"Confessions on the 7:45" by Lisa Unger is Unpredictable!

In Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger, Selena is on a subway train thinking of the problems she is having with her husband.  The train is not moving because the rail is blocked.  So Selena gets to talking with another woman and tells her about the problems she has.  She feels better when she lets it out.  Little does she know that by talking, her problems are about to get a whole lot worse!  

I thought this book was really good.  The characters were interesting to say the least.  The storyline was such that I never knew what or who was going to come into the picture and the ending was outstanding!  I loved this one!  (Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

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"Babysitter" by Joyce Carol Oates Is Based on a True Story

In Babysitter by Joyce Carol Oates, Hannah and Wes live in an upscale neighborhood with their two small children.  Hannah makes a decision that puts her marriage at the breaking point and children are being taken!  Are Wes and Hannah's kids in danger?  I thought this book was very good!  The story line is great and the writing was really good too.  Hannah was a wonderful character!  (Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

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"The Home for Unwanted Girls" by Joanna Goodman is inspired by true events

The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman is inspired by true events and is told by Maggie and Elodie.  Maggie loves working at her father's sled store.  She loves her dad.  She gets pregnant at an early age and named her daughter Elodie.  Maggie's dad tells her to give her daughter to an orphanage run by nuns, so she does.  Elodie is mistreated and escapes.  Years later, Maggie wants to find her daughter.

I thought this book was really good!  Maggie was a great character and so was Elodie.  Loved it!  (Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

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"Beautiful Bad" by Annie Ward

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward is a slow developing dark, twisted thriller about Maddie, mother of a little boy named Charlie and wife of Ian, a military guy who has PTSD. Maddie met Ian at a fund-raiser for the Red Cross that her friend, Joanna invited her to. Joanna worked with women and children in refugee camps around Macedonia. The book begins 12 weeks before the day of the killing and goes back and forth between the present and the past to give the reader background information. Also, when Maddie sees psychologist who uses writing therapy, Maddie’s past events are also revealed.

This is a book of lies, deception and manipulation! Charlie is a sweet little boy and the only reason I kept reading this book. The flashbacks to the past I found very boring. So boring, in fact, that halfway through the book I skipped over them and just focused on the present chapters! I would get into a present chapters and then find myself being disappointed when the next chapter jumped back to the past. I found it very annoying. Of Maddie, Joanna and Ian, I disliked Ian the least from the start. The only characters I really liked were Charlie and a cop named Diane. I did not care for this one at all, but at least did not give up on it; although, I did put it aside three times to read something better. To be fair; however, this one has been compared to Girl on the Train and Woman in the Window, neither of which read because they didn’t appeal to me. (Karen’s review, 2 stars)

Teaser from page 17: It was messy, almost as if mopped, and Diane imagined someone crawling on hands and knees before managing to haul up on his or her feet for one more staggering go at life. She had an irrational urge to start running through the house calling out for the child, but she’d already broken one rule just be entering.


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"The Kind Worth Killing" by Peter Swanson

In The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson, Ted and Lily meet at an airport bar.  They get to talking and drinking and all of a sudden, they feel a connection.  They decide to hatch a plan.  If it goes as planned, their lives will be forever changed.  I enjoyed this book.  The plot is good and the characters are cold-blooded to say the least.  I loved the ending!
(Gerard's review, 5 stars)

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"Don't You Cry" by Mary Kubica

Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica is told from two points of view.  Quinn is Esther's roommate.  One day Quinn wakes up and Esther is not to be found.  Where did she go?  As days go by, Quinn discovers that maybe she did not really know Esther at all.

Alex is a young teen boy who sees a girl that he is drawn to and becomes more involved with her finding himself involved in something he never expected.  The tension mounts as both story lines play out until a totally unexpected ending that I did not see coming.

Mary Kubica knows how to keep you reading. I enjoyed all three books I've read by her.  The other two were The Good Girl and Pretty Baby.
(Gerard's review, 5+ stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

"Blood Will Out--The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery and a Masquerade" by Walter Kirn

What a good book Blood Will Out by Walter Kirn is! It is a true story about a con man and killer who passed himself off as somebody important, Clark Rockefeller. He went by other names too and was able to manipulate people into doing things for him, including the author of this book. This book centers on a murder trial where Clark was the defendant. It's amazing! He fooled so many people, I enjoyed it!
(Gerard's review, 5+ stars)

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"Lies You Wanted to Hear" by James Whitfield Thomson

Lies You Wanted to Hear by James Whitfield Thomson is a real good page turner!  The two main characters are Matt and Lucy.  I liked Matt but he might have gone a bit too far and I did not like Lucy, but at the end I felt sorry for her.  You will have to decide how you feel about them and let me know!  I liked the ending too!
(Gerard's review, 5+ stars)

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"The Humans" by Matt Haig

The Humans by Matt Haig is about an alien being who inhabits the body of a professor who has a wife and a young son. He has a mission, but when he starts to hang around humans he decides the mission may change, or does it? I enjoyed this book more than I expected. It is funny and is quick moving with a nice ending.
(Gerard's review, 4 stars)


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"The Ninth Step" by Grant Jerkins

The Ninth Step by Grant Jerkins is a quick read about Helen, an alcoholic who vows to stop drinking after being involved in a hit-and-run accident. What makes this book so good is that just when you think you have it figured out, you don't. There are lots of "wows" in this book; well worth your time.
(Gerard's review, 5+ stars)

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"Playing Dead" by Julia Heaberlin

Playing Dead by Julia Heaberlin had me baffled.  Tommie, a child psychiatrist, returns to her childhood home in Ponder, Texas, after her dad, a former U.S. Marshal and rancher died and has a nice reunion with her younger sister and niece.  Her mother is sick and institutionalized.  Tommie learns that there are family secrets she knew nothing of and the biggest shock is that her father really isn’t her biological father and that her parents kept this from her.  Not only that, but when digging to find the truth about her identity, she discovers her biological father is a mobster doing time in prison a short distance away for murdering an entire family!  Nice, huh?  She gets a letter in the mail from a lady in Chicago that says she thinks Tommie is her daughter who was kidnapped as a very young child and would like for her to come and visit so they could meet.  This lady is the mobster’s wife and a real nutcase.  My favorite part was when she was at the library and the FBI followed her so were there to rescue her from the mobster who was threatening her because she was digging up the past that they wanted left alone.

This is a story with lots of twists and turns that got me a bit confused.  I don’t know how Tommie managed to keep it all straight but she did, even when her life was threatened on a couple occasions by the rival mob of her imprisoned father.  I liked the happy surprise ending and didn’t see it coming.  I couple things I didn’t understand though—how Jack Smith—the phony reporter could just get into Tommie’s house anytime he wanted and what Rosalind was after.  If you read this, maybe you could explain this to me.  Although this book is shocking with lots of surprises along the way, it seemed to kind of drag along.   

(Karen's review)

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"The Woman Who Wasn't There" by Robin Gaby Fisher

The Woman Who Wasn't There--The True Story of an Incredible Deception by Robin Gaby Fisher and Angelo J. Guglielmo, Jr. tells the story of a woman who lost her husband on 9/11.  He was in one tower, she the other.  She was able to help people out of harms way and befriended them.  She joined and then took charge of the survivors Network, giving of her time and money and was always there for her fellow survivors.  She was admired and gave back to New York by doing many acts of kindness.  Then ending of this book will shock you like no other!  You will ask yourself "why?" and we will never get an answer.  I suggest you read it and be amazed what one person did.  It kept me turning pages quickly!
(Gerard's review)

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We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.

"Deceit" by Brandilyn Collins

Deceit by Brandilyn Collins starts out good and gets better and better as it goes!  Baxter Jackson, a widower who lost both his wives in "accidents," is highly respected and a great guy in the community with some dark secrets.

 The story goes back and forth between the present and the past when his foster daughter lived with him and his wife. Melissa is a 15-yr.-old daughter of alcoholic parents who goes into foster care when her mom dies, leaving her all alone.  She feels like she hit the jackpot when she first sees her new home that looks like a mansion and the two nice people, the Jacksons, who are taking her in.  The church friends of the Jacksons are eager to meet her but she has very low self-esteem and doesn't think anyone would ever want to be her friend.  All the main characters in this book, Jackson and his wife, Linda, her friend Joanne, and Melissa are all deceitful, but Melissa is the only one of them who does not profess to be a Christian. 

I loved this book because of the suspense, the interesting story line of Joanne trying to get justice for her friend, Linda, who she believed was killed by her own husband, the elder in her church.  Melissa was the biggest surprise to me and actually was the biggest deceiver of all who I at first felt sorry for.  This book certainly doesn't show Christians in a positive light, but is thought-provoking and shows actions speak louder than words and non-believers do watch the way Christians live their lives.  This is a page turner I won't soon forget and had a hard time putting down.  See my teaser from this one.
(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during March to the American Cancer Society.

"Where Are You Now?" by Mary Higgins Clark

Where Are You Now by Mary Higgins Clark is a novel that takes place in New York City about Carolyn, a lawyer, trying to find her older brother who has been missing for ten years but calls once a year on Mother’s Day.  He was a student at Columbia University and just disappeared one day.  As she digs into the past, she starts finding some circumstantial evidence that makes the detectives think her brother, Mac, may be a serial killer and that’s why he chose to disappear.  Carolyn thinks he must be in trouble and just wants to find him to help.  I don’t want to say too much about the plot because I don’t want to spoil it for you, but this book has suspense, romance and mystery.

I liked this book because it led me to believe one thing but ended up being something completely different than I expected.  I enjoy books that have surprise endings that I don’t figure out right from the start and this is certainly one of them! If you like mysteries, I highly recommend Where Are You Now?.   

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"The Overlook" by Michael Connelly

The Overlook by Michael Connelly is not your usual murder mystery.  Most of the novel centers on the crime investigation tension between the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI when the homicide turns into a national security issue.    Harry Bosch is pretty much a rogue detective in the special homicide department who has a lot of experience and is breaking in a new young partner.  He cares more about solving his case than protocol which makes for tension between him and his new partner as well as Special Agent Rachel Walling of the FBI.  The murderer almost pulls off the perfect crime, manipulating the evidence to lead the investigators on a wild goose chase.  When Bosch and Walling finally share their findings with each other and get a lucky break, things become clearer and they solve the mystery.    

 

This is a good crime story but moved sort of slow in the beginning but picked up speed as I went along.  I loved the chase scene at the end when Harry and Rachel teamed up and worked together on their own.  This one was not as thrilling or gripping as other mysteries I read.  It doesn’t have as much suspense as I like so does not get five stars from me.

(Karen's review)

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