Book Review ~ The Good Twin by Marti Green

Book: The Good Twin

Author: Marti Green

Genre: Suspense, Thriller, Psychological

Release: Thomas & Mercer | May 15, 2018

In Marti Green’s twisting novel of psychological suspense, twin sisters become engaged in a dangerous deception…

Mallory Holcolm is an unfulfilled waitress and aspiring artist living in a Queens boardinghouse when she learns something astonishing about her past: she has an identical twin sister named Charly she never knew existed.

Charly is a Princeton graduate, a respected gallery owner, and an heiress married to her handsome college sweetheart, Ben. Charly got everything she ever wanted. Everything Mallory wanted, too. And now it might be easier than Mallory ever imagined. Because Ben has reasons of his own for wanting to help her.

It begins with his startling proposal. All Mallory has to do is say yes.

But as their devious plan falls into place, piece by piece, Mallory learns more about her sister and herself than she ever meant to—a discovery that comes with an unexpected twist. A chilling deception is about to become a dangerous double cross. And it’s going to change the rules of Ben and Mallory’s game to the very end.

If I have to be completely honest, I’m a bit torn about my rating for this book. The book started very intriguing, with a woman finding her twin sister after many years, gathering her courage to speak to her only to be met with her husband who tells her her sister wants nothing to do with her and an offer of ‘hey, how about, instead we kill her cause she’s such a horrible person, and you replace her?’ Because Yes, you guessed it, this sister is filthy rich.

I really liked the plot of this book. It was such an interesting story to begin with. I loved the idea of preparing to kill someone who looks exactly like you, to take her place and live the life you might’ve gotten had you been born a couple of minutes later. The moral dilemma that was presented with Mallory’s character-the poor sister who plots to kill her twin, Charly- fed my interest in human psyche.

Book Review ~ Nikan Rebuilt by Scarlett Cole

Book: Nikan Rebuilt (Preload #3)

Author: Scarlett Cole

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release: St. Martin’s Press | January 2, 2018

Does the past ever really stay in the past?

Nikan can never be complete. He’s got a rock group made up of the family he built for himself, more money than he knows what to do with, and a stream of groupies falling over themselves to date him. But none of them are her. The one regret that still plagues him, still taunts him with what he could have had.

Jenny is a survivor. Now running a group home after overcoming life in a cult led by her manipulative father and watching her mother drink the poison he fed his followers, she fights to keep the light in the eyes of every boy who walks through her doors. Far from simple young love, Nik taught her to trust, showed her how good life could be. Before he formed the band. Before he became a famous rockstar. Before he destroyed it all.

A chance meeting after years of no contact shows the connection still blazes between them. But will they have their second chance at love? Or will the weight of their past crush their future together?

This must be by far my favorite on this series. I mean, I loved all the books so far, in fact I loved the series this was the spin off of, but this book..It spoke to me on another level. You know how you sometimes find a way to connect with a character? A story? Something in the book reaches out to you and you look at the book in a new light, a light that makes it one of the most enjoyable and emotional reads of your life. This was such a book for me.

Book Review ~ Revenge of The Dolls by Carol Beach York

Book: Revenge of The Dolls

Author: Carol Beach York

Genre: Horror, Psychological, Childrens

Release: Dutton Books | January 1, 1979

Alice, Trissy and their cousin Paulie are visitors in the dark old house of Aunt Sarah and faded, middle-aged Cousin Grace. It’s a grim house, filled with shadows, and Aunt Sarah matches it — old, bitter, silent, wrapped up in the crude and ugly dolls she has devoted herself or making. They talked to her, she said.

The girls never dared to touch Aunt Sarah’s dolls, but Paulie was different. He threw one in the fire, as the other dolls watched with their glittering button eyes. Now Aunt Sarah was making another doll just like him. “It’s for Paulie,” she said.

A master of suspense and mood relates one of her most chilling tales in this story of three children and their brush with the madness of an evil old woman and the little dolls that do her bidding.

 

 

This was a short and creepy story. Not many horror elements other than beady eyed dolls that live in the same room with an old and probably senile lady who thinks hey watch everything and talk to her.

Book Review ~ Elliott Redeemed by Scarlett Cole

Book: Elliott Redeemed (Preload #2)

Author: Scarlett Cole

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release: Swerve | August 29, 2017

A single mom and tortured musician find common ground in Scarlett Cole’s Elliott Redeemed, the second standalone romance about the band Preload.

Elliott “Pyro” Dawson burns up the lead guitar like a legend. But the nickname Pyro isn’t just a clever play on words. It’s much darker. A past he’s fought like hell to overcome.

Grocery store cashier Kendalee Walker is at her wits end and homeless. She’s watched her fourteen-year-old son, Daniel, go so far off the rails, he can no longer see the tracks.

When the two are brought together, attraction flares, but the life of a badass rockstar couldn’t be more different than that of a struggling mom. Can Elliott find the family he never had with the sexy woman and her son, or will he fall back on dangerous habits?

I forgot how much I missed the members of the music band Preload. The second book brings us Elliott, the one who plays with fire. Literally. Now, please don’t take it like I’m taking this matter lightly, because I’m not. In fact, one of the main reasons why I love this series so much is that it takes these real life problems so seriously. And then Scarlett Cole not only helps her characters heal, but also shows us that there can always be happiness, hope and healing at the end of such a dark tunnel.

Book Review ~ The Good Samaritan by John Marrs

Book: The Good Samaritan

Author: John Marrs

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Psychological

Release: Thomas & Mercer | April 12, 2018

She’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?

The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.

Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.

But now someone’s on to her—Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?

The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to…

Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder.

Give me all the stars to give this exquisite psychological thriller. This mind bending, clusterfuck of a novel. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a story like this one, and truth be told, I’m not even sure if I’d still gone ahead and read it if I knew what I was getting myself into. But who cares? Because I’ve read it, and it was brilliant. Shocking, disturbing, intriguing, sad, so so sad, but most definitely worth it.

I wasn’t exaggerating when I said this book was sad. The underlying emotion in the story was sadness. It was everywhere. In the way Laura thought so dismissively about her ‘candidates’, the people she chose to ‘help’, in the way Ryan was so desperate and cornered about his wife’s apparent suicide, and in the general tone of everything that happened around these two messed up people.