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The Child by Fiona Barton

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“It’s not your fault.” Kate Waters is a reporter, investigating the death of a baby found at a construction site. Angela becomes convinced the baby is her long lost infant, kidnapped from the maternity ward in the 70s. Emma is an emotionally fragile housewife following the case, even inserting herself into it, because she’s hiding dark secrets of her own. Jude, Emma’s mother, has a strained relationship with her daughter after throwing her out of the house when she was a teenager. The formatting of this book is unusual. The book blurb on the cover of my edition insists that Kate is the main character of the story, but Emma’s chapters are written in 1st person point of view which makes it seem as though she’s the most important person in the book. Kate, Angela and Jude all have chapters written in 3rd person POV which makes it seem like all three should take a backseat to Emma. I believe Kate does in fact have the most chapters dedicated to her investigation into how the three other wom...
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The Room in the Ground by John Ajvide Lindqvist

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  “It’s true, I want to understand. But more than that, I want you to understand." In part two of the Bloodstorm trilogy, Julia Malmros and Kim Ribbing are back with a new adventure, this time with Astrid Helander’s help. This time Julia isn’t just using Kim for companionship, she’s become infatuated with him.  To me, a love story feels like the natural progression of their relationship after they’ve survived the events of the last book but turns out to be deeply unfortunate for Julia as Kim’s a bit of a psychopath and appears to be incapable of reciprocating. Astrid Helander, troubled and angry and apparently left without a conscience after her parents’ murder, appoints herself as Kim’s partner in crime (literally). Julia, who feels insulted when a tv producer compares her mystery novels to fantasy, begins research on a new book, looking into a political party called the True Swedes, their affiliates the Apostates, and Project: Sweden. All I could think of was MAGA Extremist...
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The Sunday Post

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  Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you are all having a great weekend! The Sunday Post is a news meme created by CaffeinatedReviewer . I'm also linking up with Sunday Salon at ReaderBuzz . I will be posting on the first Sunday of each month and I hope you'll join me. The month of August has been beautiful, mostly. Not too hot with cool nights signaling summer’s end drawing near. And even though I love the fall, I’m always sad to see summer go. My blog became a bit stale in August. I did one review and it was my only post: Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark I’m blaming the book I’m currently reading: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker . The writing is beautiful but the plot is a slogfest as nothing is happening and the characters appear to be going nowhere in a hurry. I hate to DNF a second book this year, having already bailed out on Hidden Pictures , but if the point of this book doesn’t materialize soon I’ll have to move on to something else. It’s not as though...
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Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark

 Margaret and Steve Frawley return home from a party after a disturbing phone call from their babysitter to find their daughters Kelly and Kathy have become the victims of a kidnapping. The kidnapper, who calls himself the Pied Piper, and his two henchmen demand a ransom for the safe return of the girls. But the panicked parents can’t afford to pay the ransom on their own and so begins the descent into deceit. This is the first Mary Higgins Clark book I’ve read in a long time. The first book I ever read by her was about a woman who solves a crime, almost becomes the criminal’s next victim, and is saved by her love interest… I read two more books by her and was disappointed to find they followed the same formula. So imagine my surprise when I cracked this novel open and found a book that didn’t follow that formula. This is less of a mystery, the identities of the kidnappers are revealed pretty early on, and more of a thriller as the FBI attempts to track down the girls before someth...
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The Sunday Post

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Happy Sunday! I hope everyone’s having a good weekend! The Sunday Post is a news meme created by CaffeinatedReviewer . I'm also linking up with Sunday Salon at ReaderBuzz . I will be posting on the first Sunday of each month and I hope you'll join me. This month’s weather report on last month’s weather: We had a small heatwave the first week; that kind of heat that sucks the breath out of you like a vacuum when you go outside. But the rest of July was simply beautiful. Sunny days that were spent out at the barn with my best girl, and warm nights by the firepit. Occasional rain here or there; not enough to end the drought, sadly, but just enough to get me out of having to water the plants. The firepit hang out spot is getting dangerous though, lol. A pair of skunks have been passing through the yard habitually around 8pm, and one night they were even curious enough to walk up to us and have a look. We were still as statues and just as quiet, trying hard not to wet ourselves. N...
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Top Ten Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read

 I haven’t participated in Top Ten Tuesday in a while, I’m having trouble relating to some of the list topics being provided, but I wanted to do this one from June 2nd. The world is full of books and there are books not only do I want to read them, I should have already done so and I’m surprised at myself for not having done so. 1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez . It’s classic literature and I’m told people either love it and find it moving, or they just don’t get it. With books that stir up so much passion (and sometimes confusion), I usually like to see what side of the divide I’m on. 2. Drood by Dan Simmons . This book is a horror/historical fiction about Charles Dickens’ life. Fact and fiction will blend seamlessly for me because I know nothing about Dickens outside of his books. I love when historical fiction crosses over into other genres. 3. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin . I’m a fantasy fan, and Ursula Le Guin is supposed to be right up th...
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Overgrowth by Mira Grant

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 “All a seed truly needs to sprout is time.” Anastasia Miller insists her whole life that she is an alien here to kickstart the invasion of Earth by an alien species of plant people. She advertises it to everyone she meets almost as soon as she meets them. Of course nobody believes her, it’s outrageous and crazy. Her roommates Mandy and Lucas accept her for who she is, extraterrestrial or not, and her boyfriend Graham loves her unconditionally. But nobody really understands until an astronomer intercepts an alien signal from outer space and things begin to change. The first thing that really pops out of my head on the subject of Overgrowth is how when people realize the aliens have been among them the whole time, they turn on each other. People begin accusing neighbors and friends who are “a little out there” of being aliens, even attacking them. They’re rioting in the streets and looting. I don’t think this behavior is outside the realm of possibility of what would happen in a re...
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