Fourteen year old Roxy told her mum she was going to sleep over at her best friend Ellie’s house. Ellie practically lives next door, so what could go wrong, right?
When Roxy turns up dead in a burning house in a well off part of town, it’s clear a lot can go wrong and little white lies can get you in a heap of trouble.
Imagine a teenage stranger knocking on your door one night, claiming to be the daughter you didn’t know you had. She tells you she has no place to go. Would you invite her in to stay? Afterwards, you might regret it!
One night, that’s exactly what happens to Chris and Rose. Katie shows up on their doorstep and tells them she’s Chris’ daughter. She’s just lost her mother, a woman Chris remembers from a summer fling a long time ago. And while they are in shock by this revelation, Katie soon drops another bombshell. She has no place to go.
You think you go on a date night with your husband to save your marriage, but you could have never known it would end up destroying your life….
Libby and Sean are married and have a 4 year old daughter Alice. Sean is a partner in a thriving veterinarian practice and Libby is starting her catering business. Everything seems to go great in their marriage. But then Libby finds a note on her car window one morning stating “Sean is having an affair”. She couldn’t have known those 5 words spelled disaster.
When Libby confronts Sean with the note, he denies everything, but Libby remains suspicious. To try and work things out between them, they decide to go on a date night. Little did they know that night was going to end a life.
When they return from their not-so-great date night they find their babysitter Sasha missing and their daughter asleep in her bed. Libby calls the police to report Sasha missing. Eventually the police arrest Libby for Sasha’s disappearance.
Samantha Hayes tells the story from Libby’s point of view in both the “before” the date night, and the “now” after her arrest. This slowly reveals what happened that night and why the police arrested Libby.
The development of the characters is great. At the same time I don’t like their personalities too much. Sean seems pretty manipulative and Libby a little too naive at some points. There were times I just wanted to grab her and shake her while saying “can’t you see what he did there!”. With that said, that’s what, for me, makes a good book. When the main characters can make you feel something, whether that’s a positive or a negative feeling, that means they’ve got you hooked.
There are a few plot twists, some shake ups and some back stabbing all throughout the story. And up until the very end, I had no idea what happened to Sasha and who might have been the responsible party.
Although somewhere in the middle of the story line I felt it dragged on a bit. The pace seemed a little out of it for a bit there. A little further on though, we hit the ground running again, preparing for a finale I didn’t see coming.
If you think this is a romantic book about a date night, you better buckle up and prepare for murder.
Rating: 4/5
Date Night is available from August 20, 2019
Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley and Bookouture in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.
Round and round she goes, blonde pigtails flying, her high-pitched giggle catching on the wind. But as the ride slows to a stop, her seat is suddenly empty. Little Lucy is gone…
Everyone knows you have to watch little children like a hawk because they disappear in the blink of an eye. But what if you are? And what if you’re sitting right next to them on a moving carousel? You wouldn’t think a child could disappear from a moving ride while you’re sitting next to them. But that’s exactly what happened to Amy. Her daughter Lucy is nowhere to be found when the ride comes to a stop.
Pricked starts out by introducing us to the main character Briar Pryce. She seems like a normal human at first but she’s not. She lives in a magical part of New York City called the Poisoned Apple and she has magical powers.
Briar’s powers are pretty unique. I haven’t come across them just yet in a fantasy book. She’s able to manipulate other people’s emotions by using flowers, and roses are her flowers of choice. The roses even change colour based on the emotions Briar pours into them.
The magical powers attract the attention of the Elite. They hire Briar to find the human boyfriend of an Elite’s daughter. While she is thrown into the world of Elite intrigues, she has to find the boyfriend in time before he gets killed. Or before a war destroys the human world in New York City.
The author seemed to have had a back story in his head already, which was rather apparent when I started reading. The author seems to know things about the backdrop of Briar, her friends and the Poisoned Apple. Unfortunately the reader doesn’t yet. So as this is the first (or only?) book, this is where the story has to be created and set. I felt like I was missing some pieces of the puzzle. Why does she think the spell that transformed her best friend into a cat was meant for her? What could she have done prior to this story taking place to “deserve” that? Some things get cleared up along the way but for me it felt like I had to assume certain things to make it all fit.
I will say, as a whole, the key words for me that came up while reading where “happy” “upbeat” and even a bit witty at times. Maybe even a bit too witty as some jokes really need a bit of “know how”of the real world.
What I also really liked was the backdrop of New York City. There is this almost other dimensional magical world that exists in the same spot as one of the most famous cities in the world.
Overall it’s not a bad story, I just think it still needs a little work. The time span seems to be a few days. Which doesn’t really give it enough time to flow and develop and to really create the characters. I know who are in the book and sort of who they are in relation to Briar but I don’t really get to know them.
It would have been nice to have a little more character development throughout. It’s done with 1 or 2 characters and the rest of them are just “there”. It all lacked a little depth for me.
If you like a light summer read with a relatively simple story and some good jokes and a happy vibe, this might be your book.
Rating: 3/5
With that rating set, I have to say it came to a 3/5 because I don’t do half stars. It felt worthy of more than a 2 star but 3 is stretching it a little. So the benefit of the doubt applies here.
Pricked is available from August 13, 2019
Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley and Bleeding Ink Publishing in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.