BOOK INFO

Title: The Escape Room

Author: Megan Goldin

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Publish Date: July 30, 2019

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 5/5

BOOK BLURB

Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive.

In the lucrative world of finance, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are at the top of their game. They’ve mastered the art of the deal and celebrate their success in style—but a life of extreme luxury always comes at a cost.

Invited to participate in an escape room challenge as a team-building exercise, the ferociously competitive co-workers crowd into the elevator of a high-rise building, eager to prove themselves. But when the lights go off and the doors stay shut, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary competition: they’re caught in a dangerous game of survival.

Trapped in the dark, the colleagues must put aside their bitter rivalries and work together to solve cryptic clues to break free. But as the game begins to reveal the team’s darkest secrets, they realize there’s a price to be paid for the terrible deeds they committed in their ruthless climb up the corporate ladder. As tempers fray, and the clues turn deadly, they must solve one final chilling puzzle: which one of them will kill in order to survive?

MY REVIEW

Four coworkers attend an escape room challenge. They are trapped in an elevator, where the puzzles they are presented become increasingly personal. As tempers rise and egos bruise, it seems that not everyone will make it out of the elevator alive.

Told using multiple points of view and multiple timelines. The book is largely told from Sarah’s POV. Sarah is a former coworker, with her story starting when she took a finance job at a top company. Sarah is a recent graduate with a desire to succeed. The coworkers in the elevator are Vincent, Sylvia, Sam, and Jules. As they come to terms with their present situation, bits and pieces from the past are included to pull it all together. Vincent is the boss, Sylvia is the seductress, Sam is the charmer, and Jules is the alcoholic. They are all workaholics and ruthless in their rise to top.

Interesting characters in a unique setting. I enjoyed the trapped elevator with puzzles to get released. Besides that, it’s the world of Wall Street finance, with workaholic, extravagant, and outrageous behavior. The four escape room characters aren’t all that likable, since they are greedy, corrupt, and selfish. Sarah, the former coworker, is mostly likable. She is smart and driven, and struggles to fit in with her team.

I found this to be a fun and intriguing read. The Escape Room is a revenge type story against some greedy Wall Street investors. Everyone on the team is out for themselves, and more than willing to throw the others to the wolves. Recommended for readers of finance thrillers. Complex, absorbing, and entertaining.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books by Megan Goldin:

1. The Girl in Kellers Way
2. The Escape Room
3. The Night Swim
4. Stay Awake
5. Dark Corners

BOOK INFO

Title: Miracle Creek

Author: Angie Kim

Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books

Publish Date: April 16, 2019

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 4/5

BOOK BLURB

How far will you go to protect your family? Will you keep their secrets? Ignore their lies?

In a small town in Virginia, a group of people know each other because they’re part of a special treatment center, a hyperbaric chamber that may cure a range of conditions from infertility to autism. But then the chamber explodes, two people die, and it’s clear the explosion wasn’t an accident.

A powerful showdown unfolds as the story moves across characters who are all maybe keeping secrets, hiding betrayals. Chapter by chapter, we shift alliances and gather evidence: Was it the careless mother of a patient? Was it the owners, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? Could it have been a protester, trying to prove the treatment isn’t safe?

“A stunning debut about parents, children and the unwavering hope of a better life, even when all hope seems lost” (Washington Post), Miracle Creek uncovers the worst prejudice and best intentions, tense rivalries and the challenges of parenting a child with special needs. It’s “a quick-paced murder mystery that plumbs the power and perils of community” (O Magazine) as it carefully pieces together the tense atmosphere of a courtroom drama and the complexities of life as an immigrant family. Drawing on the author’s own experiences as a Korean-American, former trial lawyer, and mother of a “miracle submarine” patient, this is a novel steeped in suspense and igniting discussion.

MY REVIEW

A courtroom drama that recalls the events leading up to the night of the explosion. Told with the alternating points of view of the patients and the family that ran the Miracle Submarine. The Miracle Submarine, an experimental medical treatment, explodes. Two people are killed and others injured. The investigation into the explosion leads to a patient’s mother on trial for murder.

The Miracle Submarine is a pressurized oxygen chamber that is large enough for multiple people to receive treatment at the same time. The patients that are involved in the treatment include Matt (infertility), Teresa and her daughter Rosa (cerebral palsy), Kitt and her son TJ (autism), and Elizabeth and her son Henry (autism). Matt is the only adult undergoing the treatment. The others involved are receiving treatment for the children, though the chamber allows the mothers to accompany their children. Each of the families has something to contribute to the mystery of the submarine and what happened on the night of the explosion.

The family that ran the treatment facility – Pak, Young, and Mary Yoo – are Korean immigrants. Pak and Young are married, and Mary is their teenage daughter. Their facility was a target of local protests in the small town of Miracle Creek. Since it is an experimental treatment, some viewed it as dangerous. Family drama (secrets and not really understanding one another) comes into play for the Yoos.

Intriguing mystery with unique characters. With so many characters, there are multiple stories. Things are happening in each character’s life, and it all culminates into a disastrous event. Everything is not as it seems, and everyone is keeping secrets. Captivating and powerful.

BOOK INFO

Title: Into the Jungle

Author: Erica Ferencik

Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press

Publish Date: May 28, 2019

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 3/5

BOOK BLURB

Lily Bushwold thought she’d found the antidote to endless foster care and group homes: a gig teaching English in Cochabamba, Bolivia. As soon as she could steal enough cash for the plane, she was on it.

But the program was a scam. And bonding with other broke, rudderless girls in the local youth hostel wasn’t the answer. Falling crazy in love with Omar, a savvy, handsome local who’d left his life as a hunter in Ayachero—a remote jungle village—to try city life: this was the last thing Lily could have imagined.

When Omar learns that a jaguar had killed his four-year-old nephew in Ayachero, he gives Lily a choice: stay alone in the unforgiving city, or travel to the last in the ever-more-isolated string of river towns in the jungles of Bolivia. Thirty-foot anacondas? Puppy-sized spiders? Vengeful shamans with unspeakable powers? None of it matters to love-struck Lily. She follows Omar to a ruthless new world of lawless poachers, bullheaded missionaries, and desperate indigenous tribes driven to the brink of extinction. To survive, Lily must navigate the jungle—and all its residents—using only her wits and resilience.

MY REVIEW

Lily is a young woman who moves to Bolivia to escape her not-so-great life in the US. When her work plans in Bolivia fall through, she decides to stay anyway. She makes some friends, has fun, and meets Omar. She falls hard for Omar, a local man from a remote jungle village. Omar learns that his nephew was killed by a jaguar, so he plans to return to the village. He asks Lily to travel into the jungle with him. She is in love, and follows Omar to live in a jungle village that no one has ever heard of. Lily is unprepared for what meets her.

Since Lily is young and in love, she agrees to travel to a remote village without really knowing anything about the jungle. Really, Lily seems aimless, but she has one thing going for her. She’s determined. Jungle life turns out to be much more challenging than she anticipated, but she works to find her place in the community.

This starts as a slow-paced novel, but gets more thrilling toward the end. It also gets more unrealistic as the story progresses. In addition to the adventure story, there are also moments of magical realism. I wasn’t expecting the magical realism element, but found it enjoyable. For the most part, I liked the story and was rooting for Lily to find her place in the jungle village.

Into the Jungle is an enjoyable read that combines adventure, thriller, women’s fiction, and magical realism. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the jungle. Exciting, mysterious, and wild.

Books by Erica Ferencik:

1. Repeaters
2. The River at Night
3. Into the Jungle

BOOK INFO

Title: Little Darlings

Author: Melanie Golding

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Publish Date: April 30, 2019

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 4/5

BOOK BLURB

Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they’re right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own…creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she’s imagining things.

A month passes. And one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren’s side in a park. But when they’re found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley—to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.

Determined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable. But if she’s wrong about what she saw…she’ll be making the biggest mistake of her life.

Compulsive, creepy, and inspired by some of our darkest fairy tales, Little Darlings will have you checking—and rechecking—your own little ones. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.

MY REVIEW

Lauren has newborn twins. In the hospital room one night, Lauren sees a woman try to take her babies and replace them with her own. The police find no one around, and everyone thinks Lauren is imagining things. A month later, the babies disappear. When they are found, they look like Lauren’s twins, but Lauren believes they are not her babies. To get her babies back, Lauren will do the unthinkable.

Lauren is a fantastic unreliable narrator. She is a new mother of twins, so it’s not surprising that everyone around her (husband, doctor, etc.) considers her behavior to be due to exhaustion and postpartum depression. The questioning of what was real, or if there was a supernatural element in play, made for a compelling read. The fairy tale element added to the eerie atmosphere.

Little Darlings is thriller inspired by dark fairy tales. Good for fans of psychological thrillers and Grimms’ fairy tales. Dark, creepy, and clever.

Books by Melanie Golding:

1. Little Darlings
2. The Hidden
3. The Sight

BOOK INFO

Title: I Will Never Leave You

Author: S.M. Thayer

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Publish Date: September 1, 2018

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 3/5

BOOK BLURB

All they want is a baby—and they’ll do anything to have one.

Banking heiress Trish and her husband, James, seem to have it all, from a lavish lifestyle to a historic mansion in the nation’s capital. All that’s missing from their privileged life is a baby.

So when Trish sees Anne Elise for the first time, it’s no surprise that she falls deeply in love. There’s just one problem: Trish isn’t the mother. The baby belongs to Laurel, James’s young mistress. And James and Laurel want the wife out of the picture.

When Trish becomes perversely obsessed with making Laurel’s baby her own, the lovers come up with a wicked plan to end James’s marriage that quickly goes awry. As the love triangle becomes more and more dangerous, how far is each of them willing to go to get what they want?

MY REVIEW

Trish and James seem like a couple who has everything, but nothing is as perfect as it seems. Trish desperately wants a baby, but she and James have been unable to conceive. However, James’s mistress Laurel just had a baby. Laurel wants Trish out of the picture, so she and James can be a family. Trish wants the baby.

I Will Never Leave You is told with alternating points of view – Trish, Laurel, and James. Trish is a wealthy woman and has everything she wants, except for a child. When James has a child with another woman, Trish sees it as an opportunity. James is a scoundrel. Besides cheating on his wife, he’s terrible with money, which is why their finances are kept separate. He’s in debt, and needs money fast. Laurel is young and naive. She trusts James, and believes they could have a nice life together, if only Trish wasn’t in their way.

I Will Never Leave You is a fast-paced story full of unlikable characters. This is a quick and entertaining read, but it does require a suspension of disbelief.

BOOK INFO

Title: The River

Author: Peter Heller

Publisher: Knopf

Publish Date: March 5, 2019

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 3/5

BOOK BLURB

Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman? From this charged beginning, master storyteller Peter Heller unspools a headlong, heart-pounding story of desperate wilderness survival.

MY REVIEW

Two college best friends, Wynn and Jack, travel to Canada to canoe the Maskwa River and spend time in the wilderness. They envision a leisurely trip to enjoy nature, but their journey soon takes a turn. For starters, a wildfire is heading their way. Then, they hear a couple arguing, but the next day, they encounter a man paddling alone. Wynn and Jack decide to go in search of the missing woman.

A lovely story of male friendship, adventure, and nature. Wynn and Jack met as freshmen in college and soon bonded over their love for books and nature. The young men are both knowledgeable of the wilderness and capable of taking care of themselves. Their canoeing adventure turns into a suspenseful search for a missing woman and a trip out of the wilderness before the wildfire reaches them.

The River is a beautifully written novel. I enjoy novels that focus on nature, and found this one to be very well done. Also, the wonderful male friendship in this book was great to read. The River is slow-paced, though it does get more exciting toward the end.

I received a digital copy of this book via Penguin’s First to Read in exchange for an honest review.