grayciouslygreyreader's Reviews (142)

The Stepdaughter’s Lie is the latest psychological thriller by Teri Terry that had me on the edge wondering how everything was going to get resolved. 

 Rowan who is married to Theo finds out she is pregnant. Her stepdaughter Ellie is less than thrilled, so much so that she decides she will mess with Rowan in hopes of ruining Rowan and Theo’s relationship and their baby. 

Rowan has a past that she wants to keep secret, but with this pregnancy she is finding herself having nightmares of her past. Will her past and her current situation be too much for her?

The three of them live in a high tech smart house where everything inside is controlled by voice command or app. This gives Ellie an edge over Rowan because she has access to the control panel along with Theo. She can have the house deny her entrance or be locked in a room. These things only last momentarily and appear to be system failures that resolve but it starts affecting her mentally. She is also always finding herself extremely sleep deprived because of these “tricks”, and she starts to question her own sanity but never admitting anything is wrong besides being sleep deprived. This and her past start to haunt her questioning if she will even be able to care for a baby when she can’t care for herself. 

I really liked Rowan and felt for her with everything going on and when she would try to be involved with her stepdaughter. It really felt like she was alone in everything.  I found myself frustrated with Ellie. She just was not even giving her stepmom a chance. It was hard to like someone who continues to do mean things. She came across as a bratty entitled teenager.  As we learn more of her past I found my opinion of her change.  Theo is a workaholic and always away on business trips or working late. He came across as unlikeable. His concerns seemed fake since he seemed to never be there for Rowan. 

Although there weren’t many surprises for me, I did predict how this book would end. That being said, I did really enjoy reading it. It was very easy to read in the POV of two characters….Rowan and Ellie. This book does touch on the subject of abandonment, religious extremism and abuse (Rowan’s past), and lies.  This is an easy book to read as it just flows and makes you want to keep reading to see what will happen next. I also liked that the chapters are short, so if you’re someone who has limited time to read here and there throughout the day, you can easily pick up, pause, and start back again. 

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for sending this book for review consideration.

All opinions are my own. 

I could not put down Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess. This was so well written, and really thought provoking that I was thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it. This book is marketed as a romance, but I feel is not a true romance book that one would expect. This does have a love story intertwined, but it’s mostly about how Jess navigates life as a Black woman in a White world. It touches on racism in White privilege that many don’t see or realize. 

The love interest Josh is a White conservative and the two of them do not agree on many things which leads to many fights. The two are reunited from being classmates in college to coworkers at Goldman Sachs. Jess couldn’t  stand him from the beginning because their beliefs are so different but over time they become friends and then a love story blooms.  

The only thing I really didn’t like is how fast he tells her he loves her after their first time being together, saying that he has loved her since the beginning. SINCE THE BEGINNING?!! His words sure didn’t match that. Other than that the story is fast pace and reflects in true time. We even hear how Jess felt when Obama became president and the book ends when Trump was elected as president in 2016. The feelings described for both these events are how many felt at the time. 

Thank you Simon Books and Simon & Schuster for a copy of this book to review.

The Lost House is Melissa Larsen’s latest book set to release in January of next year. I received an arc copy in advance to read, and I was pretty excited because the story sounded interesting. 

Agnes returns to her grandfather’s homeland in Iceland to find out the truth on the murder of his wife who was slashed by the throat and their child drowned in a river. Together they were found frozen along the river.  Her grandfather fled with his son (Agnes father) to California where he was never convicted of the murders. Agnes has only known her grandfather as a loving person and believes he is innocent. Her return takes place 40 years later, and upon her arrival another woman has gone missing. A party that took place on the property of the original murders, is where the missing woman is believed to have disappeared from. Are these two cases related? 

Agnes meets up with Nora Carver who is doing a podcast to find out the truth on what happened 40 years ago. Agnes was originally there to discuss what she knew of her family, but with the disappearance of the Asa, the woman missing from the party, they investigate together to find out what happened to Asa. 

This book is broken up into three parts. I’m going to be honest. I found the first part extremely slow and not much happening. I’m not one to DNF a book but I really struggled with reading this part of the book. That being said, when I got to part two things started to get interesting.  We get some good character development and understand a little more about the past. By part three I was all in. I found myself wanting to finish it to see how it would end. I just really wish the first part had the same excitement. 

Two things I did really like about The Lost House is the closure Agnes gave her father by finding out the truth for their family, and I feel like Agnes found herself too during all the investigations. She felt a little lost throughout the story. 

I want to thank NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for this advance copy for my honest review.

The Lost House by Melissa Larsen 

Pub date: January 14, 2025

I was gifted The Friendzone by Abby Jimenez from a friend. I read it pretty quickly eager to discuss with her. This was an average read for me. I didn’t hate it but I wouldn’t recommend it either. The most irritating part was the lack of communication from the FMC. She basically held on to a secret about not being able to have kids to someone who made it clear having a family was important to them. I felt myself wanting to scream, “Just be honest with him!!”  The MMC comes of as perfect remembering little details like which foods she does and doesn’t like which her own Mother doesn’t know. 
This is book one of a series and apart of me is curious how it will go on, so I might continue down the road or maybe I’ll just give up and try a more current book of this author. 
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read like a true crime podcast with behind the scenes aspect.