BOOK REVIEWS by LINDA MOORE: THE REVENGE LIST by Hannah Mary McKinnon

THE REVENGE LIST
HANNAH MARY MCKINNON

My thoughts

I've read and enjoyed so many of this author's books. They are always so well written and make me hold my breath or keep me on the edge all the way through. I had such high hopes for this one too. I was very excited to receive this book. Alas I was a bit disappointed though...

While it pulls you right in at the start with a woman screaming because she is being taken for a ride off a cliff, it quickly became somewhat unrealistic for me.

I'm not saying the book isn't good because it is. In places. For the first half of the book I read all about Frankie and her anger issues. Maybe she had a right to some anger because life dealt her a bad hand but does that give her the right to treat people like they are less then human. To be somewhat of a bully? I did not like Frankie. I did not connect to her on any level. She just kept on doing the same things without listening to what anyone else had to say. We all for the most part have things in our past that can cause us to be angry but we don't go around being so mean to others. Or at least I don't. Frankie does have a lot going on and maybe she should have been put somewhere for all this angry she harbors for every person she meets. I found her to be a bit on the selfish side. Then when I did kind of start feeling for her and thought she was going in a different direction she disappoints me again. But she was persistent for sure. Things she did I found very hard to believe in parts. I mean breaking and entering in a place that should have had fairly good security. That was a bit odd but she was determined.

Frankie is the main character and very unlikable. That does not make the book unlikable though. It's just her. She is a bit selfless in my opinion. Even when people are nice to her she explodes. And as much as she seems to hate the human race she's not at all observant to her surroundings. She just hops into a car assuming it's her Uber. She's thirty two not twenty. She should know better. But all of the crazy things she does and all the selfish acts she is involved in come to a crashing halt when the climax of the story finally ensues. When she finds the one person she is looking for and without caution approaches this person. She's pretty bad about following people or showing up on their doorstep not knowing if they will hurt her or not. She's very resilient for sure. Not too bright though. Even her own family seems to be on edge around her. They don't seem to have much faith in her.

This was a fun book to read after I passed the halfway mark. It picked up speed and really took off. Though I had it figured out as soon as a certain person was brought to light it was interesting how it played out. Again Frankie stepped in it and without thinking took off after someone she didn't really know at all. Maybe she is lead by her heart. Or could it be her anger. Who knows. I think the ending was ok except she seemed to turn around awfully fast. You just can't get over some of her issues that fast. I think it being family maybe they can forgive her faster than others can but she is still lying and still has some issues. It's very apparent when she opens the door and you see there could possibly be a sequel to this book. I honestly hope there is. I want to know. I want to see what happens next. I want to know more.

While this book drove me crazy in parts, in other parts it was quite good. It finally hit that edge of your seat factor that I love in this author's work. Even though I had no doubts who was doing the dastardly deeds it was fairly good. I still have questions as to how this person would have know some of the characters. Or how they could really get away with some of the things they did. But that is the joy of fiction.

Well done Hannah Mary McKinnon. I look forward to your next book.

Thank you #NetGalley, #HannahMaryMcKinnon, #Harlequintradepublishers, #MIRA for this ARC. This is my true thoughts about his book.

Four stars from me.

The Revenge List : A Novel

Hannah Mary McKinnon

On Sale Date: May 23, 2023

9780778333463

Trade Paperback

$18.99 USD

368 pages

ABOUT THE BOOK:

As a therapy exercise, a woman writes a list of people she wants to forgive, and thinks nothing of it when she loses it in an Uber…until one by one the people on the list become victims of freak accidents. Set in Portland, Maine, Hannah Mary McKinnon’s breakout suspense novel THE REVENGE LIST will appeal to fans of Lisa Unger, Joshilyn Jackson, and Tarryn Fisher.

Following an epic run-in with a client who threatened to pull out of a contract at her father’s company if she doesn’t suffer some consequences, Frankie Morgan agrees to go to anger management. With the business struggling with cash-flow and her brother needing help with the medical bills for his sick daughter, she can’t risk harming the business further. But that doesn’t mean she’ll be happy about attending.

During the first session, the group is asked to spend some quiet time exploring their pasts and sitting with the emotions that generates, before making a start on a Forgiveness List—a list of people with whom they’re angry and might work on forgiving. She begrudgingly goes along with it and doesn’t worry too much when she forgets the list in an Uber on her way home. It shouldn’t matter—it was just a therapy exercise—except a few days later the first person on that list is injured in a freak accident. When the second person gets hurt, she hopes it’s coincidence. After the third is targeted, she knows it’s a pattern. And she’s in trouble. Because the next name on that list is…hers.

Author bio:

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing. She now lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons, and is delighted by her twenty-second commute. Connect with her on Facebook, on Twitter @HannahMMcKinnon, and on Instagram @HannahMaryMcKinnon. For more, visit her website, www.hannahmarymckinnon.com.

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

***

The sharp sound of a high-pitched scream filled the air. A noise so unrecognizable, at first I didn’t register it had come from deep within me, traveling up my throat in stealth mode before bursting from my mouth.

The remnants of the yell reverberated around the car, forcing their way into my ears and penetrating my skull, urging me to do something. Survival instincts kicked in, and I fumbled with the seatbelt, my other hand grasping for the door handle. The need for the relative safety that solid, stationary ground would bring was so intense it made my stomach heave. A loud click of the central locking system meant my captor had outsmarted me again, obliterating my immediate plan to throw myself from the moving vehicle.

When I looked out the windshield, I knew there was no time to find an alternate escape. The end of the road—the edge of the cliff—announced by signs and broken red-and-white-striped wooden barricades, had been far enough away seconds ago but now gleamed in the car’s headlights, a looming warning yards ahead. I couldn’t comprehend what was about to happen, couldn’t do anything as the vehicle kept going, splintering planks and racing out the other side with nothing but air below. I let out another scream, far louder than my first, the absolute terror exploding from my lungs.

For the briefest of moments, we were suspended, as if this was a magic trick or an elaborate roller coaster. Perhaps, if I were really lucky, this was all a dream. Except I already knew there were no smoke and mirrors, no swirling track leading us through loop-the-loops and to safety. It wasn’t a nightmare I’d wake from with bedsheets wrapped around my sweaty body. This was happening. It was all terrifyingly real.

As the car continued its trajectory, it tipped forward. The only thing to stop our momentum was whatever we were rushing toward, obscured by the cloudy night skies. Pushing my heels into the floor, I tried to flatten my shoulders against the seat. My hands scrambled for the ceiling to brace myself, but I flopped like a rag doll, my loosened seatbelt tearing into my shoulder.

They say your life flashes before you when you’re close to death. That didn’t happen to me. Instead, it was all my regrets. Choices I’d made. Not made. Things I’d said and done. Not said. Not done. It was far too late to make amends. There would be no opportunity to beg anyone for forgiveness. No possibility of offering some.

As the finality of the situation hit me full on, I turned my head. The features of the driver next to me were illuminated in a blueish glint from the dashboard lights. His face had set in a stony grimace; his jaw clenched so tight he had to have shattered teeth. But what frightened me the most were his eyes, filled with what could only be described as maniacal delight.

He’d said we were both going to die. As the car hurtled to the bottom of the cliff, I closed my eyes and accepted he was right.

***

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