Okay, wow. I truly cannot believe that it is already February. This past month has been so crazy busy and exhausting, but I still found time to read (thank God).
Kyra Winthrop is a talented marine biologist living in the Pacific Northwest when she gets into a terrible diving accident, causing her to lose her memory of the last four years. She wakes up with no recollection of who she is, let alone who she is married to. She finds out that in the past four years she has met, fallen in love with, and married her loving husband, Jacob. In hopes of kick starting her memory, Jacob whisks Kyra away to their vacation home on the secluded island in the San Juan’s that Jacob grew up on. But, the longer Kyra spends on the island, the more skeptical of her life she becomes. She keeps having “visions” and dreams that don’t exactly match up with what she has been told her life should be. She starts to discover that her “perfect” marriage is not what it appears and the people who claim to be her friends appear to be hiding important secrets from her. In classic psychological thriller fashion, all of these revelations lead up to a major, if not predictable, twist at the end. This book was…fine. I really enjoyed the last 25% of it as the plot finally gained some momentum, but the pretty much the first 75% of the book moved at a snails pace. The mystery was enough to keep me reading, as I needed to know the ending and what the twist was, and even then I feel like the twist was pretty lame. The one character that I really enjoyed in this book was the supposedly senile old fisherman who Kyra befriends. While his presence in the book is small, he leaves a large impact on the reader due to his perspectives on art and true love. All in all, I would suggest that you don’t waste your time with this one. There are plenty of other thrillers out there that deserve some more love. 2.75/5 stars
Lucy and Josh hate each other. Actually, more like despise every single thing about each others being. It doesn’t help that they are co-assistants to the co-CEO’s of a newly merged publishing house and forced to spend 8 hours a day in each other’s presence. When Lucy and Josh discover that they are now up for the same promotion, both parties refuse to back down, determined to win that coveted new position. As I’m sure anyone could guess, these two slowly start to discover that they might not actually hate each at all and what instills is one of the best slow-burn relationships that I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. One of my favorite tropes is the “love to hate/hate to love” relationships. This book is hilarious, witty, and downright sexy. I absolutely adored both lead characters in this novel, which in my opinion is a rare thing. The entire story is told from Lucy’s point of view, which I liked. The character of Josh reminded me a bit of Mr. Darcy, but more so the Bridget Jones version, not the original Pride and Prejudice one. He comes across as uptight and a bit of an ass, but truly has a heart of gold. And Lucy! What a sweet character. She’s quite eccentric (has a habit of collecting Smurf dolls), but in the quirky cute kind of way. In a way, I actually saw a lot of myself in Lucy, which could possibly be why I liked her so much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ When this book ended, I immediately wanted more. I still find myself thinking about this story, a week after I’ve finished it. I could seriously not recommend this book more, it has easily taken a spot in my top five favorite books ever. 20/5 stars
Taking place in London, 1888, this novel follows Audrey Rose Wadsworth, a spunky and rebellious teen who ever since her mothers death developed a fascination with death. She moonlights as an apprentice to her medical examiner uncle while somewhat maintaining her ladylike reputation during the day. This was a time when women were expected to only attend tea parties and look for a suitable man to wed. Audrey Rose could not find those things more boring. Apprenticing under her uncle, she meets one of his students, Thomas Cresswell. Together, the three of them work to investigate bodies send to their lab. They quickly deduce that their latest bodies are victims of the same serial killer aka Jack the Ripper. Audrey Rose and Thomas pair up and begin to investigate the murders outside of the lab, which leads to the shocking conclusion that Jack might be closer to the Wadsworth family than Audrey Rose thought possible. What I really enjoyed about this novel was the fact that it was actually pretty historically accurate. The five victims in the novel were the exact same as the five real victims and the author managed to incorporate the real letters that Jack had sent to the media outlets. While the true identity of Jack the Ripper remains unknown to this day, that left a lot of room for creativity from the author. I think she did a great job with the reveal and she included quite a few red herrings. While I find the story of Jack the Ripper absolutely fascinating and I loved the character of Audrey Rose as a strong independent young woman, I think the plot itself fell short. Booktuber Emma Books describes my same thoughts in her review, which I’ll link here (review on Stalking Jack starts at 1:37-3:02). There was just a lot of unnecessary filler paragraphs and the romance between Audrey Rose and Thomas was just kind of blah. Like it seemed like the author started to develop a romance and then forgot about it and then BOOM they like each other. If you enjoy true crime, thrillers and historical fiction, then I think you would like this book. While it is definitely not a favorite of mine, it was still pretty fun to read. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel when it comes out in September. 3.75/5 stars
Simply Samantha B. 