Yvonne
Hi Kathryn,
It has been an age since I last caught up with you and this lovely meme. The new website is looking good by the way!
I have got so caught up in Blog Tours, Cover Reveals and Guest Posts, that I haven’t had a minute to breathe. So when a short window of calm appeared this week, I decided to stop by for a visit, before the madness kicks off again in April. I hope there is room for one more? 🙂
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THE LAST BOOK I FINISHED
GIRL MOST LIKELY Â by MAX ALLAN COLLINS – 4 out of 5 stars, review out soon
In a small Midwest town, twenty-eight-year-old Krista Larson has made her mark as the youngest female police chief in the country. She’s learned from the best: her father, Keith, a decorated former detective. But as accustomed as they are to the relative quiet of their idyllic tourist town, things quickly turn with Krista’s ten-year high school reunion.
With the out-of-towners holed up in a lakefront lodge, it doesn’t take long to stir up old grudges and resentments. Now a successful TV host, Astrid Lund, voted the “Girl Most Likely to Succeed”—and then some—is back in town. Her reputation as a dogged reporter has made the stunning blonde famous. Her reputation among her former classmates and rivals has made her infamous. Astrid’s list of enemies is a long one. And as the reunion begins, so does a triple murder investigation.
Krista and her father are following leads and opening long-locked doors from their hometown to the Florida suburbs to Chicago’s underworld. They just never imagined what would be revealed: the secrets and scandals of Krista’s own past.
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WHAT I AM READING NOW
A SINNER’S GIFTÂ by ZOE BEESLEY – Almost done with this one, a definite 5 stars
After a decade of working in the darkened streets of London, Officer Fergus Toop is back in the Highlands of Scotland.
Standing in the dim light with the clouds threatening to break over the hills, hopes of a fresh start are fast becoming a distant memory.
Death is a part of him. He can’t escape it.
The scene before him is haunting, beautiful somehow. The remnants of the day just gone still linger in the sky, offering a final breath of light before the corpse turns to black shadow and the landscape claims the soul of a broken man.
A textbook suicide.
The evidence is there in front of him. But as Toop digs deeper he finds himself caught in a web of buried truths. Only one thing remains certain:
Not even the dead can keep their secrets.
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NEXT FROM MY REVIEW PILE
ONLY EVER HER Â by MARYBETH MAYHEW WHALEN – Heard good things about it!
Annie Taft’s wedding is four days away, and it will be one of the grandest anyone can remember in her small South Carolina town. Preparations are in order. Friends and family are gathering in anticipation. Everything is going according to plan. Except that Annie herself has vanished. Did she have second thoughts?
Or has something much worse happened to the bride-to-be?
As the days pass, the list of suspects in her disappearance grows. Could it be the recently released man a young Annie misidentified as her mother’s killer? Could it be someone even closer to her?
While her loved ones frantically try to track her down, they’re forced to grapple with their own secrets—secrets with the power to reframe entire relationships, leaving each to wonder how well they really knew Annie and how well they know themselves.
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TWO POSTS LAST WEEK
Mailbox Monday – Where I featured the new books on my shelf
Meet The Authors – Where I chatted to author Max Allan Collins
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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone.
Why not stop by and say Hi! to Kathryn, at ‘The Book Date‘
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Ooo I just started Girl Most Likely!! Glad to see that you gave it 4 out of 5 stars! Have a great week! 🙂
Hi Erin,
I hope you enjoy ‘Girl Most Likely’ as much as I did.
I wonder what you make of the killer being referred to in the third person?
Personally, I think it made for a much more chilling read!
Thanks for visiting and Happy Reading this week 🙂
Lovely books. I am curious about Girl Most Likely and A Sinner’s Gift. Thanks for sharing, and here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES
Hi Lorraine,
I just finished ‘A Sinner’s Gift’ this morning and although I anticipate that the author’s style of writing and narrative won’t appeal to everyone, I definitely enjoyed it. I would certainly classify this one as ‘Scottish Noir’ done at its very best!
I haven’t read any of Marybeth Mayhew Whalen’s books before, but I am guessing that after the nail-biting tension of ‘A Sinner’s Gift’, ‘Only Ever Her’ is going to be a mystery of the slightly more cozy variety.
Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you enjoy the rest of your week 🙂
Posts like this are always fun, Yvonne! I look forward to your reviews of ALL of these!!
Hi Kelly,
As my reading is so incredibly slow these days, with the majority of my blogging time being taken up with book promotion posts for authors / publishers / publicists, I seldom have much of a change in my reading schedule to share.
Then, as you say, it really does become fun to take part in this meme and check in with an entirely new set of blogging friends, although of course the outcome is only to be expected – I now have a whole new collection of ‘must read’ books for my already toppling TBR pile!
But hey, so what! As many of them are downloads they are not really eating any physical space and one of these days I’m sure I shall be only too pleased to have them in reserve!
Thanks for your continued support, without friends like you none of this would be worthwhile 🙂
Girl Most Likely sounds wonderful. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
Hi Kathy,
‘Girl Most Likely’ has been receiving some rather mixed reviews, which I guess you might expect from a book by such a seasoned author as Max Allan Collins. You can’t write so diversely and prolifically and have everyone enjoy everything 100%.
I have to say that I really liked the style of writing, narrative and dialogue. There were some rather throw away, tongue in cheek scenes, alongside the chapters where the murders were described in all their gory detail. All in all a different and highly entertaining read.
Thanks for taking the time to visit this week and Happy Reading 🙂
Hi Yvonne nice to have you join in again. Sometimes life on the blog can get really busy. I have read another book by Mary Beth Whelan that I did enjoy, hope this one is good. All the best up there in the UK.
Hi Kathryn,
I keep telling myself that I am not going to over commit to author / publisher promotion requests, but always succumb without putting up too much of a fight, only to find myself working away into the wee small hours to prepare posts, after a full day at work! – But let’s face it, I enjoy it really and couldn’t imagine life without my blog for too long!
Several of my fellow bloggers had mentioned Marybeth’s name and featured her books on their blogs, but I have never read any of her work for myself, so I am looking forward to that.
I suspect that this is going to be a mystery which is a little on the ‘cozy’ side, especially after the book I have just finished today, however a slightly lighter read will be good right now.
I do wonder about authors in general, who manage to create an entire series of murders and terrible events in and around one very small community. Are these small towns really such hot-beds of iniquity I wonder?
Thanks for hosting and allowing me the space to dip in and out as I can.
I appreciate your visit and comment and hope that you have a great week 🙂
It’s amazing how busy we can get with all our blogging tasks, isn’t it? I only do the meme once a month. See what I read this month at Girl Who Reads
Hi Donna,
A couple of hours can slip by so easily once I sit down to either prepare a post, or answer comments from previously published posts. Add to that a little blog hopping and my time allocated to actually reading a book has gone out of the window too!
Generally I post into Mailbox Monday on a Monday, but occasionally and if I haven’t received any new books, I like to share my current reading schedule, such as it is, although like yourself, I couldn’t post here too often as my reading is very slow right now and there are often times when I have nothing new to feature.
Having said that, I do like to check out what my fellow bloggers are reading, which only adds more fuel to my TBR fire – life would be so dull without it though 🙂
All your books are new to me. Have a good last week of March. My weekly update
Hi Sarah,
It was great to have you stop by this week and thanks for taking the time to comment.
I can’t believe that we are already approaching the end of March and this weekend sees our daylight saving hour return, which is just crazy and a little annoying as I shall lose yet another precious hour of sleep!
I have had a great run of books just recently, all so different, yet all equally enjoyable for someone who likes to mix up her genres anyway.
I hope that the rest of your week is good and that you find some great new books waiting for you 🙂
These all look good and I can’t wait for your thoughts on A Sinners Gift especially. I am just about finished with Gone Girl and it Gillian Flynn does not disappoint.
I hope you get some quiet time this week!
Hi Naida,
I have just finished reading ‘A Sinner’s Gift’, but I think this is one review that is going to take a little longer to write, as I am still trying to gather my thoughts about this mind-blowing storyline.
As my copy was an ARC and therefore not for resale, I can’t donate it to the charity shop, so I am going to send it on to one of my fellow bloggers, who lives quite locally to me and is as eclectic in her reading tastes as I am. I can’t wait to share my thoughts about it with someone else I can rely on to be totally truthful!
I have still to read any of the Gillian Flynn books sat on my shelves, but one day…!!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that this week is not quite as hectic as they have been recently 🙂