Book Review: THE NEXT WOMAN

Title: The Next Woman

Author: Caroline Corcoran

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Pages: 322

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Lily’s best friend, Alice, disappeared on her birthday. Living on Aurora Island, there are so many places you can disappear to. The police are unable to find Alice. Then a woman called Becca disappears and then Corinne. They are termed the Alphabet Women, as it increasingly becomes obvious that someone is kidnapping the women in alphabetical order, one women for each letter of the alphabet. An office manager at the Aurora Island Eco Wellness Retreat, Lily lives in fear of being taken when L comes around.

Ross, a journalist from Manchester, comes over to the island to start a podcast that would help find the missing women and stop the nightmare. He convinces Lily to help produce his podcast and to offer her local knowledge. And all along, the danger is inching closer. The police are at their wits’ end.

Then L comes around, and Lily is safe, as another woman is taken. Has Lily escaped or are her secrets about to catch up with her?

 

The story is written in the 1^st person present tense PoV of Lily first, and then, once she disappears, we get the 1^st person present tense PoV of Zadie. The chapters are named after letters.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The chapters move fast. The chapter named M was dripping with tension.  The point where Lily disappears is the high point of the book.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

After that, it’s downhill, and we stop caring about the missing women.

I found the resolution very disappointing, bland and downright silly. The execution was flat. The reason why 26 women were kidnapped was unbelievable in a very underwhelming way.

Lily’s backstory doesn’t hit us with the force that the author intends it to. The mystery turns out to be related to her past, but in most incidental way.

It is very annoying when a character, supposedly key, is introduced at the 87% mark. Even Lily’s dad, Duncan, was introduced at the close of the story, without Lily ever mentioning a word about him.

We never get answers to how the kidnappings actually take place, which is something we need considering the suspense that has been built.

The last chapter, the actual tying up of the loose ends, should have been summarised by a 3^rd person omniscient narrator. In podcast format, the information was annoying with Ross appearing to be some kind of a know-it-all.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

For the bulk of the story, we have no idea what the police are doing.

There are some diversity token characters put in just because. These are Radhika, Anushka and Jameela. They have no role to play.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE:

A good premise, with a very tepid mystery attached.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: IMAGINARY STRANGERS

Title: Imaginary Strangers (Dangerous Strangers #1)

Author: Minka Kent

Publisher: Thomas and Mercer

Pages: 269

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Camille Prescott is a sociopath. Raised by mother, Lucinda, who has not only never showed her only child any love, but has instead been cruel and neglectful towards her child. The experience has affected Camille adversely, making her incapable of feeling any of the emotions we take for granted.

But that has not prevented her from winging it. Now married to a handsome surgeon, Will, Camille, is mother to two lovely children. When her older daughter, six-year-old Georgie, comes home from school with an imaginary new friend that seems to exert a lot of influence on the child. What’s worse, this new friend knows a lot about Camille’s childhool, things she has worked hard to keep hidden, things that could get her into trouble if they ever emerged into the light.

Pretty soon, Camille is wondering. Is the new friend and her awareness of Camille’s past a coincidence, or is a sinister presence threatening her and her family?

The book is written in the first-person PoV of Camille.

 

WHAT I LIKED: I liked the first chapter, when Camille first escapes from her mother’s home.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

But thereafter she seemed to lose steam. Adult Camille was so tame compared to teenage Camille.

I opted to read this one because of the author’s previous books which I liked. Unfortunately, this one wasn’t her best.

There were long conversations about unnecessary bits. There were also some proofing and grammatical errors. “He chews his inner lip,” we are told. What does that mean?

 

Will was set up as a great catch? He's a handsome surgeon, a loving husband and father. What's not to like? Yet somehow, I didn't like him.

The dreaded Lucinda doesn’t show up at all in this book. Instead the adversary is someone completely different. And that made me feel slightly cheated. It is bad form to prop someone as the adversary and then for them to not even put in an appearance. Whether it is a standalone book or a series, we need to see the characters the author has introduced to us. We spend a great deal of time disliking Lucinda on Camille’s account, and we never get a chance to discover what she’s like for ourselves.

 

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

Why isn’t Will’s sister ever named in this book? Not only does she had no presence in the book, she doesn’t even rate a name.

Also, why doesn’t Will ever listen to Camille? Why doesn’t Camille ever try to talk to Will about her past? There are no satisfactory answers to those two questions, other than making the plot forward.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: I have read better from this author.

 (I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE

Title: Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Author: Kristin Mulligan

Publisher: Self-published

Pages: 157

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Chloe Simpson, still single in her early 30s, signs up for a speed dating event for singles, to be held on Friday, February 6, a week before Valentine’s Day, allowing enough time for singles to hit it off with someone and pair up for the big day. She will meet 15 men for 5 minutes each, hoping one of them will be the man of her dreams.

When she arrives there, she meets Jude, a drop-dead handsome paramedic that she hopes she will be paired with. Inside there are other good men. There’s Lucas, a handsome accountant; Dominic, a kind-hearted farmer who appears so wholesome; Peter, a podiatrist with a foot fetish, and Dustin, the over-animated organiser of the event. Then there’s Augustine, who gives Chloe the creeps, and Warren, who is horribly sexist and rude, Tyler, who is polished but still married, and the charming Grant.

Before the night is over, Chloe finds herself trapped in a dark space, with no way of escaping. It is clear that her captor is someone related to the speed dating night. But who is it? And what plans do they have for her?

 

The book is written in the 1^st person present tense PoV of Chloe, with occasional chapters written in the 1^st person present tense PoV of her kidnapper. The chapters alternate between Now and Before, meaning Before she was kidnapped.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The book raises questions about the fraught world of dating, with its dangers as much as the unrealistic expectations that this social ritual raises. The story also serves as a cautionary tale, in terms of alcohol combined with the malicious intentions of unknown people.

The author has thoughtfully provided a content warning for attempted sexual assault, kidnapping, physical violence and psychological stress, among other grievous crimes.

 

I liked the Main Character; her brand of honesty and self-awareness was very relatable. Her experience was so graphic and visceral that the trigger warnings made sense. I was totally hooked on the story as it played out. The writing was good, evoking imagery that was vivid and sensory.

For once, the Main Character’s profession is not just a random thing. Here, Chloe’s knowledge as an architect helps her in captivity. When she uses terms like drywall and caulk, we don’t question, how does she know.

There is a point in Chapter 9, in the Before, when Chloe tells us, I know where I’ll be held prisoner during the event, effectively and unknowingly foreshadowing the future for herself.

There are 15 men at the event who could have kidnapped Chloe. The mystery bothers us as much as it bothers her.

The name of the book, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, reminded me of the song by Queen. The chapter names are a playlist of some of my favourite songs from the 80s and 90s, and a few from the 60s and 70s too, songs I haven’t heard in ages. I’m going to listen to them once I’m done with this review.

The song titles cleverly evoke reactions and emotions that are the opposite of those evoked by the songs whose names they bear. Coupled with the story of unhinged love, the chapter names take on new meaning.

Here are some examples of the naming of the chapters:

Chloe finds herself trapped in a dark space = Come Undone (song by Duran Duran)

Chloe is increasingly frightened after her cries have brought no help = Take My Breath Away (song by Berlin)

Chloe first meets Jude = Can You Feel the Love Tonight (song by Elton John)

Chloe finally remembers = It’s All Coming Back to Me (song by Celine Dion; this title was rather clever)

Here's a list of all the songs that have been referenced in the chapter titles, besides the ones named above:

Friday I'm in Love -- The Cure

Every Breath You Take (I'll Be Watching You) -- The Police

I Want to Know What Love is -- Foreigner

Careless Whisper -- George Michael

Isn't She Lovely? -- Stevie Wonder

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing -- Aerosmith

Nothing's Gonna Stop Us -- Starship

Said I Loved You But I Lied -- Michael Bolton

I Swear -- All 4 One

(Everything I Do) I Do It For You -- Bryan Adams

Kiss From a Rose -- Seal

You Make My Dreams -- Elvis Presley

Right Here Waiting -- Richard Marx

Wicked Game -- Chris Isaak

Can't Fight This Feeling -- REO Speedwagon

Let's Get It On -- Marvin Gaye 

Unbreak My Heart -- Toni Braxton

Faithfully -- Toby Mac

How Deep Is Your Love -- BeeGees

Endless Love -- Diana Ross and Lionel Richie

Tainted Love -- Soft Cell

All Out of Love -- Air Supply

Truly Madly Deeply -- Savage Garden

From This Moment On -- Shania Twain

I Would Do Anything for Love But I Won't Do That -- Meat Loaf

Crazy Little Thing Called Love -- Queen

Hungry Eyes -- Eric Carmen

Didn't We Almost Have It All -- Whitney Houston

(I Just) Died in Your Arms -- Cutting Crew

Save the Best for Last -- Vanessa Williams

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: Nothing

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

There was one mistake, where the narrator tells us that Dustin has just made a wildly inappropriate remark. But Dustin hadn’t said anything at that point.

At one point, the captor reveals that the first woman he ever kidnapped escaped. We are never told who that woman was or what happened to her. This felt like a loose end. 

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: The premise of unhinged love is not an uncommon one. But the clever way in which the author has packaged this story, showing us the danger posed by obsession and unhinged love, and the manner in which she has written it wins a big recommendation from me.

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: THE DOLL'S HOUSE

Title: The Doll's House

Author: Lisa Unger

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories

Pages: 98

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jules, aged 37, and her 17yo daughter, Scout, are moving into Winslow House, the mansion owned by her boyfriend, Kirin, a handsome, wealthy and famous doll and puppet maker. Scout not only resents the move and the forced separation from her best friend, she is also upset that her mother has moved on from her dad, Doug, a best-selling horror novelist, who died just a year ago. Naturally Scout dislikes Kirin.

When they reach the house, the women discover that the house, though old-fashioned in appearance, has been rigged with smart technology. Then Scout finds a doll that Kirin says belonged to his late sister. But even as Scout makes an attempt to forge a connection with Kirin, she fears that something dangerous is happening at the house.

Then there’s a mysterious girl that both women have sighted on the grounds of Winslow House. Who is she?

The story is written in the first-person present tense PoV of both Jules and Scout.

WHAT I LIKED:

Parts of the story were extremely high on menace and felt super creepy. The story was spooky enough. The AI-type of smart voice and the descriptions of the dolls added further layers of dread to the story.

The writing was good. Here’s a quote I liked:

A good mother is only as happy as her unhappiest child.

The book ends on an interesting cliffhanger.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

One of the characters writes a book called The Doll’s House, literally the book title. That’s a done-and-overdone trope.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: This was a good paranormal short story.

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: ALL BECAUSE OF YOU

Title: All Because of You

Author: Lissa Lovik

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Pages: 331

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

For software coder Chris Fox, it is love at first sight. He is smitten with single mother Serena Archer and starts planning ways to make her part of his life. Stalking her, he comes to know that she is a real estate agent. He fixes up a showing with her, and then asks her out, just before agreeing to pay full price for the house she has shown him.

After a successful first date, the relationship grows smoothly and fast, until it’s time for Chris to be introduced to Serena’s parents. Chris wants Serena to move into the new house he has paid full price for, just so she can get a big commission. But Serena doesn’t want to upset the life of her 14yo son, Cole. Pretty soon, he’s going to great lengths to ensure that his relationship with Serena is perfect. That includes bugging her house, and hiding cameras around so he can see exactly what she is up to.

If there’s one thing he knows, it's that Serena needs to be protected from other men, particularly Derek, who Serena thinks is her best friend. But Chris knows better. He knows it’s only a matter of time before Derek makes a move. But Chris is prepared to act, to do whatever it takes, to secure his love. After all, isn’t that what true love is all about?

 

The story is written in the first and second, addressing Serena, past tense PoV of Chris. The book reminded me so much about You by Caroline Kepnes. Chris seemed to me to be a wannabe version of Joe Goldberg.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

Chris’s interactions with his grandfather make us feel sympathetic towards him. The back story ascribed to Chris, particularly related to his mother, help explain to an extent why he is the way he is. He is also deeply influenced by his grandfather, whose advice, stemming from his experiences with his wife, Chris’s grandmother, direct Chris’s actions.

The writing was good. Here is one metaphor I really liked:

My eye is a corroded garage door that won’t open after Derek punches Chris’s eye. So clever!

I found it very interesting that his name is Fox, and hers is Archer, hunted and hunter, when it is the other way around.

Thankfully, this book was light on the sex scenes. Not completely devoid of smut, but toned down to a great extent. It was something that I had found annoying about You, and I was glad to see that this one was different.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

It was too much like You.

The title reminded me of You. Once I started reading, the similarities continued. Chris is very like Joe Goldberg, though not quite as much on edge. He also has a tendency to address Serena directly, so there is a lot of second person, much like You. Some of the sentences, which directly addressed Serena, also had a rhythm which Kepnes had pulled off in You. For instance, “I hear the metal clink of a paint can hitting the tile . . . a humming that buzzes in my ears, and how long has it been since I’ve been this close to you, Serena?”

Again like Joe, Chris stalks Serena physically and on social media. Just like Joe, Chris is a gentleman, when it seems he is going to get what he wants. When he won’t get what he wants, it might be another story. One not all that different from You.

I told myself that I would have to stop comparing All Because of You to Kepnes’s book, You, if I wanted to enjoy this book. Even so, I found Chris to be not quite as menacing as he could have been. A lot of his actions were predictable. The story itself pans out along predictable lines. There are no shocks or surprises.

Towards the last couple of chapters, the writing flits between 2^nd and 3^rd person, sometimes in consecutive paragraphs, while addressing Serena.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

While we get the back story of Chris as a child, we don’t hear of his previous relationships at all. He’s 34. Surely Serena can’t be his first relationship? He does make a casual reference to his previous relationship, but the author doesn’t tell us anything more.

There is a murder around the 69pc mark, that seems so pointless and unnecessary.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: A good read, especially towards the end when the action moves at a brisk pace. Unfortunately, it was too influenced by You.

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: SUMMER'S EDGE

Title: Summer’s Edge

Author: Dana Mele

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Pages: 336

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Spending a summer weekend at the Hartfords’ lake house has been an annual ritual for high schoolers and childhood friends, Emily Joiner; her best friend Chelsea; her other best friend, Kennedy Ellis Hartford, who is also Chelsea’s ex-girlfriend; Emily’s twin, Ryan, and Ryan’s best friend, Chase. But things have changed now.

Exactly a year after the lake house burned down, trapping Emily inside and killing her, her friends, Chelsea, Kennedy, Ryan, Chase, and Chase’s girlfriend of two years, Mila, have gathered together again. They have all been invited to the grand reopening of the lake house. The survivors will gather at the lake house on the anniversary of the tragedy of Emily’s death, after a year of no contact whatsoever with any of the others. They will spend one last weekend together before they all go off to college.

But the reunion is fraught with tension. They are all wary of each other, as they trade grievances and accusations. Chelsea finds the others, except Ryan, untrustworthy and their explanations and statements fraught with lies. And then Chelsea begins to hear Emily’s voice.

Everyone believes that Ryan wants revenge. But is the truth as simple as that?

 

The story is written in the first-person present tense PoV of Chelsea in the present known as the Summer of Egrets, the PoV of Kennedy two years ago in the Summer of Swallows, and Emily one year ago in the Summer of Swans. It was Emily who had the idea of naming the summers they spent at the lake house after birds. If the summer of egrets sounds a little too much like regrets, there’s a reason why.

Besides the three main PoVs, there are short chapters, the longest a mere 106 words, from an unknown PoV, alternating with every chapter in Chelsea’s account. This unknown PoV seems to have vengeance on their mind. All the action in the book, in each of the three PoVs, takes place on just one night, June 17, in different years in each of the accounts.  

The book is named after the Hartfords’ boat, Summer’s Edge, where some of the most critical action takes place.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The author does a good job of creating an atmosphere of menace, especially in the scene with Chelsea in the attic and later in the cellar. The tarot cards, the accusations and counter accusations and the unsettling game of Truth or Dare, all add up to a sense of uneasy and brisk action in the story.

The characters are all friends, but there is enough relationship drama to create trouble for everyone. And when Chase introduces Mila to his friends for the very first time, the friendship dynamic gets all messed up. Mila is particularly annoying, as is often the case when an unknown person is initiated into a group where the dynamic is already settled and accepted.

Kennedy’s PoV introduces a paranormal element into the story.

The writing was nice. Here’s a sample of quotes I liked:

Love changes things. It redraws the map.

There are a lot of ways to be haunted. A place, a person, a memory.

No one who hates flowers haunts a garden.

In a hit and run, it isn’t the hit that’s the crime. It’s the run.

Parts of the truth as just as deceitful as blatant lies.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T:

Except for Ryan, I didn’t find any of the characters likeable. They claim that they would die for the others, but they would just as soon be ready to kill their friends too.  

The voices of the three PoVs sounded exactly alike. There was nothing by way of tone or vocabulary to let us know whose head we were in.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

I found it odd that the author gave Emily and Ryan surnames, and Kennedy’s full name is repeated several times. But Chase, Mila and Chelsea don’t get a mention of their surnames even once. Also Chelsea and Chase sound too alike. The author should have come up with names that didn’t sound so similar.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: The book is a delicious blend of the paranormal with the mundane reality of how mistakes have the capacity of destroying young lives and promising futures. 

 

Book Review: YOU (YOU, #1)

Title: You (You, #1)

Author: Caroline Kepnes

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Pages: 464

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

Having watched the series before I read the book, I couldn’t get Penn Badgley’s voice or persona out of my mind. And for once, I liked the series better.

 

From the moment that creative writing student Guinevere Beck (Beck, to friends) walks into Mooney’s Used and Rare bookshop, where Joe Goldberg is employed, he becomes hopelessly infatuated with her. The infatuation turns very quickly into obsession, as he stalks her physically and on social media. It’s an easy task, as Beck is an open book, always announcing her activities to the world on social media.

Beck, even as she begins to respond to Joe’s overtures, can’t get rich entrepreneur Benji, her not-really-boyfriend, out of her mind. She’s also too much in thrall of her college best friend, Peach Salinger. Joe will have to get rid of the hurdles in his path if he is to have a meaningful relationship with Beck. Fortunately, for him, he is quite adept and experienced at getting rid of the competition.

 

The story is written in the second person PoV—so hard to pull off, but pulled off spectacularly here—of Joe, addressing Beck directly from the first moment he claps eyes on her. What makes it scary is that even though the story is written in the second person, which means that Joe is technically writing to Beck, she is never going to be able to read this account. Therefore, he can be honest with her, and us. He is under no obligation to gatekeep his thoughts.

The whole narrative is one long interior monologue which serves as the framework for the action and the dialogue within. The run-on sentences show the state of his mind.

 

 

As a character, Joe is the most interesting I’ve encountered in a long time. He sees Beck for the first time, is overwhelmed and wants to pop in an Ativan. Right away, we know that he is a person of interest. The impression is confirmed soon enough as we see how deranged he can get.

Joe is devious and manipulative and not a guy you want to get on the wrong side of. For that matter, he’s not a guy you want to get on the right side of either, but Beck doesn’t know that.

Joe is clearly an overthinker, nimbly slipping secrets and revelations into his mental conversations with Beck.

What works in favour of Joe is that the others around him are equally unlikeable. Compared to Joe, the other characters—Peach, Benji, even Beck—come across as severely entitled and annoying. Granted that obsession doesn’t need any sound motive, but Beck was so not worth it. She was shallow, deceitful and not even a good writer. I can understand that the author wrote her like that to get us to feel conflicted about Joe, but he was smart enough to see that she wasn’t worth it.

 

The writing makes us find Joe fascinating and creepy in equal measure. But there are some aspects of Joe’s character that were hard to figure out. What’s with the typewriter he takes to bed?

 

There are multiple references to Stephen King as an author and to his books, The Shining and Doctor Sleep. The author goes all out to show her devotion to King’s oeuvre. Joe says, “Home soda will never be as popular as Stephen King.” Quite a bonus then that King appreciated Joe’s charms and this book.

Stephen King is not the only name to be dropped in this book. There are a number of bookish, musical and pop culture references strewn through the book. I found them overdone. At one point, Joe is effusive in his praise for Coke, while putting down Home Soda, Benji’s brand.

 

What didn’t sit right with me is that we hear nothing about any police investigations into the many deaths that dot the book. Why don’t the police look into where the victims’ phone has pinged off which towers? How come there is never any investigation? And these are wealthy people, not some hobos that no one cares about. Most of the cases are wrapped up so quickly, which seems unbelievably contrived.

Also the descriptions of the sex were very gratuitous, and unnecessary. Almost like erotica, which isn’t something I enjoy reading.

I would have liked it if Beck had had a few aces up her sleeve. But no, she was boring, and her only talent was apparently sex.

Book Review: SOVEREIGN

Title: Sovereign (Part I of the Sovereign Trilogy)

Author: AJ Whitney

Publisher: Blue Handle Publishing

Pages: 177

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐

 

Ten Orphan children, named 331 to 340, have been selected for the decennial Sending, a ritual in which the children are offered to the Sovereign, the reigning deity, in the woods, in exchange for a bountiful harvest for ten years for an unnamed settler/survivor community. Raised in the Orphan Home, the children await the festival.

332, the protagonist, and her best friend, 333, are looking forward to the Sending, until something they overhear leads them to realise that their position isn’t quite as privileged as they imagine it to be.

 

The Prologue opens in the past tense, in the third person limited PoV of an unnamed grey-haired woman. It might as well have been Chapter 1, since this PoV alternates with the 1^st person, present tense PoV of the main character, in every other chapter throughout the novel.

When we first meet the protagonist, whose gender we are unaware of yet, we get the distinct impression that they are running for their life. While we learn later that this is only a game, it does contrast nicely with later events when the game becomes all too real and dangerous.

The description, though minimal, helps evoke the setting to some extent, but large parts still happen in a vacuum. We know nothing about the place or time, or what kind of an economy this is. There’s no timeline to the events, nor any reference to whether this is Planet Earth or a different world. They are the only community alive for miles, so we get no idea about what happened to the rest of the world.

The writing could have been tighter. Early on, I got a sense of a society where everything seems perfect on the surface, but the details that could have fleshed out that impression, details that could have helped us imagine this dystopian and distinctly non-industrial world, were missing.

One of the unnamed characters used to be a baseball coach, we are told, which sounds very bizarre and modern in this Amish-type of world. The grey-haired woman says she misses air conditioning but there is no mention of what happened in this world, why there is no air conditioning, no electric appliances?  What changed to make the world this way? We should have been given some hint at that point.

 

The pace is slow, especially in the present. There was definitely more tension in the grey-haired lady’s 3^rd person account.

 

As a Main Character, 332 didn’t have as much spirit as she thought she had (Incidentally, Harper, the name that 332 takes after she is adopted, is an odd unisex name in an otherwise traditional community). That things weren’t right was not something she realized on her own. It is others trying to fight the system that gets her attention. Also, the manner in which she figures things out is not satisfying. The tension, if any, is subdued.

There is no inciting incident that happens to her. Nor is she forced into a situation where she must act or something dire will happen.

The 1^st person account came across as idyllic. The characterization of the children was weak. Life was altogether too peaceful. Till the 24 percent mark, the children had no clue about their fate. With the core conflict having fizzled out, we plod on in this bucolic world where everything is pleasant.

I understand that the book is for younger readers but not giving agency to the Main Characters weakens the story. Just because a book is meant for middle-grade students is no reason for leaving so many plot holes strewn through.

Also, the discussions on the part of the council are too tame and simplistic. The people agree unanimously that the 10 children should be adopted. Everyone but two are in agreement and those two are easily overruled. At a supposedly critical meeting, the Elders busy themselves relating history lessons to each other for the benefit of the eavesdropping children.

332 hears the truth at the secret meeting for the very first time and yet, afterwards, she is able to repeat the words verbatim despite having heard them only once.

This is one massive and boring ‘tell’ exercise. As though mere talk couldn’t have changed things at any time in the last 300 years. As if revolutions are won by sitting across the table.

There is no information about how the treehouse that 332 and 333 call the Stronghold was built. The girls claim to have built it themselves, but no further information is available to make that claim credible. It’s a room with a trapdoor, walls with windows. Inside there’s a “wobbly old table” and two mismatched chairs in an “eight-foot-square room”. There’s even a large ancient trunk which contains a moth-eaten blanket, a cracked mirror, and a pile of cushions. They could have claimed to have found it, but no, 332 says they built it by themselves.

 

For the most part, we have teenagers talking like philosophers, in a most unreal manner. The dialogue is a boring recounting of what has taken place.

Then suddenly at the 74 percent mark, the tension is upped, without warning. But it is a case of too much too late. After this, the pace picks up with more action trying to compensate for the lack of it earlier.

 

The book ends on a cliffhanger, inviting us to read Book 2 in the series. I don't plan to.

 (I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 

Book Review: THE LAST WIFE

Title: The Last Wife

Author: Matt McGregor

Publisher: Inkubator Books

Pages: 283

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Olivia Yates, an artist forced to make a living as a waitress, and stuck in an abusive relationship with boyfriend Damian, is rescued from her pitiable life by Lachlan Gibson, handsome, charming, kind and rich. They fall in love, marry and move to his palatial home. 

Very soon, Olivia realizes that being married to Lachlan isn’t quite as wonderful as she had imagined. For one, Lachlan has all sorts of rules that he expects his wife to follow. He chooses her clothes, insists on her dyeing her hair blonde. What could he possibly mean by this controlling attitude?  

And then there is the manner in which the neighbours seem to treat her, calling her a gold-digger who has seduced him into marrying her. 

As Olivia digs deeper, she discovers the secret he is hiding and wonder what horrible fate is in store for her.  

  

I found Olivia to be extremely naïve. While she is no gold-digger, she does in fact let herself be swayed into making decisions based on her comfort, even though she doesn’t really know Lachlan all that well.  

Olivia fit the character trope very well. Friendless, she latches on to the first person who is nice to her.  

There were a lot of questions left unanswered, even after the conclusion. Why does the neighbour, Sylvia Woodhouse, get so angry on hearing the name, Gibson? What experiences did the little boy next door have with Lachlan’s first wife? 

What was the rationale behind Lachlan wanting what he did? Why did the other antagonist act as they did? The explanation given is wholly unconvincing.  

The climax was packed with action but an understanding of why the characters acted as they did was missing.  

On the whole, the story was predictable. If you’ve read thrillers in this genre, it’s easy to tell which way the story will go. 

 (I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)