dapperreads's Reviews (1.29k)

I have been waiting for this one for quite some time. I’m so happy to have finally been able to learn about the Missing Sister. 

The seven sisters has always been such an interesting series to me. I couldn’t wait to discover all of the stories behind each adoption and how it all worked out for not just the kids, but their birth families as well. 

This Missing Sister, while written in the same general style, doesn’t start with the sister herself because well, she’s missing. So the other 6 sisters try to locate their missing seventh sister that never arrived to their little unconventional family. We follow the different sisters on their quest to speak with a woman they believe could be their seventh sister. 

It’s quite interesting and emotional and I’m definitely curious about the next installment - Pa Salt’s story.

First - immediately I’m thrown in with a couple of MCs who clearly have a history … and it’s written like we should know what that history is. If we should know, then this shouldn’t be book 1 of a series. It should be a continuation of wherever the backstory came from. But alas, this book is almost as old as I am so here we are. The ‘90’s were something else huh? I mean yeah yeah we get the gist - but it reads like there’s a whole story not just “oh we slept together that one time”…so uh…rest of that story??

My next thing is the straight up judgment about what is found in the MURDER VICTIM’s apartment. Sex toys? You’re mad about sex toys? Hunny - come to my house and I’ll scar you for life. At least she had a nice room for it. Chill out with your judgmental selves.

The story itself was pretty good. If we take out the above mentioned “oh no there are sex toys 😱😱😱” that went into their “investigation” it was a typical crime thriller. But a LONG one. And for no real good reason. 

Too much time was spent hashing out the previously mentioned history between the MCs without actually explaining any of it. So we can cut all of that without taking anything away from the story. We can also remove the judgment about lifestyle choices - this book most definitely didn’t age well. There were a few times I noted a rehashing of information we already knew (which yes, that’s criminal justice procedure but it doesn’t need to be in a crime thriller) so if we remove that I think we take this 454 page book down to 275-300 pages and it’s honestly very solid. 

I’ll admit I’m on team don’t use 5 words when one will do, so wordy books with no good reason just automatically lose points for me. I don’t need a higher page/word count when shortening it up would tell the story and even add a faster paced environment. I also prefer my books to be fast paced - so basically what do YOU like out of a book? I do not like this overly wordy format so it isn’t a positive aspect for me. 

So:

The main characters suck - hella judge-y and for no good reason. 

The investigation starts much more concerned with covering up her “lifestyle” than solving her murder. No thanks. 

Super freaking wordy for no reason. 

Weird relationship between the MCs. Also no thanks. 

The story itself (taking out my complaints) was solid. If we break it down, we have a couple military investigators working on the rape and murder of a famous general’s daughter. While I understand wanting to keep the details out of the media, keeping them away from the police to save face felt pretty realistically aggravating. So I can give it that I guess. 

Big CW: rape, murder

I hope the movie is better 🤷‍♀️

⭐️⭐️

I enjoyed this short horror book. My problem with it is that there are NO CHAPTERS. it’s just 272 pages. No chapters. Yeah yeah there are those little lines that indicate a break but I didn’t go into this short book prepared for a 272 page chapter. Since I read chapter by chapter, it would have been nice to know that. 

I also didn’t care for the way it ended. I was prepared for that though because most horror stories don’t end the way I’d have preferred, but more explanation rather the vague one given would have been equally appreciated. 

Either way though I still liked it. 

I gotta say I much preferred the story of Ellie and Rafael to that of Logan and Jess - possibly because we already experienced the drama and teenage stuff that went into their backstory. 

These characters are closer to adults now and dealing with adult problems rather than the nonsense of teenage life (and for real - all teens are full of nonsense…all of them. It comes with the age. It’s fine). I was happy to not have to experience it again. 

I do wish we would have gotten a more solid wrap up with the side characters of Diego and Halley. They had chapters from their POV which led me to believe they would be bigger players than they ended up being.

Overall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have enjoyed many books from this author but I don’t know about this one. It definitely wasn’t for me. 

Thanks to NetGalley I was able to listen to the audio version and I have many comments. 

So what did I read? A book about a couple of friends that go on vacation together to a Villa in Italy where there had been a murder. They’re both authors and decide to use it as a writing retreat of sorts. The one is going through a messy divorce and much of the drama from that is finding its way into their trip. They write their books. They discover the real history of the infamous villa. The thing happens. Houses remember. The end. 

So this is a no from me. 

⭐️⭐️

Look - sometimes you read something that just breaks your brain. This is one of those times. I can’t in good conscience give this book a star rating. So I’m not going to. This is weird, and that’s admitted throughout the book several times. 

Do you need a good laugh? This is it right here though. I laughed so hard I was crying. Literally. My kids asked me why I was sad. It’s disturbing and hilarious. 

Well this was one fantastic conclusion to a wild ride!

This series is everything a psychological thriller should be. There’s murder, mystery, mayhem, love triangles — it’s all here. This final installment in particular was quite twisty!

We get to hear from the POV of our 3 major players; Alisha, Ivy and Caramie as they work through the mess they seem to have found themselves in. 2 are in prison for murder and the remaining one is essentially the eyes on the outside. 

I love the way these books are written. It’s the characters themselves telling us a story. It’s really like we’re just chilling and having some girl talk with them as they share their deepest, darkest secrets. 

I’m sad that it’s over! I wasn’t ready but the ending was so perfect!

Alright ima get my issues with this book out of the way immediately. It’s slow. It’s so slow. Like - continental drift level slow. I’ve noticed not everyone agrees with that assessment but that’s how it felt to me. I tend to struggle with slow books. I will admit that this book took longer to finish than any other book I’ve enjoyed this year. 

Now take a minute to process how I phrased that. 

I legitimately ENJOYED this book. Slow pace and all. Could it have handled being sped up? Absolutely, and I believe it would earned an extra star from me if it was. However, it’s still a really enjoyable premise. The world building was slow to come, we discovered it alongside our main character which was interesting since she came from our world and entered an unknown world. 

Initially I struggled to connect with any of the characters, but after awhile, I did care what was going to happen with everyone involved, not just our MC.

I’m going to give this one 3.5⭐️ and round it up. It would have been an easy 4 with a faster pace! Absolutely recommend!