I enjoy a good Linwood Barclay book – this Canadian journalist turned novelist writes suspense incredibly well and he’s got a biting sense of humour that sparingly shines through the darkest of plots. His latest book Take Your Breath Away was just released a few months ago, and I brought it up to my cottage,…
The publishers that I typically review books from know that I lean towards particular genres; thrillers, mysteries, some literary fiction. I read pretty widely in general, but when it comes to books I consider ‘fun’ to read, I’ll go darker. It should come as no surprise then, that I just finished reading The Girls Are…
This book surprised me. Based on its cover, and its publisher (Cormorant Books), I was expecting a very literary novel, something with drawn out descriptions and hidden meanings, usually a bit slower in pace. Instead, I found a page-turner of a novel in The Good Son by Carolyn Huizinga Mills, something I raced to finish,…
I couldn’t help myself, I HAD to read this season’s buzziest book, The Push by Ashley Audrain. You may recall I reviewed a book that dealt with some dark subject matter a few weeks ago, and I was warned that The Push was a slightly lighter version of Daniil & Vanya, so I prepared myself…
Yup, I’m reading another Ruth Ware book. I just can’t get enough of this writer, and she basically releases a book a year so there’s always something new for me to dive into. One by One takes place in the winter wonderland of the French Alps, so although I’m not getting much skiing in this…
Hoo boy, this book is tough. It’s a difficult story, disturbing on many levels, but compulsively readable at the same time. There are, thankfully, trigger warnings at the beginning, (they call them ‘content notes’), so I’ll reiterate that before my readers go any further. Daniil & Vanya by Marie-Helene Larochelle, translated from the French by…
It’s officially the end of my online book club, because now that I’m increasing my day-job hours, I just don’t have time to run this group on my own time. Still, I’m ending it on a high note with Gilly Macmillan, a queen of thrillers that never disappoints. Her latest book To Tell You the…
I love a good tale of revenge; there’s something deliciously sweet about people getting what’s coming to them. A few weeks ago my family was on a road trip, and we were waiting in our car in line for a ferry. Beside us, another car tried to zip past the line cut-off to make it…
If you read Nicole Lundrigan’s last book The Substitute, you’ll have a good idea of what you’re in for in her latest novel, Hideaway. Both books deal with traumatized children, neglectful parents, and big family secrets. These sound like heavy topics, and they are, but the unsettling atmosphere that made The Substitute such an enticing…
Are you the type of reader that’s affected by book hype? If an upcoming release is getting a lot of attention, does it make you want to read it even more? It’s ok to admit it affects you, that’s why they call it ‘buzz’, it’s so persuasive! Woman on the Edge by Samantha M. Bailey…
As a mother of two young children, I was hesitant to pick up a book about a mother of two young children. Especially when this book is also about an intruder who breaks into the house while the mother is at home with her kids, and her husband is away on business. Have I mentioned…
Ah yes, here we are with another domestic thriller. There seems to be a rash of books about naughty-nannies lately, yet this trend keeps going strong because it’s ripe for creativity. The figure of the nanny is an easy one to exploit in fiction because it’s essentially a stranger who enters the heart of a…
