Bookreview: Home Before Dark By Riley Sager

 

I have become Riley Sager’s fan now, and I cannot wait to read the other three books which also became best seller. The final girls, the last time I lied and lock every door.

If you are a horror thriller lover like me, do give this one a try ( read alone in the dark), I am sure you will love it too. At some point of reading this, I felt this was somewhat close to Amityville Horror, Haunting of the hill house and some movies which includes Netflix original type writer by Sujoy Ghosh. Reading it at night the  story literally spooked me out  with its haunted description.

“Every house has a story to tell and a secret to share. Ours is a ghost story. It is also a lie, and now that yet another person has died within these walls, it’s finally time to tell the truth.”

Home before Dark by Riley Sager

  This book kept my spine straight from the beginning till the end!   With few characters and incredible twist Home before dark just won my heart with its horror/ thriller essence. Does it have ghost in yet ? Yes a lot? If you are going through reading slump I am sure this book will help you to come out of it.  

The entire story revolves around the Victorian estate Baneberry with dark secrets .Though it seems the house is lifeless and gloomy but the walls got a lot of stories to share.

Families have come and lived in this house for decades and the walls have remembers every event which took place and it never forgotten its incidents.

Twenty Five years  ago Maggie Holt ,who was just 5 years old then , came to live in the baneberry house with her parents Jess and Ewan. Just a few weeks of stay and one night they fled away from the house, claiming it to be haunted.  Ewan ( father) who was a nonfiction writer, wrote a book about the House of horror, there ghastly experience and what the little girl went through. The book became the best seller. Everything which he wrote in the book was claimed to be true. Maggie, didn’t believe the book. She felt the book was  fiction and there was nothing called ghost  and the claims were completely fake.

Before her father died she wanted to know the truth. The truth that there was no ghost and everything written was just for fame or may be something her parents are hiding from her. But unfortunately she didn’t get the satisfying answer and there she goes herself to find the truth.

The plot has been written from 2 point of view. The story from the book and the current story of Maggie holt facing the situation.’ The style of writing by Riley Sager was very creative weaving the story so beautifully matching  the past and the present situation together. What I didn’t know was coming to me was the twist.  Yes. I didn’t expect the twist. It’s different from all the horrors I have been reading all these years.

Over all, a 400 page book will not make you bore and fly you through the pages for the answer, did little  Maggie actually see ghost while living in Braneberry estate?

  Rating 4.5/5

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Book Review: The First to Lie by Hank Phillipi Ryan

Date of Publish: 4 August 2020

Publisher: Forge Books

A drug company comes up with a " miracle drug "  which is a fertility drug  where a women who is unable to have a child can conceive easily.

The dark side effect of this medicine can ruin a women's life but this has not been mentioned by the company nor does the doctors talks about it to their  patient. And there are many who actually had side effect and there life has been ruined.

The charecters now wants to destroy Pharminex  ( the company)

The plot is this simple !

This little plot get twisted till your brain burst ! With four point of views and charecters having double life made it hard for me to keep track at times. s I was writing down the charecters to remember their goals, but then the plot had so much twist  and lies that it made me clueless at times, Though there were times were it was so predictable yet the charecter didnt understand whats going on . I wish it was more clear in terms of writing to enjoy the bumpy ride. 

If you have the ability to take this roller coster ride with charecters and their secrets go ahead I dare you.

Rating 3/5

Thank You Netgalley and Forge Books for the ARC.

BOOK REVIEW : The Day I Dissapeared By Brandi Reeds

The Day I Disappeared

By Brandi Reeds:

Thriller

Publisher: Lake Union

Publishing  On: 25 Aug 2020

Holly Gebgardt was kidnapped when she was 4 years old, but luckily she was been sent back home by the kidnapper after 3 months. Her parents were shocked to see her return unharmed, as they left all hopes of getting little holly back. But unfortunately Holly couldn’t remember a thing about her kidnap.Her best friend Kitty did recognize a man while Holly got kidnap, and the person was immediately jailed .But things get complicated when series of Kidnaps of little girls starts off again even though the person is in jail and almost many family lost their little girls. (Found dead in bridal dress)After almost twenty years the case reopens and the detective who is in charge starts questioning Holly as she was the only child who returned. Holly herself couldn’t come out of the trauma and her suspicions falls on many people which includes her mom.

Her mom got into a severe accident and went to coma, and therefore things gets more complicated but yes she knows some kind of a secret which makes the reader more curious.

“Phew” - What a twisty ride. Everyone is under suspect till the end of the story.

The story is narrated from Holly and her mother’s (Cecily) point of view , and the suspense was really good.

At times it became little slow especially Holly’s best friend kitten’s part, but I enjoyed her mother’s narration. Though Cecily was not much reliable because she is an alcoholic and her mind is always in mess. The past and the present narration made the plot more suspenseful by both the character .Just when you will think you know who the kidnapper is and what was the motive behind, you will get a bend in the road and again you will be left dangling.

Thank You  #netgalley and Lake union Publishing for the ARC of #thedayIdissapeared.  Recommended for thriller lovers !

Book Review:This Little Dark Place By A.S Hatch

This Little Dark Place By A.S Hatch

Rating: 4

 How well do you know yourself? Or How well do you speculate things? 

Reading this book, I was confidently going with the thought  of the protagonist Daniel, but then I found that my speculation sucked big time. The last few pages changed my whole point of view.

The story starts off with Daniel writing a letter to a person name Lucy. We don’t know who Lucy until the very end.

The couple Daniel and Victoria tried to conceive for a very long time, but in vain. They took medical assistant but ended up with miscarriage. Slowly their happily built up nest got filled up with depression. Each started their own way to cope with life. Victoria joined Yoga program while Daniel joined a pen pal program where he gets to write letter to a prisoner. There he meets Ruby. Convicted of assault on an abusive partner.  They both write to each other, sharing their darkest secret, making ruby slowly like Daniel. And one day she comes to find Daniel. Meanwhile Victoria is unaware of the entire thing. How will Daniel manage Ruby whom he thinks is somewhat Schizophrenic.

 The story is more deep than what the blurb has portrayed.

Throughout the book reader can predict what is happening and who is doing until the end will blow you off.

Though the  switching back and forth in the letter was little difficult to understand at times,but overall enjoyed the thriller.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

The book is expected to release on 3^rd of Oct 2019

Book Review: The Darkest Summer By Ella Drummond

Weekend without Thriller is like Tea without Milk

The story written is inspired from real life incident of loosing a teenage friend who dissapeared from the author's life one summer . Though the story is nothing close to the real incident as the author ended in meeting her friend years later.

Expected Publication of this book is 18th July 2019.

When the first few pages bangs you with interest you know what's lying ahead. The book surely made me stick till the end especially to know what happened to the character Dee . 

Dee? I called spotting movement behind the largest hydrangea. A slim figure with dark ,bobbed hair stepped forward. She looked timid and nothing like the Dee I remembered. You are all grown up,I laughed desperately to hide my shock at her tense sullen appearance. I hurried over to her.

The story line:

Dee and Sera were two best of friends .They shared their childhood together, but suddenly Dee and her family which included her brother Leo disappeared one summer without giving anyone any clue.
Years after Sera who is an adult now and have a daughter Katie 5 years old., shifts to her old home to live with her mom. Her husband die due to an accident. Little did she imagine that her stay would dig up some mystery about herself and her long lost friend Dee.

With added mystery man Henri in Sera's life, the new neighbour, it made the story more unpredictable.
Easy English for thriller lovers to begin with.I totally kept reading and reading just to know about Dee's daughter Ashley's peculiar behaviour and also a connection between Hazel and Mimi.
Did the book satisfy my thriller craving ?I would say yes somewhat .

I received the ARC of the #TheDarkestSummer written by #Ella Drummond from #netgalley

Book Review :My Lovely Wife: Samantha Downing

Blurb: Millicent and her husband is married for 15 years with 2 children.  They are just like other families whom you see next door. A hardworking mother ,who knows how to take responsibility and maintain a decorum at home and among their children.Her husband a tennis players, loves her gorgeous wife and supports her  in every high and low. He is also very serious about his kids. But the secret in their much loving marriage is  ,they kill women for fun, and no one gets to know. There killing started affecting their children's mental and physical health and they decide to change their plan. But the twist takes an unbelievable turn.

Some are born psychopath . And how far a couple can go to impress each other is all what you will get here in My Lovely Wife.

My views:

I am thankful that this thriller has some meaningful ending and dint leave reader hanging with questions. Half of the book i read these days have ending which makes you throw the book after investing so much time on it.

 The beginning of the book though slow, but still unputdownable. At times the author did make it monotonous with unwanted  information. By the end you will be flying through the pages.

What thrilled me was how a couple picked women and killed them, just to keep their marriage more fun or rather Sex more wild.

What still confused me was the motives behind the entire thing. It was unclear.

The entire story is from a man's point of view, so we don't know much about the wife.

Finally I would recommend thriller lover to go for this book as your Monsoon TBR.

Rating. 4/5

Book review-Somewhere in a song by Kavya Janani.U

How would your mental condition  be if a tune constantly haunted you throughout your life?

This is exactly what happened to Emma Justin. Somewhere in the song by Kavya Janani.U is exactly what it is about. A short read ( 42 pages ) ebook in Kindle format will make you swipe pages  to know what happened to her.

Emma is a hypnotherapist by profession and is obsessed over the tune of the song " There is nothing left to do". She feels she knows the tune and the singer Sarah Jane's voice matches with her. She came  to through an interview of from the composer that the singer is nowhere to be found after recording and the description given matches exactly with her. On the other hand her doctor claims she is diagnosed with Musicomania. How will  Emma find out the real truth? Is she truly mentally not stable or is it something else.

Set in  London, this psychological thriller travels back and forth through time. 

Language used is easy, but the story rushed through, which made me crave for more.

It is a open ended novel and therefore it left me with  many questions which wasn't clear at times. 

Rating: 3.5/5 

Planing to purchase this  ebook online?
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Book Review |Dark Blossom- By Neel Mullick

Dark Blossom

Author : Neel Mullick

Rupa Publisher

No of : Pages 212
Click to Buy from Amazon.in

When a book has been endorsed by one of the most popular author  loved by all ages "Ruskin Bond"  and published by Rupa Publisher then there much be something in it (kuch toh baat Hogi)

Let me come straight to the point The storytelling is just WOW.  Every chapter proves the amount of research  which was been done to built up the story ( the thought process, the conversation, the narration is one such fine example)

The first few chapter might not give you any clue where it might take you to ,but the story gradually develops and fits like a perfect puzzle.

The story is of two families Cynthia and Sam. Sam lost his a son and  wife in a freak accident. Clueless about the entire tragedy, the anger in him , made him take up counselling for anger management. He goes to Cynthia who is a counsellor for help.  

Meanwhile Cynthia too is in distress .She and her teenage daughter Lily just came out from an abusive relationship. Cynthia had her own issues with her daughter and vice versa. But in all this Lily harbours a secret, Cynthia is shocked to hear the  dark secret from her blossom.

Though both Sam and Cynthia are sailing in the different  direction there ship will anchor in one place. How is it all connected with Sam? Will Sam get the answer he was looking for? How Cynthia's mind deceived her is what been revealed in this Novella. 

I am bawled over the beautiful cover of the book.
Language Medium to hard.

A thrilling novel which will keep you hooked till the end .

Recommended to all  Mystery/Thriller lover

To me " Life itself is a string of coincidences and,to be perfectly  honest, I dont get our obsession with either controlling or explaining them." - Cynthia

Ratings : 💕💕💕💕

Book Review |The Dark Side of the MoonVolume 1:Shubham Arora

The Dark Side of the MoonVolume 1:

Author: Shubham Arora

Length: 50

Kindle Format

Amazon Buy here

The book contains 3 short stories, which are outstanding. The stories made me realise few incidents which actually took place in our country. Though it is not exact same like the story but dont we all hear  about mysterious death in the news dont we?

The stories includes:

The Last Skype : Story of a couple living a distant life due to job purpose. There only way of communication was  Skype chat. All was going pretty well until the  wife started  sensing bizarre symptoms while talking to her husband. What is happening to  her husband is what she finds out in Skype Chat.

In my Head : A story of a mother who killed her baby while the little one was feeding n her. She chopped her head, because she was told to do so. The narrator  was given in-charge to solve the mystery. Will he find something bizarre and back off from the case?

The Rituals. A man and his family obsessed with Lord Shiva, wants to see the lord in Physical form. The superstition and the rituals leads to something which will shock you.  Will the man get a glimpse of the Lord? Or is it only delusion.

The story the rituals made me remember the  death case of Burari family, where 11 members were found dead ( all hanged themselves).I still don't know what the reason was behind the death. Were they been murdered?

The shorts will hook you up from the beginning to the end. For many it might be paranormal activity but for me it is Mental disorder like (Psychosis/Schizophrenia).The stories will make you think whether the character actually needed medical assistance or does death cleans up the evilness.

Beginner who is looking for chilling -straight to the point stories, no drags, go for  The Dark Side of the Moon.

Thank You shubham Arora for the ebook. Looking forward for more such shorts.

Book Review |Lullaby- By Leila Slimani

Parents who think career and their personal life of enjoyment comes first please read this book.

How many of us actually think of joining back to work after having a  baby. Many of us do want to but at time "for many" children comes first than  career.

There are many parents  who get scared to entrust their children to others. I am very much one of those kind.  Like every other parents Myriam and Paul living in Paris didnt trust anyone to handle their fragile little baby Mila. Myriam took care of her solely and was absolutely against  babysitter, sacrificing her hard earned Law degree. She got pregnant again when Mila her  little girl was 18 months old. This time she was blessed  with a boy named Adam. But she was getting tired and frustrated with the daily  baby chores all alone and wanted her life back desperately.

The story begins with Myriam returns back from work  and sees the ghastly murder of  her 2 kids.The broken body of Adam was in a bag zipped surrounded with toys. The description of the murder will give you a chill and you may want to stop reading immediately. The little girl fought for her life in the ambulance, her lungs punctured and she was getting convulsion and head smashed with the furniture in the room. The children were murdered by their most trusted and beloved nanny.

It is not that their parent didnt look for the best nanny before joining back to work. They did. Actually they has series of interview from different nanny before hiring someone and Louise was one of those perfect nanny which every other house wants to have. Infact Myriams friends were jealous of her for getting such beyond perfection  nanny who "SEEMED" to  love the children and took care of every single thing in the house. Whether it is cleaning, cooking, taking the children out etc. 

Myriam though felt guilty at times but  enjoyed office and party leaving more task to the grateful nanny. They claimed her to be part of the family.

Here are some bits and pieces of the horror:

The nanny makes the children eat chicken carcass which the parents didn't know. She tells creepy story to the children,watch crime channels and knocks the children down claiming it as an accident. 

She has bite marks on her shoulder.But again busy with career parents didn't understand whats lurking in the upcoming days. There were times when Louissa got angry which clearly showed her mood unstability.

The book talks about Louisa past life and also about her daughter , her lonely suffered life, her friend the other nanny and hence forth.

Why did she kill the children when she actually loved them? Do we have the answer ?

I am really curious are we gonna read another part of this book? Because there are times where I had to skip pages to know  why it happened.

I think we should not take anyone for granted.

Buy Book Here:Click