Hello book friends, I hope you are all doing well?
I am not a huge paranormal reader, but occasionally one hits my radar and I have to check it out!
This was the book that did it for me!
My Review
Ok so I have to admit, this was a bit of a “Bookstagram made me do it” kind of thing, everyone was talking about this one, and I don’t like to be left out Lol
So I had a spare Audible credit, and checked to see who was narrating it, when I saw it was my favourite narrator Bahni Turpin, I was sold!!
I’m so glad I did, because I loved it!!
There is something about a book set in the South that gets me all grabby, I’m not sure if it is the accent (I think that’s what it is) or just the thought of one day travelling there myself, but I’m all in either way.
Hailed as Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula, this book is exactly what it says on the tin, a Southern Book Club.
Patricia is our MC in this story, she is married with a couple of kids, and is in a marriage that isn’t perfect, her kids are brats, and her husband need Yeeting into a distant planet in my opinion!
The only thing that Patrica looks forward to every week is her Book Club, with the other local women of the Charleston neighbourhood.
After a rocky start with the group, with book choices etc. they eventually start reading True Crime stories and Thrillers.
When a handsome stranger moves into the neighbourhood, he is the new topic of conversation amongst the women, and Patricia in particular is intrigued.
She gets even more intrigued after a series of incidents involving children, especially after they go missing.
Patricia automatically goes back to her True Crime novels and assumes that the new stranger is involved and is some kind of serial killer, but she uncovers something a lot darker than she expected.
I absolutely loved this story, it was funny but also dark in some places, a few people have said that it was gory, I didn’t find that myself, but I am a Horror reader, and this wasn’t gory to me at all, but I can see some parts being a bit gruesome for some.
🎧🎧
I would absolutely recommend the Audiobook, Bahni Turpin is an absolute genius at narration as always, she always brings an extra oomf to a story, and that is why she is my favourite! If you have never listened to her before, please check her out as she is absolutely brilliant and deserves every award that she receives.
Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨
The Blurb
Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the ’90s about a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a real monster.
Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her ambitious husband is too busy to give her a goodbye kiss in the morning, her kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on thank-you notes and her endless list of chores. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime and paperback fiction. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are marriage, motherhood, and neighborhood gossip.
This predictable pattern is upended when Patricia meets James Harris, a handsome stranger who moves into the neighborhood to take care of his elderly aunt and ends up joining the book club. James is sensitive and well-read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in 20 years. But there’s something off about him. He doesn’t have a bank account, he doesn’t like going out during the day, and Patricia’s mother-in-law insists that she knew him when she was a girl, an impossibility.
When local children go missing, Patricia and the book club members start to suspect James is more of a Bundy than a Beatnik, but no one outside of the book club believes them. Have they read too many true crime books, or have they invited a real monster into their homes?
UK Purchase Links
Berts Books
Waterstones
Amazon Affiliate Link
Berit Talks Books 