The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher HQ in exchange for an honest review.

What a curious book! I was instantly intrigued by the premise of this thriller. I personally haven't read many books about polyamory and I think it's actually the perfect topic to explore in a thriller-type setting. Thursday is one of three women married to the same man, named by the days he spends with them. One day she finds out the full name of one of his other wives and so she investigates her life, leading her to find some potentially disturbing things out about her own husband.

The first third or so of this book was brilliant. Thursday was a great narrator, the setup was a little unbelievable but gripping and best of all, I had no idea where the story would go. Unfortunately the book doesn't stick with this premise the entire way through which is really all I can say without massive spoilers. Instead it takes a rather confusing swerve in topic and plot and it never manages to quite recover from it in my opinion.

The writing itself (in terms of style) is probably the strongest aspect of this book, followed by the characters. Even after it took the turn I disliked, both of these elements remained strong and I was invested in the story because of the connection I had built to the characters. I still couldn't predict what was going to happen which was nice, although I found the ending a little confusing and I'm still not quite sure what actually happened with everything.

Overall, I still think this is a decent thriller but it does a lot of stuff in the last 60% which is going to put some people off. I wish it had stuck with the excellent story it began as but as it is, it's a pretty standard but well-written thriller.

Overall Rating:

Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough

I received a free copy of this book for review thanks to publisher William Morrow and Edelweiss.

I've been very lucky with the thrillers I've read recently but even so, it has been a while since I've been truly surprised by one. As a result, I'm going to be very vague about this book because I thoroughly enjoyed Dead to Her and I don't want to give any hints as to why I liked it so much. This is a book about four very wealthy people living in an intense socialite circle. You have Marcie, one of our protagonists and the second wife of Jason. She convinced him to leave his wife for her some years ago and now, in her mid thirties, she is beginning to worry she is no longer a trophy in his eyes. Enter Keisha, the new young twenty-something wife of Jason's boss William. Marcie starts to worry that sparks are flying between Keisha and Jason and she doesn't want to lose her meal ticket, nor her husband.

Pinborough is a new author to me (although I've heard fantastic things about her other books) and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The writing here is phenomenal. Honestly it's a little longer than I usually like my thrillers but I was so engrossed in the story that I didn't mind. The ending gets a little repetitive and ultimately it's not the best resolution but I still really loved the majority of the plot. The side characters are also well-written and very fleshed out compared to most thrillers, which I appreciated. The story is told from both Marcie and Keisha's POV and, in a nice touch, it doesn't swap every chapter but more when it feels right for the story. This seems simple but I've read a lot of books where arbitrarily swapping every chapter can interfere with the plot and it's refreshing to see someone prioritise flow over convention.

Overall, this book was such a fantastic way to start the year. I would fully recommend going in blind and, while it won't be everyone's cup of tea, hopefully you'll enjoy this book as much as I did. It admittedly wasn't perfect but I am very picky with the ratings I give thrillers and this is definitely one of my new favourites.

Overall Rating:

.5

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley, Edelweiss and publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc in exchange for an honest review.

What a refreshing thriller this was! I requested this ARC mainly because I have a real thing for thrillers based around games and/or two people psychologically battling each other. This book mentions having both of those things in the blurb but the game aspect is very downplayed in reality. It's almost a shame because it's clearly used as a gimmick to draw people in (and it works) but there is enough going on in this story that the tenuous link to 'Never Have I Ever' is a bit of a baffling one. Calling the book and the game 'The Worst Thing I Ever Did' would be more accurate and is still intriguing enough in my opinion.

Thankfully as mentioned, this book has enough going on that I didn't even mind about the misnamed game. The plot is a new woman moves to a neighbourhood and tries to blackmail our protagonist over an event which happened years ago. You find out extremely quickly what said event was and indeed, the first half of the book is a very unusual reading experience. I was frankly a bit bored during it since there is almost no effort made to build tension. Anytime there is any sort of mystery, you are handed the answer almost immediately without any fanfare. There is also an annoying thing where our blackmailer (Roux) constantly compliments our protagonist (Amy) on how clever and unlike other housewives she is. I get what the author was going for but it wasn't done particularly well.

Having said all that, at almost exactly 50% of the way through there is a spanner thrown into the plot and I got my first big surprise of the book. I did not see this first twist coming and instantly my interest was reignited. Honestly I feel like this was the real start of the book and it's a shame it came so late because I was utterly hooked after that. It was genuinely brilliant to be surprised by this book not once but twice, and both surprises had the added bonus of not being completely ridiculous.

I mentioned right at the start that this thriller was refreshing and that is mostly down to the originality. Amy is a scuba diver and this is woven very well into the story to both add to her character and create some nice plot moments. She was utterly believable as a character to me and was much more dimensional than most thriller protagonists. I also fell in love with the relationship she had with her stepdaughter, which was far stronger than that to her husband in my opinion. The other characters were flatter but still reasonably fleshed-out and compelling to read about.

Overall, this was a really solid thriller after the halfway point. If I was just rating the second half, it would be a 4 star easily but I did knock some off for the somewhat dull opening. However, I was very impressed by the characterisation and it was brilliant to read a thriller that felt more unique.

Overall Rating:

.5

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine AND The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

So I have a dilemma. Here are two great thrillers that I read within two months of each other and they both have the exact same twist/plot. This is awkward because I genuinely enjoyed them both. I read The Wife Between Us first and it absolutely shocked me in the best kind of way. I was so happy because I thought I guessed the twist early on, and while I was kind of right I was also very wrong. Which was fantastic because I got the dual benefits of feeling smug and still being surprised. I never got round to writing a review for it but it was one of my favourite thrillers I had ever read.

Then we come to The Last Mrs. Parrish, a book I read in one sitting due to its fantastic writing style. And yeah, I guessed the plot very early on because it is the same plot as The Wife Between Us. If I hadn't read that book first, I no doubt would have been very surprised and I would have raved about this book instead of The Wife Between Us.

Thankfully despite their similarities, both books have enough differences to keep you interested. I would say The Last Mrs. Parrish is arguably better, although the difference is minimal. Even knowing the twist, I couldn't put it down and it has much more focus on the characters. Both Daphne and Amber are fully-fleshed out and you get very invested in reading about them for very different reasons. Meanwhile, The Wife Between Us still has strong characters but the focus is on a twisty story. Honestly, the very last twist of the latter book was a bit hard for me to stomach and I would have enjoyed it a lot more had it not been included. It doesn't add much to the plot and it definitely challenges the reader's suspension of disbelief.

Overall, these are both fantastic thrillers. The Last Mrs. Parrish did come out first but they were released so close together that I doubt anyone ripped anyone else off. Do you need to read them both? Probably not. Which one you reach for is entirely up to you but if you are going to read them both, I would pick The Wife Between Us first as you benefit much more going into that one blind. They are both very well-written and I am not disappointed I read them.

Overall Rating:

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

MAJOR SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Okay, after being deeply underwhelmed by Panic, my hopes weren't all that high for this book. The blurb sounded interesting but I wasn't sure what to expect. To my surprise though, I actually got drawn in pretty quickly. Unlike Panic, the characters in this book were very compelling and actually felt like detailed, potentially real people.

Imagine my horror when I discovered one of them wasn't real.

Yeah, unfortunately this book decided to go with the whole split-personality thing. To its credit, I didn't see it coming. However, that's mostly because it makes NO FREAKING SENSE WHATSOEVER.

Seriously, I understand that twists kinda seem necessary these days but this book definitely didn't need one. All it needed was a decent resolution to the plot it set up but instead of that, we get this cheap copout ending. It doesn't fit at all with the story-if Dara has been dead all along, why are her parents talking about her in private emails (that Nick doesn't see) as if she's still alive? Why aren't they more concerned by Nick expecting her sister to show up? Why is her phone still so active? When I read the big reveal, I didn't feel excited or satisfied. All I felt was shock followed by a slow, sinking feeling in my gut.

I can't even begin to really explain how disappointed this book made me. There's nothing worse that a book which is almost enjoyable and for that reason I can't give it a very high rating, no matter how good 3/4s of it were.

Overall Score:

.5

Candy and the Broken Biscuits by Lauren Laverne

Okay, confession time. I never actually finished this book. Actually, I never even made it past chapter five. So why am I reviewing it you ask? Well, because this book made me so damn angry, that's why.

It's not often I don't finish a book. It's only happened twice before and never out of anger, only boredom. But Candy has the dubious honour of being the first book to break my grand tradition of perseverance and for that reason, I hate it all the more.

It all started off so well too. Admittedly it was never going to be a great piece of literature, but it was a fun, fluffy chick-lit teen book, similar to Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and other books of that ilk.

And then the Fairy Godbrother showed up.

Never have I been more shocked in my life by a sudden change in genre. Wait, this isn't a realistic (well, as realistic as the genre gets) teen novel? This is a magical realism type book instead?

Oh.

It was at this point I put the book down in disgust, annoyed by the change coming out of nowhere. I tried to continue on three more times before finally dismissing it as too ridiculous and banishing it to the pile of books never to be read (presently consisting of this book and Eragon) Don't get me wrong, I don't mind tales with a fantastical twist. In fact, I welcome them. But you have to foreshadow it accurately or at least mention in the blurb what it's about otherwise you're just going to end up pissing off your readers. Admittedly a 'Fairy Godbrother' is mentioned in the blurb but in such a way that it could easily be construed as a metaphor.

Perhaps someday I'll finish Candy and give it a proper review. Or perhaps it will rot for all eternity in my pile of unreadable books, never to be touched again. I know which is more likely.

Overall Score:

Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.
This is not her story.
Unless you count the part where I killed her.

This book has one of the best blurbs I've ever read which is suitable since it's also one of the best books I've ever read. It was also nothing like I expected.

Ultraviolet is an exquisite book about Alison, a girl with Synesthesia who is sent to a mental asylum for killing the most popular girl in her school. While technically this is an accurate description of the plot, it doesn't really convey what you're letting yourself in for. The start of this book is so good, an intriguing idea fuelled by stunning description and amazingly-detailed characters. It's quite slow-paced I guess but it works best that way. Alison is a very compelling character, the whole world of the asylum is built up beautifully and in general I loved the story. And then...

Aliens.

No seriously. There are aliens in this book.

It was like Candy and the Broken Biscuits all over again. Why? Why do books do this? Why suddenly slip into the world of fantasy when the story has essentially been nothing but realism so far? Even worse to do it so late into the book, when the world is so completely and lovingly crafted. 

And yet, I don't hate this book. I should by all rights because it does something I really hate, but it doesn't spoil the story. I can't bring myself to hate this book because it is so beautiful, and even after everything gets turned upside down I still found myself reading and enjoying it. In a weird way, it works. I still would have preferred to have things rooted in realism throughout and I am a little sad about the ending I feel I've lost by the story switching so suddenly, but overall I still like Ultraviolet. I still love it.

This is by all accounts an amazing book, and I would definitely recommend reading it. It's a fascinating story written beautifully and it sucks you in completely. It's also one of the few books which manages to be truly surprising and, miraculously, pulls it off. It's a book I couldn't help but love and one which shall forever hold a special place on my bookshelf for that reason.

 Overall Score:

.5