Book Review: Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain

After losing her parents, fifteen-year-old Ivy Hart is left to care for her grandmother, older sister and nephew as tenants on a small tobacco farm.  As she struggles with her grandmother’s aging, her sister’s mental illness and her own epilepsy, she realizes they might need more than she can give.

When Jane Forrester takes a position as Grace County’s newest social worker, she doesn’t realize just how much her help is needed.  She quickly becomes emotionally invested in her clients' lives, causing tension with her boss and her new husband.  But as Jane is drawn in by the Hart women, she begins to discover the secrets of the small farm—secrets much darker than she would have guessed.  Soon, she must decide whether to take drastic action to help them, or risk losing the battle against everything she believes is wrong.

Set in rural Grace County, North Carolina in a time of state-mandated sterilizations and racial tension, Necessary Lies tells the story of these two young women, seemingly worlds apart, but both haunted by tragedy.  Jane and Ivy are thrown together and must ask themselves: how can you know what you believe is right, when everyone is telling you it’s wrong? (Good Reads)

I stumbled across Diane Chamberlain on my first trip to NYC for BEA and the first Book Blogger Convention. That trip brought on a massive collection of new books and authors. The Harlequin booth was huge and filled to the brim with people. I snagged a few books there including The Lies We Told by Diane Chamberlain.

After sifting through my pile at home I picked it up. We ended up reading it for a book club selection that year and I was hooked. I went on to read three more of her books and loved each one. She is definitely  an author I wouldn't necessarily pick out because her books seem similar to so many others. But when you actually start reading her, she hooks you with her talent.

Her stories are so layered and complicated and you never know where she is going or what to expect. Necessary Lies was just the same. I read it in just a few days, eagerly going back to it every chance I could. She fills her books with lots of human drama; relationships, secrets, betrayal, etc. It's easy to fall in to it.

She has replaced Jodi Picoult for me in my dramatic adult contemporary reading pleasure. I definitely recommend her.

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

 

red headed book child

Book Review: Night Film by Marisha Pessl

On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years.

For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.

Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world.

The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more. (Goodreads)

I am just going to start by saying this book has the potential to be just as big as Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. It combines the gothic with the literary, with the suspense, with the mystery. It had it all...even a little romance, though not in the traditional sense.

I did not read the author's first novel though it received great acclaim. I must say I was impressed with her superb writing style. She wrapped me up. It was hard to put down. Events get a little wacky right after the middle of the book but overall, it was a page turner and put together quite well.

I liked that it included seemingly "real" newspaper articles, photos, blog posts, and police files. Having all that pop up throughout the book made it seem so realistic. I wasn't drawn towards any one character. They all had their own mystery to them and I was intrigued by them all. The director Cordova was haunting and intriguing and I was curious what all the hype was about. 

Overall, though it took me a bit to complete it was definitely worth reading. I highly recommend it. It's already been sent to my pal, Cheryl. :) 

This was one of the books I selected for the R.I.P Challenge from Stainless Steel Droppings. I am happy I completed it in time! It definitely combines most of the genres listed for this challenge, combing a lot of gothic with a lot of mystery.

Author Website:
Marisha Pessl

Challenge:
R.I.P Challenge

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Book Review: The Shadow Tracer by Meg Gardiner

Sarah Keller is a single mother to five-year-old Zoe, living quietly in Oklahoma. She’s also a skip tracer, an expert in tracking people who’ve gone on the lam to avoid arrest, prosecution, or debt—pinpointing their locations to bring them to justice.

When a school bus accident sends Zoe to the ER, their quiet life explodes. Zoe’s medical tests reveal what Sarah has been hiding: Zoe is not her daughter. Zoe’s biological mother—Sarah’s sister, Beth—was murdered shortly after the child’s birth. And Zoe’s father is missing and presumed dead.

With no way to prove her innocence, Sarah must abandon her carefully constructed life and go on the run. Chased by cops, federal agents, and the group responsible for Beth’s murder, Sarah embarks on a desperate journey. Can her knowledge as a skip tracer help her stay off the grid, remain one step ahead of her pursuers, and find a way to save her daughter? (Goodreads)

I have seen so many posts from fellow bloggers about Meg Gardiner's books. Like most things, I am late to the game. This book was awesome, to say the least! It had me from page 1 and that says a lot. Not many books, as of late, have been able to do that for me.

I felt the same way reading this that I did when I first discovered Lisa Gardner. It included an intense writing style, terrific character development and fast paced action. A major story line of Shadow Tracer involves a religious cult and the horrendous people that are involved in it. Why this fascinates me, I don't know? Chalk it up to the unbelievable and my fascination with that.  I picked up China Lake, her Edgar Award winning book from 2008 and it too involves a religious cult. 

I also really enjoyed the back and forth chase game between Sarah and those that hunted her. Her fierce protection for her child I could totally relate to. Sarah's experience in finding people who are lost played out in her attempt to lose herself; using throw away phones, safe houses, and changing her appearance. This also fascinates me. 

The ending of the book gave me a feeling that this may not be a stand alone but time will tell. It is marketed as a stand alone thriller but she certainly has many other books that are in series. Either way I am planning on reading more of her. If you are a fan of Lisa Gardner or Joy Fielding, pick her up. I'm only 40 pages into China Lake and am just as wrapped up as I was with Shadow Tracer. 

I originally agreed to do a feature for this book because I didn't think I would have time to read it. I finished it in two days. I love it when a book just takes you away and you forget the obligation behind it or heck, laundry! 

Author Website:
Meg Gardiner

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Book Review: The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

 

The Silver Star, Jeannette Walls has written a heartbreaking and redemptive novel about an intrepid girl who challenges the injustice of the adult world—a triumph of imagination and storytelling.

It is 1970 in a small town in California. “Bean” Holladay is twelve and her sister, Liz, is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, a woman who “found something wrong with every place she ever lived,” takes off to find herself, leaving her girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that’s been in Charlotte’s family for generations. (Goodreads)

When The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls came out many years ago, it hit the bookselling world like a ton of bricks. EVERYONE was reading and recommending it. It was a book that you just told everyone to read. The writing was raw, powerful and endearing. The storyline was impossible to relate to but you cared so deeply for everyone involved, you just couldn't put it down. 

I missed her follow up Half Broke Horses simply out of sheer neglect on my part, not because it didn't sound wonderful. I am very pleased with myself that I got around to reading The Silver Star, her third book due out in June. I even made it before it was released. 

The Silver Star is different than her first two because it is an honest to goodness novel, where as Glass Castle and Half Broke Horses were about her own family and fell into that memoir category.

I picked this one up on Mother's Day morning because I was given the luxury of "sleeping in", having my coffee in bed and reading (what?!) all morning. This doesn't happen EVER in my house. EVER. I went with it. I was able to read half of the book just in that day. It was the perfect pick because it lured me in from the get go. 

Walls has such a simplistic, straightforward delivery, that it's almost impossible to realize how much emotion you are really being handed until you are done with it. I was amazed at myself for how much I cared for these two girls, Bean and Liz. I wanted to take them home with me and throw their kooky mother to the wind. 

Overall, it is not an original story. 2 sisters forced to fend for themselves because mother is unable to for whatever reason. They come up against hard times but are savvy enough to get by. But the way in which they stumble along is endearing and honest and with that came something unique.

The only issue I had with it was the ending. The climax of the book came closer to the end and it didn't get wrapped up as well as I hoped it would. There were some questions left unanswered and it seemed a bit too simple.

I still recommend it, especially for book clubs. There is much to discuss from the role of a parent and life in the South.  I think fans of her earlier work will enjoy this one as well. Honest writing and endearing characters will pull readers in.

Very excited to go and see her speak at Common Good Books in St. Paul, MN in June with my friend Rachell. 

Author Page:

Jeanette Walls

Release Date:

June 11, 2013

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

     

Book Review: Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

A stunning debut novel in which a single mother reconstructs her teenaged daughter's life, sifting through her emails, texts, and social media to piece together the shocking truth about the last days of her life.

Litigation lawyer and harried single mother Kate Baron is stunned when her daughter's exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn, calls with disturbing news: her intelligent, high-achieving fifteen-year-old daughter, Amelia, has been caught cheating.

Kate can't believe that Amelia, an ambitious, levelheaded girl who's never been in trouble would do something like that. But by the time she arrives at Grace Hall, Kate's faced with far more devastating news. Amelia is dead. 

Seemingly unable to cope with what she'd done, a despondent Amelia has jumped from the school's roof in an act of "spontaneous" suicide. At least that's the story Grace Hall and the police tell Kate. And overwhelmed as she is by her own guilt and shattered by grief, it is the story that Kate believes until she gets the anonymous text: 

She didn't jump.

Sifting through Amelia's emails, text messages, social media postings, and cell phone logs, Kate is determined to learn the heartbreaking truth about why Amelia was on Grace Hall's roof that day-and why she died.

Told in alternating voices, Reconstructing Amelia is a story of secrets and lies, of love and betrayal, of trusted friends and vicious bullies. It's about how well a parent ever really knows a child and how far one mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she could not save. (Goodreads)

My pace of reading has definitely slowed a bit and it took me a lot longer to read this than I thought it would especially since I loved it!  I read a quick blurb review as I was reading this and the reviewer said it would be the "next Gone Girl".  It definitely had the psychological suspense that Gone Girl had but a completely different type of story line.  I think it will appeal to the thriller lover and the literary lover. I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed Gone Girl.

The author really nails the impact of social media has on teens to the point I don't ever want my child to be on Facebook, Tweet or text EVER. Kids are cruel and they use social media as a nasty weapon.

The story goes back and forth in time and is told from Amelia and Kate's perspectives. Some chapters are just texts, others blog posts. All in the all it was intriguing and made me anxious to find out how it was going to turn out. I did not figure much out until the very end which I like.

For a debut book, I think McCreight did a bang up job. I recommend for any reader and fan of thrillers.

Author Website:
Kimberly McCreight

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Blog Tour: Carry On, Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton

 

 In Carry On, Warrior, Glennon Doyle Melton shares new stories and the best-loved material from Momastery.com She recounts her mistakes and triumphs with candor and humor, and gives language to our universal (yet often secret) experiences. She believes that by shedding our armor, we can stop hiding, competing, striving for the mirage of perfection, and making motherhood, marriage, and friendship harder by pretending they’re not hard. In this one woman trying to love herself and others, readers find a wise and witty friend who will inspire them to forgive their own imperfections, make the most of their gifts, and commit to small acts of love that will change the world. (Goodreads)


It seems like it's been a million years since I've participated in a blog tour. I cut off all ties last summer because my schedule just got too hectic. Well, come the new year and a part of me was utterly optimistic and I opened up the blog tour door once again. My only rule was to pick books about being a parent/mother, etc. I wanted to read something I could learn from because seriously, some days I need all the help I can get.

Carry On, Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton seemed like the perfect blend of being a woman, a wife, a mother and a seeker of self improvement and betterment. I couldn't resist. I was curious. Could I relate?

Well, Melton's story is quite intense; one with many tragedies, obstacles, and pain. It comes with drug abuse, lyme disease and bulimia, to name a few. It was a lot to take in. But I slowly made my way through her roller coaster of a story and smiled at the hopeful and loving parts.

I am essentially an introverted extrovert. I can relate to the need to put on that happy face and be perfect and not show the gritty parts of ones life. I know what's it's like to joke about how tough it is to be a parent when really you feel like you are doing nothing but horrible things all day long and would just like a moment's peace. 

Melton had a voice that was sharp, to the point but digestable and appreciated. I have not explored her website too much yet but I will now. 

I was glad I signed on for this tour even though it shook me a times. I think the stories that Melton shares are ones we all can understand.

I leave you with a favorite section of mine. She is writing about how a couple of twelve years were growing distant. They had stopped taking care of each other because they were taking care of everything else.
One night knowing that her husband loved to have a glass of wine while reading his book, the wife leaves a glass next to his current read. Even though he had been late that night, missed dinner, missed the kids bedtime, she made the effort to do something for him.
He saw it when he came home and felt for the first time in a long time, that she heard him.
The last line was my favorite.
"Because love is not something for which to search or wait or hope or dream. It's simply something you do." 

Indeed.

Carry On, Warriors! 

Author website:
Momastery

Blog Tour Schedule:
TLC Book Tours 

Happy reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Book Review: Six Years by Harlan Coben

Six years have passed since Jake Sanders watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd.

But six years haven’t come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd’s obituary, he can’t keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife he’s hoping for . . . but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she’s been married to Todd for more than a decade, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life—a time he has never gotten over—is turned completely inside out.

As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can’t be found or don’t remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake’s search for the woman who broke his heart—and who lied to him—soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on carefully constructed fiction. (Goodreads)

I have not read all of Harlan Coben's books but the ones that I have have all been outstanding. Maybe it's because I don't overdo myself with one author or maybe it's because he is a kick ass writer. I'm just darn glad I signed on to review this one. I have signed on to review maybe 3 books this year because I'm just plain sick of the obligatory must-review-by-this-time mantra. My life just doesn't support that and I get plain cranky. But Harlan Coben?! I had to say yes.

I've said this before, Coben is the master of having the extraordinary happen to the ordinary. You can relate to his stories, his characters. I pray to goodness that none of his jacked up plots would ever happen to me, however.

His plots are fast paced and full of twists. His characters are fleshed out enough that you feel invested in them yet you don't get their whole entire back story. Every thing you get has a purpose. Just enough info to lure you in and try to figure it all out.

Six Years is a stand alone thriller and one that I was a tad bit terrified at at times. I even texted my fellow mystery loving friend, Cheryl, that she must read it as I was curled up in my bed late one night spooked.

There are a few story lines I enjoy in thrillers. First, the "I Forgot My Memory and I don't know who I am" plot and the "This really happened. Why don't you believe me?!"plot.  They both drive me nuts but I like it. It's suspenseful and aggravating and I just want it all to be solved!

Six Years had the "This really happened. Why don't you believe me?!!!" plot line. Nobody believes Natalie really existed. He can't find any trace of her. People he KNOWS he met in the past suddenly don't remember him. Places he went with her don't exist anymore. It's creepy and I loved it.

Kudos to Coben for delivering another thrilling tale. If you are new to his books, I would start with Tell No One but this one is good too! That one blew me away and got me hooked.

Author Website:
Harlan Coben

Challenge:
A-Z Mystery Author Challenge

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Review: The Mothers by Jennifer Gilmore

Jesse and Ramon are a happy, loving couple but after years trying to get pregnant they turn to adoption, relieved to think that once they navigate the bureaucratic path to parenthood they will finally be able to bring a child into their family. But nothing prepared them for the labyrinthine process—for the many training sessions and approvals, for the ocean of advice, for the birthmothers who would contact them but not choose them, for the women who would call claiming that they had chosen Jesse and Ramon but weren’t really pregnant. All the while, husband and wife grapple with notions of race, class, culture, and changing family dynamics as they navigate the difficult, absurd, and often heart-breaking terrain of domestic open adoption (Goodreads)


 This book was brought to my attention last fall as one I would really love. The rep who had me in my mind was correct! I did really enjoy this one. It was right up my alley. It was indeed a character driven story of Jesse and Ramon and their quest to create a family. With my own quest for having a second child, I identified in the couple's views on the what ifs of adoption. Though my husband and I have not explored it as heavily as Jesse and Ramon, the questions that arise when you are venturing down this road are heavy and endless, it seems. 

Their story is laid out in a somewhat scattered way, going back and forth in time to when the couple met, to their childhoods, to their own experiences with their own mothers, to their current experiences with meeting other couples seeking adoption. At times it leaves the reader feeling a bit vacant when trying to grasp the emotions of the characters but most often, the author ties it all in.

The overall feel of the book was sad but hopeful. I enjoyed it in the sense that I looked forward to getting back to it and caring about the fate of the characters. It's not a light read, though moments of humor are sprinkled in. You find that the couple are good people and you ultimately want them to succeed and find the family they crave. 

Another layer to the book is the question of motherhood. What is a mother? What makes a mother good? Jesse and Ramon's mothers are vastly different and they explore where they came from and assess how they will be as parents.

Overall, I recommend this for fans of fiction with a familial drama plot line. It's well written, intense at times but hopeful overall. 

Author Website: Jennifer Gilmore
Release Date: April 2013
Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

DNF Review: Touch & Go by Lisa Gardner

This is my family:  Vanished without a trace…

Justin and Libby Denbe have the kind of life that looks good in the pages of a glossy magazine. A beautiful fifteen-year old daughter, Ashlyn. A gorgeous brownstone on a tree-lined street in Boston’s elite Back Bay neighborhood. A great marriage, admired by friends and family.  A perfect life.

This is what I know:  Pain has a flavor…

When investigator Tessa Leoni arrives at the crime scene in the Denbes’ home, she finds scuff marks on the floor and Taser confetti in the foyer.  The family appears to have been abducted, with only a pile of their most personal possessions remaining behind.  No witnesses, no ransom demands, no motive.  Just an entire family, vanished without a trace.

This is what I fear:  The worst is yet to come…

Tessa knows better than anyone that even the most perfect façades can hide the darkest secrets.  Now she must race against the clock to uncover the Denbes’ innermost dealings, a complex tangle of friendships and betrayal, big business and small sacrifices.  Who would want to kidnap such a perfect little family?  And how far would such a person be willing to go? 

This is the truth:  Love, safety, family…it is all touch and go. (Goodreads)

I was extremely excited about this one when I received it but it didn't hit me like her others did.

I didn't care for the family so I guess I wasn't really interested in what happened to them. That sounds harsh but I am a character gal. I need to feel some investment in them to care.

I did like Tessa's character so I'd be willing to give another book with her a shot. I've got nothing against Lisa Gardner's writing. She knows how to whip it all together and dish out plenty of twists. This one was no exception. 

I ended up getting about 3/4 of the way through it and lost interest. For fans of Gardner, you get what you get. It is another suspense filled tale. Maybe you will like the characters a bit more!

Author Website
Lisa Gardner

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Review: Always Watching by Chevy Stevens

As a psychiatrist, Nadine Lavoie has a true desire to help people put their demons at rest, but she has demons of her own, some she can barely think about, and some she can’t even remember. Nadine’s mother was a wildly unpredictable manic depressive, her father an alcoholic, and there are whole chunks of Nadine’s life that are black holes. It takes all her willpower to tamp down her recurrent claustrophobia, and her daughter, Lisa, is a runaway who has been on the streets for eight years.

After she’s attacked outside her office, Nadine decides to take a job at a hospital in Victoria as a staff psychiatrist. It’s the perfect opportunity: She won’t get as attached to her patients and she’ll be closer to her daughter. But when a distraught woman, Heather Simeon, is brought in to the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit after a suicide attempt, Nadine gently coaxes her story out of her—and learns of some troubling parallels to their lives. Digging deeper, Nadine is forced to confront her own history, and the damage that began when she and her brother were brought by their mother to a remote commune on Vancouver Island. What happened to Nadine? Why was their family destroyed? And why does the name Aaron Quinn, the group’s leader, bring complex feelings of terror to Nadine even today?  (Good Reads)

My review:

Chevy Stevens had one of those debut novels that kicked the ass of many readers. Still Missing terrifies me to this day when I think of it. Because of the impact it had on me I have eagerly anticipated each book she has written. Her second Never Knowing packed a punch as well. I was fortunate to receive a galley of her third, Always Watching, due out in June of this year. It didn't take me long to get wrapped up in the crazy story she created.

It seems that Stevens is hitting her stride. The story was a bit more refined, less flashy and startling than her other two. There were still twists and turns and "holy shit" moments but it seemed a bit more fleshed out. More character development, more back story. 

The story included a twisted tale of a cult like leader which for some insane reason always fascinates me. How people could blindly follow the voice of another and have them completely control every aspect of their lives, I'll never know.

Nadine was a tough cookie but still had her vulnerable side. I did figure out some of the secrets within the book over half way through but it really didn't ruin it all for me. Overall, I thought it was a pretty decent thriller. I'm hoping Stevens takes longer breaks between her books so she doesn't get too formulaic. The authors that tend to churn them out lose their flash after awhile, in my opinion.

For readers new to Stevens, I would start out with Still Missing. I think it's her best but they are all worth reading.

Author Website: Chevy Stevens

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child 

Book Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

"Bono met his wife in high school," Park says.
"So did Jerry Lee Lewis," Eleanor answers.
"I’m not kidding," he says.
"You should be," she says, "we’re sixteen."
"What about Romeo and Juliet?"
"Shallow, confused, then dead."
''I love you," Park says.
"Wherefore art thou," Eleanor answers.
"I’m not kidding," he says.
"You should be."

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under. (Good Reads)

Oh sweet day what a delightful book and indeed a perfect book to start this year off. I'm still taking longer to get through a book these days (see last year) but I really looked forward to getting back to this one. We received an ARC at work and it was placed in my mailbox. Turns out two other co-workers read it and loved it and thought I would too.  They are not young adult readers at all so it surprised them that they would enjoy it as much as they did.

The beat of this book reminded me  Fault in our Stars by John Green. It had the quick, right-on, back and forth dialogue of youth. I took to it because sprinkled in were references to the 1980s, MY youth. I liked that it didn't have the cell phones, the texting, the internet, the social media element that is so heavy in youth culture these days. It just had Eleanor and Park and their clunky fall into first love. 

Eleanor is a new kid in a new school. She comes back to live with her mom and her stepdad after being booted out a year before. Feeling like an outsider and an intruder in her "home", along with her siblings, she just tries to coast by, unseen. This is hard to do when you consider yourself to be "fat", tall and have enormous red curly hair. She meets Park on the school bus and he, being uncomfortable with his jerky friends picking on the new girl, offers up the only available seat, next to him.

This begins an awkward yet so dead on tumble into love.

Eleanor's life is unsafe, not easy to read at times but she allows herself, eventually to seek relief and happiness with Park.

This book was so wonderfully written. Easy to read, completely relatable, absolutely moving. Highly recommended. I swear it will find the success and following that Fault in our Stars found. It has to! 

Author Website: Rainbow Rowell
Purchase: Indie Bound
Release Date: February 26, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Book Review: Shadow Creek by Joy Fielding

There’s something deadly lurking in the shadows at Shadow Creek . . . Due to a last-minute change in plans, a group of unlikely traveling companions finds themselves on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. They include the soon-to-be-divorced Valerie; her oddball friends, Melissa and James; her moody teenage daughter, Brianne; and Val’s estranged husband’s fiancée, Jennifer. Val is dealing with unresolved feelings toward her ex and grappling with jealousy and resentment toward his younger, prettier new flame, a woman with some serious issues of her own. Brianne is sixteen and openly rebellious, caught up in a web of secrets and lies.

What Val and her companions don’t know is that a pair of crazed killers is wreaking havoc in the very same woods. When an elderly couple is found slaughtered and Brianne goes missing, Val finds herself in a nightmare much worse than anything she could have anticipated. She was half-expecting it to be the trip from hell, but what she never could have predicted was that this impromptu little excursion (Good Reads)

Yes, there is something deadly lurking in the shadows of Shadow Creek but really it's not that terrifying.  Joy Fielding is one of my favorite mystery thriller writers and I practically read every book she puts out. I am short a handful. She is not the best out there but I have a soft spot because of the impact one of her earlier novels had on me, See Jane Run. I LOVED that one. But after a lunch with my pal Cheryl, who also loves Joy's books, we have determined that her books are staying the same and we as readers are changing. Even though we still "enjoy" them, they are not as WOW as they once were. 

Mostly because that the underlying plot to them all is "helpless annoying woman becomes super kick ass hero and saves the day". Same idea, different plot, different location, different mystery.

She can still weave  tale and most of the time they are on the creepy side and you definitely hate the bad guys and root for the good guys. This one was no different. I hated the daughter, Brianne; was a bit annoyed at the mother, Val but rooted for her, nonetheless and I was charmed my the circle of friends that surrounded them. The bad guys were so easy to hate. I wanted to punch them in the face early on.

Overall, don't dismiss Joy. She's got her comfort book-a-year down. I will still read her. I just may not get AS excited as each year comes along. Though it would be cool if you could blow my mind, Joy, one of these years. Just sayin' (See Jane Run again perhaps?)

Author Website: Joy Fielding 
Purchase: Indie Bound
Challenge: 2013 A-Z Mystery Author Challenge

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child