Book Review; A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

Hello Page Turners!

So I started this book about a week ago and was quickly drawn in. My teenage daughter saw it in Walmart so we picked it up to read it together.

The story follows Pippa who is a high school student doing a project and she picks the topic about the alleged murder of a young teenage girl and suicide of her boyfriend. As she digs deep into the case there is one thing she is adamant about, Sal, the boyfriend did not kill himself nor did he kill Andie, the missing teenage girl.

Pippa works the case like a true detective. She talks to all of the witnesses and people involved in the case including Ravi, Sal’s younger brother. Together theyfind out the truth that shocks the hell out of me but finally brings things to a close after five years.

I could not put this book down. It was written like a true whodunit. Every time I thought Pippa had solved the case, in came a curve ball. The fact that a teenage girl was able to do what the local authorities could not do years ago baffles me. I loved the flow of the book. I loved all of the characters. I felt like I was walking right beside Pippa every step of the way. I’m glad I came across this book and I’m jumping right into book two.

I gave this five stars

Download it on Amazon today!

New Book Deal for Lisa Gardner

Hello Page Turners,

So I recently found out that Lisa Gardener’s ‘Before She Disappeared’ will turn into a series soon. I found the news on my Facebook from Lisa Gardener’s own Facebook page.

Actress Hilary Swank is set to play Frankie, the main character in ‘Before She Disappeared.

I read ‘Before She Disappeared’ months ago. I am a huge fan of Lisa Gardener’s work. I’ve read about 90% of her books. ‘Before She Disappeared’ is my all time favorite. I used to love ‘The Perfect Husband’ until I read this one. ‘Before She Disappeared’ was an excellent story. It follows Frank, the main character as she finds herself in this town looking for a missing girl. Immediately we learn that Frankie is fighting an uphill battle in this town and already has the chips stacked against her. She uses her street smarts and personality to talk to many people in the town who knew of the missing girl causing the town to love and hate her as she won’t stop at anything to find the missing girl. It was a page turning five star. I loved it.

It’s available on Amazon!

Read more about the upcoming show!

Book Review: The Marriage Pact

Hello Page Turners!

I’ve got a good one for you today.

So last week I did a lot of reading. Got through a lot of books and The Marriage Pact was one I finished.

This book is about a couple who is recently married and is approached by someone who invites them to join the marriage pact. Now The Marriage Pact is a tight group of people that is formed to help marriages last. This young couple, Alice and Jake, think this is the perfect thing for them. They are in love and want their marriage to last so they immediately join the Marriage Pact.

But the pact is not like any other marriage group to enhance the beauty of marriage. This is more like a cult with rules you must abide by and if you don’t you will be punished.

Punishments come with jail time, wearing ornaments that show you have been convicted of not treating your spouse right or not abiding by the rules and somehow, the members of this pact know your every move.

But then Jake comes in contact with an old friend of his who is also in the pact and she begins to tell him things that don’t seem right. He begins to believe that he and his wife shouldn’t have joined the pact and they want out.

I will say this had my attention from the beginning because my only question was how do they get out of this. The punishments were crazy and they story was fast-paced and made my heart race. But towards the end I began to want the story to be over. The situations were just too much. When Jake finally started understanding what he should do to get him and his wife out of the pact it just became too much. Some of the things the pact had Alice and Jake doing was a bit much and I wondered, do people really join groups like this because they think it will make their marriage better? This book does make you think. I gave it four stars.

The Marriage Pact

-Dominique

Book Review: Aberration

Hellon Page Turners!

Aberration is about an FBI agent who is seeking a serial killer who is killing people and then leaving behind the words For you. As if he is killing for someone. The team has no idea who is doing the killing and why. But it’s gruesome and creepy.

The killer is someone who has two personalities and tends to black out not remembering any of the killings. The main character Kassidy is in a relationship with Jory, another agent but when tragedy hits close to home twice for Kassidy, she struggles to bounce back. It looks like Kassidy is being stalked but she and her team can’t figure out who the stalker is.

Eventually, Kassidy is faced with the killer and is shocked to learn he’s been right up under her nose the entire time.

I gave this book four stars. It was pretty good for me. It started out excellent but I’ve seen this type of main character before and the situation around her was too familiar. So I wasn’t blown away by the main character or any of the characters. I was shocked to find out who the killer was though. Her writing was pretty good and I probably will read something else by her. Pretty good job.

Check it out!

-Dominique

Book Review; Secrets to the Grave

Hello Page Turners,

Happy Friday! Time for another book review.

Over this past weekend I finished Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag. I talked about her first book in this series called Deeper than the Dead. This series is based in the 80’s and 90’s when there was hardly any forensic science to help criminal cases. But I have fallen in love with these characters. I love the series.

Secrets to the Grave follows the homicide team in Oak Knoll California who come upon a horribly killed woman and her daughter, however her daughter who was almost strangled to death did not die. She saw her mother’s killer and her attacker but she is suppressing the events and isn’t quite talking to reveal who this person is.

Anne who was a school teacher in the previous book is now married to Vince and he is doing his best to keep her safe but danger continues to find her as old faces resurface.

Of course, the killer is right up under everyones noses. I’m sure readers will be shocked. I’ve read enough of these books to know, nine times out of ten, the killer is close to home.

What seems to be a killer full of rage turns out to be someone who’s possessive and will have what belongs to them, no matter what’s at stake. If you don’t pay attention, the killer will shock you too!

I rated this one four stars!

Check it out today! 

-Dominique

Current Read: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Hello Page Turners!

I am a big fan of Liliana Hart. She is a romance writer at heart but two of her series’ that are borderline mystery and suspense and a tad of romance, I really like. If you don’t know me, then you have no clue that I HATE romance stories. But the two series of hers that I like, the Addison Holmes Series and the J.J. Graves Series are page turners.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is in the Addison Holmes series. It started off pretty good but it seems like this series isn’t progressing and that’s one of the reasons I will stop reading a series.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot has Addison, who is a Private Investigator, in the  middle of a case to find out who has stolen a man’s organs while he was knocked out. Aside from Addison’s quirky demeanor and blonde moments, the story is really good and I’m eager to see just how this plays out.

Also, readers are on the edge of their seats to see if Addison will accept a marriage proposal. This series is very similar to the Janet Evanovich series starring Stephanie Plum.

It’s funny because Addison started out as a school teacher, turned stripper for amateur night who ends up a P.I. It’s definitely a funny series.

Read along with me in this series here.

You can purchase book one here

-Dominique

Book Review: Nooners

Hello Page Turners!

So another BookShot finished and I can’t complain about this one. Nooners was about a company that keeps having dead bodies show up and  all of the people that are found dead were affiliated with the company.

The story is told by the main character who is having  money problems.

I thought the story was a tad boring until it got to the middle of the book and then the ending. The ending blew me away. I didn’t see it coming at all. I was in the hair salon, under the dryer gasping. (LOL) It definitely turned out to be better than I expected.

I gave it four stars!

Download your copy!

-Dominique

Book Review: Still Dead

Hello Page Turners,

So I’m back with one of my favorite authors, JA Jance. She released a book in the JP Beaumont series. There’s about twenty something books in this series, long standing and I love it. This book is a short story so it was a pretty quick read that I enjoyed.

JP is now a retired detective who investigates cold cases. He is handed a case about a a missing person which looks like it could be a suicide, but JP is put on the case to determine that. When the case seems like it was indeed a suicide, some facts begin to surface that weren’t available years ago. He and his wife are quickly thrown into the case to solve one that looked like it was an open and shut case.

As always, Like JP. Love his character. I rated this one four stars. The ending was a shocker. I definitely didn’t see it coming.

Download your copy!

-Dominique

Book Review: Cold, Cold Heart

Hello Page Turners,

So recently I jumped into Cold, Cold Heart by Karin Slaughter who is becoming my favorite author. She is the queen of Crime Fiction, in my opinion. This book came out a few months ago, so I was late getting to it, nonetheless, it was pretty good.

Cold, Cold Heart is about a woman who is off to see her ex husband who is dying of cancer. The book explains about how this couple lost their child to a sudden death many years before and how it affected them turning the wife into a cold woman.

When he arrives to see this man, after all of these years, thinking he’s changed, he reveals that he’s not the only person with a cold, cold heart.

I gave this one three stars because it wasn’t my favorite. Karin does a very good job in giving you a punch to the gut with her stories. She didn’t do that this time. I was expecting something crazy to happen in this one but that didn’t happen. Also, I wasn’t a fan of the ending at all. I felt myself saying, ‘that’s it?’ Aside from that, I love Karin Slaughter. I am currently reading The Good Girl which is already amazing and I’m no where near the middle of the book.

Download your copy today!

-Dominique

Book Review: Mommy Dearest

Hello Page Turners,

I’m a fan of this author. She wrote a series a while back that I really enjoyed so for the most part, I enjoy her stories. They are thrillers at heart that really give you chills. They are page turners that we all love but this story was very annoying. 

First, the grammatical errors were a bit much. I was annoyed with the main character who seemed like a pushover because of her fiancé. I thought the story was just annoying and pointless. 

Mommy Dearest is about a man who’s mother comes to live with him and his fiancé for a few weeks. The mother seems like a nice old lady until she starts doing things behind her son’s back to drive the fiancé crazy. The son just can’t believe that his mother could do the things she says until the evidence becomes so damning, he’s forced to send his mother back home. 

The book ended with a shocker but a pointless one that didn’t have my jaw drop. 

I rated this book 2 Stars. Now, I’m not saying I wouldn’t read anything from this author again because I really love her work. This one just wasn’t good at all. 

See for yourself!

-Dominique