Category: Contemporary

‘Some Laneys Died’ – Brooke Skipstone

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers, Skipstone, for granting me access to a most puzzling read that had me scratching my head in equal confusion and wonder.

Having finished, I’m still not entirely sure I’ve grasped some of the finer points of the concept. I found myself reading, then having to pause to actually digest what I’d read and try to work it out/link to what I already knew. I would liken reading this to me trying to solve a Rubik’s cube…I know there’s a knack to it whereby everything flows seamlessly, but I work in fits and starts without really getting anywhere, then by a freak occurrence something will slot into place and it’s done.

When I started reading I wondered what was true and what was in our character Laney’s imagination. She writes stories about alternate universes where different characters sharing her name experience different things. She interacts with people who reference events she thought were dreams which seem to have really taken place. Piece by piece she starts to realise some of these events are merging. This idea of alternate universes and time frames may make more sense to students of maths or physics.

The story as such is not a pleasant one. Laney reads a story about two skeletons found in the woods, dated to a time that she recalls finding her father having sex with an old girlfriend. She is fascinated by what she recalls of that incident and is convinced that the skeletons are the bodies of her and her twin sister (a twin who doesn’t exist in the story we start) who were killed by a sadistic pair of brothers – one of whom is friends with her now. The Laney we follow is switching experiences/times in order to hunt the person who in another time/place killed her and tortured then killed her sister.

For every choice there’s a range of possibilities. Watching Laney try to manipulate her experiences was intriguing. I confess to not always following Laney’s thought process, and the book seemed to give some conflicting messages about addiction and sexuality, but as a whole it was a read I’d recommend.

‘They Wish They Were Us’ – Jessica Goodman

 

Fairly standard fare here, which is a shame as this had potential to be so much more.

Jill Newman is about to start her Senior year at the exclusive prep school she has a scholarship to. She is one of the group known as the Players, a hand-picked group of eight that are chosen each year to carry on the tradition. Weekly tasks and challenges to prove your group spirit…and, in exchange, a free pass to tests and advice/shortcuts for life. These are privileged kids for no reason other than someone chose them.

It would be too easy to despise Jill and the group for getting everything handed to them on a plate while those around them work. So the author takes great pains to emphasise Jill is clever, a grafter, and needing her scholarship to set her big plans in motion. She also happens to have been best friends with Shaila, a student who was killed a few years ago. Sympathy vote checked, but that isn’t really enough to overcome the easy pass she and her friends have.

The book focuses on Jill’s internal struggle with what this life offers her. She feels pressure to act a certain way but, deep down, hates everything she represents. How can she move forward if she’s held captive by her present?

The dilemma is solved by Jill’s decision to help an old classmate. Rachel is the sister of the young man who got put away for Shaila’s murder. She is convinced her brother’s innocent and so Jill decides to do the right thing and help try to uncover the truth.

There’s an attempt at a red herring straight out of Pretty Little Liars territory. Fairly early on I had my suspicions as to who might be responsible. Sadly I was proven right and after the ease with which the girls got the confession I can only hang my head at the pitiful job the police did at the time.

This will have its fans. I liked the message it tries to give about working for your successes, but there was just too much that didn’t work for me to really fall under the spell of this one.

‘The Unexpected Everything’ – Morgan Matson

Our main character, Andie, is used to being organised. With a father involved in politics she’s used to watching what she says and does, and having things planned keeps her in control when she’s not really. Her close group of friends do pretty much everything together and she’s looking forward to her summer on her organised program.

Unfortunately, when we see Andie her father is having to step away from his job because of some issues with his team. As a result of this her letter of recommendation is withdrawn, she loses her summer program place and is set up for a summer where she is not in control of anything.

Of course, this is the summer that Andie gets to work a lot of stuff out. She gets a job walking dogs, and one of those on her round is Bertie…who happens to be linked to a young man called Clark that Andie finds very interesting.

No surprises, it’s a contemporary romance so we know we’re going to see Clark and Andie get together. What we’re not told initially is that Clark is actually a famous fantasy writer and his presence here is to allow him the summer to get over his writer’s block and sort out his final book of the trilogy. Andie finds herself trusting him, and learning to dial back on the organisation thing. She learns a lot about herself, her family and her friends.

There’s the inevitable bumps along the way – some of which we can see coming very early on – but everything works out okay in the end. At times it felt the story could have been cut a little, but for anyone who loves this kind of thing you won’t be disappointed.

 

‘Chelsea High’ – Jenny Oliver

 

The first thing I have to do is apologise for starting this in the expectation that I was going to get a fluffy cute read that would entertain me for a while and that I would probably then forget about. The cover and blurb had me begin it thinking one thing, when what we got was more than that.

The basic story is straightforward. Our main character, Norah, has a somewhat bohemian lifestyle living with her parents on a houseboat and living in a very close-knit community. She helps her mum run a vintage clothes stall and is, generally, pretty happy with her lot. Her big dilemma here is that her father has got caught up in a money-making scam that has resulted in many people losing their savings. He is about to face trial, and the family are being uprooted. That would be unsettling…but we learn that her father’s family are very wealthy and come from a background of privilege. They are paying for lawyers and are paying for Norah to attend the exclusive Chelsea High.

Our story is about Norah coming to terms with her father’s actions and the impact it will have on their family and friends, but it’s also a ‘fish-out-of-water’ story as Norah has to navigate this new environment and the people within it. There’s the stereotypical mean girl queen, Coco, who is just as insecure as any teenage girl could be but is better able to hide it with her money and influence. There’s the hangers-on in Coco’s group who have to decide whether to follow what they’ve always done or to act for themselves. Of course there’s a love interest, and there’s the expected dramatic scenes so beloved of this kind of story to help people grow and develop.

While there’s a lot in this book that can be found in other books/films, the development of Norah was more subtle than I expected. She made mistakes, but she wasn’t too stubborn to admit them. The adult characters were also more intriguing than I expected, and I definitely think there’s more stories to come.
I was excited to see there’s a second part to come for this, and I look forward to catching up with Norah and cast in the not too distant future. Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for letting me read this prior to publication.

‘Little Creeping Things’ – Chelsea Ichaso

 

In spite of one of the creepiest covers I’ve seen in a while, Little Creeping Things was a pleasure to read.

Our story is that of Cassidy who, when she was little, was rescued from a fire in which her best friend died. Since that time, people in her small town have seen her as something to fear…her nickname Fire Girl ensures she’s not seen as a survivor of an awful event, but the perpetrator of a callous crime. She doesn’t recall many details of this accident, but it has shaped her life in the years since.

Cassidy’s elder brother, Asher, does his best to look out for her, and her best friend Gideon sees beyond the rumours. Unfortunately, when one of the girls who has tormented her most goes missing Cassidy knows things could get difficult…particularly since she was in the woods on the night Melody disappeared, and someone had taken her notebook in which she jokingly made comments about how she could carry out Melody’s murder. She wants to do the right thing, but can she bear the personal cost involved?

Our story focuses on the aftermath of the discovery of Melody’s body and the hunt for who did it. We watch Cassidy under extreme duress, and though we have a number of twists/deceptions we do, eventually, get answers.
Huge thanks to the publishers, Sourcebooks Fire, and NetGalley for letting me read this prior to publication.

‘Lies Like Poison’ – Chelsea Pitcher

What a tangled web of lies and deceit these pages revealed…thank you to the publishers, Simon Schuster, and NetGalley for letting me read this prior to its October publication.

Poppy, Lily and Belladonna are our focus for this story and everything hinges on their relationship to Raven, their best friend. It isn’t immediately clear how this group formed or the reason for the dynamics between them – but we know they have a shared history, and would do anything to protect each other.

Our story opens with a body, that of Raven’s stepmother, being found. She has been poisoned with leaves of belladonna placed in her tea. There’s a recipe, written in fourteen year old Bella’s handwriting, on the table next to her that outlines the perfect poison. It would seem that Bella came good on her vow to protect her best friend Raven from his abusive stepmother.

It all seems clear-cut, but then things start unravelling. Poppy – who now calls herself Jack – claims Bella was with her on the night of the murder. The police don’t believe her as Poppy was the one who first went to the police years ago with claims that Raven’s stepmother was hurting him. She is told to go away and think about her story…and determines to work out what happened.

We have our story split into three distinct parts – the truth according to Bella, Jack and then Lily. As we read each story we unpick the various deceits these characters (and those around them) have told, and learn more about the complex background of each.

There was a fairytale quality to this story, and while it focuses on murder it also charts the journey each character has towards acceptance of themselves and their situation. Mercurial in tone, constantly shifting and leaving us with a sense of uncertainty, this was a story that delivered a lot more than it promised. I can’t wait to see what others make of it.

 

‘Deadly Little Scandals’ – Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Picking up after book one Sawyer is still reeling from certain revelations…and struggling to work out how she fits into her new family unit.

We begin this book with the girls being invited to become part of a secret society – the White Gloves. They are forced to go through a rather bizarre initiation process, and all while trying to unearth yet more secrets.

As one of the characters says later on – they could become a porn star and still not be the most scandalous thing in their family. Whatever we think of the craziness here, there’s no denying that these families have a lot of secrets. I wasn’t quite prepared for just how far back these secrets go, or just how wide-reaching their influence was.

While not everything comes out as we might like, there’s plenty of action, we get answers to most of our questions and there’s hints of more exciting things to come.

 

‘Made You Up’ – Francesca Zappia

Our first encounter with Alex is her recollection of trying to free the lobsters from a supermarket tank. I admit to being unsure what to make of the start, but then she tells us that this event never happened and I was thrown. How could someone have a memory that wasn’t of a real event?

It’s at this point that we learn Alex has schizophrenia, and that her obsessive photo-taking is a way of trying to keep a grip on reality – looking at the pictures later helps her work out what she’s hallucinated and what was really there. When she first starts at her new school she is determined to do whatever she can to stay under the radar…only she finds herself drawn to loner Miles who scares everyone else. This might seem nothing, until we learn that she believes Miles to be the boy who helped her to free the lobsters (which she thinks didn’t happen).

The book seemed a sensitive attempt to show how something like schizophrenia can affect a person. Most of the time I felt real sympathy for how exhausting life must be for Alex, though there were some laugh-out-loud moments which really kept us on our toes.

While the main focus is Alex and how she finds herself living with her condition, there was also the focus on the mystery surrounding Miles and his family and the downright odd things happening in the school.
Quirky, but very interesting read.

 

‘No Offense’ – Meg Cabot

A rather obvious romance with some cute moments, though it all felt too clearly signposted.

Molly Montgomery is the new librarian in the charming town of Little Bridge. When she finds a baby abandoned in the new library we know there’s something strange going on. She is intrigued by the case, and just a little curious about the sheriff investigating it.

From the outset we can tell there will be romance between our sheriff and the librarian, and we’re just waiting to see what else goes on alongside it.
There’s some cute scenes, and you can’t help but like them, but it doesn’t really offer anything out of the ordinary. Perfect summer read, and I’m grateful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this prior to publication.

 

‘The Night Swim’ – Megan Goldin

 

Thank you to the author, publisher St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication in exchange for my review. Having just finished, I feel emotionally wrecked – and though the subject for this book will be a trigger for some readers, it’s a must-read in my view.

The first thing I have to make clear is that fans of The Escape Room, or anyone who’s picked this up because it’s marketed as a tense thriller could well be disappointed. It’s tense on occasion, but this struck me as a more complicated mystery and it would be such a shame for readers to feel put-off as they expected something different.

Something I have to state early on is that I loved the narrative of this. Our main character, Rachel, is producing her third series of a popular crime podcast. She has attracted many fans, so for this series opts to head to a small town to cover a live case…that of a potential Olympic swimmer accused of raping a sixteen year old girl known only as K. It poses risks – and as the book begins we sense there’ll be more to it, but I was quite taken aback by the links between this case and one from twenty-five years earlier.

I really don’t want to say too much about either case, as I think the success of this novel depends on us establishing the facts of each case as they’re revealed and – like Rachel – slowly piecing together the links.

I hurt reading this, and that’s no bad thing. Reading the details of the events described, and the behaviour of those in court was tough. Necessary, but draining. I cannot emphasise enough how much I think this book – awful though the subject is – should be read by everyone.