Tag: mystery

Gimme Some Recs! | Mystery / Suspense / Thrillers and Historical Fiction

Posted August 19, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 22 Comments

I recently talked about how I feel like I’m a “fake” fantasy reader because I always say I like fantasy books, but barely read them. I don’t do well with high fantasy and tend to prefer lighter fantasy novels, if I read them at all. I sought out some recommendations based on some of the favorites I’ve actually read and you guys definitely delivered. I’m hoping for the same thing here today. I always add mystery/thriller and historical fiction novels to my TBR on Goodreads, but almost NEVER actually read them. I want to share a few historical and suspenseful books here so you know what I like, and then hopefully you can help me out with some recommendations! Which books should I actually read?! I tend to read more political books by Ally Carter or Jennifer Lynn Barnes, or books that fall on the “suspense” end of the spectrum (like Liane Moriarty). I don’t read a lot of hefty murder mysteries or legit thrillers, but have enjoyed some in the past. I find myself adding memory loss books to the TBR, as well as some YA murder mysteries or kidnappings. Check out my TBRs here or here if you’re curious for more I’m interested in! I also went into detail about things I don’t like about some YA mystery books too. Seeking: political thrillers, YA murder mysteries, shocking twists, memory loss, “suspense” classification instead of mystery/thriller This one can be really hit or miss for me. I love books that involve historical […]

ARC Review: The Leaving

Posted May 30, 2016 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

Wooof I haven’t been THAT addicted to a book in a long time! I sat down at 10:30 PM on a Friday night to start this book and finished it three hours later without stopping. I’m not a huge mystery/thriller reader but some of them just speak to me. This was definitely one of them. Six kids went missing eleven years ago, and then five of them randomly return. None of them remember what happened. MEEP. I didn’t have any theories while reading (for the most part) so that made it even more fun. I had no idea what was going on. This was the epitome of a page-turner. I sat and literally could not stop reading. I tried to stop when I got tired and ended up reading through bleary eyes for an extra two hours. I loved the style of the story; the chapters were super short and alternated between three characters. Avery is Max’s younger sister (the only person who didn’t return), and Lucas and Scarlett were two that returned. Lucas and Scarlett had some cool effects with the writing style. Hers were kind of written like poetry, with different symbols and text effects. Lucas had some parts (memories) that popped onto the page in black boxes. It’s hard to explain, but it was cool. It added to the effect of the memory loss story. The characters were interesting because they don’t know who they are or what they’re like. They don’t remember anything about their lives, […]

ARC Review: Unrivaled

Posted May 9, 2016 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

This was a super super super addicting read! I don’t know how else to explain it, except I’ve never said “okay just one more chapter” more times in my ENTIRE life. I planned to read up to the 200 page mark before bed and ended up staying up for 2 more hours to just finish. I kid you not, every. single. chapter. I kept saying I would quit and I couldn’t. I needed to see what was going to happen! So aside from the addictiveness, there wasn’t a heck of a lot of substance. My gut reaction is to give this book like 5 stars because I was so enthralled while reading, but I can’t ignore some major issues. First of all, I didn’t like the characters at all. None of them had any qualities or personality traits that resonated with me and they absolutely felt like cardboard cut-outs. I don’t need to LIKE a character to like a book, but I at least need to understand them and feel like they’re more than a stereotype. These people were walking stereotypes of a wannabe journalist (Layla), wannabe actress (Aster), and wannabe musician (Tommy). I liked the chapters with Madison the best because she had a secretive, mysterious past that I was determined to figure out. Overall, they weren’t great people. They were all attracted to fame and fortune, plus winning the competition… so yeah. Not perfect. AGAIN this is fine for me usually, but they were too blah for me to care […]

Review: Liars, Inc.

Posted March 30, 2016 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

I totally thought The Art of Lainey would be my first Paula Stokes book because, c’mon, it’s right up my alley. I ended up adding this one to the poll for my YA book club and it was chosen for March’s read. I finished the book within two sittings – it was super fast but unfortunately predictable for me. I always say that I’m terrible about guessing mysteries, but that’s changed recently. Maybe I’m reading too many books like this (even though it doesn’t feel that way) or I’m too comfortable with YA. All of the YA mystery/thrillers I read tend to follow a similar formula and I find myself guessing whodunit without much thought. I know I’m not the target age for them necessarily, so I hope teens have a better time with them! I said during my reading progress on Goodreads that it’s always hard to believe YA mysteries because it just doesn’t feel logical that teens are this involved in murder mysteries. Brittany said it better over here too. The story set-up was kind of cool too. The book started at the end-ish, then jumped to the beginning to backtrack, then went back to the end. I liked that it started the story with a “bang” (haha, literally). That always adds some intrigue to stories for me. Anyways, yeah – this one was too predictable for me. I skimmed a few reviews on Goodreads and it seems like most people were surprised by the ending. Don’t get me […]

Blog Tour | Review: A Study in Charlotte

Posted February 25, 2016 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I’m always interested in retellings – even the non-fairytale ones. Those are more common, for sure, but some of the historical retellings are more unique. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about historical figures, so I’m usually entering them blindly… but still end up enjoying them! I’m not overly familiar with Sherlock Holmes stories, so this was another where I luckily didn’t have a lot of historical expectations. It’s nice because I go into it with a wide-open attitude, instead of preparing to make comparisons to the real text. In this story, Sherlock and Holmes were real people that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about. The main characters are Jamie Watson and Charlotte Holmes, the descendants of the famous detective duo. One of the cooler parts of the book for me is the fact that it takes place in my state – Connecticut! I don’t see a lot of books happening here, so that was almost reason enough to add it to my TBR. It’s funny because the Holmes/Watson relationship ended up being my favorite part of the book! I loved the dynamic between the two of them. I hope it lines up well with the original stories, but from someone who doesn’t know – it was awesome. From what I do understand, they both had similar personality traits to their ancestors. It was cool to see how they come together at the beginning of the book, and how their relationship grows. Great chemistry! The dynamic was definitely different because […]

Mini Reviews: See How They Run and The Fixer

Posted February 15, 2016 / Book Reviews / 9 Comments

I read two mystery/thriller stories in a row, and neither of them disappointed! They both had interesting political elements and little to no romance. (I had grown sick of reading back to back to back (etc.) romancey books in December and needed a new vibe to kick off the year.) I’m bringing some mini reviews your way for both of these highly recommended stories. After the major cliffhanger in ALL FALL DOWN, I was so anxiously waiting to see how things picked up in SEE HOW THEY RUN. I definitely should have reread the ending of the previous book before starting it, because I was a little lost for a while, but I started to remember things as time passed. It did generally take me a while to fully feel invested in the story. I think the action didn’t take off right away and for some reason I wasn’t pageturning like crazy. Don’t get me wrong – some crazy twists and turns happened in the beginning of the book too! It just didn’t click with me right away. In my review for ALL FALL DOWN, I said how I wanted more of her friends and to finally meet her brother. One of these hopes did come true, as her brother Jamie comes to Embassy Row with his friend from West Point. He was definitely a big presence in the book, but her friends weren’t. The pace quickened around the 200 page mark and I didn’t stop reading until I was finished. I […]

GIF Review: I Am Princess X

Posted January 9, 2016 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I’ve never done a full-on GIF review before, but I don’t think I have much to say about this book that can’t be said in GIF form… so here we go! I added this book to my TBR and thought it was some kind of paranormal, actual superhero book. Come to find out, it was just a mystery-esque book. Shelving it on Goodreads became an issue for a while because I was totally thinking it was something different. As I kept reading, I was actually pretty happy that it was more a mystery book. I was intrigued by the storyline even though it wasn’t what I expected at all. The story started coming together and the concept was incredibly cool. I liked following May and Patrick try to figure out clues from the comic and track down Libby, who she suspected was still alive. A lot of the clues were really unexpected and awesome. The more I kept going… the more far-fetched it got. They made a lot of obscure connections really quickly, as if they’d been cracking codes and finding murderers since birth, a la Nancy Drew. It kind of lost me for a little bit towards the middle-end. I mean, come on. I kept reading reviews from my IRL book club girls on Goodreads where they said it was far-fecthed and I didn’t think it was possible (back when I was convinced it was a paranormal book). Like, how could it be far-fetched? Well the amount of things […]

Review: Get Dirty

Posted August 3, 2015 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I had suuuuper mixed (okay, fine, more negative) feelings about the first book, but was absolutely determined to read this one. All other issues aside, I NEEDED to know who the killer was. I had a few people in mind after the first book… and that cliffhanger GOOD GOD. I figured I should give this one a slightly better rating than the first one because for some reason I kind of liked it a bit more, but it technically all comes down to the same issues. The pacing was still an issue, the girls still felt like cardboard cut-outs of typical high schooler stereotypes (except maybe even worse this time around because there was pretty much no personality at all), and… the worst thing of all… my theory was correct. If you know me at all, you’d know that (a) I don’t read a lot of mystery/murder/thriller books and (b) I am ridiculously AWFUL at falling for red herrings and can literally never figure out who the killer is. Ever. Well, except in this case. In summary, if I’m able to figure out who the killer was in your mystery book, then it wasn’t that great of a mystery. I liked how everything wrapped up but essentially everything else from the book wasn’t very memorable. I just finished the audio this morning (July 2nd, at the time of writing this DUH) and I can’t even remember what the fuck happened throughout the book. I feel like there was even LESS of […]

Mini Reviews: Magonia and The Good Girls

Posted July 3, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

I don’t really even know what to say about it, except that it was incredibly unique and unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I actually HATE birds and am very afraid of them, so I’m surprised this book worked for me at all. We chose this one for my book club and pretty much all agreed with that. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I did have a few major struggles: It was hard to picture Magonia and the bird people. I feel like most fantasy books have the issue of too much description, but this one could have used a bit more. When writing about a land that’s technically an ocean with ships and different bird-creatures, people are going to have a tough time picturing it. I needed more detail overall. I know that Aza was trying to learn what the issues were in Magonia, as well as her reasons for being there, but it was hard to grasp. They didn’t really tell her anything, and thus the reader didn’t know anything. It would have been better to have a bit more information and explanation. Aza’s reaction to Magonia was not believable. Obviously most of the book is pretty unbelievable, but what struck me the most was that Aza just accepted it. She literally learned that she was basically a bird person in this crazy place above the clouds… and she just went with it! I would have been screaming “what the fuck” repeatedly. Same with Jason. How did […]

Review: Vicious

Posted December 10, 2014 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

*Do not read this review if you haven’t read all of the other books in the series! I’ll hide spoilers about this book, but anything before book 16 is fair game. Oh god. I can’t believe I finally read this book and that this series is actually over. This could easily be the hardest review I’ll write, because this book means more to me than a lot of others out there, but I’ll try to make it reasonable! It’s kind of difficult for me to summarize how this series has been so important to me for the past nine years. It kept me guessing and kept me READING during years I had no time to read. I started the series in 2005, when book one was released, and religiously read each one every six months when they were released. People think it should have ended sooner, but I was never wishing it would just end already like most people. I can’t say that I’m surprised about any of it, really: what happened in the back, how quickly I read it, and how everything ended. That kind of predictability turns a lot of people off from books, but I’ve grown to become so engrossed by Shepard’s writing style that I don’t care. Sure, this series should basically have a subtitle of “How Many Times Can These Girls Fuck Up?” – but I can’t say that I was ever bored. I’m sad that it’s all over, but am very satisfied with the ending. […]