I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Title: His Name is Grace
Author: H. G. Davis
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: October 18, 2021
Genre(s): Christian Mystery & Thrillers
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Rating:
Allison was just a little girl when she lost her life. And her family lost so much more...
Her father, John can't live with himself since he is the reason she is dead. And now that his son has been murdered he has given into a deep and dark rage. One that his wife suffers the brunt of.
With two of their three children dead, and the only living one, Erik, being accused of the death of his brother, the parents' lives are shattered. Once an everyday family, since moving out to Idaho their lives are slowly falling apart. The lies, the affair, the murder have all taken their toll.
However, some survive and are given another chance at life. This is a story of how grace can save us from ourselves
Sometimes you just need a quick read to get yourself back into the spirit of reading, and His Name is Grace by H. G. Davis was a perfect quick read to do that for me. At just 152 pages (1,795 locations on Kindle), I was able to read this book in just about 3 hours. It was fast paced, easy to read, and difficult to put down.
The formatting of this story is interesting. You’d think it’d focus on the actual mystery, but for the most part, it doesn’t. It focuses more on the secrets that the family of the deceased are keeping. Which isn’t to say it is a bad story, because it absolutely isn’t. I’m just not sure I would have categorized it as a mystery/thriller when it doesn’t really focus too much on that aspect, unless you consider all the secrets to be mystery/thriller material.
However, the book was very good – I wanted to know if the accused really had murdered his brother and if not who had. I also wanted to know how it happened and why the accused thought he’d done it if he hadn’t. I also wanted to know how many of the people knew about the others’ secrets.
The characters were interesting enough, although I didn’t feel any particular connection to any of them. Perhaps it was all the secrets. I will say though, that one character in particular, Jake, seemed a bit more cunning toward the end of the book than was being let on at first, making me wonder who was the real murderer… but you’ll have to read the book to find out what I mean.
A quick, easy read that gets 4 stars from me.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Title: Four Found Dead
Author: Natalie D. Richards
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication Date: May 2, 2023
Genre(s): Thrillers and Suspense
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Rating:
A terrifying thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Five Total Strangers and Seven Dirty Secrets!
The last show has ended, but the nightmare is just beginning.
Tonight, Riverview Theaters is closing forever, the last remaining business in a defunct shopping mall. The moviegoers have left, and Jo and her six coworkers have the final shift, a shift that quickly takes a dark turn.
First a stranger arrives with a chilling accusation. Then the power goes out and their manager disappears, along with the keys to the lobby doors and the theater safe, where the crew's phones are locked each shift. The crew's tension turns to terror when Jo discovers the dead body of one of her co-workers.
Now their only chance to escape the murderer in their midst is through the dark, shuttered mall. With its boarded-up exits and disabled fire alarms, the complex is filled with hiding places for both pursuer and pursued. In order to survive this night, Jo and her friends must trust one another, navigate the sprawling ruins of the mall, and outwit a killer before he kills them all.
Four Found Dead was one of those books that took me a while to read - mostly because it was a case of "right book, wrong time". I tried several times to read this book and just couldn't stay interested. Last night, I decided I'd give it one more try before giving up and I'm glad I did. I started it at 10PM and finished at 3:45AM the next morning.
Once I was able to properly get into the book, I could not put the book down. I had to know what was going to happen next. While we didn't get to know all of the characters well, I have to say that my favorites were Naomi, Hudson, and Jo. However, I would like to have gotten Jo's name a bit earlier in the book than we did, but it is what it is. And I would like to say that I hated Clayton from his first entrance into the story. So there's that.
Four Found Dead is quite fast paced - it would have to be, considering that the events take place over the course of about 9 hours. Once it pulls you in, you're hooked. You need to know how these people are getting out of this mess they're in.
I found the little "intermission" notes interesting. They left me wondering exactly who it was who was telling this story, or at least, who was giving their two-cents between some of the chapters. You will find out at the end, and trust me, it wasn't anyone I was expecting.
The ending is great and quite interesting. There are some things that are foreshadowed earlier, but then you kind of decide that can't be the case later... only to have it thrown in your face that it was true all along.
I gave this one 4.5 stars - it was a great book and now I'm planning to find other books by Ms. Richards as well.
Title: 1922
Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication Date: September 9, 2021
Genre(s): Horror
Format: eBook
Source: Public Library
Rating:
The chilling novella featured in Stephen King's bestselling collection Full Dark, No Stars, 1922 - about a man who succumbs to the violence within - is now available as a stand-alone publication.
I believe there is a man inside every man, a stranger
So writes Wilfred James in his confession. It's 1922. Wilfred owns eighty acres of farmland in Nebraska that have been in the family for generations. His wife, Arlette, owns an adjoining one hundred acres.
But if Arlette carries out her threat to sell her land to a pig butcher, Wilfred will be forced to sell too. Worse, he'll have to move to the city. But he has a daring plan. It may work if he can persuade his son.
A powerful tale of betrayal, murder, madness and rats, 1922 is a breathtaking exploration into the dark side of human nature from the great American storyteller Stephen King. It was adapted into a film from Netflix.
If you know me, you probably know that I am a fan of Stephen King's work. Honestly, about the only book of his that I have never quite been able to get into is Holly, and I think that is because it's more or less part of a series that I haven't actually read. But this review isn't about that - it is about a novella/short story called 1922.
In 1922, we find a man named Wilfred James who is telling a story that might be unbelievable to some, but perhaps not for those of us familiar with Mr. King's writing. We meet a small host of characters - Arlette James (Wilfred's wife), Henry James (Wilfred's son), Shannon Cotterie (love of Henry's life), and a few others. We only really deal with Wilfred and Henry enough to form an opinion of them - to me, neither character is particularly engaging or noteworthy - but I often find that Stephen King's characters aren't the main attraction of his stories.
The story doesn't take long to read, and is an engaging tale of confession, loss, grief, and madness. Obviously I'm not going to tell you what happens, but suffice it to say that the plot moves quickly enough to make reading the book quick and the plot is interesting enough to keep you wanting to read more.
I watched the movie on Netflix a few years ago, but oddly I don't remember much about it. It might be time to revisit that now that I've read the novella.
I gave it 4 stars because while I didn't connect with any of the characters, it had a fast-paced, interesting plot.
I received an advance copy of this book from the author to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Title: Blurring the Lines + Extras
Author: Amy Kaybach
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: July 15, 2024
Genre(s): Rockstar Romance
Format: eARC
Source: Author
Rating:
Some day they'll write songs about me...From the outside, the Blind Rebels have it all. They are one of the most popular rock bands in the world. Their albums go platinum. Tickets to their concerts sell out in hours.
Behind the scenes, they are a band hanging on by a thread.
Lead singer Mavrick Slater worries his guitarist and best friend is on a dangerous path to self-destruction.
Guitarist Callum Donogue is tired. Tied of being the one who cares. Tired of the constant touring. Drugs give him an escape.
Becka wants out of her dismal life in Chicago and to have songs written about her. The only way out she sees is on the arm of a rock star. Any rock star will do.
Find out the real story of what happened before the Blind Rebels series.
—
Also included in this book are several extra scenes from the Blind Rebels series.
Blurring the Lines is a novella meant for adult audiences. Content includes strong language, explicit sexual scenes, cheating, mention of drug and alcohol use, mention of overdose leading to death, and other mature situations.
Blurring the Lines + Extras is a prequel novella with some extra tidbits for the Blind Rebels series, all wrapped into one tidy little package. This book does contain spoilers for the Blind Rebels series, so if spoilers bother you, I recommend either reading the series first or stopping after ,Blurring the Lines and waiting to read the extras until after you've finished the Blind Rebels series.
As a huge fan of the Blind Rebels series, I'd often wondered exactly how the events played out that led up to the Rebels' hiatus. I knew it had to do with Mavrick, Callum, and Mavrick's fiancee Becka, but I wasn't sure how it had all played out. Now I know.
I'm going to be honest, I dislike Becka even more now than I did before. While there were times I could relate to her, she really got under my skin most of the time. I had a hard time understanding what Mav saw in her to be honest.
Blurring the Lines was very well written and relieves the itch of wanting to know what happened before the events of Bridging the Silence took place. Now... about those extras!
The extras are the parts that will be spoilers for the Blind Rebels series. Like I said above, if you want to avoid spoilers, I recommend reading the series first or just reading Blurring the Lines and leaving the extras until later. The extras include events from other perspectives, events that don't actually appear in the books, and in some cases, things that happened after the series was over. You'll get to see some beloved characters dealing with things in new ways or just dealing with new experiences.
I gave Blurring the Lines + Extras a solid five stars because it perfectly starts off the series and gives so much more to the series! I can't wait to read the next series.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Title: A Darker Mischief
Author: Derek Milman
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication Date: May 2, 2023
Genre(s): Mystery, Thriller
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Rating:
The Honeys meets The Secret History in a work of dark academia like no other -- a boarding school thriller about a queer teen from Mississippi who finds himself swept into a world of old money, privilege, and the secret society at the heart of it all.
When Cal Ware wins a scholarship to an elite New England boarding school, he's thrilled to leave his past behind. Back home in Mississippi, he was the poor, queer kid who never fit in. But at Essex Academy, he'll be able to reinvent himself. Or so he hopes...
But at Essex, Cal's classmates only see his cheap clothes and old iPhone. They mock his accent, and can't believe he's never left the country, or heard of The Hamptons. Cal, at his breaking point, is about to give up and return to Mississippi when he learns about a secret society on campus -- the key to becoming Essex royalty.
Cal knows he's not exactly secret society material, but to his surprise, he finds an unlikely champion in the handsome, charismatic, and slightly dangerous Luke Kim. As they get swept up in the mystery and glamour of the Rush process, Cal finds himself falling in love for the first time.
But as the initiation rituals grow riskier -- and increasingly nefarious -- Cal must decide how far he's willing to go, and how much of himself he's willing to sacrifice, to save everything and everyone he cherishes most. Because nothing at Essex -- not even Cal's first love -- is quite what it seems.
Content Warning: Trauma from gay bashing incident (past), kidnapping, parental illness (cancer), instances of cutting and branding, physical abuse
I love secret societies. Whenever I read a book set in a school, that is one of my biggest hopes - that there is some sort of secret society involved in the plot. Well, with A Darker Mischief, that hope is definitely fulfilled.
This book is definitely a slow-burn type of book. It will take a while to fully get into the story. It will also take a while to start understanding the characters presented A Darker Mischief. This is not one of those books where you get the characters' life story at the beginning. Even our main character, Cal, largely remains a mystery until later in the book. And if someone's story isn't important to the plot? Well, their story remains untold.
I have to say that I actually liked Luke more than I liked Cal. He seemed more genuine than Cal did. But Cal had his moments. Now for some reason, I'd suspected one of the secrets Cal held, but when it was revealed, I was still surprised. And no, I won't tell you what it is, you'll have to read the book to find out.
I loved the Society of Seven Eyes. For me, it is what made A Darker Mischief a four-star read. I loved the parties, the mystery, and the fact that the society's main "raison d'être" is to explore the grounds of Essex and dig up all of the history about the school. Including, perhaps, some secrets that pertain to Society.
The ending for A Darker Mischief was great. It perfectly closed out the book - and even left the book open for something of a sequel if perhaps a certain character wanted revenge on those who'd "wronged" him. I mean, the book ends perfectly as is, but a sequel could be fun as well.
If you are a fan of books that contain secret societies, I guarantee you'll want to read this book. Society of Seven Eyes features prominently in this story but so do the characters, which is important. I gave this one four-stars and hope to read more books from Derek Milman in the future.