Category: Thriller

Title: The Family Upstairs
Author: Lisa Jewell
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: November 5, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Be careful who you let in. 

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am. 

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them. 

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone. 

In The Family Upstairs, the master of “bone-chilling suspense” (People) brings us the can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

Review:

This was such a creepy story.

There were three different alternating narratives. Two were in third person, and followed Libby and Lucy. The third narrative was in first person, told by Henry. It took a while for these narratives to come together, but each story was thrilling in itself.

There were so many creepy parts to the story. I couldn’t figure out how everyone was related for a long time, but I really wanted to find out. I couldn’t put the book down.

I highly recommend this book if you like fast paced thrillers!

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

What to read next:

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

The Au Pair by Emma Rous

Have you read The Family Upstairs? What did you think of it?

Title: The Last Affair
Author: Margot Hunt
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: MIRA Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: November 26, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Love may be blind, but obsession’s a real killer.

Nora Holliday is not that kind of woman. Not the kind who has an illicit affair with a married man. But Josh Landon is everything Nora’s alcoholic husband isn’t. And now she and Josh are so infatuated, they can’t stay away from one another.

Abby Landon, Josh’s daughter, is home from college nursing a broken heart. She’s seeking solace, not more scandal, so when she catches her dad kissing Nora, she vows to take the homewrecker down.

And as for Abby’s mother and Josh’s wife, Gwen? To anyone on the outside looking in, the mother of two appears to be living the ideal suburban life.

Until she winds up dead.

The serene seaside town of Shoreham has always been the perfect place to raise a family—not somewhere housewives are brutally murdered. So who killed Gwen Landon, and how many twisted secrets will be exposed as the vindictive plot comes undone?

Review:

This was an exciting thriller!

The pacing of this thriller was great. It sped up throughout the story, building the tension. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened. This was especially good, since the final murder is described in the prologue, though we don’t find out the details until the end.

This is the first thriller that I’ve read in a long time, that I couldn’t figure out the ending. The ending was so shocking! It wasn’t one of the possibilities that I thought had happened. It was a nice surprise, since it was described in the prologue, yet I still couldn’t guess what had happened.

I loved this story!

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

What to read next:

Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle

Best Friends Forever by Margot Hunt

Author Info:

Margot Hunt is a critically acclaimed author of psychological suspense. Her work has been praised by Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus Reviews.

Have you read The Last Affair? What did you think of it?

Title: An Anonymous Girl
Author: Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 8, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The next novel of psychological suspense and obsession from the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us.

Seeking women ages 18–32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed.

When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave.

Question #1: Could you tell a lie without feeling guilt?

But as the questions grow more and more intense and invasive and the sessions become outings where Jess is told what to wear and how to act, she begins to feel as though Dr. Shields may know what she’s thinking… and what she’s hiding.

Question #2: Have you ever deeply hurt someone you care about?

As Jess’s paranoia grows, it becomes clear that she can no longer trust what in her life is real, and what is one of Dr. Shields’ manipulative experiments. Caught in a web of deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.

Question #3: Should a punishment always fit the crime?

From the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us comes an electrifying new novel about doubt, passion, and just how much you can trust someone.

Review:

This was a chilling thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat!

There were two narratives in this story: Jessica and Dr. Sheilds. Jessica’s narrative was from her first person perspective, but Dr. Sheilds’s perspective was second person, speaking to Jessica. This second person perspective, with her speaking directly to “you,” brought me right into the story. It felt like she was talking to me, which was so creepy.

This story kept me guessing until the end. It was very hard to put down because I wanted to know what was going to happen. I had no idea how it would end, and I was thoroughly surprised!

I loved this thriller! I highly recommend it for a fast-paced read!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Have you read An Anonymous Girl? What did you think of it?

Title: Hideaway
Author: Nicole Lundrigan
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: July 9, 2019
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

What if home is the most dangerous place you can be? For fans of Room and readers of Shari Lapena. 

Gloria Janes appears to be a doting suburban mother and loving wife. But beyond her canary-yellow door, Gloria controls her husband, Telly, as well as seven-year-old Maisy and her older brother Rowan, through a disorienting cycle of adoration and banishment. 

When Telly leaves, Gloria turns on Rowan. He runs away, finding unlikely refuge with a homeless man named Carl, with whom he forms the kind of bond he has never found with his parents. After they are menaced by strangers, Rowan follows Carl to an isolated cottage, where he accidentally sets off a burst of heightened paranoia in Carl, and their adventure takes a dark turn. 

Gloria is publicly desperate for the safe return of her son while privately plotting ever wilder ways to lure Telly home for good. Her behaviour grows more erratic and her manipulation of Maisy begins to seem dedicated toward an outcome that only she can see. The two storylines drive relentlessly toward a climax that is both shocking and emotionally riveting.

Suspenseful, unsettling, and masterful, Hideaway explores the secrets of a troubled family and illuminates an unlikely hero and a source of unexpected strength.

Review:

This story was difficult to get into at first. Most of the characters have mental health disorders. They were making bad decisions that they couldn’t help because of their conditions, but it made me uncomfortable to read about. However, once I got into the story, I couldn’t put it down.

The two narrators of the story are both children, Rowan and Maisy. They were unreliable because they were children, but also because their sense of reality was warped by the adults with them. Rowan spent time with Carl, who often had conversations with people who weren’t there and he would lash out at random moments. Their mother, Gloria, would convince Maisy that things happened when they didn’t, to cover for her own mistakes. These unreliable narrators added a lot of tension to the story.

This was a great thriller with an unpredictable ending!

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Room by Emma Donoghue

The Substitute by Nicole Lundrigan

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