Grist Mill Road by Christopher J. Yates

Available on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘
Genre - Suspense, Thrillers
Format - Hardcover
Length - 352 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

Christopher J. Yates’s cult hit Black Chalk introduced that rare writerly talent: a literary writer who could write a plot with the intricacy of a brilliant mental puzzle, and with characters so absorbing that readers are immediately gripped. Yates’s new book does not disappoint. Grist Mill Road is a dark, twisted, and expertly plotted Rashomon-style tale. The year is 1982; the setting, an Edenic hamlet some ninety miles north of New York City. There, among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of timeworn mountains, three friends—Patrick, Matthew, and Hannah—are bound together by a terrible and seemingly senseless crime. Twenty-six years later, in New York City, living lives their younger selves never could have predicted, the three meet again—with even more devastating results.

*My Review* 

This book grabbed my attention immediately. I figured I would have it read within just a couple days. It turned out not to be the case. At one point the book changes point of view and you start reading as Hannah. I am not sure what happened here, but I struggled more than anything to read her chapters. I felt like there was just a lot of information given about her growing up that did nothing except fill space in the book. Even after finishing the book, I still don't think I needed to know anything about her families history.
I also lost the connection I felt with Patrick in the beginning. At first I felt for him and understood where he was coming from, but he seemed to deteriorate as a character for me the more I read.

House of Ashes: A Haunted Bluffs Mystery by Loretta Marion

Available on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘📘
Genre - Amateur Sleuths, Ghosts, Mysteries, Thrillers
Format - Harcover
Length - 326 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

Thirty-seven-year-old painter Cassandra Mitchell is fourth-generation to live in the majestic Battersea Bluffs, a brooding Queen Anne home originally built by her great-grandparents, Percy and Celeste Mitchell, and still standing despite tragedies that have swept the generations. Local lore has it that there was a curse placed on the family and the house is haunted, though opinions are divided on whether it's by malicious or benevolent spirits. Cassie believes the latter—but now she stands to lose her beloved home to mounting debt and the machinations of her dream-weaving ex-husband.

Salvation seems to arrive when a nomadic young couple wanders onto the property with the promise of companionship and much-needed help—until they vanish without a trace, leaving behind no clue to their identities. Cassie is devastated, but determined to discover what's happened to the young couple...even as digging into their disappearance starts to uncover family secrets of her own. Despite warnings from her childhood friend, now the local Chief of Police—as well as an FBI agent who pushes the boundaries of professionalism—Cassie can't help following the trail of clues (and eerie signals from the old house itself) to unravel the mystery. But can she do so before her family's dark curse destroys everything in its path?

*My Review* 

Another book that I couldn't put down. There was so much mystery going on. Is the house haunted, who are the strangers, what happened to them and what will happen with Cassie? I was lost in this book and read it every chance I got. I felt compassion for the characters, anger and hope. I did get a little lost in the middle of the story as there were quite a few characters being introduced and trying to keep their stories straight. Other than that, it was amazing.
I can't go into much detail as I don't want to give anything away. I was shocked when I learned the truth and I want you to be as well. I can say that if you enjoy a good mystery, then you'll want to grab this book.
I can't wait until I can get my hands on a copy of its sequel - Storm of Secrets.

Asylum by Madeleine Roux

Asylum

by Madeleine Roux

Available on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘
Genre - Teen & Young Adult, Fantasy, Supernatural, Mystery, Thrillers, Horror
Format - Hardcover
Pages - 310

*Amazon Blurb*

For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, the New Hampshire College Prep program is the chance of a lifetime. Except that when Dan arrives, he finds that the usual summer housing has been closed, forcing students to stay in the crumbling Brookline Dorm—formerly a psychiatric hospital. As Dan and his new friends Abby and Jordan start exploring Brookline's twisty halls and hidden basement, they uncover disturbing secrets about what really went on here . . . secrets that link Dan and his friends to the asylum's dark past. Because Brookline was no ordinary mental hospital, and there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried.

*My Review* 

I think this was a good horror book for young adults. I did enjoy the book, right up until the end. The fact that an old asylum was turned into a college was a great story-line itself. It screams haunted. I mean what teenager wouldn't want to go and stay at an old asylum?
The story flows nicely with the kids meeting up and the trouble they get into. To me it just seemed that with all the secrets hidden beneath the dorms it should have led to more. I was really expecting more "excitement".
The ending seemed a bit rushed too. Maybe it has to do with the fact that this is the first in the series of 3. Overall a good book and I might look into the rest of the series.

Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson

Before She Knew Him

by Peter Swanson

Available on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘📘
Genre - Psychological Thrillers, Psychological Fiction, Murder, Thrillers
Format - Hard Cover
Pages -

*Amazon Blurb*

Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder. Finally, she’s found some stability and peace.
But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband’s office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Hen knows because she’s long had a fascination with this unsolved murder—an obsession she doesn’t talk about anymore, but can’t fully shake either.
Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college, when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate?
The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects he’s planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her. Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows she’s been watching him, that she’s really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape. . .

*My Review* 

This book...WOW!! Normally you spend at least half the book trying to figure out who the killer is. This book starts off by telling you who did it right away. Well, if you know who did it, then what's the point of reading any further? Trust me, you'll want too.

Hen and her neighbor, Matthew, end up having a deep relationship that is unlike any other. Is she really crazy or is Matthew telling her the truth about all the horrible things he's done. Is Matthew the bad guy, or is he a good guy helping rid the world of bad people?

Since I already knew who the killer was, I figured it was only a matter of time before the police were able to figure it out and then the book would end. Well, that's kind of what happens, but there's such a major twist that I had not expected. It made me think back about everything I'd just read and wondering how it was possible.

If you're looking for a a really suspenseful book, look no further.