Jay
4 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was a wild ride! Following the three females closest to Adien Thomas, a serial killer. His daughter, his lover, and his victim.
This was a fight for survival that definitely had me anxious at times! The writing was beautiful, almost in the way you see more in fantasy than in thrillers. Rachel's tips for surviving “outside the shed” being tucked away into my memory. This book had me anxious, and also feeling gaslit and manipulated.
This was definitely slower paced for my liking but the short chapters kept me reaching for more. There are somethings the women in this book did that made me roll my eyes a bit. Rachel I gave more grace to than Emily.
The ending tied up nicely and I throughly enjoyed! Can't believe this is this authors debut!
5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heart pounding and anxiety inducing until the very end. This started off with a bang and it did not stop. Flipping through pages of fear, survival and praying that these two girls make it out alive.
As someone who deals with anxiety myself, I very much related with Olivia's character. I was amazed by their perseverance through some of the most terrifying and traumatizing times.
My heart raced until I closed the book as if I was the one needing to get out alive.
Truly a fast paced thriller and absolutely recommend!!
4 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I thoroughly enjoyed this one!
I kept hearing that if you read a lot of thrillers, you wouldn't be shocked by this one. I must not read THAT many thrillers because I did NOT see that twist coming!
Enjoyed this super fast paced, popcorn thriller and in the direction it went.
Looking forward to reading the next!
3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Unfortunately, I was accidentally spoiled for a major twist in this book. It was on my mind the entire time while everything was happening so it explained a lot of what was going on while I was reading. The experience was okay. Honestly, it was a lot of reminiscing and flashbacks that kind of hard me bored some of the time. I feel like even if I was spoiled, I'd they didn't have so many flashbacks and stayed focused on the present, I would've enjoyed it more.
I just didn't really understand the ending and I had some questions. It was pretty convoluted. Despite all that, I didn't have the worst time. It was alright and I'm giving it a middle of the road rating.
3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I'm not here for the storyline. I'm here for the smut. I just liked the first one better.
3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dystopian time where an event with the sun makes a worldwide power outage. It definitely gave me anxious feelings on what me and my family would do incase of a worldwide power outage. The thought of social structure being completely unraveled and left to a every man for himself situation. Cultivating food and gathering water while trying to stay safe in an environment where you can't call for help.
I didn't give it higher stars because I wanted more to happen within the story. There's a lot of pointless details that didn't help the story along. Would've like to see more of the dystopian aspects. Aubrey and Scott where my favorite characters I enjoyed their banter. I also enjoyed Brady, he was the only male character that wasn't insufferable. Thom (Aubrey's brother) was so narcissistic and full of himself that his chapters made me mad.
The end of the book was more where the action was. Exciting things were happening and character development was being revealed. The ending is what bumped this up to a 3 star.
I tried my had at the audiobook while I physically read but the narrator just wasn't my favorite. Probably contributed to my mediocre feeling towards this book.
4.5 stars!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
It was a great exploration of grief and postpartum depression. The characters were well thought out and raw with a great deal of sympathy for what they were going through. You can tell this was carefully written.
I love the writing style. Comedic horror is to the likes of Grady Hendrix (in my opinion). They say this a mix of Rosemarys Babe and Salems Lot, but it also reminded me a lot of Lock Every Door by Riley Sager. If you enjoyed that one and are looking for a more in depth horror version, I'd highly recommend Nestlings!
I brought it down a half star only because of how dense the information was. For an under 300 page book, we still could've done without interludes and would still be jam packed with things going on.
Regardless, this was a great read.
2 stars ⭐️⭐️
Higgggghly disappointed in this. First, this read super YA for an adult book. Then there were WAY too many characters to keep up with - the story was way too short to give you enough backstory to really care about any of the characters. There was a love story that was formed out of nothing as the characters barely communicated with each other and honestly, I had no idea what was going on. It just went in a completely different direction that I wasn't expecting and not in a good way. I understand the commentary the author was trying to portray but there was so many different things going on, it all kind of fell through.
Stick to Bird Box.
A VERY surprising 5 stars!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was NOT expecting to enjoy it even.. dare I say.. LOVE this book as much as I did! I'm much more of a thriller and horror reader so the thought of reading Magical Realism made me skeptical. I read it for Talk Bookish To Me (Gwen's) buddy ready and ommmmggg did it surprise me in so many ways. The deep emotions and thoughts this provokes is so intense, I was crying while listening to the audiobook at work.
There are many characters so at first I thought that was. A shoe in to not be interested in them.. but you learn about their lives on such a deep and emotional level and see fall in love with these characters and you see how their stories connect.. it's just so beautiful.
It poses the question of what would you do if you knew how long you had left to live. Or if you knew your loved ones time. How would you live life differently? How would you treat others?
This was an undoubtedly powerful read and I'm so thankful I took the chance to read it regardless of genre “preference”.
This was amazing and I feel like would be a great discussion as well.
So happy I read it!
3.75 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
This was a good time and an easy read but definitely not as good as The Hunting Wives by her last year. I think I had just too high of hopes for this one after thoroughly enjoying her previous book.
The characters were so unlikeable, which I don't mind if the plot is good. But these woman just made dumb decisions, obsessive decisions, and threw away things and people who mean the most for a stuck up, snobby guy who was so terrible it was annoying.
Very salacious scenes for the majority of the book which I do not mind at all but I felt like it's what kept the story going and added to the pages.
I guessed one of the plot twists from the beginning which was fine. But there were parts I didn't understand like what he was going to do with Cynthia for their “trip” if he has other plans with someone else. Like if Cynthia didn't see them together, what would've happened?
Overall, it was a popcorn thriller type of time. I didn't want to stop reading it, so it was good but it just didn't live up to The Hunting Wives.
4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was gifted this book from my friend Kelly and I couldn't be more thankful! I loved this authors writing and it hooked me in from the very beginning. The pictures were very creepy especially in the start of the book when it wasn't Teddy's best work. I was reading it at like 1am and scared myself just from the pictures lmao.
I was so invested in the mystery that was going on. I did wish it went in a slightly different direction in the end. The ending did kind of feel like it went off the rails a bit which is why I knocked off a star. But still very much enjoyed.
2.75 stars ⭐️⭐️✨
Honestly, it had a great start. I was super invested in the storyline. I thought the characters had personality, I liked the diverse case of characters as well.
Unfortunately, as much as I was loving it in the beginning, it's left me with a bunch of questions. Not that the ending was ambiguous, because it wasn't but so much didn't make sense to me. I feel like the twist wasn't my favorite trope and the explanations weren't great and didn't really explain anything at all. I feel like everything was quite convenient when it wanted it to be all while leaving the whole plot a blurr.
There was soooo much unneeded storylines. It just made everything so confusing. Disappointed.
3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is my second book from this author. The first being “The Wife Upstairs”. I just feel as though this authors writing style isn't for me. Although the characters are all in their 20s (some early 20s, some later) it felt as though they read younger to me - more like teenagers.
I did want to DNF in the beginning but I pushed through. It got more interesting half way through. I could've done without countless use of the word “reckless” - we get it from the title.. they're reckless.
Some of the things that happened and the choices made in the book just didn't seem to make sense to me. The characters weren't very likable. I was a bit bored with the “Before” chapters although I guess I understood why it tied in. Although I do understand the point the author was trying to come across with the ending, it just felt convoluted and nonsensical at times.
It was just an okay read for me.
3.75 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Totally here for the rich people mama drama books. The cover was beautiful and I think I heard Gabby from gabbyreads mention this quite quickly in a Vlog.
Slow start but certainly entertained. I could have done without the use of the word “clout” in the beginning.
I don't know why but I do not like when a lot of character names are thrown your way in books. They're not even actual characters in the book but you have to mention Trixie or Beth or Carol. I can do without. I can also do without one of the characters and their part in it but I won't spoil anything.
Overall, decent read and was entertained by these moms lives and their prestigious neighborhood and mystery that was happening.
3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was really excited for this book especially because I've seen GabbyReads rave about it.
Unfortunately, it really didn't grab me.
It was a good read but not a fave.
5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wow!! This is my first Alice Feeney book and it was soooo good. Unfortunately, when I started it, I was in a reading slump. So I put it down a couple of months but I heard that an adaptation of it was coming out on Netflix so I wanted to finish it and it certainly did not disappoint!!
I loved the writing, the atmosphere, the wittiness of it was perfect. The TWIST I didn't see coming in the SLIGHTEST!!
3.75 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
This was a great popcorn thriller! Short and quick enough to keep me engaged. I felt connected to the main character Gwen. I thought the story around the BH killer was intriguing and the ending did surprise me.
No surprises that made me gasp or feel any real emotion which was why it wasn't a 4 star.
I enjoyed it enough and will certainly recommend but probably not something I'd think about in the future.
Overall, it was a good one!
