The Ritual

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2024 (3/29/24)

March 29, 2024 — 1 Comment

March was a good reading month for me! I temporarily lost track of the Goodreads challenge, though. I’m pretty sure I actually read Pressure by Jeff Strand in February… Oops! I’ll review it here since I missed it last month. (I am usually reading 2-3 books at any given time, so I occasionally mess up this list.)

Pressure (Jeff Strand)

Rating: 4/5

I have read one other Jeff Strand novel (My Pretties), and I find I like his writing style and his twisted ideas. Pressure was a tense story throughout. The reader can feel the frustration of Alex’s dealings with Darren and how hopeless it is to think Darren can be bested. I won’t say anything else because I try my best not to include spoiler alerts, but I highly recommend adding Pressure to your TBR is you enjoy psychological thrillers that keep you on the edge.

Virgin Night (Christopher Robertson)

Rating: 5/5

I love Christopher Robertson. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m just devouring his books. Lol. I love his take on all of my favorite horror tropes, and Virgin Night is another masterful ode to 90s slasher flicks. The core characters were well-written and relatable, and the ones you’re supposed to hate…well, you will. The references to AIM, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” industrial/metal bands that were what I listened to back then, etc., just carried me on a wave of nostalgia, while the story itself was crafted in a way that kept you on your toes. There was never a lull in the action: Virgin Night will have you hooked from page one!

Hannah’s War (Jan Eliasberg)

Rating: 4/5

Hannah’s War was sent to me via a “Blind Date With a Book” purchase on Etsy. I put off reading it for a while because I wasn’t sure it was going to be my cup of tea. However, once I started it, I was drawn in almost instantly. This book is historical fiction, set during the final months of World War II. It’s a love story, yes, but all the intricacies of the tale are not drowned in a sappy, over-the-top romance. Hannah is a remarkable woman, intelligent and poised, and the men around her can’t help noticing. She also holds the future in her hands, as she has made a discovery that could alter everything – and she risks losing it all, including her life, to protect that discovery and keep it out of the wrong hands.

Ice Cold Murder (Michele Pariza Wacek)

Rating: 4/5

Another installment in the Charlie Kingsley series, Ice Cold Murder takes the reader on a journey through a blizzard, to a haunted house, for a weekend with estranged family members and a will reading. Only before any business can be handled, the lawyer is found dead in the woodshed. Now, it is up to Charlie and Officer Wyle to discover the culprit. Have they unwittingly found themselves spending the weekend with a murderer?

All I can say is, if you enjoy cozy mysteries, you’ve gotta try this series.

The Ritual (Adam Nevill)

Rating: 4/5

I actually watched the movie based on this novel a while ago, so naturally, I had to read it, too. The Ritual does take a bit of patience to get through. The main characters are lost in the woods, so there are times when nothing much is happening aside from hiking or huddling I tents. However, the shadow of fear lurks around every corner as Luke, Hutch, Phil, and Dom attempt to escape the ancient forest and slowly discover that they’ve stumbled upon a corner of the world where the things that go bump in the night still exist. If you like messed up stories about people who live beyond the outskirts of society and still respect old traditions (including human sacrifice), this is the book for you.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Madeleine L’Engle)

Rating: 3/5

I read A Wrinkle in Time many, many years ago. When I found three of the companion novels, I bought them without hesitation. I’m glad I did, but I have to say that neither A Wind in the Door nor A Swiftly Tilting Planet was able to recapture the magic of that first book. A Swiftly Tilting Planet was readable, I just didn’t get sucked in. I had to work to get through it. Here’s hoping Many Waters is better.

The Playroom (Wallace Henry)

Rating: 3/5

I generously gave The Playroom three stars for one reason only: the first part of this book is gloriously fucked-up. The story began like dozens of horror movies I’ve loved. Two cops find a woman covered in blood out in the middle of nowhere, and she has a harrowing tale about a house in the woods where a twisted duo did unspeakable things to her. Sounds promising, right? Yeah, it’s not. The twist killed it for me. You can try it, though. Just brace yourself for the genre-bend about halfway through.

***

I am currently reading Sundial (Catriona Ward) and the next book in the Charlie Kingsley series, Murder Next Door.

Progress: 19/50

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2024 (1/29/24)

January 29, 2024 — 1 Comment

Welcome to another year of my Goodreads Reading Challenge! I have set a goal of 50 books in 2024. That’s a reasonable goal, considering I read, like, 65 last year, two of them after I’d stopped counting.

Anyway, if you’ve been following for a while, you know the drill. If you’re new here, it’s very simple: each month, I’ll list the books I read with my rating and a (very) brief…review? Well, not exactly a review. More an explanation of my rating. I always invite my followers to tell me what they’re currently reading and to recommend books they think I’d enjoy. (Hint: I’m a huge sucker for horror! And, more recently, I’ve discovered a love for cozy mysteries.)

So here are the books I have read thus far in 2024.

For You and Only You (Caroline Kepnes)

Rating: 2/5

Okay, I wanted to like this book. I really did. But at this point, it’s basically the same story we’ve been through three other times! Not to mention Wonder was just…unlikable. I mean, I wasn’t Mary Kay’s biggest fan, but sheesh. For You and Only You spends a lot of time waxing poetic about being a writer while no one is actually writing. The kills are lackluster, as if Joe’s heart isn’t even in it anymore, and – spoiler alert! – the person who figures him out this time is kind of a fangirl. This is the last of the Joe Goldberg series, in theory, and I, for one, am glad. He’s made too many mistakes at this point and is no longer the suave serial killer we all adored after reading You.

Paper and Fire (Rachel Caine)

Rating: 4/5

I gave Paper and Fire a solid rating because I love Rachel Caine’s writing style and her characters. However, as much as I find myself entertained by this series so far, I’m still not sure there’s going to be a definitive point. The story seems to be moving forward, I suppose, but it feels a little aimless. To be fair, this is only the second book in The Great Library series. I will be diving into the third novel soon, and I hope it carries me somewhere gripping!

Peppermint Cookie Murder (Trixie Silvertale)

Rating: 2/5

Know how I said I love cozy mysteries? Well, I thought this one would be a homerun, as it’s a “paranormal” cozy mystery. Needless to say, I was wrong. It’s a cutesy idea. Peppermint Cookie Murder centers around Cindy Claus, the daughter of – you guessed it – Santa! Instead of following in her father’s footsteps, she decides to go to the human world and open a bakery. But when her neighbor is murdered, Cindy becomes the top suspect and has to solve the crime before she goes down for it. Not a terrible plot, right? The thing is, Cindy was annoying. She was too much of a goody-two-shoes. (I know, I know. Santa’s daughter! But come on.) Not only that, I couldn’t stand how little she knew about the human world. Again, Santa’s daughter. You’re telling me that Santa shipped his daughter off to the human world with his adviser (a talking arctic fox, by the way) and not a single lesson on how life in that other world works? Nope. Not buying it.

The Lost Girls: Get It Started/After Hours/Last Call (Morgan Burke)

Rating: 2/5

This was a trilogy – and shouldn’t have been. It’s not so much that the story was bad, it’s just that it could have been wrapped up much sooner. Lost Girls is a teen melodrama/murder mystery, heavy on the teen melodrama. The main character does a lot of dumb stuff and “falls in love” with every guy she speaks to. It’s rather ridiculous. Plus, if you put even an ounce of brain power into it, you can figure out who the killer is pretty quickly.

The Ritual (Shantel Tessier)

Rating: 1/5 (only because I can’t give it a zero on Goodreads)

Y’all. This book was so bad. My best friend recommended it, telling me only that it was a spicy read. (Apparently, it was trending on TikTok, but I don’t have one, so…) The Ritual is categorized as a dark college romance, whatever the hell that is, and it came with a list of trigger warnings from those on social media. I didn’t find anything triggering, the story just sucked. The characters weren’t likable: Ryat was too controlling, and Blakely was a whiny brat who was into being dominated and didn’t insist on Ryat respecting her limits (not that there was much discussion of limits, or safe words, or anything, really). The sex scenes were repetitive, the descriptions nearly identical each time. Oh, and there were all these big “twists” that the characters were aware of – everyone but Blakely, for the most part – but that were never alluded to until BAM, it conveniently moved the story along. No explanations of how the characters knew these things; there would just be the big dramatic moment when someone decided to drop the knowledge. The writing was awful, the editing even worse, and it was over 600 pages long. This one almost landed on my DNF list, but I am truly stubborn. Lol.

Horror Circus

Rating: 1/5 (again, only because there’s no way to put zero)

The nicest thing I can say about Horror Circus is at least it was short. There was a plot, kind of, but it was a struggle to get to it. Basically, the circus visits the town of Darkside each year, and half the residents want it shut down because bad things always happen when it arrives, while the other half – mostly business owners – welcome the increased cash flow. Farkas then goes on to explain each terrible incident that has occurred during the circus’s time in Darkside. The novella concludes with a group of townspeople attempting to destroy the circus, and those who support the circus going to stop them. The writing was bad and often redundant, and though I know there wasn’t a focus on character development, all of the characters were just…lame. I would not recommend Horror Circus to anyone, but hey, it’s only 62 pages if you wanna give it a try!

***

I am currently reading Caraval (Stephanie Garber) and Gone to See the River Man (Kristopher Triana). Here’s hoping they are better than what I’ve made it through so far!

Progress: 6/50