Tropical Girl Reads

From behind her came a noise, and she whirled around. Two pairs of cold, murderous eyes stared back at her from beneath hooded cloaks. She stood cemented in place, even as her brain screamed at her to run…

It’s their usual Thursday girls’ night in, and best friends Skye, Elena, and London are enjoying hanging out at Skye’s house in New Mexico, eating junk food, drinking wine, and playing with Skye’s little children, Carter and Abigail.

Until the intruders arrive.

Hearing the horrific screams from Elena and Skye, London hides the children, tiptoes out to see what has happened… and disappears.

After Carter raises the alarm, Detective Alyssa Wyatt is called in to investigate a bloodbath that appears to have no motive, no evidence, and worse still – no sign of London.

As Alyssa and her team dig deeper, the truth is always out of their reach… but what is clear is that they need to find London, and fast.

And as they uncover a link between the murders and a sinister local cult, can Alyssa find the young woman who has vanished without a trace – before London joins the list of victims?

Meet Detective Alyssa Wyatt. Mom, Wife… and a serial killer’s worst nightmare.

An utterly addictive, dark and twisty detective novel with a twist that will leave you gasping. If you’re a fan of Kendra Elliot, Lisa Regan or Angela Marsons, you’ll fall in love with Charly Cox’s stunning detective series.

Detective Alyssa Wyatt is back with another adventure!!!

Skye, Elena and London are having their girls night out on Thursdays. But their usual girls night out is interrupted when two intruders enter and brutally kills Skye and Elena and kidnaps London. The only survivors of the torment were Skye’s children, Carter and Abigail who witnessed the entire scene. Detective Alyssa Wyatt and her partner Detective Cord were set to investigate the case and they find more disturbing things about the murder cases, including a Satanic cult involved in the case.

From start to finish, I was literally hooked into the story. The story was fast paced filled with twists and turns that you wouldn’t expect. I was on the edge of the seat as I was reading this book and the author has done a good job of drawing the reader into the story. The torture scene the ordeal London the third victim was going through was actually disturbing to read but nonetheless and in a disturbing sense, that’s what made the story more interesting!!! I was anyway glad that London got saved in the end and that the perpetrators were caught, although I didn’t expect those particular characters were the perpetrators.

In all, if you love an unputdownable, twisty thriller that will keep you on the edge, then this book is one for you. Do you have to read from the first? Suggestable but you can choose not to. Worth five stars!

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

Chloe Davis’ father is a serial killer.
He was convicted and jailed when she was twelve but the bodies of the girls were never found, seemingly lost in the surrounding Louisiana swamps. The case became notorious and Chloe’s family was destroyed.

His crimes stalk her like a shadow.
Now Chloe has rebuilt her life. She’s a respected psychologist in Baton Rouge and has a loving fiancé.
But she just can’t shake a tick-tick-tick of paranoia that, at any moment, it might all come crashing down.

As does something darker.
It is the anniversary of her father’s crimes, and Chloe is about to see her worst fears come true –
a girl she knows goes missing.  

The nightmare has started again…

Chloe Davis was twelve years old when her father was accused of being a serial killer, killing six teenagers. She, her brother Cooper and her mother then start to lead a new life. Almost twenty years later, Chloe is now a successful psychologist and is engaged. But soon, on the twentieth anniversary of the death of the first victim her father killed, girls started disappearing in her town. Is there a copycat murderer lurking around?

The story is told from Chloe’s perspectives–though the author doesn’t differentiate the past and present instances, it does shift back and forth between past and the present–how she was dealing with the fact her father was killing the girls to the present when she was haunted by those memories. It was actually a fast paced thriller with some twists and turns along the way, and the author, did a good job of drawing the reader to the story.

Besides being an unputdownable thriller, I do like the setting of the story–very rare I had read a thriller based with a southern setting.

Chloe seemed to be a very complex character who seemed to be addicted to the pills and takes pills with the alcohol. Though I am not complaining, unreliastic characters had seem to become a trend in many psychological thrillers. However, I kind of predicted the ending but nonetheless, this is a must die hard psychological thriller, unputdownable and a page turner, that will keep you up all night. This was Stacy Willingham’s debut and I cannot wait to read more from this author.

Worth five stars!

Introducing the three unlikeliest sleuths you’ll ever meet…

Every Thursday, three retired school teachers have their ‘coffee o’clock’ sessions at the Thirsk Garden Centre café.

But one fateful week, as they are catching up with a slice of cake, they bump into their ex-colleague, Topsy.

By the next Thursday, Topsy’s dead.
 
The last thing Liz, Thelma and Pat imagined was that they would become involved in a murder.
 
But they know there’s more to Topsy’s death than meets the eye – and it’s down to them to prove it…

Sit down with a cup of tea and this perfectly witty, page-turning cosy crime novel. Fans of Agatha Christie, Death in Paradise and Midsomer Murders will be hooked from the very first page.

When three retired ex- teachers meet for tea they meet another one of their colleagues, Topsy with her daughter Kellyanne. Then Topsy suddenly dies, a large amount of money has been taken from her account, her daughter gone for the weekend and the three teachers– Liz, Thelma and Pat decide to investigate.

This wasn’t bad but this was OK cozy thriller. I have done reviews on cozy reviews before. The writing was good, there were funny parts that crack me up. But unfortunately, there were too much characters that I was slightly confused at some parts, which maybe it was just me. Liz, Thelma and Pat are likable characters and do like the fact that how these three old women get together to solve a mystery of the death of their colleague which they think is a murder. Overall, it was an OK cozy thriller. Worth three stars. Since the writing was great, I look forward to read more books from this author.

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

Everyone said she was the prettiest flower girl. But now her dress lies on the floor. It’s wet and torn, her shoes are lost. ‘Tell us what happened to you?’ her daddy sobs. Christine shakes her head. All she can remember are the red rose petals scattering like drops of blood spilling to the ground.

When Christine Lewis was a little girl, she witnessed something terrible at a wedding and buried it so deep in her memory, she managed to forget it ever happened.

Years later, Jessica Newman walks into the successful advertising agency Christine runs with her husband. Jessica is beautiful and excellent at her job but her presence triggers disturbing memories for Christine. Fragments of the wedding are starting to flicker in her mind and an unexplainable ball of dread begins to form in Christine’s stomach. Jessica is slowly beginning to destroy Christine’s marriage and her business. Why can’t anyone else see it?

Christine and Jessica’s lives were connected long before they set eyes on one another. But in unlocking the mystery of what happened at the wedding all those years ago, is Christine prepared for the truth she’s about to find?

When Christine was a little girl, she witnessed something horrifying but couldn’t remember what it was. Years later, Christine is working in a company when Jessica Newman enters into her life. Through Christine’s hazy memory, she couldn’t place Jessica but feel suspicious of her. Jessica slowly enters into her life and slowly breaks Christine’s marriage and slowly take over the company. Then Christine undergoes a hypnotherapy session and soon she slowly regains her memory in which Jessica may be involved…

The plot was good, the writing was great. But unfortunately, this wasn’t as interesting as I thought it should be. Maybe it was just me but it wasn’t as fast paced thriller as I thought it should be. Not much of twists and turns you would normally expect in a thriller and there were some parts where it was boring. However, I have to send, the ending was good–not great but good. Overall, in my opinion, this was an OK thriller, not a thing to die for.

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

Two families. One house swap. A vacation to die for.

The white-washed Italian villa is perfect. I thought it might feel odd, living in a stranger’s house for the summer, but as my husband and children swim in the infinity pool, I start to relax. And then, in the back of a wardrobe, I find something that shatters everything…

Sparkling green eyes, square jaw, lopsided smile. A young man with his arm around a beautiful woman. The picture is old and faded but I’d recognise him anywhere. The man is my husband.

But we’ve never met the family we’ve swapped homes with and my husband swears it isn’t him in the photo. He’s lying. We argue on the balcony with the sun setting behind us and I storm out.

When I finally calm down enough to go back to the villa to confront him, I find his dead body sprawled across the veranda.

Who killed my husband? Was our marriage a lie? And are my children now in terrible danger?

Shalini Boland has done it again!

Niall and Beth decides to go on a holiday in Italy by agreeing to do a house swap with another family–the Mason family. Amber and Renzo moves to Niall’s and Beth’s small cottage while Niall and Beth with their children moves to white washed villa in Italy with a breathtaking view. But things don’t really go according to the plan when Beth discovers a secret that will threaten her marriage with Niall.

The story is told from the perspectives of Beth and Amber, each recounting their version of the story. From start to finish, the story is fast paced packed with twists and turns that come along the way. Beth’s marriage to Niall, Amber’s marriage to Renzo and their own relationships with their children is outline in the story. I was kept at the edge of the seat as I read this book, wondering what is going to happen next as I read the book. The story then picks up its pace when Niall was found dead and the ending of the story left me so breathless that I actually couldn’t believe that it was how the story ended! This is the fourth book I have rea from this author and looking forward to read more of her books!

Overall, The Family Holiday is an unputdownable thriller that will keep you at the edge of the seat–worth five stars!

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

Three-year-old Millie Everleigh disappears on a crisp winter’s day, and nothing is as it seems…

It’s the phone call every mother dreads.

I’m climbing into the car after a trip to the grocery store. As the engine starts, my phone rings. It’s my stepdaughter, Shelby, who is babysitting my three-year-old little girl Millie.

‘I only went upstairs for a second,’ she says through her sobs. ‘She’s gone.’

I race home to find my blue-eyed baby girl missing, and my heart ripped out of my chest.

When the police turn up, Shelby’s story starts to unravel. What is she hiding?

Then I get a message saying, ‘Your husband is not who you think he is.’ Could he be lying?

Suddenly, my family feel like strangers. Everyone has a secret – even me.

No one knows why I was late coming back from the store, and the guilt I’ve been feeling ever since…

Once the truth comes out, all of our lies exposed, will it be too late to save my precious child?

Another one of those fast paced thrillers that will put you at the edge of the seat, by Nicole Trope!

Shelby is twelve years old and is asked to babysit her three-year-old half-sister Millie. But while babysitting, Millie goes missing.

The story is told from the perspectives of Leslie (Millie’s mother and Shelby’s stepmother), Shelby and a woman named Ruth, who seemed to be obsessed with Millie’s disappearance. From the start of the chapter, when Millie goes missing to the end, the story is fast paced, packed with twists and turns that you wouldn’t even expect! The story started getting more tense in the middle of the story and boy, the ending was completely unexpected. Kudos to the author for keeping the reader at the edge of the seat while reading this thriller! I stayed up all night reading the book, wondering what is going to happen–will Millie be ever found? Did someone kill her? What really happened to her? And finally all those questions were answered at the end!

Overall, if you like reading fast paced thrillers that will keep you up all night, an uputdownable thriller that will keep you at the edge of the seat, then this book is one for you–worth five stars!

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