Category: Book Reviews

The Lamplighter by Crystal J. ..

Posted 05/23/2024 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I have to say – this book would have been a great read in October and indeed, I may have to re-read it for October. This book is perfectly creepy, what with a fog that covers the town of Warbler every evening. Even creepier when you discover where that fog originates from. I loved Temperance. She is fiesty and protective of those she loves. Her insistence on making her own way and working as the lamplighter, as well as her troubles as the lamplighter because she is a woman are a grim reminder that even today, women are not always seen as equals to men. Prudence is another character I was fond of. She is fiesty, loyal, and protective as well, but in her own way. The sisters have very different ways of living their lives, which is well played out in the book. Gideon… well, at times I liked […]

Too Scared to Sleep by Andrew ..

Posted 03/28/2024 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Come on, it’s horror. You know I had to give it a shot. It’s meant for teens/young adults, so it isn’t super scary – or maybe I’m just so jaded when it comes to horror that nothing really scares me anymore. I was pleasantly surprised at the stories. A lot of the time when I find horror anthologies by authors I haven’t heard of, they’re either not good at all or there are only one or two good stories with the rest being mediocre at best. Not true with this anthology. All of the stories were really good. Again, not as scary as I’d have liked, but this wasn’t written with adults in mind, so there is that. Younger teens and tweens would probably find this book scarier than I did. My favorite stories in the book are “The Secret Sister”, “Stage Fright”, and “The Bone Fairy”. That’s not to […]

How to Kill Men and Get Away W..

Posted 10/30/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Another book sent to me by my contact at HarperCollins is How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent. The cover made me laugh because at the very bottom it says “For legal purposes: a novel”. Characters Kitty reminds me a lot of me. She’s vegan and she doesn’t care much for human beings for the most part. Oh she loves her friends, but that’s about it. Otherwise, she seems to find dealing with other people exhausting. I quite concur with her on that. However, I don’t share her penchant for murder. Hen strikes me as just there for the most part. It’s almost like she’s the part of the friend group that is simply there for the purpose of providing parties and the like. Nothing particularly special about her, but I didn’t really care much for her either. Maisie is an airhead of the highest […]

The Close by Jane Casey

Posted 10/25/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

By now we should all know that if a book is a horror, thriller, or mystery, I’m probably going to want to read it. So when HarperCollins reached out and asked if I’d like to read The Close by Jane Casey, I said yes pretty quickly. Thank you to HarperCollins for sending me this book and facilitating my honest review. Characters The Close has an interesting cast of characters, beginning with Maeve Kerrigan. I admit, I do quite like our main character and I love the leading man, Josh Derwent as well. They’re well written and even though this was my first encounter with them, I found myself full immersed in their story. As for characters that should be unique to this particular book, my annoyance with Rhys Vonn has rarely been matched with other characters. Trust me when I say, he’s an ass. Not overly fond of Mike Knox, […]

The Haunting by Natasha Presto..

Posted 10/20/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

If you’re looking for a Halloween themed YA horror novel, you won’t go wrong with **The Haunting**. But be warned, the title has nothing to do with ghosts. Characters We have a group of friends, one of them being ostracized by the town and the rest of the friend group – except for one person. They’re great characters, although you really only deal with two or three of them for most of the book. You’ll see Penny, Nash, and Zayn more than you’ll see any of the others, but they’re all mentioned several times as well. We don’t have a whole lot of background on any of them, but we don’t really need it and they’re written well enough that it doesn’t matter. Atmospere It’s a serial killer at Halloween – what more could you ask for in an atmosphere? It isn’t Michael Myers (and we can all be thankful for […]