Tropical Girl Reads

No. of pages:- 382 pages

Publisher:- Bookouture

Date published:- will be published on 12th November 2021

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:- 5/5 stars

My husband was not a monster. No matter what they say…

The day my husband, Michael, stepped in front of a lorry after being questioned by the police, my world fell apart. He was devoted to me and our six-year-old daughter. But they’d connected him to the disappearance of a young mother from our tiny village.

Now I stand at Michael’s funeral, clutching my little girl’s hand, with tears in my eyes as I insist to all our friends that he died an innocent man. Yet the questions have started, and nothing I say will stop them digging for the truth.

But none of them can read the secrets in my heart, or know about the phone I found hidden in his toolbox…

I’m determined that my daughter will not remember her father as a monster. I will erase any hint of wrongdoing in this house whatever the cost.

Because to keep my daughter safe, the last thing I need is for people to start looking at me…

I have been a fan of K.L Slater for these few months and is determined to read all her books, even though I haven’t read her first few books. This is the fourth book that I have been reading of this author.

Plot:- A Polish woman named Suzy goes missing leaving her son behind. The main suspect is Michael Shaw, Kate’s husband. Michael was loyal to Kate and had a good marriage, always letting her know everything. But was Michael hiding from Kate something?
Meanwhile, the police are investigating a missing case of a Polish man named Jakub, who went missing and whose family back in Poland wants closure. While investigating the case, they find that Jakub used to work for Michael and then soon things start to change as the bodies were recovered in a field where Michael Shaw worked.

Writing:- This story was so engrossing! Literally, I was so hooked into the book, from start to finish, wanting to know what is going to happen next. The story is told mainly from Kate Shaw’s point of view with some tits and bits about Jakub–his life in Poland to how he came to work in UK. There were some twists and turns and the story was written in a fast pace that I couldn’t wait what the ending is going to be. Is Michael Shaw guilty? What is his connection with Jakub? And soon, these questions began to get answered by the middle of the book. It was intense and the author as usual did a good job drawing the reader to the story. This was indeed a true psychological thriller! I also like the childhood friendship between Aleks, Suzy’s son and Tansy’s Kate’s daughter along with Ellie, Donna’s daughter who is also another one of the characters. The ending was unpredictable and unexpected but I truly enjoyed reading this book!

Characters:- I really like Kate’s character very well as she worked hard to prove her husband’s innocence and I like her relationship with her friend Donna who was supportive of her.

Overall:– overall, this was an intense and fast paced thriller that will make you at the edge of the seat–worth five stars!

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Kim is the number one bestselling author of sixteen psychological crime thrillers. She has sold over two million copies of her books worldwide. She has also written four Carnegie-nominated Young Adult novels as Kim Slater for Macmillan Children’s Books. Kim has an MA in Creative Writing and lives with her husband in a small Nottinghamshire village in England.

No. of pages:- 402 pages

Publisher:- Bookouture

Date published:- will be published on 4th November 2021

Genre:- Thriller

Rating:- 4 stars

Recognition hits me as I look at the woman lying in the long grass. It’s my sister. Her hot-pink nails are chipped and caked with dirt, her blue eyes are cold and vacant. I desperately shake her, even though I know. She’s gone.

Fresh out of the Military Police, Georgia Fell has returned to her Michigan island hometown a decade after she ran away. Late to meet her younger sister at a bar on the isolated tip of the isle, she arrives to her worst nightmare: Rachel dead, purple bruises around her slim, beautiful neck.

When the police rule out murder, Georgia knows it can’t be true. Reluctantly, she must turn to the person she’s been avoiding since she came home. Georgia can’t forgive single dad Lincoln McNamara for his betrayal the night she left, but he has an in with the dangerous crew operating out of the roadhouse where Rachel was killed. The question is, can she trust him?

But before she can convince Lincoln to help her, another local girl goes missing. How deep into the darkness of island life must Georgia go to find out the truth? And with an innocent girl’s life on the line, does she even have a choice?

An absolutely unputdownable suspense thriller. Readers who adore Tami Hoag, Mary Burton and J.D. Robb will be hooked on this jaw-dropping new crime series.

One thing I like about reading ARC is I get to start on a series. This is the first book of Georgia Fell series.

Plot:- Fresh out the Military Police, Georgia Fell returns back to her small island near Michigan after being away for more than a decade. She came back to meet her little sister but instead found Rachel dead. Though the police rule out murder, Georgia believes that Rachel was murdered and set about to find the truth about Rachel’s death. Meanwhile, she reconnects with her former childhood lover, Lincoln who is actually an ex con. Is Lincoln innocent as he seems or something sinister?

Writing:- The story is told from the perspectives of Georgia and Lincoln that you have a chance of getting to know their characters. There were some twists and turns but it started a bit slow and soon it got fast paced. I was on the edge of the seat while reading this book and then couldn’t wait to see who the killer was! The author does a trick of tricking you to believe that particular person is the killer but the ending completely threw me off the radar. So anyway, this book actually was a complete surprise to me. The writing was really good and the author did a good job of drawing the reader to the story, making the reader feel like they are a part of the story.

Characters:- Since the story is told from the perspectives of Georgia and Lincoln, you get to know both their characters. I didn’t like Jenna’s character and I like how the relationship between Georgia and Lincoln soon developed towards the end.

Overall:- This was a great book, quite unputdownable with twists and turns along the way–worth four stars

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

Maegan Beaumont is the author of CARVED IN DARKNESS, the first book in the Sabrina Vaughn thriller series (Available through Midnight Ink, spring 2013). A native Phoenician, Maegan’s stories are meant to make you wonder what the guy standing in front of you in the Starbucks line has locked in his basement, and feel a strong desire to sleep with the light on. When she isn’t busy fulfilling her duties as Domestic Goddess for her high school sweetheart turned husband, Joe, and their four children, she is locked in her office with her computer, her coffee pot and her Rhodesian Ridgeback, and one true love, Jade.
She also writes a blog dedicated to helping writers with plot woes and answering writing questions. Check her out – maeganbeaumont.blogspot.com

No. of pages:- 336 pages

Date published:- September 1st 2020

Publisher:- HQ

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:- 4 stars

She’s in too deep….

Meet the first Mrs Ford. Beautiful. Accomplished. Wealthy beyond imagination. Married to a much younger man. And now… dead.

Meet the second Mrs Ford. Waitress. Small-town girl. Married to a man she never forgot, from an affair ten years before. And now, she’s wealthy beyond imagination.

But who is Connor Ford? Two wives loved him, and knew him as only wives can…

Who is the victim? Who is the villain? And who will be next to die?

Set amongst the glittering mansions of the Hamptons, The Wife Who Knew Too Much is a decadent thriller about the lives of those who will do anything for love and money from the Sunday Times bestselling author Michele Campbell.

High ratings I saw from this book prompted me to read the book and was so glad when I found this book on Scribd!

Plot:- Tabitha “Tabby” meets her childhood love, Connor Ford, after many years in the bar where she was working as a waitress. Connor is now however married to Nina Levitt, one of the wealthiest woman in the country but Tabitha and Connor start their steamy romance affair. Then Nina is tragically drowned and Tabitha marries Connor. But soon, Tabitha comes across Nina’s diary where she thinks Connor is going to kill her and Tabitha realizes she is in danger…

Writing:- The story is told from the perspectives of Tabitha and Nina though mainly from Tabitha’s perspective. The writing was good, engaging and intriguing though initially it started a bit slow but soon got fast paced with twists and thrills along the way. Towards the middle part of the book, the story got more interesting and unputdownable and there were moments in the book where I was at the edge of my seat, waiting to find out what is going to happen next. Although the ending was a bit predictable, I kind of liked the ending overall.

Characters:- Tabitha’s character was OK to me and so was Nina’s. The rest of the characters are simply meh.

Overall:- this book is a fast paced packed with twists and turns you didn’t expect that will keep you at the edge of the seat–worth four stars!

Michele Campbell is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School and a former federal prosecutor in New York City who specialized in international narcotics and gang cases.

A while back, she said goodbye to her big-city legal career and moved with her husband and two children to an idyllic New England college town a lot like Belle River in IT’S ALWAYS THE HUSBAND. Since then, she has spent her time teaching criminal and constitutional law and writing novels.

She has had many close female friends, a few frenemies, and only one husband, who – to the best of her knowledge – has never tried to kill her.

No. of pages:- 352 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Published:- Published on June 1st 2021

Rating:- 4 stars

A long-ago accident–and a visitor from out of the blue. . .

Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin girls. The babies are a handful, but even as Stephanie struggles with the disorientation of sleep deprivation, there’s one thing she’s sure of: she has all she ever wanted.

Then Erica, a woman from Patrick’s past, appears and makes a disturbing accusation. Patrick had always said his first wife’s death was an accident, but now Erica claims it was murder.

Patrick insists he’s innocent, that this is nothing but a blackmail attempt. Still, Erica knows things about Patrick–things that make Stephanie begin to question her husband. Stephanie isn’t sure what, or who, to believe. As Stephanie’s trust in Patrick begins to falter, Patrick stands to lose everything. Is Patrick telling the truth–is Erica the persuasive liar Patrick says she is? Or has Stephanie made a terrible mistake?

How will it end?

This is the second book I have read of Shari Lapena, the first one being The Stranger in the House, which I have already written the book review on. So let’s discuss this novel in depth.

Plot:- Stephanie and Patrick seemed to be living a life–now becoming new parents to twins and they are struggling with their parenthood. But a woman from Patrick’s past comes back into their life, claiming that Patrick’s first wife, Lindsey, who actually died from a tragic car accident years ago did not die from the accident but was murdered. Stephanie wants to believe her husband but when she finds some things about Patrick’s past, she doubts his innocent and wondered if her life is safe.

Writing:- Lapena’s writing is simple and so easy to read without a hassle with no complicated words. So it was quick to read. The story started fast paced with some twists and turns along the way and the ending gave a room of whodunnit situation that the reader will wonder and ponder for a moment after finishing the book. The plot was interesting and gave a pathway to a dark thriller, wondering if the husband is actually a murderer as the woman claimed or not. Also, I like how the woman, Erica is a cunning woman who would do anything to get what she wanted.

Characters:- one downside of this story is, I didn’t like any characters. Erica seemed to be too vicious, too greedy, too manipulative though that actually made her a perfect villain though I couldn’t really stand her. I didn’t even like the main character Stephanie much either as she sounded too naive and stupid, although in the end, she acted smart. As a result, due to my dislike to many characters, I didn’t enjoy the story much.

Overall:- This is a fast paced thriller filled with twists and turns but the characters totally ruined my mood with the book. Worth four stars!

No. of pages:- 347 pages

Publisher:- William Morrow

Date published:- September 14th 2021

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:- 3.5 / 5 stars

A pulse-pounding and razor-sharp debut with the emotional punch of Luckiest Girl Alive and All the Missing Girls that explores the hungry, angry, dark side of girlhood and dares to ask: Which is more dangerous for a woman—showing the world what it wants to see, or who she really is?

What did you do?

Mary used to be such a nice girl. She was the resident whiz kid of Liberty Lake, Minnesota—the quiet, chubby teen with the scholarship to an Ivy League school. But three years later, “Ivy League Mary” is back—a thinner, cynical, restless failure who was kicked out of Cor­nell at the beginning of her senior year and won’t tell anyone why. Taking a job at the local grocery store, Mary tries to make sense of her life’s sharp downward spiral.

Then beautiful, magnetic Olivia Willand goes missing. A rising social media star, Olivia is admired by everyone in Liberty Lake—except Mary. Once Olivia’s best friend, Mary knows better than anyone that behind the Instagram persona hides a willful, manipulative girl with sharp edges. As the town obsesses over perfect, lovely Olivia, Mary wonders if her disappearance might be tied to another missing person: nineteen-year-old DeMaria Jackson, whose case has been widely dismissed as a runaway.

Who is the real Olivia Willand, and where did she go? What happened to DeMaria? As Mary pries at the cracks in the careful facades surrounding the two missing girls, old wounds will bleed fresh and force her to confront a horrible truth.

Maybe there are no nice girls, after all.

I listened to the audiobook on Scribd and I have mixed feelings about this book.

Mary was known as “Ivy League Mary” as she got into Cornell University and left the small town of Liberty Lake. But soon, she was expelled from the university and Mary returned back to the town and found herself working in a grocery store. Mary’s friend Olivia Willand, a rising social media star goes missing. Mary thinks Olivia has run away initially as the whole town get together to search for her. But soon, she finds that few months before Olivia went missing, another girl named DeMaria Jackson went missing as well and Mary thinks there is a connection between the two cases.

I was excited to read this book because the synopsis in the book sounded interesting to me. Even though I feel the writing was good, I didn’t like the narrator and I didn’t like the main character Mary. I feel Mary is naïve who complains too much about her life and so as a result, I didn’t get to be interested in the book as I didn’t like Mary at all. I am not sure if it is intentional. But the story was great although the ending was predictable and there were some twists and turns that you actually expected in the book. But what I did enjoy is that despite being a fiction, I like how realistic the story is–if a white girl went missing, then the whole media goes frenzy and the whole town gets together to search for. her. But if a Black girl like DeMaria goes missing, people and the police assumed she ran away. So that part I think author did a good job of drawing that into attention and making it realistic.

Overall, the book worth 3.5 stars.

Catherine Dang is a former legal assistant based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota. Nice Girls is her first novel.