Tag: book club favorites

ALC Book Review: The Search Party by Hannah Richell

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Mystery/Thriller
Length: 352 pages
Author: Hannah Richell
Publisher: Atria
Release Date: January 16th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A spellbinding locked-room mystery about a glamping trip gone horribly wrong when a powerful storm leaves the participants stranded and forced to confront long-held secrets and a shocking disappearance.

Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat race with their twelve-year-old son to set up a glamping site in the wilds of Cornwall. Eager for a dry run ahead of their opening, they invite three old university friends and their families for a long-needed reunion. But the festivities soon go awry as tensions arise between the children (and subsequently their parents), explosive secrets come to light, and a sudden storm moves in, cutting them off from help as one in the group disappears.

Moving between the police investigation, a hospital room, and the catastrophic weekend, The Search Party is a propulsive and twisty destination thriller about the tenuous bonds of friendship and the lengths parents will go to protect their children—perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley.

Thank you Book Club Favorites for the physical copy and Simon and Schuster and LibroFM for the gifted audiobook.

THE SAME.

Either I’m picking the wrong thrillers or this is a continual theme I have found myself stuck in. I feel like every thriller I read is a big cast, 90% have done a bad thing, and there’s a murder to solve. Rinse and repeat. And this didn’t change that scenario much.

I did LOVE the audiobook. Audio was well done and that did make moving through this better. Highly recommend that route.

There were interesting tidbits throughout the story. It wasn’t a total lost cause. Having the multiple POV’s kept things going enough and I liked seeing each little side to the story. I was pulled in wrong directions a few times on the whodunnit and I appreciate that those mystery plot lines worked well.

While not quite a winner for me, it still might be a gem for you.

Overall audience notes:

  • Thriller/Mystery
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: closed door/fade to black
  • Violence: high
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: murder, knife violence, infidelity, missing child, depression, non-consensual drugging, forced captivity, brief mentions of child abuse and suicide

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Book Review: Regrets Only by Kieran Scott

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Mystery/Thriller
Length: 336 pages
Author: Kieran Scott
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release Date: January 10th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

In a fast-paced new novel in the vein of Big Little Lies, a single mom goes undercover to investigate a host of disturbing secrets held by the leaders of a local suburban parent-school association, including embezzlement, bribery, adultery, and murder—by the bestselling author of Wish You Were Gone.

Paige Lancaster, single mom and prodigal daughter, has returned to the East Coast from her prestigious, well-paid job in Los Angeles, writing for the smartest detective series on television. Something terrible happened to her back in Hollywood. Okay, two terrible things, one featuring a misplaced tire iron—and now she’s broke, homeless, and living with her widowed mother and eight-year-old daughter, Izzy, in her Connecticut hometown.

Paige needs to buckle down and find a new writing gig but first, she meets the movers and shakers of Izzy’s school’s Parent Booster Association, run by the intimidatingly gorgeous Ainsley Anderson, who just happens to be married to Paige’s old high school flame, John.

Then she shows up at the annual Parents and Pinot fundraiser, held at Ainsley and John’s dazzling mansion in the toniest part of town, where she’s caught in a compromising position with John, accidentally destroys the guest bathroom, overhears an incriminating conversation, and discovers that her purse has gone missing. And later that night, Ainsley turns up dead at the bottom of her own driveway.

Did she fall? Or was she pushed?

Paige may have only written about detectives, but she is convinced she can handle a little undercover sleuthing. After all, it’ll give her an excuse to spend more time with John. Still, she can’t help but wonder: could he be capable of murder? Or could one of the PBA members have planned a dastardly crime to reach the top? But the most important question of all: will Paige ever get her life back on track?

Thank you to Book Club Favorites and Simon & Schuster for the gifted copy.

BRING THE DRAMA.

You can sometimes easily know what you’re getting into from a book by the summary. In this case, I knew allllll the momma drama was coming my way and by leaning right into it, I enjoyed this one! It was a fantastic audiobook with multiple narrators that brought out another dimension to the story.

I liked the murder mystery the most. I honestly didn’t know who committed what and kept pointing my finger at the wrong person. It’s super fast paced and a compulsive kind of read that has a bit of an edge too.

Character wise, I didn’t love or hate anyone. I feel like they all played their roles well and each brought a little bit of something to the story. I like seeing things from multiple angles and Regrets Only brought that dynamic for me.

Not my usual genre, but definitely a nice switch up.

Overall audience notes:

  • Mystery/Thriller
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: fade to black
  • Violence: murder, gun violence, physical altercations

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ARC Book Review: All Alone With You by Amelia Diane Coombs

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Amelia Diane Coombs
Publisher: Simon Schuster
Release Date: July 25th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

HBO Max’s Hacks gets a romantic twist in the vein of Jenn Bennett in this swoon-worthy novel about a standoffish teen girl whose loner status gets challenged by a dynamic elderly woman and a perpetually cheerful boy.

Eloise Deane is the worst and doesn’t care who knows it. She’s grumpy, prefers to be alone, and is just slogging through senior year with one goal: get accepted to USC and move to California. So when her guidance counselor drops the bombshell that to score a scholarship she’ll desperately need, her applications require volunteer hours, Eloise is up for the challenge. Until she’s paired with LifeCare, a volunteer agency that offers social support to lonely seniors through phone calls and visits. Basically, it’s a total nightmare for Eloise’s anxiety.

Eloise realizes she’s made a huge mistake—especially when she’s paired with Austin, the fellow volunteer who’s the sunshine to her cloudy day. But as Eloise and Austin work together to keep Marianne Landis—the mysterious former frontwoman of the 1970s band the Laundromats—company, something strange happens. She actually…likes Marianne and Austin? Eloise isn’t sure what to do with that, especially when her feelings toward Austin begin to blur into more-than-friends territory.

And when ex-girlfriends, long-buried wounds, and insecurities reappear, Eloise will have a choice to make: go all in with Marianne and Austin or get out before she gets hurt.

Thank you to Book Club Favorites and Simon and Schuster for the gifted copy.

REACHED MY SOUL.

I know that depression and anxiety have many, many different representations. And I gotta say, I loved the way this book portrayed them. As someone with both, I thought it was a great representation. Realistic, frustrating, and just doing your best.

The dynamics between Austin and Eloise were PERFECT. Reverse grumpy x sunshine at its finest. I loved the way they balanced each other out and the way they went from strangers to friends to having a relationship was so sweet. Filled with some teenage drama and a little bit of angst, I thought it was great for the YA category (and there’s only kisses!).

I adored the plot and the growth I saw throughout the book from Eloise. I really felt so much of what she was going through and the doubt that anxiety creates. I loved Marianne and learning her story and just how this entire cast functioned together.

It was a great read. I have no major complaints and this is my new favorite book by this author!

Overall audience notes:

  • Young Adult Contemporary Romance
  • Language: strong (I will say it’s a bit strong for a YA book)
  • Romance: kisses
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: depression and social anxiety depictions, loss of a father (side character, mentioned), stroke

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