Tropical Girl Reads

Title:- Behind Closed Doors

Author:- Carol Wyer

Date published:- will be published on 6th December 2022

No. of pages:- 335 pages

Publisher:- Thomas and Mercer

Rating:-

Plot:- 3/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 3.5/5

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.

USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer’s crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages.

A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche.

In 2021, An Eye For An Eye, the first in the DI Kate Young series, was chosen as a Kindle First Reads. It became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Australia. The third, A Life For A Life, is due out March 15th, 2022, but is available to preorder.

Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and written for the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows and on BBC Breakfast television.

She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy who is very, very grumpy.

Title:- You’ll Be Death of Me

Author:- Karen M McMnaus

Date published:- November 30th 2021

No. of pages:- 336 pages

Genre:- YA/Thriller

Rating:-

Writing:- 4/5

Plot:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

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.

Karen M. McManus is a #1 New York Times and international bestselling author of young adult thrillers. Her books include the One of Us Is Lying series, which has been turned into a television show on Peacock and Netflix, as well as the standalone novels Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, You’ll Be the Death of Me, and Nothing More to Tell. Karen’s critically acclaimed, award-winning work has been translated into more than 40 languages. 

To learn more, visit www.karenmcmanus.com or @writerkmc on Twitter and Instagram

Title:- The Girl In The River (Detective Ellie Reeves series Book 7)

Author:- Rita Herron

Date published:- will be published on 13th December 2022

Publisher Bookouture

Genre:- Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 5/5

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.

USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author Rita Herron fell in love with books at the ripe age of eight when she read her first Trixie Belden mystery. But she didn’t think real people grew up to be writers, so she became a teacher instead. Now she writes so she doesn’t have to get a real job.With over ninety books to her credit, she’s penned romantic suspense, romantic comedy and YA novels, but she especially likes writing dark romantic suspense and crime fiction set in small southern towns.For more on. Rita and her titles, visit her at www.ritaherron.com. You can also find her on www.Facebook/ritaherron.com and Twitter.com/ritaherron.

Title:- One of Those Faces

Author:- Elle Grawl

Date published;- will be published on 1st December,2022

Publisher:- Thomas and Mercer

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 3/5

Overall rating:- 3/5

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.

Title:- Her First Child

Author:- Sheryl Browne

Date published:- will be published on 0th 2022

Publisher:- Bookouture

No. of pages:- 369 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Writing:- 4/5

Plot:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 5/5

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.

Title:- Missing Girl At Frozen Falls (Kay Sharp Series Book 5)

Author:- Leslie Wolfe

Date published:- will be published on November 29th 2022

Publisher:- Bookouture

Genre:- Thriller

No. of pages:- 325 pages

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 5/5

She lay in the frosted grass behind Frozen Falls. Her eyes were wide open, and the wind blew her hair, ash-blond locks reflecting the blue sky. Her face, beautiful even in death, was pale, as if the bitter cold from the mountain had drained the color from her cheeks.

On a crisp autumn day in the small town of Mount Chester, Detective Kay Sharp comes face-to-face with the past she has spent the last decade running from. Her ex-husband, Brian, has been accused of murder.

Seeing Brian brings a flood of painful memories—he betrayed her in the worst possible way. Yet despite her heartbreak, Kay is willing to put her career on the line to prove his innocence.

Brian is accused of killing Kay’s former best friend, Rachel—the woman he cheated on Kay with, getting her pregnant. The blood drains from Kay’s face; she received a voicemail from Rachel two days ago. “I hope you’ll forgive me,” she’d said, her voice fraught with tears. “I know I have no right, but I need you.” Kay’s stomach plummets. By the time she called back, Rachel was already dead. Could Brian really be the murderer?

Kay faces pressure from her crime team, who don’t want her working on an investigation so close to home. But she’s willing to risk everything—she vows to get justice for Rachel.

When Kay visit’s Rachel’s mother, she uncovers a heart-stopping discovery that makes the case even more critical: Rachel’s eight-year-old daughter, Holly, is missing. Could the little girl still be alive?

Up against the most complex—and most personal—case of her career, can she save precious Holly before it’s too late? And will Kay’s determination to find out the truth lead to justice—or be her undoing?

This was such a gripping thriller that kept me awake all night, trying to finish the book!

The story starts with Kay, whose ex-husband Brian suddenly wants her help–Brian’s fiancee and also Kay’s best friend Rachel was brutally shot to death and their daughter Holly is missing. Brian has become the main suspect in Rache’s murder. Even though Kay didn’t really want to help, she helps him nonetheless and realizes that Rachel was in a witness protection program after she witnessed a murder of one of the gang members. Meanwhile, a body of a girl was found dead and Kay’s partner Elliot was called to the scene to investigate the murder.

This book was completely mind blowing and I was literally hooked from the first chapter till the end, wanting to know what is going to happen next! Out of all the Kay Sharp series, I have to say that this book is one of the best book in the series and I couldn’t even put the book down. As usual, the author has done a good job of drawing the reader into the story and make the reader feel like they are in a cat and mouse chase game with Kay and keeping the reader literally at the edge of the seat! The ending wasn’t expected and I do like some twists and turns that were thrown along the way.

If you haven’t read the Kay Sharp series then it’s fine–this book is fast paced unputdownable thriller that will keep you awake all night. Worth complete full five stars!

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

Title:- The Sanctuary

Author:- Emma Haughton

Date published:- will be published on 24th November 2022

No. of pages:- 372 pages

Publisher:- Hodder and Stoughton

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Writing:- 3/5

Plot:- 2.5/5

Overall rating:- 2.5/5

Very few people get the opportunity to stay here.
And some don’t get to leave …

Zoey doesn’t remember anything about last night. But she knows something went badly wrong. For she is no longer in New York. She’s woken up in the desert, in a white building she doesn’t recognise, and she’s alone.

When she discovers she’s been admitted to The Sanctuary, a discreet, mysterious, isolated refuge from normal life, to avoid jail, she is stunned. She knows she has secrets, troubles, but she thought she had everything under control. But as she spends more time with other residents, she begins to open up about what she’s running from. Until she realises that not everyone in The Sanctuary has her best interests at heart, and someone might even be a killer . . 

The story starts with Zoey waking up in a place. She couldn’t remember how she ended up in the place with no recollection of what happened the previous night. She knew she was no longer in New York but is in some desert area. Zoey then later on realizes that she is in a place called Santuary where they house the people who might end up in jail. Zoey wondered what she did to be deserved to go to jail although later on she finds that she has secrets of her own. Then soon, people start getting disappearing and there might be a killer on loose.

I like story plot line which actually made me want to request this ARC. However, the first few chapters were kind of boring and bland in my opinion. This story reminded me a bit of Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty which kind of had the same vibe in the story as well. It was towards the ending that actually intrigued me as secrets about the Sanctuary was revealed and the actual killer was known.

There were not many plot twists and turns, the story to me kind of feels direct to me in my opinion and this was a slow burn thriller in my opinion, not fast paced. However, I think I do like a bit of multi-cultured concept in the book. Despite the fact that I didn’t enjoy this much, I am looking forward to read more from this author. Worth 2.5 stars

Many thanks to Netgalley and Hodder for ARC.. The review is based on my honest opinon only.

The Dark, Emma Haughton’s chilling new thriller for adults, will be published by Hodder in August 2021.Emma grew up in Sussex; after a stint au pairing in Paris and a couple of half-hearted attempts to backpack across Europe, she studied English at Oxford University then trained in journalism. During her career as a journalist, she wrote many articles for national newspapers, including regular pieces for the Times Travel section.Following publication of her picture book, Rainy Day, Emma wrote three YA novels. Her first, Now You See Me, was an Amazon bestseller and nominated for the Carnegie and Amazing Book Awards. Better Left Buried, her second, was one of the best YA reads for 2015 in the Sunday Express. Her third YA novel, Cruel Heart Broken, was picked by The Bookseller as a top YA read for July 2016.