Make Up Reading

3.75 out of 5 stars  I want to thank Netgalley and Minotaur Books for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. When I asked to review this book I didn't realize it was the fourth novel in a series but it is very easy to follow along. As Gemma narrates her story she drops enough info about her town, the people that live there and all the relationships in her life that she makes it very easy to follow along.. This definitely feels like a cozy mystery as it is set in a small town full of interesting characters. I view reading in the way I view food and this book was a great form of comfort food.

3.75 out of 5 stars I want to thank Netgalley and St.Martins Press for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Violet is a lonely, shy girl who live in a small, fading town. She doesn't want to fade along with the town. After the death of her sister and her Dad she feels like she is fading even more. Given the chance to attend the  Elm Hollow Academy a private school for girls that just happens to the site for the 17th century witch trials. There she meets Robyn and her clique of friends who seem right out of "The Craft". Robin decides she will befriend Violet and invites her to a study group run by Ms. Annabel. Before she knows it Violet is involved in a dangerous and toxic friendship with Robin leading the way and leading the girls down some very toxic path.  Violet finds herself falling under the spell (sorry for the pun) of Robin.  There is magic and murder and Violet may never recover from all that she experiences in El...

5 out of 5 stars "White ribbons for the young girls, red for the grace year girls, and black for the wives. Innocence. Blood. Death." The sixteenth year of Tierney James life as she prepares to go on her Grace Year she dreams of a better life. A more promising life away from the county, in the outskirts working in labor as she would rather do that if she survives.  You see, in the county each Autumn every sixteen year old girl is given the chance to receive a veil from a male in the county. Those who do not get picked are sent out to become laborers or become prostitutes to service the men from the county. After the veiling ceremony the girls are sent out to spend a year far from the county to fend for themselves and to find their magic and get rid of it. You see, all the men in the county believe that girls and woman are the source of evil. Eve was the first woman and she tainted all woman that came after her. She carried with her a terrible magic and the only way that t...

4.5 Stars First off I want to thank Netgalley and the Pan Macmillan AU publishing company for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review. In the small town of .Strathdee in Australia the body of sweet,young Bella Michaels is found brutally raped and murdered. Turning the whole town on it's head and altering the life of her older sister Chris forever. The novel is told through the first person voice of Chris and through a third person account of Sydney reporter May who is in town to write a story. Chris' voice is heartbreaking. She is a strong, tough and honest character who never tries to run from who she is. The grief she feels is overwhelming and we feel every bit of it. May is one of the few reporters that is not there .to exploit but is more or less there to write and actual story of Bella and what happened to her. This wonderful written novel is raw and honest. It talks of what it is like to be a woman. How as women we live in a world where anyt...

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...