Good morning and welcome to another BOOK REVIEW! Three out of four of these are total winners. Enjoy! š
1. I Found You, by Lisa Jewell
As always, I’ll start with my favorite book of the bunch š This book held my attention and didn’t let go! There are two storylines: Alice Lake looks other window on a dark and stormy night and sees a man sitting out on the beach, alone. He is drenched, clearly confused and shivering. Alice goes to him and although he is a stranger, she ends up inviting him in. The stranger, whom she names “Frank,” is in a fugue state – he has no memory and can’t recall how he got to the beach. Elsewhere, a young immigrant, 21-year-old Lily Monrose, has only been married for only three weeks when her new husband fails to come home from work one night. She and her husband were madly in love, and when she goes to the police to report him missing, they tell her that her husband never existed at all. These two stories are intertwined… but not in a way you’d expect! This novel is SO well written and even though the characters are a little eccentric, I really loved them all and felt every feeling they felt. I Found You is my first book by Lisa Jewell – she’s now on my radar and I will be looking for more of her books to read!
2. The Third Twin, by C.J. Omololu
This novel is actually a Young Adult novel, but I didn’t mind one bit. In fact, it was pretty nice to escape the responsibilities of adulthood for a little while and imagine that my only worry was whether or not I would be accepted to college! The Third Twin is a murder mystery and a high-intensity thriller about identical twin sisters, Alexa and Ava, who pretend to have a third sister, Alicia. Alicia is fun, beautiful, fashionable and extremely popular with boys. She goes on many dates, gets invited to all the hot parties and is simply the coolest sister out of the three. The only problem is, Alicia doesn’t really exist. She’s made up. It’s always Ava and Alexa pretending to be Alicia, taking turns going on dates and fooling around with boys. But then Alicia’s boyfriends start dropping dead, and all of the clues point to Alicia as the murderer. This book was extremely entertaining. I could not for the life of me tell who the evil culprit was. I had tons of theories and I suspected everyone, and was TOTALLY surprised by the ending! Omololu did a great job keeping the suspense going and she really managed to surprise me at the end. There was also a little bit of teen romance in this novel, which I really enjoyed. I read this entire book on the beach one day, it’s a great beach read!
3. The Dead Ex, by Jane Corry
This one was my least favorite of the crew, but I figured I would review it anyways! The novel is a psychological thriller told from various viewpoints. The main character, Vicki, is David’s ex-wife who falls under suspicion when David goes missing. She has contacted him numerous times over the years to let him know where she is, hoping that just maybe he will come to his senses and want her back. Scarlet is a young girl who ends up in foster care after her mother is arrested during a drug bust. Helen is a young woman who is hired by David to take photos and enters a torrid affair with him. For the first half of the book, I was intrigued and trying to figure out who all the characters were and how they were connected. During the second half of the book, I kind of lost interest, but was able to pull through and was surprised by the ending. Even with the tricks and twists and turns, though, I found my attention wandering while reading this book and I was left feeling slightly underwhelmed at the end. If you’re going to read a novel from this list, I would pick one of the others!
4. The First Mistake, by Sandie Jones
If you read The Other Woman and enjoyed it, then you will love this book! It’s a thriller but revolves more around affairs and cheating husbands than crime or death (side note: I really loved this book but for some reason, it really amped up my anxiety). The story is centered around a wife, her husband and her best friend, but not in the way you would think – this is NOT your typical domestic thriller! For Alice, life has never been better – although she lost her first husband ten years ago, she is happily remarried to Nathan, has two wonderful kids, a beautiful house, a booming business and a best friend, Beth. Things take a turn when she starts to suspect Nathan of cheating on her, and Beth is the one she turns to for advice. As this story plays out, dark revelations pile up one after another, threatening to destroy life as Alice knows it. This is one of those books that IMMEDIATELY pulls you in and holds you captive. Real life ceased to exist as my heart rate picked up, my stomach got that funny kind of impending doom feeling, and I held my breath all the way through this novel until this twisted story ended.
If you’ve read any good books lately, I’d love to know!! Leave me a note in the comments š
As always I have new ones to add to my reading list! š
xoxo A
http://www.southernbelleintraining.com
Lisa Jewel has a new book coming out in October – perfect for Halloween! Itās called āThe Family Upstairsā and itās amazing. You should also read āThe Whisper Networkā which is Reeseās book club pick for July! Finally, Riley Sagerās āLock Every Doorā is one of the best thrillers Iāve read this year. Itās out as of today! Xoxo @whatsjamiereading
Oh wow that first book sounds SO good, definitely going to pick that one up! You definitely turned me onto thrillers Caitlin haha š I always save your book review post, so that when I need to pick up a book, I turn to your recommendations!
xx Janine
https://walkinmysneaks.blogspot.com
The Silent Patient!
where the crawdads sing
If you’re looking for more Lisa Jewell books, you should definitely try “Then She Was Gone”!
briana | youngsophisticate.com
I just finished Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper. It’s a YA novel about a girl with cerebral palsy who has a photographic memory, is really smart, but, because she can’t talk noone knows. Until she gets a computer that can talk for her, which leads to new challenges.
Out of my mind is a fantastic book, wholeheartedly agree.
The woman in the window!
The perfect nanny
Behind closed doors
The last Mrs parish
The wife between us
Baby teeth
Before we were yours
I just finished The Silent Patient and it was AMAZING. I would say it needs to be turned into a movie, it was that good.
The Silent Patient was amazing!
Hungry as the Sea byWilbur Smith…my mother-in-law gave it to me, and itās wonderful! Get past the first chapter (a bit like unabridged Moby Dick with all the sea-faring knowledge), but it will really take off!
Verity and It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, and also The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.
I belong to Goodreads and I swear I read the book reviews more than books…that said, I love Dear Mrs Bird, not a thriller but so cute and heartwarming, A Hundred Summers, The Woman in the Window…. and Dear Wife.
Love your blog
How many books do you read in a month, girl?! Lol I wish I could find the motivation to read this often!
Also, I love your description of the books. The Third Twin sounds so good!
Erika Marie | https://imerikamarie.com
Adore your book reviews – I always read them all and they are always spot on. Thanks š
To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins. Itās about a man (who is also the editor of Outside Magazine so itās well written) who bicycles from Oregon to Patagonia (with no prior biking experience). I constantly looked up the locations he described in his travels. I wasnāt sure Iād like it but couldnāt put it down.
I love your books posts – thank you!
I just started Waiting for Tom Hanks and love it so far! Itās a fun rom-com.
All of these books sound interesting; I’ll have to look into them!
I am currently reading The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liz Constantine. So far, it is slow and repetitive, but I am hoping the plot will speed up soon, hahah!
https://emilyelizabethlifestyleblog.weebly.com/blog
I love your blog it inspired me to start one of my own! I also love reading books and dedicate a section to book reviews š
https://chelsea-thegirlwithacurl.squarespace.com/
I love love love your book reviews and recommend them to anyone looking for book suggestions! It would be great if you had a category for them on your blog to easily get to them all!
Two recommendations — The Last Mrs. Parrish and Behind Her Eyes. I usually don’t read suspense/mystery but these two I couldn’t put down!
Hi Caitlin!
I just finished The Third Twin and I really liked it as well. My daughter is around your age but found it annoying after the first few pages. I plugged along and found it interesting and thought I had it all figured out. I was totally wrong! Loved the plot twist. One of my all time favorite books which I try to reread annually is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Sutterfield. Give it a read, I think it may become one of your favorites too! š