Billy Summers by Stephen King

Description from Amazon:

The perfect crime doesn’t exist. The perfect getaway . . . that’s another story.

Billy Summers is a killer for hire. He’s among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet who can blend into any neighbourhood and disappear after the shot is taken. But he’ll only agree to a contract if the target is a truly bad guy.

Now Billy wants out. But first he’s offered one final job - an offer which is just too big to refuse.

As the days count down to the hit, Billy senses something is wrong. He doesn’t yet know just how wrong, or about the woman who will help him try to set things right.

Part thriller, part war story, part lyrical portrait of small-town America, Billy Summers is about a good man in a bad job, with one last shot at redemption.

 

I absolutely loved this. It’s quite different from his usual fare, and I thought the nod to The Shining was a fun addition.

 

Billy’s job and the people involved is laid out nicely, and even though what he is about to do is so completely wrong, you are cheering him on. The book is quite thick, so as the job is put into action, there seem to be a lot of pages over. Enter the second portion, which, while it has a different element to it, ties it all together so well that by the end the emotions are a rollercoaster.

 

Billy takes you through parts of his life in wars through memories and the book he is writing, and I thought the way he writes his book using his simple voice and then his usual one read really well. There are cringy parts and his first interaction with Alice as well as some of the decisions he makes about her are downright questionable. But I guess that also shows how people make decisions and how wrong they can be.

 

Many won’t like this book based on decisions made and the political jabs, but I really enjoyed it!

Lady Apprentice by Toni Cabell

Description from Amazon:

Her homeland under siege. A dark sorcerer hot on her trail. All the prophecies say Linden can stop him. Who are they kidding?

Linden is the worst mage apprentice at her school. Her latest disaster: accidentally destroying her classroom when a small hooded fay pops up inside the fireball she’s just conjured.

Linden is sent to the headmaster’s office to be formally expelled, when she is saved by the bell—quite literally. Someone is frantically ringing the bell inside the watchtower overlooking the western frontier. Raiders are coming, in broad daylight, wearing the uniforms of the enemy army.

In the days following the raid, rumors begin to fly about the invading commander, with dark powers and an even darker mission. And for some reason Linden has yet to fathom, he’s taken a personal interest in her and her unruly magic.

 

This is definitely aimed at YA but still interesting enough to keep older readers somewhat engaged. It’s the first I’ve read of this author, and her writing style is very easy to follow, her characters well varied, and the plot carefully thought out.

 

Because it’s the first in the series, a lot of world-building and background info on characters had to take place to get the story where it needed to be at the point of Linden’s place in the war. This did make certain areas drag out a little, but Linden’s journey in finding herself was necessary. The different abilities and levels are well described and the action sequences entertaining.

 

Linden’s path in coming to terms with her abilities and finding her confidence was a great basis for the age of the reader, but my gripes were that she was more concerned about her boyfriend than her brother, and the fact that this script had editing mistakes in it.

 

I would like to read the rest of the series just to find out if Linden gets to become the person she is meant to be.

Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard

Description from Amazon:

A ghostwriter is tasked with capturing the memoirs of a celebrity widely suspected of murder; now she’s locked in an interview room with a killer and he’s ready to confess... The night Jack Smyth ran into flames in a desperate attempt to save his wife, he was, tragically, too late - but hailed a hero. Until it emerged that Kate was dead long before the fire began.

 

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and based on this I wouldn’t read another. The story starts off with a bang and you are sucked into a situation someone is not getting out of and might end up dying in horribly. This definitely grabs attention.

 

Then the book meanders into the weird rules about how the ghostwriting must take place, Emily’s feelings toward Jack and her going back and forth between believing him or not, and then the misdirection the author tries to take us through. Which, unfortunately, is not difficult to spot.

 

The characters are 2D and I felt nothing for any of them. There are huge plot holes in the book that the author tries to explain but it feels like the explanations are being tacked on. I read the whole book in hope, but by the end I felt shortchanged.

Watching You by Michael Robotham

Description from Amazon:

I am the most important figure in Marnie’s life, but she doesn’t know it yet . . .

I am the one who watches.

Marnie Logan often feels like she’s being watched. Nothing she can quite put her finger on - a whisper of breath on the back of her neck, or a shadow in the corner of her eye - and now her life is frozen. Her husband Daniel has been missing for more than a year. Depressed and increasingly desperate, she seeks the help of clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin.

Joe is concerned by Marnie’s reluctance to talk about the past, but then she discovers a book packed with pictures, interviews with friends, former teachers, old flames and workmates Daniel was preparing for Marnie’s birthday. It was supposed to be a celebration of her life. But it’s not the story anyone was expecting . . .

 

This is the first Joe O’Loughlin book I’ve read in the series, and it’s easy to jump into and read as a standalone. I really enjoyed this one and was amazed it was written so long ago yet still feels so fresh.

 

You really are taken back and forth where you think something is real then it’s fake then it might be real again. Marnie is stuck in a terrible financial situation and resorts to something soul crushing to earn some money for her children seeing as her husband cannot be declared dead and his insurance paid out. Of course the kids don’t know what she is doing and her teen daughter thinks her mom is pretty much useless while her son is really ill.

 

But it seems that a lot of people connected to Marnie either turn up dead or something bad happens to them, so she is high on the list of suspects for her husband’s disappearance. All this while she is seeing Joe for depression. And he is about to find out some fascinating things about her. Marnie’s past didn’t stay there and it’s threatening to overtake her future.

 

This was a thriller of note and I kept wanting to read just one more chapter. As the clues are unravelled and you are sure of your guesses, more turns up. Marnie’s character was so well written that you could feel her anguish all the way through and the fact that part of the book are written from an unknown character’s POV makes the guesswork all the more fun.

 

This kept me engaged all the way through with fast-paced writing and great characters and one heck of a great plot! I love it when a book is described as a psychological thriller and it actually is one...