Mini Reviews – Thriller Edition #bookreviews #thrillers #bookpurchases

This month I attended Hamptonswhodunit, a Mystery and crime festival, and in prepping for it, I picked a few books from my shelves by some of the authors I knew would be attending. Not only did this help me get to know some of these authors better but it also allowed me to read some books that had been sitting on my shelf for a while. And now I’m quite…

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This Isn’t Going to End Well by Daniel Wallace #bookreview #audiobook

Thank Algonquin Books, #partner for the finished copy of This Isn’t Going to End Well in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Algonquin Books / Hachette Audio Published: March 26, 2024 – Paperback Release   Summary: In this powerful memoir, the bestselling author of Big Fish tries to come to terms with the life and death of his multi-talented longtime friend and brother-in-law, who…

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Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult by Michelle Dowd #bookreview #audiobook #blogtour

Thank Algonquin Books, #partner for the finished copy of Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Algonquin Books / Hachette Audio Published: February 27, 2024 – Paperback Release   Summary: A moving, heartbreaking, and lyrical true story of the author’s escape from an apocalyptic cult—and the survival skills that led to her freedom. My family prepared…

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The Hunting Wives by May Cobb #bookreview #audiobook #bookclubbook

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Penguin Audio Published: May 18, 2021   Summary: The Hunting Wives share more than target practice, martinis, and bad behavior in this novel of obsession, seduction, and murder. Sophie O’Neill left behind an envy-inspiring career and the stressful, competitive life of big-city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. It seems like the perfect…

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The Woman Inside by M.T. Edvardsson #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Celadon Books, #partner for the advanced copy of The Woman Insider in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Celadon Books / Macmillan Audio Published: June 13, 2023   Summary: A wealthy couple ends up murdered in the nicest part of town in this compulsively readable, page-turning thriller from M. T. Edvardsson, The Woman Inside. Bill Olsson, recently widowed, is desperate to provide…

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Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Pegasus Crime Published: September 6, 2022   Summary: A new, fascinating account of the life of Agatha Christie from celebrated literary and cultural historian Lucy Worsley. “Nobody in the world was more inadequate to act the heroine than I was.” Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was “just” an ordinary housewife,…

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Miracle Creek by Angie Kim #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books / Macmillan Audio Published: April 16, 2019   Summary: A literary courtroom thriller about an immigrant family and a young single mother accused of killing her autistic son, Miracle Creek is a powerhouse debut about how far we’ll go to protect our families, and our deepest secrets. In rural Miracle Creek, Virginia, Young…

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It Ends at Midnight by Harriet Tyce #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark / Highbridge Audio Published: February 21, 2023   Summary: It’s New Year’s Eve, and the stage is set for a lavish party in one of Edinburgh’s best postcodes. It’s a moment for old friends to set the past to rights – and move on. And yet, the celebration fails to materialize. Because…

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Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal by Raquel V. Reyes #bookreview #audiobook #series

Thank you @GetRedPrBooks/Crooked Lane Books #partner,  for the finished copy of Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Crooked Lane Books / Dreamscape Media Published: November 7, 2023   Summary: In the third installment of the Caribbean Kitchen mysteries, for fans of Mia P. Manansala , Miriam Quiñones, cooking show sensation and amateur sleuth, has sand between her toes…

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Spare by Prince Harry #bookreview #audiobook

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Random House Audio Published: January 10, 2023   Summary: It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would…

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The Audrey Hepburn Estate by Brenda Janowitz #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you HTP Books #partner,  for the advanced e-copy of The Audrey Hepburn Estate in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Graydon House / Harlequin Audio Published: April 18, 2023   Summary: When Emma Jansen discovers that the grand Long Island estate where she grew up is set to be demolished, she can’t help but return for one last visit. After all, it…

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Sign Here by Claudia Lux #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Berkley / Penguin Audio Published: October 25, 2022   Summary: A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sell their soul.…

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Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel #bookreview #audiobook #backlistreview

Thank you Tor Nightfire, #partner, for the advanced e-copy of Just Like Mother in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Tor Nightfire / Macmillan Audio Published: May 17, 2022   Summary: A girl would be such a blessing… The last time Maeve saw her cousin was the night she escaped the cult they were raised in. For the past two decades, Maeve has…

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Maame by Jessica George #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio Published: January 31, 2023   Summary: Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman. It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages…

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It Takes Monsters by Mandy McHugh #bookreview #audiobook

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: HighBridge Published: October 17, 2023   Summary: Victoria Tate has had enough of her controlling, incompetent husband Warren. But planning the perfect murder is more difficult than she expected. When the social event of the year, an over-the-top costume ball, is rescheduled for the date she has selected for her crime, Victoria has to scramble to make sure she will still be…

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Lone Women by Victor LaValle #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: One World / Random House Audio Published: March 28, 2023   Summary: Blue skies, empty land—and enough room to hide away a horrifying secret. Or is there? Discover a haunting new vision of the American West from the award-winning author of The Changeling. Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes.…

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The Lost Village by Camilla Sten #bookreview #audiobook #backlistreview

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of The Lost Village in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Minotaur Books / Macmillan Audio Published: March 23, 2021   Summary: The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar in this brilliantly disturbing thriller from Camilla Sten, an electrifying new voice in suspense. Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town,…

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This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Berkley Books / Penguin Audio Published: February 22, 2022   Summary: From the USA Today bestselling and Edgar-nominated author of Darling Rose Gold comes a dark, thrilling novel about two sisters–one trapped in the clutches of a cult, the other in a web of her own lies. Welcome to Wisewood. We’ll keep your secrets if you keep ours.…

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Winter’s End by Paige Shelton #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries #backlistreview

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Winter’s End in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Minotaur Books / Macmillan Audio Published: December 6, 2022   Summary: The fourth installment in the gripping, atmospheric Alaska Wild series, Paige Shelton’s Winter’s End… It’s springtime in Benedict, Alaska, and with it the warmer weather comes an unseasonably somber local tradition…the annual Death March. At…

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A Trace of Poison by Colleen Cambridge #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries #backlistreview

Thank you TCL BookTours, Kensington Books, #partner, for the finished copy of A Trace of Poison in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Kensington Books / Highbridge Published: October 25, 2022   Summary: In England’s stately manor houses, murder is not generally a topic for polite conversation. Mallowan Hall, home to Agatha Christie and her husband, Max, is the exception. And housekeeper Phyllida…

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Breathless by Amy McCulloch #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Anchor Books / Random House Audio Published: May 3, 2022   Summary: IT’S ICE COLD. YOU’RE MILES FROM HELP. AND ONE OF YOU WILL BE NEXT . . . A high-altitude thriller that will take your breath away—Cecily Wong is on her most dangerous climb yet, miles above sea level. But the elements are…

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What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of What the Neighbors Saw in exchange for my honest review. I purchased the audiobook for my own collection. Publisher: Minotaur Books / Macmillan Audio Published: June 20, 2023   Summary: Desperate Housewives meets The Couple Next Door in a chilling story of murder and intrigue set in a well-to-do DC suburb. Sometimes the darkest acts occur in the most beautiful houses……

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The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark / Blackstone Audio Published: August 16, 2022   Summary: From the author of the acclaimed In My Dreams I Hold a Knife comes a pitch-black thriller about a woman determined to destroy a powerful cult and avenge the deaths of the women taken in by it, no matter the cost. While in college in…

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Chloe Cates is Missing by Mandy McHugh #bookreview #audiobook

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Blackstone Publishing Published: January 18, 2022   Summary: The disappearance of a young internet celebrity ignites a firestorm of speculation on social media, and to find her a detective will have to extinguish the blaze.   Chloe Cates is missing. The 13-year-old star of the hit YouTube series CC and Me has disappeared, and nobody knows where she’s gone – least of all ruthless momager…

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Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke #bookreview #audiobook

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Harper Audio Published: April 20, 2021   Summary: Elle Castillo once trained as a social worker, supporting young victims of violent crime. Now, she hosts a popular true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases of missing and abducted children. After four seasons of successfully solving these cases in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Elle decides to tackle her white whale: The Countdown Killer.…

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Little Souls by Sandra Dallas #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, #partner, for the finished copy of Little Souls in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin / Macmillan Audio Published: August 22, 2023 (Paperback Release) / April 26, 2022   Summary: Sandra Dallas’s Little Souls is a gripping tale of sisterhood, loyalty, and secrets set in Denver amid America’s last deadly flu pandemic Colorado, 1918. World…

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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Scribner / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: March 21, 2017   Summary: The thrilling new novel from number-one New York Times best-selling author Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been abandoned and adopted by an American couple. Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and…

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The Woman With the Cure by Lynn Cullen #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Berkley Books #partner, for the finished copy of The Woman With the Cure in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Berkley Books / Penguin Audio Published: February 21, 2023   Summary: She gave up everything— and changed the world. A riveting novel based on the true story of the woman who stopped a pandemic, from the bestselling author of Mrs. Poe.…

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The Sunset Crowd by Karin Tanabe #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you St. Martin’s Press / Netgalley, #partner, for the advanced e-copy of The Sunset Crowd in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio Published: July 4, 2023   Summary: From Rodeo Drive to the French Riviera, Karin Tanabe’s The Sunset Crowd is a tale of survival and reinvention, of faking it until you make it, and the glittering appeal…

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All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, #partner, for an advanced copy of All the Living and the Dead in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio Published: April 12, 2022   Summary: A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people―morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners―who work in it and what led them there. We…

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The Game She Plays by Siena Sterling #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you to Bibliolifestyle, William Morrow, #partner, for a finished copy of The Game She Plays in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio Published: June 6, 2023   Summary: From the author of Tell Us No Secrets comes a twisty new novel. A young American woman is thrust into the closed social circle of English aristocrats, but beneath their charm…

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The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries #reread

Thank you to William Morrow, #partner, for an advanced copy of The Silent Wife in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: William Morrow Books / Blackstone Audio Published: August 4, 2020   Summary: Atlanta, Georgia. Present day. A young woman is brutally attacked and left for dead. The police investigate but the trail goes cold. Until a chance assignment takes GBI investigator Will…

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The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Blackstone Audio Published: August 20, 2019   Summary: New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter brings back Will Trent and Sara Linton in this superb and timely thriller full of devious twists, disturbing secrets, and shocking surprises you won’t see coming. A mysterious kidnapping On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a…

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A Ghost of Caribou by Alice Henderson #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio Published: November 15, 2022   Summary: Building upon the highly acclaimed debut of Alice Henderson’s A Solitude of Wolverines and its follow-up thriller A Blizzard of Polar Bears comes the eagerly anticipated and electrifying third installment A Ghost of Caribou, in which wildlife biologist Alex Carter encounters an unsolved murder and a town in…

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Cleaning the Gold by Karin Slaughter, Lee Child #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Harper Audio Published: May 9, 2019   Summary: The new short story from Karin Slaughter and Lee Child! Twice the action. Twice the drama. Double the trouble.  Will Trent is undercover at Fort Knox. His assignment: to investigate a 22-year-old murder. His suspect’s name: Jack Reacher. Jack Reacher is in Fort Knox on his own mission: to bring down a dangerous criminal ring…

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The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Blackstone Audio Published: September 20, 2016   Summary: It’s the most dangerous case of Will Trent’s career. He knows this from the moment he sets foot in the abandoned Atlanta warehouse where a body lies on the floor—the body of an ex-cop. Bloody footprints leading away from the scene reveal that another victim, evidently a woman, was carried away and has vanished…

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Unseen by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Harper Audio Published: July 7, 2020 (first published 2013)   Summary: Detectives, lovers, and enemies are pitted against one another in an unforgettable standoff between righteous courage and deepest evil from New York Times best-selling author Karin Slaughter. Will Trent is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent whose latest case has him posing as Bill Black, a scary ex-con who rides a motorcycle around…

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Busted by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Blackstone Audio Published: June 24, 2014 (first published 2013)   Summary: From Karin Slaughter comes a fast and furious tale in which no one is quite who they seem. This electrifying eBook novella featuring Will Trent is a prequel to Slaughter’s upcoming novel, Unseen. Detective Will Trent is standing in a Georgia convenience store, waiting on an obstinate Icee frozen drink machine. To…

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Criminal by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Harper Audio Published: July 9, 2019 (first published 2012)   Summary: Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot…

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Dark Objects by Simon Toyne #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Harper Audio Published: July 12, 2022   Summary: Forensics expert Laughton Rees hunts an unusually clever killer who appears to be staging murder scenes just for her in this twisty new psychological thriller by the bestselling author of the Sanctus trilogy. How do you catch a killer if the victim doesn’t exist? A glamorous woman is murdered in her ultra-luxurious London mansion and…

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Snatched by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks Published: July 1, 2013   Summary: While in an airport restroom in Atlanta, Will Trent, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, overhears a girl pleading to go home and knows something is wrong. But he waits too long to act, and now the girl and the angry man she’s with have disappeared into the crowds at the busiest…

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The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave #bookreview #audiobook #reread

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Published: May 4, 2021   Summary: The instant #1 New York Times bestselling mystery and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick that’s captivated more than a million readers about a woman searching for the truth about her husband’s disappearance…at any cost. Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion…

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Fallen by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Harper Audio Published: August 28, 2018 (Originally published 2011)   Summary: There’s no police training stronger than a cop’s instinct. Faith Mitchell’s mother isn’t answering her phone. Her front door is open. There’s a bloodstain above the knob. Her infant daughter is hidden in a shed behind the house. All that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations taught Faith Mitchell goes out the window…

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Broken by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Harper Audio Published: June 23, 2020 (Originally published 2010)   Summary: Broken features the return of New York Times best-selling author Karin Slaughter’s most compelling characters and introduces memorable new ones in a tale of corruption, murder, and confrontation that will leave more than one life destroyed…. When Special Agent Will Trent arrives in Grant County, he finds a police department determined to protect its own…

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The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Atria Books, #partner for the finished copy of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Atria Books / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: August 2, 2022   Summary: Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living. As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into…

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Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark #bookreview

Thank you to TLC BookTours, S&S/Marysue Rucci Books, #partner, for a finished copy of Fellowship Point in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books/ Scribner / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: July 5, 2022   Summary: Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy—to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written…

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Undone by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Harper Audio Published: July 16, 2019   Summary: In the trauma center of Atlanta’s busiest hospital, Sara Linton treats the city’s poor, wounded, and unlucky – and finds refuge from the tragedy that rocked her life in rural Grant County. Then, in one instant, Sara is thrust into a frantic police investigation, coming face-to-face with a tall driven detective and his quiet…

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Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Ecco / Harper Audio Published: August 25, 2020   Summary: A groundbreaking thriller about a vigilante on a Native American reservation who embarks on a dangerous mission to track down the source of a heroin influx.  Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  When justice is…

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Tell Us No Secrets by Siena Sterling #bookreview #audiobook #backlistreview

Thank you William Morrow, #partner, for the finished copy of Tell Us No Secrets in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks / Harper Audio Published: June 7, 2022   Summary: This stunning debut thriller, set in a girls’ boarding school, will leave you breathless until the final minute. Sometimes girls are the meanest of them all… Female friendship is intense…

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Fractured by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #bookseries

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: Harper Audio Published: August 28, 2018 (Originally published 2008)   Summary: With its gracious homes and tree-lined streets, Ansley Park is one of Atlanta’s most desirable neighborhoods. But in one gleaming mansion, in a teenager’s lavish bedroom, a girl has been savagely murdered. And in the hallway, her horrified mother stands amid shattered glass, having killed her daughter’s attacker with her bare…

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