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.
The Reappearance of Rachel Price Goodreads 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
The Intruders Goodreads 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
Top Ten Tuesday – Most Antcipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2024
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is My Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2024. The hardest part about this topic is trying to narrow down to just ten books that I’m excited about. These were the ten that first popped into my head but there are so many others that I’m also very excited to read in the second half of the year.
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My Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2024
1. THE EX VOWS by Jessica Joyce
2. BUSINESS CASUAL by B.K. Borison
3. THE GAME CHANGER by Lana Ferguson
4. A WEREWOLF’S GUIDE TO SEDUCING A VAMPIRE by Sarah Hawley
5. GIVEN OUR HISTORY by Kristyn J. Miller
6. MAGICAL MEET CUTE by Jean Meltzer
7. NOT ANOTHER LOVE SONG by Julie Soto
9. THE BRIAR CLUB by Kate Quinn
10. HOUSE OF GLASS by Sarah Pekkanen
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Have you read or are you planning to read any of these?
Thriller Thursday Reviews: Darling Girls & Daughter of Mine
Happy Thriller Thursday with Sharon! I hope everyone is doing well. I am so glad the nice weather is finally here. I look forward to sitting in my backyard and reading this summer. This week I am excited to share my thoughts on Sally Hepworth’s, Darling Girls and Megan Miranda’s, Daughter of Mine.
Darling Girls Goodreads Author: Sally Hepworth
Publication Date: April 23, 2024
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Sally Hepworth’s latest book, Darling Girls, follows three sisters who are forced to relive their childhood horrors when bones are found on the farming estate where they lived with their foster mother, Miss Fairchild, twenty years ago.
Jessica, Norah, and Alicia may not be sisters by blood, but they are sisters in every other sense of the word. They were all foster children at Wild Meadows, run by Miss Fairchild. From the outside life at Wild Meadows looked like a fairy tale for the girls, in reality though it was anything but. Miss Fairchild had rules and she was never to be crossed. Make Miss Fairchild mad and you would pay the consequences. Aside from going to school and keeping their grades up, they girls had to make sure that the house was cleaned top to bottom every day. One day Miss Fairchild came home and told the girls that she adopted a baby, Amy. No one but Miss Fairchild was allowed to hold or take care of Amy. But Amy didn’t love Miss Fairchild the way she wanted her to. Amy loved the girls and when the girls started to fear for Amy’s life they reported Miss Fairchild to the authorities, but when the police showed up there was no sign of Amy or that she was ever there. What happened to Amy? Are those her bones that were found buried on the estate?
The book is told from the POV of Jessica, Norah, and Alicia both in the present as well as in the past when they lived at Wild Meadows. I loved all three of them. I loved how they became sisters when they were younger and stayed sisters throughout their lives. They are there for each other no matter what. When the bones are found and they are forced back in time, it takes a toll on each of them. I had such sympathy for them the more I learned about what they went through living at Wild Meadows. They are each broken and complex characters.
We also get chapters from therapy sessions of an unknown character. Reading these chapters and not knowing right away who it was, really intrigued me. When it was revealed who it was, I started putting pieces together, though I didn’t figure things out completely. When I thought everything was revealed, Sally Hepworth gave me one more twist that blew my mind.
I don’t want to say much more and spoil things. Darling Girls was a great mystery that was full of twists and turns, as well as amazingly developed characters. 4 ½ stars
Daughter of Mine Goodreads Author: Megan Miranda
Publication Date: April 9, 2024
Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books
I am a fan of Megan Miranda and was excited to read her latest book, Daughter of Mine. While some of her books I have liked more than others, I am happy to report that Daughter of Mine is a top favorite of mine.
Hazel Sharp moved to the small town of Mirror Lake with her mother when she was seven years old. Her mother married local sheriff Perry Holt, who had two sons, nine-year-old Gage, and seven-year-old Caden. When Hazel was fourteen, her mother left and never returned. Hazel’s mother had a habit of just uprooting their lives when things got too complicated, so everyone assumed she had done the same thing, only this time leaving Hazel behind. Hazel left town after graduating college and only returns for holidays. When Perry Holt died, Hazel returned to town for the service and found out that Perry left his house to her. Mirror Lake has been experiencing a severe drought, and when the water levels drop in the lake behind their house, a car is found. The car is Hazel’s mothers. Hazel is now determined to find out what really happened to her mother. If her car is in the lake, did she do it on purpose or did something more sinister happen all those years ago?
I want to first mention how much I loved how Megan Miranda had each chapter labeled with how many days the drought was going on. I just found that very unique and I think it added to the mystery of the story. I just kept thinking, “What else is going to be found in the lake as the water recedes more with this drought?”
I also loved how the sibling tension just kept increasing. Hazel was close with Gage and at first things were good with them when she came back, but as the story progressed, Gage was pushing Hazel to just leave things alone. Hazel and Caden were never that close. Caden resented the attention that Hazel got from their father and then when her mother left, he was sure that Hazel was in on it. I really did not trust Gage or Caden. In fact, I did not trust anyone in the town. No one seemed to want Hazel digging into why her mother’s car was found in the lake and what happened to her.
As Hazel was trying to find information on what happened to her mother, she came across information about an accident that claimed the life of Gage and Caden’s mother, Perry’s first wife, years before Hazel and her mother came to town. As more clues are revealed, it becomes clear that someone in the Holt family is hiding the truth about what happened to both of Perry’s wives. And when all was revealed I was on the edge of my seat and was totally in the dark.
Daughter of Mine is another winner by Megan Miranda. If you have read any of her other books then I definitely recommend this one as well. 4 stars