For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars rounded up**

Belmont Academy is a prestigious, private New England high school that attracts the best and the brightest; both in students and teachers alike.

Teddy Crutcher is an English teacher there and proudly, the recent recipient of the Teacher of the Year award.

Admittedly, he’s not always a favorite of the students though. It could be because he does push them, it’s true. Sometimes they require a little tough love, something certain spoiled brats don’t seem to be getting at home.

Students that seem overly arrogant, like everything will be handed to them, may receive a little special treatment from Crutcher. He needs to show them that the world doesn’t work that way.

Zach Ward is one of those students. Just the sight of him gets Teddy’s blood boiling.

For Zach’s part, he can’t understand why Mr. Crutcher seems to dislike him so much. Everyone likes him, teachers, students, other adults, everyone. It’s truly puzzling.

When Zach needs to perform extra credit to up his grade in Crutcher’s class, Teddy makes sure it will be a challenge, not caring how much it interferes with Zach’s other commitments.

The tension rises when a fellow teacher asks Teddy to tweak when the assignment will be due. She has deadlines for Zach at the same time and certainly he can’t be expected to complete both.

The audacity! Teddy seems to be the only person at this school with any regard for propriety.

Then tragic events bring the once heralded school to its knees. Parents begin removing their kids, donations plummet; only Teddy can bring it around.

For Your Own Good was an absolute blast to read. My first Samantha Downing novel, but definitely not my last.

It was hella twisted, no one was safe. I didn’t know where it was going, or what the conclusion would be.

I absolutely love how Downing crafted this. I never felt like I had enough information to put everything together. I wanted to, I desperately wanted to know, but there were so many pieces to the puzzle and I couldn’t get any of them to fit.

There were a few twists towards the end that just made me giddy, they were so diabolical. The conclusion was perfection!!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I can’t wait to dive into Downing’s backlist now.

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Shutter by Melissa Larsen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Following the death of her beloved Father, Betty Roux needs an escape. She packs her bags, severs her ties and flies to New York City, with dreams of becoming an actress.

Once there, she phones up her old friend, Sofia, who she knows has found some level of success behind-the-scenes in the film business.

Sofia and her live-in boyfriend, Ben, are more than happy to take Betty under their wing and she begins to stay at their place; walking dogs to make ends meet.

Before too long, they offer to introduce her to the mysterious filmmaker, Anthony Marino, a man they have worked with in the past and have a friendly relationship with. THE Anthony Marino.

Upon meeting Betty, it seems Anthony has discovered his new muse. He offers her the starring role in his next project.

She’s flattered, but also a little uncertain. She didn’t even audition and has no experience, what does he see in her?

Who is she to argue with genius though? He clearly knows what he is doing, so Betty agrees to step outside her comfort zone and take on the role.

The project is the be filmed at the Marino family property on a private island off the coast of Maine. From the very start, Betty is unclear about the specifics of the whole thing.

Anthony tells her it will be loosely-based upon the classic film, Cape Fear. It’s to be filmed more like a lightly-scripted reality television show versus a traditional film.

The bare bones crew, which includes Ben, Sofia and the man who is to play Betty’s on-screen boyfriend, Mads, travel to Maine with the hopes of capturing all the footage they need within a month.

Prior to filming, Anthony assigns Betty a new identity. She is now to go only by the name, Lola; he is hoping that will allow her to let down her defenses and evolve into the character he is looking for.

Events on the island spiral quickly and Betty begins to wonder what exactly she has gotten herself into. She should have listened to her Mother.

Y’all, I would have thrown this across the room when I was finished with it, but it’s on my Kindle soooo…..

Betty was one of those characters that I quickly grew frustrated with and there was never even a glimmer of hope of her redeeming herself.

In and of itself, that’s fine. I don’t need to like the characters in the books I read. In fact, I frequently enjoy books where the entire cast is unlikable. It all depends what those unlikable people are doing.

It needs to keep me engaged. It needs to be sinister, it needs to be wicked, wild, intriguing; give me something!

This felt so bland to me; top to bottom. The narrative style did not suit my taste at all, there was no sense of place, no atmosphere. I couldn’t have cared one way or another about Anthony Marino, or his petty film project.

At the end of the day, while the synopsis sounded intriguing, the execution fell well below my expectations.

As I always say, however, there is a Reader for every book and a book for every Reader. Just because this didn’t work for me, does not mean it won’t work for you. If you think it sounds intriguing, give it a go!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity to vent provide my opinion.

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Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars**

Lena Nguyen’s twin sister, Cambry, is dead. The official story is that while on a cross-country solo road trip, she stopped 60-miles outside of Missoula, Montana, and jumped from a bridge.

That’s the story, that she chose to end her own life.

The problem is, Lena doesn’t believe that’s true. A number of things about the official version just do not add up for her.

There’s the state trooper, Corporal Ray Raycevic. He found Cambry’s body, but he had also pulled her over in a traffic stop just an hour before she died.

After the traffic stop, there’s the 16-attempted 911-calls from her cell; unfortunately, Cambry was in a dead zone at the time, so it’s never been determined what sort of assistance she was seeking.

Lastly, and most troubling to Lena, is the fact that Cambry mentioned Corporal Raycevic by name in her final, cryptic text message to her sister. This text is believed to be her suicide note.

Why would she mention the name of an officer she had only met once, in a reportedly brief, traffic stop?

It just doesn’t make any sense and Lena is going to get to the bottom of it. Driving her sister’s old car, armed with a tape recorder, Lena heads off to Montana to confront Officer Raycevic.

This book kicks off with a bang and really never lets up. As Adams did with No Exit, he is able to steadily build and hold the level of intensity throughout.

There’s never a lull in his stories. You are in it, gripping your seat until the very end.

Taking place over the course of just a few hours, this narrative is quite focused in its scope. I think it would translate very well to the big screen.

There are some fantastic stand-offs, chase scenes, fierce cat-and-mouse moments; it had a lot going for it.

But there were also some aspects of the story that didn’t quite fit my tastes. I found the format to be a tad wonky and towards the end, as the pace increased, it became a little disjointed and I found it hard to follow at times.

For example, I would have to keep looking back a little bit to give myself a reminder from what perspective I was currently reading from. Out of context, this comment probably won’t make much sense to you, but if you read it, you may encounter the same issue.

Additionally, while there were a few interesting revelations, there were also some that toed the line of eye roll territory for me. A very hard territory to work your way out from.

With this being said, this is an entertaining story. I have a feeling there will be mixed reviews, but as always, it all comes down to personal taste. It’s subjective; certain tropes work better for some Readers than others.

There’s a book for every Reader and a Reader for every book. While I won’t be marking Hairpin Bridge down as a new personal favorite, I still had fun with it and am glad I gave it a shot!

Thank you so much to the publisher, William Morrow, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I certainly appreciate the opportunity to provide my opinion and look forward to picking up more from Taylor Adams!!

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