The Bridesmaid by Cate Quinn

 

The Bridesmaid by Cate Quinn

 

Summary:

The Kensingtons invite you to the society wedding of the decade. There's just one hitch. You might not make it out alive. 

When a celebrity bridesmaid is murdered weeks before an exclusive society wedding, forensic attorney Holly Stone is drafted as an unlikely undercover replacement. As she works to unpick the lives of the notoriously private Kensington family, glamour-averse Holly discovers a new worst enemy in bridezilla Adrianna. Heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune, Adrianna is set on throwing the event of the decade, and she won't let anything get in her way.

But beneath the veneer of poise and sophistication, Adrianna and her bridesmaids have secrets worth killing for. 

As the wedding day gets closer, it's clear that one of the five hand-picked bridesmaids has committed murder – and a destination wedding is a perfect place to strike again. Soon, Holly finds herself on the playground of the rich and famous, but if she wants to find answers, she'll have to make it out alive. 

 

Review:  3-Star

I love a good murder mystery, and the overall story is wonderful, but there are so many inconsistencies within the story.  Also, the use of words, even at my age of 60, I had to look up the meaning of them.  It’s been years since I’ve read a book that I had to look up words.

This was one of the first murder mysteries, in which I didn’t figure the murderer out before it was revealed.

 

Conclusion:

Would I recommend this book to others?   YES

Would I buy this book for friends                   YES

Would I read other books by this Author      YES

 

 

 

Murder Between Friends by Liz Lawson

 

Murder Between Friends by Liz Lawson

 

Summary:

Two years ago, the murder of a neighbor tore three best friends apart--now the killer is going to walk free and the ex-friends are going to have to face the past--and each other--in another twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Agathas.

Grace, Henry, and Ally grew up together on the same block. They used to be best friends--until Grace's testimony put Henry's brother, Jake, away for killing their English teacher. Now, two years later, Ally and Henry hate Grace, and Grace is doubting what she thinks she saw that night. 

It feels like everyone's getting a second chance, then, when due to a mistrial, Jake is suddenly released. And Henry knows his brother is innocent, but when Grace reaches out to say she’s rethinking what she saw the night of the murder, Jake’s reaction is confusing. He doesn’t want Henry—or Grace--getting involved.

For Ally not getting involved isn’t an option, and there’s nothing Grace can say to convince Ally she’s not the enemy. But can Ally afford to push Grace out when she’s one of the only other people willing to believe in Jake’s innocence?  

The clock is ticking. Jake’s new trial date is about to be set, and he's sure to be found guilty again unless there's new evidence to prove he's innocent. Grace, Henry, and Ally are going to have to decide whether you can trust an old friend now that they’re your enemy.

Review: 4 Star

The reason for 4 star and not 5 star is for the fact that if I needed to do something else the book was easy to put down..  The author did a fantastic job of making the characters feel real so easy to connect with them she also did an awesome job of capturing the emotions.  The editing was spot on.

 

Conclusion:

Would I recommend this book to others    YES

Would I read other books written from this author   YES

Aftertaste by Daria Levelle

 

Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle

 

Summary:

What if you could have one last meal with someone you’ve loved, someone you’ve lost? Combining the magic of Under the Whispering Door with the high-stakes culinary world of Sweetbitter, Aftertaste is an epic love story, a dark comedy, and a synesthetic adventure through food and grief.

A food story to binge.
A ghost story to devour.
A love story to savor.

Konstantin Duhovny is a haunted man. His father died when he was ten, and ghosts have been hovering around him ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. Flavors of meals he’s never eaten will flood his mouth, a sign that a spirit is present. Kostya has kept these aftertastes a secret for most of his life, but one night, he decides to act on what he’s tasting. And everything changes.

Kostya discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones—at least for the length of time it takes them to eat a dish that he’s prepared. He thinks his life’s purpose might be to offer closure to grieving strangers, and sets out to learn all he can by entering a particularly fiery ring of Hell: the New York culinary scene. But as his kitchen skills catch up with his ambitions, Kostya is too blind to see the catastrophe looming in the Afterlife. And the one person who knows Kostya must be stopped also happens to be falling in love with him.

Set in the bustling world of New York restaurants and teeming with mouthwatering food writing, Aftertaste is a whirlwind romance, a heart-wrenching look at love and loss, and a ghost story about all the ways we hunger—and how far we’d go to find satisfaction.

Review: 3 Stars

While I’d enjoyed the book it was one I could walk away from for weeks, had trouble connecting with the characters and it was the storyline that kept me coming back to this story. The editing was spot on and one of the reason I wanted to finish the book and not do a DNF. To me the emotions weren’t captured those making the characters dry.

 

Conclusion:

Would I recommend this book to others    NO

Would I read other books by this author    YES

We Won't All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall

 

We Won’t All Survive

By Kate Alice Marshall

 

Summary:

Two years ago, Mercy Gray was hailed as a hero for saving lives during a mall shooting. She still carries souvenirs from that day: the fragment of a bullet lodged in her back, a mountain of medical debt, and guilt for ignoring her sister’s warnings that the sweet boy next door was anything but.

So when billionaire turned TV host Damien Dare recruits Mercy to compete on his new survivalist reality show, she can’t turn down a chance at the whopping cash prize that could send her sister to college. But when she and the other contestants arrive at the off-grid location, something isn’t right. The set is empty. The gates close without warning, trapping them inside. And then one of them turns up dead. What appeared at first to be a tragic accident quickly transforms as more contestants start dropping like flies. With time and resources running low, surviving this show takes on a whole new meaning. Mercy must figure out who to trust. Before she’s next.

 

Review: 5-Stars

This book took me by surprise.  From the summery it felt like it would be just your average tale, but I was wrong. It engages you from the start to where you can’t put it down until you finish it. What a page-turner this book is.

The Characters, the emotions, the setting are all down to perfection. You can picture the story in your mind as you’re reading. And nothing was what I had thought it would be. It shocked me how it ended and I was very pleased that the Author did such an awesome job with all the twists and turns withing the storyline.

Conclusion:

Would I recommend this book to others?  YES

Would I read other books written by this Author? YES

Would I buy this book for others? YES

 

 

The Spell to Wake the Dead by Nicole Lesperance

 

The Spell to Wake the Dead

By Nicole Lesperance

 

Summary:

When Mazzy and her best friend Nora sneak down to the beach one moonlit night to cast a spell, they don’t expect to find a dead body. But as the tide rolls in, it carries the remains of a woman who is missing her hands and teeth.

The girls know they should leave the investigation to the police, but they can’t shake the weird, supernatural connection they feel with the dead woman. Using spellwork and divination, they set out to find answers of their own. But after they uncover a rash of local disappearances stretching back years—and both girls start having occult visions and hearing ghostly, whispering voices—Mazzy worries that she and Nora are in danger.

Then, Nora finds a second body. And the whispering voice is telling her where to find more. With everything spiraling, Mazzy needs to figure out who to trust and how to sever this supernatural connection—or she and Nora might be the next bodies to wash up on the beach.

 

Review: 5-Stars

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this story. It sounded aright.  Something I’d enjoy and take a day or two to read, feeling it would be just an average story, but was I wrong, oh so wrong.

This story from the first paragraph to the last is what I refer to as a page turner one that you can’t put down and have to continue to read from start to finish in one setting.

It engages the mind, trying to figure out just what’s really going on. The author really knows how to develop characters who are believable and feel real. She also paints a picture of what you’re reading, so it feels like you’re watching a movie, along with capturing the emotions of all the different characters. Hands down one of the best books I’ve read in years, one that I will pick up multi times.

Conclusion:

Will I recommend this book to others?  YES

Will I read other books written by this Author? YES

Will I buy this book for others? YES

 

 

Sparrow and vine by Sophie Lark

 

Sparrow and Vine by Sophie Lark

 

Summary:

The wedding that never was…

Sadie Sparrow loves the beautiful overgrown winery of Sparrow and Vine. It's her family home, and she's willing to do anything to inherit it: even marry her worst enemy. It's the only possible solution. Or at least, Monroe Beaumont makes it seem that way when he corners Sadie with his offer. Intimidation is what Monroe does best for the pack of pirates he calls brothers. And after all…somebody has to get married to unlock the family trust.

Sadie's sisters are furious. They're sure that everything they love is about to be stolen from them by Beaumonts. But Sadie's the one who actually has to live with one of them. The biggest one…who smells like cinnamon and insists on sharing a bed… Sadie's always known she'd have to fight for Sparrow and Vine. She just didn't know she'd be fighting her own husband...

 

Review: 4-Star

While this story has so much that makes it a winner, it’s not a page-turner. I was able to sit the book down for over a week, before picking it up and finishing.  The editing, flow, character development is all spot on, but it’s just has that spark missing which turns the story into a page-turner that you can’t put down.

 

Conclusion:

Would I buy this book for a friend?  YES

Would I recommend this book to others? YES

Would I read more books written by this Author? YES

One Dark Night by Hannah Richell

 

One Dark Night by Hannah Richell

 

Summary:

When a body is found the day after Halloween, a small British community must reckon with its past and the dangers lurking in its present in this spine-tingling novel from “not to be missed” (Hayley Scrivener, author of Dirt Creek) author Hannah Richell.

On Halloween, a group of teenage students meet in the woods near Sally in the Wood, a road steeped in local lore and rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a murdered girl. By the end of the night, one student will be dead.

Rachel, the school guidance counselor, is trying to keep a handle on her increasingly distant teenaged daughter, Ellie, while students and parents panic and mourn. Her ex-husband and detective Ben, dealing with a personal crisis of his own, has concerns about his daughter’s safety as he investigates the death. Meanwhile, Ellie is keeping secrets from both her parents, including one about where she was that night.

 

Review:  5-Star

Wow, wow wow, what a page-turner this story is. From the first page to the last page, you're so engaged you don’t want to put the book down for any reason for fear of missing something.  From the summary it sounded like it would be a fun read, but it was so much more than I’d expected.

I found nothing wrong with the editing, the flow, the character development, everything that goes into making a story great, this one has it. I can’t say enough about this story.

 

Conclusion:

Would I buy this book for a friend?   YES

Would I read more books written by this Author?  YES

Would I recommend this book to others?  YES