the_joyful_book_club's reviews
96 reviews

This book kept me up until 1am on a work night. It has been forever since a book kept me up this late. I kept trying to put it down, and then I'd come back for more and then I figured I'd just finish it off. 

We start with May, who is fresh off a trip from the Hamptons with her old friends, Kelsey and Lauren. She's home, ready to spend quiet time with her fiancé, Josh, and her dog, Gomez. But a knock at the door startles them, and two police officers are at the door, asking about where she was during her time in the Hamptons. 

Kelsey, Lauren, and May have been friends since their college days, when they all attended and worked at a music camp, Wildwoods. As the years have passed, the women have kept in touch off and on. But besides childhood camp, they have something else in common: all have been involved in some form of public scandal and been canceled. May had a panic attack and made a wrongful accusation on the subway. Lauren's affair with a married man is revealed to the press. And Kelsey is suspected of being involved in her husband's murder.  A missing man in the Hamptons threatens to bring their names back into the shameful spotlight of public scrutiny. 

This story does have a bit of a dual timeline, but only for a short period of time. We see the present day, and then the six days prior, which then leads back to the present day. We do also see some snippets of the past, but it's very brief and is told more so as a memory and not another timeline. 

This story is artfully woven together. There is tension but it varies: tension between the women, tension with the past, family dysfunction, and other traumas. First, I appreciated the author brought attention to the many ways that someone can be affected by what happened to them but also managed to not make it the entire story. A great example of this is May's subway incident. May realizes that during the pandemic, her personality has changed a lot, and as such, made her panic in the subway and react in a way that she normally wouldn't. But she's still humiliated by it and part of her story is dealing with her re-emergence into the social world, but also different aspects of her professional life. 

Because of this tension showing up in various ways, the twist at the end of the story came out unexpectedly. I think I was so absorbed in the characters and their flaws that it was like a very sneaky, surprise twist. I thought it was great. 

If you enjoy childhood friendships, secrets old and new, and twists you don't see coming, you'll want to check this one out.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book since it was my first from Megan Lally, but I swear I zipped through it so fast and now it's a day later, and I'm still in awe of how it got to me. 

Brooke Goodwin is almost perfect. She's attractive, comes from an affluent family, is a star student who was just accepted into Yale and is finally getting attention from Dylan, her longtime crush. But perfection comes with a cost, and Brooke is constantly expected to make no mistakes in every aspect of her life. But there was that pesky lake party before where someone died and Brooke can't live it down. 

This story alternates between the present day, and before, the night of the party where Brooke's former friend and now nemesis, Claire Heck, manages to die. Brooke has tried to move on with her life, but someone keeps calling her from a blocked number. Then they slashed her tires. And now...they want Brooke to confess her sins. 

This story is fast-paced and an easy read. It is marketed towards YA, and I think this book is appropriate for the YA crowd. There were times when I wanted to yell at the characters because, as an adult, I knew they were making a terrible decision. But as teenagers, their actions and motives work. It was refreshing to read a YA book where the characters acted appropriately for their age in terms of decision-making, maturity, values, etc. 

This story had a pretty big twist at the end. I partially guessed it but I was not confident at all, so I consider that as still keeping me guessing. The ending was also really interesting because we start to see the characters differently and who is a villain and who is a victim becomes blurry. I kept thinking about this story after I was done and I was still in awe today at how cleverly the author made me feel so many conflicting emotions. 

I would absolutely recommend this book if you love a fast-paced thriller, with drama, and high-stakes at every turn. This was my first book from Megan Lally but it will not be my last.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Some parts were so, SO good, and then it kind of fell apart for me. 

This story starts with Saga Bauer at her miserable private-eye job. She's been on leave from the National Crime Unit and wants to go back but worries she won't pass her exams to be reinstated to operative (active) duty. Joona Linna and Saga have worked together before, and suddenly, Joona finds himself investigating a fairly grisly murder of a colleague. The white bullet recovered immediately triggers the memory from three years prior and the hunt is on. 

I did listen to the audiobook of "The Spider" which is narrated by Saul Reichlin. His narration is excellent, and kept my attention the entire time. 

This book was so good and I was so pumped to have finally listened to it...until I hit the 70% mark. This story is already long, at just under 500 pages and 17 hours in audio length. But by this point, the characters started making dumb moves that really made no sense. There is even a point where the detectives are turning on each other, and lying to one another and it just felt absurdly dumb. It kind of killed the story for me. 

That said, the ending itself does get resolved and the case comes to a close. The story itself is well-written and the characters and plot are fully developed. This book is part of the Killer Instinct novels, but this was my first one and everything made sense to me. I never felt confused or lost in the story. 

If you enjoy a darker thriller that is set in Sweden with a lot of action, this might be your next favorite read!

This book had me completely absorbed and obsessed with it. I read it in less than a day, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. What a rollercoaster. 

This is a dark romance, and the author has a trigger warning at the beginning, and for good reason. Side note: I do notice the Kindle version (with the male cover model) didn't show a trigger warning in it. However, I read a paperback deluxe edition that did include a trigger warning for the following: non-con, dub-con, and suicidal thoughts.

This book is dark and starts that way from the beginning. There's no letting the story warm up; we jump into the scalding heat immediately. The reader is immediately pulled into the sorrow that Glyndon feels over her friend, Devlin, who's taken his life recently. She goes back to the cliff where he passed and there she first encounters Killian. Which is likely the craziest, and dirtiest, encounter she's ever had. 

This story is told from both Glyndon's and Killian's perspectives. As we get to know them, and their friends and family, we learn that they attend competing universities, one American and one English. There is some mention of families not getting along, and elite clubs that are at odds with each other too. The conflict is there but doesn't seem fully developed, since these two groups of friends keep intermingling and not completely killing each other. 

I think the reason that isn't more of an issue is that the real discourse for Killian and Glyndon is both of them fighting their own nature within the relationship. Killian is dealing with some more complex desires and Glyndon is walking the line between her desires and her own mind telling her to stay away. 

There is a big twist at the end of this story that I did not expect or even remotely see coming. I think I had to do an actual slow blink because...what?!? It made total sense, but the author does a nice job of keeping the reader engaged with other aspects of the story. 

If you like dark romance, dark academia mixed with the mafia, and an intense story, then you'll likely enjoy this.

Oh my gosh...I just devoured this book and loved every second of it. I know the second book is coming in Spring 2025 and I'm already really excited for it. 

This story starts with Hannah, losing her job, and generally feeling down about herself and life is playing out. But then she receives a letter from her Aunt Jewelia, inviting her back to Maple Hollow. Hannah has never known Jewelia for most of her life, but she knows she needs to get to Maple Hollow. 

But when she arrives, the caretaker, Old Man Adams, tells her that Jewelia has gone missing. In fact, she went missing the night she was trying to mail the letter. 

This story follows Hannah through her journey of discovering what happened to Jewelia, but also unlocking her family's history, and the power that lies within her. 

One of the things I appreciated most of this story is that it's truly focused on Hannah and other women in the town. As you can tell, this is the Witches of Maple Hollow series, and so the focus on the women in town is central to the story. I don't mind romance in stories, but it was refreshing to have a story where that wasn't a side plot. 

This story does have a full resolution, even though it is a series. Essentially, there is the overarching theme of needing to stop the Dream Haunters, who enter into people's dreams and imprison them. So the series follows the women on that mission, but the smaller mystery of the story is fully resolved and there are no cliffhangers. 

Another aspect of this book that I loved was that the author really brings Maple Hollow to life. It's this magickal island, where it's fall all the time. There are cats, pumpkins, cool fall nights, and so many other aspects of fall that I love. The author creates a beautiful visual and the atmosphere just jumped off the page. 

If you love strong female characters, magic, and fall, you'll definitely love this series!

I read "The Whisper Man" years ago and immediately added Alex North to my favorite authors list. 

However, this book missed the mark for me.

We start out with siblings Chris and Katie walking home from school, but Katie makes an ill-fated decision to leave with her boyfriend, Sam, instead of continuing home with Chris. But then he's attacked by a madman and things are never the same. 

This story then presents another mystery and that's the death of Alan Hobbs, a philosophy professor. Then we have another mystery when a now adult Chris goes missing. And another turn of events is when a strange man is seen watching Katie's daughter. 

The writing in this story is fine. The author is descriptive and brings the characters to life. I partially read this book and then listened to the audiobook as well. The narrator is Rosalie Craig and she does an excellent job on the narration. She manages to convey a wide array of emotions and characters seamlessly.  

My issue with this story was that it felt really chaotic. It's somewhat multiple mysteries happening at once, but yet loosely connected. I think the connections weren't strong enough and then combined with the timelines bouncing around, plus multiple perspectives, it felt disjointed. 

The story does get resolved, and I appreciated that the author didn't leave loose ends. 

If you enjoy stories that have dual timelines, as well as different POVs with a sinister twist, you may want to try this one.

When Libby alerted me that my hold was ready on this book, I was so excited. I had heard a little bit about this book and knew it was up my alley, but it was so much better than I expected. 

Alfred is a man who is used to putting on a show. He's showing his guests a wonderful time, he makes sure that social media and magazines have positive things to say about his new hotel. But as the one-year anniversary of the hotel's opening approaches, Alfred decides to invite his old friends from college to stay for a weekend. He lets the majority of his staff have the weekend off, and his assistant, Dani, stays on to help with anything he or his guests may need. 

Throughout the story, we see the story from each friend's perspective: Alfred, Zoe, Grace, TJ, Julius, and Samira. As the weekend continues, strange things happen. Tensions rise, and more secrets start to be revealed to the reader. 

I really enjoyed the Hitchcock references in this story. I haven't seen another story like this and it was interesting to see the different movie references throughout. This book feels a bit like an ode to Hitchcock, especially with all of the memorabilia that's in the hotel, as well as the discussions the group has. 

One of the main aspects I enjoyed was that all of the characters were awful. All in varying degrees, but generally speaking, all are awful and have done terrible things. It's interesting because you wouldn't really call them unreliable narrators. They know they're not proud of their actions, but no one ever makes an apology for it. 

The ending did feel a bit anti-climactic for me. It seemed like there was a lot of build-up and then it was just done. Everything is resolved, but I think it just needed a little more. Maybe I wanted someone to figure it out, or see where the characters ended up once the weekend was over. 

If you are an Alfred Hitchcock fan and love old friends keeping dark secrets, you'll enjoy this one from Stephanie Wrobel.

I am oddly in love with this book cover. Part of the reason I was hopeful to even read this one early was because I just liked the cover, and obviously, the description appealed to me as well. I am not remotely disappointed in my decision to go all in just because I liked the cover! 

This story starts with Madeline arriving back in her hometown of Enigma, Georgia. She surprisingly inherits the home and book store her Aunt Rose owned before she passed away and is entirely unsure what to even do. The lights don't work, there's no food in the home, and Madeline doesn't even own a cell phone to call anyone. Not that she has many people she could call anyway. And then there's that pesky gazebo fire. 

But within a day, help arrives in the form of Dr. Philomena Waldrop, a close friend of Rose's. And soon, Gloria, the new reverend in town is there to help too. 

Generally speaking, I enjoyed this book. We don't get to know the characters on a very deep level, and there were several times when I was frustrated with our main character, Madeline. As she's investigating this fire and murder, she takes many people at face value on her first time meeting them. With her history of being an actor, you'd assume that she knows people can easily act like something they're not. It also felt a little odd that she's immediately running and investigating so deeply when she doesn't have a history with that, isn't in that career field, doesn't even seem to have an interest in mysteries on any level, and hasn't been in town for many years. 

While this book is considered a "cozy mystery", it definitely felt more thrilling and suspenseful than I had expected. You have several mysteries going on, plus other secrets that come pouring out. I thought it was a unique take on an unreliable narrator since we have several characters sharing theories and suspicions; some accurate and some very inaccurate. 

If you enjoy small towns with secrets, atmospheric southern charm, and whodunit with a cat, you'll definitely enjoy this one!

I'll start this out with a Trigger Warning: there is animal abuse, domestic abuse, and sexual abuse in this story. The animal abuse is the most prevalent and is only in a few chapters but it is in there, and it's on page. 

This story starts with three friends, out on a foggy afternoon. Two of the three go home for the evening but the last boy stays out later. A few days later, his body is found in a gruesome display at a tourist and historical attraction in town. 

The author does a really great job of bringing the environment to life. It was easy for me to see Granite Harbor and its citizens in my mind and the scenes jumped off the page. Detective Alex Brangwen is the only detective in town, and he was a likable character for me. Then you have Isabel, who is the mother of Ethan, who was close friends with the murder victim. 

This story ultimately didn't work for me. I think it had too much going on, and it felt like every aspect was competing with each other. There's also a lot of characters and we're introduced to all in some depth. I think the author was intending to help cast a deeper net of suspicion on them, but it ended up feeling more distracting and it didn't really make me think one person was more suspicious than another. 

This book also bounces a bit in the timeline. You're essentially seeing the present day but also some flashbacks for the killer and his life experiences. This was fine, but in the copy I read (which was an advanced copy), there was nothing to denote you were going back in time, so it felt confusing. I also think that as soon as certain things about the killer's younger days were revealed, it felt really easy to figure out who the killer was. 

If you enjoy small towns in New England, along with atmospheric tension, and murder, then this book may be one you should check out.

This story starts with Sydney going on what could be called the worst first date of all time. The guy she met on a popular dating app looks nothing like his profile photo, he makes her split the bill, pressures her to drink, and then answers a call from his mother on their date. And then he's aggressive when Sydney doesn't want to kiss him, or go on another date. 

But a mystery man comes to her rescue but then disappears back off into the night. Until weeks later, she's on another date and runs into her mystery man again. Things take a different turn and they start dating. Until certain pink flags start popping up...

So Sydney's character drove me a little crazy. She's 34 years old and it seems like her whole life revolves around dating. Yes, that could be how the story is written and we just don't learn more about her. But I think the other thing that drove me nuts about Sydney is that I know Sydney's in real life, and I immediately thought of these people and how much their behavior drives me nuts. Just the sort of laser focus on dating and weddings and having kids and it's like everything else barely exists. *As a caveat, you should do exactly what you want in life, but sometimes I feel like people sort of miss the forest for the trees when they do this*. 

Tom is the other POV we see in this story and we're seeing his past: from his first love, Daisy, to his father's death, to the mysterious happenings in his hometown. 

I know Freida McFadden is known for her big twists and I'd say this one was done quite well. I had suspected it to some extent just because some things were too obvious; kind of like in CSI when they aggressively interview the first person 10 minutes in; you know it CAN'T be them since there's another 40 minutes of the show left. 

I would definitely recommend this story if you're looking for a popcorn thriller that's an easy read, and fast paced. There isn't a massive amount of character development, but the story moves quickly and this one is a quick read that will leave you wondering what the hell just happened.