A Potpourri of Opinions

The Prisoner B. A. Paris Publication Date: November 1, 2022 by St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio Genre: Thriller, Suspense Rating: 4 👢👢👢👢 Summary: Amelie has always been a survivor, from losing her parents as a child in Paris to making it on her own in London. As she builds a life for herself, she is swept up into a glamorous lifestyle where she married the handsome billionaire Ned Hawthorne. But then, Amelie wakes up in a pitch-black room, not knowing where she is. Why has she been taken? Who are her mysterious captors? And why does she soon feel safer here, imprisoned, than she had begun to feel with her husband Ned? My thoughts : B.A. Paris has become a go-to author for me whenever I'm in the mood for something suspenseful. What began with an abduction turned into the unraveling of a web of lies, cover ups, and murder. While this story started off fast, overall it was a slow build up. Paris use of short chapters helped to keep the reader on the right path. The main ...

  Son of the Poison Rose Jonathan Maberry Publication date: January 10, 2023 by St. Martin's Press Genre: Fantasy Rating: 5 👢👢👢👢👢 Summary: Son of the Poison Rose marks the second installment of New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry's epic, swashbuckling Kagen the Damned series. The Silver Empire is in ruins. War is in the wind. Kagen and his allies are on the run from the Witch-king. Wild magic is running rampant everywhere. Spies and secret cabals plot from the shadows of golden thrones. Kagen Vale is the most wanted man in the world, with a death sentence on his head and a reward for him—dead or alive—that would tempt a saint. The Witch-king has new allies who bring a terrible weapon—a cursed disease that drives people into a murderous rage. If the disease is allowed to spread, the whole of the West will tear itself apart. In order to build an army of resistance fighters and unearth magical weapons of his own, Kagen and his friends have to survive attacks an...

  The Lost Witch  Paige Crutcher Publication Date: December 27, 2022 by St. Martin's Griffin Genre: Fantasy Rating: 3 🍷🍷🍷 Summary:  1922. Brigid Heron is a powerful witch and healer in the seemingly lost, but charming small town of Evermore on a forgotten isle in Ireland. However, there is one thing that she longs for above all else: a child of her own. She is even willing to be seduced by the mysterious Luc Knightly, head of the Knightly coven, whose pull is potent and impossible to resist. When their child is born and falls ill, Brigid will risk anything to save her daughter–even tap into the forbidden magic of the Lough of Brionglóid. But when the wild magic takes her daughter from her, Brigid is swept away as well. 2022. Evermore is under siege. The witches of Knight have been using their chaos magic to widen the rift between the island and the Otherworld. Creatures from folklore prey on the villagers, consuming their very humanity. Brigid awakens in this world wit...

  Hester L a urie Lico A lb a nese Public a tion d a te: October 4, 2022 by St. M a rtin's Press a nd M a cmillian A udio Genre: Historic a l Fiction R a ting: 5 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 Summ a ry:  A vivid reim a gining of the wom a n who inspired Hester Prynne, the tr a gic heroine of N a th a niel H a wthorne's  The Sc a rlet Letter , a nd a journey into the enduring leg a cy of New Engl a nd's witchcr a ft tri a ls. Who is the  re a l  Hester Prynne? Isobel G a mble is a young se a mstress c a rrying gener a tions of secrets when she sets s a il from Scotl a nd in the e a rly 1800s with her husb a nd, Edw a rd. A n a pothec a ry who h a s f a llen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts h a ve forced them to flee Edinburgh for a fresh st a rt in the New World. But only d a ys a fter they've a rrived in S a lem, Edw a rd a bruptly joins a dep a rting ship a s a medic—le a ving Isobel penniless a nd a lone in a str a nge country, forced to m a ke her w a y by a ny...

Stay Awake Megan Goldin Publication date: August 9, 2022 by St. Martin's Press Genre: Thriller/Suspense Rating: 5 👢👢👢👢👢 Summary: A murder she doesn’t remember committing. A killer she doesn’t remember meeting.  Megan Goldin’s  Stay Awake  is an electrifying novel that proves memory can be deadly. Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers—a stranger who claims to live in her apartment. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing. In its place is a bloodstained knife. Her hands are covered in scribbled messages, like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE. Two years ago, Liv was thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’...