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I haven't done a show me your books post in months. I read 3 1/2 books in September and October. I am just waiting to get that 4th book back to finish it. But in the meantime, this is what I read while I was away.
I'll Be You - Janelle Brown
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Rating: 3 1/2 stars
I wouldn't call this a thriller at all, but more like a mystery. I was intrigued by this book as it is about identical twin sisters, Sam and Elli. As children, they are approached on the beach to be child actors. One of the sisters loves it and continues it on into their adult life. The other, Elli, wants to live a normal life. They grow apart and live different lives. Until their parents call Sam saying that Elli has gone on a retreat and she has left her daughter with them and they need Sam's help. Sam takes care of Charlotte, but starts to question where her sister is and what is going on.
There are some twists, and I was intrigued by the twin story line, but I wasn't a fan of the ending. I was also watching the Netflix series, Echo during the time I read this and they have a similar feel.
I would read it, but know that you might not like the ending.
Here is Amazon's synopsis:
As children, Sam and Elli were two halves of a perfect whole: gorgeous identical twins whose parents sometimes couldn’t even tell them apart. They fell asleep to the sound of each other’s breath at night, holding hands in the dark. And once Hollywood discovered them, they became B-list child TV stars, often inhabiting the same role.
But as adults, their lives have splintered. After leaving acting, Elli reinvented herself as the perfect homemaker: married to a real estate lawyer, living in a house just blocks from the beach. Meanwhile, Sam has never recovered from her failed Hollywood career, or from her addiction to the pills and booze that have propped her up for the last fifteen years.
Sam hasn't spoken to her sister since her destructive behavior finally drove a wedge between them. So when her father calls out of the blue, Sam is shocked to learn that Elli’s life has been in turmoil: her husband moved out, and Elli just adopted a two-year-old girl. Now she’s stopped answering her phone and checked in to a mysterious spa in Ojai. Is her sister just decompressing, or is she in trouble? Could she have possibly joined a cult? As Sam works to connect the dots left by Elli’s baffling disappearance, she realizes that the bond between her and her sister is more complicated than she ever knew.
Things We Do in the Dark - Jennifer Hillier
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Rating: 4 stars
I was looking for a book to read before my Mexico trip and this one was on hold for about 10 weeks, so I purchased it. I was intrigued by the storyline because it seemed like a tv show I would watch or something a celebrity would really get caught up in.
The book begins with Paris waking up next to her dead husband, Jimmy. Jimmy is a long time comedian with many Netflix specials and one that is soon to come out. He has had his battles with drugs and alcohol in the past, but married Paris and has been living his best life. Paris is shamed in the gossip magazines because she is much younger than Jimmy.
Paris is arrested for Jimmy's death. All the while, Paris has been getting letters from Ruby who is in prison for killing her boyfriend, and Ruby is trying to blackmail her. If Paris doesn't pay Ruby, she will expose Paris' secrets about her past.
The stories intersect and keep you guessing what really happened to Jimmy, what is Paris' secret, and how does she know Ruby?
I guessed some of the story, but not all of it. I enjoyed the read and would recommend it.
Here is Amazon's synopsis:
When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom―covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her―she knows she'll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it's not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it's only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she's worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future.
Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early nineties. Reyes knows who Paris really is, and when she's unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris's secrets. Left with no other choice, Paris must finally confront the dark past she escaped, once and for all.
Because the only thing worse than a murder charge are two murder charges.
The story centers around Chloe. It goes back and forth between present day and when she was twelve. When Chloe was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her hometown, including one of her friends. Her father was the one who was arrested for the missing girls/murders and he has been serving his sentence for the last twenty years. Chloe hasn't kept much contact with her father since then.
Fast forward to present day. Chloe is about to get married, but then girls start going missing. This time it is in a completely different place, but the one common denominator is Chloe. She starts to suspect everyone around her. Even her fiance.
I really liked this book and just learned that it will be made into a limited series. The one thing that I wasn't a fan of...is Chloe's addiction to prescription pills. She takes them a lot and it makes you think that she isn't the best judge of what is going on in life. She takes the pills way too often to be of sound and mind. Anyways, just keep that in mind.
The last 15 to 20% of the book is where everything comes out. I didn't guess the big twist, but I guessed some of the twists that came earlier in the book.
Here is Amazon's synopsis:
When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.
Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren't actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?
What have you been reading?
