Welcome to Litsy!

This looked a promising thriller in the synopsis & I really enjoyed books set in/on isolated areas. I found this one a little underwhelming though. Although the idea is good, the POVs for Dee & Tori were not differentiated enough by their characters, & I had to keep checking who was narrating a particular chapter as it could have been either. (continued)

This penultimate (for now) book in the series examines the dark side of....Morris dancing. Yes the traditionally twee pastime involving dressing in a costume, with bells, & banging wooden sticks together! I might have been more incredulous had I not read a book earlier this year (or last year) about the old practice of wassailing & its more sinister side.

This is a comparatively short read for a crime thriller at under 300 pages but it packs a punch. I was simultaneously sympathetic to Madeleine & suspicious that she might not be being completely truthful. It was fairly fast-paced due to the length but I thought that the ending was a little weak. 4🌟

Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5966872614
Read 8th-9th Dec 2024

This is the fourth of the books set in the Jolvix world that I've read, & it's probably my second least favourite. The story line is good but I disliked the main character. Granted she has issues to do with both her childhood & the death of her first love, but she is absolutely horrible to ex-colleague & friend Ted at times. I found myself a bit irritated with her to be honest. 3.5 🌟

TWs: death, discussion of suicide, drug use/alcoholism.

My review is a bit too long to post here so see it in full at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/729121346

Read 6th-7th Dec 2024
4630 points (including 419 words found)

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Celia wakes up in a house with a husband & a daughter she doesn't recognise. When a nasty neighbour, who lives next door to the restaurant Celia supposedly owns, is murdered it looks like Celia is being primed to take the blame. Can she work out who she really is & who the killer is?

Allie has arranged to go to the beach for her birthday with friends Madison & Cam, however when the two friends' boyfriends tag along, Allie is annoyed. (Continued)

The Stromberg family suddenly pick up & move from their comfortable life to an isolated house, surrounded by pine forests, in northern Sweden. Although their mother & father seem happy enough, the youngest Stromberg is angry at being torn away from their old life. At first the surprisingly large house is part-occupied by a group of children on conservation work, but when they leave, the Strombergs are left alone with just the weird housekeeper.

BFFs Sam & Ally reunite with new friend, Sandy, (whom they met in Book 2 Camp Whispering Pines), when she invites the two friends to spend the weekend before Christmas at her family's house on Orcas Island. It doesn't take long before Sam manages to sniff out the rumour of a ghost at a nearby mansion, but this time, it seems the living may be the real danger. (continued)

Osamu Nonoguchi visits his friend, bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka, the day before Hidaka is due to emigrate to Canada with his new wife. Later that evening, Nonoguchi receives a telephone call from Hidaka asking him to return to his home as he needs to see him again urgently. When Nonoguchi reaches the house, all the lights are off & Hidaka doesn't answer the door, so he raises the alarm & Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga is given the case.

Now, I think it's fair to say that I'm not a reader of rom-coms so I approached this one with a bit of trepidation. I am surprised by just how much I enjoyed this. I think the time loop premise helped, but it also had some funny moments & some rather steamy ones. (continued)