My SPOILER ALERT Book Reviews!

  WOW!!!! This was easily the best read of this year so far. Before I Go to Sleep is a story about an amnesia patient Christine who wakes up each day not knowing where she is. She knows her own name but thinks of herself as 20 years younger, until she sees herself in the mirror of course. She lives with a man named Ben who claims to be her husband. He tells her about her condition each day and lets her know how to take care of herself while he's off at work - the basic things like where her cellphone is and such. After he leaves, a doctor, Dr. Nash typically calls her and lets her know where her journal is and that she should keep adding to it. He then shows up and takes her for his session as he wants to research her brain and help her get better. He tells her not to tell Ben because Ben doesn't want her to see Dr. Nash. He always bring her back before Ben gets home. When she opens her journal, she realizes the first words of the journal say "DON'T TRUST BEN". Wh...

  A whole alphabet of books. I'm not sure what to think. But the book challenge I'm doing requires me to find a book starting with the letter X, so I discovered this series, and decided to try it first with the first book of the series. Surprisingly, the book is fast paced and interesting. The writing is interesting, even though I started getting annoyed at the number of characters for the length of the book. It feels like every chapter is an introduction of new characters. Overall, it's not a bad read, and since my expectations were low, it exceeded my expectations. A Is for Alibi draws us in immediately - the wife Nikki of a prominent divorce attorney Laurence had just gotten out of prison, after serving 7 years for her husband's murder. She approaches private investigator, Kinsey Millhone, because she wants to clear her name and find out who the true killer is. Detective Millhone reluctantly takes the case, since it's been 8 years since the murder and she wonders...

  Fast paced and enjoyable, this was a pretty good book! Everyone Here Is Lying tells the story of a nine year old girl Avery who went missing after returning home from school one day. Police finds several possible suspects, as quite a few neighbors have some secrets. We find out in the end what happened. SPOILER ALERT!! Avery's father, a charismatic doctor named William, is cheating on his wife Erin, with a nurse at work named Nora. On the day of the disappearance, William saw Avery at home. They got in an argument and William slapped her. He left the house for a drive to cool down. He didn't tell the police he had seen Avery at the house because he didn't want to admit to the argument they had and make himself look suspicious. Of course the police figured that out later anyway, and discovered about his affair too. Nora, who's husband Al had already known about the affair for some time, potentially looks suspicious too. Another neighbor who's also a nurse at Willia...

  As a continuation of Vol. 1 , the 6 children are searching for answers - to the questions of why they have wings and why their parents left them. They discover there's an institute called "The Institute of Higher Living" and they know it has something to do with it. They try to figure out where this place is. While doing so, Max starts hearing voices in her head and Angel discovers she can manipulate people with her mind. The Erasers are still hot on their trail over and over again. Max suspects it has to do with the chip in her arm. Fang and Max share a kiss but they don't discuss it. The kids eventually locate the Institute - it's located through a secret passage in the sewer system. They discover a file folder on a computer in the Institute and find their names, parents, home addresses and pictures. They also find lots of cages with mutant children and some pets. They let them out. Jeb's son Ari shows up again, who's an Eraser. Unlike other mutant chi...

  A solid 4/5. On a good day, I might even give this 4.5/5. This was a  PAGE-TURNER! With a title like this, it's not hard to figure out the perfect couple isn't what it appears to be, but I was glued to the page, dying to figure out what they are like, behind closed doors!! When that mystery is presented, I was on the edge of my seat to learn how Grace was going to get out of the situation. The ending is sweet and perfect. SPOILER ALERT! Behind Closed Doors tells the story of husband and wife, Jack and Grace. Jack is a successful lawyer who represents battered wives in divorce cases. Not only is he handsome (better looking than George Clooney), wealthy, and kind, he's also never lost a single case. Grace met him at a park - when Grace was with her sister Millie who suffers from Down Syndrome. Instead of making fun of her like the others, Jack took Millie's hand to dance with her in the park, which made Grace instantly fall in love. They get married, and things quickly ...

  In a Dark Dark Wood grabbed my attention, even though the story dragged on and on. I found myself desperate to find out what happens next. I think I liked this story partly because I could relate to the main character, Nora, because I also had an evil best friend that did similar things as Clare. Namely, destroying your character by making up lies while they convince you they are trying to "help" you. I sometimes wonder what has become of her, and honestly hope karma comes back to her at some point, but I guess I'll never know. The main character, Nora, is invited to a weekend at a bachelorette party of her childhood best friend, Clare. Nora had a falling out with Clare and hasn't talked to her in many years, so she was surprised to get the invitation. She was hesitant to attend, but her mutual friend, Nina said she'd go with her, and the host of the party Flo told her Clare really wants her there, so Nora decided to go with Nina. At the bachelorette party, Clar...

  A solid 3 out of 5 for me. The Wife Upstairs was funny and had a good pace to it. Everything was going well and the story was interesting, until the end... The ending felt flat, and could have so easily been better that it made me frustrated. The Wife Upstairs tries to use characters from Jane Eyre, although I don't see much similarity in the characters other than the names. The story is about Jane, who is a dogwalker for many families in an affluent neighborhood, the Thornfield Estates. Jane wants to be like the housewives in Thornfield - with lots of money. She habitually steals from her clients, justifying it by telling herself they are so rich they won't miss it anyway. Two wives in the neighborhood, Bea and Blanche, went missing and were suspected to have died after their outing together on a lake. Blanche's body was discovered. Bea's was not, but declared dead. Police suspected Blanche's husband, Tripp, for their murders, due to some circumstantial evidence....

  I loved this book. It kept me at the edge of my seat and I didn't see the final twist coming. The story follows two couples. First is Jake and Nina. Jake is a successful neurosurgeon, and their relationship seems perfect from the outside world. But it's really been going downhill and they've been arguing more, mostly stemming from Jake complaining about Nina spending so much time with her mother due to her mother's ailing eyesight. Second couple is Christian and Lily. They are not as wealthy, and struggling to conceive. Christian seems to be the perfect husband but Lily is cheating on him with Jake. Lily and Nina work together as teachers at the same school. After a big fight with his wife, Jake goes missing. At first, Nina is concerned but doesn't think there's any foul play involved. He's been threatening about leaving her so she thinks that's what happened. She starts to worry when she learns that he's been missing work as well, and she alerts t...

  This is the first McFadden book where I predicted most of the twists coming. I mean, from the get go, I figured out that  Tegan’s brother was the bad guy  . But that didn’t make me like the book any less. The Crash is about a girl Tegan who was pregnant and broke, trying to survive. There was some repetitive writing and it feels like the book needed some more proofreading. But overall it was enjoyable to me.  We find out that Tegan remembered being raped by Simon which is what got her pregnant. Her brother Dennis who is business partners with Simon decides to cooperate with Simon to kill Tegan to protect their business aspects. They sabotaged Tegan’s car so she would crash. She was saved by Hank at the crash site but Hank’s wife Polly was obsessed with having a baby so she wanted to deliver the baby at her home and steal the baby. Hank realized this so he took Tegan to the hospital to save her. At the hospital, Dennis tried to kill her again. But Polly happens to b...

The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie is a short satirical story that I enjoyed immensely. There are some really stupid jokes and twists, including a final twist that is another laugh out loud moment. The story is about husband and wife, Grant and Alice. They seem to have a great relationship that everyone envied. But behind closed doors, Grant is quite controlling. Alice decides to kill Grant and inherit his large wealth. She tries multiple ways, and thinks she finally succeeded when she cut Grant's brake lines on his Mercedez and he ends up in a fiery crash where she identifies his body. Except, after burying him, she starts seeing his face everywhere he goes. Also, a lady shows up at her doorstep telling her Grant is her common-law husband, and they have 8 kids together with another one on the way, so she deserves some of that inheritance. Alice decides to follow her to her house to see if she's for real or just some scammer. She realizes she's for real because there ...

  This book was gripping. It had me going from beginning to the end. I didn't see the end coming. This was a 5 star read, until towards the end when we find out one of the characters was impregnated with a turkey baster basically. So I'm like, yeah, of course I didn't see that coming. I don't even know if that's possible. So I took off a star. If you could bypass that, then this was a fun book. Then She Was Gone is about a high school girl Ellie's disappearance. It's been 10 years and there's been no leads. Ellie's mother Laurel still can't live a normal life due to it, and has a bad relationship with her remaining kids, Hannah and Jake because of this. Her husband Paul also filed for divorce for the same reason. Laurel meets a man named Floyd, who flirts with her and seems to be a nice guy. They start dating. This brings some liveliness to Laurel's life combined with the discovery of Ellie's remains, she's more ready to move on with ...

  The Cuckoo's Calling is the first in a series of detective novels about a detective named Cormoran Strike. The story is about a famous fashion model, Lula Landry, nicknamed "Cuckoo", who jumped to her death at the beginning of the book. The detectives ruled it as a suicide when the evidence pointed it to that direction. Lula's brother, John Bristow, did not believe it was a suicide, so he hired private detective Cormoran Strike to investigate. Strike, who's had a series of bad lucks in his life, is actually an excellent detective. We go through the story as he and his assistant, Robin Ellacott, interviews and investigates many people that had relationships with Lula, as well as meticulously combing through the scene of the possible crime. It seemed many characters had possible motives to harm Lula, so the book keeps you guessing. We find out what happened at the end of the book.  The killer was actually John Bristow. He was accustomed to a luxurious lifestyle, s...

  To properly understand all the intricacies of First Lie Wins would probably require a few reads. The book is written in nonlinear format and there are many names thrown in which makes it even more confusing. However, if you stay with it, you can eventually understand what the story is about. The main character, Evie Porter, who takes job assignments from a mysterious Mr. Smith, must take on different identities in order to complete her tasks. These tasks often put her life in danger. We find out at the end who Mr. Smith is. Unfortunately, by then, no one really cares. The story feels like it's copying from the short lived series, The Imposters, in many aspects, except it's not funny. Even the ending mirrors it. Perhaps the author felt that the series wasn't very popular and nobody would notice?

  Atlas Shrugged is a dystopian novel. It's set in a society where majority of people have become lazy. The protagonist, Dagny Taggart, is a smart and hardworking individual who wants to find answers. In the meanwhile, many important business people are disappearing, which made many businesses shut down. The book frequently asks the question - Who's John Gault? Except it doesn't tell us anything about John Gault until towards the very end. We find out in the end that John Gault is the person who's been convincing people to join him to create a new society, because majority of the current society are looters or destroyers or lazy bums. There's some love triangle thrown in too. I enjoyed this book because it does explain in plain words why communism would NEVER work in a society. It was however a very slow moving book and if I wasn't so determined to finish it, I wouldn't have.

  Beautiful book. I read a small amount of manga when I was a very little girl, which I don't remember much. Since then, this is the first manga I've read. This story was about 6 kids raised by a man named Jeb. Two years ago, Jeb disappeared, which made the kids very sad because that's the only parental figure they knew. They assumed Jeb was dead. Max, the oldest of 6 kids, tried to raise the children but she was struggling as well. One day, they decided to go pick strawberries. That's when some evil people called The Erasers showed up. They abducted the youngest child, Angel and took her to "The School" in California. The other 5 children tried to save Angel. In the process of getting to The School, Max saw a girl getting bullied and tried to rescue her, in turn getting shot by one of the bullies. The girl, who's name is Ella, took Max home so her mother could fix her. Her mother is a vet, and did an x-ray which indicated there's a microchip in Max...

  This book creates a suspenseful, eerie setting very well, and had me intrigued to keep reading, but the characters are kind of annoying and nothing really stood out about it in the end. The story is about a woman named Laura (goes by Lo) who is a journalist and has recently experienced a breakin in her apartment. She has some PTSD from that experience, but decides to go on this luxury cruise assigned from her work in hopes of a promotion. This is a very small cruise ship - only 10 cabins, and she's given cabin #9. The lady in cabin #10 let her borrow a mascara on the first day, but she's never seen again. Lo believes she heard her body fall on the first night, but couldn't get anyone to believe her, because everyone says cabin #10 has always been vacant. She starts wondering if she's crazy or not. Spoiler Alert!! Lo starts looking for answers on her own and is warned by someone who leaves her threatening messages to leave it alone, which only made Lo want to pursue it...

  This was a well-written, slow-burn, detective novel. This is the first book I've read by Tana French. I think she's a fantastic writer but I don't read slow-burn too often so I'll have to read her other books later when I'm more in the mood for that. The Trespasser is a story about an attractive young woman named Aislynn Murray who turned up dead in her home. Detectives Antoinette Conway and Steve Moran was assigned to the case. The obvious suspect was her boyfriend, Rory Fallon, who was supposed to be there that night for a romantic dinner. He claimed Aislynn never opened her door for him but he looked suspicious when he couldn't account for all his time that night and when footage turned up showing he was in the area much earlier than he should be. In the meanwhile, senior detective Breslin kept breathing down Aislynn's neck, rushing her to convict Rory. This made Aislynn and Steve suspicious if Breslin was somehow involved. Turns out, Breslin was coveri...

  I’m glad Dr Berry wrote on a subject that few people want to think about. This book is a story about a 15 year old boy Noah who had unstoppable urges to touch very young girls. Noah was sent to be reformed. It was no help. Noah’s behavior destroyed his family and himself. At the end of the book, Noah convinced his mom Adrienne to assist him with suicide so his family could go back to their normal life. We also learn that his father Lucas used to be a child molester and didn’t get reformed either. Worse yet, his father might have molested both him and his younger sister, Katie, unbeknownst to others. None of the book was earth shattering to me - I was briefly friends with someone who admitted to be afflicted with this serious illness. He told me there is currently no cure and if he told others, he would be subjected to cruelty no doubt. The only thing he can do is to make sure he doesn’t act out on his urges - there is no way to stop those urges due to the limitation of medicine c...

  This was an enjoyable book. It was a little slow at parts but it was an interesting story and a worthy read. The story follows Shay Miller, who witnessed a suicide at the beginning of the book. Amanda, a girl who jumped in front of a subway train, locked eyes with Shay moments before her death. This shook Shay up and made her look into who Amanda is. She attends the memorial service and reads up on news articles about her. In the meanwhile, Amanda's friends, sisters Jane and Cassandra, befriend Shay. She doesn't know that Jane and Cassandra befriended her with an agenda. Shay finds a perfect apartment she needs, a new job that's perfect for her, even her dating life is greatly improved, but Shay doesn't know all of these things are set up by the sisters. They also give her a head to toe makeover to make her feel more "confident" but Shay starts having doubts when she realizes they made her look exactly like Amanda. Shay starts figuring things out and believe...

  This was SO GOOD!!! I'll have to read more of Alice Feeney's books for sure, because this is my first one! Woo hoo!! This book had me going, and the middle had some slower parts, yes, but I loved the twists towards the end, and everything made sense, at least to me. I also just LOVED the way we learned about the dissolution of the marriage, from his point of view and her point of view. I feel for both of them, just like in many marriages, it's not one person's fault, and you feel the strong love they have for each other... It's so good!!! Rock Paper Scissors is a story about a screenwriter, Adam, who suffers from face blindness. The book starts with Adam and his wife Amelia, driving to a remote location for a free weekend retreat at Blackwater Chapel - something Amelia thought she won through work. Amelia thought this might help with their struggling marriage. The book jumps around in timeline, as we are told what Adam's wife did for him for each of their wedd...

  The Perfect Son is about Erika and Jason's son, Liam, who exhibited early signs of psychopathy since he was little. Due to this, Erika has been going out of her way to make sure Liam doesn't have "opportunities" to act out his dark fantasies. This worked well until Liam's love-interest, Olivia Mercer became missing. Erika wasn't there to protect Olivia because she had thought a different Olivia was Liam's crush, and protected the wrong Olivia instead. As with any book by McFadden, there is more than what meets the eye. I read this book so fast, and missed some of the telltale clues. I think if you read slowly and more carefully, you might be able to see the ending coming. It would be enjoyable either way.  The true criminal was Jason. He's a serial killer who had lured Olivia to a cabin he constructed in the middle of nowhere. He planted blood and hair evidence in the trunk of Erika's car knowing Liam secretly took the car out to see Olivia that ...

  This was a very good book that's quite different from any books I've ever read. The Plot is about an author, Jake, who was struggling to come up with his next book. He had tasted success years ago, but that's history now. He started working odd jobs like holding writing workshops to make ends meet. While doing a workshop, he encountered a guy named Evan Parker, who told him about a story with a great plot, that's for sure to be a hugely successful book, even if Evan wasn't a great writer. When Jake heard the storyline, he agreed. 2 years later, Jake is still thinking about this plot and wondered why it's not turned into a book yet. He started searching about Evan on line and learned that Evan had passed away. He did some investigation and realized no one else knew about the story Evan wanted to write. So Jake decided to write this book, which, unsurprisingly, became a huge hit. Jake is famous again. Only problem is, Jake started getting these messages from som...

  Who would give this a 5.... (GoodReads for this book is averaging 3.73 at the time of this writing.) This book was so slow, boring, full of mistakes, not a mystery, and storytelling was all over the place. The main character, Abby, fell in love with a mansion on the California coast, but it costs $2 million and needs major renovations. Apparently some long lost aunt had passed away and she's inheriting $20 million. The law firm in London is carrying this will out and the will says she gets $1 million now, but to get the rest, she'll have to complete 8 tasks. This makes her think she can afford the mansion, but there are decapitated animals on the back porch every time she visits. She tells the police but they don't take her seriously. Her boyfriend thinks she's crazy to take on this project. She's not deterred and they have a fight. We later finds out it's the neighbor (I think? By then I really didn't even care) that's killing the animals and putting ...

  One by One is a suspense thriller by Freida McFadden. It's one of her shorter books, but it kept me enthralled the whole time. The story is about 6 friends who decide to take a little getaway together at a resort to unwind and reconnect. Unfortunately, the van they travel in breaks down before getting there, and there's no cell reception in the area. The group gets lost and weird things start happening. It's written by McFadden so you can imagine there will be deaths involved. We find out at the end what happened.  The main character, Claire, is cheating on her husband Noah, with his best friend Jack. Noah found out and to get back at her, he kissed Claire's best friend, Lindsay. Lindsay, who had an abusive childhood, grew up hating anyone who would cheat, and repeatedly killed people that she caught cheating. Lindsay found out accidentally (by seeing a text message) that Claire is cheating on Noah with Jack. So now Lindsay wants to kill Claire, Noah, and Jack for che...

  Very interesting book, but it was not for me. The story centers around a psychologically and physically abused character named Ted. The book is written through many different point of view, by that I mean, including the point of view from a cat (actually, you could say cats, as there's Olivia, Night Time, and Tabby). The chapters are ALL OVER THE PLACE. In the end, you understand why it was the way it was - because they are all different personalities of TED (including the cats). The author captured his inner madness SO WELL, but it's just not for me. The story starts with the 11 year anniversary of the missing 6 year old, Lulu, which Ted was considered a suspect but not charged for anything. Ted discovers all of his bird feeders have dead birds in them. Someone had put glue in the feeders. (We find out later it was Dee that killed the birds because she wanted to seek revenge for her missing sister.) We are introduced to Ted's daughter, Lauren. Lauren is kind of weird. La...