Goodreads|Amazon|Author Website
Release date: July 11, 2017

Publisher: Berkley 

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Blurb:

In the breathtaking new thriller from David Bell, bestselling author of Since She Went Away and Somebody I Used to Know, the fate of two missing teenage girls becomes a father’s worst nightmare…. 

Just a year and a half after the tragic death of his wife, Bill Price’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Summer, and her best friend, Haley, disappear. Days later, the girls are found in a city park. Haley is dead at the scene, while Summer is left beaten beyond recognition and clinging to life.

As Bill holds vigil over Summer’s bandaged body, the only sound the unconscious girl can make is one cryptic and chilling word: No. And the more time Bill spends with Summer, the more he wonders what happened to her. Or if the injured girl in the hospital bed is really his daughter at all.

When troubling new questions about Summer’s life surface, Bill is not prepared for the aftershocks. He’ll soon discover that both the living and the dead have secrets. And that searching for the truth will tear open old wounds that pierce straight to the heart of his family…

Review: 

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a special blog tour to celebrate Bell’s newest release, if you missed it here’s my review of  The Forgotten Girl. I’m a huge fan of his novels and BHH is hands down my new favorite! It was shocking, compelling and ultimately a satisfying read. 

Bill is an average man, a father still grieving after the sudden loss of his wife when the unthinkable happens and his teenaged daughter, Summer goes missing. This was unique in that it begins after she was already missing for a few days and wasn’t told from the POV of a police officer, it’s told from Bill himself. Beyond that, I don’t want to discuss the plot because it was full of twists and turns that were shocking. 

This was straightforward storytelling with no alternating timelines or various points of view and I didn’t realize how much I missed books being told this way until I picked this up. It was really nice to read something told in a basic linear matter with no extraneous devices used. The pacing was really fast and the writing style was so fluid and polished, Bell is a truly gifted writer. 

I spoke of the twists earlier, but I want to point out again how blown away I was by the way they were executed. There was a subtlety to them and they were wholly believable. You know how oftentimes you have to suspend disbelief when you’re reading a thriller? There isn’t any of that here, scenarios are realistic and so are the characters Bell crafts. Bill broke my heart he was so raw and vulnerable, he was really relatable and I connected with him instantly. 

If you haven’t read a Bell novel before, start here. I think it’s his best work so far and it was such an engrossing tale, definitely going on my list of top reads of the year.

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy. 

Goodreads|Amazon|Author Website
Release date: July 11, 2017

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Genre: Women’s Fiction 

Blurb: 

Sunshine Mackenzie has it all…until her secrets come to light.

Sunshine Mackenzie is living the dream—she’s a culinary star with millions of fans, a line of #1 bestselling cookbooks, and a devoted husband happy to support her every endeavor.

And then she gets hacked.

When Sunshine’s secrets are revealed, her fall from grace is catastrophic. She loses the husband, her show, the fans, and her apartment. She’s forced to return to the childhood home—and the estranged sister—she’s tried hard to forget. But what Sunshine does amid the ashes of her own destruction may well save her life.

In a world where celebrity is a careful construct, Hello, Sunshine is a compelling, funny, and evocative novel about what it means to live an authentic life in an inauthentic age. 

Review: 

I have another book to add to your vacation reading list, this would be absolutely perfect as it’s light, but has plenty of drama, a juicy scandal and a heroine who is perfectly flawed and wholly relatable. 

Sunshine has the type of life people only dream of, she has a huge following across social media, a best selling series of cookbooks, an amazing husband and a dream apartment in NYC. It’s a total dream, especially as she can’t cook, like at all and the whole empire she’s crafted? Faker than a three dollar bill. The premise for this hooked me as the whole idea of the social media age we’re currently living in just fascinates me. We all follow people who seem to have the perfect life, but how can we really know that their lives are so fantastic based on some pictures and heavily edited videos? Sunshine herself probably shouldn’t have been very likable, but I really did enjoy her. She’s finally at a point in her career where she’s forced to be honest and I found her candidness refreshing. 

This was a timely read as the entire world has never been more obsessed with social media and the stars born from it than it is today. We are a culture consumed by it and the social commentary Dave makes on this subject through Sunshine’s downfall was surprisingly insightful for such a lighthearted read. It wasn’t in your face or obnoxious, just gives you something to ponder. It was also really witty and endearing and a total one sitting type of read as it comes in at under 250 pages. Ultimately it is a story of redemption but not in a contrived, cheesy way, nothing is wrapped up neatly in the end and doing this felt very genuine, I appreciated that. 

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy. 

Goodreads|Amazon|Author Website
Release date: July 11, 2017

Publisher: Dutton Books

Genre: Thriller

Blurb: 

Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media’s attempts, they never meet.

Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past. 

That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy’s doorstep. Blowing through Quincy’s life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa’s death come to light, Quincy’s life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam’s truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished. 

Review: 

Final Girls first came onto my radar last year, I saw someone talking about it on Twitter and when I read the blurb, I was so intrigued! Since then, I’ve seen this book everywhere on social media, it’s getting all of the hype. That always slightly concerns me, I wonder if the hype will be justified or just a major letdown? Let me tell you, the hype is deserved, dare I say this will be THE thriller of the summer?! It really should be. 

Quincy is a final girl, along with Sam and Lisa, but what is a final girl? It’s a nickname for the last girls standing in a slasher film and the press dubbed the girls with the ubiquitous title because all three survived  horrifying massacres. For some reason, before I started this, I thought they were survivors of the same killer, but that’s not it, they all managed to escape from three separate spree killers. I really liked that they were only connected by being survivors, their three ordeals were all chilling and absolutely frightening. 

This is told from Quincy’s viewpoint in the present day and there are also sections set in Pine Cottage where her horror show occurred. The pace is steady until you get closer to the end as you really start to learn about what happened at PC. I loved those parts, the setting was eerily atmospheric and so creepy, exactly like a horror movie. This book toes the line and almost crosses over into the horror genre, especially in these parts because the scenes are so dark, disturbing and gory. 

There are tons of diversions throughout the book, it’s a constant guessing game that you can’t quite ever figure out. It’s so twisty and spooky, certain scenes gave me chills up and down my spine. All of the characters behave in a way that makes you question their motivations, no one is trustworthy, making this one all the more fun to try and figure out. It was such a compelling, thrilling read, again I’m calling it the book of the summer, don’t miss out on this one! 

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy. 

Goodreads|Amazon
Release date: July 11, 2017

Publisher: Scribner

Genre: Psychological thriller

Blurb: 

In the bestselling tradition of The Girl on the Train and In a Dark, Dark Wood, from the internationally bestselling author whom Stephen King called “an absolute master” of the psychological thriller, comes a riveting suspense novel about the unlikely friendship between two pregnant women that asks: how far would you go to create the perfect family?

Agatha is pregnant and works part-time stocking shelves at a grocery store in a ritzy London suburb, counting down the days until her baby is due. As the hours of her shifts creep by in increasing discomfort, the one thing she looks forward to at work is catching a glimpse of Meghan, the effortlessly chic customer whose elegant lifestyle dazzles her. Meghan has it all: two perfect children, a handsome husband, a happy marriage, a stylish group of friends, and she writes perfectly droll confessional posts on her popular parenting blog—posts that Agatha reads with devotion each night as she waits for her absent boyfriend, the father of her baby, to maybe return her calls.

When Agatha learns that Meghan is pregnant again, and that their due dates fall within the same month, she finally musters up the courage to speak to her, thrilled that they now have the ordeal of childbearing in common. Little does Meghan know that the mundane exchange she has with a grocery store employee during a hurried afternoon shopping trip is about to change the course of her not-so-perfect life forever…

With its brilliant rendering of the secrets some women hold close and a shocking act that cannot be undone, The Secrets She Keeps delivers a dark and twisted page-turner that is absolutely impossible to put down. 

Review: 

Told alternately from the viewpoint of Meg and Agatha, this brilliant thriller had me gripped tightly in its clutches from the very first chapter. Meg is one of those women, who on the surface, seems to have an utterly perfect life. She’s married to a handsome man named Jack and has two lovely children and a third on the way. Agatha is also pregnant, but her life isn’t quite as charmed as Meg’s. As the details of their lives and the secrets they’re both keeping are slowly and methodically revealed, it’s very clear that danger is lurking and dark secrets and betrayals are underfoot. 

This book is aptly titled as the secrets these women are keeping are powerful and shocking. It was a constant barrage of revelations and gasp worthy moments and the author masterfully and carefully shared them, at just the right time. It’s divided into two parts and the first half really sets the stage for what’s ahead. There is a lot of character development and buildup, then when part two begins, things get super tense. You couldn’t have pried my Kindle from my hands for all the money in the world, I was that gripped. 

I’m keeping this on the shorter side because the plot is so intricate and beautifully crafted that me speaking to it anymore wouldn’t do it any justice. If you are a fan of this genre this a definite must read. It was a highly addictive, perfectly paced, compelling read that I absolutely loved! And now I’ll be busy buying all the books in Robotham’s back catalogue…

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy. 

Goodreads|Amazon|Author Website
Release date: June 27, 2017

Publisher: Berkley 

Genre: Psychological Thriller 

Blurb: 

As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers a tiny skeleton, buried for years. For journalist Kate Waters, it’s a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper, but at a loss for answers, she can only pose a question: Who is the Building Site Baby?

As Kate investigates, she unearths connections to a crime that rocked the city decades earlier: A newborn baby was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and was never found. Her heartbroken parents were left devastated by the loss.

But there is more to the story, and Kate is drawn—house by house—into the pasts of the people who once lived in this neighborhood that has given up its greatest mystery. And she soon finds herself the keeper of unexpected secrets that erupt in the lives of three women—and torn between what she can and cannot tell… 

Review: 

I may be the only mystery/thriller reader left on the planet who still hasn’t read Barton’s debut, The Widow. It’s been sitting on my nightstand for almost a year and I just haven’t had time to squeeze it in yet. I know that one received some mixed reviews, but that only piques my interest more and makes me want to read it for myself and form my own opinions. I think that this book will get similar reviews as well since my own feelings seem to be all over the place. 

I love the premise of this, cold cases always grab my attention in books and this was no exception. Kate is a reporter and I like this type of POV as constantly reading from a police officers perspective can get a bit tedious. Besides her viewpoint, you also hear from Emma, Jude and Angela. Emma and Jude are a mother and daughter with a strained relationship and Angela is a woman who’s newborn baby was kidnapped from the hospital back in the seventies.

 Multiple viewpoints are a device that always works well for me and it was well executed here. The chapters are really short and snappy so the POV switches quickly and often, but the overall pacing was sedate. This unusual combination actually worked rather well for me oddly enough. This was heavily character driven as you slowly learn about each woman’s past and what connects them all presently. 

I have to admit that I did guess the big plot twist before it was revealed which is always a little disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, it was very well played, I think I just made a lucky guess that turned out to be correct. Barton is a gifted writer and there was something really addictive about this read, I just wish I hadn’t figured out the twist as early as I did, but overall this was an entertaining read that kept my attention throughout. 

Overall rating: 3/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.