"It Could Have Been Her" by Lisa Jewel

 

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone Lisa Jewell brings the suspense to this shocking new thriller about a lost dog, a missing woman, and a house of long buried secrets.

Jane Trevally is walking her dogs on her country estate when a small white terrier appears, alone and with no sign of the teenaged girl he’d been staying with nearby. When the teenager is reported missing, Jane offers to return the dog to his registered owner, hours away in London. Arriving at a run-down house called Thornwood in the deepest backwaters of Hampstead, she is immediately on alert—because Jane has a dark history with this house.

The man who answers the door is not the man that Jane remembers from her past. He is cagey, and claims to know nothing about the missing teenage girl. Then, through the window of the house, Jane catches a glimpse of a haunted-looking woman.

Conjuring her memories from twenty-five years ago, Jane knows this unsettling house holds the key—to the missing teenager, to her own traumatic story, and to the dark secrets of the past. ~taken from Goodreads

It started 10 years ago when I read and reviewed a book called "The Girls In The Garden" and by the time publication day came the title had changed to "The Girls". That started my love and obsession with author, Lisa Jewell.  

Jewell's latest thiller left me with mixed emotions as I struggled to really get into the storyline. This story is told from differet perspectives in different timelines and sort of flip-flops the reader back and forth, leaving a sort of whiplash effect of information. The two stories and timelines eventually intersect, leading to a conclusion that I think most of us saw coming from the start.

Put aside the fact that the ending wasn't a suprise at all, I found that one timeline was facinating and loved reading about it while the other was boring and I couldn't read fast enough to get it done and over with. There's an occaional third perspective that also is wildly facinating and I would have loved to read more.

To put it bluntly, the plotline that takes place in the past is unique, suspenseful, dark and a bit evil. The storyline in current day is boring at best. I just did not care about Jane or her crumbling house, her step kids, or her dogs. She is the main character trying to solve the puzzles of the past but was incredibally boring. 

The ending... The ending, like I said, was not a surpise. Even the second ending wasn't a surpise. Jewell usually does such a wonderful job wrapping up stories and bringing a suspensful novel to a creative end, but this one fell short. I realized early on what I thought would happen and it turned out to be the right guess. All of it. 

"It Could Have Been Her" is out now here in the U.S. so you can get your copy now. Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for allowing me an e-copy to read and give my honest review. It was a 3-star review. 

Happy Reading! 

Publishers & Authors

 A Note to Publishers & Authors

Lately I have had a large influx of emails asking for book reviews. I have not had the chance to reply to them all and wanted to address them here in hopes this memoradum it is seen. 

I am taking a break accepting new book reviews for a few months. Life has become VERY busy! Our youngest recently lost all vision,  we are STILL undergoing the slowest kitchen remodel ever, and our first grandbaby has entered the world! 

I wish I could spend every spare minute reading but a girl has to sleep; I can't stay up all night reading like I used to! I have books I have already promised reviews to that will stay on the calendar, but no new ARCs or reviews will be added at this time. 

My hope is that by fall life will be flowing at a trickle again and not a raging river. I look forward to your emails then! 

Thank you for your understanding and I am honored to even be asked to read and review by you!

~Alicia

"The Wedding Vow" by Dandy Smith

She is the perfect wife.
He is the perfect liar.

Verity and Linden Lockwood vowed to spend the rest of their lives together, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do they part. Five years later they've kept their promise to never let their love die, to never slip into becoming one of those couples ...

But a year after Linden is brutally and inexplicably murdered in their picture-perfect home, Verity's world shatters again. They're not the golden couple she thought they were. Linden betrayed her: he had been having an affair.

Determined to uncover the identity of the other woman, Verity delves into her husband's life. Everyone is a suspect: her neighbour, her best friend, her assistant ... even her cousin. But as she unearths Linden's shocking secrets, Verity realises she didn't know her husband at all and the truth might be more dangerous than she realises.

Can Verity expose the other woman before she joins her husband in the morgue? ~taken from Goodreads

I had the pleasure of reading author Dandy Smith's first book "The Wrong Daughter" , and was eager to see what her new novel had in store. 

I feel like this book kept me on the edge throughout the entirety. It will be so hard to review this without spoilers. 

This book is told from alternating perspectives, The Wife's view and The Other Woman's view. Verity's husband, Linden, may be dead in the current tense, but through The Other Woman's lens we get to go back in time and see her point of view. 

We get little tidbits of what her life with Linden was like. Clues that may reveal who she was. But who is stalking her? Who keeps leaving her threatening notes? Perhaps they are the one who killed him...

Meanwhile, in the present tense, Verity is trying to get on with her life, but her realization that her husband is basically trash has her struggling to move on. She needs to know who the other woman is. Then there is the fact that her once best friend is acting strange and refusing to talk to her, disappearing for long stretches of time just to avoid conversation. Meanwhile, her cousin is being very overprotective, almost clingy, wanting her to live her best life now that her horrible husband is gone. 

There are so many crazy twists and turns, ups and downs, and highs and lows in this novel. The author does a fantastic job at keeping the other woman's identity at arms length while also keeping the story interesting and engaging. At no point was I bored or in a hurry to finish. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for allowing me an advanced e-copy to read and give my honest review. It was a 5 star read for me! 

"The Wedding Vow" is available now wherever you buy or borrow books so get your copy now! It's a great summer read! 

Happy Reading! 

 

"Mad Mabel: A Novel" by Sally Hepworth

Meet Mad Mabel.

Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one years old. She's lived on her idyllic street, Kenny Lane, for sixty years--longer than anyone else. Aside from being a curmudgeon who minds everyone else's business, few would suspect that Elsie has a past that she has worked exceedingly hard at concealing. Because when it comes to murder, no one ever suspects little girls or old ladies. And Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, once a little girl and now an old lady, has a strange history of people in her life coming to a foul end.

When a new little girl (talkative, curious, nosy) moves into the neighborhood and stops at nothing to befriend Elsie, her carefully-constructed life threatens to come crashing down as the secrets in Elsie's past start coming to light. Who was "Mad Mabel" fifty years ago? Who is Elsie Fitzpatrick today? And if the past has a habit of repeating itself, who has the most to lose?

Told with Sally Hepworth's twists, humor, charm, and heart, MAD MABEL is novel that weaves past and present together--through the power of justice and redemption, and all the way to its stunning conclusion. ~taken from Goodreads

Author, Sally Hepworth, is a favorite of mine. I first came across her novels back in 2021 and have looked forward to her new releases ever since. Her novels tend to veer towards suspenseful and mysterious, but this one was different. This was a very slow start and when I finished reading I was very underwhelmed. 

It took me quite a long time to actually finish this. I had to push myself to do so, to the point where I was reading this as an ARC but could not finish in time to get my review out before the publication date. I kept waiting for something to happen during the entire duration of this story. Nothing ever did. I am still not sure what genre this belongs under. Cozy mystery? Family drama? Soft suspense? 

This alternates timelines, which usually keeps me entertained and seems to give the story some kind of advantage when the reader knows clues that occurred in the past that can/will effect the future. But so much time has passed between the two timelines that it is almost irrelevant to the current situation. It made the "happening now" pretty much null and void in my opinion. 

By the time "the big reveal" happened it was so unbelievable I simply rolled my eyes and groaned out loud. I think this entire story lacked character and plot development. It was semi-interesting at the start and boring in the end. This strayed too far from Hepworth's typical types of novels for me.  

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me an advanced e-copy to read and give my honest review. It was a 2 star read for me. 

This is available now where ever you get our books.

Happy Reading!

 

Emily Carpenter's "A Spell for Saints and Sinners"

 

In front of an elegantly shabby townhouse on a Savannah side street sits a hand-painted Miss Edie, Psychic. Ingrid White inherited the house and business from her beloved grandmother, a local celebrity in town. But unless Ingrid can find a way to pay for crushing property taxes and mounting repairs, she’s going to lose them both.

Ingrid has faith in the homespun witchcraft Edie passed down to her, yet hope and clients are dwindling. . . . Until Sailor Loeffler’s bachelorette party changes everything. Sailor is local royalty—part of the vast “Savannah Sauce” empire, beautiful and wealthy beyond imagining—and Ingrid’s reading is so accurate that she becomes the bride-to-be’s confidante. To keep that access and all the privileges it brings, Ingrid relies more and more on hexes and dark spells—using the baneful magic Edie always warned her against.

As Ingrid works even riskier spells, she is drawn further into the Loefflers’ inner circle and the obstacles in her path melt away. But is it witchcraft or other, more earthbound forces? Ingrid can feel the lines blurring even as her powers seem to grow, until she must confront the truth about people, including herself, will go to keep the life they’ve always wanted . . .

Like a gender-flipped You but dripping with Southern Gothic atmosphere, a young psychic on the verge of losing everything becomes obsessed with a wealthy, beautiful heiress in this clever, darkly atmospheric novel of psychological suspense set amid the lush, moss-draped beauty of Savannah. ~taken from Goodreads

I love Emily Carpenter as an author. I have read several of her books and was excited to read her latest. This also had me intrigued because of the southern gothic aspect. Set in Savannah, Georgia with the main character being both a physic and a witch I thought for sure I would love this novel just as much as the others. 

This starts out rather slow, which is fine since there is a large cast of important characters to get to know and remember. The stark difference between the Savannah rich and the Savannah working class are well showcased. I loved imagining Ingrid's family home, rich with history yet falling into disrepair, and Sailor's mansion, grand and unnecessarily huge for a family of just four. 

Not a single character did I like. While I really wanted to feel for Ingrid and the troubles she was going through, her erratic behavior and desperation as the story went along became annoying and unbelievable. Even her friends, who seem like they care deeply for her and her wellbeing, enable her to the point they cripple her both in work and life. 

This started out at a slow pace and then seemed to come to an even slower crawl. I thought it would get interesting and then it seemed to flutter off into a whole other plotline, where it underwhelmingly ended. 

I wish I had better things to say but this didn't even seem like a phycological thriller to me but more like a mystery at best. 

"A Spell for Saints and Sinners" is out now so is you're looking for a gothic mystery this may be for you! 

Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for allowing me an advanced copy to read and give my honest review. It was a 3 star read for me. 

Happy Reading! 

*Side note, this was supposed to be read and reviewed as an ARC but I had a house emergency (my kitchen & basement flooded) so I was set back a few weeks, preoccupied with that. Apologies to the author and publisher.  

 

"How To Survive in the Woods" by Kat Rosenfield

 

Raised by a doomsday prepper and hardened by the startup world, Emma Sharp has learned how to endure—especially in her marriage to Logan Grant, a charismatic tyrant who keeps her under tight control. To Emma, her marriage is a it keeps you in, but it also keeps you safe. Until it doesn't. 

When Emma forms an unexpected bond with Logan’s former girlfriend, the two women form a plan to help Emma take her life back. the punishing final stretch of the Appalachian Trail known as the Hundred Mile Wilderness.

After all, bad things happen in the woods all the time. 

As the three venture deeper into Maine’s backcountry, desire and dread curdle into something unpredictable, dark, and deadly. Someone is lying. Someone is watching. And in the remote heart of the forest, someone is about to be lost . . . or found.

How to Survive in the Woods is a heart-stopping knockout of a novel, by turns smart, psychologically rich, and deliciously dark. In her masterful hands, Kat Rosenfield asks us to consider what it means to be a survivor—and what, or who, you would sacrifice to stay alive. ~taken from Amazon

I feel I need to start this review by letting readers know about trigger warnings. It drops you off in the end stages of a suicide attempt. The novel is then full of situations of a toxic and abusive relationship, both physical and mental. 

This started out strong and I was intrigued from the get-go. Reading how Emma's vulnerability from lack of self esteem put her in a prime position to be manipulated and controlled by her husband was hard and sad.  The fact that even with friends around to point it out, she still couldn't just walk away from something so toxic were both believable and unbelievable. I feel like we all know someone who just couldn't see the bad because they were too far deep in a situation.    

The majority of the novel takes place on the Appalachian Trail and that in itself gives an air of intrigue and thrill; knowing mother nature is never predictable. Nonetheless, the main plot twist was pretty predictable, though still dramatic to read. The tempo of the book was steady throughout and made for a good read. 

Even with a predicable plot twist the dark theme and looming setting made for a suspenseful page turner. 

"How To Survive in the Woods" is out now, so get it wherever you buy books! Check out other books I have read and reviewed by Kat Rosenfield here. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper for an advanced e-copy to read and give my honest review. It was a 4 star read! 

Happy Reading! 

"She Fell Away" by Lenore Nash

 

A State Department diplomat must confront the ghosts of her past as she searches for a missing American woman in New Zealand in this pulse-pounding and unputdownable thriller.

Lake Harlowe may not appear to be your typical State Department diplomat. With the number of skeletons in her closet exceeding the tattoos on her skin, she moves to a new country every few years to keep one step ahead of her personal demons. After two grueling years working in Cambodia, Lake’s desperate for a break and a new posting to sleepy Wellington, New Zealand, seems like a dream come true.

That is, until eighteen-year-old singer-songwriter Bowie Bishop mysteriously vanishes shortly after American NFL player Bruce Walter is found dead in his hotel room. An exchange student from Las Vegas, Bowie was a world away from her possessive, washed-up stage mom who won’t stop calling until Lake finds her superstar daughter.

All at once, Lake finds herself ensnared in a network of deception involving Bowie’s high-profile host family, a shadowy music producer, a casino magnate, and the US ambassador—her boss. Obsessed with finding the truth, Lake soon realizes that to find the missing girl, she must confront her own dark past in this unputdownable thriller that will keep you guessing until the final page. ~taken from Goodreads

Lake Harlow is a U.S. State Department diplomat new to Wellington, New Zealand. It is not her first assignment overseas, as she is running away from a dark and frightening past of her own.

Bowie Bishop is a U.S. exchange student currently missing with ties to a, now deceased, American NFL player who was found dead in his Wellington hotel suite. 

Bowie's mom is a washed-up singer who spends her life trying to make her daughter a superstar and calls Lake pleading to please help find her daughter. While Lake is not an investigator, she feels drawn to Bowie, and begins searching for clues as to where this teenager may be. 

This novel started out so promising, an intriguing mystery mixed with some dark pasts. But what could have been an intense phycological thriller quickly turns soft when the author starts throwing in sad lyrics to songs written by Bowie, flashbacks into Bowie's "woe is me" life, and Lake's complete disregard for her diplomatic career and protocols that need followed.   

The plot gets very predictable yet wildly off script. The characters lacked growth; were very one-dimensional. The situations they found themselves in became so absurd and unbelievable as well as the dialog between them.

The anti-climatic ending seemed so completely jumbled and awkward. I had such a hard time imaging what was actually taking place. 

This story is told from alternating perspectives, which may have been what kept taking away from the story. The switch up seemed to interrupt the flow. The excessive use of song lyrics seemed unnecessary, and I honestly skipped right over them. I got the gist that Bowie was sad, I didn't need to imagine a song about it. 

This seems to have ended like this was a start to a series. I don't know if I would read another. Now that I know this is a soft mystery at best, it is not really my style. 

Thanks to Edelweiss and Atria Books for gifting me an advanced e-copy to read and give my honest review. This was a 3-star read for me.

"She Fell Away" is set to be released on March 10, 2026 here in the U.S. so pre-order your copy now! 

Happy Reading!