Category: Thriller

Title: The Hunting Wives
Author: May Cobb
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Berkley
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: May 18, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Hunting Wives share more than target practice, martinis, and bad behavior in this novel of obsession, seduction, and murder.

Sophie O’Neill left behind an envy-inspiring career and the stressful, competitive life of big-city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. It seems like the perfect life with a beautiful home in an idyllic rural community. But Sophie soon realizes that life is now too quiet, and she’s feeling bored and restless.

Then she meets Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives. Sophie finds herself completely drawn to Margot and swept into her mysterious world of late-night target practice and dangerous partying. As Sophie’s curiosity gives way to full-blown obsession, she slips farther away from the safety of her family and deeper into this nest of vipers.

When the body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the Hunting Wives meet, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation and her life spiraling out of control.

Review:

Sophie O’Neill left behind her busy life in Chicago to move to the Texas small town, where she went to high school, with her husband and toddler son. Soon after, she becomes obsessed with the socialite Margot Banks. Margot is gorgeous and seems to have it all. One day, Margot invites Sophie to join her small group of friends, called the Hunting Wives, at her lake house. They like to drink and do target practice with shotguns. However, they get up to other secret wild and dangerous activities. When a body is found on the lake house property, Sophie ends up being one of the main suspects. Sophie has to save herself as her life spins out of control.

This was such an intense thriller. It had short chapters, which I always find makes me read the book faster. There were so many twists and unexpected events that I couldn’t predict where the story was going. I was completely surprised at the ending. I thought I had figured out what was happening but I was wrong. I love it when a story can surprise me like that.

There were some very intense and potentially triggering scenes. There were instances of alcohol abuse, drugging someone, and having affairs. There were also mentions of suicide and abortions. These things made the story very intense and dramatic, but these scenes could be triggering to some readers.

The Hunting Wives was an intense and surprising thriller!

Thank you Berkley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

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Have you read The Hunting Wives? What did you think of it?

Title: The Last Thing He Told Me
Author: Laura Dave
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: May 4, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

We all have stories we never tell.
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her.

Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.

As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered; as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss; as a US Marshal and FBI agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.

Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth, together. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they are also building a new future. One neither Hannah nor Bailey could have anticipated.

Review:

The day that Owen Michaels goes missing, he sends a note to his wife that says “Protect her.” His wife, Hannah Hall, knows that the note is referring to his daughter, Bailey. Hannah has never been close to her stepdaughter, but now she has to protect her. Then, they find out what happened. The company that Owen works for is being charged with fraud, and his boss and closest friend has been arrested. Owen has disappeared without a trace. The more that Hannah searches for him, the more she has to realize that her husband isn’t the man she thought he was.

This was such a suspenseful read. I read some reviews that said this story had a slow pace. I don’t think it was slow, but it wasn’t action packed like a lot of popular thrillers. The chapters were short which always makes me read a book faster. This was more of a psychological suspense story, without a lot of explosive action.

This story kept me guessing until the end. I really had no idea where the story was going to go, so I had to keep reading to find out. The pieces of the puzzle of what happened with Owen unraveled slowly and everything came together at the end. I would have liked a more impactful ending, but I was pleased with where they ended up.

The Last Thing He Told Me is a suspenseful thriller!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Have you read The Last Thing He Told Me? What did you think of it?

Title: The Girls Are All So Nice Here
Author: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: March 9, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Two former best friends return to their college reunion to find that they’re being circled by someone who wants revenge for what they did ten years before—and will stop at nothing to get it—in this shocking psychological thriller about ambition, toxic friendship, and deadly desire.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here opens when Ambrosia Wellington receives an invitation to her ten-year college reunion. Only, slipped in with all the expected information about lodging and the weekend’s schedule is an anonymous letter that says: “It’s time to talk about what we did.” Instantly, Ambrosia realizes that the secrets of her past—and the people she thought she’d left there—aren’t as buried as she’d thought. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did—and who she did it with. Larger-than-life Sloane Sullivan (“Sully”), who could make anyone do anything. The game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else, and the girl, Amb’s angelic roommate, who paid the price.

Amb had thought that she and Sully had gotten away with what they did their first semester at Wesleyan. But as Amb receives increasingly menacing messages during the reunion, it becomes clear that she’s being circled by someone who wants more than just the truth. Amb discovers that her own memories don’t tell the whole story, and that her actions and friendship with Sully had even more disturbing consequences than she ever imagined.

Told in alternating timelines between the reunion and Ambrosia’s turbulent first months of college, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a gripping rollercoaster ride of a novel that examines the dark complexities of female friendship and the brutal lengths girls can go to take what they think they are owed.

Review:

Ambrosia Wellington gets an invitation to her ten year college reunion, but she isn’t planning on going until she gets a threatening note that says, “It’s time to talk about what we did.” When Ambrosia was at college, she was roommates with Flora Banning, a sweet and innocent girl with a boyfriend at another college. Ambrosia was interested in getting a more exciting college experience so she became friends with Sloan “Sully” Sullivan, the party girl. Sully liked to play games with girls and boys, and always have a good time. While Ambrosia is at the reunion, she continues to get threatening messages. She has to come to terms with what she did in school, and realize that maybe her memories aren’t as reliable as she thought.

This story was so intense. Throughout the first half of the story, I was certain that I had figured out the ending. However, there was a twist halfway through that showed me that I was completely wrong. The final chapters were so suspenseful that I was holding my breath. This was definitely a wild story.

This story had a very dark tone. There is some potentially triggering content, such as bullying, suicide, overdose, rape, and cheating. This content was quite intense at times and difficult to read. It was discomforting to read, but these are things that do happen on college campuses. These topics made for an uncomfortable read at times, but the story was so intricately plotted, that I had to give it five full stars.

This was a dark and intense thriller.

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Have you read The Girls Are All So Nice Here? What did you think of it?

Title: Just My Luck
Author: Adele Parks
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: MIRA
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: April 6, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

It was supposed to be the lottery win they’d always dreamed of…

For fifteen years, Lexi and Jake have played the same six numbers with their friends. Over drinks, dinner parties and summer barbecues, the three couples have discussed the important stuff—kids, marriages, careers—and they’ve laughed off their disappointment when they failed to win anything.

But then the unthinkable happens. There’s a rift in the group. Someone is caught in a lie. And soon after, six numbers come up that change everything forever.

Lexi and Jake have a ticket worth millions. And their friends are determined to claim a share.

#1 Sunday Times bestselling author Adele Parks returns with a riveting look at the dark side of wealth in this gripping tale of friendship, money, betrayal and good luck gone bad…

Review:

For fifteen years, a group of six friends have bought a lottery ticket every week using the same numbers. Lexi and Jake always buy them for the group. One night, they have a fight, breaking the group apart. However, the following week, their numbers come up, and Lexi and Jake have the winning ticket. Despite their fight, their four friends want a share of the winnings. This is only the start of a series of devastating events, which they can’t recover from.

Everyone dreams of winning the lottery, but it doesn’t have the dreamy outcome everyone imagines. Once you come into a lot of money, everyone you’ve ever met expects some of it. This happened in this story when Lexi and Jake won the lottery. It was complicated since they had been in a group, buying tickets together for many years. The question is did they really had a fight and dissolve the group or are Lexi and Jake just saying that to keep the money. This prize of 18 million pounds led their lives to spiral out of control, with affairs, a kidnapping, and many betrayals.

This story had some shocking and disturbing scenes. There was some abuse of a teen and a miscarriage. These scenes were intense and made the story suspenseful, but there were many flashback scenes which slowed down the pacing. There was a lot of unnecessary information that gave a full story of all the characters, but wasn’t necessary to understand the whole plot. It would have had much faster pacing if some of the flashback scenes were shortened or cut.

This was an intense thriller that will make you think twice about buying a lottery ticket.

Thank you HarperCollins for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Other books in the series:

Have you read Just My Luck? What did you think of it?

Title: Lucky
Author: Marissa Stapley
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: April 6, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

For fans of The Flight Attendant​, a compelling and thrilling road-trip novel about a talented grifter named Lucky whose past comes back to haunt her.

What if you had the winning ticket that would change your life forever, but you couldn’t cash it in?

Lucky Armstrong is a tough, talented grifter who has just pulled off a million-dollar heist with her boyfriend, Cary. She’s ready to start a brand-new life, with a new identity—when things go sideways. Lucky finds herself alone for the first time, navigating the world without the help of either her father or her boyfriend, the two figures from whom she’s learned the art of the scam.

When she discovers that a lottery ticket she bought on a whim is worth millions, her elation is tempered by one big problem: cashing in the winning ticket means the police will arrest her for her crimes. She’ll go to prison, with no chance to redeem her fortune.

As Lucky tries to avoid arrest and make a future for herself, she must confront her past by reconciling with her father; finding her mother, who abandoned her when she just a baby; and coming to terms with the man she thought she loved—whose complicated past is catching up to her, too.

This is a novel about truth, personal redemption, and the complexity of being good. It introduces a singularly gifted, complicated character who must learn what it means to be independent and honest…before her luck runs out.

Review:

Lucky Armstrong is a talented con artist. She’s ready to leave her grifter life behind and move away with her boyfriend, when he disappears and leaves her wanted by the police. Lucky goes on the run. Then she discovers that the lottery ticket she bought has won the jackpot. The problem is that she can’t cash it in since she’s wanted for scamming people out of millions of dollars. To avoid being captured, Lucky has to travel around the country to see her father who raised her, her mother who abandoned her, and other people from her past to figure out her future.

This was a gripping thriller from the start. I started reading it before going to sleep and I was tempted to stay up all night to finish it. There were twists that surprised me. Lucky’s past was full of secrets, which were revealed in flashbacks throughout the story. There were shocking reveals right until the last pages.

I loved the ending of this story. There was a part in the opening of the story that didn’t seem related to the rest of the story. I was hoping it would all come together in the end and it did. It was a great ending that left me satisfied with the whole story.

This is such a great thriller! I highly recommend it!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Have you read Lucky? What did you think of it?