Tropical Girl Reads

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.

But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?

Five years ago, a schoolgirl named Andie Bell was murdered, though her body was never found. The main suspect was her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who committed suicide admitting that he killed Andie. The case was closed and the police and the whole town of Little Kilton believed that Sal was responsible for the murder of Andie Bell. The present day, Pippa Fitz Amobi used the case of Andie Bell for her final year project. But as she investigates and researches on the case, she finds that Sal Singh might be innocent and that the real killer might be out there…

I actually enjoyed reading this book and simply couldn’t put the book down. I do like the style of the book, how the book was presented and it was really intriguing and interesting. I mean, truly as a reader, I actually had a fun time reading the book. I do like how realistic the book is and I immensely rooted for Pippa and Ravi’s chesmitry and connection with each other. The murder itself was a mystery and I have to say, the author did a good job, drawing the reader into the story, making the reader feel like they are part of the story. I found that I couldn’t put this book down as I found myself, turning pages, to see what is going to happen next.

I do like the snippets of Pippa’s log book, the SMS text messages, the email images…I feel more like I was reading a true crime book. Overall, I liked the style of the book and cannot wait to read the second book!

Worth five stars!

The trip of a lifetime ends in murder

Maisie leaves her precarious home life in the UK to hike the West Coast Trail in Canada. She meets brother and sister Sera and Ric, and what begins as a fun-filled experience in a beautiful secluded setting quickly turns sour.

Twenty-five years later, a woman named Laura is panicked to learn that a body was found near the trail and the police suspect they’re the bones of Sera. The secret she’s been hiding for a quarter of a century is about to come out – and someone is determined to make sure she tells the truth, and pays the price, as she should have done back then. But what lengths will Laura go to in order to protect her carefully constructed family life?

In 1999, Maisie Goodwin goes out on a hiking adventure by flying all the way from UK to Vancouver. While on the West Coast hiking trail, she meets a British girl named Seraphina Cunningham and her brother Ric. The trio becomes friends and soon go on the hiking trail together. However, soon, the hiking adventure soon turns to a nightmare when one of them ended up getting murdered.

Present Day, a woman named Laura reads the news that the human remains are found in the forest in Canada and the person who was found guilty will be released from prison. And Laura feels that her past is about to be haunted again.

This was actually a surprisingly good psychological thriller. The story divides between the past, told mianly from Maisie’s POV and present, told mainly in Laura’s POV. The story is fast paced and the reader feels like they are at the edge of the seat when reading this book. The ending was a complete unexpected twist that I did not realize that type of ending! However, it was a bit too dramatic and unrealisitc, but nonetheless, I actually enjoyed the ending. The writing was really great, the thriller itself is unputdownable with twists and turns. So overall, if you are looking for a thriller with some twists and turns based on hiking trail, then this book is one for you–worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Canelo for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

The next in a delicious new culinary cozy series featuring a grilled cheese eatery owner who must solve murders in her small town before someone is cheddar off dead

Winter in Balsam Dell is a snowy affair, and to add in some cheer after the holidays Carly’s former classmate Klarissa Taddeo is hosting her extravagant bridal shower at the historic Balsam Dell inn. That is, until a double-booking throws some mold in the cheese and leaves Klarissa scrambling. With the venue moved to the maid of honor’s family mansion and Carly rinding to create a new delicious treat it seems the group is going to pull off the shower without a hitch.

That is, until a rowdy band of groomsmen crashes the event. Klarissa is furious with her groom-to-be and when a loud argument ensues, everyone is shocked by what they hear. When the groom is later found dead at the bottom of the stairs, his drink spiked with a hefty dose of poison, Carly must put her nose to the rind and save Klarissa from being suspect #1.

Because you know what they say: it’s always the (almost) wife.

So this is the third book of the Grilled Cheese mysteries, set in the small town of Vermont and Carly going on her way to solve a mystery.

The story starts with Klarissa Taddeo, who is getting married and has arranged her bridal shower at an exquisite inn. But the two bookings at the inn prevented Klarissa to have her shower that in the end, the shower was held at Dawn’s house with Carly catering the shower. However, it soon turned a crime scene when Klarissa’s fiance, Tony was found dead, poisoned. There are so many suspects lined up for Tony’s death–Tony’s stepmother who people believed married Tony’s father for money and many more. Carly must find the real culprit.

I actually enjoyed reading this book and always loved the series. I do like the strained relationships between the supporting characters, which makes it wonder if one of those characters may have been responsible for what happened to Tony. I also enjoyed reading the recipes at the back of the book. Carly has become one of my favorite characters in the book and I cannot wait to read the next book of the Grilled cheese mysteries!

Overall,, this book worth five stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

They are picture perfect. A young, happy family sat around the kitchen table. But no one moves as wisps of smoke filter into the room and the house becomes a burning grave around them…

When reports come in of a family trapped in a burning house, Detective Morgan Brookes rushes to the scene. But as soon as she enters the ruined home, she is devastated by what she finds. Tied to the kitchen table, Sally and David Lawson, and their young son, had no chance of escaping the flames and the smoke…

Neighbours all agree the Lawsons were the perfect family, and CCTV shows nothing suspicious. Morgan’s only clue is the silver crucifix necklace around Sally’s neck. Because according to friends, she wasn’t religious. Was someone passing divine judgement on this mother and her family?

Focusing on Sally’s last steps, Morgan gets the breakthrough she needs – just days ago Sally had confided in a friend that she felt someone was watching her. And when Morgan finds photos of Sally on her neighbour Luke’s phone, all the pieces slot together.

Only then another local woman reports feeling watched. Nothing seems to link her to Luke, but Morgan can’t ignore it. Could the killer still be out there? Going deeper into Sally’s past and uncovering the killer’s motivations is her only chance to save more innocent lives, but can she solve the twisted puzzle in time?

A perfect family was found brutally murdered inside a house which was set on fire. Sally, David and Tim seemed to be a perfect family but their murders shocked nearly everyone in the neighborhood. When Detective Morgan is asked to investigate the case, she finds that the members are bounded and each of their hands are missing (bizarre disturbing) and now Morgan must find the killer before he or she will attack another family. I have grown a liking towards Helen Phifer’s books and I do like her writing style. Her writing captures the audience into the story and make the readers feel like they are part of the story. And despite the dark side of the story, I do like how she would add some funny parts in the book as well. This was a fast paced thriller and quite unputdownable as well with some twists and turns. There are so many suspects and you have no idea which person might be responsible for the murder, which is a good thing in thriller books as you are clueless as what is going to happen next. Overall, I immensely enjoyed reading the book and can’t wait to read the next book in the series! Worth five whopping stars! Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Two kidnappings, thirty years apart. Can Stacey face her own dark past in order to save her stepdaughter?

When Stacey’s ex-husband turns up on her doorstep begging her to help save his kidnapped thirteen-year-old daughter, Lyra, the terror is all too familiar. Stacey’s own violent kidnapping thirty years ago was never solved, and while a severe case of amnesia spares her from recalling the specific horrors, she remembers enough…

Stacey knows her father never paid the ransom—she has the missing pinkie finger to prove it. She knows she was only saved because of an anonymous tip-off to the police. And she knows her captor was never apprehended.

Lyra’s kidnappers have made it clear the police must not get involved. But Stacey can’t shake the eerie similarities between the two cases, and she’ll use whatever she can, from her journalistic powers to her shady contacts, to save Lyra from the same nightmare. Desperate to find any link between Lyra’s abduction and her own, Stacey forces herself to revisit her forgotten, traumatic past for clues.

But can she make sense of the terrible secrets she unearths in time to save Lyra? And if she does, is she ready to face her own tormentor?

Thirty years ago, Stacy was kidnapped, losing her finger and a part of her ear in the process. Now when her ex-husband, comes to her, asking for help, that his daughter Lyra was kidnapped, Stacy was forced to relive those past traumatic memories.

I do like the plot line but the story wasn’t really my type. It was interesting in the beginning and I do like the snippets of the parts when Stacy was being held as a cpative and how she blamed her father for not paying the ransom. I did enjoy the story but I didn’t seem fo enjoy much. This was a slow burn, not much of twists and turns you would expect in a thriller but neverthless, it was an OK thriller. However, even though I didn’t enjoy this book much, I cannot wait to read more books from this author.

Worth 3.5 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day.

Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out–he’s been working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up…. again.

So when Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They’ll ditch and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say…

Until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school–and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse.

It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common. They all have a connection to the dead kid. And they’re all hiding something.

Now they’re all wondering–could it be that their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all?

From the author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand-new pulse-pounding thriller. It’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with murder when three old friends relive an epic ditch day, and it goes horribly–and fatally–wrong.

This is my fourth Karen McManus book I have read. This book was great.

The story starts with Ivy who has lost the presidential election in high school to a boy named Boney Malhoney. On the day Boney Malhoney was going to sworn in, Ivy along with Cal and Mateo decides to skip classes for the day. Cal and Mateo used to hang out with Ivy back when they were in middle school. However, Cal soon enters into a building where his girlfriend Lara is having a studio inside, and soon they find the dead body of Boney Malhoney. Now comes the story after that.

The story is told mainly from Ivy’s, Cal’s and Mateo’s POV. Though the story was interesting, in my opinion, it was a good thriller–though predictable. I also believe that the story was far-fetched a little. There was a hint of romance in the book but other than that, in my opinion, this was a good YA thriller. Worth four stars in my opinion.

The body lay in the river, arms outstretched. Long brown hair swirled in all directions, flowing with the current of the water. Her eyes were wide open in death, pale pink lips parted in a scream.

Detective Ellie Reeves should be enjoying the wedding of her dear friend Mia Norman. But instead of celebrating, she is frantically searching for the missing bride. Something is terribly wrong—just hours ago, Mia was blissfully happy. Why would she suddenly vanish?

Bursting through the dressing room, Ellie finds it in disarray—chairs overturned, a perfume bottle shattered. Hiding in the bathroom is Mia’s six-year-old daughter Pixie, curled in a ball and sobbing her heart out. The little girl says she was locked inside when she heard a man’s voice, and her mother crying. “I just want my mommy back,” she pleads. Ellie vows to make that happen.

Turning the venue upside down, Ellie’s blood turns to ice when she reaches the riverbank. Someone is dead in the rippling water, floating beside a white veil. Ellie holds her breath as she turns the body over. It belongs to Tori, Mia’s bridesmaid, a gunshot wound in her back. Near the murder scene, Ellie discovers a button from a man’s shirt, and her friend’s engagement ring. The race is on to find Mia—before it’s too late.

When forensics come back, the investigation takes a dark turn. DNA proves that Mia was actually Jesse Habersham, a woman who went missing five years ago. Ellie is certain that Mia was running from someone. Did her past finally catch up with her?

Facing the most complex case of her career, Ellie is in a race against time. Can she uncover the truth before her friend is brutally killed? And when the murderer comes after innocent little Pixie, will Ellie save her from the clutches of death?

This book is so unputdownable that I finished this book within two days! It was really good that will keep you up all night.

Ellie Reeves is invited to a wedding of her friend, Mia Norman. As Ellie and the other guests are waiting for Mia to walk the aisle, the bride doesn’t appear. Everyone including the bridegroom Mark gets anxious and Ellie goes to check on Mia, she finds that both the bride and the bridesmaid, Tori are missing and Mia’s daughter, Pixie is hiding in the corner. A few hours later, Tori’s dead body was found floating in the river but Mia was not found. Realizing that this was foul play, Ellie knew that Mia would never leave behind her daughter. As she embark on the investigation with Derrick, she finds that Mia used to be Jesse and was from a small town where everything is controlled by a family named Moon and Jesse was married to Kevin Moon…

I was literally hooked into the book that I cannot actually put the book down! There were OMG moments with some twists and turns and will keep you hooked till the end. I felt like I was watching some kind of an interesting action packed movie on the TV. Overall, in my opinion, this was a fast paced thriller that will keep you up all night, filled with unexpected twists and turns! Worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

From debut author Elle Grawl comes a psychological thriller about an insomniac artist who discovers a shocking truth about a recent spate of murders in her city: the victims all look just like her.

Years after escaping her abusive childhood, Harper Mallen has only ever known sleepless nights—or terrifying nightmares. She’s struggling to maintain an artist’s life in a hip Chicago neighborhood, getting by on freelance gigs at a local painting studio, when she suffers another terrible shock.

A young woman is killed outside Harper’s apartment—a woman who chillingly resembles her. As Harper searches for information about the victim, she discovers unsettling links to two other murders. And then there’s a third doppelganger, still alive. Harper’s life is not the only one hanging in the balance.

As her obsession and paranoia deepen, everyone is a suspect: the handsome stranger in the café, the owner of the painting studio, even the ghosts from her past. The closer she comes to unraveling the truth behind the murders, the more Harper realizes there is no one she can trust—not even herself

Harper Mallen is an insomniac artist who has escaped from an abusive childhood. She gets paid doing free-lance gigs in the studio and is mostly kept to herself. But just in front of the apartment where Harper lives, a woman was murdered brutally. The woman bore strong resemblance to Harper. Harper soon finds out that two more women were murdered and all these women look so much like Harper.

I do like the plot of the story. I was also instantly hooked into the story from the beginning of the chapter and fell that this book might be a really good and engaging psychological thriller. However, I felt that there are too many questions in the story. Harper in my opinion seemed to be a disturbing and toxic character in the book and it seems that people around Harper are literally dying! The ending was a bit rushed but confusing with sort of a cliffhanger. Who really is the killer? What is the motive behind the murders? Why was Harper targeted? These are the questions that never seemed to have answered in the book.

I think in my opinion, this was an OK book–could have been better. Worth three stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the piblisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

A perfect mother. A loving daughter. A secret that could destroy them both.

New mother Eve is overwhelmed with love for her baby son, Kai. As she swaddles him in a fluffy white blanket, she shudders at a memory of her own childhood. She hasn’t seen her heartless mother Lydia in years, and she hasn’t told a soul about what really happened the night her baby brother died in the squalid little house she grew up in…

When the phone rings in the dead of night, Eve’s heart pounds as she hears the voice at the other end. ‘Hello Mother’, she replies, an ice-cold chill creeping down her spine. She grips her son’s tiny frame close to her trembling chest as she reluctantly agrees to let her mother visit.

But when Eve has to make an emergency call from Kai’s bedroom early one morning, she curses herself for allowing her mother back into her perfect little family.

‘Kai was fine when I checked on him a few hours ago.’ Her mother says, breathlessly as she watches her daughter’s face change from fear to rage.

Why was Lydia in Kai’s bedroom during the night? And as Lydia pleads her innocence, could it be that she’s not the most dangerous mother in this family?

This is one of those psychological thrillers, where nearly every character are unreliable and unpredictable and never know who is telling the truth.

The story begins with Eve, who is the mother of a new born baby Kai. She has a dark secret–she hasn’t seen her mother Lydia, with whom she is not getting along and the night her brother, Jacob died, Eve knew what really happened that night. So when Lydia comes back into the life, she was worried if the history might repeat itself again.

This was a mind blowing thriller, divided between the present and past, when Eve was a kid. Her only support was her friend Chloe who knew about her history and her husband Dom. But as the story dwells deeper, we see that neither of these characters are trustworthy and as a reader, you don’t know which character you would believe in. The story is packed with twists and turns, the author doing a good job of drawing the reader into the story. The ending was unpredictable and a bit confusing to me in the end, which loweredmy rating slightly but nonetheless this was a gripping and unputdownable thriller that will keep you up all night–worth 4.5 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.