Revisit: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

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I’m a bit late to the game on this one.  While most people who’ve read it did so last year, for some reason I’m just recently getting to it.  Not sure why, because it was definitely worth my time.

I knew before going in that there was a girl on a train who saw something.  Beyond that, I was clueless.  Sometimes that’s the best way to be when starting a book that the entire world has read.  Rachel is a pretty sad and lonely character.  She’s a divorced, unemployed alcoholic whose free time is spend riding the train back and forth to London.  During her daily travels, she becomes obsessed with a couple who lives surprising close to her ex-husband.  She begins watching them, inventing stories of their lives. Then one day she notices something amiss.  And next, somebody goes missing.  Is there a connection to what Rachel witnessed from afar, from the anonymity of the train car?

I must admit, as Pegasus did in a previous review, that I cringe whenever I hear someone refer to a book as “The next Gone Girl” for many reasons.  Mostly because I don’t want another Gone Girl.  I want something equally well-written but at the same time different.  So I kinda wish that description would just go away.  But still, this was an outstanding book for me.  Rarely have I come across a character as unlikeable as Rachel was.  Highly annoying and not particularly bright, she failed to elicit any sympathy from me.  Even towards the very end.  That can be said for ALL of the characters in this book.  They’re all dreadful people.

I imagine many of you have read this book by now.  But if, like me, you’re a bit of a book procrastinator,  there’s no time like the present to jump on the bandwagon!

~Thalia

Buy it Now:  The Girl on the Train

 

Review: Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Campbell Allen

01 aclo This has to be the one of the most unique books I have ever read. Unique in the sense that I’ve never read Steampunk before. All the talk of gears and ray guns and such was just wild for me. Now toss in vampires, werewolves and ghosts and you have the making a crazy story. Not to mention romance, cuz of course I need romance in my stories. This was just plain fantastic.

When Lucy decided to visit her cousin, Kate, she thought she was there to merely help her get well. She had no idea that she was about to get sucked into such drama. From pushy relatives to ghost hauntings, she has more on her plate than she ever thought possible. Last thing she wants is to deal with a mean, yet handsome, man who seems to be everywhere she looks. I liked Lucy. She had spunk. She wasn’t going to let anything scare her off until she figured out what was making her cousin sick. Not even the big bad beast could move her along.

Miles was fun to watch. Yes, he had is secrets. Yes, he was brash. But he cared for his family and was trying to do the best for them. In the ways of the “beast” it was sweet to see him fall for Lucy, even though he didn’t want to. He tried to protect her and push her away, but she wasn’t taking any of his crap. These two were too stubborn to not connect with each other.

The best part of this book is that it’s clean. As with all Proper Romances, this story has nothing to hide. Teens to adult can enjoy this story without worrying about sexy scenes. I look forward to letting my daughter read this when she’s ready.

I’ll admit, I had no idea what I was getting myself into here. I have no idea what’s “traditional” steampunk and what isn’t. I still don’t know. But what I do know is that I completely enjoyed this story. And if all steampunks are like this one, then I know I found another genre to add to my TBR.

~Melpomene

Buy Beauty and the Clockwork Beast HERE.

Review: Wake the Hollow by Gaby Triana

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I love fairy tales and folktales and all the assorted retellings & twisted versions that come along with them.  There’s just something about an author who takes a familiar story and puts their own spin on it without changing the basics of the story.  That’s just what you get with this take on an old favorite, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Mica hasn’t seen her mother in years, since she made the decision to move with her dad halfway across the country.  But when her mom passes away, it falls on her shoulders to settle things in Sleepy Hollow before resuming her fast-paced life with her dad. When she returns, however, she finds things very much the same while also being very different.  Prejudices against her family still exist, and rumors still run rampant about her mom.  Add in an intriguing stranger along with the legend of Ichabod Crane and Mica has one heck of a mystery on her hands.  Can she trust her childhood friend or is he on the other side?  Was her mom guilty of the crimes everyone seems to believe?  And let’s not forget her dad.  He has his own secrets hidden away.

This was a great story from beginning to end.  The author retains enough of the original story to lend a feeling of familiarity while at the same time blending it with new characters and new problems.  The mystery aspect was strong, leaving me wondering about bits and pieces until the very end. A good read!

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  Wake the Hollow

Review: The Stepmother by Claire Seeber

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I seem to have a thing for stories about families so dysfunctional that it’s criminal.  Evil parents, deranged siblings, you name it and I’m drawn to it like a moth to a flame. So of course I couldn’t pass up a book with a title so intriguing as this one…

Jeanie feels like she’s living in a fairy tale when she meets Matthew.  After  a whirlwind courtship and marriage, she dares to believe that she’s found her happily ever after.  And she deserves it, after living through such a traumatic past.  Matthew is perfect, everything she could imagine wanting for the rest of her life.  Sure there’s the small issue of his teenage children, but Jeanie is sure they’ll come around with some time and patience.

But in this story, there’s no such thing as a happy ending.  Someone has discovered Jeanie’s darkest secrets and is trying their hardest to expose her.  The question is, just who is it?  And which one of her new family members is out to destroy her?

There are so many twisted characters in this story with so many secrets that I was left guessing until the very end.  I couldn’t decide exactly who the “bad” person was.  Was it Jeanie’s stepdaughter, Scartlett?  Or was it someone from Jeanie’s past?  An outstanding story that had me hooked from the very first page.

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  The Stepmother

 

Review: House Revenge by Mike Lawson 


This was a pretty entertaining read. Though it’s the eleventh in a series, I had no trouble keeping track of characters and their occupations, good guys vs bad guys, and the relationships among them all.

House Revenge takes the reader through Boston politics, from commercial land development to dirty congressmen to cops on the take to connections with Mexican drug cartels, all through the eyes of Joe DeMarco. Joe is a right hand man taking direction from politicians, but trouble arises when he doesn’t think through his approach.  

In House Revenge, at the request of those more powerful than he, Joe tries to help an old lady stay in her apartment. Her building is getting torn down to make way for bigger and better – and more profitable – enterprises. Joe doesn’t intend to get too involved, but we all know where the path of good intentions leads. By the middle of the book, Joe is halfway there. 

I liked the peek into DC and Boston politics, the interactions with Boston Police, and the local references. Though some of Joe’s “solutions” seemed pretty far-fetched, I’ve got to give him credit for getting as far as he did in a world where one hand washes the other, and quid pro quo is the status quo.

-calliope 

Buy HOUSE REVENGE

Review: All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

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What can I say about this latest novel from Megan Miranda other than it’s pure gold?  Truly, it’s along the lines of “Run and grab this one as fast as you can and be prepared to stay up way  past your bedtime to finish it.”

Nic dreads returning to her hometown.  But she can’t avoid it after being summoned by her brother.  He needs her help to make arrangements for their aging father.  Her plan is to get in and out as quickly as possible, get back to her life as she knows it.  History, however, has other ideas…

You see, there’s a reason she left in such a hurry all those years ago.  Was it the devastating disappearance of her best friend, Corinne?  Or was it something else?  Whatever the cause, it’s still there after all these years.  Dark secrets don’t stay hidden forever.  And once you start digging, well, it’s just a matter of time until everything is out in the open.  Or maybe not.

Megan Miranda has written an outstanding thriller, making me want to read all of her others.  Bonus points on originality for this one as the story is told in reverse.  I wasn’t sure how that was going to work at first, but by the end it all came together.  A must-read for fans of suspenseful, well-told stories!

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  All the Missing Girls

 

Review: The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg


I am addicted to these Fox and O’Hare novels. Federal agent O’Hare and genius criminal/informant Fox work together to catch super bad guys across the globe. Working so closely together, they’ve managed to peek into each other’s personal lives… and even fall in Like. 

The Pursuit gives the reader a double whammy. The pair finish a case in the beginning chapters and quickly land a new case… One they can’t even put on the books. One that sends them to Belgium and the Paris underground. It’s a con. Maybe the biggest con they’ve ever pulled. And their lives depend on them making zero mistakes. 

Part comedy, part MacGyver, and part Ocean’s Eleven, The Pursuit is the perfect light read to get me laughing and holding tight to the edge of my seat in the same chapter. I’ll read them as fast as Goldberg and Evanovich can write them. 

-calliope 

Buy THE PURSUIT

Review: The Sister by Louise Jensen

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I hate it when I wait too long to review a book.  And I know I’m not alone in that sentiment.  It’s not that we completely forget what the story was about.  It’s just that we are such voracious readers that sometimes characters and storylines from various books mesh together into one big bookish blob.  But still, I would be neglecting my role as a reviewer of “books that must be read” if I didn’t mention this little gem.

When Grace loses her best friend, Charlie, her world comes to an end.  Connected from childhood, everything she knows involves Charlie.  She just can’t come to grips with her death, with secrets left behind and questions unanswered.  So she digs.  She looks for answers to just who Charlie was.  And in the process, she uncovers more than she expected in the form of Charlie’s unknown sister, Anna.  Here’s where things start to get weird.  Grace begins to forget things, to lose things.  She’s sure someone is following her.  And the people around her are acting very strange.  Is she going crazy?  Or is something more sinister at work?

This debut novel is a thriller in the truest sense.  It plays tricks with your mind and leaves you guessing all the way while at the same time making it seem as if you’ve figured it out.  And of course there’s a fantastic twist that you’ll never see coming!

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  The Sister

 

Review: The New Neighbor by Leah Stewart

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I love a book with an ambiguous title.  What exactly does “new neighbor” mean?  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  And who is the new neighbor?  Even better when the story itself is just as much of a conundrum.

Margaret is alone, but she prefers it that way.  Living for ninety years means she’s seen and heard her share of things.  So she’s fairly content (or so she claims) to live out the rest of her years in her little house by the lake with her mystery novels to keep her company.  Then one day she notices a new neighbor across the lake.  Mildly curious at first, she schemes her way into finding out who exactly this person is.

And Jennifer…who is she really and where did she come from?  Surely she and her young son, Milo, have some kind of history somewhere.  But when you change your name and cut ties to your past, that must mean you’re running from something.  Of course Margaret is intrigued as she fancies herself somewhat of a mystery buff.  The deeper she digs, the more questions she has.

The bigger mystery is, who has more to hide? Is it Jennifer with her new name and her desire to make her son forget everything they left behind? Or is it Margaret with her burning need to finally tell her story to someone who will listen?

This book was such a thriller from the beginning ’til the very end. The author does an outstanding job of dragging you along, feeding you little tidbits along the way to keep you following. You just know that some kind of big secret is going to be revealed, but you’re never quite sure who that secret is going to be about. It’s not until the last chapter that it all comes together. And it’s what you expected while not being what you expected. Intrigued? Good!

~Thalia

Buy It Now: The New Neighbor

Review: Sister Eve and the Blue Nun by Lynne Hinton


I adored the first book in this series, and I love Sister Evangeline’s character so much that I keep reading the next in the series. Blue Nun is number three, and although there was too much history and Blue Nun factual information (like a documentary!) for me, I still enjoyed the terrific characters and dialogue. 

In this book, Sister Eve returns to the convent for a long weekend, only to happen upon a murder. Like any literary amateur sleuth, Eve ignores police instructions to stay out of the investigation, and she gets herself into a bit of trouble here and there. Thankfully there’s her private eye dad and a handsome police detective to save Eve as she catches the bad guy and solves the case! 

-calliope

Buy SISTER EVE AND THE BLUE NUN