Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Spotlight for THE HOSTAGE by John Ryder

 


“You get us what we want. Or your wife dies. And we will make it hurt.”

Jerome Prentice is a good guy. Loyal to a fault, he always stays on the right side of the law.

But everything changes the night he is awoken by the sound of masked kidnappers entering his home. Holding him at gunpoint, they drag his beloved wife Alicia out of the house with a promise to kill her if he goes to the police. Their demand: betray the company he’s worked for his entire adult life.

They think he’ll do anything to save his wife. But they don’t know that they’re messing with the wrong man. Because Jerome might be a good guy. But betrayal doesn’t come easily to him. And he’s not a man who will go down without a fight.

What’s more, he will hunt the people who’ve taken Alicia to the ends of the earth. And if they’ve hurt even one hair on her head, he’s going to make them pay…

This utterly page-turning, jaw-dropping thriller is perfect for fans of Lee Child, David Baldacci and Mark Dawson.

Readers are loving The Hostage:

“So many twists and turns you will be sitting on the edge of your seat… holding your breath A whirlwind of a read Amazing.” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Oh wow, this book was fantastic. It grabbed me straight away and it never let up all the way through. The ending was so exciting and I really didn’t know what was going to happen. This would make a great film as it fast-paced and very thrilling.” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Author Bio and Social Media 

John Ryder is a former farmworker and joiner. He’s turned his hand to many skills to put food on the table and clothes on his back. A life-long bibliophile, he eventually summoned the courage to try writing himself, and his Grant Fletcher novels have drawn inspiration from authors such as Lee Child, Tom Cain, Zoe Sharp and Matt Hilton. When it comes to future novels, he says he has more ideas than time to write them.

When not writing, John enjoys spending time with his son, reading and socialising with friends. A fanatic supporter of his local football team, he can often be found shouting encouragement to men much younger and fitter than he is.


MEDIA PACK

Book: The Hostage

Author: John Ryder 

Pub Day: Nov 25th 2021


Buy Link: 


 https://geni.us/B09DPZCZ2Nsocial


Audible:

UK: zpr.io/C9Y7JxMtkpH3
US: zpr.io/G2nPDjSvkMRA


https://soundcloud.com/bookouture/the-hostage-by-john-ryder-narrated-by-josh-wichard






Monday, November 29, 2021

COUNT TO THREE by T. R. Ragan

 

For a private investigator on the trail of a missing girl, every second counts in a gripping thriller by New York Times bestselling author T.R. Ragan.

On her first day of kindergarten, five-year-old Tinsley disappeared without a trace…

Five agonizing years later, her divorced mother, Dani Callahan, is a private investigator. She and Quinn Sullivan, a promising young assistant determined to prove herself, are devoted to helping others find missing loved ones. And for Dani, finding Tinsley is still a never-ending obsession.

Their newest case is Ali Cross, a teenager who vanished off a Sacramento street while walking home. A troubled boy’s eyewitness testimony to Ali’s abduction provides their only clues. And as their search for Ali gets underway, new information about Tinsley’s disappearance begins to surface too.

As their investigations lead down two twisting paths, disturbing secrets are revealed and new victims find themselves in mortal danger. Time is running out, and the hunt is only getting grimmer.


MY THOUGHTS


This is a bit of a hard to write review. I loved this book but... It's well written and keeps you guessing and on edge, but... There is a lot going on. Almost like two stories in one but not quite... 

When a mother's daughter is taken from her kindergarten class as school is letting out her worse nightmare comes true. Where is my daughter. Who could have just came in here and taken her. The bad part is the woman looked just like her. Dani Callahan is terrified to find her daughter is gone. Just taken right out of class. And her daughter went with her willingly. Not a stranger? Someone she knows? 

Dani became a PI after losing her daughter five years previously. Her goal of course is to find her baby girl but also to help other children who have gone missing. Help find them. She knows the pain of losing a child. She doesn't want anyone to feel that and if she can help she will. She's very good at her job. 

Quinn is helping Dani. She works for Dani and is a very smart young woman. Her own mother went missing a couple of years before Dani's daughter. She knows the pain of losing someone you love and she has such determination to find the little girl. In the mean time a teen goes missing and they are hired by a twelve year old who saw it happen. Saw the girl taken forcefully. The cops don't believe him so he goes to Dani and tells her what he saw. 

This story keeps you turning the pages. The man who took Ali Cross is truly a very sick man. He's sadistic and evil. He thinks Ali and he are meant to be a couple. To have a life with children. Ali wants to go home. She wants to get away from this psycho. What she goes through will have you crying, yelling, cringing, all the bad feelings. She's a very determined young woman but now strong enough.

I was afraid this story was taking a very dark and unnecessary turn with what happened to Ali but it was a true edge of your seat scene going on. From all the evil that man could do she fought with all she had. 

The whole time Dani, Quinn and Ethan never gave up. Actually it was more Quinn and Ethan that were so determined. But Dani did come through too. After she got over the attack she went through she fought with all she had to find Ali, Ethan and her own daughter. She had never given up hope that her little girl was alive somewhere. Even when her husband, Matthew, tried so hard to make her give it all up. Move on. They were divorced and he remarried with a baby on the way. I didn't like him. At all. 

This book has very likable characters and also a couple that you will hate. The man who took Ali and Dani's husband are both awful. I didn't like either of them. Both with good reason. Jerks...

The ending of this book had me truly crying my eyes out. I won't say if it was sad tears or happy tears. Or possibly a combination. It was definitely an ending that will stick with me for a while. The very end also. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #T.R.Ragan, #Thomas&Mercer for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

5/5 stars. Even though the author really went out there in parts of this story it was good. It read like a real thriller should. I enjoyed all the dark and creepy parts. Gasped a few times. I do recommend this one.


Mailbox Monday

 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists!!
Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books, has a permanent home now at Mailbox Monday.
 ************

Here’s a shout out to the administrators:
Leslie @ Under My Apple Tree 
Serena @ Savvy Verse And Wit
Martha @ Reviews By Martha's Bookshelf 
Velvet @ vvb32reads
************
                THANKS to everyone for keeping Mailbox Monday alive. 
************
Received this week
1: IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS by Theresa Anne Fowler
courtesy of  St Martin's press via NetGalley
2: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS by  Lisa Scottoline
courtesy of Penguin Group Putnam 
3: TO LOVE AND BE LOVED by Amanda Prowse
courtesy of Amazon UK/Lake Union Publishing 


It's Monday! What are you reading?

 

I hope you had a great reading week.

********************
This is a weekly meme hosted by Kathryn at BOOKDATE
Post the books completed, the books you are currently reading, and the books you hope to finish at some point.
********************
Read
1: BENEATH THE STAIRS by Jennifer Fawcett
reviewed 11/23 
Spotlight of THE HOSTAGE by John Ryder
blog tour for Bookouture will be 11/30
Reading
1: COUNT TO THREE by T. R. Ragan
review 11/29

Reading/blog tour
1: THE GIRL IN THE GROUND by Stacy Green
review and tour 12/3
2: STILLWATER ISLAND by Gregg Olsen
review and tour 12/7
Reading was a bit slow this week due to this little baby. Our new baby. Meet Tinsley.. She is such a joy and makes me laugh so much. Her sister lives next door and they have so much fun playing and fighting. 
 



Tuesday, November 23, 2021

BENEATH THE STAIRS by Jennifer Fawcett

 

“An enthralling debut by a gifted storyteller!” —Wendy Walker, author of Don’t Look for Me

In this spine-tingling, atmospheric debut for fans of Jennifer McMahon, Simone St. James, and Chris Bohjalian, a woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at a local haunted house—the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago.

Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Even fewer are brave enough to trespass. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. One summer night, an emboldened fourteen-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did.

Twenty years later, an adult Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. With little to lose and still grieving after a personal tragedy, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for Abby’s accident.

An eerie page-turner, Beneath the Stairs is about the trauma that follows us from childhood to adulthood and returning to the beginning to reach the end.

MY THOUGHTS

I've never read anything by this author before but sure will now. This book was so good. It was almost Stephen King good. Edge of your seat heart beating hard good. This was more than just a thriller. It was a paranormal in many ways and I usually will not even try those. It's a bit of a horror too. One of those books that is so far out there you wonder if you really just read that. I did and I loved it.

This book is told from two different time frames and by at least four different characters. It's about a house. An Octagon House. It was built by a man for his fiancee. The problem is his fiancee didn't much like the house. It had some strange things going on that made it a bit on the creepy side. 

Over the years many children have gone into the Octagon House. How it affects them is different depending on the child. This story is about Abby, Clare and from the past Natalie and Alice. Another time frame is about Ben and his family. Ben tells parts of his story also. So it's basically three timelines. But easy to keep up with. Ben's family died in the Octagon House. His wife and two daughters. Someone shot the girls and pushed Natalie down the stairs killing her. But was it Ben? Could Ben have done such a horrible thing to the ones he loves more than life? 

When Abby, Monica, Lori and Clare go into the house Abby comes out different. There are changes to her. To her mind. To her heart. To her fears. Time goes by and they all move on except for Abby. Whatever happened in that house, in that basement, on that day, affected Abby in a way that she can't recover from. She makes so many mistakes over the course of her life and several failed suicide attempts. Until that last visit when she overdoses. She's found barely alive. 

This story is Clare's story also. What she did. What she goes through. What happened the night that changed both her and Abby's friendship forever. Changed their lives forever. What could have been so horrible that Abby could never move on. Never have a real life. What will it take for things to be normal and can it ever be normal for either of them again? 

From the late 30s to the mid 60s to now. The Octagon House has caused so much trouble. So much pain. Taken so many. So much. Is it the house or is it what happened there. Or is it what happened to the land. The air. The people. To the innocents. Or is it something so far out there you will never know for sure. Ok you will know. But it's a dark story. A story of much loss. A gruesome story. 

I loved it. I honestly did. From start to finish I loved it. I loved how things were brought together and made believable because of how the house was taken care of. Like you would see in almost any horror movie or read in any horror book. If done right things will take care of themselves. Right?

Thank you to #NetGalley, #JenniferFawcett, #Atria for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

5/5 stars and a high recommendation. If you love dark scary edge of your seat stories, this is the one for you.


NANNY DEAREST by Flora Collins Spotlight

NANNY DEAREST by Flora Collins

In this compulsively readable novel of domestic suspense, a young woman takes comfort in reconnecting with her childhood nanny after her father's death, until she starts to uncover secrets the nanny has been holding for twenty years.

Sue Keller is lost. When her father dies suddenly, she's orphaned in her mid-twenties, her mother already long gone. Then Sue meets Annie. It’s been twenty years, but Annie could never forget that face. She was Sue’s live-in nanny at their big house upstate, and she loved Sue like she was her own.

Craving connection and mothering, Sue is only too eager to welcome Annie back into her life; but as they become inseparable once again, Sue starts to uncover the truth about Annie's unsettling time in the Keller house all those years ago, particularly the manner of her departure—or dismissal. At the same time, she begins to grow increasingly alarmed for the safety of the two new charges currently in Annie's care.

Told in alternating points of views—Annie in the mid-'90s and Sue in the present day—this taut novel of suspense will keep readers turning the pages right up to the shocking end.

Excerpted from Nanny Dearest by Flora Collins, Copyright © 2021 by Flora Collins. Published by MIRA Books.

“I WOULD RECOGNIZE THOSE bangs anywhere,” she says, clutching her large faux-leather bag, pink nails pinching the synthetic hide. I can see the laugh lines beneath her glasses’ rims. I swallow, my tongue darting between my back molars, bracing myself. 

“They stuck, I guess.” I laugh lightly, a meek trickle that escapes from my lips before I can stop it. She smiles again, this time with teeth, and I see how her front two overlap, barely discernible. But she’s standing so close that it’s hard not to notice.

“You live around here now?” She stopped me in front of a church and behind us the congregation trickles out, chatting among themselves. A child wails for lunch. The sun beats down hard and yellow, speckling the sidewalk. I raise my hand like a visor, even though I feel the weight of my oversized sunglasses, heavy on the bridge of my nose.

“Yep. Moved down to Alphabet City after college,” I answer. She nods, pushing a wisp of red hair behind her ear. 

She is letting the sun in, the pupils of her green eyes shrinking with the effort.

“You don’t remember me, do you?” It’s a statement, not a question, one that she says confidently, as if it’s a sign of character that she is easily forgettable, that fading into my brain’s recesses is some kind of compliment.

The church group disperses and I step away to let a family by.

“I’m sorry. I don’t.” And then, even though she is secure in her stance, amused perhaps by my social transgression, I fumble for some excuse. “Forgive me. I-I’m not good with faces.”

She laughs, then—a long, exhilarating sound, like a wind chime. “I don’t blame you. I think you were about three feet tall the last time you saw me.” She reaches out a hand, dainty and freckled. “I’m Anneliese. Anneliese Whittaker. I was your nanny.” Her hand remains in the air for a moment, outstretched, like the bare limb of a winter tree, before I take it.

“Sue. Sue Keller.” But of course she knows who I am. She says she was my nanny.

“I used to babysit you when you lived upstate.” I flinch, unintentionally. She knew my mother. “How’s your dad? He always wanted to move back up there later in life.”

I bite the inside of my cheek, savoring the tenderized spot there, made bloody by my anxious jaw. “He passed last year. Car accident.”

Anneliese puts a hand to her mouth, her eyes widening behind the glasses. “Oh honey, I’m so sorry. You must miss him a lot, don’t you? He was your whole world back when I knew you.”

I offer her a smile. “Yes, well, aren’t most little girls that way with their fathers?”

The child is still screaming for lunch. His mother is speaking to another woman, the three of them the only people left in front of the church.

“Yes, well, I guess that’s true. You and your dad had a special bond, though.” She gazes at me then, her face full of compassion, those green eyes penetrative.

And we’re silent, for a beat too long. So I find myself shuffling, moving around her. “I actually have to meet a friend.” I check my wrist though I’m not wearing a watch. “But it was funny running into you.” I give her what I hope is an apologetic smile, backing away from her, toward the curb.

She stops me, one of those tiny hands on my wrist, almost tugging at my sleeve like a child. “Wait. I’d love to see you again.” She digs around in her purse. I catch sight of a book, earbuds, some capped pens, a grimy-looking ChapStick. She takes out a receipt, uncaps a pen, and leans the paper against the church’s stone masonry, scrawling her number. The figures are dainty, like her hands.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting. Tell your friend a crazy lady stopped and demanded you spend time with her.” She laughs again, that wind chime chortle, and I pocket the receipt.

“Nice to see you again!” I call, making the traffic light just in time. When I cross the street and turn, she’s gone, consumed by the hordes, no sign of that red hair glinting in the sunlight.



“And you stopped? I would’ve kept on walking. No time for nutso people like that,” Beth says through the phone as I pace my studio, absentmindedly throwing trash away, smoothing out the creases in my bedspread, my phone nestled between my shoulder and ear. I set it down and put her on speaker. I have the urge, suddenly, to rearrange the furniture in this miniscule apartment. To move the bed to the other side of the room, away from the window, from the noise of the street.

“She knew my name, Beth. She called out ‘Sue.’ I wasn’t going to ignore that.” Outside, a siren wails and I pull down the shade.

“That’s why you always wear headphones. So you have an excuse not to deal with those kinds of people.” Beth smacks her gum, the noise ricocheting through the tinny speaker.

“So you really don’t remember if I had a nanny called Anneliese?” I crumple up the wax paper from my bagel, letting it drift to the floor. The old family photo albums from that period are in storage, buried deep inside the disorganized cardboard boxes I hired movers to collect when I cleaned out Dad’s apartment.

“Dude, we met when we were five. I don’t think I knew my own mom’s name back then. I certainly wouldn’t remember who your babysitter was.” I close my eyes and massage my temples, my usual insomnia-inflicted headache edging toward a dull throb. I don’t remember a long-term nanny. I never had any babysitters growing up, just my dad.

I hear Beth say something to her girlfriend, a bark, and I walk away from the phone for a minute with a twinge of annoyance that she’s not giving me her undivided attention.

I think of Anneliese’s face, those teeth, the green eyes. The hair. And.

And.

I am running in a field with her, in the yard behind the house upstate. The garden is giant. Huge sunflowers, hedges high enough to block the sun. Beneath me, the grass is lush, dewy, tickling my bare feet. And the sky is white, hot and blazing. And she is behind me, shrieking, her freckled arm outstretched, a paintbrush in her hand tinged blue.

And I feel its slick bristles on my back and I fall, stumble. But I am laughing. And she is, too, her orange hair like a halo, eclipsing the sun.

I open my eyes.

“Anyway, I’m having some people over next weekend. I know you hate parties these days but you’re so cooped up all the time in that apartment. I swear it’ll be fun…” Beth squawks on, her voice shrill through the speaker.

“I remember her.”

Beth pauses mid-ramble. “What?”

“I remember her. Anneliese. The woman who stopped me today. She’s not nuts. I remember her.”

There’s a heavy silence on the other end. “Are you sure? You just said you didn’t.” Beth’s voice has lowered an octave, as if she’s whispering. Which I know is for my benefit, so her girlfriend won’t hear.

I tighten my hand into a fist. “I’m serious. She was my nanny. We used to play this game with paint.”

Beth sighs. “Still weird to me. You’re not thinking about calling her or anything like that, right?” But I’m already reaching into the garbage bag I use as a hamper, sifting through it for the sweats I wore earlier today. I take out the receipt, smoothing it out against my knee. It’s for shampoo, coconut Herbal Essences, and I can smell it on her, as if it’s 1996 and I am on the floor of my blue-carpeted bedroom and she is swinging her princess hair to and fro as we play Candy Land, the smell even more enticing than how I imagined Queen Frostine’s scent.

Tears prick my eyelids.

“I want to see her.” It comes out sounding infantile, testy even. And I hear Beth breathing, willing herself not to lash out.

“Okay. Okay, Suzy. Just meet in public and bring some pepper spray. Remember, she stopped you in the street. She really could be anyone, even if she did babysit you a thousand years ago.” I hear her put another piece of gum in her mouth, the wrapper like static.

“I know. She’s just a nice middle-aged woman. And maybe she has some cool things to say about my parents.” I know that will get Beth off my back. Any mention of my parents gets anyone off my back.

I hear her breath as she blows a bubble, the snap of the gum sticking to her lip. “I’m just trying to be a good friend. Don’t fault me for it.” Her voice has lowered again. “I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: you’ve been spending way too much time alone. It’s not like you and I can tell it’s getting to you. It would get to me.” But my finger is already hovering over the End Call button, eager to get Beth off the line.

“I appreciate it. But for real, now I have work to do. I’ll text you.” She spends one more minute reminding me to come to her party next weekend and I promise I will, even though we both know I won’t, and I hang up first, still fingering that crumpled receipt, studying the perfectly shaped eights in the handwritten phone number, each the same height, the same size.

Outside, a dog barks. And I bark back, loud and sharp, laughing at myself, my apartment easing into darkness as the sun sets.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Flora Collins was born and raised in New York City and has never left, except for a four-year stint at Vassar College. When she's not writing, she can be found watching reality shows that were canceled after one season or attempting to eat soft-serve ice cream in bed (sometimes simultaneously). Nanny Dearest is her first novel, and draws upon personal experiences from her own family history.


BUY LINKS:

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/nanny-dearest/9780778311614 

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780778311614 

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nanny-dearest-flora-collins/1138522927 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Nanny-Dearest-Novel-Flora-Collins/dp/0778311619

Books a Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/9780778311614?AID=10747236&PID=7310909&cjevent=3aaff079426711ec81b7ebac0a82b839


SOCIAL LINKS:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/flococo16?lang=en

Instagram: @floracollins_author




Monday, November 22, 2021

Mailbox Monday

 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists!!
Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books, has a permanent home now at Mailbox Monday.
 ************

Here’s a shout out to the administrators:
Leslie @ Under My Apple Tree 
Serena @ Savvy Verse And Wit
Martha @ Reviews By Martha's Bookshelf 
Velvet @ vvb32reads
************
                THANKS to everyone for keeping Mailbox Monday alive. 
************
Received this week
1:THE HEIGHTS by Louise Candlish
courtesy of Atria via NetGalley
2: THE HOSTAGE by John Ryder
courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley
3: PLEASE JOIN US by Catherine McKenzie
courtesy of Atria via NetGalley
4: STILLWATER ISLAND by Gregg Olsen
 courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley
Book Mail this week
IN ALL GOOD FAITH by Liza Nash Taylor 
courtesy of Ann-Marie Nieves



The Sirens by Emilia Hart

  My thoughts I read and loved this author's book Weyward. I didn't know exactly what to expect from this one but I did enjoy it als...