Tag: Thriller

Book Review: The Shape of Night

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Tess Gerritsen is one of my favorite authors. My love for her started with Rizzoli & Isles and now I’ll pretty much read just about anything she writes. So when Netgalley offered me the opportunity to read her standalone (thriller/mystery/ghost story/ghost sex story?) I jumped at the chance. Without knowing much about it except:

“After an unspeakable tragedy in Boston, Ava Collette flees to a remote village in Maine, where she rents an old house named Brodie’s Watch.

In that isolated seaside mansion, Ava finally feels at peace . . . until she glimpses the long-dead sea captain who still resides there.

Rumor has it that Captain Jeremiah Brodie has haunted the house for more than a century. One night, Ava confronts the apparition, who feels all too real, and who welcomes her into his world—and into his arms. Even as Ava questions her own sanity, she eagerly looks forward to the captain’s ghostly visits. But she soon learns that the house she loves comes with a terrible secret, a secret that those in the village don’t want to reveal: Every woman who has ever lived in Brodie’s Watch has also died there. Is the ghost of Captain Brodie responsible, or is a flesh-and-blood killer at work? A killer who is even now circling closer to Ava?”

Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to read that? Apparently, I shouldn’t have. When I checked Goodreads the vast majority of the reviewers LOVED it.  I wanted to. I so badly wanted to love and appreciate this book if for no other reason than I too am a writer compelled to write in different genres. This book, however, is a hot mess and no matter how hard I try I just can’t make myself finish it.

I love reading too much to spend my Sunday yelling at a character “You in danger girl!” in my Whoopi Goldberg voice to make myself finish this book.

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2 Stars because Tess Gerritsen is an amazing writer, her descriptions make you see, smell, taste, and feel whatever she is attempting to portray on the page. This book just didn’t do it for me personally.

Read if you like genre-bending books and have ever fantasized about fucking a ghost. 43808355.jpg

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley. 

Book Review: We Were Killers Once

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What I Liked:

Bridget Quin is a female private investigator, she’s middle-aged, ex-FBI, they describe her as small but mighty and no one’s fool.

The story is based on Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, which is based on actual events. There have always been rumors that there was a third person present at those murders and that there were additional victims in FL. This novel is a what-if of those murders, well researched and the premise is plausible.

Once the story gets going it has great pacing and some very interesting characters. 

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What I didn’t like:

The connections seem to come out of thin air and only hold up if you don’t think about them for too long while twisting your head to the side, looking over your glasses and squinting.

Also, Why would the Bridget Quin character care so much about her new husband’s deceased ex-wife? This feels believable and dumb. I know we want flawed characters but it annoys me when strong women waste their time and emotions on things that don’t matter.

Someone gets out of jail after so many years and decides to go and hunt down something that likely wouldn’t be found and implicate them unless they go and hunt it down.

I gave this one 3 Stars.

Read if you like badass women who take names, kick butt, and ask questions later.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley.  

Grist Mill Road: A Wild Ass Ride

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Christoper Yates’ Grist Mill Road is a weirdly entertaining wild ass ride. Every time you think to yourself, “this story can’t get any crazier” or “these people can’t get any weirder” Yates unveils another level of hurt, betrayal, misunderstanding, violence and resentment.

In 1982 a group of friends suffer a traumatic ordeal where one of them is seriously injured by another one. In 2008 we meet this fractured group of friends again living their own lives under the shadow of what happened all  of those years ago. Why did it happen? What actually happened? Who was really there? And what’s next?

The story jumps back and forth from 1982 to 2008 giving us background and telling us their version of the story in the three character’s, Patrick, Hannah, and Matthew, voices. Sometimes this method of story telling can be a little dizzying but Yates weaves the story together magically.

I felt like I was on a rollercoaster ride the entire time and give the story 4 Stars.

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*I was given an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*