📖 The Crash ✍️ Freida McFadden

 📖 The Crash ✍️ Freida McFadden • Published January 28, 2025 

Format: Paperback #kobo ebook #audiobook 

📝 My Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟/ 5🌟

Saw the next read from my favourite author of thrills out and I had to get my hands on the title! The story had a promising start and really gets you on the thrill ride for the first half. It slowly decelerated as the expected twist and story flow killed off any remaining anticipation.

I had to say, this is not one my favourite book from Freida this time. But the story goes..

The Crash by Freida McFadden is a super quick thriller read. Honestly, this one didn’t grip me the same way some of her other books did, so I wasn’t sure how to put my thoughts together at first. The story kicks off with Tegan, who’s eight months pregnant, driving on icy, snowy roads when her car crashes. She’s rescued by a seemingly kind couple who bring her back to their cabin and let her stay in their basement until the storm passes. At first, it feels like they’re helping her, but as the days go by, things start to feel off. Tegan grows more suspicious of the couple, especially when she realizes she’s cut off from everyone and the basement feels more like a trap than a safe haven.

From there, the tension builds into a race against time, with Tegan trying to figure out what’s really going on while also worrying about her baby. It definitely has some intense moments that keep the pages turning. The twist at the end, though, was a little predictable and didn’t land as hard as I hoped—it felt like I saw it coming. Still, it’s fast-paced, easy to follow, and a solid pick if you’re in the mood for a quick, suspenseful read, especially if you’re already a fan of Freida’s thrillers.

See also my thoughts on #TheBoyfriend by the same author.

✨Connect with me on Instagram, TikTok, Lemon8 & Goodreads 🤗💖 ✨Read my reviews on sarobooks.blogspot.com

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📖 The New Couple in 5B ✍️ Lisa Unger

 

📖 The New Couple in 5B ✍️ Lisa Unger • Published 5th March 2024 

Format: Paperback #kobo ebook #audiobook 

📝 My Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟/ 5🌟

After finishing "Christmas Presents," I couldn't wait to continue "The New Couple in 5B"—and ended up devouring it in just 36 hours on both the book and audiobook! 😆

Lisa Unger's latest novel starts strong as a spine-tingling thriller, masterfully blending psychological suspense with supernatural elements. While I had high hopes initially, they gradually faded as the plot twist became predictable halfway through the story.

The story revolves around Rosie and Chad Lowan, a young couple who inherit a luxury apartment in the historic Windermere building in New York City. Initially, the building's old-world charm and eclectic residents seem welcoming. However, as the Lowans settle in, Rosie begins to uncover the dark secrets lurking within the Windermere's walls.

Unger expertly creates a sense of unease and paranoia as Rosie delves into the building's sinister past. The reader is drawn into a web of mystery, with questions about the ever-present doorman, the building's extensive surveillance, and the numerous gruesome deaths that have occurred there over the years.

The New Couple in 5B is a gripping and atmospheric thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the surprised and satisfied ending. 🎀

See also my thoughts on #ChristmasPresents by the same author.

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📖 Christmas Presents ✍️ Lisa Unger

 

📖 Christmas Presents ✍️ Lisa Unger • Published 24th October 2023 
Format: Paperback #kobo ebook 
📝 My Rating 🌟🌟🌟½  / 5🌟

Lisa Unger's 'The Christmas Presents’ is a wonderfully easy and quick read. I would round this up to a 3.5 stars. This is my first read from Lisa Unger and I will move on to her other books after this. The book grabs you with a compelling start and keeps you hooked all the way to the end. I loved the short chapters and how the story flowed so smoothly without dragging.

The plot centers around Madeline Martin, a young bookstore owner who has built a new life for herself despite a traumatic past. Years ago, Madeline was the sole survivor of an attack by Evan Handy, who was convicted of murdering her best friend, Stephanie, and is suspected in the disappearance of two other friends, sisters Ainsley and Sam Wallace. This unresolved tragedy has haunted Madeline and obsessed her father, the former sheriff, until a stroke impaired him.

The past resurfaces when Harley Granger, a popular true-crime podcaster known for his sometimes unethical methods, arrives in Madeline's small town of Little Valley. He is keen to investigate the cold case, believing there's more to the story. His presence forces Madeline to confront memories she'd rather keep buried.

Complicating matters, since Evan Handy's imprisonment, three more young women have gone missing in the same area, the latest being a college dropout named Lolly. As a blizzard approaches and Christmas looms, Madeline, along with her childhood friend Badger, try to find the missing Lolly and uncover the truth behind the disappearances. The story explores themes of survivor's guilt and the inability to move on.

The ending didn't quite land for me as I feel it could do better somehow. The plot twist was kind of a giveaway and missed the element of surprise. However, I'd still wholeheartedly recommend this book as a perfect read for cozying up by a fireplace beneath beautifully illuminated Christmas trees. 😌

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📖 Rock Paper Scissors ✍️ Alice Feeney

📖 Rock Paper Scissors ✍️ Alice Feeney 

• Published 19th August 2021 Format: Paperback #kobo ebook 

📝 My Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟/ 5🌟

Alice Feeney's Rock Paper Scissors is a gripping and atmospheric thriller that keeps readers guessing until the very end. I’ve finally got around to do this review and it’s the first novel I had read from Alice Feeney that led me to pursue her other titles. This thriller revolves around the troubled marriage of Adam and Amelia Wright. Adam, a screenwriter, suffers from prosopagnosia (face blindness), rendering him unable to recognize people, even his own wife. The novel's strength lies in its intricate plot, unreliable narrators, and a series of shocking twists.

The couple wins a weekend getaway to a remote, converted chapel in the Scottish Highlands, a trip that seems like a last-ditch effort to save their crumbling relationship. Each year, Amelia writes Adam a letter for their anniversary, detailing her true feelings, but never lets him read them. As the weekend unfolds, it becomes clear that this trip was not a random prize, and hidden secrets and resentments come to the forefront. The isolated location and a looming sense of unease amplify the tension, making them question whether they truly know each other and if their marriage can survive.

Rock Paper Scissors is a page-turner that delivers a satisfying and unexpected conclusion. And I will definitely recommend this to anyone intrigued by mystery and suspense 🤩

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📖 Good Bad Girl ✍️ Alice Feeney

📖 Good Bad Girl

✍️ Alice Feeney • Published 29 August 2023

Format:  #kobo #ebook

📝 My Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟/ 5🌟

*** Spoiler Alerts ***

“Three Suspects • Two Killers • One Murder”

This is the tagline of the "Good Bad Girl" by Alice Feeney is a compelling novel that dives deep into the complexities of family dynamics and human relationships. The story revolves around the lives of Frankie and Patience, two characters whose intertwined destinies create a tapestry of emotions, secrets, and revelations.

Feeney masterfully crafts her characters, making them relatable and multifaceted. Frankie, a character with a troubled past, seeks redemption and a sense of belonging. Patience, on the other hand, is a beacon of hope and resilience, navigating her own challenges with grace and determination. Their journey together highlights themes of forgiveness, growth, and the enduring power of love.

The narrative is both engaging and thought-provoking, keeping readers on the edge of their seats with unexpected twists and turns. Feeney's writing style is fluid and evocative, painting vivid pictures of the settings and emotions that drive the story forward.

Overall, "Good Bad Girl" is a captivating read that explores the grey areas of morality and the strength of familial bonds. Alice Feeney has delivered a story that is as heart-wrenching as it is uplifting, making it a must-read for fans of thriller and mystery fiction.

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The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden

 Time to share my review 😍

📖 The Boyfriend

✍️ Freida McFadden • Published 1 October 2024

Format:  #kobo #ebook

📝 My Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟/ 5🌟

*** Spoiler Alerts ***

”The Boyfriend“ is my first Freida McFadden book, and I devoured it in one sitting during my recent Maldives trip! The story alternates between past and present, gradually building the background and unveiling a surprising twist at the end. Sydney, a thirty-something accountant, searches for love in modern Manhattan after breaking up with her police detective boyfriend. She meets her dream guy, Thomas Brewer (Tom), on a dating app. Little does she know, Tom harbors a dark personality and an even darker past. The plot reveals the mysteries behind the murders of Tom‘s high school classmates and Sydney’s best friend two decades later. I must say, the ending‘s twist caught me completely off guard—and it was brilliant. It turned out to be quite the twisted fairy tale ending... I think 🤔

#thriller #mystery #booktok #bookstagram #book #booklover #freidamcfadden #sarobabe.reads #sarobabe #fyp

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Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

 12 October 2024 ~

It has been a while since my last book review and I can’t wait to post this latest read for you.. so here goes! 😍

📖 Incidents Around The House 

✍️ Josh Malerman • Published 25 June 2024 Format: #kobo ebook

📝 My Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟/ 5🌟

*** Spoiler Alerts ***

The latest work from Bird Box’s author is about a horror supernatural story told from the eyes of an eight years old Bella, who lives with her perfect parents in a seemingly beautiful house. The story is about Bella’s account of her encounter with a supernatural being whom she called “Other Mummy”. Her parents felt that she manifested this imaginary friend which turned out to be a real unholy entity but was not officially defined as a ghost.

The story has a strong start, but it did not manage to keep the suspense throughout and somehow lacked substance. It did not keep me to the edge on my seat unlike other usual horror stories, but it did keep me intrigued long enough for me to want to find out what exactly is the ending. It was kind of slow burn, and some characters. The plot twist about the parents in the end did come as a surprise though.

Still a strongly recommended read which may keep you glued in your seat from start till end.

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Verity by Colleen Hoover

   📖 Verity 

✍️by Colleen Hoover (Published 5th October 2021)

📄My rating: 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads

Format: Paperback #kindle ebook 

2022.10.23 ~

So much praises has been rising from this latest bestseller from Colleen Hoover that I immediately picked it up when it was spotted on the shelf in my favourite local library. 😁 I love the cover design and the pages easy to flip. The moment I start, I had to finish! This is how good this book is and no wonder it is standing strong on the New York Times' bestseller glory board. And yes, I finished reading it in another one sitting. 😍

The story is generally gripping and moves on quite smoothly, and the plot twists are quite unexpected. However, there is just one minor detail in the story that I would question but I cannot find the answer ~ getting Lowen to co-author Verity's books was premediated, but why to such extend by the husband? 

For you whom might be curious, here’s a little spoiler :

The story commenced with a very interesting start, one that I would expect from a total thriller but as it moved past the first chapter, it began to reveal itself not so much. Hence I would rather classify it as a romantic thriller (a new genre perhaps?), as the story builds up majority on romantic details between the male lead (Jeremy Crawford) and his wife (Verity Crawford) and then him and the female lead (Lowen Ashleigh).

Lowen was a struggling author facing financial troubles when she was offered the deal of a lifetime, to co-author with her much admired author and gettting paid handsomely for it. She began working on the new series of books by moving into Verity's house and getting to know what is really going with Verity and her current predicament. As she accidentally discovered Verity's manuscript and became obsessed with the "truth" in it and Jeremy, she commit the unspeakable crime with him. Read the book if you can (I totally recommend and encourage it), and let me know if you share the same bothering thought as I do. 😁

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The Toybox by Charly Cox

  📖 The ToyBox (Detective Alyssa Wyatt Series #2) 

✍️by Charly Cox (Published 23rd October 2019)

📄My rating: 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads

Format: Paperback #kindle ebook #audiobook

2022.09.21 ~ 12.05 am :

Following my last read on Charly Cox's Detective Alyssa Wyatts series and curious to move on to her next story in the series, I quickly picked up The ToyBox and finished in a flash! >v<

Charly Cox smart and considerate writing style continues into this second book in the series and I am impressed by how she has told the story with details and yet without explicit dark words to spark your imaginations. 

For you whom might be curious, here’s a little spoiler :

The Toybox unfolded months after All His Pretty Girls and Detective Wyatts and her family were just recovering from their own incident when her daughter's close friend went missing and sparked a new race against time investigation to save innocent girls from evil hands.

The Toybox touched on a sensitive and yet very real on-going crime happening in our modern world and the author has successfully shown readers insights into the dark scenes of actual events. It brought awareness to all who read the terrifying ordeals and sufferings of innocent girls being trafficked into sex rings and crimes. Though details were carefully not coloured, our wild minds can easily imagine the unspeakable. As what the book had wished, I do hope this will bring greater awareness to the public and hope governments and law enforcements all over the world will act to bring such crimes to zero.

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All His Pretty Girls by Charly Cox

 📖 All His Pretty Girls (Detective Alyssa Wyatt Series #1) 

✍️by Charly Cox (Published 23rd October 2019)

📄My rating: 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads

Format: Paperback #kindle ebook #audiobook

2022.08.30 ~ 12.05 am :

Was searching for a serial killer series to read for my September #BOTM when I chanced upon the first book in the Detective Alyssa Wyatt series, All His Pretty Girls, and this debut novel from Charly Cox has not disappoint at all! On contrary, it has hooked me from beginning to end and I almost finished it in a sitting if not for regular duties of life I have to fulfil 😂

For you whom might be curious, here’s a little spoiler : 
Detective Alyssa Wyatt was assigned to investigate a case of a missing woman which eventually turned up dead. She felt that she had failed the husband of the woman so deeply like she had failed her own little brother. Her 4 year old brother, Timothy, has been taken outside of their home while 9 year old Alyssa had ran inside to grab a cool-aide. Investigations into the case slowly dug up deeply buried hurts and regrets, while linking other past cold cases to a killer serial. From this point on, the story enters the confessions and history of this serial killer whom is later revealed as sharing the same sibling DNA as Alyssa. 🤔

I love the story plot, although in the beginning I already have the inkling that the killer was in the same room as the dead woman. I also love the way Charly Cox managed to paint the horrid pictures of what happened to Timothy and how he had become what he was in the end, in the way without explicit gore and yet descriptive.

Now, I am driven to finish the rest of the books in this series and will review as I go. 😍

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All For You by Louise Jensen

 All For You by Louise Jensen (Published January 20th 2022)

📖 All For You
✍️ Louise Jensen

📄My rating: 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads

2022.08.20 ~ 12.05 am :

Finished this month’s second #BOTM「All For You」 on #Kindle, #audiobook and physical paperback! Was procrastinating on what will be the next read when my son stumbled on this physical book in the library that caught our eyes and I quickly found it on Kindle too. 😍

This is the first book I’ve read from the author and gosh, it has been a good ride! The story slowly lures you in with all the secrets and mysteries and it keeps u guessing, engaging you to frantically want to discover it all!
I must say, I really didn’t see the twist coming at the 84% plot point. The author managed to keep the entire mystery and tension building up right till the moment where once revealed, you would want to finished up in a heartbeat to understand it all why. The most heartfelt part of the plot was understanding what Lucy was going through as a mother, who loves and will do anything for her children, and yet has to live through the daily nightmare of her son’s illness. Though truly engaging, I felt that the pace could pick up better.

For you whom might be curious, here’s a little spoiler :
Main characters, Aidan (a vet) and Lucy ( a retired doctor, now a devoted wife and mother) looks like a perfect couple with a perfect family with 2 sons, Conner and Keiron. Fate dealt them a bad hand when Keiron was diagnosed with an terminal illness and desperately needs a donor. Conner has secrets of his own with his best pals, Ryan and Tyler, while his parents owning their fair share of secrets and lies. Everything slowly unraveled when Ryan and Tyler started to disappear one after the other. People starts to dub them as “The Taken” and Conner feels he will be next. As they race against time to solve the mysteries of the disappearances, the plot twists keeps revealing themselves and all will make sense in the end.

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The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz

The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz (Published July 1st 1996)

📖 The Eyes of Darkness
✍️ Dean Koontz

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars on Goodreads

2022.08.10 ~ 1215am.. finished reading this month’s first #BOTM「The Eyes of Darkness」

and here’s my review 🤓:

Long time since I last picked up a Dean Koontz book and this novel intrigued me with its storyline and the hint that author predicted the Coronavirus like 4 decades ago! It was an easy read , a little slow in the beginning but 40% in, it keeps you going to the end. A very different kind of style from his other books that I’ve read but I like this current creative better.

For you whom might be curious, here’s a little spoiler :

This book is about a Mother who believes her son may still be alive (although he was supposed to be dead due to an excursion accident a year ago) when she started to experience paranormal activities that tells her so. So she started to investigate and commence on an adventure to rescue him and in due course, stumbled on a highly classified government conspiracy and research that involved chemical and biological weapons which surprisingly, started off from Wuhan, China. (So coincidentally also named the Wuhan-400 virus 😳)

So if you are as curious, go pick one up and start reading!! 🤓

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Switch by Grant McKenzie

Switch by Grant McKenzie (Published July 2nd 2009)

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I must say, crime thrillers used to be my kind of genre but somehow lost the consistency to follow such stories in recent years until a friend of mine rekindled the interest again. ^^

Brief synopsis:
The main character, Sam White, is a middle-aged security guard who has lost his golden opportunity in life to seek fame as an actor and resigned to his contented life with his wife and daughter back at his high school hometown in Portland city. He was on his way back home after work one day and found his home being exploded to the ground with this family inside. He later realized that the bodies in the house may not be of his wife and daughter and began his "adventure" to save his family from the sadistic murderer who had "switched" the fate of another guy's family for his. He was approached by Zack Parker, a cosmetic surgeon, whose family was supposedly in Sam's torched house, who offered to help him find the mastermind in return for his own revenge. Hot on their heels were 2 detectives who managed to find out the truth with scattered evidences (and real luck).

Luckily, "Switch" is quite an easy read and the author has managed to keep your interest going. Though frankly, I didn't quite understand the logic and psychological mindset of the crime mastermind, the overall story flow does make sense or it will definitely be tossed within the first 100 pages. And I must say, the ending didn't give me much surprise which is slightly disappointing. ;P This is the first book I've read by Grant McKenzie and I'm glad he had paced the plot pretty well to keep me going till the end. ;)

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Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon

Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon (Published May 17th 2011)

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Read from June 02 to 11, 2011

"If you are holding this book in your hand, you are one of the chosen."

This is the first book I've read by Jennifer McMahon and frankly, I was attracted to the book by its pretty cover... and intriguing title ;P I used to love fantasy and fairy tales and I guess that part of me faded as adulthood slowly take over living reality. This book actually brought back the familiar love for the genre all over again. I personally feel that there are many gaps and the story flow could be written smoother. The novel is written in parts alternating between a character in the past, Lisa, fifteen years ago when she was just 12, of her own account of her belief in the mystical fairies leading to own her disappearance and a character in the present day, Pheobe who had a deprived and suffered childhood, currently 35 years of age and the girlfriend of Lisa’s brother, Sam, of her account of uncovering the mystery of Lisa’s disappearance. When Lisa seemed to reappear 15 years later, it brought back the ghosts of the past and revealed the skeleton in the cupboard for everyone involved. The story only captivate my large interest from the second half to the end as the mystery and plot peaked and thickened with a disturbing (yet somewhat unbelievable) twist in the end. It seems like the author wants you to believe in the dark side and yet still tries to have the story in the logical sense, which results in a questioning and puzzling closure (I usually don't like it when they leave you hanging and guessing). Nonetheless, it was a good read if you like mystery and suspense that will keep you going. ^v^

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