Tag Archive for: megan goldin

Thriller Reviews: NONE OF THIS IS TRUE & DARK CORNERS

August 7, 2023/10 Comments/by Suzanne

Happy Monday! I hope everyone is doing well. I’m struggling to believe we’re already eight months into the year. My son actually goes back to school this week even though it seems like he just got out. He’ll be starting his junior year and hopefully driving soon, so it’s a busy and exciting time around here. I’m still reading lots though and have started pivoting a bit to some thrillers as we march toward spooky season. Don’t worry, I’ll still have plenty of romance reviews to share. I’m just getting back into the headspace where I can read these darker reads too and I’m excited to finally be at that point. Today I’m sharing my thoughts on thrillers from two of my favorite authors. I love that they both featured podcasters in their latest novels.

None of This Is True Goodreads

Author: Lisa Jewell

Publication Date: August 8, 2023

Publisher: Atria Books

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I’m a huge fan of Lisa Jewell’s addictive psychological thrillers so I was beyond excited to get my hands on an advanced copy of her latest novel, None of This is True. And wow, what a ride this book was. I think it may be her most twisty thriller yet!

The story follows Alix Summers, a popular podcaster who has shot to fame with her compelling interviews with women who have overcome tremendous odds to create new lives for themselves. One night while she is out celebrating her 45^th birthday, she runs into a woman named Josie Fair, who happens to be there celebrating her 45^th birthday as well. Birthday twins! The two women spend a couple of minutes chatting and go back to their respective celebrations. Alix thinks nothing else of it, but Josie becomes fixated on Alix and orchestrates a “chance” meeting with her at her kids’ school. Josie has decided that she would be a great candidate to be interviewed on Alix’s podcast and seeks to persuade Alix to her way of thinking. Once she convinces Alix that her story would really be great to take her podcast to the next level, Josie then begins to systematically insert herself into every aspect of Alix’s life. Who is Josie and what in the world is she up to?

Josie starts off as just this kind of sad, quirky character but the more we follow her and listen to the stories she tells Alix, the more disturbing and creepy I found her to be. I think I became as fixated on Josie as she was on Alix. She made me super uncomfortable but at the same time, I was completely fascinated by her and wanted to know what she was really up to.

I love Jewell’s brand of storytelling anyway, but I felt like she really kicked this one up a notch and tried some new things with this book that really worked well for me. I was an especially big fan of her use of excerpts from Alix’s podcast as well as the Netflix documentary that covered the whole experience. I thought those elements provided the perfect teasers to entice the reader to keep turning those pages. Jewell also brilliantly uses the unreliable narrator in this story. It was nearly impossible to distinguish fact from fiction, and the story kept me guessing until the very end. The novel is aptly named, that’s for sure!

If you’re in the mood for an addictive psychological thriller that is like nothing you’ve read before, definitely check out None of This is True. It was my favorite read in July and I’m sure it will be on my end of year favorites list as well. 5 STARS

Dark Corners (Rachel Krall, #2) Goodreads

Author: Megan Goldin

Publication Date: August 8, 2023

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Megan Goldin is an author I always know I can count on for an excellent read so I requested a review copy of her latest thriller, Dark Corners, without even reading the synopsis. I was thrilled to start reading it and realized that it features Rachel Krall, the protagonist from The Night Swim, my favorite book from Goldin so far. Don’t worry if you haven’t read The Night Swim yet because Dark Corners works well as a standalone. That said, definitely go back and read it though because it’s fabulous!

Rachel Krall is a badass. She is a true crime podcaster who has become a household name because even though she has no experience in law enforcement and is not a detective, she has been able to solve cases that law enforcement agencies have not. Her instinctive investigative skills and her no nonsense attitude have grudgingly earned her the respect of the various agencies, including the FBI who has called her in to assist on the case that is the focus of this book.

Following Rachel as she puts together the pieces of a case was the most riveting part of The Night Swim for me and this was also the case here. It’s fascinating to see her mind at work and to follow her train of thought as she investigates. This case, which focuses on a social media influencer who goes missing after paying a visit to a serial killer in prison, was especially interesting to follow as it takes Rachel into the world of influencers and even to an influencer convention, giving a sneak peek into that world and its narcissistic nature. Golden always weaves plenty of twists and turns in her novels to build suspense and when an unexpected twist actually puts a target on Rachel’s back, I couldn’t put the book down until I knew how that was going to play out.

I read the e-book and listened to the audio version of this book and highly recommend the audio since many excerpts from Rachel’s podcast are woven into the story. While it was fine to read those excerpts on the page, the audiobook really enhanced my reading experience.

I don’t want to say anything else for fear of spoilers, but with Dark Corners, Megan Goldin has delivered another addictive and suspenseful read and I can’t wait to read more from her. I also hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Rachel Krall! 4 STARS

Thriller Reviews: DAISY DARKER & STAY AWAKE

September 9, 2022/12 Comments/by Suzanne

Hey everyone! I know I’m late for Thriller Thursday and that I’m not Sharon, but it would appear that I have finally started to get back to my pre-pandemic eclectic reading preferences so I actually have thriller reviews to share with you this week. I’m still romance heavy of course, but I am glad that I’m finally at a point where I no longer feel like shying away from some darker reads. These are good ones too. If you’re looking for some new thrillers to add to your spooky season TBR, be sure to check these out.

Thriller Reviews: DAISY DARKER & STAY AWAKE

Daisy Darker Goodreads

Author: Alice Feeney

Publication Date: August 30, 2022

Publisher: Flatiron Books

FTC Disclosure: None needed. I purchased my own copy of this book.

I love a good locked door mystery and Alice Feeney really delivers with her latest novel Daisy Darker. As the synopsis hints, Daisy Darker is a nod to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, and I was 100% here for revisiting my favorite Agatha Christie thriller.

Daisy Darker was born with a heart problem and told she would not live very long. By the time she was 13, Daisy had already died and been resuscitated several times. Because of her delicate health, Daisy was not allowed to go to school and therefore grew up very lonely. The only time Daisy ever had any freedom was in the summer when she would visit her Nana. Daisy and her Nana have a wonderful relationship and are very close, so Daisy loves coming to spend time with her at Seaglass, the Gothic mansion Nana calls home. It is at Seaglass where the bulk of this story unfolds.

Daisy’s family has spent many years avoiding one another but when Nana is about to turn 80, she summons the entire family out to Seaglass for a reunion of sorts. Seaglass, which is now crumbling and rundown, is situated on a small island and is only accessible at low tide so once the tide comes in, no one can leave until the next low tide eight hours later. As each member of the family arrives, it becomes pretty clear that they are all uncomfortable to be there and they all also appear to be keeping secrets. It’s a very awkward situation that becomes even more awkward when Nana decides to share the contents of her will. Events take a deadly turn when the clock strikes midnight, Nana is found dead, and a strange and super creepy poem about the members of the family is found written on the wall in what appears to be Nana’s handwriting. Are Daisy and the rest of the Darker family trapped on the island with a murderer in their midst? Oh boy, it’s going to be a long eight hours!

I don’t want to say anything else about the plot because of spoilers and if you’re familiar with And Then There Were None, you should have a basic idea of how the story will play out. But, that said, boy does Alice Feeney take her readers on a wild ride of intricate plot twists. She kept me guessing every step of the way, had me flying through the pages to see what would happen next, and even had me shedding a few tears at one point. I loved the atmospheric quality of her writing, particularly the whole Gothic vibe of the mansion and the creepy, foreboding, and downright taunting vibe of the graffitied poem. I did not see the ending coming at all, and for me, that’s the mark of a well crafted mystery. Daisy Darker is my new favorite book from Alice Feeney, and I can’t wait to read more from her. 4.5 STARS

Stay Awake Goodreads

Author: Megan Goldin

Publication Date: August 9, 2022

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Wow, what a wild ride this book was! Megan Goldin is fast becoming one of my favorite authors when it comes to thrillers. Her books are always an adrenaline rush and just an overall mind-blowing experience and her latest novel Stay Awake may be her best yet!

The story follows a young woman named Liv Reese, who has just woken up in the back of a cab, with no memory of how she got there or where she was heading. Disoriented, Liv heads to the apartment in Brooklyn that she shares with her best friend Amy, only to get there and learn that there are two strangers living there instead. Liv is even more confused when the woman who now lives there yells at Liv and tells her that she needs to stop showing up at their place. Apparently, she has done this before. Liv then reaches into her pocket for her cell phone to try to find help, and, instead of her phone, she finds a bloody knife and notices that her hands are covered in black ink, scribbled messages everywhere telling her to STAY AWAKE. Liv has no idea what is going on, but she knows she needs to figure it out.

In addition to following Liv, the story also follows Detective Darcy Halliday. Darcy and her partner Jack Lavelle are called to the scene of a homicide. When they arrive on the scene and begin to investigate, it’s clear that the killer has not left behind many clues for them. The biggest and most unusual clue is that the message STAY AWAKE has been written in the victim’s blood backwards on the windows so that it can be read by anyone standing outside the building. Undeterred by the lack of evidence, Darcy and Jack set out to catch a killer. When they release key information about the murder, including the STAY AWAKE message, to the public, Liv sees it and realizes that she is somehow connected to this murder even though she remembers nothing about it.

I really enjoyed the way the author has the story unfold. We alternate between Liv’s perspective and Darcy’s so we get clues about how Liv has ended up in the predicament she is in, and then we start to get clues about the murder as Darcy and Jack start to piece together what has happened. I liked that I felt like I was piecing everything together right alongside the characters.

Liv’s whole situation fascinated me because it is such an original use of the amnesia trope. Earlier on in the book, it becomes clear that every time Liv falls asleep, she forgets all her memories going back two years, including several tragic events that probably led to her amnesia in the first place. Every day Liv is stuck in the worst kind of Groundhog’s Day imaginable, and it makes her incredibly vulnerable, especially since she has no idea how she is connected to this murder. She has no idea who she can trust, if anyone, and because of the amnesia, she also has no idea that the real murderer is out there looking for her too. It becomes a game of cat and mouse where every time the mouse falls asleep, she forgets about the cat. It makes for a wild and twisty ride and I was afraid for Liv every time I turned the page and praying the detectives would figure out who the killer was in time to save Liv.

Stay Awake is an intense thriller filled with tension and suspense that kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. I kept trying to guess who the murderer was and I was wrong every time. I love it when a thriller is so well plotted and unpredictable that it keeps me guessing until the reveal, and Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake was a winner for me. 4 STARS

Reviews: August Book Releases That Should Be on Your Reading List

August 10, 2020/25 Comments/by Suzanne

I’ve been quiet on the blog for a few days because I found myself lost in some pretty amazing reads. If these three novels are anything to go by, August is going to be a fabulous month for new releases. I’m also a big mood reader and my mood was all over the place this week so there’s a little something here for everyone – a heartwarming contemporary, a suspenseful mystery/thriller, and a compelling work of historical fiction.

Reviews: August Book Releases That Should Be on Your Reading List

Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop Goodreads

Author: Roselle Lim

Publication Date: August 4, 2020

Publisher: Berkley

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Roselle Lim’s new novel, Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop is a heartwarming story about love, family, second chances, and most importantly, about finding one’s self. Vanessa Yu, the protagonist, is a fortune teller but wishes she wasn’t. For most of her life, Vanessa has been unable to control her “gift,” blurting out fortunes at random and driving away friends and potential boyfriends. Because the gift has been nothing but a curse her entire life, Vanessa longs to just be rid of it so she can live a normal life. That doesn’t appear to be an option so when her aunt Evelyn, the only other family member who can tell fortunes, offers to train her, Vanessa jumps at the chance, especially once she realizes it means she’ll be traveling with Evelyn to Paris where Evelyn is opening up a new branch of her popular tea shop.

One of my absolute favorite parts about this book were the author’s lush descriptions of the sights, sounds, and especially the FOOD of Paris. My mouth was watering with each turn of the page as I read about decadent French pastries and the like. Vanessa is also a very likeable character, so it was easy to root for her. I felt so much sympathy for her as she began to fear she would live her entire life alone if she didn’t get control over her abilities. I can’t even imagine that kind of pressure.

The story isn’t just about Vanessa though. There’s also a fabulous subplot involving Aunt Evelyn. She’s actually leaving the Yu family permanently and relocating to Paris. When it becomes clear to Vanessa that Evelyn’s trip to Paris isn’t a temporary one, she is dying to know why, and since Evelyn isn’t talking, she enlists the wonderful Yu Aunties, who are more than willing to go undercover and find out what Evelyn is up to. I adored the closeness of the Yu family overall and those Yu Aunties are a hilarious addition to what is already an entertaining story.

I don’t want to say much more but I will say that I think this is a story that romance fans are going to love. Love is in the air for several characters as Vanessa discovers that while she may hate fortune telling, she thoroughly enjoys playing matchmaker and bringing lovers together. If you’re in the mood for a charming and romantic story that will tug at your heartstrings and leave a smile on your face, be sure to pick up a copy of Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop. 4 STARS

The Night Swim Goodreads

Author: Megan Goldin

Publication Date: August 4, 2020

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

With her latest thriller, The Night Swim, Megan Goldin explores the connections between two criminal cases that took place in the same small town 25 years apart. Rachel Krall, the protagonist of the novel, is a successful crime podcaster. For the first two seasons of her podcast, “Guilty or Not Guilty, the Podcast that Puts You in the Jury Box”, Rachel looked back at cold cases with a fresh set of eyes. Now that her show has become immensely popular, Rachel wants to up her game by going to court and sitting in on a live, ongoing trial to present and interpret the evidence to her listeners as it becomes available. The trial she has chosen in set in a small town and the accused is the town’s golden boy, a talented swimmer who hopes to make the Olympic team someday. He is accused of brutally raping a high school student who also happens to be the granddaughter of the sheriff. Tensions are high and opinions are very divided as to whether or not the young man is guilty.

Things take an odd turn, however, when she starts receiving mysterious handwritten letters imploring her to take a look at an old case from 25 years ago. The case was ruled a drowning because there were no witnesses aside from the victim’s nine-year-old sister who couldn’t really provide any information. The incident received little press at the time, but the letter writer, who turns out to be the younger sister of the drowning victim, swears her sister’s death was not an accident. Rachel is laser focused on the current case but the pleading tone of the letters get to her and so she starts to casually ask some of the townsfolk about what happened 25 years ago. When it becomes clear that no one wants to talk to her about it, Rachel starts to dig deeper and soon discovers some disturbing connections between the old case and the new case. Will Rachel discover the truth about both of the crimes and thus justice for the victims or will someone try to stop her from exposing long hidden secrets in this small town?

The Night Swim is a riveting mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The podcast aspect of the novel was also very well done. As Rachel produces each episode, we then get to listen to it before returning to the courthouse to hear more. I was completely invested in both mysteries and dying to learn the truth as the clues were slowly revealed. Be forewarned that because this story does deal with rape, there are some violent and heartbreaking scenes as we get closer and closer to the truth. I found myself near tears a couple of times as the truth came to light.

I enjoyed Megan Goldin’s last thriller, The Escape Room, but I have to say that with her latest effort, The Night Swim, she really knocks it out of the park. 4 STARS.

The Lions of Fifth Avenue Goodreads

Author: Fiona Davis

Publication Date: August 4, 2020

Publisher: Dutton Books

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I love historical fiction and I love New York City, so I’m always drawn to the novels of Fiona Davis because she sets each one in an iconic NYC location. This time around, Davis has selected the beloved New York Public Library as her setting.

In 1913, Laura Lyons is living in the library with her two young children and her husband, who is the Superintendent of the library. She aspires to be a journalist and enrolls at Columbia University’s Journalism School. Her journalism classes take her to the doorstep of an all-women’s club called the Heterodoxy Club. While attending club meetings and listening to “radical” women discuss women’s issues like suffrage and birth control, Laura begins to question her own existence as little more than wife and mother. There’s a whole world out there she wants to experience. Her thoughts of taking an alternative path in life are cut short, however, when rare books start disappearing from the library and it’s thought to be an inside job, which places her husband squarely on the suspect list.

In 1993, we meet Sadie Donovan, who also works at the New York Public Library. Everyone at the library knows Sadie loves her job and is passionate about books, so it’s a given that she’s the best choice to curate the library’s next big exhibit featuring rare books. What everyone doesn’t know about Sadie is that she’s actually the granddaughter of Laura Lyons. With her family’s muddled history regarding the library and missing books, Sadie figures the little said about that the better, especially when, to her shock and dismay, rare books she plans to use in her exhibit start to disappear from the library. As only a small handful of people have keys to the rare books room, it’s considered an inside job and Sadie finds herself on the suspect list. Sadie becomes determined to find out how the books are being stolen and who is responsible and also hopes deep down that she can somehow redeem the Lyon name and legacy with respect to the library.

What intrigued me the most about this story is that we learn early on in Sadie’s timeline that Laura Lyons, although now deceased, had become a famous feminist essayist at some point in her life. In addition to being eager to find out how the book thefts were being pulled off in each timeline, I was also even more eager to find out what had transpired in Laura’s life to transform her from wife and mother on the verge of tragedy to world renowned author. I loved how the author wove these two timelines together to gradually reveal the answers to both questions.

It actually surprised me how emotional I found myself getting as I was reading this book. I actually gasped a few times when certain beloved rare books went missing and in one case, where a page was torn out of a beloved treasure. If you are passionate about books, libraries, New York, and historical fiction, The Lions of Fifth Avenue is the perfect book for you. 4.5 STARS

Review: THE ESCAPE ROOM by Megan Goldin

August 2, 2019/16 Comments/by Suzanne

The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

Published by St. Martin's Press on July 30, 2019
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 368
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

THE ESCAPE ROOM Review

Megan Goldin’s The Escape Room is a suspenseful thriller and just an all around wild ride. It follows four Wall Street investment bankers, Sylvie, Vincent, Sam, and Jules, who are called into the office unexpectedly after hours to participate in what is apparently a mandatory team building activity. Accustomed to working in an environment that is competitive to the point of being cutthroat, everyone is surprised and more than a little annoyed to be forced to take part in this activity. What’s even more surprising, however, is the activity itself, which is one of those Escape Rooms that are so popular now and that it takes place with them locked in an elevator together.

The clues presented in the elevator are intensely personal and appear designed to get the colleagues to turn against one another. No matter what they do and how many clues they work together to solve, the elevator doors remain locked. What do they have to do to escape what is fast becoming a claustrophobic prison and who is Sara Hall and why does her name appear in one of their clues?

Because this is a thriller I don’t want to say too much more about the plot itself except that it obviously becomes so much more than just a simple Escape Room. The characters themselves weren’t especially likeable or easy to relate to, which could have made this a challenging read for me since I do usually prefer to feel some kind of connection to the characters I’m reading about, but the story itself was so riveting that even with unlikeable characters, I still couldn’t stop turning the pages. The writing was crisp, fast-paced, and uses a dual timeline structure to advance the plot and eventually reveal what exactly is going on, who is responsible, and most importantly, why it was done. I did guess correctly on a couple of things early on in the book, so that was a little disappointing, but overall I still found this a very entertaining read.

If you’re looking for a suspenseful read that is a compulsive page turner, look no further than Megan Goldin’s The Escape Room.

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:

Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are ruthlessly ambitious high-flyers working in the lucrative world of Wall Street finance where deception and intimidation thrive. Getting rich is all that matters, and they’ll do anything to reach the top.

When they are ordered to participate in a corporate team-building exercise that requires them to escape from a locked elevator, dark secrets of their team begin to be laid bare.

The biggest mystery to solve in this lethal game: What happened to Sara Hall? Once a young shining star—”now gone but not forgotten”.

This is no longer a game.

They’re fighting for their lives.

About Megan Goldin

Megan Goldin was a journalist before she became a writer. She reported from the Middle East for the Associated Press, Reuters, the (Australian) ABC and other news outlets. She worked in Asia as a reporter and editor for Reuters and Yahoo!. She is the author of The Escape Room, which will be released in the U.S. and UK in 2019, and The Girl In Kellers Way.

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