stayceee24's reviews
282 reviews

Fractured by Karin Slaughter

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.0

The first half of this book, other than the crime itself was slow and felt massively unnecessary. However, the second half was much faster paced and made you turn the pages to find out what happened. Will and Faith are two very likeable characters for different reasons and they held my attention more than the plot did. Overall, a well written book with good characters are what gave this book a 3 ⭐️ rating. 

Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena

challenging dark slow-paced

2.75

I’m not sure I was wow-ed as much as everyone else seemed to be. It’s a solid story, and it’s not awfully written. But, it’s strange the way the narrative is told. Almost every couple paragraphs, the perspective changes and this makes it incredibly hard to keep up. It would have been much faster paced and easier to keep up with if narrative was separated by chapters instead. 
Also, the ending was a little unsatisfying. I’m a little disappointed after all the hype.

The Teacher by Freida McFadden

dark fast-paced

2.0

I get the hate for this book. 

I can’t actually justify the 2 stars really except for the fact that I finished it super quickly and it was probably 2 stars until that epilogue. 

I have no words firstly, for the ridiculous amount of child sexual abuse in this book and also the bloody double standards in that epilogue. I’m actually fuming at it. 

I love Freida McFadden books and I often think she gets unnecessary hate but this? This, deserves it. Ridiculous!! 

One By One by Freida McFadden

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

Super easy read, quick finish - not perfect but enjoyable nonetheless. 

The Atonement by Kiersten Modglin

fast-paced

3.0

Not the strongest of the three stories but still just as messed up and entertaining. Great way to end things!

The Amendment by Kiersten Modglin

dark mysterious fast-paced

4.0

Again, absolute lunacy but brilliant! Dark, twisted, chaotic and it keeps you on your toes for sure. 

I adore this series and onto the final part to see how this ends!

The Arrangement by Kiersten Modglin

dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.0

This book was seriously weird, and I know I shouldn’t like it but I absolutely loved it. Absolute bonkers story, but brilliant. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

Her Prodigal Husband by Becky Masterman

slow-paced

2.75

2.75⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House Publisher for this ARC. The views below are my own. 

Plot

Haunted by a childhood tragedy that gave birth to the cruel nickname "Lethal", Liesl now specialises in saving things: dogs, children, sisters. Telling herself it's time she returned the favor, Alice engages the services of Brigid Quinn, a hardboiled local private investigator with a shady past, to help her get rid of Sam for good.

Sam, Liesl's wealthy ex-husband, vanished ten years ago, leaving her a chunk of money but no explanation. Sam is handsome, charming, manipulative . . . and now he claims he's sick. But Alice, with her experience of spinning tales, knows a liar when she sees one.

Review

Perhaps because this was a spin-off of a series I haven’t read, I don’t have the full history of Quinn, but I really struggled to get through this book. It was well written, it was twisty and confusing in all the right parts but I just couldn’t get to grips with it. Overall, I was left a little underwhelmed but I didn’t hate it, it’s just not for me.

The Game You Played by Anni Taylor

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There were a few errors in the book and a few things which were a bit mental, which did affect this being a five star read. I landed on a four because I was hooked by the story and desperately wanted to know who took Tommy. The ending wasn’t as shocking as some reviewers have made out but was a good twist. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the book. 

The Stepfather by Lorna Henderson

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

2.5⭐️

Thank you NetGalley, Choc Lit and Joffe Books for this ARC. The views outlined are my own. 

Plot

Sophie has married an Australian and has a daughter, Emma. She and her family return to England and Sophie takes the reader through her past and present unravelling the secrets behind her Stepfather - a well respected MP with a dark past.

Review 
In order to make my review fair and balanced, I’ll outline the positives and the negatives from the book. Beginning with the positives:
1. The book does make you want to understand what exactly happened. 
2. It does a good job of building tension
3. It has very short bursts chapters so you get through the book quite quickly. 
4. The plot is very interesting and I didn’t hate the characters - except James but I’m fairly sure I’m meant to.
However, some of the negatives that I tried really hard to overlook but couldn’t include: 
1. The constant switching between past and present did make it incredibly difficult to follow what era we were in. I understand this was one of the ways the author tried to introduce cliffhangers but sometimes it felt like it would be more appropriate to have a few chapters from one era and a few from another. 
2. I understand this is an unedited version but there were a lot of silly spelling mistakes and errors in the plot. 
3. The first person narrative was really annoying. I love a good first person narrative but this narrator was working too hard to over describe everything, was often repetitive and it got boring in parts because of this. 
4. A minor issue but the copy I had, the typing was too close together and was pretty poor accessibility wise to read. I’d consider double spacing for the official ebook or readers with poor eyesight may struggle.

Overall, it wasn’t an awful book but I didn’t love it and I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to buy this or another book by this author unfortunately.