Into the Drowning Deep ~ Mira Grant review [@seananmcguire @orbitbooks]

Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep #1)
Orbit
November 14, 2017
440 pages
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Seven years ago, the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a “mockumentary” bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy.

Now, a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves. But the secrets of the deep come with a price.''

If you thought Jaws was the only reason you should stay out of the water this Fourth of July holiday (or if you always thought that seemed silly), be prepared to worry about something else entirely.

It was supposed to be another 'mockumentary', a bit of 'crytozoological fiction thinly veiled as fact," from Imagine Entertainment: Lovely Ladies of the Sea: The True Story of the Mariana Mermaids. Just a bit of fun to make the network a ton of money.

Until the ship was found abandoned in the middle of the ocean.

Three years later, Imagine is trying again and this time Victoria Stewart, whose sister was part of that first ill fated voyage is there, looking for answers.

If the fate of that first ship, the Atargatis is anything to go by, though, the mermaids they're looking for aren't the cute, singing Disney sort. They may have more in common with Jaws.

I absolutely loved the blend of science fiction, science fact, myth and fables, personal relationships - both past and present - the sea and its secrets, beauty and hazards . . . and the danger. Tory, Luis, Dr Toth, Olivia, and all three Wilson sisters gave readers characters they could care about, characters you wanted to find answers and also, you know, wanted not to die. 

The different ways they are each trying to prove something to and/or about themselves while most are also trying to make scientific discoveries added another layer to the story. It not only gave them a great reason for being there, a deeper understanding of the ocean and marine life but also made sure the Melusine was not going to head for shore at the first hint of danger.

Then, it made for some great thought processes, actions, and decisions (both in a good, safe, going-to-save-you way and in ways that made the story better even if they were incredibly dangerous) later in the story.

I loved the characters, their snark and wit, and their intelligence. I really appreciated that the author gave us a diverse cast of characters and that who they were and how they experienced the world also played into their choices and was important to the larger story and its development, as well.

Into the Black Nowhere ~ Meg Gardiner review [@MegGardiner1 @DuttonBooks]

Into the Black Nowhere (UNSUB #2)
Dutton
January 30, 2018
355 pages
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** Contains spoilers for UNSUB (#1), the first book in this series - see my review here **

Inspired by real-life serial killer Ted Bundy, an exhilarating thriller in which FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix faces off against a charming, merciless serial killer

In southern Texas, on Saturday nights, women are disappearing. One vanishes from a movie theater. Another is ripped from her car at a stoplight. Another vanishes from her home while checking on her baby. Rookie FBI agent Caitlin Hendrix, newly assigned to the FBI's elite Behavioral Analysis Unit, fears that a serial killer is roaming the dark roads outside Austin.

Caitlin and the FBI's serial crime unit discover the first victim's body in the woods. She's laid out in a bloodstained, white baby-doll nightgown. A second victim in a white nightie lies deeper in the forest's darkness. Both bodies are surrounded by Polaroid photos, stuck in the earth like headstones. Each photo pictures a woman in a white negligee, wrists slashed, suicide-style--posed like Snow White awaiting her prince's kiss.

To track the UNSUB, Caitlin must get inside his mind. How is he selecting these women? Working with a legendary FBI profiler, Caitlin searches for a homology--that elusive point where character and action come together. She profiles a confident, meticulous killer who convinces his victims to lower their guard until he can overpower and take them in plain sight. He then reduces them to objects in a twisted fantasy--dolls for him to possess, control, and ultimately destroy. Caitlin's profile leads the FBI to focus on one man: a charismatic, successful professional who easily gains people's trust. But with only circumstantial evidence linking him to the murders, the police allow him to escape. As Saturday night approaches, Caitlin and the FBI enter a desperate game of cat and mouse, racing to capture the cunning predator before he claims more victims.

Into the Black Nowhere was an even better read than UNSUB. We now know Caitlin and not only what happened to her in the first book, but how the Prophet impacted her life in the past, as well. With Caitlin now a part of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, it is her job to get into the minds of serial killers,  It is Caitlin's dream job, but it also required her to move across the country - from California to Quantico, Virginia - leaving Sean and making their relationship now a long distance one.

I liked that, while the story immediately throws Caitlin into a case, to working on profiling and catching a killer, she was definitely still the newbie. We saw how she had to prove herself, to feel things out. That bit of transition not only allows readers to become more familiar with the aspects of her work, but also felt more realistic.

The search for the killer - and then trying to prove whether or not a suspect is really the one to be watching - was intense, sometimes twisted and dark. Yet, it never felt rushed or like it was more dramatic than would actually be true simply for a thrilling read.

I loved that we also saw Caitlin's attempts to balance her personal life (her relationship with Sean, her friendship with Michelle) with not only her new job and the pressures and stressors it provided, but also the distance and absence of physical, face to face interactions. Knowing her better as a person away from being a profiler makes you more invested in her character - as a profiler and in her personal life.

The bits of the story that slowly crept up on you, until you realized just how much they may matter, has me very anxious to read Book 3, The Dark Corners of the Night.





Other Books You May Also Enjoy:  The Sleeping Doll (Kathryn Dance #1) by Jeffery Deaver and the Lucy Kincaid series by Allison Brennan

Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier ~ Tatiana de Rosnay review [@tatianaderosnay @StMartinsPress]

Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier
Sam Taylor, translator
St Martin's Press
April 18, 2017
340 pages
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The nonfiction debut from beloved international sensation and #1 New York Times bestselling author Tatiana de Rosnay: her bestselling biography of novelist Daphne du Maurier.

“It's impressive how Tatiana was able to recreate the personality of my mother, including her sense of humor. It is very well written and very moving. I’m sure my mother would have loved this book.” ― Tessa Montgomery d’Alamein, daughter of Daphné du Maurier, as told to Pauline Sommelet in Point de Vue

As a bilingual bestselling novelist with a mixed Franco-British bloodline and a host of eminent forebears, Tatiana de Rosnay is the perfect candidate to write a biography of Daphne du Maurier. As an eleven-year-old de Rosnay read and reread Rebecca, becoming a lifelong devotee of Du Maurier’s fiction. Now de Rosnay pays homage to the writer who influenced her so deeply, following Du Maurier from a shy seven-year-old, a rebellious sixteen-year-old, a twenty-something newlywed, and finally a cantankerous old lady. With a rhythm and intimacy to its prose characteristic of all de Rosnay’s works, Manderley Forever is a vividly compelling portrait and celebration of an intriguing, hugely popular and (at the time) critically underrated writer.

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."So beings Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca. It is probably one of the best known first lines of a book ever but I did ot know very much, at all, about the author. Written by Tatiana de Rosnay, the author of Sarah's Key and other novels, Manderley Forever is the first (at least according to the text) French biography of du Maurier.

This biography tells Daphne du Maurier's life story using the houses she lived in and loved. A fitting method considering Manderley has to be one of the best known hones, fictional or otherwise.

I loved finding out about Dapne's famous grandfather, her famous actor father, their family's relationship with J.M. Barrie and the Llewelyn Davies. It's always interesting to be able to fit pieces - and people - of history that you knew of separately, together. From her childhood relationships with her parents and sisters their governess and friends/society Daphne is expected to behave a certain way around, we learn a lot about the little girl, her love of storytelling, and distaste for conventional gender roles. It is especially interesting and thought provoking when we see how those same relationships transform (or sometimes, don't) as du Maurier ages.

Possibly in part because this book was originally published in French, likely just because its fact, there is a lot of focus on the du Maruier's connections and visits to France. Whether it's because of where the book was first published or not, I really appreciated those parts of the story, what it said about Daphne, her family's past and then their present/future.

It works surprisingly well that de Rosnay does not try to provide a modern context or interpretation to many occurrences, statements, writings, etc that readers are shown in the novel. Things are written in such a way that they speak for themselves and readers are able to draw their own inferences, have their own interpretations.

There is quite a bit of description of the plot of du Maurier's (and her grandfather's, as well) writings so if you are someone who has not read them (and wishes to) you may want to skim those passages.

Manderley Forever gives readers a very real, truly human look at the life of Daphne du Maurier, from her childhood playing Peter Pan with her sisters, to her walks along the beach in Cornwall with her dogs, from her marriage and children to her publishing successes and failures. Tatiana de Rosnay has written a biography that is both compelling and complete.

The Vanishing Season ~ Joanna Schaffhausen (earc) review [@slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks]

The Vanishing Season
Minotaur
December 05, 2017
274 pages
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Ellery Hathaway knows a thing or two about serial killers, but not through her police training. She's an officer in sleepy Woodbury, MA, where a bicycle theft still makes the newspapers. No one there knows she was once victim number seventeen in the grisly story of serial killer Francis Michael Coben. The only victim who lived.

When three people disappear from her town in three years, all around her birthday—the day she was kidnapped so long ago—Ellery fears someone knows her secret. Someone very dangerous. Her superiors dismiss her concerns, but Ellery knows the vanishing season is coming and anyone could be next. She contacts the one man she knows will believe her: the FBI agent who saved her from a killer’s closet all those years ago.

Agent Reed Markham made his name and fame on the back of the Coben case, but his fortunes have since turned. His marriage is in shambles, his bosses think he's washed up, and worst of all, he blew a major investigation. When Ellery calls him, he can’t help but wonder: sure, he rescued her, but was she ever truly saved? His greatest triumph is Ellery’s waking nightmare, and now both of them are about to be sucked into the past, back to the case that made them...with a killer who can't let go.

Ellery Hathaway is not that kidnapped girl, rescued years ago and now going on tours to tell the world her story. In fact, she is not telling anyone her story. She has started a new life for herself, separate from that girl kidnapped by a now infamous man. Woodbury is tiny and supposed to be worlds away from the kind of crime that touched Ellery's life.

Maybe that's why no one believes her theory about the disappearances - that they're related. She can't share with her fellow police officers all of why she thinks there's a connection; that would mean revealing her past. So she calls in one of the only people to know what happened to her (and to know that it was her, at least the former her, not just some nameless, faceless girl): FBI Agent Reed Markham.

Author Joanna Schaffhausen set up some really interesting and compelling relationships and dynamics in this novel, her debut. Ellery had her past, the ways she was keeping herself a secret, her worry that someone had (or would) discover who she had been, and there was what all of those precautions and anxieties meant for the kind of life she was living. Then Agent Markham had a few secrets of his own and the different ways that Ellery's case - and some subsequent ones - affected his life.

When you throw in the chief of police, Sam and all of his different relationships, Ellery's mother, Reeds family, the other police officers, some of the Woodbury residents, Ellery's almost friends, it all makes for a very comelling and well done mystery. You care about the characters, but also can't help second guessing their motives or intentions. This person might be capable of something horrible . . . or maybe they're just upset, like anyone would be . . . maybe nothing happened to those missing people . . . maybe something did.

I really enjoyed Ellery's character (somehow she gave me some of the same feeling as Lena Adams from Karin Slaughter's Grant County series, though they're also quite different), how she wasn't what you expected but also how strong and determined she was. She was damaged, but resilient, too. I look forward to reading Schaffhausen's second novel No Mercy whether it involves Ellery or not (though I very much want more with her character).







digital review copy received thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley

A Map of the Dark ~ Karen Ellis review [@KatiaLief @mulhollandbooks]

A Map of the Dark (The Searchers #1)
Mullholand Books
January 02, 2018
292 pages
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A girl, missing
A woman, searching
A killer, planning...

FBI Agent Elsa Myers finds missing people.
She knows how it feels to be lost...

Though her father lies dying in a hospital north of New York City, Elsa cannot refuse a call for help. A teenage girl has gone missing from Forest Hills, Queens, and during the critical first hours of the case, a series of false leads hides the fact that she did not go willingly.

With each passing hour, as the hunt for Ruby deepens into a search for a man who may have been killing for years, the case starts to get underneath Elsa's skin. Everything she has buried - her fraught relationship with her sister and niece, her self-destructive past, her mother's death - threatens to resurface, with devastating consequences.

In order to save the missing girl, she may have to lose herself...and return to the darkness she's been hiding from for years.

It was great, when preparing this review, to find out that A Map of the Dark was the first in a series. Though this book concluded very well and did wrap up the story, I had hoped we would see more of at least some of the characters. Now, I am looking forward to the second book, Last Night.

Author Karen Ellis, a pseudonym of Katia Lief, gave readers thrilling read centered around a missing teen and an FBI agent with her own reasons for being so dedicated to finding the missing girl. I liked that Elsa's past played a roe in her joining law enforcement, but also in why she is so good at finding missing children. And that it was not the reason you, at first, believe.

Readers will see certain developments coming before (some of) the characters, but they seem to only be those that we are meant to anticipate, the ones that increase the tension. The story is full of a lot of surprises and anxiety, as well.

The more you know about the characters, the more you both want to know about them and the more you want them to be safe. I really loved that this was a great, thrilling mystery with a crime to be solved and someone(s) to be rescued but also gave us characters we could be invested in, care about and root for.

The crime aspect of this story and the investigation were well done and seemed realistic and I am hoping we will get to see more development of the characters and their relationships in the books to come. I highly recommend this first book in The Searchers series.




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The Undertaker's Daughter ~ Sara Blaedel (earc) review [@sarablaedel @GrandCentralPub]

The Undertaker's Daughter (Ilka #1)
Grand Central Publishing
February 06, 2018
326 pages
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Already widowed by the age of forty, Ilka Nichols Jensen, a school portrait photographer, leads a modest, regimented, and uneventful life in Copenhagen. Until unexpected news rocks her quiet existence: Her father–who walked out suddenly and inexplicably on the family more than three decades ago–has died. And he’s left her something in his will: his funeral home. In Racine, Wisconsin.

Clinging to this last shred of communication from the father she hasn’t heard from since childhood, Ilka makes an uncharacteristically rash decision and jumps on a plane to Wisconsin. Desperate for a connection to the parent she never really knew, she plans to visit the funeral home and go through her father’s things–hoping for some insight into his new life in America–before preparing the business for a quick sale.

But when she stumbles on an unsolved murder, and a killer who seems to still be very much alive, the undertaker’s daughter realizes she might be in over her head . .

The Undertaker's Daughter was a different type of story than I was expecting. Based on the reviews quotes on its NetGalley page (and the one on the cover, as well), I thought it would be more of a crime thriller. Instead, it felt more like a literary fiction tale that included a mystery surrounding a crime. (Perhaps, a small bit of that had to do with the tone and attitude of the book; it was originally published in Danish and, generally, Scandinavian books feel less . . . intense than their US counterparts. I think, though, that it was just this story.)

This was a story about Ilka, a school photographer in Denmark. Her father left her and her mother when Ilka was a young girl and she never knew why. Now, with news that he has died, she has been summoned to Racine, Wisconsin to hear his will.

Wrapping things up so that she can return to Copenhagen and her life turns out to be much trickier than Ilka anticipated - both emotionally and logistically.

I did very much enjoy seeing Ilka try to figure out the new role she'd been suddenly thrust into while also trying to discover more about her father and to find the answers she was only just realizing how much she wanted. Adding in the small(ish) town politics, the murder mystery and present day repercussions (and possible actions) made for an interesting story. All of the interwoven tales and histories, along with the observations on the differences in Danish and American culture surrounding death and funerals, made for an intriguing read.

I do wish I had known when I started this book (or at any point while reading it) that this was the beginning of a series.. Some of the story does get concluded, but a lot more is left open and unresolved. So much so, actually, that the book ends with To be continued . . . Those endings work better when I know they're coming. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the second book featuring Ilka and, hopefully, finding out what Racine has in store fro her - and if she stays.







digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

Close to Me ~ Amanda Reynolds (earc) review [@amandareynoldsj @QuercusBooks @Wildfirebks]

Close to Me
Wildfire
July 17, 2017
384 pages
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Close To Me is a gripping debut psychological drama that will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty's bestselling The Husband's Secret, Clare Mackintosh's I Let You Go, and Linda Green's While My Eyes Were Closed.

She can't remember the last year. Her husband wants to keep it that way.

When Jo Harding falls down the stairs at home, she wakes up in hospital with partial amnesia-she's lost a whole year of memories. A lot can happen in a year. Was Jo having an affair? Lying to her family? Starting a new life?

She can't remember what she did-or what happened the night she fell. But she's beginning to realise she might not be as good a wife and mother as she thought.

Close to Me reminds you just how much you, as a reader, rely on the narrator. Whether or not you may realize it. I loved that author Amanda Reynolds kept readers just as in the dark - and sometimes even more so - as Jo.

The story is told alternating between the year that Jo has now forgotten and her life after her fall, trying to discover what all she has forgotten, how her family came to be so very different . . . and why she feels so unsettled around the husband she can only ever remember loving and trusting.

While it could be frustrating to be just on the cusp of discovering something, some informative truth or tidbit, only to have the timeline shift or Jo never quite mention it, it did definitely make for a better read. We were never ahead of either  past or present Jo when it came to any of the 'why's or the bigger pieces of the puzzle. Sometimes you knew what would happen but not why or when or, really, even if.

The way this story is told really keeps you just as engrossed in both of the timelines and anxious to find out what happens (or happened). At times, it's hard to even know if you like Jo and whether she -and what she did over that forgotten year - was in the right or the wrong.It was startling to realize just how much I was relying on Jo's interpretation of events, her memories, her impression of people and/or relationships to inform my understanding of things. I loved that it was not a third person narration; it left for a lot more questions and uncertainties. Sure Jo thought X was true or this person felt this way, but was it true?

There were a few more unanswered questions at the end of the novel than I would have liked. Things didn't need to be all tied up with a neat little bow or anything, but I was not sure enough about where or how certain characters were to even guess about their future. I will read more from this author, but I hope future books allow for more development of the characters' relationships.







digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

Look For Me ~ Lisa Gardner (earc) review [@LisaGardnerBks @DuttonBooks]

Look For Me (Detective D. D. Warren #9)
Dutton
February 06, 2018
400 pages
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In #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner's latest twisty thrill ride, Detective D. D. Warren and Find Her's Flora Dane return in a race against the clock to either save a young girl's life . . . or bring her to justice.

The home of a family of five is now a crime scene: four of them savagely murdered, one—a sixteen-year-old girl—missing. Was she lucky to have escaped? Or is her absence evidence of something sinister? Detective D. D. Warren is on the case—but so is survivor-turned-avenger Flora Dane. Seeking different types of justice, they must make sense of the clues left behind by a young woman who, whether as victim or suspect, is silently pleading, Look for me.

"Whatever she was about to see, it was not her job to feel. It was her job to fix." (Pg 14)

Boston Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren is back in the ninth entry to the series (well, ninth full length novel).  It was supposed to be a nice day with her husband and son, doing something not cop related, but once again work calls. The home, now a crime scene, is horrible but also leaves one question: where is the last member of the family?

Sixteen-year-old Roxanna Baez is missing (along with the family's two elderly dogs) and D.D. doesn't know if Roxy is victim or suspect.

Look for Me really steps things up from the previous novels in the series. I loved them and the way that we also had the perpetrator's point-of-view (or a perpetrator). It added anxiety to the story because you often knew something bad might be going to happen, you only hoped the good guys would stop it in time. In this book, though, we get things from D.D.'s perspective and from Flora Dane's.

Putting aside the fact that I am really, really happy we got more of Flora Dane (she was part of Find Her, which you really should read first), the way this story was presented was great. It made the most of the mystery and allowed readers some great insight into all of the main players. We don't know Roxy's role in everything so you think you want D.D. and Flora to figure things out, but some revelations are painful and tragic enough that I wondered if I really wanted the truth.

Roxy's perspective is made a part of the tale, but through a medium different than narration. It is not her present that readers receive, but glimpses into her past. This keeps the mystery going, but also lets us see that things have not always been so normal and safe and happy for Roxy, Lola, and their family. What we learn of their past is all the more heartbreaking because of basis in reality.

I absolutely enjoyed the way we had D.D. and her family, how she tried to balance that with her (often gruesome) work; then we had Flora, her past and how she was trying to make a present for herself; and the Baez family with its past - its secrets - and what that meant for their present.

As with each of the preceding books, I loved finding out more about D.D., Jack and Alex, unraveling and ultimately solving the mystery. I also hope that there will be more of Flora Dane in future books, she plays against D.D.'s character really well and its great seeing how far (or not far) she's come since we met her.







digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

White Bodies ~ Jane Robins (earc) review [@alfresca @TouchstoneBooks]

White Bodies
Touchstone
September 19, 2017
297 pages
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This chilling psychological suspense novel--think Strangers on a Train for the modern age--explores the dark side of love and the unbreakable ties that bind two sisters together.

Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless facade, not everything is as it seems.

Callie, Tilda's unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix's domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in Saran Wrap and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom trash. She knows about Felix's uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister's arms.

Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an Internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgment when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies--or was he murdered?

A page-turning work of suspense that announces a stunning new voice in fiction, White Bodies will change the way you think about obsession, love, and the violence we inflict on one another--and ourselves.

Have you ever read a book where you really, really wished the characters were real and not just fictional? Well, White Bodies is not that book. And these characters are certainly not those characters. Callie and Tilda and the others are more the characters you are really glad are fictional and not someone you might encounter in life. (Though, there are people very much like them . . .)

Callie's fascination with or fixation on her prettier, more popular, more everything twin sister Tilda manifests in some really, really strange ways. Like really strange.

The author does a great job making you unsure of just how out there Callie really is. Yes, she does odd things, but how much of her interpretations or observations or decisions can really be trusted? How many of them are right because of who she is and how she feels about her sister? How many might be right in spite of it?

Even, later in the novel, as I had a better grasp on who Callie was and how she was viewing the world, some of her decisions and statements really did not make sense. (Even for her character.) Things she said or wanted/planned to do were such obviously horrible, wrong choices if she truly believed her sister was being abused. 

The relationship between Callie and Tilda (and their mother, friends and a boyfriend) was weird, creepy, unsettling and, often, confusing. Yet, it did make for a compelling story. Even when I was beyond irritated with Callie, I had to keep reading to find out what happened, to find out the truth - and not just one character's version of i.

The last parts of the book were really well done. Things are more twisted and startling than you expect and it's hard to know what the characters will do - or have done. I liked the inclusion/mentions of Strangers on a Train, Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel and Hitchcock. Callie's character did not always work for me but this is a very compelling, twisty read with dark, weird, disturbing relationships that all keep you guessing until the end.

digital review copy received thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley

The Chalk Man ~ CJ Tudor (earc) review [@CrownPublishing @cjtudor]

The Chalk Man
Crown Publishing Group
January 09, 2018
280 pages
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In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.

In 2016, Eddie is fully grown and thinks he's put his past behind him, but then he gets a letter in the mail containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank--until one of them turns up dead. That's when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.

According to the author's biography on Goodreads, C.J. Tudor's The Chalk Man, "was inspired by a tub of chalks a friend bought for her daughter’s second birthday.: That has to be the best and most unexpected way for this story to have begun.

The Chalk Man is creepy and unnerving and mysterious and startling, an all-together great read. That the 1986 portions of the novel revolve around a twelve-year-old boy, his group of friends and their lives is fantastic. Not only does the author do a fantastic job really inhabiting the time and the characters, but the boys, their age, the year, and everything happening to them make them the perfect ones for what happens - and what they do.

The current parts of the story, set in 2016, are surprising for their own reasons. Readers know some of the outcome before really knowing what it was that led to it. It causes you to second guess characters and their actions - and really increases the tension and need to know what all happened. Most surprising of all, though, is probably where and how Eddie and his friends are, thirty years later. It is not what I would have expected if presented with only the 1986 story, but it all ends up making sense.

The writing was superb, as well. Not only were things revealed at just the right time, in just the right way, but little clues were slipped in, often going unnoticed and there were more than a few false leads, too. The actual writing, the phrasing, the metaphors, emotions, etc was really, really good.

There were more twists, turns, curves and speed bumps on the path to the end of this book than I anticipated. Everyone had their secrets - from their family, from their friends, from the town, even from themselves. The Chalk Man really illustrates just how weird, twisted, hypocritical, confused, misguided or downright dangerous seemingly nice, normal, upstanding people can be beneath what they let everyone see.

This story keeps readers guessing and continues to startle - and, often, shock - with its revelations. Some are things you want to have found out while others you may wish not to know. As one fo the characters says,"Sometimes . . . it's better not to know all the answers."

Well that and, "Secrets are like arseholes. We all have them. It's just that some are dirtier than others."

I hope there will be much more from author C.J. Tudor in the future.








digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

The Lost Season of Love & Snow ~ Jennifer Laam (erac) review [@jenlaam @StMartinsPress]

The Lost Season of Love and Snow
St Martin's Griffin
January 02, 2018
352 pages
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The unforgettable story of Alexander Pushkin’s beautiful wife, Natalya, a woman much admired at Court, and how she became reviled as the villain of St. Petersburg.


At the age of sixteen, Natalya Goncharova is stunningly beautiful and intellectually curious. But while she finds joy in French translations and a history of Russian poetry, her family is more concerned with her marriage prospects. It is only fitting that during the Christmas of 1828 at her first public ball in her hometown of Moscow she attracts the romantic attention of Russia’s most lauded rebel poet: Alexander Pushkin.

Enchanted at first sight, Natalya is already a devoted reader of Alexander’s serialized novel in verse, Evgeny Onegin. The most recently published chapter ends in a duel, and she is dying to learn what happens next. Finding herself deeply attracted to Alexander’s intensity and joie de vivre, Natalya hopes to see him again as soon as possible.

What follows is a courtship and later marriage full of equal parts passion and domestic bliss but also destructive jealousies. When vicious court gossip leads to Alexander dying from injuries earned defending his honor as well as Natalya’s in a duel, Natalya finds herself reviled for her alleged role in his death.

With beautiful writing and understanding, Jennifer Laam, and her compelling new novel, The Lost Season of Love and Snow, help Natalya tell her side of the story—the story of her greatest love and her inner struggle to create a fulfilling life despite the dangerous intrigues of a glamorous imperial Court.

The Lost Season of Love and Snow proved to not only be an enjoyable novel but also a wonderful discovery of both a time period and people I knew very little about. Most of what I have read - both fiction and nonfiction - set in Russia took place about a century after Natalya's story. In the early nineteenth century, there was still fear of the  Tsar but so, at least among Natalya and her family's social circles, of appearing seditious.

I did not already know really anything about Pushkin, so seeing him through Natalya's eyes as well as through her family's and society's was both informative and intriguing. The author does a great job with Natalya's character and showing us how much stock is put in her beauty and how much it's depended upon to help her family's future. We also see how Natalya would rather be valued for her mind than her face.

This makes her courtship with Alexander Pushkin both that much more believeable and that much sweeter. I appreciated that the author seemed to hold to what would have been historically relevant - both Pushikin's past associations and his future income potential.

I also loved that we got what seemed like a very real glimpse into society at that time: the balls, the relationships, the Tsar's influence and presence, etc. We see how much of the upper class spoke French (which, side note, I still think the articles in French vs Russian would be tricky) and how flirting (or coquette) was so commonplace. All of this: the balls, playing the coquette, Pushkin's past, his current/future writings, and how women were viewed at the time are crucial parts of Alexander and Natalya's story.

Author Jennifer Laam does a brilliant job giving us a story that is true to it's historical setting and that mindset while viewing her characters (particularly Natalya)  and their words and actions with a modern eye. It was truly a pleasure to discover more about Russia in the nineteenth century and Alexander Pushikin but even more so his romance with Natalya, their life together, and how the time viewed her and where or how that might not be accurate. I really look forward to reading more of Laam's work.





digital review copy received from publisher via NetGalley

Every Heart a Doorway ~ Seanan McGuire review [@torbooks]

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1)
Tor.com
April 05, 2016
173 pages
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Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

"Call it irony, if you like, but we spend so much time waiting for our boys to stray that they never have the opportunity. We notice the silence of men. We depend upon the silence of women."  (pg 59)

Every Heart a Doorway is a brilliant fantasy tale. I loved that the story focuses on what happens after: after children disappear from their homes, through magical doorways, and spend however long in these magical worlds. After they come home, back to the normal, non-magical world.

It is both unexpected and wonderful that Nancy, Sumi and the others are not thrilled to be back in the real world. They aren't 'rescued' now that they're home, in fact, they want to go back.

Why they left in the first place, where they each went, how they feel about being back (home first, now at Eleanor's school) and their hopes for the future have definite similarities but it's the amazing differences that make the story such fun. Sumi is so very different from Nancy who's so very different from Jack, etc. and it manages to feel like a school social environment while also involving the Hals of the Dead, mad scientists, vampires, skeletons, and the Countess of Candy Floss. It is both fantastically magical and wonderfully realistic.

I both adored and appreciated the diversity of Every Heart a Doorway's characters. When why they were at the school/home was factored in, their eccentricities, their identities (however you want to interpret the word), really all of who they each were made even more sense. With such a small group of characters, the story was that much better for each of them having a strong personality and for their differences. It also allows you, once something horrible happens, to see how many of those 'differences' don't matter and how similar we all are.

Every Heart a Doorway manages to be great fantasy and a great mystery and have great characters who offer some important, smart, thoughtful insights. Once you read this, you'll want Down Among the Sticks and Bones to start reading right way (Book 3, Beneath the Sugar Sky, is out in January).

Artemis ~ Andy Weir (earc) review [@andyweirauthor @CrownPublishing]

Artemis
Crown Publishing Group
November 14, 2017
384 pages
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Jazz Bashara is a criminal.

Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.

If humans ever had to colonize the moon - or simply really wanted to - I think Andy Weir might be able to tell us what to do.  His imagining of Artemis, the first city on the moon actually makes sense and, at least seems like, it could work.

This book gives me answers to questions I didn't even know to ask. (But I am sure someone reading it would have.) So, while I couldn't have known to questions those elments of how living on the moon works, knowing how makes it that much

There were definitely bits I did not understand - though Jazz or other characters explained them, somewhat - but it didn't really matter. It all makes sense once it's done and as a part of the bigger picture.

I love that Jazz is a (sort of) criminal who grew up on the moon, who needs money, and who is incredibly smart and resourceful.If The Martian's Mark Watney was a, "nerdy MacGvyer in space," then Jazz is a slightly less nerdy, but probably just as smart one with fancier tolls. And welding abilities. (Though duct tape does still come into play. ) 

It is especially rewarding the way Jazz's history, her friendships or alliances, those she's had failings out with and people who have given her trouble all play a role in what happens to Jazz. And what she needs to do. The mix of personal relationships, past mistakes, Jazz's desire for more money and a more comfortable life, the politics of Artemis and the lovely, lovely science make for sch a great, captivating and exciting read. Jazz runs into problems, thanks to her unique location, that I never anticipated and it made me both anxious and curious as to how she would solve them.

Jazz is smart, she's funny, she holds grudges, she isn't fantastic with friendships, and (as she admits) she makes bad life decisions  but it all makes her a fantastic character. Even as she's doing some things you might not want her to do, you're amazed at how she thinks to accomplish them . . . and you want it to work. Despite yourself, you want her to succeed.

I love Andy Weir, his funny, maybe even sardonic, characters, the problems they run into and the inventive, brilliant solutions they devise. His science fiction can feel more like science fact and I want more, more, more.

review copy received thanks to publisher, via NetGalley

Doctor Who: Myths & Legends ~ Richard Dinnick (earc) review [@richarddinnick @bbcdoctorwho]

Adrian Salmon, illustrator
Doctor Who: Myths and Legends
BBC Books/Penguin Group UK
September 12, 2017 (International)/June 29, 2017 (UK)
288 pages
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For thousands of years, epic stories have been passed down from Time Lord to student, generation to generation. The truth of these tales was lost millennia ago, but the myths and legends themselves are timeless.

These are the most enduring of those tales. From the princess Manussa and her giant snake Mara, to the Vardon Horse of Xeriphin, these stories shed light on the universe around us and the beings from other worlds that we meet. Myths hold up a mirror to our past, present and future, explaining our culture, our history, our hopes and fears.

A collection of epic adventures from the Time Lords’ mist-covered past, Myths and Legends is an unforgettable gallery of heroes and villains, gods and monsters.

Earlier this year when a hurricane knocked the power out for several days and I realized how many more stars you could see*. Looking at all of those stars, it was hard not to wonder what could be on or around them.  Doctor Who: Myths and Legends presents some possibility.

Some of the myths and legends re-imagined to involve Time Lords were ones I was familiar with:  including Medusa, King Midas; and those I was not: stories with the Argonauts, the Cumaean Sibyl. Interestingly, I think I more enjoyed those stories where they myth was already known to me. I liked seeing how the author changed things up, where Doctor Who characters and/or ideas were inserted into these well known tales.

The more you know of Doctor Who, the different Doctors and all of the different alien planets and species they've encountered, the more you will recognize in Myths and Legends. These are not all sttories where the Doctor comes in, obvious in who they are and saves the day. Some give us more insight into Gallifrey, its past and attempts to extend its reach.l while others show us how certain beings go to be where they were when viewers encountered them (like, say, a Soviet sub in 1983).

Some of the stories did fall a bit short for me, seeming to not really resolve themselves or have satisfactory endings. (Though it could have been that I was unfamiliar with what Doctor Who episode/character/story they were involved in .) Others though, were fun, imaginative and did a great job both re-imagining the myths and legends we already know and including Whovian characters, lore, facts and ideas.

This collection is likely more enjoyable for Doctor Who fans  (and more so the more of it you've retrained) but fans of re-imaginings and science fiction may also find it a fun read, as well.




*This needs to be a thing everywhere






review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

Two Nights ~ Kathy Reichs (earc) review [@KathyReichs @penguinrandom]

Two Nights
Bantam
July 11, 2017
336 pages
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Meet Sunday Night, a woman with physical and psychological scars, and a killer instinct...

Sunnie has spent years running from her past, burying secrets and building a life in which she needs no one and feels nothing. But a girl has gone missing, lost in the chaos of a bomb explosion, and the family needs Sunnie's help.

Is the girl dead? Did someone take her? If she is out there, why doesn't she want to be found? It's time for Sunnie to face her own demons because they just might lead her to the truth about what really happened all those years ago.

So first thing: Sunday Night? Yes, it sounds like a very cheesy name but do not judge Two Nights on that - really, please, please don't.  There is a reason that is her name (it'd be spoilery to explain) and it works. Plus, Sunday can be Sunnie, to.

I really enjoyed Sunday's character. There was something about her that felt more like the male characters I have read in mystery/thriller/crime novels. I still am not sure if it was her personality or if it was because she did not fall into any of the slots we think of for female cops/investigators. She isn't married, she isn't dating or looking to, she doesn't have kids, there isn't a close (or strained but there) relationship with her parents, she doesn't have pets. (Or doesn't exactly have a pet.) 

We don't know a lot about her past - only things that are alluded to, that she had some bad, rough, violent, painful experiences. That past plays a lot into how she works now and how determined she can be. I liked not knowing how far she would go and what lines Sunnie would cross. It also made me want to know just what had happened. Sunnie is a fantastic, unique, complex character that was so much fun to read about.

The way Two Nights and Sunnie's quest to find the girl unfolded was full of some real shocks and great locations. More than once I was very surprised by a character or who they were or their role in the story. The author seemed to do a great job really putting Sunnie in each location, in a way that felt like you were there and not that she had looked things up on Google Maps. (Both of those things - the character surprises and locations - did end up leaving me unsure about one aspect based on my personal knowledge but it isn't something you would otherwise question.)

Two Nights is a satisfying mystery with a fresh, unique character. I am sorry we won't see more of Sunday Night but I liked how Two Nights ended.

digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

Lie to Me ~ JT Ellison (earc) review [@thrillerchick @MIRAEditors ‏ @HarlequinBooks]

Lie to Me
Mira Books
September 05, 2017
426 pages
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They built a life on lies

Sutton and Ethan Montclair’s idyllic life is not as it appears. The couple seems made for each other, but the truth is ugly. Consumed by professional and personal betrayals and financial woes, the two both love and hate each other. As tensions mount, Sutton disappears, leaving behind a note saying not to look for her.

Ethan finds himself the target of vicious gossip as friends, family and the media speculate on what really happened to Sutton Montclair. As the police investigate, the lies the couple have been spinning for years quickly unravel. Is Ethan a killer? Is he being set up? Did Sutton hate him enough to kill the child she never wanted and then herself? The path to the answers is full of twists that will leave the reader breathless.

J.T. Ellison's Lie to Me leaves readers unsure of who - if anyone - they can trust . The way the story is told from who is narrating it to the jumps between the past and present not only add to the uncertainty of just what is really the truth but serve to increase the tension, as well. It is hard to even be sure which characters you like because no one seems to have quite the same view of anyone else. This person thinks that person is nice and sweet and naive while this second person thinks they're calculating and manipulative.

Some may be lying, some may be trying to implicate (or exonerate) someone else, but some are also telling the truth as they see it. In Lie to Me the author does a fantastic job using all of the different sides of her characters - the different parts of themselves they share with different people - as well as the different way people see each other; the things one person notices and latches on to versus what a different person focuses on.  It makes the characters that much more believable and easier to relate to - while also leaving you less sure of, well, anything.

The narration changes made the story even better. Those different first person insights really show us what the characters is thinking, as opposed to what another narrator attributed to them.

Lie to Me was a thriller that kept me guessing right up to the very last sentence and was full of multifaceted characters and complicated histories. This novel really used all of who each character was, their pasts, their secrets, their hopes and their fears, their relationships with each other to build a mystery that is satisfying and unexpected.







digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

The Stolen Marriage ~ Diane Chamberlain (earc) review [@StMartinsPress @D_Chamberlain]

The Stolen Marriage
St Martin's Press
October 03, 2017
384 pages
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From perennial bestseller Diane Chamberlain, a compelling new novel

In 1944, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina, a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows no interest in making love. Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.

The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain, especially after one of the town’s prominent citizens dies in a terrible accident and Tess is blamed. Tess suspects people are talking about her, plotting behind her back, and following her as she walks around town. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not? Feeling alone and adrift, Tess turns to the one person who seems to understand her, a local medium who gives her hope but seems to know more than he’s letting on.

When a sudden polio epidemic strikes the town, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to work at the hospital, finding meaning in nursing the young victims. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle her husband’s mysterious behavior and save her own life?

I don't think I have changed my mind about characters o much (both in frequency and degree) in any other book as I did in The Stolen Marriage. There were characters I thought were innocent and sweet, then they would do or say something and I would realize they were a bit more hardened. Or, characters that seemed horrible would prove they had a heart. I really enjoyed getting such a full picture of the characters, and of their character.

The Stolen Marriage is about a time in American history about which much has been written - both fiction and fact - but includes things that have not been written about so heavily. I knew a tiny bit about polio and approximately when it was such an issue but this novel does a fantastic job putting all of the elements of the time together: the polio epidemics, World War II, issues of race and religion. Seeing everything within the context of the time period (and the North Carolina setting) really made it feel more real and helped you relate to the characters.

I really liked the way Tess's personal beliefs and her views on current, social issues were presented. Not because I always liked what she thought or how she felt about things but because it all seemed a very good representation of where and how she was brought up. I appreciated that the author did not make her someone affected by our hindsight. She was a young, Italian nursing student from Baltimore in the 1940's and the book was better for the fact that she fit within that time period but we also got to see her grow and her world view evolve.

Diane Chamberlain's The Stolen Marriage is an enjoyable historical fiction, about something within the World War II era that doesn't feature so often in fiction: the polo epidemic. The characters seem very true of the time period, they change and grow and everything from their relationships to their secrets play a part in everything coming together.

(Was Tess supposed to make me think of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by the way? Or rid it make anyone else think of her/the book?)








digital copy received from publisher for review

Friend Request ~ Laura Marshall (earc) review [@laurajm8 @GrandCentralPub]

Friend Request
Grand Central Publishing
September 05, 2017
384 pages
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A paranoid single mom is forced to confront the unthinkable act she committed as a desperate teenager in this addictive thriller with a social media twist.

Maria Weston wants to be friends. But Maria Weston is dead. Isn't she?


1989. When Louise first notices the new girl who has mysteriously transferred late into their senior year, Maria seems to be everything the girls Louise hangs out with aren't. Authentic. Funny. Brash. Within just a few days, Maria and Louise are on their way to becoming fast friends.

2016. Louise receives a heart-stopping email: Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook. Long-buried memories quickly rise to the surface: those first days of their budding friendship; cruel decisions made and dark secrets kept; the night that would change all their lives forever.

Louise has always known that if the truth ever came out, she could stand to lose everything. Her job. Her son. Her freedom. Maria's sudden reappearance threatens it all, and forces Louise to reconnect with everyone she'd severed ties with to escape the past. But as she tries to piece together exactly what happened that night, Louise discovers there's more to the story than she ever knew. To keep her secret, Louise must first uncover the whole truth, before what's known to Maria--or whoever's pretending to be her--is known to all.

I loved how many times I was wrong about what was happening  (or had happened) in Friend Request -- either  just a little bit off or absolutely, completely incorrect. In her debut novel, author Laura Marshall does a great job building a mystery and leading readers astray before, ultimately giving us a satisfying ending.

The story alternates between 1090 and 2016, between Louise's last year of school and her current life as the divorced mother of a four-year-old son. Most of the past sections of the novel (in 1989( are in the past tense while most of the present day is in present tense, it really pulls readers more into the tale and helps differentiate between past and present. It separates the two timelines well.

There were small vignettes between some chapters and I very much enjoyed that they were in the third person and that you did not know, for sure, which character is the 'her.' Not knowing who these thoughts and facts belong to means you don't know quite a few things about the direction of the story, either. It's fantastic.

The author does a great job mixing Louise's daily life - caring for Henry, all that's required of her now without a partner, her work as an interior designer - with not only the old guilt reawakened by the message from Maria, but the new confusion, fear, and (new, additional) guilt that the message cause. You see Louise struggling to hold onto her life - whether it was all that great or not -- but also to, maybe, finally, cope with what she did all those years ago.

There are times Louise is frustrating, more than once that you (and often she) will wish she could have made a different decision, and plenty of times you will question the motives or intentions of others but it all, somehow, ends up making perfect sense. You do not see things coming - or you see ones that aren't really - but nothing makes you side eye the characters or story when it all comes together.

Friend Request was a satisfying, thrilling mystery full of twists, turns and surprises that portrayed both teenage Louise and divorced, forty-something-year-old mother Louise realistically. (Though it may make you think any Facebook activity.) Laura Marshall is an author I hope to read more form in the future.









digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley