katiethebookvirgo's Reviews (419)

 

This is book two of the Bless Your Heart series and I would recommend reading book one before diving in to this one. There are quite a few characters in book one and events that are mentioned in this book. I read book one and I even had trouble remembering what had happened.  

I would say this is a cozy horror. Is that a thing? I’m not sure, but that’s what I’m calling this. We have a werewolf type creature on the loose killing multiple people in this tiny Texas town. We also have zombies (they don't call them zombies in this book) and other supernatural creatures among the living. There is some gore, but the characters have a light hearted nature about themselves because it’s pretty normal day to day occurrences that’s why I refer to it as cozy horror. 

I like the Evan's women in this book. They are a fun group of women and have a good sense of humor even though everything around them is a disaster. Sometimes the characters were confusing because people who you thought have died actually come back to life so it’s hard to keep track. I find these books fun to read, but not that memorable. That being said, I would probably read book three because they are a light fun little horror read.

The narrator does a great job with this audiobooks so that is an enjoyable experience. 

Thank you to MacMillian Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

 

 This was sadly not for me. I found the characters rather boring and the story not that exciting. I had a hard time wanting to pick up the story. I found the writing a bit juvenile and a bit YA.

I appreciate receiving this ARC copy, but sadly it just wasn't for me. 

 

This is book two in the Detective Sami Kierce Series. Sami Kierse's college days come back to haunt him in the latest book by Harlan Coben.   

We are following Sami Kerce as he puts the pieces together of a mystery that is connected to his college trip to Spain twenty years ago about a night he woke up next to a bloody knife and a bloody girl. Is she still alive all these years later? Possibly…you will have to read to find out!

I liked this book, but I thought sometimes it dragged just a bit for me. It was fast-paced, but also slow if that makes sense. I liked his class of amateur sleuths that he taught, they were a fun group.  You find yourself rooting for Sami even though I don’t find him that likeable of a character. I found his wife to be supportive and I liked her. The ending really ramps up with some twists you won’t see coming. This was my first book by this author and I would read from him again.

Thank you to Hachette Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. 

 

This mystery had a dual timeline and involved an 80’s band so if that is something you are interested in then I would pick this up. I thought the mystery was good, but at times I found myself slightly confused about who was who. I wish there were more high stakes in this book, I found myself not really caring about the characters and what happened to them. The 80’s band timeline was a bit boring, even though it took place in the 80’s it reminded me of a more modern band like a One Direction type, they did not scream 80’s rockstars to me. 

Overall I thought this was an okay mystery, I may pick up another book by this author. The audiobook really sold it for me though. Imogen Wilde always does an amazing job and really brought this book to life, I think it needed her to narrate. 

Thank you Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. 

 

I’m not a legal thriller reader, but it’s Steve Cavanagh so I wanted to give it a try. This story involves crooked cops, psycho nannies, a con-artist turned DA and a whole lot of hit men. There were quite a few characters in this story so it took a bit to get to know who everyone was. The story moves pretty fast, each chapter about a different character so you better keep up! I liked the twists in this book and the reveal at the end I didn’t guess. Is it bad to say my favorite character was Mr. Christmas? You’ll have to read this book to find out why…

Thank you Atria Books for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review. 

 

 

“Love is a shapeshifting monster.”

Wow did this book take me on a wild ride and I loved it!  This was my first book by Nat Cassidy and now I must read his backlist. I really enjoyed his storytelling in this book. I loved how he weaved the horror with the supernatural with small nods to classic fairy tales. It was a very immersive story. I enjoyed our characters in this book and honestly when a few characters got killed I have to say it had me tearing up.  I thought I was going to find Jessa annoying, she’s your typical failing actress working a dead end job, miserable 30 something year old,  but she really grew on me. Her character really evolved in this story and she got braver and braver as the story unfolded. I enjoyed “kiddo” in the story, he was a very complex five year old and quite frankly terrifying.  Some of the scenes in this book were so terrifying, but so gripping. I couldn’t stop listening. I needed to hear how this story ended.

I loved the narrator of this book, she did a fantastic job with the various characters in this book and really put her all into this story making it a very enjoyable read. I also liked hearing from Nat Cassidy at the end and how his own dad was the inspiration for this story. 

Overall this book was really fantastic. I haven’t read anything like this and I think that’s what I enjoyed the most. This is an original story written very well. Add this to your 2025 horror reads!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. 

 

If someone emailed you and offered you a house in a random town in Georgia for only $100 would you take the offer? No? Me either…

I was hoping for a gothic horror novel and I didn’t quite get that. There was no horror or scary elements to this story. We are following a family who takes a $100 offer to buy a house in a random small town in Juliana, Georgia. When they arrive Billie, the wife,  starts up a restaurant and her husband Peter, a psychologist, begins his practice. Things are going well for the family until Peter starts going insane and then leaves the family to go back to New York. The story just kind of goes off the rails after that. 

The problems I had with this story were a couple things. I’m not sure if the author should have made Billie a mother, she leaves her daughter multiple times with strangers to figure out the insanity that is the town. I think at one point she left her daughter for four days. Billie also basically leaves her restaurant as well, I’m not sure if the restaurant owner and mother were the best things for this character. I just kind of lost interest in Billie, she didn’t seem like that great of a person and I didn’t really care what happened to her.  I was hoping for more scary elements within this book, I was hoping for a haunted house story, but didn’t get that.  

I liked the short chapters and the story kept my interest, but this wasn’t a favorite and sadly one that I will probably forget.

Thank you to Kensington Publishing for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review. 

This was my second book by Lisa Unger and I liked it, but I felt it was missing something for me…I was really interested in reading about a game of hide and seek on a mysterious haunted island, but sadly this was a bit boring to me. 

We are following social media influencers that go on a game show to win a million dollars. The influencers were not that interesting to me and the people that ran the game show were pretty boring characters with a lot of issues I didn’t care about. I think that I had the most problem was that the contestants were able to livestream themselves throughout the game, so everyone had access to their phones. It didn’t seem too high stakes, because millions of people knew their locations and could rescue them, so nothing seemed too daring or thrilling. I also thought some of the dialogue was kinda weird. When the influencers went live they would just talk weirdly, sounding like an older person trying to talk like a young kid. I don't know, some of it made me cringe a bit.

If you want a fast thriller, with a game show or a reality show premise then maybe give this a try.

Thank you to Harlequin Audio and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year so I was really excited to go into this. We are following Jane who after the loss of her dad gets into online true crime solving. She meets a group of amateur sleuths and they help to solve a murder case of college students at Idaho State University. 

Although I liked the story I found it incredibly predictable. I figured out the entire murder by around the 50% mark, I thought it was pretty obvious. I was really hoping I was wrong and there would be a huge twist at the end, but sadly that was not the case. I’m not sure how I felt that this entire story was based on the Idaho college murder case from 2022.  That’s a case I have been following and am pretty familiar with so it was just odd reading a story based on that. She portrayed the victims in not the best light and I was a little uncomfortable with that. 

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book and watching the team solve the first murder. I think when it got to the Idaho murders it lost me a little bit. This was a long book and I’m not sure it needed to be that long, some of the chapters seemed unnecessary. The chapters were very short which made it a quick read so I enjoyed that. I just also had a hard time with the chapters with her dad, I just was sort of trying to find a reason for mentioning him so much. I was almost thinking that maybe the twist was that he killed the girls! That would have been wild.

If you are a true crime fan and a fan of Ashley Winstead then I would recommend picking up this book on March 25th. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.