The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

Hello everyone.  I hope you are having a great day.

Last year I kept looking for all the new books to crowd the Christmas market.  There were very few.  Boy, publishers are making up for it now!  I have a ton of books that I've read and haven't had a chance to review and, even better, a huge stack of just released books to read.  It's thriller heaven!

I recently read The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell.  This is a story that moves toward a common ending on two different timelines.  A few years ago, two young people go missing. Kim, the mother of the missing young woman, has never believed that her daughter would leave her family behind, as many suppose.  Kim is certain that something evil has happened to her teenager.  In the more current time, Sophie, moves into a cottage provided to her boyfriend as he heads a local college.  At the garden gate of their new home, Sophie finds a sign that says "dig here".  What she finds is significant in so many ways and, of course, links the two stories.  As Sophie works to discover the mystery of the "dig" sign, we see the past of the two teenagers going forward.  At the end, we discover how they are linked and solve the mystery of the odd happenings in this college town.  

If stories being told in dual timelines bother you, this may not since the times are so close together. If you are a fan of Lisa Jewell, I don't think you'll be disappointed by this book.  While perhaps the beginning could have been a smidge shorter, it really works to explain the relationships in the story and in true Jewell fashion, to direct us to one "who done it" theory only to change the readers view repeatedly.

This book grabs your attention and after establishing the characters, moves very quickly to the shocking end.  As always, very enjoyable.  One warning, if you just sent junior or junior-ette to college maybe put this off for a few months.

Survive The Night by Riley Sager

Hello everyone.  I hope you are having a great day.

Not to push you to other book reviewers, but do you ever watch reviews on YouTube?  I don't like to watch reviews, I don't want to be influenced and I definitely want to be surprised. However, I love seeing people's hauls.  Heck, it's like shopping without spending my money...what could be better (hubby would certainly agree).  Sadly, I saw a complete review from someone who had an advanced copy of the new Riley Sager book.  Not a review, a piece of hell on earth!  They jumped in telling everyone what happened in the book, that they hated it because of the ending, then gave away the big twist of the end!  Arrrrrgggh!  I've been waiting months for the next Sager thriller.  How?  Why?  I sat here in shock.  What do I do now? Read it, knowing it sucks because of how it ends.  Read it anyway, because I've read so many Riley Sager books that I know the others bouncing around in my brain would like a new playmate?  Dag gum it, I hate this decision and I don't want to waste my book money on something I'm not going to like.  God Bless Book of the Month, who had it listed as an add-on, which means you can buy it for $9.99.  Dilemma solved.  For a deep discount I would take a chance.

I recently read Survive the Night by Riley Sager.  This is the story of a girl, Charlie, a college student whose roommate was tragically murdered.  She decides to go home but needs a ride, so arranges to travel with Josh, who she meets through a campus ride board. As they head into the hills of Pennsylvania in the middle of the night, Charlie realizes all is not as it should be and Josh might not be who he says, in fact, Josh might be the killer.  

Beside already knowing the ending, I thought perhaps because of it's limited scene, the car, that this would be boring.  It isn't.  I feared this would be a slow read, watching the miles tick by with nothing to do but talk.  A book full of endless dialog.  It isn't all dialog and it isn't slow, not at all.  Okay, I'll stop being so coy.  The book was good.  It was a real Riley Sager.  Fast paced, exciting, and nerve-wracking.  The ending that had been spoiled for me, was only half true, and there were plenty more twists.  Just go into thinking this is just a book, it's fiction and you're reading for fun.  Set your expectations and criticisms aside and you'll very much enjoy this book

If you're in college, maybe think twice before carpooling home.  I hear the bus is quite lovely this time of year.