Ask For Andrea

 

I have been wanting to try a book by Mrs. Ihli for awhile. I have heard good things about her writing, story lines, characters, and pacing. I finally caved in and bought Ask for Andrea since the library's copy was lost and not being replaced.

The premise of three ghosts haunting their killer is fun and does remind me a bit of a Christmas Carol aspect when I first read the description but it was nothing like that. Each ghost had a different personality and ways to cope with being deceased. I liked that about them. Since the whole story was told from the point the view of the ghosts it is hard to get to know the killer, he was always portrayed as a monster and something less then human according to the women. I get that and I liked that the women all held true with their belief of the murdered even when he was living a "normal" life.

The story starts out with a good hook and then moves along okay. The middle part is a bit slow, I had no problem stopping and coming back to it thus I would not classify it as as popcorn thriller. Despite this I was engaged, rooting for the women, and wanting justice. The free bonus story that is on Mrs. Ihli's website is a great final twist and I feel the biggest twist for the story overall. 

Getting Away With Murder

 

Getting Away with Murder has such a fun premise. I love the idea of a couple in love with their belongings murdering to keep their cushy lifestyle. Sadly it fell short in the end for me. Parts I ended up skimming and the overall premise just did not work out in the end. 

The parts I liked is all the characters were consistent. They did not falter from their personal needs, wants, and desires. I loved that about them. No morally grey characters just characters who were in it for themselves. 

The writing was fine with consistent length chapters however the story was slow. It was not one that kept me laying awake at night wanting to read just one more chapter. 

21 Days of Fear: One Day, One Letter

 

21 Days of Fear: One Day, One Letter is such a fun concept. I have never done a countdown style book despite knowing about a couple Christmas style ones. Since I love thrillers I ended up purchasing this. One thing I love is opening the letters every day. they slid open like an envelop but you can reseal them for the next person to enjoy the feel of opening the letters as well. Also this book is hefty, does not seem like it should weight what it does but it is dense. 

My biggest fear was I would start and not want to stop with the end of each letter. While each letter did end on a cliffhanger somewhat that did not turn out to be an issue. I was fine stopping and just reading a letter a day.

I also went in realizing this is a translated book and I do think some things got lost in translation. My biggest issue with the story was I did not like the ending. It felt rushed and just like the story stopped. I imagine it would have been hard to finish a story in letter format but so many things were left unknown that I could not even fill in the blanks trying to figure out where each character went once things came to conclusion. Since this is more a young adult thriller I did figure out some of what was going on but not every smaller twist. 

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me

 

I had been aware of This Kingdom Will ot Kill Me for awhile but had not taken the time to put my name on the library wait list. I am glad I finally changed that and added my name to the list. 

Maggie is a great character, well rounded, flawed, feels emotions, gets confused, and messes up. So interesting and annoying at the same time. I love reading about her and all her adventures. Since the story was only told from her point of view it was harder to get into the minds of the many male characters in the story but I also like them. They were flawed and mysterious. 

Despite having read high fantasy for years I still struggled with parts, I got names mixed up, houses mixed up, and even common terms. I hope the sequel has a list of names so I can keep them all straight. I understand what it was not done for This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me but still those lists are super helpful with such a large cast of characters are present. My other issue was the way the majority of male characters seemed instantly taken with Maggie and wanted to marry her or at least keep her in their control. That part got old fast. Sadly the second book has not been announced yet but I am eager to read it. 

Sometimes I Scare Myself: A Collection of Horror

 

I don't do horror at all, as a kid Goosebumps terrified me. I did not read the books and in class when it was Halloween and we were watching the show the teacher let me go to the library because it scared me so badly. However I enjoy Jeneva Rose and decided to step out of my comfort zone to give Sometimes I Scare Myself a try. 

The first story Never Kill the Medium was my least favorite of the three. It just did not hit me as interesting or really scary. It was gory though.

The second story The Nightmare House was my favorite. I ate it up in one sitting and just could not stop reading. I liked the characters, the plot, and even the ending. 

The third story All Curses are Final sounded the most interesting to me. I even liked it up until the very end. The ending was lack luster and just felt like the story was being wrapped up too quickly.

Gentle spoiler if you read the acknowledgements Mrs. Rose admits that one story will get a sequel and I am hoping it is The Nightmare House. Of all the stories that is the only one that scared me in parts. 

The Whisper Man

 

I finally found a book worth reviewing. I also had a struggle trying to get a copy of The Whisper Man. The new bookstore could not order it for some reason, the library did not have it in any format, and the used bookstore did not have it either. When I was out of town I went out of the way to go to Barnes and Noble to get a copy.

So many characters and points of view yet I felt like I knew all the characters. The story was heavy with male characters and yet it worked. I liked seeing things from males point of views in a thriller since I am not overly familiar with that format.

 

The drawbacks it is a slow moving story the whole time. It was just eerie enough I kept reading. I was actually hesitant to read the story since it was listed as horror but no part of the book scared me. As a child goosebumps scared me so either I outgrew being scared of books or I just found nothing scary about the story. 

The writing was well done and a lot of words are in the book. It has a lot of words on every page and the book itself is dense. If you want fast paced and cliff hangers on each chapter this is not the book for you. 

I Kill Killers

 

With the house still in disarray I am unable to get to the books I had set out to read so I am scrounging through free libraries which lack thrillers. 

I went into I Kill Killers blind having never heard of S.T. Ashman and it starts out with a bang. Right away you get an idea of what type of person Leah is and how she will do what she perceives as right and just no matter what.

Leah is a well written character with flaws and an interesting point of view on life. Clearly Leah is not like any every day person she devotes herself fully to anything she sets her mind to including playing the piano and killing serial killers. It was interesting to see Leah's though process unfold as the book progressed. 

Liam is a straight laces FBI agent who is all about justice through the court system. Despite knowing something is not right Liam is not about to listen to the higher ups who insist he is wrong. With danger lurking around every turn Liam does not back down and continues to search for the truth.

While both characters are very different I enjoyed reading about both of them. The writing is smooth and flows easy. It is graphic though and I understand the trigger warnings. I do not handle seeing blood in movies but I can read about it in books. I have started looking for the second book with no luck the local library does not have a copy. 

Despite my lack of posting in July I have been reading books just none were good enough I bothered to write a review for them.