Tag: adult mystery

Reviews

All Her Little Secrets Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on All Her Little Secrets Review

*BEWARE OF SPOILERS BELOW*

Ellice Littlejohn seemingly has it all: an Ivy League law degree, a well-paying job as a corporate attorney in midtown Atlanta, great friends, and a “for fun” relationship with a rich, charming executive—her white boss, Michael. But everything changes one cold January morning when Ellice goes to meet Michael… and finds him dead with a gunshot to his head.

Ellice was definitely an interesting character. I honestly didn’t think she had much to hide per se but as the story progresses and we find out more of her secrets I felt sad for her. She had a traumatic upbringing and even though she managed to escape her circumstances she was left feeling immense guilt for leaving her little brother there. Which is obviously why she kept bailing him out and loaning him money. I liked to see her kind of devolve as she delves further into the mystery behind Michael’s death and who she thought was behind it.

I think it would of been more interesting if this was a dual perspective from Sam’s point of view as well. He is so wrapped up in this whole conspiracy and he eventually pays for it with his life. I still feel like he could of gave us more insight into what they had to deal with in childhood and it could of been a fascinating to see how contrasting their lives are now.

I did however really enjoyed the flashbacks to Ellice’s past. I like that there was more to her than what we originally perceived. Vera I adore and I liked the fact that she is still a major factor in both Ellice and Sam’s life and they continue to visit and show their love for her. It added a lot of depth to the storyline and showed us why Ellice acts the way she does and her reasonings behind her decisions she’s made in her life, like keeping her little secrets.

In terms of the actual mystery surrounding Michael’s death and who was behind it, I was underwhelmed. I just feel like there wasn’t enough high stakes moments that could of upped my entertainment factor. I want to be shocked and even though there were some twists throughout the plot I didn’t foresee it was all that interesting to find out. Talks about shipments and deliveries and gun orders to find out about a secret deal that leads to a conspiracy was boring.

⭐️2/5 stars I was just a little bored at times..

Reviews

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

*Spoilers Ahead*

At a party thrown by her parents, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed – again. She’s been murdered hundreds of times, and each day, Aiden Bishop is too late to save her. The only way to break this cycle is to identify Evelyn’s killer. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is desperate to stop him ever escaping Blackheath…

This book was really hard for me to get into for some reason. I picked it up and put it down I think half a dozen times and I had never even gone past 20 pages. I finally decided to push through and it wasn’t until around the 100 page mark exactly that I started to become invested in Aiden and what was actually happening at Blackheath.

I was a bit indifferent to Aiden’s character a the start of the book. We definitely learn more about his as the book progresses and we figure out his motivations for why he is at Blackheath. We get no real sense of who he is though because he is continuously influenced by his hosts. Had we maybe got to see some flashbacks to before he entered and what he was feeling at that time and then come back to the present maybe I would of gained more of an insight into how much he’s changed.

I never really trusted Anna. Just the way she was always around right when Aiden needed her and how the plague doctor kept telling him that she is going to betray him. And then when we find out who she really is I can’t see why Aiden would be adamant that she has changed. I just feel like we aren’t shown enough of her character to make that distinction, but then again we didn’t know her before either. The same can be said for Daniel, I knew he was too good to be true right from when he exposes himself to himself. He was just that little too sure of himself and the decisions that Aiden was going to make even though he hasn’t made them yet.

Multiple timelines and POVs can get a tad confusing for me and it’s hard to keep track of all the characters and who is a host and who isn’t. I have to say as he switches from each host and the days start ticking down the level of urgency felt throughout the plot kept rising. I had no idea at any point in time what was actually going to happen, I had my suspicions but at every twist I was definitely surprised!

⭐️3/5 stars Unique, confusing and intricate!!

Reviews

The Maidens Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on The Maidens Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.

I felt sorry for Mariana for the majority of this book. When we learn about her life and how much death there has been in her family and how she has overcome it all only to be thrown into the midst of these tragic events would trigger anyone. I love how mostly calm and collected she is, instead of reacting she will stop and think about why she is feeling this way and what the other person has said to elicit these feeling, which as a therapist made sense. But then she sort of devolves throughout the course of the book and leans into her anger and is more prone to outbursts, like when she punched Edward in the face.

We are led to believe right from the start that Edward was the killer so naturally I didn’t believe it. I was thinking it was more along the lines of Fred being the killer simply because the way he was introduced was so random and then he was just always around. Sure he was interested in the murders and was attracted to Mariana but the whole prediction thing was a little strange. Then Morris seemed like the next likely out of the male characters to potentially be the killer, but then again it just seemed too obvious so I really had no idea.

I can definitely say I was surprised that Zoe would be able to pull it off. But then there were signs all throughout the book when Zoe would talk about Sebastien and I found it odd how almost accusatory she would speak to Mariana about it, especially when she would throw his death in her face and wish he was here instead of her. I remember thinking how weird for a niece to speak about her uncle who isn’t even her blood. I also found the fact that Zoe would just use Mariana’s first name and wouldn’t call her Aunt or Aunty, even though Mariana would call her niece often. I honestly didn’t even think they were related for the first half of the book, I just thought she was a random girl they adopted.

I liked how Alex Michaelides called back to his previous book and integrated those characters into this book. It honestly made me want to reread The Silent Patient and connect the dots once again. I liked this book, it was intriguing, mysterious and I loved the college setting. I was constantly on edge and surprised at every turn.

⭐️4/5 stars This was unpredictable, weird and pretty fast paced!

Reviews

The Last Time I Lied Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on The Last Time I Lied Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

I really liked this book!

The Last Time I Lied is about a woman named Emma who attended a summer camp when she was 13 and while she was there three of her bunk mates went missing and were never found. Now 15 years later Emma has been invited back to Camp Nightingale where she vows to figure out what really happened all those years ago.

Emma I really formed an attachment to right at the start. She is likeable and realistic I think and over the course of the storyline her character shifts and we find out she might not be as reliable a narrator as we might have thought. The mystery surrounding the missing girls has really taken over her life and I liked the fact that she decides to take up Franny’s offer and go back. She is definitely an enigmatic character and I was constantly being surprised by her. I really thought for a minute that she might of been capable of murdering the girls or at least knew who did it and was covering for whoever that was.

I think I would of liked and appreciated this even more if it was maybe a dual perspective with Theo. Seeing how similar his and Emma’s lives were affected after everything happens and have their perspectives interwoven would of added that extra layer of depth and doubt to the reader. I would of liked to get more of an insight from his character and how the whole situation effected his family.

The format of the story with the flashbacks kept me highly engaged and eager to find out what really happened. There are various twists and turns that occur throughout the course of the storyline that was a little predictable and then would completely take me by surprise. I was on the edge of my seat while I was reading this book.

The ending I didn’t really need. I would of liked more of an ambiguous ending where we don’t know for sure whether or not Vivian was still alive or not. The meeting between them wasn’t really necessary in my opinion though I did appreciate that Emma doesn’t let her get away with it!

⭐️4/5 stars atmospheric, thrilling, unexpected twists, highly recommend!

Reviews

Home Before Dark Review

by amyleighreads1 Comment on Home Before Dark Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

This was better than I was expecting!

Maggie returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound – and dangerous – secrets hidden within its walls?

I was definitely enthralled right from the start. From learning about Maggie and how she doesn’t remember any of the events over the 20 days her family spent in Baneberry Hall. Getting the truth from her mother that it was indeed all a lie only to go back and see that maybe what her father wrote was true.

There was a sense of eeriness and unease that wove its way throughout the course of the plot line and definitely added a bit of depth and atmosphere, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Just from reading Riley Sagar’s previous words I knew that the twist wasn’t going to be supernaturnal and their would be a solid explanation to the events that took place and I was pretty much correct.

Maggie as our main protagonist was wonderful. She had the perfect amount of drive to figure out what was really happening but also opened herself up to other explanations that added that sense of mystery. I wish we had touched a little more on the other characters in the book. Again I knew inevitably they would have more of a significance to the storyline than what we were getting at the start and I would of liked to learn more about them.

The jumps between present day and the narrative that Maggie’s father wrote was very well done and again just gave me more incentive to want to read on and figure out what was going to happen next. Riley Sagar has a way of manipulating the reading into thinking that these mysterious, otherworldly events really could of happened only to turn that on its head and have plausible explanation that was staring you right in the face.

I highly enjoyed this book. It was a little predictable at the end there but I was still surprised by a few of the twists and turns and it gave me hella spooky house vibes!

⭐️4/5 stars Definitely a page turner!