The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark

A special thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

She's back.

Meg Williams. Maggie Littleton. Melody Wilde. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She's a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be—a college student. A life coach. A real estate agent. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she's done, you've likely lost everything.

Kat Roberts has been waiting ten years for the woman who upended her life to return. And now that she has, Kat is determined to be the one to expose her. But as the two women grow closer, Kat's long-held assumptions begin to crumble, leaving Kat to wonder who Meg's real target is.

"The difference between justice and revenge comes down to who's telling the story."

The Lies I Tell is a twisty cat and mouse domestic thriller. Told through alternating points of view and flashbacks, Clark reveals Kat and Meg's true intentions while leading her reader into the moral grey area where the plot sits. Readers will have compounding emotions—they won't know who is the con and who is the prey.

Clark's characters are complex, layered, and strong. Despite their distrust of one another, Meg and Kat forge an unlikely friendship that weaves an insidious and intriguing web. And fans of The Last Flight will love the cameo at the airport. Clever, clever! 

The Lies I Tell is perfectly executed! It takes a deep dive into the motivations of two women seeking justice for those who who have wronged them and in their endeavour to change the course of their lives.  

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JULIE CLARK is the New York Times bestselling author of The Ones We Choose and The Last Flight, which was also a #1 international bestseller and has been translated into more than twenty languages. 

Clark lives in Los Angeles with her family and a golden doodle with poor impulse control.

Hostage by Clare Mackintosh

A special thank you to Raincoast Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

You can save hundreds of lives. Or the one that matters most.

Mina is trying to focus on her job as a flight attendant, not the problems of her five-year-old daughter back home, or the fissures in her marriage. But the plane has barely taken off when Mina receives a chilling note from an anonymous passenger, someone intent on ensuring the plane never reaches its destination. Someone who needs Mina's assistance and who knows exactly how to make her comply. 

It's twenty hours to landing. A lot can happen in twenty hours.

Ladies and gentlemen, Clare Mackintosh has turned on the fasten seat belt sign. We are going to experience severe turbulence. Please return to your seats and keep your seat belts fastened. 

Set over twenty hours on an inaugural nonstop flight from London to Sydney, Hostage is a pulse-pounding, claustrophobic, locked-room thriller. With themes of motherhood, morals, and activism this book is utterly electric and unputdownable.  

Hostage is told from alternating points of view between Mina and Adam with perspectives from other passengers interspersed. By getting deep into her characters' psyches, Mackintosh brilliantly executes her latest thriller. The incredible character development and passenger-centric chapters are what elevates the novel—this extra insight into the passengers is utterly captivating.  

This book is a union of a locked-room mystery and action thriller sprinkled with a bit of domestic noir. Hostage is an absolute blockbuster that delivers on so many levels. The fear of the passengers is palpable and the twists are believable with one exception—the motivation for the highjacking is completely contrived. But Mackintosh makes up for it with the explosive and shocking Epilogue. Highly recommend.

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CLARE MACKINTOSH is the New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of I Let You Go, I See You, Let Me Lie, and After the End. Her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages and have sold more than two million copies worldwide.

She lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children.

Little Lovely Things by Maureen Joyce Connolly

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Claire Rawlings is suffering from what she perceives to be an allergic reaction, but because she is a medical resident, she still has to go in for rounds. While driving to work—with her children in the vehicle—she is forced to pull over when her symptoms become unbearable. What seems like only moments later, she wakes up on the floor of a gas station restroom only to discover that her car, and her daughters, have been taken.

With no leads and no trace of her little girls, Claire is losing hope with each passing hour. A witness comes forward but proves to be unreliable and their hopes are dashed. The unspoken guilt and blame start to fracture Claire's marriage and she is barely keeping it together.

Little Lovely Things is a study in tragedy and how even small decisions can have a great impact on life's trajectory.

This book was completely captivating from the first chapter and had so much potential. The depiction of Claire's anxiety and sheer panic over her missing children was emotionally wrought and incredibly tense.

One of the more interesting characters is Jay White, a Native American with the gift of sight. He has feelings and visions of what happened to Claire's girls. Although dismissed by the police, Claire keeps in touch with Jay as he is a source of hope. The Native American folklore also provides a compelling dynamic to the story that would otherwise be flat without it.

Connolly's contemporary offering is told from multiple points of view that was stalled by the nonsensical secret language of the Irish Travelling Gypsies that kidnapped the girls. Not only was this hard for the reader to understand, but it completely detracted from the narrative. Claire's perspective was where she excelled—the writing was heartbreaking and fervent. Where the narrative completely lost momentum was with Moira's (abductor) point of view and unfortunately, by extension Andrea/Colleen's (the eldest daughter) which should have been a more pivotal role.

MAUREEN JOYCE CONNOLLY is a former owner of a consulting firm that helped specialty drug companies to develop medications for ultra-rare diseases. Her background in science and love of the natural world informs and inspires her writing.

Little Lovely Things is her debut.

The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

A special thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, HarperCollins and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.  

"Nothing like a mask to reveal somebody's true nature."

Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed. But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden Bishop—one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party—can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again.

But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath...

As far as any book goes, the concept is actually brilliant, especially for a debut.  The book is smart, (mostly) well-executed, and clever.

Here's where my glowing review ends.  I was confused throughout and had to keep going back to reread parts which given the size of the book, was not ideal.  It was unclear at times as to which body Aidan was in and at what times.  There were also a lot of characters and it was challenging to keep them straight.  Having a character change their identity eight times is a gamble for Turton and he almost pulls it off.  Where he fails is that the reader questions how well they know and understand the characters—they are suspect because of all of the different identities inhabited.

The premise, as mentioned, is fantastic.  When you read the synopsis, there is definite intrigue, but actually reading it was a whole other matter.  I was left disinterested around day six.  There was some unnecessary bulk at this point in the storyline and hopefully this will be resolved in the published product.  My final thought is that given the level of detail, the number of players, and the intricate plot, this should have been a series.

STUART TURTON is the author of a high-concept crime novel and lives in London with his amazing wife, and drinks lots of tea.

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

A special thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Benedict's telling of the woman behind one of the greatest minds falls flat.  Her writing style, which consists of short, choppy, basic sentences that have little to no imagination and lack in description made this book hard to read.  She starts too many sentences with "I".  For example:

"...I needed the fresh air on my face.  I had mountains of homework, physics chapters to read, and mathematical calculations to make.  I longed for bracing Milchkaffee, but one was to be found at the pension.
     I heard a knock on my door and jumped.  No one ever came to my room at this hour.  I cracked my door open a sliver so I could see who it was.
Helene stood in the hallway.
'Please come in.' I hurried to welcome her."

Did she take too many liberties of this fictional account?  Perhaps.  Einstein was written as a womanizing, abusive, hands-off father.  To support her story, there were discoveries of correspondence between Einstein and Maric that confirm the birth of their daughter, Lieserl.  Unfortunately her fate was never known for certain (she may have been adopted or died of scarlet fever in infantry).  They did eventually marry and went on to have two sons.  While pregnant with their second son, he was corresponding with a previous love, Marie Winteler, professing his love for her and expressing unhappiness in his marriage.  Maric and Einstein separated when she learned of his his attraction to his first and second cousin Elsa, whom he later married.      

I had to push through this book, especially early on, to even finish. 

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

A special thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book starts off completely delightful with a great hook.  Sara arrives in small town USA to meet her elderly pen pal, Amy.  When Amy fails to show, Sara is taken to Amy's house where her wake is in progress.  Sara decides to stay at Amy's house, and inspired by her vast book collection, Sara opens a bookstore in the despondent town. 

My complaints about this book are that it gives away the ending for Jane Eyre, so if you haven't already read it, I would suggest doing so in place of this one, and that it was too long, it could've easily been 80-100 pages shorter to tighten up the story.  The story itself was interesting enough without all of the romantic subplots.  I was more interested in Sara’s personal journey, her discoveries about Amy and her immersion in Broken Wheel and the quirky collection of characters that call Broken Wheel home.