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pagesplotsandpints's Reviews (2.1k)
Read Completed 3/12/23 | 3.75 stars
I really, really like Linda Holmes' writing! I absolutely adored EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER and immediately headed over to FLYING SOLO when I didn't know what to pick up next. I still enjoyed FLYING SOLO all the way through, but it was a little more life story wrapped up in a romance where I wanted more romantic development. What was there was absolutely wonderful, but I just wanted more of it.
I'm also really appreciating reading romances with women in their 30s and in this case, Laurie was about to turn 40 (and did so in the book). I like seeing the different stories and in this case, how Laurie broke off a wedding because she realized she was just doing it because it felt right and how she was happy being a solo entity and didn't want children. I loved seeing how she didn't want to sacrifice everything she built in her life and for her happiness/personality in order to be in a relationship with someone else.
And there was a wonderful second-chance romance! I thought this was done so well, setting up each of the characters to be at a point where they could reconnect and everything made sense. No cheating involved (not even close), still good chemistry, and re-hashing the reason why they broke up (and kind of going through it again). It was a lovely thing for them to revisit and see why they broke it off in the first place and if they could rekindle those feelings while still figuring out how to get what makes them happy individually as well. Again, I would have loved more of the romantic development because I thought they had amazing chemistry! I felt like it really took a backseat to the great-aunt plot line, which I also enjoyed but that's not why I was reading the book.
Linda Holmes also continues to make an amazing friend group / support system / family/ found family. The supporting cast is always well-developed, full of personality, and are great additions to the book, adding to the life of the main characters.
Another thing I loved was how this took place in the same universe as EVVIE DRAKE without actually crossing over into it. I wouldn't have been opposed to some appearances, but there were references to TV shows, the baseball team, and of course, the locations themselves. It was really fun to tie that in but still be able to read either book independently. It just adds to the enjoyment if you already have read them.
I did like the great-aunt story and it included a few twists and turns of its own! I didn't love how much space it took up in this book since we just get a little answer from it but all takes place after her death so we don't really get to know her. I thought there would be a love triangle which thankfully, didn't happen, and things went a different way there. All around, still very enjoyable, but just wanted more focus on the romance!
I really, really like Linda Holmes' writing! I absolutely adored EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER and immediately headed over to FLYING SOLO when I didn't know what to pick up next. I still enjoyed FLYING SOLO all the way through, but it was a little more life story wrapped up in a romance where I wanted more romantic development. What was there was absolutely wonderful, but I just wanted more of it.
I'm also really appreciating reading romances with women in their 30s and in this case, Laurie was about to turn 40 (and did so in the book). I like seeing the different stories and in this case, how Laurie broke off a wedding because she realized she was just doing it because it felt right and how she was happy being a solo entity and didn't want children. I loved seeing how she didn't want to sacrifice everything she built in her life and for her happiness/personality in order to be in a relationship with someone else.
And there was a wonderful second-chance romance! I thought this was done so well, setting up each of the characters to be at a point where they could reconnect and everything made sense. No cheating involved (not even close), still good chemistry, and re-hashing the reason why they broke up (and kind of going through it again). It was a lovely thing for them to revisit and see why they broke it off in the first place and if they could rekindle those feelings while still figuring out how to get what makes them happy individually as well. Again, I would have loved more of the romantic development because I thought they had amazing chemistry! I felt like it really took a backseat to the great-aunt plot line, which I also enjoyed but that's not why I was reading the book.
Linda Holmes also continues to make an amazing friend group / support system / family/ found family. The supporting cast is always well-developed, full of personality, and are great additions to the book, adding to the life of the main characters.
Another thing I loved was how this took place in the same universe as EVVIE DRAKE without actually crossing over into it. I wouldn't have been opposed to some appearances, but there were references to TV shows, the baseball team, and of course, the locations themselves. It was really fun to tie that in but still be able to read either book independently. It just adds to the enjoyment if you already have read them.
I did like the great-aunt story and it included a few twists and turns of its own! I didn't love how much space it took up in this book since we just get a little answer from it but all takes place after her death so we don't really get to know her. I thought there would be a love triangle which thankfully, didn't happen, and things went a different way there. All around, still very enjoyable, but just wanted more focus on the romance!
Read Completed 3/8/23 |
I had FIRST BORN on my list for a long time but really never heard anyone talking about it. I probably should have picked up a clue that maybe that was for a reason.
FIRST BORN started off slowwwwly. We know that the book is about a woman whose twin sister was murdered and that actually happens pretty much right away. After that, there's planning, grieving, lots of investigations. It takes until the second half of the book for anything interesting to happen.
Aside from just the pacing, I had a LOT of issues with FIRST BORN. No flat out spoilers but some things will be strongly hinted at, so heads up if you want zero spoilers for this book.
Molly is an extreme researcher & planner... But why? She overplans, researches, and prepares to the extreme -- for everything. BUT, do we even really know why? I don't even know if that was mentioned, and if it was, it was a super quick drop and not integrated into the book at all. We didn't talk about Molly having anxiety, having been through an event that needed her to be prepared for all disasters, etc. So why was this such a big part of the story?? It never even came into play. I figured at one point, something bad was going to happen and her Go Bag would save her from something or *something*. She had a few things she needed to plan for but regular meticulous planning would have been fine. I don't know why it was such a big part of the story.
Molly spends a lot of her time doing research to try to find out why her sister was murdered and looks into all of the people that could possibly have been involved. Now, that's pretty routine for a mystery/thriller -- the main character almost always gets involved BUT the police were working with her, asking what she found, using her research and intel. Umm, no? The police aren't going to let a civilian put themselves in harm's way by possibly getting involved with dangerous people, take their finings as word, and ASK them to keep looking for things. Pretty sure everyone is always told to keep out of the investigations and let the police handle things.
The twist was over the top and the support for why everything happened was really weak. It being a twin story, you know there has to be some twin hijinks, right? Naturally, I was expecting there to be some switch, mistaken identity, something of the sort. I won't throw out spoilers but I saw that sort of aspect coming (albeit, a little bit backwards) and I didn't feel like it was even executed well. If that was the only thing I had an issue with, I could have excused it.
Back to the supporting plot points of why this all went down... I STILL don't understand it? Everything was so all over the place, randomly told to readers who weren't involved in the Katie part of the story at all since she was already dead, and it was all spread so thin that I didn't really feel connected to anything. I don't understand much of it and I feel like we were just told that's what we're supposed to believe instead of it REALLY being a part of the book. Too long spent in the dark. There were also some random red herrings like mentioning how uneasy and unnatural the dad was acting but it had nothing to do with anything except money trouble. Just to throw you off the scent, which we didn't need since we didn't know what was going on anyway.
I suppose I probably have more issues but that's a lot of ranting anyway. I almost DNFed this earlier on but I was already at 32% and wanted to see if things would improve. Then the twist happened halfway through and I wanted to see if the ending made it all better. It did not.
I had FIRST BORN on my list for a long time but really never heard anyone talking about it. I probably should have picked up a clue that maybe that was for a reason.
FIRST BORN started off slowwwwly. We know that the book is about a woman whose twin sister was murdered and that actually happens pretty much right away. After that, there's planning, grieving, lots of investigations. It takes until the second half of the book for anything interesting to happen.
Aside from just the pacing, I had a LOT of issues with FIRST BORN. No flat out spoilers but some things will be strongly hinted at, so heads up if you want zero spoilers for this book.
Molly is an extreme researcher & planner... But why? She overplans, researches, and prepares to the extreme -- for everything. BUT, do we even really know why? I don't even know if that was mentioned, and if it was, it was a super quick drop and not integrated into the book at all. We didn't talk about Molly having anxiety, having been through an event that needed her to be prepared for all disasters, etc. So why was this such a big part of the story?? It never even came into play. I figured at one point, something bad was going to happen and her Go Bag would save her from something or *something*. She had a few things she needed to plan for but regular meticulous planning would have been fine. I don't know why it was such a big part of the story.
Molly spends a lot of her time doing research to try to find out why her sister was murdered and looks into all of the people that could possibly have been involved. Now, that's pretty routine for a mystery/thriller -- the main character almost always gets involved BUT the police were working with her, asking what she found, using her research and intel. Umm, no? The police aren't going to let a civilian put themselves in harm's way by possibly getting involved with dangerous people, take their finings as word, and ASK them to keep looking for things. Pretty sure everyone is always told to keep out of the investigations and let the police handle things.
The twist was over the top and the support for why everything happened was really weak. It being a twin story, you know there has to be some twin hijinks, right? Naturally, I was expecting there to be some switch, mistaken identity, something of the sort. I won't throw out spoilers but I saw that sort of aspect coming (albeit, a little bit backwards) and I didn't feel like it was even executed well. If that was the only thing I had an issue with, I could have excused it.
Back to the supporting plot points of why this all went down... I STILL don't understand it? Everything was so all over the place, randomly told to readers who weren't involved in the Katie part of the story at all since she was already dead, and it was all spread so thin that I didn't really feel connected to anything. I don't understand much of it and I feel like we were just told that's what we're supposed to believe instead of it REALLY being a part of the book. Too long spent in the dark. There were also some random red herrings like mentioning how uneasy and unnatural the dad was acting but it had nothing to do with anything except money trouble. Just to throw you off the scent, which we didn't need since we didn't know what was going on anyway.
I suppose I probably have more issues but that's a lot of ranting anyway. I almost DNFed this earlier on but I was already at 32% and wanted to see if things would improve. Then the twist happened halfway through and I wanted to see if the ending made it all better. It did not.
Read Completed 3/7/23 | This was a good one! I agree with my sister -- one more twist would have really sealed the deal -- but it was captivating all the way through. A few parts got a little slow, getting more into the characters and slowing down the action, but I didn't mind that. I was almost worried it was going to focus more on Rosie's injuries and become more of a contemporary/post-accident story than a thriller, but then I remembered that I did actually know it was a thriller. (Because I've been down that road before when I thought a book was a thriller and it was just a contemporary story about two people cheating and had zero thrilling aspects...)
This flowed pretty well and there were a few good punches in there that I didn't see coming, which was nice! I knew the twist was coming but didn't know how it would be revealed and if I was 100% correct, so it was fun seeing that unfold. Would definitely pick up more thrillers from this author!
This flowed pretty well and there were a few good punches in there that I didn't see coming, which was nice! I knew the twist was coming but didn't know how it would be revealed and if I was 100% correct, so it was fun seeing that unfold. Would definitely pick up more thrillers from this author!
Read Completed 3/6/23 | 3.5 stars
The library got the Wayward Pines trilogy on audiobook and since I'm a big fan of Blake Crouch's "modern" releases (DARK MATTER, RECURSION, and UPGRADE), I really wanted to check these out.
I went into this book literally knowing nothing about it. I dove in head first and all I knew were random images from the TV show adaptation that I had seen when trying to look up Wayward Pines. Honestly, it was a bit too slow and this book didn't quite have the pacing I know and love from Crouch's recent sci-fi thrillers. It's also the first in a series so it did a LOT of set-up, getting both Ethan and the readers into the world of its own that is Wayward Pines, Idaho. Ethan's discoveries and evasions just felt like they took a loooong time to go anywhere. There's a lot of time spent in the dark and it got a little too frustrating. We do get some clues along the way but I would have liked to spend a bit more time with the reveal at the end. Yes, it's a series but the end of the book is already setting up book two and I just would have liked to see more of all the good stuff in book one!
I guess that was... all of the book? I liked following Ethan's story but aside from a little past with his family, we really don't learn a lot about him. He doesn't get a lot of character development, and I think we'll see more of that in the second book with him taking charge instead of being chased.
PINES was also just a bit weird. Crouch's books are always a touch of weird, but the way things were laid out in this book, sometimes it was just a little too odd. Again, a lot of it was to keep readers in the dark but some things were just plain weird in the moment. There were a few other things that seemed like they just didn't quite fit in the flow of the book, but I was also still getting the vibe of everything.
I did like the answer of why everything was happening and how and even though I didn't quite love this book, I definitely want to binge read the whole thing and I'm anxious to pick up the next book to see where things go.
The library got the Wayward Pines trilogy on audiobook and since I'm a big fan of Blake Crouch's "modern" releases (DARK MATTER, RECURSION, and UPGRADE), I really wanted to check these out.
I went into this book literally knowing nothing about it. I dove in head first and all I knew were random images from the TV show adaptation that I had seen when trying to look up Wayward Pines. Honestly, it was a bit too slow and this book didn't quite have the pacing I know and love from Crouch's recent sci-fi thrillers. It's also the first in a series so it did a LOT of set-up, getting both Ethan and the readers into the world of its own that is Wayward Pines, Idaho. Ethan's discoveries and evasions just felt like they took a loooong time to go anywhere. There's a lot of time spent in the dark and it got a little too frustrating. We do get some clues along the way but I would have liked to spend a bit more time with the reveal at the end. Yes, it's a series but the end of the book is already setting up book two and I just would have liked to see more of all the good stuff in book one!
I guess that was... all of the book? I liked following Ethan's story but aside from a little past with his family, we really don't learn a lot about him. He doesn't get a lot of character development, and I think we'll see more of that in the second book with him taking charge instead of being chased.
PINES was also just a bit weird. Crouch's books are always a touch of weird, but the way things were laid out in this book, sometimes it was just a little too odd. Again, a lot of it was to keep readers in the dark but some things were just plain weird in the moment. There were a few other things that seemed like they just didn't quite fit in the flow of the book, but I was also still getting the vibe of everything.
I did like the answer of why everything was happening and how and even though I didn't quite love this book, I definitely want to binge read the whole thing and I'm anxious to pick up the next book to see where things go.
Read Completed 3/5/23 | I ended up getting this book on my TBR, honestly, because it was on sale at Meijer for $5 and I figured why not! I had read another book by Andrea Bartz (WE WERE NEVER HERE) before this one and it was just okay for me, but the concept of THE LOST NIGHT sounded interesting and sometimes I have widely different feelings about different books by the same author.
I actually picked this up on audio since that's nearly all of my reading recently. The audiobook narrator was just okay. I think I might have enjoyed this more if I had liked her narration more. There were a few other POVs that actually got their own narrators as well, and I liked those voices more than I liked Lindsay's. I also thought the name of the friend was EVie not EDie... boy, was I surprised. 3x speed problems, I guess...
Anyway, about the book itself. THE LOST NIGHT was a slow start for me. I felt like the beginning was just Lindsay talking at people and I didn't know why so much of it was important. It seemed like it really took a long to find its pacing and there was a lot of wasted time with filler in the beginning. It didn't really set the vibe for me and the pacing of the actual plot could have been pushed forward a bit quicker to get readers more interested.
The ending didn't bowl me over and it was a bit anticlimactic... Mild spoiler:Lindsay finds out who killed Edie and that someone actually did kill her with a villain speech, and then she's drugged and forgets. So we find out as the reader and have to go through it all over again. Ugh.
I feel like not a lot happened. It was a lot of Lindsay chasing down answers and running in circles. Things seemed to move around and around instead of forward. It was okay but I wouldn't run to recommend it.
I actually picked this up on audio since that's nearly all of my reading recently. The audiobook narrator was just okay. I think I might have enjoyed this more if I had liked her narration more. There were a few other POVs that actually got their own narrators as well, and I liked those voices more than I liked Lindsay's. I also thought the name of the friend was EVie not EDie... boy, was I surprised. 3x speed problems, I guess...
Anyway, about the book itself. THE LOST NIGHT was a slow start for me. I felt like the beginning was just Lindsay talking at people and I didn't know why so much of it was important. It seemed like it really took a long to find its pacing and there was a lot of wasted time with filler in the beginning. It didn't really set the vibe for me and the pacing of the actual plot could have been pushed forward a bit quicker to get readers more interested.
The ending didn't bowl me over and it was a bit anticlimactic... Mild spoiler:
I feel like not a lot happened. It was a lot of Lindsay chasing down answers and running in circles. Things seemed to move around and around instead of forward. It was okay but I wouldn't run to recommend it.
Read Completed 3/2/23 | 4.5 stars
I am a sucker for parallel universes and all of the trippy things these books involve so I picked up INFINITE without hesitation as I was looking for new audiobooks to listen to, especially seeing that Andrew Eiden was the audiobook's narrator. INFINITE wasn't perfect but it was a really enjoyable sci-fi thriller, which is exactly the vibe I've been craving and I flew through this book, not wanting to put it down.
One of the things that usually trips me up about time travel & parallel universe concepts is how they're executed and this one felt the same. There were a few holes and a few questions why all of this worked and how, but I was so entertained by the rest that it was something I just let go. Where authors like Blake Crouch add on a lot of science to make these things reasonable and plausible (at least in the book's world), sometimes the lack of explanation leaves me wanting a little bit more. That did happen to me in INFINITE, but at the end of the book, I also kind of didn't care because I really liked the rest of it.
There were a few more things that could have gone into further detail but I really liked the ending as well. It was a nice ending but the readers are also left with an open door and a little intrigue so it's not too pretty of a bow and keeping with the thrilling tone.
I am a sucker for parallel universes and all of the trippy things these books involve so I picked up INFINITE without hesitation as I was looking for new audiobooks to listen to, especially seeing that Andrew Eiden was the audiobook's narrator. INFINITE wasn't perfect but it was a really enjoyable sci-fi thriller, which is exactly the vibe I've been craving and I flew through this book, not wanting to put it down.
One of the things that usually trips me up about time travel & parallel universe concepts is how they're executed and this one felt the same. There were a few holes and a few questions why all of this worked and how, but I was so entertained by the rest that it was something I just let go. Where authors like Blake Crouch add on a lot of science to make these things reasonable and plausible (at least in the book's world), sometimes the lack of explanation leaves me wanting a little bit more. That did happen to me in INFINITE, but at the end of the book, I also kind of didn't care because I really liked the rest of it.
There were a few more things that could have gone into further detail but I really liked the ending as well. It was a nice ending but the readers are also left with an open door and a little intrigue so it's not too pretty of a bow and keeping with the thrilling tone.
Read Completed 3/1/23 | 3.75 - 4 stars
I almost didn't read this because I saw SO many reviews of how bad the writing was, but thankfully listening to this on audio, the Audiobook narrators did a good job of keeping things flowing and allow for tension on shorter, choppy sentences instead of it feeling stilted and clumsy.
This is probably the only Mary Kubica book I've really been interested in (despite reading all of them) since EVERY LAST LIE, and even then, it was more that I knew the location in the book and that made it more interesting. Apparently I've been leaving multiple books four stars, but I know those were rounded up. I really think the narrators did the heavy lifting on this one, keeping me engaged and interested.
I did like that there was a little mystery the whole time. We find out about an altercation in the woods that may have left Jake dead, but the reveal/confirmation isn't until the end of the book, so while it's heavily implied that Lily killed him, there's still a little question on what exactly happened. I liked that we got to see one half of the couple and the other half of the other couple (Nina of Nina & Jake, and Christian of Lily & Christian) to keep everything connected to the same event and not having too many unessential characters.
I did still have issues with some loose ends and things that just didn't flow cleanly for me.
- There's a red herring that really could have been used more, not just to throw suspicion but actually push that a little more into a threatening or suspenseful territory. It would have been nice to have that connected a bit more and really lean into it so it didn't feel like its sole purpose was just to draw attention away.
- There's a reveal at the end that was a little too out of left field, which was disappointing because that's usually the issue I have with Mary Kubica's books. I'm all for being surprised by a twist, but the twist still has to make sense and be a viable option. This kind of came out of nowhere, and even before the twist was revealed, I thought we could have leaned on a few more plot devices to keep things mysterious and moving forward. I can't really say what that was without spoilers...Nina's mother's vision...
- And things were just a little clunky. The connections between the characters could have been way smoother. I would have loved to have more hints and breadcrumbs to have made a few things not such a surprise. Sure, I could have guessed them, but it's not as satisfying when they're really not hinted at or talked about. It's like yeah, okay. Moving on.
I'll round this one up to four stars because I really was interested the whole time -- again, thanks to the narrators, mostly likely -- mostly with the question of whether or not Jake was actually dead. I keep reading Mary Kubica books despite still having issues with the writing all the time, but this one clicked more than usual.
I almost didn't read this because I saw SO many reviews of how bad the writing was, but thankfully listening to this on audio, the Audiobook narrators did a good job of keeping things flowing and allow for tension on shorter, choppy sentences instead of it feeling stilted and clumsy.
This is probably the only Mary Kubica book I've really been interested in (despite reading all of them) since EVERY LAST LIE, and even then, it was more that I knew the location in the book and that made it more interesting. Apparently I've been leaving multiple books four stars, but I know those were rounded up. I really think the narrators did the heavy lifting on this one, keeping me engaged and interested.
I did like that there was a little mystery the whole time. We find out about an altercation in the woods that may have left Jake dead, but the reveal/confirmation isn't until the end of the book, so while it's heavily implied that Lily killed him, there's still a little question on what exactly happened. I liked that we got to see one half of the couple and the other half of the other couple (Nina of Nina & Jake, and Christian of Lily & Christian) to keep everything connected to the same event and not having too many unessential characters.
I did still have issues with some loose ends and things that just didn't flow cleanly for me.
- There's a red herring that really could have been used more, not just to throw suspicion but actually push that a little more into a threatening or suspenseful territory. It would have been nice to have that connected a bit more and really lean into it so it didn't feel like its sole purpose was just to draw attention away.
- There's a reveal at the end that was a little too out of left field, which was disappointing because that's usually the issue I have with Mary Kubica's books. I'm all for being surprised by a twist, but the twist still has to make sense and be a viable option. This kind of came out of nowhere, and even before the twist was revealed, I thought we could have leaned on a few more plot devices to keep things mysterious and moving forward. I can't really say what that was without spoilers...
- And things were just a little clunky. The connections between the characters could have been way smoother. I would have loved to have more hints and breadcrumbs to have made a few things not such a surprise. Sure, I could have guessed them, but it's not as satisfying when they're really not hinted at or talked about. It's like yeah, okay. Moving on.
I'll round this one up to four stars because I really was interested the whole time -- again, thanks to the narrators, mostly likely -- mostly with the question of whether or not Jake was actually dead. I keep reading Mary Kubica books despite still having issues with the writing all the time, but this one clicked more than usual.
Read Completed 2/28/23 | 3.5 stars
THE EX was entertaining enough... different than I thought it was going to be! From the title and cover, I was thinking it would be a domestic thriller but there was much more focus on the legal aspect of it with Olivia being the narrator and also the lawyer who picks up her ex fiancé's case as he's accused of murder.
It took me a little bit to get into the book, hence the knocking down of the rating a bit, and while the ending wasn't something I've never read before, the book was still written with enough doubt and solid suspicions that when it was all revealed, I still didn't see it coming the whole time.
This was entertaining enough though I don't know if it's really pushing me into picking up more Alafair Burke books. This would be the kind of thing where I'd like to follow a loose series of Olivia as the main character with different cases, which I'm pretty sure is not the case and everything is a stand alone. It also wasn't thrilling enough to have me anxious to pick up another book. I don't regret the read but I'm unsure if I'd read more.
THE EX was entertaining enough... different than I thought it was going to be! From the title and cover, I was thinking it would be a domestic thriller but there was much more focus on the legal aspect of it with Olivia being the narrator and also the lawyer who picks up her ex fiancé's case as he's accused of murder.
It took me a little bit to get into the book, hence the knocking down of the rating a bit, and while the ending wasn't something I've never read before, the book was still written with enough doubt and solid suspicions that when it was all revealed, I still didn't see it coming the whole time.
This was entertaining enough though I don't know if it's really pushing me into picking up more Alafair Burke books. This would be the kind of thing where I'd like to follow a loose series of Olivia as the main character with different cases, which I'm pretty sure is not the case and everything is a stand alone. It also wasn't thrilling enough to have me anxious to pick up another book. I don't regret the read but I'm unsure if I'd read more.
Read Completed 2/27/23 | 3 stars
This was okay! The female POVs didn't really stand out enough for me to really keep them straight on audio, especially with only one narrator, but the book was intriguing enough and I kept going because I liked Karissa Vacker's narrations. Not super satisfying but had a good conclusion and was a nice break from psychological & domestic thrillers for me.
This was okay! The female POVs didn't really stand out enough for me to really keep them straight on audio, especially with only one narrator, but the book was intriguing enough and I kept going because I liked Karissa Vacker's narrations. Not super satisfying but had a good conclusion and was a nice break from psychological & domestic thrillers for me.
Read Completed 2/24/23 | This was different than the other John Marrs books I've read so far (THE ONE, THE PASSENGERS, THE MINDERS) that are much more focus on the tech thriller aspect. WHAT LIES BETWEEN US is straight up psychological thriller.
This audiobook suffered a bit having dual POVs and only one narrator. The voices weren't different enough and in the beginning, it was a bit confusing who was supposed to be who as the voices changed, but once I got the hang of it, things started to pick up a bit more. I also had to get the hang of the story and for some reason, I felt like I was a little thrown into it, but that's happened to be before with a John Marrs book (THE ONE) and it sorted itself out so I had confidence that this one would too. (And it did.)
It still took a while for me to get invested, but I was still interested the whole time. There's definitely a lot of drama and some heavy foreshadowing and clues, even in the beginning. I wouldn't say that all of the reveals were surprises, but it was almost better because I'd say most readers can figure out at least some or most of the reveals and it FELT like it was supposed to be something I was catching. I wasn't disappointed that I caught a twist that I wasn't supposed to see coming or anything.
And like my previous John Marrs reads, there's still plenty of wild endings to go around. No happy endings with a pretty bow for these thrillers, that's for sure.
I'm happy that this was entertaining and something I didn't want to put down! I finished in a day not because I had so much time, but because I didn't want to stop reading. There was definitely an addictive quality about it.
This audiobook suffered a bit having dual POVs and only one narrator. The voices weren't different enough and in the beginning, it was a bit confusing who was supposed to be who as the voices changed, but once I got the hang of it, things started to pick up a bit more. I also had to get the hang of the story and for some reason, I felt like I was a little thrown into it, but that's happened to be before with a John Marrs book (THE ONE) and it sorted itself out so I had confidence that this one would too. (And it did.)
It still took a while for me to get invested, but I was still interested the whole time. There's definitely a lot of drama and some heavy foreshadowing and clues, even in the beginning. I wouldn't say that all of the reveals were surprises, but it was almost better because I'd say most readers can figure out at least some or most of the reveals and it FELT like it was supposed to be something I was catching. I wasn't disappointed that I caught a twist that I wasn't supposed to see coming or anything.
And like my previous John Marrs reads, there's still plenty of wild endings to go around. No happy endings with a pretty bow for these thrillers, that's for sure.
I'm happy that this was entertaining and something I didn't want to put down! I finished in a day not because I had so much time, but because I didn't want to stop reading. There was definitely an addictive quality about it.