snugglesandpages's reviews
250 reviews

Oooo I adored this book so much 🥰

I have a soft spot for second chance romance and THE RULE BOOK certainly hit hard. 

The chemistry between the two main characters, Nora and Derek, is electric. Nora's enthusiasm and tenacity are so badass, she is a refreshing character to read with all her quirks only making her even more lovable. I particularly loved the scenes between Nora and her boss and how Nora will stop at nothing to convince her that they are actually friends 😂

Derek is very swoony-worthy. He clearly cares for Nora so much and has been harbouring his regret for how things ended between them in college. Derek's chosen family (team) elevate the fun while pushing him to be better. 

What stood out to me most about this book is the way the characters support each other's success. Nora and Derek have a playful dynamic, but their mutual respect and admiration for each other is evident in every interaction.

There are so many things I want to gush about but if I do, I will spoil it for you as the blurb already gives you a fair amount of context, so all I can say is that if you're looking for a love story that will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy inside, The Rule Book is the book for you.

Thank you to the team at @hachetteaus and @netgalley for the eARC of The Rule Book. The physical book will be joining my trophies very soon 😂

I think it's time to just call it. I LOVE a morally grey female vigilante. Some of my fave books centre around this trope and this one is right up there with its three generations of Miller Women, all with a deadly and dark secret to hide.

The story is broken up into parts, spanning across multiple timelines and told through the voices of the three the Miller Women, Nicola, Abby and Joyce. I think this setup was very effective in giving the reader access into each woman's mind and their precarious pasts. Some scenes may be a bit hard to read (trigger warning: SA), but I was well and truley invested in where it was all leading. 

To quote my book sweetie, @mimireadsbooks, "This book has more twists than a pretzel" 🥨 
Yes, some were predicted, which honestly, I don't mind because they distracted me from the well-planned ’oh sh1t' moments. 

I would love to see The Miller Women return again in the future.

Thank you to @HarperCollinsAustralia and @Netgalley for the eARC of The Miller Women. Kelli Hawkins is an autobuy author for me, so I was super excited to get accepted on this one. 

Also, the audio of this is phenomenal, so if that is your jam, I highly recommend it.

📖 Shay, devastated by the death of her best friend from college, decides to investigate what really happened. She leaves her life behind and reconnects with her childhood friend and true crime podcaster, Jamie and together they delve into the world of sex cults. Shay finds herself once again caught up in the twisted world of domination and desire as she confronts the demons of her past in search of the truth. 

💭 Thoughts: 
I am a sucker for anything cult related so the hype around this book has me excited. I don't know what that says about me, but the way cults operate and the psyche of their 'leaders' just fascinate me. However, the longer I sat on this review (and even contemplated not posting one at all) the more I felt underwhelmed by it all. So much so, that my initial rating changed. 

The Last Housewife is not a comfortable read by any means, and you can absolutely feel that the story was heavily influenced by the high-profile scandal and sex cult that was NXIVM. However, despite the shock factor, I expected more detailed and less censored scenes, given the number of trigger warnings for this book. 

Additionally, some aspects of the story confused me, such as the portrayal of the three women as hardcore feminists, yet they quickly fall for the desire to be controlled and abused by men. This just didn't fit the narrative to me and it was something my brain kept coming back to as the story progressed.

SPOILER: The cheating aspect was also unnecessary and skewed my view of Shay before I even knew her story. If you've read this, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this plotline?

The School Run is a suspenseful suburban thriller set in the picturesque coastal town of Pacific Pines, where three women and their sons compete for a coveted place at the prestigious St. Ignatius Boys School. As the acceptance deadline approaches, nothing is off-limits.
When a boy is struck down in a hit and run, everyone has a motive. Just how far would you be willing to go to secure a future for your son? Would you bribe and lie for it? Would you kill for it? 

Thoughts 💭
Have you ever come across a piece of writing that challenges your moral values? In my opinion, that's a sign of a truly talented writer. When they know how to walk a thin line between right and wrong, captivating their audience and keeping them engaged till the very end. Ali did a fantastic job at pushing those boundaries with both her characters and the reader. 

I enjoyed reading from the POV of all the women; Kaya, Estella and Bec. It was interesting how different they were from one another and how my opinions of them changed as the story progressed, especially Estella. They were all harbouring their secrets and the way the brilliantly executed connections came together made for a satisfying conclusion.

The School Run is out now and is the perfect read for fans of dramatic and domestic suspense thrillers like Big Little Lies. 

With a background in psychology and now a best-selling author and relationship guru, Celia has virtually sold her soul to the influencer scene. As a way to drum up some positive PR, she hosts an exclusive retreat for married couples and newly divorced singles looking for some direction. The location couldn't be more gorgeous than the Sand & Salt Resort in picturesque Byron Bay but it's not long before Celia's retreat goes viral for all the wrong reasons. 

Thoughts: 
This one has a bit of everything... Multiple POV, mystery, drama and a side of romance. It was the perfect read while on vacation.

I enjoyed that each character had their own red flags including Celia. She is such an unlikeable character, as intended, and while it is a relatively 'light' read as far as the genre goes, it was rather fun to sit back and see her fall apart a little. 

I also recently picked up an earlier release of Stephanie's (While the Baby Sleeps) during the last round of stuff your kindle day and am eager to read it. 

A Teenage girl wakes up bloodied and bruised
in a ditch with no memory of who she is or what happened. When Wayne Boone frantically rushes into the station in search of his missing daughter, he has a convincing story and all the evidence to support that the girl is his daughter, incl birth & school records & dozens of photos spanning her childhood. Satisfied the girl has been identified, she is released into Wayne's custody. He looks at her with genuine love and concern & takes care of her the way a father should, but when she starts to have flashes of what feel like memories, they don't match up to the story Wayne has told her. 

In nearby Washington City, seventeen year old Lola has been missing for 5 weeks & the Sheriff is convinced her boyfriend is the only suspect worth investigating. Drew might be public enemy number one, but he will never give up on searching for Lola. Fed up with the Sheriff's inaction, Drew, his cousin Max and Lola's best friend (and Sheriff's daughter) Autumn decide it's time to start digging for the evidence needed to force the case along and bring Lola home, but will they be too late...

💭 Thoughts: 
The setup of this book was so clever and dark that it could almost pass as adult fiction. Dual POV and packed with pulse-racing moments that will keep you flipping the pages, I honestly felt so many emotions reading this. Anger towards the Sheriff for being a lazy SOB, heartbreak for Drew as he navigated the weight of displaced guilt & that eerie overwhelming sensation that something wasn't quite right.

As everything comes together in what seems like an obvious conclusion, the tables turn and you're delivered a massive gut punch instead. I had literal tears rolling down my cheeks by the end. I've not experienced that kind of rollercoaster in a book for a while and to have it while reading a debut YA thriller makes my dark little heart gleeful in how far this genre has come.

This one will live rent-free in my head for a while yet.

"𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒂 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝒃𝒂𝒅? 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒇 𝒔𝒐—𝒊𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒃𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒅—𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅?"

📖 Set 11 years after The Perfect Child, Janie is now 18 and has just been released from juvenile detention. With the release of her tell-all memoir giving her celebrity status, Janie, or Hope as she now calls herself, declares she has been healed of her murderous sociopathic tendencies, but Hannah and ex-social worker Piper aren't buying Janie's reborn again act. When Janie's scheming comes to light, it is clear that she is even more dangerous than she was all those years ago, and Hannah will stop at nothing to protect her family. 

🔪

💭 Thoughts
After how abruptly The Perfect Child ended, it was extremely satisfying to read this novella and get some resolve. It's just as intense, if not more brutal than you would expect for its short 80-odd pages. 

If you read my review of TPC, you'd know I am not a fan of Christopher, so it was nice to see his Janie blinders get shattered a bit in this one. It was also great to revisit Piper and have some closure on her storyline, especially the Bauers feelings/reaction once they found out about Piper's, or really child services' failure to respond to Janie's mothers pleas and how that could have changed things. 

Call me intrigued as to where this could possibly go in the full length sequel, which you best believe I am about to read that next. Physical TBR be damned, I am well truly down this rabbit hole. 

Hannah and Christopher Bauer both work in the medical field and have a great life, the only thing missing is a child. When little Janie is found abandoned in a parking lot in nothing but a diaper and clear signs of starvation and long-term abuse, she's brought into the hospital where the couple work. It's not long before Janie and Christopher form a bond and the Bauers agree to take her in as their own. They knew it wasn't going to be easy to settle a child so emotionally damaged and when Janie's behaviour turns violent & downright psychotic, Hannah struggles to cope. Janie's reign of terror escalates and the truth about her past comes all too late.

💭 Thoughts: 

If the movie 'Orphan' and ’The Push' by Ashley Audrain had a twisted cousin, it would be this book. 😱 It is dark, twisted and unnerving, yet utterly addictive. I couldn't hit pause. It's not for the faint of heart with heavy themes of abuse and animal torture/death. It's pretty f'cked. I hugged all my cats for a long time when that scene played out. 🤮

Gosh, I felt for Hannah, she put up with a lot of 💩 (literally). The way Christopher refused to acknowledge Janie's repulsive and disturbing behaviour for what it was, truly infuriated me. Everything Hannah went through, the genuine fear Alison expressed to him when Janie was staying with them, all of the twisted things she did that he continued to minimise... 🤯 Nope, I'd be done. 

A fact I found out after reading this, is that the Author is a former psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma. This is evident in her writing and how certain topics were explored and clinically explained. 

The ending is abrupt and if there wasn't already a novella and sequel published for me to read, I would be raging, 🤣 so of course I'll be reading both books ASAP.

When another body turns up on the Gold Coast strip, Lana is sent from Sydney to Queensland to assist in the case and look further into the inner dealings of the Strike Force Diablo, the team heading up the investigation into the now seven unsolved unalivings across the strip over the last two years.

Henry Loch is a disgraced cop with a bad rep and he is looking for a way to break free of all the strings. He knows the whole operation is about to come crashing down on them and Henry is hoping that solving the original cases is his ticket to a fresh start.  

When the unlikely pair agree to work together, they never could have predicted that two years of work could unravel in a week, exposing the dark aode of the Gold Coast and the task force. 

💭 Thoughts:
The early 80s on the Aussie Gold Coast was a prime time for police corruption, making it the perfect setting for an exposé inspired crime thriller. Told in multiple POVs, its fast paced with snappy chapters that deliver that true crime feel and there were plenty of references that threw me back to my childhood too. 

I like crime books with a mixed media element and the journal excerpts from Emmett Hades, the original head detective of the task force, made for a clever assist to the plot. A once infamous detective and now a broken man haunted and spiralling as the case takes over his soul, he is an interesting character indeed... 

Something that comes up a few times throughout the book is the unsolved missing persons case of Lana's father. She's plauged by it and it's not really delved into. I'm wondering if there might be another book in the future that focuses on this plotline. 

Thanks to the team at Ultimo Press for sending me a copy of The Strip for review.