The It Girl by Ruth Ware

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I was glued to each page to the very end!

Hannah is excited to attend Oxford and discovers she has a rich, spoiled roommate, April. April’s antics are usually thrown on everyone except Hannah, sparing Hannah from April’s devious pranks. One night, Hannah finds April strangled and dead in their dorm room. She’s shocked and doesn’t remember what happens after she finds April. She’s the main witness in April’s murder trial and the only information she has is seeing a college porter going down the stairs by her dorm room. He’s found guilty on that little bit of evidence but insists he’s innocent until the day he dies, even though he remains imprisoned. Hannah begins to doubt that he was guilty and digs into any evidence she can find. She uncovers much more than she bargained for, putting her life and her unborn baby in danger. Love the twist of this mystery thriller and the suspense had me glued to the page, 5 stars!

Summer’s Edge by Dana Mele

Posted on by lynndellwatson

Eerie, odd and interesting!

Emily died last summer in the lake house fire. Emily’s group of friends has spent each summer at the lake house since they were in elementary school. Kennedy and her family owns the lake house. Emily, Ryan, Chase and Chelsea are always invited. This summer, they’re all invited back and Chelsea thinks that Emily is haunting them. Eventually, Ryan shows his dark side and halfway through the book, the point of view changes to Kennedy. She talks about “others”, presences that reside in and around the lake house and they get angry. Next, it changes to Emily’s point of view. Then to Chelsea’s.

This book is eerie and creepy until the point of view change’s midway through the book then it’s odd and I was grasping for understanding of what I was reading. It threw me off but the interesting ending brought it all back together, 4 stars!

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

Posted on by lynndellwatson
Blows my mind with the twists!

Blows my mind with the twists!
Casey finds a person drowning in the lake. It turns out to be her new neighbor, Katherine Joyce. Casey saves Katherine and they quickly become friends. Katherine says she hasn’t been feeling herself lately. Casey finds her deceased husband’s binoculars and while she’s doing her daily routine of drinking liquor, she spies on Katherine and her husband Tom. She notices arguing and suspicious behavior between them. Then the next day, Katherine is no where to be found. Casey immediately suspects Tom. The twists kept me guessing and I couldn’t read the book fast enough! I can’t say much more about the characters or storyline without spoilers. Highly recommended for readers that like suspense and twists, 5 stars!

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall

Posted on by lynndellwatson
An unusual story with twisted ideals!

Helen travels with her mom and stepdad Simon to Harrow; the place where her maternal family has resided for decades. Her grandfather has died and left Harrow and the responsibility of being the master of the manor and the family to Helen. If she doesn’t agree to stay, everyone in the family will lose their entire inheritance. Mystery surrounds the manor and the family. Several girls have disappeared through the years and it seems that Harrow is in the middle of the suspicion. An old journal is found describing the founder of Harrow, Nicholas Vaughn. In the journal are descriptions of poison and separating body parts of victims to control a being known as the Other. Nicholas wanted power and control and he found both by sacrificing girls to this being. Things have gotten out of control and the power is loose. Helen discovers more than she’s ready for and she wants to stop the violence but she’s going to need help. An unusual story about greed and twisted ideals, 4 stars!

The Hacienda by Isabel Canas

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I did not want this book to end!

Beatriz marries Rodolfo. He’s a businessman and owns a large estate. He leaves to do business so Beatriz runs the estate in his absence. Juana, Rodolfo’s sister, believes she’s the one in charge and she treats everyone gruffly. Beatriz starts to feel like she’s being watched and things get creepier from there, to the point that she’s afraid for her life. She asks the local priests for help and all but one shun her. Padre Andres helps her under the guise of being a priest to help the estate workers. He has knowledge from his ancestors that can help exorcise evil. The house has an extremely powerful, angry spirit and it’s harmful. This is an elaborate and beautifully written horror story that I didn’t ever want to put down. I also didn’t want it to end. 5 stars!

Pretend She’s Here by Luanne Rice

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Suspenseful, crazy, thought provoking;
5 stars!

Emily lost her best friend Lizzie and now she’s been kidnapped by Lizzie’s family to be her replacement. Lizzie’s mother has gone insane with grief. She’s tried to turn their younger daughter Chloe into Lizzie but that didn’t work because they’re still missing a child and have an empty seat at the kitchen table. Chloe is used as bait to get Emily to the van and convince her to go for a ride. They drug her and kidnap her. Emily is taken from everything she knows and loves and she sees that Lizzie’s mom is twisted in justifying the kidnapping. Emily’s hair is dyed black and she’s forced to wear contacts the colors of Lizzie’s eyes. Little by little, Emily is allowed tiny freedoms and eventually can attend school, if she agrees to send an email to her parents telling them that she ran away. She only agrees to send the email because her mother’s life is threatened if she doesn’t. Trauma, abuse and manipulation are parts of Emily’s daily life now and to keep her family safe, she agrees to be Lizzie.
Suspenseful, crazy, thought provoking; 5 stars!

The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda

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Appalachian Trail Mystery!

Abby works at the Passage resort that sits next to the beginning of the Appalachian Trail. This resort is known for the disappearance of a group of four men twenty five years ago. Since those four friends went missing, three separate disappearances have happened, two women and a man. The latest disappearance, Landon West, occurred four months ago and his brother Trey just came to stay at The Passage. He wants to search for information about his brother and hopes to find answers. Abby and Trey both end up finding items that belonged to missing people. This makes her suspicious and a little creeped out. The story of the missing fraternity four is interesting and eerie but I would have liked more details of the last three crimes. I do feel that the ending was somewhat rushed. 4 stars!

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

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Morbidly fascinating!

Weird. Psychologically twisted. Wow… This story is a mystery in itself because of the narrators. As I read, I was unsure if I could trust any of the narrators. They all seem unreliable in some way. Ted, the man with extremely odd behavior and lifestyle, Olivia, Ted’s cat, and Dee, a woman who moved into Ted’s neighborhood who’s secretly looking for her younger sister that’s been missing for years. Ted supposedly has a daughter, Lauren. It’s difficult to decipher her age and maturity. Also, it seems that Ted’s mother handicapped Lauren so she’s unable to walk. It took me a few chapters to get into the story but then I needed to finish it to figure it all out. By the time, I read the entire book, I was fascinated, albeit a bit morbidly. I completely appreciate the author’s notes at the end of the book, explaining everything and making sense of it all and her spoiler alert at the beginning of her notes. So, don’t read her notes until after you’ve finished reading the book. She shares her research also, which is impressive! I want to read more of Catriona Ward’s books now. She wrote an intricate and complicated story, The Last House on Needless Street, showing the fragility and capabilities we all have within us. 5 stars!

The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur

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Love the historical aspects of this story!

A young woman disguises herself as a man to look for her missing father. She visits the sister she hasn’t seen in five years and there’s still much animosity between them. The sisters have a history in the forest. When they were younger, they were lost and then found unconscious in the midst of a crime scene. Now the sisters work together to find out what’s happened to their father after he went searching for thirteen missing girls in the forest. The mystery surrounding the missing girls and their father twists and turns until the sordid truth is unraveled. Based on the forced sacrifices of young women of Korea around the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the historical aspects are the most fascinating parts of the story and the danger builds suspense. 3.5 stars!

As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson

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Intense to the very end!

This is the best book of the series! Action packed and suspenseful enough to keep the stress level high! The author made me feel everything that Pip went through, physically and emotionally. Pip’s stubbornness exasperated me at times but her intelligence knows no bounds and makes her stubborn because she can analyze situations and outcomes that others might not see. The mysteries come full circle with intensity and full force. I don’t want to spoil the story but if you like mysteries then this series is a must-read, 5 stars!