ginasbookreport

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch Publisher: Ballantine Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Science Fiction Read This If You Love: Sea of Tranquility  / TV show Fringe “As long as I’m with you, I know exactly who I am.” Gina’s Review Jason Dresden is happily going along with his life when he is abducted. He wakes up surrounded by people in hazmat suits. They seem to know him, but he has no idea what is happening. He soon discovers that his wife is not his wife and his son was never born. How is this possible? The only thing Jason knows is that he will do anything to get back to his old life.  I read this book as a buddy read with my husband, so you will see his take on Dark Matter below. Blake Crouch has quickly become a favorite author of mine and I was so happy to share his work with Patrick because sci-fi is his reading preference. Dark Matter  is my favorite of Crouch’s novels, but I’ve yet to find one that I didn’t enjoy. This novel is suuuuuch a fast rea...

Zero Days by Ruth Ware Publisher: Gallery / Scout Press Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery Read This If You Love: The Italian Job “I stopped dead.” Jack is a pen tester who comes home to find her husband murdered. Who did it and why? We spend the entire novel with Jack on the run. Ugh. Often billed as the modern Agatha Christie, Ruth Ware is one of my favorite modern mystery authors. However, Zero Days  wasn’t in that same vein and instead was more of an action thriller. While many people enjoy this genre of a constant physical chase, it is not for me. I want more of a plot with characters I can invest in and cheer on. I found Jack to be a daft character who drove me nuts. How was she so slow on the uptake about what was going on and who was responsible? From the first page, we are on the go with Jack and it doesn’t stop until the last page. For me, that was far too strung out and overall the book could have been 100 pages shorter.  Will I still happily read a...

Scenes of the Crime by Jilly Gagnon Publisher: Bantam an imprint of Random House Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery / Thriller Read This If You Love: Fans of Pretty Little Liars “Vanessa has been gone for fifteen years. I should know. I was one of the last people to see her alive.”  Emily is a screenwriter who sets out to uncover the truth about what happened when her best friend disappeared on a college friend trip. Fifteen years after Vanessa went missing, Emily gathers the same group of women to see if there is a story she can weave into a script. Maybe, she can also find out if she killed Vanessa…she was the last to see her, after all. The story is told through real time/past time and a film script. It adds to an intensity that builds to a crescendo.  This fast-paced mystery has a dark edge that will keep you guessing about what REALLY occurred. The setting has an atmospheric quality to it that set up a sort of locked-room mystery trope. Add this one to ...

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden Publisher:  Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc; first published by Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery / Thriller Read This If You Love:  Fans of Rachel Hawkins “ Pericolo …” When Millie applies to be the housemaid for the Winchesters, she didn’t think she would be hired. She has a past and a steady job, a place to live, and not having to eat sandwiches in her car for every meal seems like a dream. When Nina Winchester hires her, she quickly learns that keeping house for Nina is more than a challenge. Nina is erratic and, some say, a lunatic. Millie does her best to please her and her drop-dead gorgeous husband. What could go wrong? Or, maybe, what has already gone wrong? The Housemaid  takes off like a speeding train and doesn’t let up until the last page. Somewhat predictable? Maybe. A fast read that’s perfect for mystery fans wanting some easy ...

The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan Publisher: William Morrow Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Literature Read This If You Love: Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising   “ It struck me as odd that someone who could claim knowledge of a god could hate someone so forcefully.” Cassidy Holmes struck it big as a member of the 90s girl group Gloss. Fifteen years later, she has committed suicide and her former band mates are left analyzing their past and all the steps that lead Cassidy down a dark road. Cassidy, through her own voice and version of the past, also steps through what it was like for her to want, need, achieve, be adored, but always feel alone.  While many will want to compare The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes  to Daisy Jones and the Six , I actually felt like it was more reminiscent of Reid’s Malibu Rising . There have been a run of oral histories of fictional bands. Unraveling is a narrative with time jumps and different points of view....

The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda Publisher:  Marysue Rucci Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery / Thriller Read This If You Love:  The Last Guest House “This yearly trip wasn’t helping anyone. This promise. We had been too young when we’d agreed to come together for the anniversary, as a way to keep one another safe.” The survivors of a tragic incident are grown up now, but they still struggle with the events of the night their world’s were torn apart. When dealing with the past leads one member of the group to her death, the remaining survivors agree to gather once a year at The Shallows to check in on one another and support each other through the anniversary. This year, things feel different…mysterious…like everyone is hiding something deeper. Why can’t they all piece together what happened the night of the incident? What if they did? What would the full truth be? To be honest, The Only Survivors was on track to be a 3-star book for me until ...

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn Publisher:  Berkley Press Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery / Thriller Read This If You Love:  Fans of Richard Osman’s  The Thursday Murder Club  series / fans of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series “Shouldn’t you be twirling your mustache when you say s@*t like?” Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie are four older women on their way to retirement from The Museum. But these are no ordinary retirees…they have made a living as assassins and now someone is out to permanently retire them! Using their training and years of experience, the ladies lean on the way society treats and sees women over a certain age in order to escape to safety. Who is trying to kill them and why? Will they figure it out and take out their own assassins before death finds them?  While the characters were not spies, Killers of a Certain Age  reads like a spy thriller to me, sprinkled with lots of humor and laugh ou...