling ride. Being in Paul’s head was hard, pulling me out of my comfort zone, made me cringe, but kept me on the edge of my seat.

Paul is a big narcissist who loves being in control and things always have to go his way.

This book was a fast pace thrilling ride. Being in Paul’s head was hard, pulling me out of my comfort zone, made me cringe, but kept me on the edge of my seat.

Paul is a big narcissist who loves being in control and things always have to go his way. As long as Paul stayed in control it was almost scary the way his thought process worked and how calmly he handled the entire day and what he had planned. To me it felt like the most chilling part of the book.

When Paul and his wife Mia hit the road, the tension starts to rise. I couldn’t seem to put this book down, the voice in the story kept me glued to the pages and devouring the book. It was fast paced, it was creepy, it was disturbing, but at the same time I needed to know how all of this was going to unfold.

It almost makes you feel a little dirty at times.

I do wish that things in the end wrapped up differently. I wasn’t a complete fan of the ending because of the way things played out. I thought Paul deserved a lot more than what he got, especially after everything that he did.

I had also wished we kind of got alternative chapter between Mia and Paul to give us some sort of a break from being inside of his head, but it wasn’t terribly needed. I think part of what made this book so interesting and uncomfortable was the fact that we got to witness how Paul’s thought process worked, the calmness until he wasn’t in control anymore, the calculative moves and motives, the ease he did everything with and holding no repercussions for his actions.

It was a page turner, and a plot well done. If you enjoy domestic thrillers, I definitely recommend giving this one a try.

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Review: The Lost Children by Helen Phifer

Posted November 6, 2017 by Lily B in Reviews / 10 Comments

The Lost Children by Helen Phifer
Series: Detective Lucy Harwin #1
Published by Bookouture on March 24th 2017
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 320
Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Rating: 3 Stars

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Lizzy pulled the covers over her head. Then she realised what was being dragged behind the person with the torch. She rammed her fist into her mouth to stop herself from screaming…
For decades, The Moore Asylum was home to the forgotten children of Brooklyn Bay. But ever since a scandal forced its closure, the abandoned building has cast an imposing shadow. Until now – when an elderly man is found dead, his body strapped to an ancient gurney...
Detective Lucy Harwin, still reeling from a previous case that ended in the devastating murder of a mother and her child, finds herself on the trail of a killer ruthlessly fixated on avenging the asylum’s wrongs.
What disturbing secrets lie within the asylum’s walls? Together with her partner Detective Mattie Jackson, Lucy begins to unearth its terrible history, and the horrors endured by the vulnerable children.
As the attacks escalate and a woman is murdered on her own doorstep, Lucy is forced into a terrifying game of cat and mouse with a twisted individual. But can Lucy stop a murderer with nothing left to lose?
An absolutely terrifying and gripping thriller that will chill readers of MJ Arlidge, Angela Marsons and Rachel Abbott to the bone.

On her first day back to work after her last case ended in a devastating murder, Lucy Harwin is thrown into another case where a ruthless killer seems to be out to get everyone who did wrong back when The Moore Asylum was open. Past blends with the present as Lucy must figure out what had happened in the Asylum all those years ago and who would be responsible in committing such brutal murders before they strike again.

I don’t know how to feel about this book. It started out strong and interesting. I liked the flash back to the past and learning about the Asylum, even thought what they did to those kids made my stomach turn it was weaving to be an interesting ARC.

Half way through the flashbacks stopped prematurely I feel and I never got the feel scope of why the killer decided to avenge, I felt like we did not get the full story of what drove the killer and the author probably should have stuck with it.

On top of it, I did not really know how Lucy came to the conclusion of who the murderer is because I felt like it could have been a number of people from the flashbacks. This of course leads back to me feeling like that particular part was left undeveloped. There was also one clue that threw me off, because when we get the murders perspective, the second murder smelled aftershave, which you would assume is usually associated with a man?

I also wished the characters were more likable, but outside of Mattie - Lucy’s partner - who I tolerated, everyone else was really hard to like. Lucy in particular was hard to like. She is a workaholic who spends a lot of time focusing on her work, which is expected with the type of work she is doing. But Lucy also drinks a lot and has a really rocky relationship with her teenage daughter. There was one scene in particular that made me dislike Lucy more when she came home to a ransacked bedroom and automatically assumed that her teenage daughter was responsible for it. Based on what? Her daughter does not live with her. So she drives to her ex-husband’s house and lays into her daughter without bothering to give her even one brief benefit of a doubt.

Lucy started to become redeemable at the end as she did her best to fix her relationship with her daughter, but I wasn’t sure I was feeling her character anymore.

The story does feel like you are thrown into a middle of the series because Lucy is in the middle of a therapy session after her last case goes haywire. Unfortunately, we only get bits and pieces of this later on in the book.

Overall the plot could have been more interesting, a killer taking out revenge from the past? Sure. Flashback to the Asylum? Sure. But it all somehow fell flat in the end and a bit underdeveloped. I enjoyed myself when I wasn’t frustrated but it could have been so much more and it wasn’t.

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Review: Friend Request by Laura Marshall

Posted October 13, 2017 by Lily B in Reviews / 9 Comments

Friend Request by Laura Marshall
Series: standalone
Published by Grand Central Publishing on September 5th 2017
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 384
Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Rating: 3.5 Stars

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A paranoid single mom is forced to confront the unthinkable act she committed as a desperate teenager in this addictive thriller with a social media twist. Maria Weston wants to be friends. But Maria Weston is dead. Isn't she?
1989. When Louise first notices the new girl who has mysteriously transferred late into their senior year, Maria seems to be everything the girls Louise hangs out with aren't. Authentic. Funny. Brash. Within just a few days, Maria and Louise are on their way to becoming fast friends.
2016. Louise receives a heart-stopping email: Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook. Long-buried memories quickly rise to the surface: those first days of their budding friendship; cruel decisions made and dark secrets kept; the night that would change all their lives forever.
Louise has always known that if the truth ever came out, she could stand to lose everything. Her job. Her son. Her freedom. Maria's sudden reappearance threatens it all, and forces Louise to reconnect with everyone she'd severed ties with to escape the past. But as she tries to piece together exactly what happened that night, Louise discovers there's more to the story than she ever knew. To keep her secret, Louise must first uncover the whole truth, before what's known to Maria--or whoever's pretending to be her--is known to all.

The book follows a woman named Louise who gets a facebook request from a girl named Maria Weston, but Maria Weston is dead isn’t she?

We are thrown into a past/present kind of situation where Louise remembers a girl named Maria being a new transfer student in her school. At that time Louise was struggling to fit into this group of popular girls with her friend Sophie, who basically uses her and isn’t really nice to her and ignores her. So Louise befriends Maria, but when Sophie notices it, she deliberately drags Louise out of that relationship and the girls start bullying her and being completely nasty to Maria.

This book has triggers for drug abuse, bullying, and I think sexual abuse.

So Louise gets sucked into this popular world where girls use drugs and they thought it would be funny to spike Maria’s drink with Esctesy during something called the leavers party. Well, Maria disappeared from that party after the incident and everyone believes she jumped off a cliff, but there is no body so no one knows for sure what happened that night, or do they?

I felt the book started out slow at first, but eventually it begins to build momentum and I found myself invested wanting to know what was going on.

I found Louise to be a very passive kind of character. She lives in the shadows of what she had done, she is single divorced mom and her ex-husband part took in that whole incident of supplying the drug and being a part of.

I had a hard time liking Louise. I felt like she was very, I don’t know, she just existed as a character? Like there were several scenes in the book that I wanted to throttle her because despite the fact that she has a son the survival instinct in her takes quiet the time to kick in.

I was disappointed greatly by the ending. I was actually just cringing the entire time I was reading it and I found it physically painful to read it, because I hated the ending. It could have been so good, but Louise as a character just made me so angry at the end and the whole reveal flopped. Like all the build up the mystery, it could have gone somewhere so much better, but it didn’t.

The whole part, featuring the past and what they did to Maria was really hard to read at times as well because their actions just felt so unwarranted and you just feel for the girl.

Overall, this was interesting to begin with. I did struggle with Louise on several parts. Including, not being able to understand her not reaching out to the cops in certain situations and also the ending just flopped for me.

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Icon Tag: Thriller