September 2021 Reading Wrap-Up

Hi everyone!

I entered the month with the plan to try to get through as many thrillers/mystery/horror that I could. I had a couple off of that track as a result of library books coming in. But overall... I am pretty happy with all of these! As a reminder (??) means print/kindle and (??) means audio. I hope you find some good suggestions as we head into the month of "spooky" reads - and let me know if you have any recommendations for me!

?? The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard ???? A really engaging thriller set as a book within a book. A former serial killer (never captured) sees a true crime book about himself in the store and becomes obsessed with finding out what a survivor of one of his crimes knows. The story is told from the mind of the killer as he reads the book and intercepts with his own thoughts and daily happenings. It's tense, it's fun, it's like two books in one!

?? Rise of the Magicks by Nora Roberts ????? This is the final book in the Chronicles of the One trilogy and it was just wonderful. I love the way the author didn't spend a bunch of time describing the battles, but more time on the relationships, the planning, the aftermath. Dark magic versus Light magic in the final push to rebuild a world once destroyed.

?? Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron ????? A well written thriller with a extremely crazy narrator. A lawyer who is relegated to doing temp work after being fired from her big law job, finds her way to get through the boredom by stalking the life of another law firm partner. Even though you really don't like Cassie, you can't stop reading to see what in the world is going to happen.

?? The Last Guests by JP Pomare ???? Ever stay in an AirBnb? Ever wondered if there were cameras hidden inside? Ever wonder if those cameras are live streaming for hundreds of people to see? All that happened and more in this crazy story. The first few chapters almost lost me. It was a little scattered. I almost abandoned it. Instead I just sort of skimmed those first few and by chapter 5, it started moving and then it was non-stop. Twisty turny! Glad I stuck with it!

?? Animal by Lisa Taddeo ??? I feel like this book was written for shock factor. There are a lot of really blunt discussions of sexual acts that I think are intended to shock the reader. There was a little mystery involved, and although I started to get exhausted by the never ending list of bad decisions made by the main character, I stuck around because I wanted to know the answers to the mysteries. All those questions are answered in the last couple of chapters and overall they were a little underwhelming. I had pretty much guessed everything. I almost expected a bigger shock based on the rest of the book so it was a little anti-climatic in the end. This book contains LOTS of content warnings - as you might imagine.

?? They Never Learn by Layne Fargo ??? 1/2 This author "writes thrillers about angry women." That's pretty accurate. This is the story of an angry woman who decides to take justice in her own hands. Think of it as a female Dexter (from the TV show). It was an interesting mystery, not really a thriller. A little slow, but enjoyable.

?? Billy Summers by Stephen King ????? Mr. King has veered of of the spooky path once again for Billy Summers. He is the master of character development and I just loved getting to know Billy. He's a hired gun with a moral code who picks up an unexpected tag along on his journey. It's not a thriller. It's not even really a mystery (although there were small doses of each genre in there). It was just a well written story of a good bad guy. I really loved all of it.

?? Living Proof by Kira Peikoff ??? Set in the year 2027 (published in 2012) this novel told a scarier than ever story about the government controlling women's fertility and pregnancy. It's part undercover agent falls for the "bad guy" and part exploring the internal battle of religion vs science that people have struggled with for many years. It was a good premise, but it was slow paced and a little repetitive on the "questioning god" part of things for me.

?? Tuesday's Child by Anya Mora ???? Imagine you adopt a child for all the right reasons. You want to grow your family and have struggled with fertility in the past. You want to help a child that has really just been dealt a terrible hand in life. You want to give your daughter the sibling she so badly wants. So you adopt the child, his past trauma is way more difficult to manage than you expected and one year later your daughter is found dead and your adopted son is the number one suspect. Tough subject matter but it was a story I didn't want to put down because I had to know what happened. The ending was a little far-fetched but overall I liked it.

?? Thirteen by Steve Cavanaugh ????? Part legal thriller, part police procedural, part straight-up serial killer. I loved it all. So fast paced, I could have read it in one sitting if life allowed me to. This is my second Eddie Flynn novel by this author and it will not be my last. People I trust have told me these don't need to be read in order and since at this point I have only read #1 and #4 I can confirm that is true!

?? 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard ? ? ? 56 Days ago two people net for the first time. Then covid hit and they decided to move in together for a couple of weeks. 56 Days later, someone is dead in the apartment. I loved the premise of this book but the execution just wasn't that great. All the narrators are unreliable. There's a lot of unnecessary repetitive dialogue. It's not a BAD book, but it's not one I am running out to recommend to people.

?? The People We Keep by Allison Larkin ???? Sweet, found family story of a young girl who bets on herself and learns that sometimes you can create your own family from the most random encounters.

?? Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant ????1/2 Hear me out... This is the sci-fi horror you did not know you needed in your life. This is a book about Killer Mermaids ??!!! If you have any interest in marine life or oceanic science this is even better. I loved the science pieces and the terror from the mermaids was genuine. If you like horror but not sure about sci-fi, give this a try!

?? Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian ????1/2 This college campus thriller was a fun ride with a good mystery along the way. Students are given full scholarships to attend a small college to participate in a study of psychopathy - which means that these students are all diagnosed psychopaths! Does that mean that they are all going around murdering people? Maybe, maybe not. That's the mystery!