Roni Recommends: No Exit by Taylor Adams

I haven’t been doing a lot of book recommendations lately because it’s RiTA award judging season. That means I have seven books to read and judge in the span of about six weeks, and I’m not allowed to share what they are. So, I’ve been reading, but I haven’t been able to talk about what I’m reading, which is hard! : )

However, I took a break from RITA books this week and picked up one of my recent Book of the Month Club books. I chose No Exit by Taylor Adams because it’s winter, and a thriller set in a snowed in rest stop seemed to be the perfect pick.

This book is billed as a thriller because I think “horror” is not as marketable a word for books these days unless you’re Stephen King. However, I feel like this book is solidly horror. There is no supernatural evil, but if this were made into a movie, it would be a horror movie. It has a lot of the tropes I love in horror. The tough, resourceful, pissed off heroine. The relentless villain. The over the top clashing of the two. The claustrophobic, trapped feeling.

So, before I get to far along in this review, here’s the official description:

A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?

On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers. 

Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate. 

Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?

There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one? 

Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape. 

But who can she trust? 

With exquisitely controlled pacing, Taylor Adams diabolically ratchets up the tension with every page. Full of terrifying twists and hairpin turns, No Exit will have you on the edge of your seat and leave you breathless.

There are twists and misdirection in this story, some I saw coming, some I didn’t. But if you’re expecting a super-layered, multiple subplot type thriller, this is not it. It’s not supposed to be. The entire book takes place over the course of about ten hours, and it has a relentless pace. That’s why I think the horror movie analogy is more apt.

I looked at some of the negative reviews on Amazon, and the people who didn’t like it seemed to be people who were looking for a more traditional thriller. Lucky for me, I tend to prefer horror to thriller. The best way I can describe this book is take the claustrophobic, trapped feeling of The Shining (minus the supernatural) and mix it with a villain who just won’t stop like Michael Myers in the Halloween movies, and this is what you get. It requires some suspension of disbelief because it’s over the top. I also laughed a few times because there were moments of dark humor, which I love in this kind of story. And if you’re easily grossed out, maybe pass on this one because it has some brutal parts. But, if you’re a horror movie fan, give this one a try!

Buy the book: Amazon | B&N | Apple | Kobo

Roni Recommends: Suspense with a Dash of Horror & A Twisty Ending

The other day I wrote a post called You Might Like My Book Recommendations If... that was all about reader personality and book recommendations. In that post, I told you which five main things I personally look for in a book how my recommendations are going to skew in that direction. Well, this recommendation actually falls a little bit outside of that sweet spot because The Last Time I Lied only hits 3 of my usual 5 things I'm looking for, BUT it did the other three so well that I ended up not minding that this was a plot-driven book instead of character-driven.

So why did I pick up this book in the first place when I know that thriller/suspense novels are usually not as much in my wheelhouse as a reader? Well, first, it was a Book of the Month club pick and they usually don't let me down with choosing books. (By the way, if you're looking to expand you're reading horizons, I highly recommend joining BOTM. The cost of the hardback is cheaper than you can get it on Amazon, and you can skip months and not get charged if none of the five picks appeals to you. Plus, they offer a good variety each month. Note: the link is an affiliate link but I pay for my subscription and have not been asked to promote it.) But secondly, I picked up this book because I'm a sucker for horror movies and though this book is not horror, Riley Sager's thing is to turn horror movie type premises into thriller/suspense novels. So when I saw this summary (below) and realized it was the classic scary summer camp set up, I was totally in.

In the latest thriller from the bestselling author of Final Girls, a young woman returns to her childhood summer camp to uncover the truth about a tragedy that happened there fifteen years ago.

Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin into the darkness. The last she--or anyone--saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor. Seeing an opportunity to find out what really happened to her friends all those years ago, Emma agrees.

Familiar faces, unchanged cabins, and the same dark lake haunt Nightingale, even though the camp is opening its doors for the first time since the disappearances. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, but soon discovers a security camera--the only one on the property--pointed directly at its door. Then cryptic clues that Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins begin surfacing. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing mysterious threats in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale and what really happened to those girls, the more she realizes that closure could come at a deadly price.

Cool premise, right? And I have to say that the setting descriptions were so fantastic that I felt like I was in the forest or on the lake or huddling in a cabin late at night. The descriptions made it an immersive reading experience. This story is also a dual timeline (a technique I love, as those of you who've read my books know) and it follows the story of what happened fifteen years ago and what's happening now when Emma returns as a counselor. The shifting timelines really help build the mystery and plant so many red herrings and possible suspects that I ended up suspecting like five different people and still didn't figure it out lol. So if you love a book filled with clues and misdirection, this will hit those buttons. As I mentioned above, the main character (the only POV we get) wasn't as layered as I usually prefer, but she was sympathetic and I didn't mind spending time in her head. I also had trouble keeping track of some of the other characters at the camp and had to check back for names a few times, but really that was my only issue.

And then the ending, y'all... I had some fears going into this book that the twist would be of a certain type that is super popular right now (and one that I've grown really tired of), but I am happy to report that it is not the case! The ending of this book was SO satisfying and totally got me to send this GIF to my friends:

Shocked GIF from Shocked GIFs

I love, love, love when a book tricks me and when I don't figure out the ending early. So this immediately made me want to pick up Sager's other book (which I already own) Final Girls. So though this is a little outside my normal recommendations, I think those of you who like a great creepy thriller with a good mystery should pick this one up. 

What have you read lately that you loved?

Book Haul: What I've Bought Lately

You know how you set a goal to read what's on your shelf and not buy new books for a while? Yeah, I suck at that goal. #NotSorry And I don't know about you, but I love to know what other people are buying and reading. So I thought today, I'd share what I've added to my TBR pile in the last month or so. I'd love to hear what you've picked up recently, too. :)

Fiction

Book of the Month Picks

I've been a member of Book of the Month for almost 3 years now I think, and I continue to love it. It pushes me out of my reading comfort zone and introduces me to new authors. Here are my choices from the last few months. If you'd like to try it, you can get a free book with my referral link!  (Full disclosure: I earn free books if you join, but they don't ask me to endorse. I pay for my membership.)

Non-Fiction

So, yeah, I have a lot to read! Lol. But that's a good problem to have. So what have you bought or checked out from the library lately?

Friday Reads: Sourdough by Robin Sloan

Delightful and effortlessly readable. That's the description I kept coming back to as I was reading today's Friday Read. As many of you know, I'm an enthusiastic subscriber to the Book of the Month club. (If you want to check it out, my referral link will get you your first month for 9.99 and a cute tote bag.) And one of the things I like best about the club is that it forces me out of my reading comfort zone. Sourdough by Robin Sloan is a book I never would've picked up and checked out on my own. A book about a slightly magical sourdough starter? What?

But I'm telling y'all, this was the perfect book for the reading slump I was in. It was so fun and quirky and just a delight to read. There was even a tiny little romance in it. I like books that make me feel good and smile, and this one definitely did. So if you find yourself in a funk or a bad mood, give it a try. Bonus: The cover on the hardback glows in the dark!

Also, be warned. It's going to make you crave bread. It made me bake, lol.

See...

So books and bread, a winning combo. I bought this author's other book while the bread was still cooling off. That's the highest compliment because my TBR is like whoa and I do not need to be adding more books. 

About the book:

Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.

Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.

When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly? 

Leavened by the same infectious intelligence that made Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore such a sensation, while taking on even more satisfying challenges, Sourdough marks the triumphant return of a unique and beloved young writer.

Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | Book of the Month Club (where you can get the hardcover for about half the price)

What are you reading this weekend?

Friday Reads: Texas Destiny by Lorraine Heath

This Friday I have a bit of a throwback book for you. I've mentioned before that I didn't grow up reading romance, so I'm playing catch up with some of the oldies but goodies. And one thing I couldn't ever remember reading was a historical western romance. So I decided to give one a try, and I'm so glad I did.

I'm not sure what originally made me download Texas Destiny by Lorraine Heath. I believe someone recommended it to me but my memory fails me. But I saw it when I was skimming through my Kindle titles, seeing what I was in the mood for, and I thought, "Oh, well, I'll read a few pages and see if it captures me." You know how this goes, I didn't stop and finished the book in about two days, lol.

So this one has a mail-order bride set-up in the American West. The brother of the man the heroine's supposed to marry picks her up and is supposed to bring her on the month-long journey to the ranch. Well...guess how that works out? ;)

I really liked the hero in this one. Houston Leigh was injured, half of his face disfigured in the war, and he's a guy who would just rather keep to himself. And though he does some brooding, he's gentler than your normal brooders. Tough on the outside (he's a real deal cowboy after all) but he's more beta hero on the inside. Sweet and kind. And tortured. Because what good is a hero if he's not a tortured one? ;) (Oh, how I love my tortured heroes.)

The heroine, Amelia, also holds her own. She's tough, kind, and good-natured. You root for her.

What was particularly interesting about this book for me is that it *felt* kind of steamy but there really wasn't much sex on the page. Usually, I like my romances burning hot, but this felt like the right amount and tone for this story. And there's a scene with a tent and a latern that totally made me smile.

Be warned that the Kindle version of this did have a few formatting issues, at least on my Kindle. There weren't always breaks between dialogue so I'd stumble on figuring out who was speaking. And there were some paragraph breaks missing. But it wasn't enough to distract too much. I think that's just the nature of the beast when pre-ebook stories are converted into electronic form. 

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have bought the next one in the series because the two brothers in the story are really strong side characters, especially the youngest, who will get his story in the third book.

About the book:

She was his brother's wife...

Arriving on the Fort Worth train, Miss Amelia Carson, mail-order bride, had never met Dallas Leigh, the Texan she promised to marry. The tall cowboy at the station wasn't Dallas. He was Houston, Dallas's brother, sent to escort her on the rugged three-week trek to the ranch where Dallas waited. Brought up in war-ravaged Georgia, Amelia thought Dallas's letters made Texas sound like heaven, a place for her dreams to grow with the right man beside her.

And his only love...

By all appearances, Houston Leigh would hardly be considered the "right man." The war he survived had scarred him inside and out, and he was little competition for his handsome brother. But from the moment Houston met Amelia, he knew she possessed the courage this wild land needed. She had eyes that could see past his wounded face to his soul. And he would fight any man—except his brother—for her heart. Now he and Amelia were riding down dangerous trails, sleeping under the stars, and God help them, they were falling in love. 

Find the book: Amazon | B&N | Goodreads

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Book of the Month Club

It's that time of the month again--the Book of the Month club picks come out! I have to say I get excited each month to see what's chosen. This month I had a hard time deciding so I ordered three of the five. 

I chose Behind Her Eyes because it's supposed to have some crazy shocking ending. I chose Perfect Little World because it sounded like a fascinating premise that will play to my psychology nerd background. And last I picked The Possessions because it sounded really unique and interesting with a heroine who is a medium and falls for the guy who's dead wife she's channeling. Who doesn't want to know how that's going to turn out?

If you want to sign up for your own trial membership, check it out here. (That is an affiliate link which will earn me free books, but I'm a paying member and they haven't asked me to post about it. I genuinely just enjoy the service.)

That's all I've got for you this Friday. If you missed it earlier in the week, the theme word for February's Read & Watch Challenge was featured along with a ton of recommendations for books, TV shows, and movies. Be sure to check it out. :)

Hope you have a relaxing weekend!