Category: books and reading

The Soulmate

Title: The Soulmate

Author: Sally Hepworth

Genre: thriller

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

I’ve heard great things about Sally Hepworth’s books, so when I saw this pop up on NetGalley, I grabbed it. I also follow her on Instagram, where she posts delightful, fun things. However, this one fell a bit flat for me.

From GoodReads: Gabe and Pippa Gerard have just moved into their dream house: a cliffside cottage in a sleepy coastal town outside Melbourne. It’s a fresh start to their marriage and the perfect place to raise their two young daughters. But the house’s perfect façade hides something more sinister: The Spot, where the tall cliffs have become a popular place for those wishing to end their lives. After talking someone down from the ledge, Gabe becomes a local hero, saving person after person… until one night, he doesn’t. And Pippa sees Gabe the moment after it happened, standing alone at the cliff’s edge, arms outstretched, palms facing out.

The death is ruled a suicide— Gabe said it was a stranger devastated over her husband’s infidelity. But when Pippa discovers that Gabe knew the victim, she has more questions than answers. Plus, the woman’s husband swears she wouldn’t have jumped. Why would Gabe lie about not knowing her? Why would she have been at The Spot if not to jump? And did she really jump… or was she pushed? As Pippa works to uncover the truth, the foundations of the life they’ve built begin to crack, and their deepest secrets start to unravel.

The story is told from Pippa’s perspective as well as from the person who died on the cliff, which is a bit weird. I’m not sure why it’s just not told in the third person omniscient. Not only is it from two perspectives, but it’s also in the past and present. This seems like an easy way to tell a story without giving too much away. However, using a different narrator is difficult. See the Dublin Murder Squad books for a masterclass in this style. Narrator aside, the story had some plot twists that were just crammed in there to be “interesting,” and I didn’t believe in them at all. I will probably give Hepworth another try but was underwhelmed by this one.

Tags books, mystery, netgalley, netgallye, reading, sally hepworth, thriller

books and reading

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Post author By pleasantnites
Post date August 14, 2023
No Comments on Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

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Daisy Darker

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Paperbacks From Hell

books and reading

American Mother

Title: American Mother

Author: Gregg Olsen

Genre: true crime

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

I read If You Tell awhile ago and was gripped from the beginning. Not just because of the story, but the writing was excellent, as well. So, when I saw the author had a new true crime out, I was really excited to grab it from NetGalley. However, I just never connected with this one and found myself skimming toward the end.

From Goodreads: At 5.02 pm on June 5, 1986, an emergency call came into the local sheriff’s office in the small town of Auburn, Washington State. A distressed housewife, Stella Nickell, said her husband Bruce was having a seizure. Officers rushed to the Nickell’s mobile home, to find Stella standing frozen at the door… Bruce was on the floor fighting for his life.

As Stella became the beneficiary of over $175,000 in a life insurance pay-out, forensics discovered that Bruce had consumed painkillers laced with cyanide.

A week later, fifteen-year-old Hayley was getting ready for another school day. Her mom, Sue, called out ‘I love you’ before heading into the bathroom and moments later collapsed on the floor. Sue never regained consciousness, and the autopsy revealed she had been poisoned by cyanide tainted headache pills. Just like Bruce.

While a daughter grieved the sudden and devastating loss of her mother, a young woman, Cindy, was thinking about her own mom Stella. She thought about the years of neglect and abuse, the tangled web of secrets Stella had shared with her, and Cindy contemplated turning her mom into the FBI…

Gripping and heart-breaking, Gregg Olsen uncovers the shocking true story of a troubled family. He delves into a complex mother-daughter relationship rooted in mistrust and deception, and the journey of the sweet curly-haired little girl from Oregon whose fierce ambition to live the American Dream led her to make the ultimate betrayal.

I really love a great true crime story and have a solid addiction to the ID channel, but I was endlessly bored with this one. This one offered a lot of backstory that I was bored by, and when we get to the trial, many of those chapters are just trial transcriptions. Instead of having a truly evil killer, Stella, she was just obnoxious, selfish, and not all that bright. I rolled by eyes a lot at her. I can’t say I’ll recommend this to everyone, but to those who love true crime might connect with it in a way I didn’t.

Tags american mother, books, gregg ol, if you tell, netgalley, reading, true crime

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Scenes From My Life

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Cell

books and reading

How I’ll Kill You

Title: How I’ll Kill You

Author: Ren DeStefano

Genre: mystery/thriller

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

I had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up but assumed it had something to do with murder, given the title and the fact that a woman on the cover is holding a knife. Turns out those women are identical triplets! Although this book was repetitive in parts, at least it was something I’d never read before.

From GoodReads: Sissy has an…interesting family. Always the careful one, always the cautious one, she has handled the cleanup while her serial killer sisters have carved a path of carnage across the U.S. Now, as they arrive in the Arizona heat, Sissy must step up and embrace the family pastime of making a man fall in love and then murdering him. Her first target? A young widower named Edison—and their mutual attraction is instant. While their relationship progresses, and most couples would be thinking about picking out china patterns and moving in together, Sissy’s family is reminding her to think about picking out burial sites and moving on.

Then something happens that Sissy never anticipated: She begins to feel protective of Edison, and before she can help it, she’s fallen in love. But the clock is ticking, and her sisters are growing restless. It becomes clear that the gravesite she chooses will hide a body no matter what happens; but if she betrays her family, will it be hers?

The story is told from Sissy’s perspective, so you never get to know her sisters all that well, which makes the story more interesting. You are guessing what they are up to just as much as she is. Her love for Edison seems plausible, even though she’s being someone she’s not toward him. But the mystery of what her sisters do when Sissy isn’t around is the best part of the plot. Sissy trusts them entirely, but can they actually be trusted? I thought this book needed a bit of an edit to condense some redundancy, but overall, I really enjoyed it and had no idea where the plot was heading.