I just finished Open Bar by Dan Schorr and here are my thoughts. Serena Stanfield uncovers a long time abusive coach who has been preying on teenagers in the university’s summer softball program. Putting her job online she refused to let it go and joined forces with a junior associate for an investigation firm and a city councillor, they pursue different paths to obtain justice but they have the same goal. Yeah this one was different. It didn’t have the tone I have come to expect from a thriller.. It had a ton of POVs and it felt like the author spent more time on the cover up than anything outside of that and it was a tad bland. There were no twists, it was mostly little ahhh I see moments which really didn’t work for me in this genre. I think it needs to be reclassified because I can see thriller readers being upset with this. It was a compelling read, lots of parts had my mind just spinning and it mostly stood on the triggers to provide the settings. Again, it didn’t fit the thriller genre for me and I went in looking for that and was disappointed. The character development was there though and there was some gifted writing… Real shame! 3.5 stars Grab your copy here >>https://amzn.to/425spKP<< #danschorr #openbar #bookreview #bookalorian #booksbooksbooks #readersofig #litdulterous #tbr #bookinfluencer #netgalley #kindlereader #colorsoft

I just finished The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen and here are my musings. Georgia is in a psychiatric unit… Charged with killing her sister.. The biological daughter of her rich adoptive parents. Their sibling rivalry is well documented in their family and friend circles so no one is surprised.. The only person she will see is her biological twin sister.. The sister that has no idea she has a twin. Amanda goes to visit but she doesn’t expect to hear Georgia whisper that she is innocent. Georgia leads Amanda on a chase to find the truth… but is Georgia innocent or is she the master of manipulation? WOW WOW WOW! That was one heck of a trip!! I don’t even know what to unpack first!! OK Amanda. She knew she was adopted but she didn’t know there was a twin out there. I could imagine how curious she would have been. There was also something a little dark about Amanda. She didn’t have any problems stepping into Georgia’s world to ask questions and it felt like she was a well seasoned liar. Georgia did know about Amanda but it was only for a few months. They were different but the same.. It was a really nice contrast to see them together and what they were up to apart. I liked the plot. I thought it was clever and the ending was a big mindblowing conclusion! I didn’t work it out so that’s always a bonus for me with thrillers. The pace was a touch slow but there was a lot to find out and I think the pace matched the way we found information in the right way. I loved the audiobook narration. I already ordered a copy to have on my shelf. The writing is incredible and I was hooked from the very beginning. The storyline was like an onion, the more you peel back the harder it is to keep watching! It was intense!! The institution was absolutely terrifying so having the balance of the luxury life vs being on the ward… GAHHHH it was absolutely epic. It felt so real! 4.5 stars I loved spending the book feeling wrong footed the whole time!! You can order your copy right here >>https://amzn.to/4lYRPRK<< Thank you to @netgalley @macmillanaudio and @stmartinspress for my gifted ALC and ARC!!! #Thelockedward #sarahpekkanen #thriller #alc

I just finished Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham and here are my musings. When Claire’s sister Natalie disappeared.. They expected the worst. Days later her blood is found in a car and a man goes to jail for her death… even with her body. 22 years later Claire is an investigative journalist and when her dad calls about her mom… She runs home. When nothing has changed she flees her childhood home and ends up in a seasonal job on a farm…. She never intended to stay but finding a diary by the owner has her so intrigued, she starts to dig and the more she digs… The more she sees that her sister's disappearance and the diary might all be tied together. This book had layer upon layer of twists and it really hooked me from page one. I had the audio and the ebook and I went back and forth between formats. The audio was excellent but I really enjoyed hearing it in my own voice too. I loved Claire. The journalist in her was so nosy and she just couldn’t help herself. A normal person wouldn’t have read a diary they found by accident but that’s not what she did. So we get the story from Claire's perspective and then all the diary entries. It was absolutely loaded with suspense. It wasn’t intense but it was like a low constant thrum. It was awesome. I had the book done in a day. It was a slow burn but it worked so well. Excellent thriller book. 4 stars Thank you to @minotaur_books and @netgalley for my ebook and @macmillanaudio for my alc. Grab your copy here >>https://amzn.to/45Ewvfp<< #forgetmenot #stacywillingham #thriller #fictionaddiction #fictionreader #thrillerreader #thrillerrecs #booklover #bookalorian #lionessofliteracy

I just finished A Mother’s Guide to the Apocalypse by Hollie Overton and here are my thoughts. Olivia lives in fear… Of a future they aren’t prepared for… So she preps… She creates a book to help her triples in the future if she is not around anymore… She couldn’t have been more right. When natural disasters destroy the world as they know it, her triples grow up without her. They barely remember her but they find a box of her things which uncovers some of the lies their father had told them… They all set out to find out what really happened to their mother but will they be able to process what they discover? I absolutely loved the format of this book. We get pieces of Olivia’s guide on how to survive the apocalypse, her chats on reddit and to private DM’s. It’s how we learn about Olivia and how she is feeling. The girls are told that she died during a landslide but they later find out things aren’t lining up. Each twin, Rosie, Cassie and Bettie all have POV in the books. They are all very different people and it was interesting to see how they felt about each other in their own POVs and how they interacted away from each other. It was clever. I also enjoyed their dad, Sam’s POV. He has Alzheimer's so catching his lucid and non lucid moments in the book was quite heartbreaking. They all travel back to the USA to find the truth about their mom and because Sam is so ill he has to go too but there are so many secrets and so much to unpack that I am surprised the book isn’t much bigger. I listened to the audio and read my hardcover and it was brilliantly done. I like the plot, I loved the writing and all the characters. It was a lot to cram in and the author did an amazing job of balancing it all. It was seriously entertaining without being heavy. If you are looking for a horror.. This isn;t it. It’s a mystery- Dystopian thriller in my opinion and you will not find anything in here that remotely screams horror. (goodreads lists it as a horror, its wrong) 4 stars Grab your copy here >> https://amzn.to/4lrT1wA << Come check out my podcast on https://open.spotify.com/show/5kKN96RNPNh4uNDZzpIE1A Thank you to @hachetteaudio and @hachetteus for my gifted paperback and ALC #amothersguidetotheapocalypse #hollieoverton #dystopian #bookreview #bookblog #podcaster #bookishblog #readervlog #bookvlog #bookalorian #lionessofliteracy #booksbooksbooks #bookinfluencer

I just finished High Season by Katie Bishop and here are my thoughts. Twenty years ago something tragic happened… Tamara.. Just 17 years old, was found floating face down in the pool. The only witness, her 6 year old sister who testifies that her babysitter, Josie, held her sister’s head under water and was to blame. Trouble is… All these years later, Nina isn’t sure she saw what she saw and now a true crime documentary is going to dig deep into the incident, Nina is invigorated to find out what really happened that night but truth always comes at a cost. I always go in blind and the last time I did that was with a Katie Bishop book… The title and cover didn’t match the intensity of the story hidden inside so I went in knowing to expect the unexpected. This book was set over 2 timelines. The past, on the lead up to the drowning and the present day. I normally feel two timelines tend to get messy and sometimes they are defined enough for you to know you have switched but this worked really well. True crime is a hot topic right now and it was a clever twist to add the documentary into it. Lots of POVs didn’t distract from the excellent plot either. It was very atmospheric. You could feel the tension in this slow-burn mystery. I actually thought the less fast pace worked excellent in building the story to the right crescendo. There's one thing that the author always manages to do… She will serve you up characters who are a total and utter mess but so relatable. You can understand all the characters and find empathy with them all. I loved the setting of the book too! The writing is so eloquent for a thriller and the narration was done to perfection! I switched between my ALC and my hardcover I was sent and even did some immersion reading. It’s not the easiest thing to do but it was so worth it. 4.5 stars and out now Grab your copy here >> https://amzn.to/4mhpJSz << Thank you to @netgalley @stmartinspress and @macmillanaudio for my ALC, ARC and hardcover! #highseason #bookreview #katiebishop #bookalorian #booklover #readerofig #igbooks #booktok #booktube

I just finished Dealing with Feeling by Marc Brackett and here are my thoughts. This book came at a welcome time. As a woman with 2 asd kids and an asd husband, emotional regulation is a hard thing to manage here. I found the book oddly enlightening. I don’t have (I don’t think) issues with emotional regulation but it was interesting to read it from the standpoint of understanding someone else. I really enjoyed reading about Marc Brackett’s struggles himself and I had no idea that he is the director for Emotional intelligence at the Yale center so clearly he knows a thing or two! It was a really interesting book. As an adult you don’t think about your emotional regulation, you assume you have it until someone else points it out. We aren’t born with it, it’s a learned thing and clearly, thanks to this book, it's not too late to fix it. (Thank FFFFFF) There’s tips and tricks to help you with your emotional regulation and it’s so well written. It’s relatable and you feel safe being vulnerable as you read. I definitely learned a lot and it will help me help the people I love to find success in their lives. Thank you to @celadonbooks for my gifted copy Out in September #dealingwithyourfeeling #celadonreads #celadonreader #partner #marcbrackett #nonfiction #selfhelp #emotionalregulation #bookalorian #nonfictionreview #bookreview #readersofinstagram #lionessofliteracy #litdulterous #bookishpodcast #booklover

I just finished Asylum Hotel by Juliet Blackwell and here are my musings. Aubrey ignored the no trespassing signs to get into the Hotel Seabrink to get photos of the abandoned hotel. She never expected to bump into a youtuber called Dimitri looking to do a netflix show on abandoned buildings. After spending the night together, Aubrey wakes to find him gone… He fell off the cliff in the middle of the night. What was he doing walking up there in the dark and has it anything to do with the curse? OOHH this book gave me the CREEPS!!!! I love abandoned buildings so I already knew I was going to adore this book. So much to unpack! There were small storylines weaved over the top of the main one. Audrey wants to know what happened to Dimitri. It’s not easy to believe suicide when you just spent the night with the person. The more she learns, the more danger she is in! I loved finding out about the history of the hotel and the dark secrets that haunt the walls and the legend the townsfolk have of it. Well written and well paced, I was drawn right into the story. I finished it in one sitting and I felt the dark undertones under my skin the whole time. If you are looking for a dark thriller, this is the one!!!! 5 stars Grab your copy here >>> https://amzn.to/3HrEhj9 <<< Come check out my bookish podcast youtube.com/@litdulterous Thank you to @netgalley and @berkleypub for my gifted copy #asylumhouse #bookreview #berkleypublishing #penguinreader #julietblackwell #thriller #thrillerreader #kindlebook #kindlereader #booksonthego #bookalorian #litdulterous #lionessofliteracy #Bookreview #bookrecs

I just finished His First Wife by Sue Watson and here are my thoughts. Sophie wasn’t expected to find love in Sicily after the loss of her husband but she couldn’t help herself when kind, beautiful and funny Emilio, a professor at the university, showed an interest. Even when she finds out he is married she still doesn’t walk away… Even when his wife turns out to be missing… She still doesn’t heed the warning and when a shadowy figure begins to watch her… she doesn’t know what is real or what is just paranoia. I normally love Sue Watson books. She writes fast faced, twisty books but this one wasn’t fast paced and the first half of the book was boring. It was a real shame because I so wanted to love it all. 3 stars for the first part of the book and 9 for the last haha. I didn’t care much for Sophie. She was mildly annoying. In fact, everyone was annoying. The story was what held the whole thing together and the amazing narration. The ending was really solid and if you can get past the first half the magic is in the last half. 3.75 stars Grab your copy today >>> https://amzn.to/4frJMLo <<< Come check out my podcast youtube.com/@litdulterous Thank you @netgalley and @brillianceaudio for my gifted ALC #hisfirstwife #suewatson #thriller #thrillerreader #thrillerbook #netgalley #booklover #bookalorian #litdulterous #lionessofliteracy #bookreviews #bookblog #readerblog

I just finished Doom Breaker VOL 2 by Blue-Deep and here are my thoughts. Zephyr is human… The last one fighting the evil plaguing the earth after the Gods had abandoned it. The war he is fighting comes to an end when he is killed by Tartarus… When all seems lost, Zephyr is reincarnated to save humanity. Zephyr is working on his martial arts skills and magic… His upcoming battle with the Demon lord is coming and having to work with his old rival to stop the cult of Tatarus is steeped in dangers untold. I rarely find the next installment of a graphic novel eclipses the first but this one crushed it. Can I just state that the ending was WHATTTTTTT! What an intriguing place to stop and I was silenting screaming for more. I loved the dragon raid, it was so interesting! I have cemented my love for Zephyr and his character growth was exponential in this volume and watching the changes in his relationship with Altair was a serious highlight! I whizzed through this volume and I am dying to see what happens next! Thank you @webtoon and @wattpadbooks for my gifted copy. Grab your copy here >>https://amzn.to/4mWTdF8<< #Manga #Manhwa #Graphic Novels #FantasyComics #doombreaker #bluedeep #bookreview #versatilereader #bookinfluencer #literacyinfluencer #bookalorian #litdulterous #bookishpodcast #bookrecs