obsidian_blue's reviews
3063 reviews

I always love the Bree  Taggart series, but this one just didn’t do it for me. I think because the ultimate reveals just didn’t make a lot of sense and felt like they came out of nowhere and in the end I just wasn’t left with a good feeling like I usually am in the series. Full review to come.

A very good historical fiction novel. I just felt sad throughout since you know how this ends. Full RTC.

Not bad. I just felt really bored throughout. And I didn’t find the romance between Anna and Will believable.  Full RTC. 

Not a lot to say about this one. I really enjoyed it. I didn't care for Espach's other book, but she managed to hit the perfect combination of drama, comedy, and even hints of romance throughout the book. I really felt for the main character of Phoebe Stone who is still reeling after her husband left and divorced her two years earlier. Watching her slowly come awake due to the insanity of the wedding and all of the people she meets was very good. And I applaud Espach for not going there with the ending. I would have called BS a thousand times over. I love the way this ended with it just feeling very realistic and true to what came before it. 

"The Wedding People" follows Phoebe Stone who checks into an inn called the Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island. Phoebe has plans and they get derailed when she realizes that she's the only person at the inn who is not there to attend a wedding. When the bride to be, Lila, figures that out and what Phoebe has planned, there's a lot of messiness and laughter to go along with Phoebe finding out more about the wedding people while thinking on her former marriage. 

I really loved Phoebe as I said earlier, and Lila grew on me. The two of them are different stages, Lila wanting to believe in love and happily ever after and Phoebe wondering about whether she really had a chance to be herself before meeting and falling in love with her ex-husband.

I did enjoy the other characters we get to meet such as Gary, Jim, Juice (do not ask), and heck even Phoebe's ex. The whole book really is about how we get very messy (we are human) but try to be better and just how much easier things would be, if we didn't try to force things that don't feel right. 

This wasn't anything too surprising in the end. I just thought there were way too many plot holes to be believed and the ending was a letdown. I thought that the main character, Tasha, was written inconsistently. And per usual, writers make it seem like the police are just going to hard shrug about murders and let them go, especially when there's enough evidence to make you go, hey person A looks suspicious. Ah well. 

'The Wrong Sister" follows married mother of two wins, Tasha. Tasha and her husband Aaron are dealing with a rough patch in their marriage. Her older sister, Alice, offers up the vacation home she and her husband Kyle have in Italy. While in Italy, Tasha and Aaron are given terrible news, someone broke into their home and Kyle is left dead and Alice injured. The book jumps back and forth between three characters, Tasha, her mother Jeanette, and a mysterious woman that seems to be tied to the family in the some way. We also at one point get Alice's point of view. And I believe at one point we even get Aaron's mother's point of view. At this point my memory of this book is just scrambled. 

The character development of Tasha, Jeanette, mysterious woman, and heck even Alice were all over the place. I think Douglas should have shown more of Tasha and Alice's growing up. You keep hearing how much Alice did for Tasha, but as asides. Jeanette too wasn't written very well. I think most of the characters Douglas wrote to do some dun dun dun stuff so at the end of each chapter you are left guessing about who did what. It just didn't work for me after a while. The husbands in this story are given short work so I didn't pay them any mind. 

The flow was off through the whole book in my opinion. I just didn't need the points of view and you working through what time period is person A in versus persons B and C. It just got confusing after a while and I stopped tracking things.

The setting of the village of Chew Norton could have been better used. I think at one point we only get a handful of scenes with other than the core characters and the police. And I have to wonder why Douglas made it seem like this place where a character like Tasha would not know who all of her husband's friends were. It was weird. And it made zero sense. It felt like Tasha just could not have people over ever or her mother in law (who we know loves to babysit) would not have watched the kids so she and Aaron could go out. The whole book was like that. Things would happen and you would go, that doesn't make sense and I would shrug.

The ending was I swear written for Netflix or Lifetime. Douglas tries for a what would you do in this situation and how hard it would be, but I called BS and shook my head. 

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

You would think a locked room mystery (an island cut off from everything except by boat or ferry) would be my jam, but this was boring and at times defied any type of logic. I think jumping around the timelines didn't help either. All in all, just a snooze.

"The Bachelorette Party" takes place off the coast of Sweden. During timeline one, we have four friends--Tilly, Anna, Linnea and Evelina--who meet every year for a get together. However, something happens and the four women are never seen again. Ten years later, we follow another group of women, going to the same location for a bachelorette party at a new hotel that has been built. We mostly follow Tessa, who is an ex-true crime podcaster who is hoping to use this trip to dive into what happened to these women to be able to redeem herself after an incident has left her persona non grata. The other women with Tessa, is her sister, Lena; the bride to be, Anneliese; Mikaela, maid of honor; Natalie, the new girl; and Caroline. There's also the owner of the hotel, Irene and the hotel chef, Adam. 

I will say, that Tessa and her ever increasing fear just didn't work tension wise for me. It just felt like it was coming out of nowhere. I think until we get to the certain point in the story it just felt aimless to me. I also think us not knowing what happened to her in the past until most of the book was almost done, hindered the story. Maybe if the story had started with that first, that would have made sense to why she was so focused on the original four missing women. I think I just got lost once we started shifting to Matilda and then getting newspaper articles, text messages, emails, etc. to read through. It just keeps you pulled from the story entirely IMHO.

The book shifts over to some Agatha Christie lite at one point, and I wish that Sten had pushed in on that more. 

The setting of the island had the potential to be creepy and mysterious, but it didn't fit the mood of the book. 

The reveals and the whys were some head scratchers to me too by the way. It just didn't make a lot of sense to me and I think that took away from the book. 

Please note that I received this via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

I was so hopeful on this one, but the book falls apart before it even gets going and the ending had me going okay then. I liked the idea of the Agnes going to Iceland to see if she can figure out what happened to her grandfather's wife and daughter, but it was so hamfisted and it just didn't work. I am realizing that maybe it would have been better to have the story told through the eyes of Nora Carver (the podcaster). 

"The Lost House" follows Agnes traveling to Iceland to be interviewed by a true crime podcaster, Nora Carver. Agnes has dealt with her father and grandfather not talking about what happened to drive them from Iceland about 40 years earlier. All Agnes knows is that her grandmother and aunt were both found murdered and left in the snow. Many thought Agnes's grandfather did it, but she does not believe that and wants to clear his name. She agrees to stay with Nora so she can be interviewed and also see where her family is from.

Agnes was a lot. I think that Larsen had way too much happening with her to the point that I found her distracting to the central plot/story. I didn't care about her love life, the insta-love that happened in the story was just so bizarre I didn't even really get what that was about, and she was just a poor amateur investigator. I just found myself taking out of the story so much with her and I wish that Larsen had switched to Nora's POV for some of this.

The other characters are paper thin outside of Nora I thought. I found her more interesting along with her backstory and why she got involved with true crime. She also seemed to read people way better than Agnes did. I thought the podcast angle was a good one, but it just seems to be picked up and dropped off randomly in the story because of Agnes and what she was doing. 

The plot was pretty basic to me because it can only be one of two things, the grandfather did it, or someone else did it. And there's not a lot there to only think one thing IMHO.

The setting of Iceland I wish had been leaned into more. It felt like most of this book took place in the rental that Agnes and Nora were at or other rooms. The beginning of the book with the descriptions showed promise though.

The ending just felt broken apart. I really want to know what happened with certain characters and was disappointed on how Larsen ended things. 

A friend said it best, this started off like a very good Hitchcock inspired "Psycho" but McFadden is going to McFadden. It just got really bad towards the 2nd act following Quinn's sister Claudia and then the book just ground to a halt when we shifted over to [redacted]. I was just disappointed with the whole thing. And the twist ending we get (again) made zero sense to the point I just went whatever.

"Do Not Disturb" follows Quinn who is running away in the dead of night from her home. She comes across a fairly decrepit motel called the Baxter Motel. Quinn knows she has to keep moving, but someone seems determined to keep her there and Quinn gets more worried as she finds out more about the motel's history and a woman who stayed there years earlier who was found murdered. Then the book shifts to Claudia who is determined to find her sister. 

I think the book was really slow when we followed Quinn. Once again, we start off with her in a harrowing beginning scene and McFadden did not do a great job with keeping up with the tension of that and why Quinn was running away. Things got better when we shifted to Claudia I thought. She actually came more alive to me than Quinn did and it was fun following her. But the book shifted again to another character and then shifted again to another character and then back to a character and it slowed down to the point I was just forcing myself to finish this. I just felt like I was getting different versions of this book and none of them were good after a while.

The setting of the Baxter Motel in a snowstorm was a great mystery/thriller setting and McFadden didn't do enough with it. 

The ending was a letdown and a half. I think McFadden gets so focused on her twists she doesn't do a great job with character development. 

I got nothing. The main character was exhausting and also, we are doing the TSTL thing to the point that I was hoping for a different ending because Amy was so painfully obtuse it hurt after a while. Typical McFadden book, follow heroine to some really dumb plot, heroine flashes back to high school to some character who is important to said plot, lather rinse repeat, twist, and then other twist. This was just not good in any way shape or form. I just got sick of the plot holes and the exhaustion of the whole thing. Not McFadden's best by a long shot. 

"Ward D" follows medical student, Amy Brenner. She is going to be locked in overnight at a psychiatric facility as part of her rotation. The location has a Ward D where she is very scared to be in because of who is housed there. As the night goes on, Amy is confronted with someone from her past and the possibility that someone very dangerous is on the loose. 

This could have been a fun version of "And Then There Were None" but nope. This was just pretty bad from beginning to end. Amy is not written well. McFadden also has her saying the same things over and over again about Cameron to the point I didn't want to hear about him anymore. And also what we find out messes with the whole ending because it does not make sense in context of what the character had been saying. And no unreliable narrator does not work here, it just seemed to be something that McFadden ignored because hey she wanted to just have her twists. Also, the whole thing about American cheese was weird and not true. I didn't even know where that came from and each time I was like....so she's too poor to just buy a damn sandwich that is not 2 years old cheese? Anyway, moving on.

Other characters we get introduced to are not developed at all. 

The plot was thin and the whole explanation for things and certain characters was messy as hell. 

The ending made me roll my eyes. 

This was painful to read after a while. I thought the premise sounded good, but then you get to the third act and everything went to hell real quick. I also hated the twist that McFadden leaves us with in the end. She keeps doing that and it's so used at this point I just expect another twist in her endings which just has her as a so-so thriller writer to me at this point. There were also plot holes galore that did my head in.

"The Inmate" follows Brooke Sullivan who is now working as a nurse at the penitentiary in her hometown. Brooke though is worried that she may eventually come face to face with a man that left her for dead when they were teenagers. Brooke used to be in love with Shane Nelson and he with her, until an incident caused him to be locked up for life and Brooke ends up leaving her hometown til now. Brooke though starts to have doubts about the things she remembered and wonders if Shane has been telling the truth for the past ten years about how he is innocent.

Eh. Look, Brooke is doing the TSTL thing to the point that I was just over her. There's no logical thinking skills going on at all. The whole reason why she goes back to her hometown (when she tells you how traumatized she is) made zero sense and it's something that McFadden should have dropped. The other characters (the ones we barely get) are so underdeveloped that it's surreal. 

The 'plot' was just bad in this one. Probably because as I said there were plot holes you can drive a truck into. I know that most readers find her books entertaining, but I am starting to realize that out of the Housemaid's series, she's not that great. The 'why' behind everything was so damn dumb I think I lost IQ points.