The Last Sister by Kendra Elliot- Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

First I would like to begin this review by giving Over the River Public Relations and Montlake Publishing a big thank you for sending us a copy of Kendra Elliot's novel The Last Sister.

The Last Sister is a thriller that opens with a horrific murder of an interracial couple in a small Oregon town.  At first, local law enforcement believes the murder to be a domestic murder suicide, but upon closer inspection appears to be a crime rooted in not only hate but pure evil.

Was the murder directed at one family?  Was it a hate crime?  This is what FBI agent Zander Wells hopes to uncover as he begins to interview his first witness- the woman who found the bodies.

Full of twists and turns, this novel will leave you not only wanting to read more, but NEEDING to read more.  In fact, I read it in one day!  We give this book 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans!

Until the next read!
~Jessica

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher - Reshelved Books

What if your husband was “married” to three other women?  What if you didn’t know their names or what they looked liked?  What if you gave him permission? Such is the premise of The Wives by Tarryn Fisher, a psychological thriller rooted in polygamy. 

Synopsis: After Thursday met Seth, she found out that he was married to another woman.  Unable to bear his child, Seth’s wife gave him permission to find someone who could fulfill his desire to become a father.  Also unable to carry a child to term, Thursday gives Seth permission to obtain a third wife. The wives rotate between alternate days of the week, made easier because Seth is often out of town for work. But then one night Thursday finds a piece of paper in Seth’s pocket with the third wife’s name. She tracks her down and develops a friendship out of pure curiosity to see who the woman she shares her husband with is.  Noticing bruises on the third wife’s wrists, Thursday begins to question the type of man she married and ultimately everything that she knew about her own life.

My Thoughts: This thriller is encapsulating and impossible to put down.  Half way through the novel everything twists and turns making me unsure of what I believed to be the truth, just as Thursday did. The ending… well, I still can’t believe it.  It was a great start to a year of 2020 reading and worth a rating of 4 out of 5 coffee beans.

What is your first read of 2020?

~Jessica

The Rumor by Lesly Kara

Hi Dewey Readers!

What would you do if a suspected murderer lived on your street? In Lesly Kara's novel, The Rumor, a mother named Joanna is forced to face that question head on.  Joanna moved back to her quiet seaside hometown after her son was being bullied at his old school in the city.  The move is little bit farther from her son's father but it isn't all bad, Joanna now has the help of her own mother.  


But then a small rumor sparks.  Someone who was convicted of stabbing a boy, when they were a child them self, may be living in their tiny neighborhood under a different name.  But who is it?  As the rumor spreads, partially at the fault of Joanna, everyone becomes a suspect, the innocent become the scapegoats, and no one is really safe... even within their own families.  

I read this book in ONE DAY.  I could not put it down!  It is an excellent fall thriller to sit on the porch with at night.  I leave you with a rating of 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans. 

Until the next read!
~Jessica   

The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

I am super excited to be able to review an ARC of Megan Miranda's latest novel The Last House Guest.  This book is a psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Girl on the Train.

So a bit about the book. Littleport, Maine is a summer town.  When a friendship blossoms between a summer girl named Sadie and the year rounder named Avery, it's a little unexpected, but they remain good friends for close to ten years.  Then Sadie is found dead at the bottom of a cliff near the ocean, and the police believe it to be a suicide.  Flash forward years later and Avery is in the family home (she's employed by them as vacation property management) when she finds Sadie's cellphone.  It is a phone that the police were never able to recover.

So was Sadie's death a suicide?  Was it a murder?  And if so, is the murderer still out there watching them all?  I guess you'll have to read the book to find out.  

My thoughts without giving it all away? This novel was a quick read, but I think that I fell in love with the cover more than I fell in love with the prose inside.  I would rate it 3.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.   

Until the next read!
~Jessica 

The Winter Sister by Megan Collins

Hello Dewey Readers!


I received an ARC of Megan Collins' The Winter Sister from Baker and Taylor.  (Library perk.)  This book is set to be published in February 2019 and opens with a murder. 

Persephone used to sneak out of her bedroom window to meet her boyfriend.  Her sister, Sylvie, used to leave the window open so that Persephone could return home in the middle of the night.  Persephone always comes home with bruises, which Sylvie believes are from Persephone's boyfriend, and Sylvie paints beautiful images over these bruises to hide them. But one day Sylvie gets sick of the lies and shuts the window behind Persephone so she'll be forced to use the front door and thus expose what she has been doing.  Only Sylvie's plan backfires and Persephone goes back out only to never return again.  

So, I'm not a big fan of thrillers because they always seem a little bit far fetched, but this one I liked.  Here's why:

• It tackles grief 
• It touched upon mortality from illness 
• It discusses drug abuse and addiction 
• It also exposes how sometimes justice can't always be served even when everyone knows who the killer is because of "evidence"    

That being said, while I did enjoy reading this book, I did not enjoy the ending. Without giving too much away, I felt that the ending came too abruptly and from basically out of nowhere.  Maybe that's just how it goes with novels of this genre.  

So Dewey Readers, I leave you with a rating of 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans!

Until the next read!

~Jessica   

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian - Battle of the Book

Hello Dewey Readers!  

As you know, Jillian and I also read for our book club called the Spine Breakers, and this month's selection was the Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian.  

This book sounded so promising!  It had great reviews!  And the premise was creepily interesting.  Basically, to sum this book up in a nutshell, the main character is a flight attendant who likes to sleep around.  She likes to drink, and has been known to drink to the point where she blacks out. One morning she wakes up in bed next a man who is dead.  But he didn't just die in his sleep!  His carotid artery was slashed and he bled out.  Next to him on the ground is a broken wine bottle.  The reader isn't sure who killed him, and even our lovely flight attendant isn't sure if she or someone else killed him.  

Who knows?  Well, I guess I know now. 

To me the book was kind of lengthy.  No short chapters that made our last book club selection a breeze!  Also, I did not like the ending.  In fact, I zoned out on the ending and had to ask my co-woker who happened to be reading this book at the same time (not Spine Breaker related) what happened.  She wasn't crazy about it either.  

So Dewey Readers, I give out a rating of 2 out of 5 very sad Coffee Beans.  

P.S.  Jillian picked this book, so we'll blame her.   

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn - Battle of the Book

Hello everybody.

April's battle of the book is here!!

This month we're gonna be talking about The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn.

I'm hoping that this month, you guys will find this battle a little more interesting than last month's.

Jess's review can be found here.

I'm going to jump to my feelings on this book. 

(But for those who haven't read Jess's review yet; the book is about a woman who has PTSD induced acrophobia. Anna can't leave her house- so she watches her neighbors out of her window. With her Nikon camera. While she's drunk and high on her meds... Yeah.)

I give this book a 3.5 coffee beans out of 5.  (If you check out my account on Goodreads- you'll see I gave it a 4 because there are no halves there!)

Why?

I didn't like the story. 

I thought that it was VERY slow to start.  There were moments when my heart hurt for Anna. I found the story of what happened to be sad and I did hurt for her.  

But the rest of the book...? I didn't like it.  I didn't find it to psychological or to be a thriller.  It was just there.     

I was frustrated by Anna. A lot.  

I know that in order to accept help and move forward, you need to admit to yourself that you have a problem and want to make those changes.  I understand that her past was very big to her and that she wasn't able to move forward right away.  But her character did grow and I was proud of that.  Even if it was basically at the end of the story. 

I felt like the book did wrap up at the end though and that there weren't any loose ends.  

I was surprised by the character who committed the murder.  I wasn't expecting that to happen! 

The way that the murderer had approached Anna and, for lack a better word, "played" her - really WAS creepy! 


I will admit that the book was a page turner for me.  For most of the book, I kept turning the page for more.  It was just that that "more" wasn't really there. 

But it was such a short time frame for the psychological thriller part of the book.  It wasn't very satisfying, if you will.  There was such a slow and prolonged buildup to that WOAH moment in the story- that I felt like it fell short. 

If you're looking for a real thriller, I would recommend The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda.  I thought that was creepier and more twisted. 


~ Jillian

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn - Battle of the Book

Hello Dewey Readers!

As we've mentioned before, Jillian and I are in a book club called The Spine Breakers.  We break spines...book spines.  Our second book club selection was The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn.  We were both disappointed with last month's selection, The Lying Game by Ruth Ware, and Jillian didn't seem like she was in love with this novel either (she read it before I did) so I wasn't sure what to expect.  (You'll have to read her review to see her thoughts.)  So, I went into this novel half thinking that I wasn't going to enjoy it and that it would be draggy.  However, I was pleasantly surprised.  

This novel is a psychological thriller about a woman named Anna who has agoraphobia caused by the result of a traumatic experience.  What was this traumatic experience?  We're not quite sure, but we do know that she won't leave her house...she can't leave her house.  However, just because Anna can't leave her house does not mean that she doesn't know what's going on in her neighborhood.  She sees into other people's homes from the safety of her front window.   

Now, Anna is heavily medicated with anti-anxiety medications that should not be mixed with alcohol, that being said, Anna is also an alcoholic. So one day when Anna claims that she saw her neighbor get stabbed, not only dos the reader begin to wonder if Anna is hallucinating, but the characters and even Anna herself do as well.  

Now without giving too much away...
What I liked about this novel:  
-It was fast paced with REALLY short chapters which made me read faster
-Anna's mind was... interesting 

What I didn't like: 
- The ending of the novel seemed too...theatric and even borderline cliche... I wanted something else.  

In comparison to last month's read, where I walked around wondering "wtf did I just read?"  to the point where I didn't even remember it, this novel kept me interested and wanting to find out more.  I read this book in about two days, and for that fact alone, I am going to give it 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans. 

~Jessica
 

Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson -- Reshelved Books

Hello again, Dewey Readers!

There's snow out there. 

Another day, another book review! 
I read Peter Swanson's Her Every Fear in one day.  That's how good it was.  Needless to say, I did read it during a snowstorm, but still.  I could not put it down. 

This novel is about two cousins, Kate and Corbin,  who live in London and NYC respectively.  The cousins have never met before, but they make an arrangement to trade apartments for a period of 6 months.  Kate has terrible anxiety, and she isn't sure if she should be worried or if it's just her mind that makes her worried.  She also suffers from terrible panic attacks that make her feel like she is going to stop breathing and die.  But she knows the panic attacks will not kill her, and that the attacks will eventually pass.  However, it does not stop her overwhelming fear that there is something out there that WILL kill her.  

Having suffered from panic attacks myself, I sort of related to Kate.  I get where she's coming from and and how the attacks can make her anxiety escalate.  However, unlike me, her panic attacks stem from trauma that she experienced.  Previous to the novel's start, Kate had been in an absuive relationship with a man who as jealous and violent.  After Kate broke up with him, she came home one day to him sitting on her bed with a gun.  He locked her in the bedroom closet and committed suicide outside the closet door.  Kate was locked in that closet for days until she was found.  

Now in NYC, Kate walks into the midst of a crime scene where her would be neighbor was violently murdered, the body mutilated.  Police suspect that her cousin may or may not be a suspect.  It is also possible that the killer is on the loose and perhaps has killed women before.  Kate has the suspicion that something isn't right in her apartment. Doors that she felt like she shut are slightly ajar, the eyes of portraits that she drew aren't quite the way that she remembered drawing them... but she tells herself it's just her anxious mind.  

This novel is as much of a thriller as it is about trusting yourself and your instincts.  Jillian and I both hated the last thriller we read (check out our Battle Book Reviews of the Lying Game) but this one was refreshingly fast paced and different.  I also liked how while parts of the novel took place in London, more than half of the novel took place in the U.S.  perhaps this kept me culturally in tune...  

So Dewey Readers  I leave you with a review of 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  If you're thinking of reading a thriller, pick up this one.

~Jessica              

Battle of the Book: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Hello all!

For our readers who are here in New Jersey, I hope everyone made it out of Winterstorm Quinn okay. 

I thought I would start a new series.... Battle of the Books. 
Jess and I will both be attending the "Spine Breakers" book club next week.  The book this month was The Lying Game (obviously, lol.)

Last week Jess posted a review on The Lying Game by Ruth Ware. She beat me to posting a new review! Which isn't hard to do when you have a million things going on and you only get sit down in front of your computer once a week.

I know that Jess and I usually read different genres but novels that have the same themes.  I thought though that it would be interesting for you guys to see what I thought of The Lying Game versus what Jess thought of the same book. 

You can check out Jess's review here. 

Unlike Jess, I hadn't heard much about this book prior to reading it.  I knew of two people (excluding her) who read the book and the opinions there this: one loved the book and the one hated it. 

Ware's story opens when someone finding a body. Very vague. Very creepy. 

The first character that we met is Isa Wilde, a lawyer and a new mother to a 6 month old baby girl, Freya. 

Isa receives a text message a three word text "I need you". It's not only Isa who gets this text, it's also Fatima and Thea.  
The person who sent the text is Kate. 
It's been FIFTEEN YEARS since these four women have spoken to each other. 

Fifteen years ago these four women were in a boarding school together - fifteen years ago these four women participated in something that you could easily say was criminal. 

Lies that they had spun and woven for the fifteen years are falling apart right before their eyes. 

When the girls were completing their fifth year at school, Ambrose Atagon (the art teacher, who is Kate's father) committed suicide.  No one at the time knows why he committed suicide.  What they do know is that private sketches of the girls done by Ambrose ended up in the hands of the head mistress at school. 

The actions from the night that Ambrose died, tied in with the sketches is what ultimately gets the girls kicked out. 

Ware spins a story that follows these 4 women as they navigate the past and their lies.  There are peaks, twists and turns. There is some confusion but the story does come together at the end.

My feelings on this book? I'm feeling neutral on it.  I didn't love it and I didn't hate it.  It was just there. 

I feel like the focus of the book is Isa. 

I did not like Isa. 

I didn't like how she canoodled with Luc! I didn't like how Luc took the baby! I didn't like her character; I left like she was whiny. I was impressed with the way that Ware was able to tie the story together at the end.  I left like there were a lot of different things happening (Luc and Isa is the perfect example!!) I personally don't feel like any strings were left undone....

I also didn't feel like the book was that much of a thriller. I thought it fell both short and flat on that. I wouldn't say that it was easy to figure out right away, but once all of the evidence was presented, you could definitely follow her thought process. 

I give this book 2 coffee beans out of 5 coffee beans. Sadly, there is no conflict between our reviews for our first battle of the book!

Stay tuned to see what next month might bring!

~ Jillian

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware: Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers! 

I recently joined a 4th book club.  That's right.  I'm absolutely insane!  This 4th book club meets for dinner one Tuesday a month and it's brand spanking new!  Can you guess what it's called?..... It's called....The Spine Breakers! 

So, for this book club we decided to read The Lying Game by Ruth Ware, which brings us to today's book review.  I heard great things about Ruth Ware so I was excited to pick up her latest novel, but unfortunately my excitement fell rather flat.  The opening of the book is spooky and great.  In the prologue, a woman is walking when she finds the remains of a body.  Where did this body come from?  Was there a murder? Who committed it?  

Once we move past the prologue we encounter the main characters, four women who were suspended from their fancy prep school many years ago... but why?  When one of the girls, Issa, receives a text message begging for her help, she returns to the town of the school where these 4 women were once friends.  Throw in a school dinner reunion that the women just happen to go to and a game called "the lying game" that the girls played and played well, we become immersed in their confusing world, a blending between truth and lies, where even the girls themselves can't differentiate between the two.

For me, the premise of the book was interesting but I wanted more.  I wanted to know more about the dinner, more about the lies, and more about the psychology of the four women.  Without that, the book seemed to be rushed over.  I found myself zoning out, and even now I am having trouble recalling what I actually read.

So Dewey Readers, I leave you with a stale rating of 1.5 out of 5 sad little Coffee Beans.             

Follow Me Back by A.V. Geiger - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Fans! 

I just finished a new novel called Follow Me Back by A.V. Geiger.  It's a ya suspense novel that tackles twitter, anxiety, and fangirl culture.  

This photo was really hard to take.
I had to hold my computer backwards & upside down. 

A Brief Summary 
The novel centers around a love for a pop star named Eric Thorn.  There are Twitter pages devoted to those who love Eric, where the accounts post photos of him, essentially stalk him, and believe that they are "friends in the head" with him.  One of these Eric Thorn fans is Tessa Heart, who's Twitter handle is @TessaHeartsEric.  Tessa is agoraphobic so this Twitter interaction is just about all the communication that Tessa has with the outside world.  However, Tessa wasn't always phobic of being outside or with people.  How she became agoraphobic is one of the mysteries this novel uncovers. 

Eric Thorn also has his own private Twitter...Can you guess what it's called?.... @EricThornSucks. A hate account about himself? Yes.  Because Eric hates the Eric that the fangirls love and that his PR team has made him become.  The famous Eric is not the real Eric, and the famous Eric sort of sucks.  The fangirl nature of this book is explored when @EricThornSucks begins DMing @TessaHeartsEric.  

What I Thought  
At first I thought I might choose this book as a book club choice for my Adults Who Read YA group, but then I thought "eh...maybe not."  If it weren't for the suspense / thriller aspects of this book it could have easily fallen flat while being seen as "too childish" due to the fangirl obsession.  However, I really could not put this book down and finished it rather quickly.  The more I thought about this book, the more I liked it.  However, I don't think I'll be doing it for the next book group... at least not yet. 

So Dewey Readers, I leave you with a rating of 4.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  

Until the next read! 

~Jessica  

The Chemist by Stephanie Meyer: Currently Reading

Nov. 21, 2016: This week I decided to read The Chemist by Stephanie Meyer (2016).  I guess one could say that I've had a knack for reading thrillers this month! 

This is Meyer's newest release focusing around a woman (Dr. Juliana Fortis) who worked for the government prior to leaving her position and going into hiding.  Fortis has spent the last several years on the run, hiding in plain sight; constantly using different aliases and always altering her appearance with wigs and clothes.  Fortis isn't quite sure what to expect when her old boss reaches out to her but in her own way, she is intrigued and meets with him to talk...

I haven't gotten much further than this in the book! With that being said, I am excited to see how the book pans out and I can't wait to tell you all what I think of this book next week!

This is my first time reading a book by Stephanie Meyer.  As you all know, last week I said that I was a lover of YA fiction and I am.  However, I never read the Twilight Series.  (I accept the repercussions that may be associated with the reveal of this deep dark secret of mine...)  I wasn't drawn to the allure of vampires, even Edward Cullen! Even though Robert Pattinson made very cute vampire in the movies.

I found The Chemist while I was checking out the new release on bn.com last week and after reading the sneak peek, I decided that I would take the chance and step out of my comfort zone and get back on the thriller train. (I did a review of All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda last week.  If you're interest, you can check out that review in the achieve section to the left of this post!) 

~ Jillian

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda: Reshelved Books

Hello to everyone who is reading this post!

Thursday is upon us and as promised, here is the review of All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda. This novel is Miranda's first having been written for the adult community; she has written several books for the YA community prior.  (Her newest YA novel: The Safest Lies is a book that I have added to my GoodReads "to-read" bookshelf.)

But as to not get too off topic, let us get back to why you are reading this post!

All the Missing Girls takes place in a small town in North Carolina, called Cooley Ridge. The main character Nic Farrell goes back to her hometown to finish work on tying up some lose ends: cleaning up and getting her father's house on the market and getting guardianship of him with her brother, Daniel.  Having received a letter from her father prior to her trip down to Cooley Ridge, Nic's past is about to come back in a big way.

During her visit, a girl named Annaelise goes missing, essentially vanishing into the darkness of the night. Searches in the woods turn up nothing and no one seems to know what happened to her.  This coupled with the fact that her best friend, Corinne went missing ten years ago makes Nic feel uneasy.  Slowly the past comes back to haunt Nic and one could even say that it consumes her....

After reading the synopsis on GoodReads, I thought to myself "Yes! I can get on board with this!"  (I do spend my days off watching Investigation Discovery, a channel that makes my husband VERY uneasy. lol).

So I took myself to the Barnes and Nobles and searched the fiction section high and low for the book.

Feeling triumphant that I had found the book!

That night, I was able to settle down with a cup of coffee and started reading All the Missing Girls...

That was on a Thursday and I finished the book on Saturday night (a chilly, windy Saturday that added to the effect of the story!).

Miranda definitely knew how to write a page turner.  I did NOT want to put the book down and there were times that I was reading where I wished I was able to read and comprehend the book at a faster rate just so I could find out what ends up happening.

With that being said.... Let the review begin!!

As I wrote before, the book was a definite page turner.  

I know that part of the appeal to this book was that it went backwards. Part 2 of the book started on Day 15 and worked it's way back to Day 1. To me, that was the main reason in why I felt a lack of information being given.  The story started to fall in place around Day 4 and then the reader received most of the answers during those first (last?) 4 days. 

But there were points during the book that I felt there wasn't any information being given.  I left that I was reading and reading for cliffhangers and lose ends. 

Now keep in mind at by the time I got Day 4, you had read most of the book... And received many cliffhangers.... I was left BEGGING for answers!

Then I got to Part 3, which was set back at Day 15 and after finishing that part and the book, I felt like I was ripped off and I was felt a little confused and with more questions: After all of this time, why Tyler? Why give into what the cops wanted to see happen, when it is something that seems totally out of left field AND even felt them scratching their heads? What happened to Laura and Daniel? I could go on but I'll spare you.

I felt that the book was wrapped up in a hurried way.  No rhyme or reason and that everything was all muddled at the end. Nic didn't have any reason to do any of the things that she did in Part 3.  Had the story not gone backwards, I wouldn't have felt that Nic was acting erratically.  Or at least WHY she was acting the way that she was would have been out in the open.

All in all, it wasn't the best book I've read but it wasn't the worst either. 

I didn't care for how it went backwards in the middle of the book and I didn't like how I had questions that needed to be answered because they were addressed given the format of the story and how it ended.

I did appreciate how the story line pulled me in and made me want to keep turning the page.

Instead of giving this story a 3 star rating, I am going to give three coffee beans out of five. (Because we love our coffee on this blog!)

~ Jillian