2016 Book #69 – The Witness by Sandra Brown

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Thriller by rebeccabook17

Title: The Witness
Author: Sandra Brown
Date finished: 7/12/16
Genre: Fiction, romantic suspense
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (Reprint)
Publication Date: Originally 1996, Reprint March 29, 2016
Pages in book: 418
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Target – purchased

Blurb from the cover:

Kendall Deaton pulls herself and her baby out of a wrecked car, and a mixture of courage and fear gets her to the top of a ravine, where she flags down help. But she doesn’t dare reveal her true identity to the authorities. Instead, she plans her immediate escape. Her perilous flight begins.
The best public defender in Prosper, South Carolina, Kendall had stumbled upon the town’s chilling secret, turning her marriage to one of the town’s most powerful men into a living hell. Now Kendall is a terrified mother trying to save her child’s life…a reluctant witness who knows too much about an insidious evil…and a woman surrounded by forces that will stop at nothing to protect what is “theirs.”

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: So if you read my blog you know that overall I am definitely a fan of Sandra Brown. I’m slowly trying to make my way through her backlist and since I’ve been so good at avoiding my ARC’s lately I decided to pick up. However, I have a tip for my future self: Never pick up a Sandra Brown book on a Sunday night unless you are (1) on vacation that week or (2) have somehow discovered in the future that sleep is no longer needed. Once I start reading a Sandra Brown book it is so hard for me to put it down. I was up until midnight last night finishing it. This book was about Kendall Deaton, a defense attorney in Prosper, South Carolina, who stumbles on a horrible crime out in the woods one night. In order to survive she runs away without leaving any trace, hoping to escape the clutches of a dangerous and deadly adversary. I don’t want to go too much into the plot line because of the twists and turns, I don’t want to give anything away! Even though some of the plot twists were somewhat predictable, they were all great and the story line kept me on my toes throughout. The only plot twist that didn’t really fit for me was the one at the end, I almost felt like it was added as an afterthought. It didn’t fit well for me with the rest of the story, but that’s just me!
Overall I really liked this book. It was definitely a page-turner, and my heart was pounding throughout the book. I must warn you readers, some parts of this book were downright gruesome, but it only adds to the evil character of the villains. I really liked this book overall and I would definitely recommend it, especially to Sandra Brown fans!!

The bottom line: This was a great read. The plot line definitely had my heart pounding and I was interested in the story right through to the end. There were a couple somewhat slow parts for me but overall was definitely a great book.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

5Jul2016

2016 Book #67 – How The Duke Was Won by Lenora Bell

Posted in Book reviews, For the love of books, Historical Romance by rebeccabook17

Title: How the Duke Was Won
Author: Lenora Bell
Date finished: 7/5/16
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: April 26, 2016
Pages in book: 384
Stand alone or series: #1 in the Disgraceful Dukes series
Where I got the book from: The Reading Room NOTE:I received this book for free from The Reading Room in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

The pleasure of your company is requested at Warbury Park. Four lovely ladies will arrive… but only one can become a duchess.
James, the scandalously uncivilized Duke of Harland, requires a bride with a spotless reputation for a strictly business arrangement. Lust is prohibited and love is out of the question.
Four ladies. Three days. What could go wrong?
She is not like the others…
Charlene Beckett, the unacknowledged daughter of an earl and a courtesan, has just been offered a life-altering fortune to pose as her half-sister, Lady Dorothea, and win the duke’s proposal. All she must do is:
* Be the perfect English rose [Ha!]
* Breathe, smile, and curtsy in impossibly tight gowns [blast Lady Dorothea’s sylph-like figure]
* Charm and seduce a wild duke [without appearing to try]
* Keep said duke far, far from her heart [no matter how tempting]
When secrets are revealed and passion overwhelms, James must decide if the last lady he should want is really everything he needs. And Charlene must decide if the promise of a new life is worth risking everything . . . including her heart.

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of James, who has returned home as the Duke that he never expected to be. Following the death of both his father and only brother though, he is forced to become responsible for an estate that he didn’t ever think of as his. In order to make sure that his lineage continues, he has to get married and beget an heir, and fast. So he decides to invite 4 eligible ladies over to his country estate and spend time with them to decide which one he should marry. Unfortunately for Lady Dorothea though, who is currently returning from Italy, she won’t be able to attend the competition. That is unless she has a half-sister that could pass for her twin, which oh hey guess she has one of those. Charlene Beckett is Dorothea’s half-sister and agrees to masquerade as Dorothea at the competition in exchange for certain monetary payments. Charlene has her reasons for agreeing to this arrangement, not the least of which is that she wants to arrange for her younger sister to have formal training for her painting talents.
Overall, I liked this book a lot. According to the author website this was her first book and I thought it was really great for a debut novel! It was romantic and sweet and heart-wrenching. It had a Cinderella-like feel to it which I really liked. The characters in this book were all witty and interesting and very funny and I didn’t want to put the book down. I am really looking forward to the next book in the series, If I Only Had a Duke, coming out in late August.

The bottom line: I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and was well-paced and interesting throughout. It was very romantic and somewhat of a Cinderella story, which I loved. I would definitely recommend.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

5Jul2016

2016 Book #66 – The Seer’s Spread by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Posted in Beautiful Creatures, Book reviews, Book series, Young Adult by rebeccabook17

Title: The Seer’s Spread
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Date finished: 7/3/16
Genre: Young adult
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: July 14, 2015
Pages in book: 40
Stand alone or series: Short story in the Beautiful Creatures series
Where I got the book from: Purchased from Amazon

Blurb from the cover:

Fate is a powerful thing…

Ethan Wate is still grieving the loss of his beloved Amma when he receives an unexpected gift–the old, yellow Whitman’s Sampler box that held Amma’s most closely guarded secrets. “One day I might let you have a look under that lid, Ethan Wate,” Amma used to say. “But today isn’t the day.”

Now it’s time for one of her greatest secrets to be revealed. In a long-lost letter, Amma tells Ethan the story of growing up as a young Seer with a remarkable gift for reading cards. But with a power that far-reaching comes responsibility, and Amma has been honoring her mission since before Ethan was born–to protect the Wate family at any cost. So when Lila Jane Evers enters Mitchell Wate’s life, bringing the whole Caster world with her, Amma turns to her cards. This time, it’s a the reading that will define the rest of her life–and Ethan’s.

In this second installment of Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories, #1 New York Times bestselling authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl bring you even deeper into the Caster world.

My rating: 3.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This short story tells the reader how Amma came to be working in Ethan’s household before he was even born. This was a nice addition to the overall Beautiful Creatures story line and added some depth to Amma’s back story. I liked it though it was short and didn’t add too many details. Short and quick read.

The bottom line: I liked this short story though it was very short. I would recommend if you’re a Beautiful Creatures series fan.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

5Jul2016

2016 Book #65 – Once Upon a Moonlit Night by Elizabeth Hoyt and BLOG TOUR

Posted in Blog tour, Book reviews, Book series, Historical Romance, Maiden Lane series by rebeccabook17

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Title: Once Upon a Moonlit Night
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
Date finished: 7/4/16
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Forever Yours
Publication Date: July 5, 2016
Stand alone or series: #10.5 in the Maiden Lane series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE:I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

From New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Hoyt comes a delightful Maiden Lane novella that begins once upon a moonlit night—and ends wickedly, wonderfully ever after . . .
Hippolyta Royle is running for her life. Pursued by hounds on a cold rainy night, the heiress flags down a passing carriage and throws herself at the mercy of the coach’s occupant. Whoever this handsome traveler may be, he is her only hope to escape a terrible fate. But should he agree to escort her to safety, he’s in for much more than he bargained for . . .
At first Matthew Mortimer doesn’t believe Hippolyta’s story, that she’s a fabulously wealthy heiress who’s been kidnapped. He assumes she’s a beggar, an actress, or worse. But once his new travel companion washes the mud from her surprisingly lovely face, and they share a breathtaking kiss, there is no turning back . . .

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

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My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Hippolyta Royle, who we left in book ten of the series fleeing for her life after being kidnapped by the Duke of Montgomery. I’m glad that Hoyt wrote this short story to let the reader know what happened to Ms. Royle, I was deeply concerned for her well-being at the end of the last book. Hippolyta comes across a carriage while she is fleeing for her life, and the owner of said carriage, Matthew Mortimer, agrees to take her to the next town so that she can obtain passage in a mail coach to get back to London. Matthew doesn’t believe that Hippolyta is actually a wealthy heiress on the run from her kidnapper, more likely she is a down on her luck actress looking for some sympathy and a caretaker.
Overall I liked this short story a lot. I was very interested in finding out what had happened to Hippolyta after escaping from the Duke of Montgomery’s clutches. I’m glad that everything worked out for the best even though Montgomery is just a total jerk for kidnapping her in the first place. This was a sweet story and was a good addition to the series most definitely but overall it was a short story and wasn’t overly thrilling or detailed. Good story though and for anyone who likes the Maiden Lane series I would most definitely recommend.

The bottom line: I liked this novella and I thought it was a good addition to the Maiden Lane series. I appreciated learning about the fate of Ms. Royle since that was one of the open ends of book #10 in the series that I wished we had wrapped up. Nothing overly exciting but was a good addition to the series. I would recommend.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

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About the Author:

Elizabeth Hoyt is the New York Times bestselling author of over seventeen lush historical romances including the Maiden Lane series.Publishers Weekly has called her writing “mesmerizing.” She also pens deliciously fun contemporary romances under the name Julia Harper. Elizabeth lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with three untrained dogs, a garden in constant need of weeding, and the long-suffering Mr. Hoyt.

Follow this link to enter to win a SIGNED copy of DUKE OF SIN: http://bit.ly/29dxlnQ

Social Media Links:
www.ElizabethHoyt.com
Twitter @elizabethhoyt
Facebook.com/ElizabethHoytBooks
Add Once Upon a Moonlit Night to your shelf on Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1S30uww

27Jun2016

2016 Book #64 – Beauty and the Highland Beast by Lecia Cornwall

Posted in 2016, Blog tour, Book reviews, Historical Romance, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: Beauty and the Highland Beast
Author: Lecia Cornwall
Date finished: 6/26/16
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Swerve
Publication Date: June 21, 2016
Pages in book: 273
Stand alone or series: #1 in the Highland Fairy Tales series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE:I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Powerful and dangerous highlander Dair Sinclair was once the favored son of his clan, The Sinclairs of Carraig Brigh. With Dair at the helm, Sinclair ships circled the globe bringing home incredible fortune. Until one deadly mission when Dair is captured, tortured and is unable to save his young cousin. He returns home breaking under the weight of his guilt and becomes known as the Madman of Carraig Brigh.
When a pagan healer predicts that only a virgin bride can heal his son’s body and mind, Dair’s father sets off to find the perfect wife for his son. At the castle of the fearsome McLeods, he meets lovely and kind Fia MacLeod.
Although Dair does his best to frighten Fia, she sees the man underneath the damage and uses her charm and special gifts to heal his mind and heart. Will Dair let Fia love him or is he cursed with madness forever?

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. Also, this book will count towards my “PopSugar 2016 Checklist” reading challenge, marking off the “a book based on a fairy tale” since this book is based around the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. This book tells the story of Dair Sinclair and Fia MacLeod. Dair’s father is desperate to save him from the madness that has consumed him since watching his cousin’s brutal murder. When an old midwife prophesizes that a virgin will save Dair, his father goes off in search of one. He finds one, but crippled and scarred Fia is not what anyone expects that Dair needs. As Dair and Fia spend more time together though, Dair does in fact feel himself pulling back from the brink of insanity and instead spending more and more time thinking about this girl his father brought home that he wants nothing to do with.
Overall I really liked this book. I thought the author did a really good job of inciting that mass hysteria mentality within the Sinclair clan. I was definitely scared for Fia’s life at a number of points in the story. This story definitely kept me on my toes, the plot line was fast paced and I was interested throughout the book. The story line was appropriately romantic and also thrilling. What happened to Dair’s cousin was definitely awful and tragic though and I definitely felt sadness throughout the story over the tragic events that led to the story’s beginning. I think this was a really good book though and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, When A Laird Finds A Lass.

The bottom line: I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and was well-paced and interesting throughout. It was scary and thrilling and romantic, pretty much everything you could want from a Highlanders novel. I would definitely recommend.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

16Jun2016

2016 Book #62 – The Girl Who Came Back by Susan Lewis

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Thriller, Women's fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: The Girl Who Came Back
Author: Susan Lewis
Date finished: 6/13/16
Genre: Fiction, suspense
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Pages in book: 400
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE:I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

When Jules Bright hears a knock on the door, the last person she expects to find is a detective bringing her the news she’s feared for the last three years.
Amelia Quentin is being released from prison.
Jules’s life now is very different from the one she knew before Amelia shattered it completely. Knowing the girl is coming back, Jules must decide what to do. Friends and family gather around, fearing for Jules’s safety. They know that justice was never served; each of them wants to make the Quentin girl pay.
The question is: What will Jules do?
And which of them—she or Amelia—has the most to fear?

My rating: 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Jules Bright. When we are first introduced to her there are many subtle hints to the reader that she is still recovering from a traumatic event, though we don’t find out for quite a while into the book what actually happened. This was one of the things that frustrated me as I thought it was a little too far into the story but at the same time this is a good tactic to increase the reader’s tension. After we’re first introduced to Jules, the book alternated between the present day and Jules’ memories of her past that led up to the present point. I have to be honest in that these transitions between memories and present day were not always 100% clear to me and I didn’t always know how much time had passed since the last memory, so it was hard to coordinate a timeline in my head. It was confusing at first but it did seem to get better/easier as the book went on. So anyways, the book is (for the most part) about Jules Bright and her husband, Kian, and their family. Other characters are mentioned early in the book, before the reader is even properly introduced to them, and this also added to the confusion I felt at first. I pieced it together eventually though.
Overall I liked this book ok. It was hard for me to get into the story, I felt like the beginning confused me enough that I almost wanted to give up. But once I got into the meat of the story it was much easier to get through. There is a murder in the book (I won’t tell you who because that would ruin a great plot point) and while it didn’t make me dislike the book, the description of the murder is pretty grisly. Definitely not for the faint of heart! Other than those things I already mentioned, I thought the book was quite good. Once I was about midway through the book, I didn’t want to put it down. And the author was able to evoke a lot of emotion from me, especially anger at Amelia. The ending was left a little bit open in my consideration but I like to think that justice was served. I would recommend this one for summer reading.

The bottom line: This was an ok book for me. It had some points with great amounts of tension but overall this one just wasn’t my favorite. I would still recommend it for summer reading with the warning that it has a grisly murder and is a tad confusing at first.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

11Jun2016

2016 Book #61 – The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Thriller by rebeccabook17

Title: The Girls in the Garden
Author: Lisa Jewell
Date finished: 6/11/16
Genre: Fiction, suspense
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Pages in book: 320
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE:I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Imagine that you live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people’s houses. You’ve known your neighbors for years and you trust them. Implicitly. You think your children are safe. But are they really?
On a midsummer night, as a festive neighborhood party is taking place, preteen Pip discovers her thirteen-year-old sister Grace lying unconscious and bloody in a hidden corner of a lush rose garden. What really happened to her? And who is responsible?
Dark secrets, a devastating mystery, and the games both children and adults play all swirl together in this gripping novel, packed with utterly believable characters and page-turning suspense. Fans of Liane Moriarty and Jojo Moyes will be captivated by The Girls in the Garden, the next unforgettable novel by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell.

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of a number of families living in a complex in Central London, with the complex surrounding a three acre communal park. No one has their own “back yard” all residents share one very large and well groomed garden for a back yard. Clare has just moved into a small apartment with her two daughters, Grace and Pip (whose real name is Lola). Clare is trying to hide from a recent traumatic situation with her husband, the girls’ father. She finds comfort at first in the friendship that comes with sharing the communal back yard. Her girls seem to be adapting well, especially Grace who is spending a lot of time with another set of sisters who live across the way. Once Grace is found unconscious and bloody though, Clare learns about what her daughter has really been doing when she’s not at home and that the other girls are not exactly as innocent as they seem.
Overall I really liked this book. The story line was interesting and I thought the author did a great job with how she made the story flow. The story begins with Pip finding her sister after Grace had been attacked. Then the story back tracks to the six months leading up to the attack and then continues past the attack to what happened after Grace was found. The story was also told from Pip’s point of view as well as Clare’s and Adele’s (the other set of sisters’ mother) with two more points of view added in the last few chapters. The ending didn’t turn out quite as I expected but I really liked the plot and it was a fairly quick, fast-paced read. The author really did a great job with creating tension in the story, the drama and tension was coming off the book in waves and we kept finding out more scandalous tidbits the more the characters delved into the mystery. I think this will be a great read for this summer, I would definitely recommend trying this one!

The bottom line: I found this book very interesting and at the same time slightly disturbing. Not disturbing in a bad way, more in a suspenseful way. The author creates a real world for the reader inside the communal garden and the separate points of view added a lot of different pieces to the story line. I would definitely recommend this one!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

10Jun2016

2016 Book #60 – The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Women's fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: The Wedding Sisters
Author: Jamie Brenner
Date finished: 6/9/16
Genre: Fiction, women’s fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Pages in book: 317
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE:I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Meryl Becker is living a mother’s dream. The oldest of her three beautiful daughters, Meg, is engaged to a wonderful man from one of the country’s most prominent families. Of course, Meryl wants to give Meg the perfect wedding. Who wouldn’t? But when her two younger daughters, Amy and Jo, also become engaged to celebrated bachelors, Meryl has to admit that three weddings is more than she and her husband, Hugh, can realistically afford.
The solution? A triple wedding! At first, it’s a tough sell to the girls, and juggling three sets of future in-laws is a logistical nightmare. But when Hugh loses his teaching job, and Meryl’s aging mother suddenly moves in with them, a triple wedding is the only way to get all three sisters down the aisle. When the grand plan becomes public, the onslaught of media attention adds to Meryl’s mounting pressure. Suddenly, appearances are everything – and she will do whatever it takes to keep the wedding on track as money gets tight, her mother starts acting nutty, and her own thirty year marriage starts to unravel.
In the weeks leading up to the nuptials, secrets are revealed, passions ignite, and surprising revelations show Meryl and her daughters the true meaning of love, marriage and family. Jamie Brenner’s The Wedding Sisters invites readers to the most unpredictable wedding of the year.

My rating: 4.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Meryl Becker, along with her husband and their three daughters: Meg, Amy, and Jo. Hugh has always had a keen interest in Louisa May Alcott, and had even written a book chronicling the life of the author’s mother, which was published when he first met Meryl. Meg Amy, and Jo are all grown up now, and through an interesting series of events all three sisters find themselves engaged within a couple months of each other. And when Hugh loses his job, Meryl realizes the only way they could possibly afford to marry off all three daughters within a year is to have all three weddings at the same time. And thus the idea of a triple wedding was born. And due to the fact that all three daughters are marrying what can only be described as “well-off” men, once the media gets wind of the triple wedding the press circus begins. As the wedding looms closer though, each sister starts to see cracks in their relationships that weren’t there before.
Overall I really enjoyed this book so much. It was tension and drama filled, it was fast-paced and I just didn’t want to put it down. I thought the book really did a great job of examining multiple types of relationships: mother and daughter, husband and wife, sister and (other) sister, and also friendship and new love. It was interesting to hear the sisters three very different stories. And the ending was heart warming and inspiring. There was a lot going on in this book between all the characters’ separate dramas but the author combined the stories flawlessly and I thought the story line flowed very well. I would highly recommend this book, this is one of summer’s must reads!

The bottom line: I immensely enjoyed this book. It was tension and drama filled and kept me interested through the whole story. I also liked the view this book gave on a number of different relationship categories. Very interesting and exciting read, I think this is a great summer read! I would definitely recommend.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

5Jun2016

2016 Book #59 – The Cresswell Plot by Eliza Wass

Posted in 2016, Book reviews, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, Reading Challenges, Young Adult by rebeccabook17

Title: The Cresswell Plot
Author: Eliza Wass
Date finished: 6/5/16
Genre: Young adult
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Pages in book: 272
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE:I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

The woods were insane in the dark, terrifying and magical at the same time. But best of all were the stars, which trumpeted their light into the misty dark.
Castella Cresswell and her five siblings-Hannan, Casper, Mortimer, Delvive, and Jerusalem- know what it’s like to be different. For years, their world has been confined to their ramshackle family home deep in the woods of upstate New York. They abide by the strict rule of God, whose messages come directly from their father.
Slowly, Castley and her siblings start to test the boundaries of the laws that bind them. But, at school, they’re still the freaks they’ve always been to the outside world. Marked by their plain clothing. Unexplained bruising. Utter isolation from their classmates. That is, until Castley is forced to partner with the totally irritating, totally normal George Gray, who offers her a glimpse of a life filled with freedom and choice.
Castley’s world rapidly expands beyond the woods she knows so well and the beliefs she once thought were the only truths. There is a future waiting for her if she can escape her father’s grasp, but Castley refuses to leave her siblings behind. Just as she begins to form a plan, her father makes a chilling announcement: the Cresswells will soon return to their home in heaven. With time running out on all of their lives, Castley must expose the depth of her father’s lies. The forest has buried the truth in darkness for far too long. Castley might be their last hope for salvation.

My rating: 3.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. Also, this book will count towards my Book Riot 2016 Read Harder reading challenge, marking off the “read a book about religion (fiction or nonfiction)” since this book features a family involved in a cult-ish doomsday religion. Castella Cresswell is one of the six children in the Cresswell family. Everyone in town gives the family a wide berth since they are so odd. The patriarch of the Cresswell family has started his own weird religion that is extremely strict and foretells that their family is the only pure one left and therefore they will be the only ones to get into heaven. The more the reader learns about the family though, the more we learn that the patriarch is really just a crazy abusive dad with a short temper. Cass is a junior in high school who makes a new friend in her drama class, and when she starts learning more about who she is as a person and that she wants to have more of what is a normal life, she begins to stand up to her father. Unfortunately, circumstances are not great for the Cresswell family since the mother and father both don’t work, and the father counts on God to provide for the family. When things become bleak, the father decides that it is time for the family to take their rightful place in God’s kingdom, and yes that is as sinister as it sounds.
Overall I thought this was a good idea for a book and I liked the book. I thought that the story line could have been organized a tad bit better and the characters could have been a little better developed but the book itself was dark and thrilling and also a little sad. There was a wealth of emotions in the writing and as a reader I was looking to empathize more with the main character but I couldn’t connect with her enough to feel a lot of emotions towards her. I still think it was an interesting idea for a book though and I would recommend reading it. Although I would add a warning that if you get scared or freaked out easily this may not be something to add to your to read list.

The bottom line: I liked the idea behind this book but I thought it could have been developed a little better. It was a good story but I had trouble connecting with some of the characters. I would still definitely recommend it with a forewarning that it is a little horror-ish.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

3Jun2016

2016 Book #58 – Frayed by Kara Terzis

Posted in 2016, Book reviews, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, Reading Challenges, Young Adult by rebeccabook17

Title: Frayed
Author: Kara Terzis
Date finished: 6/2/16
Genre: Young adult
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Pages in book: 304
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE:I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Dear Kesley,
My therapist tells me I should write you a letter. Like flushing all my thoughts and feelings out of my system and onto paper. I tell her it’s a stupid idea.
But here I am, writing a letter to a dead girl. Where do I start? Where did our story begin? From the moment you were born…or died?
I’ll start with the moment I found out the truth about you. Your lies and my pain. Because it always begins and ends with you.
And that end began when Rafe Lawrence came back to town…
Ava Hale will do anything to find her sister’s killer…although she’ll wish she hadn’t. Because the harder Ava looks, the more secrets she uncovers about Kesley, and the more she begins to think that the girl she called sister was a liar. A sneak. A stranger.
And Kesley’s murderer could be much closer than she thought…
A debut novel from Wattpad award-winner Kara Terzis, Frayed is a psychological whodunit that will keep you guessing!

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. Also, this book will count towards my Book Riot 2016 Read Harder reading challenge, marking off the “read a book with a main character that has a mental illness.” I’m not going to say who because you should read it to find out but one of the main characters in this book is suffering from a mental illness. This book tells the story of Ava Hale, beginning about a month after her sister dies while she tries to figure out who murdered Kelsey. The police have no leads and as Ava starts to delve a little deeper into Kelsey’s life before her death, she discovers that she didn’t know her sister as well as she thought. Kelsey managed to hide a lot of things from her little sister Ava, including the fact that she tried to buy a gun to protect herself. But what exactly was Kelsey scared of? And why didn’t she think she could tell Ava about whatever was scaring her?
Overall I really liked this book. It was intriguing and kept me hooked right up until the end. I honestly didn’t see the ending coming, it was one of those great shocker endings. The ending was a little sad for me because I just felt so bad for Ava. The reader learns a lot about Ava through the book and it seemed like at every turn there was someone else betraying Ava’s trust. It was very sad. Other than that though I liked the book a lot! I don’t want to give too much away with the review so I would tell everyone to go read it for yourselves and find out!

The bottom line: I really liked this book, it was definitely a heart-pounding thriller and it kept me guessing right up until the very end. I just felt so bad for Ava, it seemed like there wasn’t anyone who cared about her enough to have her back and it saddened me a little. Other than that, this was a great thriller and I would definitely recommend it!

Link to author website

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