Tag: five star read

Book Review, Fiction, mystery

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction

My first five star read of the year! Broken Country is a dual timeline narrative following Beth. In the past, she meets and begins to date Gabriel, a wealthy boy in her village. They’re teenagers when they meet and have a big class divide. As is often the case with first love, they end things and Beth finds herself giving a chance to Frank, the boy-next-store who has always been there for her. In the present-day narrative, Beth and Frank are married when Gabriel suddenly comes back into her life. And then there’s the future storyline: a murder trial.

There are so many layers to this story. Beth and Frank lost their young son only for Gabrie to appear, newly divorced, with a son of a similar age. This alone introduces an interesting and emotional dynamic. As the book unfolded, I was holding my breath to find out what happened to Beth’s son and to start to piece together how things ended up in a murder.

It’s really hard to pin this book to any one genre. There’s a romance through line, deep character studies and layers of mystery. The big twist made me audibly gasp and I fully had to finish the audiobook at my desk at work because I could not stop listening.

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

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

Book Review, thriller

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister ~ Book Review

Morgan

Mystery
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

Wrong Place, Wrong Time begins when Jen sees her teenage son stab someone to death in the street one night. When she wakes up the next morning, she finds that she has actually gone back a day. So begins her slow journey into the past trying to figure out why her son would kill someone and how to prevent it from happening.

The setup of this story made me thinking of the movie Memento, with Jen never being able to build on her conversations with anyone from day to day. Whenever I thought surely we would not venture further into the past, we JUST KEPT GOING.

Even with a reverse timeline, I found it easy to keep up with the storyline and fascinating to watch Jen piece things together and slowly understand how parts of her past came to inform her future.

This bumped up to a five star read for me at the very end when we learned what the catalyst was for absolutely everything. It changed the entire story and was not at all what I would expect from this kind of thriller. I’m pretty sure my jaw literally dropped in public.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Wrong Place, Wrong Time at an indie bookstore near you
Wrong Place, Wrong Time on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover ~ Book Review

Morgan

Custom House
Romance
Release Date: January 18, 2022
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

I could not look away from this book. The emotional rollercoaster Colleen Hoover took me on was truly impressive.

When Kenna is released after five years in prison, she’s desperate to find her four-year-old daughter who was taken away as soon as she was born. Finding her means returning to the town where the accident took place that landed Kenna in jail.

Soon after her return, Kenna meets Ledger, a local bartender, who turns out to be an unlikely link to Kenna’s daughter. The more time the two spend together, the more they put both of their relationships with Kenn’s daughter at risk.

The romance was so well crafted in this book. The pacing and slow build up of chemistry was palpable and there was a perfect level of steam. The forbidden nature of the romance didn’t hurt either.

I found Kenna to be an extremely compelling character. She was clearly and understandably haunted by her past, but the work she put in to try not to let it define her was so admirable.

I already can’t wait to reread this book (once I’ve emotionally recovered).

My Bookstagram: @Treat.Your.Shelf
Buy Reminders of Him at an indie bookstore near you
Reminders of Him on Goodreads