Waiting on Wednesday 07/27/22
Posted on July 27, 2022 6 Comments
Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins (January 3, 2023 by St. Martin’s Press)
A couple years ago, I enjoyed Hawkins’ modern retelling of Jane Eyre (The Wife Upstairs) so naturally I’m curious about her new one. It had me right at Gothic suspense!
From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.
As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.
Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.
As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.
Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.
Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle––the birthplace of Frankenstein––The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.
Book Review: The Pallbearers’ Club by Paul Tremblay
Posted on July 25, 2022 11 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
The Pallbearer’s Club by Paul Tremblay
Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Genre: Horror
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: HarperAudio (July 5, 2022)
Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Narrators: Graham Halstead, Xe Sands, Elizabeth Wiley
Oh, how to describe The Pallbearers’ Club? Definitely not your conventional novel for sure, and word of advice? Everyone should be aware of its unique and rather peculiar narrative format before they commit to reading it. In the print version, the text is presented as a typed manuscript of a memoir written by “author” Art Barbara (a pseudonym, we’re told), with annotations in the margins of the page written by his “beta reader”, a woman he identifies simply as Mercy.
Depending on the type of reader you are, you might find this idiosyncrasy totally awesome or totally annoying and distracting (which appears to be a common complaint, judging from the reviews), but I wouldn’t know. I was fortunate to have received the audiobook edition for review, which actually worked extremely well due to having two different narrators taking on the separate roles. Graham Halstead read the main narrative text as Art, while Xe Sands took on the role of Mercy, jumping in whenever she had a comment. The audio format made the interaction between the two characters feel very realistic and natural, so I didn’t suffer the start-stop effect of having to constantly switch between text and notes like with the print book, since all the hard work done for me.
As for what The Pallbearers’ Club is about, well, that’s pretty complicated too. Since this novel is written as his memoir, Art begins his tale in the late 1980s when he was a seventeen-year-old high school outcast who had horrible scoliosis, loved listening to hair metal bands, and desperately needed extracurriculars for his resume so he could get into his college of choice and as far away as possible from his miserable little hometown. He decides the best way to go about this is to start his own club, and begins recruiting other volunteers to serve the community with him as pallbearers at the local funeral home for people who died without any family and friends.
Needless to say, it did not take off. But through the Pallbearers’ Club, our protagonist did manage to make one new friend. Mercy was everything Art was not—quirky, confident, and cool. A student at the community college, she found out about the club through one of his posted flyers, and seemed to love everything about the idea. It also gave her the chance to take pictures of corpses, which she did with her trusty Polaroid camera that never seemed to leave her side. Mercy was into a lot of strange things—sometimes disturbing, scary things—but Art is content not to ask too many questions, not wanting to do anything that might drive his new friend away. As their bizarre relationship continues into Art’s adulthood though, he begins to wonder if Mercy might be more than she purported to be. Writing this memoir, he tries to make sense of all the unexplainable things he’s seen and the uncanny interactions they’ve had.
Every time I say I’m done with Paul Tremblay, he comes out with another book that just sounds so crazy good and totally out there that I’m tempted to pick it up, but then I read it and it ends up being super weird or super meh, and I find I’m right back where I started again.
Thing is though, his books aren’t bad. It’s just A Head Full of Ghosts was the first book I ever read by him, and to put it bluntly, nothing he’s written since has come even close to being as amazing or frightening for me. That’s the most frustrating part, and I’m afraid the vicious cycle described above will forever be repeating itself as I doggedly keep reading him hoping I’ll get that same magic again, which is admittedly feeling less and less likely with each passing novel.
So, that’s sort of where I’m at with The Pallbearers’ Club. The book starts off really great, with fantastic rapport between the two main characters, both of whom you just want to get to know better. However, things devolve as Tremblay tries too hard to be meta and clever and only succeeds in making the story feel more convoluted and pretentious. By the halfway point, I wasn’t having much fun anymore and was simply going through the motions to finish the book.
I was also underwhelmed by the ending and the novel as a whole. The publisher description didn’t sell the book very accurately, as the story’s tone was more literary experimental fiction than horror, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I was both expecting something different and in the mood for something else, thus explaining my lukewarm rating. Hard to say if I’ll keep reading the author after this, falling back into that old cycle, but I suppose it will simply depend on what his next book will be about (as always).
Bookshelf Roundup: 07/23/22: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on July 23, 2022 11 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
It seems like the entire month of July has been a never-ending cycle of health issues at the Mogsy household. Pretty much immediately after I got over my last illness, my husband and kids came down with colds, so I spent a week busy taking care of them and of course now that they’re all better, I’m sick AGAIN with whatever they’ve given me! Unfortunately, all this has taken me away from blogging and commenting, and that’s why I also missed last week’s Bookshelf Roundup because I’ve been feeling like crap for days. Even as I’m writing this, I’m trying not to cough up a lung, but believe it or not I’ve been feeling slightly better. Thank you for your patience as I continue to try and catch up with reviews and visiting your blogs. This update will encompass two weeks, but I’ll keep it short.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
This update is pretty much all thriller and horror! With thanks to Grand Central Publishing for an ARC of Old Country by Matt Query & Harrison Query, which follows a young couple buying their first house together, only to find our their dream home is a nightmare. Also from the publisher, I received a review copy of I Told You This Would Happen by Elaine Murphy. This one was new to me, but I love the concept of a female sleuth investigating a series of deaths that bear eerie resemblance to the murders committed by her dead sister, who unbeknownst to everyone was a serial killer.
Also thank you to Minotaur Books for a surprise copy of Do No Harm by Robert Pobi, the third book of the Lucas Page series following an ex-FBI agent who investigates a string of suicides and accidental deaths in the medical community that are actually murders.
In the digital haul, I received listening copies of Belladonna by Adalyn Grace, a YA Gothic tale of fantasy and romance, as well as Dead Water by C.A. Fletcher, about an isolated island community that gets hit with a strange affliction.
And courtesy of Macmillan Audio, I received a listening copy of Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey, which I’m fantastically excited to start!
Reviews
Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier (5 of 5 stars)
Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney (4.5 of 5 stars)
Eversion by Alastair Reynolds (4 of 5 stars)
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers (3 of 5 stars)
Roundup Highlights:
What I’ve Been Reading
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!
Book Review: Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier
Posted on July 22, 2022 8 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier
Mogsy’s Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Minotaur Books (July 19, 2022)
Length: 352 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Things We Do in the Dark is my favorite Jennifer Hillier novel yet! It’s deeper, more suspenseful, more complex, and simply written at a much higher caliber of proficiency and detail. This one was a bit of a slow burn and took me down a few garden paths, but at the end of it all, I was blown away.
The book opens on a bloody scene in a bathroom of a mansion in Seattle. Paris Peralta is stunned as the police rush in, catching her holding a straight razor and standing over her husband Jimmy’s lifeless body in the tub, his femoral artery slashed open. Everyone believes she killed him for his money, Jimmy being a wealthy comedian and many decades her senior, but Paris insists she had been at a convention and returned home to find him already dead. It helps that her lawyer, Jimmy’s longtime friend Elsie Dixon, is also on her side, but there’s in fact one thing Paris fears more than being wrongfully accused. The death of a high-profile celebrity like Jimmy is bound to bring unwanted attention which spells very bad news for Paris, who has a secret and has been trying to lay low for a very long time.
The story next switches tack to follow journalist Drew Malcolm in Toronto. The host of a true crime podcast, he receives word that the notorious killer Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, is about to be freed on parole after twenty-five years behind bars. Having been roommates and good friends with Ruby’s daughter Joey a long time ago, Drew has a particular interested in the case. Sadly, Joey died in an accidental house fire many years before, and if there’s one thing Drew wants to do in honor or his friend’s memory, it is to ensure that her abusive mother’s true story comes to light.
I confess, when the book made the very abrupt transition in character POV and setting, it was quite jarring, and it almost felt like I was reading two different books. To be honest, it’s easy to lose track between the threads, forgetting about Paris as you’re reading about Drew, and with all the flashbacks to his and Joey’s past slipped in there too, I think this element of the novel’s structure will pose the biggest stumbling block for readers. However, if you can get past it to form the connections and read until the big reveal, all will be answered and it’s a hundred percent worth it.
This story is also dark. Real dark. Joey’s childhood with her awful mother and her mother’s string of even more awful boyfriends broke my heart. And the crime that brought Ruby Reyes before a court and sent to prison (and earned her the Ice Queen moniker) was so brutal and disturbing. The truth and everything that really happened will come out though, and the twisty and brilliant way Hillier laid out the plot and connected all the dots was absolute perfection. You’ll end up feeling for these characters, sympathizing with their pain and loneliness, the guilt and fear and the heartache. This might not be the author’s most thrilling and fast-moving book, but I’ve known her work to be extremely hard-hitting emotionally, and Things We Do in the Dark is perhaps the most impactful of all.
There’s also a more personal reason why I loved this book so much, and it’s because a huge chunk of it takes place in Toronto, the author’s hometown and mine as well. The city in the flashback sections was brought to life just as I remember it, from the well-manicured university grounds and off-campus housing along its side streets to the seedier parts of downtown with its strip clubs and street gangs. Hillier must have done a lot of extra research on top of her own experience and knowledge to fill in the gaps, making the story and the characters’ lives even more realistic.
In short, Things We Do in the Dark has it all—murder mysteries that span multiple places and time, family drama, and a heart wrenching tale of survival. So much love for this book and Jennifer Hillier!
Waiting on Wednesday 07/20/22
Posted on July 20, 2022 7 Comments
Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
All Hallows by Christopher Golden (January 24, 2023 by St. Martin’s Press)
What can I say, I simply can’t resist a Halloween book, and the Stranger Things vibes certainly don’t hurt.
“With the 80’s nostalgia of Stranger Things, this horror drama from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden follows neighborhood families and a mysterious, lurking evil on one Halloween day.
It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, horrifying secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them…and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the neighborhood splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?
New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales…but in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home.
All Hallows. The one night when everything is a mask…”
Book Review: Eversion by Alastair Reynolds
Posted on July 18, 2022 13 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Orbit (August 2, 2022)
Length: 432 pages
Author Information: Website
I confess, I haven’t had the best luck with Alastair Reynolds. I had the worst time with the first book I ever read by him (the title of which I can’t even remember anymore, it was that lackluster) so ever since then I’ve stayed far away.
But something about Eversion spoke to me. The book’s synopsis teased a sci-fi adventure across time and space, inviting readers to figure out a grand mystery. What does a sailing ship off the coast of Norway in the 1800s, a exploration zeppelin in the Antarctic in the 1900s, and a space ship seeking alien life in the far flung future all have in common?
For one, Dr. Silas Coade, a young assistant surgeon is at the head of all three narratives. Sailing on the Demeter, he first describes a treacherous journey through the icy narrow passages of the Norwegian straits as the expedition seeks a mysterious construct known as the Edifice. When disaster strikes, the Demeter meets the same fate as others ships that have attempted this doomed quest. Without skipping a beat though, readers next find Silas on a steamship, and next a dirigible, and finally on a spaceship. Basically, each time something terrible happens to end the expedition, but we always find ourselves in another time through the eyes of another incarnation of Dr. Silas Coade on a mission to search for the elusive Edifice. So just what is going on here?
Mind-bending does not even begin to describe Eversion. It’s definitely something special, and the entire plot is a puzzle to be solved. But even beyond that, there’s just an epicness to the difference pieces that make up this novel, from the harrowing maritime setting of the 1800s, to the steampunkish elements of adventure aboard an early twentieth century airship, and finally to the high-tech starship in the vast expanse of outer space. Even though there is a repetitiveness to the structure of the story, it grabbed me from page one. Obviously I cannot give away the answers, but I will say there are clues from the beginning that will make the gears in your head turn.
The characters also had such a big role to play in this. Silas is well-written and sympathetic. You only get to know a part of him when the book begins, but it’s enough to know that he’s a caring and dedicated doctor, well-liked among the crew. As the story progresses, we get to meet Silas in the other timelines and learn more about him as more of his personality and motives are revealed. And the beauty is that the full picture won’t be revealed until the very end.
Still, even when the mystery is solved, there is more. The final section of Eversion is probably the most rousing and exhilarating, thanks to the buildup of everything that came before. It gathers up all the threads and ties them up pretty well, and touches on some deeper philosophical themes about one’s existence and purpose.
Ultimately Eversion might not be anything like Reynolds’ space opera, but I honestly believe that’s to its advantage. This was a very clever and unique book and has single-handedly reawakened my interest in checking out more the author’s work.
Novella Review: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
Posted on July 14, 2022 7 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Book 2 of Monk & Robot
Publisher: Tordotcom (July 12, 2022)
Length: 160 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Another quiet read for your quiet moods, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is very much in keeping with its predecessor A Psalm for the Wild-Built, though I’d say if you’re coming to this from book one, you’ll already know what to expect. Our story picks up from when readers last saw our protagonists, Sibling Dex and Mosscap. We find the tea monk and robot traveling through the inhabited areas of Panga, hoping to gain more knowledge of village life.
I’m not sure there’s much more to add to this brief description of the synopsis, or to my review of the first book, since so many of my comments there also apply here. What this sequel offers is not so much a plot as it is an observance of our characters simply existing, but to its credit I feel as though most of their philosophical dialogue and the story’s themes are elevated to a more profound place. We’re able to skip the lengthy introductions this time, exploring more significant developments in Dex and Mosscap’s relationship. The former has become something of a mentor as the latter continues to ponder the curious lives of humans with an almost child-like awe.
Because of its lack of a clear direction, however, I would say A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is even less structured than Psalm, and if you struggled with the first book, chances are you will experience the same issues with this one. These books are meant to appeal on a personal level, and I think it’s either something that will resonate with you strongly…or not at all.
Speaking for myself, I can appreciate what these Monk and Robot novellas are attempting to do, but this slow and introspective style of storytelling can only carry my enjoyment to a certain point and not beyond. I wasn’t bored, exactly, but I can’t say I was all that mentally stimulated either, though it was not for the author’s lack of trying. I respect Becky Chambers greatly for her thoughts and ideas, and she’s always a joy to read, but I have to say she’s much better at writing stories than she is at philosophizing. Especially coming from her Wayfarers series, the books of Monk and Robot feel very different, and probably should be considered more as parables.
That said, while I thought there were several interesting nuggets of world-building here and there, I didn’t think there was anything too groundbreaking or complex to the topics our protagonists discussed, and I also said so as much about the first book as well. Ultimately these novellas are too short for any real depth, though I will say they are quite good at being comfort reads. Although it left me wanting more, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is the perfect bite-sized length for an afternoon dalliance and some food for thought, especially if you’re not feeling too committed.
More on The BiblioSanctum:
Review of A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Book 1)
Waiting on Wednesday 07/13/22
Posted on July 13, 2022 9 Comments
Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
A Sleight of Shadows by Kat Howard (April 25, 2023 by Gallery/Saga Press)
At long last, a description and a cover to the sequel of An Unkindness of Magicians.
“Return to Kat Howard’s Alex Award–winning world begun in An Unkindness of Magicians, a secret society of power-hungry magicians in New York City.
After taking down the source of the corruption of the Unseen World, Sydney is left with almost no magical ability. Feeling estranged from herself, she is determined to find a way back to her status as one of the world’s most dangerous magicians. Unfortunately, she needs to do this quickly: the House of Shadows, the hell on earth that shaped her into who she was, the place she sacrificed everything to destroy, is rebuilding itself.
“The House of shadows sits on bones. All of the sacrifices, all of the magicians who died in Shadows, they’re buried beneath the foundations. Bones hold magic.”
The magic of the Unseen World is acting strangely, faltering, bleeding out from the edges. Determined to keep the House of Shadows from returning to power and to defeat the magicians who want nothing more than to have it back, Sydney turns to extremes in a desperate attempt to regain her sacrificed magic. She is forced to decide what she will give up and what she will lose and whether what must be destroyed is not only the House of Shadows, but the Unseen World itself.
World Fantasy Award finalist Kat Howard has written a sequel that asks how you have a happily ever in a world that doesn’t want it, where the cost of that happiness may be too much to bear.”
Audiobook Review: Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
Posted on July 11, 2022 9 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 4.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Macmillan Audio (August 30, 2022)
Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Narrators: Stephanie Racine
Alice Feeney said in the author’s note that Daisy Darker was the favorite of her novels, and after reading it, well, I guess I will have to share in that sentiment! It has a different feel than her previous books; rather than having a domestic psychological thriller vibe, this one was definitely more eerie and atmospheric. Despite a few over-the-top twists and some predictability, I found this to be a captivating and compulsive page-turner.
The eponymous protagonist of this novel, Daisy Darker, was born with a broken heart. Her cardiac deformity prevented her from going to school, hanging out with friends, or doing anything normal kids are supposed to do. It was just too risky, considering Daisy had had to be resuscitated from the brink of death multiple times before, spending months of her life recuperating in hospitals. As a result, she was never close to her two older sisters Rose and Lily, who were sent off to boarding school and were able to go off to live their lives. Daisy was never that close to her parents either. After their divorce, her composer dad was always on the road traveling with his orchestra and her flighty mom became distant, retreating into her own little world.
In fact, the only person Daisy was close to was her grandmother. Nana was an illustrator who made her name writing a children’s book inspired by her youngest granddaughter. During her childhood, Daisy loved to spend her summers at Seaglass, Nana’s huge gothic mansion situated on an island that was only accessible at low tide. And now she is back again, as an adult, here to celebrate her grandmother’s eightieth birthday on Halloween. Nana has invited the whole family, and it will be the first time in many years that the whole Darker clan has been together. There’s her son, Frank. His ex-wife, Nancy. Their three daughters, Daisy, Rose, and Lily. Lily’s teenage daughter, Trixie. And finally, Connor, a family friend whom they have all known since he was a boy.
The night before Nana’s big day though, a huge storm rolls in, cutting Seaglass off from the rest of civilization. And a few minutes after midnight, the house is awakened to a commotion. Daisy finds her grandmother at the foot of the stairs, dead from an apparent fall. But was it really an accident? And what is the meaning of the strange, ominous message on the wall above her body, written in chalk? Trapped on the island, there’s nowhere to run and no one to turn to for help. And as the night draws on, more bodies begin to pile up.
Intriguing doesn’t even begin to describe it. The characters are the best part of this novel, larger-than life figures against the backdrop of an old gothic house by the sea. Members of the Darker family feel just as nostalgic, even if most of them are downright repugnant. Most eccentric of all is probably Nana, a kind but iron-willed old lady who collects antique clocks and makes everyone clock in with a punch card every time they visit. The rest of her clan, however, are not quite as well put together. Frank’s orchestra is losing him more money than it takes in. Nancy is in love with only herself, never letting her ex-husband and their daughters forget that she could have been a movie star had she not gotten pregnant in her first year of college. Rose is a veterinarian who makes it clear she enjoys the company of her animals to that of people. Lily is a grown woman who still lives off of handouts from her parents and grandmother, and is emotionally and verbally abusive to her daughter Trixie. And then there’s Daisy, who had been shut away from the world for so long, people tend to forget she’s even there. Her heart condition reminds them of her fragility, which makes them all feel guilty and uncomfortable.
Fair warning though, the plot requires mucho suspension of disbelief. Again, it’s one of those affectations of the novel that harkens back to the Agatha Christie days, where the puzzle itself is more important than the details. As long as you can accept that, then you’ll have a lot of fun with this book and its claustrophobic, suspenseful atmosphere as the chapters gradually countdown to dawn when the tides will recede, making the island accessible again. And then there’s the final twist, which is another nod to an old classic. Cheers if you can figure it out before the big reveal, for I wouldn’t say that it was completely unexpected, but Feeney did cover her tracks really well, and by the end you will want to go back to the beginning again to see what clues you may have missed!
And of course, brava to Stephanie Racine, the narrator of the audiobook. I’ve loved her performances for the author’s other novels, and she delivered a knockout for this one as well, giving life to the characters and making this story a wonderful roller coaster ride of unforgettable surprises and twists.
Bookshelf Roundup: 07/09/22: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on July 9, 2022 8 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Reviews and content have been light this week, and I’ve also fallen behind on commenting because I’ve been feeling under the weather. I’m still not a hundred percent, but the extra downtime has allowed me to get a lot more reading done, and I hope to get all the reviews up in the following weeks.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
This week, my haul is from the kind folks at Minotaur Books! And we start with not just one but two dog-themed books, Holy Chow by David Rosenfelt and The Lost by Jeffrey B. Burton. They’re both later installments of their respective mystery series, but I believe they can be read as a standalones. And the third book that came was Peril at the Exposition by Nev March, the second book of a historical mystery thriller series. These were all surprise arrivals, and if I can find some time this month I’d really like to try some of them, especially the doggie mysteries.
Continuing my mystery thriller streak, from Penguin Audio I received a listening copy of The Retreat by Sarah Pearse, the follow up to The Sanatorium, a locked-room remote chilly setting mystery I read last year. I wasn’t exactly swept off my feet by the first book, but apparently from the reviews I’ve seen, this one’s much better. It’s worth a try at least. From the publisher I also received a review copy of One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke, a psychological thriller following a doomed bachelorette party on an alluring Greek island. Changing to the fantasy genre, I also added a couple of late audiobook releases from May, including Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson and Heroic Hearts edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes.
Reviews
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (3.5 of 5 stars)
What I’ve Been Reading
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!
The BiblioSanctum 