suspense

Review: The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer

~ megs14malloy ~ Leave a comment

The CaretakerThe Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars**

Follow the rites…

The Caretaker is one of those books that I’m blessed enough to get a chance to read early, and then I can’t wait for everyone else to read because I need to talk about it!

This story captured my full attention and did not let up the entire way through. I read it in a day and it left me with A LOT to think about. I was doing mental gymnastics trying to keep up with everything Kliewer was throwing at me, and honestly, it was exhilarating.

Macy Mullins, our MC, is a young woman a bit down on her luck, who needs to scramble to support not only herself, but her little sister, Jemma. After a string of failed job interviews, Macy is still on the hunt when an enticing ad on Craig’s List catches her eye:

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY:
Caretaker urgently needed. Three days of work. Competitive pay. Serious applicants ONLY.

Macy applies and ends up securing an interview. She meets with the woman who she would be working for, and although it’s an unusual meeting, to say the least, Macy can’t afford to be picky.

As an outside observer, I may have been screaming at Macy to not agree to take the job, but I also can’t pay Macy’s bills, so she does what she has to do and she accepts.

It’s only 3-days work, where she’ll have to stay at the woman’s house in the wilderness of Oregon and take care of her house. How bad could it possibly get?

Y’all, it can get bad. I think we all know this. Even Macy probably knew this, but like I said, she really didn’t have much of a choice. The first thing that really captured me about this book was how realistic and well-developed Macy was as a protagonist.

While I’ve never experienced some of the things that Macy had been through, I couldn’t help by feel connected to her struggles. I had such empathy for her while she was just working through her own thoughts.

I also felt like I was going on this journey with her. The house, the property, the weirdness of the whole circumstance was seeping off the page and into my brain. It felt tactile to me. I was feeling it all; transported.

The synopsis describes this as a waking nightmare, and I can’t think of a better way to put it. There were scenes that played into some of my own fears and left me absolutely chilled to the bone and my blood pumping.

I need to get a physical copy, because I’ll be reading it again. It’s twisted, layered and I would love to take more time with it. Now that I know the end, I feel I could pick up more of the smaller pieces I may have missed on this first go.

Upon completion, I sat and just stared at the wall for a good 4-to-5 minutes. Yes, that’s a good thing. If this doesn’t leave you with an existential crisis, I’m not sure what will.

At this end of the day, I found this wildly-entertaining. It’s highly-consummable, gripping and disturbing. It’s going to stick in my mind for a long, long time.

Thank you to the publisher, Atria, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This is the first I’ve read from this author, but you better believe I’ll be picking up more.

View all my reviews

Review: Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham

~ megs14malloy

Forget Me NotForget Me Not by Stacy Willingham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Claire’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared 22-years ago. This was a traumatizing event for young-Claire, and she’s carried heavy feelings regarding it ever since. It severed their family and nothing was ever the same.

In fact, after leaving home for college, Claire has never returned. She was more than happy to leave the past in the past, where it belongs.

She moved to a city and worked her way up as an investigative journalist. Recently, after not receiving a promotion she should have been a shoe-in for, she gave up her position and decided to do freelance work.

Unfortunately, securing that work has been more difficult than she anticipated, so when she receives a call from her Dad saying her Mom has been injured and can use her help, she decides to go to her aide.

Returning to her hometown after such a long period of time away churns up all sorts of buried emotions. Additionally, her estranged mother doesn’t seem all that happy to see her, like not at all. It hurts.

With nothing but time stretching ahead of her, and restless where she’s at, Claire decides to do a little digging. She’s an investigative journalist, after all.

She decides to go to visit Galloway Farm, the vineyard in South Carolina where Natalie had a Summer job just prior to her disappearance. The visit ends up turning into temporary work for Claire, who although she’s never been a farm hand, is excited about the offer of free room and board.

The idyllic escape quickly moves in a more mysterious direction though after she stumbles across the owner’s wife’s old diary stashed away in her cottage. Originally thinking it’s just a tale of young love, Claire is surprised when the diary reveals much darker truths involving unsolved crimes and missing persons.

I really enjoyed my time reading Forget Me Not. Stacy Willingham definitely knows how to write a compelling and suspense-filled story. I always anticipate her latest releases, and so far, I’ve never been let down.

I read this via audio, and it does feature dual narration, with one of my favorite voice artists, Karissa Vacker, voicing Claire, and Helen Laser voicing the diary bits. I appreciated that the publisher chose to use the two narrators as it really helped to make the separate sections distinct.

This also features a couple of my favorites tropes, the MC returning to her hometown after a long-time away and the found diary, so it was sort of fated to work for me.

I also tend to love mystery stories that follow journalists, because it feels natural for them to be digging into things the way they do. It doesn’t seem forced, or far-fetched. It’s literally part of their jobs and they have the training and experience to do so.

I felt bad for Claire as a character. My heart definitely went out to her. She lost her sister, a person she idolized, and through that also ended up losing her Mom and Dad. They separated, and her family unit all went their separate ways. She felt very alone.

The intensity builds steadily throughout. It pulls you in and while I did guess a few of the big twists that were revealed, there were many more that I didn’t see coming.

This is def entertaining and I would recommend it to Mystery, Thriller and Suspense Readers. I’m not sure how memorable it’ll be for me long term, but it was very fun.

It’s a bit culty, a bit cringey domestic drama and dark family secrets. It’s got a lot going for it, honestly, for those of us who love messy relationship dynamics.

Thank you to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

I’ve enjoyed all of Willingham’s books and will be anxiously awaiting whatever she writes next. I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us.

View all my reviews

Review: You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto

~ megs14malloy

You Will Never Be MeYou Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jesse Q. Sutanto is one of my go-to authors. I try to pick-up everything she writes either as soon as it releases, or even prior to its release, when I’m lucky.

For this one, even though I had an ARC in my hot little hands, and was anticipating it, I never ended up picking it up, and then it just got buried in my stacks and my mind.

Recently, while stalking Jesse’s author page to see if there was a new Vera Wong book listed, I noticed this one and snapped to attention. I needed to read it immediately.

I ended up getting the audiobook from my library and listened to it over the past couple of days. I loved the dual narration from Eunice Wong and Risa Mei, and am glad I ended up taking in the story via the audio format.

This story follows two up-and-coming social media influencers, so having the audio narration for them, it really added authenticity to those influencer personalities. I feel like both women channeled what I would anticipate these characters would have really sounded like.

In this story we follow Meredith and Aspen, best friends, who are both in the influencer space. Mer started out as a fashion and beauty influencer, and ended up teaching Aspen all she knew.

After Aspen got married and had kids, she turned more towards the parenting space and became a Momfluencer. It was at that point, with her handsome husband and adorable children, that her content really started taking off, leaving Mer’s numbers in the dust.

Their friendship was strained by this shifting dynamic and the two ended up having a falling out. By the time we meet them, they’re no longer speaking, but the story catches us up on all we need to know in regards to their messy friendship break-up.

I loved the back-and-forth between the two perspectives as all the details of their relationship were filled in. I also liked how we were shown the truth behind their lifestyles. Sure, online all was beauty, grace and stress-free days, but behind the scenes, it was anything but.

I like the exploration of that topic. Social media influencers have such sway over the way many of us see our own lives in comparison and I thought it was interesting to get a bit behind-the-scenes, even in a fictional capacity.

The 1st-half of the book is building up these characters and developing the drama between them. At the mid-point, it does take a turn though and suddenly we’re thrust into a dark world following Mer’s disappearance.

Things get really crazy from there. I haven’t read any reviews yet, but I was surprised after completing it to see that the overall rating is only at a 3.63 currently.

I think perhaps it may be due to the slower nature of the 1st-half, and the fact that neither MC is particularly likable. They’re more like characters you love to hate versus just love. You’re prob not rooting for either of them.

I tend to enjoy stories that follow influencers, or really any type of celebrity, so this worked for me in that regard. Additionally, I loved how messy and twisted the drama was. I always enjoy digging into a toxic friendship, and this definitely was that.

Overall, I feel like this is another really solid showing for Sutanto, who seems to have no issues jumping amongst various genres and age-ranges with her stories.

This is the 12th-novel that I’ve read from Sutanto and I’m always impressed with how easily I get drawn into her stories. I found this riveting. Her characters are well-developed and the drama is always delivered.

Thank you to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m sorry it took me so long to get to it. I had so much fun with it and definitely should have picked it up sooner!

View all my reviews

Review: Matchmaking for Psychopaths by Tasha Coryell

~ megs14malloy

Matchmaking for PsychopathsMatchmaking for Psychopaths by Tasha Coryell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alexandra works for a small, woman-owned matchmaking company, and her area of specialty is with clients who fall somewhere along the psychopathy scale.

Her clients aren’t the murdery-type of psychopaths, though, that we might all think of. At least she doesn’t think so. They actually tend to be quite successful individuals, who are just as deserving as love as the next person.

But what happens when the matchmaker is barely holding her own love-life together?

Alexandra thought she had found love for herself, but boy, was she wrong. A fact she discovered on her birthday, when her boyfriend, Noah, and best friend, Molly, revealed that they were now an item, leaving Alex out in the cold.

Alex has suddenly lost the two people she was closest too in the world, but as the old adage goes, there are more fish in the sea, both in the romance sea and the friendship sea.

Alex soon has a potential love interest, as well as a potential new best friend, but instead of stabilizing things for her, circumstances continue to spiral after her ex disappears, and she fears he’s been murdered on her behalf.

Much like Coryell’s previous novel, Love Letters to a Serial Killer, this story succeeds in pushing boundaries, and potentially Readers outside their comfort zones.

It’s a fun and edgy blend of Romance, Mystery and Horror, all rolled into one tidy little package. I enjoyed getting to know our MC, Alexandra. She certainly contains multitudes.

As the story unfolds, it’s hard not to try to figure out what is actually going on, but Coryell reveals things in such a way, that I found it close to impossible to guess. Sure, I had various theories throughout, but I was never confident, because there were so many darkly-delicious possibilities.

I found the concept of Alexandra’s job super interesting, and it was fun reading about various situations occurring in her workplace. Additionally, Alex has a fascinating history that definitely added its own level of intrigue to the story.

Overall, this out of the box, genre-blending, Romantic Suspense story, full of murder and mayhem, definitely kept me on my toes. I loved trying to guess what was actually going on. The characters were intriguing, and the plot, just wacky enough to deliver pure entertainment!

Thank you to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m looking forward to picking up more from Tasha Coryell!!

View all my reviews

Review: It Happened on the Lake by Lisa Jackson

~ megs14malloy

It Happened on the LakeIt Happened on the Lake by Lisa Jackson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Greetings again from Outlier Island!!

But this time I’m here, and I’m happy about it. I had so much fun with this, and I’m not getting that impression from many of my book friends who’ve read it.

This is a long one, I’ll admit. Coming in at well over 500-pages, that’s a bit unusual for a Thriller, or Domestic Suspense, but to me, it never felt too long.

I was so invested in all the juicy drama, trying to figure it out. My brain was spinning with all my theories…

I would definitely say it’s one of those books you just have to pick up at the right time, and luckily for me, I picked this one up at a time when it was exactly what I needed.

I don’t necessarily agree with the publisher comp to Rear Window, but in a way I can see what they were alluding to, as there is definitely a lot of ‘watching’ going on.

The drama of this story surrounds Lake Twilight, and the private island set in it, with its stately-Victorian home inherited by our MC, Harper Prescott. Even though Harper has an aversion to the property, she’s recently returned after some upheaval in her life, including a divorce.

When she was younger, Harper went through a lot of trauma on the property and the surrounding area, so it’s not surprising she hasn’t really wanted to spend much time there in her adult life.

While we don’t learn all that has gone on in Harper’s past right away, we are treated to past perspectives that help to fill in the blanks.

Harper’s present perspective is given as 1988, and the bulk of the action in the past occurs 20-years earlier in 1968. For me, I loved the back and forth, because it helped to slowly fill in the blanks and build out the story.

I say slowly, because it does take a long time to figure everything out, but not so much because the pace is slow, but more because there is soooo much to uncover.

Harper was considering fixing the property up in order to sell it, but being back stirs up so much unresolved issues and feelings, she’s not sure if she’ll actually be able to follow through with that plan. For now, she’s mostly focused on putting her past to rest.

Can Harper figure out the hazy puzzle that is her past before the island claims another victim, or will Harper finally be overcome by the things that have haunted her?

It Happened on the Lake features one of my favorite tropes and I think that’s part of the reason it was such a hit for me. I adore when a protagonist returns to their hometown, usually that they’ve fled years before, and ends up trying to solve some sort of mystery that’s been haunting them.

That’s exactly what this book is and I was in it with Harper. I also really enjoy Harper as a protagonist, because she was written in such a way that I wasn’t 100% sure how reliable her perspective actually was.

That sense of uncertainty had me questioning everything, and I think that upped the intrigue level for me. I wanted to trust her, but part of me wasn’t ready to let my guard down.

There were moments during the build that reminded me a lot of Riley Sager’s, The House Across the Lake. It has sort of similar vibes with regards to the lake, surrounding town, and the people watching people situations.

Obviously, the content of this is vastly different and it is more drawn out, but if you enjoyed that drama-filled lakeside setting, this could end up working for you too.

There’s a lot of moving pieces, particularly at the beginning, so it is the type of read where you have to be completely dialed in. If you miss anything, I can see it possibly getting confusing. Particularly due to the time jumps.

Regardless, I think if you’re in the right mood, and you have the patience for it, it’s a super fun and enticing read.

While it won’t be for everyone, I think for the people it hits with, like myself, it can be a very enjoyable read.

Thank you to the publisher, Kensington Publishing, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I was hesitant to pick it up initially, because of that intimidating page count, but I’m glad I ended up giving it a shot.

It exceeded my expectations!

View all my reviews

Review: Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

~ megs14malloy

Don't Let Him InDon’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars rounded up**

When Nina Swann starts dating Nick Radcliffe, Nina’s daughter, Ash, is almost instantly suspicious. Nick seems a little too slick. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is; at least in Ash’s estimation.

Her Mom has fallen head over heels though, so Ash has to tread cautiously. She begins digging into Nick’s past. She needs to make sure her Mom is safe.

Martha, a florist living in a neighboring town, begins questioning her husband Alistair’s frequent absences. He always has a story, but after hearing so many, Martha is starting to question everything.

These women are about to become connected, and when they do, it’ll end up being for much darker reasons than any of them could have suspected.

Jewell has done it again. This is exactly the type of twisted Domestic Thriller that I love to sink my teeth into. I was so invested in this story, I felt like I was a part of the action.

I was gnoshing my popcorn, raising my eyebrows, oohing and aahing as new secrets were revealed; it was a hell of a good time. The short chapters and multiple perspectives kept this moving along at a furious clip.

Just when I thought it could get more devious and outrageous, it did. Every twist, every turn, I was living for it. I couldn’t put it down.

I’ve said this before in reviews, but I believe it fits perfectly here as well. I don’t watch any Reality shows, but I know a lot of people who do, and hearing them talk about them, I feel like I got the same dopamine rush out of this, as they do their favorite shows.

I was glued to it. It was so dramatic, I was so invested, and yeahhhh, it’s super OTT, but I love that if it’s done well, and IMO, Jewell does OTT-Domestic Thrillers soooo well!

I definitely recommend this for your Summer TBR if you love a juicy Domestic Thriller, full of drama, secrets and jaw-dropping lies.

But you better buckle up, baby, because Jewell is about to take you for a wild ride!!


Thank you to the publisher, Atria Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I always get excited for Jewell’s latest work, and this one didn’t disappoint!

View all my reviews

Review: Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell

~ megs14malloy

Dead of SummerDead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dead of Summer is a mysterious warm weather read told through three perspectives: Faith, Orla and Henry. Their perspectives collide over the course of one Summer on Hadley Island, off the rugged coast of New England.

Faith comes to Hadley with her new boyfriend, David, feeling like this could be a big step towards them taking their relationship to the next level.

Orla is a Hadley native, who spent many Summers palling around with David when the two were younger.

Henry is the perspective who seems the most disconnected from the circles the two women circulate in. How is he going to fit into it all? That was a big question for me.

The majority of the mystery involves a girl named Alice, who was Orla’s best friend. She disappeared one Summer night a decade ago, never to be seen again.

When Orla returns to the island, to prep her childhood home for sale, the location brings back a flood of memories. She can’t stop thinking about Alice and feels compelled to dig up the truth surrounding the night she disappeared.

As luck would have it, David is there for the Summer, along with his new girlfriend, Faith, and for good or bad, Orla and David end up reconnecting.

Meanwhile, Henry is sitting back, watching it all. He’s surprised to see these faces from the past reappearing. It floods him with memories too; unpleasant ones.

When another teenage girl disappears, Orla, David and Henry find themselves pulled into another mystery, so similar to the one that has haunted them all for years.

Dead of Summer is one of those stories where I was really dialed in initially. I loved meeting the various perspectives and getting established in our setting of Hadley Island.

I live on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts, that is a desirable Summer resort location, so I found Hadley Island, and the kind of families discussed, very relatable. I think Maxwell did a great job of developing that and creating interesting back stories for each of our main characters.

I also enjoyed the initial roll out of the mystery. Unfortunately, the further it went along, as more and more of the puzzles pieces started to fall into place, the less compelling I found it.

As the truth starts coming out, it felt like a let down. The climax wasn’t as exciting as the build, because for me, the truth wasn’t as high stakes as I was anticipating.

It’s really hard to explain what I mean by this without spoiling anything, I just feel like the build was so good and the end was just sort of middle of the road.

With this being said though, I can often be a nit-picky bitch and I can see that this is overall a good story. This would be a great book to take on holiday, or to the beach.

It’s a fairly quick read, and depending on your state of mind, this could be the perfect read for you. Jessa Maxwell has a ton of talent and I know I’ll be picking up more of her work, even if this one didn’t quite knock it out of the park for me.

Thank you to the publisher, Atria Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate it so much!

View all my reviews

Review: Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy

~ megs14malloy

Goodnight BeautifulGoodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought a copy of Aimee Molloy’s Goodnight Beautiful immediately upon its release in 2020. I didn’t know much about it, except I had heard that it was in some way influenced by Stephen King’s Misery.

I had no idea how, or how much of an influence that played in the actual plot, there was just some chatter and I knew I needed it. Anything even mildly King-related, I need.

Of course, like many novels before her, she came into my house and was promptly stuffed onto a shelf, where she’s been waiting to be read for all these years.

Recently, I did a huge unhaul, I’m talking over a 100-books, and I still held on to this one. I was still so interested, and I made a promise to myself, this was the year.

I’m glad I picked it up now. I was wildly-entertained. Luckily, I have never managed to spoil the plot for myself, so was taken by surprise with numerous twists and turns.

The first big twist, I was jaw on the floor, literally. Like, WHAT?! It made me stop to reconsider everything I thought I was understanding about this story.

I love that type of twist. Clever misdirection is something I always appreciate. I also enjoyed the direction the story went in. I wasn’t sure if that’s what we were doing, but when I figured out it was, it was still quite pleasing to me.

I just thought this was very well executed and although it won’t go down in history as a new FAVORITE book of all time, I can still recommend it to anyone who enjoys a twisty, popcorn Thriller.

If you’re like me, and you’ve had this one sitting on your shelves for half a decade, now is the time, girlfriend, give it a whirl; a fun and fast-paced Summer Thriller.

I’m looking forward to reading more from Aimee Molloy!

View all my reviews

Review: Whispers of Dead Girls by Marlee Bush

~ megs14malloy

Whispers of Dead Girls: A NovelWhispers of Dead Girls: A Novel by Marlee Bush
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A decade has passed since Ren left her hometown, but now she’s back, accepting a job at her old high school.

She’s hoping the position will help her find some sort of closure regarding her traumatic past, and the death of her older sister when the two were teens.

Back in the school, Ren is unprepared for the wave of memories and emotions that come rushing back to her. Additionally, there was a bit of a scandal wrapped-up in her sister’s death, and people sometimes still whisper about it.

For her part, Ren will never forget the days and events leading up to tragedy, but being back is causing her to see things a little differently.

We get a bit of past and present, as well as a current situation involving one of her coworkers, a physics teacher, Mr. Lewis. Ren becomes suspicious of him, fearing history will soon repeat itself. She vows, not on her watch.

While Whispers of Dead Girls was compelling and enticing, it did sort of tick me off, NGL. I’ve been thinking on it for a while, anticipating that resounding sense of annoyance with it would dissipate in time, yet it hasn’t.

With this being said, most of the journey to get to the conclusion kept me entertained and invested. I was sucked into both the past and present timelines.

Additionally, I loved the set-up of the MC returning to their hometown after a long period of time away, and investigating a circumstance that seems reminiscent of something she herself had gone through. This returning MC aspect is actually one of my favorite tropes.

I also liked how Ren was an unreliable narrator. I never knew what she was going to do next. Nevertheless, the resolutions she came to, I was sort of miffed by all that.

So much so, that in a way, it started to feel like a waste of my time. Though I can acknowledge this is a good story, and I think Bush pulled off a lot of great twists and turns, I still feel a slight sense of distaste about how it all played out.

I wish I could say more about this, but I can’t without spoiling major reveals, and I’m not about to do that. I still want others to enjoy this book and I know many will.

It does have many strong aspects, it’s a good story, but at the end of the day, I rate based on my personal reading experience, and this one left me a wee bit perturbed.

Thank you to the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

I’ll definitely be picking up more from this author.

View all my reviews

Review: I Would Die for You by Sandie Jones

~ megs14malloy

I Would Die for YouI Would Die for You by Sandie Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars**

I Would Die for You is a story told via two timelines: 1986-London and 2011-California. We get Nicole Forbes perspective in 2011, and her younger sister, Cassie’s, perspective in 1986, when Cassie was just 16-years old.

This novel also features one of my favorite things: musicians. I’ve been so excited for this story as it revolves around a super popular, yet fictional, band from the 1980s.

In fact, the 1986 timeline definitely stole the show for me. There’s something about the vibes of the 1980s music scene in London that I just find so compelling. And I did feel like this captured the fan-side of that moment really well.

I did enjoy the back and forth throughout the story, learning more about the sisters, and trying to figure out what happened between them. Closer to the end, however, the timelines started to feel less distinct, and I honestly had to relisten to the last 1/2-hour of this audiobook 3x.

It did have me invested though. This was a 4-star read for me right up until the very last bit. Seriously, the last few paragraphs, I was like, that’s it!?

I never mind an open-ended story, one that leaves a bit up to the Reader’s imagination, but this wasn’t like an ‘evil grin on your face’ last moment twist, it was more a, ‘you’re seriously going to end it right there, kind of thing.

Nevertheless, I still found this an overall entertaining story about sisters and all the twisted drama involved in their relationship.

Thank you to the publisher, Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I have a lot of fun with Sandie Jones stories, and will happily continue picking up all her new releases!!

View all my reviews