The Next Time You See Me by Holly Goddard Jones

The Next Time You See Me by Holly Goddard Jones
Published by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

The small town where Ronnie Eastman lived isn’t altered too much by her disappearance, but the situation does seem to have a ripple effect on a few people’s lives. Ronnie’s sister, Susanna, a teacher who is unhappy in her marriage but passionate about her daughter and students, becomes fixated on Ronnie’s disappearance and obsessed with finding her, despite the fact that Ronnie’s always been quite unpredictable and could have very easily just run off somewhere. Tony, former baseball star turned police detective with a long-ago connection to Susanna, takes the case and begins to hunt for clues right alongside Susanna. Emily is an incredibly unpopular thirteen-year-old whose fascinating discovery is just about to change her life. And Wyatt, a solitary guy who works at one of the town’s factories, decides to indulge in a rare night out with the guys and is surprised to find himself falling for a woman he meets there. These people seemingly have nothing in common, but they are connected to one another in ways they cannot begin to imagine.

I’ve been hearing good things about The Next Time You See Me for several months now, so when I saw the author’s name on the list of UCF Book Festival authors, I thought it was the perfect time to pick up this novel I’d already been interested in reading. Overall this book didn’t disappoint – it was suspenseful, held my interest, and I engaged fully with the characters while reading it – and the experience definitely made me look forward to seeing Holly Goddard Jones in April.

While this novel centers around the fact that Ronnie is missing, it’s more about the four main characters than anything else. Each has a unique point of view and each one of them is connected to Ronnie in some way – although we don’t find out how exactly until the very end, in some cases – and I loved getting to know each of them and figuring out how their stories were all interconnected.

Of the four main characters, I definitely felt the strongest connection to Susanna. I felt deeply for her, as she was struggling in her marriage, yet still focused on being the best teacher and mother she could be. I empathized with her desires to have everything she wanted in life, and felt torn for her when she couldn’t decide what to do about her dissolving marriage. I can’t exactly condone some of her actions, but at the same time I can’t say I blame her for the choices she made either. She was also the only person in this entire novel who gave a damn about the fact that Ronnie was gone. Nobody else seemed to think anything of it, but that sisterly connection, that women’s intuition if you will, told her something wasn’t right. And she didn’t give up, not for one minute, until she figured out what was going on. I admired that about her character.

What I liked a lot about this novel was the way each character’s piece of the story was completely different, yet they came together brilliantly and seamlessly in the end. Jones weaved everything together just so, and just when the reader was convinced of how things would work out, she threw just a little curve ball – not the kind of manipulative ending I don’t enjoy, but just enough of a twisty ending to make you go, “ahhh, now I get it.”

I truly enjoyed The Next Time You See Me and can solidly recommend the novel. While not a typical thriller, it has plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader’s interest, while also containing a well-developed and interesting cast of characters. I really liked this one.

White Horse by Alex Adams

White Horse by Alex Adams
Published by Atria, an imprint of Simon &  Schuster
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Zoe was just plugging along in her life, slaving away as a janitor at Pope Pharmaceuticals, when the virus that infected most of the world’s population took root in her city. Since that time, she’s had to navigate a world that has basically ended, and what little of the world is left is nothing like what it used to be. Desperately holding on to her last shreds of humanity, Zoe sets off on a journey of survival.

White Horse has been compared to a lot of great post-apocalyptic reads – most notably, The Road – and I have to say that while this novel didn’t quite live up to the hype for me, there were a lot of elements of the novel that I did really enjoy.

First of all, Adams made me want to root for Zoe from the very start. She was, quite simply, a very ordinary person who lived a boring life before this mysterious disease took over the world, but she became incredibly tough and kick-ass once she had to fight for her own survival every day. I loved the way Adams went back and forth from the time before the disease hit and after, because it gave the reader a super close look into Zoe’s personality and I felt that I got to know her on such an intimate and true level. She felt so real to me and I just wanted desperately for things to work out for her.

As for the events in the book, there are some things in White Horse that made me cringe, some things that made me want to throw up, some things that made me cheer in victory for Zoe, and some things that broke my heart. My emotions were all over the place while reading the book and I did like that aspect of the novel. I never knew what to expect.

I do have to admit that White Horse doesn’t come close to the fantastic-ness that is The Road, even though this is a solid novel it doesn’t compete to a classic such as The Road, a book I absolutely loved. Adams has really lovely, poetic prose, packed with metaphors and beautiful language, and while the writing was enjoyable to read it was a bit distracting from everything else this book had to offer. Yes, the writing is gorgeous, but I’m just not sure how well the style of the writing fit in with the overall dark, sad atmosphere of the events in the novel.

So, there were a lot of elements I liked about White Horse. Unfortunately, I didn’t love the book, but that doesn’t mean I won’t pick up the sequel – I definitely will. I liked Zoe, was interested in where Adams took this story, and was captivated by much of what happened here. While the writing was a bit strange and other elements weren’t exactly perfect, I can still recommend this unique post-apocalyptic thriller.

The Uninvited by Liz Jensen

The Uninvited by Liz Jensen
Published by Bloomsbury USA
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Hesketh Lock is an anthropologist investigating a scandal in the Taiwan timber industry. Shockingly, his contact in Taiwan dies suddenly at the same time that Hesketh learns of a series of bizarre murders back home of children killing their parents and caretakers. Unable to connect well with other people due to his Asperger’s Syndrome, Hesketh does have a close relationship with his stepson, Freddy, and when Freddy starts acting strangely Hesketh knows he must turn his investigation towards these horrific acts being committed by children. Hesketh will do anything to protect Freddy from whatever is happening to these kids, but he might just lose everything else in the process.

I was SO intrigued by this book when I started reading it! I was even more intrigued by the fact that I couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on, but deep down I felt confident that Jensen would clear everything up for me eventually, so I relaxed myself and settled in for the ride.

What I really enjoyed about The Uninvited was that it was a thriller, very focused on plot, but still Jensen really gets the reader into the head of the main character, Hesketh, and therefore gives the reader the opportunity to get to know him and truly care about him. The situation between he and Freddy’s mom was heartbreaking to me and it hurt me deeply to understand that Hesketh was being kept from seeing Freddy, so this kid had a father figure who truly loved him, yet he was kept from experiencing that love. That human element of this otherwise incredibly strange, twisted, but thrilling story is what really kept me tethered to the book and held my interest.

And strange and twisted are perfect words to describe this book. Children were killing their parents in horrific, disgusting, beyond disturbing ways. SO creepy! But I have to admit that I was interested by this – it certainly kept me turning the pages, desperate to find out what on earth could have possessed these children to act so, well, possessed! Scary.

Unfortunately, the ending really disappointed me and I’m not sure I can get over that. I won’t give anything away, but it wasn’t clear enough to me, I didn’t feel any solid answers were given (that I can accept, anyway) and I was left with a horrible empty feeling that I don’t think I can forget. While the book showed lots of promise, ultimately the ending ruined it for me.

The Uninvited is definitely a thrill ride that will appeal to lots of readers because of the personal, human element of the relationship between Hesketh and his stepson. While the ending, for me, was so disastrous to cancel out most of the good feelings I had about the book, other readers may disagree so I would still encourage you to pick up the novel and decide for yourself. This was an interesting read, to say the least!

Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman

Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman
Published by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House
Review copy received at SIBA

Nora Hamilton wakes up one cold, snowy morning in her home in the Adirondacks to find her husband, Brendan, absent from their bed. A careful search of their house leads Nora to the shocking discovery that he has committed suicide, leaving her devastated and asking the obvious question of “why?” In the haze of her grief, Nora devotes herself to the task of answering that very question. She is beyond surprised to learn that Brendan had kept many secrets from her, and as she begins unraveling the secrets of her husband’s life, she learns that his past is inexorably tied to the secrets of the small town she calls home.

I have to be upfront about something here, and that is that I met Jenny Milchman at SIBA this past September and I absolutely adored her. Which is why it breaks my heart to have to write about Cover of Snow because … well, I thought overall it was unsuccessful. I can definitely appreciate what she was trying to do with this novel, but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me.

The novel starts out with a bang, as Nora wakes from a peaceful, but dead-to-the-world slumber to find Brendan missing, and the concept is certainly promising, and when she finds her husband hanging, dead, I was definitely excited by where Milchman was going to take this strong start to the story and how she would run with it. It does get rocky from there, however, when Nora quickly learns some major facts about her husband’s life he had kept secret from her, as she learns them in very coincidental, incredibly improbable ways, and rather quickly following the discovery of her husband.

After the first 75 pages or so, I became hopeful for the novel to change my initial opinion (and skepticism) as things begin to pick up and the mystery started to become more interesting and mysterious. I found myself trying to figure out what was really going on in this small town, what was behind the facade of the perfect police department, and why on earth did Brendan have such a difficult and hostile relationship with his mother. I also found myself charmed by Nora’s relationship with her sister, Teggie, and while they went through something of a rough patch over the course of the novel, I liked the sisterhood dynamic, as it’s something I can relate to myself.

And to be honest, I was even somewhat impressed with the way Milchman resolved everything – the answers Nora found took a turn I wasn’t expecting and I did find creative. However, overall the beginning was really rough, the middle felt entirely too long, and there were so many aspects of the book I was trying to overlook because of how much I enjoyed the author and wanted desperately to like the book. The writing was clunky, the characters didn’t seem fully realized or at all complex, and the book didn’t always travel logically from point A to point B. I found myself confused a few times, lost by a discovery Nora made that didn’t make a ton of sense, and I couldn’t discern what anybody’s motivations were for much of anything until the absolute end.

I’m sad to write this because as I said earlier, Jenny Milchman is awesome! But sometimes books just don’t work for me, and this was one of those times. While the novel showed promise at certain points throughout, overall Cover of Snow was disappointing to me.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Published by Broadway, an imprint of Random House

Camille Parker is a cutter. In order to deal with the pain of losing her sister when she was young, and of dealing with her unstable mother, as a child Camille began cutting words into her flesh and didn’t stop until her recent stay at a psych hospital. Camille is a reporter, and when a series of violent crimes takes over the town where she grew up, Camille has no choice but to move back into her childhood home for a period of time in an attempt to boost her career by getting a first-hand look at these murders. Unfortunately, the time spent at her mother’s home is about to undo all the healing she did at the psych hospital, as nothing is normal in this household and all the old wounds Camille thought she pushed away begin coming back to the surface, just as painful as ever.

I cannot BELIEVE I just discovered Gillian Flynn this year when she’s been publishing these insanely gritty books for years! This is her first novel, and while I have to admit that you can tell it’s a first novel, especially compared to her other two, it was still pretty great.

The way that Flynn creates these horribly dysfunctional, creepy characters, and then uses the most amazingly TRUE descriptions for them, it’s just something you have to experience for yourself to understand. I’ve not read any other author that does such a thing in the specific way that Flynn does it. And even though her main characters are never likable you find yourself caring about them, wanting them to become likable, wanting them to become someone you, as a person reading and loving their story, can be proud of. It’s hard to explain but easy to understand once you have read one of her books.

SO much of this book was creepy times twelve. But somehow Flynn makes it all work. And while Sharp Objects was slightly more predictable than her first two, she still throws some stuff at the reader that absolutely NO ONE can expect. It’s pure talent this woman has, I’m telling you.

Read Gillian Flynn’s books! The great thing is that her three books have nothing to do with each other, so you can read them in whatever order you want. They are each awesome in their own unique ways. I can’t wait for her to write another one.

Red Rain by R.L. Stine

Red Rain by R.L. Stine
Published by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

From the publisher:

Before there was J. K. Rowling, before there was Stephenie Meyer or Suzanne Collins, there was R.L. Stine. Witty, creepy, and compulsively readable, his books defined horror for a generation of young readers— readers who have now come of age. In Red Rain, Stine uses his unerring knack for creating terror to tap into some very grownup fears. Travel writer Lea Sutter finds herself on a small island off the coast of South Carolina, the wrong place at the wrong time. A merciless, unanticipated hurricane cuts a path of destruction through the island and Lea barely escapes with her life.

In the storm’s aftermath, she discovers two orphaned boys—twins. Filled with a desire to do something to help, to make something good of all she witnessed, Lea impulsively decides to adopt them. The boys, Samuel and Daniel, seem amiable and immensely grateful; Lea’s family back on Long Island—husband Mark, a child psychologist, and their two children, Ira and Elena—aren’t quite so pleased. But even they can’t anticipate the twins’ true nature—or predict that, within a few weeks’ time, Mark will wind up implicated in two brutal murders, with the police narrowing in.

I read a LOT of R.L. Stine when I was younger. I think I read every single Fear Street book that I could find at my local library, and before that I read most of the Goosebumps books. I was somewhat nervous about reading Red Rain, though, because I couldn’t imagine how Stine’s style would translate to an adult audience. And I have to be honest here and say that I was right to be worried – I didn’t enjoy this one much. I felt like I was reading a Fear Street book – it was written as if for a teen or even older middle grade audience, but with a lot of sex and swear words thrown in to maybe make it more of an adult book. I don’t know about you, but gratuitous sex and random curse words does NOT magically turn a book into one for adult audiences. For me, those elements were simply annoying and unnecessary.

Besides that, I didn’t love what Stine did with the story. I was somewhat interested in the concept, but once it got going I became frustrated with every one of the characters as they failed to see what was so blatantly in front of their eyes. Also, who randomly decides to take home a set of twin boys? It was just strange, and not at all realistic in my opinion.

I don’t want to rip the book apart too much, so I’ll stop here and just say that I’m sad to say Red Rain disappointed me. While I can’t recommend the book, perhaps certain readers who are really excited to read something new from R.L. Stine may want to check it out.

The Reckoning by Alma Katsu

The Reckoning by Alma Katsu
Published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

From the publisher:

Lanore McIlvrae is the kind of woman who will do anything for love. Including imprisoning the man who loves her behind a wall of brick and stone.

She had no choice but to entomb Adair, her nemesis, to save Jonathan, the boy she grew up with in a remote Maine town in the early 1800s and the man she thought she would be with forever. But Adair had other plans for her. He used his mysterious, otherworldly powers to give her eternal life, but Lanore learned too late that there was a price for this gift: to spend eternity with him. And though he is handsome and charming, behind Adair’s seductive façade is the stuff of nightmares. He is a monster in the flesh, and he wants Lanore to love him for all of time.

Now, two hundred years after imprisoning Adair, Lanore is trying to atone for her sins. She has given away the treasures she’s collected over her many lifetimes in order to purge her past and clear the way for a future with her new lover, Luke Findley. But, while viewing these items at an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Lanore suddenly is aware that the thing she’s been dreading for two hundred years has caught up to her: Adair has escaped from his prison. He’s free— and he will come looking for her. And she has no idea how she will save herself.

I absolutely LOVED The Taker (Book 1 in this trilogy) so I was thrilled when this one came out I knew I needed to get to it as soon as I possibly could. Luckily, my blogger-friend Sandy came to the rescue and lent me her copy and I tore into it immediately. If you have read and enjoyed The Taker, I have to tell you that you absolutely must get your hands on this second installment when you can. I really, really liked what Katsu did with this story here.

The Reckoning gives the reader even more insight into Adair’s character. I was surprised to find that I almost found myself feeling sorry for Adair, and even liking him a little bit. He is a horrible person, a monster of a human being, but ultimately we discover that his feelings for Lanore are genuine and he realizes it’s completely his fault that she hasn’t returned those feelings in earnest. He battles with himself throughout the book with his urges to hurt her and deep desire to love her and treat her like a queen – these struggles made me empathize with him a little and even want things to (possibly) work out for him.

We get to know Lanore a bit better in this book also, and I really felt for her. She knew with absolute certainty that it was only a matter of time before Adair caught up to her, and the terror she felt at that inevitability was something I could almost feel through the page. While this book wasn’t as exciting plot-wise as the first book, it took more time exploring the various characters and their relationships, and I really enjoyed that aspect of the novel. It set the stage perfectly for the third book in the trilogy – now we’ve had the action, we really understand these characters, and now it’s time to tie everything together. I can’t wait!

The ending started out a bit predictable but then took an interesting turn – I love that Katsu did some unexpected things with her characters and their choices. I’m seriously excited about the third book in the trilogy and I think that that overall, Katsu has done something incredibly exciting and unique with these novels. I love them. Definitely give The Taker and The Reckoning a try if you have not already.

And When She Was Good by Laura Lippman

And When She Was Good by Laura Lippman
Published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins
Review copy provided by the publisher in conjunction with TLC Book Tours

Heloise Lewis is an ordinary woman living an ordinary life in the suburbs with her young son, Scott. Everyone believes she has been widowed many years ago, has no living family members, and runs a business devoted to women’s issues. Secretly, though, she owns an incredibly successful call girl agency. She learned this business after working for years as a prostitute herself, under a pimp who is now in prison for life. Although Heloise thought she was safe from her old life, the death of a suburban madam in a nearby town shakes her emotionally and suddenly the evidence that sent her former pimp and child’s father, Val, to prison is being called into question. Heloise is terrified that this life she has been so careful to build and protect is about to crumble around her, and she must do whatever it takes to keep things together for herself and to shelter her son from the truth.

And When She Was Good is an exceptionally gripping novel with an intriguing and unique premise. I couldn’t put this book down as I raced through it, desperate to find out how things would turn out for Heloise and her young son, anxiously hoping and praying that she would successfully escape her past and move on to a brighter future for herself and her child.

Lippman chose to tell this story by going back and forth in time, in alternating chapters between Heloise’s former life (as Helen, her given name) and her current life beginning from the day she learned of the suburban madam’s death. This worked well for me, as the chapters devoted to Helen allowed me to get to know her as a person, starting from when she was a young girl with an abusive father and a mother who turned a blind eye, to when she realized that to be successful in her life she had to use the only commodity at her disposal: her body. It was painful to read her journey to prostitution because Lippman created her to be such a sympathetic character – the reader can completely sympathize with and understand many of her decisions, including the one pivotal decision to work for Val. I couldn’t help but admire her strength, tenacity, and business sense as she built her own business and did so with as much grace as possible considering the nature of the business she created.

I have to say that although And When She Was Good had elements of a traditional thriller, the book is more of a psychological thriller, or a literary thriller if you will. That isn’t to say that my heart wasn’t pounding during many parts of the book, because it was – especially towards the end – but it is to say that those who expect a constant thrill ride when reading the novel will be disappointed. Rather, an incredibly well-written novel with excellent characters and a thrilling premise is what one will find in these pages.

I honestly enjoyed this book so much that I want to get to Lippman’s backlist as soon as possible. I have read one of her other novels but I know she has at least ten others that I would love to try. I didn’t LOVE the first novel of hers I read, it was more like than love (my review of What the Dead Know), but I can safely say that I loved And When She Was Good. I didn’t lose interest for one moment while I was reading this book, and I was absolutely satisfied with the end. Plus, I absolutely loved Heloise in every possible way. So if you want to read a Laura Lippman novel, I highly recommend starting with this one.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Published by Crown, an imprint of Random House

On the morning of Nick and Amy Dunne’s five-year wedding anniversary, Amy disappears. Although he is a golden child in their small Missouri town, Nick soon becomes the prime suspect in Amy’s disappearance. In alternating chapters, the reader hears from Nick in the present day and Amy in the format of her diary as the story of their marriage slowly comes together and the question of what happened to her looms on.

Everything you have heard about Gone Girl is true. This novel is an absolute mindf*ck. It will keep you on your toes. You will not be able to put the thing down. Your jaw will drop in shock. It’s that good.

I honestly don’t want to say anything else about it! I read a lot of reviews for Gone Girl before reading the book, and while nothing was spoiled for me, I had certain expectations going in. This is the kind of book where you should have no expectations – just sit back and let Flynn take you on this crazy adventure of a read.

If you are looking for a crazy good, exciting, fascinating, appalling novel, look no further than Gone Girl. It is as excellent as everyone has been saying and I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t enjoy it. Highly recommended!

Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens

Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens
Published by St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of Macmillan
Review copy provided by the publicist

Sara Gallagher, who was adopted shortly after her birth, has always wondered about her birth parents. As the only adopted member of her family, her two sisters’ bonds with their parents have always made her feel like an outcast in her own home. Finally, she locates her birth mother, only to have the woman reject her completely. When she discovers the truth about her conception – her mother was the only person ever to escape a serial murderer and rapist, and the killer is most likely her birth father – she begins to understand why her birth mother might not want Sara in her life. But Sara is determined to know the truth about her parentage, and so she begins a quest to meet the man who may have fathered her – the same man who has killed dozens of women over the years.

I had high expectations for Chevy Stevens’ second novel since her first book, Still Missing, had a profound effect on my emotional state. I must admit that Never Knowing was not quite as bone-chillingly creepy as Stevens’ first novel, but I still raced through the book and enjoyed it quite thoroughly.

From the first page of this novel, it’s extremely easy for the reader to empathize with Sara. She’s pretty much a tortured soul – she feels alone in her own family, as her two sisters are clearly closer to her parents than she is, and she desperately wants to understand her true origins. Plus, she has a young daughter of her own, so her hunger to learn the truth about her biological parents is magnified even more now that she has passed her unknown genes onto another person. Even though I knew that what she would learn about her father was not good news, I still felt compassion for her and empathized with her need to know the truth. If I were in her position, I would want to know as well.

As soon as Sara actually speaks to her biological father, the book takes off running and doesn’t quit until the end. This is the point at which the action really starts, and when I say action, I mean this book gave me serious heart palpitations and caused quite a bit of stress! I was terrified right along with Sara but also morbidly curious about who this man really was right along with her.  Part of me wanted the whole thing to be just a sick joke, that her father would turn out to be a regular guy and there would be some kind of mistake to make people believe he was a killer, I cared for Sara that much. I wanted things to work out for her.

The pace of this novel kept me turning pages frantically, to the point that I read almost the entire thing in one sitting. It truly held my attention, through all the twists and turns, and I loved every second of this ride. It was thrilling and scary and sad and exciting all at once. I highly recommend Never Knowing. Chevy Stevens is one talented lady.