review

ARC Review: Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost by Lindsay Marcott

July 26, 2021July 26, 2021 SarahLeave a comment

Summary: Jane has lost everything: job, mother, relationship, even her home. A friend calls to offer an unusual deal—a cottage above the crashing surf of Big Sur on the estate of his employer, Evan Rochester. In return, Jane will tutor his teenage daughter. She accepts. But nothing is quite as it seems at the Rochester estate. Though he’s been accused of murdering his glamorous and troubled wife, Evan Rochester insists she drowned herself. Jane is skeptical, but she still finds herself falling for the brilliant and secretive entrepreneur and growing close to his daughter.

And yet her deepening feelings for Evan can’t disguise dark suspicions aroused when a ghostly presence repeatedly appears in the night’s mist and fog. Jane embarks on an intense search for answers and uncovers evidence that soon puts Evan’s innocence into question. She’s determined to discover what really happened that fateful night, but what will the truth cost her?

Genre: mystery, thriller
Rating: 4/5 stars

Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost is the third Jane Eyre retelling I’ve read in under a year (The Death of Jane Lawrence and The Wife Upstairs being the other two – both worth reading for different reasons), and despite knowing the general plot of this and having read it twice recently, this book still completely reeled me in. I couldn’t shake it, and when I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it. Maybe it says something about me that I’m currently fascinated with this trend of seductive white men having maybe murdered their wives, but Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost scratched all the itches for me.

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ARC Review: Golden Boys Beware by Hannah Capin

June 24, 2021July 26, 2021 SarahLeave a comment

Summary: Elle and her friends Mads, Jenny, and Summer rule their glittering LA circle. Untouchable, they have the kind of power other girls only dream of. Every party is theirs and the world is at their feet. Until the night of Elle’s sweet sixteen, when they crash a St. Andrew’s Prep party. The night the golden boys choose Elle as their next target. They picked the wrong girl.

Sworn to vengeance, Elle transfers to St. Andrew’s. She plots to destroy each boy, one by one. She’ll take their power, their lives, and their control of the prep school’s hierarchy. And she and her coven have the perfect way in: a boy named Mack, whose ambition could turn deadly. Golden Boys Beware is a bloody, thrilling revenge fantasy for the girls who have had enough.

Genre: young adult, contemporary, retellings
Rating: 5/5 stars

Golden Boys Beware is a modern, refreshing retelling on Macbeth that will make you want to cut all your hair off (think Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction) and kill a man. This book oozes sweet vengeance in such a badass way that, even though you know what Elle is doing is terrible, you still can’t help rooting for her to the very end. She’s a spitfire, a hellion, a goddamn sorceress, and watching her weave her way through these boys’ lives is utterly fascinating.

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ARC Review: The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

June 23, 2021July 26, 2021 SarahLeave a comment

Summary: Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has decided the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor. Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is a terrified, paranoid man—one who cannot tell reality from nightmare, and fears Jane is an apparition, come to haunt him. By morning, Augustine is himself again, but Jane knows something is deeply wrong at Lindridge Hall, and with the man she has so hastily bound her safety to.

Genre: horror, gothic, historical fiction
Rating: 4/5 stars

The Death of Jane Lawrence boasts inspiration from stories like Crimson Peak and Rebecca, but the biggest difference between these stories is that Jane Lawrence packs all the punches and isn’t afraid to go beyond what you would expect from a gothic horror novel. Don’t get me wrong, Crimson Peak and Rebecca are equally deserving of their praise, but Jane Lawrence pushes the envelope, diving deeper into a truly haunting world that will leave you questioning what, exactly, you just read.

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ARC Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

May 17, 2021June 17, 2021 Sarah3 Comments

Summary: Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students, The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member is found murdered. Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.
Genre: thriller, mystery
Rating: 5/5 stars

A few months ago, I received an ominous postcard in the mail telling me I was invited to join a secret club called The Maidens Society. There was a URL to a website for more information, but the website was equally as secretive as the postcard. I used my sleuthing skills and poked around until I realized this was a genius marketing promotion for the new book by Alex Michaelides, which only made me even more antsy to read it. I think I actually squealed when it showed up in the mail yesterday, and then I proceeded to devour this book.

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