Sleep by C.L Taylor – @callytaylor @AvonBooksUK @HarperCollinsUK #BookReview #Sleep #CLTaylor

Hello book friends,

I am delighted, and very thankful to be part of the audio book tour for this wonderfully twisty psychological thriller, that will keep you on your toes throughout.

My Thoughts

🅿🆁🅴🅿🅰🆁🅴 🅵🅾🆁 🅽🅸🅶🅷🆃 🆃🅴🆁🆁🅾🆁🆂

Anna has terrible insomnia, she hasn’t really been able to sleep properly since the accident, the guilt and the memories are eating her up from the inside.

She decides the best thing for her to do is just get away, so she goes as far away from her problems as she possibly can, and accepts a job on a remote Scottish island called Rum.

Getting ready for the busy period, 7 guests are checked into the Bay View Hotel.

Each one of them has a secret, but one has a deadlier secret that Anna doesn’t know about.

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.

Someone’s going to sleep and never waking up…

I love a ‘Who-Done-It’ story, and this one was just wonderful, it wasn’t too fast paced, but it gradually sucked you into the story, until the inevitable WTF…..and I didn’t see it coming!

Prepare to turn into a detective while you try and work this one out!

🎧🎧

Narration by Clare Corbett was excellent, I loved her tone and her very calming voice, but when the sh*t started to hit the fan, I found myself holding my breath many times.
I will certainly be looking out for other books she has narrated.

**Many thanks to Lauren at Avon Books, Harper Collins UK, and the Author for my copy of this audiobook**

Enjoy

Vicci 📚💛✨

 

About The Book

*Amazon UK

Amazon U.S

All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But crushing insomnia, terrifying night terrors and memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. If only she didn’t feel so guilty…

To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but when seven guests join her, what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare.

Each of the guests have a secret but one of them is lying – about who they are and why they’re on the island. There’s a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they’ve set their sights on Anna.

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.

Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up…

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Vicci 📚💛✨

The Good Samaritan by John Marrs @johnmarrs1 #AudiobookReview #Thriller @audibleuk @EKNOWELDEN

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Chilling Stars

Ok then, who’s up for a dark, twisted thriller??

**Holds hand up**

The Blurb

She’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?

The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.

Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.

But now someone’s on to her – Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?

The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to…

Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder.

My Thoughts

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Chilling Stars

“Good afternoon, you’ve reached the End of the Line, this is Laura speaking. May I ask your name?”

Laura is a soft spoken woman, she will listen to you as you discuss your problems, you will tell her what is making you feel so sad, and of course you wouldn’t be calling the End of the Line helpline, if you wasn’t contemplating ending your own life.

She will not try and talk you out of committing suicide, or tell you that there are better things, no, she is just there to listen to you, and not judge.

Laura is a very well liked colleague in the office, always bringing in her gorgeous hand-baked goods, she keeps herself to herself, and doesn’t mix much, but she always gets involved with charitable volunteering, and always raises lots of money for good causes.

What the people she works with don’t see, is that actually Laura is Bat-Shit-Crazy!

If you are feeling that you are loosing your way and are contemplating ending your life, and just needed someone to talk to, the worst possible person that you could get through to in the call centre would be Laura!

You see, Laura likes the fact that you want to end your life, in fact, she’s banking on it!

Ryan doesn’t know why his pregnant girlfriend would kill herself, and who was the man she was seen holding hands with before they both jumped? He can’t understand why she would want to do this to him and their unborn child, perhaps he needs to do a little investigating?

A cracking thriller to keep you on your toes, with a Good Ol’ Baddie you’ll hate-to-love-to-hate.

🎧🎧 – Narrated expertly by Elizabeth Knowelden, who is a new to me narrator.

Elizabeth’s voice was perfect for Laura and she made this fantastic read even better.

Buckle yourself in, it’s a bumpy ride

Vicci

Watch Me by Jody Gehrman #BookReview @jodygehrman #Disturbed

Happy Saturday y’all! Today I am bringing you my very first Net Galley review, for this fabulously disturbing book 📚 🖤

Watch Me by Jody Gehrman

4.25 seriously disturbing stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟.25

Synopsis

For fans of dark and twisty psychological thrillers, Watch Me is a riveting novel of suspense about how far obsession can go.

Kate Youngblood is disappearing. Muddling through her late 30s as a creative writing professor at Blackwood college, she’s dangerously close to never being noticed again. The follow-up novel to her successful debut tanked. Her husband left her for a woman ten years younger. She’s always been bright, beautiful, independent and a little wild, but now her glow is starting to vanish. She’s heading into an age where her eyes are less blue, her charm worn out, and soon no one will ever truly look at her, want to know her, again.

Except one.

Sam Grist is Kate’s most promising student. An unflinching writer with razor-sharp clarity who gravitates towards dark themes and twisted plots, his raw talent is something Kate wants to nurture into literary success. But he’s not there solely to be the best writer. He’s been watching her. Wanting her. Working his way to her for years.

As Sam slowly makes his way into Kate’s life, they enter a deadly web of dangerous lies and forbidden desire. But how far will his fixation go? And how far will she allow it?

Review

Not sure what it says about me that I enjoyed spending time in the mind of crazy… there is just something I find enjoyable (for lack of a better word) when people like Sam justify their crazy actions in their own mind….

Sam is definitely completely out of his mind…. he has spent the past five years planning his perfect life with Kate, the problem is Kate and Sam have never even met… Kate is a lesser known author, but after Sam saw her picture on the back of a book cover, he just knew they were meant to be!

Sam takes stalking to the next level… however, Kate (who I am assuming is an intelligent woman because she is an English professor) doesn’t seem to clue into this when it seems fairly obvious…. and then even when she does clue in she seems more flattered than anything else, I think this just encouraged Sam even more….

Ironically I really actually like Sam more than Kate in this book, he did have a certain charm to him (Please keep in mind I have extremely bad taste in men)…. Kate was really hard for me to read and very hard for me to relate to, I almost would have preferred a book from only Sam’s perspective…. perhaps then I would have more empathy for Kate….. The very ending to this book was ironic and perfect!

This book definitely is not for everybody, but if you enjoy twisted, disturbed, and interesting characters, I’d recommend this to you!

*** I’d like to thank Net Galley and St Martins Press for a copy of this book ***

Cheers 🥂 Berit 💛

The Millionaire’s Wife by Shalini Boland #ReleaseBlitz #BookReview @shaliniBoland @bookouture

Happy Monday all! Today I am bringing you my review for a book that was originally self published by Shalini Boland, And is now being published by Bookouture… loved this book filled with twists, turns, secrets, and lies…. That’s what fabulous psychological thrillers are made of!💜

The Millionaire’s Wife by Shalini Boland

4.25 Who Can You Trust? Stars🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis

How far would you go for the one you love? Lie…cheat…KILL?

When a woman is killed on the other side of the world, Anna Blackwell realises that her past has caught up with her. That her greatest fear is about to come true. That it’s her turn next.

Uncover a web of lies and deceit in this chilling, twisty suspense thriller.

Review

4.25 Who Can You Trust? Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟.25

Shalini Boland has become an autobuy/request author for me… her writing style flows so well and has such a crisp and clean feeling to it (not even sure if that makes sense, but it does in my head)… this book was originally self published and now is being brought to you by Bookouture…. I had a busy reading weekend and this book made it so easy… after I picked it up I did not want to put it down… I needed to find out what was going on?

Anna appears to have it all… a beautiful home… a loving husband… the problem? Anna has a secret or four… Anna was a super likable character, although she did a lot of really stupid things… there were times in this book I wanted to reach through those pages and knock some sense into her… thankfully she had some people around her with a little more common sense… there were secondary characters in this book that surprised me, but I can’t say much more than that…. in a book filled with so many twists and turns I can’t tell you how I felt about the other characters… because you need to go into this without knowing who you can trust…

Moral of the story…. secrets only lead to lies and more secrets… if Anna had been honest, we would have never had this book….😉

“A lie can travel halfway around the world, while the truth is putting its shoes on.”

As a complete sidenote there is a part in this book that has made me even more confused about the English school system, so different from America… I have no idea what an A level is, and they appear to take fewer classes?

Strongly recommend to all fans of this author and the psychological thriller genre…

*** thank you so much too Bookouture and Net Galley for a copy of this fabulous book ***

Don’t lie😉 Berit 💛

My Sweet Friend by H.A. Leuschel #BlogTour #BookReview #Giveaway @HALeuschel @rararesources

Happy Monday all! Today I am thrilled to be part of the blog tour for this little gem of a book! Many thanks to Rachel for the invite to the blog tour and two H A Leuschel for her wonderful words!😍

My Sweet Friend

A stand-alone novella from the author of Manipulated Lives

A perfect friend … or a perfect impostor?

Alexa is an energetic and charismatic professional and the new member of a Parisian PR company where she quickly befriends her colleagues Rosie and Jack. She brings a much-needed breath of fresh air into the office and ambitiously throws herself into her new job and friendships.

But is Alexa all she claims to be?

As her life intertwines with Rosie and Jack’s, they must all decide what separates truth from fiction. Will the stories that unfold unite or divide them? Can first impressions ever be trusted?

In this original novella, H.A. Leuschel evokes the powerful hold of appearances and what a person is prepared to do to keep up the facade. If you like thought-provoking and compelling reads with intriguing characters, My Sweet Friend is for you.

Purchase Link – https://t.co/BtwZGcmEwt

Author Bio – Helene Andrea Leuschel grew up in Belgium where she gained a Licentiate in Journalism & Communication, which led to a career in radio and television in Brussels, London and Edinburgh. She now lives with her husband and two children in Portugal and recently acquired a Master of Philosophy with the OU, deepening her passion for the study of the mind. When she is not writing, Helene works as a freelance journalist and teaches Yoga.

Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/HALeuschel

Tweets by HALeuschel

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15337013.H_A_Leuschel

http://www.heleneleuschel.com

Giveaway – Win a signed copy of Manipulated Lives by H.A. Leuschel (Open Internationally)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/33c6949483/?

~My Review~

4.5 Manipulative Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟.5

WOW! This was a fabulous little read… my favorite type of read filled with unreliable narrators…. even better you have no idea from the start who is more unreliable… Who is manipulating who and who is lying! Cannot believe so much happened in only 92 Pages….Miss Leuschel this would make a brilliant full length book, just saying….

Not going to say anything about the plot, do not want to ruin this for anybody… so I am going to talk about the brilliant characterization of Alexa and Rosie…. you really got a sense of who these two women were and you felt a little bit of sympathy and contempt for both…. I really enjoy unlikable and unsympathetic characters, I like to figure out their psychology…. but there is a fine line when it comes to writing unlikable characters, and it was done perfectly in this book…. and as the saying goes, with friends like this who needs enemies?

Strongly recommend when you are in the mood for a quick psychological thriller with brilliant characters…

*** thank you so much to the author and Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for my copy of this lovely book ***

Have a marvelous week! Berit💛

The Neighbor by Joseph Souza @josephsouzafans @KensingtonBooks #BookReview #NewRelease

Happy Tuesday all! Wow this was quite the crazy ride of a book…Not a likable character in the entire book, however it was quite the compelling read….

The book is available today for purchase and you can find my complete review below…📚

The Neighbor by Joseph Souza

Synopsis

It all seems so promising at the start . . .

When Leah and her husband, Clay, move from Seattle to Maine, she envisions a vibrant new neighborhood packed with families–playmates for her twins, new friends she can confide in and bond with. But while Clay works long hours to establish his brewery, Leah is left alone each day in a nearly deserted housing development where the only other occupants are aloof and standoffish.

Bored and adrift, Leah finds herself watching Clarissa and Russell Gaines next door, envying their stylishly decorated home and their university careers. But Leah’s obsession with the intriguing, elegant Clarissa grows until she’s not just spying from afar but sneaking into their house, taking small objects . . . reading Clarissa’s diary. It contains clues to a hidden turmoil Leah never guessed at–and a connection to a local college girl who’s disappeared.

The more Leah learns about Clarissa, the more questions emerge. Because behind every neighbor’s door there are secrets that could shatter lives forever . . .

Review

4WTH Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Two houses… four adults… four extremely screwed up people…. I can’t remember a book with a group of more unlikable characters… with no morals or scruples or the capability to think things through…. I wanted to swoop in and take their kids out of this extremely unhealthy situation…. not sure how all these people had all this time for all the shenanigans when both couples had two kids? Going to be completely honest there were a lot of things that happened in this book that I’m not sure about… you really have to suspend belief quite a bit…. but these people really were so whacked out that it kept me so engrossed… that I just let some things go… and enjoyed the crazy ride!

This book also addressed the racial tensions in our country… not really sure if this was the ideal platform for this, but that’s not for me to judge…. and I’m not going to lie it did make me uncomfortable at times…. as someone who lives on the complete opposite side of the country in a very liberal Southern California I sometimes forget that there are still racial tensions… additionally I have absolutely no idea what the situation is like in the state of Maine…. I just know that where I live nobody would look twice if a mixed couple were dining at a restaurant, it probably wouldn’t even register with me at all…. I think this book would have been just fine without the discussion of race, but if that is something that will make you uncomfortable you are forewarned….

Now back to this crazy plot… first we have Leah… Leah is so bored with her life that she is breaking into her neighbors house taking items and reading her journal…. Leah here’s an idea talk to your 11-year-old son about what is going on with him, because believe me something is going on…. Clay you are a disaster, go check yourself into rehab or attend some AA meetings already…. Clarissa are you brillian and super manipulative or what… and you shocked me more than anybody…. WowwowWow….. Russell I don’t even know what to think, but anything you get you definitely deserve….

See what I’m saying a whole cluster of unlikable characters…. doing all kinds of things they shouldn’t be doing… but for me it worked, it kept me engrossed throughout the entire book… I just could not wait to see what was going to happen next!

Strongly recommend two fans of psychological thrillers… but be sure you are able to suspend belief for this one and enjoy the crazy ride…

*** thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for a copy of this book ***

Who are the people in your neighborhood??? Berit 💛

The Child Next Door by Shalini Boland ~Blog Blitz~ @ShaliniBoland @bookouture #BookReview

~ super excited to be part of the blog blitzfor The Child Next Door by,Shalini Boland. Loved this book from start to finish a big 5 stars from me! Full review below, I hope you get a chance to read it and enjoy it as much as I did!~

The Child Next Door by Shalini Boland

Amazon Buy Link: myBook.to/TCNDSocial

iBookstore: http://ow.ly/qeHJ30jc7MB

‘Don’t take my baby.’

Kirstie Rawlings is jolted awake by a child crying. Racing upstairs to check on her new-born, she is plunged into every parents’ worst nightmare. She hears an unknown voice in the baby monitor, saying: ‘Let’s take the child – and go.’

Is someone trying to steal her little girl?

In the bedroom, her daughter is safe asleep in her cot. Is the voice coming from a nearby house? But there aren’t any other children living on her quiet country road…

The police don’t believe her. And neither does her husband.

Kirstie knows something isn’t right. She thought she could trust her neighbours, now she isn’t sure. As she unravels the secrets of the people living on her street, Kirstie’s perfect life begins to fall apart.

Because someone is hiding a terrible lie. And they will do anything to stop Kirstie uncovering the truth. But is the danger closer to home than she thinks?

From the top ten bestselling author of The Secret Mother, this completely gripping psychological thriller will make you wonder what really goes on behind closed doors. And will keep you guessing from the first page until the final shocking twist.

About the author

Shalini Boland is the bestselling author of psychological thrillers ‘THE GIRL FROM THE SEA’ (reached No 1 in the US Audible charts), ‘THE BEST FRIEND’ (No 2 in the US Audible charts), ‘THE MILLIONAIRE’S WIFE’, ‘THE SECRET MOTHER’ (No 4 in the US Kindle charts).

Shalini lives in Dorset, England with her husband, two children and their cheeky terrier cross. Before kids, she was signed to Universal Music Publishing as a singer/songwriter, but now she spends her days writing psychological thrillers (in between school runs and hanging out endless baskets of laundry).

Be the first to hear about her new releases here: http://eepurl.com/b4vb45

She is also the author of two bestselling Young Adult series as well as an atmospheric WWII novel with a time-travel twist.

http://www.facebook.com/ShaliniBolandAuthor
http://www.shaliniboland.co.uk
https://twitter.com/ShaliniBoland

Review

5 Brilliant Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Wow what an ending! This book pulled me in from the very first paragraph…. however I have to say this book ended fantastically with a big huge bang! I generally do not start my reviews with the end of the book… however I just finish this and I am still shook… it was a twist out of nowhere…. well done Shalini Boland fabulous from first paragraph to last! that is for sure….

The book starts out with Kirstie hearing strange voices on her baby monitor….“Just take the baby!“ instant panic sets in as she runs to make sure her baby girl Daisy is OK…. Kirstie was a very relatable and likable character… I could just sense her frustration, anxiety, and stress throughout this entire book along with the love for her daughter…. there is no time in your life where you feel less sure of yourself then when you are a first time mother….. and to top it off with strange things happening, suspicious neighbors, and a husband who does not believe you…. it was no wonder Kirstie was on edge… I was on edge right along with her…..

Plenty of fantastic secondary characters to be more than suspicious of…the husband Dominic who was up to some suspicious things and was not supportive… he really bothered me quite a bit…. guilty or innocent he was not a very good husband…. The friend Mel, I’m really not sure how good a friend she was? She was one of those friends that seem to be there when it benefited her…. The creepy nosy neighbor Martin, he was an odd duck…. I don’t care if he was just trying to be neighborly, organizing the neighborhood watch, and what not, he was a bit off…. although I do have to say the project he was working on was quite cool…. I was suspicious of everybody including the teenage boy kicking the football/soccer ball around the neighborhood….

I really feel sorry for my next book… although I’ve been listening to a romance on audio and that’s what I will listen to tonight, so I think we might be OK… I really can’t say much more I don’t want to give anything away…. just know this is a very well-done psychological thriller and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Strongly recommend to all fans of psychological thrillers, with plenty of suspicious characters, twists and turns, and a fabulous MC….

*** thank you so much too Bookouture and Net Galley for a copy of this book ***

Enjoy the ride! Berit 💛

Dark Lies by Nick Hollin ~ New Release ~ @vonmaraus @bookouture #bookreview

New Release Today ~ March 26, 2018

Dark Lies by Nick Hollin

4 Wild Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis

Don’t trust your friends. Don’t trust your family. Don’t trust yourself… 

The people of London fear for their lives when a twisted serial killer called The Cartoonist starts targeting young mothers, leaving their bodies on display in their homes with speech bubbles drawn from their lips. He has a terrifying story to tell, but first, the right people need to be listening…

Nathan Radley has a brilliant and dangerous talent.Formerly one of the best criminal psychologists on the police force he’s renowned for getting deep into the minds of the murderers he hunts. But for the past year he has lived in isolation, haunted by this gift and his own dark desires.

DI Katie Rhodes’ career is spinning out of control.She’d sworn never to knock on her old partner Nathan’s door again, but when she sees his distinctive birthmark drawn in chocolate on one of the victims, she knows she doesn’t have a choice.
As the body count rises and the clues become more and more personal, Katie and Nathan join forces for one final case together.

Why is The Cartoonist using Katie and Nathan’s own dark secrets as calling cards on his victims? What does he want, and how many more innocent lives will be taken before they can crack his disturbing riddle?

To find a murderer, first you need to think like a murderer. The Cartoonist doesn’t just know this, he’s counting on it…

An absolutely nail-biting serial killer thriller perfect for anyone who loved the twisted mind games in Hannibal. Fans of M.J. Arlidge, Helen Fields and Rachel Abbott will not want to miss this page-turning debut!

Review

WOW! This book sure took me on a wild and crazy ride…. good thing I don’t have motion sickness or I would be sick from all the twists and turns (this is where you laugh😂) this isn’t a traditional psychological thriller…. maybe more of a hybrid between a psychological thriller and a police procedural? There is definitely psychology involved because one of the main protagonists is a profiler….

Our two main protagonists Katie and Nathan were not necessarily terribly likable or relatable, however they were very well-developed and interesting…. Katie is the daughter of a cop, a father she admires greatly, so of course she follows in his footsteps…. Katie feels as though she has some pretty big shoes to fill, but was Dad as perfect as she thinks…. Nathan is a profiler, able to get into the minds of killers…. but how far away from being a killer yourself are you, when you can think and feel like them?

Why are there not more books with profilers in them? I find this fascinating the psychology behind why people do the things they do…. The taking of a crime scene and piecing together the type of person that would commit such a crime…. this aspect of the book was truly fascinating and I really actually would’ve like even more of it….

Women are being murdered and clues are being left to let Katie and Nathan know that this is personal…. but what are the odds of this being tied to both of their pasts? The death of Nathan‘s mother and an act Katie‘s father committed, both of which happened long ago? So many twists in this… who was good and who was bad? Can Katie and Nathan ever trust each other again? Should they ever trust each other again?

The conclusion to this book was wild…. something I did not see coming, neither did Katie or Nathan…. so curious to see where the next book in the series goes…. this case was so personal… so what’s next?

Recommend to fans of psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, and all things crazy….

*** Thank you so much too Bookouture and Net Galley for a copy of this book ***

Enjoy the ride,

Berit

Sunday Swaps: Bird Box by Josh Malerman ~ Including a Double Review ~ #bookreview #SundaySwap

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Synopsis

Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.

Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it’s time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat–blindfolded–with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?

Interweaving past and present, Bird Box is a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.

Vicci’s Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ That is some creepy sh*t stars!

This was a reread for me, but it was on our Goodreads group (A Million More Pages, you should totally join, it’s awesome!) as a Book of the Month, so ya know…points!

Anyhoo….

This little Dystopian cracker is a creepy little mind fu*k because you don’t really know why you are scared, I mean how could you while you are wearing a blindfold?

It all starts when seemingly normal people start to loose their sh*t and go mad, not in the “He’s crazy” type thing, i mean totally bat shit crazy, they are normal one second, and the next they are killing their husband/wife/kids, and then turning the weapon on themselves.

When i say weapon i mean anything they have at hand, knives, guns, hammers, even their own teeth!!

This is happening quite far away in a different county, and it is being reported on the TV so it isn’t anything to get really worried about…..

Until it starts happening closer to the U.S.A…

Then in your state, then in your home town!

People start to cover their windows/doors and are scared to look outside, as it seems to be that something out there is causing all of this, but the thing is, if you look…..you die!!

So Malorie is there…

In the house……

All alone……

She can’t go outside…..

She can’t look outside…..

She WON’T look outside…………

Oh yes, i forgot to say that she is a few months pregnant!!!!

Because you are with Malorie throughout this creepy little read you start to feel the claustrophobia as you are not really sure what is out there, especially when you have to eventually open that door and go outside…………

🎧🎧Audio narration for this book was perfect, Katharine Mangold really managed to make me believe that *I* was Malorie, and i was scared out of my pants!! 😱

Berit’s Review

Don’t Open Your Eyes!

What the **** did I just read? This book was NOT what I was expecting… at all! It was disturbing, creepy, and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time…. just going to put it out there if I were in this situation, in this post apocalyptic world, I would so be gone in the first day…. just saying….

Something is out there, something that makes you go mad if you lay your eyes on it…. mad to the point you will kill others, yourself, or both…. mad to the point of no return…. so how do you survive? You board up your house with cardboard and cloth, you never go outside unless completely necessary, and then you wear a blindfold…. sounds fun, right? Oh yes and I forgot to mention sometimes when you’re outside you will feel or sense whatever is out there around you…… creepy!

Mallory the protagonist in this book was a quietly strong woman…. when things started going completely sideways not only did she find her way to a safe place, but she was also pregnant…. The story is told in alternating time periods… Mallory on a river trip trying to find her way to an even safer place… and Malory‘s backstory…. I have to give it to Mallory… not only did she have herself to take care of but two young children who she needed to train to escape and survive….

I’d recommend if you like postapocalyptic books, creepy books, or are just in the mood to be freaked out….

🎧🎧🎧5 huge stars for the audiobook narration by Cassandra Campbell… I absolutely 100% enjoyed this book more because of her fantastic narration, she made me feel as though I was there on that rowboat with her going down that river….

*** thank you so much to my amazing blog partner V, this is a Sunday Swap read and I probably would have never picked it up otherwise ***

Enjoy the creepiness,

Vicci and Berit

The Baby Sitter by Sheryl Browne #bookreview @SherylBrown @bookouture

The Babysitter by Sheryl Browne

3.75 shiny stars🌟🌟🌟.75

Synopsis

You trust her with your family. Would you trust her with your life?

Mark and Melissa Cain are thrilled to have found Jade, a babysitter who is brilliant with their young children. Having seen her own house burn to the ground, Jade needs them as much as they need her. Moving Jade into the family home can only be a good thing, can’t it?

As Mark works long hours as a police officer and Melissa struggles with running a business, the family become ever more reliant on their babysitter, who is only too happy to help. And as Melissa begins to slip into depression, it’s Jade who is left picking up the pieces.

But Mark soon notices things aren’t quite as they seem. Things at home feel wrong, and as Mark begins to investigate their seemingly perfect sitter, what he discovers shocks him to his core. He’s met Jade before. And now he suspects he might know what she wants …

Mark is in a race against time to protect his family. But what will he find as he goes back to his family home?

Review

The hand that rocks the cradle…. is the hand that rules the world…..

This book reminded me of the 1992 movie” The Hand That Rocks the cradle”…On a personal note I happened to name my daughter after the antagonist in that movie… and Lucky for me my daughter hasn’t turned into a crazy nanny… well not yet at least….

Jade is the perfect babysitter coming into Mark and Melissa‘s life just when she is needed the most…. but the reader finds out real quick that Jade is absolutely not what she seems to be…. she is not the perfect babysitter, she is the perfect nightmare…. this book is told from multiple points of view including Mark, Melissa, and Jade, so we know right away who the antagonist is….. what we don’t know is exactly what her motivation is,what we do know is her end game and that she is quite resourceful and delusional….

Now for me this book would have been a lot better if Jade were better developed…. we got the idea that she was crazy, but I like to like the crazy people in my books…… maybe this makes me a little crazy, but Jade really had no likable qualities and was a little flat….. then we have Mark and Mellisa who have fought super hard to have kids and they’re willing to have Jade become a live-in babysitter without any background check…. not to mention the fact that things start going completely sideways after she enters their life, and Mark a police officer doesn’t clue in….. I know we were privy to Jade’s actions, but still I found that a little hard to believe….

The absolute brightest part of this book was seven-year-old Poppy she was so adorable…. Poppy also was very well-developed, I just had such a smile on my face anytime she engaged in dialogue….. if every character in this book was as well developed as Poppy this would have been a five star read….

Although we knew straightaway who the antagonist was and what her end game was…. there was a bit of a twist that I didn’t see coming at the end and to be completely honest the very end of this book I am still not sure about, that very last paragraph?

This book was good, but in a market saturated with psychological thrillers, it’s somewhere in the middle….

*** Thank you so much to the publisher and Net Galley for a copy of this book. ***

Berit