Lydia

You will hate literally every person in this book, so beware if you aren't a fan of unlikeable characters.

June 2023 Swiftie Book Club Bonus Book

My prince! He loves to chop off heads!
This adorable poetry book is much closer to the original tales than any Disney movie.

I'm on the fence about this one. Parts of it had me on the edge of my seat, a lot of it made me want to put my head through a wall. 2.5, but i'll round it up.

I love Scott Meyer, even though he is very much not my normal genre. This was silly, fun, light, and a good palette cleanser after several heavy thrillers.

This was such a slow burn without much payoff at the end.

I usually wrestle with ratings, but this was an easy 5 star. Every twist, every turn, every unexpected invisible thread connecting plots and characters was perfection.

This was so disappointing. I skimmed through a lot of the boring filler and rolled my eyes at the annoying red herrings. Lisa is usually a great author, but this one was terrible.

Holy shit. That's all I can say. If you want to thriller, this is a THRILLER

If you are able to suspend your belief a bit, you will absolutely love this book.

I would love this if I was more of a romance girly, but as is I need more action in my books since my own life is so boring. I still flew through it and enjoyed it quite a bit. It was bittersweet as it hit home in a lot of aspects.

June Swiftie Book Club

God, this was way too dull for the ending we got

This was another book that was quite gripping, but frustrated me to no end. The twist seemed painfully obvious, although I will say that I greatly appreciated the ambiguous ending, and a lot of the writing made me feel like I was reading a rough draft written by somebody in high school. Perhaps that was the author's intention for Olivia, but I don't understand why It would be purposeful for the adult perspectives.

In any case, not one that I regret reading, but I simply do not understand how this is raking in almost a 4.5 star rating. Perhaps this author simply is not for me.

OH!!! PLEASE tell me why we needed a page of her explaining why they use an electric toothbrush?! The more I think about this book, the less I like it.

This book was a total mess with too many moving pieces that didn't truly fit together in the end. We got no satisfying explanations, yet the author pretended to tie things up with a nice bow at the end. Very disappointing.

This one was a ride. I wanted to love it, but I didn't.

I actually had a fun time reading this book, but there are some major flaws that cause me to knock off a couple stars.

For starters, you have to get past the ick factor. I won't give away any spoilers, but you might want to look into them if you don't have a high tolerance for inappropriate relationships.

Secondly, the main character is dumb as a box of rocks and could have figured out the entire situation if she would have just used her brain for 3 minutes. I was almost literally yelling at her through parts of the book.

Lastly, I'm getting very tired of the housewife who drinks too much trope. It's seriously exhausting and not interesting. An unreliable narrator due to alcohol does not automatically make a thriller.

Oh, and some of the writing is absolutely abysmal.

If you love fast paced, intriguing, edge of your seat thrillers with well fleshed out characters, twists and turns, and gripping narratives, don't pick this book up. This is probably the least thrilling thriller I've ever read in my life. Incredibly predictable, boring is all get out, and absolutely not worth my time.

Another one that was fun to read but felt like it fell short at the end

This was unsatisfying in the end. There was so much buildup, but it didn't feel like it paid off. I enjoyed it, but I wanted more

I LOVE thrillers, but not of this nature. Lots of action scenes, which were fine, but simply not my favorite. I don't regret reading it, but won't be seeking out more by Alex Finlay.

-May Swifite Book Club (Bonus Book)

I don't know how I feel about this book. I enjoyed it, but the writing was lacking. SHOW US, DON'T TELL US!!

This was so beautifully written. I actually really loved the ending, as tragic as it was. It's just so very Shakespearean. I do like how it's left, open to interpretation. It makes much more sense that he did indeed kill himself, but I like to pretend it was a happy ending. I normally don't like endings that don't truly wrap things up, but in this case it felt fitting.

My only critique is that the mystery element wasn't so mysterious. That may be more because I read a ton of thrillers, so a twist has to be HUGE for me to not see it coming, but this book was more about the journey than the destination.

-May Swifite Book Club Book

I'm trying to decide if I loved this or not. I enjoyed it, but it irked me. I can't decide so I will just give it a 3.

I enjoyed this well enough until the end. What the actual hell? That's where you're going to leave it?!

This book had me at the edge of my seat and guessing the entire time. It was a near perfect twisty-thriller