April ’23 Reads and Reviews
BOOKS
Here are all the things I read in April and my tiny lil’ thoughts for those who may be interested.
- The Prisoner – B.A Paris
- An Honest Lie – Tarryn Fisher
- Girls with Bright Futures – Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy katzman
- Lie to Me – J.T Ellison
- Every Thing She Feared – Rick Mofina
- Electric Idol – Katee Robert
- Every Last Fear – Alex Finlay
- What Have We Done- Alex Finlay
- Yours Truly – Abby Jimenez
- Dark Things I Adore – Katie Lattari
- The Missing – Kiersten Modglin
- An Unwanted Guest – Shari Lapena
- Top 3 Reads of April
- Monthly Giveaway
- SHOP ALL BOOKS
The Prisoner – B.A Paris
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.59 stars
How I read it: Physical copy (borrowed from my local library)
Read if you like:
- Short chapters
- Reads under 300 pages
- Alternating timelines
- Fast paced
- First person
What I loved: I love first person thrillers; super short chapters were great
What I didn’t love: The second half felt a little disorienting and different from the first half.
Book Blurb
“Amelie has always been a survivor, from losing her parents as a child in Paris to making it on her own in London. As she builds a life for herself, she is swept up into a glamorous lifestyle where she married the handsome billionaire Ned Hawthorne.
But then, Amelie wakes up in a pitch-black room, not knowing where she is. Why has she been taken? Who are her mysterious captors? And why does she soon feel safer here, imprisoned, than she had begun to feel with her husband Ned?“
My thoughts
I have seen some SUPER mixed reviews about this, but I LOVED Behind Closed Doors by the same author so I thought I wanted to give this one a shot.
I loved that it was super short so I felt like it was fast paced which is a win for me too.
This book is split into 2 parts and the first part has super short chapters (Not as short as The Silent Patient or The One by John Marrs, but close!)
The second half feels to drag a bit and I think this is the part that threw people off so much. It almost feels like a different book.
It’s not as fast paced and I feel like it drags on a bit, but I still was interested to see how this thing shook out.
My rating
An Honest Lie – Tarryn Fisher
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.5 stars
How I read it: Physical copy (borrowed from my local library)
Read if you like:
- Cults
- Catty women
- Alternating timelines
What I loved: The cult part rof this story was fascinating
What I didn’t love: These trifling hoes in this book
Book Blurb
“Lorraine—“Rainy”—lives at the top of Tiger Mountain. Remote, moody, cloistered in pine trees and fog, it’s a sanctuary, a new life. She can hide from the disturbing past she wants to forget.
If she’s allowed to.
When Rainy reluctantly agrees to a girls’ weekend in Vegas, she’s prepared for an exhausting parade of shots and slot machines. But after a wild night, her friend Braithe doesn’t come back to the hotel room.
And then Rainy gets the text message, sent from Braithe’s phone: someone has her. But Rainy is who they really want, and Rainy knows why.
What follows is a twisted, shocking journey on the knife-edge of life and death. If she wants to save Braithe—and herself—the only way is to step back into the past.“
My thoughts
I have read several cult books in the last year and they always truly fascinate me.
Even though they’re fiction, it’s a glimpse into how things like this happen and how they’re able to prey on such vulnerable people and it’s so frustrating to me, but makes for a super interesting plot.
I oved the alternating timelines in this book because you get to see why Rainy operates the way she does, revealing more and more of her past as she goes along.
I was really happy for her in the end and thought the book ended well.
Out of the three books of hers I’ve read so far, I think this one is my favorite.
My rating
Girls with Bright Futures – Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy katzman
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Multiple POV
- Rich women behaving badly
- Catty women
- Dark academia
Content warning: Sexual assault
What I loved: How this book wrapped itself up
What I didn’t love: There were a lot of characters so it took me a while to catch on since it was an audiobook
Book Blurb
“College admissions season at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Academy is marked by glowing acceptances from top-tier institutions and students as impressive as their parents are ambitious. But when Stanford alerts the school it’s allotting only one spot to EBA for their incoming class, three mothers discover the competition is more cutthroat than they could have imagined.
Tech giant Alicia turns to her fortune and status to fight for her reluctant daughter’s place at the top. Kelly, a Stanford alum, leverages her PTA influence and insider knowledge to bulldoze the path for her high-strung daughter. And Maren makes three: single, broke, and ill-equipped to battle the elite school community aligning to bring her superstar down.
That’s when, days before applications are due, one of the girls suffers a near-fatal accident, one that doesn’t appear to be an accident at all.
As the community spirals out of control, three women will have to decide what lines they’re willing to cross to secure their daughters’ futures…and keep buried the secrets that threaten to destroy far more than just college dreams.“
My thoughts
Y’alllllll these elitist white moms.
I know there are circles where stuff like this happens, but this book made me so mad.
Don’t get me wrong – it was a super captivating story and I really enjoyed listening to it, but the lengths that some of these moms want to go to in order for their kids to attend a certain college makes me wanna pull my hair out.
I really loved how this book was wrapped up and how everyone seemed to get what they deserved, but the journey to get there had my blood pressure up a few times because I wanted to punch these women (and a couple of the men too).
My rating
Lie to Me – J.T Ellison
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.8 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Domestic thrillers
- Multiple POV
- Chaos
- Past secrets
What I loved: I was invested until close to the end
What I didn’t love: Felt like a LOT of fluff; difficult to follow on audiobook with changing POVs at times
Book Blurb
“Sutton and Ethan Montclair’s idyllic life is not as it appears. They seem made for each other, but the truth is ugly. Consumed by professional and personal betrayals and financial woes, the two both love and hate each other. As tensions mount, Sutton disappears, leaving behind a note saying not to look for her.
Ethan finds himself the target of vicious gossip as friends, family and the media speculate on what really happened to Sutton Montclair. As the police investigate, the lies the couple have been spinning for years quickly unravel. Is Ethan a killer? Is he being set up? Did Sutton hate him enough to kill the child she never wanted and then herself? The path to the answers is full of twists that will leave the reader breathless.“
My thoughts
This was under recommended for me in my Hoopla app because I read one of J.T’s books last month.
However, this entire book SCREAMED a low rent version of Gone Girl for me and I definitely didn’t like it as much as I did his other one I read.
A lot of reviews say the same, but that there were more twists in it. I do agree with that, but the ending was also VERY confusing for me.
It felt super abrupt and left me literally like….OKAY WHAT? And not really in a good way.
This was one of those “it was fine while I’m reading it, but it’s not going to be the book I jump to recommend to people wanting a new read in this genre”.
My rating
Every Thing She Feared – Rick Mofina
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.9 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Psychological suspense
- Unreliable characters
- Dark past
- Serial killer
What I loved: That I was wrong about what I thought I had figured out.
What I didn’t love: I felt the ending was super abrupt; some parts of this felt SO CHEESY
Book Blurb
“Every mother worries about their child. But Sara Harmon fears hers…
When a teen falls while taking a selfie at the edge of a cliff, the last thing she sees before plummeting to her death is Katie Harmon, the nine-year-old girl she was babysitting, looking down at her.
Investigators gather at the scene, and Katie’s mother, Sara, rushes to comfort her daughter. Yet there’s a small, secret ping of alarm in Sara’s heart that she cannot share—though rookie detective Kim Pierce senses it.
For years, others have tried to unravel this secret. From true-crime podcasters to a haunted journalist searching for a killer who vanished after being released from prison several years ago. And now, with detectives tightening the focus of their investigation, Sara is consumed by her darkest fear—that the babysitter’s death was not an accident.“
My thoughts
OMG.
So I thought I had this figured out from the first chapter and while I’m glad I didn’t have it figured out, this book read like a really poorly executed Netflix movie in my opinion.
I feel like it could have been good, but there was so much fluff and many parts where the lines were just SO CHEESY and I could almost see the poor execution of the cheesy lines on a film that had champagne taste with a beer budget.
It honestly felt like 2 different stories for a lot of it and I understand how they intertwine, but good lawd it was just…thick.
WITH THAT SAID, I binged this pretty quick but I think so much fluff could have been cut out and the storyline could have been fine.
It felt hella repetitive (okay we get it, you have a freaking past and don’t want to talk about it yet, but waiting until like 80% of the book to talk about it and then it not being that big of a deal is like…COME ON) and I liked it, but again, not a compelling enough story for me to recommend it to people.
My rating
Electric Idol – Katee Robert
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4 stars
How I read it: Kindle
Read if you like:
- Dual first person POV
- Marriage of conveninece trope
- Super spice romance
- A*holes getting what they deserve
What I loved: Love the modern take on the Greek mythology; easy to root for the characters you love
What I didn’t love: Aphrodite
Book Blurb
In the ultra-modern city of Olympus, there’s always a price to pay. Psyche Dimitriou knew she’d have to face Aphrodite’s jealous rage eventually, but she never expected her literal heart to be at stake…or for Aphrodite’s gorgeous son to be the one ordered to strike the killing blow.
Eros has no problem shedding blood. Raised to be his mother’s knife in the dark, he’s been conditioned to accept that he’s more monster than man. But when it comes time to take out his latest target…he can’t do it. Confused by his reaction to Psyche’s unexpected kindness, he does the only thing he can think of to keep her safe: he binds her to him, body and soul.
Psyche didn’t expect to find herself married to the glittering city’s most dangerous killer, but something about Eros wakens a fire inside her she’s never felt before. As lines blur and loyalties shift, Psyche realizes Eros might take her heart after all…and she’s not sure she can survive the loss.”
My thoughts
*le sigh*
I just really like this series.
And if you’ve read any of my book reviews, you know that romance is not my genre of choice.
Rom coms are cute and fun, but it’s not what I reach for.
But after reading the first in this series last month, I was dying to read the second one.
I think I liked the storyline of the first one better, but I still really enjoyed this.
I have seen reviews that they thought the whole “I’m a monster, I don’t deserve anything good” schtick got old and repetitive, but to me, it just showed that Eros was having a hard time believing something good could happen to him after his past and quite frankly, I FEEL THAT.
So, yep. Still loved it. Will absolutely be reading the rest in this series.
My rating
Every Last Fear – Alex Finlay
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.95 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Domestic thrillers
- Family drama
- Alternating timelines
- Multiple POV
What I loved: The pace felt right on track
What I didn’t love: There was a lot of fluff and a ton of characters to keep up with
Content warning: Sexual assault
Book Blurb
“They found the bodies on a Tuesday.” So begins this twisty and breathtaking novel that traces the fate of the Pine family, a thriller that will both leave you on the edge of your seat and move you to tears.
After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family—his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister—have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain—and they won’t tell Matt why.
The tragedy makes headlines everywhere because this isn’t the first time the Pine family has been thrust into the media spotlight. Matt’s older brother, Danny—currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Charlotte—was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secret about his brother that he’s never told anyone: the night Charlotte was killed Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty of the crime.
When Matt returns to his small hometown to bury his parents and siblings, he’s faced with a hostile community that was villainized by the documentary, a frenzied media, and memories he’d hoped to leave behind forever. Now, as the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case, Matt must unearth the truth behind the crime that sent his brother to prison—putting his own life in peril—and forcing him to confront his every last fear.
Told through multiple points-of-view and alternating between past and present, Alex Finlay’s Every Last Fear is not only a page-turning thriller, it’s also a poignant story about a family managing heartbreak and tragedy, and living through a fame they never wanted“
My thoughts
This was Alex’s debut novel and holy crap haha – your boy knows how to tell a story.
Admittedly, I don’t *love* like a cop/FBI trope, but the story wasn’t about them if it makes sense.
I feel like the tension in this book was enough to keep me wanting to back to this story over and over, but there were times when I was like “aight, can we get on with it?”
I also don’t love when the drug cartel is involved in any sort of way (it’s just all pew pew and boy things and ew) but again, this was enough to make the compelling story.
My rating
What Have We Done- Alex Finlay
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.7 stars
How I read it: Physical copy (borrowed from my local library)
Read if you like:
- Short chapters
- Multiple POV
- Psychological thrillers
Content warning: Sexual assault, sex trafficking
What I loved: Just when your heart rate came down, it got jacked right on back up in the last few pages
What I didn’t love: Lot of tertiary characters and it was hard to keep up with sometimes
Book Blurb
“A stay-at-home mom with a past.
A has-been rock star with a habit.
A reality TV producer with a debt.
Three disparate lives.
One deadly secret.
Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down—after the disappearance of several kids—the three were split up.
Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live accomplished—if troubled—lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them.
To survive, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their shared past—a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.
It’s a reunion none of them asked for . . . or wanted. But it may be the only way to save all their lives.“
My thoughts
Not me reading a physical copy of an Alex Finlay book AND listening to his audiobook at the same time.
What Have We Done is Alex’s latest book and I was HOOKED on this one.
It’s written from 4 POVs and occasional alternating timelines which means there are a lot of characters to keep up with.
But these quick hit, 3-4 page chapters made this book really hard to put down.
I really liked this story, and thought it was super unique and not anything like I’d ever read before.
I will say that I think this is probably better read in a physical copy or on a Kindle vs. an audiobook just because of the writing style and the fact that there are some text messages involved and the physical copy differentiates them.
My heart rate finally came down and then shot right back up in the ending and I LIVE for that. Well done, A Money.
My rating
Yours Truly – Abby Jimenez
Amazon rating: 4.6 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.5 stars
How I read it: Kindle
Read if you like:
- Feel good chick lit
- Representation of living with mental illness
- Dual POV
- Enemies to lovers
- Fake dating
Content Warning: Pregnancy loss
What I loved: The little notes ARE YOU KIDDING ME
What I didn’t love: The headaches from ALL THE SOBBING
Book Blurb
“Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin’-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass” scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.
And it’s a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn’t actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who’s terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her “sob closet,” and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable—a kidney for her brother—she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she can’t refuse.“
My thoughts
You know by now that thriller is my genre, but the fact that this has 4.5 stars on Goodreads is UNHEARD OF so I had to bite.
I promise you that I was crying about 2-3 chapters in to this.
I loved reading from Jacob’s point of view, absolutely loved seeing his heart and also loved reading a book where the male MC is struggling with anxiety and we get to see inside what it’s like to live with.
The story line, the plot, the pace – quite everything about this had me alllll up in my feels and I’m not really mad at it.
This is also good if you like a little bit of romance, but want a one bed/one scene type story.
My rating
Dark Things I Adore – Katie Lattari
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.6 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Revenge thrillers
- Dark acacdemia
- Dual Timelines
- Multiple POV
Content warning: Sexual assault, suicide
What I loved: The combination of serial killer trope and rate thriller was great; I loved the big twist in the middle that propelled the second half of the book
What I didn’t love: ENTIRELY too many people
Book Blurb
“Three campfire secrets. Two witnesses. One dead in the trees. And the woman, thirty years later, bent on making the guilty finally pay.
1988. A group of outcasts gather at a small, prestigious arts camp nestled in the Maine woods. They’re the painters: bright, hopeful, teeming with potential. But secrets and dark ambitions rise like smoke from a campfire, and the truths they tell will come back to haunt them in ways more deadly than they dreamed.
2018. Esteemed art professor Max Durant arrives at his protégé’s remote home to view her graduate thesis collection. He knows Audra is beautiful and brilliant. He knows being invited into her private world is a rare gift. But he doesn’t know that Audra has engineered every aspect of their weekend together. Every detail, every conversation. Audra has woven the perfect web.
Only Audra knows what happened that summer in 1988. Max’s secret, and the dark things that followed. And even though it won’t be easy, Audra knows someone must pay.“
My thoughts
I had a ton of high hopes for this because I had seen several Bookstagrammers I trust recommend it.
You guys – just freaking no.
This whole book felt super pretentious (which I think was the point because we are dealing with artists and they’re many times their thinking is on a different wavelenght), but it made this book really hard to follow, especially in audiobook format.
When it popped back to the 1988 timeline, there were just TOO many people and I had a very hard time following it.
In addition to the multiple POV, you had descriptions of art drawn with obscure poems/writings and it was just a HUGE brain jumble for me.
This was just not a fun read at all, but I was invested enough to see it through but I was very glad when it was over.
My rating
The Missing – Kiersten Modglin
*Available on Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon rating: 4.3 stars
Goodreads rating: 4 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Locked room thrillers
- Psychological suspense
- Multiple POV
- Dual timeline
What I loved: SUPER bingeable; kept you guessing until the end
What I didn’t love: The ending seemed hella far fetched to me
Book Blurb
“When five strangers are abandoned on an island without any idea where they are or whom to trust, their nightmarish new reality begins to unfold.
Someone is lying.
Someone is hiding a terrible secret.
They’d all do anything to get home… Wouldn’t they?
As the group struggles to uncover the truth about their mysterious whereabouts, only one thing is certain: every choice they make on the island will affect the others.
And when they uncover a strange note with a chilling revelation, the group begins to question everything they thought they knew. If they want to make it off the island alive, they’ll have to discover who brought them there and why…before it’s too late.“
My thoughts
When it comes to authors on Kindle Unlimited that I love, Kiersten Modglin and Frieda McFadden top the list. I flew through this in less than 2 days and really enjoyed it.
I will say that listening to this on audiobook was a little disorienting at times because there was like a random past timeline chapter thrown in the midst of TONS of present tense chapters so it felt odd.
The POV also would change sometimes and it would take me a second to recognize what was going on.
Kiersten is really good at writing tense situations, but making you feel things in the process (Harry ❤️).
I liked how just about everything wrapped up as far as the plot goes, but the ending felt SUPER far fetched to me, but it didn’t wreck the rest of the story. It was just like a “TF???” moment.
My rating
An Unwanted Guest – Shari Lapena
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.78 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Snowy thrillers
- Domestic suspense
- Multiple POV
- Unreliable characters
What I loved: Not knowing who to trust
What I didn’t love: It just felt like a lot going on; very hard to follow sometimes
Book Blurb
“It’s winter in the Catskills and Mitchell’s Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing–maybe even romantic–weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge woodburning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.
So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity–and all contact with the outside world–the guests settle in and try to make the best of it.
Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead–it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.
Within the snowed-in paradise, something–or someone–is picking off the guests one by one. And there’s nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm–and one another.“
My thoughts
Ugh, writing this review makes me sad.
I *LOVE* Shari Lapena. She’s one of my go to authors and she has never let me down.
…..until now. I did not like this at all. It felt super “meh” all the way through, it didn’t feel twisty and tense like so many of her books and I just couldn’t get invested enough in any of the characters to try to see where it was going.
This didn’t even feel like it was written by the same Shari that I know and love. Not a fan, but I’m not giving up on her yet. We all have off days and maybe this is just her “off days” book lolz.
My rating
Top 3 Reads of April
This felt like a fairly decent reading month for me. I drove a lot and did a lot of yard work so I relied heavily on audiobooks, per usual.
I like to give my top 3 so that if you can’t read as much, here are the ones to definitely add to your list!
3 – Electric Idol by Katee Robert (I understand this level of spice clearly may not be for everyone lolz)
2 – The Prisoner by B.A. Paris
1 – Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
Monthly Giveaway
I like to give away books to help support my local used bookstore as often as I can.
THIS MONTH’S BOOK IS…..
I’ve read a couple of Tarryn Fisher books and admittedly, she’s not my absolute fave, but she really does know how to write some good storylines and I always enjoy her books when I’m reading them.
I read The Wives last month and it was a wild ride for sure!
As you guys on my Book Buddies email list already know, you have to do NOTHING to be entered! It’s just as a thank you for being here and I’ll let you know via email if you’ve won!
SHOP ALL BOOKS
CLICK BELOW TO SHOP OR ADD TO YOUR TBR!
