A Court of Thorns and Roses

By Sarah J Maas

The Blurb –

‘When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.

At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin and his world forever.”

The Review –

I had to read this book twice in order to understand everything that happened. I must have read it the first time too fast because when I listened to the audiobook for the second round, I didn’t remember a thing. 😵‍💫 This was a beautiful start to a 5 book series, it really laid out both characters lives and how they eventually intertwined together. I didn’t quite understand at first why someone would be so generous to another person after they had killed one of their friends, but the twist at the end brought that all together. I really liked the trials Fryre had to go through, they really tested her mind and body. The only thing I didn’t like was the over use of “undergarments” lol. Very little spice in this book, hoping for a little bit more in the next couple since they have established a relationship already. I already ready to read(listen) the next book in the series!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5!

Judge & Jury

By James Patterson

The Blurb –

“Andie DeGrasse is not your typical juror. Hoping to get dismissed from the pool, she tells the judge that most of her legal knowledge comes from a bit part curling around a stripper’s pole in The Sopranos. But she still ends up as juror #11 in a landmark trial against a notorious mob boss.

The case quickly becomes the new Trial of the Century. Mafia don Dominic Cavello, known as the Electrician, is linked to hundreds of gruesome, unspeakable crimes. Senior FBI agent Nick Pellisante has been tracking him for years. He knows Cavello’s power reaches far beyond the courtroom, but the FBI’s evidence against the ruthless killer is iron-clad. Conviction is a sure thing.

As the jury is about to reach a verdict, the Electrician makes one devastating move that no one could have predicted. The entire nation is reeling, and Andie’s world is shattered. For her, the hunt for the Electrician becomes personal, and she and Pellisante come together in an unbreakable bond: they will exact justice . . . at any cost.”

The Review –

James Patterson is my favorite author of all time, this is one of the last books of his I haven’t read before. This one is quite older than the rest of the ones I’ve read, but the high quality is still there. I started reading this on my Kindle and then switched to the audiobook, I am so glad that I did since the recording had sound effects along with the reading. This was very action packed with a tad bit of romance. I appreciate his writing with many tourist destinations as well, most of his stories do not stay in the same place. The 2 main characters are very likable, and they have a torrid romance throughout the book. I’m glad it had a happy ending, even into the epilouge. This could have been easily made into a series with the two characters.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5!

Behind the Red Door

By Megan Collins

The Blurb –

“When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a thirty-four-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. Fern’s husband is sure it’s because of Astrid’s famous kidnapping—and equally famous return—twenty years ago, but Fern has no memory of that, even though it happened an hour outside her New Hampshire hometown. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading, Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory.

Back at her childhood home to help her father pack for a move, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir—which may have provoked her original kidnapper to abduct her again—and as she reads through its chapters and visits the people and places within it, she discovers more evidence that she has an unsettling connection to the missing woman. With the help of her psychologist father, Fern digs deeper, hoping to find evidence that her connection to Astrid can help the police locate her. But when Fern discovers more about her own past than she ever bargained for, the disturbing truth will change both of their lives forever.”

The Review –

This was another book I couldn’t put down! I should probably start reading the synopsis of books instead of just getting them base on the covers. This was very well written of a first person point of view of returning home to think that you are just helping out your parents in a tough situation. Then it turns into your worst nightmare of your childhood that you have repressed. I liked that there weren’t many characters to have to follow along with and also the timeline of events was pretty cut and dry if we were in the past or in the present. I did guess correctly about who the kidnapper was and the reasoning behind it, however I did not guess who “kidnapped” Astrid for the second time. Looking forward to reading another book by this author soon.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5!

If Something Happens to Me

By Alex Finlay

The Blurb –

“For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. The car door ripping open. The crushing blow to the head. The hands yanking him from the vehicle. His girlfriend Ali’s piercing scream as she is taken.

With no trace of Ali or the car, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Ryan. But with no proof and a good lawyer, he’s never charged, though that doesn’t matter to the podcasters and internet trolls. Now, Ryan has changed his last name, and entered law school. He’s put his past behind him.

Until, on a summer trip abroad to Italy with his law-school classmates, Ryan gets a call from his father: Ali’s car has finally been found, submerged in a lake in his hometown. Inside are two dead men and a cryptic note with five words written on the envelope in Ali’s handwriting: If something happens to me…

Then, halfway around the world, the unthinkable happens: Ryan sees the man who has haunted his dreams since that night.

As Ryan races from the rolling hills of Tuscany, to a rural village in the UK, to the glittering streets of Paris in search of the truth, he has no idea that his salvation may lie with a young sheriff’s deputy in Kansas working her first case, and a mobster in Philadelphia who’s experienced tragedy of his own.”

The Review –

Imagine going through the worst experience of your life, losing someone you care about in the blink of an eye. Having to live for half a century with the guilt of not being there to protect her, and then you finally get the motivation to start living your life again; once you get on a vacation you see the man who is involved in your kidnapping. It’s like a swift kick in the tail feeling. I felt the pain throughout this book of how Ryan has to deal with day to day stressors, but then has to confront the person who was involved in Alisen’s disappearance. The characters show a lot of bravery trying to find out what happened to her that night. They touched on a young male having a true crime podcast, I wish they would have incooperated more of that into the book. Maybe they can have a part 2 where they have the podcast and Poppy trying to figure out another case. Very quick ending to tie everything together, but it made sense of her going missing and people being followed/harassed.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5!

The Club

By Ellery Lloyd

The Blurb –

Everyone’s Dying to Join . . .

The Home Group is a glamorous collection of celebrity members’ clubs dotted across the globe, where the rich and famous can party hard and then crash out in its five-star suites, far from the prying eyes of fans and the media.

The most spectacular of all is Island Home—a closely-guarded, ultraluxurious resort, just off the English coast—and its three-day launch party is easily the most coveted A-list invite of the decade.

But behind the scenes, tensions are at breaking point: the ambitious and expensive project has pushed the Home Group’s CEO and his long-suffering team to their absolute limits. All of them have something to hide—and that’s before the beautiful people with their own ugly secrets even set foot on the island. 

As tempers fray and behavior worsens, as things get more sinister by the hour and the body count piles up, some of Island Home’s members will begin to wish they’d never made the guest list.

Because at this club, if your name’s on the list, you’re not getting out.

The Quotes –

That if you really wanted to do it, it was never too late to change your life. To follow your dreams. To be a better person. To start treating the people around you the way they deserved to be treated.

The Review –

I had high hopes for this book since it was a Reese’s Book Club pick for 2022. I read this in just under 24 hours in quite a few sittings. There were many times that I wasn’t quite sure if we were in the past or present settings and also way too many characters to follow along with. It did help that each section noted which point of view was speaking, however it was still hard to figure out how everyone tied together in some parts. I did like the premise of the book with celebrities and the rich and famous being murdered for doing terrible things, it shows that they are not untouchable. It was just too hard to figure out who was alive or dead, or who was supposed to be dead and then came back alive.

This is not a “Club” I want to be invited to.

⭐️⭐️