I have been working my way through all the Ann Cleeves novels as audiobooks. Wild Fire is the last Shetland book. The series isn’t as fatphobic as her Vera series but I do think Cleeves tells on herself a lot in her books. Perez is a real jerk to boss and fling Willow! I have … Continue reading
Gilly Macmillan’s books are generally pretty fun so I was looking forward to The Manor House. I do enjoy books set in weird giant houses in England! This one focused on two couples–one living in a garish smart house on the former grounds of a historic house the other couple lived in. Lots of twists … Continue reading
I want to say upfront that I received an ARC of Lost to Dune Road from NetGalley so I’m hoping the mistakes are fixed before publication. I was excited to see Kara Thomas back! I still think her YA is a little more solid than her adult fiction but this was a good start to … Continue reading
I have watched the Vera show for years along with Shetland and the short lived The Long Call. I had read the first book years ago and Vera Stanhope is only in it briefly and the book was long and the writing a little stilted so I didn’t pick up more. Then I thought to … Continue reading
I liked the idea of Dirty Laundry—Irish small town drama, yes please!—but it was really shallow. We were told a lot about what the characters had done but there was little to no reflection or depth to the story. I also found the ending a little confusing. There was a scene when Parth (spoiler ahead) … Continue reading
A Stolen Child was a little different than the previous three Maggie D’Arcy books. There is a big time jump between the last one and this one so Maggie is now completed training to be an Irish police officer, living with her boyfriend, his son and her daughter after spending much of the training apart. … Continue reading
I have been wanting to find some easy-to-read but not childlike mystery series to get into and stumbled across the Maggie D’arcy book four on Netgalley. I requested the first three from various library systems and have been working my way through them. I like the settings of each one and the mysteries are fairly … Continue reading
I swear I have really enjoyed some Kate White books in the past so I was happy to get this one from Netgalley as an ARC. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. I felt like this should have been two different books. One about a woman coming to grips with the ripple effect … Continue reading
The Writing Retreat was really a wacky, over-the-top horror-thriller. Unfortunately, it was so badly paced and written that it flopped. It should have leaned into how impossible and camp the setup was but never did. It was almost embarrassing to read. I was puzzled the whole time about when it was supposed to take place. … Continue reading
I’m going to start by saying that Prom Mom doesn’t come out until July but I was lucky enough to get an ARC on Netgalley. I wanted to write this while the book was fresh in my mind–as soon it was downloaded I started reading. Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 