Thriller Thursday Reviews: The Children on the Hill & My Perfect Daughter
/10 Comments/by Sharon
Happy Thriller Thursday! It’s me Sharon, here to share a couple of great reads to usher in spooky season. This week I am happy to share my thoughts on The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon and My Perfect Daughter by Sarah A. Denzil. I have had both of these books on my shelf for months but kept putting them off. Why? I have no idea. LOL I am glad I finally decided to read them though because they were both awesome.
The Children on the Hill Goodreads
Author: Jennifer McMahon
Publication Date: April 26, 2022
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press
I am kicking myself for leaving Jennifer McMahon’s newest book The Children on the Hill on my to read list for so long. This book was so good that I devoured it in a couple of days.
The story is told in alternating timelines. The first timeline is in 1978 and is told from the POV of thirteen-year-old Vi. Vi and her brother Eric live with their grandmother, a brilliant psychiatrist who works at the Hillside Inn, a private psychiatric hospital in a small town in Vermont. One day Gran brings home thirteen-year-old Iris to stay with them. Iris is skittish, doesn’t talk and is feral, and Gran has given Vi the job of taking care of Iris. Vi and Eric take an instant liking to Iris and with their help she is soon talking, and they let her into the Monster Club. Vi and Eric are monster hunters, because as Vi says “Monsters are everywhere.” They wrote a book that they call “The Book of Monsters” and list all the monsters they know and how to kill them. Vi has also made it her mission to find out where Iris came from, but she is not going to like the information she finds. Her whole world and the hospital are about to come crashing down.
The second timeline is in 2019 and this timeline is told from the POV of Lizzy Shelly. Lizzy is a monster hunter and has a podcast called Monsters Among Us. Lizzy travels all over the country investigating monster sightings. When she learns that a young girl has gone missing in a small town in Vermont after she came in contact with the town’s monster “Rattling Jane,” Lizzy heads to Vermont because she knows who this monster is and she is determined to stop her.
I enjoyed both timelines equally, which is a rarity for me since I normally have one that is my favorite. I loved getting to know Vi, Eric and Iris and just enjoyed watching them as they hunted monsters and also as they investigated who Iris was and where she came from. I also loved how the nostalgia from 1978 brought back memories of my childhood. I was also equally invested in Lizzy’s timeline and her determination to stop “Rattling Jane”. Lizzy had a bit of mystery about her as well, and I kept going back and forth on who I thought she was.
Aside from the two timelines, at the end of each chapter we also get excerpts from “The Book of Monsters” and “The Helping Hand of God: The True Story of the Hillside Inn” which is a book that was written in 1980 about all that happened at the Hillside Inn. Having the book unfold with the two timelines and the excerpts just added to the mystery and suspense.
I loved everything about this book. It was not super scary but had that creepy atmosphere that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading. There were twists at the end of the book that literally had me saying “Holy Crap!” If you are looking for a good read for spooky season, I highly recommend The Children on the Hill. I don’t think you will be disappointed. 4 ½ stars
My Perfect Daughter Goodreads
Author: Sarah A. Denzil
Publication Date: January 14, 2022
Publisher: Sarah Dalton
I have read a few books by Sarah A. Denzil and while I liked them, they didn’t have that WOW! factor, so I kept putting off reading her new book My Perfect Daughter. Well, let me tell you, Sarah A. Denzil outdid herself on this book, and I am sorry that I did not read it sooner.
Zoe was out for a jog one day when she noticed five year-old Maddie alone on the side of a country road. Afraid for the child’s safety, Zoe brings Maddie back to her father unaware that she is about to step into her worst nightmare. Maddie was not on that road by chance, she was actually waiting for Zoe to come by so that she could lure her to her serial killer father. During her captivity Zoe bonded with Maddie and with Maddie’s help they were both able to escape. Zoe ended up adopting Maddie. Now eleven years later, Zoe is married and has another child. They are one big happy family. Or are they? Maddie still has issues from living with her serial killer father and seeing all he had done. She has been diagnosed with callous unemotional traits. Zoe has worked hard to ensure that Maddie knows she is loved and supported. Zoe has never really been afraid of Maddie, until a school bully dies and another girl is missing. Though she does not want to think Maddie could be responsible, a part of Zoe cannot help but wonder, is Maddie more like her father than she wants to admit?
This book is told in alternating timelines. The first timeline centers around when Zoe was being held captive and when she and Maddie escaped. This timeline does contain torture and abuse, though Denzil does not get very vivid in the details. When I was reading these parts, they felt like I was watching a horror movie or an episode of Criminal Minds. I loved Maddie in this timeline, she was this small child that even though she helped lure Zoe in, she wanted to help save her as well. They formed a special bond and I was so glad that Zoe didn’t just dump her once she was free.
The second timeline is present day, Maddie is now sixteen years old and I really felt for her in this timeline. She went through a lot when she was a child and it left emotional scars that will never go away. Due to these emotional scars she was a very unreliable character and I loved that. During this timeline we also have the mystery of what happened to the bully and the missing girl and who was responsible. Aside from Maddie being an unreliable character, there were also other characters in this timeline that were untrustworthy as well. I was all over the place on who I thought was telling the truth and who was lying.
My Perfect Daughter was a dark read, full of twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very end. Sarah A. Denzil does a great job of increasing the tension and suspense throughout the book. 4 stars
Can’t Wait Wednesday – THE TRUE LOVE EXPERIMENT by Christina Lauren
/32 Comments/by Suzanne
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in since I first started blogging, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.
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My selection for this week is THE TRUE LOVE EXPERIMENT by Christina Lauren. Back when I read Christina Lauren’s The Soulmate Equation, I adored the secondary character of Fizzy. She was such a fun character and I said then that I hoped CLo would give her her own book at some point. Well, lo and behold, they did and I’m so here for it!
THE TRUE LOVE EXPERIMENT by Christina Lauren
Publication Date: May 16, 2023 by Gallery Books
From Goodreads:
Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script—from the New York Times bestselling authors of The Soulmate Equation and The Unhoneymooners.
Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.
Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?
Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to cast the contestants according to a list of romance archetypes. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.
The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in the New York Times bestselling The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.
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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂
Top Ten Tuesday – 5 Indie Book Stores I Love & 5 I Really Want to Visit
/34 Comments/by SuzanneTop 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 Favorite Bookstores OR Bookstores I’d Love to Visit. I decided to focus my list on Indie bookstores but couldn’t think of 10 I loved or 10 I wanted to visit, so I’ve split my list in half to share 5 of each.
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5 Bookstores I Love
1. The Strand, NYC
The Strand will always make my list of favorite Indie bookstores. I try to stop by every time I visit NYC.
Why? 18 miles of books, some of the coolest bookish merchandise, and loads of amazing author events.
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2. Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, VA
Credit: https://www.instagram.com/fountainbookstore/
If you ever find yourself in the Richmond, VA area, I highly recommend stopping by Fountain Bookstore in the quaint and quirky Carytown area. They have a great selection of books and merchandise, signed books, tons of staff recommendations which are always reliably good reads, and they also have a full schedule of author events.
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3. Riverby Books, Fredericksburg, VA
This is a fantastic Indie bookstore right in my own town. The shop has an extensive collection of used books, they buy and sell rare books, and the store is just super cute with lots of little reading nooks tucked into every corner.
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4. Green Valley Book Fair, Mount Crawford, VA
The Green Valley Book Fair is tucked away in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Prior to the Covid pandemic, for a couple of weeks, 5 or 6 times a year, the book fair would open and book lovers would come from all over to purchase deeply discounted books. Their selection has always been vast and the prices great. Where so many businesses failed during the pandemic, the Green Valley Book Fair completely changed the way they operated in order to survive. Since everything was closed, they started a mail order business so that book lovers could still get the discounted books they love and they even expanded their inventory to include items like jigsaw puzzles for those who Covid kept at home. Once things started to open back up, they began to open year round 5 days a week, and continued to offer their mail service as well as curbside pickup. I love this bookfair, both for its great prices and extensive selection, but also because of their resilience and determination.
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5. CHOP SUEY BOOKS, Richmond, VA
Chop Suey Books is another fantastic bookstore in the Carytown area of Richmond. They have a fun, quirky storefront, a cat mascot named Wonton, and they buy and sell used books.
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5 Bookstores I Really Want to Visit
6. THE BOOKWORM BOX Bookstore, Sulphur Springs, TX
This is the bookstore that Colleen Hoover and her sisters own. Enough said, lol. Not enough? Here’s a little more detail: “The Bookworm Box is a one-of-a-kind specialty bookstore with signed books donated by the authors. All profit is donated to various charities with over $1,000,000.00 donated since opening the doors in 2015. The Bookworm Box holds special events and exclusive signings with best-selling authors such as EL James, Tarryn Fisher, Anna Todd, Caroline Kepnes and Colleen Hoover.”
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7. BLUEBIRD & CO., Crozet, VA
Even though this book shop is only about an hour away from me, I had never heard of it until Elle Cosimano happened to mention on her social media a while back that she was doing an event there. I unfortunately couldn’t attend the event, but looking at their instagram page, the store is just as adorable on the inside as it is on the outside so I need to visit it someday soon.
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8. POWELL’S BOOKS, Portland, OR
According to their website, Powell’s is the World’s Largest Independent Bookstore. I have no idea if that is still true or not, but it’s enough to make me want to visit it. They apparently have a very extensive inventory of used books and, and they buy and sell books.
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9. McNally Jackson Books, NYC
Even though I visit NYC pretty often, I’ve somehow never made it to this shop and I need to remedy that. It just looks so cozy and quaint and apparently it has a nice cafe in it as well.
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10. NEW DOMINION BOOKSHOP, Charlottesville, VA
This is yet another Indie bookshop that is only about an hour from me but I’ve yet to make it there. New Dominion is the oldest independent bookstore in my state and the picture I chose to represent it features the stunning rose garden they have. Some of the other photos on their Instagram page show bookclubs meeting in the garden as well as some author events. It just looks so lovely and peaceful and I would love to experience it in person.
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