bookswithlydscl's Reviews (639)

No Rating - smut/spicy Romantasy is not my genre so i'm not one to be able to rate that. For me, I can live without it (picked up for a reading challenge prompt) but what I do know is that it was funny and I loved the quest/adventure storyline and wish we had more of that story and world.

Absolutely see why this is such a beloved series and I'm going to be diving right on into book 2. Not quite a 4.5 or 5 for me as there were some elements of the PJ character that really annoyed me and the beginning felt drawn out and convoluted at times trying to hide who Percy's dad was / why he was experiencing what he was - probably my perspective as an adult more than anything but still really enjoyed it.

Welcome to the biggest event of the year - The Summer Party, a tense and fast paced locked room thriller that is an ideal by the pool/holiday read this summer season. 

In this story we meet Mel and the team at Flavour, a fashionable agency who have been invited to hold their summer shindig at the highly exclusive Point Grey Hotel, with only 8 of them winning the draw to stay overnight as VIPS. As the party develops secrets, lies and revenge become the new agenda and everyone invited to stay wonders why they were the 'lucky' ones to be chosen, especially as the bodies start to pile up.

I really enjoyed the structure of this story. Despite its initial slow start, and Mel being a wet blanket, the pace ramped up after the first third and the setting was particularly evocative and effective. I love an isolated setting which gives you 'And Then There Were None' vibes and we had also all the glitz, glamour and cattiness I would expect in this genre of vacation style thriller. I really liked the use of social media, police interviews and news articles interspersed between chapters to help move the story along as well as act as the present POV for the story. It was a more interesting way of doing a dual POV story and kept everything vague enough to want you to keep reading to see how the story unfolds.

Despite Mel being a bit of a drag of a main character at the start (especially her mooning over Charlie like a teenage girl), I did enjoy her character development and by the end was willing her on as she gained somewhat in confidence and was willing to push herself outside of her comfort zone. I admit, I saw a lot of my own personal traits in her so whilst cringing at her at times I also felt sorry for her and wanted her to come out victorious.

The ultimate reveal for the who I kind of guessed but I didn't get the why or the how which I liked. The reveals worked and I did generally enjoy the final few chapters which wrapped everything up with a few surprising elements.

This was a fast paced thriller that kept you engaged and invested as the action unfolds. Not all the characters are likeable at all but they do read very familiar to anyone who's worked in a classic office setting and some of them make for great victims. The locked room element was superb and the red herring and twists and turns added well to the mystery. Overall, a highly enjoyable read and comes recommended.

3.75* rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline | Mountain Leopard Press for a digital review copy of "The Summer Party " in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

A really solid series opener - dark, and moody with a solid mystery and plenty of twists, turns and red herrings.

I really enjoyed this. Fast paced, great storyline, liked the historical nature of the story (Vampire Western!!), especially the 1925 storyline. Will definitely move onto Vol. 2.

3.25*

I had heard amazing things about Joanna Wallace's debut, You'd Look Better As a Ghost, so I knew, after seeing the premise of The Dead Friend Project, that I really wanted to read it. Overall, I'm glad I read it but I didn't love it like I hoped I would.

In this humour led, mystery style contemporary fiction story we meet Beth, a struggling mum of young children. Her husband left her for a close friend, she feels that she doesn't match up to the other mums on the school run, and her best friend - Charlotte, was killed in a road traffic accident with too many loose ends for it to have been accidental in Beth's alcohol addled mind.

What follows is a story of a woman spiralling ever downwards into alcoholism and despair whilst her friends and family watch on, unable (or unwilling) to help as she sets off on a single person mission to solve the mystery of Charlotte's death.

I'll admit, I'm not a mum so I've not encountered the school run types which make up the character tropes we see here and so they come across for most of the novel as unfunny and pretty one dimensional. That is aside of Ana, who I loved and Emily, who gets her redemption at the end! I also struggled Beth's issues with alcohol. I'm sure they were trying to be handled realistically and sensitively, especially towards the end, but they were repetitive and for the most part read like 'Wine Mom' memes that are all over social media, and the attempts to make them humorous felt a little uncomfortable to me. There was also generally a lack of empathy from other characters, not helped by how dramatic Beth is throughout the book which made for uncomfortable reading

The humour though, when it worked, worked well, and I'm sure for parents the exhausting merry go round of children, activities and play dates rings so true and adds to the experience of the story - The reveal for why one of the characters unfortunately died was awful and so funny at the same time that I can absolutely see it happening in many a home.

I was fortunate enough to get the eBook and Audiobook for this and despite my misgivings about elements of the story, found that it absolutely flew by and I basically read it in one sitting. The audiobook is well produced and Imogen Church makes for an incredibly effective narrator. I think that is what saved the reading experience for me. She truly captured the pace and style of the narrative and did so many different voices so well that each one had an identity and personality that came to life and she captured the breathless exuberance of youth brilliantly.

This is a fast paced story that fits the mania of Beth's mission and has almost cosy mystery elements to it. I identified in Beth traits I've seen in many other people who have substance use problems and so the ending, whilst frustrating in many ways also felt realistic.

Definitely a hit and miss book for me but it hasn't put me off trying Joanna Wallace's first book which I think may suit me better as I really enjoyed the humour when it landed and I did like the writing style. I just think the setting wasn't right for me but I think fans of Jane Fallon or those with children or who do the school run will delight in the character tropes, conversations and sense of identity seen in the characters here.

Thank you to NetGalley and Serpent's Tail / Viper / Profile Books | Viper for a digital review copy of "The Dead Friend Project" and Profile Books Audio | Viper for a review copy of the Audiobook, both in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

Not what I expected - literary sci-fi I'd say. It felt much more character driven and doesn't really have any action. It's a really interesting take on the dystopian/scifi genre, glad to have finally read it.

A really solid thriller with all the hallmarks of John Marrs style but for me didn't work as well as the one universe books.

This is my first non-one universe book from John Marrs and it has all the elements I really enjoy about his book and writing style - multiple character storylines, short and snappy chapters and one key connecting point but I didn't love this one.

This time the connecting point is a hostel in Los Angeles. There are some small overlaps in the story around the hostel but the 8 storylines are basically independent and I found it a little difficult to keep track of everyone and everything going on.

I enjoyed this foray into Marrs' backlist and will continue reading through the rest but I think my heart definitely lies with his near-future sci-fi dystopian works as they feel inherently more intriguing and unique as they work so well as thrillers and science fiction works.

I so badly wanted to love this and the final third especially, I really did, but something just didn't quite click for me overall.

I loved the storyline, the characters as a whole and the strong female characters, the found family trope, the adventure, the similarities to The Princess Bride, the settings, and the humour.

But I think what didn't click for me was the writing style. This was my first Brandon Sanderson book and I think I was expecting a lot and had hyped it up in my head and it didn't quite deliver how I wanted. I also wonder if my reading mood wasn't in quite the right space.

Either way I enjoyed this overall but didn't quite love it at the level I was expecting. I think this may be one to revisit in future when I'm in a different reading mood and coming at it as a re-reader used to the narrative style because the stubborn part of me wants to love it and give it a second chance.

I've slowly but surely been reading Riley Sager to zero so I knew I needed to read Middle of the Night as soon as possible especially with its atmospheric and horror adjacent premise that focuses on childhood friendship, grief, trauma, and anxiety.

 Back in 1994 Ethan and his best friend, Billy were camping in Ethan's backyard when overnight Billy disappeared from the tent they were sharing and Ethan can't remember anything. As an adult he is plagued by bad dreams and insomnia as Billy's disappearance continues to haunt him. Returning to his childhood home he's hoping to get some answers and some closure but strange things start happening making Ethan question could there really be such things as ghosts.

Told in a dual timeline with the present and 1994 perspectives, Riley Sager expertly unrolls the story in his classic style giving us an overall engaging, absorbing and thrilling story with a truly solid mystery element as well as poking his toe into the potential paranormal element. I found it to be a truly human story with generally well thought out and rounded characters who felt very realised to me, especially young Henry who I think was my favourite all round.

Whilst the story started slow - it took me until 35% in to warm up to it, by 50% I was all in and the story absolutely flew by. I also wish we had been given more about the mysterious research institute as it was a truly atmospheric and intriguing place/set of characters that alone that could be a book in itself.

I found Sager's use of the unreliable narrator trope though, to be pretty solid and it added to the story without ruining it for me. It helped build a sense of tension as we, along with Ethan, questioned him and his own recollections of events in 1994 and it really made me wonder who could be trusted and where did the truth actually lie. Combined with the speculative nature of elements of the story, it all made for a tense and at times, chilling read. 

The truth, when it came out, I absolutely loved and found the final quarter of the book and the ending to be one of the best, for me, from Riley Sager. I found the layered reveals worked really well and whilst I didn't feel like there were jaw dropping twists, I was truly satisfied with how the story played out and how the truth was revealed.

This book doesn't break the mould or strike any new ground but it is a highly enjoyable mystery thriller that manages to be spooky, tense, sad and empathetic all at the same time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for a digital review copy of "Middle of the Night" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.