Category: ARC

All Good People Here + Review

All Good People Here By Ashley Flowers

All Good People Here Follows the story of reporter Margot Davies and her endless quest to solve a cold case that has haunted her for more than 20 years. When Margot was 6, her friend and pageant princess January was brutally murdered. Margot was never able to get over the trauma of January’s death, and during Margot’s time as a reporter she came across another case that was eerily similar to January’s but was never able to tie the two together.
Margot travels back to her hometown, the town where it started all those years ago to help her ailing uncle and while she is there ANOTHER murder happens that is ALL to familiar. Will Margot be able to crack this case?

Ashley Flowers is the co-host of the true crime podcast “Crime Junkies”, and this is her debut novel! I’m a huge Crime Junkie fan, I listen to it all the time! I love Ashley and Britt, so I was super pumped when I was approved for this arc, and I had really high expectations! Ashley is an incredible story teller, and this book is very well written.

This book is written in multiple points of view, going from Margot in present day to January’s mom Krissy. I like how Ashley tied the story together between the present and past. This story is a SLOW burn, and it points the finger at literally everyone, so trying to figure out who done it is pointless, which I LOVE. Throughout the book the reader is pointed very convincingly at almost everyone.

One of the things that took away from this book for me was the murdered pageant princess plot. It’s a story we are all too familiar with, and one we all wish we knew the answer to. I feel like that aspect didn’t add to this story, and I wonder if Ashley meant for the parallels to be so strong? To me, it was almost a tired re-telling of that infamous case. While we do find out who and what, the ending felt so rushed for me, and it left a lot of loose ends. One minute we are in a very tense scene with Margot, and the next, its over. It just fell flat for me in that sense.

Overall I enjoyed this book. It was very well written, and stellar for a debut novel. Thank you NetGalley & Random House for my copy of this thriller!

All Good People Here comes out on August 16, 2022

Pre-Order it HERE

Check out the early reviews HERE

Get to know the author HERE

Listen to the Crime Junkies podcast HERE

If you pick up this book, let’s talk about it! Happy reading, friends!

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F**k Buddies+Review

Christa and Eric. Eric and Heather. Johnny and Christa. Paige and Johnny.

Thank you, Lisa Andrew for reaching out to me with an ARC of this spicy book!
First, I want to say that this is not my typical genre, but after reading Lisa’s short story “Kink or Kill” which was an easy 5 star read for me, (Seriously, go read it) I COULD NOT pass up the opportunity to read this book. I am SO glad I took that chance, because this story did not disappoint!

Christa and Eric are set up on a blind date that goes HORRIBLY. HORRIBLY right. I absolutely love the banter these two share throughout the book. They love/hate each other, and I could not get enough! After their first night together they start to have feelings for one another, which is so sweet, until…..HERE COMES JOHNNY! When we are introduced to Johnny who is both Christa and Eric’s best friend, and Heather, who is Christa’s best friend, things get really WILD, really FAST!

This isn’t your typical spicy romance book, if you’re looking for characters that make good and right decisions, this isn’t it! But what I really loved about it was the author wrote the characters in such a way with such depth that I was rooting for THEM ALL! I loved all of them. These morally gray characters are like us all, and that’s what I really enjoyed. Love is messy, humans are messy, and things don’t always go the way you hope, or the way you think they should.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, It was a nice palate cleanser from my norm, and I’m glad I took the chance on it. The only thing that took away from it for me was that some of the dialogue was hard to follow. I had to go back and re-read who said what, but overall, it was well written with relatable characters who I grew to love. It is broken up into 3 books which worked so well with the timeline, and the Author leaves it open to a sequel, which I’m really rooting for!

F**k Buddies comes out on May 1st, and If you pick it up, I have to know-Are you Team Eric or Team Johnny? Let’s talk about it!!

Pre-Order F**k Buddies HERE

Check out Lisa Andrews Blog and Other Titles HERE

Lisa’s Instagram HERE

The Younger Wife + Review

Happy PUB day to Sally Hepworth and The Younger Wife! Thank you Netgalley & MacMillan Audio for my audiobook ARC! This was a good listen, and I really enjoyed it!

The younger wife is a gripping tale of family drama and secrets. This book follows Stephen Aston, an esteemed heart surgeon at the top of his career, his two daughters Rachel and Tully, and his new fiancΓ© Heather. The problem? Stephen is still married. The other problem? Stephens wife Pam has advanced dementia.
When Stephen and his fiancΓ© Heather announce their engagement over lunch, the very FIRST time the girls meet her, they are understandably shocked!
As this story unfolds so does Stephen, he’s secrets, and who he really is.

This story is well written with relatable characters who we really get to know throughout the book. This was my first Sally Hepworth book, and I really enjoyed it. Throughout the book the reader is left questioning a lot about what’s really going on, and if what we think is happening is actually happening! This book is written in 3 POV- Rachel, Tully and Heather which made it interesting but I think it would have added a creepy layer if we were to also have seen it through Stephens eyes. I was left questioning a lot about him, his actions and motives. I mean a lot of times sociopaths don’t need motives BUT I wanted it!

This was a solid book for me, the only thing that I really felt took away from the story was the epilogue. It didn’t really go anywhere.

Overall I liked it and I will definitely pick up more books by this author! If you like family drama and juicy secrets, this is the one you will want to pick up!

Get your copy of The You her Wife by Sally Hepworth HERE

If you’re interested in all things Sally Hepworth Check out her WEBSITE

Happy reading, friends!

Whispers

πŸ’€BOOK REVIEWπŸ’€

Stacey is the coolest aunt EVER hands-down!
When she organizes a trip for her two sisters and their kids to the happiest place on earth, none of them could have ever prepared for the nightmare that awaited them!

This debut thriller by Bonne Bartron is everything I never knew I needed! It was a perfect spooky season read, and although I’m not a gal that is easily creeped out, as a mom, this one did me in.
If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE a strong female protagonist, and this book has three soooooo-I was sold on the first chapter.
This book deals with subject matter that is SO RELEVANT RIGHT NOW and that is one of the things I absolutely loved about it. I like a good twisty mystery that feels relevant, fresh, and scary all the while delivering those twisty blows I live for! This book is a slow burn that I devoured happily-with the lights on, and definitely not before bed.
Without giving too much away because I really want y’all to read this book, I will say this- step aside Slenderman & Momo, Mr. Tasty Treats is here, and he’s coming for your babies. πŸ’€

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

If I Disappear +Review

Eliza Jane Brazier's debut novel If I Disappear is a campy, culty delight! 

I live for the creep factor, the who-done-it mystery, where the fingers seem to point in every direction and you just can't for the life of you seem to figure any of it out. 

Sera is a lonely woman, a divorcee who has recently lost her baby, her husband, and is on the verge of losing her job and even her home when her favorite podcast host seems to have gone missing. 
Rachel is the host of a true-crime podcast called "Murder, she spoke." When Rachel suddenly stops airing episodes, Sera takes it upon herself to travel to Rachel's hometown to solve this mystery. At first Sera is unsure if Rachel is even missing, I mean, after all, she doesn't even really know this person, does she? 
Once she arrives at Rachel's family's summer dude ranch, she finds it in disrepair, not at all the idyllic ranch Rachel painted for her podcast listeners, and she quickly realizes something is amiss. there is a mystery to be solved here, a missing woman, and EVERYONE is a suspect!

This book is a slow burn, an unraveling of small clues. Just when I would have an AHA moment,  thinking I had it all figured out, I would be left with 12 more questions, and honestly, i'm not mad about that aspect of the story at all! 
The protagonist's personality wasn't developed enough for me to connect with her, and her personality fell flat for me. I feel like she was trying to be portrayed as strong and fearless but she felt very one dimensional. 
I was hoping to have an explosive ending after such a slow unraveling, but it wasn't that for me at all. So many loose ends needed to be tied up, leaving the reader with an open ending and even more questions, What happened to Rachel? What did Sera do? How did it end? I had Sopranos flashbacks all over again. 

Overall, this was a solid debut, it was a good book, and I can't wait to see what they do with the TV series!

If I Disappear will be out on January 26, 2021 (which happens to be my birthday, BTW!) So set a reminder, you’re not going to want to miss this one!

Thank you Berkley Publishing & Netgalley for my gifted copy of this book!

The Drowning Kind+Review



β€œMiracles are not without their price, my darling”

Jennifer McMahon has done it again, folks!


Another beautifully written timeless ghost story. I have grown to expect nothing less from McMahon, as every book I have read is better than the last, the next story more original, more chilling, and more real than the last!


Come sit, let me tell you a story. The story of Sparrow’s Crest, the beautiful, sprawling stone estate built in the Vermont countryside upon the healing waters of the Brandengurg Springs. The springs, said to be cursed, said to hold healing powers, and grant wishes. These springs hold a secret far more powerful than any one person can fathom.
This story is a brilliant, refreshing ghost story that I will not soon forget.
Beautifully written from two POV is the story of Jax, who has come home to Sparrow’s crest after her sister Lexie has drowned in the spring fed pool on the property of the estate- and the story of Ethel, her great-grandmother who’s husband built the home upon the rubble of the hotel that was once there.
Jax and Lexie have been estranged for many years, a strained relationship that all returns to those waters. That pool. That house.
McMahon take us on Jax’s mission to understand what happened to Lexie in her final days. Coming back to Sparrow’s Crest after so many years, finding it in shambles, papers upon papers all leading back to the springs; Lexie spends her time there trying to unravel the mystery of her sisters death.


I love McMahons timeless style of storytelling, and I can honestly say I was not prepared for this one. It hit me right in the gut, and held on until the very end. Food? Water? Sleep? Who needs those things? I found myself gripping my kindle underneath my covers in the middle of the night imagining the bumps, wet feet padding on my wood floor….my front door creaking open….One piece of advice? Don’t read this book in the dark.

Brilliant. I can NOT wait to share this book with everyone, and I can NOT wait to have a paperback copy in my greedy little hands.

Thank you Netgalley & scour Press Books for the advanced copy of my new favorite ghost story!

The Drowning Kind

First of all I want to say THANK YOU to Simon & Schuster Scout Press & NetGalley for my advanced copy of The Drowning Kind by Jennifer Mc Mahon. Without the wonderful publishers and Netgalley I wouldn’t have the opportunity to review so many fantastic books. I love what I do, and I couldn’t do it without them!

So, let’s talk about this delicious morsel- Not only is this book beautiful, it is a modern day ghost story and that is something I can NOT miss!
Jennifer McMahon is the author of one of my favorite books, The Winter People, and from the sound of it, this book is going to be just as good.


DESCRIPTIONπŸ‘‡

Be careful what you wish for.
When social worker Jax receives nine missed calls from her older sister, Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax arrives at the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property. And as she dives deeper into the research herself, she discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she could have ever imagined.

In 1929, thirty-seven-year-old newlywed Ethel Monroe hopes desperately for a baby. In an effort to distract her, her husband whisks her away on a trip to Vermont, where a natural spring is showcased by the newest and most modern hotel in the Northeast. Once there, Ethel learns that the water is rumored to grant wishes, never suspecting that the spring takes in equal measure to what it gives.

Do you like ghost stories? Paranormal thrillers that will keep you up at night, guessing and checking every noise you hear? If that is your jam, Jennifer McMahon is your girl! I was never really into the paranormal stuff until I read The Winter People, and I was hooked. Not only does she write a kickass ghost story, but the mystery had me reeling! I love a good twisty book.

What is your favorite ghost story?

The Drowning Kind will be published on April 06, 2021, so keep an eye out for it!

The girl from Widow Hills

Book title: The girl from Widow Hills

Author: Megan Miranda

Pub Date: June 23, 2020

Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller

“I was the girl who survived. The girl who held on. The girl you prayed for, or at least pretended to pray for-thankful most of all that it wasn’t your own child lost down there, in the dark. And after: I was the miracle. The sensation. The story.”

The girl from Widow hills is a psychological thriller hold the thrill. For me, Arden’s story fell flat in so many ways that at several points during the book I had to almost talk myself into finishing it.
Arden was 6 years old when she was swept away by the flood waters while sleepwalking one night. They found her days later clinging to a storm drain, miraculously alive. Coming upon the 20 year reunion of her rescue she braces herself for the flood of media attention even though she has moved away and changed her name. As the 20 year reunion creeps closer she finds herself sleepwalking again, something that hasn’t happened since the incident all those years ago…Only this time when she is jarred awake by a ringing phone in the distance, she stumbles over a corpse. A mystery man….

I had high hopes for this book, but I felt that it was repetitive-how many times do you have to reiterate to the reader that she was sleepwalking and was swept away by the flood waters, how many times do we have to hear about the lone tiny shoe clinging to the storm drain, a clue that she must have been stuck in the drain system, how many times do we have to hear that her mother used the story of her survival for her own gain? I read these points more than several times throughout the book and was internally screaming each time I heard about them..AGAIN.
I did not connect to any of the characters in this book, they all felt void of personality to me, Arden was bland,kind of a shitty selfish friend, and the other characters in the book lacked back story and any kind of details that would emotionally connect the reader to them…none of them had any personality traits that stood out to me.
It’s been a few years since I have read a Megan Miranda book, which was why I was so excited to pick this one up. I enjoyed Miranda’s other books, and was hoping to enjoy this one just as much, but I didn’t.
HOWEVER, I will give it a solid 3 stars based on the fact that I did not predict the plot twist at the end AT ALL. I did not see that one coming. It happened so fast, within 4 pages the climax hit, missed, and was over.
If you are up for an atmospheric thriller with a good twist at the end, pick this one up, you wont see this twisty ending coming!

*Many thanks to Netgalley & publishers for my advanced copy of this book!*

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The Burning

🌟🌟🌟/5

Title: The Burning

Author: Laura Bates

Pub date: April 07, 2020

Genre: YA Fiction

“We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn. And we’re not putting up with it anymore.”

Anna and her mother make a new home in Scotland hundreds of miles and a new country away from the home she grew up in. Told from the perspective of Anna Clark as her and her mother navigate a new life together without her father, who has passed away, trying to put her past of online sexual harassment and abuse by her friends and school mates behind her. They hope by erasing all of Anna’s social media, and moving, the problem will go away on it’s own.

They move into an old cottage by the sea, which Anna finds once belonged to a woman accused of witchcraft, and their stories begin weaving together from there, with Anna having troubling, vivid flashbacks of the woman’s life.

While I am not the target audience for this book, as a woman, I connected to it in more than one way. The readers are taken down the paths of two women, while hundreds of years apart, find themselves in similar situations, discovering just how powerful, and detrimental a rumor can be. This book would be beneficial for any woman to read, with a powerful story that is relevant to our day and age, and deals with the many faces of abuses young women have to deal with, Online bullying & Harassment, Slut-shaming, rape, victim blaming, just to name a few. These topics are dealt with in the present day of Anna’s life, and the life of the accused witch that lived hundreds of years ago.

I found the way Bates weaved the women’s stories together quite lovely, and the “visions” not only fit within the book at perfect times, they fit the story so well that both of the narratives had my heart breaking for these girls at the same time.

This book is a slow burn, taking quite some time for the reader to discover just exactly what Anna was running from in her previous life, and while I enjoyed this book, I found it incredibly tedious waiting for the author to unravel the details. I was expecting more of a climax, an AH-HA moment that felt like it never came to fruition, and the story just fizzled out. All in all it was an ok debut that dealt with important subject matter relevant to girls in our day and age, however I felt that it fell flat for me in more ways than one.

**Thank you Netgalley and publishers for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**

The Burning will be available on April 07, 2020

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About the author

Wild at Heart

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

“I love seeing this.” I curl my gloved hand around his. “Thank you.” Is this what life with Jonah means? Will he whisk me away to remote places and show me awe-inspiring wonders? Things I had no idea about and things I may have heard about but but never realized how much I would appreciate? Because if that’s the case, I’ll never get enough of this new life with him.

It’s fine. I’m fine. I just have the most head -pounding book hangover of all time….but I’ll be fine.

Wild at Heart was my most anticipated read of 2020, and when you get the ARC of your most anticipated book of the YEAR, you throw everything else away and read it!

Have you ever moved to a new place and felt so lost, amazed, alone, happy, confused, homesick, and every other emotion possible for your heart to feel? That is how I felt reading this book. KA Tucker has done it again. She has captured the pristine beauty of the Alaskan frontier with such poetic ease that it made my mouth water, and consumed my heart with wanderlust.

I was wondering as I started this book if any newly introduced characters could live up to Wren,(who I miss, by the way, because, YES, it IS possible to fall in love with a fictional man!) Agnes and Mabel, but I found myself falling in love, yet again, with them all. The Curmudgeon was my favorite, he captured my heart with his mean, stubborn personality, and found that he was easily my favorite character in the book.

Wild at Heart is a slow burn, with delicious morsels of love, adventure, and new family scattered throughout so perfectly, that it had me wanting more. I finished this book in ONE DAY, I could not put it down, and I have the WORST book hangover of all time, wondering if there will be a novella sequel soon, so we can catch up on Jonah and Calla’s new life they have built together.

It is rare that I find a book that elicits such feelings within my heart, and I found myself laughing, crying, and on edge more than once throughout this book, especially when it came to the BEARS! I love that Calla has found her own voice, strength and purpose within Alaska and her new home!

Wild at Heart is just as amazing as The Simple Wild with complex, fun, lovable characters, a beautiful setting, and a love story that will make your heart swell as you realize you have fallen in love with everyone in the book…..again!

I 100% recommend this book, It will leave a lasting impression on your heart that is not easily shaken.

Wild at Heart will be available on 2-18-20. I hope you pick up this book, and I hope you love it as much as I did! Let me know, I would love to talk about it with you….or ANYONE! Yes, it was that good.

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About The Author