The Window by Angie Lee

The Window is a psychological/domestic thriller and is the first book of two but does not end in a cliffhanger.

 

Katherine Browne has it all. Well, from the outside she does. A gorgeous rich husband who will do anything for her, a son in college, and a daughter just entering the teens. And all she has to do every day is to be a housewife. A far cry from almost becoming a doctor. Now Katherine is not exactly bored, but something is missing and she can’t quite put her finger on it.

 

One day, after a sweaty yoga session, she begins undressing in front of her window, and to her horror, realises someone is watching her as he works in the garden next door. Someone very good looking. She hurriedly closes the curtains but the encounter stays in her mind. As she sees the stranger in the same place day after day, she finds that the tease of him having seen her gives her a thrill, and slowly but surely begins experimenting with different lingerie and poses for him. It’s not cheating after all as there is no contact and she doesn’t even know who he is, right?

 

However, when her son brings the stranger home as a new friend, Katherine knows a boundary has been crossed. And when the stranger starts texting and demanding more, she finds herself in a dangerous position. How far will he go to get what he wants?

 

I enjoyed this story because of the twist on the twist. There was a section in the middle where it got slow and Katherine got stuck on parading for this guy and all I wanted to do was scream at her and tell her what an idiot she was. Did she really think nothing would come of it? I liked how the author took you through different POVs and showed how perfect lives can be flawed.

 

It’s a quick and easy read where you root for a person all the way through and then suddenly get hit with a twist and change your mind quickly. Might be a bit of literary licence at the end, but hey, the world is a funny place…

Found You by Molly Black

Found You is an FBI thriller and is the beginning of a series, but can be read as a standalone.

 

Rylie has issues. Anger issues, relationships with other people issues, and partner issues. So when she (once again) does exactly what she wants to solve the case, her boss (a rather nasty piece of work that even with his connections should never have had the power he did) decides it’s time for her to lose her job. Luckily, someone above him sends Rylie into another area, where she is tasked to find a killer who is stringing victims up on marker posts on a long stretch of highway.

 

Rylie feels this is beneath her and the fact that they have assigned her a partner far too happy for his own good, adds to her frustration. However, as she starts uncovering clues, she realises they could be very close to catching the killer. But the bodies keep coming. Will Rylie put her issues away long enough to get her head in the game?

 

So, as the book starts with Rylie, being a top FBI agent, forgetting to charge her phone while on an important case and needing it, it set the scene for things to come. Rylie is a very unlikeable character, who is selfish, mouths off for no reason, acts immaturely and impetuously, and treats others badly. Even if she does solve cases in her own way, I don’t see how she would have been tolerated. Her partner was fun and her rudeness towards him unjustified.

 

I think a lot was missed by not going deeper into her partner’s history (he was a SEAL but nothing came of it), more about the killer (he seemed cut and paste from many other books and was an “explain reasons why just before being foiled”), and making certain things more plausible. Rylie doesn’t sleep for a few days, survives on coffee and doughnuts, and then in a dramatic scene at the end needs a great deal of physicality that would not have been available to her body. The figuring out of the markers and the numbers… hmm, very suspect. Even (if I remember correctly and I might not as I wasn’t prepared to go back and find it) the killer says that the reason people would open their doors for him is that he looks safe yet later he is described as having something wrong with his face. I think I’d already started skimming parts because things didn’t add up. Then at the end, after falling down a mine shaft and realising her “spine was twisted unnaturally” she manages to straighten it. What???

 

The book had potential; I just wish the author had made the story more coherent and the characters more believable.

She'll Never Tell by Maggie James

She’ll Never Tell is a psychological thriller about decisions that can rip a family apart.

 

Olivia’s mom Sonia has died, her body found on the banks of a river, and Olivia is trying to find solace in her downstairs neighbour Elena. Her father is in a home and can barely speak, and she and her husband are having some time apart as Olivia suspects him of cheating. Surely nothing more can happen in her life?

 

Well, Olivia finds out that there is no way Sonia could have been her mom, as her post mortem reveals she’d never had a child. Wanting to turn to Elena for comfort, Olivia realises Elena has moved away without telling anyone she is going. Olivia decides to take it upon herself to find out the truth about her parentage, and this opens avenues that will solve many mysteries but also create more, and could very well lead to her own demise too.

 

 

I didn’t connect with this book as much as other reviewers did. It’s not to say that the book is not written well, I just felt that the acceptance of what a mother would do to protect their child was not okay. Very early on in the book you can figure out who the mother is, and I felt that every familial revelation bar one after that was not a surprise. The characters are difficult to like, which is correct for the story, but it made justifying actions difficult. I guess it came across more of “I” and what is best for me (even though the story is geared towards what is best for others).

 

Some things like the lack of hard section breaks were distracting, and I found it odd that the searches for family ties were so quick and easy. I also got annoyed with characters telling other characters that they had to see them to be able to explain certain things. While nothing inherently wrong with the book, I didn’t feel it as much as others did so won’t write too much on it.

Forget Me Not by Kristen Middleton

Forget Me Not is a crime thriller and the first in a series.

 

Amanda’s ex-husband has died and left her everything. Considering they hadn’t seen each other in years, this is a strange occurrence, but Amanda takes her son, Kevin, and off they head to Summit Lake where the house Brad has left her still stands. Summit Lake is where Amanda grew up and her mom and stepfather live there, so it’ll be a good getaway for her, Kevin, and their dog, Lacey.

 

Not too long after arriving, Amanda starts receiving threatening letters and gifts meant to create fear. With no other leads, the police are unable to help. When the threats turn physical, Amanda knows she needs to figure out what’s going on by herself or she could end up dead. And when a startling revelation about her ex surfaces, more questions open up. But without answers for them…

 

The book started with a hook, and as it moved on, I thought this was a great idea. It could have been the whole way through too if it wasn’t for some things in the story that didn’t gel. There seemed to be a lot of info that the author wanted the reader to know (which you would expect would add to the story/character and move it forward) but that turned out to be info not needed. Like a lot of backstory that didn’t assist with the outcome or in specific circumstances.

 

Some of the physical feats were pretty impressive, even if pretty improbable, and as soon as an animal is hurt in a story, that gets my back up. I didn’t understand the need to get the garage sale going so quickly, how a recovering alcoholic was given a wine cooler to drink, why Amanda would dive into situations where it was obvious what was going to happen, and that one can just contact Russian gangsters that are to be found on Google.

 

*spoiler alert ahead and attacker mentioned*

And what I found very strange was why the killer waited so long to exact the revenge. For someone who was able to show up at the precise moment needed for so many attacks and get into so many places without being seen (after having stalked Amanda), he seemed remarkably clueless on what had happened before especially with Kevin’s dad. Plus considering the fact that he had a wife just about to give birth and she was with him all the time, how was he able to leave the house to attack Amanda at the times he did? There were far too many coincidences and he was such a small character in the story to suddenly be the killer.

 

I’m really disappointed as I felt sure this was going to be a great read, but I was let down by the story as well as errors in the book and quantification of speech (he said/she said is not necessary every single time). The ending also felt very rushed and I closed the book with no real feeling of resolution.

Run For Your Life by CM Sutter

 Run For Your Life is the first in a police procedural series starring homicide detective Mitch Cannon.

 

Mitch and his partner Devon Rue are busy. There has been a spate of shootings, but no one seems to have any info for them. So Mitch is looking forward to having a date with Liza and just being able to take his mind off the murders. Liza turns out to be a bit odd though, but Mitch is roped into agreeing to go to a silent auction with her a few days later.

 

These plans are abruptly put on hold though when Mitch’s sister Marie goes missing, and it looks like she has been kidnapped. As Mitch is helping the investigating team with the case, Devon agrees to go to the auction with Liza in Mitch’s place, and both Devon and Liza then also go missing.

 

With the kidnapper calling Mitch and saying “ticktock, ticktock”, Mitch knows time is running out. But with no solid evidence or real clues, where does he start?

 

I really wanted to enjoy this book as the writing started off well and the blurb sounded interesting. But no. It was not what I expected. *Spoilers ahead*

The twist was not a twist and you could see it coming from quite early on, the way that the “bad guys” explained the reasons behind the kidnappings to each other in a conversation (that each already knew) was a massive info dump, and the fact that the dog (a puppy) in the story basically gets left alone in the house without self-filling food/water bowls and no way of going out while Mitch is out for hours just didn’t do it for me. Even when Marie is recovering and Mitch wants her to try hypnosis to help find Devon she isn’t keen as she doesn’t believe in it and is afraid the hypnotist will make her do something funny. Surely she’d do anything she could to help? Devon did save her life, after all.

 

I did read the book in one sitting as I wanted to see how it would end, and I applaud that the book was well proofed. The writing is good, but there is a lot of telling and not showing and what irked me was the lack of section breaks. A day or location would go into the next right on the next line and there was no point in which to take a breath.

 

I thought the ending was not believable and even though I’ll give this three stars for an average book, I won’t be reading any more of the series.

Here After by Sean Costello

 Here After is a crime thriller with a supernatural leaning and covers the deepest emotions of family loss.

 

Peter Croft is holding his dying son in the hospital, ready to join him in the afterlife as soon as it happens to make sure he is okay. But as Peter moves with David to the next plane, he has a vision about David and is brought back by a medical team. Once fully recovered, but enraged at the failure, he leaves the hospital and notices a particular picture on the Missing Children board. Why he is drawn to this picture he doesn’t know, but something in him pulls him and he feels compelled to try to find the missing boy.

 

When Peter comes to his senses and realises he is no private investigator, he knows he needs to deal with David’s death and joins a bereavement group. He is already no stranger to family loss with the passing of his wife. Here he meets Roger, whose son Jason went missing three years prior. He and Roger become good friends and one night, while at Roger’s house, he realises he has seen Jason’s room before – in his death vision.

 

This leads to a time-sensitive mystery to solve; one where the missing children may have a connection. Peter starts getting help from a supernatural source, but with just a hypothesis and no actual evidence, who will believe him?

 

This book really gripped me from the beginning. With the opening section about David dying and Peter wanting to go with him, I was curious as to how this was going to work if he was dead. Then, as we move through his grief, the author has managed to convey the depths of his despair and, as you read, you can feel his overwhelming ache and the desperation he feels.

 

I loved the supernatural twist and the “is he going crazy” possibility. I didn’t even care if the *spoiler ahead* physicality of staying alive without consistent food or water was feasible. The fact that Peter was willing to go to extreme lengths or try new ideas about things made the story real. And all his flaws just added to layers the author managed to give him.

 

Roger was another well-written character, as he often said or did things that were completely wrong, but understanding his grief and how he must have tried to cope through the years explained a lot. The ending of the book was a punch in the gut, but it was exactly the right way to end the story.

 

I wasn’t planning on reading the entire story in one fell swoop, but every time I put it down, I’d pick it up again and say just one more chapter. Well, that went on until the story was done. And the fact that it was almost error free added to the enjoyment. The author has a wonderful style of writing and I’ll definitely be reading more!  

Survival by John Achile Yusuf

Survival is an action-adventure story as well as a tale of friendship, loss, courage, and the will to survive.

 

A group of school friends, some of whom are related, have been selected to participate in competitions in South Africa in a number of disciplines. Excited, and ready to represent Nigeria, they are devastated when their flight is not only delayed, but eventually cancelled. Luckily for them, another plane is made available and they are soon headed off, with gold medals in their sights.

 

However, the plane encounters difficulties and comes down on the path between Nigeria and South Africa, right in the Congo jungle area. Those that survived the flight will now have to survive in a place they have never been in before, hoping that they will be rescued soon. However, the signal from the plane is not working, and no one knows where they are…

 

I had high hopes for the story but unfortunately it didn’t quite deliver. Before even looking at the story itself, the book is set up (the copy I received) where POV jumps are not marked, so you’d be in a character’s head in the jungle, and the next thing you’d be in the air traffic tower or with one of the parents and you’d have to stop and reread sections to understand where you are. This happened often. Also, there were sentences that were interrupted by paragraph breaks, so you’d read half the sentence and then the rest of the sentence would be in the next paragraph. That interrupted the flow of reading and took the reader out of the story time and time again. There were a number of grammar and punctuation mistakes that could be touched up, too.

 

The author does try to bring across the sense of despair the survivors feel as well as their triumphs as they find food or defeat and enemy. He touches on the stirrings of first love as well as the anguish of losing a family member. I liked how he followed one character’s inner journey in the progression from “I’m not sure how I am going to survive” to “I’ll do anything to survive”.

 

What caught me with the story, though, was the improbability of the events. Sure, a plane could definitely go down in the jungle and people be forced to survive. But here you have a group of youngsters who have no survivalist gear and seemingly no survivalist knowledge able to spend almost three weeks moving in the jungle and defending themselves from animals ranging from hyenas to hippopotamuses to gorillas. While it’s not impossible, the odds of them meeting and defeating the number of animals they did, as well as the pygmies, seems to be pushing believable boundaries. And I know there had to be some attempt at rescue, but the signal used for communication… was that even possible in that area? Some things you could shrug off being in there for the story, but others I had a hard time believing. It would have been good to describe how they made shelter and a bit more about what they ate (without bringing in spoilers, I was really puzzled at how they brought down an animal that runs at 88 km/h) or even more on the actual survival issues.

 

I liked the idea of the glossary in the book, but I think it would have been better at the front. I wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t been told it was there and it would have been frustrating to get to the end and only find it then. If I recall, it also didn’t have every translation in it because there is a section where a lot of food is described that is not in the glossary and I would have loved to know the meanings.

 

This is the author’s debut novel and he most certainly has potential. He just needs to work on fleshing out certain areas and opportunities in future books as well as remembering that “show, don’t tell” is key!

 

Thank you to Fearless Storyteller House Emporium and the author for the opportunity to review the book.