Book Review: THE MAID by Nita Prose

 

Title: THE MAID

Author:  Nita Prose

Publisher:  Harper Collins Australia

Read: December 2021

Expected publication: 20 January 2022

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

 

Molly the maid is all alone in the world. A nobody. She’s used to being invisible in her job at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows and wiping away the grime, dust and secrets of the guests passing through. She’s just a maid – why should anyone take notice?
 
But Molly is thrown into the spotlight when she discovers an infamous guest, Mr Black, very dead in his bed. This isn’t a mess that can be easily cleaned up. And as Molly becomes embroiled in the hunt for the truth, following the clues whispering in the hallways of the Regency Grand, she discovers a power she never knew was there. She’s just a maid – but what can she see that others overlook?

What attracted me to this book:

 

I read some fantastic reviews about Nita Prose’s debut novel THE MAID, so of course I couldn’t resist, even though “cozies” are not usually a genre I read very often.

My musings:

 

 

Molly Gray is a socially awkward twenty-five year old woman who has been living with her grandmother until she passed away from cancer a few months ago. She is still feeling her absence and misses her guidance dearly, and barely makes ends meet as a maid at The Grand Regency Hotel, a job Molly loves because she feels a lot of satisfaction in creating order.  One day she finds a dead guest in one of the rooms she regularly cleans, and her life is turned upside down.

 

THE MAID was a light, borderline humorous read with some deeper themes of loss, grief, friendship and finding your way in the world. Molly was a quirky if slightly naive character, and I kept picturing her as a kind of female Forrest Gump – kind-hearted and honest but always slightly behind the eight ball.  Unfortunately I never quite connected to Molly as much as most readers whose glowing five star reviews can be found everywhere on Goodreads and social media.

 

Unpopular opinion: I found Molly to be an inconsistent character, totally naive one moment and quite streetsmart the next. I also found the plot quite predictable and not very original, but perhaps that is the characteristic of a cozy mystery and I am simply not the right reader for the genre. I much preferred the snarky honesty of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant, the original protagonist who seems to have sparked an avalanche of books with neurodivergent characters. All side characters felt like wooden caricatures to me, their relationship to Molly only ever skimming the surface without real background or depth. If I am totally honest, I struggled to finish the book because I did not feel invested in any of the characters. However, I think that this book would make a perfect screenplay / TV series!

 

 

Summary:

 

All in all, THE MAID has received high praise by countless readers on social media and will appeal to people who appreciate a gentler, less snarky version of Eleanor Oliphant. Personally, I found it a bit slow and predictable, and wanted more character development, even though it ticked the boxes for a light, slightly humorous read.

 

 

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: WILD PLACE by Christian White

 

Title: WILD PLACE

Author:  Christian White

Publisher:  Affirm Press

Read: October 2021

Expected publication: 26 October 2021

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

 

In the summer of 1989, a local teen goes missing from the idyllic suburb of Camp Hill in Australia. As rumours of Satanic rituals swirl, schoolteacher Tom Witter becomes convinced he holds the key to the disappearance. When the police won't listen, he takes matters into his own hands with the help of the missing girl's father and a local neighbourhood watch group.

But as dark secrets are revealed and consequences to past actions are faced, Tom learns that the only way out of the darkness is to walk deeper into it. Wild Place peels back the layers of suburbia, exposing what s hidden underneath guilt, desperation, violence and attempts to answer the question: Why do good people do bad things?

 

My musings:

 

I can rarely resist a mystery set in a suburban neighbourhood, especially when it promises time travel back to the eighties. It’s fun to be reminded of a reality where kids played out in scrubland just like “the wild place” and there were no mobile phones to keep track of your every movement, and instead of the nosy parkers on social media there was neighbourhood watch. 

 

When a teenage girl goes missing from the suburb of Camp Hill, a close-knit neighbourhood that borders an area of wild bushland called simply “Wild Place”, the whole community is thrown into turmoil. Worried parents forbid their children to play in the bush. Emergency neighbourhood watch meetings are being hastily arranged. And of course suspicion falls on the one oddball in the neighbourhood, Sean, a teenage boy who has been seen brandishing the tattoo of a pentagram and is spending most of his time indoors listening to heavy metal music. 

 

Like most neighbourhood mysteries, Wild Place relies on the slow unravelling of secrets the residents of Camp hill keep close to their hearts. Even Tom Witter, a high school teacher at the local Christian college, is perhaps not as lily white as he pretends to be. As residents decide to take matters into their own hands and point the finger at the most likely culprit – in their eyes at least – things soon escalate. 

 

I’m not sure why I didn’t love this book more, seeing it had all the elements I usually enjoy in a slow burning mystery: characters with secrets to hide, time travel back to the eighties and a few twists and turns that surprised me. But somehow I found it difficult to engage with any of the characters at an emotional level, which made this just an ok read for me. I appreciated the author’s tongue-in-cheek humour sprinkled through the pages and the characters’ dialogue; the many references to religion not so much. I also thought that the satanic rituals featured only very peripherally and could have been used much more to create the spooky atmosphere I had hoped for. There were also too many side characters that added little to the overall plot in the end. I remember saying very similar things about White’s first novel THE NOWHERE CHILD, so maybe his style just doesn’t quite gel with me (though I really enjoyed his previous book THE WIFE AND THE WIDOW). That said, this was an easy popcorn read to devour in a couple of sittings and was entertaining enough to keep me reading. 

Summary:

 

WILD PLACE will appeal to readers who enjoy slower, character driven mysteries featuring neighbourhood dynamics and a large cast of characters. Set in Australia, it is also full of that slight tongue-in-cheek humour that charactersises many Australian novels and allows a bit of a chuckle whilst trying to solve the mystery. If you usually enjoy White’s writing style, then you should definitely pick this one up for some satanic time travel to the eighties.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Affirm Press for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE WIFE UPSTAIRS by Rachel Hawkins

Title: THE WIFE UPSTAIRS

Author:  RachelHawkins

Read: January 2021

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates––a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.

But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in Eddie––not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she’s always yearned for.

Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie’s heart before her past––or his––catches up to her?

With delicious suspense, incisive wit, and a fresh, feminist sensibility, The Wife Upstairs flips the script on a timeless tale of forbidden romance, ill-advised attraction, and a wife who just won’t stay buried. In this vivid reimagining of one of literature’s most twisted love triangles, which Mrs. Rochester will get her happy ending? 

My musings:

 

I like reading retellings because it’s usually fun to see how an old classic would translate into our modern times. Having read and loved Jane Eyre as a youngster (I really must re-read it one of these days!) I was excited to read THE WIFE UPSTAIRS as part of a book buddy group read. And I guess if you’re drawn to easy, popcorn thrillers with a bunch of unlikeable characters who are as nasty as a pit full of scorpions, then this book will be entertaining enough.

 

Sadly, the story was more miss than hit for me. I thought that all the things that made the original classic so enjoyable didn’t translate well into the modern setting. With Jane Eyre’s atmospheric old English mansion, the constraints of society and gender roles at the time, and even just the gloomy English weather, Charlotte Bronte created a novel that has entertained millions of readers over the last 150 or so years – with good reason. I could easily buy a crazy wife hidden in the attic of an old English manor house, with its multiple wings, dark corners and crevices and servants bustling about, but not in Eddie’s ultra-modern Thornfield Estate home. Even if our modern day Jane was a bit thick, the dog surely would have alarmed at the thumps and bumps coming from upstairs? But most of all, the sheer nastiness of each and every character in Hawkins’ version slowly eroded my enjoyment of the story. All those bitchy, backstabbing, snarky women read like utter stereotypes to me, ones I was only too eager to put out of my mind when the last page had been turned. And when it all came down to it, even those parts of the story that weren’t totally implausible were fairly predictable to me, robbing me of any surprise element that would have redeemed the book for me.

 

Even though the book totally missed the mark for me, I can see that other readers may enjoy the bunch of dysfunctional characters racing like a doomed train towards its dramatic finale. Personally, I thought that it was all wrong, from the modern American setting to the stereotypical, snarky characters and oh-so-much suspension of disbelief to give the characters the benefit of the doubt for being – frankly – a bit stupid. Never mind, we can’t all love the same things and I do think I need a break from domestic thrillers for a while!

 

Book Review: THE SAFE PLACE by Anna Downes

Title: THE SAFE PLACE

Author: Anna Downes
Publisher: Affirm Press
Read: June 2020

Expected publication: 30 June 2020

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Emily is a mess.

Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job, and her apartment in one miserable day.

Emily is desperate.

Scott Denny, a successful and charismatic CEO, has a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Until he meets Emily.

Emily is perfect.

Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn't play along, the consequences could be deadly.

What attracted me to this book:

The blurb had me at “remote, beautiful French estate”. Not to speak of the enticing cover! Who doesn’t jump at the opportunity to do some armchair travel, especially in times of lockdown?

My musings:

If you are looking for an easy, quick and entertaining escapist read, then THE SAFE PLACE may be the right book for you. I think I must be reading too many mysteries, because unfortunately this one was all a bit too predictable for me to stand out. That said, there were aspects of it that kept me turning the pages, especially the claustrophobic setting when Emily realises that there is something sinister afoot in the idyllic remote French mansion. I felt though that the author had all the makings of a real terrifying read – some scenes and the underlying sense of menace and danger came close to giving me goosebumps – but in the end always she seemed to hold back from letting them unleash their true force and they only created small waves, like a storm in a teacup. I also found some of the character’s motives and actions questionable, and everyone knows how terrible I am at suspending disbelief!

I think that THE SAFE PLACE will be a better fit for readers who enjoy slow burning mysteries that aren’t too confronting or terrifying but offer a nice escapist setting and enough open questions to keep you turning the pages. Lovers of tense, suspenseful and goosebump-raising reads, or those looking for more in-depth character development may not find it as satisfying.

Thank you to Netgalley and Affirm Press for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: UNFOLLOW ME by Charlotte Duckworth

Title: UNFOLLOW ME

Author: Charlotte Duckworth
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Read: March 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

“I’ve never met any of them – don’t even know what they look like – but they know more about this than anyone in my real life.”

Book Description:

You Can't Stop Watching Her.

Violet Young is a hugely popular journalist-turned-mummy-vlogger, with three young children, a successful husband and a million subscribers on YouTube who tune in daily to watch her everyday life unfold.

Until the day she's no longer there.

But one day she disappears from the online world - her entire social media presence deleted overnight, with no explanation. Has she simply decided that baring her life to all online is no longer a good idea, or has something more sinister happened to her?

But do you really know who Violet is?

Told from the perspectives of her most avid fans, obsessed with finding out the truth, their search quickly reveals a web of lies, betrayal, and shocking consequences...

What attracted me to this book:

Social media is a topic that is becoming more popular in crime fiction, and without physical boundaries it lends itself to some very intriguing stories. I often wonder about the potential consequences of sharing our lives so freely with random strangers, so the premise of this book instantly drew me.

My musings:

Violet Young is a “mummy blogger”, a YouTube sensation whose honest (or not so honest) account of her post partum depression and the trials of motherhood have earned her thousands of followers on social media. One day she has vanished into thin air, her Instagram account has been deleted and all her former blog posts have gone. Her followers are devastated and worried – what has happened to Violet? And: how dare she do this to them?

From here, the story unfolds through three different POVs: Lily and Yvonne, who are devoted Violet fans, and Henry, who is Violet’s husband and a bit of a social media star himself. It soon becomes obvious that they are all hiding something, which for the women may be the root of their obsession with Violet, and for Henry something more sinister altogether.

Even as someone who has an Instagram account and a book blog, I found Lily’s and Yvonne’s addiction to Violet’s social media accounts fascinating in a horrified kind of way. Both women’s grief and outrage over finding Violet gone were something to behold, and were definitely on the boundary of being a mental health issue.

Even though I was drawn very quickly into the story, and found the whole premise fascinating, I didn’t end up liking the book as much as I thought I would. The story slowed significantly in the second half, and after the initial build up of intrigue I found the ending a bit lacklustre and unoriginal. I also quickly tired of Lily and Yvonne, who became more and more unlikeable and strange as the story progressed.

I did, however, like the theme of addiction to social media accounts portraying the “perfect family”, even where reality is very different. This would make for some great bookclub discussions, especially relating to the ethical minefield of using your children to become a social media “influencer”. Do your kids have a right to privacy? Will this exposure of their personal lives have lasting consequences for them in later life? I would have liked to talk about these issues with my friends.

Summary:

In summary, UNFOLLOW ME had some interesting concepts and good material for discussion in a book group, even though I was ultimately a bit disappointed in the book’s conclusion. Young mums may find that they better relate to the themes of motherhood, IVF, post partum depression and the ethical issues surrounding your children’s featuring on social media. I think that this book would appeal more to a younger crowd and that my experience was partly related to the generational gap. All in all a quick entertaining read and an interesting modern day topic. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: LITTLE SECRETS by Jennifer Hillier

Title: LITTLE SECRETS

Author: Jennifer Hillier
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Read: February 2020

Expected publication: 21 April 2020

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They're admired in their community and are a loving family. Up until the day Sebastian is taken.

A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. The only thing keeping her going is the unlikely chance that one day Sebastian reappears. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding him, she discovers that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman.

Kenzie Li is an artist and grad student—Instagram famous—and up to her eyeballs in debt. She knows Derek is married. She also knows he's rich, and dating him comes with perks: help with bills, trips away, expensive gifts. He isn't her first rich boyfriend, but she finds herself hoping he'll be the last. She's falling for him—and that was never part of the plan.

Discovery of the affair sparks Marin back to life. She's lost her son; she's not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. But as she sets a plan in motion, another revelation surfaces. Derek's lover might know what happened to their son. And so might Derek.

What attracted me to this book:

A missing child. Family secrets. A mother who will do anything to save her family. Concepts that sounded like the perfect recipe for a mystery!

My musings:

LITTLE SECRETS may start with a child abduction, but it soon became obvious that the story was not going to dwell there. Because 18 months later, when Marin and Derek have regained some semblance of a life after their son was taken, a new problem raises its ugly head – Derek is having an affair with a pretty 20-something barista. Still crazed with grief, Marin is determined that she will not lose her husband as well as her son, and sets a plan into motion that will ensure that her spouse remains firmly hers.

I think that I am destined to be the outlier this year when it comes to popular books, because despite Hillier’s evocative writing, a story that has plenty of twists and turns and surprises in store, and all the elements that sounded so good in the premise, I was not completely smitten by this story. Was it entertaining? Yes. Was it original? Yes! Did I want to know what happens? Definitely! But did I love it? Sadly, no. I am the kind of reader who needs to emotionally connect with at least one character to love a book, and I found this bunch of people to be an unlikable lot. They had so little in common with my own life or peer group that it may have just been the generational and cultural gap which made it difficult to understand their motivations. Whilst I applaud the author for steering away from the much used missing child theme to offer a more original storyline, I was much more invested in the mystery involving Sebastian’s disappearance than the affairs and sexual games of the adult cast.

Overall, the plot was complex enough to keep me reading, but one major thread that tied it all together at the end seemed flawed to me and raised more questions than answers. My rating always reflects my own reading experience and enjoyment, and in the end it was just ok for me. Considering the high praises the book has received from other reviewers, this may just be a reflection of my own preferences at this time, so if the premise appeals to you I definitely encourage you to read it and make up your own mind.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Minotaur Books for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: DEVIL'S LAIR by Sarah Barrie

Title: DEVIL'S LAIR

Author: Sarah Barrie
Publisher: Harlequin Australia
Read: October 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

After the violent death of her husband, Callie Jones retreats to a cottage in the grounds of an old mansion in Tasmania. The relative remoteness of the place and the wild beauty of the Tasmanian landscape are a balm to her shattered nerves and the locals seem friendly, particularly horseman Connor Atherton and his siblings at the nearby property, Calico Lodge.

But all is not well: the old mansion has a sinister past, one associated with witchcraft and murder. As Callie is threatened by odd events in the night and strange dreams overtake her sleep, she begins to doubt her own sanity. What's really going on beneath the surface of this apparently peaceful town? Are her friends and neighbours really who they seem? As events escalate, Callie starts to realise that the mansion may hold the key to unlocking the mystery, but the truth might have as much power to destroy as it does to save.

My musings:

This book is a difficult one for me to review because I think that we just weren’t a good fit for each other. I picked it up a few times and put it down again, lured repeatedly by its promise of some Gothic suspense. Just a disclaimer, which is purely my personal opinion, but if you are a fan of Jane Harper’s THE DRY, you are not guaranteed to automatically gel with this book, even if the blurb states so. I don’t think that comparing books to other best sellers does them any favours, UNLESS they are very similar in style. However, to me – whilst an entertaining read – DEVIL’S LAIR lacked the grit of Jane Harper’s or Sarah Bailey’s novels. This is not a bad thing for readers who love a good romantic suspense novel. But for someone who doesn’t do romance well, it was a bit like false advertising.

However, saying that, I can fully appreciate how DEVIL’S LAIR will be a good fit for readers who love a rural romance set in an atmospheric setting with some crime thrown in. There is a bit of murder and suspense, but in a non-confrontational manner that is more easily digestible for readers who shy away from graphic violence. I really enjoyed the Tassie setting and was thoroughly intrigued when the old mansion started to turn a bit creepy – even though there was not enough of that stuff in my opinion. Barrie sets the scene well, and I could easily picture those lush gardens set among green Tassie hills. Despite earlier misgivings, I came to like Callie and thought her to be a plucky character who was not afraid to face her inner demons and rise from the ashes of her traumatic past to make a better life for herself. I also really enjoyed Barrie’s writing style, which was the one thing that kept me reading to the end, even when the romance threatened to take over the storyline.

On the downside, there were so many characters with strange names to keep track of. Not a single Jack, Joe or Jane in the whole group!  They were each going about their daily lives, which took up a lot of the story with often mundane descriptions of everyday stuff that wasn’t relevant to the plot. Sometimes that works well for me, other times I get a bit bored. I thought that instead of hearing about tree planting and meals in the staff room, or random conversations between the twenty or so characters working on the property, I would have loved to see a bit more action, especially the spooky stuff that was going on in the old house. It had so much more potential to be super creepy! There was even a weird over-friendly guy who gave me goosebumps for all the wrong reasons and it skirted the border of spooky a few times, but never quite got over the finish line.

Instead, I got a very predictable romance between the two main characters that held absolutely no surprises and little interest for me. As I said – not a good fit for this reader! At some point, my cynical mind coined the story as The Bachelor with some weird Gothic murders thrown in, which no one seemed particularly freaked out about. If I had found a few mutilated corpses on my property (who BTW were staff members of mine), my first priority would probably not be to feed the B & B guests and impress the visiting food critic. I could go on and on about all the things that bugged me about the crime elements of the book, but it would take way too long – let’s just say I had major issues with credibility here. Towards the end, I felt that the author was trying too hard to fit in as much weird stuff as possible – there were cases of mistaken identity, a few ritualistic murders, mental illness, a psychopath on a killing spree, witchcraft, things that go bump in the night ... too much, TOO MUCH! 

Summary:

To sum it all up, I concede that DEVIL’S LAIR and I were not a good match. I suspect that many lovers of gritty Australian crime will struggle with some of the same elements that made my eyes roll back in my head like a Chucky doll, leading to the consumption of several paracetamol to quell the ensuing headache. I really think that comparing this book to THE DRY is doing it a disservice – fans of cosier mysteries and romantic suspense will most likely enjoy it much more than I did.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: A STRANGER ON THE BEACH by Michele Campbell

Title: A STRANGER ON THE BEACH

Author: Michele Campbell
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Read: July 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

There is a stranger outside Caroline's house.

Her spectacular new beach house, built for hosting expensive parties and vacationing with the family she thought she'd have. But her husband is lying to her and everything in her life is upside down, so when the stranger, Aiden, shows up as a bartender at the same party where Caroline and her husband have a very public fight, it doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary.

As her marriage collapses around her and the lavish lifestyle she's built for herself starts to crumble, Caroline turns to Aiden for comfort...and revenge. After a brief and desperate fling that means nothing to Caroline and everything to him, Aiden's obsession with Caroline, her family, and her house grows more and more disturbing. And when Caroline's husband goes missing, her life descends into a nightmare that leaves her accused of her own husband's murder.

My musings:

He said / she said – but who is telling the truth? If you like an unreliable narrator, then this latest book by Michelle Campbell will be right up your alley, because it is clear from the start that someone has to be lying.

Caroline, a thirties-something woman who is suspecting her husband of having an affair, is drowning her sorrows by sleeping with a young local bartender, Aiden, whilst staying in her lavish holiday home. Very soon after that, she claims that Aiden is obsessed with her. He is stalking her, threatening her and her family. Aiden, however, tells a different story. He and Caroline are in love. He would do anything for her. And so it goes back and forth, in alternating chapters like a game of crazy murderous tennis – he said – she said – he said – she said. Until someone winds up dead. So who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

I really wish I could have loved this one more. The idea of the two completely opposite narratives was great, and I’m always on board when it comes to unreliable narrators. Except that I really hated each and every character in this book. Firstly, they were just plainly unlikable. There wasn’t a single redeeming feature in Caroline, so I was firmly in camp Aiden for the whole ride, even though he also wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. Maybe there was something in the water in that particular little beach town, because none of the characters seemed overly smart. Except the crazy cat lady next door, who featured only briefly but should have been the head of police and the crime would have been solved a lot sooner.

Secondly, I found some of the story line drawn out in the later part of the book, when I had long forged a theory of who was right and who was wrong (which proved to be correct, and believe me, I am no Sherlock). I don’t like it when characters are dumbed down to make the story work, and some of the actions and dialogues here did not ring true for the way a mature adult would act or talk – even though believe me, in my line of work I do see a lot of crazy stuff!

Summary:

Unpopular opinion alert, whilst I had high hopes for this book and picked it up in a severe case of FOMO, it didn’t deliver the chills and thrills for me that I had anticipated. But I am definitely in the minority here, so if you are looking for an entertaining beach read with a couple of unreliable narrators, and don’t mind that they are a thoroughly unlikeable lot, then you may very well love it!

Thank you to Edelweiss and St Martin's Press for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE LAST WOMAN IN THE FOREST by Diane Les Becquets

Title: THE LAST WOMAN IN THE FOREST

Author: Diane Les Becquets
Publisher: Berkley
Read: February 2019

Expected publication: 5 March 2019

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Marian Engström has found her true calling: working with rescue dogs to help protect endangered wildlife. Her first assignment takes her to northern Alberta, where she falls in love with her mentor, the daring and brilliant Tate. After they’re separated from each other on another assignment, Marian is shattered to learn of Tate’s tragic death. Worse still is the aftermath in which Marian discovers disturbing inconsistencies about Tate’s life, and begins to wonder if the man she loved could have been responsible for the unsolved murders of at least four women.

Hoping to clear Tate’s name, Marian reaches out to a retired forensic profiler who’s haunted by the open cases. But as Marian relives her relationship with Tate and circles ever closer to the truth, evil stalks her every move.…

My musings:

I love nothing more than a wild, remote setting, so as soon as I read the synopsis of The Last Woman in the Forest I knew I had to read it!

Whilst the story is primarily a mystery centering around the unsolved murders of four young women in Stillwater, Montana, it also has a huge armchair travel component to the remote forests and mountains in northern Alberta, where our main protagonist Marian Engström is working as part of a project to protect endangered wildlife. It is here that she meets and falls in love with her mentor, the mysterious Tate. She is devastated to learn that Tate has died in a gruesome attack by a brown bear whilst on another assignment. Trying to come to terms with her grief and in an effort to consolidate some aspects about the stories Tate has told her about himself, she is looking deeper into her dead lover’s life – only to come to a terrifying conclusion: could Tate have been involved in the murders of the Stillwater victims?

As soon as I started reading, the author’s love for her chosen setting became obvious as I was instantly teleported into a wintry forest landscape where bears, moose and caribou roamed and humans were at the mercy of the elements. I loved the way Les Becquets brings this setting to life – this really was armchair travel of the best kind! I wasn’t surprised to learn that the author is an avid outdoors enthusiast, because her descriptions were vivid and beautiful – and at times terrifying! I also loved her knowledge on how to train rescue dogs, who were involved in Marian’s research projects. Any dog lover will appreciate the little snippets of observations on dog behaviour and training that run throughout the entire storyline.

Whilst the setting immediately drew me in, the mystery part of the story did not work so well for me. I am putting this down mainly to the structure of the story, which rolls out in two separate timelines told in Marian’s POV as well as short chapters introducing each of the female murder victims and the circumstances surrounding their disappearance. Then there are the chapters from the POV of retired forensic profiler Nick, who is helping Marian with her investigations into Tate’s life. I felt that some important information was withheld until close to the halfway mark, which would have explained Marian’s suspicions and made her character more accessible for me. I felt that the author perhaps tried to pack too much into the story, resulting in showing rather than telling as she tried to deliver chunks of information instead of letting them play out. I also would have preferred some vivid dialogue rather than long rambling sentences summarising people’s conversations, which interrupted the story’s flow and always kept the character’s at arms’ length. Whilst the pacing was slow going in the first half of the book, I was happy to see that the author seemed to find her place in the second half, which delivered the aspects of the mystery so far lacking in the book.

Overall though I felt that suspense was lacking for me, despite a setting that practically cried out to be used for its full claustrophobic potential. Slow burning and character driven mysteries rely a lot on character development and underlying tension and suspense, which was missing here. So whilst I felt that the overall plot was original and clever, it did not live up to its full potential. A bit of editing would have done wonders here, by rearranging parts of the timeline, tidying up the story, chopping out huge chunks of back info that weren’t relevant and instead allowing a closer connection to the main characters.

I really enjoyed reading the afterword, in which the author explains what inspired her to write The Last Woman in the Forest and about her own life experiences. So, whilst this one didn’t quite work for me, I feel that the author has some great stories to tell and I look forward to reading more from her in future.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Berkley Publishing for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE SUNDAY GIRL by Pip Drysdale

Title: The Sunday Girl

Author: Pip Drysdale
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
Read: August 2018

Expected publication: 1 September 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Any woman who’s ever been involved with a bad, bad man and been dumped will understand what it feels like to be broken, broken-hearted and bent on revenge. Taylor Bishop is hurt, angry and wants to destroy Angus Hollingsworth in the way he destroyed her: Insidiously. Irreparably. Like a puzzle, he’d slowly dissembled … stolen a couple of pieces from, and then discarded, knowing that nobody would ever be able to put it back together ever again. So Taylor consulted The Art of War and made a plan. Then she took the next step – one that would change her life forever.

Then things get really out of control – and The Sunday Girl becomes impossible to put down.

My musings:

There is something irresistibly intriguing about stories of revenge. Admit it – who has not at one point in their lives fantasised about getting even, about getting their own back, even if it’s just directed at the sibling that’s eaten your (no longer) secret stash of lollies or taken a peak at your diary. So when I was offered the chance to read an ARC of The Sunday Girl I felt very excited to indulge the darker side of my psyche.

The premise is not all that different from your usual tale of a jilted woman out for revenge. Taylor is in a turbulent relationship with the much older and sometimes cruel Angus, who she adores for the same mysterious reasons that usually see women remain in dysfunctional relationships despite the agony they cause them. One day Angus, high on drugs, kicks Taylor out for another woman, uploading a private sex tape he has taken of her onto the internet as a parting gift. Jilted, hurt and with her reputation at stake, Taylor swears to get her own back and reclaim her inner tigerwoman. So far, so good. At this stage, I was ready to savour anything that would give Angus his just deserts – the man sounds like a first class a**hole. I particularly enjoyed the way Taylor sets out to forge her plan, using Sun Zu’s book on The Art of War to meticulously plot Angus’ downfall. At this stage, the book was still fun to read, and Taylor is quite the entrepreneur when it comes to making sure that Angus gets a taste of his own medicine. Until Angus comes knocking on Taylor’s door, begging her to take him back. He is remorseful, he has changed, he is a new man – blah-di-blah-di-blah. Taylor, you dimwit, I wanted to shout, don’t fall into this old trap! But she does ....

Overall, I found The Sunday Girl to be a well-written book with some clever and original ideas that had a lot of potential. I really enjoyed some aspects of it, but it ultimately didn’t click with me. Taylor, who originally seemed like a worthy protagonist, made some crappy choices that may be understandable for some, but which didn’t sit well with the story for me and often weren’t grounded in enough reason to make them understandable. For the most part, I felt annoyed at Taylor for stumbling from one bad decision to the next and then whining about it, despite a solid support system of friends and family that would have stood by her. For the most part, her decision-making seemed outlandish and a bit farfetched, and not consistent with the book she quotes as her recipe to exact her revenge. There is a turning point in the story about ¾ into the book that led to a discordant and unsatisfying ending for me.

Summary:

In summary, I felt that The Sunday Girl was a well-written story with some original concepts that will undoubtedly make a fun read for many. For me, the make-or-break of any story is how well I relate to the characters, and this is where this one fell short for me. Taylor’s life choices and decision-making felt alien to me, and ultimately cost me my connection to the story. That’s not to say that I didn’t feel like throttling Angus myself, I would just have gone about it a bit differently!  However, whilst it may not have been my cup of tea, I am sure that it will make a fun romp into the world of a woman scorned for many readers, so if the concept of the story appeals to you, you should give it a go! In any case, an impressive debut and I look forward to reading more from this author in future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

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Audiobook Review: THE DARKNESS by Ragnar Jonasson

Title: The Darkness

Author: Ragnar Jonasson
Narrator: Amanda Redman
Read: July 2018

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

At sixty-four, Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir of the Reykjavik Police is about to take on her last case before she retires: A young woman, an asylum seeker from Russia, found murdered on the seaweed covered rocks of the Vatnsleysuströnd in Iceland.

When Hulda starts to ask questions it isn't long before she realizes that no one can be trusted, and that no one is telling the whole truth. Spanning Reykjavik, the Icelandic highlands and the cold, isolated fjords, The Darkness is a thrilling new crime thriller from one of the biggest new names in Scandi noir.

My musings:

I really love Jonasson's Dark Iceland series, so I couldn't resist picking up The Darkness when it popped up in the list of recommendations on Audible. DI Hulda Hermannsdottir is an interesting character, defying all stereotypes of your average fictional detective. It was refreshing to see an older female protagonist lead the story in this dark mystery, offering not only her vast experience, but also a rich past that made for an intriguing background. In fact, Hulda is only a few months short of retiring when she is being told by her boss that her replacement would be arriving in two weeks' time, at which stage she will be expected to vacate her desk at the station. A most undignified finale to four decades of serving the public! As a parting "gift", or to keep her occupied on her last days on the job, Hulda is allowed to choose one cold case that has haunted her to look into one last time. Forced into a corner and somewhat afraid of being pushed into early retirement, Hulda chooses to re-open the investigation into the death of a young Russian asylum seeker, whose body had been discovered floating in an icy river. Her death, which had been investigated only in the most perfunctory manner by one of Hulda's less diligent colleagues, had been deemed a suicide for lack of evidence. Hulda has never believed this verdict, as it didn't make sense to her that a woman who had been on the verge of being granted asylum would kill herself. Once she starts asking a few questions it becomes obvious to her that some vital clues have been overlooked, and Hulda is becoming more and more convinced that the Russian woman had been murdered.

I can never resist a story about a cold case, as I find them so intriguing. The lies, the secrets, the little clues uncovered one by one – it all makes for fascinating reading! Jonasson offers his usual cold, bleak atmosphere to this story (which I enjoyed), and a straight-forward prose that tells this tale in an almost matter-of-fact voice. Even though I found myself getting invested in Hulda’s story very quickly, there were a few elements that did not work well for me. Some parts of the story dealt with Hulda’s early childhood, which formed part of her later personality. Whilst intrigued with these snapshots into Hulda’s past, they managed to make the story a bit disjointed and didn’t marry well with the rest of the tale for me. I also think that too many of Hulda’s secrets were revealed too soon. If there is going to be a sequel (I believe this is the first part of a trilogy told in reverse), these details would have been better kept back from the reader, as I felt they didn’t quite gel with the overall picture I had formed of Hulda and make me hesitant to pick up further books in the series. Furthermore, I was a bit underwhelmed by Hulda’s investigation, which lacked much of the suspense and finesse of Jonasson’s other novels. In summary, this was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed parts of it, and not others, and am not sure if the format of a trilogy told in reverse really works for me. 

Book Review: HER NAME WAS ROSE by Claire Allan

Title: Her Name Was Rose

Author: Claire Allan
Publisher: Avon Books UK
Read: June 2018

Expected publication: 28 June 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

When Emily lets a stranger step out in front of her, she never imagines that split second will change her life. But after Emily watches a car plough into the young mother – killing her instantly – she finds herself unable to move on.

And then she makes a decision she can never take back.

Because Rose had everything Emily had ever dreamed of. A beautiful, loving family, a great job and a stunning home. And now Rose’s husband misses his wife, and their son needs a mother. Why couldn’t Emily fill that space?

But as Emily is about to discover, no one’s life is perfect … and not everything is as it seems.

My musings:

Emily, a lonely young woman who has been trying to make a new start after a nasty relationship break-up, finds herself struggling with demons from her past when she becomes an unwilling spectator to a woman’s fatal hit and run accident. Guilt-stricken, she remembers how she prompted the victim to step out in front of her, only to see her being brutally mown down. With dread, she is wondering: was Emily the intended victim? Has she unwittingly sent the young woman to her death? Unable to put her doubts to rest, she looks for the victim’s profile on facebook – a perfect mother, a happy young wife. Everything Emily has ever wanted for herself. In a fit of longing for this perfect life, she applies for the dead woman’s old job, and discovers that it is not all that difficult to slip into someone else’s life ....

Her Name Was Rose starts off with a hidden sense of danger and menace that had me instantly hooked, and I was keen to find out more about Emily’s fate. The premise of someone slipping into a dead woman’s shoes sounded very intriguing, and I was keen to see how the author would play this.

I soon discovered that Emily was in many ways an infuriating, tormented characters (I am not completely sure whether I mean this in a good or a bad way). As a person who possesses at least what you can call rudimentary self-preservation skills (ok, not counting the times I precariously clamber around on slippery rocks to get that perfect bookstagram photo), I found it very difficult to understand Emily’s decision making processes (or lack thereof). This is a character who stumbles from one stupid decision to another, never taking pause to think and evaluate, even as her despairing friends and family advise caution. If it had been down to natural selection, Emily would not have made it to adulthood. The author did try to make Emily out to be a troubled soul, seeking refuge in sedatives and alcohol, falling apart under pressure and rushing into decisions that would get her into trouble. The concept of normal people finding themselves in extraordinary situations makes for a good premise for a thriller, but I felt that Emily’s dark side needed a bit more depth to make her character more credible and better fit the mould of unreliable narrator she is supposed to present.

I read a lot of psychological thrillers and like them best dark and twisty, messing with my mind. According to the author, she is new to the thriller genre, which is perhaps why some aspects of the story read more like a relationship drama to me, making me long for a bit more suspense and mystery. Without coming across too critical or a smart-arse (I’m trying for constructive feedback), these were the elements that did not work so well for me:

SPOILER ALERT - DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK

*) Too much being revealed too son, i.e. in the form of Rose’s diary, which gave away those very elements that would have created doubt in my mind as to the truthfulness of the main players. I am finding more and more that diary entries in mysteries rarely work for me, as there is a fine art to making them credible. If we had not had Rose’s POV to the time leading up to her death, there would have been mystery. As it was, all roles were defined very early on, leaving few surprises in store.

*) Threads that started off promising and mysterious, but ultimately didn’t go anywhere: eg Emily initially thought that Rose's accident was an attempt to kill Emily. However, this undercurrent of danger to Emily just petered out along the way and unfortunately never lived up to its full potential (which I thought it had).

*) Unconvincing red herrings: whilst Emily has a few suspicions as to who was behind Rose’s death, there was little doubt as to the “goodies” and “baddies” in this story – also largely due to Rose’s diary giving things away too early. I would have liked for some characters to be less predictable, which would have added to the mystery.

Enough said.  This is my very personal opinion and may not be an issue for other readers at all. Allan writes well, and addresses some very topical themes in her novel, such as mental illness, domestic violence, bereavement etc, which come to play in various parts of the story. Fans of the author’s earlier work or readers who enjoy a character driven drama will undoubtedly enjoy this story of dysfunctional relationships, but those (like me) who crave dark psychological suspense may find themselves a little bit unsatisfied. However, this was a fast and entertaining read, and I will definitely keep my eyes out for the author’s future books to see whether she fully crosses over to the “dark side”.

 Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books UK for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.