Review: The Favor by Nora Murphy

The Favor by Nora Murphy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided a print arc and an audio arc of this book via Netgalley and the publisher.  This book releases on May 31, 2022.  Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Minotaur Books for the ARC.

I thought the two female narrators did a great job with Leah and McKenna.  It was nice to have two distinct voices for both women.  I wasn't so sure about the addition of the male narrator for Detective Harrison.  While the narrator did a great job, his presence as a narrator doesn't appear until about 40% into the book and he isn't a constant narrator.  While skeptical about this addition to the audiobook, Detective Harrison's part was actually very well done and thought out.  I thought his perspective was crucial to providing the outsider's view to theses women's lives.

This follows Leah and McKenna two very intelligent, beautiful women who don't know each other.  They happen to shop at the same liquor store one evening, but other than that their paths have never crossed.  Unbeknownst to either of them, their lives are more similar that they can ever know.  They both are married to very charming, handsome, successful men who on the outside appear to be the perfect husbands.  Behind closed doors McKenna and Leah know differently.  Very quickly their lives are about to become entangled in a way neither of them expected.

I found this to be more of a police procedural as Detective Harrison tries to uncover the truth as opposed to a thriller.  There really aren't any big twists and turns that you would expect from a thriller, and the guilty party is known to the reader all along.   

If you are triggered by domestic abuse, verbal abuse, alcoholism,  and the mention of miscarriage I'd stay away from this one.  

While I enjoyed this book and thought it was well written, the abusive husband trope is not something I enjoy reading as a preference.  That is a heavy focus of this book.  I thought the author did a very good job discussing the topic of coercive control when it comes to abuse and how very well educated women become victims in abusive relationships.  They are slowly manipulated into believing they have no other choice and o  one would believe them if they claimed their husbands were abusive.  Unfortunately this is a very real problem.  As an outsider looking in, it is easy to say "why didn't she just leave?", but it isn't that easy as Detective Harrison uncovers through his investigation of both women as suspects.  I've seen several reviews almost victim shaming the two main characters for not leaving sooner or drinking too much to cope with the terror they face every day.  This too is a very real problem that women face in reality.  Battered and abused women don't deserve your criticism, they deserve your kindness and support.

Overall, this is a solid debut from the author.  You can tell that her experience as a lawyer specializing in domestic violence aided in crafting this novel.   While Leah and McKenna were fictional, the author's note goes on to explain the harsh reality that real women face daily. 

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Blog Tour: The Insiders by Tijan

"Obsessed from page one! Another addicting read from Tijan."
-- Jennifer L. Armentrout, #1 New York Times bestselling author

The Insiders, an all new page-turning and addictive romance from New York Times bestselling author Tijan, is available now!

Bailey is as normal as could be, with a genius IQ and a photographic memory. But still, normal for her. Then, things happen -- a guy breaks into her house in the middle of the night to take her hostage. She learns her father is billionaire tech genius Peter Francis, the same guy she’s idolized all her life. She finds all this out when she meets dark, mysterious, and electrifying Kashton Colello. He’s also an associate of her father’s, and he gives Bailey two choices—go with him and meet her father or survive on her own because those kidnappers are going to try again.

It’s a no-brainer.

After this, three things become clear for Bailey:

1. She has to live at her father’s sprawling estate, complete with bodyguards and the best security that money can buy.

2. She’s no longer an only child. She has three siblings and has no idea what to do with them and vice versa.

3. She is being guarded by Kash himself. Personally guarded. And there is a lot of guarding going on there and some of it is going to drive her crazy.

A complete outsider in a world of wealth and decadence, Bailey has to find her way within a family that has more secrets than she could have imagined. One of these secrets could be deadly…

You can read my full review of The Insiders here.  I really enjoyed this.  If you enjoyed Bennett Mafia I think you will love this!

Start reading today!
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Excerpt

We were heading out of Chicago, and maybe another half hour or so from the small town where my mom and I lived. 

Wait. Second thought—where we used to live? 

What would my mom do now? Could Chrissy Hayes remain in that house after I was just attacked, almost taken hostage? I called my mother by all kinds of names—Chrissy Hayes, Chrissy, or Mom. Or, well, a whole other kind of names too, because to say she’s a character is putting it mildly. And we have an interesting relationship to say the least. 

I might be deflecting here. 

Numb. I was numb. I should be pissing my pants, but instead I’m ruminating over how I refer to my mother. 

Could I stay in that house after what just happened? 

I’d been planning to spend time with Chrissy, helping with the house and working at the local computer store to make some extra money before I left for school. But now . . . fuck if I knew. 

Myriad curses went through my mind as I realized Chrissy would have to move. 

Shivers pierced me as I went over what had happened tonight, but then we were pulling into a driveway, next to a booth. A large gate barricaded us from moving forward. 

Official police business, my tech ass. 

Then again, nothing seemed official. I was told that I was being taken to my mother, but I left with two detectives. Bright and Wilson. They introduced themselves, then said she couldn’t see me in the hospital. They didn’t explain why, but I was to go with them to see her. 

I went. 

I was in the backseat of their unmarked car a few minutes later. 

Bright’s window rolled down. She flashed her badge. “We’re expected.” 

The attendant nodded, hitting a button. The gate opened, showing a campus of buildings behind it. Some made of dark red brick. Some seemingly made of reflective windows, top to bottom. Some painted totally black. A large parking lot sat in the middle of the buildings. “Phoenix Tech” was on a sign in front of the first building, but we went past, heading around it and toward a smaller building on the opposite end of the lot. 

My tongue was glued to the back of my throat. We were at Phoenix Tech headquarters. 

I had yearned to get an internship there every year since fifth grade, and then through college. I kept applying, but they kept denying. Some might say I was being desperate. I prefer determined. It’s a quality that I feel is honorable. Plus, I wasn’t above hoping they’d take pity on me one day. It worked, because while I might not have been good enough to walk their hallways, I was good enough for them to give me charity. They awarded me the majority of my grants for undergrad, so I’d been able to go to college debt free. I’d been expecting that to change for graduate school, but it hadn’t. Or, well, it kind of had. 

I was hired as a graduate assistant, starting in the fall, which gave me a stipend, but the rest was covered by another scholarship from Phoenix Tech. 

Phoenix Tech was one of the world’s leading companies on cyber security. I was going into information systems, which was close enough. A job here would be a dream. 

“My mom is here?” I asked, when Bright parked, and both her and Wilson got out of the vehicle. 

Neither answered. 

Bright opened my back door and motioned for me, slipping her sunglasses over her eyes. “It’s time for you to find out some answers.”

About Tijan

Tijan is a New York Times Bestselling author that writes suspenseful and unpredictable novels. Her characters are strong, intense, and gut-wrenchingly real with a little bit of sass on the side. Tijan began writing later in life and once she started, she was hooked. She’s written multi-bestsellers including the Fallen Crest series, Ryan's Bed, Enemies and others.
She is currently writing many new books and series with a couple English Cockers she adores.

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Review: The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book was published on March 23, 2021.

This is a fairly slow paced thriller.  I think the comparison to The Blair Witch Project is fair.  It is very much like that given that this follows a film crew making a movie and some strange stuff starts happening.  Blair Witch was a bit more ominous and creepy in my opinion.  I thought the premise was really interesting.  An entire town of people up and disappears without a trace with the exception of a newborn baby and a woman who was stoned to death in the town square.  The police conduct an investigation and no one is able to find anyone from the town.  Now years later, the granddaughter of one the former inhabitants wants to find out what really happened and tell the story of the town.

This is told in two different timelines and different perspectives.  The Now is told from Alice's perspective, and the Then is told from her great-grandmother Elsa's perspective.  We also get letters between Alice's grandmother Margareta and her great-aunt Aina which help paint the story of what happened in the past.  I much preferred the Then sections to the now sections.  I felt like they moved the storyline along a bit more than the Now sections.  I also didn't connect with the present tense characters, and was much more invested in what was happening with the characters from the past.  Alice and her film crew weren't very likable and they were all very unprepared 5 days of filming in an abandoned, rotting, mining town.  There are some pretty unrealistic situations in the book that took me out of the story.  I also didn't appreciate the way mental illness was portrayed in the book.  

I thought the storyline was interesting, however I found the pacing to be far to slow for my liking.  I also found the plot to be very predictable.  I did find the final reveal of what happened to be clever and very fitting, but I kind of suspected something similar to be the case from the start.  This never gave me the creepy and tense thriller vibe I look for in thriller/mysteries.  This book isn't bad, there was just missing for me.  I think alot of people will enjoy this, I think I have high expectations when it comes to thrillers.

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Review: Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this is my favorite book of Sager’s so far!  I really loved this!

I was provided an ARC via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.  This book was published yesterday, June 30, 2020 and I highly recommend it.

Every house has a story, and boy does Baneberry Hall have a story to tell.  Maggie Holt has just inherited the famed mansion after her father's death.  She spent only a few weeks there as a child, but  she has no real memories of her time there as a five year old girl.  Her memories are supplied by the book her father wrote, House of Horrors, a nonfiction account of her family's time spent in the house.  All grown up, a designer and house flipper, Maggie is determined to clean up Baneberry Hall and sell it, and in the process find out what really happened so she can prove that "the book" is all lies and get rid of it from her life once and for all.

As I said initially, I think this is my favorite of [author:Riley Sager|15263414]'s four books to date.  I've enjoyed the other three, but there was just something about this one that really kept my attention.  This book is told in what I would call mixed media format.  It alternates between Maggie's perspective, and excerpts from "the book".  The chapters from Maggie's perspective are present day, while the chapters from the book give you a past tense version of what happen when the Holt's stayed in Baneberry Hall the first time.  The longer Maggie stays in the house and investigates her past, the more she comes to realize that some of the things that her father wrote about actually did happen.  This leads her and the reader to wonder, is Baneberry Hall really haunted?  I really liked how Sager misleads the reader several times before revealing what is really going on.  I thought I had it figured out a few times, but then he revealed something that completely busted my theory.  I think I was just as confused as Maggie was at times, and I really love that in a thriller.

I thought the pacing was good.  Maggie's POV has a slightly slower pace than the sections from Ewan's (her dad's) book, which is a little faster paced.  While this has a good many side characters, the house itself is the character that shines the most.  While Maggie and Ewan tell the story and have the majority of the experiences in the house, the house itself provides not only the backdrop but the atmosphere for everything that happens.  Without Baneberry Hall and all it's creepy vibes, there would be no story.  If you like suspenseful thrillers with a paranormal element give this a go.  I loved every moment I spent with this book and I can't wait for more from this author.

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Review: My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided a copy of this book via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.  Since I picked up the review copy after the book was published, I listened to the audiobook so I could move this up my review list a bit faster.  This was published March 26, 2019.

This book was pretty good I really liked the twists and turns but found it predictable. It is a decent domestic thriller but unlike most other readers it just didn't keep my attention. It just didn't grab me and keep me in suspense like I wanted it to. It was well written and dark at times. Some of the scenes are pretty crazy, but a lot of it was pretty unrealistic and just didn't keep me guessing. Overall it was entertaining; I just didn't love it like everyone else seemed to.

This follows seemingly perfect couple Millicent and he who never gets a name, but sometimes calls himself Tobias, for the sake of the review we’ll call him Husband. The story is narrated from Husband’s perspective, and the story he tells is quite an interesting one. He meets Millicent when they are young and barely have a penny to either of their names, they marry and have kids. Through some strategic networking, they work their way into better clientele as a real estate agent and tennis pro at the local country club. They both start to make better money and are able to move into the better part of town and provide a better life for their son and daughter. Seems like a pretty straight forward life right? Wrong! Millicent and Husband both keep quite a few secrets from each other, but that isn’t the weirdest thing about their relationship. They develop a murderous hobby filled with stalking, lies, and all sorts of twist and turns. I don’t want to tell you what they get up to because that would spoil the fun. They get up to some pretty crazy and dark shenanigans to spice up their marriage, but all is not perfect and Millicent takes Husband on a pretty wild ride.


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Review: The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I feel like I need to read this again, I’m still not sure what happened. That ending had my head spinning!

This follows Eddie and his group of friends alternating between events that occurred in 2016 and 1986. In 1986, Eddie and his friends are enjoying their summer vacation or holiday because this is set in England. One evening they head to the fair (aka carnival), and they witness one of the rides break and careen into a local teenage girl. Eddie and the new teacher in town help rescue her, and traumatic experience leaves a lasting impression on Eddie. While the summer drags on, Eddie and his friends devise a code to let each other know where to meet in town, of course it is made out of little chalk men. When they find a dead body in the woods one day when they are out playing, and it just happens to be surrounded by drawings of little chalk men, all suspicions point to one man in town who has earns the name of “The Chalk Man”. Now this is not the only harrowing even that happens this summer, each of the members of the group suffers some sort of traumatic even that changes them and their friendships with the others.

In 2016, Ed and his friends have a strained relationship because of things that have happened over time. They are all haunted and broken by the events that occurred in 1986 in some way. When they all receive chalk men drawings in the mail, the past is brought to the present and many secrets are revealed.

This was a pretty good thriller. It kept me engaged and turning the pages to find out what happened. Tudor creates a pretty creepy atmosphere and I was never quite sure what was going on. I like that in a thriller. As I stated earlier, I feel like I need to reread this because I feel like I missed something that was right in front of me the whole time. I enjoyed this and felt that the twists and turns kept me guessing. I’ll definitely be checking out more books by C.J. Tudor.


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Review: Saving Meghan by D.J. Palmer

Saving Meghan by D.J. Palmer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was crazy. It kept me guessing the entire time. I wasn't sure who to believe or what to think. The end was completely unexpected. You really couldn't tell if Meghan was really sick or if it was all in her head. This book will take you on a medical mystery adventure filled with family drama and psychological suspense that you won't soon forget. I don't want to give away too much of the plot because thrillers such as this are best discovered as you read.

This is told from multiple perspectives, Meghan the daughter with the undiagnosed ailment, Becky the devoted mother who has all of the makings of Munchausen's by Proxy, and Zach the doctor who is caught in the middle trying to save Meghan but also has his own baggage. The characters are all very well developed and they all have so many things going on that you aren't sure what to believe or who is at fault. Who I thought was at the center of the whole thing was not the culprit at all, they turned out to be just another victim of the true criminal mastermind. Each of the characters and all of their emotional baggage have a very specific role to play in this story. All of the characters were well developed, and came with their own backstory. You can tell that D.J. Palmer did his his homework and researched the medical aspects of the story. I very much enjoyed that there was just enough medical terminology but not too much that I needed to google things to understand what was going on in the book.

I was provided an advanced copy via the publisher in exchanged for an honest review. My head was spinning the entire time I was reading this, and I highly recommend it.

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Review: Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson

Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was so messed up and I mean that in such a complimentary way. So many time when I read a psychological thriller I find that I have things figured out by the halfway point. This had so many twists that I didn't see coming. I loved that this was not predictable. Everytime I thought I had things figured out none of those things happened and Peter Swanson took things in a completely different direction. This read like realistic fiction because the characters and the setting were so realistic and relatable. The thriller parts were dark and haunting and made my skin crawl. If you like psychological thrillers, you need to read this. It is well paced, and so well written.

This is told in multiple perspectives. Henrietta (Hen) the artist, Matthew the teacher, and Richard Matthew's brother all take turns narrating the story. I can't really say much more than the synopsis does about the plot because it would spoil things. I will say that I thought that Swanson's handling of mental health in this book was very open and respectful. I also love how Hen spoke up when she felt like she was being placated or ignored because she has mental health condition.

This was my first Peter Swanson book, but it certainly will not be my last. I was provided an ARC of this book via the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  This was released on March 4th, 2019. 

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