Book Review, Fiction, mystery, thriller

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Mystery

The God of the Woods is a sprawling mystery that takes place at a summer camp where a Van Laar child has disappeared for the second time. Barbara’s brother, Bear, went missing years before, never to be found. We start the story with Barbara disappearing from her bunk, interspersed with flashbacks to the search for her brother.

I always enjoy a summer camp setting, and the vibes of the forested surroundings and a possible murderer on the loose in the woods added solid elements of suspense. I was excited to try to see threads connecting the two childrens’ disappearances. Much of the context surrounding the past was told through Barbara’s mother, Alice, who we get to know very well. There was extensive character development and her story added much more than just the central mystery to the story.

This should have been a book I loved, but the execution missed the mark for me. There were 1,000 characters who all had distracting unnecessary side quests. It was hard for me to follow the main story and figure out what actually mattered, which made me care very little about what was happening.

There were a lot of layers to the story and I found them each interesting, and much was unexpected from a book I was expecting to just be a straight mystery. I liked the vastness of the intertwining stories, but found it to be a bit much to be truly cohesive or impactful.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
The God of the Woods on Goodreads
Buy The God of the Woods at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: February 25, 2025 (Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC!)

A classic Gillian McAllister thriller. On Cam’s first day back at work after her maternity leave, the police show up to tell her that her husband, Luke, is involved in a hostage situation. And he is the captor. So begins Cam’s yearslong hunt to figure out what possible motivation Luke could have had for this situation to unfold.

Famous Last Words is a split narrative between Cam and Niall, the hostage negotiator in Luke’s case. Each one, in their own way, is caught up on the situation long after it’s over. We got solid backstory on each narrator and I felt like I understood what motivated them and how the events fit into the rest of their lives.

McAllister is great at creating complex, unexpected twists that tie up her thrillers and this was no exception. There were many layers (maybeee one too many) that I never would have thought of, but did not seem unbelievable. I found myself rooting for Cam and Niall to uncover the truth and was on the edge of my toes watching them do so.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Famous Last Words on Goodreads

Book Review, Fantsy, Fiction, Magical Realism

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Magical Realism

What a fascinating concept for a book. Lauren comes home one night to find that she suddenly has a husband and a whole new backstory of their years together. When he goes into the attic to get something though, a different husband comes back out and so her life is altered in alignment with this new man.

I love magical realism and this was a case of just that. Even though her past keeps changing, I felt like I got to know Lauren well. The cast of characters in her core circle remained the same throughout, although their circumstances changed somewhat, and it helped to ground the story.

As each new man comes into Lauren’s life, she has to decide if she should keep him around or try to get him back into the attic. This opened up an unexpected narrative about how long to keep searching for someone ‘perfect,’ and when to accept what you have as good enough. It seemed to me like an especially interesting concept to explore in the age of dating apps and their ‘endless choices.’ This message made me appreciate the book more than I would have if it was just a parade of rotating husbands with no insight. There wasn’t really much else that happened in the book (and it was a LOT of husbands), but having Lauren grapple with this issue via the magic attic of husbands was really intriguing.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
The Husbands on Goodreads
Buy The Husbands at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fantsy, Romance

Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death by Maria Vale ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Romantasy

Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death was such an unexpectedly charming read. The main character, Death, leads us through his ‘life’ collecting souls from people who have passed. When he gets to the world, time stops and no one perceives him, allowing him to wander around exploring the human world undisturbed. That is, until he meets Molly. Death is supposed to be collecting her soul, but instead, finds that Molly can see and hear him and so they strike up an unlikely friendship.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this relationship turning romantic, given that Death is described as kind of a decrepit being, but the way it played out was actually very sweet and wholesome. It spoke a lot to the sacrifices we make for love and needing to make the most of the time you have with your loved ones.

The fantasy elements of this book were a struggle for me in that there was SO MUCH world building in the afterlife realm and not enough exposition for me to really get it. I think a lot of the weird language and creatures were unnecessary. We didn’t actually need to know so much about that world, in my opinion, and it took me out of the story a bit sometimes.

The humor in this book took me completely by surprise. It was so unexpectedly funny which made it especially delightful. 

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death on Goodreads
Buy Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Is She Really Going Out With Him? By Sophie Cousens ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Romance

When the newspaper column Anna writes becomes threatened by a rival columnist, Will, she finds herself suddenly agreeing to have her two small children set her up on dates for future stories. Meanwhile, Will writes an opposing column about meeting women online.

I’m a big fan of Cousens’s previous books and the writing in this one was no less delightful. Each chapter started out with a series of Anna’s recent Google searches which always made me chuckle.

Anna’s relationship with her kids and with her ex husband were so well written and I enjoyed watching her navigate the changing landscape of her family. Her snarky unfiltered feelings about her ex and his new life made her so relatable.

The romance in this book was so well done. It was sexy, but not over the top and kept me flying through the book waiting for the two to get together. The build-up was predicated by work outings which made it a little bit scandalous and very fun to read.

Another wonderful romance by Sophie Cousens!

Thank you to NetGalley for my Arc!
Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Is She Really Going Out with Him? on Goodreads
Buy Is She Really Going Out with Him? at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪.5
Genre: Memoir

Yet another celebrity memoir that left me wondering how someone could write this much about her life with no critical reflection. Anna Marie Tendler starts of this book talking about checking herself into a psychiatric hospital yet it was never clear to me how that stay benefitted her and changed her mental state. She spends the rest of the book making herself appear unlikeable by explaining all the things she’s attempted to do career-wise and given up on and the men she has decided to rely on instead. She claims to have a horrible relationship with men and not want to be around them and then proceeds to center her life (or at least her memoir!) around the men she has been involved with. I would have appreciated this narrative so much more if there was concrete evidence of growth.

I think it was valiant of Tendler to share the details of her life in such a raw and unfiltered manner. She covers a lot of ground and lets the reader uncover many of the events and circumstances that made her who she is. She has definitely had an interesting life, and if that’s all she wanted to share, she accomplished it.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Men Have Called Her Crazy on Goodreads
Buy Men Have Called Her Crazy at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Thriller

Another twisty thriller by Gillian McAllister. When Olivia goes missing, Julia prepares to investigate another case of a missing woman. She’s had similar cases before in her career and expects this one to be much of the same, until she finds herself in a situation where she must instead frame someone for the crime. To make matters more complicated, Olivia was last seen on CCTV entering a dead-end alley she never exited.

I’m not usually a huge fan of a police procedural type mystery, but this one had a bunch of little inconsistencies/mysteries that kept me very intrigued. There were also several narrators, each grappling with some sort of question about right and wrong. The theme of family and how far people will go to protect those they love was also a steady undercurrent to the narrative. This added a really interesting element and, I thought, made the reader deeply consider the morality of the character’s decisions.

I found that there was a bit too much going on in the story in the end. It seemed like too many twists to me and I found it a little hard to believe everything together once all was revealed. I still brought the story, just felt it could have been stripped back a bit to pack more of a punch.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Just Another Missing Person on Goodreads
Buy Just Another Missing Person at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction, Horror

The Elementals by Michael McDowell ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪.5
Genre: Southern Gothic Horror

The McCrays and the Savages own two big old Victorian mansions near the Gulf. The third mansion in the set appears to be abandoned and is slowly filling with sand. When, following a funeral, both families come to stay, the youngest, India, becomes instantly intrigued by the empty house. Whenever she mentions it to her family members though, they urge her to stay away.

This was a deeply spooky and atmospheric book. The descriptions of people and entities are unsettling and disturbing in a way that made my skin crawl. It’s a great read for this time of year.

None of the characters are likable, but I think that’s the point. They were each unique (often uniquely horrible) and we really got a sense of what their motivations are.

There isn’t all that much that happens in this book besides India wanting to go into the empty house and then everyone talking about their personal experiences with it. It felt to me like it just kind of wandered aimlessly and the number of times it was pointed out that one character was Black drove me a little crazy.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
The Elementals on Goodreads
Buy The Elementals at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Mystery

When Nora’s father, Liam, dies unexpectedly, she is thrown into grief anew, having recently lost her mother as well. Then her stepbrother Sam shows up unexpectedly, eager to dig into their father’s death more. Together, he and Nora begin to investigate whether the fatal accidental fall was really an accident.

This story explores not only the mystery laid out, but also Nora’s relationships and Liam’s relationships, shown to us through narration that happens in the past. The sections in the past didn’t ever really click for me. They seemed much less fleshed out than the present and it made it hard for me to connect with or care about the characters.

I appreciated the atmospheric nature of the family home and the cat and mouse game Nora and Sam seem to be on as they chase down clues. That said, much of the story was on the slow side and wasn’t especially gripping.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
The Night We Lost Him on Goodreads
Buy The Night We Lost Him at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I was totally enchanted by Patch, a young boy with one eye who bravely saved a local girl from being kidnapped. His heroic actions change his life and the lives of those around him in ways that continue to spool on for decades.

This book is over 600 pages long and follows Patch and several people close to him throughout their lives. The beauty of this vast of a narrative is how deeply we get to know the characters and see how events and actions from the past impact them down the line. There were a lot of threads to keep track of: missing girls, bank robberies, convicted murderers and always, Patch’s search for a girl no one is sure exists.

I’ve read a lot of thrillers and this was unlike any I have experienced. It’s rare to find a so deeply character-driven thriller that also enthralls me so thoroughly in the mystery. It’s hard to review this book with any plot-specific detail without giving things away, so I will leave it pretty sparse. What I will say is that every single thread is wrapped up and explained so completely in ways that I never could have seen coming.

This book is dark and haunting and layered (and made me cry) and has characters that will stick with you long after you finish reading.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
All the Colors of the Dark on Goodreads
Buy All the Colors of the Dark at an indie bookstore near you