Review: Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen

Read this if…you like reading about serial killers and are prepared to read late into the night.

*This book contains violence and some graphic descriptions. Nothing overboard, but your typical thriller fare.*

It’s been twenty years since the Lovelorn Killer terrorized the people of Chicago. Responsible for the deaths of seven women, whom he tied up and strangled in a ritualistic way, this terrifying serial killer is no longer active. Many believe he’s dead or locked up for lesser crimes, but a small group of armchair detectives led by Grace Harper believe he’s still out there and can be caught. When Grace is found murdered in the same way as the Lovelorn Killer’s other victims, Detective Annalisa Vega gets her chance to solve the infamous case that has eluded the best law enforcement agencies, but at what cost?

WOW! I haven’t read a police procedural this good in a long time! It was suspenseful and spooky. I read mostly at night and there were a few times that I got up to close the blinds because I was just so creeped out by this story. This is my first time reading this author, but I plan on following more of Detective Vega’s adventures as they come out. I guessed the serial killer, so I took a star off for that, but then the ending just blew me away, so it earned the lost star back. If you’re a thriller fan, you’ll devour this one!

My Rating: ★★★★★

At the time of this post, this title is set to be released on August 10th, 2021.

*Thanks to the author, St. Martin's Press, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Review: Mummy’s Little Secret by M.A. Hunter

Read this if…your life has been overwhelming lately and you need to feel better about your circumstances by comparing yourself to someone who has it a lot worse. 

Trigger warning: This review and the book have themes that include stillbirth, postpartum depression, drug abuse, and domestic violence.

Let me introduce you to a character I have nicknamed “Hot Mess Jess.” Jess has a lot on her plate. Just 6 months prior, she got into a car accident that triggered her labor and resulted in the death of her unborn son and left her paralyzed from the waist down. Understandably, she’s having a rough time dealing with the loss of her baby and her mobility. One day while at the park with her daughter, Jess is approached by a little girl who tells her the woman she’s with isn’t her mother. Jess is concerned, but everyone she tells about the strange encounter  just tells her she’s being paranoid. So Jess starts doing her own digging into this woman. Fast forward a week and Jess is the prime suspect in a murder committed at this woman’s house.

I liked how this novel was set up. The chapters alternate between Jess and Morag (the mystery woman) from the time they meet up until the murder. At the same time, readers are presented with chapters in the present from the lead detective’s POV. This really kept me reading to try and see how this chance meeting at a park could result in so much chaos. 

That being said, Hot Mess Jess was just too much. Her character was so depressing and even with giving her the empathy she deserved, I found her to be unlikable. The twists and turns were there, but didn’t really surprise me. And I hated how it ended. So, it wasn’t a terrible read, but it could’ve been better in a lot of ways.

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️//5

At the time of this review, this book is scheduled to be released on August 3, 2021.

Thanks to the author, Harper Collins UK, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review: For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

Just a disclaimer: no teacher I know thinks or behaves the way teachers in this book do! Haha! 

Teddy is a teacher at a prestigious private school where the students are entitled and the parents are even worse. He puts up with all the nonsense because he believes it is his job to teach these kids how to be decent human beings. If their parents have shielded them from appropriate consequences, then Teddy steps in to show them how the real world works, even if that means being a tad unethical and petty at times. It’s all for the good of the students, after all. However, Teddy’s lessons aren’t solely focused on his students, which becomes clear when one of his pranks goes horribly wrong and leaves someone dead. Teddy doesn’t stop there though and the whole school is about to become known as #HomicideHigh.

I had previously read ‘My Lovely Wife’ by Samantha Downing and really enjoyed it. So when this one popped up on NetGalley, I put my request in right away. Being a teacher, I have to admit that Teddy couldn’t have been much farther from a teacher of the year with his warped sense of duty to his students. That being said, this novel was extremely enjoyable to read. Teddy is a true villain and there were a lot of twists and turns throughout the book to keep me reading. My only complaints were that the pacing slowed down quite a bit about 2/3 of the way through and while the ending was satisfying, it seemed a little subdued considering the huge buildup.

My Rating: ★★★★☆

At the time of this post, this title is set to be released on July 20, 2021.

*Thanks to the author, Berkley Publishing, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Review: Meditations for Psychic Development by Chandra Parkinson

If you are interested in learning more about how to strengthen your psychic abilities, Chandra Parkinson's book may be for you. Meditations for Psychic Development: Practical Exercises to Awaken Your Sixth Sense gives the reader an opportunity to learn more about their abilities and provides easy-to-implement meditation exercises to increase those abilities. The first section of the book covers the basics the author thinks the reader needs to know and understand in order to reach their fullest potential. There is a short introduction explaining how everyone is psychic to some degree and how to create a mindset that will nurture your psychic growth. The fundamentals of meditation and psychic work are also addressed, but only on a surface level. A quiz is provided to help readers determine how they best receive psychic information through one or more of the "clairs" (clairvoyance, clairsentience, clairaudience, and claircognizance). There are specific meditations that align with each of these clairs provided, as well as questions for journaling and reflecting on the reader's experiences. Then, the chakras are explained briefly and meditations for opening the third eye, enhancing your intuition, and grounding yourself for protection are included.

The next section of the book goes into more advanced forms of receiving and connecting with psychic messages. Meditations that address auras, spirit guides, mediumships, nature, and your higher self are included in this section. Like in the previous section, each meditation includes prompts for journaling and reflection.

Personally, to make these meditations work for me, I recorded myself reading them aloud and played them back as a guided meditation. Some people might be able to just read the meditations first and then go through the exercise on their own, but I was not successful using this book in that way. Of the meditations I did try, I felt the immediate benefits of a slower heartrate, and a calm, clear mind. It's too soon for me to say whether or not these exercises have increased my psychic abilities yet, but with continued practice, I'm hopeful. All of these meditations were easy to do and even those who have never meditated before should be able to complete them. I appreciated the addition of the journaling prompts because it allows me to track my progress as I do the meditations more and more.

Overall, this is a great beginner book for those interested in strengthening their psychic skills. I can't guarantee the exercises actually increase psychic ability, but I can say that I felt all the usual benefits from sitting down and meditating. So it's definitely not a waste of time and worth checking out if this is something that interests you.

My Rating: ★★★★☆

At the time of this post, this title is set to be released on August 8th, 2021.

*Thanks to the author, Llewellyn Worldwide, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Review: The Serial Killer’s Wife by Alice Hunter

With all the serial killer novels I’ve read, I’d like to think I’d have an inkling if my husband were sneaking around and murdering women, but maybe that’s what the protagonist in Alice Hunter’s latest novel, The Serial Killer’s Wife, thought too. Beth thinks she has the perfect family. She lives with her doting husband, Tom, and adorable three year-old daughter, Poppy. So you can imagine her shock when the police show up on her doorstep looking for Tom in relation to the disappearance and assumed murder of his former girlfriend. As the murder investigation begins to wreak havoc on her family, public perception of Beth takes a turn for the worse. Is she really just another innocent victim in her husband’s deadly games or does she know more than she’s letting on? 

This one is tricky. It definitely will appeal to fans of unreliable narrators. I won’t give any spoilers, but I will say that I had already decided about 60% in that this would be 3 stars at the highest. It started out right in the middle of the action with the police showing up at Beth’s door looking for her husband in relation to a murder inquiry, but I just couldn’t understand Beth’s behavior. A lot of that made more sense as some twists and turns were revealed, but I couldn’t stand her character. The only reason I’m giving this one an extra half star is because of the ending. It completely surprised me and ended the book on a high note.

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫//5

Add this one to your TBR list if you think you’d like it. Pub day is August 3, 2021!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Avon Books for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens

Being addicted to ID Discovery shows about murder and mayhem, I was instantly intrigued by Chevy Stevens's newest novel, Dark Roads. I vaguely remember watching a special about a Canadian highway that was the last known location of a lot of missing women and is believed to be the hunting route of a serial killer. So when I read the synopsis of Dark Roads, about a similar stretch of highway through the dark Canadian wilderness where women from all walks of life, especially indigenous women, disappear never to be seen or heard from again, I knew I needed to add it to my TBR pile.

The story is narrated by two young women who experience first-hand the evil that can lurk in the dark. Hailey was recently orphaned when her father died in a tragic accident and now has to live with her aunt and uncle. Her Uncle Vaughn is referred to as "The Iceman" by the kids in town because of his strict demeanor. He is always nagging Hailey about not walking or biking at night along the Cold Creek Highway. An apparent control freak, Vaughn and Hailey do not get along well under the best of circumstances, so it's no surprise that things come to a head when Hailey discovers that Vaughn is keeping a dark and dangerous secret. Fearing for her safety, Hailey runs away to live off the grid in an attempt to free herself from Vaughn's control. It doesn't take long for the town to assume that Hailey too has become a victim of the Cold Creek Highway.

One year passes and the story picks up with Beth, a young woman who drops out of law school after her sister is found murdered in a ditch along the infamous highway. Beth is struggling to come to terms with her sister's death and the fact that the police don't seem to have answers about the monster who destroyed her family's lives. She decides to visit Cold Creek herself and steps into the life her sister lived, waitressing at the same restaurant and living out of a motel before deciding to set herself up at the local campground. When Beth accidentally crosses paths with Hailey, the two girls must work together to stay out of the clutches of a ruthless killer who is watching their every move.

This turned out to be a completely different story from what I had been expecting, but I still enjoyed it. Dark Roads started off really strong. I flew through the first part of the book where Hailey was the only narrator. Stevens did a wonderful job of developing characters and building the 'creep' factor. Her ability to create a realistic setting is quite impressive. Unfortunately, the novel really slowed when the narrator switched to Beth and took quite awhile to pick back up again. Having read the whole book now, I would say this is just a minor flaw considering the intensity takes back over for the last 20% of the book. There were times I considered not finishing it because I was bored of Beth's day to day life in Cold Creek, but I'm so glad I stuck with it because what followed was action-packed and exciting! There will be a few spots you'll have to trudge through in order to get to the thrilling ending, but it really is worth it! If that sounds like something you can handle, go check it out!

My Rating: ★★★★☆

At the time of this post, this title is set to be released on August 3rd, 2021.

*Thanks to the author, St. Martin's Press, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Review: The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

One thing I love is a good scary movie from the 1980s, before horror movies became all about the gore and shock value. When I read the synopsis of Grady Hendrix's novel, The Final Girl Support Group, I knew it was something I would have to read. It follows the lives of several "final girls" decades after they each became the sole survivor in their own real-life horror movie. Many of these women's tales inspired hokey film franchises and tell-all books written by horror-obsessed fans. Lynette is one of these final girls and finds life after tragedy to be difficult, to put it mildly. Scared that she'll one day be the target of a psychotic killer again, she practically lives as a shut-in, literally behind a cage she's installed in her apartment. She has no one in her life, besides a plant she talks to and her fellow final girls, who meet monthly for a group therapy session in secret. All of Lynette's precautions prove inadequate though when the final girls become the target of someone who wants them all dead. She must face her fears of the outside world and put decades' worth of preparation into action if she wants to survive and save the only people who understand her.

This book was a fun read! It got a bit over-the-top with the gore and violence for me in a few bits, but I'm not going to hold that against the story because it is in the appropriate horror genre. It honestly felt like I was watching a modern-day horror movie. There were a lot of connections to famous horror films like Halloween, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Scream, just to name a few. I found myself spooked quite a few times while reading this late at night when I was the only one in the house awake. My biggest complaint is that the ending to the big scene at the end seemed a little rushed. I went back a few pages just to make sure I hadn't accidentally skipped over a big chunk because I couldn't really believe that was it. The build up to the scene was great and then it just deflated. There were also several instances throughout the novel where the characters were just too unbelievable or stared to annoy me. Lynette could be very repetitive and whiny. Also, there's no way the cops would have acted towards Lynette the way they did in the novel. I mean, they refuse her right to a lawyer, lock her up for days while taunting her with graphic material related to her traumatic past. Maybe a handful of cops would've been jerks, but an entire station psychologically abusing someone like that without repercussions just seems so far-fetched. 

Overall, The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix is worth your time, especially if you're a fan of classic horror movies. Despite some minor issues with the story, it is mostly fast-paced and suspenseful with some surprising twists and a lot of bad-ass female characters. 

My Rating: ★★★★☆

At the time of this post, this title is set to be released on July 13th, 2021.

*Thanks to the author, Berkley Publishing Group, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!