A murder is committed. A suspect is tried and convicted. It should be the end of the story, but for Oliver Marks it was only the beginning.
Ten years ago Oliver Marks was convicted of murdering a fellow student at the prestigious arts university he attended. The victim was part of Oliver’s inner circle of friends and while Oliver admitted to the murders, it hasn’t be adding up for his remaining group of friends and the detective in charge of the case. Now, Oliver is being released and the detective is retiring. Before they go their separate ways, the detective has a favor to ask Oliver. Could he tell him what really happened ten years ago? Oliver agrees, telling a sordid tale of obsession, lies, and secrets that, when it is over, reveals the complicated truth of what really happened that fateful night out on the lake.
Ms. Rio’s book, set at a university where the students are trained to be Shakespearean actors, has become a staple of the dark academia genre. Sometimes coined as a modern version of Donna Tartt’s classic The Secret History, If We Were Villains is a must read for anyone in the dark academia genre and it is a conclusion I completely agree with.
From the start the reader gets the sense that something is off both with Oliver’s initial story that he told the police and what is occurring in the group of friends once Oliver begins telling the story. The friends all come off as being supportive of one another but some resentment has begun to blossom and when the cast for the upcoming play Julius Caesar is announced, these tensions reach a boiling point. Once the murder is committed, the reader witness the remaining students’ slow descent into madness and their desire to do anything to avoid being caught. All this tension and plot building is done exceedingly well and highlights how well the story is written.
The characters are all well developed and Oliver as the narrator provides the reader with compelling commentary while also asking if Oliver is telling the whole truth or if he is leaving details out to protect the others. The characters are perhaps the greatest strength of this book and why the story is so compelling. To the outside, they are ordinary students with a touch of the theatrical but when crisis erupts in their midst, they all begin to spiral and think of how to protect themselves from outsiders looking in.
The ending of this book and who was responsible for the murder is both shocking and well worth the wait. By the time the murderer is revealed the reader may have a sense of who has done it, but the twist that Ms. Rio provides is enough to throw the reader for a loop.
There is nothing about this book that I would change and I could not recommend this book enough. It is an excellent dark academia book and though not necessarily the best mystery I have ever read, there is enough questions and suspense to keep you hooked until the very last page.
I turn to the last page, my heart thumping in my chest as I read the final line. It’s all come down to this and as I swallow the last three words, my mind is abuzz with a dozen thoughts I couldn’t decipher. As I closed the back cover I had expected to feel a rush of euphoria but instead all I felt was an unpleasant taste in my mouth and that awful thought that all readers seem to dread thinking.
That was it?
Perhaps, as you are reading this, you are laughing or feeling a shiver down your spine as your mind recalls that last book that you asked that question about. It’s not a pleasant feeling, especially if you are an avid reader like myself. Soon, you find yourself spiraling into a hole of questions. Had I missed something? Should I go back and re-read the whole thing? What was the appeal of this book anyways? Am I too dumb to realize it? Why oh why did I even pick this book up in the first place?
Yet, in addition these questions, I was also pricked by another unpleasant thought and one I have asked before. Why was this book so hyped up anyways?
Hyped books in general can be a slippery slope and one I have gone down a few times, though sometimes with pleasant results. For example, the beloved Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is turning out to be one of my favorite books of the year. But, I can also recall a few others that I didn’t reciprocate the adoration for.
As a writer and beginning blogger I spend a lot of time on social media and follow many fellow book-related creators, who are always recommending their favorite books and this book I finished despairing over was perhaps one of the most hyped books in the book universe and hence why I dread writing it.
(Image Credit: Goodreads)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
No! You can’t be serious? Are you sure? I can practically hear someone shouting these questions into their computer and I find
myself shuddering at the idea. Alas, it is true and believe me, it hurts me as much as it hurts you.
But I can also imagine someone reading this and asking, what the hell is The Secret History?
This 1992 book is often considered a modern classic and is essentially the grandfather of the now highly popular dark academia genre, which exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic and a genre which I do like reading, despite the often dark topics. The story follows our narrator, Richard, who gets accepted into a highly selective college in Vermont. A fan of the Greek language, history, and culture, Richard manages to nag a coveted position as one of only six students allowed to study the Classics under a charismatic teacher named Julian. The other five students are highly eclectic and a bit unusual, to say the least. The leader of the group is Henry, the poster boy for many a BookTok obsessed individual. He’s highly intelligent, overly polite but also a bit standoffish and odd. His closest friend is Edmund, nicknamed Bunny, who is fun loving and outspoken, but also someone who needs to learn a thing or two about financial budgeting and keeping his mouth shut. There are the twins, Charles and Camilla, who are inseparable and overly welcoming to Richard. Finally, there’s Francis, who is a bit of a nervous Nelly but also the closest thing Richard will have to a best friend. But while everything might seem rosy, that is far from the truth and when one of the friends threatens to expose a dark secret the others decide to make a fateful decision; commit murder.
Intriguing right? That’s what I thought and not even the nearly six hundred pages was enough to deter me from picking it up. The novel is set up into two “books” and the first one is excellent, building tension and the plot. When the murder occurs 250+ pages in, I’m not even bothered that it took quite a while to get to it and I excitedly began reading the second half of the book. It had over three hundred pages left so I anticipated a lot of stuff to happen.
I should have stopped there.
I’m not going to reveal any spoilers but I was highly disappointed. For a book that started off so promisingly, I was left in a pool of frustration when it came to a close and it forced me to answer an important question, can books be overhyped and, if they are, why are we so afraid of saying so?
Though our society has become more tolerant and more open to differing opinions, when it comes to certain books, some opinions are not always wanted. Let’s look at classic books, particularly two you have undoubtedly heard of and perhaps even read; Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby.
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The Jane Austen classic is highly acclaimed by readers and critics alike, to the point that it has become the blueprint for romance books that followed. I read this book when I was an undergraduate in college and enjoyed it. Didn’t love itbut didn’t have many complaints. My fellow classmates also liked it, and that seems to be the general consensus though there are those who are borderline obsessed with it (no judgement, there are worse things to be obsessed with). Looking over the numbers on Goodreads, only 2% of the over four million people who reviewed and rated the book gave it one star. But that’s not what’s interesting. What is telling is how people reacted to these negative reviews. One reviewer had posted their review shortly after they read it when they were seventeen and had since added a disclaimer. The disclaimer stated that while the reviewer hadn’t re-read Pride and Prejudice since they originally read it in high school, they did acknowledge that perhaps they wouldn’t feel the same way now ten years on but pleaded with those reading the review to please stop making comments about their intelligence level. After reading a couple of those comments I soon realized why the reviewer had added that disclaimer. Some individuals were brutal in their review of this person’s opinion and I felt sympathetic for the original reviewer while also applauding them for not being afraid to share their opinion. Still, some of the comments must have stung.
But, there is also something to say about safety in numbers. Going to the opposite side of the spectrum, what about liking a classic book that no one else enjoys, or any book for that matter? That’s where I found myself in my high school literature class a decade ago when my class read The Great Gatsby. Often mandatory reading in the American school system, Gatsby was originally panned by critics when it was released but grew in popularity during World War Two and has since been hailed a classic for showing how unobtainable the American Dream is. When we finished the book, I felt overjoyed at the prospect of discussing the book in class. I loved it, and still love it.
Unfortunately for eager sixteen-year-old me, no one else in my class agreed. The discussion quickly erupted into a bashing of the book, with each of my classmates taking turns in saying what they hated about it. By the time class came to an end I felt as if I had committed a crime by loving the book and I kept my opinion to myself. I thought I had grown past that, recognizing that everyone is entitled to an opinion and I was certainly allowed to speak mine, but flashforward to today after finishing The Secret History and I find myself going back and forth about whether to say anything about the book or to move on to the next.
The danger of a book being overhyped is that it can often lead other individuals to make the wrong assumptions about it and The Secret History seems to be a victim of this. Because of the genre it sparked, I was under the impression that The Secret History was a murder/thriller and that the second half of the book would focus on the investigation, the near hits and misses of the students being caught, and some dramatic twist at the end that would have me spiraling. None of that actually happened. In fact, the book is quite far from a murder mystery and I would classify it more as literary fiction as Ms. Tartt examines several big theories in the book such as how dangerous it can be for a person to live by their aesthetic as opposed to their moral compass, which is strangely ironic given the book sparked an entire aesthetic. Nonetheless, it left me wondering if I would have enjoyed the book if I had known that ahead. Probably not, as my main issues with the story are plot driven. For example, the police investigation into the murdered student’s death is highly underdeveloped. Considering the murdered student had a small circle of friends, I found it strange that the investigators did not interview all five of the remaining characters and it was something I felt would have been jumped on by readers in any other book. Which begs another question relating to why we are afraid to speak out against hyped books; are these books’ flaws forgiven and/or ignored?
The answer to this question is probably not easy to answer as perceived flaws in a story might not be perceived that way by others. Soon we find ourselves in a heavy debate about author intentions, plot devices, and character development, bringing us all back to the original question of can books be so overhyped that we ignore any potential flaws the story can have? I think we can and that is not necessarily wrong. One of my personal favorite books is The Edge of Daylight by Giselle Beaumont, a heavily fictionalized account of Titanic‘s officers on the ill-fated ship’s maiden voyage, including the addition of a female officer. The book is the farthest thing from historical accuracy, there are flaws, and yet every time I pick it up I’m fully invested and love it just as much as I had read it the first time. But, if you were to ask me if I would recommend it, I would but with a cautionary warning for the after mentioned reasons.
(Image Credit: Goodreads)
And I think therein lies the reason why we overhype books. The current political/social situations many people are facing, regardless of where they live in the world, can often make the future look daunting, scary, or hopeless so we look for an escape. Books have been providing people outlets to forget the outside world and have some peace, even if temporary and can we really fault people for that? I can’t, and I do see why so many people loved The Secret History.
Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with loving any book but when it comes to overhyping a book, it can be a bit dangerous. Yes, you want to share a story you absolutely adored (and as an author we love it when our readers hype us up!) but we shouldn’t want to overhype a book to the point that the true intention and message is lost in translation because, as we can all see, that sometimes lead to bitter disappointment and frustration.
I should say now that I do think The Secret History had some good aspects to it. For one, Ms. Tartt is an extraordinarily talented writer that could probably make instructions on how to put together a bookcase sound interesting. The characters are also very well developed and the tension being built throughout the book is exceptionally well done. But, at the end of the day, those positive attributes weren’t enough to counteract my dislike for the parts I felt were lacking.
So what do we do about speaking our minds about disliking a beloved book? Well, from what I learned in my own personal experience that is not always an easy battle. There is always one person in the world who loves a book that you don’t like and that’s okay, but we should also respect one another’s opinions and thoughts. If we do this then, in time, we might be able to eliminate the stigma of sharing controversial opinions about books. Also important to keep in mind is that the person who wrote the book you aren’t liking also has emotions and that, while it’s okay to say you don’t like the story, we shouldn’t go overboard. The book you were reading simply wasn’t for you but perhaps the next one will be.
What is it like to be the private secretary to the Queen of England? Or the media specialist for the third in line to the throne? Do you get along with your co-workers or if the work environment hostile, where only the fittest can survive? These are just some of the questions asked and answered in Valentine Low’s book. Following several key people behind the House of the Windsor from the time Queen Elizabeth II became monarch to today, Courtiers explores the complex working environments these people find themselves in and how they balance pleasing their bosses while also working towards their end goal.
Within the last couple of years there has been quite a few new books coming out about the British Royal Family. Despite being a self-confessed lover of the British Royals I tend to stay away from these books as a lot of them repeat stories we’ve already seen in the news and don’t always offer up anything new. However, this book sparked my interest as it didn’t necessarily talk about the royals themselves but about the people working behind the scenes, something not previously spoken about.
Most of the book does focus on today’s British Royal Family so if you are looking for stories about the people who served before Queen Elizabeth II, you aren’t going to find much. However, there are enough interesting characters from Elizabeth’s reign that makes the book worthwhile. Mr. Low does a good job of illustrating the sometimes hostile environment that encases these staff members while also showing the family atmosphere that can be created, depending on the royal they are working with. He also gives us a healthy overview of key members, providing us with enough key information and interesting anecdotes but not so much that it becomes boring and you find yourself glazing over the pages. That being said, there are some parts that do seem to drag on a bit too long and why I didn’t give the book a perfect rating. Still, this is a fascinating book about those who help the royal family “rule” Britain.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the inner workings of the royal family and also to anyone who enjoys a bit of rich people gossip, as there is plenty of that in the book. This is also for anyone who likes a good with good intrigue, especially intrigue that is very much a true story!
When Libby Day was seven years old she witnessed the brutal and bloody deaths of her mother and two older sisters. She manages to escape, suffering injuries of her own and lives to tell the tale, including telling authorities that it was her older brother, Ben, who did the slayings. Twenty-four years later Libby is still haunted by that night and can’t seem to move on with her life. When her lawyer informs her that the money that was donated to her as a result of her tragedy is running dry, Libby starts looking for alternative streams of revenue and one group seems more than willing to help her out.
Lyle runs a group of amateur investigators who have studied the Day murders and firmly believe that Ben was wrongly convicted. Despite Libby’s own belief her brother is guilty she agrees to reach out and interview people the group believes to actually be behind the murders in order to get some answers. In exchange, Libby can make some money. But as she investigates the group’s other theories she begins to question her own memories and finds herself asking the questions she had long ago blocked out of her mind, what if Ben was innocent? And, if he was, who killed her family and why?
From the first page this book had me hooked. Extremely well written, Ms. Flynn gets us into the minds of essentially our three main characters; Libby, her mother Patty, and Ben. The story switches from Libby’s point of view to Patty and Ben’s on the day of the murders. All the characters are fairly well developed, particularly Libby. When we first meet her she is suicidal, walking about life like a ghost and to a degree unmotivated to make a better life for herself. Yet, as the story progresses, we see Libby grow and mature, starting to take some ownership for the mistakes she has made in life and pushing herself to explore questions that had previously made her uncomfortable, which takes a lot of strength. On the same topic though a slight deviation, how Libby conducts herself when first meet Lyle and his group of investigators is beyond admirable! I personally found the whole group to be infuriating as they disregarded Libby’s own experiences and yet Libby handled it with slightly more grace than I would have. So bravo to Libby.
As Libby attempts to uncover the truth behind the murders, we get flashbacks to Patty and Ben and the events that are building up to the murders. I felt great sympathy for Patty and what she was dealing with, particularly with her son. Like any parent she wants to believe her son is good and wouldn’t do anything to hurt someone, but she is presented with some pretty troubling evidence that would be hard for anyone to swallow. At the same time, Ben is a bit sketchier. He is clearly suffering and looking for acceptance, but the reader is left with some questions about him and why he is doing the things he is. I also wanted to take him by his shoulders and shake some sense into him, especially during the murders. If he had enough strength and self confidence then the ending might have been different.
The reason why I did not give this book a full five stars is because of the ending. Throughout the story we are led to a lot of other possible suspects but they all seem to come to dead endings, leaving the reader wondering who could have killed Patty and her daughters? Maybe it was Ben after all. When what actual happens occurs I was left a bit disappointed. The explanation Ms. Flynn gives seemed a bit of a cop out and I found myself roll my eyes at it. In fairness the explanation does make sense but I was expecting a much better punch at the end than what I got.
Overall this is a quick read that will help get you out of a reading slump but just be aware that the ending might not live up to the expectations that are built throughout the story.
Harriet thought the worse was behind her. When things ended between her and her longtime boyfriend/fiancé, Wyn, Harriet thought her life had ended. But she picked up the pieces and is now looking forward to her annual summer trip with her college best friends, Sabrina and Cleo, where she will reveal her relationship with Wyn is over.
Except that’s not what happens. Sabrina and her boyfriend are getting married that weekend and have invited Wyn to join them. To avoid ruining their special day, Harriet and Wyn agree to a ceasefire and pretend to still be in love and engaged. As the week goes on, Harriet and Wyn find themselves slipping into old habits and asking the question, are they still in love with each other?
Emily Henry has sort of become the queen of modern day romances and is a BookTok darling. I’ve seen many people rave about her books and perhaps because of that I’ve been hesitant to pick up one of them, feeling they wouldn’t live up to the hype. But then Ms. Henry released a book with a vibrant, hot pink cover and Target ran a buy 2 get 1 free special on their books and here we are.
This book had a good premise; lovers to enemies and possibly back to lovers again. I also liked the idea of the couple hiding the state of their true relationship from their friends, and the summer getaway location. Yet, what I feared would happen did happen.
I don’t think the book lived up to the hype.
Romance books can sometimes be fairly formulaic and although I had a pretty strong suspicion I knew how the book ended, I was still won over enough by the story (and the gorgeous cover) to grab it and give it a read. But that’s not the reason why I didn’t like this book. I didn’t like it for one major, big reason; Wyn.
For the life of me I couldn’t understand why Harriet was so enamored with this man. Yes, he’s nice and clearly a family person, but he’s hardly supportive of Harriet’s career ambitions and seems to blame her for a lot of the issues in their relationship. That is not to say Harriet is completely blameless and one does have to take into consideration that when the relationship ends Wyn is going through a very difficult family tragedy, but I just couldn’t get on board with them being a couple.
But what really took the cake for me was how the relationship ended between Harriet and Wyn. Throughout the story the reader gets the impression that the engagement ended because of something Harriet did, an idea seemingly reinforced by Wyn, who seems to be doing everything possible to get back into a relationship with Harriet. However, when that part of the story is finally revealed and the reader learns the truth, that it was Wyn who ended the relationship, not Harriet, and when he chose to do it, I was left infuriated. Again, Wyn was going through a hard time but Harriet did nothing to him, supported him through his mourning, and did not take a temptation that was propositioned to her, a proposition that deeply upset Harriet and caused her to tell Wyn, who them promptly cut ties with Harriet. That completely soured my feelings for their relationship. To me, Wyn didn’t have the skills and maturity to be in a relationship with Harriet and the fact that she, in the end, changes her entire life to make this work was just frustrating.
The book is also long, far too long for a romance and is very sluggish in some places. I did like the dynamics going on between Harriet and her two roommates, to the point I wished that was the main storyline instead, but also here there are some issues. Sabrina can be very overwhelming and perhaps do some questionable things but Harriet and Cleo fail to realize Sabrina’s own struggles and that, at the end of the day, she’s just trying to be a good friend who desperately misses the “old days.” Cleo comes off as very cranky and uninterested in keeping these friendships. Again, she has her own personal struggles but it doesn’t really justify her rude behavior towards Sabrina.
So the question is, will I ever read an Emily Henry book again? Possibly, but not any time soon. To me, Ms. Henry’s books are nothing really special and if I found a copy of another book of hers at a Goodwill or free little library I would give it a chance. Perhaps this was not one of her better works. However, there are plenty of other authors who do romance much better and I much rather read one of theirs in the future than pay full price for an Emily Henry so-so romance.
Ten years ago on a school field trip two vans filled with two teachers and multiple students crashed into a ravine, leaving only nine students alive. Most of the survivors are not friends with each other, but the tragedy forges a bond between them that intensifies when a year after the disaster one of the survivors kills herself. To make sure none of them are alone again on the anniversary of the accident, the remaining eight survivors agree to spend the anniversary week together at a beach house. However, a decade on and survivor Cassidy Bent isn’t sure she wants to attend this year’s event. She has created a new life for herself, one that includes her boyfriend and not the seven people she was been forced into a relationship with where the only thing they have in common is a tragedy.
That is until she receives devastating news that another one of the survivors, Ian, killed himself and Cassidy finds herself speeding towards the beach house on the Outer Banks. But once she arrives she quickly notices that not everything is what it appears to be and when fellow survivor Amaya disappears on the first night of the week she begins to feel that something is amiss. As each survivor relieves the terrible events of that fateful day, secrets that they had attempted to buried resurface and as the clock ticks in their search for Amaya, the survivors are forced to ask themselves, is one of them a killer?
The premise of this thriller is very interesting and the beautiful color had my hooked. Ms. Miranda does a great job of building tension that continues to increases as the days and eventually the hours tick by. I also liked how she included chapters where the disaster is seen through each of the survivor’s eyes, painting a complicated picture of the events that transpired and why their decisions continue to haunt them ten years on. I also appreciated Ms. Miranda’s portrayal of Cassidy, who the story is told from as she created a character that is clearly suffering from PTSD and is blocking out critical memories that are revealed at the very end of the story, mainly how the accident actually occurred.
Despite Ms. Miranda’s excellent tension building and plot devices, I was underwhelmed by the conclusion of the story and who the killer was. Without revealing anything I can say that the conclusion felt like the ending I read in a book I read earlier this year, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead. While the endings are not identical, they do have a very similar plot point that, since I read Ms. Winstead’s book first, left me greatly wanting more out of The Only Survivors. Additionally, while I liked how Ms. Miranda included scenes of the disaster from each of the survivors’ point of view, the fate of two of the other students who eventually didn’t survive remains a bit of a mystery to me. I can guess what happened to them but they didn’t seem to fit in with the story of what happened. With the exception of the teachers who were killed immediately in the crash, I only know what happened to one of the other student victims and that’s because it was what the plot was centered around.
As a result this book left me a bit underwhelmed and I’m not sure if I would pick it up again in the future. It was a good concept that was executed fairly well but the ending could have been improved.
Robert Ballard had one dream as a child growing up and that was to become Captain Nemo, exploring the depths of the ocean and discovering all the treasures hidden below. It’s an ambitious dream, especially from all the setbacks young Bob faced. Yet, in this vivid account of his left, Dr. Ballard shares with the reader who, even in the face of adversity, overcame it all and found the most famous shipwreck in the world, the Titanic.
I have been fascinated with the Titanic since a small child so whenever there is a new book about the disaster or the people involved with her story I normally have to pick it up. To my surprise, while surfing the Internet one night, I discovered Ballard had published his memoir a couple of years ago and it completely missed my radar (pun intended). I immediately ordered it and began reading it. Ironically and tragically, the day I started reading this was the day it was announced that the Titan Five had all perished while attempting to visit the Titanic wreck. As a result, I was more interested than ever about Ballard’s story and his mission to discover these famous shipwrecks.
Ballard is an interesting character with quite the story. A Kansas boy that grew up in California, Ballard struggled throughout school due to dyslexia, something no one really knew anything about when he was growing up. Despite his disability, he had big dreams for his future which included becoming an oceanographer and finding famous shipwrecks.
Essentially a modern day Captain Nemo.
Despite numerous bumps and hardships, Ballard achieves his dream and begins to work on a submersible that would allow him to explore the depths of the ocean. Through repeated testing to ensure it’s safety (what a concept) and some backing from the Navy, who had a very heavy interest in this type of technology, Ballard is able set out on the journey that made him internationally famous; finding the Titanic. But the story doesn’t end there and the reader learns more about his other discoveries and achievements since.
One thing I really enjoyed about this autobiography is that Ballard is a good story teller and you really do garner the impression that he cares about the wrecks he is exploring as well as the people lost in these disasters. In particular, you can feel his disdain and frustration in individuals who explored the Titanic after him, taking her treasures and not caring what damage they caused to the wreck as they did so. For that, I really respect him.
Some parts of the book do lag a little bit and some of the scientific information was hard to digest (in particular for a non-science person) but the reader does get the gist. Another critique of the book I will make is when Ballard is discussing his first and second wife, something that other reviewers have picked up on. The main critique of this is that he is very dismissive of the sacrifices his first wife, Margie, makes and doesn’t seem to register the fact that she allowed him to go on this trips where he would be gone for weeks at a time. I can see where some would feel this way but I would point out that he does state in the book that he recognizes Margie’s sacrifices and thanks her for that. However, I will say that how he goes about divorcing his wife is pretty awful. I also didn’t appreciate how he seemingly compared his first wife to his second wife, who he had more in common with and wasn’t the “housewife” that Margie was. Both women clearly had their strengths and I don’t think Ballard should have been comparing the two, even if not directly stated.
Overall, this is an excellent resource for individuals wanting to know more the man who discovered Titanic, and the various other adventures he went on. One can certainly say that Dr. Ballard achieved his dream.
Lux and her boyfriend, Nico, might be living in paradise but they are far from living the life they had hoped. When Lux met Nico and he invited her to see the world, she hadn’t expected to be “stuck” in Maui for several months working as a maid at an upscale hotel. Still, Lux believes in Nico and knows that one deal they will leave Hawaii behind and travel the world on Nico’s boat. As it turns out, that might be sooner than they expected when Nico is approached by two American college students, Brittany and Amma, to take they to an abandon and remote island in the Pacific that has a shady history of cannibalism and WWII secrets. Upon arriving at the beautiful paradise and meeting a couple, Jake and Eliza, a dark cloud of mystery, tension, and fear settles over the group that will eventually snap into unimaginable crimes being committed.
Let’s begin with this cover. Stunning! The cover alone is enough to hook you so major points for that. The story itself is very engaging and this book absolutely does tension building perfect. From the moment Lux and Co. arrive on the island there is something that just isn’t right. Perhaps it’s the couple that are already there, or maybe it’s the island unsavory history. Yet, whatever it is, something is obviously not right and most of the book focuses on this tension growing and growing until it snaps in the last few chapters.
The premise of the book is very good and obviously takes inspiration from Lord of the Flies and, as the summary says, And Then There Were None. I have not read either books but I have read The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins and the author does do a good job of taking classics or famous stories and keeping the overall theme but making them uniquely hers. At the same time, Ms. Hawkins also provides us some flashbacks of the characters before they all meet each other, providing some interesting background on these individuals and their possible motives, adding another layer of complexity to what is going on.
Yet while the story does do good with the tension building and providing meaningful flashbacks, it does feel like at points that the story is drawn out and could have been condensed a bit, which is surprising given it is not a very long book. At times, it feels like the story stalls and one can easily find themselves glazing over some of the passages to get to the good stuff.
Another point worth mentioning as I first noticed it in The Wife Upstairs but seemed to be more of an issue with this book is that some of the characters’ motives or plot points are never wrapped up or explained. While I can’t go into this with too much detail because it will reveal spoilers, I can say that when the conclusion occurs and what has happened is explained by one of the characters, I was left with more questions and answers. Perhaps this was done intentionally but if so, I wish it would have been done in another way to at least give the reader some closure. Mainly, the plot points involving the island’s sinister nature and Amma’s true story were the two stories I wish would have been flushed out a bit more.
Overall, this book is a fun summer read and something a reader can easily finished off in a day but is not one of the best thrillers I have read.
Hello fellow readers! We’re officially halfway through 2023 and time has sure flown! I’ve officially finished and graduated from Graduate School with an MBA, have published my tenth book, and managed to complete 24 books so far, meaning I’m over 50% done with my goal of reading 40 books this year. Some were excellent, others were good, and some were not what I had hoped they would be. To mark the halfway point of the year I’ve decided to partake in the Mid Year Freakout tag.
If you aren’t familiar with the Mid Year Freakout it’s a fun little questionnaire that a lot of book YouTubers partake in during this time of the year. I’ve written out the questions below with my answers and encourage you to take the quiz yourself! Now, without further ado, let’s get started.
1. Best book you’ve read so far this year. I’ve had a couple of contenders for this spot but I think it will be hard to beat The Silent Patient. The ending was chef’s kiss!
2. New release you haven’t read yet but want to. I have quite a few but the two books I want to prioritize by the end of the year is If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio and The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz.
(Image Credits: Goodreads)
3. Biggest disappointment. Unfortunately I have to give this honor to Red, White, and Royal Blue. The premise was great but the delivery just fell flat for me.
4. Biggest surprise. Since it was a retelling of one of my favorite classics of all time, Jane Eyre, I did not expect The Wife Upstairs to be as a good as it was.
5. Favorite new author (debut or new to you). Rachel Hawkins has a talent for building suspense and tension, and I look forward to reading more of her books in the future (I’m currently reading another one of her books, Reckless Girls).
6. Newest favorite character. Without a doubt Vero from Finlay Donovan Is Killing It. I need more Vero in my life!
7. Book that made you cry. The ending of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo did bring out a tear or two…maybe more.
8. Book that made you happy. Despite it’s seemingly grim summary, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is one that I will return to when I’m feeling down or need a good laugh.
9. Most beautiful book you have acquired this year. I picked up Pride and Prejudice and The Hunchbook of Notre Dame in the Seasons collector’s editions and needless to say I need more of these!
(Image Credit: Amazon)
10. What books do you need to read before the end of the year? A lot! But I’m hoping to pick up at least one dark academia book, one or two more historical fiction stories, and at least one nonfiction book.
When Cecilia Fitzpatrick finds a letter from her husband, hidden in their attic and designated as only to be read if he dies, Cecilia is more than a little bit intrigued. What could her loving husband, John-Paul, want to tell her that he can’t when he is alive? When she does decide to disregard John-Paul’s request and open his letter, she unburies a secret that involves two other women in her community.
Rachel Crowley has been living with every parent’s worst nightmare for years. Her daughter, Janie, was brutally murdered when she was in high school and her murder remains unsolved although Rachel is convinced that the school’s PE teacher, Connor Whitby, is responsible and she’s determined to make sure he is brought to justice.
Tess O’Leary isn’t even supposed to be in the picture but when her husband and cousin reveal they are having an affair, Tess packs up her son, Liam, and goes home to her mother to lick her wounds and decide what she’ll do next. But when she runs into her old boyfriend, Connor, her situation becomes even more complicated.
All three women are on a collision course that will lead to exposed secrets and dire consequences for everyone involved.
I picked up a copy of this book on a whim when I found it at a thrift store and for what I paid for it, I’m overall happy with it. If I had paid full price, perhaps not as much. The husband’s secret is revealed fairly early on, perhaps around 25% into the book. Therefore, this story isn’t so much a mystery or thriller but rather a story that builds on tension. We spend most of the book waiting to see what Cecilia will do with her husband’s shocking revelation and how Rachel and Tess become intertwined with it. This tension is something Ms. Moriarty does really well and it did have me turning page after page.
When the tension is finally broken we get a good but somewhat flat ending. The consequence for John-Paul’s secret is terrible but it didn’t have me shocked. It was just fine (and I hate using that word if you have read the book and knows what happen but hopefully you know what I’m getting at). I did like the epilogue, revealing how secrets often have us go down paths in our lives we weren’t supposed to.
The character development is good but while on the topic of characters I am forced to ask, what is the point of Tess’ character? Cecilia and Rachel become linked and it makes sense why, but I was left wondering if the story would have had the same outcome if Tess hadn’t been involved and while a good argument could be made for why Tess was needed I just don’t see the real value Tess adds to the story. Yes she becomes involved with the person Rachel believes killed her daughter but she has no real impact on the outcome of that plot line.
This book is overall solid and a good beach read but I don’t think it will be one I return to in the future. The secrets have already been revealed.
A murder is committed. A suspect is tried and convicted. It should be the end of the story, but for Oliver Marks it was only the beginning.
What is it like to be the private secretary to the Queen of England? Or the media specialist for the third in line to the throne? Do you get along with your co-workers or if the work environment hostile, where only the fittest can survive? These are just some of the questions asked and answered in Valentine Low’s book. Following several key people behind the House of the Windsor from the time Queen Elizabeth II became monarch to today, Courtiers explores the complex working environments these people find themselves in and how they balance pleasing their bosses while also working towards their end goal.
(Image Credit: Goodreads)