Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are ruthlessly ambitious high-flyers working in the lucrative world of Wall Street finance where deception and intimidation thrive. Getting rich is all that matters, and they'll do anything to reach the top.

When they are ordered to participate in a corporate team-building exercise that requires them to escape from a locked elevator, dark secrets of their team begin to be laid bare.

The biggest mystery to solve in this lethal game: What happened to Sara Hall? Once a young shining star—”now gone but not forgotten”.

This is no longer a game.
They’re fighting for their lives.
( From Goodreads)

My review:
On Monday morning a security employee hears two gun shots coming from the elevator. He calls the police who manage to open the door... What exactly led to this situation? Who are the people confined in this claustrophobically small space and why do they hate each other to this extent?

To answer these questions we have to go back to Friday evening when four investment bankers Vincent, Sylvie, Jules and Sam receive identical e-mails requesting them to participate in a meeting outside their office. Things haven't been going that well recently, the threat of losing their lucrative positions is real, and they all feel they cannot afford to miss this particular meeting, which turns out to be a kind of a team building exercise, known as an escape room. In a classic escape room scenario, you get clues to decipher, situations to show your leadership skills and promote team spirit and...what was the word...Trust? If you manage to solve the mystery in 60 minutes, you get a round of applause and a pat on the shoulder, if not, the door opens anyway, you get a message of encouragement, a pat on the shoulder, and everybody is ready to go for a Friday drink.

If only, this was a classic escape room! or at the very least, if only the four people locked in it, could trust each other. Oh they do get a series of clues, but the aim of the game is different this time: try to stay alive and work out who the person behind this is.

The Escape Room is an incredibly addictive read. You'd think that the ruthless world of ridiculuosly overpaid, overworked and overstressed bankers is something that has been described and discussed to death and there's nothing new to add. Yet, the much more personal narrative of the second POV (there are two: one giving a blow-by-blow account of what was happening in the elevator, and the other one that gives you an insight into more distant past events that led to the deadly game) is what made this book so fascinating.

Well-written, compelling, gripping?- yes! believable?- eh, no, not really. Oh, I do believe the descriptions of long hours, glass ceiling, gruelling work hours, sacrificed relationships and totally absent work-life balance, sexism, elitism, alcoholism and drug abuse. It's just some technical details largely given at the end of the book that required me to suspend my belief. I didn't care-it was way too entertaining.

Thank you to Edelweiss and St.Martin's for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

The Escape Room is out on the 30th of July 2019.

What would you do if you accidentally discovered your lazy but so loveable teenage son has a dangerous hobby of breaking into your neighbours ' houses and hacking into their computers?

Would you consider writing an anonymous letter to apologise for his wrongdoing? Just to make sure that his prank e-mails do not have serious consequences? Isn't it a decent thing to do? and if we, parents, do not do what is moral and decent, how can we expect our children to learn what is right and wrong?

This is what Olivia Sharpe thinks. Her husband and son, and family lawyer are of a completely different opinion. The anonymous letters she has secretly sent her neighbours have enormous repurcussions on the life of everybody in this close-knit suburban neighbourhood, because everybody here has their own secrets.

We know from the very beginning of the book that a horrendous murder has taken place. We know the murder weapon used and the fact that the murderer was male. We also learn the identity of the victim: Amanda Pierce is reported missing by her husband Robert. The murderer is someone who lives in one of these houses. It is in all likelihood someone we know... But to discover who it was and why, we'll have to doubt every single person, no matter how nice and friendly they appear to be.

Despite its relative simplicity (there is a limited number of people involved), the plot is complex and frighteningly realistic. A husband is cheating on his wife after twenty years of marriage and grown-up kids. A bored and lonely housewife gets infatuated with a much younger neighbour after he shows her a morsel of attention. A teenager who used to be so well-adjusted and 'problem-free' is suddenly showing signs of teenage alcoholism. Another teenager gets a thrill from snooping around and spying on other people's secrets. A couple who have always taken trusting each other for granted, but do not seem to be able to speak to each other about things which are important. All these characters and their lives are interlocked and interconnected in this superbly-written mystery.

The police are there and they are doing excellent work by continually discovering new clues and putting pressure on the right people. They also know when the suspect (or rather the suspects, because there are several) they arrest appears to be innocent and is to be released, because new evidence and new leads keep appearing and need to be checked out.

When the mystery is finally resolved and it all makes sense, you will still be asking yourself questions about how far people are willing to go to cover a crime committed by somebody they love.

This is my first book by Shari Lapena and now I can see why her previous titles became bestsellers. The writing is incredibly compelling. Someone We Know is a clever fast-paced whodunnit that will keep you entertained and might even give you the satisfaction of guessing the identity of the murderer before anybody else.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Pamela Dorman Books for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

Finally we’re playing a game. A game that I have chosen. I give one last push of the roundabout and stand back. 'You really should have played with me,’ I tell her again although I know she can no longer hear.

Late one summer evening, Detective Kim Stone arrives at Haden Hill Park to the scene of a horrific crime: a woman in her sixties tied to a swing with barbed wire and an X carved into the back of her neck.

The victim, Belinda Evans, was a retired college Professor of Child Psychology. As Kim and her team search her home, they find an overnight bag packed and begin to unravel a complex relationship between Belinda and her sister Veronica.

Then two more bodies are found bearing the same distinctive markings, and Kim knows she is on the hunt for a ritualistic serial killer. Linking the victims, Kim discovers they were involved in annual tournaments for gifted children and were on their way to the next event.

With DS Penn immersed in the murder case of a young man, Kim and her team are already stretched and up against one of the most ruthless killer’s they’ve ever encountered. The clues lie in investigating every child who attended the tournaments, dating back decades.

Faced with hundreds of potential leads and a bereaved sister who is refusing to talk, can Kim get inside the mind of a killer and stop another murder before it’s too late?

The addictive new crime thriller from multi-million copy, number one bestseller Angela Marsons explores the dark side of child prodigies and will have you absolutely hooked.

(From Goodreads)

My thoughts:

I was initially reluctant to pick up a book which is number 11 in a series, but my friends insisted that AngelaMarsons' writing is incredibly good and I would be hooked. Indeed, the writing in this final instalment of D.I.Kim Scott series is simply superb, and the book provides enough background to ease in a reader who is new to the series.

Kim Stone is my new favourite character. She is not flawless, in fact, I really enjoyed the pages where her domestic life is described. She is not charming, although her team would do anything to earn her approval. The respect she commands comes from the simple fact that she cares about the work she does and the people she does it with and for. We get a glimpse into her complicated background and meet the person who helped her when little Kim was in need of somebody who would listen to her without pressurising her into dealing with her childhood trauma. We also learn more about the people on her team and how each and single one of them is valuable and valued.

The case the team is dealing with in this instalment brings them into the world of child prodigies and their families. Not all parents know how to ensure the gifted child is allowed to develop their abilities as well as fulfilling their emotional needs. Sometimes the family dynamics becomes twisted and other siblings suffer.

I loved  everything about this book: the premise, the pace, the characters, the twists and turns, the suspense and the final resolution. I will definitely be looking forward to the next part in the series. My friends were right. Once you read an Angela Marsons novel, you become addicted and will keep coming back for more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

This morning, I was packing up lunches, ironing, putting on the laundry I should have done last night. Now my precious daughter is accused of murder.

When ten-year-old cousins Maddy and Brianna are arrested for a terrible crime, Maddy’s mother Juliet cannot believe it. How could her bright, joyful daughter be capable of such a thing?

As the small village community recoils in horror, the pressure of the tragedy blows Juliet and her sister’s lives apart. And things get even worse when their daughters retreat into a self-imposed silence. Can anyone reach Maddy and discover the truth before her fate is sealed?

Juliet is crushed. Nothing will ever be the same for her darling girl. But she knows that to find out what really happened that day, she and her sister must unlock the secrets of their own terrible past, a past they swore never to speak about again …

The most unputdownable psychological thriller you’ll read this year from the bestselling author K.L. Slater. If you love The Wife Between Us or Gone Girl, you’ll be totally hooked on The Silent Ones.
(From Goodreads)


My thoughts:
This was my first book by K.L.Slater and I hope not the last one. The premise is extremely interesting. Imagine a horrible crime and two children involved, children who wouldn't say a word to explain what happened, not even to defend themselves. Maddie and Brianna are first cousins. We know they are quite different (as any two children, even siblings, would be), but we also get slightly different descriptions (perceptions, perceptions, perceptions...) coming from their respective mothers Juliet Fletcher and Chloe Voce. Gradually, we understand that there is something else, a dark secret buried in the family past that made the mothers' characters and their relationships to their own parents what they are.
The book is so fast-paced, there's never a dull moment. There are twists and turns, and you do want to get to know what exactly the two girls did (or didn't do?) on that afternoon, even at the expense of your own sleepless night. Whenever a crime like this is concerned, there are rumours and wild accusations, and pointing fingers. In our day and age when news is just a click away and social media are ready to lynch the parents with hateful comments, you still have to trust that the investigation is going to be proper and unbiased. There are special procedures, designed to protect the rights of minors and they are there for good reasons. Guilty or not, children are vulnerable members of our society and this book brilliantly shows this vulnerability and the part families play in dealing with situations like this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

Book Blurb:
A smart romantic comedy about mothers and daughters, and the hilarious consequences of a white lie.
Crystal has trouble saying no to her lonely, single mother. For 25 years, it wasn't a problem. But when one small mistake leaves Crystal jilted, homeless and unemployed, she has to move back in with the one person who caused it all: her mother.

Soon Crystal is sucked into her mother's vortex, partying with boomers and hawking misshapen marshmallows. Desperate for some independence, she hatches a foolproof plan: get an experimental android to play her mom's "perfect" boyfriend. It's only a matter of time before her mom finds out, and Crystal will never live down the hilarious and disastrous consequences.
Written in an addicting, fast-paced format, Mom's Perfect Boyfriend is a humorous yet deeply honest portrayal about the complicated friendship between mothers and daughters. Because sometimes the people we least want to rely on are those who can help us the most.

My thoughts:
This is the second book featuring a robot boyfirend I've read recently, so it seems AI is the flavour of the month.  Mom's perfect boyfirend doesn't go into too much engineering detail. Its focus is on mother-daughter relationships and thepitfalls of trying to please overly demanding parents. Short and  lighthearted, it is extremely entertaining, and will definitely make a perfect summer read. I loved the form - mostly e-mails, chat, text messages and diary entries. The book was fast-paced and flowed so nicely that I never had a dull moment reading it.






Thank you to Edelweiss and Galbadia Pressfor the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

This is the third book in the series ( after The Proposal and The Wedding Date ) and my first one by Jasmine Guillory.

The plot of The Wedding Party is pretty straightforward. Theo and Maddie have the same best friend Alexa. Unfortunately for Alexa, they themselves didn't hit it off at all. Maddie thinks Theo is pompous and boring, while Theo is convinced Maddie is as shallow as it gets. Despite all this, they suddenly find themselves madly attracted to each other to the point of starting a secret sexual relationship. They both agree to keep it secret from their best friend, but can they pull it off?  and what's the point of a relationship with a definite expiry date which just happens to coincide with their best friend's perfect wedding day? They are way too comfortable with each other and quickly discover they might have been too hasty to judge each other. On second thoughts, Theo might not be pompous, but rather insecure and over-responsible, while Maddie really has a heart of gold and wants to help unemployed women look their best for a job interview which may help them turn their lives around.

I must admit I didn't connect with the characters straightaway. Not until I read about Theo alphabetising Maddie's spice rack (how cool is that?) and Maddie living in an uber-messy home with  piles of clothes scattered all over the place, which of course was the real reason why she didn't dare invite Theo over to hers. With Theo suddenly turning up  on her doorstep, she has no choice but go into a panic mode and shove everything into a wardrobe. The characters suddenly became more relatable, although I still felt a bit annoyed with them for not realising they should give up their pretense and just admit they complement and need each other.

What I liked the most about this book is Jasmine Guillory's impeccable writing style. Not a single false note in the whole book. I will definitely try to read and review the previous books in the series as well as the sequel.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Berkley for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

The part in which we meet Nina Lee Hill and discuss her personality

Nina Hill’s life is perfect: she has a job in an old bookstore in the middle of a quiet and atmospheric part of Los Angeles, a lovely apartment with a slightly judgemental cat Philip, wonderful friends with freakishly good memories who help her rock competitive trivia quiz world, a wonderfully direct photographer mother on a working assignment somewhere in China, and …thousands and thousands of  unread books with their marvellous fictional world. Nina is quiet, reserved, observant- after all, human interactions can be fascinating, it’s just not something she finds easy to engage in. Take mystery buffs, they are so different from romance readers- eternally optimistic, they believe in the triumph of good over evil and in their own form of happy ever after.

You might describe Nina as an introvert. In her own words, being alone helps her replenish energy she loses interacting with others and ‘little islands of silence’ help her navigate her’ long-distance swim’ of a life.




















Another thing that Nina enjoys is planning, organising, setting goals. How else would she be able to fit in all her Book Clubs (Book Bitches for Contemporary fiction, Sneaky Spinsters for golden age mystaries, District Zero for YA, and Electric Sheep Grazing Club -you guessed it!- for Sci-Fi). There’s also a lethal gym class combination of Spoga (Spin and yoga) and Nina’s competitive trivia team. Nina has always had a very active imagination and curious, ready to learn and explore mind which needed its food. If not properly fed (Thank God for school librarians), she’d go into an overanxious frenzy of focussing on useless tidbits. Of course, anxiety

Nina is also attentive, thoughtful, smiley, able to stand-her-ground but not-unwilling-to-recognise-and-correct-her-mistakes. She is a kind of girl anybody would be happy to have as a friend.

The part in which we meet Nina’s family, friends and other characters in the book

Nina’s mother never told her who her father was. She preferred being labelled a party girl with total disregard to her own reputation to letting Nina know that her father was a much older Hollywood lawyer with a pregnant wife. As Nina’s mother herself had to travel to war zones and other less than wholesome places to raise a child, she found a wonderful substitute in the form of Louise, Nina’s Nanny, who gave the little girl her unconditional love and support. I found extremely poignant what Louise did, faced with Nina’s longing for a father figure in her life.

When Nina gets a call from a family lawyer who informs her that her father died and that she actually has a large and unusually complicated family, her first reaction is to shut down and say ‘No, thank you, I love my life as it is’. However, she does meet her new relations and discovers her own answer to the question of how much shared genetics contributes to family range of personalities and quirks. Everybody remembers her father differently and Nina herself might be the only person able to piece the true portrait of this mysterious man.

Nina is surrounded by people who love and care about her: her trivia team mates, her boss and her colleagues, kids from her book clubs (‘You have to work on your banter, sis!’), her half-siblings, nephews and nieces, and of course, Tom, who has a wonderfully complementary personality. With great difficulty I am trying to restrain myself and not give away either Tom’s job, or Nina’s response to the quiz final question. Suffice it to say, they are both super romantic and will make you go ‘Aahh’.

The part in which the post author finally gives in and professes her ardent feelings towards the book

I fell in love with this book from the first pages, it just took me a few chapters to finally recognise how irresistibly drawn I was to Nina’s quiet humour and bookish references. The hours I spent in the company of Nina Hill filled me with joy and quiet happiness that only a well-written fictional world can bring. Nina’s journey to discovering her real purpose in life (we knew it all along, but she didn’t) was fun and touching and full of laugh-out-loud moments.

To tell the truth, if you haven’t read the book, I envy you a bit, you’re about to discover something wonderful.
 
Thank you to Edelweiss and Berkley for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

From the book synopsis:New revelations on a notorious local cold case raise ghosts of the past in the newest thriller from New York Times-bestselling author Ace Atkins.

Twenty years ago, teenager Brandon Taylor walked into the Big Woods north of Tibbehah County, Mississippi, and never returned. For former Army Ranger-turned-sheriff Quinn Colson, the Taylor case has particular meaning. As a ten-year-old, Colson had been lost in those same woods, and came back from them alive and a local legend.

Years later, bones of a child are found in the woods, confirming for many the end to the Taylor story. As the case reopens, some point fingers to Quinn's uncle, the former sheriff, who took his own life in a cloud of corruption and shame. Still, Quinn's wife, Maggie, can't believe it. As a childhood friend of the Taylor boy, she thinks there's a darker conspiracy at work. Letters she receives from a mysterious inmate at a Tennessee state pen may hold the answers.

With a heated election for governor on the horizon and the strengthening of a criminal syndicate's death grip on the state, Quinn's search for answers will upset the corruption that's plagued his home since before he came back from Afghanistan. Greed, false piety, power, bigotry, and dirty deals make for a dangerous mix he knows all too well.



My thoughts: The Shameless is the ninth novel in the series and the first one I've read by this author. I just jumped in without knowing anything about the setting or the characters, no expectations at all. The book didn't disappoint- you have a new Quinn Colson fan here. The author provides enough background to understand the most salient points of what happened in the series prior to this instalment. The characters are well-developed and you know straightaway which side you are on. I loved the realtionship between Maggie and Quinn, Boom, Caddy, Jean, Brandon, Jayson, Cleotha...and the list goes on. You see, Ace Atkins makes you fall in love with the characters and you will want to come back and read the sequel.
An extremely unpleasant political candidate with no scruples or moral compass is about to get elected. He has ties to local criminal world and the queen of shady business who will not stop until she has control of everything she can get her hands on. In the meantime, Tashi Coleman,a New York journalist, comes to investigate an old story of a fifteen year old boy who got lost in the Tibbehah woods and whose body was found with a bullet in his head. She suspects the police were involved, so there is a good chance for an important story. Was it really a suicide or a brutal murder that goes back to twenty years ago? Tashi is definitely going to ask questions and stir some trouble in the process.
Having thoroughly enjoyed this novel, I'll be looking forward to the next title in the series.
Thank you to Edelweiss and G.P.Putnam's sons for the ARc provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

Dating is hard, but being dateless at your perfect sister's wedding is even harder.
                                                        Tara Singh Carlson
Kelly is a twenty year old robotics engineer from San Jose, Silicon Valley. Brilliant, ambitious, perfectionist, super analytical...as well as socially awkward and hopelessly single, Kelly is a typical middle child, craving her parents' approval by being 'safe and responsible'. Now Kelly's charming  younger sister is getting married and their mother (whose flair for silliness and dramatics reminded me of Mrs Bennet from Pride and Prejudice) is keen to find Kelly a date to maintain the necessary symmetry in the upcoming wedding photos. Kelly is not exactly against the idea, it's just that her flight instinct overrides her logical circuits and she literally runs away in the opposite direction from her date. She even joins a dating website and comes up with a lengthy and awfully precise list of essential attributes (including wearing V-necks and love of twinkies). only to get -Surprise, surprise!-no match. In a moment of genius, Kelly decides to build a robot boyfriend and endow him with a charming smile, easy-going personality and crystalline blue eyes. Meet Ethan, her newest engineering success, gorgeous, thoughful, smart, attentive to her needs, quickly learning from his mistakes, and totally non-judgemental boyfriend. Ethan is safe to talk to, to go out or watch a comedy and lounge on the sofa in old sweats with. Ethan is universally liked wherever he goes, although he is indeed too perfect to be real.













By its nature, the robot boyfriend trope is predictable. We all know it is bound to end with the human heroine meeting a slightly imperfect human who is totally going to eclipse the devoted mechanical heart out of his (its?) brief existence. True, but within this predictability there is so much scope for building up characters and showing their evolution, and this is precisely what Sarah Archer does. At the heart of the novel is Kelly's journey to understand and change herself. Her lacklustre love life which culminated  in the much fretted absence of a wedding date didn't come out of blue. It was deeply rooted in her fear of getting too close to somebody, fear of ending up in a relationship where nobody talks about things that matter, fear of indifference and giving in. Ethan is her ultimate version of a safety net, a man programmed to love her unconditionally the way she is. Eventually, she does realise love isn't love where there is no free will. And you have to give it to her, Kelly is willing to learn from the data life is stubbornly providing her with.
A charming debut novel and a perfect summer beach read, The Plus one is chick lit in its pure unadulterated form. Don't expect groundbreaking reflections or serious philosophy from it. It is meant to be lighthearted, entertaining and optimistic in its deeply held belief that 'You live and you learn' and if your learning comes from mistakes...well, you're only human.