THE LOST By Natasha Preston

March 9, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

THE LOST By Natasha PrestonThe Lost by Natasha Preston
Published by Sourcebooks Fire on 3/26/19
Genres: Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 306
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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It's a fight for survival in a building designed to ensure that no one makes it out alive.

In Piper's hometown, teenagers keep disappearing, and everyone assumes they're just a bunch of runaways. But when yet another person vanishes, Piper and her best friend Hazel suspect something more sinister is going on.

So they decide to investigate, determined to learn the truth. Their search for answers leads them to the source of the missing…and their captors. Piper and Hazel suddenly find themselves locked away in a secluded property in the middle of a privately owned forest.

But the building isn't only meant to keep them imprisoned; every room is a test to see if they can make it out alive.

And failure means being lost…forever.

Short and Sweet Review

Teenagers in Piper’s hometown are going missing. Piper and her friend Hazel get the bright idea that they should investigate. Piper and Hazel go to a party and end up leaving with two guys who are the actual kidnappers. The girls are taken to some secluded warehouse in the middle of the forest. In the warehouse there are the other teens that have gone missing and they inform the girls that there are six rooms made to torture them. Each room is made to break a person and if they can survive it they may be able to make it out of this situation alive.

This book read like an episode of Criminal Minds. Piper and Hazel were naive, like why did they think that they were going to be the ones to solve this mystery of missing teens and then they ended up getting taken themselves. In the warehouse they meet four other teens who have been there a various amount of time. The different rooms are: sound, light, sleep deprivation, temperature, one with water, and one where there was supposed to be like a fight to the death. Room zero is where people fight to the death and it’s mentioned but Piper never goes to that room. In this place Piper tries to take on the role of a leader which doesn’t go over well with everyone, and Hazel just gets insufferable, the situation obviously isn’t ideal but she is the biggest pessimist in the room. Anyway we see Piper endure some of the rooms and we see other characters come and go into them. The main thing everyone wants to do is get out alive and see their families. The captors are deranged and honestly I think the best thing about this book like I mentioned before was that it was like an episode of Criminal Minds, it really added a lot of suspense to the book. In the end there was another captor who just came out the woodwork and you can tell that everyone who came up with the idea of kidnapping people and making them endure such crazy things is not right in the head.

Overall the concept was great but the characters were horrible and so was the ending. I think that’s a common theme in Preston’s books, the endings just throw me off so much that the book becomes off-putting to me. This was an okay book but I don’t think Preston’s books are really for me.

Filed Under: Reviews

THE ISLAND By Natasha Preston

March 7, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

THE ISLAND By Natasha PrestonThe Island by Natasha Preston
Published by Delacorte Press on 2/28/23
Genres: Horror & Ghost Stories, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 309
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Jagged Island: a private amusement park for the very rich—or the very influential. Liam, James, Will, Ava, Harper, and Paisley—social media influencers with millions of followers—have been invited for an exclusive weekend before the park opens. They’ll make posts and videos for their channels and report every second of their VIP treatment.

When the teens arrive, they're stunned: the resort is even better than they’d imagined. Their hotel rooms are unreal, the park’s themed rides are incredible, and the island is hauntingly beautiful. They’re given a jam-packed itinerary for the weekend.

But soon they'll discover that something's missing from their schedule: getting off the island alive.

Short and Sweet Review

Paisley and five other influencers are invited Jagged Island a private amusement park for the rich. For the weekend each of the influencers will post videos and pictures to their social media, so that the park can get some recognition before the park opens. The group thinks that the amusement rides are fun and their hotel rooms are amazing, the only problem is not everyone is going to leave the island alive.

The Island is a pretty straightforward book, it’s not something we haven’t seen before. I did like the setting of a fancy island amusement park and hotel. The aesthetic was creepy and threw some of the characters off. Each of the influencers invited have different interests and our main character Paisley is into true crime. When the characters find the first victim they’re all thrown off and start to panic. They all realize that they’re stuck on the island without a way home and one of them is a killer.

It was pretty interesting seeing all the characters run around the island and try to get away from the killer. It was also hard trying to figure out who the killer was especially when Paisley would flip back and forth between whether someone could do it or not. There was a bit of romance which was ridiculous because who has time for romance when someone is coming at you with a knife.

Overall, this was an okay book. The whole time I thought this was a three heart book for me but it was the ending that got me to take it a little lower. I think it would have great to experience more of the amusement park but I think the only thing that could’ve saved this book for me was something else happening in the end than what actually did.

Filed Under: Reviews

A LONG STRETCH OF BAD DAYS By Mindy McGinnis

March 6, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A LONG STRETCH OF BAD DAYS By Mindy McGinnisA Long Stretch of Bad Days by Mindy McGinnis
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on 3/14/23
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 366
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon

A lifetime of hard work has put Lydia Chass on track to attend a prestigious journalism program and leave Henley behind—until a school error leaves her a credit short of graduating.

Bristal Jamison has a bad reputation and a foul mouth, but she also needs one more credit to graduate. An unexpected partnership forms as the two remake Lydia’s town history podcast to investigate the Long Stretch of Bad Days—a week when Henley was hit by a tornado, a flash food, as well as its first, only, and unsolved murder.

As their investigation unearths buried secrets, some don’t want them to see the light. When the threats escalate, the girls have to uncover the truth before the dark history of Henley catches up with them.

Short and Sweet Review

Lydia Cass has worked hard her whole life to be able to get into a prestigious journalism program and leave her small town of Henley behind, but that plan comes to a halt when an error at the school leaves Lydia one credit short of graduating. The school offers Lydia a chance to do a project and she decides to use this as a chance to cover the Long Stretch of Bad Days, which was a time in Henley where there was a tornado, a flash flood, and the town’s only murder. Lydia knows she needs to jazz up her regularly straight laced podcast so she recruits Bristal Jamison to help her especially since Bristal is in the same predicament as Lydia. The more Bristal and Lydia dig the more they realize the town has dark secrets that they don’t want coming out and maybe some things are better left swept under the rug.

This book works and I think it was the characters that really brought it to another level, Lydia and Bristal are polar opposites, but the more we read we see that Lydia is more like Bristal than she would like to admit. Lydia is a rule follower and likes things to be a certain way so when she decides to do the podcast in a way that could upset the town her parents are worried. It doesn’t help that her dad is a defense lawyer who just took on a case people are pretty upset about, so when the threats start rolling in they don’t know if they’re for Lydia or her dad. Bristal is a Jamison and they have quite the reputation in town. Bristal is rough around the edges but she honestly has a good heart and I loved her dialogue because she was mostly the comedic relief. When Bristal and Lydia team up they start doing some research and find out that during that time of the tornado not all of the missing people were found and this is what really gets the wheels turning. So now we have a missing person, a murder, and maybe some treasure. The girls are good at finding people in town who would remember important things about that time, but they also have to be careful not to ruffle any feathers. This is a small town and like most towns this one has its far share of dark secrets and watching them get revealed was so satisfying. I did appreciate the clips of the podcast that we got to read and see what exactly the girls were saying to piss everyone in town off. I will say the ending made my jaw drop but it was so well executed.

A Long Stretch of Bad Days was amazing, its probably one of my favorites for the year of 2023. The way Lydia and Bristal were able to bounce off of each other and have such an easy way of conversing, I loved it. The plot was captivating and will really keep you reading from the first page until the very end. Definitely pick this book up and enter the town of Henley where the Long Stretch of Bad Days was actually more than anyone bargained for.

Filed Under: Reviews

MISSING CLARISSA By Ripley Jones

February 28, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

MISSING CLARISSA By Ripley JonesMissing Clarissa by Ripley Jones
Published by Wednesday Books on 3/7/23
Genres: Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 249
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon

In August of 1999, dazzlingly popular cheerleader Clarissa Campbell disappears from a party in the woods outside the rural town of Oreville, Washington and is never seen again. The police question her friends, teachers, and the adults who knew her—who all have something to hide. And thanks to Clarissa’s beauty, the mystery captures the attention of the nation. But with no leads and no body, the case soon grows cold. Despite the efforts of internet sleuths and true-crime aficionados, Clarissa is never found—dead or alive.

Over twenty years later, Oreville high-school juniors and best friends Blair and Cameron start a true crime podcast, determined to unravel the story of what—or who—happened to this rural urban legend. In the process they uncover a nest of dirty small-town secrets, the sordid truth of Clarissa’s relationship with her charismatic boyfriend, and a high school art teacher turned small-town figurehead who had a very good reason for wanting Clarissa dead. Such a good reason, in fact, that they might have to make him the highlight of their next episode…

But does an ugly history with a missing girl make him guilty of murder? Or are two teenage girls about to destroy the life of an innocent man—and help the true killer walk free?

Short and Sweet Review

20 years ago Clarissa Campbell went missing after a party in the woods. Everyone was questioned and seemed to have something to hide, because of Clarissa’s status as a cheerleader and her beauty her case made national headlines. None of the leads led police to find Clarissa or arrest a suspect so now her case is cold.

20 years later high school juniors Blair and Cameron start a true crime podcast and decide to cover the Clarissa Campbell case. The podcast is for a project for their journalism class, and Blair and Cameron realize that digging for information isn’t as easy as they thought it would be. The girls learn more about Clarissa, even a secret boyfriend, when they decide to make him the topic of their next podcast they could be letting the actual killer walk free.

The synopsis of this book sounded really good, who doesn’t want a cold case from 20 years ago to be solved by two teens from the same town who just decided to start a podcast. Granted the podcast is basically for their class project. I really wanted to like this book but there were just a lot of problems and my biggest one is the characters. Cameron would just go off and do things that aren’t ethical in the world of journalism and she knows they’re not because its what she’s learning about in class, also its like she’s too impulsive she’ll do things without realizing how it’s going to affect those around her. Blair on the other hand is like Cameron’s lackey she’s filled with a lot of self doubt and just about goes with anything Cameron wants to do. The girls do interviews with people who were the closest with Clarissa to find out more information about her life and what happened at the party. I feel that the girls got the information easily, no one made them work for it or even seemed like they were trying to hide something, they were all just spilling their guts. The thing that bothered me the most was when they found out that Clarissa was secretly seeing a teacher and Cameron decides he’s the murderer. The man was guilty of other things but not murder so I thought the girls got what they deserved when he retaliated.

Missing Clarissa was unrealistic and predictable and the ending was rushed. The plot was good but the way things were executed just didn’t work. Cameron and Blair were the biggest let down, I couldn’t relate to either of them and the decisions being made by the two of them were just impulsive and showed no care for a career path people actually take seriously. I personally wouldn’t recommend this book, but maybe someone else would like it.

Filed Under: Reviews

PROMISE BOYS By Nick Brooks

February 23, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

PROMISE BOYS By Nick BrooksPromise Boys by Nick Brooks
Published by Henry Holt and Co. on 1/31/23
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 279
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

The prestigious Urban Promise Prep school might look pristine on the outside, but deadly secrets lurk within. When the principal ends up murdered on school premises and the cops come sniffing around, a trio of students—J.B., Ramón, and Trey—emerge as the prime suspects. They had the means, they had the motive—and they may have had the murder weapon. But with all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. Or is the true culprit hiding among them?

Short and Sweet Review

Ramón, Trey, and J.B., all go to the Urban Promise Prep School, which may look nice on the outside but has a lot of problems on the inside. It’s almost like these boys are in boot camp or prison. When the Principal gets murdered, the three boys become the prime suspects. All three of them claim their innocence but one of them may have had the murder weapon. Now the three boys have to find who actually murdered Principal Moore, or risk getting locked up for life.

Promise Prep school is one of those places where it sounds great and you would probably want your child to go so that they have a chance at succeeding, but that’s not what actually goes on in this school. They have to abide by the Moore Method which is basically extreme discipline and if they don’t they face the consequences. On the day of Moores murder Ramón, Trey, and J.B. are all in detention and the main reason they’re suspects is because they all have reasons for wanting him dead. Moore stops Ramón from selling pupusas which helps with his family’s income, Trey tells Moore he’s going to kill him, and J.B. is mad that he’s in detention and now it looks like he stood up his girlfriend.

I liked the format of the book we learn about each character by having the other people in their lives basically give character witness statements and we also see the transcript from the police interviews. The best part for me was that the boys don’t really know each other, so when they team up to try to prove their innocence they’re still weary of one another. There’s nothing wrong with any of the boys I think they’ve just been subjected to bad circumstances and a lot of scrutiny because of the color of their skin. Trey is a basketball star, Ramón is just trying to help his family, and J.B. is just a quiet kid. It was nice seeing all the boys team up and they each had a support system behind them. The mystery was well written and the format added a lot to the book.

This was a good read and it was short so I was able to finish it in one sitting. The characters were great and I’m glad they didn’t let their circumstances make them a statistic.

Filed Under: Reviews

DELICIOUS MONSTERS By Liselle Sambury

February 21, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

DELICIOUS MONSTERS By Liselle SamburyDelicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on 2/28/23
Genres: Horror & Ghost Stories, Mystery & Detective, Paranormal, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 510
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon

Daisy sees dead people—something impossible to forget in bustling, ghost-packed Toronto. She usually manages to deal with her unwanted ability, but she’s completely unprepared to be dumped by her boyfriend. So when her mother inherits a secluded mansion in northern Ontario where she spent her childhood summers, Daisy jumps at the chance to escape. But the house is nothing like Daisy expects, and she begins to realize that her experience with the supernatural might be no match for her mother’s secrets, nor what lurks within these walls…

A decade later, Brittney is desperate to get out from under the thumb of her abusive mother, a bestselling author who claims her stay at “Miracle Mansion” allowed her to see the error of her ways. But Brittney knows that’s nothing but a sham. She decides the new season of her popular Haunted web series will uncover what happened to a young Black girl in the mansion ten years prior and finally expose her mother’s lies. But as she gets more wrapped up in the investigation, she’ll have to decide: if she can only bring one story to light, which one matters most—Daisy’s or her own?

As Brittney investigates the mansion in the present, Daisy’s story runs parallel in the past, both timelines propelling the girls to face the most dangerous monsters of all: those that hide in plain sight.

Short and Sweet Review

Daisy is able to see ghost, not really an ability that she wanted, but she manages to deal with it. When her mom inherits a mansion away from Toronto, Daisy sees this as a chance to get away especially since her boyfriend just dumped her. When they reach Ontario where the Mansion is Daisy realizes her mom is hiding a lot of secrets and the Mansion is nothing Daisy has ever dealt with before.

Ten years later, Brittney decides that its time for her to get away from her mother a best selling author whose book about the miracle mansion made her see the error of her ways. Brittney is determined to prove that her mother’s book is full of it and she does that by having the new season of her web series Haunted be focused on the mansion and the strange things that have happened there over the years.

This book was just so interesting, it starts off a little slow but I think that was because of the world building. We meet Daisy first and we learn that she’s able to see ghost and I feel like this is different than most books where characters can see ghost mainly because Daisy has to work really hard to ignore them and try to avoid seeming crazy. Her best efforts do fail because she does seem crazy and its almost like we can’t trust her. She sees maggots coming out of her wounds and her ears and its all pretty insane and it doesn’t help that her mom makes her believe she’s wrong. When Daisy and her mom get to Ontario, Daisy is given strict instructions not to enter the mansion, but its like its calling to her. Daisy also meets some town people who knew her mother from her childhood and they don’t seem to want anything to do with Grace mainly because she was up to some crazy things back in the day. Daisy becomes friends with King who’s family lives nearby. King is a psychic and he decides he’ll help Daisy figure out what’s going on in the mansion and learn a little history about her mom and Peter (the man who gave the mansion to Grace.)

Ten years later we meet Brittney and her partner Jayden who have the web series Haunted. Brittney is a little more brash while Jayden is able to connect more with the people they’re interviewing. The interviews were good we get a new perspective on what was happening ten years ago with Daisy and her mother and that mansion. I thought it was interesting to see that even though Daisy and Brittney don’t know each other they both have mommy issues. Brittney is a strong character and so is Daisy but we both see them bend and break when it comes to their moms.

The mansion is a whole different beast in itself, it reminds me of the movie Monster House. The mansion is basically a living entity. The mansion is able to make people hear it if it wants and its supposed to be feeding off of the dead people inside but it gets stronger and decides it wants to feed off of the living. When Daisy gets there she realizes that the house is way stronger than anyone has anticipated. It was hard to put this book down especially when I got further into it, mainly because we start to learn more about the Mansion and how it’s operating and we see how Daisy’s mom past had a big affect on what’s happening now.

This book was insane, but in the best way. There were a lot of tough subjects that were mentioned in this book so just watch out for that. The ending was pretty great and I love how things were handled, the dual POV worked out really well. If you’re looking for a psychological horror thriller than this book is for you! Its a book I’ll be thinking about for a while.


Filed Under: Reviews

GOING DARK By Melissa de la Cruz

February 11, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

GOING DARK By Melissa de la CruzGoing Dark by Melissa de la Cruz
Published by Union Square & Co. on 1/31/23
Genres: Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 338
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

#WhereisAmeliaAshley

The Influencer
Amelia Ashley shares everything with her followers – her favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants, her best fashion tips, and her European trip-of-a-lifetime with her hot boyfriend.

The Boyfriend
Josh has no choice but to return home without Amelia after she abandons him in Rome. He has no clue where she went or how her blood got in his suitcase. Why won’t anyone believe him?

The Hacker
To Harper Delgado, Amelia Ashley is just another missing white girl whipping up a media frenzy. But with each digital knot she untangles about the influencer, Harper wonders: who is Amelia Ashley?

The Other Girl
Two years ago, another girl went missing, one who never made headlines or had a trending hashtag.

The Truth
Amelia’s disappearance has captured the world’s attention. What comes next? Watch this space…

Short and Sweet Review

Amelia Ashley is a popular influencer who just recently went on a vacation in Rome with her boyfriend Josh, the problem is she didn’t return to the States with him and now she’s missing. All Josh remembers is she got mad at him and left him to go by the airport by himself. Now that Josh is back without Amelia he looks like suspect number one in this missing persons case. Harper Delgado is a hacker and she’s asked by one of Amelia’s friends to look into her disappearance, but what Harper learns about Amelia is shocking and it may help solve a case about a girl who went missing two years ago.

The book starts off with Josh on an airplane back to California without Amelia. Josh is pretty optimistic that she’ll come back even though she’s not with him. Things start to get more serious when Amelia doesn’t answer any phone calls or text and because she’s pretty popular word spreads fast that she’s missing. Josh is an okay character, we see that he’s not right and he’s holding things back when he gets interviewed by the detectives, also he’s kind of stupid because he talks way more than he should. When we meet Harper she’s digging into Amelia Ashley and anything she can find about her life and where she may currently be. There are chapters where Amelia’s blog post are shown and there are transcripts of her vlogs, I liked that this was incorporated into the story because it gave us more of an insight to Amelia’s character. Things got really interesting when we learn about the girl that went missing two years ago and how Amelia Ashley is not a real person. We learn that Josh is the target of this big plan and Harper is really good at finding things that people try to keep hidden.

The plot was great and the different POVs really worked to tell this story. This book will keep you reading until the end to figure out #WhereIsAmeliaAshley.

Filed Under: Reviews

ALLEGEDLY By Tiffany D. Jackson

February 8, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

ALLEGEDLY By Tiffany D. JacksonAllegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on 1/24/17
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 394
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it?

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary’s fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?

Short and Sweet Review

Mary B Addison killed a baby, allegedly. No one really knows what happened that night except for Mary and her mother, Mary didn’t say much to the detectives but she did end up taking the fall for baby Alyssa’s death. Now Mary is 15 and living in a group home, she has a secret boyfriend and she’s pregnant. Because Mary is a ward of the state, when her baby is born she isn’t going to be able to keep it and Mary is determined to keep her baby even if it means finally telling the truth about what happened that night.

When we meet Mary she’s in a group home and she doesn’t really talk to anyone. The girls in that group home are crazy, Mary couldn’t really trust anyone in there especially the people running the home. We see Mary working at a nursing home and also trying to take her SAT and maybe try to go to college. When Mary finds out she’s pregnant she learns that she won’t be able to keep her baby. Mary tells one of the girls in the house what actually happened that night and they suggest Mary gets a lawyer and get her verdict reversed. Mary and her lawyer start the proceedings but things with Mary’s story start to get complicated. We also meet Mary’s mom and she isn’t all there, she’s very spacey. The more we learn about Mary and her indecision about whether she really wants to go through with this it makes us question her story.

Allegedly is such an interesting book and it keeps you reading until the very end trying to figure out what happened the night Alyssa died. There’s a lot of twist and we learn that Mary may not be the most reliable narrator. This book is crazy but I’ve learned to expect nothing less from Tiffany D. Jackson. I love her books and this one was just as good as the other books I’ve read by Jackson. This book will have you on the edge trying to figure out what happened that night and what Mary’s fate will be. Definitely recommend this book!

Filed Under: Reviews

THE GIRLS ARE NEVER GONE By Sarah Glenn Marsh

February 6, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

THE GIRLS ARE NEVER GONE By Sarah Glenn MarshThe Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh
Published by Razorbill on 9/7/21
Genres: Horror & Ghost Stories, LGBT, Mystery & Detective, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 336
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Dare Chase doesn’t believe in ghosts. But as the host of Attachments, her brand-new paranormal investigation podcast, she knows to keep her doubts to herself if she wants to win over listeners.

Her first season’s subject is the Arrington Estate—a sprawling manor rumored to be haunted by the spirit of Atheleen Bell, who drowned in its lake almost thirty years ago. Dare’s more interested in investigating the suspicious circumstances of Atheleen’s death, which she thinks point to a decades-old murder, not something supernatural.

But Arrington is full of surprises. As Dare is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the estate, she’ll have to rethink the boundaries of what is possible. Because if something is lurking in the lake…it might not be willing to let her go.

Short and Sweet Review

Dare doesn’t believe in ghost but she keeps that to herself because the people who listen to her podcast don’t need to know she’s a skeptic. The focus of her first season of the podcast is about Atheleen Bell who drowned at the Arrington Estate 30 years ago. Dare is convinced the strange things that are happening on the estate are explainable, but the more she digs the more things are starting to look supernatural.

Dare is at the Arrington Estate doing an internship to remodel the estate, but she’s also there to learn information for her podcast. At the estate she meets Quinn and Holly two other girls that are also helping out. Dare learns that Quinn actually sent her a message about Arrington and wanted Dare there to learn why the supernatural things are happening. Anyway there isn’t just one ghost there’s multiple and the mystery is even deeper than any of the girls thought. I liked the book, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. Its your basic ghost story with a mystery. When I heard that Dare had a podcast, I was excited because I thought it would add more to the story but we only read what she’s putting on the podcast twice, once at the beginning of the book and one at the end. In the first half of the book we’re learning about the estate and history but in the second half is where things start to pick up with more ghost appearances and things not being where they should be. The ending was interesting and it does leave the door open for a sequel.

Overall, The Girls Are Never Gone was an intriguing story but there were some elements that just fell short of what I was expecting from a book that was pitched as The Conjuring meets Sadie.

Filed Under: Reviews

I KILLED ZOE SPANOS By Kit Frick

February 3, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I KILLED ZOE SPANOS By Kit FrickI Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on 6/30/20
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 381
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

What happened to Zoe won’t stay buried…

When Anna Cicconi arrives to the small Hamptons village of Herron Mills for a summer nanny gig, she has high hopes for a fresh start. What she finds instead is a community on edge after the disappearance of Zoe Spanos, a local girl who has been missing since New Year’s Eve. Anna bears an eerie resemblance to Zoe, and her mere presence in town stirs up still-raw feelings about the unsolved case. As Anna delves deeper into the mystery, stepping further and further into Zoe’s life, she becomes increasingly convinced that she and Zoe are connected—and that she knows what happened to her.

Two months later, Zoe’s body is found in a nearby lake, and Anna is charged with manslaughter. But Anna’s confession is riddled with holes, and Martina Green, teen host of the Missing Zoe podcast, isn’t satisfied. Did Anna really kill Zoe? And if not, can Martina’s podcast uncover the truth?

Short and Sweet Review

Anna is in the Hamptons for the summer for a nannying job. Anna wants to move on from the party girl she used to be and have a fresh new start before college. When Anna arrives in the Hamptons in the small village of Herron Mills she gets a strange reaction from the residents, mainly because she looks like Zoe Spanos, a local girl who just recently went missing. Anna believes that she and Zoe are connected somehow and starts looking into her disappearance, but two months later when Zoe’s body is found Anna is charged with manslaughter. Anna’s confession is a mess and there’s a lot of inconsistencies, the only person who believes that Anna is innocent is Martina, also a local resident of Herron Mills and she has a podcast discussing Zoe’s disappearance.

This book alternates between the past when Anna first arrives in Herron Mills and the present where we see her locked up and Martina doing the investigating. Anna for some reason feels like she knows Zoe and that was the weirdest thing for me because when we read from the present POV when she’s in jail and taking the blame for murder Zoe was already missing when she arrived in Herron Mills and Anna had no idea who she was. That was the biggest thing that threw me off because I knew that Anna didn’t do it even though she is an unreliable narrator because she has blackouts but now it was just like who in this town actually had something to do with Zoe disappearance and murder. Anyway I felt bad for Anna because she was basically coerced into giving a confession and it was just so strange because she sounded crazy. Martina on the other hand was basically rocking the boat, outsiders may have loved her podcast but people in town thought she needed to leave things alone.

This was a book that held my attention because I wanted to know where things would go especially with Anna’s weird confession and Martina’s mission to find the truth. The ending was okay, I feel like people in small town keep big secrets that are eventually going to be exposed.

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