Search This Blog

2025 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


27 / 30 books. 90% done!

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


43 / 50 books. 86% done!

2025 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama (1)
- Alaska (2)
- Arizona (2)
- Arkansas (1)
- California (8)
- Colorado (3)
- Connecticut (1)
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (2)
- Georgia (1)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho (1)
- Illinois (1)
- Indiana (1)
- Iowa (3)
- Kansas (1)
- Kentucky (1)
- Louisiana (1)
- Maine (4)
- Maryland (1)
- Massachusetts (1)
- Michigan (2)
- Minnesota (2)
- Mississippi (1)
- Missouri (1)
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska (1)
- Nevada (1)
- New Hampshire (1)
- New Jersey (1)
- New Mexico (1)
- New York (8)
- North Carolina (4)
- North Dakota (1)
- Ohio (1)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Oregon (3)
- Pennsylvania (2)
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina (1)
- South Dakota (1)
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (1)
- Utah (1)
- Vermont (3)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (3)
- West Virginia (1)
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming (1)
- Washington, D.C.* (1)

International:
- Australia (4)
- Canada (3)
- England (15)
- France (2)
- Greece (1)
- Italy (1)
- Japan (1)
- Norway (1)
- Puerto Rico (1)
- Scotland (2)
- Vietnam (1)

My Progress:


51 / 51 states. 100% done!

2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


30 / 50 books. 60% done!

2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

My Progress:


36 / 50 books. 72% done!

Booklist Queen's 2025 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


40 / 52 books. 77% done!

2025 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


41 / 52 books. 79% done!

2025 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


29 / 40 books. 73% done!

2025 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


37 / 51 cozies. 73% done!

2025 Medical Examiner Mystery Reading Challenge

2025 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

My Progress


26 / 26.2 miles. 99% done!

2025 Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


31 / 100 books. 31% done!

2025 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

My Progress:


68 / 109 books. 62% done!

2025 Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


56 / 62 books. 90% done!

Phase Out Your Seriesathon - My Progress


23 / 55 books. 42% done!

The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge

My Progress:


97 / 100 names. 97% done!

The Life Skills Reading Challenge

My Progress:


72 / 80 skills. 90% done!
Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Winning Bolton Formula Makes Gritty Psychological Thriller A Gripping Page Turner

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note:  While this review will not contain spoilers for Dead Scared, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from its predecessor, Now You See Me.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.  Actually, the best way to read S.J. [Sharon] Bolton's books is in order of publication—that way you can avoid spoilers concerning all characters, especially minor but recurring ones.)

A string of gruesome suicides at Cambridge University has everyone on edge.  Evi Oliver (whose back story is told in Blood Harvest), the head of student counseling, thinks there's more to the story, especially since the dead women all complained of similar problems—disturbing nightmares, terrifying hallucinations, crippling insomnia, etc—prior to their deaths.  This "coincidence" has all her Spidey senses on alert.  Something strange is going on at the university and she wants to know what.  Luckily, Dr. Oliver has friends in high places.  

Not entirely convinced that anything sinister is going on, Detective Inspector Mark Josebury is nevertheless tasked with finding answers.  The only way to do that, he knows, is to send in an undercover agent.  Unfortunately, Detective Constable Lacey Flint is perfect for the job.  Not only does she look younger than her 27 years, but she's as scarred and vulnerable as the students who allegedly ended their own lives.  If someone is indeed luring susceptible women to their deaths, that someone should find Lacey Flint especially alluring.  Joesbury has more than a passing interest in Lacey's welfare; despite his reluctance, he gives her the job.

Lacey moves into a room recently vacated by a first-year medical student who tried to commit suicide by lighting herself on fire.  As she makes discreet inquiries around campus, the detective finds herself plagued by the same issues the dead women experienced.  Is it just the stress of the investigation getting to her?  Or has Lacey become the target of someone's cruel jokes?  Is she the next victim of a sadistic killer or does her enemy exist only in the murky depths of her tortured mind?  How can Lacey find answers for Joesbury when she doesn't even know what's going on in her own head?

I fell in love with the vulnerable but tough-as-nails Lacey Flint when I first met her in Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton.  She's a complex heroine, a woman who is full of surprises—and secrets.  This makes her endlessly fascinating to me.  I would probably read any story that featured such a rich, compelling lead character, but Bolton is an author who knows how to deliver on multiple levels.  Like Now You See Me, Dead Scared combines an intriguing cast with a didn't-see-that-coming plotline that unfolds with unrelenting tension to create the kind of mesmerizing, mind-twisting page turner that is literally impossible to put down.  Although I've come to expect this winning combination from Bolton, I'm still taken by surprise at how thoroughly she hooks me with this formula.  Every.  Single.  Time.  Dead Scared is grim and gritty, to be sure.  It's also gripping.  So much so that once you start the book, you won't be able to stop.  Consider yourself warned.

(Readalikes:  Other books in the Lacey Flint series, including Now You See Me; If Snow Hadn't Fallen; Lost; A Dark and Twisted Tide; and Here Be Dragons)

Grade:


If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for language (a dozen or so F-bombs, plus milder expletives), violence, blood/gore, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find
Thursday, August 11, 2016

Treasure-Hunting Mystery/Romance Intrigues But Doesn't Satisfy

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Liv Connelly has always been fascinated by the story of the Patriot, a schooner that vanished without a trace off the Carolina coast in 1813.  No one knows what befell those aboard the missing vessel. Liv's especially curious about the fate of the ship's most famous passenger, Theodosia Burr Alston, the beloved 29-year-old daughter of Aaron Burr.  What happened to "Theo"?  Did she drown in stormy waters?  Was she taken captive by greedy pirates?  Theories abound.  Liv wants the truth.  Although crippling asthma and a paranoid, anxiety-ridden father keep her grounded, she longs to comb the ocean floor for clues, to solve the mystery for herself.

Her obsession with shipwrecks leads Liv to two men, both graduate students in marine archaeology.  Whit Crosby and Sam Felder couldn't be more different—the former is spontaneous, unpredictable; the latter calm and controlled.  The friendship between the three is exciting but rocky.  

Thirteen years after they all meet, Liv is married to Whit; the couple has been estranged from Sam for years.  That all changes when they need his help on a dive.  Sam's return brings a tornado of emotions for Liv.  Sam's obviously looking for a second chance, not just with Liv but at fulfilling their shared dream of finding the Patriot.  With her business in the red and her marriage on the rocks, it's time for Liv to finally decide what—and who—she really wants.

It's difficult not to be intrigued by the mystery at the heart of The Last Treasure by Erika Marks.  I'd never heard of the Patriot before picking up the novel, but now I, too, wonder what happened to Theodosia and her fellow passengers.  It's a puzzle, the possible solutions of which kept me reading this book despite not feeling overly connected to its players.  I'm not fond of love triangles to begin with—I especially dislike them when those involved are fickle, selfish, and just not all that likable, a description which fits Whit, Liv, and Sam.  This, coupled with a loosey-goosey plot that focused more on romance than mystery, made The Last Treasure a bit of a disappointment for me.  I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did.  Oh well.

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't really think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:



 If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for language (a few F-bombs plus milder expletives) and sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of The Last Treasure from the generous folks at Penguin.  Thank you!
Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Simple Yet Compelling Novella Fulfills Its Purpose and Entertains at the Same Time

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note:  Although this review will not contain spoilers for The Hangman, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from earlier Armand Gamache mysteries.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

"'There's a killer in every village.  In every home.  In every heart,' Gamache said.  'All anyone needs is the right reason.'"

Three Pines is a peaceful hamlet hidden in the countryside between Quebec and the U.S. border.  It's a place where friends meet in the cozy bistro, out-of-towners relax at the spa on the hill, and broken people from all over the globe come to mend.  Violence seems incongruous with the town's warmth and beauty.  And yet, the village has become a magnet for murder.  Just ask Armand Gamache, Chief Inspector of the Sûrete du Québec—Three Pines has practically become his second home.

The head of homicide is summoned to town once again when a jogger discovers a body hanging from a tree in the woods.  Although the dead man was staying at the spa, he was doing so under an assumed name.  Who was this "Arthur Ellis"?  What was he doing in Three Pines?  Did he come to the village to commit suicide or was he murdered?  Armand Gamache will soon find out.

Although The Hangman features Louise Penny's iconic detective, the author says the novella isn't really part of the Armand Gamache series.  Written as part of a literacy campaign to supply emergent adult readers with material suitable to their reading level, the story is, according to Penny, "Very clear, very simple.  Not really the most complex plot or style, for obvious reasons."  By publication date (2010), the novella fits in between Bury Your Dead and A Trick of the Light.  Despite its shorter, simpler form, I found The Hangman both compelling and surprising.  Naturally, it lacks the fullness of a longer Gamache mystery, which made it a less pleasurable (for me, anyway) read than Penny's thicker tomes.  Still, I appreciate that The Hangman achieves the purpose for which it was created.  I'm not an emergent reader, but I still enjoyed the read. 

(Readalikes:  Other books in the Armand Gamache series, including Still Life; A Fatal Grace; The Cruelest Month; A Rule Against Murder; The Brutal Telling; Bury Your Dead; A Trick of the Light; The Beautiful Mystery; How the Light Gets In; The Long Way Home; The Nature of the Beast; and A Great Reckoning)

Grade: 


If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for language (no F-bombs) and violence

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of The Hangman from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.)
Saturday, August 06, 2016

Quick, Timely Read Another Winner for Bolton

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note:  Although this review will not contain spoilers for If Snow Hadn't Fallen, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from its predecessor, Now You See Me.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

It's only been a few weeks since Lacey Flint did battle with a Jack the Ripper copycat killer.  Emotionally and physically spent from the ordeal, the 29-year-old detective constable has been ordered to rest up in her South London flat.  Off-duty though she is supposed to be, Lacey can't ignore a call for back-up that comes over the police scanner.  She rushes to the scene just in time to witness a Muslim man being burned to death.

The horrific murder of Aamir Chowdhury—a very private 29-year-old doctor—shocks Lacey to her core.  She can't un-see the flames that consumed his body.  Vowing to find Aamir's killer no matter the cost, she flings herself into solving the baffling case.  Twists abound in the investigation, leading Lacey down more sinister paths than she could ever imagine.

If Snow Hadn't Fallen by Sharon Bolton is a novella that fits neatly between Now You See Me and Dead Scared, the first two books in the author's riveting Lacey Flint series.  Like the other installments, it's an exciting read with a surprise ending.  The problem at the story's core is both timely and compelling making If Snow Hadn't Fallen even more impacting.  The shorter format ensures a quick read, which will definitely appeal to Lacey Flint fans who want a juicy tidbit to snack on between bigger "meals."  If you're a fan of this dark, twisty series (as I definitely am), you won't want to miss If Snow Hadn't Fallen.

(Readalikes:  Other books in the Lacey Flint series, including Now You See Me; Dead Scared; Lost; A Dark and Twisted Tide; and Here Be Dragons [novella])

Grade:


If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for language (two F-bombs) and violence

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of If Snow Hadn't Fallen from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha. 
Blog Widget by LinkWithin


Reading

<i>Reading</i>
The Haunting of Emily Grace by Elena Taylor

Listening

<i>Listening</i>
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman



Followin' with Bloglovin'

Follow

Followin' with Feedly

follow us in feedly



Grab my Button!


Blog Design by:


Blog Archive



2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge

2025 Reading Challenge

2025 Reading Challenge
Susan has read 0 books toward her goal of 215 books.
hide

2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction

2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction

2023 - Middle Grade Fiction

2023 - Middle Grade Fiction

2022 - Middle Grade Fiction

2022 - Middle Grade Fiction

2021 - Middle Grade Fiction

2021 - Middle Grade Fiction

2020 - Middle Grade Fiction

2020 - Middle Grade Fiction