Thriller Thursday Reviews: The Reappearance of Rachel Price & The Intruders

Hi Everyone. It’s me, Sharon, back with another edition of Thriller Thursday. Sorry I was MIA for a bit. Work got super crazy and then I was on vacation, so had vacation brain for a couple weeks, I did get some great reading in though.  😀  Today I am excited to share my thoughts on a couple of great books, Holly Jackson’s The Reappearance of Rachel Price and  Louise Jensen’s The Intruders.  These were both excellent reads and I loved both of them.

Author:Holly Jackson

Publication Date: April 2, 2024

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Nothing that I say in the review below will do justice to how much I loved Holly Jackson’s, The Reappearance of Rachel Price. I was excited to read this book and it totally exceeded my expectations and is one of my favorite reads of 2024.

Annabel (Bel) Price was two years old when her mother Rachel disappeared sixteen years ago. Bel was the only witness, though she does not remember anything. Bel has grown up in the shadow of her mother’s disappearance and wants nothing more that to just get on with her own life. Bel’s father, Charlie, has agreed to take part in a documentary called “The Disappearance of Rachel Price.” One day after filming a reenactment of the day Rachel disappeared, Bel is walking home and who does she see on the street, but her mother Rachel. Rachel’s reappearance is about to turn everyone’s world upside down. Rachel’s story of where she has been for sixteen years is unbelievable. Bel sure doesn’t believe her story and she is determined to prove that Rachel is lying about what happened to her and where she has been. With the help of the documentary’s camera assistant, Ash, Bel sets out to find out what really happened to her mother, but Bel may not like the answers she finds, and her life is put in jeopardy.

There is not a lot I can say about what happens in this book because I don’t want to spoil anything. I will say I did not trust any of the adults in this book. I thought they all were hiding something and knew more about Rachel’s disappearance than they were saying.  Instead of being overjoyed that Rachel had returned, Bel’s father, Charlie, as well as her uncle and aunt, Jeff and Sherry, were acting very strange and standoffish with Rachel. And Rachel was acting strange as well. She took an instant shine to Bel’s sixteen-year-old cousin, Carter. It also seemed like Rachel was trying to provoke and get under Charlie, Jeff, and Sherry’s skin. It wasn’t the happy reunion one would expect.

I loved Bel. She was very resourceful and strong. She was not very nice when Rachel first returned, which I can somewhat understand, and she was very protective of her family.  I loved her interactions with Ash. They had me chuckling a few times.  Ash was also another character I loved. He was 100% in helping Bel figure out where her mother was for sixteen years. I am glad Bel had Ash on her side.

The second half of the book had a lot of twists and turns. I never guessed what was going on. I do think the “what happened to Rachel” was a bit over the top, but I loved this book so much I didn’t care. LOL!

The ending had me on the edge of my seat and I was very happy with the outcome.

If you like YA mysteries, then I definitely recommend Holly Jackson’s, The Reappearance of Rachel Price. 5 Stars

Author: Louise Jensen

Publication Date: April 11, 2024

Publisher: HQ

I have loved all of Louise Jensen’s books I have read, so I don’t know why I put off reading The Intruders. I am glad I finally picked it up and read it because I loved this book.

Cass and James have been dating for six months and want to move in together, but without the money to rent an apartment they cannot. But then a perfect opportunity falls into their lap, well it seemed perfect at the time.  There is a manor house that is available rent free, and all Cass and James have to do is housesit and take inventory of the items that are in the house. The new owners are going to make the manor into a retreat. The only catch with the house though, is that thirty years ago the family that lived there were brutally murdered. Cass and James decide to move in anyway, since this is the only way they can save money. As soon as they move in though, strange things start to happen, objects go missing, a window on the stairs landing keeps opening, the swing in the yard moves on its own and the clock in the living room always stops at 8:30. Is the house trying to get them to leave or is there something more sinister going on?

This book sure gave me the creeps with everything that was going on in it.  Not sure I would have been able to stay there. Sure, I like reading thrillers, but I don’t want to live in one. LOL!

The story is told from the POV of Cass and James in the present, as well as from the POV of Rose, thirty years in the past.  I loved getting the story this way because I was trying to piece everything together that we learned from the past, with what was going on in the present.  Louise Jensen did a great job of unfolding this mystery and keeping me in the dark.

I thought for sure I had things figured out, but then a twist came that blew my theory out of the water. The more I tried to piece things together, the more twists would pop up. The Intruders is one of those books that when things are finally revealed, I had to go back to the beginning of the book and reread a couple of chapters to make sure I didn’t miss a pivotal clue. I love when a book does that to me.

The end of the book had so much going on I could not read fast enough. And the very end! OMG! Yup I was a bit freaked out by that.  The Intruders is another winner for Louise Jensen.  4 1/2 stars