Make Up Reading

 4 out of 5 stars I would like to thank Netgalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review. This is my third Alex Finlay novel and I have to say that I am now a fan.  I did like this more than The Night Shift which was also a really good book but I really enjoyed how action packed this was.  Not every character was likable but I actually really liked that. Each character had very different voice. I listen to a lot of audio books so I know a good narrator and Brittany Pressley, James Patrick Cronin, Jon Lindstrom and Maggie Thompson are all great narrators. I have a real fondness for Jon Lindstrom as I grew up watching him on TV. 

3.75 out of 5 stars  I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review. I will admit that rating this has been a bit hard for me to review. While I really did enjoy the plot and I did like some of the characters (The characters I think you are supposed to like) there is the  issue that the main 4 characters were not the brightest bulbs. Fiona, Allison and Jasmine share a dark secret from their childhood. When their kids are all kidnapped by someone they thought was a friend and said friend tells them she will let the kids go if they tell the truth I think it is pretty obvious that the secret they all share is the issue.  However, they keep dismissing the elephant in the room. I wanted to yell at them to talk to one another! The mystery was really good, the ending was tight and the narrator Jasmine Blackborow was really good and that is what matters the most to me. I will be reading other books by Mercer. 

 4 out of 5 stars I would like to thank Netgalley and Booksgosocial Audio in exchange for an  honest review. This was a fun and quick read. This reminded me of the Christopher Pike books I used to read as a kid. At first I thought it was going to be a typical YA mystery novel  but then we got a supernatural twist which made  this an even more interesting read.   I really enjoyed the story that was being told in the journal. I listened to the audio book and the narrators Moira Todd, Gail Shalan, Eleanor McCormick, Whitney Dykehouse, Amy McFadden and Zac Aleman were all really great. I would recommend this for someone in the mood for a nice, relaxing mystery.

  5 out of 5 stars Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will be honest, I requested this novel because the cover looked amazing and I adore the narrator. Cassandra Campbell can do no wrong as far as I am concerned! Luckily this novel was really, really good. Stephen Amidon did a great of writing in very distinct voices for each character. The mystery was well crafted and because there was so much going on with each character this did not feel like a typical domestic thriller. No offense to domestic thrillers because I love them but this was a cut above.

  3.5 out of 5 stars Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.  Arch-Conspirator is a re-telling of Antigone set in a dystopian future. I really liked the way Veronica Roth created the world.  The narrators January LaVoy and Dion Graham were really good.  I loved the idea of retelling Antigone because I can honestly say I have never seen this done before.  I also want to say that I really do like Veronica Roth's writing but for some reason this one just didn't click with me as much as I wanted it to.  Though well written I felt that the story was slow.  It felt like it took a long time for things to happen and then when they did the story was almost over. I guess this sounds like I didn't enjoy the book and I really did, I guess I was hoping for more.

 5 out of 5 stars Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review. I have been on a good run when it comes to reading this year so far and this is another great book.  Did I think a book about  Anthropomorphic dinosaurs would touch me so much? Nope! It most certainly did hook me and make me care so much for plucky story teller   Eleri and the friends he picks up along the way after being exiled and banished to the Deadlands after warning an "enemy" of an incoming carnivore attack.  John Pirhalla was a great narrator who encaptured Eleri's voice as well as his friends. The accents were spot on. This tale about dinosaurs that become  sentient after a great meteor  has much to offer. War, friendship and loyalty are some of the things this novel covers. I know that this is a middle grade book but I am someone that enjoys all kinds of novels and I feel like anyone would enjoy this. I am super excited for the next book! ...

  4.5 out of 5 stars Thank you to  Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for allowing me to read this is exchange for an honest review.  Isabel Rosen is sprinting towards the end of her senior year  when things change drastically not only in her life but for Wilder College as well.  Wilder College is an elite that once was an all male school and even though it is 1998 and  sometimes still feels like a women are not fully welcome.   WIth the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal playing in the background Wilder College is dealing with it's own scandal and Isabel finds herself right in the middle.  The  narrator Sarah Bierstock did a wonderful job  bringing Isabel and those around her  voices to life. TI feel that Daisy Alpert Florin did a great job bringing the feel of the 90's extremely well  and Isabel was character that I think most people could connect with. This reminded me a lot like "My Dark Vanessa" in the best of ways.

 5 out of 5 stars Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will be honest, I requested this novel because the cover looked amazing and I adore the narrator. Cassandra Campbell can do no wrong as far as I am concerned! Luckily this novel was really, really good. Stephen Amidon did a great of writing in very distinct voices for each character. The mystery was well crafted and because there was so much going on with each character this did not feel like a typical domestic thriller. No offense to domestic thrillers because I love them but this was a cut above.

  5 out of 5 stars Trigger warnings for rape,abuse, parental neglect and harassment.  Early morning the day after Valentines day  fourteen year old Gloria Ramírez appears at pregnant Mary Rose Whitehead’s door broken, beaten and barely alive.  Mary Rose tells her daughter to call the police and in doing so the ugly side of Odessa and bringing her to Lockspur Lane where she meets a recent widow, a lost and lonely little girl  and an Avon selling housewife. Set in the 1970's this haunting tale of women claiming independence, racism and our ability to eventually find our way through the darkness and into the light. The first time I read this novel it hit me really hard but upon a reread it was much easier for me. For me the thing that stands out the most in this novel s the found family among the women of Lockspur Lane.   

  5 out of 5 stars Thank you to Netgalley & Macmillan Audio for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I had never read a Rebecca Ross novel before but I am so happy I requested this! I am now going to read all of her previous works. I am very picky when it comes to romance in novels but this was done wonderfully. When I do really enjoy romance it is often either friends to lovers or enemies to lovers (which was the romance in this) and this trope was done beautifully. The fantasy elements were great as well. I would classify this as a soft magic system so far. Iris lives in a world that was once ruled by Gods. The Gods have been buried for ages but when one awakens he sets out to find the Goddess that escaped him setting off a war among the two Gods. Iris' brother sets off to fight in the war and life is never the same. I loved this world and was so impressed with the world building by Rebecca Ross. I actually loved the way the war was written. It felt very much...

  4 out of 5 stars I want to thank Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read/listen to this novel in exchange for an honest review.  First off I want to say that Nicky Endres was a fantastic narrator who really captured the main characters various voices well.  The author, Alison Rumfitt really weaved a dark and scary novel. When I say dark I mean dark! I really don't think I have ever read something like this. When I heard about this and then saw the fantastic cover I knew I wanted to read this. Be warned here, pay attention to the triggers because they are not messing around when they mention this. When they were teenagers Alice,Hannah and  Ila ignored the keep out sign, ignored the stories and went into the house everyone knows to stay out of. Only Alice & Ila come out and their friendship was destroyed. Now something is calling the women back and they have no choice but to return. There is so much going here, so many layers and though this novel m...

4  out of 5 stars   I would like to thank Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this in exchange for an honest review. I love a good dark thriller and this is definitely that! When Katie Shaw was on the verge of graduating her younger brother Chris was attacked. Things were never the same after that.  Chris was never the same and Katie got over her guilt of not protecting her brother the way she felt she should have. Years later Katie has a partner and a child of her own when her brother disappears.  Meanwhile Detective Laurence Page catches a terrible murder of a man who leads back to two terrible crimes, one of them leads back to Christopher Shaw.  I would describe this as a slow burn dark thriller. Alex North did a good job of slowly building up tension and the performance by Rosalie Craig was fantastic. 

 5 out of 5 stars I would like to thank RB Media and Netgalley for allowing me to listen to an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will be honest, I requested this and I thought it looked good  but I was not super excited  but I ended up falling in love with Travis Hollister and the people he comes across in Panama City, Florida where he returns after a stint in a reform school for boys.  Travis returns to Panama City to search for Delia, the girl that captured his heart at the tender age of twelve. Is she the same as she was when he left? How did the secret they share affect her? DId she think of him nearly as much as he thought of her while he was away?   What he finds is not what he expected. Night Letter is about found family, hope and all kinds of love you never expect to find. I fell completely in love with  this novel, it is such a beautiful and melancholy novel that had me feeling all kinds of things I didn't expect a...