Make Up Reading

  I would like to thank Macmillan Audio & Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this book in exchange for an honest review 5 out of 5 stars I was so excited to get this book as an ARC as I kept hearing about it from the  booktubers that I love to watch. Many of them had this on their most excited about books for 2023! Let me start by saying that Adam Lazarre-White was a fantastic narrator that really embodied Eric.  This book offered me everything I was looking for! We have a family on the run from something mysterious, an interesting and small town full of secrets and a haunted house. So it was a perfect Southern gothic novel. I was hooked and listened to it in one night because I just couldn't put it down.  Johnny Compton is an amazing writer! I loved the characters and I just wanted to see how the story would play out.  Let me say that there is a twist in this that will surely shock you in the very best way!! Pick this up as soon as you can

  4 1/2 out of 5 stars This was a re read and I enjoyed it even more so I bumped it up a half star This is the first Lucy Foley book I have read and it has been on my list for a while. I purchased this back in September but wanted to wait to read it between Christmas and New Years and I am glad I did. It was the perfect read for last weekend. This felt like a modern Agatha Christie feel to it. I love when authors do a wonderful job of paying tribute to the great Dame Christie. A group of old friends gather for the annual New Year's Eve celebration along with employees who have secret pasts and of course rural Scotland and you have the perfect recipe for murder.

  3.5 out of 5 stars This was most certainly a very interesting novel. I must admit thought that I was not sure how I felt about this book. The narrator  Christopher Ragland was fantastic! The way he changed voices was really good and he seemed to have no issues at all doing female voices which isn't often very easy for male narrators.  Christopher Ragland also did a wonderful job of making you feel each character's moods. You felt the sadness, fear or tension.  I think for me my biggest issue for me was the big twist was actually very obvious, not that the reveal was not good but I just felt a little let down. Does that mean I will not re-read this? Nope! I am sure I will pick this up again sometime. 

  4.5 out of 5 stars I really love audio books and a great narrator makes the novel come alive. At first I wasn't sure how much I liked the narration but after getting to know the character of Gretchen I thought the narrator was actually perfect. This is definitely the kind of book I can see myself listening to again right after Christmas which is when the book begins. I think besides the narration my favorite aspect of this story was the fact that Gretchen was in love with romantic comedies and basically thought that was what love was really like until she finds it in real life.  This is a sweet, fun YA novel to just sit back and enjoy, I think there a little bit of something for everyone here.

  4.75 out of 5 stars Thank you to Netgalley and St.Martin's Press for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. I red Katie Lowe's first novel The Furies and really enjoyed it so I was excited to get a chance to read her latest book and I really liked this one too.  The premise hooked me from the start.  This totally read like a true crime novel.  This will totally hook you from the start and you will have a hard time putting it down!

  5 out of 5 stars Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Minotaur Books for sharing this  with me in exchange an honest review. I did not expect this to turn out the way it did! I was completely blown away by the fantastic writing and wonderful characters.  When Matt Pine is notified that is his Mother ,Father, sister and little brother have died in a carbon dioxide accident while on Spring break in Mexico he is shocked. How much more can happen?  Matt's older brother Danny is in prison for the murder of his girlfriend though he swears he is innocent. The family never stopped believing in Danny's innocence, especially his younger sister Maggie and his Father Evan. They had fought so hard to prove Danny's innocence  that  they drew the attention of a couple who make true crime documentaries. When A Violent Nature is released on Netflix  Danny's case becomes mainstream. When it begins to look like the death of his family is not an accident Matt ...

 4 out of 5 stars Thank you to Netgalley and to  Berkley Books for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. This past year has been so hard on all of us and I have to admit that there have been times when I have had a hard time concentrating on reading physical books (Audio books have been easier  for me for some reason!) but this book completely held my attention. It seems that I have been coming across a lot of Agatha Christie style of books and this fits right in with that. The Perfect Guests also had a very gothic feel to me. It almost felt like a gothic book that I loved to read when I was  a teenager and I mean that as a compliment. In 1988 orphaned teen Beth gets a chance to live with the wealthy Averells family at the beautiful Raven Hall.  The Mano is beautiful and grand but also kind of creepy and then there is the Averells daughter Nina  who needs a friend. Beth seems like the perfect choice. Beth has b...