Joanna St Amour: Girl with the Gifts

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/249223833-girl-with-the-gifts

Book Blurb:

Transformation has a cost, and the price is everything she loves.

Aviana “Avi”, a perfume chemist, is about to earn the promotion she’s dreamed of. But when Pacific Perfume’s prized lavender oil is sabotaged, Avi becomes the convenient scapegoat.

Determined to clear her name, Avi plunges into a hidden world, forging unlikely alliances and drawing the attention of an enemy whose reach is ruthless and resolve relentless.

When her plan goes horribly wrong, she’s forced to partner with the last man she wants in her her ex-fiancé, Fritz.

Fritz can no longer keep his secret locked he isn’t human. She isn’t human.

They’re Grounders. And with each passing day, Avi’s dormant power, Slyfen, tests the limits of her control.

Fritz vies to stand by her side, but Avi must rise alone to become who she was never meant to be, for some truths burn hotter than fire.

*High Gravity Audio books ALC *Romantic Fantasy  *Slow Burn  *Elemental Abilities

*found family  *Family drama  *love triangle (kind of)  *mystery  *just kisses *action

*Ending  *secrets revealed

Thoughts:

I think to start with I was kind of thrown off by this book because the blurb had me thinking this was going to be a story about Aviana a perfume chemist finding out that someone is sabotaging her at work with maybe some romance on the side... I think I'll start by saying this was just a very small portion of this story like it's in the beginning of this book then sporadically thrown in throughout the rest of the book to maybe just remind us as the reader that this is still being thought of... the remainder of the story this plot line is on the back burner on another stove in another galaxy far far away.

It took me a bit to get into this story but I kind of had to throw out this blurb entirely and just go with the flow for this one.  So I'll talk about what this book really turned into being:

Aviana has thrown herself into work as a perfume chemist to keep her mind off of her broken relationship with her ex Fritz... she just doesn't understand what happened he proposed to her then very shortly after just decided things were off and left on a secret mission for work which he wouldn't talk about.  While at work Avi discovers that there is something wrong with the ingredients in the perfume formulas it feels like sabotage and while she knows she didn't do anything to the perfume she is determined to find out who is responsible since this could have a negative effect on the company.

There is another plot line where a larger number of people with genetic "defects" are going missing (being abducted) and while coming out of work one evening someone attempts to take her but she is saved when a handsome stranger helps protect her against the attackers... he happens to be a private investigator.

I listened to this book and I felt the narrators did a good job but I'm not sure if this handsome strangers name is Raidan? (maybe... that's what I'm going to call him).  Avi enlists Raidan to help with finding out who is sabotaging things at work.  He agrees to help but basically tells her that she has to be ok with how he accesses the information.  From this point on the story very rarely goes back to her work life... I'm not sure how much time has passed at any given time and the work mystery only comes back into play a few times.

Avi feels that something was off with the people who were trying to abduct her... she at first feels maybe she was just seeing things since she was scared... but it turns out that there are "Grounders" (essentially aliens from a different planet living on earth... their planet is low on resources and some now live on earth).  Grounders have special elemental abilities that are very vast and kind of hard to keep track of... if you watch anime consider this like all the different abilities/quirks from My Hero Academia or Hunter x Hunter (etc...).  

Avi shortly after learns that everything she thought she knew of her life is a lie, she was a foster child and doesn't remember her parents only that she was abandoned when she was younger.  From there she finds that her ex Fritz is a grounder from this other planet and she is too.  Avi is color blind and quick to develop stress rashes... but it turns out that Avi has special elemental abilities but when she was sent to earth someone on her home planet had a binder implanted so that if she tries to use her abilities she can't (or she gets the rash), most of the other people closest to her are Grounders and were sent to guard her while she's on earth... and all of them were also sworn to secrecy in that they were not allowed to tell her any of this and have taken the decision away from her to know her past and about their lives on this other world naturally she gets upset that her life has been decided for her (Naturally they have mind wiping capabilities... think men in black type stuff).

Avi starts to fight her growing feelings towards Raidan (?) and her old feelings of being near Fritz again as they both help her navigate her new normal of learning more about the culture of her home planet, her lineage, her family drama, and her abilities... if she is ever able to use them.  

Avi also finds out more about why Fritz left and why his mom seems to harbor some harsh feelings towards her.  She struggles throughout with wondering who she can actually trust since she has been lied to by everyone close to her for ages and the new guy in her life Raidan can she trust him?  Time will tell.  

She decides to learn how to defend herself (her friends help) which comes in handy as the Grounder Hunters are still after her and take her a few more times throughout the book where she needs to be resourceful sometimes she gets away and a few times she is captured.

A few times after this it will be randomly dropped that she went to work for a day or they found more information about the sabotager... but it felt kind of thrown in to keep that plot line going not that it really was fitting the story line at the time.

Avi learns that the binder that's implanted has an expiration date and it's coming to the end of it if it isn't removed by then there will be severe complications (death)... but they need a special doctor from their home planet to remove it... and the one that knows how to do it and is in the area is a mad man who likes to do unhinged experiments... oh no... she needs this guy though maybe they can come to an agreement??  If they can find him.

There is also another plot line where there is a missing tiara that binds with the wearer and releases some kind of evil entity but only Grounders with certain abilities can even attempt to wear it... naturally Avi is one of the ones with an ability that can bind with the tiara.  There are several people after the missing Tiara and While Raidan has been tasked by his employer to find and return the tiara... Fritz has been tasked to find the tiara to destroy it by his employer...drama!!

Overall once I got into this story I enjoyed it wasn't what I was expecting and it ended without finishing out the full story but I would like to check out the next in the series to find out where it goes next. 

The narrators did a good job with this story and kept me wanting to know what would happen next. 

Thank you to the author and High Gravity Audio for this ALC copy!   

Claire Rose: The Cove

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/240019622-the-cove

Book Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Lindsay Weinberg has just been kicked out of yet another prep school and exiled to her uncle’s farm in the cold, isolated town of Marbury, Maine. But Uncle Levi is gone, leaving the farmhouse under the strict rule of his new zealously evangelical wife, who runs a reform camp for troubled teens. Up at dawn. Manual labor all day. No phones. No computers. No way out.

When Lindsay meets the twins, Phin and Cass, who live on a nearby island, everything changes. One reckless night, she convinces the others to sneak out for a party. The night is unforgettable—at least, the parts they can remember. The next morning, they wake in their own beds, clutching seashell tokens, hearts pounding, with no memory of how they got home. Except one camper never made it back.

As disappearances mount and dark secrets rise, Lindsay and her friends must unravel the mystery of the island—before The Cove claims them all.

*Netgalley ALC 10/12  *Young Adult *Thriller  *Mystery *Eerie  *Cult *trust no one  

*State Challenge:  Maine  *LGBT  *Light romance vibes *place for wayward teens *Found family

*Teen angst  *gore/violence *religion *family drama  *Secrets  *💀 

*Folk lore/paranormal

Thoughts:

To start with we have Lindsay (FMC) she is a teenager and is sick of her rich parents just dumping her at ritzy boarding school after boarding school not even making sure she moves in ok they have their driver take her there.  She has been kicked out of multiple schools at this point for various degrees of juvenile delinquency and is working towards getting kicked out of this one too... she wants to go home she doesn't make friends easily and is a loner at heart but what she really craves is some attention from either... or both of her parents.

Thanking her lucky stars that she has been called to the headmaster's (mistress?) office she makes herself ready for the usual speech about how she is no longer welcome at the school... only this visit is a mix of that and something else... while she is kicked out for now she is to be given another chance and due to return in the fall semester.  She's told that her parents are actually showing up to pick her up... only when the car comes of course they couldn't make time for her... again in fact it's not even the usual driver but some guy she doesn't know who doesn't take her home but takes her to her long lost uncle's home in the middle of nowhere Maine... What??  she needs out of this now... fine she'll just call an uber they are still in some form of civilization.

Lindsay quickly realizes there are worse places to be than the school she was just at... and it's here in this creepy house with 4 other teens she doesn't know and this woman she's never met but is claiming to be her uncle's wife... where is her uncle anyways?  He's supposedly away for business but shouldn't he have returned by now?  Not like she can call for help the phones don't work, and even if her cell phone hadn't been taken the battery died ages ago and there are surprisingly no outlets... what kind of place is this?  

I was intrigued by the sounds of the plot and requested this ALC from Netgalley, at first I wasn't sure if I would like this because... I'm just going to call it out our girl Lindsay is a straight up brat and I just didn't know how long I could tolerate listening to her constant whining... about everything... I totally get that she felt hurt by her parents neglect and the fact that she was now stuck at this creepy farm house in the middle of nowhere doing manual labor but the other part of me was like... girl you got yourself into this situation you could have still been at the boring but safe boarding school.

Pushing past my initial issues with Lindsay I grew to like her more throughout the book she's got a good sense of humor and once she started actually getting to know the other members of the house she was more tolerable as a main character.  

The pacing is slow at times with nothing really happening other than eerie vibes.  Things start to pick up towards the middle of the book when Lindsay convinces her new friends to sneak out and go to a party on an Island near the farm house... to get to it they have to walk dangerous steps of a cliff to get to the beach then out to the Island which is only walkable at low tide.... after a night of merriment with these Islanders who are most definately in some kind of cult... that ends in no one remembering what happened or how they got back to their own beds the next morning one more thing has happened... one of their friends didn't return home.

The author does well at creating a creepy atmosphere with Lindsay not knowing anyone well enough to fully trust anyone, cut off from civilization with no cell service, internet or land line phone to call anyone for help and even her attempts to get help when in town fail... there are Creepy children of the corn type teenage twins that pop up randomly to do things like Invite her to the Island party... or tell her not to trust anyone in town, there are her own thoughts of she doesn't know if her Aunt is even her Aunt she's never met the woman, then there are strange encounters with the townspeople.

When more of her friends start disappearing she knows she needs to kick up her Nancy Drew senses and get to the bottom of things quickly or she might be the next to go.  There are some small romance type scenes thrown in which really don't add much to the story over all, but I did like the found family vibes.  

Over all it reminded me kind of like the R.L. Stein books I used to read occasionally as a teenager and I got a sense of nostalgia from it.  The Narrator did a great job with bringing all of these creepy characters to life and I think that I enjoyed this way more listening to it, I might have given up on it as a read but ultimately I'm glad that I powered through it while it had a lot of predictable elements there were a few twists.  I wouldn't recommend this one for younger kids/teens it got pretty dark at times.  

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for this early release ALC!

Have you read this one?  What did you think?  

Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss: The Escape Game

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/236226582-the-escape-game

This story starts several seasons into a popular reality TV game show competition where teenagers work in teams to solve escape rooms and compete against several other teams.  While filming the season four finale tragedy strikes when a beautiful and popular contestant Alicia Angelos is found in one of the props dead... but who could have done it?  

Even with the tragedy from last season in their minds the show continues to gather cast members for season 5 including Beck who creates their own escape rooms at home and has a bit of a family secret, Adi the handsome son of a woman who used to be a celebrity and will do anything to get back in the lime light... even if it means getting there thru her son; Carter a math whiz and influencer (but only thru a character she's created as her alter ego... she's shy and awkward in person) and last but certainly not least Siera Angelos sister of Alicia --> everyone knows that she didn't get along with her sister and even though they were not able to prove her guilt they believe she is the culprit... but it does make for higher ratings with this "surprise" return contestant.

Sierra while she has a tough girl image and wants to keep that appearance she's not just there to play this season she wants answers... she didn't hurt her sister no matter what anyone else believes and she knows if she gets a chance she can help solve her sisters case since the police clearly have focused on the wrong person this whole time.

What started out as fun and games this season quickly becomes dangerous as the team has to learn to work together and trust each other to escape these rooms and as they begin to uncover more clues and get closer to solving the mystery of what happened to Alicia... the more they have to worry about being next.  

*Young Adult  *Mystery *Murder mystery *escape room *puzzles *2026  *ARC NetGalley

*game show  *Reality TV  *State Challenge:  California  *multiple POV  

Thoughts:

I really enjoyed the premise of this book a mystery inside of an escape room game show.  The authors did a good job explaining the puzzles and the outcomes but at times it almost felt like reading a play with the sets and puzzles being maybe too detailed leading to it being a bit slower in places and since I wasn't actually in the room with them I had a harder time following the puzzles they were trying to solve.  

I enjoyed the multiple POV aspect and watching all of the kids get to know each other better and come together as a cohesive team by the end of the book.  

While I know I'm not the target audience for this book (it's definately YA) I had a really hard time with the fact that these were teenagers and felt the book would have made a bit more sense if the kids in the book were even 18+... these kids were sent to stay by themselves in a villa that the show put them up at I highly doubt that the parents would not come with these underage kids while filming this show and I really don't think they would be ok with letting them stay to continue after it appeared they could truly be in danger... I don't even think the show would keep going at that point considering it would be a huge liability.

Going on with that line of thinking I had a hard time suspending my disbelief I don't see how the show was brought back for a 5th season given that season 4 ended up with the death of a contestant with law enforcement no closer to finding who did it... and people think it was the sister and they bring her back to the show!!?  What??

There were twists, turns, betrayals and sabotage who can you trust in this game?  Can you even trust your team mates?  Some of the twists I could predict and some I couldn't mainly because it kind of comes out of Left field and the motive felt pretty flimsy at best. 

I did find the book entertaining enough to keep me turning pages and I do plan to read the next in the series.  

Thank you netgalley and the authors for letting me read an advance copy of the book! 

Guilty Crime Story Magazine Issue One

Doing a general post about this magazine each issue offers many short stories from a variety of writers it focuses on crime and detective work and if you enjoy this genre you will be likely to enjoy the stories featured in the issues of this magazine.  Available for kindle and Paperback.

Blurb: Guilty is a magazine of crime stories, of criminals, their motivations and their beginnings and ends.  

In issue: 

“Midnight at the Oasis” by Robb T. White - Nate thought he and his uncle Rex were as close as brothers until one midnight at the Oasis changed everything.

“French Twist” by Joe Giordano - While on vacation in Paris, American Max Caspian offers police his assistance with a very unusual murder.

“Unprincipaled” by Stephen Sottong - Everyone wondered about the day Principal Taylor stole the truck. Nobody would have ever guessed the reason.

“Give Me a Reason” by Brandon Barrows - Something was taken from Chris Zender while serving in Afghanistan and if he can't get it back, he'll get revenge.

“Bridal Wreath” by Jill Hand - Robin was lonely for a long time. Then she met Richard, then Richard brought the flowers...

“Cymbaline” by Alec Cizak - When Raven and Sparrow saw an opportunity, naturally, they took it. Wouldn't you?

“Chasing 61” by Bruce Harris - The Babe set the record of sixty homeruns. Both Roger Maris and Frankie Z. aim to break it.

The Famous Last Words of Mickey Spillane” (Article) by Mike McHone All brand-new material by top crime writers!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58143802-guilty-crime-story-magazine?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=b86c8tR5l6&rank=1

amazon link:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095N7H23Q?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks

*Crime fiction  *Mystery  *Detective  *Multiple authors  *magazine 

Brandon Barrows: The Last Request

 

Our lead character Holly Shaw gets invited to a remote location in Alaska (a creepy, creaky old mansion on a mountain) summoned by a great aunt she has never met and now surrounded by family she hasn't seen since childhood all gathered together for the news that their aunt is dying (or is she?).

The great aunt reports that she is dying with an unknown life expectancy but as a very wealthy widow with no children of her own she has decided to split a great deal of money between Holly and her 5 cousins, $60 million at $10 million for each cousin sounds fair, however, in order to receive this money all of them must stay in residence at her creepy isolated home with no cell service until the time of her passing if anyone is not residing in her home prior to her death they do not get any of the money and the money then gets split between the remaining cousins in residence at time of her passing.

Shortly after this announcement one of the cousins is found dead not of natural causes, then another goes missing... with this book having a small cast of mostly unlikeable and shady characters as a reader I found myself making multiple guesses as to who could have done it, it really could have been any of them, a lot of money is on the line and everyone is a potential suspect.

It was a quick read and I recommend this book for anyone looking for a murder mystery it had a lot of twists and when I thought I had it figured out it twisted again to make me think again about who the real suspect could be. This book reminds me a bit of an episode of Murder She wrote with it's older cop who hasn't really had many murder cases and possibly needs some help solving the crime mixed with a classic horror/slasher film where you find yourself saying "no don't go with them anywhere they are creepy" but of course they don't listen to you and go anyway.

*Murder Mystery  *And then there were none vibes  *Alaska  *crime *fiction *psychological suspense

*female lead  *creepy atmosphere 

What is your favorite crime/mystery/thriller? 

--> This is my husband's book it also has an audible version I don't usually read crime/mystery stuff in general I read romance (all sorts) but will occasionally branch out to read something else and try to read my husbands books and help support him when I can 💓

Blurb on the back:

Sixty million dollars. Five potential heirs. One house in remote rural Alaska. It’s a recipe for murder . . .

Summoned by letter, Holly Shaw and five of her cousins—virtual strangers to each other—have gathered at a grand house in the rugged wilds of Alaska. Equally unfamiliar to Holly is her great aunt Lydia, the woman who has called the family together and is dangling a massive inheritance before them. Her condition: they must remain in the house, with Lydia and her butler and caregiver, until she passes. Anyone not in residence at that time is out of the will, their share of the money split among the others. That night, everyone settles in. And the next morning, the murders begin . . .

Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Request-engrossing-psychological-thriller-ebook/dp/B0CDCQ8L18/ref=sr_1_3?crid=ZDFGN2M77U9S&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.P_RB2nzPbTzZ6IvOyV-HRm5fcMdzTSZAHA-sLa6UZndiSZi8RUsMQ-Cuf-ZUCc_CpW88QlLhlGgILSKCYRP27d-_x6bp8G4_bkMaX8Q8-vq-ThXvy8-eOfRpYPmPw194vK8DzqVlVMNrCn07GX_ypMulkMCKSiO58-oFiu8PNMR7_mD9tvvOFrYXBJVRGz2tegYa3WkUTZM1uTVNho-04RMfNN5ykN_-a6OK4W_W6rE.B2rCPENkF5j68YIWAO_lvbEI1jtoKXOJ3mrh8Nyh_24&dib_tag=se&keywords=Brandon+Barrows&qid=1750883420&sprefix=brandon+barrows%2Caps%2C121&sr=8-3

Good Reads link:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/193392588-the-last-request?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=F5Qptln829&rank=2