Book Reviews

Pretty Girls- Finished June 2022

Sisters. Strangers. Survivors. More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenage sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed. The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago... and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.

Rating: 4/5. This story was fast-paced, well-developed, and engaging! Even with the disturbing twists and turns, I could not finish it fast enough. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars is because the main character, Claire, was frustrating at the beginning and the heavy storyline was a little much at times. However, this was well-written by the tried and true, Karin Slaughter!

The Power Couple- Finished July 2022

Rebecca and Brian Unsworth appear to have it all. A nice house in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Two well-behaved, healthy teenage children. Important government jobs - Rebecca working in counterterrorism for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Brian serving as a coder for the National Security Agency. Their lives stand to improve even more as Brian, in his off-hours, has just developed and sold a highly profitable app. However, the Unsworths’ marriage isn’t as perfect as it seems. After two decades together, they’ve drifted apart, talking little and having sex even less. Seeking to revive their strained relationship, they decide for their 20th wedding anniversary to take their two kids, Kira and Tony, on a European getaway. They have a blast…until one night in Barcelona when Kira doesn’t come home from a dance club. She’s gone. Abducted. Over the course of a single weekend, the Unsworths will do everything possible to find her - as Kira herself discovers just how far she’ll go to break free of the trap that’s been set for her. And even as Rebecca and Brian come together for Kira, they realize their marriage is more tenuous than they realized. 

Rating: 3.5/5. I seem to rate audiobooks lower than usual, so I don't know if that's the reason I didn't like this book more. I felt like some of the events were a little bit of a stretch and unrealistic. The husband's point of view got on my nerves and made him hard to like, but overall this was an entertaining story with an exciting ending. 

Reminders of Him- Finished July 2022 (Hilton Head read)

After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself. The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them. The two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.

Rating: 5/5. This book was beautifully written and pulled on the heartstrings. I immediately connected to the characters and enjoyed the format. Such a sweet story! 

His and Hers- Finished July 2022 

There are two sides to every story: yours and mine, ours and theirs, his and hers. Which means someone is always lying. When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation. Someone isn’t telling the truth, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.

Rating: 5/5. This was my first time reading this author, and I could not finish it fast enough! It kept me guessing until the very end and had some great twists and turns without being too gutwrenching.