The Project

I was lucky enough to be one of the first 500 NetGalley reviewers to receive a copy of Courtney Summer's new book The Project.

 

 You may be thinking, "Courtney Summers, I know that name."

You definitely do, she wrote one of my all time favorite YA novels, Sadie.

 

Excuse my language, but holy shit this book took me on a trip.

 

The Project follows sisters, Bea and Lo.

The book starts with their parents getting killed in a car accident; Lo is on the brink of death, and Bea just can't handle a world without her in it. Six years have passed since The Unity Project Leader, Lev, performed a miracle. Bea believes wholeheartedly that Lev brought her sister back from the dead, which begins her love affair with the cult. 

Lo has never been the same since the accident. She's been trying to find a way to live through her words, that's why she wants to be a writer. She wants to leave a legacy. But more importantly, she wants her sister back. The Unity Project isolates members from their families, cuts them off from the outside world, and believes they have all been chosen by God, and handpicked by Lev.

 

This book was pure insanity because I felt myself becoming attached to the members of The Unity Project. There were times were I literally had to set my Kindle down and ask myself who the good guys really were. I had to digest that maybe The Project wasn't all bad, maybe Bea really did abandon her sister for a good cause. Maybe Lo understood that her regular life would never amount to a life within The Project. Maybe the bad guys are the good guys and the good guys are the bad guys. To read a story that really flipped the narrative was amazing. 

 

Mark your calendars, The Project hits shelves February 2, 2021!

 

Looking for other books by Courtney Summers?

Sadie

Cracked Up to Be

I'm The Girl

Even If We Break

 

It's time to get SPOOKY!

 

I have been not so patiently waiting for this book.

I absolutely devoured it.

You guys know how much I love a good YA thriller.

Even If We Break has A L O T going on.

Once I got the hang of it and actually stepped into the mindset of each character, I really started enjoying it. This book follows five teens into their very own role-playing-game (RPG). This is their last night playing together before they end the game for good...but could the murders in the game happen in real life? I mean they are in a haunted mountainside cabin and all their RPG's deal specifically with solving murders......

So let's break down the characters.

Ever leads the game. They created this game their freshman year. They never expected Gonfalon to be such a big part of all of their lives three years later. Ever had the unique responsibility of setting up the cabin the night before everyone else made the trek up the mountain. They got to tie in the murderous ghost stories to their secret world. But they never wanted it to end in actual murder.

Liva's family own the cabin where this is all taking place. She's loaded, and she knows it. The one redeeming quality she had was creating the costumes for everyone; she knew just what they needed to feel comfortable in their second skin. But, she honestly looks at her "friends" as pet projects. Each one has their own little quirks and she knews just how to break them. Her story was ridiculously predictable, but much darker than expected.

Carter wishes he had the money Liva's family has. He goes to extreme lengths to make it seem like he fits in with her. But watching him lust after Liva's family money was depressing. His presence in the group makes perfect sense. He and Maddy, couple or not, were two of my favorite characters. He would quite literally die for her.

Maddy is a precious angel and needs to be protected at all costs. She honestly felt like an after thought but I think that fit her character so well. Maddy wanted to be normal, to fit in, to not be so overstimulated. Seeing an autistic character being well represented was not something I was expecting in a YA thriller. But it worked. Her anxiety fueled the story for me.

I honestly don't know why Finn was here, I mean other than being a love interest for Ever. He was a boring character that literally just did things out of potential love. Reading in his mindset didn't do as much for me as some of the other characters.

Anyway, this was more of a character analysis than an actual review of the book. It would be very difficult to review this without giving away most of the story. So I hope you guys enjoyed this instead! Definitely a unique book that I would recommend!!

Looking for other books by Marieke Nijkamp?

This is Where it Ends

Before I Let Go

At the End of Everything

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Y'all, I love this book.

Easily in my Top 5 Fav Books of all time.

 

There's so much to love about this book; there's vampires, housewives, bookclubs, and wine. Oh and it's all set in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina in the '90s. If that doesn't instantly draw you in, then I don't know what will.

It warmed my dark, little heart to see a group of women obsessing over true crime books and drinking white wine; aka my typical Tuesday night. I also love that I had read.....most of the books they read in their not-quite-a-booklcub. Maybe it's the true crime books, or maybe it's the dark mysterious neighbor, or maybe it's the random animalistic attacks happening in her very own yard that puts main character, Patricia on edge. But Patricia knows something weird is happening in the area and she sets her sights on finding out what exactly what that something is.

After reading up on vampires, Patricia believes their new neighbor and friend, James Harris, is one of them. James worked his way into all their lives. He befriended husbands, joined bookclub, bonded with their kids, but who really was he and why did he keep changing his backstory?

I know this probably sounds lamer than lame.

But please take a chance on this book.

I love it more than any other book I've read in 2020.

 

Looking for other books by Grady Hendrix?

My Best Friend's Exorcism

Horrorstör

The Final Girl Support Group

We Sold Our Souls

How to Sell a Haunted House

BadAsstronauts

 

Looking to start your own Not-Quite-A-Bookclub?

The Stranger Beside Me

Psycho

In Cold Blood

My Daddy is a Hero

There are no words to express how horrific it was reading the exact details of Chris Watts murdering his entire family; reading that Chris felt ANGRY as he realized his children were still alive after his first attempt at murdering them, that baby Nico was expelled from his mothers body. That Chris legitimately tossed his entire family out like trash.

I started my journey with Chris Watts by reading The Perfect Father by John Glatt. He worked directly with the Watts family while writing the book, as they were the only family who agreed to speak with him. His writing was vastly different from Lena Derhally's My Daddy is a Hero.

 

This book took a psychological approach to the Watts Family Murders.

It detailed the events leading up to the crime, the marital struggles, the affair, the lost love. But what I found most interesting was the psychological break down of Chris's personality that was included at the end of the book. Now, I don't totally agree with some of what Derhally outlines for possible personality disorders, but some of it actually makes a good bit of sense.

 

 I definitely think this was an informative, unique approach to understanding people like Chris Watts who seem to just snap. He went from nice, loving, family man to a cold-hearted family annihilator in less than six weeks. I would highly recommending reading both My Daddy is a Hero and The Perfect Father as reading them together gives a more in depth perspective of how this tragedy came about.

Looking for other books on Chris Watts?

The Perfect Father

Everything I Never Told You

I'm honestly surprised how much I enjoyed this book.

You guys probably know Celeste Ng from her AMAZING book, Little Fires Everywhere. But this lesser known novel is just as good.

Everything I Never Told You follows the Lee family, a mixed Chinese-American family in the '70s. This alternates through several different time periods, which did get kind of confusing because it's not differentiated very well. But regardless, we learn about James and Marilyn. We see the racial tension that follows them throughout their entire relationship. They quickly agreed that they would not talk about serious, heavy issues. They never discussed their backgrounds, they never spoke to or of their families, they tried to live in the moment. But all that changed after they had kids. Marilyn never wanted to play house, this wasn't a life she ever saw for herself, so she left....essentially abandoning her family for her ideal life. 

The childhood flashbacks for Nathan and Lydia are sparse. But they struggled with the lack of diversity at their school, especially Lydia. They were the only two Chinese students. Plus Lydia lucked out and got her mother's bright blue eyes. They struggled when their mother left. They struggled when they were reunited. Lydia prayed and prayed for the day her mother would come back. She swore she'd do anything to keep her mother happy, because that meant she would never leave again.

The present day storyline is where the book begins. Lydia is missing, but quickly found dead in a nearby lake. This turmoil is too much for her family to handle. Nath was getting ready to leave for college. Marilyn can't comprehend how or why her daughter was anywhere near that lake. James can't help but to begin seeing his daughter and her struggles everywhere. And then there's Hannah, she's such a minor character but she's precious. She's wise beyond her years; a little eavesdropping kleptomaniac looking for attention.

I definitely enjoyed reading this book.

A quick beach read for sure!!

Looking for other books by Celeste Ng?

Little Fires Everywhere

Murder Beyond the Grave

I finally got around to reading the third installment of James Patterson's Murder is Forever series! Like the other books, Murder Beyond the Grave features two true crime stories.

Murder Beyond the Grave

This story followed former drug dealer, Danny Edwards, who moved on to bigger things....specifically kidnapping and murder. After letting police wire him up, he throws his supplier under the bus, only to have the entire plan backfire. He knows he needs to give up the drug dealer life, but the money is just too good. Once his girlfriend, Nancy, gives him a push, he eventually agrees to quit selling. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have another scheme cooking.

As he's driving home from his parent's house, he notices a man standing in a yard, watching his children play, while a Ferrari sparkles in the driveway. Danny thinks to himself, "Man I wish that was my life." By complete chance Danny and this man end up at the same boat shop. The cashier lets it slip that the man is Stephen Small, a local millionaire. That's all it took from Danny to set his sights on him.

 

He quickly went to work building what Nancy described as a box big enough to hold a person. Stephen's very own coffin; fitted with a PVC air tube, a gallon of water, and a handful of candy bars. Danny essentially held Stephen for ransom without thinking his contraption through.....

Murder in Paradise

Bonnie Hood wants a project of her own.

Her very own home away from home.

The Hood's bought the lodge Bonnie remembered visiting as a child. Her intention was to fix up the lodge, the hiking trails, even the saloon. She even went as far as to having a swimming pool installed. But none of that mattered to husband, Jim. He was content being a real estate mogul in the city. He could never wrap his head around why Bonnie would want to invest her time and their money in a rundown place like this.

The locals around Camp Nelson Lodge were not impressed with Bonnie from the get-go. She received dozens of death threats in the first few months. She decided it would be best if she lived at the lodge full time and Jim kept their kids in the city during the week. This gave both of them time to start living vastly different lives.

Bonnie may or may not have started sleeping with the groundskeeper at Camp Nelson. Jim may or may not have been the very person behind the death threats she was receiving.

In a turn of events, the killer is revealed in a way I honestly was not expecting but looking back.....it made perfect sense. I think my jaw actually dropped.

Looking for the rest of the Murder is Forever series?

Murder, Interrupted

Home Sweet Murder

Murder Thy Neighbor

Murder of Innocence

Till Murder Do Us Part