September Reads and Rapid Reviews
Here’s what I read in September and some quick hit reviews to see if they’d be something you might like to add to your TBR pile!
BOOKS
September Reads and Reviews
I know this is the first time I’ve shared on the blog about my book reviews, but I can honestly say it’s probably one of my favorite posts I’m going to be writing about!
After I got to reKINDLE my love with my Kindle (get it?????) I’ve fallen back down the lovely rabbit hole of reading.
I’ve been sharing my book reviews on the ‘gram, but I wanted to have a more permanent place for book reviews AND also be able to host little giveaways every month!
Without further adieu, let’s GO!
- The Guest List – Lucy Foley
- The Stillwater Girls – Minka Kent
- Local Woman Missing – Mary Kubica
- The Wife Between Us – Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
- Verity – Colleen Hoover
- The Last Housewife – Ashley Winstead
- Then She Was Gone – Lisa Jewell
- Behind Closed Doors – BA Paris
- Please Join Us – Catherine McKenzie
- It Ends With Us – Colleen Hoover
- Things We Never Got Over – Lucy Score
- We Were Never Here – Andrea Bartz
- The Cabin in the Woods – Sarah Alderson
- Rock Paper Scissors – Alice Feeney
- Pretty Girls – Karin Slaughter
- The Other Emily – Dean Koontz
- Top 3 Reads of September
- Monthly Giveaway!
- SHOP ALL BOOKS
The Guest List – Lucy Foley
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.85 stars
How I read it: Started with audiobook, finished with physical copy
Read if you like:
- Multiple POV
- “One location” whodunnit
- Domestic/academia thrillers
What I loved: Short chapters, not predictable
What I didn’t love: Too many story lines and super difficult to keep up with on audiobook, lots of accents which make me have a hard time listening
Book Blurb
“The bride – the plus one – the best man – the wedding planner – the bridesmaid – the body.
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.
But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.
And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?”
My thoughts
I feel like I probably would have liked this better if I had read it. I was able to zip through the ending SUPER quick with the physical copy, but because I have a REAL hard time with accents, this audiobook was full of them and it was incredibly difficult to follow at times.
I will say the writing was great and the characters were pretty fully developed, even though there are a lot of them.
While I love thrillers, this trope of “everyone in a room and wants to kill somebody, but who actually did it” isn’t really my wheelhouse.
The Stillwater Girls – Minka Kent
*Available on Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.1
How I read it: Kindle
Read if you like:
- Completely unpredictable plots
- Domestic thrillers
- Dual POV
Content warnings: Child abandonment, mild abuse
What I loved: Super fast paced, not predictable at all
What I didn’t love: I loved everything
Book Blurb
“Ignorant of civilization and cautioned against its evils, nineteen-year-old Wren and her two sisters, Sage and Evie, were raised in off-the-grid isolation in a primitive cabin in upstate New York. When the youngest grows gravely ill, their mother leaves with the child to get help from a nearby town. And they never return.
As months pass, hope vanishes. Supplies are low. Livestock are dying. A brutal winter is bearing down. Then comes the stranger. He claims to be looking for the girls’ mother, and he’s not leaving without them.
To escape, Wren and her sister must break the rule they’ve grown up with: never go beyond the forest.
Past the thicket of dread, they come upon a house on the other side of the pines. This is where Wren and Sage must confront something more chilling than the unknowable. They’ll discover what’s been hidden from them, what they’re running from, and the secrets that have left them in the dark their entire lives.”
My thoughts
UHHHHH WUTTTTT?!
Not an exaggeration, but you could have offered me millions of dollars and not one time would I ever have been able to guess what was going.
There were several times where I was SO suspicious and imagined how this was going to play out and they were all crushed by the ending.
HOLY CRAP. This book was an incredible read, super fast paced, and although I found a lot of characters suspicious, so many characters were likeable in this. The Stillwater Girls was action packed from front to back and I loved the style of writing.
This was my first book of Kent’s, but it absolutely will not be my last. This book has stuck with me and I think about it a lot which is something considering allllll the other things I have going on in my life, ha!
Local Woman Missing – Mary Kubica
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.13 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Domestic thrillers
- Multiple POV
- Jumps in timeline
- TOTAL unpredictability
Content warnings: Child abuse/neglect
What I loved: Super fast paced, audiobook narrators, incredible twists, short chapters
What I didn’t love: I loved everything!
Book Blurb
“People don’t just disappear without a trace…
Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.
Now, eleven years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find…”
My thoughts
Okay I loved this so much that I went out and bought the physical copy.
I was hooked on these characters and their story from the get go.
Mary does a great job letting you get to know the characters, what makes them tick and then BLOWS YOUR ENTIRE WORLD APART at the end.
There are some thrillers that I read that are somewhat predictable and more of a slow burn, but even from the prologue I was hooked.
My heart was in a million pieces in just the first chapter, but it is absolutely what fueled me to BINGE listen to this on audiobook!
The Wife Between Us – Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
*Available on Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.86 stars
How I read it: Kindle
Read if you like:
- Domestic thrillers
- Dual POV
What I loved: Super fast paced, incredible twists, short chapters
What I didn’t love: I loved everything!
Book Blurb
“When you read this book, you will make many assumptions.
You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife.
You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love.
You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.
Assume nothing.
Twisted and deliciously chilling, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen’s The Wife Between Us exposes the secret complexities of an enviable marriage – and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.
Read between the lies.“
My thoughts
I could not put this one down!
It is a bit longer at over 400 pages, but I can promise you it will not feel like it!
Even from the beginning there were twists that had me having to go back and reread things because I thought I misread, but I really LOVED the way this was written and it had me hooked from the first chapter.
Verity – Colleen Hoover
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.41 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Domestic thrillers
- Dark themes
- Spice
Content warnings: Child death, child abuse/neglect
What I loved: Dark, keeps you guessing
What I didn’t love: The kid stuff was rough
Book Blurb
“Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of best-selling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity’s recollection of the night their family was forever altered.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.
Sexy. Twisted. Consuming.”
My thoughts
Verity was my first Colleen Hoover book and I honestly read this before I realized that she was huge on BookTok. I didn’t even realize her genre was romance.
I loved this because it combined the perfect amount of spice in the right way with the thriller, but have since read a couple more and there is none like this one.
She has since released an updated version with an extra chapter and if you haven’t read it, you totally should. I snuck to our Books a Million and just sat down in a chair and read it in 15 minutes.
I’ll just say that it made me question Jeremy even further than I already did in the original book.
This was actually really easy to follow on audiobook and I was able to finish this in a just a few days too by binging it.
Y’all gotta understand – I have had a LOT of trauma in my life and so dark themes don’t make me uncomfortable or anything of the sort and so I’ve heard a lot of people say this was too hard for them, but it wasn’t for me. It was really good and I’m quite honestly sad she doesn’t write more like this.
The Last Housewife – Ashley Winstead
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.82 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Cults
- Academia settings
- True crime podcast elements
Content warnings: Seual sadism, patriarchal abuse
What I loved: Easy to listen to on audiobook, podcast element storyline
What I didn’t love: I didn’t understand the characters, felt like it was missing something
Book Blurb
“While in college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best friends met a captivating man who seduced them with a web of lies about the way the world works, bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape. Now, eight years later, Shay’s built a new life in a tony Texas suburb. But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel’s death—delivered, of all ways, by her favorite true-crime podcast crusader—she begins to suspect that the past she thought she buried is still very much alive, and the predators more dangerous than ever.
Recruiting the help of the podcast host, Shay goes back to the place she vowed never to return to in search of answers. As she follows the threads of her friend’s life, she’s pulled into a dark, seductive world, where wealth and privilege shield brutal philosophies that feel all too familiar. When Shay’s obsession with uncovering the truth becomes so consuming she can no longer separate her desire for justice from darker desires newly reawakened, she must confront the depths of her own complicity and conditioning. But in a world built for men to rule it—both inside the cult and outside of it—is justice even possible, and if so, how far will Shay go to get it?”
My thoughts
This made me feel a big WTF a lot of the way through it.
I will say I liked the podcast element of it because it helped to give a “transcript” so to speak of what was going on.
However, the cult aspect of it was insane and almost just unrealistic.
If you’re familiar with NXVIM, this book reminded me a lot of that but to the Nth degree.
I guess I was more so baffled that these seemingly bright, intelligent women got themselves in a cult like this and to me it fell a bit flat helping explain any background information that would have developed the characters and given insight into what led to their decision making.
This was a big meh for me. It was easy enough to listen to on audiobook, but it kind of bored me at times.
Then She Was Gone – Lisa Jewell
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.06 stars
How I read it: Physical copy (Borrowed from a friend)
Read if you like:
- Domestic thrillers
What I loved: Super fast paced, crazy twists, short chapters
What I didn’t love: Kind of predictable
Book Blurb
“Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was fifteen, the youngest of three. Beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers, and half of a teenaged golden couple. Ellie was days away from an idyllic post-exams summer vacation, with her whole life ahead of her.
And then she was gone.
Now, her mother Laurel Mack is trying to put her life back together. It’s been ten years since her daughter disappeared, seven years since her marriage ended, and only months since the last clue in Ellie’s case was unearthed. So when she meets an unexpectedly charming man in a café, no one is more surprised than Laurel at how quickly their flirtation develops into something deeper. Before she knows it, she’s meeting Floyd’s daughters—and his youngest, Poppy, takes Laurel’s breath away.
Because looking at Poppy is like looking at Ellie. And now, the unanswered questions she’s tried so hard to put to rest begin to haunt Laurel anew. Where did Ellie go? Did she really run away from home, as the police have long suspected, or was there a more sinister reason for her disappearance? Who is Floyd, really? And why does his daughter remind Laurel so viscerally of her own missing girl?”
My thoughts
Funny story about this – a friend of mine gave me the book to read and as I’m a couple chapters in, it starts to feel super familiar.
I realize that I have actually read Then She Was Gone before but I could not for the life of me remember how it had ended so I read it again!
This time, I remembered it all.
It was a wild ride, but I loved the writing style and it was fast paced. I will say personally for me, this was a bit predictable, even from early on. But that could aos be because I’m a freak and it just seemed like I could tell where it was going to go.
It didn’t make it any less fun for me to read, though!
Behind Closed Doors – BA Paris
*Available on Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.98 stars
How I read it: Kindle
Read if you like:
- Domestic thrillers
- Dual POV
Content warnings: Domestic violence/abuse
What I loved: Super fast paced, incredible twists, THE END, Esther
What I didn’t love: I loved everything!
Book Blurb
“Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He’s a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’re hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better.
But it’s difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable.
Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.
Some might wonder what’s really going on once the dinner party is over, and the front door has closed.”
My thoughts
I can only describe this as rage loving this.
I have never wanted a character to die so much in a book as I have since I read Behind Closed Doors.
I absolutely adored the sweet little sister of the main character, Grace and that storyline.
But I seriously said “You f**king @$$hole” about 49208 times in this book. But it was still so good and a very quick and easy read.
Please Join Us – Catherine McKenzie
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.69 stars
How I read it: Physical copy (from the library)
Read if you like:
- Dual timeline
- Girl bosses
- Revenge
- Conspiracy/cult vibes
What I loved: Current timeline
What I didn’t love: Past timeline was a snoozefest and super boring, slow burn
Book Blurb
“At thirty-nine, Nicole Mueller’s life is on the rocks. Her once brilliant law career is falling apart. She and her husband, Dan, are soon to be forced out of the apartment they love. After a warning from her firm’s senior partners, she receives an invitation from an exclusive women’s networking group, Panthera Leo. Membership is anonymous, but every member is a successful professional. It sounds like the perfect solution to help Nicole revive her career. So, despite Dan’s concerns that the group might be a cult, Nicole signs up for their retreat in Colorado.
Once there, she meets the other women who will make up her Pride. A CEO, an actress, a finance whiz, a congresswoman: Nicole can’t believe her luck. The founders of Panthera Leo are equally as impressive. They explain the group’s core philosophy: they’re a girl’s club in a boy’s club world.
Nicole is all in. And when she gets home, she soon sees dividends. Her new network quickly provides her with clients that help her relaunch her career, and a great new apartment too. The favors she has to provide in return seem benign. But then she’s called to the congresswoman’s apartment late at night where she’s pressed into helping her cover up a crime. And suddenly, Dan’s concerns that something more sinister is at play seem all too relevant. Can Nicole extricate herself from the group before it’s too late? Or will joining Panthera Leo be the biggest mistake of her life?”
My thoughts
This was not it for me, y’all.
I didn’t feel this was much of a thriller at all. It was very much a group of women trying to get ahead and getting revenge and it just was SO boring.
This had cult vibes for me, but not nearly like The Last Housewife.
I just prefer action packed thrillers and this just really fell flat.
In addition, there were so many connections with so many characters, it was just too much. I almost quit this one but I powered through. It picked up in the last 80% or so, but still, nah.
It Ends With Us – Colleen Hoover
*Available on Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.37 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Spice
- Friends to lovers
- Redemption
Content warnings: Domestic abuse
What I loved: Easy to follow, likeable characters, relatable scenarios
What I didn’t love: Abuse was hard to listen to sometimes
Book Blurb
“Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. And when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life seems too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.”
My thoughts
Since this was a romance, it’s not my typical genre of choice, but I felt like I had to read it.
After reading Verity, I wanted to have more of that vibe, although I knew this book wouldn’t deliver.
However, I will say I was not expecting to be as invested in these characters as much as I was. Colleen does a great job of letting us get inside the character’s heads and empathize as to why they tick and I really appreciate that.
Also, after reading the author’s note at the end, I really respected this book a whole lot more. For this book to be out of my genre, I really enjoyed it.
I also love Brittany Pressley who is the audiobook narrator and she’s in a lot of other books (like Local Woman Missing!) and I really love her narration.
Things We Never Got Over – Lucy Score
*Available on Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.29 stars
How I read it: Kindle
Read if you like:
- Medium to high level of spice
- Enemies to lovers
- Family drama
- Small town
What I loved: Likeable characters, element of “mystery” (not thriller, but just a subtle hmmmmm…), sarcasm in writing
What I didn’t love: SUCH a slow burn, not enough until the last 75-80%, Knox is just a dick so much of the time
Book Blurb
“Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding. She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin to Knockemout, Virginia, a rough-around-the-edges town where disputes are settled the old-fashioned way…with fists and beer. Usually in that order.
Too bad for Naomi her evil twin hasn’t changed at all. After helping herself to Naomi’s car and cash, Tina leaves her with something unexpected. The niece Naomi didn’t know she had. Now she’s stuck in town with no car, no job, no plan, and no home with an 11-year-old going on thirty to take care of.
There’s a reason Knox doesn’t do complications or high-maintenance women, especially not the romantic ones. But since Naomi’s life imploded right in front of him, the least he can do is help her out of her jam. And just as soon as she stops getting into new trouble he can leave her alone and get back to his peaceful, solitary life.
At least, that’s the plan until the trouble turns to real danger.”
My thoughts
Ugh. I wanted to like this because it had incredible reviews and my girl Chelsea recommended this to me.
But we like very different types of books.
This was seriously really funny and there were some lines in there where I was like, “If I were to ever write a novel, it would read very similar to this.” Sarcasm and witty one lines for the win.
But other than that, it was a very slow burn and a boring storyline (for me) until about the last 75-80%. Then it felt like everything was just jam packed until the end.
This was super forgettable to me, though. As I type this, I can’t remember how it even ended.
To each their own, I suppose.
We Were Never Here – Andrea Bartz
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.53 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Toxic friendships
Content warning: Sexual assault
What I loved: Fast paced, wrapped up the story well in the end
What I didn’t love: Toxic relationships drive me insane
Book Blurb
“Emily is having the time of her life—she’s in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can’t believe it’s happened again—can lightning really strike twice?
Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving headfirst into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can Emily outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom—even her life?”
My thoughts
Toxic people get on my nerves and there were a lot of moments where I was super annoyed with Kristen but it’s what kept me reading it because I wanted to see how it would all shake out.
The ending was a wild ride and I really appreciated how the author rounded everything out in the end.
It was a very quick and easy read, just a little over 300 pages.
The Cabin in the Woods – Sarah Alderson
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.19 stars
How I read it: Audiobook
Read if you like:
- Domestic thrillers
- People getting what they deserve
- Dual timelines
What I loved: Super fast paced, incredible twists, short chapters, loved the audiobook narrator
What I didn’t love: I loved everything!
Book Blurb
“In a cabin in a wood,
A woman by the window stood.
Glancing out, she thought she heard
Footsteps, whistling, something stirred.
Hiding here, she fears the night,
For what’s done in the dark will come to light.
She must run fast to escape her lie
Or she’ll be the next to die…“
My thoughts
I found this through my favorite app to get audiobooks – Chirp!
It was something that was recommended to me; I had never heard of it before but I am so glad I got this one!
Talk about twists, holy moly.
I was cheering this main character on the entire time and the ending threw me for the best kind of loop!
Admittedly, the cover is a bit misleading because it says something to the effect of in the woods, no one can hear you scream which made me think it was going to be a more on the spooky side, which I’m super glad it wasn’t.
I like thriller, but spooky isn’t really my jam.
Rock Paper Scissors – Alice Feeney
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.97 stars
How I read it: Kindle
Read if you like:
- Domestic thrillers
- “Locked in a room” type thrillers
- Multiple POV
What I loved: Super fast paced, incredible twists, short chapters
What I didn’t love: I wanted more of…something
Book Blurb
“Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife.
Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts–paper, cotton, pottery, tin–and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.
Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.”
My thoughts
This fell flat for me, which makes me kinda sad.
I feel like it was incredibly easy to read (I finished this easily in under 2 days), but I still just felt like something was missing.
I will say the chapters were short, the twists were really good and overall it was an interesting story so it is still worth a read, in my humble opinion.
Pretty Girls – Karin Slaughter
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.03 stars
How I read it: Physical copy (from the library)
Read if you like:
- Dark themes
- A high heartrate
Content warning: Child death, sexual sadism/abuse
What I loved: Super fast paced, incredible twists, short chapters
What I didn’t love: I loved everything!
Book Blurb
“Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.
More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that’s cruelly ripped open when Claire’s husband is killed.
The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.”
My thoughts
Again, this book was super dark, but I’m a weirdo in that the darker the better for me.
I don’t shy away from that kind of stuff, but if things like graphic descriptions of sexual abuse, bordering on tortue wig you out, you may need to skip this one.
With all that being said, I LOVED this.
The redemption and revenge were so good and following the storyline all the way through was sad at times, but the ending made everything worth it.
Karin Slaughter is an automatic read for me. She is one of my favorite authors. Her writing style is exactly what I look for in a thriller.
The Other Emily – Dean Koontz
*Available on Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon rating: 4 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.81 stars
How I read it: Physical copy (from the library)
Read if you like:
- An element of paranormal
What I loved: Very well developed storyline and characters
What I didn’t love: Lots of SAT words, somewhat slow
Book Blurb
“A decade ago, Emily Carlino vanished after her car broke down on a California highway. She was presumed to be one of serial killer Ronny Lee Jessup’s victims whose remains were never found.
Writer David Thorne still hasn’t recovered from losing the love of his life, or from the guilt of not being there to save her. Since then, he’s sought closure any way he can. He even visits regularly with Jessup in prison, desperate for answers about Emily’s final hours so he may finally lay her body to rest. Then David meets Maddison Sutton, beguiling, playful, and keenly aware of all David has lost. But what really takes his breath away is that everything about Maddison, down to her kisses, is just like Emily. As the fantastic becomes credible, David’s obsession grows, Maddison’s mysterious past deepens—and terror escalates.
Is she Emily? Or an irresistible dead ringer? Either way, the ultimate question is the same: What game is she playing? Whatever the risk in finding out, David’s willing to take it for this precious second chance. It’s been ten years since he’s felt this inspired, this hopeful, this much in love…and he’s afraid.”
My thoughts
This was pretentious to me.
I consider myself to know a lot of big words, but there were sentences that felt like he could have used 3 words and instead used 30.
Much like when you’re trying to get to a certain word count or page count in college on an essay.
I also don’t love a paranormal aspect, so that all felt weird to me because I like to read things that feel like they could be one of my favorite true crime documentaries or something.
With that being said, I really liked his writing. He’s an OG and has been around for 150 years. I may or may not have already bought 2 more of his books at a book sale to read.
Top 3 Reads of September
If you’re not an obsessive reader like me or simply just don’t have the time, here are my top 3 books you should absolutely add to your TBR pile if you’re into my kind of books:
3. The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent
2. A Cabin in the Woods by Sarah Alderson
and my favorite read of September was Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica!
Monthly Giveaway!
My goal in doing a giveaway is twofold.
1, I want to show you beautiful people how thankful I am that you’re around.
2, I want to support my local used bookstore that gives money back to our community which is why each month the giveaway books are totally random – it’s just what I can find in stores at the time!
I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS MONTH’S BOOK!!!
I know I said Karin Slaughter is one of my favorite authors, but without a doubt, Shari Lapena is QUEEN.
Her books are so easy to read, will get your heartrate up from the first few pages, and will blow your mind every time. She NEVER disappoints.
The best news is, if you’re on my Book Buddies email list, 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!
Now quit reading this and go read one of these books! You won’t regret it!
SHOP ALL BOOKS
CLICK BELOW TO SHOP OR ADD TO YOUR TBR!
