Book Review: No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall

March 10, 2025February 13, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Mystery/Thriller
Length: 336 pages
Author: Kate Alice Marshall
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Release Date: January 23rd, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The author of What Lies in the Woods returns with a novel about three sisters, two murders, and too many secrets to count.

Emma hasn’t told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and she hasn’t spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she’s pregnant―right as the bank account slips into the red.

That’s when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents’ house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can’t sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, and that her parents died there.

Were murdered.

And that some people say Emma did it.

Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return to the house may lure her sisters back, but it will also crack open family and small-town secrets lots of people don’t want revealed. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again.

I FIGURED IT OUT.

I might not be a thriller gal, no matter how hard I try. This go around, I figured out what happened in the first few chapters and was only surprised by one twist. I didn’t really care for any of the characters either. Another situation where basically everyone had done something bad so I didn’t feel attached to anyone.

The audiobook narration was great, no issues there.

And also I felt like nothing felt new? The points of the plot were what you would expect and I was hoping for something fresh or to really hold my attention.

Overall audiobook notes:

Thriller/Mystery
Language: moderate
Violence: high
Trigger/Content Warnings: multiple murders, child abuse, gun violence

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

ALC Book Review: A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

February 22, 2025February 7, 2025 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Thriller
Length: 304 pages
Author: Kate Alice Marshall
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Release Date: February 4th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A woman invited to her wealthy fiance’s family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret—and that she’s been there before, by the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods.

A whirlwind romance.
When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives.

Stay away from Connor Dalton.
Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood.

I’ve been here before.
Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the gifted audiobook.

A THRILLER I ENJOYED.

Which, y’all, is hard for me. I am not a thriller girlie but I usually read a small handful each year that either remind me why I don’t or convince me that I should try some more. This one leaned into the more column. I’ve been a fan of KAM’s YA books and loved the audiobook narration for A Killing Cold.

I loved the remote house setting filled with rich people trying to hide secrets. I liked that Theo wasn’t a hard character to like. Of course she’s complicated and hiding secrets, but, she didn’t feel like an inherently bad person and that makes a thriller better for me.

The twists were good and I was surprised by a few of them. I thought the reveals happened at the right times and there wasn’t a lot of drag out moments where I was just waiting for the shoe to drop. I wouldn’t say this had a creepy factor for me but it is suspenseful. I liked the way it ended too.

Overall audience notes:

Thriller
Language: moderate
Romance: multiple open door
Violence: high
Content Warnings: murder, loss of life, hunting and dressing of deer,

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

Book Review: None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

November 11, 2024October 2, 2023 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Thriller
Length: 384 pages
Author: Lisa Jewell
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: August 8th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.

A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

WHOA.

First, hats off to the audio production. I loved that this was full cast with sound effects. Really brought up the sinister vibes and creeped me out in the way you hope a thriller accomplishes.

I couldn’t believe half the things I was hearing as this story unfolded. It was twisted, a bit dark, and I was very intrigued to see the fallout. I feel like there is SO MUCH that could be unpacked here and watching the lines crisscross and blur kept me on edge.

It did feel a little slow for me towards the end when the reveals started happening. I hit this mindset where I was thinking, stop beating around the bush and just tell me. Which is probably why I’m not a huge thriller reader. But I’m definitely not mad I picked this one up, I thought it was worth the hype I’ve been seeing.

Overall audience notes:

Thriller
Language: moderate
Violence: high
Trigger/Content Warnings: Paedophilia & adult-minor relationships, child abuse, alcoholism, alcohol consumption & abuse, murder, kidnapping, stalking mentioned

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

Book Review: The Hollywood Assistant by May Cobb

August 15, 2024July 26, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★
Audience: Thriller
Length: 416 pages
Author: May Cobb
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: July 9th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Offered a dream job in Hollywood with a famous director and his actress wife, an insecure woman becomes their personal assistant where their secrets and lies place her in the crosshairs of a murder investigation.

Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life, and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple, Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny L.A. The Sterlings are warm and welcoming. A perfect couple. All Cassidy has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury. Designer clothes. A sparkling pool. Great pay. When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. Nate is sexy, talented, and Cassidy can’t believe her luck. Clearly, Marisol doesn’t know what she has. Maybe that’s why the two are always fighting when they think Cassidy isn’t around. But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.

Thank you to Berkley for the finished copy.

WELL.

Do thrillers and I not compute? I want to love them. For whatever reason I now struggle. I think the fact that every main character and the bigger side characters are all just people doing bad things, until one of them dies, and then it’s figuring out who finally snapped. While I love a formulaic romance, it’s not working for me in this genre.

I was only surprised by one thing and it was one of the twists towards the end. I thought it was a good moment and saved me from giving this two stars. I also would like to know why so much of this book was our FMC sneaking around watching people bang? It happens WAY too often and it was weird and awkward and cringy.

The audiobook was well done and I’m not upset I tried this author, I just also think this won’t be an author I pick up again.

Overall audience notes: