My Husband's Wife

 

After seeing so many reels about how amazing My Husband's Wife was last year I quickly put a hold on it from the library. Lucky I was the first person to do that. 

I did enjoy My Husband's Wife but Rock, Paper, Scissors still takes the number one spot for my favorite Mrs. Feeney novel. Since the story is told from multiple points of view I struggled a lot in the beginning to keep all the characters separate in my mind. I had NO CLUE what was going on for at least a hundred pages of the book, were people dead, who was who, had crimes happened, who was lying, and who was telling the truth. Finally I started keeping better track of things and weaving possibilities of what happened together. Of course I was wrong, like always, Mrs. Feeney is a master of bringing everything together in the end making it all work out. 

A good read but not a popcorn thriller since I had to focus so much on keeping track of everyone and who said what. 

The Housemaid is Watching

 

The Housemaid is Watching is the third and final book in The Housemaid series. Of the three books it was my least favorite. 

The story moves A LOT slower compared to the first two books in the series. I kept waiting for something interesting, intense, or exciting to happen but it never really did until closer to the half way point. 

Millie is a well rounded character with flaws, likes, ambitions, and problems which I like about her she seems so real. Everyone else came off as sort of flat though and I did not really get to know them well. 

Parts of the plot I figured out and parts I did not figure out which is fine. While it is sad to see Millie's story end everything wrapped up nicely and nothing really left to tell about Millie in a book. 

I did read the novella, The Housemaid's Wedding, and it was horrible. Not worthy of being a novella at all better as a epilogue to the second book or prologue to the third book. 

I also tried to read Graceless Heart, I made it to page 100 in one sitting. Put the book down and five days later I had no desire to pick it up. Fantasy use to be what I read now it seems all I read is mystery and I am trying to branch out some. At least I checked it out from the library. 

The Housemaid's Secret

 

The Housemaid's Secret is the second book in The Housemaid series.

My favorite thing about The Housemaid's Secret is it was written in the same enjoyable style as The Housemaid, I was worried it would have a different flow and not the same dual point of view that I enjoyed. 

Despite figuring out some of the mystery I thoroughly enjoyed the whole story. It did take me longer to read but that is due to my asthma acting up and interfering with reading time. 

The Housemaid

 

I got The Housemaid series for Christmas and was eager to read it since I saw the first book was made into a movie. 

Millie is an interesting character who guards her secrets well. Despite having obvious secrets I liked Millie and I was rooting for her to get a happy ending. Yet liking Millie was not enough to make me keep flipping the pages early on in the story. Figuring things were being set up for some big reveal I was confused as to why the story did not have a mystery or thriller aspect until wham out of no where it hit me and I could not stop reading. 

The more I read Mrs. McFadden's books the more I see she is either an author you love or dislike. No real in between for her. Thankfully I love her writing, her plots, her twists, and her characters. Since I have The Housemaid's Secret I don't have to even wait to start it tonight. 

Poor Unfortunate Soul

 

Poor Unfortunate Soul is the third book in the Villain's series and so far my least favorite book, it was more like poor unfortunate readers. 

I wanted Ursula and her minions. I wanted back story, anger, pain, revenge, and information on what made Ursula the most powerful sea witch of her time. What I got was three stories shoved into one. Prince Tulip from The Beast Within, the odd sisters and Circe, and then flavorings of Ursula. 

Despite not liking Poor Unfortunate Souls I did finish it without skimming and I did the read included sample for Mistress of All Evil. I will continue to give the series a try. 

A Stranger in the House

 

When power went out I downloaded several books on my tablet when I was in the town next over. I happened to see a Shari Lapena book I had not read. I finally started A Stranger in The House and it was a quick read.

I did figure out most of the mystery. Parts of it did elude me but that is alright. However what is not alright is the ending. I want a sequel! The story slowly builds and it can be hard to follow at times. With constant characters point of views when something exciting happens the point of view is switched. Normally I am not a huge fan of this but Mrs. Lapena makes it work. 

Having finished A Stranger in the House I believe I have read all but one of Mrs. Lapena's published work. I enjoy her stories and writing ability enough to continue to read future work and the last published novel I have not read. 

Yours for the Season

 

I did not think any of the physical Christmas books I ordered from the library would come before Christmas so I was shocked when on the 22nd Yours for the Season showed up. I picked it up on the 23rd and read the first half that night the second half on the night of the 24th. 

The storyline is cute, feel good, and predictable. Nothing really revealing that I was not expecting. However due to my person circumstances I did have issues with the last ten percent or so. It is really impossible to warn readers about this since it would ruin the overall story. 

The writing was fine and even with the transitions back in time it was clear when it was done. I also appreciated that when Mel was texting Pita it was clearly a text. Like a hallmark movie in a book.