Book Review: MIRACLE CREEK by Angie Kim

Title: MIRACLE CREEK

Author: Angie Kim
Read: June 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

all the stars!

Book Description:

A literary courtroom thrilled about an immigrant family and a young single mother accused of killing her autistic son, Miracle Creek is a powerhouse debut about how far we'll go to protect our families, and our deepest secrets.

In rural Miracle Creek, Virginia, Young and Pak Yoo run an experimental medical treatment device known as the Miracle Submarine. A pressurized oxygen chamber that patients enter for therapeutic “dives,” it's also a repository of hopes and dreams: the dream of a mom that her child can be like other kids; the dream of a young doctor desperate to cure his infertility and save his marriage; the dream of the Yoos themselves, Korean immigrants who have come to the United States so their teenage daughter can have a better life.

When the oxygen chamber mysteriously explodes, killing two people, all these dreams shatter with it, and the ensuing murder trial uncovers imaginable secrets and lies. In Miracle Creek, Angie Kim takes a classic form—courtroom drama—and draws on her own experience as an immigrant, a lawyer, and the mother of a real-life "submarine" patient to turn it into something wholly original, unputdownable . . . real. This is a spellbinding novel by an exciting new voice.

My musings:

Where do I even start to review this book? How could I ever do it justice? Every now and then a book comes along that is a perfect fit, that touches your very soul and worms its way into your heart to stay there, whispering its secrets long after you have turned the last page. MIRACLE CREEK was that type of book for me. Not since BEARTOWN have I shed so many tears as I did here! If you have heard about this book (and frankly, who hasn’t), then be assured that the hype is real. There is something in this book for just about every reader. Mystery, suspense, a lively courtroom drama, immigration, parenting, lies .... all woven into a brilliant web that will keep you up at night.

Angie Kim has hit the ground running – with a debut novel that has already wormed its way into the hearts of millions, she has firmly established her place on many favourites lists. This is an author who doesn’t do things by halves. If you’re a parent, MIRACLE CREEK will hit you like a freight train right where it hurts most, because when it comes down to it, parents and children form the centre of this brilliant novel. We all want the best for our children, right? Only who decides what is best? How will our choices affect our and their lives? And what if your child is sick, and in pain, and you’re just trying to stay afloat here and do the best you can?

Told in the forms of a court case, the story starts with the horrific death of two people – a child and a woman – in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber used as a controversial treatment for children and adults with disabilities or conditions resistant to standard medical interventions. A woman, Elizabeth, stands accused of having lit the fire that was the cause of the deaths. But it soon becomes apparent that all is not as straight forward as first thought, as each witness relives the time leading up to the explosion.

It is a rare skill to offer multiple POVs and make each one as compelling as the next. My heart bled for these people as their deepest secrets were being exposed. The butterfly effect of little and big lies. A tiny decision altering the fates of many. I have let this book digest for a few days after finishing it and before putting my thoughts to paper, but still little things keep popping up in my head. The what if’s. The why’s. The what-would-you-do’s. I could write pages and pages about all the things that deeply affected me, but this review would be way too long and contain too many spoilers, so I will just say two words: read it! READ IT TODAY! IMMEDIATELY!

I listened to the audio version of this book, which also contained an interesting interview with the author. It was not surprising to hear that Kim used to be lawyer, which may account for the realism of her courtroom scenes. Like Pak and Young, she is from a Korean background. Like Theresa and Elizabeth, she has tried HBOT for one of her children. With so much personal experience packaged into a fictional story, it practically fizzled with emotion. It all rolled out so vividly in my head that I feel I have been there, listened in, met these people in real life.

Summary:

Told with heart and insight, this is a powerful, thought provoking and touching novel that will stay in your heart and your mind for a long time to come. It is definitely one of the best books I have read all year, and one I will re-read in years to come and take even more things away with me. I can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next!

Thank you to the Traveling Friends Reads Group for the fabulous buddy read! I loved discussing this one.

Book Review: DEAR WIFE by Kimberly Belle

Title: DEAR WIFE

Author: Kimberly Belle
Publisher: Park Row
Read: June 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

Beth Murphy is on the run...

For nearly a year, Beth has been planning for this day. A day some people might call any other Wednesday, but Beth prefers to see it as her new beginning--one with a new look, new name and new city. Beth has given her plan significant thought, because one small slip and her violent husband will find her.

Sabine Hardison is missing...

A couple hundred miles away, Jeffrey returns home from a work trip to find his wife, Sabine, is missing. Wherever she is, she's taken almost nothing with her. Her abandoned car is the only evidence the police have, and all signs point to foul play.

As the police search for leads, the case becomes more and more convoluted. Sabine's carefully laid plans for her future indicate trouble at home, and a husband who would be better off with her gone. The detective on the case will stop at nothing to find out what happened and bring this missing woman home. Where is Sabine? And who is Beth? The only thing that's certain is that someone is lying and the truth won't stay buried for long.

My musings:

The blurb had me at “Beth Murphy is on the run.” I admit I am a total sucker for books that feature someone running away, living under a fake identity, a cat-and-mouse game, a chase – the excitement of it all, the adrenaline rush! It’s like one of those dreams where you run from an enemy, heart pounding, feet like lead, but suddenly discover a magical power ....

I am getting carried away, but it is true that this was a fast paced, fun read for me. Not fun as in the  issues tackled in the story, which after all feature domestic abuse, murder and more, but as in compelling, entertaining and hard to put down. The equivalent of a good car chase in an action movie. With the bonus of a plucky and clever female lead who really made this story for me, even though it took me most of the book to work out who she was.

As much as it entertained, it’s a difficult one to review, because of – you know – spoilers. So read the blurb if you must, but go into it blindly and let the web of mystery engulf you. Take pleasure in unravelling the knots one at a time, which really is the essence of a story like this. There are multiple POVs to take you along on a ride, and you may find them a bit confusing at first, but trust me when I say it will all come together in the end. In the best possible way.

Compulsive, well-plotted, clever and un-putdownable are just a few words that instantly come to mind when I think about DEAR WIFE. After a few miserable experiences with thrillers lately, my faith has been restored. Thank you, Kimberly Belle, for bringing a breath of fresh air back into the genre. If you are looking for the perfect summer or holiday read, then this clever thriller one should definitely be on your list. I now need to read the author’s other books!

Thank you to Edelweiss and Park Row for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review. And to the Traveling Sisters Group for another awesome buddy read and for putting up with my WTH????? questions as I was trying to work out what was going on here! 

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Book Review: THE LAST HOUSE GUEST by Megan Miranda

Title: THE LAST HOUSE GUEST

Author: Megan Miranda
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Read: June 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

Littleport, Maine is like two separate towns: a vacation paradise for wealthy holidaymakers and a simple harbour community for the residents who serve them. Friendships between locals and visitors are unheard of - but that's just what happened with Avery Greer and Sadie Loman.

Each summer for a decade the girls are inseparable - until Sadie is found dead. When the police rule the death a suicide, Avery can't help but feel there are those in the community, including a local detective and Sadie's brother Parker, who blame her. Someone knows more than they're saying, and Avery is intent on clearing her name before the facts get twisted against her.

My musings:

A young woman’s death, which has been ruled a suicide. Her friend, who cannot come to terms with it. A tightly knit community controlled by a powerful family. The stage is set – against the vivid backdrop of the picturesque Maine coast. And when one year after the tragedy the victim’s friend, Avery Greer, starts questioning things relating to that terrible night, she uncovers pieces that do not fit. But there are people that will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden ....

Yes, there is nothing new in the concept of someone looking into a friend’s death and finding something suspicious that leads to a whole chain of events, but I love this kind of story: the slow unravelling of clues, the mounting tension, the lies, the intrigue! I loved Megan Miranda’s writing in THE PERFECT STRANGER, and I really enjoyed it here. I especially liked the way Avery started off as a bit of an aloof, unlikeable character, but bit by bit reveals more and more about her past that made my heart go out to her. I would have loved to be able to become closer to Avery a bit earlier in the book, as this added a lot to my enjoyment of the story, but I guess it managed to build the intrigue and suspense to be kept in the dark about various things.

By far my favourite part though was the setting! A small community perched on top of rugged cliffs, reliant on and yet strangely resentful of “the summer people”, those residents with holiday homes in town and those who visit annually, making this a busy metropolis during the summer holidays. We live in a town just like that, and I related to a lot of the dynamics and the small town politics. The there are the Logans, the rich untouchable family who own half the town, have the other half in their pocket and seem to get away with murder. It isn’t surprising that Avery falls under their spell after her family’s death. It was her gradual disentangling that was interesting to watch, and I loved witnessing how she grew more confident and self-reliant as the story progressed.

THE LAST HOUSE GUEST may not offer anything new or unexpected to the seasoned mystery fan (even though the ending was a bit of a surprise and capped the book off nicely for me), and yet the well-trodden path of family secrets worked really well for me here. I read this book in one big sitting and was eager to find out what would happen next. The only thing I struggled with at times was the dual timeline, set in the present and one year earlier on the night of Sadie’s death. With timelines so close together, and set in the same place, it was sometimes difficult to work out what was happening now or then without getting muddled, and a couple of things did not totally gel for me in regards to timing. However, mostly all the threads came together nicely and the book made for an enjoyable read. With a setting like this, it would make the perfect book to take on holidays and read in a hammock somewhere sipping a pina colada and trying to solve the puzzle. I look forward to the author’s next book! 

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

Book Review and Blog Tour: FORGET MY NAME by J.S. Monroe

Title: FORGET MY NAME

Author: J.S. Monroe
Publisher: Aria Books
Read: June 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

She arrived at the train station after a difficult week at work. Her bag had been stolen, and with it, her identity. Her whole life was in there – passport, wallet, house key. When she tried to report the theft, she couldn’t remember her own name. All she knew was her own address.

Now she's outside Tony and Laura's front door. She says she lives in their home. They say they have never met her before.

One of them is lying.

My musings:

Amnesia is a popular theme for a mystery, and I can rarely resist the pull of such a premise. It is such a terrifying thought, not being able to remember who you are, or where you have been, and if well done, usually makes for a good read! However, it is also a tricky theme to pull off, and I usually go in fully expecting to have to suspend disbelief in parts to make things work. This is where it gets tricky for me, because I am really bad at doing just that!

We know from the blurb that a young woman turns up at a private house in Wiltshire, claiming that she has no idea of who she is, other than that the house seems familiar. Concerned about the stranger’s welfare, Tony and Laura, the owners of the house, offer her a bed for the night until she can get help. As the story unfolds, we learn that the young woman, who now calls herself Jemma, a name given to her by Tony, has both retrograde as well as anterograde amnesia, which means that she cannot remember the past and is also unable to form new memories. It may make for an intriguing premise, though I have known people with traumatic brain injuries who had that affliction, and let me tell you, it’s no picnic in the park. Imagine eating a meal and then not being able to remember having eaten. Every place is strange, because you can’t form any memories of having been there. Everyone is a stranger, because you can’t form the memories of ever having met them. Terrifying! Of course, this level of disability would not work well in a novel, so Jemma’s affliction is much less extreme than that. So even though some things may have been modified for the sake of entertainment, it still makes a good recipe for an unreliable narrator. Who is Jemma? And what does she want?

J.S. Monroe sure knows how to write a twisty, original thriller, and if you go in expecting entertainment rather than a life-changing story about someone with amnesia, then you should enjoy this one. There are twists and turns galore, a bunch of unlikeable, unreliable people with different agendas and a great mystery at the heart of it: who is Jemma? The atmosphere gets a lot darker and more menacing towards the later part of the book, at which stage you will have a pretty good idea of where it is heading, except perhaps for .... No, I will not give anything away here. Let me just tell you that there was one sinister element that managed to gobsmack me. I will never be able to look at one of my favourite sea creatures again without thinking of this story. Ugghhh!

Whilst Jemma battled with her damaged memory, I struggled with my own affliction, the suspension of disbelief, trying to silence the little nagging part of my logical brain that constantly questioned things. So if you are a reader who likes all threads to link up and all elements to be scientifically correct, then you may feel some of the frustration of the little devil on my right shoulder whispering questions in my ear throughout. But I won’t give anything away here, because the story hinges on it surprise elements, of which there are many. Points for totally blindsiding me – I really had no idea where this was headed, and the final reveal came totally out of left field.

Summary:

If you are looking for a fast-paced, original and entertaining thriller that holds quite a few surprises, and can overlook a few little holes in the story, then you have come to the right place! 

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

Book Review: THE FRAGMENTS by Toni Jordan

Title: THE FRAGMENTS

Author: Toni Jordan
Publisher: Text Publishing
Read: June 2019

Expected publication: 10 September 2019 in US and CA, available in Australia now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

Book Description:

INGA Karlson died in a fire in New York in the 1930s, leaving behind three things: a phenomenally successful first novel, the scorched fragments of a second book— and a mystery that has captivated generations of readers.

Nearly fifty years later, Brisbane bookseller Caddie Walker is waiting in line to see a Karlson exhibition featuring the famous fragments when she meets a charismatic older woman.

The woman quotes a phrase from the Karlson fragments that Caddie knows does not exist—and yet to Caddie, who knows Inga Karlson’s work like she knows her name, it feels genuine.

Caddie is electrified. Jolted her from her sleepy, no-worries life in torpid 1980s Brisbane, she is driven to investigate: to find the clues that will unlock the greatest literary mystery of the twentieth century.

My musings:

What an unexpected gem this book turned out to be! It contained a bit of everything I enjoy – a compelling mystery, an atmospheric setting, interesting historical elements, two enigmatic female protagonists and just a slight smattering of romance. And what book lover doesn’t like reading about a mystery surrounding an old classic book and famous author?

Caddie, a bookseller living in a shared flat in 1980s Brisbane is drawn into an age old mystery when she encounters a mysterious old woman at an exhibition featuring the “fragments”, charred pieces of an old manuscript written by  famous writer Inga Karlson, who perished in a terrible warehouse fire in New York in 1939. Caddie has long been a fan of Karlson’s writing, an obsession passed on to her by her dead father, and she is intrigued by the woman’s intimate knowledge of the story contained in the few pages that survived the fire. Is it possible that this mysterious stranger had read the manuscript before it was destroyed? Never one daunted by a mystery, Caddie sets out to make enquiries with some old university contacts, finding that countless academics have tried and failed to solve the mystery of Karlson’s death and her lost manuscript. But sometimes a new pair of eyes can see things that others have missed, and Caddie is sure that the mystery woman may have some answers – if only she can find her again.

I read and loved Toni Jordan’s first book ADDITION  a few years ago, and although her writing style in THE FRAGMENTS is very different, as befits the story and the characters, I was immediately hooked from the moment Caddie meets Rachel on the steps of the museum. It is rare to find a book that unfolds in two different time periods and through two separate POVs and yet be equally drawn to both lead characters and story lines. It must be one of the most difficult things to achieve for an author, and yet Jordan has mastered this wonderfully here. I was so fully invested in both women’s lives that the changing POVs did just what they had intended – ratchet up tension and suspense – rather than favouring one character over the other.

I love books that feature historical mysteries, especially ones that slowly unfold through investigations into the past by a protagonist living in the present, complete with the real-life frustrations and hurdles they encounter along the way. Maybe stemming from a time I had a job that involved research, which always resembles a treasure hunt of sorts, every unearthing of a new clue a minor triumph. Seeing that Caddie’s POV pre-dates the internet era, Caddie does a lot of old-style investigating, which for me added extra depth and intrigue to the story. We also have the bonus of getting glimpses into the time-period Caddie is investigating through the life of yet another feisty and enigmatic female protagonist, Rachel, whose life story will ultimately hold all the answers Caddieis looking for.

Jordan’s writing flows effortlessly, all pieces falling into place seamlessly, and she paints the setting so well that it almost felt like time travel into 1930s New York, which I loved. It’s almost impossible to categorise this book, as it contains so many elements, perfectly balanced to create a compelling and unforgettable story. And of course there is also one of my favourite elements in fiction – the “book inside a book” concept, as we get tastes of excerpts from Karlson’s famous novels.

Summary:

THE FRAGMENTS is Australian fiction at its best. I loved every minute of it, and as the tension increased towards the end of the book I found it almost impossible to tear myself away – I may have even held my breath a few times as the story raced towards its heart pounding finale. Both readers of mysteries and historical fiction should enjoy this one, and if you are also a book lover you will be intrigued by this wonderful story that spans several decades and takes us from one side of the world to another in the pursuit of answers. Very highly recommended!

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