Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

4 Stars

This place could drive anyone crazy.
Upon receipt of a disturbing letter from her cousin claiming she is being poisoned by her husband and trapped in a house full of rot and evil, Noemí is sent on a bit of a fact-finding mission in order to get Catalina any help she may need. Her arrival reveals a house on a hill a bit like . . . .



Ran by a woman with an iron fist and an entire laundry list of rules reminiscent of . . . .



Eventually followed by some pretty superb gross-out scenes I haven’t experienced since . . . .



Apparently this wasn’t a big hit for everyone. Color me surprised because I thought it was exactly as advertised - Lovecraft meets the Brontës. That cover alone is worth the price of admission. And yes I know I know I complain about face covers all the time, but these “ladies in pretty dresses” covers are simply the bees knees. I will say this is a slow roller that builds itself up to a frantic pace for the climax, so if you aren’t sucked in by the atmosphere, you definitely aren’t going to have a great time. Also, I apparently wrongread even when I think I’m reading it right so take my rating with a grain of salt.

Dream Maker by Kristen Ashley

4 Stars

“It’s us from now on. The Dream Team. The Rock Chicks are cool and all, but we’re next gen.”


Okay, not really, but I have been able to avoid the last of the motorbike pornos due to their epic lengths and little plot and also all but one of the Rock Chick books. I even dodged this one for a minute because that cover?????



But Kristen Ashley’s siren song is one that is hard for me to resist and eventually I added my name to the library wait list along with all the other horny housewives and when my turn came up yesterday I read the whole dang thing cover-to-cover. And now????



Yeah, I recommend this series to any KA fans out there who happen to stumble upon this “review.” Not only was it splooshy with a typical alpha male sex god, but this one had an actual story too. (Here our leading lady Evan is a stripper with a heart of god who is scheduled to have a blind date with a dude who is maybe some sort of commando and finds herself (in)conveniently requested to “hold something” for her jailbird brother that becomes a whole thing of dope, kidnapping, shoot ‘em ups, etc., etc.) Sadly, KA is still addicted to the “honey” speak, but with cameos by the Chaos motorcycle boys and Nightingale Investigations even that got a pass from me.

And the teaser for the next book????

“I had it in me, you know, before shit went down when I was in the service. It went into overdrive after that.”

“It?”

He glanced at me. He looked back at the road. Another glance at me. Then back to the road and, “I’m a Dom.”

“A Dom?” I asked.

“A Dominant. A Dom. In sex.”



I would like an advanced copy of that yesterday, please.

The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

4 Stars

Today’s entry is brought to you by . . . .



At this point in my life I’m not much of a reader of the classics (and certainly not many smarty classics that would have been assigned back when I rode my dinosaur to school every day), but I’m pretty sure you get your mystery lovers club membership revoked if you haven’t ever read a Hercule Poirot. That being said, this was only my second Poirot story (the other being the obvious selection - Murder on the Orient Express) and this time around it was our favorite P.I.’s THIRTEENTH go ‘round. (Also of note the only reason I read this was because Peter Swanson told me to in Eight Perfect Murders.)

At the start of The ABC Murders M. Poirot (as he is so often referred) finds himself realizing he’s getting a little long in the tooth and contemplating potential retirement, but upon receipt of a letter informing him of an upcoming murder – going so far as to name the date and place – he figures it’s nothing a little Just for Men can’t fix so . . . .



What follows is a romp from cities A to D containing victims with the same initial as their murder locale. There appear to be no other connections and the method of killing varies as well. How will Poirot ever put the pieces together on this tricky puzzle???

This was simply a good time and I can’t believe how well Christie’s stories have aged over the (80+) years. The mystery was a fun one to chase and I’m glad Swanson twisted my arm enough that I gave it a whirl. If nothing else, it gave me a break from the one thousand and fourteen reincarnations of And Then There Were None that I read every year.

Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

4 Stars

I actually have an unread ARC of Katherine Center’s newest release, but it seems like that was a big turd for most of my friends so I’ve been terrified to read it. And despite my heart telling me . . . .



My brain thankfully has been pretty persistent in reminding me that I’m kind of a Grade A Asshole and I need to lower my expectations before diving into that one.

Unfortunately Happiness for Beginners didn’t help minimize my fangirling despite it being a “finding yourself” story combined with a May/December romance which generally aren’t my ideas of a good time. Maybe I should pull the trigger on the new one – at this point it’s pretty apparent that this is an author who might do no wrong for me.

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

4 Stars

I’m not exactly what you’d call a Jane Austen fangirl like the folks in this book club, but I do have a sort of an unhealthy relationship with Pride and Prejudice along with any and all of its gazillions of retellings. So why did it take me so long to read this book? Well, basically it’s all Fern's fault. Have you ever been terrified of reading anything else by an author after having sort of a lifechanging moment with the first thing you read by them and you just can’t imagine their other stuff even being able to hold a candle to the other book’s greatness? Yeah, that’s pretty much what my problem was with this – despite it having a title that pretty much guaranteed the story within would provide at least a modicum of enjoyment for me.

It may have taken years, but I finally decided to nut up and read this out on the deck earlier this year when it wasn’t hot enough to fuse my underwear to my ass. I don’t know what I was scared of. It was exactly what I hoped it would be with characters who I would love know in real life. And while it certainly does not compare to We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves it shouldn’t have to. They are totally different stories that I wouldn’t even categorize in the same genre.

 

The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine

1.5 Stars

The Wife Stalker took its place at the top of my TBR over the eleventy other library books I have checked out due to the fact that after reading Your House Will Pay I was suffering a severe book hangover and needed some sort of buffer before moving on. These fillers can come in the shape of romcoms, thrillers or chicklit and trust me when I say I read a lot – and I mean A. L.O.T. – of “trash” and absolutely dig it most of the time.

The premise here was one that I should have loved. Husband and wife have a couple of kids and things are going well enough until a new chick comes into the picture. That’s all you get because between that one sentence and the title you probably can figure out where it goes from there. The low rating here comes from me whining to myself and making snarky notes on the Kindle the entire time I was reading it until the twist came near the end to make sense of things. These characters were totally undeveloped and the timeline was sooooooo fast-forwarded that I just couldn’t let myself get taken away by the over-the-top storyline like I usually can. Not to mention the extra twist that got thrown in (why authors???? why?????) And the dialogue? We’re talking a literary merit of something like . . . . .



I’m rounding up to 2 Stars for the very last paragraph that brought just a teensie bit of redemption and for the fact that I breezed through this in an evening.

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

5 Stars

I’m not a child. I am an outlaw.

A couple of years back I picked up an early copy of a book that no one was really talking about and that little book (She Rides Shotgun) ended up being the best thing I read all year. I picked up this little book that no one is really talking about yet because my friend Shelley sent me a DM saying she thought it would be right up my alley and since she isn’t much of a bookpusher I took her seriously and requested a copy pronto. And then . . . . . 

While not really alike as far as comparisons go, much like in She Rides Shotgun, We Begin at the End featured a storyline with a dead mama, steering clear of a potential bad guy, lots of grit and a leading lady in the form of a young girl that I absolutely fell in love with. This will easily go down as one of the best things I read this year (and it’s the time of the ‘Rona, so your girl be reading ALL. THE. DAMN. TIME.) and will be one of the rarities that stick with me for years to come.

All the Stars and highly recommended.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Thank you, NetGalley!