Make Up Reading

Another wonderful Tracy Crosswhite novel. Every time I open a Tracy Crosswhite novel I get excited. I would put Tracy right up there next to Kinsey Milhone as my favorite female leads in a mystery series. This novel did not let me down for the most part.  Before, I get into the mystery let me say what I really liked and the one or two things I felt the need to nit pick a bit. Things I loved? I think one of the best parts of this novel was the bumped up roles of the rest of the A team. We got some good quality time with Faz and Del as well as some good moments with Tracy and Dan and with Tracy and her partner Kins. I liked that Tracy realized in this book that she is not alone, that the A team are her family. Heck, even Nolasco had an actual bit of good advice. My main little nit pick? It is kind of silly but, Tracy's whole watching everything she put in her mouth thing. That is something new added to the series and I just found it to be a bit annoying. It didn't fit her charac...

Once again another great Tracy Crosswhite novel. As you know by now if you happen to read my reviews I adore these books. These mysteries are not the cozy kind but I can't help but feel a fondness that I very rarely feel towards the main characters in more hard boiled mysteries. In all actuality I think that the only other detective in the harder novels that I feel such an attachment to is Kinsey from the Sue Grafton Alphabet novels.  This time around Tracy is dealing with two mysteries, one in the present and one that took place back in 1976. A friend of Tracy's asks her to please look into a case that her now deceased Father was never able to let go of. The case is not a cold case in the sense that it was closed but, her Father seemed to not be happy with the results. The case revolves around the death of Kimi Kanasket a Native American girl in a small town. The case hits Tracy very close to her heart because of the death of her sister. She knows she must solve this case. Mea...

I really love the Tracy Crosswhite series. I read "My Sister's Grave" last summer and enjoyed it so much and was waiting for the new book. I was so pleasantly surprised by the first novel. Tracy, Dan and their world completely won me over. I feel that if you are reading what I would consider darker mystery it is important to really like and care about the main characters. I kind of befriend the main characters in a book series and enjoy each and every visit with them. Robert Dugoni's second Crosswhite book was even better than the first. "Her Final Breath" revisits the murder Tracy was investigating in the first book before she had to leave. In the first book we find out about Tracy's past and visit her home town in the new book we see what Tracy's world in Seattle is like, we meet her partner and the other cops she works with. We meet her cat Roger and of course we follow her as she solves the mystery. I have not liked a character as much as Tracy s...

I really, really enjoyed this book a lot. I loved Tracy & Dan and I am looking forward to more books. This is not a cozy mystery, I would not exactly call it a hard boiled noir either. I think this is somewhere in between. I like that there was a softness to Tracy even though she had been through so much. I also really enjoyed the world and I can't wait for the next book to come out! I give this my highest recommendation possible!

If you are a fan of Alfred Hitchcock or really any classic noir/thriller movies you will love this book. It was fast paced and extremely well written. Please ignore any comparisons to "Gone Girl"because it is nothing like it except they are both thrillers. It has been years, when will they stop comparing everything with that book? I loved it but each book is different! Anna Fox is an agoraphobic who has spent the last eleven months locked in her Harlem brownstone, hiding from the world. Separated from her husband and daughter after a traumatic event Anna spends her time on an agoraphobic website, viewing classic film noir, watching her neighbors through the lens of her camera and drinking wine, lots and lots of wine. She rarely sees anyone in person except for those who come to her home. Her physical therapist Bina, her therapist Dr.Fielding and her tenant David who resides in her basement apartment. Her life is....well, her life. Is she happy? Of course not, but she is just ...

I chose to read this because Peter Monn loved it so I had to pick it up! I really enjoyed it. As someone who is a big Agatha Christie fan this was right up my alley!  1930's, rural Vermont.... Albert Ellingham loves games more than anything. He decides to create Ellingham Academy a school where brilliant and different thinkers can attend for free. The concept of the academy is making learning a fun game. Things are going great until Albert's wife and daughter are kidnapped and a smart female student is killed. The kidnapper/killer wants to play a game and wrote a letter in the form of riddle signed Truly Devious.  Somehow the school manages to survive the kidnappings and murders.  Many years later Stevie Bell, a crime enthusiast with a keen ability to see the little things no one else seems to notice. She decides to write a letter to Ellingham Academy explaining how she wants more than anything to solve the murders and kidnappings. She has read every book, newspaper clipp...

Okay, so let me start by saying that I am not ashamed to be a V.C. Andrews fan. I love the all the books written by her. I don't mind the early books that were written by ghost writer Andrew Neiderman but after the "Ruby" series I felt the books kinda lost their fun. These books came into my life at a time I really needed escapism. I was very sick with asthma and I was kinda stuck in the house, going back and forth between the living room and my room so I really bonded with the leads in the various Andrews books. I felt as if I had no control so they were kind of perfect for me. Anyway, back to my reviews because really, who cares about my crap! lol! "My Sweet Audrina" was my introduction to the Southern Gothic world and I fell in love. I love the way Andrews wrote. There was an almost lyrical way to her writing. You really become part of the word she creates.  I am not going to go into the plot of this book because I feel it would be hard to do without spoilers...

First off I want to thank NetGalley and Blue Moon Publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel. I have just recently discovered this series and it has become one of my favorite series ever in the mystery genre. I requested this book and then realized it was the third book in a series so I quickly picked up the first two books and read them back to back so that I would not be lost. It was a smart move because I think I would have been slightly left out of the relationships. I actually think that is a good thing because BR Myers does not spend time on a full chapter of back story. She does pepper the information throughout the book when you need a refresher here or there. I think that is a better way to do things as it does not slow down the story. that being said you can totally read this book and not really be lost. You just won't have the ability to see Terry meet each person from the previous books. This book picks up at Christmas time with Terry still stru...

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for this ARC! I love psychological thrillers and I really have a fondness for ones that are set in England. I am just a sucker for a good British novel and this one is perfect. This novel really had everything I could ever want in a thriller. From the first line I was hooked. Jess, who has been long estranged from her sister Emily is reunited at her Mother's funeral. After the sisters reunite Emily asks Jess to move in with her, her husband James,her teenage step-daughter Chloe and her little baby girl Daisy. It seems Em has gone back to work and is in desperate need of a nanny. Perhaps Jess would be interested n taking the job? Jess jumps at the chance to be a part of her sister's life. What happens then becomes a nightmare. On New Year's Eve as James and Emily are at a party and Chloe is out as well so Jess is home alone with baby Daisy only to have her go missing. What takes place after drives the story. Told from various views ...

I really like fairy tale re tellings when they are done well and this was done really, really well. In fact this may have been the best re telling of Cinderella that I have ever read. I recently of Kindle Unlimited for a free trial (I think I am keeping it!) and as I was looking through the books New Years Eve I came across this. I was unsure about picking it up but I am so glad I did. The usual tropes of fairy tales were turned upside down here. The evil Stepmother? Not so evil! The mean, ugly and annoying step sisters? Sweet, pretty and lovely girls. The Prince? Well, yes there is a Prince but I will leave it at that. Fairy Godmother? What's that? This story is dark yet hopeful. Full of magic, romance and love. I always felt that Cinderella in the classic was a hero in many ways. Her kindness in the face of being victimized made her a hero in her own way but THIS Cinderella was a true hero!! The world building is excellent and I am so excited that I am about to read the second bo...

If Buffy and Nancy Drew had a baby it would be Nefertari Hughes! I found this book by accident but I am so thrilled that I did. I had requested the ARC for the third book in the series without realizing it was the third in the series. I was thrilled to find that the first two books were available through Kindle Unlimited. I am so glad I found them. I loved this first book in the series! As someone who grew up reading the old Nancy Drew novels, everything Lois Duncan, R.L Stine and my King of YA Christopher Pike ths was made for me. Nefartari (Terry) Hughes finds herself in the smaller city of Devonshire in New England after Terry and her Mother were involved in a collapse on a dig in Egypt. It also left her leg crippled. Terry's motto have become "Do Not Get Involved". It becomes increasingly harder to not get involved. She starts to become attached to her partners in her history class, outcast Maude and ach the golden boy athlete as well as the class new paper reporter F...

Okay, I have to say this book is certainly a case of an over hyped book and author. I just don't get how everyone loves John Green. I am so sick of the whole manic pixie dream girls that authors like John Green love to put in novels. I find this book to be problematic in so many ways. I felt it could have been a good book, hell, it could even have just been better but it was not. There were lines that were brilliant but the book as a whole was not even good to me and I feel like giving it one star was too kind. Not great. I am sure if any John Green fans ever come across this review I will get trashed but I just could not give this a good review.  

Thank you to Netgalley for the copy of this book to read & review I loved this novel! It was so well written and it really held my interest. This was marketed as a cross between Paranormal Activity & Black Swan and in my opinion that is a perfect description.  Something is terribly wrong with Marianne or perhaps there is something very wrong that is following Marianne and is out to get her.. All Marianne knows is that he is in danger and her life is falling apart. She seems to be losing time and odd things happen while she is out.  I wouldn't say that this was extremely scary but then I did have a few moments where I was creeped out. I feel that  Amelinda Bérubé did a fantastic job describing everything that was happening. I could picture the scenes completely. I could picture Aunt Jen's house as well as Marianne's home. I feel like that novel did a wonderful job straddling the line between straight up horror and psychological horror. You could feel how sc...

I first want to thank the publisher Harlequin/Hanover Square Press  and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review. Within the last year I have read all of Mary Kubica's novels. Sometimes I really like them but sometimes  not as much. This book is my favorite Kubica book that  have read thus far. With Chicago as the backdrop like most of Kubica's novels we follow Jessie Sloane whose Mother passed away while Jessie fell asleep in the hospital bed next to her. Her Mother's last words to her were "Find yourself" and so Jessie sets out on a journey to find herself. The problem is that at every turn Jessie is hit with one obstacle after the next as she finds that she has been declared dead many years ago. It must be a mistake, right? On top of that she is not sleeping. Jessie has not been able to sleep since her Mother died as she is wracked with the guilt of not being awake when her Mother passed away. As her lack of sleep...

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this in advance for an honest review! I did not know what to expect with this book but I ended up being very pleasantly surprised. The Death and Life of Eleanor Parker opens up with Eleanor waking up by the river with no memory of how she got there and what happened to her. She manages to make it home but when she gets there and takes a good look at herself something is off. She is pale, almost grey, there are bruises on her chest andnear her neck and she can't seem to get warm. After trying to eat and not being able to she begins to notices that she also feels nothing and really can't seem to smell anything. The only answer that Ellie can come up with is that she was drowned in the river and she must be dead but not dead. Her "death" took lace almost a year to the day of the death of her brother's girlfriend Sarah who happened to be drowned in almost the exact spot that Ellie awoke. WIth a great ca...

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I am a voracious reader and one of my very favorite genres is psychological thrillers. I also have a real fondness for British thrillers so I was super excited to read this. In this clever, twisty novel Fi returns home from a mini break to find a new family moving into her beloved house in a London suburb.  She soon finds out that her home has been sold out from under her and things get stranger from here on out. The book time jumps within eight months back and forth and the narration  goes from Fi to her estranged husband Bram. I have to say that there were some great twists in the book and I really grew to like and fee for Fi. I also found myself feeling oddly protective of her. Bram on the other hand? I understood what made him the way he is ut I just could not feel an ounce of sympathy for her at all. There was just nothing likable about him as far as I ...