Category: Review Sunday

TITLE: A Mother’s Lie
CHARACTERS: Beth & Dana
AUTHOR: Sarah Zettel
PUBLICATION DATE: 04/07/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
A compulsive family drama about a mother’s desperate search to reclaim her daughter from the horrors of her own past, perfect for fans of Then She Was Gone.
Beth Fraser finally has her life together. She’s built a successful career in the tech sector, has a bright fifteen-year-old daughter, and she’s completely erased all evidence of her troubled past. At least that’s what she thought.
Dana Fraser always wondered why she’s the only kid with two backup phones, emergency drills, and a non-negotiable check-in time every single day. When a stranger approaches her on the street claiming to be her grandmother, Dana starts to question what else her mother has been hiding.
Soon Beth’s worst nightmare is coming true: Dana is in grave danger, and unless Beth is willing to pull one last con job for her parents, she may never see her daughter again.

REVIEW:
This book was hard to decide on a rating so I went right down the middle. The story was interesting and I liked that the memories of Beth’s life wasn’t told in a matter of a few pages and those few pages affected her whole life. There is a slow unwind of Beth’s past which helps the reader understand why Beth is the way she is.

Now there is Dana who has no idea why her mother is the way she is and honestly I felt for Dana. Her mom is nuts in her opinion and would have long ago sent me out into my own world without my mother in it.

The story had me interested in the past but the end left me a bit bereft. It seemed so rushed.

A hard book to like but I didn’t dislike it. Does that make sense?

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

TITLE: Have You Seen Me?
CHARACTERS: Ally Linden
AUTHOR: Kate White
PUBLICATION DATE: 04/28/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
From New York Times bestselling author Kate White comes a gripping novel about one woman’s dangerous quest to recover lost memories someone would rather she never find.

The key to her missing memories could bring relief—or unlock her worst nightmares.

On a cold, rainy morning, finance journalist Ally Linden arrives early to work in her Manhattan office, only to find that she’s forgotten her keycard and needs to have a colleague she’s never met let her in. When her boss finally arrives, he seems surprised to see her—because she hasn’t worked there in five years.

Ally knows her name, but little else, and it’s only after several hours in an emergency room and multiple interviews with the hospital psychiatrist that she begins to piece together important facts: she lives on the Upper West Side; she’s now a freelance personal finance journalist; she’s married to a lovely man named Hugh. But she still can’t recall what happened to her during the previous two days. When she learns that she’s experienced a dissociative fugue state, Ally tries to think of triggers and remembers that she’d been seeing a therapist about a traumatic event from her childhood, in which she came across evidence for a murder that was never solved.

Desperate to unearth answers, Ally focuses on figuring out where she spent the missing forty-eight hours. As ominous details of the two days pile up, so does the terrifying pressure: she must recover the time she lost before the time she has left runs out.

Featuring Kate White’s signature twists and turns, Have You Seen Me? is a harrowing read that will keep readers guessing until its shocking ending.

REVIEW:
2.75 Hearts I will be honest, I didn’t get it. I thought that the story was ok and thought I had it figured out. And I did figure out the who-dun-it but the why-do-it was so out of the blue that it just didn’t make sense.

I have read other books by White and remember enjoying them but it almost felt that White wanted to make sure you didn’t figure it out so much that the answer wasn’t just outside the box it wasn’t even in the delivery van.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

TITLE: Little Whispers
CHARACTERS: Janey & Tanya
AUTHOR: K.L. Slater
PUBLICATION DATE: 05/21/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
You shared a secret with the wrong person.

Janey Markham is thrilled to be moving with her family to Buckingham Crescent, the smartest address in a desirable suburban town.

Worried she’ll be excluded by the glossy local mothers, Janey is thrilled when she meets Tanya, the kind of woman she has always looked up to. Tanya takes Janey under her wing, and her teenage daughter Angel is amazing with Janey’s little boy. As Janey and Tanya grow closer, Janey feels she can finally leave her troubled past behind.

But then everything changes…

In a weak moment over a bottle of wine, Janey finds herself telling Tanya her most shocking secret. Why wouldn’t she trust her new friend?

The following day, Janey sees Angel, with a man old enough to be her father, pushing someone into a car. The next day a body is found and police appeal for witnesses – and share a picture of the same car…

When Janey tells Tanya she is going to the police, Tanya turns threatening. She’ll stop at nothing to defend Angel, even if her daughter is guilty. If Janey says anything, Tanya will make sure that her dark secret gets out.

Janey faces an impossible choice. Stay quiet about what she saw that terrible day. Or speak up, and destroy the family she has worked so hard to protect…

REVIEW:
Trust is a difficult thing and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Janey has been taking care of her mother and on her death bed she tells Janey a horrific secret. But soon Janey and her hubby are moving to a better address where she can relax after taking care of her mother for so long. Janey soon meets Tanya and they become fast friends… or are they? When Janey tells the secret to Tanya she realizes she has made a mistake. Because of all the people she trusted Tanya should not have been one.

I will say that I thought this book was a bit slow. It just spent a bit too much time before the move but once the move happened and Janey was in the new neighborhood the story picked up.

I liked that we didn’t know the secret throughout the book. We were guessing and trying to figure it out while reading.

I can’t recall reading other books but Slater but this will not be my last one.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

TITLE: Little Girl Tell Tales
CHARACTERS: Rosalie & Dallin
AUTHOR: Rachel Bennett
PUBLICATION DATE: 05/29/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Some of the boggy ponds were so deep that if a girl stepped into one it would swallow her forever…

2004: Rosalie is walking through the wild wetland behind her mother’s home on the isolated Isle of Man when she stumbles across a body. Having strayed from the path and lost her brother, Dallin, it’s hours before she’s discovered, shaken and exhausted. With a reputation for telling stories, not many believe the little girl’s tale of the body in the marsh.

2019: Dallin, estranged from his family, returns unannounced with a woman named Cora by his side. Cora’s sister went missing fifteen years ago and she believes Rosalie was the one who found her. As dangerous secrets are unearthed, Cora and Rosalie start asking questions about a girl who some would rather keep buried…

REVIEW:
Rosalie gets lost as a little girl and finds a skeleton. Once she is home she tells about the skeleton but nothing is found after a search of the area.

Now Rosalie is an adult and has become a loner. She doesn’t want anyone in her life after losing the love of her life. But enter Dallin, her estranged brother, and his girlfriend who believes Rosalie’s story of the skeleton and wonder if it may be Cora’s sister. And who put the skeleton there all those years ago and what will they do to keep the skeleton hidden?

This was an easy read. Didn’t keep the pages turning for me but was interesting. I never really connected to the characters, especially Rosalie. But a story that is interesting.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

TITLE: What You Don’t See
SERIES #: Cass Raines #3
CHARACTERS: Cass & Ben
AUTHOR: Tracy Clark
PUBLICATION DATE: 05/26/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Former cop Cass Raines knows the streets of Chicago all too well. Now she’s a private investigator and getting an exclusive glimpse into how the other half lives–and how they die . . .

Wealth. Power. Celebrity. Vonda Allen’s glossy vanity magazine has taken the Windy City by storm, and she’s well on her way to building a one-woman media empire. Everybody adores her. Except the people who work for her. And the person who’s sending her flowers with death threats . . .

As Vonda’s bodyguard, off-duty cop Ben Mickerson knows he could use some back-up–and no one fits the bill better than his ex-partner on the police force, Cass Raines. Now a full-time private eye, Cass is reluctant to take the job. She isn’t keen on playing babysitter to a celebrity who’s rumored to be a heartless diva. But as a favor to Ben, she signs on. But when Vonda refuses to say why someone might be after her, and two of her staff turn up dead, Ben and Cass must battle an unknown assailant bent on getting to the great lady herself, before someone else dies.

Cass finds out the hard way just how persistent a threat they face during the first stop on Vonda’s book tour. As fans clamour for her autograph, things take an ugly turn when a mysterious fan shows up with flowers and slashes Ben with a knife. While her ex-partner’s life hangs in the balance, Cass is left to find out what secrets Vonda is keeping, who might want her dead, and how she can bring Ben’s attacker to justice before enemies in the Chicago Police Department try to stop her in her tracks . . .

REVIEW:
I honestly can’t recall ever reading this author before but maybe I have. I feel like the character of Cass has been introduced before and I feel like I missed a bit by not having read them. But as I did the book can be read as a stand alone but I do feel like having read the character before would have helped.

Now that being said I really liked the story. It kept me intrigued and wanting to read more. The suspense was most certainly there and each time I thought I figured it out something would send me in a different direction until I looped back around. And I love that kind of who-dun-it.

Great book to take you out of your own head and enjoy a good mystery.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

TITLE: Girl Long Gone
CHARACTERS: Connor & Monica
AUTHOR: Danielle M. Haas
PUBLICATION DATE: 05/25/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Monica’s stomach fluttered with excitement as she told the interesting man she’d been flirting with online for weeks all about her weekend plans. He was a great match, and they had so many things in common. But sometimes your life can come down to one single bad decision…

NYPD Computer-crimes detective Connor Mitchel’s sister is missing. As he combs through his sister’s life, he realizes Monica might not have been this killer’s first target—or his last. In a twisted game of cat and mouse, Connor thinks he’s finally found the man responsible for his sister’s disappearance. Unfortunately, he’ll first need to convince the shy, distrustful Evelyn Price she could be the next victim tangled in the murderer’s web if she doesn’t agree to help him catch the killer. But just as Connor and Evelyn close in on their quarry, the killer has one last trick up his sleeve that could trap them all…

REVIEW:
Have you ever watched a movie and wanted to yell at the screen can’t you tell that your co-worker is a serial killer? Well that is how I felt about this book. We find out pretty quickly who the bad guy is and I spent a lot of the book wanting to yell at the other characters to get a clue.

The story itself was fine. But I think if we hadn’t known who it was it would have been better because we would have been trying to figure it out too but knowing took something away from the story for me.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.